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Pope visits Istanbul’s Blue Mosque for meeting with Turkish religious leaders
Pope Leo XIV visited Istanbul’s iconic Blue Mosque on Saturday but didn’t stop to pray, as he opened an intense day of meetings and liturgies with Turkey’s Christian leaders, where he again emphasized the need for Christians to be united.
Leo took his shoes off and, in his white socks, toured the 17th-century mosque, looking up at its soaring tiled domes and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns as an imam pointed them out to him.
The Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief moment of silent prayer” in the mosque, but he didn’t. An imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he had invited Leo to pray, since the mosque was “Allah’s house,” but the pope declined.
Later, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “The pope experienced his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”
The Vatican then sent out a corrected version of its bulletin about the trip, removing reference to the planned “brief moment of silent prayer,” without further explanation.
Leo, history’s first American pope, was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, as it is officially known, in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority.
Domenico Stinellis / AP
Papal visits to Blue Mosque often raise questions
Other visits have always raised questions about whether the pope would pray in the Muslim house of worship, or at the very least pause to gather thoughts in a meditative silence.
When Pope Benedict XVI visited Turkey in 2006, tensions were high because Benedict had offended many in the Muslim world a few months earlier with a speech in Regensburg, Germany that was widely interpreted as linking Islam and violence.
The Vatican added a visit to the Blue Mosque at the last minute in a bid to reach out to Muslims, and Benedict was warmly welcomed. He observed a moment of silent prayer, head bowed, as the imam prayed next to him, facing east.
AP Photo/Salih Zeki Fazlioglu
Benedict later thanked him “for this moment of prayer” for what was only the second time a pope had visited a mosque, after St. John Paul II visited one briefly in Syria in 2001.
There were no doubts in 2014 when Pope Francis visited the Blue Mosque: He stood for two minutes of silent prayer facing east, his head bowed, eyes closed and hands clasped in front of him. The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, told the pope afterwards, “May God accept it.”
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images
Speaking to reporters after the visit, the imam Tunca said he had told the Leo: “It’s not my house, not your house, (it’s the) house of Allah,” he said. He said he told the pope: “‘If you want, you can worship here,’ I said. But he said, ‘That’s OK.’”
“He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very pleased,” he said.
There was also another change to the official program, after the Vatican said the head of Turkey’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate would accompany Leo at the mosque. He didn’t come and a spokesman from the Diyanet said he wasn’t supposed to, since he had welcomed Leo in Ankara.
Hagia Sophia left off itinerary
Past popes have also visited the nearby Hagia Sophia landmark, once one of the most important historic cathedrals in Christianity and a United Nations-designated world heritage site.
But Leo left that visit off his itinerary on his first trip as pope. In July 2020, Turkey converted Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque, a move that drew widespread international criticism, including from the Vatican.
After the mosque visit, Leo held a private meeting with Turkey’s Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem. In the afternoon, he was expected to pray with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, at the patriarchal church of Saint George.
There, they were to sign a joint statement. The Vatican said in his remarks to the patriarchs gathered, Leo reminded them “that division among Christians is an obstacle to their witness.”
Emrah Gurel / AP
He pointed to the next Holy Year to be celebrated by Christians, in 2033 on the anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion, and invited them to go to Jerusalem on “a journey that leads to full unity.”
Leo was ending the day with a Catholic Mass in Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena for the country’s Catholic community, who number 33,000 in a country of more than 85 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.
The Airbus software update doesn’t spare pope
While Leo was focusing on bolstering relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims, trip organizers were dealing with more mundane issues.
Leo’s ITA Airways Airbus A320neo charter was among those caught up in the worldwide Airbus software update, ordered by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. The order came after an analysis found the computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in the altitude of a JetBlue plane last month.
The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said Saturday that ITA was working on the issue. He said the necessary component to update the aircraft was on its way to Istanbul along with the technician who would install it.
Leo is scheduled to fly from Istanbul to Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday afternoon for the second leg of his inaugural trip as pope.
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Pope Leo visits iconic Blue Mosque on second day of his trip to Turkey
Pope Leo XIV started the second day of his trip to Turkey with a visit to Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Saturday.
Leo was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority.
This is the pope’s first foreign trip. He will also visit Lebanon.
Leo, history’s first American pope, is expected to speak in broader terms about peace in the Middle East
Spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement after questions arose about whether Leo prayed in the mosque or not, describing the mosque visit as a silent one to contemplate.
Bruni said: “The pope experienced his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”
Past papal visits to the mosque have always raised questions about whether the popes would pray in the Muslim house of worship or merely visit as a sign of respect to Muslims.
Asgin Tunca said he had invited Leo to pray, but the pope declined.
Speaking to reporters after the visit, Tunca said he had told the pope that the mosque was “Allah’s house.”
“It’s not my house, not your house, (it’s the) house of Allah,” he said. He said he told Leo: “’If you want, you can worship here,’ I said. But he said, ‘That’s OK.’”
“He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very pleased,” he said.
Leo visited the iconic mosque in Istanbul, where the head of Turkey’s Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed him the structure’s soaring blue-tiled dome.
The Vatican said Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer.”
Leo was following in the footsteps of his recent predecessors, who all made high-profile visits to the mosque in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim majority.
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After Meeting Pope, Erdogan Praises His ‘Astute Stance’ on Palestinian Issue
ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised Pope Leo’s stance on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday, and said he hoped his first overseas visit as Catholic leader will benefit humanity at a time of tension and uncertainty.
“We commend (Pope Leo’s) astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan said in an address to the Pope and political and religious leaders at the presidential library in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial,” Erdogan said.
Pope Leo’s calls for peace and diplomacy regarding the war in Ukraine are also very meaningful, Erdogan said.
In September, Leo met at the Vatican with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and raised the “tragic situation” in Gaza with him.
Turkey has emerged as among the harshest critics of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in its conflict there with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Daren Butler)
Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.
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Pope Leo XIV opens first foreign trip with visit to Turkey
ANKARA — Pope Leo XIV arrived in Turkey on Thursday on his first foreign trip, fulfilling Pope Francis’ plans to mark an important Orthodox anniversary and bring a message of peace to the region at a crucial time in efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions.
