Prayer on the sidewalk
August 29, 2010
Source: Protagon
By Naim Elghandour
Ramadan in Athens for the 37th time. It started on August 11 with the sweltering heat and will end on September 10th. The first days of adjustment are always harder as the rhythms of life do not change despite the fasting from sunrise to sunset.
Late evening before August 15th, after having iftar at home, which is the dinner that breaks the fast, I took Sheikh Mohammed, a respectful imam from Al Azhar university to go and pray at Piraeus. Al Andalus is the name of the praying place but it does not remind me anything of the glory of Andalusia as it is an underground warehouse on Filonos street in the heart Trouba where we pray for the last 17 years.
As we go down and go inside, in the first five minutes the sweat is running like a river. My breath stopped and the 60 year old imam who came from upper Egypt who can [usually[ bear the heat was ready to collapse. He told me that his sweat was dripping under his face all the way down to his socks. Why???
I was in despair because I am responsible for all these people who come to pray. I prayed that the temperature falls a bit to avoid the ambulances. You cannot put ventilation in this place nor air condition because it has no window. It is a hole under the ground.
We finished our prayer as [best] we could and when we went up to the surface I realized that this cannot happen again. The temperature at 11pm was 37°C and who knows about the humidity, it was suffocating even in open air.
The day after, I informed the state security that we were going to pray on the sidewalk outside of the “mosque” and that it is better to bring us a police car than to be taken by ambulances.
Sunday at 10 in the night all prayer mats were laid down on the sidewalk of Filonos street and the few people that walked by were surprised. Of course we did not bother anyone, all stores were closed. But we were alert, you never know what could happen, but the prayer was more humane in those hot days.
And I am thinking: What does a man have to go through to praise God as He deserves? My little kids were crying to take them with me earlier, but where can I take them?
Sometimes I take them to the Neos Kosmos garage that has better ventilation and they play with the other kids. There, the older kids are learning how to pray and the little ones imitate the grownups and then they start chasing each other and laugh, but we are always underground. When we finish, I buy them ice cream.
This is how Ramadan is in our great city.
———
Translated by: Anna Stamou
Visiting Greece now as a Muslim – I was nervous and excited
August 20, 2010
By Stefanie Danopoulos, 28 years old
The last summer I visited Greece was in 1999. That time I was already reading about Islam and did a lot of thinking. When I came back to Holland I decided to convert to Islam. And after a few months I started to wear the veil, hijab.
I lost contact with my family for almost two years. When I had my first child the contact slowly became better.
My parents always told me that it was not possible to go back to Greece with my hijab. And my biggest problem was that I don’t speak Greek.
My father is from Greece (Korinthos) and my mother is from Holland. I was born and raised in Holland but we traveled to Greece every year in the summer. I think that it is really important that you can explain to the people in their language why you dress that way.
A few months ago we had a conference in Holland and then I met Anna, a Greek Muslim sister. I was so happy and I even took her to my mother’s house to show her that there are Muslims in Greece. My mother was very surprised.
A few months later, they had a meeting in Greece for the Muslims Association of Greece. My parents and sisters were all in Greece and Anna told me that I had to come. And I told my parents I had plans to come and they said that I was welcome. So I booked my ticket and finally after 11 years I came back to Greece.
I was very nervous but also very excited.
The first two days I spent at the conference in Athens meeting other Greek Muslims, alhamdulillah! I had a very nice time.
And I thought that everybody would look at me in a bad way but they did not even care.
Then I met my family in Ancient Korinthos. I was very, very nervous about the reactions. When I arrived some friends of my parents were waiting for me. They were very happy to see me and one friend of my father asked if I came from dancing because of my clothes. So my mother told him that it is a new fashion. I spoke to some relatives and nobody said crazy things.
I noticed that most of them speak English, so thank God, that was very nice. I didn’t really have the chance to tell them something about Islam because I was there only one day and my parents wanted to show me everything. They were so happy that I came.
I had a great time. And, God willing, next year I will go back to Greece with my husband and kids.
I spent my last day in the island of Andros. It was very beautiful and I even swam in the sea. Also the people there were very nice and I did not feel left out or something.
In Holland, people look at you in a different way, but I think that it is because of the negative media attention. So most people in Holland see Islam in a bad way and they feel threatened by veils and beards and long dresses. In Greece I felt very relaxed.
I had a great experience and I will go back again for holiday, God willing!
MAG at Athens observatory to sight new moon
August 10, 2010
The evening of Tuesday August 10, 2010 representatives of all Muslim communities responded to the call of the Muslim Association of Greece and met at Pendeli Observatory for the third year in order to sight the new moon for themselves that will start the beginning of the Ramadan month.
