We speak to Professor Setareh Sadeqi in Isfahan. Jon Elmer on week through of the war, including Iran’s capable drones and air defenses.

Why has an Irish university entered new research partnerships with Israel?

Every home is missing someone, every person is carrying grief. We went not to celebrate but to sit with the bereaved

Eid al-Fitr is meant to bring release. It comes at the end of Ramadan, after a month of fasting and prayer, and in Gaza it has always carried its own kind of joy. The day begins with prayer. Men and boys gather in clean clothes, neighbours congratulate one another, friends embrace, and supplications rise with the first light. Families return home for breakfast, then begin the long round of visits to sisters, daughters, aunts, uncles and neighbours. Children wait for eidiya, the money given to younger relatives. Coffee is poured, sweets are shared and doors remain open.

This year, the rituals remained. The feeling had gone.

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A widening Middle East war is toppling leaders, devastating economies, and leaving millions caught in a humanitarian catastrophe.

By Ibrahim Moiz for MuslimMatters

Israel Broadens Its Murderous Assaults

Twenty days into the American-Israeli war on Iran, the conflict has widened to engulf much of the Gulf region as well as the Levant. The Iranian backlash, firing both at Israel and at American targets in the Gulf region and blocking off the crucial straits that lead out of the eponymous Gulf, has crippled international trade and put the Gulf regimes in serious jeopardy.

Israel has added to its genocide of Gaza a murderous assault on Palestinians in the West Bank and yet another brutal invasion of Lebanon. Iraqi militias, which have historically had strong links with both the United States and Iran since the 2003 invasion, have clearly opted for the latter. And finally, the leaderships of both Iran and Israel seem to have taken a hit; longstanding Iranian potentate Ali Ardeshir-Larijani, whose conspicuous defiance of Israel put a target on his back, was killed, while Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu-Mileikowsky vanished amid an Iranian missile salvo, with rumors of his possible elimination.

Deadly Deja Vu in Lebanon

As MuslimMatters noted two years ago, Israel has long sought to widen the war to include its regional rival Iran, which it has wrongly blamed for masterminding Palestinian militancy; in fact, Palestinian resistance has continued over the past twenty or so years despite fluctuating links with Iran.

By contrast, the largely Shia militias in Iraq and Lebanon do have close links with Tehran and responded to the provocative American-Israeli attack on Iran by attacking, respectively, American and Israeli targets. In the case of Iraq, this was especially ironic because the militias had historically been involved with both the United States and Iran.

n the case of Lebanon, Hezbollah’s attacks gave the lie to Israeli triumphalism from autumn 2024, which declared the militia essentially knocked out after its founding leaders were killed off along with large numbers of civilians in the Israeli assault of the period. Gloating coverage, not only from Israel but from much of the European and North American press, about Israel’s technological prowess and checkmate seems to have been woefully premature.

Lebanon’s Fragile Political Balance

The 2024 Israeli attack ushered in what was widely seen as a pro-American government in Lebanon, with former army commander Joseph Aoun in the presidency and Nawaf Salam as prime minister; in accordance with American wishes, the Lebanese government had distanced itself from Hezbollah even as Israel’s repeated provocations in the south made such a stance increasingly tenuous. Always close to Tehran, Hezbollah responded to Israel’s attacks on Iran with its own salvo, prompting the Israeli army to wade north into Lebanon yet again.

Echoes of the 2006 War

In one respect, the 2025–26 shift in Lebanon resembles events twenty years earlier, when a pro-American cabinet voted in during 2005 was subsequently left high and dry when Israel invaded the south in 2006. It was during that war that Israel coined the so-called “Dahiye doctrine,” named for the suburb that it attacked, as a euphemism for an unabashedly brutal assault of the sort that so often typifies Israeli warfare; the same suburb is under attack today.

In 2006, Hezbollah enormously bolstered its prestige by withstanding a pointedly vicious Israeli assault; while 2026 finds Hezbollah generally weaker, it may be expected that it will recover its reputation as defender of Lebanese integrity against a murderous neighbor that has already displaced a fifth of the Lebanese population and used internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus.

The Gulf between Rhetoric and Reality: America’s Persian Quagmire

If Israel is enjoying another bloody caper in Lebanon, straits are more dire elsewhere. The Gulf states were exposed to their own vulnerability, and the drawbacks of significant American bases, when Iran fired on them. More worrying for the United States, and certainly for Donald Trump’s scrambling regime, is the Iranian chokehold on shipping that exits the Gulf through a strait whence a fifth of the world’s oil supply is shipped.

Ships in the Strait of Hormuz

The ease with which Iran could block the strait was one factor why previous American governments, even the most rabidly pro-Israel among them, had balked at entering the full-scale war with Iran that Israel had constantly advocated. In Trump, a triumphalist dangerously emboldened by his bullying treatment of Venezuela this winter, the Israeli regime seems to have found its man: a braggadocious oaf glad to blunder into a war whose risks he cared not to comprehend, and drag the region down with his fortunes.

