helping the people of the world that are oppressed and dealing with hardship? Like the Palestinians who live thru the worse conditions and are Muslims... why arent they helped? Reading about them gets me sad and brings anger

Is there such a thing??

I'd love to be preached and taught about islam and pray in a community... im not a muslim but love learnign abotu all religions as a i believe we are all one...

Anyone can steer me the right direction? I live in NYC...

Thanks!

Is it mandatory to read "Al-Fatiha" when praying? Or is that only prescribed in the Hadiths...

022.067-PICKTHAL Unto each nation have We given sacred rites which they are to perform; so let them not dispute with thee of the matter, but summon thou unto thy Lord. Lo! thou indeed followest right guidance

So its ok to have your own form of prayers and customs? As long as you dont pray to other gods? Thats what I came up with after reading this sura...

any thoughts?

Hi...

I just came across the free minds site and found it interesting... Even though I am not muslim, Ive always had some sort of curiosity/connection/feelings about it...so I started doing my research on the religion...I read half of the Quran and read through various Hadiths... after reading the Hadiths, I started to become a bit confused- I just felt some of the things said in the Hadiths made little sense and kind of pulled me away from Islam... I kept on doing research and reading and came across your site... Some of the things on the site made sense and also matched some of my own judgements ... I have some questions for you...

1)What do you call yourselves...Muslims? what about to Sunni's? What do you tell them you are?

2. How do you pray- same as other muslims? How many times a day do you pray?

3. Do you still go to the mosque?

4. Which holidays do you follow, which ones have u rejected?

Sorry for all the questions....

JD