Tag Archive for Cuba

Cuba Balks at Erdogan’s Proposal to Build Country’s 1st Mosque

Communist government unhesitatingly says ‘no thanks’ to Turkish leader’s offer during a speech in which he claimed ‘Muslims discovered the Americas centuries before Columbus.’

By Ari Soffer

 

Cuba has reportedly rejected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s offer to build the country’s first mosque.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – AFP/File

Erdoğan’s offer came during a speech in Istanbul to Muslim leaders from Latin America, in which he made the bizarre claim that Muslims discovered the Americas nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus.

“Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178,” Erdoğan said at the televised address.

“Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast,” he added, and said that Ankara was even prepared to build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer. Continue Reading »

Jewish American Jailed in Cuba Ends 8-Day Hunger Strike

Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor convicted and imprisoned in Cuba, ends his hunger strike on the 8th day after a phone conversation with his mother.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

U.S. contractor Alan Gross ended an eight-day hunger strike Friday to press for his release from prison in Cuba, AFP reported.

U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross and his wife Judy – Reuters

Gross moved to end his protest after a telephone conversation with his mother, who will turn 92 years old on Tuesday, according to defense attorney Scott Gilbert.

“My protest fast is suspended as of today,” Gross said in a statement dictated from his Havana prison to Gilbert, according to AFP. Continue Reading »

PA Mahmoud Abbas asks Cuba to release American Jew, Alan Gross from prison.

An unexpected source requested Cuba to release Alan Gross, a Jewish prisoner jailed in Cuba. In early March, President Mahmoud Abbas, went to the Cuban leader Raul Castro, with the unusual request.

By: John Roberts

 

According to a senior Israeli negotiator who established the ties, Abbas wanted Castro to free Alan Gross, an American Jew imprisoned in Havana since late 2009.

The broker, peace activist Gershon Baskin, says Gross “is being held hostage.” The view is shared by much of the U.S. Jewish community and the State Department, which has no direct ties to Cuba. Palestine, however, has an excellent relationship with the island nation, so Baskin contacted Abbas. Continue Reading »