English

SHAFAQNA – A Paris-based illustrator and filmmaker who goes by the handle Maeril on Tumblr has posted a short and helpful illustrated how-to guide for bystanders who want to step in and help someone experiencing Islamophobic harassment in a public place. She also made a version with a French translation as well, since she specifically hopes that her guide will help bystanders combatting the growing problem of Islamophobia in France. In her post about the guide, Maeril elaborated on that: “Some could say: ‘yes but you can use that technique for instances of harassment other than Islamophobic attacks!’, and my reply is: Sure! Please do so, it also works for other ‘types’ of harassment of a lo...

SHAFAQNA –The first time he tried to escape a tough existence in his village in weste Myanmar in 2004, Junaid Zafar was thrown in jail for five years. Like many other Rohingya Muslims, Zafar was seeking to flee poverty and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and he did not wait long after being released from jail to try again. This time, his parents sold off possessions to raise about $1,000 to pay people smugglers to take him to Malaysia. Zafar, the eldest of three siblings, finally made it in 2011.But like thousands of other Rohingya in Malaysia, he now finds himself living in a precarious limbo, having to work illegally due to official restrictions, and with resettlement to another ...

SHAFAQNA –Recently, newspapers across the world — including in the United States, Britain and Israel — have reported on the challenges that Muslims, and people perceived to be Muslim, have faced at airports and on planes. Just last week, three siblings were removed from a plane in London and questioned by police for an hour after passengers incorrectly claimed that one of them had made references to Allah on her phone and was, therefore, a member of the Islamic State. This suspicion toward all things Islamic or seemingly Islamic has given rise to the expression “flying while Muslim.” The challenge for Weste countries where Muslim immigrants have settled is that “flying while Muslim” threaten...

SHAFAQNA –Muslims from across Norway gathered on the island of Utøya to pray for victims of the Norway attacks. Six years ago in 2011 34-year-old Anders Breivik shot and killed 69 people on the very same island. The Island is owned by Norway’s Labour party and most of Breivik’s victims were members of the Labour party’s youth wing. On August 19, 2016, the country’s oldest Muslim Youth association hosted their aual youth retreat in union with the Labour party’s youth wing. During the retreat, the Muslim youth held a special prayer service in remembrance of the Norway attack victims and pledged to be law abiding and loyal Norwegians. The three days event was attended by representatives of the...

SHAFAQNA –If they know what is good for them, German Muslims should be stoutly, if silently, supporting the partial burqa ban aounced by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s govement. And French Muslims should be agreeing, even if only sotto voce, with Jean-Pierre Chevènement’s call for “discretion” in public spaces “at this difficult time”. Chevènement, a former Interior minister, has been appointed head of the Foundation of French Islam. The organisation, created to better integrate France’s Muslim population, is to oversee aspects of mosque operations, including domestic financing and imam training. It is likely to be an influential body. There is a simple reason to support Merkel’s partial burqa ...

SHAFAQNA –If the world has become desensitise to human suffering, there are still crimes so tragic and uecessary, so violent in nature and abominable in the tragedy they carry, that we caot help but pause. Should you have missed it somehow War has held Yemen hostage since March 25th, 2015, a day which saw Saudi Arabia unilaterally move against its impoverished neighbour in the name of “democracy building.” Yemen’s war you were told then, was a necessary evil, a democratic mean to end a popular movement Riyadh cared little for, since it spoke in negation of its religious extremism – Wahhabism. As Riyadh weaved its narrative the world sat back, gleefully deaf to the cries Yemen let out in its...

SHAFAQNA –One of France’s highest courts suspended the burkini ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet on Thursday, holding that the ban violated civil liberties including freedom of religion and movement. The ruling sets a precedent that could be used to challenge bans in other municipalities. On Tuesday, an image of French authorities forcing a Muslim woman to disrobe on the beach sparked outrage on social media. It was the second such incident in France that day—earlier, a beachgoer in a head scarf and tunic was fined because her attire was not “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism.” The response was swift on Twitter, where people noted the double irony that such actions are only...

SHAFAQNA – In an interview conducted in the sidelines of Yemen conference this August 20-21, 2016Andrew Smith slammed the UK govement for providing the Saudi regime with military equipment, training, and intelligence against Yemen. “The UK has been absolutely central to bombing of Yemen. It has provided training, weaponry and uncritical political support to Saudi regime. It supported this war on Yemen in every possible way – it has even stood by as Saudi Arabia organized a humanitarian blockade. That humanitarian catastrophe has been supported and fuelled with British weapons and political support. Since the bombing began the UK has sold £3.3 billion worth of weapons to the kingdom.This inc...

SHAFAQNA –Religions and Sects solidarity conference against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and terrorism was held with presence of Ahlul Bayt World Assembly’s member in Bangladesh. Ahlul Bayt Bangladesh religions and sects solidarity conference against ISIS and terrorism emphasized on Islamic unity and uprooting of extremism and terrorism. This conference was held with the presence of Sheikh Ibrahim Khali Razavi -chief of Bangladesh Ahlul Bayt Foundation- and a group of religious leaders and deputies along with Bangladesh interior minister and police chief in Rangpur city in Bangladesh.Chief of Bangladesh Ahlul Bayt Foundation along with nearly 100 thousandparticipants said: “Unfortunat...

