Atrocities Against Muslims And Islam

[swamidada]

Reuters
Biden stands with Muslims after 'horrific killings' in New Mexico
Sun, August 7, 2022 at 1:07 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden expressed solidarity with the Muslim community on Sunday after a fourth Muslim man was killed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in what authorities are describing as targeted attacks.

Biden, in a Twitter post after news of the fourth death, said he was angered and saddened by the killings.

"While we await a full investigation, my prayers are with the victims’ families, and my administration stands strongly with the Muslim community," Biden said in a Twitter post. "These hateful attacks have no place in America."

Police in New Mexico and federal agencies were probing the killings, the latest of which occurred on Friday evening.

The other three Muslim men killed in the state's largest city in the past nine months appeared to have been targeted for their religion and race, police have said.

Two of those murdered men were members of the same mosque, who were shot dead in Albuquerque in late July and early August. Police said there was a "strong possibility" their deaths were connected to the November killing of an Afghan immigrant.

New Mexico State Police, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are among the agencies helping in the investigation.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a Twitter post late on Saturday, "The targeted killings of Muslim residents of Albuquerque is deeply angering and wholly intolerable."

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/bi ... 29214.html

[swamidada]

Reuters
Protests in Stockholm, including Koran-burning, draw strong condemnation from Turkey
Sat, January 21, 2023 at 2:26 AM CST
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Protests in Stockholm on Saturday against Turkey and Sweden's bid to join NATO, including the burning of a copy of the Koran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs Ankara's backing to gain entry to the military alliance.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book ... Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Its statement was issued after an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe burned a copy of the Koran near the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take necessary actions against the perpetrators and invited all countries to take concrete steps against Islamophobia.

A separate protest took place in the city supporting Kurds and against Sweden's bid to join NATO. A group of pro-Turkish demonstrators also held a rally outside the embassy. All three events had police permits.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that Islamophobic provocations were appalling.

"Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed," Billstrom said on Twitter.

The Koran-burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line. Paludan, who also has Swedish citizenship, has held a number of demonstrations in the past where he has burned the Koran.

Paludan could not immediately be reached by email for a comment. In the permit he obtained from police, it says his protest was held against Islam and what it called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's attempt to influence freedom of expression in Sweden.

Several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait denounced the Koran-burning. "Saudi Arabia calls for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance, and coexistence, and rejects hatred and extremism," the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine but all 30 member states must approve their bids. Turkey has said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against what it sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.

At the demonstration to protest Sweden's NATO bid and to show support for Kurds, speakers stood in front of a large red banner reading "We are all PKK", referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party that is outlawed in Turkey, Sweden, and the United States among other countries, and addressed several hundred pro-Kurdish and left-wing supporters.

"We will continue our opposition to the Swedish NATO application," Thomas Pettersson, spokesperson for Alliance Against NATO and one of organizers of the demonstration, told Reuters.

Police said the situation was calm at all three demonstrations.

In Istanbul, people in a group of around 200 protesters set fire to a Swedish flag in front of the Swedish consulate in response to the burning of the Koran.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said he had discussed with Erdogan the lack of measures to restrict protests

Turkey's Foreign Ministry had already summoned Sweden's ambassador on Friday over the planned protests.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/tu ... 17604.html

[swamidada]

Reuters
Violence erupts again at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque

Nidal al-Mughrabi and Sinan Abu Mayzer
Tue, April 4, 2023 at 7:26 PM CDT
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Sinan Abu Mayzer

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police clashed with Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque a second time on Wednesday, witnesses said, hours after the arrest and removal of more than 350 people in a police raid at the compound and despite a U.S. appeal to ease tensions.

The confrontations, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday, triggered a cross-border exchange of fire in Gaza and stoked fears of further violence.

In the second instance, late at night, police entered the compound and tried to evacuate worshippers, using stun grenades and firing rubber bullets, said staff of the Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed Islamic organisation managing the complex.

Worshippers threw objects at police, witnesses said. The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were injured.

In a statement, police said dozens of youngsters brought rocks and firecrackers into the mosque and had tried to barricade themselves inside. The Waqf, however, said police entered the mosque before prayers were over.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “Israel’s raid into Al-Aqsa mosque, its assault on worshippers, is a slap to recent U.S. efforts which tried to create calm and stability during the month of Ramadan.”

Less than 24 hours earlier, police raided the mosque to try to remove what they said were masked agitators who locked themselves inside after attempts to remove them by dialogue failed.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 12 Palestinians were injured in the earlier clash, including from rubber-tipped bullets and beatings. Israeli police said two officers were injured.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby voiced concern about the violence at the mosque and said it was imperative that Israelis and Palestinians de-escalate tensions.

VIOLENCE SPREADS TO GAZA BORDER

Palestinian militants fired at least nine rockets from Gaza into Israel after the first clash, drawing air strikes which Israel said targeted weapon production sites for the Islamist group Hamas that controls the blockaded coastal enclave.

No casualties were reported on either side of the Gaza border. Hamas did not claim responsibility for the rocket attacks but said they were a response to the raid on Al-Aqsa, where clashes in 2021 set off a 10-day war with Gaza.

Just before the second Al-Aqsa clash, two more rockets were fired from Gaza. The Israeli military said one fell short and the other in an open space

"We are not interested in an escalation but we are ready for any scenario," Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said earlier in the day.

Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's Old City is Islam's third holiest site where tens of thousands pray during Ramadan. It is also Judaism's most sacred site, revered as Temple Mount, a vestige of the two biblical Jewish temples.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the situation on "extremists" who barricaded themselves inside the mosque with weapons, stones and fireworks.

"Israel is committed to maintaining freedom of worship, free access to all religions and the status quo on the Temple Mount and will not allow violent extremists to change that," he said in a statement.

Under a longstanding "status quo" arrangement governing the compound, non-Muslims can visit but only Muslims may worship. Some Jewish visitors have increasingly prayed there despite that arrangement.

The Waqf described the police actions as a "flagrant assault on the identity and the function of the mosque as a place of worship for Muslims alone".

UN ALSO CALLS FOR EASING OF TENSIONS

"Leaders on all sides must act responsibly and refrain from steps that could escalate tensions," said the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland.

The Arab League held an emergency meeting after which it condemned the raid and said it endangered regional stability.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China asked the 15-member United Nations Security Council to discuss the situation behind closed doors on Thursday, said diplomats.

The UAE's foreign ministry also said "worshippers should not barricade themselves inside the mosque and places of worship with weapons and explosives".

Jordan and Egypt, both involved in U.S.-backed efforts to de-escalate Israel-Palestinian tensions, condemned the incident, as did Turkey. Saudi Arabia, with which Israel hopes to normaliZe ties, said Israel's "storming" of Al-Aqsa undermined peace efforts.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said: "Israel's aggression against the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound is an egregious assault on the basic right of Palestinians to worship freely in their holy site." In Gaza, thousands rallied in protest.

