Italy: Koran toilet seat cover angers cleric - a blatant act of religous bigotry now in Rome

Rome, 26 Oct. (AKI) - The imam of the Lazio town of Latina's mosque, Sheikh Yusuf on Friday heckled interior minister Giuliano Amato as he visited Rome's mosque to present the new 'charter of values' for immigrants.“There is a toilet seat cover on sale in local stores that features verses of the Koran. This is an insult to the Muslim faith that we must react to," he called out.Amato however reassured Yusuf, saying: "I would like to tell our friends from Latina that we have been informed of this matter and are taking action because it is offensive.""Developed in consultation with various religious and civil society representatives, it establishes the principles for the harmonious integration in Italian society of non-Catholic communities."The charter, which has symbolic rather than legal value, is aimed at immigrants belonging to Muslim and other faiths and highlights the "values and principles that make up Italian identity and which are rooted in the Italian Constitution."

Editor: Muslims don't even place Quran on the carpet/floor out respect to the Word of God, to misuse it in toilet is an unthinkable action. All Muslims will jump off their feets when they hear Quran being desecrated, abused and disrespected. The Creator Himself will deal with these abusers and hate criminals and those who endorse them with devastating outcome...swift and severe indeed!

Chapter 36:Surah Yaseen - Sheikh Muhammad al Haidan

Qur’an copies a rarity in Cambodia

Cambodian Muslims can hardly find a copy of the holy Muslim book in the Buddhist country.
"Copies of the Qur'an are hard to get in Cambodia," Mufti Karmaruddin Yusof said in statements carried September 29 by Malaysia's Bernama news agency.
He said copies of the holy book are usually stolen from mosques in the Southeastern Asian country.
This makes it difficult to explain and spread the Islamic teachings in the Buddhist country, he said.
Ahmad Zahid, the chairman of the Dewan Amal Islam Hadhari (Damai), said at least 200,000 copies are needed by the Muslim minority. He urged Malaysia, the chairman of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, to meet this serious shortage.
Zahid added that his organisation has collected so far RM200, 000 for its Wakaf Al-Quran programme.
There are estimated 700,000 Muslims in Cambodia, making up 5 per cent of the country's 13 million population.

Several faith groups condemn Oklahoma lawmakers who arrogantly turned down copies of Quran

The Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, president of Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry Board of Trustees, speaks in front of a photo of Mecca during a press conference Friday at the Al-Salaam Mosque. Lavanhar criticized a Sand Springs lawmaker for his comments this week about the Quran.

In a show of solidarity with the Muslim community, representatives of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa and several interfaith organizations held a press conference Friday condemning Oklahoma lawmakers who turned down a copy of the Quran. Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, refused a gift of Islam's holy book earlier this week, saying, "Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." Other lawmakers joined him in refusing the gift, which was offered by the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council as part of the state's centennial celebration. "Today, I'm an American Muslim, speaking for our brothers," said David Bernstein, executive director of the Jewish Federation. "Hateful words inevitably lead to hateful actions," he said at the press conference held at the Al-Salaam Mosque, 4620 S. Irvington Ave. "Sometimes they set in motion a chain of events that turn them into self-fulfilling prophesy." He said hateful words often have an effect that the speaker did not desire or anticipate. Oliver Howard, president of the Oklahoma Conference for Community and Justice, said religious intolerance has no place in Oklahoma. "All religious communities have or have had zealots who exploit sacred scriptures for their own ends, including violent and inhumane acts," he said. The Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, president of Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry Board of Trustees, said Duncan's words were disrespectful of his fellow Americans and promoted religious bigotry. "We are one nation, under God, indivisible -- and we will not be divided by politicians who use religious and ethnic rhetoric to enflame bigotry," he said. Keith McArtor, president of the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance, said he hoped the lawmakers who refused the Quran would become "better acquainted with the true tenets of Islam, which are based on brotherhood, love, respect and dignity." Justice Waidner, with the Say No to Hate Coalition, said the lawmakers' refusal to accept the Quran "throws a dark shadow of misunderstanding and bigotry on a segment of our state's diverse population and their religious heritage." Allison Moore, speaking for the Islamic Society of Tulsa, said Islam clearly denounces all forms of terrorism. "Our religion teaches us to be peaceful, tolerant, loving and respectful of neighbors and friends, and to uphold justice for all people," she said. "We are deeply concerned about the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric," she said. "And we are very troubled by individuals who disrespect our holy book, the Quran, and quote verses out of context." Razi Hashmi, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he found Duncan's statement Islamophobic and disturbing, coming from someone who should represent his pluralistic constituency regardless of faith.

