Islam News

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.

The Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is considered to be the Fifth Pillar of Islam.

When artists "find" themselves, it can pour water on their creative fire. This threatened to be the case in this anticipated concert, during which the former Cat Stevens presented highlights from his musical, Moonshadow.

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.

Wilberhum said in the Islam Forum:

The head of the UN has called on men around the world to help end violence against women. On the 10th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Ban Ki -moon has unveiled a newly created 'Network of Men'. He wants prominent male leaders to act as role models to get more men to condemn violence against women, which takes place in many forms and in many countries around the world. In Jordan, the UN says 43 per cent of women are victims of abuse ...

RALEIGH A North Carolina politician who heads a national Muslim civil rights group has condemned the Army psychiatrist charged in a deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

The father of the man charged with murdering an Arkansas soldier and injuring another outside a Little Rock recruiting center in June is speaking for the very first time with Today's THV. He opens up about his son, Abdulhakim Muhammad, his conversion to Islam and why he believes the shootings could have been prevented ...

Rare, heavy rainstorms soaked pilgrims and flooded the road into Mecca, snarling Islam's annual hajj as millions of Muslims headed for the holy sites.

The downpours add an extra hazard on top of intense concerns about the spread of swine flu ...

In the run-up to talks with Iran last month, many in Europe and the U.S. asked whether Iran would, or even could, come clean on its nuclear activities ...

The Ansar Al-Mujahideen jihadist forum issued a communiqu on November 24, 2009 in praise of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan ...

President Obama said on Tuesday that he will announce his decision on how many more troops to send to Afghanistan next week, and that it is his intention to "finish the job" that began with the overthrow of the Taliban government in the fall of 2001.