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Mohamed Ghilan the Saudi Arabia born Canadian Muslim who writes articles relating to Islamic topics, theology, and philosophy of religion and science, has published an article on Aljareera titled ‘To Sharia or not to Sharia: The question of Islamopolitics’ in which he states “The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently released their latest results from a survey of Muslims around the world on religion, politics and society. Although there is wide variability, it seems that most Muslims want Sharia (Islamic Law) to be the governing law of their countries and to play an important role in the political process. However, although the majority of Muslims agree on the general principle of applying Sharia, they do not seem to agree on what that term means. Given the diversity of understanding and sources one can be exposed to in the Islamic tradition, this disagreement should not come as a surprise. …The human element must be brought to the forefront of this conversation. The way in which Islam is being considered the driving force behind Islamopolitical movements as if it is an autonomous agent removes accountability from the people within those movements. While their desire for economic and social reform is commendable, their approach is highly questionable. ...The current struggle is between rationalist Muslims who want to bring forth the Islamic tradition in its complete spectrum and dogmatist Muslims who think classical political works written in completely different contextual realities have some divine quality or sanctity to them. More importantly, Muslims need to come to terms with the fact that progress is not going to come from political parties that exploit the population's emotional connection with Islam as a means to gain power.”  Inspired by Mohamed Ghilan, Aljazeera ow.ly/lMHfv Image source Mohamed Ghilan ow.ly/lMH8Z To Sharia or not to Sharia (June 30 2013)

 

Mohamed Ghilan the Saudi Arabia born Canadian Muslim who writes articles relating to Islamic topics, theology, and philosophy of religion and science, has published an article on Aljareera titled ‘To Sharia or not to Sharia: The question of Islamopolitics’ in which he states “The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently released their latest results from a survey of Muslims around the world on religion, politics and society. Although there is wide variability, it seems that most Muslims want Sharia (Islamic Law) to be the governing law of their countries and to play an important role in the political process. However, although the majority of Muslims agree on the general principle of applying Sharia, they do not seem to agree on what that term means. Given the diversity of understanding and sources one can be exposed to in the Islamic tradition, this disagreement should not come as a surprise. …The human element must be brought to the forefront of this conversation. The way in which Islam is being considered the driving force behind Islamopolitical movements as if it is an autonomous agent removes accountability from the people within those movements. While their desire for economic and social reform is commendable, their approach is highly questionable. …The current struggle is between rationalist Muslims who want to bring forth the Islamic tradition in its complete spectrum and dogmatist Muslims who think classical political works written in completely different contextual realities have some divine quality or sanctity to them. More importantly, Muslims need to come to terms with the fact that progress is not going to come from political parties that exploit the population’s emotional connection with Islam as a means to gain power.”

 

Inspired by Mohamed Ghilan, Aljazeera ow.ly/lMHfv Image source Mohamed Ghilan ow.ly/lMH8Z

Daniel Connell the Australian visual artist who draws heavily on India for inspiration has had a large charcoal mural defaced at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale - India’s first biennale based out of Kerala. The mural was attacked by unknown vandals rubbing it with a burnt coconut husk and water. Nicholas Forrest in a Boulin Artinfo article states “Titled LOOKHERE, Connell’s project consists of two 6.5 by 6.5-foot portraits as well as a series of paste-ups with images of local residents. The damaged work is a portrait of a man named Achu, who is a local tea vendor. “It seems that it was premeditated to a certain extent in that a tool was sourced rather than just using the hand,” Connell says. “The charcoal was simply smudged and wiped. If they had been really angry they could easily have removed the whitewash with little effort.” The reasons for the defacement are unclear, although Connell has run through multiple possibilities. His first suspicion was that it was a faith-based act - Achu, the vendor, is Muslim, and the biennale is also being held near the site of India’s first mosque - but locals were quick to dismiss this. Instead, Connell now suspects that it might be the work of local artistic intelligentia, angered at having been excluded from the event. Also possible culprits are extreme leftist groups active in the area, who, opposed to Western influence, have launched poster campaigns accusing the Biennale of corruption and elitism. The defacement might also be an act of jealousy from local business rivals of Achu’s tea shop, envious of his success.” Inspired by Nicholas Forrest ow.ly/gwAIm image source Blogspot ow.ly/gwAE8 Charcoal was simply smudged and wiped (January 7 2013)

