Why People Don’t Accept Islam – Even When They Believe It’s True

The most perplexing but predictable occurrence is when people recognize the truth of Islam -- even accept that truth on some level in their hearts or minds -- but they are not yet able, for whatever reasons, to commit themselves body and soul to that truth they so clearly perceive. It takes a very brave person to go against their culture, religion, and family, work and social ties to accept a new belief that will almost certainly put them outside the pale of all they once knew and cherished. There can be very real pain and loss in accepting Islam: marriages can end, friends and family often distance themselves emotionally or physically, you can lose your job – and for many, the trade-offs are too great a price to pay.

What Islam promises must outweigh their fears in accepting it and the social and other pressures working to dissuade them from accepting it. This is why many people who convert to Islam do so because they get to know and then fall in love with a Muslim man or woman, and it is this personal and emotional bond that first propels them to convert to Islam and then sustains them in their new faith.

USA: Southern Baptists Elect First Black President

More than 160 years after its founding as a pro-slavery church, the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday elected a black pastor for the first time to lead the denomination.

The election of the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. of New Orleans comes 17 years after Southern Baptist leaders apologized for the denomination's onetime support of white supremacist and segregationist policies.

It also cements years of effort by the church to overcome that divisive heritage.

9/11 Documents Released By CIA Offer Details On Hunt For Osama Bin Laden

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the months before the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the CIA unit dedicated to hunting for Osama bin Laden complained that it was running out of money, and analysts considered the likelihood of catching the terror leader to be extremely low, according to government records published Tuesday.

The declassified documents, dated between 1992 and 2004, are heavily blacked out and offer little new information about what the U.S. knew about the al-Qaida plot before 2001. Many of the files are cited in the 9/11 Commission report, published in 2004. The commission determined the failure that led to 9/11 was a lack of imagination, and U.S. intelligence agencies did not connect the dots that could have prevented the attacks.

Nigeria: Three Churches Bombed, Riots And 24-Hour Curfew

Three churches were bombed [Sunday morning, June 17, 2012] in Kaduna, Nigeria, igniting riots in the state capital and prompting a 24-hour curfew. The blasts killed 21 and injured at least 100. The violence Sunday is just the latest development in areas where tensions have risen dramatically recently. 

 

Kaduna has been tense since after the 2011 elections when riots broke out killing nearly 700 people. Locals say the violence was political but it also cut across religious lines, deepening distrust between Muslims and Christians.

Kaduna city, the capital of Kaduna state, is now roughly divided like the country of Nigeria between a mostly-Muslim north and a predominately Christian south.

Pope To Irish: Child Abuse By Clergy A 'Mystery' That Shook Faith...

“How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord's body and confessed their sins in the sacrament of Penance have offended in this way?" the pope, referring to the abusive clergy. “It remains a mystery." 

Source/Credit: AP | By Frances D'emilio | June 17, 2012

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI told Irish Catholics on Sunday it is a mystery why priests and other clergy abused children entrusted in their care, undermining faith in the church in an `'appalling" way.

Canada: Women Of Different Faiths Find Common Ground…

“It’s great to meet people from other communities, ethnic groups and religions to learn new points of view. But it’s exciting to know that, most of the time, we all feel the same. We all have good in common.”

Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
The Spec | By Molly Hayes | June 10, 2012

Teach the women and they’ll teach their families; that was the idea behind a women-only interfaith symposium at Saltfleet High School this weekend.

USA: Hasidic Jew Fired From NYPD Over Beard Length....

June 09, 2012

AP - NEW YORK -- An Orthodox Jew who was weeks away from becoming a New York City police officer said he has been kicked out of the police academy for refusing to trim his beard.

Litzman is Hasidic and believes that cutting his beard is forbidden by God.
NYPD rules usually require officers to be clean-shaven. The department makes exceptions for beards kept for religious purposes, but even then only allows 1 millimeter worth of growth.

"I don't understand what the problem would be," Litzman said.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the department's rules are reasonable and Litzman was aware of them when he signed up.

Litzman was first cited in January for his unkempt beard. He was a month away from receiving his shield when he was fired.

"I always wanted to be a police officer," said Litzman, a 38-year-old father of five who speaks Hebrew and Yiddish and was once a paramedic.

Technology Shifts The Meaning Of ‘Death Us Do Part’ In Funeral Rituals...

