Why Did Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) praise the Christian King as 'Just King'

Another clip from Dr. Yasir Qadhi's lecture about Muslims living in non-Muslim countries and what did Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) mean when he called Negus a 'Just King'.

From being bullied to racially abused

From a young age society taught us to separate different people rather than make us feel as a unified group. Separate yourself from others, do not trust anyone other than yourself, and make sure you use everyone to you personal gain; there is no “common good”.

If you were blond and blue eyed, you were automatically one of the ‘elite’. We immigrants were always considered as scum, of no worth and no use. One of the biggest issues was that teachers were technically able to racially abuse students with no backlash. An example was that when teachers would want to organise a class activity, they would split the classroom in two. I know what you are thinking: “down the middle right?”- no, not at all. They would split the classroom from Germans and non-Germans or “foreigners”.

It would break my heart as I remember vividly my best-friend was a German and he would ask “Sir, can I go to the other team with Hassan?” – “No, you are better than him.” I didn’t realise back then what it meant as I thought maybe he meant that he was academically better than me, even though my grades were always higher.

It was extremely difficult when the other ‘German’ students were encouraged to bully us as the ‘foreigners’. With table tennis, although my friends and I would get there first, we would be pushed and punched aside as they had a right over us, because we were not German enough. For God’s sake, I was born in Germany, I speak German better than Arabic, and all my friends are German. This was not the end of it though, what really made me mad and started to make me brush all the Germans with the same brush although it wasn’t right was the incident that my sister had to go through.

Imagine being 9 years old and in year 4, you start wearing the hijab proudly and can’t wait to show your friends as this is a sign of maturity. To be greeted to the worst fear at that time. So she starts wearing the hijab and goes to school, the day starts with an assembly. The deputy headteacher of the primary school calls you up and asks you to remove your hijab. She was shocked, yet still had the power in herself to stand up to that adult and refuses to do so. What happens then? The Deputy Headteacher forcibly rips off her headscarf in front of her friends, classmates, and year group.

The school calls my parent in for a meeting. They were greeted in a very disrespectful way. “Hello, what do you want?” my father replied: “You wanted to talk to me, not I to you. If it were up to me I would not speak to you.” When they realised that my father was able to not only speak German fluently but also was able to confront them comfortably, they began to look a bit uncomfortable. He started to ask why they physically abused her as they forcibly removed the hijab from her head. They tried to convince my father that she should not wear the hijab at that young age, as this could damage her character whereas the only thing that could damage her character at that time was their actions towards my sister.

She refused to go back to that school but eventually believed that her cause was very important and carried on wearing her hijab in school as my father threatened to go legal. We started to see something very encouraging, in that because my father and sister stood their ground and defended their belief, other young girls started to wear their hijab in school as well which showed that it only takes one small spark of courage to make a change in a community.

All in all, life was like a roller-coaster, with my ups and downs. I’ve learned from them, and they have shaped me into who I am today, and if it wasn’t for those experiences, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to pursue my life dreams. My time in Germany shows that despite the hardships in life, it may well be the very thing that pushes you to appreciate life just a little bit more.

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An Unorthodox Gift to Notre Dame from Muslim Philanthropists

“We came as immigrants, and this country has given us so much,” Mrs. Ansari said in an interview ahead of the announcement. “We want to give something back to America, but also to humanity. We want to promote the idea of equality.”

On Friday, the Ansaris announced a $15 million gift to the University of Notre Dame, one of the top Catholic universities, to create the Rafat and Zoreen Ansari Institute for Global Engagement With Religion. The institute will aim to deepen knowledge of religion and look to explain how the traditions and practice of various religions influence world events.

“Whenever you get a gift of this size, it’s tremendous, but particularly to have this named for the Ansari family, who is Muslim, is tremendously meaningful to us,” said the Rev. John I. Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, in an interview. “We believe religion is very important in our world. It can have a negative impact, but it should be possible to study the ways religion can be a force for human development and peace.”

Father Jenkins said the institute would look at religion not through a sociological or political lens, but through one focused on the religions themselves.

While the couple and the university said the gift, which was 18 months in the making, was not conceived as a way to make a political statement, all parties acknowledged that it came at a politically charged time, given the debate over Muslim immigration in America and Europe.

“In the last couple of years, the majority of problems have been created by the misunderstandings among the religions,” said Mr. Ansari, an oncologist and hematologist. “Is this the right time for the announcement? Yes, because there is so much going on.”

full article

CrossTalk on EU migration crisis

Interesting debate.

Meet Australia's Muslim Power Couple

Susan Carland and Waleed Aly are exactly the type of people you’d want at your dinner party: intelligent, outspoken, engaging, charming, funny. Add Australian accents to that package and you’ve won me over in a second. 

Independently of each other, married couple Carland and Aly often serve as the public faces of Islam in Australia. Aly, 35, is a broadcaster who hosts multiple shows on both radio and TV, covering news events ranging from politics to entertainment to sports. Carland, 34, is often called on by the media to write articles or give interviews discussing her academic work on the intersection of feminism and Islam. The duo’s friends jokingly refer to them as the “Muslim Brangelina,” and it’s easy to see why. They are young, good-looking, fashionably-dressed and charitable. Like Brangelina, except sans Hollywood and plus two upcoming Ph.Ds.

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Muslim, Arab-American Youths Emerge as Social Activists

When you think of Arab or Muslim political activists, you likely imagine flag-waving, fist-pumping protesters demanding rapid political reform. However, in the United States, Muslim political activism seems to take on a different meaning.

Glancing at Wiaam Yasin, you wouldn't immediately assume she’s an activist with a passion for immigration reform. A petite 20-year-old who wears the Muslim headscarf, the Sudanese American native of Reston, Virginia, speaks Spanish, is passionate about immigration reform and hopes to volunteer abroad.
Yasin is just one of many Muslim and Arab-American youths who are seeking social change in their local communities by focusing their efforts on minority rights, immigration reform and racial equality. Her interest in social justice compelled her to attend the Campus Progress National Conference in July, organized by the Center for American Progress. The liberal Washington, D.C.-based think tank oversees Campus Progress - a nonprofit that supports student activists and journalists in colleges across the United States.
The conference focused on a wide variety of issues, including youth voter turnout, media justice and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights. However, it was clear that the Arab and Muslim American youth in attendance had a particular focus: learning how to address issues of equity and breaking down stereotypes of minority communities.

Immigration reform

Sandra Khalifa, a summer advocacy intern with Campus Progress who also attended the conference, says her identity as an Arab American shapes the kind of activism she chooses to participate in. The daughter of Egyptian immigrants and a native of southern California, Khalifa says she felt isolated growing up in her non-diverse neighborhood as a child.

That changed however, once she started attending the University of California, Berkeley - now her alma mater - which she says has an active Arab American community on campus. There, she discovered organizations such as the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, both of which work to break down stereotypes.

“People are misinformed in general or ignorant of Arab American culture. And the media fuels all these negative stereotypes,” Khalifa says. “And so I think ... it fits in with a lot of progressive campaigns, because progressivism is all about acceptance and equality and justice for everyone…everyone should have fair access to civil rights.”

Khalifa is particularly passionate about immigration reform. As a summer Advocacy Intern for Campus Progress, she works to raise awareness about the struggles of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and the importance of the DREAM Act. Short for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, the Act would, if passed, provide conditional permanent U.S. residency to some undocumented students, allowing them to pursue a higher education. Khalifa helped organize the first Senate hearing on the Act, which took place in June and hopes to study public policy in the future.

“I think it’s important for any movement … or justice issues in general, [to get] everyone involved and mobilized,” she says. “If you pose things as an issue of social justice in general, rather than an Arab American issue or a Latino issue, I think that’s a strong way of getting people motivated.”

Breaking stereotypes

There is a common perception that only Latinos care about immigration policy. “Not so,” says Yasin, which is why she decided to double major in international affairs and Spanish at the University of Mary Washington. As an intern with the Minority Community Outreach Office at the National Education Association, she has attended briefings on immigration reform in an effort to educate herself about political issues important to the Latino community.

