Today’s Chronicle of Higher Education reports on efforts launched in Germany to integrate its large, mostly-Turkish, Muslim population. A key part of the plan is to create a generation of German-trained imams. The German Council of Science and Humanities is creating a group of academic institutes at state-financed colleges to critically examine Islamic theology and teach it in a German university setting to future imams, male and female religious teachers, public intellectuals, scholars and faith-based social workers.
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Germany Plans University Level Programs To Train Muslim Religious Leaders
Syria’s education minister has issued a decree banning women on university campuses from wearing veils that cover their faces. The minister’s decree follows a decision last month to dismiss 1200 Syrian school teachers who wear the face veil in class. Education officials, at the time, stressed that Syria was a “secular society,” and that extremism is “unacceptable.”
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Syrian Education Minister Bans Full Face Veils in Universities
Suspected Muslim militants shot and killed two Christian men who were due to appear in court on charges of blasphemy against Islam in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Brothers Sajid Emmanuel, 30, and Rashid Emmanuel, 32, were assassinated by masked gun men Monday, July 19, inside a district court building in the city of Faisalabad.
Excerpt from:
Pakistan Christians Shot Dead By Pakistan Militants
ndonesia’s top Islamic body says it may forbid followers from drinking the world’s most expensive coffee — extracted from the dung of a civet cat — over concerns it is unclean. Indonesian Muslim groups have been criticized for issuing a raft of fatwa covering the spectrum of human behavior though they have no legal standing and are often ignored by most.
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Indonesia Muslim group may ban Kopi Luwak, world’s most expensive coffee
Yesterday’s Tulsa World reports that Oklahoma’s Nov. 2 ballot will include State Question 755 which would amend the state constitution to prohibit state courts from considering or using international law or Sharia law. ( Ballot language .) Titled by the legislature the “Save Our State Amendment” ( full text of HJR 1056), the proposed amendment reads: The courts provided for in subsection A of this section, when exercising their judicial authority, shall uphold and adhere to the law as provided in the United States Constitution, the Oklahoma Constitution, the United States Code, federal regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, established common law, the Oklahoma Statutes and rules promulgated pursuant thereto, and if necessary the law of another state of the United States provided the law of the other state does not include Sharia law, in making judicial decisions
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Oklahoma’s November Ballot Will Include Constituitonal Amendment To Bar Courts’ Use of Sharia Law
OK, so this comes from the Rev. Dusty Ray, pastor of Heartland Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he is one of the leaders of a movement opposing the construction of a new 52,000-square-foot, “megachurch”-style Islamic center, including a mosque. (Who knew Murfreesboro, Tenn., had such a thriving Muslim community?)
Originally posted here:
Unintended Ironic Quote of the Year
The Shabab militant group widens its reach beyond Somalia, taking responsibility for two bombings in Uganda that killed 76 people The streets of Mogadishu echo with the footsteps of Shabab fighters, the rattle of their rifles and their recitations of a medieval version of Islamic law that espouses public beheadings and the stoning of adulterers.
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Somalia’s Shabab fighters go international with Uganda blasts
We welcome the following guest post from Samira Mehta, a graduate student in American Religious Cultures at Emory University who is writing a dissertation on Christian/Jewish interfaith families in the U.S.
Original post:
Nikki Haley and the Construction of South Asian Identity
In its 2010 National Security Strategy, the Obama administration sought to sever the relationship between Islam and terrorism, rejecting the use of terms like ‘Islamic terrorist’ and ‘jihad’ to describe acts of terror. The linguistic change was a policy shift from the Bush administration and part of Obama’s overall strategy to reinvent America’s relationship with the Muslim world
More here:
What to call terrorists?
Al Shabab, an Islamic faction in Somalia, says it is behind two bombings in Kampala that killed at least 74 people watching Sunday’s World Cup final. The group, tied to Al Qaeda, vows more attacks. A powerful Al Qaeda-affiliated militant faction in Somalia claimed responsibility Monday for two bomb attacks in Uganda’s capital that killed at least 74 people who had gathered to watch a broadcast of Sunday’s World Cup championship game, sparking fears that Somalia’s long and bloody conflict may spill into neighboring countries
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Somali militant group claims responsibility for Uganda blasts