Minaret of Freedom Weblog

• Trump Banned Refugees on Holocaust Remembrance Day. That says everything (Guardian)

• Trump Defends Order: ‘It’s not a Muslim ban’ (The Hill)

… and putting a crimp in CIA and U.S. military intelligence promises “of eventual resettlement in America to induce foreigners to … work secretly for the United States against terrorist groups or repressive governments” …

• Spy Veterans Say Trump’s Muslim-Country Visa Ban Will Hurt Recruitment (Newsweek)

… and prompting retaliatory actions from targeted countries and a prediction from Iran that the ban will empower extremists, … and even a statement of disapproval from Theresa May, under pressure from her own party …

• Muslim Ban: MPs call for reciprocal measures (Al-Jazeera)
• Zarif: Trump’s Muslim Ban ‘Great Gift to Extremists’ (Al-Jazeera)
• Under Fire, British PM May Criticizes Trump Curb on Refugees (Reuters)

… and even some Trump advisers are uncomfortable with the idea of rolling back “an order safeguarding 750,000 people who were brought to the United States illegally as children” …

• Trump Aides Divided over Policy Shielding ‘Dreamer’ Immigrants: Sources (Reuters)

… but the PM of the country that leads the world in building divisive walls is delighted by the policy:

• Netanyahu in Hot Water over Praise of Trump’s Wall (Reuters)

“There is a South African proverb, dating from the apartheid era, that goes like this: ‘How do you catch an elephant? You catch a mouse and keep beating it up until it admits it’s really an elephant'”:

• What Would Happen if Donald Trump Tries to Bring Back Torture? (BBC)

Notwithstanding Trump’s doubts about foreign military intervention, only one week after “suspected U.S. drone strikes killed three other alleged al-Qaida operatives in Bayda province”, he has boots in the ground in Yemen:

• Yemeni Officials Say US Makes Surprise Raid (AP / abc News)

… and has already provoked a backlash:

• How Trump Changed Americans’ View of Islam – for the Better (Washington Post)
• Albright: I’m ‘Ready to Register as Muslim’ (The Hill)
• Protesters Flood NYC’s Washington Square Park to Oppose Muslim Ban (Huffington Post)

• ‘Rumi’s Secret’ Offers an Expanded View of the 13th-century Poet and Mystic (Christian Science Monitor)

• Knesset Inaugurates Jewish-Muslim Ties Caucus (Jerusalem Post)

“Once again, the Israeli government has proved that it is more committed to land theft and colonialism than to the two-state solution and the requirements for peace and stability” — Hanan Ashrawi:

• Israel Plans 2,500 New West Bank Settlement Units in Trump’s First Days in Office (Christian Science Monitor)

“We believe in engagement to overcome [differences]…. The verses that Imam Magid chose were about how God created us as different nations and tribes so that we may get to know one another” — ADAMS Center Board Chair:

• Muslim Leader Defends Decision to Pray at Trump Service (WUSA9)

“After promising … that ‘America’s relationship with the Muslim community, the Muslim world, cannot, and will not, just be based on opposition to terrorism,’ Obama did just the opposite. In 2016 alone, the [U.S.] dropped 26,171 bombs”:

• So Much Promise, So Much Disappointment: A Muslim bids farewell to president Obama (Salon)

“Buenaventura’s Muslims say that they have found in Islam a refuge from the poverty and violence that racks the city, which has one of the highest murder rates in Colombia“:

• How Islam Took Root in One of South America’s Most Violent Cities: The Colombian port of Buenaventura is home to a small Muslim community who have successively embraced the Nation of Islam, Sunni and Shia interpretations (Guardian)

“This is the America that took us in as political refugees,the America that gave us a new home, and the America that keeps my hope alive today”:

• Neighbours Leave Touching Note Outside Muslim Man’s Door After Donald Trump’s Inauguration: ‘You are welcome in our neighbourhood and if you need anything – please knock on our door’ (Independent)

“The P.A.’s criminalization of any form of resistance to dispossession, discrimination, and Israel’s permanent military control have made it, in effect, a tool of collaboration with the occupation” …

• Palestine in the Age of Trump (New Yorker)

… while “hawkish elements in [Netanyahu’s] coalition … are already calling for concrete action given Trump’s perceived acquiescence to Israeli settlement building” and to turn against Palestinian statehood:

• Israel Pushes Ahead with Settlements as Trump Takes Office (Christian Science Monitor)

“When it comes to civil liberties, our country has a lot of problems, and I think it’s very hard for us to get involved in other countries…. We need allies. I don’t know that we have a right to lecture” — Donald J. Trump:

• Mideast Expects Big Changes Under Trump (AP / abc News)

“[L]awyers and Obama administration officials are working down to the wire to get remaining detainees out of Guantánamo before Trump throws away the key, potentially for good”:

• Obama Makes Last-Minute Move to Get Detainees Out of Gitmo (Foreign Policy)

“President-elect Donald Trump‘s pick for ambassador to the United Nations, repudiated the idea … [saying], ‘His administration and I don’t think there should be any registry based on religion'” …

• Haley: No Muslim Registry Under Trump Administration (The Hill)

… but a pastor known “for bashing Muslims, Mormons, Catholics and homosexuals” says he will deliver a sermon entitled “‘When God Chooses a Leader’ for Trump/Pence private family service’ …

• Texas Pastor Who Calls Islam ‘Evil,’ Homosexuals ‘Filthy’ to Give Donald Trump Private Inauguration Sermon (Daily News)

… so as Chief Justice Roberts swears in the next president, he might wonder what would happen if another 9/11 occurred on this … president’s watch and some of his subordinates … remembered his campaign rhetoric”:

• How Far Will Trump Be Allowed to Go on Muslim Immigrants? The Supreme Court may be giving us a preview (LA Times)

“Trump … more than any candidate for public office I have ever seen showed the fragility of the human being…. Choosing to be strategic instead of reactionary because we recognise the delicateness of the situation we face”:

• How Muslim Americans Plan to Resist the Trump Administration (Independent)

Although the court recognized “the religious significance” and “compelling sense of religious obligation,” it justified the headscarf ban on the basis of “overriding safety concerns,” potential contraband concealment and “uniform neutrality”:

• Court Upholds Firing over Muslim Headscarf (USA Today)

The irony is that after deposing elected President Mohamed Morsi who had been accused “of plotting to give part of Sinai to the Palestinian group Hamas,” Sisi amended Egypt’s Constitution to prohibit ceding Egyptian territory”:

• Egypt Gives Saudi Arabia 2 Islands in a Show of Gratitude (NY Times)

Prime Minister Najib Razak says “that the violence against Rohingya, which has galvanised Muslims in Southeast Asia, … has fueled an exodus of refugees that could destabilise the region”:

• Malaysia: Muslim Countries Should End Rohingya Crisis: Malaysia PM Najib Razak warns that Rohingya could be ‘infiltrated’ by ISIL if their plight is not solved (Al-Jazeera)

A “protest against a reform package that would give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office executive powers … sparked fighting between female legislators that reportedly resulted in two of them being hospitalized”:

• Turkish Lawmaker Chains Self to Rostrum, Sparks New Brawl (AP /abc News)

“We support every woman’s right to worship as they wish and live in security and peace. We are by no means endorsing or aligning with any religious doctrine, but simply standing for freedom” — Kathy Najimy:

• We Should Wear Hijabs for Donald Trump’s Inauguration in Support of ‘Muslim Sisters’, Says US Actress (Independent)

Calling for an ironically fascistic ban on Islamic symbols the nationalists in their immigrant hating power grab want the state to take aid to immigrants away from independent NGOs such as Catholic Charities:

• Austria’s Anti-Immigrant Freedom Party Calls For Ban On ‘Fascistic Islam’ (Huffington Post)

“If the Jewish students were not under the protection of their own school, there would be more Jewish families affected by fines in Basel than Muslims” –Johannes Czwalina, a theologian and business consultant from Basel:

• Muslim Parents Who Lost Swiss Court Battle to Let Their Daughter Swim Separately from Boys Vow to Set Up Private Schools that ‘Adhere to Their Faith’ (Daily Mail)

