Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged the Muslim community to set aside their differences and work together to regain the glorious heritage the Islamic world once had in science, philosophy, medicine and other fields of enlightenment. “Today, Muslims are in possession of a significant amount of wealth. We can bring back our lost heritage by using this resource for the development of science and modern technology. I believe it,” she said. The premier was addressing as the chief guest at the 35th Convocation Ceremony of Islamic University of Technology (IUT) held on its campus here.  IUT Chancellor and also OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha presided over the function. Hasina said Muslim scholars had reached the pinnacle of success in the fields of science, history, literature, philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, geography, and in many other branches during the golden age of the Islam. She said Muslim scholars of that era dominated the world in culture, knowledge acquisition, scientific discoveries, and contemporary literature. The PM stressed the need for analyzing the reasons behind the fall of the Muslims who once had the glorious heritage. Internal conflict, lack of mutual respect and harmony between Muslim countries, lack in knowledge and science and many other issues have factored in the collective fall of the Muslim Ummah, she said. “To regain this lost glory, I think we the Muslim Ummah will have to work united, forgetting differences,” she said adding that the Muslim countries will particularly have to invest more in the education and science for the students of the Muslim countries and thus to develop science and modern technology. In this modern era, three Nobel prizes have been awarded to Muslim recipients that sadly are the true reflection of the contribution of the Muslim Ummah in the fields of research and development, she said. She said the Muslim nations need stronger endeavors in the fields of science and technology so that they can contribute more. The Muslim community should not fall behind in tackling the challenges presented by the 4th Industrial Revolution especially in the sectors of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Internet of Things, Quantum Computing and others, she added.   Read more: Evil forces are using advanced technology to disrupt peace: PM Hasina She said Bangladesh being a proud host of Islamic University of Technology, a subsidiary organ of OIC, will continue support for its smooth functioning. “I want to assure that we vow to keep on supporting IUT in future as well,” she said.  She said Bangladesh takes immense pride in being the host and being a part of every success story of such a prestigious institute like IUT. “I personally believe that education is a lifelong pursuance for achieving greatness,” she said. Hasina said the IUT graduates are not only serving Bangladesh and OIC member states, they are also making contributions all across the globe. She hoped that today's graduates will continue to grow their skills by working closely with technologists, innovators and scientific communities around the world in the days to come. “I strongly believe that IUT will play a pivotal role in showcasing the caliber of Muslim Ummah ….by spreading her fame as a state-of-the-art institute,” she said. Read more: 4 engineering universities sign MoUs with Walton to foster talent The premier focused on AL government’s steps and success to promote and spread Islamic knowledge keeping the dreams and ideals of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the guidelines. “We have undertaken and implemented numerous initiatives in the past 14 years and a half for the promotion of Islam,” she said. The initiatives include establishment of an Arabic university, implementation of a massive project of building 564 model mosques and Islamic cultural centres in the country,  launching the digital version of the Holy Quran, free distribution of the holy Quran among children, setting up the ‘Imam-Muajjin Welfare Trust,’ introduction of Mosque-based child education programs, launching  honors course in different Madrasas, the enactment of a law for the recognition of Qaumi Madrasas, and declaration of the status of Dawrah Hadith Certificate as equivalent to a Masters’ Certificate. The PM said her government has put special emphasis on education and research and is encouraging meritorious students by awarding scholarships abroad as incentives. “We are facilitating their way for conducting research in prestigious educational institutions at home and abroad,” she said.  Focusing on the development of Bangladesh during her government,  Hasina said their efforts have culminated in reducing the poverty rate of 41.5% in 2006 to 18.6% in 2022 and the extreme poverty rate from 25.5% to 6.7% in the same period. She said the size of the GDP in 2006 was only USD60 billion, whereas right now it has been elevated to USD465 billion. Meanwhile, the per capita income of USD543 in 2006 has increased to USD2824 in 2022. The size of the national budget was only Tk 61,000 crore in 2006, which is now over Tk 600,000 crore. “We’re going to place the new budget on June 01. Inshallah we’ll be able to give a budget of Tk 700,000 crore,” she added. Sheikh Hasina credited the stable situation and the continuation of economic development since 2008 behind this progress of Bangladesh. “Even the Covid-19 pandemic or the Ukraine-Russia war couldn’t stop our progress. Though we are facing difficulties, we’ve been able to continue it (this progress),” she said, adding that her government wants to build a knowledge-based, developed, prosperous and smart Bangladesh by 2041. The PM congratulated the IUT graduates on their successful completion of the academic curriculum. She opened a newly constructed female hall of IUT through a virtual platform from the convocation ceremony. The hall was constructed with the USD2 million grants of the government of Bangladesh. The premier announced the fund for the hall during her last visit to IUT. In the convocation, Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique was conferred with the OIC Gold Medal and four others with the IUT Gold Medals for their outstanding academic performance. Education Minister Dipu Moni and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen spoke at the function, while IUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Rafiqul Islam delivered the welcome speech.

