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Interesting Reads

Interesting Reads simply are interesting reads.  They do not require responses in the same way as 'SaQ Alerts'.  If any member has an interesting read please email majlisansarsultanulqalam@khuddam.org.uk and we shall attempt to add it to the next edition.

  • Christian doctor who prescribed faith in Jesus fights for his job

    Mail 

    A Christian GP is facing the threat of being struck off for suggesting a patient could find solace in Jesus. But Richard Scott said yesterday that it was worth the risk if he could ‘make a stand’ for his faith. Dr Scott, 50, was placed under official investigation for talking to a patient about Jesus

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389675/Christian-doctor-prescribed-faith-Jesus-fights-job.html?ITO=1490

  • All aboard for religious tolerance

    London 24 

    A peace campaign has been launched on Newham’s buses by an Upton Park based Muslim group. East Ham MP Stephen Timms was among the dignitaries to attend the unveiling of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community peace drive at the Stagecoach bus depot in Tudor Road. Fazal ur Rehman, regional president of the East London branch of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community at Baitul Ahad Mosque, said: “We are simply articulating what Islam is all about - loyalty, freedom, respect and peace. “Ignorance of Islam and Muslims has allowed a culture of suspicion and prejudice to develop in society and this is further fuelled by a tiny minority of extremists who reject the common values that we all hold dear. “Our campaign, therefore, aims to shed a little light of understanding and knowledge about true Islam.” After the launch of 810 ‘peace buses’ last year, a further 240 are being run across the UK this year.

    http://www.london24.com/news/all_aboard_for_religious_tolerance_1_897750

  • Restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia

    Telegraph 

    There are several limitations on what a woman can do in the conservative Muslim country: 1. All females must have a male guardian. Women may need their guardian's permission for marriage and divorce, travel, education, employment and opening a bank account. 2. Among men they are not related to, women must cover their hair and most of their body. Accordingly, women in most of the country must wear the hijab (head covering), and full black cloak called an abaya. 3. Women must limit their interaction with men they are not related to. Most offices, banks, and universities have separate entrances for men and women. Public transportation, parks, beaches and amusement parks are also segregated.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/8529945/Restrictions-on-women-in-Saudi-Arabia.html

  • Activists condemn Islamophobia

    Wales Online 

    Muslims and anti-war campaigners have gathered to condemn what they see as a rising tide of Islamophobia in Britain and the rest of Europe. Supporters including Kenza Drider, who has deliberately defied the niqab ban in her native France, came to London Muslim Centre in east London for the event. Speaking through an interpreter, she said she wanted to "denounce the rise of Islamophobia in France". Ms Drider continued: "By putting this ban into place the government has encouraged racist people to physically threaten woman who wear the niqab." She says has been threatened with a knife for wearing garment, which covers a woman's face apart from her eyes. Chris Nineham, spokesman for event organisers the Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia, said a group of women campaigners from the UK plan to visit Paris in the next few months wearing the niqab as a gesture of solidarity.

    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/2011/05/21/activists-condemn-islamophobia-91466-28738265/

  • Poverty does not breed extremism in Pakistan, study finds

    Telegraph 

    The study, conducted by researchers from prestigious American universities, found no link between poverty and support for militant groups. The findings undermine a central pillar of the Conservative government's radical new policy on aid, which will deliver almost £1.4bn to Pakistan over the next five years as part of a strategy to protect Britain from terrorist attack. On Wednesday, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, spelled out the policy to a jeering audience of police officers, who face pay cuts while extra cash is earmarked for Pakistan. "If you get aid right in certain parts of the world, such as Pakistan, it will reduce the possibility of terrorism on the streets of the UK," she said. Christine Fair, a South Asia expert at Georgetown University and one of the authors of the new paper, said there was no evidence for such sweeping assertions and that her study of 6,000 people suggested that poorer Pakistanis were actually less likely to support extremist groups than more affluent, better educated people.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8526473/Poverty-does-not-breed-extremism-in-Pakistan-study-finds.html

  • UN tells RI to review laws restricting religious freedom

    Jakarta Post 

    The United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged Indonesia to review its laws restricting religious expression and practice. In a letter sent to Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, Pillay expressed his concern over reports of violence against members of religious minorities in Indonesia. “I have been particularly disturbed by the widespread violence and discrimination reported against the Ahmadiyya community which has included the state-sanctioned closing of Ahmadi mosques, the burning of homes and places of worship, and even physical violence and murder,” Pillay wrote in his letter dated April 26. Three Ahmadis were killed when Islamic hard-liners attacked a small Ahmadiyah community in Cikeusik, West Java, on Feb. 6 this year. Several local and provincial administrations have since issued decrees banning Ahmadiyah activities in their respective regions. Pillay said reports had said that since the new regulations were issued, “further acts of harassment and violence have taken place”.

    http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/05/18/un-tells-ri-review-laws-restricting-religious-freedom.html

  • British tourist faces year in Dubai jail after calling prophet Muhammad a 'terrorist' in row with shopkeeper

    Mail 

    A British tourist called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a terrorist in a heated row with an electronics salesman in a Dubai shopping mall, a court heard yesterday. Andrew Graham, 40, faces spending a year in a Dubai jail if he is convicted of insulting Islam. The holidaymaker was wandering through the Mall of the Emirates when he got into an argument with Hassan Habeeb, a 21-year-old salesman from Pakistan. During the row, Graham allegedly said that ‘Muslims in Pakistan are not normal because they kill each other and kill people outside Pakistan’.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388279/British-tourist-faces-year-Dubai-jail-calling-prophet-Muhammad-terrorist-heated-row.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

  • Cricket helps to break down barriers

    Local Guardian 

    Tournament chairman Mirza Abdul Rashid said: “It is said that cricket is a religion in some countries so isn’t it great that a faith-based community is hosting this event. “While the aim is to play first-class cricket which can be enjoyed by players and spectators alike, we also hope to bring communities together and show how sport can help break down barriers.”

    http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/sport/headlinesport/9017331.Cricket_helps_to_break_down_barriers/

  • Parliamentary Group Raises Awareness of Extremists' Threat

    PR News Wire 

    An All Party Parliamentary Group is hosting a seminar to hear from international experts about extremism and religious persecution and its impact in the UK. Speakers at the event, Murder in the Name of God, are: The Attorney General, The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP; Writer, broadcaster and cultural critic Ziauddin Sardar; Co-Director of the International Centre for the Study of radicalisation Dr John Bew; Director of Asia Pacific at Amnesty International Sam Zarifi; Human Rights Activist and columnist Jemima Khan; and daughter of assassinated Governor of Punjab Pakistan Salman Taseer Shehrbano Taseer. The All Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is hosting the policy debate in conjunction with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK on Wednesday 18 May at The Jubilee Room, House of Commons, London. The event that includes policy makers, think tanks, diplomats, parliamentarians, academics and the media is chaired by Siobhain McDonagh MP. It takes place on the anniversary of a murderous gun, grenade and suicide attack on two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2010 in which 86 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community were murdered whilst attending Friday prayers. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community is among the oldest established Muslim communities in the UK and built the first purpose-built mosque in London. The community operates the largest mosque in Western Europe in London, and lives by the code Love for All Hatred for None, and since its very inception over a century ago has been calling for an end to violence in the name of jihad.

    http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=320997

  • Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'

    Guardian 

    In an interview, the cosmologist shares his thoughts on death, M-theory, human purpose and our chance existence A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said. In the interview, Hawking rejected the notion of life beyond death and emphasised the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives. In answer to a question on how we should live, he said, simply: "We should seek the greatest value of our action."

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven?INTCMP=SRCH