An important comparison
Between two Prime Minister:
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August 26, 2019
Dr. Ashrawi: Time for Trump to understand that
Palestine will not disappear, and Palestinian rights are not for sale - Ali Kazak
"The
recent statement made by U.S President Donald Trump in France reflects his
ignorance and limited knowledge of the complexities and the historical
background of the Palestinian question. This ignorance has also been evident in
the actions and the biased positions taken by Trump and his administration
towards critical issues, including the endorsement of Israel's illegal
annexation of occupied Jerusalem as well as the malicious
campaign against UNRWA and Palestine refugees.
campaign against UNRWA and Palestine refugees.
The current U.S administration has
proven to be complicit in Israeli crimes and has lost the credibility and
capability to be a potential peace broker. Using humanitarian aid as a coercive
tool and de-funding schools and hospitals has destructive implications and will
aggravate the deteriorating humanitarian situation here. It is time for the
Trump administration to realize the fact that Palestinian American policies
under this administration are dangerously delusional, as also evident in the
State Department's recent omission of all reference to Palestine and its
people. This omission will not make us disappear. It will not alter the fact
that Palestine is recognized by 140 states and represented in international
bodies, including the UN. Right sand
dignity are not for sale.
Throughout history, Palestinians have remained steadfast and resilient. We will continue to pursue our non-negotiable rights of self-determination and freedom with unwavering resolve. To that end, Palestine will continue to work with responsible international partners who share our commitment to the international rules-based order and recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable rights to self-determination and freedom."
http://www.dci.plo.ps/en/article/13376/Dr-Ashrawi-Time-for-Trump-to-understand-that-Palestine-will-not-disappear-and-that-Palestinian-rights-are-not-for-sale
Throughout history, Palestinians have remained steadfast and resilient. We will continue to pursue our non-negotiable rights of self-determination and freedom with unwavering resolve. To that end, Palestine will continue to work with responsible international partners who share our commitment to the international rules-based order and recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable rights to self-determination and freedom."
http://www.dci.plo.ps/en/article/13376/Dr-Ashrawi-Time-for-Trump-to-understand-that-Palestine-will-not-disappear-and-that-Palestinian-rights-are-not-for-sale
U.S. Jews Have Only Themselves to Blame
for Trump's anti-Semitic Tropes. Listen to Gideon Levy
By blindly and
automatically supporting Israel, the Jewish establishment in the U.S. proves
that American-Jewish liberalism ends where the occupation starts. LISTEN
FREE
Aug 25, 2019
Host Simon Spungin is
joined by senior Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who has
harsh words for theAmerican-Jewish
establishment, which he accuses of supporting the occupation
policies of the Israeli government.
Gideon also tells us
about his visit to
the ancestral home of U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Talib, who,
along with Ilhan Omar, was banned
from entering Israel last week over their support of the boycott
movement.
US Award for Nigerian
Imam Who Saved 300 Christians.
The
US has conferred the 1st ‘International Religious Freedom Award’ on an
84-year-old Nigerian imam who selflessly risked his own life to shelter and
protect Christians during June 2018 attacks in Nghar Yelwa village,
central Nigeria.
“Imam
Abubakar Abdullahi selflessly risked his own life to save members of
another religious community, who would have likely been killed without his intervention,”
US State Department published on its website.“Imam
Abdullahi’s courage in the face of imminent danger and his history of outreach
across religious divides demonstrates his lifelong commitment to promoting
interfaith understanding and peace.”
The
awards ceremony was hosted by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday,
July 17.
The
award honors extraordinary advocates of religious freedom from around the
world.
Abubakar
received the award alongside Ivanir dos Santos of Brazil, William and Pascale
Warda from Iraq, and Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud from Cyprus.
The
imam’s courageous action came to public after reports revealed how he saved
about 300 persons when suspected Fulani herdsmen invaded about 15 communities
in Barkin Ladi LGA, killing scores.
“I
hid the women in my personal house and after that, I took the men into the
mosque and hid them there,” Imam Abubakar said at the time of the attack.
