Jocelyne Cesari is professor of religion and politics at the University of Birmingham; senior research fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; and professorial fellow at the Australian Catholic University. My hope for the new blog on Feminism and Religion is that it can become a place for real discussion with mutual respect of feminist issues in religion and spirituality. But only if we keep its purpose in mind, and always remember what it can and can’t do. Al-Othman told me: “They (JAI) used to take me into the building at 11pm and say to me: ‘you have to take the bodies out.’ I used to keep taking bodies out until 5am and put them in the bulldozer bucket. Along the way, the pilgrim-golfer must keep track of his “score” a detailed record of his accomplishments, in order to compare that against the scores of other pilgrims. Already scrambling to salvage their loss of face after the “no sarin” conclusions were drawn by the OPCW in July 2018, they are now trying to convert an inconclusive OPCW report into a definitive claim regarding chlorine use, in order to reassert their declining narrative supremacy.

“Reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place” is transformed into “OPCW confirms chlorine gas used in attack on Douma by Syrian government” by the state media revisionists across the Western media echo chambers. Muslim Nationalism and the Secular State. In the process, she puts to rest the myth that there has been a lack of modernization in the Muslim world-and shows how that myth has proven dangerous. However, there is no evidence of any of this being true. Putting aside the almost unassailable evidence that the NATO-member-state-financed White Helmets staged the now notorious hospital scenes that were universally distributed by NATO-aligned media outlets and incredulity that a yellow cylinder could be dropped from a helicopter through the roof of an apartment and then bounce from the floor and onto an undamaged bed, what is largely being ignored by the West and the OPCW is the context of the attack. A thorough examination of what happened in Douma during April 2018 requires history and context including the Adra massacre of December 2013. At this time, Adra Al Balad (Adra City) and Adra Al-Ummaliyyeh (Adra’s industrial zone) were attacked by Jaish Al Islam and Nusra Front.

In the Hindu faith, the practice of Ayurveda specifies particular ways to care for one’s health, including eating certain foods and avoiding others. Their testimony has a particular bearing upon the April 2018 alleged chemical attack. I returned to Douma on the March 9, 2019. I had previously visited a week after the alleged “chemical attack” in April 2018 and interviewed hospital staff who had already informed me that the White Helmet hospital scenes had been staged. As controversy rages over the alleged April 2018 Douma “chemical weapon attacks” that signaled the end of Jaish Al Islam’s occupation, life in the Syrian city gradually returns to peace and stability. One stall-holder described life under JAI. An official at the Syrian Information Ministry told me recently that only one mainstream media report on this heinous massacre was published at the time. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) interim report and final report have thrown the Western media community into disarray.

According to witness testimony, a bloodbath ensued that was barely reported by Western media. A retraction for the Western media’s earlier certainty that Sarin was used is above their pay grade, presumably. The future part of his life is not yet here. The future of Islam and the world’s relationship with Muslims will be decided by which of the two minority groups – the Medina Muslims and the reformers – wins the support of the meccan majority. In return, He will give us wisdom. I give You the praise and the glory in my circumstances because I know that I am exactly where You want me. After three years, Al Othman was allowed access to a “communal cell” where he was joined by one other prisoner. There, he was detained in solitary confinement for three years, beaten every day and hung by his wrists from the wall for long periods of time.