We are living in a ‘multi-polar’ reality. This new buzz phrase describes how aspects of our lives, including Muslim celebrations, are less likely to be dominated by singular cultural expectations, as they once were. In the West, our faith-based holidays are moving beyond family and food, opening up to a plurality of expression and the …
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Caring for others in Ramadan highlighted by a new initiative launched at a UK hospital. Shiraz Shah, spends hours every day besides his mother’s bedside on the Dementia Ward of the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI). Just two years ago, the 35 year old, car salesman, spent long periods at the same hospital on a cancer …
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Last night at an event for the Palestinian charity Interpal, I met a new mum who wanted to talk about the ‘competitive element’ of Ramadan. At first I wasn’t sure what she meant. After all, this blessed month is our break away from the ‘winner takes all’ attitude pervading our society at all levels. Rawan, …
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I felt angry at Islam! I felt angry at a book that would tell hungry people to be hungry for thirty days. I was angry at the Quran for telling this poor woman not to drink water when always her water is dirty.
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MASHHAD, Iran – On the plane from Istanbul, I have been chatting to an old friend, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss. The best networker I have ever met. Within minutes of noticing me in the plane, a row behind, the spokesman for Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist Jewish group, has handed me a business card and multiple …
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LONDON – One of the many treats the first ever MFest (Muslim arts and literature festival), delivered last weekend was a session titled “The Caribbean Ummah.” An hour-long visit to an Islamic heritage on islands of the Caribbean Sea. It delivered more diversity than sun, sea, and sand. First a ‘cheat sheet’: The Caribbean is …
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