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26 Rajab 1441 A.H. - March 22 2020 Issue # 12, Newsletter #1855



Editorial

 Editorial

Why are we Ignoring the Genocide of Muslims?

by Kaukab Siddique

All efforts to stop the flow of CoronaVirus
which are effective should be respected.
Please see Sis. Aisha's article below.

My concern is about suffering which is much greater than that of Coronavirus which has been ignored.

  1. Chinese Communists put millions of Muslims in concentration camps, abused and humiliated them and desecrated their religion.

  2. The Assad regime with the help of Iran and Russia has killed more than half a million Syrian Muslims. More than 65000 of them, including women and children, were tortured to death, often raped, in Assad's prisons.

  3. The US, Iran and the Baghdad regime destroyed the entire
    city of Mosul in Iraq, killing more than 40,000 Muslims and expelling more than a million from their homes.

    Similarly the entire city of Raqqa in Syria was destroyed. Till now the death toll has not been fully computed.

  4. India turned all of Kashmir into a concentration camp.

    Serious human rights violations have been committed but till now no investigation has been allowed.

  5. Every weekend there have been shootings and killings in America's Black communities. No major effort was made to stop the ongoing massacre.

  6. Situations in Somalia and northern Nigeria are not very different.

  7. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have been terrorized into leaving their homes, tortured, often dismembered, entire villages set on fire.

  8. MOST IMPORTANT is the ONGOING OCCUPATION of PALESTINE and the horrific suffering of Gaza and the West Bank.


As of right now the global death count for coronavirus is about 14611.

When are we going to focus on these huge crimes against Muslims.

Who are these imams who claim that they can shut down masjids in America. It is haram. Those who want to pray juma should not be stopped.No one is being forced to pray.




PAKISTAN

 Pakistan

Jamaat e Islami has suspended all political agitation critical of the Imran Khan regime.

Al-Khidmat, the charitable branch of the Jamaat, is carrying out activities all over the country to help those suffering from coronavirus.




The border with Iran has been sealed.




War News

 War News

Afghanistan

Unit wiped out
On March 20, at 3 AM, in Zabul province, Taliban killed 24 Kabul regime troops. They were helped by 5 police who burned down the army post and fled with the Taliban along with all the arms and ammo in the post.

Taliban are insisting that the regime release all ts prisoners before talks can proceed.




Pakistan
New Clash.
March 20.
4 Pakstani troops including an officer were killed in a clash with mujahideen in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan.

The army occupied this area several years back under orders from the US, expelled the entire population and does not allow journalists to come in. So it's difficult to say how many troops were killed.




IRAQ
Series of IS attacks. Regime Air Strikes Reported.

Heavy fighting is reported in the mountains north east of Kirkuk where Islamic State fighters have emerged. The Baghdad regime is reporting air strikes against the IS\fighters but giving no details [which is often a sign of failure].

IS attacks are also reported from Rutba in Anbar province. A regime officer says 2 troops were killed and 4 wounded.

Shia groups supporting Iran fired at US bases near Baghdad [Taji] and at the US embassy in the Green zone. No casualties reported.




Syria
Turkey reinforcing its Forces. Assad regime Stalled.

March 22. An Assad forces tank advancing into an area of Jaba al-Zawiya controlled by mujahideen was destroyed by Islamic fighters. It appears from the SOHR report that all the troops with the tank were killed.

In several areas around Irbid province and Lattackia, Iranian troops tried to advance with artillery fire but retreated when mujahideen fired back.

In all the areas controlled by Assad, in particular Damascus, Corona virus has spread. There is complete end to gatherings. Regime is not giving details.

Columns of armored troops are steadily arriving from Turkey in anticipation of attacks by Assad.

Russian bombing uprooted 900,000 and more civilians but Turkish intervention stopped the bombing,

Three regime aircraft were shot down by Turkey.

In southern Deir ez Zor province, IS raiders and sleeper cells are attacking SDF which is supported by the US,

In the Al-Hool refugee camp hundreds of women who supported ISIS are held. Conditions are bad.