United Nations seeks to draw world’s attention to ‘huge humanitarian cost’ of war that has also displaced 3 million people”:

• Yemen Death Toll Has Reached 10,000, UN Says (Guardian)

“Growing up a Muslim in Rutland, Asima Silva was considered by her friends as exotic and she was celebrated for her individuality…. But for her children, much has changed, and sometimes the questions they pose come from fear”:

• At Worcester Mosque, Woman Explains Growing Up Muslim (Telegram)

“[T]he music has echoed the wider story of the [Arab Jews], who … arrived to confront both racism and marginalisation, problems that have not disappeared despite … constituting roughly half of the total Israeli population”:

• Israel’s Sidelined Mizrahi Musicians and Artists Reclaim Centre Stage: Newfound political confidence sparks resurgence of culture of Jews from Middle East and north Africa, once marginalised by dominant Ashkenazim (Guardian)

“Rex Tillerson’s testimony diverges substantially from Trump’s positions on several key issues. Will he have the autonomy to pursue his views, or will he be marginalized, as Colin Powell was under George W. Bush?” …

• How Tillerson Testimony Injects Doubt into Trump Foreign Policy (Christian Science Monitor)

“Tillerson said that Americans should not be afraid of Muslims and that through his travel to Muslim countries, he has gained an ‘appreciation and recognition of this great faith'”:

• Here Is What Trump’s Cabinet Nominees Had to Say About His Muslim Policies (Washington Post)

… but “Tillerson hasn’t ruled out the return of … a [Muslim] registry,”according to CBS News, so Rep. Suzan DelBene (WA, 1st) seeks to reintroduce a bill, defeated only days after Trump’s election, to prohibit such a registry:

• House Bill Aims to Block Tech Giants from Building “Muslim Registry” (ZDNet)

“British government investigation last year determined that while the Muslim Brotherhood had ties to extremism, it was not a terrorist group, and in that respect it resembles Ted Cruz himself:

• Ted Cruz vs. The Muslim Brotherhood Boogeyman (Huffington Post)

In #DontNormalizeHate Haru Kuromiya recalls how her father was “taken away by the FBI …[,] her family was put on a registry, given name tags and numbers they had to wear, [and then] put on a train” with a secret destination:

• Katy Perry Shares PSA Warning Against History ‘Repeating Itself’ with Muslim American Registry (Billboard)

“An Egyptian court on Wednesday ruled to freeze the assets of three rights activists, including a prominent women’s rights campaigner, Mozn Hassan. It’s the latest chapter in a widening crackdown against civil society groups”:

• Egypt Slams EU, UK for Criticizing Ruling on Activists (AP / abc News)

“Copies of the letter sent by Morocco’s Ministry of Interior … and a high-ranking ministry official confirmed the ban to the local Moroccan news website Le360, saying ‘bandits have repeatedly used this garment to perpetrate their crime'”:

• Is Morocco Joining the Trend Toward Restricting the Burqa? (Christian Science Monitor)

“Initially I thought I didn’t want to talk about it. But actually it makes me think if it can happen to me in the centre of London, it’s happening everywhere. People just don’t seem able to talk about it”:

• Muslim Woman Spat On While Eating in Restaurant Says Female Race Hate Victims Must Speak Out (Independent)

“[C]ondensing a thousand years of Islamic history” into one book chapter omits the Muslim cultural influence on Spanish music and Italian architecture leaving only “‘Arab armies’ and the rise of early modern Muslim empires”:

• What’s Missing in the Teaching of Islam in the US (The Wire)

Two Trump appointees reject using religious affiliation as a criterion for discrimination:

• Trump’s Homeland Security Pick Against Muslim Registry (The Hill)
• Jeff Sessions Says He Does Not Support the Muslim Ban Donald Trump Called for (Huffington Post)

Imprisoned and tortured for “passing by a protest for the opposition … Moustafa’s path to radicalization reveals the ease with which extremists capitalize on Sisi’s repressive policies to draw support from young Egyptians”:

• Extremism Under Sisi: His Repressive Policies Have Worsened the Problem (Foreign Affairs)

Among the victims of Erdogan’s power grab are tens of thousands of students forced into the public schools when Erdogan shut down two thousand private schools …

• The Roots of the Turkish Crisis (Democracy)

… and he seeks consitutional changes that “scrap the office of prime minister and make the president the head of the executive branch, as well as allow him to appoint the government, dissolve Parliament, propose budgets and declare states of emergency” and allow him to remain president until 2029″:

• Turkey’s Parliament Debates Giving Greater Powers to Erdogan (Christian Science Monitor)

“The ECHR acknowledged that religious freedom was being interfered with. But judges said it did not amount to a violation … [because] exemptions were available … for girls who had reached the age of puberty”:

• Swiss Muslim Girls Must Learn to Swim with Boys, Court Rules (BBC)

“[F]aith does not preclude logic…. [I]t does not relieve us of the responsibility of choosing which [religious] teachings express that faith and dismissing those that do not” — Kareem :

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Two Books About Muslim Identity (NY Times)

“In high school history books, there is little mention of the intertwined histories of Europe, Asia and Africa in the middle ages and the Renaissance. There is even less mention of the flowering of art, literature and architecture during this time”:

• What’s Missing in the Teaching of Islam (The Conversation)

“The meeting marks the end of a controversy that began in September when the board advised students they could only use one of six pre-written sermons [developed in collaboration with local imams] during Friday prayers”:

• Muslim Students Can Write Their Own Sermons as Peel School Board Reverts to Previous Policy (CBC)

As a practicing Muslim believed to have descended from the Prophet’s (pbuh) Hashamite clan, King Abdullah II of Jordan is better placed to say, “These radical outlaw groups … are altogether outside of” Islam than Trump or Obama:

• What Presidents Should Say About Islam and Terrorism: They should emphasize that both Muslims and non-Muslims are under threat (Post-Gazette)

Under Arafat, the PLO recognized the state of Israel, but in response to moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem both Muslim and Christian Palestinians “might seriously consider canceling [the] mutual recognition deal”:

• Palestinians Seek Weekend Prayers to Protest US Embassy Move (AP / abc News)

The fake news story that a Muslim mob set fire to Germany’s oldest church got a few facts wrong: the church isn’t Germany’s oldest, it wasn’t on fire, there was no mob, and a firework accident, not Muslims, ignited some netting:

• Breitbart Story About “Mob” of 1,000 Muslims Attacking a German Church Reportedly Dissolves (Media Matters)

According to his family, the National Guard veteran “developed psychological problems after returning in 2011 from a tour of duty in Iraq. ” Last August he told the FBI “that voices in his head were telling him to follow Isis”:

• Esteban Santiago Charged over Fort Lauderdale Airport Attack (Guardian)

One of Obama’s last official acts will be to re-escalate the intervention in Afghanistan, increasing the number of troops there to about 8,700:

• US to Deploy 300 Marines to Afghanistan’s Helmand: American troops return to the restive province largely controlled by the Taliban after NATO withdrawal in 2014 (Al-Jazeera)

“Rafsanjani took a dim view of state control of the economy — even in the turbulent years after the Islamic Revolution — and encouraged private businesses, development of Tehran’s stock market and … Iranian exports”:

• Influential Former Iranian Leader Rafsanjani Dead at Age 82 (AP / abc News)

“[T]here is a question of how far this force would be a non-partisan force. At the moment it appears to be dominated by conservative Arab kingdoms so Iran, Iraq and Syria will not welcome it” — Pakistani defense analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi :

• Former Pakistan Army Chief Raheel Sharif to Lead ‘Muslim Nato’ (Guardian)

“Dozens of people, led by a handful of maroon-robed monks, marched to the YMCA in Myanmar’s commercial capital to shut down a service marking the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday”:

• Buddhist Hardliners Stop Myanmar Muslim Ceremony (Channel News Asia)

“Shouts of ‘No return, no freedom for savage (IS) bands’ or ‘No repenting, no pardon for terrorists rang out … [but] President Beji Caid Essebsi has said stopping their return would be unconstitutional”:

• 1,000 Tunisians Fearing Return of Jihadis March to Say ‘No’ (AP / abc News)

Lois Khalafalla is sad about having removed her headscarf out fear, saying, “It’s nice to blend in, but that dialogue has gone away, too”:

• Family Speaks About Being Muslim, Americans (Times-News / Blueridgenow.com)

“‘[S]piritual colonialism’ at work…: bypassing, erasing, and occupying a spiritual landscape that has been lived and breathed and internalized by Muslims from Bosnia and Istanbul to Konya and Iran to Central and South Asia”:

• The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi (New Yorker)

“‘You can’t tell people, ‘Here’s your prayer, read it word for word,’ and that’s your prayer for the day. We should not be interfering” — Trustee Nokha Dakroub:

• Peel School Board to Deliver Muslim Prayer Solution Friday: Students say they felt stigmatized by new rules that forced them to use pre-approved sermons (CBC)

“Rather than stamp out Islam, though, efforts to stifle Islam only radicalized believers. It’s a trend that’s played out again and again over the past century, and one that could have dire consequences in the war on terror”:

• How the USSR’s Effort to Destroy Islam Created a Generation of Radicals (Washington Post)

“Nine Democratic senators said Thursday that they have filed a bill blocking the executive branch from registering people based on religion, race, gender, age, national origin or nationality”:

• Senate Dems Introduce Bill to Block Trump Muslim Registry (The Hill)

“It was the first phase of Obama’s plan to move as many as 19 prisoners … to shrink Guantanamo’s inmate population as much as possible before the Republican president-elect is sworn in on Jan. 20”:

• Four Yemeni Detainees Transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia (Christian Science Monitor)

“I remember saying …, I would never go out with a Muslim man – I would never change my religion. But when I met my boyfriend, I read about it, and it was a totally different picture. Before it was bad and evil to me” — a convert:

• Janet Jackson Islam Rumours: The reality of being a Muslim convert (Telegraph)

Since Nigeria’s president declared the terrorists group “crushed” two weeks ago, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has declared that the war was just starting and urged his fighters to keep killing, bombing and abducting people”:

• Nigeria Finds Chibok Girl Kidnapped by Boko Haram, with Baby (Christian Science Monitor)

Muslim jurists need to be self-consistent. If a Muslim woman is old enough to enter into a marriage contract (nikah) she’s old enough to sign other contracts as well:

• Muslim Minor Can Wed, but Can’t Sign Agreement (Times of India)

“The report says seven victims were from Saudi Arabia; three each were from Lebanon and Iraq; two each were from Tunisia, India, Morocco and Jordan. Kuwait, Canada, Israel, Syria and Russia each lost one citizen”:

• ISIS Claims New Year’s Attack on Istanbul Nightclub (AP / abc News)

NSEERS’s termination “will not change the US government’s authority to delve into public, and private, records for its purposes—some of which are outside judicial reviews such as orders in National Security Letters:

• We Already Have a Muslim Registry: It’s called Facebook (Quartz)

“Myanmar is to investigate police officers who were filmed beating Rohingya villagers, an unusual admission that security forces may have carried out abuses against the Muslim minority”:

• Myanmar to Investigate Video of Police Beating Rohingya Villagers (Guardian)

Eight years after Churchill called Islam the most “retrograde force … in the world,” his sister-in-law feared the atheist would convert; then in 1940 he put aside £100,000 for a Regent’s Park mosque to win Muslim support for the war:

• Sir Winston Churchill’s Family Begged Him Not to Convert to Islam, Letter Reveals (Independent)

“[Y]oung women in Muslim countries today have an average of six years of education – only 1.1 years less than their male counterparts. And in [some] wealthy Gulf states” more young women have higher education than young men:

• Muslim Women Catch Up to – and Even Surpass – Male Counterparts in Education (Christian Science Monitor)

“[W]hile Abbas has to date been reluctant to sue Israel at the ICC for its crimes against his people, … given the duo of Netanyahu and Trump, he will be left with little choice but to do so,” or lose “what little credibility … he has left as a leader”:

• Why Netanyahu and Trump Are Good for the Palestinians (Foreign Policy Journal)