The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis), the national body for Muslim students in Britain, has threatened to launch a disaffiliation campaign against the National Union of Students (NUS) after the NUS suspended its president-elect, Shaima Dallali. 

Earlier this year, Jewish students accused Dallali of antisemitism and homophobia over old tweets she posted. 

Dallali denied the claims and welcomed the QC-led investigation into her actions.

But following a leaked report that the NUS had suspended an elected president for the first time in its one-hundred-year history, Fosis said it would urge its members to launch disaffiliation campaigns across the UK against the national body. 

In a statement published on Friday evening, Fosis said the NUS had a track record of failing to help Muslim students acting in elected positions within the organisation and student unions across the country. 

"For many years, Fosis has dealt with troubling cases of Islamophobia experienced by Islamic Societies, Muslim sabbatical officers and the wider Muslim student community in both Higher and Further Education," Fosis said in a statement. 

"This active targeting of Muslim students through a systematic pattern of over-scrutiny, bad faith allegations and subjugation to a disproportionate level of disciplinaries using Islamophobic tropes reflects prejudice and endemic bigotry that spans the entire educational journey of Muslim students.

"What Shaima is experiencing is a clear extension of institutional Islamophobia within the education sector, and it is apparent that NUS' attitude towards Shaima is a manifestation of this oppression."

Following her election, Dallali, a Black Muslim woman of Tunisian descent, told the Guardian that she feared for her safety after receiving a torrent of online abuse and threats.

Before she was elected NUS president, Dallali served as president at City University in London. 

Dallali was then duly elected to serve as NUS president at the body's last national conference, which saw hundreds of delegates from across the UK vote for her. 

She was due to start her new role in July, and serve in that position for a two-year term. 

In May, following Dallali's election, the UK government's education minister said it would sever ties to the NUS over antisemitism claims and replace it with "alternative" student representation. 

Founded in 1963, Fosis serves as an umbrella body serving Muslim students attending universities and further education institutions across the UK and Ireland. 

Dallali did not respond to requests for comment at the time of writing.

An NUS spokesperson declined to comment on the claims that Dallali had been suspended from the organisation. 

"We cannot comment at this time as we are in the middle of an independent QC-led investigation into allegations of antisemitism. But as we have said before, we are prepared to take any and all actions recommended by Rebecca Tuck's investigation," the NUS spokesperson told MEE. 

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MEE

Uyghur groups have criticised the United Nations' recent report chronicling the situation in Xinjiang - in which it concluded that Beijing was guilty of "crimes against humanity" - saying it was conceding to pressure from China by not labelling it a genocide.

"It's a victory for China because the ongoing genocide and other crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples were watered down to mere 'human rights violations' to accommodate China and prevent the UN's Genocide Convention from being formally applied," Salih Hudayar, prime minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, told Middle East Eye.

The 45-page report issued by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - which took a year in the making - detailed a string of rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China's far-western region.

"Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR in the context of the government's application of counter-terrorism and counter-'extremism' strategies," the UN report said.

'It's a victory for China because the ongoing genocide and other crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples were watered down'

"The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups... may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity."

It called on Beijing to immediately release "all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty" and undertake a "full review" of its laws on domestic security and repeal all discriminatory laws.

The allegations have been vehemently rejected by China, while the US welcomed the report saying that it "deepens and reaffirms our grave concern" regarding the treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

However, the UN report stopped short of calling China’s actions in Xinjiang "genocide" - as claimed by the US, and the parliaments of several western nations including Canada, the UK, and France.

"In a final insult to Uyghur survivors, the report fails to mention the word genocide a single time," Rahima Mahmut, a UK-based Uyghur campaigner and director of the World Uyghur Congress, told Politico.

"You have to wonder what the UN is for if it can't admit what is staring them plainly in the face."

The ETGE's Hudayar told MEE that "the global East Turkistani / Uyghur diaspora community are very disappointed in the weakness of the report and are outraged by the report's failure to acknowledge the ongoing genocide of our people".

"Nonetheless, we hope that this report will lead to more stronger actions by the international community."

The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) was established in Washington DC as an official government in exile in 2004 and is pushing for an independent state in China’s northwest, the area known officially as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. 

Members of the ETGE represent more than a dozen organisations from among the Uyghur and East Turkistani diaspora, according to their website.

Uyghur groups call on countries to take action

Michelle Bachelet, whose tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights came to an end minutes after the report was published, had been under pressure from opposing sides - rights groups calling for its release and China pressing against a release.

"I said that I would publish it before my mandate ended and I have,” Bachelet told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Thursday. “The politicisation of these serious human rights issues by some states did not help.”

Earlier this year, Bachelet visited China and was accused during a press conference of promoting Beijing's narrative and accepting its justification for the crackdown.

But the report dismissed China's narrative, saying "serious human rights violations have been committed in [Xinjiang] in the context of the government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-'extremism' strategies".

