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A Turkish flag flutters atop the Turkish embassy as an Israeli flag is seen nearby, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 26, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo SHAFAQNA – Turkey’s parliament approved a reconciliation agreement signed with Israel in June which has brought to an end a six-year rift between the two regional powers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday. Relations between the two countries crumbled after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing 10 Turks on board. Israel, which had already offered its apologies for the raid, agreed under the deal to pay out $20 million to the bereaved and wounded in retu fo...

Blair Imani meeting Bill Clinton. Credit: Courtesy of Blair Imani SHAFAQNA- On April 13, 2016, barely a month after I started observing hijab, I attended an event called “Conversations with Bill.” It was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, one of the first I had attended, and I was so excited to hear from the former president. http://en.shafaqna.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/bill.mp3 Unfortunately, before the event could even get going I was referred to as a terrorist by a comfortably bigoted attendee. I already felt out of place. I was one of the only black people present, one of the youngest attendees, and the only woman wearing hijab. My eyes filled with tearsand I asked one of the organi...

SHAFAQNA –Saudi authorities have detained the Turkish defense attaché to Kuwait at Ankara’s request. Meanwhile, Germany has waed Erdogan that re-establishing capital punishment will derail EU membership talks. Quoting uamed Saudi sources, Saudi-owned broadcaster Al-Arabiya reported Monday that defense attaché Mikail Ihsanoglu was prevented from boarding a flight to Germany from the easte Saudi city of Dammam. Authorities said Ihsanoglu had entered Saudi Arabia by land and was ticketed for a flight to the city of Düsseldorf via Amsterdam but was arrested without incident inside the terminal. It was not immediately clear what – if any – coections Ihsanoglu has in Düsseldorf or Germany in gene...

SHAFAQNA- A Muslim group in suburban Chicago has erected two billboards over the city’s highways that they hope will fight terrorism and combat Islamophobia. The Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook paid nearly $7,600 for the billboards, which went up Sunday over Interstate 290 and I-55 and will be displayed for 4 weeks, the Chicago Tribune reported. The signs read “Muslims to Muslims: See Something. Say Something. Save Iocent Lives.” The signs are meant to show average Americans that Muslims don’t condone terrorism, said Talat Rashid, the association’s founder. He said the billboards call on Muslims to alert authorities if they suspect anyone of such acts. Council of Islamic...

SHAFAQNA –Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin promised closer cooperation and oversaw a series of deals Saturday, as the two countries deepen ties in the face of growing tensions with the West. According to RT, the Russian state-funded news organisation, the deals worth$50 billion were also facilitated by a contingent accompanying Putin, including Kremlin administration head Sergey Ivanov, five deputy prime ministers, Gazprom and Rosneft oil and gas companies heads. In what was Putin’s fourth trip to China since Xi became president in 2013, the two men laid emphasis ontheir shared outlook which mirrors the countries’ converging trade, investment and geopo...

SHAFAQNA –Spokesman of the People’s Democratic Party in Turkey (HDP) Ayhan Bilgen affirmed that the Turkish govement, since the begiing of the crisis in Syria, has been transporting weapons via ambulances to the terrorist organizations in Syria. Bilgen told Syrian TV Sunday that Turkey was a main cause of the war against Syria due to its miscalculations and arbitrary policies which caused the bloodshed of iocents in Syria, pointing out that terrorists leave Turkish camps for fighting in Syria and retu back to the camps in Turkey. The policy of Justice and Development party (AKP) negatively affected civil security in Turkey which became now in danger, affirming that AKP is seeking to liquid...

SHAFAQNA –Plans by the govement aounced in today’s Queen’s Speech to introduce a new law against non-violent extremism represent a direct attack on civil liberties and Britain’s Muslim communities. The Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill envisages introducing a new civil order regime such as ASBO’s to restrict so-called extremist activity. However it is reported that the bill is still far from ready to be introduced to Parliament because the govement is struggling to come up with a legally robust definition of extremism that will withstand the first legal challenge on freedom of speech grounds from those it seeks to ban. Currently the govement defines extremism as “the vocal or active o...

Turkish anti riot police officers launch water caon and tear gas to disperse supporters of the Turkish Zaman Daily newspaper, who demonstrate outside the newspaper headquarters on March 4, 2016 in Istanbul. An Istanbul court on March 4, 2016 ordered into administration a Turkish Zaman daily newspaper that is sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid growing alarm over freedom of expression in the country. / AFP / OZAN KOSEOZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty ImagesTurkish police used water caon and tear gas to disperse crowds protesting outside the headquarters of the opposition Zaman newspaper. They moved in to secure the premises following a govement decision to take over the management of t...

SHAFAQNA –Whistleblower Edward Snowden has waed the French people to think twice before giving up their freedoms for increased security. In a message on his Twitter account, Snowden also pointed out that France has passed controversial constitutional reform with over 75 percent of MPs absent. “Abandoning open society for fear of terrorism is the only way to be defeated by it,” Snowden tweeted, referring to the French lawmakers’ decision to pass highly criticized emergency powers. Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, made inteational headlines in 2013 when he leaked information about the US govement’s secret mass surveillance programs. He currently resides in Russia,...