Islamic Extremist Groups Recruiting French Women and Girls En Masse
New Age Islam News Bureau
18
Sept 2014
TWO of the quintuplets in incubators at the hospital’s nursery Online
• West Virginia Students Try Muslims’ Hijab
• Basketball
Body Allows Head Coverings on Trial Basis
• Kurdistan
Official: IS Crimes against Women Need World Action
• Pakistani
Woman Embraced By Islamic State Seeks To Drop US Legal Appeal
• Asian
Olympic Boss Suspects Saudis Excluded Women for 'Technical Reasons'
• Six
Iranian including 3 Women sentenced to 91 Lashes for Pharrell 'Happy' Video
• Woman
Gives Birth to Quintuplets, Four Girls and a Boy, In Karachi, Pakistan
• Female
Bank CEOs Deepen Malaysia Expertise Pool: Islamic Finance
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Islamic
Extremist Groups Recruiting French Women and Girls En Masse
Sep 18,
2014
Recruiters
for Islamic extremist groups are increasingly targeting French women and girls,
with nearly 100 either in Syria or on their way and 175 being monitored at
home, security officials say.
The
number of those that security officials believe are preparing their trip has
climbed exponentially — from just four being monitored in France at the
beginning of 2013, to 74 at the beginning of this year, according to a French
official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.
French
recruits make up about 900 of the approximately 2,000 Europeans who have fought
in Iraq and Syria. Security officials fear the fighters will use new-found
battlefield skills — and European Union passports — to carry out attacks back
home, and are increasingly alarmed about the rise in girls and women.
Five
people, including a sister and brother, were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday
suspected of belonging to a ring in central France that Interior Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve said specialized in recruiting young French women.
The
arrests came weeks after a series of detentions of adolescent girls around
France, including a 16-year-old caught at the airport in Nice as she prepared
to leave for Turkey and ultimately Syria, and three teens who were planning to
travel abroad together and corresponded on social networks.
France's
Interior Ministry on Tuesday posted video showing anguished family members of
young people who left to fight alongside extremists, including a young man
whose 15-year-old sister set out for what she thought was a humanitarian aid
mission. She has not returned.
"They
told her she would be valued more in Syria than in France. That she was chosen
for this," Fouad El Bathy says in the video.
France
has Western Europe's largest Muslim population, about 5 million people. France
is trying to make it harder both to recruit and to leave to fight alongside
jihadis. A measure expected to come to vote Wednesday would let the government
seize the passports of suspected would-be Jihadi fighters and block Internet
sites luring French to the battlefield.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.616313
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West
Virginia Students Try Muslims’ Hijab
Sep 18,
2014
CAIRO –
Offering West Virginia students in Marshall University a chance to try the
Islamic headscarf, a group of Muslim students held a Hijab event to raise
awareness about the Islamic headscarf and correct misconceptions surrounding
it.
“We want
to revive the Muslim Student Association group because we haven’t been involved
as much as we would like, lately,” Suzann Al-Qawasmi, graduate from Marshall
University, who helped in coordinating the event, told Marshall Parthenon on
Tuesday, September 16.
“So, we
set up a table and brought scarves for girls to try on, just to see what it’s
like. One girl said she still felt pretty even with the scarf on. That was the
kind of reaction we were hoping for.”
Organized
by the Muslim Student Association (MSA), the event was held on Tuesday from
11am to 3pm at the Memorial Student Centre.
At the
event, several students tried Hijab, sharing their experience after donning it
for the first time.
“One
girl wanted to try the Hijab on, and then her whole group of friends she was
with tried them on,” Al-Qawasmi said.
“They
walked around campus afterward with the Hijabs still on, so they could see the
reactions from other people.”
For C.J.
Payne, a business major, the event has educated her on interesting details
about Hijab.
“I
learned that the only men that Muslim women want to see in their full beauty
are the men who are closest to their hearts,” Payne said.
“It is
for modesty.”
Not only
students but also university staff has tried the Hijab.
“It was
an experience for me,” said Allyson Jasper, elementary education major
specializing in pre-k, who tried on the Hijab for the first time at the event.
“I put
the Hijab on, and I still felt like me. It made me realize that you can shine
through and be yourself no matter what you’re wearing.”
Islam
sees Hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying
one’s affiliations.
US
Muslims are estimated to be between six to seven millions and a recent Pew
research found that American Muslims are the most moderate around the world.
