Jordan said on Thursday it would lead a campaign to raise funds for the U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees, to help it survive after the United States cut its funding.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said a meeting next month in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly would mobilise support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to continue core education and health services.

“Any shortage in funding will drive hundreds of thousands towards deprivation and despair,” Safadi, whose country has 2.2 million U.N. registered Palestinian refugees, said in Amman after meeting Pierre Krahenbuhl, the UNRWA head. Jordan will call for an Arab League meeting to lobby for donors to cover the $200 million shortfall needed to shore up UNRWA, Safadi said.

UNRWA has faced a cash crisis since the United States, long its biggest donor, earlier this year slashed funding, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms and calling on the Palestinians to renew peace talks with Israel.

The agency was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel war, in the wake of the exodus of around 700,000 refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state.

UNRWA now looks after more than 5 million descendants of those original refugees, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“One cannot wish 5.3 million Palestine refugees away. These are people who have rights and for many years now, for decades have faced a plight and injustice that is simply immense,” UNRWA’s Krahenbuhl said at a news conference with Safadi.

“As long as a just a lasting solution has not found of the issue of Israel-Palestine conflict we will continue to implement the mandate that the General Assembly has given us.”

The Palestinians assert the right under international law to return to homes abandoned in Israel or be compensated. Safadi said funding cuts for UNRWA undermine that right.

“The continuation of UNRWA means continued commitment by the international community to working towards a just solution of the refugees that guarantees the right of return and compensation,” Safadi said.

Safadi last week raised the plight of UNRWA with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington where officials say he warned of “dangerous consequences” to regional stability if the financial crisis were not resolved.

The United Nations is awaiting “effective access” to the Myanmar region where 700,000 Rohingya Muslims were driven out in an army crackdown, months after agreeing with the government to aid the return of refugees, the U.N. country head said on Tuesday.

The organisation’s agencies for development and refugees – UNDP and UNHCR – signed a memorandum of understanding with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in June to allow Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh last year to return home.

But requests for authorisations for staff to visit the conflict area have been beset by delays and authorities have offered access to a limited area, Knut Ostby, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, told Reuters.

Ostby said the United Nations had declined to accept an offer from the government to work in a limited number of villages and would not send in experts until it had negotiated a better deal.

“They’re standing ready to go when we have effective access,” he said.

“We need to have the possibility to do a proper job.”

His comments came despite an announcement from Suu Kyi on Tuesday that her government had “granted access” to the United Nations to work in 23 villages across northern Rakhine State as part of a “pilot assessment programme”.

The United Nations wants to implement “quick impact projects” to benefit the population still there, including cash-for-work schemes and small-scale infrastructure projects.

Ostby said he did not know how the 23 villages, spread out across Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, had been selected.

The United Nations wanted to work in villages next to one another, he said, to avoid the risk of creating “inequality among neighbouring villages”.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the United Nations could work within the selected areas first and then expand its operations.

“As far as I understand, UNDP is to implement pilot project within the allowed villages and extend afterwards,” Zaw Htay said. “If UNDP does not think it’s enough, they would have to discuss with the government.”

The United Nations as been mostly barred from northern Rakhine State since August last year, when the government accused U.N. agencies of supplying food to Rohingya militants.

The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine state, are widely considered as interlopers by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.

The June deal between the United Nations and the government was not made public, but a draft was seen by Reuters and also leaked online last month.

Refugee leaders and human rights groups said the deal failed to give assurances that returning refugees would be granted citizenship and freedom of movement.

Ostby said the United Nations had advocated for the release of the memorandum of understanding.

“We have proposed to the government that it would be a good idea to make it public,” he said. “Having said that, we recognise that such agreements are not normally publicised in other countries.”

A growing number of migrants are finding jobs in Germany, according to data released on Tuesday that will give heart to supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in hundreds of thousands of war refugees since 2015.

Figures last week also showed that German companies have managed to attract more apprentices to on-the-job training schemes due to a surge in applications from asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Syria.

The figures will feed into a running debate in Germany on the impact of Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open German borders to more than a million migrants, many of them refugees from war zones in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Critics including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have said the new arrivals will be a burden on Germany’s welfare system and economy.

But the head of Germany’s Labour Office, Detlef Scheele, told dpa news agency there was no reason to be overly pessimistic about the country’s ability to cope with the record number of arrivals.

