Jakarta Globe: Indonesia’s two largest Muslim groups count a third of the country’s population as followers, but appear to be losing ground in shaping the national conversation about Islam. Drowned out by the raucous voices of Islamic political parties and confrontational hardline groups, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah are being […]
Click here to watch one minute video More than 100 thousand Palestinians attended the first Friday prayer of the holy month of Ramadan. Israeli soldiers storm Al-Aqsa mosque at Taraweeh Prayer West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli occupation forces stormed yesterday at night Al-Aqsa mosque, in Jerusalem’s old city, after more than […]
Immediate improvement was seen in tests measuring depression and hopefulness. A University of Michigan Health System study has found that attending a non-denominational spiritual retreat can help patients with severe heart trouble feel less depressed and more hopeful about the future. Heart patients who participated in a four-day retreat that […]
Source / Courtesy: BBC The helicopter was taking the personnel back to their base after an operation. It is not clear how the crash happened but the Taliban said they shot the helicopter down. The incident is believed to be the biggest single loss of life for US forces in […]
Source: The New York Times NASHVILLE — Tennessee’s latest woes include high unemployment, continuing foreclosures and a battle over collective-bargaining rights for teachers. But when a Republican representative took the Statehouse floor during a recent hearing, he warned of a new threat to his constituents’ way of life: Islamic law. Read […]
Source: The New York Times To the Editor: Contrary to David Yerushalmi’s claims, America has nothing to fear from Shariah. Islam requires that people must voluntarily abide by Shariah in order for it to be applied. The example of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, USA — the oldest and longest established […]
Source: The Jakarta Post Two members of British parliament, Siobhain McDonagh and Eric Lubbock, have condemned the recent lenient sentences handed down to 12 men involved in a brutal attack against members of Ahmadiyah sect in Cikeusik, Banten. Siobhain, also the chairwoman of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for […]
Source: The New York Times Go ahead, picture a religious Jew. Now picture a Muslim cleric. Now an Amish farmer. What do they have in common? Beards. And not neatly trimmed beards, but, in the popular stereotype, long, unruly beards, which connote piety, spiritual intensity and a life so hard […]
Source: The New York Times NAIROBI, Kenya — The Shabab militant Islamist group withdrew on Saturday morning from Mogadishu, the bullet-ridden capital of Somalia, and the entire city is now under government control for the first time in years. Witnesses described truckloads of heavily armed Shabab fighters motoring away under […]
OSLO —The confessed killer in Norway’s twin terror attacks that claimed 77 lives has asked that his mental condition be evaluated by a Japanese psychiatrist, his defense lawyer said Tuesday. Geir Lippestad said that although 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik has agreed to be examined by local psychiatrists, he also wants […]
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon sets out Saturday on a trip to Japan, where he will become one of the most senior foreign leaders to enter the Fukushima nuclear disaster zone. Read more
Source: OnIslam & News Agencies Amid fresh arrests, restrictions on fasting and prayers at mosques, Uighur Muslims are suffering under the latest episode of Chinese government crackdown on their ethnic minority in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. “If any religious figure discusses Ramadan during the course of religious activities, or […]
Kat Banyard, founder of UK Feminista and author of The Equality Illusion. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian When Kat Banyard held her first feminist event in 2004, she spent months struggling to attract 90 people. For this year’s event, which will take place in Birmingham next weekend, 200 had […]
by Frédéric Burnand in Geneva, swissinfo.ch This week’s visit by Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey to famine-hit East Africa sends a strong signal to other countries and the public, in a senior expert’s view. Interviewed by swissinfo.ch, François Nordmann, a policy advisor and retired Swiss diplomat, dismisses critics who accuse Calmy-Rey […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWs MAKKAH: Sheikh Saleh Al-Talib, imam and khatib at the Grand Mosque, called on Muslims to fortify their faith in Almighty Allah as a means to wipe clean their hearts of hatred and hostility. “Whoever tastes the sweetness of faith will never experience the […]
Arab News. To award a murderer compensation is to put criminals’ rights before victims’ rights Shariah law, as we know, is a constant target for abuse in so many non-Muslim countries, particularly in the West. The public there are fed a constant drip of anti-Shariah diatribe, from both politicians and […]
Marsa Zayed envisions a marina development with room for 300 yachts and a cruise ship terminal all surrounded by a mixture of hotel, resort and luxury apartment complexes. The entire project is slated for completion in several years time, when Jordan first signed the development deal with Al Mabaar, a […]
Christmas celebration in present day Istanbul During those troubled decades, the empire also became a haven for the religiously oppressed. In the mid seventeenth century, for example, a cluster of Hugenots, forced into exile from France, resided in Istanbul, and several Anglican clergymen who had fled commonwealth England, Quakers, Anabaptists, […]
Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew leads a group of believers, nuns, and priests into the St. George patriarchal cathedral for the Epiphany day mass in Istanbul January 6, 2007. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas Islam … tolerated Christians and Jews as constituting religious communities “of the Book”: the Qur’an did not allow forced […]
by Christian Blauvelt, EW.com Set phasers for fun! That’s because Star Trek’s getting the theme park treatment in Aqaba, Jordan. Set to begin construction in March 2012, the Red Sea Astrarium, a $1.5 billion development comprised of four hotels and 17 amusement-park-style attractions, will feature a Star Trek-themed entertainment center, […]