About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

20 Mar 2010

100320 Quick view on some News

Increase in non-Muslims opting for Sharia courts in Britain

A tiny but increasing number of non-Muslims are turning to Sharia courts to resolve civil disputes. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) is reporting a 15% increase in the number of non-Muslims resorting to Islamic courts to settle commercial disputes this year. Last year, over 20 non-Muslims opted to have their cases heard in a Sharia court.

A spokesman for the MAT said: "We are increasingly dealing with reconciliation and mediation in marriage". Under the Arbitration Act 1996, Sharia courts can have their rulings upheld by civil courts in England and Wales. Decisions from the Islamic courts, which often deal with family and financial disputes, can be presented to a family court judge on a two page form for approval. Last week a Scottish law firm became the first in the country to offer clients advice on Sharia law alongside its conventional legal services. The controversial service, offered by Glasgow based Hamilton Burns solicitors, allows clients to receive guidance from both a Muslim lawyer fully trained in Scottish law and a Sharia scholar.Last July it was reported that non-Muslims are increasingly turning to Sharia courts because they find the process "less cumbersome".

Europe considers European Monetary Fund

European governments are contemplating a European Monetary Fund, mirroring the International Monetary Fund, to reduce economic instability in the eurozone. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Finance Minister, said that details of the new EMF would be revealed "soon" and that it would have powers comparable to that of the IMF. The move follows the economic turmoil in Greece. Although the creation of the EMF could not be used to deal with the Greek debt crisis, it would create a mechanism for monitoring and preventing a similar situation arising in the eurozone in the future, by bailing out indebted countries. Mr Schäuble said that eurozone countries needed to learn the lessons of the Greek crisis, which has exposed the need for a mechanism for dealing with eurozone members in danger of defaulting on their debts. Mr Schäuble said: "Accepting financial aid through the International Monetary Fund would, in my opinion, be a n admission that the euro countries can't solve their problems through their own efforts."

American Jews energised by tougher White House rhetoric

The Obama administration's harsh criticism of Israel has energised the emerging moderate Israel lobby, which supports a tough-love approach to US-Israel diplomacy and seeks to counter the powerful, hawkish groups that have long dominated the discourse here. Left-leaning groups have sprung into action in recent days, writing letters and petitions and urging their members to show support for the sharp White House rebuke of Israel's decision to build 1,600 new housing units in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. For them, the Obama administration's strong words are a welcome change in tone, and the recent diplomatic flap, described by some analysts as the worst in decades, could be a defining moment for the movement as it seeks to gain legitimacy. Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for J Street, the leading moderate lobbying group, said: "I think the movement has really stepped up." J Street delivered a petition of support with 18,000 signatures to the White House on Monday, and on Tuesday it sent out an e-mail encouraging members to write their legislators expressing their belief that the administration's reaction has been "understandable and appropriate". The main goal of such moderate groups is to establish themselves as a counterbalance to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful lobbying group known for its unwavering support and aversion to any criticism of Israel. In a statement on Sunday, Aipac called the administration's rhetoric "a matter of serious concern" and a "distraction", urging the White House to "to move away from public demands and unilateral deadlines directed at Israel".

Petraeus : Iran Unlikely to Develop a Nuclear Weapon This Year

Gen. David H. Petraeus said Tuesday that Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon this year, but that the country still remained the greatest threat to stability in the Middle East and Central Asia. Asked by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, how much time was available before Iran was able to build a nuclear weapon, General Petraeus replied, "It has, thankfully, slid to the right a bit, and it is not this calendar year, I don't think." General Petraeus made his comments before the Senate Armed Services Committee. General Petraeus, who as the head of United States Central Command oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, declined to discuss what he called "contingency plans" against Iran for what western nations believe is a covert nuclear arms program. Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended for civilian use.

US General paints bleak picture for Afghanistan in 2010

The commander of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia says 2010 will be a difficult year for US-led forces in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus told lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that international forces will be involved in intense fighting with the Taliban and will face setbacks this year. He added that the US troop surge in Afghanistan is unlikely to reduce violence in the Central Asian nation. US troops comprise about two-thirds of the entire foreign military contingent deployed in Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama has ordered the deployment of 30,000 more soldiers to the country despite the recent rise in casualties.

US, Pakistan set to hold first strategic (slave) dialogue

The United States and Pakistan will hold their first Strategic Dialogue here next week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi co-chairing the talks. Topics for discussion March 24 will include economic development, water and energy, education, communications and public diplomacy, agriculture, and security, the State Department announced Wednesday. President Barack Obama and Clinton have repeatedly stressed the breadth and depth of the US-Pakistan relationship, a partnership that goes far beyond security, the official announcement said.

Cyberwar declared as China hunts for the West's intelligence secrets

Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China. The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states. Nato diplomatic sources told The Times: "Everyone has been made aware that the Chinese have become very active with cyber-attacks and we're now getting regular warnings from the office for internal security." The sources said that the number of attacks had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with China among the most active players.
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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]