All religions go through situations of distress and ruthlessness, strength, deflation, centrality and militancy, as they are systems of universal values for vast numbers of people who differ in their environments, cultures, and intellectual and social backgrounds. Therefore, religious values remain the same in their sacred texts, but differ in their applications and directions from one environment to another, from one society to another, and from one time to another, due to the factors influencing human beings seeking these texts. As the case in Judaism, Christianity and all other religions, Islam was plagued by a group of followers who understood ... Read More

The New Year's celebrations in Bethlehem often bring back memories of the peaceful coexistence between the Christians of Palestine and the Middle East with their Muslim brethren. The mass services attended by Muslims and Christians mark a shared vision of peace, understanding, and compassion. It is a welcome refuge from a contemporary world torn apart by conflict, extremism, closed-mindedness, exclusivity, intimidation and Islamophobia. There is a historical coexistence that began after the Islamic conquests. It is a unique case of inter-religious relations formulated based on the Eastern mentality of compassionate hosting. This philosophical and social oriental pattern, which accepts diversity ... Read More

The issue of integration of Muslims in Western societies is the most important practical means in the process of communication and civilizational coexistence. It conveys the philosophy of coexistence from the mere scientific and academic discussion to the level of daily life. Through it, the European Christian stands on the truth of Islam and Muslims. The Muslim also knows the philosophy and spirit of the Western societies. It is noted that the process of integration of Muslims in their European societies, especially the first generation of migrants, for many reasons, including language and level of education, was not smooth, yet ... Read More

Greek myth tells us that Zeus released two eagles, one at either end of the Earth, and commanded them to fly towards each other. A sacred stone—the omphalos, 'the navel of the world'—was placed where they met, to enable communication with the divine. Where those two eagles would meet—the area we might today call the Middle East or West Asia—has always been the part of the world where different eagles meet to enable communication with the divine in different languages, traditions and perspectives. It was the original melting pot. But this is not always the story we tell ourselves about ... Read More

The two ends of the ‘extremism spectrum’ – Isis and the far right – are similar and feed off each other. Some would say they even need each other to function, like the two blades of a pair of scissors. For all the talk of global and domestic conflict that continued through 2017, many of the internal social and existential issues faced by both the Western and Muslim worlds in the last year were similar, if not almost identical. Across different societies and civilisations, we share a global culture – particularly an online culture – where atomised, isolated and disaffected youth ... Read More

The Qur'an is a beautiful message to humankind, a counsel for thinking and keeping, a guide to the future from the past. Certain past events that have taken place since the very existence of mankind have been given to mankind as messages and messages have been given to mankind to teach from some events. The Qur'an, based on tolerance and love, provides the necessary information for life with love and tolerance with family, friends, and relatives. It is clearly revealed by the Qur'an that justice prevails, that there is no justice over God's justice, and that the unfair behavior of ... Read More

The principle of tolerance has been one of the most widely used concepts in the recent decades, given the dominance of universal values and the increasing intolerance in some communities. Although this term is circulated widely, it entails a lot of ambiguity in terms of linguistic significance and philosophical meanings. Tolerance in the Latin language is derived from the term tolerantia, which means endurance, which means; pressuring the self and tolerating others. The meaning of term in the Arabic language is not different from Latin, where most of the Arabic dictionaries link the concept of tolerance to the concept of ... Read More

The 2017 Global Terrorist Index was published on 17 November by the Institute of Economics and Peace, and included many important details about the development of terrorismin 2016 and 2017. The year 2017 could be considered a bloody year, but the bloodiest were the years 2014 and 2015, which witnessed the most painful terrorist attacks. This decline was the result of the success of the Iraqi and international campaign to restore the areas under the control of ISIS and the loss of more than 97% of the cities and areas of influence that ISIS used to have a control over, ... Read More

The discourse about Islamic awakening came to existence in the 1970s and got even stronger in the 1980s, and became concrete and present in the 1990s and the following years. It is an awakening that has restored links between the Muslim communities and their heritage, yet this was at the expense of the religious and intellectual authorities of these communities, which have maintained its presence throughout the years of Western colonialism and during the previous religious and doctrinal unity of these Muslim communities. This Muslim awakening preserved the spirit of Islam and its roots in the hearts of Muslims, despite ... Read More

The land of Islam and land of war (Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb) is one of the most important doctrinal pillars on which violent movements, and extremist groups in the Muslim world base their thoughts on. These groups intend to divert jurisprudential provisions from their historical contexts, and to apply them on a contemporary reality that is completely different from the one in which they emerged. Muslim jurists developed such provisions in an intelligent manner as a reaction to their political and religious reality, thus responding to the pressing issues faced by Muslims at the time. Perhaps the first to respond to ... Read More