Muslims Demand Sharia Student Loans Because Paying Interest Goes Against Islamic Law
MAIL ONLINE: Muslim groups are calling for a separate student loan system because the interest due to be charged will conflict with rules of Sharia law.

The changes to tuition fees, which come into force next year, will see students charged higher rates of interest on the loans they take out to pay for university.

Until now they have paid the market rate of inflation but the reforms mean students who go on to earn more than £21,000 will have to pay interest of up to 3 per cent.

But in some interpretations of Sharia law, which is Islam's legal system and governs every aspect of Muslim life, loans are forbidden.

The National Union of Students has said it could be two years before an alternative system is worked out, leaving some Muslims fearing they cannot go on to further education.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies told The Independent that the rate increase was a 'pressing issue'.

A spokesman said: 'Because the rate of interest is above the rate of inflation, it is quite blatant usury.' » | Daily Mail Reporter | Monday, January 22, 2011

Details of British Muslim Students Could Be Given to CIA
THE TELEGRAPH: Personal details of almost 1,000 British Muslim students could be placed on US terror watch lists because of the police investigation into the Detroit bomb.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab while on a school trip to London. Photograph: The Telegraph
Names, email and home addresses of members of the Islamic Society at the University College London (UCL) were handed over to detectives investigating the alleged attack on an aircraft by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as it landed in Detroit on Christmas Day.

Abdulmutallab studied engineering at university in 2005/08, and was president of the UCL Islamic Society in 2006/07.

Names and email addresses of all members of the UCL Islamic Society and Royal Free and UCL Medical Islamic Society between September 2005 and June 2009 were handed over to police by the university's student union, according to a report in The Independent.

Police were then given telephone numbers and home addresses by the UCL Registry.

The newspaper said the information had been given to the CIA, and that the homes of more than 50 of the students have been visited by police officers, but nobody has been arrested.

Some of the students on the list were not at UCL at the same time as Abdulmutallab and many had never met him.

The newspaper said Mojeed Adams-Mogaji, the current president of the UCL Islamic Society, was told by police the personal details would be kept for seven years and would be shared with other intelligence agencies “if requested”. >>> Alastair Jamieson | Thursday, April 01, 2010

Professor Richard Dawkins Wants to Convert Islamic World to Evolution
TIMES ONLINE: The author of The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene, whose new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, is serialised in The Times next week, has topped bestseller lists all over the world but never in a predominantly Muslim country.

None of Professor Dawkins’ books, on evolution as well as religion, has ever been translated into Arabic, and his work has been heavily censored in Turkey. In an interview with The Times, he said that popularising evolution in the Islamic world, where creationist beliefs are strong, was a challenge he is keen to take up. “To be a bestseller in a Muslim country would be a personal triumph,” he said.

“I would like to see my books translated into Arabic. They haven’t been. They are all translated into Hebrew. Persian, I’m not sure. My books are translated into Turkish and they regularly get censored and suppressed.

“The experience of my Turkish publisher of The God Delusion was that he was threatened with arrest for blasphemy. He may even have been arrested, and my website has been banned in Turkey. I feel amused really. There’s something to be said for being suppressed, it makes people want to read you.”

While most non-fundamentalist Christian traditions have largely accepted evolution, Islam was still much more hostile, he said. “It’s the fact that Islam teaches the Koran is the literal word of God, unlike most Christian sects, which say the Bible is largely symbolic. That could well be the cause.”

Professor Dawkins added that Islamic influence is the likely explanation for the growing popularity of creationist beliefs in Britain, where a recent poll found that 30 per cent of teenagers accept the rebranded idea of “intelligent design”.

“I think that’s pretty clear,” he said. “I hear that from colleagues at the coalface of teaching. There has been a sharp upturn in hostility to teaching of evolution in the classroom and it’s mostly coming from Islamic students. >>> Mark Henderson, Science Editor | Saturday, August 22, 2009

’Religion of Peace and Compassion’: A Third of Muslim Students Back Killings
THE SUNDAY TIMES: ALMOST a third of British Muslim students believe killing in the name of Islam can be justified, according to a poll.

The study also found that two in five Muslims at university support the incorporation of Islamic sharia codes into British law.

The YouGov poll for the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) will raise concerns about the extent of campus radicalism.

“Significant numbers appear to hold beliefs which contravene democratic values,” said Han-nah Stuart, one of the report’s authors. “These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said there is no extremism in British universities.”

The report was criticised by the country’s largest Muslim student body, Fosis, but Anthony Glees, professor of security and intelligence studies at Buckingham University, said: “The finding that a large number of students think it is okay to kill in the name of religion is alarming.

“There is a wide cultural divide between Muslim and nonMuslim students. The solution is to stop talking about celebrating diversity and focus on integration and assimilation.”

The researchers found that 55% of nonMuslim students thought Islam was incompatible with democracy. Nearly one in 10 had “little respect” for Muslims.

In addition to its poll of 1,400 Muslim and nonMuslim students, the centre visited more than 20 universities to interview students and listen to guest speakers. It found that extremist preachers regularly gave speeches that were inflammatory, homophobic or bordering on antisemitic. A Third of Muslim Students Back Killings: Radicalism and support for sharia is strong in British universities >>> By Abul Taher | July 27, 2008

THE SUNDAY TIMES:
To Beat Extremism We Must Dissolve Religious Groups: Separatist Muslim belief is growing among the young and the moderate, tolerant majority must be alarmed by this >>> By Minette Marrin | July 27, 2008

My Essay:
Islam: The Enemy of Democracy and Freedom >>> ©Mark

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
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