Thursday 23 February 2012

15 Die In Afghanistan In Qur'an Burning Protests.

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
Kabul: At least 15 people have died in violence over the past three days in Afghanistan following reports of burning Holy Qur`an by foreign soldiers.

Afghans in various provinces staged demonstrations that entered its third day Thursday. At least 15 people died and dozens of others were injured in clashes with police, Xinhua reported.

The protests erupted Tuesday in Bagram, the main US military base 50 km from Kabul, after media reports said copies of the Quran were found in the rubbish that NATO transported in a truck the previous night to a pit where waste is burned. 

Protests have since swept across the country.

US President Barack Obama Thursday apologized over the incident, the Afghan presidency said in a statement. In a letter to President Hamid Karzai, Obama said the incident was not intentional and assured him of full investigation, it said. 

Karzai has appealed for calm and urged the Afghans "not to resort to violence".

http://www.ummid.com/news/2012/February/24.02.2012/15_die_in_afghanistan.htm

Tuesday 21 February 2012

No Qadiani Nikahs By Muslim Qadis.


Al Salamu `Alaykum.

Don’t Perform Qadiani Nikahs: AP Waqf Board to Qadis.

The Andhra Pradesh Wakf Board took a series of unprecedented decisions yesterday (February 18). Probably first time in its history, the state Wakf board has asked the Qazi in Andhra Pradesh, not to perform Nikaah of those belonging to Ahmadiyya community because they are “not Muslims.”
Besides the matrimonial boycott of Ahmadiyya community, the state wakf board has also suspended religious properties belonging to the community from its list of wakf properties.
The state wakf board chairman Syed Shah Ghulam Afzal Biyabani announced on February 18, that “the four properties belonging to Ahmadiyya sect were registered with the Wakf Board. Since Qadiyanis (Ahmadiyyas) are not Muslims, the board has decided to remove them from the list of Wakf properties.”
The wakf board chairman has also ordered a comprehensive state-wide survey to identify the properties belonging to Muslims which are presently under the control of Qadayanis. The board has also identified about 45 places of worship of Qadayanis in the State which are not registered with the board.
The board would hand over all those religious institutions to the state government and will request them to manage the institutions under the endowments department.
The properties suspended from teh state wakf list include Ahmedi Jubilee Hall at Afzalgunj, Anwar Manzil and Baitul Irshad at Barkatpura area, and Masjid Chinna Kunta in Mahabubnagar district.
Ahmadiyyas is an 'Islamic' religious revivalist movement founded near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad at Qadian in Punjab. Muslims across the world regard Ahmadiyyas who are also called as Qadiyanis, as any thing but Muslims. So there is an undercurrent of religious tension between the two groups.
The recent spate of confrontation between Ahmadiyyas and the Muslim community started when the major Urdu news papers in the Hyderabad started reporting that 400 year old Qutub Shahi Mosque behind Falaknuma Railway Station, which was built in 1614 by the sixth Qutub Shahi king Abdullah Qutub Shah, has been taken over by the Ahmadiyya community.
The mosque was registered with the Wakf Board under number 13 (S) Wards No. 18. Its total area is 217/218 Sq. Yards, and its entry can be found in Gazette 22-A, under serial No. 993, dated: 07-06-1984.
Wakf board came under heavy criticism from the Muslims for “not protecting the mosques from the non-Muslims (Qadianis) encroachers.” The wakf board chairman immediately announced that the board will take over the procession of Qutub Shahi mosque, and will take decision on other mosques of Ahmadiyya community.
The ongoing tension between the two religious communities escalated when
the wakf board chairman Syed Ghulam Afzal Biyabani made public statements that he was getting threat calls from the Ahmadiyya community members that they will kill him if he take any resolution on the religious properties belonging to there community.
Even though the Ahmadiyya community leadership strongly denied the possibility of any threatening call from their community members to the wakf board chairman, the matter was politicized when the chairman of wakf board got open support from many Muslim politicians, and religious heads who asked him to take a decisive action against the Ahmadiyya community.
The chief preacher of Ahmadiyyas in the city, Mohammed Muslehuddin Sadi, said openly to the media that "No one from our community could do such a thing. It is baseless propaganda against us.”
Mr. Mohammed Sohail Ronal, Emir of the Ahmediya community of Hyderabad clarified that the threatening calls have no connection with Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya.
The wakf board's decision evoked celebrations by Muslims at several places across the city. They were distributing sweets and many Muslim organizations gathered at the Haj house where the wakf board office is situated, to congratulate the wakf board members.
Source: TwoCircles.

