FP: Pakistani Christian Aasia Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemous activity has shone a spotlight on the perilous situation for religious communities in Pakistan. The country’s laws repress religious freedoms for all and are vigorously enforced, especially against religious minorities. In addition, an alarming level of violence against the religious “other” is plaguing […]
FP: JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Ahmed al-Ghamdi’s long, bushy beard and red-checked headscarf are emblems of his conservative approach to Islam, which is no surprise for a man who once supervised the Saudi religious police in the holy city of Mecca. But it was something surprising about Ghamdi that brought […]
theguardian — Sweden has officially recognised the state of Palestine, the Swedish foreign minister said, less than a month after Stockholm announced its intention to make the controversial move. “Today the […]
Epigraph: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be […]
Muharram is the month that marks the beginning of the Hijrah calendar. It is one of the four sanctified months about which the Holy Qur’an says, “The number of the […]
Source:CNN (CNN) — The military in the West African nation of Burkina Faso seized control of the government on Thursday and set a dusk-to-dawn curfew in what one general described as an effort to protect lives and restore order. Unrest has gripped Burkina Faso — a key ally for the […]
DEAD SEA — A total of 261 foreign and Jordanian employees as well as administrative staff members working at the Dead Sea’s eight hotels managed to break the Guinness World […]
Question and answer details Name of Questioner: Hannah Reply date: 2014/10/30 Question: Can you please explain to me why is Friday your “Sabbath” Day? consultant: Amir Ali Answer Salam (Peace) Dear Hannah, Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam. In Islam there is no Sabbath. For […]
Makkah-Madinah train to be shipped by year-end JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS Published — Friday 31 October 2014 The first Spanish-made train for the multibillion-riyal Haramain railway project would arrive in […]
Amazon: Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation […]
Economist: IN GREAT spiritual traditions, followers are often presented with two distinct phenomena: a supreme moment of divine revelation, and a tradition spanning many centuries in which teachers or clerics have distilled the contents of that revelation and delivered it to their contemporaries. Most people think of Islam, especially in […]
Arrest shows police using new strategy to charge suspected extremists Colin Freeze And SAHAR FATIMA Globeandmail MILTON, ONT. and and MISSISSAUGA, ONT. — The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Oct. 30 2014, 3:00 AM EDT, Last updated Thursday, Oct. 30 2014, 11:59 AM EDT A 30-year-old assault-rifle collector from Pakistan has been […]
Huff Post: by Nick Robins-Early — http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?action=like&app_id=46744042133&channel=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2FehazDpFPEnK.js%3Fversion%3D41%23cb%3Df27a258a18%26domain%3Dwww.huffingtonpost.com%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%252Ffbb7307c%26relation%3Dparent.parent&color_scheme=light&font=arial&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2014%2F10%2F29%2Fcanada-racism-video_n_6068832.html&layout=box_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&width=450 There are many recent “social experiment” videos showing average citizens’ candid responses to public injustice — but they rarely end with one of the subjects getting punched squarely in the face. In a new video by 18-year-old York University student Omar Albach, that’s just what happened, as […]
Local councillor Maxence Buttey, 22, has been suspended from a regional Front National committee after he went public with his decision and sent out a ‘proselytising video’ to party members. […]
A social experiment that ended with an actor posing as an Islamophobe getting punched in the face has shown that Canadians are prepared to defend Muslims in the face of overt racist abuse in the wake of a recent terror attack. In an attempt to test whether Canadians feel safe […]
Source: NY Times: JERUSALEM — Under heavy pressure and the threat of new Israeli-Palestinian strife, Israel announced on Thursday that it would reopen a contested holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday morning, a day after closing it for the first time in years. The site, which […]
A senior officer of Bashar al-Assad’s regime talks to Robert Fisk about his army’s brutal struggle with Isis, in a dirty war whose challenges include widespread atrocities ROBERT FISK DAMASCUS Wednesday 29 October 2014 Phones were ringing through the army headquarters in central Damascus and a veteran of Syria’s 1982 […]
Source: The daily Beast. No piece of cloth throughout history has sparked more controversy as the veil. Many Muslim women are forced to wear it daily. The hijab has a spectrum, of course, from its most radical embodiments, the niqab, which covers the entire face, to loose fitting headscarves. Saudi […]
Source: The daily Beast. bostonglobe.com Kaci Hickox is a woman of her word. After vowing to defy Maine’s voluntary quarantine for health workers who treated Ebola patients by Thursday, she and her boyfriend left their home to go for a bicycle ride. The two were followed by state police; however […]
