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EU Bishops call for solidarity and hope on path towards better future – Vatican News

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EU Bishops call for solidarity and hope on path towards better future - Vatican News

By Vatican News staff writer

The Bishops of Europe have addressed a message of hope and a call to solidarity to European Institutions and Member states amid the health crisis that has overwhelmed the world these past months.

In a message released on Wednesday under their umbrella body, COMECE, they reiterated their commitment to the construction of Europe and to its founding values of “solidarity, freedom, inviolability of the human dignity, democracy, rule of law, equality and defence and promotion of human rights.”

Inspired by Christian faith, which “is the ultimate foundation of our hope and universal brotherhood,” the Bishops also reaffirm their will to strive, together with other sister Churches and ecclesial communities, to “build a universal fraternity that leaves no one out.”

The Covid-19 pandemic

Highlighting some of the wide-ranging effects of the Covid-19 health crisis, they noted that the pandemic has shaken many “previous securities and has revealed our vulnerability and our interconnectedness.”

Many, the Bishops noted, were worried that the EU itself “as an economic, political, social and cultural project, was at risk.”

However, propelled by the realization that everyone is in the same boat and we can only save ourselves by staying together, the EU is demonstrating its capacity to rediscover the spirit of the Founding Fathers and is beginning to respond in a united manner. This spirit, the Bishops hope, will be reflected in the Covid-19 recovery instrument and the reinforced EU budget for 2021 – 2027.

A new mindset

The future of the European Union does not depend only on economy and finance, but also on a common spirit and a new mindset, the Bishops stressed.

In this regard, efforts should not be simply devoted to returning to the “old normal.” Instead, the continent must take advantage of the crisis to bring about a “radical change for the better” by rethinking the present models of globalization, guaranteeing respect for the environment, openness to life, social equality, protecting the dignity of workers and the rights of future generations.

The Bishops also pointed out that Pope Francis’ Encyclicals Laudato sí and Fratelli tutti can be a source of inspiration for shaping a new civilization. In Fratelli tutti, the Bishops note, Pope Francis “calls on the whole of humanity to universal brotherhood and social friendship, not forgetting those on the margins, wounded and suffering”. At the same time, the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, with their emphasis on human dignity, solidarity, preferential option for the poor and sustainability, can guide the path to building a different economic model in a post-pandemic society.

Solidarity

COMECE stressed the importance of solidarity as a fundamental principle of the Social Doctrine of the Church as well as being at the core of the European Integration process.

Solidarity, the Bishops said, “is to be understood in terms of ‘doing together’ and as ‘being open to integrate everyone’,” including those on the margins.

In this light, the Bishops appealed for the Covid-19 vaccine, when it becomes available, to be accessible to all, especially to the poor. They also called for increased humanitarian aid and development cooperation, and for military spending to the redirected towards health and social services.

Care for Migrants and refugees

The European Bishops noted that solidarity towards refugees should not only involve funding but extended to include “opening up the borders of the European Union proportionally by each Member State.”

They proposed that the Pact on Migration and Asylum presented by the EU can be a step toward establishing a common and just policy on migration. However, they said, it must also be carefully evaluated. Besides, certain principles and international legal obligations have to be respected “regardless of the persons involved.”

On this issue, the Bishops recommend collaboration with Church institutions and private associations already working in this field.

They further stressed the respect for the freedom of religion of believers, in particular, “the freedom to gather together to exercise their freedom of worship, in full respect of sanitary requirements” during the pandemic.

Post-pandemic society

During these months of pandemic, the Bishops note that they have witnessed “so many signs that open us up to hope,” from the work of health personnel, to caregivers for the elderly and the gestures of ecclesial communities – notwithstanding the difficult moments, including times of suffering, loneliness and sometimes, death.

The Bishops recalled Pope Francis’ Urbi et Orbi message on Easter Sunday when he noted that Europe was able to rise again and overcome the rivalries of the past after the Second World War. For the Pope, they noted, it is important that “these rivalries do not regain force, but that all recognize themselves as part of a single family and support one another.”

Therefore, whether the world will be better or worse after the crisis, or whether we will come out strengthened in solidarity or not, the depends on us, the Bishops stressed.

