This may be a bad time to announce my forthcoming book — or the right time:
"The Islamic Moses: How the Prophet Inspired Jews and Muslims to Flourish Together and Change the World"
@StMartinsPress
, Sep 2024
It introduces the "Judeo-Islamic tradition":
I just criticized Ilhan Omar on a clip which I didn’t know was doctored, and which took her words out of context. Here is the full, undoctored clip, which I recommend everyone who made the same mistake to see.
I deleted my earlier tweet.
Apologies.
The anti-Muslim madness in
#India
is going towards a very dangerous point:
"'Do not buy from
#Muslims
': BJP leader in India calls for boycott"
(Nazis had taken their first step in 1933, with, "Do not buy from Jews.")
“He is viewed as liberal, but he is also religious… His brand of Islam is much more progressive & accommodative.”
I wish success for Malaysia’s new PM
@anwaribrahim
.
I also hope he can help more people realize how Muslims can be indeed liberal.
Germany is showing the unmistakable the signs of a typical authoritarian regime.
Being once fully fascist, you would expect this country to be more cautious against political repression. But it seems to have not taken the right lessons from its dark past.
Hindu supremacists in India are burning Muslim shops, killing Muslim passengers on trains, beating Muslims on streets just for eating beef.
This is all too reminiscent of Nazi Germany's initial attacks on Jews.
The world should be alarmed. And stop pampering
@narendramodi
.
More Muslim-owned shops are being burned by Hindu supremacists in Gurgaon-This is not happening in any corner of the country, it is only a few kilometers from Modi’s official residence!
The Turkish government is conspicuously silent on
#China
’s persecution of the
#Uyghurs
, but the Turkish people are not.
Thousands of them marched today in Istanbul to protest Beijing and to offer solidarity with the Uyghurs.
It is misleading to call the Ottoman Empire of 1915 “Islamist.”
It was rather dominated by a political cadre (“Young Turks”) which can be best called “nationalist.”
And Armenians had lived safely in the *Islamic* Ottoman Empire for four centuries before that dark period.
1.5M Armenians were killed over 100 years ago by the Islamist Ottoman Empire. It is shameful it has taken so long for formal recognition of this genocide to occur; never done previously for fear of angering Turkey. My aloha is with Armenians everywhere as we remember them today.
In this Muslim-Christian debate, this argument by the Christian side is valid:
People can freely convert to Islam today. But "apostates" from Islam can be killed.
For Muslims, this is nothing to be proud of. For killing people for their conscientious choices is only a shame.
"You converted from Christianity to Islam, your life is not under threat here in the U.S. I converted from Islam to Christianity, and my life is under threat..."
Former Muslim Explains Why He Converted to Christianity. (EP 306)
The Muslim world united in condemning
#Sweden
, just because a few Islamophobes burnt the Quran there, despite the condemnations of the Swedish government.
But in
#China
, it is the government that is destroying mosques.
Why are we Muslims silent on China?
I was asked by
@fmtoday
if Islamic authorities in Malaysia should regulate what non-Muslim tourists will wear.
I said no, reminding that the Qur'an tells Muslim men to "lower their gaze." That means controlling themselves, instead of what other people do:
“The West is Losing Muslim Liberals”
My new article in
@Foreignpolicy
.
“Indifference to Palestinian suffering in Gaza is alienating even moderates across the Islamic world and tarnishing the appeal of liberal democratic values."
Some other points 🧵:
Thanks to the rabbis who joined the funeral of Wadea Al-Fayoume: the six year old boy who was brutally murdered just for being Muslim & Palestinian.
This is what we Muslims and Jews need: Caring for innocents of the "other side."
This is what will save us from today's darkness.
A group of Chicago area Rabbis attended the funeral of Wadea Al-Fayoume, the six year old Palestinian-American boy who was brutally murdered by his landlord due to his ethnicity and religion.
Rabbi Ari Hart explains why the Rabbis attended the funeral:
“The Jerusalem Talmud
No, there is no "religious war" between Israelis and Palestinians.
Because Muslims have no problem with Judaism. And Jews have no problem with Islam. They worship the same God.
Instead, this is a war over land. And it will end — one day, inshallah — by them sharing the land.
It seems Erdogan had yet another election victory. There will be a second round, but the writing is on the wall.
