Over the new few weeks, you may have some advertising of a different kind on your travels.

http://inspiredbymuhammed.com/

Religious and non-religious advertising has become the norm in recent years, with anti-abortion Christian campaigns and Richard Dawkins infamous ‘God probably doesn’t exist’ campaign, but this is the first inspired by Muslims. Revolutionary?

Personally, I’d just be excited to see a women in Hijab on a poster, any poster. It’s good to see some positive movement, with emphasis on non-political affairs.

What are your thoughts on this initiative?

Can religion ever really win hearts with advertising?

So, as one of the Editorial Team of MIE was reading an article on IdealMuslimah and got quite confused, she wanted England's opinion. Do bare in mind that she's a new-convert.

Article:

After Umm Al-Sa'ad completed her memorization of the Qur'aan at the age of 15 she went to the Shaykhah Nafeesah bint Abu Al-Alaa, who was known as "The Shaykhah [woman scholar] of her time" to request from her to learn the 10 Qira'aat (recitations). Nafeesa agreed on an peculiar condition; that Umm Al-Sa'ad never marry. She used to refuse to teach girls because they would marry, become busy, and neglect the Quran.

What was even more amazing was that Umm Al-Sa'ad accepted the condition from her Shaykhah who was known for her strictness and harshness against those whom she did not feel were proper for this honorable task. But Umm Al-Sa'ad was encouraged by the fact that her Shaykhah herself had never married, even though there were many of the great scholars who had sought her hand, and she died in that state while in her eighties, having secluded herself to the Quran! Continue reading "Marrying The Qur'an? Hmmm..."...

A convoy on its way to the Gaza strip was attacked by the Israeli Navy. Shooting and tear-gas was involved. 20 people lost their lives, dozens wounded, and about 16 men ended up in a prison in southern Israel. It’s been reported that most deaths were among the Turks. A demonstration against Israel will take place in Manchester, London, and other major cities.

Demonstration against Gaza
Monday 31st May 2010
5PM
BBC Radio building
Oxford Road, Manchester

This is the Israeli's way of "unarmed" approach. More pictures on BBC.

The Freedom Flotilla action was set up to break open the blockade to Gaza. The convoy consists out of six ships with 750 activists (different nationalities) and fifteen tonnes of supplies such as cement, medical equipment and school supplies. See here the condition of one of the boats. If you feel like following the mission, see below live-stream video by Al Jazeera

Last Wednesday I was supposed to arrive in Geneva to attend a Media Seminar by FEMYSO. 

So, I was supposed to deliver a presentation on Social Media. It's just Chaos. As I arrived at Manchester Airport, I was exactly six minutes late... SIX! But as Ustadh Usama Canon once said to us "Sometime it's better to miss a party". As I was thinking about that while my ticket got re-booked. I thought, well I could improve my presentation and I'll just go on the next available flight. Shouldn't be a problem at all. I spoke with the FEMYSO people in Geneva, and they said that it shouldn't be a problem for me arriving tomorrow.

Yesterday, as I was getting ready and Vakaas Khan went to drop me off for the second time, I was kind of proud of myself that I'm arriving an hour before departure. As we got to Airport, I had a smile on my face being so happy that I'm on time for today's flight. Untill I went inside and the Airport was filled with like a billion people... It was MAD! 

This happened in Iceland:

It was said to me that the ash is the result of the second eruption in Iceland in less than a month. It happened under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajokull area and there are fears it could erupt again. I'm advised to check with my airline before setting off for the airport. A spokesman of Man Airport said that we could compare this chaos to, or even worse than the chaos after the attacks on 9/11...

So, here I am waiting for my flight (which I think won't happen as I just received a phone-call from Vakaas saying that they're not flying until Monday) and hoping whether I'll still be able to attend the Media Seminar. Also have to fly to Texas on Monday to meet Saad Naveed. It's just chaos!

Because we're always asked a question through e-mail, we wanted to get the best answer. The best way would be to let our community answer it since we want it to be a collective response. Besides, that's what we are, right? Muslims in England! Please submit your answer below at the comments section. This week's question: 

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Hey,

This question is about grave or punishments. Allah says in the Quran: "They will wake up and say we had a very long sleep (The Death)". Now, if they feel like they had a very long sleep, how can they be punished then in the graves? Please clarify this for me!

Bye

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Abdullah Ahmed, Nelson.