Conference on identity Muslim Council of America Meets For Brain Storming Meeting In Chicago (SE) Chris Ryan July 03, 2011 Muslim Council of America (MCA) held a brain storming meeting, which was attended by many opinion leaders, intellectuals and scholars. President of MCA, Dr Akhtar challenged the participants with following question to get them start thinking about discussion on proposed agenda: • WHAT ARE MOST UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOURS WHICH MAKE MUSLIMS SHY AWAY FROM BECOMING A WHOLEHEARTED PARTICIPATING ACTIVE INDIVIDUAL IN THE AMERICAN SOCIETY? • HOW DO THE MUSLIMS BECOME MORE INCLUSIVE IN SOCIETY WHEN THERE IS CONSTANT DOUBTS BEING SHED ON THEIR LOYALTY AND PATRIOTISM BECAUSE OF INDIVIDUAL SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES COLLECTIVELY PUT UNDER THE TERM “TERRORISM” BY SOME? ...

I WEEP FOR SHRUM AND FOR MISGUIDED MUSLIMS Saleem Ahmed, Ph.D. Director, Pacific Institute for Islamic Studies - Joel Shrum, 30, an American development worker living in Yemen with his wife and two children, was recently gunned down in Taiz for allegedly “proselytizing Christianity” (CBSNews, March 18, 2012). A text message reportedly circulated by mobile phone in Yemen said that "holy warriors" had killed "a senior missionary" shortly after the teacher was shot dead Sunday by two gunmen on a motorcycle. I weep for the loss of this precious life; I also weep for the headlong fall of some Muslims down the bottomless pit of insanity, emotionalism, paranoia, and super-charged zealotry. Even if Shrum were proselytizing, there are at least three major reasons why I believe his kill...

Political Empowerment of Muslim Americans and the Presidential Elections Mohammad Akhtar,Ph.D President of Muslim Council of America Theoretical Background: Politics is all about power. To be a politician in any culture means to seek power for self serving ends. A politician typically is seen as someone less than noble, who cares less for the ideals such as peace, justice, truth and equality. How far does a politician go in self serving directions? That would depend upon the society, its level of development and organization. For instance in countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and some other countries from where we immigrants hail from, it is quite common that adversaries and people who come in the way are ruthlessly killed or, secretly eliminated. Of course, the tyrannical use of ...

Reconciling Islamic concerns with American thinking A Canadian designs Sports Hijab for Soccer Players MONTREAL - The international soccer governing body will consider a prototype of a sports hijab designed by an Iranian-Canadian. The International Federation of Association Football, commonly known by its acronym FIFA, banned the hijab in 2007. Rule 4 of FIFA's Laws of the Game states that a player's equipment "must not have any political religious or personal statements." However, FIFA announced last month that it will allow women to wear specially designed sport hijabs. A final decision on the new headwear is expected in summer. Elham Seyed Javad, 28, owner of Montreal-based IQO Design, told QMI Agency that she didn't think twice about submitting her proposal to FIFA after it reve...

Why Arabic?
Zohra Lasania

Note: In the previous issue, use of Arabic everywhere was questioned under" Your Opinon". A response given  to that was rather elaborate and is published here as an article that follows

A recent post set me to think as to why Arabic was important to Muslims? English is a language too, that is universally understood but yet whenever we get a chance we like to express ourselves in Arabic whenever we can, especially while interacting among Muslims. For example if someone asks us, “How are you?” We automatically reply, “Alhamdulillah,” instead of, “Fine, thanks.” Why is that so? It is to acknowledge the hand of God in every breath that we breathe on this Earth. We can say, “Thanks be to God,” but it is not the same ...

Apostasy in Islam Aslam Abdullah,Ph.D Vice president, MCA, Director of the Islamic Society of Nevada. Every now and then, when a court in a Muslim country issues a death sentence against someone who decided to switch her or his faith, the issue of apostasy is deliberated among Muslims for or against the decision. Critics of Islam describe this practice barbaric and many Muslims explain it in the context of laws developed by their scholars and jurists with full integrity, sincerity and honesty over the centuries. Depriving a human being of the right to live and breath, a right every human being is granted by the divine as an act of mercy, is a very serious matter and if that right is taken away in the name of God in order to please him, then it becomes even more serious. Why a creatio...