The Houthis have rejected the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) offer to broker comprehensive peace talks in Riyadh between the warring factions. The six-member GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The Houthis said they would not attend talks in Riyadh, because Saudi Arabia cannot be a mediator or host since it’s a party in the[Read More…]
Commemorations were held on Oct 17 to mark the 60th anniversary of a bloody Paris police crackdown on a demonstration by Algerians that occurred during the final year of the struggle for independence from the colonial power France. Human rights and anti-racism groups as well as Algerian associations staged a tribute march in Paris on Sunday and called on authorities[Read More…]
A prominent Rohingya Muslim leader has been shot dead in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. Mohibullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017, Al Jazeera reported. He was talking with other refugee leaders outside[Read More…]
“The rising power of American Muslims” is the title of special issue of The Newsweek on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It published an article by Steve Friess under the title: Since 9/11, US Muslims have gained unprecedented political, cultural influence. It’s been an impressive 2021 so far for Muslim Americans. The U.S. Senate, that bastion of partisan gridlock, overwhelmingly[Read More…]
An Egyptian kangaroo court on Thursday sentenced 24 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death in two separate cases, the daily Sabah reported. The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper said the Damanhour Criminal Court ordered the death penalty for 16 defendants affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, including Mohamed Sweidan, a regional leader of the organization, for their involvement in the bombing of a[Read More…]
Nine Chinese nationals and four Pakistani nationals were killed in a shuttle bus explosion in north Pakistan on Wednesday morning on their way to the China-invested Dasu hydropower project, Daily Dawn reported. The Dasu hydroelectric project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$65 billion investment plan under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative that is aimed at connecting western[Read More…]
The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the largest coalition of major national, regional, and local Muslim organizations, Monday sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken calling on the Biden administration and Congress to demand that “the Egyptian government halt its plans to conduct a mass execution of democracy activists, faith leaders, and other political prisoners in the coming days.” The letter[Read More…]
Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday, June 14, commemorated the massacre of more than 3,000 Bosniaks during the war between 1992 and 1995. Bosnian news agency provided a graphic account of the massacre. On June 14, 1992, more than 70 civilians were burned alive by Bosnian Serb forces in the eastern Bosnian city of Visegrad, where soldiers locked up Muslim Bosniak women, children[Read More…]
Pakistani officials have privately begun confirming a secret visit to Islamabad of CIA Director William Burns and are suggesting that he was firmly told that Pakistan would not host the spy agency’s drone bases on its territory, according to the daily Dawn. This comes after New York Times in an article published on June 6 claimed that Mr Burns had[Read More…]
The Jewish Chronicle has bitterly criticized Pakistani You Tubers for their anti-Israel and anti-Jews mind-set and position. The world’s biggest video sharing platform is hosting extreme antisemitism in the Urdu language, the Jewish Chronicle said Friday. The rash of antisemitic clips, produced by YouTubers who attract millions of views, spread fake news about Israel, naked Jew-hatred and conspiracy theories about[Read More…]
The U.N. Human Right Council has passed a resolution aimed to intensify scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, after the U.N. rights chief said Israeli forces may have committed war crimes in their war with Hamas. The 11-day conflict killed at least 248 in Gaza, including 66 children and 39 women. In Israel, 12 people also died, including two children,[Read More…]
American Muslim civil advocacy groups have denounced what they called Israeli aggression on unarmed Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the largest coalition of major national, regional, and local Muslim organizations and Islamic institutions, strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan that Friday night (7 May / 25 Ramadan) alone seriously[Read More…]
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan says the army has become a “land grabber group.” His remarks came Wednesday during the hearing of three petitions against the Defense Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore. The Chief Justice directed DHA Administrator Brigadier Waheed Gul Satti to appear before the court along with the record of LHC’s 50-kanal land in possession of[Read More…]
More than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labor, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world. “Modern slavery is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human[Read More…]
The United Nations has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for Palestinian self-determination and end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967. The resolution was approved on Thursday by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee — the committee that deals with human rights and humanitarian affairs. It was passed 163 to 5, with 10 abstentions. Those who voted against were:[Read More…]
Three Muslim candidates were re-elected to the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s election. Ilhan Omar won in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District and Rashida Tlaib won in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District. They are the first Muslim women elected to the Congress in 2018. In Indiana, Rep. Andre’ Carson (D) won his re-election bid for the 7th District. US Representative Ilhan Omar[Read More…]
A rift between the Muslim world and France is widening, as leaders and the public in Muslim countries respond to the October 2 speech of President Emmanuel Macron saying Islam was “in crisis” globally. The fallout deepened with renewed Macron support to show caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and anti-France demonstrations on Friday in several Muslim countries. Tens of thousands[Read More…]
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned continued attacks and incitement against Muslim sentiment and insults of Prophet Muhammad, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. A statement by the 57-member pan-Islamic OIC criticized the “discourse from certain French politicians, which it deems to be harmful to the Muslim-French relations, hate-mongering and only serving partisan political interests.” It[Read More…]
The Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has asserted the Vatican’s right to pursue an accord with Beijing on the appointment of bishops that has been strongly criticized by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo met Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher on Thursday on a visit marked by Vatican irritation over[Read More…]
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said five or six more countries are ready to make peace with Israel, Times of Israel reported. However, he did not name those countries. Shortly before the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Trump said, “We’re very far down the road with about five additional countries… Frankly, I[Read More…]
The intended target of the UAE-Israel alliance is not Iran but Turkey, whose regional clout poses a threat to Gulf rulers, says David Hearst, the editor in chief of Middle East Eye. In an article titled – A new message resounds in the Arab world: Get Ankara – Hearst wrote Saturday: Israel had been saying for some time to Arab diplomats[Read More…]
19 years after the ghastly tragedy of 9/11, civil rights remains the major problem for the seven-million-strong American Muslim Community. The Covid-19 Pandemic shut down the US economy and disturbed the social life however even in this challenging times American Muslims were victims of hate crimes, discrimination and Islamophobia. Almost two decades after 9/11, American Muslims still dealing with the[Read More…]
A drama series telecast on the Saudi-controlled MBC during the holy month of Ramadan is being seen as a clear signal from Saudi Arabia about its growing ties with Israel, the Brussels Times said Tuesday. The TV series, ‘Umm Haroun’ (mother of Aaron), begins with a long monologue in Hebrew, in which a Jewish character says “we are the Gulf[Read More…]
San Francisco Wednesday became the sixth US city to pass a resolution against India’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The resolution, reaffirming San Francisco as a “welcoming city,” comes in the wake of five other cities (Seattle WA, Albany NY, St. Paul MN, Hamtramck MI, Cambridge MA) having passed similar resolutions denouncing the[Read More…]
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia a mosque on Friday hours after a top court ruled the ancient building’s conversion to a museum by modern Turkey’s founding statesman was illegal. “With this court ruling, and with the measures we took in line with the decision, Hagia Sophia became a mosque again, after 86 years, in the way Fatih[Read More…]
Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. Every year on July 11, newly identified victims of the genocide are laid to rest at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, eastern Bosnia. On Saturday, nine Bosnian men and boys were laid to rest, 25 years after[Read More…]
Justice Markandey Katju, a retired judge at the Supreme Court of India, has launched Ibaadatkahna movement to promote peace in South Asia. Ibaadatkahna, a non-partisan movement, was launched on December 8, 2019 at a unity dinner held at the Chandni Restaurant, Newark CA. The Unity event was attended by people from various faiths. Justice Markandey Katju was the key note[Read More…]
A Saudi national opened fire on a classroom at the Naval Air Station Pensacola (Florida), killing three people before he was shot to death by sheriff’s deputies in the second fatal shooting at a U.S. military installation this week. U.S. and Saudi government officials identified the gunman as Ahmed Mohammed al-Shamrani, who had been receiving aviation training at the base,[Read More…]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday (Nov 28) limited the three years extension in the term of Army Chief of Staff General (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa to six month. A three-member court bench led by the Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who retires in less than one month, on Wednesday (Nov. 27) suspended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s August 2019[Read More…]
India’s Supreme Court on Saturday granted Hindus permission to build a temple at the centuries-old site of Babri Mosque demolished in 1992 by Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) led right-wing mobs. In their unanimous and historic judgment, the five Supreme Court judges stated that the site rightfully belonged to Hindus, based upon the claim it is the birthplace of their god[Read More…]
