In the Shadow of the Past: Ramadan in the Balkans
Professor Ismail Bardhi is Dean of the School of Islamic Sciences in Skopje, Macedonia. He received his diploma at the School of the Islamic Sciences in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and completed his doctorate at the University of Ankara, Turkey. He is the author of several publications in his native Albanian language. He has been a leading participant in the dialogue between major churches and religious co...

Ramadan in the United States
Interview with Aziza Maheen How is Ramadan celebrated in your country ?  Ramadan in America is celebrated pretty much like anywhere else. As you know, Muslims in America hail from numerous countries--but the majority come from the Middle East and South Asia. Over 30% of Muslims in the United States are African-American. There's a great deal of diversity in terms of how Ramadan is c...

Abdal Hakim Murad on Ramadan and Eid in England
Interview with Abdal Hakim Murad (Tim Winter) What are your observations about Ramadan in England? In some British towns Ramadan is very noticeable. In cities like Leeds and Leicester, Muslims are over a quarter of the population, and everyone knows about the fast. I live in Cambridge, where the community is smaller, although we still have around six hundred people attending Tarawih prayers at ou...

Online Islamic Education Opportunities
The Internet has transformed the nature of mass education in the modern world by expanding access to all segments of society. The transmission of knowledge has probably never been wider, as the intellectualized, legalist Islam of the ulama (Islamic scholars) comes to meet the popular, as well as the middle-of-the-road Islam in an arena that has no limits. Islamic websites that specifically focus ...

Islam and the Media
digg_title = "Islam and the Media"; var sburl6099 = window.location.href; var sbtitle6099 = document.title; There is one of three motives behind use of the media by Islamic groups: to offer an alternative to those who have already dominated the international or national media, to propagate the Islamic discourse and to defend against the prejudices, assaults a...

The Dynamic Face of Islamic Media
  Journals and magazines are among the most obvious forms of the media. In the world of media, no other organ is richer in subjects or cheaper in costs than the magazine. It is for this reason that we can see hundreds of magazines on the shelves, magazines aimed at young people, magazines about politics, literature, science, the economy, astronomy, design, fashion, music, and so much more. Magazi...

A Perfect Example of the Influence of the Media: The Cartoon Cri
It was September, 30th in 2005 when Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, published the cartoons which were to create a huge wave of indignation among Muslims all over the world. The assaults against Islam and Prophet Muhammad in the media were probably not a new phenomenon, but the twelve cartoons depicting and denigrating Prophet Muhammad can be accepted as the turning point in the confrontatio...

Religion in the Virtual World
The internet has become an indispensable and necessary part of our lives. Whereas communication without the internet has become nearly impossible, encyclopedias are now almost nostalgic items in the library, with search engines have been declared king, crowned by their ability to achieve "search results" in seconds. As the internet has dominated almost every dimension of our lives, it is not poss...

A New Form of Activism: Message Bombardment in Web Forums
The integration of the Islamic way of thinking and living with modern communication and the Internet has created a new aspect to the socialization process for Muslims and a new form of communication for people from different religions and cultures. Mail groups and online forums established by the participation of hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of people, Muslim and non-Muslim, find an opport...

I Bet I Can Find
Facebook is one of those spheres where feelings towards Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), positive or negative, can be expressed in the most exaggerated way. Far from reflecting academic currents, Facebook groups establish an important trend to follow, allowing us to discover what the actual disputes about the Prophet are. For instance, while the group "I bet I can find more than 10,000,000,000,000,000,00...

The Question of Online Fatwas
Together with the increasing use of the Internet by Muslim community, the online fatwas, or religious decrees have also become popular. In fact, they have become the new, easily accessible alternative for the Muslim community in the place of mosques and other such conventional religious centers. Muslims log on to the internet to present their problems and receive immediate detailed responses. No ...

Islamic Devices on Sale: “ADD TO CART”
  With dazzling speed, electronic and digital Islamic products have started to stretch beyond the boundaries of the imagination; they are now mobilizing the markets as well as helping people carry out their religious duties. Today we can listen to electronic Qurans, remember the time of the prayers with the help of adhan readers and use electronic devices to keep track of our supererogatory praye...