April 2017
Trump's Muslim ban prompts OneJustice attorneys to mobilize against Injustice
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: 'Mobilizing Against Injustice' was the title of attorney Julia R Wilson's speech at the United Muslim of America (UMA) monthly forum held at the Chandni Restaurant, Newark CA on April 23. Julia, the Chief Executive Officer of OneJustice, has the honor of being part of her professional colleagues who descended on U.S. airports all over the country in the last week of January to offer free legal help to the travelers and family members of loved ones detained under President Trump’s executive order of January 27. Read More “
Muslim profiling at US borders escalates during President Trump's first 100 days
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were a frightening experience for the seven-million strong Muslim American community. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest American Muslim civil advocacy group, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) profiling of Muslims accounted for 23 percent of cases in the first three months of 2017. This represents a 1,035 percent increase in CBP bias cases reported so far this year over the same period in 2016. Read More
Hundreds of Muslims gather at Capitol to advocate for inclusive California
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: About seven hundred Muslims from across California gathered Monday, April 24, 2017, for the 6th Annual Muslim Day at the State Capitol in Sacramento. The theme of this year's Muslim Day was "Action Trumps Fear". The Muslim Day provided an opportunity to American Muslims from across California to meet state legislators and discuss issues of concern to help bring about positive social change. This year, Muslim Day attendees advocated for a number of civil rights issues, including protections for religious communities and immigrants, measures to prevent school bullying, and standards for hate crime reporting. Read More
Uneasy time requires smart thinking
By Habib Siddiqui: There is no doubt that the rise of Daesh, which claims to be the new vanguard of the global jihadist movement, and the establishment of its caliphate in Syria and Iraq in the summer of 2014 represents a turning point in the evolution of global terrorism. No time in recent history before has there been an outfit that has been so successful to confuse so many in such a short time. Daesh claims to be Islamic and a caliphate under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Its flag even has the Islamic emblem – the testimony of faith. Thanks to the internet and its smart propagators, Daesh has been able to relay its messages throughout the world and gravitate many to its causes! Thousands flocked to its causes, some even joining the so-called caliphate from Europe, let alone from its neighboring countries with significant Muslim population. Read More
Amid human rights violation: Egyptian kangaroo court sentences 20 people to death
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: A court of Egyptian military leader, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who assumed the title of Field Marshal after overthrowing the elected President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Monday sentenced 20 supporters of Morsi to death.The brutal military dictator el-Sisi has been cracking down on the opposition since the overthrow of President Morsi. He has killed more than 800 protesters in a single day, and has imprisoned tens of thousands of dissidents since he took power. Read More
Panama Papers scandal: Pakistan Supreme Court verdict favors Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Pakistan’s apex court, which has a history of supporting incumbent governments and military dictators, Thursday (April 20) ruled in favor of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the so-called Panamagate money laundering case. Two months after concluding hearings of the case, the apex court gave a 3-2 split judgment favoring Nawaz Sharif by calling for a fresh probe into the money laundering scandal. The two judges who ruled against PM Nawaz Sharif said he should be disqualified as he could no longer be considered 'honest' and 'truthful', whereas the other three were in favor of forming a Joint Investigation Team to definitively answer the question of whether the allegations against the prime minister were true or not. Read More
China reinforces border claim within days of Dalai Lama’s visit to India
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: China has renamed six places in Arunachal Pradesh in retaliation against the Dalai Lama’s visit to India’s easternmost state. The move is apparently aimed at reaffirming Beijing’s territorial sovereignty to the region. China’s civil affairs ministry carried out the name changes on April 13, a day after the Dalai Lama left Arunachal Pradesh following a nine-day high-profile visit. The visit angered China, which calls Dalai Lama a separatist out to carve an independent homeland within the Chinese mainland. Read More
President Erdogan clinches victory in Turkish constitutional referendum
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sunday (April 16, 2017) achieved victory in a historic referendum on a package of constitutional amendments that will introduce presidential form of government like France and the United States.In a press conference in Istanbul following his party’s declaration of victory, Erdoğan said that unofficial results showed there were about 25m yes votes, 1.3m more than no. Read More
Suu Kyi’s Apartheid Myanmar
By Habib Siddiqui: How long our world must witness the ethnic cleansing of vulnerable minorities? In Myanmar, it’s a routine thing against the minority Rohingyas who mostly live in the northern Arakan state, close to Bangladesh. They are the most persecuted people in our planet. They were persecuted for nearly half a century by the military governments that preceded the current civilian government. Read More
US drops its most powerful non nuclear bomb on Afghanistan: Muslim lands are testing ground for dangerous weapons?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The U.S. Thursday (April 13, 2017) dropped a bomb with an explosive force equal to 11 tons of TNT on a cave complex used by the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) , the Pentagon said. The bomb is officially called a GBU-43 or Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the origin of its nickname as the “mother of all bombs.” The 9,797kg GBU-43 was dropped from a MC-130 aircraft in Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, according to the Pentagon. Read More
India-Pakistan relations worsen over espionage episode
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The already troubled India-Pakistan relationship has been plunged into deep uncertainty after Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian alleged spy, was sentenced on Monday (April 10, 2017) to death for espionage and sabotage activities in Pakistan. Monday’s development comes at a time when tensions between Pakistan and India run high. The past six months have seen a war of words between officials from the Indian and Pakistani governments. Read More
Is Abu Ivanka for real change in Syria?
By Habib Siddiqui: After years of indifference the USA attacked a Syrian airfield firing 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at about 04:40 a.m. Syrian time (01:40 GMT) of Friday. US officials say the base was used to launch a chemical weapons attack that killed 89 people, including 33 children and 18 women on Tuesday in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. The U.S. attack was a delayed action but was much welcomed and praised across the globe that has only seen massacre and carnage committed by the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad against the Syrian people. Shortly after the U.S. attack, some Arab social media users started referring to the U.S. president as Abu Ivanka - Father of Ivanka, as a sign of respect and endearment. Others referred to him as Abu Ivanka al-Amreeki - Father of Ivanka the American. Read More
Palm Sunday church bombings in Egypt kill 44, wound dozens
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: At least 44 people were killed and more than 100 more were injured in two Palm Sunday (April 9) attacks at two Coptic Christian churches in Egypt. Following the blasts, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi imposed state of emergency for three months. The Palm Sunday twin attacks come following months of attacks on Egypt’s Coptic minority. Coptic Pope Tawadros II recently told an Egyptian parliamentary committee that attacks against Christians average about one a month over the past three years. The blasts came just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country. Read More
Pope Francis meets 4 Imams to open a Christian-Muslim dialogue
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: Pope Francis Wednesday (April 5, 2017) held a private audience with a delegation of four Imams from England who were accompanied by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster. Pope Francis told the imams that listening to each other was essential for the common future of humanity as we walk together in our shared lives. Read More
President Trump welcomes Egyptian dictator, the butcher of Cairo
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: President Donald Trump Monday, April 3, 2017, welcomed the Egyptian military dictator, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who assumed the title of Field Marshal after arresting and deposing the democratically elected President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013. After the meeting Trump told the press: "We agree on so many things. I just want to let everybody know, in case there was any doubt, that we are very much behind President el-Sisi. He’s done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation." By "a fantastic job" Trump was apparently alluing to the massacre of hundreds of innocent Egyptians in the aftermath of US-endorsed coup against a democratically elected President. It may be recalled, on 14 August 2013 el-Sisi's security forces raided two camps of protesters in Cairo: one at al-Nahda Square and a larger one at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, massacring at least 817 pro-Morsi demonstrators, according to the Human Rights Watch. This is known as Rabaa Massacre. According to the Egyptian Health Ministry, 638 people were killed and at least 3,994 were injured on 14 August . Read More
Time to rethink our nuclear arsenal policy
By Habib Siddiqui: Last year, after Donald Trump was elected he tweeted, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability.” Many peace activists were genuinely alarmed to learn about Trump's intention, especially given the fact that the military budget of the USA is unmatched by any country in our time, and that the USA has stockpile of roughly half the nuclear arsenals in the world. They asked: do we need to expand nuclear arsenal capability while what we already have is enough to destroy our planet? Based on the work of researchers at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), an organization that works to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons and increase government transparency on the issue, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed nuclear stockpile counts estimated by the organization. Currently, out of 196 countries, only nine possess nuclear weapons. And more than 90% of the world's nukes are owned by just two countries: the United States and Russia.Read More
Iraq rejects displaying Kurdish flag in Kirkuk fearing establishment of Greater Kurdistan
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: The Iraqi parliament on Saturday, April 1, 2017, voted against raising the flag of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on public buildings and institutions in the city of Kirkuk. In a session attended by 186 members of the 328-seat parliament, the MPs voted in favor of flying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk's public buildings. Kurdish lawmakers have walked out of the session before the vote. Last week, 26 Kurdish members of Kirkuk’s provincial assembly voted in favor of raising the KRG flag alongside Iraq’s national flag outside the city’s public buildings and institutions. The Iraqi government says Kirkuk is administratively dependent on Iraq’s central government, while the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party demands Kirkuk’s incorporation into the autonomous Kurdish Region. Read More
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