Leo’s charter plane landed at Ankara’s international airport.
Later, he had a meeting planned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a speech to the country’s diplomatic corps. He’ll then move late Thursday on to Istanbul for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his trip.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is heading to Turkey on Thursday on his first foreign trip, fulfilling the late Pope Francis’ plans to mark an important Orthodox anniversary and bring a message of peace to the region at a crucial time for efforts to end the war in Ukraine and ease Mideast tensions.
Leo is arriving first in Ankara, where he has a meeting planned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a speech to the country’s diplomatic corps. He’ll then move on to Istanbul for three days of ecumenical and interfaith meetings that will be followed by the Lebanese leg of his trip.
Leo’s visit comes as Turkey, a country of more than 85 million people of predominantly Sunni Muslims, has cast itself as a key intermediary in peace negotiations for the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Ankara has hosted rounds of low-level talks between Russia and Ukraine and has offered to take part in the stabilization force in Gaza to help uphold the fragile ceasefire, engagements Leo may applaud in his arrival speech.
Turkey’s growing military weight, as NATO’s largest army after the U.S., has been drawing Western leaders closer to Erdogan even as critics warn of his crackdown on the country’s main opposition party.
Though support for Palestinians and an end to the war in Ukraine is widespread in Turkey, for Turks who face an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, owing to market turmoil induced by shake-ups in domestic politics, international politics is a secondary concern.
That could explain why Leo’s visit has largely escaped the attention of many in Turkey, at least outside the country’s small Christian community.
“I didn’t know he was coming. He is welcome,” said Sukran Celebi. “It would be good if he called for peace in the world, but I don’t think it will change anything.”
Some said they thought the visit by history’s first American pope was about advancing the interests of the United States, or perhaps to press for the reopening of a Greek Orthodox religious seminary that has become a focal point in the push for religious freedoms in Turkey.
“If the pope is visiting, that means America wants something from Turkey,” said Metin Erdem, a musical instruments shop owner in the touristic Galata district of Istanbul.
The main impetus for Leo to travel to Turkey is to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.
Leo will pray with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, at the site of the 325 AD gathering, today’s Iznik in northwestern Turkey, and sign a joint declaration in a visible sign of Christian unity.
Eastern and Western churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.
While the visit is timed for the important Catholic-Orthodox anniversary, it will also allow Leo to reinforce the church’s relations with Muslims. Leo is due to visit the Blue Mosque and preside over an interfaith meeting in Istanbul.
Asgın Tunca, a Blue Mosque imam who will be receiving the pope, said the visit would help advance Christian-Muslim ties and dispel popular prejudices about Islam.
“We want to reflect that image by showing the beauty of our religion through our hospitality — that is God’s command,” Tunca said.
Since coming to power in 2002, Erdogan’s government has enacted reforms to improve the rights of religious groups, including opening places of worship and returning property that were confiscated.
Still, some Christian groups face legal and bureaucratic problems when trying to register churches, according to a U.S. State Department report on religious freedoms.
The Catholic Church, which counts around 33,000 members in Turkey, has no formal legal recognition in the country “and this is the source of many problems,” said the Rev. Paolo Pugliese, superior of the Capuchin Catholic friars in Turkey.
“But the Catholic Church enjoys a rather notable importance because we have an international profile … and we have the pope holding our backs,” he said.
One of the more delicate moments of Leo’s visit will come Sunday, when he visits the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul. The cathedral has hosted all popes who have visited Turkey since Paul VI, with the exception of Francis who visited Turkey in 2014 when its patriarch was sick.
Francis visited him at the hospital, and a few months later he greatly angered Turkey in 2015 when he declared that the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was “the first genocide of the 20th century.” Turkey, which has long denied a genocide took place, recalled its ambassador to the Holy See in protest.
Leo has tended to be far more prudent than Francis in his public comments, and using such terms on Turkish soil would spark a diplomatic incident. But the Vatican is also navigating a difficult moment in its ties with Armenia, after its interfaith overtures to Azerbaijan have been criticized.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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Muslim groups, other leaders demand Abbott rescind CAIR’s ‘terrorist’ designation: ‘Defamatory’
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A group of Muslim and interfaith leaders are urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to reverse his proclamation designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Texas’s designation is state-level only. It does not carry the legal force of a federal Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) listing, which only the U.S. State Department can issue. Abbott’s proclamation, therefore, does not trigger federal terrorism penalties or authorities.
The leaders of several Muslim groups held a news conference on Tuesday to denounce the governor’s proclamation, which also labeled CAIR as a “a transnational criminal organization.”
The groups called on the governor to retract his labeling of the civil rights group, calling it defamatory, destructive and dangerous, according to Fox 4.
MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP CAIR SUES TEXAS OVER ABBOTT’S ‘TERRORIST’ DESIGNATION
Muslim and interfaith leaders are urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to reverse his proclamation designating CAIR as a terrorist organization. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
This comes after CAIR filed a lawsuit against Texas over the governor’s declaration, arguing that it violates both the U.S. Constitution and state law.
CAIR argues the order violates its First Amendment rights and due-process protections, and that Texas overstepped its authority because terrorism designations fall under federal, not state, jurisdiction.
“The governor is attempting to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because he disagrees with its protected First Amendment rights to criticize a foreign state that is conducting genocide. This is not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law,” Mustaffa Carroll, the executive director for CAIR Dallas Fort Worth, said at the news conference on Tuesday.
“You know that CAIR has condemned Hamas attacks. You know that CAIR has spent 31 years fighting terrorism and bigotry. You know that the terrorism boogeyman you invoke is nothing more than a tired, formulated playbook to stoke fear of Muslims,” Marium Uddin of the Muslim Legal Defense Fund said on Tuesday.
CAIR filed a lawsuit against Texas over the governor’s declaration, arguing that it violates both the U.S. Constitution and state law. (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Leaders from other faiths, including Jewish voices, also spoke out against Abbott’s label.
“We stand steadfast in solidarity with our comrades in CAIR and in unwavering support in their lawsuit against Abbott’s false and unconstitutional proclamation,” Jewish Voice for Peace’s Deborah Armintor said.