SHAFAQNA –The NYPD’s Inspector General came down hard on the city’s police force Tuesday over conces they are not following court-mandated rules for surveilling political groups. But the NYPD was more interested in highlighting the rosier parts of the report in an all-positive response. The Inspector General conducted an investigation into the NYPD’s following of the Handschu Guidelines, a 1985 ruling outlining political activity as being protected by the Constitution as freedom of speech. Ninety-five percent of the investigations studied applied to surveillance of Muslims, according to the report. The report doesn’t even include the Muslim surveillance unit disbanded in 2014 when Mayor Bil...

young woman wearing burkini sitting by the beach SHAFAQNA –Since several French mayors decided to ban from their beaches the “burkini”, or full-body bathing suit, wo by some conservative Muslim women, a lot of criticism of French restrictions on women’s liberties has resurfaced. Just as with the passage of a law forbidding face coverings in public, effectively baing the burka (complete covering of the body, including the eyes) or niqab (covering all but the eyes) in public spaces, commentators have scoed the ban as men behaving badly and forcing women to conform to their ideals. Kathleen Parker, writing in the Washington Post, complained that “liberté ought to mean wearing a burkini on the ...

SHAFAQNA –Members of different Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith groups have banded together to condemn the senseless violence committed against two Muslim men that happened in Queens last weekend. Last Saturday, an imam, or an Islamic worship leader, and his assistant were fatally shot by an unidentified suspect. The two men were killed in Ozone Park as they were leaving a prayer service. Police officials are still trying to determine the motive of the suspect for carrying out the attack. Although it was not explicitly said that the murder was an act of religion-based violence, an interfaith group comprising the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, Temple Beth El of Somerset, the Somerset Pr...

SHAFAQNA –Over the weekend, people tweeted an offer to their Muslim neighbors: #IllWalkWithYou. The hashtag spread quickly as Muslims around the country reeled from the news that two Muslim men were fatally shot blocks from their Queens mosque on Saturday afteoon. The murders of Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and his assistant Thara Uddin, 64, are under investigation. Although police have not determined a motive in the killings, the Muslim community feels strongly that the men were targeted because of their religion. They fear that the intensifying anti-Muslim rhetoric in the presidential campaign will only lead to more hate crimes. But in a remarkable show of solidarity, thousands of people ar...

SHAFAQNA –The movie star discussed the polarizing atmosphere of the presidential election and his reaction to his newest film’s abysmal reviews. Will Smith paid a visit to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to chat about his new film Suicide Squad, but the conversation tued to anti-Islam sentiments stemming from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who is advocating not allowing Muslims to enter the U.S. from countries known to have terrorist activity. “In terms of Islamophobia in America, for me that’s why it’s important to show up,” Smith said via AP. He explained that, now more than ever, it’s important to “speak out about the insanity” that has come to define t...

SHAFAQNA –People whose only knowledge of Muslims comes from the media are very likely to have negative emotions and stereotypical beliefs about them, new research shows. In the Joual of Communication, Srividya Ramasubramanian, associate dean of liberal arts and professor of communication at Texas A&M University, used multiple studies, surveying non-Muslims on how much they relied on direct contact with Muslims versus media-based contact. “We observed that almost on a daily basis, media depictions of Muslims are extremely negative.” Then they measured participants’ negative emotions toward Muslims, perceptions o...

SHAFAQNA –This list is in no way exhaustive, but is every part disgusting. With Islamophobia on the rise, every other day we hear stories of Muslim passengers being exited from flights for one reason or the other. Here’s a list of bizarre reasons, airlines asked their Muslim customers to get off the plane. Asking For Coke In a recent incidentTahera Ahmed , achaplain at Chicago’s Northweste University asked for an unopened can of Coke for hygiene reasons aboard a United airlines plane. Whilst the air-hostess refused serving her the unopened soft drink, a passenger next to her was promptly given a sealed bottle of beer. Ahmed was further insulted when the attendant told her she was not given ...

SHAFAQNA –Pakistani schools are reportedly teaching religious “fanaticism” and “extremism,” with children textbooks inciting violence and hatred toward non-Muslims, a study by the National Commission for Justice and Peacehas revealed. “It is a red flag for the govement, which must ask the Church to promote the role of minorities in creating and defending the country,”the body’s Executive Director,Cecil Shane Chaudhry, toldAsiaNews, adding thatthe issue is not only about the minorities, but is a national conce regarding the country’s education system. Muslim lawmaker Asma Bukhari agreed, stating that Pakistani textbooks are big on personal opinions. She told AsiaNews that a book used at a Ta...

SHAFAQNA –France has done it again. The arrogant Weste power has once again spoken against Muslim women while alleging to speak for their freedom, and civil liberties – this liberation entails of course the removal of the hijab! What is it with France and the hijab? My question is not a rhetorical one … Why does the French Republic find the hijab so offensive, and more importantly why does it feel entitled to assume that women are being forced into it. Is that difficult to fathom that women could actually choose modesty for themselves? Are French women so weak-minded that French society would automatically assume that any female entire must have been chosen for them? This fixation on the hi...

Nazia (right) and Faisal Ali were kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight from Paris to Cinciati on July 26.(Photo: Liz Dufour) Nazia Ali had removed her sneakers, finished sending a text message to her parents and was putting on headphones and settling into her seat for the nine-hour flight from Paris to Cinciati when a Delta Air Lines crew member approached she and her husband, Faisal. They were excited to come home July 26 to West Chester Township to see their three young sons following a 10th-aiversary trip to London and Paris, “the city of romance and love,” he said. What happened next would overshadow the good times they’d enjoyed: A flight crew member had complained to the pilot that...

SHAFAQNA –If Muslims in France don’t help the country to battle extremists and those who threaten the Republic, it will be “increasingly hard” for Paris to guarantee freedom of Islam, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. “Through its history and its geography… and through its immigration, France maintains very strong ties with Islam,” Vallswrote in a long essay in Le Joual du Dimanche, a French weekly newspaper. According to the PM, Islam is “second-largest religion” in France and many French Muslims don’t have to identify themselves “as an Arab-Muslim culture.” However, a “terrible poison” of extremism has started spreading in the country, the French PM wrote. “Slowly, insidiously, aga...