MuslimMatters.org Discourses in the Intellectual Traditions, Political Situation, and Social Ethics of Muslim Life

As I was sat trying to come to terms with the ongoing violence in my city of Karachi, the news of another blast in the tribal areas of Pakistan hit the wires. Pakistan, a frontline state in the Global War of Terror, has lost almost 35000 citizens to bomb blasts ... Read More »

'Ali said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (S) as saying: There would arise at the end of the age a people who would be young in age and immature in thought, but they would talk (in such a manner) as if their words are the best among the creatures. Read More »

The Israelis were so terrified of this one man, who probably weighed less than two hundred pounds, that they felt the need to drop a two thousand pound bomb on the apartment complex where he lived, killing him and eighteen other members of his family, including nine of his children. Men, women and children, murdered with unchecked savagery. Read More »

To most Muslims, jihad implies honor and sacrifice for others, even when interpreted military, it comes with many conditions, including the writ against targeting civilians. Using jihad and terrorism as synonyms is wrong and counterproductive, and the meaning of Jihad to Muslims is much more nuanced than what many Western commentators invoke. Read More »

Against the backdrop of this bleak world situation, the West desires stable, secular democracies in the Muslim countries it deems as “supporting terrorism”, believing this to be the ultimate measure of victory in the “war against terrorism”. But a number of challenges exist in this battle of hearts and minds, and data is ever-important to understand the people we wish to move. Read More »