State Rep. Terry Meza, a Democrat, added that the governor’s words “are not just wrong, they’re dangerous. Making comments like this is dangerous to our Muslim community.”
TEXAS GOV ABBOTT DECLARES CAIR, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS TERRORIST GROUPS, PREVENTING LAND PURCHASES
The Muslim groups called on the governor to retract his labeling of CAIR, calling it defamatory, destructive and dangerous. (Antranik Tavitian/Reuters)
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The lawsuit is ongoing, and it remains unclear whether a court will uphold Abbott’s order or strike it down as exceeding state authority.
The governor’s decree bars CAIR from buying land in the Lone Star State under a new statute aimed at curbing purchases tied to “foreign adversaries.”
Abbott’s order also extended the “terrorist” label to the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the federal government never classifying either group that way.
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Opinion | Trump Takes On the Muslim Brotherhood
Sanctions can strike the often-radical Islamist network a piece at a time.
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Australian Senator Pauline Hanson banned from parliament for 7 days for wearing burqa to demand they be banned
An Australian senator who has long campaigned for the Islamic women’s garment known as the burqa to be banned in the country has been suspended from parliament for a week for her protest on Monday in which she wore the full body covering into the chamber and refused to remove it.
Pauline Hanson of the anti-immigration One Nation party was accused of racism by fellow lawmakers when she walked into the parliament wearing a burqa on Monday. Hanson called the move — which she has now done twice in a decade — a protest against her colleagues’ refusal to allow her to introduce a bill that would ban burqas and other face coverings in public.
Once inside, Hanson refused to remove the burqa, leading the Senate to be suspended for the remainder of that day.
The protest was met by outrage by some of her fellow senators, with Australian Greens leader Larissa Waters calling it a “middle finger to people of faith.”
“It is extremely racist and unsafe,” Waters added.
AAP/Mick Tsikas/REUTERS
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 55 to five on a motion that condemned Hanson’s actions as being “intended to vilify and mock people on the basis of their religion” and calling them “disrespectful to Muslim Australians.”
Following the motion, Hanson was barred for seven consecutive Senate sitting days, which will mean her suspension will continue when parliament comes back into session in February of next year after its holiday break.
Speaking to Sky News Australia, Hanson rejected accusations that her protest had vilified or mocked Muslims.
“At the end of the day this is Australia. It is not the Australian cultural way of life. I just want equality for all Australians and I don’t want to see the suppression or oppression of women in this country,” she told the news channel.
Hanson previously wore a burqa to Parliament in 2017, but this week was the first time she was punished for it. When she did it in 2017, she said it was to highlight what she called security issues posed by the garment, which she linked to terrorism.
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Australian far-right Senator Pauline Hanson slammed for wearing burqa to parliament to demand ban
Sydney — A far-right Australian politician sparked outrage Monday after donning a burqa at the country’s parliament, in a display that other lawmakers condemned as racist, unsafe and disrespectful.
Pauline Hanson of the anti-immigration One Nation party was seeking to introduce a bill in the Senate that would ban full face coverings in Australia — a policy she has campaigned on for decades.
Just minutes after other lawmakers blocked her from introducing that bill, she returned wearing a black burqa and sat down.
Her display was meet by outrage from her fellow senators.
Australian Greens leader in the Senate Larissa Waters said the move was “the middle finger to people of faith.”
“It is extremely racist and unsafe,” Waters added.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who also serves as leader of the government in the Senate, condemned it as “disrespectful.”
AAP/Mick Tsikas/REUTERS
“All of us in this place have a great privilege in coming into this chamber,” Wong said. “We represent in our states, people of every faith, of every faith, of all backgrounds. And we should do so decently.”
Hanson refused to remove the burqa and the Senate was suspended.
It is the second time she has donned the Muslim clothing in parliament.
In 2017, she wore a full burqa in the Senate to highlight what she said were the security issues the garment posed, linking it to terror.
In a statement posted later Monday on a Facebook account that she endorses, Hanson called her actions a protest against the Senate rejecting her proposed bill.
“So if the Parliament won’t ban it, I will display this oppressive, radical, non-religious head garb that risk our national security and the ill-treatment of women on the floor of our parliament so that every Australian knows what’s at stake,” Hanson wrote. “If they don’t want me wearing it — ban the burqa.”
AAP/Mick Tsikas/REUTERS
Hanson has previously described Islam as “a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own,” and she claimed in a 2016 speech that Australia was being “swamped by Muslims.”
Her party has seen its support among the public increase as the country’s main conservative opposition remain beset by infighting. A poll this month reported by The Australian Financial Review showed the One Nation party with a still modest, but record 18% support.
That comes as a government envoy said in September that Australia had failed to tackle persistent and intensifying Islamophobia.
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Optimism Ahead of Pope’s Visit to Turkey for Reopening of Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox Seminary
HEYBELIADA, Turkey (AP) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to embark on his first trip abroad with a visit to Turkey to mark a key event that shaped the foundations of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, there has been a surge of renewed optimism over the possible reopening of a Greek Orthodox religious seminary that has been closed since 1971.
The Halki Theological School has become a symbol of Orthodox heritage and a focal point in the push for religious freedoms in Turkey.
Located on Heybeliada Island, off the coast of Istanbul, the seminary once trained generations of Greek Orthodox patriarchs and clergy. They include Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
Turkey closed the school under laws restricting private higher education, and despite repeated appeals from international religious leaders and human rights advocates — as well as subsequent legal changes that allowed private universities to flourish — it has remained shut ever since.
Momentum for reopening it appeared to grow after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in September. Erdogan said Turkey would “do our part” regarding its reopening. Erdogan had previously linked the move to reciprocal measures from Greece to improve the rights of Muslims there.
On school, which was founded in 1844, stands surrounded by scaffolding as renovation work continues. Inside, one floor that serves as the clergy quarters and two classrooms have already been completed, standing ready to welcome students once the seminary reopens.
