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American Muslim groups fear backlash after Fort Hood shooting

Fearing that an armed man who killed 12 people and wounded 31 others at a military facility in Texas, may have been Muslim, US Islamic groups were bracing themselves for a public backlash against the faith.

The assailant, an army psychiatrist identified as Nidal Malik Hasan, was wounded at the scene but was captured alive and was in stable condition.

Salam al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in the US, told Al Jazeera: "We are concerned about backlash against Muslim Americans, because the culprit happens to be of Arab and apparently Muslim background. As a result, there is probably going to be some scapegoating because of his background against the Muslim American community.

"We have received word that there are already some threats that are being made against mosques here in America. There are people who exploit these situations - they are in the blogosphere and on talk shows. However, the majority of the American media has been very responsible in trying to really tone down any kind of anti-Muslim rhetoric at this point.

"At this point we are being a little bit cautious and on a heightened state of alert in our mosques. We are working with law enforcement closely in co-ordination to make sure our places of interest are given extra security. But at the same time [we are] reassuring our community to continue with their business and to continue being a part of the fabric of American society."

The Associated Press, quoted US law enforcement officials, as saying that Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.
David Domke, professor of communications at the University of Washington, explains how the union of government and religion tends to degrade the integrity of both. This lecture is the first of four fall Luce Public Lectures presented by the Jackson School of International Studies.

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10.04.2009 0

Rabbis fast to protest Israel’s Gaza policies


A group of 13 American Rabbis and some of their congregants in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Philadelphia are fasting on the third Thursday of every month in an effort to shake the conscience of the American Jewish community about what they see as the inhuman blockade by Israel of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The group is called Jewish Fast For Gaza, and it has been gathering steam since its creation in mid-July.
"The blockade is an act of collective punishment, denying the entire population of Gaza with necessary food, medicine, fuel and other basic necessities. How can we as Rabbis, Jews, human beings be silent? As Jews and people of conscience we can no longer stand idly by Israel's collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Since Hamas' electoral victory in 2006, Israel has subjected the Gaza Strip to an increasingly intolerable blockade that restricts Gaza's ability to import food, fuel and other essential materials, and to export finished products. As a result the Gazan economy has completely collapsed," states the Rabbis group Jewish Fast For Gaza.
 Read the full story in The Palestine Telegraph.

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9.27.2009 0

Ghana's Sefwi people celebrate Jewish High Holidays



Joshua Armah in front of the river where the Ghanaian Jewish community performed 'Tashlich'

Monday is Yom Kippur - the holiest day of the year for Jews. The holiday will be marked in Jewish communities around the world, including Western Ghana. 
A small group of people from the Sefwi tribe in western Ghana converted to Judaism in the 1970's. While many Sefwi people observed some Jewish laws for centuries, including refraining from work on Saturdays, this group declared themselves ancestors of ancient Israelites and starting calling themselves Jews.
Every year during the high holidays Jews visit a river and throw in bits of bread and cookies, to symbolize getting rid of their sins. Joshua Armah, 13, belongs to the Jewish community in Sefwi Wiawso about seven hours from the Ghanaian capital Accra.
"I was thinking that even, the fishes would not get the biscuit to eat," he said. "I was thinking that maybe the biscuit would just mix with the water. But when the fishes are in the water they just see that the biscuit is coming and immediately it gets into the water and they too will come and take it off."
The holidays mark the beginning of a new year for Jews. Like many other members of the religion, the Ghanaian Jews will fast on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. It is a 25-hour fast from food and water that starts Sunday night. Armah says he's figured out how to get through the hard day.
"The best thing for you to do is to go and sleep, and you'll not feel very hungry," he said.
Continued

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Czechs urged to rediscover Christian roots

General map of the Czech RepublicImage via Wikipedia
Pope Benedict XVI began a three day visit to the Czech Republic with a call for the nation to rediscover its Christian roots. Forty years of communist rule in the country stifled religious activities and left the number of Catholics in decline and religious practice in general at historic lows.
The 82-year old pontiff urged Czechs to rediscover their Christian roots.
Under communism, which ended with the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the church was repressed.
Research shows that today nearly half of the country's population of 10 million claim to be non-believers.
Speaking in Czech, the pope said theRoman Catholic Church has been battered by four decades of totalitarian rule until the fall of communism.
The pontiff explains that the cost of 40 years of political repression when church leaders were imprisoned and Christians harassed is "not to be underestimated." He says that "a particular tragedy" for the Czech Republic was what he calls "the ruthless attempt by the government of that time to silence the voice of the church." He says now that religious freedom has been restored, all the citizens of the Czech Republic should "rediscover the Christian traditions which have shaped their culture." 
Continued


Video clip of Pope Benedict XVI in Czech Republic

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9.17.2009 0

A year after the death of WD Mohammed

Faithful praying towards Makkah; Umayyad Mosqu...Image via Wikipedia
From "Journey into America" *, the account of an American University Muslim professors journey to discover America with a team of young Americans.

