Why make the explicit statement advising that one should not pray while drunk? Why not banish the drinkers of alcohol to hellfire such as those who consume blood or pork?
Furthermore, why would God forbid alcohol, only to have rivers of it flowing in paradise? Indeed, if alcohol is the devil’s handiwork, why allow it at all in paradise?

The point I am trying to make is that Islam is a religion of moderation and makes sense. Moderate drinking is possible – however, drunkenness is a deplorable act. If people do not want to drink, it is their choice, but I feel that this website makes far more sense.

I cannot reject all the ahadith, but I do feel that the hadith are not under the explicit protection of God, and may indeed be twisted and subject to man’s interference.

Yet Mahmoud has doubts concerning Adherence to the Sunnah mentioned in the Holy Qur’an:

“O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you.” (Quran 4:59)

“O ye who believe! Obey Allah and His Messenger, and turn not away from him when ye hear (him speak).” (Quran 8:20)

“O ye who believe! give your response to Allah and His Messenger, when He calleth you to that which will give you life; and know that Allah cometh in between a man and his heart, and that it is He to Whom ye shall (all) be gathered.”(Quran 8:24)

Brother Mazen can provide you with even more Verses from Quraan, and can give you more explanation if you want

My piece here is to find out from Mazin is, were did he or she find in the Quran that who ever does not believe in the
ahadith is a kafir?

For me, it is just not the way to do it. It was clearly a confrontation. I do not think Muslims, Jews, or the rest of the world is getting a clear picture of what is going on there. The media is so biased.

The world we live in…

I don’t know, been diving into History much of my time, and I cannot see I can agree with Zionism. As far as I know, many Jews too are against Zionism.

I agree though that many Muslims – and many other non Muslims too – unfortunately, think that all Jews are Zionist and must be held responsible for all the crimes the state of Israel does. But then again one of the old trick of supporters of Israel government and the IDF is to claim anyone who doesn’t agree with them as ‘anti-Semitic’ – I myself have got shouted at as ‘anti-Semitic’ a couple of times just because I was posting tweets supporting the flotilla. I don’t know, playing victim, trying to make us feel guilty to support Palestine, Gaza, and flotilla. Doesn’t work anymore, and it just shows how desperate they are that they resort to ad hominem arguments, and just makes more and more people think bad of ALL Jews.

And I was stunned to read many Americans just went on saying that the American victim on Mavi Marvara was simply not an ‘American’ for joining a flotilla.

And really, it’s not about Jews vs Muslims. It’s about humanity. Dr Huwaida Harraf, one of the leaders of flotilla, is a Christian, and her husband is a Jew, Adam Shapiro.

I agree that we must try to deliver the aid to Palestinian as peaceful as we can. Remember the flotilla was peaceful before IDF tried to take over their ships. And so far IDF has no real proof that there are weapons on board – except for kitchen knives and other things that can normally be found on a big ship!

Data everywhere shows that Gazans are still living under poverty and lacking many things they need due to the collective punishment Israeli government imposed upon them. And how can this blockade, this injustice, this bloody raid stop hostility towards Israel? More and more people, more generations, more nations, will hate Israel. What Israel does is only making more enemies. Too bad.

I’m not anti Semitic. I don’t think all Israelis are evil. But there are some things really wrong that the state of Israel and IDF have done, and are doing, and I don’t think we can just sit back and let them get away scot-free.

I’m sorry to hear about your cat passing away. She must have led a nice life with you

(Perhaps surprisingly, it was a Christian female friend who got told by her mother that continuing to university would be useless because she’d end up a housewife anyway, although this I guess was due more to her cultural/ethnic background.)

Even so I understand that there are many Muslim women who experience various degrees of worse things between me and Hirsi Ali. And her voice needs to be heard, so does the voices of the other women, to stop these horrible things that happen to not only Muslim women, but also Muslim children and men, although I don’t always agree by her way to link every injustice and violence she’s witnessed or heard to Islam. I mean, if similar things happen in Italy, we don’t say ‘a Catholic man hit his Catholic wife in a Catholic country’. We’d understand that probably it’s something else that made him hit her, after all, unless if there’s a strong link that proves it.

I’m a Muslim since birth, but even I am still on a journey to find what Islam really is. And yes, even my Muslim friends and relatives sometimes still do not understand why I even bother with Muslim practices. Well, I don’t wear a hijab, but I pray five times daily. Perhaps like Ulil Abshar Abdalla, an Indonesian liberal Muslim scholar, I am what he describes as “a conservative in essence, a liberal in approach”.

Once when I was in an aunt’s house – a Muslim – and I asked her if I could use her library to pray, she said, to my astonishment, “Wow, such a devout person you are.” She’d been to pilgrimage on Macca, because she had the money, but she didn’t think it really important to pray five times a day.

After 9/11, I too observe a frightening growth of more radical Islam followers in Indonesia. Where our Muslims were peaceful and relaxed, with touches of sufism and Hinduism, now there are bearded people – some of them used to fight in the Afghanistan wars – trying to tell the people that we must destroy churches and fight ‘kaffirs’ and help the real Islam to return to Indonesia. (Sadly, some of their campaigns were successful.) But I just don’t want to give up because I believe that Islam should be a way to bring peace on Earth, not a force that drives destruction.

I wish you well on your journey. No, you don’t have to hate the US. I too wouldn’t want anyone to tell me to hate my own country. You are already helping other people to understand more about the US and how it is to be an American Muslim, and I believe by opening up dialogue we can strive towards a better world. (I have to admit I despise many policy of the US, especially concerning the war on terrorism, but it would be silly to hate everything about the US and every American person!)

And here’s a big, huge, massive, gigantic support for you!