The Quran and Muslims

By Dr Muzaffar Iqbal 10/27/2007

Because of their mental training and aptitude, most educated Muslim readers of the Quran expect to read a text that would systematically lay out the articles of faith, procedures for religious rites, provide continuous narration of historical events and have a beginning and an end. Instead, they find themselves reading the story of Prophet Nuh in one verse or group of verses and in the very next verse the Quran tells them about Allah's unchanging custom of annihilating nations which transgress and soon thereafter is the mention of Allah's unbound mercy and compassion. This makes them utterly confused. When they attempt to resolve this confusion, they generally have recourse to an English or French work on the Quran wherein they find un-reverential verdicts. In frustration, many close the Quran forever. Those who persevere, continue to struggle with the help of various aids to understand the holy book. These include exegeses and explanatory books written by human beings, which reflect another human being's understanding of the book of Allah.Behind this dilemma is a deeper malady: the alienation of the contemporary Muslims from their own intellectual tradition. Most Muslims educated in schools and universities simply have no idea of the vast corpus of scholarship their forefathers have produced on all subjects. Most of it has been relegated to museums and whatever little circulates is among specialists; it is not a part of the education most Muslims receive in their colleges and universities. The death sentence passed on this material by the 18th and the 19th century orientalists has pushed this vast corpus out of reach of ordinary Muslims. As a result, paths to the noble book have been blocked for them.This difficulty is further complicated by rampart humanism: the very foundation of modernity. Humanism has made human beings the measure of all things. Hence, whatever is beyond the rational faculty of human mind, is stamped as unreliable or at least suspect. Humanism is a product of the post-Renaissance western thought, a legacy that was succinctly summarised by Muhammad Hasan Askari in a short treatise, Jadidiat ya maghrabi gumrahion ki tarikh ka khakah, in 1971. This short book contains two articles; the first is an insightful and concise history of the aberrations (gumrahis) which have appeared in western thought since the Renaissance; the second is a list of 153 aberrations which have crept into Muslim mind and have a direct relationship with religion in general and the revelation in particular. One of the most important things Askari pointed out was that in the previous eras, aberrations were limited in number and in their geographical spread, but this is not the case anymore. Furthermore, modern aberrations mix up truth and falsehood so that it has become impossible for ordinary people to sift them apart. Thus, Muslims who rely on orientalism to understand the Quran can hardly distinguish the insidious currents of various 'isms' that are rampant in this scholarship. These include Protestantism of various shades, humanism, naturalism, nationalism, the scientific revolution of the 17th century, rationalism, deism, idealism, organism, positivism, historicism, utilitarianism, Marxism, scientism and other "isms". Askari pointed out certain key traits of oriental scholarship which stand in stark contrast to the normative beliefs of the people whose religious traditions they study. For instance, orientalists believe that the oral tradition is not reliable. Thus, when they encounter the fact that the Quran was compiled from oral sources, they immediately cast a doubt on its textual validity. For Muslim, oral tradition is superior to the written text; the true authority for them is not a written and bound book containing the text of the Quran, but a hafiz who has memorised it and received a stamp of approval from a teacher - another hafiz, who in turn has done the same and so on until the chain goes back to the prophet (pbuh) himself. Muslims proclaim testimony of faith (shahadah); they do not write it out and sign it.Likewise, western scholarship on the Quran has no clear distinction between a revealed text and an inspired text. The New Testament and the Quran are taken to be at par, whereas the former is clearly attributed even in their own estimates to the four disciples of Sayyidna Isa (AS). Similarly, the clear distinction between beliefs (aqa'id) and deeds (a'mal) is lost in this scholarship. Muslims who approach the Quran from within the traditional perspectives, for instance, clearly understand that beliefs are the foundation of deeds. But those who do not have such training have little understanding of the distinction between the two. Thus, many such Muslims find "a lot of Islam in the west" when they see honest dealings in everyday business transactions, not realising that Islam is not based on honest business transactions but on the two testimonies (shahadas).There is only one true remedy to this basic problem faced by 80 per cent Muslims now living on the planet earth: to study the Quran in its own language and from its own perspective. This is indeed a serious undertaking demanding time and effort, but then life itself is a serious undertaking for the believers. This daunting task is made easier for those who know with certainty that a day will come when they will have to answer for how they spent their time on earth by the first bearer of the Quran, the prophet (pbuh), who said that on that day the Quran will itself speak for such a person. They will be told to keep reciting the Quran and as they recite, their station will become loftier and loftier in an ever-lasting abode. -(TIN)