Ghazala Hashmi on Tuesday (Nov. 5) became the first Muslim women elected to the Virginia Senate. Ghazala Hashmi, 55, upset the Republican incumbent Glen Sturtevant to represent a district based in Chesterfield County. With all 70 precincts reporting, Hashmi won 43,806 votes, while Sturtevant had 36,811 votes. Sturtevant narrowly won in 2015 against his Democratic opponent. Her victory helped to[Read More…]
US Congressman Ro Khanna’s tweet rejecting Hindutva echoed at the Cupertino Town Hall meeting called by the congressman earlier this month. Chinmoy Roy, a Khanna supporter who attended the Oct. 3 town hall meeting, told India-West that about 25 people stood outside, bearing placards reading: “Ro Khanna, Stand with Gandhi. Do not mix with bigots (alluding to Pieter Friedrich of the Organization[Read More…]
The first ever two-day Russia-Africa economic summit ended Thursday in the resort city Sochi, Russia resulting over 500 commercial agreements worth $12 billion. About four dozen African leaders and high-level government officials attended the summit and economic forum, from Nigerian President Muhammad Buhari to African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat. Over 40 African nations were represented by heads of[Read More…]
Pakistan on Monday (Oct 7) established the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority to speed up the delayed projects as Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Beijing The establishment of CPEC Authority was aimed at accelerating the pace of CPEC related activities. Multi-billion dollar CPEC was launched in 2015 and several projects under the first phase are close to completion.[Read More…]
Amid rising tension over Kashmir between the two nuclear neighbors, India and Pakistan, a new US study examines how such an hypothetical future nuclear conflict would have consequences that could ripple across the globe. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could, over the span of less than a week, kill 50 to 125 million people that is more than[Read More…]
Turkey has an ambitious plan to settle two million displaced Syrians in a 30 kilometer wide safe zone in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyi Erdogan unveiled the plan at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly last month. “Our aim is to settle 2 million Syrians, with the support of the international community, by providing a peace[Read More…]
Security forces in Egypt have clashed with hundreds of protesters in the port city of Suez, according to media reports, firing tear gas and live rounds to disperse crowds calling for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to quit, Al Jazeera reported Sunday (Sept 22). The unrest on Saturday came a day after thousands of people took to the streets in several Egyptian[Read More…]
In the aftermath of Houti rebels drone attack on Saudi oil installations, President Vladimir Putin Monday offered Russian missile system to Saudi Arabia which now relies on American armaments including Patriot Missile system. “We are ready to provide respective assistance to Saudi Arabia, and it would be enough for the political leadership of Saudi Arabia to make a wise government[Read More…]
With $295 billion 2019 defense budget, Saudi Arabia Saturday failed to stop a drone attack on its oil installations from the Yemeni rebel rag tag militia. Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and another major oil field, sparking huge fires. The facilities are operated by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned[Read More…]
18 years after the ghastly tragedy of 9/11, the seven-million strong American Muslim community remains at the receiving end with President Trump’s demonization of Muslims to bigotry, to hate crimes, to widespread discrimination, to media coverage that links Islam with terrorism. Tellingly, attack on Muslims and their faith is coming from our top political leadership. I mean from our President.[Read More…]
A high ranking US official said Thursday (Sept 5) that Washington was in talks with the Houthi rebels in a bid to end Yemen’s war. “We are narrowly focused on trying to end the war in Yemen,” US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told reporters during a visit to Al-Kharj air base near the Saudi[Read More…]
Pakistan army’s spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor Wednesday (Sept 4) categorically denied rumors regarding the establishment of relations between Pakistan and Israel. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad General Ghafoor said rumors such as these are spread as part of ‘fifth-generation warfare’. “We are the only country in the world whose passport refuses entry to Israel; we have had this[Read More…]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (Sept 3) cancelled a planned visit to India on September 9 to meet his counterpart Narendra Modi who last month annexed the disputed territory of Kashmir. This is the second time this year that Netanyahu on has cancelled a planned visit to India, doing so earlier before the April elections. Netanyahu’s planned visit[Read More…]
Egyptian President Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s security forces have killed 17 pro Muslim Brotherhood persons in the latest incident of extra judicial killing. The security forces claimed that the people killed were involved in a car bomb near the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that killed more than 20 people in Cairo on August 4. However, how the way the[Read More…]
Amid mounting tension over India’s annexation of Kashmir, Pakistan has successfully carried out the night training launch of a surface to surface ballistic missile. The missile “is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to 290 kilometres”, said military media spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor via a tweet, which also included a video of the launch. The missile is[Read More…]
The specter of nuclear war haunts tensions between India and Pakistan, and the disputed territory of Kashmir could provide the spark that lights South Asia’s nuclear fuse, warns Strafor, a geopolitical intelligence think tank that provides strategic analysis and forecasting to individuals and organizations around the world. With passions again running high in Kashmir, the stakes for the region and[Read More…]
In an apparent shift in its ‘no first use of nuclear option’ doctrine, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said Friday (August 16) that while India has strictly adhered to Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s doctrine of ‘No First Use’ (NFU) of nuclear weapons, “what happens in future depends on the circumstances”. In a visit to Pokhran in western India, the site of[Read More…]
Mondoweiss, a progressive Jewish media, Friday published a researched article by Zainab Ramahi, a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, comparing the struggle of the people of Kashmir and Palestine. Zainab Ramahi argues that reviewing the literature on the Indian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and its origins, it is not hard to draw the connection to Israel’s[Read More…]
Shi Jiangtao, a former diplomat writing in the South China Morning Post, says a fresh row between Beijing and New Delhi over India’s decision to split the hotly contested region of Kashmir into two territories could cast fresh uncertainty over bilateral ties amid signs of growing strategic competition. Parts of Kashmir are claimed by the two regional giants as well[Read More…]
Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center, has warned that Indian Prime Minister Narenra Modi’s sudden move in Kashmir could backfire badly. “Sure enough, on Aug. 5, India announced that it plans to revoke Article 370, a constitutional clause dating back to 1949 that gives Jammu and Kashmir its special autonomous status. The scale of this move cannot[Read More…]
Apparently taking que from Israeli policy to implant Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government Monday (August 5) revoked the special status of Jammu Kashmir under articles 35A and 370 of the constitution which forbid Indians from outside the region from buying land or permanently settling in the Muslim-majority territory.By repealing Article 370 of[Read More…]
There are hardly two opinions that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Banks were implementing predatory economic policies of the West. The poor countries are now in the IMF and World Bank debt trap. The rise in debt has been swelled, with external sovereign loans to developing country governments more than doubling from $191 billion per year in[Read More…]
There was a pandemonium in India over President Donald Trump’s statement on the Kashmir issue. At a White House press conference Monday (July 22) with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, President Donald Trump said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate the Kashmir conflict. Trump said that Modi had discussed the subject with him during their meeting[Read More…]
In an apparent retaliation of the capture of an Iranian oil tanker by Gibraltar, a British colony, Iran Friday (July 19) captured a British oil tanker. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Friday that the vessel named “Stena Impero” had been impounded “at the request of Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Organization when passing through the Strait of[Read More…]
The Democrats-led US House of Representatives Tuesday (July 16) formally condemned President Donald Trump’s Twitter posts as racist. The House vote was split largely along party lines despite pressure for Republicans to denounce the president’s attacks on four Democratic Congresswomen that they should “go back” to where they came from. The vote, 240-187, fell nearly entirely along party lines with only four Republicans voting[Read More…]
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday (July 17) rejected India’s request to ‘acquit, release and return’ of its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced by Pakistan on charges of espionage, however, asked Pakistan to provide him consular access. President of the ICJ Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf from Somalia read out the operational part of the decision in a[Read More…]
Turkey commemorated Monday the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt, allegedly orchestrated by the US-based self-exiled Turkish Imam Fethullah Gülen President Recep Tayyip Erdogan laid flowers on the July 15 Martyrs Monument in the Presidential Complex early in the morning. Erdogan, along with relatives of martyrs and veterans, went to the Bestepe Millet mosque for prayer services for the martyrs.[Read More…]
President Donald Trump’s racist tweets against four congresswomen saying go back to their “totally broken and crime infested” countries of origin, were widely condemned Sunday (July 14). “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even[Read More…]
Turkey on Friday (July 12) received first shipment of Russian S-400 missile defense system hardware from Russia, Turkish Defense Ministry announced. “The first batch of equipment of S-400 missile defense system, which is procured to meet Turkey’s air and missile defense needs, has started to arrive at Murted Air Base in Ankara,” the ministry said in a statement. The second Russian[Read More…]
July 11 marks the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the worst atrocity on European soil since the World War Two. In July, 1995, Serb forces systematically killed more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in the UN-protected enclave in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Al Jazeera provides a graphic account of the Srebrenica genocide. On July 11, 1995 at 16:15 General Ratko[Read More…]
Former Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday (July 9) ‘Our conflict is with the entire Muslim world, with the entire Arab world.’ Speaking at a campaign trail meeting in Kiryat Ono, the Yisrael Beiteinu party head described the “conflict” as “three-dimensional” – “with the Arab countries, with the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.” “We do not have a separate conflict[Read More…]
The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) said Tuesday (July 3) as many as 3,185 civilians have been extra-judicially killed by Egyptian security forces since July 3, 2013 when the US-client General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi overthrew the government of President Mohammad Morsi who was the first democratically elected President of Egypt. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has now assumed the title of[Read More…]
The United States on Tuesday (July 2) declared Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a global terrorist organization. The US State Department said it was classifying the BLA as a global terrorist group, making it a crime for anyone in the United States to assist the militants and freezing any US assets they may have. “The BLA is an armed separatist[Read More…]
The US State Department in its annual 2018 International Religious Freedom Report says Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018, amid rumors that victims had traded or killed cows for beef and the authorities often protected perpetrators from prosecution. The US report also said that some senior officials of[Read More…]
The government of Pakistan on Friday (June 21) appointed an 11-member Commission of Inquiry to determine if increase in external debt between 2008 and 2018 was justified by infrastructure development program or misused by public office-holders of the last two governments of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Headed by Deputy Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau[Read More…]
The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a conglomerate of major American Muslim civil advocacy groups, Tuesday (June 18) joined international calls for an investigation into the death of the former President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo’s Kangaroo court. In a statement, the USCMO said the “public” collapse and death of President Morsi in court in his soundproofed cage warrant suspicion[Read More…]
At the start of 2019, the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea had a total of some 13,865 nuclear weapons, according to a new report by the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). That represents a decrease of 600 nuclear weapons compared to the start of 2018 but all nuclear weapon-possessing countries are modernizing[Read More…]
Egypt’s former President Mohamed Morsi died in a kangaroo court Monday (June 17). The public prosecutor said the 67-year-old Morsi collapsed in a defendants’ cage in the courtroom and was pronounced dead in hospital. Morsi had a history of health issues, including diabetes and liver and kidney disease. He had suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment, compounded by[Read More…]
Pakistan’s self-exiled leader Altaf Hussain was arrested on Tuesday (June 11) from his residence in London. He was arrested in an early morning raid by a team of the Scotland Yard. The arrest has sent shockwaves across Pakistan as Hussain once ruled Karachi, the country’s commercial capital, with an iron fist, shutting down the entire city in mere seconds with[Read More…]
Former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari was arrested Monday (June 10) by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in mega money laundering case. Asif Zardari was taken to NAB office in Rawalpindi where he was shifted to cell no 2. The former president will be presented before the accountability court on Tuesday where the NAB will appeal for his remand.[Read More…]
Turkey will start getting S-400 Russian anti-missile systems within two months amid escalating dispute between Ankara and Washington over the purchase of Russian anti-missile system. “We will begin delivery of the S-400s to Turkey within two months,” Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov announced on Friday (June 7) during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). He noted that the agreement was already[Read More…]
The 14th Islamic Summit Conference ended Friday Night (May 31) in Mecca. A final statement accused Iran of supporting Yemen’s Houthi rebel group; illegally occupying three islands in the Persian Gulf; and “interfering” in the domestic affairs of both Syria and Bahrain. Not surprisingly, the Mecca summit reiterated support for Saudi/western-backed Yemeni government of President Abdu Rabuh Mansour Hadi which[Read More…]
Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has signed death warrants for two army and one civil officer on charges of espionage and leakage of sensitive information to foreign agencies prejudicial to the national security, the army announced Thursday (May 30). Lieutenant General (retd) Javed Iqbal Awan was awarded 14 years rigorous imprisonment by the Field[Read More…]
While the entire country was seeing a video clip of Muslim youths being thrashed black and blue on the suspicion of carrying beef, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a meeting of National Democratic Alliance’s newly elected members of Parliament, Times of India reported. On May 22, the day before counting of votes, three Muslims, including a couple, were beaten[Read More…]
China hosted a two-day Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations (CDAC), to boost exchanges and mutual learning among Asian civilizations. The CDAC theme was “Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Asian Civilizations and A Community with A Shared Future.” It brought together more than 2,000 government officials and representatives of various circles from 47 Asian countries and other nations outside the[Read More…]
– Washington Post: Modi’s win is a victory for a form of religious nationalism that views India as a fundamentally Hindu nation and seeks to jettison the secularism promoted by the country’s founders. – The Guardian: Indian politics has likely entered a new era of Hindu nationalist hegemony fuelled by Modi’s extraordinary popularity. – New York Times: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is[Read More…]
The last decade has witnesses intensified attacks on Muslim, Christian, Sikh and ‘lower castes’ in India, according to a study released recently by the University of California, Berkeley. This first of its kind report on the status of Islamophobia in India is meant to provide a groundbreaking collection of evidence and provide a reference point for all future work[Read More…]
The people have to pay dearly and long for the sins and crimes of their leaders – Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore. After appointing an ex-IMF official as Finance Minister and another ex-IMF official as State Bank of Pakistan Governor, the government of Pakistan has assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of increasing electricity and gas prices[Read More…]
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fiercely condemned what he called “Israeli terrorism” after the Gaza office for the Turkish news agency was destroyed during the latest round of hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. “We strongly condemn Israel’s attack against Anadolu Agency’s office in Gaza,” Erdoğan said on twitter and added: “Turkey and Anadolu Agency will continue to tell the[Read More…]
After declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, the Trump administration is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign “terrorist” organization. “The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders[Read More…]
Judge Pitman of the Western District of Texas Thursday (April 25) issued a 56-page opinion striking down H.B. 89, the Texas Anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Act, as facially unconstitutional. The Court held that the Texas Anti-BDS Act “threatens to suppress unpopular ideas” and “manipulate the public debate” on Israel and Palestine “through coercion rather than persuasion.” The Court concluded:[Read More…]
A series of coordinated bombings struck three churches and three hotels on Easter Sunday killing 207 people in the worst attacks in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war 10 years ago. At least 450 people were wounded in total of eight explosions. According to police several of the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. Most of[Read More…]
President Donald Trump has rejected a resolution from the Congress to end the 4-year old Yemen war which has killed tens of thousands of people and spawned what the United Nations calls the world’s most dire humanitarian crisis, with the country on the brink of famine. The resolution passed the House of Representatives in April and the Senate in March,[Read More…]
More than seven years after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow and brutal murder (on October 20, 2011) the situation remains in flux as former CIA-asset General Khalifa Haftar’s forces launched an offensive against the forces loyal to the western-installed Libyan government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), at[Read More…]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a hotly contested bid for a fourth term, tweeted Monday (April8) that the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization at his request, Los Angeles Times reported from Jerusalem. “Thank you, my dear friend, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, for having decided to designate Iran’s[Read More…]
The Trump administration is preparing to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, the Wall Street Journal Friday quoted U.S. officials as saying. The WSJ said this step that would vastly escalate the American pressure campaign against Tehran but which has divided U.S. officials. The decision, which could be announced as early as Monday following months[Read More…]
The seven-million strong American Muslim Community was alarmed at the White Supremacist terror attacks on two mosques in New Zealand where gunmen entered the mosques and began to shoot and kill Muslim parishioners indiscriminately during the Friday prayer services. At least 49 Muslims were killed and another 48 injured. New Zealand Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed children among shooting victims. An[Read More…]
The seven-million American Muslims remained at the receiving end since 9/11/2001 through reconfiguration of US laws, policies and priorities but their plight has taken a new twist under President Donald Trump whose anti-Muslim, anti-immigration policies and rhetoric alarmingly fomented hate crimes against them. The xenophobic rhetoric and anti-Muslim fear-mongering enjoys unprecedented influence with Donald Trump’s most vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric as[Read More…]
New York Times says Pakistan has eagerly turned more toward China as the chill with the United States has deepened and some of China’s biggest projects in Pakistan had clear strategic implications. In a report about Pakistan’s deepening ties with China, the paper pointed out that under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] Pakistan is cooperating with China on distinctly defense-related projects,[Read More…]
