The Greene County Democrat

Tag: Islam

  • Newswire: Peace talks be dammed; the U.S. and Israel invade Iran, and casualties mount

    Newswire: Peace talks be dammed; the U.S. and Israel invade Iran, and casualties mount

    by Frederick H. Lowe, BlackmansStreet.Today

    President Donald Trump announced on his social media that a joint invasion between the U.S. and Israel resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

    In addition, three U.S. soldiers were also killed, and five others were seriously injured, according to U.S. Central Command during “Operation Epic Fury,” the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran. Trump said more American deaths are expected. As of March 3rd, the death toll of U.S. Service personnel was 6, with many injured.

    At least 165 people were killed when a strike hit an all-girls school in Minab, which is in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province. A local official said among the dead were students, parents, and school staff.

    Trump also urged the Iranian people to “seize control of your destiny” by rising against the Islamic leadership that has ruled the nation since 1979.

    The attack on Iran by the U.S. and Israel was launched in the middle of diplomatic efforts to avert conflict. Congress was not consulted on the invasion, which has been cast as a war.

    President Trump does not have the power to declare war on another country. The Founding Fathers and the Constitution gave war authority and power to Congress, and Congress alone, said the ACLU.

    President Trump violated the Constitution when he announced that the U.S. was going to war and launched an open-ended bombing campaign against Iran, a country with nearly 100 million people, without ever going to Congress for authorization.

    President Trump ordered U.S. military strikes against Iran without prior congressional authorization, and key members of the U.S. Congress say they were not given intelligence briefings before the operation began.

    Several lawmakers strongly criticized the decision as a violation of constitutional and statutory war powers.

    The attack on Iran reportedly targeted military sites as well as the leadership of the Iranian regime.

    Explosions were heard in Israel and Gulf countries after Iran launched a wave of drones and missiles in a strong response to being attacked.

    Trump announced the invasion in an eight-minute speech after the first bombs had fallen.

    Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation and warned that a failure to do so risks a wider regional conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.

    Mr. Guterres declared that the military escalation in the region undermines international peace and security, and recalled that all Member States must “respect their obligations under international law, including the Charter of the United Nations,” which prohibits “the threat of the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

    The attack on Iran reportedly targeted military sites as well as the leadership of the Iranian regime.

  • Newswire : Stolen, returned, remembered: 19 Black Americans reburied in New Orleans

    African drummers participate in funeral ceremony for the remains of 19 Black Americans returned by Germany university and  New Orleans Second Line

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    More than 150 years after their crania were taken from New Orleans and shipped to Germany for racist scientific experiments, 19 Black Americans were finally laid to rest. In a moving display of remembrance and restoration, Dillard University, the City of New Orleans, and University Medical Center held a traditional jazz funeral and memorial service to honor the 13 men, four women, and two unidentified individuals whose remains were stolen in the 1870s by a local physician and sent overseas.

    The ceremony, held on May 31, included student pallbearers, an interfaith service, and a burial at the Katrina Memorial. “This was not just an act of remembrance,” Dr. Eva Baham, chair of the Repatriation Committee and former Dillard professor, said during an appearance on Black Press USA’s Let It Be Known News morning show. “It was a restoration of humanity.”

    Each person was memorialized in a handcrafted funeral vessel etched with their name, age, and date of death. The vessels featured Adinkra symbols representing universal spirituality and were carried by students from universities in the New Orleans area. The service involved multiple faiths—including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, SGI Buddhism, the Baha’i tradition, and West African rituals—to honor the unknown spiritual identities of the deceased. “This was deeply cultural and deeply intentional,” Baham said. “We weren’t going to bring them home just to store them away. They were brought back with reverence and sealed into the earth.”
    The repatriation followed a 2023 outreach by the University of Leipzig, where the crania had been housed for over a century. Researchers there acknowledged the harm done and initiated the return. The remains, all traced to individuals who died at Charity Hospital in 1871 and 1872, were taken during a time when pseudoscience like phrenology falsely claimed to measure intelligence and inferiority by skull shape—an ideology used to justify slavery and racial hierarchy.
    “This is how we begin to heal from the atrocities committed in the name of science,” Baham said. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Dillard University President Monique Guillory, and community leaders led the ceremony. The final resting place, the Katrina Memorial, sits near the historic grounds where Charity Hospital once buried the poor and marginalized. “We may never know where their full bodies are,” Baham noted. “But perhaps—just perhaps—we brought them back together in spirit.”