Indonesia Upholds Blasphemy Law, Islamic World News

Islamic World News

Indonesia Upholds Blasphemy Law

Critics say the law is vague, allowing authorities to interpret and enforce it how they choose, which they say has largely been used against those seen as offending mainstream Islam.

The government used the blasphemy law in the past to outlaw religious groups, including Ahmadiya, a minority Islamic group banned in 2008 whose members identify themselves as Muslims but do not believe in the core tenet of Islam that Muhammad is the last prophet.

They also say conservative Islamic groups have used the law as justification

for violent attacks on minority religious groups.

'Blow to freedom'

Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US based rights organisation, said the ruling "dealt a severe blow to religious freedom" in the world's third-largest democracy.

"Indonesia's laws should protect those who peacefully express religious views and punish those who threaten to use violence against others, not the other way around," Elaine Pearson of HRW said.

The US commission on international religious freedom, a non-partisan body that advises the US government, said the ruling may embolden religious extremists and foster sectarian strife.

Chairul Annam, one of the lawyers arguing for the law's repeal, said "the judges closed their eyes and hearts.

We are very sorry that discrimination suffered by minorities in this country was not recognised by the court."

http://newageislam.com/indonesia-upholds-blasphemy-law/islamic-world-news/d/2730

Controversy over ‘Vande Mataram’ Irrelevant: Issue Settled 50 Yrs Ago,

Current affairs

Controversy over ‘Vande Mataram’ Irrelevant: Issue Settled 50 Yrs Ago

By Subhash K. Jha

November 4th, 2009

New Delhi: As Congress fights shy of Vande Mataram debate, citing sensitivity of the matter, minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed on Thursday waded into the issue saying there was no need to reopen the chapter which was settled 50 years ago. He said singing the song was not objectionable.

Khursheed’s comment came after a fatwa issued by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, saying the national song was idolatrous and could not be sung by Muslims. A recurring theme in national political scene, the fresh ban called by Deoband triggered a controversy with opposition guns even targeted at Congress as home minister P Chidambaram had visited the campus for the same function.

Congress has chosen to keep quiet on the issue, with a party spokesman saying it was better not to touch the “sensitive issue”. However, Khursheed threw away the caution as he felt a fresh reference to old objections to Vande Mataram was unnecessary. He said, “Fifty years ago, it was settled before great national leaders and we should not reopen the question. We have been using Vande Mataram as national song as some stanzas of Vande Mataram were decided to be treated as national song.” He said Hindus and Muslims settled the issue during independence and JuH was a party to the resolution. “There is no reason given by anyone for reviewing it, which is a settled question.”

Khursheed’s comments are significant as they come not just from a Muslim leader but also someone chosen to head the minority affairs ministry, the government arm carved out in 2004 to woo minorities, especially Muslims. While Vande Mataram has been a nogo area for mainstream parties, given the incendiary nature of controversies which erupt from it and the political implications involved, the opposition has reacted to it as it did this time around.

http://newageislam.com/controversy-over-%E2%80%98vande-mataram%E2%80%99-irrelevant--issue-settled-50-yrs-ago/current-affairs/d/2061

OBAMA’S LESSON FOR INDIAN MUSLIMS, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

OBAMA’S LESSON FOR INDIAN MUSLIMS

Such fanatics are thankfully still just a few. However a less radical but much more widespread manifestation of the minority mentality is Muslims’ insulating themselves from the rest of society and shoving themselves into residential, cultural and even intellectual ghettos. No one is sure if Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid, the two boys killed by Delhi Police and blamed for perpetrating serial blasts, were indeed guilty of terrorism. But they were surely guilty of living in Batla House — a teeming locality of tens of thousands in south Delhi where you would be hard put to find a single non- Muslim. Such ghettos exist in virtually every city, town or village with large or even average Muslim populations, and create a very physical dimension for the country’s communal divide.

