Minaret of Freedom Weblog

“Video from the scene showed Muslim men and women praying, shouting at police officers as the officers removed worshipper”:

• Police Enter al-Aqsa, Remove Palestinians Barricaded in Mosque (Jerusalem Post)

The U.S. “response to a drone attack earlier in the week that killed an American contractor in Syria,” Iran charges, “hit civilian targets”:

• Iran, Syria Condemn US Attacks on Iran-linked Facilities (Aljazeera)

Slahi is smeared purportedly for answering the U.S. call to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan three decades ago, but really for criticizing Israeli apartheid today:

• Statement on the Dismissal of Mohamedou Ould Slahi as Curator of the African Book Festival (Digital Courage)

“The arrest and detention of persons for exercising their human rights are arbitrary. There must be accountability and remedy….” —  Mary Lawlor:

• India Intensifying Repression in Kashmir: UN Special Rapporteur After Khurram Parvez’s Second Arrest (The Wire)

“While US media fixated on Russian interference in the 2016 election, an Israeli secret agent’s campaign to influence the outcome went unreported”:

• The Trump Campaign’s Collusion with Israel (The Nation)

“Tatars considered the peninsula their historic homeland and made up 12% of the area’s population of 2 million before Moscow illegally annexed it nine years ago”:

• A Muslim Minority Loyal to Ukraine Bears the Brunt of Russia’s Crackdown in Crimea (NBC News)

“It was the third shooting reported within a month in …  a town that has been a focus of Israeli military raids and a settler rampage in recent weeks”:

• Two Israeli Soldiers Wounded in Palestinian Shooting (Aljazeera)

The rail company has apologized to the man praying in a secluded corner of the station for the guard’s order that he pray outside in the cold:

• Video: Guard Stops Muslim Man from Praying at Ottawa Rly Station in Canada (Siasat)

Israeli Ramadan gifts to the Palestinians include murder, home break-ins, breaking up fast-breaking meals, withholding corpses, a plan to ban political parties, and even an attack on a church …

• Palestinian Shot and Killed During an Israeli Army Raid of a Village near Tulkarm (Wafa)
• Armed Settlers Break into Palestinian Family Home Under Cover of Darkness (972 Magazine)
• Israeli Police Disperse Ramadan Family Gathering in Jerusalem (New Arab)
• Palestinian Mothers Demand Israel Releases Bodies of Their Loved Ones (New Arab)
• The Israeli Right Is Planning to Ban Palestinian Parties. Here’s How (972 Magazine)
• Jewish Radicals Attack Jerusalem’s Church of Gethsemane During Sunday’s Worship (Mondoweiss)

… but at least prisoners will be allowed to break their fast:

• Palestinian Prisoners Suspend Hunger Strike after Israel Concedes to Their Demands (Palestine Chronicle)

“A new report shows the degree to which American financial institutions discriminate against Muslims”:

• Payments Denied, Flagged And Scrutinized: The Harrowing Experience Of Banking While Muslim (Huffington Post)

Blocked by Israel from conducting her investigation in-country, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights is forced to investigate remotely and from  and nearby venues:

• “Non-Visit” to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (UN-OHCHR)

“The portrait of El Sayed’s irascible, outspoken Nana (grandmother) is vivid and memorable, and gives the lie to racist stereotypes of Muslim women as passively oppressed and silent”:

• Book Review: Young Muslim Woman’s Memoir Deserves Respect and Attention (Vancouver Sun)

“[T]he idea of Palestinians as an ‘invented people’ is a common view among Zionists”:

• Golda Meir Agreed with Bezalel Smotrich that Palestinians Don’t Exist. So Why Are House Members Pushing to Honor Her? (Mondoweiss)

A “drone strike killed a U.S. contractor, injured five American service members and wounded one other contractor in Syria”:

• U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Syria After Suspected Iranian Drone Kills a U.S. Worker (NPR)

“There is no greater danger to the regime in Israel than its turning into a democracy” — Gideon Levy:

• Israelis Know that True Democracy Will Spell the End of Zionism (Haaretz)

Israel provided no evidence for its claim that militants were in the area:

• State Department Human Rights Report Whitewashes Shireen Abu Akleh Killing (Mondoweiss)

Jews who consistently oppose apartheid are enraged by those who excuse their past involvement with occupation illegalities with, “We knew what we were doing, and we did not refuse orders”:

• The Israeli Protests Have Opened a Crack in Apartheid. Our Job Is to Widen It (Mondoweiss)

While an attorney at Guantanamo, Desantis argued for the legality torturing uncharged prisoners in violated the Geneva Conventions:

• DeSantis’s Pivotal Service at Guantánamo During a Violent Year (Washington Post)

Borell says Smotrich’s claim that “there was no Palestinian history or culture and no such thing as a Palestinian people … is wrong, it is disrespectful, it is dangerous, it is counter-productive”:

• EU Top Diplomat Borrell Urges Israel to Disavow Minister’s Comments on Palestinians (Reuters)

As Saudi Arabia prepares to launch the first Muslim woman into space, Alighar University celebrates Muslim women’s contributions to science:

• First Muslim Women in Space (The Nation)
• International Seminar on Muslim Women’s Contribution to Science (India Education Diary)

“[T]he state of Panama is under American occupation. American and Israeli intelligence are targeting anyone working against imperialist Zionist policies” — Institute VP Sayid Marcos Tenório:

• Panama Arrests Head of Brazil-Palestine Institute (Palestine Chronicle)

“U.S. criticism of India is rare due to close economic ties between the countries and India’s increasing importance for Washington to counter China in the region”:

• US Report Lists ‘Significant Human Rights’ Abuses in India (Reuters)

Face the facts: the “two-state solution” is dead, Israeli apartheid is real, the “Third Intifada” has begun, and the new Israeli government threatens even Israeli Jews:

• Any Israel-Palestine Solution Must Put Rights First (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

A woman tweeted a single call for the release of another woman for campaigning for women’s right to drive; her six year sentence has been raised to 27:

• 10 Saudi Judges Are Charged with Treason. They Were Too ‘Lenient’ (Washington Post)

Academia for Equality warns “of the threat to academic freedom from the weaponisation of anti-Semitism by advocates of the apartheid state”:

• US College Teaching ‘Apartheid in Israel-Palestine’ Resists Pressure from Pro-Israel Groups (Middle East Monitor)

“[C]lashes erupted earlier this week when police tried to detain him after he failed to show up at an earlier court hearing” on the graft charges:

• Pakistan Court Rejects Ex-PM Khan’s Plea to Suspend Warrant (Washington Post)

Extrajudicial killings, bulldozing Palestinian homes to make Israeli parks, and a threat to resettle illegal outposts add to Palestinian desperation …

• Undercover Israeli Forces Kill Four Palestinians, Including a Child, in Jenin (Wafa)
• Greenwashing the Occupation: Palestinian Homes Demolished in Jerusalem for Israeli Park (New Arab)
• Israeli Knesset Advances Law to Resettle Illegal Outposts Vacated in 2005 (Palestine Chronicle)
• As Settler Violence Surges, Palestinians Say They Have Nowhere to Turn (Washington Post)

… and the question arises can the “Special Relationship with Israel” continue if the fascist policies become overt?

• Netanyahu Is an Existential Threat to the ‘Special Relationship,’ Say Zionist Leaders (Mondoweiss)
• Using the Right Language: The ‘Incremental Genocide’ of the Palestinians Continues (Palestine Chronicle)
• Democrats’ Sympathies in Middle East Shift to Palestinians (Gallop)

Germany targets Palestinians, those who defend them, and those who “look like” them:

• Roger Waters Threatens Legal Action over German Concert Cancellations (The Guardian)
• Germany: Police Admit People Detained Under ‘Protest Ban’ Just Looked Palestinian (Middle East Eye)

“In a first, a designated court here has framed charges against a journalist and a university scholar for writing and publishing a “seditious” article on a news portal”:

• ‘Seditious’ Article: Charges Filed Against Kashmiri Editor, Scholar (Kashmir Observer)

Ebrahimi denied allegations “of involvement in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, … with rights groups saying he had only been working as a porter carrying goods from Iraq”:

• Rights Groups: Iran Executed Kurdish ‘Political Prisoner’ (VoA)

“Efforts to designate Eid as a school holiday are driven by students”:

• Across the Country, a Push to Observe Muslim Holidays in School Calendars (Religion News Service)

“[T]here are actually not many things that Allah (SWT) has forbidden” and what is not haram (prohibited) is halal (permitted):

• Why Do Muslims Use the Word ‘Haram’ So Liberally? (Muslim Girl)

In no other country an incident like this occur to be met with silence by American media and politicians:

• ‘Who Hits a 64-year-old Woman with a Bat?’ (972 Magazine)

A professor at the Wayne State University School of Law blames the U.S. for a “legal and policing architecture that … governments across the world adopted”:

• US Exports Anti-Muslim Hatred to Europe, Asia: Scholar (Daily Sabah)

Israel ignore 36 psychologists to extend the isolation of a man for six more months after seven years of imprisonment …

• Israeli Court Extends Isolation of Palestinian Prisoner for Six More Months Despite Critical Mental Condition (Wafa)

… and delays another prisoner’s “treatment for a malignant tumor” …

• The Israel Prison Service Is Delaying Life-saving Medical Treatment to Abdul-Razeq Farraj (Mondoweiss)

… while releasing an 83-year old after seventeen years during which he relied on fellow prisoners to meet his health needs:

• 83-Year-Old Palestinian Prisoner Freed After 17 Years in Israeli Prison (Palestine Chronicle)

AI accuses “Iran’s intelligence and security forces … [of] committing horrific acts of torture … against child protesters as young as 12”:

• Iran: Child Detainees Subjected to Flogging, Electric Shocks and Sexual Violence in Brutal Protest Crackdown (Amnesty International)

Burning villages is an Israeli tradition …

• Israel Was Built on Burned Palestinian Villages (Aljazeera)…

… along with “property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others”:

• Israeli Settlers Destroy Dozens of Perennial Trees East of Salfit (Wafa)

“D.C. hawks say American military might brought order to the Middle East, but without U.S. meddling, regional rivals finally made a deal” …

• The Key Factor in the Saudi-Iran Deal: Absolutely No U.S. Involvement (The Intercept)

… and economic benefits and other agreements could come quickly, and maybe even progress in Yemen …

• Saudi Arabia Could Invest in Iran ‘Very Quickly’ After Agreement – Minister (Reuters)
• Iran’s Top Security Official to Visit the UAE amid Regional Rapprochement (Reuters)
• UN Sees Renewed Momentum Toward Yemen Peace Spurred by Saudi, Iran Deal (Reuters)

… with no harm to U.S.-Saudi relations:

• U.S.-Saudi Relations “Better,” Regardless of China-brokered Iran-Saudi Deal (Axios)

“Palestinian journalist Laila Odeh” was suspended in connection with “her use of ‘pro-Palestine’ terminology on her personal social media accounts”:

• France24 Suspends Renowned Journalist over Pro-Palestine Stance (Palestine Chronicle)

The then 21-year-old woman sought “to avoid objectification, that our body is judged according to beauty stereotypes”:

• Argentine Muslim Woman to Collect Damages After Burkini Ban (MercoPress)

“This is my son’s taqdir. If I kicked him out for being who he is, then I reject what Allah has destined for him, for my family”:

• Destined to Be Trans, Muslim, and Indonesian (Zocalo Public Square)

Iran’s “Judiciary Chief … said that those involved in the crime would face the charge of ‘corruption on earth,'” which carries the death penalty” …

