Said Bak

By Shaykh ‘Abdul-’Azîz Ibn Bâz

Islâm has forbidden the calls of jâhiliyyah (the pre-islâmic days of ignorance) and there are many textual evidences which forbid all of the characteristics and manners of jâhiliyyah and their actions, except those (good and decent) practices which Islâm agreed to. And there is no doubt that the call to nationalism is from these calls of jâhiliyyah, since nationalism is a call to other than Islâm and an aiding of other than the truth. And how many ills, evils and serious wars has such calls of jâhiliyyah caused to their people, causing great harm to their souls, their wealth and their possessions. The consequences of such calls (for the Muslims) was a splitting up of their unity and a planting of enmity and hatred of each other in their hearts and a fragmentation and splitting between tribes and nations. Ibn Taymiyyah (d.728H) rahimahullâh said: [2]

“Everything which is outside the call of Islâm and the Qur’aan, with regards to lineage, land, nationality, schools of thoughts and ways, then it is from the calls of jâhiliyyah. lndeed, even when the Muhâjirs (those Companions who migrated from Makkah to Madînah) and the Ansâr (those Companions who aided and supported those who migrated) argued, such that one of the Muhâjirs said:” O Muhâjirs! (implying; rally to my aid)” And one of the Ansâr said: “O Ansâr!” Upon hearing this, the Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:

“Is it with the calls of Jâhiliyyah that you call, and l am still amongst you!” And he became very angry at that.” [3]

And from the textual evidences pertaining to this issue is Allâh the Most High’s saying:

“And stay in your homes and do not display yourselves, like the display of the times of jâhiliyyah (pre lslaamic ignorance). But establish the Prayer, give the Zakât and obey Allâh and His Messenger. “ [Sûrah al-Ahzâb 33:33]

“When those who disbelieved placed in their hearts pride and arrogance the pride and arrogance of jâhiliyyah then Allâh sent down His tranquillity upon His Messenger (sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and upon the Believers …” [Sûrah al-Fath 48 26].

The Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:

“Whosoever leaves off obedience and separates from the Jamâ’ah and dies, he dies a death of jâhiliyyah. Whoever fights under the banner of the blind, becoming angry for ‘asabiyyah (partisanship and party s pirit), or calling to ‘asabiyyah, or assisting ‘asabiyyah, then dies, he dies a death of jâhiliyyah.” [4]

Also in Sahîh Muslim (8/120) the Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:

“lndeed Allâh has revealed to me that you should have humility, and that no one should act proudly and oppressively over anyone else, nor should anyone boast over anyone else.”

And there is no doubt that the call to nationalism is a call to ‘asabiyyah (partisanship and party spirit) and it is a call to becoming angry for the sake of ‘asabiyyah and fighting for ‘asabiyyah. And there is no doubt also, that the call to nationalism is a call to transgression, pride and arrogance, since nationalism is not a divinely revealed way of life which prevents its people from oppression and proud boasting. Rather it is an ideology from the time of jâhiliyyah which leads its people to boastin g about it and having ‘asabiyyah for it even if they are the oppressors and the others are the oppressed ! So O noble reader consider this and the truth will be clear to you.

And from the textual evidences connected with this is what at-Tirmidhî relates from Allâh’s Messenger sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam that he said:

“Let people stop boasting about their forefathers who have died, who are merely fuel for the Hell Fire; or they will certainly be more insignificant with Allâh than the beetle which roles dung with its nose. Allâh has removed from you the party spirit of the days of jâhiliyyah and the boasting about one’s forefathers. Indeed a person is either a pious Belie ver or a wretched sinner. All of mankind are the children of Âdam, and Âdam was created from clay.” [5]

The Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam also said:

“Indeed there is no excellence for an Arab over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, nor a white person over a black one, nor a black person over a white one, except through taqwâ (piety and obedience to Allâh).” [6]

And this accords with Allâh the Most High’s saying:

“O mankind! We have created you from male and female and have made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed the most noblest of you with Allâh is the one who has the most taqwâ.” [Sûrah al-Hujurât 49:13]

So Allâh the One free from all defects- made clear in this noble âyah (verse) that people have been made into nations and tribes so that they may come to know each other, not that they should boast and have pride over one another. And Allâh the Most High considered the most noblest of them to be the one with the most piety and taqwâ. Likewise, the previously mentioned narration shows the same meaning, and guides to the fact that it is from the ways of jâhiliyyah to vainly boast and to have false pride for one’s fore fathers and ancestry. This is what the calls of jâhiliyyah lead to, whereas Islâm is in opposition to this. Rather Islâm calls to modesty, humility, taqwâ and to having love for the sake of Allâh, and that the true and sincere Muslim s are merely one of the categories of the children of Âdam ‘alayhis-salâm, and that the Muslims are a single body and a single structure; each part supporting the other and each part feeling the pain that the other parts are suffering as occurs in an a uth entic hadeeth (narration) from the Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam, that he said:

“The Believer to the Believer is like a solid building, one part supports the other.” And he interlaced his fingers to demonstrate this. [7]

The Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam also said:

“The example of the Believer in their mutual love and mercy is like the example of a body, if one part of the body feels pain, then all the body suffers in sleeplessness and fever.” [8]

O people! I call to you in the name of Allâh. Does your nationalism call you to these noble manners of mercy and kindness to the Muslims the arabs and the non arabs and of having mutual sympathy and concern for them, and feeling pain at their pain? No by Allâh ! Rather it calls you to having allegiance with those who have evil character and it calls you to cultivating enmity and hatred for those who deny this false creed of nationalism . So beware, O Muslim who desires safety and salvation, and consider the reality of the affair with a fair consideration, without being prejudiced with party spirit and desires. Only then you will see the reality as it truly is. So may Allâh guide me and you to the means of safety and salvation.

And it is related by Imâm al-Bukhârî in his Sahîh (8/137), that a young man from the Muhâjirs and a young man from the Ansâr quarreled. So the Muhâjir said: “O Muhâjirs! (meaning: rally to my help)” And the Ansârî said: “O Ansâr’” So the Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam heard this and said: ”Is it with the call of jâhiliyyah that you are calling out, and I am present amongst you!” Even though the term Muhâjir and Ansâr are two ascriptions which are beloved to Allâh the One free from all defects and He has praised these two groups with a very great praise, in His the Most High’s saying:

“And the first to embrace Islâm from the Muhâjirs and the Ansâr, and those who followed them in goodness, beliefs and actions. Allâh is well pleased with them, and they are well pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens of Paradise, beneath which rivers flow, to live therein forever. That is the supreme achievement.” [Sûrah at-Tawbah 9:100].

Yet in the above incident, this ascription to the Muhâjirs and seeking the help from them, and the Ansâr and seeking the help from them, when the likes of this was considered to be from the calls of jâhiliyyah, then what about those who claim allegianc e to nationalism and seek help through that and become angry for that? Will this not be more fitting to be considered one of the calls from the days of jâhiliyyah? This is a matter in which there is no doubt, and it is one of the clearest of all matters. And this is what has been established in the authentic hadîth (narration), from al-Hârith al-Ash’arî radiyallâhu ‘anhu, that the Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:

“I order you with five things which Allâh ordered me with: The Jamâ’ah, hearing , obeying, hijrah (migration) and jihâd in the way of Allâh the Mighty and Majestic. So whosoever separates from the Jamâ’ah by a handspan, throws the yoke of Islâm from his neck, unless he repents. And whosoever calls with the call of jâhiliyyah (the days of ignorance), then he is from the hoarded heap of Hell Fire” It was said: Even if he fasts and prays? He said: “Even if he fasts and prays. So call with the call of Allâh which Allâh gave: The Muslims, the Believers, Worshippers of Allâh.”[9]

This hadîth is absolutely clear with regards to rendering futile the calls to nationalism. Its callers deserve that they should be from the heap of Hell Fire, even if they fast and they Pray and claim that they are Muslims. So what a severe threat and se vere warning is given here; warning every muslim from the calls of jâhiliyyah and warning them from entering into this even if such calls are adorned with false talks and enchanting speeches . Rather it is a deception and a blind following which leads it s people to the worst and most despicable of ends. And we ask Allâh for safety and freedom from that.

Nuqdul-Qawniyyatul Arabiyyah (pp.39-44), slightly edited.

References:

2. Majmû’ ul-Fatâwâ (3/456).

3. Related by al-Bukhârî (8/137).

4. Related by Muslim in his Sahîh (6/21), from Abu Hurayrah radiallaahu anhu.

5. Hasan: Related by Abu Dâwûd (no.5116) and at-Tirmidhî (no.4233) from Abu Hurayrah radiyallâhu ‘anhu. It was authenticated by Ibn Taymiyyah in Kitâbul-Iqtidâ (p.35).

6. Sahîh: Related by Ahmad (5/411) and it was authenticated by Ibn Taymiyyah in Kitâbul-Iqtidâ (p.69).

7. Related by al-Bukhârî (no.481) and Muslim (no.2585) from Abu Hurayrah radiyallâhu ‘anhu.

8. Related by al-Bukhârî (no.6011) and Muslim (no.2586) from an-Nu’mân ibn Bashîr radiyallâhu ‘anhu.

9. Sahîh: Related by at-Tirmidhî (nos.2863) and at-Tilyâlasî (no.1161) and others. It was authenticated by Shaykh al-Albânî in his checking to Ibn Abi ‘Âsim’s as-Sunnah (no.1036).

_______________________

Source: Islaam.net

Transliteration edited by Abu Dâwûd al-Yûlandî for this website.

Bismillâh

Here are some nice resources I got from the Multaqa Ahl al-Hadeeth forum:

1) Shaikh Sâlih al-Fawzân’s book: “A Summary of Islamic Fiqh Part 1″
http://www.mohdy.name/pdfs/e110.pdf

2) Shaikh Ibn Bâz’s book: “Prayer of the Prophet (saw) Described with the Islamic Ruling regarding Congregational Prayer”
http://www.islamhouse.com/files/en/i…het_Prayer.pdf

3) Some advice about prayer from the man himself: Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s “Treatise on Prayer”
http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Ahma…-on-Prayer.pdf

4) Shaikh Muhammad ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhâb’s short book: “Conditions, Pillars and Requirements of Prayer”
http://www.al-ibaanah.com/cms/pdf_files/23.pdf

(Please note that some of the scholars–who are essentially Hanbalî but also mujtahids themselves–may have some preferred views that are not in line with the official Hanbalî stances). 

Bismillâh

I recommend an article posted on Aboo ‘Uthmaan’s blog to everyone interested in seeking knowledge:

The Methodology of Seeking Knowledge

By Michael Slackman
Monday, June 23, 2008

ALGIERS: First, Abdel Malek Outas’s teachers taught him to write math equations in Arabic, and embrace Islam and the Arab world. Then they told him to write in Latin letters that are no longer branded unpatriotic, and open his mind to the West.

Malek is 19, and he is confused.

“When we were in middle school we studied only in Arabic,” he said. “When we went to high school, they changed the program, and a lot is in French. Sometimes, we don’t even understand what we are writing.”

The confusion has bled off the pages of his math book and deep into his life. One moment, he is rapping; another, he recounts how he flirted with terrorism, agreeing two years ago to go with a recruiter to kill apostates in the name of jihad.

At a time of religious revival across the Muslim world, Algeria’s youth are in play. The focus of this contest is the schools, where for decades Islamists controlled what children learned, and how they learned, officials and education experts here said.

Now the government is urgently trying to re-engineer Algerian identity, changing the curriculum to wrest momentum from the Islamists, provide its youth with more employable skills, and combat the terrorism it fears schools have inadvertently encouraged.

It appears to be the most ambitious attempt in the region to change a school system to make its students less vulnerable to religious extremism.

But many educators are resisting the changes, and many disenchanted young men are dropping out of schools. It is a tense time in Algiers, where city streets are crowded with police officers and security checkpoints and alive with fears that Algeria is facing a resurgence of Islamic terrorism. From 1991 to 2002, as many as 200,000 Algerians died in fighting between government forces and Islamic terrorists. Now one of the main terrorist groups, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, has affiliated with Al Qaeda, rebranding itself as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

There is a sense this country could still go either way. Young people here in the capital appear extremely observant, filling mosques for the daily prayers, insisting that they have a place to pray in school. The strictest form of Islam, Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia, has become the gold standard for the young.

And yet, the young in Algiers also appear far more socially liberal than their peers in places like Egypt and Jordan. Young veiled women walk hand in hand, or sit leg to leg, with young men, public flirtations unthinkable in most other Muslim countries.

The two natures of the country reflect the way in which Algerian identity was cleaved in half by 132 years of French colonial rule, and then again by independence and forced Arabization. Once the French were driven out in 1962, the Algerians were determined to forge a national identity free from Western influence.

The schools were one center of that drive. French was banned as the language of education, replaced by Arabic. Islamic law and the study of the Koran were required, and math and science were shortchanged. Students were warned that sinners go to hell, and 6-year-olds were instructed in the proper way to wash a corpse for burial, education officials said.

There is a feeling among many Algerians that they went too far.

“We say that Algeria’s schools have trained monsters,” said Khaoula Taleb Ibrahim, a professor of education at the University of Algiers. “It is not to that extent, but the schools have contributed to that problem.”

Over the years, the government has pushed back, reintroducing French, removing the most zealous religious teachers and trying to revise the religious curriculum. Seven years ago, a committee appointed by the president issued a report calling for an overhaul of the school system — and it died under intense political pressure, mostly from the Islamists and conservatives, officials said.

But this year, the government is beginning to make substantive changes. The schools are moving from rote learning — which was always linked to memorizing the Koran — to critical thinking, where teachers ask students to research subjects and think about concepts.

Yet the students and teachers are still unprepared, untrained and, in many cases, unreceptive.

“Before, teachers used to explain the lesson,” Malek said. “Now they want us to think more, to research, but it’s very difficult for us.”

Malek says he hopes to graduate from high school next year and now wants to join the military, just like his father. He is a long way from being the person who had accepted what he says the terrorist recruiter told him — that soldiers, like his own father, are apostates and should be killed. His resolution lasted for three days, until his imam found out and persuaded him not to go.

But the call to jihad still tugs at him. In his world, jihad, or struggle, is a duty for Muslims, but as Malek explains, the challenge is who will convince young people of the proper form that struggle should take.

“They really convince you,” he said of the extremists.

Then later, with great sincerity, he asked: “Can you help me? I want to go to New York and rap.”

The Family

In Algeria, your sense of identity often depends on when you went to school.

Hassinah Bou Bekeur, 26, enjoys watching the Saudi satellite channels and the news in Arabic. She watches with her mother and four younger sisters in one room. But her father, Nasreddin, 60, stays in another room so he can watch in French, the language of his education.

“He is not very strict,” she said of her father, with a touch of affection and disappointment in her voice. “We have more awareness of religion now.”

She took the veil when she was 20; one sister did so at 17, and another sister at 15. The youngest, Zeinab, is only 12 and does not yet wear the veil. The veil is a symbol of the distance between father and children. While Nasreddin Bou Bekeur studied the Koran, Islam was not the cornerstone of his identity. He says he even drank alcohol — which is prohibited by Islam — until 1986. “I never knew that,” said Amal, his 17-year-old daughter, and then with a smile, she waved her fist at her father and said, “I will kill you.”

The Bou Bekeur family illustrates the outcome of Algeria’s school-based Arabization project. The family is close but the generation gap is extraordinary. It is not solely the result of schooling — but the history of the education system here helps explain the distance between the generations.

It begins with occupation and schools designed to train people for a French- run system. Even after independence, the schools needed to continue to train in French because the government needed managers and experts to replace those French citizens who had left the country, officials here said. In 1971, officials said, the Arabization project began in earnest, when French was prohibited as a language of education.

But there were not enough educators qualified to teach in Arabic, so Algeria turned to Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians — not realizing, officials say now, that many of those teachers had extreme religious views and that they helped plant the seeds of radicalism that would later flourish in a school system where Arabization became interchangeable with Islamization. In the Bou Bekeur house that meant children far more religious than their father — and their mother.

“The foundation of religion, I learned in school,” said Nasreddin Bou Bekeur’s son, Abdel Rahman, 25. “We pray more than them and we know religion better than them,” he said of his father’s generation. “We are more religious. My father used to drink. I never drank. My father asked me if it was O.K., to take a car loan. I told him, no, it is haram,” forbidden in Islam.

So his father did not take the loan. The elder Bou Bekeur is a quiet man in a house of strong-willed people. He can barely help his children with their homework, because his Arabic is poor. And he worries about their future, and the future of his country.

“Now they are at a crossroads,” Bou Bekeur said of his children and their generation. “Either they go to the West, or stay with this and become extremists.”

The children do not respond to such remarks. They often give their father a kind of sad, knowing smile, as though they have done the best that they can with him, and are pleased with the progress he has made.

The family lives in a small pink villa, inherited from Nasreddin Bou Bekeur’s father, who was killed fighting the French.

Nasreddin Bou Bekeur’s wife, Naima, is 48, and of a different generation altogether. She was among the first to go through the state-sponsored Arabization process. She said she remembers having a teacher from Egypt who was supposed to teach academic subjects in Arabic — but provided her first real lessons in religion.

Naima Bou Bekeur started serving lunch, homemade couscous. The family was sitting in the main living room on big brown couches, as her husband scratched away at one of his French crossword puzzles. Hassinah wore orange velour pants, an orange velour top and a large pink scarf that covered her head and was pinned beneath her chin.

The conversation shifted, with Hassinah complaining that men were treated better at home than women. “The boys don’t have to wash the dishes, why?” she said. “Why the difference? If I had a boy or girl, I would treat them equal.

“Women are supposed to work all day and come home and clean and cook — no way,” she fumed, her hands firmly on her knees.

Nasreddin Bou Bekeur seemed pleased. “Women have more opportunities today than they used to. Women can participate in sports and still be respected,” he said in his naturally soft voice.

“No,” Hassinah said, gently, shaking her head at her father. “My way of thinking is more influenced by religion. My religion tells me ‘no, that’s not right.’ ”

Zeinab, the 12-year-old, was seated in the corner, headphones on, humming a song by Beyoncé, and smiling as she did homework.

Malek and Friends

Four years ago, Amine Aba, 19, one of Malek’s best friends, decided it was time to take his religion more seriously, to stop listening to music, to stop dancing, to stop hanging around with Malek — most of which he accomplished most of the time.

“Muslim countries have been influenced by the Europeans,” Amine said, explaining why he thought he had not been religious enough for most of his life. “We have neglected our religion,” he said.

“Like us,” said Malek, who was nearby with a new buddy, Muhammad Lamine Messaoudi, a baby-faced 18-year-old with a bit of a paunch and a constant smile. The two burst into nervous laughter.

Malek, Amine and Lamine are each dealing with the forces shaping their world in slightly different ways. Amine has chosen religion; Malek, who has gelled hair and a slight stutter, has taken a middle road of religion, girls and rap; and Lamine appears a sentry of the left, interested in beer, girls and, he hopes, a life in France.

Each has felt the push and pull of the political-ideological fight going on in Algerian schools, between those who want to maintain the status quo and those who hope to reopen a window to the West. The messages the young men receive through teachers and the curriculum are still, almost uniformly, aimed at reinforcing their Arab-Islamic identity. But that is changing, slowly, and not without a fight.

“We would never have imagined Algeria could one day be faced with violence that would come from Islam,” said Fatiha Yomsi, an adviser to the minister of education.

Students go to school amid subdued tension because many educators do not like the changes that are coming.

“He is an Islamist. He would not shake my hand before,” Yomsi said as she introduced an Arabic teacher during a morning tour of Al Said Hamdeen high school here. Then as she walked around, she pointed out the front line in the struggle, keeping boys and girls together in class.

“You see, all these classes are mixed,” she said. “It is very important. We fought for this. That is why I am targeted for death.”

At stake are the identities of young people like Malek, Amine and Lamine — and their futures.

The young men focused on trying to pass their exams, because Algiers is full of examples of those who have not. More than 500,000 students drop out each year, officials said — and only about 20 percent of students make it into high school. Only about half make it from high school into a university. A vast majority of dropouts are young men, who see no link between work and school. Young women tend to stick with school because, officials said, it offers independence from their parents.

Algeria’s young men leave school because there is no longer any connection between education and employment, school officials said. The schools raise them to be religious, but do not teach them skills needed to get a job.

This is another cause for extremism, and it is one reason the police do nothing to stop so many young men from illegally selling everything from deodorant to bread at makeshift stands.

“These stands are illegal, but they let them do it as a matter of security and because of unemployment — instead of them going out and carrying weapons,” said Muhammad Darwish, a social studies teacher in the Muhammad Bou Ras middle school, as he passed masses of young men selling on the street.

Malek, Amine and Lamine are all trying to avoid ending up like a vast majority of their friends — selling on the street. Lamine and Malek try to study. But, they say that is only because if they fail the exams, they cannot get into the military — and if they cannot get into the military, they will have no status in Algeria. They have focused on the science curriculum. But their hearts do not seem to be in it. “They don’t let you like education here,” Lamine said.

Malek met Amine when Amine’s family moved into the walled and guarded compound for military families where Malek already lived. It is beside the Casbah, the old Arab quarter, where streets wind up and down hills that fall from the mountains to the sea. That was four years ago, and the young men became friends, going together to the mosque where they practiced the traditional way of reciting the Koran aloud.

But as Amine grew more religious, Malek began to drift away from him, in part out of concern for his father. “The military and a beard don’t go together,” he said. Malek shaved his beard and started to spend all his free time with Lamine, a very quiet 18-year-old with a shaved head. One of their favorite spots to relax is the monument to those killed in the war against the French. The concrete monument soars more than 300 feet into the sky, with three ramps sweeping up to an apex.

The sky was blue, the wind heavy and the clouds white on a May day, when Malek dropped to the pavement and began to break dance, his feet in the air, his shoulders pressed to the ground. Suddenly Algerian rap played from Lamine’s cellphone as they danced and laughed — until they stopped.

Amine wrapped his arm around Malek’s shoulder and they recited the Koran, their voices carrying through the wind. Lamine stood by, silently.

“I only have 25 days until the test; I have to go home,” Amine said. “My mother will be mad at me if I don’t study.”

After he left, Lamine was asked how he felt about Amine. He has frequently teased him, suggesting that they go together to the bar for a beer. Lamine does not go with Malek to pray, talks often about drinking alcohol and said that two years ago he was arrested trying to sneak onto a ship to get to France.

“He’s O.K.,” Lamine said. “I’d like to be like him. I’d like to be religious someday, too.”

Source: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=13901690

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

A bunch of ducks came real close the other day, when I sat on a bench in “Kongens Have” (meaning ‘the King’s Garden’) in mid-town Odense:

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

This article is nearly a month old, but I still found it worth posting.

Turkish Islamic author given 3-year jail sentence

Fri May 9, 2008 3:42pm EDT

By Thomas Grove

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Controversial Turkish Islamic author Adnan Oktar was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday for creating an illegal organization for personal gain, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

A spokeswoman for his Science Research Foundation (BAV) confirmed to Reuters that Oktar had been sentenced but said the judge was influenced by political and religious pressure groups.

Oktar had been tried with 17 other defendants in an Istanbul court. The verdict and sentence came after a previous trial that began in 2000 after Oktar, along with 50 members of his foundation, was arrested in 1999.

In that court case, Oktar had been charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime. The charges were dropped but another court picked them up resulting in the latest case.

Oktar planned to appeal the sentence, a BAV spokeswoman said. No further details were immediately available.

Oktar, born in 1956, is the driving force behind a richly funded movement based in Turkey that champions creationism, the belief that God literally created the world in six days as told in the Bible and the Koran.

Istanbul-based Oktar, who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya, has created waves in the past few years by sending out thousands of unsolicited texts advocating Islamic creationism to schools in several European countries.

TENSIONS HIGH

The court decision comes at a time when political tensions in officially secular but predominantly Muslim Turkey are high as the ruling AK Party faces a court case that seeks its closure for alleged Islamist activities, a claim the party denies.

Oktar’s teachings echo those of Christian fundamentalists in the United States. He has publicly denounced Darwinism and Freemasonry in high-profile attacks.

Charles Darwin came up with the widely adopted evolutionary theory of natural selection in the 19th century.

Oktar’s publishing house has published dozens of books that have been distributed in more than 150 countries and been translated into more than 50 languages. He has a wide following in the Muslim world.

But Turkish commentators say the group’s books, numbering more than 200, are probably written by a pool of writers, a charge the author denies.

Source >

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

As-salamu ‘alaykum,

This photo shows a part of the Vollsmose area in Odense, Denmark. I used to live in one of the buildings shown in the photo but now live in a different part of Vollsmose.

Click here to view the large version >

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

As-salamu ‘alaykum,

I took these photos a while back - they were taken inside the Turkish “Selimiye Cami” mosque of Odense, Denmark. It is the oldest mosque which has been built for the purpose in Denmark. I pray there occasionally.

BismillahirRahmanirRahim

As-salamu ‘alaykum,

This morning I went outside and cast a glance at my bike…

Somehow I don’t think my bike was always “saddleless”, so it seems likely that somewhere a guy is running around with a “bikeless” saddle.

Bismillah

We already knew my wife was pregnant (7th week) but yesterday she had her fist scan and what a surprise: There were two embryos on the screen!

Al-hamdulillah (all praise is due to Allah).