A Turkish-Chinese spat as a result of Turkish criticism of China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its strategic but troubled north-western province of Xinjiang complicates efforts by Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states to at best deal quietly behind closed doors with the plight of their citizens and ethnic kin in the People’s Republic.

China’s threat that the Turkish criticism of its massive surveillance and detention campaign, involving the alleged incarceration in re-education camps of up to one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims would have economic consequences and the temporary closure of the Chinese consulate in the Mediterranean port city of Izmir serves as warnings to others in the Muslim world what could happen if they break their silence.

The Chinese effort to get the Muslim and broader international community to maintain silence, if not acquiesce in the crackdown that constitutes the most frontal assault on Islam in recent history, was boosted when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a visit to Beijing last month appeared to endorse Chinese policy.

Prince Salman’s endorsement of China's right to undertake "anti-terrorism" and "de-extremism" measures was widely seen as tacit support for the crackdown by the custodian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

China has denied allegations of widespread abuse of human rights and insisted that the camps are re-education and training facilities that have stopped attacks by Islamist militants and separatists.

The Crown Prince’s remarks contrasted starkly with the characterisation last month of the crackdown by Turkey’s foreign ministry &nbsp;as an “embarrassment to humanity,” the ministry demanded that Chinese authorities respect the human rights of the Uyghurs and close what it termed “concentration camps.”&nbsp;

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called twice last week on China to make a distinction between perpetrators of political violence and innocent civilians while insisting that Turkey wished to continue cooperation with the People’s Republic.

“The fact that we have a problem with China on an issue should not necessarily hinder our cooperation on other matters,” Cavusoglu said.

Turkey is hoping that Chinese investment in nuclear, e-commerce, finance, and infrastructure will narrow its gaping trade deficit with China that last year stood at $17.8 billion.

That is not how China appeared to envision its future relationship with Turkey.

“There may be disagreements or misunderstandings between friends, but we should solve them through dialogue. Criticising your friend publicly everywhere is not a constructive approach,” said Chinese ambassador to Turkey Deng Li.

“The most important issue between countries is mutual respect. Would you stay friends if your friend criticized you publicly every day?” Deng asked.

“If you choose a non-constructive path, it will negatively affect mutual trust and understanding and will be reflected in commercial and economic relations,” Deng added.

Deng’s comments were not only designed to whip Turkey back into line but also to prevent Central Asian nations from speaking out despite mounting domestic pressure.

Deng’s comments reflected greater Chinese intolerance for criticism of its crackdown amid attempts to convince the international community by taking diplomats and journalists on carefully managed tours of Xinjiang that one participant called a “dog and pony show.”

The ambassador’s rings particularly loud in Kazakhstan whose ethnic kin constitute the second largest Muslim community in Xinjiang after the Uyghurs.

A former re-education camp employee, Sayragul Sauytbay, who fled to Kazakhstan told a Kazakh court last year that she was aware of some 7,5000 Kazakh nationals and Chinese of Kazakh descent being incarcerated.

Atajurt Eriktileri, a Kazakh group that supports relatives of people who have disappeared in Xinjiang, says it has documented more than 10,000 cases of ethnic Kazakhs interned in China. The Xinjiang Victims Database says it has collected some 3,000 testimonies of prisoners and their families, half of which are from ethnic Kazakhs.

Askar Azatbek, a former Xinjiang official who became a Kazakh citizen, went missing in December after allegedly having been kidnapped while on the Kazakh side of Khorgos, a free-trade zone on the border with China.

So has Qalymbek Shahman an ethnic Kazakh Xinjiang businessman who was refused entry into Kazakhstan, sent to Uzbekistan and disappeared in Thailand to where he was returned by Uzbek authorities. Shahman hasn’t been heard from since.

"I wanted to go to Kazakhstan because China's human rights record was making life intolerable," Shahman said in a videotape from Tashkent airport before being forced to fly to Thailand, which has a track record of complying with Chinese repatriation requests.

For now, Central Asian leaders are walking a tightrope. Officially, they insist that Xinjiang is a Chinese internal affair. At the same time, the leaders are trying to curb domestic criticism.

Serikzhan Bilash, the head of Atajurt Eriktileri, was fined in February by an Almaty court for operating an unregistered organisation.

Sauytbay has fired her lawyer after he became unreachable at key moments in her asylum application and encouraged her to not talk about it publicly. “I don’t want to talk…until I have some kind of protection. I’d prefer that protection to come from Kazakhstan, but I might need help from other countries,” Sautbay said.

Sauytbay is certain to hope that Turkey’s willingness to confront China, if maintained, makes Central Asia’s tightrope act increasingly risky, particularly in an environment in which public criticism of the crackdown, anti-Chinese sentiment and social and economic discontent are meshing.

 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

A Turkish-Chinese spat as a result of Turkish criticism of China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its strategic but troubled north-western province of Xinjiang complicates efforts by Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states to at best deal quietly behind closed doors with the plight of their citizens and ethnic kin in the People’s Republic.

A Turkish-Chinese spat as a result of Turkish criticism of China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its strategic but troubled north-western province of Xinjiang complicates efforts by Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states to at best deal quietly behind closed doors with the plight of their citizens and ethnic kin in the People’s Republic. China’s threat that the Turkish criticism of its massive surveillance and detention campaign, involving the alleged incarceration in re-education camps of up to one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims would have economic consequences and the temporary closure of the Chinese consulate in the Mediterranean port city of Izmir serves as warnings to others in the Muslim world what could happen if they break their silence. The Chinese effort to get the Muslim and broader international community to maintain silence, if not acquiesce in the crackdown that constitutes the most frontal assault on Islam in recent history, was boosted when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a visit to Beijing last month appeared to endorse Chinese policy. Prince Salman’s endorsement of China's right to undertake "anti-terrorism" and "de-extremism" measures was widely seen as tacit support for the crackdown by the custodian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. China has denied allegations of widespread abuse of human rights and insisted that the camps are re-education and training facilities that have stopped attacks by Islamist militants and separatists. The Crown Prince’s remarks contrasted starkly with the characterisation last month of the crackdown by Turkey’s foreign ministry as an “embarrassment to humanity,” the ministry demanded that Chinese authorities respect the human rights of the Uyghurs and close what it termed “concentration camps.” Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called twice last week on China to make a distinction between perpetrators of political violence and innocent civilians while insisting that Turkey wished to continue cooperation with the People’s Republic. “The fact that we have a problem with China on an issue should not necessarily hinder our cooperation on other matters,” Cavusoglu said. Turkey is hoping that Chinese investment in nuclear, e-commerce, finance, and infrastructure will narrow its gaping trade deficit with China that last year stood at $17.8 billion. That is not how China appeared to envision its future relationship with Turkey. “There may be disagreements or misunderstandings between friends, but we should solve them through dialogue. Criticising your friend publicly everywhere is not a constructive approach,” said Chinese ambassador to Turkey Deng Li. “The most important issue between countries is mutual respect. Would you stay friends if your friend criticized you publicly every day?” Deng asked. “If you choose a non-constructive path, it will negatively affect mutual trust and understanding and will be reflected in commercial and economic relations,” Deng added. Deng’s comments were not only designed to whip Turkey back into line but also to prevent Central Asian nations from speaking out despite mounting domestic pressure. Deng’s comments reflected greater Chinese intolerance for criticism of its crackdown amid attempts to convince the international community by taking diplomats and journalists on carefully managed tours of Xinjiang that one participant called a “dog and pony show.” The ambassador’s rings particularly loud in Kazakhstan whose ethnic kin constitute the second largest Muslim community in Xinjiang after the Uyghurs. A former re-education camp employee, Sayragul Sauytbay, who fled to Kazakhstan told a Kazakh court last year that she was aware of some 7,5000 Kazakh nationals and Chinese of Kazakh descent being incarcerated. Atajurt Eriktileri, a Kazakh group that supports relatives of people who have disappeared in Xinjiang, says it has documented more than 10,000 cases of ethnic Kazakhs interned in China. The Xinjiang Victims Database says it has collected some 3,000 testimonies of prisoners and their families, half of which are from ethnic Kazakhs. Askar Azatbek, a former Xinjiang official who became a Kazakh citizen, went missing in December after allegedly having been kidnapped while on the Kazakh side of Khorgos, a free-trade zone on the border with China. So has Qalymbek Shahman an ethnic Kazakh Xinjiang businessman who was refused entry into Kazakhstan, sent to Uzbekistan and disappeared in Thailand to where he was returned by Uzbek authorities. Shahman hasn’t been heard from since. "I wanted to go to Kazakhstan because China's human rights record was making life intolerable," Shahman said in a videotape from Tashkent airport before being forced to fly to Thailand, which has a track record of complying with Chinese repatriation requests. For now, Central Asian leaders are walking a tightrope. Officially, they insist that Xinjiang is a Chinese internal affair. At the same time, the leaders are trying to curb domestic criticism. Serikzhan Bilash, the head of Atajurt Eriktileri, was fined in February by an Almaty court for operating an unregistered organisation. Sauytbay has fired her lawyer after he became unreachable at key moments in her asylum application and encouraged her to not talk about it publicly. “I don’t want to talk…until I have some kind of protection. I’d prefer that protection to come from Kazakhstan, but I might need help from other countries,” Sautbay said. Sauytbay is certain to hope that Turkey’s willingness to confront China, if maintained, makes Central Asia’s tightrope act increasingly risky, particularly in an environment in which public criticism of the crackdown, anti-Chinese sentiment and social and economic discontent are meshing. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Turkish-Chinese spat puts Asian leaders on the spot

Bangladesh has denied entry to 31 <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/rohingya-insurgents-attack-police-in-western-myanmar-wounding-six-state-tv-191526&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjQ_rDw0_7fAhUS148KHVMvC14QFggFMAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw2RCHQFjfdN3gmu8TkpKrWA">Rohingya Muslims</a> trying to enter from India and they are stuck in no man's land on the border, Bangladesh authorities said on Monday, as India cracks down on members of the community.

The stranded Rohingya, including women and children, had been living in the Indian state of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.wionews.com/india-news/encounter-underway-in-jammu-and-kashmirs-budgam-district-191710&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjX0rqI1P7fAhWTiXAKHebqBtIQFggFMAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Skug--IXG_8mHmvL6efxK">Jammu and Kashmir</a>, according to a Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) official who said he had seen some of their identity cards issued by the UN refugee agency in India.

The 31 had been stuck on Bangladesh's border with northeast India since Friday, said the BGB commander in the area, Golam Kabir.

"We stopped them as they were crossing the border," Kabir told Reuters by telephone.

"They've been on the zero lines since the 18th of this month," he said, referring to the border. Two rounds of talks on what to do with the 31, with India's Border Security Force on Sunday, had "ended without any conclusive decision", Kabir said.

Many hundreds of thousands of members of mostly Buddhist Myanmar's Rohingya community have left their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine State over the decades, most fleeing military crackdowns and discrimination.

Many have sought shelter in Bangladesh - where nearly 1 million live - but others have ended up in India, Southeast Asia and beyond.

An Indian border force officer in Tripura state told reporters on Sunday that they were providing food and clothing to the Rohingya, 16 of whom were children.

The force could not be reached for comment on Monday.

India estimates that 40,000 Rohingya are living in scattered settlements in various parts of the country.

But its&nbsp;government regards them as illegal aliens and a security threat and has ordered that they are identified and repatriated.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has issued about 16,500 Rohingya in India with identity cards that it says can help "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention, and deportation". India does not recognise the cards.

Hundreds of Rohingya families have left India for Bangladesh since seven Rohingya men were deported to Myanmar in October. This month, India sent a Rohingya family of five to Myanmar.

The United Nations says conditions are not conducive for Rohingya to return to Myanmar.

In August, the United Nations accused the Myanmar military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya with "genocidal intent" in a 2017 military operation that drove more than 700,000 of them into Bangladesh, according to UN agencies.

Myanmar has denied the accusations, saying its military launched a counter-insurgency operation after attacks on security posts by Muslim terrorists.

Bangladesh has denied entry to 31 Rohingya Muslims trying to enter from India and they are stuck in no man's land on the border, Bangladesh authorities said on Monday, as India cracks down on members of the community.

