Category: Islam

Islam and Muslim

Sarah Palin says on twitter:

Mr. President, why are they so set on marking an area w/ mosque steps from what you described, in agreement with many, as “hallowed ground”?

Will Obama express US lingering pain& ask Muslims for tolerance by discouraging 9/11 mosque while he celebrates Islamic holy month tonight?

Mr. President, should they or shouldn’t they build a Muslim mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people?Your position?

American Response:

@SarahPalinUSA Don’t equate All Muslims with those 9/11 terrorist, you are doing their work by opposing the freedom of religion.
Muslims are also victims of terrorism and they have lost their lives on 9/11 as well. Please read this article:
http://islam.about.com/blvictims.htm

Obama supports plan for mosque near ground zero
At a Ramadan dinner at the White House, the president breaks his silence on the issue, framing it as one of religious freedom.

President Obama addresses guests at an iftar dinner, the meal that breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast for Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, at the White House. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

By Peter Nicholas and Julia Love, Tribune Washington Bureau

August 13, 2010|6:34 p.m.

Reporting from Washington — President Obama on Friday took a strong stand in favor of building a mosque near the site where Muslim terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, breaking his silence on a political tempest that has left the country divided.

In prepared remarks for a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan, Obama framed the issue as one of religious freedom. Muslims, like anyone else, “have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

The uproar over the proposed mosque has rekindled a debate over religious tolerance in a post-Sept. 11 society. Some relatives of Sept. 11 victims have come out against the mosque, as have prominent politicians. Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin wrote in a Twitter feed that the mosque would be an “unnecessary provocation” at a time when the collapse of the Twin Towers was “too raw, too real.”

A majority doesn’t want to see the mosque built, surveys show. A CNN/Opinion Research poll earlier this month showed 68% opposed plans to build the mosque, with 29% in favor. Count as part of the minority New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who recently gave a speech defending the planned Islamic center.

In a statement released Friday night, Bloomberg said: “As I said last week, this proposed mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan is as important a test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetime, and I applaud President Obama’s clarion defense of the freedom of religion tonight.”

As the debate raged, Obama stayed out of it. As recently as last week, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, described the matter as one “for New York City and the local community to decide.”

But the White House’s Ramadan celebration presented a unique moment for Obama to make his position known.

“Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of Lower Manhattan,” he said in a prepared text released by the White House. “The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders.”

That said, he added: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.”

Supporting the mosque is a dicey proposition for Obama. Polls have shown a certain percentage of Americans mistakenly view him as a Muslim. He is Christian. Defending the mosque invites suspicion that he is overly sympathetic to the Muslim faith. At the same time, Obama has taken pains to reach out to the Muslim world. He gave a major speech in Cairo last year calling for “a new beginning” between the U.S. and Muslims.

At a time when unemployment is high and America is engulfed in two wars, the furor is one that Obama might have preferred to sidestep. But it isn’t going away, and with the rest of the world looking on, Obama decided that his silence was no longer sustainable.

Source: LA Times

Middle East Peace = Peaceful independent Palestinian Nation

Peaceful settlement to the Middle East Israel/Palestine Issue is the ultimate solution which can bring the Middle East to the Peaceful era. Currently millions of Palestinians are refugees living in horrible and dangerous conditions within Palestine/Israel and around the neighbouring countries as well as around the world.

In reality, this issue is not about religion or faith, its about the nation/land and geopolitics. If we see closely, Jews and Muslims who are the major component of this issue are very close to each other in faith and from the books of the same god.

Every religion have some elements which can be extreme and distort the religion for their personal or sect benefits. We need to look at the broad arena and see that they are so many things which are common then different.

So, the dispute/war is about about land and nation. By refusing to give back the occupied land to the palestine will not bring peace to Israel nor to palestine and middle east in general. Ultimately, this bring the major issue for the world peace as we see it today.