A few days back , some women killed an Iraqi supporter of SDF with a hammer. The killer has not been found.





News Within the U.S.

 News within the US

March 19, 2020
"Zionist" Biden in His Own Words: "My Name is Joe Biden, and Everybody Knows I Love Israel"

by: Ramzy Baroud
dissidentvoice.org

"I am a Zionist. You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist," current Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, said in April 2007, soon before he was chosen to be Barack Obama's running mate in the 2008 elections.

Biden is, of course, correct, because Zionism is a political movement that is rooted in 20th century nationalism and fascism. Its use of religious dogmas is prompted by political expediency, not spirituality or faith.

Unlike US President, Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders, Biden's only serious opponent in the Democratic primaries, Biden's stand on Israel is rarely examined.

Trump has made his support for Israel the cornerstone of his foreign policy agenda since his inauguration into the White House in January 2017. The American President has basically transformed into Israel's political genie, granting Tel Aviv all of its wishes in complete defiance of international law.

Sanders, on the other hand, came to represent the antithesis of Trump's blind and reckless support for Israel. Himself Jewish, Sanders has promised to restore to the Palestinian people their rights and dignity, and to play a more even-handed role, thus ending decades of US unconditional support and bias in favor of Israel.

But where does Biden factor into all of this?

Below is a brief examination of Biden's record on Palestine and Israel in recent years, with the hope that it gives the reader a glimpse of a man that many Democrats feel is the rational alternative to the political imbalances and extremism of the Trump administration.

August 1984: Palestinians and Arabs are to Blame

Biden's pro-Israel legacy began much earlier than his stint as a vice-President or presidential candidate. When Biden was only a Senator from Delaware, he spoke at the 1984 annual conference of 'Herut Zionists of America'. Herut is the forerunner of Israel's right-wing Likud party.

In his speech before the jubilant right-wing pro-Israel Zionist crowd, Biden derided the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Arab governments, for supposedly derailing peace in the Middle East.

Biden spoke of "three myths (that) propel U.S. policy in the Middle East" which, according to the American Senator, are, "the belief that Saudi Arabia can be a broker for peace, the belief that King Hussein (of Jordan) is ready to negotiate peace, and the belief that the Palestine Liberation Organization can deliver a consensus for peace."

April 2007: 'I am a Zionist'

Time only cemented Biden's pro-Israel's convictions, leading to his declaration in April 2007 that he is not a mere supporter of Israel - as has become the standard among US politicians - but is a Zionist himself.

In an interview with Shalom TV, and despite his insistence that he does not need to be Jewish to be a Zionist, Biden labored to make connections with the 'Jewish State', revealing that his son is married to a Jewish woman and that "he had participated in a Passover Seder at their house," according to the Israeli Ynet News.

March 2013: 'Qualitative Edge'

This commitment to Israel became better articulated when Biden took on greater political responsibilities as the US vice-president under Obama's administration.

At a packed AIPAC conference in March 2013, Biden elaborated on his ideological Zionist beliefs and his president's commitment to 'the Jewish state of Israel'. He said: "It was at that table that I learned that the only way to ensure that it could never happen again was the establishment and the existence of a secure, Jewish state of Israel. I remember my father, a Christian, being baffled at the debate taking place at the end of World War II .." that any country could object to the founding of Israel on the ruins of the Palestinian homeland.

"That's why we've worked so hard to make sure Israel keeps its qualitative edge in the midst of the Great Recession. I've served with eight Presidents of the United States of America, and I can assure you, unequivocally, no President has done as much to physically secure the State of Israel as President Barack Obama."

December 2014: 'Moral Obligation'

In one of the most fiercely pro-Israel speeches ever given by a top US official, Biden told the annual Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington on December 6, 2014, that, "If there weren't an Israel, we would have to invent one".

In his speech, Biden added a new component to the American understanding of its relationship with Israel, one that goes beyond political expediency or ideological connections; a commitment that is founded on "moral obligation".

Biden said, "We always talk about Israel from this perspective, as if we're doing (them) some favor. We are meeting a moral obligation. But it is so much more than a moral obligation. It is overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure and democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel. It is no favor. It is an obligation, but also a strategic necessity."

April 2015: 'I Love Israel'

"My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel," Biden began his speech at the 67th Annual Israeli Independence Day Celebration held in Jerusalem in April 2015.

"Sometimes we drive each other crazy," the US vice-president said in reference to disagreements between Israel and the US over Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to halt construction of illegal Jewish settlements.

"But we love each other," he added. "And we protect each other. As many of you heard me say before, were there no Israel, America would have to invent one. We'd have to invent one because ... you protect our interests like we protect yours."

July 2019: US Embassy Stays in Jerusalem

In response to a question by the news website, AXIOS, which was presented to the various Democratic party candidates, on whether a Democratic President would relocate the American embassy back to Tel Aviv, the Biden campaign answered: "Vice President Biden would not move the American embassy back to Tel Aviv. But he would re-open our consulate in East Jerusalem to engage the Palestinians."

October 2019: Support for Israel Unconditional

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on October 31, 2019, Biden was asked whether he agrees with the position taken by his more progressive opponent, Bernie Sanders, regarding US financial support to Israel and Jewish settlement.

Sanders had said that, "if elected president he would leverage billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Israel to push Jerusalem to change its policies toward the Palestinians," The Hill news website reported.

Biden's response was that, " .. the idea that we would draw military assistance from Israel, on the condition that they change a specific policy, I find to be absolutely outrageous. No, I would not condition it, and I think it's a gigantic mistake. And I hope some of my candidates who are running with me for the nomination - I hope they misspoke or they were taken out of context."

March 2020: 'Above Politics, Beyond Politics'

Biden's fiery speech before the pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC, at their annual conference in March 2020, was a mere continuation of a long legacy that is predicated on his country's blind support for Israel.

Biden's discourse on Israel - a mixture of confused ideological notions, religious ideas and political interests - culminated in a call for American support for Israel that is "above politics and beyond politics".

"Israelis wake up every morning facing an existential threat from their neighbors' rockets from Gaza, just like this past week .. That's why I've always been adamant that Israel must be able to defend itself. It's not just critical for Israeli security. I believe it's critical for America's security."

Palestinians "need to end the rocket attacks from Gaza," Biden also said. "They need to accept once and for all the reality and the right of a secure democratic and Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East."




Invitation to Think

 Invitation to Think

These are the Real Issues related to CoronaVirus,
Don't be Scared.

by Sis. Aisha. [Jamaat al-Muslimeen]
New York City

New Trend Editor, Dr. Siddique, coined the term coronavirus scare. The Coronavirus Scare is the best term to describe these events. On the one hand web public health sites are stating that the coronavirus produces mild symptoms in most people except people with weakened immune systems, suffering from respiratory illnesses, and who are elderly need to be cautious. Well, isn't that the same list of susceptible people for every illness, including the flu?

To protect ourselves from this new coronavirus, health experts recommend keeping clean beginning with hand washing. Avoid touching your face with unclean hands and distance yourself from sick people of all kinds. Most important: If you are sick, stay home. In other words, use commonsense.

Then on the other hand, you have these news conferences spearheaded by politicians and ONLY them. With the exception of President Trump and Surgeon General Dr. Fauci contradicting each other in the same news conference, I have not seen any New York political leaders with any health experts. These politicians and the media are the root of this Coronavirus Scare.

Dr. Fauci stopped short of recommending government shut downs yet, this is what New York and California did. Look for a domino effect with other states since New York and California always set precedence for the rest of the country from drug laws to gay marriage.

Hearing from politicos rather than health experts have some people questioning the government's motives. It has already been revealed that some politicians sold their stocks at a huge profit after being briefed about the coronavirus before it was the perceived threat to the world it is now. After the media shifted focus to coronavirus the stock market plummeted.

Listen to the health experts!

