Muslims took to the streets in huge protests around Asia after Friday prayers, sparked by remarks about the Prophet Mohammed by an Indian ruling party official that embroiled the country in a diplomatic storm.Anger has engulfed the Islamic world since last week, when a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party commented on the relationship between the prophet and his youngest wife on a TV debate show.Around 20 countries have since called in their Indian ambassadors and

India's diplomatic nightmare over controversial comments made by two senior officials of the country's ruling party about the Prophet Muhammad is showing no signs of ending.The UAE, Oman, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Jordan, Libya and Bahrain have joined the growing list of countries in the Islamic world that have condemned the remarks.

After India’s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling on social media. It was the latest display of the Islamophobic bigotry that has consumed Indian society under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shami had performed poorly in the match. But so had 10 other Indian players in the rout by Pakistan. Shami was singled out because he is Muslim.

Mosques were jammed across virus-wracked Indonesia on Friday despite warnings against mass gatherings as the daily death toll in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation soared to a record high.Skyrocketing COVID-19 infections and deaths are hammering hospitals in the Southeast Asian country of nearly 270 million, which is overtaking India as Asia's coronavirus epicentre.Fearing a further explosion in transmission, the government and Indonesian Mosque Council have called on millio

Muslims around the world marked a sombre Eid al-Fitr on Thursday amid rising hostilities between Israel and Palestinians, in the second celebration in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.The three-day festival, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, is traditionally celebrated with mosque prayers, family feasts and shopping for new clothes, gifts and sweets.But casting a pall on the festival, already subdued due to the raging pandemic, was deadly violence between Israel

The World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed concern Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen in the Middle East and North Africa during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Detected cases of COVID infection in the region rose 22 percent last week, while deaths rose 17 percent, said Ahmed al-Mandhari, the Cairo-based chief of the WHO for the eastern Mediterranean.Mandhari said the situation in the vast region reflects a "worrying trend"."We are especially worried that

Fasting practices in the United Kingdom (UK) during Ramadan last year did not lead to higher COVID-19 mortality rates among Muslims, according to a new report.The study, published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Global Health, said there was no evidence to suggest that British Muslims who observed the holy month were more likely to die from a coronavirus infection.During Ramadan, which lasts about four weeks, Muslims across the world abstain from eating food and do not drink anyth

Christians in Muslim-majority Malaysia can use the word "Allah" in publications, a court ruled Wednesday, overturning a decades-old ban after a lengthy legal battle that fuelled religious tensions.The Arabic word for God has long been divisive in Malaysia, with Christians complaining attempts to stop them using it highlight creeping Islamisation.

China tech giant Alibaba offered face-recognition software that could enable users to identify Uighurs, a report said, making it the latest Chinese company embroiled in the country's controversial treatment of the Muslim minority.Alibaba's website for its cloud-computing business showed how clients could use the software to detect the facial features of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities within images and videos, according to The New York Times.The references, later removed by Alib

After five years without a single Muslim MP, Myanmar is in need of someone to help fight for the rights of oppressed minorities, says Sithu Maung as he celebrates his election to parliament.The 33-year-old was one of just two Muslims out of more than 1,100 candidates for Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party - up from zero in the last election in 2015.Muslims number about four percent of the national population and suffer particularly high levels of discrimi