Month: June 2010

by URI AVNERY

A Local TV station told us this week about a group of Israelis who adhere to conspiracy theories.

They believe that George W. Bush planned the destruction of the Twin Towers in order to further his wicked aims. They believe that the big pharmaceutical corporations spread the swine flue virus in order to sell their worthless vaccines. They believe that Barack Obama is a secret agent of the military-industrial complex. They believe that fluoride is put into drinking water to sterilize men, in order to reduce mankind by exactly two billion. And so on.

Counterpunch for more

by Yoginder Sikand

As for Deoband’s fatwa declaring a Muslim woman’s voice as satr, or something to be concealed, the less said the better. The Quran discusses in considerable detail the conversation between Moses and a daughter of Shoeb, and that between the Queen of Sheba and the prophet Solomon. How would these women have talked to these unrelated men if their voices were ‘veiled’, as the Deobandi Muftis insist they should be? Much of the corpus of Sunni hadith, reports attributed to, or purportedly about, the Prophet Muhammad, were transmitted by a woman—his youngest wife Ayesha—who is said to have narrated them to a whole host of almost wholly male listeners.

Outlook for more

OLIVER ROY talks to Eren Gvvercin

Olivier Roy: The debate in Europe has shifted in the past 25 years from immigration to the visible symbols of Islam. Which means that even people who oppose immigration now acknowledge that the second and third generations of migrants are here to stay and that Islam has put down roots in Europe. And the debate has made a peculiar shift: while the anti-immigration position used to be associated primarily with the conservative right, Islam is now under attack from both left and right, but for very different reasons. The right believes that Europe is Christian and that Islam should be tolerated, but as an inferior religion. While the constitutional principle of freedom of religion prevents it from banning Islam, it takes every opportunity to limit its visibility; the European Court of Human Rights, for example, did not step in to stop France banning the headscarf in schools.

Sign and Sight for more

SATEC JOURNALS

This virtual issue on the 1989 oil spill of the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska is being published by SETAC/Wiley-Blackwell as a resource to enhance informed decision-making in the public and private sectors on the environmental effects of the 20 April oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The papers represent ET&C’s complete archive on the Valdez from an electronic search of its database; the only modification of the search results has been to arrange the papers in chronological order.

SATEC Journals for more

by NAIYYUM CHOUDHURY

And today, scientists are making vital links between many Muslim countries and Israel, through collaborative research projects such as the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization, which gives grants to teams working across the divide, despite the lack of diplomatic relations.

Science and Development Network for more

by B. R. GOWANI

“A young woman, her clothes singed and torn by the blast, her face covered in blood, screams down at her dead mother.” “A huge blast went off at the premises of a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi where victims of an earlier blast were being treated, a Reuters witness said.” The Shias were the targets of these February 2010 attacks. PHOTO/Reuters

The traditional Muslim viewpoint is that Islam was introduced in the early seventh century because the previous messages of God through Hebrew Bible and Christian Bible were distorted (1). Another tradition says that Muhammad is the last prophet.

“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.” (Qur’an 033.040)

The above verse is cited in support of their claim; and hence their stance that prophet-hood is closed.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (2) which believes Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839-1908) as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi interpret the above verse differently:

“It is well known, however, that the purpose of a seal is not to close a statement but to certify it as correct. That is why often a seal is affixed to a document at its top and in other cases it is affixed at its bottom or at its end. Its purpose is to certify the genuiness and correctness of the contents of the document. It is well known that after the truce of Hudaybiyyah, when the Holy Prophet decided to address letters to the rulers and chiefs of surrounding territories inviting them to the acceptance of Islam, he was told that rulers and chiefs do not attach any significance to a communication addressed to them unless it bears the seal of the writer. Thereupon the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had a seal prepared which was thereafter used for the attestation and certification of documents (Bokhari and Muslim).”
Continue reading “Pakistan: Draconian religious laws and frenzied atmosphere”

by MARIANA BAABAR

On the other side of the Thar, Hindus, especially girls, are forced into Islam

A 13-year-old choosing to convert and marry? A 13-year-old testifying in the court, without her family by her side? Suspicious, I walk over to the SHO, caught in the middle of a heated exchange between two groups. Someone suggests he should allow the girl to meet her relatives. Before the conversion yes, not now. She has now become Muslim, says the SHO. He argues, “There’s a huge crowd here. If Mariam breaks down after seeing her father, there will be a communal riot here in the compound.”

Outlook for more

(Obaidullah Aleem (1939-1998) was an Ahmadi Muslim, and for that he lost his job in 1978. On the stage seated with him is Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih IV, the religious leader of the Ahmadis. The poem is about the 1971 tragedy when East Pakistan became Bangladesh. That year he was Muslim, in 1974, he was not–because the government said so. In South Asia, idiocies come with a touch of Toba Tek Singh. Ed.)

Link

Watch this

by SUDHA RAMACHANDRAN

Ismailis regard themselves as “proper Muslims”. However, Sunnis and Shi’ites in Pakistan (and other countries where Ismailis live) believe they are “different”. For one, they seem quite “Westernized”. Ismaili women are not expected to wear the burqa (veil). In their congregation halls, women pray alongside men – on separate but similar and adjacent carpets, denoting equality between the sexes. The schools run by Ismailis are co-educational. A distinct Hindu influence is also discernible in their style of worship.

Asia Times for more