Indonesian clerics: Our mistake _ you’re facing the wrong direction during Islamic prayers

Indonesian Muslims facing Africa during prayers

JAKARTA, Indonesia – People in the world’s most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa – not Mecca – while praying.
Indonesia’s highest Islamic body acknowledged Monday it made a mistake when issuing an edict in March saying the holy city in Saudi Arabia was to the country’s west. It has … Read more : Indonesian clerics: Our mistake _ you’re facing the wrong direction during Islamic prayers.

Maryland tries to balance security, sensitivity to faith in death row inmates’ final moments

Md. weighs allowing inmates’ own clergy at death

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Maryland is considering becoming one of the few states to allow condemned inmates to choose a clergy member not employed by the state to be in the execution chamber when they die.
Corrections officials must balance the sensitive issues of security during one of the gravest … Original article on : Maryland tries to balance security, sensitivity to faith in death row inmates’ final moments.

Burqa empowers women, says British minister

LONDON – As debate intensifies across Europe on banning the Islamic full-body veil at public places, a British minister has defended a Muslim woman’s right to wear the burqa and says it is empowering.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said women were “empowered” by the freedom to wear the face coverings.
Her comments came after her …. Original article  : Burqa empowers women, says British minister.

Centuries-old festival takes Tripura on spiritual journey

AGARTALA – A centuries-old tradition comes alive in Tripura as the idols of 14 Hindu deities, kept locked in a room throughout the year, are brought out for worshipping during the tribal Kharchi festival from Monday – a spectacle witnessed by hundreds of thousands of devotees from India as well as Bangladesh.

Year after year, it … Read more »»».

Leisure time in Gaza takes latest of many hits as Hamas bars women from smoking water pipes

Some Gaza women smolder over Hamas’ water-pipe ban

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – There are few pleasures left for Gaza’s 1.5 million people, squeezed by both a blockade and Hamas efforts to impose its strict Muslim lifestyle. And women here just lost another one.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, sending … Read : Leisure time in Gaza takes latest of many hits as Hamas bars women from smoking water pipes.

Flydubai to reimburse travel costs during Ramadan

Dubai, July 18 (IANS/WAM) Dubai’s low cost airline flydubai Sunday announced the full reimbursement – minus taxes – of the travel costs of its passengers during the holy month of Ramadan between Aug 15 and Sep 6.

The offer will be on all flydubai flights to and from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, … Read more : Flydubai to reimburse travel costs during Ramadan.

President of Ramkrishna Mission stable

KOLKATA – Ramakrishna Mutt and Ramakrishna Mission president Swami Atwasthananda, admitted to a private hospital following stomach pain and urine infection, is now better and he is responding to treatment, a mission official said.

“He is now better. He is responding to treatment,” said Swami Bimalatmananda, private secretary to the president.
Swami Atwasthananda was admitted to … Read the original article on Gaea Times at : President of Ramkrishna Mission stable.

Spanish parliament set to debate restricting burqas in public, opposition party says

Spanish parliament to debate ban on public burqas

MADRID – Spanish lawmakers will debate barring burqas in public, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that the body-covering garments are degrading to women, the leading opposition party said Sunday.
Top officials of the ruling Socialist Party have indicated they will support the proposal by … Original source on Gaea Times at : Spanish parliament set to debate restricting burqas in public, opposition party says.

British minister terms burqa ban un-British

LONDON – Banning the burqa, the Islamic full-body veil for women, will be “un-British” and contrary to a “tolerant and mutually respectful society”, Britain’s Immigration Minister Damian Green has said.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, Green said it would be “undesirable” for the British parliament to vote on a burqa ban and that there was no …. Source article on Gaea Times at  : British minister terms burqa ban un-British.

Gaza’s Hamas police ban women from smoking water pipes in cafes, claim it leads to divorce

Hamas bans women from smoking water pipes in cafes

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Gaza’s Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the Palestinian people.
The ban marks the Islamist militant group’s latest effort to impose their harsh Muslim lifestyle in …. Original article  : Gaza’s Hamas police ban women from smoking water pipes in cafes, claim it leads to divorce.

Spanish parliament set to debate restricting use of burqas in public

Spain to consider banning burqas in public

MADRID – Spain’s leading opposition party said Sunday the country’s parliament will debate a proposal to bar the use of burqas in public, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that such garments are degrading to women.
The Popular Party tabled a motion to debate total body-covering … Read more >>>.