Muslim Brotherhood Chooses Candidate For President In Egypt

The political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood has nominated its longtime strategist and financier Khayrat el-Shater for president, breaking a previous pledge to stay out of the race and upending the political dynamics of Egypt’s transition after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

El-Shater immediately becomes a leading contender for the presidency because of both the popularity and grass-roots organization of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group. Its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, won nearly half the seats in the first post-Mubarak parliamentary election and now leads the Parliament.

Founded eight decades ago, the Brotherhood became the wellspring of political Islam around the world but remained illegal here until Mubarak’s exit. Its leaders, including El-Shater, initially vowed not to nominate a candidate for president for fear of provoking a military backlash against the sudden prospect of an Islamist takeover. They cited the example of the crackdown in Algeria 20 years ago after an Islamist victory there, which started a decade-long civil war.

But in recent weeks the Brotherhood has grown more confident in its power. It showed success at convincing the Western powers that it was more moderate than some had feared. And it also began to see a field of presidential front-runners dominated by Islamists who could be specially troubling to its status and position.

One of them is Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a liberal Islamist and former leader of the Brotherhood who the group led by El-Shater expelled for violating its vow not to run a presidential candidate. The Brotherhood has since redoubled its opposition to his candidacy, warning its roughly 1 million members they would be expelled for supporting him. The prospect that he might win or perform well despite its opposition could splinter the Brotherhood’s ranks and undermine its credibility and discipline. But its continued opposition to his candidacy for violating a pledge that the group itself has now retracted may now be difficult to explain.

Another top contender is Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Islamist. Such conservatives performed unexpectedly well in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, winning about a quarter of the seats. But Abu Ismail has embraced conservative ideas about the application of Islamic law as well as a hostility to the West that could also undermine the Brotherhood’s efforts to portray Egypt’s Islamists as both moderate and unthreatening.

El-Shater has long been considered a voice for modernization and democracy within the Brotherhood and in Egypt. He is a wealthy businessman and associated with support for limited government and free trade. But he has more recently alienated some in the group, especially among its youth, by opposing their calls for allowing more pluralism in the group’s political expression. He has stood for the idea that the group and its members should fall in line behind the decisions of leaders about how best to apply Islam to public life.

Muslims From Combodia Dream Of Islamic Finance

PHNOM PENH,14 March 2012 (IINA)-Aspiring to a better standard of living, Cambodia’s Muslims are dreaming of introducing the Islamic finance to the Buddhist country to lure investments from the Muslims-majority states in the Middle East and Asia.

“Most investors in the Middle East are certainly looking for Islamic-compliant business in countries that aren’t majority Muslim,” Ashraf Bin Md Hashim, head of consultancy at the International Sharia Research Academy for Islamic Finance, told the Phnom Penh Post on Monday, March 12.

“This could open an Islamic banking window here.”

Speaking on the sidelines of Cambodia’s first conference on halal finance, hosted by Cambodian Intelligent Investor Organization, Hashim said the Islamic finance is almost nonexistent among Cambodia’s Muslims.Cambodian Muslims hope that by introducing Islamic finance, already booming in Malaysia and Middle Eastern countries, they could dominate trade with those countries and attract investment from Islamic banks in the region.

This trade would help in improving living standards for Cambodian Muslims, who generally have a lower standard of living than their Khmer countrymen.“If we look at the Muslim population in Cambodia, we don’t have anything,” Hashim said.“In business, we have to start from the bottom. We need more resources.”

Muslims make up around 2 percent of Cambodia’s 13 million populations, who are mainly Buddhists.Cambodian Muslims are generally located in towns and rural fishing villages on the banks of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers and in Kampot Province in the south.The majority of Cambodian Muslims belong to the ethnic group known as Cham– a reference to an ancient empire of warriors.

Islam forbids Muslims from receiving or paying interest on loans.Islamic banks and finance institutions cannot receive or provide funds for anything involving alcohol, gambling, pornography, tobacco, weapons or pork.By introducing Islamic finance, Cambodia’s Muslims hope they would live closer to Islamic law.

“There’s a demand from the Muslim community here,” Cambodian Intelligent Investor Organisation CEO Sles Nazy told the Post.“I have seen some problems because right now Muslims can’t follow Islamic law when they borrow money, even if they want to.”

According to Nazy, Islamic finance would most likely first appear in Cambodia in the form of microfinance that would not collect interest on loans.Sharia-compliant microfinance would also invest small businesses and properties.

The Islamic finance is also expected to boost relations between Cham Muslims and the Middle East.Muslim-run businesses in Cambodia could attract financing from Islamic banks in Southeast Asia if a better understanding of the practices was developed, said Sulaiman Muhammad, who imports halal food from Malaysia.

“Muslim companies in Cambodia are short on capital,” he said.“If there was more Islamic finance here, Islamic banks in Malaysia might invest in our companies. ”Islamic banks have proved a success because of rules that forbid investing in collateralized debt obligations and other toxic assets that cause financial crises.

The Islamic banking system is being practiced in 50 countries worldwide, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the global financial industry.Starting almost three decades ago, the Islamic banking industry has made substantial growth and attracted the attention of investors and bankers across the world.A long list of international institutions, including Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank, are going into the Islamic banking business.

Islamic Pop Star Sami Yusuf Announces First Concert in Post-Revolutionary Nation

Tunisia will host Islamic pop superstar Sami Yusuf for the first time this April 27th, 2012 in Salle Omnisports of Radès in Tunis.

Yusuf, who hails from the UK, shot to fame in the Arab world with songs about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. His songs combine English, Arabic, and Turkish lyrics, using both Arab and Western instruments. In 2006, he was rated Islam's Biggest Rock Star by Time magazine.

Tahar Ben Ammar, the event planner and CEO of Avantages, the agency organizing the concert, says that Yusuf had refused to come to Tunisia under Ben Ali's regime. He had been asked by Sakhr Materi, the son-in-law of former president Ben Ali.

"Sami Yusuf generally does not like to be involved with any political party. He wants to keep the image of a committed singer," he stated.

And according to his many international and Tunisian fans, Yusuf has done just that. His songs speak of love, peace, and devotion to Allah. Yassine Laabidi, the Project Manager for Tunisia Charity, felt that this is something that resonates with a subset of Tunisian youth.

"They sing about peace and love with noble ideas to denounce extremism and violence," he said.

Tunisia Charity was established in 2011, shortly after the Tunisian revolution. The NGO's mission is to support underprivileged Tunisians. On March 11th, 2012, they held a concert by Mesut Kurtis, another Islamic pop star. The event raised money for Tunisian orphans, and was an opportunity for citizens of this largely Muslim nation to help those less fortunate.

During the summer festivals, Tunisia Charity plans to invite other religious singers, such as Saber Rebai and Lotfi Bouchnak - both Tunisian.

These kinds of events are a new development in Tunisia. Since the 1990s, popularity of Western pop music has increased in the nation. Tunisian youth, in particular, took to this musical genre that allowed them to open up to the outside world.

Islamic pop sprang up as an offshoot of this trend in the early 2000s. It gained a following in the West, particularly in the English-speaking world, in countries like the UK, the USA and Canada. It blends pop music and Islamic vocals (including Sufi-style singing), earning its own musical genre - "Nasheed."

Islamic pop's singers became famous with Muslims living in the Western world, and in the last decade with many Arab youth. Now, it is Tunisia's turn.

Laabidi told Tunisia Live that before the Tunisian Revolution, restrictions existed for Islamic pop singers wanting to perform in Tunisia. With the exception of Yusuf's invitation from Materi, no Islamic pop singer could give a concert during the Ben Ali era. The old regime was suspicious of the Islamic spiritual influence of their songs, and of the type of audience they attract.

Now with more freedom in Tunisia, Yusuf is happy to come for the first time to perform for his Tunisian fans. The singer declared on his website that he has been waiting to come and perform in Tunisia for the last nine years. Avantages hopes to organize more concerts with him this summer, during the Sidi Mansour Festival in Sfax and in the Carthage International Festival in Tunis.

"Sami's visit to Tunisia will pay tribute to Tunisians for their noble revolution which he respects. Sami is very happy to come to Tunisia," Ben Ammar said.

Avantages will announce the selling of the concert's tickets early in April 2012.

Nigerian Muslims Speak : Boko Haram Is Not “Islamic”

Muslim leaders and Islamic organizations in Nigeria are expressing dissatisfaction with the consistent reference to Boko Haram as an "Islamic sect" in the media. According to them, such a description is misleading and “unacceptable”.

When Boko Haram began its spree of bombing and public fracas back in 2009, the labeling of it as “Islamic” by the Nigerian and international media was spontaneous and immediate. The Muslim community in Nigeria had no objection to such a qualification, even though they mainly disagreed with the use of violence by the group in pursuing its objectives. At the time this description was justified by the sect’s declaration that it was fighting for the complete enthronement of Sharia in Nigeria. Its self-adopted appellation – Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lida’wati waj Jihad (meaning “society of followers of the Prophet’s way in preaching and striving”) – also gave credence to, and justified such connection of the group with Islam by the media.

Changing Perceptions

Since then, a series of events have resulted in Muslim opinion leaders, Islamic movements as well as the ordinary Muslims refusing to accept the description accorded to the group by the media. They have utilized several channels and mediums to convey their preference for the description of the group as simply militant, saying that most of its victims are even Muslims.

The chairman of ‘Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria’ (MMPN), Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Balogun questioned the Islamic label affixed to the militant group, at a symposium organized by the MMPN in Abuja on February 6. The sect’s campaign of deadly onslaughts, he contended, runs contrary to the preaching of Islam and renders an affiliation of the former with the latter, both self-contradictory and erroneous.

‘The Muslim Congress’ (TMC) in a statement signed by its Amir, Mallam Luqman AbdurRaheem and presented to the ‘O’odua Muslim-Christian Youth Dialogue Group’ (OMC-YDG) on the 23rd of February declared that “the Muslim Ummah frowned at the statement ‘Boko Haram Islamic Sect’ as consistently reported by Nigeria media and insinuated by some elements. The appellation “Boko Haram sect” is appropriate; please leave Islam or Islamic out because Islam adopts non-violent preaching as tools for social change not killings and bombings.”

Also, the Director of ‘Muslim Rights Concern’ (MURIC), Dr Is-haq Akintola, in a press statement, condemned the group’s brutality which he said do not represent Islam. “We denounce Boko Haram’s violent approach particularly its attacks on rival religious targets. MURIC affirms clearly, unequivocally and unambiguously that Boko Haram is not fighting for Nigerian Muslims,” he said.

Adding his voice to the increasing body of Muslim leaders, the Director of Media and Communications at the ‘Muslim Public Affairs Centre’ (MPAC), Disu Kamor said: “The Boko Haram group does not speak or act for Islam or the Muslims. We reject their rhetoric, we oppose their violent methodology, we pray that the wind of time blows them away as quickly as other extremist groups before them, and we remain proud of the religion which God has blessed us with.”

Common Voices

The position taken by these Islamic organizations appears to be shared by ordinary Muslims in Nigeria. A recent Gallup survey published in February which interviewed 1,000 persons in Nigeria aged 15 and above found that about 60% of Nigerian Muslims denounce the sect and its description. “Nigerians do not embrace the anti-Western rhetoric of Boko Haram, the militant movement is behind a series of deadly attacks in the country. About 6 in 10 Nigerians believe (contrary to Boko Haram’s view) greater interaction with the West is more of a benefit than a threat,” the survey said.

The Boko Haram, whose name translates as “Western education is sacrilege” claims that contact between the Muslims on one hand and the West with its institutions, civilization and ideals on the other hand corrodes the faith and Islamic values of the Muslims. It therefore attacks government institutions, security establishments and churches all of which it claims promote Western values.

In a recent video message posted on You Tube, its leader, Abubakar Shekau declared that “Everyone knows that democracy and the constitution is paganism and everyone knows there are some things that God has forbidden in the Quran that cannot be counted, even Western education…This religion of Christianity you are practicing is not a religion of God – it is paganism. God frowns at it. What you are practicing is not religion.”

In recent times, it has intensified its attacks on schools, mosques and even Muslims, which it sees as opposing its violent ideology.

