From Ayodhya To Ajmer, ASI’s Never-Ending Quest To Survey Mosques To Unearth A Temple

New Age Islam News Bureau

16 May 2024

  

The two-part picture combo shows Indian Muslim devotees Offer Friday prayers at the Adhai-Din Ka Jhonpra mosque (top) and the Adhai-Din Ka Jhonpra mosque, STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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·         From Ayodhya To Ajmer, ASI’s Never-Ending Quest To Survey Mosques To Unearth A Temple

·         Congress Wanted A 15% Budget Allocated For Muslims: PM Narendra Modi

·         Lawmaker, Randy Fine, Accuses A Florida Muslim School Of Training 'Future Terrorists'

·         Child Soldiers Used By Islamist Group In Mozambique Attacks, Says Human Rights Watch

·         German Lawmaker Convicted Of Using Banned Nazi Slogan

 

India

·         SP, Congress Trying To Cause Riots By Spreading Lies About Citizenship Amendment Act; "No One Can Remove It"

·         'False, Outrageous And Bizarre': Chidambaram Slams PM Modi's '15% Budget Allocation To Muslims' Charge

·         Modi talks about Muslim rapport one day, Ram Mandir the next day: Nana Patole

·         TNCC president slams PM’s backtracking on remarks against Muslims

·         Congress Govt In Karnataka Included Muslims In List Of OBCs Overnight: PM Modi At Election Rally

·         1968 Compromise On Shahi Idgah ‘Fraud’ By Sunni Central Waqf Board: Hindu Side Tells Court

·         Sharad Pawar reacts as PM Narendra Modi slams Congress for ‘Hindu-Muslim politics’

·         Don’t fall for his ploy: Priyanka on PM Modi’s ‘Hindu-Muslim’ remark

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North America

·         Mike Lindell Shares Claim About Islamic Symbol on State Flag

·         Progressive Muslim challenges incumbent in US Congress over Gaza policies

·         Muslim, Jewish voters leaning away from the federal Liberals as Gaza war grinds on: poll

·         Blaine Islamic school, mosque gets planning commission's OK

·         CAIR Calls on CBP to End Apparent Targeting of American Muslim for Palestine (AMP) Staffer

·         US military says Gaza Strip pier project is completed, aid to soon flow as Israel-Hamas war rages on

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Africa

·         Niger Imams Back Orphans Mass Weddings, Warn Tinubu’s Women Affairs Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye

·         From Combatting Hate Speech To Recognition Of Muslim Marriages, These Are The Bills Ramaphosa Has Now Made Law

·         South Africa seeks halt to Israel’s Rafah offensive at World Court

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Europe

·         Calls Mount On Polish Government To Expel Israeli Envoy

·         Keep Your Terrorists Close: Why Russia Treats Some Islamic Fundamentalists As Friends And Others As Enemies

·         UK announces $175 million humanitarian aid boost for Yemen

·         Russia not ‘recruiting’ Indian citizens – Moscow

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Pakistan

·         Reason Will Be People’s Votes If I Ever Become PM: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl Chief

·         PPP asks PTI to apologise over May 9 events 'or face consequences'

·         Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan gets bail but can’t leave jail

·         No live stream as Imran appears before SC via video link in NAB laws case

·         In talks with Dar, China vows to ‘upgrade’ CPEC

·         2nd phase of CPEC projects to spur growth in Pakistan's economy: Ahsan

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Mideast

·         Michigan Imam Hassan Qazwini –ISIS Is Arm Of Zionism, They Do Not Represent The American People And Are Israel's Stooges

·         Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah

·         US working to get American doctors out of Gaza, White House says

·         The top UN court is holding hearings on the Israeli military’s incursion into Rafah

·         Pro-Turkiye Syria mercenaries head to Niger to earn cash

·         Tunisian bar association accuses policemen of torturing a lawyer during detention

·         Sudan facing ‘inferno’ of violence, crushing aid holdups: UN

·         Palestinians: Our ‘Nakba’ in 2023 is worst ever

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Arab World

·         French Pilgrim, Mohamed Boulabiar, Walks Through 13 Countries To Perform Umrah

·         Saudi Arabia, Iraq Sign Pact To Counter Money Laundering, Terrorism

·         Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization session concludes in Jeddah

·         Saudi institute gears up to tackle organized crime

·         Digital ID launched for pilgrims arriving from outside Saudi Arabia

·         KSrelief sends more aid to Sudan and Gaza

·         Arab forum targets illicit financial networks  

·         Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Issues Royal OrdersRelated To The Appointment Of State Officials

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Southeast Asia

·         Penang Police Investigating Bayan Lepas Pizza Receipt With Words Deemed Insulting To Islam

·         Islamic wealth management industry set to evolve with changing market trends - SC

·         Meta restores Facebook posts by Malaysian media on PM Anwar’s meeting with Hamas

·         Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours

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South Asia

·         Rapid Action Battalion Arrests ‘ARSA Acting Chief’,in Bangladesh, Seizes Weapons

·         9 Bangladeshis named in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list

·         Post-polls violence: One dead, six hurt in Gopalganj

·         UN Deputy Secretary-General to arrive in Kabul today

·         Afghanistan’s exports and imports reach $10.3 billion last year

·         Acting Economy Minister and UN Official Discuss Plans for Humanitarian Aid and Developmental Cooperation

·         Qatar Extends Humanitarian Aid to Flood Victims in Baghlan, Strengthening Ties with Afghanistan

Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau

URL:     https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/ayodhya-ajmer-asi-mosques-temple/d/132331

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From Ayodhya To Ajmer, ASI’s Never-Ending Quest To Survey Mosques To Unearth A Temple

 

The two-part picture combo shows indian Muslim devotees Offer Friday prayers at the Adhai-Din Ka Jhonpra mosque (top) and the Adhai-Din Ka Jhonpra mosque, STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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16 May 2024

Early this month, a group of Jain monks and several leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad visited the mosque, Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra, and claimed that a Sanskrit school and a Jain temple existed there. On the website of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the monument has been listed as a mosque built by Qutub-ud-Din-Aibak, the first Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, in AD 1199. “A large number of architectural members and sculptures of temples are lying inside the verandah of the complex for safety and security purposes by the department which shows the existence of a Hindu temple in its vicinity during circa 11th-12th Century AD,” the description also adds.

This is not the first time such claims have been made regarding mosques in the country. In fact, more than often, the Union Government’s ASI has been at the centre of controversies and criticism for reinterpreting the country’s cultural past.

In light of another mandir-masjid dispute in Ajmer, Outlook takes a look at some controversial surveys of mosques carried out by ASI after allegations that a temple was there beneath the complex.

Babri Masjid

On December 6, 1992, a Hindu mob razed the 16th century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, triggering bloody riots that killed at least 2,000 people across India. To reiterate the claim that the mosque was built on the remnants of a temple, a 2003 report released by the ASI is often cited.

As Outlook has reported before, the ASI compiled the 574-page report with details about the purported discovery of temple ruins at the excavation site, within just 10 days of the completion of the survey on August 12. The Sunni Waqf Board, a party to the Ayodhya title dispute case, had said then that the ASI’s report was “vague and self-contradictory”.

Sixteen years after the ASI survey, the Supreme Court in 2019 ordered the construction of the Ram Temple and referred to the 2003 ASI report extensively in its judgment.

Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath Temple

The ASI undertook a survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex on the orders of the Varanasi court to ascertain whether the mosque was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”. The long-standing dispute dates back to 1991 when a petition was filed by three local Hindus on behalf of three Hindu deities — Shiva, Shringar Gauri, and Ganesha, before the Varanasi high court demanding the restoration of Gyanvapi land to the adjacent Kashi Viswanath temple, removal of Muslims from the complex, and demolition of the mosque.

After granting extension eight times, the ASI submitted its 1000-page report to the court on December 18, wherein it declared that a “large Hindu temple” existed there prior to the construction of the existing structure (the mosque) and that parts of the temple were used in the construction of the Islamic place of worship.

As of January 2024, upon the orders of the Supreme Court, a chosen Hindu priest will offer worship inside the cellar or tehkhana in the Gyanvapi premises while Muslims can use the mosque and the surrounding courtyard for performing namaaz. The court listed the case for final disposal in the third week of July.

Bhojshala-Kamal Maula

The dispute over Bhojshala in Madhya Pradesh dates back to the early 2000s. The ASI protected site, which the Hindus claim is a temple of Goddess Saraswati while the Muslims consider it as Kamal Maula mosque, has been at the centre of violent incidents over the past few years.

The root of the conflict lies in an ASI notification dated 2003 that allowed Hindus to offer prayers for Basant Panchami at Bhojshala-Kamal Maula mosque from dawn to noon and again from 3.30 pm to dusk, leaving the hours between 1 pm and 3 pm in the afternoon for the Friday Namaz for Muslims.

However, in 2003, 2013 and 2016, Basant Panchami fell on Fridays – these were the days when the town of Dhar witnessed a spate of violent incidents with Hindutva activists refusing to vacate the premises.

In response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an organisation Hindu Front for Justice, challenging the ASI order of April 7, 2003, imposing restriction on Hindus to worship at Bhojshala daily, the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered the ASI to conduct a "scientific survey" of the complex. Although the survey started on March 22 this year, the ASI filed an application a month later, stating it needed some more time for the survey to understand the nature of exposed portions of the structures in the disputed premises.

Krishna Janmabhoomi

The Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute erupted after a Lucknow resident and advocate Ranjana Agnihotri and six others originally filed a plea in the lower court in Mathura to remove the 17th century Shahi Idgah mosque from the complex it shares with the Katra Keshav Dev Temple, close to the spot known as 'Krishna Janmabhoomi'.

They had claimed in the plea that Shahi Idgah Masjid is constructed on a part of 13.37-acre land belonging to the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust and demanded that the mosque be removed and the land returned to the trust.

While the Allahabad High Court allowed a primary survey of the Idgah complex by a court-monitored three-member team of advocate commissioners last year,  the top court had on January 16 stayed the operation of this order. The stay continues to remain in place.

Source: outlookindia.com

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https://www.outlookindia.com/national/from-ayodhya-to-ajmer-asis-never-ending-quest-to-survey-mosques-to-unearth-a-temple

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 Congress Wanted A 15% Budget Allocated For Muslims: PM Narendra Modi

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

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By G Mohiuddin Jeddy

May 16, 2024

KALYAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday denied resorting to Hindu-Muslim politics, before accusing the Congress of plans to commit “vote jihad” by looting the reservation quota from backward classes and giving it to Muslims.

Addressing a rally in Kalyan in support of the Mahayuti alliance candidates Shrikant Shinde and Kapil Patil, the prime minister also said his government has already made a blueprint for development work to be undertaken in the first 100 days after returning to power.

“Our youth have innovative ideas. I appeal to them to send them to me. I will select the best and implement them, by extending our plan to 125 days. The first four months will help bring my vision of [a developed India by] 2047 closer,” he said.

A significant chunk of Modi’s speech was devoted to attacking the Congress, which he accused of playing divisive politics for decades. “Congress only knows Hindu-Muslim politics, and development is only for those who vote for them. When I expose them, their ecosystem screams that Modi is indulging in communal politics. History is witness to their acts. They have to open their albums to check who their grandparents are to find out who they themselves are.”

Modi reiterated his earlier claim that the Congress wants Muslims to have the first right to the country’s assets, saying he was present at a meeting in which former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said it. He also claimed the Congress and its allies wanted to have separate development budgets for Hindus and Muslims.

“Congress wanted a 15% budget allocated for Muslims. Will the [separate] Hindu and Muslim budgets benefit the country? I, as Gujarat chief minister, was the first to oppose it. If Congress and the INDI alliance come back to power, they will do it. Such people should not be allowed to win even one seat in Maharashtra. The fact is that in the first four phases, Maharashtra has routed the INDI alliance.”

Stating that the country is secure now after 10 years of a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, Modi attacked the Opposition saying that bomb explosions, terrorist threats, firing at the border, and naxal attacks were daily occurrences during previous governments.

“Have you heard of it since you gave Modi the power? Surgical and air strikes have stopped Pakistan from issuing nuclear threats. Congress is now asking for respect for them as they have atom bombs. Pakistan does not even have money for its daily upkeep.” Modi was referring to an old video of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar in which he asked India to give respect to Pakistan because the latter possessed atom bombs.

Modi also attacked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, saying, “Those who grew up with Balasaheb [Thackeray[ are supporting Congress. The fake Shiv Sena is with the shehzada (referring to Rahul Gandi), insulting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Veer Savarkar. I challenge the fake Shiv Sena NCP to get the shehzada to utter five sentences of praise for Savarkar.”

Source: hindustantimes.com

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https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/congress-wanted-a-15-budget-allocated-for-muslims-pm-narendra-modi-in-kalyan-101715801073466.html

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Lawmaker, Randy Fine, Accuses A Florida Muslim School Of Training 'Future Terrorists'

 

Dr Fadi Kablawi, a dentist and imam at Masjid As-Sunnah An Nabawiyyah may lose his dental license for using 'genocidal language'(Facebook/MASJID AS SUNNAH AN NABAWIYYAH)

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May 16, 2024

Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine worries that Reviver Academy, a Florida Muslim school, is potentially training “future terrorists.”

In a written address to Manny Diaz, Commissioner at the Florida Department of Education, Fine, chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, has urged action to stop taxpayers' funding of the academy and a thorough investigation into its activities.

The crux of Fine's apprehension stems from the ownership and operation of Reviver Academy by Masjid As-Sunnah An Nabawiyyah, a Muslim mosque in North Miami. Of particular concern to Fine is Dr Fadi Kablawi, a dentist and imam at Masjid As-Sunnah An Nabawiyyah.

Fine calls for an immediate suspension of the Muslim school

Fine cited Kablawi's purported “genocidal language” in a recent sermon, where he allegedly called for violence against Jews and condemned the Israeli regime as worse than the Nazis.

Fine wrote, “Imam Kablawi's genocidal language makes clear what those 'values, ethics, and morals' look like—and that killing Jews is 'their own accountability to Allah.' We are literally funding the training of future terrorists. Not in Iran. Here.”

“That has to stop, and it has to stop immediately. I call on you to immediately suspend the Reviver Academy madrassa's eligibility for taxpayer funding and commence a thorough investigation into the school,” he added.

According to its website, the Muslim school aims to “prepare the new generation with the right values, ethics, morals and vision from the QURAN and the SUNNAH, convert knowledge into practical reality that makes winners in this WORLD and the HEREAFTER and prepare GLOBAL LEADERS grounded in Islamic ethics and values with a clear sense of accountability to the creator, stewardship of the world and responsibility for society.”

Kablawi says he 'wasn't calling for violence'

Dr. Kablawi said that his previous statements were taken out of context. He told NBC6, “Suddenly they're so offended that I'm making a prayer, this is how low it is,” and added, “It was a prayer, I was asking God to deal not with the Jews, to deal with the atrocities of the tyrannical Jews. I wasn't calling for violence, I wasn't calling for anyone to harm anybody, I was making a pure prayer against tyrannical criminals who are killing my people.”

Now, there have been calls to revoke Kablawi's dental license because many Florida lawmakers, including Fine, are “concerned with Dr. Kablawi's incendiary rhetoric and the potential danger it poses to his patients.”.

Fine, who is the only Jewish Republican in the Florida State House, has also highlighted other controversial statements made by Kablawi in his lectures at the mosque.

For instance, on March 8, Kablawi allegedly prayed, “Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon the accursed Zionists.”

Source: hindustantimes.com

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https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/florida-lawmaker-accuses-a-states-muslim-school-of-training-future-terrorists-101715820200583.html

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Child Soldiers Used By Islamist Group In Mozambique Attacks, Says Human Rights Watch

 

A Mozambican soldier climbs onto an armoured vehicle at Mocimboa da Praia airport in Cabo Delgado province on 9 August 2021.

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Copyright © africanews

Marc Hoogsteyns/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved.

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May 15, 2024

An Islamist group operating in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province used boys as young as 13 in attacks on a town last week and residents who were forced to flee the fighting recognized some of the child soldiers as their missing relatives, advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Al-Shabab, which is affiliated to the Islamic State group, has previously been accused by UN agencies of kidnapping children and using them as soldiers in its insurgency in the region, which began in 2017. A surge of attacks by insurgents in March left at least 70 children missing, according to local authorities and a group of aid agencies.

Witnesses told the rights group that dozens of child soldiers were used in the attacks and were seen carrying AK-style assault rifles and ammunition belts. Two people from the same family said they recognized their 13-year-old nephew among the children.

"I saw him with my own eyes," Abu Rachide, a resident of the town, told Human Rights Watch. He said the boy waved at him but marched on. Rachide’s sister said the boy, who went missing earlier in the year, appeared to be taking instructions from older fighters.

"I kept wondering how he became a fighter like that in just four months," she told HRW.

The latest attacks on the town of Macomia began Friday and continued until the next day. Islamist fighters looted shops and warehouses for food and exchanged fire with Mozambican and South African soldiers before retreating, HRW and Mozambican media reports said.

At least 10 people, mostly soldiers, were reportedly killed in the latest fighting and about 700 residents fled to nearby forests to escape the attacks, according to the HRW report.

Recruiting children under the age of 15 as soldiers is a war crime under international law. In February, judges at the International Criminal Court granted reparations of more than $56 million to thousands of victims of a convicted commander of a Ugandan rebel group, which included former child soldiers.

The attacks in Mozambique came days before the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency, which investigates environmental crimes, published a multi-year investigation alleging that millions of tons of timber had been exported illegally from Cabo Delgado to China since 2017 and the profits had been used to finance the insurgency.

The EIA said Tuesday that its investigation found that Chinese traders purchase "conflict timber" from insurgents in Cabo Delgado "and export it alongside other wood" in violation of Mozambique's log export ban.

South Africa deployed soldiers to Cabo Delgado as part of a regional force to stem the insurgency, which began in 2017. In 2020, Islamist fighters beheaded dozens of people, many of them children, as the violence spiraled. After a period of relative inactivity, the insurgents launched a new wave of attacks this year.

The regional troops announced that they had begun withdrawing from their positions ahead of a July deadline, although soldiers from Rwanda are expected to remain under a separate bilateral deal with Mozambique.

Aid agencies say the conflict forced more than a million people to flee their homes since it started in October 2017 and thousands have been killed. The insurgency also threatens a $20 billion natural gas project in Cabo Delgado.

