This year sees the alignment of main holy days in the Jewish and Islamic calendars – Rosh Hashanah, which translates as the ‘beginning of the year’ in Hebrew, began at sundown on September 20, marking the start of 5778 on the Jewish lunar calendar, lasting for two days.

The Islamic New Year of Al-Hijra marks the first day of the month of Muharram, which marks the Hijrah, when in 622 CE, the Prophet Muhammad and his companions migrated to Mecca moved from Medina, begins on September 21, which in the Islamic calendar year is Muharram 1,1439 Hijri.

Both Abrahamic faiths use the lunar calendar, which falls short of the solar calendar, to remedy this shortfall, both the Islamic and Jewish calendars have, when needed, inserted an extra day or month in their respective calendars to align closer to the solar cycle.

For Muslims, this low-key affair puts focus on what the Hijrah means, to understand how the spiritual and earthly life are bound together in devotion and obedience to God, in the first Islamic community, where the strength of this bond was proven by the actions of the Prophet Muhammad, who, by turning away from the norms of his own tribe, gave an example to his companions that the bonds of Islam were stronger.

Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of the world, and a day of judgement, where Jews believe that God weighs up the good and bad deeds of a person from the previous year, and decides what the year ahead will bring them.

The Jewish New Year also offers time to reflect on the bonds between God and humans, to consider optimism when faced with adversity, to seek forgiveness, and ponder more existential questions about achievements over the year, and what a person holds most dear.

Rosh Hashanah begins with the blowing of the ritual ram’s horn (Shofar), in Hebrew, the term derives from the verb שפר, which means to enhance, improve and succeed.

Muslim and Jewish communities welcome in the new year with sweet dishes in the hope of a sweet and prosperous year ahead.

President Donald Trump urged Arab and Islamic leaders on Sunday to unite and do their share to defeat Islamist extremists, making an impassioned plea to “drive out” terrorists while toning down his own harsh rhetoric about Muslims.

Trump singled out Iran as a key source of funding and support for militant groups. His words aligned with the views of his Saudi Arabian hosts and sent a tough message to Tehran the day after Hassan Rouhani won a second term as Iran’s president.

The U.S. president did not use his signature term “radical Islamic terrorism” in the speech, a signal that he heeded advice to employ a more moderate tone in the region after using the phrase repeatedly as a presidential candidate.

“Terrorism has spread all across the world. But the path to peace begins right here, on this ancient soil, in this sacred land,” Trump told leaders from about 50 Muslim-majority countries representing more than a billion people.

“A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and drive out the extremists. Drive them out! Drive them out of your places of worship, drive them out of your communities, drive them out of your holy land and drive them out of this earth.”

The president’s first speech abroad provided an opportunity to show his strength and resolve, in contrast to his struggle to contain a mushrooming scandal at home after his firing of former FBI Director James Comey nearly two weeks ago.

He portrayed the conflict as one between good and evil, not between civilizations, and made clear in a forceful tone that Washington would partner with the Middle East but expected more action in return.

“There is still much work to be done. That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism, and the Islamists, and Islamic terror of all kinds,” he said in his speech.

The advance excerpts of the speech had him saying “Islamist extremism.” A White House official blamed Trump’s fatigue for the switch. “Just an exhausted guy,” she told reporters.

The term “Islamist extremism” refers to Islamism as a political movement rather than Islam as a religion, a distinction that the Republican president had frequently criticized the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, for making.

As a candidate, Trump proposed temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States. In office, he ordered temporary bans on people from several Muslim-majority countries, which have been blocked by courts that ruled they were discriminatory.

The speech in a gilded hall bedecked with chandeliers is part of an effort to redefine his relationship with the Muslim world. Trump’s “America first” philosophy helped him win the 2016 election and has rattled allies who depend on U.S. support for their defence.

Trump received a warm welcome from Arab leaders, who set aside his campaign rhetoric and focussed on his desire to crack down on Iran’s influence in the region, a commitment they found wanting in Obama.

“For decades, Iran has fuelled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” Trump said. “It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this very room.”

Trump did not make overt mentions of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia or the other Gulf nations in his speech. White House officials has said he did not want to lecture, something they believe Obama did, unsuccessfully.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fired back at Trump in a tweet that Trump had attacked Iran in “that bastion of democracy & moderation” of Saudi Arabia and suggested he had “milked” his hosts for hundreds of billions of dollars in business deals.

