Sexual Assault On Women In Pakistan Jail And Deafening Silence Of Ulema, Journalists and Human Rights Activists

By New Age Islam Staff Writer 31 May 2023 Former Member Parliament Says 9th May Violence Orchestrated By Army Main Points: 1. 1.A woman released from Lahore jail has bite marks all over her body. 2. Police exposed private parts to women while arresting them. 3. The police threatened to rape women while raiding houses of PTI leaders. 4. Eye witnesses say Peshawar radio station and the airplane in Mianwali were set ablaze by the Army. 5. Lahore High Court turned down request for providing medical report of Khadija Shah. 6. Announcements from mosques in KPK are being made warning the police of revolt in case of raids on houses. ------ Photo: First India ---- Very alarming and frightening! This is how the law and order situation in Pakistan under Shahbaz Sharif...

Dr. Israr Ahmad And The Islamic Philosophy Of Jihad

By Dr Israr Ahmad 31 May 2023 Transcribed and Translated into English by New Age Islam Staff Writer The philosophy of Islamic Jihad is meant for all ages. Unfortunately, many Muslims hold misconceptions about Jihad, and those who oppose Islam have further demonised and dehumanised it. Recognise that one of the most significant and obligatory commands of Islam is to engage in Jihad. The Holy Quran therefore declares: “The true believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger—never doubting—and strive with their wealth and their lives in the cause of Allah. They are the ones true in faith.” (49:15) Jihad is therefore a crucial and fundamental aspect of faith. However, many people have incorrectly connected Jihad with Qitaal [fighting] and believed that Jihad is the...

Don't Let Your Freedom Be Trammelled By Any Force

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 31 May 2023 "Heaven sent down a decree Declaring that every man is free " John Dryden "Uneasy is the head that wears a crown." William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2 "Tere Oonche Mahal Mein Nahin Mera Guzara Mujhe Yaad Aa Raha Hai Woh Chhota-Sa Shikara " Rafi, Film: Jab-Jab Phool Khile (1965) Lyrics: Anand Bakshi Music: Kalyanji-Anandji "Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. " Jalaluddin Rumi The Emperor of China sent ambassadors to a hermit living in the northern mountains. They were to invite him to become Prime Minister of the Kingdom. After many days of travel, the ambassadors arrived. The hermitage was empty! But nearby in the middle of a river was a half-naked man, seated on a rock, fishing with...

Is There A Bhagwa/Saffron Love Trap For Muslim Girls?

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 30 May 2023 Is There Truth To Such Allegations Or Is It Being Used To Police Muslim Girls? Main Points: 1. Talk of “Bhagwa love-trap” is increasing within the Muslim community 2. The allegation is that Hindu men are being trained to trap Muslim girls with the express intention of converting them. 3. Regressive maulanas are fanning this conspiracy theory without citing any source for their fantastic claims 4. Videos have emerged which show gangs of Muslim boys policing and harassing Muslim girls just because they happen to be with a Hindu boy ------ We have all heard about “love jihad”, a sinister narrative designed by the Hindu Right which argues that Muslim men are on a mission to convert Hindu girls by various means. The allegation is...

"Western Liberal Values Are Compatible With Islam": Dr. Adis Duderija

By Dr Adis Duderija for New Age Islam May 28, 2023 "There are significant signs that Western Muslim identity is becoming a reality for many Muslims in the West," says a senior lecturer at Griffith University in Brisbane. Jasmin Alibegic in conversation with Adis Duderija ,May 2023 ---- “Any kind of religious extremism is very harmful in the modern world, as it is based on the idea of one truth, one identity, dogmatic thinking, and often different forms of supremacy. It is based on a narrow view of the world that does not value participation in interreligious and intercultural dialogue and delegitimizes any form of significant diversity of thought, culture, and practice. Additionally, it lacks ethical and ontological beauty and is based on a very ugly concept of God/the Divine," says...

Love Makes One Introspect

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 30 May 2023 "Amora En Quist En Suit Delina." -An ancient Greek proverb, actually a line from Sappho's Fragments (Love deletes all negativity) Hai Isi Mein Pyaar Ki Aabroo Tu Jafa Kare Main Wafa Karoon Lata Mangeshkar, Film: Anpadh (1962) Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan Music: Madan Mohan "Whoever kills a person not in retaliation for a person killed, nor (as a punishment) for spreading disorder on the earth, is as if he has killed the whole of humankind." Quran, Surah-Al-Ma'idah- 5:32 The gruesome murder of a young girl, Saakshi, in Delhi by her alleged lover, Sahil, has triggered a tsunami of thoughts and emotions in my heart and mind. I wonder, how...

Is God Bound To Tell Us The Truth? This Old Theological Controversy Has Deep Implications for Present Secular Muslim Society and Polity

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 29 May 2023 The Dominant School within Islam, the Asharis, Have Never Been Able To Satisfactorily Answer This Question Main Points: 1. The Ashari have always argued that everything comes from God; that objects and acts do not have intrinsic qualities 2. It follows from this philosophical position that God is beyond good and evil and that He is not duty bound to tell us the truth always 3. Ghazali and Fakhruddin Razi have also written on the issue; in the Indian context, there is long debate on the issue going back to the 18th century 4. Theological issues are ultimately about the organization or re-organization of society and polity ------ Long years ago, a Barelvi madrasa principal told me that the Deobandis believe that Allah can lie....