Concluding, the European Bishops expressed their hope that Europe can come out from this crisis “stronger, wiser, more united, exercising more solidarity, caring more for our common home, being a continent that pushes the whole world forward towards greater fraternity, justice, peace and equality.”

Suspect Questioned over Anti-EU Graffiti at EU’s Ramat Gan Office

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Suspect Questioned over Anti-EU Graffiti at EU’s Ramat Gan Office

Photo Credit: Amio Cajander / Wikimedia

European Union flags flying in front of the European Commission building in Brussels

Israeli activists Sheffi Paz and Meirav Hajaj, residents of south Tel Aviv, were alleged as the two who vandalized the entrance to the offices of the European Union in Ramat Gan on Sunday.

The pair were seen in security footage spraying “EU Get Out” and “German money kills Jews” in red spray paint” on the door to the office complex.

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Paz was picked up for questioning Sunday evening by Israel Police after it was found that she and Hajaj were seen on the security footage defacing the entrance to the EU embassy.

Paz was subsequently questioned by police at the precinct in Ramat Gan in connection with the incident.

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Pope at Audience: Mary a woman of prayer and model for our prayer – Vatican News

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Pope at Audience: Mary a woman of prayer and model for our prayer - Vatican News

By Vatican News staff writer

Pope Francis greeted the faithful on Wednesday morning, saying: “Today we meet the Virgin Mary as the prayerful woman.”

Continuing his catechesis on prayer during the weekly General Audience, which is currently streamed live from the Apostolic Library, the Pope upheld Mary as a model for our own life and prayer.

Humble of heart

He recalled her in her youth, “the young girl of Nazareth wrapped in silence, in dialogue with God, who would soon entrust her with a mission.”

Although she was already full of grace and immaculate from the moment she was conceived, the Pope said, she knew nothing “of her surprising and extraordinary vocation and the stormy sea she will have to cross.”

“One thing is certain,” he said. “Mary belongs to a great host of the humble of heart whom the official historians never include in their books, but whom God used to prepare for the coming of His Son.”

Waiting for God’s will

Pope Francis went on to describe how Mary waited for God to take the reins of her path and guide her, and how she prepared, with great docility, “the grand events in which God takes part in the world.”

The Catechism, he said, recalls her constant and caring presence in the benevolent design of the Father throughout the course of Jesus’s life.

Mary was praying, Pope Francis recalled, when the Archangel Gabriel brought his message to her in Nazareth: “Her small yet immense ‘Here I am,’ made all of  creation jump for joy at that moment”. He said that trusting obedience was preceded throughout salvation history by many other trusting obediences, by so many people who were open to God’s will.

An attitude of openness

Pope Francis said there is no better way to pray than to place oneself in an attitude of openness: “Lord, what You want, when You want, and how You want”.

He said that this attitude allows many believers to face reality without getting upset when their days are filled with problems, “knowing that in humble love offered in each situation, we become instruments of God’s grace.”

Prayer, the Pope said, “knows how to calm restlessness, knows how to transform it into availability. “

Prayerful acceptance

He recalled the many moments of tremendous trial endured by the Virgin Mary and of how she was accompanied by prayer in every moment of her life, and in every moment of Jesus’ life, right up to His death and resurrection.

“If in prayer we understand that each day given by God is a call, our hearts will then widen and we will accept everything. We will learn how to say: ‘What You want, Lord. Promise me only that You will be present every step of my way,’” he said.

Mother of God and Mother of the Church

Mary, the Pope said, prayerfully accompanied the newborn Church and through her openness to the power of the Holy Spirit, the Mother of God thus became the Mother of the Church.

“In the Virgin Mary, natural feminine intuition is exalted by her most singular union with God in prayer. This is why, reading the Gospel, we note that she seems to disappear at times, only to reappear for crucial moments: it was God’s voice that guided her heart and her steps where her presence was needed,” he said.

A splendid pearl

Saint Luke tells us that Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart,” he  continued, explaining, “Everything ends up in her heart so that it might pass through the sieve of prayer and be transfigured by it.”

