IT’S WAR CRIMES AGAINST WORSHIPPERS AT AL AQSA MOSQUE: HAMAS
Hamas on May 10 accused the Israeli occupation of carrying out organised war crimes against Muslim sacred sites and unarmed worshippers in Jerusalem. In a statement, the head of Hamas’ Media Division Abroad Rafat Morra pointed out that Israeli occupation forces were directly firing stun grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets at Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, putting their lives at serious risk. The Hamas official stressed that the Palestinian people are entitled to defend their land and sacred sites and face the Israeli schemes and crimes committed by Israeli settler groups. Meanwhile, head of the movement’s Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said the “connection between Gaza and Jerusalem is stable and unchangeable.”
CHURCHES URGE INT’L COMMUNITY TO END TENSION IN JERUSALEM
The Patriarchs and Heads of Jerusalem churches on May 11 urged the international community to intervene and end the tension in the holy city created mainly by right-wing radical groups. “The actions undermining the safety of worshipers and the dignity of the Palestinians who are subject to eviction are unacceptable,” said the joint statement released by the Patriarchs and Heads of Jerusalem churches. Referring to the developments that took place at the al-Aqsa compound and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, the statement said: “These concerning developments violate the sanctity of the people of Jerusalem and Jerusalem as the city of Peace.” Father Manuel Musallam, head of the World Popular Organisation for Jerusalem Justice and Peace, also called on Palestinian Christians to “donate to support Al-Aqsa Mosque” in Occupied Jerusalem. “I repeat my call to the honourable clergy, the patriarchs, bishops, and priests to shoulder their responsibilities and strongly stand in the face of the occupation and its crimes,” Musallam said.
CONCERNS OVER RISING CONSERVATISM IN GOVT SCHOOLS
Claims of rising conservatism in government public schools in Malaysia have risen. There appears to be concerted move to discourage schools which guide Muslim students to Islamic teachings and practices. Last September, the National Union of the Teaching Profession rejected claims that public schools in the country are “too Islamic”, with its president Aminuddin Awang saying that most of the programmes in such schools are geared towards “achieving an education philosophy that is balanced in all aspects, be it physical, spiritual and intellectual.” In Malaysia, Muslim students in government schools are required to take up Islamic and Qur’ānic studies as well as Tasmik (individual Qur’ān recitals). This is being resisted with full media support on the plea that students have not necessarily become more religious when they grow up despite Islamic studies being allotted more hours than science and mathematics in schools.
SURVEY SHOWS MALAYSIANS CREDIT PN RATHER THAN PAS
A recent survey found that most Malaysians think the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has done a good job pushing forward Islamic policies in the country. However, fewer Malaysians credit PAS – a PN component party – with this empowering of Islam. In a survey conducted by Invoke and commissioned by Malay Mail, 45 per cent of respondents polled agree that PN has stepped up the implementation of Islamic policies but only 38 per cent think that PAS played a role. The survey also found that only 51 per cent of Malay respondents believe PAS helped improve the implementation of these pro-Islamic policies compared to 59 per cent who credited the PN administration as a whole.
MALAYSIA-BOUND ROHINGYAS FEARED MISPLACED AT SEA
More and more Rohingya refugees are heading for Malaysia through sea, even in small wooden boats, packed with more than 80 persons, including women and girls. Some were fleeing what their families say is the increased risk of sexual assault and rape during the pandemic in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, home to more than 1 million displaced people. One such boat with 87 persons are not traceable after more than two months later.
THAILAND’S MALAY MUSLIM REBEL BRINGS CORE ISSUES TO PEACE TALKS
The road to peace in Thailand’s restive southern provinces bordering Malaysia takes a crucial turn when negotiators from both sides of the ethnic conflict resume discussions, bringing “substantive issues” to the table. The lead peace negotiator of Barisan Revolusi Nasional, the largest rebel group, aims to air political concerns when he sits with counterparts from the Thai security establishment in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, which has served as the venue for the talks. “The next round will require substantive issues to be discussed for the first time,” Anas Abdulrahman, BRN’s chief peace envoy, reportedly said.
FRANCE: MOSQUE IN RENNES SUFFERS 2ND ATTACK
A mosque in north-western France was subjected to an Islamophobic and racist attack for the second time in 20 days. Slogans such as “Wake up France”, “We warned you, immigration kills” and “No Islamisation”, were written on the walls of Avicenna Islamic Cultural Centre in Rennes, on April 29. The French Council of the Muslim Faith and the Coordination Committee of Turkish Muslims in France have condemned the attack on the mosque. On April 11, the mosque was the target of a similar attack. Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin had visited the mosque stating that such acts could not be tolerated.
ARRESTS AWAITED AFTER ATTACK OUTSIDE MOSQUE IN EAST LONDON
Police have stepped up patrols outside Ilford Islamic Centre in East London after a car drove by and threw eggs and stones at five people returning from Iftar and prayers. It is understood that volunteers at the Albert Road Mosque have given CCTV footage to the police to help them identify the perpetrators but so far there have been no immediate arrests. “We take it on the chin and move on and prepare ourselves for another one, unfortunately,” said Ahmad Nawaz, a director and secretary at the Islamic Centre. “This incident has caught a lot of attention because it was outside a mosque but we get reports of things like this happening all the time and ladies and old people get harassed on a regular basis,” he was quoted saying.
PALESTINIANS FACING EVICTION RESCUED MY FAMILY: PROFESSOR
In a remarkable twist of fate, a Jewish professor at Princeton University has expressed her anguish knowing that two Palestinian families facing eviction in occupied East Jerusalem may have saved her Jewish family from ruin. Professor of Anthropology Julia Elyachar recollects the close bond between her grandfather and the Palestinian family about to be evicted from their homes. When Elyachar’s great-grandfather Raphael, who lived in Jerusalem, died, her grandfather was 13. Raphael had two business partners, recalls the professor writing in the Forward – a community Jewish newspaper in the US. “One partner, who was a European Jew, took advantage of the bereft widow, and stole our family’s livelihood. The other partner, an Arab and fellow Jerusalemite, saved my Jewish family from ruin, helped however he could, and treated my grandfather like a son.” The Palestinian partner came from an illustrious Muslim family in Jerusalem, the Dajanis, also known by the honorific Daoudi, given to them by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1529. “Now”, says Elyachar, the “families with those two names are facing eviction from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem”.
MALI WOMAN GIVES RARE BIRTH TO 9 BABIES: 5 GIRLS, 2 BOYS
A young Malian woman became a phenomenon in a single day by safely giving birth to nine babies at once at a hospital in Morocco. Halima Cisse, 25, from the West African country wrote her name in history as a mother of nonuplets – five girls and four boys – and she and the babies are all “doing well,” said a written statement from the Mali Health Ministry. Nonuplets are extremely rare in medical practice.