Donating Blood Is Un-Islamic: Deoband
THE TIMES OF INDIA: MUZAFFAR-NAGAR/NEW DELHI – In a potentially controversial decree, Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has said that donation of blood and body parts was against the tenets of Islam, but observed that giving blood to save the life of a near and dear one was acceptable.

However, the opinion of the prominent Islamic seminary has not gone down well with several Muslim intellectuals who have asserted that religious bodies have already stated that there was no (no) problem with blood donation.

In a 'fatwa' issued in response to a question, the seminary said donating blood or body parts was not permitted in Islam as human beings are not the "owners" of their bodies.

The decree is posted on the website of Darul Uloom's fatwa section dealing with 'haram and halal' issues, where a questioner asked the seminary its opinion on whether taking part in blood donation camps is right or wrong. Terming the fatwa as 'incorrect,' noted scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan said it should not deter the Muslim community from donating blood. >>> TNN | Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Muslim Pupils Taken Out of Music Lessons 'Because Islam Forbids Playing an Instrument'
Pupils in a music class at a primary school: Some Muslim families have withdrawn children for religious reasons. Photo: Mail Online
MAIL ONLINE: Muslim pupils are being withdrawn from music lessons because some families believe learning an instrument is anti-Islamic, it emerged today.

An investigation has discovered that Muslim pupils are being taken out of school music classes even though the subject is a compulsory part of the national curriculum.

While parents have legal rights to withdraw children from religious and sex education classes, no automatic right exists to pull them out of subjects such as music.

One education expert said that up to half of Muslim pupils were withdrawn from music lessons during Ramadan.

And The Muslim Council of Britain said music lessons were likely to be unacceptable to around 10 per cent of the Muslim population in Britain.

However, in certain branches of Islam - such as Sufism, which is dominant in Pakistan and India - devotional music and singing is actually central to the religion.

A BBC investigation found that in one London primary school, 20 pupils were removed from rehearsals for a Christmas musical and one five-year-old girl remains permanently withdrawn from mainstream music classes.

Some Muslims believe that playing musical instruments and singing is forbidden according to Islam. >>> Laura Clark, Education Correspondent | Thursday, July 01, 2010

Islamic Scholars Say Muslims Should Not Use Full-body Scanners
THE MICHIGAN MESSENGER: While the federal Transportation Security Administration explains on its website that full-body scanners at airports using millimeter wave technology “are optional for all passengers,” devout Muslims may not have a choice anymore.

That’s because last week the Indiana-based Fiqh Council of North America issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, that the scanners violate Islam’s teaching on nudity. The council includes two Detroit area scholars. The full-body scanners, broady popular in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day attack over the skies of Detroit by the so-called “underwear bomber,” create detailed three-dimensional images that are used to detect any substances or objects underneath a person’s clothes.

But in the view of the Fiqh Council, an affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America, those detailed, revealing 3D images amount to a violation of Islam’s modesty rules:

“It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa. “Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.”

>>> David Alire Garcia | Monday, February 15, 2010

It’s Against My Faith, You Must Understand! It's Haram!
DAILY MAIL: Muslim sex offenders are asking to be let off a prison treatment programme on religious grounds.

Rapists, paedophiles and other dangerous attackers are expected to discuss their crimes with other inmates as a condition of release.

But Muslim prisoners complain that criminals should not have to talk about their offences - a "legitimate Islamic position", according to Ahtsham Ali, the Prison Service's Muslim adviser.

One thousand inmates were put on the Sex Offender Treatment Programme last year with places usually reserved for the most dangerous attackers.

Failure to complete the course can weigh against an offender at parole hearings.

The possibility of an exemption for Muslims came to light in a letter from an unnamed inmate to Inside Time, a newspaper for prisoners.

The convict said: "I have always insisted that it was against Islamic teachings to discuss your offence to anyone, let alone act it out within a peer group."

Experts said ministers, who have launched a review of the issue, could face a legal challenge from Muslims kept longer in prison because they had not undergone the treatment programme. Muslim Sex Offenders Could Opt Out of Treatment Programme 'Because It's against Their Faith' >>> By James Slack

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback)