Photo gallery: Muslims praying in amazing places: http://islamicsunrays.com/muslims-praying-in-amazing-places/
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aziz
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mirelle
A federal judge in Wisconsin found the National Day of Prayer to be unconstitutional. The event was codified in US law after a campaign helmed by Billy Graham in 1952. In more recent years, the NDoP had pretty much been taken over by evangelical Christians to the exclusion of pretty much everyone else. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed suit and this is the result (pdf of decision, 66 pages). One of my legal buddies said this was a Big Win for the FFRF.
The nut of the decision is found at the top of page 4:
Unfortunately, § 119 cannot meet that test. It goes beyond mere “acknowledgment” of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.
Pages 57-60 of the decision is a laundry list of news articles from (mostly) the 2008 NDoP, generally pointing out that the NDoP has pretty much become a captive of the Christian Right here in the USA. Jews, Muslims, non-Evangelical Christians, Hindus, Mormons, you name it, they’re all complaining about this. The judge remarks on page 60:
It is true that much of the controversy has been generated by events of private organizations such as the National Day of Prayer Task Force. However, government officials, including former Presidents, have sometimes aligned themselves so closely with those exclusionary groups that it becomes difficult to tell the difference between the government’s message and that of the private group.
[I think this is a comment about how closely entwined the previous administration had become with evangelicals, at least as far as this is concerned.]
And, despite all the hue and cry throughout the evangelical blogosphere that the NDoP has been “cancelled,” this decision is NOT enforced immediately (pp. 65-66):
3. Defendants are ENJOINED from enforcing 36 U.S.C. § 119. The injunction shall take effect at the conclusion of any appeals filed by defendants or the expiration of defendants’ deadline for filing an appeal, whichever is later.
I believe this judge has handed all sorts of evangelical groups a big gift in the form of ready-made fundraising appeals.
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AA
You must have heard about this bus driver by now but thought we acknowledge the thoughtful response by the authorities. Different countries would react differently under the same situation (most likely).
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Transport for London … said all Muslim drivers are being reminded that they should pray during statutory rest periods rather than hold up services.
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‘We understand that there is some flexibility in the Muslim faith as to the times of day that drivers can pray.‘TfL and the individual bus operating companies acknowledge and value the diversity of their staff.
‘As diverse employers, TfL and the bus operators provide suitable prayer or quiet rooms at garages and other key locations for staff who wish to practise their faith.
‘We have asked London General to remind drivers who have a requirement to pray to use these facilities during their rest periods.’
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thabet
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johnpi
More than half of the mosques in Indonesia face the wrong direction.
Some of the country’s top religious officials stressed on Wednesday that worshippers should not be overly concerned by reports that more than half of Indonesia’s mosques displayed incorrect kiblat, or direction toward Mecca.
“There is no problem in regard to kiblat, because in Islam, you may pray to God in any direction. God is not in Mecca. Remember that,” said Amidhan, head of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).
Islamic scholar Mutoha Arkanuddin claimed recently that more than 50 percent and up to 80 percent of the country’s mosques and graves did not reflect the correct direction toward Mecca, but his claims have drawn fierce fire.
“Mutoha Arkanuddin’s research was only conducted at several mosques in Yogyakarta and it absolutely does not represent all the mosques in the country,” said Rohadi Abdul Fatah, director of Islam and Shariah law at the Ministry of Religious Affairs. “It is dangerous to publish such statements as it is invalid and can make the public feel uneasy. He is very reckless, and I am disappointed.”
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bingregory
Face the wrong direction in the sense that they are a few degrees off from what has become the accepted way to calculate it with precision equipment. It’s not like they’re praying east instead of west.
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thabet
I always assumed (from talking to those who study the subject) that there is an allowance (tolerance) anyway?
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Durkadurkistan
I would agree. That’s why there is the “Piety is not turning your face to the east or to the west…” ayah. One of my personal pet peeves is people who try to say that your prayer won’t be accepted if x, y, and z aren’t precisely followed.
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thabet
I was talking more about fiqh type of works, but I can see where you are coming from.
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Durkadurkistan
Oh you mean like technical rulings on how many degrees off someone can be facing and so forth?
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aziz
in general the consensus seems to be that you must use whatever tools are at your disposal to determine qiblah as best you can. If you are a bedouin you may be off by 10 degrees, a modern masjid may be 0.001 (its impossible to have zero error).
The logical solution would be for worshippers to simply slant their prayer withing the masjid by the approriate amount, if its more than a few degrees. in general you probably are oscillating over 2 degrees in your prayer anyway, if you look at the variance over time per worshipper and across the rows of worshippers from left to right.
it shoudl be simple to asses the actual qibla variance and then adjust prayers within teh structurew to compensate. Theres no ruling that says you HAVE to pray aligned with the qibla of a masjid. its the direction the worshipper prays that matters.
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skevin
I see a lot of West African Muslim street vendors in Manhattan face Montreal when they pray.
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yursil
BismillahirRahmanirRahim Salamu’alaykum, I went down to the DC to attend the annual http://oneprayer.org Prayer Vigil for the Earth… here is a short clip of the zikr and short talk our Shaykh Abdul Kerim gave. http://bit.ly/fuN5k
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yursil
hope you enjoy it, it was great to pray fajr on the washington mall across from the white house.
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shams
shukran my brother yursil.
your posts always refresh my sufi sense of being one with the Ummah and theuniversemetaverse.
like a drink of clear water in the desert.
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fathima
Religious group sued for allegedly inciting harm through prayers:
A former military lawyer who served in the Reagan White House is suing a Dallas-based religious group for allegedly inciting harm upon him through prayers, The Dallas Morning News reports. [...]
The suit also asks the court to stop the defendants – Klingenschmitt and Jim Ammerman, the founders of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches – from “encouraging, soliciting, directing, abetting or attempting to induce others to engage in similar conduct.”
Weinstein, who is Jewish, said his family has received death threats, had a swastika daubed on their home, and feces thrown at the house. He said the harassment started several years ago when he began protesting Christian proselytizing at his alma mater, the Air Force Academy.
Weinstein’s attorney, Randal Mathis, said their biggest concern is that Klingenschmitt’s audience includes a “certain number of unstable people” who might act in the name of God.
johnpi’s already linked up an earlier incident in the string events that led to this suit being filed.
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thabet
Muslim councillor ‘adjourned meeting for prayer’:
The development committee at Tower Hamlets stopped after five minutes to allow Muslim councillors a prayer break during its last meeting.
Cllr Rania Khan faced shouts of “disgusting” from the public gallery as she left to pray and on her return said she had been disturbed by the “abuse hurled at her”.
Obviously, I don’t have details of exactly what went on or what was said. But if she told them she wanted a break so she can pray (Maghrib based on the report), then I think she made a mistake. She should have simply asserted her right to a break (as per the standard working practices of her organisation, which we should remember is accountable to the public) given her work schedule, which she says ran from 2-7pm. What she did in her break then would then have been largely her business.
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abunoor
Mistake strategically or in some other way?
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thabet
Yes, I suppose you could say that.
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Abu Noor Al-Irlandee
I don’t understand the British environment enough to comment as to strategy.
Morally, there is obviously nothing wrong in what she did and it would be quite horrific to think that one should somehow be ashamed that an obligation to God is the reason one needs a break as opposed to answering the call of nature or something.
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thabet
I have a question I have been meaning to ask our Muslim readers.
Do the mosques in your area, or where you grew up, aim to complete the Qur’an during taravih (whether they do 8 or 20 rakat) in Ramazan? I grew up accustomed to this practice in mosques around London. It is only in the Gulf where I have noticed completion of the Qur’an is not done in many mosques, and was wondering if this is a very local feature of this area.
Note I am not really interested in the fiqh of this (but feel free to talk about it below if you want); more the practice people are familiar with where they grew up/currently live.
Thanks.
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midwinterspring
Here in Turkey they generally don’t aim to complete the Qur’an. However, they usually set aside a few mosques for this kind of tarawih. I have really missed the long tarawih prayers since moving here and I haven’t had a chance to go to a long one, but from what I’ve heard they aren’t that long — the imams race through them at lightning speed and the whole thing ends up taking just 30 minutes longer than the Turkish standard 45-50 minute tarawih.
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Ibn Kafka
Indeed, Thabet, that would be the case in Morocco – the reading of the Qu’ran is supposed to be completed at the mosque during ramadan.
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Azizur Rahman
Our local mosque seems to do the same. However I have seen some of the near by mosque they don’t do that.
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zenhijabi
In Singapore, it depends on different mosque(s). For the past few years, we’ve been having Imaam flown from overseas (Sheikhs mostly) who will finish up the Quran during terawih. Other mosque use normal surah to complete the terawih. I think it’s the decision of the mosque management.
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Hanfi
Hailing from India, I had the oppertunity of staying in Dhaka for 3 years. By and large Quran is completed in taraveeh in the subcontinent. Migrants from here have established the same practice wherever they have gone.In Gulf countries, mostly 8 rakats are prayed and quran is not completed. In pockets where Indians, Pakistanis and Begalis are concentrated, local mosques do allow them to complete 20 rakats after the imam finishes his 8.
