The European Union has not prohibited the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood because there is no proof that they are involved in acts of violence, the EU Ambassador to Cairo James Moran said on 6 November. Moran added that there is no proof that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organisation and there is no correlation between it and the Islamic State (ISIS).
The BBC issued a report last month, which revealed that the British government’s investigation into the group ended after a lack of sufficient evidence linking the group to terrorism. The same conclusion was re-iterated by the Brotherhood’s official lawyer. The British government did not issue any official comments in this regard. The Gulf States had reportedly warned that economic relations with London would be harmed if the former did not prohibit the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities within its territories.
MUSLIM SCHOLARS REJECTS “TERRORISM” TAG
A group of Muslim scholars led by an influential Qatar-based Islamic scholar expressed “astonishment” on 17 November at being designated a terrorist body by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In a statement the International Union of Muslim Scholars urged the UAE to remove it from a list of 85 groups the country’s cabinet named on Saturday as terrorist organisations in a drive against what the country termed “terrorist crimes”.
The inclusion of the group was “not based on any analysis or investigation, whether legal, logical or rational”, said the statement, co-signed by the union’s chairman, Egyptian-born Youssef al-Qaradawi. “The Union expresses its complete and extreme astonishment of its inclusion by the UAE among the terrorists groups and rejects this description completely,” said the group, which says it seeks to promote scholarship and awareness of Islam.
EGYPT DEMOTES 200 SCHOOLTEACHERS FOR BROTHERHOOD LINKS
Since the start of the new academic year, Egyptian authorities have tried to marginalise scores of public schoolteachers affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Education Ministry spokesman Hani Kamal said that, since the new school year began in September, over 200 senior teachers had been relieved of their duties and transferred to administrative posts in the ministry after they “were proven” to belong to the Brotherhood.
“The decision comes as part of the Egyptian authorities’ policy of not recognising the Muslim Brotherhood,” Kamal told on 11 November.
EGYPT’S MUSLIM, CHRISTIAN AUTHORITIES UNITE AGAINST ATHEISM
Egypt’s senior Muslim and Christian authorities are drafting a “scholarly response” to what they say is a growing trend of atheism, especially among Egyptian youth, a report said on 11 November. Christian churches in Egypt say they are joining forces with Egypt’s Al-Azhar, a prominent centre of Sunni Muslim learning, to fight the spread of atheism in the country. “The Church and the Al-Azhar are drafting a constructive mechanism to address atheism,” Poules Halim, a spokesman for Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, was reported as saying.
His statements came following a two-day conference, organised jointly by Al-Azhar and the church, aimed at addressing the phenomenon of atheism. A number of Al-Azhar scholars, along with representatives of various Christian sects, reportedly attended the conference.
LATIN AMERICAN MUSLIMS CONFERENCE OPENS IN ISTANBUL
Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs held a summit to bring Latin American Muslim leaders together in Istanbul from 12 to 16 November. The First Latin American Muslim Leaders Religious Summit will host 76 religious leaders from more than 40 countries. “We believe that supporting Muslims around the world with religious education and services is a kindness campaign,” Turkey’s top Muslim scholar Mehmet Gormez was cited as saying on 10 November.
The summit was joined by five religious organisations, including the Eurasian Islam Council, the African Religious Leaders Summit, the Meeting of European Muslims, the Balkans Meeting of Religious Directorate Leaders and the World Islam Scholars’ Peace, Moderation and Foresight Initiative.
30 PARLIAMENTARIANS SIGN CHARTER FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
A group of 30 parliamentarians from around the world have signed a joint statement committing themselves to advance religious freedom for all. “This historic event brought together individual parliamentarians from a wide range of nations and religious communities in a united effort to galvanise support at a time when religious freedom increasingly is under attack,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, Chairwoman of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The Charter for Freedom of Religion or Belief, USCIRF said, commits the parliamentarians to promote religious freedom or belief for all persons through their work and respective institutions and enhance global cooperation. The charter was signed by these parliamentarians at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo last week.
UK MUSLIM REPRESENTATIVES TAKE SCHEDULE 7 TERROR LAW TO COURT
Controversial anti-terrorism powers which are being widely used to harass and gather intelligence on members of the Muslim and South Asian communities travelling to and from the UK have been challenged by several human rights organisations in a case heard by the Supreme Court.
Schedule 7, which forms part of the Terrorism Act 2000, allows police to hold someone at a UK port for questioning, and to detain them for up to nine hours to determine whether they have been involved with acts of terrorism. Anyone questioned must “give the examining officer any information in his possession which the officer requests” or face arrest.
Dr Shuja Shafi, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: “British Muslims have unequivocally and consistently condemned terrorism and will continue to do so. Yet terrorism cannot be confronted by alienating Muslim or any other communities. Schedule 7 clearly undermines that objective by disproportionately targeting Muslims. One of the best repudiations we can give to terrorists is by ensuring that we will not curtail our cherished freedoms which they wish to destroy.”
BANGLADESHI POLITICIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN ABSENTIA
A politician from the opposition Bangladesh National Party has been sentenced to death for war crimes on 13 November. Zahid Hussain Khokon, who was not present at any stage of his trial, was given the sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court investigating alleged war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war.
Last November, two leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, one an American citizen and the other a British citizen, were also sentenced to death for war crimes in absentia. A series of Jamaat-e-Islami officials have been sentenced to death by the tribunal in the past two weeks, leading the party to call for several nationwide strikes.
PALESTINIAN FM CALLS FOR URGENT OIC MEET ON JERUSALEM
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki on 12 November called for an emergency summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss recent “dangerous” developments in Jerusalem and continued Israeli violations against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. “The situation in Jerusalem is unprecedentedly dangerous,” al-Maliki said at an OIC meeting in Moroccan capital Rabat.
He said the recent closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israel was also unprecedented, referring to a spate of recent violations by extremist Jewish settlers against the iconic house of worship.
FACEBOOK PAGE COMMEMORATES TAREK GHANDOUR
Egyptian activists launched a Facebook page under the title “Tarek Ghandour – Your blood will fuel the Revolution” (in Arabic) paying tribute to the political prisoner Dr. Ghandour who died in detention, especially after pictures of his son sleeping peacefully next to his corpse shook the feelings of millions. Professor and scientist Ghandour died on 13 November in a prison hospital after coup authorities failed to offer him any medical care, leaving him to bleed for 6 hours without any attempt to rescue him. He was the 88th prisoner killed in junta jails by deliberate medical-care negligence.
Those pictures rocked the internet’s social networks, with many users strongly denouncing the intolerable situation into which the coup commanders and collaborators have dragged Egypt.