Many Christians say cleanliness is next to Godliness and Muslims wash 5 times a day or more for salat.

In the 1840s, to combat the high mortality rate of maternity ward patients, physicians Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, and Ignaz Semmelweis recommended the cleaning medical instruments and washing hands in antiseptic solution, respectively, after performing autopsies!

They are credited with associating unclean hands with the spread of disease but Allah already expressed this in the Scriptures and the Qur'an.

It is surprising how simple hygienic measures have stopped epidemics in their tracks. From cholera, even the Bubonic Plague, which may have wiped out up to 200 million people, all ended when people started practicing simple hygienic measures.

Outbreaks like the coronavirus is a harsh reminder of what happens when society deviates from Allah's Will.

Insha'allah, this virus will be contained. Out of the 98,000 people infected world-wide, 80,000 are in China. But, China seems to be rebounding from it while the rest of the world is still in the midst of it.

"But those who believe and work deeds of righteousness and believe in revelation sent down to Muhammad - for t is the Truth from their Lord - He (Allah) will remove their ills and improve their condition ." (47:2)

Keep praying to Allah and employ the cleanliness regimens according to the Sunnah. Also, take black seed oil, which cures everything except death, according the The Prophet (pbuh).

If you need to buy items then, go when these stores first open very early in the morning. There may still be a line but at least you'll be out earlier.

Capitalists are already at work hoarding Scott toilet tissue and then selling it on Amazon for over $100. A Tennessee capitalist was shutdown after trying to sell hand sanitizer for up to $70 per bottle on Amazon!

He had no choice but to "donate" the other 17,700 bottles he purchased for resell after Amazon intervened. Al-humdulillah, LOL!

(Source: OrganicConsumers.org, MarketWatch.com, Vox.com)




India

"This is our version of the coronavirus, we are sick"
- Arundhati Roy [Famous Indian Dissident]
[With thanks to Dr. Firoz Kamal]

Beloved friends, comrades and my fellow writers, this place where we are gathered today is only a short bus ride away from where four days ago a fascist mob, fired up by speeches made by members of the Ruling Party, backed up and actively assisted by the police, assured of round the clock support by a vast section of the electronic mass media, and comforted by the belief that the courts would do nothing to come in their way - mounted an armed, murderous attack on Muslims in the working class colonies of North East Delhi.

The attack had been in the air for a while, so people were somewhat prepared, and so defended themselves. Markets, shops, homes, mosques and vehicles have been burnt down. The streets are full of stones and debris. The hospitals are full of the wounded and dying. The morgues are full of the dead. Both Muslim and Hindu, including a policeman and a young staffer of the Intelligence Bureau. Yes. People on both sides have shown themselves capable of horrifying brutality as well as unbelievable courage and kindness.

However, there can be no equivalence here. None of this alters the fact that the attack was begun by lumpen mobs chanting "Jai Shri Ram" backed by the apparatus of this now nakedly fascist state. Notwithstanding these slogans, this is not what people like to label a Hindu-Muslim "riot". It is a manifestation of the ongoing battle between fascists and anti-fascists - in which Muslims are the first among the Fascists' "enemies". To call it a riot or a "danga", or "Left" versus "Right" or even "Right" versus "Wrong" as many are doing, is dangerous and obfuscatory.

We have all seen the videos of the police standing by and sometimes participating in the arson. We have seen them smashing CCTV cameras, just as they did when they vandalised the Jamia Millia Islamia University library on December 15. We have seen them beat wounded Muslim men as they lay piled up against each other and force them to sing the national anthem. We know that one of those young men is dead. All the dead, wounded and devastated, Muslim as well as Hindu are victims of this regime headed by Narendra Modi, our nakedly fascist Prime Minister who himself is no stranger to being at the helm of affairs in a state when 18 years ago a massacre on a much larger scale went on for weeks.

