Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Mosque

Russia opens huge new mosque ahead of Eid holiday

by

Moscow’s new main mosque opens doors after 10 years of construction work, offering prayer space to 10,000 Muslim.

An estimated two million Muslims live in Moscow [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]

An estimated two million Muslims live in Moscow [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been joined by the Turkish and Palestinian leaders at the ceremonial opening of the Russian capital’s new main mosque after 10 years of construction work.

The $170m mosque – entirely funded by private donations – unveiled on Wednesday, the eve of Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha that is known as Kurban Bairam in Russia.

Putin, who has been fighting Muslim rebels in south Russia since coming to power in 1999, used his speech to emphasize the challenge of preventing Muslim radicalisation, praising the collaboration of the religious leaders of the country.

“Muslim leaders of Russia are courageously using their authority to resist the extremist propaganda. I’d like to express huge respect to these people who are carrying out a really heroic work…” he said.

Islam is the second largest religion in Russia, home to 23 million Muslims. The majority of them live in the country’s North Caucasian republics.

An estimated two million Muslims live in Moscow, which has seen an influx of people from the North Caucasus, Azerbaijan and the former Soviet states in Central Asia.

The new mosque – built on the site of a smaller, more than 100-year-old mosque destroyed in 2011 – can accommodate 10,000 worshippers, but it is still one of only six mosques in the city.

Calls from Muslim religious leaders to build more mosques have met with opposition from city officials and residents.

Mosques not religious place, can be destroyed any time, says Subramanian Swamy. Criminal case filed

by

Subramanian Swamy (Photo credit: Jagran)

Subramanian Swamy (Photo credit: Jagran)

Guwahati: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has sparked off a massive controversy by saying that mosque is not a religious place but is merely a building that can be demolished any time.

Swamy made these controversial statements in a programme at Guwahati. Swamy’s comments have attracted condemnation from all political parties. Even Assam BJP has disassociated themselves from Swamy’s remark.

According to HT, Swamy gave the “example” of mosques demolished for construction of roads in Saudi Arabia. The controversial leader said, “A mosque is not a religious place. It is just a building. It can be demolished any time. If anyone disagrees with me on this, I am ready to have a debate on the issue. I got this information from people of Saudi Arabia”. He stoked another controversy by claiming all Indian Muslims were Hindus. He repeated the controversial comments again on Saturday.

Police have now registered a case registered an FIR under IPC sections 120 (B) [criminal conspiracy] and 153 (A) [promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion] against Swamy following a formal complaint by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS).

KMSS has urged Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to ban Swamy’s entry into the state. HT has quoted Tarun Gogoi as saying, “BJP will have to pay a heavy price for hurting Assamese sentiments”.

The state BJP is in backfoot as Swamy’s comments have evoked sharp reaction from all quarters. Assam BJP president Siddhartha Bhattacharyya has branded Swamy’s comment as his personal opinion. He said that they will send the footage to Central leadership.

Several minority organisations have also demanded strict action against Swamy. It’s not the first time Swamy has made a controversial statement though. From Sashi Tharoor to Sonia Gandhi, Swamy has targeted one and all.

(Agencies)

Egypt closes 27,000 places of worship

by

People perform Friday prayers led by Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi at Al Azhar Mosque in the old part of Cairo, Nov. 16, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

People perform Friday prayers led by Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi at Al Azhar Mosque in the old part of Cairo, Nov. 16, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

by Rami Galal, Al-Monitor

An Egyptian administrative court on Feb. 18 upheld the Ministry of Religious Endowments’ decision issued in September 2013 to close down neighborhood places of worship of less than 80 square meters (861 square feet), a move intended to protect young people from the militancy and extremism that can prevail in such places, which lack the legal standing to hold Friday prayers.

This move sets a precedent that raises many questions about the fate of mosques in many Egyptian villages, the grounds of which are usually less than 80 square meters. In reply, opponents of the decision such as the Salafist Nour Party claimed that closing down places of worship without providing a larger alternative serves to further bolster extremist ideology, considering that the larger existing mosques cannot accommodate Friday worshippers who line surrounding streets to pray. On the opposite end of the spectrum, supporters of the decision such as intellectuals and scholars say that those mosques are time bombs that threaten national security, as they fall outside the purview of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and are used to spread subversive ideologies.

At the same time, the ministry has awarded 400 preaching permits to Salafist leaders without requiring oration tests, despite the ministry’s previous and constant accusations that they spread extremism.

Ahmed Karimeh, a professor of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, told Al-Monitor that legal teachings and conventions specify that Friday, Eid and main prayers must be conducted in a mosque, and not in a neighborhood place of worship. The five daily prayers can be held at these informal sites, but not the special celebration prayers. In that sense, the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments upheld a recognized religious law.

Karimeh explained that closing those neighborhood places of worship, located in apartment buildings, commercial buildings or factories, would help mitigate the influence of extremist religious orators such as those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist groups or Shiites, who use those places of worship to take advantage of religious gatherings. As such, the Ministry of Religious Endowments’ decision, while late, was the correct one.

But Karimeh warned that the move would be to no avail if the ministry allowed people without credentials to take to pulpits. Initially, in August 2013, the ministry allowed only Al-Azhar imams access to pulpits, a decision later reversed in February when, for political considerations, the ministry allowed Salafists to preach, a disastrous decision that turned mosques into time bombs under the control of violent, Salafist-born militant factions, according to Karimeh. Allowing Salafists to preach for political considerations as an Islamic alternative to face the Islamic State ideology, at a time when hundreds of Al-Azhar scholars applied for but were denied preaching permits, runs contrary to the ministry’s repeated statements that it would bar non-Al-Azhar imams from taking the pulpit.

Karimeh criticized the ministry’s examination policy and said that it solely tested the applicant’s memorization of the Quran, without evaluating his general culture. He added that closing down neighborhood places of worship would not be enough to confront extremism. Toward that end, attention must be paid to the preachers, who should be properly schooled and financially compensated, so as to allow them to better educate themselves, instead of having to work as taxi drivers or vegetable vendors to provide for their families.

Karimeh also denied claims that some villages lacked proper mosques. It should be noted that neighborhood places of worship and mosques with surface areas of less than 80 square meters numbered 27,000 in all of Egypt’s provinces and villages.

Before the Ministry of Religious Endowments made its decision, the Egyptian Dar al-Fatwa issued a September 2013 edict, endorsed by a majority of religious scholars, barring the multiplicity of mosques in villages and cities, unless when absolutely necessary, as a plethora of places of worship only serve to divide believers. It explained that group worship was required for all scripted prayers, as those were celebrated for the love of God, but Friday prayers were inherently different, in that they are a form of offering to God.

An estimated 400 permits were issued to Salafists, who pledged not to use Friday prayers for political purposes. A follow-up committee was formed by the ministry in February to oversee new imams during Friday prayers, cancel their permits and initiate legal proceedings against them if they failed to abide by their agreement with the ministry, as well as permanently bar them from taking the pulpit of any mosque in the country.

The Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments previously adopted numerous measures to combat extremism and control religious rhetoric, and continuously affirmed that imams not affiliated with Al-Azhar would never be allowed to preach, going as far as to close down 27,000 neighborhood places of worship. The sudden shift in position by the ministry was followed by it issuing preaching permits to 400 Salafist leadership figures that it considered extremist, a clear reflection of the state of confusion that prevails in Egypt today.

British journalist caught lying about being abused at a Mosque

by

Channel 4’s Cathy Newman Apologises After CCTV Footage Emerges Of Mosque Incident

by Jessica Elgot, The Huffington Post

Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman has apologised after CCTV footage obtained by The Huffington Post UK appeared to contradict her claim that she was “ushered out of the door” of a London mosque on the weekend.

The South London Islamic Centre, where Newman claims she was turned away despite turning up wearing a headscarf, says surveillance video shows the reporter arriving at the mosque, being directed by a male congregant, but leaving alone through the courtyard.

Newman sparked a social media firestorm after tweeting she was “ushered onto the street” during ‘Visit My Mosque Day’ which the mosque said provoked threatening voicemails which it has reported to police.

Footage from inside the mosque of the Channel 4 presenter arriving

Footage from inside the mosque of the Channel 4 presenter arriving

The man in the striped jumper (circled) can be seen in a brief exchange with Newman inside the mosque but does not follow her

Cathy Newman leaving South London Islamic Centre alone

But the mosque, which initially apologised, claims Newman’s story is “not correct” and Newman has now apologised for any “misunderstanding”.

After Newman tweeted that she had been “ushered out of the door”, the story was covered by the national media, including the Guardian, Daily Mail, Independent andThe Huffington Post.

It later emerged Newman had actually gone to the wrong location, and her Channel 4 colleagues were waiting for her 15 minutes away at a mosque that was taking part in the open day.

The CCTV clips show the journalist entering the mosque and beginning to take off her shoes while having a very brief conversation with a congregant in the lobby. The man gestures several times to the left, pointing her in a specific direction. She puts her shoe back on, and leaves alone, walking through the courtyard. The entire encounter lasts just seconds.

The man the journalist spoke to inside, who has been identified by the mosque, claims he misunderstood Newman and directed her to the church next door. The man was not a member of the mosque’s management or religious leadership, and none of the Islamic centre’s committee claim to have seen Newman arrive or leave.

Watch the CCTV clip below

Although she briefly returns to the courtyard, and paces around outside the mosque on the street, she does not appear to speak to anyone else within the mosque’s property, only stopping to speak to a few passing members of the public, well outside the mosque’s confines.

“We can see [from the CCTV] that she arrived and that she came into the lobby by the shoe racks and started to take off one shoes,” Aslam Ijaz, the mosque’s chair of trustees and a founding member of Lambeth Interfaith, told HuffPost UK.

“The prayers had already started and you can see a couple people rushing past her but most people are already inside. The gentleman who you see in the video is obviously pointing in the direction of the church, which is what he thought she wanted to go to.”

Ijaz admitted there may have been a misunderstanding of the man’s stated intention in directing Newman to the church. “Maybe she misunderstood, but he is clearly trying to direct her,” he said. “You can see she turns to leave herself, she looks a little confused and then she comes back into the courtyard again, and you can see her twice coming back to outside the mosque and standing on the pavement.”

The timestamp on the video shown by the mosque to HuffPost UK appears to match Newman’s tweets on Sunday.

The footage does not show anyone attempting to guide or “usher” Newman out of the mosque or “onto the street”, as she wrote in her tweets. “I was really surprised that she would say she was ushered out of the mosque, being a journalist I was surprised she would use that description, it was misrepresented. Now there’s this impression we don’t like women. She said something that was not correct,” Ijaz said. Later, Newman can be seen speaking to two people on the street outside the mosque, one a member of the public who the mosque has not identified and who does not enter the mosque. The other is a local cafe owner who claims he came over to ask if she needed assistance, and is seen gesturing her across the road. He claims he was giving Newman directions, the Hyderi Centre is a fifteen-minute walk away, or a bus ride from a stop across from the mosque. Although the time stamp of the CCTV indicates that Newman was still to send her tweets, neither man came from inside the mosque, making it impossible for them to “usher” Newman out, as she describes. She is last seen crossing the road, away from the mosque.

Cathy Newman outside the Streatham mosque

Ijaz later apologised to Newman for her experience, fearing she had been insulted by an uncouth congregant, but said he had not viewed the CCTV footage at the time. Since the story was picked up by national press, the mosque claims has received two threatening voicemails, which it has reported to the police, and a litany of online abuse, but Ijaz said he took particular affront at the accusation the mosque was anti-women. Newman told the Guardian she believed it must have been a men-only mosque, and was not made aware of this, but Ijaz said that is not the case. “We were the first mosque in the area to have a prayer section for women, both ladies and gentleman are welcome here and it wouldn’t be unusual at all to see a woman here,” he said. “I am known for my interfaith work, whenever there is an event with churches, temples, synagogues, I am there. We have open days here at the mosque, and ladies and gentleman are both invited to attend.”

Newman, who has made it clear in subsequent tweets that she wishes to draw a line under the incident, would not expand on why she claimed she had been ‘ushered out’ of the mosque, but told HuffPost UK: “As the primary purpose of Visit My Mosque day was to increase understanding of Islam, I was horrified to hear the Mosque I visited in error has had death threats.

“I’m sorry for any misunderstanding there has been. I would be happy to pay a private visit to South London Islamic Centre once again.”

“It’s not something I would expect from a journalist from Channel 4, it doesn’t make sense,” another congregant told HuffPost UK, adding that Islam as a religion prioritised hospitality.

When queried as to why the mosque had declined to take part in Visit My Mosque Day, Ijaz said: “We were only informed about this initiative [Visit My Mosque Day] on Friday and it’s too short notice for us. There wasn’t anyone to man it. Next time we have a gathering here, I would love to have Cathy here.”

Outside the mosque, which is indeed next to a church, there is a banner inviting visitors in to receive a free Koran. The mosque’s secretary, who said he was uncomfortable giving his name, told HuffPost UK that the mosque had up to 1,000 congregants on a Friday, and several hundred at other times. He added that although there were many regulars, it would not be unusual for worshippers to see visitors they did not recognise. “We often have school visits, teachers here, it wouldn’t have been something that would have fazed anyone.”

Israeli settlers ‘set fire’ to West Bank mosque

by

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Palestinians look at burnt tires inside a mosque in the West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus September 5, 2011 (Reuters / Abed Omar Qusini)

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Palestinians look at burnt tires inside a mosque in the West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus September 5, 2011 (Reuters / Abed Omar Qusini)

by RT

Israeli settlers have overnight set on fire a mosque near the West Bank town of Ramallah, according to Palestinian security officials.

“The settlers set fire to the whole of the first floor of the mosque” in the village of Al-Mughayir, near the Shilo Jewish settlement, the officials said, as cited by AFP.

A group of Palestinian worshippers who came to the mosque for their morning prayer found the building in flames, Ma’an news agency reports, as cited by the Jerusalem Post.

The worshippers reportedly managed to extinguish the fire. The first floor of the mosque has been severely damaged.

“A call was received in the morning hours about an act of arson against a mosque in the village of Al-Maghir,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, according to Ynetnews. “Police forces…together with the IDF have yet to enter the village in order to open the investigation due to riots in the area.”

Palestinian Mayor Faraj al-Naasan said he had no doubt that Jewish settlers were responsible for the attack, citing a previous settler raid against another mosque in the village two years ago and frequent settler attacks against vehicles and olive groves, AP reported.

“Only Jewish settlers would do this,” al-Naasan said.

Palestinians have filed a complaint with the West Bank’s IDF civil authority, the Times of Israel reports.

Another mosque was torched in the same village two years ago.

The arson attacks by hardline Jewish settlers are often accompanied by a graffiti reading “price tag,” but this was not the case in the latest incident, according to AFP citing Palestinian officials.

An ancient synagogue was also attacked overnight Wednesday, the Haaretz reports. It says the incident happened in Shfaram, an Arab community in northern Israel, where a fire bomb was thrown at the Jewish temple. No one was hurt in the incident, but some damage was done to the building, according to police.

Tensions have lately been high between the Israelis and the Palestinians over disrupted access to another place of worship – the landmark Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

An Israeli border policeman runs during clashes with Palestinian stone throwers following a protest against what organizers say are recent visits by Jewish activists to al-Aqsa mosque, at Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah November 7, 2014 (Reuters / Ammar Awad)

Israeli police have recently repeatedly closed the mosque, triggering an angry outcry from Palestinians.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has warned Israeli to stay away from Al-Aqsa and said has accused Israel of “leading the region and the world to a destructive religious war.”

On Tuesday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank, trying to disperse a rioting Palestinian crowd.

On Monday, an Israeli woman and an IDF soldier were stabbed, allegedly by Palestinians, in two separate attacks.

OIC, GCC condemn Iraq mosque massacre

by

Mos’ab ibn Omayr Mosque massacre

Riyadh/SAUDI PRESS AGENCY: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have condemned the heinous crime perpetrated by armed militiamen who stormed Mos’ab ibn Omayr Mosque in Diyala Province, Iraq on Friday. The attack caused the death of 73 innocent worshippers; scores of others were severely injured.

The secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Iyad Ameen Madani, offered his condolences to the bereaved families of the victims and prayed for the swift recovery of the wounded.

Madani denounced this and similar criminal acts that feed on sectarian strife.

He pointed out that these senseless acts seek to inflame tensions and sow discord among the different components of Iraqi society.

They also threaten the country’s already fragile social peace and harmony at a highly delicate juncture as Iraq scrambles to form a government which the OIC hopes to be all-inclusive, he added.

Madani emphasized that firm measures need to be deployed to confront and hold to account the armed groups and militias that seem determined to unlock sectarian sentiments and fan denominational infighting.

It is not just peaceful coexistence in Iraq that is being jeopardized by the atrocious practices of these armed militias; it is the very future of Iraq that is at stake, he added.

Madani reiterated his appeal to the political leadership in Baghdad and to Iraq’s influential religious figures to work toward a sustainable reconciliation across the different components of Iraqi society.

Madani further reaffirmed the OIC’s readiness to support Iraq by all possible means through this transitional phase in a bid to regain stability and security.

GCC Secretary General Dr. Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al-Zayani called the attack a terrorist crime against all divine religions and on human value s and ethics.
“The heinous crime exposed the moral decadence those militias have reached and how their sectarian approach has driven them to attack worshippers in houses of Allah,” he said.

The GCC chief called for swiftly identifying those responsible for this brutal crime and demanded justice for the innocent victims.

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives