Cinemas will open to the public in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia in 2018, the kingdom’s culture ministry has announced. The lifting of the ban follows several other steps by the Saudi Crown Prince touted as liberalization of the country. This is good news, at least on the surface, as fun in Islam is generally regarded as […]
Reforming Islam
William Henry Quilliam was born on 10th April 1856 to a wealthy family in Liverpool. He was brought up as a Methodist and converted to Islam in 1887 after visiting Morocco. Quilliam opened Britain’s first mosque, on Christmas Day 1889, with funding he received from Nasrullah Khan, Crown Prince of Afghanistan. He changed his name […]
Supporters of accused moderate Muslim rapist Tariq Ramadan blame charges on “Zionist plot”
Of course. What else could possibly account for these rape and sexual assault claims? The Qur’an depicts the Jews as inveterately evil and bent on destroying the well-being of the Muslims. They are the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); […]
Mustafa Akyol: The Great Pretender as Reformer
Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish journalist and lecturer on Islam who presents himself as both a loyal Believer and as a determined Reformer, one whose understanding of the true Islam, if only it were to find favor among 1.5 billion Muslims, would allow the Faithful to slough off the unpleasant aspects of Islam, in Akyol’s […]
Islamic Reform: How Firm a Foundation?
“If this book [Quran] came from God and it’s divine and perfect, then the Jihadis are justified,” states Islam reformer Shireen Qudosi in The Challenge of Modernizing Islam: Reformers Speak Out and the Obstacles They Face. Her sober conclusion amidst an illuminating collection of interviews with her like-minded colleagues in Christine Douglass-Williams’ indispensable recent book […]
Germany: Muslims threaten to kill lesbian imam for opening reformist mosque
‘I don’t accept that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam,’ she said. ‘It has to have something to do with Islam because these people are shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. ‘Britain’s big mistake was to install sharia courts.’ A liberal female imam speaks out in truth and because of it, she gets death threats. She is […]
Out now: The Challenge of Modernizing Islam, by Christine Douglass-Williams
Jihad Watch writer Christine Douglass-Williams’s new book, The Challenge of Modernizing Islam: Reformers Speak Out and the Obstacles They Face, is out now from Encounter Books. Order your copy here. Ayaan Hirsi Ali says: “This well-written book should not be ignored. With elegance and determination, Christine Douglass-Williams documents a variety of Muslim reformers, of a […]
Turkey says German mosque where men and women pray side by side “incompatible” with Islam
This mosque received a great deal of international publicity recently as heralding the advent of a new, modern, moderate Islam. As is always the case with genuine attempts at Islamic reform, however, it is receiving pushback from Islamic authorities who say it is inauthentic Islam. The Turkish authorities in this case are working from hadiths […]
Egyptian historian: Occupiers “tried to secularize Islam, and thus to eliminate the notion of Jihad from Islam”
“There is not a single tyrant or oppressor who does not fight the principle of Jihad, just like the occupiers did, when they invaded our countries. They even created Islamic sects and movements that would repudiate Jihad. They tried to secularize Islam, and thus to eliminate the notion of Jihad from Islam, so that the […]
Australia: Muslims slam imam as “fake Muslim” for opposing Sharia and obeying Australian law
Here is yet another installment in our periodic series: why we don’t see more genuine Muslim reformers. “‘I’m considered fake because I would die for Australia’: Imam slams extremists who claim he’s a fraud for following Australian law over Sharia and not wanting a Muslim state,” by Kate Darvall, Daily Mail Australia, April 1, 2017 […]