A strike on the village of al chiffonier left several people suffering symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas one child died in that attack more now from osama bin with a warning his report does contain some discretion to choose. From. This is what the United Nations degree has to stop. But hours into the u. N. Security councils thirty day ceasefire declaration bombs kept dropping on eastern huta medics reported dozens of deaths and injuries from more than one hundred airstrikes barrel bombs and artillery bombardment all of which was supposed to and continues in the rebel held area home to four hundred thousand syrians. What experiences from b. B. s these fires in in syria dont give us high expectation its for fish and when this fishing whats what they it was a visitation save the cease fire will start as soon as possible one this possible we dont know we dont we dont know when this will stop and and then here this is a big number of population it wont be a solution that feeding them one or two convoys and wont be the solution that we evacuated one thousand or two thousand of them to be seated out of rudolph as feared Government Forces try to enter eastern huta from three sides attempting to seize as much landis possible before the cease fire is implemented reinforcements from the syrian armys fourth and tenth brigades have been circling east and who different days special forces and troops from the elite tiger battalion are also on the frontlines. Bulldozers and tanks are deployed to breach rebel defenses iran and syria maintain that the Security Council resolution allows the targeting of what they call terrorists. Or to this by keeping larger troop numbers and heavy rebels in. Their front lines so far killing and capturing some soldiers. Do not have enough we welcome the Security Councils decision regarding a ceasefire because of the burden on our families and he said this suffering must be lifted to the decision to stop the bloodshed caused by the regime in eastern guta as usual we didnt find any commitment by the Syrian Regime and its russian allies. Northwestern go to southern with almost every front and go to has been stalled by the regime on sunday in order to achieve some advance but they havent succeeded. Many besieged people have been stranded in underground shelters for days and feared worse to come the calls the victims in syria martyrs that have been conversations between the leaders of france germany and russia to drive persuade the Assad Government to stop attacks and allow in humanitarian aid thats when the people will continue to face what they see is annihilation. Of the turkey syria border the north korean general is set to meet south koreas intelligence chief in the capital seoul hes been in town for the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics general kim yong also suggested his country is willing to hold talks with the United States but the white houses dialogue with the north must end with its denuclearization. Church leaders in occupied East Jerusalem have closed the holiest sites in christianity in response to what they call discrimination by the Israeli Government managers of the church of the holy sepulcher believed to be the site of the crucifixion and the resurrection of jesus christ the angry and proposed tax plan. The body of the bollywood superstar sridevi is due back in india today from dubai the fifty four year old who starred in more than one hundred films died suddenly of a heart attack at a family wedding on saturday large crowds of fans gathered outside her home the police were forced to put up barricades around neighboring roads as the crowd swelled for the course of the day. More news on the web site al jazeera dot com is the web address you need im back with a quick summary in twenty five minutes up next its rewind season. Hello and welcome to rewind im Richelle Carey and the decade since we launched aljazeera english back in two thousand and six we have built a library of moving and powerful documentaries here army wine revisiting some of the best of them and looking at how the story has new dawn today we are rewinding ten years to two thousand and eight and rug omar set out on a unique journey across the United States to get to the heart of what it meant to be muslim in america and that was back in the decade of nine eleven and the iraq war that followed since then of course the world has turned with the rise of isis the political upheavals that followed the arab spring the chaos of us and gulf first libya then syria and of course the election of donald trump and his travel ban so today its more important than ever to understand the history of a vibrant diverse and still growing Muslim Community and what it means to be both muslim and a patriot heres islam in america from two thousand and eight. Oh say. Well i want to go for this because that. Would. Have. You you. Could. Mention america and islam and most people think of irreconcilable conflict but i suspect thats not the whole story in this two part series i hope to discover the truth relationship thats evolving between the two. There is said to be eight million muslims in the United States and the faith is said to be the Fastest Growing religion in this country and the roots and history of islam a longer than most people are aware of i want to travel across this huge country to find out the stories of what its like to be an american. In this program all the searching for the origins of islam in america talking to africanamericans who just discovering that own islamic history and exploring if being american fits comfortably with being muslim. My journey begins with a trip to minneapolis in the midwest it may seem an old destination for a program on islam because its citizens are mostly jewish and christian but in two thousand and seven voters here elected americas first muslim congressman Keith Ellison. Keith spock on the campaign trail on a most significant anniversary today is juneteenth it commemorates june nineteenth eight hundred sixty five the abolition of slavery these are local political activists and theyre coming on the parade to get people in this community fired up about voting and at the halls of their efforts a young muslims playing their part trying to get congressman Keith Ellison the first muslim in congress reelected. Hello good spirit nice to see you Keith Ellison is a charismatic politician whos keen to get young muslim started in politics well you know were just have a going out here you know keith introduces me to his intent. Would you say just sort of young muslims living in other parts of the world would think being a muslim in america is a very tough thing and such are i mean theres advantages theres disadvantages we definitely have a lot more opportunity is that its kind of difficult going up any different especially where im from its a stance and im the only muslim in my school being the same in my high school so thats definitely a challenge but once you get past that you know you can theres so many different avenues so many different opportunities for you to connect with and what its like to be able to come in the United States get challenging and rewarding on the same time but i think the most important thing to remember is that you dont you know what we can make you know if we want and i encourage all muslims around the world to actually do this thing you know please get to know your elected officials will it all thats the only way you can make a difference. Mom is going to get. You guys who are happy to see you know this is when the slaves got free right this is a great example of the american author of glad handing its the way to the electoral heart of the nation how candidates meet their votes. And has paid off for keith here in minneapolis and its worked elsewhere now americans have elected to muslims to congress. All these historically been on the margins of American Society now come in you know when theres enough for everybody right now ok. For those muslims around the world in western countries who have no idea about the community here how would you say life is for muslims in america at the moment oh yes and there isnt like you dont hear about people getting hassled in airports you know theres a long way to go obsolete because impression i mean come from britain in terms of sure muslims is a base level is hiding under their beds. Thats broadly speaking that muslim living is really the beast not only did i not only did i just get elected by an overwhelmingly jewish and Christian Community so did andre carson whos a muslim here in indiana so people need to not look for excuses to disengage you have to get involved you have to run the risk that youre going to encounter bumps in a long way but you still have to seen and heard here a lot of good friends certainly keith needed the votes of christians and jews to get elected but theres a community of forty four thousand somali muslims here the biggest in america they even have their own t. V. Network and they got behind chief. The somali t. V. Of minnesota and were so glad to hear today. Oh ok redlands focused. In the interest i think muslims in european countries. Believe that you know they joy the greatest freedoms in the muslim communities in the west are thriving most of all in europe and when they think about the position of muslims in america to be honest with you i think they think that the numbers a tiny before i call the plane here actually i was with my mom when i. Or you as we say. How many muslims do you think theyre on in the whole of the United States and she said hundred thousand hundred fifty thousand you know. In the whole United States but i mean as i understand there is anywhere between five and eight million i mean when you think about america as a land of opportunity and sort of seizing things with both maybe the sort of you know the next right you maz if i could be so arrogant as to say that will come from here it is you. I have distant relatives in the Somali Community here they were among the first to escape the civil war thats been raging in my homeland off and on for decades twenty years on and the new wave of refugees has arrived from somalia some of Just Graduated College and the throwing a party to celebrate their achievements we came here to take advantage of the opportunities here at the same time to keep our identity as muslims were all going through the same experiences lets not forget our identity and lets give back to the community. Im a very blessed person because. I get a little bit emotional. Weve been given so much you know weve learnt so much. Well you read the news its happening at home i have nothing to complain about. After that we need some laughs so i went to welcome i am doing. Thank you very much but the problem is that it is beginning to close me so mother i get better than me. Luckily hes a big shot making one me about a year who knows that i dont know how you go along the route to home you will notice at the height. Of the. My adopted home england has a bigger Somali Community the minneapolis and its been settled for longer but they do tend to think of england as home my parents a typical their mental bags are still packed to return to somalia but thats not true here these somalis are no less scarred all traumatized by their experiences of planted roots deeper and faster than any Somali Community ive seen in the world they dont talk of returning home they are growing up and i submit thats got it i want to. Tell you so often its a message that came across loud and clear and i was still hearing it in the taxi to the airport with how much so i love you lift up the stairs two years thirteen years yeah and you came from the lowest somalia. And i was born there having been there for a long time there was a lot of problem last fifteen seventeen years. In england we somalis you know were not that organized you know here in america you dont organize if you dont vote if you dont disobey the american way of living you lost so you know but thats the way to be visible thats the way to get heard yes can you be muslim and american yes you have to sacrifice one to be the. You. To be America First and you have to do what other americans decertify as alive to defending america because this is our country this is feel that you dont think about. My life defending this country. I get the welcoming i get. Thats a powerful thing compared to where i come from how we were how i was you know slaughter a friend of mine who died the war or recount where i come from coming here. You know having what i have. Is home. Minnesota is a liberal state in the democratic heartland of the midwest a welcoming place for the somalis the latest black immigrants to establish themselves in america but in the early years of its history america was the very opposite of welcoming for the first africans to reach these shores. For three hundred years africans were brought here in chains a slave labor im heading to jackson mississippi in the deep south to meet some of the descendants of those first africanamericans because it seems that their history lines at the heart of the story of islam in america. This impressive looking building is actually the state capital of mississippi ill be honest ive come with my own really strong preconceptions about the south for me its about being in the hearts of the bible belt its about prejudice and the history of segregation but actually being told that the story of islam in america begins of all places here centuries before. And its a story that begins with slavery. Its. Starts here because most of the slaves shipped from africa came to work the plantations of the south among them when muslims. Forbidding from practicing their faith they found secret ways to keep islam alive calling the faithful to pray here in mississippi is abdul rashid he believes that one way they achieve this was through. The africans brought to me was a kid slave peoples then blues came from mississippi i dont think that ive been hearing about the link between the cold soprano and the songs the slaves used to sing in the fields are they similar the call to prayer a lot. If you ever went to a Baptist Church then you can hear this in a Baptist Church all of the baptists especially the southern baptist. With a capella. Singing the whole congregation to sing you know. Love. And be called the entire koran was basically chanted yes no and it was chanted basically in that minor scale you see that connection to you and your singing things that had deeply embedded within the sort of africanamerican experience and the blue use not only that but that was one of the things that. Guided me to islam really is the music when you start reading when i was introduced to the koran and that was founded there as well founded well. So i think from my opinion this is just why opinion and with my opinion about her and something you get a cup of coffee maker but this is my opinion that this entire movement is a spiritual and is geared toward islam. Like abdul more and more people of all ethnicities are finding their way to islam a third of all muslims in america about two million a converts the people at the mosque in jackson convinced that this is having a positive impact on the entire nation oconnor was she is one of the founding members here today have you heard so much about it yet. And were just happy to have a caller who is involved in a new Research Project with twenty five other historians they believe their discoveries will not only rewrite the history of islam in america but transform our understanding of african cultures i think were leading the way actually. As part of this initiative a cofounded the International Museum of muslim cultures the first in america researches suggests the number of muslim slaves was much greater than previously sold one third of all the things slave to africans that were brought to america actually were muslims nobody knows this is new cutting edge information because when we read our history books we dont see that we have one of the Great Stories here in mississippi in a place called natchez mississippi we have the story of our prince abdulrahman ybor he he was an african muslim prince and scholar came out of the area around gambia and he was actually slave to matches for over forty years and we have that story but but youre a combination of all these things thats unique here to the to the deep south on to mean africa american and muslim and why. Why is it important to stress i mean in this example in your work this missing link of islam in this in this weeks the most important reason is that its going to help the africanamerican to become a first class citizen am opposed to a second class citizen and this whole standing up for rights fight for freedom leaving the whole effort in america for reforming america and bringing america to respect its own constitution all blending is really was thats what makes me optimistic about the future. This corner of the exhibition is really interesting because youve goals real evidence of this link between islam and slavery in mississippi and it put him of the man who was known as the prince among slaves who was sold into slavery for forty years before winning his freedom and going to live as a free man in liberia and i understand that there are his descendants still living in the United States and im going to try and find them. I now see that whats up the heart of the story of islam in america is the story of slavery and on this issue america was divided as early as the seven hundred seventy s. Some americans were calling for the abolition of slavery one of these Thomas Jefferson proposed forming a colony in africa to take freed slaves but it wasnt until eight hundred sixty three after the civil war that slavery was finally abolished with it ca