Indonesia will be the 7th largest economy in the world by 2045, bigger than Japan, the UK or Germany, says a Standard Charter Bank Report, September 2nd entitled Indonesia: Asia´s Emerging Powerhouse.  And Indonesia will probably have to be a nuclear power by then to meet high volume demand for clean energy. It is perhaps a good thing that an outgoing defeated provincial parliament of yesterday´s men in Aceh have made such a stupid decision. They clearly don’t care or are not aware of the impact this will have on the reputation of Indonesia or Islam. A recent report in the UK Sunday Times (26.07.09) confirmed that voluntary use of shariah law to resolve family and commercial disputes is increasingly common, with non-Muslims starting to use it to solve business problems in the Muslim community. -- Terry Lacey

U.N. Finds Signs of War Crimes on Both Sides in Gaza

International Music Week would start in Baku this week

Obama Rejects Afghanistan-Vietnam Comparison

New York City Police Department 'clarifies' report on radical Islam

Iran Agrees to New Talks with 6 Global Powers

Al-Qaida target killed in US Somali strike

Afghan's presidential candidate calls for criminal enquiry

Are Islamic Financial Products Taxable In Nigeria?

Israel grants immunity to soldiers over misdeed

Sheikh-ul-Islam: We will not be able to take even 2000 people to Hajj

Trouser-woman’s case shows Arab violations

 KARACHI: Muslims urged to do more for Palestinians

ABU DHABI — Terror Funding Case verdict Likely on Oct. 12

Islamist legal warfare or "lawfare”: Libel tourism overshadowed threat to free and open discourse on radical Islam, terrorism, and its sources of funding

Growing Islamophobia in London is dangerous

Compiled by Aman Quadri

Chapter 11: Islam A Challenge to Religion

There is at least one marked distinction in the way of development of the self from that of the body. The body grows by taking and assimilating nutrient substances from the environment. The more nourishment it gets, the better is its growth. Paradoxically, the self grows not by receiving but by giving. Generosity promotes its growth and meanness checks it. The more the self gives of its riches, the richer it grows. If this basic truth is clearly perceived, men will rush to the help of those in need. Pride in possession will give place to joy in munificence. They will think more of what they can give than of what they can keep for themselves. The acquisitive instinct will be weakened and the impulse to give will gain strength. The Quran extols men who put the interests of others above their own: “They prefer others before themselves although there be indigence among them; and whosoever is preserved from the covetousness of his own soul, these shall prosper”(59: 9). -- Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez

One of the spouses believes in Oneness of the Almighty Allah Kareem, also that all creatures are created by Him only, and one cannot supplicate before anyone except the Almighty Allah Kareem. On the other hand, someone worships idols in the same house. One of the parents teaches Islamic tenets and principles to the children and the other parent forces them to worship idols and visit temples. In such a confusing situation, how can an atmosphere of mutual trust or confidence be built? The life of the children will be miserable, living in severe mental tension affecting their studies. It is seen in the inter-communal marriages, either one party converts to other’s religion or the matrimonial relation is snapped due to domestic tension and intense difference, depriving the children of the father’s affection and the mother’s love. -- Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani

Translated from Urdu by Raihan Nezami

By Kashif Hafeez Siddiqui

One can think of several reasons why the inclusion of Balochistan at this point might, in fact, strengthen India’s negotiating position. It will be recalled that some years ago, when the Pakistani army killed Baloch leader Sardar Bugti, India had formally issued a statement deploring the incident. It provoked Pakistan to react furiously, demanding that India desist from interfering in its internal affairs. Today, they appear to be asking India to comment on developments in Balochistan—on the activities of the Quetta shoora, the haven it offers to the Al Qaeda-Taliban leadership, the human rights violations against Baloch civilians, and so on. Pakistan has been at pains to reassure India that the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline will be secure through the territory of Balochistan. They now accept that they are facing threats there similar to the ones ‘in other areas’, presumably, Swat and Waziristan, where they are fighting a civil war. -- Arundhati Ghose, former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva

School has violated constitutional guarantee: student “Sporting beard is an indispensable part of Islam” A Bench consisting of Justices B.N. Agrawal and G.S. Singhvi stayed the dismissal order passed by the Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School, a government-recognised minority institution, on an appeal by the student, Mohammad Salim. Earlier, on March 30, a Bench headed by Justice Markandey Katju rejected the student’s petition orally observing that secularism could not be overstretched and that “Talibanisation” of the country could not be permitted. Salim sought review of the plea stating the observations on “Talibanisation” caused incalculable damage to the country’s image and the judiciary, besides, hurting Muslim sentiments

Former Pakistan NSA Maj Gen (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani was sacked for saying Ajmal Kasab the only surviving terrorist f the Mumbai attacks, is a Pakistani. In this interaction with The Indian Express Editor-In-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24*7’s Walk the Talk, he says he picked up the phone after 26/11, spoke to NSA M K Narayanan, but could not get him the next time.

Q. What led to your very unfortunate departure from the scene?

I can’t go into too much detail. I don’t want to wash dirty linen in Delhi. What happened was that I made a statement on Kasab, and the prime minister took umbrage to that.

Q. You made an honest statement. There was no point in hiding the fact, because the whole world knew it by then.

Let me tell you one thing. Our agencies are blamed the most. But they said, ‘Sir, we need to tell the world. The world thinks we have something to hide, we are certain that he is a Pakistani’.

