President Obama Finally Visits an American Mosque
President Obama’s very first visit to a United States mosque did not happen until this week, in his final year in office. The fact that it had never happened before made the event remarkable and, sadly, a bit risky amid the anti-Muslim vitriol sweeping the nation. Mr. Obama made his purpose clear in arriving Wednesday at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. He simply wanted to say something positive about Muslim Americans and their numerous contributions as responsible citizens in the face of steady denunciations from Republican candidates in the presidential campaign.
Mr. Obama noted “the inexcusable political rhetoric” directed against Muslims. But he skirted direct partisanship by never referring to Republicans by name or party, preferring a gentler note: “We can’t be bystanders to bigotry.” The audience easily got his point. They responded warmly, sometimes passionately to presidential rhetoric that in another context — a church or a synagogue — would be familiar boilerplate: “We are one American family.” And: “Your fellow Americans stand with you.” And: “An attack on one faith is an attack on all faiths.”
His appearance was received with repeated applause. Mr. Obama was obviously as comforting for Muslim Americans in the mosque as President George W. Bush was when he quickly denounced the 9/11 terrorists as traitors to their faith and roundly affirmed, “Islam is peace.”
The Republican presidential candidates have offered a barrage of nativist comments to dispute Mr. Bush, reacting to terrorist incidents with generalizations about Muslim Americans. Candidates propose a national database of Muslims or a ban on Islamic refugees from Middle Eastern countries. The Iowa Republican caucus competition regularly featured invocations of this nation’s “Judeo-Christian heritage,” a phrase that sounded exclusionary amid the fears being exploited about Islam.
In this first visit to a homeland mosque, President Obama smiled as he noted that opponents accused Thomas Jefferson of being a Muslim, just as critics continue to deny Mr. Obama’s Christianity. He kept to his main point of reassuring Muslim Americans that they are true Americans. “Let your light shine,” he said, employing an encouraging bit of Christian lyric. To troubled teenagers in the audience he emphasized: “You fit in here.” And to all: “We will rise or fall together.” There was no immediate reaction from the hustings.
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/201 ... 05309&_r=0
Perception of Islam
Why Muslims Should Never Have To Apologize for Terrorism
Here Are Five Reasons Why Muslims Should Never Have To Apologize for Terrorism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-alna ... 26296.html
Here Are Five Reasons Why Muslims Should Never Have To Apologize for Terrorism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-alna ... 26296.html
Rick Perry: We Are ‘Not in a War’ With Muslims
http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/19/rick- ... h-muslims/
Rick Perry is frustrated with political rhetoric that he sees as discriminatory toward Muslims, and says he “owes it to America” to share a different message.
“The message I want to get out is we are in a war with radical Islam—we are not in a war with all people of the Muslim faith by any sense of the imagination,” the former Texas governor told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview.
“Muslims are our allies, and we need to preserve that and work with them,” Perry said. “It’s one of the real challenges of our time to be able to identify who our friends are, and certainly these are our friends.”
.......
“I know the Muslim community better than any other community,” Perry said, adding:
My story is one of a relationship with individuals in the Muslim community who have been extremely patriotic, powerful, economic drivers in this state, and it’s broadened to international leaders like His Highness the Aga Kahn [Prince Shah Karim Al Hussaini, spiritual leader of the Shiite Ismaili Muslim community] and the king of Jordan, Abdullah [King Abdullah II], who I would suggest is one of our better partners in the war against terror.
http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/19/rick- ... h-muslims/
Rick Perry is frustrated with political rhetoric that he sees as discriminatory toward Muslims, and says he “owes it to America” to share a different message.
“The message I want to get out is we are in a war with radical Islam—we are not in a war with all people of the Muslim faith by any sense of the imagination,” the former Texas governor told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview.
“Muslims are our allies, and we need to preserve that and work with them,” Perry said. “It’s one of the real challenges of our time to be able to identify who our friends are, and certainly these are our friends.”
.......
“I know the Muslim community better than any other community,” Perry said, adding:
My story is one of a relationship with individuals in the Muslim community who have been extremely patriotic, powerful, economic drivers in this state, and it’s broadened to international leaders like His Highness the Aga Kahn [Prince Shah Karim Al Hussaini, spiritual leader of the Shiite Ismaili Muslim community] and the king of Jordan, Abdullah [King Abdullah II], who I would suggest is one of our better partners in the war against terror.
Religion’s Wicked Neighbor
Extract:
And the core of our confusion is that we are unclear about what a religion is, and how it might relate to violence sometimes carried out in its name.
For clarity on that question, it helps to start with William James’s classic work, “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” In that book, James distinguishes between various religious experiences and “religion’s wicked practical partner, the spirit of corporate dominion, and religion’s wicked intellectual partner, the spirit of dogmatic dominion, the passion for laying down the law.”
In other words, there is the spirit of religion and, frequently accompanying it, its wicked neighbors, the spirit of political and intellectual dominion.
It seems blindingly obvious to say, but the spirit of religion begins with a sense that God exists. God is the primary reality, and out of that flows a set of values and experiences: prayer, praise, charity, contrition, grace and the desire to grow closer toward holiness. Sincere faith begins with humility in relation to the Almighty and a sense of being strengthened by his infinite love.
In some sense the phrase “Islamic radicalism” is wrong because terrorism is not a radical extension of this kind of faith. People don’t start out with this kind of faith and then turn into terrorists because they became more faithful.
The spirit of dominion, on the other hand, does not start with an awareness of God. It starts with a sense of injury and a desire to heal injury through revenge and domination.
For the terrorist, a sense of humiliation is the primary reality. Terrorism emerges from a psychic state, not a spiritual one. This turns into a grievance, the belief that some external enemy is the cause of this injury, rather than some internal weakness.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/opini ... tml?src=me
Extract:
And the core of our confusion is that we are unclear about what a religion is, and how it might relate to violence sometimes carried out in its name.
For clarity on that question, it helps to start with William James’s classic work, “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” In that book, James distinguishes between various religious experiences and “religion’s wicked practical partner, the spirit of corporate dominion, and religion’s wicked intellectual partner, the spirit of dogmatic dominion, the passion for laying down the law.”
In other words, there is the spirit of religion and, frequently accompanying it, its wicked neighbors, the spirit of political and intellectual dominion.
It seems blindingly obvious to say, but the spirit of religion begins with a sense that God exists. God is the primary reality, and out of that flows a set of values and experiences: prayer, praise, charity, contrition, grace and the desire to grow closer toward holiness. Sincere faith begins with humility in relation to the Almighty and a sense of being strengthened by his infinite love.
In some sense the phrase “Islamic radicalism” is wrong because terrorism is not a radical extension of this kind of faith. People don’t start out with this kind of faith and then turn into terrorists because they became more faithful.
The spirit of dominion, on the other hand, does not start with an awareness of God. It starts with a sense of injury and a desire to heal injury through revenge and domination.
For the terrorist, a sense of humiliation is the primary reality. Terrorism emerges from a psychic state, not a spiritual one. This turns into a grievance, the belief that some external enemy is the cause of this injury, rather than some internal weakness.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/opini ... tml?src=me
Smithsonian to Host First Major US Quran Exhibit
WASHINGTON—
The Quran, revered by Muslims, is the centerpiece of a first-of-its-kind exhibition in the United States as the Smithsonian displays exquisitely decorated manuscripts from one of the top Quran collections.
The Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery announced Tuesday that “The Art of the Qur'an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts” will bring 48 manuscripts and folios from the museum in Istanbul together with manuscripts from the collection of the Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art, which are together the Smithsonian's museum of Asian art.
The exhibition is set to open October 15, just weeks before the presidential election, through February 20, 2017. Islam and the Quran may come up during debates and discussions, but Massumeh Farhad, chief curator at the Sackler and Freer and curator of Islamic art, says this exhibition is a chance to present a different story. She calls it an opportunity to “focus on the importance of this as a work of art and importance in art history.”
More...
http://www.voanews.com/content/smithson ... 85470.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/0621/ ... an-exhibit
The release yesterday of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) report on the rise of Islamophobia across the US may suggest a motivation for the timing of the exhibit. In 2015, according to the report, mosques in the US were targeted with violence or intimidation in 78 recorded incidents, more than triple the numbers from the previous two years.
Also in 2015, Florida and Tennessee modified textbooks to remove Islam’s five pillars from the curriculum of introductory religious courses, due to activist concerns of “indoctrination” and “proselytization,” according to CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
********
Anti-Muslim Discrimination Is Rising, Most Americans Say
Seventy percent of Americans believe that discrimination against Muslims in the nation is increasing, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
Fifty-four percent of Americans say that Muslims currently face “a lot” of discrimination, little changed from a survey last March in which 55 percent said the same.
More...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/isl ... 26ce5ce763
WASHINGTON—
The Quran, revered by Muslims, is the centerpiece of a first-of-its-kind exhibition in the United States as the Smithsonian displays exquisitely decorated manuscripts from one of the top Quran collections.
The Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery announced Tuesday that “The Art of the Qur'an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts” will bring 48 manuscripts and folios from the museum in Istanbul together with manuscripts from the collection of the Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art, which are together the Smithsonian's museum of Asian art.
The exhibition is set to open October 15, just weeks before the presidential election, through February 20, 2017. Islam and the Quran may come up during debates and discussions, but Massumeh Farhad, chief curator at the Sackler and Freer and curator of Islamic art, says this exhibition is a chance to present a different story. She calls it an opportunity to “focus on the importance of this as a work of art and importance in art history.”
More...
http://www.voanews.com/content/smithson ... 85470.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/0621/ ... an-exhibit
The release yesterday of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) report on the rise of Islamophobia across the US may suggest a motivation for the timing of the exhibit. In 2015, according to the report, mosques in the US were targeted with violence or intimidation in 78 recorded incidents, more than triple the numbers from the previous two years.
Also in 2015, Florida and Tennessee modified textbooks to remove Islam’s five pillars from the curriculum of introductory religious courses, due to activist concerns of “indoctrination” and “proselytization,” according to CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
********
Anti-Muslim Discrimination Is Rising, Most Americans Say
Seventy percent of Americans believe that discrimination against Muslims in the nation is increasing, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
Fifty-four percent of Americans say that Muslims currently face “a lot” of discrimination, little changed from a survey last March in which 55 percent said the same.
