Is Hajj just a series of ritual or is more than that? Of course, Hajj is not just a series of various Islamic rituals which Muslims perform and then leave home without learning any spiritual lessons from it. One of the lessons from the Hajj is “Tolerance is the way of life”. More than two million Muslim men and women gather for Hajj and only way to absorb the experience is to have tolerance for the vast and varying ways the people around you perform the Hajj.

People may have different interpretations of what is allowed in Hajj and what is not allowed and it can be different from you own interpretations. It is the tolerance to others that will keep you going during the Hajj. Performing Hajj with more than two million other Muslims walking with you shoulder to shoulder from different culture and speaking different languages but still performing the same rites. Some people may not treat you the way you would like to be treated but you have to be tolerant of others as that is the only way for you not to indulge in something which is not allowed during the Hajj and focus on your rituals.

If you can not tolerate the people who have a different variation of your own faith, then it is impossible to tolerate people from the other believes. If you can tolerate other over two million people during the Hajj, then you have learned a very important lesson from Hajj that is “Tolerance is the Way of Life”.

It is not only tolerance, Hajj is in fact a journey of a lifetime.

However, they asked, “Is the man of the house home?”. She told them that he was out and not present at home at that time. The old men told the lady then cannot come in because the man of the house was not present.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. The husband told his wife to invite them in. The woman went out and invited the men in. However, the men said’ “We do not go into a House together”. The woman asked, “Why is that?”

One of the old men explained: “His name is Wealth,” he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, “He is Success, and I am Love.” Then he added, “Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home.”

The woman came inside the house and told her husband. The husband said, “Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!”

His wife disagreed. “My dear, why don’t we invite Success?” Their daughter was listening their conversation. She said “Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!” The husband told her wife that we should listen to our daughter and invite Love inside to be the guest.

The woman went out and told three old men that they want to invite Love to be their gust. Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other two also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: “I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?”

The old men replied together: “If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would’ve stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever Love goes, we go with Love. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success”.

So, if someone wants wealth and success in life, the first step to get these is love. Islam teaches us Muslims to love the other human beings. Are we doing that these days? How can be we successful if we don’t love other fellow human beings?

Is there really a such thing as golden ratio or it is just a conincdence? Is it really important to show the world or Muslims that Kaaba is a miracle? It is good to watch these videos for information but most important thing to do is follow the teachings of Quran and Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H). This is the only way we can change the image of Muslims in the world and show the true face of Islam.

However, the poll also found that the vast majority of Muslims have extremely conservative views on moral issues such as homosexuality and the death penalty, which differ dramatically from those held by the rest of the UK population. More than 1,500 interviews were conducted in the UK.

Perhaps the survey’s most surprising finding was that more than three-quarters of British Muslims (77%) said they identified “very strongly” with the UK, compared to just half (50%) of the general public. This contradicts the idea that Muslims are outsiders who have little in common with the UK, and is further borne out by a second statistic: 82% said British Muslims were loyal to the country.

Not a single British Muslim said homosexuality was morally acceptable, compared to 58 per cent of the general public who believed it was.

British Muslims were found to have faith in the police, with 76% saying they trusted them compared to 67% of the general public. They were also found to be more likely to have confidence in the Government, the judicial system, financial institutions and the media.

Extra-marital sex was deemed morally acceptable by only 3% of Muslims, compared to 82% of the general public. And while 15% of the general public considered adultery morally acceptable, only 2% of Muslims felt the same way.

More Muslims said they believed in the death penalty than the general public, of whom 50% said they regarded such a policy as morally acceptable.

British Muslims appear to be a lot more tolerant than the rest of the UK population when it comes to accepting other religions. 26% said they felt the above statement was accurate.

This survey portraits British Muslims patriotic, respectful and very conservative. The Most British general public thought Muslims are not loyal to UK because they see reapeadetly the same news on electronic media as well print media. The news is repeated so many times that makes people beleive that as if majority of Muslims are involved in those kind of extremist acts targeting UK.

Source

He strongly beleived that women should remain inside the house and government of Pakistan should enforce a law prohibiting all the women coming out of house.

Most surprising part of his interview was his willingness to become a suicide bomber after permission from his parents. When asked is it not wrong to do so, he replied, “when I will be in frot of Allah and Allah asks me why I did that? I will say yah Allah I did that with an intention to please you and Allah will grant me paradise.”

I am still wondering that will Allah grant Jannah to a person who killed indiscrimnately other human beings just because he/she had intention to please Allah? Will it really please Allah? Will any of the Islamic scholars will like to shed some light on this issue?

“Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam.”

He further said, ‘The United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.’

The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country. I know, because I am one of them,’ Obama said in his speech to parliament.  Obama also called Iran a ‘great civilization’ and said he sought engagement with the Islamic Republic. But he added: ‘Iran’s leaders must choose whether they will try to build a weapon or build a better future for their people.’ Obama also backed Turkey’s bid to join European Union.