With Israel still reeling from weeks of protests over Netanyahu's plans to rein in the powers of the Supreme Court, the incident added to an already fevered political atmosphere.

Far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for a harsh response. "Hamas rockets require more than blasting dunes and empty sites. It's time to rip heads off in Gaza," he said in a tweet.

In the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, Palestinian protesters burned tyres and threw rocks and explosive devices at Israeli soldiers, one of whom was shot and wounded, the military said.

(Reporting by Sinan Abu Mayzer, Ammar Awad, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawafta, Maayan Lubell; Additional reporting by Alaa Swilam, Nisreen Salem, Daren Butler, Aidan Lewis and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Henriette Chacar and James Mackenzie; Editing by Howard Goller)
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 30315.html

[swamidada]

BBC
India history debate after chapter on Mughals dropped

Zoya Mateen - BBC News, Delhi
Thu, April 20, 2023 at 5:50 PM CDT
Portrait of Akbar (1542-1605) holding the portrait of his father. Paris, musee Guimet
Mughal kings ruled India for centuries
The deletion of a chapter on Mughal rulers from Indian school textbooks has reignited a debate on how history should be taught to schoolchildren.

The discussion was sparked by the publication of a new set of textbooks by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organisation under the federal education ministry. The NCERT oversees syllabus changes and textbook content for children taking exams under the government-run Central Board of Secondary Education.

Other changes include the removal of some references to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the 2002 riots in Gujarat state.

NCERT has said that the changes, which were first announced last year as part of a syllabus "rationalisation" exercise, wouldn't affect knowledge but instead reduce the load on children after the Covid-19 pandemic.

But critics argue that the omissions are worrying and will affect the students' understanding of their country.

They are particularly alarmed at the removal of references to the Mughal dynasty and accuse the NCERT of erasing portions of history that Hindu right-wing groups have campaigned against for years.

Many right-wing activists and historians view the Mughals - who ruled large swathes of the Indian subcontinent for centuries - as foreign invaders who plundered Indian lands and corrupted the country's Hindu civilisation.

"Students are learning about our nation's history in a deeply divided time. By removing what is uncomfortable or seen as inconvenient we are not encouraging them to think critically," says Hilal Ahmed, who works on political Islam and teaches at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

Supporters of the exercise argue that some degree of course correction in school history textbooks is necessary because these books gave too much importance to Muslim rulers.

"The Mughal rule was one of the bloodiest periods in Indian history," says Makhan Lal, a historian and academic who has written many chapters for NCERT textbooks.

"Can't we write more about Vijay Nagar empire or the Cholas or the Pandyas instead?" he asks, referring to Hindu dynasties that ruled southern India.

Others, however, say this is an oversimplified and reductive understanding of India's syncretic past.

"What is happening now is a suggestion that the Mughals were peculiarly violent - when in fact violence was part of kingship as an institution everywhere - and that they saw themselves primarily as Muslims, determined to torment Hindus," says historian and author Manu S Pillai.

"The record, however, is more complicated," he adds.

Mughal emperors have built many architecturally significant monuments
NCERT director Dinesh Saklani has called the debate around the curriculum "unnecessary" and clarified that the history of Mughals is still taught to schoolchildren. The BBC reached out to Mr Saklani for comment but he said he was no longer available for media queries.

Revisions to the history curriculum are not new in India - textbooks have been revised in the past under different governments.

Mr Ahmed says that textbook review is also advocated by scholars to strike the right balance between content and learning outcomes. "History never ends, it's forever unfinished and unresolved, but history textbooks must - and that's why they are constantly reviewed."

But he adds that this should not come at the cost of a larger pursuit of knowledge.

The current deletions, Mr Ahmed says, throw open larger pedagogical issues of withholding information without any sense of the tensions and contradictions they embody. That's because history, he adds, is not just about rulers. It goes beyond dynasties and battles to look at administration, governance, and culture of a time. It's a framework through which a society understands itself.

"So when you remove something arbitrarily, you strip it of its context, making it distortive," Prof Ahmed says.

The chapter that was removed appeared in Class 12 textbooks: Kings and Chronicles: The Mughal Courts.

The 30-page text traces the workings of Mughal courts. Most of this was documented in lengthy historical accounts commissioned by Mughal emperors. The chapter goes on to illustrate how these "Mughal chronicles" presented the "empire as comprising many different ethnic and religious communities - Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Muslims".

Removing the chapter was justified, says Mr Lal, as it "does not have anything of historical value".

"After all, it's just one chapter - it's not like Mughal history has been entirely omitted from the curriculum."

Akbarnama
Historical accounts of the workings of imperial courts exist in Mughal chronicles like Akbarnama
He adds that Indian textbooks have long understated the brutality of Mughal rule, and have given them disproportionate prominence in comparison with Hindu kings. These so-called distortions, he says, have led to decades of shame around ancient Indian culture and values.

"But Indians are now reckoning with their ancient past again," he says.

While history is not necessarily some kind of competition, Mr Pillai says that emotional propositions such as these do end up acquiring a hold in politics and public consciousness.

"There is this stress on a Hindu history of India, consciously lumping together Hindu figures on one side, and the big, bad Mughals on the other."

But brutality, Mr Pillai adds, was not a quality exclusive to the Mughals - kings in general were violent people, and violence was a corollary to power well into the 19th Century.

Besides, Mr Pillai says that Mughals also dominate popular imagination because of just how recent they are as well as the cultural importance they enjoyed even after their reign. To put that in perspective - the last Mughal emperor was toppled just about a decade before Gandhi was born; and earlier Indian nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji grew into adulthood while the emperor was still around.

So we know a lot more about the Mughals, he says, simply because they were more recent - and records of their time exist in great abundance compared with, say, the Cholas who dissolved by the 13th Century.

"Perhaps it is these complexities that students should read about, instead of entirely erasing segments from textbooks," Mr Pillai adds.

Mr Ahmed says it is ironic that a colonial view of Indian history where ancient is seen as a Hindu past and medieval is seen as a Muslim one is being reiterated by some. "You are reducing India's overlapping cultures and religions into a mere insider vs outsider debate, when the past is actually a lot more complicated," he says.

He adds that if key portions of history are removed this arbitrarily, then there would be "a void" in formal education.

"And it would result in a learning of a very different kind."

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/in ... 04209.html

[swamidada]

The Telegraph
Chinese Muslims surround mosque to keep it from being torn down

George Styllis
Tue, May 30, 2023 at 2:53 PM CDT
Thousands of ethnic minority Muslims surround a mosque

Muslim protesters surrounded a 13th century mosque in China’s Yunnan province to keep it from being torn down by authorities in a rare display of defiance.

Hundreds of police in riot gear fought back members of the Hui ethnic group who had rallied around their local Najiaying Mosque after residents reported the arrival of cranes to demolish it.

