When the headscarf becomes a death sentence, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism

When the headscarf becomes a death sentence

By Mukul Kesavan

The events that led to her murder began with a playground dispute. She became involved in a dispute with Alex W., a Russian immigrant of ethnic German descent, about whose turn it was to use the swing: his niece’s or her son’s. The argument became ugly when he tried to pull off her headscarf and called her a terrorist and an Islamist whore. He was fined by a district court but his defence that people like Marwa were less than human and therefore couldn’t really be insulted, was so provocative that the public prosecutor pressed for more severe punishment.

In the subsequent trial Alex W. walked across the courtroom and stabbed Marwa 18 times as her three-year-old son watched. When her husband ran to her defence, he suffered stab wounds and was shot in the leg by a policeman who mistook him for the assailant. Marwa and her unborn child died in the courtroom; her husband’s condition remains critical.

The German newspapers that did mention the murder, did so on their back pages and confined themselves to reporting that a woman had been killed in a courtroom over a playground dispute. There was concern expressed about security in German courtrooms but no mention of the racist context of the murder. It was only when her burial provoked outraged demonstrations in Alexandria, that a handful of news providers—the Guardian, AP, the Huffington Post—gave the story some play. Even today, if you Google Marwa el-Sherbini, you get pages and pages of websites in the Arab and Muslim world; for all the interest shown by the European and American media or the German government, the murder might never have happened.

http://newageislam.com/when-the-headscarf-becomes-a-death-sentence/islam,-women-and-feminism/d/1686

Did Prophet Mohammad Exist? German Muslim Academic Questions Muhammad's Existence, Islamic History, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic History

Did Prophet Mohammad Exist? German Muslim Academic Questions Muhammad's Existence

Prof. Kalisch, who insists he's still a Muslim, says he knew he would get in trouble but wanted to subject Islam to the same scrutiny as Christianity and Judaism. German scholars of the 19th century, he notes, were among the first to raise questions about the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Many scholars of Islam question the accuracy of ancient sources on Muhammad's life. The earliest biography, of which no copies survive, dated from roughly a century after the generally accepted year of his death, 632, and is known only by references to it in much later texts. But only a few scholars have doubted Muhammad's existence. Most say his life is better documented than that of Jesus.

"Of course Muhammad existed," says Tilman Nagel, a scholar in Göttingen and author of a new book, "Muhammad: Life and Legend." The Prophet differed from the flawless figure of Islamic tradition, Prof. Nagel says, but "it is quite astonishing to say that thousands and thousands of pages about him were all forged" and there was no such person.

All the same, Prof. Nagel has signed a petition in support of Prof. Kalisch, who has faced blistering criticism from Muslim groups and some secular German academics. "We are in Europe," Prof. Nagel says. "Education is about thinking, not just learning by heart."

http://newageislam.com/did-prophet-mohammad-exist?-german-muslim-academic-questions-muhammad-s-existence/islamic-history/d/994

Genesis of Jihadism?: Winston Churchill- Crusade against the Empire of the Mahdi, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Genesis of Jihadism?: Winston Churchill- Crusade against the Empire of the Mahdi

The publication, which runs to almost 450 pages, is perfectly timed; the West has only recently rediscovered the Sudan War and, with it, Churchill's pertinent contribution. And as has been already the case with some of the other translations of the book, published originally in 1899 under the title "The River War A Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan", a rather sensationalist title has been adopted for the German version also: "Kreuzzug gegen das Reich des Mahdi" (Crusade Against the Empire of the Mahdi).

Winston Churchill was not only British Prime Minister; he was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, winning the prize for his historical works in 1953In his excellent introduction to Churchill's experiences in Sudan, which also looks at the more recent modern history of the country, Brunold draws the reader's attention to the fact that militant 19th century Islam had already made its appearance long before the Sudanese uprising. The objective tone adopted by writer and translator is not done justice to here, however, by the choice of the word "crusade" in the German title. This, it seems, is intended to provide a sensationalist element by association – with George W Bush's "crusade" against terror springing readily to mind.

http://newageislam.com/genesis-of-jihadism?--winston-churchill--crusade-against-the-empire-of-the-mahdi/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/828