Revealing the real purpose of fasting
February 17, 2010
I used to find it odd – if not heretic – to starve yourself from sunrise to sunset. Anything that went against fasting in the Greek Orthodox way was indeed heretic, or so I thought.
The first time I heard Muslims fast in a different way, my stomach churned and I thought, man you guys are completely off the mark. You need to be saved!
At that point, I’d never researched the proofs for fasting in the Bible or the Quran, but it was my pride that would never let a thought into my brain that said that they might have proof for what they were saying while I have absolutely none – or at least knew of none.
And frankly, I didn’t care. Fasting was one of the zillion rituals of the Greek Orthodox faith that you ‘just believed in’ and didn’t question.
The weirdest thing to me was that Muslims would not only fast from food but actually from ‘bad’ things like drinking, going to bars or dating. Now, that for me was completely illogical ! What does food have to do with having fun?
It was normal for all of us Greek Orthodox to fast before Easter and go out and have fun at the exact same time – without feeling an inch of guilt.
Once you find out why you are supposed to fast in the first place (which, as a Christian I never really did), then you’ll understand that it’s not about the food.
Muslims believe that God revealed to mankind to fast because through self-restraint, you can become pious.
“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious). (Quran 2:183)
You might be asking, What does piety have anything to do with it? I was confused at the beginning too but when I started fasting – starving myself from dawn to dusk actually – I realized that it was a true sacrifice.
It’s like having a close friend that you love more than you love yourself. You give up something that you love the most to make her happy. It’s not like you are forced to do this. You choose this because you love her. That’s when your relationship has gone to a new level – because she’s seen the proof that you put her before yourself.
That’s in a way, the purpose of fasting. When you choose to give up something that is permissible, like food, you realize that you want to because you love God more than yourself. And you want to show Him that love. That’s the journey of piety.
So, really, for anyone who is fasting, whether Muslim, Christian or other, fasting was prescribed for all of us as the verse says. Only when you know what the purpose of fasting is can you really taste the journey of love for God.
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Greece: the Church, the Mosque and the lost vote
February 10, 2010
Source: Enet.gr
By Thomas Tsatsis
© Translated by the Muslim Association of Greece
Ten years ago, when the issue of the identity cards and the indication of the religion was hot, the former bishop of Alexandroupolis – Anthimos was supporting the position of the official Church in an…unorthodox way.
Referring to a fact that was never clarified if it had a real existence, the bishop was saying that about 70 Muslims that were living in the wider region of Alexandroupolis had asked a “voting paper” to sign their claim to mention religion on the ID cards.
This is the same bishop that gave a battle after – out of solidarity – against the Muslim mosque at Peania, as was ordered by the law that was voted by the parliament.
And now he starts a new battle against the law that gives Hellenic nationality to the immigrants who many of them are Muslims. With a simple argument: “The Church was not asked about that. You can’t bring 700 thousands Muslims in the country and make them Greeks without even asking the Church.”
The Thessaloniki bishop (Anthimos), whatever they charge on him, one must admit that he knows about politics. The governments many times are acting according to the perception of the “lost vote” from the “side-church” that prevails inside the hierarchy. That means that the bishop will shout from the pulpit, the Christian crowd will be terrified, the MPs will feel pressures and they will transfer this to their parties to convey the message.
Thus with the populism of the opposition party and with the fear of the vote that can be lost, the government goes backwards and turns 180 degrees. The issue of the identity cards confirms the above. There were only two or three MPs and ministers of PASOK during 2000-2004 that defended the omitting of the religion from the identity cards publically. The rest had disappeared in order not to be indicated as opponents of the Church.
Four years now the governments do not take over the political cost of the construction of the Mosque at Eleonas as mentions the law of New Democracy government of 2006. But they are also scared to proceed to the construction of the Muslim cemetery in a field that the Church has bestowed! Yes, of the Church!
The government has not many choices. Either they will proceed immediately and solve the problem of the thousands of immigrants – and not only – Muslims that live in Attica and will confront a part of hierarchy in front and behind stage, or they will confront issues that cannot solve.
The scattered mosques-warehouses that are more than 100 in Attica are not under any control. Whatever is heard by “imams” that are self-announced small “prophets” many times are dangerous and cannot be confronted by the police. The legitimacy, the operation of one or more mosques with rules and conditions, official, with moderate imams and not with competing “Mujahidins”, can be a start.
Unless the government is waiting to finish first with the law for the immigrants and after that to take counsel with the Church. And just the day before yesterday the Hoy Synod stated that they believe that the law for the nationalities does not coincide totally with the immigration problem and that the government should consider the opinions of the bishops.
Bishops that “on one hand they preserve the teachings of Christ for love to everyone, on the other hand they do not know the partial national and social sensitivities, thus their opinions should be co-calculated to face such crucial matters.” This is the Holy Synod whose president is Archbishop Ieronymos.
Attention atheists – can you explain this?
January 14, 2010
After watching this video, I wonder how anyone can be an atheist.
Patriarch: ready to turn to the European court for human rights
December 21, 2009
Source: Skai.gr
Translated © Greeks Rethink
An interview of Ecumenical Patriarch for a Turkish newspaper
“[I am] determined to drive the case of Theological School of Halki to the European Court of Human Rights,” states to an interview for a Turkish newspaper, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Mr. Bartholomew repeats to “Haber Turk” that the patriarchy wishes to operate the school again as it used to reminding that the two latest ministers of Education of Turkey have stated that there is no legal obstacle for its re-opening.
“If by the end of the year there is not any development for the Halki issue then we will exhaust all legal measures in Turkey and go to the European Court,” he states.
In the same interview, Mr. Bartholomew reveals the content of a recent conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Tayib Erdogan. Most likely he referred to what they discussed last August at Pringipos when Mr. Erdogan visited the Monastery of Saint George Koudounas and the wooden building of the orphanage where he was welcomed by the Patriarch.
At this discussion Mr. Bartholomew asked the re-opening of the Theological School and the reply of Mr. Erdogan was that “in Athens there is no mosque”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch replied to him that this is not his responsibility on this specific issue and that he would not object with the existence of a praying place for the Muslims that live in Athens.
“We paid the consequences of the Tukish-Greek relations and of Cypriot Issue. We are citizens of this country and we want our rights” said between others the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Amreeka: A feel-good comedy
November 8, 2009
I’m looking forward to watching this movie. Here’s the plot below:
A feel-good comedy about a Palestinian mother who moves to rural Illinois with her teenaged son, Amreeka is a kind of stealth political film that confronts issues of ethnic tension and American xenophobia.
First-time filmmaker Cherien Dabis (a writer on the television series The L-Word ) based the story on her own experience, growing up as the child of Jordanian-Palestinian immigrants. In the anti-Arab hysteria of the first Gulf War, her family received daily death threats, and her father’s medical practice went into decline when his patients quit. The script for Amreeka (Arabic for America) has no bitterness and, in fact, portrays the United States as the place where people from many lands become one, and everyone enjoys Disneyland and a good hamburger.
Source: The Globe and Mail
Greek slant on Euroarabia and Islamophobia
October 28, 2009
Source: Enet.gr
by Pericles Korovesis, PM SYRIZA to the Greek Parliament.
Is Europe in danger of becoming Islamized? How can Turkey, a non-Christian country that never has had Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, integrate into Europe without distorting its characteristics? Should all Muslims be expelled from Europe in order to find the lost identity?
These are some questions and more similar others that the Right and extreme Right Wing of Europe and the USA are asked to answer. Several books have been written and the Yellow Press officiates of racist campaigns of any kind incriminate immigrants that have Islamic religion.
Racism and nationalism, in order to make its arguments seem truthful, must distort reality. So the fact is concealed that in Europe, out of 493 million residents, only 3-4% are Muslims. And still they do not bring the question of who brought them. After World War II, Europe needed cheap workers. Where could they find them? The old empires sufficiently destroyed their colonies. France made mass import of workers from North Africa. Britons brought workers from India and Pakistan. Holland brought Moroccans. Germany preferred to bring Turkish, but also took Greeks, Yugoslavians and Italians. Even the Spanish that did not want Muslims at all for historical reasons brought Muslims massively in 1970 for the needs of their economy.
