Muslim World League’s Ramadan iftars sanctuary for communities in London

Muslim World League on London's Goodge Street has been providing sanctuary for UK communities for over four decades. (Arab News/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)
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Updated 05 March 2025
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Muslim World League’s Ramadan iftars sanctuary for communities in London

  • Muslim World League hosts iftars during Ramadan and provides hot meals for nearly 230 people daily
  • It hosted an iftar for asylum-seekers in the Borough of Camden
  • Its mission is to ‘show the best of Muslims in the UK’

LONDON: Tucked in the corner of Goodge Street and Charlotte Street in London, the Muslim World League has been providing sanctuary for communities and bridging gaps between faiths for over four decades.

The league operates out of a five-story building with a mosque, offices, and community space. It hosts iftars during Ramadan and provides hot meals for nearly 230 people daily.

Historically the shopping quarter of London, both before and after its destruction by the Nazi blitz in World War II, Goodge Street remains bustling with cafes, boutiques, and restaurants.

This week, workers from the area gathered at the MWL’s mosque to pray the Maghreb, marking the fasting day’s end. You could tell who was working where from the company brand on their clothes or those who worked in the kitchens, as the smell of dishwashing soap is hard to miss.

The league hosted an “Iftar with Your Neighbour” event on Tuesday evening focusing on asylum-seekers in the Borough of Camden, which has been designated as the “Borough of Sanctuary” due to its work with Ukrainian and Afghan refugees since 2021. Other themed iftars hosted by the MWL in Ramadan include events for interfaith dialogue and welcoming new worshippers.

We want to show the best of Muslims in the UK and how we contribute to the global peace

Muath Alamri, director of MWL's London office

Mohammad Zarzour, an imam who leads Friday’s sermons at the league’s mosque, told Arab News that asylum-seekers feel a deep estrangement the moment they leave their countries. Zarzour is from Syria, a country whose population has endured a brutal civil war that displaced millions across Europe and Arab countries and has just emerged from decades of Assad dictatorship.

For him, such iftars are not just about providing food and drink to asylum-seekers. Their importance lies in showing empathy, affection, and a sense of community and family. Refugees face numerous difficulties, he said, some of which may sound trivial, such as describing their pain to the doctor or dealing with officials’ letters and applications.

“Learning a new language is not easy for someone with a family and children who find themselves in a foreign country they are not accustomed to. Balancing work, learning, and caring for their children can be quite challenging,” Zarzour said.




Mohammad Zarzour, an imam, said that asylum-seekers feel a deep estrangement the moment they leave their countries. (Arab News/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)

Camden has seen a significant increase in the number of asylum-seekers from Ukraine and Afghanistan following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021.

The borough has a history of welcoming refugees, seeing waves of migration throughout the 20th century, as it is home to St Pancras International, a port of entry to London, and one of the UK’s busiest railway stations, which connects it to various European cities.

Camden allocates nearly £50 ($64.31) per asylum seeker weekly for housing and financial assistance from the Home Office budget of £2 billion for asylum support in 2024-25, reduced from £4.3 billion in 2023-24.

The spending required to accommodate the increasing number of refugees arriving by boat through the English Channel has become a contentious topic of debate in the UK. Last summer, the country experienced its worst riots in 13 years when far-right protesters attacked hotels housing asylum-seekers in various towns.

Some refugees, including Ukrainians and Afghans, fled from war-torn countries. In the case of the Afghans, many were airlifted from Kabul by the UK Ministry of Defence following the Taliban’s takeover of the city.

Food sharing is a great connector across different communities, backgrounds, faiths, and skin color

Guy Arnold, Camden Council 

Guy Arnold, the strategic lead for refugee communities at Camden Council, said that in just one week in May 2022, over 400 Ukrainian refugees arrived at St Pancras International.

“Many refugees arriving were traumatized; they had young children, they hadn’t eaten properly, and they needed water. Above all else, they needed a place of safety and security to sit down and gather their thoughts about the next great steps they need to take,” he said.

Arnold added that Camden has successfully resettled 100 Afghan families in the borough, part of 1,800 refugees across London. Unlike their Ukrainian counterparts, who are granted temporary residency status, the Afghan families receive indefinite leave to remain, which equates to permanent residency in the country.

He commended such an iftar event for aiding the council with community work. “Food sharing is a great connector across different communities, backgrounds, faiths, and skin color,” he said.




Muslim World League hosts iftars during Ramadan and provides hot meals for nearly 230 people daily. (Arab News)

Samiullah, an Afghan who attended the iftar with his family, said he enjoyed meeting and connecting with other Muslim families. His English, however, was rusty, and his young son Hilal translated the questions. Hilal attended the Qur’anic lessons with Zubeda Welcome, a charity supporting refugee children in the UK to retain their Muslim identity.

It is the second year Yunis, from Kabul, has come to an iftar organized at MWL. He said he wanted his children to meet other kids and learn about Ramadan, as they do not have family members in Camden.

Muath Alamri, the director of the MWL's office in London, told Arab News that since its inception as a charity in 1982, the organization has supported vulnerable people in the UK while combating hate speech and engaging in social work.

In recent years, the league has collected donations to assist people in Gaza, Burma, and Pakistan, and it has partnered with Islamic Relief, Al-Khair Foundation, and various interfaith organizations.

“We want to show the best of Muslims in the UK and how we contribute to the global peace,” Alamri said of the league’s mission.


Trump’s national security adviser Waltz leaving post: US media

Updated 18 sec ago
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Trump’s national security adviser Waltz leaving post: US media

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is to leave his post following a scandal in which a journalist was accidentally included on a chat between officials about air strikes on Yemen, US media reported.
Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong were both set to leave, CBS News reported, while Fox News said Trump was expected to comment on the matter soon. The White House did not immediately comment.

‘Not a commodity’: UN staff rally over deep cuts

Updated 01 May 2025
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‘Not a commodity’: UN staff rally over deep cuts

  • Carrying signs reading “We stand for humanity” and “Protect the protectors,” protesters poured into the square in front of the UN European headquarters
  • “We’re supposed to stand for workers’ rights, so this is really tough,” Lena, an ILO staff member said

GENEVA: Hundreds of UN staff rallied in Geneva Thursday over deep funding cuts, especially from key donor the United States, which have led to mass-layoffs and threatened life-saving services around the world.
The demonstration, called by UN staff unions and associations, brought together workers from a wide range of Geneva-based agencies, along with their families and supporters under a blazing sun.
Carrying signs reading “UN staff are not a commodity,” “We stand for humanity,” “Stop firing UN staff now” and “Protect the protectors,” protesters poured into the square in front of the United Nations European headquarters.
“We’re supposed to stand for workers’ rights, so this is really tough,” Lena, a staff member at the International Labour Organization, told AFP, refusing to give her last name.
“You just feel helpless,” she said, standing next to her daughter sound asleep in a baby carriage with a sign reading “We stand for better jobs in the world” propped on top.
Humanitarian organizations worldwide have been reeling since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, pushing an anti-refugee and anti-migrant agenda and immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.
The United States has traditionally been by far the top donor to a number of agencies, which have been left scrambling to fill sudden and gaping budget gaps.
A number of agencies have already signalled the dire consequences as austerity measures take hold across the UN system.
According to UN staff unions, the UN refugee agency is preparing to cut up to 30 percent of its staff worldwide, while the International Organization for Migration has said it will need to lay off more than 6,000 staff members, or over a third of its workforce.
The World Food Programme is meanwhile preparing to cut between 25 and 30 percent of its global workforce.
Thousands of jobs are also being cut at the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, with many more hanging in the balance, the staff unions said.
They also noted that nearly one in 10 jobs were being eliminated at the ILO, while the UN children’s agency UNICEF is facing a projected 20-percent budget cut.
“So many people are afraid of losing their jobs,” said Elodie Saban, who works at the main UN Geneva office.
“People who work for the UN are often asked to make extreme sacrifices. It is outrageous to see how they are being treated.”
Ian Richards, head of the UN office in Geneva staff union, stressed in a statement that “our colleagues have worked in some of the most dangerous, difficult and isolated locations in the world.”
“They couldn’t choose when or where they moved. They have sacrificed their personal and family lives, and in some cases paid the ultimate price, to help those in need,” he said, decrying that now “many are being let go without any social or financial support from their employers.”
Lena agreed, pointing out that some workers “are here for 20 years, and then it is basically: ‘goodbye’, you’re gone in two months.”
She highlighted that international UN staff are not granted unemployment benefits in the countries they work in, and their residence permits expire within a month of losing their employment.
Even worse, perhaps, would be the impact on operations in the field where the UN’s humanitarian agencies provide life-saving aid to millions of people, while an agency like the ILO battles against things like child labor, Lena said.
“Now, we just have to tell people we have worked with for years, ‘sorry’.”


Bangladesh holds mass political rallies in anticipation of first vote since Hasina ouster

People gather at a May Day rally organized by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in Dhaka on May 1, 2025. (BNP)
Updated 01 May 2025
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Bangladesh holds mass political rallies in anticipation of first vote since Hasina ouster

  • Thousands of people gathered for a May Day rally organized by Bangladesh Nationalist Party
  • Chief of Bangladesh’s interim administration earlier said election could take place end of 2025

DHAKA: Three days of mass rallies began in Bangladesh on Thursday as political parties seek to drum up support ahead of the anticipated first vote since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year.

The country’s interim government, headed by Nobel prize winner Prof. Muhammad Yunus, has been implementing a series of reforms. And preparing for elections since taking charge in August, after Hasina fled Dhaka amid student-led protests that called for her resignation.

Yunus has said that Bangladesh could hold elections by the end of 2025 or in the first half of 2026, provided that electoral reforms take place first.

As thousands of people gathered in Dhaka for a May Day rally organized by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday, its leaders seek to highlight the rights of Bangladeshis to a free and fair election.

The BNP’s Vice Chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu told Arab News: “People were deprived of their voting rights in the last three general elections due to a fraudulent environment.

“Considering the present context, people are optimistic that they would get the chance to exercise voting rights and eventually hand over power to their trusted political party.

“In this way, a democratic government will be reinstated in the country.”

He added: “These expectations and dreams of the countrymen will be represented through our mass demonstration today.”

“We want to see a Bangladesh, which is run through a democratic system, where people would be able to exercise and enjoy all of their due rights.”

The country’s largest Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, also held a rally on Thursday.

They will be followed on Friday by a mass demonstration organized by the National Citizens Party, which was formed by the students who spearheaded the youth-led protests that overthrew Hasina.

On Saturday, Hefazat-e-Islam, a powerful Islamic organization in the country, is also expected to hold a “grand rally.”

The series of political rallies are taking place a little over a year since Bangladesh’s last elections in January 2024, when Hasina won a fourth term in polls that were boycotted by the main opposition parties.

Following 15 years of uninterrupted rule, Hasina and her Awami League party had allegedly politicized key government institutions, including the Election Commission.

Bangladesh is going through a “transitional moment,” said NCP Joint Member Secretary Saleh Uddin Sifat, highlighting that the interim government’s ongoing work is crucial to secure a better future for the country.

“If we can’t reform or overhaul the other machineries of the state, like (the) judiciary, police, constitution etc., before the election, then the next government might also be an authoritarian one because of the existence of the authoritarian elements within the state machineries,” Sifat told Arab News.

Sifat is expecting a good turnout at the NCP rally on Friday, which will urge for reforms in various state institutions and demand justice for alleged crimes committed by members of the Awami League.

“We believe our next general election will not simply serve as a medium of transferring power,” he said. “Rather, it will pave the way for a permanent and effective reformation of the structural issues of the country.”


UK counter-terrorism unit probes rappers Kneecap but music stars back band

Updated 01 May 2025
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UK counter-terrorism unit probes rappers Kneecap but music stars back band

  • Since the row erupted Kneecap has had several concerts canceled, including one in southwest England and three in Germany
  • London’s Metropolitan Police said two videos had been “referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers”

LONDON: British counter-terrorism police Thursday launched an investigation into online videos of Irish rappers Kneecap after the band denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah or inciting violence against UK politicians.
The announcement came as nearly 40 other groups and artists, among them Pulp, Paul Weller and Primal Scream, rallied around the band amid an escalating row about political messaging at its concerts.
Other artists offering their support are The Pogues, Massive Attack, Dexys and Thin Lizzy.
“As artists, we feel the need to register our opposition to any political repression of artistic freedom,” the group said in a joint statement.
They added there had been a “clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform.”