More...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/isl ... 26ce5ce763
How Religion Can Lead to Violence
The latest victim is a French priest, murdered in his church by killers shouting “Allahu akbar! ”Following such attacks, Muslim leaders assure us that, as Tariq Ramadan said after the Paris massacre, the murders are “a pure betrayal of our religion.” After the shootings in Brussels, the leading Sunni university, Al-Azhar, issued a statement saying,
“These heinous crimes violate the tolerant teachings of Islam.” Similar responses followed recent attacks in Orlando and Nice. We are told that the fanatical fringe groups who do these terrible things are at odds with the essential Muslim commitment to peace and love. I understand the reasons for such responses, but they oversimplify the relation of religion to intolerance and the violence it can lead to.
Both Islam and Christianity claim to be revealed religions, holding that their teachings are truths that God himself has conveyed to us and wants everyone to accept. They were, from the start, missionary religions. A religion charged with bringing God’s truth to the world faces the question of how to deal with people who refuse to accept it. To what extent should it tolerate religious error? At certain points in their histories, both Christianity and Islam have been intolerant of other religions, often of each other, even to the point of violence.
This was not inevitable, but neither was it an accident. The potential for intolerance lies in the logic of religions like Christianity and Islam that say their teaching derive from a divine revelation. For them, the truth that God has revealed is the most important truth there is; therefore, denying or doubting this truth is extremely dangerous, both for nonbelievers, who lack this essential truth, and for believers, who may well be misled by the denials and doubts of nonbelievers. Given these assumptions, it’s easy to conclude that even extreme steps are warranted to eliminate nonbelief.
You may object that moral considerations should limit our opposition to nonbelief. Don’t people have a human right to follow their conscience and worship as they think they should? Here we reach a crux for those who adhere to a revealed religion. They can either accept ordinary human standards of morality as a limit on how they interpret divine teachings, or they can insist on total fidelity to what they see as God’s revelation, even when it contradicts ordinary human standards. Those who follow the second view insist that divine truth utterly exceeds human understanding, which is in no position to judge it. God reveals things to us precisely because they are truths we would never arrive at by our natural lights. When the omniscient God has spoken, we can only obey.
For those holding this view, no secular considerations, not even appeals to conventional morality or to practical common sense, can overturn a religious conviction that false beliefs are intolerable. Christianity itself has a long history of such intolerance, including persecution of Jews, crusades against Muslims, and the Thirty Years’ War, in which religious and nationalist rivalries combined to devastate Central Europe. This devastation initiated a move toward tolerance among nations that came to see the folly of trying to impose their religions on foreigners. But intolerance of internal dissidents — Catholics, Jews, rival Protestant sects — continued even into the 19th century. (It’s worth noting that in this period the Muslim Ottoman Empire was in many ways more tolerant than most Christian countries.) But Christians eventually embraced tolerance through a long and complex historical process.
Critiques of Christian revelation by Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Hume raised serious questions that made non-Christian religions — and eventually even rejections of religion — intellectually respectable. Social and economic changes — including capitalist economies, technological innovations, and democratic political movements — undermined the social structures that had sustained traditional religion.
The eventual result was a widespread attitude of religious toleration in Europe and the United States. This attitude represented ethical progress, but it implied that religious truth was not so important that its denial was intolerable. Religious beliefs and practices came to be regarded as only expressions of personal convictions, not to be endorsed or enforced by state authority. This in effect subordinated the value of religious faith to the value of peace in a secular society. Today, almost all Christians are reconciled to this revision, and many would even claim that it better reflects the true meaning of their religion.
The same is not true of Muslims. A minority of Muslim nations have a high level of religious toleration; for example Albania, Kosovo, Senegal and Sierra Leone. But a majority — including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Malaysia — maintain strong restrictions on non-Muslim (and in some cases certain “heretical” Muslim) beliefs and practices. Although many Muslims think God’s will requires tolerance of false religious views, many do not.
A Pew Research Center poll in 2013 found that in Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan and other nations in which Islam is officially favored, a large majority of Muslims think some form of Islamic law should be the law of the land. The poll also found that 76 percent of such Muslims in South Asia and 56 percent in the Middle East and North Africa favored executing Muslims who gave up their religion, and that in 10 Muslim counties at least 40 percent favored applying Islamic law to non-Muslims. This shows that, for many Muslims, the revealed truths of Islam are not only a matter of personal conviction but must also have a central place in the public sphere of a well-ordered society.
There is no central religious authority or overwhelming consensus that excludes such Muslims from Islam. Intolerance need not lead to violence against nonbelievers; but, as we have seen, the logic of revelation readily moves in that direction unless interpretations of sacred texts are subject to nonreligious constraints. Islamic thinkers like Ibn-Sina accepted such constraints, and during the Middle Ages Muslims were often far more tolerant than Christians. But the path of modern tolerance has proved more difficult for Islam than for Christianity, and many Muslims still do not accept the ethical constraints that require religious tolerance, and a significant minority see violence against unbelievers as a divinely ordained duty. We may find it hard to believe that religious beliefs could motivate murders and insist that extreme violence is always due to mental instability or political fanaticism. But the logic (and the history) of religions tells against this view.
Does this mean that Islam is evil? No, but it does mean that it has not yet tamed, to the extent that Christianity has, the danger implicit in any religion that claims to be God’s own truth. To put it bluntly, Islam as a whole has not made the concessions to secular values that Christianity has. As President Obama recently said, “Some currents of Islam have not gone through a reformation that would help people adapt their religious doctrines to modernity.” This adaptation will be long and difficult and require many intellectual and socio-economic changes, some produced by outside forces, others arising from the increasing power of Islamic teachings on tolerance and love. But until such a transformation is achieved, it will be misleading to say that intolerance and violence are “a pure betrayal” of Islam.
Gary Gutting is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. His recent book, “What Philosophy Can Do,” is a collection of essays, expanded from his Stone columns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/opini ... ef=opinion
The latest victim is a French priest, murdered in his church by killers shouting “Allahu akbar! ”Following such attacks, Muslim leaders assure us that, as Tariq Ramadan said after the Paris massacre, the murders are “a pure betrayal of our religion.” After the shootings in Brussels, the leading Sunni university, Al-Azhar, issued a statement saying,
“These heinous crimes violate the tolerant teachings of Islam.” Similar responses followed recent attacks in Orlando and Nice. We are told that the fanatical fringe groups who do these terrible things are at odds with the essential Muslim commitment to peace and love. I understand the reasons for such responses, but they oversimplify the relation of religion to intolerance and the violence it can lead to.
Both Islam and Christianity claim to be revealed religions, holding that their teachings are truths that God himself has conveyed to us and wants everyone to accept. They were, from the start, missionary religions. A religion charged with bringing God’s truth to the world faces the question of how to deal with people who refuse to accept it. To what extent should it tolerate religious error? At certain points in their histories, both Christianity and Islam have been intolerant of other religions, often of each other, even to the point of violence.
This was not inevitable, but neither was it an accident. The potential for intolerance lies in the logic of religions like Christianity and Islam that say their teaching derive from a divine revelation. For them, the truth that God has revealed is the most important truth there is; therefore, denying or doubting this truth is extremely dangerous, both for nonbelievers, who lack this essential truth, and for believers, who may well be misled by the denials and doubts of nonbelievers. Given these assumptions, it’s easy to conclude that even extreme steps are warranted to eliminate nonbelief.
You may object that moral considerations should limit our opposition to nonbelief. Don’t people have a human right to follow their conscience and worship as they think they should? Here we reach a crux for those who adhere to a revealed religion. They can either accept ordinary human standards of morality as a limit on how they interpret divine teachings, or they can insist on total fidelity to what they see as God’s revelation, even when it contradicts ordinary human standards. Those who follow the second view insist that divine truth utterly exceeds human understanding, which is in no position to judge it. God reveals things to us precisely because they are truths we would never arrive at by our natural lights. When the omniscient God has spoken, we can only obey.
For those holding this view, no secular considerations, not even appeals to conventional morality or to practical common sense, can overturn a religious conviction that false beliefs are intolerable. Christianity itself has a long history of such intolerance, including persecution of Jews, crusades against Muslims, and the Thirty Years’ War, in which religious and nationalist rivalries combined to devastate Central Europe. This devastation initiated a move toward tolerance among nations that came to see the folly of trying to impose their religions on foreigners. But intolerance of internal dissidents — Catholics, Jews, rival Protestant sects — continued even into the 19th century. (It’s worth noting that in this period the Muslim Ottoman Empire was in many ways more tolerant than most Christian countries.) But Christians eventually embraced tolerance through a long and complex historical process.
Critiques of Christian revelation by Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Hume raised serious questions that made non-Christian religions — and eventually even rejections of religion — intellectually respectable. Social and economic changes — including capitalist economies, technological innovations, and democratic political movements — undermined the social structures that had sustained traditional religion.
The eventual result was a widespread attitude of religious toleration in Europe and the United States. This attitude represented ethical progress, but it implied that religious truth was not so important that its denial was intolerable. Religious beliefs and practices came to be regarded as only expressions of personal convictions, not to be endorsed or enforced by state authority. This in effect subordinated the value of religious faith to the value of peace in a secular society. Today, almost all Christians are reconciled to this revision, and many would even claim that it better reflects the true meaning of their religion.
The same is not true of Muslims. A minority of Muslim nations have a high level of religious toleration; for example Albania, Kosovo, Senegal and Sierra Leone. But a majority — including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Malaysia — maintain strong restrictions on non-Muslim (and in some cases certain “heretical” Muslim) beliefs and practices. Although many Muslims think God’s will requires tolerance of false religious views, many do not.
A Pew Research Center poll in 2013 found that in Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan and other nations in which Islam is officially favored, a large majority of Muslims think some form of Islamic law should be the law of the land. The poll also found that 76 percent of such Muslims in South Asia and 56 percent in the Middle East and North Africa favored executing Muslims who gave up their religion, and that in 10 Muslim counties at least 40 percent favored applying Islamic law to non-Muslims. This shows that, for many Muslims, the revealed truths of Islam are not only a matter of personal conviction but must also have a central place in the public sphere of a well-ordered society.
There is no central religious authority or overwhelming consensus that excludes such Muslims from Islam. Intolerance need not lead to violence against nonbelievers; but, as we have seen, the logic of revelation readily moves in that direction unless interpretations of sacred texts are subject to nonreligious constraints. Islamic thinkers like Ibn-Sina accepted such constraints, and during the Middle Ages Muslims were often far more tolerant than Christians. But the path of modern tolerance has proved more difficult for Islam than for Christianity, and many Muslims still do not accept the ethical constraints that require religious tolerance, and a significant minority see violence against unbelievers as a divinely ordained duty. We may find it hard to believe that religious beliefs could motivate murders and insist that extreme violence is always due to mental instability or political fanaticism. But the logic (and the history) of religions tells against this view.