‘Political and diplomatic anachronism’
During his visit to Turkey, starting on Nov. 27, Leo is scheduled to meet Erdogan and join Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, in a pilgrimage honoring Christianity’s theological roots. He will then travel to Lebanon for the second leg of his trip.
Turkey is now “ready to make the big step forward for the benefit of Turkey, for the benefit of the minorities and for the benefit of religious and minority rights in this country” by reopening the seminary, Archbishop Elpidophoros, head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, told The Associated Press in a video interview from his base in New York.
A committee of representatives from the Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Turkish government has begun discussions on the reopening, Elpidophoros said, expressing optimism that the school could welcome students again by the start of the next academic year.
“Keeping this school closed after more than 50 years is a political and diplomatic anachronism that doesn’t help our country,” said the Istanbul-born archbishop. “We have so many private universities and private schools in Turkey, so keeping only Halki closed doesn’t help Turkey, doesn’t help anyone.”
A test of religious freedom
The fate of the seminary has long been viewed as a test of predominantly Muslim Turkey’s treatment of religious minorities, including the country’s Christian population, estimated at 200,000 to 370,000 out of nearly 86 million.
Since coming to power in 2002, Erdogan’s government has enacted reforms to improve the rights of religious groups, including opening places of worship and returning some property that was confiscated — but problems linger.
Although the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, only Armenians, Greeks and Jews — non-Muslim minorities were recognized under a 1923 peace treaty that established modern Turkey’s borders — are allowed to operate places of worship and schools. Other Christian groups lack formal recognition and often face obstacles in registering churches or religious associations.
There have been isolated incidents of violence, including a 2024 attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul, where a worshipper was killed during Mass. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Turkey denied recent reports that claimed it had deported foreign nationals belonging to Protestant groups as national security threats. Turkey blamed what it said was “a deliberate disinformation campaign” against the country for the claims.
In July 2020, Turkey converted Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia — once of one of the most important historic cathedrals in Christianity and a United Nations-designated world heritage site — from a museum back into a mosque, a move that drew widespread international criticism. Although popes have visited Hagia Sophia in the past, the important landmark was left out of Leo’s itinerary.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, based in Istanbul, is internationally recognized as the “first among equals” in the Orthodox Christian world. Turkey however, does not recognize its ecumenical status, insisting that under the 1923 treaty, the patriarch is only head of the country’s ever-dwindling Greek Orthodox minority. The Patriarchate dates from the Orthodox Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when the Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, in 1453.
‘A school with this spirit’
At the shuttered seminary, Agnes Kaltsogianni, a visitor from Greece, said the seminary was important for both Greece and Turkey and its reopening could be a basis for improved ties between the two longtime rival countries.
“There should be a gradual improvement between the two countries on all levels, and this (place) can be a starting point for major cultural development and affinity,” said the 48-year-old English teacher.
Elpidophoros, 57, was too young to make it to Halki and was forced to study to join the clergy in a Greek seminary. However, he served as abbot of the Halki monastery for eight years before his appointment as archbishop of America.
“The Theological School of Halki is in my heart,” he said.
Asked about the significance of the school for the Greek Orthodox community, Elpidophoros said Halki represents a “spirit” that is open to new ideas, dialogue and coexistence, while rejecting nationalist and religious prejudice, and hate speech.
“The entire world needs a school with this spirit,” he said.
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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US signals broader efforts to protect Nigeria’s Christians following Trump’s military threat
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration is promoting efforts to work with Nigeria’s government to counter violence against Christians, signaling a broader strategy since he ordered preparations for possible military action and warned that the United States could go in “guns-a-blazing” to wipe out Islamic militants.
A State Department official said this past week that plans involve much more than just the potential use of military force, describing an expansive approach that includes diplomatic tools, such as potential sanctions, but also assistance programs and intelligence sharing with the Nigerian government.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also met with Nigeria’s national security adviser to discuss ways to stop the violence, posting photos on social media of the two of them shaking hands and smiling. It contrasted with Trump’s threats this month to stop all assistance to Nigeria if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
The efforts may support Trump’s pledge to avoid more involvement in foreign conflicts and come as the U.S. security footprint has diminished in Africa, where military partnerships have either been scaled down or canceled. American forces likely would have to be drawn from other parts of the world for any military intervention in Nigeria.
Still, the Republican president has kept up the pressure as Nigeria faced a series of attacks on schools and churches in violence that experts and residents say targets both Christians and Muslims.
“I’m really angry about it,” the president said Friday when asked about the new violence on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News Radio. He alleged that Nigeria’s government has “done nothing” and said “what’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.”
The Nigerian government has rejected his claims.
Following his meeting Thursday with Nigerian national security adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Hegseth on Friday posted on social media that the Pentagon is “working aggressively with Nigeria to end the persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.”
“Hegseth emphasized the need for Nigeria to demonstrate commitment and take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians and conveyed the Department’s desire to work by, with, and through Nigeria to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Jonathan Pratt, who leads the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, told lawmakers Thursday that “possible Department of War engagement” is part of the larger plan, while the issue has been discussed by the National Security Council, an arm of the White House that advises the president on national security and foreign policy.
But Pratt described a wide-ranging approach at a congressional hearing about Trump’s recent designation of Nigeria as “a country of particular concern” over religious freedom, which opens the door for sanctions.
“This would span from security to policing to economic,” he said. “We want to look at all of these tools and have a comprehensive strategy to get the best result possible.”
The violence in Nigeria is far more complex than Trump has portrayed, with militant Islamist groups like Boko Haram killing both Christians and Muslims. At the same time, mainly Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers have been fighting over land and water. Armed bandits who are motivated more by money than religion also are carrying out abductions for ransom, with schools being a popular target.
In two mass abductions at schools this past week, students were kidnapped from a Catholic school Friday and others taken days earlier from a school in a Muslim-majority town. In a separate attack, gunmen killed two people at a church and abducted several worshippers.
The situation has drawn increasing global attention. Rapper Nicki Minaj spoke at a U.N. event organized by the U.S., saying “no group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion.”
If the Trump administration did decide to organize an intervention, the departure of U.S. forces from neighboring Niger and their forced eviction from a French base near Chad’s capital last year have left fewer resources in the region.
Options include mobilizing resources from far-flung Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and from smaller, temporary hubs known as cooperative security locations. U.S. forces are operating in those places for specific missions, in conjunction with countries such as Ghana and Senegal, and likely aren’t big enough for an operation in Nigeria.
The region also has become a diplomatic black hole following a series of coups that rocked West Africa, leading military juntas to push out former Western partners. In Mali, senior American officials are now trying to reengage the junta.
Even if the U.S. military redirects forces and assets to strike inside Nigeria, some experts question how effective military action would be.
Judd Devermont, a senior adviser of the Africa program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if Trump orders a few performative airstrikes, they would likely fail to degrade the Islamic militants who have been killing Christians and Muslims alike.
“Nigeria’s struggles with insecurity are decades in the making,” said Devermont, who was senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council under Democratic President Joe Biden. “It will not be reversed overnight by an influx of U.S. resources.”
Addressing the violence would require programs such as economic and interfaith partnerships as well as more robust policing, Devermont said, adding that U.S. involvement would require Nigeria’s cooperation.
“This is not a policy of neglect by the Nigerian government — it’s a problem of capacity,” Devermont said. “The federal government does not want to see its citizens being killed by Boko Haram and doesn’t want to see sectarian violence spiral out the way it has.”
The Nigerian government rejected unilateral military intervention but said it welcomes help fighting armed groups.
Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic State of West Africa Province, have been waging a devastating Islamist insurgency in the northeastern region and the Lake Chad region, Africa’s largest basin. Militants often crisscross the lake on fast-moving boats, spilling the crisis into border countries like Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
U.S. intervention without coordinating with the Nigerian government would carry enormous danger.
“The consequences are that if the U.S deploys troops on the ground without understanding the context they are in, it poses risks to the troops,” said Malik Samuel, a security researcher at Good Governance Africa.
Nigeria’s own aerial assaults on armed groups have routinely resulted in accidental airstrikes that have killed civilians.
To get targeting right, the governments need a clear picture of the overlapping causes of farmer-herder conflict and banditry in border areas. Misreading the situation could send violence spilling over into neighboring countries, Samuel added.
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Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria, and Metz from Rabat, Morocco.
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Muslim civil rights group CAIR sues Texas over Abbott’s ‘terrorist’ designation
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A prominent Muslim advocacy organization is taking Texas to court, arguing that Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to brand it a “foreign terrorist organization” tramples both the U.S. Constitution and state law.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to overturn Abbott’s proclamation issued earlier in the week.
“This attempt to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views is not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law,” the group said in its lawsuit.
Founded in 1994, CAIR operates 25 chapters nationwide, including a small Texas staff of eight employees and two contractors, according to the filing.
TEXAS GOV ABBOTT DECLARES CAIR, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS TERRORIST GROUPS, PREVENTING LAND PURCHASES
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters asked a federal judge to strike down the declaration from the governor. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“CAIR-Texas and the Texas Muslim community are standing up for our constitutional rights by directly confronting Greg Abbott’s lawless attack on our civil rights,” CAIR-Texas said in a statement. “We are not and will not be intimidated by smear campaigns launched by Israel First politicians like Mr. Abbott. Mr. Abbott is defaming us and other American Muslims because we are effective advocates for justice here and abroad. We plan to continue exercising our constitutional rights, defending civil rights, and speaking truth to power, whether in defense of free speech, religious freedom and racial equality here in Texas or in defense of human rights abroad.”
Abbott’s order extended the “terrorist” label to the Muslim Brotherhood, even though federal authorities have never classified either group that way.
The governor’s decree also bars CAIR from purchasing land in the Lone Star State under a new statute aimed at curbing purchases tied to “foreign adversaries.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s proclamation states that CAIR is blocked from purchasing land in the Lone Star State. (Antranik Tavitian/Reuters)
The group’s filing contends Abbott relied on “inflammatory statements with no basis in fact,” selectively citing remarks by affiliates to paint CAIR as sympathetic to terrorism.
“The lawsuit we have filed today is our first step towards defeating Governor Abbott again so that our nation protects free speech and due process for all Americans,” CAIR Litigation Director and General Counsel Lena Masri said in a statement. “No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure. We have beaten Greg Abbott’s attacks on the First Amendment before, and God willing, we will do it again now.”
The Muslim Legal Fund of America also said it is “proud to defend the constitutional rights of CAIR-Texas and the right of all Texans to engage in free speech and uphold civil rights without facing lawless and defamatory attacks by Greg Abbott.”
“Mr. Abbott’s unconstitutional proclamation undermines the very foundational notions of due process that our system depends upon and it must not stand,” said Muslim Legal Fund of America attorney Charlie Swift. “For the sake of our nation’s basic freedoms, Greg Abbott’s latest attack on the American people must be defeated.”
ANTI-ISLAM PROTESTERS, MUSLIMS CLASH IN DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, AFTER MAN ATTEMPTS TO BURN QURAN
CAIR accused the governor of relying on “inflammatory statements that have no basis in fact.” (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Earlier this year, Texas Republicans sought to stop a Muslim-centered planned community around one of the state’s largest mosques near Dallas.
Abbott and other Republican state officials opened investigations into the development linked to the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), claiming the group is attempting to create a Muslim-exclusive community that would implement Islamic law.
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EPIC City representatives called the attacks alleging Islamic law misleading, dangerous and without basis.
The U.S. Justice Department closed a federal civil rights investigation into the planned community without bringing any charges or lawsuits.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Iraq’s Leader Seeks an Improbable Prize: Independence From the U.S. and Iran
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is running for re-election Tuesday after managing to keep his country out of the region’s recent conflicts.
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Zohran Mamdani and London’s Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, have much in common, but also key differences
LONDON (AP) — He’s the left-leaning Muslim mayor of the country’s biggest city, and U.S. President Donald Trump is one of his biggest critics.
London’s Sadiq Khan has a lot in common with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — but also many differences.
Khan, who has been mayor of Britain’s capital since 2016, welcomed Mamdani’s victory, saying New Yorkers had “chosen hope over fear, unity over division.”
Khan’s experience holds positive and negative lessons for Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democrat who beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election.
Khan has won three consecutive elections but routinely receives abuse for his faith and race, as well as criticism from conservative and far-right commentators who depict London as a crime-plagued dystopia.
Trump has been among his harshest critics for years, calling Khan a “stone cold loser,” a “nasty person” and a “terrible mayor,” and claiming the mayor wants to bring Sharia, or Islamic law, to London.
Khan, a keen amateur boxer, has hit back, saying in September that Trump is “racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic and he is Islamophobic.”
Khan told The Associated Press during a global mayors’ summit in Brazil on Wednesday that it’s “heartbreaking” but not surprising to see Mamdani receiving the same sort of abuse he gets.
“London is liberal, progressive, multicultural, but also successful — as indeed is New York,” he said. “If you’re a nativist, populist politician, we are the antithesis of all you stand for. ”
Attacked for their religion
Mamdani and Khan regularly receive abuse and threats because of their Muslim faith, and London’s mayor has significantly tighter security protection than his predecessors.
Both have tried to build bridges with the Jewish community after being criticized by opponents for their pro-Palestinian stances during the Israel-Hamas war.
Both say their political opponents have leaned into Islamophobia. In 2016, Khan’s Conservative opponent, Zac Goldsmith, was accused of anti-Muslim prejudice for suggesting that Khan had links to Islamic extremists.
Cuomo laughed along with a radio host who suggested Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11 attack. Mamdani’s Republican critics frequently, falsely call him a “jihadist” and a Hamas supporter.
Mamdani vowed during the campaign that he would “not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own.”
Khan has said he feels a responsibility to dispel myths about Muslims, and answers questions about his faith with weary good grace. He calls himself “a proud Brit, a proud Englishman, a proud Londoner and a proud Muslim.”
Very different politicians
Mamdani is an outsider on the left of his party, a democratic socialist whose buzzy, digital-savvy campaign energized young New Yorkers and drove the city’s biggest election turnout in a mayoral election in decades.
Khan, 55, is a more of an establishment politician who sits in the broad middle of the center-left Labour Party.
The son of a bus driver and a seamstress from Pakistan, Khan grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom public housing apartment in south London.
He studied law, became a human rights attorney and spent a decade as a Labour Party lawmaker in the House of Commons, representing the area where he grew up, before being elected in 2016 as the first Muslim leader of a major Western capital city.
Mamdani comes from a more privileged background as the son of an India-born Ugandan anthropologist, Mahmood Mamdani, and award-winning Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Born in Uganda and raised from the age of 7 in New York, he worked as an adviser for tenants facing eviction before being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.
Similar big-city problems
Khan and Mamdani govern huge cities with vastly diverse populations of more than 8 million. Voters in both places have similar worries about crime and the high cost of living – big issues that many mayors struggle to address.
Khan was won three straight elections, but he’s not an overwhelmingly popular mayor. As Mamdani may also find, the mayor gets blamed for a lot of problems, from high rents to violent crime, regardless of whether they are in his control, though Mamdani made freezing rents a pillar of his campaign.
Mamdani campaigned on ambitious promises, including free child care, free buses, new affordable housing and city-run grocery stores.
“Winning an election is one thing, delivering on promises is another,” said Darren Reid, an expert on U.S. politics at Coventry University. “The mayor of New York definitely does not have unlimited power, and he is going to have a very powerful enemy in the current president.”
The mayor of London controls public transit and the police, but doesn’t have the authority of New York’s leader because power is shared with the city’s 32 boroughs, which are responsible for schools, social services and public housing in their areas.
Khan can point to relatively modest achievements, including free school meals for all primary school pupils and a freeze on transit fares. But he has failed to meet other goals, such as ambitious house-building targets.
Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics who specializes in local government, said one lesson Mamdani might take from Khan is to pick “a limited number of fights that you can win.”
Khan, who is asthmatic, has made it one of his main missions to clean up London’s air — once so filthy the city was nicknamed the Big Smoke. He expanded London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, which charges the drivers of older, more polluting vehicles a daily fee to drive in the city.
The measure became a lightning rod for criticism of Khan, spurring noisy protests and vandalism of enforcement cameras. Khan staunchly defended the zone, which research suggests has made London’s air cleaner. His big victory in last year’s mayoral election appeared to vindicate Khan’s stance on the issue.
Travers said that beyond their shared religion and being the targets of racism, both mayors face the conundrum of leading dynamic, diverse metropolises that are “surprisingly peaceful and almost embarrassingly successful” — and resented by the rest of their countries for their wealth and the attention they receive.
He said London is “locked in this strange alternative universe where it is simultaneously described by a number of commentators as sort of a hellhole … and yet on the other hand it’s so embarrassingly rich that British governments spend their lives trying to level up the rest of the country to it. You can’t win.”
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Associated Press writer Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this story.
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Virginia election winners break race and gender barriers amid national scrutiny on diversity
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As the polls closed on Tuesday across Virginia, it quickly became clear it was a night of firsts: Voters overwhelmingly elected a slate of candidates who broke race and gender barriers in contests considered among the most consequential nationally.
Republicans in Virginia also fielded a historically diverse statewide ticket that would have set records.
The results come as President Donald Trump has made his opposition to diversity initiatives a cornerstone of his platform, dismantling federal civil rights programs that sought to rectify a complicated history of racial discrimination. He has justified those moves by saying that race and gender equity programs overcorrect for past wrongs and foment anti-American sentiment — a position shared among many conservatives across the country.
Still, Virginia’s election results — in tandem with high-profile Democratic victories across the U.S. — call into question whether Trump’s staunch positions on race, gender and gender identity are resonating with voters.
Virginia’s first female governor
Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, giving Democrats a key victory heading into the 2026 midterm elections and making history as the first woman ever to lead the Commonwealth. Her victory was decisive, with about 57% of the vote.
The race was bound to make history regardless of who came out on top: Spanberger was running against Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, marking the first time two women were the front-runners in a general election for governor.
In her acceptance speech, Spanberger recalled how her husband said to their three daughters, “Your mom is going to be the governor of Virginia.”
“And I can guarantee you those words have never been spoken in Virginia, ever before,” she said, beaming.