The Mother keeps everything and brings it to her dialogue with God, Pope Francis concluded: “Someone has compared Mary’s heart to a pearl of incomparable splendour, formed and smoothed by patient acceptance of God’s will through the mysteries of Jesus meditated on in prayer. How beautiful it would be if we too could be a bit like our Mother!”

Coming together to identify health-workforce needs in small countries

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Coming together to identify health-workforce needs in small countries

The WHO Small Countries Initiative has released 2 sets of micro case studies, illustrating the experiences of 11 small countries and 1 region in strengthening their health workforces in the areas of postgraduate training and monitoring and managing health workforce mobility.

Challenges to the health workforce in small countries are further influenced by their size, context and dynamics. Their smallness means that challenges in this area, such as a brain drain or lack of specialized health professionals, are revealed sooner than would be the case in larger countries where they often manifest themselves at a later stage.

Improving postgraduate and speciality training and the monitoring and management of health-workforce mobility are two of the areas covered by the micro case studies in addressing challenges related to the health workforce.

The collection of micro case studies was undertaken by the Working Group on Human Resources for Health in Small Countries in the WHO European Region.

Postgraduate and specialty training: a varied and rich solution

The micro case studies highlighted many ways in which improved postgraduate training contributes to strengthening the health workforce. Some small countries have capitalized on these, for example, by using data collected through the shared-medical-record system in assessing future postgraduate-training needs. Others have established collaboration with hospitals in other countries to improve their access to speciality training.

Small countries know what works in general and when to seek guidance on addressing challenges in this area. The availability of more timely and coordinated data would, however, strengthen this resource and, in turn, enable a higher level of information-sharing.

A mobile workforce

The micro case-studies also demonstrate that data on the mobility and migration of health professionals are not available to all practising professionals. Furthermore, they find that use of the “WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel” varies among small countries/regions. Different financial and other incentives are used to retain health professionals or encourage them to return home, for example, after studies abroad.

The case studies also reveal that data represent only one of several key elements needed for the effective planning of human resources for health, and illustrate how small countries are able to identify areas of cooperation to this end.

Looking ahead

In highlighting ways in which countries can continue to learn from one another towards building a sustainable health workforce, this document offers suggestions on how to recruit and retain the necessary health professionals, attract young people to health-related professions, and address shortages of certain medical specialties.

Preventing the COVID-19 pandemic from causing an antibiotic resistance catastrophe

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Preventing the COVID-19 pandemic from causing an antibiotic resistance catastrophe

According to research conducted by WHO/Europe and reports from the field, the European Region now risks accelerated spread of antimicrobial resistance. The long-term problem of antibiotics being used inappropriately by individuals and in health care settings is worsening as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, set to take place on 18–24 November, is an opportunity to focus attention on the evolving situation.

Despite the fact that antibiotics do not treat or prevent viral infections like COVID-19, the results of behavioural insight research conducted in 9 countries and areas of the European Region showed antibiotic use increasing throughout the pandemic along with cases. Of those taking the antibiotics, 79–96% reported not having been infected with COVID-19 but were taking antibiotics inappropriately, believing they would prevent infection. Evidence indicates that up to 15% of severely affected COVID-19 patients develop bacterial co-infection and could need antibiotics, whereas 75% actually receive them.

“Antibiotics save lives and we should ensure their effectiveness for as long as possible. Some patients with severe COVID-19 also have bacterial co-infections and need antibiotics to survive,” explained Dr Nino Berdzuli, Director of WHO/Europe’s Division of Country Health Programmes. “This has been a very difficult time for health care institutions. Especially now in the pandemic it is important that clear guidelines are put in place to prevent inappropriate use of antibiotics. Everyone has a role to play as an antibiotic guardian, whether they are a parent, a prescriber or a policy-maker.”

Dr Fabio Soldani is an infectious disease specialist in Verona, Italy, consulting on different wards within the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata hospital. His experience on the front line in northern Italy – the first area of Europe to be severely affected by COVID-19 – confirms how difficult it was at first to restrict the use of antibiotics.

