5 Indian army troopers killed on Kashmir::Jammu & Kashmir::

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, (Xinhua): Five Indian army troopers were killed early Tuesday by Pakistani troops during an ambush on line-of-control (LoC), which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan controlled parts, officials said.
Reports said Pakistani troopers have entered Indian-controlled part near Sarla in frontier Poonch District, around 185 km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, to carry out the deadly attack.
The region’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on his Twitter account that he was briefed about the killings in morning.
“Was briefed early this morning about news that five of our soldiers had been killed on the LoC. My heartfelt condolences to their next of kin,” Abdullah tweeted.
Kashmir, the region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from the British, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.

Israeli soldiers kidnap 12 Palestinians in Bethlehem

IMEMC & Agencies: Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn several areas in the West Bank district of Bethlehem, broke into and searched dozens of homes, and kidnapped nine Palestinians. Three Palestinians from Bethlehem, were also kidnapped in occupied Jerusalem.
             
[File photo - Image Shehab.ps]
The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported that dozens of soldiers invaded Teqoua’ village, east of Bethlehem, and kidnapped six teenagers after violently searching their families’ homes.

Why Obama backed down on Syria,read full story

Commentators in the West will surely declare that it was their democratic systems of government that forced US President Barack Obama to back down on attacking Syria. But the events that led up to Washington’s de-escalation suggest there were other factors at play.

When Obama stepped out into the White House Rose Garden to declare that, though still intent on attacking Syria, he wanted to get Congress’ approval first, the Pentagon must have breathed a sigh of relief, knowing full well that a military strike against Damascus could spark a major confrontation in the Middle East for which they were not adequately prepared.

The story starts shortly before the Israeli-Saudi intelligence operation that engineered the chemical attack near the Syrian capital. The Americans and Europeans had begun negotiating with the Russians and the Iranians for a political settlement, after having failed to remove the regime by force. The West’s only condition was that Bashar al-Assad would not be part of the solution, even proposing to Moscow that they would be willing to allow the Syrian president to pick a successor of his own choosing.

Hijab ban in French universities ::France::

France could be set to go a step further in its ban on the wearing of religious symbols in state schools. A new report has recommended banning the Islamic headscarf and other religious symbols in the country’s universities, a French newspaper claimed on Monday.
Advertisement France has been urged to consider extending its contentious 2004 ban on Muslim headscarves in schools by also forbidding students from wearing the garments in the country’s universities, French newspaper Le Monde claimed on Monday.
According to Le Monde, a report by the High Council of Integration (HCI), which is set to be delivered to the government later in the year, makes 12 recommendations aimed at defusing a “growing number of disputes” stemming from religious differences at higher education institutions.
The key and almost certainly most controversial recommendation HCI makes is to forbid the “wearing of religious symbols openly in lecture theatres and places of teaching and research” at French universities.

Five injured in Ramallah by Israeli army ::Palestine::

IMEMC & Agencies: Palestinian medical sources have reported that five Palestinians were shot and wounded, on Sunday evening, during clashes with Israeli soldiers near the Al-Jalazoun refugee camp, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
The clashes took place after a number of extremist Israeli settlers from Bet El settlement, hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles driving on the Ramallah-Nablus road.
Local residents clashed with the settlers, and when the soldiers arrived at the scene, they opened fire at the residents.
The camp witnessed repeated clashes over the past three days due to escalating violations carried out by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the area.
The clashes are concentrated in an area that is nearly 100 meters away from the Israeli “Civil Administration Office DCO” run by the military in the occupied territories.

Islamic Worldview and Vision

                         

Introduction

Belief in an unseen and unseeable God and answerability to Him is the core principle of the Islamic way of life. A believer's worldly life revolves around this basic understanding. And whatever he does, he is conscious that he will be rewarded or punished for it by God in the eternity of the Hereafter.

Thus Islamic worldview holistically integrates the life of this world with the life in the Hereafter. Therefore, in order to develop a right frame of mind and action, it is essential to clearly understand the worldview and the vision that Islam projects. Here, we will first briefly describe, and then present its supporting evidence from the Qur'an.

 Islamic Worldview

According to the Islamic worldview, God created us humans as His Khulafa (plural of Khalifa), or His representatives on earth, and as such granted us a degree of autonomy - or will power and freedom to choose. In order that we could discharge this great responsibility of khilafah or representation, He endowed each of us appropriate faculties and a great potential to make use of these faculties. Thus we could advance civilization and achieve all that is good and beneficial for humankind.

However, this tremendous responsibility is given as an Amana, a Trust, for the discharge of which each and every one of us is accountable and answerable to God.

This accountability and answerability will take place at our resurrection in the eternity of the Hereafter. Then if a person is judged good by the Lord Almighty, his reward will be the abode of eternal happiness, peace and tranquility - the Jannah or paradise. But if he fails in his responsibility, he will be condemned to Hell and punished accordingly as he deserves. For these ultimate consequences, none else but God will be the only Judge - the Qur'an calls God the Wisest of Judges (Al Tin 95:8). 

The Qur’an

The Qur’an

The Qur’an is the holy book for Muslims, revealed in stages to the Prophet Muhammad over 23 years.
Qur’anic revelations are regarded by Muslims as the sacred word of God, intended to correct any errors in previous holy books such as the Old and New Testaments.

Origin

The Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by God in Arabic.
Some Qur’anic fragments have been dated as far back as the eighth, and possibly even the seventh, century. The oldest existing copy of the full text is from the ninth century.
Although early variants of the Qur’an are known to have existed, Muslims believe that the text we have today was established shortly after the death of the Prophet by the Caliph Uthman.

Contents

There are 114 chapters in the Qur’an, which is written in the old Arabic dialect.
All the chapters except one begin with the sentence Bismillahir rahmanir raheem, ‘In the name of Allah the most merciful and the most kind’. This is the thought with which Muslims should start every action.
The longest chapter of the Qur’an is Surah Baqarah (The Cow) with 286 verses and the shortest is Surah Al-Kawther (abundance) which has 3 verses.
The arrangement of surahs does not correspond to the chronological order in which they were revealed.
The Qur’an is sometimes divided into 30 roughly equal parts, known as juz’. These divisions make it easier for Muslims to read the Qur’an during the course of a month and many will read one juz’ each day, particularly during the month of Ramadan.