The Role of Zakat in Building Faith Communities Muslims in minority settings must wake up to the importance of zakat. The payment of zakat is one of the most repeated injunctions of the Holy Qur’an. It is conjoined in importance with the ritual prayer (salat) almost thirty times. God has promised many things in the Qur’an to those who give … Read More

The religion of Islam is based on belief in the One God (who in Arabic is called Allah). It was founded by the Prophet Muhammad (570-632 CE) in the ancient cities of Mecca and Medina, in the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula (known as the Hijaz). God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad the Holy Qur’an, the Sacred Book of … Read More

Genocide and mass murder stem from a complex set of circumstances that collectively legitimizes violence against a specific group. But these circumstances still need to be quite extraordinary. Despite the claims of ethnic or religious ideologues, intergroup harmony has in fact been the norm for most of human history. Yes, group differences on the grounds of ethnicity or religious belief … Read More

The Editorial Staff Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that does not allow women to drive cars. This situation has its roots in the deeply conservative Bedouin culture of the Arabian peninsula. Some Saudi religious scholars have justified the ban by using the argument that allowing women drivers will be a door leading to the possibility of … Read More

The Editorial Staff H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad and the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought co-organized–together with Rev. Prof. Paul S. Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Oxford and Director of Research, Regent’s Park College, Oxford–co-organized a two-day open symposium on ‘Love in Three Abrahamic Religions’ at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, celebrating the fifth year … Read More

The Editorial Staff The International Initiative for the Islamic Integral Professorial Chairs The sciences of traditional Islamic knowledge are very poorly understood in the Islamic World, and taught only in selective, abbreviated versions. Fundamentalism increasingly rules the mosques while secular academic methodologies rule the institutes of learning in the Islamic World. Even in the West, though Muslims have donated hundreds … Read More

The Editorial Staff On Friday 23 September, 2011 at the UN headquarters in New York, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority submitted a request for formal recognition of a Palestinian state along pre-1967 lines. Although this move has the support of most members of the UN, the US vowed to veto it. The statehood bid at the UN has … Read More

The Editorial Staff According to the UN, the Rohingya Muslims are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, and have been described: “among the world’s least wanted”. Living in the state of Rakhine (Arakan) in western Myanmar (Burma), they are a people who nobody wants. The Myanmar government classifies them as stateless Bengali Muslims, and the Bangladesh government … Read More

The Editorial Staff JERUSALEM Since the very beginning of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the holy sites of the Old City of Jerusalem have been under attack, particularly Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, one of Islam’s three holiest sites. The explicit goal of these attacks and violations is to build the ‘third temple’ on the site of Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. Attacks … Read More

The Editorial Staff INTERFAITH While most media coverage of interfaith deals with interfaith conflicts there have been significant progress in interfaith dialogue. Amongst the more prominent projects are the following: A Common Word (ACW) The ACW interfaith initiative celebrated its 5 year anniversary on October 13, 2012. Starting as an open letter from a group of 138 Muslim scholars and … Read More