Canadian Muslim Voting Guide: Federal Election 2019

This guide assigns a grade to each federal political party Leader\u27s response to identified key issues of importance to the interests of Canadian Muslims and the wider geopolitical concerns that affect Muslims globally. The criteria used to determine these grades has been based on whether a party leader\u27s particular political standpoints and/or policy initiatives are positive or detrimental to the interests of Canadian Muslims and the wider geopolitical concerns that affect Muslims globally

Britishness and Muslim-ness: differentiation, demarcation and discrimination in political discourse

The Britishness agenda found in political speeches, reporting and opinion editorials is here posited as a form of ‘new racism’, as it emphasises the difference between ‘them’, Muslims, and ‘us’, non-Muslim Britons, and uses that difference as a defining demarcation. Twenty-first-century political discourse invested in the Britishness agenda works to eradicate distinctions between British Muslims and non-British Muslims, and even the distinction between those guilty of terrorist atrocities and those who have nothing to do with them. Muslims are framed within this discourse as the problem within multiculturalism, and the problem with multiculturalism. The difficulty of a demand to ‘be more British’ is laid bare

Fostering Muslim Civic Engagement through Faith-Based Community Organizing

Muslims often encounter discriminatory practices similar to those experienced by other minority groups living in the United States. Such practices range from mass incarceration and anti-immigration efforts to racial and religious profiling. In response, a growing number of U.S. Muslim leaders are organizing their communities and collaborating with non-Muslims to address these issues through civic participation and political action. At the same time, several foundations throughout the country have begun asking how to promote civic engagement among U.S. Muslims. Although little is known about U.S. Muslim civic engagement and its outcomes, data from a national study indicate that faith-based community organizing is becoming a viable pathway for Muslim communities to (1) strengthen themselves internally by developing civic leaders and mobilizing everyday Muslims to address issues affecting their community and (2) strengthen their external ties by bridging religious and social differences and by promoting policies that also benefit non-Muslims

Messages to European Muslims

I have never felt so shocked nor so ashamed as I felt while listening to the world media about the bloody London Bridge attack claiming to be carried out in the name of Allah. I cannot accept it because this is not my faith. This is not the Allah I believe in. My Allah is not a hater! My Allah is not violent! My faith is not the knife! After the civil attack in London and Manchester, Dr. Mustafa Cerić, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia-Herzegovina, sent An Appeal to the European Muslims: Let Us Have a Common Word with Our Neighbors. There is no recipe for success, but there is a recipe for failure. The recipe for failure is violence in the name of Allah. My faith is not terror. My Allah is Loving and Merciful! My faith is common sense and a warm word. But how am I going to explain it to my neighbors in Europe? After the Manchester and London attacks, they have no will to listen to me anymore. They don\u27t buy my faith\u27s stories of love; they don\u27t care about my faith\u27s beautiful narratives. They are no longer interested in the stories of my faith. They want to know what I have done to stop the bloody violence in the name of Allah in the streets of Europe. I have done a lot, but it seems it is not enough

The Qur’anic Idea of Peace

Peace is a chief social value, which the Qur’an appreciates, along with social justice, and submission to God and worshiping Him. War is initially an implausible situation, which should be invoked only when necessary. Hence, the rule is peace, and war is the exception. Using Muhammad Hussein Tabatabai’s methodology in the interpretation of the Qur'an and his Qur’anic views regarding war and peace, this paper will attempt to show that the Qur’anic picture of war and peace is different from what is commonly supposed by non-Muslims. This paper will argue that since disagreement on the truth of religion is inevitable and perpetual; since imposition of religion is inconceivable; since the faithful have no responsibility for disbelievers’ choice except clearly delivering God’s Messages to them, and since the faithful are obliged to offer absolute respect to their disputants on the truth of religion, the reasonable way of managing disputes on religion is peaceful interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims. It will be further argued that in addition to the moral principle of peace, there is another ground on the basis of which Muslims are advised to establish peaceful relations with non-Muslims; that is, through making peace contracts. In this way, the principle of peace is reinforced by the duty of respecting peace contracts

Acceptance of Islamic finance products: a study on muslim consumers attitude in a non Muslim country

In accordance with the teachings of Islam which prohibit the utilisation of Riba (interest), this has led to the development of a banking approach which are based on the laws of shariah. Although these methods are not totally new or revolutionary as it has been written and practiced during the renaissance of the Islamic civilisation, it has yet to establish itself and tested in the modern world as compared to the conventional banking. Many Muslims worldwide still engage in non-interest-free in financing their purchases especially those who are staying in non-muslim countries. There are many reasons why Muslims still engage in non-interest-free products. one of the reasons is the availibility of Muslim financial product or non-interest bearing financial instruments offers by the banks. it is quite difficulut to find such instruments as most of them are not easy to get. To some extent, there are only a few financial instituitions that offer such products products among Muslims outside the Islamic world and will explain whether there is demand for such product from Muslims staying in non Muslim countries. The study reveals that Muslims living in non Muslim countries are very much willing to change their practices from the conventional system into the new system – the Islamic financial system

The Politics of (Mis)recognition: Islamic Law Pedagogy in American Academia

The combination of presence (of Islamic law) and absence (of legal transplant) in the course materials assigned by Islamic law instructors, the scholarship on law in the Islamic world by Islamic law scholars as well as by Comparatists, betrays an ideological project. I would describe it as an identitarian one with an underlying teleological notion of history. By identitarian I mean the positing of a common identity shared by all Muslims based on their religio/legal beliefs, a project that to my mind recalls what I called earlier the fantasy effect. [F]antasy is the means by which real relations of identity between past and present are discovered and/or forged. In this instance what is being fantasized through the assigned materials and the scholarship is the identity between Muslims in their past and Muslims in their present, as well as the identity between Muslims\u27 relationship to their law in the past and their relationship to their law in the present. This ideological project has an underlying teleological notion of history because it assumes that the spirit of Islamic law marches through history unencumbered by the world\u27s contingencies (in this case the legal transplant). The latter might sever the relationship between Muslims-in-the-world with the spirit of their law, but this is only momentary and is destined to end. The spirit, ultimately, will be joined with its believers because the contingencies of history are inconsequential for this pre-ordained relation between believer and idea. Short of this moment of re-joining with the spirit, Muslims are destined to feel the bite of existential alienation

Invitation: A Declaration of European Muslims

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 in New York, March 11, 2004 in Madrid and July 7, 2005 in London leave no one indifferent. Of course, one should be aware of other attacks, such as in Riyadh in 1995, Dhahran in 1996, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, Yemen in 2000, Bali in 2002, and Istanbul in 2003. The attacks in New York, Madrid, and London are the most disturbing to Islam-West relations however. Muslims around the world, especially, have been shocked by the fact that the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks claimed to have acted in the name of Islam. No reasonable person can accept that such violence against innocent people be carried out in his/her name. So Muslims across the globe have condemned the terrorist attack in New York, the massacre in Madrid, and the terror in London in the strongest terms possible. Nevertheless, many people claim that is not enough. Muslims should do more to persuade European public opinion that their faith is worthy of respect and that their stay in Europe is welcome. Leaving aside those in Europe who will remain Islamophobic in all circumstances, Muslims must realize that the general feeling about their faith in Europe nowadays is not favorable. European Muslims must take the issue of violence in the name of Islam very seriously, not because some people hate Islam and Muslims, but because the act of violence, the act of terror, the act of hatred in the name of Islam, is wrong. It is against Muslim beliefs. It is against Muslim interests in the world, especially in Europe. European Muslims must develop a program for anti-violence. They must fully and unequivocally proclaim to the whole world the non-violent nature of their faith and teach their children that the right way to success in this world, and to salvation in the hereafter, is not through argument of force, but through force of peaceful argument

The Effects of Media on the American Perceptions of Islam from 2001-2012

This study seeks to understand the correlation between the average American\u27s understanding of a Muslim and the portrayal of Muslims in relevant news events. After defining terms and reviewing previous literature, two news sources will be used to compare various historically-significant events. The major events to be studied are the September 11 attacks of 2001, the American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the “Arab Spring”. Precedent literature shall be used to determine a baseline understanding of common American perceptions of Muslims. From the baseline understandings of American perceptions and the established definitions regarding Muslims, a connection will be drawn between the claims of media sources and the American perceptions