9 Hadiths on Men-Women Interaction in Mosque

One of the current problematic issues in mosques that give access to women is the excessive sensitivity towards, and sometimes the strict banning of, ordinary interaction between men and women. Interestingly, those men and women do interact normally with other men and women in the outer community in all walks of social and professional life.

Referring back to the Sunnah, we find that such interaction between men and women in mosques did exist during the Prophet’s lifetime; it was normal interaction that involved various religious and social affairs.

True, some violations were reported in the Sunnah, but they were limited and viewed as individual cases that required no radical change in the original rulings of interaction, nor in the arrangement of rows in prayer, or even in the architectural design of the Mosque itself.

The following Hadiths are just few examples of how men and women interacted in mosque, in the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as narrated by male and female Companions. They show what we may call “normal” interaction between men and women in mosque, and they are clear enough to require no further elaboration.

Most French people think Islam is incompatible with nation's values: PM

自由與民主看起來是有條件的

Most French people believe that Islam is incompatible with the values of the country at large, the French prime minister claimed on Wednesday.

“Secularism is in our DNA,” Manuel Valls told French daily Liberation, saying that he believes in the “universal values” of France.

“The Republic [of France] was founded in opposition to the power of the Catholic church," he said. “Today, secularism is facing the rise of radical Islam, but also the place of Islam [in general] in our societies."

“I wish we were able to demonstrate that Islam, the second religion in France, is compatible with the Republic, democracy, our values and equality between men and women. A majority of our citizens doubt it," he added. 

INTERVIEW: Tariq Ramadan on political Islam's 'necessary crisis'

Sometimes seen as an Islamic scholar, a theologian or even a preacher, Tariq Ramadan is first and foremost a philosopher who intends to connect political and religious matters. Annoying for some, a pioneer for others, everyone has an opinion about him. He is the author of books such as Islam and the Arab Awakening (2011) and What is a Western/Muslim Individual Today (2015).

Tariq Ramadan talks to Middle East Eye about terrorism, political Islam and what is going on in the Middle East and in France, where he recently applied for citizenship:

MEE: Does terrorism as we know it today bring up the issue of the interpretation and reform of Islam or is it only a social matter? In other words, according to this ongoing debate between Olivier Roy and Gilles Kepel, does it mean that we are seeing the “Islamisation of radicalism” (Roy) or “is Islam becoming more radicalised”?

Tariq Ramadan: I do believe that none of them is a hundred percent right. We need to acknowledge that there is a real issue with how the Scriptures are being interpreted. Whenever I am told that terrorists are not Muslim, I systematically reply that they actually are, and they cannot be marginalised, the same way they are marginalising other Muslim people. Scriptures are quoted even though their interpretations are twisted. In the face of misinterpretation the only way out would be using another interpretation of the Scriptures.

Moreover, those young ones who want to try military jihad are facing a triple issue. First of all, they are missing the point when it comes to understanding what there is at stake from a political viewpoint. How come so many of them are going to Syria and so few to Palestine, even though, when it comes to symbolism, Palestine definitively wins.

France’s Charlie Hebdo blames ordinary Muslims for terrorism

不懂這些編輯的幽默。伊斯蘭在這些人眼中，無法與現代社會結合。

Tariq Ramadan被禁止到法國大學校園演說

The post-attack edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo from last year. (Yoan Valat/European Pressphoto Agency)

Charlie Hebdo is back in the headlines — this time for a headline of its own.

Last week, the satirical publication — whose offices were attacked by two jihadist gunmen in January 2015 — published an editorial, in English and in French, titled “How Did We End Up Here?”

In the aftermath of more attacks in Paris in November and in Brussels on March 22, the editorial continues the magazine’s provocative criticism of Islam as an affront to the vaunted French ideal of secularism.

“For a week now, experts of all kinds have been trying to understand the reasons for the attacks in Brussels,” the piece begins. “An incompetent police force?

Unbridled multiculturalism? Youth unemployment? Uninhibited Islamism?” For the piece’s principal author — the cartoonist Laurent Sourisseau, known as “Riss” — all of these commonly cited reasons are entirely beside the point. “The first task of the guilty,” he writes later on, “is to blame the innocent.”

For Riss, the problem is fundamentally individual; there is hardly anything structural about it. To that end, his piece focuses on four specific individuals — one real Muslim and three imagined ones.