Coronation puts close bonds between King Charles III and the Arab and Muslim world in the limelight

Throughout his life King Charles has represented the UK during visits across the Middle East.
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Updated 06 May 2023
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Coronation puts close bonds between King Charles III and the Arab and Muslim world in the limelight

  • While still the Prince of Wales, Charles made dozens of official visits to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan
  • Charles has a track record of empowering Muslim communities both in Britain and around the world

DUBAI: As the UK prepares for the coronation of King Charles III on May 6, royals from around the world are readying to attend the ceremonial swearing in of Britain’s new monarch.

Following tradition, the coronation will take place at Westminster Abbey where Charles will be anointed with holy oil and crowned with the 17th century St Edward’s Crown, molded to fit his head.

Thousands are expected to gather at the abbey and its surrounding streets in London to witness the historic event, its glorious pageantry, and to swear allegiance to their new king.

Among them will be a who’s who of Arab royalty; ruling families who have shared close bonds with the House of Windsor over seven decades during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II and whose members the new British king knows well.

Charles’ affinity for the Arab world, and the Middle East more broadly, has created a bond with the region. So too has his curiousness for Islam, a fact that has led him to study the faith in depth and embrace many of its tenets.

Islamic art adorns many of Britain’s royal palaces. Charles has been an enthusiastic participant in interfaith dialogue between leaders of the monotheistic faiths and he handed an OBE honor to Saudi citizen Mohammed Abdul Latif Jamil, who curated the Islamic Art exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Such is his enthusiasm for the Middle East, that Charles has told friends among Gulf royalty that some of his most profound experiences in life have been spent in the deserts of the Hijaz where prophets once roamed and where the history of the region and its great faith was forged.

The coronation will be attended by national an d international heads of state, royal families, and their representatives from around the world including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait.

Echoing the relationship his late mother Queen Elizabeth forged with the Middle East, King Charles is expected to continue the close bond during his reign, one he is renowned for.

For example, he considered Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah a personal friend, and following his death in January 2015, Charles flew to Riyadh to express his condolences in person to his successor, King Salman, and to pay his final respects to his friend.

Charles last visited the region with his wife, the Queen Consort Camilla, in November 2021 where he went to Egypt and Jordan to discuss and fortify inter-religious dialogue.

In Jordan, he also visited Syrian and Palestinian refugees who most rely on Saudi and British donations to make do.

In total, Charles has made 12 official visits to Saudi Arabia, seven to both the UAE and Kuwait, six to Qatar, and five to Jordan.

His admiration and love for the Middle East is even reflected in his watercolor paintings where he often draws inspiration from Wadi Arkam and Diriyah in Saudi Arabia as well as Aqaba in Jordan.

The then Prince of Wales, established many charitable foundations in the Middle East, notably The Prince’s Foundation, which is dedicated to “realizing the Prince of Wales’ vision of creating communities for a more sustainable world.”

The foundation is focused on education, the appreciation of heritage, and creating equal opportunities for youth in the UK and abroad. It runs satellite programs in more than 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt where it has built centers.

In Jeddah’s old city, Al-Balad, it has established an arts and crafts center, allowing students to participate in the Ministry of Culture’s restoration projects there.

At the Tantora festival in AlUla held in winter from Jan. 10 to March 21, 2020, the foundation portrayed an exhibition titled “Cosmos, Color, and Craft: The Art of the Order of Nature in AlUla.” It also ran a series of hands-on workshops in cooperation with the Royal Commission for AlUla.

The new king, although not having executive powers, holds the title of defender of the faith and supreme governor of the Church of England. For many, his interest and warm views on Islam are a hopeful sign.

After the 9/11 attacks on the US, Charles, who long immersed himself in Islam, studying the religion’s textiles, gardens, and architecture, doubled down on his views opposing Islamophobia.

Quoting the Holy Qur’an during his visit to Pakistan in 2006, he said: “Only they pay attention who have hearts; only they believe or see signs who have hearts.”

Charles, who also serves as the patron of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, learned Arabic for six months prior to his Gulf tour in 2016.

In 2020, he visited the Palestinian territories for the first time and wished Palestinians “freedom, justice, and equality” while repeatedly urging the British government to do more to better the conditions and living standards of Palestinians.

While his ascension to the throne means he will no longer be able to freely express his views, he has made his opinion on the Middle East and Islam clear.

With more than 3 million Muslims in the UK, Islam is the second-largest religion in the country, and its new monarch’s views on it are well known.

Following the news of Queen Elizabeth’s death on Sept. 8, prayers and sermons were held throughout the country in her honor. A Friday sermon was held in Cambridge’s Central Mosque where Islamic scholar Abdul Hakim Murad reiterated and read some lines from one of Charles’ speeches. He said: “Whether we are monarchist or not monarchist, or care about this or not, it does matter that in a time of mounting Islamophobia, there are some people who wish to stand with us.”

Charles was once quoted as saying, “Islam can teach us today a way of understanding and living in the world which Christianity itself is the poorer for having lost. At the heart of Islam is its preservation of an integral view of the universe.”

In 2006, at Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the leading university for Islamic teachings, the then Prince of Wales said: “We in the West are in debt to the scholars of Islam, for it was thanks to them that during the Dark Ages in Europe the treasurers of classical learning were kept alive.”

In 2010, during a speech at the University of Oxford, Charles said: “The Islamic world is the custodian of one of the greatest treasuries of accumulated wisdom and spiritual knowledge available to humanity.”

At a time when Islamophobia and xenophobia are on the rise throughout the West, the new British monarch is empowering Muslim communities, his stance unparalleled in any other Western political figure.

Charles was one of the handful who publicly opposed the European ban on the burqas and condemned the Danish cartoon insulting the Prophet Muhammad. 

King Charles III: Official trips to the Arab world 

  • 1

    Prince of Wales embarks on first GCC tour visiting Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia

  • 2

    Saudi Arabia: Prince Charles meets with British forces deployed for the Gulf War

    Timeline Image December 21-23, 1990

  • 3

    GCC: Prince Charles meets with royal families of UAE, Sultan Qaboos of Oman and Saudi Arabia’s King Fahad and Crown Prince Abdullah. 

    Timeline Image November 17-23, 1999

  • 4

    Saudi Arabia: Visited with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and received a white Arabian stallion and a pair of swords as a gift. 

    Timeline Image March 24-26, 2006

  • 5

    Kuwait: Participated in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Kuwait’s independence.

    Timeline Image October 30-31, 2011

  • 6

    Saudi Arabia: Attended the Janadriyah festival, wore traditional Saudi clothes and participated in the Ardah dance, attracting global attention

    Timeline Image February 17-19, 2014

  • 7

    Qatar: Visited the Museum of Islamic Art, the National Heritage Library, and the Anglican Centre at the Religious Complex

  • 8

    UAE: Met with Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, then-Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi

  • 9

    Bahrain: Met with King Hamad at Bustan Palace in Manama

  • 10

    Jordan: Visited Za’atari Refugee Camp

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    Saudi Arabia: Toured AlUla and the historical Hejaz Railway

    Timeline Image Febraury 10-12, 2015

  • 12

    UAE: Visited Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

    Timeline Image November 7-9, 2016

  • 13

    Palestine: Visited Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus

  • 14

    Jordan: Visited Al-Maghtas, where Jesus was baptized, and collected water from the Jordan River

    Timeline Image November 16-17, 2021

  • 15

    Egypt: Toured the Giza pyramid complex, Al-Azhar Mosque, and the Bibliotheca Alexandria

    Timeline Image November 18-19, 2021

  • 16

    Prince Charles visits the National Library in Doha, Qatar

    Timeline Image February 20, 2014

  • 17

    Saudi Arabia: King Salman welcomed Prince Charles on a two-day private visit to the Kingdom

    Timeline Image February 10, 2015

 


Turkiye arrests leader of far-right party on charges of inciting violence through social media

Updated 22 January 2025
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Turkiye arrests leader of far-right party on charges of inciting violence through social media

  • Ozdag, a 63-year-old former academic, is an outspoken critic of Turkiye’s refugee policies and has called for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees

ANKARA, Turkiye: Turkish authorities on Tuesday arrested the leader of a far-right opposition party on charges of inciting violence through a series of anti-refugee posts on social media, his party said.
Umit Ozdag, the leader of Turkiye’s anti-immigrant Victory Party, was detained by police on Monday as part of an investigation into allegations that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech he delivered a day earlier.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s office, however, released Ozdag from custody on charges of insulting the president but subsequently ordered his arrest on charges of “inciting hatred and hostility among the public,” the party said.
Prosecutors presented 11 of the politician’s posts on the social platform X as evidence against him, the party said. The prosecutor’s office also held Ozdag responsible for anti-Syrian refugee rioting that erupted in the central Turkish province of Kayseri last year, during which hundreds of homes and businesses were attacked.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the popular mayor of Istanbul who is seen as a possible candidate to challenge Erdogan in the next elections, criticized Ozdag’s arrest, saying on X that “Everyone knows that this is political meddling in the judiciary.”
Imamoglu, who is a member of Turkiye’s main opposition party, was convicted of insulting members of Turkiye’s electoral board in 2022 and faces a two-year ban from politics if his conviction is upheld by a court of appeals.
Ozdag, a 63-year-old former academic, is an outspoken critic of Turkiye’s refugee policies and has called for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees.
The politician was being taken to Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul, according to his party.
Mehmet Ali Sehirlioglu, the party’s spokesman, would temporarily assume leadership of the Victory Party.

 


Yemen Red Sea port capacity down sharply after hostilities, UN says

Julien Harneis, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Yemen. (X @julienmh)
Updated 22 January 2025
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Yemen Red Sea port capacity down sharply after hostilities, UN says

  • Houthis have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip

GENEVA: Operations at a Red Sea port in Yemen used for aid imports have fallen to about a quarter of its capacity, a UN official said on Tuesday, adding it was not certain that a Gaza ceasefire would end attacks between the Iran-backed Houthis and Israel.
Houthis have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This has prompted Israel to strike port and energy facilities, including the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
“(The) impact of airstrikes on Hodeidah Harbor, particularly in the last weeks, is very important,” Julien Harneis, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Yemen told a UN meeting in Geneva on Tuesday via videolink.
Four of the port’s five tugboats needed to escort the large ships bringing imports had sunk, while the fifth was damaged, he said, without attributing blame.
“The civilian crews who man them are obviously very hesitant. The capacity of the harbor is down to about a quarter,” he added, saying the port was used to transit a significant portion of imported aid.
Since a Gaza ceasefire agreement last week, Yemen’s Houthis have said they will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships, provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented.
“We are hopeful that sanity will prevail and people will be focused on solutions and peace, but we are nonetheless prepared as a humanitarian community for various degradations,” said Harneis, adding that the agency had contingency plans.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have controlled most of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since seizing power during 2014 and early 2015.

 


Suspected settlers attacked Palestinian villages hours before Trump rescinded Biden sanctions

Updated 22 January 2025
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Suspected settlers attacked Palestinian villages hours before Trump rescinded Biden sanctions

  • Even before taking office, Trump appears to have pressed Netanyahu to accept a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Hamas that strongly resembled one the Biden administration had been pushing for months
  • On Tuesday, the charred shells of cars lay on the side of the road in Jinsafut and residents surveyed the damage to a burned storage space

JINSAFUT, West Bank: Shortly after suspected Jewish settlers stormed Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank late Monday, setting cars and property ablaze, US President Donald Trump canceled sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.
The reversal of the Biden administration’s sanctions, which were meant to punish radical settlers, could set the tone for a presidency that is expected to be more tolerant of Israel’s expansion of settlements and of violence toward Palestinians. In Trump’s previous term he lavished support on Israel, and he has once again surrounded himself with aides who back the settlers.
Settler leaders rushed to praise Trump’s decision on the sanctions, which were first imposed nearly a year ago as violence surged during the war in Gaza. The sanctions were later expanded to include other Israelis seen as violent or radical.
Finance Minister and settler firebrand Bezalel Smotrich called it a just decision, saying the sanctions were a “severe and blatant foreign intervention.” In a post on social media platform X, he went on to praise Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel.”
The West Bank’s 3 million Palestinians already live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering cities and towns. Smotrich and other hard-line settler leaders want Israel to annex the West Bank and rebuild settlements in Gaza, territories that Israel seized during the 1967 Mideast war.
Palestinians want both territories for a future state and have long viewed the settlements as a major obstacle to peace, while the international community overwhelmingly considers them illegal. There are more than 500,000 settlers in the West Bank who have Israeli citizenship.
Late Monday, dozens of masked men who are widely believed to be settlers marauded through at least two Palestinian villages and attacked homes and businesses, according to officials in Jinsafut and Al-Funduq, which are roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 12 people who were beaten by the men. It gave no details on their condition. Israel’s military said the men hurled rocks at soldiers who had arrived to disperse them, and that it had launched an investigation.
Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza war, so it was not clear if the attack had any link to the inauguration. On Tuesday, meanwhile, Israel launched a deadly raid on the Jenin refugee camp.
Jalal Bashir, the head of Jinsafut’s village council, said that the men attacked three houses, a nursery and a carpentry shop located on the village’s main road. Louay Tayem, head of the local council in Al-Funduq, said dozens of men had fired shots, thrown stones, burned cars, and attacked homes and shops.
“The settlers were masked and had incendiary materials,” said Bashir. “Their numbers were large and unprecedented.”
On Tuesday, the charred shells of cars lay on the side of the road in Jinsafut and residents surveyed the damage to a burned storage space.
Growing impunity, even after Biden’s sanctions
Biden’s executive order against the settlers marked a rare break with America’s closest Middle East ally, and signaled his frustration with what critics say is Israel’s leniency in dealing with violent settlers.
Rights groups say that impunity has deepened since Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz exempted settlers from what is known as administrative detention — Israel’s practice of detaining individuals on security grounds without charge or trial — which is routinely used against Palestinians.
Katz, who freed all Israelis held in administrative detention just last week, said those behind Monday’s attack should be held accountable in Israel’s more transparent criminal justice system.
Palestinian residents, meanwhile, are tried in Israeli military courts.
Biden’s sanctions were aimed at settlers who were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats against and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property. They later were broadened to include other groups, including Tzav 9, an activist organization that was accused of disrupting the flow of aid into Gaza by trying to block trucks heading into the territory.
Reut Ben-Chaim, a mother of eight who founded the group and was then slapped with sanctions that crippled her wellness company and prohibited her access to credit cards or banking apps, welcomed Trump’s step.
“We have heard in the last few days that the Trump administration is going to be the most pro-Israel there has been,” she told The Associated Press. “These actions, such as the removal of the sanctions … these are actions that already mark the way forward.”
Support for Israel could clash with wider ambitions
Trump has long boasted of his support for Israel, but he has also pledged to end wars in the Middle East that could require exerting some pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Even before taking office, Trump appears to have pressed Netanyahu to accept a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Hamas that strongly resembled one the Biden administration had been pushing for months.

During his first term, Trump moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights — which it captured from Syria in the 1967 war — and presented a Mideast peace plan that was seen as overwhelmingly favorable to Israel.
He also let settlement construction in the West Bank surge unchecked.
But he seemed at the time to have tapped the brakes on Netanyahu’s plans to annex large parts of the West Bank, something Israel’s far-right settlers have demanded for years. Netanyahu said he temporarily shelved the idea as part of the agreement with the UAE.
 

 


Four wounded in Tel Aviv stabbing attack, attacker killed

Members of Israeli security forces stand guard at the site of a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv on January 21, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 22 January 2025
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Four wounded in Tel Aviv stabbing attack, attacker killed

  • This was the second stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in four days, after another assailant seriously wounded a person on Saturday before being shot by an armed civilian

TEL AVIV: Four people were wounded in a stabbing attack on Tuesday in Tel Aviv while the attacker was killed, Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom said.
The police said an initial investigation “revealed that a terrorist armed with a knife stabbed three civilians on Nahalat Binyamin Street and one civilian on Gruzenberg Street.”
Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv said it had received three stabbing victims, including one in “a serious condition with a knife wound to the neck” who was taken into surgery.
The Nahalat Binyamin street and surrounding neighborhood of Tel Aviv are popular for their restaurants and nightlife.
The area was cordoned off by the police, while an AFP journalist saw the dead body of a man on the street.
This was the second stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in four days, after another assailant seriously wounded a person on Saturday before being shot by an armed civilian.
 

 


UK PM tells Netanyahu peace process ‘should lead’ to Palestinian state

Updated 21 January 2025
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UK PM tells Netanyahu peace process ‘should lead’ to Palestinian state

  • Downing Street: The PM said ‘that the UK stands ready to do everything it can to support a political process, which should also lead to a viable and sovereign Palestinian state’
  • Downing Street: The PM also ‘reiterated that it was vital to ensure humanitarian aid can now flow uninterrupted into Gaza, to support the Palestinians who desperately need it’

LONDON: UK premier Keir Starmer told Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that any peace process in the Middle East should pave the way for a Palestinian state, Downing Street said.
The two leaders held a call that focused on the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a UK government spokesperson said.
During the conversation, “both agreed that we must work toward a permanent and peaceful solution that guarantees Israel’s security and stability,” the British readout of the call added.
“The prime minister added that the UK stands ready to do everything it can to support a political process, which should also lead to a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.”
Starmer also “reiterated that it was vital to ensure humanitarian aid can now flow uninterrupted into Gaza, to support the Palestinians who desperately need it,” the statement added.
Starmer “offered his personal thanks for the work done by the Israeli government to secure the release of the hostages, including British hostage Emily Damari,” the statement added.
“To see the pictures of Emily finally back in her family’s arms was a wonderful moment but a reminder of the human cost of the conflict,” Starmer added, according to the statement.
A truce agreement between Israel and Hamas to end 15 months of war in Gaza came into effect on Sunday.
The first part of the three-phase deal should last six weeks and see 33 hostages returned from Gaza in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.