Ruba Rosalina Bukhatwa, known to her teammates as Rose, may become the first Muslim women in Ireland to play competitive rugby in the hijab. Tallaght Women’s RFC made a request to the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) after Bukhatwa had recently joined the club. Within four weeks, the IRFU confirmed that she could play in the hijab under certain conditions: she must ensure that the hijab is secure and tucked into her jersey and wear a scrum cap. Martina Fitzpatrick, Women’s Development Officer at Tallaght Women’s RFC praised the IRFU’s speedy resolution. She hopes the decision will encourage more women in Ireland to pursue rugby. The 18-year-old law student at Griffith University was born in Dublin to Libyan parents. The town of Tallaght, in south Dublin, made headlines in 2014 with the “Hijabs and Hat-tricks” project after FIFA dropped its ban on hijabs. And Diverse City FC was soon born. Alongisde Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI), the project helped Muslim women into football. The women’s team debuted at tournament that same year.
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A 10th-century sandstone sculpture of the Hindu god Rama returned to Cambodia decades after it was stolen from a temple during the kingdom’s civil war. Denver Art Museum had acquired the 62-inch-tall torso from the Doris Weiner Gallery in 1986, which was stolen in the 1970s from the Koh Ker temple site. The museum says, at the time, it had no idea that the statue had been stolen. That only came from discussions with delegates from Cambodia. Getting ready for the start of the handover ceremony of the Torso of Rama returned to Cambodia by @DenverArtMuseum. pic.twitter.com/rwikqspV8x — Jay Raman (@ramanjr) March 28, 2016 The quiver on the statue’s back suggested that it had resided in the eastern gopura of the temple site. This section of the temple was home to two ferocious monkey kings, Valin and Sugriva, now in the National Museum of Cambodia. But it still misses its head and other body parts. The kingdom of Cambodia continues to appeal to international art galleries and museums to return the missing limbs. Documents sent to the Denver museum with measurements of the feet in a pedestal matched the legs of the torso. This confirmed that the statue had not [...]
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the divisive myth-making of the far-right and the growing hostility towards Muslims,refugees, Jewish communities and other minorities. His remarks at a General Assembly meeting marked the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21. This growing hostility and violence is ‘manifested most directly in anti-refugee, anti-migrant and, in particular, anti-Muslim bigotry, attacks and violence’. As moderate parties harden their positions and far-right parties sow division. The Secretary-General’s grave tone bore the weight of Europe’s violent history. As the anti-refugee rhetoric mirrored ‘the darkest chapters of the last century’. Ban Ki-moon spoke a universal and pluralistic truth: that ‘an assault on one minority community is an attack on all’. And that requires us to speak out against antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and other forms of hate. This year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also focuses on the challenges and achievements of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action promised a robust response to racism. Ratified in 2001, the framework raised concerns about growing antisemitism and Islamophobia. Point 150 “Calls upon States, in opposing all forms of racism, to recognize the need to counter anti-Semitism, [...]
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Pope Francis will visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in July, as part of World Youth Day. This trip coincides with his five day trip to Poland, arriving on July 27 and departing July 31. Pope John Paul II, himself Polish, became the first pope to visit the camp. Benedict XVI visited in 2006. The US Holocaust Museum estimates that the SS had murdered at least 960,000 of the 1.1m Jews deported to the camp. Of the 23,000 Romani, the Nazis murdered 21,000. Other victims included 15,000 Poles, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war. And 10-15,000 members of other nationalities perished (including Czechs, Yugoslavs, Germans, Austrians and French). On June 7, 1979, Pope John II made a five-hour visit to the camp. He prayed before a stone crucifix in memory of the Catholic priest Maksymilian Kolbe, prisoner number 16670, who the SS murdered in 1941. Kolbe volunteered to die, so Franciszek Gajowniczek, a father of five might live. Gajowniczek, the Polish army sargeant had been chosen to die in an Auschwitz dungeon called the “hunger bunker,” after a prisoner had escaped. Kolbe pleaded, ‘I want to take the place of this man. He has a wife and a family. I have no one. [...]
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The year is 1933 and Hitler’s rise to power is imminent. Days earlier and the Nazis had exploited the burning of the Reichstag, home of the German parliament, for votes. Armed security forces patrolled public buildings. On the streets, Sturmabteilung (SA) ‘brown shirts’ had their violence legitimised by decree. Political violence and intimidation, however, did not grant Hitler his parliamentary majority. The March 5 elections gave the Nazi Party 43.9 per cent of the vote and 288 parliament seats out 647. On March 10, 1933, Dr Michael Siegel visited a Munich police station on behalf a client. Dr Siegel was one of roughly 4,000 Jewish lawyers in Germany. They held senior positions in the court system, bar association and justice ministry. In 1933, racist laws pushed saw many lose their jobs. The indignity of this discrimination was was compounded by further arrests and violence. Dr Siegel had entered a Munich police station on behalf of Max Uhlfelder, the Jewish owner of a large city-centre store. Nazi Party members had taken positions of office in Munich a day earlier. Heinrich Himmler, the SS commander, now commanded the Police Authority. The Swastika flew atop public buildings. Nazi paramilitaries had smashed Mr Uhlhelder’s [...]
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Slovakia’s ruling party lost its parliamentary majority, and neo-Nazis gained 8 per cent of the vote in Saturday’s election. More than 200,000 Slovakians voted for the neo-Nazi People’s Party Our Slovakia (L’SNS). That figure includes 23 per cent of first-time voters. Some of the fourteen elected L’SNS MPs were once monitored by the state. But they are now free to express their views in the National Council. Marian Kotleba, who leads the L’SNS, gained a parliamentary seat. He was elected governor of the Banská Bystrica Region (BBSK) in 2013. Kotleba’s brother, Martin, also gained a seat in parliament. Natália Grausová, another L’SNS MP has defended the Slovak regime which acted as a Nazi satellite in World War II. The Nazis murdered 75,000 Slovak Jews (around 83 per cent of the pre-war total). Deportations stopped after a Vatican representative intervened. But after the Slovak National Uprising in 1944, the SS took control of the fascist Hlinka Guard militia. Before taking office, Marian Kotleba fashioned himself in the image of the Hlinka Guard. Mr Kotleba established his first political party Slovenska Pospolitost (Slovak Brotherhood) in 2003. The interior ministry banned it in 2006 for its incitement to racial, national and religious hatred. [...]
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Sikh and Hindu villagers in a Malla village in Ludhiana, India helped renovate and re-open a historic mosque. The mosque had closed in 1947 due to partial building collapse. But a communal rebuilding effort led to its inauguration on February 29. Both faiths assisted with fundraising and construction. Muslims are a tiny minority in a village where 90 per cent of residents are Sikh and 9 per cent Hindu. In the past, Muslims had to travel out of the village to pray at a mosque. The Majlis Ahrar Islam Hind Party of Ludhiana had contacted Maulana Habib Ur Rehman Sani Ludhianavi to assist. Ludhianvi told the Time of India that “Even as the village has just one Muslim family, the response had been overwhelming”. Villagers arranged a communal langar during the inauguration. Ludhianavi then published photos of the event on Facebook. The villagers in Ludhiana highlight how communities work together. Iqbal Hussain, a local Muslim in the village, expressed his gratitude and the bonds of affection for other faiths in his village.
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A school in Guernsey made headlines after a homework assignment about Islam went viral. Miss Stables, a Religious Education teacher at Les Beaucamps High School in Guernsey, had asked students to complete a letter to their parents about their choice to convert to Islam. This creative writing exercise sought to test their knowledge and argue objectively. The homework assignment asks students to focus on how their parents would react to the news. It sought to engage their emotional and critical faculties. It had little to do with prosletyising Islam. But asked students to empathise with others of a different faith. Complete the letter you started or started planning in class to your family on how you are converting to Islam. Include: How you’re feeling, how becoming a Muslim has changed your life, how much you love your family and hope they can accept your choice. Focus: How would it make you feel having to tell your parents this?? How would/could they react? **Please also note this is a piece of creative writing and completely fictional YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY CONVERTING TO ISLAM. It is purely to test your knowledge of what we have learnt this year and how well you [...]
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Muslims in Dublin continue to face hostility and discrimination, according to a study. The Immigrant Council of Ireland found that anti-Muslim hostility manifested in the workplace, in schools and in sections of the media. Some young female Muslims reported being unable to wear the hijab in the classroom. A broader policy gap on school uniform means some face exclusion. Others do not. Teachers are failing to challenge anti-Muslim racism in some schools. One Muslim mother had to send her son to private school because the primary school would not accept a non-Catholic. In spite of equality legislation, a loophole allows schools to reject other faiths if it ‘undermines’ their ethos. This gateway to discrimination is nothing new in a country where the Catholic church runs more than 90 per cent of state schools. Non-Catholic teachers face similar discrimination. Two students had experienced anti-Muslim abuse in the classroom. The school, however, dismissed their complaints. Some students recalled the abuse they had received from teachers. In one example, a teacher had asked a student if the hijab had limited her hearing. The prejudice experienced by some Muslims in Dublin mirrors that in Britain. Hostility became exhausting in its day-to-day interactions. One Muslim [...]
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Nationalists marched in Kaunas, a city east of Lithuania’s capitol of Vilnius, to celebrate alleged Nazi collaborators. Members of defendinghistory.com – a website dedicated to exposing extremism in Lithuania monitored the 16 February march. The Union of Nationalist Youth of Lithuania organised the march to fall on the anniversary of Lithuania’s declaration of independence in 1918. Under the banner “We Know Our Nation’s Heroes”were pictures of Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Jonas Noreika, Povilas Plechavičius, Kazys Škirpa, Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejas, and Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis. Individuals accused of direct complicity in the Holocaust or fighting alongside Nazi forces. The Soviet Union invaded Lithuania in 1940. And within two months had annexed the country. A year later and Lithuania had absorbed Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi tyranny in Poland. This swelled Lithuania’s Jewish population to 250,000 (10 per cent of the population). Juozas Ambrazevičius-Brazaitis formed a provisional government after Nazi Germany had expelled the Soviets. Nazi Germany had banned the preferred choice of Kazys Skirpa from returning to Lithuania. It lasted for six weeks. Some accuse it of it complicity with the invading Nazi forces. Others would argue that it attempted in vein to restore statehood. The provisional government had welcomed the Nazi vision for a ‘new Europe’. [...]
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