It was the sort of drama that makes for good press copy, and of course the international press was there to watch it. As the result was announced, hundreds of men applauded, while a “Muslim fundamentalist” reportedly screamed that Kuwaitis don’t want women’s rights.
Human Rights Watch, a major western human rights agency, issued a report about violence against women in Pakistan on October 19, shortly after the coup there. It estimates that between 70 and 90 percent of Pakistani women are victims of domestic violence, and accuses the now-deposed government of Nawaz Sharif of not acting to change the situation...
From Kosova to Kashmir, and many other places yet further afield, Muslims are being deprived of their lands and lives. In some cases, the ‘international community’ expresses concern and intervenes; in others, it is apparently oblivious.
Over fifty years after the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the human rights of the vast majority of people in the world are completely unprotected.
‘Gay-positive’ education is on the minds of many Toronto Muslim parents these days. While the province’s Conservative government claims to be bringing in a back-to-basics curriculum, and Toronto schools claim that their resources are being stretched to the limit by the provision of ESL (English as a second language) classes, time and money can still be found to inform the students that they can choose to be homosexuals!
In 1972, a ‘paper grave’ was found by labourers doing restoration work in the Great Mosque in Sana’a, Yemen. Between the mosque’s inner and outer roofs was a collection of old parchment and paper documents, damaged books and individual pages.
Racism is one of the defining characteristics of the twentieth century. Even societies built on the Enlightenment belief in equality of mankind seem unable to bring about an end to racial discrimination.
The topic of women in Islam has long been a favourite with modern writers, many of whom have advanced their careers on the backs of the ‘oppressed’ Muslim women whose cause they claim to champion.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today, and the number of its adherents is increasing everywhere, including North America. Much attention has been paid to the issues facing immigrant and African-American Muslims in North America, both by Muslims and by others.
Steven Barboza’s book, American Jihad, is an inversion of the message of Emerson’s ‘Jihad in America’. Barboza uses the idea of jihad and the life of Malcolm X - a combination guaranteed to get most Americans’ attention - as starting-points for a discussion of the different ways American Muslims practise jihad.
