The Guardian World news: Islam

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Inter Faith Network headed for closure as Gove ‘minded to withdraw’ funding

16 February, 2024 - 09:56

Row over religious cohesion charity’s appointment of trustee with links to Muslim Council of Britain

A charity that has worked for 37 years for greater cohesion between different UK faith communities is expected to close down next week after the government signalled it will scrap its funding.

The Inter Faith Network (IFN) is due to close after Michael Gove, the communities secretary, said he was “minded to withdraw” £155,000 of provisional funding over concerns about a trustee connected to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

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Selma Blair apologises for Islamophobic comment on social media

14 February, 2024 - 10:17

Actor admits she ‘mistakenly and inadvertently conflated Muslims with radical Islamists and fundamentalists’ in a now-deleted post

Actor Selma Blair has apologised for an Islamophobic comment on social media, saying it “resulted in hurting countless people I never meant to, and I deeply regret this”.

Blair posted a lengthy statement on Instagram following a now-deleted comment on another post attacking state representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib for voting against a bill banning Hamas members from the US. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Blair’s comment read in part: “Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroyed minds.”

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My symbolic act of resistance to Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam stance | Brief letters

12 February, 2024 - 18:28

Learning Arabic | Breadmaking and needlepoint | Pen friends | Idle thoughts | Modelling niksen

The possibility of Geert Wilders’ party heading the new government (Report, 8 February) was sufficient reason for me to take up Arabic. The Duolingo app is of great help in this act of symbolic resistance against Wilders’ anti-Islam stance. Learning Arabic is far from easy, but I am making good progress (in itself extremely gratifying for someone in her late 60s). I shall do my utmost to achieve my goal: better communication with Arabic-speaking compatriots and, indeed, non-compatriots beyond the borders of the Netherlands.
Hetty ter Haar
The Hague, Netherlands

• I hate to disabuse Stuart Harrington (Letters, 4 February), but both domestic breadmaking and needlepoint are alive and well. Our bread machine chunters away daily, and my son regularly makes sourdough. And there’s a subversive exhibition of needlepoint by me and my sister on in August in London.
Polly Mortimer
London

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What the unrest in Leicester revealed about Britain – and Modi’s India

8 February, 2024 - 05:00

A year and a half ago, Hindus and Muslims clashed in the streets of one of Britain’s most diverse cities. What lay behind the violence?

On Saturday 17 September 2022, the weekend before the Queen’s funeral, 300 men marched through Leicester. Their faces were hidden by Covid masks and balaclavas as they made their way to Green Lane Road in Highfields, an area in east Leicester with a large Muslim population. On WhatsApp, it had been billed as a Hindu neighbourhood safety march. “It’s very important for every Hindu to attain [sic] this meeting,” an organiser wrote. “Otherwise in future, we will have to live in fear.”

It was early evening, and as the men passed rows of terrace houses, redbrick warehouses and the Piccadilly Cinemas, which was advertising a Hindi-language epic set during the British Raj, they chanted “Jai Shree Ram” (“Victory to Lord Rama”). This phrase has long been an innocuous declaration of religious faith, but in recent decades, it has become associated with the politics of Hindu nationalism in India, where militants use it as a rallying cry in campaigns of intimidation and violence against minorities, particularly Muslims. The men also shouted other slogans that have become associated with the Hindu right: “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” (“Victory to Mother India”) and “Vande Mataram” (“Praise Mother [India]”).

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British Muslims losing trust in Labour over its handling of Israel-Gaza war

5 February, 2024 - 09:42

Exclusive: Party figure says it has work to do to retain support as poll shows drop in Starmer’s popularity

Labour has much work to do to retain support among Muslim voters, a senior party figure has said as a poll suggested the party had lost a portion of its Muslim voter base over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war.

Only 43% of British Muslims who backed Labour at the 2019 general election are willing to do so again at the next general election expected this year, the survey finds.

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Hindus can worship in contested mosque, Indian court rules

1 February, 2024 - 11:42

Fears decision on Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi could increase religious tensions and inspire more claims

An Indian court has ruled that Hindus can worship inside a contested mosque, a verdict that it is feared will increase religious tensions and galvanise further claims against other Muslim places of worship.

Gyanvapi mosque, in the holy city of Varanasi, was built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and has been in use by Muslims for prayer ever since.

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Elderly Uyghur women imprisoned in China for decades-old religious ‘crimes’, leaked files reveal

1 February, 2024 - 06:00

Hundreds of women sentenced for practices such as studying the Qur’an, dating back as far back as 60s and 70s, analysis of Chinese police files shows

Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur female religious leaders are estimated to have been arrested and imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2014, with some elderly women detained for practices that took place decades ago, according to an analysis of leaked Chinese police files.

There is growing evidence of the abusive treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population of the north-west Chinese region of Xinjiang, with their traditions and religion seen as evidence of extremism and separatism.

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Labour acts on fears Muslims will not vote for party over Gaza stance

30 January, 2024 - 17:00

Exclusive: Party launches outreach effort amid concerns it is losing support of normally loyal voters

Keir Starmer’s office has begun polling British Muslim voters amid growing concern in senior Labour ranks about the damage done to their core vote by the row over the party’s position on the Middle East.

Labour sources have told the Guardian that the party is running polls and holding focus groups around the country after senior officials became concerned they were losing support among one of their staunchest bases of support.

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Saudi Arabia to allow first alcohol sales in 72 years, dividing opinion

25 January, 2024 - 08:58

Shop will be open only to non-Muslim diplomats – but some fear it is first step to wider availability of alcohol in teetotal kingdom

The news that Saudi Arabia will allow its first alcohol shop has citizens and foreigners alike mulling one question: is this a minor policy tweak, or a major upheaval?

Sources familiar with preparations for the store disclosed details of the plan on Wednesday, as a document circulated indicating just how carefully leaders of the teetotal Gulf kingdom will manage its operations.

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Banning prayer rituals in school? Just get religion out of education completely | Polly Toynbee

23 January, 2024 - 08:00

Many who praise a headteacher for preventing Muslim prayers are oddly sanguine about the number of faith schools in Britain

Schools are too often the crucible in which social conflicts are fought out, with teachers expected to put right whatever we fail to fix in the world outside. Religion is one such battleground, where “values” are set by education secretaries, and of whom there have been 10 in the past 14 years.

The latest row blew up in Michaela Community school in Brent, north-west London, Katharine Birbalsingh’s notorious free school, regimented to her direction. The discrimination case brought by a Muslim girl last week stirred up rightwing commentators devoted to the headteacher, who made her name condemning education under Labour as “broken”.

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Narendra Modi inaugurates Hindu temple on site of demolished mosque – video

22 January, 2024 - 18:03

India's prime minister inaugurated a new temple at the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque that was torn down by a mob of Hindu nationalists. Babri Masjid was destroyed in 1992 during a rampage that killed 17 people in the city of Ayodhya. The new Ram Mandir temple was built atop the ruins of the old mosque, where some Hindus believe Lord Ram, a popular deity, was born. The event on Monday drew 8,000 guests including celebrities but also forced members of the local Muslim community to relive old traumas

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‘War hurts our hearts’: silent multi-faith peace walk held in London

21 January, 2024 - 19:01

Hundreds follow route to Parliament Square in solidarity with people affected by Israel-Gaza conflict

Without flags, placards or chants, hundreds of people joined a silent multi-faith peace walk in London on Sunday in response to the Israel-Gaza war.

Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists walked side-by-side from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square and back in solidarity with people affected by the conflict in the Middle East.

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Britons urged to use Holocaust Memorial Day as moment for community cohesion

21 January, 2024 - 17:00

Three politicians from Muslim and Palestinian backgrounds say Gaza war should not be used to inflame tensions

A cross-party trio of politicians from Muslim and Palestinian backgrounds have jointly urged Britons to use this month’s Holocaust Memorial Day as a moment for community cohesion and not to allow differences over the war in Gaza to inflame tensions.

In a letter to the Guardian, Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative peer and former party chair, the Labour MP Naz Shah and Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat who is the only British MP of Palestinian heritage, said Holocaust Memorial Day was “a moment to remember the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jewish people for no reason other than who they were”.

