An Indonesian court sentenced a Muslim cleric to five months in prison for blasphemy against Christians. Muhammad Yahya Waloni is a Muslim convert from Christianity. On Jan. 11, a South Jakarta District Court convicted Waloni of posting hate speech online that could cause interreligious divisions. Waloni called the Holy Bible a work of fictio...
A German court on Thursday sentenced a former Syrian colonel to life in prison for crimes against humanity.The “historic” verdict marked the end of the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria. Anwar Raslan was found guilty of overseeing the murder of 27 people at the Al-Khatib detention center in Damascus in 2011 and […...
In international news, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Dr. Fernand de Varennes took to Twitter over the social medial harassment of Indian Muslim women. Varennes asked that the culprits be prosecuted. His remarks came amid recent shock and furor over the “Bulli Bai” App. It targets prominent Muslim women by putting up their images ...
On Jan. 17, Illinois will for the first time mark Muhammad Ali Day along with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Illinois Muslim Coalition worked to get Muhammad Ali Day recognized statewide. The move is part of a new state law that requires history courses to include the study of the contributions made by Muslim […]
More than a dozen national Jewish organizations are calling for an additional one billion dollars in funding for Israel. That’s in addition to the more than $3.8 billion Israel already receives from U.S. taxpayers. Israel has received more U.S. funding than any other nation — on average, 7,000 times more per capita. The groups want […]...
In another setback to the President, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked a Biden administration rule requiring 80 million workers to get COVID-19 vaccine shots or periodic tests. The court, however, allowed the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers in the US. Meanwhile, hospitals have ...
President Joe Biden on Thursday said he is not certain his voting rights agenda will pass the Senate after he failed to secure sufficient backing from his own Democratic party. Immediately after a last-ditch meeting to persuade party members, Biden said he hoped “we can get this done but I’m not sure.” “It’s about election [&...
The U.S. Justice Department said yesterday it has charged the leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers militia and 10 others for their involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill attack. Stewart Rhodes, the group’s leader and founder, was arrested Thursday in Little Elm, Texas. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Rhodes and 10 [&h...
Israeli authorities blocked the appointment of new Palestinian security guards at the Al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. Authorities threatened Palestine’s Jerusalem Islamic Waqf with arrest if they refused to comply. The religious trust administers the Al-Aqsa compound and needs new guards. There have been no new guards a...
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued a rare criticism of his long-ruling predecessor Tuesday. Tokayev said he expected Russian-led forces to leave the Central Asian country in the next 10 days. The oil-rich country’s descent into chaos has laid bare infighting at the top. Tokayev’s mentor, 81-year-old Nursultan Nazar...
