Arabic press review: Palestinian politicians detained in Saudi Arabia

Arabic press review: Palestinian politicians detained in Saudi Arabia: Hamas has criticised the poor treatment of a senior member detained in Saudi Arabia

The Concept of Wahabism in Islam

I am not sure about the percentage of Saudi people who strictly approve the Saudi interpretation of Islam (Wahabism) I guess the percentage is really small

It seems to have strong effects on the rise of radical interpretations of Islam,

Saudi version divides the world into two opposing parts: the House of Islam and the House of Unbelief (outside politics) . The former rests on a literal understanding of Islamic theology. The latter is the enemy of Islam and consists moderate Muslims, among others.

Muslims today must reject this division and tackle head on those literalist, extremist interpretations of Islam.

This task is not the responsibility of average Muslims, .

Rather it is the work of honest, brave, and learned scholars of Islam and Islamic theology.

In particular, passages in the Quran and Hadith, on war, apostasy, and violence, are in need of new, unequivocal interpretations to fit the modern social and political realities of Muslim-majority states.

In their own ways, many Muslims have engaged in every day acts of resistance against these assaults on their faith. These include education, outreach, interfaith dialogue, and rejection of those amongst us who hold extremist Islamist views.

Wahhabism’s globalization has had profound effects on the rise of radical interpretations of Islam,

It has fueled extremists like Osama bin Laden to ISIS, who have variously claimed the mantle of radical Islamic reform and engaged in an extremist takfiristwar (a war against so-called apostates).

Many have misconceptions about Wahabis. Colonialists found sectarian groups like Wahabis and Ahamedis to divide and rule the Muslim world

 What better person could the British have used to fulfill their motto, i.e. “divide and conquer?”

 The British were laughing at the leader of Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab and his followers for plundering, looting, and killing Muslims in the name of Islam,

 This was indeed a fulfillment of the interests of the British, Contemporary members of the Sa’ud house are descendants of Muhammad Ibn Sa’ud, the heretic who collaborated with Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdi-l-Wahhab, to cause a Muslim bloodbath in the name of “Jihad.”

 Their monarchy has existed since the Wahhabi movement originated,

 The discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930’s has enabled the Saudi-Wahhabi kingdom to become rich, and their leaders have used their wealth to disseminate the Wahhabi doctrine

 The Wahhabis are known for parroting the slogan of “Qur’an and Sunnah,” without any profound understanding of the two sources of Islam,

 The great Hanafi scholar, Imam Muhammad Amin Ibn Abidin stated that the Wahhabis of today are reviving the creed of the Khawarij of the past.

 It is also known that the Khawarij wrongly understand the meanings of ayahs in the Qur’an and falsely attribute the verses of the Quran

Prophet Muhammad ‘Rasul-Ullah (sall-Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) ascended the altar, and it was the last time I saw him on it

He said: ‘I do not fear that you will become polytheists after me, but I fear that, because of worldly interests, you will fight each others, and thus be destroyed like the peoples of old.’

THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW as we see in Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Iraq and places

Is it God's Creation Good and Evil Folks? Light and darkness

Let me try the first part of the conversation between

Einstein and his Professor: The Prof throws many questions as follows: Is God good? Is God all-powerful?

Then he says: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.)

Then he asks

Is Satan good?  Where does Satan come from?

Tell me son, is there evil in this world?  So who created evil? (Student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness?

All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?

So, who created them? 

Now the turn of Einstein to question the Prof: Professor,

Is there such a thing as heat? Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold? Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't.

Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat.. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that.

There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it .

 

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness? Student :  You're wrong again, sir.

Darkness is the absence of something.

You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?

Prof:   So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality.

You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God.

You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure.

Sir, science can't even explain a thought..

It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.

To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.

 Student:
That is it sir... The link between man & God is FAITH.

That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

The Middle East conflict between Iran and some Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia etc Is NOT SECTARIAN based though for political reasons many people feel so



https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-middle-easts-great-divide-is-not-sectarianism

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2019/05/27/professor-norman-finkelstein-labouring-under-anti-semitism/

A Great fighter for the liberation of Palestine He is a fair minded Jewish professor 

7th Century: Unmarried Sex Relation with Slave women

Did Islam in 7^th century allow a Muslim man to treat the slave women as concubines (mistresses) without a legally binding marriage?

Islam does not support  any form of concubinage (a woman living with a man but not married), and categorically prohibits sexual relations between a man and a woman unless they are lawfully married to one another.

