Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood condemned the Boston Marathon bombings Tuesday.

In a statement by the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, the group said Islamic law, or sharia, does not condone violence against civilians, and expressed condolences to the American people and families of the victims.

The party also said that Islamic law “firmly rejects assaults on civilians and doesn’t accept any means of terrorizing people, regardless of their religion, colour, or gender.”

“The sinful assaults in Boston ascertain the necessity of solidarity of the international community in efforts to achieve justice and well-being for all nations and communities, and to ensure that these crimes don’t take place again,” the statement said.

The office of President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, also condemned the bombings, calling them “criminal” and expressing solidarity with the families of the victims.   »»» The Globe and Mail (Canada)

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Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has condemned the violence that erupted outside Cairo’s main Coptic Cathedral yesterday.

One man was killed and more than 80 injured after clashes broke out as Coptic mourners were attacked by a mob as they filed out of the house of worship following a funeral.

“Of course no one can accept what has happened. Egypt has always been a place where Muslims and Christians have lived in peace.”   »»» euronews

In the Qur’an, Allah tells us that Muslims must protect the honour, property and lives of Jews and Christians who live in Muslim lands. They have protected status. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) said, “He who harms a protected Christian or Jew harms me, and I will be a witness against him on the Day of Judgement.”

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It is the latest protest to rack Bangladesh, deepening tensions between secularists and the largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, whose leaders are under trial for crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence.

The Islamists converged on Dhaka’s main commercial hub to protest against what they say are blasphemous writings by atheist bloggers, defying a pro-government national strike by secular protesters – who staged a smaller rival protest in Dhaka Saturday – aimed at resisting the march.

Police said about 100,000 people attended the rally during which protesters chanted “God is great, hang the atheist bloggers”.

Hefajat-e-Islam, an Islamic group which draws support from tens of thousands of seminaries, organised the rally in support of its 13-point demand including enactment of a blasphemy law to prosecute and hang atheist bloggers.

Under the country’s current cyber laws, a blogger or Internet writer can face up to 10 years in jail for defaming a religion.   »»» adelaidenow (Australia)

There is no evidence that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) every had anyone killed for insulting him or the religion of Islam. In the Qur’an, Allah says, speaking to Muhammad, “Show forgiveness, and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant.” (Q. 7:199) The beloved wife of the Prophet, Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) said, “The Prophet (peace be upon him)…never avenged any wrong done to him personally….” (Sahih Muslim)

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A PAKISTANI court has acquitted a Christian man who was sentenced to death for blasphemy six years ago in the country’s second largest city, lawyers say.

Younis Masih, 34, a labourer, was arrested in September 2005 in the low-income Qenchi Amar Siddhu neighbourhood of Lahore after local residents accused him of interrupting a gathering of Sufi singing to make blasphemous remarks.

“The high court on Wednesday decided to overturn the death sentence and ordered that Masih be acquitted,” Shakir told AFP.

“I argued the case in February and put to the court that there is no direct evidence against Younis Masih and that the case was based on hearsay,” he said.   »»» thetelegraph.com.au

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The shooting of Kaufman, Texas district attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia remains a mystery. But investigators are increasingly looking into a cell of extremist white terrorists as the suspects. Two months ago, a county assistant district attorney, Mark Hasse, was murdered not far from his office at the court. (I used the term extremist white terrorists because that is what they are, but usually the American press only describes foreigners and Muslims as terrorists, while calling whites “extremists.”)

Likewise, a gang of white terrorists is suspected in the recent slaying of the head of Colorado’s prison system.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and other Islamophobes in Congress, seeking to look good to campaign donors who hate Muslims, has conducted several hearings on the alleged increased radicalization of American Muslims. Sociologists don’t find evidence of such a thing; American Muslims on the whole are relatively well-integrated into US society and are disproportionately well off and pillars of the society. The hearings are a form of McCarthyism.

No one was killed or injured in the US in 2012 by terrorists of Muslim heritage, and only 14 Americans of Muslim heritage were even indicted for violent plots. Only one act of violence was traced to such a group, which produced no casualties.   »»» Informed Comment

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Pope Francis on Maundy Thursday declined to address enormous crowds. Instead he went to a prison to emulate Jesus’s act of humility before his crucifixion in washing the feet of his 12 disciples. The pope washed and kissed the feet of 12 inmates, two of them women and two of them Muslim (one of the women was Muslim). It is reported that some of the prisoners broke down in tears.

