The role of madrasas in inter-faith dialogue

Interfaith

Interfaith

Inter-faith dialogue has become an urgent necessity today. In this regard, what role can or should madrasas play? Can they indeed play any role at all in this? Before discussing this issue, it is important to understand why inter-faith dialogue has become so necessary today.

Undoubtedly, in today’s world inter-community harmony is a major need, and the lack of it has emerged as a major challenge. Inter-faith and inter-community harmony must be built on the foundations and concerns that different faith communities share in common. It must also seek to build bridges of understanding between these communities, and to remove mutual misunderstandings that are a major source of inter-community conflict.

In the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11, Muslim religious groups in the West, for instance, have increasingly realised the pressing need for inter-faith dialogue. They have invited people of other faiths to visit mosques and the offices of Muslim organisations so that they can observe what happens therein and can have their questions and concerns about Islam and Muslims answered. This has had a positive fall-out in terms of improving inter-community relations, which is itself something that Muslims themselves require.

Several Muslim countries are also developing plans for promoting inter-faith dialogue. In June 2008 the Rabita al-Alami al-Islami (‘World Muslim Council’) organised an international conference on inter-faith dialogue. This was a very major initiative. At the conference it was decided that an international institution would be established to further promote this sort of dialogue. It was also decided to institute an award for inter-faith dialogue work. Through these and similar initiatives, one hopes that Muslims will now play a major role in promoting inter-faith understanding and peaceful dialogue.

full article: www.insight-info.com

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Imam Khomeini’s Political Thought

Racial Problems amongst Shia in the West

This is an e-mail that was circulated between a person and a few scholars. I think this issue is important and needs to be discussed further. Please take a minute and read it and lets think of way that we can combat this issue.

InshaAllah this reaches everyone in good health. By the grace of Allah (swt) many active and sincerely devoted youth have begun to connect with each other from all across the country. Through mediums such as email list servs, conferences, face book, and online forums these youth have demonstrated incredible understanding of Islam’s revolutionary ideology. Often times because of their unadulterated view of Islamic tradition, they end up feeling isolated within their own communities and resort to finding young adults through other means. In the last couple of years we have begun to exchange ideas about the future of Islam in America and the necessary steps that need to be taken by communities and their respective leaders. After noticing that many of our communities are facing the same problems, and feeling that the majority have neglected to address them properly, we have decided to take our issues directly to our scholars across the board.

One of these preeminent issues is regarding race relations, and ethnocentricity. The reality of the matter is that racism exists down to the roots of many Islamic centers, pervading even up to the mouths of some religious leaders. The Caucasian, Black and African American, and Latino growing Shia communities are feeling more and more isolated as they continue to search for avenues to practice their new found faith. The masjids are increasingly becoming deficient for our new converts and reverts by failing to provide adequate resources. Often times they naturally bring with them their old styles of dress, hair, and slang. Unfortunately out of lack of insight and patience, many centers stuck in their own cultural ignorance tend to shun and look down upon such ‘foreign’ behaviors. Countless numbers of reverts have turned back from Islam because of this type of attitude.

Full article: www.insight-info.com

Nato Culture: Peace for the west and war for the rest

Summary: The Islamic revolution of Iran quickly spread Islamic Awakening. This movement brought about reactions in the west in both the intellectual and the practical arenas. On the intellectual side thoughts emerged which were given the title of the ‘clash of civilizations.’ Maybe Huntington’s sentence: “The future is for Islam and Islam will make the west fall,” clarifies which side will win for all of the politicians in the west.

 

Nato emblem

 

When the Second World War ended the powers that be established a temporary union so that they could benefit more from their victories in peace and divide the power better between each other. On the one side they wanted peace and on the other they were after more power and wealth by moving ahead of their adversaries. This caused the cold war between the East and the West.

 

During the cold war years, especially at the beginning, there was a sort of grouping between the East and the West. The Western countries sided with each other just like the Eastern countries did. The Liberal west with America at its head was more successful in taking out its socialist neighbors so that socialism would not influence the west.

 

The scholars of the liberal powers intellectually stood up to the socialists next to the military. They used the term modernization for this. This style of thought was sent to most third world countries. Most of these western scholars confessed in the 1990s that bringing modernization to the third world was not done completely. They only gave some thoughts and plans to the countries so that they would be on the way to modernization but would never get there. The reason behind this is that they did not want these countries to be competitors to America and to keep them forever reliant on the west.

