Warning, yet another very long perhaps incindiary drabble meant entirely for myself!

Faruksen: I think you're right, and I'll definitely be reading more Islamic history texts because it's such a subjective issue that it's the only way to get the full range of biases :) And I agree with what you say about moderate Muslims. I think about how 1400 years after the establishment of Christianity, that religion wasn't exactly the most peaceful either but made it through until the Renaissance. They're not the same, but it would be wrong of me to single out Islam for these issues.

This was a long, dense, but rewarding read (on a different note-- who am i to judge anyway?) . The media (in fact, the dominant media institutions) are responsible for bringing up the most marginal stories to the surface, dismissing the voice of conscience among the Muslim majority (inner voice: isnt it so easy to blame the media for it -- have you put enough effort to represent ourselves--).

In terms of caliph Umar, my humble suggestion for you would be to read a comprehensive work covering the period of the four rightly guided caliphs. It is sometimes easy to find written material that looks at that period and takes things at the base level, so it is always useful to read an academic and comprehensive account. Not to mention a few groups that intentionally bring up issues about some early companions that seem controversial and judge them on the surface level.

Last but not least, any person who takes an innocent life cannot be truly a Muslim. And all those things that happened do not stem from teachings of Islam, as much as they stem from false ideology and political agendas that use terrorism as a tool to put blame on a whole mass of believers who have nothing to do with it. Yet, my firm belief is that this, too, shall pass, as majority of Muslims get their voice of moderation and peace heard clear to the rest of the world.

lamisah: wow, I had no idea anyone had done research on female Islamic scholars. I had never heard of any, in fact...

ademazak: unfortunately, there is a big difference these days between Islam as it was meant to be and how some choose to practice it. Sometimes it seems that these actions are not discouraged or in fact encouraged by people who should know better. But I know I must remember that there are more decent Muslims who are knowledgeable and believe what the Quran says 100%, they just aren't as loud as the others.

What is the decree of killing innocent in Islam?

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The Holy Qur’an clearly prohibits killing any person; it announces “Nor take life - which Allah has made sacred - except for just cause.” (Al-Israa Surah, 17:32)
“Causes” that read in the verse are the situations like:
-warfare
-self-defense
-execution of somebody by the state when his guilt is confirmed.
Apart from these occasional events, to kill somebody is one of the greatest sins. In another verse, the Qur’an announces:
“If anyone slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. (Al-Maidah Surah, 5:32)

That is to say, to kill an innocent person is a crime as horrible as killing the whole people. In the verse, there is no distinction between Muslims or non-Muslims in this respect; the verse refers to any person, which is remarkably important.

Murdering of an innocent person on purpose requires retaliation (qisas), namely killing the murderer. If the inheritors of the murdered person forgive the murderer

Thank you for comments bro supreme and Ana. The comments about Caliph Umar you can spk to scholars on the net, I have heard of shareislam.com. There was however a very interesting article that I remember reading a whiule ago in a glossy muslim magazine called Emel, it was called The Lost Female Scholars of Islam, its reaserach being done by a muslim Professor of eitheir Oxford or Cambridge Universities, this professor decided tolook into past female islamic scholars due to all the negative publicity that is given to muslim women, he claims in the article that he was expecting to find about 50 or so names of female scholars but as this kind of work was being put together for the first time he has got a total of 8,000 female muslim scholar names this is soo amazing , he gave reasons as to why the muslim womens roles become less public and one of the reasons from the top of my head was that as the european empires started to grow , the europeans could not deal with the roles that the women played in the muslim world so as they started taking over they did not see fit to have to deal with women as in their culture women did not have equal rights and unfortunately in the developing countries they have kept those old traditions which were imported by the europeans long time ago, its an excellent article I will look for it and give u more accurate information if ur interested, I wonder if anyone else has read it? The professor is writing a book about this i dont know how long to go but i will definitly be reading it.

