Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, and 1.9 billion Muslims of the world celebrate their holiest month of Ramadan each year. It is the month of fasting in the Muslim calendar when it is believed the Holy Quran (the holy book of Muslims) was sent down from heaven as a guidance unto men a declaration of direction, and a mean of salvation, fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam...

Using the POLITY IV and Freedom House indices, Rowley and Smith (2009) found that countries with Muslim majorities enjoy less freedom and are less democratic than countries in which Muslims are a minority. Because the POLITY IV and Freedom House indices have been criticized on several grounds, I reinvestigate Rowley and Smith ́s finding using the new Democracy-Dictatorship data from Cheibub et a...

Among many other legacies, the September 11 terrorist attacks will be remembered by some for catapulting women’s rights to the centre stage of global politics. As the US launched the War on Terror in Afghanistan and then Iraq, the liberation of women from barbaric regimes became a powerful rationale for intervention. Meanwhile, in post-9/11 Australia, protecting ‘Aussie’ women from sexual assau...

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, and 1.9 billion Muslims of the world celebrate their holiest month of Ramadan each year. It is the month of fasting in the Muslim calendar when it is believed the Holy Quran (the holy book of Muslims) was sent down from heaven as a guidance unto men a declaration of direction, and a mean of salvation, fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam...

Virtuous physicians seem to have become a rarity in modern day medical practice. Many patients and physicians feel that the profession of medicine is not living up to its own standards and expectations. It is the contention of the author that the Muslim physician, guided by the two primary sources of Islamic Law, the Qur'an and the Sunna, will possess the necessary character traits of a good ph...

The paper investigates the effect of users’ religious identity on their judgments of website quality. Websites related to Islamic and Christian identities were evaluated by Christian and Muslim respondents. Aesthetics, usability, service quality, pleasurable interaction, content, website identity and overall judgment were assessed, showing that respondents were more positive to the website whic...

Our world is in a state of crisis which tends to worsen. The Muslim intellectuals today make significant efforts to detect causes of the exceptionally difficult situation the Muslim world is in today for it is engaged in several severe conflicts. In order to overcome the crisis, it is necessary to reach, subjectively conscious and efficient, the full sense of the Qur'anic explications on God's ...

Thank you to all those who have written in response to the articles by Gardham. The BMJ fully recognises the enormous contribution that British Muslim doctors make to the NHS and to global humanitarian work overseas, and we pay tribute to those who have lost their lives as a consequence. Regulation of medical schools and radicalisation are of great and topical interest. It would be odd if The B...

In the dry zone between North Africa and South Asia scorpions have caught the imagination of nomads and sedentary people in various ways. First of all, venomous scorpions have long been considered as embodiments of evil, but also as protectors to counter the powers of other evil forces. This is reμected in beliefs, in pictorial representations of oriental art from early historic periods, and in...

Establishing in Baghdad, a recently founded capital of Abbasid caliphs, of é Òom Ì P@ X Dāru l-H. ikmat (Abode of Wisdom) by caliph Ma’mūn who ruled during 813-833, was destined to play a pivotal role in the development of Mathematics in the lands conquered by muslim armies. Abode of Wisdomwas a sort of translation academy patronized by the caliph and wealthy families from his entourage. Works ...