Days before Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Turkey, Pakistan has declared US-based Fethullah Gulen’s FETO group a terrorist organization. The Supreme Court on Friday (Dec 28) directed the Ministry of Interior to declare Pak-Turk International Cag Education Foundation (PTICEF) of Gulen group as a ‘proscribed organization.’ The judgment said the Pak-Turk International Cag Education Foundation is declared a terrorist[Read More…]
The Anti-Corruption Court in Islamabad on Monday (December 24) sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison for graft, while a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted on the orders of the Supreme Court to investigate the multi-billion rupees fake accounts scam, has held former President Asif Zardari responsible for the suspicious transactions. Nawaz Sharif could not prove[Read More…]
A report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) says, “Dalits and Adivasis – two of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society – make up a considerable number of India’s prison population.” Adivasi is the collective term for the indigenous peoples of mainland South Asia. Adivasi make up 8.2% of India’s population, or 104 million people, according to the[Read More…]
An Egyptian Kangaroo Court Sunday (Nov. 25, 2018) confirmed the penalty after being convicted in the death of Hisham Barakat, who was killed in a car bombing in eastern Cairo in 2015, according to the official MENA news agency. The son of senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Taha Wahdan was among those condemned to death. There have been no credible[Read More…]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday (Nov 24) called for Muslim unity and resistance against what he called “hostile” policies of the United States and Israel. “Muslims have no way but to remain united in order to achieve victory over the US and fight its blatant oppression,” Rouhani told the 32nd International Islamic Unity Conference which kicked off in the[Read More…]
A major TV network of Pakistan, SAMA, has strongly advocated for recognition of the Jewish entity, Israel, by the government of Imran Khan. Anchor of a popular SAMA program Khara Sach (Naked Truth), Mubashir Luqman, Monday (Nov 19) called on the government of Pakistan to recognize Israel because Saudi Arabia is about to recognize and “we should do before them.”[Read More…]
The 19th Century British politician, Lord Palmerston was of the view that: “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.” Henry Kissinger rephrased it: “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” This applies to Russia which hosted the Taliban for peace talks in Moscow attended by Afghanistan, India, Iran, China, Pakistan and five former[Read More…]
Pakistan Thursday (Nov 8) expressed concern over Indian nuclear submarine patrol. Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, said on Monday (Nov 5) the INS Arihant was a “fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail”. Foreign Office Spokesperson, Dr Mohammad Faisal, said Pakistan has taken notice of a first “deterrence patrol” of an Indian nuclear submarine and subsequent “self-congratulatory messages[Read More…]
Three Muslim candidates were elected to the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s election. Ilhan Omar won in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District and Rashida Tlaib won in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District. They are the first Muslim women elected to the Congress. In Indiana, Rep. André Carson (D) won his re-election bid for the 7th District. More than 90 American Muslims ran for office this year at[Read More…]
In a replay of 1977 anti-government demonstration against the government of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the government of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing violent protests by religious parties to destabilize the newly elected government. In 1977, the so-called Pakistan National Alliance, comprising three main religious parties – Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), some other[Read More…]
A large proportion of mainstream Americans think Islam is incompatible with American values, according to a survey by the New America foundation and the American Muslim Institute. The “Americans’ Views of Muslims Survey” was conducted leading up to the midterm elections in November 2018 – a time period when myths and misinformation about Muslims have figured prominently in some local,[Read More…]
Three members of the Kansas militia – Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen – who were convicted of planning to massacre Somali Muslim refugees by bombing a mosque and apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, should be granted leniency in their sentence because they were inspired by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric that encouraged the violence, lawyers for the men[Read More…]
American Muslim civil advocacy groups have strongly denounced the killing of worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh PA. In solidarity with the Jewish community two Muslim organizations have raised around $200,000 to help victims and their families of the synagogue shooting. Robert Bowers, a white supremacist stormed into the synagogue during Sabbath and fired upon innocent[Read More…]
Pakistan President Arif Alvi on Sunday (Oct 28) ruled out establishing any kind of relations with Israel as he strongly rejected reports that an Israeli aircraft carrying some officials secretly landed in Islamabad and flew away after several hours at the airport here. “Islamabad is not establishing any kind of relations with Israel,” President Alvi told the media before his[Read More…]
After weeks of speculation, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (Oct 23) stepped forward with a $6 billion bailout package for Pakistan’s ailing economy. The package includes $3 billion balance of payments support and another $3bn in deferred payments on oil imports. The Saudi package may provide breathing space to the government for dealing with economic challenges, but would not be[Read More…]
Russian troops are participating in joint exercises with the Pakistani army in the northern Pakistani town of Pabbi, 20 miles from the historic town Peshawar. A statement from the Pakistan army’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) pointed out that this is the third round of joint Pak-Russia exercise since 2016. The second Pak-Russia joint training exercise was held in[Read More…]
Turkey has recently signed a military cooperation agreement with Kuwait, member of the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). According to the agreement, signed during the Turkey-Kuwait Military Cooperation Committee meeting, the two countries are planning to share their military experiences and coordinate their activities beginning in 2019. The GCC alliance includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United[Read More…]
The Tablighi Jamaat, a non-political group which concentrates on individual piety, has split in recent years into three major groups over leadership issue. Since its inception in 1929, the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) had its global headquarters in Basti Nizamuddin in New Delhi, India. However in recent years Maulana Saad Khandalvi, grandson of the TJ founder Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi has claimed sole[Read More…]
Pakistan’s latest announcement about Saudi Arabia’s investment in an oil refinery at the strategic port of Gwadar has set alarm bells ringing in India. James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, says that Saudi’ oil refinery in Gwadar Port could threaten Iran’s India-backed Chabahar Port. The deal[Read More…]
Egyptian military junta led by US-client Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has executed 32 people since al-Sisi overthrew the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. According to the New Khaleej, Egyptian authorities have executed 32 people in nine cases since the coup d’état while 64 people are awaiting the death penalty in 13 other cases. There is no precise[Read More…]
The US-client regime of Field Marshal Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi continues mass executions spree as an Egyptian kangaroo court sentences another 75 anti-government people to death. According to Reuters report, an Egyptian kangaroo court sentenced 75 people to death on Saturday (Sept 8) including prominent opposition leaders Essam al-Erian and Mohamed Beltagi over a 2013 sit-in which ended with killing hundreds[Read More…]
17 years after 9/11 terrorist attacks, American Muslims remain on the receiving end since 9/11/2001 but their plight has taken a new twist under President Donald Trump whose anti-Muslim policies alarmingly fomented hate crimes against them. According to a report released in July by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization,[Read More…]
The Maldives has asked India to withdraw its military choppers and personnel posted in the island as the Indo-Maldives agreement has expired in June 2018. The Maldives’ ambassador in India, Ahmed Mohamed, told Reuters that two military helicopters provided by India were mainly used for medical evacuations but were no longer required as the islands had built up enough resources[Read More…]
An Egyptian Kangaroo Court Saturday (July 28) sentenced 75 supporters of the former President Mohammad Morsi to death. Egyptian Kangaroo courts are on death sentences spree since the overthrow of Mohammad Morsi, the first democratically election president of Egypt by US client General Abdel Fattah el-Sissi who has since assumed the title of Field Marshall. Last month Egypt’s Zagazig Criminal[Read More…]
According to Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, between 2014 and March, 2018, 45 people were killed in mob lynchings across nine states in India. In the latest example, a group of villagers beat to death 28-year-old Akbar Khan in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, an incident that came to light just five days after the Supreme Court urged the Center to frame a[Read More…]
Turkey last week commemorated the second anniversary of an abortive coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that left nearly 290 people dead and hundreds wounded. On July 15, 2016, renegade factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow President Erdogan. Clashes took place in Istanbul, Ankara and Marmaris, where Erdogan was on holiday and[Read More…]
Five year after the overthrow of first democratically elected President Mohammad Morsi on July 3, 2013, Egyptian President, Field Marshall Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi’s government continues to rule with worst human rights violations as police systematically used torture, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances to silence political dissent. Egypt’s human rights crisis continued unabated, says Amnesty International. “The authorities used torture and[Read More…]
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, Tuesday (June 26, 2018) ruled in favor of the third iteration of President Donald Trump’s travel ban (known as Muslim Ban 3.0) on five Muslim countries. In his decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Trump had used his executive authority to “suspend entry of aliens into the United States.” “The [order] is[Read More…]