Source/Credit: Interfaith Voices 

 By LAURA PETRECCA 

June 4, 2012

(USA Today) When her 91-year-old aunt passed away in 2010, Diane DiResta videotaped the eulogies to create a record of the moving words spoken. She wasn't ready to talk about her aunt at the service, so she used an online tool for publishing audio to record her thoughts, then e-mailed the audio file to close family.

And when a cherished 89-year-old uncle died in Las Vegas in February — and there was no funeral service to follow — the New York City resident again turned to technology. 

"Since there was no way for the family to share his life and express their grief together, I created a blog," she said. "I added pictures, and family members were able to post their memories of him."

Eye On Terrorism: Islamic Militants Threaten War On Pakistan Over Kashmir....

Syed Salahuddin (above) and other Kashmiri militant leaders 

fear Pakistan's leaders will withdraw its long-standing support 

for the military strikes against Indian forces in Kashmir 

Photo: Reuters

Islamic militants fighting Indian forces in Kashmir will declare war on Pakistan if it weakens its traditional support for their jihad, their senior leader has warned.

Source/Credit: The Telegraph | UK
By Dean Nelson | June 8, 2012

Syed Salahuddin, leader of the United Jihad Council, an umbrella group of Kashmiri militant groups which includes the Lashkar e Taiba, said they had been fighting "Pakistan's war in Kashmir" but Islamabad now cares more about trade than jihad.

"We (militants) are fighting Pakistan's war in Kashmir and if it withdraws its support, the war would be fought inside Pakistan," he said in an interview with the Arab News.

His threat emerged as India and Pakistan's leaders prepare for talks in Islamabad on Monday on proposals to withdraw their troops from the disputed Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield close to the Line of Control which divides Kashmir.

Salahuddin and other Kashmiri militant leaders fear Pakistan's leaders will withdraw its long-standing support for the military strikes against Indian forces in Kashmir as part of its diplomatic campaign to reduce trade barriers and ease movement between the old enemies.

Pakistan's readiness to grant 'Most-Favoured Nation' trading status to India and the opening of new 'cross-border' trade routes in Kashmir had sent a message to insurgent leaders like his Hizbul Mujahideen that "Pakistan wants business with India." Pakistan has long used group's like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar e Toiba as part of its proxy war with India over control of Kashmir, with military protection for their training camps in 'Azad' or 'Free' Kashmir.

India accused elements within Pakistan's security establishment of aiding the Kashmiri terrorist group Lashkar e Taiba when it plotted and launched its 2008 'fidayeen' commando raid on Mumbai in which more than 160 were killed. Salahuddin's forces played a key role in the 1999 Kargil war when militants and Pakistani forces captures positions inside Indian Kashmir.

Some support for the militants was withdrawn under the former military ruler General Musharraf under international pressure following the 9/11 attacks on the United States, but Salahuddin fears what support remains will now be traded for increased business with India.

"Kashmir has been the key issue but now it has become peripheral as all claims of supporting our struggle politically, diplomatically and morally are nothing but lip service," he said.

Talks with India, however, were doomed to failure, he said, because New Delhi "is not serious" about peace and only interested in buying "more and more time to implement its own design for the region," he said. Read original post here: Islamic militants threaten war on Pakistan over Kashmir

USA: Crystal Cathedral Renamed Christ Cathedral Under Catholic Leadership

LOS ANGELES, June 9, 2012 (Reuters) - A Roman Catholic diocese that bought the Southern California mega-church Crystal Cathedral in a $57.5 million bankruptcy sale will rename the Protestant place of worship Christ Cathedral, church leaders said on Saturday.

The glass-walled Crystal Cathedral is famous for its "Hour of Power" broadcasts and for its televangelist founder Robert Schuller, 85, who has since retired and left the church.

PAKISTAN: Lawyer Says Pakistan Spies Aiming To Kill Her

Source/Credit: Sky News | UK
By Alex Rossi | June 06, 2012

Asma Jahangir says she is not planning to leave the country, despite her fears

One of Pakistan's leading human rights activists has told Sky News she fears for her life after receiving information from a "credible source" that she is being targeted for assassination.

Asma Jahangir believes Pakistan's security bureau - the Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) - is behind the plot.

