Fallen Muslim American Soldier Mourned

Source: Voice of America and USASOC news service
Major James Michael Ahearn had a near perfect life. The 43-year-old career army officer was newly married and recently became a father for the first time. On July 5th, during a routine patrol in Iraq, a roadside bomb exploded, killing Major Ahearn and his driver. For Urdu TV’s [...]

Egypt’s Grand Mufti comes out against the killing of apostates

By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer
One of Egypt’s most senior Muslim clerics has raised controversy by saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion, prompting an outcry from conservatives insisting Islamic law requires such apostates be killed.
The editorial in The Washington Post came from Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, who is [...]

America was built on diversity. The same is true of Islam.

By Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan
Newsweek, July 30, 2007
INTERNATIONAL section; Guest Column; Pg. 32
U.S. Edition
It’s strange that the United States and the Muslim world so often seem to be in conflict. The more you know about America’s basic ideals and those of classical Islam, the more similarities you see. For one thing, both [...]

Good appearance in Islam

Dr. Muhammad ‘Ali Al-Hashimi
The true Muslim takes good care of his clothes, so you will see him presenting a pleasant appearance, without being extravagant. He is pleasant to look at and to meet, and does not annoy people with his careless, disheveled appearance. He always checks himself before he goes out to meet people, and [...]

Islam in America: Are Muslims Integrated Into Our Society?

Newsweek, July 30, 2007 issue
What would you tell suicide bombers who invoke Islam to justify their actions? What are the rights of women in Islam? Is it permissible for a Muslim to convert to another faith?
After September 11, many Americans asked whether Muslims living here at home were susceptible to the same extremist ideologies that [...]

Muslims must hold fast to flexibility in their tradition

Sheikh Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt
Irish Times, July 24, 2007
Almost two years ago the citizens of London were victims of a great atrocity. Those who perpetrated those crimes would like you to believe that they were inspired by the religion of Islam. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There is nothing in Islam that [...]

Bipartisan U.S. Senate Resolution Praising American Muslim Physicians

Dr. Faroque Khan, MD
After the recent developments in UK implicating some physicians of involvement in terrorism, a number of American Muslims publicly denounced these acts of terrorism and violence. IMANA issued a press release which received world wide coverage on AP, CNN, BBC etc. The US Senate also took note of this, and attached is [...]

Praying while working at the bottom of the sea

هنيئاً له إن قبلت عند الله صلى في مكان يصعب على البشر الصلاة فيه

ما أعظم الصلاة ، وما أعظم شأنها
اللهم ارزقني شرف المحافظة عليها دائماً وأبداً يا حي يا قيوم
Please click here to read our article on ‘Missing Prayers at Work’.

Islamophobia 101: Episode 17-China’s ‘war on terror’ hides brutal crackdown on Muslims

Michael Sheridan in Kashgar, China
Sunday Times (London)
THE CHINESE executioners came for Ismail Semed before 9am. They led him out of his cell as the sun climbed over the Tien Shan mountains in the land he called East Turkestan.
The day before, he had seen his wife, Buhejer, his son, 7, and his daughter, 6, for the [...]

Diverse Muslim identity must replace the stereotypes

Niall Crowley, The Irish Times, Opinion Section, July 21, 2007, p. 15
Reducing all Muslim people to a singular, all-encompassing unit justifies inequality and discrimination and does not serve the emergence of an integrated society, writes Niall Crowley.
A man stands up in a Dublin bus, points at an Irish Muslim girl and shouts “terrorist”. A middle-aged [...]

Pakistan Ulema (religious Islamic scholars) condemn suicide bombing

Text of report by Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency
Peshawar, 20 July: The ulema [Muslim clergy] in the Jumma [Friday] congregations, while condemning suicide bombing, have stated it an act of anti humanity and a heinous crime.
“The act is anti Islam and inhuman”, they told the faithful in their sermons. They said that “killing [...]

Report on low English skills among Imams in Britain raises concerns

Max de Lotbiniere
The Guardian Weekly, July 20, 2007, p 44.
Research reveals that only 6% of Muslim religious leaders in Britain speak English, raising concerns that preachers in mosques are not able to communicate effectively with young British-born Muslims.
The survey of 300 mosques in Britain was carried out by Chester University for the BBC. It also [...]

‘The Muslim doctors’ oath rejects all acts of terrorism

Dr Abdul Majid Katme, letters
GP Magazine, July 20, 2007, p. 18
This is the oath of a Muslim physician: ‘Praise be to Allah, the Teacher, the Unique, Majesty of the heavens, the Exalted, the Glorious, Glory be to Him, the Eternal Being who created the Universe and all the creatures within, and the only Being who [...]

Islamophobia 101–Episode 16: Eradicate Muslims like Beetles from the Face of this Earth

Please click here to listen to a threat from radio host Neal Boortz to eradicate Muslims like beetles from the face of this earth. Press the play button to start the audio clip.
For more information on Neal Boortz, please click here. Please do not contact him directly because Mr. Boortz can and will use any [...]

Illegal Undercover FBI Sales Sting Fails

Associated Press, 7/18/07
A Butte County judge has dismissed the case against a Chico market owner who was accused of purchasing stolen cigarettes, saying it appeared the charges were a way for the FBI to question the owner about terrorism.
“A reasonable person could draw the conclusion that this ABC undercover operation was a subterfuge for an [...]

