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Archive of posts filed under the 7. AFFILIATES category.

A New ‘Leadership Generation’ of Muslim Americans

A recent Gallup poll has indicated that most Muslim Americans do not feel they are represented by existing Muslim organizations in America. The highest approval rating any one of these organizations received was only 12%. While we must assert that all of these existing organizations do extremely valuable work, we also understand that there exists a huge gap between the sociopolitical aspirations of Muslim Americans and the previous achievements of Muslim American organizations. In order to address these issues, we must consider the following:

Muslim Enlightenment: How do we know when it happens?

Share/Bookmark Muslim Enlightenment: How do we know when it happens? Fereydoun Taslimi www.19.org This paper is an expanded version of a presentation by the author at International Conference of Critical Thinkers for Islamic Reform, Oxford University June-11-13, 2010 Every once in a while a new study surfaces in the United States or some other western [...]

Divine Will and Human Freedom

Share/BookmarkDivine Will and Human Freedom Abdur Rab Shakespeare writes: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” This pretty much sums up the role of the three groups of factors that shape human destiny: heredity, human effort, and environment. This also echoes what Scriptures would tell us. Influenced by [...]

No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me to Death

Share/BookmarkNo Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me to Death By Lila Ghobady Iranian Artist-in-Exile (Writer/Director/ Journalist) Why didn’t I vote in the latest elections for the president of the country of my birth,Iran? Because no matter who is the president ofIran, they would stone me! As an Iranian woman, I require [...]

Freedom of thought, it’s your God-given right

I believe that the spirit of ijtihad should not simply be brought back. It should be democratized and popularized beyond the academics and imams. Some scholars will object, insisting that to exercise ijtihad one must have skills developed by years of training. Otherwise, they say, we wind up with anybody quoting the Qur’an to justify radical behavior, as is already happening with the rise of the internet and the decline of traditional authority.

Understanding Spending In God’s Way: (Zakat Or Sadaqa) In The Quranic Light*

Spending in God’s way should be understood in a much broader sense than the generally understood zakat system. It involves considerable spending on the part of a modern state for a variety of functions financed through a well-devised taxation system, besides charitable spending at the individual level. The best kind of spending in God’s way is helping others stand on their own feet. To help another person in a way, which makes him or her look for help all the time, is inherently ill motivated, and is like that of those who like to be seen by men, and is of no intrinsic virtue to them (2:264). From this point of view, the modern state should take appropriate measures to promote investment and development to increase opportunities for gainful employment of unemployed people, along with crafting a well-devised social welfare and security system. At the individual level, such efforts should include savings, investment and work that would help build infrastructure and industries for employment-generating development, along with their humanitarian spending in deserving cases.

Was Ayesha A Six-Year-Old Bride?

So, I believed, without solid evidence other than my reverence to my Prophet, that the stories of the marriage of seven-year-old Ayesha to 50-year-old Prophet are only myths. However, my long pursuit in search of the truth on this matter proved my intuition correct. My Prophet was a gentleman. And he did not marry an innocent seven or nine year old girl. The age of Ayesha has been erroneously reported in the hadith literature. Furthermore, I think that the narratives reporting this event are highly unreliable. Some of the hadith (traditions of the Prophet) regarding Ayesha’s age at the time of her wedding with prophet are problematic. I present the following evidences against the acceptance of the fictitious story by Hisham ibn ‘Urwah and to clear the name of my Prophet as an irresponsible old man preying on an innocent little girl.

Reading Some Meccan Suras

Great inequality of wealth along with fraud and greed are common problems today. The modern world for all its material development has not been able to overcome the moral failures of Mecca. All over the world great wealth and hunger exist side by side. Greed, fraud, lack of charity, wealth centered life, these money related sins are as prevalent today as they were 1400 years ago in Arabia. As such, somewhat sadly the description of pagan Mecca is recognizable all over the world today.

Muslim Reformists’ Conference at Oxford University

A noted Turkish scholar Edip Yuksel who now lives in USA and Arnold Yasin Mol of Netherland and Taj Hargey of MECO were main organizers. Besides Islamic scholars there were some activists and students from Oxford who also participated. It was quite encouraging that so many Islamic scholars from various countries who want reform and change within Islamic frame-work came together to discuss various issues pertaining to Islamic societies and contemporary challenges.

US: Catalyst in MENA

By promoting “incrementalism” over speedy transformation, and by promoting negotiations with troubled and corrupt governments over rapid and positive political change, America would blunder again. And this is a bad time to blunder, as this is a historic chance for change. Demands for democratic ideals and good governance are coming from the most conservative parts of the Muslim world.

‘One Million Strong in the Middle East and Beyond’

Given the popular uprisings that are now sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, a rare historical opportunity exists for activists from around the world to unite in solidarity.

The real struggle starts after a tyrant regime gone, all kinds of forces rush in to fill power-vacu​um, changes take back-seat

A network of Muslims and non-Muslims, consisting of a whole spectrum of specialists, experts, scholars, activists, thinkers and leaders from many nations from the East and the West could help bring about such a movement of peace, justice and progress in our time.

What the Tahrir Square Has Brought:

Share/BookmarkWhat the Tahrir Square Has Brought: A Gift Wrapped in the Possibility of Making a Win-Win World Ruby Amatulla The victory at the Tahrir Square lifted the bar for the Muslim world up high in the heaven. So far the image of the Muslim world has long been tarnished with violence, intolerance and extremism. With [...]

On Being Kafir

Share/BookmarkOn Being Kafir Asghar Ali Engineer In recent plane crash in Pakistan a Hindu youth who was a member of Youth Parliament, Pakistan died and someone wrote on his coffin ‘kafir’ which ignited a controversy and many Pakistanis condemned such an approach and instead wrote ‘we love you’, a very humane thing to do. Nevertheless [...]

Martyrdom And Houris

Share/BookmarkMartyrdom And Houris Asghar Ali Engineer A top police officer wrote to me what is the Qur’anic basis of the belief that those who became martyr will go to paradise and will be awarded with 70 houris (hoors). This becomes an incentive for terrorists to die in the ‘cause of Islam’. Unfortunately it is commonly [...]

A Day of Millon Days

A most remarkable 18 days in the history of Egypt and of the world! Millions demonstrating peacefully and spontaneously – what a feat of human heroism and determination! The 300 or so who died, killed in clashes with 30-year old entrenched Pharaonic authority, did not die in vain. They died as martyrs. The Military saluted the martyrs. The American President said, “Egypt will never be the same again.”

The Six Stages Of The Creation in The Quran

Share/BookmarkThe Six Stages Of The Creation in The Quran: Evolution of the Universe and Life on Earth Arnold Yasin Mol ©2006 29:20 Say, “Travel in the earth and find out how He originated creation. And how afterward, Allah brings forth entirely new forms. Verily, Allah is the Designer of all things.” A small introduction. Share/Bookmark