“This is all going pretty well,” he said, adding that the numbers were slightly better than expected. “These are good numbers, also taking into account that the people came here for humanitarian reasons and not for finding a job,” Scheele added.

The number of employed migrants from the eight countries with the biggest numbers of asylum seekers surged by more than 100,000 to 306,574 in May compared with the same month in the previous year, data from the Labour Office showed.

SKILLED LABOUR SHORTAGE

Among those, roughly three out of four had a labour contract in which the company and the employee were paying full contributions to social insurance schemes, the data showed.

There were roughly 500,000 people from the eight main asylum seeker countries who were registered as looking for work in July, the data showed. This includes people who are currently completing an integration and language course.

Among those, nearly 197,000 people were registered as unemployed which is roughly in line with the level seen a year earlier, the data showed.

Shortages of skilled labour and a lack of young people willing to commit to on-the-job training for up to 3 1/2 years have become big concerns for managers in Europe’s largest economy.

Vacancies for training positions have reached their highest level in more than 20 years with more than a third of companies unable to fill all of their training spots.

The number of new arrivals in Germany has fallen sharply this year, partly due to stricter border controls across Europe as well as tighter asylum rules in Germany and other countries.

]]> 7811 https://www.faith-matters.org/shock-horror-how-dare-top-commissioning-editor-question-the-status-quo/ Tue, 17 May 2016 14:58:51 +0000 https://tellmamauk.org/?p=7852

Anyone reading the Sun newspaper a few days ago would have thought that the end of the world had arrived since the ‘Muslim’ Head of Religion and Ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, had simply made a comment. So, what was that comment that the ‘Muslim’ Head of Religion and Ethics had made – (apologies for stressing the

The post Shock, Horror, How Dare Top Commissioning Editor Question the Status Quo appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Many of you will never have heard of Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland. Recently the Esther Foundation, which seems to based on promoting a youthful and attractive persona based on Shaded herself, has been working with the Barnabas Fund to bring Syrian Christian refugees to Poland. Further information on one of the controversial founders and international director of the Barnabus Fund, Patrick Sookhdeo can be found here. (It should also be stated that the Barnabus Fund have stated that Sookhdeo was the international director and not employed by the Fund in the UK.)

Sookhdeo previously converted from Islam and has taken controversial positions on Islam and how the British armed forces work with Muslim populations in the field. We understand that the relationship has ended with a plethora of blogs raising the question as to why he was engaged with by the Ministry of Defence.

Let us come back to the issue of Miriam Shaded. A Christian whose father was Syrian, Miriam Shaded has become the mouthpiece for some of the worst inflammatory language that is peddled within Poland and through her social media presence. As a young personable female, she has become the touchstone on which people’s fears and bigotry about Muslims are projected. As a female of Syrian heritage, the assumption may be made by some that she must know what she is talking about when she is on television talking about Islam and Muslims. Yet, some of this rhetoric is far from realistic and plays to an extremist and nationalistic far right tendency that caricatures Islam, and thereby its followers, as a threat.

Take this for example. This is one of her Facebook posts on the 27th of February 2016.

“Seeking a expert lawyer in winning major issues on the territory of Poland and perhaps the EU, which will help me win the trial on outlawing Islam as a totalitarian system and the Koran, which preaches hatred, violence and legitimizes crimes.”

The text is pretty clear and she is looking for legal advice to outlaw Islam. Seems to be all of the rage right now if someone is looking to make a name for themselves and to possibly revel in a climate of anti-Muslim bigotry which is taking hold of some parts of the continent.

After that post, there seems to be a number of takers for her divisory call. This was her latest statement:

“Thank you all for your words of support and assistance as well as applications by the best lawyers in Poland and Europe. Due to the number of messages that I received, we will consider and interact with specialists from Monday. It is so important a matter that  we ask you to pray for wisdom and God’s guidance to select the best firm. I cordially greet and wish you a successful Sunday evening. Smile emoticon“

So much for the ‘smile emoticon’ when she is trying to restrict the freedom of belief, a fundamental tenet of human rights. This is what Shaded and her camera friendly smile, is intending.

