The English website of the Islamic magazine - Al-Mujtama.
A leading source of global Islamic and Arabic news, views and information for more than 50 years.
May 04, 2024
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday promised to introduce a new "civilian" constitution.
"We will work together to bring a civilian constitution to Türkiye," Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting, which lasted more than eight hours, in the capital Ankara.
"We want to follow our journey in the second century of our republic under the guidance of a civilian, liberal, encompassing constitution that will be embraced by all segments," he stressed, underlying the importance of leaving behind the current constitution shaped by the military junta after the 1980 coup.
Erdogan also hailed the presidential system, saying: "Our nation rejected the proposals to return to the old system with its will in elections on May 14 and May 28. The parliamentary system discussions were closed indefinitely."
Türkiye adopted its executive presidential system of governance in 2017 after a public referendum and put it into practice a year later.
Turkish officials have touted the benefits of the new system, saying it eliminates inefficiencies and enables the smoother working of the administration.
Northern Cyprus, Azerbaijan tour
After his reelection on May 28, Erdogan said he paid his first foreign visits to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Azerbaijan.
"We will continue our struggle shoulder to shoulder with the Turkish Cypriots, who are an integral part of the Turkish nation. We will never allow the rights of either our country or the TRNC to be usurped," he stressed.
Turning to Azerbaijan, Erdogan said during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev they took many decisions to improve bilateral relations.
"We have determined a common goal to increase the trade volume to $15 billion," he added.
Erdogan also said that the establishment of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan university was given priority.
"We emphasized our support for the ongoing normalization process with Armenia," he added.
The equation of the Turkish election runoff
May 16, 2023The second round of Turkish presidential elections differs from the first due to differences in the equations that govern it, which include:
1- The ability of each party to hold together its alliances and supporters. While Erdogan and the Justice and Development Alliance proved a greater ability in cohesion by bringing it to a greater percentage than the opposition candidate, which almost brought him to the brink of success, as well as the success of this alliance in obtaining the parliamentary majority, which gives confidence and enthusiasm to work to win the second round. This is unlike the opposition coalition, which was damaged in its broad opposition by having more than one candidate for the presidency (Kilijdaroglu, Sinan, and Muharram İnce), or the six-party table alliance, which failed to obtain the presidency or the majority in Parliament. This can discourage his audience and reduce his enthusiasm for the second round.
2- The Kurdish component, the largest proportion of which came out primarily for the success of the Kurdish list, more than Kilicdaroglu's choice.
However, in the second round, part of this component will fail to go to the elections, because it considers both candidates to be nationalists in its view of the Kurdish problem.
3- The youth bases of the (Muharrem İnce) party and the ancestors’ alliance (Sinan) will not be committed to voting for Kilicdaroglu because they did not adhere to that before and believe that he is not fit for the presidency, and this makes part of the opposition base either not go to vote, or they may vote for President Erdogan.
4- One of the factors is also the ability of the two parties to reach understandings with Muharram İnce and Sinan, to support one of them in the second round, according to interests and issues. The Justice and Development Party and President Erdogan will be more able to implement these understandings due to the presence of the president in the government and the presence of a majority of the Justice and Development Party under the dome of Parliament.
This is an advantage that helps President Erdogan win, God willing.
5- There is an electoral base that constitutes approximately 8 million voters who did not participate in the first round, and this is affected by the most fortunate and realistic in success, and it has noticed the success of the Justice Party in its regions, which encourages it to elect the most experienced, President Erdogan, and the strongest in chances of success, given that it achieved nearly 50 %.
6- Stability factor. This is what the Turkish people need, as having a president who agrees with a parliamentary majority is better than having a president who quarrels with a majority that prevents the passage of budgets and laws, and where the majority is achieved for the Justice Alliance, it is better to choose Erdogan to bring about this stability.
7- Decreased frequency of external interventions. It was exhausted in the first round and did not achieve the necessary achievement of its support for the opposition, and some of them will begin to ease the media campaign for the sake of flexible relations in the next stage.
These are some of the parameters of the second-round equation.
We hope that Allah Almighty will grant President Erdogan success in the runoff.
Question
I have one doubt, for which I cannot find an appropriate answer. Why do we pray in this manner, with the takbeer, prostration and standing? Is it not sufficient for us to sit and recite Qur’an, and call upon Allah in supplication (du‘aa’) instead of that? Why is it done in this manner and in this way?
Answer
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
You should understand – may Allah guide you – that the foundation of our religion is the obligation to hear and obey, and not to think that we can suggest alternatives to what Allah has prescribed, just as we trust the word of the doctor and do not object to it; rather we hear and obey, and if he says take this medicine after dinner, we do not say, Why not before dinner?
