Islam

Stories 241 - 260 | << Prev   Next >>

Obama Seeks 'New Beginning' for US, Muslims

Calls for end to 'cycle of suspicion and discord'

(Newser) - Speaking in Cairo, President Obama called for a “new beginning” for the US and the Muslim world, the BBC reports. The “cycle of suspicion and discord must end,” he said at Cairo University, urging a “sustained effort...to respect one another and seek common ground.”...

Converts Plan Islamic College in Berkeley

Renown converts lead effort to reinterpret Islam

(Newser) - Two superstars of American Islam are at the helm of what they hope will be the nation’s first accredited Islamic college, tasked with creating scholars who can usher a religious renewal. Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, both converts, aim to admit Zaytuna College’s first class next year in...

Foiled Robber Leaves Store With $40, Bread

Shopkeeper pulls gun on would-be perp, who begs for mercy, food

(Newser) - A man approached a Long Island convenience store counter with a baseball bat, demanding cash; the shop owner whipped out his shotgun, prompting the man’s tearful pleas for mercy. The impassioned display worked, Newsday reports: Mohammad Sohail took pity on the robber and gave him $40 and a loaf...

China Takes Bulldozers to Ancient Islamic City

Beijing plans demolition of one of the Silk Road's oldest sites

(Newser) - The Islamic city of Kashgar, in China's far west, has some of the best preserved traditional architecture on the ancient Silk Road, and more than a million tourists a year visit the rambling mud-and-straw buildings that Genghis Khan once passed by. Now, however, the Chinese government wants to tear down...

Saudi Crackdown Sends Female Gym Rats to Sidelines

Religious leaders say sports are unfeminine

(Newser) - Though obesity and diabetes are on the rise in Saudi Arabia, officials there are cracking down on women-only sports clubs because they lack licenses—which no government body will actually issue. Leaders say their opposition is based on Islam, but, Caryle Murphy writes for GlobalPost, it stems as much from...

Pope Visits Holy Sites of Judaism, Islam

Benedict meets with leading Muslim cleric after visit to Dome of the Rock

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI began the second day of his Holy Land tour at one of the most contentious sites in the Arab-Israeli conflict: the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, and the adjacent Western Wall. The pontiff urged both sides to engage in...

Pakistanis Decry Taliban Sharia Law

(Newser) - Public opinion is swinging against Sharia law in Pakistan's Swat Valley as tens of thousands flee fighting between Pakistani forces and the Taliban, the Washington Post reports. A public fed up with inefficient and corrupt secular courts once welcomed the Taliban's version of religious law, but lawmakers and pundits now...

In Jordan, Pope Decries 'Manipulation' of Religion

(Newser) - The top religious adviser to Jordan's king thanked Pope Benedict XVI today for his expression of "regret" after a 2006 speech that many Muslims deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Benedict told the audience of religious leaders and officials at an Amman mosque that the history of the two...

Somali Clerics Lead Backlash Against Pirates

Religious sheikhs preach against sea bandits and their un-Islamic ways

(Newser) - Somalia's pirates are facing an enemy on land many of them fear more than foreign warships, the New York Times reports. Sheikhs and Islamic clerics are preaching against the "burcad badeed"—Somali for sea bandits—accusing them of introducing evils like drugs and alcohol to Somali society and...

Obama to Address Muslim World From Egypt

President to tackle US-Muslim relations on first Middle Eastern trip

(Newser) - President Obama will travel to Egypt next month to deliver a speech aimed at mending America's relationship with the Muslim world, McClatchy Newspapers reports. Egypt is a politically risky choice due to President Hosni Mubarak's heavy-handed autocratic rule, but a White House spokesman said the country "in many ways...

Islamic Schools Fill Pakistani Gaps—and Breed Militants

(Newser) - Pakistan’s education system is so dysfunctional that for many rural children, Islamic schools are the only option, the New York Times reports. The growth of madrasas, which teach little besides Koran memorization, is especially pronounced in places like southern Punjab, home to half of the country's at least 12,...

Muslim Woman Leans on Guide Horse

(Newser) - Muslims consider canines unclean, which was a problem for a blind Muslim woman who wanted a guide dog. So she got a guide horse. Mona Ramouni of suburban Detroit is getting used to 3-year-old miniature horse Cali—“this is a really awesome little horse,” she told the AP—...

Controversial Muhammad Cartoon Goes on Sale

Some copies are signed by artists in hiding

(Newser) - Three years after political cartoons of the prophet Muhammad sparked violent riots in Muslim countries, the Denmark Free Press Society is selling prints of the controversial art. Some of the 1,000 copies, priced at $250 each, are signed by the artist, who remains in hiding due to death threats,...

Obama in Turkey: US Not at War With Islam

(Newser) - President Obama addressed the Turkish parliament today, and used the opportunity to extend an olive branch to the Muslim world, the New York Times reports. “The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam,” said Obama. “America’s relationship with the Muslim world...

Americans Back Push for Better Muslim Relations

Want Better Relations With Muslims

(Newser) - Most Americans are on board with President Obama’s plan to “seek a new way forward” with the Muslim world, with 81% saying the initiative to improve relations with Muslim nations is important. This in spite of the fact that 55% say they lack a basic understanding of Islam,...

Turkey Opposes US Choice for NATO Chief

Mohammed cartoon row may lead them to block Danish PM

(Newser) - Among the tasks facing NATO leaders this weekend is the selection of a new secretary-general for the 28-member alliance. The leading candidate is Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, who has the support of the US and other major powers. But today Turkey opposed his candidacy, the Telegraph reports,...

Hard-Right Dutch Pol Barred From UK
Hard-Right Dutch Pol Barred From UK
Feb 13, 2009 5:11 AM CST

Hard-Right Dutch Pol Barred From UK

He's turned back at Heathrow on trip to show anti-Koran film

(Newser) - Ultra-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose short film attacking the Koran caused an uproar last year, was refused entry to Britain yesterday, reports the Guardian. The member of Parliament was flying to London to show his controversial film when the home secretary sent him a letter saying his presence in...

2 Afghans Face Death Over Koran Translation

Clerics say book aims to replace holy text

(Newser) - A pocket-size translation of the Koran has landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They're accused of modifying the Koran, and their fate could be decided Sunday in court. The trial illustrates what critics call the undue influence of...

'War on Terror' Phrase Fading Under Obama

Phrase on the skids as prez hopes to rewrite US-Muslim relations

(Newser) - Barack Obama is rephrasing the "war on terror," the AP reports. As campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan continue—as do broader US efforts to hunt down extremists—Obama is apparently letting the Bush catchphrase go out of style. The new president instead invokes  “ongoing struggle” and “...

Why Should US Apologize to Muslims?
 Why Should US Apologize
to Muslims?
OPINION
Jan 30, 2009 11:50 AM CST

Why Should US Apologize to Muslims?

We've done such great stuff for them

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s pledge to “seek a new way forward” in the Muslim world “based on mutual interest and mutual respect” struck Charles Krauthammer as “needlessly defensive and apologetic,” he writes in the Washington Post. What do we have to apologize for? Over the past 20...

Stories 241 - 260 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser