The English website of the Islamic magazine - Al-Mujtama. A leading source of global Islamic and Arabic news, views and information for more than 50 years.
February 10, 2025
Staff
PLO accuses “Israel” of subjecting Palestinians in Hebron to harsh life and depriving them of basic needs
October 03, 2021The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Saturday accused “Israel” of escalating its abuses against 3,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank city of Hebron to pave way for their eventual displacement.
Hebron is witnessing "an escalation in attacks on citizens and their properties in an attempt to intimidate them…to eventually displace them from their lands in favor of expanding (its illegal) settlements, "the PLO’s National Center for the Defense of Land said in a report.
“The threats of the occupation and its settlement ambitions affect the residents in an area of about 38,500 dunams where more than 3,000 citizens reside,” it added.
A dunam equals 1,000 square meters.
The PLO accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians in Hebron -- especially those in Yatta district -- to harsh life and depriving them of basic needs to conduct “ethnic cleansing using various means including hiring settlers to carry out this task under the protection of the occupation army."
Last week, the PLO warned of “Israeli” plans to consolidate its settlements in the occupied West Bank by building synagogues. It mentioned a number of villages and ruins mostly affected by the “Israeli” violations.
On Wednesday, “Israeli” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid termed an Israeli settler attack on Palestinians in Hebron, in which 12 people were injured, as “terror”.
Attackers, who even stabbed some of the goats of Palestinian farmers in the area, also threw stones at Palestinian houses and vehicles.
Meanwhile, left-wing Knesset member Ofer Kassif shared a video clip on his Twitter account showing a number of dead sheep bearing stab wounds caused by sharp tools and knives used by settlers.
“Israeli” and Palestinian estimates indicate that there are about 650,000 settlers in West Bank settlements, including occupied Jerusalem, living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts.
Under international law, all Jewish settlements in occupied territories are considered illegal./aa
4 dead in ambulance plane crash in UAE
October 03, 2021Four people were killed Saturday in an ambulance plane crash in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), police confirmed.
The Abu Dhabi Police General Command tweeted that the victims include two pilots, a civilian doctor and a nurse.
It extended condolences to the families, friends, and co-workers of the fallen crew members.
The cause of the crash remains unclear./aa
Iraq says 275 nationals stranded on Lithuanian-Belarusian border
October 03, 2021Iraq said Saturday that 275 Iraqi nationals have been stranded on the border between Lithuania and Belarus.
“They are stranded across 29 camps on the border,” Karim al-Nouri, an official with the Ministry of Immigration, told the local Al-Sabah newspaper.
He said Baghdad will facilitate procedures for the voluntary return of the Iraqi nationals to Iraq.
Last August, the Iraqi government announced the evacuation of 690 of its citizens stranded for weeks on the border between Belarus and Lithuania.
For weeks, Lithuania has blocked hundreds of Iraqis from entering its territory from neighboring Belarus, prompting the latter to tighten security along its borders to prevent the Iraqi migrants’ return to it, making them stuck in between under poor conditions.
In August, EU countries bordering Belarus – Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland – requested the bloc's help amid a dramatic rise in the number of irregular migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria crossing their borders.
In the same month, Iraq suspended flights to Belarus in an attempt to curb the irregular immigration of its nationals towards EU countries.
Reports say that since the start of the year, the Lithuanian border guards have caught more than 4,000 migrants, mostly from Iraq, compared to only 81 in 2020./aa
Enterprising skills make Indian-origin Tanzanians business leaders
October 03, 2021Born in Tanzania, Indian-origin Mohammed Dewji is among the youngest billionaires of Africa, according to Forbes Magazine.
The US-trained entrepreneur transformed his family business from a $26 million trading and distribution company to a $1 billion business empire in just 12 years.
“I went to Georgetown University in Washington. I studied finance. When I graduated, I came back and joined my father’s business. We are one of the largest trading houses in eastern and central Africa,” he told Anadolu Agency.
Dewji, who was born in a drought-hit Singida region in central Tanzania, is hoping to make his company worth $5 billion in the next five years, and provide employment to 100,000 people across Africa.
Like Dewji, many Indians mostly from Gujarat and Punjab provinces, who made Tanzania their home, have built successful business companies in Africa through their entrepreneurial skills.
According to the Hindu Council of Tanzania, Indian-origin ethnic groups from different faiths such as Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam, locally known as Wahindis, make up just 0.2% of the population of the East African country. But they are believed to control a large share of all businesses.
Hemanshu Surti, 30, an Indian-origin Tanzanian citizen and owner of a beach resort which his family purchased 16 years ago in Dar es Salaam, has kept Indian culture intact.
Surti is the youngest of five brothers – three of them also own and operate hotels in Mwanza and Arusha in the northern part of the country. His family had migrated from India’s western state of Gujarat.
“It is a tough job, you need a good marketing strategy to attract customers,” he said.
Although born in Tanzania, Surti can speak and wrote fluent Gujarati. “My wife and I make some efforts to ensure that our children are exposed to Indian and Gujarati culture,” he said.
Kartikeya Nivara, a businessman based in Dar es Salaam, said Gujaratis succeed in business because they are known for taking risks.
“Business is in our blood. We learn it from a younger age,” he told Anadolu Agency.
According to Simeon Mesaki, a retired professor of anthropology at the University of Dar es Salaam, Indian traders flocked to Tanzania when the economy was liberalized in the 1990s.
“Minority Indians have maintained strong intracommunal trade relations ostensibly to provide easy solutions and maintain strong community cohesion, which is necessary for the survival of its members,” he said./agencies
Greek teachers' unions protest new education law
October 03, 2021Protesters clashed with police in Athens on Friday during a demonstration against a new education law, according to local media.
About 3,000 people affiliated with school teachers’ unions marched in protest of the legislation, according to the daily Kathimerini.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to stop the crowd, which was blocking a main road in the capital.
The unions are protesting the law, which makes teacher and school evaluations mandatory. They also voiced discontent at a court ruling Thursday that prohibited the strike.
Roadblocks were set up on several major streets in Athens to prevent demonstrators from blocking them.
No arrests have been reported.
On Thursday, Education Minister Niki Kerameus sued the two unions affiliated with private and public school teachers over the plan to strike, which she said was illegal./aa
Uyghurs protest anniversary of China in US capital
October 03, 2021A group of Uyghurs gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in the US capital on Friday to demand China end its treatment against the Muslim minority.
More than 100 activists dressed in black shirts, lined up in the memorial area while speakers addressed the crowd.
Among them were Republican congresswoman Vicky Hartzler from Missouri, Democratic congressman Tom Suozzi from New York, Rabbi Jack Moline and Nury Turkel, vice-chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Hartzler said US companies doing business in China have an ethical and moral obligation to move their supply chains out of the Uyghur region.
Suozzi said he is with Uyghurs "100 percent" against China's "genocide."
Activists also demanded an end to the encampment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.
According to UN data, at least 1 million Uyghurs are held against their will in places Beijing calls "vocational training centers" and what the international community defines as "re-education camps."
China does not provide information on how many camps are in Xinjiang, the number of people held and how many have returned to social life.
While the UN and other international organizations reiterated calls for the camps to be opened for inspection, China has allowed just a few designated centers to be partially viewed by a small number of foreign diplomats and journalists.
Several countries have accused China of ethnically cleansing Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Beijing has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as "lies and (a) political virus."
Friday marks the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China./aa
Kuwait builds 60 housing units for displaced Yemenis in Al Hudaydah
October 02, 2021The Kuwait-based Global Charity Association for Development (Tanmeia) has inaugurated Friday Basmat Al-Amal (Smile of Hope) village for displaced Yemeni families in the Al Hudaydah Governorate. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Undersecretary of the Al-Hudaydah Governorate Waleed Al-Qademi expressed gratitude to Kuwaiti leadership and people for their generous financing of the development and humanitarian projects in Yemen. For his part, Tanmeia's Director General and Deputy Board Chairman Naser Al-Ajmi voiced delight for the completion and opening of the village and thanked donors and philanthropists who donated for the humanitarian project.
Tanmeia focuses on sustainable projects which serve people, he said, adding these humanitarian efforts are part of Kuwait's policy of aiding people in distress in any part of the world. Head of the Aden-based Altwasul For Human Development, which supervised the execution of the project, Raid Ibrahim said that the village comprises 60 housing units, two clinics, a medical lab, a pharmacy, a bakery, a mosque, a school and a water well./Kuna
More than two-thirds of Muslim Americans have personally encountered Islamophobia at least once in their life, according to a new survey.
The study — which surveyed 1,123 American Muslims across the country last fall — aimed to assess the impact of Islamophobia on behaviors and attitudes, as well as to provide insight into how state and federal policies that disproportionately target Muslims have impacted their social, psychological and emotional well-being. The Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, released the report, “Islamophobia through the Eyes of Muslims,” on Wednesday.
“One thing that is particularly interesting about the survey, or the findings, is that we’re actually able to quantify the prevalence of Islamophobia, and that is just heartbreaking,” said Basima Sisemore, a researcher at the institute’s Global Justice Program and one of the authors of the report.
Nearly all participants ― 98% ― said they believe that Islamophobia exists in the U.S, and 95% said it was a problem in the country. More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents said they had personally experienced Islamophobia, and Muslim women were more likely than men to say they had (77% and 59%, respectively). And 94% of respondents said Islamophobia affects their emotional and mental well-being.
However, 88% of those who had experienced an Islamophobic incident say they did not report it to the authorities. More than half said a law enforcement officer had treated them unfairly because of their religious identity. And 63% said they had either personally experienced or know someone who has been affected by federal and/or state policies targeting Muslims.
The government of the United States purposely and intentionally created this sense of suspicion among Muslims themselves, [which led to] the idea of self-censorship.
Elsadig Elsheikh, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute’s Global Justice Program
In the 20 years since 9/11, there has been an uptick of controversial programs that have surveilled, spied on and targeted Muslim Americans under the guise of national security.
In 2002, President George W. Bush implemented the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, which created a registry for all male foreign nationals 16 years or older from 25 predominantly Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
The New York City Police Department also had a surveillance program, which was exposed by The Associated Press in 2011. It placed undercover law enforcement officers and informants in predominantly Muslim communities, where they surveilled mosques, took pictures of worshippers and hung out in Muslim-owned businesses. In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security developed the Counter Violent Extremism program, which also disproportionately targeted the Muslim community.
For years, civil rights organizations have found that such programs are both ineffective and discriminatory. They create a culture of fear and mistrust among Muslims, who don’t know who they can trust and who may be undercover trying to entrap them.
“The government of the United States purposely and intentionally created this sense of suspicion among Muslims themselves, [which led to] the idea of self-censorship,” said Elsadig Elsheikh, the director of the Othering & Belonging Institute’s Global Justice Program and one of the authors of the report.
This self-censorship may manifest in different ways. For example, Elsheikh said, an individual may choose not to engage in casual conversations with local Muslims out of mistrust or may not donate to Islamic charities out of fear that the government would deem the organizations suspicious or problematic. The new report found that 88% of Muslims surveyed said they had engaged in some form of self-censorship.
The survey also found that 33% of participants admitted to hiding their religious identity at some point in their lives. Younger Muslims, between the ages of 18 and 29, were more likely than any other age group to have done so.
Sisemore said she hopes the study will further expose how policy “very much sets the tone for how Muslims are treated in the United States.”
Still, the authors found hopeful notes. For one, over 99% said they socialize with non-Muslim groups, despite these challenges. And 79% said Islamic values are consistent with U.S. values.
“In doing this research and this study, this is one of the ways we can assert our positions as Muslim Americans,” Elsheikh said. “We can speak for ourselves. We have the tools. We have the knowledge and we have the capacity to do that.”
IMF says crypto boom poses challenges to financial stability
October 02, 2021The boom in cryptocurrencies market poses new challenges to financial stability, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Friday.
"The rapid growth of the crypto ecosystem presents new opportunities. Technological innovation is ushering in a new era that makes payments and other financial services cheaper, faster, more accessible, and allows them to flow across borders swiftly," it said in a report.
Although financial stability risks are not yet systemic, they should be closely monitored "given the global implications and the inadequate operational and regulatory frameworks in most jurisdictions," said Global Financial Stability Report's newly released Chapter 2: The Crypto Ecosystem and Financial Stability Challenges.
The IMF said some of the challenges include operational and financial integrity risks from crypto asset providers, investor protection for crypto assets and decentralized finance (DeFi), and inadequate reserves and disclosure for some stable coins.
"Policymakers should implement global standards for crypto assets and enhance their ability to monitor the crypto ecosystem by addressing data gaps. As the role of stable coins grows, regulations should correspond to the risks they pose and the economic functions they perform," the report said.
Although the total market capitalization almost tripled in 2021 to an all-time high of $2.5 trillion early May, it later showed a steep decline of 40% later on along with high volatility.
The total market cap stood at $2.06 trillion on Friday at 12.25 p.m. EDT, according to data by digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.
"Consumer protection risks remain substantial given limited or inadequate disclosure and oversight. For example, more than 16,000 tokens have been listed in various exchanges and around 9,000 exist today, while the rest have disappeared in some form," the IMF said in a separate statement.
"The (pseudo) anonymity of crypto assets also creates data gaps for regulators and can open unwanted doors for money laundering, as well as terrorist financing ... Additionally, the crypto ecosystem falls under different regulatory frameworks in different countries, making coordination more challenging," it added.
The IMF called for regulators to monitor rapid developments in the crypto market, and urged policymakers to implement cross-border coordination through the G20 Cross Border Payments Roadmap./aa
Belgian Muslims turn to Strasbourg Court after halal slaughter ban
October 02, 2021Muslim associations will appeal at the European Court of Human Rights against the decision of Belgium's Constitutional Court banning ritual halal animal slaughter, they announced on Friday.
The Executive Office of Muslims in Belgium and the Coordination Council of Islamic Institutions of Belgium decided to appeal against the ruling at the Strasbourg-based European court after Belgium's top judicial body approved the ban on Thursday, the organizations said in a statement.
"Current religious slaughter techniques constitute a full-fledged alternative to stunning animals and are fully compatible with public health, food safety, and animal welfare requirements," they explained.
"The stunning obligation, on the other hand, is only an emotional symbolic measure, which simply serves, to the detriment of religious minorities, to appease the conscience of the average consumer and to obscure the reality that animals are raised as objects of consumption in industrial mega-stalls," they added.
In 2019, new legislation on the protection and welfare of animals entered into force in the country's Wallonia and Flanders regions. The law banned slaughter by traditional Muslim and Jewish rites by requiring butchers to stun the animals before cutting them.
Muslim and Jewish organizations challenged the bill, arguing that the ban on ritual slaughtering is against the freedom of religion./aa