Washington’s Scramble

Barely a fortnight after gloating over the ease with which he eliminated Iran’s leadership, Trump and his similarly incompetent military supremo Peter Hegseth, a bloodthirsty buffoon who has constantly branded his wars as crusades against Muslims but balked whenever he receives reminders of the planning and risks such wars actually entail, are scrambling for excuses. Most recently, Trump has lashed out at more cautious Western states for what he sees as insufficient help; this while many European governments, together with Canada and Australia, dutifully condemned Iran’s retaliations, with some even having been involved in the war’s logistics.

Shattered Illusions in the Gulf

While Iran’s strikes toward the Gulf have caused controversy—even Hamas, which has good relations with several Gulf regimes and has been at the frontline of the defense against Israel, advised Tehran to save its ammunition for the enemy—Iranian officials like longstanding regime eminence Ali Ardeshir-Larijani and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that these exclusively targeted American sites. Whatever the case, the comfortable illusion of Gulf immunity from regional strife, protected under an American military canopy, has been well and truly shattered.

An Iranian Stalwart

Larijani was one of many Iranian leaders to defiantly march in public after the American-Israeli bombardment killed hundreds and draped Tehran in an inferno. He has frequently been described, if with some exaggeration, as Iran’s most powerful leader. This is an exaggeration; Mojtaba Khamenei replaced his slain father Ali as Iran’s supremo this month, while Masoud Pezeshkian leads a triumvirate with at least symbolic importance—but it does accurately reflect Larijani’s longstanding centrality in the Iranian system.

Ali Ardeshir-Larijani

The son of cleric Hashim Ardeshir, Ali Ardeshir-Larijani had one brother, Sadegh, who was a chief justice throughout the 2010s, and another, Javad, who deputized for the judiciary. His father-in-law was Morteza Motahhari, who had co-founded the clerical republic in the 1979 revolution, and his maternal cousin Ahmed Tavakkoli, a conservative former minister and presidential runner-up. Like many Iranian leaders, Ali had both an activist and an intellectual background, having studied and written on European philosophy before becoming a generally conservative statist in Iranian politics. His many roles in the Iranian regime since the 1980s included, most prominently, serving as parliamentary speaker through the 2010s.

Defiance and Death

A stalwart of the Iranian state, Ali had immediately responded to the American-Israeli aggression with pointed, acerbic defiance and chided other Muslim countries for insufficient solidarity. Remarkably, given the blaze that Hegseth had unleashed upon Tehran, he also took to the streets in an enormous protest, featuring many Iranian citizens and leaders alike, remarkable for its lack of fear. It was perhaps no surprise when he was killed. Also slain was Gholam-Reza Soleimani, who led Iran’s paramilitary security and had been a soldier since his teen years in the 1980s Gulf war against Iraq.

Dead or Alive?

Many Iranian leaders, then, have been killed in the last year, but given the notoriously leery nature of their Israeli counterparts, it came as more of a shock when Benjamin Netanyahu-Mileikowsky, the genocidal arsonist who had lit the region ablaze and for decades incited American wars throughout the Muslim world to complement his own, disappeared amid a hail of Iranian missiles. Eventually, videos resurfaced that purported to show him alive at a café, but these videos had an eerily uncanny appearance that raised wide-ranging suspicions that they had been generated by artificial intelligence technology. These suspicions were so widespread that they even made their way into American newspapers that have become notorious for their partiality toward Israel. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is perhaps fitting that a murderous dissembler whose career has been based on lies and mass murder now has doubts raised about his purported proof of life.

Ground Zero in Palestine

What will doubtless cheer up the Israeli regime is that their wars with Iran, Lebanon, and other countries have diverted attention from Palestine. This month, the Israeli military and settlers set about attacking the West Bank, an area where Hamas is almost absent but which has long been a target of ethnic cleansing efforts. They descended in an orgy of violence, burning dwellings while lynching and expelling Palestinians. The Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, which Israel’s ruling party has often threatened to excavate, has been shut off entirely by Hisham Ibrahim, its ironically named Israeli prefect.

Collapse of the Ceasefire

Meanwhile, any pretense of a ceasefire in Gaza, about which Trump made such a boastful song and dance, has long since reached the point of sick parody. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since, and the blockade has tightened to the point that the vast majority of basic goods have been shut off. In characteristic dissimulation, the Israeli regime claims that Gaza has a surplus; in fact, according to independent reports, less than a third of the strip’s basic needs were met before the blockade again tightened.

Dr. Alaa Talks About Life Under Siege

MuslimMatters managed to get in touch with Doctor Alaa, a Palestinian radiologist who has been raising his toddler son alone since his wife was killed in the genocide and has taken on the burden of several orphans whom he has helped shelter and fund since.