Pakistan Is an Enigma: When Religion Becomes the Weltanschauung of a Nation, Freedom of Intellectuals Are Bound To Be Compromised

By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam 29 May 2023 A Person of Pakistani Origins Author: Ziauddin Sardar Publisher: Hurst & Company, London Year of Publication: 2018 Pages: 229 ISBN: 9781849049870 ------ Pakistan is an enigma. The partition of the Indian continent and birth of Pakistan, created innumerable problems and challenges for migrants and those who found themselves in Pakistan. Every new nation, has to explain its origins, so a grand narrative is prepared to situate a nation in a certain context. Then, a history needs to be invented to justify the grand narrative. All these tragedies have happened with Pakistan. It still continues to baffle with numerous challenges, some of which even threaten its very existence. The role of...

Some Humble Suggestions to Those Who Want To Read Early Persian Poets and Their Poetry

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 29 May 2023 I'm happy that the scholarly reader and a regular contributor Mr Arshad Alam has evinced interest in reading the early Persian poetry of Rudaki, Daqiqi, Fazin, Azari Tusi, Baba Tahir Oryan, Badriddin Hilali, Imrani, among others. But before that I'd like to discuss the attribution errors Persian literature is rife with. More or less this issue of fallacious attributions/ghost writing has plagued literature of all languages. Mr Ghulam Mohiyuddin will fall in with me that even the Bard of Avon couldn't come out of that as his entire oeuvre is said to have been either written by Sir Francis Bacon (The Baconian Theory of Shakespeare Authorship is still debated) or Christopher Marlowe, that Geoffrey Chaucer's ' Canterbury Tales ' was partly written by...

Why Iranian Native Speakers Of Persian Look Down Upon The Subcontinental Persian

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 27 May 2023 "Farsi is still taught in a few schools of Calcutta as an optional subject. Some colleges, such as Lady Brabourne and Maulana Azad, have Farsi departments. Hearing the Farsi words coming out of their classrooms, it seems as though the Bengali tongue has forgotten how to pronounce Farsi words. The students could not read the inscriptions on St John’s Church, even though most were Muslims, familiar with Urdu." Arshad Saheb asked me in the comment section whether I knew the Misra-e-Saani (second line) of a couplet written by Amir Khusrau. I admit, I don't know. While there's no alibi or justification for not being aware of the Misra-e-Saani of Khusrau's Persian couplet, I must present a case study of subcontinental Persian's perceived inferior status...

An Overview Of Freedom Which Is A Core Islamic Principle And A Prerequisite For Human Dignity - Part – 3

By Kaniz Fatma, New Age Islam 27 May 2023 Social Freedom and Islam Main Points: 1. Social freedoms are all aspects of freedom that relate to a person's individual life. 2. Ali Shariati's analysis shows how capitalism can turn certain individuals into slaves, but it is a significant event that slavery under ownership has been abolished. 3. Freeing slaves is the path to paradise while enslaving free people is the opposite. 4. Islam encourages religious freedom and accepts freedom of expression, promoting objectivity. 5. Punishment for Apostasy was a political issue. ------ Social or civic freedoms are all aspects of freedom that relate to a person's individual life while they are a part of society. It encompasses all freedoms, including the freedom of...

Muslimophobia in India: Reasons and Remedy (Part Two)

By A. Faizur Rahman 27 May 2023 (With Permission from the author to publish this chapter ‘Muslimophobia in India: Reasons and Remedy’ from the Book 'Politics of Hate -Religious Majoritarianism in South Asia' Edited by Farahnaz Ispahani) ------ Hindutva Hindutva owes its popularity to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966), the Hindu Mahasabha leader who had made it the pivotal theme of his 1923 essay ‘Essentials of Hindutva’ (retitled ‘Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu?’ in 1928). The idea itself, however, had been introduced in Bengal during the 1890s by Chandranath Basu (1844–1910) in his Bengali essay ‘Hindutva—an Authentic History of the Hindus’, which extolled the superiority of Hinduism over other religions. Around the same time, another Bengali writer, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894),...

Combat Sectarian Conflicts and Promote Religious Tolerance and Understanding

By Mohamad Ali El Husseini, New Age Islam Translated from Arabic by Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam 26 May 2023 Doctrinal Conflicts Do Not Produce Knowledge Main Points: 1. People on social media are using false information and dubious evidence to stir up conflict and controversy. 2. Persons with knowledge and insight, renowned scholars, and reliable people are best qualified to address the issue, which requires "wisdom and goodly exhortation". 3. We want to foster a culture of bridge-building by accepting the others, coexisting with them, and developing mutual respect while avoiding anything that could lead to conflict. 4. Promoting contentious matters improperly is corrupting, as it seeks to shake beliefs and disperse the nation. 5. Social media platform users...