• 100 Arrested in Connection With Iran School Girl Poisonings. What We Know So Far (Time)

… while among “82,656 prisoners and those facing charges” pardoned for Ramadan, are over 22,000 arrested during the recent demonstrations:

• Iran Says 22,000 Arrested in Protests Pardoned by Top Leader (abc News)

MbS’s Ramadan gift: bans of donations to mosques, after-sunset meals or children praying in mosques, extended prayers, and broadcast of prayers:

• Explained: Why Saudi Arabia’s new rules for Ramadan have angered Muslims? What are the restrictions? (Hindustan Times)

Massacres continue because they are part and parcel of the Zionist enterprise:

• Israeli Occupation Forces Kill Three Young Palestinian Men near Nablus (Palestine Chronicle)
• Palestinians in Nablus Hold Strike over Israeli Forces’ Killings (New Arab)
• Israeli Protesters Chanted for Huwara. Why Not for Nablus? (972 Magazine)
• 3D Analysis Shows How Israeli Troops Fired into Group of Civilians (Washington Post)
• Israeli Settler Attacks in the West Bank: Pogroms Are the Foundation of the Zionist State (New Arab)

What drives the reformist zeal of [MbS and MbZ] is not change because it is the right thing to do … [but] the survival of their autocratic regimes”:

• Debates About Islamic Reform Loom Larger as Ramadan Approaches (Middle East Soccer)

“Straight from the Israeli playbook, India is brutalising Kashmiris, demolishing homes it claims have been built illegally on ‘state land'”:

• In Kashmir, Indian Bulldozers Are Now Carrying Out Settler-Colonial Policy (Middle East Eye)

“In most Western countries, the size of standard prison cells ranges between six and 12 sqm, while in Israel, it is less than 3 sqm”:

• How Israel’s Supreme Court Enables Torture of Palestinian Prisoners (Middle East Eye)

Saudi normalization of “relations with Israel … is now possibly off the menu”:

• With Saudi-Iran Diplomacy, Is China Pushing the US Aside in the Middle East? (The Hill)

“Executed … by the Franco regime in 1936, Infante is remembered as a martyr for the Andalusian nation and … his sympathies towards Islam are well established”:

• Was Blas Infante, the Father of Andalusian Nationalism, a Crypto Muslim? (Middle East Eye)

With the new President and VP both being Muslims comes a call for Christians as Chief of Staff Secretary to the Government of the Federation:

• Muslim-Muslim ticket: Appoint Christians as SGF, CoS, Group Tells Tinubu (Nigerian Tribune)

The U.S. decision to welcome Smotrich should come as no surprise since his genocidal statements only audibly articulate Israel’s founding policies:

• US Approves Smotrich Visa Despite His Calls for Palestinian Town to Be ‘Wiped Out’ (Middle East Eye)
• The Danger of Treating Smotrich as an Anomaly (972 Magazine)

“[M]igrants have been attacked on the streets, thrown out of their homes, and suspended or fired from their jobs”:

• Migrants Flee Tunisia amid Arrests and Racist Attacks on Sub-Saharan Africans (Washington Post)

As settlers attack residents and an unidentified terrorist strikes “a popular nightlife district,” Israel attacks a hospital and the PA attacks a funeral:

• Jewish Settler Kills Young Palestinian Man in Northern West Bank (Palestine Chronicle)
• At Least Five People Have Been Injured and a Suspect Killed in a Shooting in Central Tel Aviv (New Arab)
• Israeli Police Storm Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem (Wafa)
• Outrage in Palestine over PA’s ‘Attack’ on Funeral in Nablus (New Arab)

” As a proud Muslim woman, I know the transformative change of women’s leadership and the long legacy of examples in our faith community”:

• Deputy Secretary-General Cites Legacy of Muslim Women Leaders, Hails Those Taking Up Mantle, in Video Message to ‘Women in Islam’ Conference (UN)

Israel has systematically attacked Palestinian energy sources, for example confiscating “solar panels and systems in Area C of the West Bank”:

• Israel’s Occupation Is Eclipsing Palestine’s Solar Potential (New Arab)

MbS embraces a China-brokered deal with Iran even as he seeks an anti-Iran, a pro-Israel deal with the U.S.:

• Saudi Crown Prince Balances on Saudi-US-Israeli-Iranian Tightrope (Middle East Soccer)

“The assailants claimed that the Muslim man was carrying beef”:

• Muslim Man Beaten to Death by Hindu Nationalists in Bihar (Maktoob)

“And if anyone seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he can hear the words of God. Then escort him where he can be secure”:

• Secretary-General Calls for Stamping Out ‘Poison’ of Anti-Muslim Bias, at Event Marking International Day to Combat Islamophobia (UN)

Terrorist supporters of the apartheid state will live and those “with the purpose of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its homeland” will die …

• The Israeli Knesset Moves to Adopt the Death Penalty for Palestinian Resistance (Mondoweiss)

… among the terrorists allowed to live will be these:

• Israeli Settlers Continue Their Rampage and Provocations in the Occupied West Bank (Wafa)

“[D]raft amendments to digital media guidelines … would essentially allow the government to block any content [the Modi administration] doesn’t like”:

• Modi’s Final Assault on India’s Press Freedom Has Begun (NY Times)

“Pourtabatabaei had criticized the lack of any reaction from the authorities in Qom to the first reported cases of poisoning”:

• Iran Urged to Release Reporter Who Covered School Poisonings (VoA)

The Zionist campaign to block Palestinian from from a writers conference reflects a broader problem of racist-based hypocrisy:

• Responding to the Campaign to Ban Me from Adelaide Writers Week (Mondoweiss)
• Why Europe Sees Ukrainians as Victims, but Palestinians as ‘the Other’ (Middle East Eye)
• Ukraine: Responding to Racist Media and Global Double Standards (Uncivilized Media / YouTube)

The UN looks at the status of women in Islam at its 67th CSW forum:

• Part 1, Opening – Women in Islam: The Rights and Identity of Women in the Islamic World (UN Media)

A “Muslim couple has no way under the [traditional interpretation of Islamic inheritance] law to make someone their sole heirs”:

• Why a Muslim Couple in Kerala Is Remarrying Under the Special Marriage Act (Indian Express)

“[A]ll scheduled flights, including those carrying humanitarian aid, would be rerouted to Damascus and Latakia after the ‘Israeli aggression’, according to state media”:

• Syria Says Israeli Air Raid Takes Aleppo Airport Out of Service (Aljazeera)

The fact that he “was urged by his most senior general to agree to a ceasefire with Pakistan in 1948″ challenges the BJP narrative:

• Kashmir Letters Cast Doubt on Claims Nehru Blundered by Agreeing Ceasefire (The Guardian)

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel “stated the U.S. would support Israel no matter what action it took”:

• 45 NGOs Urge Biden to Disavow Nides’ Comments on Israel and Iran (Haaretz)

Israel is determined to continue its oppression of Palestinians even on Muslim and Jewish holidays, and even if they are American citizens:

• Israel’s Parliament Votes to Extend Ban on Palestinian Family Unification (Haaretz)
• Israel to Close Palestinian Territories During Jewish Festival (New Arab)
• Israel to Continue Demolishing Palestinian Homes During Ramadan (Middle East Eye)
• Palestinian Human Rights Advocates Refused Entry to US, Blocked from Leaving Palestine (Middle East Eye)

U.S. withdrawal from JCPOA bears its inevitable fruit:

• Iran Can Make Fissile Material for a Bomb ‘in About 12 Days’ – U.S. Official (Reuters)

Fearing he “would be snubbed by the U.S. administration” over his call for genocide during his upcoming visit to Washington, Smotrich now says he “misspoke”:

• Netanyahu Tries to Calm Outcry over Minister’s Remarks on Palestinians (Reuters)

“If the poisoning of students is proven, those behind this crime should be sentenced to capital punishment and there will be no amnesty for them” — Khamenei:

• Iran Leader: Those Who Poisoned Schoolgirls Deserve Death (AP)

There is no end in sight for the nearly daily violence by soldiers and settler:

• Three Minors Among Seven Palestinians Detained by Occupation Forces in West Ban (Wafa)
• ‘I Couldn’t See if My Brother’s Murderer Was a Soldier or Settler’ (972 Magazine)
• Four Palestinians Injured in Confrontations with Israeli Soldiers in Aqbat Jabr Refugee Camp (Wafa)

“The brutality began as an effort to disrupt Muslims praying together but morphed into a protracted effort to punish those who prayed”:

• ‘Stop Praying Now’: Bonne Terre Prison Guards Beat, Pepper-spray Muslim Inmates, Lawsuit Alleges (KSDK)

Premodern Muslim scholars accepted that “variety, disagreement, and even outright contradiction are the inevitable outcomes of the human endeavor to comprehend God’s message” …

• The Ambiguities of Being Muslim and Modern (Marginalia)

… unlike today’s Bahraini government that prohibits “discussion and questioning of Islamic law” as mockery:

• Bahrain Prosecutes Religious Reformers: Traditionalists Fight Back (Middle East Soccer)

“Kashmiris have had the colonial concept of ‘state lands’ mobilized against them as [a ploy] to cast Indigenous communities as illegal occupants of their own land”:

• Report on ‘India’s Impunity in Kashmir’ Reveals Israel Connection (Palestine Chronicle)

ACLU says the court’s decision gives states “time and flexibility to expand the existing legislation” to include “criminalizing boycotts and making them punishable by law”:

• US Anti-boycott Laws Could Take a ‘Draconian’ Turn. But the Fight Is Not Over (972 Magazine)

He remains in jail despite an Iranian appeals court that cleared him “of all charges and ordered his release on February 15”:

• Frenchman Benjamin Briere remains in Iran prison despite acquittal (The National)

The onslaught continues …

• ‘They Were Burning Our House with Kids Inside. The Army Didn’t Let Us Through’ (972 Magazine)
• Israel Kills 15-year-old Palestinian ‘Shot in the Back’ (Aljazeera)

… but the WEF, eager to condemn the killing of Ukrainians, has nothing to say about the massacre of the darker skinned Palestinians:

• The World Economic Forum Has Outed Itself as Anti-Palestinian (Mondoweiss)

A girl is denied education because she wears three-quarter-length sleeves instead of short sleeves:

• Are School Uniform Policies More Important than a Muslim Student’s Identity? (Inquirer.net)

That IDF figures who “come from occupied West Bank settlement/colonies … would stand by when their neighbors attack Palestinians should not be a surprise”:

• ‘NY Times’ Buries Israeli Military Complicity in West Bank Pogrom in Paragraph 26 (Mondoweiss)

Author Mustafa Akyol wonders, “Will the Taliban really allow this book to be freely sold and read in Afghanistan?”

• Now Available in Afghanistan: “Why, As a Muslim, I Defend Liberty” (Cato Institute)

Those who shout “Jews will not replace us” are properly called antisemitic. What shall we call Jews who not only boast they will replace Palestinians, but literally displace them from part of their own homes?

• Our Debate About Writers’ Angry Tweets Obscures the Real Scandal (Sydney Morning Herald)

Worship together the One Merciful God; acknowledge wisdom of the other; sit with the saints next door; recognize the dignity of all; resist stereotypes:

• 5 Lessons from Pope Francis’ Commitment to Muslim-Catholic Dialogue (America Magazine)

Is being “crowned champion of the Professional Football League” an act of terrorism?

• Occupation Forces Arrest Palestinian footballer Ahmed Abu Khadija (Wafa)