'Internet imams' the new recruiters for al-Qaida, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

'Internet imams' the new recruiters for al-Qaida

Eric Schmitt & Eric Lipton, NYT News Service 2 January 2010, 02:39am IST

WASHINGTON: The apparent ties between the Nigerian man charged with plotting to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day and a radical American-born

Yemeni imam have cast a spotlight on a world of charismatic clerics who wield their internet celebrity to indoctrinate young Muslims with extremist ideology and recruit them for al-Qaida, American officials and counterterrorism specialists said.

American military and law enforcement authorities said the man accused in the bombing attempt, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, most likely had contacts with the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, whom investigators have also named as having exchanged email messages with Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting rampage in November at Fort Hood, Texas.

Speaking in eloquent, often colloquial, English, Awlaki and other internet imams from the Middle East to Britain offer a televangelist’s persuasive message of faith, purpose and a way forward, for both the young and as yet uncommitted, as well as for the most devout worshipers ready to take the next step, to jihad.

“People across the spectrum of radicalism can gravitate to them, if they’re just dipping their toe in or they’re hard core,” said Jarret Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice”.

“Awlaki is, among other things, a talent spotter,” a US counterterrorism official said. “That’s part of his value to Qaida. If people are drawn to him, he can pass them along to trainers and operational planners.”

Sheikh Khalid bin Abdul Rahman al-Husainan of Kuwait mixes contemporary politics with talk of martyrdom. “Obama, in the same way that you raised the slogan, ‘Yes We Can,’ I too have a slogan,” Husainan wrote in August. “My slogan in this life is ‘Happiness is the day of my martyrdom.’”

http://newageislam.com/-internet-imams--the-new-recruiters-for-al-qaida/islamic-world-news/d/2315

'Tahira’, they called the Arab lady, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism

'Tahira’, they called the Arab lady

By Renuka Narayanan

April 20, 2009

Tahira means pure and good in Arabic and back in the sixth century, even in that pre-Islamic period later called Jahiliyat (ignorance), the disorderly and self-indulgent Arabs could tell a lady. That’s what they called a certain single woman, Makkah-born and based, who traded all over the Arabian Peninsula and maintained her own establishment, employing a number of men. Born to Khalid and Fatima, Tahira, at 40, was a widow and a person of repute, respected for her wealth and dignity by everyone around. But she needed a bright, honest man to manage her caravans and trade on her behalf in faraway places.

Someone told her about an orphan of 25, who was known to be exceptionally straightforward and well-behaved. Tahira thought she would like to try him out and negotiated through his uncle, Abu Talib, to hire him.

The young man was sent to the great old city of Damishq (Damascus) in charge of one of Tahira’s caravans, loaded as always with all sorts of profitable goods. Tahira was not an astute businesswoman for nothing. She appointed her slave, Muaser, to keep watch over her new manager and give her a full account of every detail of his conduct.

The good report she had of him made her think well of her new employee. Tahira sent him a proposal of marriage through his uncle. He agreed and their wedding took place (in 595 CE) with Khadija providing her own dower, out of her own wealth.

http://newageislam.com/-tahira%E2%80%99,-they-called-the-arab-lady--/islam,-women-and-feminism/d/1344

Baitul Muqaddas-Masjid-e-Aqsa complex: Why are we Muslims so obsessed with it as our Qiibla-e-Awwal contrary to Qur’anic teachings?

From the Desk of Editor

Baitul Muqaddas-Masjid-e-Aqsa complex: Why are we Muslims so obsessed with it as our Qiibla-e-Awwal contrary to Qur’anic teachings?

We are reproducing in original Urdu and in English and Hindi translations a widely syndicated article in India’s Urdu Press by Maulanama Nadeemul Wajidi of Deoband seminary detailing Muslims’s love for and claims toHaram Ash-Sharif Baitul Muqaddas and Masjid-e-Aqsa, also known alternatively as Temple Mountand Solomon’s Temple or First Temple in Jerusalem. Muslim Press the world over is constantly full of Muslim lamentation over the loss of full control over Baitul Muqaddas and Masjid-e-Aqsa since Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem. Fighting an occupation is one thing. All Justice-loving people in the world are with Palestinians on that issue. But world Muslim community making an ideological claim over a building complex that God told us belongs to our religious cousins, the Ahl-Kitab Jews and Christians, is something quite another.

Muslims revere these structures as their first Qibla, as it was this direction they faced in their prayers in the formative phase of Islam when Prophet was still hoping for reconciliation with and acceptability as a Biblical prophet by the Jews and Christians. Even though the Prophet and other Meccans always wanted to useKaaba Shareef as their Qibla, this was one of the concessions they were willing to make as per God’s advice in the interest of wider acceptability by other Biblical religions. However, when all these attempts failed and Jews had to be expelled because of their perfidy in times of war which would not be acceptable to any besieged city, the Prophet and the Muslims from Mecca started looking towards Heaven for permission to change their Qibla from Baitul Muqaddas to Kaaba Shareef.

http://newageislam.com/from-the-desk-of-editor/sultan-shahin,-editor,-new-age-islam/baitul-muqaddas-masjid-e-aqsa-complex--why-are-we-muslims-so-obsessed-with-it-as-our-qiibla-e-awwal-contrary-to-quranic-teachings?/d/7574

THE U.A.E. Madares Al Ghad schools to focus on English, computers

THE U.A.E. Madares Al Ghad schools to focus on English, computers

By Preeti Kannan

18 August 2008

He noted that the MAG schools would include children of all abilities and interests. 'We'll produce graduates who are proficient in both Arabic and English, knowledgeable about and committed to their rich heritage and culture, skilled in the use of information and communication technology, well-educated in Mathematics and Science and prepared for direct entry into higher education institutions world-wide.'

Dr Hassan also stressed that one of the primary goals of reform was to 'progressively increase the involvement of Emirati teachers and school administrators as educational leaders in their schools and in their communities.'

http://www.newageislam.com/the-u.a.e.-madares-al-ghad-schools-to-focus-on-english,-computers/islamic-society/d/584