From Atheism to Islam: Professor of Mathematics, Jeffrey Lang

Dr. Jeffrey Lang is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas, one of the biggest universities in the United States. He started his religious journey on Jan 30, 1954, when he was born in a Roman Catholic family in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The first 18 years of his life were spent in Catholic schools, which [...]

50,000 Iraqi refugee women and girls forced into prostitution

Women and girls, many alarmingly young, who fled the chaos at home are being further betrayed after reaching ’safety’ in Syria
By Nihal Hassan in Damascus
Published: 24 June 2007, The Independent, U.K.
It’s Monday night in a dingy club on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Two dozen girls are moving half-heartedly on the dance floor, lit up [...]

Australian Visa Laws Unfair to Muslims

Mark Dunn, Herald TImes (Australia) 07/18/2007, p 13.
NEW laws that demand Arabs seeking visa entry into Australia provide the names of their parents and grandfather hint at racial and religious profiling, according to a leading Islamic group.
”It would be pretty naive to think there is no religious profiling going on (with visa applicants), even if [...]

Drivers accuse FEDEX bosses of discrimination

David Abel, Boston Globe, 7/17/07
Four Arab-American drivers who said they were harassed by their supervisors at a FedEx Corp. facility in Wilmington have filed a lawsuit alleging they were subjected to a steady flow of vitriol and discrimination.
In a lawsuit the plaintiffs’ lawyer said was served on FedEx yesterday, the drivers said managers called them [...]

Fighting Extremism is Up to All of US

Saeed Saeed, Canberra Times
FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer recently addressed the opening ceremony of the Peace and Harmony Interfaith Conference in Sydney. He ended with a plea to Australia’s Muslim leaders and community members to take the lead in eradicating the community’s extremist fringe. ”You might feel that it is not your problem,” Downer said. ”But [...]

Indian Muslims oppose fatwa against co-education

By Shaikh Azizur Rahman, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Indian Muslim leaders are uniting with female students in opposition to a “fatwa” or Islamic edict demanding that Muslim girls stay away from academic institutions where boys are studying.
The order, issued by the influential theological school of Darul Uloom Deoband in northern India last week, said coeducation should be [...]

Good Samaritan 101: Jews come to the help of Muslims in building new mosque

By Tim Townsend ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
A FAMILIAR STORY IN THE 1950s • Temple Israel bought land in Creve Coeur. The city amended its zoning to block the temple’s efforts to build. The case went to the Missouri Supreme Court, and Temple Israel prevailed. NOW • In Lemay, the Islamic Community Center bought 4.7 acres for [...]

Radicalism Among Muslim Professionals Worries Many

Hassan M. Fattah – The New York Times Media Group
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 13 — They were some of the best and brightest in the Muslim world who toiled for years to master their knowledge. Now they stand accused of seeking mass murder.
For weeks, commentators and analysts in the Muslim world have been grappling [...]

Doctors have no place in terrorism

by Asma Mobin-Uddin
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
The thought of physicians treating sick patients by the light of day while plotting to kill innocent people under the cover of darkness sickens and angers me on a very personal level. If these accusations are true, they are the ultimate betrayal of the trust placed in physicians to use [...]

Minds Buried Under Sand: Deficient High School Education in Saudi Arabia

Source: Arabsnews.com
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, talmaeena@aol.com
Year in and year out, changes are expected in the field of education, and yet we see little progress. A society that has produced dependency on expatriate expertise has obviously failed to tune its educational curriculum to the needs of this growing country. Although the figures being touted by the Ministry [...]

Muslim Attorney Receives Death Threat from Minnesota

Source: CAIR Newsletter
(Note from Rafik Beekun: Mr. Mohammedi is the attorney representing the six imams who filed a lawsuit alledging racial and religious discrimination–see article below).

The letter, sent from Minnesota to attorney Omar T. Mohammedi, states in part: “Who cares if the Federal courthouse is secure (which it really is not). . .Do not worry. [...]

The Six Imams File Lawsuit Alleging Racial and Religious Discrimination

Source:  Aisha Aziz, Southern California Infocus
WASHINGTON – Six imams, who were removed from a U.S. Airways flight last year, have filed a lawsuit for racial and religious discrimination, unleashing a fresh outcry from right-wing bloggers, columnists, and media, who commented extensively against the imams when they were first de-planed in November.

Headlines such as “The Faking [...]

Good Samaritan 101: Dr. Jessica Stern’s Speech on Double Standards Among Terror Critics

 Source: Heather Robinson from the New York Sun
A lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government claims there is a double standard by which Muslim clerics are criticized for not condemning Islamist terrorism when “rabbis are not condemning the violent settlers’ movement.” Jessica Stern’s lecture and those of other participants sought to promote [...]

Is There Academic Bias on U.S. University Campuses?

CNN Interview: Ibrahim Hooper and Laura Flanders vs. David Horowitz

Muslim Dunkin’ Donuts Owner Can Sue Over Pork, U.S. Court says

LOS ANGELES – A discrimination lawsuit filed by a Muslim Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee who was not allowed to renew his contract with the chain because of a refusal to sell pork products can proceed, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The decision reversed an Illinois federal court judge’s 2004 ruling that rejected Walid Elkhatib’s argument that [...]