وَلَنْ تَرْضَىٰ عَنْكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَا النَّصَارَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَىٰ ۗ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ ۙ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ

“The Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion. Say, ‘Allah’s guidance is the true guidance.’ If you were to follow their whims and desires, after the knowledge that has come to you, you would find no protector or helper against Allah.”

(Al-Baqara, 2:120)

Independent

It’s so distressing when those who are supposed to protect you treat you like a criminal

HANNA YUSUF

I’ve always been aware of the injustices British Muslims face, but I’ve sometimes doubted the narrative of the “Muslim victim”.

سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ ۗ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ

“We will show them Our Signs on the horizon and within themselves until it is clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not enough for your Lord that He is a witness of everything?”

(Fussilat: 53)

The Local

Books on Islam are selling out in France after the deadly extremist attacks in the capital have raised uncomfortable questions about Europe’s fastest-growing religion.

A special magazine supplement focused on the Koran has flown off the shelves, and shops are selling more books on Islam than ever after the Paris attacks in January that left 17 dead.

يُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَنْ يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

“They desire to extinguish Allah’s Light with their mouths. But Allah refuses to do other than perfect His Light, even though the kafirun detest it.”

(At-Tawba, 32)

Moscow, April 3, Interfax – The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has urged the country’s information technology and media watchdog (Roskomnadzor) to limit access to websites that support the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami terrorist organization, Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Marina Gridneva told Interfax on Friday.

مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ ۖ فَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ قَضَىٰ نَحْبَهُ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَنْتَظِرُ ۖ وَمَا بَدَّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا

“Among the believers there are men who have been true to the contract they made with Allah. Some of them have fulfilled their pact by death and some are still waiting to do so, not having changed in any way at all.”

(Al-Ahzab, 33:23)

RFERL

Security officials in Russia’s second largest city say they have detained two alleged members of a banned Islamic organization.

Federal Security Service officials in St. Petersburg said on April 2 that the two Russian citizens, whose names were not disclosed, are suspected of leading a cell of the group Hizb ut-Tahrir group in the city.

Al-Arabiya

AFP, Paris

A French court on Thursday summoned former Guantanamo prison chief Geoffrey Miller over accusations of torture by two former detainees, their lawyer told AFP.

Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali, both French citizens, were arrested by U..S forces in Afghanistan before being transferred to the notorious prison set up in Guantanamo Bay to hold terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks.

قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ اسْتَعِينُوا بِاللَّهِ وَاصْبِرُوا ۖ إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُورِثُهَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ ۖ وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

“Musa said to his people, ‘Seek help in Allah and be steadfast. The earth belongs to Allah. He bequeathes it to any of His slaves He wills. The successful outcome is for those who have taqwa.'”

(Al-A’raaf, 128)

Guardian

Pew Research study predicts that America’s Muslim population will grow to 2.1% by 2050, and Muslims will exceed Christians worldwide by 2070

Alan Yuhas in New York

Muslims will nearly double their numbers in Europe – to more than 10% – by 2050 and will outnumber Christians worldwide by 2070, according to a new forecast of the growth of religions around the world.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ فَتَنُوا الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ الْحَرِيقِ

“Those who persecute men and women of the believers, and then do not make tawba, will have the punishment of Hell, will have the punishment of the Burning.”

(Al-Burooj, 10)

The Moscow Times

An Islamic State flag hangs on the wall of an abandoned building after the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of the area.

Criminal cases have been launched against hundreds of Russian citizens suspected of having joined the ranks of terrorist organizations abroad, RIA Novosti reported Monday.

“At present, criminal cases have been launched with respect to 300 people,” Vladimir Makarov, deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s anti-extremism department, said in comments carried by RIA Novosti.

يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ

“They desire to extinguish Allah’s Light with their mouths but Allah will perfect His Light, though the kafirun hate it.”

(As-Saff, 61:8)

Interfax

Moscow, March 31, Interfax – The number of supporters of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization active in Crimea has been reduced since the peninsula rejoined Russia a year ago, Vladimir Makarov, deputy director of the Russian Interior Ministry’s central department for the fight against extremism, has said.

“Thanks to the preventive measures taken by us, the number of supporters of the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami outlawed terrorist organization, which, however, has not been prosecuted in Ukraine, has seen a significant decrease – from 10,000 to 2,500 people,” Makarov told a meeting of the Kremlin Human Rights Council.

Novinite

Bulgaria: Seven Arrested in Bulgaria’s Pazardzhik, Plovdiv for Preaching Radical Islam on Facebook Photo by BGNES

Seven people were arrested early on Tuesday in the Roma neighborhoods of Plovdiv and Pazardzhik for preaching radical Islam on Facebook.

The arrests were made in the Roma districts of Plovdiv, Asenovgrad, and Pazardzhik under the supervision of the prosecuting authority, according to reports of the Focus news agency.

قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ

لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ

وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ

وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدٌ مَا عَبَدْتُمْ

وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ

لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ

In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful

Say: ‘Kafirun! I do not worship what you worship and you do not worship what I worship. Nor will I worship what you worship nor will you worship what I worship. You have your deen and I have my deen.’