Sunday 19 February 2012

Protective Effects Of Mediterranean Cuisine.


Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
A study funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the American Heart Association, and the McKnight Brain Research Institute has concluded that a diet like the Mediterranean-style* diet seems to have a protective effect, and consuming a lot of saturated fat and sugar appears to place patients at greater risk.

The authors point out that more work remains to establish a causal relationship between the Mediterranean-style diet and white matter disease.

"A Mediterranean-style diet may be protective against small vessel disease in the brain," senior investigator Clinton Wright, MD, from the University of Miami in Florida said. "This is important because it suggests that a Mediterranean-style diet could lower the risk of vascular disease affecting the brain once confirmed in prospective studies."

*Mediterranean cuisine is a vegetable-dominant cuisine. The most prevalent ingredient is olive oil. Eggplant, artichokes, squash, tomatoes, legumes, onions, mushrooms, okra, cucumbers, and a variety of greens are served fresh, baked, roasted, sautéed, grilled and puréed. Meat is used sparingly and is mostly grilled. Yogurt and cheese are also a major component of Mediterranean cooking. Close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea provides access to fresh seafood. Fresh herbs are used in abundance. (Wiki)


Friday 17 February 2012

Fancy Abayas! Allowed Or Not?

Q.Is it allowed to wear abayas with stones and embroidery fixed onto it? If it is allowed, up to what extent can it be adorned?



A.
Beauty is supposed to be displayed in the home in the presence of the husband, children, and mahram relatives. It is not meant to be displayed in public. The beauty of a woman is a private treasure and not a public property to be enjoyed by one and all.                                                      
Thus, the purpose of the Abaya is to conceal the body and make one unattractive when emerging from the home. Needless to say, beautifying the abaya defeats the very purpose of the abaya.
The Qur’an commands that women should not even stamp their feet in a way that part of her beauty may be revealed. How can then it permit them to publicly adorn themselves with outer garments that are attractive or revealing? A hadith actually curses the woman who uses any type of perfume at a place where its fragrance would reach non-mahram men. Further, it categorically states that women should stay out of public view. When she leaves her home the shaitan looks for ways to tempt people through her.
Hence, abayas that have revealing features or any type of attraction are not only impermissible but they are shameful and a cause of fitnah and evil. May Allah protect us all.
However, if the Abaya is worn at home and only in the presence of other females or one's husband, then it could be beautified.
And Allah  Knows Best.
Taken from Albalagh.net. Fatwa by Mufti M.D. Mangera.
'Alaykum Salam.

Thursday 16 February 2012

Liberation Of The Caucasus Emirate.



Robert Schaefer, colonel of an elite squad of the US Army Green Berets, who in the early 2000s became one of the main developers of the plan for military exercises in Georgia, and later, as a result of years of research, wrote the book "The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad", gave an interview to Russian Service of state. dept. radio Voice of America, in which he told about the Jihad in the Caucasus Emirate.
 
According to him, there is a war of liberation in the Caucasus, which the Russian stubbornly refuse to call as such for very obvious reasons: 
 
"If they suddenly start saying that they have there a rebellion and rebels, then they would have to admit that there is a war going on in the Caucasus, and this means that there may be reasons for dissatisfaction, and perhaps there is reason to negotiate with the other side", says Schaefer.
 
According to him, there is a liberation Jihad in the Caucasus Emirate in its full bloom. And this Jihad is the latest manifestation of the war, which has continued over last 300 years in the Caucasus.
 
"Resistance is transformed, and there were periods of complete calm. But if you look bigger, then what is happening now is not much different from what happened in the mid-19th century", said Col. Schaefer 
 
He offers to look at the types of operations carried out by the Mujahideen: obviously there are attacks that are manifestations of a guerrilla war. According to him, the overwhelming number of the Mujahideen attacks are directed at invaders and minions.
 
"According to international military law, they are all combatants - and are regarded as legitimate targets", indicates Col. Schaefer.

He criticizes the bankrupt Russian statements on ending the war in the North Caucasus: 
 
"In certain months the number of dead Russian soldiers and officers in the North Caucasus exceeds the number of coalition soldiers killed in the hottest periods of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan (because Schaefer is an American aggressor, he cites understated Pentagon's figures for American casualties).
 
And no one says these conflicts are over. Then why do we not call the Caucasian war a conflict?", asks the colonel.
 
The problem of the Kremlin, says Robert Schaefer, is a wrong approach to the war in the Caucasus Emirate. Full control over the information gives Russia an advantage and opportunity to form in the West the stance Russia needs in regard to the Caucasian war. 
 
At the same time, says Col. Schaefer, Russia can not stop the growth of Jihad "precisely because of the falsification of reality".
 
"Improper identification of the enemy deprives government of possibility of forming programs and strategies that would stop violence the Americans could not stop the Jihad in Afghanistan with all their "programs and strategies"). The designation of each and every terrorist is not useful to anyone ...
 
Terrorism and insurgency are different phenomena. And it is impossible to apply against insurgency the technique for the struggle with terrorism ... There is a insurgency. If they are going to have to deal with the real problem, they need an entirely different set of skills and operations", Schaefer advises the Russians.
 
According to him, after the proclamation of the Caucasus Emirate in 2007, the Mujahideen are capable of operating much more efficiently.

The Jihad is spreading. The number of attacks on Russian invaders and minions significantly increased, the combat zone has spread across the region.
 
The main part of this conflict are the inhabitants of the Caucasus Emirate, said Schaefer, and now they fear not of the Mujahideen, but of invaders and minions. "This is the main problem for the Russians", says the colonel. 

"And the main lesson to be learned from all this kind of war, is the fact that communication is a much more important part of what is happening on the battlefield. This tiny, invisible war is going on in millions of places throughout the Caucasus. And each man there is before a choice", concludes Schaefer.


http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/11/10/15360.shtml


'Alaykum Salam.
 

Monday 13 February 2012

Russia Will Destroy Qatar?


Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
Apparently forgetting the spanking that they got from the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the Russians are out the rile the Muslims in Arabia now. A Russkie moron called Vitaly Churkin who is UN Ambassador for his miserable country had the gall the threaten the PM of Qatar with destruction. My dear Babushka(little grandma) Vitaly, first concentrate on feeding hungry Russians. Then worry about us.


Read the news here:



"The Arab anger following the Russian veto in the UN Security Council on the Syrian crisis resolution still makes the headlines. Now, the Arab world is excited about alleged threats made by Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin against Qatar. An Algerian website reported on an alleged dispute between Churkin and the prime minister of Qatar , Sheikh Hamad al-Thani during the Syria debate. As Hamad reportedly warned Churkin that Moscow's veto would lead Russia to "lose" all the Arab states, it is claimed that Churkin responded by saying: "If you continue to talk to me like that, Qatar will not see the tomorrow. "
Meanwhile, Moscow has dismissed the report as "dishonest, provocative and dirty". "There is misinformation, there are lies, there are bold lies, but I have no words to describe the present case," Churkin reacted over the recent Algerian report. The Russian diplomat said he has maintained a friendly relationship with Hamad since 2006. "I always try to be polite, even when provoked," Churkin said.
The Russian suggested that this kind of reports aim to create rifts between Russia and the Arab world. Churkin accused the West of being too impatient on the Syrian issue. "If we could have spent two to three days on the resolution, then thee resolution would be adopted unanimously," he said."
'Alaykum Salam.

Friday 10 February 2012

The Virtues of Ibn `Umar.