“By embracing the culture, I should be concerned about issues that other Hispanics are also worried about,” Yasin said. “There’s a misconception that Muslims are always worried about Muslim issues and I’m hoping to break that stereotype and show that … it’s not weird to find Muslims that speak Spanish in America or care about those kinds of issues.”

Yasin is also concerned about racial discrimination. “[Discrimination] just really irks me, that we live in America and these issues still exist,” she says. “And the conference … really struck me that you really can do things about it. You can’t just sit back … There’s a lot we can do about it especially as youth, we have a lot of power.”

Yasin has already looked into study abroad options in Spain and volunteering in Latin America to engage with different cultures. She hopes that after her trips abroad, she will have greater motivation to do more for the Latino community in America.

Minority within a minority

The speakers and panel discussions at the Campus Progress National Conference gravitated strongly toward civil rights, racial justice, welfare and other issues typically associated with the Democratic Party. The common perception that the Democratic Party platform is mainly concerned with these social issues is apparent in a 2008 study on American Muslim Voters commissioned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. According to the study, 37 percent of respondents perceived Democrats as more likely to be favorable to Muslim Americans and their political concerns, while eight percent said that of Republicans. Nearly half of Muslim Americans identify as Democrats, while only eight percent are Republicans, according to the study.

Louay Youssef, a 33-year-old member of the DC Young Republicans and senior technology consultant for the US government, said he thinks Muslim Americans hold negative stereotypes about his party’s platform.

“The images liberals get is that we’re against human rights. [They think we’re] only about money and keeping the rich and the poor where they are,” said the Brooklyn native. “But it’s a stereotype.”

Youssef volunteered for the McCain campaign in the 2008 US presidential election and hopes to run for office one day. He cares about social issues and foreign policy, but he joined the Republican party because the Republican emphasis on fiscal responsibility and less government regulation in business resonated with him.

Dr. Mohammed Alo, 35, a Chicago activist, strategist and physician, echoed similar sentiments. He is editor and founder of MuslimRepublicans.net, a website that gives politically conservative Muslim Americans a venue to express their views and network with one another.

He says in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, U.S. Muslims felt ostracized by American interventions in the Middle East and racial profiling under the Patriot Act. American politicians realized the need for outreach, and local policy makers in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, asked him to write speeches addressing the Muslim community.

Alo denies a common perception that Republican values are incompatible with Muslim lifestyles. “Muslim Americans identify with conservative values when it comes to religious beliefs, social values and fiscal policy,” he says. However, he admitted that when it comes to politics, they gravitate toward typically ‘liberal’ issues like minority rights and immigration reform because it resonates with their identities.

Young Muslim American conservatives and liberals may not agree on fiscal policy, the health care debate and immigration reform. However, they do agree it’s time for Muslim Americans to focus their efforts on addressing local community issues instead of foreign affairs.

“Muslims don’t get involved in politics unless there’s some foreign going on… We need to stop doing that,” said Alo.

Yasin and Khalifa agree. Both say they hope to use their college education to pave the way for the future of activism in the young, Muslim American community.

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Sweden alarmed by series of 'racist' shootings

A string of 19 unsolved shootings – all of which appear to be racially motivated – are sending shockwaves through Sweden's immigrant population.

Bejzat Becirov points to a large hole in the bottom corner of a window at the Islamic Centre, Malmo's largest mosque. "It was last year," he said, "New Year's Eve, and there were people in there, drinking tea and writing greetings cards. Then one of them felt a kind of rush of air, and splinters of glass on the back of his neck. The police later found a bullet embedded in a piece of furniture."

This is not the worst thing that has happened at the mosque. Mr Becirov, its director, also remembers an arson attack that caused severe damage in 2003. But the shot fired at the mosque late last year is now being re-evaluated. Could it form part of a wider series of unexplained attacks that the police in Malmo are now hoping the public can help solve?

The announcement last week by police that a string of unsolved shootings might be connected is causing deep concern in this city, where almost half the population has an immigrant background. The attacks that police are investigating have all taken place in the past year and have all been aimed at people who look as though they might be immigrants. Of those 19 shootings, one person has been killed and eight have been injured.

