Archive for May, 2020

News and Analysis (5/31/20)

Sunday, May 31st, 2020

European and US policymakers find Trump’s Iran policies counterproductive; keeping inside the Non-Proliferation Treaty would provide better safeguards on Iran’s nuclear program:

A vessel was displayed “at a ceremony to introduce over 100 new boats to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Navy” suggests US sanctions may be backfiring:

As the killing of Soleimani escalates tension between US and Iran in Iraq, frequency of raids on Isis went down and ISIS activities went up:

Appointing a man who has called Islam a “babaric cult” and endorsed “the Chinese government’s crackdown on their Uighur Muslim minority” to a post involving defense of religious freedom abroad defies comprehension …

… while the employment of brutal Israeli tactics by American police gives Russia and Iran an opening to charge the U.S. with hypocrisy:

The plan of Ahmadiyya community in Canada to build a cemetery to accommodate for its growing community receives some opposition over agricultural land concerns:

When Mohammed Khaja who died of cardiac arrest was denied burial by six grave yards over COVID-19 concern, his body was laid to rest in Hindu cemetery:

India doubles down on its discrimination of the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir:

News and Analysis (5/28/20)

Thursday, May 28th, 2020

“The appointment is just the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that are raising concerns it is undermining USAID’s ability to fulfill its mission”:

Raffia Arashad, who was appointed a Deputy District Judge on the Midlands Circuit last week cites the “Imposter Syndrome,” wondering if one is good enough, as “one of the things that holds women”:

A British-Bangladesh Muslim entrepreneur was invited to perform prayer call at the heart of London’s financial district to “show appreciation of Muslim community and engage with it”:

When the Muslim social worker donated blood to a Hindu woman undergoing a Cesarean operation, he conveyed the message of Islam’s love and compassion for all humanity:

What others call Covid precautions (“washing hands regularly, covering one’s face and keeping a respectful distance from others,”) one Muslim comic call “Sharia law”:

Gulf states showed admirable transparency in dealing with Covid-19; but are they willing to “embrace transparency when it comes to policies designed to spark economic recovery and govern structural reform”?

America’s Iran policies have unintended consequences:

India’s persecution of Muslims continues to grow:

“The PA is competing with better-resourced communities worldwide that are less constrained in their access to funds”:

News and Analysis (5/26/20)

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

“The Covid-19 pandemic has beautifully dispelled the taboo, the myth, the common practice ⁠— that women do not and cannot pray with men”:

“State enforced disruptions to internet access are problematic at all times and in the midst of a global pandemic, such restrictions are unconscionable”:

“Education promotes individual freedom, empowerment and yields important developmental benefits” but in Kashmir getting higher education is an unusually difficult challenge:

Is the pigeon named Bond? Mohammad Bond?:

As tension mounts between the Chinese and Indian military over Kashmir …

“Debt-laden Islamabad gets Beijing funds for joint venture opposed by Delhi”:

“Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) has announced a black-band protest across the Union territory following the recent incidents in which doctors were allegedly manhandled, harassed and not allowed to reach hospitals”:

Rejecting the misconceptions of his Greek and Roman predecessors, Ibn Haytham’s innovative data-based understanding influenced later scientists including “Galileo Galilei, … Johannes Kepler and … Sir Isaac Newton”:

News and Analysis (5/23/20)

Saturday, May 23rd, 2020

Pakistan’s president draws a parallel between Kashmir and the Palestinian struggle, saying: “the Israeli state is doing to the Palestinians what Nazis did in the 1930s and India has taken a leaf from the Israeli playbook”:

The Vatican warns of consequences of annexation …

… as Israeli supporters of a two-state solution warn annexation leads to violence:

Palestinian Authority refuses to be a bridge for Arab-Israel normalized ties, saying, “UAE did not coordinate with the state of Palestine before sending the aid”

As Trump faces rising disapproval, his campaign turns to “Iran’s talk”:

Presuming the lawyer growing beard to be a Muslim, police felt justified beat up the man:

A scholar from Clear Lake Islamic Center reminds Muslims around the globe concerned about pandemic on congregational worship and Eid prayers,of real connection with God:

The church pastor participated in the service, saying, “Yes, yes, yes, because we have the same concerns and we want to learn from you. And it is beautiful to feel that way about each other”:

“I’m not the priority of any country and this is how it is when it comes to being a Jerusalemite”:

News and Analysis (5/19/20)

Tuesday, May 19th, 2020

The virtual meeting joint statement of the four countries: they support the initiative of the UN Secretary-General of the ceasefire and call for a ceasefire throughout Afghanistan:

A week after he protested the “growing tide of Islamophobia in India, … his house was raided by the Delhi Police, which also seized the mobile phone from which he put out his social media posts”:

“India’s recent move to open up Jammu & Kashmir for settlement by outsiders is fuelling fears of another ‘Palestine in the making’ among its Muslim majority residents” …

… while another rebel leader’s death sparks more demonstrations:

“The arson attack killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s four-year-old brother Ahmad survived with burns on his body”:

Palestinians end agreements with Israel; will Jordan support them?

Muslims arrive at different conclusions on how to celebrate Eid as coronavirus begins to ebb:

UNRWA said it is confronted with greater need due to increase in number of registered Palestinian refugees:

“Iran denied involvement in the failed April 24 hacking” that Israel says justified its “major cyberattack on an Iranian port that caused transport chaos for days after crashing the facility’s computer system”:

US Navy draws a red line in the sea, at 100 meters:

News and Analysis (5/17/20)

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

“The Nakba doesn’t represent a historical event but a continuing process that began in the 1880s …” depicting the theft of Palestinian land as an ongoing but reversible process:

“If the United States, just like pirates, intends to create insecurity on international waterways, it would be taking a dangerous risk, and that will certainly not go without repercussion” –Iran’s Nour news agency:

Cyber-enterprises are being destroyed by India’s repression …

… but heroic women fight politics, pollution, and the coronavirus to ensure an “uninterrupted vegetable supply in Srinagar”:

“Encouraged by a government eager to privatize state-owned firms, average people now have access to the market and can trade shares, earning returns they’d never see in a savings account or a certificate of deposit”:

Palestinian authority welcomes the Arab and EU position against West Bank annexation; urges for action to stop Netanyahu/Trump plan:

Knowing the risk of escalation, will the GCC attempt to prevent a US-Iran war:

Muslim community of Pengkalan, Malaysia, carry out charitable activities while observing social distancing:

“Hate rhetoric in politics, media, and online forums have targeted Muslims and, many believe has put them squarely at risk.”:

News and Analysis (5/14/20)

Thursday, May 14th, 2020

Muslims in Europe struggle to hold traditional burials:

One of “the 12 million people who had been displaced and forced to leave their homes overnight,” Mammo’s story demonstrates the malicious use of political borders to deny people their right to return home:

As Palestinian seek to commemorate the nakba, that catastrophe of their lost homeland, amidst the Covid-19 crisis …

… Iran’s bill to establish an embassy in Jerusalem emphasizes that the “historical and integrated land of Palestine belongs to the original Palestinian people, including Muslims, Christian, and Jews” …

… whereas the 19th century Zionist slogan of “a land without people for people without land” ignored the fact that 88% of the population were not Jews” …

… and now as the EU warns against advancing West Bank annexation, some say Pompeo may urge caution:

Trump’s economic pressure on Iran could backfire on US goals:

“With all five local mosques in the region closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, local congregants have had to find other ways to honor the holiday”:

“A right-wing lawmaker in Italy was reprimanded Wednesday after he called a young Italian woman who converted to Islam while being held hostage in Somalia a ‘neo-terrorist'”:

Hackers strike …

Group Hacks Telangana Govt Website to Protest Jammu & Kashmir Curbs (Indian Express)

… as India refuses to letup on oppression during the pandemic:

The University of Michigan partnered with ACCESS to conduct a community health outreach for Muslims fasting Ramadan using culturally specific message:

News and Analysis (5/11/20)

Monday, May 11th, 2020

Thinking like a state: Fined if you do (cover for religious reasons) and fined if you don’t (cover because the government orders it):

On the importance of highlighting “stories of Muslim contribution [to the fight against fascism] to break the far-right myth that Islam is foreign to the European countries and elsewhere”:

The dictator gives himself and security agencies even more powers on the pretext of preventing the spread of covid-19:

