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This Artical Talks about US policies in the Middle East and South Asia about Americas Role in the Sunni-Shia conflict, annd its policies. (It has some anti-Iran and islamic lanuage, readers be advised) The U.S. Role in the Sunni-Shi'ite Conflict :: Gatestone Institute

Salaam Everyone, I am a university student. I find myself in a situation with things conflicting and causing mental stress and troubles. I decided I should reach out to a religious community as it may help to shed some light on my situation. During my time at university, I joined and started participating in a student run association which holds duas such as dua tawassul and dua kumayl. After going to these events (which are held in classrooms at the university), I had a chance to socialize with the people present. Personally, as I have only lived in one country my whole life, I have not had many Shia friends at my place of education and so this was a very exciting opportunity for me. I thus met dozens of Shia people through this, added them on Facebook in order to communicate and became good friends with a few. One of these was a girl also studying in my program (a lower year). Initially, we discussed class and I helped her with her classes because she was a sister in need of help. I also thought of her as an amazing individual with very strong aqeedah and matching principles with mine. I felt as if it was someone I was meant to meet, to help and talk to. Eventually, through purely platonic chatter, this attraction strengthened as I found out more and more about what an amazing person she is. In fact, her influence inspired me to be a better person. As unfortunate as it is (may Allah forgive me) but previously I did not pray as nearly as much as I wished to (although I did whenever I could and attended majalis, etc often). After meeting her I now pray 5 times a day and sometimes extra whenever time allows. She has truly changed me for the better in this manner and I still feel she is an amazing individual. I also feel that she feels the same way about myself. We have not discussed anything in depth but there have been times where it has been obvious we both believe each other to be ideal for ourselves. Of course, too much interaction of this sort is considered haram and should not be done. Hence, we have tried to limit it (one of the conversations we had). However, this is not the major issue. I personally sincerely see a future for myself with her and think she is absolutely perfect in this sense. The problem is the following. She is of Khoja descent and her family is from Africa (obviously with an Indian background). My family is of Indian background with a Syed lineage. Time and time again my parents have mentioned when looking for individuals for my older siblings that an Indian Syed family is important to them. Obviously, this individual is not Syed and hence would not qualify for this one limitation. She is educated, religious, etc. But because of this one criteria, I do not think my parents would be very open to the idea. Personally, I never want to upset my parents and could not ever do anything without their permission and well wishes. I have not even mentioned anything about this girl to them and do not know what to do at this point. I decided I should contact an alim in order to see if they could give me some further insight on this issue. Thank you so much for reading this, JazakAllah. If I have said anything that may seem incredibly wrong, I apologize. I would also like to know what your thoughts are on the rulings of Syed's marrying Syed's. Why or why not is this crucial? Is this just cultural or Religious? I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I don't think I understand. Are the Shia being targeted? And, if so, for what reason?

Lyrics released by Al-Mayadeen can be found below: الحق سلاحي الحق سلاحي وأقاوم أنا فوق جراحي سأقاوم أنا لن أستسلم لن أرضخ وعليكِ بلادي لا أساوم بيتي هنا..أرضي هنا البحر السهل النهر لنا وكيف بوجه النار أساوم سأقاوم ******************** عدوّك يا وطني اندحر..عليك الكون ما قدِر قاوم شعبي جنون الريح..تحدّى الخوف والخطر يرحلون ونبقى..والأرض لنا ستبقى ها نحن اليوم أقوى..أقوى من كل الملاحم بيتي هنا أرضي هنا البحر السهل النهر لنا وكيف بوجه النار أسالم سأقاوم Like us: www.facebook.com/monitormideast http://www.youtube.com/user/MMEMonitorMideast Follow us: http://www.twitter.com/MonitorMideast Read us: http://www.monitormideast.com

Exclusive: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Tehran supports any measures that prevent foreign military intervention in Syria, warning against the repercussions of a possible attack against the Arab country. Interview recorded on August 10, 2013Like us: http://www.facebook.com/monitormideastSubscribe to us: http://www.youtube.com/user/MMEMonitorMideastFollow us: http://www.twitter.com/MonitorMideast

There are two ways in which Science and Religion can be said to be in conflict. The first way is in the content of their teachings, so for example science says that the Universe is billions of years old, but some evangelicals relying in the Bible say that its much younger. So here we have a conflict between what science tells us and what (a particular) religion tells us. This is one type of conflict The second type of conflict is between the methodologies of science and religion. An atheist writes: http://mwillett.org/atheism/relsci.htm The basic idea is that the method science uses to arrive at conclusions is very different to the method of religion. Science relies on observation, repeated testing, and is tentative. Religion on the other hand relies on authority, inspiration, and is closed to challenge. This post is about the supposed latter type of conflict between science and religion: the methodological conflict. I'll start by granting (for the sake of argument only) the following implicit assumptions that atheists like the one quoted above make: 1. There is such a things as The methodology of science and The methodology of religion 2. These methodologies are truly different These assumptions can be challenged, but I'm not going to do that. Instead I will show that even if science and religion have different methodologies, it doesn't follow that there is a conflict between them. There is a third implicit assumption which I'm not willing to grant: 3. If two methods of gaining knowledge are different, then they are in conflict Those who argue that there is a conflict between science and religion need 3 to be true, because if it wasnt, then merely pointing out that science and religion have different methods of arriving at conclusions wouldnt be enough to show that there is a conflict. So why believe that 3 is true? Just because there is a difference doesn't mean that there is a conflict. For example, there is a difference between French and German, football and tennis, and yellow and blue. Does that mean that French is in conflict with German, or that football is in conflict with tennis. Is the colour yellow in conflict with the colour blue? Quite obviously, difference does not entail conflict, so the proponent of 3 needs to do some work to convince us that 3 is true. He may argue that whilst difference per se doesnt entail conflict, difference in methodologies does entail conflict. But this is just begging the question. Why should we believe that? Restating the premise is no good, we need an argument for why it's true. We can go further than simply pointing out that 3 is unsupported by giving a positive argument against 3. Take the following two methods of arriving at conclusions: vision and testimony. The method of vision is different to the method of testimony, but that doesnt mean that there is a conflict between vision and testimony. Sure sometimes testimony might tell us one thing but vision will tell us something else, but that doesnt force us to say that the method of testimony is in conflict with that of vision. Likewise with religion - even if religion sometimes tells us one thing but science another, this doesnt mean that there is a conflict between science and religion. The argument that religion conflicts with science because of different methods is bunk.

The third annual Conflict Intensity Index, released by risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft, rates 12 countries at ‘extreme risk.’ These include Libya and Syria, which are ranked joint 1st alongside Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Iraq, Pakistan and South Sudan. At equal 8th are Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, while Egypt and India round off the category. Read more here:http://maplecroft.com/about/news/conflict_intensity_index.html