MUSLIM

Supporters of Iraqi Shi'a Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr shout slogans during a celebration after Iraq's parliament passed a law criminalizing normalization of relations with Israel, in Baghdad, Iraq, May 26. Photo: ReutersBAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament approved a law on Thursday that will ban normalizing relations with Israel, at a time when several Arab countries have established formal ties. The Iraqi parliament has been unable to convene on any other issue, including electing a new president and forming its own government, prolonging a political standoff. Iraq has never recognized the state of Israel since its establishment in 1948 and Iraqi citizens and companies cannot visit Israel, but the new law goes further, specifically criminalizing any attempts to normalize relations with Israel. The law was proposed by influential Shi’a cleric Moqtada al-Sadr whose party, which opposes close ties with the United States and Israel, won more seats in parliament in elections last October.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says that Washington's "one-China policy" toward Taiwan "has not changed," after President Joe Biden said the US was willing to defend the island militarily from a Chinese invasion.

The deeply divisive issue of the militant Hezbollah group’s weapons has been at the center of the upcoming vote for a new 128-member parliament in Lebanon

The deeply divisive issue of the militant Hezbollah group's weapons has been at the center of the upcoming vote for a new 128-member parliament in Lebanon.

It was a sea of yellow as thousands of men, women and children waving Hezbollah flags and wearing the group’s trademark yellow caps rallied on a giant plot of land in the ancient eastern city of Baalbek in support of the heavily armed militant group. One after another, many attendees vowed to vote Sunday for the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon’s closely watched parliamentary elections, rejecting any attempt to disarm the powerful group. Despite a devastating economic collapse and multiple other crises gripping Lebanon — the culmination of decades of corruption and mismanagement — the deeply divisive issue of Hezbollah’s weapons has been at the center of the vote for a new 128-member parliament.

Delaware State University's president says sheriff's deputies in Georgia intimidated and humiliated the school women's lacrosse team when officers pulled over the athletes' bus and searched it for drugs. (May 13)

Northwestern Elementary students spent the day building and racing hovercrafts.

Morning 4 is a quick roundup of stories we think you should know about to start your day.

Egyptian authorities have released a prominent political activist serving a four-year sentence on terror charges that rights advocate deem baseless

Egypt on Sunday released more than 40 prisoners, a week before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that is typically a time of amnesty, a political party and state-run media said

In addition to zakat, Muslims engage in other forms of charity known as sadaqah, which can go to causes other than helping the poor. The Indiana University study examined only zakat giving. Aly said most of the increase in giving at his organization came from new donors rather than existing donors giving more. To be considered zakat giving, the funds must be disbursed from those accounts to working charities within one year. The average zakat giving by Caucasian Muslims was $3,732; by Asian Muslims, $1,089, by Arab Muslims, $569 and by African American Muslims, $420.

As Muslim students across the country began fasting for Ramadan, colleges have stepped up efforts to make them feel more included on campus.

French President Emmanuel Macron tore into his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in a debate for her ties to Russia and wanting to strip Muslim women of their right to cover their heads in public.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says two Palestinian men have been critically injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in the latest round of violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan

Israeli police say an officer shot and killed a Palestinian man who stabbed him during a security check

After losing at the federal court level, the City of Troy needs to decide whether to appeal the decision or take no further legal action. The city was sued by a Muslim group and the Department of Justice over the city’s refusal to grant zoning approval for the proposed Mosque in a commercial site at 3565 Rochester Road.

A rare video has appeared of al Qaida’s chief praising an Indian Muslim woman who in February defied a ban on hijab wearing, revealing the first proof in years that he is still alive

A massive celebration dedicated to community, unity, charity, and eating before the next day’s fast is returning to Dearborn. It is referred to as the Ramadan Suhoor Festival.

An Indian court ruling upholding a ban on Muslim students wearing head coverings in schools has sparked criticism from constitutional scholars and rights advocates amid concerns of judicial overreach regarding religious freedoms

Israeli police say the attacker who used an assault rifle to methodically gun down victims from a motorcycle in a central Israeli city was a Palestinian

Gulf Arab states are holding a summit about the yearslong war in Yemen, which the country’s Houthi rebels are boycotting because it’s taking place in Saudi Arabia, their adversary in the conflict

The plant sits just southeast of the city’s international airport, a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca.

