Life in Gaza: 'Hungry, freezing, and terrifying', Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Life in Gaza: 'Hungry, freezing, and terrifying'

Ibrahim asked me: "How much does it cost to travel outside Gaza?" I was telling him we have to wait and see, when my phone rang. It was a recorded message from PalTel [the Palestinian phone company] saying it had nothing to do with the messages being left by the Israelis on people's phones telling them to leave houses with wanted men or weapons. My son Ismail, who is 11, always goes to buy bread but today he refused to go alone. So I drove him and on the way he said: "Baba, don't drive near any mosques." He was afraid we might be bombed because several mosques have been attacked. When he we got the bakery he had to wait for two and half hours to get the sack of loaves they are allowing each family. When we got home Ibrahim started asking me: "When the crossings open, is it easy for everyone to leave?" The weather is freezing and we have no power – except for two to three hours a day – and no cooking gas. We're put blankets round us to keep warm. I do have a generator but I've only got five or six litres of fuel and I have to conserve it. I use it just long enough to heat the water for my wife and the girls to have a shower and to charge my mobile, which is very important. As mosques with Hamas connections are getting attacked we're worried again they are going to bomb the one next door. So we went back to my in-laws' house in western Rimal, behind Shifa hospital.

http://newageislam.com/life-in-gaza---hungry,-freezing,-and-terrifying---/islam-and-the-west/d/1095

Commentary by Syed Qutb: What the Qur'an Teaches: An appeal to reason, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology

Commentary by Syed Qutb: What the Qur'an Teaches: An appeal to reason

It shares the same main themes of all Makkan surahs, aiming to lay the foundation of faith. At the very outset it dwells on the nature of revelation and the truth of the message: “Ya Sin. By the Qur’an, full of wisdom, you are indeed one of God’s messengers, pursuing a straight way. It is a revelation by the Almighty, the Ever Merciful.” It relates the story of the people of the township to which messengers were sent, using the story to warn against rejection of the message and denial of the revelation. It shows the end that befell the people of the township to emphasize the message the surah wants to deliver. Toward the end, the surah picks up this point again: “We have not taught the Prophet poetry; nor is it fitting for him (to be a poet). This is but a reminder and a Qur’an making all things clear, to warn everyone who is alive, and that the word of God be proved against the unbelievers.”

http://newageislam.com/commentary-by-syed-qutb--what-the-qur-an-teaches--an-appeal-to-reason/islamic-ideology/d/758

Global Islam: Saudi King’s efforts at inter-faith Dialogue - A new breeze may be blowing very softly from the Saudi sands,

Global Islam: Saudi King’s efforts at inter-faith Dialogue - A new breeze may be blowing very softly from the Saudi sands

Unusual guests, a most unusual host

Jul 24th 2008 | MADRID

From The Economist print edition

What people are not used to is the idea of Saudi Arabia and its monarch, King Abdullah, as a propagator of tolerance both within Islam, and between Islam and other faiths. Yet this month the king stepped up his effort to be a cultural and religious bridge-builder by convening a “World Conference on Dialogue”—as dreamily inclusive a title as anyone could ask for—in Madrid. The guest list included Tony Blair (now a ubiquitous figure on the inter-faith circuit), the American pastor-politician Jesse Jackson (who glad-handed everyone as though he was running for president of some global religious body) and saffron-robed Hindus as well as rabbis and Christian prelates. The Saudi visitor, standing beside King Juan Carlos of Spain in the sun-filled atrium of the Palacio Real, beamed like a benign grandfather as he took in a line of robed clerics and worthies.

http://newageislam.com/global-islam--saudi-king%E2%80%99s-efforts-at-inter-faith-dialogue---a-new-breeze-may-be-blowing-very-softly-from-the-saudi-sands/islam-and-pluralism/d/357