Islam for Women

The Youtube Video

Queen Rania to win first YouTube Visionary Award

… ” The YouTube Visionary Award was established to highlight those who use YouTube as a global platform for positive social change.

As the site has become a destination for humanitarianism, philanthropy, education and public service, this award pays tribute to individuals whose videos advance these principles in innovative, thought-provoking ways.

“Queen Rania sets the standard for breaking down stereotypes and her YouTube videos are nothing short of inspirational,”   said YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, adding   “It is both a pleasure and an honor to present her with this much-deserved tribute.”

” Queen Rania launched her YouTube channel in March 2008 to foster an open dialogue and combat ignorance and stereotypes.

Her YouTube videos bridge the gap between Eastern and Western cultures by examining the increasing involvement of women in the Middle East workforce and by debunking misguided assumptions about Muslims and Arabs.

To date, Her Majesty’s channel has generated nearly 3 million video views and received more than 43,000 messages from users around the world.

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CONGRATULATIONS, Her Majesty Queen Rania !

Stoning a gang rape victim, Amnesty International Report

Amnesty: Rape girl, 13, killed for adultery

November 1, 2008  -  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.Initial local media reports said Duhulow was 23, but her father told Amnesty International she was 13. Some of the Somali journalists who first reported the killing later told Amnesty International that they had reported she was 23 based upon her physical appearance.

It hard to come to senses after news like this knowing that it was Islam that introduced righteousness to a then pagan community. For thousands of years stoning to death and nailing on a cross (in Palestine)  were the most common ways of death penalty,  I suppose since Stone Age.

Jesus, who is also a Prophet for Muslims like all the other Prophets of Christianity said:  “If any of you have not committed a sin you can throw the first stone at her.” (Bible,  John 8:1-3)  

Painting: Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery, by Vasiliy Polenov   

  The Story in the Bible- The Adulterous Woman. (John 8:1-3)It was about a woman who had been caught committing adultery, and had to stand in front of the teachers of the law and Pharisees and also Jesus, and they said that “In our law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death,” and then they put all the pressure on Jesus by saying what do you think, and then said to Jesus, so that they could accuse him, but they didn’t trap Jesus.   Jesus then said “If  any of you have not committed a sin you can throw the first stone at  her.” The older people left first and eventually everybody had gone,  and there was just Jesus and the woman left. Jesus said to her “Where  are they all, there is no one left to condemn you,” and then said ” I  don’t condemn you either, go, but do not sin again.”  

As true Muslims believe in ALL the Prophets before Phophet Mohammed in my opinion this is a significant statement from Jesus.  And most importantly it  does not contradict the Quran.

In the Quran the stoning of an adulterous woman is not advised.    “And as for those who are guilty of an indecency from among your women, call to witnesses against them four (witnesses) from among you; then if they bear witness confine them to the houses until death comes close to them or God opens some way for them.” (Quran 4:15)

Some extreme branches of Islam still practice the stoning to death. In their understanding  its justification must be based on Hadiths, because in the Quran there is no mentioning of it. 

“Surely those who accuse chaste believing women, unaware (of the evil), are cursed in this world and hereafter, and they shall have a grievous chastisement.” (Qur’an 24:23)

“And those who speak evil things of the believing men and the believing women without their having earned (it), they are guilty indeed of a false accusation and a manifest sin.” (Q. 33:58)

I pray to God, the Allmighty, that all Muslims would finally start realizing the real Teaching of Islam, righteousness and human rights.

Salaam, Mona

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Edit: The complete story on BBC News from Somalia. Her 62-year-old aunt told the BBC that the teenager had in fact been raped by three armed men - and she took Asha to the police station to report it.

“I don’t know what crime she committed other than being raped - and I was not even allowed to see her body.”   - Asha Ibrahim Dhuhulow’s aunt

“They are wrong if they committed a kidnap. They will have to be punished under Sharia law.”- Hiiran’s al-Shabab Chairman Sheikh Ali Dheere

What a strange header for an article by the well known Canadian writer Naomi Klein!

