Islam News

Nov 26 - More than two millions Muslims will gather around Mount Arafat at the climax of haj pilgrimage.

Just when I think it can't getany more idioticin the UK - it always does. The latest tale comes on the heels of my Friday post regarding the multiple chain and blade slicing machinecarrying muslim Mohsin Khan who avoided jail time when the judge/jury swallowed the excuse that Khan kept the flagellator as a spare in his car just in case he got the urge for some self mutilation and didn't intend to use it as an "offensive weapon".

Now comes the news that a muslim man - with criminal record taller than the gallons of ale you'll want to drink after reading about the below insanity -stays out of jail when he admits to brandishing an........offensive weapon (along with other violent acts).

Who couldn't have seen this coming? No go areas in Yorkshire are devisive and not helpful to community race relationships.

A judge in Ohio ruled a marriage arranged by a Muslim father for his 17-year-old daughter who now has converted to Christianity isn't valid, clearing her of accusations she made false statements in applying for a marriage license with the man who now is her husband.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - Stoning the devil and circling the Mecca Grand Mosque's kaaba shrine, two million pilgrims launched into the final rituals of the haj on Saturday ahead of their massive exodus from Islam's holiest city ...

By the third and final circumambulation in the five days, I had had what the Hajis were calling my "Malcolm X" moment. The American black activist and Muslim convert, who came to Mecca on pilgrimage, experienced a personally transforming moment of unity when he found himself circling the Kaaba next to a white man. The faith, he suddenly realised, was not about race politics or West versus East. Being a Muslim became for him - as now for me - a religious experience rather than a political identity.

Looking around at the diversity within the Islamic world - with pilgrims from more than 70 countries attending and making friends in the "tent city" of the nearby town Mina - the Malcolm X moment is just as relevant for today's world, in which many Muslim communities feel their faith has been overly politicised..

While their experiences in the two war zones vary, for many soldiers in the field - if not policy makers - the conflict in Afghanistan is one they think may prove harder and longer to win.

"The sheer terrain of Afghanistan is much more challenging: the mountains, the altitudes, severity of weather, the distances. That wears on an army," says Maj. Joseph Matthews, a battalion operations officer in the 10th Mountain Division. "You can flood Baghdad with soldiers but if you want to flood the mountains you are going to need huge numbers and logistics." McCann, a military policeman from Enterprise, Ala., says that the highest he ever got during his Iraq tour was a five-story building. In Afghanistan, troops routinely cross passes 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) and higher...

The people of Switzerland are preparing to vote on whether to ban the building of new minarets in the country.

Spiegel - The Turkish government fears a scheduled visit by Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, saying it could dent Turkish relations with the Netherlands and Europe ...

A 16-year old Christian girl from southern Sudan has been lashed 50 times for wearing a skirt deemed indecent by authorities in the north who enforce a strict version of Islamic law.

Silva Kashif said on Friday she was arrested by a plain-clothed policeman in a Khartoum market last week for wearing a skirt beneath the knee. She was convicted of offending public morality and received 50 lashes on the spot.

On Sunday Swiss voters will have their say on a controversial proposal to impose a constitutional ban on the building of minarets.

The proposal is backed by conservative Christian groups and by the biggest party in Switzerland's parliament, the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), which says allowing minarets would lead to the Islamisation of the country ...

GENEVA — The campaign posters are inflammatory: Minarets rising like missiles from the national flag.

A proposal championed by right-wing parties to ban minarets in Switzerland goes to a nationwide vote on Sunday in a referendum that has set off an emotional debate about national identity and stirred fears of boycotts and violent reactions from Muslim countries ...

Suheil Azam was sitting in a coffee shop in east London last month when one his friends began a debate on whether it was permissible under Islamic scripture for Muslims to wish their non-Muslim friends happy Christmas.

As a 23-year-old professional who socialises widely, Mr Azam had never considered the possibility that someone in his community might frown upon him for going round to his neighbours at Christmas or partying during New Year. But his friend, who had become increasingly devout, was adamant that such behaviour was haram (forbidden) ...

A Philippine politician ordered soldiers, police and other gunmen to kill at least 57 defenceless people in a horrifying slaughter that saw women shot in the genitals, the government alleges.

Twenty-seven victims were journalists and 15 were motorists who were driving past the area at the wrong time, all of whom were apparently killed to eliminate witnesses.

Ampatuan Jnr, who surrendered to authorities on Thursday and was taken to Manila where he was expected soon to be charged with mass murder, has denied any involvement and blamed Muslim rebels for the killings.

Ampatuan Jnr is the son of Maguindanao's governor, a Muslim clan chief of the same name who until this week was a close ally of President Gloria Arroyo's ruling coalition.

Maguindanao is part of the lawless Mindanao island, where Muslim clans rule vast areas backed by their own private armies, often out of the national government's control.

The Mufti-e-Azam Saudi Arab Sheikh Abdul Aziz in his sermon said on Thursday that Islam stresses respecting and helping each other and being kind to one another as Islam is a religion of compassion and respect, report said.

Some two million Muslims headed to Muzdalifa on Thursday after spending the day at the plain of Arafat to prepare to cast stones at the devil in the most dangerous part of the annual hajj pilgrimage ...

The torrential rains and heavy floods that slammed and engulfed western Saudi Arabia on Wednesday killed dozens of people, but it appeared Thursday that none were Hajj pilgrims making the obligatory journey for Muslims across the globe.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia -- The hajj to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina begins today.

Cairo - Police in the United Arab Emirates cracked down on youngsters at shopping malls who violated so-called 'decency laws,' media reported Saturday.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Norway: Muslims need a state of their own, says Krekar.

Interestingly enough, in his book Krekar, who considers himself a true Muslim scholar, is very dismissive of Osama bin Laden and most other 'leaders' whom he thinks do not really know Islamic law. And yet, here he suggests Bin Laden as the next Caliph [ie, Mohammed's stand-in]

The entire interview is available on YouTube (in Arabic).

In a new interview Mulla Krekar says that he wishes Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamist leaders will be heads of an Islamic super-state.

"The Muslims will become like the Jews in Europe, right until they establish a caliphate [ed: Islamic state]. Without a state we have no value," says mulla Krekar in a new interview with the al-Hiwar TV channel.