Shootings are not uncommon in Malmo - a lot of people here talk about how easy it is to get hold of a gun if you want one - but the police say there's been an escalation in recent weeks and that is why they decided to warn the public and ask for their help.

They have set up a special investigation unit and have brought in help from Stockholm.

Among those now working the case is a man expert in psychological profiling - a man it is hoped can get inside the gunman's head by looking at patterns of behaviour.

He also brings with him uncomfortable echoes of the past, because he previously helped bring one of Sweden's most notorious criminals to book.

That was in the early 1990s when a man armed with a rifle was stalking the streets of Stockholm shooting at immigrants.

His weapon was equipped with a laser sight and some of his victims noticed a spot of red light on their clothes shortly before they were shot. He quickly became known as Lasermannen, the Laser Man.

His name was John Ausonius. He is now serving a life sentence for his crimes, and is also the subject of a book by the Stockholm-based writer Gellert Tamas.

In a series of interviews in prison he spoke of how he felt inspired by a new right-wing party with a strong disapproval of immigration that had recently been elected to the Swedish parliament.

"He said that he felt a kind of moral and political support for what he did," remembers Mr Tamas.


Sweden had parliamentary elections last month, which resulted for the first time in the Sweden Democrats winning seats in parliament.

They too are calling for restricted immigration and they have an apocalyptic vision of a Muslim takeover in Europe.


"We should be quite clear about one thing," says Mr Tamas.

"We don't know who's doing the shooting, we don't know if it's one person or several people. We don't know anything about his or their motives".

"But we can look at the general atmosphere and here there are some similarities with the early 1990s. The first and most obvious is that we once again have a right-wing, xenophobic party in the parliament."

The Sweden Democrats deny they are xenophobic and have indeed put up a reward for information leading to an arrest in Malmo.

But there is speculation in the city that whoever is doing the shooting may in some way feel inspired by recent political developments.

Support for the Sweden Democrats was significantly higher in Malmo than the national average.

The police say it is going to take time to get results, that it is a complicated enquiry and no-one should expect a quick fix.

That will not be much comfort to the small group of men gathered in the twilight outside a small basement mosque in Rosengaard after evening prayers.

"We've been told not to be outside after dark," said one. "It's time to go home."

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Student’s photograph project sheds light on history of Cardiff’s Muslim community

THE history of the oldest Muslim community in Britain is brought to life by these black and white images.

The pictures were gathered by postgraduate student Adila Golam Rassoude as she researched the history of the Yemeni community in Cardiff Bay.

They show the depth of community spirit and also reveal an intriguing story of a romance between a Welsh girl and a Yemeni man in the early 20th century.

Central St Martin’s College, London MA student Adila, 24, was drawn to Cardiff in her research assignment, Billad Al Welsh, which in Arabic means “Land of the Welsh”.

“The assumption is it was the Pakistani Muslims who first came to Britain but actually it was the Yemeni Muslims of Wales,” she said. “From 1908, there are Arabic names recorded in Bute Street. The Peel Street Mosque in Butetown, which opened in 1944, was also the first mosque in Britain to have held a community.”

After the Suez Canal was completed in 1869, it opened a passage for ships to travel to Europe, which led to many Yemeni seamen arriving in Cardiff.

Recovered photographs show vibrant parades celebrating the Islamic festival Eid in Butetown in 1937 and 1967, Sheikh Said as a young boxer who came to Butetown as a child and still lives there aged 80, and famous Butetown face Olive Salaman in 1945 with her husband Ali and their children.

Adila said: “Olive moved from the Rhymney Valley to Cardiff to train as a nurse when she was 16. When walking near the Bay looking for a cinema, Olive met Ali Salaman, a young Yemeni working as a chef in a local restaurant. Within three weeks of meeting, they married, before having 10 children and adopting two. They lived in Butetown for the rest of their lives.

“Ali and Olive bought a restaurant called the Cairo Cafe, on Bute Street, where they sold food for the seamen that arrived on the docks.”

Sheikh Hassan Udaini, who taught Arabic in the cafe, made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1966 and proudly carried the Welsh flag.

