http://www.islamicity.com/m/news_frame.asp?Frame=1&referenceID=41640

excerpts:

December 11, 2008

By AYESHA IJAZ KHAN

This is in response to Mr. Patrick French’s piece “They Hate Us—and India Is Us,” published in the New York Times on December 8, 2008.  The trouble with pieces like Mr. French’s (and mainstream western media is inundated with such voices) is that they only show half the picture.  And then they wonder why after seven years into the “war on terror” we are arguably worse off than when we began.

“They hate us;” “you’re either with us or against us!”  This is precisely the type of language that fuels the enormous credibility deficit between the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds.  There is constant media coverage and vigils held for victims of the Mumbai blasts and 9/11, which is fine.  But where are the cameras and the candles when the Christians and the Jews kill, when thousands of innocent civilians die in Sabra and Shatila, when air raids kill countless Iraqis and Afghans, when Hindus in India maim and kill thousands of Muslims (Gujarat 2002) and hundreds of Christians (Orissa 2008).  Why is that back page news?  Why are there no tears for those unfortunate souls?  Those killed by NATO forces are barely mentioned as collateral damage.  Is life taken by extremists only worth celebrating if the killer is a Muslim?

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I was told the above link was not working.

Please try this one and keep in mind these are not isolated cases. This affects multitudes of women, this affects ALL of us.

*pleasesign*

http://www.we-change.org/spip.php?article19

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If you want to try to save Delara they are asking for you to write the Iranian leaders directly as petitions will no longer be effective at this time.

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Delara Delrabi is about to be hanged. It may be too late to save her but perhaps we can sign this petition to help implement a change in current policies so no more of this type of this unnecessary killing will happen in the future...

"One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws”

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Social Justice

Social system and morality of Islam

The Moral System of Islam

Fighting terrorism through dialogue: Yemen

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The Islamic world is at the crossroads -- either we have an Islamic Renaissance now or we will experience many years of backwardness.

The Islamic world has been in decline for over five centuries.

Once we experienced a golden age, and there is good reason to mourn its loss.

But the Moor’s last sigh shouldn’t last 500 years.

Something must be done to rectify the problem now.

It seems that we need a bit of etherealization, which is an expression used by historian Arnold Toynbee to describe what takes place when a civilization is flourishing.

So how do we etherealize the Islamic world?

Well, first we have to understand what we got right in the golden age.

To start an Islamic Renaissance, we have to return to our roots, but this does not mean returning to the past as Taleban-type elements would like to do.

We have to balance modernity and tradition.

And this is what we got right at the advent of Islam and during the golden age.

We understood and adapted to the times we lived in while maintaining our religious ideals.

We had spirituality and also academic scholarship and science.

Muslims never had a great Dark Ages where science was superstitiously rejected like the Europeans experienced.

However, we are in the middle of a 500-year decline that is like a dark age.

We Muslims have to understand that we live in the Information Age.

Yet, we must learn how to balance Information Age modernity and Islamic tradition.

We should not become materialists with little or no spirituality, like the Westerners, but we should also not try to become spiritual people disconnected from the times we live in.

Everything is in the balance and we must learn to strike that balance.

The new Islamic Renaissance must be an Information Age Islamic Renaissance because this is the era we live in.

The beauty of Islam is that it is adaptable to every era.

When the Europeans were in the middle of their Dark Ages, the Islamic world reached the heights of art, culture, science, philosophy, literature, architecture, and many other fields.

Many historians say the Islamic civilization actually inspired the European Renaissance.

So what went wrong in the Islamic world?

The answer is obvious.

We forgot who we are. We lost our identity.

We lost sight of that beauty of Islam which is adaptable to every era.

Most of the Islamic world was colonized by the Europeans, and our identity crisis became exacerbated.

After the colonial era ended, we became the victims of neocolonialism.

Even the minds of most Muslims have become colonized in the ongoing cultural war.

South African revolutionary Steve Biko once said: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

The Muslims broke up into different groups.

One group is influenced by the Westerners and tries to be secular materialists like them. They are sometimes called moderate Muslims but most of them are not very Muslim at all in reality.

Another group rejects the West and has adopted a form of Islamic traditionalism that is sometimes called fundamentalism but which is really not fundamentalism because they are out of touch with the modern world, whereas the fundamental teachings of Islam require Muslims to be in tune with the times we live in.

A third group rejects both of these approaches and opts for a form of Islamic mysticism disengaged from the world, which is not really Islamic mysticism because true Islamic mystics are engaged with the world and seek to help people, especially the oppressed masses and those who are spiritually lost.

All of these groups are going in the wrong direction, but each of them also has a piece of the answer.

We Muslims must synthesize these three approaches to regain our identity and start the new Islamic Renaissance.

We must utilize Information Age technology, but avoid getting lost in materialism.

We must hold fast to the Islamic tradition and the Islamic law, the sharia, but avoid stiff interpretations of the law, arrogant self-righteousness, and intolerance.

And we must understand mysticism and live the mystical life, but avoid selfish individualism and narcissistic fantasy.

If we can do this, we can reconnect with the beauty of Islam which is adaptable to every era, balance modernity and tradition, regain our Islamic identity, and start the new Islamic Renaissance.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=158170

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Progressive Muslims: "God Alone"

(with an emphasis on scripture)

http://www.progressivemuslims.org/index.htm

"O you who believe, whosoever from among you turns away from the system, then God will bring a people whom He loves and they love Him; humble towards the believers, proud towards the rejecters; they strive in the cause of God and do not fear to be blamed by those who blame. This is God's grace, He bestows it upon whom He wills; God is Encompassing, Knowledgeable." (Quran 5:54)

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Great posts and links, Zahra...

May the people whose eyes are clouded by ignorance learn that, indeed, the concerns of the world's Muslims - for justice and equality and fairness - are the same concerns as all peoples.

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Iranians for human rights and democracy

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." Martin Luther King,Jr.

http://i4hrd.blogspot.com/2006/10/please-sign-petition-to-stop-stoning.html

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Progressiveislam.org "Sheep are for Eid"

http://www.progressiveislam.org/

includes petition to end stoning in Iran...

http://www.progressiveislam.org/

I may have stumbled upon something here. Seems like an interesting bunch...

http://www.progressiveislam.org/core_team_and_contributors

I am discovering there to be a plethora of petitions for specific individuals. More generalized petitions are more difficult to find.

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