New Islamic Art Exhibits Planned to Counter Islam’s Militant Image...
(Reuters) — Art from the Islamic world will be shown in the heart of the British Museum, instead of on the sidelines, in two new galleries funded by a Malaysian foundation which hopes to offset the image created by Islamic militants. The museum, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of art and artefacts, said on Thursday it plans to open two new galleries in its south wing devoted to its extensive collection of art from the Islamic world. Until now works from the collection have been displayed in a gallery tucked away on the north side of the massive building, a long walk from the main entrance. The two new galleries, which will complement the existing...
Female Muslim Comedian Aizzah Fatimah in Demand...
One of the last things many people might expect a Muslim Pakistani-American woman to do when she takes the stage is crack a joke, openly talk about smoking weed, or say that she is gay. Conversations about South Asian women in America are more usually limited to topics like early marriages, abuse and oppression. If the woman happens to be Muslim, fundamentalism and terrorism are often added to the narrative. As Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie summed it up: “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” A bunch of young Muslim Pakistani-American women, however, are now completing that picture. Not only are they pushing the boundaries on how desi Muslim...
Jews, Muslims Unite for Peaceful Cause...
They held hands. They shared a meal. They laughed and joked. And for a few hours Sunday in Nashville, more than 200 members of the Temple Congregation Ohabai Sholom and members of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro shed the perception that Jews and Muslims — locked in decades of bitter strife — can only be enemies. Yet it was outrage that drew the groups together. After hearing the heated public opposition to the Murfreesboro mosque, Temple Rabbi Mark Schiftan reached out to ICM Imam Ossama Bahloul and organized a trip late last year to see the mosque and learn more about Islam. On Sunday, Bahloul and three busloads of ICM members returned the favor, giving Schiftan and Bahloul...
Interfaith Program Joins Muslims and Jews in Prayer...
On Feb. 7, at Shabbat services at Temple Beth Hillel (TBH) — a Reform shul in Valley Village — a small, attractive woman sang religious songs she had coauthored. In a sweet, self-assured voice — with undertones of depth and strength — Ani Zonneveld, brimming with heartfelt energy, sang about light and prayer and soul, words the 50 or 60 congregants had often heard during Jewish services. There was one word, however, that stuck out, one word that most weren’t used to hearing in the shul’s sanctuary: Allah. “Oh, Allah, increase my light everywhere. … Oh, Allah, Oh, Allah.” TBH Senior Rabbi Sarah Hronsky — flanked by overhead screens projecting Zonneveld’s lyrics — suggested that congregants, if they...
Gardening: An Islamic Philosophical Architecture...
If heaven, the ultimate reward that we are striving for, is described as “gardens underneath which rivers flow”, then what places on Earth could give us better foretaste of Paradise than gardens? Gardens, and specifically traditional Islamic gardens, are the reflections of heaven on Earth. But they are also much more: they are the places where our minds can rest and our souls can reconnect with nature; they are the places of respite in the cooling shadow of trees and representations of ultimate timeless beauty. They provide nutrition for our souls, but on a more basic level, gardens also provide us with fruit and vegetables to feed our bodies. Gardens have profound meaning in Islam on both symbolic...
“Mr. Bean” Actor Rowan Atkinson Converted to Islam...
The world-famous British comedian Rowan Atkinson, who is the creator of an amazing figure of Mr. Bean, has converted to Islam. On Tuesday, October, 1 the leader of the ruling party in Tunisia “Al-Nahda” (“Revival”) Rachid Ghannouchi congratulated with this event the English actor. The head wished a new Muslim “resistance in this thorny path”. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Atkinson and the party leader has long-standing relationships: men often communicated during Ghannouchi’s stay in London’s exile. For example, the article in “Wikipedia” names the date of Mr Bean’s conversion to Islam the 1st October 2013. At the same time, Rowan Atkinson says that the interest of the Muslim religion awoke after the appearance of...
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