A quick perusal of users’ comments and postings on Nigerian internet news sites and social networking sites reveal the frequent denunciation of the Boko Haram and expressions of displeasure with the pattern of media reportage by Muslims in Nigeria. A Facebook user, Idris Adediran posted: “People should stop associating Boko Haram with Islam because all their actions are contrary. The question we should ask is: which Islamic goal has been or will be achieved by killing and bombing Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria?”

Zubair Aisha, a resident in Ibadan, Oyo State told “Islam Online” that the pattern of media reportage is “unacceptable”. “It’s sickening and unacceptable to us as Muslims to sit down and allow some ignorant fellows drag the noble name of Islam in the mud all in the name of reporting the activities of bunches of evil-minded, stone-hearted, lawless thugs who appear never to have heard even the teslim (Islamic greeting) let alone be Muslims, and the sorry side to it all is having some so-called literate and well-informed people swallow the shallow water hook, line and sinker,” she asserted.

Others consider the media labeling as discriminatory since Christians caught committing terrorist acts are not linked to their faith. “As the press tag Muslims who perpetrates evils different kind of names to discredit Islamic faith on the face of the earth, should we now call Breivik a "Christianist", "Christian Radicalist" or "Christian Fundamentalist" just because he's a Christian knowing fully well that the two religions does not preach violence and terrorism?” Abdullateef As-sudaisiy, a Lagos-based legal practitioner told “Islam Online”.

Notwithstanding all these, the Nigerian media, like many international media outfits, seems to have concluded that there's only one type of terrorist group – the "Islamic" or "Islamist". At times, “Islamist” is even substituted for the group’s notorious name, “Boko Haram”. Bloodcurdling headlines like “Islamists bomb churches, slaughter 32” are becoming commonplace.

The persistence in the usage of “Islamic” to portray Boko Haram has the potential of brewing abhorrence for Islam, Muslims and the religion in general. Abdul Hafeez Ganiyy, a bricklayer in Kwara State recounted to “Islam Online”, his recent ordeal when he travelled with about 29 of his co-workers to Owerri, Imo state last month. “When we got to Ara Junction, the policemen made us alight our bus and they searched every belonging in our bus because of me. Worst still, they did not check only me; they said I could have bombs on me,” he explained.

“When we continued (the journey), my fellow travelers questioned, ‘why I should have a beard and why I should wear my trousers above my ankles?’ ‘Didn’t I know that’s how the Boko Haram dresses?” he said.

United Emirates Arab Third Richest Islamic Country

The UAE residents are estimated to be third richest in the Muslim world with per capita income of $49,600 (Dh182, 000), according to the latest study on Islamic finance and wealth management.

Qatar leads the Muslims world with per capita income of $79,000 followed by Brunei at $51,600, said Bank Sarasin’s report titled “The path to corporate transformation – converting a company to Islam”.

According to International Monetary Fund’s estimate UAE’s per capita income was Dh178, 351 ($48,597) in 2011, making its residents the sixth-richest in the world.

“Personal income across the Muslim world varies substantially. With the Muslim world having as many disparate parts as a mosaic has tiles, market complexities present huge challenges. But many of these markets are simply too big to ignore. For example, there are an estimated 140 million Muslims in India, 40 million in China, 14-20 million in Russia, 10-13 million in the US and about 30 million in the European Union,” Bank Sarasin’s analysts said in the report.


Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries dominate the top list with Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia ranked fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Kuwait’s per capital stood at $48,900, Bahrain at $40,300, Oman at $25,600 and Saudi at $24,200, Bank Sarasin said.

According to the report, citizens of Bangladesh, Sudan and Pakistan have the lowest income among the Muslim countries. Per capital income in Bangladeshi was estimated at $1,700, Sudan at $2,300 and Pakistan at $2,500.

Calls for unified GCC regulations

The report also called for the GCC to take a leadership role by establishing standards for the registration of Islamic investment products with one regulator. This would allow asset managers to market products to clients across the Gulf without the lengthy and costly registration process now required since products must now comply with different regulations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.

The report also noted the leadership demonstrated by Malaysia, not only in terms of Islamic finance, but with regard to halal production.

Oliver Stone Fully Supports His Son Sean's Decision To Convert To Islam

Famed director Oliver Stone fully supports his son Sean's decision to convert to Islam, but the actor-turned-filmmaker fears others in Hollywood may not be so accepting.

Sean Stone, who has appeared in several of his father's films, underwent a conversion ceremony in Iran earlier this month (Feb. 12) and he has confirmed his Oscar-winning dad is happy with his decision to become a Muslim.

He tells New York Post gossip column PageSix, "My dad said, 'Allah be with you.' My father understands that I am trying to bridge certain gaps and bring about peace."

However, Sean fears others in the movie industry may now be reluctant to give him work, adding, "Having people within the film industry express a reluctance to work with me now that I have said a simple prayer... I am sure I have (angered) some powerful people....

"People have speculated that I have done this because I am from a spoiled family or that I am lost and trying to find myself. That is ridiculous. I don't care if I get criticized. If I can open up a debate about religion and create some understanding, then it is worth it."

USA Is No Imam

2 years ago, John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top adviser on counterterrorism, spoke to members of a Muslim student group in a packed auditorium at the law school where I teach, offering his audience the White House’s position about what jihad does and does not mean.
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Ted McGrath

Later that year, on a panel with me in that same auditorium, a commentator, Haroon Moghul, drew attention to efforts by American officials to build global networks of “acceptable” Muslim leaders.

There are other examples like these around the country. The Ohio Department of Public Safety has produced and distributed literature that declares, “When extremists attack and kill in the name of jihad, mainstream Muslims consider such acts as a total deviation from the true religion of Islam.”

Homeland Security officials were signed up for a 2010 conference in which one topic was “Seeking a Counter-Reformation in Islam.” In 2004, an inspector general criticized the Bureau of Prisons because it failed to “examine the doctrinal beliefs of applicants for religious service positions to determine whether those beliefs are inconsistent with B.O.P. security policies.”

In each of these cases, counterterrorism has put officials on a collision course with Islamic thought and practice and, perhaps more dangerously, with the Constitution. The First Amendment prohibits government action “respecting an establishment of religion.”

From a national security point of view, challenging ideas that underpin radical Islam makes sense. Counterterrorism is ultimately about ideas; why shouldn’t officials try to marginalize the theological teachings cited by violent terrorists?

The problem is that when American officials intervene in Islamic teachings — interpreting them to believers in a national-security context and saying which are or are not acceptable — they create tensions, both legal and strategic.

The strategic problem is easier to see: Is the government a credible authority on Islamic interpretation? Based on the results of comparable efforts in Britain, the answer is a resounding no. Simply put, young Muslim men in the thrall of radical teachings will not embrace a more pacific theology because the F.B.I. tells them to, any more than Catholic bishops would have yielded to Mr. Obama’s plan to mandate coverage of contraceptives at Catholic hospitals if he had invoked canon law to defend his position.

Then there’s the legal problem. Constitutionally speaking, a government official who sets out to determine what a contested concept within Islam means, or which imams have the right to speak for a particular community, would be in danger of transgressing one of the cardinal tenets of the Establishment Clause: the secular state shall not become an arbiter of religious content.

The framers of the First Amendment, who were intimately aware of the complex relationships among the British monarchy, the Church of England and dissenting churches within that realm, understood that a government might seek to control or co-opt a church.

If that concern seems hypothetical, it is because for a generation cases on the Establishment Clause that have reached the Supreme Court have focused not on state encroachments on religion but on religious encroachments on the state. (Think of prayer in classrooms, or religious monuments on public land.)

But whether the state might try to dominate religion itself — known in early political theory as Erastianism — was an important concern for Jefferson and Madison. And the Supreme Court reaffirmed this core dimension of the Establishment Clause last month when it unanimously recognized the validity of the so-called ministerial exception to federal anti-discrimination laws. The court held that denying a church the ability to fire a Lutheran minister — even on grounds that would have been deemed illegal in a lay workplace — amounted to allowing the state to control the church. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote, “By forbidding the ‘establishment of religion’ and guaranteeing the ‘free exercise thereof,’ the Religion Clauses ensured that the new Federal Government — unlike the English Crown — would have no role in filling ecclesiastical offices.”

While no one is suggesting that our government today is “filling ecclesiastical offices,” some of its strategies to undercut radical Islamic ideology are a step in that direction. Beyond playing the role of theologian through official pronouncements on contested concepts like jihad, the government inappropriately serves as a missionary when it looks to convert would-be radicals and backs up its efforts with taxpayer-financed outreach.

Those programs go well beyond the government’s clear legal authority to address concrete threats to public safety; they put secular officials in the dubious enterprise of trying to shape the beliefs of American Muslims.

If I am right that the government is increasingly in danger of establishing an “official Islam,” a project that is at best ill-fated if not illegal, are there any good alternatives? Fortunately, yes.

Countering radical religious ideology is on much more solid constitutional — and strategic — footing if the heavy lifting is done not by the government but by grass-roots organizations that are grounded in civil society or in religious communities. The government must not be heavily and directly involved.

The relationship between the national security imperative and a great religious civilization is inevitably fraught. Reconciling the two won’t be achieved by allowing officials to become more active in espousing theological alternatives to radical Islam — or in training law-enforcement and intelligence professionals with hateful caricatures of Islam. The government’s efforts ought to be guided instead by the wisdom of the First Amendment and the values that it enshrines.

Hollywood Ignore Muslims Stone

Sean Stone, son of controversial director Oliver Stone, converted to Islam in Iran last week and says he’s already experiencing a Hollywood backlash.

The ceremony was held in Isfahan, where he is researching a documentary. He now goes by the name of Sean Christopher Ali Stone.

He told Page Six: “I’ve already experienced the reverse of anti-Semitism, having people within the film industry express a reluctance to work with me now that I have said a simple prayer, ‘There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his messenger.’ I am sure I have [bleeped] off some powerful people.” Speaking over dinner at Barrio 47, Sean told us, “Having read the Koran and having been around the Islamic culture, especially in Iran, I do believe that Mohammed is a prophet of the same god worshipped by other religions.

“I am of a Jewish bloodline, a baptized Christian who accepts Christ’s teachings, the Jewish Old Testament and the Holy Koran. I believe there is one God, whether called Allah or Jehovah or whatever you wish to name him. He creates all peoples and religions. I consider myself a Jewish Christian Muslim.

“What I am trying to do is open up a dialogue about religion. There is such Islamophobia in the West. Islam is not a religion of violence any more than Judaism or Christianity is.”

He said his dad welcomed the move.

“My dad said, ‘Allah be with you.’ My father understands that I am trying to bridge certain gaps and bring about peace.”

But he has been shocked by the reaction from others. Sean, about to release his horror movie “Graystone,” said, “I didn’t realize I would be so vilified. It is almost like I am a criminal for having accepted Islam. I didn’t realize Islamophobia was that deep. People have speculated that I have done this because I am from a spoiled family or that I am lost and trying to find myself. That is ridiculous.

“I don’t care if I get criticized. If I can open up a debate about religion and create some understanding, then it is worth it.”

Sources : NY Post

Australia's Will Establish First Islamic Museum Early 2014

For three years a corporate banker has been striving to realise his dream of establishing Australia's first Islamic museum.That dream will be a step closer to reality with a formal announcement tonight that the project will go ahead.

Simon Lauder visited the site of the museum in Melbourne and discovered some little known connections between Australia and Islam.

SIMON LAUDER: Just a few kilometres north of Melbourne's CBD, Moustafa Fahour is planning to transform an old warehouse into a cultural hot spot.

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: This part of the building is sort of three levels so I'll first show you upstairs...

SIMON LAUDER: He wants the museum to have a distinctly Australian flavour.


MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: This is a working model of what the museum will look like. Using that red desert colour you can see the metal mesh with Islamic traditional calligraphy that swivels right around but inside here is a billabong.


SIMON LAUDER: So even in the design I can see you are deliberately blending Islamic culture and Australian.

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: Exactly, and that's why it called the Islamic Museum of Australia because most of the board, we're all Australian Muslims.

SIMON LAUDER: Mr Fahour has dedicated years to this project and there's still a long way to go.

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: I should have realised building a museum can't be done on the side of my full-time job as a corporate banker. I had to commit to this full-time and I really wanted to see this museum come up and that is how much I believed in it.

SIMON LAUDER: The museum will have four permanent exhibits - Islamic Practices, Islamic Art, the Contribution of Islam to Civilisation, and Australian Muslim History.

That's the one Mr Fahour feels most passionate about. He undertook a tour of the Australian outback to gather that history first hand.

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: We covered 13,000 kilometres. We were at five states, a territory including Arnhem Land. We sat with a number of academics and said let's hear the story.

SIMON LAUDER: He was surprised to learn that visitors from Indonesia brought an Islamic influence to Australia before European settlement.

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: To see that the Indigenous traded, inter-married with Indonesian Muslims is amazing and just to hear that history and to see that influence and we were lucky enough to be there and be invited in Arnhem Land is phenomenal and to be able to document that history and put it together and have it in one centre and to share it to everybody, all Australians, that makes me excited.

SIMON LAUDER: Do you think a lot of Australians will be surprised to learn about it?

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: Being myself an Australian-born Muslim and I didn't know about it, I probably was able then to take, use probability and work out that most people wouldn't know about it let alone some of the Muslims as well.

 SIMON LAUDER: Tonight Mr Fahour is hosting a soil turning ceremony to celebrate the success of his fund raising efforts. The private sector and governments have both contributed enough funds to turn the warehouse into a museum.

Mr Fahour says the cultural backlash against Islam which followed the September 11 attacks highlighted the need for Muslims to do a better job of educating others about Islam. He says the centre will be the first Islamic museum in Australia.


MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: And it is not something that you know, I tried to be sort of proud about because I think something like this probably should have been done a long time ago.

SIMON LAUDER: Why do you think it hasn't?

MOUSTAFA FAHOUR: Maybe because of the new wave sort of, you know, if you look at Muslims in Australia, all the migrant stories, most of them are migrants like many other nationalities and religions so the time here in Australia hasn't been that great and I think it was just a matter of time.

SIMON LAUDER: The Islamic Museum of Australia is due to open by late next year or early 2014.

Source : ABC

Pennsylvania Muslim Leaders Threaten Muslim Business Owners With Boycott If They Don't Stop Selling Alcohol, Tobacco And Pork

Whatever the cogency of their moral critique of alcohol and tobacco, these Muslim leaders are pushing for a solution that is characteristically Islamic: instead of working to teach Muslim youth self-control and the virtues of avoiding drinking, smoking and drug use, they want to make it impossible for them to fall into these vices by making them unavailable. This is the same mentality that, instead of teaching men to respect women and control themselves, forces women to cover themselves up in public, ostensibly so as to remove all temptation.

And above all this is a Sharia move. If it weren't, they wouldn't be pressuring the store owners to stop selling pork as well. Their attempt to portray this as a strike for morality and the common welfare falls flat when they bring the pork ban into it. Here again, Muslims are trying to force non-Muslims -- in this case, those who live near and patronize these stores -- to abide by Sharia provisions, instead of simply refraining themselves from the things to which they object.

"Muslim group asks stores to remove alcohol, tobacco," by John Kopp for the Delaware County Daily Times, February 16 (thanks to Robert):

CHESTER — A group of Islamic leaders is urging Muslim business owners to stop selling alcohol, tobacco and drug paraphernalia, which are prohibited in the Quran because they contribute to the destruction of humanity.

The United Muslim Coalition for Chester Citizens Against Violence and Crime mailed out a letter detailing the request to 16 Muslim-owned businesses last month.

The coalition wants the businesses to stop selling such products because they run counter to Islam and also contribute to the drug and violence problem plaguing Chester. The coalition claims the business owners are ignoring passages in the Quran that call for Muslims to protect others from harm.

“They’re preying on the addictions that plague our community,” Imam Haneef Mahdi said. “We’re trying to eradicate from the root those things that are hurting our community.”

Imam Farid W. Rasool said many people buy blunts from these stores strictly to lace the wraps with marijuana, cocaine or embalming fluid. The latter is known as “wet” on the streets.

Rasool said many of Chester’s youth engaged in drugs and violence identify with the Muslim faith. Coalition leaders said they are tired of seeing these youth — and others who don’t identify with Islam — dying on the streets.

“We have a right to request that you stop contributing to the death of your community,” Keith Muhammad said. “We are asking as a community for you to stop. That should be respected. Certainly, out of the law of Islam, you should be moved.”

Coalition leaders said they are just one cog in a broader effort to improve Chester. They said they simply are asking their fellow Muslims to adhere to their faith and stop taking actions detrimental to the community.

If the business owners do not cease selling forbidden products, the coalition said it will ask the public to stop supporting those businesses.

Coalition leaders do not view their efforts merely as another anti-violence group taking action.

They said they want to influence the morality of the community and are calling on Muslim business owners to cease living a contradictory lifestyle.

“We live by example,” Muhammad said. “That is what we’re trying to get them to do.”

In their letter, the coalition also asked Muslim business owners to cease selling pork and any other products also forbidden in the Quran.

The Muslim leaders spent two weeks visiting each of the establishments, because none of them responded to their letter or attended their meeting, they said.

Mahdi said many of the business owners expressed concerns about profits. Some store operators are immigrants more focused on prospering in America than following their religion, he said.

“The concern was normally the monetary loss that would be taken if they removed these products from their stores,” Mahdi said. “There are certainly other things they could be selling that would make their businesses profitable.”

Coalition leaders noted at least 25 Muslim-owned businesses are making profits by selling wholesome products. There is no need to sell forbidden products, they said.

“We are enjoined to have love in our hearts to every human being,” Nusrat J. Rashid said. “Why on earth would you want another human being to be subject to these dangers?”

Western Media Angrily To Stone's Conversion To Islam

The conversion to Islam by Sean Ali Stone - the son of Oliver Stone, the renowned Oscar-winning US director - has aroused angry reactions in the western media.
Born to a Jewish father and Christian mother, Sean Stone converted to Islam in a ceremony in the Central Iranian city of Isfahan on February 14.

Sean Stone became a Shiite Muslim and chose the Muslim name of Ali as announced at the ceremony held in the Iranian historical city of Isfahan.

The AFP tried to portray the move as a superficial move by highlighting and maneuvering on Ali Stone's remarks who said "the conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with".

Stone's words highlight his true understanding of Islam, as Muslims all throughout the world feel respect for all divine religions and do not reject Judaism or Christianity. Actually Muslims believe that Islam is the latest, the last and the most complete religion in the line of the divine faiths and religions bestowed to man by the Almighty God.

The 27-year-old filmmaker is a graduate of history from Princeton University and has collaborated on many of his father's projects.

The Big Hollywood website, in an article titled "The Horrors of Hollywood Parenting", tried to portray Ali Stone's conversion to Islam as a negative parental effect on the younger generation's attitude.

Muslim Student Group in USA Raises $4,000 To Send Water To Drought Stricken Africa

Officially the famine in the Horn of Africa is over, according to the United Nations. But the aftermath of the seven-month-long drought, especially in Somalia, a nation torn by civil strife and without a central government, is predicted to be long-lasting.

Members of the Muslim Student Association, or MSA, at the University of Maine have raised $4,000 to send to the Humanitarian African Relief Organization, which coordinates the delivery of food and water to drought-stricken camps, town and villages. Students will outline their efforts in a presentation, “Bringing Hope to Somalia: Crisis in the Horn,” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, in 100 Neville Hall.

Many of the 30 or so members of the student group have roots in Africa and felt a need to do something to help. Although the MSA has taken on other projects, the group has not raised this much money before. Student organizers said that UMaine students and members of the Islamic Center of Maine, located near campus in Orono, have been generous in support their efforts.

Tens of thousands have died and more than two million people in Somalia and nearly 10 million throughout the Horn of Africa depend on food aid for survival, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Drought conditions could return in May, when the dry season begins.

“Somalia has many issues and the longest-lasting revolution in Africa that is still going on,” Abdu Traheem Sbayi, vice president of the Muslim Student Association, said

at the group’s weekly meeting. “That and the drought have affected all social classes. By providing clean water, we are providing life.”

The group chose to work with Humanitarian African Relief Organization, or HARO, in part because Said Ibrahim, a university student majoring in social work, knows some of the people involved with the group in Africa. Unlike some better-known groups, HARO is run by locals. Other groups, such as Feed the Children and the United Nations relief programs, are providing food.

“The water is transported to camps and cities and villages in large trucks,” Nabeel Hashimi of Veazie said. “It costs $20 to supply water to one family for one month. For $4,000 we can provide water to 200 families for a month.”

The drought has affected 12 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya, the Monitor reported earlier this month. While conditions have eased in East Africa, there are signs that drought has spread to West Africa.

“People there are just trying to get the basics,” Hina Hashimi, secretary of the MSA, said. “We don’t even think about water. We just turn on a tap.”

One of the Five Pillars of Islam is zakat. Although it is often compared to tithing for Christians, Muslims have a personal responsibility to ease the economic hardships of others. The students did not specifically mention zakat in talking about their fundraising efforts.

Leaders said Monday’s event is a way to raise the profile of the MSA on and off campus and to demonstrate that charity is a tenet of their faith.

The organization this spring will sponsor Islamic Awareness Week, a weeklong program on campus that will include special events and guest speakers.

Source : IINA

NYPD Monitored Muslim Students All Over Northeast

 The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the elite Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned.

Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles (480 kilometers) away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.

Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Asked about the monitoring, police spokesman Paul Browne provided a list of 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations, which the NYPD referred to as MSAs. Jesse Morton, who this month pleaded guilty to posting online threats against the creators of the animated TV show "South Park," had once tried to recruit followers at Stony Brook University on Long Island, Browne said.

"As a result, the NYPD deemed it prudent to get a better handle on what was occurring at MSAs," Browne said in an email. He said police monitored student websites and collected publicly available information, but did so only between 2006 and 2007.

"I see a violation of civil rights here," said Tanweer Haq, chaplain of the Muslim Student Association at Syracuse. "Nobody wants to be on the list of the FBI or the NYPD or whatever. Muslim students want to have their own lives, their own privacy and enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that everybody else has."

In recent months, the AP has revealed secret programs the NYPD built with help from the CIA to monitor Muslims at the places where they eat, shop and worship. The AP also published details about how police placed undercover officers at Muslim student associations in colleges within the city limits; this revelation has outraged faculty and student groups.

Though the NYPD says it follows the same rules as the FBI, some of the NYPD's activities go beyond what the FBI is allowed to do.

Kelly and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeatedly have said that the police only follow legitimate leads about suspected criminal activity.

But the latest documents mention no wrongdoing by any students.

In one report, an undercover officer describes accompanying 18 Muslim students from the City College of New York on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York on April 21, 2008. The officer noted the names of attendees who were officers of the Muslim Student Association.

"In addition to the regularly scheduled events (Rafting), the group prayed at least four times a day, and much of the conversation was spent discussing Islam and was religious in nature," the report says.

Praying five times a day is one of the core traditions of Islam.

Jawad Rasul, one of the students on the trip, said he was stunned that his name was included in the police report.

"It forces me to look around wherever I am now," Rasul said.

But another student, Ali Ahmed, whom the NYPD said appeared to be in charge of the trip, said he understood the police department's concern.

"I can't blame them for doing their job," Ahmed said. "There's lots of Muslims doing some bad things and it gives a bad name to all of us, so they have to take their due diligence."

City College criticized the surveillance and said it was unaware the NYPD was watching students.

"The City College of New York does not accept or condone any investigation of any student organization based on the political or religious content of its ideas," the college said in a written statement. "Absent specific evidence linking a member of the City College community to criminal activity, we do not condone this kind of investigation."

Browne said undercover officers go wherever people they're investigating go. There is no indication that, in the nearly four years since the report, the NYPD brought charges connecting City College students to terrorism.

Student groups were of particular interest to the NYPD because they attract young Muslim men, a demographic that terrorist groups frequently draw from. Police worried about which Muslim scholars were influencing these students and feared that extracurricular activities such as paintball outings could be used as terrorist training.

The AP first reported in October that the NYPD had placed informants or undercover officers in the Muslim Student Associations at City College, Brooklyn College, Baruch College, Hunter College, City College of New York, Queens College, La Guardia Community College and St. John's University. All of those colleges are within the New York City limits.

A person familiar with the program, who like others insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it, said the NYPD also had a student informant at Syracuse.