Does this mean that Islam is evil? No, but it does mean that it has not yet tamed, to the extent that Christianity has, the danger implicit in any religion that claims to be God’s own truth. To put it bluntly, Islam as a whole has not made the concessions to secular values that Christianity has. As President Obama recently said, “Some currents of Islam have not gone through a reformation that would help people adapt their religious doctrines to modernity.” This adaptation will be long and difficult and require many intellectual and socio-economic changes, some produced by outside forces, others arising from the increasing power of Islamic teachings on tolerance and love. But until such a transformation is achieved, it will be misleading to say that intolerance and violence are “a pure betrayal” of Islam.
Gary Gutting is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. His recent book, “What Philosophy Can Do,” is a collection of essays, expanded from his Stone columns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/opini ... ef=opinion
Lecture/Lecture Series
Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance
Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce
Speaker: Zahra Jamal
Associate Director
Boniuk Institute, Rice University
Demystifying Islam
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
9:00 AM to 9:30 AM
Ismaili Jamatkhana and Center
1700 First Colony Blvd
Sugar Land, Texas, USA
This lecture at the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce covers the myths and realities of Islam, and explores Islamic perspectives on pluralism and civic engagement.
Registration Required
Biography of Zahra Jamal:
Zahra Jamal has taught at Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, Michigan State University (MSU), and Palmer Trinity, a college preparatory school. She founded and directed the Civil Islam Initiative at University of Chicago and the Central Asia and International Development Initiative at MSU. She has consulted for the UN, State Department, Aga Khan Development Network, Swiss Development Cooperation, and Aspen Institute. Dr. Jamal received a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, and double B.A. in Slavic Studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from Rice. She joined the Institute in July 2015.
Speaker URL
http://events.rice.edu/index.cfm?EventRecord=29868
[/b]
Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance
Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce
Speaker: Zahra Jamal
Associate Director
Boniuk Institute, Rice University
Demystifying Islam
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
9:00 AM to 9:30 AM
Ismaili Jamatkhana and Center
1700 First Colony Blvd
Sugar Land, Texas, USA
This lecture at the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce covers the myths and realities of Islam, and explores Islamic perspectives on pluralism and civic engagement.
Registration Required
Biography of Zahra Jamal:
Zahra Jamal has taught at Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, Michigan State University (MSU), and Palmer Trinity, a college preparatory school. She founded and directed the Civil Islam Initiative at University of Chicago and the Central Asia and International Development Initiative at MSU. She has consulted for the UN, State Department, Aga Khan Development Network, Swiss Development Cooperation, and Aspen Institute. Dr. Jamal received a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, and double B.A. in Slavic Studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from Rice. She joined the Institute in July 2015.
Speaker URL
http://events.rice.edu/index.cfm?EventRecord=29868
[/b]
Obama Nominates First Muslim to Be a Federal Judge
President Obama nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, potentially making the Washington lawyer the first Muslim-American federal judge.
Mr. Qureshi is a partner at Latham & Watkins L.L.P. in Washington, where he is the global chairman of its pro bono committee and specializes in the False Claims Act, health care fraud and securities violations. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1997 and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1993.
“I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
The issue of diversity in the judicial landscape received renewed attention this year after Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, said in May that Gonzalo P. Curiel, the presiding judge in a lawsuit filed by former Trump University students, would be biased against him because of the judge’s Mexican-American background. Mr. Trump later said that he did not think that a Muslim judge would be fair to him, either.
Muslim advocacy groups cheered Mr. Qureshi’s nomination, saying he would become the first Muslim-American federal judge. In a statement, Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Mr. Qureshi would join “the hundreds of thousands of American Muslims serving their fellow citizens and the nation.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us ... judge.html?
mwrsm=Facebook&referer=http://lm.facebook.com/lsr.php?u=http%3 ... g3Cqw&_rdr
President Obama nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, potentially making the Washington lawyer the first Muslim-American federal judge.
Mr. Qureshi is a partner at Latham & Watkins L.L.P. in Washington, where he is the global chairman of its pro bono committee and specializes in the False Claims Act, health care fraud and securities violations. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1997 and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1993.
“I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
The issue of diversity in the judicial landscape received renewed attention this year after Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, said in May that Gonzalo P. Curiel, the presiding judge in a lawsuit filed by former Trump University students, would be biased against him because of the judge’s Mexican-American background. Mr. Trump later said that he did not think that a Muslim judge would be fair to him, either.
Muslim advocacy groups cheered Mr. Qureshi’s nomination, saying he would become the first Muslim-American federal judge. In a statement, Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Mr. Qureshi would join “the hundreds of thousands of American Muslims serving their fellow citizens and the nation.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us ... judge.html?
mwrsm=Facebook&referer=http://lm.facebook.com/lsr.php?u=http%3 ... g3Cqw&_rdr
Why You Haven’t Heard of the Aga Khan
http://www.mediafiledc.com/havent-heard-aga-khan/
There is so much more to the Muslim religion than the broken record of terrorism and extremism the media perpetuates. Ismaili Muslims, for example, have a religious leader, the Aga Khan, who is responsible for $625 million worth of philanthropic programs all across the world that nobody knows about. We should be hearing more about him.
The Aga Khan’s work is newsworthy, and the media should be focusing more on the contributions of the Muslim community rather than on the small percentage of Muslims who terrorize the world.
There are several occasions where the media has exaggerated the threat that extremists pose. For example, several reporters from Fox News were spreading fear and terror when it came to the Syrian refugee situation. Andrea Tantaros described taking Islamic refugees as suicide, it would be a national security threat to admit any Muslims into this country. Bill O’Reilly also suggested that allowing refugees into the United States would open the door for terrorists.
********
The Clash of Ignorance: The Must-Watch TEDx Talk on Islamophobia
VIDEO at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the ... 750dda18c6
The Prophet Muhammad famously said, “Seek knowledge, even as far as China.” Thanks to Dr. Shafique Virani’s new TEDx talk, “The Clash of Ignorance,” those of us trying to grapple with the issue of Islamophobia need only go as far as YouTube.
Virani’s talk has been widely acclaimed and recognized in the TEDx community and is currently being promoted and incorporated in new academic and public policy initiatives. Leading academic institutions, such as Harvard’s Alwaleed Institute of Islamic Studies, have highlighted the talk on their websites and others have invited Dr. Virani, Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto, to share his message in public lectures.
http://www.mediafiledc.com/havent-heard-aga-khan/
There is so much more to the Muslim religion than the broken record of terrorism and extremism the media perpetuates. Ismaili Muslims, for example, have a religious leader, the Aga Khan, who is responsible for $625 million worth of philanthropic programs all across the world that nobody knows about. We should be hearing more about him.
The Aga Khan’s work is newsworthy, and the media should be focusing more on the contributions of the Muslim community rather than on the small percentage of Muslims who terrorize the world.
There are several occasions where the media has exaggerated the threat that extremists pose. For example, several reporters from Fox News were spreading fear and terror when it came to the Syrian refugee situation. Andrea Tantaros described taking Islamic refugees as suicide, it would be a national security threat to admit any Muslims into this country. Bill O’Reilly also suggested that allowing refugees into the United States would open the door for terrorists.
********
The Clash of Ignorance: The Must-Watch TEDx Talk on Islamophobia
VIDEO at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the ... 750dda18c6
The Prophet Muhammad famously said, “Seek knowledge, even as far as China.” Thanks to Dr. Shafique Virani’s new TEDx talk, “The Clash of Ignorance,” those of us trying to grapple with the issue of Islamophobia need only go as far as YouTube.
Virani’s talk has been widely acclaimed and recognized in the TEDx community and is currently being promoted and incorporated in new academic and public policy initiatives. Leading academic institutions, such as Harvard’s Alwaleed Institute of Islamic Studies, have highlighted the talk on their websites and others have invited Dr. Virani, Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto, to share his message in public lectures.
Isis: Islam is 'not strongest factor' behind foreign fighters joining extremist groups in Syria and Iraq – report
Military analysts say militant groups can prefer recruits who won’t challenge ideology
Isis has made prominent use of Western recruits in its propaganda videos Religion is not the strongest driving force behind thousands of foreign fighters joining Isis and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, a report by US military researchers has found.
A new study by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point revealed that the vast majority of almost 1,200 militants surveyed had no formal religious education and had not adhered to Islam for their entire lives.
Extremist groups may prefer such recruits because they are “less capable of critically scrutinising the jihadi narrative and ideology” and instead adhere totally to their chosen organisation’s violent and reductive interpretation of Islam.
Isis' radicalisation of foreign fighters
Analysts said many foreign fighters travelling from the West are attracted to jihadi groups through cultural and political identities rather than Islam itself, which is moved into a “secondary role”.
“The ability of jihadi groups to recruit foreign fighters is thus based on creating a narrative that is focused on the ongoing deprivation of Muslims, both in specific Western polities, as well as in the international arena,” said the CTC’s report.
More..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 21711.html
Military analysts say militant groups can prefer recruits who won’t challenge ideology
Isis has made prominent use of Western recruits in its propaganda videos Religion is not the strongest driving force behind thousands of foreign fighters joining Isis and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, a report by US military researchers has found.
A new study by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point revealed that the vast majority of almost 1,200 militants surveyed had no formal religious education and had not adhered to Islam for their entire lives.
Extremist groups may prefer such recruits because they are “less capable of critically scrutinising the jihadi narrative and ideology” and instead adhere totally to their chosen organisation’s violent and reductive interpretation of Islam.
Isis' radicalisation of foreign fighters
Analysts said many foreign fighters travelling from the West are attracted to jihadi groups through cultural and political identities rather than Islam itself, which is moved into a “secondary role”.
“The ability of jihadi groups to recruit foreign fighters is thus based on creating a narrative that is focused on the ongoing deprivation of Muslims, both in specific Western polities, as well as in the international arena,” said the CTC’s report.
More..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 21711.html
‘Aesthetic approach of Islam is the way forward’
KARACHI: In an attempt to deconstruct negative stereotypes about Islam that are rampant in popular discourse, there is an urgent need to understand and propagate it from an aesthetic approach, said Harvard scholar Prof Ali Asani during his talk at Habib University on Friday.
While highlighting the importance of religious and cultural literacy in a cosmopolitan world, Prof Asani gave a nuanced perspective to the differences that set us apart, which have resulted in polarisations and created conflicts.
More...
http://www.dawn.com/news/1308296
******
What’s missing in teaching about Islam
There has been much misinformation about Islam. Reports in Western media tend to perpetuate stereotypes that Islam is a violent religion and Muslim women are oppressed.
Popular films like “American Sniper” reduce places like Iraq to dusty war zones, devoid of any culture or history. Fears and anxiety manifest themselves in Islamophobic actions such as burning mosques or even attacking people physically.
At the heart of such fear is ignorance. A December 2015 poll found that a majority of Americans (52 percent) do not understand Islam. In this same poll, 36 percent also said that they wanted to know more about the religion. Interestingly, those under 30 years were 46 percent more likely to have a favorable view of Islam.
These statistics highlight an opportunity for educators. As a scholar of Islamic art and architecture, I am aware that for the past 20 years, educators have been trying to improve the teaching of Islam – both in high school and college history courses.
The problem, however, is that the teaching of Islam has been limited to its religious practice. Its impact on the arts and culture, particularly in the United States, is seldom discussed.
More...
http://religionnews.com/2017/01/11/what ... -of-islam/
KARACHI: In an attempt to deconstruct negative stereotypes about Islam that are rampant in popular discourse, there is an urgent need to understand and propagate it from an aesthetic approach, said Harvard scholar Prof Ali Asani during his talk at Habib University on Friday.
While highlighting the importance of religious and cultural literacy in a cosmopolitan world, Prof Asani gave a nuanced perspective to the differences that set us apart, which have resulted in polarisations and created conflicts.
More...
http://www.dawn.com/news/1308296
******
What’s missing in teaching about Islam
There has been much misinformation about Islam. Reports in Western media tend to perpetuate stereotypes that Islam is a violent religion and Muslim women are oppressed.
Popular films like “American Sniper” reduce places like Iraq to dusty war zones, devoid of any culture or history. Fears and anxiety manifest themselves in Islamophobic actions such as burning mosques or even attacking people physically.
At the heart of such fear is ignorance. A December 2015 poll found that a majority of Americans (52 percent) do not understand Islam. In this same poll, 36 percent also said that they wanted to know more about the religion. Interestingly, those under 30 years were 46 percent more likely to have a favorable view of Islam.
These statistics highlight an opportunity for educators. As a scholar of Islamic art and architecture, I am aware that for the past 20 years, educators have been trying to improve the teaching of Islam – both in high school and college history courses.
The problem, however, is that the teaching of Islam has been limited to its religious practice. Its impact on the arts and culture, particularly in the United States, is seldom discussed.
More...
http://religionnews.com/2017/01/11/what ... -of-islam/
Trump Pushes Dark View of Islam to Center of U.S. Policy-Making
WASHINGTON — It was at a campaign rally in August that President Trump most fully unveiled the dark vision of an America under siege by “radical Islam” that is now radically reshaping the policies of the United States.
On a stage lined with American flags in Youngstown, Ohio, Mr. Trump, who months before had called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration, argued that the United States faced a threat on par with the greatest evils of the 20th century. The Islamic State was brutalizing the Middle East, and Muslim immigrants in the West were killing innocents at nightclubs, offices and churches, he said. Extreme measures were needed.
“The hateful ideology of radical Islam,” he told supporters, must not be “allowed to reside or spread within our own communities.”
Mr. Trump was echoing a strain of anti-Islamic theorizing familiar to anyone who has been immersed in security and counterterrorism debates over the last 20 years. He has embraced a deeply suspicious view of Islam that several of his aides have promoted, notably retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, now his national security adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s top strategist.
This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings about extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme forms, this view promotes conspiracies about government infiltration and the danger that Shariah, the legal code of Islam, may take over in the United States.
Those espousing such views present Islam as an inherently hostile ideology whose adherents are enemies of Christianity and Judaism and seek to conquer nonbelievers either by violence or through a sort of stealthy brainwashing.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/p ... 87722&_r=0
******
An Apology to Muslims for President Trump
Whenever an extremist in the Muslim world does something crazy, people demand that moderate Muslims step forward to condemn the extremism. So let’s take our own advice: We Americans should now condemn our own extremist.
In that spirit, I hereby apologize to Muslims. The mindlessness and heartlessness of the travel ban should humiliate us, not you. Understand this: President Trump is not America!
I apologize to Nadia Murad, the brave young Yazidi woman from Iraq who was made a sex slave — but since escaping, has campaigned around the world against ISIS and sexual slavery. She has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, yet is now barred from the United States.
I apologize to Edna Adan, a heroic Somali woman who has battled for decades for women’s health and led the fight against female genital mutilation. Edna speaks at American universities, champions girls’ education and defies extremists — and she’s one of those inspiring me to do the same.
I don’t want to take Trump-as-an-extremist too far: He’s not beheading anyone, and the security challenge is real. Nobody has a problem with improving safety, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both oversaw improvements in vetting. Yet Trump tackled the issue in a way that bolsters the ISIS narrative and thus makes us less safe.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/opin ... ef=opinion
WASHINGTON — It was at a campaign rally in August that President Trump most fully unveiled the dark vision of an America under siege by “radical Islam” that is now radically reshaping the policies of the United States.
On a stage lined with American flags in Youngstown, Ohio, Mr. Trump, who months before had called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration, argued that the United States faced a threat on par with the greatest evils of the 20th century. The Islamic State was brutalizing the Middle East, and Muslim immigrants in the West were killing innocents at nightclubs, offices and churches, he said. Extreme measures were needed.
“The hateful ideology of radical Islam,” he told supporters, must not be “allowed to reside or spread within our own communities.”
Mr. Trump was echoing a strain of anti-Islamic theorizing familiar to anyone who has been immersed in security and counterterrorism debates over the last 20 years. He has embraced a deeply suspicious view of Islam that several of his aides have promoted, notably retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, now his national security adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s top strategist.
This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings about extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme forms, this view promotes conspiracies about government infiltration and the danger that Shariah, the legal code of Islam, may take over in the United States.
Those espousing such views present Islam as an inherently hostile ideology whose adherents are enemies of Christianity and Judaism and seek to conquer nonbelievers either by violence or through a sort of stealthy brainwashing.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/p ... 87722&_r=0
******
An Apology to Muslims for President Trump
Whenever an extremist in the Muslim world does something crazy, people demand that moderate Muslims step forward to condemn the extremism. So let’s take our own advice: We Americans should now condemn our own extremist.
In that spirit, I hereby apologize to Muslims. The mindlessness and heartlessness of the travel ban should humiliate us, not you. Understand this: President Trump is not America!
I apologize to Nadia Murad, the brave young Yazidi woman from Iraq who was made a sex slave — but since escaping, has campaigned around the world against ISIS and sexual slavery. She has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, yet is now barred from the United States.
I apologize to Edna Adan, a heroic Somali woman who has battled for decades for women’s health and led the fight against female genital mutilation. Edna speaks at American universities, champions girls’ education and defies extremists — and she’s one of those inspiring me to do the same.
I don’t want to take Trump-as-an-extremist too far: He’s not beheading anyone, and the security challenge is real. Nobody has a problem with improving safety, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both oversaw improvements in vetting. Yet Trump tackled the issue in a way that bolsters the ISIS narrative and thus makes us less safe.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/opin ... ef=opinion
MSMS reply Nov 6, 1951(Times of London)
When The Times of London made unfair allegations against Islam and the Muslims in a leading article on 22 October 1951, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III sent a spirited reply which was published in The Times 6 November, 1951 issue.
The Tolerance of Islam’,
Reply to The Times of London (London, United Kingdom) 6 November 1951 In your leading article of October 22 [1951] under the heading “The Middle East”
You have stated that “in the Muslim countries the second tendency (a violent reaction against the West) is exaggerated by an intolerant religion which teaches the duty as shunning foreign influences.” This sweeping generalisation, not only against Muslims but against their faith and Islam itself, is both untrue and unfair, and, indeed, shows a lamentable dearth of knowledge regarding Islam and its legal and religious principles, even among leading writers of the leading journals of the West.
Even a little knowledge of Islam will show that its religion is not only tolerant of other faiths, but most respectful, and, indeed, fully accepts the divine inspiration of all theistic faiths that came before Islam. It does not only teach tolerance to its followers, but goes a step further and enjoins on them all to create the godly quality of Hilm, that is, tolerance, forbearance, patience, calmness, and forgiveness. It is due to the spirit of tolerance of Islam that even the smallest Christian and Jewish minorities survived and kept all their doctrines during the thousand years of Muslim rule. Nothing like what happened to Muslims in Spain after the Christian conquest has ever happened to a non-Muslim faith in any Islamic dominion. How can Europeans be so ignorant as to have forgotten that in the first century of Islam the Khalifas ordered that all that was best in Greek and Roman cultures should be assimilated; that not only the philosophy, medicine, and science of Greece but its poetry and drama were carefully translated into Arabic and were generally sought not only by the learned but also by the pious.
The Muslim attitude towards the absorption of ideas was based on the principle of Islam which enjoins to acquire knowledge wherever available, and there is a well-known and authentic saying of the Prophet that “his followers should seek learning even if they have to go to China.” Islam, by its geographical position, suffered the terrible Mongol invasions one after the other, just at the time when it was weakened by the long and immense efforts with which it had mastered the many successive crusades. It should not be forgotten that the Tartar invasions came one generation after the other. In fact, in the interest of the universal unification of mankind the Qur’an ignores the minor differences and says: “Come, let us unite to what is common to us all”, which obviously encourages Muslims to assimilate ideas and even customs from others. It is, of course, true that Muslim countries, like modern European races, have acquired in this century a strong sense of nationalism which has no connexion with their religion. As such, if there has been violent reaction against the West in some of the Muslim countries, the reason is to be found in the attitude and behaviour of the Westerners, their ignorance and want of respect for the faith and culture of Islam, of which the reference to that faith in your leading article is a typical and usual example.
Only recently I was in all the Muslim States where there is a so-called anti-Western agitation, and I have no hesitation in saying that if the Atlantic nations and the West generally wants better relationship with the Muslims, the solution lies in their own hands, and this can be done only if they change their mental attitude and cultivate better understanding of the Muslims’ material needs and loyal recognition of the high quality of their national culture and the purity of their faith.
His Highness the Aga Khan III
When The Times of London made unfair allegations against Islam and the Muslims in a leading article on 22 October 1951, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III sent a spirited reply which was published in The Times 6 November, 1951 issue.
