27, October 2016
Eseka train disaster: Protest held against keeping dead bodies of Muslims in mortuaries 0
The Eseka train accident almost took a religious twist following protest from some Muslims families that according to Islam, a corpse should not be kept in a mortuary. Some of the families were heard raising their voices in the morgue at the Yaounde Central Hospital.
One of the Muslim family head violently attacked some of the staffs that were on duty referring to the prohibition of Islam. However, Imam Hamed Bashir of the Biyem-Assi mosque condemned the Muslim families who created the noisy scenes at the Yaounde Central Hospital. The Imam observed that “if the Muslim victims had drowned, died in a plane crash or a natural disaster where it is almost impossible to find traces of the victims, who will they be attacking?”
Imam Bachir Hamed advised that since Cameroon is a secular state, the citizens and the government must first find a compromise with the team that handles any disaster. Imam Bachir Hamed added that in times like this, Muslim families should remain close to the government in order to dialogue and to assist in the identification of victims with dignity and to organize the funerals.
It should be noted Islamic rules stipulates that a deceased person be buried as soon as possible. If the death occurred in the night, the individual is buried before sunrise. If it’s in the morning it is done before sunset.
By Sonne Peter
27, October 2016
UK: May facing growing criticism over her comments about Brexit 0
British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing criticism over her comments about Brexit at a leaked private speech to Goldman Sachs. The premier, who has publicly made the case for a hard Brexit following a June referendum, speaks of the “benefits” of being an EU member in the hour-long session, whose audio file was leaked to the Guardian on Tuesday night, drawing harsh criticism on Wednesday.
“I think the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500 million [population] trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe,” she is heard saying. “If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms.”
The leader of the rival Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, attacked the prime minister for having failed to address her own concerns about leaving the European Union. Corbyn has previously been calling on the Tory-held government for a clear plan to exit the bloc.
The former Labour leader and leading member of the Open Britain campaign group, Ed Miliband, also reacted to the comments, saying, the leaked comments prove that May shares the concerns of all the Britons on Brexit. “If private warnings are to be matched by proper public debate, it is essential that the government is not allowed to hoard vital analysis of the impact on our economy of leaving the single market. This work is being done in government and it must now be published,” he said, asserting that May’s comments “demonstrated that the prime minister was just as worried privately as the rest of us are publicly about the economic impact of the hard, destructive Brexit her government seems set on.”
According to the Guardian, the audio file was leaked as May was “prioritizing cutting immigration over staying in the single market, while refusing to elaborate any further on her plans for taking the UK out of the EU.”
In an unpublished newspaper column written before the June 23 referendum for the Telegraph, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson, who is another Leave campaigner in the public, also defended remaining an EU member.
“This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms. The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?” he wrote, calling the EU a “boon for the world and for Europe.”
Presstv