JOINT FIGHT, ROYAL WELCOME

Introducing Trump, Saudi King Salman described their mutual foe Iran as the source of terrorism they must confront together.

“Our responsibility before God and our people and the whole world is to stand united to fight the forces of evil and extremism wherever they are … The Iranian regime represents the tip of the spear of global terrorism,” the king said.

Iran is a Shi’ite Muslim country. The groups the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Washington and New York are mostly Sunni Muslims, and enemies of Iran. Iranian-backed militia are also fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq.

The United States and Gulf Arab countries announced an agreement to coordinate efforts against the financing of terrorist groups.

Trump’s welcome in the region was put on display during a series of individual meetings with Arab leaders.

He praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, telling him: “You have done a tremendous job under trying circumstances.” The Obama administration had a difficult relationship with Sisi, who came to power after leading a military coup in 2013 during which hundreds of demonstrators were killed, and has since jailed thousands of opponents.

Trump promised to schedule a trip to Egypt soon, and he singled out the Egyptian’s choice of footwear, a pair of shiny black shoes. “Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes,” he said.

To Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Trump declared that the two nations had a lot in common and “there won’t be strain with this administration.”

The king lauded the relationship and said it had led to “great stability in the region and prosperity.” Bahrain is home to the U.S. fleet in the Middle East. Its Sunni Muslim royal family rules over a majority Shi’ite population and was occasionally rebuked by the Obama administration for harsh treatment of opponents.

Trump’s Riyadh visit kicked off his first presidential trip abroad, with Saudi Arabia the first stop on a nine-day journey through the Middle East and Europe.

Soon after Trump embarked on his trip on Friday, he was hit with more accusations that, with Comey’s firing on May 9, he was trying to squelch a federal investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia last year.

Katie Hopkins, ever the self-publicist, has done it again. In the desire to play to an audience that is distrustful of Muslims and who may never have taken the time to get to know Muslims, Hopkins has once again, pushed the boundaries in packaging Muslims as being deviant.

Hopkins states:

“Muslim men raping white women is consistent with the teaching of Islam. Revoke their citizenship and deport the bastards. Asian my arse.”

The tweet infers that Muslims (note that she makes no distinction between Muslims), rape white women and that it is a religious directive of sorts. The text is clear on the following. That Islam teaches Muslim men to rape white women. On this point, there is no wiggle room on the tweet. It is clear.

Taking this point alone, the statement does not stand up and if we were to use the same logic, it could be said that Christian men were raping Muslim women in Bosnia in line with the teaching of the Christian church. Not only would such a statement by inflammatory, it would also be wrong. Whilst it could be strongly argued that the Church in Serbia sanctioned the brutal war against Croatia and Bosnia and in some instances, specific churches and priests sanctioned the use of brutal violence and sexual violence against Muslims in Bosnia, suggesting that Christianity drove such a lust for rape against Muslim women in Bosnia would be incendiary and deeply inflammatory. Yet, you can see the support for such rhetoric that is out there on social media which is deeply troubling and worrying.

Hopkins also plays to the ‘impulsive’, ‘uncontrollable’, and ‘sexually predatory’ tropes that were associated with the Black man who was enslaved in plantations and which has been a constant in the framing of men from non-white communities. Native Americans were also framed in this way, Jews were framed in this way in Germany in the 1930’s and young African Caribbean men were and continue to be framed in this way since they arrived in our country in the 1950’s.

So there is nothing different here, yet it must also be acknowledged that the activities in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford need to be looked at in light of the perpetrators and we must stand front and centre with the victims who suffered the most brutal abuse and worst still, being denied justice for so many years. It is telling that Hopkins chooses not to stand on this point but to punch buttons around all Muslims being potential rapists.

Muslim men raping white women is consistent with the teaching of Islam. Revoke their citizenship and deport the bastards. Asian my arse.

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) February 26, 2016

We would also like to add that we will be writing to the Metropolitan Police Service today on this material. This is not a one-off and there are a series of tweets that have been made before that are deeply troubling. Furthermore, we will be writing to Twitter to take action in relation to accounts that promote such wide sweeping bigoted statements and which are more about playing to an audience, than remembering about the victims of such abuse who deserve our support.

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