Even until a couple of decades ago, many Muslim households — especially children — used to celebrate at least larger Indian festivals like Holi and Diwali with as much zest as anybody else. Today, Muslims’ cultural ghettoisation means that children who burst firecrackers on Diwali or play with colours on Holi are frowned upon or castigated by their elders [many of whom must have enjoyed the same celebrations in their own childhood]. Intellectually too, a number of Muslim families have turned away from mainstream education,

Preferring to send their children to madrassas and Urdu/ Arabic schools instead. Indeed, there are those who believe that reading and memorising the Quran by heart is all there is to education in this world.

http://newageislam.com/obama%E2%80%99s-lesson-for-indian-muslims--/islam-and-pluralism/d/998

Who are the Ahmadi? Are they a persecuted lot? A new book on the Ahmadiyya Jama'at, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

Who are the Ahmadi? Are they a persecuted lot? A new book on the Ahmadiyya Jama'at

November 23, 2008

The Ahmadiyya Jama´at, an Islamic reform movement founded in India in the 19th century, has at least 10 million followers in numerous countries around the world, and an estimated 150,000 members in Pakistan. To the annoyance of mainstream Muslims, the Ahmadi teach, in contrast to the traditional doctrine of Khataman Nabiyeen (the idea that Muhammad is the seal, the greatest and the last of the Prophets) that there can be prophets, albeit minor ones, after the prophet Muhammad. The Ahmadi believe that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), was such a lesser prophet. Accused of being British agents, the Ahmadi, not only teach that true jihad is "to struggle" for righteousness, to fight with the pen in rational debate, rather than fight with the sword, but that it is wrong for Muslims to fight kuffar [non-Muslim] States [such as the British in India] if that State allows the practice of Islam. Equally controversial is the Ahmadi belief that Jesus, instead of dying on the cross as Christians believe, or being taken alive into heaven as mainstream Muslims teach, escaped from the Romans, travelled to the East, finally settling and dying in Kashmir. Despite Ali Jinnah´s dream in 1947 of establishing Pakistan as an enlightened Islamic state, pluralistic and tolerant, minority groups such as the Ahmadi, due mainly to such beliefs, particularly the claim of prophet-hood made by Ahmad himself, are severely persecuted in that country.

http://newageislam.com/who-are-the-ahmadi?-are-they-a-persecuted-lot?-a-new-book-on-the-ahmadiyya-jama-at---/the-war-within-islam/d/1013

Muslim women's head scarf a veil of mystery, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Muslim women's head scarf a veil of mystery

It can depend upon what country someone hails from. For instance, in Turkey, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, it is illegal for a woman to enter a government building, state-owned facility or public university wearing a hijab. Tunisia bans hijabs in some public places and police will halt women on the street to ask them to remove their hijabs. Tunisian authorities view hijabs as an uninvited form of sectarian dress.

By contrast, Bangladesh and Pakistan have no laws on hijabs, although there is strong social pressure in both countries for wearing them. In Saudi Arabia, Iran and under the Taliban regime, women are required to wear them whenever they leave their homes.

Surprising many of those closest to her, Alizada chose to continue wearing her hijab.

"There are so many places around the world where people can't practice their religion freely and openly if your religion is not that of the mainstream. And this is a country where people have the freedom of religion and the right to free speech. So why would I let some stranger dictate how I practice my faith? Why would I give this attacker that kind of power over me?" Alizada asks rhetorically. "It also makes me feel more comfortable when I go out in public. It's a sign of modesty. And I suppose there are certain sacrifices you make in different countries. My parents risked a lot to make it to the United States, so if wearing a hijab makes me more vulnerable to harm, I will have to be strong and accept that risk."

http://newageislam.com/muslim-women-s-head-scarf-a-veil-of-mystery/islamic-world-news/d/907

Barelvis in Gujarat ban entry of Tablighi preachers in their mosques, but Wahhabis find new converts, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Barelvis in Gujarat ban entry of Tablighi preachers in their mosques, but Wahhabis find new converts

Saeed Khan,TNN

4 Aug 2008

Trends show that not only more mosques are coming under the control of the Deobandis, this orthodox school of Islam is also finding ready converts among youth coming from liberal and educated Muslim backgrounds.

Apart from running madrasas, mainstream educational institutions have been in special focus for the Deobandis. While this power struggle is a pan-India phenomenon, it is assuming quite serious dimensions in Gujarat in the last six years. Recent clashes between the two groups in Surat, Kalol, Prantij, Himmatnagar and other towns and cities across Gujarat have only underlined the intensity of this conflict.

The tolerant Barelvis, who are okay with dargah-worship, have even put up notice boards outside scores of mosques in Gujarat banning the entry of the Tablighi Jamaat, the missionary wing of the Deoband school of Islam which preaches for a puritanical interpretation of the holy Quran.

http://newageislam.com/barelvis-in-gujarat-ban-entry-of-tablighi-preachers-in-their-mosques,-but-wahhabis-find-new-converts/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/479