The Wahabi interpretation of Islam taught at schools like Al Huda shuns something as simple as a birthday celebration as a foreign concept or a mehndi function a legacy of living with Hindus. Basant is a festival indigenous to Punjab marking the advent of spring. It dates back 3,000 years and has traditionally been celebrated by people of all religions in Punjab. Though local and organic, it is erroneously linked with Hinduism and disowned as both un-Islamic and foreign. However, adoption of the abaya, which is clearly a Saudi import, is not considered foreign at all. Subcontinental women observing purdah would use a big chador. In fact, women in urban Khyber Pakhtunkhwa still prefer a chador over an abaya but the abaya never faced the hostility that the festival of basant faced.
Indonesia's pluralism is now facing a serious threat. The intrusion of radical ideologies has polarized and segregated society. This is quite evident in the Jakarta gubernatorial elections, where several prominent public figures have openly attacked candidates on basis of their religion and ethnicity. Indonesia has been long heralded as a role model of how Islam and democracy is compatible. Dubbed the third largest democracy in the world, the country has a long tradition that promotes diversity in terms of ethnicity, race and language. It is the Indonesian language that united Indonesians.
Israel's name is in the gutter, and it has no legitimacy whatsoever. Israel is a terrorist state, and this writer, nay every Israeli like him, is living an illusion, or is in denial. Indeed, the bottom line of the article is that the whole world is wrong, and the state of organized crime is right.
Pakistan's blasphemy law makes it a crime to destroy or damage the Quran or to insult the Prophet Mohammed. The following are two sections of the law as they appear in Pakistan's penal code: Whoever will fully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Quran or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable for imprisonment for life
The Romney campaign courts anti-Muslim bigots for political gain while the Democrats stay silent, despite an alarming spate of attacks on Muslim religious centers. August 22, 2012 | LIKE THIS ARTICLE? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The political debate over Islam in the United States reached [...]
27 August, 2012 MARDAN: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said there was no definition of terrorism and extremism in the UN and Geneva Conventions, Human Rights Charter and that America had defined it as bloodshed and implemented it on madrassas and its students. He expressed these views while addressing a "Fuzalaa Conference" [...]
STOCKHOLM, – "Ban Islam in Sweden and deport those who persist in believing in the religion", said Pär Norling, group leader of the Sweden Democrats (SD) in Bollnäs, in an interview with national broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). The neo-nazi Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen) marched in the central Swedish town of Bollnäs earlier this summer, [...]
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has said that the barbaric slaying of innocent Muslims and religious extremism were part of a vicious conspiracy against Islam and Pakistan. He expressed these views while talking to religious clerics and scholars belonging to various schools of thought, on telephone, said a release issued here on Sunday. Talking to Maulana Tanvirul Haque Thanvi, Maulana Asad Deobandi and Maulana Dr Jamil Rathore, he urged them to play their full role against the conspiracy to destabilise Pakistan. He also stressed upon the Ulema to issue a unanimous fatwa against the killings of innocent people because of sectarian differences
The anti-Islam campaign was created by Pamela Geller, a blogger and head of the American Freedom Defense Infinitive (AFDI). Geller has also spent $10,000 for the campaign. "I hope people will gain a new understanding of the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat," Geller, who was also against the construction of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the site of the World Trade Center, said
In Nigeria, Jews have been attacked and killed while studying scripture. In Bangladesh, Jewish children are being forced into madrassas. In Pakistan, the body of an 11-year-old Jewish boy was discovered this week; he'd been tortured to death and his lips sliced off. You won't have heard about this atrocious persecution. That's because – forgive me – I've played one of the oldest tricks in the journalist's book. For Jews, read Christians. For anti-Semitic, read anti-Christian. For synagogues read churches.
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Asadullah Syed
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