[Official] [Info] [Salat] [Commentary] [Progressives] [Skeptics]
Compiled January 2005
It is hard to find "official" sites, groups, or teachers for the Islamic faith, but here a few items that I decided to drop into this category.
877-Why-Islam:
http://www.whyislam.org/877/This site contains articles, books etc on Islam and comparative religion. This website can be used to order free literature on Islam, or view the literature online.
ISNA - Islamic Society of North America
http://www.isna.net/Their goal: Bridge building between the Muslim community and the American society at large.
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Compiled January 2005
Links to articles and resources that may prove useful in the understanding of Islam and the Muslim culture.
MSNBC - Understanding Islam:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3067495/Best-selling religion writer, Karen Armstrong, explains why the West needs Muslims to maintain a strong and vital faith.
Salat: Muslim Prayer Ritual
See Below
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Compiled January 2005
Salat is the Islamic Prayer Ritual: "The five Islamic prayers are named Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha. The timing of these five prayers varies from place to place and from day to day. It is obligatory for Muslims to perform these prayers at the correct time. The prayer times for any given location on earth may be determined mathematically if the latitude and longitude of the location are known. However, the theoretical determination of prayer times is a lengthy process."
Salat - Manner of Performing Prayers:
http://www.islamicity.com/Mosque/salat/salat1.htmThis is an online booklet for "new Muslims who cannot read the Quran in Arabic."
Determination of Salat Times:
http://www.ummah.net/astronomy/saltime/Covers several topics, and the calculation info is very technical:
- Introduction
- Definitions of Prayer Times
- What is twilight?
- Twilight and calculation of Fajr and Isha
- Conventions currently in use
- Persisting twilight
- Calculation of salat times - technical notes
- Software
- Summary
- References
Online Salat Time Calculators:
http://umcc.ais.org/~omh/pray/
http://www.qibla.org/Plug in your location, etc., and determine Muslim prayer times.
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Compiled January 2005
Commentary and Reflections...
The Prophet's Prayer Described
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/pillars/prayer/albaani/ prayer_1.html
This site might seem like overkill at first glance, but if you want to take an in depth look at Muslim prayer, this is a good place to spend some time.
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Compiled January 2005
Muslim Refusenik:
http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/index.htmlOfficial website of Irshad Manji, the author of The Trouble with Islam. Find out what she sees as the trouble with Islam, and learn what a Muslim Refusenik is.
Muslim Wakeup!
http://www.muslimwakeup.com/Seeks to bring together Muslims and non-Muslims in America and around the globe in efforts that celebrate cultural and spiritual diversity, tolerance, and understanding.
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First compiled March 2006
Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects:
http://www.secularislam.org/jihad/subjects.htmThis piece, from the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS), claims that Islamic apologists perpetuate a "rosy but totally false picture" of an historic Islam that granted equality to non-Muslim subjects, touting mixed religious communities that lived in perfect harmony in the Islamic lands. The conclusions that the authors draw from history and Islamic scriptures are disturbing to say the least.
As far as I can tell, this is not an essay by non-Muslims. The ISIS has been formed, in their own words, "to promote the ideas of rationalism, secularism, democracy and human rights within Islamic society."
Skeptics of Islam:
http://www.secularislam.org/skeptics/index.htmThe Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society's list of historic and contemporary Muslim thinkers.
Skeptic's Guide to the Koran:
http://www.secularislam.org/skeptics/index.htmThe Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society's collection of essays. As of March 1, 2006, the essays included Some Samples of Quranic Contradictions, thoughts on Free Will or Predestination, and Science in the Quran.
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