'New Age Islam', 'Moderate Islam' or 'Satanic-Illuminati-Masonic-Islam', Letter to the Editor, NewAgeIslam.com

Letter to the Editor

'New Age Islam', 'Moderate Islam' or 'Satanic-Illuminati-Masonic-Islam'

The call, which is being described as a fatwa, or Islamic decree, came from Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, an influential firebrand cleric criticized in the West for his controversial rulings.

“Egypt has over the last two decades been infiltrated by Wahhabism,” Magdi Khalil, executive editor of Watani International and the Middle East Freedom Forum told The Media Line. “This culture and atmosphere is new in Egypt.”

The Egyptian-born Al-Qaradawi denounced the purchasing and selling of Christmas gifts, including Santa Claus dolls, Christmas trees and turkeys for Christmas dinner as “Christian and Western.”

Sales of Christmas gifts in Egypt have gone down by nearly a third this year because of the edict, according to one news report.

Christians contacted by The Media Line said they were unaware the fatwa had affected the celebrations or the Christmas revenues, but did express concern over the wider ramifications the fatwa may have on Christian minorities in Egypt and elsewhere.

In a Friday sermon, Al-Qaradawi criticized public celebrations of Christmas in Qatar and elsewhere in the Muslim world, claiming they undermined Islamic identity.

“Such appearances are prohibited by Islam,” he said. “Muslims participating in them are ignorant of Islamic teachings in this regard.”

http://newageislam.com/-new-age-islam-,--moderate-islam--or--satanic-illuminati-masonic-islam-/letter-to-the-editor/d/2284

Building of Churches is 'Sin' Against God: Egypt Muslim Council, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Building of Churches is 'Sin' Against God: Egypt Muslim Council

Students, both Muslims and Christians, were taught "it is forbidden for a person to donate money for what would lead to sin, such as donating in his will money towards build[ing] a church, a nightclub, a gambling casino, towards promoting the alcohol industry or for building a barn for rearing pigs, cats or dogs."

Gabraeel asked the council what the sharia (Islamic law) position on the statement found in the textbook is. He asked if it is forbidden for a Muslim to donate money to build a church or a monk's quarters even if it is in the name of God and Christianity, which is recognized by the country's constitution. The Egyptian constitution claims to respect religious freedom. He also noted that wealthy Coptic Christian businessmen have donated towards the building of mosques.

The council replied by affirming the law found in the textbook and issuing a fatwa on it.

Included in the fatwa is an explanation on why it is a "sin" to build a church. According to the fatwa, Christians believe salvation is achieved through belief in Jesus as Lord while Muslims don't. Muslims believe that Issa [Jesus in Arabic] "is a slave of Allah and His Messenger, and that Allah is one."

The Islamic edict said God did not have a son and that Christianity deviated from absolute monotheism. Therefore, a Muslim is forbidden to donate funds towards a building that does not worship Allah alone.

The author of the textbook, Mohammed el-Maghrabbi, said it is sinful for even a Christian to devote money in his will towards building a church because it would be considered in Islam as separation from God.

In other words, it is illegal for even non-Muslims to offer money in their will towards building a church or synagogue.

http://newageislam.com/building-of-churches-is--sin--against-god--egypt-muslim-council/islamic-world-news/d/1714

Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan policy: Brazen smash and grab, organised ethnic cleansing, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan policy: Brazen smash and grab, organised ethnic cleansing

Evolution of Pakistan’s Northern Areas policy

B Raman

September 18, 2009

n September 7, 2009, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signed what is called the ‘Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order 2009’, purporting to introduce administrative, political, financial and judicial reforms in the Northern Areas of Jammu & Kashmir, which has been under Pakistani occupation since 1947-48. The order re-names the Northern Areas as Gilgit-Baltistan, thereby seeking to obliterate the linkage of the area with Jammu & Kashmir.

Addressing a Press conference the same day, president of Gilgit-Baltistan branch of the Pakistan People’s Party, Syed Mehdi Shah, said that Mr Zardari had instructed the authorities concerned to prepare a comprehensive plan to accelerate economic development in Gilgit-Baltistan. He claimed that the Zardari Government had given internal freedom and all financial, democratic, administrative, judicial, political and developmental powers to the Legislative Assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan. He said that a Gilgit-Baltistan Council, to be headed by the Prime Minister, would be set up and that Mr Zardari had ordered early initiation of a Gilgit-Skardu road project, the establishment of regional branches of the National Bank of Pakistan, the National Database and Registration Authority and the House Building Finance Corporation in the area.

Explaining the changes sought to be introduced by the Government in the status of the area to the media, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani stated as follows on August 29, 2009:

http://newageislam.com/pakistan%E2%80%99s-gilgit-baltistan-policy--brazen-smash-and-grab,-organised-ethnic-cleansing/islam-and-politics/d/1761

Obama to Muslims: Rhetoric and reality, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Obama to Muslims: Rhetoric and reality

Speaking then to the Palestinians he said that they must renounce violence in their turn, and offered the example of the (mostly) peaceful American civil rights movement that eventually saw a new dawn for Americans who were not white, a dawn which matured into the daylight in which he, a black American, now stands. He touched other hot-button issues - Iran and nuclear power, democracy (in particular the tendency of those who call loudly for it whilst out of power and then leave it by the wayside when they are in it), the rights of women, religious freedom and the lack of it in much of the Muslim world, globalization and modernity and the fears that can come with the sense that the rest of the world wants the Muslim world to blithely follow where it is being led. No American President has ever gone out of his way to reach out to the Muslim world in the way that President Obama has. We applaud that. But our applause is discreet rather than rapturous for these are as yet mere words. Were we ever to see all - or any - of them transition from rhetoric to reality then the applause would thunder across the world, and bring together the hands of every faith.