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null
I believe completing the Quran during taraweeh prayers is mostly a desi thing. Praying at Lebanese, Bosnian, Indonesian and Turkish majority masjids here, the usual is 20 short rakats – without attempt at completing the Quran.
Here, Khatam taraweeh is usually only prayed in makeshift musallahs by expat Bangladeshis.
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Willow
In Egypt most mosques (even the little ones) aim to complete the Quran during taraweeh. Here in Seattle it seems like a mixed bag.
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thabet
Thanks for the responses. A wider spread of practices than I thought.
the imams race through them at lightning speed and the whole thing ends up taking just 30 minutes
Sounds like some Pakistanis mosques in the UK!
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thabet
Had a tweet from one of our front page bloggers Kawthar, who also lives in the Gulf region:
It’s mostly the smaller neighbourhood mosques that don’t read a juz’ per night
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bingregory
It is rare in Malaysia. In my city, only the big State Mosque does this. The neighborhood musallas where the majority of people pray are not “professionally” staffed and so may not have a resident who is hafiz Quran. My neighborhood surau has a rotating imam system where a different neighbor guy leads each night. Commonly, the10 short suras before Ikhlas (Takathur to Masad) are read one by one in the first rakaat followed by Ikhlas in the second for the first 15 days of Ramadan and in the second 15 days, Qadr is read in the first rakaat followed by Takathur to Masad . Makes keeping track easy.
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thabet
Saudi imam says Muslims should avoid prayers that call for the destruction of non-Muslims:
Many mosque Imams and preachers in some Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, close their Friday sermons with prayers that call for the destruction of Islam’s enemies, especially Israel and its allies.
“Praying for the ruin and the destruction of all infidels is not permitted because it goes against God’s law to call upon them … to take the righteous path,” Sheikh Salman al Awdah told Dubai-based MBC Television channel.
“Calling for their offspring and ancestors to be eradicated is not legitimate … (except) for the tyrants among the infidels and those who violate the sanctities and harm the faithful,” he said.
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buzz
A good article in the Washington Post from a nutritionist who has researched the benefits of fasting. Best wishes to those who use the Holy Month of Ramazan to concentrate spiritual knowledge and benefit.Better Health Through Fasting
By Zafar Nomani
professor emeritus of human nutrition and foods
West Virginia UniversityWith the sighting of the crescent moon, the holy month of Ramadan has begun this year, marking the start of a spiritual boot camp in which Muslims fast without any food or water from sunup to sundown. To many, the rigor may seem too tasking, but, as a veteran scientist of clinical nutrition and as a 76-year-old Muslim man who has fasted since I was a boy, growing up in India, I can say that fasting can be a healthy practice not just for God but for you.
Fasting can be healthy for people of all faiths from Christians to Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and others who fast as a part of their spiritual practice. But it’s got to be done right.
Twenty-five years ago in the early 1980s, I started studying the biochemical and physiological impact of “restricted energy intake,” as we call fasting in the business, on the human body, using Ramadan fasting as a model for clinical trials that I ran in the United States and Pakistan. In my hometown of Morgantown, W.V., young Muslim students volunteered to be my guinea pigs, logging their daily meals. In the Middle East and in Lahore, Pakistan, volunteers let me study the effect of fasting on their bodies, analyzing the nutritional component of their diets using food composition tables and computer software.
What I and other researchers have discovered is that fasting has clear spiritual, physical, psychological and social benefits.
Continued here
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pi.info
Thank you for posting. That is an excellent article. Ramadan breakfast around this single convert’s house: steak and eggs with OJ and coffee. I find the heavier food keeps me feeling full longer. Coffee is a diuretic, but if I dropped that I’d suffer major headaches, as the author pointed out. I try to drink a lot of water the night before so I’m well hydrated before the day even begins. I’m joined in the fast this year by my enthusiastic but not yet shahadahed 10-year-old daughter, who is having the same except she’s having a fruit juice popsicle instead of coffee….
The religious topic on my mind: adab. Good conduct and good acts.
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null
Ramadan Mubarak! That’s lovely that your daughter is joining you. Did she make it through the day okay?
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johnpi
Ramadan started today here. So far so good
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thabet is discussing. 
skevin, 
aziz, 
shams and 
yursil are discussing. 
abunoor and 
null are discussing. 
Heh. Although I note the news report only quotes one passenger, not “passengers”.
If true, the bus driver was just plain wrong.