Muslim World League’s Ramadan iftars sanctuary for communities in London

Muslim World League’s Ramadan iftars sanctuary for communities in London
Muslim World League on London's Goodge Street has been providing sanctuary for UK communities for over four decades. (Arab News/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)
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Updated 05 March 2025
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Muslim World League’s Ramadan iftars sanctuary for communities in London

Muslim World League’s Ramadan iftars sanctuary for communities in London
  • Muslim World League hosts iftars during Ramadan and provides hot meals for nearly 230 people daily
  • It hosted an iftar for asylum-seekers in the Borough of Camden
  • Its mission is to ‘show the best of Muslims in the UK’

LONDON: Tucked in the corner of Goodge Street and Charlotte Street in London, the Muslim World League has been providing sanctuary for communities and bridging gaps between faiths for over four decades.

The league operates out of a five-story building with a mosque, offices, and community space. It hosts iftars during Ramadan and provides hot meals for nearly 230 people daily.

Historically the shopping quarter of London, both before and after its destruction by the Nazi blitz in World War II, Goodge Street remains bustling with cafes, boutiques, and restaurants.

This week, workers from the area gathered at the MWL’s mosque to pray the Maghreb, marking the fasting day’s end. You could tell who was working where from the company brand on their clothes or those who worked in the kitchens, as the smell of dishwashing soap is hard to miss.

The league hosted an “Iftar with Your Neighbour” event on Tuesday evening focusing on asylum-seekers in the Borough of Camden, which has been designated as the “Borough of Sanctuary” due to its work with Ukrainian and Afghan refugees since 2021. Other themed iftars hosted by the MWL in Ramadan include events for interfaith dialogue and welcoming new worshippers.

We want to show the best of Muslims in the UK and how we contribute to the global peace

Muath Alamri, director of MWL's London office

Mohammad Zarzour, an imam who leads Friday’s sermons at the league’s mosque, told Arab News that asylum-seekers feel a deep estrangement the moment they leave their countries. Zarzour is from Syria, a country whose population has endured a brutal civil war that displaced millions across Europe and Arab countries and has just emerged from decades of Assad dictatorship.

For him, such iftars are not just about providing food and drink to asylum-seekers. Their importance lies in showing empathy, affection, and a sense of community and family. Refugees face numerous difficulties, he said, some of which may sound trivial, such as describing their pain to the doctor or dealing with officials’ letters and applications.

“Learning a new language is not easy for someone with a family and children who find themselves in a foreign country they are not accustomed to. Balancing work, learning, and caring for their children can be quite challenging,” Zarzour said.




Mohammad Zarzour, an imam, said that asylum-seekers feel a deep estrangement the moment they leave their countries. (Arab News/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)

Camden has seen a significant increase in the number of asylum-seekers from Ukraine and Afghanistan following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021.

The borough has a history of welcoming refugees, seeing waves of migration throughout the 20th century, as it is home to St Pancras International, a port of entry to London, and one of the UK’s busiest railway stations, which connects it to various European cities.

Camden allocates nearly £50 ($64.31) per asylum seeker weekly for housing and financial assistance from the Home Office budget of £2 billion for asylum support in 2024-25, reduced from £4.3 billion in 2023-24.

The spending required to accommodate the increasing number of refugees arriving by boat through the English Channel has become a contentious topic of debate in the UK. Last summer, the country experienced its worst riots in 13 years when far-right protesters attacked hotels housing asylum-seekers in various towns.

Some refugees, including Ukrainians and Afghans, fled from war-torn countries. In the case of the Afghans, many were airlifted from Kabul by the UK Ministry of Defence following the Taliban’s takeover of the city.

Food sharing is a great connector across different communities, backgrounds, faiths, and skin color

Guy Arnold, Camden Council 

Guy Arnold, the strategic lead for refugee communities at Camden Council, said that in just one week in May 2022, over 400 Ukrainian refugees arrived at St Pancras International.

“Many refugees arriving were traumatized; they had young children, they hadn’t eaten properly, and they needed water. Above all else, they needed a place of safety and security to sit down and gather their thoughts about the next great steps they need to take,” he said.

Arnold added that Camden has successfully resettled 100 Afghan families in the borough, part of 1,800 refugees across London. Unlike their Ukrainian counterparts, who are granted temporary residency status, the Afghan families receive indefinite leave to remain, which equates to permanent residency in the country.

He commended such an iftar event for aiding the council with community work. “Food sharing is a great connector across different communities, backgrounds, faiths, and skin color,” he said.




Muslim World League hosts iftars during Ramadan and provides hot meals for nearly 230 people daily. (Arab News)

Samiullah, an Afghan who attended the iftar with his family, said he enjoyed meeting and connecting with other Muslim families. His English, however, was rusty, and his young son Hilal translated the questions. Hilal attended the Qur’anic lessons with Zubeda Welcome, a charity supporting refugee children in the UK to retain their Muslim identity.

It is the second year Yunis, from Kabul, has come to an iftar organized at MWL. He said he wanted his children to meet other kids and learn about Ramadan, as they do not have family members in Camden.

Muath Alamri, the director of the MWL's office in London, told Arab News that since its inception as a charity in 1982, the organization has supported vulnerable people in the UK while combating hate speech and engaging in social work.

In recent years, the league has collected donations to assist people in Gaza, Burma, and Pakistan, and it has partnered with Islamic Relief, Al-Khair Foundation, and various interfaith organizations.

“We want to show the best of Muslims in the UK and how we contribute to the global peace,” Alamri said of the league’s mission.


Harvard sues Trump over funding cuts: court filing

People walk on the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. (REUTERS)
People walk on the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 9 sec ago
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Harvard sues Trump over funding cuts: court filing

People walk on the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • “This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard”

NEW YORK: Harvard sued US President Donald Trump’s administration Monday in a sharp escalation of the fight between the prestigious university and the Republican, who has threatened its funding and sought to impose outside political supervision.
“This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard,” the Ivy League university said in a lawsuit that named several other institutions targeted by Trump.

 


US Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Obamacare’s preventive care coverage mandate

A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro, San Diego, California, U.S., October 26, 2017. (REUTERS)
A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro, San Diego, California, U.S., October 26, 2017. (REUTERS)
Updated 37 min 43 sec ago
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US Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Obamacare’s preventive care coverage mandate

A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro, San Diego, California, U.S., October 26, 2017. (REUTERS)
  • The plaintiffs argued that requirements to cover those medications and services are unconstitutional because a volunteer board of medical experts that recommended them should have been Senate- approved

WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court seemed likely to uphold a key preventive-care provision of the Affordable Care Act in a case heard Monday.
Conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, along with the court’s three liberals, appeared skeptical of arguments that Obamacare’s process for deciding which services must be fully covered by private insurance is unconstitutional.
The case could have big ramifications for the law’s preventive care coverage requirements for an estimated 150 million Americans. Medications and services that could be affected include statins to prevent heart disease, lung cancer screenings, HIV-prevention drugs and medication to lower the chance of breast cancer for high-risk women.
The plaintiffs argued that requirements to cover those medications and services are unconstitutional because a volunteer board of medical experts that recommended them should have been Senate- approved. The challengers have also raised religious and procedural objections to some requirements.
The Trump administration defended the mandate before the court, though President Donald Trump has been a critic of the law. The Justice Department said board members don’t need Senate approval because they can be removed by the health and human services secretary.
A majority of the justices seemed inclined to side with the government. Kavanaugh said he didn’t see indications in the law that the board was designed to have the kind of independent power that would require Senate approval, and Barrett questioned the plaintiff’s apparently “maximalist” interpretation of the board’s role.
“We don’t just go around creating independent agencies. More often, we destroy independent agencies,” said Justice Elena Kagan said about the court’s prior opinions.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas seemed likely to side with the plaintiffs. And some suggested they could send the case back to the conservative US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That would likely leave unanswered questions about which medications and services remain covered.
A ruling is expected by the end of June.
The case came before the Supreme Court after the appeals court struck down some preventive care coverage requirements. It sided with Christian employers and Texas residents who argued they can’t be forced to provide full insurance coverage for things like medication to prevent HIV and some cancer screenings.
They were represented by well-known conservative attorney Jonathan Mitchell, who represented Trump before the high court in a dispute about whether he could appear on the 2024 ballot.
Not all preventive care was threatened by the ruling. A 2023 analysis prepared by the nonprofit KFF found that some screenings, including mammography and cervical cancer screening, would still be covered without out-of-pocket costs.
The appeals court found that coverage requirements were unconstitutional because they came from a body — the United States Preventive Services Task Force — whose members were not nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

 


Homeland Security Secretary Noem’s purse stolen at DC restaurant, officials say

Homeland Security Secretary Noem’s purse stolen at DC restaurant, officials say
Updated 44 min 54 sec ago
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Homeland Security Secretary Noem’s purse stolen at DC restaurant, officials say

Homeland Security Secretary Noem’s purse stolen at DC restaurant, officials say
  • The department said Noem had cash in her purse to pay for gifts, dinner and other activities for her family on Easter

WASHINGTON: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse was stolen at a Washington, D.C. restaurant Sunday night, according to department officials.
The department in an email said Noem had money in her purse to buy gifts for her children and grandchildren and to pay for Easter dinner and other activities.
The department in an email didn’t specify what was stolen, but CNN — which was first to report the story — said the thief took about $3,000 in cash, as well as Noem’s keys, driver’s license, passport, checks, makeup bag, medication and Homeland Security badge. The department said Noem had cash in her purse to pay for gifts, dinner and other activities for her family on Easter.
The Homeland Security Secretary is protected by US Secret Service agents. The Secret Service referred questions about the incident to Homeland Security headquarters.

 


US lawmakers in new push to free wrongly deported migrant

US lawmakers in new push to free wrongly deported migrant
Updated 21 April 2025
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US lawmakers in new push to free wrongly deported migrant

US lawmakers in new push to free wrongly deported migrant
  • Yassamin Ansari: ‘I’m in El Salvador to shine a light on Kilmar’s story and keep the pressure on Donald Trump to secure his safe return home’
  • Maxwell Frost: ‘Trump is illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting people with no due process’

SAN SALVADOR: A delegation of Democratic lawmakers arrived in El Salvador on Monday in a new push to secure the release of a wrongly deported US resident at the center of a mounting political row.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent back to his country and remains imprisoned despite the Supreme Court ordering the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate the man’s return to the United States.
“I’m in El Salvador to shine a light on Kilmar’s story and keep the pressure on Donald Trump to secure his safe return home,” congresswoman Yassamin Ansari of Arizona said on social media.
“We want to make sure that Kilmar is still alive. We want to make sure that he has access to counsel,” added Ansari, who was accompanied by fellow US House Democrats Robert Garcia, Maxwell Frost and Maxine Dexter.
“Trump is illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting people with no due process,” Frost wrote on X.
“We must hold the Administration accountable for these illegal acts and demand Kilmar’s release. Today it’s him, tomorrow it could be anyone else,” the Florida representative added.
The visit comes days after Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen managed to meet with Abrego Garcia, though only after a considerable effort.
Van Hollen, who represents Maryland where Abrego Garcia and his family have lived for years, accused the Central American nation of staging a photo of him supposedly sipping margaritas with Abrego Garcia.
Trump’s administration has paid El Salvador President Nayib Bukele millions of dollars to lock up nearly 300 migrants it says are criminals and gang members — including Abrego Garcia.
The 29-year-old was detained in Maryland last month and expelled to El Salvador along with 238 Venezuelans and 22 fellow Salvadorans who were deported shortly after Trump invoked a rarely used wartime authority.
The Trump administration admitted that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error,” and the Supreme Court ruled that the government must “facilitate” his return.
But Trump has since doubled down, insisting Abrego Garcia is in fact a gang member.
Bukele, who was hosted at the White House last week, said he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia.
The migrant’s supporters note he had protected legal status and no criminal conviction in the United States.
“My parents fled an authoritarian regime in Iran where people were ‘disappeared’ — I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here,” Ansari said in a statement.
“What happened to Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not just one family’s nightmare — it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us,” said Dexter, a congresswoman from Oregon.
Abrego Garcia told Van Hollen that he was initially imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison for gang members, but was later transferred to a jail in the western department of Santa Ana.


Asian scam center crime gangs expanding worldwide: UN

Asian scam center crime gangs expanding worldwide: UN
Updated 21 April 2025
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Asian scam center crime gangs expanding worldwide: UN

Asian scam center crime gangs expanding worldwide: UN
  • A new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned the networks are building up operations in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific islands
  • Illicit cryptocurrency mining — unregulated and anonymous — has become a “powerful tool” for the networks to launder money, the report said

BANGKOK: Asian crime networks running multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centers are expanding their operations across the world as they seek new victims and new ways to launder money, the UN said on Monday.
Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year targeting victims through investment, cryptocurrency, romance and other scams — using an army of workers often trafficked and forced to toil in squalid compounds.
The activity has largely been focused in Myanmar’s lawless border areas and dubious “special economic zones” set up in Cambodia and Laos.
But a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned the networks are building up operations in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific islands.
“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“This reflects both a natural expansion as the industry grows and seeks new ways and places to do business, but also a hedging against future risks should disruption continue and intensify in Southeast Asia.”
Countries in east and southeast Asia lost an estimated $37 billion to cyber fraud in 2023, the UNODC report said, adding that “much larger estimated losses” were reported around the world.
The syndicates have expanded in Africa — notably in Zambia, Angola and Namibia — as well as Pacific islands such as Fiji, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Besides seeking new bases and new victims, the criminal gangs are broadening their horizons to help launder their illicit income, the report said, pointing to team-ups with “South American drug cartels, the Italian mafia, and Irish mob, among many others.”
Illicit cryptocurrency mining — unregulated and anonymous — has become a “powerful tool” for the networks to launder money, the report said.
In June 2023 a sophisticated crypto mining operation in a militia-controlled territory in Libya, equipped with high-powered computers and high-voltage cooling units, was raided and 50 Chinese nationals arrested.
The global spread of the syndicates’ operations has been driven in part by pressure from authorities in Southeast Asia.
A major crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar this year, pushed by Beijing, led to around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen counrties being freed.
But the UN report warns that while such efforts disrupt the scam gangs’ immediate activities, they have shown themselves able to adapt and relocate swiftly.
“It spreads like a cancer,” UNODC’s Hoffman said.
“Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear, they simply migrate.”
Alongside the scam centers, staffed by a workforce estimated by the UN to be in the hundreds of thousands, the industry is further enabled by new technological developments.
Operators have developed their own online ecosystems with payment applications, encrypted messaging platforms and cryptocurrencies, to get round mainstream platforms that might be targeted by law enforcement.