Residents threw rocks at the police who responded by hitting them with batons.

“This is our last bit of dignity,” a local witness told CNN. “It’s like coming to our house to demolish our home. We can’t allow that to happen.”

The protest marks a rare escalation in tensions between southern Muslims and the authorities whose apparent attempt to tear down the mosque shows there is to be no let up in China’s bid to crack down on religion.

Despite being officially atheist, China has taken a tougher stance on Islam in particular. While these efforts have largely concentrated on Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in north-west China, other parts of the country with large Muslim populations have also been targeted.

In Yunnan and other nearby provinces, residents say nurseries, childcare centres and religious schools run by Hui have been closed down. Mosques have also been destroyed, with authorities removing prominent Islamic features such as domes and minarets from thousands across the country.

In 2018, thousands of Hui in Ningxia protested by sitting inside a newly-built mosque for three days to prevent its demolition. Authorities backed down from destroying it, but erected traditional Chinese-style pagodas in place of its domes and minarets. The Najiaying Mosque was one of the last remaining intact.

The Najiaying Mosque in Tonghai County

It again attracted the ire of authorities in 2020 after it installed a new domed roof and a number of minarets. A court ruled that year that the additions were illegal and ordered them to be removed.

On Sunday, worshippers were denied entry to the mosque for noon prayer, leading to violent confrontations, CNN reported.

“After arriving at the mosque, we realised that they had driven the cranes into the compound and were ready for the forced demolition,” a source told CNN, adding that scaffolding had already been erected around the mosque.

The protest is believed to have lasted for several hours before police allowed people into the mosque. Residents continued to surround the mosque over the weekend, fearing that authorities would return.

Police in Tonghai County, where Nagu is located, said dozens of protesters have been arrested and urged those remaining to hand themselves in by June 6. It called the incident “a serious obstruction of social management order” and called on people to “actively report” protesters.

Protests are rare in China but Beijing’s strict lockdown rules saw several break out. In Xinjiang, public anger boiled over after a fatal fire in a high-rise building, prompting crowds to take to the streets of the capital Urumqi and chant: “End the lockdown!”

Authorities began restricting the freedoms of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang in 2017 and have since reportedly arbitrarily detained more than a million Muslims in re-education camps.

In 2021, the UK said it “agrees that there is compelling evidence of widespread and systematic human rights violations occurring in Xinjiang. This includes the extra-judicial detention of over a million Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in ‘political re-education camps’ since 2017.”

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ch ... 57961.html

[swamidada]

Man desecrates Holy Quran outside Stockholm mosque on Eid holiday
AFP Published June 28, 2023 Updated about 10 hours ago

A man set fire to several pages of the Holy Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque on Wednesday, after Swedish police granted a permit for the protest which coincided with the start of Eidul Azha.

The police said in its written decision that the security risks associated with the burning “were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request”.

Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, had asked police for permission to commit the act “to express my opinion about the Quran”.

Ahead of the protest, Momika told news agency TT he also wanted to highlight the importance of freedom of speech.

“This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can’t do this,” Momika said.

Under a heavy police presence and with around a dozen opponents shouting at him in Arabic, Momika, dressed in beige trousers and a shirt, addressed the crowd of several dozen through a megaphone.

At various times, he stomped on the Holy Quran and lit a few pages on fire while waving Swedish flags, AFP correspondents at the scene reported.

Police had cordoned off an area in a park next to the mosque separating Momika and a co-protester from the crowd.

Meanwhile, representatives of the mosque were disappointed by the police decision to grant permission for the protest on the Muslim holiday of Eidul Azha, mosque director and Imam Mahmoud Khalfi said.

“The mosque suggested to the police to at least divert the demonstration to another location, which is possible by law, but they chose not to do so,” Khalfi said in a statement.

‘Not okay’
Noa Omran, a 32-year-old artist from Stockholm, called the protest “absolutely insane”.

“It’s just hatred masquerading in the name of democracy and freedom which it isn’t,” the woman, who said her mother was from a Muslim background, told AFP at the scene.

Social worker Lotta Jahn, 43, also said the burning should not be tolerated.

“We just have to say stop. It’s not okay to humiliate other people,” she said.

The police authorisation for the protest came two weeks after a Swedish appeals court rejected the police’s decision to deny permits for two demonstrations in Stockholm which were to include the burning of copies of the Holy Quran.

Police had at the time cited security concerns, following a burning of the holy book outside Turkey’s embassy in January which led to weeks of protests, calls for a boycott of Swedish goods and further stalled Sweden’s Nato membership bid.

Similar acts have in the past sparked violent protests and outrage across the Muslim world.

Police argued the January protest had made Sweden “a higher priority target for attacks”.

Turkiye, which has blocked the country’s Nato bid due to what it perceives as Stockholm’s failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it considers “terrorists”, took particular offence that police had authorised the January demonstration.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran on Wednesday as well.

After Turkiye’s move in January, Swedish police banned two subsequent requests for protests involving the burning of the Holy Quran — one by Momika and one by an organisation, outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm in February.

The appeals court in mid-June ruled that police were wrong to ban those, saying the security concerns cited by police were not sufficient to ban the events.

‘Don’t intend to sabotage Nato bid’
Momika had said he would seek to burn the Holy Quran again after his previous request was blocked.

Speaking to newspaper Aftonbladet in April, Momika — who fled to Sweden from Iraq — said his intention was not to sabotage the Swedish Nato bid and had considered waiting to stage his protest until after Sweden had joined the alliance.

“I don’t want to harm this country that received me and preserved my dignity,” Momika told the newspaper.

Swedish police had granted a permit for the January protest, which was organised by Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish activist who has already been convicted for racist abuse.

Paludan also provoked rioting in Sweden last year when he went on a tour of the country and publicly burned copies of the Holy Quran.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1762198/man-d ... id-holiday

[swamidada]

Reuters
Pope Francis condemns burning of Koran - UAE newspaper

Mon, July 3, 2023 at 12:15 AM CDT
DUBAI (Reuters) -Pope Francis said the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, has made him angry and disgusted and that he condemned and rejected permitting the act as a form of freedom of speech.

"Any book considered holy should be respected to respect those who believe in it," the pope said in an interview in the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Ittihad, published on Monday. "I feel angry and disgusted at these actions.

"Freedom of speech should never be used as a means to despise others and allowing that is rejected and condemned."

A man tore up and burned a Koran in Sweden's capital Stockholm last week, resulting in strong condemnation from several states, including Turkey whose backing Sweden needs to gain entry to the NATO military alliance.

While Swedish police have rejected several recent applications for anti-Koran demonstrations, courts have over-ruled those decisions, saying they infringed freedom of speech.

On Sunday, an Islamic grouping of 57 states said collective measures are needed to prevent acts of desecration to the Koran and international law should be used to stop religious hatred.

