ABU DHABI // Greater awareness of Islam and its true meaning must be raised, religious and academic experts have said.
In the Islamic world, Muslims must protect minorities by law but that has proven challenging as terrorist groups have persecuted them in the name of God.
“We need to create awareness and a bridge between Islamic scholastics and Islamic knowledge and the modern context that we see,” said Sheikh Habib Ali Al Jifri, founder of the Tabah Foundation in Abu Dhabi. “We have to face those people who have corrupted understandings and who left the majoritarian Islam.”
He was speaking in the capital during a lecture on peaceful co-existence: the Covenants of Prophet Mohammed and the Christians of the World.
“We are at a historical turning point,” Sheikh Al Jifri said. “In the history of Muslims, blood has been shed and there have been wars, but what is new today is that what is happening is taking place in the name of God himself, and trying to connect an atrocity to God and his Prophet.”
He said religious leaders must stand with political leaders, media, intellectuals, opinion-makers, businessmen and academia on a single front to tackle the challenge.
“It is a painful reality,” he said. “What we need is an attempt to join the authentic religion, intellectuals and scholastics of religion, and the reality of the world that we are seeing. We do not need a reformist movement of Islam, we need a renewal in the way Muslims understand the religion.”
He said there was legal understanding that minorities should be protected.
“The Prophet Mohammed said he would be the enemy of anyone who harms a person from a minority community, on the day of judgment,” he added. “This understanding helps ensure that society begins to honour a law that exists.”
Dr John Andrew Morrow, a professor at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, US, and director of the Covenants Foundation, said the covenants of the Prophet Mohammed were many, including those with the monks of Mount Sinai, the Christians and the Jews.
“The covenants have been transmitted from the seventh to the 21st century in an unbroken chain,” he said. “They are as solid as diamonds and, with the Christians, they contain fundamental principles.”
These include granting Christians the freedom of belief and practice and obligation of Muslims to protect them, he said.
Dr Morrow said Muslims must take Christians under the wing of their mercy and treat them with kindness while protecting them from those who oppress them, to ensure that they are treated justly and fairly.
“We do not need to go to the West in search of human rights. Muslims have within their own religion the solutions to problems they face today. When fake Muslims take up arms in the name of Islam, not only do millions of Christians flee, but so do millions of Muslims, so we must return to Islam and revive it.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
GULF MEN'S LEAGUE
Pool A Dubai Hurricanes, Bahrain, Dubai Exiles, Dubai Tigers 2
Pool B Abu Dhabi Harlequins, Jebel Ali Dragons, Dubai Knights Eagles, Dubai Tigers
Opening fixtures
Thursday, December 5
6.40pm, Pitch 8, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Knights Eagles
7pm, Pitch 2, Jebel Ali Dragons v Dubai Tigers
7pm, Pitch 4, Dubai Hurricanes v Dubai Exiles
7pm, Pitch 5, Bahrain v Dubai Eagles 2
Recent winners
2018 Dubai Hurricanes
2017 Dubai Exiles
2016 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
2015 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
2014 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
'Peninsula'
Stars: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Ra
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Rating: 2/5
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Summer special
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
DIVINE%20INTERVENTOIN
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