Timothy Winter: Britain's most influential Muslim - and it was all down to a peach

It was the sight of peach juice dripping from the chin of a teenage French female nudist that led a Cambridgeshire public schoolboy to convert to Islam. Thirty-five years later, Timothy Winter – or Sheikh Abdul-Hakim Murad, as he is known to his colleagues – has been named one of the world's most influential Muslims.

The hitherto unnoticed Mr Winter, who has an office in Cambridge University's Divinity Faculty, where he is the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies, has been listed ahead of the presidents of Iran and Egypt, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Mahmoud Abbas. "Strange bedfellows," he concedes.

Tall, bookish, fair-skinned and flaxen-haired, a wiry beard is his only obvious stylistic concession to the Islamic faith.

To the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC), which is based at the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Winter is "one of the most well-respected Western theologians" and "his accomplishments place him amongst the most significant Muslims in the world". Winter is also the secretary of the Muslim Academic Trust, director of The Anglo-Muslim Fellowship for Eastern Europe, and director of the Sunna Project, which has published the most respected versions of the major Sunni Hadith collections, the most important texts in Islam after the Qur'an.

He has also written extensively on the origins of suicidal terrorism.

According to the RISSC, the list highlights "leaders and change-agents who have shaped social development and global movements". Winter is included because "[his] work impacts all fields of work and particularly, the religious endeavors of the Muslim world".

In the 500 Most Influential Muslims 2010, Mr Winter is below the King of Saudi Arabia – who comes in at number one – but ahead of many more chronicled figures. He is ranked in an unspecified position between 51st and 60th, considerably higher than the three other British people who make the list – the Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi; the UK's first Muslim life peer, Lord Nazir Ahmed, who was briefly jailed last year for dangerous driving; and Dr Anas Al Shaikh Ali, director of the

International Institute of Islamic Thought – making him, at least in the eyes of the RISSC, Britain's most influential Muslim.

"I think that's very unlikely," says Winter, seated in front of his crowded bookshelves. "I'm an academic

observer who descends occcasionally from my ivory tower and visits the real world. If you stop most people in the street they've never heard of me. In terms of saying anything that makes any kind of sense to the average British Muslim I think they have no need of my ideas at all."

The son of an architect and an artist, he attended the elite Westminster School in the 1970s before graduating from Cambridge with a double first in Arabic in 1983. His younger brother is the football correspondent Henry Winter. Tim says: "I was always the clever, successful one. Henry just wanted to play football with his mates. I used to tell him, ‘I'm going to make loads of money, and you'll still be playing football with your mates.' Now he's living in a house with 10 bedrooms and married to a Bond girl." (Brother Henry insists on the telephone later: "She was only in the opening credits. And it's not as many as 10.")

If this seems an improbable background for a leading Muslim academic, his Damascene moment on a Corsican beach is unlikelier still.

"In my teens I was sent off by my parents to a cottage in Corsica on an exchange with a very vigorous French Jewish family with four daughters," Winter recalls. "They turned out to be enthusiastic nudists.

"I remember being on the beach and seeing conjured up before my adolescent eyes every 15-year-old boy's most fervent fantasy. There was a moment when I saw peach juice running off the chin of one of these bathing beauties and I had a moment of realisation: the world is not just the consequence of material forces. Beauty is not something that can be explained away just as an aspect of brain function."

It had quite an effect on him: "That was the first time I became remotely interested in anything beyond the material world. It was an unpromising beginning, you might say.

"In a Christian context, sexuality is traditionally seen as a consequence of the Fall, but for Muslims, it is an anticipation of paradise. So I can say, I think, that I was validly converted to Islam by a teenage French Jewish nudist."

After graduating, Winter studied at the University of al-Azhar in Egypt and worked in Jeddahat before returned to England in the late eighties to study Turkish and Persian. He says he has no difficulty reconciling the world he grew up in with the one he now inhabits. "Despite all the stereotypes of Islam being the paradigmatic opposite to life in the west, the feeling of conversion is not that one has migrated but that one has come home.

"I feel that I more authentically inhabit my old identity now that I operate within Islamic boundaries than I did when I was part of a teenage generation growing up in the 70s who were told there shouldn't be any boundaries."

The challenge, he feels, is much harder now for young Muslims trying to integrate with British life.

