Related Posts

Slideshow: Ashura, the Unique Face of Shia Islam | Religion | FRONTLINE | PBS

Slideshow: Ashura, the Unique Face of Shia Islam | Religion | FRONTLINE | PBS. The holy day of Ashura marks the martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, in a historic seventh century battle. The Battle of Karbala, as it’s known, cemented the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims that arose from a succession dispute after the prophet’s death.  Every year around Ashura, the media is flooded with images of blood-soaked Shias self-flagellating. But Shias around the world — who make up between 10 to 13 percent of Muslims – observe the month in a myriad of ways.…

Grass Roots Development May Hold Promise in the Muslim World

I would actually hope that it holds promise for everyone: There is, Khan averred, a “dominant player fallacy” or the tendency to place “too much reliance in national governments and other institutions which may have relatively superficial connections to life at the grass-roots level.” Thus, “urban-based outsiders often look at these situations from the perspective of the city center looking out to a distant countryside, searching for quick and convenient levers of influence.” The secret, then, is to work “from the bottom up” and not from the top down, as is so often the case. As he told the dinner…

Weep not

What do you call someone who doesn’t follow the tradition of Prophet Muhammad? Who in fact does the opposite of the tradition of the Prophet? What do you call someone who relishes in the death of the Prophet’s family? Who celebrates the murder of the Prophet’s grandson by killing those who believe it to be a sorrowful event? Muslims (not most, all) would call him a murderer. To everyone else they are Muslims. We Muslims are more than a nationality, an ethnicity, a collection of people who speak the same language. We are those who have promised to submit ourselves…