August 23: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
Even before Europe’s colonial rulers divided up Africa, Africans hunted Africans and sold them to Muslim slave traders who exported them to the Arabian Peninsula or further. While the Europeans ruthlessly exploited their colonies, they also abolished human trafficking within Africa. More here.
The Taliban have been ruling Afghanistan again for three years now.
After the end of the NATO mission and the head-over-heels withdrawal of the USA, the Taliban declared themselves the new government of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021. Since then, women have lost all their rights. One woman is even to be stoned to death for extramarital sex. More here.
TV host Bill Maher slams hypocrisy in “gender apartheid” speech.
“Kids, if you want to change the orld and not just tie up Monday morning traffic, this is the apartheid that desperately needs your attention: the #GenderApartheid.” More here.
Guest post by Volker Seitz on the “World Persecution Index” 2024
Christians are persecuted for their faith in many countries. Every year, the “World Persecution Index” lists the 50 countries in which Christians are most at risk. The Index also describes what persecution and discrimination actually look like and how they affect people. Nigeria is once again in the top places. More here.
What goes wrong in the traditional education of Muslim boys.
After the riots in New Year’s Eve 2022/23, the leader of the German Christian-Democratic Party, Friedrich Merz, called Muslim young men “little pashas”. He had to take a lot of flak for this. The recent hate-filled anti-Israel demonstrations show just how harmless Merz’s term was. I found a different comparison in a radio feature from 2007… The text makes the political failures of the last fifteen years clear once again.
A Yemeni-Swedish video blogger calls on his Arab sisters and brothers to be self-reflective.
“This a message to my Arab friends and followers who accuse me of being a ‘traitor,’ This is how Luai Ahmed begins one of his posts on X (formerly Twitter). With his views on Islam and Israel/Palestine, the video blogger holds up a mirror to other Muslim Arabs – and is widely hated for this.
With my personal experiences, my view of the Middle East conflict has also changed with the years.
I lived in Egypt for almost seven years and worked, among other things, for the Agency for Technical Cooperation (now: GIZ) as a consultant for the advancement of women. I condemn the terror of Hamas just as I condemn the migration policy of the German government, which ignores the Jew-hatred of Muslim migrants. And I also see Israel having its share of responsibility for the never-to-end conflict.
The amazing live story of Renate Ellmenreich
Although never a member of any youth organisation of the GDR, Renate Ellmenreich was allowed to graduate from high school as a so-called “worker’s and farmer’s child”. She studied theology and became a pastor but soon got into troubles with State Security. Then went to West Germany and as a development aid worker to Nigeria, where she founded a “widow’s village”. She supports a housing project for widows and their children in North Nigeria.
Many women in Afghanistan continue to fight for their freedom – on the streets or underground.
Women and girls must wear burqas and are not allowed to attend school after the sixth grade or university. However, Samia Walid, who fled to Germany two years ago, tells that women’s rights activists would secretly run underground schools for girls.
On World Hijab Day on February 1, the discussion boiled up again.
On “World Hijab Day”, non-Muslim women are invited to veil themselves in solidarity. Secular Muslims and women’s rights activists are mobilizing against this under the hashtags #NoHijabDay and #LetUsTalk. German public national television broadcasters are accused of promoting legalistic Islam with a music video on a youth channel.