SHAFAQNA – In one coer of Kathmandu’s Jame Masjid, a stone’s throw from the former-royal-palace-tued-museum, lies the tomb of Begum Hazrat Mahal – forlo and sho of its past grandeur.

Mahal was the queen of Awadh, a princely state in neighbouring India, and the face of the 1857 rebellion against the British. She fled the Indian city of Lucknow after the revolt was crushed, and the then ruler of Nepal, Jung Bahadur Thapa, who had taken his army to help the British quell the rebellion and plunder the city, offered her asylum.

M Hussain, the secretary of Jame Masjid, says that many of Mahal’s supporters followed her to Nepal.

But Islam had, in fact, been introduced to Nepal long before that.

Kashmiri traders first arrived in Kathmandu in the 15th century on their way to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

Many of them settled in what was then known as Kantipur and now as Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur during the rule of King Ratna Malla.

The 500-year-old Kashmiri Takia mosque, a few hundred yards from the palace in Kathmandu, is a testimony to this history.

“Muslims lived as a silent minority for centuries at the goodwill of the Nepali state,” explains Hussain.

But, in recent years – inspired by the Maoist rebellion that lasted from 1996 until 2006 – they have become more vocal and visible.

“The Maoist rebellion paved the way for their [Muslims] political and cultural rights,” Hussain says, sitting in his small office in the mosque premises.

Muslim festivals were declared public holidays for the first time in 2008 – the year the monarchy was abolished and a democratically elected govement led by Maoists took office.

The tomb of Begam Hazrat Mahal, the queen of Awadh, a former princely state in India [Prabhat R Jha/Al Jazeera]

‘Escape from death’

More than 500km away from Kathmandu, in Banke district, which borders India, green flags with Quranic verses ado Muslim homes to mark the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday – a festival mostly observed by South Asian Muslims.

Such public displays are a reflection of the newly recognised religious and cultural rights of Nepal’s minorities and indigenous groups.

Jame Masjid in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital [Prabhat R Jha/Al Jazeera]

Banke is located in the southe plains, known as the Tarai or Madhes region, which is home to 95 percent of the country’s Muslims.

Unlike their counterparts in the Kathmandu valley, an overwhelming majority of the Muslims in this area are poor and landless. Their political under-representation and negligible presence within the job market is in keeping with the broader marginalisation of the Madhesi population of which they are a part.

Alam Khan, 28, is among the few Muslims who have climbed the economic ladder. Khan is a resident of Nepalgunj in Banke and works for the non-govement organisation THRD Alliance, which campaigns against extra-judicial killings, torture and illegal arrests in the Madhes region.

“Everyone should get rights and [live with] dignity,” Alam says in his tiny office in Nepalgunj’s Rani Talau area.

He was detained by the police for 17 days in 2007 when Madhesis began protesting against the discrimination they experienced.

The Madhesis, who are culturally close to their neighbours on the other side of the border with India, have long complained that the country is economically and politically dominated by upper-caste Nepalis from the hilly parts of the country.

“I was charged with murder and sedition for interviewing an underground Madhesi leader,” explains Khan, who worked as a joualist before joining THRD Alliance.

“They could not prove anything,” he adds.

It was, he says, an “escape from death”.

Now Khan travels to remote parts of Nepal to document extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions.

Despite opposition from his family, he has married a non-Muslim, ethnic Magarwoman.

“When I was in police custody she stood behind me,” he explains. “I decided that I had to marry her.”

Khan says his family has since come to accept his wife, who is now studying to become a nurse.

Muslim festivals were declared public holidays in 2008 [Prabhat R Jha/Al Jazeera]

Educationally disadvantaged

In a country where interfaith and inter-caste marriages are rare, Khan has broken many societal norms and continues to challenge them.

Muslims are one of the country’s most disadvantaged groups, and Muslim women are particularly hard hit.

Only 26 percent of Muslim women in Nepal are literate – the national average for women is 55 percent – while just 12 percent of Muslim girls complete secondary school.

Abdul Rahman, the former chairman of the Nepalgunj Jame Masjid, attributes this, in part, to a perceived incompatibility between some Islamic values and the public school system. “Muslim girls who observe purdah [wearing hijab or niqab] attract attention,” he says. “They [are looked at as though they are] aliens. It’s a mental torture.”

The softly spoken 52-year-old says the govement should either give a “special package [scholarships or financial assistance] to Muslims for their education or give us freedom to educate our kids according to Islamic values”.

There were fewer than 5,000 Muslim graduates and postgraduates in 2011, according to that year’s census.

There were fewer than 5,000 Muslim graduates and postgraduates in 2011, according to that year’s census [Prabhat R Jha/Al Jazeera]

The post-revolutionary democratic govements have acknowledged the conces of the community, and identified madrasas as a possible tool for improving access to education among Muslims.

The madrasa board was formed in 2007 and, for the first time, courses were also made available in Urdu, which is spoken by many of the country’s Muslims.

The govement promised financial aid to registered madrasas on the condition that they would teach science, mathematics, English and Nepali.

The languages spoken by other ethnic groups, such as the Magars and Tamangs, were also recognised. It was in sharp contrast to the time of the monarchy, when only the Nepali language was promoted.

But nearly a decade after the policy was aounced, more than half of the 2,000 madrasas in Nepal have yet to be registered, and those that are complain of inadequate help.

Badre Alam Khan, who runs Aisha Banat, an English medium madrasa for girls, says govement aid has been insufficient.

The madrasa, which opened with six students in 2006, now teaches 406 girls. Others want to join but a lack of infrastructure and teachers means the school caot accept any more students, says Khan.

“We started this madrasa which allows girls to observe purdah. We are imparting mode education along with Islamic education,” explains Talat Parveen, the school’s principal.

Parveen, who is from the Indian city of Gorakhpur but whose husband is from Nepal, believes poverty stops many of the country’s Muslims from pursuing a higher education.

“There is a need for more colleges and schools with quality education,” says the 28-year-old.

“Purdah does not stop you from anything. I [have a] Masters in English literature and [the] niqab did not come in my way.”

Abdul Qawi, a 36-year-old social worker, believes special programmes such as free education, hostels and scholarships are needed to lift Muslims out of poverty. “But this is not being done,” he says.

A wall in a madrasa classroom in Nepalgunj [Prabhat R Jha/Al Jazeera]

A brighter future

Community leaders believe Muslims, who form about 5 percent of Nepal’s 30 million population, are a distinct group.

“Though Muslims live in Madhes their culture is different from other groups,” says Athar Hussain Faruqi, a local leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

“Our identity should be different on the basis of culture, language, economic activity,” Faruqi adds.

The country’s new constitution, which came into effect in 2015, includes Muslims for the first time, adding them to a list of marginalised groups.

The constitution also ensures a job quota for Muslims, who currently fill less than 1 percent of civil service positions.

Many Muslims are feeling positive about what the future may hold. Nepalgunj, which has the largest Muslim population of any of Nepal’s cities, boasts a Muslim community radio station, schools and charitable organisations all run by the minority community.

Faruqi is upbeat about the prospects of Muslims in Nepal.

“Eid has been declared holiday, [the] Muslim Commission and [the] madrasa board have been formed,” says Faruqi, adding that his party, which is part of the current coalition govement, will continue to fight for greater rights for the Muslims of Nepal.

SHAFAQNA – Muslim students might just be facing the hardest challenge of their lives, Islamophobia in schools. A prime example is Bayan Zehlif, the Califoia student who was identified with the name “Isis Philips,” instead of her real name in the yearbook last week.

She received her senior high school yearbook only to find that she had been labelled as one of the most reprehensible groups in the world, ISIS.

“The school reached out to me and had the audacity to say that this was a typo. I beg to differ, let’s be real,” Zehlif said.

She explained at the Council on American Islamic Relations press conference that she had heard other anti-Muslim Idea made at the school in the past to make her think it was not a mistake.

One student had posted on Twitter that “all Muslims are terrorists.” On the aiversary of 9/11, one of Zehlif’s teachers said that “the people who caused 9/11 shouldn’t be here today.”

However, Zehlif explains that she received support from fellow classmates, but still feels targeted, adding, “Seeing my schoolmates hate me hurts a lot.”

Muslim students bullied for their faith has become a norm in America. In 2015, after surveying over 600 Muslim students, Califoia’s CAIR chapter found that 55 percent had been bullied for being Muslim, which is twice the number of students who report being bullied on a national basis, and 20 percent had experienced discrimination by a school staff member.

“This disparity is a reflection of how Islamophobic rhetoric by certain media and public figures has become normalized in our society,” Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR’s Los Angeles Office, explained in an interview with The Daily Beast.

Muslim students facing Islamophobia in schools has become so severe that local Muslim organizations are holding a “combatting anti-Muslim bigotry” youth conference in Philadelphia on Saturday.

SHAFAQNA – Two thousand poor and deprived people from seven provinces of the country visited Mashhad and Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (A.S.), on the eve of birth aiversary of Hazrat Ali Akbar (A.S.) and in the second phase of a plan known as “Pilgrims of Imam Reza (A.S.)”.

Concurrent with the tenth day of holy month of Sha’aban, two thousand poor people from Yazd, Semnan, Kerman, Golestan, Mazandaran, Gilan, and South Khorasan provinces who had not visited Razavi Holy Shrine went on the pilgrimage of Imam Reza’s (A.S.) Shrine in a plan known as “Pilgrims of Imam Reza (A.S.)”, coordinating by Astan Quds Razavi.

In this ceremony, Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Reza Ali Azizi talked about the great status of Razavi pilgrims and stated, “Visiting Imam Reza’s (A.S.) Holy Shrine is so great and significant that all the infallible Imams (A.S.) have highly recommended the Shi’ites to visit this Holy Shrine”.

He continued, “Also, in many traditions the reward of visiting Imam Reza’s (A.S.) shrine has been considered equal to the reward of one thousand Hajj pilgrimage and all these represent the high and great position of Imam Reza (A.S.)”.

In continuation of his speech, Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Azizi referred to Imam Reza’s (A.S.) letter to Hazrat Abd al-Azim Hasani and said, “ In this letter, Imam Reza (A.S.) says, “ Give my best greetings to all the devotees and Shi’ites”, what is more valuable than Immaculate Imam’s (A.S.) greetings for us, indeed?”

Elsewhere in his remarks, he talked about the virtues of “Salavat” and said, “God’s blessings means reciting peace and mercy for the Prophet (S.A.W.) and his family and this recitation spread the spiritual status of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) and his descendants (A.S.) among people. When angels and faithful people recite Salavat they want Allah to send mercy and forgiveness and it is a reason for the fulfillment of prayers”.

At the end of his talk, he introduced Imam Reza’s (A.S.) Holy Shrine as a place for the fulfillment of prayers and wanted all the audience not to forget Shi’ites of Iraq and Syria and also Imam Mahdi’s (A.S.) reappearance in their prayers”.

It is worth mentioning that holding birth celebrations of Hazrat Ali Akbar (A.S.), various cultural and religious programs, elegy recitations, and giving tokens of Razavi banquet hall were some of the provisioned programs for these first-pilgrimage people.

© Robert Galbraith © Robert Galbraith / Reuters

SHAFAQNA- Email addresses and passwords for over 100 million LinkedIn members have been put up for sale on the Darknet by the same hacker who stole the data from the site in 2012.

SHAFAQNA – Plans by the govement aounced in today’s Queen’s Speech to introduce a new law against non-violent extremism represent a direct attack on civil liberties and Britain’s Muslim communities.

The Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill envisages introducing a new civil order regime such as ASBO’s to restrict so-called extremist activity. However it is reported that the bill is still far from ready to be introduced to Parliament because the govement is struggling to come up with a legally robust definition of extremism that will withstand the first legal challenge on freedom of speech grounds from those it seeks to ban.

Currently the govement defines extremism as “the vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”. It is so wide that it is capable of ensnaring terrorist sympathisers but also those who oppose the govement or hold conservative views such as or disapproval of abortion or same-sex marriage.

The difficulty experienced by the govement in drawing up a watertight definition highlights the obvious dangers of criminalising what people think and say, particularly in relation to what it calls non-violent extremism. All kinds of illiberal views could be deemed extremist. To prosecute those holding them is clearly interfering with their right to freedom of belief and speech.

The bill also proposes introducing new powers of intervention to tackle the so-called radicalisation of children in “unregulated education settings”. This effectively means govement oversight of the Muslim religious education sector dominated by after-school madrasas. Quite how the madrasa sector is breeding extremists has never been shown but the govement seems intent on reining in their independence regardless.

The proposals confirm our view that that far from being driven by a desire to fight terrorism, anti-terrorism policy is part of a wider social engineering exercise designed to control and shape Islam and Muslims in Britain.

They will add to an ever-growing body of laws that while presented as colourblind are clearly directed at Britain’s Muslims with the aim of dragging them kicking and screaming to the altar of liberal and pro-govement views.

It appears that the govement has wilfully ignored the conces of human rights officials and activists in drafting the bill. Last April on a visit to the UK, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Assembly said that Britain’s anti-terrorism policies were counter-productive, undermining democracy and victimising the Muslim community. Maina Kiai criticised the ever-widening PREVENT strategy for its Orwellian impact on free speech and its adverse effect on Britain’s Muslim minority.

IHRC views current anti-terrorism policy as Islamophobic since it rests on the assumption that by dint of their faith all Muslims are potential terrorists who must be steered off that course by the state.

IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh said: “The govement caot use the pretext of protecting our British way of life by bringing in legislation that actually undermines British values such as freedom of belief and expression in an unprecedented maer. The civil penalties being proposed also undermine the rule of law. If someone is suspected of committing a crime they should be dealt with according to the law, not chaelled down a track that bypasses due process.”

SHAFAQNA – The US Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would allow victims of the 9/11 terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, defying vocal opposition from the White House.

“This bill is very near and dear to my heart as a New Yorker because it would allow the victims of 9/11 to pursue some small measure of justice,” New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said Tuesday. “[This is] another example of the [John] Coyn-Schumer collaboration, which works pretty well around here.”

The Republican-controlled upper chamber unanimously voted for the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would allow any victim or surviving family members of a terrorist attack on the US soil to take legal action against the foreign nation-states behind the measure.

US President Barack Obama has already said he would veto the measure over security conces, but Schumer (pictured below) shrugged off the threat, saying a veto would easily be overwritten.

“I think we easily get the two-thirds override if the president should veto,” he said. “Today the Senate has spoken loudly and unanimously that the families of victims of terrorist attacks should be able to hold the perpetrators, even if it’s a country, a nation, accountable.”

White House press secretary Josh Eaest reacted to the approval, reiterating Obama’s position on the measure.

“Given the conces we have expressed, it’s difficult to imagine the president signing this legislation,” Eaest said.“This legislation would change longstanding inteational law regarding sovereign immunity, and the president of the United States continues to harbor serious conces.”

The bill has already gained support from the US House of Representatives, where it will head to next although Speaker Paul Ryan has voiced skepticism.