Bangladesh has denied entry to 31 Rohingya Muslims trying to enter from India and they are stuck in no man's land on the border, Bangladesh authorities said on Monday, as India cracks down on members of the community. The stranded Rohingya, including women and children, had been living in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to a Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) official who said he had seen some of their identity cards issued by the UN refugee agency in India. The 31 had been stuck on Bangladesh's border with northeast India since Friday, said the BGB commander in the area, Golam Kabir. "We stopped them as they were crossing the border," Kabir told Reuters by telephone. "They've been on the zero lines since the 18th of this month," he said, referring to the border. Two rounds of talks on what to do with the 31, with India's Border Security Force on Sunday, had "ended without any conclusive decision", Kabir said. Many hundreds of thousands of members of mostly Buddhist Myanmar's Rohingya community have left their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine State over the decades, most fleeing military crackdowns and discrimination. Many have sought shelter in Bangladesh - where nearly 1 million live - but others have ended up in India, Southeast Asia and beyond. An Indian border force officer in Tripura state told reporters on Sunday that they were providing food and clothing to the Rohingya, 16 of whom were children. The force could not be reached for comment on Monday. India estimates that 40,000 Rohingya are living in scattered settlements in various parts of the country. But its government regards them as illegal aliens and a security threat and has ordered that they are identified and repatriated. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has issued about 16,500 Rohingya in India with identity cards that it says can help "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention, and deportation". India does not recognise the cards. Hundreds of Rohingya families have left India for Bangladesh since seven Rohingya men were deported to Myanmar in October. This month, India sent a Rohingya family of five to Myanmar. The United Nations says conditions are not conducive for Rohingya to return to Myanmar. In August, the United Nations accused the Myanmar military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya with "genocidal intent" in a 2017 military operation that drove more than 700,000 of them into Bangladesh, according to UN agencies. Myanmar has denied the accusations, saying its military launched a counter-insurgency operation after attacks on security posts by Muslim terrorists.

Bangladesh denies entry to 31 Rohingyas trying to flee India

China is leading the charge in a bid to undermine accepted concepts of human rights accountability and justice.

The Chinese effort backed by autocrats elsewhere has turned human rights into an underrated, yet crucial battleground in the shaping of a new world order. &nbsp;

China is manoeuvring against the backdrop of an unprecedented crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its north-western province of Xinjiang, the accelerated rollout of restrictions elsewhere in the country, and the export of key elements of its model of a 21st-century Orwellian surveillance state.

The Chinese effort, highlighted in Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2019, is multipronged.

It involves proposals to alter the principles on which the United Nations Human Rights Council operates in ways that would enable repressive, autocratic regimes.

To achieve its goal, China is employing its financial muscle and infrastructure and energy-driven Belt and Road initiative to economically entice countries that are financially strapped, desperate for investment and/or on the defensive because of human rights abuses.

China is also seeking a dominant role in various countries’ digital infrastructure and media that would allow it to influence the flow of information and enable its allies to better control dissent.

China is waging its campaign at a crucial juncture of history. It benefits from the rise of ethno- and religious nationalism, populism, intolerance and widespread anti-migration sentiment across the world’s democracies.

The campaign is enabled by the emergence of presidents like Donald J. Trump in the United States, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungary’s Victor Orban and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro who have either deemphasized human rights or gone as far as justifying abuses in addition to seeking to limit, if not undermine, independent media that hold them accountable.

The timing of the Chinese effort is significant because it comes at a moment that predictions of the death of popular protest, symbolized by the defeat of the initially successful 2011 popular Arab revolts, are being called into question.

Mass anti-government demonstrations in Sudan demand the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir. Anti-Chinese groups march in Kyrgyzstan while protests in Zimbabwe decry repression, poor public services, high unemployment, widespread corruption and delays in civil servants receiving their salaries. The past year has also seen widespread anti-government agitation in countries like Morocco and Jordan.

The protests and what Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth describes in his foreword to the group’s just published, 674-page World Report 2019 as “a resistance that keeps winning battles” suggests that China’s campaign may have won battles but has yet to win the war.

“Victory isn’t assured but the successes of the past year suggest that the abuses of authoritarian rule are prompting a powerful human rights counterattack,” Mr. Roth wrote.

Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch’s China director Sophie Richardson warned that “people outside China don’t yet seem to realize that their human rights are…increasingly under threat as Beijing becomes more powerful… In recent years, Beijing has…sought to extend its influence into, and impose its standards and policies on, key international human rights institutions—weakening some of the only means of accountability and justice available to people around the world,”

Ms. Richardson noted that China had last year successfully pushed a non-binding resolution in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that advocated promotion of human rights on the basis of the People’s Republic’s principle of win-win, a principle that cynics assert means China wins twice.

In a sign of the times, the resolution garnered significant support. The United States, in a twist of irony, was the only Council member to vote against it with countries like Germany and Australia abstaining.

China is not the only country that would like a globally accepted approach to be altered to the detriment of human rights. Muslim nations, with Saudi Arabia in the lead, have, for example, long sought to have blasphemy criminalized.

The resolution “gutted the ideas of accountability for actual human rights violations, suggesting ‘dialogue’ instead. It failed to specify any course of action when rights violators refuse to cooperate with UN experts, retaliate against rights defenders or actively reject human rights principles. And it even failed to acknowledge any role for the HRC itself to address serious human rights violations when ‘dialogue’ and ‘cooperation’ don’t produce results,” Ms. Richardson said.

“If these ideas become not just prevailing norms but also actual operating principles for the HRC, victims of state-sponsored abuses worldwide—including in Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—will face almost impossible odds in holding abusive governments accountable,” Ms. Richardson cautioned.

In a separate interview, Ms. Richardson described the resolution as “the start of a process to wither away the UN human rights eco system.”

She said human rights groups were concerned “about what China will try to do next, whether it will more aggressively try to change the council’s mandate or nibble away at language in treaties or roll back the role of civil society. China wants inter-governmental cooperation instead of accountability, government officials discussing among themselves with no discussion of accountability for abuses and no participation of independent groups.”

China’s efforts are both an attempt to rewrite international norms and counter sharp Western criticism of its moves against Christians and Muslim and its crackdown in Xinjiang.

Up to one million Turkic Muslims have reportedly been incarcerated in re-education camps that China projects as vocational training facilities. To maintain its crackdown, China depends on a fragile silence in the Muslim world that is fraying at the edges.

In addition to attempting to change the operating principles of the UN Human Rights Commission, lobbying UN and foreign government officials to tone down criticism and invited foreign diplomats and journalists on choreographed visits to Xinjiang, China has at times successfully employed its economic and financial clout to buy either support or silence.

Pakistan, the host of the Belt and Road’s US$45 billion crown jewel, has curbed its initial criticism of the crackdown in Xinjiang.

Similarly, China is pressuring Myanmar to revive the suspended US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project, which if built as previously designed would flood 600 square kilometres of forestland in northern Kachin state and export 90 % of the power produced to China.

China has reportedly offered in return for the dam to support Myanmar that has been condemned by the United Nations, Western countries and some Muslim nations for its repressive campaign against the Rohingya, some 700,000 of which fled to Bangladesh last year.

In a bid to pacify, criticism of its Xinjiang policy in Central Asia where anti-Chinese sentiment has been rising, China agreed this month to allow some 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to renounce their Chinese citizenship and leave the country.

The decision follows testimony in a Kazakh court of a former employee of a re-education camp detailing three facilities in which up to 7,500 Kazaks and Chinese nationals of Kazakh descent allegedly were being held. The testimony prompted sharp criticism in parliament and on social media.

China and the West’s diametrically opposed concepts of human rights are part of a larger contest for dominance over the future of technology and global influence.

Freedom House, a Washington-based freedom watchdog, reported last year that China was exporting to at least 18 countries sophisticated surveillance systems capable of identifying threats to public order and has made it easier to repress free speech in 36 others.

“They are passing on their norms for how technology should govern society,” said Adrian Shahbaz, the author of the report.

Added Nadège Rolland, a senior fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a Washington think tank, speaking to Bloomberg: “There’s a 1984 component to it that’s kind of scary.”

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

China is leading the charge in a bid to undermine accepted concepts of human rights accountability and justice. The Chinese effort backed by autocrats elsewhere has turned human rights into an underrated, yet crucial battleground in the shaping of a new world order.

China is leading the charge in a bid to undermine accepted concepts of human rights accountability and justice. The Chinese effort backed by autocrats elsewhere has turned human rights into an underrated, yet crucial battleground in the shaping of a new world order. China is manoeuvring against the backdrop of an unprecedented crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its north-western province of Xinjiang, the accelerated rollout of restrictions elsewhere in the country, and the export of key elements of its model of a 21st-century Orwellian surveillance state. The Chinese effort, highlighted in Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2019, is multipronged. It involves proposals to alter the principles on which the United Nations Human Rights Council operates in ways that would enable repressive, autocratic regimes. To achieve its goal, China is employing its financial muscle and infrastructure and energy-driven Belt and Road initiative to economically entice countries that are financially strapped, desperate for investment and/or on the defensive because of human rights abuses. China is also seeking a dominant role in various countries’ digital infrastructure and media that would allow it to influence the flow of information and enable its allies to better control dissent. China is waging its campaign at a crucial juncture of history. It benefits from the rise of ethno- and religious nationalism, populism, intolerance and widespread anti-migration sentiment across the world’s democracies. The campaign is enabled by the emergence of presidents like Donald J. Trump in the United States, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungary’s Victor Orban and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro who have either deemphasized human rights or gone as far as justifying abuses in addition to seeking to limit, if not undermine, independent media that hold them accountable. The timing of the Chinese effort is significant because it comes at a moment that predictions of the death of popular protest, symbolized by the defeat of the initially successful 2011 popular Arab revolts, are being called into question. Mass anti-government demonstrations in Sudan demand the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir. Anti-Chinese groups march in Kyrgyzstan while protests in Zimbabwe decry repression, poor public services, high unemployment, widespread corruption and delays in civil servants receiving their salaries. The past year has also seen widespread anti-government agitation in countries like Morocco and Jordan. The protests and what Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth describes in his foreword to the group’s just published, 674-page World Report 2019 as “a resistance that keeps winning battles” suggests that China’s campaign may have won battles but has yet to win the war. “Victory isn’t assured but the successes of the past year suggest that the abuses of authoritarian rule are prompting a powerful human rights counterattack,” Mr. Roth wrote. Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch’s China director Sophie Richardson warned that “people outside China don’t yet seem to realize that their human rights are…increasingly under threat as Beijing becomes more powerful… In recent years, Beijing has…sought to extend its influence into, and impose its standards and policies on, key international human rights institutions—weakening some of the only means of accountability and justice available to people around the world,” Ms. Richardson noted that China had last year successfully pushed a non-binding resolution in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that advocated promotion of human rights on the basis of the People’s Republic’s principle of win-win, a principle that cynics assert means China wins twice. In a sign of the times, the resolution garnered significant support. The United States, in a twist of irony, was the only Council member to vote against it with countries like Germany and Australia abstaining. China is not the only country that would like a globally accepted approach to be altered to the detriment of human rights. Muslim nations, with Saudi Arabia in the lead, have, for example, long sought to have blasphemy criminalized. The resolution “gutted the ideas of accountability for actual human rights violations, suggesting ‘dialogue’ instead. It failed to specify any course of action when rights violators refuse to cooperate with UN experts, retaliate against rights defenders or actively reject human rights principles. And it even failed to acknowledge any role for the HRC itself to address serious human rights violations when ‘dialogue’ and ‘cooperation’ don’t produce results,” Ms. Richardson said. “If these ideas become not just prevailing norms but also actual operating principles for the HRC, victims of state-sponsored abuses worldwide—including in Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—will face almost impossible odds in holding abusive governments accountable,” Ms. Richardson cautioned. In a separate interview, Ms. Richardson described the resolution as “the start of a process to wither away the UN human rights eco system.” She said human rights groups were concerned “about what China will try to do next, whether it will more aggressively try to change the council’s mandate or nibble away at language in treaties or roll back the role of civil society. China wants inter-governmental cooperation instead of accountability, government officials discussing among themselves with no discussion of accountability for abuses and no participation of independent groups.” China’s efforts are both an attempt to rewrite international norms and counter sharp Western criticism of its moves against Christians and Muslim and its crackdown in Xinjiang. Up to one million Turkic Muslims have reportedly been incarcerated in re-education camps that China projects as vocational training facilities. To maintain its crackdown, China depends on a fragile silence in the Muslim world that is fraying at the edges. In addition to attempting to change the operating principles of the UN Human Rights Commission, lobbying UN and foreign government officials to tone down criticism and invited foreign diplomats and journalists on choreographed visits to Xinjiang, China has at times successfully employed its economic and financial clout to buy either support or silence. Pakistan, the host of the Belt and Road’s US$45 billion crown jewel, has curbed its initial criticism of the crackdown in Xinjiang. Similarly, China is pressuring Myanmar to revive the suspended US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project, which if built as previously designed would flood 600 square kilometres of forestland in northern Kachin state and export 90 % of the power produced to China. China has reportedly offered in return for the dam to support Myanmar that has been condemned by the United Nations, Western countries and some Muslim nations for its repressive campaign against the Rohingya, some 700,000 of which fled to Bangladesh last year. In a bid to pacify, criticism of its Xinjiang policy in Central Asia where anti-Chinese sentiment has been rising, China agreed this month to allow some 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to renounce their Chinese citizenship and leave the country. The decision follows testimony in a Kazakh court of a former employee of a re-education camp detailing three facilities in which up to 7,500 Kazaks and Chinese nationals of Kazakh descent allegedly were being held. The testimony prompted sharp criticism in parliament and on social media. China and the West’s diametrically opposed concepts of human rights are part of a larger contest for dominance over the future of technology and global influence. Freedom House, a Washington-based freedom watchdog, reported last year that China was exporting to at least 18 countries sophisticated surveillance systems capable of identifying threats to public order and has made it easier to repress free speech in 36 others. “They are passing on their norms for how technology should govern society,” said Adrian Shahbaz, the author of the report. Added Nadège Rolland, a senior fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a Washington think tank, speaking to Bloomberg: “There’s a 1984 component to it that’s kind of scary.” (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Shaping the new world order: The battle for human rights