The respected and well known lawyer, who works to prevent the persecution of women and religious minorities, said: "I received an information leak that an assassination was sanctioned and planned.

"I was made aware that my travel plans had been under surveillance for some time. It is very obvious to me that it would be the ISI pulling the strings."

IRAQ: Top Saddam Aide Executed In Iraq......

Abed Hamoud handed down many of dictator's repressive orders



Karen Ballard / Pool/AFP - Getty Images 

Abed Hamoud, executed Iraqi dictator 

Saddam Hussein's presidential secretary 

and chief bodyguard, is shown at an 

Iraqi court July 1, 2004.

Source/Credit: Msnbc | By Raheem Salman | June 07, 2012 

 

BAGHDAD — One of Saddam Hussein's closest aides who handed down many of the dictator's repressive orders was executed in Iraq on Thursday, the justice ministry said. 

Abed Hamoud, Saddam's private secretary, was regarded by many Iraqis as more influential than most ministers.

He was number four on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqi officials following the 2003 invasion, after the Sunni dictator and his sons.

He was sentenced to death in 2010 on charges of orchestrating a crackdown against rival political parties in Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s, including assassinations and unlawful detentions.

Under Saddam, who was executed in 2006 after being ousted in the U.S.-led invasion, only the ruling Baath party was allowed to exist. Attempts by the country's Shiite majority to establish political organizations were crushed.

USA: NJ Muslims File Federal Suit To Stop NYPD Spying....

Source/Credit: Associated Press | By Eileen Sullivan 

June 07, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the Obama administration's go-to civil rights groups in its efforts to build relationships with American Muslims is suing the New York Police Department over its surveillance programs, some of which were paid for with federal money.

Eight Muslims filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in New Jersey to force the NYPD to end its surveillance and other intelligence-gathering practices targeting Muslims in the years after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The lawsuit alleged that the NYPD's activities were unconstitutional because they focused on people's religion, national origin and race.

It is the first lawsuit to directly challenge the NYPD's surveillance programs that targeted entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling the daily life of where people ate, prayed and got their hair cut. The surveillance was the subject of series of stories by The Associated Press that revealed the NYPD intelligence division infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds.

Newshounding The World | Al Libi’s Gone - The stories behind the story…..

In a country where the military-intelligence establishment is widely believed to bump off law-abiding but troublesome citizens, it’s not the person killed that matters as much as who’s done it.
Al Libi’s gone and Pakistan blasts perfidious foreigners bumping off perfidious foreigners on sovereign soil

A US drone strike on Monday targeted al Qaeda’s No. 2 Abu Yahya al Libi in Pakistan’s lawless North Waziristan.

Targeted killings of Islamist militants can be a tricky thing. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to resurrect cold dead Islamist militants in Pakistan. I simply call it the Lazarus syndrome.

To be fair, the Lazarus syndrome is not exclusive to Pakistan. I’ve encountered it in Nigeria too, where I profiled “The Boko Haram terror chief who came back from the dead”.

USA: Young Snake Handlers Grasp The Power Of Faith

 

Source/Credit: USA Today

By BOB SMIETANA | NASHVILLE, Tenn.

June 6, 2012

Andrew Hamblin's Facebook page is filled with snippets of his life.

Making a late-night run to Taco Bell. Watching SpongeBob on the couch with his kids. Handling rattlesnakes in church.

Hamblin, 21, pastor of Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., is part of a new generation of serpent-handling Christians who are revitalizing a century-old faith tradition in Tennessee.

USA: New Mosque in the Heart of Large US Jewish Neighborhood

Muslims buy a posh house in the heart of a large upscale Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore, whose main artery is known as “Synagogue Row.”

Source/Credit: Israel National News
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu | June 4, 2012

A Muslim movement has bought a posh house in the heart of a large upscale Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore, whose main artery is known as “Synagogue Row.” The Muslim sect is considered to be pacifist and at the opposite end of Islam extremism.

Located on the edge of Pikesville – synonymous with “Jewish” – the Colonial-style house known as “Slade Mansion” was sold for $900,000 to the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore’s Jewish population is unusual in that it is almost totally contiguous despite its size of an estimate 100,000 Jews. It stretches for miles and comprises one of the country’s largest orthodox Jewish concentrations as well as a large reform and Conservative Jewish population.

