Small, but Diverse, Korean Muslims Carry On

Shariq Saeed carries an unconventional status symbol with him everywhere he goes: a calloused indentation on his forehead. The weathered bump, called a zabiba, was caused by friction between his head and a prayer mat. Muslims are instructed to pray five times a day, and a zabiba is generally viewed as a sign of piety and devotion caused by deep, repeated bows.

Saeed is a nine-year resident of Seoul from Pakistan, and a practicing Muslim. The scar tissue on his forehead is evidence of dedication to his religion, a faith he brought with him to Korea, where he continues to worship among his fellow Muslims at Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon, downtown Seoul.

Each Friday afternoon, Saeed is one of the worshippers who answer the call to prayer that rings out from Seoul Central Mosque.

Korea’s Muslim population, believed to number around 35,000, is far smaller than its large Christian and Buddhist populations, but Seoul Central Mosque is still filled with worshippers each week. The mosque is located near a popular nightlife area; worshippers walk past night clubs and transvestite bars on their way to prayers.

Muslims everywhere need to reconcile their faith with violent passages in its scripture and images of terror seen in media reports. “There is a true face of Islam, but it is not seen in the media,” Saeed said. “The true Islam is what we see around us here: brothers sharing in peace.”

Seoul Central Mosque is the largest mosque in Korea and was built in 1974 with petro dollar support from Saudi Arabia. On the mosque’s faded facade is letter in the graceful script of Arabic. Worshippers leave their shoes on the steep, wide staircase that leads to the prayer room.

The mosque is an imposing structure at the top of a hill. Flanked by twin minarets, the white building stands out in the grayness of Seoul. The area above the entrance is decorated with intricate blue tiles. The Islamic discouragement of the drawing of human figures, a restriction meant to prevent idolatry, led to creative use of tiles to decorate houses of worship.

FULL ARTICLE FROM CHOSUN.COM

Group Issues ‘Hate’ Materials Prompts Cancellations at Islam School Near St. Louis

The Muslim Al-Salam Day School off Weidman Road closed Friday due to a Christian group’s promise to tout Christianity at the location, school officials said.

A letter, that reads as follows, was sent home to parents telling them classes were cancelled.

“Earlier this week we had informed members and parents of the community about a protest that will be taking place outside of the Islamic Foundation Property tomorrow. Due to the overwhelming incoming of increasing safety concerns from parents and teachers, we have decided to cancel school and after school activities for tomorrow.”

Ghazala Hayat with the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis tells Patch that the group Reclaiming Missouri for Christ contacted St. Louis County Police to inform them the group planned to distribute literature during the Dar-Ul-Salam Mosque’s prayer services Friday between noon and 2 p.m. The Islamic Foundation offices, mosque and school are all located on the same property off Weidman Road.

FULL ARTICLE FROM http://ballwin-ellisville.patch.com

Survey: Number of U.S. Muslims Grow by 30% Since 2000

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Radicalism among Muslim youth is not a problem, America’s Muslim leaders told researchers – sounding a lot like their Christian counterparts – keeping the youth involved in the faith is their problem.

The information comes from “The American Mosque 2011,” a two-year survey of Muslims in the U.S. released today (Feb. 20, 2012) byHartford Seminary, Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other groups.

The vast majority of mosque leaders, 87 percent, disagreed with a statement that radicalism is increasing among Muslim youth.

The study also shows that Islam in the U.S. is bucking trends of decreasing religious participation in general however. The faith has seen a 30 percent growth in members since 2000, from an estimated 2 million in 2000 to 2.6 million in 2011, which would be about the same as the number of Buddhists and about half the estimated number of Jews in the U.S.

FULL ARTICLE FROM AL.COM

Mosque Firebombed in NYC: Mayor Condemns

New York City police are investigating as possible hate crimes a wave of firebombings that included a Islamic center, New York papers are reporting today. A bodega and two private homes also were targeted. No injuries were reported.

