The story of Prophet Noah (Nuh) peace be upon him

The 10th of Muahrram

Imam Ahmad narrated in the Musnad (his book of Hadith) through the route of Abu Hurayrah that once the Prophet passed by a group of Jews in Madinah. The Prophet realized that they were fasting the 10th day of Muharram.
The Prophet asked, “Why are you fasting this day?”  They said this was the day when God rescued Prophet Moses and the Children of Israel from Pharaoh who drowned as well on that day.  It was also the day the ark of Prophet Noah landed on Mount al-Judiyy.  Noah and Moses fasted that day as an indication of their thankfulness to God. Then the Prophet said, “I am the one to fast that day ” and told his followers to fast the 10th of Muharram as well. He justified the reason for fasting that day by saying, “We associate with Moses more than others do”. The Prophet said this because Moses was Muslim as all the prophets, and we are more deserving of rejoicing his victory.

Prophet Noah (Nuh)

Dear brothers in Islam, after the death of Prophet Enoch (Idris) several events occurred over time that led humans to commit blasphemy for the first time.  There were five pious people whose names are mentioned in Surat Nuh, verse 23.  They were Wadd, Suwa^, Yaghuth, Ya^uq, and Nasr. After their death, Satan came to the people in the shape of a man and told them to build statues of these five men.  The people responded to the whispers of the devil and built these statues to remember and honor these five good men.  After a long period of time Satan reappeared.  Ignorance had spread widely and many tribulations had occurred among the people.  The statues had become very common among the people.
When Satan came again, to a later generation, he ordered the people to worship these statues and told them falsely that their ancestors had worshipped these statues too.

God sent Prophet Noah (Nuh) to these people and ordered him to warn them against a severe torture that would befall them if they do not return to Islam.  

The time span between Enoch (Idris) and Noah is one thousand years, known as the first era of ignorance.  In these years, the first blasphemy was committed and became widespread spread among humans.  Noah was the first Prophet and Messenger sent to the blasphemers.

Prophet Noah said to his people, “O my people worship God for He is the only One Who deserves to be worshipped.”  He said, “if you do not repent and leave out blasphemy, then await for a day in which a severe torture will come upon you,”. He constantly reminded them of the great rewards of being Muslims. Unfortunately, most people did not respond to his call and consequently did not come back to Islam. 

Prophet Noah spent 950 years calling the people to come back to Islam.  Only about 80 believed in Prophet Noah. The people were extremely harsh to Prophet Noah, and inflicted a lot of harm on him.  They were so nasty that they once tried to strangle him, until he fainted.  Each century exercised more enmity to Prophet Noah and his followers than the previous one.  

Prophet Noah told his people, “My role is to convey, but God is the only One Who creates the guidance in the hearts of the people.”  Prophet Noah did not get despaired even though only a few people responded to his call. But when God revealed to Prophet Noah that no one else of his people would believe he supplicated to God to destroy all those who did not believe, a supplication which was fulfilled by Allah.

God ordered Prophet Noah to build an ark.  Prophet Noah gathered the wood, tar, and iron for that ark.  The people mocked Prophet Noah for building an ark on a dry land and away from water.  God ordered Noah that when he sees a sign to start loading the ark.  The sign was seeing water flowing out of an oven made of stones that belonged to Lady Eve.  

God sent the rain from the sky and as a result the beasts gathered near the ark.  Prophet Noah took a pair of male and female of each kind of animal.  The believers also went on the ark.  Water sprang out of Earth in large quantities causing the Ark to rise. The rain fell in great masses like mountains as described in the Qur’an. After six months the rain stopped and the Earth started swallowing the water after which the Ark rested on Mount al-Judiy in Iraq.

God protected Prophet Noah and his believing followers, and inflicted the punishment on the blasphemers.  All the blasphemers drowned including the son of Noah, Kan^an.  

