網路伊斯蘭？ Sheikh your Google

在非穆斯林社會生活中的穆斯林，在缺乏健全伊斯蘭教育與環境的情況下，該如何學習伊斯蘭知識？特別是對於皈依穆斯林或是缺乏伊斯蘭家庭教育的世襲穆斯林而言？

清真寺通常是第一個選擇，因為阿訇可以教導我們正確的知識。但有時因各種因素，未必可以常到清真寺報到，那要如何學習伊斯蘭呢？

或許網路是個方式。在英國與美國的穆斯林學者，他們同樣受過傳統伊斯蘭教育，在網路上架設個人網站或是在Youtube上放置他們的演講，傳遞伊斯蘭的知識。

不過，僅透過網路學習，是否能學習到伊斯蘭的正確知識？

Prophet Ibrahim (Stories of the Prophets)

Ibrahim先知的啟發：無論在多麼艱難的情況下，依舊堅信 安拉。

Islam and Homosexuality” by Tariq Ramadan

The Islamic position on homosexuality has become one of the most sensitive issues facing Muslims living in the West, particularly in Europe.

It is being held up as the key to any eventual “integration” of Muslims into Western culture, as if European culture and values could be reduced to the simple fact of accepting homosexuality. The contours of this de facto European culture is in a state of constant flux, shifting according to the topic of the day. Just as some insist, as do the Pope and certain intellectuals—often dogmatic and exclusivist defenders of the Enlightenment—that Europe’s roots are Greek and Christian (thus excluding Muslims), so several homosexual spokesman and the politicians who support them are now declaring (with an identical rejection of Muslims) that the “integration of Muslims” depends on their acceptance of homosexuality.

The contradiction is a serious one: does Christianity, which forms the root structure of European culture, and which purports to embody European values and identity, not condemn homosexuality? A curious marriage. Unless the contradiction is intended to stigmatize Islam and Muslims by presenting them as “the Other”… without fear of self-contradiction.

穆斯林學者討論當前爭議性問題 1

THE ISSUE OF WOMEN by Tariq Ramadan

The issue of women has always been a priority in my commitment. I have kept questioning traditional interpretations and inviting Muslims to honest lucidity and critical reflection over the situation of women in Muslim majority societies and in communities settled in the West. The point was not to respond to Western criticisms by adopting a defensive (or altogether apologetic) attitude but to answer the requirement of intellectual probity and consistency. I have repeated this many times: Islam has no problem with women, but Muslims do clearly appear to have serious problems with them, and the reasons and sometimes the (questionable) justifications for this must be sought from within.

First, there is a double phenomenon at the source of all the theological and social constructions that have been established a posteriori. The issue of women is among those most widely affected by literalist readings of the Quran and of Prophetic traditions. Neglecting the fact that the Revelation took place in a given context and that its transmission over a period of twenty-three years determines an orientation as to divine pedagogy, literalist readings freeze the text out of its context, of its internal progression, and of the ends of the global message. They proceed by “reduction” and sometimes manage to justify interpretations that clearly contradict the overall message in its historical evolution or the model of behaviour set by the Prophet of Islam. Beyond unjustified practices (such as physical violence as already mentioned), reformist and literalist interpretations differ in their very conception of women, and of their identity and autonomy. Literalist interpretations integrate the patriarchal context of the time without any critical distance and associate women’s presence and role to their relation to men, while the reformist approach reaches out beyond the historical context to extract fundamental objectives as to women’s identity and their status as autonomous beings. Women should thus become subjects and master their own fates.