The plant sits just southeast of the city’s international airport, a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca.

Online videos show a raging fire at an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jiddah ahead of an F1 race there

Three Muslim Americans have filed a lawsuit alleging that U.S. border officers questioned them about their religious beliefs in violation of their constitutional rights when they returned from international travel.

Estimates of the number of Armenians who perished vary widely, with historians offering a range of about 700,000 to 1.2 million.

It is the eighth time since the Holocaust that the U.S. has made a genocide declaration.

The Biden administration is expanding travel bans on Chinese officials whom it accuses of repressing ethnic and religious minorities.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s St. Patrick’s Day tweet is getting mixed reviews.

The court ruled unanimously.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Thursday for the U.N. human rights office to release a report it has compiled on the situation of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. Baerbock said in a video speech to the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that the global body needs “more transparency.”

Philippine troops killed at least seven Muslim insurgents aligned with the Islamic State group in a recent offensive in the south and recovered 45 heavy firearms and several bombs and land mines that were to be used in future attacks, military officials said Thursday. About 60 Muslim militants were in the remote camp near Maguing in Lanao del Sur province when it was attacked Tuesday by fighter jets and army forces, military officials said. It was not immediately clear whether their leader, Abu Zacariah, was among those killed or managed to escape.

Myanmar’s shadow civilian administration has called on the United Nations’ top court not to allow the country’s military rulers to represent the Southeast Asian nation at hearings into a case accusing the country of genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority

The U.S. Surgeon General said Friday he imagines a future when COVID-19 is treated like any other respiratory virus. But he did not put a timeline on when that might happen and noted there are still hurdles ahead. Michael George has the latest.

Gunmen in the southern Philippines killed a Muslim rebel and eight of his companions in a road ambush Saturday that authorities said was apparently sparked by a land dispute. Several attackers raked two SUVs with assault rifle fire in an early morning ambush in an isolated farming village in Guindulungan town in Maguindanao province, killing nine people and wounding three others who were on their way to a meeting to resolve a longstanding clan dispute, police and local officials said. One of those killed in Saturday's ambush was Peges Mamasainged, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation that signed a peace deal with the government in 2014.

An annual report from the United Nations labor agency has highlighted the work conditions of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s western Xinjiang region.

More than 100 students at Huntington High School in West Virginia staged a walkout to protest a Christian assembly they were forced to attend during school hours. (Feb. 9)

The Secret Service rushed second gentleman Doug Emhoff out of an event at a school in Washington, D.C., after a bomb threat. Nancy Cordes has more.

Officials from Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware all announced plans Monday to end mask requirements in schools or other public places. CBS News' Tanya Rivero sits down with Dr. William Schaffner from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to discuss these COVID-19 topics and more.

Indian students, college in hijab ban stand-off

Direct international flights to Bali have resumed for the first time in two years as Indonesia opens the resort island to foreign travelers from all countries, but mandatory quarantine remains in place for all visitors

Dozens of young men from Lebanon’s impoverished north have disappeared in recent months, often re-emerging with the Islamic State group in Iraq

As the Chinese government tightened its grip over its ethnic Uyghur population, it sentenced one man to death and three others to life in prison last year for textbooks drawn in part from historical resistance movements that had once been sanctioned by the ruling Communist Party

The highest-ranking Arab Muslim officer in Israel’s police force has resigned, according to a statement Monday — a week after a video emerged showing him tripping over the body of a stabbing victim as he left the scene of a crime in 2020. Police said in a statement that Maj. Gen. Gamal Hakroosh tendered his resignation on Sunday, and that it would take effect Monday. Hakroosh, 64, was appointed deputy commissioner in 2016 to lead outreach efforts to Israel’s Arab minority, a historic appointment.

A ferocious winter storm has dumped almost 2 feet of snow in some areas of the northeastern U.S. Wind gusts in Saturday's nor'easter surpassed 70 mph in a few spots in Massachusetts, piling the snow into treacherous drifts in some places. (Jan. 29)

The ex-minister's accusations prompt wider questions over how the party handles discrimination cases.

Civil servant Sue Gray is expected to publish her findings this week about alleged lockdown-breaking parties.