Source: foxnews.com

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/child-soldiers-used-islamist-group-mozambique-attacks-human-rights-watch

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German Lawmaker Convicted Of Using Banned Nazi Slogan

 

Björn Höcke, who heads the AfD in the eastern German state of Thuringia, was fined €13,000 for closing a 2021 campaign speech with the phrase: “Everything for Germany!” | Pool photo by Filip Singer via Getty Images

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15 May, 2024

A leading member of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been convicted by a court of knowingly using an illegal slogan popularized by Sturmabteilung (SA) stormtroopers during the country’s Nazi era.

The state court in the eastern German city of Halle found AfD co-leader Bjoern Hoecke guilty on Tuesday and ordered him to pay a fine of €13,000 ($14,000). He was spared a potential prison sentence that could have prevented him from running for governor of Germany’s Thuringia state in this year’s election.

The case stemmed from a May 2021 campaign speech in which Hoecke used the phrase “Alles fuer Deutschland,” meaning “Everything for Germany.” The former SA slogan is among various symbols of the country’s Nazi past that have been made illegal in modern-day Germany.

Hoecke, a former high school history teacher, told the court that he was “completely innocent” and that the offending phrase was an “everyday saying.” He claimed that he was not aware of the slogan’s Nazi origin.

Prosecutors contended that Hoecke had “strategically and systematically” used Nazi vocabulary during his career in politics. Judge Jan Stengel reportedly told Hoecke, “You are an articulate, intelligent man who knows what he is saying.”

Thuringia is one of three eastern German states where AfD is polling as the leading political party. Hoecke, 52, has led the party’s Thuringia branch since it was founded in 2013. He may appeal the court’s verdict.

“If this verdict stands, free speech will be dead in Germany,” Hoecke said on Tuesday in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “The ability to dissent is in jeopardy.” Hoecke has argued that Germany is “at the forefront of persecuting political opponents and suppressing free speech.”

The AfD’s Thuringia operation is among three branches of the party that have been put under surveillance and designated by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as a “proven right-wing extremist group.” The agency also has branded the entire party as a “suspected” extremist organization.

A regional court rejected the AfD’s appeal of that ruling on Monday, saying there is ample evidence to suggest that the party “pursues goals that run against the human dignity of certain groups and against democracy.” The AfD has accused Berlin of undermining democracy by exploiting extremism designations to discredit a party favored by a large portion of German voters.

Source: rt.com

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https://www.rt.com/news/597677-german-politician-convicted-of-using-nazi-slogan/

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 India

 SP, Congress Trying To Cause Riots By Spreading Lies About Citizenship Amendment Act; "No One Can Remove It"

PTI

16 May 2024

AZAMGARH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday the country has started granting citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act while the opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress tried to cause riots in the country by spreading lies about the law.

Addressing a Lok Sabha election rally in the Lalganj area here, he said, "The work of giving refugees citizenship under the CAA has already started. These are those people who have been living in the country for a long time as refugees and were victims of partition of the country done on the basis of religion."

Modi also accused the Congress of neglecting these refugees.

"The Congress and the SP tried to spread lies in the name of CAA. They tried to push Uttar Pradesh and the entire country towards riots," he alleged.

The prime minister added that although the people of the "INDI alliance" claim they will remove CAA, "no one can do it."

"You are a fraud... You forced the country to burn in the fire of communalism," he said, attacking the opposition without taking any name.

"Do whatever you want to, but you will never be able to remove CAA," Modi added.

Source: newindianexpress.com

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https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2024/May/16/modi-accuses-sp-congress-of-trying-to-cause-riots-by-spreading-lies-about-caa

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'False, Outrageous And Bizarre': Chidambaram Slams PM Modi's '15% Budget Allocation To Muslims' Charge

May 16, 2024

NEW DELHI: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday rejected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that the grand old party had devised a scheme to allocate 15% of the Union Budget solely for the Muslims, terming the accusation as "increasingly bizarre, false & outrageous."

Responding to the PM's allegation that the Congress attempts to “appease its votebank” by dividing the budget into a "Muslim budget" and a "Hindu budget", the former Union minister took to X on Thursday and accused PM Modi of hypocrisy, pointing out to the PM's claim that if he "played the Hindu-Muslim divide, he would not be fit to be in public life but the very next day."

"He played his usual game of dividing Hindus and Muslims," he said.

"Prime Minister's statements are increasingly bizarre and show that his speech writers have lost their balance," the Congress leader said in a post on X.

"The honorable PM's accusation that Manmohan Singh had drawn up a plan to spend 15 per cent of the Union Budget exclusively on Muslims is totally false. His further allegation that Congress will present a Muslim budget and a Hindu budget is so outrageous that it can be only characterised as a hallucination," the former finance minister said.

Chidambaram said that it is his “fervent hope” that in the coming days of the election campaign, PM Modi would “abandon the path of false accusations and outrageous claims”.

He mentioned that people worldwide are closely following the events and the Prime Minister's statements do not reflect well on India on the global stage.

"Not only the Indian people, the world is watching and analysing the Indian prime minister's statements, and they do not bring glory to India', he said.

The comment made by the former Union minister after the Prime Minister has intensified the attack against Congress. During an election rally at Pimpalgaon Baswant in the north Maharashtra’s Nashik district on Wednesday, the Prime Minister accused Congress of misusing funds by allocating 15 per cent of the government budget for Muslims. He also promised to prevent the division of the budget and the implementation of reservation in jobs and education based on religion.

Splitting the budget on religious lines was dangerous, Modi said.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/false-outrageous-and-bizzare-chidambaram-slams-pm-modis-15-budget-to-muslims-charge/articleshow/110164877.cms

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Modi talks about Muslim rapport one day, Ram Mandir the next day: Nana Patole

May 15, 2024

Nana Patole PM ModiIn Mumbai, Congress candidate and city unit chief Varsha Gaikwad slammed Modi's roadshow saying 'the shehanshah came to Mumbai with his box of false promises.' (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talking about the construction of the Ram Mandir during a public rally in the state on Wednesday, a day after he asserted that he does indulge in the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ divide and had a strong rapport with Muslims.

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, who accused Modi of attempting to mislead the public and perpetuate Muslim hatred.

“Yesterday, he (Modi) said his relationship with Muslims is strong and that he would unworthy of public life if he indulged in ‘Hindu-Muslim’. The same Modi made yet another desperate attempt to mislead the public by emphasising on the construction of Ram Mandir and displayed his hatred towards Muslims in a public meeting today. People will not fall prey to Modi’s false claims,” said Patole even as he lambasted Modi for propagating false ideas about the Congress manifesto, particularly regarding reservation.

“While it is clear that RSS and BJP are opposed to reservation, the allegations that the Congress is against the SC, ST and OBCs and the reservation will be taken away and given to Muslims is baseless. People sitting in key positions, like the Prime Minister, are expected to speak with some dignity but it seems that Narendra Modi can’t say anything different than speaking lies, something that the RSS has taught him,” said the Congress leader.

In Mumbai, Congress candidate and city unit chief Varsha Gaikwad slammed Modi’s roadshow saying ‘the shehanshah came to Mumbai with his box of false promises.’

The IMD predicted the southwest monsoon to arrive in Kerala on May 31, with a possible deviation of four days. This monsoon brings 70% of the annual rainfall, crucial for agriculture and water reserves. The IMD expects above-normal rainfall this year, and satellite images show the ITCZ reorganizing, which brings rainfall over India.

Source: indianexpress.com

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https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/modi-muslim-rapport-one-day-ram-mandir-next-day-nana-patole-9331752/

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TNCC president slams PM’s backtracking on remarks against Muslims

May 15, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who during his Lok Sabha election campaign speeches targeted the Muslim community, has backtracked from his remarks now, said TNCC president K. Selvaperunthagai on Wednesday.

Speaking to journalists in Erode, Mr. Selvaperunthagai said that the order to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case was quashed by the Supreme Court. “Did Mr. Modi ever seek an apology from the Muslim community (for the Gujarat riots)?” he asked. “But, today, for vote bank politics, he made remarks against the community and now denies it.”

The Prime Minister cannot fool the people as they will not believe his words. “Mr Modi could not highlight the schemes brought in the last 10 years, hence he’s talking about Pakistan,” he alleged.

When asked about allegations that drugs were becoming prevalent in the State, Mr. Selvaperunthagai claimed drugs were imported from Afghanistan, and entered the country through the Mundra and Kandla Ports. “Drugs worth ₹5 lakh crore that were seized by Central agencies were missing now,” he alleged, and questioned how drugs entered the country when the Union Government controlled all the Central agencies and the Armed Forces.

Source: thehindu.com

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https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/tncc-president-slams-pms-backtracking-on-remarks-against-muslims/article68179378.ece

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Congress govt in Karnataka included Muslims in list of OBCs overnight: PM Modi at election rally

15.05.24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he was exposing the Congress and INDI alliance's plans to divide people on the basis of religion, and to him the country's unity was more important than his own image.

Speaking at a campaign rally at Kalyan in Maharashtra's Thane district, he said it was his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh who had stated that the minorities have the first right over the country's resources.

The Congress wanted to divide the country's budget into Muslim budget and Hindu budget by allocating 15 percent of funds for the Muslims, Modi alleged.

The INDI alliance of the opposition will implement this policy of appeasement after coming to power, he claimed.

The INDI alliance and the "Congress' shehzade" (apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi) were doing politics over religion, and Karnataka was their laboratory, Modi said.

Muslims in Karnataka were included in the OBC quota overnight, and Congress planned to implement this in the rest of the country, the prime minister alleged.

"Modi is exposing the INDI alliance's plans to divide people on the basis of religion. More than my image, the unity of the country is important to me," he added.

For Congress, development is meant only for those who vote for it, Modi said, asking, "Should the country be run in such a manner?" The "nakli" (fake) Shiv Sena (led by Uddhav Thackeray) should make "Congress shehzade" speak five lines in favour of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the PM said, claiming that the INDI alliance leaders had asked Rahul Gandhi to stop mentioning Savarkar due to the fear of backlash during the elections, and hence he does not mention the late freedom fighter in his speeches now.

"(March 1993 Mumbai blasts convict) Yakub Memon's grave is decorated and invitation for Ram Mandir is rejected. Will you punish the INDI alliance in elections? A 1993 blasts accused is also campaigning for the fake Shiv Sena. Vote for a strong and developed India and against appeasement," Modi appealed to the people.

Shrikant Shinde, sitting Shiv Sena MP and the son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, is contesting from the Kalyan Lok Sabha seat where polling will be held on May 20.

Source: telegraphindia.com

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https://www.telegraphindia.com/elections/lok-sabha-election-2024/congress-government-in-karnataka-included-muslims-in-list-of-obcs-overnight-prime-minister-narendra-modi-at-election-rally/cid/2020047

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1968 compromise on Shahi Idgah ‘fraud’ by Sunni Central Waqf Board: Hindu side tells court

May 15, 2024

Expanding on its earlier argument that the decades-old compromise in the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute was not valid, the Hindu side on Wednesday told the Allahabad High Court that the compromise was a "fraud" by the Sunni Central Waqf Board and the mosque committee.

The counsel for the Hindu side also submitted that the property belonged to the deity Katra Keshav Deo for over a millennium and a "chabutara" (platform) was constructed as Idgah after desecrating Lord Krishna's birthplace in the 16th century.

The submissions were made during the hearing on a plea challenging the maintainability of the suit that seeks the removal of the Shahi Idgah mosque and restoration of the temple.

The matter is being heard by Justice Mayank Kumar Jain on applications moved under order seven rule 11 of Civil Procedure Code moved by Muslim side challenging the maintainability of suits.

Advocate Taslima Aziz Ahmadi, appearing for the Muslim side, reiterated in the court that the suit is barred by the limitation that a compromise can be challenged within three years. She submitted that the two parties had entered into a "compromise" on October 12, 1968, and the said compromise was confirmed in a civil suit decided in 1974.

The Hindu side counsel last week argued that the Places of Worship Act, 1991, and Waqf Act are not applicable in the case. They submitted that in the claimed compromise the deity was not a party nor a party in the court decree passed in 1974.

“The owner of property is a deity, but the deity was not made party in the compromise, hence it is not a valid compromise,” the counsel said.

Hearing in the matter will continue on Thursday.

Source: hindustantimes.com

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https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/1968-compromise-on-shahi-idgah-fraud-by-sunni-central-waqf-board-hindu-side-tells-court-101715784165320.html

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Sharad Pawar reacts as PM Narendra Modi slams Congress for ‘Hindu-Muslim politics’

May 16, 2024

Sharad Pawar of the NCP (SP) on Wednesday alleged that the stand taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently could increase communal disharmony in the country instead of bringing communities closer.

Speaking at a rally for his party's candidate Bhaskar Bhagare in Dindori (ST) Lok Sabha constituency of Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar said, "Narendra Modi is the first prime minister of the country who has taken positions that would increase the communal disharmony between various religions and castes. I heard his speech today in Nashik, and it was as per my expectations. He should have taken positions that will bring the communities and religious groups closer. Follow full coverage of Lok Sabha elections 2024

The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded sitting MP and Union minister of state for health Bharti Pawar from the Dindori (ST) seat.

Earlier on Wednesday, addressing a rally in the same constituency, PM Narendra Modi alleged that the Congress, during its rule at the Centre, had planned to allocate 15 per cent of the budget to Muslims.

Sharad Pawar also mentioned water scarcity in the region. "Nashik district has an issue of water availability anddistribution. Some of the available water is diverted towards Gujarat; what is the state leadership doing about it?" he asked.

'PM's statements increasingly bizarre': P Chidambaram

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram also hit out at Modi saying the prime minister's statements are increasingly bizarre and show that “his speech writers have lost their balance”.

“Yesterday, he claimed that if he played the Hindu-Muslim divide, he would not be fit to be in public life. Today, he played his usual game of dividing Hindus and Muslims. The Hon'ble PM's accusation that Dr Manmohan Singh had drawn up a plan to spend 15 per cent of the Union Budget exclusively on Muslims is totally false,” P Chidambaram wrote on X (formally Twitter).

“His further allegation that Congress will present a Muslim budget and a Hindu budget is so outrageous that it can be only characterised as a hallucination. Article 112 of the Constitution of India contemplates only one Annual Financial statement, which is the Union Budget. How can there be two budgets? In the remaining days of the election campaign, it is my fervent hope that the Hon'ble PM will abandon the path of false accusations and outrageous claims. Not only the Indian people, the world is watching and analysing the Indian prime minister's statements, and they do not bring glory to India,” the former Union finance minister said.

‘Not doing Hindu-Muslim politics': PM Modi

PM Narendra Modi asserted he has never indulged in Hindu-Muslim politics, but was determined to expose the Congress “game plan of appeasement” and uncover the opposition bloc's designs to divide people based on religion. He accused the Congress of wanting to allocate 15 per cent of the central government budget for minorities and vowed not to allow splitting of budget or reservation in jobs and education based on religion.

Addressing two back-to-back poll rallies in Maharashtra, where the fifth and last phase of voting covering 13 Lok Sabha seats will take place on May 20, Modi hit out at the Shiv Sena (UBT), repeatedly calling it the “duplicate” Shiv Sena, and said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has abjectly surrendered to the Congress and was silent on criticism of rituals at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Modi, the BJP's star campaigner, also held a roadshow in Mumbai in the evening. Speaking at a rally at Kalyan in Thane district, Modi said the Congress can never speak of development, but it can only create a rift between Hindus and Muslims.

"Development for the Congress is the development of those who vote for them. I expose this ecosystem, and I am blamed for (doing) Hindu-Muslim (politics)," news agency PTI quoted Modi as saying. The PM referred to a 2006 remark of then-prime minister Manmohan Singh to hit out at the Congress.

"The Congress openly said the minorities have the first right over the country's resources. (Then PM) Dr Manmohan Singh said this, and I was present at the meeting, and I opposed it. The Congress wanted a 15 per cent budget allocation to the minorities, and divide the budget into Hindu budget and Muslim budget," Modi alleged.

"Should the country be run like this? The Congress divided the country in the name of religion earlier, and now wants to do the same thing. If the INDI alliance comes to power, they would divide the country on religious lines....we have to keep the country together....is it good to divide Indians? he asked the gathering. Accusing the INDI alliance and "Congress' shehzade" (an apparent reference to MP Rahul Gandhi) of doing politics of appeasement, Modi claimed Karnataka had become a “laboratory” of giving OBC quota to Muslims.

Source: hindustantimes.com

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https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/sharad-pawar-reacts-as-pm-narendra-modi-slams-congress-for-hindu-muslim-politics-101715819781418.html

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Don’t fall for his ploy: Priyanka on PM Modi’s ‘Hindu-Muslim’ remark

May 16, 2024

Lucknow/Rae Bareli: Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “Hindu-Musalman” remark.

“This is what he (PM) has been doing for the past 10 years. He cannot (now) start denying speeches he has given. He has given speeches in front of the whole world. How can he suddenly turn around and say he has not said those things?” said Priyanka while speaking at a nukkad sabha in Rae Bareli.

Advising people not to fall in the PM’s ploy, she said: “Inki baton mein mat padiye, ye sivai jhoot ke kuchh nahi failate (Don’t fall for his talks. He doesn’t tell anything but lies).”

Priyanka also said that BJP was deeply involved in the politics of religion. “Instead of talking about your problems, the BJP leaders trick (people) in the name of religion,” said Priyanka.

In different nukkad sabhas, Priyanka reiterated that two kinds of politics were existing in the country. “One which is based in truth and devoted to the betterment of the people – something in which the Congress has believed and followed. The other was the one represented by BJP in which they play with your emotions, seek votes in the name of religion and remain in power without caring for voters,” she said.

Targeting the BJP over the electoral bonds issue, Gandhi said, “They call us corrupt. But the Congress party could not become a rich party in 55 years (it was in power), but the BJP has become the richest party in the world within 10 years.”

Priyanka also attacked the BJP candidate from Rae Bareli and alleged that he was threatening the village heads to mobilise support for him.

Recounting the Congress’ promises made in its ‘Nyay Patra’, Gandhi said a government led by her party will work for women, farmers and youth who have been neglected by the BJP.

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Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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North America

 

Mike Lindell Shares Claim About Islamic Symbol on State Flag

May 15, 2024

Minnesota officially adopted its new state flag on Saturday, but some conservatives say it features an Islamic symbol.