"Your average British Asian Muslim on the streets of Bradford or Small Heath in Birmingham is told he has to integrate more fully with the society around him. The society he tends to see around him is extreme spectacles of binge drinking on Saturday nights, scratchcards, and other forms of addiction apparently rampant, credit card debt crushing lives, collapsing relationships and mushrooming proportions of single lives, a drug epidemic. It doesn't look very nice.

"That is why one of the largest issues over the next 50 years is whether these new Muslim communities can be mobilised to deal with those issues. Islam is tailor-made precisely for all those social prolems. It is the ultimate cold turkey. You don't drink at all. You don't sleep around. You don't do scratchcards. Or whether a kind of increasing polarisation, whereby Muslims look at the degenerating society around them and decide ‘You can keep it'."

It is not this, though, that contributes to some young Muslim British men's radicalism, he says, since their numbers are often made up of "the more integrated sections".

"The principle reason, which Whitehall cannot admit, is that people are incensed by foreign policy. Iraq is a smoking ruin in the Iranian orbit. Those who are from a Muslim background are disgusted by the hypocrisy. It was never about WMD. It was about oil, about Israel and evangelical christianity in the White House. That makes people incandescent with anger. What is required first of all is an act of public contrition. Tony Blair must go down on his knees and admit he has been responsible for almost unimaginable human suffering and despair."

He adds: "The West must realise it must stop being the world's police. Why is there no Islamic represenation on the UN Security Council? Why does the so-called Quartet [on the Middle East] not have a Muslim representative? The American GI in his goggles driving his landrover through Kabul pointing his gun at everything that moves, that is the image that enrages people."

Is there a similar antagonistic symbolism in the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero?

"If the mosque represented an invading power they would have every right. Muslims in America are there as legitimate citizens with their green cards, with jobs, trying to get by. They are there in humble mode.

"Would you oppose the construction of Shinto Shrines at Pearl Harbour, of which there a number? How long must the Muslims of lower Manhattan have to wait to get a place to pray five times a day? With Islam there are certain liturgical requirements. It's not like a church that you can build on the top of a hill and say, we've only got to go once a week and it looks nice up there. Muslims need to pray five times a day, they can't get the subway out and back. It should be seen as a symbol of reconciliation not antagonism."

Last year Winter helped set up the Cambridge Muslim College, which offers trained imams a one year diploma in Islamic studies and leadership, designed to help trained imams to better implement their knowledge and training in 21st-century Britain. This year's first graduating class have recently returned from a trip to Rome where they had an open audience with the Pope.

In an increasingly secular Britain, sociologists suggest with regularity that "football is the new religion". Winter understands the comparison. "Football has everything that is important to religion," he says. "Solidarity, skill, ritual, the outward form of what looks like a sacred congregation. Except it's not about anything." Just don't tell his brother.

Converts to Islam

Muhammad Ali

Cassius Clay, widely considered to be one of the greatest boxers, shocked America when he revealed in 1964 that he had converted to the Nation of Islam (becoming a Sunni 11 years later) to discard the name of his ancestors' enslavement.

Yusuf Islam

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London, the singer, best known as Cat Stevens, converted to Islam at the height of his fame in 1977. Two years later he auctioned all his guitars for charity and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes.

Yvonne Ridley

The British journalist was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in September 2001 having crossed the border anonymously in a burqa. After her release 11 days later, she explained that she had promised one of her captors that she would read the Koran and it changed her life. She converted to Islam in the summer of 2003.

Alexander Litvinenko

The ex-Russian agent, who fled to London, fell ill in November 2006 after being poisoned by radioactive polonium-210. Two days before his death on 23 November he told his father he had converted to Islam.

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Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed

Dont Be Sad: Do not be crushed by what is insignifIcant

Many are those that are distressed not by pressing matters of great import, but by minor trifles.

Observe the Hypocrites and how weak they are in their resolution. The Qur’an relates to us some of their sayings:

{Those who stayed away [from Tabuk expedition] rejoiced in their staying behind the Messenger of Allah; they hated to strive and fight with their properties and their lives in the Cause of Allah, and they said: March not forth in the heat’.} (Qur’an 9: 81)

{‘Grant me leave [to be exempted from Jihad] and put me not into trial.} (Qur’an 9: 49)

{And a band of them ask for permission of the Prophet [Muhammad] saying: ‘Truly, our homes lie open [to the enemy]’. And they lay not open. They but wished to flee.} (Qur’an 33: 13)

{‘We fear lest some misfortune of a disaster may befall us.’}

(Qur’an 5: 52)

{And when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease said: ‘Allah and His Messenger promised us nothing but delusions!’} (Qur’an 33: 12)

How wretched are the souls of such people!