<a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/sri-lanka-probes-model-prison-after-abuse-video-191067&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi2tqu3jvffAhVMqI8KHaXvDbQQFggFMAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw1s9oCC6oyzb9L0ZB4rAJsE">Sri Lanka</a>'s police seized a haul of high explosives stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from a newly formed radical Muslim group, officials said Friday.

Elite police commandos and detectives stumbled on the explosives which included some 100 detonators from a make-shift warehouse near the Wilpattu national park, police said.

"Following information received by the CID (Criminal Investigations Department), they found 100 kilos (220 pounds) of high explosives and 100 detonators," police said in a statement.

Official sources said the discovery was made during investigations into recent hate attacks against Buddha statues elsewhere in the country in an apparent attempt to spark tensions between majority Buddhists and minority <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.wionews.com/india-news/mehbooba-mufti-warns-centre-against-interfering-in-muslims-religious-affairs-187611&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjvwabojvffAhUMbo8KHQGrAAcQFggFMAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw3CYM2uhnwwohrRU_0eHjMt">Muslims</a>.

"The information we have at the moment is that a radicalised local group of Muslims are behind the explosives seized on Thursday," an official said asking not to be named.&nbsp;

"We are trying to see if they had any links with extremists abroad."

There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka linked to foreign Islamist groups despite local media reports that a 37-year-old Sri Lankan had been killed in Syria in 2015 while fighting for Islamic State (IS) group.

The latest discovery of explosives in the north-west of the island on Thursday is one of the biggest finds since the country ended its decades-long war against Tamil separatists in 2009.

There has been sporadic violence against minority Muslims, and several Buddhist monks and their followers have been arrested for instigating inter-communal violence.

In Sri Lanka,&nbsp;Muslims are considered an ethnic group. Almost all Buddhists in Sri Lanka are from the majority Sinhalese community.

Sri Lanka declared a 12-day nation-wide state of emergency in May last year following inter-communal riots led by Sinhalese mobs in the central district of Kandy where three people were killed and hundreds of shops and homes were destroyed. 
&nbsp;

Sri Lanka's police seized a haul of high explosives stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from a newly formed radical Muslim group, officials said Friday.

Sri Lanka's police seized a haul of high explosives stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from a newly formed radical Muslim group, officials said Friday. Elite police commandos and detectives stumbled on the explosives which included some 100 detonators from a make-shift warehouse near the Wilpattu national park, police said. "Following information received by the CID (Criminal Investigations Department), they found 100 kilos (220 pounds) of high explosives and 100 detonators," police said in a statement. Official sources said the discovery was made during investigations into recent hate attacks against Buddha statues elsewhere in the country in an apparent attempt to spark tensions between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims. "The information we have at the moment is that a radicalised local group of Muslims are behind the explosives seized on Thursday," an official said asking not to be named. "We are trying to see if they had any links with extremists abroad." There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka linked to foreign Islamist groups despite local media reports that a 37-year-old Sri Lankan had been killed in Syria in 2015 while fighting for Islamic State (IS) group. The latest discovery of explosives in the north-west of the island on Thursday is one of the biggest finds since the country ended its decades-long war against Tamil separatists in 2009. There has been sporadic violence against minority Muslims, and several Buddhist monks and their followers have been arrested for instigating inter-communal violence. In Sri Lanka, Muslims are considered an ethnic group. Almost all Buddhists in Sri Lanka are from the majority Sinhalese community. Sri Lanka declared a 12-day nation-wide state of emergency in May last year following inter-communal riots led by Sinhalese mobs in the central district of Kandy where three people were killed and hundreds of shops and homes were destroyed.

Sri Lanka seizes explosives from local Islamist radicals

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslims worldwide on Saturday to unite against the United States, instead of "rolling out red carpets for criminals".

Washington in May reimposed sanctions on Tehran, after President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran under which they had been lifted.

"Submitting to the West headed by America would be treason against our religion ... and against the future generations of this region," Rouhani told an international conference on Islamic unity in Tehran, in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"We have a choice to either roll out red carpets for criminals, or to forcefully stand against injustice and remain faithful to our Prophet, our Koran and our Islam," Rouhani said, in an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states which have close ties to Washington.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional rivals and have supported opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen and different political factions in Iraq and Lebanon.

"We are ready to defend the interests of the Saudi people against terrorism, aggression and the superpowers... and we don`t ask for $450 billion to do it," Rouhani said, referring to Saudi Arabia`s contracts with the United States.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslims worldwide on Saturday to unite against the United States, instead of "rolling out red carpets for criminals". Washington in May reimposed sanctions on Tehran, after President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran under which they had been lifted.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslims worldwide on Saturday to unite against the United States, instead of "rolling out red carpets for criminals". Washington in May reimposed sanctions on Tehran, after President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran under which they had been lifted. "Submitting to the West headed by America would be treason against our religion ... and against the future generations of this region," Rouhani told an international conference on Islamic unity in Tehran, in a speech broadcast live on state television. "We have a choice to either roll out red carpets for criminals, or to forcefully stand against injustice and remain faithful to our Prophet, our Koran and our Islam," Rouhani said, in an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states which have close ties to Washington. Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional rivals and have supported opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen and different political factions in Iraq and Lebanon. "We are ready to defend the interests of the Saudi people against terrorism, aggression and the superpowers... and we don`t ask for $450 billion to do it," Rouhani said, referring to Saudi Arabia`s contracts with the United States.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani calls for Muslims to unite against United States

Dozens of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh have boarded boats to try to reach Malaysia, officials and aid workers said on Thursday, raising fears of a fresh wave of such dangerous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers.

One boat attempted to set sail from the southern coast of Bangladesh on Wednesday, the coast guard said, while several vessels left Rakhine state in western Myanmar, according to Rohingya leaders, aid workers and a monitoring group.&nbsp;

Officials detained 33 Rohingya and six Bangladeshis aboard a fishing boat bound for Malaysia in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, said Foyezul Islam Mondol, the head of the coast guard in southeastern Teknaf upazila.

Six Bangladeshis were also arrested, he said.

A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Myanmar said the organization had heard "similar reports" of boats leaving the country but could not confirm their location.

"With the prospect of boat movements increasing following the end of the monsoon season, it is increasingly urgent for the authorities to take measures to address the root causes of displacement...and create conditions which foster social cohesion and economic opportunities for all communities," the spokeswoman said.

A Myanmar government spokesman could not be reached for comment. Kyaw Swar Tun, deputy director of the Rakhine state government, said he was unaware of any boats leaving.

More than 700,000 Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority, fled Rakhine following an army-led crackdown in August last year, settling in sprawling Bangladeshi refugee camps, according to UN agency figures, while hundreds of thousands remain inside the country in internal displacement camps and villages.

Refugees say soldiers and local Buddhists carried out mass killings and rape during the violence last year, while the United Nations has accused the military of “genocidal intent”. Myanmar has denied almost all the allegations.

'Trapped'

For years, Rohingya on both sides of the border have boarded boats organised by smugglers in the dry months between November and March, when the sea is calm. The perilous journey to Thailand and Malaysia, often undertaken in overcrowded, rickety vessels, has cost many lives.&nbsp;

Thailand cracked down on the trade after discovering a series of mass graves in 2015, leading to a crisis when smugglers abandoned their human cargo and left boats adrift in the Andaman Sea.

The new departures come as Myanmar prepares to take some of the refugees back after agreeing with Bangladesh to start repatriation on Nov. 15, despite widespread opposition from Rohingya, who say they will not return without guarantees of basic rights, including citizenship and freedom of movement.

The United Nations has said conditions in Rakhine, where Buddhists have protested against the repatriation, are not conducive for returns and the special envoy on human rights, Yanghee Lee, on Thursday urged a halt to the “rushed plans”.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which has a network of sources across Rohingya communities, said the threat of being sent back to Myanmar could be pushing refugees to turn to smugglers.

“The Rohingya are trapped,” she said when contacted by Reuters via phone. “They have nowhere to go. No one wants them, and now they face on top of that the threat of repatriation.”

On the other side of the border in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, tens of thousands of Rohingya have been languishing in internal displacement camps since a previous wave of violence in 2012.

Accounts of how many boats had left Myanmar differed. A high level of secrecy surrounds the smuggling operations.

An aid worker in Sittwe said they had received information that at least four boats had departed since the start of October, and some of them had already arrived in Malaysia. Some of those boarding the boats were women and children joining other family members, the aid worker said.

“The living conditions in the camp are very bad and there’s not enough food to survive,” said Kyaw Hla, a Rohingya leader from Thae Chaung camp outside Sittwe, where he said one boat carrying some 80 people left last week.

“People are not able to stand against all these troubles, so they are deciding to leave,” he said. "There’s no hope for us here.”&nbsp;

Dozens of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh have boarded boats to try to reach Malaysia, officials and aid workers said on Thursday, raising fears of a fresh wave of such dangerous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers.

Dozens of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh have boarded boats to try to reach Malaysia, officials and aid workers said on Thursday, raising fears of a fresh wave of such dangerous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. One boat attempted to set sail from the southern coast of Bangladesh on Wednesday, the coast guard said, while several vessels left Rakhine state in western Myanmar, according to Rohingya leaders, aid workers and a monitoring group. Officials detained 33 Rohingya and six Bangladeshis aboard a fishing boat bound for Malaysia in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, said Foyezul Islam Mondol, the head of the coast guard in southeastern Teknaf upazila. Six Bangladeshis were also arrested, he said. A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Myanmar said the organization had heard "similar reports" of boats leaving the country but could not confirm their location. "With the prospect of boat movements increasing following the end of the monsoon season, it is increasingly urgent for the authorities to take measures to address the root causes of displacement...and create conditions which foster social cohesion and economic opportunities for all communities," the spokeswoman said. A Myanmar government spokesman could not be reached for comment. Kyaw Swar Tun, deputy director of the Rakhine state government, said he was unaware of any boats leaving. More than 700,000 Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority, fled Rakhine following an army-led crackdown in August last year, settling in sprawling Bangladeshi refugee camps, according to UN agency figures, while hundreds of thousands remain inside the country in internal displacement camps and villages. Refugees say soldiers and local Buddhists carried out mass killings and rape during the violence last year, while the United Nations has accused the military of “genocidal intent”. Myanmar has denied almost all the allegations. 'Trapped' For years, Rohingya on both sides of the border have boarded boats organised by smugglers in the dry months between November and March, when the sea is calm. The perilous journey to Thailand and Malaysia, often undertaken in overcrowded, rickety vessels, has cost many lives. Thailand cracked down on the trade after discovering a series of mass graves in 2015, leading to a crisis when smugglers abandoned their human cargo and left boats adrift in the Andaman Sea. The new departures come as Myanmar prepares to take some of the refugees back after agreeing with Bangladesh to start repatriation on Nov. 15, despite widespread opposition from Rohingya, who say they will not return without guarantees of basic rights, including citizenship and freedom of movement. The United Nations has said conditions in Rakhine, where Buddhists have protested against the repatriation, are not conducive for returns and the special envoy on human rights, Yanghee Lee, on Thursday urged a halt to the “rushed plans”. Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which has a network of sources across Rohingya communities, said the threat of being sent back to Myanmar could be pushing refugees to turn to smugglers. “The Rohingya are trapped,” she said when contacted by Reuters via phone. “They have nowhere to go. No one wants them, and now they face on top of that the threat of repatriation.” On the other side of the border in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, tens of thousands of Rohingya have been languishing in internal displacement camps since a previous wave of violence in 2012. Accounts of how many boats had left Myanmar differed. A high level of secrecy surrounds the smuggling operations. An aid worker in Sittwe said they had received information that at least four boats had departed since the start of October, and some of them had already arrived in Malaysia. Some of those boarding the boats were women and children joining other family members, the aid worker said. “The living conditions in the camp are very bad and there’s not enough food to survive,” said Kyaw Hla, a Rohingya leader from Thae Chaung camp outside Sittwe, where he said one boat carrying some 80 people left last week. “People are not able to stand against all these troubles, so they are deciding to leave,” he said. "There’s no hope for us here.”