Or if the doctor says, Take seven drops, we do not say: Why not five drops? Rather we listen to what the doctor says, even if it involves putting up with the bitter taste of the medicine, or the high cost of treatment, and so on, despite the fact that he is a human being and does not possess the power to heal, and he may be right or wrong, and he may get it wrong more often than he gets it right.
What is required of us is that our submission to Islamic teachings should be greater than that, for they are revealed from One Who is most wise, most praiseworthy, all-knowing and all-aware, and “He is not questioned about what He does, but they will be questioned” [al-Anbiya’ 21:23].
Faith cannot be sound without complete submission to Allah and His Messenger. Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning).
“But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you, [O Muhammad], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, willing] submission”
[an-Nisa’ 4:65]
“The only statement of the [true] believers when they are called to Allah and His Messenger to judge between them is that they say, ‘We hear and we obey.’ And those are the successful”
[an-Noor 24:51]
“The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and [so have] the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers, [saying], ‘We make no distinction between any of His messengers.’ And they say, "We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final] destination." [al-Baqarah 2:285].
As-Sa‘di said:
{This response on the part of the believers includes everything that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) brought, namely the Qur’an and Sunnah, and they listened to him with acceptance and submission.} End quote.
Secondly
Whoever reflects upon these verses will realize that the religion is based on acceptance, humility and submission to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. How can he not submit to Him, may He be glorified, in all things and in all his affairs, both religious and worldly, when he believes in Him as his Lord, Creator, Guide, Provider and Controller?
How can he not submit to His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) when he believes in him as his Prophet who was sent by his Lord?
If a person follows this path of questioning, it is not far-fetched to assume that it will ultimately lead him to heresy, because you are saying: Why can’t the prayer be simply reciting Qur’an and offering supplication? Then someone else will come and say: What is the reason for offering supplication; isn’t the Qur’an enough? Then a third person will come along and say: Why pray at all? Isn’t it sufficient to say Laa ilaaha illa Allah (there is no god but Allah)? And you could say something similar with regard to zakaah, fasting, Hajj and all the other rulings of Islam, and the ultimate outcome would be rejection of the rulings of Islam, and heresy.
Thirdly:
Prayer has been enjoined in this manner, which is the best and most perfect possible manner, so as to attain true servitude to Allah and humility before Him, and to know the pleasure of conversing with Him. So the individual faces towards the qiblah, and stands with humility before Allah, with his head lowered, then he bows to Allah in humility, then he shows even more humility to Allah by prostrating.
Look at a detailed description of how the prayer is done, from the takbeer to the tasleem [that is, from beginning to end], and reflect upon the actions and words, given by Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) in his book as-Salaah.
We ask Allah, may He be exalted, to guide us and to make prayer a source of comfort for us.
And Allah knows best.
A source close to the legislative circles in Ankara confirmed yesterday, Saturday, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a stronger position to win the presidential elections.
"His position is stronger because it offers tangible achievements and prospects for development," the source told "TASS" agency, noting that it has become clear that "undecided voters tend to vote for Erdogan, because the opposition's arguments do not appeal to them."
The source also indicated that the possibility of large-scale demonstrations or clashes in Turkey after the elections and the loss of one of the political parties will be negligible.
"It is not expected that the loss of the opposition or the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will lead to any mass demonstrations or negative consequences," he said.
The source considered that the possibility of local protests exists, especially if the opposition loses, as this will cause a high level of tension in society, and people may try to express their dissatisfaction in this way. The source continued that if there is a risk of an increase in tension and protest actions, they will be effectively thwarted.
Likewise, the source ruled out that Erdogan's loss would lead his supporters to take to the streets, pointing out that the reaction of the voters to the loss of the ruling Justice and Development Party's candidates in the Istanbul and Ankara municipal elections is evidence of this, as winning the leadership of these cities for Erdogan is very important, but the heads of Opposition municipalities won it, and there was no "destabilizing reaction".
Only 3 candidates are running in the presidential race in Turkey, Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu, and Sinan Ogan, after Muharram Ince withdrew his candidacy request on Thursday.
Islamophobia is a 'neo-colonial project' - scholar
May 09, 2023The US rhetoric on its so-called war on terror is responsible for the global proliferation of anti-Muslim sentiments, a respected scholar and author has said, terming the growing religious hatred against the community as a “neo-colonial project”.
Prof Khaled Ali Beydoun’s recently published book The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims has been hailed as a pathbreaking study on the subject for its minute examination of the issue.
“Islamophobia is a tool and a weapon used by the US to advance its global power and to seize coveted natural resources such as oil in Iraq,” says Prof Beydoun, a faculty at Wayne State University Law School in the US. He was speaking to Anadolu Agency exclusively.