Their principal concerns are for their stomachs, cars, houses, and castles. They never once raise their eyes to a life of ideals and virtues; the extent of their knowledge is their cars, clothes, shoes, and food.

Some people are distressed day and night, because of a disagreement with their spouse, son, or relative, or because they have had to forbear criticism, or because of some other trivial event. Such are the calamities of these people. They have no aspiration to higher principles or goals to keep them busy, and they have no noble ambition in their lives to an end for which they can strive day and night. It has been said, ‘When water leaves a container, it is then filled with air’. Therefore reflect on that which gives you cause for concern or anxiety, and ask yourself this: does it merit your energies and toils? This is an indispensable question, because whatever it is that causes your anxiety, you are, with mind, flesh, and blood, giving it energy and time. And if it does not merit your energy and time, you will have squandered a great deal of your most precious resources. Psychologists say that you should judge everything in proportion to its true value and then put it in its proper place. More truthful than this is the saying of Allah:

{Indeed Allah has set a measure for all things.} (Qur’an 65: 3)

So give to each situation according to its size, weight, measure, and importance. And stay away from immoderation or from exceeding the proper bounds.

Take from the example of the Prophet’s Companions, whose sole concern was to give their pledge of allegiance under the tree and thus obtain the pleasure of Allah. With them was a man whose concern was focused on a missing camel, a preoccupation that caused him to miss the pledge of allegiance — and consequently, he was deprived of the rewards that were reaped by the others.

Therefore do not be preoccupied with matters that are insignificant. If you follow this advice, you will find that most of your worries will have left you.

Source: Don't Be Sad - By Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni

Pakistan Floods

• Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: He who alleviates the suffering of a brother out of the sufferings of the world, Allah would alleviate his suffering from the sufferings of the Day of Resurrection, and he who finds relief for one who is hard pressed, Allah would make things easy for him in the Hereafter, and he who conceals (the faults) of a Muslim, Allah would conceal his faults in the world and in the Hereafter. Allah is at the back of a servant so long as the servant is at the back of his brother.

Sahih Muslim :: Book 35 : Hadith 6518

Ramadan is not an excuse for gluttony

An estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world are marking the start of one of the most important months in the religious calendar, Ramadan. We believe that it was during Ramadan that the Qur'an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. So, for the next 30 days Muslims will abstain from water and food from sunrise to sunset. The sound of rumbling tummies will echo from Milton Keynes to Mecca.

Fasting is a humbling but rewarding experience. It's also exhausting and testing, a necessary reminder of the struggle that the majority of the world's population face every day to find food and water to nourish themselves and their families.

As I write this it's nearly 4am. I've prayed and finished eating suhoor, which is the Arabic word for the meal that Muslims eat early in the morning before beginning their day of fasting. This morning my husband and I munched on hummus with warm pitta bread, yoghurt and a handful of blueberries, and drank tea and water. Our cats seem to have got into the spirit of Ramadan. One of them ta

pped me on the leg as I made my blurry-eyed way to the kitchen to tell me she wanted an early breakfast too.

As we sat down to suhoor we were reminded that in much of the Muslim world people would be starting the fast with much less than us, including the almost 14 million people whose lives have been devastated by the floods in Pakistan. It's a sobering thought.

In stark contrast, there are some parts of the Muslim world where Ramadan has become an excuse to gorge on lavish, artery-choking foods and party like its 1431 (which it is, according to the Islamic lunar calendar).

Around the Arabian Gulf, hotels are decked out to look like halal hip-hop videos, with more bling than you could shake an abaya at. The filthy rich hire out hotels and garden tents to throw gluttonous parties after sunset as Indonesian and Filipino maids sit in the corner bouncing their employees' babies on their laps.

When I worked for a well-known Arab news network in the Gulf, staff were treated to the most spectacular iftar (the evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the month of Ramadan). Forget about the standard British egg-and-cress or mayonnaise-drenched prawn triangle sarnies with a sprinkling of kettle crisps provided for awaydays and meetings. These gut-busting affairs resembled wedding banquets, with five different starters, main courses and at least three desserts. The whole experience left me feeling spiritually starved and unclean.

On one occasion, while working a night shift, I stumbled across a waitress emptying trays of iftar food into a black bin liner. I asked her what she was doing. She said it was leftover food and she had been instructed to throw it out. In that moment, all the excitement and joy that I had felt in my heart for Ramadan that year drained away. I encountered the same thing when I spent Ramadan in Mecca two years ago. At suhoor time guests in the hotel would carry mountains of lasagne and fried foods to shovel down their throats before making their way to pray at Islam's holiest site.

My brother has just called to tell me that my six-year-old niece Iman – her name means faith – woke her parents up excitedly at 2.30am to tell mum and dad it was time for suhoor. She joined them for a yoghurt in solidarity and then skipped off to bed. That kind of beauty and simplicity is what Ramadan is really about – getting back to basics.

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Palestinians refused entry to Al Aqsa Mosque during Ramadhan

Dont Be Sad: Do not carry the weight of the globe on your shoulders

In a certain class of people there rages an internal war, one that doesn’t take place on the battlefield, but in one’s bedroom, one’s office, one’s own home. It is a war that results in ulcers or an increase in blood pressure. Everything frustrates these people: they become angry at inflation, furious because the rains came late, and exasperated when the value of their currency falls. They are forever perturbed and vexed, no matter what the reason.

{They think that every cry is against them.} (Qur’an 63: 4)

My advice to you is this: do not carry the weight of the globe on your shoulders. Let the ground carry the burden of those things that happen. Some people have a heart that is like a sponge, absorbing all kinds of fallacies and misconceptions. It is troubled by the most insignificant of matters; it is the kind of heart that is sure to destroy its possessor.

Those who are principled and are upon the true path are not shaken by hardship; instead, hardship helps to strengthen their resolve and faith. But the reverse is true for the weak-hearted: when they face adversity or trouble, it is only their level of fear that increases. At a time of calamity, there is nothing more beneficial to you than having a brave heart. The one who has such a heart is self- possessed — he has firm faith and cool nerves. On the other hand, during the course of any given day, the coward slaughters himself many times with apprehensions and presentiments of impending doom. Therefore, if you desire for yourself a stable life, face all situations with bravery and perseverance.

{And let not those who have no certainty of faith discourage you...}(Qur’an 30: 60)

Be more resolute than your circumstances and more ferocious than the winds of calamity. May mercy descend upon the weak hearted, for how often it is that they are shaken by the smallest of tremors.

{And verily, you will find them the greediest of mankind for life.}(Qur’an 2: 96)

As for those who are resolute, they receive help from their Lord and are confident of His promise.

{He sent down calmness and tranquility upon them...}

(Qur’an 48: 18

Source: Don't Be Sad - By Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni

Gaza doctor writes book of hope despite death of three daughters

On a cool but sunny December day in Gaza, Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish took his eight children to the beach for the simple pleasures of paddling in the Mediterranean and playing in the sand.

Two months earlier, the children's mother had died from acute leukaemia, and Abuelaish was comforted to see his older daughters laughing and chatting as they wrote their names in the damp grains close to the water's edge: Bessan, Maya, Aya. "It was as close to heaven and as far from hell as I could get that day," he later wrote.

But within five weeks the Abuelaishs were to suffer a second tragedy: those three girls, aged 13, 15 and 21, were killed, and another daughter, Noor, 17, seriously injured, when an Israeli shell was fired at the family home during the brief but bloody war in Gaza in 2008-9. One of Abuelaish's nieces also died; a fifth girl, another niece, suffered terrible injuries.

Many in his situation would have descended into a dark, lonely pit of grief and bitterness. But Abuelaish not only rebuilt a life for himself and his surviving five children, he has written a moving and powerful book about his experiences with a central message of hope and reconciliation.

I Shall Not Hate – published in Canada in April, and out in Britain in January – has had an extraordinary impact. Sitting in the home of his extended family in Jabalia, northern Gaza, Abuelaish – back on a month-long visit from Canada where he now lives and works – reads out emails on his BlackBerry from strangers expressing their sympathy, gratitude and support.

The book has been translated in 13 languages, from Finnish to Turkish – but most importantly copies will soon be available in Hebrew or Arabic. A book tour in the US is scheduled for January; proceeds from sales and appearances will go to Daughters for Life, the charitable foundation Abuelaish set up.

He explains his choice of title. "I'm against any violence. Violence and the military approach proved its failings decades ago and that will never, ever change. No one evaluates; we just continue blindly.

"As Palestinians and Israelis we have failed to change course. We just continue with the same approach which aggravates, escalates and widens the gap of hatred and bloodshed. It's easy to destroy life but very difficult to build it."