The Nation: Obama, Being Called a Muslim Is Not a Smear, by Naomi Klein

Hillary Clinton denied leaking the photo of Barack Obama wearing a turban, but her campaign manager says that even if she had, it would be no big deal. “Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.”

Sure she did. And George W. Bush put on a fetching Chamato poncho in Santiago, while Paul Wolfowitz burned up YouTube with his antimalarial African dance routines when he was World Bank prez. The obvious difference is this: when white politicians go ethnic, they just look funny. When a black presidential contender does it, he looks foreign. ..

So far, Obama’s campaign has responded with aggressive corrections that tout his Christian faith, attack the attackers and channel a cooperative witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. “Barack has never been a Muslim or practiced any other faith besides Christianity,” states one fact sheet. “I’m not and never have been of the Muslim faith,” Obama told a Christian News reporter.

Of course Obama must correct the record, but he doesn’t have to stop there. What is disturbing about the campaign’s response is that it leaves unchallenged the disgraceful and racist premise behind the entire “Muslim smear”: that being Muslim is de facto a source of shame. Obama’s supporters often say they are being “Swiftboated,” casually accepting the idea that being accused of Muslimhood is tantamount to being accused of treason…

How bad things can get?

The second largest religion in the world with 1,2 billion believers worldwide is being brandmarked as a terrorist religion in a campaign where the other party is black. Political correctness does not allow attacking him on grounds of his skin color or other minority related matters like his Kenyan grandmother.

What is more convenient than look for something what is politically correct? Smearing Islam and Muslims is very popular lately. Unfortunately Muslims are unable to defend themselves partly because they are not familiar with western thinking and politics, and partly because they do not care. What some extremist Muslims do must not necessarily be Islamic.

Terror has always been a way to reach goals all over the world. Besides the Islamic terror we have f.e. in Spain the Eta terror and Northern Ireland ethnic terror etc. After decades of  colonialism in the Middle East and Cold War when the Islamic world got divided between superpowers they were mere chess figures in their political game. Today we are reaping the fruits of it.

But slowly they are emerging from the dark and there are signs that moderate progressive forces within the Islamic world are finding their voice. Thank God.

No, it is not a smear being called a Muslim!

“There is no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clearly from falsehood; whoever rejects evil and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks and God is All-Hearing and All-Knowing.” (Qur’an 2:256)

CARTOONS, CONTROVERSY, BIGOTRY

Here we go again, the same controversial caricatures about Islam are being published!

The Islam caricature controversy hardly needs introduction, it was in prime time news all over the world in 2005. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten invited cartoonists to participate in a caricature contest about Islam and its Prophet. Twelve cartoons were published on 30 September 2005. One of them, a man with a black turban bomb aroused the most furious protests.

It is strange, that already half a year earlier the same cartoons appeared in an Egyptian newspaper and went unnoticed by the large public. But this time Islamic activist spread the word and organized demonstrations, called in the media that was filming live burning flags and puppets. It turned sometimes quite violent.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper claims the idea was starting a dialog about Islam and extremism, and freedom of speech. What hardly anybody knows and even myself found out only a few days ago is, that the same newspaper refused to publish well meaning cartoons about Jesus some time earlier of fear of upsetting its readers.

Article in the British Newspaper The Guardian: Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons

Quote: Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons

Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.

The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny.

In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten.

Zieler received an email back from the paper’s Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: “I don’t think Jyllands-Posten’s readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them.”

The illustrator said: “I see the cartoons as an innocent joke, of the type that my Christian grandfather would enjoy.”

“I showed them to a few pastors and they thought they were funny.

But the Jyllands-Posten editor in question, Mr Kaiser, said that the case was “ridiculous to bring forward now. It has nothing to do with the Muhammad cartoons.

“In the Muhammad drawings case, we asked the illustrators to do it. I did not ask for these cartoons. That’s the difference,” he said.

