Off Beat News

MuslimSister —

Al-Azhar okays controversial book about Prophet Mohammed

Book, published in 1837 by Reverend George Bush, portrays Prophet Mohammed as 'imposter'.

The highest authority in Sunni Islam approved a book describing the Prophet as an "imposter" and Muslims as "locusts" that the Egyptian press continued Friday to attribute to the US president's great grandfather despite denials from Washington.

"The Al-Azhar Institute for Islamic Studies approved the book titled 'The Life of Mohammed, founder of the religion of Islam and of the Empire of the Saracens'," Egyptian newspapers announced on their front pages.

The book was published in 1837 by Reverend George Bush, whom Egyptian newspapers - including state-owned publications - have consistently presented as the current US president's great-grandfather.

But the government-run Al-Ahram daily said it had approved the book's publication "because it is a piece of documentation that paints a lively picture of the life of Prophet Mohammed."

Publication of Reverend Bush's work had initially been rejected by Al-Azhar and the turnaround puts an end to a year-long controversy.

An unnamed Al-Azhar official quoted in the official Al-Akhbar daily denied rumours that the publication was the result of US pressure.

"Al-Azhar does not bow to any pressure, whether foreign or local, when it comes to matters related to Islam," the cleric said.

Link

Forum
General

Aphrodite — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 00:16

So, basically there's a difference of opinion. So we go back to the personal view bit... you don't think there's anything wrong with it, right?

So, do you carry a donor card?

Angel — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 00:20

Aphrodite

AdminJust Using IslamOnline:

IslamOnline1
IslamOnline2
IslamOnline3

Not much Detail though...

... and I have heard that yeasterday Hamza Yusuf complaigned about my beloved Shaykh Google...

I'll read all that tomorrow.. my eyes have gone funny.

as far as I'm aware, and I should've clarified that up there ^^, a living donor can give up an organ so long as their own quality of life doesn't drastically deteriorate, they have given full consent, and the organ is DONATED rather then sold, which would make it haraam. Donor card carrying is prohibited - "The bequest (Wasiyyat) of a person that after his death, his organs be donated is forbidden in Shariah"

wouldnt that be bucuz after the person dies, then they would be in great pain even by a slight touch ( i have heard that, but how true it is, i do not know)

MuslimSisLilSis — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 09:21

Admin

... and I have heard that yeasterday Hamza Yusuf complaigned about my beloved Shaykh Google...

no wonder Humza Yusuf is one of the most famous and respectable scholar in the world

the guy knows his stuff

8)

Beast — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 10:47

When looking for info about Islam on Google you can come up with anything written by anyone.

You don't know the author's sectarian affilliation, you don't know whether the person is qualified to be saying what they are saying, etc etc.

Not a good idea to rely too much on Google for your Islam.

Pretty obvious stuff I would have thought.

Besides, it is better to learn at the feet of scholars rather than at the feet of Google™.

MuslimSisLilSis — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 11:45

irfghan

Besides, it is better to learn at the feet of scholars rather than at the feet of Google™.

Did humza yusuf say that?

I've heard that saying being quoted many times

Beast — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 11:48

MuslimSisLilSis

irfghan

Besides, it is better to learn at the feet of scholars rather than at the feet of Google™.

Did humza yusuf say that?

I've heard that saying being quoted many times

I don't know if Hamza Yusuf said it in relation to Google, but 'learning at the feet of scholars' is a common phrase.

Beast — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 11:52

What were you referring to?

Be specific. :roll:

MuslimSisLilSis — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 11:53

irfghanWhat were you referring to?

Be specific. :roll:

OBVIOULSLY the first part of the quote :roll: :roll:

everyone knows that a great Sheikh wouldnt say sumin like "feet of google"

Beast — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 - 11:55

I didn't quote anyone or anything. No speech marks :roll: .

Besides, I don't know what Hamza Yusuf said in Leeds. Ask Admin for more details.

You — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 - 00:33

Aborigine 'Alco' slur is avoided

Australian police working in Aboriginal communities have withdrawn new uniforms after they appeared to poke fun at many Aborigines' problems with alcohol.

New South Wales police ordered 50 green vests for Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers - known as ACLOs.

But the vests arrived bearing a much more insulting acronym - ALCO, used all over Australia as slang for alcoholic.

The error was missed until it was almost too late, prompting embarrassed apologies from senior police chiefs.

ACLOs are deployed to be a visible presence in Aboriginal communities with the aim of calming trouble and easing tensions.

Instead officers almost took to the streets clad in a luminous insult aimed squarely at the people they hoped to placate...

BBC News

Well that would have been a sight to see!

Dave — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 - 21:49

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/21/fake.emergency.ap/index.ht…

Airliner fakes emergency so passengers can watch soccer game

Wednesday, September 21, 2005; Posted: 12:47 p.m. EDT (16:47 GMT)

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A chartered jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans pretended it needed to make an emergency landing so they could watch their team compete in the FIFA Under 17 World Championships, officials said Wednesday.

The plane, claiming to be low on fuel, landed Tuesday near the stadium in Peru's northern coast city of Piura.

"It truly was a scam," said Betty Maldonado, a spokeswoman for Peru's aviation authority, CORPAC. "They tricked the control tower, saying they were low on fuel."

Emergency crews were scrambled ahead of the unscheduled landing by the Lockhead L1011 Tri-Star, owned by Air Rum Ltd., Maldonado said.

The Air Rum plane, which she said was chartered by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, should have made its approach to the capital, Lima, but instead flew directly to Piura, entering Peruvian air space "without permission."

The passengers were permitted to attend African team's 3-1 victory over Qatar on Tuesday night, she added, but the plane remained in Piura on Wednesday while authorities determined what penalty, if any, to levy against the airline.

Gambian newspaper Daily Observer reported on its Web page Wednesday that the group of fans had been delayed for a week in a hotel in the small West African nation and were forced Friday to watch their country's victory over Brazil on television.

MuslimSister — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 - 15:50

Hijab doll ousts Barbie as Muslim favourite

Friday September 23, 2005

Fulla, a dark-eyed doll with a hijab and a prayer mat, has displaced Barbie throughout the Arab world.

Although not the first doll with "Muslim values" - there is a Moroccan Barbie, and a veiled doll called Sara in Iran, and one called Razanne for Muslims in Britain and the US - Fulla is now the market leader.

Fawaz Abidin, the brand manager for NewBoy Design Studio in Syria which produced the doll, said: "This isn't just about putting the hijab on a Barbie doll. You have to create a character that parents and children will want relate to. She's honest, loving, and caring, and she respects her father and mother."

Guardian

You — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 - 19:37

Liars' brains really are made of different stuff

Pathological liars' brains are different from normal people's. The fibbers had up to 26 per cent more white matter than the honest folk, a study has found, suggesting that it is the white matter that allows people to deceive, and that pathological liars may not always be in complete control of their porkies.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, are in line with similar research into autism. Autistic people have more grey matter than non-autistic people, and generally find it much harder to lie....

TheRegister

You — Wed, 5 Oct 2005 - 00:46

Baby boy for actor Cage and wife

Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage's third wife, Alice Kim, has given birth to the couple's first child.

Former waitress Ms Kim, who married the Face/Off and Adaptation star in July 2004, gave birth to son Kal-el in New York on Monday.

BBC News

Kalel? as in superman?

Is cage the new superman in the planned films?

You — Wed, 5 Oct 2005 - 00:47

Well if he became muslim, it'd be simple to change it to Kaleel... 😛

MuslimSister — Wed, 5 Oct 2005 - 16:32

The mystery of the Moon

No-one knows exactly when the new Moon appears as it changes in different parts of the world - particularly important if you want to know when Ramadan starts. So this month, scientists are asking the public to help refine the lunar calendar.

For thousands of years, man has looked to the heavens for spiritual solace. Many religions also rely on celestial bodies to determine the timings of their most important annual festivals.

None more so than the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins with the first sighting of the new crescent Moon. But for years it has been beset with debate over whether this first sighting can be accurately measured - and so for some it began on Tuesday night, for others Wednesday.

While the Ramadan cue in the West tends to come from Muslim nations in the East, in astronomical terms, the moon appears differently around the world.

Secondly, the very faint new Moon can be hard to spot in the UK and northern Europe because of the weather conditions and light pollution in cities.

Does this matter? For many, no. They follow Islam's holiest site, Mecca in Saudi Arabia. But for others it does.

Dr Khalil Roberts, of the Islamic Astronomical Society, said that some British Muslims have stopped taking the cue from the East.

"Islamic teachings encourage the use of technology to help establish Islamic dates, hence British Muslims feel it is important to reconcile the two and not feel pressured into following inaccurate decisions made in other parts of the world."

Those keen to take part can submit their postcode, weather conditions, date, time and orientation of the crescent to the Moon Watch website (see Internet links on right). The team will then incorporate this information into existing astronomical models, which are used to generate dates for the Islamic calendar.

BBC NEWS

MuslimSisLilSis — Wed, 5 Oct 2005 - 17:07

i heard that its wrong to follow "kafir" methodology and dismiss the islamic one :roll: :roll:

Beast — Thu, 6 Oct 2005 - 19:51

Breaking the silence

Rania al-Baz's popularity as a TV news presenter was always an implicit threat to Saudi Arabia's repressive, male-dominated culture. But it wasn't until her husband beat her so badly he thought he had killed her - and she decided to publish the photos of her injuries - that she really shook Saudi society. She talks to Ed Vulliamy about what happened when she dared to challenge the culture of violence against women

Wednesday October 5, 2005
The Guardian

By the time she was in her early 20s, Rania al-Baz had become one of the best known and best loved faces in her home country of Saudi Arabia. As presenter of a programme called The Kingdom this Morning on state-owned television, her hair was always covered by a hijab, as is required, but her face remained uncovered, and she would choose headscarves of defiantly flamboyant colours to cover her immaculately styled hair.