“I chose the title because the term ‘crusade’ is used to describe the historical conflict between Islam and Christianity,” he says. “...When the war on terror was launched 21 years ago, then US President George Bush called it a ‘crusade’. So I drew on these two events to give the title to the book.”
Beydoun says that besides extensive research for the book, he interviewed people exposed to anti-Muslim hatred in many countries such as India, China, France and Canada.
While writing the book, he aimed to understand the feelings and thoughts of the Muslim community struggling for existence in different countries.
He says that anti-Muslim sentiment is not the same in every country. “Islamophobia is not experienced by Muslims in a similar way. It really depends on where they are, which country they live in, what their identity is. The Islamophobia that Uyghur Muslims experience is strikingly different from the one that we experience.”
‘Hotbed of Islamophobia’
Drawing on his observations based on interviews he conducted in European countries, Beydoun says that “Europe has become a hotbed of Muslim hostility for many reasons”.
“As Muslims practice their religion, as women wear headscarves, as men wear white robes and grow beards, as they go to mosques, it’s easy for Europeans to discriminate against them on religious grounds.”
He also points out that Muslims feel like they are being watched by “big brother”, as in dystopian novels. “Muslims struggle with this as victims of destructive policies such as surveillance, and the privacy of individuals is often violated due to suspicion of terrorism.”
He adds that discrimination against Muslims is at an all-time high.
“When I apply for a job, and they see on my CV that my name is Khaled Ali Beydoun, employers might think twice about hiring me as opposed to someone called Edward Smith,” he says.
“If it’s a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf to a job interview, she is discriminated against because of her appearance.”
About 1 in 5 Asian Americans hide their heritage from non-Asians, some out of fear, report says
May 09, 2023An estimated 1 in 5 Asian Americans in the US have hidden details about their heritage from people who are not Asian, a new report shows.
Some of the details that Asian Americans choose not to share include ethnic food or clothing as well as cultural and religious practices, the Pew Research Center said in the report released Monday.
“Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand the rich diversity of people of Asian origin or ancestry living in the United States and their views of identity. The study is part of the Center’s multiyear, comprehensive, in-depth quantitative and qualitative research effort focused on the nation’s Asian population,” the report said.
The research was conducted in the wake of a recent rise in attacks against Asian Americans, including during the Covid-19 pandemic amid misinformation and misplaced aggression about the origins of the virus.
Reported hate crimes against Asians in 16 of the nation’s largest cities and counties rose 164% in 2021, according to a study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University San Bernardino. And a 2022 report from Pew found about a third of Asian Americans reported changing their daily routine due to concerns of racially motivated violence.
The new survey is based on a sample of 7,006 adults in the US who identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic ethnicity. Respondents were interviewed between July 5, 2022, and January 27 of this year.
When asked why they had hidden some aspects of their culture, Asian Americans mentioned a number of reasons from “fear of being embarrassed to wanting to avoid awkward questions or having to explain themselves, and even concern of potential discrimination,” the Pew report said.
Their responses also varied based on their age, ethnicity and place of birth. About 30% of Asians born in the US have hidden their culture, compared with 15% of Asian immigrants, the report shows.
Younger Asian adults were more likely to hide their culture. About 39% of Asians of ages 18 to 29 said they have done it, compared with 5% of Asians who are 65 and older, the report says.
About 25% of Korean adults surveyed said they have hidden part of their heritage from people who are not Asian, while 20% of Indian adults, 19% of Chinese, 18% of Vietnamese, 16% of Filipino and 14% of Japanese adults said they have done the same.
The survey includes several findings that highlight the diversity among Asian identity in the US.
About half of respondents said they often describe themselves by ethnic labels, such as Filipino, Korean or Chinese, which reflect their family origins, the report says.
Respondents indicated their friendships vary depending on where they were born. Overall, half of Asian Americans said all or most of their friends in the US are Asian but only 38% of those who were born in the US said the same.
An elderly Australian went to a mosque to complain about ‘loud noises’ during prayers. However, he converted back to Islam after conversing with the Muslims present in the mosque.
The heartwarming incident was captured on footage and showed the man declaring his new faith in English and Arabic before breaking down in tears.
Haj Hussain Goss, an active Muslim preacher in Australia, shared the clip on his Facebook account, writing: “Welcome to Islam our brother on this day of Eid. This brother came this morning for Eid to complain about the noise and went home as a Muslim. Allah is great.”
Hassan said at the beginning of the clip that an old man named Brian, who lived in a nursing home near the Gold Coast mosque, came to him complaining about the loud sound of Eid prayers that blasted over the speakers. Hassan then sat with Brian for 10 to 15 minutes, during which he talked to him.
