Islam, the state faith

I'm talking with my friend Halim, who has a US friend that's wanting to find out about Islam, apparently. I figured since I've posted the national anthem of Libya, I should probably post a link to the Holy Quran, and basic info about Islam, Libya's state/official faith. Here's the former, the latter will come in a few minutes... although as a Roman Catholic, I cannot purport to know if anything is a "good" basic site on Islam.

LINKS:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/quran/
-Yes, I realize this is a "collaboration" between Jews and Muslims. So be it. It's also via the University of Southern California, which is a highly regarded national and international school, for several different fields.

UPDATES: 0658 H to 0730 H, 20 SEPT 2010:
I'm not fully happy with this encyclopedia article from Wikipedia, but until I find another one, a better one, a more Islamic one, this one will have to do. As a matter of principle, I sort of refuse to post anything that has to do with the KSA, so no links to any Saudi pages. I haven't forgotten the "diss" that CP Abdullah gave to The Brother Leader a few years back at the Arab League. That was in 2003. Here's links to it: http://happyarabnews.blogspot.com/2007/03/when-good-friends-meet.html , http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/there-was-no-shortage-of-drama/, and then this one, on The Leader's Kick Ass female bodyguards, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/14/nyregion/public-lives-capturing-qaddafi-s-gun-toting-women-on-film.html, and then, a blog post about said "gun totin' women folk" http://lallalydia.blogspot.com/2007/12/modern-day-amazons-colonel-qaddafis.html

Needless to say, I support The Leader in this argument/tift with the Saudi King. I've always seen CP/King Abdullah of SA as a "brainless twit." He doesn't follow the will of his own people, he's a despot, in short. A decadent despot. I could keep adding adjectives onto the list, it'd do us little good... but it may be fun. Abdullah of SA has been since the 1980's. If HE is the Guardian of two of Islam's three holiest sites, then Heaven be with Muslims everywhere.

Without further ado, the Wikipedia site. And... the others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam



http://azizaizmargari.wordpress.com/about -- a link to an African-American convert to Islam's blog. I like the difference in perspectives. A white, American woman's story of conversion to Islam is one thing. A black American woman's story is another.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWesternMuslimahCafe/?yguid=43924554 -- a Yahoo group for WOMEN ONLY. I've found these ladies to be some of the most congenial, sweet, and kind women out there, of ANY faith. They'll answer any questions you have, do so patiently and with Quranic/hadith/sunnah backing, and not try to convert you against your will. Again, I appreciate all three.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/muslimsisdesign/?yguid=43924554 -- another Yahoo group, another that's for women only

NOTE: A lot of Islamic groups are for women, forobvious reasons. I've seen/met trolls in these sorts of groups before, trying to pick up women; yeesh, guys, JOIN A MUSLIM MATRIMONIAL SITE, ben sharmuta, don't give us your sad, sick, 1970's pickup lines in a group where we're discussing Islamic issues that face females! Marriage may technically be one of those, but c'mon, please, NOT HERE. And yes, I was myself harassed by some Paki pig (though it's an insult to a pig to be compared to a man as low as that; I say "Paki" because he was from Lahore...) in one of the groups several years back. He'd joined the group masquerading as a woman, and, welllllllllll, was doing so for all the wrong reasons. He saw this blonde, American woman and assumed she was as brainless and slutty as blondes are thought to be. Oh yeah, I let him have it. I don't think there were any of his relatives I didn't have "eat shit" (kul khara). From time to time, I STILL get obnoxious IM's from Paki pigs... probably one of his 3,000 tribe members, telling me to "fuk miself"... not sure which is sadder. Their poor spelling and grammar, or my crudeness back at them. I lean toward the former. If you're going to tell me to "fuck myself", please do so in correct English. Anything else is doubly insulting, and shows your complete and utter lack of sophistication, intelligence, tact, and not to mention, sending a woman YOU DO NOT KNOW a message like that is, well, highly inappropriate. Whether or not I fuck myself is between me, my God, my priest, and my future husband Alex, and the fact that you want to also insert yourself into that by commanding me to do it, well, I have some things to say to you, and no, they ain't nice. No comment.