I. Mustafa Azemmouri and the Earliest Muslim Presence in America

One of the earliest known Muslims to set foot on what is now United States soil was Mustafa Azemmouri, known in Spanish records as Estebanico. Born in Morocco, Azemmouri was enslaved by Portuguese traders, sold in Spain, and forced to join the ill-fated Narváez expedition. In 1528, the expedition landed in present-day western Florida.¹ Unlike most of his European companions, Azemmouri survived years of shipwreck, starvation, and hostile terrain. He later emerged as an indispensable member of the expedition, traversing vast regions of what are now Arizona and New Mexico.² Contemporary accounts describe him as a gifted linguist, a master of sign language, a healer trusted by Indigenous communities, and a man skilled in navigation and the use of the astrolabe.³ His presence alone disrupts conventional timelines of American exploration, demonstrating that Muslims were present in North America nearly a century before permanent English settlement.

II. West Africa, Islam, and the Slave Trade

The majority of enslaved Africans transported to the Americas originated from West Africa—a region that, by the late medieval period, had undergone extensive Islamization. Understanding American Muslim heritage therefore requires engagement with the intellectual and institutional history of West Africa itself.

Mosques as Centers of Knowledge

In much of the contemporary Muslim world, mosques primarily function as spaces for ritual prayer and as intellectual echo chambers where inherited interpretations are repeated without sustained critical engagement. This represents a sharp departure from the mosque’s original civilizational role. In the premodern Muslim world, mosques were the nerve centers of intellectual life—universities in the fullest sense. Within mosque complexes, scholars debated theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and the natural sciences. Fundamental cosmological questions—such as whether the universe was created in time or eternal—were openly contested.⁴ Instruction took place in open teaching circles (ḥalaqāt), where students were encouraged to question, challenge and refine ideas. Advanced students—what might today be called graduate scholars—then carried this knowledge across Africa, the Mediterranean, and beyond.

These mosque-based institutions created what has been described as “a civilization of international encyclopedic magnitude.” Harvard historian George Sarton famously observed that medieval Muslim civilization achieved a level of encyclopedic knowledge unmatched in its time, noting that: “Briefest enumeration of the Arabic contributions to knowledge would be too long to be inserted here…The creation of a new civilization of international and encyclopaedic magnitude within less than two centuries is something that we describe, but cannot explain…Indeed the superiority of Muslim culture, say in the eleventh century, was so great that we can understand their intellectual pride. It is easy to imagine their doctors speaking of western barbarians almost in the same spirit as ours do of the ‘Orientals.’ If there had been some ferocious eugenists among the Moslems the might have suggested some means breeding out all the western Christians and Greeks because of their hopeless backwardness.” 5

Timbuktu and Sankoré University in Colonial Times

One of the most striking embodiments of this tradition was the Sankoré Mosque and other mosques in Timbuktu. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Sankoré functioned as a fully developed university supported by charitable endowments. Thousands of students studied there, and its scholars attracted audiences from across North and West Africa.⁶ As documented in Tārīkh al-Sudān and modern scholarship by Ousmane Kane and Nehemia Levtzion, Timbuktu housed libraries, produced original scholarship, and operated within a vast transregional intellectual network.⁷ These institutions flourished centuries before any comparable centers of higher learning existed in colonial North America.

There were many other mosques across West Africa that functioned in similar ways as centers of higher learning. West Africa was therefore not “uncivilized” in the colonial era; it possessed highly developed educational institutions and scholarly networks that long predated—and in many cases surpassed—what existed in colonial North America.

III. Who Were the Enslaved Africans?

The transatlantic slave trade forcibly relocated not only agricultural laborers but also scholars, engineers, jurists, veterinarians, and pastoral experts from Muslim West Africa. Evidence from slave narratives, court records, and archival documents confirms the presence of enslaved Muslim intellectuals and learned elites in the Americas. Prominent examples include Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (Job ben Solomon), who came from a distinguished family of Islamic scholars in Senegambia, and Ibrahim Abd al-Rahman, a Fulbe nobleman and Islamic scholar from Futa Jallon (Guinea), captured in 1788—whose portrait is preserved in the Library of Congress.⁸ Drawing on demographic and cultural analysis, Michael A. Gomez estimates that approximately 50–55 percent of enslaved West Africans were Muslims, reflecting the religious composition of major source regions such as Senegambia and Futa Jallon.⁹ This figure may be conservative. As Daniel C. Littlefield and other historians note, colonial planters in the rice-producing Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia deliberately preferred captives from Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the broader Rice Coast due to their expertise in irrigation, dike construction, tidal rice cultivation, swamp ecology, cattle herding, and water management.¹⁰ Crucially, these regions—apart from Liberia—were overwhelmingly Muslim: The Gambia (~97%), Senegal (~95–97%), Guinea (~85%), and Sierra Leone (~77–78%), compared with Liberia (~12–13%). This demographic reality strengthens the likelihood that the proportion of Muslims among enslaved West Africans, particularly those assigned to plantation economies and cattle herding may have exceeded 55 percent during key periods.

IV. Agriculture, Rice Technology, and Early American Wealth

Between 1500 and 1800, agriculture formed the backbone of the American economy. European settlers, however, lacked expertise in tropical agriculture, irrigation engineering, and animal husbandry. These deficiencies were remedied through the forced labor and technical knowledge of West Africans. Rice Cultivation and Hydraulic Engineering Enslaved Africans introduced advanced rice-growing systems, including tidal rice fields, earthen dikes, and wooden rice trunks—hydraulic valves that regulated freshwater flow while preventing saltwater intrusion.¹⁰ These systems required sophisticated understanding of fluid dynamics, soil chemistry, and lunar tidal cycles. By the mid-eighteenth century, rice exports from South Carolina exceeded sixty million pounds annually, accounting for more than half of the colony’s export value and generating immense wealth.¹¹ Comparable hydraulic technologies had long existed across the Muslim world, as documented by Thomas Glick’s study of irrigation in medieval Valencia.¹²

V. Architecture, Veterinary Science, and Tabby Construction

In Georgia and Florida, many colonial structures were built using tabby—a durable composite of lime from burned oyster shells, sand, water, and ash. Scholars have traced tabby construction techniques to North and West African architectural traditions.¹³ On Sapelo Island, the enslaved Muslim Bilali Muhammad supervised construction using these methods yet received no legal recognition or credit for his expertise.¹⁴

VI. Cattle Herding and Animal Medicine

Pastoral societies of Muslim West Africa—including Tuareg-influenced regions linked to Timbuktu’s early history—possessed centuries of experience in cattle herding and veterinary science. Enslaved Africans were therefore deliberately selected for work as cowboys, cattle drivers, horse trainers, and dairy workers in South Carolina and Louisiana.¹⁵ Despite these contributions, an 1858 ruling by the U.S. Patent Office barred enslaved individuals from holding patents, ensuring that African intellectual property entered American development without attribution.¹⁶

VII. Muslims and the Founding of the United States

Muslims were not absent from early American political imagination. According to “The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, Vol. 1, p. 232,” “If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans [Muslims], Jews or Christians of any Sect, or they may be Atheists.” There were two Muslim women at Mount Vernon of George Washington named Fathimier and Little Fathimier. Fathima. being the daughter of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). is popular name among Muslims. Thomas Jefferson, in explaining Virginia’s statute for religious freedom, explicitly affirmed protections for “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan [Muslim].”¹⁷ During the North Carolina ratifying convention, James Iredell acknowledged that Muslims could hold public office under the Constitution.¹⁸ Morocco became the first country to recognize the United States, maintaining diplomatic correspondence with George Washington. Jefferson later hosted an ifṭār dinner at the White House in 1808 for a Tunisian envoy, reflecting early American engagement with the Muslim world.¹⁹

VIII. Islam and the Abolition of Slavery

The Lincoln administration sought guidance from Tunisia, Muslim country, which abolished slavery in 1846—nearly two decades before the United States. The archives of Diplomatic correspondence records with the heading, “Papers presented to 39th Congress by President Lincoln,” has the reply the enquiry by Lincoln Administration on slavery. It states that the Tunisian ruler Ahmed Bey framing abolition as a moral imperative rooted in justice: “" Ahmed Bay Concluded: “It is my belief also that …There can be no permanent prosperity [for a nation] without justice, and justice results from freedom…since God has permitted you to enjoy full personal liberty and to manage your civil and political affairs yourselves, …it would not tarnish the luster of your crown to grant freedom to your slaves, … such civil rights are not to be denied to the humblest and meanest of your citizens.”²⁰

VIII. American Muslims in the Twenty-First Century

Today, American Muslims continue to shape national life. According to the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Muslims donate approximately $4.3 billion annually to charitable causes, with average household giving exceeding national norms.²¹ Muslims are disproportionately represented among physicians and dentists and contribute significantly to U.S. patent activity. American Muslims have also been recognized at the highest levels of scientific achievement, including Nobel Prizes awarded to Ahmed Zewail, Aziz Sancar, Moungi Bawendi, and Omar Yaghi.