USA: Humanity First's ‘Feed The Hungry In America’ Program Organizes Food Drive.....

There are over 48.8 million Americans, including 16.2 children and 6 million seniors, who are struggling with hunger. Recognizing this growing crisis, the first annual Feed the Hungry Food Drive began in May and will culminate during the last weekend of June in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times | By Akram Khalid | June 4, 2012

 Humanity First USA has launched the Feed the Hungry in America (FHA) program to reduce hunger and wastage of food nationwide.

The organizers sat the Feed the Hungry in America program aims to establish a network of food pantries around the country, organize local and national food drives, and partner with communities and organizations with similar visions.

FHA food pantries have been established in Willingboro, New Jersey and Milpitas, California. The Harrisburg food pantry will be operational soon.

There are over 48.8 million Americans, including 16.2 children and 6 million seniors, who are struggling with hunger. Recognizing this growing crisis, the first annual Feed the Hungry Food Drive began in May and will culminate during the last weekend of June in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Humanity First says the intent is to draw attention to the growing problem of hunger in America, engage neighborhoods, communities and corporations to support this cause and collect non-perishable food items.

Collections from the food drive will be donated to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg and other local food pantries.

Dr. Shanaz Butt, Program Director of FHA says it is everyone's responsibility to provide for the vulnerable and less fortunate in a society.

"By reducing hunger and food wastage, we will not only make a positive and long lasting impact on the lives of those we serve, but will also find ourselves enriched as individuals and as a nation,” Dr. Butt said.

For more information on how to help stop hunger and food wastage in America, contact feedthehungry@us.humanityfirst.org.

To make a contribution or fundraise, visit http://www.firstgiving.com/humanityfirst/feedthehungry.

Humanity First USA was established in 2004 and serves in human development areas and disaster crises across America and internationally.

For more information, visit http://usa.humanityfirst.org.

-- Humanity First's ‘Feed the Hungry in America’ program organizes food drive

-- Based upon information provided by the organization.

-- Edited by Imran Jattala. Follow on Twitter @IJattala Humanity First's ‘Feed the Hungry in America’ program organizes food drive

The State Has No Business Deciding Someone’s Faith - 1974: From Democracy to Extremism

 One of the most majestic and arresting structures of Europe is the Great Mosque of Cordova. Apart from exquisite architecture, the unique thing about the mosque is that it is not really a mosque. Built in the eighth century by the Umayyad Caliphate as one of the greatest mosques, it was converted into a cathedral in the 13th Century after the Christian reconquest of Spain. Today, it is a building with an identity crisis, a mosque with a cathedral erected in the middle. Yet, anyone who has been a tourist there would know that one has to ask for directions to the Mezquita (mosque) or the Mezquita-Catedral (Mosque Cathedral) as that is what the locals refer to it as even after more than seven centuries of it being a cathedral. It stands as a symbol of defiance to the impulses of conquest and rebranding of buildings and indeed history. The obsession with demolishing, branding and rebranding buildings has not been extinguished with the Crusades, the Babri Mosque fiasco being a representative example. More recently, a court in Lahore had a petition asking that an Ahmadi place of worship should have the dome and minaret demolished, lest it misleads the faithful into believing that it is a mosque.

Muslims Killed In Attack In Burma's Rakhine Province....

Buddhist residents in western Burma have killed at least nine Muslims as sectarian tension worsens in the region, police say. 

BBC / 4 June 2012 

At least 10 people were injured when police fired 
rubber bullets on protesters in Sittwe

Reports say a crowd attacked a bus in Rakhine province after blaming some of the passengers for the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman. 

In another incident, at least 10 people were injured in the state capital Sittwe when police broke up a protest.

It is the worst violence to hit the province in recent months. 

Sectarian and ethnic tension persists in the country despite a new, supposedly tolerant climate introduced by the civilian-led government which came into power 15 months ago.

Sorry Won’t Cut It In Indonesia Human Rights Cases: Political Leader

Indonesia had a ministry specifically for human rights issues, as well as an independent rights commission and a host of nongovernmental organizations concerned with the issue, giving the government little excuse to ignore any cases.

Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
 

The Jakarta Globe

By SP/Robertus Wardi | June 03, 2012

The government must be serious about bringing a raft of alleged human rights abuses to trial, in light of international scrutiny of Indonesia’s track record, a senior opposition legislator said on Friday.

