China publishes ‘verified living buddha’ list
Source: BBC China has published its first list of “authentic living buddhas”, saying that growing numbers of fraudulent buddhas are using their status to swindle money from believers. Beijing has […]
Is it Time for Organized Religion to Completely Get Out of the Business of State?
Epigraph: There should be no compulsion in religion. Surely, right has become distinct from wrong; so whosoever refuses to be led by those who transgress, and believes in Allah, has […]
Muslims and the modern state: What’s the big problem?
Mark Sedgwick Monday 18 January 2016 Muslims have shown clearly that democracy is compatible not just with Islam but also with the idea of using state power to make a better world Source: Middle East Eye The biggest political news from the Muslim world remains the self-declared Caliphate based in […]
Reason and religion need not always be in violent opposition
Guardian: Contrary to Nick Cohen’s assertion that “civilisation came from the battering that religion took from the Enlightenment”, the initial spin-off of the latter was the horror of the French Revolution. A more positive development of the time was England’s free press, praised by Voltaire. In fact, Christianity has a […]
Was Jinnah confused?
Source: Daily Times By Yasser Latif Hamdani As a Congressman, Jinnah viewed with suspicion the creation of the All India Muslim League in 1906 and was trenchantly opposed to the […]
Pakistan bill aiming to ban child marriages shot down as ‘anti-Islamic’ and ‘blasphemous’
Source: The Independent A move to ban child marriages in Pakistan has been withdrawn after meeting staunch resistance from a religious body, which branded the bill as “anti-Islamic”. The ruling […]
Mosque versus state
Source: Dawn.com By Pervez Hoodbhoy THE mosque in Pakistan is now no longer just a religious institution. Instead it has morphed into a deeply political one that seeks to radically […]
Sometimes, non-believers and believers unite for free expression
Source: The Economist A YEAR on from the murderous assault on Charlie Hebdo, an irreverent French weekly, and the vast demonstration on the streets of Paris which followed, is it […]
Women in Sheraniland: A Case for Secularism
Source: ET About five years ago, when the PPP wasn’t the sick man we’re used to today, a public post fell vacant. The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) — i.e., […]
Vatican newspaper denounces ‘woeful’ Charlie Hebdo cover
Source: Reuters The Vatican newspaper has criticized French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for depicting God as a Kalashnikov-carrying killer, saying it was “woeful” and disrespectful to true believers of all […]
Czarist echo? Russian Orthodox Church drives to restore its political clout
The Muslim Times’ collection, promoting secularism in every country of the world Source: The Christian Science MOSCOW — Baikonur Cosmodrome may lie in Kazakhstan, but it is an iconic symbol […]
America is not a Christian nation: The dark capitalist roots of our country’s most destructive myth
Source: Salon Reviewed by Andrew Aghapour Princeton professor Kevin Kruse on Christian libertarianism and what we get wrong about America’s religious revival According to author Kevin Kruse, the idea that […]
Why Justice Scalia says government should favor religion over nonreligion
Source: Religion News Service Guest post by Daniel Bennett, who researches the conservative legal movement. He is a professor of political science at Eastern Kentucky University. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a small […]
Scalia’s Views on Religious Neutrality Reveal He Is Neutral on Sanity
Source: Huffington Post Speaking at a Catholic high school in New Orleans recently, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said, “To tell you the truth there is no place for that […]
Video: Richard Dawkins on Islam, Jews, science and the burka
Evan Davis speaks to Richard Dawkins. Clinton Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL (born 26 March 1941) is an English[4][5] ethologist, evolutionary biologist,[6] and writer. He is anemeritus fellow of New College, Oxford,[7] […]
Keeping Church and State Separate
Source: Huffington Post On January 1, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, who had requested clarification about the meaning of the First Amendment […]
Winning God’s vote: boundaries for the candidate/clergy courtship in ’16
Religion News Service: Every election cycle an elaborate courtship ritual goes on between political candidates and clergy. Watch for it in 2016. Candidates seek out major clergy (and denominational officials, and activists, etc.) to…help validate their candidacies; (appear to) seek advice; appeal to certain constituencies; reach large in-person audiences; get pictures […]
Urdu Video:Islamic Council in Pakistan Exposing Their Own Ultimate Degradation
The video is courtesy of Bilal Aslam Khan Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times The so called Muslim scholars putting fuel on […]
US Muslim Group Launches Campaign to Reclaim the Meaning of ‘True Islam’ from Extremists
Source: Newsweek BY LUCY WESTCOTT ON 12/30/15 AT 9:04 PM The “True Islam” campaign, created by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, aims to correct misconceptions about the religion and unite […]
The Great Hypocritical Muslim Cover-Up
Source: The Daily Beast By Majid Nawaz ‘World Hijab Day’ is worse than passé. It’s time to make the veil a matter of choice in Iran and Saudi Arabia, for […]