Featured News

The clock strikes 11am and boys spill out of classrooms into the corridor to move on to their next lesson.

There is no noise and no jostling. Instead they walk in an orderly manner, heads bowed respectfully and eyes downcast to avoid my gaze. The boys, all aged between 13 and 19, are dressed in ankle-length white salwar kameez and white skullcaps.

Their feet are bare. For this is no ordinary school. This is Darul Uloom, a Muslim madrassa or religious school, set in the pretty Kent village of Chislehurst. It is one of 166 Muslim schools in Britain today.

Relations between Muslims and the West are a hotly debated subject today. Many western intellectuals and political leaders are acutely aware that these relations have rapidly deteriorated in recent years and that they urgently need to be improved. Most Muslim intellectuals and leaders feel the same way too.

The episode of Jesus crucifixion is based more on traditions of the Christian church and artistic illustrations than antique texts, says a Swedish researcher.

“The problem is that descriptions of crucifixions are remarkably absent in the antique literature,” Gunnar Samuelsson, of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who recently finished his doctoral thesis on the topic, said.

He added: “The sources where you would expect to find support for the established understanding of the event really don’t say anything.”

Makkah Masjid, Lumbni Park, & Gokul Chat Bhandar Blasts: Information and documents sought under the RTI Act

The Public Information Officer
Office of the Director General of Police
Hyderabad /

The Public Information Officer                        
Office of the Commissioner of Police
Hyderabad

Sub:Information and documents sought under the RTI Act

Sir :

1.What is the status of investigation into the blast cases of Makkah Masjid and Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park ?

According to the Islamic lunar calendar, King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz has reigned over Saudi Arabia for five years. In late summer 2005, the people of the country pronounced their bayat, or personal pledge of loyalty, to him as “custodian” of Islam’s two holy mosques, the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the shrine of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina.

In 2006, the Moscow Mint of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, cast the only and exact copy of the manuscript dated to the 8th century “The Qur’an of Uthman.”

The copy represents 163 plates made of Au 999 gold. It took the Moscow Mint a year and a half to make the copy.

Then in a Jan. 25, 2007, press conference in Moscow, Professor D.V. Frolov, head of the Arab philology department of the Moscow State University, revealed the masterpiece of a manuscript to the world.

The issue of Muslim women’s freedom is a much debated subject today. The traditional ulema and the modern educated Muslim intelligentsia appear to be completely at loggerheads on the issue. The former insist that women must be controlled as much as possible in order to protect Muslim society from immorality and sexual licentiousness and that they must remain confined to their homes. They believe that women must play no social roles outside the domestic sphere whatsoever.

The first-ever survey on both sides of Kashmir threw up some startling results: only 2 per cent of people in Jammu and Kashmir want to join Pakistan, and 43 per cent of Kashmiris overall prefer independence. But what’s even more startling is that the survey, titled ‘Kashmir: Paths to Peace’, is the brainchild of Saif al Islam al Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The report was prepared by Dr Robert W. Bradnock of King’s College London and a senior fellow at Chatham House, the UK’s most influential think-tank. Nishtha Chugh spoke to Bradnock. Excerpts:

A new poll suggests a majority of Britons associate Islam with extremism and the repression of women, but one London-based Muslim organization has launched a public relations campaign to give the religion a new face.

A host of new posters are going up around London in underground stations, at bus stops and on black cabs intended to promote Islam as a faith that contributes positively to British society.

The term ‘jihad’ has numerous meanings and connotations. It cannot be restricted just to one meaning although this is how some people erroneously understand it.

In its general sense, the term encompasses all efforts, at both the individual and the collective level, for the reformation of the self and society, for general human welfare and for acquiring the pleasure of god. In its particular sense, the term also includes efforts that involve the use of power, if need be, to combat opponents and enemies.

Hindus and Muslims have been living together in India for over a thousand years. Yet they are still plagued by misunderstandings about each other and mutual hatred. A principal reason for this is that they have not sought to understand each other sincerely. Undoubtedly, there have been individuals among them who were deeply conscious of, and strongly opposed to, the enormous gulf that divides them and they tried in their own ways to transform this hatred into dialogue and reconciliation. However, in the face of stiff opposition, their efforts did not yield much fruit.

