Religion

The new U.N. human rights envoy for Myanmar expressed serious concern about the conditions in camps for more than 100,000 mostly minority Muslims displaced by violence led by Buddhist extremists, and warned that the country's human rights situation may be deteriorating.
     

Ambassador of Turkey to Romania Omur Solendil and Turkey's Consul-general Ali Bozçaliskan will attend on Sunday evening the Ramazan Bayrami religious service at the Abdul Medgid Mosque in the eastern city of Medgidia, celebrated by Dr. Mufti Muurat Yusuf, the head of the Muslim Cult in Romania.

Turkish authorities have announced that prayer carpets at mosques in the southeastern town of Batman will be replaced due to the complaints filed by Muslims who alleged that some of their motifs "resemble Christian priests."

The senate of the Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University has denied reports that regulations at the Department of Physics prohibit the enrollment of students with certain disabilities, following a complaint by a blind 18-year-old honor student who said his application to the school was rejected.

The Turkish Jewish Community has called on the American Jewish Congress to re-evaluate its decision to demand the return of an award given to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following his response to the recent Gaza operations.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian protester and wounded about 200 on July 24 in confrontations with several thousand people demonstrating in the occupied West Bank against a 17-day-old Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
   

Thessaloniki Mayor Yannis Boutaris on Thursday announced plans to establish a museum of Islamic art in Greece’s northern port city.

Boutaris, who was re-elected in May, told Kathimerini he had already contacted the Benaki Museum in Athens to ask for help to turn either the Alaca Imaret or the Yeni Cami, both former mosques, into a museum.

A prominent Jewish organization in the United States has asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to return a courage award he received in 2004, following his response to the recent Gaza operations.

The Council of State issued a ruling on Thursday deeming the government’s “Athena” plan for tertiary education reform legal.

Introduced just over a year ago with the aim of merging and shutting down of dozens of university and technical college departments, a number of institutions had appealed against the program.

Jihadists in Iraq have ordered that all women between the ages of 11 and 46 must undergo female genital mutilation, which could affect up to four million women and girls in the war-ravaged country, a UN official said July 24.