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Open Thread Sunday 5/10/2009

Published

May 9, 2009

Polygamy Just the Ticket for Speeding: As though brothers don’t need another excuse for why they should get a second wife, it seems that in England at least, they can use polygamy as an excuse to get off of a speeding ticket.
Obama to Address Muslims This June in Egypt: After giving a speech to Turkish parliament in April, US President is heading to Egypt June 4th to directly address Muslims all over the world. “The “United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” Obama says.
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at a mosque in Amman, Jordan, also expresses concern about the discrimination that he says Christians and others face in Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Shhh… I hear Arabic, people… http://tr.im/SummerBayyinah
SignLabs.org – the free sign language resource for Muslims (and MM’s pet project) – has had a serious site upgrade, with a much more video-centric feel. Check it out, and leave your feedback.
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Related Topics:ASL bayyinah Benedict BSL obama polygamy signing

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18 Comments

sincethestorm

May 10, 2009 at 1:30 AM

I’m excited that a muslim sister who wears hijab is making strides in the White house. The fact that she wears hijab and is visibly muslim is the best part. May Allah SWT guide her and protect her.

Muslim woman’s appointment as Obama advisor draws cautious optimism – Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-advisor22…

P.S. I would love it if MM could have someone do an interview of her.

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MM Associates

May 10, 2009 at 2:50 AM

[by abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed]

The signs for simple expressions in Arabic: for as salamu alaykum, for bismillah, for inshaAllah, for mashaAllah — these are beautiful to see, and easy to learn. I found some of the videos on the signlabs site were not playing properly. But the site is a gem. One thing I would like to see is more Muslims learning to be sign-language translators.

Chatting with deaf Muslim brothers in NY the other night I discovered that to their knowledge only one masjid in the US has regular khutbah translation for the deaf. And deaf Muslims are flocking to the area alhamdolillah. Who translates for them? A mormon who married a deaf woman to make better Mormon-dawah to the deaf.

For hearing-Muslims to sign is not just to provide knowledge for Muslims who cannot get the most out of khutbahs and classes otherwise — it’s also a great job in these tough economic times. ISNA paid as much as $250/hr for live sign-translation. Sign-translators regularly command those fees, and the Saudis are looking for Muslim brothers who sign to be translators in universities and the pay will be phenomenal bi ‘idhnillah.

Wake up hearing Muslims, can’t you hear the sound of opportunity?

**EDIT courtesy of Tariq Nelson: [The sign-translated khutbah] is in Falls Church, Virginia at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center. The 2nd khutbah has sign language.

Reply
Abd- Allah

May 10, 2009 at 7:52 AM

Oh great, the pope speaking in a masjid… what happened, the usual khateeb didn’t show up that jumu’a?!

The Day of Judgement is near.

Reply
Abu Aisha

May 10, 2009 at 10:32 AM

Assalamualaikum,

Sheikh A’ala Syed, the Imam of ISNA CANADA – Mississauga, is all set to start Arabic Classes every thursday from 7:00PM to 8:30PM starting May 14th, 2009. This , inshaAllah, will be based on the curriculum of Al-Madinah Books and I am sure we all will benefit very highly from this. If you are local to Mississauga or GTA, it is a lifetime opportunity if you desire to learn the Language of Allah to better understand His book. Summary.

ARABIC CLASSES
Starting May 14th, 2009
7:00PM TO 8:30PM
Instructor: Sh. A’ala Syed
Location: ISNA (ICC) Mississauga

Reply
iMuslim

May 10, 2009 at 10:38 AM

There should only be one SignLabs video that is currently unavailable: the common Islamic words one… We should be rerecording it this week, insha’Allah.

What other videos are you having problems with?

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Sakina Al-Amin

May 10, 2009 at 11:17 AM

Yesterday I saw this amazing video at MR’s blog about Ka’ba’s miraculous geographical position on the Earth.
http://www.mujahideenryder.net/2009/04/29/amazing-video-on-the-kaaba-and-its-miracles/

(idk if it was featured here btw)

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sincethestorm

May 10, 2009 at 1:28 PM

I thought I would get a thread started on some famous moms….

– Maryam RA
– Mother of Isa RA
– Aminah (Mother of Prophet Muhammed SAW)

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- Amad
  
  May 10, 2009 at 2:18 PM
  
  Any MM visitors from Qatar here? I may be traveling there in the near future i/a…
  
  Reply
jinn

May 10, 2009 at 5:55 PM

Sheikh Waleed gave khutbah on jinn. Listen to it here:

http://www.themasjid.org/Khutbah

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Amatullah

May 10, 2009 at 8:59 PM

Alhamdulillah – Dar us Salaam in College Park, Maryland is bringing their Shari’ah Intensive Program to everyone with an awesome lineup of instructors including Imam Safi Khan and AlMaghrib Institute’s Shaykh AbdurRahman Hejazy.

InshaAllah classes will be from 6-9PM EST, Monday-Friday for two weeks (July 6th-17th).

For anyone in the area, registration is only $90 on-site if you register before the end of May! And for those who would like to take these classes online, tuition is only $55 before the end of May!

Just to repeat: classes CAN be taken through online streaming if you won’t be attending live inshaAllah!

More info here: http://duscommunity.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=77:intensive-shariah-course&Itemid=191&layout=default

Reply
mohammed

May 11, 2009 at 2:41 AM

salam MM brothers,

why nothing posted related to current issues going on in the world…why so much junk topics posted like most of the jumaa khutbaas where you gain nothing at all…now please instead of attacking me sarcastically try to answer me if you can orelse just ignore my comment…

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Abd- Allah

May 11, 2009 at 2:49 AM

Brother mohammed, instead of complaining, why don’t you enlighten us with some of the current issues that are going on in the world. Just google “current world news” and copy and paste something interesting.

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Muslim

May 11, 2009 at 9:23 AM

http://www.islamic-games.com/

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Shahzad

May 11, 2009 at 11:52 AM

OK: Current issue of the day on the top of my mind: Shariah in Pakistan. When the peace deal was struck in Swat to have Shariah implemented, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to start establishing an even playing field where all Pakistanis can get justice through a system that everyone can agree on. Otherwise Pakistan’s legal and social systems are corrupt and class-based. According to some reports, in the early days of Taliban in Afghanistan there was zero-tolerence on government corruption (What Afghanistan can learn from the Taliban (The Christian Science Monitor)). As for Swat, my dream would have been that with the imposition of Shariah, that more learned, scholarly Islamic judges (qazis) would have established a court system which would eventually keep even the Taliban in check (see Swat Taleban find Sharia a challenge). But alas, a combination of Taliban stupidity and Western pressure has caused the peace deal to crumble. The same story was repeated in Somalia.

Related to this, there is an absence of a “shariah discourse” in our masaajid and intellectual circles. Islamic solutions for our geo-political problems rearely go beyond the “we have to be better Muslims” rhetoric. I really believe that a sincere, intelligent and holistic application of Shariah principles in our homelands can act as a springboard for social, religious, judicial and educational invigoration of our societies.

Any thoughts?

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Abd- Allah

May 11, 2009 at 6:38 PM

Implementing Shri’a is great! However, we must also look at who is implementing it, because if you have a perfect set of laws that is implemented by a corrupt group of people, things might not work out well.

There should be a total islamic system set up to implement the laws, and the government won’t suffice in doing so. The judges need to be scholars to know the deen well and its laws and rulings and in order to avoid any bribes and cheating, and the ones who are executing the verdicts should be good muslims who are just and do not have any worldly gains in mind.

So it is as important to see who will be implementing the laws, and not just that Shari’a is implemented.

and although we hear the “we have to be better Muslims” rhetoric, yet in reality this is the answer. Once we are better muslims, then Shari’a will fall into place on its own. Where as if you try to force Shari’a right now and a bunch of muslims who don’t even pray or practice the basics of islam, then how do you think their implementation of the Shari’a laws will be?!

Allah knows best.

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abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed

May 14, 2009 at 4:30 AM

Over 20 students (including me) are asking you to please give at http://whatkindofperson.com/ilmsummit and please encourage your friends and family to do so, too. More than 10 of those students need your help to meet the May 15 deadline for deposits.

May Allah increase for you your rizq, and make easy for you your hardships. Ameen.

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Hassan

May 15, 2009 at 6:56 AM

Obama apologists, start..

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/14/obama.military.tribunal/index.html

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h

May 18, 2009 at 1:58 AM

Become a FAN of Shariah Program – Toronto – today on Facebook:
http://cli.gs/Z726YT

Reply