On October 16, 2021, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, officially declared Sir David Amess's murder as an incident of terrorism. According to Haydon, the Metropolitan police's early investigation revealed "a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism."
At least seven people were confirmed killed during the violence last week in the city of Cumilla in the Chittagong Division, Bangladesh. On Wednesday, October 13, the city government deployed paramilitary troops for the Durga Puja festival, a significant Hindu festival in Bangladesh. Four Muslims were killed on Wednesday after the police opened fire on the crowd.
Germany's largest mosque, the Cologne Central Mosque, has been permitted by Cologne to broadcast the call to prayer every Friday afternoon. The permission to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, or adhan as it’s called in Arabic, came as part of the agreement to ease restrictions between the Muslim community and the city of Cologne.
A letter from the Justice Ministry of the Mazandaran province in Iran called for an organized reporting of women who tested positive for pregnancy. The goal, according to the letter, is to fend off criminal abortions.
ABC News reported that Mahdiar Saeedian, an Iranian medical journalist, leaked the Justice Ministry's letter through Twitter. Critics are speculating that Iran is using this order to bolster the population despite poor public welfare. Women and women's rights advocates quickly took to social media to show their opposition to Iran's plan.
Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist who became controversial in 2007 for drawing the Prophet Muhammad with a dog’s body, died in a car accident on Sunday, October 3, 2021. According to investigators, the collision also killed two police officers who were escorting Vilks. The accident happened in the municipality of Markaryd, Kronoberg County, in southern Sweden.
The economic marginalization of Muslims in India is becoming more apparent while their livelihood suffers frequent attacks from Hindu nationalists. The attacks encompass small-time ambulant vendors, shop owners, and even industrialized businesses.
On Monday, September 27, 2021, a session court in Lahore, Pakistan, found a school principal guilty of blasphemy charges. Salma Tanveer was charged with blasphemy in 2013 for claiming that she is the last Prophet of Allah. Judge Mansoor Qureshi announced Monday afternoon that they ordered the death penalty for Tanveer.
Local officials in China’s Xinjiang province announced that a prominent Uyghur real estate businessman and philanthropist, Yaqub Haji, died in prison. Investigating the social media of Haji’s families and friends, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that his body was handed over to his family on September 6, 2021. There is no available information as to when and how Haji died.
The Taliban ordered all barbers in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, to stop cutting hairs and trimming or shaving off beards. The new mandate was announced Monday, September 27, by the Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Ministry of Vice and Virtue) in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.
Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the founders of the Taliban, announced that harsh punishments, including executions, will be implemented again. During an interview with the Associated Press (AP) on September 22, Turabi announced that the Taliban would once again carry out executions and amputations of hands. Not in public, of course, because they’ve “changed” as they like to say.
