With reference to our e-Lecture on Islam, search for a newspaper article that deals with the

relevant aspects of Islam and/or Muslims. Discuss the highlights of the article and lessons
learned. Include the link of the newspaper at the bottom of your posting. -- This question
aims to help you prepare for the writing of your response paper.

The article speaks of one of the 100 mosques and prayer halls in France being investigated
for having links to extremism. One of the imams who spoke on a voluntary basis was accused
of radical sermons that targeted Christians, homosexuals and Jews. This mosque in particular
had been shut down for 6 months, an increasing occurrence of places of worship found by the
French government to be encouraging “separatism” in their teachings with regards to jihad,
when it came to religious practice of Islam and its comparison to state laws.
We can understand that these events cannot be studied solely as a religious problem, such as
a culturalist approach to studying Islam, as it opens us to following a misguided perspective
of the religion or even simplistic reductions of the issue. Instead, we can see how this there
may be other factors at play. The idea of sermons “defending jihad” can have its own
separate factors as well, where the teaching of truly striving for righteousness can be
implicated in the eyes of foreign parties; in the case of France, the “superiority” of religious
law posing a political threat to the government. We can see the same thing happening when
we go back to Islam’s sociological roots as well, where caliphs had opposing ideologies
which affected how they viewed each other and altered their teachings of jihad at times. In
our contemporary context, there is a need to properly understand the complexities of each
other’s positions and viewpoints, working closely and communicating with one another to
truly be able to live according to the ideals that both Islam and society strive towards; the
sacredness of life, found in upholding wisdom and social justice.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59791765