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'Citizenfour' triumphs: Snowden documentary nabs Oscar

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‘Thank you to Edward Snowden for his courage and for the many other whistleblowers,’ says director Laura Poitras

Laura Poitras (second from left) speaks after accepting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for "Citizenfour" at the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 22, 2015. The others, from left to right, producer Dirk Wilutzky, journalist Glenn Greenwald, Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills, and producer Mathilde Bonnefoy. (Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake)

Laura Poitras (second from left) speaks after accepting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for “Citizenfour” at the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 22, 2015. The others, from left to right, producer Dirk Wilutzky, journalist Glenn Greenwald, Snowden’s girlfriend Lindsay Mills, and producer Mathilde Bonnefoy. (Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Citizenfour, the film chronicling the decision made by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to expose wrongdoing to the world by leaking details of the agency’s top-secret global surveillance operation to journalists, was awarded the Best Documentary Film award at Sunday night’s Academy Award.

The award was accepted by the film’s director Laura Poitras alongside its producers, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky. Joining them on stage was journalist Glenn Greenwald and Snowden’s girlfriend Lindsay Mills, both of whom are featured in the film.

“Thank you to Edward Snowden for his courage and for the many other whistleblowers,” Poitras said as she accepted the award.

“The disclosures that Edward Snowden revealed don’t only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself,” she added. “When the most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control.”

Snowden himself, of course, was not at the ceremony as he remains in Russia where he has lived since 2013 under protective asylum. However, through his attorneys at the ACLU, Snowden did release an official statement in reaction to the Oscar win.

“When Laura Poitras asked me if she could film our encounters, I was extremely reluctant,” Snowden stated. “I’m grateful that I allowed her to persuade me. The result is a brave and brilliant film that deserves the honor and recognition it has received. My hope is that this award will encourage more people to see the film and be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world.”

In a congratulatory post on the blog of the digital freedom advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, Rainey Reitman, the group’s director of activism, said the award “recognizes not only the incredible cinematography of Poitras, but also her daring work with a high-stakes whistleblower and the journalism that kick-started a worldwide debate about surveillance and government transparency.”

Describing why the Oscar victory has import beyond the prestige of the trophy, Reitman continued:

This award means that more people will be no doubt be watching CITIZENFOUR, and thus learning about both Snowden’s sacrifice and the surveillance abuses by the United States government. For those watching the movie for the first time, there’s often a sense of urgency to get involved and fight back against mass untargeted surveillance. Here are some suggestions for getting started:

  1. Tell President Obama to amend Executive Order 12333, which is the primary legal authority the NSA uses to engage in surveillance of people worldwide.
  2. Start using encryption when communicating digitally.
  3. Speak out against reauthorization of a much-abused section of the Patriot Act which is set to expire this summer.

In gesture of solidarity, Norwegian Muslims form 'Ring of Peace' around Oslo synagogue

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‘There are many more peace mongers than war mongers,’ an organizer said.

Muslims and Jews in Norway formed a 'ring of peace' around Oslo's one functioning synagogue in a show of solidarity. (Photo: EPA)

Muslims and Jews in Norway formed a ‘ring of peace’ around Oslo’s one functioning synagogue in a show of solidarity. (Photo: EPA)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

More than 1,000 Muslims in Norway joined together in sub-zero temperatures on Saturday to form a protective circle around Oslo’s sole functioning synagogue as a gesture of solidarity with the city’s Jewish community following last week’s attacks on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark.

Chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” the group, made up of both Muslim and Jewish participants, stood in what they called a “ring of peace” around the building. The gesture comes shortly after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine headquarters in Paris, which left 17 people dead, as well as the more recent shooting at a free speech event at a Copenhagen synagogue.

“There are many more peace mongers than war mongers,” Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the organizers of the event, said on Saturday. “There’s still hope for humanity, for peace and love, across religious differences and backgrounds.”

Another organizer, Hajrah Arshad, said the gathering also shows that “Islam is about love and unity.”

Ervin Kohn, one of the leaders of the country’s small Jewish community, said the vigil “fills us with hope… particularly as it’s a grassroots movement of young Muslims.” He added, “Working against fear alone is difficult and it is good that we are so many here together.”

Abdullah continued, “We want to demonstrate that Jews and Muslims do not hate each other. We do not want individuals to define what Islam is for the rest of us.”

Conflict in Sudan's Darfur displaces 41000 in two months: UN

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A Sudanese family takes shelter under their donkey cart at the Kalma refugee camp for internally displaced people, south of the Darfur town of Nyala, Sudan. (AP/UNAMID)

A Sudanese family takes shelter under their donkey cart at the Kalma refugee camp for internally displaced people, south of the Darfur town of Nyala, Sudan. (AP/UNAMID)

Fighting between Sudanese government forces and rebels in parts of Darfur has displaced more than 41,000 people from their homes since late December, the UN said on Thursday.

“Aid organizations have assessed and verified the needs of 41,304 people displaced” by violence in North Darfur state and the Jebel Marra areas in the war-torn region, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its weekly bulletin.

The head of OCHA’s Sudan office said that the number of displaced people could be higher than the figures, which were collected between the last week of December and February 15.

“There are several localities, basically part of the Jebel Marra Massif, to which we don’t have access. We don’t know how many people have been affected” in those areas, Ivo Freijsen said.

Sudan’s military launched an offensive in Darfur in November in a bid to defeat insurgents who have been battling the government since 2003.

Jebel Marra is a hilly area in North Darfur where much of the fighting has taken place.

An army spokesman denied government troops carried out operations in the area in recent weeks.

“If there are any displacements, maybe it is as a result of previous fighting, more than one month ago. We ourselves never target civilians,” Colonel al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad said.

The Sudanese military launched its offensive — dubbed “Decisive Summer 2” — in November after the end of the rainy season that had rendered road in the region impassable.

Khartoum’s forces have also targeted insurgents in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas as part of the operation.

Insurgents in the western region of Darfur rebelled against the Khartoum government in 2003, complaining that they were being neglected and marginalized.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the region.

Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup, but won a 2010 election that was criticized by observers for failing to meet international standards and was marred by opposition boycotts.

Some 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and the region is home to more than two million internally displaced persons, according to the UN.

Fighting between government and rebels in Central Darfur during the same period last year displaced around 14,000 people, OCHA said.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Explosive New Snowden Doc: NSA/GCHQ stole vital cell phone encryption keys

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New reporting by The Intercept, based on documents leaked by whistleblower, reveals how spy agencies hacked world’s largest SIM card manufacturer

'One of the biggest Snowden stories yet,' says journalist Glenn Greenwald. (Image: The Intercept)

‘One of the biggest Snowden stories yet,’ says journalist Glenn Greenwald. (Image: The Intercept)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Explosive new reporting by The Intercept published Thursday, based on documents obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveals how the U.S. spy agency and their British counterpart, the GCHQ, worked together in order to hack into the computer systems of the world’s largest manufacturer of cell phone SIM cards – giving government spies access to highly-guarded encryption codes and unparalleled abilities to monitor the global communications of those with phones using the cards.

Following its publication, journalist Glenn Greenwald called it “one of the biggest Snowden stories yet.”

According to fellow journalists Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley, who did the reporting on the top-secret documents and detail the implications of the program, the target of the government hacking operation was a company called Gemalto, based in the Netherlands, which makes SIM cards for some of the best known makers of cell phones and other portable electronic products, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and hundreds of other global brands. The acronym SIM stands for “subscriber identity module” and is a small intergrated circuit within a phone that is used to authenticate users and relay key information to the network on which the phone is operating.

As Scahill and Begley report:

With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt.

As part of the covert operations against Gemalto, spies from GCHQ — with support from the NSA — mined the private communications of unwitting engineers and other company employees in multiple countries.

In a series of tweets, both Scahill and Greenwald offered context for the latest reporting:

For its part, Gemalto told The Intercept it was totally unaware of the security breach or that the encryption keys to any of its cards had been compromised. In fact, after being reached for comment on the operation, Gemalto directed its own security team to investigate the situation, but told the journalists they could find no trace of the hack. However, according to the top-secret document detailing the program leaked by Snowden, an operative with the NSA boasted, “[We] believe we have their entire network.”

Technology experts who spoke with Scahill and Begley said the theft of the encryption keys was highly troubling. Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the idea that the NSA has stolen these encryption keys “will send a shock wave through the security community.”