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My opinion is, that here the idea is not freedom of speech but there is a political agenda. Why are the same cartoons published again, at this time when the US backed Middle East peace initiative has been jumpstarted again?

Do we need proof of Islamic extremism and terrorism, again?

And WHY back in 2005 a cartoon competition at all with the specific theme Islam and Prophet Mohammed?

The answer is very simple: because there are political interests and an agenda to portray Muslims in bad light, to fan hatred and extremism.

Why now? When the US backed Middle East initiative is on track again and Pres. Bush is determined to achieve a PEACE agreement between Israel and Palestinians in a years time?

Top news from Middle East since January is not Iraq and its messed up democratization but the closure of Gaza by Israel. (”Gaza plunged into darkness as Israeli fuel blockade takes effect· Blackouts as only power plant is forced to shut.”)

Is there an urgent need to divert the attention of the world media from it? It has worked before.

Could there be some kind of connection between the political outlook of Jyllands-Posten (the star in their logo reminds me of the Star of David), their Jewish editor Flemming Rose, whose interview can be read in the German Mazazin Der Spiegel (”I Don’t fear for My Life”) and the elusive Middle East peace?

Roughly half of the citizen of Israel reject a Palestinian state and most of them would never agree to a divided Jerusalem. Palestinians claim the eastern part with the great Mosque as the capital of their future state.

So is there a need to portray Islam as the religion of hatred and violence and they cannot be trusted and no peace deal cannot ever achieved with them?

And sadly enough this ongoing slander is bearing fruits and the image of Islam in most non-Muslim countries is at its lowest point.

If only Muslims would see through all this and not let use themselves as tools in their political game. Muslims around the world should simply ignore them.

I believe if Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.) would still live today, He would not approve the violence in his name because of a few poor caricatures. His idea of not to let portray him was his fear, that the early Muslims could start to worship him as a saint. He often critisized Christians to whom Jesus was divine, The Son of God. To Muslims Jesus was a Prophet like the other prophets before him and Muslims believe in all of them.

Before Islam the Meccans had hundreds of gods, idols made of diffenent materials. In the early years it was not an easy task to teach them monotheism, that there is only one almighty unvisible God.

Salaam, may God grant us all wisdom and insight!

“The true servants of The Merciful are they who walk gently on Earth, and who, when the foolish address them, reply with (words of) peace.” (Quran 25:63)

“And insult not those whom they (non-Muslims) worship besides God, lest they insult God wrongfully without knowledge. Thus We have made fair-seeming to each people its own doings; then to their Lord is their return and He shall then inform them of all that they used to do.”(Quran 6:108)

“When you are offered a greeting, reply with a better one, or at least return it. “(Quran 4:86)

Again and again while reading other blogs and forums the notion comes up, that Islam does not tolerate other faiths and that its main aim would be to convert others under Islam by violent means. As proof they quote isolated Hadiths and suras of the Quran . Nothing would be more wrong and against the spirit of Islam.

It is true, that believers are encouraged to invite people of other faiths to get to know Islam by good example and friendly discussions, but never by force.

As I wrote in the first part of this theme (pls. scroll this page down) the Prophet himself instructed believers not to harm people, who came under the government of the new Muslim state.

There are numerous suras of the Quran and Hadiths to prove this. Many more than there are others, which are taken out of context (from a war situation, when Islam was under attack).

And as always, the text of the Quran is more accurate than the Hadiths, which were sorted out according to their truthfulness as late as 250 years after the death of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). Please read also on the right panel Topic No. 7  What the Qur’an says about… … other faiths.. tolerance and Hadith’s.

Freedom of Religious Assembly and Religious Autonomy:
Given consent by the constitution, the Jews had the complete freedom to practice their religion. The Jews in Medina at the time of the Prophet had their own school of learning, named Bait-ul-Midras, where they would recite the Torah, worship and educate themselves.
On one occasion, the Prophet received a delegation of sixty Christians from the region of Najran, then a part of Yemen, at his mosque. When the time for their prayer came, they faced the direction of east and prayed. The Prophet ordered that they be left in their state and not harmed.