Keeping antibiotics for patients with clear signs of bacterial infection

“At the beginning, we gave COVID-19 patients in my hospital antibiotics in the way that we typically would for community-acquired pneumonia. This meant we would give them broad-spectrum antibiotics such as cephalosporins and azithromycin, until possible bacterial superinfections had been ruled out,” he explained. “As the epidemic continued and we gained more experience, we started reserving antibiotic treatment only for patients with signs of laboratory-confirmed bacterial infection. Whenever possible, we tried to shorten the length of antibiotic treatment.”

In Dr Soldani’s hospital good practice in antimicrobial stewardship from before the pandemic helped prevent antibiotic misuse when the crisis hit.

“In intensive care we generally avoid giving antibiotics to prevent bacterial infection in patients on machines that are helping them to breathe. We kept this practice also during the COVID-19 epidemic. For detecting infections, we are using new diagnostic techniques more than ever before.”

Increased levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Despite these measures, the hospital, like many others in the European Region, has had to deal with increased levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria during the pandemic.

“There have been several bacterial infections due to Pseudomonas and Enterococci, often with high levels of resistance. I believe that widespread use of third-generation cephalosporins can lead to an increase in resistance, especially in a hospital setting.”

Underlining the need for careful evaluation, Dr Soldani feels that more investigation is required to assess the impact of COVID-19 on antibiotic use in hospital settings. The situation is complex as some aspects of the pandemic in hospitals actually appeared to reduce antibiotic use. As the range of activities in the hospital was scaled back and only focused on emergencies, there were fewer health care-associated infections, which are often resistant to antibiotics.

“With the experience that we have gained, I believe that we would now adopt a different approach if we found ourselves in a similar situation once again. The use of antibiotics would most likely be more restricted. I think that once COVID-19 is laboratory-confirmed, which takes much less time than before, if there are no signs of bacterial superinfection, then using antibiotics should be avoided.”

Cameroon and Nigeria: Struggling communities host Refugees – Vatican News

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Cameroon and Nigeria: Struggling communities host Refugees - Vatican News

Paul Samasumo – Vatican City

While in the northern region of Cameroon the Boko Haram Jihadist insurgency began about 2010, in the North West and South West Regions the fighting between the Cameroonian army and anglophone separatists flared-up into full-scale war in 2017.

Outrageous conflicts

Recently the Migrants & Refugees Section of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development characterised the situation on the Cameroon-Nigerian borders not only as “outrageous” but representing the “untold history of a people.”

Drawing attention to the region, the Vatican office points out the irony of Nigerians crossing the border in the northern areas seeking safety in Cameroon while Cameroonians are also crossing into the southeastern region of Nigeria.  As the conflicts rage on, many innocent people have been killed, children forced to drop out of school and families on the run, have left their homes. There are not many headlines about these conflicts save for the odd mention when serious atrocities occur. In between, ordinary villagers, the National Commission for Refugees, UN agencies and the Church both in Cameroon and Nigeria are doing their bit to provide humanitarian assistance for Cameroonians caught-up in the conflicts.

Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Calabar welcoming Cameroonian refugees

When refugees cross into Nigeria from Cameroon, some of them would have been on the run for close to eight days before they can find help. Hungry, tired and some in need of medical attention from gunshot wounds, the first responders for the new arrivals, as happens always, are the local people and local authorities. The situation has not been any different In Nigeria’s Cross River State on the southeastern side of the country of which Calabar is the capital.

“One of the refugees shared a heart-breaking experience. He was in bed when in the middle of the night he heard shouting, a lot of noise and then the sound of a gun. He just got out of bed and ran. He was not even properly dressed. He was in his boxer shorts and had to flee the attack on his village just as he was. They ran into the bush where they were for seven to eight days. Feeding was a major problem … a lot of lives have been lost (in the anglophone regions), and people are scared for their lives,” Fr. Emmanuel Bekomson told Vatican News in an interview.

Fr. Bekomson, Director of the Archdiocese of Calabar’s Justice Development Peace Commission (JDPC), observed that because of the influx of refugees, local infrastructure had been stretched to the limit and the impact on already poor and struggling host communities is visible. There is inadequate accommodation, food, water, sanitation and mosquito nets, he said.

