‘Fatwa’ Condemns Killings Of Innocent...
‘ISLAMIC terrorism’ is a phrase that has become part of the active vocabulary of mainstream media in the world. But the phrase is an oxymoron, argues Advocate Jafar Samdani, Senior Associate at Kuwait Mediation and International Arbitration Chamber. As the head of a forum that has proclaimed peace and understanding as its core objectives, Jafar is currently actively promoting a book by a world famous scholar to create awareness on the Islamic perspective on terrorism. Armed with a degree in Islamic Studies and International Affairs, Jafar is able to shed light on the book and also courses through history and politics to put the phenomenon of terrorism in perspective. However, he agrees that creating harmony without bringing about...
Somalia: Fatwa Against Al Shabab, ‘It Has No Place In Islam’...
September 12, 2013 Some 160 Somali religious scholars have issued a fatwa (judgment or learned interpretation in the Islamic faith) against the al Shabab, saying the group “has no place in Islam”. It is the first time Somali religious leaders have come up with a fatwa against the group, which controls vast rural areas. The announcement comes as residents of Bula Burte, in central Somalia, denounced that the al Shabab Islamists executed a young man and performed a double amputation in front of a crowd of dozens of people. The fatwa establishes that al Shabab “is not an Islamic movement” but an extremist group with “an erroneous ideology” that comes together “to kill Somalis without any legitimate reason...
Glamour model to cover up and convert to Islam after falling for Tunisian lifeguard...
She used to spend her days posing in her underwear but now glamour model Carley Watts, 24, is to cover up after falling in love with Tunisian lifeguard, Mohammed Salah, 25. The model, from Dearham in Norfolk, met Salah during a holiday in Tunisia in April and says she is so serious about the lifeguard she is set to Islam to become his wife. From October, Carley and her daughter Alannah, two, will live close to his family in the city of Monastir, where she will spend six months learning about the faith – and planning their wedding. Carley told the Sun on Sunday that her friends think she is mad and that this is just a phase: ‘They can’t...
Islam’s ability to empower is a magnet to black British youths...
A seminar was hosted last month by Christians Together in England to consider ways to “stem the flight of black British youths to Islam and radicalisation”. In an unprecedented move, Muslims were invited to attend – and they did. Together, both faith groups discussed the reasons why a growing number of young black people are choosing Islam in preference to Christianity. According to this morning’s BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, one in nine black Christian men are converting to Islam. Following in my father’s footsteps, I was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Sunday mass regularly as a child. I also attended a Roman Catholic secondary school – initially a cultural shock as I found myself the only black...
The problem in the Middle East is authoritarianism, not Islam...
August 20, 2013 12:15 AMBy Dani Rodrik Is Islam fundamentally incompatible with democracy? Time and again events compel us to ask this question. And yet it is a question that obscures more than it illuminates. Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia are very different countries, but one thing that they share are Islamist governments (at least until recently in Egypt’s case). To varying degrees, these governments have undermined their democratic credentials by failing to protect civil and human rights and employing heavy-handed tactics against their opponents. Despite repeated assurances, Islamist leaders have shown little interest in democracy beyond winning at the ballot box. So those who believe that the removal of Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi’s government was justified have a point. As the Muslim Brotherhood’s...
Islam’s Antidote to Extremism
Islam addresses the topic of extremism much more than many people think. What’s interesting about the Islamic approach is that it solves the problem at its roots instead of attempting to solve the symptoms. My motivation for writing this piece is two fold. First is to counter what has become a fact in the minds of many non-Muslims that Islam is synonymous to extremism. Second and more importantly is to address some relatively recent examples of Muslim extremism and the fact that this goes against the very essence of Islam. The Qurʾān does use the word Ghulow which can fairly be translated as extremism. In an address to the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians, it says: “Oh...
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