Since the row erupted Kneecap has had several concerts canceled, including one in southwest England and three in Germany.
London’s Metropolitan Police said two videos had been “referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offenses linked to both videos.”
The investigation was “now being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command and inquiries remain ongoing at this time,” it added.
Kneecap on Monday apologized to the families of murdered British politicians and denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
The damaging controversy began after police on Sunday said they were examining video footage.
One video appeared to show a band member shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”
Those groups, in Gaza and in Lebanon, are banned as terrorist organizations in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin had urged the band to clarify whether they supported the groups or not.
Video also emerged of the Belfast rap trio at a 2023 gig appearing to show one member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The family of Conservative MP David Amess, who was fatally stabbed by an Daesh group follower in 2021, called for an apology from Kneecap.
In its denial issued late on Monday, Kneecap said video footage had been “deliberately taken out of context.
“Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” it said, adding the band would never “seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever.”
“To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt,” it said, also referring to Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016 by a neo-Nazi sympathizer a week before the divisive Brexit referendum.
The war in Gaza followed an attack in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has caused a humanitarian crisis and killed at least 52,243 people, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.


UN chief issues plea over Sudan’s ‘relentless suffering’ in wake of civilian massacres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during a UN Security Council meeting.
Updated 01 May 2025
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UN chief issues plea over Sudan’s ‘relentless suffering’ in wake of civilian massacres

  • Antonio Guterres says scale of needs to address ‘catastrophe’ is ‘overwhelming’
  • Civil war, now in its third year, has created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis

NEW YORK CITY: The UN secretary-general has sounded the alarm over the “increasingly catastrophic” situation in Sudan amid deadly battles and civilian massacres in Al-Fasher, a strategic city in the country’s southwest.

It came as UN rights chief Volker Turk said that the “horror unfolding” in Sudan “knows no bounds.”

At least 542 civilians have been killed in North Darfur State, of which Al-Fasher is the capital, in the past three weeks, the UN said on Thursday, warning that the true death toll was probably “much higher.”

Darfur has become a flashpoint in the deadly war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary.

Last month, the latter withdrew from Khartoum, the country’s capital, after an offensive by government forces.

The civil war that broke out in 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement on Wednesday, condemned the “appalling” situation in Sudan and highlighted deadly attacks on two refugee camps in Al-Fasher.
The massacres a fortnight ago at the famine-stricken Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps “reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, including humanitarian workers,” he said.

It comes as the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, seeks to capture the strategic city, the last major area in the region outside its control.

More than 400,000 people are believed to have fled the Zamzam camp in April, Guterres said.
The secretary-general highlighted his “deep concern” over reports of “harassment, intimidation and arbitrary detention” of displaced people at checkpoints in the city.

The UN and its partners “are doing what they can” to urgently boost emergency aid to the Tawila area of North Darfur, he added.

Many of the displaced who fled Zamzam camp in the wake of the attacks traveled to Tawila, a town west of Al-Fashir.

Yet the scale of needs required by the displaced is “overwhelming,” Guterres said, and that “desperate people,” mostly women and children, are crossing the Sudanese border into Chad to seek safety.

The response to the “relentless suffering and destruction” in Sudan requires safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all necessary routes in the country, he said.

The UN chief called on the warring parties to protect civilians in line with their obligations under international law.

Guterres renewed his appeal for an immediate end to hostilities and urged the international community to “act with urgency” to bring an end to the violence.

Turk, in his statement on Thursday, highlighted “the ominous warning by the RSF of ‘bloodshed’ ahead of imminent battles with the Sudanese Armed Forces and their associated armed movements.”

The UN rights chief described as “extremely disturbing” reports of extrajudicial executions in Khartoum State.

“Horrific videos circulating on social media show at least 30 men in civilian clothing being rounded up and executed by armed men in RSF uniforms in Al-Salha in southern Omdurman.”

Turk said he had “personally alerted” the leadership of both the RSF and SAF in a bid to highlight the “catastrophic human rights consequences” of the civil war.

“These harrowing consequences are a daily, lived reality for millions of Sudanese. It is well past time for this conflict to stop.”