English

SHAFAQNA –The Houthi forces, backed by the Yemeni Republican Guard, seized a number of points inside the Midi Desert near the Saudi-Yemeni border today, advancing as far north as the Jizan Region of Saudi Arabia. According to Al-Masdar’s Yemen War correspondent, Tony Toh, the Houthi forces and their allies killed 41 fighters from the Saudi-led Coalition on Monday after seizing a number of sites from the latter. Making matters worse for the Saudi-led Coalition, the Houthi forces continued their advance in the Najran Valley, as they capturednew points near the provincial capital. The Saudi-led Coalition’s recent losses in the Jizan and Najran regions has taken a toll on their morale, as they ...

SHAFAQNA –The first time he tried to escape a tough existence in his village in weste Myanmar in 2004, Junaid Zafar was thrown in jail for five years. Like many other Rohingya Muslims, Zafar was seeking to flee poverty and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and he did not wait long after being released from jail to try again. This time, his parents sold off possessions to raise about $1,000 to pay people smugglers to take him to Malaysia. Zafar, the eldest of three siblings, finally made it in 2011.But like thousands of other Rohingya in Malaysia, he now finds himself living in a precarious limbo, having to work illegally due to official restrictions, and with resettlement to another ...

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 –I’ve changed my profile picture on social media many times since terror came in horrific waves, drowning the world in sorrow over the last year. But I could only use the official Facebook profile filter to show solidarity for Paris since a filter wasn’t available for Aleppo, Lahore, Istanbul, or many other attacks. I am a Syrian Muslim living in Dubai; I lost my home in Damascus at the begiing of the Syrian war in 2011. It saddens me when I read on Facebook that someone on the other side of the world thinks that because of who I am and where I live, I’m used to bombs and terror and therefore not as worthy of sympathy. Maybe that’s because the West is a place where war has been a f...

SHAFAQNA –Recently, newspapers across the world — including in the United States, Britain and Israel — have reported on the challenges that Muslims, and people perceived to be Muslim, have faced at airports and on planes. Just last week, three siblings were removed from a plane in London and questioned by police for an hour after passengers incorrectly claimed that one of them had made references to Allah on her phone and was, therefore, a member of the Islamic State. This suspicion toward all things Islamic or seemingly Islamic has given rise to the expression “flying while Muslim.” The challenge for Weste countries where Muslim immigrants have settled is that “flying while Muslim” threaten...

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 – Question: Considering that some sites published words attributed to you regarding the approval of (Fususi Gnosticism), please express your views about this case. The Grand Ayatollah Sistani: Regarding the Islamic belief (Islamic teachings), I believe in the same method of the great Imamiyah scholars which is based on the verse of the Quran, and narrations from Ahlul Bait (AS), and I do not approve the above mentioned method (Fususi Gnosticism). Source: PERSIAN SHAFAQNA SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleCan you be a practising Muslim and identify with the Australian way of life? Let's block ads! بخوانید...

SHAFAQNA –Muslims from across Norway gathered on the island of Utøya to pray for victims of the Norway attacks. Six years ago in 2011 34-year-old Anders Breivik shot and killed 69 people on the very same island. The Island is owned by Norway’s Labour party and most of Breivik’s victims were members of the Labour party’s youth wing. On August 19, 2016, the country’s oldest Muslim Youth association hosted their aual youth retreat in union with the Labour party’s youth wing. During the retreat, the Muslim youth held a special prayer service in remembrance of the Norway attack victims and pledged to be law abiding and loyal Norwegians. The three days event was attended by representatives of the...

SHAFAQNA – The Grand Ayatollah Fayyaz answered a questions about downloading from inteet without permission. Question: Is downloading film, music or game from the inteet with assumption that the owners do not agree with it, considered to be the right of people? Does it matter if the owner is Muslim or not? The Grand Ayatollah Fayyaz: Taking possession of people’s rights which is against the law, is not allowed. Source: PERSIAN SHAFAQNA SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleA Fatwa by the Grand Ayatollah Shobairi about cursing the person who commits sins openly Let's block ads! بخوانید...

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 ...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA –In order to bring you, our readers, closer to realities and truths, Shafaqna will conduct a series of exclusive podcast interviews with renown political analysts politicians, officials, religious leaders, and academics. As always our aim is simple – knowledge. In a world run, and based on falsehood, Truth has become somewhat of a rare commodity – still, we ought to seek what has been dissimulated as to rise truly free. As Imam Ali said: “Ask in order to understand, and do not ask in order to find fault, for surely the ignorant man who wants to lea resembles a man of knowledge, and surely a man of knowledge who wants to be difficult resembles an ignorant man who ...

SHAFAQNA-A restaurant manager humiliates two Muslim women and refuses to serve them in Tremblay-en-France in the suburb of Parison Saturdaynight, telling them “terrorists are Muslims and all Muslims are terrorists.” One of the victims videotaped the shocking incident and shared it on social media. The video went viral and stirred the outrage of thousands of users. The video does not record the incident from the begiing; it starts in the middle of a violent verbal attack from the manager. When one of the veiled women said, “we do not want to be served by racists.” The manager came toward to her table and replied angrily, “Racists do not make bombs and do not kill people, racists like me.” T...

SHAFAQNA-Female police officers in Turkey will now be able to wear a headscarf as part of their uniform, according to a new ruling published on Saturday. Turkey’s Official Gazette carries a new rule which will allow policewomen to wear a headscarf under their caps or beret on condition it be the same color as the uniform and without a patte. Back in 2013, then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced the lifting of headscarf bans in Turkey’s civil service as part of a broader democratization package. Elsewhere, Police Scotland recently aounced that the hijab would become an optional part of its uniform to encourage more female Muslims to consider policing as a career option. Muslim w...

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 – Since al-Saud imprinted its will on the Hejaz … the country now bears the name of its owner, this one house has made a fortune on by claiming to be the righteous custodian of all Islamic traditions and holy sites, begiing with Mecca. According to The Economist, the kingdom generates over $8.5 billion in revenues per year – not exactly cheap change. Since the world has kept mum before the tyray of al-Saud rights activists have decided to call on Muslims to resist in a maer which will best hamper Riyadh – boycotting haj. SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleAyatollah Ali Khameini on Yemen: “Saudi govt. slaughters Yemeni children with US weapons” Next articleY...

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 –One of France’s highest courts suspended the burkini ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet on Thursday, holding that the ban violated civil liberties including freedom of religion and movement. The ruling sets a precedent that could be used to challenge bans in other municipalities. On Tuesday, an image of French authorities forcing a Muslim woman to disrobe on the beach sparked outrage on social media. It was the second such incident in France that day—earlier, a beachgoer in a head scarf and tunic was fined because her attire was not “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism.” The response was swift on Twitter, where people noted the double irony that such actions are only...

SHAFAQNA –Director of Pilgrims Affairs of Oppressed Relief Department of Astan Quds Razavi, aounced the attendance of over thirty thousand first-time-pilgrims to the Razavi Holy Shrine during the last four months. Masoud Mojaradi said “During four months that has passed from the establishment of the Oppressed Relief Department of Astan Quds Razavi, more than thirty thousand first-time-pilgrims, over forty years old, who due to financial hardships and deprivation had not been able to visit Imam Reza (A.S.) Court, by the efforts of Astan Quds Razavi and the assistance of donors have attended the Razavi Holy Shrine from all around the country.” “In “Mehr-e Derakhshan” program, Astan Quds Razav...