The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on 15 October launched Islamophobia.org, the latest element in the Muslim civil rights organisation’s work to monitor and challenge the growing anti-Muslim bigotry in the American society. CAIR’s Islamophobia.org site presents detailed profiles of a number of individuals and institutions involved in the American Islamophobia network.
“Islamophobia.org is a reflection of CAIR’s philosophy of educating people and empowering them toward positive action,” said CAIR Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia Director Corey Saylor. “Since CAIR included the first Islamophobe profiles in its 2013 report ‘Legislating Fear,’ local communities have used them to begin positive conversations leading to the rejection of bigotry in all its forms,” said Saylor.
GUANTANAMO PRISON GUARD REVERTS TO ISLAM
In Huntsville, Alabama, United States, Terry Holdbrooks Jr., 29, reverted to Islam. Former prison guard in Guantanamo Bay, Holdbrooks Jr. reverted to Islam “after months of midnight conversations with the Muslim detainees,” a report said on 15 October. Holdbrooks said, “As I got to know the detainees, as I learned their stories during my long night shifts, I came to see the detainees as individuals. Many were men who enjoyed talking about the same things I do, like ethics, philosophy, history, religion.”
Being a guard at Guantanamo Bay Prison, Holdbrooks mulled over the information Army instructors have taught about Islam as he’d watched the so-called terrorists day after day. What he’d been told wasn’t lining up with what he observed, saying, while the detainees were reading the Qur’ān and keeping the daily schedule of prayers, they remained undiscouraged under horrendous pressure, the report citing Deen Show said.
BROTHERHOOD URGES HAMAS TO INCLUDE JORDANIANS IN PRISONER SWAP
The Islamic Action Front, the political arm of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, on 15 October called on Hamas to include Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails in an expected prisoner swap deal with the self-proclaimed Jewish state. “Jordanian prisoners hope that they would be released as part of a prisoner swap deal adopted by the heroic resistance [Hamas],” the Front said in a statement.
Hamas leader Moshir al-Masri told Anadolu Agency earlier that Hamas is expected to conclude a prisoner swap deal with Israel. In October 2011, Hamas swapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom it captured on June 25, 2006, for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told parliament on June 30, 2013 that there were 21 Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails.
CARTER CENTRE SHUTS CAIRO OFFICE OVER RIGHTS CONCERNS
A human rights group founded by former US President Jimmy Carter has closed its office in Cairo, Egypt because of the restrictions on democratic rights. The Carter Centre also said it would not send a mission to observe this year’s parliamentary elections, a report said on 16 October. It cited the “crackdown on dissidents, opposition groups, and critical journalists, together with heightened restrictions on core freedoms”.
The Carter Centre said its decision to shut its office in Cairo reflected its “assessment that the political environment is deeply polarised and that political space has narrowed for Egyptian political parties, civil society, and the media”.
EGYPT SLAPS 26 BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS WITH LIFE IN PRISON
A court in southern Egypt on 16 October sentenced 26 Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members to life (25 years) in prison in a case that has come to be known as “the Ghanayem incidents”, a report citing judicial source said. The verdict could still be appealed at a higher court. The report noted that the same court had also cleared 141 other defendants in the case.
The court also handed prison sentences to five other people – ranging from one to three years – in the same case. Another court, meanwhile, adjourned to November the trial of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohsen Radi and eight co-defendants. Since Morsi’s ouster by the army in July last year, thousands of Brotherhood leaders, members and supporters have been thrown in jail after being accused of inciting violence, staging illegal demonstrations and involvement in murder.
GOVT. IGNORING PALESTINE VOTE: BARONESS WARSI
A former UK foreign office minister who resigned over the government’s policy on Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has hit out at the government for its failure to recognise Palestinian statehood. Baroness Warsi wrote on her twitter feed that the government had “ignored” a vote by lawmakers urging the UK to officially recognise Palestine and she had received a “stock answer” when she had brought up the issue in the house of lords.
On 13 October, British lawmakers voted to recognise Palestine as a state in a historical symbolic move that “calls on the government to recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel.” The vote saw the British prime minister along with other ministers abstain.
TURKEY TO BRING AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN CLOSER: ERDOGAN
Turkey will continue to mediate between Afghanistan and Pakistan on terrorism-related issues, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 18 October. Addressing a joint press briefing in Kabul with Afghanistan’s newly-elected President Ashraf Ghani, Erdogan said Pakistan’s border-control measures had been effective in preventing terrorists from gaining a safe passage into Afghanistan during the Afghan election period last June. He added the measures contributed greatly towards ensuring a stable and peaceful election environment in Afghanistan.
“Extremism is not just the problem of only one country, but it is an international problem,” Ghani said. He said there could be success in finding a solution if the terrorism threat was dealt from a ‘common perspective.’ “Turkey plays a vital role in that question” in Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, he said, “so we look forward to Erdogan’s efforts in this regard.”
AUSTRIAN MUSLIMS REACT TO ISLAM LAW CHANGE
Reactions to Austria’s recent proposed law change concerning its Islamic community are growing, with the amendment being accused of violating the constitutional rights of the country’s 500,000 Muslims. The Austrian government brought a draft bill to parliament on 2 October which would prohibit foreign funding for Islamic organisations and oblige the Islamic community to agree to a standardised German translation of the Qur’ān and other religious texts. The amendment, which overhauls Austria’s 1912 ‘Law on Islam’ over fears about rising extremism, also lays down rules on who can work as Islamic preachers in the country.
WHY DOES MYANMAR KEEP PERSECUTING ROHINGYA MUSLIMS?
For years, the government of Myanmar has treated its Rohingya Muslim people as intruders – an impoverished minority among a Buddhist majority, considered illegal immigrants, restricted in where they can live and work. The United Nations considers them one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Even as Myanmar has liberalised its political system, moving from military rule to democracy, the government has declined to ease its treatment of the Rohingya despite constant urging to do so by the human rights community and U.S. officials, the Los Angeles Times said in its Editorial on 15 October.
Now Myanmar is responding to the continued calls for change with a proposed “Rakhine State Action Plan.” But what the government claims is an attempt to address the statelessness of the Rohingya only further institutionalises its discrimination against them, it added.
FJP REGRETS EGYPT BOMBING OF LIBYA EAST BENGHAZI
The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said it follows with increasing concern news of Egyptian warplanes bombarding the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi in a military operation led by the military junta and its heinous traitorous commander Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi against Libyan revolutionaries, with the participation of ground troops belonging to the forces of the Libyan coup, by way of physical support for Libya’s counter-revolution and empowerment of traitors and the corrupt there.
The FJP added, “The junta did not learn the lesson of history. When Egypt sent troops to the war in Yemen (1962-70), more than 15,000 Egyptian soldiers were killed there – according to official records.”