One year ago today we were in the Dearborn/Detroit area in the fist stages of our trip when we heard the news of the passing of WD Mohammed.Madeeha wrote beautifully about it then. We visited the Muslim Center of Detroit that evening for Iftaar and a special prayer for WD Mohammed.
A year later, I am still struck by the man. We asked people throughout the country who their role models were. Many African American Muslims said WD Mohammed. After a year of hearing about the man, his legacy and all that he did for the country, I would put him at the top of my list as well.
Before the trip started, I knew very little about the impact of WD Mohammed. I knew his history and when he died , I knew it would be a big deal. But his cultural import, and the direction and heroic vision he gave to African American Muslims have been staggering to me.
He changed the direction of the African American Muslim community, led them from his father’s Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam, and encouraged Muslims to integrate into American life.
One Imam told me that WD Muhammed is the reason that he and many other African Americans “are not on the street selling drugs, hangin’ with the gangs. People don’t understand what he did for America in taking African Americans to mainstream Islam.  We could have been gangbangers; instead we live the best life we can”.  We heard this same sentiment over and over—that he saved peoples lives, kept them off the streets, inspired many to work in the community instead of being part of the destruction of the community.
The communities that followed his examples were, to me, the most inspiring that we met. His impact on the Muslim community is rivaled by none as far as I can tell and yet the  anniversary of his death is nowhere to be found in the mainstream media while we are on our third month of Michael Jackson memorials. Today, I think we should remember the man and be thankful for his extraordinary legacy.
Jonathan Hayden
Photo: Faithful praying towards Makkah; Umayyad Mosque, Damascus. Source: Antonio Melina/ABr. 01.Dec.2003 
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8.13.2009 0

U.S. Mosques Urged to Host 'Share the Quran' Ramadan Meals

 Islam's holy text to be given to local opinion leaders, policymakers


WASHINGTON, PRNewswire-USNewswire -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today launched its annual "Sharing Ramadan" outreach effort designed to enhance understanding of Islam and to help Americans of all faiths meet their Muslim neighbors by taking part in a Ramadan "iftar," or fast-breaking meal.

In this year's outreach effort, Muslim communities nationwide are being encouraged to take advantage of CAIR's "Share the Quran" initiative to provide Islam's holy text to local opinion leaders and policymakers who attend the dinners each year.

"Because many public officials, law enforcement authorities and community leaders are invited to Ramadan fast-breaking meals, it is a perfect opportunity to present them with a beautiful copy of the Quran for their reference libraries," said CAIR Board Chairman State Senator Larry Shaw (NC).

The CAIR Sharing Ramadan and Share the Quran campaigns are both designed to address the rising level of Islamophobia in American society. Research shows that anti-Muslim bias decreases when people have access to accurate information about Islam and are able to connect on a personal level with ordinary Muslims.
8.04.2009 0

Dalai Lama Calls Global Economic Crisis a Values Lesson

Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth and current Dala...Image via Wikipedia
   Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, calls the current global economic crisis a lesson for people to think about other values than money.
The Dalai Lama is on a three-day visit to Poland, where he spoke to an audience of students at Warsaw University Tuesday.
He called the world's economic problems an "unfortunate crisis" and said people need truth and honesty in money matters.
He admitted that all he knows about financial matters is that people cannot survive without money.
This is the Dalai Lama's fourth visit to Poland. It comes at the invitation of Warsaw's mayor and the city council.
He will also visit a museum dedicated to the World War II Warsaw Uprising - a doomed 1944 insurrection by the Polish resistance against occupying Nazi forces.


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Pope Benedict has gone on YouTube and his speeches appear in Chinese on the Vatican Web site, but judging from the uproar over a Holocaust-denying bishop and his pronouncement on condoms and AIDS, he's clearly struggling with his message.

Barbara Dianne Savage, YOUR SPIRITS WALK BESIDE US: The Politics of Black Religion

"'Your Spirits Walk Beside Us' marks the beginning of a new history of African American religion, not as a sacred narrative, but as the exciting story of a powerful but ambivalent Christian legacy in African American life."
Harvard University Press