Let’s ask the following from the parties to bring the ultimate/major solution to this problem:

1. Since Israel is the Occupying force, they have the duty to bring peaceful end to the occupation not drag the ultimate solution for next 10-20 years. Its not in their best interest as they know it (hopefully).

2. For Palestinian, to bring about the end to the hostility and accept the 1967 borders as the final boundaries of the palestine and settle all the issues once with this state. No more this or that issue, just a state(independent) in 1967 borders for all palestinians including refugees period. Let Israel have the Israel for current citizans of that state, no refugees please.

At the end, Jews as your brothers and are from the books you beleive in, they should be able to prosper and florish in the land of Ibrahim/Mosus. At the same time, Jews need to remember that the Palestinians per history gave refuge to Mosus when he needed and made him part of their people. Married within their people. So, let’s not kill those people who gave refuge and provided help to your prophet and the same prophet is the prophet of Muslims as well. Let’s get together and solve this problem and bring peace to the lands of prophets. Otherwise, god will bring his punishment for all the people of books on the lands of middle east.

~Peace Out

You could hardly call Islamic civilization “lost” – not in the sense of fabled Atlantis, for example — but few people today know very much about it, or are even conscious of how many aspects of Western society owe their very existence to Islamic roots.

In some way, we all come in daily contact with microchips, space travel, medicine, physical sciences, mathematics, engineering, music, literature,arts, architecture, and spirituality.

But do any of us – including contemporary Muslims themselves – fully realize how directly all of these advances and disciplines have been built upon more than a millennium of achievements by Muslim scientists, scholars, engineers and artists?

Probably not.

It is high time for Islamic civilization to be rediscovered and celebrated by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, especially in the West.

And it is equally important that we ignore all those who, for political reasons, have a longtime vested interest in dismissing or suppressing Islamic civilization, to the point where it has become scarcely known and not even a footnote on most school and university curricula.

If you are fascinated by Islamic history and culture, there an excellent book; it is Michael Hamilton Morgan’s Lost History; the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers and Artists. It is published by the distinguished National Geographic Society and includes a foreword by King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Lost History has been read by other significant authors on contemporary political and cultural issues, such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who said that Morgan’s book “delivers a missing link to the story of an interconnected world: the achievements of Muslim civilization and its influence on East and West.”

What makes this book so unique is that a post-9/11 American intellectual has dared to advocate for understanding the history of Islamic civilization and its many contributions.

Being on the “side” of an entire culture targeted by association in the American-invented War on Terror is a risky business for any author.

But Morgan pulled it off.

Why did he even bother to swim against the current in popular publishing? This is how Morgan’s own introduction answers the inevitable question:

“To lose the conscious memory of an entire civilization is especially tragic and dangerous, because each civilization, no matter how grand or flawed, is a laboratory of human ideas and ideals, of dreams and nightmares. We can learn from all of them … By writing Lost History, I hope to show not only the contributions of an old and rich civilization. I hope to show, as Caliph al-Mamun concluded, that reason and faith can be the same, that by fully opening the mind and unleashing human creativity, many wonders — including peace — are possible.”

While each chapter of Lost History focuses on a specific historical era, it opens with interesting dramatized “what-if” scenarios that challenge the reader to connect both past and present.

By writing this book, Morgan explains, “I am entering a potential minefield. The minefield is now given greater intensity by the current convergence of radical Islamist terrorism, the rise in ‘literalist’ fundamentalist religious models for organizing societies and individual lives, continuing battles between Israel and her neighbors, outbursts of anti-Semitism, the United States’ invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and its ‘war on terrorism,’ and political and economic crises in selected Muslim societies.”

He continues: “Most Americans, including American Muslims, and even many Muslims from other parts of the world, know only the dimmest outlines of Muslim history, i.e., ‘they were great once, they invented arithmetic, but then they fell behind.’ Most Westerners have been taught that the greatness of the West has its intellectual roots in Greece and Rome, and that after the thousand-year-sleep of the Dark Ages, Europe miraculously reawakened to its Greco-Roman roots. In the conventional telling, this rediscovery of classical Greece — combined with the moral underpinning of the Judeo-Christian faith — led to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and the scientific and industrial revolutions. The intellectual contributions of Arabs, Persians, Indians, Chinese, Africans, and others in the Muslim world are relegated to mere footnotes.”

And finally, he concludes, “… I hope that non-Muslims can gain greater respect and deeper understanding of their Muslim cousins than current headlines and policies would suggest and that today’s Muslims can see how Islam was once applied in a way to support creativity, invention, tolerance, and diversity of thought and behavior in both society and in individual lives.

“Then … maybe we can begin to understand the issues of today that will never be solved by force. Because if there is no other lesson to be drawn from Lost History, it is that force rarely [if] ever positively resolves issues of the spirit and the soul – whether in individuals or in civilizations.”

To read more click below…
Why Islamic civilization must be re-discovered

Ancient Arabic inscription found in Jerusalem

An Israel Antiquities Authority worker holds a fragment of a marble plaque with an Arabic inscription …
By SHIRA RUBIN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – A home renovation in Jerusalem’s Old City has yielded a rare Arabic inscription offering insight into the city’s history under Muslim rule, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday. The fragment of a 1,100-year-old plaque is thought to have been made by an army veteran to express his thanks for a land grant from the Caliph al-Muqtadir, whom the inscription calls “Emir of the Faithful.”

Dating from a time when Jerusalem was ruled from Baghdad by the Abbasid empire, the plaque shows how rulers rewarded their troops and ensured their loyalty, archaeologists said.

The Abbasids conquered Jerusalem after numerous wars with the Fatimid empire in Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs valued Jerusalem as an Islamic holy site.

“The caliph probably granted estates as part of his effort to strengthen his hold over the territories within his control, including Jerusalem, just as other rulers did in different periods,” said excavation director Annette Nagar.

The white marble plaque measures four inches by four inches (10 x 10 centimeters) and was found approximately 5 feet (1.5 meters) beneath the floor of a home in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter.

The house’s owner planned a renovation and — as required by law — brought archaeologists to carry out a salvage dig meant to prevent harm to valuable antiquities. The plaque has been removed from the site and is now in the hands of Israel’s Antiquities Authority.

The writing was deciphered by Hebrew University professor Moshe Sharon, who traced it to 910, during the early part of al-Muqtadir’s 24-year rule.

The finding will help scholars better understand 10th-century Jerusalem, populated by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and the methods used by Muslim rulers to solidify their control.

For more reading, click here
Ancient Arabic inscription found in Jerusalem

President Obama Greets Ramadan Kareem.

As the new crescent moon ushers in Ramadan, the President extends his best wishes to Muslim communities in the United States and around the world.

Each Ramadan, the ninth month on the lunar calendar, Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset for 29 or 30 days. Fasting is a tradition in many religious faiths and is meant to increase spirituality, discipline, thankfulness, and consciousness of God’s mercy. Ramadan is also a time of giving and reaching out to those less fortunate, and this summer, American Muslims have joined their fellow citizens in serving communities across the country. Over the course of the month, we will highlight the perspectives of various faiths on fasting and profile faith-based organizations making real impacts in American cities and towns.

This month is also a time of renewal and this marks the first Ramadan since the President outlined his vision for a new beginning between America and the Muslim world. As a part of that new beginning, the President emphasizes that our relationship with Muslim communities cannot be based on political and security concerns alone. True partnerships also require cooperation in all areas – particularly those that can make a positive difference in peoples’ daily lives, including education, science and technology, health, and entrepreneurship – fields in which Muslim communities have helped play a pioneering role throughout history.

The President’s message is part of an on-going dialogue with Muslim communities that began on inauguration day and has continued with his statement on Nowruz, during trips to Ankara and Cairo, and with interviews with media outlets such as Al Arabiya and Dawn TV.

As this dialogue continues and leads to concrete actions, the President extends his greetings on behalf of the American people. Ramadan Kareem.