Gaza orphans

Alaa and his wife had originally taken in three families, but she and the other parents were killed in an Israeli attack, leaving him to raise their children. Though straitened circumstances mean that he directly supports three orphans as well as his son, he continues to fund the other orphans, who are living with other Palestinians, with the assistance of donations.

The doctor’s tone in general was despondent, but he gave a succinct, if dispiriting, summary of life under siege: “staying together in a tent without any income and without any dreams that we can leave this place as soon as possible.”

The ceasefire, he noted, had only slightly abated the rate of Israeli bombardment: “The situation since ceasefire is same, maybe it’s worse for the daily living…every day they strike somewhere…the siege around Gaza, they’re still surrounding Gaza, and most of the goods are not allowed to come in.”

“The People in Gaza Feel More Suffering Now”

Food and shelter are terribly low. “They stopped providing the food for people,” Dr. Alaa said, , and long time ago they stopped providing the tents for people. From my experience, I couldn’t get a tent easily, and lastly, when the storm starts, all the tents are destroyed.”

Israel’s unprovoked attack on other countries has not eased the situation. “The situation since Iran war is really very bad, because the fuel, the prices, the goods, all jump,” Dr. Alaa explained. “The people in Gaza feel more suffering now, because they don’t have any income and the siege is still very strong around Gaza.” One side effect of the Iran war was to help Israel divert attention from the genocide in Gaza. “So the people here feel that they are all alone and everybody abandoned Gaza.”

Related:

Genocidal Israel Escalates With Assault On Iran

Op-Ed: From Pakistan To Gaza – Why Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan Terrifies Power And Zionism

 

The post Widening Wars Leave the Middle East in Shambles appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

From exile and rebellion to trade, transformation, and mercy, explore surprising facts about Makkah you may never have heard.

A Complex History

Most of us think we know Makkah. It is the holiest city in Islam, the direction of our prayers, and the destination of Hajj. We picture the Ka’bah surrounded by worshippers, the call to prayer echoing through the sacred precinct.

But beneath that familiar image lies a history that is far more complex, and at times surprising. Makkah has been a place of upheaval and renewal, of trade and transformation, of loss, resilience, and immense mercy.

Here are fifteen things you may not know about Makkah and the Ka’bah.

1. The descendants of Ismail were once driven out of Makkah

As you may know, after Hajar and Ismail were blessed with the water of zamzam, a passing Yemeni tribe settled in the oasis. This tribe was called Jurhum. Ismail married into Jurhum, and from their descendants came several Arab tribes, including the Quraysh.

You may have thought that the descendants of Prophet Ismail (as) remained in the valley of Bakkah (which became Makkah) continuously until the time of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. That is not the case.

Classical sources describe Jurhum’s rule over Makkah as lasting many generations, and possibly centuries, before their decline. As one traditional account states:

“When the misdeeds of Jurhum in the sacred land grew worse… Khuza’a arose against them… and expelled them from the Ka’bah.” (Al Bidaayah Wan Nahaayah, Ibn Kathir).

Their offenses are described in stark terms: mistreatment of pilgrims, misuse of the sanctuary’s wealth, and violations of its sanctity. Another early account notes that they began to ill-treat visitors to the Sacred House and unlawfully appropriate its resources, provoking resentment and ultimately rebellion.

The tribe of Khuzaa’, which had settled nearby after migrating from Yemen, led the uprising. After defeating Jurhum, they expelled them from Makkah and assumed control of the Ka’bah. Some reports state that Jurhum, upon their expulsion, buried treasures in the Zamzam well before departing.

But the transformation did not end there.

During the rule of Khuzaa’, a deeper shift took place – this time in religion. According to Ibn Ishaq and later scholars such as Ibn Kathir, their leader ‘Amr ibn Luhayy traveled to the Levant, where he encountered the idol worship of the powerful Amalkites. Impressed by what he saw, he brought back an idol called Hubal and placed it near the Ka’bah, instructing the people to venerate it. This was the first appearance of idol worship in Arabia.

Ibn Ishaq records that ‘Amr:

“brought back with him an idol called Hubal and set it up in the Ka’bah, commanding the people to worship it.”

Over time, this opened the door to widespread idol worship in Makkah, with idols multiplying in and around the sanctuary.

Khuzaa’s rule lasted for several centuries before the Quraysh rose to prominence and took control of Makkah in the 5th century CE, restoring custodianship of the Ka’bah to the lineage of Ismail.

What makes this episode so striking is not merely the shift in power, but the reason for it. Custodianship of the Sacred House was never guaranteed. It could be lost through corruption, injustice, and the betrayal of the sanctity it was meant to protect. That is something for the current custodians of the holy land to reflect upon.

2. The Ka’bah has been rebuilt and reshaped throughout history

Many people assume that the Ka’bah standing today is exactly the same structure built by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail. In reality, the Ka’bah has been rebuilt multiple times over the centuries.

According to early historians such as Ibn Ishaq, one of the most significant reconstructions occurred when the Quraysh rebuilt the Ka’bah shortly before the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The structure had been weakened and badly damaged, first by a conflagration that spread from a cooking fire, then by a flood. However, resources – particularly timber – were limited. As a result, they reduced its size and left a portion of the original foundation outside the walls (and, as you likely know, the Prophet ﷺ himself replaced the black stone in its niche).

This area is known today as the Hijr of Ismail.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ conquered Makkah, he considered restoring the Ka’bah to the full footprint built by Ibrahim, but decided against it, as he himself explained to Aishah in an authentic narration:

“Were it not that your people are recent converts to Islam, I would have demolished the Ka’bah and rebuilt it on the foundation of Ibrahim, and I would have included the Hijr within it.”
(Sahih al-Bukhari)

The Ka’bah was rebuilt again in the first Islamic century by Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr after it was damaged during conflict. Aware of the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, he expanded the Ka’bah to include the Hijr and added a second door at ground level.

However, this change did not last. When the Umayyads regained control, the Ka’bah was altered once more and returned to the earlier Quraysh design.

Even after this, the question remained. Should the Ka’bah be restored to the original foundation of Ibrahim?

During the Abbasid period, Khalifah Harun al-Rashid considered doing exactly that. He consulted Imam Malik ibn Anas, one of the great scholars of Madinah.

Imam Malik advised against it, saying:

“I fear that the Ka’bah will become a plaything for the rulers.”

In other words, if each ruler altered the structure according to his own judgment, the Ka’bah would be repeatedly changed, losing its stability and dignity.

The khalifah accepted this advice, and the structure has remained unchanged since.

In the end, it is not the stones and mortar of the Ka’bah that are sacred, but the site itself. It is the first house of Allah on the earth, and Allah is its protector.

3. The Black Stone was stolen and missing for decades

In the year 930 CE, one of the most shocking attacks in Islamic history took place. A radical sect known as the Qarmatians attacked Makkah during the Hajj season.

The Qarmatians were a militant movement based in eastern Arabia, in the region of Bahrain and al-Ahsa. Classical historians such as al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir describe them as a deviant Ismaili Shiah sect that rejected the Abbasid caliphate and held contempt for mainstream Islam. Under their leader Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, they launched a raid on Makkah, overwhelming its defenders and committing atrocities within the Haram itself.

Pilgrims were killed in large numbers, and the sanctity of the Sacred Mosque was violated. Some historical reports state that bodies were left in the precinct and even cast into the well of Zamzam.

Ibn Kathir records:

“They took the Black Stone and carried it away to their land, and the people were prevented from Hajj for many years.”

The Black Stone was removed and taken to al-Ahsa. It is said that the Qarmations shattered it – although, to be fair, there are also claims that the damage was done centuries earlier, when the Umayyads catapulted missiles at the Ka’bah to try to kill Abdullah ibn Az-Zubayr. Allah knows best.

For more than twenty years, the Black Stone remained with the Qarmatians.

Eventually, in 951 CE, the Stone was returned to Makkah. The exact circumstances of its return are unclear. Some sources suggest political pressure or negotiations. What is certain is that it was restored to its place after more than two decades.

Today, the Black Stone is no longer a single intact piece. It consists of several fragments, set into the Ka’bah and held together within a silver frame by means of a dark resin. Anyone who has seen it up close can observe that it is composed of multiple joined pieces.

This history, however, should not trouble the believer or shake one’s faith in any way.

The Black Stone, though it is said to be a stone from Jannah, is not an object of worship, nor is it central to the fundamentals of Islam. Touching or kissing it is not a requirement of Hajj or Umrah. It is an act of reverence, not obligation.

Our religion does not depend on the physical state of any object.

If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself could pass away and leave this world, and the religion of Islam could continue, intact and growing, then the damage or fragmentation of a stone does not affect the truth or strength of our faith.

What this event shows is something else entirely. Even the most sacred objects in Islam have passed through moments of trial. Yet their meaning, and the devotion they inspire, have endured.

4. Makkah was once a major trading hub

If you have visited Makkah’s modern malls, such as the Abraj Al Bait complex or the shopping centers surrounding the Haram, you may think of it as a city of commerce. And in a sense, it is. Its economy today benefits heavily from serving millions of visitors each year.

Abraj Al Bait mall in Makkah

But Makkah was once much more than that.

Long before Islam, it was an international trading hub.

Situated along key caravan routes linking southern Arabia with the Levant, the city became a vital stop for merchants transporting spices, leather goods, textiles, and incense. The Quraysh built their wealth and influence through these trade networks.