The
research showed that US Muslims generally express strong commitment to their
faith and tend not to see an inherent conflict between being devout and living
in a modern society.
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/americas/477541-west-virginia-students-try-muslims-hijab.html
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Basketball
Body Allows Head Coverings on Trial Basis
Sep 18,
2014
MIES,
Switzerland — International basketball’s governing body said that players will
be allowed to wear religious head coverings, such as Hijabs or turbans, on a
trial basis in some competitions.
FIBA’s
central board met over the weekend at the men’s world cup and voted to allow a
two-year testing phase that would let players wear head coverings.
Previous
FIBA rules only allowed a player to wear a 5-centimeter headband to control
hair and sweat. That drew objections that the group was discriminating against
Muslim and Sikh players, who wear head coverings for religious reasons.
“We
welcome this policy change by FIBA because it allows Muslims, Sikhs and others
who wear religious head coverings to take part in the sport that they love
while maintaining their beliefs,” said the Council on American-Islamic
Relations National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “FIBA should be
congratulated for responding positively to all those who sought reasonable
religious accommodation for athletes of all faiths.”
Indira
Kaljo, a Bosnian-American Muslim who played college basketball at Tulane, was
proud when she heard the news. She called it an “amazing first step.”
Kaljo
said she didn’t wear a Hijab in college or while playing professionally in
Ireland, but after deciding to adhere more closely to her faith, she started to
last year.
She
wasn’t able to play overseas because of the decision. She played with the head
covering on in an American summer league and didn’t want to return to Europe if
she wasn’t allowed to wear it.
“I would
love to go back and play in Bosnia now or some other country,” she said.
During
the trial, a national federation must petition FIBA to allow players to wear
the head coverings. Once approved, the federation will have to submit follow-up
reports twice a year.
FIBA
also said it will allow players to wear head coverings in its 3-on-3
competitions unless it presents a direct threat to the safety of players on the
court.
The
central board will evaluate the rule again in 2015 and determine whether
testing at the lowest official international level should begin next summer. A
full review will be done in 2016 on whether it will be a permanent rule change
after the 2016 Olympics.
“It’s a
start and the right move,” said Val Ackerman, a former WNBA president and
proponent of the move who served on FIBA’s board from 2006 to this past August.
“My read from being on the board is that there are places in the world where
conforming to cultural dress norms are a precondition for being able to play.
So if this is what it takes to open up opportunities for women to play the sport
of basketball in those countries, it’s a huge plus.”
In 2012,
football’s governing body FIFA changed its rules to allow female Muslim players
to wear headscarves, after a campaign by executive committee member Prince Ali
Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20140918218535
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Kurdistan
Official: IS Crimes against Women Need World Action
Sep 18,
2014
DUHOK,
Kurdistan Region – The world cannot remain silent about crimes committed by the
Islamic State (IS) against women and girls in Iraq, said Pakhshan Zangana, head
of the High Council of Women Affairs in the Kurdistan Region.
“We need
strong resolutions from the United Nations and the European Union condemning
what happens to our women and children,” she said, calling for the world to
speak out against the kidnapping of women and children by the Jihadi militants.
The
exact number of victims remains unknown, but hundreds of women and children are
still held captive. Women are forced to marry or are victims of rape; children
are gathered in orphanages or given to Muslim families to raise. Witnesses have
said they have seen girls as young as 13 sexually abused.
“These
are crimes against humanity,” Zangana said, “and against everything else, even
religion.”
Women
have reported being imprisoned in big buildings in IS bastions like Mosul, and
being raped daily and repeatedly.
A
17-year old who was interviewed by phone by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica
said that her captors gave phones to women to let the world know what is
happening to them.
"To
hurt us even more, they told us to describe in detail to our parents what they
are doing,” the young woman said. “They laugh at us because they think they are
invincible.”
Yezidi
women have in slowly growing numbers recently been able to escape prisons and
slavery by the IS. Some appear to have been freed when IS fighters holding them
fled after US airstrikes.
Local
aid workers in the region of Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan say they know of 29 women
who have recently been reunited with their families, but that they expect
unreported numbers to be higher.
In some
instances IS members had shown remorse and given women the chance to flee,
escaped victims reported.
A
16-year old who spoke to Rudaw said that civilians had broken open the house
that was her prison when the captors were away.