Right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has accused the Indian churches of conspiring with the Vatican to destabilize Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The Hindutva organization’s accusation came after the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Father Filipe Neri Ferrao, wrote a letter to churches saying the Constitution is in danger. In May, Archbishop of Delhi Anil Couto had said in a[Read More…]
Egypt’s top kangaroo court upheld on Saturday (May 12) jail terms from seven to 10 years against 65 loyalists of the currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group over committing acts of violence in 2013 in the capital Cairo, official MENA news agency reported. The rulings of the Court of Cassation are final and un-appealable. The convicts have been accused of holding[Read More…]
Pakistani authorities have imposed “reciprocal” restrictions on the movement of U.S. diplomats in the country after Washington took similar measures, the Associated Press reported Friday. A letter sent to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad says the restrictions will be implemented Friday. The move comes after the U.S. required Pakistani diplomats to get permission five days in advance to travel[Read More…]
A group of 18 GOP lawmakers led by Rep. Luke Messer of Indiana, have formally nominated President Donald Trump for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his work toward peace in the Korean Peninsula. The nomination letter states that President Trump has worked “tirelessly to apply maximum pressure to North Korea to end its illicit weapons programs and bring peace[Read More…]
An Egyptian Kangaroo Court Wednesday (April 4) sentenced 35 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life in prison for allegedly forming “terrorist cells” to attack security forces and state institutions. The Sohag Criminal Court sentenced another 155 defendants to three to 15 years on similar charges, including plotting to kill public figures and security officials, and joining an outlawed group,[Read More…]
China pledged to continue to respect and protect its citizens’ freedom of religious belief in a white paper published Tuesday (April 3). As a socialist country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China adopts policies on freedom of religious belief based on national and religious conditions to protect citizens’ right to freedom of religious belief,[Read More…]
Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has won re-election as Egypt’s president, according to preliminary results reported by a number of state media outlets, showing el-Sisi winning 92 percent of the vote. The official MENA news agency and the state-owned newspapers al-Ahram and Akhbar el-Youm said on Thursday that 23 million out of the 60 million registered voters – 40[Read More…]
The Maldives’ ambassador to China Mohamed Faisal says that the country would push ahead with Chinese projects and seek more investment from the country, regardless of concerns raised by regional power India. His statement to South China Morning Post came after Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen lifted a state of emergency on Thursday March 22 after 45 days. Rivalry between China[Read More…]
China has sold Pakistan a powerful tracking system in an unprecedented deal that could speed up the Pakistani military’s development of multi-warhead missiles, South China Morning Post has reported. News of the sale – and evidence that China is supporting Pakistan’s rapidly developing missile program – comes two months after India tested its most advanced nuclear-ready intercontinental ballistic missile[Read More…]
“Why won’t Trump call Austin bomber what he is? A Terrorist,” this is the title of the story by Alice Salles of Carbonated TV. The Austin bombing suspect is being called a domestic terrorist by people on social media, but why won’t the media and the White House call him that?, she writes. While police are still unsure of Mark[Read More…]
The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a right wing Hindu nationalist political party in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, released a Hindu New Year calendar which says that Taj Mahal along with several mosques and monuments from the Mughal era, are “Hindu Temples,” Times of India reported Monday (March 19). The calendar refers to Taj Mahal as “Tejo[Read More…]
Chinese military releases video of aircraft on smooth runs in country’s mountainous southwest, suggesting advances to problem-plagued AL-31F engines, South China Morning Post has reported. Footage of Chinese warplanes on drills in the country’s mountainous southwest suggest the military has overcome engine problems plaguing the aircraft at high altitudes, sounding a warning to regional rival India. Video of Chengdu[Read More…]
China has become the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). China replaces Britain in the top five arms-dealing countries between 2008 and 2012, a group dominated by the United States and Russia, which accounted for 30 percent and 26 percent of weapons exports, SIPRI said Monday March 13. Germany and France ranked[Read More…]
An Egyptian Kangaroo court Saturday (March 10) sentenced 10 people to death and five others to life in prison for allegedly forming a “terrorist group” to plot attacks on security forces and other institutions. The state-run MENA news agency said the defendants are affiliated with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. MENA said three of the 15 defendants were sentenced in[Read More…]
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) state government of Yogi Adityanath continued allowing police encounters since BJP came to power in the state in March 2017, Caravan News of India reported Monday (Feb. 26, 2018). In 10 months of its regime, the state police conducted 1038 encounters killing 32 alleged criminals, and the Yogi government has officially boasted of these killings.[Read More…]
President Trump’s first year in office proved to be just as racially divisive as his campaign — but even more consequential, says the Southern Poverty Law Center report released on Wednesday (Feb. 21). “President Trump in 2017 reflected what white supremacist groups want to see: a country where racism is sanctioned by the highest office, immigrants are given the[Read More…]
A panel of 13 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., Thursday (Feb. 15) declared Trump’s Muslim ban (3.0) illegal and unconstitutional. The appeals court in International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump stayed its decision pending resolution of a related case that is already at the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, Trump[Read More…]
A suicide bomber killed at least 11 Pakistani army soldiers and injured 13 at an army camp in Sawat Valley on Saturday (Feb 3). An army Captain was among those who died in the bombing. Army officials in Swat told the press that the soldiers were playing a volleyball match outside their base camp in Kabal in lower Swat[Read More…]
A fig leaf of democracy is being developed in Egypt amid persecution of opposition, mass executions and imposition of state of emergency to give wide powers to suppress all kind of dissent of a quazi-military government of US-client President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohammad Morsi in July 2013. The presidential election in Egypt[Read More…]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the United States “does not want to keep Syria as a state in its current borders”, accusing Washington of seeking to establish a Kurdish-controlled entity along Turkish and Iraqi border zones. Speaking at an annual press conference in Moscow to review the past year’s diplomatic activities on Monday Jan 13, Lavrov said:[Read More…]
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov has said that his country was supplying military equipment to Pakistan. Morgulov’s statement came on Thursday (Jan 18) in a geo-political conference organized jointly by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and an Indian think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF). The Russian Minister was joined in the discussion by the Indian Minister of State[Read More…]
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Saturday (Jan 13) that Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s remarks about Pakistan amount to “invitation for nuclear encounter”. Asif was reacting to Rawat’s Wednesday remark that his forces are ready to call Pakistan’s “nuclear bluff” and cross the border to carry out any operation if asked by the government. “We will[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia is seeking to buy Israeli defense systems and working with Israel to prevent Iran’s expansion in the Middle East, according to the Swiss newspaper Basler Zeitung. Basler Zeitung reported on Monday (Jan 8) a “secret alliance” between Saudi Arabia and Israel, intended “to restrain Iran’s expansion in the region, despite the absence of any official relations between the[Read More…]
The Trump administration announced Monday, Jan 8, that it will end “temporary protected status” (TPS) that was first granted to Salvadorans nearly two decades ago. Roughly 263,000 people from El Salvador are covered by the program, which allowed the immigrants to stay and work in the United States legally. According to Gabe Ortiz of Daily Kos, with this marking[Read More…]
Pakistan’s alliance with the United States seems to be coming towards an end following the US decision to suspend security aid, Pakistan Minister of Foreign Affairs Khawaja Asif told the Wall Street Journal on Friday (Jan. 5). Asif said he believes the US-Pakistan relations are now at risk, especially after the tensions heightened and moods turned sour when President Donald Trump[Read More…]
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed deep shock over the execution of 20 people in Egypt within one week, amid concerns that due process and fair trial guarantees did not appear to have been followed. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday, January 2, five men who had[Read More…]
A day after bitter criticism of Pakistan from President Donald Trump, China supported Pakistan by lauding its efforts for “outstanding contribution against terrorism” which should be acknowledged by “the international community”. At the regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, on Tuesday was asked: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US has[Read More…]
In an alarming development for India, after a meeting of foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Beijing on Tuesday (Dec 26), Chinese foreign minister Wang said China and Pakistan are willing to find out ways to extend China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the $57 billion project, to Afghanistan. Wang said China hoped the economic corridor could benefit the whole[Read More…]
The seven-million American Muslims remained under siege since 9/11/2001 through reconfiguration of US laws, policies and priorities but their plight has taken a new twist under President Donald Trump whose anti-Muslim policies alarmingly fomented hate crimes against them. The xenophobic rhetoric and anti-Muslim fear-mongering enjoys unprecedented influence with Donald Trump’s most vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric as typified by his election campaign[Read More…]
