Habib Toumi

Israeli youth have reportedly vandalized a mosque with graffiti in Ibtin, a village east of Haifa, on Tuesday night.

“There will be a war over Judea and Samaria,” “price tag” and “this structure is destined for demolition” were the three slogans spray-painted on the mosque walls, Israeli media reported.

The graffiti was discovered by village residents at 4:30 am.

“This is a serious crime that cannot be ignored,” Mohammed Omaria, a village resident who works at the mosque, told Haaretz. “The crime was the result of the recent wave of anti-Arab incitement in Israel.” continue reading…

Centre of Islamic Culture - KAPS Architekci

A three-storey Islamic centre that includes a large mosque is to be built near the centre of Warsaw, the Polish capital.

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the Centre of Islamic Culture, designed by KAPS Architekci, will be located in the close vicinity of the Blue City shopping centre, at the Zeslancow Syberyjskich roundabout just to the west of the city centre.

The building will have an 18-metre high minaret, but the call to prayer will be heard drifting over the city.

“A muezin’s call for prayer will be heard only in a prayer room, not outside,” said Samir Ismail, head of the Muslim League in Poland.

Apart from a prayer room, the centre will consist of a library with a multimedia room, art gallery, restaurant, café and shop. “We will pray there and make Poles aware that Islam is a moderate religion,” Ismail said.  continue reading…

Hassan II Mosque - Morocco

Morocco will soon start training men and women preachers from Bahrain under an accord reached by the two countries.

The preachers will attend workshops on using “moderate and balanced” sermons and speeches in reaching out to people, Manama and Rabat have said.

“They will also be trained on adapting their speeches to the latest developments and changes impacting the region in order to ensure that they are not out of tune with the world,” Fareed Al Meftah, the justice and Islamic affairs undersecretary, said in a statement on Sunday.

Bahraini Sunni religious scholars and Friday preachers, like most of their Arabian Gulf counterparts, are traditionally trained or educated in Egypt, home to Al Azhar, considered as the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam in modern times. Shiites often go to Iran or Iraq to further their studies with senior religious authorities.

Morocco and Tunisia in North Africa have been promoting moderate Islam to confront challenges from radical Islamists, often exposed to influences from the East and to mushrooming television channels. continue reading…

WITH political and cultural chasms widening between Muslim communities in the UK and mainstream British society, there is increasing unease on both sides of the divide. Until about 18 months ago, few heads would have turned when Andleen Razzaq, a London secondary school teacher and member of the Muslim charitable organisation City Circle, walked past Trafalgar Square on her way to the House of Commons.

 Her eastern looks and colourful headscarf were the visible part of Britain’s relaxed celebration of multiculturalism.

 The young woman is, in fact, so pleased with Britain’s multiculturalism that upon hearing about the French banon the wearing of “conspicuous” religious signs, she observed that “this ban by the French government contrasts with the general trend in the UK to look upon different groups as a celebration of Britain’s diversity. I think we can draw strengths from the range of religions and ethnic groups which form our society rather than trying to push everyone towards a mundane sameness”.

 But now, Andleen, like millions of other Britons, feels that a highly perceptible changehas occurred, inexorably forced by pressing questions about the genuine merits of multiculturalism when it is used by radicals as a licence for secession and the status of Muslim communities in Britain.

continue reading…