Dozens of Rohingya flee camps by boat, reviving memories of 2015 tragedy

Karnataka Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Monday said Muslims were not against Ram temple at Ayodhya but pitched for construction of both Mandir and Masjid.

Khan, who is from the Congress in the party’s coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular, hit out at the BJP for raking up the issue for political reasons, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“Muslims are not against the construction of Ram Mandir, we want Ram Mandir, also Babri Masjid,” Khan said.

“What we want is peace. Muslims have never opposed Ram Mandir. We have two wishes- one side we want Masjid, one side we want Ram Mandir.”

Khan’s statement comes days after another Congress MLA and former minister Roshan Baig asked, “If Ram Mandir is not constructed in India, will it be built in Pakistan” and said Muslims respected the sentiments of “Hindu brothers.”

The chorus for bringing in a law to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya is growing louder among the Sangh Parivar following the Supreme Court’s decision to defer hearing on the RamJanmabhoomi land dispute case to January.

Pointing out that the case was pending before the Supreme Court, the Minister said, there was no use in talking about it, as the issue has to be decided in the court.

Flaying the BJP for “politicising” the issue ahead of Lok Sabha elections, he questioned as to why the saffron party did not remember about the Mandir for the last four-and-a-half years after they came to power at the Centre.

“All of a sudden they want to construct Ram Mandir. What happened for the last four-and-a-half years? Elections (Lok Sabha) are due in five or six months, now they remember Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid issue,” he said.

Reiterating that Muslims were not opposed to Ram Mandir, Khan said, “what we want is the construction of both Mandir and Masjid.”

Karnataka Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Monday said Muslims were not against Ram temple at Ayodhya but pitched for construction of both Mandir and Masjid. Khan, who is from the Congress in the party’s coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular, hit out at the BJP for raking up the issue for political reasons, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Karnataka Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Monday said Muslims were not against Ram temple at Ayodhya but pitched for construction of both Mandir and Masjid. Khan, who is from the Congress in the party’s coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular, hit out at the BJP for raking up the issue for political reasons, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “Muslims are not against the construction of Ram Mandir, we want Ram Mandir, also Babri Masjid,” Khan said. “What we want is peace. Muslims have never opposed Ram Mandir. We have two wishes- one side we want Masjid, one side we want Ram Mandir.” Khan’s statement comes days after another Congress MLA and former minister Roshan Baig asked, “If Ram Mandir is not constructed in India, will it be built in Pakistan” and said Muslims respected the sentiments of “Hindu brothers.” The chorus for bringing in a law to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya is growing louder among the Sangh Parivar following the Supreme Court’s decision to defer hearing on the RamJanmabhoomi land dispute case to January. Pointing out that the case was pending before the Supreme Court, the Minister said, there was no use in talking about it, as the issue has to be decided in the court. Flaying the BJP for “politicising” the issue ahead of Lok Sabha elections, he questioned as to why the saffron party did not remember about the Mandir for the last four-and-a-half years after they came to power at the Centre. “All of a sudden they want to construct Ram Mandir. What happened for the last four-and-a-half years? Elections (Lok Sabha) are due in five or six months, now they remember Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid issue,” he said. Reiterating that Muslims were not opposed to Ram Mandir, Khan said, “what we want is the construction of both Mandir and Masjid.”

Muslims not against Ram Mandir, want both temple, Masjid: Congress leader

The candidate selected by Britain's ruling Conservative Party to contest against London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the 2020 mayoral elections on Wednesday came under fire for the views he expressed 13 years ago about Hindus and Muslims.

Shaun Bailey had written a pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies back in 2005 in which he lamented Hindu and Muslim influences on the cultural landscape of Britain.

"You bring your children to school and they learn far more about Diwali than Christmas," he wrote in the pamphlet titled 'No Man's Land'.

Bailey, a member of the London Assembly, also seemed to be confused about the difference between Hindu with Hindi in the controversial document he had put together as a researcher with the London-based think tank.

"I speak to the people who are from Brent [north-west London] and they've been having Muslim and Hindi days off. What it does is rob Britain of its community. Without our community we slip into a crime-riddled cesspool," he wrote.

The central theme of the pamphlet seemed to reflect his views that Christianity was being sidelined in the UK as a result of multiculturalism.

"There are a lot of really good things about Britain as a place and British people as a body. But by removing the religion that British people generally take to, by removing the ethics that generally go with it, we've allowed people to come to Britain and bring their culture, their country and any problems they might have, with them," he wrote.

The MP, who is black, added: "Within the black community it is not such a bad thing because we've shared a religion and in many cases a language.

"It's far easier for black people to integrate. How we arrived here is different. If you talk to old black people, they will say they have been invited here by the Queen. They absolutely do not consider themselves refugees or immigrants."

The pamphlet has caused outrage among the Labour Party colleagues of Sadiq Khan, the first Asian of Pakistani-origin, with veteran Indian-origin MP Virendra Sharma calling on the Conservatives to withdraw Bailey's candidature for the 2020 local elections.

"It is appalling that in this day and age even the Tories can select a candidate for Mayor of London with views this outdated and objectionable.&nbsp; 
I don't see how Shaun Bailey can continue as candidate having written off the multiculturalism that makes London great," said Sharma, who is also co-chair of the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).

The senior politician questioned Baliey's ability to be an ambassador for a diverse city like London and travel to countries like India, Pakistan or Indonesia to boost business for the British capital.

"Bailey seems to believe that celebrating Hindu and Muslim culture will 'rob Britain of its community' and we will 'slip into a crime-riddled cesspool'. The messages of my faith Hinduism are of tolerance, compassion, honesty and self-restraint, lessons that Mr Bailey would do well to learn," he said.

The Tell MAMA [Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks] organisation, which records Islamophobic hate incidents in the UK, also attacked the mayoral hopeful.

"We do not tolerate such views about Muslim and Hindu communities. Nor do we tolerate any hatred or racism directed towards any other community. We will raise this further," Tell MAMA said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Bailey dismissed the attacks, saying the politician had worked with diverse communities for over 20 years and was in tune with the challenges faced by black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in the UK.

"Whether it is working with one of London's biggest Muslim communities in North Kensington or helping young people from all communities to fulfil their potential, Shaun has always championed diverse communities.

"Shaun has made it his life's work to help those from migrant and disadvantaged communities, and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous," the spokesperson said.

The candidate selected by Britain's ruling Conservative Party to contest against London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the 2020 mayoral elections on Wednesday came under fire for the views he expressed 13 years ago about Hindus and Muslims.

The candidate selected by Britain's ruling Conservative Party to contest against London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the 2020 mayoral elections on Wednesday came under fire for the views he expressed 13 years ago about Hindus and Muslims. Shaun Bailey had written a pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies back in 2005 in which he lamented Hindu and Muslim influences on the cultural landscape of Britain. "You bring your children to school and they learn far more about Diwali than Christmas," he wrote in the pamphlet titled 'No Man's Land'. Bailey, a member of the London Assembly, also seemed to be confused about the difference between Hindu with Hindi in the controversial document he had put together as a researcher with the London-based think tank. "I speak to the people who are from Brent [north-west London] and they've been having Muslim and Hindi days off. What it does is rob Britain of its community. Without our community we slip into a crime-riddled cesspool," he wrote. The central theme of the pamphlet seemed to reflect his views that Christianity was being sidelined in the UK as a result of multiculturalism. "There are a lot of really good things about Britain as a place and British people as a body. But by removing the religion that British people generally take to, by removing the ethics that generally go with it, we've allowed people to come to Britain and bring their culture, their country and any problems they might have, with them," he wrote. The MP, who is black, added: "Within the black community it is not such a bad thing because we've shared a religion and in many cases a language. "It's far easier for black people to integrate. How we arrived here is different. If you talk to old black people, they will say they have been invited here by the Queen. They absolutely do not consider themselves refugees or immigrants." The pamphlet has caused outrage among the Labour Party colleagues of Sadiq Khan, the first Asian of Pakistani-origin, with veteran Indian-origin MP Virendra Sharma calling on the Conservatives to withdraw Bailey's candidature for the 2020 local elections. "It is appalling that in this day and age even the Tories can select a candidate for Mayor of London with views this outdated and objectionable. I don't see how Shaun Bailey can continue as candidate having written off the multiculturalism that makes London great," said Sharma, who is also co-chair of the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). The senior politician questioned Baliey's ability to be an ambassador for a diverse city like London and travel to countries like India, Pakistan or Indonesia to boost business for the British capital. "Bailey seems to believe that celebrating Hindu and Muslim culture will 'rob Britain of its community' and we will 'slip into a crime-riddled cesspool'. The messages of my faith Hinduism are of tolerance, compassion, honesty and self-restraint, lessons that Mr Bailey would do well to learn," he said. The Tell MAMA [Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks] organisation, which records Islamophobic hate incidents in the UK, also attacked the mayoral hopeful. "We do not tolerate such views about Muslim and Hindu communities. Nor do we tolerate any hatred or racism directed towards any other community. We will raise this further," Tell MAMA said in a statement. A spokesperson for Bailey dismissed the attacks, saying the politician had worked with diverse communities for over 20 years and was in tune with the challenges faced by black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in the UK. "Whether it is working with one of London's biggest Muslim communities in North Kensington or helping young people from all communities to fulfil their potential, Shaun has always championed diverse communities. "Shaun has made it his life's work to help those from migrant and disadvantaged communities, and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous," the spokesperson said.

London mayoral candidate under fire for views on Hindus, Muslims

Activists from the Christian minority in Pakistan say they are being persecuted, discriminated and forced to leave the country.

Now living in exile, these members of the Christian community participated at the ongoing 39th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and demanded the safety of minorities in Pakistan, and emphasised on the abolition of blasphemy law.

Noyal Malik, a human rights defender and member of the Pakistan Minorities Alliance, who now lives in Italy, said: "Not only Christians, all minorities in Pakistan are facing discrimination and getting persecuted. They are feeling unsafe and are leaving the country. We have participated at the United Nations and request the Pakistan government to provide security and safety to the minorities, which are being denied to them as of now."

"The minorities in Pakistan are paying a huge price for safeguarding their own identity. They are living in fear and have no freedom. We are being offered jobs of sweepers in Pakistan," he added.

Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians, as Muslims forcibly convert Christian girls to get them married.

Christian families have, in turn, suffered numerous attacks for refusing to allow their daughters to marry Muslims.

Noyal said, "Blasphemy Law is being used by Muslims for their personal benefit. If someone is accusing other person of blasphemy, the complainant should also be put behind bars till the allegation gets confirmed. People are misusing blasphemy for their personal rivalry and forced marriages. A person files a complaint without having any witness. Take the case of Asia Bibi, who has been languishing in the jail, whereas the complainant is roaming freely".

Sharoon Lazer, President of the Pakistan Minorities Alliance, who lives in Malta, said: "Christians in Pakistan are facing discrimination and persecution. They are not getting proper rights as a Pakistani national should get. People are forced to migrate from the country. Blasphemy Law is being misused widely against the minorities and they are not getting proper jobs in the government. If someone gets a change to get a job, the person gets removed by the mullahs".