There are also examples in the life of the Prophet in which he cooperated between with people of other faiths in the political arena as well. He selected a non-Muslim, Amr-ibn Umaiyah-ad-Damri, as an ambassador to be sent to Negus, the King of Ethiopia.

May God bestow upon us wisdom and tolerance to be able to tackle the problems the human race is facing in the near future.

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“There is no compulsion in religion; truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error; therefore, whoever disbelieves in the Shaitan (Devil) and believes in God he indeed has laid hold on the firmest handle, which shall not break off, and God is Hearing, Knowing.” (Q.2.256)

“God forbids you not, with regards to those who fight you not for [your] faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them; for God loved those who are just.” (Quran, 60:8)

“Say, we believe in God and that which has been revealed to us, and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and to other prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.” (Q.3:83)

If You have read other topics on the right you may have noticed, that I am quite critical about the Hadiths - the reports from the early Muslim community and the years thereafter. They were collected, sorted out and written down ca. 250 years after the death of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.).

They reflect the customs and beliefs of that time and should not always be taken literally.

Science today has a more accurate picture f.e. of the universe than people had 1400 years ago. In some hadiths astronomical phenomena are explained in clearly unscientific manner, from falling stars to the moon splitting in two. People around the Prophet narrated these and for centuries they were taken literally.

Even if the Prophet did make all these statements, then they must be seen as his sincere belief what he thought was right. After all he was an ordinary man, as He himself stated on numerous occasions.

Please read also on the right panel the topic No. 8 Hadiths (reported Sayings by The Prophet) and No. 7 What the Qur’an says about… - The Creation of the Universe.

“O, assembly of the jinn (spirits) and the men! If you are able to pass through regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass through; You cannot pass through but with authority” (Q.55:32-37)

(Hubble space telescope image ‘Cat’s Eye Nebula”, an exploding star, NASA Oct.31st 1999 at: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991031.html)

Unfortunately, very often the Hadiths take a more important role than the Quran itself in the daily life of the believers when it comes to practical decisions.

The holy Quran was revealed to the Phophet in a dream or in a dreamlike condition and Muslims believe it to be the Word of God, literally. Until today researchers have not found any scientific inaccuracy in it.

Ref. The Bible, The Quran and Science. By Maurice Bucaille

A Student to his father: Today, my science teacher brought a mobile model of our Universe with its Sun, Moon and the Planets in our class room. It was fun to watch our Earth spinning on its own axis and at the same time also around the orbit of our Sun. When our side of the Earth faces the Sun we have the Day, and the people living on the other side of the Earth have Night. This alternating Light and Darkness within a Day has been the eternal Law of the Nature. A Muslim students dialogue with his parents.

Contrary to the common assumptions, the early Muslim Umma (the Muslim community) practiced tolerance towards other faiths.
A Christian or Jewish woman was not forced to change her faith in case of a marriage to a Muslim man. In the Holy Qur’an Jews and Christians are called “People of the Book”. But a marriage to a pagan woman was not valid if she did not convert to Islam.

The Prophet emphasized in many letters to his emissaries that religious institutions should not be harmed. Here in a letter addressed to his emissary to the religious leaders of Saint Catherine in Mount Sinai who has sought the protection of the Muslims:

“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are declared to be protected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”

“…There is no compulsion in religion…” (Quran 2:256)

“…If they do come to you, either judge between them or decline to interfere…” (Quran 5:42)

“Whoever kills a person who has a truce with the Muslims will never smell the fragrance of Paradise.” (Hadith by Saheeh Muslim)

“Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, or curtails their rights, or burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I (Prophet Muhammad) will complain against the person on the Day of Judgment.” (Hadith by Abu Dawud)