A projection of the Eiffel Tower is displayed on the side of New York City's Flatiron building on November 18, 2015 in New York City. Andrew Burton / Getty Images/AFP
A projection of the Eiffel Tower is displayed on the side of New York City's Flatiron building on November 18, 2015 in New York City. Andrew Burton / Getty Images/AFP

There is hope in the darkness



Many Paris, 129 dead. Beirut, 43 dead. Baghdad, 26 killed. Yola, Nigeria, 32 killed.

It’s hard not to feel depressed or overwhelmed with the recent news. For a while I switched off the TV and stopped reading online news reports. My heart just couldn’t take it.

It felt relentless, each new revelation more heartbreaking and blood-curdling than the last. The hashtags came thick and fast – #PrayForParis. #TerrorismHasNoReligion.

The icons followed, with Facebook profile pics being overlaid with the French flag, and the Eiffel Tower sketched into the peace icon. Landmarks around the world have been lit up with the colours of the French flag. These were small comforting actions. Important symbols, harmless perhaps; although they’ve sparked a debate about the politics of mourning.

Out in the real world, the responses include understandable anger, but also a thirst for revenge. Knee-jerk rage and death: the bombing of Raqqa, raids on homes across France, demands to prove loyalty. And on the street: Muslim women attacked on the streets, violence against neighbours.

Each time this happens the same arguments are rehearsed – rightful compassion, recoil at horror, assertion of the importance of decent values, freedoms, of a respectful way of life. But now there also follows a roster of counter arguments too, that call out the way in which some lives are assessed as more important than others, of how news coverage reveals latent tropes such as all Muslims being terrorists, or how brown people killing brown people isn’t news. How much coverage did the massacre by Boko Haram of fifty-nine sleeping boarding school pupils in Yobe State in Nigeria gather last year?

There are the seemingly ludicrous questions: why do all Muslims want to kill everyone? Fear pushes out logic and humanity.Politicians mobilise in the period of mourning to erode our liberties and push agendas even while we are chided for scoring political points instead of grieving. The frustration at hampering from action is itself a root of the depression. If we cannot do anything, if nothing makes a difference, then why bother?

We enter the same cycle of fatalities – horror and war on constant repeat – with our actions at best futile and at worst contributing to the escalation of violence, hatred and death.It feels like hurtling along some kind of roller coaster with the destination on a loop, the horror inescapable, the screaming inevitable, but with no escape. No wonder we feel depressed.

But there must be an escape. We need to find hope; and there is hope, always.When we join the dots between the horrific attacks perpetrated around the world, we create a ring of resistance, standing together, demonstrating that human life is valuable, equal and treasured wherever and whomever it is. This is the intractable resolve to stand together, so that we have a better chance to defeat those who prefer bombs to unity, who surely rejoice at disarray.

Only by imagining a future where attack and counter-attack based on false ideas of “our” way or the terrorists’ way are consigned to history can we nurture the collective social resources required to neutralise the malaise and depression we feel. We must mourn, of course. But in the darkness, we must find hope.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www. spirit21.co.uk

Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face

The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.

The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran. 

Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf. 

"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said. 

Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer. 

The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy. 

 

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The Orwell Prize for Political Writing

Twelve books were longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. The non-fiction works cover various themes from education, gender bias, and the environment to surveillance and political power. Some of the books that made it to the non-fiction longlist include: 

  • Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
  • Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
  • Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
  • Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
How to vote in the UAE

1) Download your ballot https://www.fvap.gov/

2) Take it to the US Embassy

3) Deadline is October 15

4) The embassy will ensure all ballots reach the US in time for the November 3 poll

2019 ASIA CUP POTS

Pot 1
UAE, Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia

Pot 2
China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, Thailand

Pot 3
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, India, Vietnam

Pot 4
North Korea, Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Turkmenistan