This commercial role is alluded to in the Qur’an itself:

“For the accustomed security of Quraysh. Their accustomed security in the caravan of winter and summer…”
(Surat Quraysh 106:1–2)

Classical commentators such as Ibn Kathir explain that these verses refer to the regular trade journeys of Quraysh, who traveled north to Syria in the summer and south to Yemen in the winter, establishing economic prosperity and political alliances.

This trade brought immense wealth to certain Makkan families. Among them was Abdullah ibn Jud’an, founder of the Hilf Al-Fudool, who became famous for his generosity and scale of wealth. Historical reports describe him sending thousands of camels laden with food aid to famine-stricken regions such as Syria.

SubhanAllah. Imagine a desert Arab from a small and remote town, sending such vast aid to lands under the Roman Empire.

This also helps explain the immense wealth later possessed by some of the Sahabah, such as Abdurrahman ibn Awf and Uthman ibn Affan (Allah be pleased with them).

Ibn Ishaq and other early historians describe how Makkah’s status as a sanctuary contributed to its success. Because fighting was prohibited within the sacred precinct, the city functioned as a neutral zone where tribes could meet, trade, and negotiate safely.

In this way, religion and commerce became intertwined. The Ka’bah drew pilgrims, and pilgrims brought trade. This was the world into which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born. He himself took part in these trade journeys, traveling north on behalf of Khadijah.

5. One prayer in the Haram equals 100,000 elsewhere

The Prophet ﷺ said that prayer in Masjid al-Haram is worth 100,000 prayers elsewhere. It is a number that is easy to hear, and difficult to truly grasp. A single prayer in Makkah is equal to nearly 55 years of prayer anywhere else. Over the course of Hajj, which lasts about six days, the prayers performed there are equal to more than 1,600 years of prayer.

SubhanAllah!

I made my first Umrah when I was 15 years old. I found Makkah beautiful and fascinating. I remember the crowds, the movement, the sense of something special in the air.

But I did not fully understand it.

At that time, I had not studied the seerah. I could look at the Ka’bah, but I could not see what had transpired there. I did not picture the Prophet ﷺ standing atop Safaa, inviting the people to Islam, and being mocked in response. I did not imagine him being attacked by Abu Jahl or Uqba bin Abi Mu’ayt. I did not picture a young Abdullah ibn Masud (ra) standing in front of the Ka’bah, defiantly reciting Surat Ar-Rahman, and the Quraysh nearly beating him to death for it. I did not see the triumphant moment, years later, when the Muslims returned in victory, and Bilal ibn Rabah (ra) climbed onto the Ka’bah to call the adhan, and the Prophet ﷺ forgave all who had harmed him.

And I did not understand what 100,000 prayers really meant.

When you are young, time feels endless. A number like 100,000 sounds impressive, but abstract. It does not carry weight.

When you are older, you begin to understand time differently. You realize how limited it is. You see how quickly days pass, how years slip by, and how little you are able to do within them. Only then do you begin to grasp what it means for a single prayer to carry the weight of a lifetime.

This is a tremendous expression of Allah’s mercy.

There is a reason why Allah describes Himself as Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim. His mercy is vast beyond what we can comprehend. A single act of worship, performed in the right place and with sincerity, can outweigh a lifetime of effort.

At the same time, this mercy is not limited to Makkah.

For those who have not had the opportunity to perform Hajj or Umrah, there is no reason for despair. Allah has opened many doors. The Prophet ﷺ taught that fasting Ramadan with faith and seeking reward is a means for all past sins to be forgiven. And Laylat al-Qadr is described in the Qur’an as “better than a thousand months” (Surat al-Qadr 97:3), which is more than eighty years of worship.

Visiting Makkah and praying in the Haram is one of the greatest of these opportunities. But it is not the only one. Allah’s mercy is not confined to a place. It is available to those who seek it, wherever they are, and no matter their spiritual state.

* * *

Reader comments and constructive criticism are important to me, so please comment!

See the Story Index for Wael Abdelgawad’s other stories on this website.

Wael Abdelgawad’s novels – including Pieces of a Dream, The Repeaters and Zaid Karim Private Investigator – are available in ebook and print form on his author page at Amazon.com.

 

Related:

You Are Perfectly Created

If Not You, Then Who?

The post 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Makkah and the Ka’bah [Part 1] appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Shadow justice secretary had called Trafalgar Square event an ‘act of domination’

James Cleverly has said he disagrees with his Conservative frontbench colleague Nick Timothy’s assertion that public Muslim prayers are an act of domination, as another senior Tory called for the party to respect the right to worship.

Kemi Badenoch has defended Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, after he posted images of mass prayer at a Ramadan event on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square, calling it “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.

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US scrambles to contain an energy crisis of its own making as Tehran shows it can counter Washington and Tel Aviv with force.