(Reporting by Maha Eldahan; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/po ... 51440.html

[swamidada]

INSIDER
A Muslim social media personality says he was forced to strip naked by airport security and was then berated by airport staff for delaying a flight

Sawdah Bhaimiya
Wed, August 16, 2023 at 5:54 AM CDT
WAYOFLIFESQ is a social media personality with millions of followers.
A Muslim influencer broke down on a United Airlines flight after being strip searched at Ben Gurion Airport.Courtesy of WAYOFLIFESQ
A Muslim influencer went viral on TikTok after saying he was strip-searched at Ben Gurion Airport.

An airport staff member scolded him for holding up the United Airlines flight with 300 passengers for 30 minutes.

He told Insider that the security incident flared up "childhood traumas of sexual abuse."

A Muslim social media personality has gone viral on TikTok after he posted a video showing airline staff scolding him for holding up a flight with 300 passengers for 30 minutes, despite claiming he had just been strip-searched by security.

New York-based @wayoflifesq.official — who did not wish to reveal his real name — has over a million YouTube subscribers and nearly a million followers combined on TikTok and Instagram. He confirmed to Insider via email that he's a school teacher within the New York Department of Education.

He said he had been boarding a United Airlines flight out of Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel to Newark, New Jersey in the TikTok video.

In the video posted on Sunday — which now has 3.2 million views — he appears to be walking through the airport while in a heated altercation with a gate agent who can be heard saying: "There are 300 passengers waiting for you."

"Then tell Israel that. Why did they detain me?" — he replies, adding: "Whoever you are, don't you dare speak to me that way, have some respect. 300 people are waiting, it's not my fault."

As the staff member continues to argue with him he can be heard asking: "Did you know they made me get naked?"

She responded: "Okay that's not me. I'm not the security right."

The woman involved in the altercation was not a United Airlines employee, the airline told Insider.

Additional text overlaid on the video says: "The plane had been grounded for 30 minutes as Israel performed a body cavity search on me & other Muslims!"

As he boarded the flight, he apologized to other passengers and explained that airport security detained him for three hours.

He broke down and started crying toward the end of the video as a flight attendant helped him take his seat and asked him if he needed some water. He said: "I would just like to be treated like a human being for once."

SQ told Insider via email that after going through a standard security check where his passport and boarding pass were viewed, he was sent to a different line where he was then processed for additional security checks in another location.

"I went around and asked if everyone was Muslim and of course they were," he said to Insider. "I requested several times to speak to a supervisor but unfortunately it landed on deaf ears. When a supervisor did come they were dismissive and did not explain why I was being detained."

SQ told Insider that he was "strip searched by two men," which he said flared up "childhood traumas of sexual abuse."

He said that a United Airlines staff member "was the first person to see how I was doing after such a traumatic event in which I become visually upset due to my inhumane treatment."

Comments under the TikTok video were overwhelmingly supportive of SQ with users claiming that his treatment was unfair and made them emotional too.

One comment says: "oh gosh...when he began to cry that really broke my heart....some people really are just heartless."

Another user wrote: "I cried all the tears in my body this is so heartbreaking. The world is cruel. I'm disgusted and I'm so sorry you went through that."

Ben Gurion Airport did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the incident.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/mu ... 03087.html

[swamidada]

Another incident of desecration of the Holy Quran has taken place outside the Swedish Royal Palace in the capital Stockholm amid a heavy police presence, it emerged on Wednesday.

The incident, which took place on Monday, marked the second time in a matter of weeks that Salwan Momika, 37, and Salwan Najem, 48, have desecrated the Holy Quran, Al Jazeera reported.

Momika, an Iraqi refugee based in Sweden, has been involved in multiple such incidents, the last being on July 31, when he and another man desecrated the Holy Quran outside the Swedish parliament.

The act — permitted under Sweden’s freedom of speech laws — took place at Mynttorget, a central square surrounded by government buildings and the palace, Al Jazeera said.

Momika and Najem engaged in a prolonged, theatrical and now familiar desecration of the Quran while using a megaphone to goad counterprotesters, the report said.

It added that “several people in the crowd brought their own megaphones, and the two men were largely drowned out by counterprotesters”.

Present among the crowd was a group wearing firefighter-themed outfits whose members chanted “extinguish the hate” while handing out plastic firefighter hats and encouraging onlookers to speak into their megaphones, Al Jazeera stated.

Anadolu Agency reported that the perpetrators faced a reaction from a group of Swedish activists, who asked them to stop the provocative act.

It stated, “The police, protecting the attackers, arrested one of the activists, who moved to thwart the attack.”

The duo also staged a similar protest outside Iraq’s embassy in the Swedish capital on July 20, where they desecrated the holy book.

The incidents have drawn strong reactions across the Muslim world, with several nations, including Pakistan, condemning the acts at international forums.

Following the latest incident, former premier Shehbaz Sharif termed the act as “highly disturbing”.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he said, “The recurring nature of such reprehensible incidents establishes that there is a vile, sinister and evil intention behind them that aims at hurting the emotions of Muslims around the world.”

He added, “Equally disturbing is the lack of action on the part of [the] Swedish government to check such incidents through strict enforcement of law. Mere expression of regret and condemnation is not enough.”

The former prime minister stated that the “desecration of religious symbols, holy personages and books damages interfaith harmony that the world so desperately needs”.

Calls to ban such acts
In July, the United Nations Human Rights Council approved a resolution on religious hatred, which was introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

The resolution called for the UN rights chief to publish a report on religious hatred and for states to review their laws and plug gaps that may “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred”.

The same month, the UN General Assembly adopted, by consensus, a Moroccan resolution, co-sponsored by Pakistan, calling for countering hate speech and strongly deploring attacks against places of worship, religious symbols and holy books.

The resolution, titled ‘Promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue and tolerance in countering hate speech’, won the approval of the 193-member assembly and stated: “Strongly deploring all acts of violence against persons on the basis of their religion or belief, as well as any such acts directed against their religious symbols, holy books, homes, businesses, properties, schools, cultural centres or places of worship, as well as all attacks on and in religious places, sites and shrines in violation of international law.”

While the governments of the two Nordic countries have said they were examining ways to legally limit such acts in a bid to de-escalate growing tensions with several Muslim countries, there has also been limited political will in Sweden to do so.

This month, the Swedish government ruled out any sweeping changes to its freedom of speech laws but repeated it would look into measures that would allow police to stop the burning of holy books in public if there is a clear threat to national security, Al Jazeera said in its recent report.

Holy Quran desecrations are permitted in Sweden, Denmark and Norway but not in neighbouring Finland where desecration of holy scriptures in public is illegal. Sweden had a similar law but removed it in the 1970s.

Sweden has laws banning hate speech against ethnic, national and religious groups and people on grounds of sexual orientation. However, the desecration of holy scriptures has thus far not qualified as hate speech but has been seen as acceptable criticism.

Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch of the Christian Democrats said last month that Sweden alone determined its legislation and would not be influenced by other countries’ faiths or laws.

Journalist and freedom of speech expert Nils Funcke had said changes to the Public Order Act as mooted by the government would be very hard to introduce and would likely clash with Sweden’s constitutionally protected freedom of assembly.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1770452/anoth ... -in-sweden

[Admin]

Extremists will burn the Holy Books and extremists will burn churches and mosques. The problem is not the religion but extremists views tainting people who think God has given them the right to act on his behalf.

[swamidada]

Extremists will burn the Holy Books and extremists will burn churches and mosques. The problem is not the religion but extremists views tainting people who think God has given them the right to act on his behalf.

Any solution???

[Admin]

Extremists will burn the Holy Books and extremists will burn churches and mosques. The problem is not the religion but extremists views tainting people who think God has given them the right to act on his behalf.

Any solution???

Yes secular EDUCATION brings tolerance and understanding. People who can think by themselves do not indulge in such vile acts. For example there was a time with strong secular education in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. At that time they did not burn the churches, mandirs and mosques. Scandinavian countries, though educated, have a minority that is fundamentally racist and ignorant of Islam, those are their reasons for doing horrible acts.

[swamidada]

‘Deeply offensive’: Pakistan condemns fresh act of Holy Quran desecration in Netherlands
Dawn.com Published September 25, 2023 Updated about 6 hours ago

Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned yet another incident of the desecration of the Holy Quran in The Netherlands, calling upon the European country to take swift action against such “hateful and Islamophobic acts”.

“Pakistan condemns in the strongest terms the latest senseless and deeply offensive act of desecration of the Holy Quran that took place in The Hague, the Netherlands in front of some embassies of OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) member countries, including Pakistan,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a press release issued today.

Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah had reported on Saturday that Dutch far-right activist Edwin Wagensveld, who leads the Dutch branch of the far-right group Pegida, had desecrated the Holy Quran in front of the Turkish, Pakistani and Indonesian embassies in the Hague and “insulted Islam and Muslims”.

The FO said the “deliberately provocative and Islamophobic act” hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and such actions could not be condoned under the “guise of freedom of expression, opinion and protest”.

It added that Pakistan had conveyed its concerns to the Dutch authorities, urging them to be “mindful of the sentiments” of the people of Pakistan and Muslims around the world and take active steps to prevent such “hateful and Islamophobic acts”.

“Pakistan believes that freedom of expression comes with responsibilities. National governments should actively prevent racist and Islamophobic acts, which incite religious hatred.

“It is important for the international community to raise its voice against Islamophobia and work in concert to promote interfaith harmony. That was the spirit behind the resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2022 to mark March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia,” the FO said.

Separately, Saudi Arabia also issued a condemnation and denounced the incident in a statement posted earlier today on the social media platform X.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates the Kingdom’s strong condemnation of these reprehensible and recurring acts that cannot be justified under any circumstances. Such acts clearly promote hatred, exclusion, and racism, and directly contradict international efforts to promote values of tolerance, moderation, and the rejection of extremism,” the country’s foreign ministry said.

Meanwhile, Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi called for “urgent and effective international steps to confront these aggressive and provocative actions against Muslims.”

The OIC also criticized the “provocative act” in a statement issued a day ago.

It had called on the Dutch authorities to take necessary measures against such provocative acts and prevent their recurrence.

Last month, Wagensveld had trampled on and tore up a copy of the Holy Quran at a demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in The Hague, infuriating dozens of counter-protesters.

The Dutch government had already condemned the holding of the demonstration ahead of the event but said it had no legal powers to prevent it.

Similar incidents of the Holy Quran’s desecration have taken place in other European countries recently. In late July, two men set fire to a copy of the Quran in front of the Swedish parliament, and similar incidents have taken place in Denmark this year.

Such demonstrations have provoked anger and condemnations and sometimes unrest in several Muslim countries.

Muslim leaders addressing the United Nations General Assembly last week had berated the West over torching of the Holy Quran.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1777819/deepl ... etherlands

[swamidada]

BBC
Boy, 6, killed in anti-Muslim attack, say US police
Sun, October 15, 2023 at 6:56 PM CDT·

A man has been charged with murder and hate crimes after allegedly stabbing two people because they were Muslim.

Joseph Czuba, 71, is accused of killing a six-year-old boy and injuring a woman, 32, in the town of Plainfield.

The victims were targeted because of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel, the Will County Sheriff's Office said.

Mr Czuba was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, hate crimes and aggravated battery.

In a statement, the Will County Sheriff's Office said that on Saturday morning it received an emergency call from the woman who said she was being attacked by her landlord.

The woman said she "ran into the bathroom and continued to fight off her attacker", the statement adds.

When officers arrived at the scene they discovered the woman and the boy with "multiple stab wounds to their chest, torso, and upper extremities".

Both victims - who have not been publicly named - were taken to hospital, but the boy later died. It was later established that the child was stabbed 26 times.

"The knife used in this attack is a 12-inch (31cm) serrated military style knife that has a seven-inch blade," the Sheriff's office says.

The woman, who was seriously injured, is expected to survive the attack.

Mr Czuba was found "sitting upright outside on the ground near the driveway of the residence," the statement says.

He was taken to hospital for treatment before being questioned by detectives.

"Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis," the Sheriff's office added.

More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel last weekend when Hamas fighters crossed the border to attack civilians and soldiers.

In Gaza, more than 2,450 people have been killed by Israel's bombing, Palestinian authorities say, with an estimated 1,000 missing under rubble.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/bo ... 49205.html

[swamidada]

ا27 Dec, 2023 18:59
HomeWorld News
Erdogan says Netanyahu literally ‘Hitler’
The only difference between the Nazi fuhrer and Israeli’s PM is the Western support the latter enjoys, the Turkish leader says
Erdogan says Netanyahu literally ‘Hitler’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no different from Adolf Hitler, Türkiye’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said, condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Erdogan fired the new diplomatic broadside at Netanyahu on Wednesday when he delivered an opening speech at an award ceremony in Ankara. West Jerusalem now has “Nazi camps” of its own to hold Palestinians in, the president stated, implying the campaign in Gaza was as bad – or even worse – than the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany.

“We’ve seen the Nazi camps of Israel. How does this happen? They used to speak ill about Hitler, but how are you any different than Hitler?” Erdogan stated.

They are going to make us miss Hitler. Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not.

The only real difference between the late Nazi fuhrer and the Israeli PM is the broad support from the West for Netanyahu and his campaign against Hamas, the Turkish leader claimed.

“He is richer than Hitler; he gets the support from the West. All sorts of support comes from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans,” he stressed.

Hamas must be destroyed – NetanyahuREAD MORE: Hamas must be destroyed – Netanyahu
Türkiye’s president has long sought to portray himself as a protector of Palestinians, repeatedly criticizing Israeli policies. Erdogan drastically ramped up his rhetoric amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which broke out in the aftermath of the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel on October 7.

The new remarks, arguably the most hostile ones produced by Erdogan to date, have prompted a response from Netanyahu. Israeli PM dismissed the criticism, pointing fingers at Erdogan’s questionable account and allegations of committing genocide in Türkiye and beyond.

“Erdogan, who commits genocide against the Kurds, who holds a world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his rule, is the last person who can preach morality to us,” Netanyahu stated, falling short of accusing Erdogan of being the true Hitler himself.

The Israeli military is the “most moral army in the world,” and it is currently battling “the most disgusting and cruel terrorist group in the world,” Netanyahu added, referring to Hamas.

https://www.rt.com/news/589778-erdogan- ... ly-hitler/

[swamidada]

25 Feb, 2024 23:11
HomeWorld News
Man sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in Washington
He was reportedly protesting the ongoing war in Gaza
Man sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in Washington

A man has been hospitalized in critical condition after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC on Sunday, the city’s emergency services said.
Vito Maggiolo, a spokesman for DC Fire and EMS, told reporters that the man has been hospitalized with “critical life-threatening injuries.”

Independent journalist Talia Jane said she obtained the footage of the incident, which shows that the man was wearing a military uniform and described himself as “an active duty member of the US Air Force.”

According to Jane, the man said “I will no longer be complicit in genocide” and shouted “Free Palestine.” The journalist posted a graphic photo of a man in fatigues engulfed in flames.

A spokesperson for the US Air Force told the website Task & Purpose that they could not confirm if the man was a service member.
Multiple pro-Palestine protests were held outside Israeli missions abroad after Israel launched its military campaign against the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October 2023. The protesters have been demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, highlighting the staggering civilian death toll. In early December, a man set himself on fire in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia.

Pro-Israeli demonstrations were also held in Washington and other cities, where people mourned the Israelis killed by Hamas and demanded the release of hostages taken by the group during its attack on October 7, which triggered the ongoing war.

Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the local Hamas-run authorities. Israel has rejected the accusations of “genocide,” arguing that Hamas uses civilians as human shields and should ultimately be held responsible for the deaths in Gaza.

https://www.rt.com/news/593158-man-self ... s-embassy/

[swamidada]

10 Mar, 2024 00:32
HomeWorld News
Islamic world has let Palestinians down – Türkiye
Muslim-majority states have failed to protect civilians in Gaza against Israeli troops, President Erdogan said

Muslim-majority countries did not do enough to stop Israeli forces from killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. He made his comment as the war between Israel and Hamas has entered its sixth month.

“We have all witnessed together how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights became just a piece of paper when it comes to the right to live for Palestinian children, women and innocent civilians,” the Turkish leader said at an event in Istanbul on Saturday.

Erdogan went on to argue that the war in the Middle East “has shown us that the Islamic world still has very significant shortcomings, especially in terms of acting in unity” when attempting to pressure Israel to end its operation in Gaza.

Unfortunately, the Islamic world, with its population of nearly 2 billion people, has failed to properly fulfill its brotherly duty to the Palestinians.

The president said that, despite the “hard work and many efforts in the diplomatic field,” the Muslim-majority countries ultimately “could not prevent the deaths of innocent children of Gaza from hunger, bullets and bombs.”

For its part, Ankara has delivered some 40,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza by air and sea, Erdogan said.

The remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the offensive on Rafah, a major city near Gaza’s border with Egypt. The city and its surroundings became crowded with refugees after the Israel Defense Forces instructed Palestinians to flee the northern part of the enclave. Netanyahu has rejected international calls for a ceasefire, arguing that the IDF must clear out “the last Hamas stronghold” in Rafah.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group unexpectedly attacked southern Israeli cities on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began last year, according to local authorities.

https://www.rt.com/news/594009-islamic- ... iled-gaza/

[swamidada]

Anti-Muslim Incidents In U.S. Break Records, According To New Report
Rowaida Abdelaziz
Mon, April 1, 2024 at 11:01 PM CDT

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights group, received more complaints of anti-Muslim incidents in 2023 than it has in any other year since it began recording cases 30 years ago.

The group received 8,061 complaints nationwide, according to a report published Tuesday, “Fatal: The Resurgence of Anti-Muslim Hate.” CAIR documented 5,156 complaints in 2022 and 6,720 in 2021, which was the previous record.

CAIR records a variety of incidents, including hate crimes and employment and education discrimination.

Nearly half of the 2023 complaints ― 3,578 ― were reported in the last three months of the year, which the report notes points to the war in Gaza as the primary driver behind the dramatic increase in anti-Muslim sentiment. After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, Israeli forces launched a full-scale attack in the Gaza Strip, killing nearly 33,000 Palestinians so far, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Since then, Muslim and Palestinian Americans have faced severe backlash. In Vermont, three Palestinian students were shot while on a walk, an incident the state’s attorney in Burlington called “a hateful act.” In Illinois, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death and his mother was hospitalized in a hate crime by their landlord, who was angered over the Israel-Hamas war. In February, a passerby attempted to rip away a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf hanging out of a car window and stabbed a Palestinian American man.

The wave of Islamophobia that has taken place since Oct. 7 is even greater than the one the U.S. saw after then-President Donald Trump implemented his Muslim travel ban in 2017.

The report notes that anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism is not synonymous with Islamophobia but says that “Muslim and Arab identities have long been conflated, particularly by those who seek to villainize both, making anti-Muslim hate part and parcel of anti-Arab, and specifically, anti-Palestinian racism.”

After the war began in October, employment discrimination, hate crimes and education discrimination were the three highest categories of Islamophobia, making up 44% of the total complaints received. In 2023, CAIR recorded 607 reports of hate incidents, up from 117 in 2022.

Activists, students and everyday people across the country reported being intimidated, harassed or doxxed for their pro-Palestine activism. College students, particularly Arabs and Muslims, said they felt unsafe and unsupported by their universities. Some said they have lost their jobs over their social media posts.

“The campaign of anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Palestinian racism that has emerged to target really all and any support of Palestinian human rights from October to the present day has significantly affected the safety of American Muslims, Arabs and Palestinian communities across the United States,” said Farah Afify, CAIR’s research and advocacy coordinator.

Muslim and Arab groups across the country have criticized the White House for not calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, as well as for not forcefully calling out the human rights violations against Palestinians by Israeli forces and the subsequent bigotry that has been seen in the U.S. During the Democratic primary season, many Muslim and Arab voters have opted to choose “uncommitted” on their ballots rather than vote for President Joe Biden.

“This wave of Islamophobia that we’re seeing right now is just a precursor. We have a choice of either quietly accepting the people we picked to represent us endorsing this kind of garbage, or we can as a nation decide to call them out for it,” said Corey Saylor, CAIR’s research and advocacy director.

Anti-Muslim bigotry will likely get worse if Democrats don’t push for meaningful changes in Gaza and make amends with Muslim and Arab groups in the U.S.

“Political leaders have to come out forcefully, not just against Islamophobia and against anti-Palestinian racism, but also to come out forcefully for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza so that the lives of Muslims Arabs and Palestinians across the world can be protected,” Afify said.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/an ... 03500.html

[swamidada]

CNN
‘Tell us where our children are?’ First bodies exhumed from mass graves at Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli siege
Kareem Khadder and Sana Noor Haq, CNN
Tue, April 9, 2024 at 2:50 PM CDT·

‘We will stay here’: Resident returns to Gaza after IDF withdrawScroll back up to restore default view.
Health workers in northern Gaza exhumed the first corpses from mass graves in and around Al-Shifa Hospital on Tuesday, after they said Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and left their bodies to decompose during their two-week siege of the complex.

At least 381 bodies were recovered from the vicinity of the complex since Israeli forces withdrew on April 1, Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said on Tuesday, adding that the total figure did not include people buried within the grounds of the hospital.

Many of the decomposed remnants they discovered had been buried or were found above ground, officials told CNN on Monday. Israeli tanks crushed others to death, leaving some of those killed completely disfigured and unable to be identified, Basal said.

Witnesses and civilians who were trapped inside the hospital when it was raided say the vicinity “was full of bodies,” according to Basal. “The occupation forces have plowed these bodies and buried them in the ground,” he added.

“We are here to recover the remains of the bodies who are in the sand mounds that the Israeli occupation have plowed in a big pile,” Ahmad Alaiwa, a doctor at Al-Shifa, told CNN.

Some of the bodies were found lying under dirt or plastic sheeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Tuesday. “Hospitals should never be militarized,” he said in a video message.

It came as staff from the World Health Organization and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reached Al-Shifa Hospital earlier this month, according to a UN report. Israeli authorities had repeatedly denied humanitarian teams access to the complex, the UN said.

“Shifa has literally become a graveyard… There are bodies still in this courtyard,” Jonathan Whittall, a senior humanitarian affairs officer for OCHA, said in a video message posted on X, on Saturday.

In response to a CNN request for comment, the Israel Defense Forces said that together with the ISA (Israel Security Agency) it had “completed operations against terrorist operatives and infrastructure” at Al-Shifa, and that “approximately 500 suspects affiliated with terrorist organizations were apprehended and 200 terrorists were eliminated.”

It said the operation was “carried out following precise intelligence from the ISA and the Intelligence Directorate regarding terrorist organizations’ activities in the area, including using Shifa as a command and control center and military headquarters.

“The forces found large quantities of weapons, intelligence documents throughout the hospital, encountered terrorists in close-quarters battles and engaged in combat while avoiding harm to the medical staff and patients.”

Those apprehended had been transferred for further interrogation to the ISA and Unit 504 in the Intelligence Directorate, it added.

The IDF confirmed its withdrawal from Al-Shifa on April 1, when it said that “hundreds of terrorists were killed or captured.”

“The terrorist base in Shifa has been eliminated,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at the time. CNN cannot independently verify IDF statements.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,200 people, including 36 children, and kidnapping more than 250 others.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 33,360 Palestinians, and injured another 75,993 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.

“The smell of the dead is all over the place,” Motasem Salah, an official from the Ministry of Health in Gaza leading recovery efforts, told CNN.

“We try to identify the bodies of these civilians as their families are awaiting news about their loved ones – if they are alive or missing.”

Allegations of war crimes
Following the two-week siege, specialized facilities within the hospital complex are “completely out of service,” according to Salah, the Ministry of Health official. He warned that Israel’s bombardment has crushed the medical system in Gaza, diminishing resources for rescue and recovery operations.

“We don’t have pathologist, or expertise in documenting the crimes of the occupation,” he said.

UN experts accused Israel of “denying access to health care to those most in need,” in a statement on April 3.

“The world is witnessing the first genocide shown in real time to the world by its victims and unfathomably justified by Israel as compliant with the laws of war,” the statement added. “The extent of the atrocity is still unable to be fully documented due to its scale and gravity – and clearly represents the most horrific assault on Gaza’s hospitals.”

Targeting hospitals in wartime is prohibited under international law, but those standards change if enemy combatants are using the facility to attack an enemy.

“He was a civilian,” Qunaitta told CNN. “What can we say? They took him from his house and killed him.” CNN cannot independently verify that Qunaitta’s father was killed by Israeli forces.

The IDF stormed his relatives’ house beside the complex and told them to flee south, leaving his father near the fence of the surgical department – where his body was found on Monday, he says.

“We lost his trace since then and we only found his body today… almost a week since they have withdrawn. Until today we have been looking, and we only found him now.”

Another Palestinian at the hospital, Nuha Swailem, told CNN that she was searching for her missing husband, who she said had been detained by Israeli forces during the raid.

“We don’t know their fate or the fate of my husband, if they are… buried or detained,” she added. “Tell us where our children are? Tell me where my husband is?”

Palestinians at Al-Shifa told CNN say they want to give their loved ones a proper funeral, lamenting the indignity of their deaths. UN agencies worked with Gaza’s Ministry of Health to offer dignified burials for the unidentified bodies found at Al-Shifa, according to a post on X on Tuesday.

“We want to recover these body remains and to give them proper burial,” said Alaiwa, one of the doctors at Al-Shifa. “Parents and families want to know the fate of their loved ones, whether they are dead or arrested, or have gone missing.”

Swailem, the Palestinian mother, reflected, “Why did they arrest them. What crime did they commit? The only crime is we are the people of Palestine.”

Khadr Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this report.

Witnesses and civilians who were trapped inside the hospital when it was raided say the vicinity “was full of bodies,” according to Basal. “The occupation forces have plowed these bodies and buried them in the ground,” he added.

“We are here to recover the remains of the bodies who are in the sand mounds that the Israeli occupation have plowed in a big pile,” Ahmad Alaiwa, a doctor at Al-Shifa, told CNN.

Some of the bodies were found lying under dirt or plastic sheeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Tuesday. “Hospitals should never be militarized,” he said in a video message.

It came as staff from the World Health Organization and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reached Al-Shifa Hospital earlier this month, according to a UN report. Israeli authorities had repeatedly denied humanitarian teams access to the complex, the UN said.

“Shifa has literally become a graveyard… There are bodies still in this courtyard,” Jonathan Whittall, a senior humanitarian affairs officer for OCHA, said in a video message posted on X, on Saturday.

“The terrorist base in Shifa has been eliminated,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at the time. CNN cannot independently verify IDF statements.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 33,360 Palestinians, and injured another 75,993 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.

“The smell of the dead is all over the place,” Motasem Salah, an official from the Ministry of Health in Gaza leading recovery efforts, told CNN.

UN experts accused Israel of “denying access to health care to those most in need,” in a statement on April 3.

“The world is witnessing the first genocide shown in real time to the world by its victims and unfathomably justified by Israel as compliant with the laws of war,” the statement added. “The extent of the atrocity is still unable to be fully documented due to its scale and gravity – and clearly represents the most horrific assault on Gaza’s hospitals.”

Targeting hospitals in wartime is prohibited under international law, but those standards change if enemy combatants are using the facility to attack an enemy.

Gazan residents gathered at the hospital to search for missing family members. Ghassan Riyad Qunaitta said his elderly father was among those found in the mass graves.

“We lost his trace since then and we only found his body today… almost a week since they have withdrawn. Until today we have been looking, and we only found him now.”

Palestinians at Al-Shifa told CNN say they want to give their loved ones a proper funeral, lamenting the indignity of their deaths. UN agencies worked with Gaza’s Ministry of Health to offer dignified burials for the unidentified bodies found at Al-Shifa, according to a post on X on Tuesday.

“We want to recover these body remains and to give them proper burial,” said Alaiwa, one of the doctors at Al-Shifa. “Parents and families want to know the fate of their loved ones, whether they are dead or arrested, or have gone missing.”

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/te ... 14108.html

[swamidada]

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday ordered the immediate reconstruction of a girls’ school which was recently blown up in North Waziristan.

A private girls’ school was blown up by unidentified militants in Tehsil Shewa of North Waziristan district on Wednesday night, according to police sources.

They said the militants had first tortured the school watchman and later blew up two rooms in the building. Local sources had said that it was the only private girls’ school in the area and its administration had received multiple threat letters in the past.

Condemning the attack in the strongest possible terms in a statement, the prime minister ordered authorities to immediately identify the alleged attackers and ensure they received “exemplary punishment”.

He ordered the authorities to rebuild the damaged portion of the school at the government’s expense, further directing them to ensure the reconstruction was promptly completed.

PM Shehbaz said that the government would “make sure terrorists get their comeuppance” for trying to deprive girls of their right to an education. “We will never let them succeed in their nefarious designs,” the statement added.

The prime minister reiterated the government’s resolve to provide equal opportunities for education to all, including girls, with the goal of empowering them to play their role in the development of the country.

Similar attacks took place in May of last year when two government schools for girls in Mirali were blown up. No loss of life was reported in the incidents.

Around 500 girls were enrolled in the two schools — Government Girls Middle School, Noor Jannat and Government Girls Middle School, Yunus Kot — which were targeted by the attackers around midnight.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1832689/pm-sh ... struction-

[swamidada]

BBC
Israeli army strapped wounded Palestinian to jeep
Robert Plummer - BBC News
Sat, June 22, 2024 at 4:12 PM CDT·

The Israeli military has said its forces violated protocol by strapping a wounded Palestinian man to the front of their vehicle during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the incident after it was captured on video and shared on social media. An IDF statement said the man was wounded in an exchange of fire during the raid, in which he was a suspect.

The injured man's family said that when they asked for an ambulance, the army took him, strapped him to the bonnet of their jeep and drove off.

The individual was eventually transferred to the Red Crescent for treatment. The IDF said the incident would be investigated.

Eyewitnesses speaking to Reuters news agency identified him as a local man and named him as Mujahed Azmi.

"This morning [Saturday], during counter-terrorism operations to apprehend wanted suspects in the area of Wadi Burqin, terrorists opened fire at IDF troops, who responded with fire," the IDF statement said.

"During the exchange of fire, one of the suspects was injured and apprehended.

"In violation of orders and standard operating procedures, the suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle.

"The conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values of the IDF. The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly."

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

The UN says at least 480 Palestinians - members of armed groups, attackers and civilians - have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 33107.html

[swamidada]

‘Cruel’ and ‘heartbreaking’: Internet decries death of Palestinian with Down syndrome mauled by IDF dog
Mohammad Bhar petted the dog and said 'enough my dear' as the animal continued to attack him, according to his mother.

18 Jul, 2024

Mohammed Bhar, a 24-year-old Palestinian with Down syndrome and autism, was left for dead after being mauled by a combat dog of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) on July 3, during a raid on his family’s home in Shejaiya.

His mother Nabila saw the animal attack him.

“The dog attacked him, biting his chest and then his hand. Mohammed didn’t speak, only muttering ‘No, no, no.’ The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed. I wanted to get to him but I couldn’t. No one could get to him, and he was patting the dog’s head saying, ‘enough my dear, enough.’ In the end, he relaxed his hand, and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding,” she told the BBC.

IDF soldiers locked Bhar in a separate room to allegedly treat his injuries and prohibited his family from seeing him. Soon after, they were forced to leave their home at gunpoint — without Bhar. During the raid, two of his brothers were arrested and have not been released yet.

A week later the family returned to their residence to find Bhar’s body.

“They left him without stitches or care. Just these basic first aid measures. Of course, as you can see, Mohammed was dead for a period of time already because he was abandoned. We thought he wasn’t at home. But it turned out he had been bleeding and left alone at home all this time. Of course, the army left him,” Bhar’s brother Jibraeel told the BBC.

The ordeal has elicited anger and disgust on social media.

Actor Kubra Khan shared the news on her Instagram story, and wrote, “You think your heart can’t break any further… and you see this”. The actor prayed for God’s mercy.

X (formerly Twitter) users detailed how heartbreaking the incident was, highlighting that Bhar called the dog ‘habibi’ — Arabic for ‘my dear’ — while it attacked him.

Another tweet said that Bhar “saw the dog for exactly what it was born to be: a gentle companion” and accused the IDF of transforming the animal into a “killing machine”.

Netizens with siblings who have similar disabilities also decried Bhar’s death. “I can’t believe how anyone could inflict even the slightest amount of pain on anyone, let alone someone so pure and innocent.”

Others spoke about the cruelty being perpetrated in Gaza, adding that this was “only one of countless thousands of similar stories”.

A social media user also highlighted that if a similar occurrence “happened to an Israeli, you would never hear the end of it”, adding that “it would be on every media outlet and [they] would justify the literal obliteration […] of many people”.

The scene has traumatised Bhar’s mother. “This scene I will never forget… I constantly see the dog tearing at him and his hand, and the blood pouring from his hand… It is always in front of my eyes, never leaving me for a moment. We couldn’t save him, neither from them nor from the dog,” she told the BBC.

“People with disabilities in Gaza have been put in extreme distress with the expectation that they will be the first and the next to be killed because of the limited opportunities to flee or take part in evacuations due to their impairment,” the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities said in May.

This is not the first instance of a person with disabilities being harmed or killed by Israeli forces in Gaza; it is one of many stories reflecting the cruelty inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

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