It proves, once again, that Turkish politics is based on culture war. No economic despair or earthquake can detach voters from the great leader they identify with.
Since the failed coup in Turkey in July 2016, Russian propaganda has been pumping fake news, to an already Westophobic Turkish audience, that the coup was a CIA plot. It is a little noticed but very influential case of "Russian meddling."
Does God use earthquakes to punish people for their sins?
Some Muslims believe so.
But, clearly, earthquakes happen not on "centers of sin," but on geological fault lines.
So, they happen according to the natural order that God created — and not some capricious divine wrath.
Here is a great
#imam
we Muslims can be proud of:
“He gave refuge to his Christian neighbors, sheltering 262 of them in his mosque.... then he stood outside the doors confronting the attackers... even offering to exchange his own life for theirs,"
Powerful photo from Israel, via
@Istanbultelaviv
:
A
#Jew
is praying towards Jerusalem, while his
#Muslim
colleague is praying towards Mecca, next to the ambulance that they operate.
Indeed, as humans, regardless of faith or race, we are in this together. Let's fight together.
Here is the last Ottoman
#Caliph
, Abdulmejid II, with his daughter Durussehvar, and the self-appointed "Caliph" of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
It suggests something went really wrong in the Muslim world in the past 100 years.
Malaysia's top mufti recently declared, "Muslims are not allowed to say 'RIP' (rest in peace) for non-Muslims."
@fmtoday
asked me if that is correct.
I said no, because the Qur'anic promise of salvation is much wider than for Muslims alone:
Having an “Islamic” regime is no guarantee for having an Islamic society. Quite the contrary, a Muslim society can become only less religious because the regime claims to be “Islamic.”
As clearly seen in Iran:
Some in the Muslim world are now happy that the
#Taliban
will establish the
#Sharia
, a system of perfect justice, in Afghanistan.
But they have to ask:
If what they understand as the Sharia is such a wonderful system, why so many people are trying escape from it, in horror?
I am saddened with the brutal murder of Samantha Wall, the president of a Detroit synagogue.
She was a bridge builder between Jews and Muslims, nobly declaring, "We Refuse to Be Enemies."
Sincere condolences to the whole American Jewish community.
.
French secularism, laicite, is inherently oppressive, as its key aim is to "protect the state *from* religion," with little protection for freedom *of* religion.
It has poisoned the Muslim world, too, with imports in Turkey & Tunisia. It gave a bad name to any "secularism."
In the 18th century, in Ottoman times, Hassidic Jewish visitors from Europe were "astonished" to see how safe and free Jews were in Palestine.
Rabbi Gershon of Kitov even wrote that Muslims join Jews in circumcision celebrations.
"The local gentiles... love the Jews very much."
Today, Turkey’s largest newspaper Hürriyet ended the decades-old column of my father Taha Akyol. Everyone knows why.
Just two days ago, he had written once again about thinking freely & not bowing down to autocracy - principles he upheld all his life.
I am proud to be his son.
I sometimes get the question, “which countries in the Muslim world are now on a track that is promising for the future of Islam.”
#Indonesia
is often my first answer. And in this piece on the
@ActonInstitute
Blog,
@Farah_adeed
gives a good summary of why:
Angels said, "Mary, your Lord gives you good news of a Word from Him. His name is Jesus the Messiah."
She said: "My Lord! How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me?" He said: "It will be so. God creates whatever He wills."
- The Qur'an, 3:45-47
#MerryChrismas
to all.
Here is a
#Muslim
hero our children should learn about:
Bashir Ahmad Meo, a humble man from Lahore.
He protected a
#Hindu
temple in
#Pakistan
first from the land mafia, then an angry mob dying to avenge the destruction of the Babri Mosque in
#India
.
I am happy to see that a big
#church
in Berlin welcomed the Muslim community to offer their Friday prayers, abiding by social distancing.
But, o fellow Muslims: Let's ask for a second: Would we return such favor? Would Christians (or Jews) be alllowed to worship in our mosques?
“This is a Muslim nation, so alcohol should be banned.”
Is this the right way to think? About Turkey or elsewhere?
I don’t think so. I believe not “nations” but individuals can be Muslim. And they should follow Islamic rules by their own choice, not by bans dictated on them.
