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A British publisher said it would delay the publication of the novel “The Jewel of Medina,” by Sherry Jones, according to the British Web site TheBookseller.com. The British release of the novel had been in doubt after a firebombing attack on the London home of Martin Rynja, whose imprint, Gibson Square, was preparing to release it. In addition, Ms. Jones has canceled a trip to Frankfurt to promote the novel, about A’isha, a wife of the prophet Muhammad. “We respect Sherry Jones’s decision,” Gibson Square said in a statement reported by TheBookseller.com. “In her view the best thing to do...

Muhammad Sven Kalisch is an Islamic researcher at the University of Münster. He is also the first person in Germany to hold a Chair of Islamic Religion. Kalisch's recent public admission that he is unsure whether the Prophet Muhammad was actually a historical person has got him into hot water. The plan to train teachers to teach Islamic religious education at German schools has suffered a major setback in recent days. The Co-ordination Council of Muslims in Germany (KRM), to which the four largest Muslim organisations in Germany belong, has discontinued its co-operation with the Centre for Religious Studies at...

Moroccans and rights groups are speaking out against a recent fatwa that would allow parents to marry off their underage daughters. Opponents to Cheikh Mohammed Maghraoui's fatwa say the marriage of nine-year-old girls is a violation of human rights in general, and children's rights in particular. Maghraoui said that at the age of nine, girls are capable of marriage, just like Aisha was when the Prophet Mohammed married her. "We thought we were rid of those problems after the passage of the family code, which included a number of guarantees to protect children from early marriage, and after setting up...

It is interesting to note that CAIR director Nihad Awad will soon be sharing center stage in a major conference with Mohammad Akram al-Adlouni, the probable author of the most damning documents made public during the Holy Land Foundation trial. The conference in Denmark, heavily populated with Muslim Brotherhood figures, is, according the program, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakbah or catastrophe, as they refer to the founding of the state of Israel. the old gang is getting together again, in the service of the Muslim Brotherhood and its armed wing, Hamas. It was al-Adlouni who penned the...

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net) A right-wing American weekly newspaper will distribute free copies of a book that insults Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and associates Islam with terrorism, Washington-based news agency America in Arabic reported. The neo-conservative, Republican-oriented Human Events newspaper will distribute Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (2006), America in Arabic said. The book -- regularly priced at 30 dollars -- is released by Regnery, which has published a string of controversial neo-con books and is a division of Eagle Publishing, which owns Human Events. Well-known British writer Karen Armstrong, author of Muhammad: A Prophet...

A prayer leader in Tehran last week urged all Islamic countries to sever their ties with Denmark and with all “those who desecrate Prophet Muhammad.” According to a report in the Tehran Times, Ayatollah Khatami of the Assembly of Experts believes that the Danish cartoons depicting the religious figure are insulting and part of a plot to stop the spread of Islam in the world. “In Denmark, where the cartoons were published, the Quran became the best seller book, therefore they should know such actions will not serve their purpose,” Ayatollah Khatami told worshippers. Last month, newspapers in Denmark reprinted...

Danish newspapers have demonstrated solidarity with Kurt Westergaard and Jyllands-Posten today. After the arrests of conspirators determined to assassinate the editorial cartoonist, the other newspapers in Denmark today have reprinted the cartoon that aroused the ire of Muslims in the first place. They want to make the point that no one can intimidate them into silence: Newspapers in Denmark Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago. The move came one day after Danish authorities arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination" of Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonist...

Little girls in the militancy-hit Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan hate a diktat issued by pro-Taliban rebels to attend school in burqas. Burqas are the only option some girls' schools in northwestern Pakistan have against being shut down or worse, being bombed. "I want to study, but not in a burqa," said Shah Rukh, a 12-year-old girl enrolled at a primary school at Saidu Sharif in Swat. Shah Rukh is just one of many girls who have learnt to speak out against the burqa diktat in the picturesque Valley. "My 11-year-old daughter cries every morning when she has to wear...

A British children's author had a character in one of his books named Mohammad the Mole. Sadly, he used that name in order to promote "multiculturalism." Well now the author, Kes Gray, has renamed his mole as Morgan ... so that he doesn't offend Muslims. Morgan the Mole .. now that does have a certain ring to it. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22859798-401,00.html After the Mohammad teddy bear outrage in Sudan, Gray has postponed a reprint of his book, Who's Poorly Too, so that the name could be changed. The book has sold over 40,000 copies. He has other characters such as Dipak the...