Honors At Home
After
the award, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday that he is
delighted at award conferred on Imam Abdullahi.
“On
behalf of the Federal Government, President Buhari heartily congratulates Imam
Abubakar on the well-deserved honour by no less a credible and formidable
government agency of the United States,” Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu,
wrote in a statement cited by Premium Times Nigeria on
Thursday.
“The
president recommends the sterling virtues of Imam Abdullahi to all clerics, in
particular, and Nigerians in general.
“He
also strongly affirms the commitment of this administration to freedom of
religion and worship for all Nigerians, as guaranteed by the Constitution,
stressing that under no circumstance will any religion or faith be imposed on
the nation.
~ Y a s m i n ~
The Uighur Muslim crisis is worse than you think
By CJ Werleman
The New Arab, 9 July 2018
For the past several years, barely more than a trickle of information has seeped out of the tightly controlled Chinese occupied territory, but what we do know suggests China is using an array of brutal measures to eradicate any vestige of Uighur culture.
These measures include a total ban on any form of expression of Islam in Xinjiang. China has not only shut down mosques, but also has banned all Islamic texts, including the Quran, while Muslim sounding names are also outlawed, as are beards and clothing that suggest adherence to the Islamic faith.
More recently, China has made it mandatory for all Uighur Muslims to have their motorbikes and cars fitted with a GPS tracking device, so that authorities can pinpoint any Uighur at any given moment.
If you're thinking this sounds like the making a dystopian futuristic novel, then consider also the fact that Chinese police in the province have been fitted out with "smart glasses," which use facial recognition software to identify Uighur Muslims on trains, buses and in public places.
Linked to a central database, the "smart glasses" are designed to notify a patrolling officer when a Uighur Muslim has moved beyond his orher 'safe area', that is home or place of work.
These hard-line measures form just the tip of the iceberg, however. Uighur Muslims who refuse to give up their Muslim identity are forced into what China calls "re-education camps", which are designed to convert Uighur Muslims to the official ideology of the state: Atheism.
"We target people who are religious… for example, those who grow beards despite being young," one Chinese government officer admitted in a report.
According to reports from human rights watchers, China has ordered its officials in Xinjiang to send almost half of its population to "re-education camps." For those who stubbornly defy China's indoctrination programme, prison or forced disappearance awaits.
Alarmingly, these reports do little to convey the extent of the horror taking place against Uighur Muslims in East Turkistan today.
When I spoke with Sadam Musapir, a Uighur Muslim who successfully applied for asylum seeker status in 2017 while on a student visa in Australia, he told me China is now incarcerating any Uighur Muslim who attempts to travel abroad. His wife and nine-month-old child suffered just that, as the authorities fear the world will learn the full depth and breadth of China's orchestrated campaign to culturally eradicate the Uighur people.
"In 60 days’ time from now, when my baby son, who I haven't seen yet turns one year of age, China will imprison my wife for five years, and then sell my baby to adoption agencies," Musapir told me.
When I asked why China was taking this action against his wife and child, he explained that they arrested her for trying to leave the country to join him in Australia. "China is desperate for the world not to know what is happening there [Xinjiang]," said Musapir.
His account tallies with that of Seven Zhang, a Hui Muslim who now resides in the United States. Zhang explained to me that his wife was arrested and falsely accused of illegally crossing the border on 18 January, 2016, and taken to Jinwuhzen Police Department. Less than four weeks after her arrest, Zhang's cancer-stricken wife fell into a coma after being subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
In the weeks and months following his wife's death, Zhang demanded justice from his government, but instead of compensation or even a hearing, Zhang alleges Chinese authorities tried to kill him in what he described as a "motorcycle accident manipulation".
When I asked what he meant by "traffic accident manipulation," he told me a common method deployed by Chinese authorities to silence critics, is to dress up an assassination to look like a motor accident.
Fearing for his life, Zhang fled China for the United States in 2017, where he still lives today, but in constant fear his home country will come seeking vengeance.
