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Massive rise in Islamophobic incidents in the UK following Gaza war leaves Muslims in fear

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators wave placards and Palestinian flags at a mass rally in support of Gaza in London. (File/AFP)
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Updated 25 February 2024
Arab News
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Massive rise in Islamophobic incidents in the UK following Gaza war leaves Muslims in fear

  • Islamophobia Response Unit said there was a 365 percent increase in reports of Islamophobia in October 2023, following Hamas’ attack on Israel that month
Updated 25 February 2024
Arab News

LONDON: An enormous rise in Islamophobic incidents against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war has led many Muslims in the UK to fear leaving their homes after dark, The Independent reported on Sunday.

Many of the Islamophobic incidents have involved people being targeted over their support for Palestine as the war in Gaza continues.

Muslims who spoke to The Independent said they had bricks thrown through their windows for displaying the Palestinian flag, and a 17-year-old was questioned by his teachers after he displayed a Palestinian badge on his bag at school.

Islamophobia Response Unit, a charity dedicated to supporting victims of Islamophobia, said there was a 365 percent increase in reports of Islamophobia in October 2023, following Hamas’ attack on Israel that month.

“Since October 2023, IRU has seen a sustained increase in reports to the unit,” said IRU CEO Majid Iqbal.

“It is clear that this is now developing into a long-term trend and is having a profound impact on those affected by it. IRU calls on the press and politicians to not demonize legitimate Palestinian activism and, by extension, British Muslims, to avoid feeding into the serious societal problem of Islamophobia,” he said.

Tell MAMA, another body that records anti-Muslim hate incidents, said there were 2,010 Islamophobic incidents between Oct. 7 and Feb. 7, more than triple the 600 reported during the same period the year before. 

The figures were released in the same week that Tory MP Lee Anderson was suspended by the Conservative Party after making comments about London Mayor Sadiq Khan that have been widely condemned as Islamophobic.

Anderson told GB News on Friday that “Islamists” had “got control” of the mayor of London and the capital city.

“I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London … He’s actually given our capital city away to his mates,” the former Tory deputy chairman said. 

Of the cases reported to IRU, a 17-year-old Londoner said he was interrogated by teachers about his faith and “his understanding of Hamas” after he put a Palestinian badge on his school bag.

The Year 13 student said he felt targeted because he was Muslim, which triggered an anxiety attack and led to exam failure.

“The numerous instances of being pulled out whilst studying to remove my badge made me feel like I was targeted because I was a Muslim, which made me feel like I was doing something wrong,” the boy said. 

“This feeling of being targeted intensified following the intimidating interrogation, which I was subjected to,” he added.

A 32-year-old doctor said he has been too scared to leave his home after an attack he believes stemmed from his support for Palestine.

He was awoken on Feb. 5 after a large rock smashed through a window at his Manchester home, which displayed a Palestinian flag. He said he was unable to sleep and took two weeks off work as a result of the incident.

“This event has been extremely traumatic and has had a significant impact on my well-being,” he told The Independent.

“I am not sleeping; I just pace around until 4 or 5 a.m. because I am too scared to sleep in the property. I no longer leave the house after sunset, as I am too frightened.

“I will soon be returning to work after two weeks off sick with stress, but I am very concerned about the impact this event will have on my professional performance as a doctor. I do not know how I can work with patients whilst I am this sleep-deprived,” he added.

Topics: Islamophobia War on Gaza Muslims UK

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Legendary drug lord Fabio Ochoa is deported to Colombia after spending two decades in US prisons

Updated 23 sec ago
AP
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Legendary drug lord Fabio Ochoa is deported to Colombia after spending two decades in US prisons

  • Ochoa’s name has faded from popular memory as Mexican drug traffickers take center stage in the global drug trade
Updated 23 sec ago
AP

BOGOTÁ, Colombia: One of Colombia’s legendary drug lords and a key operator of the Medellin cartel has been deported back to the South American country, after serving 25 years of a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.
Fabio Ochoa arrived in Bogota’s El Dorado airport on a deportation flight on Monday, wearing a grey sweatshirt and carrying his personal belongings in a plastic bag.
After stepping out of the plane, the former cartel boss was met by immigration officials in bullet proof vests. There were no police on site to detain him — an indication he may not have any pending cases in Colombian courts.
In a brief statement, Colombia’s national immigration agency said Ochoa should be able to enter Colombia “without any problems,” once he is cleared by immigration officers who will check for any outstanding cases against the former drug trafficker.
Ochoa, 67, and his older brothers amassed a fortune when cocaine started flooding the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to US authorities, to the point that in 1987 they were included in the Forbes Magazine’s list of billionaires.
Living in Miami, Ochoa ran a distribution center for the cocaine cartel once headed by Pablo Escobar. Escobar died in a shootout with authorities in Medellin in 1993.
Ochoa was first indicted in the US for his alleged role in the 1986 killing of Barry Seal, an American pilot who flew cocaine flights for the Medellin cartel, but became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Along with his two older brothers, Juan David and Jorge Luis, Ochoa turned himself in to Colombian authorities in the early 1990s under a deal in which they avoided being extradited to the US
The three brothers were released from prison in 1996, but Ochoa was arrested again three years later for drug trafficking and was extradited to the US in 2001 in response to an indictment in Miami naming him and more than 40 people as part of a drug smuggling conspiracy.
He was the only suspect in that group who opted to go to trial, resulting in his conviction and a 30-year sentence. The other defendants got much lighter prison terms because most of them cooperated with the government.
Ochoa’s name has faded from popular memory as Mexican drug traffickers take center stage in the global drug trade.
But the former member of the Medellin cartel was recently depicted in the Netflix series Griselda, where he first fights the plucky businesswoman Griselda Blanco for control of Miami’s cocaine market, and then makes an alliance with the drug trafficker, played by Sofia Vergara.
Ochoa is also depicted in the Netflix series Narcos, as the youngest son of an elite Medellin family that is into ranching and horse breeding and cuts a sharp contrast with Escobar, who came from more humble roots.
Richard Gregorie, a retired assistant US attorney who was on the prosecution team that convicted Ochoa, said authorities were never able to seize all of the Ochoa family’s illicit drug proceeds and he expects that the former mafia boss will have a welcome return home.
“He won’t be retiring a poor man, that’s for sure,” Gregorie told The Associated Press earlier this month.

Topics: Fabio Ochoa drug lord cocaine US prisons

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Bill Clinton is hospitalized with a fever but in good spirits, spokesperson says

Updated 11 min 21 sec ago
AP
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Bill Clinton is hospitalized with a fever but in good spirits, spokesperson says

  • “He remains in good spirits and deeply appreciates the excellent care he is receiving,” Urena said
Updated 11 min 21 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: Former President Bill Clinton was admitted Monday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington after developing a fever.
The 78-year-old was admitted in the “afternoon for testing and observation,” Angel Urena, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement.
“He remains in good spirits and deeply appreciates the excellent care he is receiving,” Urena said.
Clinton, a Democrat who served two terms as president from January 1993 until January 2001, addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer and campaigned ahead of November’s election for the unsuccessful White House bid of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

 

 

Topics: Former President Bill Clinton US

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Greek lawyers call for further investigation into 2023 deadly shipwreck

Updated 24 December 2024
Reuters
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Greek lawyers call for further investigation into 2023 deadly shipwreck

  • “The case file contains serious gaps and omissions,” they said in a statement, adding that the captain and the crew of the coast guard vessel monitoring the migrant ship had been summoned by the court, but not the coast guard officials supervising them
Updated 24 December 2024
Reuters

ATHENS: Greek lawyers representing the survivors and victims of a deadly 2023 shipwreck said on Monday a naval court needed to examine more evidence after a preliminary investigation failed to shed light on the case.
Hundreds died on June 14, 2023, when an overcrowded fishing trawler, monitored by the Greek coast guard for several hours, capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos.
A local naval court, which opened a criminal investigation last year, has concluded a preliminary investigation and referred the case to a chief prosecutor, the lawyers said on Monday, adding they had reviewed the evidence examined by the court so far.
“The case file contains serious gaps and omissions,” they said in a statement, adding that the captain and the crew of the coast guard vessel monitoring the migrant ship had been summoned by the court, but not the coast guard officials supervising them.
Evidence, including the record of communications between the officials involved in the operation, was not included in the case file, they added.
“The absence of any investigation into the responsibilities of the competent search and rescue bodies and the leadership of the Greek coast guard is deafening,” they said.
The chief prosecutor will decide if and how the probe will progress.
Under Greek law, prosecutors are not allowed to comment on ongoing investigations.
The vessel, which had set off from Libya, was carrying up to 700 Pakistani, Syrian and Egyptian migrants bound for Italy. Only 104 people were rescued and 82 bodies found.
Greece’s coast guard has denied any role in the sinking, which was one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Topics: Greek migrants shipwreck

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Mozambique death toll from Cyclone Chido rises to 120

Updated 23 December 2024
AFP
AP
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Mozambique death toll from Cyclone Chido rises to 120

  • The cyclone not only ravaged Mayotte’s fragile infrastructure but also laid bare deep-seated tensions between the island’s residents and its large migrant population
Updated 23 December 2024
AFP AP

MUPATO: The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique rose by 26 to at least 120, the southern African country’s disaster risk body said on Monday.

The number of those injured also rose to nearly 900 after the cyclone hit the country on December 15, a day after it had devastated the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte.

The cyclone not only ravaged Mayotte’s fragile infrastructure but also laid bare deep-seated tensions between the island’s residents and its large migrant population.

Thousands of people who have entered the island illegally bore the brunt of the storm that tore through the Indian Ocean archipelago. Authorities in Mayotte, France’s poorest territory, said many avoided emergency shelters out of fear of deportation, leaving them, and the shantytowns they live in, even more vulnerable to the cyclone’s devastation.

Still, some frustrated legal residents have accused the government of channeling scarce resources to migrants at their expense.

“I can’t take it anymore. Just to have water is complicated,” said Fatima on Saturday, a 46-year-old mother of five whose family has struggled to find clean water since the storm.

Fatima, who only gave her first name because her family is known locally, added that “the island can’t support the people living in it, let alone allow more to come.”

Mayotte, a French department located between Madagascar and mainland Africa, has a population of 320,000, including an estimated 100,000 migrants, most of whom have arrived from the nearby Comoros Islands, just 70 kilometers away.

The archipelago’s fragile public services, designed for a much smaller population, have been overwhelmed.

“The problems of Mayotte cannot be solved without addressing illegal immigration,” French President Emmanuel Macron said during his visit this week, acknowledging the challenges posed by the island’s rapid population growth,

“Despite the state’s investments, migratory pressure has made everything explode,” he added.

The cyclone further exacerbated the island’s issues after destroying homes, schools, and infrastructure.

Though the official death toll remains 35, authorities say that any estimates are likely major undercounts, with hundreds and possibly thousands feared dead. Meanwhile, the number of seriously injured has risen to 78.

Topics: Cyclone Chido Mozambique cyclone

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Zelensky says North Korea could send more troops, military equipment to Russia

Updated 23 December 2024
Reuters
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Zelensky says North Korea could send more troops, military equipment to Russia

  • More than 3,000 North Koreans killed and wounded, Kyiv says
  • North Korean soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region
  • Zelensky warns of more N.Korean troops, weapons supplies to Russia
Updated 23 December 2024
Reuters

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia’s Kursk region and warned that Pyongyang could send more personnel and equipment for Moscow’s army.
“There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said on X after receiving a report from his top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“We will have tangible responses to this,” he added.
The estimate of North Korean losses is higher than that provided by Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which said on Monday at least 1,100 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.
The assessment was in line with a briefing last week by South Korea’s spy agency, which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the region.
Zelensky said he cited preliminary data. Reuters could not independently verify reports on combat losses.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side. Pyongyang initially dismissed reports about the troop deployment as “fake news,” but a North Korean official has said any such deployment would be lawful.
According to Ukrainian and allied assessments, North Korea has sent around 12,000 troops to Russia.
Some of them have been deployed for combat in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine still holds a chunk of land after a major cross-border incursion in August.
JCS added that it has
detected signs
of Pyongyang planning to produce suicide drones to be shipped to Russia, in addition to the already supplied 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers.
Kyiv continues to press allies for a tougher response as it says Moscow’s and Pyongyang’s transfer of warfare experience and military technologies constitute a global threat.
“For the world, the cost of restoring stability is always much higher than the cost of effectively pressuring those who destabilize the situation and destroy lives,” Zelensky said.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia Ukraine North Korea

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