Daniel Connell the Australian visual artist who draws heavily on India for inspiration has had a large charcoal mural defaced at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – India’s first biennale based out of Kerala. The mural was attacked by unknown vandals rubbing it with a burnt coconut husk and water. Nicholas Forrest in a Boulin Artinfo article states “Titled LOOKHERE, Connell’s project consists of two 6.5 by 6.5-foot portraits as well as a series of paste-ups with images of local residents. The damaged work is a portrait of a man named Achu, who is a local tea vendor.   “It seems that it was premeditated to a certain extent in that a tool was sourced rather than just using the hand,” Connell says. “The charcoal was simply smudged and wiped. If they had been really angry they could easily have removed the whitewash with little effort.” The reasons for the defacement are unclear, although Connell has run through multiple possibilities. His first suspicion was that it was a faith-based act – Achu, the vendor, is Muslim, and the biennale is also being held near the site of India’s first mosque – but locals were quick to dismiss this. Instead, Connell now suspects that it might be the work of local artistic intelligentia, angered at having been excluded from the event. Also possible culprits are extreme leftist groups active in the area, who, opposed to Western influence, have launched poster campaigns accusing the Biennale of corruption and elitism. The defacement might also be an act of jealousy from local business rivals of Achu’s tea shop, envious of his success.”

 

Inspired by Nicholas Forrest ow.ly/gwAIm image source Blogspot ow.ly/gwAE8

Offended in their religious feelings (October 18 2012) Offended in their religious feelings (October 18 2012)

Jorge Sampaio the 73 year old Portuguese former President and now the United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations claims ‘All citizens should have the right not to be gratuitously offended in their religious feelings’ in an article published on Aljazeera titled ‘Wake up call to speak out for our common values and rights’. Sampaio states “The indignation that has flared up in so many countries against a provocative video, produced in murky circumstances and aimed at offending one group’s religious beliefs, is legitimate and fully understandable.  No believer, be they Muslim, Christian, Jewish, to mention only the religions of the Book – is ready to accept indecent attacks on matters they hold sacred. …it is important to recognise that one person’s contemptible actions do not represent an entire nation, or everyone in a particular group or of a certain faith. Here, I must emphasise the crucial responsibility that falls on political and religious leaders to speak out to their constituencies, urging them to be mindful of this fact.  … In democratic societies and increasingly all over the world, people are free to voice their rights. Let’s join all our voices and work together to address in an appropriate way the alarming rise of extremism, religious hatred and hate speech, all of which undermine people’s expectations of a better life in dignity, freedom and security. We need to be bold and take action urgently to turn the possibility of living together in diversity, dialogue, respect and peace into reality.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/emuIy image source Wikipedia ow.ly/emuEy

It is not easy being Muslim (September 2 2012) It is not easy being Muslim (September 2 2012)

Butheina Kazim the United Arab Emir ant New York-based Scholar of Media, Culture and Communication discusses among many things, the difficulty of being Muslim in an article published on Aljazeera. In the article Kazim states “The holy month of Ramadan is notorious for its wide assortment of television viewing. Broadcasting tycoons and media moguls of the pan-Arab television industry spend the better half of the year carefully preparing the brain stuffing that they would peddle to Arab audiences …There’s your celebrity Quran-readers who make an appearance every year, usually an hour or so before iftar followed by your staple live Q&A Fatwa Sheikh Show with list of questions that seems to have been dropped down as a recycled standardised list of Ramadan concerns for the past decade. …For the soul-searching, information-rife, questioning Muslim youth, there is little consolation in such superficial attempts at spiritual pacification. Outside the grasp of the television screens, Ramadan is the season for those seeking to use the annual routine-shuffle and disruption of the quotidian to grapple with the tough questions of the spirit and matters of the heart. Riddled with questions about their place in the world, an increasing number of Muslim youth in the Arab world are becoming impatient with this regimen; and they want answers. It’s a scary world out there. Rohingya Muslims are being massacred in Myanmar, Syria is a battlefield of warring ideologies spilling blood, girls are being married off to their rapists and Pamela Geller is on yet another anti-Muslim mission across the US transportation systems. It is not easy being Muslim.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/d7kwH image source Twitter ow.ly/d7kdo