This effort by China to keep a lid on what is taking place under its watch in Xinjiang was also recently documented by The Washington Post, detailing the lengths Chinese authorities are willing to go to in order to silence those who threaten to expose their efforts to ethnically cleanse the Uighur Muslim population.
"China's security services have detained several close relatives of four US-based reporters working for Radio Free Asia in an apparent attempt to intimidate or punish them for their coverage of the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region," writes The Washington Post. One of the relatives of those arrested said, "Chinese authorities have contacted family members living in Xinjiang, urging them to ask him to stop calling and reporting on events in the region."
Despite what the international community knows about China's grave injustices against the Uighur people, international bodies, such as the United Nations, have failed to intervene or even offer stern condemnation.
This global silence can be partly blamed on China attempting to anchor Uighur Muslim aspirations for liberation with "War on Terror" discourse, with China successfully convincing the United States and its allies that it, like them, was at war with "radical Islam".
This global silence can be partly blamed on China attempting to anchor Uighur Muslim aspirations for liberation with "War on Terror" discourse, with China successfully convincing the United States and its allies that it, like them, was at war with "radical Islam".
With that said, there are signs the world is now waking up to China's game, with the United States representative to the UN for economic and social affairs, accusing the Chinese government of blocking a Uighur activist entering the UN headquarters in New York in May, as reported by Foreign Policy.
"This is a very sad and disappointing day," Kelly Currie, the US representative, told UN delegates, accusing China of attempting to silence the persecuted Uighur minority by accusing the Uighur activist, Dolkun Isa, of being a terrorist.
Currie scoffed at China's ridiculous assertion, saying, "If Mr Isa were in fact an actual terrorist… do you seriously think we would be inviting [him] into this country and giving him free rein to travel about? Give me a break!" - while noting that the US had granted the Uighur activist a 10-year multiple-entry visa.
The US had seen the Asian power as an ally in the "war on terror," but the tide has now turned, and one can only hope that the international community will soon pressure China into allowing 12 million Uighur Muslims to live on their land in peace.
Assam citizenship list: Names missing in NRC final draft, 40 lakh ask what next
Muhammed Mainuddin, shows his name on a sheet collected from the National Register of Citizens draft center in Mayoung, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) east of Guwahati, Monday, July 30, 2018. (AP Photo)
On her way to work this morning, Rabiya Begum, who usually stops for her daily paan-tamul (betel nut and leaf) fill at the corner shop near her house, met a group of people who were in deep conservation. “Did you hear all the Bangladeshis have been taken away in cars. We just saw it on the news. They will probably be killed,” said one. Begum, who lives in the Muslim-dominated Idgah path in Guwahati’s Noonmati area, ignored them and carried on to work anyway. “I told them not to believe these rumours and that it is all rubbish,” says Begum, who is employed as domestic help in the city.
Simultaneous to such conversations happening in various pockets of Assam, the second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released by Registrar General Sailesh and NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela at a press conference in Guwahati amidst tight security on Monday morning. Three years in the making, the gargantuan exercise, monitored closely by the Supreme Court, to determine the rightful, legal citizen of Assam, declared 2,89,83,677 out of 3,29,91,384 applicants as eligible for citizenship. The numbers not included amount to 40,07,707. For now, their fate hangs in the balance.
Begum hasn’t checked hers yet. She says she will “probably do it tomorrow.” “I am not worried, I have submitted all the documents,” she says, adding that her name appeared in the first draft. On January 1, 2018, when the first draft was published, Begum’s daughter’s names did not find a mention. “But there is no reason for them not to be included in the second list,” she says.
In fact, there are a quite a few people in Assam who admit that they will check their names “later in the day”, or “probably the next day” because “there is little chance” their names will not find a mention.
