---

Islam

---

Many independent Muslim schools in England are under threat of closure, according to the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS).

The organisation, which represents almost 100 independent Islamic institutions, said many could not afford to stay open.
» Full Story

In nearly a dozen recent terrorism cases in the United States, Britain and Canada, investigators discovered the suspects had something in common: a devotion to the message of Anwar al-Awlaki, an eloquent Muslim cleric who has turned the Web into a tool for extremist indoctrination.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., on Nov. 5, is only the latest suspect accused of perpetrating or plotting violence to be linked to the cleric.
» Full Story

A group of party girls got more than they bargained for when they were recruited to attend a posh do in Rome on Sunday night. Instead of canapés and cocktails, the 200 young women found themselves being encouraged by Libya’s leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to become Muslims.
» Full Story

In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank funded by the UK’s Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping Al Qaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

For instance, Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals.
» Full Story

The US army psychiatrist, a devout Muslim, who shot dead 13 colleagues at Fort Hood, repeatedly visited a lap dancing club in the days before the massacre.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan;s behaviour in the lead-up to the shooting spree was similar to that of some of the September 11 hijackers.
» Full Story

Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
» Full Story

Jihad is “a religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Koran and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.”

That is how it is described in no lesser source than the Dictionary of Islam, so we should not pretend surprise if Islamic terrorists see their mission in such terms.
» Full Story

An American imam who once led the mosque attended by Nalid Malik Hasan, the man suspected of shooting 13 people dead at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, has said the army major did not seem to be an extremist.

But a former aremy colleague quoted Hasan as saying Muslims should “rise up” and attack Americans in retaliation for the US war in Iraq.
» Full Story

MILAN — An Italian judge says he has convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from a Milan street in a CIA extraordinary rendition, AP reports.

The American suspects — all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents — are being tried in absentia and are considered fugitives.
» Full Story

An epic film about Islam’s Prophet Mohammad backed by the producer of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Matrix” is being planned with the aim of “bridging cultures”.

Movie producer Barrie Osborne told Reuters, “The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam.”
» Full Story

The Dutch are marking the fifth anniversary of the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic, a brutal killing that continues to shape politics in the Netherlands, AP writes.

Watch the movie Van Gogh was murdered for.
» Full Story

A demonstration of Muslim hardliners calling for sharia law to be imposed in Britain was cancelled in London over the weekend amid planned counter-protests by democratic Muslims.

Anjem Choudary, leader of the radical Islamic group Al Muhajiroun, said that organisers of the Islam4UK demo had cancelled the march from the Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square on 31 October 2009 because of security concerns.

The Islamic Society of Britain, which was planning to join other organisations in staging a “dignified, non-violent” counter-demonstration, hailed the cancellation as a “great success”.
» Full Story

A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt entering his second year of prison without charge is being pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for his freedom, his attorneys said.

On Oct. 3, 2008, Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog “Karz El Hob” (“Love Cherries”), was arrested by Egypt’s State Security Investigations (SSI) and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison.

Although police never charged him with any crime, Nazeer has been detained for more than a year under Egypt’s administrative imprisonment law.
» Full Story

A Detroit imam shot and killed Wednesday in a gunfight with federal agents belonged to a Muslim separatist sect led by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, better known as 1960s militant H. Rap Brown, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.

The FBI says the dead man was an imam, or prayer leader, of a local faction of Ummah, a group that seeks to establish an Islamic state within the U.S
» Full Story

Two Chicago men have been charged in what officials said was a plot to attack employees of a Danish newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that offended many Muslims, according to criminal complaints unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.

One of the men had initially targeted a building occupied by the Danish newspaper, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen.
» Full Story

Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on Aug. 1 told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them.

From his jail cell, Naveed Masih told Compass that he and his brother were taken to the Police Training Centre in Choong, where they were kept in illegal detention for 18 days and were tortured “in so many ways ruthlessly and in inhumane ways.”
» Full Story

Fathima Rifqa Bary, the Ohio teenage runaway whose story of Muslim-to-Christianity conversion and charges of family abuse sparked debates about personal freedom, is going back to her home state.

Meanwhile a taped interview has been released in which the girl told Florida investigators about her religious conversion, explained how and why she ended up in Florida and detailed a fearful life with her Muslim family, including the fact she was supposed to be in an arranged marriage.
» Full Story

A couple blackmailed a Muslim girl by threatening to show her family pictures of her in Western dress.

The woman, in her 20s, wore a veil in public in line with her parents’ strict beliefs.

But she changed into a T-shirt and jeans for an “innocent” but secret seaside day trip with Emal Ismaeli and Joanne Richards.

Asylum seeker, Ismaeli 34, and ex-wife Richards, 22, claimed she owed £7,000 they lent during their friendship. They threatened to show the photos to her family and fiancé unless she paid them back, Wolverhampton crown court was told.