Tjahjo Kumolo, the secretary general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said no indications of rights abuse should be ignored.

“No matter how small the cases, human rights problems should be dealt with,” he said “As with a wound, it should be cleaned. All cases should be resolved legally.”
Indonesia, he said, had a ministry specifically for human rights issues, as well as an independent rights commission and a host of nongovernmental organizations concerned with the issue, giving the government little excuse to ignore any cases.

Tjahjo’s remarks came a week after Indonesia was criticized at a United Nations rights review for a rise in intolerance and attacks against religious minorities, as well as impunity for security forces accused of rights violations.

Tjahjo said the impact of failing to address these problems was severe, citing a previous US prohibition on arms sales to Indonesia in light of abuses by the military in East Timor.

“We could face international isolation. It’s only reasonable to expect other countries to spotlight human rights conditions in Indonesia,” he said.

He added that a blanket apology from the government for past rights abuses was not enough.

“It’s not just a matter of apologizing. Human rights matters should be settled justly, so that the victims can obtain legal certainty,” Tjahjo said. Read original post here: Sorry Won’t Cut it in Indonesia Human Rights Cases: Tjahjo

JERUSALEM: Vandals Damage 1,600-Year-Old Art At Synagogue......

Source/Credit: The Huffington Post / AP

By Diaa Haddad (AP) | May 29, 2012

Israel Zodiac Mosaic: Vandals Damage 1,600-Year-Old Art At Synagogue

JERUSALEM — Vandals badly damaged a rare 1,600-year-old mosaic in the northern Israeli city of Tiberias that formed the floor of an ancient synagogue, smashing parts to rubble and scrawling graffiti, antiquity officials said Tuesday.

Experts suspect extremist Jews who object, sometimes violently, to excavations they claim involve ancient grave sites. There was no claim of responsibility. Police are investigating.

Boston Court Finds Defense Of Marriage Act Unconstitutional

A federal appeals court in Boston ruled Thursday (May 31) that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman, unconstitutionally denies benefits to married gay couples. The judges said the 1996 federal law deprives same-sex couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples. But the judges said their ruling will not be enforced until the US Supreme Court takes up the issue. DOMA, as the law is known, is being fought over in several lower courts, but it’s the Supreme Court that has final say over whether a law passed by Congress is constitutional.

Read original post here: Boston Court Finds Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional

Khalifa Of Islam To Visit United States, Promote Peaceful Islam.....

His Holiness will preside over the 64th Annual Convention of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on June 29th through July 1st. as the nation's oldest annual Islamic convention, this three day event is expected to attract over 12,000 American Muslims and 1,000 non-Muslim guests.

Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA

His Holiness, Mirza Masroor Ahmad

By Press Release | June 1, 2012

His Holiness to Speak at Capitol Hill and Attend Oldest Annual Muslim Convention… 

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Thousands of American Muslims wait in anticipation for the historic U.S. visit of His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, worldwide spiritual and administrative head (Khalifa) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in June. 

As the Muslim leader commanding the largest following of Muslims in the world, His Holiness visits the U.S. shortly after contacting several world leaders -- including President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- to resolve international differences with diplomacy and to avoid violence at all costs in order to prevent a Third World War.

SUDAN: Sudanese Woman Sentenced To Stoning…..

While the government has since sought to improve its image internationally by distancing itself from radical Islamists, it is still one of only a few countries to list death by stoning in its statutes.
Source/Credit: The Huffington Post

By Alexander Dziadosz / Reuters | May 31, 2012

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese woman, believed to be around 20, has been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery, and is being held near Khartoum, shackled in prison with her baby son, rights groups and lawyers said on Thursday.

Campaigners condemned the ruling, saying it violated international standards and raised concerns that Sudan might start applying sharia, or Islamic law, more strictly following the secession of mostly non-Muslim South Sudan last year.

The woman, Intisar Sharif Abdalla, was sentenced by the Ombada criminal court on April 22, court documents seen by Reuters showed.

Two lawyers assigned to her case, who declined to be named, said they were launching an appeal adding Abdalla appeared to be under severe psychological strain.

"She's in dire need of a psychiatrist because she appears to be in a state of shock from the social and family pressures she's under," one lawyer said.