A truly liberal society is a multicultural society (August 19 2012) A truly liberal society is a multicultural society (August 19 2012)

Mehdi Hasan the British television current affairs journalist with a philosophy politics and economics background has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘In defence of Britain’s multiculturalism’, in which he questions if  multiculturalism is really dead in the UK as the political, media and theological establishments seem to suggest. In the article Hasan states “Multiculturalism is dead in the UK …. seems to be the depressing verdict of senior members of the British political, media and even theological establishments. In recent years, they have lined up to deliver the last rites for multiculturalism, their condemnation and critiques cutting across party and ideological lines. …attacks on “the British multicultural model” continue and intensify – and Islamophobia is on the rise. Multicultural cities such as Bradford, in the north of England, with big Muslim populations, are denounced as failures, smeared as ghettoised societies. Structural factors such as racism, poverty and industrial decline are ignored. …But I for one can’t help but be a defender of the UK’s multiculturalism …I am, after all, a product of multiculturalism; I consider myself to be British, English, Asian and Muslim. I see no contradiction between these ethnic, national, cultural and religious identities. …Britain has come a long way from the nativist and assimilationist 1960s; opinion polls suggest this is a nation at relative ease with its racial, religious and cultural diversity in all walks of life. It is now 2012, not 1965. In this age of globalisation and devolution, Britain cannot return to some fantasy of a halcyon mono-cultural past. In the 21st century, identity isn’t finite; loyalties do not have to compete. And the truth is that a truly liberal society is a multicultural society.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/cQRQU image source ow.ly/cQRMP ow.ly/cQRMP

Analysts are asking: Has the revolution failed? (July 11th 2012) Analysts are asking: Has the revolution failed? (July 11th 2012)

Hamid Dabashi the 63 year old Iranian-American Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘The mother of the world: The birth of Egypt’s democracy’ referencing the Egyptian election as not a ‘referendum’ on the revolution, but a step in the only direction possible: forward. Dabashi states “Analysts are asking: Has the revolution failed? …there are other historical comparisons we can make. If you want to have a simple sense of what exactly has happened in the Arab and Muslim world that we celebrate as the “Arab Spring”, just compare the Iranian Revolution of 1979 with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 – in a span of just a little more than three decades. …The Egyptian revolution is everything that the Iranian revolution was not: calm, composed, gentle, civil, human, hopeful, principled. All the legitimate fear that all Egyptians now have for the future of their revolution is fuel for visionary progress. …Those who fear that Egyptians are not revolutionary enough, or that they are caught in a “Stockholm Syndrome” ought to ask themselves: Do they want Egypt to be thirty years from now where Iran is today – ruled by a fraudulent tyranny, violently opposed by career opportunists in cahoots with the neocons, with the vast majority of Iranians sick and tired of one and disgusted by the other?”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/c4VTh image source Facebook ow.ly/c4VSm

Ratko Mladić the 69 year old former Bosnian Serb military leader who had been finally arrested under a 1995 indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for genocide in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War and transferred to the Hague for trial, has claimed he is unfit due to health issues to proceed with the trial. Mladić had lived as a fugitive for sixteen years in Serbia, praised by many as a hero, and arrested in Lazarevo in the Banat region of the Vojvodina province. Accusations against Mladić include orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and burying the remains in mass graves in the area, described as the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II. Mladić had suffered several strokes in recent years. Inspired by Jovana Gec ow.ly/55PcX image source Politika newspaper ow.ly/55Pba Protest the shameful arrest of the Serbian hero (June 4 2011)

Ratko Mladić the 69 year old former Bosnian Serb military leader who had been finally arrested under a 1995 indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for genocide in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War and transferred to the Hague for trial, has claimed he is unfit due to health issues to proceed with the trial. Mladić had lived as a fugitive for sixteen years in Serbia, praised by many as a hero, and arrested in Lazarevo in the Banat region of the Vojvodina province. Accusations against Mladić include orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and burying the remains in mass graves in the area, described as the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II. Mladić had suffered several strokes in recent years.

 

Inspired by Jovana Gec ow.ly/55PcX image source Politika newspaper ow.ly/55Pba

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