Message of Quran

Oklahoma's Koran issue: A reply to Rep. Rex Duncan arrogant statement on Quran

"A massive bomb inside a rental truck exploded, blowing half of the nine-story building into oblivion. A stunned nation watched as the bodies of men, women, and children were pulled from the rubble for nearly two weeks. When the smoke cleared and the exhausted rescue workers packed up and left, 168 people were dead in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil."


What happened?

Where?

Who did that?

In case the horrific explosion has caused Rep. Rex Duncan to suffer memory loss:

The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist attack on April 19, 1995 aimed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma......(Rep. Rex Duncan own backyard!).

The terrorist is Timothy McVeigh.......he was not a Muslim and nobody called him a Christian terrorist either. Not a single person in his/her right mind (Muslim or non-Muslim) agree with what he did....killing the innocence people. Nodody threw a party or dance on the streets to celebrate.

--------------------

The feeling of every Muslim is deeply hurt when Rep. Rex Duncan wrote to his colleagues that he rejected the gift of a copy of Koran from the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council because:

"most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology".

His statement and action is just a blatant act of religious bigotry. He could has said "No, thanks" or even better "No, thanks. Eid Mubarak!" (Muslims just celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr).

He said that he had researched the Quran on the Internet and believed it supports such killing.....By the way that was how George Bush decided to attack Iraq, he searched the Google Earth on Iraq and saw 4 very tall minarets and told his generals he saw 4 nuclear reactors.....attack now!

Search no more, please watch the series of 7 video clips on Commonly Misunderstood Qur'anic Texts- Dr Jamal Badawi. In the video clips Dr. Jamal Badawi explain the commonly misunderstood Quranic texts particularly on the issues of jihad and Muslim-non Muslim relationship. With true understanding of Quranic message, anyone Muslim and non Muslim should realise that Islam and Quran promote peace and harmony among mankind.

The wise thing to do, Rep. Rex Duncan should aplogise like the wise Pope did.

Editor - QuranForever (http://www.quranforever.blogspot.com/)

