JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American member of Congress, will be sworn into office this week. But unlike other incoming members of congress, she’ll take her oath on the Koran, Islam’s holiest book. And not just any Koran, either. The Washington Post examined how the Koran, and this specific Koran — a 1734 English translation…
The spokesman for the family of murdered Jewish-American journalist Steven Sotloff challenged the leader of the ISIS jihadist group to debate the peaceful teachings of the Koran. Barak Barfi, a friend of Sotloff’s, released a statement on behalf of the family late Wednesday that called the journalist a “gentle soul” and said the family will…
Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving is not mandated by any text in Sharia, the Islamic legal code which forms the basis for most Saudi law, the head of its morality police told Reuters on Thursday. Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh stressed that he has no authority to change Saudi policy on women driving, but his…
In my September 6 column about a Yiddish translation of the Qur’an, I observed that many of the singular effects created by translating the sacred scriptures of Islam, a religion closely linked to Judaism, into an intensely Jewish language like Yiddish would no doubt be found in a Yiddish translation of the Christian New Testament,…
There was an unusual event in Haifa the other day. Muhammad Sharif Odeh, the leader of the Israeli community of the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, announced the 25th anniversary of an Ahmadiyya-sponsored translation into Yiddish of selections from the Quran. Called by Haifa’s Jewish mayor, Yona Yahav, the “Reform Jews of Islam,” the Ahmadiyyas, who…
Members of a Muslim sect that translated parts of the Koran into Yiddish are marking 25 years since that translation was published. The president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Israel, Muhammad Sharif Odeh, said the group translated select parts of the Koran into Yiddish in order to present a different face of Islam. In…
In a nod, intentional or not, to the holiday spirit of atonement, the Anti-Defamation League announced just before Rosh Hashana that it has formed a task force, together with Christian and Muslim groups, to support Muslim congregations facing hostility around the country, particularly in connection with building mosques. The September 7 announcement came five weeks…
100% of profits support our journalism
