LONDON: Non-Muslims will be welcomed with tea and biscuits at mosques across the UK this weekend during an annual open day that encourages integration and understanding among people of all faiths.
Visit My Mosque 2018 marks the fourth edition of the event which will see more than 200 mosques from London to Wales run tours and talks covering Islam, prayer practices and daily Muslim life.
Under this year’s theme “Open doors, open mosques, open communities,” participating mosques will also outline some of the benefits they bring to their communities, including projects for homelessness, hunger and refugee support.
Harun Khan, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, which is behind the event, emphasized the “positive difference” mosques make to their local communities.
Speaking at a launch on Thursday at the Al-Manaar Center in Kensington, which has been holding mosque open days for years, he said, “Mosques are part and parcel of the fabric of British society.”
The Al-Manaar Center was proactive in the response effort following the Grenfell Tower fire, which devastated the community in June 2017.
“We saw last June how they stepped up without hesitation when others didn’t,” said Kensington and Chelsea MP Emma Dent.
“This is a very important day to highlight the existence of local institutions like mosques that can be accessed by anyone,” said Abdulrahman Syed, Chief Executive Officer at Al-Manaar. “For us every day of the year...is an open day.”
“Mosques are more open than ever before,” Khan added, expressing his hope that Visit My Mosque would be, “A small step toward greater community cohesion in Britain today.”
Organizers anticipate a high turn-out building on last year’s event when around 10,000 people took part, with the highest number visiting Cumbernauld mosque in Glasgow, which welcomed up to 3,000 people and York Mosque, where around 1,000 showed up.
A YouGov poll commissioned by the Muslim Council of Britain, which is hosting the event, found that 90 percent of Britons haven’t been inside a mosque while almost 70 percent haven’t seen inside another faith’s place of worship. In addition, one in four Britons said they did not know a Muslim.
“Despite the multi-religious and multi-cultural society we live in, these poll results show that the majority of Britons have not seen what the place of worship of another faith looks like,” Khan said.
The event helps counter misconceptions around Islam and mosques in the UK. It’s a way of showing “There’s nothing sinister, there’s nothing strange” about mosques, Khan added. “Mosques are very welcoming places.”
The day comes during a time of increasing islamophobia in the UK, with hate crimes against Muslim places of worship more than doubling between 2016 and 2017.
Last week saw a life sentence handed down to Darren Osborne, who drove a rented van into a crowd of people outside Finsbury Park Mosque, killing Makram Ali and injuring others as they left Ramadan prayers.
Discussing the need to address islamophobia, Dent added, “We have to counter ignorance with knowledge and hate with love and this is what we’re doing here.”
Nadeem Ali, with the Muslim Cultural & Welfare Association of Sutton, which is taking part in the open day, said: “We see this as an opportunity to welcome our non-Muslim neighbours and for them to find out that we are normal, non-violent, law-abiding and hopefully nice people, contributing to British society.”
“We hope the event gives them the chance to dispel negative impressions of Muslims they may have from the media, and to see first-hand the kinder, warmer and more welcoming side of the Muslim community.”
The Reverend Anna Macham, priest at St Philip's church in Camberwell, London said the open day “brings greater understanding.”
“It’s so easy for people to get the wrong idea about what Islam or any religion is from the media, but the impression you get from actually meeting Muslims, sharing food with them and enjoying their hospitality is very different.”
A poster advertising the open day at Derby Jamia Mosque invites people to “Pop in, meet the Imams (spiritual leaders) and ask questions,” while an advertisment for Quwwat-ul-Islam in Newham, London reads: “Come and see beyond the walls.”
Others promise traditional British refreshments. “Sharing tea and cakes is really the best antidote,” Khan added.
Mufiti, Mohammed Amin Pandor of The Peace Institute in Leeds, said “The most important thing for us is the Q&A. We want people to ask us any questions… we will never be offended. We will answer the questions truthfully.”
This year Visit My Mosque merchandise was released for the first time, including branded pens and balloons available for participating mosques to order.
The Muslim Council of Britain has also recently launched “Better Mosques: A Community Consultation” inviting anyone to submit ideas on how mosques can become better in Britain today.
Non-Muslims welcomed to UK mosques for annual open day
Non-Muslims welcomed to UK mosques for annual open day
France’s most powerful nuclear reactor finally comes on stream
- The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor in Normandy started providing electricity to French homes on Saturday
- Launch is welcome news for the heavily indebted state-owned energy company EDF after multiple problems extended construction to 17 years
The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor in Normandy started providing electricity to French homes at 11:48 a.m. (1048 GMT) Saturday, the EDF power company’s CEO Luc Remont said in a statement.
“Great moment for the country,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on social network LinkedIn, calling it “one of the world’s most powerful nuclear reactors.”
“Re-industrializing to produce low-carbon energy is French-style ecology,” he added. “It strengthens our competitiveness and protects the climate.”
The French-developed European Pressurised Reactor project, launched in 1992, was designed to relaunch nuclear power in Europe after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe in Soviet Ukraine, and is touted as offering more efficient power output and better safety.
The EPR, a new generation pressurized water reactor, is the fourth to be finished anywhere in the world. Similar design reactors in China and Finland came online ahead of it.
The launch is welcome news for the heavily indebted state-owned energy company EDF after multiple problems extended construction to 17 years and caused massive budget overruns.
Remont of EDF called the event “historic.”
“The last time a reactor started up in France was 25 years ago at Civaux 2,” he said, referring to the Civaux power plant in southwestern France.
The connection was initially scheduled to take place Friday.
It is the most powerful reactor in the country at 1,600 MW. Ultimately, it should supply electricity to upwards of two million homes.
The connection to the grid “will be marked by different power levels through to the summer of 2025” in a months-long testing phase, the company has said.
EDF said that starting up a reactor was “a long and complex operation.”
The plant will be shut down for a complete inspection lasting at least 250 days, probably in the spring of 2026, the company added.
Construction of the Flamanville reactor began in 2007 and was beset by numerous problems.
The start-up comes 12 years behind schedule after a plethora of technical setbacks which saw the cost of the project soar to an estimated 13.2 billion euros ($13.76 billion), four times the initial 3.3 billion euro estimate.
The start-up began on September 3, but had to be interrupted the following day due to an “automatic shutdown.” It resumed a few days later.
Generation has been gradually increased to allow the reactor to be connected to the electricity network.
Nuclear power accounts for around three-fifths of French electricity output and the country boasts one of the globe’s largest nuclear power programs.
That is in stark contrast to neighboring Germany, which exited nuclear power last year by shutting down the last three of its reactors.
“This morning marks the culmination of a titanic effort that has finally paid off,” Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the outgoing minister for ecological transition, said on X.
“We are drawing all the lessons from this to make a success of the nuclear revival that we decided on with the President of the Republic.”
Macron has decided to ramp up nuclear power to bolster French energy sustainability by ordering six new-generation reactors and laying options for eight more, that could cost tens of billions of euros.
In 2022, he called for a “renaissance” for the country’s nuclear industry to transition away from fossil fuels.
“What we have to build today is the renaissance of the French nuclear industry because it’s the right moment, because it’s the right thing for our nation, because everything is in place,” Macron said at the time.
Pickup truck driver killed by police after driving through Texas mall and injuring 5
- The truck crashed into the department store in Killeen, 109 kilometers north of the state capital Austin
- Emergency medical services transported four victims to area hospitals and another traveled to a hospital separately
KILLEEN, Texas: A pickup truck driver fleeing police careened through the doors of a JCPenney store in Texas and continued through a busy mall, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by officers, authorities said.
The truck crashed into the department store in Killeen, about 68 miles (109 kilometers) north of the state capital Austin, around 5:30 p.m. Saturday and continued into the building, striking people as it went, Sgt. Bryan Washko of the Texas Department of Public Safety said in an evening news briefing.
Emergency medical services transported four victims from the mall to area hospitals and another traveled to a hospital separately. They ranged in age from 6 to 75 years old and their conditions were not immediately known, he said.
The chase began around 5 p.m. on Interstate 14 in Belton, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Killeen, after authorities received calls about an erratic driver in a black pickup, Ofelia Miramontez of the Killeen Police Department said.
The driver then pulled off the road and drove into the parking lot of the mall.
“The suspect drove through the doors and continued to drive through the JCPenney store, striking multiple people,” Washko said. “The trooper and the Killeen police officer continued on foot after this vehicle, which was driving through the store, actively running people over. He traveled several hundred yards.”
Officers from the state public safety department, Killeen and three other law enforcement agencies “engaged in gunfire to eliminate this threat,” Washko said.
One of the officers who traded gunfire with the suspect was working as a security guard at the mall and others were off duty, he said.
Washko did not have information about the suspect’s identity at the time of the briefing.
Witnesses interviewed by local news outlets outside the mall said they heard multiple gunshots and saw people fleeing through the mall.
India child marriage crackdown reaches nearly 5,000 arrests
- India is home to more than 220 million child brides, according to the United Nations
- The legal marriage age in India is 18 but millions of children are forced to tie the knot when they are younger
GUWAHATI, India: A crackdown on illegal child marriages in India’s northeast has resulted in nearly 5,000 arrests, after 416 people were detained in the latest police sweep, a minister said Sunday.
“We will continue to take bold steps to end this social evil,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of Assam state, said in a statement.
“Assam continues its fight against child marriage,” he added, saying raids have been carried out overnight and that those arrested would be produced in court on Sunday.
India is home to more than 220 million child brides, according to the United Nations, but the number of child weddings has fallen dramatically this century.
Assam state had already arrested thousands in earlier abolition drives that began in February 2023, including parents of married couples and registrars who signed off on underage betrothals.
It takes the total now arrested to more than 4,800 people.
Sarma has campaigned on a platform of stamping out child marriages completely in his state by 2026.
The legal marriage age in India is 18 but millions of children are forced to tie the knot when they are younger, particularly in poorer rural areas.
Many parents marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security.
The results can be devastating, with girls dropping out of school to cook and clean for their husbands, and suffering health problems from giving birth at a young age.
In a landmark 2017 judgment, India’s top court said that sex with an underage wife constituted rape, a ruling cheered by activists.
Russian defense ministry says it downed 42 Ukrainian drones overnight
- The heads of the Rostov and Bryansk regions said there were no casualties or damage after the latest drone attacks
MOSCOW: Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday its air defense systems destroyed 42 Ukrainian drones over five Russian regions during the night.
Twenty drones were shot down over the Oryol region, eight drones each were destroyed in the Rostov and Bryansk regions, five in the Kursk region and one over Krasnodar Krai, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
One attack triggered a fire at a fuel infrastructure facility in the village of Stalnoi Kon, said Andrei Klychkov, the governor of Oryol.
“Fortunately, thanks to the quick response, the consequences of the attack were avoided — the fire was promptly localized and is now fully extinguished. There were no casualties or significant damage,” he said.
It was the second week in a row where fuel infrastructure facilities in Oryol have been attacked.
The heads of the Rostov and Bryansk regions said there were no casualties or damage after the latest drone attacks.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
China says US is ‘playing with fire’ after latest military aid for Taiwan
- US President Joe Biden authorized Saturday the provision of up to $571 million for Taiwan
- Separately, the Defense Department said Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved
BEIJING: The Chinese government protested Sunday the latest American announcements of military sales and assistance to Taiwan, warning the United States that it is “playing with fire.”
US President Joe Biden authorized Saturday the provision of up to $571 million in Defense Department material and services and in military education and training for Taiwan. Separately, the Defense Department said Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement urged the US to stop arming Taiwan and stop what it called “dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan is a democratic island of 23 million people that the Chinese government claims as its territory and says must come under its control. US military sales and assistance aim to help Taiwan defend itself and deter China from launching an attack.
The $571 million in military assistance comes on top of Biden’s authorization of $567 million for the same purposes in late September. The military sales include $265 million for about 300 tactical radio systems and $30 million for 16 gun mounts.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the approval of the two sales, saying in a social media post on X that it reaffirmed the US government’s “commitment to our defense.”