The
Yezidi girl said she was transported last month from a village in the Shingal
area to a number of different places, ending up in Mosul. There, she was
pressured to convert to Islam by way of diminishing food rations. When the
women held captive with her decided to pretend to convert, they were given
Quran lessons.
Then
strangers started to come and take the girls, the prettiest first. Others were
given to IS leaders. “We would hear them say to their emirs: this is our gift
to you,” said the teenager, who together with another girl who became her
companion was recently reunited with her family.
Zangana
expressed disbelief about the silence of Arab and Islamic states “about these
crimes made under the flag of ‘there is no God but Allah.’”
She
called on countries that have supported IS in the past, and all those that have
some influence with the radical group, to push for the release of all women and
children.
Kurdish
government institutions are working to solve the case of the kidnapped women,
but reports that they are buying women back from IS are not true, Zangana
stressed. “We want to save them, but it’s not even in our power to find them.”
She
called on all those holding the women let them return to their families, and
“to realize they are not slaves but human beings, with mothers, sisters,
daughters.”
There
have been some stories of women who were bought from the IS by Arabs and then
returned home safely in secret.
Zangana
also stressed that women and girls returned from IS prisons should be taken
back by their communities and not ostracized in any way for the sexual abuse
forced on them.
“We ask
the leaders of all the communities involved -- Yezidi, Turkmen, Shabak, Christian
-- to make clear to their flock that they should be looked upon as victims, and
not as if they are guilty for the terrible things that have been done to them.”
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/170920141
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Pakistani
Woman Embraced By Islamic State Seeks To Drop US Legal Appeal
Sep 18,
2014
NEW
YORK: Pakistan-born neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui has become a rallying cry for
militant groups demanding her release from a US prison. But in a little-noticed
move she is trying to abandon her legal fight for freedom, saying the US court
system is unjust.
Islamic
militants in Syria, Algeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan have made Aafia's release
a condition for freeing certain foreign hostages. Islamic State, for example,
proposed swapping American journalist James Foley for her, but he was executed
after their demands, which also included an end to US airstrikes in Iraq, were
not met.
A
42-year-old mother of three with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Brandeis University, Aafia is serving an 86-year sentence in a
prison medical centre in Texas. A jury in 2010 convicted her of attempting to
shoot and kill a group of FBI agents, US soldiers and interpreters who were
about to interrogate her for alleged links to Al Qaeda.
Aafia,
who during her trial interrupted proceedings repeatedly and at times was
removed from the courtroom, wrote to US District Judge Richard Berman in
Manhattan on July 2 seeking to end her most recent appeal.
“I
refuse to participate in this system of total injustice that has punished and
tortured me repeatedly, and continues to do so, without my having committed a
crime,” she wrote.
Also
read: IS demanded Dr Aafia's release in exchange for Western hostages
Aafia
said she wanted to be sent home to Pakistan through diplomacy, not through the
legal system. But her lawyer Robert Boyle told the judge he was concerned she
did not fully understand that as a consequence of her request she might not
have another opportunity to challenge her conviction.
US
prosecutors were scheduled to respond to Aafia's letter with their own letter
by late on Wednesday. Aafia was likely unaware of the attempt by Islamic State
to free her in a prisoner swap for Foley, Boyle told Reuters. Federal Medical
Center Carswell severely restricts her contact with the outside world, he said.
Aafia
already lost one appeal. In 2012, an appeals court rejected arguments that her
trial was unfair and upheld her conviction.
Her
latest appeal, filed in May, argues that Aafia received an unfair trial because
she was not allowed to fire defence lawyers who were paid by the Pakistani
government, and that US prosecutors failed to turn over important evidence.
Widespread
kidnappings
In 2003,
Aafia was wanted by the FBI for questioning for possible ties to Al Qaeda and
was detained by Pakistani authorities, according to US media reports at the
time.
US
officials alleged that when the Afghan police captured Aafia in July 2008, she
was carrying two pounds of sodium cyanide, which releases a highly toxic gas,
notes that referred to a mass casualty attack, and a list of US landmarks.
Aafia
was never charged with links to terrorism. The FBI agents, US soldiers and
interpreters said that as they were about to interrogate her at an Afghan
police compound in Ghazni, Afghanistan, she grabbed a rifle and began shooting
at them. None of them were wounded, but Aafia was shot in the abdomen when they
returned fire.
More on
this: Competing for jihadi space
Aafia's
family says she was raped and tortured at the US military's Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan. US officials have said they found no evidence of that, but
militant groups say her case is an example of the worst excesses of the US war
on terror.
Earlier
this month, while speaking to Dawn, Aafia's sister Fauzia Siddiqui said she had
never heard of IS before, adding that her family had no contact with the
militant group. She said she had recently been discharged from a hospital two
weeks ago where she couldn't watch TV or talk on the phone due to a throat
problem.
Fauzia
added that the family had no contact with the IS and had never heard of them
before.
At her
trial, Aafia's lawyer urged an acquittal because there was no evidence the
rifle had been fired. No bullets, shell casings or bullet debris were recovered
and no bullet holes were detected, the lawyer said. Prosecutors cited testimony
from witnesses and said the witnesses had no motive to lie.
Freeing
Aafia or winning her repatriation to Pakistan has at a times been a popular
cause in her homeland, where her trial was seen as unfair. In 2011, the
Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a Swiss couple
and said they could be freed if Aafia was released.
In
Afghanistan, the Taliban asked for her release as part of a deal to free US
Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. In May, Bergdahl was released in a prisoner swap
that freed five Taliban leaders held at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Calls
for Aafia's release were made by Al Qaeda-linked kidnappers in Algeria in
January 2013.
A few
months later, two Czech women who had been kidnapped in Pakistan appeared in a
video demanding the scientist's freedom in return for their release. It was not
clear who was holding them.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1132737/aafia-sidddiqui-seeks-to-drop-us-legal-appeal
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Asian
Olympic Boss Suspects Saudis Excluded Women for 'Technical Reasons'
Sep 18,
2014
Asia's
top Olympic official is unsure why Saudi Arabia excluded women from their team
for the Asian Games and says he thought the Islamic kingdom had "broken
the ice" when they picked female competitors for the London Olympics.
Saudi
Arabia is the only country among the 45 competing nations at the Asian Games,
which start in South Korea on Friday under the slogan "Diversity Shines
Here", to have selected an all-male team. Their decision has drawn
criticism from Human Rights Watch but Saudi officials have defended their
stance, saying their female athletes were not "competitive" enough
for the Asian Games, a multi-sports event held every four years. Sheikh Ahmad
Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) that
organises the Asian Games, said there were no rules forcing countries to pick
females but he was surprised Saudi Arabia had not chosen any after being widely
applauded for including women at the last Olympics. "Saudi Arabia broke
through the ice when they participated at the London Olympics with a
female," he told Reuters in an exclusive interview. "It showed they
are ready, they are capable to have women participate. "I don't know why
they are not participating here, maybe for technical reasons." Saudi team
officials said they recently discussed the matter with the International
Olympic Council (IOC) and had promised to include women in their team for the
2016 Rio Olympics. But Human Rights Watch, which campaigned heavily for Saudi
Arabia to include women in London in 2012, said the decision to exclude females
from the Asian Games raised doubts about whether the ultra-conservative state
was serious about change. "Two years after the London Olympics, the time
for excuses is over - Saudi Arabia needs to end its discrimination against
women and ensure women's right to participate in sport on an equal basis with
men," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at
Human Rights Watch. "Refusing to send women to the Asian Games casts
doubts on Saudi Arabia's commitment to end discrimination and allow Saudi women
to participate in future competitions." Despite their criticism over Saudi
Arabia's stance at the Asian Games, Human Rights Watch said the world's top oil
exporter had made some small but positive steps in recent years. A year ago
King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the 150-member Shoura Council. Last year,
Saudi Arabia officially lifted a ban on sports in private girls' schools - a
groundbreaking rule for a state where women are banned from driving and need
formal permission from male relatives to leave the country, start a job or open
a bank account. Saudi Arabia's appointed Shoura Council, which advises the
government on policy, also asked the education ministry to look into including
sports for girls in state-run schools with the proviso they should conform to
Sharia rules on dress and gender segregation. But the country's cautious social
reforms to improve women's rights have also been met with resistance from
religious conservatives, who fear the kingdom is losing its Islamic values in
favour of Western ideas. "Women's sports have a long way to go in Saudi
Arabia," Whitson said. "Now is the time for Saudi Arabia's sports officials
to lay down concrete plans for female sports in girls' schools, women's sports
clubs, and competitive tournaments, both at home and abroad."
http://asia.eurosport.com/olympic-games/asian-olympic-boss-suspects-saudis-excluded-women-for-technical-reasons_sto4405183/story.shtml
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Six
Iranian including 3 Women sentenced to 91 Lashes for Pharrell 'Happy' Video
Sep 18,
2014
The six
Iranian singers who were arrested for appearing in a viral video dancing to
Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” have been sentenced to six months in prison and
91 lashes.
The
group became famous in May when their music video for the hit song circulated
on YouTube, racking up more than 150,000 views before attracting the attention
of Iranian authorities.
It
featured three men and three unveiled women singing and dancing along to the
four minute song in the street and rooftops of Tehran, mimicking the style of
Pharrell’s official video.
Authorities
arrested the group for contravening Iran’s strict vulgarity laws, which prohibit
public displays of dancing, and paraded the six on state television, forcing
them to express remorse for their behaviour.
The
Islamic Republic condemned the video as a “vulgar clip which hurt public
chastity” and in a trial on Wednesday sentenced the participants to a suspended
sentence of six months in prison.
The
director of the video was handed a suspended sentence of one year, while the
whole group was told they would receive 91 lashes each.
“A
suspended sentence becomes null and void after a certain period of time,” their
lawyer, Farshid Rofougaran, told Iran Wire.
“When
it’s a suspended sentence, the verdict is not carried out, but if during this
period a similar offense is committed, then the accused is subject to legal
punishment and the suspended sentence will then be carried out as well.”
Speaking
shortly after the group's initial arrest, the brother of one of the video's
star told The Telegraph that their confessions on state television were
"outrageous".
Siavash
Taravati, who lives in the US, said: “The IRIB’s (Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting) action in showing the “confession” of my sister and her friends
(...) is just outrageous.
“Apparently
they first arrest people without any charge or civil right to defend
themselves, then interrogate them and then make them confess and finally
broadcast their show.”
Pharrell
Williams responded to Iran’s actions on his Twitter account in May, saying:
“It’s beyond sad these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/11103542/Iranians-sentenced-to-91-lashes-for-Pharrell-Happy-video.html
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Woman
Gives Birth to Quintuplets, Four Girls and a Boy, In Karachi, Pakistan
Sep 18,
2014
KARACHI:
A woman delivered quintuplets — four girls and one boy — on Wednesday at a
private hospital in Karachi, DawnNews reported.
The
couple had been childless for 16 years.
Tragically,
one baby girl passed away whereas the four others have been kept in the
hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU), along with the mother, hospital sources
told Dawn.
Zahid
Khan, father of the four babies, spoke to media representatives and expressed
joy at the birth of the children, adding that he would like to see them in the
medical profession in future.
He also
revealed that he was a resident of Quetta who had come to the metropolitan city
only two weeks ago.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1132521/woman-gives-birth-to-quintuplets-in-karachi
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Female
Bank CEOs Deepen Malaysia Expertise Pool: Islamic Finance
Sep 18,
2014
In her
native Malaysia, Hong Leong Islamic Bank Bhd. Chief Executive Officer Raja Teh
Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz says she has never felt discriminated against on the
basis of her gender. Overseas, it’s a different matter.
“I was
speaking at a conference in Europe when somebody got up and said how can you be
speaking about Islamic finance when you’re a woman?,” the 46-year-old who took
over as head of the unit of the country’s fourth-largest bank in 2011, said in
a Sept. 9 interview in Kuala Lumpur. “In Malaysia, there is a conscious effort
by the government on gender diversity.”
Two of
the nation’s 16 Islamic lenders now have female CEOs and three of the 11-member
central bank Shariah Advisory Board are women, becoming role models for Prime
Minister Najib Razak’s push to raise the female labour participation rate to 55
percent by 2015, from 52.4 percent now. The push, which mirrors similar efforts
in Japan and South Korea, aims to widen the pool of available talent and help
Malaysia maintain its position as the world’s preeminent centre for Islamic
finance. Only one Shariah bank in the Middle East has a female CEO.
“Because
Malaysian banks don’t discriminate between genders when recruiting, that mean
they can tap a larger pool of talent,” Abas A. Jalil, chief executive at Kuala
Lumpur-based consulting company Amanah Capital Group Ltd., said in an interview
yesterday. “The size of Malaysia’s Islamic finance industry speaks for itself.
Having women in executive positions allows the banks to have a more diverse
point of view.”
Full
report at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-17/female-bank-ceos-deepen-malaysia-expertise-pool-islamic-finance.html
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