Shaded is possibly driven by some form of Christian mission and zeal and may believe that demonizing Islam and defacto, the followers of Islam, is the strategy she wants to employ. Yet, she is savvy enough to realise that cannot be outwardly hostile to Muslims and so may be skirting around this by targeting Islam. Yet, let us not underestimate the pull of a young female who is part Arab and who in the eyes of many in Poland, who have never met Muslims, apparently knows what she is talking about.

We have recently written about the history of Islam and Muslims in Poland before, through our sister site, Faith Matters. These articles can be found here and here. What is particularly troubling about people like Shaded is that their history and rhetoric starts from ‘ground zero’, effectively when they want it to start. In doing so, they simply choose to ignore the rich history and heritage of Poland and the fact that Muslims have shaped its growth and its history. That, we are sure is something Shaded will not mention and that alone should raise alarm bells for those who want to have a holistic and fulsome assessment of their country. Shaded and her rhetoric are never the answer, but they may well be part of a turbulent future if they gain any political traction.

The post Meet Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland & Her Desire to Outlaw Islam appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Many of you will never have heard of Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland. Recently the Esther Foundation, which seems to based on promoting a youthful and attractive persona based on Shaded herself, has been working with the Barnabas Fund to bring Syrian Christian refugees to Poland. Further information on one of the controversial founders and international director of the Barnabus Fund, Patrick Sookhdeo can be found here. (It should also be stated that the Barnabus Fund have stated that Sookhdeo was the international director and not employed by the Fund in the UK.)

Sookhdeo previously converted from Islam and has taken controversial positions on Islam and how the British armed forces work with Muslim populations in the field. We understand that the relationship has ended with a plethora of blogs raising the question as to why he was engaged with by the Ministry of Defence.

Let us come back to the issue of Miriam Shaded. A Christian whose father was Syrian, Miriam Shaded has become the mouthpiece for some of the worst inflammatory language that is peddled within Poland and through her social media presence. As a young personable female, she has become the touchstone on which people’s fears and bigotry about Muslims are projected. As a female of Syrian heritage, the assumption may be made by some that she must know what she is talking about when she is on television talking about Islam and Muslims. Yet, some of this rhetoric is far from realistic and plays to an extremist and nationalistic far right tendency that caricatures Islam, and thereby its followers, as a threat.

Take this for example. This is one of her Facebook posts on the 27th of February 2016.

“Seeking a expert lawyer in winning major issues on the territory of Poland and perhaps the EU, which will help me win the trial on outlawing Islam as a totalitarian system and the Koran, which preaches hatred, violence and legitimizes crimes.”

The text is pretty clear and she is looking for legal advice to outlaw Islam. Seems to be all of the rage right now if someone is looking to make a name for themselves and to possibly revel in a climate of anti-Muslim bigotry which is taking hold of some parts of the continent.

After that post, there seems to be a number of takers for her divisory call. This was her latest statement:

“Thank you all for your words of support and assistance as well as applications by the best lawyers in Poland and Europe. Due to the number of messages that I received, we will consider and interact with specialists from Monday. It is so important a matter that  we ask you to pray for wisdom and God’s guidance to select the best firm. I cordially greet and wish you a successful Sunday evening. Smile emoticon“

So much for the ‘smile emoticon’ when she is trying to restrict the freedom of belief, a fundamental tenet of human rights. This is what Shaded and her camera friendly smile, is intending.

Shaded is possibly driven by some form of Christian mission and zeal and may believe that demonizing Islam and defacto, the followers of Islam, is the strategy she wants to employ. Yet, she is savvy enough to realise that cannot be outwardly hostile to Muslims and so may be skirting around this by targeting Islam. Yet, let us not underestimate the pull of a young female who is part Arab and who in the eyes of many in Poland, who have never met Muslims, apparently knows what she is talking about.

We have recently written about the history of Islam and Muslims in Poland before, through our sister site, Faith Matters. These articles can be found here and here. What is particularly troubling about people like Shaded is that their history and rhetoric starts from ‘ground zero’, effectively when they want it to start. In doing so, they simply choose to ignore the rich history and heritage of Poland and the fact that Muslims have shaped its growth and its history. That, we are sure is something Shaded will not mention and that alone should raise alarm bells for those who want to have a holistic and fulsome assessment of their country. Shaded and her rhetoric are never the answer, but they may well be part of a turbulent future if they gain any political traction.

The post Meet Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland & Her Desire to Outlaw Islam appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Many of you will never have heard of Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland. Recently the Esther Foundation, which seems to based on promoting a youthful and attractive persona based on Shaded herself, has been working with the Barnabas Fund to bring Syrian Christian refugees to Poland. Further information on one of the controversial founders and international director of the Barnabus Fund, Patrick Sookhdeo can be found here. (It should also be stated that the Barnabus Fund have stated that Sookhdeo was the international director and not employed by the Fund in the UK.)

Sookhdeo previously converted from Islam and has taken controversial positions on Islam and how the British armed forces work with Muslim populations in the field. We understand that the relationship has ended with a plethora of blogs raising the question as to why he was engaged with by the Ministry of Defence.

Let us come back to the issue of Miriam Shaded. A Christian whose father was Syrian, Miriam Shaded has become the mouthpiece for some of the worst inflammatory language that is peddled within Poland and through her social media presence. As a young personable female, she has become the touchstone on which people’s fears and bigotry about Muslims are projected. As a female of Syrian heritage, the assumption may be made by some that she must know what she is talking about when she is on television talking about Islam and Muslims. Yet, some of this rhetoric is far from realistic and plays to an extremist and nationalistic far right tendency that caricatures Islam, and thereby its followers, as a threat.

Take this for example. This is one of her Facebook posts on the 27th of February 2016.

“Seeking a expert lawyer in winning major issues on the territory of Poland and perhaps the EU, which will help me win the trial on outlawing Islam as a totalitarian system and the Koran, which preaches hatred, violence and legitimizes crimes.”

The text is pretty clear and she is looking for legal advice to outlaw Islam. Seems to be all of the rage right now if someone is looking to make a name for themselves and to possibly revel in a climate of anti-Muslim bigotry which is taking hold of some parts of the continent.

After that post, there seems to be a number of takers for her divisory call. This was her latest statement:

“Thank you all for your words of support and assistance as well as applications by the best lawyers in Poland and Europe. Due to the number of messages that I received, we will consider and interact with specialists from Monday. It is so important a matter that  we ask you to pray for wisdom and God’s guidance to select the best firm. I cordially greet and wish you a successful Sunday evening. Smile emoticon“

So much for the ‘smile emoticon’ when she is trying to restrict the freedom of belief, a fundamental tenet of human rights. This is what Shaded and her camera friendly smile, is intending.

Shaded is possibly driven by some form of Christian mission and zeal and may believe that demonizing Islam and defacto, the followers of Islam, is the strategy she wants to employ. Yet, she is savvy enough to realise that cannot be outwardly hostile to Muslims and so may be skirting around this by targeting Islam. Yet, let us not underestimate the pull of a young female who is part Arab and who in the eyes of many in Poland, who have never met Muslims, apparently knows what she is talking about.

We have recently written about the history of Islam and Muslims in Poland before, through our sister site, Faith Matters. These articles can be found here and here. What is particularly troubling about people like Shaded is that their history and rhetoric starts from ‘ground zero’, effectively when they want it to start. In doing so, they simply choose to ignore the rich history and heritage of Poland and the fact that Muslims have shaped its growth and its history. That, we are sure is something Shaded will not mention and that alone should raise alarm bells for those who want to have a holistic and fulsome assessment of their country. Shaded and her rhetoric are never the answer, but they may well be part of a turbulent future if they gain any political traction.

The post Meet Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland & Her Desire to Outlaw Islam appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Many of you will never have heard of Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland. Recently the Esther Foundation, which seems to based on promoting a youthful and attractive persona based on Shaded herself, has been working with the Barnabas Fund to bring Syrian Christian refugees to Poland. Further information on one of the controversial founders and international director of the Barnabus Fund, Patrick Sookhdeo can be found here. (It should also be stated that the Barnabus Fund have stated that Sookhdeo was the international director and not employed by the Fund in the UK.)

Sookhdeo previously converted from Islam and has taken controversial positions on Islam and how the British armed forces work with Muslim populations in the field. We understand that the relationship has ended with a plethora of blogs raising the question as to why he was engaged with by the Ministry of Defence.

Let us come back to the issue of Miriam Shaded. A Christian whose father was Syrian, Miriam Shaded has become the mouthpiece for some of the worst inflammatory language that is peddled within Poland and through her social media presence. As a young personable female, she has become the touchstone on which people’s fears and bigotry about Muslims are projected. As a female of Syrian heritage, the assumption may be made by some that she must know what she is talking about when she is on television talking about Islam and Muslims. Yet, some of this rhetoric is far from realistic and plays to an extremist and nationalistic far right tendency that caricatures Islam, and thereby its followers, as a threat.

Take this for example. This is one of her Facebook posts on the 27th of February 2016.

“Seeking a expert lawyer in winning major issues on the territory of Poland and perhaps the EU, which will help me win the trial on outlawing Islam as a totalitarian system and the Koran, which preaches hatred, violence and legitimizes crimes.”

The text is pretty clear and she is looking for legal advice to outlaw Islam. Seems to be all of the rage right now if someone is looking to make a name for themselves and to possibly revel in a climate of anti-Muslim bigotry which is taking hold of some parts of the continent.

After that post, there seems to be a number of takers for her divisory call. This was her latest statement:

“Thank you all for your words of support and assistance as well as applications by the best lawyers in Poland and Europe. Due to the number of messages that I received, we will consider and interact with specialists from Monday. It is so important a matter that  we ask you to pray for wisdom and God’s guidance to select the best firm. I cordially greet and wish you a successful Sunday evening. Smile emoticon“

So much for the ‘smile emoticon’ when she is trying to restrict the freedom of belief, a fundamental tenet of human rights. This is what Shaded and her camera friendly smile, is intending.

Shaded is possibly driven by some form of Christian mission and zeal and may believe that demonizing Islam and defacto, the followers of Islam, is the strategy she wants to employ. Yet, she is savvy enough to realise that cannot be outwardly hostile to Muslims and so may be skirting around this by targeting Islam. Yet, let us not underestimate the pull of a young female who is part Arab and who in the eyes of many in Poland, who have never met Muslims, apparently knows what she is talking about.

We have recently written about the history of Islam and Muslims in Poland before, through our sister site, Faith Matters. These articles can be found here and here. What is particularly troubling about people like Shaded is that their history and rhetoric starts from ‘ground zero’, effectively when they want it to start. In doing so, they simply choose to ignore the rich history and heritage of Poland and the fact that Muslims have shaped its growth and its history. That, we are sure is something Shaded will not mention and that alone should raise alarm bells for those who want to have a holistic and fulsome assessment of their country. Shaded and her rhetoric are never the answer, but they may well be part of a turbulent future if they gain any political traction.

The post Meet Miriam Shaded of the Esther Foundation in Poland & Her Desire to Outlaw Islam appeared first on TELL MAMA.

These stickers were reported into Tell MAMA today. They are from the far right extremist group, the North West Infidels and they were found in Coventry. The stickers show, what seems to be a male individual wearing clothing that could be from Afghanistan or Pakistan, even though a majority of refugees are from Syria.

These stickers are worrying and come on the back of other stickers which were distributed in mid-2015, where pictures of Prophet Muhammad were circulated in phone booths in the West Midlands area.

If you come across such stickers from the North West Infidels, please do get in touch with us here at Tell MAMA. You can e-mail the material to us or report it through Twitter or Facebook to us.

Our contact details are:

Phone: 0800 456 1226
Twitter: @tellmamauk
E-mail: info@tellmamauk.org
Whatsapp: 0734 184 6086
SMS: 0115 707 0007
Facebook: TellMAMAUK

The post Anti-Migrant, Anti-Muslim Stickers in Coventry Should Be Reported in appeared first on TELL MAMA.

These stickers were reported into Tell MAMA today. They are from the far right extremist group, the North West Infidels and they were found in Coventry. The stickers show, what seems to be a male individual wearing clothing that could be from Afghanistan or Pakistan, even though a majority of refugees are from Syria.

These stickers are worrying and come on the back of other stickers which were distributed in mid-2015, where pictures of Prophet Muhammad were circulated in phone booths in the West Midlands area.

If you come across such stickers from the North West Infidels, please do get in touch with us here at Tell MAMA. You can e-mail the material to us or report it through Twitter or Facebook to us.

Our contact details are:

Phone: 0800 456 1226
Twitter: @tellmamauk
E-mail: info@tellmamauk.org
Whatsapp: 0734 184 6086
SMS: 0115 707 0007
Facebook: TellMAMAUK

The post Anti-Migrant, Anti-Muslim Stickers in Coventry Should Be Reported in appeared first on TELL MAMA.