With great pleasure, the Athens Observatory (www.noa.gr) responds to our request for sighting the new moon with our the eyes of the reps of Muslims of Attica. Distinguishes scientists explain the phenomenon of new moon and reply to the questions of the participants. Everyone of them have the chance to look at the telescope. This year, like last year, we were hosted by Dr. Anastasios Dapergolas who responded to many questions and explained that new moon is a global phenomenon, not a local one, subsequently the only thing that changes is the local time of each country.
People from all lengths of the Muslim world were present. From Morocco to Bangladesh, from Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan, Kurds, and of course Greeks. Among us was the honored guest of MAG, imam of Al Azhar university sheikh Mohammed Abdelsalam. All together we left to inform the prayer places of the common decision, based on the astronomical data of Pendeli Observatory, that the new moon is born and the forst of Ramadan is August 11th, 2010. So the Taraweeh prayer at the praying places of Attica has started on Tuesday night at 10.
Ramadan Kareem
A letter from Romania
July 7, 2010
Now that we’ve been working for the Islamic community in Greece, I’ve been thinking about other Muslim communities in Europe a lot lately, especially the forgotten ones like in the Balkan countries. For some reason, I keep coming back to Romania and just today, I stumbled across an article about the Muslim community of Romania!
I was touched by this article below and how similar it is to the situation in Greece.
Source: The Balkan Chronicle
There are many countries in the world where Islam springs to mind when they are mentoned, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Morrocco are just a few. There are many other lands Islam reached that many from amongst the Ummah may not be aware of, such as Western China, Greece, Southern Italy, Hungary and maybe even Austria. Romania is also one such land that many may not be aware lived under Islamic rule for 800 years. Many may not even know where Romania is, it is only 275 miles from Turkey.
In Europe Romania is infamous for Transylvania – home of Count Dracula. Whilt this character has assumed a position archetypal vampire in populer Western culture; the character is based upon Prince of Wallachia. Vlad III, who came to be known as the impaler. Historically, Vlad Dracula became infamous for his resistance against the Uthmani Khilafah and for the cruel punishments he inflicted upon his enemies.
Vlad Dracula was sent in 1475 with an army of Hungarian and Serbian soldiers to recapture Bosnia from the Uthmani Khilafah. Whilst the Uthmani Khilafah lost this initial battle, the Uthmani’s entered Wallachia in 1476 under the command of Mehmed II to recapture the lost lands. During the war, Vlad was killed and, according to some sources, his head was sent to Constantinople to discourage the other rebellions.
According to most sources in Romania, Islam first emerged when the Sufi leader Sari Saltik came to the region during the Byzantine epoch. The Islamic presence in Northern Dobruja was expanded by Uthmani Khilafah who oversaw successive immigration. In Wallachia and Moldavia, the two Danubian Principalities, the era of Uthmani’s did not accompany growth in the number of Muslims, whose presence there remained small. Also the battles between the Uthmani’s and Habsburg Empire led to many Muslim to move to the Islamic heatlands.
Romania emerged in 1859 as a union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Northern Dobruja became part of Romania following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. However during the the communist regime, Romanian Muslims were subject to a number of harsh measures, especially supervision by the state. The Ummah in Romania managed to hold on to the deen and were able after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 to begin the open dawah to Islam.
Islam in Romania is followed by only 0.3 percent of population, this equates to around 60,000 people, but has more than 800 years of tradition in Northern Dobruja, a region on the Black Sea coast which was part of the Uthmani Khilafah for almost five centuries (ca. 1420-1878). In present-day Romania, most adherents to Islam belong to the Tatar and Turkish ethnic communities.
The vast majority of Romanians are Sunnis who adhere to the Hanafi madhab.
97% of Romanian Muslims are residents of the two counties forming Northern Dobruja: eighty-five percent live in Constanţa County, and twelve percent in Tulcea County. The rest mainly inhabit urban centers such as Bucharest, Brăila, Călăraşi, Galaţi, Giurgiu, and Drobeta-Turnu Severin.
In all, Romania has as many as eighty mosques, or, according to records kept by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, seventy-seven. The city of Constanţa, with its Carol I Mosque and the location of the Muftiyat, is the center of Romanian Islam; Mangalia, near Constanţa, is the site of a monumental mosque, built in 1525. The two mosques are state-recognised historical monuments, as are the ones in Hârşova, Amzacea, Babadag and Tulcea. There are also 108 Islamic cemeteries in Romania.