Muslim Congressman Took Oath of Office on Thomas Jefferson's Quran

Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison became the first Muslim member of the U.S. Congress January 4, 2007. swearing his oath of office on a copy of the Quran that belonged to the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. "Look at that. That's something else," Ellison, D-Minn., said as officials from the Library of Congress showed him the two-volume Quran, which was published in London in 1764.
Ellison took the ceremonial oath with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at his side. So many of Ellison's family members attended the ceremony that it was done in two takes.
Ellison had already planned to be sworn in using a Quran, rather than a Bible. He learned recently about Jefferson's Quran, with its multicolored cover and brown leather binding, and arranged to borrow it.
In a recent interview, Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said the choice of Jefferson's Quran was significant because it "dates religious tolerance back to the time of our founding fathers."
"Jefferson was ... one of the more profound thinkers of the time, who recognized even then that there was nothing to fear, and in fact there was strength in recognizing religious tolerance," he said.
Although the Library of Congress is right across the street from the Capitol, library officials took extra precautions in delivering the Quran for the ceremony. To protect it from the elements, they placed the Quran in a rectangular box and handled it with a green felt wrapper once inside the Capitol.
Instead of using surface streets, they walked it over via a series of winding, underground tunnels - a trip that took more than 15 minutes. Guards then ran the book through security machines at the Capitol.
The Quran was acquired in 1815 as part of a more than 6,400-volume collection that Jefferson sold for $24,000 to replace the congressional library that had been burned by British troops the year before, in the War of 1812. Jefferson, the nation's third president, was a collector of books in all topics and languages.
The book's leather binding was added in 1919. Inside, it reads, "The Koran", Jefferson marked his ownership by writing the letter "J" next to the letter "T" that was already at the bottom of pages, according to Mark Dimunation, chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division.
Ellison, the first black member of Congress from Minnesota, was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college. He said earlier this week that he chose to use this Quran because it showed that a visionary like Jefferson believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.
Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Last month, Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims" will be elected and follow Ellison's lead.
Ellison approached Goode on the House floor Thursday, introducing himself and offering to meet for coffee. According to Ellison, Goode said he'd be interested in doing that. The subject of Goode's comments didn't come up, Ellison said.
"Look, we're trying to build bridges," Ellison said. "We're trying to help bring about understanding. We don't want issues of misunderstanding and division to exist if they don't have to."
Jefferson's 6,000-volume personal library was the largest in North America at the turn of the 19th century. He obtained his English translation of the Quran in 1765 as he was finishing his law studies at the College of William and Mary. The translation by British historian and solicitor George Sale first was published in 1734. The Quran, along with the rest of Jefferson's books, became the basis of the Library of Congress after British troops burned the U.S. Capitol, destroying the old congressional collection in the War of 1812.
While Jefferson is best known for writing the Declaration of Independence, he also penned the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which served as a basis for the religion clauses in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights.
In the Virginia statute, he wrote, "Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry." He went on to say that denying a person the ability to hold an office of trust or declaring him unworthy of public confidence based on his religious beliefs was a violation of natural rights.
The document demanded "that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
It is believed that Jefferson was inspired by the teaching of the Quran, prohibiting compulsion in religion and forcing religious doctrines. Also the foundation for "all men are created Equal" and "men are born free" are some of the indications for the Quran as a source for guidance "no compulsion in religion" Quran 2:256.
The Qur'an is "definitely an important historical document in our national history and demonstrates that Jefferson was a broad visionary thinker who not only possessed a Qur'an, but read it," Ellison said in an interview with the Free Press. "It would have been something that contributed to his own thinking." Ellison also said that Jefferson's Qur'an "shows that from the earliest times of this republic, the Qur'an was in the consciousness of people who brought about democracy."
The statute was one of Jefferson's proudest achievements. He instructed that his tombstone should not refer to him as president of the United States but should remember him only as the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the founder of the University of Virginia.

Record Price for 13th-Century Quran

LONDON (AP) — A Quran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, has sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction.
The holy book, which had been estimated to sell for up to $715,000, fetched $2,327,300 at Tuesday's auction in London, Christie's said.
That was a record auction price for a Quran or any type of Islamic manuscript, the auctioneer Christie's said.
A nearly complete, 10th-century Kufic Quran, thought to be from North Africa or the near East, sold $1,870,000.
Both were offered for sale by the Hispanic Society of America, and were purchased by trade buyers in London, Christie's said.
The record-setting Quran was signed by Yahya bin Muhammad ibn 'Umar, dated 17 Ramadan 599 (June 1203).
It was acquired in Cairo in 1905 by Archer Milton Huntington, who founded the Hispanic Society in New York City in 1904. Huntington, the adopted son of railroad and ship-building magnate Collis P. Huntington, died in 1955.
The calligraphy in the manuscript was done in gold outlined in thin black lines, and the marginal notes are in silver outlined in red.
The kufic Quran bridges a gap between the earlier style, copied on parchment of horizontal format, and the later style of vertical composition, often on paper, Christie's catalog said.
The kufic script takes its name from Kufah in Iraq, an early center of Islamic scholarship, according to the British Library.
Because the script's vertical strokes were very short but the horizontal strokes elongated, it was written on papers in a landscape format.

Chapter 37: Surah As-Saffat (Those Ranged in Ranks) - Sheikh Salah Al-Hashem