Digitalising Islam and Virtual Ummah: Globalising Local Discourses?

By Irshad Ahmed Bhat and Zahid Sultan Magray, New Age Islam 28 May 2019 What about internet? It is perhaps here on internet that some of the most interesting things are happening. It should be noted that global technology of western origin is turning into a vital tool for the conduct and propagation of new hybridised practices. These practices are formed by inserting the normative discourse of Islam into western discourse of information technology and are classical example of “Globalising the local”. What are the implications of the media revolution for those communities which inhabit global space, then? While as Anderson once argued to the pioneering efforts of New World ' Creoles' in the formation of imagined communities, he now...

Religious and Theological Underpinning of Global Islamist Terror: Full Text of Speech at International Counter Terrorism Conference 2016 in Jaipur

   By Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam 3 February 2016 Sultan Shahin speaking at International Counter-Terrorism Conference  at Jaipur The ease and swiftness with which the so-called Islamic State and the self-declared khilafat of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has attracted over 30,000 Muslims from 100 countries around the globe in just one year has surprised many.  But this should not have come as a surprise to us in India. Muslim love for the idea of global Khilafat is well-known. From Indian subcontinent alone, less than a hundred years ago, at least 18,000 Muslims had left their homes, even government jobs and marched off to fight for the last Ottoman Khilafat....

Defeating Islamism and Jihadism: Evolve a New Theology of Peace, Pluralism and Gender justice, Sultan Shahin asks Muslim States at UNHRC in Geneva

By Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam 14 September 2018 Oral Statement, 39th regular session of UN Human Rights Council, Geneva (10-28 September 2018) General Debate, Item 3, Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development Delivered by Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor New Age Islam, On behalf of Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum Mr. President, A War on Terror has been raging for 17 years now but we are no closer to defeating Islamist terror. Jihadism continues to attract Muslim youth. This is because the world has not paid enough attention to the ideology of Islamism and Jihadism....

This ‘Hafta-e-Shahadat’ In Kashmir Is The Time For An Honest Introspection, Not Just For Qur’an Recital Competition (Husn-e-Qirat Mehfil)!

New Age Islam Special Correspondent 21 May 2019 The ‘Hafta-e-Shahadat’, also known as ‘Hafta-e-Shuhada’ (the week of martyrs)—the anniversary of Mirwaiz Maulvi Muhammad Farooq or ‘Shaheed-e-Millat’—commenced from May 18 in the valley of Kashmir. The Awami Action Committee (AAC) has called for complete shutdown on May 21 to commemorate the occasion. On May 18, the ‘Hafta-e-Shahadat’ commenced with the recitation of holy Qur’an at all district and Tehsil headquarters of the party amid special prayers for the ‘Shaheed-e-Millat’ Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammad Farooq, who was brutally murdered on May, 2, 1990, at his residence in Srinagar. On this occasion, the Anjuman-e-Auqaf Jamia Masjid also organised a competition for the Qur’an recitation...

Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath Insists It Had Nothing to Do With Sri Lanka Blasts; It Only Sends Present-Day Muslims to Medieval Times, Brands Sufis As Apostates, Deserving Death

By TR Vivek May 16, 2019 The deadly Easter terror attack in Sri Lanka that claimed 253 lives has put Tamil-speaking Islamist groups on either side of the Palk Strait under the scanner. The National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) is one of the prime suspects that the Sri Lankan government banned in the immediate aftermath of the eight serial blasts, for which the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility. President Maithripala Sirisena used his emergency powers to ban the NTJ and another group known as the Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI). Security and counter terrorism experts in Sri Lanka believe the hitherto little-known NTJ to be an organisation that split from the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaath (SLTJ) in 2014. SLTJ, a prominent Muslim outfit that seeks to spread a fundamentalist, Wahhabi...

The Creative Entity

By Asif Merchant, New Age Islam 23 May 2019 Is there a God, or is there no God? It cannot be denied that wherever we look, it is always possible to find a pattern. The arrangement of leaves on a branch, the way fruits are designed, the human body, the other animals, in fact, whatever you want to study. In addition, we have the laws of Physics which always succeed in predicting various phenomena, and when they don’t, it is possible to find out why, or if necessary, work out where the law went wrong, and eventually correct the laws. How has all this come about? There appears to be a Grand Design for the entire Universe. How do we explain it? One approach is to postulate a ‘Creative Entity’ which is responsible for all this. The next...