Exclusive: Tariq Ahmad says he has raised concerns with party leadership after shadow justice secretary’s remarks

The shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been accused by a Conservative peer and former counter-extremism minister of “instilling fear” among Muslims with his comments about public prayer.

British Muslims were openly talking about leaving the Conservative party, added Tariq Ahmad, who said he had raised his concerns with the party leadership and expected action to be taken.

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Eid Mubarak from the MuslimMatters team to you and your family!

TabbalAllah minnaa wa minkum saalih al-a’mal – may Allah accept our righteous deeds from Ramadan!

Whether you celebrated on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, may Allah bless all your families and bring you joy, and let us continue to pray for (and work towards) a liberated Masjid al-Aqsa. Please make du’a for the MuslimMatters team, and our families as well.

If you’re looking for some Eid-related reading material, here’s a mix of old and new!

Selamat Hari Raya! – Celebrating Eid In Malaysia

4 Fun And Easy Eid al-Fitr Activities for Kids

Eid Mubarak! Have the Reward of Fasting 2 Months in Just 6 Days

Eid Gift: Excerpt From ‘When The Stars Prostrated’

Eid Is A Celebration For All: Caring For Families Facing Hospitalization During Eid

Eid Lameness Syndrome: Diagnosis, Treatment, Cure

The post Eid Mubarak from MuslimMatters appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Tamara Jernigan, American astronaut

Earlier today I saw a short video on Facebook or Instagram, I forget which, by a woman called Tamara who migrated from Croatia to the United States (I don’t know which part). I saw the video when I had just arrived from work; when I tried to open the app again to re-watch the video and maybe reply, the app had refreshed and the video had gone, so I have no way of finding it or its author. Tamara is married to a man I’m guessing is from Taiwan: he has a Chinese name spelled the “old way” which I also can’t remember. Their new friends habitually call her ‘T’ and her husband also a pair of letters because their names are supposedly too foreign or unfamiliar for them to try to pronounce. Americans, she said, always favour ‘comfort’ over accuracy and it was nothing personal. I disagree: to not even bother to try to pronounce someone’s name is simply lazy and disrespectful.

The name Tamara is not even difficult to pronounce in the least. It’s not even a name that is unknown in the US. Wikipedia has a list of famous people with that name and there are a number in the US: Tamara Braun (actress), Tamara Brooks (choral conductor), Tamara Feldman (actress), Tamara Hope (Canadian actress and musician), Tamara Johnson-George (volleyball player), Tamara Stocks (basketball player), Tamara Jernigan (astronaut), though maybe that’s over these people’s heads, figuratively if not literally. In Judy Blume’s ‘Fudge’ book series, the title character has a younger sister born during the series called Tamara Roxanne, though they end up calling her Tootsie. Americans tend to pronounce it with the stress on the middle syllable rather than the first as the Croatian Tamara pronounces her name, but still, it’s not at all unfamiliar. When I mentioned this in a social media post earlier, someone pointed out that the name Tamara has the same consonants as the word ‘tomorrow’, so there’s no real excuse to just shorten it to ‘T’ (not even Tammy or for that matter Tootsie).

I was reminded of the chapter in Maya Angelou’s childhood autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, where she works as a servant to a wealthy local white woman, Viola Cullinan. She was named Marguerite Johnson at birth; the employer first calls her Margaret and then, at her friends’ suggestion, Mary. A colleague had been similarly renamed from Hallelujah to Glory, simply because she couldn’t be bothered to call her by her real name. (Angelou’s family called her Ritie; the name Maya originated with her brother who always called her “my sister” and this became My and then Maya.) The young Maya was not going to “let a white woman change her name for her own convenience” and explained that most Black people she knew were horrified by being “called out of their name”, in large part from being referred to by derogatory racial terms for generations. She dropped some precious crockery which Cullinan’s mother had brought from Virginia, and Cullinan was distraught. Her friend demanded, “was it Mary?” to which Cullinan responded, “her name’s Margaret, God damn it!”. As she fled the scene and never went back to the house, we don’t know if Viola Cullinan continued treating her employees in that way.

Chinese names are a bit more tricky, as they are tonal and getting the tone wrong can make a name mean something completely different (the word ‘Ma’ in Mandarin has five meanings including mother and horse, all differing by tone), but refusing to pronounce a mildly foreign name just sounds like racism. The attitude is that they are the dominant race in the world’s biggest superpower and they have no need to learn anything about any language or culture besides their own. Whether the people concerned say it’s “nothing personal” is immaterial; it’s plain rude and insulting to refuse to call someone by their name.

Image source: NASA.

Officials understood to be investigating use of visas by company linked to Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light

The Home Office is investigating a company linked to a religious sect based in Cheshire over its use of immigration visas.

The company under investigation is linked to the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL), a sect that blends tenets of Islam with conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and aliens controlling US presidents. Followers believe the sect’s leader, Abdullah Hashem, can cure the sick and make the moon disappear. About 100 of his followers live in a former orphanage in Crewe, in the north-west of England.

