Time for charity and goodwill: Muslims in Italy driving relief efforts

Volunteers distribute protective face masks in Venice on Monday to contain the spread of the coronavirus. (Reuters)
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Updated 28 April 2020
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Time for charity and goodwill: Muslims in Italy driving relief efforts

  • Doctors and nurses in a hospital’s immunohematology and transfusion department in the city of Terni were almost incredulous when on the first day of Ramadan they welcomed many Muslims who wanted to donate blood

ROME: A long procession on a street in the city center of Trieste could not go unnoticed in an area that is totally empty due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Hundreds of Muslims had gathered there after dark. Local newspaper Il Piccolo reported that somebody had called the authorities, expressing doubts that the gathering complied with the lockdown rules.
But a police patrol found no irregularities as everyone there was wearing face masks and kept a safe distance from each other.
The procession was moving to the nearby Islamic cultural center, but not to celebrate Ramadan, as all religious gatherings have been forbidden in Italy since March 8.
Instead, the Muslims were going there to bring food and basic necessities to the center for distribution to those in need in Trieste.
The center has become a hub of solidarity, the local press has reported. It is one of many examples of the help that Muslim communities in Italy are giving during Ramadan, in a country that has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Doctors and nurses in a hospital’s immunohematology and transfusion department in the city of Terni were almost incredulous when on the first day of Ramadan they welcomed many Muslims who wanted to donate blood, at a time when people are afraid to enter health facilities for fear of infection.
They decided to donate blood “because Terni and Italy have given us so much, and now it’s up to us to give something,” a Moroccan donor told Il Messaggero.
Another donor told the newspaper: “It’s a gesture of solidarity we decided to make when we realized the shortage of blood at a time when social distancing makes everyone less eager to donate. Ramadan is a moment when we share grace. In this difficult time, that’s a way we do it.”
Abderrahim Maarouf, former president of the municipal council for integration in Terni, organized the donation by involving people who usually go to the city’s two mosques. He used WhatsApp for his appeal, the same way he is sending prayers during Ramadan.
“We thought it was right that the Muslim community should … make itself available, do something,” he said.

Foreigners or Italians, Muslims or non-observers, for us it makes no difference.

Abdelrahman El-Said, Spokesman for Islamic cultural center

“I managed to find many people who accepted my call. Then a person I knew put me in contact with the Red Cross in Terni. They made it possible for us to reach the hospital to donate blood in compliance with the lockdown and with Ramadan,” he added.
“Many of us have also made ourselves available to help those in need in the community. When needed, they know they can call us. It’s the least we can do, for Terni and for Italy, which deserve much more than this. Here’s what a community does. Here’s what integration means.”
In the city of Lodi, the Islamic cultural center is offering iftar meals to the elderly and to fragile families regardless of their faith.
“Foreigners or Italians, Muslims or non-observers, for us it makes no difference,” the center’s spokesman Abdelrahman El-Said told Arab News. “We want to help the country and the city hosting us at such a difficult time for everyone.”
The center is also supporting fundraising efforts for the local Maggiore hospital. And outside Islamic butchers and restaurants, bags of food are left every day for those in need.
“The entire community has been involved,” said El-Said. “Our city is in need now and we can’t back down, especially during Ramadan.”


Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, wife appeal graft convictions: lawyer

Updated 59 min 1 sec ago
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Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, wife appeal graft convictions: lawyer

  • Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years and his wife to seven earlier this month
  • A special graft court found the pair guilty of ‘corruption and corrupt practices’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Monday appealed their convictions for graft, his lawyer said.
Khan was sentenced to 14 years and his wife to seven earlier this month in the latest case to be brought against them.
“We have filed appeals today and in the next few days it will go through clerical processes and then it will be fixed for a hearing,” Khan’s lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry said.
The papers were filed at the Islamabad High Court.
A special graft court found the pair guilty of “corruption and corrupt practices” over a welfare foundation they established together called the Al-Qadir Trust.
Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases which he claims are politically motivated.


Kremlin says it has yet to hear from US about a possible Putin-Trump meeting

Updated 57 min 19 sec ago
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Kremlin says it has yet to hear from US about a possible Putin-Trump meeting

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday it had yet to receive any signals from the United States about arranging a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, but remained ready to organize such an encounter.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it appeared a “certain amount of time” was needed before a meeting between the two leaders could take place. He said Russia understood that Washington was still interested in organizing such a meeting.
Putin said on Friday that he and Trump should meet to talk about the Ukraine war and energy prices, issues that the US president has highlighted in the first days of his new administration.


India minister pledges to evict ‘illegal’ immigrants from capital

Updated 27 January 2025
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India minister pledges to evict ‘illegal’ immigrants from capital

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closest political ally has pledged to rid the capital of “illegal’ immigrants if his party wins looming elections, in a forceful appeal to his party’s Hindu constituency.
Interior minister Amit Shah said every unlawful migrant from neighboring Bangladesh would be expelled from New Delhi “within two years” if his party succeeded in next month’s provincial polls.
“The current state government is giving space to illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” Shah told an audience of several thousand at Sunday’s rally.
“Change the government and we will rid Delhi of all illegals.”
India shares a porous border stretching thousands of kilometers with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and illegal migration from its eastern neighbor has been a hot-button political issue for decades.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of Bangladeshis living illegally in Delhi, a city to which millions have flocked in search of employment from elsewhere in India over recent decades.
Critics of Modi and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuse the party of using the issue as a dog whistle against Muslims to galvanize its Hindu-nationalist support base during elections.
Delhi, a sprawling megacity home to more than 30 million people, has been governed for most of the past decade by charismatic chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Kejriwal rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago and his profile has bestowed upon him the mantle of one of the chief rivals to Modi and Shah’s party.
His popularity has been burnished by extensive water and electricity subsidies for the capital’s millions of poorer residents.
But he spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licenses, along with several fellow party leaders.
Kejriwal denies wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch-hunt by Modi’s government, and despite resigning as chief minister last year vowed to return to the office if his party won re-election.
The BJP has led a spirited campaign in its efforts to dislodge Kejriwal’s party ahead of the February 5 vote.
Modi is expected to make a pilgrimage to the ongoing Kumbh Mela, the biggest festival on the Hindu calendar, to bathe in the sacred Ganges river on the day of the Delhi assembly vote.
Results of the election will be published on February 8.


Ukraine’s Zelensky urges action against ‘evil’ on Auschwitz anniversary

Updated 27 January 2025
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Ukraine’s Zelensky urges action against ‘evil’ on Auschwitz anniversary

  • The Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
  • Zelensky warned that the memory of the Holocaust is growing weaker

KYIV : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said the world must unite against evil, in comments marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death.
The Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 claiming that the government in Kyiv contained neo-Nazi elements and saying the country must be demilitarized.
Zelensky warned that the memory of the Holocaust is growing weaker and said some countries are still trying to destroy entire nations.
“We must overcome the hatred that gives rise to abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetfulness,” he said, according to a statement from the presidency.
“And it is everyone’s mission to do everything possible to prevent evil from winning,” he added.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that Russia’s invasion “brought back to Ukrainian soil horrors that Europe has not seen since World War II.”
“Jewish communities of Ukraine are also suffering from constant Russian terror, in particular in the cities of Dnipro and Odesa, which have a population of over a million, and other localities,” it added.
The Holocaust decimated the Jewish community in Ukraine, which during World War II was part of the Soviet Union.
It was not the first massacre of Jewish people in Ukraine’s history, which had seen previous anti-Semitic pogroms.


Russia drone barrage sparks fire in western Ukraine

Updated 27 January 2025
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Russia drone barrage sparks fire in western Ukraine

KYIV: A barrage of more than 100 Russian drones sparked a fire at an industrial facility in western Ukraine and damaged residential buildings in other regions, Ukrainian officials said Monday.
The Ukrainian airforce said Moscow had dispatched 104 drones, including attack drones, and that 57 of the unmanned aerial vehicles had been shot down.
Emergency services in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region said the strikes had resulted in two fires at an industrial facility, and that firefighters were working to extinguish one.
They did not specify the type of facility hit but said there were no casualties.
The airforce said there was damage in four Ukrainian regions including Kyiv, where AFP journalists heard drones flying overhead and air defense systems countering the attack.