“I think we need to look at it,” Ryan told reporters last month. “I think we need to review it to make sure we are not making mistakes with our allies and we’re not catching people in this that shouldn’t be caught up in this.”

The bipartisan measure does not recognize the White House’s conce that it may undermine the US national Security.

“Look, if the Saudis did not participate in this terrorism, they have nothing to fear about going to court,” Schumer said. “If they did, they should be held accountable.”

The Saudis’ role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which left nearly 3,000 people dead, has recently been highlighted in the backdrop of partisan rows in the US political system.

Riyadh also fears possible release of 28 pages of a congressional report, kept secret so far, that implicates their govement in the attacks.

SHAFAQNA – A mosque in Geelong, 75km south of Melboue, Victoria, was destroyed in a suspicious fire on Wednesday moing.

Police say the fire was reported at 2.15am after a nearby resident heard a loud bang. The resident went to investigate and saw the mosque alight.

“At this stage it appears the fire is suspicious and a crime scene has been established,” Sen Const Julie-Ae Newman said. “No one was injured.”

Newman said the arson chemist retued to the site with detectives later on Tuesday.

Two weeks ago a Greek Orthodox church in East Melboue, the oldest in Australia, was damaged in what was also believed to be a suspicious fire.

There have also been four church fires in the Geelong area in the past six months.

The Country Fire Authority said they did not know if the fires were coected.

The mosque, on Bostock Avenue, is housed in an old bluestone church, but has operated as a mosque for 23 years.

Shaykh Mohammad Ramzan, the iman of the Geelong mosque, said that he was in “disbelief and shock”. He and his family live in the adjacent house but escaped unharmed.

Ramzan said the mosque had not had any threats in the past.

“In the last 23 years, and I am here from the last four years, we have never ever had any threat, any letter, any phone call, which says anything bad about the mosque or the muslim community,” he said. “It’s a very peaceful and nice area and community.”

He said the Islamic Council of Geelong would rebuild the mosque, and would not be deterred even if the mosque had been deliberately targeted.

“Our community is very peaceful and we will remain peaceful and we will show patience and tolerance and we will take it as something not done by the community with any purpose,” he said. “It could be something done by someone who wants us to be divided … we will not play into the hand of anyone who has such a bad intention.”

A spokesman for the CFA said the fire had spread throughout the building by the time firefighters arrived, and could not be controlled. It took an hour to contain.

“There were a couple of conces with the structure potentially falling down so we didn’t put crews inside the building,” CFA officer Mark Sinkinson told the ABC. “The roof had completely fallen in anyway.”

Video of the fire, posted on Facebook, showed flames pouring out of the roof.

Inspector Graham Banks, from Geelong police, said that most of the churches targeted in suspected arson attacks had been of various Christian denominations, and police were not ruling out the possibility that the mosque had been targeted in a case of mistaken identity.

Banks said that some neighbours didn’t know the building was a mosque.

SHAFAQNA – In a move expected to increase the number of Muslim students in British universities, the UK govement has approved new charitable Shari’ah-complaint loans for Muslim students to increase diversity in campuses.

“We will introduce an alteative finance system to support the participation of students who, for religious reasons, might feel unable to take on interest-bearing loans,” the White Paper was quoted by The Telegraph on Tuesday, May 17.

“We have heard that some students will not access higher education in these circumstances, some will access higher education and use loans but will be troubled by their situation, and others will restrict their choice of course or institution to try to minimize the sums involved.

“To ensure participation and choice are open to all, we plan to legislate for the creation of an alteative model of student finance.”

This white paper sets out our plans for the next 5 years, building on and extending our reforms to achieve educational excellence everywhere.

The new “Takaful” model would allow students to make payments to a communal pot that would then benefit future students wanting to go to university.

The idea of the loans was suggested by Dr Samir Alamad a member of the Shari`ah Supervisory Committee.

“In the Islamic faith there is a strong prohibition against dealing with any sort of interest in any sort of financial transactions,” he said.

Under the usual arrangements, students repay their loans to the Govement when they start eaing £21,000 and pay an interest of 3 per cent or more depending on their eaings.

However, under the alteative finance arrangements, Muslim students would pay an “agency fee” of 3 per cent or more depending on eaings and the money they pay into the fund constitutes a “charitable contribution”.

Dr Alamad addressed conces that this fund might just be a change in names, saying: “This is different. People pay back to the fund so future students can benefit from it rather than paying back to the Treasury. It’s about giving back to the community.”

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.7 million.

There are 400,000 Muslim students in British schools, according to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

There are nearly 90,000 Muslim students studying in higher education institutions.

Islam forbids Muslims from receiving or paying interest on loans.

Introducing the Shari`ah compliant loans, would change minds of many Muslim students who decided earlier not to join universities due to the loan interest, according to the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS).

SHAFAQNA – Worshipping Allah side by side, the Muslim community in Northe Ireland has overcome ethnic and sectarian divisions, offering a role model to Muslims worldwide.

“When we started, in the main, Friday prayer time, we only had about 30 or 40 people,” Javaid, one of the founders of the Northe Ireland Muslim Family Association (NIMFA), said in a report that will be aired on Tuesday, May 17.

NIMFA, a group formed in 2002, now hosts about 400 worshipers in its modest building.

The place in south Belfast has become the hub for one of Northe Ireland’s fastest growing communities.

In Northe Ireland, people from all denominations of Islam worship side by side.

Every Friday, Javaid office undergoes a transformation ahead of weekly prayers.

Worshipers come from dozens of countries, from Nigeria to Pakistan, varying in ethnicities and sects.

“We have to put the chairs on the table and sheets on the floor so people can pray here as well,” he said.

There are about 1.5 billion Muslims and the vast majority are Sui, who regard themselves as the orthodox branch of Islam.

Countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have some of the largest populations.

Shiites share many fundamental beliefs and practices but differ in parts of theology.

Places like Iran and Iraq have Shiites majorities.

In NIMFA, women play an active role to correct image of Islam.

Though working side by side with men, they separate to offer prayers at a separate room.

“We pray in rows quite close to one another…we bow down in prostration with our head on the ground,” Brenda, who converted from Catholicism to Islam in her early 20s and plays an active role in NIMFA, said.

She added that she believed it would be difficult and uncomfortable for women to do this in close proximity to men.

Reverting to Islam did not cause any problems with her family.

“I haven’t been excommunicated, I haven’t been disowned. We remain a close-knit family but with different values and beliefs but even in a Muslim family…that clash and conflict can happen,” she said.

Dr Wesam Elbaz, a professor of medicine in Cairo before moving to Northe Ireland for family reasons, and works now a consultant in microbiology at Belfast’s City Hospital, rejects claims that Islam is oppressive to women.

“You are trying to stereotype Muslim women… a lovely woman behind a veil, voiceless, powerless, dependent on other people.

“All that she knows in life is marriage and having children. This is not reality.”

SHAFAQNA- Heartiest congratulations to you all on a very auspicious day commemorated as Day of Youths. It is the day that is celebrated every year in the Islamic Republic of Iran as the Day of the Virtuous Youths, for it was on this day on the 11th of the month of Sha’ban that God had granted the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS), with a meritorious son, who bore a striking resemblance to his grandfather, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in both appearance and, as he grew up, in excellence of character. If you are ready we have prepared a special feature for you in this regard as motivation for all virtuous youths, please stay with us.
“That is the good news Allah gives to His servants who have faith and do righteous deeds! Say (O Prophet to mankind), ‘I do not ask you any reward for it (enlightening minds with Islam) except love of [my] nearest of kin…”
What you heard was ayah 23 of Surah Shura, which is a clear commandment of God Almighty for all those claiming to be Muslims. It explicitly states that the token of their gratitude towards Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) for delivering them from the darkness of ignorance, idolatry, oppression, and all sorts of vices, is their love and affection for his immediate family. In other words, it is an article of faith to adhere to the path of the Prophet’s immaculate blood-kin or progeny, whom God calls the Ahl al-Bayt and vouches their purity in ayah 33 of Surah Ahzaab with the words: “Allah desires to keep away uncleaess from you Ahl al-Bayt and preserve you spotlessly pure.”
Thus, to remove any doubts as to the identity of his Ahl al-Bayt, the Prophet has said without mincing words: “I am leaving behind among you the Thaqalayn (two invaluable things), the Book of Allah (Qur’an) and my progeny (Itrati) the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will never go astray, for the two will never separate even when they retu to me at the Pond (of Kowthar on Judgement Day).”
The hadith that we presented to you has been widely quoted by all denominations of Islam including the famous Sui compilation called Sahih Muslim, although in some later works by certain denominations of Islam, the word Itrati (or my Progeny) has been replaced by Suati, which means my practice and behaviour. Scholars, both Shi’ite and Suis, have thoroughly scrutinized this hadith and reached the conclusion after checking the isnaad, that is, the chain of transmitters that the original word is definitely Itrati, since there is no doubt or dispute conceing the progeny of the Prophet, in contrast to his behaviour and practice that has unfortunately been subjected — either intentionally or unintentionally – to contradictory interpretation on what actually he meant and how he prayed. All ulema, however, are unanimous that the Prophet’s love and affection for his daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra, her husband Imam Ali, and their sons Imam Hasan and Imam Husain (peace upon them), along with the commandment for all Muslims to revere his Ahl al-Bayt, was an unquestionable, indisputable and inseparable part of his Suah. We are indeed indebted to auspicious Sha’ban for taking up this lively discourse, especially since today happens to be the 11th of this blessed month, the day on which the Prophet’s younger grandson was blessed with a radiant son who bore a striking resemblance to the Almighty’s Last Messenger to mankind.
Named Ali, in honour of his Infallible Grandfather, Imam Ali (AS), his gait, voice and eloquent maer of speech brought memories of the Prophet to the people of Medina, Mecca and elsewhere. It is irrelevant here whether he was bo in 33 AH and called Ali al-Akbar (Ali the Elder), as some claim, or was bo in 42 AH and called Ali al-Asghar (Ali the Younger), as others state – the Elder Ali actually being Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) while the 6-month infant martyr of Karbala was named Abdullah. What is important, however, is his presence in Karbala on the fateful day of Ashura or 10th Moharram in the year 61 AH that definitely drew the line between Muslims and infidels. It was for this reason that while sending his youthful son to the battlefield, Imam Husain (AS) held God as Witness, saying he was now offering as sacrifice a person who was the carbon copy of the Prophet. The Imam added: “Whenever we missed seeing Your Prophet, we would look at him.”
Then he recited ayah 34 of Surah Aal-e Imran of the Qur’anic ayah: “Indeed Allah chose Adam and Noah, and the progeny of Abraham and the progeny of Imran above all the nations.”
Irrespective of the fact that the “Imran” mentioned in this ayah could be Abu Taleb – that is, Prophet Mohammad’s uncle and the pateal ancestor of his progeny the Ahl al-Bayt – and certainly not the father of the Virgin Mary, since Prophet Jesus did not leave any issue behind, the question which arises is that: Was Murrah bin Munqadh who pierced the chest of the youthful Ali in Karbala with a spear and then cruelly twisted the blade inside the body, a believer in Islam? Moreover, could Yazid and his hordes who most brutally massacred the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, be considered Muslims? Still, was the system called caliphate that brought the Godless Omayyads to power, Islamic? And last but not the least, shouldn’t we Muslims, not just for the sake of the ummah’s unity in this mode scientific era but for the course of our souls in afterlife, including the eventual meeting with the Prophet who will surely question us about the Thaqalayn on the Day of Judgement, summon the courage of faith to scrutinize the scandalous event of Saqifa Bani Sa’da and the blood of the Ahl al-Bayt it spilled when the victor of this dubious event led a gang of rogues to batter down the door of the house on the Prophet’s daughter Fatema Zahra (peace upon her), thereby breaking her ribs and causing the martyrdom of the stillbo Mohsin?
These are points to ponder as we celebrate the Day of Youth in the Islamic Republic of Iran on the occasion of the auspicious birthday of the Immortal Youth of Karbala, who bore striking resemblance to his great-grandfather, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and who thus introduced himself to his foes: “I am Ali, the son of Husain, the son of Ali, “By the House of God, we are those with the Prophet righteously, “By God, the son of a spurious son, will not judge us, “I will strike with the blow of a Hashemi, a Quraishi.
Here we present a homage in rhyme to Hazrat Ali Akbar as composed by Iran’s English language poet, Dr. Hassan Najafi: “The pious youth whenever was seen In decent dress, and apparel clean, In your name virtuous love fires every breast Your fate makes us mute awhile and suddenly distressed; Oh, let me fly a land that honours the brave Where he is buried there shall be my grave.
I seek Karbala’s land though in hospital be coast This youth’s grave there to me will host.
He reminds of the Prophet when struck the sight For his resemblance eyes towards him took a rapid flight.
Redress the clime and all its rage disarm You inherited from the Prophet the charm.
You calm and bred in the prophetic toil Befitted to martyrdom in the blood’s soil, You, a zephyr that soothes Husain’s breast; The spring of his hopes, and aspirations in you rest.
Of all the gentler morals he was a display– In him the cultured walk and he the charm of the way, Your birth fuishes us a feast Stretching north, south, west, east, In your love to be chained, we are so decreed The heart, once caught, can’t be freed.
In your person beauty lavishes its powers Your eighteen springs carry no fading flowers.
In your name is most sought aid It is an active light and in it a thoughtful shade.
Your personality is indeed a glorious blaze Grant us eyes worthy to gaze.

