Mohammed Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who claims to have been sodomised by Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim two weeks ago, has challenged the latter to swear by the Quran in the presence of the Islamic clergy. Alternatively, Ibrahim should agree to resolve the matter through mubahalah (malediction), Azlan said on Tuesday in an email sent to TV3 channel, which was aired during the station's bulletin programme.

via sify.com

Regarding Junaid Afeef's "Obama Should Embrace His Muslim Heritage" (op-ed, July 3): As a Christian I wouldn't mind hearing Barack Obama positively acknowledge his father's Muslim background. It could be a very good thing, especially given Mr. Obama's exposure and international credibility. But to do so with a "can't we all get along" ethos, as Mr. Aleef seems to suggest.

via online.wsj.com

Well-known religious speaker Mohamad Farid Ravi Abdullah, also known as Ustaz Ravi, has been appointed one of 15 judges for the 51st National Quran Reciting Competition, the first for a Muslim convert. Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Abdul Aziz said in a statement issued today that Mohamad Farid's appointed was a recognition for Muslim converts in judging a Quran reciting competition.

via bernama.com.my

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Saturday opened "Baitun nur" (House of Light, in Urdu), the country's largest Muslim mosque built in western Calgary by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community of Pakistan. The 4,500-square-meter (48,500-square-foot), 15-million dollar structure shows "the true and benevolent face of Islam," Harper said at the inauguration.

via afp.google.com

The annual congregation at the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinudin Chishti's mausoleum brings millions of devotees from around the world to Ajmer every year. This year, apart from the usual spiritual pursuit, the devotees have something more to look forward to - the biggest hand-written Quran in the world, which was put on display at the dargah premises on Sunday.

via timesofindia.indiatimes.com

In a backstreet of the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, the Chinese government has been spray-painting signs on dusty mud brick walls to warn against what it says is a new enemy -- the Islamic Liberation Party. Better known as Hizb ut-Tahrir, the group says its goal is to establish a pan-national Muslim state, or Caliphate.

via news.google.com.pk

With a festive gala, thousands of blooming, vibrantly-colored flowers and booklets and CDs educating Czechs on Islam, Muslims in the city of Brno celebrated the anniversary of opening the first mosque ever in the central European country. "We are celebrating ten years of the Brno mosque which we consider the symbol of Czech Muslims' success story," Munib Hassan Al-Rawi, director of the Brno Islamic Foundation (Brno Mosque), told IslamOnline.net.

via news.google.com.pk

Despite the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, acceptance of Islam politically and socially is on the increase in the U.S., National Muslim leaders gathered in Houston said Saturday. "American Muslims have become an important global force," said Sayyid M. Syeed, director of the Islamic Society of North America's Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances in Washington, D.C.

via chron.com

Former Guantánamo detainees told McClatchy Newspapers that U.S. soldiers and interrogators mistreated the Quran in detention facilities at Bagram Air Base, Kandahar Airfield and Guantánamo. Former detainees interviewed in Jordan, Russia, Kuwait, Pakistan and Afghanistan said that from late 2001 to early 2002, soldiers at Kandahar dropped Qurans into buckets used as latrines.

via seattletimes.nwsource.com

A special court will hear the Babri mosque demolition case on Friday. Earlier, deposition of a witness of the case could not take place due to strike of the lawyers. The deposition of two of the three witnesses has been over. More news, analysis | More Science and Medicine news Besides BJP leader L K Advani, former Union Minister M M Joshi.

via sify.com

The Syrian-backed Fatah-Intifada faction in Beirut's Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp has been split, the daily Al Liwaa reported on Thursday. It quoted Palestinian sources as expressing fear over the new development at the camp. Al Liwaa said Abu Ali Hadid, a Palestinian born in Jordan and a resident of Bourj al-Barajneh, now heads the breakaway faction which groups about 30 armed elements.

via naharnet.com

To commemorate the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien (SOAS) Mosque's Golden Jubilee on Sept 26, a Quran recital performance ceremony was held yesterday at the venue.
In his speech, the Acting Director of Mosque Affairs Hj Abd Kahar Hj Hussin said that the programme marked the beginning of the mosque's anniversary celebration, as well as to glorify and seek blessings for the mosque.
The event's guest of honour was Pehin Dato Seri Utama.

via brunei-online.com

A year after the deadly military siege of the Red Mosque, the radical spirit of the pro-Taliban stronghold lives on. The dead are hailed as martyrs. Militants — and politicians — use the Pakistani mosque standoff as a rallying cry. And conspiracy theories have found fertile ground as questions linger about how many people died and whether any were women or children.

via ap.google.com

I went into the discussion "Who Speaks for Islam?" assuming that it would be an informative but relatively tame chat between two like-minded people. The speakers listed on the program--Irshad Manji and Dalia Mogahed--were both women intellectuals raised and educated in the West; based on their bios, it was hard to imagine either one of them advocating anything but a modern, democratic approach to the Muslim faith.

via aspenideas.theatlantic.com

Saudi Arabia is pouring billions of dollars into the holy city of Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, the cradle of Islam and the burial place of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him), to turn the city into a high-tech bastion. "Madinah was the springboard for Islamic civilization," Tahir Mohammed Bawazir, chairman of Knowledge Economic City Developers Company Ltd, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

via islamonline.net