Conservatives, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former New York City Council candidate Jacqueline Toboroff, have since linked the eight-pointed star symbol on the flag to Islamic imagery because of its resemblance to stars seen on flags of some Muslim-majority countries.

The flag's designer and other proponents said the eight-pointed star was chosen for its representation of the North Star, aligning with Minnesota's identity as the North Star State.

The state recently replaced its flag in an effort to address issues of the previous design that brought up the conquest and displacement of Native Americans. The flag design adopted in December includes a dark blue shape resembling Minnesota on the left, with a white, eight-pointed North Star on it. The flag also features, on the right, a light blue field that symbolizes the waters that help define the Land of 10,000 Lakes, according to the design commission.

The commission, featuring design experts and members of communities of color, was tasked with finding an appropriate design for the new flag. After four months considering more than 2,100 submissions from the public, the commission picked one by Andrew Prekker, 24, of Luverne, as the base design.

Speaking on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast on Wednesday, Toboroff, a writer who ran for New York City Council as a Republican in 2021, continued to refer to the flag as an "Islamic flag," adding that the state has been "conquered."

"They decided to raise this Islamic flag," said Toboroff, an author, activist and podcast host. "They told Marines and [the] deputy chief of the Minnesota GOP that it was to reflect the new immigrants who are Somali Muslim....Minnesota has been conquered. It is now Islamist, and that's what's going on."

However, according to the Associated Press, the flag does not resemble that of Somalia or its Puntland region. While the original design and part of the Puntland flag is light blue, the Somali national flag is a solid light blue with a white, five-pointed star in the center.

Lindell, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, also spoke on Bannon's podcast about the flag and called it "catastrophic."

"This goes back to when all the Somalis came in," he said. "This has been a fight here, Steve. What they've done with this flag is absolutely catastrophic."

However, Democratic state Senator Mary Kunesh praised the design.

Kunesh, a chief author of the bill that launched the redesign and a nonvoting member of the commission, said in a statement that designs and public debate showed that Minnesotans care deeply about the state.

It was an incredible experience to see our community's energy and passion captured in the beautiful designs they submitted," Kunesh said. "From loons and wild rice to water and the North Star, we have captured the essence of our state in the new flag and seal. These designs honor our history and celebrate the future of Minnesota."

Source: newsweek.com

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https://www.newsweek.com/minnesota-new-flag-symbol-1901160?piano_t=1

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Progressive Muslim challenges incumbent in US Congress over Gaza policies

16 May, 2024

Imraan Siddiqi, the son of Indian immigrants to the US, has been involved in civil rights most of his life -- from seeing racial inequality in the South to the post 9/11 era to the Muslim ban under the last administration. But he says it was the US support for Israel's ongoing war on Gaza that made him want to run for Congress.

As executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the state of Washington, Siddiqi has been inundated with reports of anti-Muslim bias since Israel's war on Gaza began in October (he is taking a sabbatical from his position at CAIR to run for office). In addition, he was living in a district where the representative, Kim Schrier, a Democrat, was not vocally advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza.

"I wasn't anticipating running in 2024, but the situation in Gaza has impacted our community. This is a moment where people of conscience all over the world are standing up," Siddiqi told The New Arab on Wednesday, the day his campaign officially launched.

Since 7 October, when Hamas led a surprise attack on Israel, killing around 1,150 Israeli civilians and military personnel; Israeli land, sea, and air attacks throughout the besieged costal enclave have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The majority of the densely populated enclave has been displaced and a lack of access to aid is leading to widespread famine.

So far, nearly 100 members of Congress have called for a ceasefire in Gaza, including at least three from the state of Washington. Shrier is not among them. In fact, she voted to defund UNRWA, the Palestinian relief agency, reasons for Siddiqi to take his chance in this Democratic primary in August.

"People are dissatisfied, particularly in the district where I'm running. We were told we'd have to vote for Kim Shrier to maintain the Democratic [seat]. They're putting pressure on minorities because the alternative is so horrible," he said.

"When you look at the reality on the ground, there has really been callousness towards Muslim constituents," he added.

Siddiqi's interest in civil rights started as a child growing up in the southeast, where he wrote opinion pieces for different newspapers. He eventually made his way to Arizona, where he joined the board of CAIR and later became executive director of the organisation's Arizona chapter.

In Arizona, he joined with Hispanic civil rights advocates to oppose the border wall being advanced by then-president Donald Trump. He was also a plaintiff in the first lawsuit against Trump's Muslim ban.

"I've stood in the face of hate. I feel I'm up to the challenge," Siddiqi said.

In addition to his platform on civil rights, he said he also wants to focus on affordable housing, healthcare and income inequality. If elected, he would be the first Muslim of Indian descent to serve in the US Congress.

Source: newarab.com

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https://www.newarab.com/news/progressive-muslim-challenges-us-congress-incumbent-gaza

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Muslim, Jewish voters leaning away from the federal Liberals as Gaza war grinds on: poll

A new poll suggests Muslim and Jewish voters are leaning away from the federal Liberals in voting intentions — a possible sign that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's efforts to straddle gaps in public opinion over the Israel-Hamas war are falling short.

The new poll of voting intentions by the Angus Reid Institute says the federal NDP is leading the Liberals among Muslim voters 41 per cent to 31 per cent, while the federal Conservatives are beating the Liberals among Jewish voters 42 per cent to 33 per cent.

"This does feel to the Liberals, in terms of their outreach around diaspora politics, to now be a fairly untenable situation," Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, told CBC News.

"The Jewish diaspora is now saying, 'You haven't gone far enough in condemning Hamas and condemning the violence and stopping antisemitism in Canada.' And you've got pro-Palestinian voters and populations, many of whom are Muslim, obviously saying, 'You haven't gone far enough to condemn the Israeli Defence Forces for its counterattack in Gaza.'"

The data shows only 15 per cent of Muslims polled say they would vote for the Conservatives, while just 20 per cent of Jewish voters say they would support the New Democrats.

Kurl said that under Trudeau's leadership, the Liberals have made a concerted effort to appeal to Muslim voters since 2015, when the Conservatives under Stephen Harper ran an election campaign that included controversial promises like a ban on the niqab and a "barbaric cultural practices" tip line.

An Environics Institute poll looking back on that election found 65 per cent of Muslims who said they voted cast their ballots for the Liberals, while only 10 per cent voted for the NDP.

"We saw the Liberals go out and court Muslims in Canada to vote Liberal," Kurl said.

She said the Liberals appear to be feeling the fallout from trying to appease both Muslim and Jewish voters since Hamas's attack on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023. Israeli officials say up to 1,200 Israelis were killed and 253 were taken hostage in that attack. Health authorities in Gaza say the Israeli military operation launched in response has killed almost 35,000 people.

In December, CBC News reported a group representing influential Canadian Muslim donors was leaving the top donor ranks of the Liberal Party, citing Trudeau's disinclination at the time to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The government started to call for a ceasefire a few days later after that announcement.

In February, hundreds of mosques and Muslim organizations co-signed a letter telling Canadian MPs not to appear at mosques during Ramadan unless they were willing to openly call out Israel for "war crimes" or demand the government stop sending weapons to Israel.

The Liberals have pointed out that they have not exported lethal aid to Israel since the start of this latest conflict and also voted in favour of a heavily amended NDP motion that called on Canada to "cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel."

That motion outraged many Jewish-Canadians. "We are deeply disappointed that the Liberal government has chosen to effectively sub-contract Canadian foreign policy to anti-Israel radicals within the NDP and the Bloc Québécois," the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said in a media statement at the time.

No party leader making a dent with either group

Angus Reid also polled respondents on their opinions of Trudeau, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. Fifty-one per cent of Muslims said their opinion of Trudeau had "worsened recently," according to the Institute, while a similar share, 47 per cent, said the same about Poilievre.

Forty-seven per cent of Muslim respondents said their opinion of Singh had not changed.

Among Jewish voters, 49 per cent said their opinion of Trudeau had worsened; a slightly lower number, 38 per cent, said the same of Singh. A quarter of Jewish respondents said their opinion of Poilievre had improved, but 31 per cent reported the opposite.

By law, the next federal election must be held by October 2025.

As with most recent polls since last summer, this latest one shows the Conservatives would be in a comfortable position to form a majority government if an election were held today.

Kurl said the data held no big surprises, given recent events. "You just see the hill that the Liberals now have to climb, or call it the corner they have painted themselves into," she said.

Editor's note: The Angus Reid Institute survey was conducted online from April 19-23, 2024 among 3,459 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. A probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

From April 19 to May 9, the Institute also polled 166 Canadian Muslim, 164 Canadian Hindu, 165 Canadian Jewish and 118 Canadian Sikh adults online. These samples are not included in the general population sample.

Source: cbc.ca

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/muslim-jew-gaza-liberal-party-angus-reid-1.7205410

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Blaine Islamic school, mosque gets planning commission's OK

MAY 15, 2024

On a unanimous vote, the Blaine Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a nonprofit group's request to rezone a parcel of property it recently bought so it can operate a private kindergarten through eighth grade school on the site.

The recommendation now goes to the City Council, which will decide the fate of the proposed East Blaine Mosque and Academy that would occupy the defunct Minnesota School of Business building adjacent to I-35W near Lexington Avenue. The issue is expected to be on the agenda June 3.

Chris Heinze, an attorney representing the nonprofit East Blaine Community Center, said the 46,000-square-foot building, empty for the past seven years, is a perfect place for mosque and school since it has few neighbors and is located away from residential areas.

"Using this building for a meeting and gathering space for members of the community is specifically what the comprehensive plan demands," he told commission members.

Current zoning allowed for a mosque, but not an elementary school on the site at 3680 Pheasant Ridge Drive. Moving the land into a "development flex" designation allows for the school.

Heinze has said Blaine has several Christian schools but no Islamic schools, even as the Twin Cities' Muslim population has grown, especially in the northern suburbs.

Source: startribune.com

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https://www.startribune.com/blaine-islamic-school-mosque-gets-planning-commissions-ok/600366193/

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CAIR Calls on CBP to End Apparent Targeting of American Muslim for Palestine (AMP) Staffer

May 15, 2024

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to take steps “to ensure Mr. [Taher] Herzallah’s future experiences with CBP exclude the apparent targeting of Mr. Herzallah based on his political beliefs.”

Taher Herzallah, is a U.S. citizen who serves as a senior director of the non-profit advocacy organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). In 2022 and in recent weeks he has faced alleged racist and abusive treatment after being pulled into secondary screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor wrote, in part:  

“Herzallah was returning to the US on April 28 through Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). He reports to us that he was pulled into secondary screening after CBP staff conducted a routine scan of his passport. An apparent flag may have appeared on the agent’s screen after that scan.  He cooperated well beyond what was needed to demonstrate he is a citizen eligible to reenter the U.S. Despite this cooperation, he was informed that if he declined to answer questions, CBP was empowered to deny him permission to board his flight. Instead, he would be compelled to go to a land entry point where it’s reasonable to assume he would be subjected to the same abusive and threatening treatment. Mr. Herzallah continued cooperating up until one of the CBP agents said something to the effect of ‘so you are organizing those Palestine protests.’ An American citizen’s political viewpoints and participation in our democratic processes are not legitimate subjects for assessing reentry into the nation.”

READ CAIR’S LETTER.

In 2022, CAIR reported that Herzallah was pulled into secondary, apparently on sight and asked about his AMP co-workers and activism, the agent confiscated his phone, detained him for four hours without reason, and even asked him, “where did you learn to speak English so well?”

The CBP agent revealed that he had conducted significant research into Mr. Herzallah and his organization and that he had been planning to target Mr. Herzallah in advance of his arrival at Dulles. After four hours, CBP released Mr. Herzallah in response to his complaints.

In its recent 2024 Civil Rights Report, CAIR revealed that it received 8,061 complaints across the country, which is the highest number of complaints ever reported to the organization in its 30-year history.

Source: cair.com

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https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-calls-on-cbp-to-end-apparent-targeting-of-american-muslim-for-palestine-amp-staffer/

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US military says Gaza Strip pier project is completed, aid to soon flow as Israel-Hamas war rages on

May 16, 2024

WASHINGTON: The US military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after US President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in as Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border.

Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the maritime route is designed to bolster the amount of aid getting into the Gaza Strip, but it is not considered a substitute for far cheaper land-based deliveries that aid agencies say are much more sustainable. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups.

US troops will not set foot in Gaza, American officials insist, though they acknowledge the danger of operating near the war zone.

Heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of Rafah has displaced some 600,000 people, a quarter of Gaza’s population, UN officials say. Another 100,000 civilians have fled parts of northern Gaza now that the Israeli military has restarted combat operations there.

Pentagon officials said the fighting in Gaza wasn’t threatening the new shoreline aid distribution area, but they have made it clear that security conditions will be monitored closely and could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily. Already, the site has been targeted by mortar fire during its construction and Hamas has threatened to target any foreign forces who “occupy” the Gaza Strip.

The “protection of US forces participating is a top priority. And as such, in the last several weeks, the United States and Israel have developed an integrated security plan to protect all the personnel who are working,” said Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, a deputy commander at the US military’s Central Command. “We are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved.”

Israeli forces will be in charge of security on the shore, but there are also two US Navy warships near the area in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Paul Ignatius. Both ships are destroyers equipped with a wide range of weapons and capabilities to protect American troops off shore and allies on the beach.

Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza and fuel is dwindling, which will force hospitals to shut down critical operations and halt truck deliveries of aid. The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israel assault on Rafah, which is on the border with Egypt near the main aid entry points, would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a disastrous surge in civilian casualties.

More than 1.4 million Palestinians — half of Gaza’s population — have been sheltering in Rafah, most after fleeing Israel’s offensives elsewhere.

The first cargo ship loaded with 475 pallets of food left Cyprus last week to rendezvous with a US military ship, the Roy P. Benavidez, which is off the coast of Gaza. The pallets of aid on the MV Sagamore were moved onto the Benavidez. The Pentagon said moving the aid between ships was an effort to be ready so it could flow quickly once the pier and the causeway were installed.

The installation of the pier several miles (kilometers) off the coast and of the causeway, which is now anchored to the beach, was delayed for nearly two weeks because of bad weather and high seas. The sea conditions made it too dangerous for US and Israeli troops to secure the causeway to the shore and do other final assembly work, US officials said.

According to a defense official, the Sagamore’s initial shipment was estimated to provide enough to feed 11,000 people for one month. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.

Military leaders have said the deliveries of aid will begin slowly to ensure the system works. They will start with about 90 truckloads of aid a day through the sea route, and that number will quickly grow to about 150 a day. But aid agencies say that isn’t enough to avert impending famine in Gaza and must be just one part of a broader Israeli effort to open land corridors.

Biden used his State of the Union address on March 7 to order the military to set up a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza, establishing a sea route to deliver food and other aid. Food shipments have been backed up at land crossings amid Israeli restrictions and intensifying fighting.

Under the new sea route, humanitarian aid is dropped off in Cyprus where it will undergo inspection and security checks at Larnaca port. It is then loaded onto ships — mainly commercial vessels — and taken about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the large floating pier built by the US military off the Gaza coast.

There, the pallets are transferred onto trucks, driven onto smaller Army boats and then shuttled several miles (kilometers) to the floating causeway, which has been anchored onto the beach by the Israeli military. The trucks, which are being driven by personnel from another country, will go down the causeway into a secure area on land where they will drop off the aid and immediately turn around and return to the boats.

Aid groups will collect the supplies for distribution on shore, with the UN working with the US Agency for International Development to set up the logistics hub on the beach.

Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters that the project will cost at least $320 million, including the transportation of the equipment and pier sections from the United States to the coast of Gaza, as well as the construction and aid delivery operations.

Source: arabnews.com

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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2511166/world

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Africa

 

Niger Imams Back Orphans Mass Weddings, Warn Tinubu’s Women Affairs Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye

16th May 2024

The Niger State Council of Imams has given the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy- Ohannaya, a one-week ultimatum to withdraw her comments condemning the plan by the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, to sponsor the mass weddings of  100 girls of marriage age in his constituency, who are either orphans or their parents are too poor to fund their weddings.

The Secretary of the Imam Council in the state, Umar Abdullahi, made this known at a press conference on Wednesday, where he warned the minister not to overstep her bounds.

Abdullahi said the Niger Imam Council viewed the minister’s utterances as capable of causing a crisis in the state and the country in general.

The minister had on Tuesday in Abuja condemned the planned mass weddings, saying it was a violation of the Child Rights Act.

Kennedy-Ohanenye disclosed that she had petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to stop the weddings, adding that she had also filed a suit, seeking a restraining injunction against the Niger Speake.

“The actions proposed by the Speaker are utterly unacceptable to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and the government at large. We are duty-bound to uphold the Child’s Rights Act and ensure the welfare and future prospects of these girls,” Kennedy-Ohanenye declared at a press conference.

Reacting, however, on Tuesday, the Niger Speaker lambasted the minister, saying she was dabbling into an issue she had no understanding of.

Sarkindaji, while addressing journalists in his chamber in Minna,  said he had withdrawn his support for the wedding but would not withdraw the monetary donations made to the parents of the girls to facilitate the wedding.

He lambasted the minister for her alleged ignorance, saying she did not know anything about the circumstances that confronted the girls, which made it necessary for their weddings to be sponsored.

Sarkindaji described as unfortunate and embarrassing the minister’s actions of blowing the whole matter out of proportion without first finding out from him the motive behind his gesture.

Backing the Speaker on Wednesday, the Niger Council of Imams warned the minister to steer clear of religious and cultural matters and face her ministerial assignment.

The Imams insisted that no amount of court action would stop the wedding from taking place as planned for May 24.

The council secretary said, “The planned weddings have the blessing of all the religious and traditional leaders from the area. The sponsor of the wedding consulted widely before accepting to take the responsibility and we are strongly behind him.

“The girls are not underage and they are not being forced into the marriage as the minister has made the public to believe. This is what the minister failed to investigate.”

The Imam council urged all other well-meaning individuals in the society to emulate the kind gesture of the Speaker and render similar assistance to other intending couples in the area.

Similarly, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Jonathan Vatsa, advised the Minister of Women Affairs to steer clear of the planned wedding of 100 orphans in the state.

Vatsa, a former Commissioner for Information and Tourism in Niger State, speaking at a media parley on Wednesday, said the minister was fighting a lost battle.

“The parents of these girls will go ahead and marry out their daughters as planned, whether the speaker is involved or not. The parents have the right to do so under the Islamic and Hausa traditions.

“No amount of threat of court action can stop these parents from giving out their daughters in marriage, after receiving the necessary support.

“Instead of sitting in Abuja and issuing threats of court action, the minister should have done her investigation first to know if these girls have attained the age of marriage by law, or if they were being forced into the marriage, before going on air to threaten the speaker who is merely offering assistance.

“You cannot just sit in an air-conditioned office in Abuja and be threatening people without knowing what these orphans are going through, after losing their parents to insecurity and for those whose parents cannot afford their marriage expenses though they have attained the age of marriage.

Source: punchng.com

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From combatting hate speech to recognition of Muslim marriages, these are the bills Ramaphosa has now made law

CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa this week signed a few bills into law, from laws dealing with combatting hate crimes to those governing divorce and Muslim marriages.

While Ramaphosa signed bills into law, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) also adopted several bills which now also await the president’s signature.

On Tuesday, Ramaphosa assented into law the Prevention and Combatting of Hate Crimes and Speech Bill, which has been widely welcomed.

PREVENTION AND COMBATTING OF HATE CRIMES AND SPEECH BILL

The bill defines a hate crime as an offence committed where the offender is motivated by prejudice or intolerance towards the victim of the crime.

The new law now makes it clear the grounds that could constitute a hate crime.

It says these include age, albinism, birth, colour, culture, disability, ethnic or social origin, gender or gender identity, HIV status and even language.

The bill also provides for penalties such as fines, imprisonment, or both, for those who are convicted of the offences.

COSATU's parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks, welcomed the bill, saying it allowed space for robust engagements within "fair legal parameters". 

"It affirms the need to protect ordinary citizens from hate crimes and hate speech. It is a progressive response by the African National Congress-led government to address our still painful wounds," said Parks.

DIVORCE AMENDMENT BILL

President Ramaphosa this week also signed into law the Divorce Amendment Bill, which amends the Divorce Act of 1979 to recognise Muslim marriages.

The new law now protects the interests of Muslim women and children of Muslim marriages if the marriage is dissolved.

The bill was in response to an earlier Constitutional Court judgment which called for the need to protect Muslim women and children of Muslim marriages, particularly when the marriage ends.

The amendment addressed shortcomings in the Divorce Act, which differentiated between people married in terms of the Marriage Act and people married according to Muslim rites, especially women.

Ramaphosa explained that currently, Muslim couples who choose to marry according to Islamic law can only be afforded the statutory protection of the South African legal system as it pertains to civil spouses if they, in addition to their marriage under Islamic law, register a civil marriage.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES BILLS

The National Council of Provinces this week also managed to pass several bills before the current parliamentary term ends in just over a week.

These include the National Nuclear Regulator Amendment Bill.

Parliament said that the amendment bill seeks to align the National Nuclear Regulator Act with current international regulatory best practices.

"This is necessary because South Africa is one of the founding members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is a signatory to various international conventions governing nuclear safety that have been promulgated under the auspices of the IAEA," said Parliament.

The Public Procurement Bill also got a green light in the NCOP. The Western Cape was the only province to oppose the bill.

The bill aims to reform the tender system and introduce a broad preferential procurement framework for procurement by organs of state and includes sections.

The bill will also see the establishment of a Public Procurement Office under the National Treasury to handle all procurement matters.

Lawmakers also adopted the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account (GFECRA) Defrayal Amendment Bill.

The GFECRA Defrayal Amendment Bill was first tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in February.

During the Budget speech, Godongwana said that National Treasury would tap into R150 billion from GFECRA over three years to stabilise the nation’s debt.

Source: ewn.co.za

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https://www.ewn.co.za/2024/05/15/from-combatting-hate-speech-to-recognition-of-muslim-marriages-these-are-the-bills-ramaphosa-has-now-made-law

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South Africa seeks halt to Israel’s Rafah offensive at World Court

May 16, 2024

THE HAGUE: South Africa will ask the top UN court on Thursday to order a halt to the Rafah offensive as part of its case in The Hague accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, come after South Africa last week asked for additional emergency measures to protect Rafah, a southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians have been sheltering.

It also asked the court to order Israel to allow unimpeded access to Gaza for UN officials, organizations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators. It added that Israel has so far ignored and violated earlier court orders.

On Thursday, South Africa will present its latest intervention seeking emergency measures starting at 3 p.m.(1300 GMT).

Israel, which has denounced South Africa’s claim that it is violating the 1949 Genocide Convention as baseless, will respond on Friday. In previous filings it stressed it had stepped up efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza as the ICJ had ordered.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told Army Radio on Wednesday the short notice the court gave for the hearings did not allow sufficient legal preparation, adding that was “a telling sign.”

The Israel-Hamas war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 taken hostage on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched the attack that started the war, according Israeli tallies.

South Africa accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians. In January, the court ordered Israel to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, allow in more humanitarian aid and preserve any evidence of violations.

The hearings on May 16 and 17 will only focus on issuing emergency measures, to keep the dispute from escalating. It will likely take years before the court can rule on the merits of the case.

The ICJ’s rulings and orders are binding and without appeal. While the court has no way to enforce them, an order against a country could hurt its international reputation and set legal precedent.

Source: arabnews.com

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Europe

 

Calls mount on Polish government to expel Israeli envoy

May 15, 2024

WARSAW: Polish activists on Wednesday submitted a nationwide petition for the government to immediately expel the Israeli ambassador over war crimes in Gaza.

Protests against Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian enclave have been a regular occurrence in Poland since the beginning of the onslaught in October.

One of the main groups organizing the rallies and meetings to extend political pressure, and bring Poles closer to Palestinian history and culture, is the initiative Wschod — a movement of young activists dedicated to social justice.

Wschod’s petition to expel the Israeli envoy, Yacov Livne, from Poland, was signed by 7,931 people as of Wednesday.

“I believe that the petition is an important signal to the Polish government from the Polish people,” Zofia Hecht, a member of Wschod, told Arab News as the activists submitted the petition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw.

“There is a large group of people who really do not agree with what Israel is doing to Palestinians, and that we do not agree to normalize relations with such a terrorist entity that is Israel.”

Poland recognizes Palestinian statehood and has voted in favor of the UN’s recent resolutions to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and to recognize backing Palestine’s bid for permanent membership status.

A close ally of the US, the Polish government has avoided vocal criticism of Tel Aviv and its war on Gaza, where Israeli forces have over the past seven months killed at least 35,000 people — a large majority women and children — and injured 80,000 more.

UN agencies and experts have repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The International Court of Justice in January also found it plausible that Tel Aviv’s actions in the enclave could amount to genocide.

“We think that the previous actions taken by the Polish government to prevent the Israeli genocide in Gaza were not sufficient,” said Emil Al-Khawaldeh, Wschod’s Palestine campaign coordinator.

“We expect the Polish government to at least respond to our petition signed by almost 8,000 people, and to meet our demands to expel the Israeli ambassador.”

The petition was created when Poles began to pay more attention to Gaza after the killing of a Polish national, Damian Sobol, who was one of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers targeted and killed by Israeli troops in early April.

“In April, when Israel killed a Polish citizen, the Israeli ambassador took to Twitter to publish accusations of antisemitism,” Al-Khawaldeh said, citing Livne’s posts, which included labeling a Polish parliament deputy speaker as an “antisemite” for publicly charging Israel with war crimes.

“Until now, the Israeli ambassador has neither apologized for his own words nor, on behalf of the state of Israel, for murdering a Polish citizen,” he added.

Wschod’s petition to the government says that “there is no place” in Poland for an ambassador of a “state committing genocide” and demands that he be “immediately” expelled.

“It is absurd that in a country historically affected by genocide, hatred and hostility, we allow the holding of office by a person who represents the government of a country committing war crimes against innocent Palestinian civilians,” it reads.

About 6 million Polish citizens, including 3 million Polish Jews, were killed by German forces during the invasion and occupation of Poland in the Second World War. The occupation policies have been recognized in Europe as a genocide.

Eight decades later, as Poles unite and take to the streets to prevent a genocide of another people, Al-Khawaldeh, who is Polish Palestinian, and Hecht, who is Jewish, said that they have faced accusations of antisemitism.

The accusations regularly come from the Israeli ambassador, who, in a radio interview in November, went as far as to compare the Polish peace activists to Nazis.

“We’ve been holding peaceful marches in Warsaw and there’s been no single security incident. But in November, the Israeli ambassador compared the marches to Nazi rallies ... he compared us with the Nazi Germany of the 1930s,” Al-Khawaldeh said.

“Polish Jews are also protesting with us. They are organizing protests in Poland, peaceful protests, they are also having wonderful speeches against Israeli war crimes, against Israeli genocide in Gaza. This accusation is absurd.”

Source: arabnews.com

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Keep Your Terrorists Close: Why Russia Treats Some Islamic Fundamentalists As Friends And Others As Enemies

8 April 2024

On Russian federal TV channels, daily calls for the mass killing of peaceful Ukrainians and the destruction of Ukrainian cities reverberate. Security forces openly subject suspects to torture and mutilation on camera, while the state media do not hesitate to broadcast these recordings. This brazen state terror is not only aligning Russia with the likes of North Korea and Iran, but also with non-state terrorist organizations. Many of these groups have indeed become official allies of Russia.

The Shiite Axis: Hezbollah and the Houthis

In 2015, Russia entered the war in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad's forces. The government side under the dictator’s control had been worn down by years of fighting, and also by rampant desertions. Consequently, various Shiite formations sponsored and armed by Iran became Russia's key allies in the fight to maintain Assad in power. A victory for the rebels in the Syrian civil war would have threatened Iran with the loss of its main ally in the Arab world. Therefore, Tehran spared no expense, deploying Iraqi Shiites influenced by Iran's religious propaganda, Shiite refugees from Afghanistan forcibly turned into cannon fodder, Iranian volunteers brainwashed by their own regime’s official ideology, and professional soldiers in the fight to sustain Assad's Tehran-friendly regime. The most prominent among these Shiite formations was the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

While recognized as a terrorist organization in many democratic countries, Hezbollah is considered a reliable partner in Moscow. The group engages in assassinations of diplomats, hijackings of planes, bombings in crowded places, hostage-taking, and likely even drug trafficking, Hezbollah established close ties with Russia from the start of the Russian military presence in Syria — ties that now extend far beyond purely military cooperation and include joint operations with a shadow tanker fleet distributing sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil worldwide, money laundering from criminally obtained funds, and other outright mafia-style activities.

And it’s not only in Syria that Russia has partnered with pariah Shiite organizations. The Yemeni group Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthis, is funded through monetary transfer schemes created by Russia and Hezbollah. Ansar Allah engages in abductions, deportations, torture, and executions of unarmed individuals, glorifying its terrorist acts as part of a stated belief in their supposed special mission. Russia traditionally blocks UN Security Council resolutions aimed at imposing sanctions on the Houthis, and even attempted to challenge the inclusion of the group on an American-made list of terrorist organizations.

At the UN, Russia even attempted to challenge the inclusion of the group in the American-made list of terrorist organizations

These unsavory relationships began well before Russia’s Feb. 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but as Moscow’s military aggression has further isolated the country from the civilized world, its ties to rogue regimes and non-state actors have only grown closer. The Houthis have already been designated by Russian propaganda as one of Moscow’s main allies in the supposed “struggle for a multipolar world.”

Part of that “struggle” involves the Houthis’ asymmetrical response to Israel's military actions against Hamas. In an attempt to pressure Western nations into withdrawing support for Israel, Iranian-supplied missiles fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen have targeted several commercial ships transiting the Red Sea. However, the group has pledged not to target Russian vessels, once again demonstrating the depth of their bond with Moscow. Notably, China has also found itself included on the Houthis' “white list,” likely due to its overtly neutral stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hamas

Starting in Soviet times, Moscow provided extensive military, economic, and diplomatic backing to Israel's Middle Eastern adversaries, including to key players on the Palestinian side of the conflict. Soviet officials viewed the Jewish state as a conduit for Western expansion into Arab territories and thus deemed it hostile.

The USSR supplied Syria and Egypt, Israel's primary regional rivals, with thousands of tanks, aircraft, and artillery. Support in the form of small arms, explosives, propaganda materials, and military training also flowed to the Palestinians, who lacked a formal army but operated underground militant factions. After Israel’s victory over Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Iraqi forces in the 1967 Six-Day War, Moscow broke off diplomatic ties with Israel and did not resume them until the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.

However, the warming of relations with Israel did not spoil Moscow’s friendship with Jerusalem’s Palestinian adversaries — Hamas foremost among them. Not even revelations of the group's support for anti-Russian activities in the North Caucasus. or Hamas leaders’ encouragement of Russian Muslims to engage in jihad against their country of citizenship, could break the bond.

Hamas militants

Despite condemnation of Hamas's terrorist activities, Russia refrained from categorizing the group as terrorists. Since the mid-2000s, Hamas delegations have made regular visits to Moscow, and during his presidency, Dmitry Medvedev personally met with the organization's chief politburo member, Khaled Mashal, in Damascus.

Russia has refrained from categorizing them as terrorists

According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russians supplied weapons to Hamas that were later used in the October 2023 attack on Israel; these included Western arms seized as trophies on the battlefields of Ukraine. Additionally, Hamas representatives claimed that, with Moscow's permission, the production of Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition was established in Gaza.

The Russian delegation to the UN regularly blocks anti-Hamas resolutions in the Security Council and generally advocates for the terrorist group on the international stage. For Russia, a state almost officially obsessed with anti-Americanism, the anti-Western Hamas is a natural ally. Just as it did in the mid-20th century, Moscow is now willing to support any opponent of the United States, regardless of how ruthless that opponent may be or of how problematic cooperation with them might become.

Moscow is now willing to support any opponent of the United States, regardless of how ruthless that opponent may be

It is possible that the Russian leadership would like to increase its influence over Hamas, aligning the terrorist group’s interests with Moscow’s own — for instance, by fomenting conflict in the Middle East in order to divert attention from Russian actions in Ukraine. However, Hamas is certainly not a puppet of Moscow. This is evidenced, for example, by the failure of Moscow's efforts to reconcile Hamas with other Palestinian factions, Fatah chief among them. The most recent such attempt occurred at the end of February and ended without any resolution.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The open conflict between Fatah and Hamas began in 2007 when Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip. Since then, the competing Palestinian organizations have been locked in a cold war with each other. It is worth noting that Moscow also maintains warm relations with Fatah, which also have a lengthy history. The current chairman of the organization, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “The Secret Connection between Nazism and Zionism” in Moscow in the 1980s. The contents of this dissertation remain undisclosed.

The Taliban

When Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the Taliban group had not yet come into existence. At the time, its founders and ideologues were mostly located in neighboring Pakistan studying in Islamic schools (the term “Taliban” itself translates to “students”). Unlike the mujahideen who fought against the Soviets, the men who eventually formed the Taliban harbored no animosity towards Moscow, nor had they ever done so. In fact, it was largely Moscow's actions that inadvertently provided the Taliban with the opportunity to rise to power.

Effectively, it was Moscow that facilitated the Taliban's rise to power

Ultimately, the Soviet invasion led to the collapse of Afghanistan's fragile peace and the emergence of numerous armed factions that continued to fight amongst themselves following the USSR's departure. Throughout the 1990s, these various groups vied for influence but proved unable to withstand the challenge posed by the formidable and highly motivated “students,” who systematically dismantled or dispersed all rival mujahideen groups.

Until 2001, the Taliban controlled nearly all of Afghanistan's territory, with their regime falling only after the American invasion. The temporary demise of the Taliban did not provoke strong emotions in Moscow. For years, Russia had paid little attention to Afghanistan — a distant country with minimal influence on global affairs and the site of a humiliating military defeat for Moscow. This indifference may explain why Russia eventually followed the lead of the international community in designating the Taliban as terrorists. However, it didn't preclude Moscow from engaging in negotiations with them in 2018.

Taliban militants

Those negotiations may have been more for show than substance. After 2014, following its annexation of Crimea and hybrid occupation of the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region, Russia had been keen to portray itself as a reliable and indispensable partner on the world stage. It signaled willingness to join the American-led anti-ISIS coalition and offered to mediate in Afghan peace talks. Yet at the same time, Russia hoped the world would turn a blind eye to its actions in neighboring countries.

This charade continued until the Western coalition forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, swiftly followed by the Taliban's lightning takeover of the country. For Russia, this collapse of the Western-backed project in Afghanistan was a boon. Firstly, it fostered the belief that the U.S. would no longer play the role of a global policeman, a perception that may have nudged the Kremlin towards its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Secondly, during the American presence in Afghanistan, it became evident that the country was rich in valuable minerals simply awaiting extraction and export. The Taliban now control land potentially worth trillions of dollars, but they lack the means to exploit it. Russia is keen to secure concessions from the Taliban for the development of Afghanistan's mineral resources — and Russia is not alone in this pursuit.

The Taliban now control land potentially worth trillions of dollars but lack the means to exploit it

Neighboring countries including China and India have their sights set on the mineral reserves in Afghanistan, and they are scrambling to win favor with the Taliban in hopes of securing the most lucrative contracts. Delegations from various governments are making their way to Kabul, inviting the Taliban to conferences and intergovernmental meetings. Once-shuttered embassies, closed after the fall of the former Western-backed democratic regime, are reopening. Amidst all this activity, it is easy to overlook the fact that the Taliban have always been — and continue to be — a terrorist organization, known for extrajudicial executions, prisoner shootings, and persecution based on religious and gender criteria.

ISIS: no friendship forged

The Taliban's main adversaries in Afghanistan are dissatisfied with them not because the Taliban are excessively brutal or fanatical. Rather, they believe that the ruling regime lacks the necessary cruelty. These adversaries are known as “Wilayat Khorasan,” or ISIS-Khorasan. Khorasan refers to a vast historical region spanning Central Asia and the Middle East, including parts of modern-day Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. ISIS-Khorasan emerged several years ago when jihadist groups operating in some of these countries pledged allegiance to ISIS leader, Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi, who in June 2014 declared the establishment of a worldwide caliphate before dying in a U.S. special forces raid in 2019.

The goal of ISIS-Khorasan is to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan based on a strict interpretation of Sharia law. However, the Taliban are not allies in this endeavor. Despite the fact that many ISIS-Khorasan militants were once members of the Taliban, they have distanced themselves from their less radical former comrades.

