This Blog is intended for use by students in the Islamic Middle East course at Northfield Mount Hermon School and guest students and teachers from other participating schools.
Tensions have been rising between Christians and Muslims in Egypt. A frequent flash point is inter-sectarian romance and marriage. Ten percent of Egypt’s 81 million people are Christians; ninety percent are Muslims.
Story at BBC
In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world and a country where moderate and tolerant expressions of Islam have been the norm, people are becoming more concerned with the recent rise of more conservative (some use the word “radical”) forms of political Islam.
Peter Gelling, “Islamic Group Gains Power in Indonesia,” New York Times, [...]
Muslims worldwide are celebrating the end of Ramadan with three days of feasting, called “Eid al-Fitr” (Feast of the Breaking of the Fast).
Story at BBC
Overview of Islam
In the morning of Wednesday, September 17, 2008 there was an attack by militants in Yemen on the U.S. Embassy. 16 were left dead including six of the attackers. There were two forms of attack, the first was armed militants firing at the Embassy guards and the second was a car driving into the building [...]
Tagged http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/world/middleeast/18yemen.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=16%20die%20in%20yemen&st=cse&oref=sloginIn the seventh installment in their series “Generation Faithful,” the New York Times profiles life in fast paced Dubai, where an atmosphere of moderation and tolerance help Arab young people bridge the sometimes difficult tension between secular and religious ways of life. However, living in Dubai is still challenging for those foreign Arabs who are used [...]
Islamic law is now official for some types of cases in Great Britain, where Muslims make up nearly 3% of the population.
Story from Times (London) online
More on Islam in Europe
The most senior judicial figure in Saudi Arabia has declared it permissible to kill those who allow the broadcast of “immoral” television programs.
Story at BBC
This isn’t the first time there has been controversy in the Saudi kingdom over television programming. On March 25, 1975, Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was assassinated by a nephew who was avenging the killing [...]
See: The Economist, “Savings and Souls: Islamic Finance,” Sept. 6, 2008, pp. 81-83
See also
Ramadan has become a big month for television in the Muslim Middle East! The Economist notes:
“Satellite television has taken off in the region like nowhere else. In wealthy Gulf states, some 95% of households own digital receivers; even in poorer countries, such as Jordan and Morocco, the satellite penetration rate now tops 75%. Not surprisingly, [...]
Yesterday marked the first day in the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, holiest of all months because it was during Ramadan about the year 610 C.E. that Muhammad began receiving the Qur’an, Islam’s sacred text sent down from God in revelations through the Angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic) over the course of the following twenty-two [...]
BBC Middle East