Conclusion

Muslim presence in America predates the nation itself. More than half of enslaved West Africans were Muslims—educated, skilled, and embedded in sophisticated intellectual traditions. Their knowledge absorbed into America and generated early American wealth, shaped its infrastructure, and informed its moral discourse. Though their names were systematically erased, their legacy remains embedded in the foundations of the United States. American Muslim heritage is not peripheral to American history. It is constitutive of it.

…

FOOTNOTES

1. Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 34–36.
2. Ibid., 112–145.
3. Ibid., 178–181.
4. George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
5. George Sarton, The History of Science and the New Humanism (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1956), 87–90.
6. Nehemia Levtzion, Ancient Ghana and Mali (London: Methuen, 1973), 137–145.
7. Al-Saʿdī, Tārīkh al-Sudān, trans. John O. Hunwick (London: Routledge, 2000); Ousmane Kane, Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016).
8. Allan D. Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 1997).
9. Michael A. Gomez, Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 62–70.
10. Daniel C. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981).
11. Ibid., 89–95.
12. Thomas F. Glick, Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).
13. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves, 142–148.
14. Gomez, Black Crescent, 151–155.
15. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992).
16. U.S. Patent Office, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1858 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1859).
17. Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892), 1:66.
18. James Iredell, speech at the North Carolina Ratifying Convention, July 30, 1788.
19. White House Historical Association, “Thomas Jefferson’s Ramadan Dinner,” 2009.
20. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1865, pt. 3, doc. 318.
21. Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Amplifying Muslim American Generosity (2024).

Courtesy: New Age Islam

The post American Muslim Heritage: Five Centuries of Muslim Life in America appeared first on SabrangIndia.

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, human beings are very useful.
They can fly and they can kill.
But they have one defect:
They can think.

It is difficult to predict, in this day and age, how long this poem will remain relevant. But upon seeing, hearing and speaking with Aida Touma-Suleiman in Jerusalem, this poem came to mind vividly. Sixty-one-year-old Aida Touma-Suleiman is a member of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset. She is an Israeli citizen, of Arab-Christian origin, but she declares herself an atheist.

She is a member of Israel’s Communist Party, and represents the coalition Hadash, a feminist, the editor of the party’s Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ittihad – the first and only female editor in Israel. She is also the first female member of the “high-level committee for Arab Citizens of Israel”. She fights for the rights of Israeli citizens, but also for that of the Palestinian people.

Meeting her reminded me of all those activist comrades in my own country who, despite not being Muslim, Christian, Dalit, LGBTQ++ or Adivasi, fight for human justice and often face criticism within their own communities. She is also famous for having passed a law in the Knesset, raising the legal age of marriage for women in Israel from 17 to 18.

The conversation I had with her was about Israel, but my own country, India, repeatedly came to my mind with various similar observations.

Officially, Israel is a democracy and so is India. But Hitler too rode the chariot of democracy to reach fascist dictatorship, and we see the same is happening in India and Israel today. The capitalist ruling class uses the guise of democracy to carry out anti-people work and secures legitimacy for those crimes in the name of democracy. Whereas, the Left wants to establish that very democracy in the true sense for the welfare and upliftment of the people.

Aida says, “It is true that we have gained a few rights by virtue of being Israeli citizens. We are a group of Israeli Arab citizens, who are indigenous to this land, so we can form our own political party, raise our issues in politics, and contest elections. We also have some scope to raise our voice, however little, against any wrong step taken by the Israeli government. But this was true two years ago.”

“Now, replace ‘is’ with ‘was’ in these statements – all these things have become matters of the past. It is true that whatever democracy existed in Israel, it was the only so-called democracy in the Middle-Eastern countries, and by that token, we had some rights, but in the last two years, these rights have been completely stripped away. In the last two years, an entirely new kind of situation has been created, and it is taking new shape every single day,” she adds.

Aida did not condemn the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in the Israeli Knesset and instead raised her voice against the atrocities by the Israeli army. In response, she was suspended from parliament for two months and penalised with a two-week salary cut.

Aida also accused the Israeli army and rulers of bombing hospitals in Gaza, as a result of which only seven out of 48 surgeons survived. She condemned the Israeli army’s attack on displaced and unarmed people and refused to apologise or retract her statement.

The Knesset’s Ethics Committee, recommending action against her, said that “not condemning the Hamas attack is a betrayal of those Israeli citizens whose tax money pays your salaries as representatives… Accusing your country’s army of atrocities against Palestinians aids Israel’s enemies.” Aida had also alleged that Israeli soldiers fired bullets at Gazans fleeing for their lives through the humanitarian corridor established for evacuating civilians from the war zone.

“With what face do they call themselves the world’s most moral army and claim they do not attack the innocent and hospitals?” she had questioned.

She says that many people also think that everything was fine until October 7 and that the deteriorating situation started only after the Hamas attack. Because of this, many people conclude that if Hamas had not done this, the Israeli government would not have been forced to take such harsh measures.

Aida says, “Among those who think like this, there are many good people, who are politically literate and often supporters of Palestine as well. But I want to say that this perspective is flawed and incomplete, The history of Israel’s oppression of Palestine is older than October 7, 2023.”

She says that people outside don’t know, or they forget, what was happening in Israel before October 7, 2023. They are not allowed to see behind that date. From January 2023, until the Hamas attack in October, there were large-scale protests in Israel against the Netanyahu government because the working-class people of Israel were unhappy with the new laws the government had proposed in the name of judicial reforms.

Under the guise of these proposed reforms, the government wanted to massively increase its own powers, thus reducing the power of the judiciary. In fact, the government’s intention was to completely take over Israel’s Supreme Court, she claims, adding that the aim of these so-called reforms was that they would pass their unilateral laws and become unquestionable, and also gain legal sanction for it.

Aida says that all opposition parties including hers, opposed these proposals, and the Israeli public too protested vehemently against the repressive, dictatorial, right-wing and fascist government.

Opposition against Netanyahu

In 2021, Netanyahu’s party had lost and he had been ousted from the prime minister’s post. When he returned to power in November 2022, he tried to impose his dictatorship, which faced strong opposition in Israel. Under the cover of these legal reforms, he wanted to accelerate actions to seize Palestinian lands. Aida and her party were opposing the government’s move. The public wanted peace, and it seemed that his government would fall again.

According to surveys in September 2023, his party’s members in the Knesset were going to decrease. Right at this time, the Hamas attack happened, and citing a state of war and emergency, all protests were stopped. Several opposition party members were placed under house arrest.

Since then, the Israeli government has presented the Palestinians as villains and corrupted the public’s minds with arrogance, portraying that “Jews as better and more powerful than Palestinians”. As a result, the Israeli government was able to carry out genocide in Gaza because they had instilled hatred, anger and fear towards Palestinians within the Israeli population. The Israeli government left no stone unturned in exploiting the October 7 incident as an opportunity.

Aida was talking of Israel but hearing this, my memories took me to 2002 Godhra incident, just before which the then-BJP government in Gujarat had started becoming unpopular and had even faced defeat in the local body elections. The Godhra incident united most Hindu voters in the state against the “fear of Muslims”.

I also remembered the Kargil War, just before which the NDA government fell due to Jayalalithaa’s party’s – the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s – withdrawal of support. The declaration of the Kargil War, however, united people against Pakistan and stabilised the central government. Then I remembered the Pulwama attack, which also made the political equations favourable for the party holding chair in New Delhi.

The Israeli government had to do something to fix its declining popularity and diminishing international support. If it hadn’t done it on October 7, it would have done it on the 6th or the 8th, or the 20th or 25th. If not in October, then at some other time – on any of the 365 days of the calendar, but it would have done it for sure. This time, it just chose the pretext of the Hamas attack.