Mainly, this working force was occupied for the hardest and heaviest jobs, was living in the urban ghettos and never attained the same rights with the natives. Even the second or third generation that had no Islamic education and the vast majority of them went to public schools (in France only 5% of the Muslims go to the mosques), they have not become first class citizens. Surely there are extremists as they exist in every religion. But they are an insignificant minority cut from the Muslim community. If we can talk about something like that, their problem is not the Islamization of Europe, but the unemployment that hits always the weak.
The extreme right parties as the National Front of France, Liberty party of Austria or the British National Party etc., have invented a neologism: “Euroarabia”. And that means new pogroms. Islamophobia takes the place of the old anti-Semitism that carries basic characteristics to Islam. For example, that behind any world conspiracy Islam and Arabs are hiding. After 9/11, terrorism and Islam were coincided, and was formed the axis of good Bush and of bad Muslim. In Greece, these theories have not found a ground yet, because what prevails is the native xenophobia and the specialized Turkophobia. But besides this, we have made neither a mosque nor cemetery for the Muslims. And maybe this is our own Islamophobia. At the point where there is no tolerance for the others, the different, there is no democracy and we enter in dangerous paths. And the other becomes the enemy.
First conference in Athens: “The Muslim Communites and their Cultural Identity”
October 14, 2009
October 14, 2009 by Anna
The first Muslim Conference in Athens is a fact. On Tuesday October 6 at the National Research Foundation the conference took place by the title “The Muslim Communities and their Cultural Identity”. The organizers were the Cultural Center of the Iranian Embassy in Athens, the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of thought and the Muslim Association of Greece.
The unity of the Muslims was the basic characteristic of this conference. Shias and Sunnis all sat together and discussed basic matters that affect all Muslims of the Western world.
Famous guests honored the event as Ayatollah Taskhiri, Ayatollah Ahtari and professor Tabarayan from Al Zahra University Tehran who traveled from Iran for this event exclusively. From Egypt came Dr. Mohammed Abdelmaksoud Herzullah of Al Azhar University and imam of the Hussein Mosque of Cairo.
From Muftiya of Didymotiho participated the deputy mufti Dr.Yashar Damadoglu, and from Komotini came Mr. Hassan Patchaman and the unofficial mufti of Komotini Mr. Ibrahim Sherif.
The national communities saluted the conference, stating -beside their presence- the basic problems the Muslims face as the lack of mosque and Muslim cemetery. A salutation also addressed professor Vangelis Pissias.
The identity of the Muslim at the non-Muslim country was the central point where all speakers inclined to the fact that the Muslim must be in a brotherhood with his co-religionists, not to let small differences divide them because this way he loses his rights.
The Muslim must respect the laws of the country he lives in and to be dutiful to his obligations in order to be in position to deserve and claim from his society. There is a way to maintain his identity and at the same time to integrate as long as he is a true believer, pursue the unity and participate actively at the Muslim community.
This is the first time that such a conference is organized and in fact, it had a very satisfactory turnout and media coverage. Also, the local authorities expressed their interest to have more educational events as seminars or conferences aiming at the information, education, solving of problems around the life of the Muslims in our country. The Muslim Association of Greece illustrated the necessity of such events as they benefit the society on the whole because the society asks for improvement of its problems, harmonious coexistence between citizens and mutual respect.
The outcome of the conference read Professor Tabarayan and in the end he emphasized the significance of showing the right face of Islam to the world and that Muslims should work towards this way, always in unity.
Read the conference speech by MAG
(over 40 photos)
New book out by Greek Muslim convert
September 29, 2009
Jamilah Kolocotronis sure knows how to keep you up all night with a book in your hand. I just finished reading her novel, Silence, and I’m definitely impressed by how unique it is.
She is one brave soul. She tackles many ‘taboo’ issues in her book about religious extremism and social and political injustice in the USA. What I like most is that you feel like you’re reading a novel but deep down, you are being educated about the realities of underground life, religion and politics, or at least of fears (valid or not) that the average public is completely unaware of.
And just because she is Muslim, that doesn’t mean she shows a bias. You’ll meet characters both Christian and Muslim in her book, exposing mainstream vs. extremism in both religions.
I have to mention that some people think that if fiction is “Islamic” than it must be boring, or at the least, preachy. Pick up one of Jamilah’s books and this misconception will be dispelled immediately.