The anatomy of this particular conflagration will be studied for years to come. But the local detail will only be a matter of historical record because the ripples based on hateful rumours fuelled on the social media have begun to eddy outwards and we can already smell more blood on the breeze. Although there have been no more killings in North Delhi, yesterday (February 29) saw mobs of people in Central Delhi chanting the slogan that built up to the attacks: "Desh ke Gaddaron ko, Goli maaron saalon ko."

Only a few days ago. the Delhi High Court Judge, Justice Muralidharan was furious with the Delhi Police for having taken no action against Kapil Mishra, former BJP MLA candidate who had earlier too used it as an election slogan. On the night of February 26, the judge was given midnight orders to take up his new assignment in the Punjab High Court. Kapil Mishra is back on the streets chanting the same slogan. It can now be used until further notice. Fun and games with judges isn't new. We know the story about Justice Loya. We may have forgotten the story of Babu Bajrangi, convicted of participating in the killing 96 Muslims in Naroda Patiya, in Gujarat in 2002. Listen to him on YouTube: He'll tell you how "Narendra bhai" got him out of jail because of "setting" the judges.

We have learned to expect massacres such as this one before elections - they have become a sort of barbaric election campaign to polarise votes and build constituencies. But the Delhi massacre happened just days after an election, after the BJP-RSS suffered a humiliating defeat. It is a punishment for Delhi and an announcement for the coming elections in Bihar.

Everything is on record. Everything is available for everyone to see and hear - the provocative speeches of Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, Chief Minister of UP Yogi Adityanath, the Home Minister Amit Shah and even the Prime Minister himself. And yet everything has been turned upside down - it's being made to appear as though all of India is a victim of the absolutely peaceful, mostly female, mostly - but not only - Muslim protestors who have been out on the streets for almost 75 days, in their tens of thousands, to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The CAA, which offers a fast-track route to citizenship for non-Muslim minorities, is blatantly unconstitutional and blatantly anti-Muslim. Coupled with the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens, it is meant to delegitimise, destabilise and criminalise not just Muslims but hundreds of millions of Indians who do not have the requisite documents - including those who are chanting "Goli Maaro Saalon Ko" today.

Once citizenship comes into question, everything comes into question - your children's rights, your voting rights, your land rights. As Hannah Arendt said, "citizenship gives you the right to have rights." Anybody who thinks this is not the case, please turn your attention to Assam and see what has happened to twenty lakh people - Hindus, Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis. Now trouble has started between local tribes and the non-tribal population in the state of Meghalaya. There is curfew in Shillong. The state borders are closed to non-locals.

The sole purpose of the NPR-NRC-CAA is to destabilise and divide people not just in India but across the whole subcontinent. If they do indeed exist, these phantom millions of human beings who India's current Home Minister calls Bangladeshi "termites", cannot be kept in detention centres and cannot be deported. By using such terminology and by thinking up such a ridiculous, diabolic scheme, this government is actually endangering the tens of millions of Hindus who live in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who they pretend to be concerned about, but who could suffer the backlash of this bigotry emanating from New Delhi.
Look where we have ended up.

In 1947, we won independence from colonial rule that was fought for by almost everybody with the exception of our current rulers. Since then all manner of social movements, anti-caste struggles, anti-capitalist struggles, feminist struggles have marked our journey up to now.

In the 1960s, the call to revolution was a demand for justice, for the redistribution of wealth and the overthrow of the ruling class.

By the 1990s, we were reduced to fighting against the displacement of millions of people from their own lands and villages, people who became the collateral damage for the building of a new India in which 63 of India's richest people have more wealth than the annual budget outlay for 1,200 million people.

Now we are reduced to pleading for our rights as citizens from people who have had nothing to do with building this country. And as we plead, we watch the state withdraw its protection, we watch the police get communalised, we watch the judiciary gradually abdicate its duty, we watch the media that is meant to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted do the very opposite.

Today is the 210th day since Jammu and Kashmir was unconstitutionally stripped of its special status. Thousands of Kashmiris including three former chief ministers continue to be in jail. Seven million people are living under a virtual information siege, a novel exercise in the mass violation of human rights. On February 26, the streets of Delhi looked like the streets of Srinagar. That was the day that Kashmiri children went to school for the first time in seven months. But what does it mean to go to school, while everything around you is slowly throttled?