A fear of attacks that had rippled through Muslim communities nationwide after the fatal shootings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque gave way to shock and sadness when it turned out the suspect in the killings is one of their own.  Muhammad Syed, 51, was arrested late Monday after a traffic stop more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from his Albuquerque home. The Afghan immigrant denied any connection to the crimes that shook the city and its small Muslim community. In court documents, in fact, he told police that he was so unnerved by the slayings that he was driving to Houston to find a new home for his family, which includes six children. But investigators said they have ample evidence to prove his guilt, though they have yet to uncover the motive for the ambush-style killings, the first of which was in November and then three between July 26 and last Friday. According to the criminal complaint, police determined that bullet casings found in Syed’s vehicle matched the caliber of the weapons believed to have been used in two of the killings and that casings found at the crime scenes were linked to guns found at Syed’s home and in his vehicle. Read: 4 dead after sheriff’s office helicopter crash in New Mexico Of the more than 200 tips police received, it was one from the Muslim community that led them to the Syed family, authorities said, noting that Syed knew the victims and “an interpersonal conflict may have led to the shootings.” The news of Syed’s arrest stunned Muslims in Albuquerque. “I wanted a little closure for the community, as we saw it going out of hand and people were really panicking. But, I’ll be honest with you, I was shocked,” said Samia Assed, a community organizer and member of the Islamic Center of New Mexico. She said she did not want “these heinous crimes to be in any way, in any capacity used to divide a community.” Salim Ansari, president of the Afghan Society of New Mexico, said he felt relief at the news that an arrest had been made. But he was especially taken back because he knew Syed through social gatherings and was dumbfounded to learn the accusations against him and that court documents showed three domestic violence cases against the man.  “We never knew,” he said. Ansari said he first met Syed and the family when he was invited into their home in 2020 to tell them about the local Afghan community and the group that he heads. The couple ended up joining the society as members. As recently as last month, Syed and his family brought food and joined a potluck gathering, Ansari said. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. On Wednesday, Syed made his first court appearance during a virtual arraignment. He was shackled and in a jumpsuit that said “HIGH RISK” on the back. His case was transferred to state District Court, where a judge will consider a motion by prosecutors to keep him detained without bond pending trial. “He is a very dangerous person, and the only way to protect the community is to hold the defendant in custody,” prosecutors said in court documents. Syed, through an interpreter, asked for permission to speak, but his attorney asked that the court not take any statements from him. He was not asked to enter a plea. Syed has lived in the United States for about five years. When interviewed by detectives, Syed said he had been with the special forces in Afghanistan and fought against the Taliban, according to a criminal complaint filed late Tuesday. Police said they were about to search Syed’s Albuquerque home on Monday when they saw him drive away in a Volkswagen Jetta that investigators believe was used in at least one of the slayings. In the complaint, authorities said a 9mm handgun was seized from his vehicle, and they found an AK-47-style rifle and a pistol of the same caliber at the family home while serving a search warrant. Syed bought the rifle and his son Shaheen Syed purchased the pistol at a local gun shop. On Wednesday, Shaheen Syed was charged by federal prosecutors with providing a false Florida address when he bought two rifles last year. He has denied any role in the killings and has not been charged in connection with them. He and another brother were interviewed by police on Monday. The first of the four people fatally shot was Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, an immigrant from from Afghanistan. Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old man from Pakistan, was killed last Friday. His death came just days after those of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, who were also from Pakistan and members of the same mosque. Ehsan Chahalmi, the brother-in-law of Naeem Hussain, said he was “a generous, kind, giving, forgiving and loving soul that has been taken away from us forever.” Investigators consider Syed to be the primary suspect in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Ahmadi but have not yet filed charges in those cases. Albuquerque police said Wednesday that as long as the suspect is detained, homicide detectives will not rush the case. Police say they are looking at a number of possible motives. When asked at a news conference Tuesday if Muhammad Syed, a Sunni Muslim, was angry that his daughter married a Shiite Muslim, Deputy Police Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock did not respond directly. He said “motives are still being explored fully to understand what they are.” CNN interviewed Syed’s daughter shortly before the announcement of his arrest. She said her husband was friends with two of the men who were killed. She also acknowledged her father initially was upset about her 2018 marriage but recently had been more accepting. “My father is not a person who can kill somebody,” the woman told CNN, which did not disclose her identity to protect her safety. “My father has always talked about peace. That’s why we are here in the United States. We came from Afghanistan, from fighting, from shooting.” In 2017, a boyfriend of Syed’s daughter reported to police that Syed, his wife and one of their sons had pulled him out of a car, punching and kicking him before driving away, according to court documents. The boyfriend, who was found with a bloody nose, scratches and bruises, told police that he was attacked because they did not want her in a relationship with him. Syed was arrested in May 2018 after a fight with his wife turned violent, court documents said. Prosecutors said both cases were later dismissed after the victims declined to press charges. Syed also was arrested in 2020 after he was accused of refusing to pull over for police after running a traffic light, but that case was eventually dismissed, court documents said. Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole said the crimes Syed is suspected of carrying out fit the definition of a serial killer even though Albuquerque police have not classified him as such. She said serial killers often have red flags like domestic violence or sexual assaults in their past that precede the killings. “People don’t wake up one morning and just become a serial killer,” she said. “We would go back and we would look at other crimes that were occurring in the area before the serial murders occurred. Because there’s periods of time where they have to practice being violent. And that practice can begin at home.” O’Toole said motives for the four killings may have varied from victim to victim. O’Toole said she would want to know what prompted three killings in quick succession eight months after the first. “This behavior that we’re seeing in this case is cold-blooded, pre-meditated, and it involves hunting behavior – actually hunting human beings – which is probably as cold as it can get,” she said.

New Zealand on Saturday marked the second anniversary of one of its most traumatic days, when 51 worshippers were killed at two Christchurch mosques by a white supremacist gunman.

Covid-19 pandemic has presented the world with some unprecedented situations and brought about some previously unthinkable changes to people’s lives. Similarly people have been forced to rethink some of the old, set ways of doing some things; things we could take for granted just 6 months ago, may not survive the scrutiny today in a new light.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday that New Zealanders have become more engaged with the Muslim community in the year since a gunman killed 51 people at two mosques.