Aida insists that most people in Israel did not become supporters of the Israeli government or anti-Palestinian or right-wing racist thinkers, but it is true that the rest are afraid to express their feelings because in the surge of this kind of nationalism, it becomes very easy for power to throttle dissenting voices – no matter how rational and sensible that voice may be.

She says, “We are filled with the pain of oppression being inflicted on our own Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, but apart from that, we Palestinian Israelis living inside Israel are facing different kinds of challenges.”

Aida says that earlier, whenever the Israeli government took any repressive action in Gaza or in the West Bank, the Palestinians living in Israel would immediately go to the streets and register our protest against it.

“Now, under the declared state of emergency, we cannot do that. We are immediately arrested. Now we cannot demonstrate anywhere,” she says.

She also informs that when they tried to hold a meeting inside a hall, the owner of that hall received a message from the government that your hall will be shut down for six months, and what else would happen, was a separate matter. Another major challenge they face is that they are being turned into villains in their own cities and villages by state-sponsored propaganda against them.

In his first address to the nation after October 7, Netanyahu told Israeli citizens that they have to fight a war on four fronts. One in Gaza, the second in the West Bank, the third in Lebanon, and the fourth front is against those who, living in Israel, oppose its voice and raise the voice of justice.

According to Aida, Netanyahu was pointing a clear finger towards them. The Israeli government, she says, considers them its enemy and also presents them as traitors before the public so that the public stops paying attention to the voices they raise against their anti-people actions.

Brecht’s poem’s lines were echoing in my memory again, “Human beings can think.”

If they can think, then they can also change the circumstances.

Vineet Tiwari is a writer and human rights activist associated with India-Palestine Solidarity Network. He visited the West Bank region of Palestine in November 2025.

Courtesy: The Wire

The post A Conversation About Israel That Felt Uncomfortably Familiar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Guardian reported the New South Wales Police stating the attack happened as hundreds gathered to mark the first day of Hanukkah and has been declared a terrorist incident. The victims include an Israeli citizen, according to Israel’s foreign ministry. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the national security committee was convened urgently following the attack. The attack occurred around 6:45 pm local time at Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration attended by around 1,000 people.

“There has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi at the Hanukkah by the sea celebration. This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, an act of evil, anti-Semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” he said.

“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian and every Australian. There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear we will eradicate it,” he added.

A bystander fruit-seller emerges international hero

A bystander seen in a widely circulated video disarming a gunman during a deadly shooting rampage at a popular Australian beach has been widely heralded as a hero who saved lives. CCTV Video footage posted on social media shows a burly passer-by clad in a white T-shirt and dark pants crouching behind a parked car before sneaking up behind a gunman, grabbing him and wrestling away his firearm. The bystander then points the weapon at the gunman, who falls to the ground.

Identified by 7News as 43 year-old Ahmed al-Ahmed, a bystander fruit-seller, he suffered two bullet injuries from one of the terror attackers; he is the father of two and owner of a fruit shop in Sydney.

This extraordinarily brave act has drawn wide praise and acclaim including from religious political leaders alike. What is crucial is that the Australian media and international media have played up this heroic intervention that came from a resident Muslim. Central Synagogue rabbi Levi Wolff reported The Guardian said he is ‘grateful’ for those who aided victims of Sunday’s Bondi beach shooting attack, including a bystander who wrestled a firearm off one of the alleged gunmen. Praised as a hero, he is being identified by some media as a 43-year-old fruit shop owner from the Sutherland Shire. He suffered two bullet wounds, in his arm and in his hand, one of his relatives told Seven News outside a hospital. This brave intervention drew wide praise, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called it the “most unbelievable scene.” “A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people,” Minns said. “That man is a genuine hero.”

Speaking from the White House on Sunday, even US President Donald Trump called Ahmed a “very, very brave person” who “saved a lot of lives.” Trump offered “great respect to that man that did that.”

Extraordinary courage from Ahmed El Ahmad, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah.
Praying for his full & speedy recovery.

And so deeply inspired by his example. pic.twitter.com/HTeLRTlbFV

— Brad Lander (@bradlander) December 14, 2025

Unlike international media, Indian national media, including newspapers played up the gun attack on Bondi Beach; Only NDTV and the Week carried mention of the citizen hero, fruit-seller!

From the Bloody Scene at Bondi Beach

Arsen Ostrovsky, a lawyer attending the Hanukkah ceremony with his wife and daughters, was grazed in the head by a bullet. Ostrovsky told the media that he had moved from Israel to Australia two weeks ago to work for a Jewish advocacy group.

“What I saw today was pure evil, just an absolute bloodbath. Bodies strewn everywhere,” he told The Associated Press in an email from the hospital. “I never thought would be possible here in Australia.”

Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, told the AP he was waiting for his family when he heard shots. “I sprinted as quickly as I could,” Moran said. He said he heard shooting off and on for about five minutes. “Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running and people were crying and it was just horrible.”

Anti-semitic attacks have risen in Australia

Albanese vowed the violence would be met with “a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith.” Some of his political opponents and Israel’s government accused him of not having done enough to prevent such a horror.

Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Antisemitic incidents, including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation, surged more than threefold in the country during the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response, the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.

Father and son duo alleged to be behind shooting using licensed firearms

Naveed Akram previously known to security agencies, prime minister says. His gun-owning father, Sajid, was shot dead by police at the scene said The Guardian adding that the alleged gunmen behind Sydney’ Bondi beach attack are a father-son duo suspected of using legally obtained firearms to commit the massacre, according to police.

Naveed Akram, 24, was nabbed at the scene itself and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His 50-year-old father, who the Sydney Morning Herald first reported to be Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police. The two allegedly killed 15 people, with dozens more injured in the shootings which took place on Sunday, during a gathering to celebrate the first night of Hanukah.

According to reports, the son was known to New South Wales police and security agencies, while his father had a firearms licence with six weapons registered to him. All six firearms have been recovered, police said. Four of these weapons, long arms believed to include a rifle and shotgun, were seized at the scene in Bondi, with other weapons also found during a police raid at a house in Campsie, in Sydney’s south-west. As per a report in The Guardian.

Reportedly, Naveed Akram, who worked as a bricklayer, came under the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) in October 2019, according to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese. He was examined for six months because of his alleged associations with others, with the ABC reporting claims that the counter-terror investigation involved an Islamic State cell. “[Naveed Akram] was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese said. Sajid had held a Category AB firearm licence, police said. This is a licence which requires a person to demonstrate to police they have a “special need” for certain weapons, which can include muzzle-loading firearms (other than pistols); centre-fire rifles (other than self-loading); and shotgun/centre-fire rifle combinations.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said Naveed is an Australian-born citizen. His father had arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998, transferred in 2001 to a partner visa and had since been on resident return visas.

The NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, said the two men had lived at another house in Bonnyrigg, in the city’s west, which was also raided on Sunday night after the attack. He said there was nothing “to indicate that either of the men involved in yesterday’s attack was planning the attack”, and confirmed the older man had held a gun licence for a decade.

Lanyon refused to react or comment on reports claiming a manifesto or black Islamic State flag were found in the car driven to the scene by the alleged attackers. Instead of reducing the discourse to jingoistic Islamophobia, the North South Wales (NSW premier), Chris Minns, said there would “almost certainly” be changes to gun laws, and police were investigating whether there had been a failure of their systems in relation to how licensed weapons could have been used in a terror attack.

Attacker, a hard worker who enjoyed boxing?

Media reports also stated that, until recently, Naveed Akram had been working as a bricklayer. His employer then stated that he had taken him as an apprentice six years ago, describing him as a hard worker who never had time off. However, a few of months ago, he said Naveed reported that he’d broken his wrist while boxing, and would not be able to work again until 2026.

“He asked for all his entitlements paid up, annual leave and everything, but a lot of guys do that at end of year anyway,” said the employer, who did not wish to be named. He commented, “Now you can’t help but think, him getting all his money out, what’s he going to spend it on.”

He did not know Naveed well, saying he had employed dozens of people at the same time, but he was considered a quiet person. “In bricklaying, you work closely as a team on site, but he didn’t associate with anyone else out of hours … he’d have lunch himself, not with anyone else,” he said.

He said he knew Naveed came “from a Muslim background”, but Naveed did not speak much about religion at work. He said some employees had told him that Naveed’s parents had separated and that he closer to his father. He also contested claims that Naveed had lost his job, saying that he had wanted him to return to work, despite his wrist injury.

“He had been doing some boxing outside of hours … he said the doctor told him have a couple of months off,” the employer said. “I asked if he could come back a bit sooner … being a good worker and everything, I thought, fuck, I don’t want to lose this guy. “As a bricklayer, [I] could not fault him; his work was good. He was a good employee, as far as that goes.” Another bricklayer described Naveed as a strange colleague but a hard worker who had an interest in hunting. “No one was close to him,” said the former colleague, who did not wish to be named.

Although authorities have not said the son was a licensed firearms holder, the colleague claimed he hunted regularly, and spoke about shooting rabbits and other game around Crookwell, in the state’s southern tablelands. They worked across Sydney, with the last job in which he saw Naveed on a site in Penrith.

There has also been unconfirmed claims that Naveed was a member of a hunting club, after images emerged of what appears to be a membership card said to have been found in his wallet. However, these reports are unconfirmed.

Shortly after the attack, an old photo of Naveed originally posted by Sheikh Adam Ismail, the head of Al-Murad Institute, went viral. Ismail distanced himself from the man, telling Guardian Australia he hadn’t seen him since 2022. “As I’ve done with 1,000s of students over the years, I’ve taught him Qur’an recitation and Arabic only for a combined period of one year,” he said. Ismail said he was deeply saddened by what had occurred, and gave his condolences to the victims and Jewish community.

“[The] Qur’an … clearly states that taking one innocent life is like killing all of humanity. This makes it clear that what unfolded yesterday at Bondi is completely forbidden in Islam.”

At Bonnyrigg, reporters and police were gathered outside the home that remained cordoned off with blue tape on Monday morning. Two police cars were parked out the front. At around noon, three people returned to the house, which is owned by Naveed’s mother. A young man, and two women, who held paper over their heads to shield themselves from being filmed, exited a car and walked into the home.

Last year, the country was rocked by anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes sprayed with graffiti and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population lives.

Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran.

Israel urged Australia’s government to address crimes targeting Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he warned Australia’s leader’s months ago about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision — in line with scores of other countries — to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the anti-Semitic fire.”

“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of anti-Semitism in Australia … and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said.

Police will investigate what happened

Authorities were not looking for anyone else in connection with the massacre, said Lanyon. Police pledged a “thorough” investigation, he added. Further inquiries are likely to be announced.

Two improvised explosive devices were found at the scene. Bomb disposal experts rendered them safe. Lanyon described them as “rudimentary” devices that would have been detonated by a wick rather than a phone or electronically.

Australia rarely has mass shooting deaths

Minns said there would “almost certainly” be gun law changes after the massacre. The 50-year-old gunman who was shot dead was found to have six firearms when law enforcement raided the property where he’d been staying, police said. Questions about how he was able to acquire them gathered pace on Monday, in part because mass shootings in Australia are extremely rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws, making it much more difficult to acquire firearms.

Significant mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five people in 2014 and seven in 2018, in which gunmen killed their own families and themselves. In 2022, six people were killed in a shootout between police and Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland State. Reported AP News.

World leaders express shock and grief

After the massacre, messages flooded in from leaders around the world. King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “appalled and saddened by the most dreadful anti-Semitic terrorist attack.” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on X he was horrified, and his “heart is with the Jewish community worldwide.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X: “The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Anti-Semitism has no place in this world.”

Who Is Ahmed Al Ahmed, The Heroic Bystander Who Disarmed Sydney Shooter?

Local outlet 7News identified the man as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit seller. The report said he suffered two gunshot wounds during the attack. Unitedly, Australians on Sunday praised a man described as a “hero” after his quick thinking during a mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, the deadliest attack in the country in years. Footage shared widely on social media showed the unarmed man tackling one of the gunmen as shots were being fired at civilians, a move believed to have saved many lives. The 15-second video shows the man hiding behind parked cars before running towards the gunman from behind. He grabs him by the neck, pulls away his rifle and forces him to the ground, before pointing the weapon back at him.

The man was identified as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit seller. He reportedly suffered two gunshot wounds during the attack.

7News spoke to a man named Mustapha, who said he was Ahmed’s cousin. “He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside,” he said. “We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero 100 per cent,” he added. Ahmed was due to undergo surgery later that night. He reportedly had no experience with guns and was simply walking past the area when he decided to step in.

Online, he was widely praised for his bravery and fast reaction. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also described him as a “hero”.

The Week, India headlined their story thus, No, ‘Bondi Hero’ was not a Jew! Who is ‘brave Muslim’ Ahmed al Ahmed, the fruit seller who disarmed the shooter in Australia?

43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit seller by profession, was the brave soul who tackled one of the Bondi Beach gunmen from behind and took away the loaded gun, Australian authorities have confirmed. The video of a civilian risking his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters had taken the internet by storm. The man had become an instant internet sensation, winning hearts worldwide for his selfless act and unparalleled courage as he ambushed the gunman from behind and forcefully took the loaded gun from him.

The identity of the “Bondi Beach Hero” was debated for a while before he was officially identified by Australian authorities. Many on social media initially hailed him as a Jewish man who stepped up to protect his fellow citizens before Benjamin Netanyahu himself “saluted” the “brave Muslim man” who “stopped the terrorists from killing innocent” people.

Having lost one of his guns to Ahmed, the shooter was forced to join his companion on the bridge. As the attacker retreated, Ahmed wasted no time to place the gun against a tree and raise his hands to ensure the law enforcement didn’t mistake him for a villain, reports said.

He had no previous experience with firearms and was forced to intervene as his conscience didn’t let him walk away. Ahmed al Ahmed suffered bullet injuries in the incident and remains hospitalised, waiting for surgery. His kin reportedly told Australian press that they don’t know much about his condition apart from the fact that his surgery is scheduled for the night. Ahmed is native to Sydney’s Sutherland Shire.

Related:

Pahalgam Attack: Kashmir unites in heroic resilience amid terror attack, proving humanity’s strength against hate narrative

Muslims in Kashmir & across India strongly condemn Pahalgam terror attack

Hyderabad Muslims come together to form a human chain and condemn terror attacks in Sri Lanka

The post Australia, World express shock at Sydney’s Bondi Beach terror attack, toll rises to 16, Govt promises stricter gun laws appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The first  day saw 11 witnesses give testimony of evidence regarding both genocide and ecocide, from the likes of Raji Sourani from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Dr. Omar Nashabe of Lebanon, and Maria Zendrera with the Global Sumud Flotilla. The proof of intent on the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s environment at-large, the destruction of all means of the ability to sustain life beyond the complete blockade, and the day-to-day impact on the Palestinian people was highlighted in the evidence delivered.

The second day of the Tribunal explicated on much of the same topics and included 5 witness testimonies. With the court in session, the prosecution began with the effects on women in a written testimony on Day 1 from Nadia Bakri, a feminist and human rights activist that served as director of the Women’s Affairs Staff in Gaza for 30 years before being forcibly displaced to Egypt due to the genocidal war. “There has been a deliberate targeting of women’s health centres and clinics in order to stop Palestinian people from reproducing, in line with Zionist strategy,” stated Suzanne Adely of the National Lawyers Guild, the Tribunal prosecutor representing Bakri.

The jurors then intervened with their own line of questioning to Raji Sourani and Dr. Omar Nashabe in order to clarify different aspects of their testimonies.

Sourani was asked by the prosecution about the recent historical precedent behind the UN Security Council’s recent vote around Trump’s ‘peace’ plan. He responded with, “There isn’t one word about the unalienable right of Palestinian people, the occupation is institutionalized, and supported more by the American presidencies who are involved directly with the genocide and supporting Israel directly. . . 30 years ago, we were extremely critical about the Oslo Accords which did not mention anything about ending the occupation and self-determination – and that was intentional.”

Dr. Nashabe added during his portion that it is not only a genocide or ecocide stating, “I’d like to reiterate that the ecocide and genocide is a fundamental part of this policy of total extermination. It can’t take place by just killing people, but you have to kill all forms of life that will allow the people to rebuild. It is a metacide, the destruction of everything.” Furthermore, he spoke about the schism within the United Nations due to this ‘peace’ plan and the deep crisis within the intergovernmental body, “What other kind of creative, destructive, violent tactics can [Israel] come up with now when they haven’t been able to achieve their vile, obscene objective? We are going through a crisis in international law never seen before – this is like George Orwell’s 1984 on an unseen scale.”

After the jurors’ line of questioning, the five witnesses testified on the stand either in-person, over Zoom, or through pre-recorded videos on the collective punishment, deliberate targeting of entire families, intentional blockades of food and water, direct targeting of farmers and fisherfolk by airstrikes and settler mobs, and even direct evidence of systematic repression and silencing of Palestinian voices by other states in collusion with the Zionist government.

Mushier Ek Farra, an activist and filmmaker that was in the midst of a project centring on the plight of Gaza’s fisher people until 2023, was the first witness on the stand. He spoke on the collective punishment inflicted in Gaza right from the beginning of the genocide, as soon as October 9th, 2023. He stated, “In one instance, 67 people were killed and 52 houses were destroyed to target a Hamas operative. That is collective punishment which even one of the accused [Joe Biden] has condemned.”

After Ek Farra, two written testimonies from Gaza – first a collection of testimonies from an activist, then a worker – were delivered by the prosecution. The collection of testimonies were procured through great difficulty due to the chilling effect from 172 journalists deliberately killed in their role of revealing the truth to the world. One of the Palestinian farmers willing to testify stated, “Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the land to destroy and raze it again, cutting irrigation networks, destroying water sources like agricultural ponds and wells, and shredding the remnants of the trees into very small pieces with massive machines.” In line with that, the testimony of the worker from Gaza illustrated the strategy behind this destruction, “The aim was to inflict the largest possible number of deaths and injuries among civilians and medical personnel to force them to leave northern Gaza.”

Three real-time Zoom testimonies along with videos of Palestinian farmers and fisher people conducted by a journalist who gave his own written testimony followed. Throughout the video testimonies, the strategy of complete destruction – not just of killing people en masse, but destroying the basic means to assure their existence – were exhibited throughout. In particular, the dire situation and sheer destruction of Gaza’s sole port was illustrated, compounding on the complete blockade that Israel has imposed, “The port, heavily bombarded with roughly 26 rockets on the third day of the war, was split in half. About 95% of fishing boats were destroyed. There is a deliberate strategy to create famine: the occupation closes crossings, blocks the entry of food supplies, and prevents fishermen from feeding our people.”

The real-time Zoom testimonies began with Mohammad el Bakri, an engineer specializing in agricultural infrastructure and board member of the Urban Agriculture Forum, “They have destroyed [the crops], there is nothing now. In the north and south of Gaza, all this land is agricultural land and Israel has not allowed anybody to access or reach this land. There is no income, there is no water as its polluted — the sewage water has gone into aquifers directly.” Founder and director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, added to this point in his testimony and illustrated how this is connected to the strategy of occupation of Israel in the West Bank as well, which has escalated to unprecedented heights since 2023. He stated, “In the West Bank, they are draining the wetland of the Hula, redirecting waters of the Jordan River to their settlements, and uprooting millions of indigenous trees to plant an invasive monoculture of European trees. This squeezes remaining indigenous Palestinians into “concentration areas” and refugee camps increasingly surrounded by environmentally damaging walls and military infrastructures.”

As the environmental aspects of ecocide and the many aspects to genocide aside from mass slaughter being thoroughly investigated, Dr. Diana Nazzal’s testimony touched on the devastating health impacts from the forced starvation, and hyperinflation along with targeting aid recipients as an aspect of the starvation. “The hair becomes thin and lost, the nails become brittle, the concentration and mental health of people become very poor, and their whole life becomes about how they can get their next meal,” stated Nazzal. “The hospitals would always prepare for when the Gaza Humanitarian Fund was providing ‘aid’ because children were deliberately killed – it was another example of using humanitarian aid to commit genocide.”

A kilogram of the following foodstuff had risen to these exorbitant prices, showcasing the impact of the complete blockade through land, air, and sea aside from the ecocide:

• Tomatoes: 163 euros in the North; 17 euros in the South
• Meat: 175 euros in the North; 95 euros in the South
• Flour: 1000 euros in the North; 90 euros in the South
• Sugar: 46 euros in the North; 40 euros in the South
• Coffee: 135 euros throughout Gaza

Throughout the testimonies around the massive destruction of Gaza’s environment, the massive loss of life and ability to sustain life, and the countless violation of international humanitarian law, the experts and witnesses all resolved that the true solution to end the horror inflicted by the Zionist entity is the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination. From the witnesses and experts:

• Mushier Ek Farra: “[Those killed through collective punishment] are people I knew who were not even part of the resistance, I would have supported their resistance, but they were just civilians. . . We need support out of solidarity, not charity. This is a political matter, we must extend our political support first and then sympathize. The same oil, mining, and timber companies destroying Gaza are destroying the rest of the world.”
• Dr. Diana Nazzal: “We want to have our land and right to self-determination and be left alone. We are able to build our own society but we aren’t given the chance to do so.”
• Mazin B. Qumsiyeh: “Only we, the Palestinian people, can challenge against our corrupt leaders and the occupation”

After the testimonies came to a close, the lead prosecutor – Jan Fermon – delivered his final statement:

• “I would say, from a broader perspective, we do have to say that this is even beyond genocide and ecocide–and that is metacide: the destruction of everything. I think that terminology is absolutely appropriate with what we’ve been hearing and witnessing. . . The liberation of Palestine is the work of the Palestinians. The work of the rest of us is solidarity. Nazism was brought down by the resistance of the people of the world. The US intervention in Vietnam was ended by the struggle of the Vietnamese people and the solidarity of the people of the world. Apartheid was brought down by the struggle of the South African people and the solidarity of the people of the world.”

At the end of the jurors’ deliberation, they delivered the verdict: finding Israel, the United States, and other complicit entities guilty of genocide, ecocide, and forced starvation – finding Israel as the principal perpetrator of these crimes and the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany complicit in aiding, abetting, and enabling the crimes found in the verdict. “Free, free Palestine!” rang through the hall, with attendees celebrating the decision, and committing to use the findings to exact justice and accountability in the streets through mass mobilizations and action in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for self-determination.

Earlier today, organisers and attendees of the Tribunal took a copy of the full verdict produced by the jurors to the Zionist consulate and held a demonstration. Representatives of the Zionist occupation refused to attend the Tribunal and subsequently refused to receive a copy of the verdict.

Throughout the two days of testimonies and evidence, the final guilty verdict of the International People’s Tribunal stands in line with what international institutions have also determined, but have either moved too slowly on or have wholly ignored. The verdict, based on a mountain of evidence showcasing Israel’s and US’s clear intent and exposing the ecocide rarely touched in the mainstream narrative, has put the power into the hands of the people to exact justice and accountability in solidarity with Palestinian people’s right to and struggle for self-determination.

The verdict serves only as a start. True justice will only be found through continued movement building and mass actions in the streets and in any venue possible if advocacy efforts will have any hope of contributing to justice and accountability. What the Tribunal proved is that true justice belongs with the people, and the people will fight for it until the end of all economic, political, military, and diplomatic support from Israel.

There will be more activities and campaigns in relation to the Tribunal in the coming months available for press to cover.

About the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine:

The IPT for Palestine is a civil society initiative organized by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), International Peoples’ Front, and the Peoples’ Coalition on Food Sovereignty, with the cooperation of endorsers including the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and Palestine Land Studies Centre, among others. It aims to establish a historical record of crimes against the Palestinian people, mobilize international solidarity, and exert moral and political pressure on complicit governments and international institutions.

Watch the full Tribunal recording here: https://bit.ly/IPTPalestineRecordings

Related:

Gaza: 700 citizens demand release of detained Madleen activists, call upon UK to fix Israel’s accountability for genocide, blockade, war crimes in Palestine

How AI mistook Chhattisgarh truce move as religious leaders’ appeal for Israel-Palestine peace!

Former DU Professor, Achin Vanaik, stands by his lecture on Palestine despite pressure

The post Israel, United States & and other complicit entities guilty of genocide, ecocide, and forced starvation in Palestine: International People’s Tribunal appeared first on SabrangIndia.