Citing the example of Atif Mian, who was recently removed by Imran Khan's government, Lazer said, "Recently, a minority Ahmadi Muslim (Atif Mian) has been removed from a recently established economic council because of opposition from hard-line Islamists. Not only Christians, but other minorities like Hindus and Ahmadis are also facing a tough time."

Pakistani Christians living in Europe and UK recently held a protest march in Geneva to make the international community aware about their persecution. A poster campaign in front of the United Nations office also highlighted their plight.

Activists from the Christian minority in Pakistan say they are being persecuted, discriminated and forced to leave the country. Now living in exile, these members of the Christian community participated at the ongoing 39th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and demanded the safety of minorities in Pakistan, and emphasised on the abolition of blasphemy law.

Activists from the Christian minority in Pakistan say they are being persecuted, discriminated and forced to leave the country. Now living in exile, these members of the Christian community participated at the ongoing 39th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and demanded the safety of minorities in Pakistan, and emphasised on the abolition of blasphemy law. Noyal Malik, a human rights defender and member of the Pakistan Minorities Alliance, who now lives in Italy, said: "Not only Christians, all minorities in Pakistan are facing discrimination and getting persecuted. They are feeling unsafe and are leaving the country. We have participated at the United Nations and request the Pakistan government to provide security and safety to the minorities, which are being denied to them as of now." "The minorities in Pakistan are paying a huge price for safeguarding their own identity. They are living in fear and have no freedom. We are being offered jobs of sweepers in Pakistan," he added. Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians, as Muslims forcibly convert Christian girls to get them married. Christian families have, in turn, suffered numerous attacks for refusing to allow their daughters to marry Muslims. Noyal said, "Blasphemy Law is being used by Muslims for their personal benefit. If someone is accusing other person of blasphemy, the complainant should also be put behind bars till the allegation gets confirmed. People are misusing blasphemy for their personal rivalry and forced marriages. A person files a complaint without having any witness. Take the case of Asia Bibi, who has been languishing in the jail, whereas the complainant is roaming freely". Sharoon Lazer, President of the Pakistan Minorities Alliance, who lives in Malta, said: "Christians in Pakistan are facing discrimination and persecution. They are not getting proper rights as a Pakistani national should get. People are forced to migrate from the country. Blasphemy Law is being misused widely against the minorities and they are not getting proper jobs in the government. If someone gets a change to get a job, the person gets removed by the mullahs". Citing the example of Atif Mian, who was recently removed by Imran Khan's government, Lazer said, "Recently, a minority Ahmadi Muslim (Atif Mian) has been removed from a recently established economic council because of opposition from hard-line Islamists. Not only Christians, but other minorities like Hindus and Ahmadis are also facing a tough time." Pakistani Christians living in Europe and UK recently held a protest march in Geneva to make the international community aware about their persecution. A poster campaign in front of the United Nations office also highlighted their plight.

Minorities in Pak face persecution, discrimination: Activists

The UN Security Council is urging Myanmar's government to allow international investigators to help probe allegations of human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims, saying it remains "gravely concerned" at their plight. 
 
In a letter to Myanmar's leaders obtained today by The Associated Press, the council noted the government's commitment to investigate all allegations of violence. 
 
It said independent and transparent investigations "with the involvement of the international community ... Would turn this commitment into concrete action and ensure that all perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses are held to account." 
 
The council also urged Myanmar's government to grant U.N. Agencies and humanitarian organisations immediate access to Rakhine state.

Rohingya insurgent attacks last August were followed by a military crackdown that led some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

In a letter to Myanmar's leaders obtained today by The Associated Press, the council noted the government's commitment to investigate all allegations of violence

The UN Security Council is urging Myanmar's government to allow international investigators to help probe allegations of human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims, saying it remains "gravely concerned" at their plight. In a letter to Myanmar's leaders obtained today by The Associated Press, the council noted the government's commitment to investigate all allegations of violence. It said independent and transparent investigations "with the involvement of the international community ... Would turn this commitment into concrete action and ensure that all perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses are held to account." The council also urged Myanmar's government to grant U.N. Agencies and humanitarian organisations immediate access to Rakhine state. Rohingya insurgent attacks last August were followed by a military crackdown that led some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

UN: International experts should help probe Myanmar abuses

The United Nations said&nbsp;on Thursday&nbsp;it had struck an outline deal with Myanmar aimed at eventually allowing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh to return safely and by choice.

Since August 2017, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, many reporting killings, rape and arson on a large scale, U.N. and other aid organisations have said.

"Since the conditions are not conducive for voluntary return yet, the MoU (memorandum of understanding) is the first and necessary step to support the government`s efforts to change that situation," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

Myanmar`s government said in a brief statement late&nbsp;on Thursday&nbsp;the MoU would be signed "soon" and U.N. agencies would "support access to livelihoods through the design and implementation of community-based interventions".

Myanmar civilian government spokesman Zaw Htay said he had nothing to add to the statement.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete the voluntary repatriation of the refugees&nbsp;within two years&nbsp;but differences between the two sides persist, impeding implementation of the plan.

In a separate statement&nbsp;on Thursday, Myanmar`s government said it would set up an independent commission to investigate "the violation of human rights and related issues" in Rakhine State following the army operation there in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security posts.

The commission will be assisted by international experts, the statement said without elaborating.

In the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, senior UNHCR official George William Okoth-Obbo told reporters after a five-day visit to Rohingya refugee camps along the border that conditions in Myanmar did not yet allow a "safe and sustainable return".

Okoth-Obbo said an immediate challenge for humanitarian agencies was to relocate 200,000 Rohingya refugees threatened by seasonal monsoon flooding and landslides to a safer place.

The United Nations and aid agencies have described the crackdown on the Rohingya as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", an accusation Myanmar rejects.

The Security Council asked Myanmar in November to ensure no "further excessive use of military force" and to allow "freedom of movement, equal access to basic services, and equal access to full citizenship for all".

Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare. Many in Myanmar regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from mostly Muslim Bangladesh.

The United Nations said it had struck an outline deal with Myanmar aimed at eventually allowing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh

The United Nations said on Thursday it had struck an outline deal with Myanmar aimed at eventually allowing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh to return safely and by choice. Since August 2017, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, many reporting killings, rape and arson on a large scale, U.N. and other aid organisations have said. "Since the conditions are not conducive for voluntary return yet, the MoU (memorandum of understanding) is the first and necessary step to support the government`s efforts to change that situation," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement. Myanmar`s government said in a brief statement late on Thursday the MoU would be signed "soon" and U.N. agencies would "support access to livelihoods through the design and implementation of community-based interventions". Myanmar civilian government spokesman Zaw Htay said he had nothing to add to the statement. Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete the voluntary repatriation of the refugees within two years but differences between the two sides persist, impeding implementation of the plan. In a separate statement on Thursday, Myanmar`s government said it would set up an independent commission to investigate "the violation of human rights and related issues" in Rakhine State following the army operation there in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security posts. The commission will be assisted by international experts, the statement said without elaborating. In the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, senior UNHCR official George William Okoth-Obbo told reporters after a five-day visit to Rohingya refugee camps along the border that conditions in Myanmar did not yet allow a "safe and sustainable return". Okoth-Obbo said an immediate challenge for humanitarian agencies was to relocate 200,000 Rohingya refugees threatened by seasonal monsoon flooding and landslides to a safer place. The United Nations and aid agencies have described the crackdown on the Rohingya as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", an accusation Myanmar rejects. The Security Council asked Myanmar in November to ensure no "further excessive use of military force" and to allow "freedom of movement, equal access to basic services, and equal access to full citizenship for all". Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare. Many in Myanmar regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from mostly Muslim Bangladesh.

UN and Myanmar agree outline of Rohingya return deal, no details

A group of men allegedly thrashed some people, who were offering namaz at a mosque in Haryana's Karnal on Thursday night.

The victims alleged that a group of 20-25 people walked in, vandalised the mosque, broke speakers and thrashed those offering namaz.

Muhammad Imran, one of the victims, told ANI, "We were offering namaz like all other days, and suddenly a group of 20-25 people walked in and attacked us. We were threatened. Those people told us that if we offer namaz again, we will be killed."

Another victim said, "We had done nothing other than offering our daily namaz, but we were attacked and our mosque was vandalised, we demand justice."

Meanwhile, Kunjpura Station House Officer Rajkumar Ranga said that an investigation has been launched into the incident.

"We have been informed of the matter and we have already started an investigation. We have received some names and we will investigate. We have also informed the senior authorities regarding the incident," he told ANI.&nbsp

The incident allegedly took place in Karnal, with the victims claiming that a group of 20-25 people walked in, vandalised the mosque, and thrashed the people offering namaz

A group of men allegedly thrashed some people, who were offering namaz at a mosque in Haryana's Karnal on Thursday night. The victims alleged that a group of 20-25 people walked in, vandalised the mosque, broke speakers and thrashed those offering namaz. Muhammad Imran, one of the victims, told ANI, "We were offering namaz like all other days, and suddenly a group of 20-25 people walked in and attacked us. We were threatened. Those people told us that if we offer namaz again, we will be killed." Another victim said, "We had done nothing other than offering our daily namaz, but we were attacked and our mosque was vandalised, we demand justice." Meanwhile, Kunjpura Station House Officer Rajkumar Ranga said that an investigation has been launched into the incident. "We have been informed of the matter and we have already started an investigation. We have received some names and we will investigate. We have also informed the senior authorities regarding the incident," he told ANI.

Muslims offering namaz allegedly thrashed inside Haryana mosque

Turkey called on Muslim countries on Friday to stop other nations from following the United States and moving their embassies in Israel to Jerusalem, as it opened a meeting in Istanbul on Friday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called the summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) after Israeli forces this week killed dozens of Palestinian protesters who were demonstrating in Gaza against the opening of the US&nbspEmbassy in Jerusalem.

Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of the US&nbspmove and the violence in Gaza, declaring three days of mourning. Erdogan has described the actions of the Israeli forces as a "genocide" and Israel as a "terrorist state".

"We will emphasise the status of the Palestine issue for our community, and that we will not allow the status of the historic city to be changed," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an opening address. "We must prevent other countries following the US&nbspexample."

The events in Gaza have also sparked a diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel, with both countries expelling each other's senior diplomats this week.

The plight of Palestinians resonates with many Turks, particularly the nationalist and religious voters who form the base of support for Erdogan, running for re-election next month.

Trade ties

Despite the rhetoric, Israel was the 10th-biggest market for Turkish exports in 2017, buying some $3.4 billion of goods, according to IMF statistics.

"We have excellent economic ties with Turkey. And these relations are very important for both sides," Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told Israel Radio on Friday when asked if Israel should break ties with Turkey.

US&nbspPresident Donald Trump's decision to move the embassy reversed decades of US&nbsppolicy, upsetting the Arab world and Western allies.

Guatemala this week became the second country to move its embassy to the holy city, and Paraguay said it would follow suit this month.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian television after arriving in Istanbul that "Israel's recent crimes in Palestine and the relocation of the US&nbspEmbassy to Jerusalem need serious coordination between Islamic countries and the international community".

UN&nbsphuman rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein on Friday said Israel had systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million people in Gaza "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death".

Despite the rhetoric, Israel was the 10th-biggest market for Turkish exports in 2017, buying some $3.4 billion of goods, according to IMF statistics

Turkey called on Muslim countries on Friday to stop other nations from following the United States and moving their embassies in Israel to Jerusalem, as it opened a meeting in Istanbul on Friday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called the summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) after Israeli forces this week killed dozens of Palestinian protesters who were demonstrating in Gaza against the opening of the US&nbspEmbassy in Jerusalem. Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of the US&nbspmove and the violence in Gaza, declaring three days of mourning. Erdogan has described the actions of the Israeli forces as a "genocide" and Israel as a "terrorist state". "We will emphasise the status of the Palestine issue for our community, and that we will not allow the status of the historic city to be changed," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an opening address. "We must prevent other countries following the US&nbspexample." The events in Gaza have also sparked a diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel, with both countries expelling each other's senior diplomats this week. The plight of Palestinians resonates with many Turks, particularly the nationalist and religious voters who form the base of support for Erdogan, running for re-election next month. Trade ties Despite the rhetoric, Israel was the 10th-biggest market for Turkish exports in 2017, buying some $3.4 billion of goods, according to IMF statistics. "We have excellent economic ties with Turkey. And these relations are very important for both sides," Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told Israel Radio on Friday when asked if Israel should break ties with Turkey. US&nbspPresident Donald Trump's decision to move the embassy reversed decades of US&nbsppolicy, upsetting the Arab world and Western allies. Guatemala this week became the second country to move its embassy to the holy city, and Paraguay said it would follow suit this month. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian television after arriving in Istanbul that "Israel's recent crimes in Palestine and the relocation of the US&nbspEmbassy to Jerusalem need serious coordination between Islamic countries and the international community". UN&nbsphuman rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein on Friday said Israel had systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million people in Gaza "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death".