The Tolerance of Islam’,
Reply to The Times of London (London, United Kingdom) 6 November 1951 In your leading article of October 22 [1951] under the heading “The Middle East”
You have stated that “in the Muslim countries the second tendency (a violent reaction against the West) is exaggerated by an intolerant religion which teaches the duty as shunning foreign influences.” This sweeping generalisation, not only against Muslims but against their faith and Islam itself, is both untrue and unfair, and, indeed, shows a lamentable dearth of knowledge regarding Islam and its legal and religious principles, even among leading writers of the leading journals of the West.
Even a little knowledge of Islam will show that its religion is not only tolerant of other faiths, but most respectful, and, indeed, fully accepts the divine inspiration of all theistic faiths that came before Islam. It does not only teach tolerance to its followers, but goes a step further and enjoins on them all to create the godly quality of Hilm, that is, tolerance, forbearance, patience, calmness, and forgiveness. It is due to the spirit of tolerance of Islam that even the smallest Christian and Jewish minorities survived and kept all their doctrines during the thousand years of Muslim rule. Nothing like what happened to Muslims in Spain after the Christian conquest has ever happened to a non-Muslim faith in any Islamic dominion. How can Europeans be so ignorant as to have forgotten that in the first century of Islam the Khalifas ordered that all that was best in Greek and Roman cultures should be assimilated; that not only the philosophy, medicine, and science of Greece but its poetry and drama were carefully translated into Arabic and were generally sought not only by the learned but also by the pious.
The Muslim attitude towards the absorption of ideas was based on the principle of Islam which enjoins to acquire knowledge wherever available, and there is a well-known and authentic saying of the Prophet that “his followers should seek learning even if they have to go to China.” Islam, by its geographical position, suffered the terrible Mongol invasions one after the other, just at the time when it was weakened by the long and immense efforts with which it had mastered the many successive crusades. It should not be forgotten that the Tartar invasions came one generation after the other. In fact, in the interest of the universal unification of mankind the Qur’an ignores the minor differences and says: “Come, let us unite to what is common to us all”, which obviously encourages Muslims to assimilate ideas and even customs from others. It is, of course, true that Muslim countries, like modern European races, have acquired in this century a strong sense of nationalism which has no connexion with their religion. As such, if there has been violent reaction against the West in some of the Muslim countries, the reason is to be found in the attitude and behaviour of the Westerners, their ignorance and want of respect for the faith and culture of Islam, of which the reference to that faith in your leading article is a typical and usual example.
Only recently I was in all the Muslim States where there is a so-called anti-Western agitation, and I have no hesitation in saying that if the Atlantic nations and the West generally wants better relationship with the Muslims, the solution lies in their own hands, and this can be done only if they change their mental attitude and cultivate better understanding of the Muslims’ material needs and loyal recognition of the high quality of their national culture and the purity of their faith.
His Highness the Aga Khan III
The article below highlights that discrimination against women which has been depicted as an aspect of Islam is also prevalent in Christianity. Both faiths have fundamentalist elements of these negative tendencies.
Is Your Pastor Sexist?
Excerpt:
But the debate on women’s roles, in church and at home, must be aired, and damaging theology challenged. The problem with teaching based on archaic notions of a gender hierarchy goes far beyond any one congregation. As I can attest, this is true in Australia, too.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/opin ... &te=1&_r=0
Is Your Pastor Sexist?
Excerpt:
But the debate on women’s roles, in church and at home, must be aired, and damaging theology challenged. The problem with teaching based on archaic notions of a gender hierarchy goes far beyond any one congregation. As I can attest, this is true in Australia, too.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/opin ... &te=1&_r=0
How Islamic scholarship birthed modern astronomy
“There were so many contributions over a millennium that it’s impossible to pick just a few.”
Astronomy may be the oldest natural science in the world. Before humans ever took to systematically studying the skies, we were craning our necks upwards, observing the curious movements of some bright points of light, and the stillness of others. Civilizations around the world have incorporated astronomical observations into everything from their architecture to their storytelling and while the pinnacle of the science is most commonly thought to have been during the Renaissance, it actually began a thousand years earlier and 5,000 miles to the East.
Around the 6th century AD, Europe entered what’s known as the Dark Ages. This period of time from around 500 AD until to the 13th century witnessed the suppression of intellectual thought and scholarship around the continent because it was seen as a conflict to the religious views of the church. During this time the written word became scarce, and research and observations went dormant.
While Europe was in an intellectual coma, the Islamic empire which stretched from Moorish Spain, to Egypt and even China, was entering their “Golden Age”. Astronomy was of particular interest to Islamic scholars in Iran and Iraq and until this time around 800 AD, the only astronomical textbook was Ptolemy’s Almagest, written around 100 AD in Greece. This venerable text is still used as the main reference for ancient astronomy in academia to this day. Muslim scholars waited 700 years for this fundamental Greek text to be translated into Arabic, and once it was, they got to work understanding its contents.
More...
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/02/m ... -astronomy
“There were so many contributions over a millennium that it’s impossible to pick just a few.”
Astronomy may be the oldest natural science in the world. Before humans ever took to systematically studying the skies, we were craning our necks upwards, observing the curious movements of some bright points of light, and the stillness of others. Civilizations around the world have incorporated astronomical observations into everything from their architecture to their storytelling and while the pinnacle of the science is most commonly thought to have been during the Renaissance, it actually began a thousand years earlier and 5,000 miles to the East.
Around the 6th century AD, Europe entered what’s known as the Dark Ages. This period of time from around 500 AD until to the 13th century witnessed the suppression of intellectual thought and scholarship around the continent because it was seen as a conflict to the religious views of the church. During this time the written word became scarce, and research and observations went dormant.
While Europe was in an intellectual coma, the Islamic empire which stretched from Moorish Spain, to Egypt and even China, was entering their “Golden Age”. Astronomy was of particular interest to Islamic scholars in Iran and Iraq and until this time around 800 AD, the only astronomical textbook was Ptolemy’s Almagest, written around 100 AD in Greece. This venerable text is still used as the main reference for ancient astronomy in academia to this day. Muslim scholars waited 700 years for this fundamental Greek text to be translated into Arabic, and once it was, they got to work understanding its contents.
More...
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/02/m ... -astronomy
Islamic and Arab art institute opening in New York aims to challenge stereotypes
The city’s first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art aims to counter misconceptions and provide a hub for exhibitions and interfaith dialogue
Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani noticed something missing in New York City’s cultural institutions – there is the Swiss Institute, the Asia Society and the Jewish Museum, but there isn’t anything to represent Arab Muslim artists, until now.
Al-Thani, who is part of the ruling family of Qatar, is opening up New York City’s first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art on 4 May.
The 2,500 sq ft space will host exhibitions with Muslim and Arab artists, foster interfaith dialogue with public discussions and will be home to a new bookstore. According to Al-Thani, who is the founding director, he wanted to set straight some Muslim stereotypes.
“If we dig into how Arabs and Muslims are stereotyped, they go way back,” said Al-Thani. “It made sense to me there had to be an art and culture institute that represents the Arab and Islamic region, as there isn’t really one here in New York.”
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... -york-city
The city’s first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art aims to counter misconceptions and provide a hub for exhibitions and interfaith dialogue
Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani noticed something missing in New York City’s cultural institutions – there is the Swiss Institute, the Asia Society and the Jewish Museum, but there isn’t anything to represent Arab Muslim artists, until now.
Al-Thani, who is part of the ruling family of Qatar, is opening up New York City’s first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art on 4 May.
The 2,500 sq ft space will host exhibitions with Muslim and Arab artists, foster interfaith dialogue with public discussions and will be home to a new bookstore. According to Al-Thani, who is the founding director, he wanted to set straight some Muslim stereotypes.
“If we dig into how Arabs and Muslims are stereotyped, they go way back,” said Al-Thani. “It made sense to me there had to be an art and culture institute that represents the Arab and Islamic region, as there isn’t really one here in New York.”
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... -york-city
Eid stamp recognizes two festivals celebrated by Muslims in Canada and worldwide
They number more than one million people in Canada, proudly embrace this country’s diversity and democratic freedoms, and are one of the most observant and fastest-growing religious groups.
Now Muslims in Canada have a stamp that recognizes two of their faith’s most important festivals, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Canada Post issued the stamp today, together with members of the Muslim communities in Montréal and in Richmond Hill, Ont., north of Toronto.
The Eid stamp is one of three new religious stamps Canada Post will issue this year, which reflects our pride in Canada being a land of diverse faiths, customs and celebrations. Earlier this year, Canada Post and India Post agreed on a historic joint stamp issue featuring two stamps marking Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. One stamp from each country will be released on the same day in the fall of 2017. Canada Post had also announced earlier that it will issue a Hanukkah stamp this year, recognizing the Jewish faith’s eight-day celebration in December.
More and photo...
https://www.canadapost.ca/magazine/en/eid/
They number more than one million people in Canada, proudly embrace this country’s diversity and democratic freedoms, and are one of the most observant and fastest-growing religious groups.
Now Muslims in Canada have a stamp that recognizes two of their faith’s most important festivals, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Canada Post issued the stamp today, together with members of the Muslim communities in Montréal and in Richmond Hill, Ont., north of Toronto.
The Eid stamp is one of three new religious stamps Canada Post will issue this year, which reflects our pride in Canada being a land of diverse faiths, customs and celebrations. Earlier this year, Canada Post and India Post agreed on a historic joint stamp issue featuring two stamps marking Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. One stamp from each country will be released on the same day in the fall of 2017. Canada Post had also announced earlier that it will issue a Hanukkah stamp this year, recognizing the Jewish faith’s eight-day celebration in December.
More and photo...
https://www.canadapost.ca/magazine/en/eid/
130 imams refuse to perform funeral prayer for London Bridge terrorists
More than 100 imams and religious leaders have refused to perform the traditional Islamic prayer for the London Bridge attackers.
The leaders said they would not carry out the ritual that is normally performed for every Muslim, regardless of their actions.
In a statement on social media, the group said: “Consequently, and in light of other such ethical principles which are quintessential to Islam, we will not perform the traditional Islamic funeral prayer over the perpetrators and we also urge fellow imams and religious authorities to withdraw such a privilege.
The statement added: “This is because such indefensible actions are completely at odds with the lofty teachings of Islam.”
Religious leaders of all backgrounds have condemned the attack which killed seven and injured 47 on Saturday evening when three men rammed a rental van into pedestrians then randomly stabbed revellers in bars and restaurants near Borough Market.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/130 ... ailsignout
More than 100 imams and religious leaders have refused to perform the traditional Islamic prayer for the London Bridge attackers.
The leaders said they would not carry out the ritual that is normally performed for every Muslim, regardless of their actions.