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Eid al-Fitr celebrated amid political furore over claims public Ramadan prayers an ‘act of domination’

On Friday morning, little space remained in Baitul Futuh mosque as thousands of people poured in to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The south London mosque, one of the largest in Europe, offered a glimpse of the Eid al-Fitr festivities being celebrated by millions of Muslims across the UK. This year, however, a political furore around one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar has divided UK party leaders, drawn warnings of bigotry and left members of the community feeling disturbed and disappointed.

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In both Singapore and Malaysia, Eid is called Hari Raya, or the Day of Celebration – it’s either Hari Raya Puasa (Eidul Fitr) or Hari Raya Haji (Eidul Adha). I have fond Raya memories from my childhood in Singapore. On the morning of Eid, my siblings and I would kiss our parents’ hands, and they would give us a packet of money – a dollar for every day we fasted. My mother would prepare delicious traditional Malay dishes like kuah lodeh (vegetable stew cooked with turmeric and coconut milk) and rendang ayam (slow-cooked chicken with lemongrass and coconut milk). We would visit our relatives, eat more tasty food, and they would give us even more precious Raya packets. We all envied my oldest cousin, who was the only child, and who raked in the most cash compared to all six of us.

Multigenerational Celebration 

Now that I’m a mother of three primary-school-aged children, it’s up to me and my husband to build positive childhood memories around Ramadan and Eid. The combination of corralling small children to the masjid can be a stress-inducing one. The secret sauce lies in planning for success the night before. We try our best to ensure our kids have an early bedtime, help them set aside their Eid clothes, and wake them up early to get to the masjid.

On top of that is ensuring elderly care is sorted, which means medications are lined up, factoring extra time to help them get in and out of cars, and checking ahead of time that the masjid is accessible. We pack small notes so that our children can give sadaqah at the masjid too. To help them last through the Eid khutbah, I pack snacks and fidget toys. It’s common for generous elders seated near us to give my delighted children Raya packets too. Once we’re back home, then we can give our children their long-awaited Raya packets. This Ramadan, we’ve jumped from one fasting child to three fasting children, alhamdulilah. 

A Month-long celebration

In Malaysia, Eid is celebrated for the entire month, and the lead-up to this is baked into the very fabric of daily life. As we get closer to Eid, the banks here have specific hours every morning allocated to breaking down large notes into smaller notes – perfect for adults to give little children Raya packets.

There are also Raya buffets at restaurants and hotels, and massive sales across any item imaginable – from clothes, to mobile phones and even cars. The danger of this is the risk of falling into the ever-waiting trap of excessive consumerism – even if it’s in the form of a Muslim celebration. Instead of succumbing to every appealing Raya sale, it helps to make mindful purchases, and to remember to give to the less fortunate as well.

Open houses

During the month-long celebration, there is the ubiquitous ‘open house’ where there are invitations to visit each other’s homes for tasty treats and, of course, Raya packets for children. The bulk of the family visits happen during the first week of the Raya break, where priority visits start with the elders in the family. After that, Raya visits are often mostly on the weekend, to cater for working hours. Visits mostly don’t last for very long – usually no longer than one sit-down meal – because there are often many houses to visit! If a family’s current elder is not feeling up for hosting, then younger relatives are always welcome to take turns hosting.

This not only strengthens family ties, but can also double as a wonderful dawah opportunity for non-Muslim friends, neighbours, colleagues and classmates. I have heard so many wonderful stories about non-Muslims embracing Islam after many years of visiting and eating delicious halal food.

Orphanages

There are many opportunities here to give new Eid clothes, other gifts and/or Raya packets to orphaned children and children from marginalized communities. It’s important to build this awareness around the less fortunate from a young age. One way to do that is by bringing children along to these initiatives, and giving them age-appropriate tasks to get them involved. Even more important than that is scheduling in regular charitable acts so children know that sadaqah and compassion are not only isolated to Ramadan – even if the reward is multiplied then. 

School holidays

Even non-Muslim students in public schools come to school dressed in traditional clothing to celebrate Eid before the official start of Eid school holidays. School holidays are specifically designed to give children at least a whole week off to celebrate Eid. Many families use this long break to ‘balik kampung’ or to drive back to their respective hometowns to spend time with their elderly relatives. The only downside is how Malaysian Eid school holidays don’t match up with school holidays in the West, making it challenging to sync visiting times with family members who live abroad.

After growing up in the Western diaspora, where there were no school holidays for Eid and no acknowledgement of Eid in public spaces, it’s thrilling for me to experience the entire country immersed in Eid celebrations. It’s so much fun seeing many Malaysian families wearing the same colours, from parents to children, like matchy-matchy family flags. What I do miss about Eid in Australia is the steady presence of my family and close friends, and the traditions that we shared together: going to our local masjid for Eid prayers, going to a favourite cafe together for breakfast, and hosting Raya open house on the weekends. These traditions were so anchoring, especially while living as a Muslim minority.

