Date: 2012/07/16 - 10:26 source: OnIslam print

[size=14pt]Ethiopian security forces killed four Muslims in a Mosque[/size]

According to reports Ethiopian federal police stormed the Awolia mosque compound late Friday, July 13, and attacked Muslim volunteers inside.

Ethiopian security forces killed four Muslims in a Mosque

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - At least four Muslims were shot dead when Ethiopian security forces stormed into a mosque in the capital Addis Ababa to disrupt preparations for a city-wide program called Sadaqa (feast).

Sources said security forces fired teargas and beat Muslims gathering inside the building.

At least four people were reportedly killed in the attack, while several others were seriously injured.

The volunteers were preparing for food and drinks for a city-wide program called Sadaqa (feast) on Sunday, July 15.

Witnesses also confirmed the brutal police attack on Muslims inside the mosque.

"They broke the door and entered and started shooting at Muslims,” Ahmedin Jebel, representing a mosque community group, told Bloomberg.

“Many were attacked and they arrested almost all of those there.”

After a call to prayers, Muslims who gathered in response to the incident were involved in further clashes, he said.

Police closed all roads leading to Awolia from all directions.

Thousands of Ethiopian Muslims streamed toward the capital's largest mosque on Saturday in response to distress calls that were heard from minarets throughout Friday night following the police attack.

Ahmedin said thousands of Muslims gathered at the mosque in the Mercato area to demand the release of all those arrested.

Friday's attack follows the arrest of two members of a committee elected by Ethiopian Muslims to formally voice protests of Muslims against government's interference in their religious affairs.

In April, four Muslims were killed in clashes with police in southern Ethiopia in protest at the arrest of a Muslim preacher.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, is home to 60 percent Christian and about 34 percent Muslim, according to CIA Factbook.

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code: 328485 Date: 2012/07/11 - 23:10 source: Onislam.net

Greek Muslims Forced to Go Underground

Public enmity to mosques and a crunching economic crisis are stalling plans to build Muslim worship places in Greece, forcing worshippers to go underground to fulfil their religious duties.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "All the other religions here -- Jews, Buddhists -- they have a place but we do not," Osama al-Najjar, 48, a petroleum industry supervisor, told SETimes on Wednesday, July 11.

"If we want to observe our religion, we have to do it underground. "We are not doing anything wrong," he said. Greek Muslims have long called for building a grand mosque to accommodate the religious needs of the growing Muslim minority.

Despite objections from its powerful Orthodox Church, Greece had pledged to build a mosque in Athens to serve the city's growing Muslim minority.

But the crunching economic crisis, coupled with public enmity associating mosques with the Ottoman presence, has prevented the pledge from being translated into action.

This has left Greek Muslims with no other option but to use basement apartments, coffee shops, garages and warehouses for worshipping.

"Who could come here and pray five times a day?” asked Naim Elghandour, 57, chairman of the Muslim Association of Greece, which claims nearly 18,000 members.

"All these makeshift mosques are not legal.” Decked with minarets two centuries ago, Athens has not had a functioning mosque since the end of Ottoman rule in the early 1800s.

About 130 windowless, airless basements or warehouses in Athens currently serve as makeshift mosques for an estimated 200,000 Muslims in the Greek capital.

Tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants perform prayers in private homes and have had to travel hundreds of kilometers to northern Greece for weddings, burials and other ceremonies.
The Orthodox Church has for years insisted that Greeks were not ready to see a minaret in downtown Athens.

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[size=14pt]China curbs Ramadan fasting in Xinjiang [/size]

Authorities forbid Communist Party cadres, civil officials and students from marking Ramadan in mainly Muslim province.

Last Modified: 01 Aug 2012 15:43


Chinese authorities in the northwestern province of Xinjiang have banned Muslim officials and students from fasting during the month of Ramadan, prompting an exiled rights group to warn of new violence.

Guidance posted on numerous government websites called on Communist Party leaders to restrict Muslim religious activities during the holy month, including fasting and visiting mosques.

Xinjiang is home to about nine million Uighurs, largely a Muslim ethnic minority, many of whom accuse China's leaders of religious and political persecution.

The region has been rocked by repeated outbreaks of ethnic violence, but China denies claims of repression and relies on tens of thousands of Uighur officials to help it govern the province.

A statement from Zonglang township in Xinjiang's Kashgar district said that "the county committee has issued comprehensive policies on maintaining social stability during the Ramadan period.

"It is forbidden for Communist Party cadres, civil officials (including those who have retired) and students to participate in Ramadan religious activities."

The statement, posted on the Xinjiang government website, urged party leaders to bring "gifts" of food to local village leaders to ensure that they were eating during Ramadan.

Similar orders on curbing Ramadan activities were posted on other local government websites, with the educational bureau of Wensu county urging schools to ensure that students do not enter mosques during Ramadan.

'Administrative methods'
During Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more closer to God, pious and charitable.

An exiled rights group, the World Uyghur Congress, warned the policy would force "the Uighur people to resist [Chinese rule] even further."

"By banning fasting during Ramadan, China is using administrative methods to force the Uighur people to eat in an effort to break the fasting," said group spokesman Dilshat Rexit in a statement.

Xinjiang saw its worst ethnic violence in recent times in July, 2009, when Uighurs attacked members of the nation's dominant Han ethnic group in the city of Urumqi, sparking clashes in which 200 people from both sides died, according to the government.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/08/201281113456325751.html