In a statement on social media, the group said: “Consequently, and in light of other such ethical principles which are quintessential to Islam, we will not perform the traditional Islamic funeral prayer over the perpetrators and we also urge fellow imams and religious authorities to withdraw such a privilege.
The statement added: “This is because such indefensible actions are completely at odds with the lofty teachings of Islam.”
Religious leaders of all backgrounds have condemned the attack which killed seven and injured 47 on Saturday evening when three men rammed a rental van into pedestrians then randomly stabbed revellers in bars and restaurants near Borough Market.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/130 ... ailsignout
Postal Service Commemorates Two Most Important Muslim Festivals With New Eid Greetings Stamp
On Sale Today Nationwide Special Ceremony to be Held at Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, KY, Monday, June 13
DEARBORN, MI — The U.S. Postal Service today dedicated the Eid Greetings Forever Stamp recognizing the two most important festivals — or eids — in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The ceremony was held at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.
In addition, a special Eid Greetings stamp ceremony will be held Monday, June 13, at 11 a.m. EDT at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, KY.
The Postal Service has issued stamps to commemorate these two Islamic holidays since 2001. As with the previous Eid releases, today’s stamp features the work of world-renowned calligrapher, Mohamed Zakariya of Arlington, VA, who worked with art director Ethel Kessler to create this design.
“As one of the nation’s oldest public service institutions, the Postal Service considers it a tremendous honor to celebrate the diversity of this great nation through our commemorative stamps,” said Detroit Postmaster Derron Bray, who dedicated the stamp.
“Ours is truly a world culture, and our stamps allow us to weave together the unique threads of our national tapestry,” Bray said. “The Eid Greetings stamp exemplifies the events and cultures that make America unique in the world of history.”
https://about.usps.com/news/national-re ... 16_049.htm
On Sale Today Nationwide Special Ceremony to be Held at Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, KY, Monday, June 13
DEARBORN, MI — The U.S. Postal Service today dedicated the Eid Greetings Forever Stamp recognizing the two most important festivals — or eids — in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The ceremony was held at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.
In addition, a special Eid Greetings stamp ceremony will be held Monday, June 13, at 11 a.m. EDT at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, KY.
The Postal Service has issued stamps to commemorate these two Islamic holidays since 2001. As with the previous Eid releases, today’s stamp features the work of world-renowned calligrapher, Mohamed Zakariya of Arlington, VA, who worked with art director Ethel Kessler to create this design.
“As one of the nation’s oldest public service institutions, the Postal Service considers it a tremendous honor to celebrate the diversity of this great nation through our commemorative stamps,” said Detroit Postmaster Derron Bray, who dedicated the stamp.
“Ours is truly a world culture, and our stamps allow us to weave together the unique threads of our national tapestry,” Bray said. “The Eid Greetings stamp exemplifies the events and cultures that make America unique in the world of history.”
https://about.usps.com/news/national-re ... 16_049.htm
City of Aurora Illinois proclaims Holy Month of Ramadan & Eid al-Fitr
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2018/ ... d-al-fitr/
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2018/ ... d-al-fitr/
Education Theme 6-1: Misperceptions and Misrepresentations of Islam
Did you know that stereotypes and misperceptions of Islam and Muslims have existed in the Western world for centuries?
“When the clashes of modern times have come, they have most often grown out of particular political circumstances, the twists and turns of power relationships and economic ambitions, rather than deep theological divides. Yet sadly, what is highly abnormal in the Islamic world gets mistaken for what is normal. Of course, media perceptions of our world in recent years have often been conveyed through a lens of war. But that is all the more reason to shape global conversation in a more informed direction.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Address to Both Houses of the Parliament of Canada, Ottawa, February 27, 2014
The final topic of the Diamond Jubilee International Education Themes explores what it means to be an Ambassador of Islam in the global context of today, and how we can act as Ambassadors in our everyday lives. This article will review misperceptions and misrepresentations of Islam commonly held in today’s world, particularly in North America and Europe.
How are Islam and Muslim societies sometimes perceived by people in the West?
In the global media, Islam and Muslim societies are frequently linked with acts of violence, terrorism, and the oppression of women that do not represent the true character of Islam. These misrepresentations, when left unchecked and uncorrected, easily lead to feelings of suspicion, animosity, fear and hostility.
Do some people in Muslim societies also misunderstand the Western world?
Mawlana Hazar Imam has often described this lack of understanding as a mutual problem between the West and the Muslim world. In many Muslim societies, ignorance and stereotypes about the West also exist, which can feed into anti-Western sentiments. In extreme cases, this results in acts of violence targeting symbols that represent the West.
What contributes to the misperceptions of people, including Muslims?
The misrepresentation of people, including Muslims, is not a new phenomenon, and is rooted in simplistic stereotypes, rather than understanding the diversity and complex factors that shape human activities. Since early European exploration of the East, Western misperceptions of the Muslim world flourished and these harmful stereotypes have survived until today. These misperceptions are spread due to various factors.
The first is a lack of understanding and education. In Western education systems, there is almost a total absence of teaching about Islam, the diversity of the Muslim Ummah, and the history of Muslim societies. Similarly, Muslim education often fails to understand the diversity and history of the West.
The second cause of misperceptions is the failure to understand or discuss the historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts from which actions, beliefs and traditions arise.
Third, events and actions that make the news in the Muslim world are often the result of political and economic interests rather than theological or religious factors.
What does Mawlana Hazar Imam believe can be done to correct these misperceptions?
In June 2002, Mawlana Hazar Imam spoke of the need for greater education to correct misperceptions and improve understanding in his speech at the Banquet Hosted in Honour of Governor Perry in Houston, Texas:
“For a number of years I have voiced my concern that the faith of a billion people is not part of the general education process in the West – ignored by school and college curricula in history, the sciences, philosophy and geography. An important goal of responsible education should be to ring- fence the theologising of the image of the Muslim world by treating Muslims as it treats Christians and Jews, by going beyond a focus on theology to considering civil society, politics, and economics of particular countries and peoples at various points in their history. This will reveal the fundamental diversity and pluralism of Muslim peoples, cultures, histories, philosophies and legal systems… Within the Islamic world there is work to do as well, starting with a better understanding and appreciation of the pluralism of cultures and interpretations among Muslims.”
Individually, when we each understand the root causes of these misperceptions, we are better positioned to correct them.
Learn more:
1.Speech: Mawlana Hazar Imam, Commonwealth Press Union Conference, 1996
2.Speech: Mawlana Hazar Imam, Opening Ceremony of the Ismaili Centre, Burnaby, 1985
3.Article: Karim H. Karim, “The Historical Resilience of Primary Stereotypes: Core Images of the Muslim Other,” 1997
4.Article: Carl W. Ernst, “Introduction: Islamophobia in America,” 2013
5.Article: Ameer Ali, “From Islamophobia to Westophobia: The Long Road to Radical Islamism,” 2016
https://the.ismaili/canada/education-th ... ions-islam
Did you know that stereotypes and misperceptions of Islam and Muslims have existed in the Western world for centuries?
“When the clashes of modern times have come, they have most often grown out of particular political circumstances, the twists and turns of power relationships and economic ambitions, rather than deep theological divides. Yet sadly, what is highly abnormal in the Islamic world gets mistaken for what is normal. Of course, media perceptions of our world in recent years have often been conveyed through a lens of war. But that is all the more reason to shape global conversation in a more informed direction.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Address to Both Houses of the Parliament of Canada, Ottawa, February 27, 2014
The final topic of the Diamond Jubilee International Education Themes explores what it means to be an Ambassador of Islam in the global context of today, and how we can act as Ambassadors in our everyday lives. This article will review misperceptions and misrepresentations of Islam commonly held in today’s world, particularly in North America and Europe.
How are Islam and Muslim societies sometimes perceived by people in the West?
In the global media, Islam and Muslim societies are frequently linked with acts of violence, terrorism, and the oppression of women that do not represent the true character of Islam. These misrepresentations, when left unchecked and uncorrected, easily lead to feelings of suspicion, animosity, fear and hostility.
Do some people in Muslim societies also misunderstand the Western world?
Mawlana Hazar Imam has often described this lack of understanding as a mutual problem between the West and the Muslim world. In many Muslim societies, ignorance and stereotypes about the West also exist, which can feed into anti-Western sentiments. In extreme cases, this results in acts of violence targeting symbols that represent the West.
What contributes to the misperceptions of people, including Muslims?
The misrepresentation of people, including Muslims, is not a new phenomenon, and is rooted in simplistic stereotypes, rather than understanding the diversity and complex factors that shape human activities. Since early European exploration of the East, Western misperceptions of the Muslim world flourished and these harmful stereotypes have survived until today. These misperceptions are spread due to various factors.
The first is a lack of understanding and education. In Western education systems, there is almost a total absence of teaching about Islam, the diversity of the Muslim Ummah, and the history of Muslim societies. Similarly, Muslim education often fails to understand the diversity and history of the West.
The second cause of misperceptions is the failure to understand or discuss the historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts from which actions, beliefs and traditions arise.
Third, events and actions that make the news in the Muslim world are often the result of political and economic interests rather than theological or religious factors.
What does Mawlana Hazar Imam believe can be done to correct these misperceptions?
In June 2002, Mawlana Hazar Imam spoke of the need for greater education to correct misperceptions and improve understanding in his speech at the Banquet Hosted in Honour of Governor Perry in Houston, Texas:
“For a number of years I have voiced my concern that the faith of a billion people is not part of the general education process in the West – ignored by school and college curricula in history, the sciences, philosophy and geography. An important goal of responsible education should be to ring- fence the theologising of the image of the Muslim world by treating Muslims as it treats Christians and Jews, by going beyond a focus on theology to considering civil society, politics, and economics of particular countries and peoples at various points in their history. This will reveal the fundamental diversity and pluralism of Muslim peoples, cultures, histories, philosophies and legal systems… Within the Islamic world there is work to do as well, starting with a better understanding and appreciation of the pluralism of cultures and interpretations among Muslims.”
Individually, when we each understand the root causes of these misperceptions, we are better positioned to correct them.
Learn more:
1.Speech: Mawlana Hazar Imam, Commonwealth Press Union Conference, 1996
2.Speech: Mawlana Hazar Imam, Opening Ceremony of the Ismaili Centre, Burnaby, 1985
3.Article: Karim H. Karim, “The Historical Resilience of Primary Stereotypes: Core Images of the Muslim Other,” 1997
4.Article: Carl W. Ernst, “Introduction: Islamophobia in America,” 2013
5.Article: Ameer Ali, “From Islamophobia to Westophobia: The Long Road to Radical Islamism,” 2016
https://the.ismaili/canada/education-th ... ions-islam
BOOK
Islam: Illustrated Journey Hardcover – Illustrated, 30 Jun 2018
by Farhad Daftary (Author), Zulfikar Hirji (Author)
Beginning in the world of late antiquity and the pre-Islamic period, the book takes the reader through Islam’s formative era and early development in the Arabian Peninsula, the rise and decline of major Muslim dynasties and finally into its place in the modern world.