For Indian audiences, Mamdani’s victory carries significance that extends far beyond New York’s five boroughs. His win represents a complex convergence of identity, ideology and generational change that challenges established political narratives on both sides of the Atlantic.

Seven dimensions of his triumph deserve particular attention, particularly in India.​

1) A modern Muslim identity

Mamdani embodies a form of Muslim political identity that defies the stereotypes that the Bharatiya Janata Party and similar forces rely upon to paint Muslims as fundamentalist or separatist.

He is a practicing Muslim who openly discusses his faith while simultaneously championing secular democratic socialism, feminist causes and LGBTQ rights. This combination directly contradicts the caricature of Muslims as backwards looking Islamists.

His emotional speech outside a Bronx mosque about the humiliations Muslims have endured in New York since 9/11 demonstrated vulnerability and civic commitment rather than religious extremism. He married a Syrian American artist in a relationship that bridges cultural divides, and campaigns in multiple languages including Urdu and Spanish while maintaining his Muslim identity as central rather than hidden.

This presents a progressive Muslim political figure who is comfortable in his faith without being defined solely by it, a model that undermines narratives equating Muslim identity with Taliban style Islamist fundamentalism, as seen from the welcome given to the Taliban leader by the Modi government in Delhi last month.​

2) Mixed heritage and transnational roots

Mamdani’s parentage tells a story of cosmopolitan belonging that resonates across the global South.

Born in Kampala to Mira Nair, the acclaimed Hindu filmmaker from Delhi, and Mahmood Mamdani, a Gujarati Muslim scholar raised in Uganda, Mamdani carries Indian, African and American identities simultaneously. His family was part of the Asian diaspora expelled by Idi Amin in 1972, experienced apartheid-era South Africa, and eventually settled in New York when he was seven.

This background gives him an intuitive understanding of colonialism, displacement and minority experience that informs his politics. For Indians familiar with the complexities of diasporic identity and the lingering effects of British colonial divide and rule strategies, Mamdani’s mixed heritage represents a repudiation of narrow ethnic nationalism. His father’s scholarship explicitly critiques the tribalisation of politics, a pattern visible in both Uganda under Museveni and India under Modi. The son can be considered to have absorbed these lessons.​

3) Youth and generational change

At 34, Mamdani is the youngest New York mayor in 112 years, younger even than the legendary “Boy Mayor” John Purroy Mitchel elected in 1913. His age matters not merely as biography but as political force. He galvanised young voters, winning those under 50 by a two to one margin, precisely the demographic that feels locked out of home ownership, burdened by debt and alienated from establishment politics. His rapid rise from unknown state assemblyman polling at one percent just months before the primary to decisive victor reflects how quickly generational change can upend entrenched power structures.

For India, where Modi’s BJP has dominated national politics for over a decade, Mamdani’s trajectory offers evidence that insurgent campaigns built on youth energy and grassroots organising can overcome entrenched political figures like the Cuomos.

His campaign demonstrates that age and inexperience, typically framed as liabilities, can become assets when voters hunger for change.​

4) Socialist economic policies

Mamdani’s democratic socialism, often dismissed as radical or unworkable, formed the core of his appeal. He proposed rent freezes on stabilised apartments, free bus service, universal childcare, city run grocery stores and raising the minimum wage to 30 dollars, all funded by taxing corporations and the wealthy. These policies directly address the affordability crisis strangling working people in expensive cities. His message resonated because it named the problem clearly and offered concrete solutions rather than technocratic adjustments.

For Indian audiences familiar with the welfare state legacies of pre-liberalisation era, now being dismantled through privatisation, Mamdani’s unapologetic embrace of state intervention in markets to secure basic needs recalls an older social democratic tradition. His success suggests that economic populism focused on redistribution still wins elections when articulated with clarity and passion, a lesson relevant for opposition parties in India struggling to counter Modi’s Hindu nationalism with an economic alternative.​

5) Stance on Gaza and moral consistency

His vocal support for Palestinian rights, unusual for a major American mayoral candidate, cost him support among some Jewish voters but energised others, particularly younger Jews and the broader progressive coalition. He condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack as a war crime while also accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, pledging to arrest Netanyahu if given the chance and maintaining his criticism despite intense pressure.

This moral consistency, refusing to moderate his position for political convenience, functioned as proof of authenticity for voters exhausted by politicians who say different things to different audiences.

The likes of Modi and his cohort of RSS leaders have mastered this to an art form. Mamdani’s willingness to alienate powerful constituencies rather than compromise on principles he formed during his college activism with Students for Justice in Palestine shows a robust political calculus, one that prizes moral clarity over coalition management.​

6) Criticism of Modi’s Hindutva politics

Mamdani has repeatedly criticised Modi, calling him a war criminal and accusing the BJP of pursuing a vision of India that only has room for certain kinds of Indians. During his Diwali outreach to Hindu voters, he explained that he grew up with a pluralistic vision of India where everyone belonged regardless of religion, contrasting this with what he sees as Modi’s exclusionary Hindutva ideology.

He also attacked New York Mayor Eric Adams for backing Modi’s violent approach.

These statements, unusual for an American politician seeking office, reflect his family background. His father’s scholarship analyses how political leaders use ethnic and religious divisions to maintain power, a dynamic visible in both Uganda and India.

For Indian audiences, particularly those troubled by the erosion of secular pluralism under Modi, Mamdani’s willingness as a Muslim politician to defend a pluralistic vision of India while simultaneously claiming his Muslim identity offers a model. He refuses the choice between assimilation and separatism, instead asserting that diversity itself should be celebrated and protected.​

7) Implications beyond New York

Mamdani’s victory will reverberate beyond the United States. National Democrats will study his combination of social media savvy, grassroots organising and economic populism for lessons applicable to their own campaigns. Republicans will use his democratic socialism as a wedge issue in swing districts.

But for observers in India, the significance lies elsewhere. His win demonstrates that that an authentic progressive position has political rewards even in a city identified with capitalism, that youth can overcome entrenched political leaders, that economic redistribution still motivates voters, and that moral consistency on difficult issues can be rewarded rather than punished.

He will judged on his record at governance when he comes for re-election, but his election itself challenges assumptions about what kinds of politicians can win and what kinds of coalitions are possible in increasingly diverse democracies.

Courtesy: The Wire

The post Seven Dimensions of Zohran Mamdani’s Win Hold Significance For Indians appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is ‘nine-eleven’ once again! A day pregnant with memories! Memories of violence and suffering; of hate and division. On the other hand, the day is also one of promise –of truth and non-violence; of justice and peace; of hope, for new beginnings, a new dawn! Our world today, is gripped with hate and violence; wars and conflicts; discrimination and division; prejudice and racism; corruption and communalism! One sees and witnesses this everywhere!

In neighbouring Nepal for one, it is a youth uprising against a corrupt regime; reminiscent of what happened in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh not too long ago! A warning for the corrupt and communal regime in India!

The plight of the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, continues for almost a year now. Despite condemnation from most parts of the world, the Israeli regime has not stopped its brutal, violent, inhuman attacks on a beleaguered and starving people; the Israeli Government, even bombed Qatar yesterday.

Violence from Ukraine to Manipur continues unabated. The military-industrial complex is having a hay-day profiteering on the blood of innocent victims. All this and more, happening today, on ‘nine-eleven!’

There are memories of ‘nine-eleven’, today!

On this day, in 1906, Mahatma Gandhi launched his non-violent resistance campaign at a historic mass meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was the birth of a new movement ‘Satyagraha’ – the relentless pursuit of truth and justice.  Gandhi believed that they were non-negotiables; two-sides of a coin. More than three thousand Indians (both Hindus and Muslims) and others, gathered to support the beginning of civil obedience. Later with ‘Ahimsa’ (non-violence), ‘Satyagraha’ would ultimately become Gandhi’s twin-doctrine in belief and in practise. He used it effectively in his struggle against British colonial rule in India. Several world civil rights leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, later embraced this twin doctrine.

Sadly, we still do not learn from the past; racism, xenophobia, jingoism, exclusiveness, pseudo-nationalism, discrimination and divisiveness seem to have a stranglehold on nations and peoples across the globe. The emergence of the ‘extreme-right’ ideology wedded to fascism and fundamentalism is a growing cause of concern. Some want to ‘build walls and fences’ to keep people out. ‘Satyagraha’ was a movement to make people realise that all humans have dignity and are created equal in the image and likeness of God! Our responsibility is to help build bridges and not walls!