The pair, from Lye, West Mids, admitted blackmail. Ismaeli was jailed for 15 months. Richards got 12 months.
» Full Story

A “miracle” baby has brought a kind of mystical hope to people in Russia’s mostly Muslim southern fringe who are increasingly desperate in the face of Islamist violence.

From hunchbacked grandmas to schoolboys, hundreds of pilgrims lined up this week in blazing sunshine to get a glimpse of 9-month-old baby Ali Yakubov, on whose body they say verses from the Koran appear and fade every few days. [video]
» Full Story

Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim, is one of 25 people President Obama tapped to advise him on faith issues. She may have met the president exactly once, but to Muslims, she’s a celebrity — thanks to the headscarf, or hijab, she wears every day.

Muslims everywhere see her voluntary appointment as a backstage pass to the White House. She hears everything from “My father is in jail, and I want you to ask Obama to pardon him” to “I need a visa,” she says.

What Mogahed actually does for the president is work on his faith-based council. They’re supposed to come up with ideas on how the American government can partner with communities and social groups. What she brings to the table is research from her polling of Muslims at her day job with Gallup.

Mogahed says she’s not there to represent Islam.
» Full Story

A Malaysian Islamic court sentenced a Muslim sect leader to 10 years in prison and six lashes of a cane Wednesday for spreading false teachings and claiming to be God’s prophet.

The man claimed he was appointed by God under the same circumstances as the Prophet Muhammad.
» Full Story

Muslim hate preacher Anjem Choudary — considered an ‘extremist nut’ by moderate Muslims — has sparked controversy by asking for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to convert to his faith.

In relation to the upcoming UK elections the extremist also said: “Britain does not need a new leader, it needs a revolution – an Islamic revolution.”
» Full Story

In a letter sent to the Christian community in the northeastern city of Sargodha, Taliban militants said Christians should convert to Islam, pay an Islamic tax imposed on religious minorities, known as ‘Jizya tax’, or leave the country.

If Christians refuse to accept these choices, Christians “will be killed, their property and homes will be burnt to ashes and their women treated as sex slaves,” said the letter.
» Full Story

A hardline Islamist group in Somalia is publicly whipping women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a “deception”, it was claimed yesterday.

Gunmen from al Shabaab have been rounding up any women with a “firm bust” and whipping them, say residents in the capital Mogadishu.

One woman said: “They first introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women’s chests. They are now saying breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.”

The group has also banned movies, football, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings.

The group’s hardline interpretation of Islamic law has shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims.

Naturally Religion News Blog files these type of items under the category, ‘religious insanity.’
» Full Story

Radical Muslim group Islam4UK has launched a campaign to impose sharia law on Britain, starting with a rally in London, according to a report.

The hate group — an offshoot of the banned Al-Mahajiroun extremist sect — says “we have had enough of democracy and man-made law and the depravity of the British culture.”

Tory MP Philip Davies replies, ““The simple solution is for these people to move to a country which already has sharia law.””

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Islamic Society of Britain said: “99.999 per cent of Muslims despise these people. This only serves to fuel racial ­tensions.”
» Full Story

---

Islam Research Resources

---

Our Islam news feed with only items about Islam

Books about Islam

Apologetics Research Resources on Islam

---

Factlet

---

---

Advertisement

---

---

About Religion News Blog

---

Religion News Blog (RNB), published by Apologetics Index, highlights news items and other resources on world religions, cults, religious sects, new religious movements, alternative religions, abusive churches and - to a lesser extent - related issues (e.g. ethics, human rights).

The information is provided for research and educational purposes.

RNB's non-profit news clipping service is used by - among others - Christian apologists, countercult professionals, anticult organizations, cult experts, teachers, religion professionals, reporters and other researchers.

Categories / News Trackers:
Samples of the hundreds of religious news subjects covered in Religion News Blog include (click links for respective news trackers): the Alpha Course, Alternative Healing, Catholic Church, Christianity, Cults, Falun Gong, Hate Groups, Interfaith issues, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism / Mormon Church, Polygamy, Religion Trends, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Unification Church, Wicca / Witchcraft, and many more.
[More info : How to link]

---

Most Read about Islam

---

1. Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam
2. Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV
3. Cartoons editor sent on leave
4. Salman Rushdie is not the problem. Muslims are.
5. Barack Obama's Background Crosses Religious Boundaries
6. Netherlands Islamic community to hit 1 million in 2006
7. Ex-Muslim turns her lens on a taboo
8. John Hagee warns against radical Islam
9. Women protest Sheikh's comments with bikini march
10. The veil is banned in UK hospitals

---

Headlines by Email or RSS

---

RNB's RSS feed | What is this?

Subscribe by Email | What is this?

---

Use Our Headlines

---

Free: Place RNB Headlines on your website! It's easy: just copy and paste