(Al-Kaafirun)

Telegraph

How can politics unite two communities that don’t trust one another?

By Joel Faulkner Rogers

Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis once divided his colleagues into “lumpers” and “splitters”. Those in the first camp usually sought to generalise about neat patterns that reduce the untidiness of history, he noted, while the second group preferred to reject these patterns in favour of complexity and endless distinctions. Getting the right balance between lumpers and splitters, wrote Gaddis, was “no easy thing”.

It seems a cultural version of the lumper-splitter problem now burdens the painful debate on why a steady flow of young Britons are aspiring to become jihadi brides and henchmen.

Mirror

Government officials turned down a driver’s application for the number MY15 LAM – the Muslim Council of Britain said it was not aware of the decision

PAMY15 LAM number plateDecision: Plates can be withheld on political, racial and religious grounds

Personalised number plates that potentially spell out the word Islam have been banned by the DVLA – for fear of causing offence.

The new ruling was ­revealed when one driver who tried to ­order a MY15 LAM plate – my Islam – was told no, reports the Sunday People.

A DVLA spokesman said: “We regularly review the appropriateness as ­society changes.

وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ اللَّهَ غَافِلًا عَمَّا يَعْمَلُ الظَّالِمُونَ ۚ إِنَّمَا يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ لِيَوْمٍ تَشْخَصُ فِيهِ الْأَبْصَارُ

مُهْطِعِينَ مُقْنِعِي رُءُوسِهِمْ لَا يَرْتَدُّ إِلَيْهِمْ طَرْفُهُمْ ۖ وَأَفْئِدَتُهُمْ هَوَاءٌ

“Do not consider Allah to be unaware of what the wrongdoers perpetrate. He is merely deferring them to a Day on which their sight will be transfixed, rushing headlong – heads back, eyes vacant, hearts hollow.”

(Ibrahim, 14:42-43)

Daily Mail

Attackers pulled 29-year-old Kadedija’s veil and threw her to the ground

They also pulled a knife on her and threatened to kill her as they escaped

Baby is unharmed but her husband says she has not stopped crying since

French authorities are concerned about increase in Islamophobic attacks

128 incidents were registered in two weeks after January attacks in Paris

By JAY AKBAR FOR MAILONLINE

DW

The German Interior Ministry has banned a militant Islamist group known as Tauhid Germany. The ban came into effect as police searches and raids were carried out in four German states.

In an announcement Thursday, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said a group considered to be militant jihadis had been banned in Germany.

The announcement came as police in four German states – Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Schleswig-Holstein – conducted searches and raids to enforce the measure.

وَدُّوا لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ كَمَا كَفَرُوا فَتَكُونُونَ سَوَاءً

“They would like you to be kafir as they are kafir so that you will all be the same.”

(An-Nisa, 4:89)

IBT

Elsa Buchanan By Elsa Buchanan

A young Muslim couple has been forbidden from marrying in the French city of Nice after their civil wedding celebration was suspended by court order because of “radicalisation” fears.

On 23 March, the young woman, 21, and her 28-year old fiance went to the Town Hall registry office dressed in an outfit “similar to the niqab” to express their discontent after their ceremony was cancelled on 21 March.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا كَانُوا مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يَضْحَكُونَ

وَإِذَا مَرُّوا بِهِمْ يَتَغَامَزُونَ

وَإِذَا انْقَلَبُوا إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِمُ انْقَلَبُوا فَكِهِينَ

وَإِذَا رَأَوْهُمْ قَالُوا إِنَّ هَٰؤُلَاءِ لَضَالُّونَ

وَمَا أُرْسِلُوا عَلَيْهِمْ حَافِظِينَ

فَالْيَوْمَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنَ الْكُفَّارِ يَضْحَكُونَ

عَلَى الْأَرَائِكِ يَنْظُرُونَ

هَلْ ثُوِّبَ الْكُفَّارُ مَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ

“Those who did evil used to laugh at those who had iman. When they passed by them, they would wink at one another. When they returned to their families, they would make a joke of them. When they saw them, they would say, ‘Those people are misguided.’ But they were not sent as guardians over them. So today those who have iman are laughing at the kuffar, on couches, gazing in wonder. Have the kuffar been rewarded for what they did?”

(Al-Mutaffifin, 83:29-36)

Cambridge News

A Muslim woman was subject to vile racist abuse while playing with her 1-year-old daughter in a Cambridge playground.

Samrah Sehar was verbally abused by a gang of young white men at the play park off Mill Road, close to the junction with East Road.

هَا أَنْتُمْ أُولَاءِ تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَلَا يُحِبُّونَكُمْ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْكِتَابِ كُلِّهِ وَإِذَا لَقُوكُمْ قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا عَضُّوا عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَنَامِلَ مِنَ الْغَيْظِ ۚ قُلْ مُوتُوا بِغَيْظِكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ

“There you are, loving them when they do not love you, even though you have iman in all the Books. When they meet you, they say, ‘We have iman.’ But when they leave they bite their fingers out of rage against you. Say, ‘Die in your rage.’ Allah knows what your hearts contain.”

