By AY Mol on
10-12-2011 11:26
On the evening of 7 december were Irshad Manji and Tofik Dibi, a member of Dutch parliament, the main speakers at De Balie, a public center in Amsterdam, where they discussed on the love, freedom and hardships that surround Islamic reform. Unfortunately they had to withstand a brief interruption of hatred. The beautiful turned into the bizarre when a group of 20 young hatemongerers disrupted the debate in the name of Islam and started screaming and threatening everyone present, especially Irshad. Other attendees, such as Thijs Kleinpaste (see links below), have already described the whole event so I want to concentrate on the question on how I experienced it as a Muslim and a friend of Irshad.On Tuesday 6 December, the evening before, there was a similar discussion between Irshad and I in the Geerte Church in Utrecht (a recording of this interesting evening will soon be available) where we focused on the present obstacles within Muslim cultures which block the progressive flexibility of Islam. With cultures I...
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By Majid Daneshgar on
12/9/2011 3:37 PM
This paper has been indexed by Google Scholar, EBSCO, WorldCat, Engineering & Technology Digital Library. It is availabe as Pdf in Google Scholar for dear scholars. Even it has the download capability in 'Read more'.
Abstract. The relation of science and religion is one of the most important interdisciplinary issues in the world from the past to the present. Any kinds of religion generally brought about a new challenging discussion with science; Islam and its scriptures are not exceptions in this case. The Qur'an as a main Islamic scripture has a direct relation with science and scientific matters according to many thinkers' declarations; it is obvious that there are opponents for this subject, on the other side. The purpose of this paper is to examine main categories of the relation of science and religion and then assess and reveal the opponents and adherents' beliefs regarding the relation of religion and science and relation of science and the Qur'an with a precise library method. This paper provided readers with the role and dignity of science in Islam and remarkable viewpoints of great thinkers regarding the issue of the relation of science and the Qur'an.
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By Hasan Mahmud on
2-12-2011 1:19
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By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on
5-8-2011 2:51
A friend wrote to me that I write whether Islam is compatible with socialism as for many the very word socialism means an atheistic philosophy and hence not acceptable in any case. Very core of Islamic teachings is belief in one God so how Islam and socialism can go together. This, I think, is not correct view.
Thus Qur’an is unmistakably in favour of the weaker section of society and it predicts leadership (though not dictatorship) of proletariat.
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By Abdur Rab on
5/12/2011 4:42 PM
The American Muslims are currently going through what one could characterize as a critical, trying time. It’s a great irony that today, they find themselves trapped in a very delicate situation due to home-grown terrorism that has involved “Muslims” in name. Such “Muslims” are a microscopic minority of extremists – examples: Nidal Hasan, Faisal Shahzad and their likes. Nidal Hasan is an American-born Army Major of Palestinian descent who is shortly to undergo trial, having been accused of killing more than a dozen soldiers and injuring dozens more at the Fort Hood army base. Pakistani-born Faisal Shahzad is serving a life in prison term for attempting a car-bomb attack at the New York Times Square. They are self-declared, self-righteous, so-called jihadists or soldiers of God who are influenced by the fundamentalist, fanatic, and militant ideas of some Muslim writers like Sayyid Qutb of Egypt and Maulana Mawdudi of Pakistan. Other extremists include American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki now probably holed up in Yemen, five American Muslim students who were recently arrested in Pakistan for contacting al Qaeda via the Internet and for trying to join a Pakistani militant-training camp and one Saudi student of Texas who was recently caught buying explosive chemicals online. They are a handful of indoctrinated Muslims who would not hesitate to even kill themselves to take innocent lives. This new development is a matter of serious concern to all Americans, and in particular to Muslim Americans. The critical question they face is: How do they deal with this situation?
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By AY Mol on
30-4-2011 14:29
Compassie is een humanistisch begrip dat in bijna alle levensbeschouwingen voorkomt. Maar dit begrip wordt in elke taal op een andere manier uitgedrukt. Om de betekenis van ‘compassie’ in de islam uit te leggen, moeten we daarom eerst het wereldbeeld van deze Semitische religie begrijpen.
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By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on
8-4-2011 2:51
A progressive Muslim is one who is firmly grounded in the Qur’anic values of truth (haq), justice (‘adl), compassion (rahmah), wisdom (hikmah) and does service to others rather than being served by others. A progressive Muslim does not believe in sectarian Islam (sunni or shi’ah or Isma’ili or Deobandi or Barelvi or ahl-e-hadith or salafi Islam but rises above all these sects and gives importance to Qur’an above everything else.
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By Abdur Rab on
2/13/2011 4:56 PM
Dr. Asghar Ali’s “Some Thoughts on Training Ulama” posted on his blog on this website has some good points and suggestions, but, unfortunately, his suggested strategy to train our religious ulama (singular alim) falls terribly short of what is needed to bring about a fundamental change in the status quo. The basic premise from which such discourse should start is to recognize the big mess the traditional ulama have made of our religion.
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By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on
9-2-2011 5:04
Though there is no concept of priesthood in Islam yet a class has come into existence which is known as ‘ulama or called clerics in English. In Islam any person, if he/she has adequate knowledge can perform all the functions and rituals be it related to marriage, death or other obligations for Muslims. Alim (plural ulama) means one who knows. Thus whole emphasis is on knowledge of Qur’an and hadith irrespective of class, caste, race or nationality. Since knowledge is central this class came to be called ‘ulama.
Now the question is what knowledge should be imparted to these persons who are supposed to guide the community. The Ulama often quote a hadith that since Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the last prophet the ulama are like stars after him and Muslims should seek guidance from them as stars guide and become source of light in darkness of night and ignorance is like darkness.
Now in those days when the tribe of ‘ulama began to come into existence the most important...
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By AY Mol on
30-1-2011 17:06
In recent years, the criticism on human rights and Islam has increased. This includes two extreme views which surprisingly both have the same claim, namely that Islam and human rights do not go together. One group 'Western secular vision " which sees Islam as a religion with fossilized medieval laws incompatible with contemporary "Western human rights'. The other group consists of Muslims from an orthodox-dogmatic perspective 'argues that the phenomenon of' human rights' is a human, Western innovation in no way compatible with the divine law.
To form a correct vision on human rights in Islam, we must begin by reading texts in the Qur’an itself and examine the context in which these texts were created. We immediately notice that Islam introduced revolutionary values to the seventh century Arabs. These revolutionary values came from newly accepted principles such as 'all people have the same origin’, ’all men are equal', 'all people have freedom of religion’ and that Muslims should cooperate with other faiths to pursue a just moral society ( see Qur’anic verses 4:1, 5:8, 5:32, 4:85, 16:90, 4:75, 2:256, 22:39-40, 2:62, 2:148, 3:110 - 115, 5:48, 3:64, 17:70, 42:15, 49:13 and 60:8).
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Blogs by DRC researchers
DRC's own researchers discussing and posting on diverse subjects on the Qur'an, the world, human society, interpretation, Muslim world, history, science, philosophy etc.
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