Brian became convinced of the faith after an encounter with the preacher, making a voluntary decision to convert to Islam. (Agencies)
Immigration to a Majority Non-Muslim Country First of all, we’d like to clarify that there is not a one-and-only ruling on living in non-Muslim countries for all Muslims. If a Muslim can practice his or her faith freely and there is no fear for his or her family to be tempted, then there is nothing wrong in doing so. Having said this, if you see that you would be able to exert every possible effort to surround your family with good and righteous friends and there is no fear of being tempted, then there is nothing wrong of travelling to non-Muslim countries.
Elaborating on the issue of living a majority non-Muslim countries, we’d like to furnish you with the following fatwa issued by the prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal Nadvi, director and imam of Al-Falah Islamic Center, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, who states, “Scholars look into this issue from various perspectives and the bottom line is the ability to practice Islam and make da`wah (Arabic for: inviting others to Islam).
If Muslims are free to practice their own faith and even invite others to join the same faith, then their presence in such countries is needed and sometimes mandatory. the second perspective is when Muslims are free to practice Islam but face some difficulties in making da`wah, then it is permissible to live in those countries.
So, there is no one ruling for all Muslims living in non-Muslim countries. the ideal situation is when Muslim practices his or her own faith and at the same time lives as a good citizen in his or her own country, sharing the beautiful teachings of Islam with other people. Almighty Allah says: [O My servants who believe! Truly, spacious is My Earth: therefore, serve you Me, (and Me alone)] (Al-`Ankabut 29:56). So, all the earth belongs to Allah, so we should worship Allah wherever we are.” Moreover, Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, President of the Fiqh Council of North America, adds: “A Muslim can live in any place and in any country. However, there are some basic Islamic rules about migration:
“A Muslim can live in any place and in any country. However, there are some basic Islamic rules about migration:
- It is Haram for a Muslim to live in or to migrate to a place where he cannot practice his/her religion, unless one is very weak and has no other way. Almighty Allah says, “Lo! As for those whom the angels take (in death) while they wrong themselves, (the angels) will ask: In what were ye engaged? They will say: We were oppressed in the land. (The angels) will say: Was not Allah’s earth spacious that ye could have migrated therein? As for such, their habitation will be hell, an evil journey’s end…” (An-Nisa’: 97) It is obligatory upon Muslims to live in and to migrate to those lands where they can freely practice their religion.
- It is not recommended for Muslims to migrate to the lands where their and their next generations’ religion might be at risk, unless they make every effort to safeguard their own religion and the religion of their next generations. Without such efforts it will be Makruh (reprehensible) [and in some cases even Haram] to migrate to such lands.
- It is permissible for Muslims to migrate to the lands where they feel confident that they can practice their religion freely and they can raise their children under the Islamic principles. It is, however, better for Muslims to live in Muslim lands where they can live under Islamic laws to govern their personal as well as collective lives.
- It is highly recommended for Muslims to migrate to those lands where they feel they can practice Islam and can spread the message of Islam. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sent many Sahabah (his Companions) to different areas to spread Islam and to teach Islam. After the death of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, many Sahabah left Madinah and went to different lands to live there and to teach Islam to the people of those lands. It is due to their efforts and the efforts of many Muslims after them that Islam spread in many lands. This is also our duty and we must make every effort to convey the message of Allah to the whole world.”
Source: Islamonline
Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a fresh discovery of a new oil reserve in the country's eastern region.
“I'd like to share some fresh good news. We have discovered oil reserves with a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day in Cudi and Gabar,” the president said on Tuesday at an opening ceremony of the Karapinar solar power plant and other newly-completed projects in central Konya province.
Saying that the newly-found petroleum near Sirnak province "has a high-quality structure," Erdogan further stressed that "Türkiye will no longer depend on others for energy but rather become an energy exporter."
The oil discovered at a depth of 2,600 meters (8,530 feet) will be extracted "with 100 wells and will meet one-tenth of our daily use."
Erdogan also announced that the petroleum well in Gabar is named after a young music teacher, Aybuke Yalcin, who was killed in a PKK terror attack in 2017 in southeastern Türkiye.
Yalcin, 22, succumbed to her wounds after a brazen attack targeting the car of the Kozluk region mayor in the Batman province on June 9, 2017. She was travelling in a minibus that was part of the convoy.
“Our new field, the Martyr Aybuke Yalcin-1 Well, will hopefully provide more oil than produced around the whole country,” he added.
Regarding Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Erdogan said the country will be able to meet 10 percent of its energy needs from the plant and announced that a second nuclear power plant may be built in Sinop.
Pledging to remove terror from Türkiye's agenda, Erdogan said the country will overcome all obstacles that prevent Türkiye from placing the riches of the country at the disposal of the nation.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