A democracy that is not governed by a Constitution and one whose institutions have all been hollowed out can only ever become a majoritarian state. You can agree or disagree with a Constitution as a whole or in part - but to act as though it does not exist as this government is doing is to completely dismantle democracy. Perhaps this is the aim. This is our version of the coronavirus. We are sick.

There's no help on the horizon. No well-meaning foreign country. No UN.

And no political party that intends to win elections will or can afford to take a moral position. Because there is fire in the ducts. The system is failing.

What we need are people who are prepared to be unpopular. Who are prepared to put themselves in danger. Who are prepared to tell the truth. Brave journalists can do that, and they have. Brave lawyers can do that, and they have. And artists - beautiful, brilliant, brave writers, poets, musicians, painters and filmmakers can do that. That beauty is on our side. All of it.

We have work to do. And a world to win.





Guidance by Sis. Yasmin.

*Bismillahir- Rahmanir- Rahim*
{ In the name of Allah most Gracious Most Merciful }
**********************************************
'Assalam Alaikum Wa Rehmath Ullahi Wa Barkatahu'
*Every Breath is a Precious Jewel*[!]
Life is nothing but an accumulation of many breaths...so ... every breath is just a precious Diamond...{!} which cannot be purchased with anything in the world...!
It is a priceless jewel which has got no substitute in value...!
So in movements and talks, and in sorrows and happiness such a priceless breath should not be spent in vain... to destroy it is to court destruction.
An intelligent man cannot lose it...{!} When a man gets up at dawn, he should enter into an agreement with himself just as a tradesman contracts with his partner.
At that time, he should address his mind thus... 'O mind... you have been given no other property as precious as life {!} when it will end... the principal will end, and despondency will come in seeking profit in business.

Today is a new day... {!} ALLAH has given you time...that is...
HE has delayed your Death...{!} HE has bestowed upon you innumerable gifts. Think that you are already dead. So don't waste time...!
Every breath is a precious jewel. Man has got for each day and night twenty four treasure houses in twenty four hours !
Fill up these then find them filled up with divine sights in the world If they are not filled up with good work... {?} they will be filled up with intense darkness... where from a bad stench will come out and envelop them all around.
Another treasure house will neither give him happiness nor sorrow...
That is an hour in which he slept, or was careless, or was engaged in any lawful work of this world. he will feel grieved for its remaining vacant.

...My 'Salaams' to All...
Y a s m i n.





Hadith of the Week

Narrated Abu Huraira,r.a.:
Allah's Apostle said, "The example of a believer is that of a fresh tender plant; from whatever direction the wind comes, it bends it, but when the wind becomes quiet, it becomes straight again. Similarly, a believer is afflicted with calamities (but he remains patient till Allah removes his difficulties.) And an impious wicked person is like a pine tree which keeps hard and straight till Allah cuts (breaks) it down when He wishes."

Bukhari Volume 7,
Book 70 #547
 Sis Kristi

[With thanks to Sis. Kristi]





 Outreach

Our website
newtrendmag.org
received
20,039
visits in
February 2020.
That's an average of
691 daily visits.

Thank you Br. Rich.

[Please scroll way down for pur statistics on facebook for the
March 15 issue
of New Trend
thru facebook.]


Political Prisoners :

AhmedAbdelSattar.org

FreeZiyadYaghi.info

FreeMasoudKhan.net

Civil Discord Show





 Word Around The Net

by Br. Nazeer, Texas

Flying roses: Drone fetes Lebanon mothers despite coronavirus
ArabNews.com/node/1644856/offbeat

UN warns of 'frightening' consequences of virus in Gaza
MiddleEastMonitor.com/20200322-un-warns-of-frightening-consequences-of-virus-in-gaza

Iran rejects Trump's virus aid offer as toll jumps to 1,685
al-Monitor.com/pulse/contents/afp/2020/03/health-virus-iran-politics.html

Israel Closes Crossings with West Bank, Gaza, amid Coronavirus Fears (VIDEO)
PalestineChronicle.com/israel-closes-crossings-with-west-bank-gaza-amid-coronavirus-fears-video

Libya: 1 killed, 2 injured in attack by Haftar forces
MiddleEastMonitor.com/20200322-libya-1-killed-2-injured-in-attack-by-haftar-forces

Alarm and scepticism over N Korea claim of being coronavirus free
alJazeera.com/news/2020/03/alarm-scepticism-korea-claim-coronavirus-free-200319051628072.html

U.S. envoy says Kabul and Taliban are in first prisoner exchange talks.
al-Monitor.com/pulse/contents/afp/2020/03/afghanistan-conflict-peace-prisoners-taliban-us-qatar.html

Coronavirus lockdown leads to improved air quality
alJazeera.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-lockdown-leads-improved-air-quality-200322094404592.html





 Social Media

New Trend of March 15 reached 82,257 people thru facebook.
of these 10,000 are in Pakistan.
The main articles in it were:
  1. Toilet paper crisis in the U.S. [because of the Coronavirus]
  2. Red Mosque women.
  3. Imran Khan & IMF
  4. Turkey advancing in Syria.
  5. Guidance on suffering.
and others.





 Uyghurs

CHINA

Xinjiang County Sends Uyghur Camp Detainees to Prison, Interior of China

All internment camp detainees in one county in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have been relocated to prisons or to parts of the country's interior, according to a local police officer, following reports of similar policies in other parts of the region.

Images circulating on social media platforms in recent months purportedly show that Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are being transferred between various forms of detention, incarceration, and possibly forced labor schemes both inside and outside of the XUAR, where authorities are believed to have held some 1.8 million people in a vast network of internment camps since April 2017.

One widely shared image appears to show rows of people dressed in similar blue jumpsuits, wearing masks, and holding bags of personal belongings as they stand in a public square.

Experts and members of the Uyghur activist community in exile believe images such as these show detainees who have been transferred from a camp to either prisons or factories, where they are required to perform forced labor.

RFA's Uyghur Service recently spoke with a police officer from Bayin'gholin's Chakilik (Ruoqiang) county who said that the area's internment camps had been closed down and that all detainees had been sent to jail or to other parts of China.

"There are no internment camps in Chakilik—[the authorities] aren't putting anyone from the county into camps now," said the officer, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.

When asked if he had seen official documents confirming that the camps had closed, the officer said, "All I have to do is look around me in Chakilik and I can see that there are no internment camps," adding, "I don't need any documents to know this."

According to the officer, many of the camp detainees were sentenced to prison terms and sent to Ulughkol (Kunqu) Prison, "roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside Korla (Kuerle) city on the way to Bugur (Luntai) county."

"We send some of the people who have been sentenced to jails, but where they transfer them after that, I don't know," he said.

When asked where those who haven't been sentenced to prison were sent when the camps in Chakilik closed, the officer said he did not know.

But he said that some detainees had been sent to parts of China's interior "at the end of 2018," as well as in April and July of 2019.

"Where did they transfer them? It's not worth asking me, because they haven't told us directly," he said.

The officer said he was "unable to answer" questions about how many camps were previously in operation in the county, how long they were operating, or when they had been shut down.

Ulughkol Prison

In November, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a collaboration with 17 media partners in 14 countries, published a set of classified documents that included the first known "manual" for operating internment camps amid a policy of mass extrajudicial incarceration in the XUAR.

Collectively known as the "China Cables," the documents also provided local authorities with guidelines on how to prevent escapes, keep the program a secret, and use "points" to grade detainees of the camps.

Full Story: RFAonline





 Palestine

Quarantine has been the reality in Gaza
Help UNRWA


While being in quarantine may be new to most of the world, this has been the devastating reality for Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip living under a crippling land, sea, and air blockade for over a decade.