Told about the program, Gerard Schouw, a member of the Dutch Parliament, said the revelation was “unbelievable.” And repeated: “Unbelievable.”

According to The Intercept:

Last November, the Dutch government amended its constitution to include explicit protection for the privacy of digital communications, including those made on mobile devices. “We have, in the Netherlands, a law on the [activities] of secret services. And hacking is not allowed,” he said. Under Dutch law, the interior minister would have to sign off on such operations by foreign governments’ intelligence agencies. “I don’t believe that he has given his permission for these kind of actions.”

The U.S. and British intelligence agencies pulled off the encryption key heist in great stealth, giving them the ability to intercept and decrypt communications without alerting the wireless network provider, the foreign government or the individual user that they have been targeted. “Gaining access to a database of keys is pretty much game over for cellular encryption,” says Matthew Green, a cryptography specialist at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute. The massive key theft is “bad news for phone security. Really bad news.”

UN hails progress on Ebola but warns against fatigue

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UN Ebola chief hails Liberia’s success in fight against the deadly virus but warns against “complacency”.

Thousands of people have died from Ebola in the outbreak of 2014. Reuters / Susana Vera

Thousands of people have died from Ebola in the outbreak of 2014. Reuters / Susana Vera

by Al Jazeera

The head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response has hailed Liberia’s success in the fight against the deadly virus, but warned against complacency now that the number of cases had dropped.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, speaking during a visit to Liberia, described the level of awareness as “high”, but said he was concerned about the risk of “fatigue”.

“We call it the bumpy road to zero,” he said, warning “the biggest enemy is complacency”.

Ebola has killed more than 3,800 people in Liberia and nearly 9,200 across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since the first Ebola deaths in rural Guinea in December 2013.

All three countries have weak health systems that were ill-prepared for such an epidemic.

Significant gains have been made against Ebola, and now only a small number of cases remain in Liberia.

‘Outbreak contained’

Meanwhile, students returned to schools on Monday after a six-month closure, though health officials warned that a single case could trigger a whole new cluster of infections.

Last week, the United States said it was also preparing to withdraw by the end of April nearly all of its 2,800 troops fighting the outbreak in West Africa.

In Sierra Leone, the Anti-Corruption Commission has released a list of people who must report to its offices as it investigates the spending of money meant to help fight Ebola.

A report by Sierra Leone’s Auditor General that emerged two weeks ago found that nearly one-third of the money received to fight Ebola, about $5.75m, was spent without saving the necessary receipts and invoices.

The list released on Tuesday included district medical doctors, the coordinator of the National Ebola Response Centre, a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, other government officials, private contractors and business people.

More than 3,300 people have died from Ebola with nearly 11,000 cases over the past year in Sierra Leone, where transmission remains the highest.

Sudan seizes 13 newspapers as South Sudan threatens journalists

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A Sudanese young man looks at newspapers displayed at a kiosk in the capital Khartoum on February 16, 2015.AFP/Ashraf Shazly.

A Sudanese young man looks at newspapers displayed at a kiosk in the capital Khartoum on February 16, 2015.AFP/Ashraf Shazly.

Sudanese security officers seized the print runs of 13 newspapers on Monday in one of the most sweeping crackdowns on the press in recent years, a media watchdog said.

The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) seized copies of the dailies — which included pro-government as well as independent titles — “without giving any reasons,” Journalists for Human Rights said.

NISS often confiscates print runs of newspapers over stories it deems unsuitable but it rarely seizes so many publications at one time.

Journalists for Human Rights said that the “rise” in newspaper seizures “represents an unprecedented escalation by the authorities against freedom of the press and expression.”

The editor of Al-Tayar Osman Mirghani confirmed his newspaper’s print run had been seized.

“After the printing was finished, security officers arrived and seized all printed copies without giving any reason for that,” he said.

There was no immediate word from the authorities on why the newspapers had been seized.

The Sudanese Journalists’ Network said it would hold a sit-in outside the government-run press council to protest against the confiscations.

Sudan ranked near bottom, at 172 out of 180, in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2014 World Press Freedom Index, published on February 10.

Crackdown in South Sudan

Meanwhile, South Sudan’s government on Monday threatened to silence journalists if they broadcast interviews with rebels involved in the civil war.

“We are shutting you media houses down if you interview any rebel here to disseminate his or her plans and policies within South Sudan,” Information Minister Michael Makuei told reporters.

His comments came after a local radio station broadcast an interview with a top opposition leader.

“If you can go as far as interviewing the rebels to come and disseminate their filthy ideas to the people and poison their minds, that is negative agitation,” he said.

“You either join them, or else we put you where you will not be talking,” Makuei said in the latest threat to press freedom in the world’s newest state.

Rights groups have repeatedly warned that South Sudanese security forces have cracked down on journalists, suffocating debate on how to end a civil war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed in the past 14 months.

Reporters Without Borders this month said South Sudan had slipped down six places on its annual press freedom rankings, listing it as the 125th worst nation out of 180.

It said the war has “hit media freedom hard,” noting that “news outlets were warned not to cover security issues and journalists were unable to work properly because of the war.”

Fighting broke out in South Sudan in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir Mayardit accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country.

War continues despite numerous ceasefire deals.

Over half the country’s 12 million people need aid, according to the United Nations, which is also sheltering some 100,000 civilians trapped inside camps ringed with barbed wire, too terrified to venture out for fear of being killed.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Police say Copenhagen attacks suspect had gang past

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Police say suspect in weekend attacks, who was shot dead on Sunday, is a Danish-born 22-year-old with criminal record.

Copenhagen attacks

by Al Jazeera

Danish police have shot and killed a man they believe carried out two gun attacks in Copenhagen which left two people dead.

Police said the man was a Danish-born 22-year-old with a background in criminal gangs.

At a news conference on Sunday, officers said video surveillance indicated the man was behind attacks on a free-speech event on Saturday and the capital’s main synagogue early on Sunday.

Investigators said the suspect had a history of assault and weapons offences and that they were trying to ascertain if he had help from any accomplices.

The man was shot dead early on Sunday after opening fire on police, officials said, adding that no officers were wounded.

The exchange of fire took place in the multicultural inner-city neighbourhood of Norrebro where police had been keeping an address under observation earlier in the day.

“We believe the same man was behind both shootings and we also believe that the perpetrator who was shot by the police action force at Norrebro station is the person behind the two attacks,” police official Torben Moelgaard Jensen said.

Police said there was no evidence to indicate that any more suspects were involved in the incidents.

Charlie Hebdo-inspired?

Intelligence services, meanwhile, said the attacker could have been inspired by last month’s attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

“From the perspective of the Danish Intelligence service, we can’t say anything concrete about the motivation behind the attacks nor the perpetrator’s motives,” Jens Madsen, Danish intelligence service chief.

“But, we are working on the theory that he could have been inspired by the attack in Paris against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, Islamic extremism and perhaps other attacks in a similar fashion, he added.

Al Jazeera’s Nick Spicer, reporting from Copenhagen, said the suspect was known to Danish intelligence.

Police raids were carried out Sunday evening and an arrest was made at an internet cafe in the neighbourhood where the suspected gunman resided, our correspondent added.

Meanwhile, in northern Germany, a police statement said that a carnival parade in Braunscheweig had been called off 90 minutes before it was due to start because of a “specific threat of an Islamist attack”.

Twin attacks

One man was killed and two police officers wounded at the Copenhagen synagogue, while one man was killed and three police officers were wounded in a shooting attack on a cafe in the north of the capital.

Denmark’s Jewish Community identified the victim at the synagogue as 37-year-old Jewish man Dan Uzan, who was guarding a building during a bar mitzvah when he was shot dead at about 1am local time on Sunday morning.

The earlier shooting occurred before 4pm local time on Saturday when police said a gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden Cafe during a panel discussion on freedom of expression.

The debate on freedom of speech was attended by Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who had been threatened with death for his cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Vilks was whisked away unharmed by his bodyguards but a 55-year-old man attending the event was killed, while three police officers were wounded, authorities said.

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described the two incidents as “terrorist attacks”.

“We don’t know the motive for the attacks but we know that there are forces that want to harm Denmark, that want to crush our freedom of expression, our belief in liberty,” she said in a nationwide address.

“We are not facing a fight between Islam and the West, it is not a fight between Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Numerous threats

When Vilks is in Denmark, he receives police protection.

A woman in the US state of Pennsylvania got a 10-year prison term last year for a plot to kill him.

In 2010, two brothers tried to burn down Vilks’ house in southern Sweden and were imprisoned for attempted arson.

Just over a month ago, 17 people were killed in France in three days of violence that began when two attackers burst into the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo , opening fire in revenge for its publication of images of Prophet Muhammad.

700 British artists vow to boycott Israel

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A Palestinian woman places an olive tree branch and a Palestinian flag on a piece of land close to the West Bank illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra during a protest against Israel's settlement expansion, on February 9, 2015. AFP/Abbas Momani

A Palestinian woman places an olive tree branch and a Palestinian flag on a piece of land close to the West Bank illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra during a protest against Israel’s settlement expansion, on February 9, 2015. AFP/Abbas Momani

700 British artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel as long as it “continues to deny basic Palestinian rights,” the latest major success for the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS).

“In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights,” the call reads, according to the group Artists for Palestine UK, which organized the pledge.

“We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

The signatories include artists from many fields, including writers, film directors, comedians, musicians, actors, theater directors, architects, and visual artists.

The pledge’s supporters included many British citizens of Jewish heritage as well, including prominent actress Miriam Margolyes.

“My support for the Palestinian cause is fiercer because I am Jewish and I honor the strengths of that religion and the suffering my people have experienced through the years. My visits to Palestine showed me at first hand how the people there are treated by Israeli forces. Their lack of humanity disgusts me — I want no part of it,” she said in a statement.

“I realize we were fed a lie about the foundation of the State of Israel, a lie forged certainly out of desperate need to help the dispossessed millions devastated by the horror of the Nazi regime. But to force people from their homes, from their ancestral lands — that is no answer.”

Former head of the English PEN writers’ union, Gillian Slovo, compared his support to the boycott of Israel to the boycott of South Africa in a statement.

“As a South African I witnessed the way the cultural boycott of South Africa helped apply pressure on the apartheid government and its supporters. This Artists’ Pledge for Palestine has drawn lessons from that boycott to produce an even more nuanced, non-violent way for us to call for change and for justice for all.”

One hundred of the artists who signed the pledge also published a letter in the Guardian newspaper on Friday explaining their decision.

“Israel’s wars are fought on the cultural front too. Its army targets Palestinian cultural institutions for attack, and prevents the free movement of cultural workers. Its own theater companies perform to settler audiences on the West Bank — and those same companies tour the globe as cultural diplomats, in support of “Brand Israel,”‘ the letter noted.

“We invite all those working in the arts in Britain to join us.”

The boycott movement has grown increasingly strong in recent years around the world and particularly in Western Europe and North America, once bastions of support for Israel.

The Palestinian call for Academic and Cultural Boycott, which was launched in 2004 as part of the global BDS campaign, aims to pressure Israel to end its long-standing occupation of the Palestinian territories and history of human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Supporters argue that thus far outside political pressure and domestic left wing organizing has failed to effect change in Israeli policies, but believe a grassroots civil society movement to pressure the country’s authorities could effect meaningful change.

The boycott targets official and institutional collaboration with Israel or Israeli-government funded institutions, but does not sanction individual Israeli artists, a fact noted by some of the signatories of the British boycott letter.

“The choice not to present work in Israel is not an attack on Israeli artists, but rather a recognition that the thing you do may not be appropriate in a situation of ongoing violent conflict, and that to ignore that is to support the idea that everything is under control and life and culture continue as normal, while bombs fall,” choreographer Jonathan Burrows said in a statement.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League said in a report in October that Pro-Palestinian activism has risen significantly on US campuses since Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip in the summer.

Israel’s recent offensive in the Gaza Strip began July 7 and lasted for 51 days; it killed more than 2,310 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

The Jewish civil society organization said that there had been 75 “anti-Israel” events scheduled on US campuses since the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year, which started in late August or early September at most American universities.

During the previous academic year, student groups at US colleges hosted at least 374 anti-Israel events, the report said.

It said nearly 40 percent of those events were held in support of an international campaign to seek boycott against Israel.

Also in October, The Washington Post reported that more than 500 anthropologists have publicly joined an academic boycott of Israel initiated by the American Studies Association, with another 77 joining anonymously.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

US: Houston Muslim school burned down in what investigators say is likely an arson attack

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The arson attack was the third incident of Islamaphobic violence this week.

by Zaid Jilani, AlterNet

Unfortunately, the execution of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill was not the only Islamophobic violence that happened this week. The same week, an Arab American family was assaulted in Dearborn, and now in Houston comes a horrible story of what appears to be an arson attack on an Islamic school for young children.

The Quba Islamic Institute opened in January of 2013 with the goal of doing Sunday school, summer school, and after-school programs for young children as well as host other Muslim events. Here’s a photo from children there shooting hoops they posted yesterday on their Facebook:

And here’s what happened to the school overnight:

Quba Islamic Institute

Early this morning Houston firefighters responded to this blaze which was part of a fire taking place in one of the buildings of the school campus. After an investigation, they determined an accelerant was used to cause the fire, most likely an incendiary device.

I spoke to Ahsan Zahid, the son of the imam at the institution. Zahid described the scene early this morning when they arrived at the school to find it on fire. As the investigation was ongoing, the firefighters asked them if they “had thrown around a desk in a parking lot” – it soon became clear that school property had been smashed overnight, most likely intentionally.

Zahid also described a suspicious person they saw last night, “We had a person in a white pickup truck..who had just last night drove by our mosque as we were playing basketball outside at night getting ready to leave…chanting Arabic phrases, mocking us in a way.”

“I would like for my community…not to reach for hate, not to point fingers at anyone, not to criticize anyone,” said Zahid about how they plan to move forward. “I believe that since we have been wronged it is not necessary to be angry at the one who has wronged us…everybody has united nobody has said a single word of anger or hatred towards anyone.”

Elsewhere in Houston, Abdullah Shakur, a Muslim Vietnam veteran, was at a car stereo shop on Tuesday night when masked gunmen decided to attack it. Its unclear what the gunmen wanted, although it is possible it was a routine robbery. Shakur left the others he was with and tackled one of the men. “He knew they had guns. He was trying to defend us,” said one witness to the incident. The gunmen then shot him. “It was execution-style. And the fact that they executed Shakur, they need to be brought to justice. He was a Vietnam War veteran. He was lovable, always smiling. He was trying to protect us,” said the witness.

Despite the hate Muslim Americans have endured, the case of Shakur and the graciousness of Zahid shows that they continue to love the country they live in – and want to work to make it better.

Erdogan chides Obama's silence on Chapel Hill killings

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Turkish leader criticises US President for his silence after the killings of three Muslim students in North Carolina.

Students with lit candles attended a vigil on the campus of the University of North Carolina after the Chapel Hill killings [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised US President Barack Obama for his silence after the killings of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week.

Speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a state visit to Mexico on Thursday, Erdogan said the silence of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry was “telling” and they should take a position following such acts.

“If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don’t make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you,” Erdogan said, in the latest sign relations between him and the White House have become strained.

The three Muslims were shot dead on Tuesday near the University of North Carolina campus in an incident police said was possibly a hate crime.

Police investigation

The White House said on Wednesday it would await the results of the police investigation before commenting.

Newlywed Deah Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, a student at North Carolina State University, were gunned down on Tuesday in a condominium about three kilometres from the UNC campus in Chapel Hill.

Police charged the couple’s neighbour, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, with murder.

Investigators said initial findings indicated a dispute over parking prompted the shooting but they were looking into whether Hicks was motivated by hatred towards the victims because they were Muslim.

Turkey, a European Union candidate nation and member of the NATO military alliance, is a key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

But Erdogan has become increasingly outspoken about what he sees as rising Islamophobia in the West.

Last year, Erdogan said his relations with Obama had become strained and that he no longer spoke directly with him as he was disappointed by a lack of US action over the war in neighbouring Syria.

Erdogan said he instead spoke with Biden over issues such as Iraq.

Despite working together to combat ISIL, differences have arisen between the US and Turkey over how best to tackle the rebels.

Turkey has been an opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backing rebels fighting to oust him and allowing the political opposition to organise on Turkish soil.

It long lobbied for international intervention in the war.

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