Small income-generating projects such as hair salons

It can take days before the new arrivals, from Cameroon, are processed by local government authorities and UN agencies. In the meantime, the refugees need a place to stay and food as they wait. Fr. Bekomson appealed for help so that the Archdiocese of Calabar can build a centre where newly arrived refugees would be housed as they await processing. Refugees, said Fr. Bekomson, also need small income-generating projects such as hair salons, barbershops or poultry for them be independent.

Cooperation between Nigerian and Cameroonian Bishops

Dioceses in Nigeria and Cameroon are cooperating and coordinating humanitarian efforts. According to Fr. Bekomson, humanitarian support includes spiritual and pastoral care.

For their part, the Cameroonian Bishops under the auspices of the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda (BAPEC) where many of the Cameroonian refugees originate, are in constant communion with their brother-Bishops in the Nigerian Episcopate to “accompany their Sheep” on the move.

“Yes, indeed the socio-political crisis in our part of the country has greatly come with the unfortunate displacement of many of our people. We have many of our people who are Internally Displaced, and some are refugees even as far away as in Nigeria. At the moment we do not see any headway out of the crisis, and we may have to deal with this for a long while,” said Bishop George Nkuo, the Bishop of Kumbo and President of BAPEC.

Listen to an excerpt of the Interview with Fr. Emmanuel Bekomson

Tech Innovation Global Incorporated® Services, Science to Earth, and Wellness with Treva Garcia, RDN

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Tech Innovation Global Incorporated® Services, Science to Earth, and Wellness with Treva Garcia, RDN


Tech Innovation Global Incorporated® Services, Science to Earth, and Wellness with Treva Garcia, RDN – Book Publishing Industry Today – EIN Presswire

























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Covid Offices And The Religion Of Remote Work

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Covid Offices And The Religion Of Remote Work

Wednesday, 18 November 2020, 3:57 pm
Article: Binoy Kampmark

Masks can prove liberating. The hidden face affords
security. Obnoxious authority breathes better, hiding in
comfort. Behind the material, confidence finds a home. While
tens of millions of jobs have been lost to the novel
coronavirus globally, security services, surveillance
officers and pen pushers are thriving, policing admissions
to facilities, churning through health and safety
declarations, and generally making a nuisance of
themselves.

Consider the state of Victoria in
Australia. The pandemic lockdown measures have softened but
have left a thick film of bureaucracy. For the overly eager
employee wishing to come into work to retrieve necessary
materials (the definition of what is necessary varies), the
task is irritating, even taxing. First, temperature check.
Second, checking in via smart phone with a health
declaration, a step discriminatory to those who have no
interest in having such devices. Third, clearance with
security to ensure the activation of relevant cards, and the
lending of necessary keys. Even through masks, those lining
up exude weariness, feeling saggy after months in
epidemiological confinement.

With the card activated
and ready to access the necessary buildings, it is time to
make way to the office, a space neglected since March.
Books, sulking at not having been consulted. Detritus of
memories on the wall: posters and pictures of travel to
places now inaccessible for reasons of cost or the pandemic.
Towers of paperwork left unattended, rendered irrelevant by
digitalisation. White board, uncleaned. A sense of woe
grips: the days for having such a space of monkish calm and
serene bliss are numbered.

During the pandemic,
employers have been chorusing about the benefits of making
people work from home. This has very much to do with them,
though other virtues are also celebrated: the conveniences
of work and home living; avoiding long, draining commutes;
spending more time with family. We are doing it for
you.

This has meant the invasion of the employee’s
home, and often not a voluntary one. Urban managerialism,
already identified in the 1970s by the English sociologist
Ray Pahl, has been hyper charged by a reallocation of
resources, the imposition of stresses upon the toilers. The
nature of parasitic capitalism, as Andy Merrifield puts it,
has come to the fore with aggression. “World cities,” he
reasons, “are giant arenas where the most rabid
activity is the activity of rabidly extorting land rent, of
making land pay anyway it can; of dispatching all
non-parasitic activities to some other part of town (as
Engels recognized long ago), so as to help this rental
maximisation.” The almost operatic description
of Karl Marx in the first volume of Das Kapital comes
to mind: “Capital is dead labour which, vampire-like,
lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more and
more it sucks.”

And sucking it does, making sure
that employees feed the beast by shouldering more expenses
while all the time being told they are fulfilling their
civic obligations and minding their good health. The fact
that doing this also means reducing the ongoing costs of the
business or entity, ensuring greater rental maximisation, is
seen as ancillary to the main show.

Prior to the
pandemic, the literature on attitudes to remote work was
already sounding like an urban manager’s small book of
maxims and clichés. Sophia Bernazzani of the video
conferencing company Owl Labs, writing
in December last year, announced how “new survey data
revealed that remote work is a major benefit for employees.
In fact, 34% of US workers would take a pay cut of up to 5%
in order to work remotely. And those who do work remotely
say they’re happy in their jobs 29% more than on-site
workers.”

With COVID-19 yet to make its telling
presence, Forbes was already diving into
reasons why a remote workforce was an exhilarating boon
for business. As contributor Amar Hussain reasoned,
“Although there are challenges that come with hiring and
organizing a remote workforce, the reality is working with a
remote team might end up being one of the best decisions you
could make for your business.” More work is accomplished
by such remote teams (time otherwise wasted on commuting,
for instance, can be used); a “larger talent pool” can
be drawn from, given the absence of geographical
constraints; rental costs will be spared, meaning that US
companies would be saving $10,000 per employee per year.
Finally, a health dividend (because they care), would
accrue. “Remote work removes the need to commute and the
associated negative effects.”

Urban planning
academic Richard Shearmur sees
past the glossy narrative of saving costs, tilting the
focus away from proselytisers of the religion of remote
work. “Whatever the personal and productivity impacts of
remote work, the savings of US$10,000 per year are the
employer’s. In effect, this represents an offloading of
costs onto employees – a new type of enclosure.” With
this comes loneliness, reduced productivity and
various inefficiencies.

Shearmur also sees a
historical parallel of expropriation. “In 16th-century
Britain, powerful landowners expropriated common land from
the communities, often for the purpose of running lucrative
sheep farms. Today, businesses like Shopify appear to be
expropriating their employee’s private living space.”
They do so by making employees purchase more work equipment
for the home (ergonomic chairs, desks and so forth), placing
the emphasis on them to maintain such equipment and the
premises that house them.

Such businesses are also
casting an Orwellian eye over employees in their home
environment. Expropriation, in a fashion, is not enough; it
must come with the monitoring gaze. Productivity targets
must be maintained. Elizabeth Lyons of the University of San
Diego explains
what that entails. “The things employers are really
looking for is what websites are employees on, are these
productive or unproductive websites, what apps are they
using, how much time they are spending on their different
tasks.”

In an online
survey of 1,800 people in October conducted by Prospect,
a UK trade union representing engineers, scientists and
civil servants, two-thirds of workers expressed discomfort
at the idea of programmes being used to check the frequency
of their typing. Up to 80% were also unsettled by the use of
cameras recording them as they sat at their home computer,
with 76% uncomfortable with the idea of wearing devices
noting their location.

Some employees have been
encouraged to believe in the narcotic of efficiency and
productivity. Take Candice, a “digital marketer” behind
podcasts aiding students undertaking English proficiency
tests. Interviewed for ABC Radio National in Australia, she
is sympathetic to her employer who “has no idea of
what I’m doing all day long.” Except that he does. But
never mind that: home surveillance technology “keeps me on
track … I can see exactly how much time I’ve spent doing
work”. Good for the unassuming Candice and co-religionists
of remote work; bad for many of us.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark
was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He
lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]

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Non-Muslim student tops Islamic studies entrance list, says important to study each other’s religion

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Non-Muslim student tops Islamic studies entrance list, says important to study each other’s religion
By: PTI | Jaipur |

Updated: November 18, 2020 9:19:01 am





Shubham Yadav tops Islamic studies entrance list at the Central University of Kashmir. Image source: facebook.com/shubhamyadavTECS

In a break from the past, a non-Muslim candidate from Rajasthan has topped the all-India entrance exam for a master’s course in Islamic studies at the Central University of Kashmir. “Islam is portrayed as a radical religion and there is a lot of misconception about it. The division in the society is growing today and it is really very important to understand each other’s religion,” said Shubham Yadav, who would join the course in Kashmir for two years.