Thank you lamisah, that's what I needed, an insider perspective! I guess I'm just being paranoid, a lady should be careful about all potential husbands regardless of her religion. And I should remember how much good is in the ummah despite how vocal and present the bad is :) As for Caliph Umar, he instituted the separation of gender in prayer, prevented the Prophet's widows from performing the pilgrimage, and tried to confine all women to their homes. He also instituted stoning for adultery, though the Quran requires lashing instead along with four eyewitnesses. But then again earlier historians say he appointed a women as market inspector for Medina and gave his early copy of the Quran to a daughter. So I don't really know what to make of him. But several later scholars have used verses of the Quran to equate women with animals (Fakhr ad Din ar-Razi) much like early Christian scholars debated whether women had souls,

G8 blog, luv to read more in the near future & g8 comment by Lamisah. Kudos all around!

There is no compulsion in getting married but you will when you feel its the right thing for u to do, in Islam marriage is a contract and you could come up with agreements with your potential husband as to what u want in the marriage. All the horrible things that u talk of that r happening to muslim women r more whats overblown in the media, of course horrible things happen in all communities, I am a british muslim who knows a lot of the muslim community in the uk and i have a pakistani background and therefore know alot of muslims in pakistan never hav i come accross those horrible things that u claim happens to muslim women in real life.
In the so called developing countries the women r usually victims of poverty and everything else that comes with it ie lack of education therefore not knowing their rights and it becomes a miserable circle. However the women that r educated or from comfortable backgrounds r very strong willed muslim women and they play absolutely a full on equal role in the marriage. Many of my friends are professionally qualified muslim women some with grown up kids others put their careers first an marry later etc.
I have been married for ten yrs, I have worked full time for 8 of those yrs, i have 3 kids and still have time to do charity work,meet up with friends and carry on with hobbies, of course none of this would have been possible without a supportive husband.Many of my non muslim friends tell me that I am very lucky that I have a very fulfilling and happy life.A lady who worked with me married a dashing BBC producer within the first yr of marriage she caught him twice in bed with different women she was divorced a yr later, her and another women from my work go to turkey for they r now looking for relationships elsewhere.The point is when we muslims know our deen and we know our rights and we marry people for the right reason and obviously we learn to respect each other and compromise then marriage works. I have seen that a lot of non muslims dont have happy lives especially when they hit 40 usually they r lonely.
Islam has liberated women we just need to live by it and practice it and fight for our God given rights where people will try and take them away.I do not understand the bit about caliph umar and the Prophet (pbuh) I have never heard of this?
With regards to terrorism there is no such thing in Islam, we cannot take lives of anyone, islam teaches us that to save a life is to save the whole of humanity. Islamically within a war situation fighters can only kill those who r fighting them, they cannot kill men, women or children who r not fighting them its a crime theres also ru;ing on mass destruction ie no killing of animals, farm land,crops,trees, rivers etc unlike Israel who believe that all palestinian men r legitimate targets and women an children etc r collateral damage. For generations they r facing this carnage all because the world has sat back and let israel get on with it so when the Palestinians r fighting for alegitamate cause and the ones who r really trying to take care that innocent casualties r kept to the minimum get labellled terrorists wheres the justice in that even a lot of jewish people cannot take this anymore and feel that the Palestinians have a legit mate cause but why is it soo wrong if muslims think this aswell?? the british media also told us that Iraq had WMD, they went along with everything the govt told them, theres no investigative journalism only what will sell the papers and islam and muslims r the topic of the day its just scare mongering. All muslims want to see a peaceful end to the conflicts in Palestine an across the world, we can only achieve this when we can talk at international levels instead of sending armies or selling weapons to countries. You r right it is us who can help the bombers one of the best ways is also to speak to our MPs in our own countries so we can change our foreign policies which create misery for people in other countries, believe no muslim or non muslim parents want their children to blow themselves up, in the cases that do happen its because theres no hope left to achieve their freedom in other ways, we cannot put our selfs in the shoes of the Palestinians none of us have experienced what they live like and hopefully never will.
You r right to marry a man who is properly practicing muslim he will also have a good character and I do advise u to wait for him.

lol, see warning!