On a visit to Cardiff last week, Adila met Daoud Salaman and Sheikh Said, who work closely together in the Butetown community.

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Immigration in Italy

Lampedusa is a small island close to Sicily. It is the closest Italian destination to Tunisia and Libya, countries from where most immigrants set out for Italy, risking their lives in insidious boat trips across the Mediterranean Sea. The campus is designed to shelter 800 people where they are supposed to remain for 60 days. A CPA's resident should be set free only if he/she meets the refugees standards’ requirements, otherwise they should be sent back home. However, there are currently 1800 people and most of them are kept longer than expected because they arrive without valid identity documents. Consequently, the identification process lasts for too long and is tiring.

The Italian Government spends 5.4 million Euros a year to run the Lampedusa shelter, where last year alone 33, 000 people were sheltered. On one hand, the Italian government blames Libya for not taking the necessary measures to curb illegal immigration streams from its shores. On the other hand, Libyan officials, according to various Italian press reports, claim they don’t have enough financial resources nor the required technology (like satellite surveillance) to achieve an effective surveillance along its seashores. In a move towards achieving a common goal, Italy and Libya signed the “Bengasi Accord” on August 30, 2008. Under which the Italian government will finance the development of Libyan infrastructures by 5 billion US dollars for the next 25 years against an effective implementation on the Libyan part to restrain illegal immigration.

A “ticket” to ride the boat, according to survivors who made it to Lampedusa from Libya, ranges from 500 to 1000$. The sailors use a small boat to board 50 to 60 souls, regardless of the gender, origin, and health conditions. While crossing the Mediterranean Sea, they are not fed, and some people, especially women, die because of the frosty temperature.

Issaga, a refugee from Somalia, told Vita Magazine that he had to work for six months in Libya to earn the money needed for going to Italy. "I will never forget," he says, "the fear that seized me and all the people, 45 folks on an eight meters long boat, who were with me. On the boat we had only two options: to live or to die and we could do nothing about it. Just pray. It is hard to go, but it is also hard to stay. After I have been cleared by the authorities, I had to find a job. I spent years to do odd low-paid jobs which Italians would never take. I didn't have a contract, extra hours were not paid, I had no benefits, and several Italians blamed me because they think immigrants are accountable for lowering the working wages for all."

Now Issaga works in an Egyptian restaurant as an assistant manager. Ahmed, the owner of the restaurant, is an Egyptian man who immigrated to Milano 30 years ago. He owns a successful restaurant, he has his own apartment, and he drives a nice car. He has four children who speak Italian better than Arabic.

He is an ideal example of a successful immigrant who worked hard but at the end he made it. But he assures that, "30 years ago the economy was better, it was much easier to get a visa and there were very few immigrants to compete with."

Unfortunately, what many people get on their way is painful death. Last year, according to Interior Affairs Ministry, 646 people died before reaching Lampedusa. In 2007, they were 556. As for all the European countries, last year 1,052 people never made it to the European shores.

Theoretically, the situation for the legal immigrants should be better. However, apparently, this is not the case.

"If we were given the chance to deal with less administrative hurdles and bureaucracy nightmares, we could enjoy a simpler life and therefore be more productive and useful for this country," said Imane, a 25-year-old girl of Moroccan origin, referring to her working visa renewal experience. "I pay 72 Euros a year but it takes something like 13 months to have it renewed and stamped. In the meantime, I cannot travel and every time an officer stops me, it takes me much time to explain to him that I don’t carry my visa with me because it is being renewed. I am lucky because I speak Italian fluently, but those who don’t master the Italian language get in trouble because they are not able to explain that; even if they are not carrying their visa at the moment, they are still legal immigrants," she added.

To make things worse, the Italian government approved a package of a new anti-immigration law that will make visa renewal more costly. Visa holders indeed, besides paying the 72 Euros, are required to pay a 200-Euro visa annually as taxes.

"If I have to pay more money that’s fine, but at least I should get something in return such as good services. No more long queues outside government buildings just to hand out the papers, and no more waiting for 13 months to get their visas renewed. If I spend 200 Euros I expect efficiency, speed and why not, something innovative like getting the visa online," explained Imane. Itis worth mentioning here that with this 200-Euro tax the government will be able to earn 600 hundred millionEuros a year.

