Stockholm apologetic amid fears Turkey may delay lifting Nato veto following desecration of holy book
Thousands of people took part in protests across Muslim majority nations on Friday after a second incident in Sweden involving the desecration of the Qur’an.
The episode left the Swedish government apologetic and fearing that the outrage in the Middle East may delay Turkey lifting its veto on Sweden’s membership of Nato.
Continue reading...Baghdad also recalls chargé d’affaires from Sweden as protesters storm Swedish embassy in Iraq
Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador on Thursday in protest at a planned burning of the Qur’an in Stockholm that had prompted hundreds of protesters to storm and set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.
A government statement said Baghdad had also recalled its chargé d’affaires in Sweden, and Iraq’s state news agency reported that Iraq had suspended working permits for Swedish businesses such as telecom giant Ericsson on Iraqi soil.
Continue reading...Report from rightwing thinktank calls for tougher sanctions on Iran as October expiry of UN sanctions looms
The October expiry of UN sanctions limiting Iran’s missile programme must become a hard deadline for the UK to adopt a tougher policy that includes proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a rightwing thinktank has warned.
The report from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is the second from a right-of-centre thinktank in two days demanding tougher action on Iran, and suggests that the UK ministers’ preferred strategy of introducing an Iran-specific sanctions regime that could lead to sanctions for activities outside Iran has fallen flat with Tory hawks.
Continue reading...Authorities announce new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf, after period of scaled-back policing
Almost 10 months after Mahsa Amini died in police custody, triggering weeks of protest across Iran, police vans are again patrolling the country’s streets looking for women who are not wearing the hijab “correctly”. Now, however, the vans and officers will not bear the name “morality police”, and patrolmen will be wearing body cameras.
The announcement on Sunday followed widespread reports that unmarked vans had been spotted on the streets of cities such as Tehran and Shiraz, stopping people not wearing the hijab. The move has already prompted demonstrations: on Sunday, protesters took to the streets in Rasht after three women were reportedly arrested.
Continue reading...People struggling in the swelter was a common sight, especially after day-long outdoor prayers at Mount Arafat
More than 2,000 people suffered heat stress during the hajj pilgrimage, Saudi officials said on Thursday, after temperatures soared to 48C (118F).
Over 1.8 million Muslim worshippers performed the days-long hajj, mostly held outdoors at the height of the Saudi desert summer. Many elderly were among the pilgrims after a Covid-era maximum age limit was scrapped.
Continue reading...Followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr enter mission’s compound to denounce incident outside Stockholm mosque
Iraqi protesters have breached Sweden’s embassy in Baghdad, angered by a Qur’an burning outside a Stockholm mosque that sparked condemnation across the Muslim world.
A crowd of supporters of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr stayed inside the compound for about 15 minutes, then left as security forces deployed, an AFP photographer said.
Continue reading...Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces, wants to frame Islamist opponents as a threat
Hundreds of Islamist leaders and activists in Sudan have been detained by the Rapid Support Forces in a wave of repression targeting the paramilitary group’s political opponents.
The arrests began before the outbreak of fighting in April between the RSF and forces loyal to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto military leader, but have intensified since.
Continue reading...Ruling dismays free speech activists who accuse Modi government of systematically shrinking space for dissent
An Indian court has blocked the screening of an Al Jazeera documentary about the country’s Muslim minority, fuelling fears that the right to criticise the government is being eroded.
The Allahabad high court was acting on a public interest petition filed by Sudhir Kumar, an activist, who said he had learned from media reports that the documentary Who Lit the Fuse? portrayed India’s 172-million Muslims as living in fear of the Narendra Modi government. He also alleged that it showed state agencies acting against the interests of Muslims.
Continue reading...Deaths take number of prisoners executed to at least 203 since start of this year, says human rights group
Iran has hanged two men convicted of blasphemy, according to authorities, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as the number of executions soars across the Islamic Republic after months of unrest.
The country remains one of the world’s top executioners, having put to death at least 203 prisoners so far this year, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. But executions for blasphemy remain rare, as in previous cases the sentences have been reduced by authorities.
Continue reading...Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur faces up to 14 months in prison if convicted
An Australian man is facing more than a year in jail after allegedly spitting in the face of an imam at an Indonesian mosque.
Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur has been charged over the alleged assault at a mosque in Bandung that was captured on CCTV.
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Continue reading...Under Guardianship, broadcast during Ramadan, highlights the issues faced by women and children after the death of a father
Two Egyptian MPs have called for a review of the country’s guardianship law, prompted by the success of a TV drama broadcast during Ramadan.
On thursday, House representatives Amira El Adly and Mohamed Ismail submitted separate requests to the speaker of the house and to the justice minister to examine the impact of a law that critics say unfairly targets women and harms families.
Continue reading...Al-Aqsa mosque closed to non-Muslims and tourists after gunmen who shot at an army post killed by security forces
Israel has halted visits by non-Muslims and tourists to a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site, as its military said soldiers had shot dead two Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank, as a wave of unrest showed no sign of subsiding.
Last week, an Israeli police raid at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, a tinder box in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, triggered rocket attacks from Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria that drew Israeli air and artillery strikes.
Continue reading...Women who break Islamic dress code will be identified, warned on first instance and then taken to court
Police in Iran plan to use smart technology in public places to identify and then penalise women who violate the country’s strict Islamic dress code, the force said on Saturday.
A statement said police would “take action to identify norm-breaking people by using tools and smart cameras in public places and thoroughfares”.
Continue reading...Further violence feared after Arab-Israeli man drives his vehicle into busy city promenade following a West Bank shooting
On 8 April 2022, a Palestinian gunman entered a crowded bar in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, and opened fire, killing three people and wounding 10. This weekend, on the anniversary of that attack, an Arab-Israeli man rammed his car into pedestrians on the city’s seaside promenade, killing an Italian tourist and injuring seven more people.
That attack followed a shooting earlier in the day in the north of the occupied West Bank that killed two British-Israeli sisters, aged 15 and 20, and left their 48-year-old mother in critical condition after their car veered off the road.
Continue reading...Rights group says execution is first during the fasting month since 2009
Saudi Arabia has executed a man during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which a rights group said on Monday had not occurred in years.
The execution took place on 28 March – five days into the fasting month – in the Medina region, which includes Islam’s second holiest city, the official Saudi Press Agency has reported.
Continue reading...Israeli settler movement is making life harder for Jerusalem’s Palestinians and erasing Christian character of holy city
Even in a city as storied as Jerusalem, some places are holier than others. The Mount of Olives, studded with churches marking events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, home to the most sacred Jewish cemetery in the world and tombs celebrated as those of the Sufi mystic Rabia al-Basri and the medieval scholar Mujir al-Din, is one such place.
Christians believe Jesus spent the last days of his life here, while according to the Hebrew Bible, the mount is where the resurrection will begin; in both Christianity and Islam, it is revered as the site Jesus ascended to heaven. The Mount of Olives’ summit, which gives the clearest view of the Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sherif, has served as a pilgrimage destination for all three faiths for millennia.
Continue reading...Sadai Banowan violated ‘laws and regulations of the Islamic emirate’, says local Taliban official
A female-run radio station in Afghanistan’s north-east has been shut down for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, a Taliban official said.
Sadai Banowan, which means women’s voice in Dari, is Afghanistan’s only female-run station and started 10 years ago. It has eight staff, six of them female.
Continue reading...Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, beaten and arrested outside a mosque after prayers
The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the UN have said.
The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education.
Continue reading...Queensland Human Rights Commission disagrees with assertion complaint is ‘lacking in substance’ and refers matter to tribunal over jurisdiction
Twitter has lost a bid to have a complaint by an advocacy group for Australian Muslims thrown out after they accused the platform of failing to take action against accounts that incite hatred.
The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (Aman) lodged a complaint to the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC) last June. They argued that, as a publisher, Twitter Australia and Twitter Inc are responsible for content posted by a far-right account that has been referred to in the manifesto of a white supremacist and mass murderer.
Continue reading...Bloodshed and hardline Israeli politics raise tensions on eve of Muslim holy month
In the Old City of Jerusalem and the Palestinian neighbourhoods surrounding it, preparations for Ramadan are under way: strings of festive lights and lanterns are ready to welcome sundown on Thursday, while sweet shops and bakers are busy making qatayef – fried dumplings filled with cream or sweet cheese, traditionally eaten during the Muslim holy month.
The period of fasting that commemorates Gabriel’s revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad is a time for self-discipline, reflection and celebrations with family and friends. As with almost every religious holiday in the contested city, however, this year Ramadan is accompanied by worries of surging violence.
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