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A virtually unstoppable spate of suicide attacks and bombings has shaken the nerves of residents of Peshawar, the capital of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), hampering the cultural, social and business activities in the city.

“My nerves and confidence have been totally shattered, especially after the ongoing wave of terrorism which has rendered the city an unlivable place,” Hashim Khan, who lost two family members to a recent car bomb, told.

“Life has become totally miserable here. We have stopped coming out of our home unnecessarily.”

Several Muslims who have served or are currently serving in the military say the tragic deaths of 13 soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, at the hands of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is an individual action that does not represent them, insisting that Muslims remain an integral part of the US military.

“There’s nothing we [in the military] can do about it,” Robert Salaam, a former Marine who reverted to Islam after 9/11, told IslamOnline.net.

“What Maj. Hasan did does not represent us,” he told IOL confidently.

Discussing a report by software industry group Nasscom which says that 75 percent engineering students in India are unemployable, education experts here Saturday said that the Indian higher education system must give skill building and practical training equal importance as academics to give them an edge.

A.D. Sahasrabudhu, director of the College of Engineering, Pune said that one of the major reasons why engineers, even from reputed institutes, are not easily employed is because they lack hands-on skill.

During a meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Mahmoud Abbas rejected her request to resume peace talks with Israel, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

“We are witnessing pressure from the Americans and a number of Arab elements to stop conditioning the renewal of negotiations on the halting of settlements,” Ynet quoted an unnamed Palestinian source.

Erakat, however, said Abbas rejected the US offer due to Israel’s refusal to “include a complete freeze of settlement activity” in a recent deal reached with US envoy George Mitchell.

Over recent days, cries of “Al-Aqsa fi khatar” (the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger) have crammed the vestigial, all-too-narrow public space in the Arab world. Despite the iron-fist policies of unpopular Arab leaders—buttressed by imperial Western nations—the popular outbursts witnessed in the aftermath of the sacrilegious storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque once again symbolized the very much living spirit that exists within the Ummah.

Mumbai: The popular notion is that Muslims who hold on to their identities are the ones who get isolated. However, Islamic scholars across the globe are trying to deal with this issue.

Why are people on Gaza so unhappy? Well, if you had to live in a prison, wouldn’t you be unhappy?— Former CIA officer Robert Baer

It’s the most terrifying place I’ve ever been in… it’s a horrifyingly sad place because of the desperation and misery of the way people live. I was unprepared for camps that are much worse than anything I saw in South Africa.– Professor Edward Said 1993

They may be living but they’re not alive. – Journalist Philip Rizk

Forty-five weekly schools that teach the Arabic language are gaining popularity among Ukrainian intellectuals and are helping introducing them to Islam and its civilization.
“Arabic, the language of the Qur’an, has become a window for many Ukrainians to know Islam,” Dr. Shadi Shawer, the head of Human Development Department at the Federation of Social Organizations in Ukraine (Arraid) and the schools supervisor, told IslamOnline.net.

He said the weekly schools help many Ukrainians to better understand the Muslim faith.

Haifa Ahmed Mua’alim, 32, is going to tie the knot in a couple of weeks.
She is marrying a man recommended by her sister-in-law to help feed her two orphan children of a previous marriage.

The young woman lost her husband, the love of her life, two years ago to the violence that has been plaguing her country since the 2003 US invasion.

“When he died I decided never to marry again. We had a stable and lovely relation,” she recalled tearfully.

For the past two years Haifa has been struggling to feed her kids, spending every penny they once had.

The Gaza Strip has only one beach, but it is long approximately 45 km, from north to south. Golden sand, cafeterias, restaurants, palm shelters, and a summer without end. It is the local riviera, not directly under palm trees, but directly under occupation by remote-control.

The Gazans love to go to the beach to eat well, to discuss politics, to dream. On the night, on the horizon, the fishing boats, one close to the other, are lined and lighted to attract their catch. The view is magic: a necklace of light balls puts on the sea.

Imhalal.com is being touted as the Google of the Muslim world — and the first ‘halal’ search engine. Raziqueh Hussain investigates

Logging onto the Internet used to be a risky business for Kahkashan Iqbal. The college lecturer was well aware that the worldwide web was a great tool for knowledge, but she also knew that the unsuspecting surfer could be taken to some unsavoury places at the click of a mouse.

She worried that she, as well as her students, and even her mother, could be exposed to explicit materials sent flashing across her screen by unchecked web browsers.

The Qiblah of all Muslims

Dr. Hussein Abu Sa`ud is an active proponent of rapprochement between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and one of the founders of the Islamic Unity Forum in London. He is an Iraqi currently living in the UK, and has recently responded to the following IOL questions on Sunni-Shiite relations:
Islam Online (IOL): In your personal opinion, what is required in order to achieve unity, or at least rapprochement, between Sunnis and Shiites? And what are the obstacles that stand in the way of this desired rapprochement?

A Muslim writer begins an article with, ‘who says the campaign for animal rights was started in the West ..’ She goes on to argue that Islam provided the original treatise on the humane treatment of animals. Her case was poorly constructed, inadequately executed, although the essence of her idea was to a degree, accurate. Islamic tradition has indeed laid a foundation, with clear boundaries regarding the humane treatment of animals.

WAJID kHAN

Of late, it has become a fashion to follow the western culture indiscriminately without giving it a second thought that what are the merits (if any) and demerits of it. Our Indian society is divided in two sections. One is where all the sins and misdeeds are forgotten and forgiven whether either a man or woman commits it.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was a legend in his life time; a rebel with a cause; a social reformer with a transparent and clear vision; a leader who changed the destiny of his community. He was born in Delhi on 17 October 1817. He was brought up in the finest of ’Elite Indian Muslim Traditions’.

Nothing can carve out cultural divides quite like the issue of the Islamic head covering (hijab) or face veil (niqab). Both continue to be the subject of not only debate but legislation the world over. We are not immune. Few Canadians would be unfamiliar with Quebec and its history with scarf-wearing Canadian Muslim learners. The issue has exhibited a tenacious longevity but, alarmingly, it continues to be hotly contested in ways that rarely rise to a sphere of mature discourse so essential to the functioning of any healthy civic society.

Jareer, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “I pledged allegiance to the Prophet (peace be upon him) to establish the prayer, give the Zakat and advise every Muslim.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

Ibn Hibban narrated (this Hadith) by way of Abu Zur’ah Bin Amru Bin Jareer on the authority of his grandfather (i.e Jareer) and added: So whenever Jareer used to buy or sell something he used to say, “Know that what I have taken from you is more valuable than what I have given you, so choose.” (Fath Al-Bari, 1/139)

Baghdad, October 16: Raad Bader al-Muhssin, 41, worked as a gardener for more than 20 years, during which he used to make no more than $4 dollars per day.

After the 2003 US invasion and the ensuing violence, life became harder as the number of clients requesting his services nosedived.

Adding insult to the injury was the recent discovery that his wife had cancer.

Thus, when he was offered $12,000 dollars for one of his kidney he did not hesitate or have second thoughts.

The rising tide of communal violence from the decade of 1980 has consolidated the communal politics, politics in the name of religion. The party riding on the chariot of religious nationalism became the second largest party and tasted power at center for six long years and is now entrenched in few states and is knocking at the door of power in few other states.