Dialogue: Hillary Clinton and Strobe Talbott on The US-Muslim world relations at Doha, Qatar, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Dialogue: Hillary Clinton and Strobe Talbott on The US-Muslim world relations at Doha, Qatar

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HAMAD BIN JASSIM AL THANI: Well, I remember, Talbott, when we talked about Brookings Doha three years ago in Washington, me and you and Martin, we said, "What we are looking for, opening another institute? It's -- you are not for that, and we are also not for that." We thought that in this part of the world, we need to have kind of (inaudible) in different aspects, and some also studies and some data. And you know, we have many institutions and many universities in Qatar open. And for us, what is important: we need to understand each other more between your region and our country, between your country and our countries in this region. And one of these things is to open (inaudible) Brookings Institute Saban Center in Doha.

And I think we benefited a lot. This is the seventh time we did this dialogue. And every time it's growing. I remember the time, it was around 60 persons we invited. And we were pushing to bring the 60 persons. And this year we have 300, because we put a limit of 350, and (inaudible), but now we are looking for more quality. We are looking for the dialogue to have a Doha Center of dialogue.

Our dream and His Highness's dream, how to make Doha Center for everybody to meet, to have different opinions, to have different ideas, but to have same values, and to have same principles of solving all the problems by talking to each other. And I think we, as you know, succeeded by last year. We were having 107 conferences in Doha. And I am talking 107 conferences over 150 persons -- we don't count the smaller conferences. And we were glad to have all the people here for the culture. It's good for people to meet each other. And also, it's good to know why we are angry from each other.

http://newageislam.com/dialogue--hillary-clinton-and-strobe-talbott-on-the-us-muslim-world-relations-at-doha,-qatar/islam-and-the-west/d/2465

Dressing to Impress Aceh's Shariah Police, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Dressing to Impress Aceh's Shariah Police

In Pasar Rakyat, a market in Meulaboh in Indonesia's West Aceh, a young woman busily browses through a rack of skirts. She is wearing a loose, long skirt, a tight, long-sleeved T-shirt and a jilbab that comes up to her chest. She analyzes the material of the skirts, touching them to feel the texture.

“I have to replace my clothes with skirts and Muslim outfits [that are long-sleeved and loose],” 20-year-old Rahma said last Tuesday. “I don’t want to be arrested by the Wilayatul Hisbah [Shariah police] when they really implement the new law.”

The district of West Aceh will begin enforcing a new regulation in January that will strictly forbid Muslims, especially women, to wear tight clothes. M Nur Juned, head of West Aceh district’s Shariah division, said in a telephone interview with the Jakarta Globe on Thursday that authorities would regulate the clothes that people were allowed to wear.

“For women, the clothes should not be skintight, see-through, show the contours of their bodies or be boyish. The jilbab should be long so it can cover their chest,” he said. “Women can still wear trousers as long as they are not tight.

“As for men, they can’t wear shorts when they are out in public. And they can’t dress up like a woman, either. Allah hates such a thing.”

Juned said that in 2008, the West Aceh government had advised Muslims in the area regarding their manner of dressing.

“We [the district-level office] circulated letters to subdistrict offices on how people should dress. But since this was only an appeal and there were no sanctions, people didn’t take it seriously,” he said. “We decided to make it more serious by issuing this new regulation.”

http://newageislam.com/dressing-to-impress-aceh-s-shariah-police/islamic-world-news/d/2249

The lesson of Karbala: Hussain salvaged the New, Revolutionary Social Contract that Islam gave to Arabia in the 7th century, Islamic History

Islamic History

The lesson of Karbala: Hussain salvaged the New, Revolutionary Social Contract that Islam gave to Arabia in the 7th century

By Murtaza Razvi

Friday, 25 Dec, 2009

So what has changed since Hussain’s heroic refusal to endorse Yazid’s tyranny in 680 AD? Very little, indeed, if truth be told uncoated. Yet more than any other event in Muslim history, the spirit inherent in the tragedy of Karbala is one that defies injustice and coercion — unto death if that’s what it must take.