However, not all are as unperturbed as Begum is. Many like Farhad Bhuyan of Barpeta’s Bohori town was there to check his name early this morning at the NRC Seva Kendra (NSK). Barpeta is one of the three sensitive districts (apart from Dhubri and Goalpara), where security has been beefed up, owing to the presence of large number of Muslims in the area. Bhuyan was shocked when he found that he was the only member in his family of four, whose name did not find a mention in the list. “When the first draft was published in January, none of us were there. Apparently, it was a problem with the way my father’s name had been spelt. I was then called for a re-verification process where I submitted all the necessary documents and even got three senior citizen witnesses to prove my father’s identity. Even the officials told me that I should not worry. And yet today, my name is not there,” he says. While Bhuyan is certain that it is a technical glitch that has prevented his name from appearing in the list, he is still worried. “My family came to Assam in the 1800s. I know I am an Indian citizen, but what if another ‘technical’ glitch happen. I won’t even know what to do,” he says.
Nagaon: People wait to check their names on the final draft of the state’s National Register of Citizens after it was released, at NRC Seva Kendra in Nagaon on Monday, July 30, 2018. (PTI Photo)
For people like Bhuyan, and for the 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list, there is a provision to make objections and claims to contest their exclusion. On August 7, those excluded will receive a notification as to why their names are not a part of the list, after which they can file claims and objections. The process of filing claims will start on August 30 and will go on for two months and it is on that basis that the final NRC list will be published. There is no official confirmation of that date. “This is my only hope now,” says Bhuyan.
While both the state and the central government have reiterated that there should be no fear and panic considering this is still a “draft” list, the anxieties still run deep. “It is the poor and illiterate people who I am afraid for as many do not know about this re-verification provision. The moment they find out that their names have not been included, they fear detention camps,” says Bhuyan. Salman, another resident from Barpeta whose mother’s name did not find a place in the list, adds, “I have tried to explain to my mother time and again that there will be a form which will come to us on August 7, and we will find out why her name was not there but she still remains apprehensive.”
While many people have found their name on the list, there are spelling errors and other kinds of slips. “Sometimes a man’s photo has appeared against a woman’s name. Or some surnames have been bungled up. At times, only the middle and last name have been published. If someone is from Daulatpur village, it shows up as Dahrampur,” says Salman.
In the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley, many rushed to the nearest NSKs when they found that their name did not appear. Sumit Debnath, a Silchar-based teacher’s family has been entirely left out but for one member: his wife. “At 10.15 am, I found out online that our names are not there, I rushed to the centre. They told me there were technical errors. Now tell me will the ordinary public understand technical errors?” he asks.
Guwahati: Maya Devi Sonar (left) and Malati Thapa, residents of Hatigaon, show documents outside the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Seva Kendra claiming that their and their family members’ names were not included in the final draft of the state’s NRC, in Guwahati on Monday, July 30, 2018. (PTI Photo)
Similarly, Mumbai-based Tamal Kumar Saha, whose family lives in Silchar, is thoroughly confused. In their family of four, only one person’s name has appeared on the list. “If my brother’s name came out, why did my parents’ not? Isn’t my brother identity based on my father’s legacy documents?” he says, adding that his father and brother rushed to the NSK but found no good answers. “My family migrated in 1962. This is mental harassment. I am not even in Assam right now, and I am wondering how I can fix this,” says Saha, who took to Twitter, like thousands of others, to express displeasure about the exercise.
However, a good chunk too, have full faith in the process despite their names not appearing in the list. Vishal More, whose family has been living in Bokahat for “hundreds of years”, says “My brother’s name did not come out. We believe we might have submitted a wrong document. We have ample time now. And the local NSKs are always ready to help,” he says adding that the exercise is a necessary step for the betterment of the state. “The 40 lakh people who have not found their names should trust the claims and objection process,” he says.
In Guwahati, too, there are many who are “satisfied” with the process. In fact, there are many quarters of the Assamese society, who are relieved that the process has finally come to an end — this fight for the protection of indigenous Assamese identity goes back to the Assam Agitation of 1979. Since then there has been numerous attempts to identify the “illegal immigrant.”