In this respect, the only difference between a "free" woman and a slave is that whereas the former must receive a dower from her husband,

no such obligation is imposed on a man who marries his rightfully owned slave (lit., "one whom his right hand possesses") - that is, a woman taken captive in a "holy war" (jihad ) waged in defence of the Faith or of liberty 

for, in such a case, the freedom conferred upon the bride by the very act of marriage is considered to be equivalent to a dower.


The above refers to the previously revealed, general laws relating to marriage

(see Quran  Chapter 2:221,

Quran Chap 4: Verses 3-4 and Verses 19-25,

WHY DID MICHAEL HART Rank Muhammad the most influential Leader in History?

WHY DID MICHAEL HART Rank Muhammad the  most influential Leader  in History

My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others,

But he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the secular and religious level. ...

It is probable that the relative influence of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on Christianity. ...

It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.

Michael Hart Book 100 Ranking of the most influential people in history

https://followingislam.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/a-ranking-of-the-most-influential-persons-in-history/

A Great Jewish Scholar Leopold Weiss On Justice in Palestine

Being a Jew, Leopold Weiss came in close contact with some of the Zionist leaders. One of them was Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the undisputed leader of the Zionist movement.

He met him in the house of one of his Jewish friends and had the following conversation with him:

He was talking of the financial difficulties which were besetting the dream of a Jewish National Home, and the insufficient response to this dream among people abroad;

and I had the disturbing impression that even he, like most of the other Zionists, was inclined to transfer the moral responsibility for all that was happening in Palestine to the 'outside world.'

This impelled me to break through the deferential hush with which all the other people present were listening to him, and to ask:

"What about the Arabs?"

I must have committed a faux pas by thus bringing a jarring note into the conversation, for Dr. Weizmann turned his face slowly toward me, put down the cup he had been holding in his hand, and repeated my question:

"What about the Arabs ...?"

"Well – how can you ever hope to make Palestine your homeland in the face of the vehement opposition of the Arabs who, after all, are in the majority of the country?"

The Zionist leader shrugged his shoulders and answered drily: "We expect they won't be in a majority after a few years."

"Perhaps so. You have been dealing with this problem for years and must know the situation better than I do. But quite apart from the political difficulties which Arab opposition may or may not put in your way – does not moral aspect of the question ever bother you?

Don't you think that is wrong on your part to displace the people who have always lived in this country?"

"But it is our country," replied Dr. Weizmann, raising his eyebrows.

"We are doing no more than taking back what we have wrongly been deprived of."

"But you have been away from Palestine for nearly two thousand years! Before that you had ruled this country, and hardly ever the whole of it, for less than five hundred years. Don't you think that the Arabs could, with equal justification, demand Spain for themselves – for,

after all, they held sway in Spain for nearly seven hundred years and lost it entirely only five hundred years ago?"

Dr. Weizmann had visibly become impatient:

"Nonsense. The Arabs had only conquered Spain; it had never been their original homeland, and so it was only right that in the end they were driven out by the Spaniards."

"Forgive me," I retorted, "but it seems to me that there is some historical oversight here. After all, the Hebrews also came as conquerors to Palestine.

Long before them were many other Semitic and non-Semitic tribes settled here – the Amorites, the Edomites, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Hitties.

Those tribes continued living here even in the days of kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They continued living here after the Romans drove our ancestors away.

They are living here today. The Arabs who settled in Syria and Palestine after their conquest in seventh century were always only a small minority of the population; the rest of what we describe today as Palestinians or Syrian "Arabs" are in reality only the Arabianized, original inhabitants of the country.

Some of them became Muslims in the course of centuries, others remained Christians; the Muslims naturally inter-married with their co-religionists from Arabia.

But can you deny that the bulk of those people in Palestine, who speak Arabic, whether Muslims or Christians, are direct-line descendents of the original inhabitants; original in the sense of having lived in this country centuries before the Hebrews came to it?"

Dr. Weizmann smiled politely at my outburst and turned the conversation to other topics.

Women's Rights in Islam as per the QURAN

 Womens rights can be argued both ways, one based on genuine Islamic principles and one based on the male dominated interpretation of womens rights 

The verse from the Quran : 2:223

“Your wives are your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like,  and send [something good] ahead for yourselves. Be mindful of God: remember that you will meet Him.’ [Prophet], give good news to the believers.




