Involvement of high profile Muslim scholars in the 2018 UAE Peace Forum provokes accusations of religious legitimation in light of the Yemen war

The fifth annual conference of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies took place in December 2018, amidst heavy criticism due to the attendance of several high profile Muslim scholars, but specifically the involvement of Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, president and vice president of the Forum respectively. The three-day event…

Share Button
Read More

Leading imam quits as debate over women’s ‘hypersexuality’ boils over at major U.S. mosque

Shaker Elsayed, the lead imam of Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., one of the nation’s largest and oft-embattled mosques, drew a wave of condemnation from young Muslim activists after he he appeared to endorse a certain form of female genital mutilation as sometimes necessary to prevent “hypersexuality.” In response, Johari Abdul-Malik, a fellow imam…

Share Button
Read More

World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order temporarily freezing immigration from seven predominantly Islamic countries would affect only about 12% of the world’s Muslims, according to estimates from a 2015 Pew Research Center Report on the current and projected size of religious groups. In fact, of the seven countries named in the new immigration ban – Iran,…

Share Button
Read More

Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi Won’t Attend Oscar Ceremony

The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose film “The Salesman” is nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign-language movie, said on Sunday that he would not attend the Oscars ceremony next month even if he were granted an exception to President Trump’s visa ban for citizens from Iran and several other predominantly Muslim countries. Mr….

Share Button
Read More

New Poll Finds Young Arab are Less Swayed by the Islamic State

Two years after proclaiming a new “caliphate” for Muslims in the Middle East, the Islamic State is seeing a steep slide in support among the young Arab men and women it most wants to attract, a new poll shows. Overwhelming majorities of Arab teens and young adults now strongly oppose the terrorist group, the survey…

Share Button
Read More