Conclusion

There is something so special and joyous about celebrating Eid in a Muslim-majority country. I hope to always be grateful for this blessing, especially for my children, who are experiencing this as their baseline. It’s such a gift for my children to form a strong Muslim identity, where they know that they can take up space, exactly as they are. For Muslim families living in the West, there is still so much you can do to bring Eid traditions to the forefront; these happy memories will help to fortify Muslim children too. 

 

Related:

– [Podcast] Palestine in Our Hearts: Eid al-Fitr 1445 AH

– Hot Air: An Eid Story [Part 1]

The post Selamat Hari Raya! – Celebrating Eid In Malaysia appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Under the shadow of war in the Middle East, Muslim worshippers around the world unite to celebrate the breaking of the fast

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Stuart Niven suspended after revelations he was struck off as company director, while other candidates have been accused of extremist statements including describing Humza Yousaf as ‘not British’

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, has doubled down on his defence of the party’s vetting by dismissing remarks by candidates backing Tommy Robinson or describing Humza Yousaf as an “Islamist moron” (see 10.12am) as “fruity language”.

It has taken a matter of hours for Reform Scotland’s big launch to fall apart and their true colours to show.

If Nigel Farage refuses to act and remove this candidate, Malcolm Offord must step up and show some leadership himself. This incident has confirmed once and for all how poisonous and chaotic Reform is and I have no doubt that Scots will send them packing.

Again, as I say, this was done in a former life before she became a member of Reform. We’ve all said things in the past that may be intemperate… I am saying that we have to grow up on this and not take offence at every moment in time.

I’ve been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80% of whom are not politicians. They’re real people with real lives who said real things in a past life. Okay, this was said before she was a candidate. She wasn’t even a member of the party at that time.

And what we got in the situation is that in all our lives in the past, we’ve made comments that might sometimes be intemperate. But the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered. I just think we have to be more, more realistic about the fact that real people say real things, and now she’s a candidate, she will be held to a higher standard.

Liberal Democrats urge the government to ensure the NCA or new National Police Service takes over investigations into serious waste crime. We also need an independent review of the entire waste crime system to crack down on organised gangs once and for all. New powers for the Environmental Agency simply won’t cut it.

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Israel has committed at least 2,073 violations of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

For the first time in history Al-Aqsa is closed for Eid. Where is the Ummah?  – MuslimMatters

Barred from Masjid Al-Aqsa, worshipers pray outside the Old City on Friday morning, the day of Eid.

Israeli forces use stun grenades to prevent Palestinian worshipers from entering the Old City for Eid prayers.

Palestinians gather outside the Old City to pray Eid after being barred by the Israelis from Masjid Al-Aqsa.

 

The post AL-AQSA IS CLOSED appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

At a time when Britain has never felt more divided, we should draw on Christian values to reject hate and focus on what unites us

When you think about the unedifying political furore about the open iftar held in Trafalgar Square, try to bear in mind that every year on Remembrance Day – a stone’s throw from Trafalgar Square – the bishop of London leads a public Christian act of lamentation in the open air. It is an act of religious observance which happens in cities, towns and villages across the country. Alongside the hymns sung, there are readings from the Bible and prayers made in the name of Jesus Christ, and a blessing invoking the holy trinity. In Leeds, where I have the honour of leading the service alongside the Roman Catholic dean of Leeds, I am accompanied by leaders from other faiths: Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. We join together in this public, open-air, unmistakably Christian service.

Over years of attending and conducting such services – and others like it such as those held in memory of Queen Elizabeth II – I have never heard a complaint from those of other faiths that such services represented a “domination of the public sphere” or that such services in our civic spaces were “an expression of power and intimidation”.

Arun Arora is bishop of Kirkstall in the diocese of Leeds

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Hundreds of Muslims gathered outside the walls of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem for Eid al-Fitr prayers on Friday after Israeli authorities closed al-Aqsa mosque. Israel said the closure was part of security measures linked to the country's escalating war with Iran, but Palestinians said the move was part of a wider Israeli strategy to leverage security tensions to tighten restrictions and entrench control over Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site

• ‘The saddest day for Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem’: al-Aqsa mosque closed at Eid

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Exclusive: Richard Hermer, who is Jewish, says Tory leader and shadow minister seem ‘to only have an issue with Muslim events’

Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has challenged Kemi Badenoch to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public, after the Conservative leader backed one of her shadow ministers who said an Islamic prayer event was intimidating and un-British.

Hermer, one of the UK’s most prominent Jewish politicians, said Badenoch’s decision to support the views of Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, put her on a par with Reform UK and Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist.

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