Tag Archives: Muslims

Pope Francis is due to hold an inter-religious prayer service at the ancient Mesopotamian site of Ur when he visits Iraq next week – an event local archeologists hope will draw renewed attention to the place revered as the birthplace of Abraham. Popular with Western visitors in the 1970s and …

Protesters opposed to Myanmar’s military coup blocked train services between Yangon and a southern city on Tuesday, hours after a U.N. envoy warned the army of “severe consequences” for any harsh response to the pro-democracy demonstrations. Despite the deployment of armoured vehicles and soldiers in some major cities on the …

China is installing QR codes on the homes of the Uighur Muslimcommunity in order to get instant access to the personal details of people living there, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The development comes as part of a mass security crackdownon minorities in Xinjiang province, the charity said, which includes arbitrary detentions, daily restrictions …

A court in Myanmar sentenced two journalists to seven years in prison Monday for illegal possession of official documents. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, both Myanmar nationals and journalists for the Reuters news service, were arrested for violation of the country’s Official Secrets Act, which dates back …

The anonymous letters arrived this weekend in plain white envelopes with second-class stamps, and were sent to people in at least five communities in England. Inside was a message so hateful that it has sent ripples of alarm across the country and prompted a national counterterrorism investigation. The message says …

by Munshi Zubaer Haque   Introduction: The creation of State of Israel in 1948 resulted in the formation of an ethnic and religious minority of Palestinian Arabs in the new country, who eventually became citizens of this nascent nation.70 years on, this involuntary minority within a Jewish majority is often …

Reuters has published details of an investigation into a mass grave in Myanmar’s Rakhine State that led to the arrest of two of its journalists and potential charges under the Official Secrets Act. The report quotes a retired Myanmar Army soldier who claims he helped dig a mass grave for …

President Trump said he was ready to apologize for retweeting anti-Muslim videos from a far right British group and reiterated that he was not a racist, in an interview with Good Morning Britain on Friday. Piers Morgan, the presenter, pushed him about the November retweet of three videos by Britain …

Perhaps as important as what Pope Francis said during his key speech in Burma on Tuesday was what he didn’t say. Speculation had mainly circled around the question of whether the pope would use the term “Rohingya” to describe the country’s Muslim minority, which has been the target of a brutal military “clearance operation.” Rohingya Muslims are not officially recognized as …

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says Myanmar’s military action against the minority Muslim Rohingya population constitutes ethnic cleansing. He said the Rohingya had suffered “horrendous atrocities” and as a result the US was considering targeted sanctions against those responsible. In September, UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein also …

A federal judge in Maryland early Wednesday issued a second halt on the latest version of President Trump’s travel ban, asserting that the president’s own comments on the campaign trail and on Twitter convinced him that the directive was akin to an unconstitutional Muslim ban. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. …

Myanmar is committing crimes against humanity in its campaign against Muslim insurgents in Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, and it called for the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions and an arms embargo. A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment but Myanmar has rejected U.N. …

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday condemned rights abuses in Rakhine state and said violators would be punished, but she did not address U.N. accusations of ethnic cleansing, drawing cool international responses and calls for action to help minority Muslims. Suu Kyi made the remarks in her first …

China endorses Myanmar’s offensive against Rohingya Muslim insurgents, Myanmar state media said on Thursday, as the U.N. secretary-general described the operation, forcing nearly 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh, as “ethnic cleansing”. The Myanmar military offensive in the western state of Rakhine was triggered by a series of guerrilla attacks …

The ongoing Myanmar military operation against the minority Rohingya people appears to be a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” the UN human rights chief said Monday. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the full humanitarian situation in Rakhine state couldn’t be fully assessed due …

What on earth does “objectively progressive” mean—and how could Donald Trump be viewed as a “progressive” of any kind? It may have been Karl Marx who first used the term—in a way that turns reality upside down. Basically it means that a leader or a political trend that clearly is …

China appears to be laying the groundwork for the mass collection of DNA samples from residents of Muslim-majority Xinjiang amid human rights observers’ concern. China appears to be laying the groundwork for the mass collection of DNA samples from residents of a restive, largely Muslim region that’s been under a security crackdown, rights …

Uyghur leader Dolkun Issa accuses Pakistan of turning a blind eye to the Muslims of Beijing. The Levant News — Uyghur leader Dolkun Issa has questioned Pakistan’s silence on the Beijing imposed ban on Xinjian’s Muslim population from observing Ramadan. In a statement which has been widely circulated across East …

THE LEVANT NEWS — by Graham E. Fuller — Apologies to readers for some recent silences, but I’ve been away in Holland as a guest lecturer for three weeks at Leiden University in Holland, a charming and historic university town. During this period I worked to gain a few impressions …

THE LEVANT – Two million Muslims ritually stoned the devil Saturday in the last major ritual of this year’s hajj in Saudi Arabia, while fellow believers around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice. Two million Muslims ritually stoned the devil Saturday in the last major rite of …

By Faisal Gill – The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans—including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers—under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies. According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the list of …