Muslims must stop other countries opening Jerusalem embassies: Turkey

As Muslims all across the globe celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday released an official statement stating that Ramadan "reminds us of the richness Muslims add to the religious tapestry of American life."&nbsp;

According to reports, the White House may also organise a small Iftar event on June 6, with ambassadors from Muslim majority countries and other US Muslim leaders as attendees.

Last year in January, Trump had signed an order banning refugee admissions and temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries -- Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The move instantly soured United States' relations with Muslim Americans. The Trump administration, in 2016, also pressed for mosque surveillance for security.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Last year in January, Trump signed an order banning refugee admissions and temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries

As Muslims all across the globe celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday released an official statement stating that Ramadan "reminds us of the richness Muslims add to the religious tapestry of American life." According to reports, the White House may also organise a small Iftar event on June 6, with ambassadors from Muslim majority countries and other US Muslim leaders as attendees. Last year in January, Trump had signed an order banning refugee admissions and temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries -- Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The move instantly soured United States' relations with Muslim Americans. The Trump administration, in 2016, also pressed for mosque surveillance for security.

Muslims add to religious tapestry of American life: Trump's Ramadan message

The holy month of Ramadan brought good tidings for hundreds of Muslim workers in the UAE.

Saji Cheriyan, a businessman from Kerala, build a mosque for Muslim worshippers in the UAE at the cost of whopping Rs 2.4 crores (Dh 1.3 million).

Cheriyan, who hails from a small town in Kerala called Kayamkulam, is a practising Christian who moved to the Arab country over a decade ago in the year 2003.&nbsp;

He once noticed that Muslim workers, who lived in a worker accommodation, travelled for long to visit a mosque and offer prayers, Cheriyan was resolved to gift them a mosque near to their area of living, a dream which came true recently. As many as 250 worshippers can easily be accommodated in the building.&nbsp;

Mariam, Umm Eisa mosque stands at East Ville Real Estate complex in Al Hayl Industrial Area, UAE.

Cheriyan "opted for the name Mariam, Umm Eisa (Mary, the Mother of Jesus) for the mosque after an Abu Dhabi mosque was renamed so in 2017," a Facebook post described.

Mariam, Umm Eisa mosque stands at East Ville Real Estate complex in Al Hayl Industrial Area, UAE

The holy month of Ramadan brought good tidings for hundreds of Muslim workers in the UAE. Saji Cheriyan, a businessman from Kerala, build a mosque for Muslim worshippers in the UAE at the cost of whopping Rs 2.4 crores (Dh 1.3 million). Cheriyan, who hails from a small town in Kerala called Kayamkulam, is a practising Christian who moved to the Arab country over a decade ago in the year 2003. He once noticed that Muslim workers, who lived in a worker accommodation, travelled for long to visit a mosque and offer prayers, Cheriyan was resolved to gift them a mosque near to their area of living, a dream which came true recently. As many as 250 worshippers can easily be accommodated in the building. Mariam, Umm Eisa mosque stands at East Ville Real Estate complex in Al Hayl Industrial Area, UAE. Cheriyan "opted for the name Mariam, Umm Eisa (Mary, the Mother of Jesus) for the mosque after an Abu Dhabi mosque was renamed so in 2017," a Facebook post described.

For Ramadan, Christian expat gifts mosque worth Rs 2.4 crore to Muslim workers in UAE

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday called for unity among Muslims and efforts towards scientific advancement, saying this would make it impossible for "enemies" such as the United States to dominate Islamic countries.

Shi’ite Iran faces off with Western-allied Sunni Saudi Arabia for influence in the Middle East. The two regional powers back opposing sides in the conflicts in Yemen and Syria as well as rival political groups in Iraq and Lebanon.

"Today, every movement that leads to mutual understanding of Islamic groups and sects is a good thing, and this gathering is an example of the movement for the unification of the Islamic nation," said Khamenei in remarks carried by his official website.

"The scientific movement must accelerate and the Islamic nation must once again reach heights of science and civilization so that the enemies of Islam and the Americans cannot order around the heads of Islamic countries," Khamenei told a meeting about Shi'ite contributions to sciences.

Iran frequently calls for Islamic unity to help Tehran in its confrontation with its arch-foe, the United States.

Washington on Tuesday pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran, a move accompanied by the threat of penalties against any foreign firms doing business in Iran.

Tehran denies seeking atomic weapons and says its nuclear programme is for peaceful uses in areas including electricity, agriculture and medicine.

Iran frequently calls for Islamic unity to help Tehran in its confrontation with its arch-foe, the United States

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday called for unity among Muslims and efforts towards scientific advancement, saying this would make it impossible for "enemies" such as the United States to dominate Islamic countries. Shi’ite Iran faces off with Western-allied Sunni Saudi Arabia for influence in the Middle East. The two regional powers back opposing sides in the conflicts in Yemen and Syria as well as rival political groups in Iraq and Lebanon. "Today, every movement that leads to mutual understanding of Islamic groups and sects is a good thing, and this gathering is an example of the movement for the unification of the Islamic nation," said Khamenei in remarks carried by his official website. "The scientific movement must accelerate and the Islamic nation must once again reach heights of science and civilization so that the enemies of Islam and the Americans cannot order around the heads of Islamic countries," Khamenei told a meeting about Shi'ite contributions to sciences. Iran frequently calls for Islamic unity to help Tehran in its confrontation with its arch-foe, the United States. Washington on Tuesday pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran, a move accompanied by the threat of penalties against any foreign firms doing business in Iran. Tehran denies seeking atomic weapons and says its nuclear programme is for peaceful uses in areas including electricity, agriculture and medicine.

Iran urges Muslims to develop sciences to shake off US hegemony

Yoga Guru Ramdev on Tuesday said that Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan cannot be an ideal for India's integrity and unity.

Reacting to the ongoing protest in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) over the portrait of Jinnah, Ramdev added that the matter should not concern the Muslim community as they anyway do not believe in idol worship.

"Muslims do not believe in idol worship. So, they should not worry about this issue. Jinnah cannot be an ideal for India's integrity and unity, maybe he is for Pakistan," Ramdev said.

In Aligarh, some groups protested against the portrait of Pakistan`s founder at the office of AMU student union's office. The matter hit the headlines after Bharatiya Janata Party's Aligarh MP Satish Gautam questioned the portrait's presence in the AMU student union office.

Ramdev's remarks come within a week of union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi criticising suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, for praising Jinnah amid the controversy over his portrait at AMU. &nbsp;The minister had said Mr Aiyar's statement revealed the "true feelings of the Congress party".

The row over Jinnah made the headlines after BJP's Aligarh lawmaker Satish Gautam questioned the portrait's presence in the AMU student union office. AMU officials have said Jinnah was a founder-member of the university's court and was granted life membership of the student union.

(With inputs from ANI)

In Aligarh, some groups protested against the portrait of Pakistan`s founder at the office of AMU student union's office.

Yoga Guru Ramdev on Tuesday said that Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan cannot be an ideal for India's integrity and unity. Reacting to the ongoing protest in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) over the portrait of Jinnah, Ramdev added that the matter should not concern the Muslim community as they anyway do not believe in idol worship. "Muslims do not believe in idol worship. So, they should not worry about this issue. Jinnah cannot be an ideal for India's integrity and unity, maybe he is for Pakistan," Ramdev said. In Aligarh, some groups protested against the portrait of Pakistan`s founder at the office of AMU student union's office. The matter hit the headlines after Bharatiya Janata Party's Aligarh MP Satish Gautam questioned the portrait's presence in the AMU student union office. Ramdev's remarks come within a week of union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi criticising suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, for praising Jinnah amid the controversy over his portrait at AMU. The minister had said Mr Aiyar's statement revealed the "true feelings of the Congress party". The row over Jinnah made the headlines after BJP's Aligarh lawmaker Satish Gautam questioned the portrait's presence in the AMU student union office. AMU officials have said Jinnah was a founder-member of the university's court and was granted life membership of the student union. (With inputs from ANI)

Muslims don't believe in idols, they should not worry about Jinnah portrait issue:  Ramdev

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked India, China, Russia and Japan to collectively resolve the Rohingya crises.

She said she expects the countries to play a major role in resolving the crises.

Bangladesh PM raised the issue on her meet with UNSC delegation President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra.

She also urged the international community to continue putting up strong pressure on the Myanmar government to take back their Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh.&nbsp

"Myanmar should act in accordance with the agreement they have signed with Bangladesh (regarding the repatriation of the Rohingyas)," she said.

A Bangladesh media reports "Myanmar says its neighbour has only handed back 8,000 repatriation forms so far, many of them incomplete, delaying the return process."

According to the UN records, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape the violence and atrocities that prevails in Myanmar against the minorities.

The Rohingya deportation from Myanmar started since August 25, 2017 after the army launched a military crackdown on the minority community.

Myanmar does not consider Rohingya as an ethnic group and maintains that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country.

The UN has described the atrocities by the Myanmar military on Rohingya refugees as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing while the rights groups called it a genocide.

The majority community in Myanmar, Buddhist, however, rejects the charge of ethnic cleansing. The Buddhists maintain that the security forces launched a counter-insurgency operation on August 25 to retaliate the Rohingya militant attacks. 
&nbsp

She also urged the international community to continue putting up strong pressure on the Myanmar government to take back their Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked India, China, Russia and Japan to collectively resolve the Rohingya crises. She said she expects the countries to play a major role in resolving the crises. Bangladesh PM raised the issue on her meet with UNSC delegation President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra. She also urged the international community to continue putting up strong pressure on the Myanmar government to take back their Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh. "Myanmar should act in accordance with the agreement they have signed with Bangladesh (regarding the repatriation of the Rohingyas)," she said. A Bangladesh media reports "Myanmar says its neighbour has only handed back 8,000 repatriation forms so far, many of them incomplete, delaying the return process." According to the UN records, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape the violence and atrocities that prevails in Myanmar against the minorities. The Rohingya deportation from Myanmar started since August 25, 2017 after the army launched a military crackdown on the minority community. Myanmar does not consider Rohingya as an ethnic group and maintains that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country. The UN has described the atrocities by the Myanmar military on Rohingya refugees as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing while the rights groups called it a genocide. The majority community in Myanmar, Buddhist, however, rejects the charge of ethnic cleansing. The Buddhists maintain that the security forces launched a counter-insurgency operation on August 25 to retaliate the Rohingya militant attacks.

Bangladesh PM urges India, China, Japan, Russia to help in resolving Rohingya crises

The UN&nbsprefugee agency called a Myanmar minister's visit to Bangladesh to meet Muslim Rohingya refugees a confidence-building measure, but said conditions in Myanmar were not ready for their return.

Myanmar Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye, who heads rehabilitation efforts in Myanmar's troubled western Rakhine state, told about 50 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh on Wednesday that getting the repatriation process moving was top priority.

But the UN&nbspHigh Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday Myanmar was not prepared.

"Conditions in Myanmar are not yet conducive for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of refugees," it said in a statement, adding that the responsibility remains with the government to create such conditions.

According to UN&nbspofficials, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine to escape a military crackdown since August, amid reports of murder, rape and arson by Myanmar troops and Buddhist vigilantes which the United Nations has likened to "ethnic cleansing".

Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects the charge, saying its security forces launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation on Aug. 25 in response to Rohingya militant attacks.

The refugees are living in cramped camps in the port of Cox's Bazar and Bangladesh is keen for them to return home soon, especially with the oncoming monsoons expected to cause major devastation at the camps.

The UNHCR called on Myanmar to provide the agency unhindered access in Rakhine to assess the situation and monitor the return and reintegration of refugees if and when they voluntarily return.

Acknowledging the mistrust and fear of the Rohingya of Myanmar, Win Myat Aye told the group of refugees on Wednesday to set aside the past and to prepare to go back, promising new villages would be built with hospitals and schools.

But some refugees have said they are worried about going back, fearing persecution.

'Conditions in Myanmar are not yet conducive for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of refugees,' it said in a statement, adding that the responsibility remains with the government to create such conditions

The UN&nbsprefugee agency called a Myanmar minister's visit to Bangladesh to meet Muslim Rohingya refugees a confidence-building measure, but said conditions in Myanmar were not ready for their return. Myanmar Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye, who heads rehabilitation efforts in Myanmar's troubled western Rakhine state, told about 50 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh on Wednesday that getting the repatriation process moving was top priority. But the UN&nbspHigh Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday Myanmar was not prepared. "Conditions in Myanmar are not yet conducive for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of refugees," it said in a statement, adding that the responsibility remains with the government to create such conditions. According to UN&nbspofficials, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine to escape a military crackdown since August, amid reports of murder, rape and arson by Myanmar troops and Buddhist vigilantes which the United Nations has likened to "ethnic cleansing". Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects the charge, saying its security forces launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation on Aug. 25 in response to Rohingya militant attacks. The refugees are living in cramped camps in the port of Cox's Bazar and Bangladesh is keen for them to return home soon, especially with the oncoming monsoons expected to cause major devastation at the camps. The UNHCR called on Myanmar to provide the agency unhindered access in Rakhine to assess the situation and monitor the return and reintegration of refugees if and when they voluntarily return. Acknowledging the mistrust and fear of the Rohingya of Myanmar, Win Myat Aye told the group of refugees on Wednesday to set aside the past and to prepare to go back, promising new villages would be built with hospitals and schools. But some refugees have said they are worried about going back, fearing persecution.

Myanmar not ready for return of Rohingya Muslims, says UNHCR

The Rohingya crisis has put Bangladesh in the most difficult of positions. The international community has extended solidarity to Bangladesh but beyond that, there has been little financial assistance with when it comes rehabilitating the very large population - 1,000,000 - of Rohingya currently taking refuge in Bangladesh.&nbsp;

Nor has Myanmar been held accountable for its actions.&nbsp;

Until the apartheid in Myanmar is dismantled and the country's government held accountable for the atrocities that have been committed, repatriation of the Rohingya will not be sustainable. WION's Bangladesh bureau chief Saad Hammadi speaks to Dr Gowher Rizvi, international affairs advisor to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

WION: Dr Rizvi, thank you for speaking to WION. I would first like to ask you how you feel about the response from the international community?

Gowher Rizvi: At one level the response of the international community has been most heartening. In a sense there is hardly a country in the world which has not condemned Myanmar and has not supported and appreciated the gesture of Bangladesh in taking in about a million Myanmar refugees into the country. To that extent we are really pleased. However, just verbal support is not enough. We know that Myanmar is stubborn. It has no intention of moving away from its position. The only way to be moved is when pressure is brought on. Myanmar is playing a very skilful game. Whenever there is some discussion in the United Nations, whenever there is a possibility that this will be raised in some international forum, some movement takes place but the real test is the repatriation of the refugees back to Myanmar. No progress has been made there. Unfortunately, the international community has not taken sterner measures without which nothing seems to happen.

WION: With regard to the geopolitics in this area, Bangladesh's closest allies are India and China. How do you feel about their responses?

Gowher Rizvi: We have been in conversation both with China and India. We are really satisfied and happy with their responses. One thing which is very important to realise is that every country has multiple interests, multiple priorities. For India or China, Rohingya issue or Bangladesh or Myanmar cannot be the only issue. They have to balance many of their other interests. Secondly, we know we have excellent relationship with India and with China. We do not want to put India or China in a position where we say you are with us or against us. That is not how diplomacy is played out. They have offered their help, they are using their influence, they are bringing subtle pressures and we are working hand in hand. I believe both of them are working in the right direction, although as I said, we are now reaching a point where we have to perhaps move beyond closed room diplomacy to some real hard international actions.

WION: You have referred to more pressure being exerted on Myanmar to create the conditions for the repatriation to take place. What do you feel should be the immediate actions?

Gowher Rizvi: For first, Myanmar must accept international observers, must accept international humanitarian organisations, the UN agency, International Committee for Red Cross, International Organisation for Migration, who will be there on the ground to monitor the situation, to make sure that the environment is safe and free for the Rohingyas to return. Unless that happens, no refugee will willingly go back to face the same brutality, massacre, genocide that they escaped from in August and September.

WION: Very recently, you have also mentioned sanctions. Will you tell us more about what you meant?

Gowher Rizvi: It is very obvious. We know that there was a sanction against Myanmar to bring its hardline military rulers to behave and those sanctions were lifted as a response to the state counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the hope that there would be democracy, there would be opening of the Myanmar society and Myanmar would behave as a responsible member of the international community. Sadly, Myanmar took all the concessions but has not moved. The military still controls, the elected leaders wield very little power. In these circumstances our expectation that the removal of sanctions will enable democracy to flourish has not happened and as a matter of fact it has encouraged the military to launch this campaign of genocide, ethnic cleansing, the worst of its kind that we can remember. It is now time for countries to reconsider posing economic sanctions, military sanctions, travel restrictions, stopping foreign investment, denying access of market to Myanmar products. When these things happen, the military in Myanmar will come to senses. Until then I fear these will be all empty talks. Myanmar knows that after a while the global attention will shift somewhere else. Please remember, this is a very well designed, carefully planned genocide to push an entire ethnic group out of the country and we need to be very careful and remember that. I also believe we need to document all the egregious human rights violations that are taking place, the genocide that has taken place. At some point, I hope these human rights organisations, Human Rights Watch and so forth, will take these to the International Criminal Court of Justice.&nbsp;

WION: Clearly that would be the real test of humanity for the international community. While the Rohingya community have moved here to Bangladesh, in the southern Cox's Bazar, the monsoon is also approaching. A landslide could take place, how challenging will it be to avoid a catastrophe?

Gowher Rizvi: As you can see, Bangladesh is a very small country, extremely congested, by far the most densely populated country in the world. Despite that we have taken in a million people and opened up whatever we have, whatever little land that was available. We have housed them, we are feeding them, we are providing healthcare and we are providing security. Bangladesh is doing and will continue to do everything within its power. There is indeed the danger of mudslide because the terrain is such that there is going to be a mudslide. That is why we are also trying to make an alternative arrangement in a neighbouring island so that those who are most vulnerable can be safely evacuated there and in conditions which are habitable, which are up to the standards, meets the necessities of the refugees. We are doing everything we can. I think the international community, rather than focusing on Bangladesh and what more can Bangladesh do, should be looking into Myanmar. Bangladesh did not create this problem. The problem was created by Myanmar. The solution lies in Myanmar. Therefore, we should be looking there. As far as our prime minister is concerned, she has really done a very humane thing, a courageous thing to take them in. She has promised that she wants them to voluntarily go back. We are not pushing them. We have upheld the highest level of international and humanitarian law. And we will continue to do. I do believe the focus needs to be on Myanmar where the problem is.

I think we have to also be aware of the larger issues. What we are seeing today is a dictatorial, tyrannical regime ousting an entire ethnic community from the soils of Myanmar and if the global community accepts this, then I fear there will be upheaval in many corners. There are minorities in every country. Minorities in every country will come under threat. We need to be very mindful of that and we should not allow any country to get away with it. There is another thing that we need to be thinking about. This camp of a million people is a potential for recruitment of extremists. We are protecting it, we are making sure no such thing happens. But over years, as we have seen in other camps, this becomes a breeding ground for terrorists. If that happens, our entire region, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Thailand, none of us will be safe. The stakes are really high and we must move as fast as possible to make sure the root cause is eliminated.&nbsp;

Watch the full interview below:&nbsp;

<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hqhPmIu3gtc" width="560"></iframe>

Gowher Rizvi, international affairs adviser to Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, spoke to WION's Bangladesh bureau chief Saad Hammadi

The Rohingya crisis has put Bangladesh in the most difficult of positions. The international community has extended solidarity to Bangladesh but beyond that, there has been little financial assistance with when it comes rehabilitating the very large population - 1,000,000 - of Rohingya currently taking refuge in Bangladesh. Nor has Myanmar been held accountable for its actions. Until the apartheid in Myanmar is dismantled and the country's government held accountable for the atrocities that have been committed, repatriation of the Rohingya will not be sustainable. WION's Bangladesh bureau chief Saad Hammadi speaks to Dr Gowher Rizvi, international affairs advisor to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. WION: Dr Rizvi, thank you for speaking to WION. I would first like to ask you how you feel about the response from the international community? Gowher Rizvi: At one level the response of the international community has been most heartening. In a sense there is hardly a country in the world which has not condemned Myanmar and has not supported and appreciated the gesture of Bangladesh in taking in about a million Myanmar refugees into the country. To that extent we are really pleased. However, just verbal support is not enough. We know that Myanmar is stubborn. It has no intention of moving away from its position. The only way to be moved is when pressure is brought on. Myanmar is playing a very skilful game. Whenever there is some discussion in the United Nations, whenever there is a possibility that this will be raised in some international forum, some movement takes place but the real test is the repatriation of the refugees back to Myanmar. No progress has been made there. Unfortunately, the international community has not taken sterner measures without which nothing seems to happen. WION: With regard to the geopolitics in this area, Bangladesh's closest allies are India and China. How do you feel about their responses? Gowher Rizvi: We have been in conversation both with China and India. We are really satisfied and happy with their responses. One thing which is very important to realise is that every country has multiple interests, multiple priorities. For India or China, Rohingya issue or Bangladesh or Myanmar cannot be the only issue. They have to balance many of their other interests. Secondly, we know we have excellent relationship with India and with China. We do not want to put India or China in a position where we say you are with us or against us. That is not how diplomacy is played out. They have offered their help, they are using their influence, they are bringing subtle pressures and we are working hand in hand. I believe both of them are working in the right direction, although as I said, we are now reaching a point where we have to perhaps move beyond closed room diplomacy to some real hard international actions. WION: You have referred to more pressure being exerted on Myanmar to create the conditions for the repatriation to take place. What do you feel should be the immediate actions? Gowher Rizvi: For first, Myanmar must accept international observers, must accept international humanitarian organisations, the UN agency, International Committee for Red Cross, International Organisation for Migration, who will be there on the ground to monitor the situation, to make sure that the environment is safe and free for the Rohingyas to return. Unless that happens, no refugee will willingly go back to face the same brutality, massacre, genocide that they escaped from in August and September. WION: Very recently, you have also mentioned sanctions. Will you tell us more about what you meant? Gowher Rizvi: It is very obvious. We know that there was a sanction against Myanmar to bring its hardline military rulers to behave and those sanctions were lifted as a response to the state counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the hope that there would be democracy, there would be opening of the Myanmar society and Myanmar would behave as a responsible member of the international community. Sadly, Myanmar took all the concessions but has not moved. The military still controls, the elected leaders wield very little power. In these circumstances our expectation that the removal of sanctions will enable democracy to flourish has not happened and as a matter of fact it has encouraged the military to launch this campaign of genocide, ethnic cleansing, the worst of its kind that we can remember. It is now time for countries to reconsider posing economic sanctions, military sanctions, travel restrictions, stopping foreign investment, denying access of market to Myanmar products. When these things happen, the military in Myanmar will come to senses. Until then I fear these will be all empty talks. Myanmar knows that after a while the global attention will shift somewhere else. Please remember, this is a very well designed, carefully planned genocide to push an entire ethnic group out of the country and we need to be very careful and remember that. I also believe we need to document all the egregious human rights violations that are taking place, the genocide that has taken place. At some point, I hope these human rights organisations, Human Rights Watch and so forth, will take these to the International Criminal Court of Justice. WION: Clearly that would be the real test of humanity for the international community. While the Rohingya community have moved here to Bangladesh, in the southern Cox's Bazar, the monsoon is also approaching. A landslide could take place, how challenging will it be to avoid a catastrophe? Gowher Rizvi: As you can see, Bangladesh is a very small country, extremely congested, by far the most densely populated country in the world. Despite that we have taken in a million people and opened up whatever we have, whatever little land that was available. We have housed them, we are feeding them, we are providing healthcare and we are providing security. Bangladesh is doing and will continue to do everything within its power. There is indeed the danger of mudslide because the terrain is such that there is going to be a mudslide. That is why we are also trying to make an alternative arrangement in a neighbouring island so that those who are most vulnerable can be safely evacuated there and in conditions which are habitable, which are up to the standards, meets the necessities of the refugees. We are doing everything we can. I think the international community, rather than focusing on Bangladesh and what more can Bangladesh do, should be looking into Myanmar. Bangladesh did not create this problem. The problem was created by Myanmar. The solution lies in Myanmar. Therefore, we should be looking there. As far as our prime minister is concerned, she has really done a very humane thing, a courageous thing to take them in. She has promised that she wants them to voluntarily go back. We are not pushing them. We have upheld the highest level of international and humanitarian law. And we will continue to do. I do believe the focus needs to be on Myanmar where the problem is. I think we have to also be aware of the larger issues. What we are seeing today is a dictatorial, tyrannical regime ousting an entire ethnic community from the soils of Myanmar and if the global community accepts this, then I fear there will be upheaval in many corners. There are minorities in every country. Minorities in every country will come under threat. We need to be very mindful of that and we should not allow any country to get away with it. There is another thing that we need to be thinking about. This camp of a million people is a potential for recruitment of extremists. We are protecting it, we are making sure no such thing happens. But over years, as we have seen in other camps, this becomes a breeding ground for terrorists. If that happens, our entire region, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Thailand, none of us will be safe. The stakes are really high and we must move as fast as possible to make sure the root cause is eliminated. Watch the full interview below:

Rohingya crisis: Impose sanctions, cut off investment, then Myanmar Army will come to its senses, says adviser to Bangladesh PM 

Pope Francis issued a warning to Catholics who criticise his calls to welcome migrants with open arms, in a much-awaited text published Monday.

