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SHAFAQNA –Three UN Special Rapporteurs addressed in a letter to the Bahraini Govement “conceing” information about alleged pattes of continuous discrimination against Shia citizens (mainly Bahaa and Ajam), which have been taking place since 2011, and which are “undermining their rights to freedoms of religion, expression and culture;” in addition to the effect of the whole situation on the human rights of Shiites in the country. The address published recently on the website of the commissioner was officially sent to the Govement of Bahrain at the end of October 2015 to enquire about the reports which the UN rapporteurs deemed conceing. The Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights,...

SHAFAQNA –If Yemen remains synonymous with unrest and violence thanks to the military deluge Saudi Arabia has insisted on drowning the impoverished nation under since late March 2015, Terror had yet to claim its fill of blood. Terror as it were never could assert its warped religious rationale onto Yemen – not beyond a few clusters, not to the point where Terror could ever present any real existential threat to the Yemeni Republic. This was then … today is a brand new day! Today, Saudi Arabia is actively working to change that reality! Saudi Arabia I would add, absolutely needs for Terror to become Yemen’s newest existential threat to counteract that which is now threatening its own. For al...

SHAFAQNA –Wikileaks has exposed an email that US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent to an unknown account on 11/30/2015, detailing the ways Israel could marginalize the Iranian threat by overthrowing the govement of Dr. Bashar Al-Assad. Clinton outlines in the first paragraph of her email, how to directly deal with the growing threat of Iran’s nuclear program: “The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad.” As one of the main politicians calling for the removal of Assad by force, Hillary Clinton has time-and-time again revealed her hawkish nature when it comes to any exteal threat to Isr...

SHAFAQNA-God gave victory to Islam in the battle of Badr in the year 2 of Hijri. Two months after the battle, Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammad Mustafa, and Ali, the son of Abu Talib were married. Fatima Zahra was only five years old when her mother – Khadija, may God bless her – died, and thenceforth, her father, Muhammad Mustafa, the Apostle of God, took charge of the duties of a mother also for her. The death of her mother had created a void in her life but her father filled it with his love and tendeess. Muhammad, the Messenger of God, gave the utmost attention to the education and upbringing of his daughter. If he was the ideal for all men, his daughter had to be the ideal for all...

SHAFAQNA –The Saudi women who need their fathers, husbands and brothers’ permission to benefit their legal rights of working, studying and traveling, are now using social media in a bid to end males’ rule over their life. The Saudi women have created #سعودیات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولایة (#StopEnslavingSaudiWomen ) to emphasize that the govement should hear the women’s voice and respect their rights, adding that the progress of any society is evaluated by the situation of women. They have also reminded the Saudi rulers of regional women’s freedom to do whatever the Saudi females are baed. On the opposite side, the make opponents of the demand insist the necessity for respecting Saudi Arabia’s laws,...

SHAFAQNA –The first halal hotel in Bangkok is attracting Muslim visitors with the management hoping to tap deeper into a growing market. Nearly 30 million foreign tourists came to Thailand last year but only about 658,000 were from the Middle East, according to industry data. The four-star Al Meroz hotel in Bangkok, which opened in November, hopes to play its part in changing that, and to cash in. “There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. It’s a huge market,” said the hotel’s general manager, Sanya Saengboon. “Just one percent of that market is enough for us to thrive.” The , which boasts mosque-like architecture, has two prayer rooms and three halal dining halls. Rooms cost from 4,000 b...

SHAFAQNA –With growing conces over national security, and the increased threat of those wishing to divide us, there has been recent public discussion about the future of our immigration program, and whether the values and customs of some migrant groups have a place in the Australian way of life. Negative attitudes towards Muslims in Australia seem to be based on a fear of the unknown, and this perceived difference in values and culture. Attributes we typically identify as integral to the Australian way of life – like our freedom and democracy – are commonly perceived as being at odds with Islam. It raises an interesting question – can Australian Muslims maintain their customs and traditions...

SHAFAQNA –If they know what is good for them, German Muslims should be stoutly, if silently, supporting the partial burqa ban aounced by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s govement. And French Muslims should be agreeing, even if only sotto voce, with Jean-Pierre Chevènement’s call for “discretion” in public spaces “at this difficult time”. Chevènement, a former Interior minister, has been appointed head of the Foundation of French Islam. The organisation, created to better integrate France’s Muslim population, is to oversee aspects of mosque operations, including domestic financing and imam training. It is likely to be an influential body. There is a simple reason to support Merkel’s partial burqa ...

SHAFAQNA- By: Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari AbstractIn part I of this article, Ayatollah Mutahhari elaborated on the definition, meaning, value, and effect of taqwa, or Godwariness, and self-restraint, as emphasized in the Qur’an and Nahj al-Balaghah. He demonstrated that 1) fear of God is, in fact, fear of His justice, 2) piety is more than merely performing religious duties, 3) taqwa is a freedom rather than a restriction, and 4) true perfection lies in a person’s freedom to do wrong and yet he or she refrains from doing so.In this article, Mutahhari offers an additional description of taqwa: it gives a person insight, or the ability to make correct decisions, and the strength to overcome ...

SHAFAQNA – The Grand Ayatollah Sistani answered a question about the real repenting. Question: How does real repenting is achieved? The Grand Ayatollah Sistani: The reality of repenting is to regret committing the sin, and therefore it is said: The regret (remorse) is the same as repenting and the real regret is always accompanied by decision to abandon the sin and not to retu to it. And the real regretful person must avoid the past sins, and if his sin is the right of Allah (SWT), must ask forgiveness from God, and pay Kaffarah (financial penalty) or to compensate for it. And if it is the right of people, must either ask the owner of the right for forgiveness or pay his right back, and if ...

SHAFAQNA –If the world has become desensitise to human suffering, there are still crimes so tragic and uecessary, so violent in nature and abominable in the tragedy they carry, that we caot help but pause. Should you have missed it somehow War has held Yemen hostage since March 25th, 2015, a day which saw Saudi Arabia unilaterally move against its impoverished neighbour in the name of “democracy building.” Yemen’s war you were told then, was a necessary evil, a democratic mean to end a popular movement Riyadh cared little for, since it spoke in negation of its religious extremism – Wahhabism. As Riyadh weaved its narrative the world sat back, gleefully deaf to the cries Yemen let out in its...

SHAFAQNA – “When you witness that it is almost a year and a half now that Yemen has been under bombardment, is this a minor event? They are constantly bombarding a country. And they are not bombarding its military centers, rather they are bombarding its markets, hospitals, public squares and schools and the people’s houses and gatherings. This is not a minor event, rather it is a very grave crime. They do not understand what the month of Ramadan and a month of haraam are and they do not differentiate between children and adults. They have murdered so many children! Well, this is a grave crime as well which has unfortunately been committed by the Saudi govement. However, they have done so ...

SHAFAQNA – The Grand Ayatollah Sistani answered a question about taking medicines mixed with some alcohol. Question: Is it allowed to take medicines mixed with some alcohol (for example 10%)? The Grand Ayatollah Sistani: It is not allowed; but you can mix the medicines in water to reduce the level of alcohol to minimum (for example 2% or less) which there is no problem in this case. Source: PERSIAN SHAFAQNA SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleDebate on the Burkini, France and the fall of democracy Next articleCorrectness of divorce if it transpires that the woman has been pregnant/the Grand Ayatollah Shahroodi’s answer Let's block ads! بخوانید...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA – In this episode of the debate Catherine Shakdam, Director of the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Easte Studies goes up against Tony Bugle to dicsuss France’s burkini craze and the end of civil liberties. SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleThirty thousand first-time pilgrims to visit Imam Reza holy shrine during four months Let's block ads! بخوانید...

SHAFAQNA –The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark expressed its serious conce by the information it received about the health condition of the prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab who is placed in solitary confinement. In a letter on Tuesday (August 23, 2016) to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and which Bahrain Mirror leaed about, the Ministry of Foreign affairs said that “it fully understands the alarming nature of the conces expressed by BCHR regarding the general human rights situation in Bahrain.” It added “Denmark will remain committed to raising questions on the human rights situation in Bahrain,” reminding that it tackled “the arbitrary detention in Bahrain thr...

SHAFAQNA- Octopuses are notorious escape artists, able to squeeze and squish themselves into and around nearly any obstacle they encounter. In an ode to these crafty cephalopods, researchers have created the first completely soft-bodied robot, dubbed the “octobot.” The palm-sized machine’s exterior is made of silicone. And whereas other soft robots have had at least a few hard parts, such as batteries or wires, the octobot uses a small reservoir of hydrogen peroxide as fuel. When the hydrogen peroxide washes over flecks of platinum embedded within the octobot, the resulting chemical reaction produces gas that inflates and flexes the robot’s arms. As described online today in Nature, the ga...

Courtesy of May Saleh and Bahrain Mirror SHAFAQNA – Speaking on the sideline ofThe Inteational Conference to Support the Yemeni People – held on August, 20-21, 2016 in the British capital, LondonBahraini opposition figure, Saeed al-Shehabi, stressed on the importance of accountability, transparency and justice when addressing the issue of Yemen. “This is an illegal war with unfounded allegations and unjustified aggressions by the Saudis and must stop,” he emphasized during a workshop. “Every aggression and war in the world, since the second world war, has been addressed and has been called for to stop except this one. Why? Because the Saudis are involved,” he added. The themesof reparation, ...

SHAFAQNA –If Saudi Arabia’s many grave human rights violations remain largely unaddressed by state officials for facing the kingdom equates those days to political and/or financial suicide, activists have relentlessly exposed and spoken against the brutality of the regime – the voices of truth in an ocean of hypocrisy. The oppressed are no longer standing alone – their voices are being carried by a loyal army of volunteers, and activists. For all the violence and abject humiliations al-Saud has imposed on communities on account of their faith, their ethnicities, or their political persuasions, a movement is being risen, a resistance is being organized – one which could soon wash away Riyadh...

SHAFAQNA –The NYPD’s Inspector General came down hard on the city’s police force Tuesday over conces they are not following court-mandated rules for surveilling political groups. But the NYPD was more interested in highlighting the rosier parts of the report in an all-positive response. The Inspector General conducted an investigation into the NYPD’s following of the Handschu Guidelines, a 1985 ruling outlining political activity as being protected by the Constitution as freedom of speech. Ninety-five percent of the investigations studied applied to surveillance of Muslims, according to the report. The report doesn’t even include the Muslim surveillance unit disbanded in 2014 when Mayor Bil...

SHAFAQNA – The Grand Ayatollah Shobairi Zanjani answered a question about jumping the queue. Question: Is it allowed to move in front of people who have been waiting longer in a queue in a bakery? The Grand Ayatollah Shobairi: It is not allowed. Source: PERSIAN SHAFAQNA Let's block ads! بخوانید...