| ||||||||||||||
| Homepage Articles Blog | ||||||||||||||
| You can follow Daniel Pipes and the Middle East Forum on their Facebook and Twitter pages. | ||||||||||||||
Please take a moment to visit and log in at the subscriber area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in your area. The "Islamic Fashion Festival" Goes to Milanby Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/06/the-islamic-fashion-festival-goes-to-milan
  Be the first of your friends to like this.Starting in 2006, the Malaysian-based Islamic Fashion Festival carries the slogan "Discover the Beauty of Modesty" and aims to "take an innovative spin on the conventional fashion exhibition to boldly present Islamic culture and attire on an international platform," It offers such features as "Hijab Fashion" and "Abaya Fashion." The IFF has staged events in Kuala Lumpur, Abu Dhabi, Astana, Dubai, Jakarta, Monte Carlo, New York, Singapore and Bandung. Next month, the show will be brought to London.
Comes a news item from the Malaysian National News Agency that the IFF is now "preparing its fashion designers to show off its creations at one of world's most prestigious fashion modelling catwalk. IFF, under the patronage of Malaysia's First Lady, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, has been invited to participate in the Milan Fashion Week." The rest of the article details the excitement and planning for this debut on the world stage. I mark this and plan to follow the IFF's career in Milan: Will hijabs and abayas take the fashion world by storm? Does this new form of da'wa succeed and the Islamification of the West continue? (June 26, 2011) Related Topics: Islam, Sex and gender relations Israel: Part Itself from the Palestinians?by Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/06/israel-part-itself-from-the-palestinians
Be the first of your friends to like this.Ha'aretz is admittedly not the most reliable source but if one believes Barak Ravid's report on what Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his cabinet two days ago, June 21, it has important implications. According to Ravid, he
Ravid quotes him saying of the Palestinians: "I have no wish to annex them into Israel. I want to separate from them so that they will not be Israeli citizens. I am interested that there be a solid Jewish majority inside the State of Israel." He adds that prime ministerial aides "asked all those present in the room to avoid disseminating the details" because of their sensitivity, while the Prime Minister's Office "refused to respond to questions on the issue or provide any quotes about the statements." Comment: I sympathize with this statement, having watched Lebanon fall apart because the Christians there had territorial ambitions and accordingly lost their majority. Land is an asset, all the more so when ancestral, but if it comes with resident enemies, it is not worth the price. (June 21, 2011) Related Topics: Arab-Israel conflict & diplomacy Can a Muslim Be a Loyal American Soldier?by Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/08/can-a-muslim-be-a-loyal-american-soldier
Be the first of your friends to like this.Bad enough when Muslim communities oppose Muslim soldiers fighting for Western governments; worse when the soldiers involved come to this same conclusion. This can lead to terrorism, as in the case of Maj. Nidal Hasan's shooting spree at Ft. Hood. Or it can lead to a filing for conscientious objector status, as in the case of U.S. Army Pfc. Nasser Abdo, 20, currently stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
Abdo filed on the grounds that his faith cannot be reconciled with military service. "A Muslim is not allowed to participate in an Islamicly unjust war. Any Muslim who knows his religion or maybe takes into account what his religion says can find out very clearly why he should not participate in the U.S. military." In contrast to Abdo, Muzammil Siddiqi of Islamic Law Counsel of North America, sees no contradiction between practicing Islam and serving as a soldier. "I don't see that, from the Islamic point of view, there is any problem with that. There are a lot of good Muslims who are serving in the U.S. Army and a lot of other places." On leaving the army, by the way, Abdo plans to spend his life combating "Islamophobia." "I want to use my experience to show Muslims how we can lead our lives. And to try and put a good positive spin out there that Islam is a good, peaceful religion. We're not all terrorists, you know?" Comment: This contrast between callow and savvy Islamists brings to mind the 1996 case of the National Basketball Association's Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf who refused to stand for the American anthem but was slapped down by his elders. Lawful Islamists must play the game that the Shari'a is compatible with the constitution; not to do opens a Pandora's Box of trouble for Muslims. (Aug. 31, 2010) June 15, 2011 update: The army last month approved Abdo's conscientious objector application. However, Abdo is now accused of possessing child pornography, which he claims is the army's way to retaliate against him. Comment: Allowing Abdo this status implies U.S. government endorsement that being Muslim and a loyal American are incompatible. This has portentous implications. July 12, 2011 update: Retired Navy Adm. James A. Lyons, former commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, takes a quite different view of the Abdo case from me: "By acceding to the dictates of Shariah, the Army has tacitly endorsed an absurd position that in effect sanctions Muslim service members to kill non-Muslims but forbids them to kill Muslims. Further, it is an unbelievable basis on which to classify them as conscientious objectors. … By granting conscientious objector status to Pfc. Abdo, the Army is tacitly accepting a key tenet of the Islamic doctrine of jihad." In contrast, I see the army not acceding to the Shari'a but rejecting it. Related Topics: Islamic law (Shari'a), Muslims in the United States This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL. | ||||||||||||||
To subscribe to this list, go to http://www.danielpipes.org/list_subscribe.php Sign up for related (but non-duplicating) e-mail services: |
Send
Comment
RSS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment