I think this would be an excellent venture if they don't leave anything out. However having said that they may need to make 20 four hour movies to actually depict the prophets (s) life accurately and in detail. Having studyed the seerah (biography) of the prophet and currently teaching it I know this is the case. I guess the overall picture might be sufficient enough to stir peoples interests in learning more about this great man.
After all he is the most documented human being by both Muslims and non-Muslims in the history of humanity. There is so much detail about his private, personal and public life that one who actually studys seerah gains a deep love for this man and feels like they know him personally.
The article below.
Barrie Osborne, part of the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings films, says the new production 'will educate people about the true meaning of Islam'
Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad.
Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad's life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as "an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam".
Osborne's production will reportedly feature English-speaking Muslim actors. It is backed by the Qatar-based production company Alnoor Holdings, who have installed the Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to oversee all aspects of the shoot. In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen.
"The film will shed light on the Prophet's life since before his birth to his death," Ahmed Abdullah Al-Mustafa, Alnoor's chairman, told al-Jazeera. "It will highlight the humanity of Prophet Muhammad."
The as-yet-untitled picture is due to go before the cameras in 2011. It remains to be seen, however, whether it will be beaten to cinemas by another Muhammad-themed drama. Late last year, producer Oscar Zoghbi announced plans to remake The Message, his controversial 1976 drama that sparked a fatal siege by protesters in Washington DC. The new version, entitled The Messenger of Peace, is currently still in development.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
What do Bad Boys have in common?
Loon, Busta Rhymes, Napolean, Castro and Raekwon and many more. This trend is a growing one...
Thursday, October 08, 2009
It's Official: 1.57 Billion Muslims
Although I believe this is a close figure to what the real Muslim population is I still think this is an under estimate.
In countries such as Afghanistan and Indonesia etc there are many non registered family that would not have been taken into account in this estimate, not to meantion all the reverts (converts) throughout the world who have not officialy registered as Muslims. Anyway at least a closer estimate is better than the usual HUGE under estimate of 1 or 1.2 billion you mostly hear about.
Report: Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion
The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that about one in four people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
“This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report,” said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world’s second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
In countries such as Afghanistan and Indonesia etc there are many non registered family that would not have been taken into account in this estimate, not to meantion all the reverts (converts) throughout the world who have not officialy registered as Muslims. Anyway at least a closer estimate is better than the usual HUGE under estimate of 1 or 1.2 billion you mostly hear about.
Report: Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion
The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that about one in four people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
“This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report,” said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world’s second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
Muslim Mayor of Rotterdam, Netherlands
Rotterdam's new Islamic mayor seen as test of ethnic integration
Los Angeles Times
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.04.2009
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The veiled women clutch their children's hands as they scurry past the liquor store, ignoring rows of vodka bottles on their way to the Muslim butcher next door.
Across the street, male customers emerge from the Climax sex shop with their purchases and quickly stride away without a second glance at the Turkish kebab restaurant opening for lunch.
Conservative and liberal, religious and secular, Dutch and foreign stand side by side here in Rotterdam, in a contrasting and uneasy coexistence where social and cultural middle ground can be elusive.
The job of finding that middle ground has now fallen onto the shoulders of a thoughtful Moroccan-born Muslim who arrived in Rotterdam just eight months ago. His address: the mayor's office.
Ahmed Aboutaleb is the first Muslim immigrant to lead a major Dutch city. The son of an imam, he was appointed mayor of Rotterdam late in 2008 and in January 2009 became the official face of the Netherlands' second-largest city.
His is the classic immigrant success story, the saga of a youth who landed in the Netherlands as a teenager, worked hard and climbed the social ladder, first as a journalist, then as a politician in free-wheeling Amsterdam.
But his nomination as mayor by political party leaders in Rotterdam, who sought someone of national stature for the ceremonial post, took even seasoned observers by surprise.
This is, after all, a city where the national clash over immigration and integration, particularly of Muslims, has been at its most volatile. In 2002, Pim Fortuyn, a populist and openly gay politician who slammed Islam as a "backward" religion, was fatally shot by a white assassin claiming to act in support of the Muslim community.
How Aboutaleb, 48, fares as mayor could have an effect beyond Rotterdam's borders. With ethnic minorities accounting for almost half its population, the city serves as a laboratory of demographic change for the rest of the Netherlands, and potentially other parts of Europe.
Thus far into his six-year term, analysts say, the bespectacled Aboutaleb has treaded softly, getting a feel for Rotterdam's tricky political landscape. Though he is a member of the city's ruling left-wing Labor Party, as mayor he is supposed to hold himself above party politics.
Within the last few weeks, however, Aboutaleb has said that he intends to step into the debate on integration. Although he has not specified how, it will mean navigating a minefield of competing beliefs, agendas and power plays by politicians, activists and bureaucrats.
"That is quite a risk for him, because if he fails … there is nobody above him," said Rinus van Schendelen, a professor of political science at Rotterdam's Erasmus University.
As mayor, Aboutaleb must maneuver a cultural war pitting those who believe the liberal and secular Dutch society is threatened by a growing religious minority against others who say that Muslims and other immigrants have been unfairly scapegoated.
Right-wing politicians demanded that Aboutaleb demonstrate his loyalty by giving up his Moroccan passport (he holds dual nationality). Geert Wilders, the country's most inflammatory public figure, declared that Aboutaleb's appointment was "as ridiculous as appointing a Dutchman as mayor of Mecca."
Muslims, by contrast, were excited that one of their own had risen so high — an "Obama on the Maas," as some have dubbed him, for the river that runs through Rotterdam.
"I was really happy that he became mayor," said pharmacist Jilani Sayed, 29. "A mayor has to hold the city together. He's got the potential to do that."
The mayor's job is largely ceremonial, with the big exception of public safety and police, which come under his supervision. But what the post lacks in direct authority it makes up for in influence and longevity.
"After every election, you are the one that stays. …… So people start trusting you as the consistent part of the city government," said Marco Pastors, head of Livable Rotterdam, the right-wing party of Fortuyn. "People look up to you, and when you are looked up to, you have powers."
Aboutaleb declined requests for an interview. A spokeswoman cited the need for him to stay focused on his duties.
Friends and foes praise him for spending his first months on a listening tour of neighborhoods to help damp skepticism over the fact that he comes not just from Morocco but also from Amsterdam, Rotterdam's big rival.
There have been missteps. Critics questioned an official trip Aboutaleb took to Morocco in June, during which he met the country's foreign minister and appeared to step on the toes of the Dutch central government.
In September, a dance party for thousands of beachgoers devolved into pandemonium and brawls in which one man was killed. The mayor, criticized for not assigning enough police to patrol the event, ordered a two-year ban on such parties.
And in a taste of the challenges of immigration issues, the city recently fired integration adviser Tariq Ramadan, a well-known Islamic scholar. City officials said Ramadan's hosting of a show on Iranian state television could be perceived as an endorsement of the regime in Tehran.
Los Angeles Times
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.04.2009
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The veiled women clutch their children's hands as they scurry past the liquor store, ignoring rows of vodka bottles on their way to the Muslim butcher next door.
Across the street, male customers emerge from the Climax sex shop with their purchases and quickly stride away without a second glance at the Turkish kebab restaurant opening for lunch.
Conservative and liberal, religious and secular, Dutch and foreign stand side by side here in Rotterdam, in a contrasting and uneasy coexistence where social and cultural middle ground can be elusive.
The job of finding that middle ground has now fallen onto the shoulders of a thoughtful Moroccan-born Muslim who arrived in Rotterdam just eight months ago. His address: the mayor's office.
Ahmed Aboutaleb is the first Muslim immigrant to lead a major Dutch city. The son of an imam, he was appointed mayor of Rotterdam late in 2008 and in January 2009 became the official face of the Netherlands' second-largest city.
His is the classic immigrant success story, the saga of a youth who landed in the Netherlands as a teenager, worked hard and climbed the social ladder, first as a journalist, then as a politician in free-wheeling Amsterdam.
But his nomination as mayor by political party leaders in Rotterdam, who sought someone of national stature for the ceremonial post, took even seasoned observers by surprise.
This is, after all, a city where the national clash over immigration and integration, particularly of Muslims, has been at its most volatile. In 2002, Pim Fortuyn, a populist and openly gay politician who slammed Islam as a "backward" religion, was fatally shot by a white assassin claiming to act in support of the Muslim community.
How Aboutaleb, 48, fares as mayor could have an effect beyond Rotterdam's borders. With ethnic minorities accounting for almost half its population, the city serves as a laboratory of demographic change for the rest of the Netherlands, and potentially other parts of Europe.
Thus far into his six-year term, analysts say, the bespectacled Aboutaleb has treaded softly, getting a feel for Rotterdam's tricky political landscape. Though he is a member of the city's ruling left-wing Labor Party, as mayor he is supposed to hold himself above party politics.
Within the last few weeks, however, Aboutaleb has said that he intends to step into the debate on integration. Although he has not specified how, it will mean navigating a minefield of competing beliefs, agendas and power plays by politicians, activists and bureaucrats.
"That is quite a risk for him, because if he fails … there is nobody above him," said Rinus van Schendelen, a professor of political science at Rotterdam's Erasmus University.
As mayor, Aboutaleb must maneuver a cultural war pitting those who believe the liberal and secular Dutch society is threatened by a growing religious minority against others who say that Muslims and other immigrants have been unfairly scapegoated.
Right-wing politicians demanded that Aboutaleb demonstrate his loyalty by giving up his Moroccan passport (he holds dual nationality). Geert Wilders, the country's most inflammatory public figure, declared that Aboutaleb's appointment was "as ridiculous as appointing a Dutchman as mayor of Mecca."
Muslims, by contrast, were excited that one of their own had risen so high — an "Obama on the Maas," as some have dubbed him, for the river that runs through Rotterdam.
"I was really happy that he became mayor," said pharmacist Jilani Sayed, 29. "A mayor has to hold the city together. He's got the potential to do that."
The mayor's job is largely ceremonial, with the big exception of public safety and police, which come under his supervision. But what the post lacks in direct authority it makes up for in influence and longevity.
"After every election, you are the one that stays. …… So people start trusting you as the consistent part of the city government," said Marco Pastors, head of Livable Rotterdam, the right-wing party of Fortuyn. "People look up to you, and when you are looked up to, you have powers."
Aboutaleb declined requests for an interview. A spokeswoman cited the need for him to stay focused on his duties.
Friends and foes praise him for spending his first months on a listening tour of neighborhoods to help damp skepticism over the fact that he comes not just from Morocco but also from Amsterdam, Rotterdam's big rival.
There have been missteps. Critics questioned an official trip Aboutaleb took to Morocco in June, during which he met the country's foreign minister and appeared to step on the toes of the Dutch central government.
In September, a dance party for thousands of beachgoers devolved into pandemonium and brawls in which one man was killed. The mayor, criticized for not assigning enough police to patrol the event, ordered a two-year ban on such parties.
And in a taste of the challenges of immigration issues, the city recently fired integration adviser Tariq Ramadan, a well-known Islamic scholar. City officials said Ramadan's hosting of a show on Iranian state television could be perceived as an endorsement of the regime in Tehran.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
American Quran?
Well for starters the title of the article is wrong. "'American Qur'an' blends US life, Quranic verses" Should probably read "'American Qur'an Translation' blends Human life, Quranic Translated verses"
Although the artist does make this point that it is not the Quran, I think this needs to be made clear to readers that no matter what language the translation is in, they will never get the full extent of the meaning unless they read it in Arabic. The reason for this is that the Quran has many translations and even though the wordings in different translations provide the same message, sometimes there can be slight variations due to the translators understand of certain words. This is one of the reasons that a translation will never be accepted as a Quran.
The Quran is only accepted in Arabic by ALL Muslims. It doesn't matter where you go in the world the text in the Quran is exactly the same, whether in Iran, China, America, Indonesia, Australia, Germany or anywhere else.
This fact that the Quran is in Arabic, the original language and words that it was revealed in, is what differentiates Islam and the Quran from other religions and their books.
Inshallah this will entice non Muslims to look into the Quran itself and see what it says.
Read the article here.
Although the artist does make this point that it is not the Quran, I think this needs to be made clear to readers that no matter what language the translation is in, they will never get the full extent of the meaning unless they read it in Arabic. The reason for this is that the Quran has many translations and even though the wordings in different translations provide the same message, sometimes there can be slight variations due to the translators understand of certain words. This is one of the reasons that a translation will never be accepted as a Quran.
The Quran is only accepted in Arabic by ALL Muslims. It doesn't matter where you go in the world the text in the Quran is exactly the same, whether in Iran, China, America, Indonesia, Australia, Germany or anywhere else.
This fact that the Quran is in Arabic, the original language and words that it was revealed in, is what differentiates Islam and the Quran from other religions and their books.
Inshallah this will entice non Muslims to look into the Quran itself and see what it says.
Read the article here.
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