tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102495302008-12-29T20:23:37.126-05:00Commentaries by Louay Safi on Islamic affairs and issues relating to human rights, social and political reforms, American Muslims, globalization, democracy, and world peace. <br><br> Reader's comments reflect the opinions of their authors alone and are not necessarily those of Louay Safi. Comments containing abusive language maybe edited or removed.<br>Louay Safinoreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-3902571401786996352008-12-29T17:14:00.008-05:002008-12-29T20:01:41.877-05:00

Israel pounded Gaza strip in retaliation for rockets fired at its Southern borders, killing over 280 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more, over half of whom were civilians, and bringing destruction to the already deteriorating Palestinian infrastructure. Israel used F16 bombers against an essentially defenseless population. The greatest weapon in the Palestinian arsenal is inaccurate makeshift

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-41352918593958873212008-07-06T20:03:00.013-04:002008-07-18T00:47:17.356-04:00

Politics is a central aspect of social organization as it represents the activities that aim at coordinating the interests and concerns of citizens. Politics presupposes an agreement on a set of rules to ensure representation of citizens in decision making and governance, and to facilitate peaceful transition of power. In most functional democracies, elected officials are replaced whenever they

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-54817259416415051412008-04-26T22:36:00.010-04:002008-05-04T12:17:28.402-04:00

The conflict in Palestine threatens to destabilize world politics and embolden fundamentalist demands for religiously exclusive political states. The principle of rule of law has suffered immensely under the climate of fear that followed the terrorist attacks on the American homeland on September 11, 2001. Extremists in both the East and the West are working hard to deepen the divide, and turn a

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-18992045667656891362008-02-14T22:17:00.010-05:002008-02-16T18:16:19.208-05:00

Extreme voices in the three religions that claim the monotheist heritage of Prophet Abraham--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--are busy sowing the seeds of confrontation and hate. They have recently taken the advantage of the politically rooted tensions between western and Middle Eastern countries to develop misunderstanding and mistrust among the followers of these religions. Quoting

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-53474185142234930962008-02-10T23:42:00.004-05:002008-09-07T11:43:07.771-04:00

Hijab, the head cover Muslim women wear in keeping with their religious traditions, has become in modern times a politically charged issue in several Muslim countries, and more recently in Europe. In the early eighties, Iran imposed hijab on its female citizens, while Syria banned it from schools during the same period. Syria gradually came to term with hijab, as the number of Syrian women who

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-71886504732190657942008-02-06T23:15:00.000-05:002008-02-12T14:41:55.452-05:00

Civil liberties are always precious for free people, but particularly so during times of turbulence when the future seems uncertain and society struggles to gain its balance and move in the right direction. These are, sadly, times when opportunists try to advance their fortune without regard to other people's rights, bigots hide behind the language of patriotism, and freedom is curtailed in the

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-52874022702912000252008-01-25T23:07:00.001-05:002008-04-26T23:24:55.727-04:00

The Palestinians of Gaza have been under a tight blockade since June 2007 when Hamas consolidated its control over Gaza's security. The blockade, aims at forcing Hamas out of power, has been strongly supported by the Bush administration, and reluctantly by the Mubarak's government in Egypt. After Israel decided to tighten the blockade last week, by cutting the supply of fuel used to generate

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-2710097967707651262007-10-08T10:54:00.000-04:002008-02-07T08:20:59.956-05:00

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr. Amnesty International has embarked on a campaign to close Guantanamo detention facilities, adding an important voice to the rising demands to end Guantanamo disgrace. For years, Americans have been reluctant to criticize the Bush administration's efforts to keep the detention of terrorism suspects outside the purview

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-66853705463655273712007-07-01T18:19:00.000-04:002008-02-07T08:30:59.763-05:00

What would an investigative reporter turned director of a private intelligence operation, who is increasingly obsessed with proving that mainstream Muslim American organizations are radical, do when he fails to find evidence to support his obsession? Human decency and ethical conduct dictate that he give up his obsession and admit that he was wrong. Steve Emerson, the director of the shadowy

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-27863229576942133862007-04-17T20:41:00.000-04:002008-02-07T08:43:02.126-05:00

Building Moderate Muslim Networks is RAND Corporation's second attempt at devising a strategy to help prevent "some Muslim societies [from] falling back even further into patterns of intolerance and violence." And to do that RAND reassigns Caryl Benard, the author of the first report Civil Democratic Islam, to join three more scholars for preparing its new report. The present report makes

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-84592249058457067282007-03-28T00:05:00.005-04:002008-02-23T08:46:20.738-05:00

President Bush reacting to the unearthing of the alleged bombing plot over the Atlantic August 10 remarked: "This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation." On Aug. 7, during a press conference from his ranch in Texas, he said terrorists "try to spread their jihadist message - a message I call ... Islamic radicalism

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-19834548070375268352006-12-01T11:19:00.002-05:002008-02-23T08:56:01.506-05:00

This article is a condensed summary of a more elaborate paper on the question. click here to view the full version.] Blaming Islam for the lack of democratic and scientific developments in Muslim countries is not a new idea but an old enterprise, rooted in the nineteenth and twentieth century European Orientalism. The late Edward Said succeeded, in the 1980s, in unmasking Orientalist notions

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1163355680040455072006-11-12T13:01:00.001-05:002008-02-23T08:58:35.339-05:00

[This article is a condensed summary of a scholarly paper entitled "Reading, Sighting, and Calculating." Please click here to view the full paper] The Fiqh Council of North America's ruling in favor of using astronomical calculations for determining the beginning of the Muslim lunar month provoked a strong response, and the American Muslim community continues to be divided over this issue.

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1158517465203949792006-09-17T14:08:00.003-04:002008-02-23T09:11:54.105-05:00

The recent election of Ingrid Mattson to the presidency of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was received with great enthusiasm by the North American Muslim community and the public at large. Her election was seen as a sign of maturation, and as a vindication of Islam's respect of women's rights and contemporary Muslims' ability to overcome cultural traditions and rise to the level of

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1147118001859669282006-05-08T14:59:00.000-04:002008-01-26T00:25:47.063-05:00

It took a long time before democracy found support in Muslim societies, and continues to be seen today by many in the Muslim world as an alien political system. With few exceptions, Muslim populations have shown little enthusiasm for democratic reforms, even when political leaders and elites are increasingly willing to advocate such reforms. Most recently, Islamists have joined in calling for

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1143760794125972682006-03-30T18:04:00.000-05:002008-02-03T13:21:12.910-05:00

[This article is a summary of a longer paper, whose url is provided below] The issue of apostasy under Islamic Law (shari'ah) brought recently to public attention in the widely publicized case of the conversion of an Afghan citizen raises troubling questions regarding freedom of religion and interfaith relations. The Afghan state's prosecution of an Afghan man who converted to Christianity in

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1139470115507529422006-02-09T01:28:00.000-05:002008-02-03T13:22:22.514-05:00

Freedom of speech is central to both democratic government and human dignity. A society whose people are unable to speak freely and criticize established powers and traditions is doomed to stagnation and servitude. In the absence of critical voices to point out corruption and mismanagement, national wealth would be plundered by those who are trusted to protect public interests. And in the absence

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1135823625139974202005-12-28T20:46:00.002-05:002008-02-06T21:10:07.918-05:00

The Far Right has finally found a clever way to arrest America’s march towards asserting its foundational principles of equality, religious freedom, and the rule of law. Their strategy is to transform the war on terror into a war against Islam and use security needs to subvert constitutional protection. The Far Right draws its ranks from the fringes of the Christian Right and the

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1128472321738813122005-10-04T19:29:00.000-05:002008-01-12T00:54:21.951-05:00

Ramadan is the month of fasting for Muslims the world over. Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse from dawn to dusk for the duration of Ramadan. For some, fasting may appear as a form of deprivation and of bodily exertion. On one level, abstaining from sensual needs and pleasures is indeed a physical experience. But those who stop at the physical aspects of fasting miss

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1126077912215701722005-09-07T02:15:00.000-05:002006-11-25T20:46:45.991-05:00

Three militant neocon pundits spoke vehemently against the Bush administration’s gesture to include American Muslim leaders in discussions on how to deal with the rising tide of anti-Americanism and to restore the level of trust and support the United States enjoyed prior to the missteps the administration took under the neocons’ urging. Frank Gaffney issued a warning to Karen Hughes, the newly

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1122832933521180562005-07-31T12:59:00.000-05:002008-01-12T00:56:19.254-05:00

London terrorist bombings elicited familiar response: Islamic organizations and Muslim communities in Europe and North America condemned the terrorist attacks and stressed the dissonance between the deplorable acts of the terrorists and the humane principles of Islam. Tony Blair paid tribute to the intrinsically peaceful teaching of Islam and reminded his countrymen that the British Muslims are

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1120016593924561872005-06-28T22:34:00.000-05:002008-01-12T00:58:26.156-05:00

The Islamic Social Services Association and Woman in Islam have released a guide underlining a set of principles rooted in Islamic sources that outlines the rights of Muslim women to have full access to the masjid, and calling on Muslim leaders to privilege Islamic principles and values over cultural habits and traditions. The guide is entitled “Women Friendly Mosques and Community Centers:

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1116826521832825022005-05-24T00:32:00.002-05:002008-03-16T18:11:13.997-04:00

Under a tremendous pressure from the White House, the Newsweek finally retracted its story on the desecration of the Qur'an at Guantanamo prison, and apologized for being sloppy in verifying sources. Rather than convincing the world that the interrogators at Guantanamo are innocent of the charges of abusing Islam's holy book, the Newsweek's retraction reinforced the perception that US media is

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1116276407137390402005-05-16T19:00:00.000-05:002008-01-12T01:01:26.694-05:00

Anti-Americanism and Islamophobia share a common denominator: they both serve as a strategic weapon in the war of ideas between Muslim and Western extremists and bigots. On one level, anti-Americanism and Islamophobia stem from ignorance, deception, and misrepresentation. On a deeper level, however, they stem from a very basic human instinct: the will to power unrestrained and undisciplined by

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10249530.post-1114956041444531032005-05-03T18:00:00.000-05:002008-01-12T01:02:36.724-05:00

A moderate is one who is given to moderation in views and practices, and who avoids extravagance and excesses. Moderation is considered a virtue in both ancient philosophy and revealed religions. Greek philosophers regarded moderation as one of four fundamental moral virtues. The Qur’an, which acknowledges the Torah and the Gospel, directs Muslims to seek moderation in religious practices and

Louay Safinoreply@blogger.com6