According to the latest official statistics released last month, January, 2009, by Caritas Immigration Annual Report on Immigration, there are nearly 3.9 million legal immigrants working and living in Italy. They represent 6.7 percent of the total population. In the year 2000, they were almost one million and a half. Albanians are considered the biggest community in Italy (625,000 people). Moroccans are the second biggest Muslim community with 366,000 people, and then come the Chinese and Ukrainians estimated by 150,000 persons. There are other nationalities in Italy estimated as follows: 93,600 Tunisians, 69,572 Egyptians, and 3,569 Lebanese.

Generally speaking, immigrants work in restaurants, construction companies, agriculture and in distribution-supply chains. But there are also 20,000 immigrants who work at hospitals and elderly shelters. Many banks hire immigrants to run remittance services. For many immigrants, it is not easy to get loans to start private business or to buy a house. Several well-educated immigrants seek new professional opportunities as cultural mediators at police headquarters and at some government offices.

In addition, foreign workers produce 9 percent of the Italian GDP. They are spenders, savers, and entrepreneurs as well. There are 165,115 companies registered under migrated owners at the Italian chambers of commerce all over Italy. They positively contribute to public prosperity. In Lombardy, the most productive region of Italy, 45.6 percent of the workforce is immigrants. In Milan, one out of seven people is a foreign worker and 800,000 working immigrants joined the big three Italian labor unions.

The real driving force towards a more multiethnic Italian society is the offspring of the early immigrants, widely known as the second generation "2G". Those young people, indeed, represent the biggest social contribution of immigrants to the Italian society. Born in Italy, their upbringing is very unique and fascinating. They represent a new category of citizens who keep the roots of their parents' ethnicity, but grow their branches over the country that adopted them, Italy. They represent the bridge that links Italy with other counties. Not surprisingly, 2G youth already speak three languages in their early age, and their everyday life is featured by a mixed identity based on the compromise between their personal aspirations and their parents' expectations.

The current law does not grant Italian citizenship to those second generation boys and girls till they are 18 years old, even if they are born in Italy. Another obstacle facing 2G immigrants is that if they leave the country for more than three months, they would lose their Italian nationality and they have to live other "non-stop" 18 years in Italy in order to regain their Italian passport.

Lubna, an Italian girl of Syrian origin, told me she feels Italian but, unlike her classmates and friends, she spends much time balancing between her Syrian heritage and her Italian upbringing. “That makes me a global citizen. I feel that I belong to two cultures. I feel very rich inside because I learned a great deal of both cultures," Lubna explained. "And when I talk to my relatives around the world, I feel like I have visited those countries without having traveled there,” She added. Lubna's ambition is to work in hospitals as a cultural mediator who facilitates communication between Italian doctors and Arab women who don’t speak Italian. She elaborates that job saying, “The Italian language and the veil I wear are my best assets. When Arab women see me next to a male Italian doctor, they feel right away more reassured and calm. My presence in a hospital room makes these women at ease." Indeed, many hospitals have to rely on young women like Lubna to overcome language barriers and sensitive cultural discrepancies between Italian doctors and Muslim female patients.

Fortunately, some politicians from both coalitions, right and left, have recognized the unjust burden second generation immigrants are carrying. The President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Gianfranco Fini, has recently urged the governing coalition to consider main changes regarding the current citizenship law; both for early immigrants as well as for 2G Italians. In an open letter published on December 21st, 2008, by one of most well known Italian newspapers La Repubblica, Mr. Fini wrote, "Our society in less than a decade, or maybe now, will not be the same. We are living a time of big migration streams of people, ideas and resources, especially of human resources. That’s why we have to act in accordance with such social development. We cannot let immigration be marginalized. Let’s work for a freer and more open society." With this letter, Mr. Fini tried to spur the debate about the 2G need to be granted the Italian citizenship at the age of ten. While the vast majority of 2G Italians are entering the adult stage, Fini’s call is still frozen because of the unjustifiable absurdity of the Italian politics.