Would it not be understandable to feel hate after what has happened to him? "There is a difference between anger and hate. Anger is acute but transient; hate is a poison, a fire which burns you from the inside. We need to be angry, but direct it in a positive way."

Abuelaish, an obstetrician and gynaecologist specialising in infertility, spent years working in Israeli hospitals where, he says, patients were surprised to find a Palestinian doctor delivering Jewish babies. After his wife, Nadia, died in September 2008 he went back to work following encouragement from his elder daughters, returning to his family in Gaza at weekends.

He was at home when the onslaught on Gaza began on 27 December that year. There was a "symphony of weapons, shelling" around the extended family's home in northern Gaza, where much of the action was concentrated. Everyone's nerves and emotions were constantly on edge, he says.

Throughout the conflict, Abuelaish was in regular contact by phone with Israeli friends, including journalists. His accounts, in fluent Hebrew, of what was happening inside Gaza – closed at the time to foreign journalists – were broadcast in Israel and beyond.

On 16 January 2009, at 4.30pm, a shell struck the house. He ran to the room that had been hit. "I saw my girls drowning in a pool of blood," he says, tears in his eyes. "I saw their body parts, a decapitated head, brains on the ceiling." A second shell followed.

Desperate for medical assistance, he called his friend Shlomi Eldar, a presenter on Channel 10 in Israel. His cries for help in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic were broadcast live. Within an hour, with the help of his Israeli friends, Abuelaish's injured daughter and niece were evacuated from Gaza.

At the time, he could only think of the catastrophe that had befallen his family. Later he realised the impact of that live phone call. "It opened the eyes of the Israeli public. The secret about the war in Gaza was disclosed," he says.

The then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, watched the broadcast. "I read that he said: 'Who can see Izzeldin and not cry?'" says Abuelaish. "Two days later he announced the ceasefire. I hope that at least the blood of my daughters was not in vain, that it saved others."

The doctor was already considering a job offer in Toronto and within six months he had begun a new life as a professor in global health at the city's university. Back home for the summer holidays, Abuelaish says Gaza is "getting worse and worse".

"People are frustrated and hopeless. Wellbeing is not just dependent on having food. We are hungry for freedom, a brighter future, a secure life, for feeling our humanity."

But, he says, Gazans must not simply blame others, but take responsibility themselves. "Everything is possible in life, even peace. The only thing that is impossible is to bring my wife and daughters back. You have to keep moving. Tragedy does not define my life, but these tragedies have made me move faster."

Abuelaish's book and the foundation are his monument to his dead daughters. "I swore to God that one day I will meet my daughters and tell them their blood was not wasted," he says.

The foundation is dedicated to promoting health and education among girls and women in the Middle East. "My life is in debt to my mother, my wife, my daughters," he says. "All change starts first with the mother. If we want to change, we must start with women."

Abuelaish thinks back to the day on the beach, a picture from which graces the cover of his book. "Two weeks before the war came, [the girls] wrote their names in the sand. Where are their names now? Written in stone on their tombs. But I tell you one day their names will be written in metal and stone at schools and medical institutions dedicated to their memory. Words are stronger than bullets. We have to offer a message of hope to those who believe in hate and revenge."

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Muslim women in India “have had enough of mullah interference.”

The Muslim women are beginning to demur with patriarchal notions of bias and control. At least this much was evident when 100-odd angry women marched down the congested alleys of old city here, waving placards and shouting slogans. It was a sight none must have ever seen before.

The 1.5-km walk in this uber conservative neighbourhood ended at the residence of Abdees' and marital home of Hina and Arshi, the two among three women who had roughed up some maulvis of the Shariat court in June for issuing ex-parte talaqnama. Amid tight security and after much drama, the two muscled their way in, leaving their morose looking in-laws with no option but to watch them in silence. The fierce army of chaperones then left, promising to keep in touch.

"The incident proves that Muslim women have had enough of mullah interference,"declared state convener of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan Naaz Raza, who led the march. This could just be the beginning, warned her colleague Naish Hasan. The feisty lady spells big trouble for the maulvis with her outspokenness. This year has seen at least a dozen anti-women fatwas from Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband. Women are forbidden to ride bicycles, join public office without hijab, talk loudly, join judiciary or even talk to their fiance before marriage. And now they have one question, said Naish, "Just why not?''

"When a woman puts a 'daliya' (wicker basket) on her head and carries bricks, no mullah advises her not to work beside men. But the moment she dons a stethoscope or a black coat, there are restrictions galore,"complained Shahnaz Begum.