Explore Islam The Life of Muhammad: An Inconvenient Truth OriginsTo understand Islam, you must understand the harsh circumstances into which the religion was born. The Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad (b. AD 570) was a barren and desolate region with a scorching sun and oppressive heat by day, and a chilling cold at night. There was little vegetative growth, and the nomadic inhabitants lived between jagged rocks and sifting sand dunes. While Europe and much of the Middle East was transitioning from the Roman to the Byzantine Empire, with roads, irrigation canals, aqueducts, and a culture that included...

Audio portions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's testimony from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal were released by the Pentagon Thursday. The audio clips contain admissions by the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks that he plotted to kill President Clinton and Pope John Paul II. "I was responsible for the assassination attempt against President Clinton during his visit to the Philippines in 1994 or 1995," Mohammed says in English during his testimony before the tribunal. "I was responsible for the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul the second while he was visiting the Philippines," Mohammed says.

Two years after a Danish newspaper provoked manufactured outrage in the Islamic world by printing a series of cartoons lampooning Islam's founder, a Swedish newspaper may have done the same with a series of sketches: Marking the beginning of yet another dispute over free speech and religious sensitivity, the government of Pakistan has joined Iran in protesting the publication in a Swedish newspaper of a sketch featuring the head of Mohammed on the body of a dog. "Pakistan condemns, in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet in the Swedish newspaper," the...

The following link has an audio interview from Radio New Zealand featuring a Kiwi convert named Abdullah to Islam. He is both candid and defensive. My comments on parts of the interview are set in the body of comment below. http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/spiritualoutlook 26 August 2007

On This Day in History (June 8, 632 A.D.) 632: Founder of Islam dies In Medina, located in present-day Saudi Arabia, Muhammad, one of the most influential religious and political leaders in history, dies in the arms of Aishah, his third and favorite wife. Born in Mecca of humble origins, Muhammad married a wealthy widow at 25 years old and lived the next 15 years as an unremarkable merchant. In 610, in a cave in Mount Hira north of Mecca, he had a vision in which he heard God, speaking through the angel Gabriel, command him to become the Arab...

PHOENIX (AP) - A former engineer at the nation's largest nuclear power plant has been charged with taking computer access codes and software to Iran and using it to download details of plant control rooms and reactors, authorities said. The FBI said there's no indication the plant employee training software had any terrorist connections. Mohammad Alavi, who worked at the triple-reactor Palo Verde power plant west of Phoenix, was arrested April 9 at Los Angeles International Airport when he arrived on a flight from Iran, authorities said. Alavi, 49, is a U.S. citizen and denies any wrongdoing, said his attorney,...

I have not taken part in demonstrations, I have not held any spiritual-political speeches, and I have not organised any activist cells. Although I have tried hard, I have not come upon a Final Truth concerning the nature of the universe. Nevertheless, I have been told that I am a fundamentalist. A yearbook on journalistic criticism published recently in Tampere examines the uproar that took place just over a year ago over the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Researchers divided the participants of the debate into different groups. One of these are liberal extremists who emphasise freedom of expression...

'Allah is a tormentor' Saudi journalist was taught supreme being 'punishes and never forgives' In a recent TV interview, a Saudi author and journalist offered a glimpse into the pressures and conditioning children in Saudi society must face. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, journalist Hani Naqashbandi made the following comments Feb. 6 during an appearance on Future TV, a Lebanese show: Hani Naqashbandi: I grew up in a society that taught me Allah is a tormentor. Interviewer: A tormentor? Hani Naqashbandi: In the full sense of the word. It taught me that Allah punishes and...

The World Economic Forum in Davos is a sanctuary for America-bashers. John Kerry was the star there yesterday. In case you missed it, Allah's got video and the lowdown. All I can say is: Thank God for the Swift Boat Veterans. Davos is getting feedback. LGF'ers are leading the charge. Matt at Blackfive notes that while Kerry schmoozed former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, evidence of Iranian special ops orchestration of the horrific attack on US troops in Kerbala is building.

On Sunday, December 3 at 3:30 pm The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion Robert Spencer Description: In "The Truth about Muhammad" author Robert Spencer argues that the example of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, justifies jihad and terrorism. At the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, Mr. Spencer describes Muhammad's life and teachings as violent and urges Americans to understand the true nature of Islam in order to effectively prosecute the War on Terror. Author Bio: Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades),"...

George Bernard Shaw is recorded by a Muslim letter writer to my local paper (the Dominion Post: December 1)) as extolling the virtues of a world dictatorship run by a person like Mohammad, the founder of Islam. The letter writer says the bulk of authors actually praise Mohammad and his religion.