It was narrated that when Prophet Noah was about to die, he was asked the following question by the angels, “How did you feel your stay on earth for so many years?”  Prophet Noah replied, “I saw this life on Earth like a house with two doors. I entered through one door and I left through the other.”  He meant that it went so quickly.  

Allah knows best.

Source : http://www.alsunna.org/The-story-of-Prophet-Noah-Nuh-peace-be-upon-him.html#gsc.tab=0

Russia's Syria force grows to 4,000, U.S. officials say

By Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moscow's military force in Syria has grown to about 4,000 personnel, but this and more than a month of Russian air strikes have not led to pro-government forces making significant territorial gains, U.S. security officials and independent experts said.

Moscow, which has maintained a military presence in Syria for decades as an ally of the ruling Assad family, had an estimated 2,000 personnel in the country when it began air strikes on Sept. 30. The Russian force has since roughly doubled and the number of bases it is using has grown, U.S. security officials said.

The Russians have suffered combat casualties, including deaths, said three U.S. security officials familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting, adding that they did not know the exact numbers.

The United States has extensive intelligence assets in the region, along with satellite imagery and electronic eavesdropping coverage and contacts with moderate Sunni and Kurdish rebels on the ground in Syria.

Russia's foreign ministry declined to comment on the size of the Russian contingent in Syria or any casualties it has suffered. It referred questions to the Russian Defense Ministry, which did not respond to written questions submitted by Reuters.

The Kremlin has said there are no Russian troops in combat roles in Syria, though it has said there are trainers and advisers working alongside the Syrian military and also forces guarding Russia's bases in western Syria.

The only death the Russian government has reported was that of a serviceman who the military said died by suicide. The man's parents have said they doubted this account.

The United States has strongly criticized President Vladimir Putin's military intervention in Syria's 4-1/2-year civil war, and President Barack Obama has predicted it could lead to a quagmire for Russia.

But Obama has had little success in affecting the conflict himself. Washington has targeted Islamic State in more than a year of air strikes, and last week Obama ordered the first U.S. troops into Syria - a small contingent of up to 50 special operations forces who will advise U.S.-backed rebels.

'PEOPLE OUTSIDE The WIRE'

A U.S. defense official said Russian aircraft are now operating out of four bases, but multiple rocket launcher crews and long-range artillery batteries are deployed outside the facilities.

"They have a lot of people outside the wire," he said.

Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, told U.S. lawmakers Russia had begun to deploy ground assets such as artillery to areas Assad forces have lost to the moderate opposition, including near the cities of Hama and Homs.

"Russia is fielding its own artillery and other ground assets around Hama and Homs, greatly increasing Russia's own soldiers' vulnerability to counterattack," Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, said.

The main Russian base is at the Bassel al-Assad International Airport near the port city of Latakia. All of Moscow's fixed-wing aircraft are flying from there in support of ground offensives by the Syrian army and foreign Shiite militias, the defense official said.

Three other bases - Hama, Sharyat and Tiyas - are being used for helicopter gunships, he said. The Russians began operating from Tiyas only this week, the official said.

Russia's air fleet in Syria comprises 34 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 helicopters, the U.S. officials said.

Current government ground offensives appear aimed at securing President Bashar al-Assad's grip on a rump state running from Aleppo in the north, through Hama and Homs, south to Damascus and the Lebanese border.

Despite the Russian air strikes, the offensives have failed to make significant advances, the U.S. officials and independent experts said. A key factor appears to be significant losses by pro-government forces of tanks and other armored vehicles to U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles that Saudi Arabia has been supplying to the anti-Assad rebels.

"The impact was insufficient to achieve a breakthrough against opposition forces except minimally south of Aleppo," Yezid Sayigh, a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center, a Beirut-based policy institute, told a Washington briefing on Tuesday.

Russia said when it began its air strikes that it is primarily targeting Islamic State, which controls large parts of northern Syria. Western governments and opposition activists say that Russia has mostly been hitting other anti-Assad forces, including some groups backed by the United States. The top U.S. diplomat in the Middle East reiterated this charge on Wednesday.

A Reuters analysis last month of Russian Defense Ministry data showed that almost 80 percent of Russia's declared targets have been in areas not held by Islamic State.

'LOGISTICAL TAIL'

A U.S. intelligence official said the Russian-backed offensives could still achieve breakthroughs, but the longer the stalemate persists, the more pressure will build on Putin to consider new options.

"The major offensives are only in their infancy," said the official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the issue.

Christopher Harmer, a senior analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, a research institute, said the increase in Russian forces on the ground represents support and logistical personnel needed to sustain combat operations.

"What has most likely happened is that as soon as the Russians had enough forces in theater to start military operations, they did," Harmer said. "The increase to 4,000 is simply the logistical tail to support the combat tooth." He predicted the Russian force could expand to 8,000 or more.

On Oct. 20, a senior pro-Syrian government military source told Reuters at least three Russian citizens fighting with Syrian government forces had been killed by a shell that hit their position near Latakia. Russian authorities strongly denied at the time that any of their military personnel had been killed.

(Additional reporting by Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow; Editing by Warren Strobel, Jonathan Oatis and Frances Kerry)

Source :http://news.yahoo.com/russias-syria-force-grows-4-000-u-officials-172847086.html

Islam in New Zealand

Small numbers of Muslim immigrants from South Asia and eastern Europe settled from the early 1900s until the 1960s. Large-scale Muslim immigration began in the 1970s with the arrival of Fiji Indians, followed in the 1990s by refugees from various war-torn countries. The first Islamic centre was started in 1959 and there are now several mosques and two Islamic schools. Majority of the Muslims are Sunni, with a large minority Shia and some Ahmadi Muslims who run the largest mosque in the country.[1]

History

The first Muslims in New Zealand were an Indian family who settled in Cashmere, Christchurch, in the 1850s.[2] The 1874 government census reported 15 Chinese gold diggers working in the Dunstan gold fields of Otago in the 1870s.[3][4] In the early 1900s three important Gujarati Muslim families came from India. The first Islamic organisation in New Zealand, the New Zealand Muslim Association (NZMA), was established in Auckland in 1950. In 1951 the refugee boat SS Goya brought over 60 Muslim men from eastern Europe, including Mazhar Krasniqi who would later serve twice as president of the New Zealand Muslim Association. These Gujarati and European immigrants worked together in the 1950s to buy a house and convert it into an Islamic centre in 1959. The following year saw the arrival of the first imam, Maulana Said Musa Patel, from Gujarat, India. Students from South Asia and Southeast Asia helped establish the other prayer rooms and Islamic centres elsewhere from the 1960s onwards, although New Zealand had a relatively tiny Muslim population until many years later.

In April 1979, Mazhar Krasniqi brought together the three regional Muslim organisations of Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland, to create the only national Islamic body – the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ). He was honoured for his efforts by the New Zealand government in 2002, receiving a Queens Service Medal.[5] Later Dr Hajji Ashraf Choudhary served as president (1984–85) before pursuing a political career and entering the New Zealand parliament in 1999.

Large-scale Muslim immigration began with the arrival of mainly working class Fiji Indians in the 1970s. They were followed by professionals after the first Fiji coup of 1987. Early in the 1990s many migrants were admitted under New Zealand's refugee quota, from war zones in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq. There are also a significant number of Muslims from Iran who live in New Zealand.

In 1981 Sheikh Khalid Hafiz was appointed Imam of Wellington, a post he held until his death in 1999, and was employed as imam by the International Muslim Association of New Zealand. Soon after his arrival he was also appointed senior religious adviser to the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand.