The sight of Man City and Inter Milan fans drinking alcohol in Istanbul before the Champions League final disgusts me. This is a Muslim nation so first and foremost alcohol should be banned. Secondly, foreigners should respect the culture of a Muslim nation and refrain from
Now in Haifa:
Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel fill up the prayer room of a mosque to show solidarity with one another.
They told me they know they are a minority but a minority that they believe is calling for what the majority wants, peace.
Full story soon on
@dwnews
Biden is quite wrong here. This is a conflict of not "ancient" hatreds, but modern-day nationalisms.
Antisemitism is indeed ancient, but as a European pathology, not a Muslim one. Moreover, Jews repeatedly found refuge from it in Muslim lands, such as the Ottoman Empire.
"Their country, their rules..."
Some Muslims use this notion to defend bans on alcohol or other "un-Islamic" things.
But it is used to ban Islamic things to Muslims, too: In France, against hjiab; in India, against beef; In China, Uyghur region, against any Islamic practice.
I am sad to see the news of innocent civilians killed & terrorized in Israel with surprise attacks by Hamas. I am worried about the innocent civilians in Gaza who may pay a terrible price. This horrific cycle of violence is endless. May God not extinguish our hopes for peace.
On
#EidAlAdha
it is worth pondering:
Did God really command Abraham (initially) to sacrifice his son?
Many Muslims & other Abrahamic monotheists may say, "yes."
But there is an alternative view in Islam: There was no such divine command. Abraham just misinterpreted his dream.
Shadi Hamid nails it here.
In Islamic law, non-combatants are never legitimate targets in war. There are no exceptions for "colonial settlers" — which Muslims themselves could be, in various contexts.
It is a principle all Muslims should defend — and call on Israel to respect.
The idea that members of marginalized groups have no moral agency or responsibility is an especially pernicious idea that goes against the founding doctrines of Islam.
A much-expected package arrived today!
I am happy to receive the first copies of the most ambitious work I have written so far:
“Reopening Muslim Minds:
A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance.”
I put all my heart & mind into this; so help me God!
Available on April 6.
Finally, as of today, my new book is officially out!
"Reopening Muslim Minds:
A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance"
You can order online now (in hardcover, kindle, or audiobook) on Amazon:
Or others book sellers:
Those who defend Israel's "right to defend itself" by killing thousands of civilians are endangering all of us.
For if this is legitimate for one state, why not for others? Why not trash Geneva Conventions and go back "total war"?
This is the road to hell. We all must say "no."
Did Muhammad have a "child bride"?
This has been one of the most controversial questions about the Prophet of Islam in the modern era.
And this new essay in
@newlinesmag
by
@DrJavadTHashmi
may be one of the most worthy things to read about it:
Unsurprisingly Erdogan is winning
#TurkeyElections
; just not overwhelmingly.
Turkey's problem is not lack of elections. It is lack of rule of law, freedom of speech, the right of each citizen to live without the state's intimidation.
Establishing them will be the real victory.
Disturbing incident in Germany: Police take a child away from his Muslim family.
The reason isn't clear. It may not be about LGBT as many are saying. But German authorities should explain.
Children belong to their families. Except for violent abuse, no state can take them away.
A viral video showing German authorities entering a house and forcefully taking a frightened child from his Muslim family has prompted accusations of misconduct among German police and injustice towards immigrants
Read more:
This is not a justified way of thinking.
If it is, then today's Muslims can also be targeted to take revenge from the Islamic imperialisms of the past — as militant Serbian or Hindu nationalists indeed do.
We all need justice & reconciliation, not endless cycles of revenge.
Back in January, I wrote that Muslim dictators are silent on China’s mass persecution of Muslims, because they understand China’s authoritarian language well. “It is their own language.”
Here is shameful a case in point:
This is huge - and great - news:
"
#Sudan
Ends Islamic Law by Separating Religion & State"
The Sudanese people seem to have taken the right lesson from their 30-year-long experience with tyranny, brutality & corruption in the name of
#Islam
:
A country where "women don't have to wear a hijab, wear bikinis, & where alcohol is widely available" is indeed better for Islam than a coercive "Islamic" state.
Because religion thrives only when freely chosen. Coercion turns it hypocritical. Or it backfires, as in Iran.
Morocco, a Muslim country, where women don't have to wear a hijab, wear bikinis, & where alcohol is widely available, had to build 200 mosques last year, and the religiosity of the youth is steadily increasing.
Religion is about principles.
Completely different worlds.
#Taliban
reminds the big step forward we need in Islamic thinking:
The
#Sharia
isn't something to be "enforced" by power.
It is something to be "practiced" by faith.
If you believe in burqa or hijab, you wear them. If you don't, you don't.
It is between you and God.
In the days after Oct 7, I was appalled by those who said all Israeli civilians are "colonial settlers" who can be killed.
More recently, I am appalled by those who say all Gaza civilians are "terrorists" (or "terror supporters") who can be killed.
Both views are pure evil...
I am happy to announce my forthcoming book:
"REOPENING MUSLIM MINDS:
A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance"
A deep dive into medieval Islamic theology & philosophy, for insights we desperately need today.
By St. Martin's Press, on April 6, 2021.
If Islamic scholars crudely shut down important questions raised by sincerely troubled Muslims, as seen below, nothing will get better for the state of Islam or Muslim societies:
A religion isn't shamed by those who speak against it. Rather, it is shamed by those who show cruelty in its name.
Such is the case with the militant Islamists of
#Pakistan
, whose obsession with punishing
#blasphemy
now targets an 8-year-old Hindu boy:
"By the very definition of being a Muslim, you are going to be anti-Jewish."
Such nonsense can be explained, at best, by profound ignorance.
Muslims rather saved Jews, for over a millennium, from persecution — from pogroms, inquisitions, forced conversions, and blood libels.
"By the very definition of being a Muslim you are going to be anti-Jewish."
Trevor Kavanagh's Islamophobia left unchallenged on
@TalkTV
.
Question for
@Ofcom
. Is this Islamophobia now acceptable speech on British TV?
Sad to the hear the attack on Salman Rushdie.
As a Muslim, I had found his 1988 novel offensive as many Muslims did. But ideas must be countered by ideas; not death fatwas, murders, brutality.
I hope he recovers. And the world recovers, too, from all glorifications of violence.
As a Turk, I am really sad to share this:
"The last major opponent of China's Muslim oppression has retreated into silence. Here's why that's a big deal."
It is a shame on the whole Muslim world that none of these 22 countries who stood up for
#Uyghurs
are Muslim-majority:
"22 countries sign letter calling on China to close Xinjiang Uyghur camps"
Let's honor these three young Muslim men: Two Turks, Recep Gültekin & Mikail Özen, and a Palestinian, Osama Joda.
During the
#ViennaAttack
they helped save a police officer and an elderly woman.
They are the heroes of
#Islam
- not the monsters of ISIS:
Let me add that by “liberal” I don’t mean “not taking religion seriously” as some people mistakenly use the term.
I only mean “non-coercive.”
So, Islam proclaims its rights and wrongs. But people should follow them freely by faith and conviction, not by coercion.
“Would Prophet
#Muhammad
Convert
#HagiaSophia
Into a Mosque?“
Before saying “yes,” Muslims should look carefully at the Qur’an, the Prophet’s treaty with Christians of Najran, & Caliph Umar’s policy in Jerusalem.
My new article in
@nytopinion
:
When Turkish Embassy in Washington was hosting African Americans for social event in 1950s, it caused a diplomatic crisis. US Senate warned Turks not to take them in. The State Dep advised Turks to take African Americans from the back door. Turks refused.
#MartinLutherKingDay
As also seen on Twitter in the past few days, quite a few Muslims still proudly defend “Islamic”
#slavery
.
But there is a crucial nuance: what they defend is enslavement & concubinage of non-Muslims (through war), never Muslims themselves.
It is supremacism par excellence.
In this brief yet remarkable book,
@CraigCons
, an American Catholic, admires the Prophet
#Muhammad
for the values he introduced to the world of the 7th century:
Religious pluralism, a civic nation, anti-racism, value of knowledge, and women's rights.
The photo of the day is from
#Turkey
:
Votes are being recounted in Istanbul, and party representatives are literally living and sleeping with them to prevent any rigging.
With its "mandatory hijab" policy, Iran finally achieved public burnings of hijab.
For all Muslims, Shia or Sunni, the lesson should be obvious:
Nothing about religion should be "mandatory." All faith and practice must be based on free choices coming from sincere convictions.
Why are Iranian women burning their hijabs and cutting their hair?