A Samsung ad for its wearable products that featured a drag queen and his Muslim mother has been removed after it was found to be “insensitive and offensive to some members of our local community" in Singapore. Samsung partnered with ad agency Cheil Singapore to demonstrate the wearable products in the commercial by recording the heart rates of participants while they listen to different kinds of music.

A Pakistani court sentenced a Muslim woman to death after finding her guilty of blasphemy for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in text messages she sent to a friend, an official said Thursday. The woman, Aneeqa Atteeq, was arrested in May 2020 after the man alerted police that she sent him caricatures of the Prophet — considered sacrilegious — via WhatsApp. Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting the religion or religious figures can be sentenced to death.

Nusrat Choudhury is among eight new judicial nominees announced by the president. The White House said the nominees reflect his commitment to diversifying historically white, male-dominated positions.

In its centennial year of being incorporated as a city, Hamtramck is now in the national and international spotlight for becoming the first known U.S. city to be run by an all-Muslim government. The city of roughly 28,400 residents located in Wayne County inaugurated Mayor Amer Ghalib on Jan. 2. The Yemen-born immigrant was joined by three new incoming Muslim city council members after nearly 100 years of Polish leadership.

Malik Faisal Akram, a British citizen, took a rabbi and three other people hostage in Colleyville, Tex.

For two years, campaigners representing the people of Hong Kong, Tibet and China’s Xinjiang region have been pushing U.S. and Western companies to drop their sponsorships of the Games, which start Feb. 4. None have.

Al Qaeda’s terrorist attack on America on September 11, 2001 was horrific, but what came next was far worse. The U.S. responded by unleashing a twenty-year

Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib speaks at the swearing-in of the city's new all-Muslim elected government, Jan. 2. Photo courtesy: Hamtramck ReviewHAMTRAMCK — New members of Hamtramck’s first all-Muslim City Council and its first Muslim Arab American mayor, Amer Ghalib, were sworn in on Sunday, Jan. 2Judge Alexis Krot swore in Ghalib and new Council members Khalil Al-Refai, Amanda Jaczkowski and Adam Albarmaki. At the ceremony, 14-year-old Maria Saad, a Yemeni American student from Dearborn, sang the national anthem. The speakers included former Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski, who lost last November’s election to Ghalib after 16 years of public service. The atmosphere definitely reflected that meaningfulness on Sunday, as a large crowd, many from the local Yemeni American community, gathered inside the city’s high school and community center to witness a historic inauguration of the first all-Muslim elected city government in the country.

Women who publicly criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, which is pursuing an agenda that emphasizes Hindu primacy, were among the targets.

Police in India have arrested a man alleged to be behind the offering for sale of prominent Muslim women through a fake online auction, in a case that has sparked anger and outrage across the country

This religious crusade is rapidly gaining popular support and could threaten the country’s stability.

Watch Flashpoint every Sunday at 10 a.m. on Local 4 News.

Poland's prime minister has warned that migrant pressures on the European Union's border with Belarus could continue, this time with people fleeing from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

“There are signs outside and this whole property is under surveillance,” Tahil said. “He just didn’t care.”

The front doors of the Ahmadiyya Community Center in Rochester Hills were vandalized Friday night, according to the mosque.

Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa A. Hammoud made history on Tuesday by becoming the first Arab American Muslim woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The American Girl Doll brand is now offering a one-piece hijab popular with young girls.

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A Roseville woman has been charged in connection with the assault of a Muslim woman at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

There are new allegations against the Ferndale Police Department after the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said officers forcibly removed a Muslim woman’s hijab for a booking photo.

Aïcha Touré was on a Spirit Airlines flight from Atlanta to Detroit when she tried to break up what was turning into a yelling match in front of her.

Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks the image, moment and terror are still hard to believe.

For Muslim Americans the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is a stark reminder of how things changed for them in their own country.

Dozens of Lebanese worshippers knelt for Friday prayers at a gas station south of Beirut amid severe fuel shortages that have paralyzed the nation for weeks.

Tuesday marked an important day in the Muslim calendar, but worshipers at a mosque in Warren said they don’t feel welcome.

China says it will take necessary measures to respond to the U.S. blacklisting of Chinese companies over their alleged role in abuses of its Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic minorities.