The Argentine pontiff has put the plight of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty at the heart of his five-year papacy, putting him at odds with a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in many parts of the world.&nbsp

In the third apostolic exhortation of his pontificate -- a guideline on how Catholics can strive for "holiness" -- the 81-year-old unexpectedly hit out at his critics.

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"Some Catholics consider the situation of migrants to be a secondary issue," he wrote.

"That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children."

Citing a passage from the Old Testament urging the welcoming of foreigners, Francis remarked sharply that the issue was not "a notion invented by some pope, or a momentary fad".

In April 2016, he flew to a Greek island on the frontline of the migrant crisis, Lesbos, and returned to Rome with three families of Syrian Muslims.

The pontiff also took the opportunity to reiterate his staunch opposition to abortion in the text entitled "Gaudete et exsultate" (Rejoice and be glad). &nbsp

"Our defence of the innocent unborn needs to be clear, firm and passionate," he said, adding that the "lives of the poor" were "equally sacred."

The first years of Francis' papacy were peppered with strong words against governments, which he has accused of not doing enough to welcome the millions of refugees and migrants fleeing their home countries.

But over the years, he has moderated his discourse, suggesting that host countries had the right to regulate the number of arrivals according to their capacity to accommodate and integrate foreigners.

"There are those who feel encouraged by the pope's stance on migrants and it is still a majority," Christophe Dufour, archbishop of the French city of Aix-en-Provence, told AFP.&nbsp

"And there is a small number who say: 'he is naive, let him come and live among migrants, it is not so simple'." &nbsp

The Argentine pontiff has put the plight of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty at the heart of his five-year papacy, putting him at odds with a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in many parts of the world

Pope Francis issued a warning to Catholics who criticise his calls to welcome migrants with open arms, in a much-awaited text published Monday. The Argentine pontiff has put the plight of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty at the heart of his five-year papacy, putting him at odds with a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in many parts of the world. In the third apostolic exhortation of his pontificate -- a guideline on how Catholics can strive for "holiness" -- the 81-year-old unexpectedly hit out at his critics. In April 2016, Francis flew to a Greek island on the frontline of the migrant crisis, Lesbos, and returned to Rome with three families of Syrian Muslims × "Some Catholics consider the situation of migrants to be a secondary issue," he wrote. "That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children." Citing a passage from the Old Testament urging the welcoming of foreigners, Francis remarked sharply that the issue was not "a notion invented by some pope, or a momentary fad". In April 2016, he flew to a Greek island on the frontline of the migrant crisis, Lesbos, and returned to Rome with three families of Syrian Muslims. The pontiff also took the opportunity to reiterate his staunch opposition to abortion in the text entitled "Gaudete et exsultate" (Rejoice and be glad). "Our defence of the innocent unborn needs to be clear, firm and passionate," he said, adding that the "lives of the poor" were "equally sacred." The first years of Francis' papacy were peppered with strong words against governments, which he has accused of not doing enough to welcome the millions of refugees and migrants fleeing their home countries. But over the years, he has moderated his discourse, suggesting that host countries had the right to regulate the number of arrivals according to their capacity to accommodate and integrate foreigners. "There are those who feel encouraged by the pope's stance on migrants and it is still a majority," Christophe Dufour, archbishop of the French city of Aix-en-Provence, told AFP. "And there is a small number who say: 'he is naive, let him come and live among migrants, it is not so simple'."

Pope hits out at critics of his pro-migrant policy

New Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Islam does not belong to Germany and set out hardline immigration policies in an interview published on Friday, as he sought to see off rising far-right challengers.

Seehofer told Bild newspaper he would push through a &quot;master plan for quicker deportations&quot;, in his first major interview since he was sworn into office on Wednesday.

The minister - a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel&#39;s CSU Bavarian allies who are further to the right than her own Christian Democrats (CDU) - said he would also classify more states as &#39;safe&#39; countries of origin, which would make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers.

The statements come after Merkel&#39;s conservatives, and their coalition allies - the Social Democrats - lost ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in elections last year.

Seehofer is particularly keen to show his party is tackling immigration ahead of Bavaria&#39;s October regional election when the AfD is expected to enter that state assembly.

&quot;Islam does not belong to Germany,&quot; Seehofer said, contradicting former German president Christian Wulff who fuelled a debate over immigration in 2010 by saying Islam was part of Germany.

In 2015 Merkel echoed Wulff&#39;s words at a time when anti-immigration campaign group PEGIDA - or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West - was holding marches.

&quot;Of course the Muslims living here do belong to Germany,&quot; Seehofer said before going on to say Germany should not give up its own traditions or customs, which had Christianity at their heart.

&quot;My message is: Muslims need to live with us, not next to us or against us,&quot; he said.

The government estimates between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims are living in Germany. Many of them have a Turkish background and many of the more than a million migrants who have arrived in the country from the Middle East and elsewhere after Merkel adopted an open-door policy in mid-2015 are also Muslims.

Andre Poggenburg, head of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony, said Seehofer was copying his party with a view to Bavaria&#39;s October regional election: &quot;Horst Seehofer has taken this message from our manifesto word for word,&quot; he said.

The far-left Linke and Greens condemned Seehofer&#39;s message, and the Social Democrats&#39; Natascha Kohnen told broadcaster n-tv: &quot;Saying that incites people against each other at a time when we really don&#39;t need that. What we really need is politicians who bring people together.&quot;

In a coalition agreement, Merkel&#39;s CDU/CSU conservative bloc and the Social Democrats agreed they would manage and limit migration to Germany and Europe to avoid a re-run of the 2015 refugee crisis.

They also said they did not expect migration (excluding labour migration) to rise above the range of 180,000 to 220,000 per year.

'My message is: Muslims need to live with us, not next to us or against us,' new Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said

New Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Islam does not belong to Germany and set out hardline immigration policies in an interview published on Friday, as he sought to see off rising far-right challengers. Seehofer told Bild newspaper he would push through a "master plan for quicker deportations", in his first major interview since he was sworn into office on Wednesday. The minister - a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CSU Bavarian allies who are further to the right than her own Christian Democrats (CDU) - said he would also classify more states as 'safe' countries of origin, which would make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers. The statements come after Merkel's conservatives, and their coalition allies - the Social Democrats - lost ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in elections last year. Seehofer is particularly keen to show his party is tackling immigration ahead of Bavaria's October regional election when the AfD is expected to enter that state assembly. "Islam does not belong to Germany," Seehofer said, contradicting former German president Christian Wulff who fuelled a debate over immigration in 2010 by saying Islam was part of Germany. In 2015 Merkel echoed Wulff's words at a time when anti-immigration campaign group PEGIDA - or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West - was holding marches. "Of course the Muslims living here do belong to Germany," Seehofer said before going on to say Germany should not give up its own traditions or customs, which had Christianity at their heart. "My message is: Muslims need to live with us, not next to us or against us," he said. The government estimates between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims are living in Germany. Many of them have a Turkish background and many of the more than a million migrants who have arrived in the country from the Middle East and elsewhere after Merkel adopted an open-door policy in mid-2015 are also Muslims. Andre Poggenburg, head of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony, said Seehofer was copying his party with a view to Bavaria's October regional election: "Horst Seehofer has taken this message from our manifesto word for word," he said. The far-left Linke and Greens condemned Seehofer's message, and the Social Democrats' Natascha Kohnen told broadcaster n-tv: "Saying that incites people against each other at a time when we really don't need that. What we really need is politicians who bring people together." In a coalition agreement, Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc and the Social Democrats agreed they would manage and limit migration to Germany and Europe to avoid a re-run of the 2015 refugee crisis. They also said they did not expect migration (excluding labour migration) to rise above the range of 180,000 to 220,000 per year.

Facing far-right challenge, minister says Islam doesn't belong to Germany

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday lauded India&#39;s cultural diversity, saying multiple faiths and schools of thought co-exist peacefully in the county.&nbsp;

Speaking at a meeting with Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics in Hyderabad on Thursday night, Rouhani, who arrived on a three-day India visit, said Islam is not a religion of violence, but one of moderation.

&quot;India is a living museum of different ethnicities and religions peacefully co-existing. This process is going on for centuries. Shia, Sunnis, Sufis, Hindus, Sikhs and others are living together. They together built their country and built their civilization,&quot; he said in his speech in Persian.

&quot;We see a lot of temples, other places of worship, and they are living in peace. They are having peaceful co-existence,&quot; he said.

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif also spoke at the event.

Rouhani, who arrived on a three-day India visit, said Islam is not a religion of violence, but one of moderation

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday lauded India's cultural diversity, saying multiple faiths and schools of thought co-exist peacefully in the county. Speaking at a meeting with Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics in Hyderabad on Thursday night, Rouhani, who arrived on a three-day India visit, said Islam is not a religion of violence, but one of moderation. "India is a living museum of different ethnicities and religions peacefully co-existing. This process is going on for centuries. Shia, Sunnis, Sufis, Hindus, Sikhs and others are living together. They together built their country and built their civilization," he said in his speech in Persian. "We see a lot of temples, other places of worship, and they are living in peace. They are having peaceful co-existence," he said. Iran Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif also spoke at the event.

Muslims, non-Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs are coexisting in peace in India: Iranian President

President Donald Trump&#39;s travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries violates the US&nbsp;Constitution by discriminating on the basis of religion, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in another legal setback for the policy.

The Richmond-based 4th US&nbsp;Circuit Court of Appeals, on a 9-4 vote, became the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban, which was put in place by Trump with a presidential proclamation in September. The US&nbsp;Supreme Court has allowed the ban to go into effect while litigation challenging it continues.

The 4th Circuit ruling went further than the earlier decision by the San Francisco-based 9th US&nbsp;Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the ban violated federal immigration law but did not address the question of whether it violated the Constitution. The Supreme Court already has said it will consider both issues in deciding the legality of the ban in the coming months.

The justices are due in April to hear arguments over the ban and issue a ruling by the end of June.

&quot;Examining official statements from President Trump and other executive branch officials, along with the proclamation itself, we conclude that the proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam,&quot; 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the ruling.

Trump&#39;s policy, the third version of the ban that he has issued since taking office in January 2017, blocks entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The Republican president has said the policy is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.

The justices are due in April to hear arguments over the ban and issue a ruling by the end of June

President Donald Trump's travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries violates the US Constitution by discriminating on the basis of religion, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in another legal setback for the policy. The Richmond-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, on a 9-4 vote, became the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban, which was put in place by Trump with a presidential proclamation in September. The US Supreme Court has allowed the ban to go into effect while litigation challenging it continues. The 4th Circuit ruling went further than the earlier decision by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the ban violated federal immigration law but did not address the question of whether it violated the Constitution. The Supreme Court already has said it will consider both issues in deciding the legality of the ban in the coming months. The justices are due in April to hear arguments over the ban and issue a ruling by the end of June. "Examining official statements from President Trump and other executive branch officials, along with the proclamation itself, we conclude that the proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam," 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the ruling. Trump's policy, the third version of the ban that he has issued since taking office in January 2017, blocks entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The Republican president has said the policy is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.

US court says Trump travel ban unlawfully discriminates against Muslims

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