As France prepares for a new chapter in its political and social history, with the decisive victory of François Hollande of Socialist party, Helene Irving from the At Home in Europe project spoke to people in France working on issues of social inclusion about the significance of what has passed to date and what the future may hold.

What role do you believe xenophobia, the fear of foreigners or outsiders, has played in the French presidential election campaign so far?

Marwan Muhammad, the spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France: The campaign for the presidential election has been mostly focused on immigration and xenophobic issues. The Front National has been asking questions and the other parties have just had to answer the questions in a different manner, but they have all been following the Front National’s political agenda. So, of course it gives them a future advantage … there is no unemployment problem anymore, there is no housing problem, there is no social problem in the country because everyone’s attention is focused on phenomena such as the halal meat business, the presence of immigrants in the country and the place of Muslims and Islam in France nowadays. …

Historically, Kashmir has been dominated by Sufi Islam, a mystical branch of the faith that the puritanically minded abhor. But Al Kindi plans to change all that. In a region already wracked by internal division and foreign pressure, he represents yet another potentially destabilizing force: orthodox Salafism, aggressively expansionist and imported from Saudi Arabia….

When it comes to descriptions of sexual or amorous encounters in their work, female Arab authors and poets are often asked whether they are recounting their own personal experiences….

This encounter is fictional, but it could easily reflect a real-life conflict. The dialogue was conceived by young Muslims from the Heroes project in the Berlin district of Neukölln, home to a large number of Muslim immigrants….

This time-tested formula has worked wherever a people have been dispirited and dejected. For example, Hitler's meteoric rise to power, culminating in the most destructive war of history, came from appealing to the collective ghairat of the German nation and to the alleged cowardice and corruption of its rulers….

Abolish visa regime even if India hesitates: Nawaz Sharif

Kabul condemns Taliban offensive as cowardly and un-Islamic

India becoming prone to intolerance of freedom: Salman Rushdie

The fastest growing religion in America is Islam

Taliban behead 2 Pakistani soldiers

Al Qaeda kills 20 Yemen troops after leader eliminated

Minority sub-quota to double job opportunities for Muslims: Salman Khurshid

Saudis report first underwater mosque in history

Al-Qaida releases video of American hostage

'129 Indian army personnel found guilty in right violation cases'

'Cops fanning Islamophobia'

Malaysian clerics issue fatwa against demonstrations

Ethiopia expels 2 Arabs amid tension with Muslim community; gov’t warns group declared jihad

Complied by New Age Islam News Bureau

Photo: Godhra riots: Amicus curiae report questions Modi's role

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Kuwait: Court Victory for Women's Rights

“More Islamic than the Islamists”: Claiming the Female Body for a Nation

Hindus: Pakistanis kidnap teens, force marriages

Pakistan: Forced marriage threat made to NGO women

UK Rights groups protest forced marriages in Pak

Curtailing ‘immodesty’: Ex-lawmaker ‘decrees’ against female education

Mothers worry about sons who fast in Israel jails

In the Name of Honour: The Free Aafia Siddiqui Campaign in South Africa

Complied by New Age Islam News Bureau

Photo: Afghan woman sets sights on presidency in a man's land

" اور اگر تم نے انہیں چھونے سے پہلے طلاق دے دی درآنحالیکہ تم ان کا مَہر مقرر کر چکے تھے تو اس مَہر کا جو تم نے مقرر کیا تھا نصف دینا ضروری ہے سوائے اس کے کہ وہ (اپنا حق) خود معاف کر دیں یا وہ (شوہر) جس کے ہاتھ میں نکاح کی گرہ ہے معاف کردے (یعنی بجائے نصف کے زیادہ یا پورا ادا کردے)، اور (اے مَردو!) اگر تم معاف کر دو تو یہ تقویٰ کے قریب تر ہے، اور (کشیدگی کے ان لمحات میں بھی) آپس میں احسان کرنا نہ بھولا کرو، بیشک اﷲ تمہارے اعمال کو خوب دیکھنے والا ہے"(2:237) ۔

Perhaps Indians can congratulate themselves that the god laws have not been used to persecute and kill religious dissenters, as the ever-expanding blasphemy laws which sprang up in Pakistan. Mr. Edamaruku's case ought to make clear, though, just where things are inexorably headed. If Indians wish to avoid the fate of the dystopia to the country's west, its citizens desperately need to accept the right of critics to attack, even insult, what they hold dear.

