Nadia Hassan, a Maryland Muslim, in the USA was singled out for additional airport security check after refusing to take off her hijab, raising fears that the Muslim obligatory dress code would trigger automatic secondary screening for Muslim travellers under newly-introduced airport security measures. Maria complained of being targeted for a full-body search at Washington’s Dulles International Airport when she was catching a plane to Los Angeles. She allegedly was told that...

Citing threats by al-Qaeda in Yemen, the United States closed its embassy in the country. “The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa is closed today, Jan. 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen,” said the embassy in a statement. John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s aide on homeland security and counterterrorism, told that there are indications that al-Qaeda has been planning to carry out an attack against...

The Iraqi government said it regretted the decision by a U.S. judge to dismiss the charges against five Blackwater security guards who allegedly killed innocent Iraqi civilians in 2007. “The Iraqi government regrets and is disappointed by the decision,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the Iraqi government in a statement. “The investigations conducted by the Iraqi authorities confirm clearly that the Blackwater guards committed murder and violated the rule of only u...

Fears of growing home-grown terrorism among the American Muslim community are highly exaggerated, a new academic study has concluded. The “Anti-Terror Lessons of Muslim American Communities” study, published by Duke University, is based on a two-year research of four different Muslim communities across the US, a review of studies on the Muslim minority and a compilation of data on prosecutions on terrorism-related offences. “The record over the past eight years contains re...

Cambodia deported 20 ethnic Uighurs. China praised it for this action and said the deportees will be treated as illegal immigrants. The comments came as a top Chinese official began a visit to Phnom Penh to boost commercial ties. The Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority involved in rioting in western China that killed nearly 200 people in July, were smuggled into Cambodia in recent weeks and applied for asylum at the United Nations refugee agency office in Phnom Penh. They were deported to Chi...

Five more people have been sentenced to death over ethnic violence in July in China’s Xinjiang region. The sentences bring to 22 the number of people condemned to die or executed over the unrest in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi, which pitted mainly Muslim Uighurs against China’s Han ethnic majority and left nearly 200 dead. The first executions last month of nine people for their roles in the violence drew sharp criticism from the United States, the European Union and rights group...

The Swedish citizen Ramazan Kizil, who was tried by a Turkish court on Christmas Eve for spreading propaganda in Kurdish on behalf of a prohibited political party at a political rally in Turkey, was sentenced to 10 month’s imprisonment. Kizil, who returned to Sweden after the court proceedings, will be arrested if he enters Turkey again, news agency TT reports. Kizil is one of the founders of the Dalkurd football club in Borlonge in central Sweden, the club that he now chairs. On Chri...

A British group called Islam4UK, led by Anjem Choudary, has announced plans to march through the northern town of Wootton Bassett to press for British troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The marchers will carry empty coffins to represent thousands of civilians killed by the 2001 US-led invasion. Although no date has been set, the proposed protest, in a place that has come to symbolise public respect for the war dead, has caused uproar. Other British Muslim leaders are slamming this coffins p...

The Japanese business community is eager to know full details of Malaysia’s New Economic Model and the progress made in the various economic corridors, especially Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy. This was revealed during a recent interview by Japan’s Nikkei Business with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Basically, he said, Japanese investors were not only keen to make a one-time investment in Malaysia but also expanding it on the future potentials the country...