The Structure, Mission and Social Function of the Presidency of Religious Affairs

For many Muslims, fatwas, or religious edicts, are the bridge between the principles of their faith and modern life. They are supposed to be issued by religious scholars who look to the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad for guidance. While the more sensational pronouncements grab attention, the bulk of the fatwas involve the routine of daily life. In Egypt alone, thousands are issued every month.

government-appointed arbiters of Islamic standards say the fatwa free-for-all has led to the promotion of extremism and intolerance.

Technically, the fatwa is nonbinding and recipients are free to look elsewhere for a better ruling. In a faith with no central doctrinal authority, there has been an explosion of places offering fatwas, from Web sites that respond to written queries, to satellite television shows that take phone calls, to radical and terrorist organizations that set up their own fatwa committees. ''There is chaos now,'' Mr. Megawer said. ''The problem created is confusion in thought, confusion about what is right and what is wrong, religiously.''

what they think

Today, the major impetus for change in religious and political values comes from below

Distinctive to the modern era is that discourse and debate about Muslim tradition involves people on a mass scale. It also necessarily involves an awareness of other Muslim and non-Muslim traditions. Mass education and mass communication in the modern world facilitate an awareness of the new and unconventional. In changing the style and scale of possible discourse, they reconfigure the nature of religious thought and action, create new forms of public space, and encourage debate over meaning.

How has a reporting service that has been trusted throughout the world become a puppet of our ever encroaching state and corporate machinery? Is there a new Room 101 censoring their reports? Are they under a series of gagging orders as I suspected?My thoughts - please feel free to disagreeI think they have become ultimately risk-averse, or in common parlance, have lost their balls. They are gagging themselves.

In this issue, we consider three democracies and their relationship to Muslim minority communities. Martha C. Nussbaum examines how the stereotype of the “Muslim terrorist” is further marginalizing Muslim liberals in India John R. Bowen probes how the emergence of sharia tribunals serving a Muslim minority will affect English law and women David Mikhail on what the experience of Shakir Baloch, a Muslim moderate detained after 9/11, means for the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world

What makes me wonder is that why the president has to interfere in such stuff , in fact why the GPS is considered a matter of national security and why the army objects the use of GPS despite all its bases are spotted by the satellites !!??

the protests had been "small and quite specific". "The protesters suspicions are that Obama has come here with a secret agenda, to pressurise the Turkish government to put combat troops into Afghanistan in an effort to help control the situation there," she said.

While Turkey has been long regarded as a close US ally in the Muslim world, some analysts believe there has been a cooling of ties during the former US administration of George Bush. Washington and Ankara had been sharply at odds in recent years over such issues as how to deal with Iran's nuclear programme, the rise to power of Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, and political developments in Sudan.

approximately 128 individuals have been arrested and sentenced to death for nothing more than being LGBT. And according to Iraqi-LGBT, executions are scheduled this week to start in "batches of 20."

Since the U.S. invasion, the death penalty in Iraq has soared to levels that not even Texas approaches.

If the Iraq government hopes to become part of the family of nations, it must respect the rights of all segements of its population, including all homosexual persons (who do not choose their sexual orientation).  To merit international respect, the government must behave justly and refrain from persecuting LGBT persons.   The world is watching Iraq as it develops into a true democracy that respects human rights. Posted by Stephen Harris