Muslim Legal Fund of America joined other national organisations in expressing outrage over government agency spying on Muslim Americans without suspicion of criminal activity. In an article published by The Intercept, the authors list five prominent, law-abiding Muslim Americans who have been victims of unjustified NSA and FBI surveillance. The article, written by Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain, is based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The five victims listed in the article are Faisal Gill, a longtime Republican Party operative who served in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush; Asim Ghafoor, a prominent attorney; Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor of international relations at Rutgers University; Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights; and Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
MORE THAN 35,000 PEOPLE DISPLACED BY YEMEN FIGHTING
More than 35,000 people have been displaced in Yemen’s Omran province, a local government refugee agency said on 9 July, a day after Shi’ite Muslim tribal fighters overran the provincial capital following fighting that killed more than 200 people. In an urgent appeal sent to relief organisations operating in Yemen, the head of the Yemeni government refugee agency in Omran reported “mass flight of Yemenis from Omran and surrounding areas after the city’s fall”.
The fall of Omran came less than a week after a ceasefire reached on June 23 between the Houthi tribesmen and the Yemeni army and allied Sunni tribal militiamen collapsed, with both sides blaming each other.
‘TEKNE FASTING’ TEACHES CHILDREN TO OBSERVE RAMADHAN
The month of Ramadhan is an important occasion for mothers and fathers who desire for their children to achieve self-control. Because it is this month that encourages the young to imitate their fasting mothers and fathers, in order to transform this emulation into a gain, it is recommended that parents let their children fast as long as they can for the day. It is via the “Tekne Fasting”, especially during the long hot days of summer, that the children can obtain this acquisition.
Tekne fasting is an Anatolian tradition. It is an action whereby the children fast only a proportion of the day, and not completely. The children would fast from the pre-morning meal until mid-morning or the afternoon. In time tenkiye, meaning “ascription” or “personification” in Arabic, has become tekne.
BETHLEHEM CHRISTIANS FAST WITH MUSLIMS IN RAMADHAN
Christians in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem have been observing Ramadhan fasting in solidarity with their fellow Muslims during the holy month of Ramadhan. Speaking to Al-Arabiya News, Mike Kanawati, a member of the city’s large Christian community, said “My grandmother used to fast…we were raised this way to show respect for and solidarity with other religions.”
“Fasting, either the Christian or the Muslim way, makes one feel the suffering of those who do not have food,” he added. Kanawati said he was proud “like many other Christians” of fasting with the Muslims and said that doing so did not diminish his Christian faith.