The Reading Islam project aims at creating and maintaining a balanced, holistic, and authentic center of information on Islam and interactive discourse, with an aim to promote dialogue and understanding through a variety of media. It is Reading Islam's role to attempt to define an understanding of Islam, as well as to clarify Islam's standpoint with regards to issues such as world peace, human rights, minority rights, conservation of the environment, the right of religious freedom, and other issues that may be of concern to the contemporary world. The
Islam presented is a collective conceptual paradigm that covers a wide array of peoples.
Reading Islam also aims at empowering new Muslims in their faith by:
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providing clear and beneficial information on Islam
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raising awareness of spiritual issues and practice
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conscientiously supporting the community of new Muslims
through various services and media based on their needs.
*Reading Islam is a project of the "Mercy for All" Endowment in Qatar .
Why Reading?
"Read" was the first word of the Qur'an that was revealed. It takes on many shades of meaning in Arabic. It can refer to reading a text, reading someone's face, reading emotions, reading between the lines. You can read the open book of nature or you can read your heart. All the nuances point to one main meaning: acquiring a deep understanding. These same shades of meaning are present in the English language with the word "read". East and West meet in these subtleties of connotation and context. This website is an invitation for everyone to "read" Islam, to come to a deep understanding of the essence of Islam.
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