Still, Hudayar says the report does not do enough to refute Beijing's counter-terrorism justifications for its crackdown in Xinjiang, and that's one reason the "report is weak and doesn't do justice to the people of East Turkistan".

Rayhan Asat, an Uyghur activist and human rights lawyer, described the report as "conservative" in its assessment in an interview with The Guardian, but added that it was sophisticated, detailed, and gave "voice to victims and their families".

Following the report's release, more than 60 Uyghur groups called on the international community to take action and call for formal independent investigations into human rights abuses by China.

In a statement, the groups called on the UN Human Rights Council to form a Commission of Inquiry into the issue, and also called on the UN Office on Genocide Prevention to conduct an assessment.

"The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has waited far too long to deliver its report. The truth of China’s atrocities has once again been documented, and there can be no shying away from the obligation to act," Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs executive director, said in the statement.

"Stopping genocide was a foundational purpose of the UN, and it must be upheld now."

Agencies

In the Economic Complexity Index (ECI), Kuwait ranked 86th globally in terms of complexity of economy. However, the index showed that the country’s economy has become less complex than it was a decade ago, reports Al-Rai daily. Globally, Saudi Arabia ranked 42, Bahrain ranked 56, Qatar ranked 71, Oman ranked 79, and the UAE ranked 99.

The Economic Complexity Index measures the extent of the country’s productive knowledge and the volume of information on its production capabilities. It also takes into account the volume of the country’s exports and compares it with the development and diversity of other exporting countries.

The index shows that the complexity of the Kuwaiti economy comes despite the increasing diversification of the country’s exports, which has affected less complex products. It believes that Kuwait has few opportunities to diversify its production using the expertise it currently possesses. The index revealed that Kuwait is less complex than what would be expected for a country with its income level, and as a result, its economy is expected to grow slowly.

According to the Growth Lab’s forecasts for 2030, Kuwait’s growth will be around 0.7 percent annually over the next decade, placing it in the lower half of the world’s countries in terms of growth. The “Atlas of Economic Complexity” issued by Harvard Kennedy School describes Kuwait as a high-income country and ranks it as the 27th richest economy by population out of the 133 countries covered by the Atlas.

According to the Atlas, the GDP per capita of Kuwait’s population of 4.27 million is about 24,811 dollars. The average growth of per capita output has reached 3.9 percent during the past five years, which is lower than the average in the countries of the region. Kuwait ranked third richest country in the Gulf after Qatar, which ranked tenth in the world, and the UAE, which ranked 21. Bahrain ranked 31, Saudi Arabia 33, and Oman 41.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has affirmed that it is strictly prohibited to import, export, display and sell ready-made garments similar to all types of military uniforms being used in the country, reports Al-Jarida daily.

On its official Twitter account as part of its “Participate in Monitoring” campaign; the ministry clarified it is also forbidden to import, export, display and sell the related accessories such as rank symbols, decorations, epaulets, hats, badges and others.

The ministry added that it is forbidden to manufacture and supply these items without a written permission from the concerned authorities, calling on everyone to fully cooperate with the authorities in preventing such violations.

Kuwait and UAE are preparing to implement linking of traffic violations between two countries so that they are recorded and fines are paid electronically. A meeting was held between the two sides to discuss the completion of linking procedures.

According to procedures any Kuwaiti citizen who visits UAE and commits a traffic violation will be obliged to pay the violation upon return to the country where the violation data will be recorded, similarly, if a UAE citizen visiting Kuwait in the event commits a traffic violation payment will be collected in UAE. The violation committed on a personal or rental vehicle, the violation will be recorded on those who drive the vehicle.

A self-described Ugandan "prophet" was remanded to prison after a widely shared online video showed him administering lashes to members of his church.

Kintu Dennis, 42, of the Hoima Empowerment Church International, is shown ordering his followers to the front of the church to be whipped or they had to stop attending services and lose the privilege of handling his microphone.

The video started circulating Thursday and shows followers presenting themselves before they are beaten on their backs and buttocks. Their alleged crime was incompetence and late-coming, according to church members.

The congregation watched as followers received their beatings as soft piano music played in the background.

The victims have also attracted intense criticism on social media where users castigated them for blindly following the so called prophet and being too lazy to read the Bible for themselves.

The incident sparked outrage from Ugandans who urged authorities to intervene.

“Pastor Kintu Denis who recently appeared in a viral media clip beating believers with a magic blessed stick’ in his church in Hoima, has been arrested and charged with 18 counts of trafficking in Persons, Assault, and Promoting Sectarianism,” police wrote in a tweet.

Police searched his church and recovered three pieces of sticks suspected to have been used to beat the faithful.

The so called prophet told investigators that he was carrying out a demonstration of how Jesus treated those he found selling goods in church.

Uganda has several evangelical churches but they are unregulated and many are run by self-appointed men and women of God.

Source: AA