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Faced with the toughest two years of my life, I turned to Islam to give me strength and patience | Shadi Khan Saif

21 January, 2024 - 14:00

After being forced to flee my home and leave my family behind, it has been my faith, passed on to me by my late father, that has got me through

In 2021 I was forced to flee Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul, abandoning my newly built dream home, a stable job, close friends and relatives and above all my loving family. It was heartbreaking. I have lived with the pain for two long years hoping to be reunited with my family in Australia soon. How I endured this trauma is something that intrigues me. What has kept me going during this terrible time?

Being patient and composed in tough times is hard, especially when your personal and professional life is at stake. It requires much more resilience than most humans are built or trained for. Taking refuge in Islamic meditation and getting emotional strength from it helped me like nothing else.

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This ban on Muslims praying in school is a dystopian, sinister vision of Britishness | Nadeine Asbali

19 January, 2024 - 12:20

The decision by ‘Britain’s strictest head’ reflects a wider culture with a myopic view of what multiculturalism should look like

  • Nadeine Asbali is a secondary school teacher in London

Muslims pray five times a day, beginning before sunrise and ending after sunset. It is a central pillar of our faith, and we believe it will be one of the first things we will be questioned about by God after we die.

As a Muslim secondary school teacher, I pray in my own classroom at lunchtimes – and in winter, when the days are shorter, I pray once more after lessons are finished. Never has this private, spiritual act threatened the cohesion of the schools in which I have worked. Never has it diminished my Britishness. And yet, that is exactly the argument given by the controversial headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh this week as she defends the decision to ban “prayer rituals” at her north-west London secondary, Michaela.

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Katharine Birbalsingh defends ban on school prayers in high court

17 January, 2024 - 19:16

Headteacher of London school Michaela says policy is vital to ensure ‘children of all races and religions can thrive’

The headteacher of a school facing legal action over a ban on prayer rituals has defended the policy, arguing that it was vital in order to “maintain a successful learning environment where children of all races and religion can thrive”.

The case against Michaela community school in Brent, north-west London, which has been the subject of a two-day hearing at the high court in London this week, has been brought by one of its Muslim pupils, who claims the ban is discriminatory and is seeking to have it overturned.

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What is ‘antisemitic’ Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and what does it want?

15 January, 2024 - 19:46

Ban will come into force on Friday if approved by UK parliament, putting group on par with IS and al-Qaida

Hizb ut-Tahrir, the revolutionary Islamist organisation that is to be banned from organising in the UK, has been agitating and recruiting in Britain for nearly 40 years.

A ban on the group, which has been called “antisemitic” by the home secretary, James Cleverly, will come into force on Friday if approved by parliament, in a move that will put it on a par with al-Qaida and Islamic State.

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New Jersey imam fatally shot outside mosque as shooter remains at large

3 January, 2024 - 17:53

Cleric was attacked outside Masjid-Muhammad-Newark on Wednesday morning in Newark

A New Jersey imam was shot and killed on Wednesday outside a mosque in the state’s largest city, authorities said as officers worked to identify and arrest the shooter.

The cleric, Imam Hassan Sharif, was shot after 6am outside the Masjid-Muhammad-Newark mosque, Newark’s public safety director, Fritz Fragé, said in an emailed statement. Sharif was taken to nearby University hospital and was in critical condition, authorities said. He later succumbed to his injuries.

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BJP win in India’s 2024 general election ‘almost an inevitability’

31 December, 2023 - 09:02

Concerns raised over what a third term for Narendra Modi would mean for the country amid rising Hindu-Muslim tension

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has cut a confident figure in recent weeks. As his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) swept three major state elections in December, Modi did not hold back from predicting that “this hat-trick has guaranteed the 2024 victory”.

It was a sign that with less than six months to go before the general election, in which Modi will be seeking a third term in power, campaign season has begun with gusto.

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Academic paper based on Uyghur genetic data retracted over ethical concerns

29 December, 2023 - 15:12

Exclusive: Study published in 2019 used blood and saliva samples from 203 Uyghur and Kazakh people living in Xinjiang capital

Concerns have been raised that academic publishers may not be doing enough to vet the ethical standards of research they publish, after a paper based on genetic data from China’s Uyghur population was retracted and questions were raised about several others including one that is currently published by Oxford University Press.

In June, Elsevier, a Dutch academic publisher, retracted an article entitled “Analysis of Uyghur and Kazakh populations using the Precision ID Ancestry Panel” that had been published in 2019.

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