Human Rights

20 April 2022; MEMO: China, on Wednesday, criticised Sweden after a recent incident took place involving the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"Freedom of speech cannot be a reason to incite racial or cultural discrimination and tear society apart," said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, referring to the incident that triggered widespread condemnation across the Muslim world.

20 April 2022; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett requesting that he authorise the transfer of control of the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in the Christian Quarter of occupied East Jerusalem to Moscow.

Israeli sources said yesterday that Israel was handling the matter, without elaborating, Haaretz reported.

19 April 2022; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates has summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest against occupation forces storming Al-Aqsa Mosque and injuring over 150 Palestinians, the Gulf State's Foreign Ministry said today, Reuters reports.

Reem Bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, UAE minister of state for international cooperation, stressed the need "to immediately stop these events [and] provide full protection for worshippers," the ministry said in a statement.

20 April 2022; MEMO: Israel is beginning to impose temporal and spatial divisions of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the deputy director of the Islamic Awqaf in Occupied Jerusalem has warned.

The Palestinian Information Centre reported Sheikh Najeh Bakirat accusing the occupation of making efforts to impose its administrative control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and end Jordan's role as the custodian of the holy site.

20 April 2022; MEMO: The arrest and imprisonment of journalist Ahmed Al-Bahey has raised the number of reporters in Egypt's jails to 70, according to the Arab Observatory for Media Freedom.

Al-Bahey, a correspondent for the independent news website Masrawy, was arrested from his home at 6am on 16 April and accused of "inciting violence".

The prosecutor ordered that Al-Bahey be held on remand for four days.

New Delhi, Apr 20 (PTI) Malika Bibi's hopes to secure a better future for her children shattered when her fruits and vegetables shop, the sole source of her income, was razed by civic authorities at violence-hit Jahangirpuri in northwest Delhi on Wednesday.

A similar tale of woe was narrated by Nazma, whose sister Rahima "lost everything" as her tea shop near the C-Block mosque at Jahangirpuri was razed to the ground by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) during an anti-encroachment drive.

19 April 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has criticised "some countries in the region" who have normalised relations with Israel, saying this encouraged the occupation state to exacerbate its attacks against Palestinians.

Speaking to reporters during his weekly press conference yesterday, Khatibzadeh also criticised the international community's silence regarding Israeli crimes, noting that his country "has taken measures in this regard at the level of international organisations".

19 April 2022; MEMO: Egyptian authorities have put the country in a state of high security after an online petition calling on the president to stand down began circulating.

According to the New Arab, Egypt's Technocrats, which the expats who launched the petition are known as, have asked for the upper and lower houses to be suspended.

They are also calling for confidence to be withdrawn from Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's rule due to an array of failures, including his mismanagement of the economy.

19 April 2022; MEMO: Head of the National Democratic Alliance, Member of the Israeli Knesset Sami Abu Shehadeh, said he received hundreds of death threats following his criticism of Israel's occupation and its aggression on Palestinians, Arab48 reported yesterday.

19 April 2022; MEMO: Illegal Israeli settlers held a concert at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron yesterday to mark Passover, after occupation forces banned Palestinian worshippers from accessing the Muslim holy site.

The Palestinian Islamic Endowments in Hebron said the Ibrahimi Mosque would close at 10pm on Sunday and would remain closed for two days. This, it said, was a blatant encroachment on its sanctity and a provocative violation of Muslims' right to access their place of worship.