Spanberger said her victory meant Virginians were choosing “pragmatism over partisanship” and “leadership that will focus on problem solving and not stoking division.”
First Muslim woman elected statewide
Democrat Ghazala Hashmi defeated Republican John Reid in the race for lieutenant governor, becoming the first Indian American woman to win statewide office in Virginia. She is also the first Muslim woman to be elected statewide in the U.S.
Firsts are not new to Hashmi. She was the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate five years ago. Hashmi, a former English professor born in India, said at the time that her opposition to Trump’s Muslim ban motivated her to break into politics.
This time around, her campaign for lieutenant governor focused less on her identity and more on key issues, such as health and education. Still, some said her identity was a prominent factor in the race. Reid recently took to social media to tie Hashmi to Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim elected mayor of New York City, despite marked differences in their platforms, nationalities and ages — a comparison critics said was Islamophobic.
Like the governor’s race, the battle for lieutenant governor would have been historic either way: Reid was the first openly gay man nominated to statewide office in Virginia, and he faced hurdles on the trail in connection to his sexuality. GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked him to leave the ticket after opposition research linked him to a social media account with sexually explicit photos of men. At the time, Reid said he felt betrayed.
In her victory speech, Hashmi said her candidacy reflected progress in the state and nation.
“My own journey — from a young child landing at the airport in Savannah, Georgia, to now being elected as the first Muslim woman to achieve statewide office in Virginia and in the entire country — is only possible because of the depth and breadth of opportunities made available in this country and in this commonwealth.”
Son of civil rights pioneers to be attorney general
Democrat Jay Jones defeated Republican incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, becoming the first Black person elected as top prosecutor in the former capital of the Confederacy.
Jones, a former Virginia delegate, comes from a long line of racial-justice trailblazers — a fact he emphasized throughout his campaign and after his victory.
“My ancestors were slaves. My grandfather was a civil rights pioneer who braved Jim Crow,” Jones said Tuesday. “My mother, my uncles, my aunts endured segregation, all so that I could stand before you today.”
That said, Jones’ victory is as much a referendum on dissatisfaction with the government shutdown and Trump’s mass firings, which have hit Virginia especially hard due to its high concentration of federal workers.
Ever since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, every time a new president has been elected, Virginia has voted in a governor the following year from the opposite party.
Jones’ win comes after Miyares, elected in 2021, became the first Latino to hold a Virginia statewide office.
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Explosions at high school mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia during Friday prayers wound dozens of students
Jakarta, Indonesia — Multiple explosions shook a mosque at a high school during Friday prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, injuring at least 54 people, mostly students, police said.
Witnesses told local television stations that they heard at least two loud blasts around midday, just as the sermon had started at the mosque at SMA 27, a state high school within a navy compound in Jakarta’s northern Kelapa Gading neighborhood. Students and others ran out in panic as gray smoke filled the mosque.
Most of the victims suffered minor to severe injuries from glass shards. The cause of the blasts was not immediately known but they came from near the mosque’s loudspeaker, according to Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri.
CANDRA/AFP/Getty
People were rushed to nearby hospitals. Some were soon sent home but 20 students remain in hospital care, three of them with serious injuries, the police chief said.
Suheri said an anti-bomb squad that was deployed at the scene found toy rifles and a toy gun near the mosque.
“Police are still investigating the scene to determine the cause of the blasts,” Suheri said, and urged against speculation that the incident was an attack before police investigation is completed.
“Let the authorities work first,” Suheri said. “We will convey whatever the results are to the public.”
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Kazakhstan will join Abraham Accords with Israel in symbolic move to boost Trump initiative
Kazakhstan is set to join the Abraham Accords between Israel and Muslim majority countries, in a symbolic move aimed at boosting an initiative that was a hallmark of President Trump’s first term.
The action, announced Thursday, is largely symbolic as Kazakhstan has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992 and is much farther geographically from Israel than the other Abraham Accord nations — Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
Those four countries agreed to normalize relations with Israel as a result of joining the accords, something Kazakhstan did shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social that he’d hosted a “great call” between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. He wrote that Kazakhstan is the “first Country of my Second Term to join the Abraham Accords, the first of many.”
Trump called Kazakhstan’s joining “a major step forward in building bridges across the World” and said “more Nations are lining up to embrace Peace and Prosperity through my Abraham Accords.”
A signing ceremony would soon make it official, Mr. Trump said, and “there are many more Countries trying to join this club of STRENGTH.”
Later Thursday, Mr. Trump hosted a summit with the leaders of Kazakhstan and four other Central Asian nations, during which the president said more countries could join the Abraham Accords.
Asked by reporters what Kazakhstan’s entry into the accords will mean, given that Kazakhstan and Israel already had long-standing ties, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it an “enhanced relationship, beyond just diplomatic relations and having embassies in each other’s capitals.”
“You’re now creating a partnership that brings special and unique economic development on all sorts of issues that they can work on together,” Rubio said.
U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Kazakhstan’s participation in the Abraham Accords with Israel was important as it would enhance their bilateral trade and cooperation and signaled that Israel is becoming less isolated internationally, notably after massive criticism and protests over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
One official maintained that Mr. Trump’s nascent peace plan for Gaza had “completely changed the paradigm” and that many countries were now willing to “move toward the circle of peace” that it had created.
That official said specific areas of enhanced Israeli-Kazakh cooperation would include defense, cybersecurity, energy and food technology, although all of those have been subjects of previous bilateral agreements dating back to the mid-1990s.
During a working breakfast earlier Thursday, Rubio and Tokayev “discussed expanding opportunities for commercial trade and investment as well as increased cooperation with Kazakhstan in energy, technology, and infrastructure,” the department said in a statement.
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Kazakhstan Will Join the Abraham Accords With Israel in Symbolic Move to Boost the Trump Initiative
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kazakhstan will join the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab and Muslim majority countries in a symbolic move aimed at boosting the initiative that was a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s first administration, three U.S. officials said Thursday.
The move is largely symbolic as Kazakhstan has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992 and is much farther geographically from Israel than the other Abraham Accord nations — Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
Those countries agreed to normalize relations with Israel as a result of joining the accords, something Kazakhstan did shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Trump, a Republican, would announce the step at a summit he is hosting later Thursday with the leaders of the five Central Asian nations, including Kazakhstan, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement.
Despite their previous long-standing ties, the officials said Kazakhstan’s participation in the Abraham Accords with Israel was important as it would enhance their bilateral trade and cooperation and signaled that Israel is becoming less isolated internationally, notably after massive criticism and protests over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
One official maintained that Trump’s nascent peace plan for Gaza had “completely changed the paradigm” and the many countries were now willing to “move toward the circle of peace” that it had created.
The official said specific areas of enhanced Israeli-Kazakh cooperation would include defense, cybersecurity, energy and food technology, although all of those have been subjects of previous bilateral agreements dating back to the mid-1990s.
Ahead of the White House summit between Trump and the five Central Asian leaders, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a working breakfast with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev although the State Department made no mention of anything related to Israel.
Rubio and Tokayev “discussed expanding opportunities for commercial trade and investment as well as increased cooperation with Kazakhstan in energy, technology, and infrastructure,” the department said in a statement.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Divided Jewish Leaders React With Warnings and Hope as New York Elects Its First Muslim Mayor
NEW YORK (AP) — Within hours of Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s first Muslim mayor, the Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism, launched an initiative to track policies and personnel appointments of the incoming administration, part of a swift and harsh reaction from his Jewish critics.
The ADL said Wednesday the goal is to “protect Jewish residents across the five boroughs during a period of unprecedented antisemitism in New York City.”
Mamdani’s main rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, received about 60% of the Jewish vote, according to the AP Voter Poll, after a campaign that highlighted Mamdani’s denunciations of Israel and kindled debate over antisemitism. About 3-in-10 Jewish voters supported Mamdani, the AP poll said.
A conservative pro-Israel newspaper, The Jewish Voice, depicted the city’s Jewish community — the largest in the U.S. — as fearfully bracing for an “exodus.” The two top leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations labeled Mamdani’s election “a grim milestone.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s national director, said Mamdani has “associated with individuals who have a history of antisemitism, and demonstrated intense animosity toward the Jewish state.”
“We are deeply concerned that those individuals and principles will influence his administration at a time when we are tracking a brazen surge of harassment, vandalism and violence targeting Jewish residents and institutions,” Greenblatt added.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the centrist pro-Israel group J Street, criticized the ADL and Conference of Presidents statements as he called for efforts to bridge divisions.
“The fearmongering we have seen from some Jewish institutions and leaders surrounding Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is harmful, overblown and risks needlessly deepening divisions in the city and in our community,” Ben-Ami said. “Our community’s responsibility now is to engage constructively with the mayor-elect, not to sow panic or to demonize him.”
Israel-Hamas war was a key election issue
Throughout his campaign, Mamdani was steadfast in his criticism of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza, depicting it as genocide targeting Palestinians. But he welcomed Jewish supporters to his campaign, denounced the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and denied suggestions from Cuomo that he was insufficiently opposed to antisemitism.
“We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism,” Mamdani declared at his victory celebration.
He reiterated that commitment again Wednesday in his first news conference since winning election, touting his plan to increase funding for hate crime prevention. “I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously,” he said.
Mamdani has described his pro-Palestinian views as “central” to his belief in a “universal system of human rights.” But it was Cuomo who sought to make the race a referendum on Israel — a strategy that some Democratic strategists say backfired as the war in Gaza shifted public views.
Leaders of the Reform Movement, representing the largest branch of U.S. Judaism, issued a nuanced statement after Mamdani was declared winner of what they called a “deeply polarizing campaign.”
“In this moment, we urge the Jewish community to help lower the temperature, listen generously, and take steps to promote healing,” the statement said. “We will hold the new mayor accountable to his commitments to protect Jewish communities and all New Yorkers, to confront antisemitism and every form of hate, and to safeguard civil rights and peaceful expression.”
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, urged Mamdani and Jewish leaders to work toward a common goal of “a strong, safe and inclusive city in which Jewish and all New Yorkers can thrive.”
“This was an election in which Jews became a political football — which did nothing to advance Jewish or any community’s safety,” Spitalnick said. “Rather, in so many ways, this election was used to validate the worst instincts and fears on both extremes.”
Among the Jewish groups elated by Mamdani’s win were IfNotNow, which has organized protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and Bend The Arc: Jewish Action, which describes itself as a progressive Jewish advocacy group.
“Throughout this election, Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo, as well as far too many out-of-touch Jewish leaders sought to weaponize antisemitism to divide Jews from our fellow New Yorkers,” IfNotNow said. “As Zohran faced an onslaught of Islamophobia, we organized our Jewish communities and refused to succumb to that fearmongering.”
Jamie Beran, CEO of Bend the Arc, said the group “endorsed Zohran because we know a strong democracy is what keeps Jews the safest.”
“We plan to take this playbook to cities and towns across the nation and work with our Jewish communities to bridge divisions, see through smokescreens and take back Congress.”
Mamdani will need to prove himself to some
A Hasidic Jewish civic leader, Zalman Friedman, had a mixed assessment of Mamdani’s win.
“We are disappointed, and we are hopeful that he will make life better and not worse,” said Friedman, a board member of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council and part of the Chabad-Lubavitch community that is prominent in that Brooklyn neighborhood.
Friedman said he’s wary of big-government solutions that Mamdani may promote, and hopes the new mayor focuses on public safety, lowering housing costs and supporting government funding for Jewish religious schools.
“We are resilient and resourceful and, thank God, we do have a lot of friends all over the world,” he said. “We will survive this and we will thrive.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of the nation’s most prominent Jewish politicians, said he’s not comfortable with some of Mamdani’s comments on Israel.
“I’ve expressed that to him personally. We’ve had good private communications,” Shapiro said. “I hope, as he did last night in his victory speech, that he’ll be a mayor that protects all New Yorkers and tries to bring people together.”
AP journalists Peter Smith in Pittsburgh, Jake Offenhartz in New York and Steve Peoples in Washington contributed.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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