The majority of New Zealand Muslims are Sunni but there is a large number of Shias who live in New Zealand, concentrated mainly in Auckland (the largest city of New Zealand). In recent years Shiah have become active holding Ashura commemoration programmes in Auckland parks. The first of these was conducted by the Fatima Zahra Charitable Association on 19 January 2008.[6]

Contemporary Islam

In the 2006 census 36,072 people identified themselves as Muslim including many New Zealand-born Muslims of varied ethnic backgrounds[7] including both New Zealand European and Māori. This is up 52.6% from 5 years earlier.[8] New Zealand now has a number of mosques in the major centres, and two Islamic schools (Al Madinah and Zayed College for Girls).

The community is noted for its harmonious relations with the wider New Zealand community, with various interfaith efforts from all sides contributing to this situation. FIANZ established the Harmony Awards [1] as part of Islam Awareness Week in 2008 to recognise the contributions of New Zealanders to improving understanding and relationships between Muslims and the wider community.

The Muslim Students and Youth Association of NZ was formed in 1997. It is affiliated to Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand. It is primarily run by university students and other youth. They undertake regular activities including lectures, sports tournaments and Muslim youth camps, and work with FIANZ who organise the annual Islam Awareness Week (IAW).

There are significant communities of Muslims from Turkey, the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) and Southeast Asia. There is also a large Indo-Fijian Muslim community and an equally substantial Somali minority in New Zealand. Contrary to popular assertions from various community leaders, no one single ethnic group can claim to contribute more than half of the New Zealand Muslim population. The majority of Muslims in New Zealand are concentrated in the major cities of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch. In recent years an influx of Malay students from Malaysia and Singapore has increased the proportion of Muslims in some other centres, notably the university city of Dunedin. Dunedin's Al-Huda mosque is reputedly the world's southernmost, and is further from Mecca than any mosque in the Southern Hemisphere.

Maori Muslims

Census figures show the number of Māori Muslims increased from 99 to 708 in the 10 years to 2001, and to 1,074 by 2006[9][10] The Aotearoa Māori Muslim Association (AMMA), the most influential Maori Muslim movement, view tino rangatiratanga as a form of jihad, and Islam the perfect vehicle for Maori nationalism. The leader of the AMMA, Sheikh Eshaq Te Amorangi Morgan Kireka-Whaanga was recently identified among the top 500 most influential Muslims.[11] in 2004 Sheikh Eshaq led the Quran Tilawat at the "National Islamic Converts Conference" at the Canterbury mosque in Christchurch.

Notes

1.  "Prayers for Opening". stuff.co.nz. October 31, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
2. Abdullah Drury, "Mostly Harmless", Waikato Islamic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2015, page 30.
3. "Abdullah Drury: Crucial element locked in past", NZ Herald
4. "New Zealand, Trade and the Muslim World Forum Speech", Pansy Wong
5. "Home country doctrine splits once-unified local Muslims", Abdullah Drury
6. "New Zealand Takes Ashura Outside for the First Time", by Fatima Zahra Charitable Association (Auckland, 20 January 2008)
7. "Sonny Bill Williams embraces Islam", Carolyne Meng-Yee, NZ Herald
8. 2006 Census data
9. "Religious affiliation", Table Builder, Statistics New Zealand
10. Ruth Berry, Peters claims Muslim group funding radical in The New Zealand Herald (aa August, 2005)
11. "The 500 Most Influential Muslims - 2010" by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (Amman, 2010), page.129.
12. "Koran's message of unity shared in te reo translation". April 15, 2010.

The Dead Sea in Islamic Tradition

Introduction:

With its high mineral and salt content, the Dead Sea is known as a place of healing. It is visited by thousands each year seeking spa treatments, therapies, and relaxation. According to Islamic tradition, however, it also stands as a sign of God's punishment.

Location and Features:

The Dead Sea is the lowest surface on Earth, at 400 meters below sea level. It is located in the Middle East, bordered by Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel.

It is more of a lake than a "sea," fed by the Jordan River. The fresh water evaporates, however, leaving a salt concentration which is seven times stronger than that of the ocean. Beyond tiny microbes, no life can survive in the water.

