The perception that Muslims are a violent community is baseless and against the historical facts, said Hamza Yusuf, an Islamic scholar from the US, during his lecture at the Qurum Amphitheatre on Thursday.

Hamza Yusuf is here on an invitation from the Diwan of the Royal Court to deliver a series of lectures in Muscat on Islam-related issues.

In the second of the series of his lectures, Hamza Yusuf spoke on perceptions about the Islam and the Muslim world. He said that the world history of last 2,000 years prove that Muslims were hardly involved in violence against others. He said that misdeeds of a handful of people can not be used to judge as the practice of the people of a particular faith.

On issues like rights of women in Islam, he said that there was no doubt about women abused in all civilisations. Islam is the religion which gave women their rights, liberty and complete freedom to use her wealth as she wanted. This religion gave women respect and dignity in the society, said Hamza Yusuf.

He said that it is not important to accord priority to what others think about Islam and Muslims. Instead, it is important that we should know what Islam is all about, he said.

Hamza Yusuf was born in a Greek Orthodox family in Walla Walla, Washington, and grew up in Northern California. He is the founder of the Zaytuna Institute. At the age of 17, he embraced Islam. Later, in the educational institutions in the UAE, he studied Islamic jurisprudence.

Source: http://1.mqu.be/SHY_Oman2010

Tweeted from: @sandalatweets

Looking for an amazing ‘Eid gift or a gift that is ultra cool? Here’s a Twitshirt, a t-shirt with a message (tweet) from our Twitter account. Available in 5 colors and various sizes.

Spread the message of an often neglected practice of our beloved Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi wasalam.

“What is RT?” is a common question asked by friends and family who have not seen the social media light. RT = retweet. Retweet = reposting a tweet (Twitter message) you found on Twitter.

Recently, Twitter released a new beta feature for retweeting from their web interface. Initially, retweeting had to be done manually. Adding the “RT” then copying the username (not forgetting the @ symbol) and then copying the tweet. Soon after, third party applications like CoTweet and HootSuite integrated the retweet feature into their platforms.

Interestingly, one of our lesser known Twitter accounts (@sumikael) was selected for the beta feature.

Here are the screenshots of the retweet feature.

Twitter Retweet beta message

Retweet feature on the web interface

Retweet icon, post-RT

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As Muslims prepare to celebrate ‘Eid il Fitr around the world, the buzz is growing across the blogosphere and the Twitterverse. Popping up today on the Twitter Trending topics is the well known phrase in the South East Asian part of the Muslim world: Selamat Hari Raya. This Malay phrase translates to “Happy Celebration Day”. This greeting is used more commonly than the universal “Eid Mubarak” in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Click here to see real time results of this Twitter trend: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%22Selamat%20Hari%20Raya%22

If you are on Twitter, make sure you use this phrase to keep the Twitter trend active. Let’s keep Islam in the trendy!

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When you feel your faith is in a low state, what do you seek to inspire and motivate you?

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