“This morning, my brother-in-law sent me a photo of all our names on the list,” says Kulkul Rahman, a Hindu who married into a Muslim family, “We all have different surnames: Bora, Das, Hazarika, Rahman and Goswami — but all our names are there. This is the essence of Assam.”
In Tezpur, 77-year-old Jyotirmoy Kalita says for the longest time she didn’t bother to get the NRC done. “I still do not know if it’s been done. I suppose one of my relatives have probably got it done it for me right now,” she says, adding, “I know a lot of people who did not register.We have been living here for ages. We have documents. We have property. Who will chase us out?”
Trevor Noah, the World Cup & Tariq Ramadan: the French Connection
By Shaykh Zahir Mahmood
Islam21c, 7 August 2018
For a nation whose constitutional maxim is Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, it is hard to believe that several million French-born children of migrants live in slums.[1] Their unemployment rates are sky high and their Muslim population of less than 10%, according to the Daily Telegraph and the Washington Post constitutes more than 60% of the prison population—just slightly less than that of the World Cup winning football team. Furthermore, the banning of the veil, the headscarf, and even the burkini are prime examples of continued dictation from a die-hard imperialist state to the migrants of its ex-colonies. French social policies such as these have led to further resentment, rather than attaining the desired efficacies of integration. It seems “We are all French” is nothing more than a thinly veiled excuse for the dominant culture to be able to strip all others of theirs.
The French Government does not collect data on ethnicity or religion for that would be in contradiction of their “Frenchness”. However, where opportunities of employment, equality and handing out disproportionate jail sentences are concerned, the concept of “Frenchness” seems to be binned. Furthermore, the absence of any data on religion or ethnicity makes it impossible to verify the extent of the discrimination, thus rendering minorities invisible. Nobody in their right mind has ever argued that we can deal with the issue of sexism without the need for data collection and monitoring, so why is such an irrational approach adopted when dealing with racism? The only reasons that come to mind are that either France is in denial of its racism and/or because the white population, who are not impacted by the racism, do not really care.
It comes as little surprise then that Dr Tariq Ramadan continues to languish in a French prison cell, having been placed in solitary confinement for the last six months based on spurious claims that have not even led to him being charged, let alone convicted.[2]And all the while, French cabinet ministers on similar charges to his have walked free, carrying on with their political duties to their nation. We can posit two main reasons: A) the French judicial system is racist—to them Dr Ramadan is just another incarcerated North African who does not even deserve the presumption of innocence. B) Because Dr Ramadan is the only scholar in the West who has really challenged the evangelical, secular French society’s notions on integration. For a long time it had been the desire of many within the corridors of power to silence him, and they seem to have found their opportunity with the help of a bigoted judicial system. This has not been without cost to the French—this miscarriage of justice has focussed the world’s attention on their double standards, resulting in a rise of protests at their embassies throughout the globe.
Three Muslim Superheroes
Superheroes are generally seen as benevolent fictional characters with superhuman powers. But there are also ordinary people who perform extraordinary acts of bravery or kindness. These are the real superheroes.
- In Gaza last Friday, Razan al-Najjar, an emergency medical volunteer wearing a clearly identifiable white uniform, was trying to help an injured protester near the Gaza border fence when she was fatally shot by an Israeli sniper.
- In Paris, Mamoudou Gassama, dubbed ‘Spiderman’, saved a four-year-old child hanging from a fourth-floor balcony after scaling the building with his bare hands.
- In Australia, Ali Banat, a young Sydney Muslim businessman, turned humanitarian after being diagnosed with cancer. He is being remembered for helping thousands of people across many countries through his charity ‘Muslims Around the World’.
Our featured article pays tribute to these three Muslim Superheroes.
A Woman Dedicated to Saving Lives Loses Hers in Gaza Violence
By Iyad Abuheweila and Isabel Kershner
KHUZAA, Gaza Strip — She had become a fixture at the weekly protests along the fence dividing the Gaza Strip from Israel, a young woman in a white paramedic’s uniform rushing into harm’s way to help treat the wounded.