Source: Imamreza.net

SHAFAQNA – This May Shafaqna had the privilege of interviewing several Houthi leaders and high ranking military officers, among whom Mohammad Abdulsalam, the group’s spokesperson. Our aim was to paint a clearer picture from the ground up. For all the coverage the Weste press has volunteered over the past year, too many misconceptions remain as to why the Houthis are fighting the Saudis, and what Riyadh stands to gain from bombing Yemen into a stupor.

Yemen’s war the Saudis have claimed has been a war fought in the name of political restoration, and institutional legitimacy. Truth is Yemen’s has been a war of colonialization – a war which has been fought and waged to promote imperial powers’ interests in Southe Arabia.

In this grand struggle for territorial and political independence the Houthis of Yemen have risen themselves the custodian of Yemen’s popular will – the last rampart before complete abdication.

Shafaqna conducted a series of interview with Yemeni officials to offer readers a better understanding of the situation.

SHAFAQNA to General Ali al-Ahmed – General, you formerly served under Gen. Ahmed Ali Saleh in Yemen’s elite corps: the Republican Guards. As a military man, and an officer how do you assess today’s military quagmire?

Gen. al-Ahmed – Let me begin to say that Saudi Arabia does not have the upper hand in Yemen … not even the south which the Saudi-led coalition claimed to have under its control, is what you can qualify as peaceful. By waging war at Yemen, Riyadh has reignited those tensions and those tribal lay lines President Ali Abdullah Saleh had managed to bring under his authority. Even if we claim victory tomorrow Yemen will have a long road to travel on before it can call itself a nation-state again. Politics aside I would say that Saudi Arabia’s main goal in Yemen has always been to destroy Yemen’s military power. President Saleh is a military man who understands the importance of a strong military to support, and lead a strong nation. Riyadh has no real army, no real military power safe from the one it has bought out. Yemen in that sense posed a threat too great for the kingdom to ignore, and so war was declared.

