The Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Action Front Party on 17 November denounced the recent designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist” organisation by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In a statement, the party said the decision of the UAE ran counter to both logic and wisdom. “Why should Islamists alone be accused of being terrorists, while there is real international terrorism sponsored by the United States and Israel?” the Islamic Action Front Party asked in the statement.
A senior leader of the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood on 16 November downplayed a recent decision by the UAE to include the Brotherhood in a list of terrorist organisations. “We were not surprised by the UAE decision,” organisation Secretary-General Ibrahim Munir was reported as saying. “It [the decision] will not affect the future of the Muslim Brotherhood in any manner,” he added.
ANGER AS UAE PUTS NORDIC, UK MUSLIM GROUPS ON TERROR LIST
The inclusion by the United Arab Emirates of some of the most respected Islamic organisations established within Nordic states and the UK on a list of groups suspected of having links to terrorism has triggered a wave of protest. The outcry on 17 November came after Islamic organisations firmly established and embedded in societies in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark were described are possibly having terror cells and included on a list of 85 organisations suspected of having “terror” links.
The Islamic Society in Denmark said in a press release: “The list is nothing but a politically motivated, subjective and very poorly created list which mixes law-abiding and hard-working small organisations in Europe and the U.S.A. with terror organisations such as Boko Haram and ISIS.” The leader of the Islamic Association in Norway, Basim Ghozlan, demanded that his organisation be taken off the list.
U.S. MUSLIMS PRAY AT WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
The Washington National Cathedral has hosted Muslims for prayer for the first time on Friday (14 November). Organised by the South African ambassador in Washington, Ebrahim Rasool and several Islamic communities in the U.S., including the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, and the Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim leaders were invited to lead the Friday prayer in the cathedral.
“Undoubtedly this event builds a bridge among religious communities. We have held several events with members of other religions and these kinds of events give us the opportunity to be together, co-exist and strengthen the society as a whole,” said the chair of another organiser the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ national board Roula Allouch. The National Cathedral’s canon preceptor Gina Gilland Campbell welcomed the Muslim community saying that they are pleased to host the Friday prayer.
BOSNIA POLICE ARREST 12 FOR WAR CRIMES NEAR BIGGEST MASS GRAVE SITE
Bosnian police on 17 November arrested 12 Bosnian Serbs suspected of crimes against humanity over an attack early in the country’s 1992-95 war in which 150 Muslim Bosniaks, including women and children, were killed and their bodies dumped in mass graves. The prosecutor’s office said the arrests were carried out in the area of the western town of Prijedor and described the case as one of the most complex it has pursued since the war.
An estimated 100,000 people are believed to have been killed in the war, the large majority of them Bosniaks. “They are charged with murders, torture, rapes, as well as with looting and destroying the property of Bosniaks in the village of Zecovi as part of a bid to drive the Bosniaks from the village,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
YEMEN’S HOUTHIS DENOUNCE KILLING OF ISLAH POLITICIAN
Yemen’s Shiite Houthi group on 19 November denounced the assassination of a politician in Taiz, describing his killing as a “criminal act”. “We denounce this heinous crime, and we offer our condolences to the family of the deceased,” a statement by the Houthi group said.
Sadeq Mansour, deputy secretary-general of the Islamist Congregation for Reform (Islah) party, was killed on 18 November when his car struck a roadside bomb in Yemen’s central Taiz province. No group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. “This cowardly act of terror comes as a systematic plan to derail the progress of the political process,” the Houthi statement said. The group also called on Yemen’s political parties to end “political differences that are used by some foreign powers as a cover to commit crimes against the Yemeni people”.
MUSLIMS, NOT COLUMBUS, DISCOVERED AMERICAS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 15 November said that the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot there. “Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus,” Erdogan said in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America.
“Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast,” Erdogan said. Erdogan said that Ankara was even prepared to build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer.
GUN OWNERSHIP TO AGGRAVATE JERUSALEM SITUATION
A renowned Palestinian scholar has warned that an Israeli government decision to ease restrictions on gun ownership in Jerusalem would trigger an “explosion” of violence in the holy city. “The current situation in Jerusalem is flammable, and the stepped up army deployment and allowing settlers to carry guns would aggravate the already complicated situation,” Ekrema Sabri, head of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem, a local NGO, told a press conference in East Jerusalem.
He also warned that the Israeli policies in the holy city would drive the city towards an uncontrollable cycle of violence. “It is well known that consistent pressure leads to explosion,” Sabri said.
PEOPLE OF MIDDLE EAST MUST CONTROL OWN FATE: ERDOGAN
People of the Middle East and North Africa should control their own fate, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 19 November. Erdogan spoke in the Algerian capital Algiers on the first formal visit by a Turkish President to Algeria in last 15 years. “The most important question: Big changes that are taking place in the Middle East and North Africa; will these changes be controlled by the people of these regions or, as has been the case in past centuries, will people from outside control them?” Erdogan said speaking in a joint press conference with his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
“Each of us knows that when we import solutions for our own problems, we do not solve them,” Erdogan said. In fact, solutions brought in from outside often make things worse.
US MOSQUES URGED TO OFFER PRAYER FOR AID WORKER KILLED BY ISIS
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging American mosques to offer a special prayer for slain U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig following regular Friday congregational prayers (Jummah). The prayer, called “salat al-ghaib”, is performed for Muslims who have died in a distant place and have no one else to pray for them at that location. Kassig had converted to Islam and taken the name “Abdul-Rahman.”
CAIR previously condemned Kassig’s “barbaric murder” by ISIS.
ICLI NAMES FIRST-EVER FEMALE PRESIDENT
On 1 January, 2015, Isma Chaudhry, a mother-of-two from Manhasset, will become the ICLI’s first female president, a largely administrative position, but one that is symbolic in many ways. When she replaces the current president Eric Hamza Byas, Chaudhry will be the 13th president to lead the ICLI since 1982. Chaudhry’s appointment, a three-year term, also comes as Muslims have once again been unwittingly thrust into the spotlight due to the hate-filled atrocities of groups such as the so-called Islamic State and others who say they are acting in the name of God – actions that the ICLI and other Muslim leaders on LI continue to condemn.
New England’s Oldest Mosque
Celebrates 50th Anniversary
New England’s oldest mosque celebrated its 50th anniversary on 22 November with a ceremony in Quincy followed by a banquet at Lombardo’s in Randolph. As America’s Muslim population grew rapidly, since opening in 1964, so did the size of the Islamic Centre. According to the Patrick Ronan report, the mosque started with seven founding families and has expanded to more than 1,000 member families from all over the South Shore and Greater Boston. The original members hailed from one country – Lebanon – while today’s congregation represents 36 different nationalities.
And what started with a humble $50,000 structure in Quincy Point has since blossomed into two mosques, one in Quincy and one in Sharon. Both house a school and are on the verge of major expansion projects.
Arson fires in 1990 and 2003 caused significant damage to the Quincy mosque, but the biggest challenge came following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Islamic Centre got its start a half-century ago when seven immigrant families living near the Fore River Shipyard joined to build the mosque at 470 South St. The seven founding families were: Abrahams, Allies, Ameens, Derbeses, El-Deebs, Hassans and Omars.
The Islamic Centre is trying to raise money for a proposed $1.5 million expansion of the Quincy mosque and a $6 million-plus expansion of the Sharon mosque, projects that would include bigger prayer rooms, more classrooms and other improvements.
One More Bangladesh Leader
Gets Death for War Crime
A former leader of Bangladesh’s ruling party was sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal on 24 November in connection with atrocities committed during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan. Mobarak Hossain, 64, a local leader expelled from the ruling Awami League party in 2011, was found guilty of charges including mass killing, abduction and torture, prosecutors said.
Bangladesh became part of Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947 but broke away in 1971 after a war between Bangladeshi nationalists, backed by India, and Pakistani forces.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 opened an inquiry into war crimes committed during the nine-month war.
Hasina’s opponents say she is using the tribunal against the two biggest opposition parties – arch rival Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami.
Monday’s verdict is the first against any ruling party leader, and counters claims that Hasina is targeting her political rivals.
International human rights groups have said the tribunal falls short of international standards. The government denies the charge. A Jamaat politician was hanged in December, the first war crimes execution in Bangladesh, after the Supreme Court overturned a life sentence imposed by the tribunal.
This month, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for a top Jamaat leader over atrocities committed during the war. Some factions in Bangladesh, including the Jamaat, opposed the break with Pakistan, but the party denies accusations that its leaders committed atrocities.