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On Sunday, 29 November 2009, 57.5 per cent of Swiss voters (participation rate 53.4 per cent) voted to ban the building of new minarets in the country. Religioscope offers an analysis of this unexpected result and attempts to put it into perspective.
The Muslim population in the world stands at 1.57 billion, and India has the third largest number of Muslims at over 160 million after Indonesia and Pakistan.
© 2009 IANS India Private Limited, New Delhi. Posted on Religioscope with permission. — Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) is India’s first multinational and multilingual wire service. Website: www.ians.in. Subscription enquiries: contact IANS (mention Religioscope).
With a view to curbing the rising incidence of talaq (divorce), shariat (Islamic law) courts have been asked to act as marriage counsellors with a clear cut brief to prevent divorces as much as possible.
© 2009 IANS India Private Limited, New Delhi. Posted on Religioscope with permission. — Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) is India’s first multinational and multilingual wire service. Website: www.ians.in. Subscription enquiries: contact IANS (mention Religioscope).
In November, the Malaysian National Fatwa Council issued a fatwa (religious ruling), deeming as ‘haram’ (prohibited) the practice of yoga.
© 2008 IANS India Private Limited, New Delhi. Posted on Religioscope with permission. — Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) is India’s first multinational and multilingual wire service. Website: www.ians.in. Subscription enquiries: contact IANS (mention Religioscope).
During a meeting with Michael Hastings Black, Religioscope discussed the impact of new media on depicting a more balanced image of the Muslim minority in the US. Black shows the democratic effect of new media and their subversive potential effect on mainstream classical media. According to him, it is through the new media and such ads, and for economic reasons that American Muslims are going to be integrated into the American national narrative.
There are 400,000 Muslims in Belgium. According to estimates, Muslims make 17% of its total population of Brussels: it has become “one of the most Muslim cities in the Western world”. The Islamic faith was officially recognized by the Belgian government in 1974. But the Belgian integration approach has become controversial. Asma Hanif reports from the EU capital.
© 2008 Asma Hanif (article and pictures).
We hear more and more about ‘Islamic science’ and ‘Islamic economics’, and over recent decades, calls for an ‘Islamization of knowledge’ and for attempts to develop Islamic models for approaching modern science have increasingly been heard. What does this mean and what does it involve for current developments across the Muslim world? Religioscope put these questions to Prof. Farid Alatas.
The interview took place at the National University of Singapore and was conducted by Jean-François Mayer.
British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taliban, tells Asma Hanif that oppression of Muslim women has to do with traditions rather than with Islam and explains why she became a Muslim.
© 2007 Asma Hanif.
For this year’s haj pilgrimage, 5,000 people from Uzbekistan’s have travelled to Mecca, government-sponsored news agencies have reported, the first pilgrims travelling on 2 December. However, Forum 18 News Service notes that the number of pilgrims allowed to travel from Uzbekistan is significantly less than from other countries with a similar Muslim population.
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. – Forum 18 News Service (F18News, Oslo, Norway) is a Christian initiative which is independent of any one church or religious group. F18News is objective, presenting news in a deliberately calm and balanced fashion, and presenting all sides of a situation. The overriding editorial objective of F18News is to as accurately as possible present the truth of a situation, both implicitly and explicitly.
http://www.forum18.org/index.php
Heba Gamal Kotb is fast acquiring fame throughout both the Muslim and the non-Muslim world. The Muslim world was surprised by her show about sex and private sensuality, aired on a private channel in Egypt. The non-Muslim world is surprised by the fact that she could do this without once transgressing the principles of her faith or culture.
Yunus used to be a site of independent religious journalism that attempts to publish religious news, interviews, analysis and opinions that are of relevance to the present global society.
© 2007 Yunus. The original version of this article was published by Yunus on 30 July 2007. Republished with permission.
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