Lavishly illustrated and written in an accessible style, Islam: An Illustrated Journey tells the story of Islam, a faith that is today practised by more than a billion people and is the fastest growing religion in the world.
The book contains a multitude of images, graphics, maps and charts, features many of the masterpieces of art, architecture and literature produced by Muslims along with an easy-to-use glossary and a detailed bibliography that will appeal to both general audiences and enthusiasts of Islamic societies and cultures and world civilizations.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Islam-Illustra ... 1898592357
Islam: Illustrated Journey Hardcover – Illustrated, 30 Jun 2018
by Farhad Daftary (Author), Zulfikar Hirji (Author)
Beginning in the world of late antiquity and the pre-Islamic period, the book takes the reader through Islam’s formative era and early development in the Arabian Peninsula, the rise and decline of major Muslim dynasties and finally into its place in the modern world.
Lavishly illustrated and written in an accessible style, Islam: An Illustrated Journey tells the story of Islam, a faith that is today practised by more than a billion people and is the fastest growing religion in the world.
The book contains a multitude of images, graphics, maps and charts, features many of the masterpieces of art, architecture and literature produced by Muslims along with an easy-to-use glossary and a detailed bibliography that will appeal to both general audiences and enthusiasts of Islamic societies and cultures and world civilizations.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Islam-Illustra ... 1898592357
How Islamic are Muslims?
*How Islamic are the Islamic Countries*
A study conducted by Prof. Hussain Askari of George Washington University entitled *“How Islamic are the Islamic Countries"* showed that most of the countries that apply *Islamic Principles* in their daily lives are not ones that are traditionally Muslim.
New Zealand ranked 1st,
Luxembourg 2nd,
Ireland 3rd,
Iceland 4th,
Finland 5th,
Denmark 6th
Canada 7th.
Malaysia 38th,
Kuwait 48th,
Bahrain 64th
and the surprise??
*Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked 131st*.
The study, published in the *Global Economy Journal* might be shocking to most of us but when we look around us and see the reality of the situation, we find that the results of the study are accurate and true.
As Muslims we seem to care only about performing religious Obligations/Rituals/Sunnah (prayer, fasting, niqab, beards, etc), reading the Qur’an and the Hadiths, but we don't practice what we espouse. We listen to religious lessons and sermons more than the other people on the face of the earth, but we are still not the best of Nations. In the last 60 years, we have listened to 3,000 Friday sermons.
A Chinese merchant once said: “Muslim merchants come to me and ask me to put fake international labels and brands on their goods. When I invite them to eat, they refuse because the food is not Halal. So it is Halal for them to sell fake goods?”
A Japanese Muslim said: “I traveled to the West and saw Islam in practice applied in the daily life of non-Muslims. I traveled to the East, I saw Islam but did not see any Muslims. I thank Allah I knew Islam before I knew how Muslims act.”
Religion should not be reduced to Prayer and Fasting. It is a way of life and it is about how we treat others.
Performing a religious obligation is up to you and it is something between you and Allah. However, good ethics is something between you and other people. In other words, if we do not put Islamic ethics into action and practice, corruption will become rampant and disgrace will be our future.
We should not judge a person based on how he performs religious obligations for he might be a hypocrite.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Verily, the bankrupt of my nation are those who come on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting and charity, but also with insults, slander, consuming wealth, shedding and beating others.”
I believe *Islam* (external aspect of faith) is incomplete without *Imaan* (internal aspect of faith) and *Ihsaan* (social aspect of faith). Ponder, understand and realize this.
Lord Bernard Shaw is said to have said:
*Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers.
*How Islamic are the Islamic Countries*
A study conducted by Prof. Hussain Askari of George Washington University entitled *“How Islamic are the Islamic Countries"* showed that most of the countries that apply *Islamic Principles* in their daily lives are not ones that are traditionally Muslim.
New Zealand ranked 1st,
Luxembourg 2nd,
Ireland 3rd,
Iceland 4th,
Finland 5th,
Denmark 6th
Canada 7th.
Malaysia 38th,
Kuwait 48th,
Bahrain 64th
and the surprise??
*Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked 131st*.
The study, published in the *Global Economy Journal* might be shocking to most of us but when we look around us and see the reality of the situation, we find that the results of the study are accurate and true.
As Muslims we seem to care only about performing religious Obligations/Rituals/Sunnah (prayer, fasting, niqab, beards, etc), reading the Qur’an and the Hadiths, but we don't practice what we espouse. We listen to religious lessons and sermons more than the other people on the face of the earth, but we are still not the best of Nations. In the last 60 years, we have listened to 3,000 Friday sermons.
A Chinese merchant once said: “Muslim merchants come to me and ask me to put fake international labels and brands on their goods. When I invite them to eat, they refuse because the food is not Halal. So it is Halal for them to sell fake goods?”
A Japanese Muslim said: “I traveled to the West and saw Islam in practice applied in the daily life of non-Muslims. I traveled to the East, I saw Islam but did not see any Muslims. I thank Allah I knew Islam before I knew how Muslims act.”
Religion should not be reduced to Prayer and Fasting. It is a way of life and it is about how we treat others.
Performing a religious obligation is up to you and it is something between you and Allah. However, good ethics is something between you and other people. In other words, if we do not put Islamic ethics into action and practice, corruption will become rampant and disgrace will be our future.
We should not judge a person based on how he performs religious obligations for he might be a hypocrite.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Verily, the bankrupt of my nation are those who come on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting and charity, but also with insults, slander, consuming wealth, shedding and beating others.”
I believe *Islam* (external aspect of faith) is incomplete without *Imaan* (internal aspect of faith) and *Ihsaan* (social aspect of faith). Ponder, understand and realize this.
Lord Bernard Shaw is said to have said:
*Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers.
Archaeological evidence for glass industry in ninth-century city of Samarra
The palace-city of Samarra, capital of the former Abbasid Caliphate, was home to an advanced industry of glass production and trade, according to a new study.
More...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 141031.htm
********
Initiative Brings Arab Art to New York Museums
While President Trump’s travel ban closed the country’s doors to those from some Arab countries, like Syria and Yemen, the Metropolitan Museum and other major New York institutions are taking the opposite tack. This fall, they will participate in the Arab Art and Education Initiative, a season of programming that celebrates Arab culture through art exhibitions, films and interviews.
The most extensive exhibition will take place at the Brooklyn Museum. Their show, “Syria, Then and Now: Stories from Refugees a Century Apart,” will run from Oct. 13 through Jan. 13, and present artifacts from medieval Raqqa alongside works by contemporary artists in response to the current refugee crisis. The artists presented include Mohamad Hafez, who creates tiny, war-torn urban edifices; and Issam Kourbaj, who created an installation of a scaled-down view of refugee camp in 2015.
Over at the Met, a daylong symposium on Oct. 24 will explore the relationship between Islamic art and avant-garde abstraction. On Oct. 23, the Guggenheim Museum will host a conversation with the Palestinian artist and scholar Samia Halaby.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/arts ... ref=oembed
The palace-city of Samarra, capital of the former Abbasid Caliphate, was home to an advanced industry of glass production and trade, according to a new study.
More...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 141031.htm
********
Initiative Brings Arab Art to New York Museums
While President Trump’s travel ban closed the country’s doors to those from some Arab countries, like Syria and Yemen, the Metropolitan Museum and other major New York institutions are taking the opposite tack. This fall, they will participate in the Arab Art and Education Initiative, a season of programming that celebrates Arab culture through art exhibitions, films and interviews.
The most extensive exhibition will take place at the Brooklyn Museum. Their show, “Syria, Then and Now: Stories from Refugees a Century Apart,” will run from Oct. 13 through Jan. 13, and present artifacts from medieval Raqqa alongside works by contemporary artists in response to the current refugee crisis. The artists presented include Mohamad Hafez, who creates tiny, war-torn urban edifices; and Issam Kourbaj, who created an installation of a scaled-down view of refugee camp in 2015.
Over at the Met, a daylong symposium on Oct. 24 will explore the relationship between Islamic art and avant-garde abstraction. On Oct. 23, the Guggenheim Museum will host a conversation with the Palestinian artist and scholar Samia Halaby.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/arts ... ref=oembed
The Latest Attack on Islam: It’s Not a Religion
Too many Americans would deny Muslims the religious liberty they insist upon for Christians.
Excerpt:
But when it comes to religious liberty for Americans, there’s a disturbing trend that has drawn much less attention. In recent years, state lawmakers, lawyers and influential social commentators have been making the case that Muslims are not protected by the First Amendment.
Why? Because, they argue, Islam is not a religion.
This once seemed like an absurd fringe argument. But it has gained momentum. John Bennett, a Republican state legislator in Oklahoma, said in 2014, “Islam is not even a religion; it is a political system that uses a deity to advance its agenda of global conquest.” In 2015, a former assistant United States attorney, Andrew C. McCarthy, wrote in National Review that Islam “should be understood as conveying a belief system that is not merely, or even primarily, religious.” In 2016, Michael Flynn, who the next year was briefly President Trump’s national security adviser, told an ACT for America conference in Dallas that “Islam is a political ideology” that “hides behind the notion of it being a religion.” In a January 2018 news release, Neal Tapio of South Dakota, a Republican state senator who was planning to run for the United States House of Representatives, questioned whether the First Amendment applies to Muslims.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opin ... dline&te=1
Too many Americans would deny Muslims the religious liberty they insist upon for Christians.
Excerpt:
But when it comes to religious liberty for Americans, there’s a disturbing trend that has drawn much less attention. In recent years, state lawmakers, lawyers and influential social commentators have been making the case that Muslims are not protected by the First Amendment.
Why? Because, they argue, Islam is not a religion.
