http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/Commentary on trends and events in the Muslim world. This is only a selection of some of the content available from altmuslim. For more stories, check out our site at altmuslim.comhourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/516191As the presidential primary elections come to a head, the campaigns have reached a fever pitch as the candidates on both sides of the fence make a last-ditch effort to win the nomination. One thing that has struck me most is the language used by candidates in an effort to garnish the vote....http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/516190An assassin's bullets and suicide bomb have ended the life of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Tragically, she followed in the footsteps of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's Prime Minister [1973–1977], who was brutally hanged by political rival and subsequent military...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/516189I don't blame you for having a skewed image of me. Every day, it seems like there's another story that undoubtedly affects your perception of the Muslim community. Whether it be the ridiculous response to offensive cartoons, or the nearly daily attacks that take place in our war-torn countries,...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486843Only weeks before the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America ( ISNA ), critics of the group (and Muslims in general) were hurling a new accusation toward it - the awkward appellation of "unindicted co-conspirator" as described in a federal lawsuit against a Texas charity where...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486842Casual observers of US attempts to shut down Muslim charities might have an image in their head: funds solicited by Muslim charities for basic needs such as food, traded instead in shadowy back alleys for Kalashnikovs. It would be hard to blame them, given efforts by the authorities to paint US...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486841In the oft-cited glory days of the Islamic world, Muslim explorers like Ibn Battuta created vast networks around the world to promote trade and to learn about other cultures. The Silk Road Ibn Battuta travelled linked nations together in a way they never had before, changing them irrevocably and...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486840In the year 2000, a very public reconciliation took place on a Chicago stage between the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), Louis Farrakhan and the man who once took his place, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad. When WD Muhammad was chosen to lead the NOI after his father's death in 1975, he moved the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486839On the surface, it may seem that the guilty verdicts against the alleged "dirty bomb" plotter Jose Padilla - made in a civil court after being held for three years without charge - signals the end of a long battle against the US government's most high profile use of "enemy combatant" status...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486827For Shia pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, few can forget the that occurred in 1987. Each year prior to that, a group of Iranians, Saudis, and other nationals held a peaceful, Saudi government-approved demonstration to denounce internal hypocrisy in Islam (even though it was a not-so subtle jab at...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486820On July 21, 2007, the Burj Dubai surpassed the Taipei 101 skyscraper and the Sears Tower to officially become the world's tallest building. The Burj, which means "tower" in Arabic, will have between 160 and 190 floors upon completion, as well as a luxury hotel and four luxury swimming pools along...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/486819In the ongoing debate on terrorism, nothing is more polarising, nothing sends political discourse into a tailspin more than the contention that foreign policy is one of the root causes of terrorism. As much as it is a favourite slogan among Muslims, it sends skeptics of Muslims and Islam into a...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/469234The debate on Islamic extremism in the US is often like watching a tennis match, with government officials and Muslim representatives volleying accusations back and forth. On one side, the government (and many in the media) sees a Muslim community with a dismissive or lackluster (at best)...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/469232This week's deadly blast in the Turkish capital of Ankara may or may not have been related to the recent tensions between Army-backed secularists and the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his "mildly Islamist" Justice and Development Party (AKP), but you'd never know it. The country has been...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/464412The comprehensive survey of over 1,000 Muslim-Americans released this week by the Pew Research Center was supposed to be a harbinger of good news, as evidenced by its title, " Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream ". And in many ways, it has positive things to report: most Muslim...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/altmuslim/464074The debate on Islamic extremism in the US is often like watching a tennis match, with government officials and Muslim representatives volleying accusations back and forth. On one side, the government (and many in the media) sees a Muslim community with a dismissive or lackluster (at best)...