Its an ancient article that is hard to find on this site, but I think for those interested in learning more about the intricacies of bid'ah will find it interesting.

http://www.therevival.co.uk/static/articles/bidah.php

With Mawlid un nabi, I know that some people are not sure on its validity. But something strange happens at this time of the year every year:

Some people celebrate mawlid and get on with it.

Then there are some people who dont celebrate it who get on with it.

Both of these groups are trying to act on Islam on the way they consider the the best way to follow the Qur'an and sunnah with sincerity. Both can be deeply admired as long as you are willing to understand the reasons for their views and actions.

But then there is a third way, that I dont get - those that get a pain in their stomach when mawlid is celebrated (with the performing of ibadat, lets not pretend that its because someone might do something that is considered unislamic behaviour).

So far, the Syrian conflict has resulted in a reported 40,000 lives being lost.

There are some estimates that 100,000 lives will be lost over the following year.

Hopefully though the deaths and suffering will be far less than what is expected, and will result in an improvement for the people in Syria, but some of the fighting groups may not please the locals too much.

We need to give greater focus to this (and other conflicts) and not focus just on Palestine (but that also does not mean that the focus on there should be reduced).

It is sometimes easier to focus on other conflicts where Muslims are being oppressed by Non Muslims, but solely focussing on them leaves us open to arguments of bias which belittle out focus on those opressions.

I yesterday got the much awaited for update to the phone software to Android 4.1.

Its just minor refinements, but now also includes "Google Now".

I havent turned that on, as its creepy for your phone to know that you are going work befoer you do... but you can still use voice with the google search box and its really good.

Without turning on Google Now, I dont know a way to get the weather to be set to celcius instead of centrigrade, but its still good. It can answer some queries in voice, for others it will bring up google search results if needed or even carry out actions.

"Is it going to rain tomorrow?" (spoken reply) "yes, the forcast for tomorrow in ... is 45 degrees with rain"

"Set alarm for 9am"

"Send message to ..."

A ceasefire has been declared in Gaza - and chances are that the blockade on Gaza will also be eased as part of this ceasefire.

Now that this is over, better turn our attention to the civil war in Syria where many more people are dying.

Hopefully this will be a short lived conflict and nothing in comparison of the decades of oppression that the Palestinians have endured, but at the moment, it is far more bloody, far more brutal.

Small steps are slowly being taken where it seems tht eventually the Syrian regime will eventually be toppled. But this does not mean that after that there will be paradise there as some of the opposition groups have also shown quite an apetite for violence and brutality that has many locals on the ground worried.

Its a simple strawman that is being used to attack those showing support for Gaza.

The basic gist of all similar statements is along the lines of "somewhere else in the world, something worse is happening, so why don't you focus on that instead and let this thing happening in israel be burried?"

It's quite a powerful argument - thousands have been killed in Syria.

However the thing about Syria is that we all know what is happening there is wrong and we are all ciritical of it. Our government (that is the British government) is also critical of the Syrian regime and we support its criticism of the Syrian regime.

The world before smartphones, digital TV and constant access to the internet was quite different.

People did not spend all their time in their bedrooms.

It was also more convenient to talk to people living in the same house as you than random people on the other side of the world.

And you sat in rooms and talked.

I prefer the new way.

Its been put to my attention that I have deleted a new user to the site, one that was starting to post.

Twice.

Oops.

Apologies.

I was watching an episode of Andrew Marr's "History of the World", episode title Age of Plunder earlier on BBC 1 and I was once again hit by what was unsaid rather than was said.

History is something that is constantly being erased, sometimes in destructive ways and other times to make way for the future. I am not talking about the destruction of Islamic sites in Saudi Arabia through redevelopment, or in Somalia or even in Timbuktu (where the conquest of the city also known as the place of 300 saints was immediately followed by the conquerors going at its historical buildings with pickaxe and shovel while the locals could only look on earlier this year), but something much more subtle.

Nuff Said.

Babar Ahmad's family speak out over extradition "double standards"