'Muslim women start fighting back'

Interesting article about Islamic feminism in Australia, from The Age:

Ms Ihram said new voices had begun to challenge the authority of ethnic religious leadership in the mosque, partly in frustration at the politics and limited capability of ethnic Muslim associations.
New organisations and leaders were emerging through Australian-born Muslims who responded to "media moral panics" and bypassed Islamic councils to present a moderate, local and English-speaking voice of Islam.
Women were starting to take leadership positions through their writing and as academics. "Women can speak out from the Muslim community into the mainstream, but it's very hard to get a platform into the Muslim community, to get constructive female voices."

Full article here.

'Imam and pastor unite for message of peace, tolerance'

Imam Muhammed Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye are visiting Melbourne from Nigeria, to share about how they used to be militia leaders who wanted to kill each other, and are now close friends.

Pastor James Wuye lost most of his right forearm to a machete attack, and Imam Muhammed Ashafa lost family and a spiritual adviser before they met and to their surprise discovered common ground and eventually trust.
Their journey sparked the establishment of a body called the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Centre in the religiously divided city of Kaduna in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.
However, even the name became contentious, as Pastor Wuye recalls: "Some Christians objected that we had the Muslim name first. I told them the order did not matter."
Eventually the organisation reached out to a growing Nigerian Jewish population, as well as people of traditional animist beliefs, and evolved into the Interfaith Mediation Centre.

Read the Age article here.
(There is a documentary film about Imam Muhammed Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, called The Imam and the Pastor.

Father Abraham had many sons...

This morning I went to the appeal of the Islamic Council of Victoria versus Catch the Fire Ministries case. (This was the first case based on the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act 2001.) The ICV was saying that Danny Naliah and Danny Scot from Catch the Fire had been saying at a conference in 2002 that the Islamic community is trying to take over the country, that they are in control of immigration, that they are demons and that they make money from illicit drugs. They were also saying that the Q'uran promotes violence and that terrorists are true Muslims. In 2004 the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decided that they had breached the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act. Today the appeal was accepted, so the case is going to be sent back to VCAT.
I think it's really tragic that Christians and Muslims have been unable to resolve this conflict outside of court. I hope that we can find more of the things to unite us rather than divide us.

Media coverage:
'Court orders vilification retrial' - The Age
'Church race case back to tribunal' - Herald Sun

How cool is this?

...the Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, had a slightly different attitude towards Christians. He let the visiting Christians of Najran hold their Christian service at the mosque.

-Umm Yasmin, 'How Far from the Prophet Can an Islamic State Get?', Dervish