Apparently, in a reconfiguration of positions in the geopolitics, Turkey, a NATO-member, has signed a $2 billion deal to buy the S-400 Russian air defense missile system while Russian Duma voted on Thursday (Dec. 21) to extend Russia’s lease of a naval base in Syria for 49 years, Vladimir Kozhin, a presidential aide who oversees Russia’s matters of military cooperation,[Read More…]
Fulfilling his election promise, President Donald Trump announced on December 6, recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, this reversal of longtime U.S. policy did not come out of blue. A series of reports published since December 6, unveil the role of major Arab countries in Trump’s not-unexpected announcement. Israeli journalist and head of the Arab desk at[Read More…]
American Muslim civil advocacy groups Thursday (Dec 7) vehemently opposed President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. They were of the view that Trump’s announcement serves no one’s interest but undermines the Middle East peace process couple with inflaming anti-U.S. sentiment across the globe. On Wednesday,[Read More…]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his Iranian and Turkish counterparts have supported a proposal to hold a “Syrian people’s congress” that will bring together government and opposition figures. The Russian President on Wednesday (Nov 22) hosted Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, just as some Syrian opposition groups met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, before United Nations-sponsored talks in Geneva.[Read More…]
As many as a million children have been orphaned by the war in Syria which is in its sixth year, Aljazeera reported Sunday (Nov 19). The UN has warned against the dangers facing children without parents such as lack of education, trafficking and being indoctrinated by armed groups. Many children are living in orphanages being run by local charities[Read More…]
Sixty nine years after Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, a “shrine” dedicated to his killer Nathuram Godse was set up in Guwalior by the Hindu Mahasabha on Wednesday (Nov 15), Hindustan Times reported. The ultra right wing organization installed a bust of Godse inside its office premises amid Vedic chants to mark the anniversary of his[Read More…]
Incidents of hate crimes, particularly against African-Americans, Jews and Muslims, went up to 6,121 during 2016, seeing an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday (Nov. 13). A hate crime is defined by the FBI as a “criminal offence against a person or property[Read More…]
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday (Nov.13) allowed President Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban 3.0 to go partially into effect, exempting persons with ‘bona fide relationships’ to the US. The Monday order means the ban will apply to people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad who do not have connections to the United States.[Read More…]
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Saturday (Nov 11) denied Turkey’s involvement in an alleged plot involving former U.S security adviser Michael Flynn to kidnap U.S.-based controversial cleric Fetullah Gulen, allegedly behind last year’s coup attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Extraditing Gulen is a major priority for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In an interview with CNN television host Fareed[Read More…]
The Indian government on Thursday said it has sought details about the US announcement to provide nearly USD 500,000 to NGOs to promote religious freedom in India. The US has announced it wants to “increase societal tolerance” and reduce “religiously-motivated violence” and discrimination in India with the nearly $500,000 grant to NGOs in the country. The state department had[Read More…]
‘If a guy named Mohammad blew up that church yesterday. O my God, O my God, Washington would be on fire,” says MSNBC Moring Joe Host. Joe Scarboroug was alluding to Sunday’s shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas that killed at least 26 people and injured 19. Just last week after New York president immediately talked[Read More…]
The seven-million strong American Muslim community fears a backlash after the Tuesday (Oct. 31) attack in New York when a driver ploughed a truck through crowds in lower Manhattan killing eight and injuring a dozen more. Imam Mohammad Qatanani, spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Passaic County (N.J.), said: “People here feel they will be blamed as a[Read More…]
A federal judge in Hawaii on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump’s third Muslim travel ban, just hours before it was set to take effect on Wednesday October 18. Trump issued a proclamation on September 24 restricting travel to the US from nationals of eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, North Korea and[Read More…]
Civil advocacy groups are disappointed at the Supreme Court order on Muslim Ban 2.0. The Supreme Court of the United States Tuesday (Oct 10) issued an order in Trump vs. International Refugee Assistance Project dismissing the case from its docket. The case had been before the Court after a lower court blocked the President’s second attempt to impose a[Read More…]
An Egyptian Court sentenced eight people to death Tuesday and 50 others to life in prison for their role in a case known as the storming of Helwan Police Station. According to prosecution, on 14 August 2013 protesters stormed Helwan Police Station, which led to the killing of three police officers and two civilians. The police station and 20[Read More…]
Civil rights groups and Democrats Friday condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of disobeying a court verdict ordering his agency to stop racially profiling Latinos. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted the move “makes a mockery of rule of law, & says communities of color can be targeted & abused[Read More…]
Beijing and Moscow have come to Pakistan’s defense in light of President Donald Trump’s Afghan and Pakistan strategy unveiled on Monday. After China’s strong message defending Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan and asking the global community to acknowledge its sacrifices in war against terrorism, Russia has echoed similar sentiments following US President Donald Trump’s allegations that Pakistan was offering safe[Read More…]
Perhaps taking cue from the Trump fomented rising tide of ultra-rightists, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, Australia’s rightwing One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson Thursday (August 17) staged a burqa stunt to stir anti-Muslim sentiments. Pauline Hanson Thursday appeared in the Australian Senate clad in ‘burqa’ but drew rebuke from the Attorney General George Brandis, who said: “Senator Hanson, I’m[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has told two former US officials that he “wants out” of the two-year war he started in Yemen, and that he is not against US rapprochement with Iran, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday (August 15) quoting leaked emails published by Middle East Eye. The revelation sheds light on the thinking of Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz[Read More…]
Turkish and Qatari navies have carried out a joint exercise as Qatar’s economic blockade by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries entered into third month. The Qatari military said the exercise was aimed at exchanging information, training senior military officials, and improving coordination between the two forces to boost security. Brigadier Hadi Rashid Al Shahwani, commander of the exercise,[Read More…]
The seven-million strong American Muslim community is alarmed over Saturday’s mosque bombing in Minnesota, which the community sees as a further evidence of an anti-Muslim backlash that has worsened in recent months. A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked the Dar Al Farooq Center before dawn Saturday (August 5), just as a small[Read More…]
Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif’s third term in power ended Friday (July 28) unceremoniously after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding public office in a landmark unanimous decision on the so-called Panama Papers case. “The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) shall issue a notification disqualifying Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif from being a member of the[Read More…]
The final version of Turkey’s national school curriculum has left evolution out and added the concept of jihad as part of Islamic law in books. Announcing the new school curriculum, Turkish Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz told a press conference in Ankara on Monday, “Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday there will be no mercy for traitors. Speaking at a rally in Istanbul to mark one year of a failed coup, Erdogan warned to “chop off the heads” of traitors. The opposition says his call for “chopping off the heads” may return the capital punishment abolished in August 2002, in a bid[Read More…]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is expected to decide the fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when it takes up the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report on Monday, July 17. The JIT has charged the ruling family with perjury, having disproportionate income and living beyond their means. Two judges of the court have already declared the Prime Minister as not[Read More…]
The seven-million-strong American Muslim Community Sunday (July 9) mourned the death of Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, a prolific author and professor whose career centered on dismantling stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in the US media. He was perhaps most famous for his book “Reel Bad Arabs,” where he chronicled over 900 movies where Arabs were represented negatively. In addition[Read More…]
A major scuffle has erupted along the India-China border as Chinese troops entered the Indian state of Sikkim and destroyed two Indian bunkers. Chinese troops also engaged in a fight with Indian troops, who were guarding the border at the location. The Press Trust of India reported that tension mounted in a remote area of Sikkim after a scuffle[Read More…]
The Supreme Court Monday (June 25) allowed parts of President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban to go into effect and will hear oral arguments on the case this fall. The apex Court ruled that despite rulings in two different federal courts – that the ban should be put on hold while judges decide whether it’s constitutional – the Trump[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia’s king Wednesday (June 21) appointed his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince, replacing his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, as first in line to the throne. King Salman bin Abdulaziz is 81 and reportedly not in the best of health. Tellingly, replacing a Crown Prince is not unprecedented with the Arab monarchs. In January 1999, while[Read More…]
Qatari Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Monday (June 19) ruled out any talks to resolve the current Saudi-Qatari diplomatic crisis unless blockade is lifted. “Qatar is under blockade, there is no negotiation. They have to lift the blockade to start negotiations,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying. “Until now we[Read More…]