Al Jazeera's
@DorsaJabbari
explains how Mahsa Amini has become a symbol for Iranian women’s rights after her death ⤵️
People who support
#Erdogan
say he made Turkey wealthier, greater, and freer.
Which is true... For his first decade in power, when he had principled & competent people in his team.
Then he began replacing them with yes-men, while turning growingly authoritarian and irrational.
A question to fellow Muslims:
Should we really seek "social harmony" by killing or jailing people who offend our faith, as in Pakistan?
If yes, should the same principle apply to us?
Should Hindu supremacists, for example, keep targeting Muslims who disturb their "harmony"?
Blasphemy laws are necessary in Pakistan to ensure social harmony. Happy to see a zero tolerance approach being taken towards those who curse the Mother of the Believers and the noble Sahaba (May Allah be pleased with them).
Today, South Africa may be more effective in helping Gaza’s victims than all the existing Muslim governments.
Which offers a lesson:
Palestine will be saved by not more “Islamic solidarity,” let alone more Muslim autocrats, but appeals to universal values & international law.
"Israeli leaders have feared that a world recognizing their oppression of Palestinians as" apartheid might lead to "the same international isolation that helped end South Africa’s...white minority rule." Now South Africa is accusing it of genocide.
This is a sad
#Eid
.
I keep in mind the pain of all the persecuted Muslims in Palestine, Syria, Yemen, China, Kashmir, Myanmar, and elsewhere in the world.
I pray for peace, justice, and freedom for all Muslims, as well as all humanity.
With that hope,
#EidMubarak
Sadly, there are Muslims who dislike and reject the very concept of "religious freedom" — but only when they themselves are not the persecuted group that is yearning for religious freedom.
The new anti-Muslim hysteria in Europe has similiarities with the old anti-Semitism, as noted here.
"Muslims" clearly replaced "Jews," but stereotypes are the same: a religiously and racially different minority is constantly defiling, cunning, conspiring. They must be expelled.
Douglas Murray is drawing on anti-Semitic Middle Ages tropes btw, for eg. when he says “the soul of England, the soul of Britain, is about to be trampled on very, very visibly, by people who are gleeful in their trampling, & they have defaced & defiled all of our holy places”.
/1
Strict Islamic traditionalists accuse Islamic liberals like myself for replacing divine truths with human norms.
But our argument is that the Islamic tradition is already filled with human norms: Umayyad manipulations, Abbasid dictates, patriarchal cultures, pre-modern contexts.
As someone from Turkey, and has seen its collapse into autocracy, I think this is a bad idea.
For when you change the rules of the game when those rules don't help you, you initiate a vicious cycle where all norms are eaten up by partisanship. And there is no good end to it.
Taliban is Exhibit A of why Muslims don't need any "Islamic state": It is always the state of a particular Muslim group who dictates its own understanding of Islam.
Instead, Muslims need states that grant them religious freedom, so they practice Islam as they sincerely believe.
677 days since the Taliban banned girls from going to school and 217 days since they banned women from going to university.
This is the Taliban’s barbaric reasoning for why they won’t allow women and girls to study in Afghanistan👇🏻
What if countries are ranked according to "Islamic values," rather than being literally Islamic?
The Islamicity Index measures that finds that no Muslim majority nation makes it into top 40.
At the top, there is
#NewZealand
, followed by North Europeans:
Today, in
#NiceAttack
, all humanity was killed.
The three victims were purely innocent worshippers at Church - and that who kills one innocent soul is guilty "as if he had killed all mankind."
As a Muslim I offer my condolences to France & all Catholics.
I celebrate
#WorldHijabDay
, in solidarity with Muslim women who willingly wear hijab, despite bigotry and discrimination.
I also celebrate
#NoHijabDay
, in solidarity with women who do not want to wear hijab, but who are forced to do so.
All of them deserve
#freedom
&
#respect
.
On this day - 6th April 1992 - the Yugoslav Peoples Army attacked and occupied the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad. Hundreds of Bosniak Muslims were slaugthered on the old Ottoman bridge in the next few months. By 30 July 1992 not a single Bosniak was left in town.
That is all why Turkey presents a sad lesson about "democracy":
If it simply means majority rule, it can become the tyranny of one cultural camp over others.
Hence we need *liberal* democracy — with limits on power, with strong guarantees for equal freedom and justice for all.
Today's politics, unfortunately, makes some people rewrite the past.
