Clipmarks | arifsali's 'islam' clips

Can you find a single verse which specifically sanctions the use of violence

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:02:37 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Interesting article, at the source

One of the peculiar features of the recent rise in Islamophobia is the manner in which so many opponents of the Muslim faith try to pass themselves off as experts on the Qur'an. In the wake of the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, It shouldn't happen to a Muslim, which I commissioned for Channel 4, numerous critics on Comment is free and on the channel4.com viewers' forum tried to convince me that the Qur'an preaches violence, terror and holy war. In my experience, such critics tend not to have actually read the Qur'an in its entirety, let alone in its original Arabic script, and prefer to rely on a rather disingenuous combination of mistranslation and misquotation.

A few years ago, the prominent Canadian-Muslim scholar, Dr Jamal Badawi, offered a prize of $1 million to anyone who could find any verses in the Qur'an which referred to "holy war". The prize remains unclaimed, as the Arabic translation of "holy war" - "harb muqaddasah" - appears nowhere in the Quran.

Tags: quran, islam

German minister says schools should teach Islam

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:52:13 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Offering Islam in schools will be "a very, very considerable contribution to integration and peaceful coexistence," said Bekir Alboga, a spokesman for the Muslim participants.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Schools in Germany should offer Islam - along with Christianity and Judaism - as a required religion class in the future, the interior minister said Thursday, but he insisted that the courses be taught in German.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that it would take a while before Muslim community leaders worked out a legally binding agreement with the state, but that an agreement on the issue had been reached.

"It will take some time, but we are moving ahead," Schäuble said after a third conference with representatives of Germany's estimated three million Muslims. Other participants said it would take several years before the classes became available.

Both sides have wrangled for years over the teaching Islam in state-run schools, where religion classes are required by law. Pupils now only have the choice of Roman Catholicism, Protestantism or Judaism. Many schools also offer ethics classes as an alternative.

Tags: germany, islam, schools

Islam and Hinduism's blurred lines

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:16:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Mr Singh is a member of the Kathat community in Rajasthan and follows what his community believes is a pledge undertaken by their forefathers.

Legend has it that the Mehrat, Kathat and Cheeta communities - with a combined total of one million people in four districts of central Rajasthan - are the descendants of the Hindu ruler of the warrior caste, Prithviraj Chauhan.

The three communities also have strong Islamic connections, because many centuries ago, their forefathers undertook a pledge to follow three Muslim practices.

These include the circumcision for the newborn male children in the community, eating halal meat and burying their dead.

That is the tradition many have followed, keeping the word of their ancestors. But it has also led to them facing something of a faith-based identity crisis.

A majority of them are poor and illiterate. They are people with a mixed Hindu-Muslim identity.

"We don't care about being Hindu or Muslim. It is sheer politics," he says.

Tags: islam, hinduism, india, culture, religion

The Islam you don't hear about

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:27:04 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

A trip to Indonesia — home to more than 200 million Muslims — reveals a faith that hardly resembles the one Americans have come to know in the blood-soaked years since 9/11.

After the 9/11 attacks, Americans put out a call for moderate Islam. Many Muslims answered that call, but few Americans heard them. Early this month, I traveled to Asia to see what Islam looks like on the ground there, and to listen to what Muslims themselves have to say about their religion, terrorism and the United States. What I found surprised me.

I went to Asia because Islam is by no means a Middle Eastern phenomenon. In fact, Asia is home to most of the world's Muslims. I focused on Indonesia because there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country — roughly three times as many as in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.

Tags: indonesia, islam, muslims

Against Islamic Extremism

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:30:10 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: It is for this reason that one must approach Islam from Islamic sources if one wants to understand it. This doesn’t mean one will have to accept all that one reads, nor that one can’t be critical after you have studied it: but you will then be able to be critical of something which is true and representative of the faith, not something made up.

Clip Source: vox-nova.com

What has become one of the most difficult things for Westerners to understand is that Islam is not a monolithic religion. There are many ways Islam has manifested in history, both in its normative forms, but also in its secondary and under-represented forms. Just as it would be wrong to form one’s understanding of Christianity by looking to Christian slave-owners in the 19^thcentury (even if they could have appeared as normative to many looking to the Christian faith at that time), so it is wrong to form one’s understanding of Islam based upon 21^stcentury radicals.