This once seemed like an absurd fringe argument. But it has gained momentum. John Bennett, a Republican state legislator in Oklahoma, said in 2014, “Islam is not even a religion; it is a political system that uses a deity to advance its agenda of global conquest.” In 2015, a former assistant United States attorney, Andrew C. McCarthy, wrote in National Review that Islam “should be understood as conveying a belief system that is not merely, or even primarily, religious.” In 2016, Michael Flynn, who the next year was briefly President Trump’s national security adviser, told an ACT for America conference in Dallas that “Islam is a political ideology” that “hides behind the notion of it being a religion.” In a January 2018 news release, Neal Tapio of South Dakota, a Republican state senator who was planning to run for the United States House of Representatives, questioned whether the First Amendment applies to Muslims.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opin ... dline&te=1
Dispatches from the Split Screen: Islam and the Media (Full Session)
As the Western media reacted to the horrific attacks on the office of Charlie Hebdo and the Kosher deli in Paris, producers from news outlets around the country picked up their phones, looking for people to speak for the Muslim global community. When violent jihadists take lives, Muslim public intellectuals are often asked to explain, make distinctions, or even apologize. As has been the case many times in the years since September 11, 2001, Islam writ large found itself sharing the screen with images of terror from around the world. Arsalan Iftikhar, Dalia Mogahed, and Reza Aslan share their stories from years spent on speed dial, answering for Islam. They reflect on the media’s role in distributing images of violence and propaganda, and the editorial decisions around when to publish — or not — images of the Prophet.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo5f7lu ... p=&index=2
As the Western media reacted to the horrific attacks on the office of Charlie Hebdo and the Kosher deli in Paris, producers from news outlets around the country picked up their phones, looking for people to speak for the Muslim global community. When violent jihadists take lives, Muslim public intellectuals are often asked to explain, make distinctions, or even apologize. As has been the case many times in the years since September 11, 2001, Islam writ large found itself sharing the screen with images of terror from around the world. Arsalan Iftikhar, Dalia Mogahed, and Reza Aslan share their stories from years spent on speed dial, answering for Islam. They reflect on the media’s role in distributing images of violence and propaganda, and the editorial decisions around when to publish — or not — images of the Prophet.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo5f7lu ... p=&index=2
The flourishing of science in Islam
As patrons and promoters of the entire spectrum of human knowledge, historic Muslim societies laid the foundations for a flowering of culture and learning, the impact of which would be felt across the Islamic and wider civilisations for centuries to come.
From the first revelation of the Message of Islam, knowledge was seen as a central facet of the faith of Muslims. The Holy Qur’an encouraged believers to reflect upon the purpose and meaning of life and inspired them to embark upon journeys of search and quest in the pursuit of a deeper understanding of the mysteries of Allah’s creation.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) reminded Muslims that the search for knowledge was an obligatory duty upon them, even if it meant travelling as far as China to acquire it. In the same spirit, Imam Ali highlighted the pre-eminence of the intellect, explaining that the sum of human knowledge increases the more it is shared.
As Muslims reflected upon these ideals, they were inspired to pursue excellence in all fields of endeavour such that today, the modern world is indebted to the Muslim scientists, physicians, mathematicians, and philosophers whose hunger for knowledge in their own time led them to push the boundaries of invention, extend the frontiers of scientific thought, and expand the breadth and depth of human knowledge.
Soon, from Baghdad to Bukhara, and Cordoba to Cairo, historic Muslim civilisations became centres of learning in fields such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and physics.
A major figure to have impacted the modern world, was the famous mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, from whose name we derive the word “algorithm”. Everyday calculations and web-searches we take for granted in our day-to-day lives are linked back to this great ninth-century thinker, and it is because of his work that the Indian numerals one to nine as well as zero were introduced into Arabic. The invention of algebra has also been credited to al-Khwarizmi. He described the usefulness of this mathematical formulae in solving problems of land division and the scriptural guidelines around inheritance.
The famous Ibn Sina — known in the Latin world as Avicenna — also became one of the most prominent scientist-philosophers and physicists of the ninth-century. From an early age, he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a desire for learning in all fields. This inspired him to embark on a lifelong journey of search. As a child prodigy from an early age, Ibn Sina surpassed many of his teachers and in later life, his famous Canon of Medicine — a vast survey of the science in medical fields — served as the standard textbook on medicine for centuries in the Islamic world as well as in Europe.
In striving to learn more about Allah’s creation, the notable female astronomer Mariam al-Ijliya and others advanced and fine-tuned Greek instruments such as the astrolabe in 10th-century Syria. The astrolabe helped to establish time, measured the movement of planets and stars, and determined position when travelling, thus making a significant contribution to what would later become known as space science.
The 11th-century scientist Hasan Ibn al-Haytham spent much of his time in the Fatimid capital of Cairo, and was an early proponent of the scientific method, or the concept of proving a hypothesis based on experimentation and verifiable evidence. In a crucial development, al-Haytham was the first to explain the theory of vision, which occurs when light bounces off an object and then to the eye. This finding paved the way for the modern science of optics.
In exercising the human intellect as an act of search in the path of faith, the great Muslim intellectuals and scholars of the Muslim world serve as a reminder of the rich heritage of learning and quest which eventually contributed towards the flourishing of global civilisation, particularly in the field of science.
During the month of November, The.Ismaili will celebrate the theme of science and technology by exploring how Jamats around the world are continuing the tradition of innovation and participating in developments at the forefront of science and technology.
https://the.ismaili/news/flourishing-science-islam
As patrons and promoters of the entire spectrum of human knowledge, historic Muslim societies laid the foundations for a flowering of culture and learning, the impact of which would be felt across the Islamic and wider civilisations for centuries to come.
From the first revelation of the Message of Islam, knowledge was seen as a central facet of the faith of Muslims. The Holy Qur’an encouraged believers to reflect upon the purpose and meaning of life and inspired them to embark upon journeys of search and quest in the pursuit of a deeper understanding of the mysteries of Allah’s creation.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) reminded Muslims that the search for knowledge was an obligatory duty upon them, even if it meant travelling as far as China to acquire it. In the same spirit, Imam Ali highlighted the pre-eminence of the intellect, explaining that the sum of human knowledge increases the more it is shared.
As Muslims reflected upon these ideals, they were inspired to pursue excellence in all fields of endeavour such that today, the modern world is indebted to the Muslim scientists, physicians, mathematicians, and philosophers whose hunger for knowledge in their own time led them to push the boundaries of invention, extend the frontiers of scientific thought, and expand the breadth and depth of human knowledge.
Soon, from Baghdad to Bukhara, and Cordoba to Cairo, historic Muslim civilisations became centres of learning in fields such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and physics.
A major figure to have impacted the modern world, was the famous mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, from whose name we derive the word “algorithm”. Everyday calculations and web-searches we take for granted in our day-to-day lives are linked back to this great ninth-century thinker, and it is because of his work that the Indian numerals one to nine as well as zero were introduced into Arabic. The invention of algebra has also been credited to al-Khwarizmi. He described the usefulness of this mathematical formulae in solving problems of land division and the scriptural guidelines around inheritance.
The famous Ibn Sina — known in the Latin world as Avicenna — also became one of the most prominent scientist-philosophers and physicists of the ninth-century. From an early age, he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a desire for learning in all fields. This inspired him to embark on a lifelong journey of search. As a child prodigy from an early age, Ibn Sina surpassed many of his teachers and in later life, his famous Canon of Medicine — a vast survey of the science in medical fields — served as the standard textbook on medicine for centuries in the Islamic world as well as in Europe.
In striving to learn more about Allah’s creation, the notable female astronomer Mariam al-Ijliya and others advanced and fine-tuned Greek instruments such as the astrolabe in 10th-century Syria. The astrolabe helped to establish time, measured the movement of planets and stars, and determined position when travelling, thus making a significant contribution to what would later become known as space science.
The 11th-century scientist Hasan Ibn al-Haytham spent much of his time in the Fatimid capital of Cairo, and was an early proponent of the scientific method, or the concept of proving a hypothesis based on experimentation and verifiable evidence. In a crucial development, al-Haytham was the first to explain the theory of vision, which occurs when light bounces off an object and then to the eye. This finding paved the way for the modern science of optics.
In exercising the human intellect as an act of search in the path of faith, the great Muslim intellectuals and scholars of the Muslim world serve as a reminder of the rich heritage of learning and quest which eventually contributed towards the flourishing of global civilisation, particularly in the field of science.
During the month of November, The.Ismaili will celebrate the theme of science and technology by exploring how Jamats around the world are continuing the tradition of innovation and participating in developments at the forefront of science and technology.
https://the.ismaili/news/flourishing-science-islam
Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
In a roundtable discussion, host Ray Suarez interviews author Reza Aslan (No god But God; How to Win a Cosmic War) and Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and co-author of the groundbreaking book Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. This program draws upon Ms. Mogahed's book and reveals major findings of the unprecedented Gallup World Poll, which represents the views of more than 90% of the worlds Muslim population, making it the largest and most comprehensive ongoing study of contemporary Muslims being conducted. The results are fascinating, and often counterintuitive. This Link TV original program will address the questions many are pondering: Why is the Muslim world so anti-American? Who are the extremists? Is democracy something Muslims really want? What do Muslim women want?
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn12s19 ... G1yzYdzshI
In a roundtable discussion, host Ray Suarez interviews author Reza Aslan (No god But God; How to Win a Cosmic War) and Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and co-author of the groundbreaking book Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. This program draws upon Ms. Mogahed's book and reveals major findings of the unprecedented Gallup World Poll, which represents the views of more than 90% of the worlds Muslim population, making it the largest and most comprehensive ongoing study of contemporary Muslims being conducted. The results are fascinating, and often counterintuitive. This Link TV original program will address the questions many are pondering: Why is the Muslim world so anti-American? Who are the extremists? Is democracy something Muslims really want? What do Muslim women want?
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn12s19 ... G1yzYdzshI
Beyond the Clash of Civilizations (Part 1)
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkn6KUy ... p=&index=3
Part one of a four-part series on Professor Azim Nanji's article "Beyond the Clash of Civilizations", which is extracted from an address given as part of the "2020: Building the Future" Lecture Series at the University of Waterloo on March 22, 2001. This first part gives an overview of the article, and describes the work of Samuel Huntington on the idea of a "Clash of Civilizations". The article itself can be found from the Institute of Ismaili Studies web site. If you are interested in topics such as these, I will plan to record more videos, so you should consider subscribing to this channel.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkn6KUy ... p=&index=3
Part one of a four-part series on Professor Azim Nanji's article "Beyond the Clash of Civilizations", which is extracted from an address given as part of the "2020: Building the Future" Lecture Series at the University of Waterloo on March 22, 2001. This first part gives an overview of the article, and describes the work of Samuel Huntington on the idea of a "Clash of Civilizations". The article itself can be found from the Institute of Ismaili Studies web site. If you are interested in topics such as these, I will plan to record more videos, so you should consider subscribing to this channel.