There are memories of ‘nine-eleven’, today! In 1893, on this day, at the very first World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda gave a powerful and passionate speech. He made a fervent plea to end every form of sectarianism, bigotry, fanaticism and violence from this earth, by fostering the values enshrined in every religion. He spoke emphatically, saying, “I fervently hope that the bell which tolled this morning in honour of this convention, may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons, wending their way to the same goal”. Ironically enough, his clarion call does not seem to evoke any positive response from ‘hindutva’ fundamentalists today. They continue with their fascist and fanatic agenda, demonizing and attacking the minorities (particularly Muslims, Christians and Sikhs) of the country, in a very meticulous manner. 

There are memories of ‘nine-eleven’, today! What happened in the United States on this day in 2001, will always be etched in human memory!  Any and every form of violence, is non-acceptable and needs to be strongly condemned. No violent act can be justified, whatever the provocation! That unprecedented violence in the US is remembered and defined today by a date “9/11.” The very utterance of it evokes all kinds of emotions: from undiluted hatred to a feeling of utter helplessness, in the face of rabid terror; from inconsolable grief at the loss of a loved one to heated debates on imponderables. A visit to ‘ground zero’ brings back painful memories of the almost three thousand lives, which were lost in just one place. One is also reminded of the millions of people who suffer every day in Palestine and Yemen, Syria and Iraq, DR Congo and Sudan, Myanmar and Afghanistan, Venezuela and El Salvador and so many other parts of the world. The world should also never forget the terror attacks that were unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vietnam and Cambodia, Iraq and Iran and other parts of the world! We need to stop all war and violence just now; we must close down the military-industrial complex and all nations need to de-nuclearize immediately!  Do we, as citizens of the world who genuinely desire sustainable peace, have the courage to say ‘never again’ this 9/11?

There are memories of ‘nine-eleven’, today! The great Gandhian, Vinoba Bhave, was born on this day in 1895! He is widely regarded as the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi; a strong advocate for nonviolence and human rights. He initiated the ‘Bhoodan Movement’, a nonviolent land gift campaign to redistribute land to the poor. He translated the ‘Bhagavad Gita’ into the Marathi language. He is regarded as the National Teacher of India. He died in November 1982 and was posthumously awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’.

Swami Agnivesh, the well-known social reformer died on this day in 2020. He was known for his work against bonded labour through the ‘Bonded Labour Liberation Front’, which he founded in 1981.He was also a founder of the World Council of Arya Samaj. He championed freedom of religion and the rights of workers. He was an unwavering voice for the excluded and the exploited and for the victims of injustice! If he was alive today, he would have taken on the Rajasthan Government on their draconian anti-conversion law and also the Gujarat Government for increasing the working hours of factory workers to 12 hours a day. Both laws were passed yesterday.

Significantly, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, also died on this day in 1948. He was a barrister and politician. He served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913, until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947.

There are memories of ‘nine-eleven’, today! So much happening all over. We are in the midst of the ‘Season of Creation’ – yet parts of Punjab and Pakistan have been devastated by floods. Recent earthquakes in Afghanistan and Greece taking a toll on lives and livelihood, mean nothing to many, the rich and the powerful continue to destroy mother earth.  A terrible reality grips the lives and destinies of many people because of incompetent, autocratic, biased, violent and insensitive leaders everywhere. Marketing and manipulations greatly contribute to the fact that they are in power. These people use every trick in the book to keep people divided. Today (9/11) is surely about commemorations: the sad, tragic ones: a day of mourning! Nevertheless, it is also about new beginnings: of healing, building bridges, hope and resilience. Becoming pilgrims of hope!

As if on cue, the Catholic Liturgy of today provides us with a direction. In his letter to the Colossians St. Paul writes, “put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.”  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus exhorts us, “to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Are we listening? Will we act? Memories of ‘nine-eleven’ today, must help us to do so!

(The author is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist/writer)

Related:

Sorry, Stan!

Fifty years later..another Emergency rules

The temporariness and unpredictability of life

The post Memories of ‘Nine Eleven’ today appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a strongly worded statement of commemoration on August 6, 2025, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) states that, ‘as we mark eight decades of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we must confront the fact that this template of misinformation crafted in 1945 remains largely intact. Today, we live in an era where media monopolies and concentrated information power have reached unprecedented levels. Social and mainstream media alike often serve more as instruments of propaganda rather than as platforms for critical analysis. As a result, the global public remains dangerously uninformed about what a nuclear war would actually mean for humanity and the planet.

‘We are witnessing an alarming resurgence of militarism and nuclear brinkmanship. Nations are modernising their arsenals, dismantling arms control frameworks, and inflating defence budgets. Today, from South Asia to West Asia, nuclear tensions simmer dangerously. Recent escalations from the near-war between India and Pakistan to Israeli-US strikes in Iran underline how quickly the threat of nuclear confrontation can re-enter our reality.

‘But perhaps the most insidious threat lies in how these issues are reported or rather, misreported. Public fear is stoked without accompanying understanding. The voices of peace, disarmament, and justice are routinely marginalised, while the dominant narratives reinforce inequality, nationalism, and the illusion of “strategic deterrence.”’

On this occasion, says the statement, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) and PEACE has also organised a special lecture by senior journalist and founder of the People’s Archive of Rural India, P. Sainath entitled The Media and the Bomb- The Big Lie template for reporting nuclear issues was set in Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The lecture will be chaired by Prof. Anuradha Chenoy (Academician) and is being held at HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi on Saturday August 9 at 5 p.m.

Related:

Anti-nuclear activist raise alarm over India’s ASAT missile testing

Keyboard commandos, here’s one simple reason why nuclear war is a bad, bad thing

The post Militaristic nationalism, pushed by complicit big media have blurred dangers of nuclear war to the planet: CNDP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The report of Al Jalzeera states that the killer, Yinon Levi, a settler from the nearby illegal outpost of Carmel, opened fire indiscriminately after tensions flared over a bulldozer damaging Palestinian infrastructure. The bullet struck Hathaleen in the chest as he stood near the community centre yard—a space he helped build, and where he taught children the English language.

According to the report of The Guardian, despite his critical injury, Israeli forces did not allow a Palestinian ambulance to take him. Instead, a military ambulance from the Carmel settlement transported him. Later that night, Israeli authorities informed his family of his death—without returning his body. To date, Israeli officials continue to withhold the body, in violation of Islamic customs that require immediate burial.

Sequence of events leading to the killing

The violence began the day prior, when a settler-operated bulldozer entered Umm al-Kheir and began destroying agricultural land and vital infrastructure, including a water pipe. Villagers had attempted to coordinate its passage to avoid such destruction, but their warnings were ignored. According to witnesses, the bulldozer operator used the vehicle’s claw to strike a villager in the head, leaving him semi-conscious.

As villagers gathered to protest, according to AP News, Levi reportedly emerged with a gun and began firing toward the crowd. Hathaleen was standing at a distance of about 10–15 metres, observing the unfolding situation. One eyewitness, Israeli activist Mattan Berner-Kadish, recounted to Al Jalzeera that Levi showed no remorse and was overheard saying: “I’m glad I did it.”

Berner-Kadish also stated that Israeli soldiers who arrived at the scene expressed sympathy with Levi, with at least three soldiers allegedly saying they wished they had shot Awdah themselves.

Aftermath and military crackdown

Following the killing, the Israeli army sealed off the village, declaring it a closed military zone, and arrested at least five members of the Hathaleen family. Among the detainees were relatives of the deceased and two international solidarity activists. Soldiers stormed the mourning tent, evicted mourners, and threw stun grenades at journalists and residents who resisted dispersal.

According to Vulture, despite the declared military closure, video footage later emerged showing a settler operating a bulldozer within the village, highlighting the disparity between military restrictions on Palestinians and impunity for settler activity.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities charged Levi with negligent homicide, not murder. He was released to house arrest within three days. Levi had previously been sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States under President Joe Biden for violent settler attacks—but was delisted by Donald Trump on his first day in office.

A legacy of peace and education

Awdah was deeply embedded in the cultural and resistance life of Masafer Yatta. A teacher by profession and an activist by necessity, he taught English to grades 1 through 9 in the local school, believing language could be a tool to amplify Palestinian voices globally.