Such is the case here, where the Israeli foreign minister labels "700 years of Islamic rule” in Spain as "radical Islam."
In the real world, dozens of Jewish historians defined it as a "golden age" for Jews.
In response to Spain's recognition of a Palestinian state and the antisemitic call by Spain's Deputy Prime Minister to not just recognize a Palestinian state but to 'liberate Palestine from the river to the sea,' I have decided to sever the connection between Spain's
My book, "Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty," is banned in
#Malaysia
since Sep 2017.
So here is our response: the Malay edition of the book is now freely available on the
@CatoInstitute
website.
Dear Malaysians, you are all most welcome:
Someone asked me who are the good
#caliphs
in history.
My favorite is Abdulmejid I, Ottoman Sultan, 1839-61.
He limited his own powers, affirmed "rights," made Jews & Christians equal citizens, abolished apostasy laws, banned slave trade, opened secular courts & modern schools.
“Sexual usage of a slave is a part of slavery law as per Islamic rules. Are you having problem with this rule?”
Some Muslims seriously say that.
Because they NEVER imagine their own wives, sisters, or mothers as the enslaved ones.
And without empathy, ethics don’t grow.
@DrJavadTHashmi
@JonathanACBrown
@AkyolinEnglish
Sexual usage of a slave is a part of slavery law as per Islamic rules. Are you having problem with this rule? Sex slave is different and cunning wording which could be only fantasy. Islam is serious relegion not fantasy.. change your wording Mr..
These anti-refugee messages by opposition candidate Kilicdaroglu is outright disgusting.
Apparently, he is trying to attract the 5 percent vote of the far-right Sinan Ogan. I also think saner forces in his "Table of 6" would disallow this in real policy, but it is ugly enough.
Kilicdaroglu gives a fresh start to his campaign for Turkey’s runoff elections.
He claimed there were 10 million refugees in the country and if Erdogan wins, he would bring 10 million more.
Not sure if this is a right strategy
The anti-
#Shia
fanaticism in
#Pakistan
is appalling.
It shows clearly why no state on earth should be "Islamic."
As all "Islamic" states turn out to be tyrannies of a particular Islamic sect lucky enough to seize power - and only to persecute everybody else.
#AllahuAkbar
is NOT a terrorist motto. (Despite being co-opted by terrorists acting in the name of Islam.)
Hence Turkish emergency workers who saved a child from earthquake ruins 91 hours later were crying “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Greatest,” with joy.
Hamas terrorism against innocent civilians is unforgivable. But collective punishment of Gaza's over 2 million civilians is not the answer.
More than 500 children are killed. And more is coming.
This can’t be justified. Just wars must distinguish between civilians & combatants.
The traditional Sunni dogma on the unquestionable authenticity of
#hadith
books written 200 years after the Prophet is mind-boggling.
This while the same sources insist that the Gospel of Mark, written less than 40 years after Jesus, cannot be trusted at all.
A good step from
#Indonesia
's Nahdlatul Ulama scholars:
That non-Muslims will not be called "kafirs," which means "infidels":
I must add that the Ottoman Empire had passed the same law back in 1858 with the Reform [Islahat] Edict.
"The Muslims Who Inspired Spinoza, Locke & Dafoe"
The wisdom of
#IbnTufayl
&
#IbnRushd
in reconciling religion & reason helped the European
#Enlightenment
.
Today it can help us Muslims, too.
My new piece in
@nytopinion
- and a teaser for my new book:
”After a few years we would not have a memory of why we live here or where we belong.”
That is why
#China
has not only imprisoned a million
#Uyghurs
in gulags, but also is systematically destroying their mosques & even cemeteries - for a “final solution.”
Unfortunately, there are some people speaking in the name of Islam today who take pride in defending practices that are morally disgusting to most people on earth. They even seem to be taking pleasure in being outrageous.
It supposedly reflects their piety, their courage.
I, again, welcome the former Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, now Shuhada Davitt, to the umma - the global Muslim community of faith.
One thing we Muslims should note, though, is that no Christian called for her execution for
#apostasy
.
It could be otherwise, if she had left Islam.
Ottomans were wise to put this inscription on the Jaffa Gate in
#Jerusalem
:
"There is no god but the God, and
#Abraham
is his friend."
For it is a city for all the children of Abraham:
Jews, Christians, Muslims.
By
@izakyol
.