Christians and Muslims say it will be necessary for people to come together to mourn
The Church of England is planning to hold services of mourning in parish churches and cathedrals later this year for people who have died of Covid-19.
A national service of remembrance is also possible when large gatherings of people are permitted – possibly on the anniversary of lockdown next March.
Continue reading...Istanbul has become world’s largest diaspora hub for Uighurs fleeing Chinese persecution
In Hayrı Gül’s house, there was a lot to do before the Eid al-Fitr, or Bayram, holiday marking the end of Ramadan began on Saturday. There were traditional sangza noodles to bake, then twist into ropes and pile into pyramids. Special occasion clothes needed to be washed and ironed.
Celebrating the Muslim holiday is a freedom Gül and her four children did not have at home in China’s western Xinjiang province, the Uighur homeland, where over the last few years the authorities have suffocated the ethnic minority’s cultural practices and turned the entire region into a police state subject to strict surveillance even inside their homes. Up to 1 million people have disappeared into re-education camps in what China says is a necessary measure to stamp out extremism.
Continue reading...Despite lockdowns and curfews, streets in Jordan and Iran are busy for the end of Ramadan
Outside bakeries in downtown Amman, queues stretched along the street and down the block. Nut retailers were mobbed, and sweet shops were down to their last desserts. It was as if coronavirus had never existed.
The nights before Eid al-Fitr, the festival that ends the fasting month of Ramadan and which began on Sunday at dawn, are always busy. But this year the urgency was greater: Jordanians are celebrating this holiday under three days of full curfew. Everything is closed and nobody is allowed out of their homes for any reason.
Normally we’d wake up, take our kids to pray, and visit family and friends. It was cheerful, we felt joy
Continue reading...Lab director says Trump claims virus escaped ‘pure fabrication’; fears of US second wave as states relax restrictions for start of summer
The virology lab in Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak, was working on three live strains of bat coronavirus, but none of them match the one that has caused the Covid-19 pandemic, its director has said.
Wang Yanyi told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN that the closest genetic match to the virus spreading around the world was only 79.8%, adding that claims made by US president Donald Trump and others that the virus could have leaked from the facility were “pure fabrication”.
Related: America begins to unlock for summer – but is it inviting a disastrous second wave?
Argentina extended the mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires until 7 June and tightened some movement restrictions, after a steady increase in the city’s confirmed coronavirus cases in recent days.
Brazil registered 965 new deaths on Saturday, taking total fatalities to 22,013, the Health Ministry said. The country now has 347,398 confirmed cases, according to the ministry, up 16,508 from Friday, when it surpassed Russia to become the world’s virus hot spot behind the US.
French churches were preparing to hold their first Sunday masses in more than two months after the government bowed to a ruling that they should be reopened. Churches, mosques and synagogues can reopen if appropriate distancing and hygiene rules are applied.
Continue reading...The end of Ramadan is a time to be with family. So this year we will congregate online – a luxury older generations never had
As we approach the end of Ramadan, the Eid al-Fitr celebrations will be taking place this weekend. Yet Eid is going to look and feel very different this year. That for British Muslims it’s taking place in lockdown, through a global pandemic, is painful and heartbreaking.
Eid al-Fitr follows weeks of fasting and marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. It is full of rituals and traditions that involve the entire family: we put on new clothes and attend prayers, followed by a rich breakfast of roasted vermicelli (sawaiyan), sweet halwa and channa curry. The feast continues with an elaborate lunch, at least it does in our household: my mother is not happy until there is chicken biryani, haleem, fried fish, lamb chops and kebabs.
Aisha Riaz is assistant production editor at the Guardian Guide
No confirmed new cases for China; major car rental firm files for US bankruptcy; fears thousands will breach Eid travel ban in Indonesia
China has recorded no new confirmed cases of coronavirus for the first time since the outbreak began, as Muslims around the world prepared for Eid celebrations under a range of restrictions.
Beijing’s National Health Commission said on Saturday there were only two suspected cases in mainland China: in Shanghai and in the north-eastern Jilian province. New asymptomatic cases fell to 28 from 35 a day earlier, it said.
Continue reading...Mosques to host prayers online with festivities restricted due to lockdown measures
Muslims across Britain are preparing to celebrate Eid al-Fitr remotely this weekend, with many mosques set to host virtual prayers during continued lockdown measures.
The religious festival marking the end of Ramadan usually brings families and friends together for communal prayers, food and to exchange gifts.
Related: 'It's been life-changing': Ramadan during UK lockdown
Continue reading...Foundation seeks to convert part of historic building into mosque and community centre
A plan to convert part of the famous Trocadero building in Piccadilly Circus in London into a mosque has sparked objections from people who say a place of worship in an area noted for its bars and nightlife is inappropriate.
The Aziz Foundation, a charity that offers educational grants and scholarships to Muslims, has applied to Westminster city council for permission to convert the basement and ground floor of the Trocadero into a place of worship and a community centre.
There is a lack of capacity for Muslims to pray in the West End
Related: London Central mosque given Grade II* listed status
Continue reading...Some of Britain’s estimated 2.6 million Muslims tell how the holy month has felt very different
As places of worship remain closed and large gatherings continue to be banned due to the coronavirus outbreak, Britain’s estimated 2.6 million Muslims are observing Ramadan in new ways.