http://newageislam.com/obama-to-muslims--rhetoric-and-reality--/islam-and-the-west/d/1444

Pakistani journalists face pressures from feudal lords and religious zealots, Islam and the Media, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the Media

Pakistani journalists face pressures from feudal lords and religious zealots

By Khalid Hasan

Sunday, September 21, 2008

He said Gen Pervez Musharraf must be given credit for permitting private channels, although he also tried to suppress them when the tide of public opinion turned against him. He said now that Pakistan has an elected political government, its tolerance for criticism will need to be tested when the chips are down. Politicians were the biggest supporters of media freedom. It remains to be seen if they will remain that way now that they have acquired power. The time had also come for the media to accept self-assessment. The media will also have to decide if it should put out what is right or what it thinks is right. Should extremists be given exposure? How should self-regulation be brought about?

Ejaz Haider spoke about media-military relations and how they had evolved over time. Turning to the situation in the turbulent, strife-torn tribal regions, he said, what the militants claim and what the military asserts, you have to look for middle ground because the truth lies somewhere there. Verification of information doled out remains difficult, he pointed out.

http://newageislam.com/pakistani-journalists-face-pressures-from-feudal-lords-and-religious-zealots-/islam-and-the-media/d/776

Something stirring in America: Barack Obama laying claim to the presidency is a miraculous moment in US racial history, Current affairs

Current affairs

Something stirring in America: Barack Obama laying claim to the presidency is a miraculous moment in US racial history

By Eugene Robinson, Columnist and Associate Editor of the Washington Post

“I cried on Monday when Michelle spoke,” Rep. John Lewis told me Wednesday at the Pepsi Centre, “and I know that on Thursday night at the stadium I’ll cry again.” Lewis, as every schoolchild should know, is one of the few lions of the civil rights movement still with us. As a Freedom Rider, he was pummelled by white Alabama mobs in 1961. As chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, he spoke alongside Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963. His pate is scarred from a brutal beating administered by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the first Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. Lewis has earned the right to shed tears of amazement and joy.

A Democrat who represents Atlanta, Lewis fretted for months over whom to endorse in the primaries. Last October, he joined much of the black political establishment in backing Hillary Clinton — out of a sense of loyalty and realpolitik. But as it became clear that Barack Obama might actually win the nomination, Lewis seemed increasingly agonised over the choice he had made. It wasn’t just that he was catching hell from his African-American constituents; he began to feel that he was on the wrong side of history.

http://newageislam.com/something-stirring-in-america--barack-obama-laying-claim-to-the-presidency-is-a-miraculous-moment-in-us-racial-history/current-affairs/d/677

Is Liberalism the way to reform the Middle East?, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology

Is Liberalism the way to reform the Middle East?

By Yemen Times Staff

In Yemen, for example, where religious and tribal sheikhs have great influence over the population, citizens do not understand or accept Liberalism with an open mind. Many people think that such a philosophy will threaten their way of life, and political authorities are afraid of having their power revoked through the popularization of Liberalism. Yemen does not have a free economy, since most of its business enterprises are in some way tied to the state. Obstacles such as corruption and a high unemployment rate prevent the economy from becoming a free entity with local and international investments flowing in from around the world like so many of the neighboring gulf countries. But with that economic freedom come social trends and customs from outside – something that both citizens and politicians in the region fear.

http://newageislam.com/is-liberalism-the-way-to-reform-the-middle-east?/islamic-ideology/d/55

Fear of Islam and Muslim immigrants in the recent French Elections, Muslims and Islamophobia, NewAgeIslam.com

Muslims and Islamophobia

Fear of Islam and Muslim immigrants in the recent French Elections

by Helene Irving, At Home in Europe project

Marwan: Unfortunately, this “motto” as we call it in France, is now only a slogan on the front of the city hall. It is nowhere to be seen in the society. Freedom is limited for a lot of people and when it comes to the Muslim, these elementary freedoms are not respected. This equality is not true anymore because it depends on whether you live in the center in Paris, or in the suburbs; you will have a completely different life experience of what opportunities there may be. And Fraternity—if we are brothers we should not be treating each other like that, and the politicians today are more about divide and conquer than they are about uniting people together. So if we look at the situation as it is today we have reasons to be very pessimistic.

http://newageislam.com/muslims-and-islamophobia/helene-irving,-at-home-in-europe-project/fear-of-islam-and-muslim-immigrants-in-the-recent-french-elections/d/7246

Islam at center of Moro fight: “The purpose of Jihad is to establish Allah’s sovereignty”, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

22 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Islam at center of Moro fight: “The purpose of Jihad is to establish Allah’s sovereignty”

By Jeffrey M. Tupas 20 Aug. 2011 MAGUINDANAO—The warning was very specific: No smoking in front of Ameril Umra Kato or anywhere close enough for him to see or near his armed followers called the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). http://www.newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/islam-at-center-of-moro-fight--“the-purpose-of-jihad-is-to-establish-allah’s-sovereignty”/d/5297

Indian Independence Day: Freedom and Democracy, a precious gift, Urdu Section, NewAgeIslam.com

Urdu Section

17 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Indian Independence Day: Freedom and Democracy, a precious gift

By Zafar Agha Thanks to almighty God, that we Muslims have also right to vote as Hindus and it is this right that had made us independent. We are free, to elect our sarpanch, also we are free to change our prime minister. There is no doubt that there are loopholes in democratic system but we breathe in free environment and have the right to change our government. This right is not available to Muslims of other parts of the world. URL: http://www.newageislam.com/urdu-section/آزادی-ایک-بیش-قیمت-تحفہ/d/5268