Al Salamu 'Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.
Some narrations from Imam Dhahabi’s ‘Siyar A’lam an-Nubala‘‘ (4/346-373) and Ibn al-Jawzi’s ‘Sifat as-Safwah’ (1/214-222) on Ibn ‘Umar:
1 – His Discipline as a Youth:
Ibn Mas’ud[RA] said: “From the most disciplined youth of Quraysh in the face of the dunya was ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar[RA].”
Jabir bin ‘Abdillah[RA] said: “None of us experienced the dunya but that it affected him, except Ibn ‘Umar.”
Nafi’ said that Ibn ‘Umar[RA] presented himself to fight in Uhud when he was fourteen years old, and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) refused to allow him. He then presented himself during the Battle of the Trench when he was fifteen, and he was allowed to fight.
2 – His Discipline as an Adult:
Ibn Shihab said that Ibn ‘Umar was about to curse one of his servants, and said: “O Allah, cu-” without completing the word, and he said: “I don’t like to say this word.”
3 – His Love of Imitating the Prophet in Everything:
Zayd bin Aslam said: “Ibn ‘Umar would dye his beard with saffron until his clothes were colored with it. He was asked about this, and said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) dye his hair with it.””
Hisham bin ‘Urwah said: “I saw Ibn ‘Umar’s hair reaching down to his earlobes,” and Anas reported that the Prophet’s hair also hung down to his earlobes.
‘A’ishah said: “I never saw anyone holding tighter to the original affair than Ibn ‘Umar.”
Malik said that someone informed him: “Ibn ‘Umar would imitate the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) and follow his traces and lifestyle and be very keen in this, to the point that we feared for his sanity because of his keenness in this.”
Nafi’ said: “Ibn ‘Umar used to follow the traces of the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) in every place he prayed. This was to the point that there was a tree that the Prophet would sit under, and Ibn ‘Umar would frequent this tree and water its trunk so that it wouldn’t weaken.”
Nafi’ said that Ibn ‘Umar told him that the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) told him: “If only we could leave this door (of the mosque) for the women.” So, Ibn ‘Umar never used that door until the day he died.
Muhammad al-’Umari said: “I never heard Ibn ‘Umar mention the Prophet without weeping.”
Nafi’ said that Ibn ‘Umar was once on his way to Makkah, and stopped the animal he was riding and said to it: “Maybe my footsteps will fall where his footsteps did,” meaning the footsteps of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم).
Tawus said: “I never saw anyone praying like Ibn ‘Umar who was stricter than him in facing the Qiblah with his face, hands, and feet.”
4 – His Friendliness with People:
Ibn ‘Umar said: “Sometimes, I go out for no reason or need except to greet people and have them greet me.”
Abi ‘Amr an-Nadabi said: “I went out with Ibn ‘Umar once and he didn’t leave a single young or old person except that he greeted them.”
5 – His Care to Look and Smell Good:
‘Abdullah bin Waqid said: “I saw Ibn ‘Umar was praying. If you saw him, you’d see him shivering about, and I saw him putting some musk in cream and rubbing it on himself.”
6 – His Humility:
Nafi’ said: “Ibn ‘Umar and Ibn ‘Abbas would sit with the people when the pilgrims arrived, and I would sit with one of them one day, and the other the next. Ibn ‘Abbas would answer every question he was asked, and Ibn ‘Umar would refuse to answer most of the questions he was asked.”
7 – His Lack of Eating:
Ibn al-Jawzi said that he would sometimes go an entire month without even tasting meat.
When ‘Abdullah bin ‘Adiyy (a servant of Ibn ‘Umar’s) came from Iraq, he greeted him and said: “I brought you a gift.” Ibn ‘Umar said: “What is it?” He replied: “Jawarish.” Ibn ‘Umar asked: “What is jawarish?” He replied: “It helps you digest your food.” So, Ibn ‘Umar said to him: “I haven’t filled my stomach in forty years. So, what will I use it for?”
8 – His Generosity:
Maymun bin Mahran said: “Ibn ‘Umar was given 22,000 dirhams in a gathering. He did not get up from that gathering until he had given it all away.”
Maymun bin Mahran said that Ibn ‘Umar’s wife would complain about him, saying: “What can I do? I never cook any food for him without him inviting others to eat it. So, I sent some food to the group of poor people who would sit in the road on his way from the mosque and fed them with it,” and she had told them not to sit in this road that Ibn ‘Umar took anymore and to not respond to his invitations. When Ibn ‘Umar finally got home, he said: “You don’t want me to eat supper tonight,” and he refused to eat that night.
Mujahid said: “I accompanied Ibn ‘Umar, seeking to serve him. Instead, he would serve me even more.”
Nafi’ said: “Ibn ‘Umar did not die before freeing at least a thousand slaves.”
Abu Bakr bin Hafs said: “Ibn ‘Umar would never eat food except in the company of an orphan.”
9 – His Defiance in the Face of a Tyrant:
Ayyub said: “I asked Nafi’ how Ibn ‘Umar died, and he said: “He was injured between two of his fingers by a supporting beam in the middle of the crowd during the stone-throwing of the Hajj, and this made him sick. So, al-Hajjaj came to visit him, and Ibn ‘Umar closed his eyes. al-Hajjaj spoke to him, and he would not reply.””
Taken from: 