Police also were interested in the Muslim student group at Rutgers, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 2009, undercover NYPD officers had a safe house in an apartment not far from campus. The operation was blown when the building superintendent stumbled upon the safe house and, thinking it was some sort of a terrorist cell, called the police emerency dispatcher.

The FBI responded and determined that monitoring Rutgers students was one of the operation's objectives, current and former federal officials said.

The Rutgers police chief at the time, Rhonda Harris, would not discuss the fallout. In a written statement, university spokesman E.J. Miranda said: "The university was not aware of this at the time and we have nothing to add on this matter."

Another NYPD intelligence report from Jan. 2, 2009, described a trip by three NYPD officers to Buffalo, where they met with a high-ranking member of the Erie County Sheriff's Department and agreed "to develop assets jointly in the Buffalo area, to act as listening posts within the ethnic Somalian community."

The sheriff's department official noted "that there are some Somali Professors and students at SUNY-Buffalo and it would be worthwhile to further analyze that population," the report says.

Browne said the NYPD did not follow that recommendation. A spokesman for the university, John DellaContrada, said the NYPD never contacted the administration. Sheriff's Departments spokeswoman Mary Murray could not immediately confirm the meeting or say whether the proposal went any further.

Another report, entitled "Weekly MSA Report" and dated Nov. 22, 2006, explained that officers from the NYPD's Cyber Intelligence unit visited the websites, blogs and forums of Muslim student associations as a "daily routine."

The universities included Yale; Columbia; the University of Pennsylvania; Syracuse; New York University; Clarkson University; the Newark and New Brunswick campuses of Rutgers; and the State University of New York campuses in Buffalo, Albany, Stony Brook and Potsdam; Queens College, Baruch College, Brooklyn College and La Guardia Community College.

"Students who advertised events or sent emails about regular events should not be worried about a 'terrorism file' being kept on them. NYPD only investigated persons who we had reasonable suspicion to believe might be involved in unlawful activities," Browne said.

But such assurances seem to offer little comfort to some former students.

One University at Buffalo student, Adeela Khan, did end up in a police report after receiving an email on Nov. 9, 2006, announcing an upcoming Islamic conference in Toronto. The email said "highly respected scholars" would be attending, but did not say who or give any details of the program. Khan says she clicked "forward," sent it to a Yahoo chat group of fellow Muslims and promptly forgot about it.

"A couple people had gone the year prior and they said they had a really nice time, so I was just passing the information on forward. That's really all it was," said Khan, who has since graduated.

Khan was a board member of the Muslim Student Association at the University at Buffalo at the time. She says she never went to the conference, was not affiliated with it and had no idea who was speaking at it.

But officer Mahmood Ahmad of the NYPD's Cyber Intelligence Unit took notice and listed Khan in his weekly report for Kelly. The officer began researching the Toronto conference and found that one of the speakers, Tariq Ramadan, had his U.S. visa revoked in 2004. The U.S. government said it was because Ramadan had given money to a Palestinian group. It reinstated his visa in 2010.

The officer's report notes three other speakers. One, Siraj Wahaj, is a prominent but controversial New York imam who has attracted the attention of authorities for years. Prosecutors included his name on a 3 ½-page list of people they said "may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though he was never charged.

The other two are Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, two of the nation's most prominent Muslim scholars. Both have lectured at top universities in the U.S.. Yusuf met with President George W. Bush at the White House following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The post about the academic event was enough to get Khan's name mentioned in the weekly MSA report, which was stamped "SECRET" in red letters and sent to Kelly's office.

There is no indication that the investigation went any further, or that Khan was ever implicated in anything. But she worries about being associated with the police report.

"It's just a waste of resources, if you ask me," she said. "I understand why they're doing it, but it's just kind of like a Catch-22. I'm not the one doing anything wrong."

The university said it was unaware its students were being monitored.

"UB does not conduct this kind of surveillance and if asked, UB would not voluntarily cooperate with such a request," the university said in a written statement. "As a public university, UB strongly supports the values of freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, and a reasonable expectation of privacy."

The same Nov. 22, 2006, report also noted seminars announced on the websites of the Muslim student associations at New York University and Rutgers University's campus in Newark, New Jersey.

Browne, the police department spokesman, said intelligence analysts were interested in recruiting by the Islamic Thinkers Society, a New York-based group that wants to see the United States governed under Islamic law. Morton was a leader of the group and went to Stony Brook University's MSA to recruit students that same month.

"One thing that our open source searches were interested in determining at the time was, where do Islamic Thinkers Society go — in terms of MSAs for recruiting," Browne said.

Yale declined comment. The University of Pennsylvania did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Other colleges on the list said they worried the monitoring infringed on students' freedom of speech.

"Like New York City itself, American universities are admired across the globe as places that welcome a diversity of people and viewpoints. So we would obviously be concerned about anything that could chill our essential values of academic freedom or intrude on student privacy," Columbia University spokesman Robert Hornsby said in a written statement.

Danish Munir, an alumnus adviser for the University of Pennsylvania's Muslim Student Association, said he believes police are wasting their time by watching college students.

"What do they expect to find here?" Munir said. "These are all kids coming from rich families or good families, and they're just trying to make a living, have a good career, have a good college experience. It's a futile allocation of resources."

Refer to :  Google

Malaysia Islamic Clerics Forbid Forex Trading

Malaysia's highest Islamic body has issued an edict forbidding foreign exchange trading by Muslim individuals, saying such speculation violates Islamic law. The National Fatwa Council ruled forex trading by money changers or between banks was allowable but trading by individuals "creates confusion" among the faithful, according to a report issued Wednesday by state news agency Bernama.

Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin warned "there are many doubts about it (forex trading) and it involves individuals using the Internet, with uncertain outcomes," Bernama reported.

"A study by the committee found that such trading involved currency speculation, which contradicts Islamic law," he was quoted saying. A council official confirmed the ruling to AFP but gave no further details. Islam lays out a strict code of ethics for business that forbids speculation and usury.

While Malaysia's brand of Islam is more moderate than in much of the Muslim world, some 60 percent of its 28 million people are Muslim and remain subject to Islamic law in civil affairs. In 2008, the National Fatwa Council banned yoga for Muslims, saying it could erode their faith.

