ROME: Italy’s mosques could reopen within weeks, as the country begins the second phase of its exit from a tough and lengthy lockdown.
Catholic churches are set to resume their services with worshippers in attendance on May 18, and the country’s Muslim communities have been stepping up their dialogue with the Interior Ministry in the hope that mosques can follow suit and open their doors again to gatherings and congregational prayers.
Italy’s lockdown began on March 9, with mosques closing that same date.
While there are almost 2.5 million Muslims in Italy, the issue with most of the country’s mosques is their size. There are almost 100 mosques in the capital but half of them are significantly smaller than the Great Mosque of Rome, which is considered to be the biggest in Europe, and they do not belong to any of the national Islamic associations.
Yassine Lafram is president of the Union of Italian Islamic Communities, which represents 163 mosques nationwide. He was concerned that small and medium-sized mosques may not be able to guarantee government requirements for social distancing.
“Most of them do not belong to national association bodies,” he told the Ofcs.report news website. “This is why I tell all the Italian mosques: Once a date will be decided please open only if you will be able to guarantee the safety of the congregation. Otherwise, please stay closed.”
Hussein Salah is imam for a community of around 12,000 Muslims in the port city of Genoa. He said that Ramadan had begun during the lockdown, meaning worshippers had been unable to gather for evening prayers.
“I fear that it will not be possible to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr, a crucial moment for our religion and our community,” he told the Italian regional newspaper Il Secolo XIX.
There is no mosque in the city, despite discussions for years about opening one as the community is growing, but the lockdown forced the closure of 14 prayer rooms.
“Even before the lockdown, we had already recommended not to go to Friday prayers because the gathering could have aided the infection to spread,” he said. “I believe it was an appropriate choice. On the other hand, the Islamic religion gives great relevance to rites related to purification and personal hygiene. The fact of washing hands, nose and mouth frequently is part of our culture and this has certainly helped.”
But there remain questions, and a call for clarification of how to reopen mosques in line with the government’s phase two “unlock” strategy.
“The community is awaiting clarification,” Salah added. “Everything is being discussed at the Interior Ministry in Rome with the representatives of all the confessions, but we still must understand what we can do. We have to see if only individual prayers or meditations will be allowed or we will have a green light also for bigger gatherings of the faithful. That makes a huge difference to us. Of course there are moments of individual prayer, meditations, lessons. But collective prayer requires that people stay close, one next to the other, as a sign of unity and equality between human beings. Needless to say, as 1-meter minimum social distancing is required this will be difficult to do.”
Genoa’s Muslim community has continued to help the needy during Ramadan despite the lockdown, with the imam going to prison every week for Friday prayers and taking dates to Muslim inmates there as a symbol of sharing during the holy month.
Salah said that Muslims were meeting virtually, through online platforms, to share iftars and for other occasions. “Of course it is not the same as we would normally do, but it allowed us to comply with the restrictions of the pandemic in a serene way.”
A first draft with security measures to support the reopening of places of worship has already been submitted.
It includes sanitizing places of worship before and after religious services are held; using outdoor spaces wherever possible to respect social distancing; the mandatory use of face masks, gloves and disinfectant for the congregation, as well as strict discipline for access and outflow from the place of prayer.
“We are working on an ‘ad hoc’ protocol, but we do not have a date for reopening yet,” said Lafram. “Prudence and precaution must prevail. We want to reopen but safely. We hope we will reach a specific solution for May 24 at the latest for the end of Ramadan.”
There have been 30,560 deaths recorded in Italy and confirmed cases in excess of 219,000, according to data from John Hopkins University.
Italy’s mosques could come out of lockdown within weeks
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Italy’s mosques could come out of lockdown within weeks
- Genoa’s Muslim community has continued to help the needy during Ramadan despite the lockdown, with the imam going to prison every week for Friday prayers and taking dates to Muslim inmates there
Russia accuses US of seeking to place weapons in space
“They have once again demonstrated that their true priorities in the area of outer space are aimed not at keeping space free from weapons of any kind, but at placing weapons in space and turning it into an arena for military confrontation,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
India shuts schools as temperatures soar
- India’s weather bureau has warned of “severe heat wave conditions” this week
- Sweltering heat has dipped voter turnout in India, where world’s largest election is underway
New Delhi: Indian authorities in the capital have ordered schools shut early for the summer holiday, after temperatures hit 47.4 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) with Delhi gripped by a “severe heatwave.”
Delhi city officials asked schools to shut with “immediate effect” due to the blistering heat, according to a government order quoted by the Hindustan Times Tuesday, cutting short the term by a few days.
India’s weather bureau has warned of “severe heatwave conditions” this week, with the mercury reaching the sizzling peak of 47.4 degrees Celsius in Delhi’s Najafgarh suburb on Monday, the hottest temperature countrywide.
Authorities in other states — including Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan — have also ordered schools close, Indian Today reported.
India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures.
But years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
The Indian Meteorological Department warned of the impact of the heat on the health especially for infants, the elderly and those with chronic diseases.
In May 2022, parts of Delhi hit 49.2 degrees Celsius (120.5 Fahrenheit), Indian media reported at the time.
The next round of voting in India’s six-week-long election takes place on Saturday, including in Delhi.
Turnout in voting has dipped, with analysts suggesting the hotter-than-average weather is a factor — as well as the widespread expectation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will easily win a third term.
India’s election commission has formed a task force to review the impact of heatwaves and humidity before each round of voting.
At the same time, India’s southern states including Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been lashed by heavy rains over the past few days.
Severe storms also hit parts of the country last week, including in the financial capital Mumbai, where strong winds flattened a giant billboard that killed 16 people and left dozens more trapped.
How cockroaches spread around the globe to become the pest we know today
- Study confirms German cockroach species found worldwide actually originated in southeast Asia
- Cockroaches may have stowed away with people to travel to Middle East, Europe, says study
DALLAS: They’re six-legged, hairy home invaders that just won’t die, no matter how hard you try.
Cockroaches are experts at surviving indoors, hiding in kitchen pipes or musty drawers. But they didn’t start out that way.
A new study uses genetics to chart cockroaches’ spread across the globe, from humble beginnings in southeast Asia to Europe and beyond. The findings span thousands of years of cockroach history and suggest the pests may have scuttled across the globe by hitching a ride with another species: people.
“It’s not just an insect story,” said Stephen Richards, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine who studies insect genes and was not involved with the study. “It’s an insect and humanity story.”
Researchers analyzed the genes of over 280 cockroaches from 17 countries and six continents. They confirmed that the German cockroach — a species found worldwide — actually originated in southeast Asia, likely evolving from the Asian cockroach around 2,100 years ago. Scientists have long suspected the German cockroach’s Asian origins since similar species still live there.
The research was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The cockroaches then globe-trotted via two major routes. They traveled west to the Middle East about 1,200 years ago, perhaps hitchhiking in soldiers’ breadbaskets. And they may have stowed away on Dutch and British East India Company trade routes to get to Europe about 270 years ago, according to scientists’ reconstruction and historical records.
Once they arrived, inventions like the steam engine and indoor plumbing likely helped the insects travel further and get cozy living indoors, where they are most commonly found today.
Researchers said exploring how cockroaches conquered past environments may lead to better pest control.
Modern-day cockroaches are tough to keep at bay because they evolve quickly to resist pesticides, according to study author Qian Tang, a postdoctoral researcher studying insects at Harvard University.
9 Egyptians go on trial in Greece over deadly shipwreck, as rights groups question process
- International human rights groups argue the defendants’ right to a fair trial is being compromised as they face judgment before an investigation is concluded
KALAMATA: Nine Egyptian men go on trial in southern Greece on Tuesday, accused of causing a shipwreck that killed hundreds of migrants and sent shockwaves through the European Union’s border protection and asylum operations.
The defendants, most in their 20s, face up to life in prison if convicted on multiple criminal charges over the sinking of the “Adriana” fishing trawler on June 14 last year.
International human rights groups argue that their right to a fair trial is being compromised as they face judgment before an investigation is concluded into claims the Greek coast guard may have botched the rescue attempt.
More than 500 people are believed to have gone down with the fishing trawler, which had been traveling from Libya to Italy. Following the sinking, 104 people were rescued — mostly migrants from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt — and 82 bodies were recovered.
Early Tuesday, police in riot gear clashed with members of a small group of protesters gathered in front of the courthouse and detained two people.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has described the shipwreck off the southern coast of Greece as “horrific.”
The sinking renewed pressure on European governments to protect the lives of migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach the continent, as the annual number of people traveling illegally across the Mediterranean continues to rise.
Lawyers from Greek human rights groups are representing the nine Egyptians, who deny the smuggling charges.
“There’s a real risk that these nine survivors could be found ‘guilty’ on the basis of incomplete and questionable evidence given that the official investigation into the role of the coast guard has not yet been completed,” said Judith Sunderland, an associate director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch.
Authorities say the defendants were identified by other survivors and the indictments are based on their testimonies.
The European border protection agency Frontex says illegal border detections at EU frontiers increased for three consecutive years through 2023, reaching the highest level since the 2015-2016 migration crisis — driven largely by arrivals at the sea borders.
France begins its first war crime trial of Syrian officials
- The Paris Criminal Court will try the three officials for their role in the deaths of two French Syrian men
PARIS: The first trial in France of officials of the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad is to begin on Tuesday, with three top security officers to be tried in absentia for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The Paris Criminal Court will try the three officials for their role in the deaths of two French Syrian men, Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, arrested in Damascus in 2013.
“For the first time, French courts will address the crimes of the Syrian authorities, and will try the most senior members of the authorities to ever be prosecuted since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011,” said the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
The war between Assad’s regime and armed opposition groups, including Daesh, erupted after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.
The conflict has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged Syria’s economy and infrastructure.
Trials into the abuses of the Syrian regime have taken place elsewhere in Europe, notably in Germany.
But in those cases, the people prosecuted held lower ranks and were present at the hearings.
Ali Mamlouk, former head of the National Security Bureau, Jamil Hassan, former director of the Air Force intelligence service, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, former head of investigations for the service in Damascus, are subject to international arrest warrants and will be tried in absentia.
Scheduled to last four days, the hearings will be filmed.
War crimes
At the time of the arrest, Patrick Dabbagh was a 20-year-old student in his second year of arts and humanities at the University of Damascus. His father Mazzen worked as a senior education adviser at the French high school in Damascus.
The two were arrested in November 2013 by officers who claimed to belong to the Syrian Air Force intelligence service.
“Witness testimony confirms that Mazzen and Patrick Abdelkader were both taken to a detention center at Mezzeh Military Airport, which is run by Syrian Air Force Intelligence and notorious for the use of brutal torture,” the International Federation for Human Rights said, stressing that the pair were not involved in protests against the Assad regime.
They were declared dead in 2018. The family was formally notified that Patrick died on 21 January 2014. His father Mazzen died nearly four years later, on 25 November 2017.
In the committal order, the investigating judges said that it was “sufficiently established” that the two men “like thousands of detainees of the Air Force intelligence suffered torture of such intensity that they died.”
During the probe, French investigators and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), a non-governmental organization, collected accounts of torture and mistreatment at the Mezzeh prison, including the use of electric shocks and sexual violence, from dozens of witnesses including former detainees.
Lawyer Clemence Bectarte, who represents the Dabbagh family and the International Federation for Human Rights, said the trial was a new reminder that “under no circumstances” should relations with the Assad regime be normalized.
“We tend to forget that the regime’s crimes are still being committed today,” she said.
