France Overrules Muslim Couple’s Annulment
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 26, 2008; A12
MONS-EN-BAROEUL, France — It was a match made in heaven, and both families approved. The groom was a computer engineer, the bride a nursing student. Children of Moroccan immigrants, they had thrived in French society and seemed at home with its ways.
But on their wedding night, the groom discovered that his bride was not the virgin she had said she was. He stormed out of the bridal chamber. His father, outraged, said the marriage was off. That same night, he returned the young woman to her family home.
The drama in this middle-class suburb of apartment blocks and supermarkets, on the eastern edge of Lille in northern France, could have remained a private family affair — that is what its main protagonists desperately wanted. But instead, it set off a legal struggle with strong political undertones and an explosion of outrage by media-savvy activists in Paris. In the end, it became a parable for the strain France has encountered in absorbing the more than 5 million Muslims, about 8 percent of the population and growing, who have made this country their home. Read the rest of this entry »
By CHRISTOPHER MAAG NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Dec. 26, 2008, 3:33PM
DAVID AHNTHOLZ NY
CLEVELAND — Five years ago, young Muslims across the United States began reading and passing along a blurry, photocopied novel called The Taqwacores, about imaginary punk rock Muslims in Buffalo.
“This book helped me create my identity,” said Naina Syed, 14, a high school freshman in Coventry, Conn.
A Muslim born in Pakistan, Naina said she spent hours on the phone listening to her older sister read the novel to her. “When I finally read the book for myself,” she said, “it was an amazing experience.”
The novel is The Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims, said Carl W. Ernst, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Springing from the imagination of Michael Muhammad Knight, it inspired disaffected young Muslims in the United States to form real Muslim punk bands and build their own subculture.
Now the underground success of Muslim punk has resulted in a low-budget independent film based on the book. Read the rest of this entry »
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer Chris Brummitt, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 26, 4:58 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan began moving thousands of troops from the Afghan border toward India, officials and witnesses said Friday, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors and possibly undermining the U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban.
The country also announced that it was canceling all military leave in the aftermath of last month’s terror attack on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai.
India has blamed Pakistani militants for the terrifying three-day siege; Pakistan has demanded that India back this up with better evidence.
Pakistan’s latest moves were seen as a warning that it would retaliate if India launches air or missile strikes against militant targets on Pakistani soil — rather than as an indication that a fourth war was imminent between the two countries.
The United States has been trying to ease the burgeoning crisis while also pressing Pakistan to crack down on militants Washington says were likely responsible for the Mumbai attack. The siege left 164 people dead after gunmen targeted 10 sites including two five-star hotels and a Jewish center. Read the rest of this entry »
By EMMA VANDORE – 2 days ago
PARIS (AP) — France is becoming the latest country to woo Islamic banks, which avoided much of the damage from the subprime mortgage crisis by following strict principles laid out in the Quran — as the global financial crisis broadens the appeal of Islamic finance.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has promised to make adjustments to the regulatory and legal arsenal to enable Paris to become a major marketplace in Islamic finance.
At a recent forum in Paris, she said Western financiers could learn a thing or two from the Islamic world as global leaders try to establish “new principles for the international financial system, based on transparency, responsibility and, I would like to add, moderation.”
“In this sense, Islamic finance is calling out to us,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »
