News briefs for week of July 6, 2009

This week, the horrific murder of “hijab martyr” Marwa el-Sherbini and mass protests in China over ethnic tensions between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese after 184 are left dead.
Protests took place in front of the German embassy in Tehran on Saturday in response to the murder of a three month pregnant Egyptian woman, Marwa El-Sherbini, inside a German courtroom. El-Sherbini was stabbed 18 times by the man she was testifying against over hate crimes during an appeal hearing. The accused also stabbed her husband, who German police then mistook for the attacker and shot in the leg.

3000 Chinese Muslim worshipers took part in Friday prayers themed, “peace and harmony” at a mosque in Kashgar, China after last weekend’s clashes between the Muslim Uyghurs and the Han Chinese that left 184 dead. A 26-year-old businesswoman, Madina Ahtam, led protests over closed public restrooms on Fridays, the Muslim holy day, that sparked the deadly clashes.

Eric Lee Garner, 24, has been charged with anti-Muslim hate crimes after threatening to stab a woman for wearing a hijab. The woman and her 6-month-old son were waiting in line at a health center in Seattle on July 1st when the incident occured.

France has condemned the flogging of several women in Sudan, who were being punished for wearing trousers at a restaurant in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital governed by Sharia law. Of the thirteen arrested, some pleaded guilty and received 10 lashes to “get it over with.” The others face up to 40 lashes.

Shazia Riaz is Associate Editor of Altmuslimah

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