“He is not a true believer who goes to bed well-fed while his neighbour is starving and he knows that.” This is the message of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be with him). The hadith is being displayed on 426 electronic, lightening and moving billboards decorating the streets of 12 Austrian cities. It is also shown on information screens in 10 metro stations in the capital Vienna. This is part of a campaign by Austrian Muslims to introduce the Messenger and his m...

Dealing a stunning blow to the Bush administration, a US District court judge declared a mistrial on almost all of the counts against an Islamic charity accused of funnelling money to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas. Presiding Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial on the vast majority of the nearly 200 counts applying to the six accused, including the Holy Land Foundation itself, Reuters reported. Fish declared the mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the tria...

Sharif University of Technology, west of Tehran, played host to the International Conference on Islamic Finance. Attended by a host of domestic and foreign officials and experts, the get-together aimed to explore avenues to use huge financial resources of Muslim states, to introduce policies on Islamic finance, to hold training courses for managers, and to share achievements and experiences of industrial organisations. Seyyed Hamid Purmohammadi, deputy minister of economic affairs and finan...

Malaysia is celebrating the return of its first ever astronaut from space. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a 35-year-old orthopaedic surgeon and university lecturer, returned to Earth on October 21 after 11 days in space. He and two Russian cosmonauts touched down safely at 1043 GMT in Kazakhstan. Muszaphar’s parents were among the cheering Malaysian contingent at mission control. When the craft landed, applause broke out in the viewing balcony. His mother, Datin Zuraida Sheikh Ahmad, was cr...

Iranian foreign ministry is due to present the proposal, which was originally raised by managing director of Iran-Khodro Car Manufacturing Co., to the next meeting of D-8 economic committee comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. The proposal reminds the member states that while such Muslim states as Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran are car manufacturers and Turkey manufactures spare parts, markets of Islamic countries import over 17 million cars f...

A record number of more than 10,500 Chinese Muslims are expected to performed their pilgrimages to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, according to the Islamic Association of China (IAC). This is the first time the figure is exceeding the 10,000 mark, said Hong Changyou, IAC vice chairman. The first group of IAC staff and doctors will leave for Makkah early November, almost one month ahead of the pilgrimage rites. The number of Chinese doing the pilgrimage has been rising steadily in recent years. In 200...

A group of Muslim leaders has accused Internal Security minister, Mr John Michuki, of insincerity over the alleged deportation of 19 Kenyans. The Muslim Human Rights Forum and the National Muslim Leaders Forum said the government was lying by denying that no Kenyan had been sent out of the country. Speaking at Nairobi’s Jamia Mosque in the company of families of the alleged deported Muslim faithfuls, the leaders discounted claims in a Michuki’s paid-up statement in the local dai...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on mosques and other houses of worship across the nation to offer prayers for rain to help put out wildfires currently raging in California. CAIR urged American mosques to offer special Islamic prayers, called Salatul Istisqa, which the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be with him) traditionally offered during times of drought. In Salatul Istisqa, the Prophet would offer supplications as the Qur’an states: “O ...

Prime Minister of Tanzania Edward Lowassa has said that the government does not plan to table a bill on Kadhi Court in the forthcoming parliamentary session.

Addressing a public rally, Mr Lowassa said that the matter is currently being looked into by the Law Reform Commission which would then submit its recommendations to the government. He said the recommendations would further be discussed by other stakeholders before the final decision is made.

His reaction came...