Source: Al-Jazeera

Turkey's prime minister has returned home from the World Economic Forum in Davos to a warm welcome after he stormed out of a debate over Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

More than 5,000 people, many waving Palestinian and Turkish flags, greeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his aeroplane touched down early on Friday.

Erdogan walked out of a televised debate on Thursday with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, after the moderator refused to allow him to rebut Peres' justification about the war.

read more

Masaail Classes for Women
Time: (Every) Wednesday - 10.30am to 12.30pm
Location: 189 A Stoddard Rd - Downstairs

Please visit the newly launched Masjid e Umar website for more information.

http://www.masjideumar.co.nz

Islam In New Zealand - The First Mosque
By Abdullah Drury

Paperback. 154 pages / 33,000 words. Black & white photos. Brand new copy.

Islam is without doubt one of the fastest growing religions in New Zealand and also one of the least understood by the general public. Yet Muslims have been living in this country for over a century - peacefully and conscientiously. New Zealand Muslims have proved it perfectly possible to remain devout and faithful to Islam and at the same time function effectively in a modern Anglos-Saxon Western society.

The New Zealand Muslim Association is the oldest Islamic institution in this country. The first mosque in New Zealand, and the definitive heart of Islam in this country, was built twenty years ago in 1979 in Ponsonby, central Auckland. It represented the culmination of thirty years hard work and effort on behalf of the immigrants and refugees who were the driving force behind its construction. The building marks the collective turning point from being a group of expatriate migrants to becoming the foundation stone of the New Zealand Muslim community, and stands as a milestone in the history of the wider Muslim community across the land.

read more

Islamicity.com

An area of history, which still remains in the shadows of today's ingrained and accepted tale of Western dominance is the history of Muslim Africans. The tribulations and triumphs of Muslim Africans translates into a rich and vibrant history, a past of honour and a future of hope. From their explorative voyages in early centuries, their cultural assimilation under the scourge of slavery in the United States and the Caribbean, to their triumphs as re-defined citizens in today's world, Muslim Africans-today African Americans, African Canadians, and Caribbean's-have a past of which to speak.

read more

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies

JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip — For Palestinians, the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that started Saturday, September 23, is likely to be the most austere in years. Chances of celebrating in style are remote.

"Lamb? What do you expect me to buy a lamb with?" counters Ahmed Hassan Makdad when asked about the menu on offer at home for the holy month.

He was queuing at the UN food distribution centre in Gaza's biggest refugee camp.

Around him, dozens of fellow Palestinians squeeze against the grilled ticket windows at UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, like Ahmed to collect rations of flour, oil, rice and sugar in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

read more

The Daily Star (Lebanon)

Malaysian society is now gripped by a fundamental question: Is the country, which is more than half Muslim, an Islamic state? In practice, various religious and ethnic groups give Malaysia a distinctly multi-cultural character. But the Malaysian Constitution provides room for arguments on both sides of the question, and the relatively secular status quo is facing a serious challenge.

Drafted by a group of experts in 1957, under the auspices of the country's former British rulers, the constitution includes two seemingly contradictory clauses. On the one hand, Article 3 states that Islam is the religion of the federation, and that only Islam can be preached to Muslims. On the other hand, Article 11 guarantees freedom of religion for all. As a result, Malaysia has developed both a general civil code, which is applied universally, and Islamic law, which is applied only to Muslims in personal and family matters.

read more

Source: SaudiDebate.com

The jargon grows more raw and ambiguous. It all began in the media with the facile use of terms like "Islamic terrorism," and "Muslim fundamentalism," "militant Islam" and "Muslim fanatics." And the rest of it.

Then, not to be outdone, legislators on Capitol Hill took to inserting "Islamo-fascism" into their speeches, with one Congressman from the Midwest, who could barely pronounce the word much less expect us to believe he had read Hannah Arendt, resorting to "Muslim totalitarianism." And most recently, in a public statement he made soon after Britain announced it had foiled a plot to blow up aircraft over the Atlantic, President Bush upped the ante again when he said that the US "is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom."

read more

by Robert Fisk
Source: The Independent

The real war in Lebanon begins today. The world may believe - and Israel may believe - that the UN ceasefire due to come into effect at 6am today will mark the beginning of the end of the latest dirty war in Lebanon after up to 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 30 Israeli civilians have been killed. But the reality is quite different and will suffer no such self-delusion: the Israeli army, reeling under the Hizbollah's onslaught of the past 24 hours, is now facing the harshest guerrilla war in its history. And it is a war they may well lose.

read more

Source: The Guardian

At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, The Observer has learnt. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.

Voices expressing concern over the armed forces' failures are getting louder. One Israeli cabinet minister said last week: 'We gave the army so much money. Why are we getting these results?' Last week saw Hizbollah's guerrilla force, dismissed by senior Israeli military officials as 'ragtag', inflict further casualties on one of the world's most powerful armies in southern Lebanon. At least 12 elite troops, the equivalent of Britain's SAS, have already been killed, and by yesterday afternoon Israel's military death toll had climbed to 45.

read more

Source: IslamOnline.net

While many in the West see Muslims as fanatical, violent, and intolerant and Muslims generally view Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy, European Muslims seem to represent the middle ground between the two extremes, according to a new global poll.

"After a year marked by riots over cartoon portrayals of [Prophet] Muhammad, a major terrorist attack in London, and continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most Muslims and Westerners are convinced that relations between them are generally bad these days," said a survey by the American Pew Global Attitudes Project involving 14,000 people in 13 countries and posted on its website.

read more