ISIS militants

Much of this conflict stems from the Taliban's collaboration with foreign governments and their pursuit of international recognition (currently, no country in the world has recognized the Taliban government). In the value system of ISIS, there is no need for international acknowledgment of the caliphate. They consider only their Islamic state to be legitimate and, therefore, worthy of existence. In their view, all other nations must ultimately submit to the authority of the caliphate by abolishing their governing bodies and replacing their laws and constitutions with the Sharia code.

The Taliban not only seek recognition from those whom ISIS followers believe should not exist, but also actively engage with them. The Taliban's choice of international partners — atheist China, along with predominately Hindu (and therefore “polytheistic”) India — is completely unacceptable to ISIS. Then there's Russia, which targets Muslims (including ISIS members) in the North Caucasus and Syria, ranking high on ISIS's list of enemies.

Unlike the terrorist organizations Russia cooperates with, ISIS is driven solely by ideology. This places it in a separate category from Hezbollah, which not only amasses rockets to target Israel, but also participates in elections, appointing its deputies to the Lebanese parliament and ministers to the government. It differs from the opportunism of Hamas, ostensibly radical Sunnis who readily accept funds and weapons from non-Muslim Russians and Iranian Shiite heretics. It also contrasts with the calculated actions of the Taliban, who are willing to collaborate with “polytheists” for financial gain.

But there is one unifying principle. At the heart of modern Russia's ideology, along with those of all the terrorist groups listed above, lies one key trait: hatred. For some, it's hatred towards Ukrainians. For others, it’s hatred towards Israel specifically, or towards all non-believers in general. Still, only ISIS follows the path of pure, undiluted hatred, undistracted by any other motivation.

Source: theins.press

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UK announces $175 million humanitarian aid boost for Yemen

May 15, 2024

LONDON: The UK will significantly increase aid funding to Yemen aiming to feed more than 850,000 people in the war-torn country, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Wednesday.

New aid worth £139 million (around $175 million) to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was announced in a meeting between Cameron and Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak in London.

The aid will be delivered through partners such as the World Food Programme and Unicef, a statement read, and hopes to treat 700,000 severely malnourished children.

The move comes a week after the EU announced $125 million for NGOs and UN agencies working in Yemen, where more than half the 34 million population needs aid after nine years of war.

Nearly 200 aid groups called for more humanitarian aid this month to bridge a $2.3-billion shortfall in funds for Yemen.

Houthi rebel attacks on international shipping are also on the agenda in Cameron’s meeting with Bin Mubarak, who is Yemen’s former ambassador to the United States.

Cameron blamed the attacks on Red Sea shipping for aggravating the humanitarian crisis “through blocking aid from reaching those who need it in northern Yemen.”

British and US forces have been carrying out joint strikes since January aimed at curbing the raids.

The attacks, which began in November, were found to affect more than half of British exporters in a British Chambers of Commerce report from February.

Yemen has been gripped by conflict following a 2014 coup by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which triggered a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the government the following year.

Hundreds of thousands have died from fighting and other indirect causes such as the lack of food, according to the UN.

While hostilities have remained at a low level since a six-month UN-brokered ceasefire came into force in 2022, threats including food insecurity and cholera remain rampant.

Source: arabnews.com

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Russia not ‘recruiting’ Indian citizens – Moscow

16 May, 2024

The Russian authorities are not “recruiting” citizens of India to sign contracts with the military, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

In response to a question from Indian media regarding videos of Indians allegedly deployed to the combat zone of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Zakharova stated that she does not have any information about these videos.

“As for recruitment, as you mentioned, none of the [Russian] officials are involved in this,” Zakharova said. She added that Moscow will look into “any specific information” it is provided with.

Last week, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced it had arrested four people for involvement in a major human trafficking network active across India, “targeting gullible youths on the promise of offering lucrative jobs abroad.”

“These traffickers have been operating as an organized network and were luring Indian nationals through social media channels like YouTube etc. and also through their local contacts/agents for highly paid jobs in Russia,” the CBI said in a statement. It added that people were recruited in India on the pretext of better employment, but were later trained and deployed to the combat zone “against their wishes.”

According to the investigators, the human trafficking network is spread over several states in India and beyond. One of the persons accused, identified as Nijil Jobi Bensam, was working in Russia on a contract basis as translator. He is believed to be a key member of the network which allegedly facilitated the recruitment of Indians in the Russian military.

The others, including one person based in Dubai, were allegedly involved in processing visas and booking flights for victims to travel to Russia. The CBI statement added that the investigation is continuing against others accused of being part of the international network of human traffickers.

The CBI busted the network in March and conducted searched across 13 locations in India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Ambala, Chandigarh, Madurai, and other cities. It has identified 17 visa consultancy companies which facilitated the process of recruiting and sending young people to Russia.

At the time, the CBI said it had recorded 35 instances of the conspiracy. However, media reports indicate that the total number of victims could be much higher.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs earlier stated that New Delhi is “very actively pursuing” the matter with Moscow. “We are committed to bring back all the people who so far have gotten in touch with us and want to be released and repatriated and returned back home,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said at a media briefing on April 25.

He added that ten people have already returned to India, noting that New Delhi has been “assured by the Russian side” that the other Indians will also be released and will return home.

Source: rt.com

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Pakistan

 

Reason Will Be People’s Votes If I Ever Become PM: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl Chief

May 15, 2024

MULTAN: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday said that it would be because of the "people's votes" if he ever becomes the prime minister as he ruled out reports of being offered the top slot.

“I will become the prime minister or president if the people vote for me,” Fazl said while speaking to journalists in Multan, adding that he was never presented with such an offer.

He wondered who would give him an offer to take the top slot.

Fazl — who was the head of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of multi-party alliance formed against the PTI-led government — said that the country would constantly move towards "slavery' if the nation didn’t protect the votes.

He said that the current government was extremely fragile as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was at the government benches but was not a part of the federal cabinet.

"The government will be in a problem the day the PPP has an issue," the veteran politician said. "I believe that there is no government."

Fazl further said that his party believed in democracy and sought the rule of law and the Constitution.

He said that he doesn’t have any personal enmity with the Imran Khan-founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which came into power after the 2018 general election.

"We do not do the politics of favouritism. If it were true, we would have been a part of the government," he added.

Continuing his criticism of the 2024 general election, Fazl said that the JUI-F started the campaign against the "rigged" polls even before the PTI.

"We do not accept such elections," he said, calling for a new election process.

The JUI-F chief also expressed solidarity with the farmers who suffered losses due to the recent wheat import by the government.

Moving on to the law-and-order situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Fazl claimed: "Muzaffarabad is slipping out of [Pakistan’s] hands in the quest for Srinagar."

He also lamented deteriorating ties with Afghanistan in the light of protests on the Pakistan-Afghan trade routes.

Speaking about negotiations with the PTI, the JUI-F chief said that he would encourage an environment for talks.

Source: thenews.com.pk

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PPP asks PTI to apologise over May 9 events 'or face consequences'

May 15, 2024

Slamming Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership over May 9 events, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari asked the Imran Khan-founded party to apologise over the "terrorism it committed on that day", otherwise, it would "face consequences".

"No one should be permitted to commit terrorism," Bilawal said while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on Wednesday. "The opposition leadership committed terrorism on May 9 by disrespecting the monuments of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country."

It is pertinent to mention here that the incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan, in an informal conversation with journalists in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on May 8 — a day before the first anniversary of the violent protests, turned down the military’s demand to apologise for the May 9 riots.

He also distanced his party from the violent protests that broke out in the country last year soon after his arrest.

Amid the opposition's lawmakers sloganeering, Bilawal — the former foreign minister — took a dig at the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) lawmakers.

He also urged the opposition party to avoid practising "double standards" in politics.

He described the opposition members of the PTI as "non-political and non-serious", lacking interest in the country's politics. He claimed that their leader was "crying" in jail for release.

Bilawal said that the PPP has been struggling to strengthen democratic institutions for three generations and this struggle for Pakistan would continue.

“They [PTI] want resolution of their personal issues. I want to condemn their non-serious attitude as on one side, they are claiming to struggle for the supremacy of the Pakistani Constitution, and on the other side, they are insisting on holding dialogues only with the establishment,” criticised Bilawal.

He said that the PTI-SIC leadership has no interest in democracy, nor the Constitution and the law, except for the redressal of their personal grievances.

Amid opposition lawmakers’ “Go Zardari Go slogans,” the PPP chief continued his speech after putting on headphones while several PPP lawmakers gathered around him to protect him from SIC MNAs’ protest.

He criticised the opposition’s behaviour, expressing dismay over their protests during the speech, which he believed sent the wrong message to the public and those witnessing the session.

He commended President Asif Ali Zardari for focusing on national issues in the speech and avoiding personal or political matters. He emphasised that as the representative of the federation, the president prioritised public concerns, emphasising unity, reconciliation, and collective progress.

He remarked that President Zardari recognised that the solution to Pakistan’s problems lies in dialogue among political forces.

During the address, he highlighted that both the federal government and the opposition should work together to address public issues collectively.

Bilawal advised the opposition to provide input in the upcoming budget, particularly during Pakistan’s current financial crisis.

He emphasised that despite drawing salaries, it is the responsibility of the opposition to actively participate as members of the House and contribute to the functioning of parliament.

He noted that the president delivered a brief speech covering both national and international policy issues, while the opposition leader’s opening speech was lengthy.

He suggested that it would have been more constructive if the opposition leader in the NA had used the opportunity to recommend alternatives to government policies and offer counter policies for consideration.

During his address to parliament, he remarked that President Zardari effectively articulated Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir and Palestine, providing a clear narrative.

He demanded the federal government announce special incentives for farmers in the upcoming budget and provide direct relief to small farmers by subsidising the agriculture sector.

Bilawal also called for the provision of subsidies to small farmers and landlords through the implementation of a “Kisan Card” system.

He urged the government to take decisive action to resolve the wheat import controversy and hold accountable those responsible during the interim set-up in the wheat import scandal.

Source: thenews.com.pk

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Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan gets bail but can’t leave jail

May 15, 2024

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was granted bail in Islamabad on Wednesday on land corruption charges but will have to stay in jail to serve time in two other cases, his lawyer said.

The former cricket superstar was indicted last week on charges that he and his wife were gifted land by a real estate developer when Khan was prime minister from 2018-22 in exchange for illegal favors.

Khan, who denies wrongdoing, had filed a bail application before Islamabad High Court.

His party lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjutha, confirmed the granting of bail on social media platform X but said Khan remained in custody after two convictions — one involving the leaking of state secrets and the other his marriage violating Islamic law.

Khan, 71, has been in jail since August last year. In total, he has been convicted in four cases, but sentences in two cases have been suspended.

Khan is named in dozens of cases, including charges of inciting violence against the state in the aftermath of his removal from office in 2022 in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.

His wife, Bushra Bibi, is also in jail serving time in a case related to unlawfully marrying Khan in 2018.

The case in which Khan was granted bail on Wednesday involves the Al-Qadir Trust, a non-governmental welfare organization set up by Khan and wife when he was still in office.

Prosecutors say the trust was a front for the former premier to receive land as a bribe from a real estate developer. The land includes 60 acres (24 hectares) near Islamabad and another large plot close to Khan’s hilltop mansion in the capital.

In a statement following the bail, Khan’s media team said the land was not for personal gain and Khan had set up a “religious and scientific” educational institution.

It added that the cases were filed to keep Khan in prison and prevent him from participating the Feb. 8 national elections.

Khan faced a string of convictions in the lead-up to the elections but his party-backed candidates still won the most seats. They did not have the numbers to form a government, which was led by an alliance of his rivals led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Source: arabnews.com

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No live stream as Imran appears before SC via video link in NAB laws case

May 16, 2024

The Supreme Court has resumed hearing a case about changes in the accountability laws as former prime minister Imran Khan appeared before it via video link as a petitioner in the matter.

The development comes after the SC on Tuesday, hearing the case about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws, had ordered the federal and Punjab governments to facilitate Imran’s appearance on Thursday via video link from Adiala jail.

Justice Athar Minallah — part of the five-member bench hearing the case — had stated that the top court could not deny an audience to the ex-premier if he wished to appear before it for the case.

Today, the bench — headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and also including Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Athar Minallah and Hasan Azhar Rizvi — resumed hearing the case.

According to Dawn.com correspondent, Imran appeared via video link dressed in blue. The PTI also shared a picture of the purported video call, with a laptop screen showing him seated in a room wearing a light-blue shirt, and seemingly uninterested as he rested his face on his hand.

While the previous hearing was broadcast live, today’s hearing is not.

If live-streamed, this was expected to be Imran’s first public appearance since his arrest from Zaman Park in August last year in the Toshakhana case despite reservations expressed by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar about the SC’s directives.

A day ago, a division bench of the Islamabad High Court granted the former premier bail in the £190 million case on “reasonable ground” while an Islamabad session court acquitted him in a 2022 case in connection with the Azadi March.

On the other hand, the PTI had expressed apprehensions about a visitors’ ban in the Adiala jail, saying the move was implemented to keep the party chief away from the SC proceedings.

Speaking at a press conference, PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan had claimed that over the past two days, Imran’s security guards were suddenly changed at midnight and the hearings in the Al-Qadir Trust, cipher, and Toshakhana cases were postponed under various excuses, while the government’s counsel in the Iddat case suddenly left the country.

The apex court is seized with a number of intra-court appeals (ICAs) moved by the federal government as well as by a private citizen Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui, who was an accused in a corruption case but not a party to the challenges to the NAB amendments case.

During today’s hearing, senior counsel Khawaja Haris, who earlier represented Imran Khan in the first round of litigation, appeared before the court for legal assistance while Makhdoom Ali Khan was present on behalf of the federal government.

The hearing

At the outset of the hearing, Haris came to the rostrum, at which the chief justice said the former was a counsel in the “original case”, hence his absence was upsetting. “We would also want to hear your stance,” the CJP said.

Justice Isa then asked, “Did you submit the bill for the fee as a lawyer?”, to which Haris replied that he did not need a fee. “You are a senior to all lawyers,” the CJP remarked.

When asked, Haris confirmed to CJP Isa that he would assist the court in the matter. Justice Isa then directed the lawyer to present his arguments loudly so that Imran could also hear on the video call.

Here, the federal government’s lawyer began presenting his arguments in the case, informing the apex court that the NAB amendment case was sub judice before the IHC.

“Was the petition pending before the high court accepted for hearing?” Justice Minallah asked, to which Makhdoom replied in the positive.

The chief justice then sought the complete records of the case in the IHC, including the order.

“What were the registrar office’s objections on the PTI founder’s plea back then?” Justice Minallah asked, to which Makhdoom responded that the petitioner had not approached any other forum for the matter.

The lawyer added that the SC had removed the objection and notices were issued to the respondents on July 19, 2022. Upon Justice Minallah asking how many hearings had taken place collectively in the main case, Makhdoom replied there were a total of 53.

CJP Isa asked why the case went on for an extended period, to which the government counsel replied that the petitioner took more time in presenting their arguments.

Here, Justice Mandokhail asked how much time it took to legislate the NAB laws in 1999. “The NAB laws were legislated within a month immediately after the martial law,” AGP Awan replied.

The chief justice then remarked, “It is very intriguing that the NAB amendment case was prolonged till 53 hearings.”

The NAB laws case

In 2022, amendments were made to the country’s accountability laws by the then-Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government.

The amendments made several changes to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, including reducing the term of the NAB chairman and prosecutor general to three years, limiting NAB’s jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million, and transferring all pending inquiries, investigations, and trials to the relevant authorities.

Subsequently, Imran had moved the apex court against the amendments, claiming that the changes to the NAB law were made to benefit the influential accused persons and legitimise corruption.

The petition had pleaded that the fresh amendments tend to scrap corruption cases against the president, prime minister, chief ministers and ministers and provide an opportunity to the convicted public office-holders to get their convictions undone.

In September last year, after 53 hearings, the SC announced its 2-1 verdict, ordering the restoration of corruption cases against public office holders that were withdrawn due to the amendments and declaring Imran’s plea to be maintainable.

The next month, a five-judge SC bench took up intra-court appeals (ICAs) against its Sept 15 judgment and stopped accountability courts from issuing a final verdict in graft cases.

In a subsequent hearing, CJP Isa had hinted that the proceedings could be started afresh if the counsel managed to “make a solid case” for the same, as earlier proceedings did not satisfy the requirements of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023.

It then resumed hearing the ICAs on Tuesday, ordering authorities to ensure Imran’s presence before the apex court via video link as he was a petitioner in the case.

Source: dawn.com

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In talks with Dar, China vows to ‘upgrade’ CPEC

May 16, 2024

BEIJING: China is ready to work with Pakistan to develop an “upgraded version” of the China-Pakis­tan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Pakistani counterpart on Wednesday.

In talks with Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s new deputy prime minister, Wang hailed the “ironclad” relationship between the neighbouring countries and pledged to advance CPEC, the South China Morning Post reported.

“Both sides should effectively implement the Framework Agreement on Industrial Cooperation, strengthening our cooperation in areas like industry, agriculture, mining, new energy and information technology,” Mr Yi said, citing a pact signed by the two nations in 2022, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout.

Both men co-chaired the fifth round of China- Pakistan Strategic Dia­logue, the Foreign Office said in a statement. Accor­ding to the Associated Press of Pakistan, the deputy prime minister described relations with China as the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

He also highlighted the threats posed to regional peace and security due to India’s illegal occupation of the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, and appreciated China’s principled stance on the dispute.

Mr Yi also hosted a lunch in honour of the deputy prime minister Dar, the Foreign Office said.

Both Mr Yi and Executive Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, who also met Mr Dar on Wednesday, called on Islamabad to ensure the safety and security of Chinese workers and investments in the country.

The Chinese foreign minister said that Bejing hoped “Pakistan will do its best to safeguard Chinese personnel in Pakistan and ensure the security of Chinese businesses and projects so they may continue their work in Pakistan without concern”.

“China’s determination to deepen cooperation with Pakistan will not waver,” Anadolu Agency quoted Mr Yi as saying.

“At the same time,” Mr Yi told Deputy PM Dar, “it is hoped that Pakistan will continue to make every effort to … eliminate the worries of Chinese enterprises and personnel.”

He also called for further deepening of counterterrorism security cooperation between the two countries.

In response, Mr Dar pledged greater efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of the March attack and to enforce the law to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals and projects in Pakistan. He also called for the international community to unite in a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of terrorism.

The two discussed the global economy and developments in the Middle East during the meeting, according to the Chinese readout.

During his meeting with Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, Mr Dar expressed condolences over the Shangla attack of March 26, assuring zero tolerance for the perpetrators of such crimes.