As a volunteer emergency medical worker, she said she wanted to prove that women had a role to play in the conservative Palestinian society of Gaza.
“Being a medic is not only a job for a man,” Razan al-Najjar, 20, said in an interview at a Gaza protest camp last month. “It’s for women, too.”
An hour before dusk on Friday, the 10th week of the Palestinian protest campaign, she ran forward to aid a demonstrator for the last time.
Israeli soldiers fired two or three bullets from across the fence, according to a witness, hitting Ms. Najjar in the upper body. She was pronounced dead soon after.
Ms. Najjar was the 119th Palestinian killed since the protests began in March, according to Gaza health officials. Hers was the only fatality registered on Friday.
On Saturday, a group of United Nations agencies issued a statement expressing outrage over the killing of “a clearly identified medical staffer,” calling it “particularly reprehensible.”
The Israeli military has provided no explanation for the shooting but said Saturday that the case would be examined.
The military said it “has repeatedly warned civilians against approaching the fence and taking part in violent incidents and terrorist attacks and will continue to act professionally and determinedly to protect Israeli civilians and Israeli security infrastructure.”
The weeks of protests, called the Great Return March, have largely been orchestrated by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. They aim to draw attention to the 11-year blockade by Israel and Egypt of the coastal territory and to press refugee claims to lands lost when Israel was established in 1948.
Most of those killed during the protests have been shot by Israeli snipers, half of them in a single day, May 14, the peak of the campaign. Human rights groups have accused Israel of using excessive force against the mostly unarmed protesters.
On Friday, a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel for using “excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force” against Palestinians failed when it was vetoed by the United States.
The conflict exploded into a day of cross-border fighting on Tuesday, when Islamic militants in Gaza fired scores of mortar shells and short-range rockets into southern Israel. Israeli jets bombed at least 65 military sites across Gaza.
On Friday, the protests resumed. Thousands of Palestinians took part in what the Israeli military described as violent riots at five locations along the security fence, burning tires and throwing stones. One Israeli army vehicle was fired on and Palestinians planted a grenade that exploded on the Israeli side of the fence, the military said.
This was the scene that Ms. Najjar dashed into in her white coat to tend to an elderly man who had been hit in the head by a tear-gas canister, according to a witness, Ibrahim al-Najjar, 30, a relative of Ms. Najjar’s.
Other witnesses and the Gaza Health Ministry offered a slightly different version of events, saying that Ms. Najjar and other paramedics were walking toward the fence with their arms raised on their way to evacuate injured protesters when she was shot in the chest.
Ms. Najjar was a resident of Khuzaa, a farming village near the border with Israel, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Her father, Ashraf al-Najjar, had a shop that sold motorcycle parts, which was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike during the 2014 war between Israel and the militant group, he said. He has since been unemployed.
The eldest of six children, Ms. Najjar did not score well enough in her high school exams to attend university, Mr. Najjar said. Instead, she trained for two years as a paramedic at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis and became a volunteer of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, a nongovernmental health organization.
Mr. Najjar, 44, said his daughter rose before dawn on Friday to eat and pray before the start of the daily, sunrise-to-sunset Ramadan fast. That was the last time he saw her.
When we met her at a protest camp in Khan Younis last month, she said her father was proud of what she did.
“We have one goal,” she said, “to save lives and evacuate people. And to send a message to the world: Without weapons, we can do anything.”
On Friday, she was less than 100 yards from the fence when she was bandaging the man struck by the tear gas canister, Ibrahim al-Najjar said. The man was taken away in an ambulance, and other paramedics tended to Ms. Najjar, who was suffering the effects of the tear gas.
Then shots rang out, and Ms. Najjar fell to the ground.
Ibrahim carried her away, with the help of two others, and accompanied her in the ambulance.
“Razan was not shooting,” Ibrahim said. “Razan was saving souls and treating the wounded.”
She arrived at a field hospital in serious condition, the hospital manager, Dr. Salah al-Rantisi, said. She was then transferred to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, where she died in the operating room.
In a video interview on Saturday, a woman identified as Ms. Najjar’s mother held up a blood-soaked vest and said, “This is my daughter’s weapon with which she was fighting the Zionists.” The woman also held up two unopened bandage rolls she said she found in the vest and said, “These were her ammunition.”
Ms. Najjar was one of the first medical volunteers at the Khan Younis protest camp, and particularly relished the idea that a woman could do that work.
“In our society women are often judged,” she said. “But society has to accept us. If they don’t want to accept us by choice, they will be forced to accept us because we have more strength than any man.
“The strength that I showed the first day of the protests, I dare you to find it in anyone else.”
Iyad Abuheweila reported from Khuzaa, Gaza Strip, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.
Photo 2: Palestinian mourners carry the body of 21 year old Razan al-Najjar during her funeral, after she was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, in Khan Yunis on June 2. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Muslim man hailed as ‘Spiderman’ for saving toddler, gets French citizenship
Paris: The Malian migrant Muslim man who saved a four-year-old child hanging from a fourth-floor Paris balcony after scaling the building with his bare hands was honoured by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and offered citizenship. Two days after his daring Spiderman-style rescue — viewed millions of times online — Mamoudou Gassama was received by Macron at the presidential palace.
“All the (Gassama’s) documents will be put in order,” Macron told the sporty 22-year-old who has become a national hero, referring to his immigration status. In the meeting, live footage of which was carried on the president’s Facebook page, Macron gave Gassama a medal for bravery and also proposed that Gassama join the French fire service.
“I was not thinking of anything. I went straight up”, Gassama, who wore jeans and a short-sleeved patterned shirt, told Macron, recounting the episode. “I’m pleased because it’s the first time I’ve received a trophy like that,” Gassama, who arrived in France in September 2017, said after receiving his medal.
Gassama leaped into action Saturday evening on seeing a child dangling in mid-air from a balcony half-way up an apartment block in the multi-ethnic 18th district of the French capital.
The video shows him pulling himself up from balcony to balcony as a man on the fourth floor tries to hold on to the child by leaning across from a neighbouring balcony.
On reaching the fourth floor Gassama, who lives in a hostel for immigrants, throws one leg over the balcony before reaching out with his right arm and grabbing the child.
Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the child had already been rescued, with a spokesman saying that “luckily, there was someone who was physically fit and who had the courage to go and get the child.”
Praising Gassama, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux tweeted: “This incredibly brave act, which is true to the values of solidarity of our Republic, must open the doors of our national community to him.”
His story instantly drew comparisons with that of another Malian migrant who was feted as a hero, and given citizenship, for helping save lives during a January 2015 terror attack.
Lassana Bathily helped hide hostages in the freezer during an Islamist jihadi attack on a Jewish supermarket, in which four people were killed.
Australian Muslim millionaire turned humanitarian Ali Banat dies
Ali Banat was a young wealthy businessman from the Sydney suburb of Greenacre, renowned for living a lavish lifestyle, earned from owning a security and electrical company.
But after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer three years ago he said he decided to distribute his wealth.
He was told he had seven months to live but instead lived for another three years. In that time he says he got rid of his cars, watches "even my clothes, I took them overseas with me and gave them to a lot of people," he said.
He went on to set up 'Muslims Around The World', a charity aimed at "providing financial assistance and outreach to those in need". His projects were aimed at helping people in a number of countries including Togo, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.
In a video recorded shortly before his death, the 32-year-old asked people to continue his work. "As you can see in this life we had the cars, we had the money, we had everything."
"And for the brothers and sisters that are chasing this life ... my advice to you guys is this life is becoming ... before we used to say five years ago, ten years ago certain things were happening, now it's every month things are changing. Wallah, we are following our desires more than we are following Islam these days."
His video ‘Gifted With Cancer’ in which he described his wealth and reasons for giving it up for charity went viral.
Ali Banat was farewelled at Lakemba mosque on 30th May 2018.
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