IslamicLawBlog

A Casualty of US Foreign Policy The United States has adopted an invasive foreign policy that violates the sovereignty of many Muslim nations. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter promulgates: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” Territorial integrity and political independence are the principles of national sovereignty -- key principles of the UN Charter and post-colonial international law – which empower nations to freely determine their political, social, economic, and religious institutions, without external coercion, diplomatic pressure, war threats, and economic sanctions. Philosophically, these principles respect human diversity and presume that no system, including liberal democracy, can be the singular model for all nations. The principles caution against any mindless importation...

This Essay focuses on faith-based torture perpetrated against Muslim detainees, torture that was crudely designed, only minimally seeking security-sensitive information. However, anti-Islamic torture - which has profoundly offended Muslim communities throughout the world - reaffirms the dark side of U.S. government policies that periodically single out populations, domestic and foreign, and subject them to cruelty. This dark side is evidenced by the degradation of Native Americans, enslavement of Western Africans, internment of Japanese-Americans, and slaughtering of the Vietnamese. More specifically, anti-Islamic torture has undermined what were sincere and substantial efforts of many American institutions to promote religious freedom at home and abroad. Today, indignant American citizens and organizations are seeking to prosecute lawyers and politicians who designed and endorsed torture, partly because torture policies have soiled the honor of the U.S. as a beacon of liberty. Downloa...

A conspiratorial view of the world is frequently inaccurate, exposing more the paranoia of the view rather than the reality of the world. The sequential destruction of Muslim nations -- Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, (and Iran is on the list) --- may or may not be a conspiracy hatched in Washington D.C., but it is becoming an international reality. It is no secret that the United States and Europe, with varying degree of mutual cooperation and some make-believe internal discord, superintend the sequential destruction of Muslim nations. This War of Sequential Destruction (WSD), despite Nobel-Laureate Barack Obama's denials, refuses to go away. The WSD is multi-frontal. It crosshairs Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Bashir, Ahmadinejad, Sunni, Shia, Wahabi, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. Many Western policymakers rarely see Muslim nations, including allies, with any inherent respect. Vice President Dick Cheney described the Muslim ...

Mohammad Boota plays for an audience of one outside a Pakistani business in Brooklyn. Photo: The New York Times By Kirk Semple A FEW hours before dawn, when most New Yorkers are asleep, a man rolls out of bed in Brooklyn, dons a billowy red outfit and matching turban, climbs into his car, drives 15 minutes, pulls out a big drum and - on the pavement of a residential neighbourhood - starts to play. Mohammad Boota is a Ramadan drummer. Every morning during the holy month, drummers stroll the streets of Muslim communities around the world, waking worshippers so they can eat a meal before the day's fasting begins. A Pakistani immigrant, Mr Boota has spent the past few years learning uncomfortable lessons about noise-complaint hotlines, profanity and the crankiness of non-Muslims rousted from sleep at 3.30am. ''Everywhere they complain,'' he said. ''People go, like, 'What the hell? What you doing, man?' They never know it's Ramadan.'' Mr Boot...

ASSETS held by the world's 100 biggest Islamic banks grew 66 per cent in 2008 from the previous year despite the financial turmoil that clobbered mainstream lenders, a report said on Friday. The top 100 Islamic banks held assets totalling US$580 billion (S$836 billion) last year, up from US$350 billion in 2007, according to an annual report by The Asian Banker, a magazine for financial professionals. In the same period, Asia's 300 biggest banks saw their assets rise by a much slower 13.4 per cent, it said. A financial storm sparked by a crisis in the US housing market swept across the world late last year. Its impact spilled over into the general economy and sent several countries into recession. Prominent US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed into bankruptcy, while several other major Western banks suffered massive losses. 'Despite the financial turmoil in late 2008 that crippled so many large Western institutions, Islamic banks have continued to grow in prominence ...

The great freedom state, the state of Illinois, is on the right track and all peaceloving citizens of the United States would be pleased to know what the State of Illinois has done. The Illinois Senate has passed a resolution against the war in Afghanistan. Here are some excerpts of Illinois State Senate Resolution Opposing Afghanistan War: RESOLVED, That on behalf of the citizens of Illinois, the Senate believes that it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Afghanistan, particularly by escalating the United States military force presence in Afghanistan, that the 17,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be recalled from there, and that we should concentrate on capturing Osama bin Laden; and be it further RESOLVED, That the primary objective of United States strategy in Afghanistan should be to have the Afghani political leaders make the political compromises necessary to end the violence in Afghanistan; and be it further ...