Where people would pray together in mosques or join their neighbours for the evening iftar meal, families now say the nightly taraweeh prayers at home, or break their fasts alone.
Continue reading...Leading academics and a major Muslim advocacy group voice alarm over bill that would allow questioning of 14-year-olds
The Morrison government is facing pushback from leading academics and from a major Muslim advocacy group about new powers allowing the domestic spy agency to question people as young as 14.
The dean of law at the University of New South Wales, George Williams, said the government’s proposed new law was a case of “overreach” and agency powers kept being increased “in what typically is a one-way street without any sense of what the endgame is”.
Related: Australians’ personal freedoms could be under serious threat with the new Asio bill | Pauline Wright
Related: Asio could question children and more easily use more tracking devices under new powers
Continue reading...Thomas Hegghammer delivers a meticulously researched account of a charismatic Islamist
Abdallah Azzam is not exactly a household name – at least when compared with the far more notorious Osama bin Laden. But the militant Palestinian cleric who inspired and mobilised Arabs to come to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s is the most important jihadist figure before the birth of al-Qaida and the continuing consequences of the 9/11 attacks on the US.
Azzam is still revered by many who believe that the Islamic ummah (community/nation) matters more and has greater legitimacy than individual authoritarian Arab and Muslim states. Mosques, fighting units, training camps and websites have been named after him since he was assassinated in Pakistan in 1989. Fans maintain Twitter and Telegram accounts. Uncritical and heroic accounts of his achievements abound – in Arabic and English.
Azzam was seen, in Hegghammer’s spot-on if unacademic phrases, as a 'jihadi with balls' and an 'Islamist rock star'
Continue reading...Measure could help ensure physical distancing once coronavirus controls are eased
Churches may introduce ticket-only services when they reopen this summer to ensure congregations observe physical distancing.
A ticket system is one option being considered by Anglican churches and other places of worship when they are permitted to unlock their doors under step three of the government’s recovery strategy, to be implemented on 4 July at the earliest.
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on face masks has remained consistent during the coronavirus pandemic. It has stuck to the line that masks are for healthcare workers – not the public.
Related: Catholic churches 'should be allowed to reopen before others'
Continue reading...This year, Islam’s holiest month has been held in lockdown in Australia. Mufti Zeeyad Ravat, from Melbourne, sees some positives: ‘It’s bonding families’
Mufti Zeeyad Ravat is an Islamic scholar, an authority on the day-to-day practice of Islam. His path to Australia was a circuitous one, from his birthplace in Johannesburg, South Africa, through India, Syria (where he studied Arabic), Brazil, Brisbane and Melbourne. In March last year, he travelled to New Zealand to lead a prayer service in Christchurch after 50 worshipers at a mosque were slaughtered.
Ravat, 39, is a bundle of energy, his arms waving to make a point, one leg tucked underneath him on a recliner in his home in Dandenong in south-east Melbourne. The everyday noise of family life (he is married with five children) break through from the next room as he explains how important Ramadan is, and how the coronavirus pandemic has upended its rituals.
Related: The start of something new: a homeless family's respite at a boutique hotel amid the pandemic
God creates everything, whether it is a plague or whether it’s good times
Continue reading...One gurdwara in Kent is delivering hundreds of meals daily to hospitals, care homes and vulnerable
They start at 4am, chopping vegetables, mixing spices, soaking legumes, kneading chapati dough. Scores of volunteers are split into five teams working in shifts: cooking, packing, delivering, cleaning and answering the phones.
By the end of the day, at least 850 meals have been delivered to staff at five nearby hospitals, care homes and vulnerable individuals. Some days, the number hits 1,000.
Related: Hospital staff urge meal donors to feed the needy as well
Continue reading...Mohammed Zahir Khan claims early release legislation discriminates against Muslims
A prisoner convicted of stirring up religious hatred has won the first round in his legal challenge to emergency legislation preventing early automatic release of terrorism offenders.
Lawyers for Mohammed Zahir Khan, who is serving four-and-a-half years, are arguing that the Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Act, which only became law in February, discriminates against Muslims.
Continue reading...Mosque has transformed railway arches into mortuary in just over two weeks
The final few snagging jobs were still in progress at the end of a lightning conversion of railway arches into an emergency morgue as the first bodies arrived.
A smell of fresh paint hung in the air; a few toolboxes lay on the concrete floor. The nearby East London Mosque had transformed the space, normally used to store vehicles, into a Covid-19 mortuary in a little over a fortnight.
Continue reading...Young people lead resurgence of faith, and Vicar of Dibley tops a poll as the best screen priest to lead nation through the crisis
A quarter of adults in the UK have watched or listened to a religious service since the coronavirus lockdown began, and one in 20 have started praying during the crisis, according to a new survey.
The findings of the poll reinforce indications of an increase in the numbers of people turning to faith for succour amid uncertainty and despair.
Continue reading...Mubarak Bala, head of humanist association, taken to Kano after Facebook posts criticising Islam
A prominent Nigerian humanist accused of blasphemy has been arrested and taken to the northern city of Kano, according to figures close to him.
Mubarak Bala, the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was taken from his home on 28 April in neighbouring Kaduna state and taken to Kano, where a warrant for his arrest was issued, Leo Igwe, a fellow Nigerian humanist and human rights advocate, said.
Continue reading...