The seven-million strong American Muslim Community was alarmed at the killings of worshippers in Virginia and the British capital, London. The Washington Post reported Monday (June 19) police found remains of a missing Virginia teenager who was assaulted and disappeared overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area, and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in[Read More…]
The British newspaper Times reported Saturday (June 17) that in a dramatic move Saudi Arabia and Israel are in talks to establish economic ties that perhaps explains why Saudi Arabia and its allies have imposed a sweeping blockade on Qatar, in an effort to force the Gulf state to drop its support for Hamas, who control Gaza. The Times[Read More…]
In a paradoxical development in the current Saudi-Qatari dispute, Qatar and the United States Wednesday signed a deal to buy F-15 fighter jets for $12 billion while two US warships arrived in Qatar for joint exercise. Tellingly, the $12 billion deal was signed despite Qatar being criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump for supporting “terrorism.” The Bloomberg News quoted[Read More…]
Far-right activists held anti-Muslim demonstrations in least 28 cities across the United States on Sunday (June 11). The demonstrators, spurred by one of the largest grass-roots anti-Muslim group, and in many cases were met by larger crowds of counter protesters. Counter protesters amassed in several cities to oppose the nationwide marches, with clashes and skirmishes taking place at a[Read More…]
US proposed legislation – Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act of 2017 – threatening to sanction Qatar for its support of the so-called “Palestinian terror” was sponsored by 10 lawmakers who received more than $1m over the last 18 months from lobbyists and groups linked to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Al Jazeera reported Friday. The[Read More…]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended Qatar after Saudi Arabia and several other countries severed diplomatic ties with it for supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. President Erdogan is the Chairman of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Ironically, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya and Maldives are members of the OIC. “Let me say[Read More…]
The Trump administration on Thursday (June 1) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive his controversial Muslim travel ban executive order which was blocked by lower courts that found it discriminatory. The Justice Department asked the apex court to temporarily lift injunctions that bar officials from carrying out Trump’s March 6, 2017 directive to suspend visa issuance to citizens[Read More…]
Pakistan is reconsidering its position on the so-called 41-nation Islamic military alliance, led by Saudi Arabia, to avoid straining its relationship with neighboring Iran, according to Pakistan media reports. The military alliance was to be commanded by General Raheel Sharif, the former commander-in-chief of Pakistan army who retired from the Pak army last year. Its decision comes after statements[Read More…]
The head of the Iranian armed forces warned Islamabad on Monday (May 8) that Tehran would hit bases inside Pakistan if the government does not confront militants who carry out cross-border attacks. Ten Iranian border guards were killed by militants on April 26. Iran said Jaish-al-Adl (the Army of Justice), a militant group, had shot the guards with long-range[Read More…]
Lord Palmerston, the 19th century British Prime Minister, has famously said: “The Great Britain has no friends, no enemies, but only interests.” It was rephrased by Henry Kissinger as “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” This applies to current Afghan politics where Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former anti-Soviet “mujahideen” commander, arrived in the capital on Thursday (May[Read More…]
The Trump administration is implementing new deportation priorities with the aim of creating fear as people are lifted from highly sensitive locations like schools, courts and places of worship, says Julia R Wilson of OneJustice. She was of the view that the Trump administration doesn’t believe in ANY immigration. Addressing a civil rights forum of the United Muslims of[Read More…]
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office were a frightening experience for the seven-million strong Muslim American community. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest American Muslim civil advocacy group, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) profiling of Muslims accounted for 23 percent of cases in the first three months of 2017. This represents[Read More…]
A court of Egyptian military leader, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who assumed the title of Field Marshal after overthrowing the elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Monday sentenced 20 supporters of Morsi to death. The brutal military dictator el-Sisi has been cracking down on the opposition since the overthrow of President Morsi. He has killed more than 800[Read More…]
China has renamed six places in Arunachal Pradesh in retaliation against the Dalai Lama’s visit to India’s easternmost state. The move is apparently aimed at reaffirming Beijing’s territorial sovereignty to the region. China’s civil affairs ministry carried out the name changes on April 13, a day after the Dalai Lama left Arunachal Pradesh following a nine-day high-profile visit. The[Read More…]
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sunday (April 16) achieved victory in a historic referendum on a package of constitutional amendments that will introduce presidential form of government like France and the United States. In a press conference in Istanbul following his party’s declaration of victory, Erdoğan said that unofficial results showed there were about 25m yes votes, 1.3m[Read More…]
The U.S. Thursday (April 13) dropped a bomb with an explosive force equal to 11 tons of TNT on a cave complex used by the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) , the Pentagon said. The bomb is officially called a GBU-43 or Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the origin of its nickname as[Read More…]
Pope Francis Wednesday (April 5) held a private audience with a delegation of four Imams from England who were accompanied by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster. Pope Francis told the imams that listening to each other was essential for the common future of humanity as we walk together in our shared lives. “What we should do to[Read More…]
President Donald Trump Monday, April 3, 2017, welcomed the Egyptian military dictator, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who assumed the title of Field Marshal after arresting and deposing the democratically elected President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013. After the meeting Trump told the press: “We agree on so many things. I just want to let everybody know, in case there was[Read More…]
The Iraqi parliament on Saturday, April 1, 2017, voted against raising the flag of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on public buildings and institutions in the city of Kirkuk. In a session attended by 186 members of the 328-seat parliament, the MPs voted in favor of flying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk’s public buildings. Kurdish lawmakers have walked out[Read More…]
Hawaii Federal Judge Derrick Watson extended his order blocking President Trump’s travel ban to six Muslim majority countries Wednesday, as the state’s attorney general denounced the executive order as a “Muslim ban”. Hawaii’s attorney general Douglas Chin told the judge the controversial measure issued by President Trump on January 27 and then revised on March 6 was like a[Read More…]
The United States has banned laptops, e-readers, cameras, tablets, printers, electronic games and portable DVD players on flights from eight Muslim countries. The passengers on flights originating in eight Muslim countries from carrying any electronic device bigger than a mobile phone, the Department of Homeland Security said. The move comes days after President Donald Trump’s second bid to curb[Read More…]
The rift between the European Union and Turkey is escalating as President Erdogan has accused the EU countries of persecuting Muslims like Jews were during World War II while the spirit of fascism was running wild on the streets of Europe. The EU-Turkey rift was sparked on March 11when Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, was barred from landing in the[Read More…]
Federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland have blocked President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0. In their ruling both judges cited Trump’s statements about Muslims during the presidential campaign. A federal judge in Hawaii Wednesday ordered a temporary restraining order nationwide, hours before it was set to go into effect on Thursday. Another federal judge in Maryland Thursday morning specifically[Read More…]
At least six U.S. states are challenging President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0 executive order that bars new visas for people from six Muslim countries and temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program. On March 8, the state of Hawaii filed suit, arguing the new federal order will harm Muslims living in the state. As of March 10, five[Read More…]
President Donald Trump Monday issued a new Muslim ban executive order that will temporarily halt entry to the U.S. for people from six Muslim nations who are seeking new visas, though allowing those with current visas to travel freely. According to the Associated Press, Trump’s new order aims to address legal issues with the original order, which caused confusion[Read More…]
The German Chancellor Angela Markel visits Cairo amid reports of severe human rights violations by the Egyptian Junta led by Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who overthrew President Mohammad Morsi, the first democratically President of Egypt in 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Egypt Thursday where she met with e-Sisi before travelling to Tunisia on Friday to meet with[Read More…]
The Seven-million strong American Muslim community, on the receiving end since the ghastly terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, has ostensibly become target of President Trump’s policies. While the January 27 travel ban may still be affecting American Muslim citizens, some Muslim travelers outside the seven countries targeted by the controversial ban, including naturalized U.S. citizens and green card holders, are indicating[Read More…]
The number of anti-Muslim hate groups nearly tripled from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016. That’s just one of the dramatic statistics in a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This annual count from the SPLC includes groups like the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white nationalists, along with anti-government patriot groups and anti-LGBT[Read More…]
The United Nations and humanitarian organizations Wednesday (February 8) launched an international appeal for $2.1 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 18.8 million Yemenis. This is more than two thirds of the total population of 27.4 million of the war-devastated Yemen. At least 12 million people in Yemen need life-saving assistance in 2017, the UN sources said. “Two years[Read More…]
