There can be no question of Israel attacking Iran, or Iran attacking Israel. Any attack against innocent people with no true justification is unlawful according to the Torah. Every Jew who obeys the rulings of the Torah is also obliged to abide by Allah's commandment, “Thou shall not murder.” No matter how much certain circles in Israel favour conflict, bloodshed and disorder and no matter how these circles sometimes prevail, it is obvious that the great majority of Israel will not accept a physical attack on such a large and powerful country as Iran. We know what the real aim is of those who want to set Jews and Muslims against one another, and we have exposed their sinister tricks. So neither Iran nor Israel will fall for them. It is therefore essential for Jews and Muslims who genuinely believe in Allah, who love the Prophets, who

believe in the Books He sent down and who know that the Hereafter exists to form an alliance against irreligion, Darwinism, atheism and materialism. Atheists and Darwinists easily ally themselves around their own beliefs and try to crush believers, whatever their faith, with all their might. It is extraordinary how people who love Allah and want the moral values commanded by Him to prevail are unable to form an alliance while the alliance between Darwinists and materialists seeks to drown the world in blood. When true believers are allied they will obviously totally neutralize those who want war. It is therefore essential that our devout Iranian and Israeli brothers should treat one another with affection, love and understanding and wage a great intellectual struggle against irreligion, materialism and Darwinism using knowledge, science and culture. When that happens, nobody will be able to speak of war, assault, fighting or conflict. ...

I do not believe Israel will choose to do such a thing (attack Iran). True, devout Jews in Israel will not permit such an attack either. Turkey's policy has always been to support justice, the rightful and the innocent. But there is an important phenomenon to be noted here. Dajjal is trying to set Muslims and Jews, who are actually brothers and who are all descended from the Prophet Abraham (AS), against one another. It aims for the destruction of both Jews and Muslims. It is very important to expose the movement of the Dajjal and neutralize it, insha'Allah. -- Harun Yahya

Born in 1955 in the north-eastern Turkish province of Rize, the son of a village religious teacher, Ismail Kara is professor of Turkish intellectual history at the Marmara University Theology Faculty in Istanbul. An editor at Dergah Yayinlari, one of Turkey's most respected publishing houses, Kara is the author of 14 books, including Islamist Thought in Turkey, On Philosophical Language and, more recently, The Issue of Islam in Republican Turkey. Professor Kara spoke with The Majalla in his office at Marmara University, located on the Asia side of Istanbul.
In this interview with The Majalla, Ismail Kara, professor of Turkish intellectual history, speaks about Islam’s relationship with modernity and the state. Professor Kara discusses, among other things, political Islamism and its origins, and the increasing visibility of Islam in Turkey. -- Nicholas Birch
Photo: Ismail Kara

I chanced upon a report about a Muslim woman named Najma Bhangi, a high school teacher in Bijapur. The maulvis of her town had forbidden Muslim women from watching movies by visiting theatre, but this intrepid woman refused to be cowed down and went off to see a film. The enraged maulvis and other men of the town raised a ruckus against her defiance. This story was widely reported on in the media.

Question to Maulvis:

Although I was just recovering from my delivery, I got down to writing an article to express my anger at the way this hapless woman was being treated and sent it to Lankesh Patrika. In the article I asked the maulvis if Muslim women were banned from watching movies, what source of entertainment they considered permissible for them. Did they deserve any entertainment at all or not? Did Islam allow for it or not? If watching films was, as they claimed, bad for Muslim women, was it not equally bad for Muslim men? Why forbid only Muslim women from watching movies and exempt Muslim men? If movies promoted immorality, surely this applied as much to men as it did to women? -- a well-known Kannada writer and a leading social activist from Karnakata Banu Mushtaq tells Yoginder Sikand, in an exclusive interview for New Age Islam.

The Gospel of John is different from the other three gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke all have something in common: they are merely eyewitnesses. But John acts here as a writer drafting a drama like those we know from the ancient Greeks. He developed his storyline with the rigour of classical tragedy. He commences with the words: In the beginning was the word. Jesus plays the role here of a modern person who is open and familiar with the ways of the world. He acts without ideological reservations and is rebellious. His words were: I have not come to rule, but to redeem. -- Abed Azrié

The novel The Proof of the Honey by Syrian author Salwa al-Neimi is celebrated by some as a milestone of modern Arabic literature and condemned by others as scandalous prose. In an interview with Rim Najmi, the author explains that despite the lightness of its literary style, her novel poses fundamental intellectual and political questions. "In itself, writing about supposed taboo themes like sex or religion hardly suffices to qualify as literature, but, at most, merely makes for a topic of conversation," says Salwa al-Neimi

The ulema have a say as far as matters of religion are concerned, but otherwise they are not very influential. As far as north India is concerned, Muslim organizations have done little by way of social work after the Partition, so they have no influence on or utility for most Muslims. What these organisations or tanzeems do is that they capitalize on their liaison with ulema and bargain with political parties. These tanzeems and jamaats you refer to have never been able to deliver anything to Muslims. They survive simply because the Congress or some other ruling party occasionally talks to them for political posturing. During the period of BJP rule, many of these sought to curry favour with it. No one really listens to these jamaats and tanzeems seriously. For many of these, their politics is simply business. -- Salman Khurshid

The Koran says that all men are created by God. When we are talking about sexual orientation, we’re talking about something that is given, like being left-handed, like skin color. We have no choice in it. I think that as long as [homosexual people] do not engage in actions that are considered sinful by the religion, as long as they do not deceive, commit adultery, indulge in pedophilia, commit incest, what’s wrong [with their sexual orientation]? But then people ask, so then they can marry? When we’re talking about Koranic verses, the degree of liberalness is astounding. [The Koran says] marry thy spouse. [The word spouse, which is] zau z in the Koran, can mean a man or a woman. This is extraordinary. The Koran is very liberal. -- Ade Mardiyati

In 1979 in Iran, a religion directly seized power. I always say of myself that I defended and safeguarded my piety against the Islamic Republic, which was not an easy thing to do. I don't get involved – I, as a declared opponent of this republic – in campaigning against Islam or against Christianity. That's not my kind of thing. What has happened now, coupled with the terrorism that is financed and supported by Iran, is a political issue. We have to fight the political version. While Hizbollah is causing such havoc in Lebanon, Jordan is right next door, where a liberal government that maintains good relations with Israel is in power. So it can't be a problem with Islam, but with the structure of the society. Yet some Europeans make this mistake, and condemn Islam – a fatal error! – SAID

The intellectuals were and still are the target of religious zealots, who have a fundamental problem with critical, free thought. They operate on the streets and recruit supporters primarily from the ranks of the uneducated people whom they can manipulate with their doctrine. Writers and artists have long been a thorn in their eye – just think of Nagib Mahfuz, one of the greatest intellectuals of the Arab world.

When several excerpts from his work "The Children of Our Alley" appeared in the newspaper "al-Ahram" in 1959, it was the ultraconservative groups that prevented the preprint of the book. Mahfuz was repeatedly confronted with the accusation of blasphemy and violation of Islam. As a consequence, this book was only published in Arabic in Egypt a few years ago. In 1994, Mahfuz was attacked with a knife in broad daylight by a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. He survived but he was badly injured. You see how long this conflict has already been smouldering in Egypt. I'm just another link in this chain of hostilities. -- Gamal al-Ghitany

I feel like a kid in a sweet shop. Every day in the news there is an Arab, a black, an immigrant, an illegal immigrant, a poor soul … as far back as I can remember. I've never been short of material! And now, we're being forced to listen to a debate about national identity. I could write buckets of songs about it. But I'm ashamed!..

They are installing a white race, creating an anonymous white identity – and it's working. And people say "yes, it's an interesting debate." I can't deny what I feel inside: my disgust with this white race they are suggesting. It's when you hear people like the interior minister Brice Hortefeux talk about Arabs and say "When there's one, that's ok – it's when there are several that it becomes problematic." ----- Magyd Cherfi

Malalai Joya was also called ‘Afghanistan’s most famous woman’, by BBC. However, she hardly grabs headlines in pro-Taliban mainstream Pakistani media even if she is a household name in Afghanistan. Joya shot to fame back in 2003 at the Loya Jirga convened to ratify Afghanistan’s new constitution. Unlike US-sponsored clean-shaven fundamentalists, Joya was not nominated by Karzai but elected by the people of Farah province to represent them at Loya Jirga. She stunned the Loya Jirga and journalists present on the occasion (including Pakistan’s Ahmed Rashid), when she unleashed a three-minute hard-hitting speech exposing the crimes of warlords controlling Loya Jirga. Grey-bearded Sibghatullah Mojadadi, chairing the Loya Jirga, called her an ‘infidel’ and a ‘communist’. Other beards present on the occasion also shouted at her. But before she was silenced by an angry mob of war lords around, she had electrified Afghanistan with her courageous speech. Ahmed Rashid, in his latest book ‘Descent into Chaos’, narrates every detail about Loya Jirga but carefully avoids Joya’s mention. During the course of these three fateful minutes, the course of Joya’s life was also changed. In her native province of Farah, locals wanted her to represent them in elections. -- Farooq Sulehria

Let me cite an instance to clarify this point. In March 2008, the All India Milli Council, of which I am the General Secretary, organised a mammoth convention in Delhi, which was attended by over one hundred thousand people. We discussed various issues related to Muslim educational and economic empowerment, about what both Muslims as well as the state should do about this. We also demanded that the government should set up a judicial commission to investigate cases of terrorism or alleged terrorism involving Muslims in the last fifteen years headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court so that the truth about charges against Muslims being involved in terrorism could be verified. The media did not highlight this or any other demand of ours. Only some non-Muslim papers mentioned the rally, and that too in some remote corner of an inside page, summing it up in just two lines. Urdu media gave full information but national and Hindi media gave very little information. -- Manzoor Alam

On this let me add a point that we tend not to think about. Just as non-Muslim fellow Indians like Teesta and Manisha and many others are struggling for justice to Muslims, we Muslims, too, must raise our voice for, and work for and with, non-Muslims who face similar problems—Dalits, workers, Adivasis, and so on. Our leadership must not remain obsessed with specifically ‘Muslim’ issues, very narrowly defined. We need to wholeheartedly participate in movements on general issues, issues that affect everyone, as well as in the movements of other marginalized people. Only then can we be in a position to give, rather than just take. Only then can we win the respect and regard of others. We can’t keep demanding things and not helping others, or even ourselves. We have to recognize the urgent need to be much more inclusive and open. -- Profesor Akhtarul Wasey

Sufism is authentic Islam, and Islam is a religion of victory. Our Prophet was victorious. Islam offers hope, hope for victory in the end despite all odds. If we lose hope, we lose faith. As the saying goes, loss of hope leads to infidelity. The Prophet explained this maxim beautifully when he said that if one has a sapling in one’s hand and the Day of Judgment is just about to arrive, one must still plant it. That is the spirit of hope in the face of trials that Islam talks about. As a Muslim, I believe that trials come from God. Wahhabism is one such trial, but, in the end, I know we shall triumph over it. -- Sadia Dehlvi

Outspoken film actress and now director Nandita Das is afraid that we’ve begun to be more fearful, and so more unwilling to say what needs to be said. We are living in fearful times, she says, and it’s not just about terrorism – people who would otherwise speak out are now afraid. We are almost tolerating more and more intolerance. We are becoming regressive by the day instead of progressing as a nation. A nation doesn’t progress by the number of billionaires in the country. We need to be really progressive, in giving freedom of thought, expression, and giving space to everyone to live the way they want to live.

In December 2003, Vasundhara Raje became the first woman chief minister of Rajasthan. Now in an election year, she faces perhaps her biggest challenge as administrator and political leader. The May 13 serial blasts that ripped through crowded places in Jaipur have not just announced the advent of terror in Rajasthan. They have also cast the onus on its government and people to keep the peace. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Raje talks about how her government is coping with the fallout of Terror Tuesday, and what needs to be urgently done to frame an all-India response to a common threat.

Head of the foreign relations committee of the JKLF, Raja Muzaffar is a rare Kashmiri leader who has the necessary historical perspective and understanding to analyse events related to Kashmir with objectivity despite his partisan commitments. His columns published mostly in the Urdu Press reveal his insights and are therefore widely read. This columnist got an opportunity to talk to him at length in New York recently. He is based there since 1998. Though he has just suffered bereavement, with another of his nephews having been martyred for the cause of Kashmir, clearly on account of a callous attitude adopted by the Pakistan army towards the Kashmiri youth that demand the independence and reunification of divided parts of Kashmir, Raja Saheb, as this 56-year-old leader is affectionately called, has not lost his sense of balance, writes Sultan Shahin