 Islam is the religion that liberates women. In fact, Islam was the first religion that talked and put into practice the equality of women. I recommend any woman or man to read the book
( Liberating the woman in the message's era by Dr. Abdul halim Abou Shoqa)

Many prolific  Islam haters  view that Muslim women  have either crumbled into submission or more often melted without but hardened within.

Docile, demure and modestly silent, many Muslim women keep their husbands  financial accounts, give excellent advice and manage the household as leaders of the household.

The home of a Muslim husband is not his castle but his wife’s fortress.

To others she may appear to behave like a slave but she is the real minister of the interior . She has a marvellous mingling of love, kindnesses and independence though at times jealous.

No blogger on  has written pieces on the behavior of  American, European, Chinese, Japanese husbands’ fear of their tough and dominating and jealous wives oppressing their husbands.

There are wives in all Western cultures who dominate, exert undesirable influence  and nag. But there is so much of unfair and one sided criticism of Muslim women’s voluntary obedience .

Greater bullying by European wives are safely swept under the carpet

In many Muslim countries, gender-based discrimination, coupled with social and cultural barriers, limits access and participation of women in higher education.

Some people attribute these barriers to the teachings of Islam, but this is false. We have this in plenty among the Hindu women in India in the rural areas.

The teachings of the Holy Prophet of Islam emphasize

“the acquiring of knowledge as bounden duties of each Muslim from the cradle to the grave” and that “the quest for knowledge and science is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman.”

One-eighth (that is, 750 verses) of the Quraan (the Muslim Holy Book) exhort believers to study nature, to reflect, and to make the best use of reason in their search for the ultimate truth.

Good education concentrating more on women  may eventually solve some of the problems that the prejudiced critics of Islam attack 

Muslim countries vary greatly in their culture, traditions, and social systems, and there is a wide range of attitudes toward educating women at the university level. For example, in Egypt, women have attended university since the 1920s

The percentage of females enrolled in science and technology university courses ranges from 70% in the United Arab Emirates to 8% in Djibouti; in Egypt, 35% of science undergraduates are women 

For example, at The Lebanese University, the percentage of women studying engineering increased from 16% in 1992–93 to 20% in 1996–97, and in Syria, the total percentage of women studying civil engineering increased from 14.4% in 1980 to 30.5% in 1994.

A few female scientists from Muslim countries serve on national and international committees

 Islam granted the right of divorce to women 1400 years ago, once no woman could dream of this freedom.

Can non Muslims  show from their scripture a similar right?
Women were not allowed to bear witness in early Jewish society.

In the Christian West, both ecclesiastical and civil law debarred women from giving testimony until late last century.

In Islam the testimony of a woman is accepted as equal to that of a man except in financial cases.

In fact the woman’s testimony can even invalidate the man’s in certain cases.

Inheritance rights were confined exclusively to the male relatives; Islam abolished all these unjust customs and gave all the female relatives inheritance shares.

Before the advent of Islam women were denied basic human dignity.

Regrettably in some Muslim societies, the rights granted to the women by Islam are denied due to the local culture and traditions, for which Islam can not be blamed.


Islam can not be blamed for the local cultural traditions which are found to be against women. [For details read: http://endeavour-peace.page.tl/MuslimWomen.htm]

Is Niqab (covering the face) Islamic or cultural?

Before jumping  to conclusions, let me tell people  the history of Niqab.

Dating back to pre-Islamic Arabia, it was invented by Bedouin (nomadic) women to cover their 
faces as a necessity to protect the skin of their faces from sun rays and dust storm. It was 
just like sun block.

That is the same reason WHY BEDOUIN MEN WEAR "LITHAM" (Niqab for men). 
When Islam came, wearing the Niqab (and litham of course) was already an established custom among the Nomadic Bedouins.

Neither the Quran nor the Prophet has ever told women to wear anything beyond the Khimar 
(head cover that does not cover the face).


Sheikh Al Albani, the most prominent Hadith (Prophets tradition) scholar of our time, said:

"people should not confuse Bedouin customs and traditions with Islam. The Niqab is not Islamic! 
It is Bedouin".


When I got married, my wife wanted to wear Niqab. I stood against it because it was, in my 
opinion, demeaning to women.

She said: "I am just fed up with men ogling( sustained look or stare) me wherever I go"

I steadfastly opposed her wearing Niqab, and she let it go.