SHAFAQNA – Can there be peace then?

Gen. al-Ahmed – There will be peace of course … wars do not last forever, but it will not be the peace many might expect. It will not be a peace where you have a clear wier and a clear loser. Alliances are much too intertwined and overlapping for peace to be a simple diplomatic, or even political exercise. I worry the people will pay the price, while officials get to divide power and Yemen’s wealth. I’m old … I see things differently those days. I see how the Yemenis were betrayed by their officials and how Yemen here has a chance to reclaim its future.

SHAFAQNA to Mohammad Abdelsalam – Peace talks have stalled again and again, why that is and what to the Saudis expect from such negotiations?

Mohammad Abdelsalam – you might need to ask them this! I’m not sure they do know what they want at times as they often go back on their words and promises. Yemen is complicated, many divergent interests are tugging and pulling, and this has prevented a breakthrough to happen. And then of course the Houthis have several red lines … the surrendering of weapons and withdrawal back to Sa’ada.

SHAFAQNA – Can you tell us about the retu of al-Qaeda in Yemen and America’s involvement in the war?

Mohammad Abdelsalam – When you say al-Qaeda I say Saudi-bought mercenaries … Riyadh wants to destabilize Yemen by using terror. There’s nothing new there but it’s the way the media have talked about it which is very hypocritical. And then of course there are the Americans and their arrival in Yemen – this is a violation of Yemen’s national sovereignty. There is no other way to look at it. The US is in violation of inteational law.

Yemen stands against a coalition of super-powers. Still we have resisted and we have pushed back. Historically Yemen was never invaded. We intend to keep it that way.

SHAFAQNA to Amr Hamza (political analyst) – What do you make of the presence of radical militants in South Yemen?

Amr Hamza – Radicals … when you use the word radicals those days you could be talking a lot of different people. It’s really a question of perspective. You have Saudi Arabia’s takfirist, and then you have bought mercenaries, and then you have US black ops operatives. They are all more or less working towards the same goals – destabilizing Yemen to forward their agenda. The problem of course is that many people have many different agendas.

Yemen is facing a problem far bigger than this war. It is the politics behind the war which worry me more than the war itself.

SHAFAQNA – The UK has 3.9 million residents who are living in “persistent poverty,” a new study shows, underscoring the country’s precarious nature of work.

The latest data was released Monday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which also said one in three people in the UK has experienced poverty in recent years.

The report shows that there is a preponderance of low-paying and low-skilled jobs, which means many families are suffering severe hardship.

The ONS defines persistent poverty in reference to those making a relative low income in the current year and have been doing so in at least two out of the three preceding years.

The overall poverty rate increased from 15.9 percent in 2013 to 16.8 percent in 2014, the report added.

“The ONS figures lay bare the true scale of the challenge if an ‘all-out assault on poverty’ is to be successful,” said Julia Unwin, the chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a British social policy research and development charity.

“The govement has been taking steps to secure a more prosperous society with lower levels of poverty. But these alone are not enough to provide a route out of hardship and fulfill [British Prime Minister] David Cameron’s pledge to truly transform the life chances of the country’s worst off people and places,” Unwin said.

Cameron said “an all-out assault on poverty” would be the focus of his second term tenure, but he has been under criticism for making changes to benefits that risk increasing working poverty.

The new report shows that 7.8% of the UK population entered poverty for the first time between 2010 and 2013.

“In the UK, the chances of getting into poverty are relatively high, but the chances of getting out of poverty are also high,” the ONS said

According to the ONS, the UK overall poverty rate is quite high compared to the rest of the European Union. Britain falls just under the EU average poverty rate with 16.8 percent of the population at risk.

The report noted that the UK’s overall poverty rate stood at 16.8% in 2014, the 12th highest in the EU.

SHAFAQNA – Before I delve into the serious matter which is women rights in Saudi Arabia – or rather the lack of … I would like to make abundantly clear to readers that my anger … even though justified, is not aimed at Saudi Arabians, but the regime which claims to represent them.

A violent and reactionary theocracy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has leaned on both the monarchy – as represented by the House of Saud, and its Wahhabi clergy – as represented by the descendants of Muhammed ibn Abdul Wahhab: the founding-father of the kingdom’s state religion, Wahhabism.

Although Wahhabism has often been presented as a puritanical interpretation of Islam – the only unadulterated expression of the Words of God, I would imagine that the decades of abuses against religious minorities, and the Terror which rose from its clerics’ lips long ago put to rest any misconceptions the public may have harboured vis a vis Saudi Arabia. Islam I’m afraid does not sit in Riyadh … it is its antithesis rather which has grabbed hold of the Hejaz – the very land which witness the walk of the last prophet of God.

Wahhabism I will say it again neither speaks for Islam, nor does it represent the people of Islam. Note that I used the word people of Islam, as opposed to Muslims … there are in fact many people, and nations within Islam, each to their kind, and each to their traditions, and customs. Islam speaks for pluralism, tolerance, and justice. Wahhabism only spoke bloodshed and colonialism …

Islam I need once more to assert does not deny Christianity or Judaism. Islam is together Christianity and Judaism, in that it embraces, and affirms those Truths which are expressed in the Book – Islam as the prophet said himself came as a reaffirmation, a completion and a correction on which had been lost and/or perverted by the greedy. Islam did not simply replace the Scriptures, it transcended them to offer God’s most direct message: The Holy Quran.

Let me know go back to the matter at hands: women in Saudi Arabia.

Where Islam has celebrated women, and honoured their status to the extent where the Heavens have been laid down at the feet of mothers, Wahhabism has systematically worked to undermine, deny, disappear and reject women’s rights – reducing them to mere commodities, things to be traded off and objectified.

Women in Saudi Arabia live at the mercy of a system which recognizes not even their humanity … women under Wahhabism can claim to nothing but the crumbs men would concede them. Women in Saudi Arabia are not even that … women – they are but shadows standing in the shadows of men.

While few would dare deny Saudi Arabia’s extreme chauvinism, the kingdom stepped into the morbidly despicable when it publicly institutionalized the systematic persecution of women: both physically and spiritually, by offering a tutorial on how best to beat your wives.

Yes you read correctly, Weste capitals’ most loyal partner, this shining beacon of political stability and wealth just issued an “how to correctly beat your wives” to its male population, and not one Weste official has dared blinked at the mention. As the old adage goes: silence is compliance.

Silence in this particular case could equate to a crime against humanity. But then again the kingdom has become a grand master in this field. In between Yemen, and Bahrain where al-Saud’s genocidal hands have been most visible, and Riyadh’s covert terror games in Syria, and Iraq, I would say that there is no atrocities the kingdom will refrain from committing.

Allow me to summarize Wahhabist Saudi Arabia’s view of women by borrowing the words of its most senior cleric: Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh (you will be interested to know that al-Sheikh is a descendant of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab.

“Driving is a dangerous matter which exposes women to evil … 10 year-old girls can marry due to good upbringing …Our mothers and our grandmothers married when they were 12.”

Islam does not in any way, shape or form condones such aberrations. Islam does not institutionalize paedophilia, and certainly does not call for women to be oppressed by over-zealous bigot whose understanding of the Scriptures end at their desire to wield power over men. Before anyone throws at me that the Prophet Muhammad, himself married a young girl: Aisha, and thus set the tone for Saudi Arabia’s abuses, I will refer you to the book of Dr John Andrew Morrow: The Covenants Of The Prophet Muhammad With The Christians Of The World. There, Dr Morrow, a prominent scholar, demonstrates, evidences in hand that Aisha, one of the wives of the prophet Muhammad was in fact a grown woman when she married. She was not 9 years-old as many have claimed, nor was she forced into wedlock. If Wahhabis have been keen to perpetuate this lie it is really to justify, and somewhat legitimize their own psychosis – as for non-Muslims it has comforted them in their hatred for all things Islamic. It is easier to hate out of ignorance then to actually seek truths, and stand to be corrected.

But back to Saudi Arabia and its clergy’s lesson in bestiality.

“The national television of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has aired a video, in which a self-styled Islamic family doctor is seen teaching men in the country how to ‘properly’ beat their wives. The video is believed to have been aired in the country in early February, 2016. The Kingdom’s govement is said to have approved the video, and that is why it was given airtime on national television,” read a report published by The Watchdog this May.

The report further read: “According to Al-Saqaby, husbands should not immediately attack their wives, but should discipline them ‘properly’ first. He then makes it clear that in marriage, there is nothing like equality, and that men should take charged and rule the home.”

My oh my! Thank you Saudi Arabia and thank you Wahhabism for illuminating mankind with your knowledge and wisdom. We all needed for your good doctor to school us on how best to brutalize women. I imagine that the forest-setting was meant to reassure the public as to the righteous conce this Imam may have had that men would ever use the wrong “stick” to educate their silly little wives.

Rather than debate the undebatable, I will offer the words of the First Imam, Islam’s True Heir, the Keeper of Tradition, Imam Ali: “Be respectful of women, for they are the mothers of mankind … Women are like flowers. They should be treated gently, kindly, and with affection … Don’t use the sharpness of your speech on the mother who taught you how to speak …”

The prophet Muhammad said himself: “Can you expect to hug your wife at night, having beaten her in the day time?” He also stressed: “I wonder about a man who beats his wife, while he himself deserves to be beaten more.”

Women are not toys to be discarded. Women are not properties to be sold off or traded. Women are not slaves, and they are certainly not lesser than men.

Long before Wahahbism was bo from the desert of Nejd Muslim women have mapped themselves on the deeds of some of Islam’s most glorious heroes – each to their own: Lady Khadija, Lady Fatimah, Lady Zainab – The Prophet Muhammad’s wife, his daughter, and his grand-daughter.

Who will ever deny the magnificence of those ladies and the light which still shines from the deeds and wisdom they imparted on the world?

Wahhabism is a caricature onto itself … Islam speaks not through Wahhabism.

By Catherine Shakdam for Shafaqna