An Indian hospital is demanding Muslim patients and their attendants get coronavirus clearance certificates before being admitted for treatment as cases of religious discrimination and bigotry against the community rise during the global pandemic.
India has seen a growing number of cases in which Muslims are being discriminated against and attacked. The violence stems from a widespread but unfounded belief among the majority Hindu population that the minority Muslim community is “deliberately” spreading the virus to derail the country’s efforts to stem the infection.
Valentis Cancer hospital in the northern city of Meerut issued a newspaper advertisement last Thursday announcing it will not admit Muslim patients unless they produce medical certificates confirming they are free of the virus.
“Hospital administration requests new Muslim patients to get themselves and their attendants checked and only come to the hospital for treatment when their report comes back negative,” read the advertisement in a widely circulated Hindi newspaper of the northern Uttar Pradesh state.
The 11-point notice argued that the measure was needed to ensure the safety and security of staff, following allegations that Muslims were hiding symptoms of the infectious disease and in some cases attacking healthcare providers.
Days earlier, the government-run Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in western Gujarat state was accused of segregating coronavirus patients on the basis of their religion.
But in a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office said: “Covid-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood."
Officials and several right-wing Hindu television news channels have vociferously campaigned against Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim group accused of holding a massive gathering in Delhi in defiance of government orders.
A hate campaign on mainstream and social media that likened Muslims to "human bombs" and accused them of "corona jihad" has led to physical attacks on the community and calls for a social and economic boycott in India as it recovers from deadly religious riots that pitted the two groups against each other and killed more than 50 people – most of them Muslims – in February.
Videos purportedly showing Muslim vegetable vendors licking their produce or injecting food with saliva have been circulated on social media along with calls to stop doing business with the community. Fact-checking websites confirmed that many of the spitting videos are either old or from other countries.
Several Muslim vendors have been beaten by Hindu residents or banned from entering localities as local gangs encourage Hindu vendors to attach saffron-coloured flags to pushcarts to identity themselves as non-Muslims.
"Because of Tablighi Jamaat, some people were not coming out… our Muslim brothers and sisters are being misguided, they are not coming forward and so this virus has spread in certain communities," Dr Vijay Gupta, an oncologist and spokesman for the private cancer hospital, told The National.
Thousands of Jamaat members attended a religious congregation at their headquarters in mid-March despite health warnings and social distancing protocols, making it one of the single biggest sources of infection cases in the country, the government claimed.
Officials say more than 4,200 attendees and their contacts are among the country’s 17,265 positive cases and several of the attendees have died. India's coronavirus death toll stood at 559 on Monday, with 17,615 confirmed cases of the disease.
Police charged the chief cleric of Tablighi Jamaat with manslaughter and many members were arrested across the country on charges of hiding their medical and travel history from the congregation.
Incidents of health workers being attacked or pelted with stones and spat at by Muslims have also been reported in the country, where tensions between Hindus and Muslims have been rising since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
Critics have accused Mr Modi and his Hindu nationalist government of pursing a majority-centric policy and marginalising the 200 million Muslim community.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom condemned the segregation of the patients in a Ahmedabad hospital, which is in Mr Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
Hindu and Muslim coronavirus patients were reportedly assigned to separate hospital wards, but the government has denied any discrimination in a statement following the news report.
Hospital sources said the patients were placed in wards according to their place of residence, which could naturally segregate patients based on their faith in a country where communities live in distinct localities.
"There is no religious segregation of patients. We are admitting people based on their location," Dr Devang Raval, head of community medicine at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told The National.
Commentators say the trend shows that Hindu majoritarianism has gripped the country during the pandemic but said they are more worried that health professionals are denying medical care to Muslims in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
“Unethical is a small word, it is criminal… Majoritarianism has become a trend and it is dangerous for the social fabric of the country,” said Dr Shah Alam Khan, professor of Orthopaedics in New Delhi and a commentator on Muslim affairs.
“The community has its own intrinsic problems like poverty and illiteracy there is no doubt, but if the community is not behaving well, do you want to kill the community? Discriminate against it, annihilate it? No.”
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Origin
Dan Brown
Doubleday
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Company%C2%A0profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
57%20Seconds
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Barbie
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One-off T20 International: UAE v Australia
When: Monday, October 22, 2pm start
Where: Abu Dhabi Cricket, Oval 1
Tickets: Admission is free
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Darcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Peter Siddle
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
SQUAD
Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammed Barghash, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Hassan Al Mahrami, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Yousef Jaber, Saeed Ahmed, Majed Sorour, Majed Hassan, Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Khalil Al Hammadi, Fabio De Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Caio Canedo, Muhammed Jumah, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
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Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
((Disclaimer))
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Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
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MATCH INFO
Fixture: Thailand v UAE, Tuesday, 4pm (UAE)
TV: Abu Dhabi Sports
Our House, Louise Candlish,
Simon & Schuster
