- The pandemic has served as a catalyst for Gulf countries in their bid to adopt Western norms and policies, as declining oil prices, due to the pandemic, has underlined the need for attracting more foreign talent and investment.
- Russia’s Spiritual Administration of Muslims stated in a ruling that interfaith marriages between Muslim men and non-Muslim women “result in a number of problems” and therefore should be allowed in “isolated cases” only.
- The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University (Israel) reported that public polling suggested that the Saudi Crown Prince and his counterpart in the UAE were gaining increased domestic support, partly triggered by their reforms aimed at overhauling their legal systems.
- The Grand Muftī of the Conference of Islamic Organization, Sheikh Dhikrullahi Shafii rebuked the UAE government for its recent relaxation of laws on cohabitation and alcohol consumption, which he argued is plainly un-Islamic.
- Six year after India passed amendments to the Waqf Properties Lease Rules, waqfs (Islamic charities) have started to increase the rent of their properties, adding to their income that keeps them operational.
- The president of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, said that he found European Council President Charles Michel’s proposal to establish a European imām school “unfeasible.”
- The details of the bill that French President Macron vowed to push forward in the wake of the beheading of a French teacher for showing caricatures of the Prophet began to emerge, as the media reported that the new law would make it obligatory for associations seeking public funding to “respect the principles and values of the republic” and criminalize intimidation on religious grounds.
- One Saudi scholar, Ahmad Al-Rudaiman, recently wrote that the Prophet’s companions did not retaliate violently against those who insulted him, and that their example ought to be followed today.
- Over the past ten years, the number of Muslims in Japan has reportedly doubled to 230,000, prompting one Japanese school to adopt a more inclusive lunch menu to accommodate the dietary restrictions of Muslim students.
- The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a Pakistani hardline political party, blocked one entrance to Islamabad, calling on the government to sever ties with France, in response to the publication of what they consider to be blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet.
- The Muslim Religious Administration of Tatarstan (Russia), together with the Kazan Islamic University, will host “the Republican Olympiad in Islamic disciplines and Arabic language” for the second time, which brings together Muslim educational institutions across the region.
- Salma Waheedi, clinical instructor at Harvard Law School, gave an overview of her work over the past years, including close collaboration with Muslim advocacy groups, including Musawah and Helem.