The US military has purchased the location data of millions of Muslims from around the world who use a popular prayer app and a Muslim dating app, Vice’s Motherboard reported. The report found that Muslim Pro, an app which gives precise daily prayer times and also gives users the direction to Mecca in relation to their current location, was sending user data to X-Mode.
The drug maker Pfizer announced that an early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19. Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with the German drugmaker BioNTech, released only sparse details from its clinical trial, based on the first formal review of the data by an outside panel of experts.
The United Arab Emirates has relaxed its Islamic laws by allowing the consumption of alcohol, criminalising “honour killings” among other legal reforms as it looks to boost investment and become an even more attractive tourist destination. In its legal reforms, the UAE has also scrapped punishment for allowing unmarried couples to live together. The Gulf country has also criminalised the “honour killings” custom.
The world’s largest dhow, Obaid, is soon going to set sail from Dubai for the Pakistani port of Karachi, in an Emirati man’s attempt to fulfill his late father’s dream. Majid Obaid Al-Falasi is planning to pursue his father’s dream and set sail for Karachi in two months to reach the port where his father built the first boat four decades ago.
An ‘anti-national birdie’ rose to fame after rejecting to walk on Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s arm. PM Modi was inaugurating an aviary during a two-day visit to the state of Gujarat. The park staff tried to get a Macaw to sit on the Indian PM’s arm. But the wise bird clearly refused, which left Modi a little irked.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested a man late on Friday for crashing his car into the outer-perimeter gate of the Grand Mosque in Makkah. The driver – a Saudi national – was found in an unnatural state and was immediately detained and will be referred to the public prosecution.
Saudi Arabia’s new banknote to mark the upcoming G20 summit has sparked an outage in India as it shows Kashmir with new borders as a separate state. The currency note in question was issued on October 24 by Saudi Arabia to celebrate the kingdom’s leadership of the Group of Twenty (G20) and the back side of the note is a world map.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist serving an 86 -years sentence in the United States, has finally signed a mercy petition. The news was revealed by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan to the senate. Earlier Dr. Siddiqui had reservations over filing the mercy petition, but now the petition was being sent to US president through jail authorities.
France at risk of losing over $100B foreign trade as calls for boycott of French goods gain traction
Foreign trade of more than $100 billion that France has with predominantly Muslim countries is at stake as calls for a consumer boycott of that nation’s goods increased due to President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial claims about Islam sparked huge controversy across multiple regions. Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the first to appeal to citizens to shun French products over Macron’s anti-Islam agenda.
Several Muslims trade associations globally have announced a boycott of French products, in response to recent comments made by President Emmanuel Macron on Islam. Earlier this month, Macron pledged to fight “Islamist separatism”, which he said was threatening to take control in some Muslim communities around France.