That triggered an uproar from moderate Muslims, prompting then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to wade in, saying Muslims could do yoga as long as it had no Hindu spiritual elements.

Sumber : Rahman Bashri

Iran To Announce New Nuclear Project

Iran's official news agency said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will unveil new nuclear projects on Wednesday.

IRNA did not specify in its Tuesday report what the projects would be. But an independent news website that regularly reports on nuclear developments said the ceremonies are likely to include the formal inauguration of the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site in central Iran, and starting operations on two lines of centrifuges there.

Irannuc.ir said that the president is also likely to announce the final stage of production of nuclear fuel rods to be used in a Tehran research reactor.

Russia's RIA news agency, quoting senior Iranian official Ali Bagheri, said Ahmadinejad would attend the event at a reactor which is running out of nuclear fuel originally provided by Argentina in the 1990s, Reuters reported.
U.S. naval battle group crosses Strait of Hormuz
Iran: "Very big" news on nuclear program soon

The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has denied.

Ahmadinejad said on Saturday Iran would soon announce new advances in its nuclear program.

"Fuel elements, for the first time created by Iranian scientists will... be loaded into the Tehran research reactor," said Bagheri, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Reuters reported.

There was no immediate comment from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Saudi Writer May Face Trial Over Prophet MUhammad

A young Saudi blogger and columnist has been deported to his homeland to face trial soon after fleeing from death threats triggered by comments on the social network Twitter seen as blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad.

Hamza Kashgari, 23, fled Saudi Arabia four days ago but was arrested by police in Malaysia en route to New Zealand. Malaysia, which has a majority Muslim population and enjoys close ties with Arab states, sent back Kashgari on Sunday.

A former columnist for the Al Bilad newspaper, Kashgari had sent a series of Twitter posts, or tweets, one week ago of an imaginary conversation with the Prophet Mohammad.

In Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and home to Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, such comments could be considered blasphemy and punishable by death under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.

Kashgari has apologized at length for his posts, however, and a Saudi lawyer said while he faced harsh punishment, it was unlikely to be the death penalty.

Interior and foreign ministry spokesmen declined to comment on Kashgari's status, although Saudi Information Minister Abdul-Aziz Khoja responded to the incident via Twitter.

"When I read what he posted, I wept and got very angry that someone in the country of the Two Holy Mosques attacks our Prophet in a manner that does not fit a Muslim...," Khoja said.

"I have given instructions to ban him from writing for any Saudi newspaper or magazine, and there will be legal measures to guarantee that," he said.

Writing on the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, Kashgari sent three tweets of a fictional conversation with the Prophet.

Addressing the Prophet, Kashgari said he "loved the rebel in you" and that he "loved some aspects of you, hated others."

The reaction on the Internet was swift and vitriolic.

First, there was a flurry of angry comments on Twitter - estimated at more than 30,000 in 24 hours. A Facebook page, "Saudi people want punishment for Hamza Kashgari," has quickly grown to more than 20,000 members.

CALLS FOR EXECUTION

"The only choice is for Kashgari to be killed and crucified in order to be a lesson to other secularists," an online reader of al-Madina newspaper, Abu Abdulrahman, commented on the news of Kashgari's extradition on Sunday.

Malaysia's government defended on Monday its decision to extradite Kashgari. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had called on Malaysia not to deport Kashgari.

"Don't think that Malaysia is safe for them to seek shelter here and avoid being traced. We will not allow them to use Malaysia as a transit," Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Hishammuddin said Kashgari had been arrested following a request from Saudi Arabia and clarified that the operation had not involved Interpol. A Malaysian police spokesman had told Reuters on Friday that the arrest was part of an operation involving the international police agency.

"I hope this issue is not politicized on the basis of freedom and human rights," Hishammuddin said. "We received a request from Saudi Arabia and we will not protect anyone who is wanted."

A YouTube video of a tearful Saudi cleric Nasser al-Omar calling for Kashgari to be arrested and tried went viral.

Kashgari will probably face trial soon, Saudi officials told Reuters.

"Thank God that he has repented and we hope that Allah will accept it. If, God forbid, there is a trial, we ask for it to be a lenient one," said a person close to Kashgari's family.

Although Kashgari will almost certainly receive a harsh punishment, he is likely to avoid the death penalty if he formally repents in court, said Saudi lawyer Sulaiman al-Jomaii.

"His case is dependent on his repentance. If he repents (in court) then it will be as if he has not committed a crime and there is no Saudi law that details a punishment for his offense if he repents," Jomaii said.

"(This) is a struggle between moderate, true Islam and extreme Islam. Moderate Islam is tolerant. The young man (Kashgari) made a mistake, a big blunder and he must apologize," said Saudi commentator Jamal Khashoggi. "I'm sure that the state is kind and it should not come under pressure. He is only 23 years old. Young people go through these kinds of doubts."

Kashgari removed the offending Twitter comments six hours after posting them and issued a long public apology, but his family said he fled the country because he had feared for his life.

Before his arrest Kashgari said in an interview with the U.S. news website Daily Beast that he did not think he could ever go home because of the death threats, but was also defiant.

"I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom. I was demanding my right to practice the most basic human rights - freedom of expression and thought - so nothing was done in vain," Kashgari was quoted as saying. "I believe I'm just a scapegoat for a larger conflict. There are a lot of people like me in Saudi Arabia who are fighting for their rights."

Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative states in the Arab world. There is tension over the pace of gradual political, economic and social reforms in Saudi Arabia aimed at reconciling the Islamic kingdom's conservative traditions with a young, increasingly outward looking population.

INTROSPECTIVE LONER

A graduate of the University of King Abdulaziz with a major in Islamic studies, Kashgari had left the Al Bilad newspaper five weeks before the incident due to disagreements over money and his writing.

"Hamza always liked being alone, he wasn't a social person," said a senior editor at Al Bilad. "He had a broken look in his eyes and I think that was a sign of sadness or depression. He's a poet and had a lot of philosophical ideas."

The editor said the young writer had learned the Koran by heart and always had good manners, noting that none of his columns had touched on controversial religious ideas.

Despite a tightening of media rules after the spread of popular revolts through the Arab world over the past year, Saudis are increasingly turning to online news, social networking and satellite television for information.

That has made social media an especially popular - and closely-watched - forum for exchanging views.