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Dead Sea, Jordan (IINA) – Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki on Monday said that Palestine needs Arab countries as it struggles against the Israeli occupation for its independence and statehood, WAFA reported.
Speaking at a meeting of the Arab foreign ministers held at the Dead Sea in Jordan in preparation for the Arab summit, Malki stressed that without Arab support, it will be difficult for the Palestinians to proceed alone on the long path toward freedom.
In spite of the difficult conditions in the Arab world, we never felt for a moment that Arab interest in the Palestinian issue and the struggle of the Palestinian people has retreated, he said. On the contrary, everyone emphasized the centrality of (the Palestinian) cause to the Arabs, who continue to stand behind the Palestinian people and its leadership and provide it with all kinds of support.
Malki added: Without this support, it would have been difficult to access the international arena and diplomacy or to reach the long-awaited for final victory.
He said the Palestinian and Arab people in general are waiting to see how their Arab leaders are going to face the challenges and how they are going to work in a creative and new way to unify Arab efforts and benefit from the influence and role of Arab unity on the international level politically and economically.
Image from internet.
Stockholm City (IINA) – A Swedish man is facing charges in court after being accused of eating bacon too closely to a group of veiled Muslim women and calling them derogatory names.
The incident occurred in the Swedish Capital of Stockholm over the weekend. The Swedish man, who has not been named by media or the police is said to have approached the Muslim women who were wearing Islamic veils on a train while he was eating bacon and dangled the bacon in front of their faces, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported.
According to the report, the women got up to find seating elsewhere and, the man followed them with his bacon. He is alleged to have called them derogatory names and made racist comments, though neither the police nor the court has specified what was said during the incident, Breitbart News reported.
The prosecutors allege he then used racial epithets on another woman in the train station after getting off the train. He faces charges of incitement to racial hatred. The case is not the first time bacon misuse has led to prosecutions for hate crimes. In the UK last year, two Polish men were jailed for throwing bacon inside a London mosque. The pair were charged with a racially motivated attack when one of the men swore at a Muslim man and threw bacon at him.
Also in the UK, in Bristo City last year, police were also alerted to another potential hate crime after several people threw bacon sandwiches at the entrance of a local mosque. Police commented on the incident calling it abhorrent.
Source: International Islamic News Agency