Headlines:
- Turkey Claims Migrant Killed in Greek Border Clash
- Afghan Conflict: US Conducts First Air Strike on Taliban Since Deal
- Why Muslims are under Attack in India?
Turkey Claims Migrant Killed in Greek Border Clash
Turkish officials have said a man was fatally wounded when Greek security forces opened fire as migrants gathered at the border on Wednesday. Greece immediately issued a flat denial, saying it was not involved in any such incident involving gunfire. Thousands of people have headed to the border after Turkey said it would no longer stop migrants crossing. Greece has also denied claims that two Syrians were fatally shot while trying to cross the border last night. Videos taken close to Turkey’s northern border with Greece on Wednesday showed dozens of migrants hurrying through a field, escaping tear gas. Several men are seen carrying a man in a blanket as he held his head. One of the men, speaking in Farsi, is heard on a video saying Greek soldiers had fired at their legs and that five migrants were wounded. The local authority in the nearby town of Edirne then issued a statement saying one migrant had died in hospital and five had been wounded. It accused Greek police and border units of opening fire on migrants in no-man’s land between the Greek border gate at Kastanies and the Turkish gate at Pazakule. Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas was adamant there had been “no such incident with fire from the Greek authorities” and accused Turkey of “creating and spreading fake news”. Three men from Afghanistan and Senegal have told the BBC’s Jonah Fisher of an earlier incident on Tuesday night in which they said they saw two Syrians fatally shot in the neck and head. [Source: BBC News]
It is a great shame that Erdogan is using Syrians and other Muslim refugees as pawns with the EU. Erdogan could have ended the migrant crisis by annexing Syria and making it part of Turkey.
Afghan Conflict: US Conducts First Air Strike on Taliban Since Deal
The US military has conducted an air strike against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, just hours after President Donald Trump said he had had a “very good talk” with a leader of the group. The US signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan after years of war. But a US forces spokesman said it launched an air strike on Wednesday in response to Taliban fighters attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province. The Taliban called for de-escalation. In a post on Twitter, spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the group “plans to implement all parts of the agreement one after another to prevent conflict escalation”. “The opposite side should also remove the obstacles in implementing all parts of the agreement so the way is paved for comprehensive peace and for the Afghans to have their basic rights,” he added. It was not clear if there were any casualties. Wednesday’s strike was the first by the US against the Taliban in 11 days, when a reduction in violence agreement began between the two sides in the lead-up to Saturday’s pact. In a statement on Twitter, Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan, said it was a “defensive strike” to disrupt an attack on an Afghan National Security Forces checkpoint. The spokesman added that the US was still “committed to peace” but had a responsibility to defend its Afghan partners. He said Afghans and the US had complied with their side of the agreement, while the Taliban appeared intent on “squandering” the opportunity. [Source: BBC News]
Once again, America shows little respect for the agreements it signs with countries. The US reneged on the nuclear deal with Iran, pulled out of the INF Treaty with Russia and now has undermined the nascent peace deal with the Taliban. As for the Taliban, they were in the position of strength and should never have surrendered to a lopsided deal with the US. Allah (swt) says: فَلَا تَهِنُوا وَتَدْعُوا إِلَى السَّلْمِ وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ وَاللَّهُ مَعَكُمْ وَلَن يَتِرَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ “So do not weaken and call for peace while you are superior; and Allah is with you and will never deprive you of [the reward of] your deeds.” [47:35]
Why Muslims are under Attack in India?
Forty-six people have been killed, more than 250 injured and four mosques set on fire in the sectarian violence in Delhi that coincided with President Trump’s visit to India. The violence, which lasted over three days and nights and was mostly directed at Muslims in northeastern areas of Delhi, was not surprising. Over the past six years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his colleagues in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, their armies of social media trolls and a vast majority of India’s television networks have consistently been building an atmosphere of hatred, suspicion and violence toward India’s Muslim minority. The pogrom in Delhi follows in the wake of the discriminatory citizenship law that Modi’s government passed in December. Indians, especially Muslims, have been protesting the law. Before the killings in Delhi, 19 people were killed when protests broke out in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, which is administered by the B.J.P. The B.J.P. lost the Delhi elections and the protests continued. On Feb. 23, Kapil Mishra, a leader of the B.J.P., incited mobs in northeast Delhi to remove a group of Muslim women who were holding a sit-in and blocking a road to protest the citizenship law. Violence erupted soon after. Top police officers casually expressed their support of the Hindu mobs and their fear of Muslims. “Jai Shree Ram,” the old devotional chant praising the Hindu deity Ram, has been adopted as a war cry by the Hindu nationalist mobs in the past three decades. There were reports of the Delhi police personnel charging at Muslim neighbourhoods while shouting, “Jai Shree Ram!” This partisan behaviour of the Delhi police is not simply a question of the police reflecting the biases of the population they are recruited from. It is an active compliance with the kind of conduct they believe will be rewarded by Modi’s government and the ruling party. The police personnel who are accountable for the violence will face no legal action. They may have not stood by the Constitution, but they did stand by the B.J.P. When Hindu mobs next target a Muslim in any part of the country administered by Modi’s party, we can be sure that no police will stand in their way. [Source: Gulf News].
Modi’s regime is in full control of the media and the security forces, and this makes it easier for Modi to implement his racist ideology that actively marginalizes Muslims. Yet despite this onslaught, rulers openly welcome Modi across the Muslim world. Allah (swt) says: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاء تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِم بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا بِمَا جَاءكُم مِّنَ الْحَقِّ “O you who have believed, do not take My enemies and your enemies as allies, extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in what came to you of the truth…” [60:1]