Ramadan comes again, meaning practicing Muslims around the wolrd will have to observe one-month fasting. Technically speaking, fasting in Islam means “refrain from eating, drinking, sexual conduct, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset.”
Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds.

China’s Xinjiang braces for Muslim day of prayer, reports Reuters
Ethnic tensions in China’s far-west Xinjiang shift from the streets to mosques of the regional capital on Friday, with many Uighur Muslims saying the authorities would not let them observe their main day of prayer.

Security forces have imposed control over Urumqi, but the prayers after midday will be a test of the government’s ability to contain Uighur anger after Han Chinese, China’s predominant ethnic group, attacked Uighur neighborhoods on Tuesday.

Those attacks were in revenge for the deaths of 156 people in Uighur rioting on Sunday, the region’s worst ethnic violence in decades.

Several mosques throughout an overwhelmingly Uighur bazaar district of Urumqi displayed notices that usual prayers were suspended, and men at other mosques said they thought there would be no prayers on Friday, the main day of worship for Muslims.

Michael Jackson’s family reportedly is considering to have a traditional Muslim burial for the late music performer, Aceshowbiz reports
A source close to the Jacksons has exclusively revealed to X17 Online that family will likely have a traditional Muslim burial for late Michael Jackson. “The family is considering following the Muslim burial traditions because they believe Michael would have wanted to be laid to rest in keeping with his new-found religious beliefs,” says the source.

“Michael’s brother Jermaine is educating the family as to the special rites because he feels it’s important to bury his brother according to the Muslim way,” adds the source. Despite earlier reports that both public and private memorial services for the late music performer have been set to be held this week, there has been no official confirmation just yet from Michael’s family on the location where his body will be laid to rest.

Michael Jackson was reported converting to Islam in late 2008, years after expressing his interest to join the faith. He later on changed his name into “Mikaeel”, which was meant as a reference to the name of one of Allah’s angels.

A good piece on politcs, radical Islam and ultra-nationalist Taliban / Pashtun phenomenon. A must read for those who wants to understand the complicated situation in the region. Some important points below.

The Taliban represent zealous and largely ignorant mountain Islamists. They are also all ethnic Pashtuns. Most Pashtuns see the Taliban — like them or not — as the primary vehicle for restoration of Pashtun power in Afghanistan, lost in 2001. Pashtuns are also among the most fiercely nationalist, tribalized and xenophobic peoples of the world, united only against the foreign invader. In the end, the Taliban are probably more Pashtun than they are Islamist.

Occupation everywhere creates hatred, as the U.S. is learning. Yet Pashtuns remarkably have not been part of the jihadi movement at the international level, although many are indeed quick to ally themselves at home with al-Qaida against the U.S. military.

Only the withdrawal of American and NATO boots on the ground will begin to allow the process of near-frantic emotions to subside within Pakistan, and for the region to start to cool down. Pakistan is experienced in governance and is well able to deal with its own Islamists and tribalists under normal circumstances; until recently, Pakistani Islamists had one of the lowest rates of electoral success in the Muslim world.

In the end, only moderate Islamists themselves can prevail over the radicals whose main source of legitimacy comes from inciting popular resistance against the external invader. Sadly, U.S. forces and Islamist radicals are now approaching a state of co-dependency.

John Hughes of Christian Science Monitor makes a strong case that Islam and democracy is not just able and do coexist. It’s even integrate. A case study of three countries with predominantly Muslims such as Indonesia and Turkey and India where Muslim become a large-minority–120 million populace that is the second largest Muslim country worldwide.
Throughout all this, skeptics have argued that this is a lost cause, and that democracy and Islam are incompatible.

So it is heartening to see the integration of democracy and Islam taking place in three huge countries whose Muslim populations make up somewhere between a quarter and a third of the world’s entire Muslim populace.

Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population (205 million), is undergoing national elections that will strengthen its steady democratic progress. India, which has a minority population of some 150 million Muslims, is finishing up month-long elections for a nation of more than 1 billion people. Turkey, with a Muslim population of 77 million, is a working example of a secular democracy in a Muslim country.

These examples may not offer a blueprint for the mostly undemocratic Arab world. But their success does offer welcome evidence that Islam and democracy can coexist, maybe even integrate.

Indonesia Voters favour secular rule
Against a backdrop of Korean missile launches and violent protests in Thailand, those looking for a spot of calm in Asia may alight on an unlikely candidate: Indonesia. Largely peaceful parliamentary elections last week — the third consecutive free elections since the end of Gen. Suharto’s 32-year rule in 1998 — reflect the strides made by a country that not so long ago was in danger of becoming a byword for chaos and random violence.

Most heartening of all has been the Indonesian electorate’s affirmation of its legendary moderation. The top three parties in the incoming parliament — President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri’s left-leaning Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, and Suharto’s former political machine, Golkar — are all nonsectarian.

Interesting analysis by Rami G. Khouri
… When I hear people speak about “what’s wrong with Islam” or “Islam and the West”, my immediate response is to remind them that there is no such thing as a single “Islam” that can be diagnosed, analyzed or engaged as a monolithic whole. The variety and dynamism of changes in Islamic societies, and in the hearts and minds of individual Muslims, is staggering these days. This is understandable, given the intensity of the degradation that many Muslim-majority societies have suffered in the past half-century of foreign manipulation, domestic mismanagement, and abuse of political power, and local deterioration of social, environmental and economic conditions.

…. It is noteworthy that the overwhelming majority of Muslims and Islamist groups has rejected the violent strategy of the small Salafist militants such as Al-Qaeda. But it is also worrying that the core grievances of both the militants and the non-violent majority are virtually identical. Salafist militants decide to bomb foreigners and Muslims alike, but most disgruntled Muslims deal with their predicament of imprecise citizenship rights in slightly incoherent and often corrupt countries by trying to lead more pious lives, while challenging the status quo and the power elite as they can.

If we disaggregate Islamic societies or Muslim-majority countries into our six categories of individuals, community, political, transnational and nationalist groups, core religious values, and a handful of extremists, we would appreciate that most Muslims and Islamist groups have responded to their individual and national predicaments with patience, rationality and non-violence….
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