Later on, we were at a mall and I realized something:

MEN ARE REALLY OGLING HER! Yes, she is a pretty woman and men were like literally 
eating her with their eyes!!

I was too proud to admit that I was wrong. The irony is that I didn't realize at that time that 
telling a woman not to wear something of her choice is also demeaning!

Syria: The Faces Behind The Terror

Syria: The Faces Behind The Terror

Does Muslim law say "Kill the Apostate"?

Apostasy in Islamic Laws

Many Ijtihad based scholars hold the view that it is that the punishment in Islam for apostasy was prescribed by Prophet Muhammad(puh) during early Islam to combat political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims, when he was fighting a war of survival and

is not intended for those who simply change their belief or express a change in belief.

It is similar to treason in modern laws Imagine an American soldier in Iraq says he has become a Muslim and resigns from U.S. defence and joins the rebels and fight against American soldiers He is considered an apostate or traitor. Same thing in Islam

There are different types of apostasy; and capital punishment should be reserved for those who desert Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim community and take part in war against the Muslims not those who convert to another religion after investigation and research

This point has been kept away by scholars who were living a long time ago and hence many misconceptions

Ubaidullah bin Jash was the first apostate from Islam. He converted to Christianity in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and died there.


 This was during the life time of the Prophet(puh)


 Ubaidullah became a Muslim and married Umm Habiba, daughter of Abu Sufyan. Both he and his wife joined the first band of persecuted Muslims who sought refuge under the Christian King of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in 615AD.

Some time after coming to Ethiopia, he gave up Islam and became a Christian, and testified his new faith to the other Muslim refugees. Ubaidullah lived and died a Christian in Ethiopia. The Prophet (puh)_ married his widow.

He was not punished by death

Can someone give statistics on how many Muslims and non-Muslims had been executed for blasphemy in Pakistan since its independence in 1947 People exaggerate

In Indonesia over 200,000 Malay Muslims get converted to Christianity every year

 Have they been put to death?

Please do not make a mountain out of molehills

Categorically, there is not a single verse in the Qur’an which prescribes an earthly punishment for apostasy.

Verses about apostasy in the Qur’an speak only about God’s punishment of the apostate in the Hereafter.

Following are two examples:

“ …[your enemies] will not cease to fight against you till they have turned you away from your faith, if they can. But if any of you should turn away from his or her faith and die as a denier [of the truth] – these it is whose works will bear no fruit in this world and in the life to come; and these it is who are destined for the fire, therein to abide”

Quran 72:217

“Behold, as for those who come to believe, and then deny the truth, and again come to believe, and again deny the truth, and thereafter grow stubborn in their denial of truth - God will not forgive them, nor will guide them in any way”

Quran 4:137.

It is notable in the above verse that had the Qur’an prescribed capital punishment for apostasy, the apostate would have been killed after the first instance of apostasy.

As such there would be no opportunity to “ again come to believe and again deny the truth, and thereafter grow stubborn in their denial of truth” .

It is also notable that in spite of these acts of repeated apostasy described in the above verse, capital punishment is not alluded to nor is it prescribed or sanctioned as a morally or legally valid consequence of apostasy

The silence of the Qur’an on any prescribed mandatory capital punishment for apostasy is quite revealing.

More revealing is the fact that there is overwhelming evidence in the Qur’an of freedom of conscience, belief and worship. Following are a few examples:

“And say [O Muhammad]: ‘the truth [has now come] from your Sustainer: let, then, him or her who wills, believe in it, and let him or her who wills, reject it”

Quran 18:29

There shall be no coercion in matters of faith…

Quran 2:256

“ And so, [O Prophet] exhort them; your task is only to exhort. You can not compel them [to believe]”

Quran 88:21-22

Non Muslims can have their own interpretation but they should allow others to have their explanation too

Apostasy is treason rather than exercise of freedom of religion is not so much part of Islam, as part of the pre-modern era when classical Islamic fiqh was developed, and when "every religion was a `religion of the sword`". when religions were fighting wars

"This was also an era in which religion and the state were one unified entity. ... no Jew, Christian, Zoroastrian, or Muslim of this time would have considered his or her religion to be rooted in the personal confessional experiences of individuals. ... Your religion was your ethnicity, your culture, and your social identity... your religion was your citizenship, your nation

So when Muhammad was fighting war of survival a member of his army crossing to the enemy line and fighting Muslims is of course treason