The salt and minerals of the Dead Sea have long been believed to have healing properties. They are often used in soaps and cosmetics, and several high-class spas have sprung up along the shores of the Dead Sea to cater to tourists.

Prophet Lut (Lot):

According to Islamic and Biblical traditions, the Dead Sea is the site of the ancient city of Sodom, home of the Prophet Lut (Lot), peace be upon him.

The Quran describes the people of Sodom as ignorant, wicked, evildoers who rejected God's call to righteousness. The people were murderers, thiefs, and openly practiced immoral sexual behavior. Lut perservered in preaching God's message, but found that even his own wife was one of the disbelievers.

Punishment:

God's severely punished the people of this region for their wickedness. According to the Quran, the punishment was to "turn the cities upside down, and rain down on them brimstones hard as baked clay, spread layer on layer, marked from your Lord" (Quran 11:82-83).

The site of this punishment is now the Dead Sea, standing as a symbol of destruction.

Visiting the Dead Sea:

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, reportedly tried to dissuade people from visiting the sites of God's punishment: "Do not enter the place of those who were unjust to themselves, unless you are weeping, lest you should suffer the same punishment as was inflicted upon them."

The Quran describes that the site of this punishment has been left as a sign for those who follow: "Surely! In this are signs for those who understand. And verily, they (the cities) are right on the highroad. Surely!

Therein is indeed a sign for the believers." (Quran 15:75-77)

If one does visit the Dead Sea, it is recommended to spend time recalling the story of Lut, and how he stood for righteousness among his people. The Quran says, "And to Lut, too, We gave wisdom and knowledge; We saved him from the town which practiced abominations. Truly they were a people given to evil, a rebellious people. And We admitted him to Our mercy; for he was one of the righteous" (Qur'an 21:74-75).

Source :http://islam.about.com/od/history/p/deadsea.htm

Muslim leaders in UK warn of 'worrying' levels of Islamophobia

The Muslim Council of Britain has warned of increasing levels of Islamophobia in the UK after recent videos showing anti-Muslim abuse on public transport were posted online and police forces in England and Wales were ordered to treat such attacks in the same vein as antisemitism.

Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain said: “As a whole, we have to understand that the UK is a very tolerant society, with London one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, and thankfully these kinds of attacks are relatively rare. But they are on the rise.

“The growth in Islamophobia has reached levels which are very worrying. Most Muslims know someone who’s suffered some form of abuse, whether online, physical or verbal. We’re now in a very serious situation and have been for the past year.”

Religious hate crimes

The furore surrounding the videos has also underlined the difficulties of compiling reliable data on religiously motivated attacks, particularly when such abuse takes place online. In one attack, a woman was filmed shouting abuse at two Muslim women, one of whom was pregnant, and calling them “Isis bitches”. A 36-year-old woman from north-west London was subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to causing racially aggravated distress.

In the same week, a 25-year-old man handed himself in to police after video footage emerged that purportedly showed a man screaming Islamophobic abuse at a pensioner in Tottenham, north London, and then apparently throwing his walking frame out on to the pavement.

The videos, which were widely shared on social media, emerged shortly after the Metropolitan police released figures indicating that anti-Muslim attacks in London had increased by 70% in the 12 months to July, from 478 incidents the previous year to 816.

Yet the underlying picture is that religiously motivated crime is extremely rare in the UK, affecting 0.1% of adults, according to Home Office figures.

In total, 52,528 hate crimes were recorded by police in England and Wales in 2014-15, an increase of 18% on the previous year. Of those, 3,254 were religiously motivated. That is only 6% of the total number of hate crimes – but the figure was a 43% increase on the previous year.

The recording of data by police, while still patchy, has improved, which could help explain the increase. But the reluctance of victims to report attacks may also underestimate the true figures.

Figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), a face-to-face victimisation poll, estimated that there were 222,000 hate crimes per year between 2012 and 2015. About a sixth (38,000 a year) of this estimate related to religiously motivated hate crimes.

Among groups who are the targets of religiously motivated attacks, Muslims are by far the biggest group – although the chances of being a victim are still very small. According to the CSEW figures, 0.8% of Muslims are the victims of hate crimes, compared to 0.3% of Hindus, 0.1% of Christians and 0.5% of other religious groups.

Last year, the College of Policing defined hate crime as offences motivated by hostility or prejudice on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender status or disability.

According to Tell MAMA, an organisation that monitors anti-Muslim attacks through self-referrals, women are much more likely to be targeted because their dress makes them more vulnerable. “Women wearing the headscarf are more likely to experience name calling, have things thrown at them, general abuse”, Fiyaz Mughal of Tell MAMA said. “Women wearing the full-face veil will suffer both more incidents and more aggressive incidents, such as people pulling off their veils.”

Police recorded hate crimes

He added that Muslim women also faced high levels of abuse online, with their faith and gender targeted for humiliation. “It’s the intersectionality of prejudice.”

A recent report for Tell MAMA, We Fear For Our Lives, based on in-depth interviews with the targets of Islamophobic attacks, found a spike in the number of incidents following “trigger” events such as the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris in January and the Tunisia terrorist attack in June.

The report gives examples of online threats relating to the Charlie Hebdo killings. One read: “Fill your car with Calor gas canisters, park it next to a mosque, light the fuse then leave. #JeSuisCharlie #KillAllMuslims #ParisShooting.” Others urged driving a car into a crowd of Muslims leaving a mosque and compiling a “hitlist” of Muslim homes and schools.

While Home Office data shows an increase following the murder of Lee Rigby in July 2013, there was no clear increase following the Charlie Hebdo shootings.

According to Mughal, there has also been in increase in anti-Muslim attacks directly relating to the refugee crisis, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people fleeing persecution and conflict in the Middle East and Africa trying to reach safe haven in Europe.

“People see women in hijabs coming into Europe, so the poor British woman just going to work or to the shops gets it,” he said.

Earlier this month, David Cameron ordered police forces to record data on anti-Muslim hate crimes and to treat them as seriously as antisemitic attacks, a move welcomed by the MCB and Tell MAMA.

The move means police forces across the UK will adopt uniform recording mechanisms that will help build a more comprehensive picture of Islamophobic crime, Mughal said. “But it will take up to five years to properly implement that”, he added.

Versi said better recording was the first step in the long process of reducing the occurrences of Islamophobic crimes.“Islamophobia and antisemitism are both serious crimes, but work to tackle antisemitism is well developed. Now we need to replicate that fantastic work with Islamophobia. All forms of bigotry need to be treated equally.”

Many Muslims were wary of reporting attacks to the police, he said, believing they would be viewed “through the lens of counter-terrorism. We need a situation where the police are seen as allies against hate crimes”.

Source : http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/muslim-leaders-in-uk-warn-of-worrying-levels-of-islamophobia

Islam in Hungary

Islam in Hungary has a long history that dates back to at least the 10th century. The influence of Sunni Islam was especially pronounced in the 16th century during the Ottoman period in Hungary.

History

Early history

In the old form of the Hungarian language, Muslims were called Böszörmény, a term preserved as both a family name, and as that of the town Hajdúböszörmény.[1]

The first Islamic author to speak of this Muslim community was Yaqut al-Hamawi (575-626 AH/1179-1229 CE), he writes about a famous Hungarian student who studied in Aleppo, according to the student there were 30 Muslim villages in Hungary.[2] Yaqut writes in his famous geographical dictionary, "Mu'ajam al-Buldan",[3] about his meeting with a Hungarian Muslim youth in Syria who was studying Islam there and brought some details of the history and life of their people in Hungary. The Spaniard Muslim traveler Abu Hamid al Garnati wrote of two types of Muslims in Hungary, the first being the Böszörmény of the Carpathian Basin and Volga Bulgars (Khwarezmians).

In the 11th century, St. Ladislaus and later Coloman passed laws against the non-Christians (Synod of Szabolcs). These laws subdued Islam by coercing Muslims to eat pork, go to Church and intermarry and to forbid them from celebrating Friday. Some of Coloman's laws include:[4]

§ 46 If someone catches Ismaelites in fasting or eating or on keeping away from pork or in ritual washing or in other false practices these Ismaelites have to be sent to the king and whoever sued them shall receive a share from their properties.

§ 47 We command all Ismaelite villages to build a church and finance it. After the church is built the half village should move and settle elsewhere in order to became similar to us in living together and also in Christ and in Church (i.e. become similar in faith).

§ 48 Ismaelites should not marry their daughters to their nation but only to our nation

§ 49 If an Ismaelite has guest, or he invites someone to his house to eat, he and his guests should all eat only pork.

László (Saint Ladislaus) passed the following law[5]

§ 9 on the merchants called Ismaelites, if becomes evident from them then after their baptism they return their old laws based on circumcision they should leave their homes but if they prove innocent they should stay

These laws imposed by the Catholic Church severely discriminated the small minority and eventually led to the disappearance of the community and its professions altogether.

Turkish rule of central Hungary

The Turks entered Hungary after the Battle of Mohács in 1526. From 1541 they started to control the central part directly and organized five vilayets: Buda, Kanije, Eğri, Várad (Oradea) and Temesvár.


Minaret in Eger

In the 16th century, during the Ottoman rule, numerous Muslim personalities were born in Hungary. Among them, the most important were the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Kanijeli Siyavuş Pasha (from Nagykanizsa) who held the function three times between 1582 and 1593, and the famous Mevlevian dervish Pecsevi Árifi Ahmed Dede, a Turk native of Pécs. Most Islamic studies in Hungary were taught at the Hanafi madhhab or school of Sunni Islam.

Modern era

In the 19th century, after the collapse of the revolution of 1848-9, more than 6,000 emigrated Poles and Hungarians followed General Josef Bem into Turkish exile. Among them were such Hungarian officers such as Richard Guyon (Kurshid Pasha), György Kmety (Ismail Pasha) and Maximilian Stein (Ferhad Pasha). These personalities were afterwards raised to the post of General.[citation needed]

Guyon is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "the first Christian to obtain the rank of pasha and a Turkish military command without being obliged to change his religion", a sign of modernizing meritocracy under the 19th-century Ottomans.[citation needed]
The council of Újbuda has given permission for Muslim community in Hungary, to build the first Islamic centre in Budapest. The new Islamic centre will hold a library containing 50,000 volumes.[6][7]

In 2013 Hungarian Islam Society requested for Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina Husein Kavazović to also become Grand Mufti of Hungary.[8]

Religious law

Hungary's new "Law on the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion, and on Churches, Religions and Religious Communities" was enacted 12 July 2011 and it recognizes only 14 religious groups. Islam is not included in this list and Muslims have to apply to get official recognition under the new law. Under the law, only 14 of 358 registered churches and religious associations will be granted legal recognition, while others will have to reapply for legal registration after two-thirds approval in parliament.[9]


On 27 February 2012, Hungary's parliament amended the country's controversial law on religious organizations to expand the list of officially recognized the Hungarian Islamic Council.[10]

Demographics

According to the 2011 Hungarian census, there were 5,579 Muslims in Hungary, made up 0.056% of the total population. Of these, 4,097 (73.4%) declared themselves as Hungarian, while 2,369 (42.5%) as Arab by ethnicity.[11] In Hungary people can declare more than one ethnicity (sum is greater than the whole),[12] so some people declared Hungarian and Arab together.

According to the Magyarországi Muszlimok Egyháza ("Hungarian Muslim's Church") there are c. 32,000 Muslims (0.3%) in Hungary.[13]

The Faith of Pharaoh's Wife Lady Asiya

Asya, the wife of Pharaoh, was no ordinary woman. Her strength and her status will forever remain unsurpassed.

She was a woman who never allowed herself to be defined or limited by her painful circumstances, but rather carried in her such a deep faith and sense of self that she was willing to die for what she believed in.

It was for this reason that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) mentioned her as one of the greatest women of all time.

One day, Prophet Muhammad said:

"Many men reached perfection but none among the women reached perfection except Mary, the daughter of ' `Imran, and Asia, Pharoah's wife. And the superiority of `Aisha to other women is like the superiority of Tharid to other kinds of food." (Al-Bukhari, 5418)

Asya's story begins in Egypt where she lived with her husband, Pharaoh — known as the greatest tyrant of all time. After being told by a fortune teller that he would be overtaken by a man from the Children of Israel, Pharaoh ordered all male babies to be executed.

The Noble Quran describes the horrific life of the Children of Israel as follows:

{And remember, We delivered you from the people of Pharaoh: They set you hard tasks and punishments, slaughtered your sons and let your women live; therein was a tremendous trial from your Lord.} (2:49)

So when Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) was born, his mother feared for his life. But God assured her that he would be safe, and told her to place him in a basket and put him on the Nile. The Quran tells us:

  

{And We inspired the mother of Musa, (saying): "Suckle him [Musa], but when you fear for him, then cast him into the river and fear not, nor grieve. Verily! We shall bring him back to you, and shall make him one of (Our) Messengers."} (28:7)

And just as God had promised, Prophet Moses came safely to shore, where he was found by Asya, who was able to convince her husband to keep the child. God says in the Quran what means:

{Then the household of Pharaoh picked him up, that he might become for them an enemy and a (cause of) grief. Verily! Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts were sinners. And the wife of Pharaoh said: "A comfort of the eye for me and for you. Kill him not, perhaps he may be of benefit to us, or we may adopt him as a son." And they perceive not (the result of that).} (28:8-9)

So Moses grew, under the protection of Asya, in the house of Pharaoh. Moses grew to be a great prophet, who called his people to the worship of the one true God. But because of the oppression of Pharaoh, few people believed in him.

Pharaoh proclaimed himself as God, and many of the Children of Israel were terrified to disobey him. God says in the Quran what means:

{Then he collected (his men) and made a proclamation, saying, "I am your Lord, Most High."} (79: 23-4)

For those who had dared disobey Pharaoh and believe in Moses, was a grave punishment. When the magicians realized the truth of Moses' message, they immediately believed in the one true God.

To them Pharaoh said:

{Believe ye in Him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader, who has taught you magic! Be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm-trees: so shall ye know for certain, which of us can give the more severe and the more lasting punishment!} (20:71)

Her mind and her soul remained independent from her husband.

Yet despite this persecution, Asya believed in Moses' message and held firmly to her faith. That faith was so strong, she was willing to die for it. When Pharaoh found out that she believed, he tortured her severely.

Her belief in God was so strong, it made her an everlasting symbol:

{God sets forth an example for those who believe — the wife of Pharaoh who said: "My Lord, build for me with Thee a house in heaven, and save me from the Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from an unjust people."} (66:11)

Asya was a queen. She was the wife of one of the most powerful men to walk the earth. She lived a life of unparalleled wealth and luxury. And yet, Asya knew that her true home was in Paradise.

She had no attachment to this life. Asya was not defined by the wickedness of the man she married. Her mind and her soul remained independent from her husband. And her heart was not a slave to his beliefs. She refused to submit to the tyranny of her husband, but chose instead to devout her soul and her life to God.

And in the story of Asya is an everlasting example of a woman who chose the Hereafter over all of the glitter of this world, and whose love for God and the Home with Him inspired her to take on the greatest tyrant of all time and give her life in the process.

Source : http://www.onislam.net/