Q. It was not a happy statement, it was embarrassing for Pakistan.

I think we have to be upfront with each other. Yes, Kasab is a Pakistani and we are not proud of what he did, but this is a fact.

Q. Was there a failure on the Pakistani side in preventing this?

No. It’s a huge country and we have mega problems, particularly regarding terrorism. At that time, our total focus was on FATA and Swat. This thing happened not because of us, but in spite of us. I can assure you, had our intelligence any inkling about it, this would not have happened. And I say it as Mahmud Ali Durrani, ex-NSA.

Chapter 9: Islam A Challenge to Religion

The Buddhist, Christian and Hindu doctrines of salvation have a great deal in common. In each, the emphasis is upon liberation from sin, upon rescue from evil. In each, the objective is a return to the previous state of innocence and bliss. As sin is supposed to be inseparable from life and the phenomenal world is believed to be the abode of evil, it follows that liberation can be achieved only by renouncing the world. Moreover, in the Quran, the emphasis is on the positive content of salvation. It is not conceived as a negation of pain and liberation from evil. It consists in the sense of fulfilment, the feeling of realisation and the thrill of expansion. Man is endowed with a number of potentialities. By developing these he reaches his full stature and qualifies for still higher stages awaiting him. Man must discover in what direction his self can develop and then he must create the conditions, physical as well as social, which favour the development. His main task in this life is to develop his self by conquering the forces of nature and employing them for the development of mankind. ­­-- Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez

Following the 9/11 attacks on the United States when the world turned upside down for Muslims around the world, Dr Naik stepped up his battle of hearts and minds by travelling around the world and offering lectures, talks and interviews, to distinguish the original faith of peace from the hateful death cult championed by extremists like Osama bin Laden. He has delivered at least 1200 public talks in the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Asia since 9/11, not to mention countless others held in India.  Over the past few years, this one individual has done more to promote Islam and its view of a just world than numerous Muslim organisations with millions of followers and countries with infinite resources at their disposal have ever managed to. -- Aijaz Zaka Syed

While it is important to recognise the political rights of people of Gilgit-Baltistan, the step taken by Pakistan has serious implications for the peace process in Jammu and Kashmir. The logic of the ongoing peace process has been a ‘notional unity’ of the state through the concept of irrelevance of borders. The autonomy of Gilgit-Baltistan may start a trend in the reverse direction and may just justify the division of the state. -- Rekha Chowdhary

According to the Gita such are the times when great Teachers are usually born. Let us examine ourselves and find out if we are ready? But before we ask that let us first go into a little detail of the journey humanity has taken in the last five thousand years or so and how various noteworthy teachers have influenced the outcome? We shall examine the traditional claim that humans are responsible for their destiny and it requires evolved humans to prevent the cosmos from collapsing and thus the human being is not just a part of Divine Design like any other species but is actually responsible for sustaining the cosmic order. -- Dr. Sarkar Haider in his tribute to the great teachers of humanity on this Teachers' Day.

Some disgruntled Akali leaders are encouraging separatists to destabilise the Congress government in New Delhi.

The Sikh separatists call themselves Khalistanis, Khalistan being their chosen name for the Sikh-dominated Punjab. It is not clear what case they were making for separation before 1984, the year Indira Gandhi was assassinated. They were certainly not a persecuted minority. As far as this writer can gather, the modern Khalistani separatist case seems to rest upon the historic events of June and October 1984 when a Sikh separatist leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, led hundreds of his followers, armed to the teeth, into the Golden Temple in Amritsar and occupied it in defiance of the temple's elected management committee and the law of the land. -- Tom Deegan (with inputs from Sat-Bhambra)

Eight years ago, 2,600 people lost their lives in Manhattan, and then several million people lost their story. The al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers did not defeat New Yorkers. It destroyed the buildings, contaminated the region, killed thousands, and disrupted the global economy, but it most assuredly did not conquer the citizenry. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the very word "terrorism," which suggests that they, or we, were all terrified. The distortion, even obliteration, of what actually happened was a necessary precursor to launching the obscene response that culminated in a war on Iraq, a war we lost (even if some of us don't know that yet), and the loss of civil liberties and democratic principles that went with it.

Only We Can Terrorize Ourselves

For this eighth anniversary of that terrible day, the first post-Bush-era anniversary, let's remember what actually happened:  When the planes became missiles and the towers became torches and then shards and clouds of dust, many were afraid, but few if any panicked, other than the President who was far away from danger. The military failed to respond promptly, even though the Pentagon itself was attacked, and the only direct resistance that day came from inside Flight 93, which went down in a field in Pennsylvania on its way to Washington. -- Rebecca Solnit

"The Messenger will say: 'My Lord, surely my people have taken the Quran for a joke" ^{Surah 25:30.}

Wahhabis feel that they are up keepers of a purer form of religion than other Sunnis. The Wahhabis believe that their version of religion is derived from the salaf or the earliest three generations that succeeded the prophet - the generation of the sahaba or companions, then the tabiin (second generation) and finally the tabii tabiin (third generation) after the Prophet. They reject many rituals and other understanding of religion which is practiced by the Sunnis which they say were liberal innovations or bida'a that came after these three earliest generations. They use this word bida'a or liberal innovations very freely to describe many things that came into being after the first three generations. Before and soon after Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud the founder of Saudi Arabia established the Kingdom his supporters set off on murderous religious expeditions inside the land where they would wipe out entire villages including men, women and children who were not Wahhabis. This was done to cleanse Saudi Arabia of bida'a. -- Syed Akbar Ali