Islam - Page 23

TEL AVIV — Rep. Ilhan Omar compared Israel with Saudi Arabia in an interview Sunday, saying both countries used money to influence the Trump administration and that as a result Israel’s “destructive policies” were being “rubber stamped” by the U.S.

Reports from across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia this weekend described Muslims ignoring coronavirus lockdown bans on large gatherings to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Ramadan holiday season, usually celebrated in a highly social manner.

Mosques across Great Britain could begin daily broadcasts of the Islamic call to prayer through loudspeakers after they were given special dispensation to play the adhan in the holy month of Ramadan.

In his address for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada – supreme leader of the Taliban as well as one of its top clerics – promised equal rights for men and women under fundamentalist Taliban rule after the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan. He also offered a general amnesty to the Taliban’s enemies, provided they “end their opposition” to the “establishment of an Islamic government.”

Muslims in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to perform their Eid al-Fitr prayers at home this year as a result of the closure of mosques in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, local news service Al Arabiya reported Monday.

The number of girls in Somalia subject to female genital mutilation (FGM) has soared in recent weeks amid lockdown measures imposed in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the children’s rights organization Plan International on Monday.

Kuwait City — Abu Othman, like thousands of Kuwaiti men, has struggled to split his time between two wives living in separate homes amid the Gulf state’s strict lockdown to combat the coronavirus.

Saudi Arabia will maintain a national curfew the during the five-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which begins in a little more than a week, state media said Wednesday.

The chancellor at Scottsdale Community College has apologized for “the uneven manner” in which it handled a professor that drew criticism on social media over test questions about Islamic terrorism. The community college initially criticized the professor and even suggested he be required to meet with an Islamic religious leader to review the contents of his course.

Mosques in Iran reopened Tuesday as the government moved slowly to ease restrictions forced on the Muslim faithful by the Chinese coronavirus.

China Central Television (CCTV), the Chinese Communist Party’s main state broadcaster, disparaged Breitbart News this week as a home to “racist speech” and “anti-Muslim” rhetoric, a claim it did not corroborate with any examples.

The Grand Mosque of Paris has threatened to file a discrimination lawsuit against the French government if it is not allowed to open to worshippers before the end of Ramadan.

Somalia has kept its mosques open during Ramadan despite the coronavirus pandemic, attracting a flood of faithful Kenyans from across the countries’ shared border, Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation reported on Monday.

A report produced on Tuesday by the city government of Rawalpindi, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, found that most of the city’s 250 most sensitive mosques were ignoring guidelines provided for safe worship during the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday mosques would reopen across one third of the country within 24-hours, after they were shuttered early in March as the Middle East’s deadliest Chinese coronavirus outbreak took hold.

Several German parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, have expressed support for allowing public broadcasts of the Islamic call to prayer during Ramadan across Germany.

A woman who says she was sexually abused and by Pakistani grooming gang members is now receiving racist abuse from “far-left groups” for speaking out online.

Pakistan’s Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs has called for the beheading of people who commit blasphemy.

The Vatican’s office for interreligious dialogue released a message to the world Muslim community Friday, extending fervent best wishes for a “fruitful month of Ramadan.”

Copenhagen police say they “averted a terrorist attack” Thursday with the arrest of a man with alleged Islamist motives in the morning.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday threw his weight behind Turkey’s top Muslim cleric, who caused a storm by claiming homosexuality “brings disease and causes this generation to decay.”

A Liberal Democrat politician attempting to curry favour by observing Ramadan in “solidarity” with Muslims during the coronavirus lockdown badly misstepped by tagging the Muslim Council of Britain in a picture of his bacon and eggs breakfast.

Sir Edward ‘Ed’ Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, has received criticism after revealing that he is fasting “for the holy month of Ramadan” in “solidarity with Muslims” affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

The General Assembly of Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has decided to end flogging as punishment in disciplinary cases.

Jeff Goldblum is facing left-wing backlash on social media after the actor questioned the “anti-homosexuality and anti-woman” nature of Islam while serving as a guest judge on VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

TEL AVIV – In a first, a multi-faith gathering of religious leaders including Chief Rabbis, archbishops, patriarchs, imams, and sheikhs joined together in prayer in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, in a united call to God to ease the suffering experienced around the world by the coronavirus pandemic.

New York City will provide over 500,000 free halal meals to Muslims during Ramadan, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced this week.

Police in Cameroon clashed with Muslims on Friday after they refused to adhere to lockdown measures in response to the Chinese coronavirus to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, Voice of America (VOA) reports.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock thanked Muslims for their Ramadan “sacrifice” on St George’s Day, but made no mention of the English national day itself.

Authorities in Indonesia’s Islamist Aceh province ignored a government ban on mass gatherings on Tuesday to carry out floggings of six people found guilty of violating Sharia, the Islamic law, AFP reported Wednesday.

Islamic radicals severely beat 23-year-old Lydia Nabirye in Eastern Uganda, after the woman shared her Christian faith with a Muslim woman who subsequently converted to Christianity.

Indonesia on Tuesday announced the banning of Idul Fitri, the annual exodus at the end of Ramadan where people return home to their villages and see their families, over fears it could worsen the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

Istanbul — At the entrance of an Istanbul mosque, the racks usually reserved for the shoes of the faithful are loaded with pasta packages, oil bottles, biscuits — like a supermarket.

BAHTIM, Egypt — Every year during Ramadan, the Light of Muhammad Mosque sets up long tables on the street and dishes up free meals at sunset for the poor to break their daily fast. It’s a charity that many rely on in this impoverished district on the edge of the Egyptian capital.

Tens of thousands of Islamic faithful in Bangladesh defied coronavirus lockdown restrictions Saturday to attend the funeral of revered Muslim cleric Maulana Zubayer Ahmad Ansari.

India’s External Affairs Ministry condemned the USCIRF after it shared reports of hospitals segregating coronavirus patients by religion.