News and Analysis on Islam in Europe and North America
A mosque in Blackburn has undergone a refurbishment after discovering that worshippers were praying in the wrong direction. Experts using modern satellite technology discovered that prayers at the mosque, which should have been in the direction of Mecca, were over 30 degrees out. The location of the Qiblah, which is what worshippers pray towards as
Moazzam Begg spoke about his experiences at Blackburn Cathedral on Tuesday describing how he was tortured and held in solitary confinement. Moazzam Begg, a British citizen, said how he travelled to Afghanistan to start a girls’ school with his wife and within a year he had been captured by American forces as part of the
A man was attacked, stabbed in the stomach and hit with an a iron bar in Burnley. Mohammed Shafiq, 50, of York Street in Lancashire, was murdered in broad daylight after attempting to intervene in a fight involving his son. He died in Royal Blackburn hospital eight hours. Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, from Lancashire police
Problems with segregated communities cannot be cured by new schools, a leading cleric said on Wendesday. Blackburn Cathedral’s Canon Chris Chivers described the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme, which will see a major shake-up of secondary education in Blackburn and Darwen, as a “band-aid” for other, deeper social problems. But Muslim leaders in
BLACKBURN, England – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heard passionate complaints Saturday from British Muslims about U.S. polices in Iraq, toward the Palestinians and at the U.S.-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some of the complaints were voiced respectfully by Muslim leaders who met with Rice. Others were chanted, shouted and screamed by anti