In this Indian district, Sikh and Hindu temples take pride in hosting iftars

In this Indian district, Sikh and Hindu temples take pride in hosting iftars
Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gather for an iftar hosted by a gurdwara in Malerkotla, Punjab, on April 3, 2024. (Sikh-Muslim Sanjha Foundation)
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Updated 04 April 2024
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In this Indian district, Sikh and Hindu temples take pride in hosting iftars

In this Indian district, Sikh and Hindu temples take pride in hosting iftars
  • Malerkotla was one of the few Indian regions not consumed by 1947 partition violence
  • Roots of tolerance date back to Muslim ruler’s act of solidarity with Guru Gobind Singh

NEW DELHI: Despite religious tensions running high in India, Sikhs and Hindus in Malerkotla district take pride in hosting iftars for their Muslim neighbors, as they support and join them in Ramadan celebrations.

The district in Punjab emerged from a 15th-century state established by Sheikh Sadruddin, a leader of the Sherwani tribe from Afghanistan. A princely state under British colonial rule, the region was one of the very few that were not consumed by deadly communal violence upon the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947.

When the British divided their colonial dominion into two states — one Hindu-majority and the other Muslim — millions of people were displaced along religious lines, with the mass migration accompanied by riots that left hundreds of thousands of people dead. But in Malerkotla, the Muslim community decided to stay.

Today, some 430,000 people live in the district, where half of the inhabitants follow Sikhism, 33 percent Islam, and 15 percent Hinduism.

They say it is natural for them to celebrate their important holidays together, even more so as religious polarization in India has risen over the past decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government.

“When we see religious tension in some parts of India, we feel bad and, as religious leaders, we feel it is our duty to keep people together,” Baba Amarjit Singh, the head of a Sikh temple, or gurdwara, in Jainpur village, told Arab News after hosting an iftar on Tuesday.

“Almost 300 people attended the iftar and it gives me a great sense of pleasure when people participate in each other’s festivities.”

A day later, in the neighboring village of Sandaur, another gurdwara invited Muslims for the fast-breaking meal.

Its leader, Baba Gurusewak Singh, spoke in unison with the head of the Jainpur temple.

“We believe in communal harmony, we believe in living together,” he said. “We believe in the oneness of humanity, and it is with this spirit we celebrate Ramadan and other festivals.”

The Hindu temple in another village, Ahmedgarh, has already hosted three iftars this year.

“Malerkotla has a tradition of communal harmony and we have the blessings of our gurus for this brotherhood,” Deepak Sharma, its chairman, told Arab News.

“Muslims participate in Hindu festivals and we participate in their festivals and that’s how we maintain trust and harmony in the society and this should be a lesson for other parts of India, where divisive politics have created havoc in the society.”

The Hindus of Malerkotla do not subscribe to their government’s majoritarianism and have been participating in Ramadan celebrations and supporting Muslims in their observance.

“We don’t care for the divisive politics of politicians, and we won’t allow them to teach hatred to us here,” said Mahant Swaroop Bihari Sharma, president of the All India Brahmin Front in Malerkotla.

“The Hindu temple Laxmi Narayan Mandir and Aqsa Mosque share a common boundary in the Simpsons Colony at Malerkotla. This shows how deep are our ties and how much trust Hindus and Muslims have for each other.”

Malerkotla Muslims have been overwhelmed by the number of Ramadan events held by their non-Muslim community members.

“There are so many invitations for iftar from gurdwaras and temples that we really don’t know which one to attend,” said Naser Khan from the Sikh-Muslim Sanjha Foundation.

“People feel happy when they come together and share a meal. The beauty of iftar is that it brings people of all faiths together.”

The roots of Malerkotla’s tolerance are usually associated with an incident, which happened in the 18th century, during a war between Guru Gobind Singh — the 10th and last revered guru of Sikhism — and the Mughal Empire.

Wazir Khan, the Mughal governor who then ruled the present state of Punjab, ordered the 9- and 7-year-old sons of Singh to be bricked into a section of wall while still alive. The decision was opposed by the Muslim ruler of Malerkotla, Shah Mohammed Khan. His revolt against the Mughal patron endeared him to the Sikh community, who built one of the district’s gurdwaras in his honor.

“Malerkotla is unique and it has the blessings of the Sikh guru. That’s why people here maintain communal harmony. When violence took place everywhere after the partition, Malerkotla remained untouched. Here people look at each other not from the religious angle but from the angle of humanity. We are proud of this tradition,” Adnan Ali Khan, an activist and descendant of Malerkotla’s royal family, told Arab News.

“No wonder the whole district hosts iftar in different gurdwaras and temples. This is the beauty of the place, and we feel proud of it.”


Adnan Syed’s murder conviction still stands as he seeks sentence reduction in ‘Serial’ case

Adnan Syed’s murder conviction still stands as he seeks sentence reduction in ‘Serial’ case
Updated 26 February 2025
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Adnan Syed’s murder conviction still stands as he seeks sentence reduction in ‘Serial’ case

Adnan Syed’s murder conviction still stands as he seeks sentence reduction in ‘Serial’ case
  • Syed has maintained his innocence from the beginning, but many questions remain unanswered even after the “Serial” podcast combed through the evidence, reexamined legal arguments and interviewed witnesses

BALTIMORE: Despite documented problems with the evidence against him and an earlier request from prosecutors to clear his record, Adnan Syed will remain a convicted murderer, according to court papers filed Tuesday night.
The decision from Baltimore prosecutors comes ahead of a scheduled hearing Wednesday morning where a judge will consider whether to reduce Syed’s sentence, but this means the conviction itself is no longer in question.
It is the latest wrinkle in an ongoing legal odyssey that garnered a massive following after being featured in the “Serial” podcast over a decade ago.
Syed’s attorneys recently filed the request for a sentence reduction under Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act, a relatively new state law that provides a potential pathway to release for people serving long prison terms for crimes committed when they were minors. That request is supported by prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates announced Tuesday that his office is withdrawing a previously filed motion to vacate Syed’s conviction in the 1999 killing of his high school ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who was found strangled to death and buried in a makeshift grave.
“I did not make this decision lightly, but it is necessary to preserve the credibility of our office and maintain public trust in the justice system,” Bates said in a statement.
The original motion to vacate — which was filed by Bates’ predecessor Marilyn Mosby — won Syed his freedom in 2022. But his conviction was reinstated following a procedural challenge from Lee’s family. The Maryland Supreme Court ordered a redo of the conviction vacatur hearing after finding that the family didn’t receive adequate notice to attend in person.
Since the prosecutor’s office changed hands in the meantime, the decision of whether to withdraw the motion fell to Bates.
Instead of asking a judge to again consider Syed’s guilt or innocence, Bates chose a different path. He supported Syed’s motion for a reduced sentence — without addressing the underlying conviction.
Bates said that since his release in 2022, Syed has demonstrated he is a productive member of society whose continued freedom is “in the interest of justice.” He said the case “is precisely what legislators envisioned when they crafted the Juvenile Restoration Act.”
The legislation was passed amid growing consensus that such defendants are especially open to rehabilitation, partly because brain science shows cognitive development continues well beyond the teenage years. Syed was 17 when Lee was killed.
Now 43, he has been working at Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative and caring for aging relatives since his release, according to court filings. His father died in October after a long illness.
Bates was facing a Friday deadline to decide on the motion to vacate.
After reviewing the motion filed by his predecessor, Bates concluded that it contained “false and misleading statements that undermine the integrity of the judicial process,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
Attorneys for the victim’s family had argued that prosecutors should address the integrity of Syed’s conviction before the court considered reducing his sentence. Prosecutors “should not be allowed to duck the issue by hiding behind” his motion for a reduced sentence, attorneys wrote in a recent filing.
Syed has maintained his innocence from the beginning, but many questions remain unanswered even after the “Serial” podcast combed through the evidence, reexamined legal arguments and interviewed witnesses. The series debuted in 2014 and drew millions of listeners who became armchair detectives.
Rife with legal twists and turns, the case has recently pitted criminal justice reform efforts against the rights of crime victims and their families, whose voices are often at odds with a growing movement to acknowledge and correct systemic racism, police misconduct and prosecutorial missteps.
When prosecutors sought to vacate Syed’s conviction in 2022, they cited numerous problems with the case, including alternative suspects and unreliable evidence presented at trial. A judge agreed to vacate the conviction and free Syed. Prosecutors in Mosby’s office later chose not to refile charges after they said DNA testing excluded Syed as a suspect.
Even though the appellate courts reinstated his conviction, they allowed Syed to remain free while the case continued.


Indonesia residents run outside as shallow quake hits

Indonesia residents run outside as shallow quake hits
Updated 26 February 2025
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Indonesia residents run outside as shallow quake hits

Indonesia residents run outside as shallow quake hits
  • The country’s meteorological agency gave a lower magnitude of 6.0 and said there was no potential for a tsunami

JAKARTA: A shallow 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said, forcing residents to flee outside but with no damage or casualties reported.
The tremor hit at 6:55 am local time (2255 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) with the epicenter offshore near North Sulawesi province, according to the USGS.
The country’s meteorological agency gave a lower magnitude of 6.0 and said there was no potential for a tsunami.
Locals in North Sulawesi described the panic when the quake struck.
“I had just woken up when I realized it was an earthquake. It was strong, swaying from side to side,” Gita Waloni, a 25-year-old guest at a hotel in North Minahasa district in the province told AFP.
“Objects inside my rooms rattled. I decided to get out. I was so scared there would be an aftershock while I was inside the lift. All other guests had also fled.”
The vast archipelago nation experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
A magnitude-6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.
In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.
And in 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.
 


Microsoft workers protest sale of AI and cloud services to Israeli military

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addresses attendees at the Microsoft Ignite conference, Nov. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addresses attendees at the Microsoft Ignite conference, Nov. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP)
Updated 26 February 2025
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Microsoft workers protest sale of AI and cloud services to Israeli military

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addresses attendees at the Microsoft Ignite conference, Nov. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP)
  • In October, Microsoft fired two workers for helping organize an unauthorized lunchtime vigil for Palestinian refugees at its headquarters

WASHINGTON: Five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with the company’s chief executive for protesting contracts to provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military.
The protest on Monday came after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed last week that sophisticated AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was speaking about new products at an employee town hall meeting at the company’s corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Workers standing about 15 feet to his right then revealed T-shirts that when they stood side-by-side spelled out the question “Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?“
Photos and video of the incident, which was live streamed throughout the company, shows Nadella kept speaking and did not acknowledge the protesters. Two men quickly tapped the workers on the shoulders and ushered them out of the room.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” Microsoft said in a statement provided to the AP. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Microsoft did not answer Tuesday when asked whether the employees involved in the protest would face disciplinary action. The company also previously declined to comment about the AP’s Feb. 18 story about its contracts with the Israeli military.
In October, Microsoft fired two workers for helping organize an unauthorized lunchtime vigil for Palestinian refugees at its headquarters. Microsoft said at the time that it ended the employment of some people “in accordance with internal policy” but declined to give details.
A group of workers has been raising concerns within the company for months about Microsoft providing services to the Israeli military through its Azure cloud computing platform. Some employees at the company have also spoken out in support of Israel and said those supporting Palestinians have made them feel unsafe.
The AP’s investigation included exclusive details drawn from internal company data and documents, including that the usage of AI models by the Israeli military through Azure increased nearly 200 times after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants.
The AP’s report was shared and discussed among Microsoft employees on social media and within the company’s internal systems. In a community forum designated for employees to raise concerns with senior leadership, an employee shared links to the AP report. More than a dozen others questioned whether the company was violating its stated principles to defend human rights and not to let its AI models be used to harm people, according to screenshots reviewed by the AP.
Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist who was one of the Microsoft workers fired over the October vigil, said the company is prioritizing profits over its own human rights commitments.
“The demands are clear,” said Mohamed, who works with a group of Microsoft workers called No Azure for Apartheid. “Satya Nadella and Microsoft executives need to answer to their workers by dropping contracts with the Israeli military.”
 

 


The White House says it ‘will determine’ which news outlets cover Trump, rotating traditional ones

The White House says it ‘will determine’ which news outlets cover Trump, rotating traditional ones
Updated 26 February 2025
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The White House says it ‘will determine’ which news outlets cover Trump, rotating traditional ones

The White House says it ‘will determine’ which news outlets cover Trump, rotating traditional ones
  • “The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing

WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday that its officials “will determine” which news outlets can regularly cover President Donald Trump up close — a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans.
The move, coupled with the government’s arguments this week in a federal lawsuit over access filed by The Associated Press, represented an unprecedented seizing of control over coverage of the American presidency by any administration. Free speech advocates expressed alarm.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services. Leavitt cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore “access back to the American people” who elected Trump. But media experts said the move raised troubling First Amendment issues because the president is choosing who covers him.
“The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” Leavitt said at a daily briefing. She added at another point: “A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”
Leavitt said the White House will “double down” on its decision to bar the AP from many presidential events, a departure from the time-tested and sometimes contentious practice for more than a century of a pool of journalists from every platform sharing the presidents’ words and activities with news outlets and congressional offices that can’t attend the close-quarter events. Traditionally, the members of the pool decide who goes in small spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One.
“It’s beyond time that the White House press operation reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925,” Leavitt said.
At an event later in the Oval Office, the president linked the AP court case with the decision to take control of credentialing for the pool. “We’re going to be now calling those shots,” Trump said.
There are First Amendment implications
The change, said one expert on presidents and the press, “is a dangerous move for democracy.”
”It means the president can pick and choose who covers the executive branch, ignoring the fact that it is the American people who through their taxes pay for the running of the White House, the president’s travels and the press secretary’s salary,” Jon Marshall, a media history professor at Northwestern University and author of “Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis,” said in a text.
Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said the organization consistently expands its membership and pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.
“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president,” Daniels said in a statement. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called it “a drastic change in how the public obtains information about its government.”
“The White House press pool exists to serve the public, not the presidency,” Bruce D. Brown, the group’s president, said in a statement.
It comes in the context of a federal lawsuit
Leavitt spoke a day after a federal judge refused to immediately order the White House to restore the AP’s access to many presidential events. The news outlet, citing the First Amendment, sued Leavitt and two other White House officials for barring the AP from some presidential events over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” as Trump ordered. AP has said its style would retain the “Gulf of Mexico” name but also would note Trump’s decision.
“As you know, we won that lawsuit,” Trump said incorrectly. In fact, US District Judge Trevor N. McFadden said the AP had not demonstrated it had suffered irreparable harm — but urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, saying that case law in the circuit “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.”
McFadden’s decision was only for the moment, however. He told attorneys for the Trump administration and the AP that the issue required more exploration before ruling. Another hearing was scheduled for late March.
The AP Stylebook is used by international audiences as well as those within the United States. The AP has said that its guidance was offered to promote clarity.
Another Trump executive order to change the name of the United States’ largest mountain back to Mount McKinley from Denali is being recognized by the AP Stylebook. Trump has the authority to do so because the mountain is completely within the country he oversees, AP has said.

 


Somali govt claims 70 Al-Shabab killed in military operation

Somali govt claims 70 Al-Shabab killed in military operation
Updated 26 February 2025
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Somali govt claims 70 Al-Shabab killed in military operation

Somali govt claims 70 Al-Shabab killed in military operation
  • The operation took place on Tuesday at several sites in Hirshabelle state, in south central Somalia, it added

MOGADISHU: More than 70 members of the Islamist armed group Al-Shabab were killed during an army operation with local forces in Somalia, the information ministry said on Tuesday.
Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab has been fighting the federal government for more than 15 years, to try to establish Islamic law in the impoverished country.
“Over 70 extremist militants were eliminated through the coordinated efforts of the National Army and local forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
“In addition to the significant militant losses, a large cache of weapons was seized, and several combat vehicles utilized by the extremists were destroyed.”
The operation took place on Tuesday at several sites in Hirshabelle state, in south central Somalia, it added.
AFP could not independently verify the death toll but several witnesses confirmed the fighting.
“The armed men of Al-Shabab were beaten,” one resident contacted by telephone said, adding that “dozens” of their bodies were visible in the combat zones.
Several sources said the armed operation came in response to Al-Shabab attacks in the area in the last few days.
Al-Shabab has carried out numerous bomb and other attacks in the capital Mogadishu and several other regions of the volatile Horn of Africa country.
Although they were driven out of the capital by African Union forces in 2011, the group is still present in rural areas.
Somalia’s president has promised “total” war against Al-Shabab. The army has joined forces with local militias in a military campaign backed by an AU force and US airstrikes.