At least two lawsuits were filed Monday (Jan. 30) against against President’s Trump’s Friday’s “Muslim ban” executive order. In Seattle, Washington, State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that he is challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order banning Muslim immigrants and refugees, calling it unconstitutional and asking for a temporary restraining order. In Washington DC, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)[Read More…]
The US National Intelligence Council has predicted a nuclear war between India and Pakistan in 2028. The prediction came in the Council report released recently under the title: Global Trends: Paradox of Progress. Every four years since 1997, the National Intelligence Council has published an unclassified strategic assessment of how key trends and uncertainties might shape the world over the[Read More…]
The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has said that the death toll in the Yemeni war had reached 10,000, up from the previous figure of 7,000. The UN envoy’s statement came after his talks in Aden with the Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Hadi who rejected the UN peace plan. “A peace agreement, including a well-articulated security[Read More…]
On January 11, 2017, a coalition of human rights activists, torture survivors, Guantanamo attorneys, 9/11 family members, and members of diverse faith communities held a “Rally to Close Guantanamo” outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The rally was followed by a march to the Senate Building where the confirmation hearing of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General was[Read More…]
On January 5, 2017, nine Democratic senators filed a bill blocking the executive branch from registering people based on religion, race, gender, age, national origin or nationality. “Contrary to the President-elect’s beliefs, America’s diversity is not a threat — it is, in fact, our greatest strength,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) was quoted by The Hill as saying. He added that “if our incoming[Read More…]
Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday (Dec. 23) ordered the expansion of the Russian naval base in the Syrian port city of Tartus, according to the Russian media. The expansion of the naval base comes days of the capture of the Syrian city of Aleppo by the Russian-backed Syrian forces. This comes also four days after the assassination of the Russian[Read More…]
American Muslim civil advocacy groups Thursday (Dec. 22, 2016) welcomed President Barrack Obama’s decision to permanently dismantle the regulatory framework behind the National Security Exit-Entry Registration System (NSEERS) also called “Special Registration.” CNN quoted Neema Hakim, a DHS spokesman, as saying: “The Department of Homeland Security is removing outdated regulations pertaining to the National Security Entry-Exit Registration Systems (NSEERS) program,[Read More…]
The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot in the back and killed Monday (12/19) by a sacked police officer who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire. The ambassador was giving a speech at an Ankara art gallery. Reuters news agency reported: “A video showed the attacker shouting: “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria!”[Read More…]
A brutal anti-Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) military operation continues behind the smoke screen as electronic and print media has been barred from reporting the extra-judicial killings by the paramilitary forces in Karachi and elsewhere in the volatile Sindh province. Tellingly on Wednesday (11/9), the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, presided over a “security meeting” of military officials to[Read More…]
Like millions of voters and minorities, the upset victory of Donald Trump on Tuesday night was not a pleasant situation for the seven-million-strong American Muslim Community that was at the receiving end during the 2016 controversial presidential election campaign. Hence, an urgent question for the American Muslims is how they will be treated by the forthcoming administration of Donald Trump.[Read More…]
Human right groups are alarmed at the spate of deaths of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers in the custody of para-military force in Karachi. The MQM has called these brutal deaths as extra-judicial killings. On September 30, Syed Abdul Naveed, a MQM worker who was killed in the custody of para-military force. According to MQM sources, Naveed was brutally[Read More…]
Amid mounting anger against the US-client government of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi because of tax rises, soaring food prices, inflation and cuts in state subsidies, a kangaroo court in Cairo has confirmed a 20-year prison sentence against Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected President who was deposed by Al-Sisi in July 2013. In April 2015, a Cairo court had[Read More…]
At lease 59 cadets were killed and more than 116 injured as terrorists attack the Police Training College in Quetta, Pakistan, in one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year. Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing, Dawn News reported.[Read More…]
Five years after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow and brutal murder (on October 20, 2011) the situation is now far worse than it was five years ago, as rival militias fighting for control. Libya has been split between rival parliaments and governments, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes. Now five years on, Libya is caught[Read More…]
First Chinese ship, named Tianfu, finally docked on Sunday (Oct 16) at Pakistan’s Gwadar port that is center of $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project between Beijing and Islamabad. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is about 3,000 kilometers long consisting of highways, railways and pipelines that will connect China’s Xinjiang province to rest of the world through Pakistan’s Gwadar[Read More…]
Amid anti-Islam and anti-Muslim euphoria, fomented by opportunist right-wing politicians, a lawsuit has been filed in Bucharest against building a mosque in the Romanian capital. The lawsuit seeks to reverse a June 2015 decision by the then Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, to approve construction of what could become the largest mosque in Eastern Europe — second only to the[Read More…]
The killing of 140 people by a Saudi airstrike, on October 8, in Yemen has renewed focus on the Saudi atrocities and war crimes in Yemen. More than 6,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2015 – half of them civilians and more than 1,100 of them children, according to the UN. Tellingly, while the mainstream[Read More…]
Turkey and Russia Monday (Oct 10) signed the Turkish Stream gas pipeline agreement. The signing of the strategic deal came after a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin who was in Istanbul to attend the 23rd World Energy Congress which gathered 10,000 participants, including four presidents, 250 energy ministers, academia, policymakers and CEOs of top energy companies. This[Read More…]
Two Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been killed in suspicious circumstances by the Egyptian security forces. A ministry statement carried by the official MENA news agency said 61-year-old Dr. Mohammed Kamal, a physician by profession, was killed along with Yasser Shahata Ali Ragab in an exchange of gunfire as police tried to arrest the two late on Monday (Oct 3, 2016)[Read More…]
Indian government’s recent decision to provide shelter to the secessionist Baloch leaders has internationalized the issue of low intensity civil war in Pakistan’s largest province of Balochistan where the army of Pakistan has launched a brutal operation to control the rebellion of Baloch nationalists. On Friday, CNN-News18 quoted Indian official sources as saying that India is all set to[Read More…]
For Muslims now, 15 years since 9/11, ‘it seems more people are more openly hateful’ (Penn Live) Muslim Americans still struggle with hate crimes, 15 years after 9/11 (AOL) 15 years after 9/11, unwelcome spotlight returns to Islam (USA Today) Muslims are still under attack for their beliefs 15 years after 9/11 (Desert News) These headlines best reflect the dilemma[Read More…]
Brazil’s Senate voted on August 10, 2016 to hold an impeachment trial for the nation’s suspended president Dilma Rousseff, a process that could see her permanently removed from office. The vote in favor of trying Rousseff, who was suspended from the presidency in May, was 59 in favor, 21 against. The Senate suspended Rousseff, the South American nation’s first[Read More…]
Quetta hospital bomb blast, killing more than 90 people, is the latest grim reminder to the ceaseless violence in Pakistan’s strife-torn volatile province of Balochistan. The deafening blast that ripped through scores of mourners in a Quetta hospital on Monday (August 8) has killed at least 93 people, mainly lawyers, in this year’s bloodiest terror attack in Pakistan. The massive[Read More…]
On Tuesday, August 9, 2016, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in St. Petersburg to hold talks with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was Erdogan’s first foreign visit since the July 15 abortive coup against his elected government. St. Petersburg is Putin’s hometown. Addressing a joint press conference after the talk, Putin said: “I believe that we have all the necessary prerequisites[Read More…]
Riyadh-based Yemen government in exile Thursday pulled out of the peace talks underway in Kuwait after Houthi militants and their allies formed a 10-member “supreme council” to run the war-torn nation. “The negotiations have completely ended,” said Abdallah al-Olaimi, a member of the exile government team to the talks. UN special envoy Ismail Ahmad Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who has been[Read More…]
Erdoganism is a new terminology introduced by the opinion writers against President Tayyib Erdogan who has launched a cleansing operation in the civil and military bureaucracy in the aftermath of July 15 abortive coup blamed on the US-based pro-Israel cleric, Fatehullah Gulen who is described by Pape Escobar as a CIA asset. Tufail Ahmed, Director, of the Washington-based South Asia[Read More…]
On Wednesday, July 20, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey in order to hunt down all those deemed to be behind an attempted coup. The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organization involved in the coup attempt,” he told a press conference. Turkey has[Read More…]
A dubious website, the SITE Intelligence Group, has quoted Hamza bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden, as threatening revenge against the U.S. for assassinating his father. The SITE Intelligence Group referred to an audio message of Hamza posted online where he said: “We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to[Read More…]
Japan’s Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal by the country’s Muslim community against nationwide surveillance of Muslim groups, mosques and even halal restaurants. This may not be surprising to America’s seven-million-strong Muslim community which has been under real and virtual surveillance since 9/11. After 15 years of broadly targeting the community and extensively monitoring its activities, the FBI declared[Read More…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