According to state broadcaster CCTV, Mr Xuexiang said during the meeting that China was willing to maintain high-level strategic communication with Pakistan and to ensure the CPEC’s development was “high quality”.

As per an FO statement, the two noted progress made by CPEC in the realms of energy and infrastructure, and expressed confidence over the positive dividends under phase two of the project in the fields of industry, agriculture and mineral development.

The two discussed connectivity through the Khunjerab border crossing and a simplified visa regime.

Source: dawn.com

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2nd phase of CPEC projects to spur growth in Pakistan's economy: Ahsan

May 16, 2024

Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has expressed the hope that phase II of CPEC will make Pakistan center of trade, commerce and business in the region, connecting about three billion people.      

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), he said second phase of CPEC projects will spur growth in Pakistan's economy with development in infrastructure, innovation, agriculture and livelihood sectors.    

The Minister said under livelihood projects, cooperation will be expanded in industrial and agricultural sector, enabling people to improve their livelihoods.

He also highlighted the projects under innovation corridor for developing digital technology and green corridor for transition to renewable energy.

To a question about security of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, Ahsan Iqbal reiterated Pakistan's assurance that no humanly possible effort will be spared is this regard as these Chinese nationals are our highly esteemed guests.                    

He said we have a dedicated force comprising Army, police and paramilitary personnel whose mission is to only protect and safeguard Chinese, working on different projects.   

The Minister expressed the pleasure that Pak-China friendship is unique as being the only bilateral relationship in the world which has always been on an upward trajectory without even a single downswing during the last seventy years.

Source: radio.gov.pk

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Mideast

 

Michigan Imam Hassan Qazwini –ISIS Is Arm Of Zionism, They Do Not Represent The American People And Are Israel's Stooges

May 15, 2024

Special Dispatch No. 11330

In 2020, Qazwini endorsed Bernie Sanders as a presidential candidate, speaking a rally in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 7.[2] The Sanders campaign later denounced Qazwini's numerous prior statements, saying they are the "toxic and offensive."[3] These included a 2016 statement in which he said of Bernie Sanders: "[He] is an honourable man – I truly consider him an honorable man, even though he is a Jew" (see MEMRI TV Clip 5710). In 2015, Qazwini said in a speech in Detroit, Michigan, that the Islamic State (ISIS) is the arm of the Zionists in the Muslim world that serves to kill Muslims, defame Islam, and alienate people from Islam. He said that the Zionists and the Zionist regime benefit more than anybody else from the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS (see MEMRI TV Clip 7192). In 2019, Qazwini praised the Yemeni-Houthis for their attack on Saudi oil fields (see MEMRI TV Clip 7508).  For more about Hassan Qazwini, see  also MEMRI TV clips 11034, 9388, 7241, and 5644.

For more MEMRI reports and videos about Dearborn, Michigan, click here. For more clips of sermons by imams in the West, click here.

The New Antisemitism Awareness Bill Goes Against The U.S. Constitution; You Can Attack Anyone In This Country And Get Away With It, But You Can't Attack Israel

Imam Hassan Qazwini: "Yet two days ago, on Wednesday, the Congress, led by its Republican majority, they adopted a new resolution that is soon to be introduced to the Senate.

[...]

"And I believe this resolution is one of the most controversial resolutions ever [that] the Congress would pass. And the resolution is this. That it makes antisemitism illegal in the United States.

[...]

"Ninety-nine percent of people in this country are not antisemitic, including Muslims. Muslims are not anti-Jew. We're not anti-Jew. There are many, many, many good Jewish people.

[...]

"This law goes exactly against the U.S. Constitution. And it is funny, my dear brothers and sisters, because in this country you can attack the president. You can attack the Congress and get away with it. You can attack the judiciary and get away with it. You can attack God and you can get away with it. You can attack Jesus and you can get away with it. You can attack anyone in this country, and you can get away with it, but you can't attack Israel. What does this tell you, my dear brothers and sisters? What does this tell you?

"The Congressmembers Who Voted For This [Antisemitism] Resolution Are Nothing But Stooges Of Israel... Serve The Interest Of A Foreign County; If There Was Justice In This Country, They Would Be Convicted Of Treason"

"This tells you that those congressmen and women who voted for this resolution, they do not represent U.S. people, American people. They use, they represent Netanyahu and his Likud party. Not even all Israelis, trust me. They represent the Israeli government. Those congressmen and women are nothing but stooges, stooges of Israel. And they do not work for the interest of the United States. Rather, for the interest of a foreign country. If there was justice in this country, those congressmen and women would be indicted and convicted of treason, my dear brothers and sisters."

Source: memri.org

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Israel PM says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah

May 16, 2024

RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday insisted there was no “humanitarian catastrophe” in Rafah, even as hundreds of thousands fled the south Gaza city amid intense fighting.

Hamas meanwhile insisted it would take part in any decision on the post-war government of Gaza as Palestinians marked the 76th anniversary of the “Nakba,” when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 creation of Israel.

Israeli forces have bombed Hamas militants around Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah, but clashes have also flared again in northern and central areas which Israeli troops first entered months ago.

The upsurge in urban combat has fueled US warnings that Israel, which launched its war after the October 7 Hamas attacks, risks being bogged down in years of counterinsurgency.

But despite previous threats by US President Joe Biden to withhold some arms deliveries over Netanyahu’s insistence on attacking Rafah, his administration informed Congress on Tuesday of a new $1 billion weapons package for Israel, official sources told AFP.

The European Union urged Israel to end its military operation in Rafah “immediately,” warning failure to do so would “inevitably put a heavy strain” on ties with the bloc.

But even as he announced that hundreds of thousands had been “evacuated,” Netanyahu insisted there was no humanitarian crisis in Rafah.

“Our responsible efforts are bearing fruit. So far, in Rafah, close to half a million people have been evacuated from the combat zones. The humanitarian catastrophe that was spoken about did not materialize, nor will it,” he said.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, meanwhile said “600K people have fled Rafah since military operations intensified.”

Nakba Day

The sight of desperate families carrying scant belongings through the ruins of war-scarred Gaza cities has evoked for many the events of the 1948 Nakba which translates from Arabic as “catastrophe.”

Hamas declared in a Nakba Day statement that “the ongoing suffering of millions of refugees inside Palestine and in the diaspora is directly attributed to the Zionist occupation.”

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh insisted meanwhile that the militant movement will be involved in deciding post-war rule in Gaza along with other Palestinian factions.

“We say that the Hamas movement is here to stay ... and it will be the movement and all national (Palestinian) factions who will decide the post-war rule in Gaza,” Haniyeh said in a televised address for Nakba.

He also said the fate of truce talks was uncertain because of Israel’s “insistence on occupying the Rafah crossing and on its expansion of the aggression” in the Palestinian territory.

“Any agreement must ensure a permanent ceasefire, comprehensive withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from all sectors of the Gaza Strip, a real deal for exchange of prisoners, the return of displaced persons, reconstruction and lifting the siege” of Gaza, Haniyeh said.

Thousands marched to mark the day in cities across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyeh scarves and holding up symbolic keys as reminders of long-lost family homes.

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring home hostages still held in Gaza.

In a Wednesday interview with CNBC, Netanyahu addressed the tensions with Biden over the offensive, saying: “Yes, we do have a disagreement on Gaza. Rather, on Rafah. But we have to do what we have to do.”

Washington has also repeatedly urged Israel to work on a post-war plan for Gaza and supports the goal of a two-state solution, which Netanyahu and his far-right allies strongly oppose.

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said without a political plan, Palestinian militants “will keep coming back” trapping all sides in “this continued cycle of violence.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday said he would “not agree to the establishment of an Israeli military administration in Gaza, Israel must not have civilian control over the Gaza Strip.”

The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,233 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.

Clashes continue

The Israeli military said Wednesday its aircraft had “struck and eliminated approximately 80 terror targets” including military compounds, missile launchers and weapons depots.

It also reported battles in eastern Rafah and in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where it said it had killed militants, adding troops were also fighting in the Zeitun area.

Hamas’s armed wing also reported its fighters were clashing with troops in the Jabalia area, much of which has been reduced to rubble.

At least five people were killed, including a woman and her child, in two Israeli air strikes on Gaza City overnight, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.

At the city’s Al-Ahli hospital, a wounded man, his bare chest smeared with blood, lay on a cot while outside several men placed a shrouded corpse in the shade of a tree.

Sporadic aid deliveries into Gaza by truck have slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt last week.

A UK delivery of 100 tons of temporary shelter kits left Cyprus Wednesday on its way to a US-built pier in Gaza, Britain said.

Another convoy carrying humanitarian relief goods was ransacked by Israeli right-wing activists on Monday after it had crossed from Jordan through the West Bank.

Source: arabnews.com

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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2511046/middle-east

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US working to get American doctors out of Gaza, White House says

May 15, 2024

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration is working to get US doctors out of Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday, as fighting intensified in the seaside enclave.

A group of American doctors from the Palestinian American Medical Association told the Washington Post this week that they were stuck in Gaza after Israel closed the border crossing in the southern city of Rafah.

“We’re tracking this matter closely and working to get the impacted American citizens out of Gaza,” Jean-Pierre said.

Jean-Pierre said the United States was engaging directly with Israel on the matter.

The Biden administration has been warning Israel against a major military ground operation in Rafah, but Jean-Pierre said efforts to get the doctors out are continuing regardless of what happens there.

“We need to get them out. We want to get them out and it has nothing to do with anything else,” she said.

Israeli troops battled militants across Gaza on Wednesday, including in Rafah, which had been a refuge for civilians, in an upsurge of the more than 7-month-old war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Gaza’s health care system has essentially collapsed since Israel began its military offensive there after the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants on Israelis.

Humanitarian workers sounded the alarm last week that the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza could force aid operations to grind to a halt.

The Israeli assault on Gaza has destroyed hospitals across Gaza, including Al Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest before the war, and killed and injured health workers.

Source: arabnews.com

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The top UN court is holding hearings on the Israeli military’s incursion into Rafah

May 16, 2024

THE HAGUE: The United Nations’ top court opens two days of hearings on Thursday into a request from South Africa to make sure Israel halts its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population has sought shelter.

It is the fourth time South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice for emergency measures since the nation launched proceedings alleging that Israel’s military action in its war with Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide.

According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The Hague-based court were not sufficient to address “a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza.”

Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians.

South Africa has asked the court to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah; to take measures to ensure unimpeded access for UN officials, humanitarian organizations and journalists to the Gaza Strip; and to report back within one week on how it is meeting these demands.

During hearings earlier this year, Israel strongly denied committing genocide in Gaza and said it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas militants. It says Hamas’ tactic of embedding in civilian areas makes it difficult to avoid civilian casualties.

In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.

In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies to enter.

Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since fighting began.

The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count.

South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 and sees the legal campaign as rooted in issues central to its identity. Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands.” Apartheid ended in 1994.

On Sunday, Egypt announced it plans to join the case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli military actions “constitute a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 regarding the protection of civilians during wartime.”

Several countries have also indicated they plan to intervene, but so far only Libya, Nicaragua and Colombia have filed formal requests to do so.

Source: arabnews.com

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Pro-Turkiye Syria mercenaries head to Niger to earn cash

May 16, 2024

BEIRUT: Like hundreds of other pro-Turkish fighters, Omar left northern Syria for mineral-rich Niger last year, joining Syrian mercenaries sent to the West African nation by a private Turkish military company.

“The main reason I left is because life is hard in Syria,” fighter Omar, 24, told AFP on message app WhatsApp from Niger.

In northern Syria “there are no job opportunities besides joining an armed faction and earning no more than 1,500 Turkish lira ($46) a month,” Omar said, requesting like others AFP interviewed to be identified by a pseudonym for security reasons.

Analysts say Ankara has strong ties with the new military regime in Niamey, in power since a July 2023 coup.

And in recent months, at least 1,000 fighters have been sent to Niger “to protect Turkish projects and interests,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

For the past decade, Turkiye has been increasing its footprint in Niger, mostly through “humanitarian aid, development and commerce,” said Gabriella Korling, a researcher focusing on the Sahel at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.

“The defense component of the relation between Niger and Turkiye has become more important over time with the signing of a military cooperation agreement in 2020 and the sale of armed drones,” Korling said.

Niamey often refers to Turkiye, Russia and China as “partners that are respectful of Niger’s sovereignty,” she added.

Omar, who supports his mother and three siblings, said since leaving his home in August he receives a “very good” monthly salary of $1,500 for his work in the West African nation.

He hopes his earnings will help him start a small business and quit the battlefield, after years working as a fighter for a pro-Ankara faction.

Tens of thousands of young men have joined the ranks of jihadist factions and others loyal to Ankara in Syria’s north and northwest, where four million people, half of them displaced, live in desperate conditions.

Omar said he was among a first batch of more than 200 fighters who left Syria’s Turkish-controlled north in August for Niger.

He is now readying to return home after his six-month contract, renewed once, ended.

He and two other pro-Ankara Syrian fighters who spoke to AFP in recent weeks said they had enlisted for work in Niger with the Sultan Murad faction, one of Turkiye’s most loyal proxies in northern Syria.

They said they had signed six-month contracts at the faction’s headquarters with private firm SADAT International Defense Consultancy.

“SADAT officers came into the room and we signed the contract with them,” said fighter Ahmed.

“They handle everything,” from travel to accommodation, added the 30-year-old, who was readying to travel from northern Syria to Niger.

The company is widely seen as Ankara’s secret weapon in wars across North Africa and the Middle East, although its chief denied the allegation in a 2021 interview with AFP.

Niger borders oil-rich Libya, and in 2020, Washington accused SADAT of sending Syrian fighters to Libya.

Turkiye has sent thousands of Syrian fighters to Libya to buttress the Tripoli government, which it backs against rival Russian-backed authorities in the east according to the Observatory and the Syria Justice and Accountability Center.

The Center said SADAT was “responsible for the international air transport of mercenaries once they crossed into Turkish territory” to go to Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkiye has also sent Syrian fighters to bolster Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, but its efforts to send mercenaries to Niger have been shrouded in secrecy.

Turkiye’s defense ministry told AFP: “All these allegations are false and have no truth.”

Omar said his journey took him to Gaziantep in Turkiye, then to Istanbul, where he boarded a military plane to Burkina Faso before being driven under escort to camps in neighboring Niger.

After two weeks of military training, he was tasked with guarding a site near a mine, whose name he said he didn’t know.

He said he and other Syrians worked alongside Nigeriens in military fatigues, but was unable to say if they were soldiers.

“They divided us into several groups of guards and fighters,” he said.

Another group “was sent to fight Boko Haram (jihadists) and another was sent to Lome” in neighboring Togo, he said, without providing details about their mission.

His family collects his monthly salary, minus a $350 fee for his faction.

Ahmed, who has been a fighter for 10 years, said he had been told his mission would consist of “protecting military positions” after undergoing training.

He said “there could be battles” at some point, but did not know who he would be fighting.

The father of three said he spent six months in Libya in 2020 earning more than $2,000 a month.

In July 2023, the army seized power in Niger, ending security and defense agreements with Western countries including France, which has withdrawn forces who were fighting jihadists.

“The coup in 2023 did not disrupt diplomatic relations between Turkiye and Niger,” researcher Korling added, pointing to the appointment of the first Turkish defense attache to Niger earlier this year.

Last year, Turkish state television opened a French-language channel covering Africa, and Ankara operates daily flights to Niamey.

“Turkiye, given its religious proximity and lack of political and historical baggage, is looked upon quite favorably in Niger especially in comparison to” Western countries, said Korling.

Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Turkiye was “exploiting” impoverished men in areas under its control “to recruit them as mercenaries in military operations” serving Ankara’s foreign interests.

The war monitor and other human rights groups said promises of lucrative payments to mercenaries sent abroad are not always kept.

Mohammad Al-Abdallah of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center said his organization had for example documented “false promises of granting Turkish citizenship” to those sent to Azerbaijan or Libya.

Abdul Rahman noted reports that about 50 Syrian fighters had been killed in Niger, mostly after they were attacked by jihadists, but he said his organization had only verified nine deaths, with four bodies having been repatriated.

A source within a faction whose members have been dispatched to Niger said about 50 bodies were expected to return in the coming days.

For Abed, a 30-year-old Syrian who has been displaced with his family for more than a decade, death is a risk he has decided to take.

The father of four and sole breadwinner told AFP: “I’m scared of dying... but maybe I could die here” too.

The difference, he said, is that in Syria “I would die for 1,000 Turkish liras ($30), and (in Niger) I would die for $1,500.”

Source: arabnews.com

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Tunisian bar association accuses policemen of torturing a lawyer during detention

May 16, 2024

TUNIS: Tunisian lawyer Mahdi Zagrouba was tortured by police officers after being arrested on Monday, lawyers and a human rights organization said on Wednesday after he collapsed in court and was taken to a hospital.

The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Lawyer Souad Boker said Zagrouba appeared on Wednesday before the investigating judge in a exhausted state, adding that “he mentioned the names of the policemen who tortured him before he suffered a collapse and coma.”

Witnesses and lawyers said that Zagrouba was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

TAP state news agency quoted Zarouba’s attorney, Boubaker Ben Thabet, as saying Zagrouba had been subjected to “systematic torture” during his detention.

Toumi Ben Farhat, another lawyer representing Zagrouba, said his colleague “was subjected to extremely severe torture.”

Tunisian police stormed the bar association’s headquarters on Monday for the second time in two days and arrested Zagrouba, who has criticized the president, after detaining Sonia Dahmani, another lawyer, during the weekend.

Bassam Trifi, the head of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, said that “Zagrouba was subjected to brutal torture, and I personally witnessed the torture on his body.”

Without referring to the allegations, President Kais Saied said in a statement after a meeting with Minister of Justice Laila Jafel that the state is responsible for guaranteeing every prisoner the right to treatment that preserves his dignity.

The Bar Association said in a statement late on Wednesday that torture deserves criminal prosecution, and that it held the Ministry of Interior officers responsible. It said a strike was planned for Thursday.

Saied took office after free elections in 2019, but two years later he shut down the elected parliament and has ruled by decree.

The European Union said on Tuesday it was concerned about the wave of imprisonment of many civil society figures, journalists and political activists, and demanded clarifications from Tunisia.