Although Obama is making some efforst to reach out to Muslims with his words, however, his actions are not supporting his words. His administration is sending more troops to Afghanistan as well has increased funding for drones which have been carrying out missile attacks into Pakistan’s area.  These missile attacks have only killed mostly civilians and not any important figure of Taliban. As a direct result of these missile attacks, now many of the Pakistan’s major cities are under suicide bombers killing a large number of civilians there as well.

If Obama is sincere in bridging the ever increasing distance between West and Muslims, he has to change his policy in Afghanistan also. Following Bush’s policy will acheive nothing but more deaths and more anger against US.

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Today in Obama: US Is Not at War With Islam
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But The Muslim World Is At War With Us

Gallup defined as “thriving” those who said they’re currently on at least step seven of that ladder and expect to be on step eight or higher about five years from now. Muslim-Americans (41 per cent) were slightly less likely than Americans overall (46 per cent) to be thriving. Yet the proportion of Muslims thriving in the United States was among the highest of Western societies surveyed, Gallup found. For example, only eight per cent of Muslims in the United Kingdom and 23 per cent in France were thriving.

One exception: 49 per cent of Muslims were deemed thriving in Germany, which welcomed many immigrants from Turkey during labour shortages in the 1960s and 1970s. In predominantly Muslim countries, only in Saudi Arabia were more Muslims – 51 per cent – thriving than in America.

Gallup found only 11 per cent of Muslims thriving in Indonesia and Pakistan, 13 per cent in Egypt, in the high teens to 20 per cent in Bangladesh, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and 24 per cent in Morocco. Gallup found the proportion “suffering’’ – answering zero to four on both ladder questions – ranging from 20 to 26 per cent in Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon and as high as 33 per cent in Jordan and 45 per cent in Pakistan.

In short, Muslim Americans look more like other Americans in their life outlook than they resemble Muslims in most predominantly Muslim nations. The Gallup study painted an uncommon portrait of Muslims in a US and global context by combining interviews with 946 Muslims from polling of more than 300,000 Americans throughout 2008 and comparing them to Gallup surveys in more than 140 other countries.

With Muslim-Americans probably making up only around 1 percent of the nation’s population, few sound surveys have targeted the group, despite interest after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  In an essay for the Gallup report, Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat and the first Muslim elected to Congress, urged Muslim Americans to “step out of the shadows of your own world, and step forthrightly into a participatory America.’’ Ellison wrote:

“For too long _ and particularly after 9/11 – Muslims have withdrawn into their own mosque-defined communities, denying themselves their rightful place in the fabric of America.’’

“Being Muslim’ shouldn’t need to be explained, but rather be observed by how each of us lives our lives, and the values we espouse. However, defined we are by our religion, we are equally defined by our nationalism; we are Americans.’’

Results are subject to sampling error of plus or minus 4 per cent  for Muslim-Americans, 0.2 per cen for all Americans and varying ranges in other countries.

Source: The News

According to a draft of the strategy, Contest 2 as it is known in Whitehall, people would be considered as extremists if:

• They advocate a caliphate, a pan-Islamic state encompassing many countries.

• They promote Sharia law.

• They believe in jihad, or armed resistance, anywhere in the world. This would include armed resistance by Palestinians against the Israeli military.

• They argue that Islam bans homosexuality and that it is a sin against Allah.

• They fail to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Contest 2 would widen the definition of extremists to those who hold views that clash with what the government defines as shared British values. Does that mean all the British people other than Muslims do approve of the Israel’s aggression in Palestine?

Those who advocate the wider definition say hardline Islamist interpretation of the Quran leads to views that are the root cause of the terrorism threat Britain faces. However, they fail to see the actual root cause of extremism. The way United states and Europe including Britian has reacted after 9/11, that is the major reason we are seeing increased extremism through out the world. Extremism only breeds extremism.

If people who are behind the draft beleive that by branding more British Muslims extremist and alienating them will solve the problem of terrorism, then they are day dreaming.

The way world leaders and United Nation has reacted so far on this Israeli massacre in Gaza, it speaks of double standards on terrorism. No matter how condemnable firing of rockets by Hamas in Israel is, Israel’s reaction cannot be justified at all. However, these world leaders are trying to advocate Israel’s brutality as a right of self-defence.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged an immediate end to Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza. However, it means nothing to Israel as these are just words.

Thousands of protesters in most of the major cities of the world gathered and chanted slogans such as “End the siege on Gaza” and “Stop the massacre.”

UN security council is holding a special meeting to discuss the situation.  What will be the outcome of the meeting is anybody’s guess.  Everybody talks about rights of Israel but in doing so clearly ignore the rights of Palestinians. Gaza is the largest prison on earth controled by Israel and now Israel is proudly killing those Palestinians. If UN is serious in rresolving the issue then start considering Isareli and Palestinian people as equal. The life of an Israeli is equally important as of Palestinian. Palestianians also have the right to live free of fear and in freedom. 

Lets ask Hamas to pay for the damage inflicted by its rocket and Israel pays for all the destruction and killings in Gaza.

The death toll is now more than 500 palestinians in Gaza. How many more destruction and dead bodies UN require to act on this situation?

Lets make commitment to ourselves that we will do whatever we can do to make this world more peaceful place and change our lives. May Allah give us the strength and courage to do so.