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Showing posts with label beginning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beginning. Show all posts

Friday, June 15, 2012

Muslims must rethink Islam, learn from the West, Ijtihad, Rethinking Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

Ijtihad, Rethinking Islam
Muslims must rethink Islam, learn from the West
By Syed Akbar Ali
4 Sept 2009

The accomplished American journalist and writer Seymour Hersh in his book 'Chain of Command' talks at length about Zacharias Moussaoui – the alleged 20th hijacker in the 9-11 plot – who is facing trial in 2006 in the United States. Moussaoui was born in France of North African parents. According to Hersh's book, a whole generation of North African youngsters like Moussaoui cannot speak Arabic – they only speak French. They see themselves as 'not existing' – either as Frenchmen or as North Africans. Sadly for them they also suffer discrimination from the French. The inevitable result is a hatred for France, and by extension, for the West. Many of them like Moussaoui become attracted to radical Islam. Islam is the only plausible identity they can endorse because it helps them get out of this feeling of being 'less than nothing'. French human rights workers describe them as chair a canon – cannon fodder – easily recruited zealots who were willing to fight, and die, for a religious cause about which they know little.

In the United Kingdom, even after 50 years of immigration many Pakistanis are still dependent on welfare handouts to survive. Large numbers of Pakistanis still live in subsidized local council flats within the British socialist system. Now many young Pakistanis are involved in street crime and beginning in the 1990s Pakistani elders were shocked that in places like Birmingham many Pakistanis are involved in the vice trade.

http://newageislam.com/muslims-must-rethink-islam,-learn-from-the-west/ijtihad,-rethinking-islam/d/1721


Thursday, June 14, 2012

Islam's holy month of fasting begins as US recognizes the growth of the religion, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News
Islam's holy month of fasting begins as US recognizes the growth of the religion

Through the hunger that comes from observing Ramadan, Austin engineer Clay Smith said he feels the tug of compassion in his soul. That's also how he first learned about Islam, he said.

"Someone told me that if I wanted to understand what it means to be Muslim, I should fast during Ramadan," said the 49-year-old Smith, who had been a Christian until several years ago, when he started considering converting to Islam.

Trying the annual fast once wasn't enough, so he tried it two years in a row. "I thought I'd be irritated by this whole fasting experience," he said, "but what it taught me was compassion."

Austin Muslims say learning through the challenge of hunger is a crucial part of Ramadan, a ritual obligation for the world's estimated 1.5 billion Muslims. The 30-day fast begins today and ends Sept. 20.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the "five pillars" of Islam. The others are belief in God and his prophets, ritual prayer, payment of charity tax and pilgrimage to Mecca.

During Ramadan, Muslims must fast from the first light of dawn, about 1 ½ hours before sunrise, until sunset. Fasting means abstention from sex, food and drink.

Imam Islam Mossaad, who leads Austin's largest Muslim congregation of about 500 families at the North Austin Muslim Community Center, said that Muslims will mark the beginning of the religion's holiest time on Friday night when they see the crescent moon right after sunset. Mossaad says there are about 10,000 Muslims in Austin.

http://newageislam.com/islam-s-holy-month-of-fasting-begins-as-us-recognizes-the-growth-of-the-religion-/islamic-world-news/d/1673


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Pakistan: Mohajir grievances were never, ever, really addressed, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics
Pakistan: Mohajir grievances were never, ever, really addressed
Cock the hammer, it's time for action
By Mosharraf Zaidi
June 10, 2009

The strategy seemed to have worked. By engaging the MQM, the military was able to defuse much of the tension that had defined relations between urban Sindh and the Pakistani establishment. The engagement of course, came in the shape of making the MQM a partner in the traditional patron-pillage model of Pakistani politics. It did not come in the shape of substantive improvements in governance, but rather in the bells and whistles of roads, bridges, parks -- not to mention pomp and privilege for MQM ministers at the federal and provincial levels that had previously been hard to win, and easily lost. Of course, even though it achieved some things immediately, the strategy was also wrought with danger. The original grievances of the people that formed the MQM were never, ever, really addressed. One needn't have endorsed the original agenda of the MQM to see how linearly consistent it was Muhajir identity in urban Sindh. Simply put, the MQM wanted an end to the affirmative action (or positive discrimination) quota system in Sindh province and it wanted the repatriation of the almost 300,000 Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh, back to Pakistan.

Instead of challenging the established political Holy Cow of Sindh's quotas, or beginning a process of reconciliation with itself, by absorbing the stranded Pakistanis of Bihar into Pakistan, the military supported Musharraf to do simply what any dictator would do. He bought his way out of the problem by providing the massive infrastructure grants to the MQM-dominated Karachi district government (but only after the people of Karachi got smart and elected an MQM administration at the local level).

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--mohajir-grievances-were-never,-ever,-really-addressed--/islam-and-politics/d/1457