Tuesday 7 February 2012

From Sharif To Stanford: Iranian Students Excel.


The Star Students Of The Islamic Republic

Newsweek ReportAug 8, 2008 8:00 PM EDT

Forget Harvard—one of the world's best undergraduate colleges is in Iran.

In 2003, administrators at Stanford University's Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. That the whiz kids weren't American wasn't odd; students from Asia and elsewhere excel in U.S. programs. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran.
Stanford has become a favorite destination of Sharif grads. Bruce A. Wooley, a former chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, has said that's because Sharif now has one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world. That's no small praise given its competition: MIT, Caltech and Stanford in the United States, Tsinghua in China and Cambridge in Britain.
Sharif's reputation highlights how while Iran makes headlines for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's incendiary remarks and its nuclear showdown with the United States, Iranian students are developing an international reputation as science superstars. Stanford's administrators aren't the only ones to notice. Universities across Canada and Australia, where visa restrictions are lower, report a big boom in the Iranian recruits; Canada has seen its total number of Iranian students grow 240 percent since 1985, while Australian press reports point to a fivefold increase over the past five years, to nearly 1,500.
Iranian students from Sharif and other top schools, such as the University of Tehran and the Isfahan University of Technology, have also become major players in the international Science Olympics, taking home trophies in physics, mathematics, chemistry and robotics. As a testament to this newfound success, the Iranian city of Isfahan recently hosted the International Physics Olympiad—an honor no other Middle Eastern country has enjoyed. That's because none of Iran's neighbors can match the quality of its scholars.
Never far behind, Western tech companies have also started snatching them up. Silicon Valley companies from Google to Yahoo now employ hundreds of Iranian grads, as do research institutes throughout the West. Olympiad winners are especially attractive; according to the Iranian press, up to 90 percent of them now leave the country for graduate school or work abroad.
So what explains Iran's record, and that of Sharif in particular? The country suffers from many serious ills, such as chronic inflation, stagnant wages and an anemic private sector, thanks to poor economic management and a weak regulatory environment. University professors barely make ends meet—the pay is so bad some must even take second jobs as taxi drivers or petty traders. International sanctions also make life difficult, delaying the importation of scientific equipment, for example, and increasing isolation. Until recently, Iranians were banned from publishing in the journals of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the industry's key international professional association. They also face the indignity of often having their visa applications refused when they try to attend conferences in the West.
Yet Sharif and its ilk continue to thrive. Part of the explanation, says Mohammad Mansouri, a Sharif grad ('97) who's now a professor in New York, lies in the tendency of Iranian parents to push their kids into medicine or engineering as opposed to other fields, like law. Sharif also has an extremely rigorous selection process. Every year some 1.5 million Iranian high-school students take college-entrance exams. Of those, only about 10 percent make it to the prestigious state schools, with the top 1 percent generally choosing science and finding their way to top spots such as Sharif. "The selection process [gives] universities like Sharif the smartest, most motivated and hardworking students" in the country, Mansouri says.
Sharif also boasts an excellent faculty. The university was founded in 1965 by the shah, who wanted to build a topnotch science and technology institute. The school was set up under the guidance of MIT advisers, and many of the current faculty studied in the United States (during the shah's era, Iranians made up the largest group of foreign students at U.S. schools, according to the Institute of International Education). Another secret of Sharif's success is Iran's high-school system, which places a premium on science and exposes students to subjects Americans don't encounter until college. This tradition of advanced studies extends into undergraduate programs, with Mansouri and others saying they were taught subjects in college that U.S. schools provide only to grad students.
Several Sharif alumni point to one other powerful motivator. "When you live in Iran and you see all the frustrations of daily life, you dream of leaving the country, and your books and studies become a ticket to a better life," says one who asked not to be identified. "It becomes more than just studying," he says. "It becomes an obsession, where you wake up at 4 a.m. just to get in a few more hours before class."
Iran's success, in other words, is also the country's tragedy: students want nothing more than to get away the moment they graduate. That's a boon for foreign universities and tech firms but a serious source of brain drain for the Islamic republic. There simply are not enough quality jobs for graduates in Iran, says Ramin Farjad Rad, another Sharif grad ('97) who's now an executive at Aquantia in Silicon Valley. What's worse, star students who stay in Iran and try to launch businesses complain that predatory government officials demand a cut of their profits or impose unnecessary obstacles. Thus many Iranians who can't make it to the West head to Dubai instead. As one Sharif grad in the Persian Gulf port city puts it, "Here, our education is properly valued. We are given freedom to succeed. In Iran, we are blocked."
Such frustrations augur ill for Iran's future. True, it's produced a startling number of top students in recent years. And the country's history is rich with achievement, featuring Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina), the medieval world's greatest scientist; Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, the ninth-century inventor of the mathematical algorithm (the basis of computer science), and Omar Khayyam, the famed mathematician and astronomer. That's a fine legacy. But unless the Islamic republic changes directions soon, all of that history and potential could be squandered.
'Alaykum Salam.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Tipu Sultan & Jama Masjid Chitradurga.


Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
The legendary king Tipu Sultan was not only famous for his bravery, but also for his care and respect for every religion.
This very humble attitude of his is reflected in several monuments he constructed, including the religious one.
The Jama Masjid or Sultan-e-Jama Masjid located at Chikpet area of the city, was constructed by Tipu, is a fine example for his nature of respecting other religions.
The Mosque built by Tipu Sultan has a happy mixture of Indo-Saracen architecture. According to historians, Tipu tried to blend Hindu-Muslim architecture in his several monuments. It is commonly believed that in Indian architecture, doors and windows are constructed in square, triangle or rectangular form, while in Saracen or Arabic architecture, they are more curved or circled.
Tipu Sultan used the combination of both styles in delicate yet explicit manner to ensure that it does not hurt the sentiment of any religion especially while constructing religious monuments.
Explaining about the history of the mosque, Moinuddin, one of the committee members of Masjid, said that after taking over Chitradurga (which was earlier called as Chittaldurg), Tipu Sultan met a sufi saint Hazarat Ahmedsha Wali Chisti here, who asked Tipu to construct a masjid.
“ The construction was started approximately in 1785, but took over half a century to complete, owing to the death of Tipu in 1799”, he said.
The record available here reveals that Tipu had renowned architects of Algeria, Morocco and France who were designing the structures.
Senior historian Venkannachar said that Tipu has several local architects also who gave Indian touch to Saracen style.
The enchanting mosque has two tall minarets. It has got 13 rows inside and in each row, atleast 50 people can offer Namaz. In later years, more areas were added into mosque as it fell short to accommodate many people. “Now, over 1,500 people can offer Namaz in the mosque”, said Mr. Moinuddin.
The mosque, which was under Muzarai department, was handed over to Waqf Board in 1962. The mosque also runs a madarsa where over 50 students are taking religious training beside computer education.