On a formal technicality, the ICC rejects Australia request made at Israel’s behest over a jurisdictional technicality, having ruled that on substance there is sufficient evidence of war crimes in the West Bank:

Walid Fitaihi modernized the Saudi medical system; now “he and seven members of his family, all U.S. citizens, are banned from leaving Saudi Arabia, and their Saudi assets are frozen”:

Dr. Abdul Pathan of Williamsburg Islamic Center delineates the Islamic universal guidelines during difficult times like the corona virus:

With the threat the coronavirus poses to prisoners’ lives, an Iranian spokesman hopes “the U.S. government will eventually prefer lives to politics,” but a US spokesman denies any offer has been made:

“Since 9/11 educators report that the topic of Islam has been difficult to teach [due in part to] their unfamiliarity with the Islamic faith and unfamiliarity with the legalities involved with teaching about religion”:

News and Analysis (5/9/20)

Saturday, May 9th, 2020

An Iraqi regional officer observes that US and Saudi officials “think they’ve got their man. They’re celebrating. When will they ever understand Iraq?”

The clock may be running out on tolerance of anti-Muslim bigotry …

… except in India:

Not content to throw those who resist the occupation into prison, Israel now aims to starve their families …

… while the West Bank village of Kufr Aqab, within the Israeli-drawn municipal boundary and cut off from Palestinian Authority control. local volunteers enforce the COVID-19 quarantine:

Palestine’s justice minister says the US recognition of the occupier’s sovereignty over occupied land is a war crime:

Twenty Muslim organizations from Irving continue a thirteen year tradition of hosting iftar dinner ceremony by honoring first responders in a virtual ceremony while volunteers deliver dinner:

As India’s repression in Kashmir continues …

… some Indians suffering from the COVID-19 lockdown are acquiring a empathy for the besieged Kashmiris:

“Based on the accounts of survivors and the marks on the bodies of the victims, they were first lashed with wire cables by the Iranian border guards and then forced at gunpoint to jump into the river”:

“Instead of prosecuting those who exercised their right to free expression and peaceful assembly, the … authorities should conduct a transparent investigation … to find out exactly what happened in this tragedy”:

Protesting forced cremation, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama argues “that more than 180 countries in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation have allowed burials for Muslims who die of COVID-19”:

News and Analysis (5/7/20)

Thursday, May 7th, 2020

Rejecting the Constitution’s limitation of war making power to Congress, Trump denies his “constitutional authority to use military force [is] limited to defending the United States and its forces against imminent attack”:

Iran starts exporting home-produced COVID-19 diagnostic kits that can accurately identify if someone was exposed to the COVID-19 to the West …

… even as Pompeo hopes UNSC will renew the expiring arms embargo on Iran despite the likelihood of a Russian or Chinese veto and the failure of the policy, which is exacerbated by the Covid crisis:

Iran’s ministry of Industry issues license for bitcoin mining farm with 600 miners that will offer services in the Middle East:

Palestinians call Israeli attempt to control the Hebron mosque “a violation of existing agreements and UNESCO resolutions … carried out with the support and encouragement of the US administration” …

… but then, “the Palestine-Israel war was never one between two national movements contesting equally over the same land but was always a “settler colonial conquest” by Europe-based Zionists”:

Abu al Qasim al Zahrawi, pioneer of modern surgery and the first compiler of illustrated medical encyclopedia, whose books were used in European universities for over five centuries, “is not given enough credit”:

“In Indian-occupied Kashmir, there is one soldier for every nine people but only one ventilator for every 71,000 people, and one doctor for every 3,900 people” …

… and new demonstrations have broken out after Indian troops kill a “popular mathematics teacher” turned rebel leader:

“Boats full of Muslim minority Rohingya refugees are being pushed back by Malaysia, in part, the government says, over fears of the coronavirus virus”:

Immigration hardliner Ken Cuccinelli denies Iran’s claims that a deal is in the works for the release of Michael White in Iran and claims the U.S. has been trying to deport Sirous Asgari “for months”:

To maintain the sense of community and charity of the month of Ramadan during stay-at-home order, the Muslim community of Greater Rockford is offering daily hot meal for iftar regardless of faith: