Abdullah Saeed is the Foundation Chair of the Sultan of Oman Endowed Chair in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is also Director of the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne and Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies. His most recent book is Reading the Qur'an in the Twenty-First Century: A Contextualist Approach.

The words of the Qur'an and hadith contain rich resources for supporting the democratic order.

If Muslims are to embrace modernity, including life in a pluralistic, democratic society, without abandoning their faith, they must take up the argument for religious liberty that is embedded in their history and that stands at the centre of their most sacred texts.

Although the broad thrust of the Qur'an and hadith supports religious liberty, many parts of these texts can be, and traditionally have been, interpreted as denying it.

One example is a qur'anic verse that deals with the question of the jizyah, a tax on non-Muslims:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." (9:29)

The Prophet reportedly sometimes demands the death penalty for apostasy, the most obvious example of this being the hadith, "Whoever changes his religion, kill him" (Bukhari, Sahih, 9, 84, hadith 57).

Such problematic texts are outweighed by the bulk of the texts and instruction provided by the two most important authorities in Islam, the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad's actual practice. Both are remarkably supportive of the idea of individual and personal religious freedom.

 

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Outweight? Problematic? Yes it's time for ALL THE SCOLARS of Islam to make sure the idea of individual and personal religious freedom is enshrined in the teachings, even freedom outside the framework of Islam, and this includes the FREEDOM FOR WOMEN to be what they want to be. This also includes protecting the rights of Christians in Arabic countries. This is what Assad has been actually doing, but the Sunni kind has been trying to change this status quo with the help of the Saudis. And this attack on Christians abroad, an attack supported by the previous US administration supporting the strict religious code of the Saudis, was what actually got Trump elected... Believe it or not...

Gus is a fierce atheist and resents religions of all kind, but respects freedom in religion and freedom of religion, AS LONG AS RELIGIONS do not kill curiosity outside religious beliefs and do not impose temporal penalties or people who act outside the religious framework.

Interstingly, as well as alcohol, coffee was to be banned by Islamic clerics for being a drug...

WASHINGTON: A US State Department report released on Friday labelled the Altaf Khanani group as a money laundering organisation and accused it of laundering billions of dollars for organised crime and terrorist outfits. 

US Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William R. Brownfield told a briefing in Washington that the State Department had delivered its 32nd International Narcotics Control Strategy Report to Congress on Wednesday. “It is, however, the first time that we are discussing and rolling this report out before the media in nine years,” he added. 

In its section on Pakistan, the report notes: “The Altaf Khanani money laundering organisation (Khanani MLO) is based in Pakistan. The group, which was designated a transnational organised crime group by the United States in November 2015, facilitates illicit money movement between, among others, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), United States, UK, Canada, and Australia.”

read more:

https://www.dawn.com/news/1318333/khanani-group-launders-billions-of-dol...

Agents of the Saudi Arabian government are using US veterans as pawns in a scheme to gut a new law clearing a path for 9/11 families to sue the kingdom for its alleged role in the attacks, several vets complained in interviews with The Post.

“I joined the Marine Corps as a direct result of 9/11, so to be wined and dined by the very people I joined to fight against, that was sickening,” said Timothy Cord, who served as a Marine sergeant in Iraq.

Vets say the Saudi scam involves soliciting them to go on all-expenses-paid trips to Washington — including lodging at the posh new Trump hotel near the White House — to help pressure lawmakers into amending the recently passed bill, Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).

Trip organizers Qorvis MSLGROUP, however, are allegedly failing to disclose to participants that the Saudi government is funding the trips through some 75 paid foreign agents it’s hired across the US to oppose the law, which passed unanimously in September.

Vets complain they’re not only being misled but openly lied to. During one recent trip, an organizer denied any “Saudi involvement” in sponsoring the trip, even though federal filings show the organizer has a $100,000 contract with the Saudis and is a registered foreign agent for the kingdom.

In their recruiting pitch to vets, the Saudi lobbyists, who pose as veteran advocates, claim that JASTA exposes them as well as “150,000 [US] military personnel stationed in over 150 countries” to “retaliatory lawsuits” in foreign courts — even though international law experts note that JASTA deals only with the immunity of foreign states, and poses little if any risk to individuals.

Vets felt shock and anger when they found out they were duped into doing “the Saudis’ dirty work,” as one put it.

read more:

http://nypost.com/2017/03/05/vets-say-they-were-duped-into-helping-saudi...

The Saudis have been pressing for the tripling of the size of their Wahhabist university in Indonesia, which offers free tuition, and it is expected that Jakarta, reluctantly, will agree.

In the face of the Saudis' relentless, pernicious proselytising, what has Australia done? Cut its aid funding for Indonesian schools and more than halved the number of scholarships it offers to Indonesians to study in Australia. 

Canberra needs to do a lot more than just revisit these cuts. Together with like-minded nations, it should work with the Indonesian government and institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to put together a ong-term program to help Jakarta fund quality schools and universities. 

That would be a golden escalator that would actually do some good for Indonesia.

So that it doesn't need to depend on Saudi money and the fundamentalist Islam that comes with it. 

If this sounds a bit ambitious, like the postwar Marshall Plan that rebuilt a shattered Europe, it should be. 

Indonesia is one of the Islamic world's greatest success stories. To leave its future to the influence of Riyadh would put our biggest neighbour in the hands of one of the Islamic world's most dangerous dead-ends.

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/saudi-arabian-king-salmans-nineday-trip-to...