Word: islam
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...watched him die as a Hindu," says the now 32-year-old office cleaner. But when Kaliammal went to the hospital in December 2005 to claim her spouse's body after he died of a protracted illness, she received another shock. Her husband, Maniam Moorthy, had secretly converted to Islam before his death, said Islamic authorities. According to Islamic law, he would be buried in a Muslim cemetery. No, insisted Kaliammal, he would undergo Hindu rites. Both sides headed to court. But Malaysia-a multiethnic nation composed largely of Muslim Malays, Hindu Indians and Buddhist and Christian Chinese-employs...
...Like Indonesia, Malaysia is struggling to determine how Muslim to be. Unlike Indonesia, which is governed by a secular constitution, Malaysia already counts Islam as its official faith-although the constitution also guarantees freedom of religion. Each state has a fatwa committee that makes religious decrees applicable to Malaysian Muslims, most of whom are Sunni. In Kelantan state, Muslim women must wear headscarves in public, while several states have made forsaking Islam a crime that can result in prison time. "We should not limit Islam to a few rituals," says Sulaiman Abdullah, former president of the Malaysian Bar Council. "Malaysia...
...things aren't really that bleak. Because the fact is Europe and Canada are our first and best lines of defense. A terrorist cell in Europe planned and executed 9/11. And today, with 14 million Muslims, Europe remains our Achilles' heel. An alarming number of European Muslims identify with Islam more than they do with their adopted countries. And Europeans do not need visas to enter the United States...
...Here's a worst-case scenario: A European Muslim decides Islam would be served by his martyrdom - a suicide attack on the United States. He takes the first plane to New York, buys all the bomb components he needs at a hardware store, and heads off to blow himself up in the middle of a concert at Madison Square Garden. Our first and probably only warning would come from a cooperative European intelligence service...
...genocide in Darfur and the ethics of the war in Iraq. Catholics are returning to their social teaching; mainline Protestants are asserting their faith more aggressively; a new generation of young black and Latino pastors are putting the focus on social justice; a Jewish renewal movement and more moderate Islam are also growing; and a whole new denomination has emerged, which might be called the "spiritual but not religious...