Palestinians: While Abbas and Hamas were Hurling Insults at Each Other…

by Khaled Abu Toameh • January 9, 2019 at 5:00 am

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria says that according to its research, there are at least 1,711 Palestinians being held in Syrian prisons.
The plight of the Palestinians in Syria is not difficult to fathom. What is difficult to fathom is: Where are the international media when those Palestinians are being brutalized?
One can make up excuses for the apathy of the international community toward the atrocities the Palestinians are facing in Syria. However, the indifference of Palestinian leaders to the suffering of their own people is harder to justify.
As the reports about the Palestinian victims were emerging, Abbas was in Cairo socializing with famous Egyptian actors and actresses.

The indifference of Palestinian leaders to the suffering of their own people is hard to justify. As the latest reports from Syria revealed that 82 Palestinians died in 2018 as a result of torture in Syrian government prisons, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in Cairo socializing with famous Egyptian actors and actresses. Pictured: Mahmoud Abbas. (Photo by Omar Rashidi/PPO via Getty Images)

It has been another tragic year for Palestinians living in Syria, but the international community, including pro-Palestinian advocacy groups and mainstream media in the West, seem to have missed the misery.

The latest reports from Syria reveal that 82 Palestinians have died as a result of brutal torture in prisons run by the Syrian government in 2018. The report states that a total of 556 Palestinians have been tortured to death while being held in various Syrian prisons the past few years.

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Turkey Scolds Europe

by Uzay Bulut • January 9, 2019 at 4:00 am

"It is... futile... to discuss Islam using geographical or cultural adjectives, such as European Islam, French Islam, moderate Islam, etc." — Ali Erbaş, the head of Turkey's state religious authority, the Diyanet.
The Diyanet does not even recognize Judaism and Christianity as authentic faiths -- as is immediately apparent on its official website. In the Diyanet's interpretation of the verse [Quran, Al-Baqarah 140], the religious figures whom Jews believe to be their prophets, and the religion of Jesus, all originated with Islam: "Ibrahim was neither Jewish nor Christian. He was a Hanafi Muslim... It is the religion of Tawhid [oneness of Allah] that Allah sent to humanity from the very beginning [of time] and that is the most suitable for human nature. So it is completely contrary to facts to claim that [the prophets] were Jewish or Christian..."
How ironic that this is the same Erbaş who claimed at the conference in Cologne that the "increase in anti-Islamic discourse and actions... threaten European multiculturalism," while the Diyanet is responsible for decrees that do not allow for the slightest bit of multiculturalism in Turkey. In fact, all religious and ethnic minorities in Turkey are persecuted with the blessing of the Diyanet.
The Diyanet's president's recent rant against Europe -- from a podium in Cologne, no less -- was disingenuous, false and a perfect example of projection. It is European liberalism that is under assault, not the other way around.

During a recent conference at the Cologne Central Mosque in Germany, Ali Erbaş, the head of the Diyanet, Turkey's state religious authority, accused Europe of "Islamophobia," which he called a "crime against humanity." As evidenced by its website, the Diyanet does not recognize Judaism and Christianity as authentic faiths. Pictured: The Cologne Central Mosque. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

At a recent conference in Cologne on the future of Europe's Muslims, Ali Erbaş, the head of Turkey's state religious authority, the Diyanet, railed against what he called the "increase in anti-Islamic discourse and actions... [that] threaten European multiculturalism."

In his keynote address to the conference, hosted by Turkey's main Islamic body in Germany, DITIB -- based in the Cologne Central Mosque, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated during a visit to Germany in September -- Erbaş declared:

"... racism, social exclusion... xenophobia, attacks against mosques... [and] discriminatory discourse and actions disregard human life and honor... restrict [Muslims'] rights, make social and cultural institutions dysfunctional and harm the common morality and conscience of humanity."

Referring to Islamophobia as a "crime against humanity," Erbaş said:

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