Just as it is wrong to read an anti-Catholic polemical tract to understand Catholicism, so it is wrong to read anti-Muslim polemical tracts to understand Islam (even though the tracts will indeed “quote from legitimate sources” they will do so carefully, cherry-picked for the most shock value, and without a legitimate hermeneutical approach to help the readers properly understand the context of the quotes themselves).

Tags: islam, religion, faith, culture

The paradox of Muslim weakness

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:51:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Interesting article

Clip Source: www.iht.com

In the years since 9/11 two broad narratives have emerged in the West to explain the nature of the so-called war on terror.

On the right it has become commonplace to equate Islamism - the ideology that seeks to order 21st century societies by the medieval norms enshrined in Islamic Shariah law - with a long line of totalitarian threats to liberal democracy. Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution, for instance, calls it a "foul apparition that has succeeded fascism, Nazism, and communism as the world's next bane."

The left sees the issue as a product of poverty or flawed policies toward the Middle East. Robert Fisk of The Independent blames Islamist terrorism on "political situations and injustice in various parts of the world."

Both views are flawed

Tags: islam, west

Indonesians use Koran to teach environmentalism

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:52:18 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Whatever works!

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Sitting cross-legged in the dirt beneath a canopy of jungle vegetation, Nasruddin Anshory, with his Koran open in front of him, was telling a group of visitors about their ordained responsibility to protect the environment.

"As a Muslim," he said, "you have to do something."

His visitors were a mix of people from universities and mosques all over the island of Java, seeking to broaden their understanding of Islam. Off to the side were several students from Gajah Mada University nearby, eagerly taking notes in preparation for their dissertations, all of which will focus on promoting conservation through Islam.

Nasruddin founded Ilmu Giri, an Islamic school devoted to environmentalism, five years ago. But in the past couple of years, as global awareness of climate change and related problems has increased, interest in the school has swelled.

Tags: environment, muslims, islam, quran, indonesia

Islamic body issues fatwa against terrorism

Sat, 31 May 2008 20:38:02 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Muslims gathered in New Delhi on Saturday to denounce terrorism, with leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom issuing a fatwa declaring it as the "most inhuman crime".

"In its (Islam) eyes, on any part over the surface of the earth spreading mischief, rioting, breach of peace, bloodshed, killing of innocent persons and plundering are the most inhuman crime," read the fatwa, issued here at an Anti-Terrorism Conference.

The conference, organised by Jamiat-Ulma-I-Hind, saw the participation of clerics, scholars and religious leaders of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs besides 70,000 people from across the country.

Reading out the fatwa, Deoband's cleric Riyasat Ali Bijnouri, quoted Holy Koran as saying: "Do not mischief on the earth after it has been set in order."

"Islam loves peace. Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence... and does not allow it in any form," the fatwa said.

Tags: islam, terrorism, peace

See what Arab women are up to...

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:50:58 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Via Eboo Patel's blog

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

What are Arab women up to? Well, every day they're making bold choices. Their participation in the workforce is increasing, and the fields that they are going into are sometimes even groundbreaking...

[Video]

Tags: arab, islam, muslims, women

Malaysian woman can leave Islam

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:04:53 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A religious court in Malaysia has allowed a Muslim convert to leave the Islamic faith, in what is being hailed as a landmark ruling.

Penang's Sharia court ruled that Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah was free to return to Buddhism, following the collapse of her marriage to a Muslim man.

It was decided she had not had proper counselling during her conversion.

Malaysians are rarely allowed to renounce the faith - those who do can be prosecuted under stringent laws.

Religious rights are a sensitive issue in Malaysia - which is 60% Muslim.

The country has large Hindu, Christian and Buddhist communities - mainly drawn from the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities.

Tags: islam, malaysia, religion

The OTHER global religious leader visiting America

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:07:57 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Reza Aslan
Author, “No god but God”

Clip Source: ac360.blogs.cnn.com

The media spotlight on Pope Benedict’s first trip to the United States seems to have completely overshadowed the American tour of another global religious leader, the Aga Khan.

The Aga Khan is the spiritual leader of some 20 million Ismaili Muslims.

But don’t let the clothes and the fabulous riches fool you. The Aga Khan is not only a devout and transcendent man of deep religious faith, he is also one of the most generous philanthropists in the world.

His Aga Khan Development Network is a massive charitable fund dedicated almost entirely to caring for the poor. He runs nearly 200 hospitals. He funds thousands of schools, charities, arts programs, museums, and theaters.

