News and Analysis (7/15/20)

After a Muslim employee’s report that George Floyd tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill led to the accused’s murder by police, the store’s Muslim owner says that it “will no longer call the police on customers”:

• At the Doorstep of Unity of Purpose Within a Diverse Faith Community (Milwaukee Independent)

All opposition parties condemned Erdogan’s decree to shut down “a nonprofit private university known for its high educational standards”:

• The Turkish Government Closed a University Because It Fears Free Speech (Foreign Policy)

… while in England, “Prevent strategy appears to have had the effect of discouraging free speech within universities” pressuring students, especially Muslims, “to say the ‘right thing’, or to be quiet” …

• Government Policy has Left Muslim Students Feeling Unable to Speak Up on Campus (The Conversation)

… and Amnesty International accuses Iran of “an alarming escalation in use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups”:

• Iran: Two Kurds Executed amid Increasing Use of Death Penalty as Weapon of Repression (Amnesty International)

Israel’s demolition of Zakariyya al-Battik in 1950 have erased its original history and identity; a recovered 700-year old document is a testimonial of the Palestinians’ root in the region:

• How a 14th Century Document Breathes Life into a Destroyed Palestinian Village (972 Magazine)

With the mysterious incidents in Iran now spreading to include ship fires …

• Bushehr Port: Seven Ships Ablaze in Latest Iran Mystery Fires (BBC)

… an analyst identifies four “reasons Israel might be waging its shadow war more overtly — which could backfire” …

• Has Israel Been Sabotaging Iran? Here’s What We Know (Washington Post)

… but who is behind the hijacking of the oil tanker the U.S. has implicated in a money laundering scheme involving Iran ‘s Quds Force?

• Tanker Off UAE Sought by US over Iran Sanctions ‘Hijacked’ (Times of India)

Shaykh Dr. Umar Al-Qadri of the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council said; “the choice of Croke Park is symbolic to Irish Muslims in their dual identity as being both Irish and Muslims”:

• Croke Park to Host Muslim Celebration Eid Al Adha (Sky Sport)

“Iran has delayed providing international investigation with the flight’s black box recorder but has reportedly pledged to provide it to French investigators on July 20”:

• Iranian Report Details Chain Of Mistakes In Shooting Down Ukrainian Passenger Plane (NPR)

Jammu and Kashmir are smothered between Covid and Indian repression:

• With Covid-beds Exhausted in Kashmir, Doctors Ask People to Return Home (Hindustam Times)
• Hoping Against Hope: Half Widows of Kashmir in Lockdown (Kashmir Observer)
• How Women’s Roles Are Changing in Kashmir’s Conflict (The New Humanitarian)
• Jailing Kashmir Bar Chief After Expiry of PSA Order:SC Seeks Explanation (Kashmir Observer)
• V-P of Municipal Committee Abducted in North Kashmir; Rescued (Tribune India)

China is more interested in “energy security” than “in cultivating a vassal state in the Middle East”:

• No, Iran Isn’t Going to Be a Chinese Client State (Atlantic Council)