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Gandhi's Blood, Hitler's Christmas Cards Up For Sale In Same Auction

TIMES OF INDIA, INDIA WEST, DNA (India), REUTERS

Worldcrunch

LONDON – Two drops of Gandhi’s blood are being auctioned Tuesday in London. The two microscope slides are expected to be sold for between £10,000 and £15,000 ($15,200-$22,800), Reuters reports.

The “fragments of Gandhi's blood” were donated by the father of the Indian Independence movement in 1924. At the time, Gandhi was recovering from an appendectomy and gave his blood as a gift to the family he was staying with, writes the Times of India.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents expert at the Mullock’s auctioning house, told Reuters that "to Gandhi devotees, it has the same status as a sacred relic to a Christian.”

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The auction has raised strong criticism among disciples of Mahatma Gandhi. Noted Gandhian Giriraj Kishore told India-West he was “enraged” about the upcoming auction. “Gandhi is being sold bit-by-bit on the chopping block every three to four months. It is very objectionable to me.”

The blood slides will be go under the hammer along with 50 other objects belonging to Gandhi: among them, his trademark leather sandals, his favourite shawl, made from linen thread he wove himself, his bed sheet, his personal bowl with fork and spoon, and a drinking cup, says the Times of India.

Meanwhile, during the same sale, items belonging to Adolf Hitler -- including a 1943 Christmas card and a chunk of marble from his bunker -- will also be put up for auction, DNA reports.

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Muslim Call To Prayer, NYC-Style: A Turkish Eye On New York's Historic Azan Law

New York Mayor Eric Adams has for the first time allowed the city's mosques to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers. A Turkish correspondent living in New York listens in to the sound of the call ("cleaner" than in Turkey), and the voices of local Muslims marking this watershed in their relationship with the city.

Photo of a man walking into a mosque in NYC

Mosque in NYC

Ali Tufan Koç

NEW YORK — It’s Sept. 1, nearing the time for the noon prayer for Muslim New Yorkers. The setting is the Masjid Al Aman, one of the city's biggest mosques, located at the border of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. WABC, Channel 7, one of the local television stations, has a broadcast van parked at the corner. There are a few more camera people and journalists milling around. The tension is “not normal,” and residents of the neighborhood ask around what’s happening.

This neighborhood, extending from East New York to Ozone Park, is not the Brooklyn that you see in the movies, TV shows or novels. Remove the pizza parlors, dollar stores and the health clinics, and the rest is like the Republic of Muslim brothers and sisters. There are over 2,000 people from Bangladesh in East New York alone. There’s the largest halal supermarket of the neighborhood one block away from the mosque: Abdullah Supermarket. The most lively dining spot is the Brooklyn Halal Grill. Instead of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, there's a Medina Fried Chicken.

The congregation of the mosque, ABC 7, a clueless non-Muslim crowd and I are witnessing a first in New York history: The azan, the traditional Muslim public call to prayer, is being played at the outside of the mosque via speakers — without the need for special permission from the city. Yes, the azan is echoing in the streets of New York for the first time.

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