For those of us who are sick and tired of media pundits always asking, “where are the moderate Muslim leaders,”

why there are no “Muslim Mandela’s” out there, the Aga Khan, and the millions of modernist, democratically minded, reformist, and pluralist Muslims who follow him, are the perfect answer.

Tags: religion, leadership, islam

The Spell of Islamophobia

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:39:29 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: This is a great writeup. Highly recommend you read at the source.

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

A few weeks ago, I was on Radio Times, the mid-morning talk show on Philadelphia Public Radio.

I spoke about how Muslim history and theology support religious pluralism. I talked about many of my Muslim heroes, scholars and activists

(Listen to the podcast)

The phones started ringing off the hooks.

The callers basically had two questions: “Why don’t Muslims condemn terrorism?” And, “Where are the moderate Muslim voices?"

But I admit, there was a little voice inside my head that wanted to say to some of these callers, “Don’t you feel a little embarrassed revealing that level of ignorance and bigotry on Public Radio? Do you know nothing more about the religion of one-fifth of humankind for over 1000 years but the violent bits? Isn’t that a little like knowing nothing more about the United States Constitution than the clause which states black people only count as three-fifths of a human being”.

Tags: islam

Illuminating Beauty, Illustrating Harmony

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:31:03 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Interactive Show at the source.

Illuminating Beauty, Illustrating Harmony: A Gallery celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Institute of Ismaili Studies

...invites the viewer to the large and complex subject of the artistic and intellectual heritage of Islam. Ranging in date from the ninth to the nineteenth century, and produced in lands as far westward as Tunisia and as far eastward as China and India, the artefacts reflect the great diversity and range of a distinctive visual culture with its own unique artistic language.

‘Illuminating’ and ‘illustrating’ are appropriate from with the perspectives of calligraphy and the arts of the book, and are also linked to notions of knowledge and learning in Islam. A significant number of items in this exhibition are, therefore, related to the arts of the book, in particular the Qur’an.

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Styles of Arabic Script

Miniature Qur’an

Manuscript of a Qur’an, Egypt

Single Folio from a Qur’an, Tunisia

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Tiraz Textile

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Safavid Qur’an

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Inscriptions on Artefacts

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Album of Prayers in Concertina-style

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Single Folio from a Mamluk Qur’an

Swatow Dish

Carved Wood Panel

Two Lines from a Timurid Qur’an

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Complete Qur’an on Cloth

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

The Scientific Tradition

Qanun fi’l-tibb (Canon of Medicine)

Brass Planispheric Astrolabe

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Prayers of Devotion

Book of Prayers

Octagonal Qur’an Case

Lacquer Pen-box

Ruby-mounted Agate Pendant

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Complete Qur’an Manuscript on Two Pages

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Bifolium from the Blue Qur’an

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Qur’an Scroll

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

Qur’ans in gold kufic script

Single Folio from a Qur’an

Tags: islam, quran, history

Medieval Mosque Shows Amazing Math Discovery

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:01:09 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: This isn't new discovery but it came out earlier last year. There's a very good video presentation at the source as well.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

The never-repeating geometry of quasi crystals, revealed 500 years early

The mosques of the medieval Islamic world are artistic wonders and perhaps mathematical wonders as well. A study of patterns in 12th- to 17th-century mosaics suggests that Muslim scholars made a geometric breakthrough 500 years before mathematicians in the West.

Peter J. Lu, a physics graduate student at Harvard University, noticed a striking similarity between certain medieval mosque mosaics and a geometric pattern known as a quasi crystal—an infinite tiling pattern that doesn’t regularly repeat itself and has symmetries not found in normal crystals (see video below). Lu teamed up with physicist Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University to test the similarity: If the patterns repeated when extended infinitely, they couldn’t be true quasi crystals.

Tags: geometric, islam

AN ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE - Op Ed

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:10:53 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: agakhanfilm.blogspot.com

For years, the Western world has watched atrocities committed in Islam’s name from New York to Baghdad, from Kabul to Bali, and the same perplexing questions keep getting asked: “Why can’t Muslims just accept democracy? Why do so many Muslims kill in the name of religion?” A survey of Muslims would surely yield some interesting answers – but no answer would be complete without a discourse on Muslim leadership.

An important, but often misunderstood, form of Muslim leadership is the office of the imam, often stereotyped as a hate-preaching, anti-Western cleric with a prominent beard and the Quran in-hand. While we often see religious figures (not just Muslim ones) being demonized and discredited by the media, what we often misunderstand is the scope of their influence.

Tags: islam, muslims, shia, ismailis