He was also a co-producer and on-screen voice in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” directed by Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, which captured Israel’s systemic efforts to evict Palestinian communities from their homes in the firing zones of Masafer Yatta.

Beyond activism, Awdah was remembered as a devoted father to three young children—Watan (5), Muhammad (4), and Kinan (7 months)—and a vibrant presence in the community. He was known for his love of football, often playing with children on the makeshift pitch outside the community centre, and for his affection for Real Madrid. He was also described as a coffee connoisseur, regularly gifted Italian coffee by international allies.

“There was nobody who contributed as much to the community in Umm al-Kheir as Awdah,” said his cousin and brother-in-law, Alaa Hathaleen, as reported by Al Jalzeera.

“He was a radical humanist,” said Micol Hassan to Al Jalzeera, an Italian-Jewish activist and close friend who has been barred by Israel from reentering the West Bank.

Final message and global response

In a message sent just hours before his death, Awdah warned: “The settlers are working behind our houses… they tried to cut the main water pipe… If you can reach people like the Congress, courts, whatever, please do everything.”

His killing has drawn international condemnation. The French Foreign Ministry called it “a form of terrorism,” urging Israel to ensure accountability. Human rights lawyer Michael Sfard called settler violence “state violence” in Israel, citing widespread legal and military backing for settlers.

As reported by Al Jalzeera, Basel Adra, his colleague and co-director of No Other Land, wrote in mourning: “My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening. This is how Israel erases us—one life at a time.”

Settler violence in context

The killing of Hathaleen is part of a broader pattern of increasing settler violence in the West Bank. Since October 2023, at least 1,009 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,000 injured, many in attacks involving armed settlers under the protection of Israeli military units. According to international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal.

Umm al-Kheir, like many villages in Masafer Yatta, lies within Area C, a zone where Israel maintains full civil and military control. The entire region has been designated a “firing zone” by Israel, a status Palestinians say is used as a pretext to forcibly evict communities. Awdah had been documenting and resisting this very policy until the last day of his life.

Related:

Gaza: 700 citizens demand release of detained Madleen activists, call upon UK to fix Israel’s accountability for genocide, blockade, war crimes in Palestine

Illegality of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Former DU Professor, Achin Vanaik, stands by his lecture on Palestine despite pressure

Mumbai police’s FIR against individuals at prayer gathering commemorating children killed in Palestine condemned: PUCL

“Don’t pray for Palestine,” Delhi Police reportedly warns mosque imams

The post Palestinian peace activist Awdah Hathaleen shot dead by Israeli settler in occupied West Bank appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of California in its ruling on July 18 in response to an allegation by the Hindu American Foundation that had claimed that the California civil rights department’s enforcement of anti-caste policies violated the “constitutional rights of all Hindu Americans,” dismissed HAF’s contention.

While dealing with the allegations, the court dismissed the allegation, stating that HAF had neither standing nor any valid arguments to pursue the case. The judge also said that HAF was being hypocritical in claiming that caste is not integral to Hinduism, while also claiming caste-based protections infringe on Hindu religious rights.

The Ambedkar King Study Circle, USA (AKSC) – a California-based anti-caste and social justice organisation – has called the ruling is not only a legal win, but “a major victory for civil rights and social justice.”

The AKSC, in its statement on behalf of the Savera coalition in the US – a platform bringing together a multiracial, interfaith, anti-caste organisations and activists – writes that the ruling has four visible outcomes:

1. It affirms the California civil rights department’s constitutional power to take legal action on behalf of caste-oppressed individuals facing discrimination.
2. The court stated that the civil rights department’s litigation – such as in the Cisco case – is legitimate state action.
3. The court ruled that the civil rights department’s actions do not violate the religious rights, equal protection, or due process of Hindu Americans and said that the HAF’s argument was “entirely unpersuasive.”
4. The court rejected HAF’s claim to represent “all Hindu Americans,” noting the organisation failed to demonstrate any actual activities, funding mechanisms, or engagement with the broader Hindu American community that would grant it standing in this case.

The judgement dismissed the Second Amended Complaint filed by HAF and eight individuals in September 2024 against California civil rights department director Kevin Kish.

“The court’s judgment makes it clear that enforcing civil rights laws does not infringe on religious liberty. This decision sends a strong message: caste-based exclusion and abuse have no place in our institutions, and those impacted can seek justice under the law in the USA,” Karthikeyan Shanmugam, convenor of the AKSC, said.

Roja Singh, who is president of the Dalit Solidarity Forum, stated that the judgement shows that “the decades-long campaign of caste-based oppression in the US is finally being confronted.”

Related:

Unsealed: Suhag Shukla’s Deposition in Hindu American Foundation’s Failed Defamation Case Against Us

Debunking Myths: A Critical Analysis of Hindu American Foundation’s Ram Temple Narrative

The post In a ‘major win’ for anti-caste activists, a US Federal Court upholds California Govt’s authority to act against caste oppression appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Access to the camp would be through strict security screening to ensure entrants were not Hamas operatives. Once inside, the perimeter would be sealed off by the Israeli military. Palestinians would not be allowed to leave.

Eventually the camp would house the entire 2.1 million population of Gaza.

Camp construction would begin during the proposed 60-day ceasefire being negotiated by Israel and Hamas

‘Illegal and inhumane’

The plan is illegal, inhumane and risks worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The forced displacement and containment of any civilian population in an occupied territory is a violation of international humanitarian law.

Done on this scale would constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.

The UN Security Council, UN General Assembly and UN Commission on Human Rights have all condemned instances of forced transfer in armed conflicts.

So too, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, which have stressed the fundamental prohibition of forced displacement of a civilian population and the need for all parties to respect this prohibition.

For their own protection?

Katz is describing the camp as a “humanitarian city”. The Israeli military says Palestinians would only be contained for their own protection.

As we have seen, civilian displacement is prohibited. But there is an exception if a case can be made either for military reasons or the protection of the population.

However, this exception only exists for as long as the conditions warrant for it to exist. Anyone subject to such an evacuation must be transferred back to their homes as soon as possible.

Imperative military reasons never justify the removal of a civilian population in order to persecute it. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement entrenches the duty of international actors to avoid creating the conditions that might lead to the displacement of people.

Aid dilemma

Katz has indicated international organisations would be responsible for managing aid and services inside the area.

But Israel has a history of defying even orders from the International Court of Justice to allow humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinians in Gaza.

If international humanitarian agencies were called upon to service the camp, they would face a dilemma.

They would need to decide whether to cooperate in managing aid under conditions that compromise their neutrality and ethical standards, deny basic human rights and are built on violations of international law.

Aid groups would risk being complicit in a process that sets up a transit camp for Palestinians before possibly expelling them from Gaza altogether.

This “humanitarian city” would essentially become an open-air prison. Palestinians would be reliant on international aid under strict Israeli military control.

Mass expulsion?

Could the Rafah camp be a precursor to mass expulsion from Gaza and what does international law say about that?

Katz has been quoted saying Israel aims to implement “the emigration plan, which will happen” – meaning Gazans will eventually be forced to leave for other countries.

Changing the demographic composition of a territory – ethnic cleansing – achieved through the displacement of the civilian population of a territory is strictly prohibited under international law.

The idea of displacing Palestinians has long been part of Israeli strategic thinking, but this announcement signals a dangerous escalation and intention to permanently alter Gaza’s demographic landscape through displacement and containment.

Voluntary exodus?

According to Katz, Gazans would have the option of “voluntary” emigration.

Indeed, speaking at the White House this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no forced exodus from Gaza:

If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.

But the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is incomprehensible.

The population has been displaced multiple times and 90% of homes in Gaza are damaged or destroyed. The healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed.

On average 100 Palestinians are killed daily as they try to access food.

These crisis circumstances negate the voluntary nature of any person’s consent to either the transfer to the Rafah camp or ultimately, the departure from Gaza.

According to Amos Goldberg, historian of the Holocaust at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, what the defence minister laid out was clear plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza:

[it is] a transit camp for Palestinians before they expel them. It is neither humanitarian nor a city.

Shannon Bosch, Associate Professor (Law), Edith Cowan University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Israel’s Rafah camp – ‘humanitarian city’ or crime against humanity? appeared first on SabrangIndia.