Muslim man asked not to pray inside Ottawa train station

Muslim man asked not to pray inside Ottawa train station
A video screengrab shows a Via Rail security guard approaching a Muslim man and asking him not to pray inside an Ottawa train station. The guard has been suspended and is currently being investigated. (Twitter/@nccm)
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Updated 24 March 2023
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Muslim man asked not to pray inside Ottawa train station

Muslim man asked not to pray inside Ottawa train station
  • Viral video of incident showed guard in security vest telling man prayers were disturbing other people
  • Via Rail issued unreserved apology to Muslim community, promised full investigation

DUBAI: A security guard subcontracted to work for Canada’s Via Rail has been suspended pending investigation after asking a Muslim man not to pray at an Ottawa train station.
CTV News Ottawa on Thursday reported that the worshipper, who identified himself only as Ahmad, had just finished praying in an empty hallway when the guard approached him and said, “don’t pray in here … Pray outside next time.”
Ahmad told the news channel that the incident happened on Monday at the station in the Canadian capital.
According to Ottawa Citizen news website, a video of the incident that went viral showed the guard in his security vest telling the man that his prayers were disturbing other station users.
Via Rail issued an unreserved apology to the man and the entire Muslim community and promised a full investigating and “appropriate actions” based on its findings.
Following a meeting to discuss what was described as a “regrettable and saddening incident,” Via Rail and the National Council of Canadian Muslims, a civil rights and advocacy group, issued a joint statement that said the two parties had held constructive talks and that the operator was working to improve its diversity and inclusion policies.
“The conversation focused on common objectives, namely, to ensure that Via Rail provides an inclusive environment where passengers and employees feel safe practicing freedom of religion, including the ability to worship,” the statement added.
The guard also reportedly told Ahmad, “we don’t want you praying here. You’re bothering our other customers, OK?”
Ahmad told CTV News that he was left feeling shocked, hurt, and disrespected.
He said: “He made me feel embarrassed. I was just disgusted. Like, this is Canada? This is the nation’s capital? This is Ottawa?”
Via Rail officials noted that the firm would be sharing its diversity and inclusion policies with the NCCM and would work with the group on “any improvements that could be brought to help prevent these incidents in the future.”
The railway company also pointed out that it strongly condemned Islamophobia and any discriminatory behavior.
The security guard was not an employee of Via Rail, but a spokesperson said the firm had asked its subcontractor to remove him from all Via Rail contracts pending the outcome of the investigation.
The NCCM has since been in contact with Ahmad.
 


UK hits rights abusers with sanctions

UK hits rights abusers with sanctions
Updated 08 December 2023
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UK hits rights abusers with sanctions

UK hits rights abusers with sanctions
  • Five individuals in the Iranian judiciary, security forces and Tehran public transport system face curbs
  • Eight people in Syria face restrictions for “complicity in atrocities against the Syrian people”

LONDON: The UK on Friday announced coordinated sanctions with the United States and Canada against human rights abusers, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
London said it was hitting 46 individuals and entities with asset freezes and travel bans, before the December 10 landmark.
“We will not tolerate criminals and repressive regimes trampling on the fundamental rights and freedoms of ordinary people around the world,” said Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
“I am clear that 75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UK and our allies will continue to relentlessly pursue those who would deny people their freedom.”
In Belarus, 17 members of the judiciary, including judges, prosecutors and an investigator involved in politically motivated cases against activists, journalists and rights defenders are on the list.
Five individuals in the Iranian judiciary, security forces and Tehran public transport system face curbs for imposing and enforcing the country’s mandatory hijab law.
Eight people in Syria, including government ministers and senior members of the armed forces, face restrictions for “complicity in atrocities against the Syrian people.”
Nine individuals and five entities are sanctioned for their involvement in trafficking people in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Two people in Haiti were sanctioned for their involvement in 2018 attacks in which dozens of protesters were killed by armed criminal gangs with support from government officials.
The foreign office said the coordinated sanctions were aimed against “human rights abusers and accessories to authoritarian governments around the world.”
The US and Canada are due to release their sanctions list later on Friday.


France’s Macron criticized for Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at Elysee

France’s Macron criticized for Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at Elysee
Updated 08 December 2023
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France’s Macron criticized for Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at Elysee

France’s Macron criticized for Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at Elysee
  • France’s laws on state secularism, passed in 1905, give everyone in France the freedom to worship as they wish
  • Laws specify that religion should play no part in the running of the state

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has been criticized by opponents for what they said was a violation of the principle of secularism after attending a ceremony on Thursday to mark the start of Hanukkah, a Jewish religious holiday, at his Elysee palace.
He had earlier on Thursday received the Lord Jakobovits Prize, awarded to European heads of state who fight against antisemitism, at the palace.
But a short video clip later published on social media that also shows France’s Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia lighting the first candle at the Elysee as Macron watches, stirred the controversy.
France’s laws on state secularism, passed in 1905, give everyone in France the freedom to worship as they wish, but specify that religion should play no part in the running of the state.
Hard-left Les Insoumis party deputy Manuel Bompard wrote on social network X: “Saturday, we are celebrating the anniversary date of the 1905 law on the separation of Churches and State. Macron is trampling it when organizing a religious ceremony at the Elysee. An unforgivable political fault.”
Even Yonathan Arfi, president of the Jewish Council in France, described the ceremony as “a mistake.”
“It is not the place of the Elysee to light a Hanukkah candle, because the Republican DNA is to stay away from anything religious. This is not traditionally the role of the public authorities,” said on Sud Radio.
Macron told reporters during a visit to Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Friday that he did not regret his gesture, adding he was “respectful of secularism” but that “secularism is not about wiping out religions.”
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also defended Macron’s gesture, saying it was intended to “show support” of the Jewish community at a time of mounting antisemitism in France.
Macron’s decision not to attend a Nov. 12 march to condemn a surge in antisemitic acts in France since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the resulting conflict in Gaza, had raised questions at the time.
David Lisnard, the LR conservative mayor of Cannes and head of the French Mayors Association said: “How can one refuse to participate in a civic march against antisemitism on the incongruous and fallacious grounds of safeguarding national unity, and celebrate a religious holiday in the presidential palace?”


Killings hit record high in 2021 as post-lockdown stress grew — UN

Killings hit record high in 2021 as post-lockdown stress grew — UN
Updated 08 December 2023
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Killings hit record high in 2021 as post-lockdown stress grew — UN

Killings hit record high in 2021 as post-lockdown stress grew — UN
  • Around 458,000 people were killed intentionally, higher than the 400,000 to 450,000 recorded every year since researchers started collating the data in 2000
  • Escalations in gang or political violence in Ecuador, Myanmar and other countries played their part, the study said

VIENNA: The number of murders and other intentional killings surged to a record high across the world in 2021, driven in part by the stress and economic pressures of COVID-19 lockdowns, a UN report said on Friday.
Around 458,000 people were killed intentionally, higher than the 400,000 to 450,000 recorded every year since researchers started collating the data in 2000, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Study on Homicide said.
Escalations in gang or political violence in Ecuador, Myanmar and other countries played their part, the study said.
But the after-effects of lockdowns, where people were cooped up inside for long periods, also took their toll.
“The noticeable spike in killings in 2021 can be attributed in part to the economic repercussions of COVID-related restrictions,” the report said.
Initially, the lockdowns that rolled out across the world from 2020 may have reduced the number of murders, as potential killers largely stayed inside and only mixed with people in the same household, the study said.
But “in the longer term, the negative social and economic repercussions of lockdowns, which may include increased stress and anxiety, unemployment or loss of income, can be expected to affect homicide trends by creating an environment of ‘strain’ that drives individuals to commit crime,” the report said.
In Colombia, strict lockdown measures imposed in March 2020 led to a sharp but short-lived drop in homicides, the researchers found. That was followed by a surge in 2021.

AMERICAS HAD HIGHEST HOMICIDE RATE
Overall, countries in the Americas continued to have the highest homicide rate of the five global regions — more than six times Europe’s, which was the lowest.
In 2021, eight of the 10 countries with the highest homicide rates were in Latin America and the Caribbean, the report said, citing factors such as crime groups competing for control of markets, weak rule of law and social inequality.
Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico were among those with the highest homicide rates. The two in the top 10 outside Latin America and the Caribbean were Myanmar and South Africa.
In Ecuador, the government blamed a surge of killings on drug gangs that use the country as a transit point en route to the United States and Europe.
In Myanmar, after overthrowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021, Myanmar’s military junta met sustained resistance in the countryside from militias allied with that government. A 2022 UN report said troops had carried out mass killings and targeted civilians.
Myanmar’s military said it had a duty to ensure peace and security. It denied atrocities had taken place and blamed “terrorists” for causing unrest.
The UNODC homicide study, published every four to five years, analyzed developments up to 2021 as that was the latest year with a full set of data.
The study said it looked at killings of one person by another that were intentional and unlawful.
“Death as a result of terrorist activities” was included despite the lack of an international definition of terrorism, and most conflict deaths were excluded, though “it is often difficult to disentangle” the types of killing in conflict situations that should be included and those that should not, the study said.


Japan views Hamas as a “terrorist organization”

Japan views Hamas as a “terrorist organization”
Updated 08 December 2023
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Japan views Hamas as a “terrorist organization”

Japan views Hamas as a “terrorist organization”
  • apanese Foreign Minister KAMIKAWA Yoko remains vague on how her government defines “terrorist”

TOKYO: Japanese Foreign Minister KAMIKAWA Yoko says Japan has taken action against Hamas, as it views it as a “terrorist organization”, but she remained vague on how her government defines “terrorist.”

At a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, Kamikawa was asked by Arab News Japan to clarify how Japan regarded Hamas.

“Although there is no internationally established definition of terrorism, I understand that it is generally an act of killing or injuring a person for the purpose of forcing states to accept terrorism or terrorizing society based on specific principles,” the Foreign Minister replied.

“In such a general sense, our government sometimes uses the term ‘terrorism’. The latest attacks by Hamas and other (Palestinian groups) are brutal indiscriminate killings and kidnappings, targeting a large number of civilians,” Kamikawa explained confirming that “Japan has strongly condemned these as terrorist attacks.”

A Cabinet decision on September 30, 2003 designated Hamas as an entity subject to asset-freezing measures. In addition, nine individuals and one organization related to Hamas were added to the list in accordance with a Cabinet decision on October 31 this year.

Palestinian official sources, however, told Arab News Japan that the United Nations has not placed Hamas on the terrorist list. “Japan follows a unilateral policy with countries that support war crimes in Gaza,” they said.

The officials questioned why Foreign Minister Kamikawa did not apply Japan’s definition of terrorism toward “Israeli terrorism” when around 20,000 Palestinians, mostly children, have been killed by Israel’s deliberate bombing of civilian buildings and hospitals in Gaza.

Palestinian officials have urged Japan to follow the United Nations’ view and to avoid the “double standards” of western Europe and the United States “that grant the terrorist Israeli government license to kill Palestinian children in what an increasing number of people globally are terming as genocide.”

Japan has said repeatedly that Israel has the right to defend itself and has condemned Hamas unequivocally, yet, it remains largely silent on the killing of Palestinians and only expresses vague concern over the “human casualties.”

Japan’s position echoes that of the G7 countries who have been supporting Israel’s militarily action to “root out Hamas” till the end.


Indian academics protest Israeli interference on campus

Indian academics protest Israeli interference on campus
Updated 08 December 2023
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Indian academics protest Israeli interference on campus

Indian academics protest Israeli interference on campus
  • Scholars say that Israel’s ambassador to Delhi crosses boundaries of his diplomatic brief
  • Last month, Naor Gilon tried to influence editorial decisions at one of India’s most prominent magazines

NEW DELHI: Indian scholars are warning against Israeli interference in academic freedom on their campuses after one university canceled a lecture on Palestinian history following a complaint by Tel Aviv’s envoy.

Naor Gilon, the Israeli ambassador in New Delhi, has regularly hosted briefings for journalists and made public statements attacking academics and media outlets critical of Israel’s deadly bombardment of Gaza.

When Achin Vanaik, a retired professor of international relations and global politics from the University of Delhi, presented his lecture on the history of conflict in Palestine at O.P. Jindal Global University last month, Gilon wrote to the institution’s vice chancellor expressing his “concern and extreme disappointment” over “an event delegitimizing the state of Israel.”

The controversy spurred by the letter resulted in the cancellation of Vanaik’s planned lecture at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and sent a shockwave among academics, leading to 470 of them to issue a joint statement last week objecting to the “Israeli ambassador’s interference with academic freedom on Indian campuses,” which “disrespects the competence of Indian scholars to analyze historical and political situations for themselves.”

Prof. Apoorvanand Jha from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Delhi told Arab News that the Israeli ambassador has crossed “all the limits,” and not for the first time.

“He has been issuing threatening letters, which in fact scared the university vice chancellor. But it’s a clear violation of the norms diplomats follow worldwide. They don’t comment on internal matters, they never do that,” Jha said.

“It’s a clear interference in the internal life of India; no diplomat does it. We criticize America, we criticize other countries, we hold seminars criticizing US imperialism and the US warmongering, and at no point of time has the US ambassador ever tried to interfere.”

Last month, Gilon drew criticism from journalists after he publicly attacked Frontline — one of the country’s most prominent magazines, which has been critical of Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

But the ambassador’s interventions to silence academic debate are seen as going over the limit of what is tolerable.

“This does not come under the brief for diplomats. He has crossed all the borderlines of diplomacy,” said Nadeem Khan, co-founder of the India-Palestine Friendship Forum.

“He is behaving as if he is the boss of India. How can an ambassador dictate an Indian magazine? It is just beyond imagination. Not only that, he is also interfering in debates on campuses.”

For Pamela Philipose, fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the Israeli envoy’s efforts were attempts to control the narrative in a “provocative and proactive” way.

“It actually raises hackles; it shows arrogance and impunity of a very high order. He really surpasses his diplomatic brief and, yes, he has crossed the red line,” she said.

“University is a place for the discussion of ideas. How can an ambassador sitting outside of the university have the power to actually decide what gets discussed in that university?”

On campuses, academics have the right to base discussions on their own research and understanding of the situation, Prof. Nandini Sundar, sociologist at the Delhi School of Economics, told Arab News.

“We are free to think what we want about the Palestine and Israel issue,” she said.

“We don’t need the Israeli ambassador telling academics ‘this is not acceptable and that is not acceptable.’ We have academic freedom on our campuses to study a subject the way we want.”

In response to questions by Arab News about the Israeli ambassador’s conduct and criticism from India’s academic circles, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said he was "not aware."