Huff Post: Michael P. Murphy. The word “religion” finds its root in religio, which means “to bind.” And herein lies the main point: we like being “spiritual” because the concept, as we perceive it, makes no claim upon us. It binds us to nothing — or at least nothing communal, confessional […]
RT: “It is time our leaders reformed the system so that it works in the interests of the whole of humanity rather than a global elite,” the report said. The world’s 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide […]
Manama: A Saudi activist has rejected claims that she had insulted the companions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) by supporting moves to empower women politically. Suheila Zain Al Abideen Al Hammad had come under attack from Saleh Al Fawzan, a conservative religious scholar, after she said that the Prophet’s companions took […]
Riyadh: A group of hardline clerics protested outside the royal palace in Riyadh against the king’s decision to appoint 30 women to the kingdom’s top advisory body, a YouTube video posted on Wednesday showed. The footage of Tuesday’s demonstration showed clerics protesting what they said were “dangerous changes in the […]
By John Alden Williams: So far as war for the propagation of faith is concerned, such a thing is not mentioned even once in the Qur’an. This fact should be a revelation for those who think that Islam requires its followers to fight for the spread of their religion. The […]
RT: Unrelenting snowfalls have caused unprecedented travel chaos in Russia. Over the past week the country has seen scores of traffic accidents, flight delays, and in some cases, the complete isolation of some remote settlements and towns. As more than 10 inches of snow fell in Moscow – more than […]
Manama: Foreign women who married Kuwaiti men after January 2010 will need the approval of a special committee to be able to live in Kuwait. “The interior ministry has stopped stamping residence permits to the foreign wives of Kuwaiti nationals and whose marriage took place after January 1, 2010,” security […]
However, several women applicants said that they would always recall the day they handed in their papers as “a historic breakthrough.” “This is a beautiful day in my life,” an applicant who did not give her name, told local Arabic daily Al Qabas. “This is great because in the past […]
Religious leaders have expressed concern at DNA from horses and pigs being found in frozen beefburgers. Jewish leaders warned such incidents must not happen again, while the Muslim Council of Britain said it was worried by the whole issue of misdescription of food. John Benjamin, the chief executive of the […]
The Express Tribune: KARACHI: Curiosity and inquisitiveness were the traits which earned earlier Muslim scientists their rightful place in the development of science and these are the two qualities which are missing today. Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy shared these views on Tuesday evening while speaking on “Science in Islam: Past, Present and […]
Huff Post: The festival has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested from demons a golden pot containing the nectar of immortality. In a 12-day fight for possession, four drops fell to earth, in the cities of Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujain and Nasik. Every three years […]
Two people died today after a helicopter crashed into the top of a fog-shrouded crane during rush-hour in Vauxhall, central London, a week after pilots were warned about the crane’s […]
Epigraph: “Blessed is He (Allah) Who has sent down the Discrimination (the Quran) to His servant (Muhammad), that he may be a Warner to all the worlds.” (Al Quran 25:1) […]
CBCnews: ‘I think it’s probably just a random incident,’ says organization A welcome sign belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has been ripped down the middle in Sydney, but the organization says it’s hoping it was a random act. The group discovered the vandalism of their sign, across from the […]
The insurgents vow to make conflict ‘worse than Afghanistan’ Thousands of French troops were preparing to join the anti-terrorist war in Mali today as British army chiefs warned against getting sucked […]
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf and 15 others over corruption allegations, raising fears of a political crisis just months ahead of an election. […]
India has put on hold a plan to issue visas to Pakistani senior citizens on arrival, amid fresh tension between the two countries. Home Secretary RK Singh told the BBC […]
Huff Post: Nathan Lean. Any reasonable person would look at this growing phenomenon and conclude that we’ve reached an ugly new level of prejudice against religious minorities in this country. But not Jonathan Schanzer, a hawkish Bush-era terrorism analyst whose predictable (and unethical — I’ll get to that later) review […]
ScienceDaily: Jan. 14, 2013 — Users of Facebook and other social networks should beware of allowing their self-esteem — boosted by “likes” or positive comments from close friends — to influence their behavior: It could reduce their self-control both on and offline, according to an academic paper by researchers at the […]
Science Daily: Jan. 10, 2013 — We would all like to believe that there is a kind of karma in life that guarantees those who cheat eventually pay for their bad behavior, if not immediately, then somewhere down the line. But a study of a new gene in the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideumsuggests […]