The Toronto Star – June 30, 2011 Toronto’s gay community will celebrate Pride on downtown streets on July 3, 2011. At the same time, Muslims attending a major Islamic conference at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre will hear from two anti-homosexual speakers. Journey of Faith is the same annual event that drew criticism last…
23 June 2011 Yusuf Qaradawi (b. 1926), the prominent Egyptian-born Islamic scholar who is based in Qatar and considered to be the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, cancelled his participation at the annual meeting of the European Council of Fatwa and Research (ECFR) to be held in Dublin next week due to ill-health. The…
Jack Straw, Britain’s Justice Secretary, wrote a letter of introduction for his friend and political ally, Lord Patel of Blackburn, who persuaded the emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, to spend £1.5m, half the total needed to build the five-story mosque. Liberal Democrats in Blackburn, Mr. Straw’s constituency, claimed the Labour party had used the…
Islamic finance is sparking a heated debate in France. “We must not allow principles of Shari`ah law, or the ethics of the Qur`an to be introduced into French law,” said Socialist MP Henri Emmanuelli. The parliament recently approved a number of adjustments to the banking laws to allow sukuk [Islamic bonds] to be issued for…
In the wake of his dismissal from positions at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University and with the city council, Tariq Ramadan has accepted a teaching post at Oxford. The Islamic scholar will take up the position of professor of contemporary Islam studies from September 1 2009. Ramadan was dismissed from his position advising the city on integration…