The semi-literate chikan worker from Bansmandi says, "Maulvis are scared they may lose their importance once women begin to exercise their brains. And each issue, from condoning triple talaq to pronouncing anti-woman fatwa, only shows their insecurity."

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Ramadan tradition goes high-tech; users can get prayer time reminders, find direction of Mecca

The most ancient traditions of Islam are going high-tech, with a slew of modern offerings for those observing the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.

Cell phone applications such as "iPray" or "iQuran" offer a beeping reminder of requisite prayer times, while the "FindMecca" and "mosque finder" programs help the Muslim traveler in an unfamiliar city find the nearest place to pray.

"When I saw these applications for the first time, I thought: this is amazing," said James Otun, who has several Islamic applications on his Apple iPhone and iPad. "Whoever came up with this idea: God bless him or her.

The applications aren't just for Ramadan; there are Islamic-themed programs that help users find the nearest Costco offering foods prepared according to Islamic dietary rules, learn the correct Arabic pronunciations in a daily prayer, or count how many pages of the Quran they've read that day — all on a mobile phone.

There also are applications, or apps, for the holy books of several other religions, from the Catholic Holy Bible to the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture.

The first time Sumeyye Kalyoncu heard the Adhan — or call to prayer — through surround-sound speakers on her iPhone dock, she was overcome with nostalgia for her native Turkey. Such applications are especially popular in the U.S., Kalyoncu said, as U.S. mosques do not broadcast daily calls to prayer from external loudspeakers, as they do in Muslim countries.

"These are traditions and these have been in our lives for ages, like almost 15 centuries, so they seem very old," Kalyoncu said. "I think this is like combining together the technology and the things that we do daily."

Kalyoncu uses an iPhone app called iPray Lite, keeping track of requisite daily prayers with a program that simulates the clicking sound of prayer beads or the turning wheel of a handheld metal counter Muslims use to keep count of prayer repetitions. Using headphones, the 24-year-old says she can now fulfill her daily spiritual obligations by counting prayers on her iPhone on the commuter bus to Manhattan from her Edgewater home.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the company doesn't track the more than 225,000 apps for its phones by category so she doesn't know how many are Islamic-themed. The programs aren't just offered by Apple; Nokia has a Ramadan suite for its cell phones that consolidates everything worshippers need to know to observe Islam's holiest month, in which Muslims worldwide observe daily daylight fasting.

Some apps are free. Those that are not generally range from about 99 cents to $2.99, although some are more expensive.

The dates of Ramadan still are determined by the lunar calendar, and calculations can differ among Islamic communities around the world. In North America, many Muslims will mark the first day of Ramadan on Wednesday.

But Islam never has been at odds with innovation, said Zinnur Tabakci, who runs an Islamic religious book and gift shop in Paterson, New Jersey.

"Islam is not against technology. Now you can do it easier, faster," said Tabakci, who recently supplemented the strings of traditional prayer beads and religious texts he sells with a wall of mobile phone accessories to keep up with demand.

"Islam started 1,400 years ago, and at that time, they didn't have that much technology, but they knew everything," he added.

The mosque Tabakci attends in Paterson, called Ulu Cami, or "Great Mosque," has gone high-tech, too. After 16 cameras were installed for security purposes, one innovative mosque attendee began using them to broadcast services live over the Internet so those too old, sick or otherwise unable to attend could watch daily prayers online from home. Mosque leaders say the live broadcasts have become especially popular among relatives of immigrants who like to tune in from overseas to hear the same prayers as their loved ones in New Jersey.

Otun, a technology aficionado, says the apps he uses on his iPhone and iPad make him a more observant Muslim. From the beeping reminder to stop and pray during his busy schedule running a limo service, to an app that tells him which nearby restaurants serve food prepared within Islamic guidelines, Otun says there's no longer an excuse to live an unobservant life.

"If you forgot to pray, you might not be responsible, because you're human; you forget and you can make it up later," said Otun, 35. "But not now that you have those apps, that might change things in God's level."

Otun's favorite application, called Find Mecca, is a compass-like program with an electronic indicator that changes from red to green when you've reached the requisite prayer angle of 58-degrees, Northeast, to ensure you're facing Mecca from any location — a requirement of all Muslims when praying.

Otun said he was amazed to see an image of Mecca on his cell phone screen for the first time, and to realize he could carry a library of religious texts with him everywhere.

"iPhone makes you emotional," he said. "I can't carry 10,000 pages of books, now, you have it in your phone — it's priceless."

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