Update at 1:19 p.m. ET: Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the violence, the Associated Press reports. “The four reported attacks on Sunday night go against everything we stand for as New Yorkers and Americans,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Attacks such as this have no place in our open and inclusive society.” CAIR called on police and Muslim institutions to step up security measures around mosques. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the advocacy group, said CAIR recently called on the FBI to investigate threats targeting mosques posted on an anti-Islam blog called “Bare Naked Islam.” One comment on the site read: “Throw 10 Molotov cocktails into these mosques and burn them down,” Hooper says.

FULL ARTICLE FROM USA TODAY

Millions in Mecca Start Hajj

(CNN) — Millions of Muslims from around the world were in the holy city of Mecca on Saturday for the first day of Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim is expected to perform at least once in his or her life.

Dressed in white and following in the footsteps of the prophet Mohammed, pilgrims climbed Mount Arafat, just outside the Saudi Arabian city.

Hajj, a five-day pilgrimage, consists of a series of detailed rituals in Mina, Muzdalifa, Arafat and Mecca.

It is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Will this year’s Hajj have an ‘Arab Spring’ effect?

This year’s pilgrimage is unique as it is the first to happen since the Arab Spring began last year.

Some experts are watching for potential flare-ups in Saudi Arabia, a country governed by an unelected royal family and where freedoms are limited.

The Destruction of Shi’a Mosques in Bahrain

(Be sure to scroll down the page where you will find before and after pictures of mosques that the Bahraini government has destroyed in its ongoing effort to discredit and marginalize the majority Shi’a population of the country)

MANAMA, Bahrain: One can understand the dignity and honor of a Mosque by the fact that Allah (SWT) calls Mosques as His homes. There is a Hadith that states whoever comes to mosque; Allah (SWT) will make him His guest in Jannah (The Paradise). Allah (SWT) loves the people who take care of mosques.

Unfortunately, Saudi-backed Bahraini forces in their crackdown against civilians protesting for their rights in Bahrain have bulldozed several mosques.

According to McClatchy Newspapers report, in the ancient Bahraini village of Aali, where some graves date to 2000 B.C., the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque had stood for more than 400 years — one of the handsomest Shiite Muslim mosques in this small island nation in the Persian Gulf.

Today, only bulldozer tracks remain.

FULL ARTICLE  WITH PICTURES FROM JAFARIYA NEWS

 

Controversial Florida Pastor Denied Protest at Michigan Mosque

A U.S. jury  has banned Pastor Terry Jones from staging a protest in front of the largest mosque in North America in the U. S. state of Michigan.  The jury in Dearborn, home  to one of the country’s largest Muslim communities, said such a protest would disturb the peace. Jones, pastor of a small evangelical church in the southern state of Florida, made international headlines last year when he threatened to burn the Quran, the Islamic holy book. Jones eventually did burn the Quran March 20 and posted video on his church’s website.  The move caused widespread violence in Afghanistan, and scores of people were killed including U.N. personnel.  The controversy that surrounds Terry Jones followed him into a courtroom Friday, when concerns about public safety intersected with Jones’s desire to stage the protest.  The jury’s decision puts an end, for now, to Jones’s plans.

FULL ARTICLE FROM VOA NEWS

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans OK with Mosque in Their Community

A new poll shows that a majority of Americans would be okay with a mosque in their community.

 

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(Photo: AP/Rockford Register Star, Scott Morgan)

This photo taken Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2010, shows the Muslim Association of Greater Rockford mosque being built in Rockford, Ill. Muslims have been a part of the Rockford community for at least 20 years, but they haven’t had a prominent physical structure on the city’s landscape that visibly symbolizes their presence. The brick octagon-shaped building topped by a gold dome and featuring a green and gold minaret is the latest addition to the Muslim Community Center. It is the result of a 10-year fundraising campaign and a growing Muslim community.

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Sixty-nine percent of surveyed Americans agreed while 28 percent disagreed, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, released Thursday.

Opposition mainly comes from the South where half of the rural population is against mosques in their area.

Muslims make up 0.8 to 2.6 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In recent years, particularly since the proposal of an Islamic center near the site of the September 11, 2011, terrorist attacks in New York, Muslims have been met with increasing fear and opposition to their attempts to build mosques.

The American Civil Liberties Union has documented anti-mosque activity in 21 states over the past five years.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CHRISTIAN POST