The fact of Muslim decline on almost all fronts is one that most Muslims themselves would readily concede. The moral distinctions that once characterised the early Muslims are no more and the only thing that distinguishes them from others are external markers of religious or communal identity. The ulema once provided moral leadership to Muslim society, playing a central role in its formation and reformation.

Is the noose tightening around Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over his administration’s alleged complicity in the 2002 massacre of Muslims? Is nemesis, as the cliché goes, finally catching up with him for a string of allegedly fake encounter killings of “terrorists” by his police?

Every 10 seconds, one person dies in the world from the use of tobacco, the Friday sermon warned Bruneians yesterday, as it highlighted the dangers of smoking in conjunction with the World No Tobacco Day which fell on Monday.

“Let World No Tobacco Day be a reminder of the bad habit of smoking, and let us take steps together to fight it,” said the sermon, reminding Muslims in the country that the risks of tobacco products were not minor but could cause death, not only to the smoker but to others around them.

Respected scholars! Does Islam allow wife beating? Some husbands are violent and they say that the Qur’an allows them to beat their wives. Is there any logical explanation given regarding men being allowed to beat their wives, as stated in surat An-Nisa’, verse 34?

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake.

Afzal Guru’s case, once again, evoked a debate on capital punishment. And as usual, Islamic laws were severely criticized by so-called champions of human rights.

However, not only non-Muslims but even the Muslims do not know about the divine laws, the manner of their implementation and above all Islamic jurisprudence. Islam, no doubt, prescribes capital punishment but at the same time discourages execution of the guilty.

One fifth of humankind shares a single aspiration: to complete, at least once in a lifetime, the spiritual journey called the Hajj.

The hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah, a central duty of Islam whose origins date back to the Prophet Abraham, brings together Muslims of all races and tongues for one of life’s most moving spiritual experiences.

As expected by many, the serial terrorist Israeli army attacked on May 31st 2010, the “Freedom Flotilla” ships with gas bombs and live fire, murdering at least 19 humanitarian international activists, 16 of them Turks including one MP, and injuring 29 others. The Israeli navy, then, kidnapped the 700 humanitarian activists and their ships to Israel.

The status of ‘suicide attacks’ or ‘martyrdom operations’ in the Shariah

BY WARIS MAZHARI

Ours is an era of space probes, computer chips, laser surgeries and cloning. If we were to label any book as a revelation from God, we couldn’t help but to scrutinize this Scripture using modern scientific knowledge. It could not be that a revelation, proclaiming itself from God, could constitute aspects contradicting established scientific facts. How could we assume otherwise, when God is the one who created the universe and the laws operating within it.

The Obama administration released its National Security Strategy Thursday (May 27) which is consistent with president Obama’s approach on issues of international cooperation, terrorism, and nuclear policy. The document is largely an internationalist approach by an internationalist president who seeks cooperation with the world’s economic powers and international institutions in order to ensure continuity of American economic prosperity and its position as the world’s only superpower.

Citizen Alioune: How not to deal with Muslims in America. Alioune Niass, the Sengalese Muslim vendor who first spotted the now infamous smoking SUV in Times Square and alerted police, is no hero.

If it were not for the Times of London, we would not even know of his pivotal role in the story. No mainstream American newspaper bothered to mention or profile Niass, who peddles framed photographs of celebs and the Manhattan skyline. None of the big television stations interviewed him.

Q: Do your religious beliefs exalt or stigmatize sex (or both)? Is religion a useful tool for helping young people navigate the treacherous world of sex, love and relationships? Does religion present an alternative view of sex and sexual relationships to the culture at large? Should it?

With the recent pronouncements out of Iran that immodest and promiscuous women who lead men into temptation are the cause of earthquakes, one might suspect that Islam views the human body, let alone sex, as something evil.

He may be heading the world’s largest economy, but US President Barack Obama’s personal net worth is just USD five million – the lowest for any American President in five decades.

The last time a US President had a lower net worth than Obama was Harry Truman (1945-53) with less than USD 1 million, as per a list compiled by The Atlantic magazine.

“Obama is the grandson of a goat herder. He is a former constitutional law professor and civil rights attorney. Book royalties constitute most of Obama’s net worth,” the US magazine said.

There is a general perception that the reason the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued for so long is because it is extremely complex. Nothing could be further from the truth. Placed in historical context, understanding the root cause of the conflict is simple, and in doing so, the solution becomes apparent.