After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, when Romania left the Eastern Communist camp native Romanians had the chance to discover Islam and taste its fruits. Today as many as 3,000 Muslim are converts to Islam and the number is growing day by day. Being converts they faced the particular problem in a society, in that society was not prepared to accept them. Most groups in Romania show little will to support Muslims generally. For these reasons the Ummah in Romania were forced to create an organisation capable of defending and maintaining the needs of the Ummah in Romania. The Alliance of Romanian Muslim was set up in order to protect and defend the Ummah and Islam in Romania.
When Islam came to Europe the continent was living in the dark ages. Eastern Europe was steeped in superstition, magic and sorcery. Islam came and brought a new rational belief that took the region from its misery and gave their lives purpose. Whilst in mainland Europe the challenge is to defend the deen, in Romania and many parts of Eastern Europe once again the people need liberation from capitalism and nationalism and it is here the Muslim of Romania are at the forefront carrying on the work the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم started and the Uthmani Khilafah expanded. Whilst the Ummah face the same issues globally, the Ummah from Romania stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ummah all over the world and await the day Allah sends his blessings.
Official report on the flotilla campaign by IHH
July 2, 2010
Below is the official report for the Mavi Marmara ship to Gaza campaign. I’m glad to see that the IHH from Turkey has officially documented all of the information, photos and statistics for the Flotilla campaign.
Take a look:
Download: 8.03MB
(May take a little time to download the report. )
New Greek Muslim needs your advice
June 14, 2010
This came in through our old blog site. Can you give her some advice?
My name is Aisha(19 years old) and I am Greek currently living in Czech Republic for my studies. When I was in Greece i had no idea about Islam, due to the lack of information about it in Greece. I just thought that it is a religion for Arabs… However Allah gave me the opportunity to see this beautiful way of life in Czech Republic.
As most of the Greeks understand being a muslim in Greece is not very common. In about 1 month i will go back to Greece and i will have to face my Christian parents. Although they are not very religious, they don’t go to church except Easter and Christmas and sometimes not even then, the idea of having a different religion from the rest of my family (and the rest of the Greek citizens) and the idea that i will make it so obvious by wearing the hijab will not give a very good reaction according to their behaviour…
I would appreciate it a lot if you could give me some advise on how to talk to them and what to tell them because they don’t know anything for islam except that it is a religion that people from Pakistan that live in the city center,where most of violence occurs in Athens. May Allah help me and make it easy for me.
Moreover, showing off in Greece is something that I use to do but i find it meaningless anymore. Girls nowdays in Greece have lost their mind and walk almost naked in the street,driving the attention of every female person that passes next to them.
However this is something very common, but wearing the hijab isn’t.. I don’t know what my non-muslim friends will be with the idea of going out with a girl that covers her body… Iknow them since i was a little child and they will understand but i will have to explain them in the right way… do you have any suggestions?
Even a very small advice might be very usefull for me so please help a new muslim girl that needs your help. please take in consideration that i reverted to islam 2 weeks ago
The following text is for muslim women:
In Czech Republic like in Greece there are not a lot of muslims especially girls. Can you please send me a few basic information about basic things concerning the islam?
not for the social life but the every day life and things that muslim gilrs do!
Peace be upon all of you!!
Thanks to all of you spending time even reading about my story.
ALL PRAISES BE TO ALLAH!
Salam!
Συγκλονιστική η μαρτυρία του δημοσιογράφου που μετείχε στην αποστολή
June 4, 2010
Source: Skai.gr
“Συγκλονιστική η μαρτυρία του δημοσιογράφου του ΣΚΑΪ Άρη Χατζηστεφάνου που μετείχε στην αποστολή, για την αγριότητα των ισραηλινών δυνάμεων κατά τη διάρκεια της κράτησης και ανάκρισης των ακτιβιστών.”
“The shocking testimony of SKAI journalist Ari Hadjistefanou participant in the mission [Ship to Gaza], the brutality of the Israeli forces during detention and questioning of activists.”
Bullets, tear gas and tazers: witnesses tell of raid
June 1, 2010
Source: AFP and Google
BERLIN — Shocked activists on Tuesday recounted how Israeli troops stormed on deck firing tear gas, electroshock weapons and real bullets at unarmed passengers as they raided the ill-fated Gaza aid flotilla.
Israel has blamed activists on the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, for the deadly outcome to Monday’s pre-dawn raid, saying they attacked soldiers with clubs and knives as they boarded.
But a group of German witnesses who experienced the assault first hand before being detained and deported denied anyone on board was armed with more than a few wooden sticks.
“Personally I saw two and a half wooden batons that were used … There was really nothing else. We never saw any knives,” Norman Paech, a 72-year-old former member of parliament told reporters in Berlin.
“The Israeli government justifies the raid because they were attacked. This is absolutely not the case,” said Paech, wrapped in a blue blanket and visibly shaken by the bloody outcome to the mission
“This was not an act of self-defence.”
A German doctor on the ship, Matthias Jochheim, who had bloodstains on his trousers from people he treated, said he had personally seen four dead people and expected the total death toll to be 15.
The Israeli military says nine passengers were killed in the fight.
Paech, a former MP from the far-left Die Linke party, said he took photographic evidence but that his camera had been confiscated.
He denied Israel’s suggestion that passengers had been lying in ambush.
“We had not prepared in any way to fight. We didn’t even consider it,” he added. “No violence, no resistance — because we knew very well that we would have absolutely no chance against soldiers like this.
“This was an attack in international waters on a peaceful mission… This was a clear act of piracy,” he added.
The former MP’s comments were backed up by two others on board the convoy, MPs Inge Hoeger, 59, and Annette Groth, 56.
“We felt like we were in a war, like we were being kidnapped,” Hoeger said. “Nobody had a weapon.”
Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament an Australian man on board the main ship had undergone surgery after being shot in the leg.
The Mavi Marmara was one of six ships carrying some 10,000 tonnes of supplies to Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007 when the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory.
A Greek activist on one of the smaller boats, the Eleftheri Mesogeio, said Israeli troops used rubber bullets, tear gas and electroshock weapons to subdue those aboard.
Commandos jumped onto the ship at around 0530 GMT, an hour after the clashes on the Mavi Marmara, he said.
“They fired rubber coated bullets, tear gas and then used electroshock weapons on some activists,” he told Skai television after Israel deported him and five compatriots to Athens.
A Frenchman detained on another of the six ships told reporters his fellow passengers offered no resistance to arrest.
“The instructions were clear. Do not provoke, remain calm and go to meet them (the commandos) saying ‘We are pacifists and not terrorists’,” Youssef Benderbal said after arriving at a Paris airport.
“Masked commandos took possession of the ship. They were aiming for the captain’s cabin,” said Benderbal, a member of a French aid group for Palestinians.
Israel detained 686 passengers after the raid.
As first-hand accounts began to emerge from deported activists, hundreds of foreign nationals were still being held.
They include aid workers and at least three reporters — two Australians and a Spaniard — who have refused to sign their deportation papers.
The Greek passenger Grigoropoulos said he was kept incommunicado in “wretched detention conditions” at the Israeli port of Ashdod, denied access to a lawyer and made to sign papers he did not understand.
He also said “two Greek activists were beaten up” there by Israeli police.
In Britain, relatives of several dozen Britons on board the flotilla waited anxiously for news of their loved ones.
“It’s absolutely terrible not knowing what has happened to him and it’s terrible that the British government hasn’t done more but they don’t want to fall out with Israel,” said Rachel Bridgeland, whose partner was on board.
MAG press release: Israel murders civilians
May 31, 2010
Gaza is bleeding and so are the people who support and love Gaza, but this time literally.
The Muslim Association of Greece highly condemns the hijacking of the unarmed freedom flotilla by the Israeli Navy in international waters. Thanks to the indifference of the world opinion, we were led to this bloody attack resulting in tragic deaths of passengers and dozens of other injured activists who were armed with nothing else but the sense of hope, justice, and the determination of a free Mediterranean.
We have actively participated since the beginning of the movement with plenty of tireless volunteers. The president, Naim Elghandour was on board of the cargo ship, Free Mediterranean, representing all of us.
People from every corner of the world, every age, ideology and status and religion have united for a just cause and now others are dead, others are wounded and some are prisoners. In the holds of the ship are dozens of electric wheelchairs for the disabled, prefabricated homes, desalination systems, building materials, and medical supplies which will never reach the receipts in Gaza who are in dire need.
Amongst the six ships of the “Freedom Flotilla” two Greek vessels and crews, the Free Mediterranean and Sfendoni were severely attacked in international waters as they also witnessed the bringing down of the Greek flag and its humiliation which is something that frightens us.
At least 4o Greek poeple are missing with Israel being the only one able to give us answers. Indeed, these are the very same poeple that killed so many civilians. How reliable can their data be and what is the fate of the hundreds activists?
The international community must act now because today civilians were killed while fighting in the name of liberty.
We express our sincerest condolences to the families of the victims, dead, wounded and prisoners and we dearly wish that one day Gaza will stop bleeding and the Mediterranean will be free.
——
Photo taken from aljazeera.net.
Ship to Gaza video update – May 28, 2010
May 28, 2010
Click on the photo to watch the video.
For live updates and videos, visit http://digitalship.shiptogaza.gr.