The feeling of isolation from family, friends, and the world, facing empty shelves or limited access to basic resources, and an overwhelming fear of what the future holds. This is our new reality, but just a fact of life for refugees. Now, on top of this, they face COVID-19 with fewer resources and greater vulnerabilities than the rest of us.

We cannot forget them during this global emergency: you have the ability to act now to protect Palestine refugees from the deadly spread of coronavirus.

Cases have been reported among Palestine refugees in Lebanon, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Jordan. Fortunately, thus far there have been no reports of coronavirus in Gaza or Syria, but this could change in mere moments.

This is especially the case in Gaza, where two million residents are crammed in one of the most densely populated places in the world and there is no option for social distancing. With 97% of the water unfit for human consumption and a collapsing health system, thousands of lives are currently at risk.

In the face of this overwhelming crisis, UNRWA is the primary and in many places the only organization serving as a bulwark against the spread of the disease across the Middle East.

Your emergency gift can protect refugees from coronavirus by: As we're seeing right now, what happens across the world has direct effects on what we experience here at home in the United States. It's essential to remember the health and safety of all people, including refugees, beyond being a moral imperative, directly affects our own and that of our global community.

Please rush us an urgent gift to combat coronavirus and save lives before it's too late.

In solidarity,
Mara Kronenfeld
Executive Director

UNRWA USA
1875 Connecticut Ave NW
Tenth Floor
Washington, DC 20009 · USA
202-223-3767





 Africa

SANUSI LAMIDO
SANUSI: JOY OF DETHRONEMENT


By Abdulkabir Oyemomi

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS) was the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria until around 2014 when he raised the alarm of fraud amounting to over 20billion dollars under the government of Good luck Ebele Jonathan. He was thereafter sacked and several attempts were made by the then government to arrest him. But the smart SLS was in tune with the then governor of Kano State (Gov. Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso) , who hurriedly turbaned him as the Emir of Kano. That got him immune from persecution from Federal Government under Jonathan.

Traditionally, a traditional ruler (Emir or Oba) is deemed to be father of all , who is expected to say less and be practically apolitical to be able to adjudicate on matters amongst his subjects without fear or favor. He could, however, lend advice to the government of the day within his jurisdiction as well as federal government. But for SLS, the position of Emir makes no difference as to what he says and how he analyses government policies. He is a liberal Muslim whose comments, despite his vast knowledge in Islamic jurisprudence, reflects that there are many contours to be levelled from the way Islam is practiced in the North:

He had campaigned vehemently against bearing more children when the means of livelihood does not commiserate with the demand of the household ; he had talked passionately around girls' education and taking positions of leadership. He believes the northern people can progress only if they invest massively in education.

For many of his positions and propositions, he earned many adversaries in the North, including the present governor of Kano State, Dr Ganduje, who happened to be the deputy governor to Kwankwaso when SLS was made the Emir.

Bickering between SLS and Ganduje could be arguably said to have emanated from tussle between Kwankwaso and Ganduje . But this degenerated overtime as the first drastic step at curtailing SLS is the division of Kano Emirate into four (4) distinct district of which council SLS was made the Chairman. This development is shocking to many when the Emir was given 24hrs to accept or decline. SLS accepted reluctantly but thereafter accused of not present in meetings among other things.

On Monday 9th of March,2020, the Emir (SLS) was dethroned by the government of Dr Ganduje!

This development brought about divisions, confusions, solidarities and malice to people of Nigeria as a whole. Some loyalists to Jonathan believe that that serves him right while others claim they are with the dethroned Emir. A lot of Muslim faithful remained indifferent as neither Ganduje nor SLS is seen as ambassador of pristine Islam. But in all, many people feel the dethronement is legally and morally inappropriate.

The dethronement has brought SLS more to limelight as solidarities are coming more heavily from southern Nigeria, even within the political terrain. Many supporters of the Emir's have been tipping him as the most resourceful presidential candidate for 2023.

2020-03-23 Mon 12:53:32 ct

NewTrendMag.org