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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 IN COLLABORATION WITH FORT RUSS –The most important information event of Friday was Vladimir Putin’s interview with Bloomberg, in which the Russian president touched on key issues on the global information agenda. I am sure that dozens of publications are going over this interview and discussing every question and answer in it, but I want to propose to you, dear friends, to look at this from a different angle. The point is that John Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg who interviewed the Russian president, is not merely a joualist, but one of many joualists who has participated for many years in meetings of the Bilderberg Club as a full member of this shadow interest gr...

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 –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 – 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 –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 –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...

In this photo taken Nov. 21, 2014, Sheik Isa Qassim, Bahrain's top Shiite Muslim cleric, speaks during midday prayers Friday, in the village of Diraz, Bahrain. Bahrainx92s leading Shiite opposition group says security forces have raided the home of the countryx92s most prominent Shiite cleric. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali) Shafaqna –UK Sui and Shia leaders issued ajoint statement on targeting of Ayatullah Shaykh Isa al-Qasim and denouncedthe revocation of the citizenship of opponents and curtailing of religious freedoms asrepressive and authoritarian, which will exacerbate sectarian tensions. According to Shafaqna the statement reads: starting today, the high criminal court in the Kingdom of Bahra...

SHAFAQNA –The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group has threatened more attacks against the Hazara minority days after the terror group claimed responsibility behind a deadly attack in Kabul city. A commander of the group has said the attacks would be carried out to retaliate against support by some in the mainly Shi’ite group for the Assad regime in Syria. The commander of the group, Abu Omar Khosrasani, has told Reuters that the attack on a peaceful demonstration in Deh Mazang was in retaliation to the deployment of the community fighters to Syria. “Unless they stop going to Syria and stop being slaves of Iran, we will definitely continue such attacks,” the militantcomman...

SHAFAQNA – Outraged by the recent wave of Terror Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan took to social media to offer his condolences to the victims of terror, and speak words of truth in the face of monstrosity. “I extend my deepest condolences to our Christian brothers and sisters for the gruesome murder of the Priest in France. I know that the gruesome act was committed by ISIS killers. These are the same type of people who murdered over 80 young Afghans, three days ago and have murdered more Muslims while they were praying in a mosque. These godless creatures, before detonating their suicide vests, yell Allah Akbar, meaning that Allah is great. In so doing, they are making Allah All Mighty as...

SHAFAQNA –Muslim leaders urge members of their community to use their vote to challenge rising Islamophobia and to ‘defeat hate’. On the sidelines of the US Democratic National Convention, where delegates will formally nominate Hillary Clinton as the party’s presidential candidate, Muslim leaders gathered to push the community to vote, calling the ballot a powerful means to challenge the growing problem of Islamophobia. “You don’t have to go to Canada, just register and vote,” Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told members of the Muslim community who had come to Philadelphia for the four-day event. “We can defeat hate,” he added. “Islamo...

SHAFAQNA –Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog waed of what he called “growing hatred and racism” in Israel encouraged by right-wing politicians, adding that it could pave the way for further deadly violence. “We are on the verge of an uprising of hatred, racism, darkness and upcoming killings and assassination based on the overwhelming inteal hatred here,” NRG quoted Herzog as saying during a speech at a Zionist Camp parliamentary bloc session on Monday. “We hear hatred at every tu, whether it is directed towards women by military rabbis, by Ashkenazi Jews against Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews against Ashkenazis, from military school rabbis towards homosexuals, or between Arabs and Jews...

SHAFAQNA –Sheikh Hussein al-Deihi, deputy secretary general of Bahrain’s main opposition movement, al Wefaq, has issued a statement following the dissolution of the movement criticizing the tyraical rule over Bahrain and insufficiency of the govement which has led to chaos and dictatorship over the country. He said that the recent dissolution of Al Wefaq movement was the revenge by Al Kalifa since it was aware that the Shia movement represented the majority who had achieved 64 per cent of the votes in 2006 and 2010 proving the popularity of Al Wefaq. Al Wefaq deputy referred to a conflict between tyraical system in Bahrain and the popular movement which demands democracy, justice and law pu...

SHAFAQNA –The Turkish army says it has taken power over the country and that the rule of law must remain a priority. “The power in the country has been seized in its entirety,” said a military statement read on NTV television, without giving further details. The statement added that the military aims to “reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms,” and “to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for the law and order to be reinstated.” “All inteational agreements and commitments will remain. We pledge that good relations with all world countries will continue,” the military statement added. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reportedly ...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA –America’s Orthodox Jewish community staged a demonstration yesterday,Monday, July 11, in front of the Israeli Consulate inManhattan, to protest against theState of Israel’sforced drafting of religious young men into their army. The demonstration was organized by Rabbinical Alliance ofthe United StatesandCanada. More than 1000 people from various communities inNew YorkandNew Jerseyattended, some coming from as far as two or three hours away. Over 100 leading prominent rabbis were seated on the platform. Many speeches were given, including two by rabbis fromJerusalem. The oldest participant wasChuna Ste, a Holocaust survivor over the age of 90, who came with great...

SHAFAQNA –Ayatollah al-Sistani said: “When ISIL and its supporters invaded Iraq, we issued a statement mandating defense against enemies and not confrontation with our Sui brothers.” Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Iraqi jurisprudent, during a meetingwith a group of academics demanded to “protect the unity of the war-to country.” He stressed importance of helping refugees from Mosul, Ramadi, Salahuddin and other cities with shelter, money or food without asking on their denomination. The revered cleric noted that Shi’a, Sui, Christians and followers of other religions are all Iraqi nationals who have been living with each other for hundreds and thousands of years....

SHAFAQNA –A Conservative MP with pro-Israel views is inciting hate against a rally in support of Palestinians due to take place this weekend. Matthew Offord, who is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel, has written to the Metropolitan Police to say that “the display of Hezbollah, Hamas and Daesh flags” at the aual Al-Quds demonstration “causes great distress to many of my constituents and the population as a whole and, in my opinion, is contrary to the Terrorism Act.” His statement, which is deliberately deceitful and libellous, has been widely reported in the Jewish media. IHRC sees it as an attempt to delegitimise the Al-Quds Day rally by drawing a fictitious link between the te...

SHAFAQNA –Muslim-American communities in the state of Florida are increasingly falling victim to Islamophobic hate crimes and facing anti-Islamic rhetoric and legislation, according to a newly-released report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). One case in point: Florida is home to the Florida Gun Supply in Inveess, which has marketed itself as a “Muslim-free zone” as a response to the 2015 Chattanooga, Te. shooting. Another: There have been six documented cases of mosque communities in Florida being targeted, vandalized and attacked from 2013 to 2015, the sixth highest number of such incidents in the nation. “For the mere fact of people’s religious beliefs, their names, th...