Repression and cruelty could not get Hussain, or indeed his survivors, to endorse the authoritarian order Yazid set out to impose. The assassination of Hussain and his companions at Karbala 61 years after the proclamation of Islam, which set a people enslaved by superstition and tribal tyranny free to bow only before one God, caused repulsion all around. It prompted a revolt in Hejaz led by Abdullah Ibn Zubair.

Yazid’s army responded by sacking Madina and laying siege to Makkah. But the flame of human dignity and independence of action, as guaranteed by the new social contract that Islam had brought to Arabia, was rekindled by the martyrs at Karbala. It consumed Yazid within three years of the atrocity, and confined his reign of terror to oblivion.

What survived in the hearts and minds of the people was Hussain’s refusal to endorse rule by terror. And that indeed is divine justice in action. Hypocrites and tyrants (kufi-o-shami) will come and go, as Iqbal says, but the perpetual reality (haqiqat-i-abadi), the spirit of defiance in the face of coercion that is Hussain, shall remain. The vanquished of yore is the hero of history and the historical victor has become synonymous with tyranny.

http://newageislam.com/the-lesson-of-karbala--hussain-salvaged-the-new,-revolutionary-social-contract-that-islam-gave-to-arabia-in-the-7th-century/islamic-history/d/2276

Iran’s unfinished crisis, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Iran’s unfinished crisis

By Nazenin Ansari

16-09-2009

The regime is well aware of what is at stake. The supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a cold warning on 11 September 2009 that "resisting the system and taking out the sword against it will meet a harsh response. If somebody stands against the basis of the [Islamic] system and violates people's security, the system is forced to stand against it."

Such intransigent rhetoric at the highest level is a justification of ferocious and consistent repression by the regime's militias, organised thugs, and judiciary. Khamenei's declaration came a day after security forces raided, pillaged and sealed the offices of Mir-Hossein Moussavi and his fellow opposition leader and presidential candidate Ayatollah Mehdi Karroubi.

The office of the Association for the Defence of Prisoners' Rights was also ransacked, and evidence of the torture, rape and killing of detainees confiscated. An Amnesty International statement points out that "the seized records contain information which would enable the judicial authorities to identify the former detainees who were prepared to speak out on a confidential basis due to their fear of reprisals and the shocking nature of their ordeal."

A number of top advisers to the opposition are among the thousands of people arrested in the post-election crackdown. The highest-profile of the later detainees is Alireza Beheshti, a senior adviser to Moussavi and the son of Iran's first head of the judiciary after the 1979 revolution - who was subsequently released on bail.

http://newageislam.com/iran%E2%80%99s-unfinished-crisis/islam-and-politics/d/1813

Egyptian Cleric explains Wife-Beating in Islam, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Egyptian Cleric explains Wife-Beating in Islam

"When This Doesn't Work, He Says To Her: With You, I Have Reached a Stage Which Is Only Appropriate For Inhumane People - The Stage of Beating"

"Okay, he's tried admonishing; he's tried banishment - but nothing. Her emotions are numb, and she says: Good riddance. So what is the next measure? "...and beat them." beating. The Prophet Muhammad said that the beatings should be light, and that one should avoid the face, or the sensitive areas, which might lead to broken bones, or might leave a mark that would spoil her beauty, whether on her face or anywhere on her body. Beatings that draw blood, or break bones, or leave a scar, a black mark on the skin, or any obvious mark, which would make people, know that she was harshly beaten - this is forbidden.

"How should the beatings go? Maybe a light slap on her shoulder, or maybe a not-so-light pinch, or a kind of gentle shove. He should make her feel that he wants to reform her, and let her know that he is displeased with her. It is like saying: None of the measures that work with sensitive people work with you. A word would be enough for any wife with lofty morals, but with you, words do not help.

http://newageislam.com/egyptian-cleric-explains-wife-beating-in-islam/islamic-world-news/d/1179

Terrorism in Pakistan, Celebrating Ramadan, jihadi style, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Terrorism in Pakistan, Celebrating Ramadan, jihadi style

By Muqtedar Khan

Ramadan mubarak?

In the month of Ramadan, when even frowning is undesirable, some Muslims with poisoned minds have chosen to murder and maim indiscriminately.

On September 6th, in the first week of Ramadan, two suicide bombers killed over 50 people in Peshawar, Pakistan. On September 13th, five bombs killed over 30 in New Delhi, India. On September 15th, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a Ramadan fast breaking ceremony killing 22 people in Diyala, Iraq. On September 17th, a truck bomb and some militants attacked the US embassy in San'a, Yemen killing 16 people and on September 20th a massive truck bomb killed over 60 people in Islamabad, Pakistan.

All of these attacks have been conducted by people who call themselves "Jihadis", this they claim is their struggle in the path of God. One cannot imagine to what extent the minds and the hearts of these people have become poisoned that in the month of Ramadan when even frowning is undesirable, they chose to murder and maim indiscriminately. The most incomprehensible aspect of these atrocities is that a vast majority of their victims are the very people on whose behalf these wars are waged!

If they want to fight and die for God, they are welcome. There are over 200,000 American soldiers, in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are there specifically to oblige them. Why not go and fight them?

http://newageislam.com/terrorism-in-pakistan,-celebrating-ramadan,-jihadi-style/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/866

Kashmir: India won’t, can’t give up, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Kashmir: India won’t, can’t give up

Kashmir is not special. This multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religious country is

By Jaithirth Rao

Posted online: Monday, September 01, 2008

1. India is not going to give up Kashmir. If you have been hearing that several so-called intellectuals have advocated this, then please do not over-estimate their influence. They can be concerned about abstractions like the arithmetic or the algebra of justice. That is irrelevant and inconsequential. The Republic of India is not going to confer Azadi on part or all of Kashmir. Nor are we going to let you join Pakistan. Please do not be misled by anyone who tells you anything to the contrary.

2. If the current unrest continues in the state, many people, mostly young people will be affected by violence. That is avoidable. Because there is not a hope in hell that all of this violence will persuade any government in India to let you secede.

3. People may be misleading you that if you indulge in public slogan-mongering, throwing stones or more lethal objects at the police in front of TV cameras of the international media, the chances of my government or any other government operating in its place agreeing to let you secede is high. They are dead wrong. We have violence and public demonstrations in dozens of places in our country every day. To some extent, we have become immune and these acts have limited impact.

http://newageislam.com/kashmir--india-won%E2%80%99t,-can%E2%80%99t-give-up/current-affairs/d/682

'I can connect to God through Sufi', Islamic Culture, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Culture

'I can connect to God through Sufi'

Priya Rajendran, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, September 22, 2008

So is it that Sufi has sort of made a comeback? Especially after NDTV Imagine's reality show Junoon...

Its not really a comeback. I had also been approached for the same show too, but had to turn it down due to some reasons. But yes it is definitely a great platform for the youth to perform. At the same time, there is a danger that this show must not mislead youth into thinking that Sufi is simply about enmeshing music on guitar tunes amalgamated with tabla. Sufi is beyond all that. One must have a deep passion for this music. Also the reality show must pick up the right people as sometimes, there is a danger of wrong public voting. Also Bulla ki jana which was sung in Junoon and Rabbi’s version is way different from the original. So there's a a problem with killing this music too.

http://newageislam.com/-i-can-connect-to-god-through-sufi-/islamic-culture/d/792

Afghan Pashtun tribes and could go a long way towards making

Marshall Plan for FATA

Success in the Pakistani tribal belt can offer an incentive to the Afghan Pashtun tribes and could go a long way towards making the Afghanistan effort a success

By Shaukat Qadir

However, it never ceases to amaze me that so many of our own analysts, even Pashtun tribesmen, accept, even support these conclusions; people who should really know better, accept conclusions far divorced from ground realities and the social psyche of the tribals. Any effort that frontally assaults centuries-old traditions and customs of these tribes is doomed to failure at the outset.

These are people bred in a harsh, sparsely populated region, who live by their traditional code; a land with very little water, where the wealthy have large land holdings and some agriculture, but earn mostly from governmental grants and smuggling, while the poor generally breed a handful of goats and need every available hand to survive; and where women have never enjoyed any rights.

The concept of male superiority is as old as evolution and for people seeped in traditions and who are burning or bombing girls’ schools in their area, any direct attack on their customs and traditions through education will be resisted tooth and nail. It might sound blasphemous to the educated mind, but the truth is that it will take a generation of education for gender issues to be debated and, at least another generation before they can be genuinely implemented. Even in the UK, the pillar of democracy, women’s suffrage was established as recently as 1933.

http://newageislam.com/marshall-plan-for-fata/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/395

'I cringed when they compared me to Martin Luther' - Irshad Manji, Interview

Interview

'I cringed when they compared me to Martin Luther' - Irshad Manji

What she has to say - that Islam has become calcified and that in its name millions of people around the world are being denied human rights - is offensive to many and troubling even to progressive Muslims and non-Muslims who agree with her but wouldn't say so out loud, for fear of provoking what she calls the beards and the veils. She can't seem to move without annoying someone; she is also loathed by those ghastly, blogging Christians who prefer Muslims to be the enemy and think they should be converted or stay in their 'own' countries.

Where has she got it from, this nice-looking, petite girl (she was born in 1968 but appears much younger) from suburban Vancouver? How did she get the nerve to become one of the leading voices demanding reform of one of the world's great religions, at a time when Islam has become so controversial?

Irshad Manji arrived in Canada at the age of four as a refugee from Idi Amin's Uganda. One night, when she was 10, her father chased her through the house with a kitchen knife after she threatened to report him to the police and social services for his violence towards her mother. Hiding on the roof, out of reach, she had an epiphany - or that's how she tells it now: 'I realised I was grateful because there were people I could go to, talk to, whereas if we'd still been in East Africa that may not have been the case. I realised I lived in a society where the story of who we are as a people was not finished, which meant that I, as an individual, mattered. I could be a partial author of this grander story.'

http://newageislam.com/-i-cringed-when-they-compared-me-to-martin-luther----irshad-manji/interview/d/422

On wearing a beard or, more appropriately, On some Muslims' beard complex, Debate, NewAgeIslam.com

Debate

On wearing a beard or, more appropriately, On some Muslims' beard complex

The Discourse

A. This question shows the unfortunate state of lack of knowledge that has long prevailed among Muslims concerning the details of their religion. Let us briefly consider the Hadith the reader quotes, assuming that it is authentic, and outline what it implies. The Hadith simply speaks of the practice of one of the Prophet’s companions who commands great respect for his thorough knowledge. The Hadith does not quote Ibn Omar as saying that what he used to do was ordered or recommended by the Prophet. It simply states what he used to do. This may simply be a matter of personal choice. Had Ibn Omar followed his action with a statement to the effect that he was doing it as a result of an order by the Prophet, it would have taken the Hadith into a higher degree to make the order given to Ibn Omar applicable to others. He makes no such comment. Therefore, his action does not constitute any requirement of any level which other people should observe.

http://newageislam.com/on-wearing-a-beard-or,-more-appropriately,-on-some-muslims--beard-complex/debate/d/459

Pakistan: Efforts to save children from militancy stressed, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Pakistan: Efforts to save children from militancy stressed

The organisation held a discussion on the issue of the use of children in militancy here on Wednesday in which regional experts, civil society members and journalists covering the war on terror participated.The discussion dissected one of the dangerous trends taking roots in the poverty-stricken Pakistan in general and its most vulnerable tribal areas and Balochistan province in particular.Sparc’s National Manager Promotion Fazila Gulrez gave a presentation on the emerging trend of child militancy and gave an overview of the rapid assessment carried out in Karak, Landi Kotal and Khyber Agency, the conflict-torn areas where children are rapidly falling into the hands of extremists and are being used as suicide bombers or militants.Sparc’s Executive Director Qindeel Shujaat said despite spending a bigger chunk of the national budget on defence-related spending, Pakistan was unable to provide security to its people and save children from falling prey to militancy and conflicts of all sorts.He said the videos showing children, recruited by various militant groups, chopping heads of people were a grim picture of where Pakistan was heading as a society and nation. He said it was ominous and what one could expect was just the worst to follow.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--efforts-to-save-children-from-militancy-stressed/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/651

Is Pakistan's ISI behind Kabul embassy blast?, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Is Pakistan's ISI behind Kabul embassy blast?

An explosive-laden car rammed into the Indian embassy gate in the Shahr-i-Naw area as two cars carrying Brigadier Ravi Dutt Mehta and Counsellor V Venkateswara Rao were entering the embassy compound, official sources said here.

Brig Mehta was just beginning his tenure in Kabul having been posted to the city nearly five months back on February 15, 2008. He was an air defence artillery officer who was commissioned into the armed forces in June 1976.

Two ITBP personnel Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh were also among the 41 people killed in the strike in which 141 were injured.

Rao's body was flung over the roof by the impact of the explosion that blew off the embassy's gates and outer structure and damaged buildings inside the compound. Two Indian embassy vehicles were also damaged, an official said, adding over 140 people were injured in the blast.

http://newageislam.com/is-pakistan-s-isi-behind-kabul-embassy-blast?/war-on-terror/d/179

Shame and Outrage: Muslims defame Islamic law by marrying off minor girls, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Shame and Outrage: Muslims defame Islamic law by marrying off minor girls

By Sujata B. Shakeel and Anindita D. Choudhury in New Delhi

About 70 per cent of India lives in villages where family, caste and community pressures are more important than any law. Akshaya Trithiya is an auspicious day for Hindu marriages. In fact, in some communities, tiny- tots are married off. It is popularly known as ‘Child Marriage Day’ in states such as Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. For child marriages in Muslims, “It the misinterpretation of the Shari’ah by vested interests that is responsible for the backwardness of society,” says Azra Abid, associate professor, department of sociology, Jamia Milia Islamia. “Islam allows a woman to choose her partner. As per Muslim law, girls are considered mature at nine and can get married, but still enjoy a right not to do so,” she says. Personal laws are oppressive towards women, most people MAIL TODAY spoke to, said. Some feel that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 needs a re-look.

http://newageislam.com/shame-and-outrage--muslims-defame-islamic-law-by-marrying-off-minor-girls-/islamic-society/d/201

Lecture 7: Is Religion Possible?, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

Books and Documents

Lecture 7: Is Religion Possible?

Broadly speaking religious life may be divided into three periods. These may be described as the periods of ‘Faith’, ‘Thought’, and ‘Discovery.’ In the first period religious life appears as a form of discipline which the individual or a whole people must accept as an unconditional command without any rational understanding of the ultimate meaning and purpose of that command. This attitude may be of great consequence in the social and political history of a people, but is not of much consequence in so far as the individual’s inner growth and expansion are concerned. Perfect submission to discipline is followed by a rational understanding of the discipline and the ultimate source of its authority. In this period religious life seeks its foundation in a kind of metaphysics - a logically consistent view of the world with God as a part of that view. In the third period metaphysics is displaced by psychology, and religious life develops the ambition to come into direct contact with the Ultimate Reality.