Islamic Revival

BBC is ready to broadcast a gay love affair involving Muslims In a further effort by the British establishment to raise the bar for Muslims to prove their loyalty to Britain, the BBC will use its flagship programme EastEnders to tackle a storyline which will feature a Muslim man embarking upon a gay affair. The Muslim character Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott, will fall for openly gay man Christian Clarke (John Partridge) and the pair will share an on-screen kiss. "I think EastEnders would be doing the programme a disservice if they didn't give a voice to various communities," Elliot told the BBC Asian Network. The plot is expected to hit TV screens from next month. One in three Muslims feel discriminated in Europe About 31 percent of Muslims in the European Union feel they were discriminated against in 2008, according to an EU survey of 23,500 members of ethnic minorities and migrant communities published on Thursday. Ten percent of Muslims who experienced prejudice ...

Living in this dunya is testing and tempting, as Allah SWT tells us in the Qur'an. But living in the West is a whole another ball game. People assume that to carry the dawah for Islam in the Muslim world is the most testing thing you can do, and the most testing place you can be. Because in some parts of the Muslim world, to speak for this deen means hardship, means imprisonment and even torture - We look at our brothers and sisters undergoing this in Egypt and Uzbekistan and breathe a sigh of relief - What would I have done if that was me? A test beyond our capabilities we may even believe, in a quiet moment. However my dear sisters, I would like those of us who look at the Muslim world and then count our blessings about our ease here, to actually stop and think. Step outside our bubble and actually think. Those of us who cover according to the Ahkam of Allah, don't have a haram mortgage, try to pray all of our salat and maybe even do the recommended fasting - Have we made it?...

The current crisis of militancy gripping Pakistan is the most serious threat to the integrity of the State since the loss of East Pakistan in the war of 1971. Pakistan today is surrounded by hostile neighbours, is crippled economically and is slowly being crushed under the weight of world public opinion that it is a terrorist State, which is being generated by its supposed ally America. With Balouchistan already rumbling with a separatist insurgency which has not yet thankfully gained popular traction, the armed conflict which is being fought with Taliban forces in Swat, Buner and Dir is threatening to roll back the writ of the Pakistani State to just the provinces of Sindh and Punjab. A solution must urgently be found to prevent further bloodshed on both sides of this conflict. The problem however requires a detailed analysis and also a solution that provides a lasting fix and not just another short term truce or treaty that will be broken. The roots of the current conflict between th...

The share market rising by 2100 points or 15% and investors gaining 6.5 lakh crore rupees in just 60 minutes was touted as a return of confidence in the market. Let us analyse whether that was really so, or was it just a jugglery by a few manipulators? The result of India’s general election began on 16th May 2009. The next day was spent in grappling with the impact of the result. On Monday, May 18, 2009 the NSE and Mumbai stock exchange saw this unprecedented surge. Was this surge due to some fundamental change in the working of the market? Was it because the companies had improved their profits? Was it because just in one day the incoming government had infused some legislation that benefitted the market? Was it because the global economic crises had subsided? Clearly the answer to all these questions is in the negative. In the absence of any of these factors, how could investor confidence go up just by the result of an election and that too, of the same political party who was alre...

The following is an Urdu article published in the Urdu Daily Munsif from Hyderabad, India. It is written by one of the activists working for the return of the Khilafah, the scholar Maulana Mufti Habeeb ur-Rahman Qasmi. It is entitiled, 'Islami riyasat ka hadaf - hukumrani ya islam ka nifaz' (The objective to establish the Islamic state only to rule or to establish Islam?'). http://www.khilafat.dk/pdfdata/urdu1.pdf

Due to the current global financial crisis there is increasing interest in the Islamic Economic System, the most comprehensive book on this topic is 'The Economic System of Islam' by Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani. However as people have many questions relating to the Islamic rules of trade we will be posting related extracts from the draft translation of the Fiqh masterpiece 'The Islamic Personality, Volume 2' by Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani (Al-Hawala) is derived from transferring the right from one’s responsibility to another one’s responsibility. It is transferring by the one upon whom is the right of the one seeking the right from him to another one on whom he has a right. The transfer is established by the Sunnah. Al-Bukhari narrated via the way of Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: “ The delay of the rich man (in paying the right) is injustice. And if one of you is transferred on a rich person then let him follow him” and in other words: “Whoever i...

