I got into a rickshaw in Beijing and my 65–year-old wrinkled driver immediately whizzed me through the hutongs — old, narrow alleyways. He looked at me and talked in Chinese. I turned to my guide. "He's asking where you are from." "Aygee," I replied in my broken Chinese — meaning "Egypt." He pointed at my headscarf. "Are you Hindu?" "No! …
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BBC Documentary An Islamic History of Europe
In this 90-minute documentary, Rageh Omaar uncovers the hidden story of Europe's Islamic past and looks back to a golden age when European civilization was enriched by Islamic learning. Rageh travels across medieval Muslim Europe to reveal the vibrant civilization that Muslims brought to the West. This evocative film brings to life a time when emirs and caliphs dominated …
Read More »The legacy of Victorian England’s first Islamic convert By Rahila Bano
On a bleak, wet and windy day in Liverpool the old Georgian, white-stoned building which once housed England's first registered mosque looks quite dull. The property on Brougham Terrace is just a few miles from Liverpool city centre but, in stark contrast to the newer council building next door to it, the paint is peeling off the front walls and …
Read More »Caliph Umar’s Peaceful Entry to Jerusalem By Latheef Farook
Great lesson for today's warmongers During the period of the Second Caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab, the Muslim forces, under the command of Abu Ubaydah, lay siege to Jerusalem . The Patriarch of the city, Sophronius, stated that he would negotiate only with Caliph Umar and that nobody enters Jerusalem before Caliph Umar. On hearing this Caliph Umar informed that he was on …
Read More »Islam and Jerusalem By Latheef Farook
Masjid Al Aqsa, the first qibla of the Muslims, second oldest masjid after Makkah and the third most important holy place in Islam after Makka and Madina is located in the city of Jerusalem known to Muslims worldwide as Al Quds (The Holy) or Baitul Muqaddis (The House of Holiness). The historical significance of the Masjid Al-Aqsa in Islam …
Read More »History of Islam in Japan
Islam's relation with Japan is quite recent as compared to those with other countries around the world. There are no clear records of any contact between Islam and Japan nor any historical traces of Islam coming into Japan through religious propagation of any sort except for some isolated cases of contact between individual Japanese and Muslims of other countries before …
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