Lafif Lakhdar: A European Muslim Reformist In many Islamic countries "non-Muslim citizens are still treated as "dhimmis"
Introduction: A Short Biography
Lafif Lakhdar is a Tunisian intellectual living in Paris. The name "Lafif Lakhdar" is the French transcription of his Arabic name, "Al-'Afif Al-Akhdar." He is one of the foremost reformist intellectuals in the Arab world today. His articles are published regularly on the liberal websites Elaph and Middle East Transparent, and afterwards are taken up by dozens of other reform-oriented sites. He is an outspoken and relentless critic of Islamism and Islamist terrorism.
Only a few hours remain for us to say goodbye to 2006 and welcome in 2007. This is a good time to call oneself, society, the homeland and the world to account. As one plays back then fast-forwards through 2006, a plethora of files come into perspective; some have been closed while others remain for the upcoming year to seek unmet objectives.
The Muslim Brotherhood & Petrodollars Spread Islam in the West
The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, whose disciples are now celebrating his birth 100 years ago, would have been ecstatic to witness their progress in implementing his plans to compel the world to submit to Islam. Radical Islam have made inroads is most countries with a Muslim majority, reached supremacy in several countries and its influence is steadily growing in western nations as well. Petrodollars fuel this progress.
Summary: The war on terrorism is not just about security or military tactics. It is a battle of values, and one that can only be won by the triumph of tolerance and liberty. Afghanistan and Iraq have been the necessary starting points of this battle. Success there, however, must be coupled with a bolder, more consistent, and more thorough application of global values, with Washington leading the way.
Recently, and after many “escape from studying” discussions I’ve had with other intellectuals involved in the worldwide human rights struggle—including several Egyptians of both major faiths—I have begun to wonder about several things relating to the alleged inequality between Christians and Muslims in Egypt.
WASHINGTON – An initiative challenging Muslim communities living in the West to subordinate their interpretations of Sharia law to the laws of the land has been launched at the European Parliament.
"I hope that these answers shed some clarifications," says putative "Muslim Martin Luther" Tariq Ramadan at the end of this Q&A with readers at the Globe and Mail. It's an interesting elision of "shed some light" and "provide some clarifications," making the whole statement ambiguous: did he mean to make things clear, or to shed -- i.e., get rid of -- clarity? And certainly his answers often display the artful ambiguity for which he has become renowned.
The Koran was placed for the first time in the White House library. It was a winter banquet prepared by host and hostess US President and Mrs. George W. Bush. Muslims from throughout the nation were invited—both males and females. The two genders ate in separate rooms with Mrs. Bush with the women and Mr. Bush with the men.
A Muslim woman in Dearborn, Mich., lodged a complaint Tuesday against Fitness USA for an alleged civil rights violation involving a fellow gym patron. According to Jodi Berry, executive director of Fitness USA, Wardeh Sultan was praying in front of another member’s locker when the member wanted access to her belongings inside the locker. The inconvenienced patron tried to interrupt Ms. Sultan, but she remained prostrate in front of the locker and an altercation ensued. A manager was called into the locker room to intervene.
Dhiren who? Mention Dhiren Barot to anyone and the chances are that you’ll be met with blank looks. At best, some might say, ‘Oh, wasn’t he that guy who, er, that trial recently, yeah, bit worrying…’ Thus the British have somehow failed to register the significance of the conviction last month of a man who was one of al Qaeda’s biggest fishes, guilty of the most devastating terrorist plot ever known in this country and one which would made 9/11 look like a minor warm-up act.
خبراء يحذرون من خطر جناح عسكري للإخوان نبيل شرف الدين من القاهرة : عبر خبراء أمنيون متخصصون في شؤون المنظمات الإسلامية عن خطورة دلالات مشهد ارتداء طلاب في جامعة الأزهر وينتمون إلى جماعة الإخوان المسلمين زياً موحداً يشبه أزياء الميليشيات المسلحة، وقال مساعد سابق لوزير الداخلية المصري، ".
Many in the West are congratulating Pope Benedict XVI’s recent trip to Turkey, where in the Blue Mosque he prayed facing Mecca and made other gestures meant to salve the wounds raised by his references to Islam’s history of violence. Personally, I found the whole scene a depressing exhibit of the West’s terminal failure of nerve, one particularly distressing given this Pope’s documented understanding that what we call the “war on terror” is in fact the latest episode in the centuries-long struggle with a militant Islam.
Education Versus Jihad By: Walid Phares Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc. Date: December 5, 2006
In the few hours following the terrorist attacks on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, media in the United States began looking for answers. The very first series of questions asked by all was indicative of the state of mind of most Americans: “Why do they hate us?”
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya is Egypt's largest militant group. At one point it had up to several thousand armed members. The organization is perhaps best known for killing 62 people, mostly foreigners, outside a tourist site in Luxor in 1997. The group's spiritual leader, the blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel al-Rahman, was jailed in the United States for the 1993 WorldTradeCenter bombing. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya has also joined the International Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders, an alliance formed in 1998 by al Qaeda and a number of other terrorist groups from the Muslim world.
Comperhensive History of The Muslim Brotherhood - "Al- Ikhwan- Al -Muslimun".
History and related groups in the United States and abroad.
President George W. Bush denounced IslamoFascist movements that call for a "violent and political vision: the establishment, by terrorism, subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom."
Two years ago, movie director Theo van Gogh’s throat was cut on a street in Amsterdam in the name of radical Islam. I had partaken in his last work, Submission, where we represented, in the most accurate way possible, the condition of Muslim women: tyranny, humiliations, violence. In this film, we showed Muslim women who had finally rebelled, talking to God in a tone of defiance. It made Imam Fawaz of the Hague scream with hate during the delivery of a vengeful sermon. My friend Theo, the “criminal bastard”, was subsequently riddled with bullets and stabbed to death with a dagger.
The TV screen reflected the troubled faces of the men at the podium who were holding a news conference. The caption said, rather simply, "Muslims Express Outrage."
Finally, I thought, we were going to hear what millions of Americans had been waiting for: an orchestrated, organized, thoughtful, eloquent condemnation by American Islamic leaders of the worldwide terror and violence that Muslim fanatics continue to heap upon innocents.
By Sally Bishai
Daily Telegraph