A landmark cyberbullying trial in Paris is blazing a trail in efforts to punish and prevent online abuse.

Saudi Arabia says this year’s hajj pilgrimage will be limited to no more than 60,000 people, all of them from within the kingdom, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic-led House has passed legislation to constrain a president’s power to limit entry to the U.S. The vote Wednesday was a response to former President Donald Trump’s travel ban covering five Muslim-majority countries.

Turkey is reinstating weekend lockdowns in most of Turkey's provinces and will also impose restrictions over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan following a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)ANKARA – Turkey is re-introducing weekend lockdowns in most of its provinces and will also impose restrictions over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan following a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. Infections in Turkey have soared less than a month after authorities divided the 81 provinces into four color-coded categories and relaxed restrictions in some provinces under a “controlled normalization” effort. The number of infections hit a record on Tuesday, with the Health Ministry confirming 37,303 new cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of infections in the country since the start of the outbreak last year stands at more than 3.2 million.

Imad Hamad is a longtime member of the Islamic Center of Detroit and a leader in Metro Detroit’s Muslim community. Hamad is trying to spread the message that during Ramadan the COVID-19 vaccine is OK to take. During Ramadan, Muslims have to fast all day and can only eat at sundown. But Muslim community leaders, like Imam’s and scholars, are saying the vaccine has no nutritional value. He’ll get his second dose during Ramadan and said that Muslims getting the shot during Ramadan won’t have to make up days.

Following a Mass on Sunday in the Iraqi city of Irbil, Francis met with Abdullah Kurdi and spent a long time with him, the Vatican said. Through an interpreter, the pope listened to Kurdi’s story and expressed sympathy for the loss of his family. Francis issued the appeal during a joyful visit to the Christian community of Qaraqosh, on the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako said Francis’ visit to Iraq was “miraculous” and had already borne fruits. AdChristian and Muslim leaders in Mosul have welcomed Pope Francis' visit to the Iraqi city devastated by war and are calling on Christians who fled the Islamic State group's onslaught to return.

The Philippine president has approved an amnesty program for Muslim and communist rebels who would agree to surrender their weapons as they return to normal life in the latest such attempt to tame rural insurgencies that have raged for half a century. (Joey Dalumpines/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)MANILA – The Philippine president has approved an amnesty program for Muslim and communist rebels who would agree to surrender their weapons as they return to normal life in the latest such attempt to tame rural insurgencies that have raged for half a century. Duterte also agreed to include former insurgents who once belonged to the main communist New People’s Army in his amnesty program. The 75-year-old Duterte has promised to resolve Muslim and communist insurgencies before he leaves office. The amnesty program excludes the notoriously brutal Abu Sayyaf and other small armed bands associated with the Islamic State group.

The wide-ranging bill, titled “Supporting respect for the principles of the Republic,” covers most aspects of French life. But Le Pen criticized the bill as too weak and offered what she called her own, tougher counter-proposal. The bill mentions neither Muslims nor Islam by name. The measure has been dubbed the "separatism" bill, a term used by Macron to refer to radicals who would create a “counter society” in France. Associations must sign a contract of respect for French values and pay back state funds, if they cross a line.

Organizer Nick Vetch said Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021, a eight-member panel who will act as jury has been finalized. The panel has been selected to represent diverse backgrounds and no expert on China was included on purpose, Vetch said. In declaring genocide, Pompeo cited widespread forced birth control and forced labor among Uighurs. China denies any abuses and insists that the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement. AdVetch said the tribunal has written to the former and current Chinese ambassadors to London to request the Chinese government’s presence and cooperation, but so far received no response.

Rohingya refugee Mohammad Jaffar, 70, talks to the Associated Press at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Feb.2, 2021. Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in camps in Bangladesh are condemning the military coup in their homeland and saying it makes them more fearful to return. (AP Photo/Shafiqur Rahman)DHAKA – Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in camps in Bangladesh condemned the military coup in their homeland and said it makes them more fearful to return. Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that it hopes the coup will not hamper the refugees' return. The United Nations has described the Myanmar military crackdown on the Rohingya as a form of genocide.

DETROIT – One of President Joe Biden’s first moves in the White House was to repeal former President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries. When Trump enacted the travel ban, thousands of Metro Detroiters protested nearly immediately. Initially the ban restricted travel from many Middle Eastern countries. And when visa applicants request entry to the United States, we will apply a rigorous, individualized vetting system. But we will not turn our backs on our values with discriminatory bans on entry into the United States.

The accusation of genocide by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo against China touches on a hot-button human rights issue between China and the West. Pompeo’s announcement Tuesday doesn’t require any immediate actions, although the U.S. must take the designation into account in formulating policy toward China. China says its policies in Xinjiang aim only to promote economic growth and social stability. “So hopefully we’ll see a continued continuity with regards to the new (Joe Biden) administration on holding China to account," Leibold said in an interview. “And hopefully the Biden administration can bring its allies along to continue to put pressure on the Chinese government," he said.

(AP Photo/Kemal Softic)MOSTAR – MOSTAR, Bosnia-Long-entrenched ethno-nationalists were projected to win the first local election in Bosnia’s southern city of Mostar in 12 years, but early results of Sunday's vote also indicated multiethnic parties and alliances would be a strong part of the future city council. Mostar is split between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, who fought fiercely for control over the city during the country’s 1992-95 war. It hasn’t held a local election since 2008, when Bosnia’s constitutional court declared its election rules discriminatory and ordered them changed. Thus, the lawmakers from multiethnic parties appear set to become tiebreakers in all but certain disputes between the dominant Bosniak and Croat nationalists. Prior to the war, ethnically mixed couples made up 10% of all marriages in Mostar, and the city was markedly cosmopolitan.

Smaller demonstrations in Lebanon, Turkey and India followed on anti-France protests across the Muslim world last week that were mostly led by Islamist groups. The renewed protests came after President Macron's interview late Saturday in which he said that he understood the shock Muslims felt at caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad. “I have never said that,” Macron told the Al-Jazeera interviewer, explaining that some false translations of his words in the media showed him to support the cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad. “We condemn blasphemy of Islam and Prophet Muhammad by French President,” read a slogan scribbled on a French flag. Anti-France protests were held by Muslim groups on Friday in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, and Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state.

NICE – A new suspect is in custody Friday in the investigation into a gruesome attack by a Tunisian man who killed three people in a French church, as France heightened its security alert amid religious and geopolitical tensions around cartoons mocking the Muslim prophet. The attacker, Ibrahim Issaoui, was seriously wounded by police and hospitalized in life-threatening condition, authorities said. In an interview broadcast Friday with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, Issaoui's mother said she was shocked by the events. His brother told Al-Arabiya that Issaoui had informed the family he would sleep in front of the church, and sent them a photograph showing him at the cathedral where the attack took place. President Emmanuel Macron said he would immediately increase the number of soldiers deployed to protect schools and religious sites from around 3,000 to 7,000.

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 20, 2020 file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left and French President Emmanuel Macron stand, during a group photo at a conference on Libya at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany. France has recalled its ambassador to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment and made other comments that the French government described as unacceptably rude. Erdogan questioned his French counterparts mental condition while criticizing Macrons attitude toward Islam and Muslims. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)PARIS – France recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment and made other comments that the French government described as unacceptably rude. Erdogan questioned his French counterpart's mental condition while criticizing Macron’s attitude toward Islam and Muslims.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced what he called an "Islamist terrorist attack" against a history teacher decapitated in a Paris suburb Friday, urging the nation to stand united against extremism. (Abdulmonam Eassa, Pool via AP)PARIS – For the second time in three weeks, terror struck France, this time with the gruesome beheading of a history teacher in a street in a Paris suburb. French President Emmanuel Macron denounced what he called an “Islamist terrorist attack” and urged the nation to stand united against extremism. Macron visited the school where the teacher worked in the town of Conflans-Saint-Honorine and met with staff after the slaying. ... Why does a history teacher behave this way in front of 13-year-olds?” the man asked.

DETROIT – Detroit police are facing a new federal lawsuit that says a Muslim woman was forced to remove her hijab for a booking photo at the Detroit Detention Center. According to the lawsuit, Zainab Chaaban was forced to remove her hijab in front of male staff members inside the jail. She was arrested by Detroit police for her involvement in a domestic situation with her husband. We did a trial by jury and I was found not guilty.”She said when she was taken for a mug shot she was forced to remove her hijab. “When I went to the prison cell, they asked me to remove my scarf.

Lawsuit: Detroit police forced Muslim woman to remove hijab during booking photoIf you need help with the Public File, call (313) 222-0566.

But as nations begin to ease those restrictions, the Saudi government on Sunday started allowing a maximum of 6,000 pilgrims a day to enter the sprawling Grand Mosque in Mecca. Muslim travelers from outside Saudi Arabia could be allowed to perform the umrah pilgrimage as early as Nov. 1, the Interior Ministry has said. Saudi Arabia recently began easing some restrictions on international flights for the first time since March. Pilgrims were selected after applying through an online portal and all were residents or citizens of Saudi Arabia. Despite taking early and sweeping measures to contain the virus, Saudi Arabia has recorded nearly 336,000 cases, including 4,850 deaths.

FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, people line up at the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center at the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region. The Associated Press has found that the Chinese government is carrying out a birth control program aimed at Uighurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Chinas repression in Tibet, the status of the exiled Dali Lama, and its treatment of ethnic minorities spurred violent protests ahead of Beijings 2008 Olympics. China is host to the 2022 Winter Olympics with rumblings of a boycott and calls to remove the games from Beijing because of widespread human rights violations. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

An Indian court on Wednesday acquitted all 32 accused, including senior leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, in the case. Last year, India’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of building a Hindu temple on the disputed site. The Supreme Court also ruled that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegal and ordered that the separate trial in the mosque demolition case be completed expeditiously. The four acquitted BJP leaders — L.K. “When the Supreme Court said that the demolition of the mosque was an unlawful act, how can a lower court set free the accused?” he said.

CANBERRA – China appears to be expanding its network of secret detention centers in Xinjiang, where predominantly Muslim minorities are targeted in a forced assimilation campaign, and more of the facilities resemble prisons, an Australian think tank has found. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute used satellite images and official construction tender documents to map more than 380 suspected detention facilities in the far northwestern region, highlighting internment camps, detention centers and prisons that have been newly built or expanded since 2017. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Friday dismissed the report as “pure disinformation and slander,” saying the Australian institute had “no academic credibility.” China does not operate “so-called detention camps” in Xinjiang, Wang told reporters at a daily briefing. “Of these, about 50% are higher security facilities, which may suggest a shift in usage from the lower-security, ‘re-education centers’ toward higher-security prison-style facilities,” Ruser wrote. Of the camps stripped of security infrastructure, 90% were lower security facilities, the report said.

FILE - In this May 25, 2019 file photo, Muslim worshippers circumambulate the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, during the minor pilgrimage, known as Umrah in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Muslim travelers from outside Saudi Arabia could be allowed to perform the “umrah” pilgrimage as early as Nov. 1, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Saudi Arabia recently began easing some restrictions on international flights for the first time since March. Pilgrims were selected after applying through an online portal and all were residents or citizens of Saudi Arabia. Despite taking early and sweeping measures to contain the virus, Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 330,000 cases, including more than 4,500 deaths.

Doctors treat a burn Muslim worshipper in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. Dozens of Muslim worshipers suffered burn injuries critically during evening prayers after explosions of a gas pipeline installed underground near a mosque outside Bangladesh capital, officials said Saturday. (AP Photo/Abdul Goni)DHAKA An underground gas pipeline near a mosque exploded during evening prayers outside the capital of Bangladesh, leaving dozens of Muslim worshipers with critical burns, officials said Saturday. The blast occurred Friday night as people were finishing their prayers at Baitus Salat Jame Mosque at Narayanganj, local police chief Zayedul Alam said. TV stations reported that because of the impact of the gas line blast, at least six air conditioners also exploded inside the mosque.

Hundreds of Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, as they keep social destination to protect themselves against the coronavirus ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. During the first rites of hajj, Muslims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise seven times while reciting supplications to God, then walk between two hills where Ibrahim's wife, Hagar, is believed to have run as she searched for water for her dying son before God brought forth a well that runs to this day.

Ramadan lights challenge in Dearborn helps families celebrate while social distancingPublished: May 13, 2020, 11:23 pmFor Muslim families Ramadan is one of the most social months of the year -- making it hard to celebrate during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.