 

Full article: http://www.insight-info.com

Qoutes from Imam Khomeini

The principle slogan of the Islamic Republic

 

“The slogan ‘Not the east, not the west’ was the principle slogan of the Islamic revolution in the world of hunger and the impoverished. This is the established principle of Islamic nations and countries who, in the near future and with the help of Allah, will accept Islam as the only ideology leading to salvation – and they will not go back from this principle in the least.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.114 (1987)

imam khomeini paris

 

The arrogant powers of the world are falling

 

“Muslims are not scared of the hollow commotion from the oppressive media. The castles, military, and political wings of the arrogant powers of the world are like spider-webs: weak and falling.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.114 (1987)

 

Correcting the leaders of the Islamic world

 

“Muslims must think about training, controlling, and correcting the leaders of some countries. They must use advice or warnings to wake them up from their expensive sleep which is killing them and the interests of the Islamic nation. They must not be unaware of the danger of the hypocrites and those who work for the arrogant powers of the world. They should not sit on their hands and watch the destruction of Islam and the usurpation of their capitol, interests, and Islamic women.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.114 (1987)

 

Facing the people who are after the world

 

“I will announce to the whole world with certainty that if those who are after the world want to face us in matters of religion we will stand up to their whole world. We will not sit until all of them are killed; until all of us are free or until we reach a larger freedom – martyrdom.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.118 (1987)

 

Negation of immunity for Americans

 

With our whole existence we will stop the spread of immunity for Americans even if it means a serious war.

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.232 (1988)

 

Changing the capitalist world

 

“Elite Muslims must diligently travel the road of changing the capitalist world and communism with their knowledge. All people after freedom must choose to slap the face of world powers, especially America, over slapping the people’s face who have been slapped in the Islamic world and the rest of the world.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.118 (1987)

 

Islam will make the world powers abased

 

“I say with surety that Islam will make the world powers abased. Islam will remove huge obstacles both internally and externally and will overtake key positions in the world.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.118 (1987)

 

There is no other path except war with America

 

“If Muslims do not seriously solve their issues with those who are after the world, or at least if they do not become a strong power in the world there will be problems. Right now, if America destroys an Islamic country with the excuse of protecting its interests who would stand up to him? There is no other path except fighting. The claws and teeth of the world powers, especially America, must be broken.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.233 (1988)

 

The war between truth and falsehood

 

“Today the war between truth and falsehood; the war between the rich and the poor; the war between the weak and the arrogant; the war between the naked and the clothed has started. I kiss the hands of all who have stood up to fight throughout the world in the path of Allah and in the path of giving dignity to the Muslims. I give my sincere greetings to the free sparrows, to the dear nation, and those who love Iran.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.234 (1988)

 

The world is thirsty for Pure Islam

 

“Today the world is thirsty for pure Islamic culture and the Muslims in a huge movement will quickly take over the white and red houses.”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.235 (1988)

 

There will be fighting as long as there is polytheism

 

“Our goal is to implement Islamic international goals in the world of poverty and hunger. We say that there will be fighting as long as there is polytheism and disbelief and as long as there is a fight we will be there. We do not have any [beef] between any city or nation. We have decided to raise the flag of ‘La ilaha ilallah.’”

 

Sahifah Noor, v.20, p.236 (1988)

Source: www.insight-info.com

Ahmadinejad: Capitalism nearing collapse

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says capitalist systems are on the verge of collapse and can no longer bring economic development.

Ahmadinejad

“There are some who believe we can improve the economic situation with the formulas that are prescribed by the West; they must know that capitalist systems are falling apart,” said Ahmadinejad, who was addressing clerics in Iran’s western city of Hamadan on Thursday.

“The fundamental philosophy of Iran’s Islamic Revolution was that it should not be based on Western systems,” he continued.

According to Ahmadinejad, the problems Iran now deals with are the direct result of disregard for the ideals of the 1979 revolution.

Ahmadinejad added that his government intends to pursue policies that will bring justice, maintaining that if there is to be development in the country, poor areas must come first.
press tv

The loathsome smearing of Israel’s critics

And they say that free speech exists in the West! That is a crock. The only thing that one is free to say are opinions in line with the government – anything else will be punishable. Here is an article showing how people who criticize the Israeli regime are smeared.

 

johann hari

In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is
nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.

My own case isn’t especially important, but it illustrates how the wider process of intimidation works. I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; when I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me “a Jew-lover”, “a Zionist-homo pig” and more.

Ah, but wait. I have also reported from Gaza and the West Bank. Last week, I wrote an article that described how untreated sewage was being pumped from illegal Israeli settlements on to Palestinian land, contaminating their reservoirs. This isn’t controversial. It has been documented by Friends of the Earth, and I have seen it with my own eyes.

The response? There was little attempt to dispute the facts I offered. Instead, some of the most high profile “pro-Israel” writers and media monitoring groups – including Honest Reporting and Camera – said I an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels and Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh, while Melanie Phillips even linked the stabbing of two Jewish people in North London to articles like mine. Vast numbers of e-mails came flooding in calling for me to be sacked.

Any attempt to describe accurately the situation for Palestinians is met like this. If you recount the pumping of sewage onto Palestinian land, “Honest Reporting” claims you are reviving the anti-Semitic myth of Jews “poisoning the wells.” If you interview a woman whose baby died in 2002 because she was detained – in labour – by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint within the West Bank, “Honest Reporting” will say you didn’t explain “the real cause”: the election of Hamas in, um, 2006. And on, and on.

Click to see full article here