Solidarity iftars foster bonds of togetherness for Filipino Muslims and Catholics

Throughout Ramadan, Filipinos get together for the solidarity iftars known as Duyog Ramadan. (Supplied)
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Updated 31 March 2024
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Solidarity iftars foster bonds of togetherness for Filipino Muslims and Catholics

  • Duyog Ramadan started in the 1970s in Mindanao
  • Duyog is a Cebuano word that means ‘to accompany’

Manila: When Ramadan begins in the Philippines, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar turns into a time for Filipinos of different faiths to come together. 

Around 80 percent of the Philippines’ more than 110 million people are Roman Catholics, whereas Muslims make up about 10 percent of the population. 

Throughout Ramadan, which began on March 12 this year, Filipinos get together for the solidarity iftars known as Duyog Ramadan. The tradition first started in the 1970s in Mindanao, where Christian churches — a minority in the predominantly Muslim region — sponsored meals for Muslim communities to break their fast. This practice has since been adopted by various groups in the Philippines. 

FASTFACTS

• The tradition of Duyog Ramadan began in the 1970s in Mindanao.

• Duyog is a Cebuano word that means ‘to accompany.’

• Interfaith organizations hope to embody the spirit of Ramadan to promote love and peace.

The Moro-Christian People’s Alliance held one such event with the Sandugo Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination at the Golden Mosque in Quiapo, Manila in mid-March, aiming to build a deeper connection between Muslims and Christians. 

The MCPA said Duyog Ramadan is an opportunity for Muslims to share with the Catholic community their challenges, as they struggle with a lack of social services and face racism and exploitation from landowners and authorities. 

“(Christians) can help to highlight these issues and combat chauvinism and prejudice against Muslims,” MCPA Secretary-General Amirah Ali Lidasan told Arab News.

“We believe that Muslim-Christian interaction should not be limited to religious narratives. It should also address difficulties that Muslims and Christians experience in similar ways, such as human rights violations, poverty, landlessness, migration, and others.”

As some Muslim communities often feel unheard, Lidasan believes solidarity from other communities can help amplify their voices. 

“This is where the Christian religious community can help amplify the victims’ voices, which is why we invite them to attend our events, particularly during Ramadan, to listen to the voices on the ground. We also learn from our fellow Christian religious communities about how they face similar violations and fight for their rights,” she said. 

The interfaith solidarity events take on a deeper meaning this year after Daesh militants targeted a Catholic Mass in the southern Philippine city of Marawi last December in a bombing that killed at least four people and injured 50 others. 

Edwin de la Pena, the bishop of Marawi, has urged Filipino Catholics to accompany Muslims in their efforts to fast, pray and build peace in their community for this year’s Duyog Ramadan movement. Duyog is a Cebuano word that means “to accompany.”

The bishop has also encouraged his fellow priests to “seek your homilies during Ramadan and think about possibilities for communal action to promote the common good, care for the earth, and build peace through dialogue of life and faith.”

Other interfaith organizations, such as the Silsilah Dialogue Movement, hope to embody the spirit of Ramadan to promote love and peace. 

“In this critical time of history, with calamities, climate change, and signs of world war, we have to be united in the spirit of the month of Ramadan to reflect on what we can do together to promote love in all its aspects,” said Silsilah, a non-governmental organization of Muslims and Christians. 

“The concept of dialogue as an expression of love is what we try to live and share in many ways, and we see that the spirit of Ramadan is a journey in this direction. Thus, while all religions have specific ways to fast, pray and do acts of charity, we need to be united in the central point of spirituality, which is love.” 


G7 nations paper over differences on tariffs and Ukraine, agree to address ‘imbalances’

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G7 nations paper over differences on tariffs and Ukraine, agree to address ‘imbalances’

G7 nations paper over differences on tariffs and Ukraine, agree to address ‘imbalances’
BANFF, Alberta: Top finance officials from the world’s seven wealthiest democracies set aside stark differences on US tariffs after two days of talks and agreed to counter global “economic imbalances,” a swipe at China’s trade practices.
In a communiqué issued Thursday, the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, meeting in the Canadian Rockies, left out their traditional defense of free trade and toned down their references to Russia’s war in Ukraine, compared with last year. But they did agree that further sanctions on Russia could be imposed if the two countries don’t reach a ceasefire.
The communiqué said the G7 members would continue to monitor “nonmarket policies and practices” which contribute to imbalances in global trade. The statement did not mention China but nonmarket policies typically refer to that country’s export subsidies and currency policies that the Trump administration charges gives it an advantage in international trade.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears to have succeeded in steering the communiqué largely in the direction the Trump administration sought, particularly regarding China’s trade practices.
The high-profile gathering of officials from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, and Italy also appeared to be more congenial than an earlier meeting of G7 foreign ministers in March. Yet that meeting, also in Canada, occurred as President Donald Trump was in the midst of threatening stiff tariffs on Canada and suggesting it could become the 51st state.
Canada is president of this year’s G7 and the sessions this week are intended to lay the groundwork for a meeting of the heads of state on June 15-17 in Kananaskis, Canada. The White House said Thursday that Trump will attend that gathering.
“Throughout our G7 presidency, the tone of the discussions has become progressively more constructive,” Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, said at a news conference at the conclusion of the summit.
Yet that unity appears to have been achieved by jettisoning many items that in the past had been agreed to by the G7 countries. In addition to leaving out any mention of trade, the communiqué dropped sections on combating climate change and cooperating on international tax policy, issues the Trump administration has dismissed.
“There will always be tension around tariffs,” said Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s finance minister. “But there are also places where you find common ground. ... This year our focus was to return to the G7 core mission, restoring global growth and stability.”

Tiff Macklem (L), governor of the Bank of Canada, looks on as Fracois-Philippe Champagne, Canada's minister of finance and national revenue, speaks at their closing press conference during the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting in Banff, Alberta, Canada on May 22, 2025. (AFP)

The shift comes as Trump has slapped widespread tariffs on imports, including a 10 percent global duty on all goods, even those from the other G7 allies. Trump has also imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars, and on April 2 imposed much steeper tariffs on about 60 nations, which he then paused until early July.
Valdis Dombrovskis, European Union Trade Commissioner, said that trade was “obviously a difficult topic” during the negotiations. The EU, which participates in the G7 but doesn’t serve as one of the rotating presidents, pushed for stronger language that would have highlighted the economic harms from tariffs.
“The US administration is having a somewhat different view of the situation,” Dombrovskis told reporters. He added that details about US tariffs weren’t discussed because the G7 members are negotiating individually with the Trump administration about duties.
On Ukraine, the communiqué condemned “Russia’s continued brutal war against Ukraine,” yet that language was milder than last year’s, which referred to Russia’s “illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked full-scale invasion.” Trump officials in the past have pushed to avoid antagonizing Russia while seeking peace talks.
Champagne, however, called the invasion “illegal” in Thursday’s news conference.
Bessent also successfully included an agreement in the statement that “no country or entity” that supported Russia’s war efforts would be able to profit from Ukraine’s reconstruction, a restriction that would bar Chinese companies from participating.
Dombrovskis said the EU had proposed to lower the current price cap on Russian oil — previously agreed to as part of early sanctions slapped on Russia in the wake of its 2022 invasion — to $50, from $60, but the communiqué says little about specific measures.
Still, the EU was largely satisfied with the G7’s agreements on Ukraine, Dombrovskis said, including the willingness to impose more sanctions. The group also agreed to continue freezing Russia’s financial assets until they can be used to help pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Mark Sobel, a former top Treasury Department official and senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, criticized the communiqué as “feeble.”
The statement “closes its eyes to the elephants in the room — the word ‘tariffs’ or a reference to destructive US trade policies are nowhere to be found,” Sobel said.
“On Ukraine, the G7 will ‘explore options’ if a ceasefire isn’t reached when the time for action is now,” he added. “This risible communiqué cannot hide the fissures in the G7 and hardly bodes well for the larger fractures looming for the upcoming G7 leaders’ summit.”
Still, John Kirton, a political scientist at the University of Toronto and director of the G7 Research Group, said it was a positive sign that a communiqué had even been issued. “That was in considerable doubt to the very end,” he said.
Yet both Sobel and Kirton noted there was no reference to US budget deficits and their role in the “global imbalances” the ministers seek to combat. The federal budget deficit, by contributing to higher US demand, worsens the US trade deficit that the Trump administration seeks to reduce.
The communiqué said that “economic policy uncertainty has declined from its peak,” a view that Kirton said was “puzzling,” given that the US Congress is considering a tax and spending package that has unnerved financial markets this week, pushing up the interest rate on US Treasury securities.
“There’s great uncertainty out there in financial markets,” Kirton said. “The dollar is going down, and we don’t know when that will end.”
Bessent held several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the G7, including with Champagne and Japan’s Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato.
Bessent and Kato discussed trade and currencies, the Treasury Department said, with both sides agreeing that “exchange rates should be market-determined.” The US has often criticized Japan in the past for intervening in currency markets to lower the yen’s value.
Yet the two sides “did not discuss foreign exchange levels,” Treasury said, a sign the US isn’t pressuring Japan about the yen’s current value.


Trump’s image of dead ‘white farmers’ came from Reuters footage in Congo, not South Africa

Updated 17 min 56 sec ago
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Trump’s image of dead ‘white farmers’ came from Reuters footage in Congo, not South Africa

  • In meeting with South Africa’s president, Trump showed article with picture of body bags
  • Trump said bodies were those of white South Africans killed in the country
  • Picture was a screenshot of a Reuters video taken in Democratic Republic of Congo in February

JOHANNESBURG: US President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In fact, the video, published by Reuters on February 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
The blog post showed to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.
The post did not caption the image but identified it as a “YouTube screen grab” with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had “misidentified the image.”
She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa’s “dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government,” had “pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.”
The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.
“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in ... I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film,” Al Katanty said. “Only Reuters has video.”
Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.
“In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people,” Al Katanty said.
Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa’s land laws, foreign policy, and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.
Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to play a video, which he said showed evidence of genocide of white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, is based on false claims.
Trump then proceeded to flip through printed copies of articles that he said detailed murders of white South Africans, saying “death, death, death, horrible death.”


Record floods devastate eastern Australia

Updated 23 May 2025
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Record floods devastate eastern Australia

  • State Emergency Service said more than 2,000 workers had been deployed on rescue and recovery missions

MAITLAND: Record floods cut a destructive path through eastern Australia on Friday, caking houses in silt, washing out roads and separating 50,000 people from help.
Four bodies have been pulled from vast tides of floodwater engulfing parts of northern New South Wales, a fertile region of rivers and valleys some 400 kilometers (250 miles) up the coast from Sydney.
Salvage crews were preparing to launch a major clean-up operation as waters started receding Friday morning, surveying the damage from half a year’s worth of rain dumped in just three days.
“So many businesses have had water through and it’s going to be a massive cleanup,” said Kinne Ring, mayor of the flood-stricken farming town of Kempsey.
“Houses have been inundated,” she told national broadcaster ABC.
“There’s water coming through the bottom of houses, it’s really awful to see and the water is going to take a bit of time to recede.”
State Emergency Service boss Dallas Burnes said more than 2,000 workers had been deployed on rescue and recovery missions.
“A real focus for us at the moment will be resupplying the isolated communities,” he said, adding that 50,000 people were still stranded.
Burnes said rescue crews had plucked more than 600 people to safety since waters started rising earlier this week.
People clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges before helicopters winched them away.
Although the floods were easing, Burnes said the stagnant lakes of muddy water still posed a threat — including from snakes that may have slithered into homes in search of shelter.
“Floodwaters have contaminants. There can be vermin, snakes. You need to assess those risks.
“Electricity can also pose a danger as well.”
The storms have dumped more than six months’ worth of rain over three days, the government weather bureau has said, smashing flood-height records in some areas.
“These are horrific circumstances,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday as he traveled into the disaster zone.
“The Australian Defense Force will be made available. There’s going to be a big recovery effort required,” he told local radio.
“There’s been massive damage to infrastructure and we’re going to have to all really pitch in.”
In the town of Taree, business owner Jeremy Thornton said the “gut-wrenching” flood was among the worst he had seen.
“It is pretty tough, we’ve had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on,” he told AFP on Thursday.
“We are reliving it every second — hearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren.”
Locals spotted dead cows washing up on beaches after swollen rivers swept them from their pastures inland.
The government has declared a natural disaster, unlocking greater resources for affected areas.

From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swaths of Australia have recently been pummelled by wild weather.
The oceans surrounding Australia have been “abnormally warm” in recent months, according to Australia’s government weather bureau.
Warmer seas evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.
Although difficult to link to specific disasters, climate change is already fueling more extreme weather patterns, scientists warn.
Flood modelling expert Mahdi Sedighkia said this week’s emergency offered “compelling evidence” of how climate change could affect regional weather patterns.


Seoul says no talks with US on potential troop pullout

Updated 23 May 2025
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Seoul says no talks with US on potential troop pullout

  • The allies last year signed a new five-year agreement on sharing the cost of stationing US troops in South Korea.

