Author Archives: Editors

“Massacre In Istanbul” Brief Thought By F. Sheikh

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We are still reeling from the horrible shock of Orlando massacre and now this hideous evil act in Istanbul taking many innocent lives and injuring dozens. No words can justly sooth the suffering of the innocent victims, and no words of condemnation can justly describe the depth of such evil acts. These are simply satanic acts.

There are all the warning signs that unless Turkey, all the surrounding Muslim countries of ISIS  and other Muslim countries wake up and collectively act to eradicate ISIS and other extremist organizations within their borders, it will not only eat them away like termites but it will also continue to spread this poison worldwide.

Unfortunately because of their  own selfish reason, they want USA and other western countries to eradicate ISIS  for them, which is delusional and self-defeating.

Is this a clash within Islamic civilization, clash of civilizations or both? No matter what the answer, it cannot be solved unless Muslims do it themselves.

“Be Careful What You Wish For” Brief Thought By F. Sheikh

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BREXIT has sent a shock wave throughout the world. Many in Britain who voted for exit did not expect or thoroughly thought about the economic chaos and collateral damage it will bring. Many voted just as a protest vote for exit but did not expect that it will pass. 57 % of the older generation, who are longing for old days, voted for the exit, whereas 57% of the younger generation voted against the exit. One young heartbroken tweeted;

“Truly gutted that our grandparents have effectively decided that they hate foreigners more than they love us and our futures,” one young Briton, Dan Boden, wrote on Twitter

But will this revolt against Globalization and inequality bring back old jobs with security, good pay and benefits may it be Britain, USA or any other country? So far leaders who are exploiting this public outrage are only capitalizing on public anger but has not offered any solution to the problem and may make the problem even worse without any thoughtful solution in place.

Globalization and technological advances are part of natural evolution and are here to stay. Immigrant labor, like capital, flows to the region where it is treated best and is part of Globalization. The challenge is for governments, capitalists markets and labor is to collaborate and provide solutions to adjust to this new phenomenon for smooth transition. Exploitation to go back in time will create more dislocations and is not the solution. So far we mostly see only exploitation and little solution.

” Is Islam Exceptional?” By Shadi Hamid

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It is both an old and new question, one that used to have an answer but no longer does. Islam is distinctive in how it relates to politics—and this distinctiveness can be traced back to the religion’s founding moment in the seventh century. Islam is different. This difference has profound implications for the future of the Middle East and, by extension, for the world in which we all live, whether we happen to be American, French, British, or anything else. To say that Islam—as creed, theology, and practice—says something that other religions don’t quite say is admittedly a controversial, even troubling claim, especially in the context of rising anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States and Europe. As a Muslim-American, it’s personal for me: Donald Trump’s dangerous comments on Islam and Muslims make me fear for my country. Yet “Islamic exceptionalism” is neither good nor bad. It just is.

Because of this exceptionalism, a Middle Eastern replay of the Western model—Reformation followed by an Enlightenment in which religion is gradually pushed into the private realm—is unlikely. That Islam—a completely different religion with a completely different founding and evolution—should follow a course similar to that of Christianity is itself an odd presumption. We aren’t all the same, but, more importantly, why should we be?

That the Christian tradition seems ambivalent about law, governance, and power is no accident. Islam and Christianity are, after all, meant to do different things. Law, at least in part, is about exposing and punishing sin. Yet, when Jesus died on the cross, he in effect released man from the burdens of sin, and therefore from the burdens of the law.

Christianity’s salvation story, then, is one of progression, with humanity passing though different stages of spiritual development. Jewish or Mosaic law was provisional, meant for a particular place and time, and for a chosen people, where Christianity was universal and everlasting. As the theologian Joshua Ralstonnotes, reflecting on the writing of the early Christian theologian Justin Martyr: “Christ is the new and final law, and thus the Law of Moses is abrogated. … Justin argues that the God of Israel had promised the Israelites a new and everlasting covenant. The Mosaic Law was never intended to be either universal or eternally binding.”

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‘Homosexuality During Golden Age Of Islam and In Islamic Culture’ By Shoaib Daniyal

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At the height of the Islamic Golden Age – a period from the mid-8th century to the mid-13th century when Islamic civilisation is believed to have reached its intellectual and cultural zenith – homosexuality was openly spoken and written about. Abu Nuwas (756-814), one of the great Arab classical poets during the time of the Abbasid Caliphate, wrote publicly about his homosexual desires and relations. His homoerotic poetry was openly circulated right up until the 20th century.Orlando shooting: It’s different now, but Muslims have a long history of accepting homosexuality

Nuwas was an important historical figure – he even made a couple of appearances in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (known in Urdu as Alif Laila). It was only as late as 2001 that Arabs started to blush at Nuwas’ homoerotism. In 2001, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, under pressure from Islamic fundamentalists, burnt 6,000 volumes of his poetry.

Most modern Muslims, therefore, have little knowledge of what the Islamic Golden Age was really about, even though they keep on wanting to go back to it.

“ISIS have no idea what restoring the Caliphate actually means,” a tweet by Belgian-Egyptian journalist Khaled Diab said. “In Baghdad, it’d involve booze, odes to wine, science… and a gay court poet.”

Baghdad was, till the time the Mongols invaded and destroyed it, the cultural capital of much of the world – the New York City of its time. If Nuwas and his homoerotic poetry could represent the height of Baghdadi culture, it is natural that other Muslim societies would also be quite open to homosexuality. As historian Saleem Kidwai puts in the fabulous bookSame-Sex Love in India, “Homoerotically inclined men are continuously visible in Muslim medieval histories and are generally described without pejorative comment.”

“Mahmud of Ghazni, a towering sultan of his time (971-1030), was actually held up as an ideal for, among other things, deeply loving another man, Malik Ayaz.

Mughal Emperor Babur wrote of his attraction to a boy in the camp bazaar in his 16th-century autobiography – a celebrated work of literature in the medieval Muslim world.”

“Sadi’s classic Gulistan, containing stories of attraction between men, was considered essential reading for Persian students. Ghanimat’s Nau rang-i ishq, a seventeenth century masnavi describing the love affair between the poet’s patron’s son and his beloved Shahid, was a prescribed text in schools.”

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