The following is from the draft english translation of the Arabic book مقدمة الدستورأو الأسباب الموجبة له (Introduction to the constitution and the evidences that make it obligatory) published by Hizb ut-Tahrir 1382 Hijri (1963 CE). Please refer to the original Arabic for accurate meanings. Please note some of the adopted opinions of the Hizb have changed since the time the book was published so any of the adopted literature published after this book which contradicts what is mentioned in this book abrogates those specific points Article 26: Every mature and sane Muslim, be it man or woman, reserves the right to elect the Khalifah and to give him the Baya'a. Non-Muslims have no right in this. The reality of the Khilafah serves as evidence that every Muslim has the right to elect the Khalifah and give him his or her Baya'a, for the Ahadith have indicated that the it is the Muslims who give their Baya'a to the Khalifah, be it men or women. Ubada Ibnu-s-Samit reported: We gave...

No green shoots only economic misery Despite all the talk in some western capitals about how their economies are showing signs of recovery the exact opposite is transpiring. This week the US Federal Reserve forecast predicts that the US economy will contract by as much as 2% this year, an increase from the 1.3% contraction previously estimated. In addition, recovery in 2010 and 2011 will also be slower than first thought, increasing by up to 3% next year, from an earlier forecast by as much as 3.3%, and by up to 4.8% in 2011, from an earlier estimate of up to 5%. The reduction in forecasts by the members of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) suggests that the current recession will be deeper and more severe than first thought, and that that will have an impact on the strength of the eventual recovery. And for the UK economy things are looking gloomier by the day. The international ratings agency Standard and Poor's on Thursday downgraded its outlook on Britain's economy ...

UK Muslims feel most isolated in Europe Only one in ten Muslims in Britain see themselves as integrated into the rest of society, a large-scale international survey said last week. And it found that more than a third are dissatisfied with their standard of living. The levels of integration - or 'cohesion' as Labour ministers prefer to call it - compare badly with the way Muslims have mixed into the rest of the population in France and Germany. According to the Gallup Coexist Index, 35 per cent of German Muslims and 46 per cent of those in France regard themselves as integrated into their society. The findings sound a warning that despite the efforts of ministers and Islamic leaders since the 2005 London bombings to build common ground between some Islamic communities and their neighbours, doubts, mistrust and resentment continue to exist. The report, produced by the polling company and the Coexist Foundation, an interfaith think tank, said: 'The sizeable proportions of the ...

The following is a leaflet widely distributed recently in Pakistan. بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Stop America’s war which makes Muslims fight Muslims! On 8 May, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gillani, announced a war in Swat in a telecast address to the nation, in these words, “For the sanctity of this pure land, for national dignity, to suppress the extremists, to ensure the protection of people, the army has been deployed.” However, the Prime Minister’s venture is neither for the restoration of national dignity and nor for the public protection, rather it is to restore the dignity of the cowardly American occupying forces and for ensuring America’s survival in Afghanistan, where she is immersed in a deep quagmire. Keeping control of Afghanistan is not possible without crushing the Mujahideen, who are fighting against America in Afghanistan. But cowardly American and NATO forces, whilst possessing the latest weaponry, are afraid of confrontation with poorly equipped, small groups of...

The following is an extract from the book 'The Islamic Way of Thinking' by Hasan Abdullah : The different approaches and methods mentioned all characterize the thinking of Muslims today. While they may not exist in each and every Muslim, all of these characteristics exist in the Ummah at different levels. These incorrect approaches could be one of many reasons that led to the intellectual decline in addition to being a product of the intellectual decline. Thus, it is not surprising to see the state of the Ummah today and its intellectual apathy. The Ummah has devolved to such a level that the total amount of literature published in Israel exceeds the amount that is published in all the Arab countries combined. And the quality of most of what is published in the Arab world amounts to no more than copying the Western culture in arts, literature, politics, economy, and other disciplines. The same applies to the amount of reading. The percentage of those who read in the Muslim coun...