Word: muslims
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Lina Joy chose her faith long ago. Born a Muslim in the multiethnic nation of Malaysia, she started attending church in 1990 and was baptized as a Christian eight years later. But on Wednesday, Malaysia's highest court blocked her final attempt to have her conversion legally recognized by the state. It was a blow to her heart as well as her soul. Malaysian law prohibits marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims, so Joy will not be able to wed the Christian man she loves...
...Malaysia has long trumpeted itself as a moderate Muslim nation committed to safeguarding the rights of its diverse population, an ethnic olio worthy of a Benetton ad: Muslim Malays, Christian and Buddhist Chinese, Hindu and Sikh Indians, animist indigenous peoples. Indeed, earlier this week in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hosted the annual World Islamic Economic Forum, where he held up his homeland as proof that Islam did not equal extremism...
...matters such as marriage, property and divorce. But that system leaves considerable gray space. Joy, a 43-year-old Malay, needed to seek permission to legalize her conversion from the Shari'a court, which considers forsaking Islam a crime. And since she is still classified as a Muslim, she could not use the civil-law system. The Federal Court failed to iron out this catch-22, ruling that it had no jurisdiction over her religious conversion. With no further legal recourse left, only Joy's faith can give her solace...
...violence has reverberations far beyond Nigeria. Oil rose above $50 a barrel for the first time when in 2004 a Nigerian Muslim militant threatened to attack the industry, while fears that the April 2007 elections would trigger renewed violence were a factor in driving the price above $66 in late May. Yergin, of Cambridge Energy Reasearch Associates, warns: "As West Africa becomes increasingly important, consumers in the U.S., Europe and Asia will discover that their own energy security depends in part on political and economic stability in West Africa." American warships already patrol off West Africa, and U.S. energy...
Births per 1,000 people in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, a rate 39% higher than that...