Canada bans burqa at citizenship

Canada bans burqa at citizenship swearing in

TORONTO: New Canadian citizens must remove any face coverings, such as the Islamic niqab or burqa, while they take the oath of citizenship, the country's immigration minister said on Monday. 

Jason Kenney said most Canadians have misgivings about Islamic face coverings and said new Canadians should take the oath in view of their fellow citizens. He said he has received complaints from lawmakers and citizenship judges who say it's difficult to ensure that individuals whose faces are covered are actually reciting the oath. 

The Conservative minister called the issue a matter of deep principle that goes to the heart of Canada's identity and the country's values of openness and equality. He said women who feel obliged to have their faces covered in public often come from a cultural milieu that treats women as property rather than equal human beings 

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Islam Will Dominate The World: 37 Hindu Families Convert To Islam In Matli

KARACHI: On Saturday, 37 people from seven Hindu families converted to Islam in Matli. They claim that more families will be embracing the religion in the coming weeks.

In the last 22 months, around 93 families from the Bheel community ie Dalits or untouchables, approached the Bait-us-Salam Madrassa in Matli to convert. Most of these people work as farmers and are from Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Mirpurkhas or Sanghar. “We were neither Muslim nor Hindu,” said a newly converted Abdullah Shaikh. “We had no knowledge of our religion. I haven’t even seen our sacred book and don’t even know what it’s called.” He added that Muslims and Hindus both usually stay away from them and their attitude was humiliating.

“I am happy to convert,” he said. “No one forced me to do this. My children will offer their prayers proudly and will not be discriminated against.” He told The Express Tribune that he was a farmer and had eight children. “We live comfortably,” he said. “My maternal cousin converted to Islam a few months ago and it really inspired me to do the same.”
 

Another new convert Khan Muhammad, 45, said that no one in his family had converted to Islam. It is commonly believed that these people convert as they are unable to pay the debts they owe to their landlords. As the debts keep mounting, the landlords exploit them and force them to work on their lands as bonded labour. He admitted that he owed Rs60,000 in debt and the seminary had paid it off. While talking to The Express Tribune about religion and tradition, he said that his brother and sister-in-law had asked a Muslim cleric to perform their Nikkah some 40 years ago because they did not know what religious norms they were supposed to follow.

Maulana Muhammad Mushtaque Magsi from the Bait-us-Salam Madrassa confirmed that 93 families had indeed converted to Islam in the last 22 months. “Some students and converts managed to convince others to follow suit,” he said. “A few people also come here because they are in debt or fed up with life. We do not force anyone to convert.”

While talking to The Express Tribune about how they helped the converts settle into their new lives, Maulana Magsi said that in order to help with the transition, the converts were asked to live in a colony belonging to the seminary for four to five months. He added that they were given food, medicine, Islamic education and some money when they left the seminary.

“We do face some problems because of the landlords,” he said. “They don’t want the farmers to convert and believe that we are from some banned outfit or receive financial support from abroad.” Magsi added that they did not have a hidden agenda and were only trying to help.

Bait-us-Salam patron Haji Bashir Kambho said that they had paid Rs311,000 for the seven families on Saturday.

He added that the landlords had refused to let them go without the money. “I think some of the families converted to Islam because of their debts but do not think all of them had the same intentions,” he said. “The discrimination they faced has something to do with it too. They were not given respect among Hindus or Muslims.”

Source:The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2011

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Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Bowl Delivered To Chechnya

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, right, escorts the Islamic relic, Prophet Muhammad’s bowl, to Grozny central mosque.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the eccentric leader of Chechnya, is famous for his collections of wild animals and luxury cars. Now he claims to be the new owner of a bowl once used by the prophet Muhammad, allegedly presented to him by descendants in London.

A publicity video shows Kadyrov, who has been accused of widespread human rights abuses in the republic, collecting the purported relic from a private jet at Grozny airport on Wednesday before getting into a convertible Rolls-Royce covered in black and gold rugs, also said to have been brought from London.

The Rolls-Royce leads a motorcade of dozens of luxury cars to the city’s grand mosque, opened by the Chechen leader in 2008 as part of his drive to increase the official role of Islam in the republic. Thousands of residents lined the streets as Kadyrov waved and wiped away tears.
 

Wearing a bright purple suit and black skullcap, Kadyrov pushes through a massive crowd at the mosque, allegedly the largest in Europe. As he opens the box to reveal the bowl, Kadyrov erupts into loud sobs, shoulders shaking. He covers his reddened face after he kisses the allegedly holy bowl for the first time. Kadyrov then thrusts the relic above his head, leading the crowd in chants of “Allahu Akbar”.

Kadyrov has built an all-encompassing cult of personality in the republic and often goes to great lengths to put his faith on show. He is still battling the remnants of an Islamist insurgency – last month the road Kadyrov travelled down on Wednesday was hit by a suicide bomb attack that killed nine people and injured 22.

Kadyrov told the crowd that the sacred bowl “was brought from London to Grozny by British Muslims” and dated back 1,400 years. His press service said the bowl had been kept in London by descendants of Muhammad’s cousin, Ali. “We put a lot of effort into getting the Great Prophet’s bowl to our republic,” Kadyrov said at the unveiling.

The bowl will be kept at the mosque and brought out every year on Muhammad’s birthday, when any believer will be allowed to drink from it, the press service said. “Many expressed keen interest in the bowl, but the descendants decided that Ramzan Kadyrov deserves to keep it, and so it has been passed to him.”

The statement failed to mention whether Kadyrov paid for the purported relic. The leader has claimed that international footballers who have flocked to the republic for exhibition games in recent months were not paid and came “out of respect for the Chechen people”.

Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya since 2007 and is accused by human rights groups of targeting enemies inside Chechnya and abroad in his ruthless attempt to consolidate power. Among those who accompanied Kadyrov to the airport on Wednesday was Adam Delimkhanov, suspected by police in Dubai of involvement in the murder of a Kadyrov rival there.

Source: guardian.co.uk

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