The result of the common entrance test, held on September 20, was declared on October 29. The university, which had set up the Islamic studies centre in 2015, confirmed that Yadav is the first non-Muslim candidate to top the exam. “This is the first time a non-Muslim has topped the entrance exam… We’ve had non-Muslim scholars in the past,” Professor Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi said.

Read | Students under EWS category beat odds to weave success stories at NEET, JEE

Yadav (21) has done BA honours in philosophy from the Delhi University and hails from Alwar where two lynching cases of Pehlu Khan in 2017 and Akbar alias Rakbar Khan in 2018 took place. “Such kind of incidents also made me think and gave motivation to read about the religion (Islam). I convinced my parents to pursue Islamic studies by making them understand that it will be about Islamic history and culture and they agreed,” he said.

Yadav said that he developed an interest in Islamic studies during his college days and has informally studied about the Arab spring, Iran issues, early days of Islam and Prophet Muhammad and is looking forward to learn more about it in the formal course. Some of my friends who are from Muslim community are studying global Islamic politics,” said Yadav, who is also preparing for the civil services exam.

Yadav has a younger brother studying in class 11 while his father runs a general store in Alwar.

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Will EU push China to respect human rights? ask EU lawmakers

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Will EU push China to respect human rights? ask EU lawmakers

Brussels [Belgium], November 17 (ANI): Members of the European Parliament (MEP) have condemned coercive labour programmes in Tibet and called the European Union (EU) to act against China for the human rights abuses in Xinjiang province and compel Beijing to respect its international obligations.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the MEPs asked “does the EU condemn these coercive labour programmes, which violate the fundamental rights of Tibetans – including their right to freedom of movement and to their own livelihood?” and, in the framework of the EU China Human Rights Dialogue, “what measures does the EU intend to take in order to push China to respect its international human rights obligations?”The MEPs also requested to know if the EU intends “to adopt targeted sanctions (visa bans, asset freezes etc.) against individuals responsible for the establishment of these programmes in Tibet?”The parliamentarians in the statement said that the European Commission has received numerous questions recently on China’s oppressive policies towards minority communities in the country.

This comes after the Washington, D.C.-based institute Jamestown Foundation released a report in September revealing China’s large-scale programme of coercive labour in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The reports reveal how the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2019 and 2020, introduced new policies to promote systematic, centralised and large-scale training and to relocate redundant rural workers to other parts of the territory.

According to a Jamestown Foundation report, in the first half of 2020 over half a million farmers and shepherds, accounting for 15 per cent of the Tibetan population, had been enrolled in military training centres, with a view to their recruitment in industry.

According to the Chinese Communist Party, Tibetans are people who must be ‘reprogrammed’ by minimising the negative influence of Buddhism, and by transforming their ways of thinking and their identity by learning both work discipline and the official Chinese language. A great deal of pressure is put on officials in order to achieve these drastic results.

Responding to the reports, the MEPs said that these acts of coercion and indoctrination clearly endanger the linguistic, cultural and spiritual heritage of the Tibetan minority and constitute human rights‘ violations.

Prior to this, in October this year, nine cross-party, pan-European Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) addressed a parliamentary question to Josep Borrell, the Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy regarding China’s continued oppression of the Tibetan community.

The MEPs had asked three pointed questions; the first being “how does the Vice-President/ High Representative intend to take action to protect the rights of the Tibetan people?” which they followed with “will he take into account, in future negotiations with the People’s Republic of China, the forced assimilation campaign in so-called re-education camps that is used against ethnolinguistic minorities?”In their last question, the MEPs had asked the Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy if he will “continue negotiations with those parties that do not observe democratic and human principles?”These questions follow similar questions raised by other parliamentarians concerned about China’s oppressive policies towards Tibetans.

The Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is expected to reply in the coming weeks, the release said. (ANI)

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