Then, suddenly, on April 13 2004, Baz disappeared from the airwaves. When she emerged two weeks later, her face was all over the newspapers, but it was barely recognisable. Her husband had savagely assaulted her, slamming her face against the marble-tiled floor of their home until it suffered 13 fractures.

During the days in which Baz was in a coma, fighting for her life, her father took photographs of her grotesquely disfigured face. And after she recovered, she decided to permit the photographs to be published, thus doing what no woman in the Kingdom had ever done.

After 12 operations, Baz has recovered her beauty - if anything, the few scars that remain are cogent, rather than disfiguring. She sips a glass of St Emilion and emphasises that she is a devout Muslim - "but I do not think about who is Muslim or who is Christian - we all come from God." But, she adds, "none of this is about a religion, it is about society. What happened to me happens to women all over the world. But you can take what happens to women all over the world, and in Saudi Arabia, multiply it by ten.

MuslimSisLilSis — Thu, 6 Oct 2005 - 20:09

irfghan What happened to me happens to women all over the world. But you can take what happens to women all over the world, and in Saudi Arabia, multiply it by ten.

u shouldnt post stuff like that-it makes me bitter towards men

^^^thats VERY depresing 😢

*DUST* — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 00:14

She sips a glass of St Emilion and emphasises that she is a devout Muslim

:shock: did anyone else notice this line? kinda ironic... :|

You — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 00:20

hey did you not know that all moderate muslims drink alcohol? Its a sign o moderation.

whenever a newspaper says that a muslim is moderate, they also have he/she does not mind the ocasional drink...

Thus making the person not a moderate, but a poor muslim who is openly breaking Islamic law...

*DUST* — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 00:52

Adminhey did you not know that all moderate muslims drink alcohol? Its a sign o moderation.

whenever a newspaper says that a muslim is moderate, they also have he/she does not mind the ocasional drink...

Thus making the person not a moderate, but a poor muslim who is openly breaking Islamic law...

but in the above line he points out that she's a "DEVOUT" (!!!) muslim, not 'moderate'. do u reckon the journalist is taking the mick... most ppl know that muslims arent meant to drink alcohol?! :?

You — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 00:55

Well drinking makes you anything but devout.

Then again she is sinning, but we do not know her heart. it may be ceaner than mine.

All I can say is drinking alcohol is haraam.

Sirus — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 00:56

....a lil Fosters never hurt anyone.....think Australian, Drink Australian...

*DUST* — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 00:58

AdminWell drinking makes you anything but devout.

Then again she is sinning, but we do not know her heart. it may be ceaner than mine.

All I can say is drinking alcohol is haraam.

definitely - u shud know by now that i am not one to judge. the irony was just too heavy to ignore, thats all... and it got me wondering whether the journalist did it on purpose? :evil:

Beast — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 05:49

Aasiyah

She sips a glass of St Emilion and emphasises that she is a devout Muslim

:shock: did anyone else notice this line? kinda ironic... :|

I noticed it as I was chopping bits off the story to post it on here.

I had to Google St Emilion to see wether it really was a wine.

Beast — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 05:50

MuslimSisLilSis
u shouldnt post stuff like that-it makes me bitter towards men

My bad.

You — Fri, 7 Oct 2005 - 23:55

Indian egg sellers' meaty problem

Market sellers in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh have been told they cannot sell eggs because they have been deemed non-vegetarian.

The Chhattisgarh High Court has ordered authorities to ensure that within two months eggs are only sold in specialist non-vegetarian shops.

The court was ruling on a petition from a lawyer in Raipur.

Local communist politicians criticised the ruling, saying it would harm the poorer sections of society.

Hatching out

The high court said eggs should be sold in shops alongside chicken, mutton and fish.

They could no longer be sold in open markets, although it is not clear if the ban applies to general grocery stores.

The ruling follows a petition by lawyer Manohar Jethani, who had argued that eggs were non-vegetarian because they could not be grown and harvested in the ground.

He also argued that if left to hatch, eggs produce chickens so could not be classified as vegetarian.

The state Communist Party of India (CPI) chief, CP Bakshi, said the ruling would create problems for the tribal groups who make a living selling eggs by the roadside.

He also said it would deprive labourers and rickshaw drivers of the chance to eat a food with nutritional benefits as they often stopped at roadside stalls to eat boiled eggs or omelettes.

BBC News