In 864 CE, the great physician, [Imam] Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakaria al-Razi, wrote: “The miracles of the prophets are imposters or belong to the domain of pious legend. The teachings of religions are contrary to the one truth: the proof of this is that they contradict one another. It is tradition and lazy custom that have led men to trust their religious leaders. Religions are the sole cause of the wars which ravage humanity; they are hostile to philosophical speculation and to scientific research. The alleged holy scriptures are books without values”.

Following a rich scholarly life, and a tenure as director of the hospital in Baghdad patronised by the caliph Abu al-Qasim Abd 'Allah, [Imam] al-Razi died quietly at his home in Rey, surrounded by his students. In modern India, his thoughts would have led him to a somewhat less pleasant end.

"ऐ ईमान वालो! जब तुम मोमिन औरतों से निकाह करो फिर तुम उन्हें तलाक दे दो कब्ल इसके कि तुम तुम उन्हें मस् करो (यानि खिलवते सहीहा करो) तो तुम्हारे लिए इन पर कोई इद्दत (वाजिब) नहीं है कि तुम उसे शुमार करने लगो, पस उन्हें कुछ माल और मता दो और उन्हें अच्छी तरह हुस्ने सुलूक के साथ रुख्सत करो "(33:49)।

The policemen etched out the verses at the main gate and entrance to the main hall. They were about to tear down the minarets, about five feet high, at the main gate too, but local Ahmedis convinced them to give them a day to cover them as demolishing them would have damaged the whole structure…

Times are changing when the faithful gather to worship. Across the Southern Tier and northeast Pennsylvania, worship opportunities have morphed from traditional Saturday nights or Sunday mornings for Christians and sundown Friday for those of the Jewish faith.
 Now, jazz musicians connect secular with sacred once a month in a downtown Binghamton church.
 At the end of the weekend, Catholics who miss weekend masses can partake of communion on Sunday night in an Endicott church.
 The faithful from different denominations pray and meditate together as one congregation once a month at a historic church in Montrose.

The street-fighting revolutionaries are not solely a middle class force, nor are they divorced from from the broader Egyptian public.  But they are a minority, and one which is increasingly resented by Hezb al Kanaba, the 'Party of the Couch'.  Hezb al Kanaba is seeking stability, in order to rejuvenate the tourism industry and to allow for economic normality….

Mushir Hassan has been living in Brookfield for 12 years, with two daughters in Elm brook schools and two that aren't yet of school age. He has been active in the community as a volunteer and an internal medicine physician. But recently what has defined his presence in the community is his religion, Islam, and his hope to have a new mosque in his city.
 Hassan is the secretary on the board of directors for the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, which is seeking to build the mosque at 16650 and 16730 W. Pheasant Dr., a short distance northeast of the intersection of Calhoun Road and North Avenue. He is also the project representative to the City of Brookfield.
As fears have surfaced from neighbors about religious extremism and ties to terrorism with the proposal, Hassan has taken on the role of an ambassador, meeting with communities of faith around Brookfield to explain basic concepts of Islam and field questions about the mosque's intentions. ....

Nothing concrete can be stated until Khan takes office and is shown to be able to push for the development issues advocated by his party’s platform.  A comment on PBS’s News Hour may, however address in part his need to maintain reconciliatory links with conservative factions: “We have more radicals in this society. I am considered probably the only nationalist who has credibility here. I’m petrified. If I utter one word, which could be perceived as anti-Islamic or anti-jihad, one word, my life is at risk.”…