Calling the Faithful to Freedom!

“The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday a major overhaul of the country’s Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate and loosening alcohol restrictions. The Gulf country also sought to criminalise so-called ‘honour killings’, a widely criticised tribal custom”: UAE Announces Relaxing of Islamic Laws for Personal Freedoms (Aljazeera) The EU wants to legislate…

Biden’s meeting with Golda Meir “marked the beginning of his unwavering support for Israel and close ties with many Israeli leaders since then,” including his three decades long friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu: Joe Biden ‘No Saviour’ of the Palestinians (Aljazeera) “The Trump administration, in coordination with Israel and several Gulf states, is pushing a plan…

Delaware, Indiana, Wisconsin and Oklahoma elect their first ever Muslim legislators … Madinah Wilson-Anton Wins Election, to Become Delaware’s First Muslim Legislator (6abc) Qaddoura Becomes First Muslim Elected to Indiana Statehouse as Dems Pick Up One Senate Seat (Indy Star) Voters Elect First Muslim to Wisconsin Legislature (WISN) Oklahoma Elects Mauree Turner, the Nation’s First…

Across the U.S., the number of Muslim candidates has risen almost 30% since 2018. Muslim leaders in the San Francisco Bay area agree that behind Muslim civic engagement is the principle that “any injustice toward anyone is an injustice toward all”: Rising Number of Muslim Americans in Bay Area Run for Political Offices (NBC Bay…

Rivals include Turkey, of the abandoned caliphate; Saudi Arabia, of Mecca and Medina; the UAE, of “militantly statist” Islam; Qatar, of “less strict” Wahhabism and political Islam; Indonesia, of “humanitarian, pluralistic” Islam; Morocco, of moderate Islam; and Iran of  “derailed revolution”: The Battle for the Soul of Islam (Hudson Institute) Desperate to get out from…

“A military court in the Gaza Strip convicted three Palestinian peace activists of ‘weakening revolutionary spirit’ on Monday for their role in holding a video call with Israelis in April, but it ordered the authorities to release the two who remained in jail”: Gaza Court Convicts Peace Activists for Video Call With Israelis (NY Times)…

Will Pompeo’s support for Nahdlatul Ulama over its rivals taint the movement’s bid “to garner religious soft power and shape the definition of what constitutes moderate Islam?” US Secretary of State Pompeo Set to Boost Indonesian Religious Reform Efforts (Middle East Soccer) Muslims feeling scapegoated for the lockdown in the north of England demand publication…

“Unlike the U.S., Iran does not interfere in other country’s elections” — Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations: US Officials Link Iran to Emails Meant to Intimidate Voters (AP) State Department careerists call plans to label Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam anti-Semitic “a gift to authoritarian governments that have…

“They can put locks on our office but they can’t put it on our voice”  — Anuradha Bhasin, the owner and executive editor of Kashmir Times: ‘Vendetta’: Kashmir Newspaper’s Office Sealed by India Officials (Aljazeera) Being neither the head of state nor of government, MbS is not immune to “recourse in U.S. courts for violations…