SEOUL: South Korea’s defense ministry said Friday there have been no talks with Washington on pulling US troops from the South, after a Wall Street Journal report claimed Washington was considering a partial withdrawal.
Citing US defense officials, the WSJ report said Washington is considering whether to move around 4,500 troops out of South Korea and deploy them to other locations, including Guam.
Washington, South Korea’s long-time key security ally, stations around 28,500 troops in the South to help protect it against the nuclear-armed North Korea.
But US President Donald Trump said last year — before winning the election — that if he returned to the White House, Seoul would pay billions more annually to host American troops.
When asked about the WSJ report, Seoul’s defense ministry said: “There has been no discussion whatsoever between South Korea and the United States regarding the withdrawal of the United States Forces Korea.”
The allies last year signed a new five-year agreement on sharing the cost of stationing US troops in South Korea, with Seoul agreeing to raise its contribution by 8.3 percent to 1.52 trillion won ($1.1 billion) for 2026.
“US Forces Korea have served as a key component of the South Korea-US alliance, maintaining a strong combined defense posture with our military to deter North Korean aggression and provocations,” Seoul’s defense ministry said, adding this contributed to “peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.”
“We will continue close cooperation with the US to further strengthen this role going forward.”
United States Forces Korea declined to comment when contacted by AFP, saying any remarks on the matter should come from Washington.


Mahmoud Khalil permitted to hold newborn son for the 1st time despite government objections

Updated 23 May 2025
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Mahmoud Khalil permitted to hold newborn son for the 1st time despite government objections

  • Khalil was the first person arrested under President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters

NEW YORK: Detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was allowed to hold his one-month-old son for the first time Thursday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to keep the father and infant separated by a plexiglass barrier.
The visit came ahead of a scheduled immigration hearing for Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia University graduate who has been detained in a Louisiana jail since March 8.
Khalil was the first person arrested under President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters and is one of the few who has remained in custody as his case winds its way through both immigration and federal court.
Federal authorities have not accused Khalil of a crime, but they have sought to deport him on the basis that his prominent role in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza may have undermined US foreign policy interests.
His request to attend his son’s April 21 birth was denied last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The question of whether Khalil would be permitted to hold his newborn child or forced to meet him through a barrier had sparked days of legal fighting, triggering claims by Khalil’s attorneys that he is being subject to political retaliation by the government.
On Wednesday night, a federal judge in New Jersey, Michael Farbiarz, intervened, allowing the meeting to go forward Thursday morning, according to Khalil’s attorneys.
The judge’s order came after federal officials said this week they would oppose his attorney’s effort to secure what’s known as a “contact visit” between Khalil, his wife, Noor Abdalla, and their son Deen.
Instead, they said Khalil could be allowed a “non-contact” visit, meaning he would be separated from his wife and son by a plastic divider and not allowed to touch them.
“Granting Khalil this relief of family visitation would effectively grant him a privilege that no other detainee receives,” Justice Department officials wrote in a court filing on Wednesday. “Allowing Dr. Abdalla and a newborn to attend a legal meeting would turn a legal visitation into a family one.”
Brian Acuna, acting director of the ICE field office in New Orleans, said in an accompanying affidavit that it would be “unsafe to allow Mr. Khalil’s wife and newborn child into a secured part of the facility.”
In their own legal filings, Khalil’s attorneys described the government’s refusal to grant the visit as “further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr. Khalil’s arrest and faraway detention,” adding that his wife and son were “the farthest thing from a security risk.”
They noted that Abdalla had traveled nearly 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) to the remote detention center in hopes of introducing their son to his father.
“This is not just heartless,” Abdalla said of the government’s position. “It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse. And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prisons and bombs, denied dignity, denied life.”
Farbiarz is currently considering Khalil’s petition for release as he appeals a Louisiana immigration judge’s ruling that he can be deported from the country.
On Thursday, Khalil appeared before that immigration judge, Jamee Comans, as his attorneys presented testimony about the risks he would face if he were to be deported to Syria, where he grew up in a refugee camp, or Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative.
His attorneys submitted testimony from Columbia University faculty and students attesting to Khalil’s character.
In one declaration, Joseph Howley, a classics professor at Columbia, said he had first introduced Khalil to a university administrator to serve as a spokesperson on behalf of campus protesters, describing him as a “upstanding, principled, and well-respected member of our community.’
“I have never known Mahmoud to espouse any anti-Jewish sentiments or prejudices, and have heard him forcefully reject antisemitism on multiple occasions,” Howley wrote.
No ruling regarding the appeal was made on Thursday. Comans gave lawyers in the case until 5 p.m. June 2 to submit written closing arguments.
Columbia’s interim president, Claire Shipman, acknowledged Mahmoud’s absence from Wednesday’s commencement ceremony and said many students were “mourning” that he couldn’t be present. Her speech drew loud boos from some graduates, along with chants of “free Mahmoud.”