From the category archives:

Religion

Destiny’s Night

by Rakhshanda Jalil

While the entire period of Ramzan is a time of fasting and praying, Shab-e-Qadr or Lailat ul-Qadr is the most blessed of all nights. It falls on a night that no one can pinpoint with any certainty. Yet the faithful who have prayed through the night say that the heart always knows when communion has been reached.

5 comments

Islamic Perspectives Of Inter-Community Relations

by Yoginder Sikand

Islam teaches that all human beings, irrespective of community or race, are children of the same set of primal parents, and, so, are bound together by their common humanity. This basic Islamic teaching stresses the need for consciousness of our common humanity and of us being brothers unto each other.

2 comments

Joint Statement: Pakistani Taliban’s treatment of Sikhs

by Editor

Indian Muslim leaders denounce the Jizya imposed by the Taliban on Sikhs and call it barbaric

1 comment

The Threat Of Political Islam

by Sadia Dehlvi

The trail of terror continues with cricketers as the latest target. The Mumbai and Lahore attacks, public executions and the murder of over a thousand civilians in the Swat valley by Taliban style terrorists are horrifying examples of atrocities committed by militant groups thriving on political Islam.

30 comments

Photo Essay: Girls Madrasa, Hyderabad

by Guest Post

Lakshmi Prabhala is a talented young photographer from the city of Hyderabad. She specialized in portraits and capturing the everyday life of the city. In this photo-essay she clicks some frames at a Girls Madrasa in the city of Hyderabad.

2 comments

Indian Muslims: Moderation And Extremism

by Asghar Ali Engineer

As long as my memory goes I remember Muslims in general and Indian Muslims in particular, have been criticized for being extremists in religious matters and though, the criticism went, there are a few moderate Muslims, they do not take any stand or refuse to stand up and be counted and always, extremists carry the day.

34 comments

Al Jamia Al Islamiya: A Madrasa With a Difference

by Yoginder Sikand

Located at Santhapuram, a township in the Mallapuram district some eighty kilometers from Calicut, the Jamia al-Islamiya is one of the largest Islamic seminaries in Kerala. Established in 1955 by activists associated with the Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e Islami, and considerably expanded since then, the Jamia offers a wide range of courses and seeks to combine Islamic and modern subjects

4 comments

A Crisis Of Faith: 20 Years Of Rushdie Fatwa

by CM Naim

Unfortunately God doesn’t speak to mankind anymore, otherwise I imagine he would give the same reprimand to those who demand Rushdie’s head. For The Satanic Verses may rightfully be seen as a “religious” book, written not out of contempt for the tradition but out of anguish over it.

4 comments

Socially Engaged Islam: A View From Kerala

by Yoginder Sikand

Unlike much of the rest of India, Islamic organizations in Kerala are heavily involved in various forms social activism, not limiting themselves simply to religious education and preaching or to petitioning the government for sops.

2 comments

Muslims Are In India’s Mainstream

by Kaleem Kawaja

The Muslim identity of India is a thoroughly Indian identity, very different from the Islamic identity of other Muslim countries. This unique Indo-Islamic identity has evolved over centuries of intermingling of traditions, culture, religion and social contacts

25 comments

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