Pope Francis’s willingness to wash the feet of a Muslim woman shows his concern for the very lowest stratum of society. Europe has millions of Muslims, and some are well off and well integrated into society. But many Muslims who immigrated into France and Italy for work got caught when the jobs dried up, and live in poor areas of the cities, being excluded from mainstream society or much hope of betterment. Women have lower status than men in such communities, so a poor Muslim woman in jail is just about the bottom of the social scale.   »»» Informed Comment

It seems that Pope Francis has taken his Argentinian life of humility and hard work on behalf of society’s rejects with him to Rome.

In the sayings of Jesus collected by early Muslims, there are two that seem pertinent:

“Jesus said, ‘I have two loves–whoever loves me loves them, and whoever hates them hates me. They are poverty and pious struggle’.”

“Jesus prepared a meal for his companions. When they had eaten, he himself washed their hands and feet. They said to him, ‘Spirit of God, it is we, rather, that should do this for you.’ He replied, ‘I have done this so that you would do it for those whom you will teach’.”

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Sadakat Kadri is an English barrister, a Muslim by birth and a historian. His first book, The Trial, was an extensive survey of the Western criminal judicial system, detailing more than 4,000 years of courtroom antics.

In his new book, Heaven on Earth, Kadri turns his sights east, to centuries of Shariah law. The first parts of his book describe how early Islamic scholars codified — and then modified — the code that would govern how people lead their daily lives. Kadri then turns to the modern day, reflecting on the lawmakers who are trying to prohibit Shariah law in a dozen states, as well as his encounters with scholars and imams in India, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Iran — the very people who strictly interpret the religious and moral code of Islam today. And some of those modern interpretations, he says, are much more rigid — and much more draconian — than the code set forth during the early years of Islamic law.   »»» tabsir.net

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France’s highest court ruled Tuesday that a French Muslim woman was unjustly fired in 2008 for wearing a head scarf at work in a private child-care center in a Paris suburb. The court ruled that the dismissal violated the woman’s religious freedom. Religious symbols of all kinds are banned from public schools and institutions under French law, but the child-care center is private.    »»» NYTimes.com

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Pope Francis appealed for more intense dialogue with Islam on Friday, while calling on church leaders to renew diplomatic discourse with countries that do not have official ties with the Holy See, like China.

The new pope addressed ambassadors from the 180 countries accredited with the Holy See, urging them to share his objectives: fighting poverty, building peace and establishing “true links of friendship between all people,” by building bridges between them.

To this aim, promoting interreligious dialogue, particularly with Islam, is critical, he said, adding that he was grateful that “so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world” had attended his installation Mass on Tuesday.    »»» NYTimes.com

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A Scottish church has become the first in the UK to share its premises with Muslim worshippers. St John’s Episcopal Church in Aberdeen now welcomes hundreds of Muslims praying five times a day in their building as the nearby mosque was so small that they were forced to worship outside.

The minister of St John’s, Rev Isaac Poobalan, has handed over part of the church hall to Chief Imam Ahmed Megharbi and the imam has led prayers in the main chapel.

Rev Poobalan said today that he would not be true to his faith if he did not offer to help.

He said: ‘Praying is never wrong. My job is to encourage people to pray.

‘The mosque was so full at times, there would be people outside in the wind and rain praying.

‘I knew I couldn’t just let this happen – because I would be abandoning what the Bible teaches us about how we should treat our neighbours.

‘When I spoke to people at the church about the situation, someone actually said to me this was not our problem, but I had seen it with my own eyes, so it was our problem.

Rev Poobalan said: ‘They were out there praying and the snow came on for the first time in winter, it was really hard to watch. ‘When they were doing the prayer they had their hands and feet exposed and they were sitting on on the pavement, which is very rough. ‘You could even see them breathing because it was so cold and I think when I saw that, the visual impact was such that I just couldn’t walk past.

‘It felt wrong, mainly because the church is next door, it’s a big building and it remains empty on a Friday lunchtime which is when they need the place most as that’s when they are at their busiest.

‘We had something we could offer and they were just standing out in the cold and I said to my congregation “we need to do something”.’

Rev Poobalan said he wanted the move to help build bridges between Christians and Muslims after some initial resistance from his congregation about the move.   »»» Sailan Muslim (Sri Lanka)

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