(Ali-Imran, 3:119)

Washington Post

Najim Hakem, 25, an habitant of the Cité du Park housing project, in the suburbs of Paris, said racism is worsening. “You turn on the TV, and all you see is bad publicity about Muslims.” (Sarah Caron/ Polaris for The Washington Post)

By Griff Witte

VINCENNES, France — This city’s first Muslim doctor doesn’t look Muslim.

Or at least, he doesn’t look or act how people expect a Muslim should. Fair-skinned and clean-shaven, he goes about his rounds listening to classical music; a copy of Voltaire’s “Treatise on Tolerance” is nestled on his desk.

وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ مَنَعَ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ أَنْ يُذْكَرَ فِيهَا اسْمُهُ وَسَعَىٰ فِي خَرَابِهَا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ مَا كَانَ لَهُمْ أَنْ يَدْخُلُوهَا إِلَّا خَائِفِينَ ۚ لَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا خِزْيٌ وَلَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

“Who could do greater wrong than someone who bars access to the mosques of Allah, preventing His name from being remembered in them, and goes about destroying them? Such people will never be able to enter them – except in fear. They will have disgrace in the dunya and in the akhira they will have a terrible punishment.”

(Al-Baqara, 2:114)

Telegraph

Home Secretary also calls for review into use of Shari’a law and urges British values to be promoted ‘more assertively’ in package of Tory measures for defeating extremism

By Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent

British authorities will be given powers to close down mosques where extremists gather under a future Conservative government, Theresa May has announced.

The Home Secretary also pledged to review how Shari’a law is used in England and create new “extremism officer” roles in prisons to stop radicalism spreading among criminals.

وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

“They were plotting and Allah was plotting, but Allah is the Best of Plotters.”

(Al-Anfaal, 8:30)

Guardian

Home secretary also now likely to shelve publication of official counter-extremism strategy until after the general election

Alan Travis Home affairs editor

The home secretary, Theresa May, has been forced to drop new statutory rules under which ministers could order universities and colleges to ban external extremist speakers.

It is also now likely that the publication of a long-awaited official counter-extremism strategy will be shelved until after the general election as a result of what is said to have been the last remaining big row within the coalition.

The Local

ZARA, a Vienna-based NGO which works to combat racism and promote civil courage, released its annual Racism Report today – highlighting a spike in racially motivated attacks on Jews, Muslims, Roma and asylum seekers.

There was a slight increase in the number of reported racist attacks in 2014, 794 compared to 731 in 2013 – but what is more worrying according to ZARA is the significant increase in attacks which targeted certain groups of people, including Muslims and Jews.

رُبَمَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْ كَانُوا مُسْلِمِينَ

ذَرْهُمْ يَأْكُلُوا وَيَتَمَتَّعُوا وَيُلْهِهِمُ الْأَمَلُ ۖ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ

“It may be that those who are kafir will wish that they had been Muslims. Leave them to eat and enjoy themselves. Let false hope divert them. They will soon know.”

(Al-Hijr, 15:2-3)

The Local

ZARA, a Vienna-based NGO which works to combat racism and promote civil courage, released its annual Racism Report today – highlighting a spike in racially motivated attacks on Jews, Muslims, Roma and asylum seekers.

There was a slight increase in the number of reported racist attacks in 2014, 794 compared to 731 in 2013 – but what is more worrying according to ZARA is the significant increase in attacks which targeted certain groups of people, including Muslims and Jews.

وَمَا نَقَمُوا مِنْهُمْ إِلاَّ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ

“The only reason they punished them was because they had iman in Allah, the Almighty, the All-Praiseworthy”

(Al-Buruj: 8)

Express

THE number of Muslim prisoners in notorious Belmarsh prison – London’s de facto terrorist jail – has more than doubled in just four years.

By TOM BATCHELOR

The population of Muslim inmates in HMP Belmarsh has jumped by 108 per cent since 2010

Newly released figures show the population of Muslim inmates in the top-security category A prison has jumped by 108 per cent since March 2010 – up from 127 to 265 in December 2014.

The increase has come despite the total number of prisoners in the south-east London detention centre remaining broadly level.

وَلَنْ تَرْضَىٰ عَنْكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَا النَّصَارَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَىٰ ۗ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ ۙ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ

“The Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion. Say, ‘Allah’s guidance is the true guidance.’ If you were to follow their whims and desires, after the knowledge that has come to you, you would find no protector or helper against Allah.”

(Al-Baqara, 2:120)

Express

FORMER French president Nicholas Sarkozy has called for a ban on the Muslim headscarf in universities.

By SCOTT CAMPBELL

Sarkozy, left, has been outspoken about the Muslim veil in the past

The opposition leader said he “does not see the consistency of a system where the headscarf is forbidden in primary and secondary school, and in high school, and allowed in universities”.

The Week

Critics argue it is a ‘conveyor belt’ to terrorism, but the Home Office says it preaches non-violence

Australia and Denmark are debating whether or not to outlaw the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which operates freely in the UK, but is banned in a number of countries including Germany, Russia, China and Egypt.

It has been described as “one of Britain’s most shadowy political parties”, but the UK government has rejected calls for it to be banned.