A small minority of Muslims have this idea that it’s haram to read Islamic fiction because it’s considered lying or at best a complete waste of time. If that’s you, you may want to check out this fatwa. As for the issue of time, you just have to speak with a Muslim educator to find out how desperate they are to find these books for their students as an alternative to the trash that’s out there.
Back to the topic. This book is definitely an eye-opener so don’t lose out. Read more details about it here:
www.MuslimWritersPublishing.com
Christians were on a mission to convert me
September 1, 2009
Ramadan Timetable for Greece
Our next event: 6th September 2009
I was walking home today when I saw these two Chinese women getting into their car. I thought to myself that it was different to find at least someone on the street wearing some modest clothes but it was really nice. Just as I finished that thought, they said hi to me and whipped out their Jehovah Witness pamphlets. I just had to laugh inside because I was about to give them the conversation of their life.
They started with how important the Bible is and that they believe that Jehovah is god and Jesus is the son of god etc. I asked them what their proof is for that and they showed me a verse in the Bible saying explicitly that Jehovah is god.
I smiled, lifted my shoulders and went on offense. I don’t think they know what hit them. I told them that Muslims believe in the original Bible that was sent to Moses and Jesus, not the tampered copies we have today.
We discussed the lack of preservation of the original Bible and I challenged them to go back to their verse and find it in its original language and book, which obviously would be impossible.
When I asked them what the original language the Bible was revealed in, they said Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. But of course, I told them, as a Greek myself, the Bible was not revealed in Greek to Jesus (pbuh) because Jesus was a Jew and didn’t speak Greek. And when I went into detail about Paul, who authored most of the New Testament and didn’t meet Jesus, they started to become confused.
They tried to say that even if translations are not 100% accurate, the general meaning is there. But I then asked them how they knew for certain that even if 90% of it is correct, what is the 10% that is incorrect and what if they verse they showed me about Jehovah being god is the part that has been tampered with.
Then, they asked me a good question.
They said, “Well, how do you know which part of the Bible is correct and which is not.” I replied, “Oh, easy, from the Quran.” Whatever the Quran confirms, than it’s true in the Bible and whatever the Quran says differently, than the Bible has been tampered with.
And because we know for absolute certain that the Quran was revealed from God and was preserved meticulously word for word, letter for letter and vowel for vowel in its original language, there is no doubt in the message.
Then, I left them with a curve ball. I told them that if the Bible they were holding was actually the original one revealed by God, than I would certainly follow it. But the only book from God that is preserved is the Quran. And in the Quran it says that there is no one worthy of worship other than God, the Creator. So, even if they told me that Jehovah, Jesus, a stone, a stick, a fence is god, I could not accept that.
They left baffled, what can I say.
Hellenic Church makes the next step for Muslim cemetery
July 16, 2009
In Greek/Στα Ελληνικα
Honorable Minister,
It is well known that the Church of Greece helps the state by solving a social problem proceeded in bestowing the ecclesiastic land for use of a field of 30,000m2 to be constructed a Muslim cemetery at Scaramangas- Shisto area.
Although five years have passed since this bestowment, there has not been any development to the procedures to construct this, probably due to the problems that are referring to the letters 2225/12-07-2007 & 1283/1-4-2009 of Athens Organization and also at letters 31229/27-7-2007 & 38133/1-11-2007 of the administration of OKK.
For that reason, the Church of Greece decided to bestow another field of 30,000m2 in another location in the same ecclesiastic property in order to make easier the tasks of the related authorities. This field is described to the attached blueprint no AS550B, that has already been given to the Honorable Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Kassimis.
Of course, if the bestowed land for usage is finally accepted and receives all necessary licenses after the necessary declassification, and because it is located inside of a wider church property, all necessary formation and works will be executed under the surveillance and approval of our department.
We anticipate the authorities indicating to us with whom we will sign the relative contract, and we are kindly asking for your concern.
The General Director
Antonis Zambelis
Notifications
Honorable Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos, M inister of Internal Affairs
Honorable Mrs. Theodora Bakoyiannis, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Honorable Mr. Aris Spiliotopoulos, Minister of Education and Religions
Muslim Association of Greece
Dept. of Property (Internal section)
Dept. of Technical Services (Internal section)
Dept. of Legal Services (Internal section)