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Sudan facing ‘inferno’ of violence, crushing aid holdups: UN

May 16, 2024

United Nations, US: Residents of conflict-hit Sudan are “trapped in an inferno of brutal violence” and increasingly at risk of famine due to the rainy season and blocked aid, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the country warned Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since war broke out in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“Famine is closing in. Diseases are closing in. The fighting is closing in and there’s no end in sight,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami told a press conference.

The grim situation is only expected to worsen, with “just six weeks before the lean season sets in, when food becomes less available, and more expensive.”

Noting that more than four million people are facing potential famine, Nkweta-Salami added that the onset of the country’s rainy season means that “reaching people in need becomes even more difficult.”

The area’s planting season also “could fail if we aren’t able to procure and deliver seeds for farmers,” she said.

And “after more than a year of conflict, the people of Sudan are trapped in an inferno of brutal violence.”

“In short, the people of Sudan are in the path of a perfect storm that is growing more lethal by the day,” Nkweta-Salami warned, adding that the humanitarian community needs “unfettered access to reach people in need, wherever they are.”

The United Nations has expressed growing concern in recent days over reports of heavy fighting in densely populated areas as the RSF seeks control of El-Fasher, the last major city in the western Darfur region not under its control.

“Right now the humanitarian assistance they rely on can’t get through,” Nkweta-Salami said.

More than a dozen UN trucks loaded with medical equipment and food, which left Port Sudan on April 3, have still not reached El Fasher, she said, “due to insecurity and delays in getting clearances at checkpoints.”

Source: arabnews.com

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Palestinians: Our ‘Nakba’ in 2023 is worst ever

May 15, 2024

GAZA: As the Gaza war raged on, Palestinians on Wednesday marked the anniversary of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” of mass displacement during the creation of the state of Israel 76 years ago.

Thousands marched in cities across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyeh scarves and holding up symbolic keys as reminders of long-lost family homes.

Inside the besieged Gaza Strip, where the Israel-Hamas war has ground on for more than seven months, scores more died in the fighting sparked by the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.

“Our ‘Nakba’ in 2023 is the worst ever,” said one displaced Gaza man, Mohammed Al-Farra, whose family fled their home in Khan Younis for the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.

“It is much harder than the Nakba of 1948.”

Palestinians everywhere have long mourned the events of that year when, during the war that led to the establishment of Israel, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.

But 42-year-old Farra, whose family was then displaced from Jaffa near Tel Aviv, said the current war is even harder.

“When your child is accustomed to all the comforts and luxuries, and suddenly, overnight, everything is taken away from him ... it is a big shock.”

Thousands marched in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as well as in Nablus, Hebron and elsewhere, carrying banners denouncing the occupation and protesting the war in Gaza.

“There’s pain for us, but of course more pain for Gazans,” said one protester, Manal Sarhan, 53, who has relatives in Israeli jails that have not been heard from since Oct. 7. “We’re living the Nakba a second time.”

Commemorations and marches — held a day after Israel’s Independence Day — come as the Gaza war has brought a massive death toll and the forced displaced of most of the territory’s 2.4 million people.

A devastating humanitarian crisis has plagued the territory, with the UN warning of looming famine in the north.

Source: arabnews.com

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Arab World

 

French Pilgrim, Mohamed Boulabiar, Walks Through 13 Countries To Perform Umrah

May 16, 2024

MADINAH: French traveller Mohamed Boulabiar spent eight months walking through 13 countries to perform Umrah, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

In an interview with the SPA shortly after arriving in Madinah on Wednesday, Boulabiar said he trained for two years for the 8,000-km walk.

He started in Paris on Aug. 27, 2023, and walked through Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkiye and Jordan before eventually reaching Saudi Arabia.

With only a map and a bag containing essential provisions and a tent weighing only 25 kg, Boulabiar said he spent most of his nights at mosques along the route or with generous strangers who welcomed him into their homes.

Boulabiar said the hardest part of the journey was the weather.

“I departed in the summer and arrived in the spring, passing through autumn and winter, enduring storms and thunder. At one stage of the journey, a snowstorm at the Greek border delayed my trip by a week,” he said.

“It has been a dream since childhood. I yearned to arrive in Makkah on foot, emulating the prophet,” said Boulabiar.

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Saudi Arabia, Iraq sign pact to counter money laundering, terrorism

May 16, 2024

RIYADH: The Kingdom and Iraq have signed an agreement to counter money laundering and terrorism, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

The pact was signed between the General Directorate of Financial Investigation at the Presidency of State Security and the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Office of the Republic of Iraq.

The agreement was inked on the sidelines of the Arab Forum of Anti-Corruption Agencies and Financial Intelligence Units in Riyadh.

Source: arabnews.com

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Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization session concludes in Jeddah

May 16, 2024

JEDDAH: The 121st session of the Executive Council of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization concluded in Jeddah on Wednesday.

During the two-day event, ministers and other representatives from 22 Arab nations discussed important topics, initiatives and proposals related to knowledge sharing, scientific advancement, and innovation within the framework of the work of the organization. It will be followed on Friday by its General Conference.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday, Mohammed Walad Amar, the director general of the organization, said: “The aim of this conference is to approve the organization’s budget for the next two years and to endorse its selected projects based on the proposals and needs of Arab countries, envisioning a real acceleration toward the goals of our Arab nations in the fields of education, culture and information technology, as well as in various areas prioritized by Arab countries in cultural and educational work.”

Addressing the crisis in Gaza, Walad Amar said the organization condemned what is happening there and called for support for Palestinians in the fields of the education and culture.

“The organization sees this aggression not only as an attack on the (Palestinian) people but also as an assault on Arab identity in general, and an assault on the Palestinian educational approach,” he added.

A key aspect of ALECSO’s cultural activities and initiatives, Walad Amar said, is its submissions to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization with the aim of preserving Arab culture and heritage through inclusions on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

“To date, we have successfully accredited the initial submissions concerning the palm tree, Arabic calligraphy, traditional clay architecture, metal engraving and wedding customs,” he said.

“Our approach aligns with the Arab strategy, which prioritizes both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, fostering awareness across Arab nations about its significance.”

These efforts are complemented by educational programs, Walad Amar said.

“Given the current landscape, our primary challenge lies in revising curricula to reflect present realities and anticipate future needs,” he added.

ALECSO recently staged the fourth Arab Programming Week at King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language, which was attended by about 250 teachers from Arab countries. The organization has also created a guide for teaching students in Arab primary and secondary schools about artificial intelligence and is developing an Arab charter for the ethical use of AI.

“We recognize the inevitable influence of artificial intelligence and the challenges it presents,” Walad Amar said.

“While embracing its advancements, we prioritize safeguarding the privacy of our Arab nations. Our aim is to harness the positive aspects of AI while avoiding any negative impacts. Achieving this requires strengthening our educational systems to equip our children with the necessary skills and awareness.”

Two topics discussed during the Executive Council session that were described as particularly significant were the establishment of an ALECSO Partnership Forum, which was initiated by the Kingdom, and an Arab Cultural Week within UNESCO, both of which received unanimous approval.

“The Kingdom consistently presents us with positive and constructive initiatives that unite Arab educational and cultural efforts across various scientific fields,” Ahmed Sameer, the assistant secretary-general of the Yemeni National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, told Arab News.

Issam Louhichi, who oversees operations at the National Commission for Education, Science and Culture in Tunisia, told Arab News that a consensus on ideas during the two-day session meant that a number of decisions were quickly agreed.

“It provided an opportunity to practice democracy within our Arab world through voting on resolutions and exchanging successful experiences in various educational, scientific, and cultural fields,” he added. “This Executive Council serves as an opportunity to present proposals from countries, with the aim of including them in the General Conference agenda (on Friday).

“It was an excellent opportunity to discuss the core issue of Palestine by presenting several proposals. Algeria proposed integrating lessons within educational curricula across Arab countries each year to educate youth about the history and justice of this issue.”

“Today, we were presented with a proposal from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding the Arab Cultural Week at UNESCO. This initiative, which involves all Arab countries, including Tunisia, aims to foster collaboration and ensure its success. We will contribute diverse insights and experiences spanning cultural, historical, educational and scientific domains.”

Other topics discussed during the two-day session, which was hosted by the Saudi National Committee for Education, Culture and Science, included the challenges that Arab nations face in the fields of education, culture and science, innovative solutions to those problems, and ways to forge new partnerships that can broaden the horizons of for education and creative thought.

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Saudi institute gears up to tackle organized crime

May 15, 2024

RIYADH: Legal enforcement agencies must outperform organized crime groups by “miles, not just steps,” to prevent criminal alliances forming and flowing across borders, a major Riyadh forum on combating corruption has been told.

In a speech on “Building Human Capabilities to Fight Corruption and Fraud” delivered at the Arab Forum of Anti-Corruption Agencies and Financial Intelligence Units on Wednesday, Abdulmajeed bin Abdullah Al-Banyan, president of Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, said that developing strategies to fight organized crime “presents a significant challenge for both the creators and enforcers of these initiatives.”

He added:  “They must ensure that the individuals they train will gain superior knowledge and skills compared to even the most adept criminal organizations as the crimes in question are intricate in nature, often orchestrated by sophisticated transnational gangs that leverage cyberspace and technology to perpetrate their illegal activities while evading detection.”

Organized crime encompasses terrorist groups, drug trafficking, money laundering, migrant smuggling, and human trafficking.

Naif Arab University for Security Sciences examined specialized training programs in the field of economic crime as part of a survey of the Arab region in 2018 .

“We noticed a shortage in the number and type of programs available compared with other regions of the world,” said Al-Banyan.

As a result, the university — the scientific body of the Arab Interior Ministers Council — made fighting economic crime one of its main priorities.

“We launched several master’s programs aimed at building capabilities in this field, the most important of which is the master’s program in financial integrity in cooperation with Case Western Reserve University in the US, which specifically aims to prepare experts in combating money fraud,” he said.

The university provides a master’s program in dealing with economic crimes, including corruption and financial fraud, and a master’s program in digital forensic investigation, which focuses on combating cybercrime and suspicious activities online.

NAUSS also launched a new master’s program in artificial intelligence this year, Al-Banyan said.

“We are currently considering adding a new master’s program in forensic accounting, which aims to qualify accountants to detect fraudulent financial practices, and qualifies them to conduct detailed financial investigations and reviews,” he added.

The university signed a memorandum of understanding with the Presidency of State Security in 2016 as part of its efforts  to increase its work with key local and international partners.

“We strengthened our relations with the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha), and today, we will witness the MoU signing on the sidelines of this forum,” he added.

The university has partnered with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, establishing a joint center at its headquarters to support the international and Arab community in combating organized crime, corruption, and money laundering.

Experts highlighted that fighting economic and financial crimes is a complex task that requires clear national strategies and effective cross-border cooperation.

Countries must work together to counter the threat posed by such crimes, which have the potential to severely damage economies and undermine financial systems.

Hassan Mohamud, Somalia’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, told the forum that continuing conflict in Somalia has created a “complex money laundering landscape,” making international cooperation crucial for identifying and returning illicit funds.

Speaking during a panel session on “Enhancing Cross-Border Enforcement and Asset Recovery Mechanisms,” Mohamud said that judicial cooperation between countries, and the public and private sectors, is key to addressing these evolving issues.

“The need for sharing information on cross-border flows of money is important to combat money laundering effectively not just in Somalia, but globally,” he said.

In a keynote speech on “National Strategies: Risk Assessment in the Light of Rapidly Changing Realities,” Raed Radwan, head of the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission, said: “A national strategy directs efforts and resources fairly and effectively toward achieving specific goals to reduce financial crimes, and enhance integrity and transparency in the financial and economic system.”

He added that citizens have an important role to play in monitoring and reporting crimes, and raising awareness of likely threats.

“Reinforcement training is an awareness-raising activity usually supported by national strategies. It is not limited to employees, but should be available to citizens who wish to acquire knowledge to protect them and make them partners in combating these crimes,” he said.

National strategies also must include a continuous assessment of the risks surrounding financial crimes.

“This basis for evaluation can provide stakeholders with a view of the developments that perpetrators of financial crime can resort to or already resort to,” he said.

Radwan added that political and economic stability are key factors when it comes to halting the rise in financial crimes, which is evident in unstable countries.

“Financial crimes erode trust, affect economic and financial systems, leading to instability in the market, decreased investments, and hindered economic growth, resulting in financial crises,” he said.

Combating corruption and financial crimes is not the task of institutions based on and mandated by law, but is a participatory community task in which various societal sectors participate, Radwan said.

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Digital ID launched for pilgrims arriving from outside Saudi Arabia

May 15, 2024

RIYADH: The Saudi Ministry of Interior on Wednesday launched the digital identity service for pilgrims arriving from outside the Kingdom with a Hajj visa for this year’s season, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The digital identity service is part of the Saudi government’s efforts to enable digital transformation and harness technology to help people in accordance with the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030.

Developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, the service caters to those performing the annual ritual, according to the Interior Ministry, and enables pilgrims to prove their identity electronically through the Absher and Tawakkalna platforms.

The move aims to facilitate pilgrims’ use of digital identity to enhance the quality of services provided to them and enrich their experience.

It was also launched for pilgrims to experience the highest quality of service, and to keep pace with developments in digital transformation in the services provided to them throughout their stay in Saudi Arabia.

The ministry’s General Directorate of Passports also launched on Wednesday a special passport stamp for those benefiting from the Makkah Route Initiative. The stamp contains the initiative’s visual identity.

The stamp will be made available through designated lounges at 11 airports around the seven countries benefiting from the initiative, which are Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire.

The Makkah Route Initiative is one of the ministry’s initiatives within the program of serving pilgrims.

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KSrelief sends more aid to Sudan and Gaza

May 15, 2024

RIYADH: Saudi aid agency KSrelief has distributed 317 personal hygiene kits to displaced families in Sudan’s White Nile State.

The initiative, which benefited 1,877 people, is one of a series of relief and humanitarian projects implemented by authorities in the Kingdom to provide urgently needed aid and shelter to the Sudanese people during the present humanitarian crisis in their country, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the 50th flight carrying shelter aid provided by Saudi Arabia for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip arrived at Egypt’s El-Arish International Airport on Wednesday. It was organized by KSrelief in coordination with the Ministry of Defense.

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Arab forum targets illicit financial networks  

May 15, 2024

RIYADH: The Arab Forum of Anti-Corruption Agencies and Financial Intelligence Units began on Wednesday in Riyadh, hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Presidency of State Security, and discussed targeting illicit financial networks.  

Focusing on institutional frameworks and joint coordination between multiple parties, the discussion included global speakers: Jawhar Nfissi, president, National Financial Intelligence Authority in Morocco; Daniel Glaser, global head of jurisdictional services at K2 Integrity and head of its Washington, D.C. office; Elzbieta Frankow-Jaskiewicz, interim chair, Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units; Suliman Aljabrin, executive secretary, Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force, Bahrain; Khadija Ali, head of the Financial Investigation Unit, Republic of Comoros; Mohamed Allal Al-Kahil, head of the Financial Prohibition Unit, Islamic Republic of Mauritania. 

The discussion, addressing anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, is at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s endeavors to uphold the rule of law, promote fair competition between companies, and achieve security and prosperity for all.  

The session provided discussions on reform paths for various local entities taking action to harmonize their legal frameworks with the requirements set by the Kingdom’s Anti-Money Laundering Permanent Committee to advance its broader national reform agenda. 

Elzbieta Frankow-Jaskiewicz, interim chair, Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, talked about the firm’s efforts in fighting illicit financial networks.

“Many agencies use our technologies from private sectors and we work with our counterparts in Interpol, WCO, World Bank and G20,” Frankow-Jaskiewicz said during the panel discussion.  

Egmont Group is important to the global CFT (Combating the Financing of Terrorism) regime in many aspects, such as in international information-sharing and in their secured channels for exchanging information.  

“Using typologies that we developed over the course of these three years, we raise the operational effectiveness values; we enhance our FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) capabilities in Egmont center and memberships,” she said.

Since its founding, Egmont has assisted more than 190 jurisdictions by constructing a new learning platform and providing technical support for FIU. With nearly 7,000 registered users and 2011 courses already developed and launched, Khadija Ali, head, Financial Investigation Unit, Republic of Comoros, talked about the regulation measures the country has in place when receiving a report.

“We have to ask for information in order to obtain the suspicious transaction file as soon as the financial institutions submit it to us. Additionally, if required, it is a report to the prosecution. In order to effectively combat this, we also work and interact with individuals who are affected by it, including banks, attorneys, notaries, jewelers, anti-corruption advocates and other subject persons,” she said.

“Not only must the government enact a new anti-corruption law, but it must also hire modern experts, the law against money laundering. This reveals the Comorian government’s dedication to fighting financial crime, and I would like to use this chance to praise this successful dedication. We have a system in place to fight money laundering and the funding of terrorism, which is implemented at the national level by a number of players, in line with the Comoros strategy,” she said.   

Suliman Aljabrin, executive secretary of the MENA financial action taskforce in Bahrain, said during the session that the banking industry was developing well.

“The banking industry in the Arab world is quite developed, though not in terms of the private sector or the organization that oversees, monitors and supervises it. This indicates that there is a compromise to be struck between the need to prevent money laundering and the funding of terrorists and maintaining financial confidentiality, which is the standard. It will serve as the first entry-point for the official system to be introduced and the money to be laundered,” he said.

The challenge, according to K2 Integrity’s Daniel Glaser, has been how to take rules and regulations and make them effective for everyone, from the smallest countries to the US.  

“Not that they don’t have the framework, but how do you get the framework to be implemented? And that requires so many different things. It requires political will. It requires investment of resources, sometimes more than countries are willing to invest,” he said.

The head of Morocco’s national financial intelligence body, Jawhar Nfissi, said that creating a national institutional structure and making a firm political commitment were essential. Also, monitoring the reports was vital, as according to statistics, there has been a 200 percent increase in suspicion indicators in Morocco during the past five years. 

In light of international treaties, Mohamed Allal Al-Kahil, head of the Financial Prohibition Unit, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, emphasized the need for legislation to combat bribery and corruption, noting that current legislation falls short of the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations.

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Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Issues Royal OrdersRelated To The Appointment Of State Officials

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued on Wednesday several royal decrees related to the appointment of state officials.

Prince Dr. Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf Al Muqrin was appointed Special Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques with the rank of minister.

Abdulmohsen bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri, Vice Minister of the National Guard, was relieved of his post, while Prince Dr. Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf Al Muqrin, Special Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, was named as his replacement.

Abdulmohsen bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri was named an Advisor at the Royal Court with the rank of minister.

Khaled bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Abdulkarim was appointed Secretary General of the Cabinet with the rank of minister.

Al-Shihana bint Saleh bin Abdullah Al-Azzaz, Deputy Secretary General of the Cabinet, was relieved of her post and named an Advisor at the Royal Court.

Mazen bin Turki bin Abdullah Al-Sudairy was named as an Advisor at the Secretariat General of the Cabinet with the rank of excellent.

Eng. Sami bin Abdullah Muqeem was appointed Vice President of the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) with the rank of excellent and Al-Rebdi bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al-Rebdi was named head of the National Data Management Office with the rank of excellent.

Abdulmohsen bin Saad bin Abdulmohsen Al-Khalaf was named Vice Deputy Minister of Finance with the rank of excellent and Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Abdulaziz Al-Duhaim was named Assistant Minister of Commerce with the rank of excellent.

Dr. Abdullah bin Ali bin Mohammed Al-Ahmari was appointed Assistant Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Planning and Development with the rank of excellent.

Eng. Anas bin Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Sulaia was named Assistant Minister of Tourism with the rank of excellent.

Source: english.aawsat.com

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Southeast Asia

 

Penang police investigating Bayan Lepas pizza receipt with words deemed insulting to Islam

16 May 2024

GEORGE TOWN, May 16 — Police are investigating a case of religious provocation stemming from remarks on a receipt at a pizza franchise in Bayan Lepas, Penang that contains words deemed insulting to Islam even as pictures are being shared on social media platforms.

Southwest district police chief Superintendant Kamarul Rizal Jenal said a complaint was filed at 8.46pm yesterday regarding a photo of the receipt shared on social media X by the user @Update1111.

“Our investigations found that an order received at about 3.03pm on May 15 through Domino's online order application contained the words that insulted Islam under the remarks section of the order,” he said in a statement today.

He said police are investigating the case under Section 298 of the Penal Code for deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person.

The section provides a maximum punishment of one year imprisonment, or a fine, or both upon conviction.

Kamarul advised the public not to speculate on the issue that could cause disharmony and unrest.

Bayan Lepas assemblyman Datuk Azrul Mahathir Aziz has also visited the outlet where the receipt was issued as it is in his constituency.

“I went to the Teluk Kumbar police station and obtained an explanation from the outlet supervisor and the outlet's northern region manager Mohd Shukri Salem was also present,” he posted on his Facebook page today.

He said many were puzzled about how the remarks were produced on the receipt, thinking that it could have been typed in by the cashier.

Azrul said he was made to understand that the provocative words were entered by the customer in the remark section from an online order, which will automatically appear in the receipt.

“The Domino's management have also lodged a police report and I hope the person behind this is arrested,” he said.

He called for calm and not to respond to the provocation with anger.

“Leave it to the authorities to resolve this issue,” he added.

Source: malaymail.com

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Islamic wealth management industry set to evolve with changing market trends - SC

16-05- 2024

KUALA LUMPUR: The Islamic wealth management industry is poised to continue evolving in response to changing market needs and emerging trends, said Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Awang Adek Hussin.

Awang Adek said the industry must embrace innovation while adhering to the highest standards of corporate governance and professionalism guided by Islamic values to remain competitive and relevant in today’s environment.

“Practitioners of Islamic wealth management can harness the power of technology to optimise their services.

“By embracing digital solutions, practitioners can stay ahead of the curve and deliver greater value to their clients,” he said in his keynote address at the 11th Malaysian Financial Planning Council (MFPC) conference on shariah wealth management and financial planning, here today.

Awang Adek highlighted that mobile apps and online portals, developed by financial technology firms, can provide clients with comprehensive access to real investment portfolios, real-time market insights and personalised financial advice.

He also noted that the SC had spearheaded efforts to strengthen the regulatory framework and facilitate innovation to promote the growth of Islamic wealth management in Malaysia.

This includes the Islamic Wealth Management Blueprint introduced in 2017, which outlines three strategic thrusts: strengthening Malaysia’s position as a global hub for Islamic finance, establishing the country as a regional centre for shariah-compliant sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) and developing it as an international provider of Islamic wealth management services.

“As a result, the blueprint has led to the introduction of frameworks and regulatory efforts to support innovation and further strengthen the market infrastructure for Islamic wealth management.

“This includes the revision of key frameworks and guidelines such as the SRI sukuk framework in 2019, the shariah advisors guidelines in 2020 and the guidelines on islamic fund management,” he added.

He noted that these efforts have significantly broadened the scope and sophistication of shariah-compliant investment products and services available in the market.

“Additionally, in our efforts to promote a greater value proposition aligned with the tenets of maqasid al-shariah, the SC introduced the waqf-featured fund framework in 2020.

“Under the framework, returns from the investment can be channelled back to charity in the form of cash waqf in various focus sectors, including health, community empowerment, and education,“ he said.

In 2022, the framework was further expanded to include Islamic real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Islamic exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Awang Adek also highlighted that the index fund management sector saw commendable growth in Islamic assets under management (AUM), which rose to RM226 billion in 2023, constituting 22.7 per cent of the total industry AUM.

“The number of fund management companies operating shariah-compliant funds increased to 59 in 2023 from 53 in 2018, underpinned by an ecosystem characterised by strong intermediation and innovative product offerings,“ he added.

Source: thesun.my

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https://thesun.my/local_news/islamic-wealth-management-industry-set-to-evolve-with-changing-market-trends-sc-LC12458641

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Meta restores Facebook posts by Malaysian media on PM Anwar’s meeting with Hamas

16-05- 2024

KUALA LUMPUR: Meta Platforms has restored Facebook posts by Malaysian media covering Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s meeting this week with a Hamas leader, saying they were removed in error.

The removal had drawn complaints from Malaysia’s government, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause and which has warned that firm action could be taken against Meta and other social media companies if they were blocking pro-Palestinian content on their platforms.

Anwar met Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Qatar on Monday. He later stressed that though he had good relations with the group’s political leaders, he had no involvement in its military apparatus.

Muslim-majority Malaysia had sent a letter asking Meta to explain the taking down of posts by two media organisations about the meeting, as well as the closure of a Facebook account last month belonging to a third outlet, the Malaysia Gazette, which covers Palestinian issues.

“Two posts were removed in error and have now been restored,“ a Meta spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, who is also the government’s spokesperson, condemned the removal of the posts on Wednesday, accusing U.S. organisations of not respecting the freedom of media outlets.

The Malaysia Gazette said on Wednesday that its appeal to Facebook to reactivate the account had been accepted and is now operational again.

Malaysia has long advocated a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Meta has said it does not deliberately suppress voices on its Facebook platform, adding there was “no truth” to the claim it was restricting content supporting the Palestinians.

Meta designates Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that governs Gaza, as a “dangerous organisation” and bans content praising the group. It also uses a mix of automated detection and human review to remove or label graphic visuals. (Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by John Mair and Edwina Gibbs)

Source: thesun.my

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https://thesun.my/local_news/meta-restores-facebook-posts-by-malaysian-media-on-pm-anwar-s-meeting-with-hamas-OC12458767

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Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours

May 16, 2024

The rapper Awich, dressed all in black, marches toward the center of Makuhari Messe arena before declaring to the 30,000 in attendance, “Be the witness of how I truly ... POP ... MY ... SHIII!” The crowd cheers and the opening bars of her hit, “Gila Gila,” start up. With that, her stage platform rises and she seemingly ascends to the heavens.

The Okinawa native is one of the biggest rappers in Japan at the moment, and closed out last year’s edition of Pop Yours, a festival dedicated to rap. During its two days, acts such as Japanese MC ralph, rapper Bonbero and duo Yurufuwa Gang lit up the stage. Whether they were fast, slow, autotuned or jazzy, the artists were all united by one thing: the widening umbrella of Japanese hip-hop and rap.

The Japanese rap scene has grown noticeably in the past few years, producing spinoffs and crossovers to the extent that the genre now boasts a festival solely featuring homegrown talent. Pop Yours’ inaugural 2022 edition invited fans to take in over 35 different acts across the weekend. And since that first mid-COVID event, every edition — including this year’s, which takes place May 18 and 19 — has sold out well in advance.

Assisting in J-rap’s rise is, of course, the internet. Local acts can easily be heard and supported by fans overseas, even if they speak a different language. More broadly, Japanese music has seen an increase in popularity for the same reason. Just last month, Awich performed at Coachella, using her moment in the international spotlight to showcase fellow rappers JP The Wavy, Nene, Mari, Lana and Yuriyan Retriever.

Thanks to the growing interest, Japanese rappers are also signing to major labels: Awich released her album “Queendom” through Universal Music in 2022; Miyachi released “Crows” with Warner Music that same year; and Elle Teresa and Lana are currently both signed to Avex, one of the biggest artist management agencies in Japan.

Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says overseas listeners have started to understand the Japanese language as its own kind of sound over the past few years. And, sure enough, perusing the videos of Japanese rappers on YouTube turns up comments from English to Russian to Spanish.

Yayoi Daimon, a veteran Japanese rapper who currently heads up the all-female crew Sisterhood, says the growing interest in Japanese rap has made it easier for artists to make a living, with new rap-centric labels sprouting up. “If you want to work independently (away from the major labels), there is a system to be able to do so,” Daimon says. “It’s easier to be active in the scene than ever before.”

One thing that makes Japanese rap appealing is its versatility; the genre isn’t confined to a particular sound. A recent event featuring a collaboration between Tokyo rapper Tohji and the online gig platform Boiler Room offered a snapshot of the current rap scene here: Jumadiba threw down his grime and bass-inspired beats, while cloud rap came in the form of Peterparker69. Tohji himself was autotuned to post-hyperpop levels, rapping over uber-fast beats.

This blending of sounds is why Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music. “I like feeling that I get inspired from other scenes as well,” he says.

He shot to fame following a collaboration with ralph, an artist known for his signature growling over drill- and grime-influenced beats. Many of ralph’s tracks are produced by U.K. bass-inspired duo Double Clapperz.

Jumadiba and ralph aren’t alone in mixing genres and influences, though. Awich not only draws inspiration from her childhood in Naha but also her time living in Atlanta, which The New York Times called the “center of gravity” for American hip-hop. She says she gained a broader understanding of the genre’s diverse sounds while there. Meanwhile, rising rapper Ajah, who makes her own beats, says that she is influenced by the rap crews of Memphis, Tennessee.

“I really like Three 6 Mafia,” she says. “They really fit into the vibes of my hometown (Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture).”

The range of influences that rappers draw upon goes beyond just their music, they contribute to their visual identity as well. And for many artists, styles that tap into the past are a major source of inspiration.

Gen Z artists such as Lana, 7 and Elle Teresa, for instance, have revived the 2000s gyaru (gal) street culture look, characterized by dyed hair, bold makeup and an “I don’t care” attitude (to put it politely). Even Yuki Chiba’s hit track “Team Tomodachi” recently saw an official “Gals Remix” with “gyaru rappers” Charlu, Renee Couto and 3li¥en (pronounced “Eliyen”).

“I think that people are starting to appreciate music and visuals as a whole,” says artist AsahiNa, who uses 3DCG and is in high demand among the newer players in the rap scene for her visual style. AsahiNa has collaborated with Teresa, for example, to produce a range of gyaru-inspired clothing, which quickly sold out, and designed typography and artwork for rappers like Tohji and kZm.

The traditional side of Japan often pops up in rappers’ aesthetics, too. Awich has produced several videos showing her hands covered in hajichi (traditional Ryukyu-style tattoos), a nod to her Okinawan roots. Elsewhere, other rappers’ videos are filmed in tatami rooms, temples, bathhouses and sleepy coastal towns, rather than in the bright neon lights of crowded Tokyo — a style that dominated J-rap of old.

Daimon has noticed more diversity across the scene thanks to social media.

“Everyone has the chance to encounter trends equally in real time, which means that more people are able to absorb various genres of music and fashion in order to express themselves,” she says.

Over the past few years, Daimon believes the younger generation has become more open-minded and inclusive, citing gender neutrality as one reason becoming a rapper is easier than before. Gender neutrality is common throughout the scene, and it’s not unusual to see male rappers wearing nail polish and skirts, or female rappers with deep, husky voices.

And every new youth movement needs its mecca. With over 40 acts this year, including headliners Lex and Tohji, Pop Yours is shaping up to be just that for Japanese rap.

Source: japantimes.co.jp

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South Asia

 

Rapid Action BattalionArrests ‘ARSA Acting Chief’,in Bangladesh, Seizes Weapons

May 16, 2024

Rapid Action Battalion yesterday claimed to have arrested the acting chief of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in Bangladesh and one of his cohorts from Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya and seized weapons and explosives.

The arrests were made during an early morning raid on an "Arsa den" at Lal Pahar (hill) near the Rohingya camp no 20, said Commander Arafat Islam, director of the Legal and Media Wing of the force.

Five grenades, three rifle grenades, 10 handmade grenades, 13 molotov cocktails, a foreign-made revolver, nine rounds of 9mm pistol ammunition, a light gun and three cartridges were also seized, he added.

Arsa sourced the arms, and explosives from the crisis-hit neighbouring country, he said referring to Myanmar.

The arrestees are Mohammad Shahnur alias Master Solim, one of the chief coordinators and commander of Arsa in Bangladesh, and his associate Mohammad Riaz, 27 of Balukhali camp, the Rab official said.

According to Rab, the force has been conducting regular drives against the Myanmar-based militant group after a spate of killings and criminal activities in the Rohingya camps. In 2023, 64 people were killed by terrorist groups for various reasons.

Rab said, since then, regular drives against Arsa have resulted in significant gains against the group as most of the top leadership were arrested. The drives also seized a large tranche of arms and explosives.

The ensuing leadership crisis left the group mostly inactive, it added.

However, in recent times, crimes have been rising in the camps again as, according to the Rab official, some prominent Arsa members from the neighbouring country were sent there to reorganise the group's leadership.

A resident of camp no 15 in Ukhiaya, Solim, came to Bangladesh in 2017. According to Rab, he previously served as a bodyguard of Arsa chief Ataullah for two months. He was a zone commander of Arsa in Myanmar.

There are several cases against him, including three for murder.

Legal proceedings are underway against the arrestees, the Rab official said.

Source: thedailystar.net

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https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/rab-arrests-arsa-acting-chief-seizes-weapons-3611051

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9 Bangladeshis named in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list

May 16, 2024

Forbes has announced the ninth edition of its '30 Under 30 Asia' list, highlighting 300 young entrepreneurs, leaders, and innovators under the age of 30 who are driving change and innovation across the Asia-Pacific region. The honourees represent diverse fields, including arts, technology, media, finance, and more. This year, 9 individuals from Bangladesh have been recognised for their contributions across various industries.

Anusha Alamgir has been featured in the Arts category. Holding a master's degree in architecture from the Royal College of Art in London, Alamgir was the sole female Bangladeshi exhibitor at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2023 Venice Biennale. Her film 'Porda,' addressing Muslim veiling practices, gained significant attention. Alamgir's work spans sculpture, painting, photography, and performance, and she also founded the online thrift store Colors Dhaka.

Mehedi Shoron, co-founder of HelloTask, has been recognised in the Consumer Technology category. HelloTask is an app that offers hourly bookings, monthly subscriptions, and safety features for domestic maids. The company has secured funding from investors and grants from the World Bank and Oxfam. HelloTask aims to expand its workforce to 100,000 maids by 2025 and explore international markets.

Redwan Ahmed, an award-winning freelance journalist, has been listed in the Media, Marketing & Advertising category. His notable work includes coverage of the Rohingya crisis and investigations into the exploitation of garment factory workers. Ahmed co-founded the Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, an organisation dedicated to protecting local journalists.

Drutoloan, co-founded by MD Shahidul Islam, Abdul Gaffar Sadi, and MD Tushar, has been featured in the Finance & Venture Capital category. The Dhaka-based startup assists micro and small businesses in obtaining loans by simplifying paperwork and assessing creditworthiness. Since its establishment in 2019, Drutoloan has disbursed over $2 million in loans and raised $125,000 in pre-seed funding.

Sultan Moni and Mumtahina Anika, co-founders of Zatiq, have been recognised in the Finance & Venture Capital category. Zatiq provides software and hardware solutions to help small companies manage accounting. The company also offers tools for small businesses to create e-commerce websites. In August, Zatiq raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding.

Fahad Ahmed, co-founder of Wind.App, has been honoured in the Finance & Venture Capital category. Wind.App uses blockchain technology and stablecoins to facilitate faster and cheaper cross-border remittances. The startup secured $3.8 million in pre-seed funding. Prior to Wind, Ahmed was part of the founding team at Pathao, where he launched various services.

Source: thedailystar.net

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Post-polls violence: One dead, six hurt in Gopalganj

May 16, 2024

A supporter of a defeated candidate of the first phase of upazila Parishad election was shot to death and six others were injured in post-polls violence in Gopalganj's Sadar upazila on Tuesday night.

The deceased was identified as Ashiqur Bhuiyan, 28, of Chandradighlia Bus Stand in the Sadar upazila. He was the supporter of defeated candidate BM Liakat Ali.

Three of the injured were identified as Lion Bhuiyan, Hakim Khandaker, and Mehedhi Hasan.

Of them, Lion was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital due to critical condition and the rest to Gopalganj Medical College Hospital, said Sadar Police Station Sub-inspector Maridul Islam.

The clash broke out between the supporters of winning Chairman Kamruzzaman Lutul and defeated candidate Liakat in the bus stand area around 8:30pm, said the OC.

The clash left one dead on the spot and six others injured, he said, adding that the situation was now under their control as additional police personnel were deployed to fend off further clashes.

Source: thedailystar.net

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UN Deputy Secretary-General to arrive in Kabul today

May 15, 2024

The spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General confirmed during a press briefing that Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the organization’s Deputy Secretary-General, will arrive in Kabul today, Wednesday, May 15.

Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General, stated that the purpose of Jean-Pierre Lacroix’s trip to Afghanistan is to raise awareness about the dangers of unexploded ordnance.

The visit of a high-ranking UN official to Afghanistan is scheduled for two days, amidst growing concerns about the perceived increase in the risks of unexploded ordnance, while negotiations for the third session inside and outside of Afghanistan have begun.

Meanwhile, another source reported to Khaama Press that the other objective of the UN official’s trip to Afghanistan is to discuss the third Doha session scheduled for June of this year with Taliban officials.

On February 18-19, 2024, the UN Secretary-General convened the second Afghanistan Conference in Doha, Qatar. Representatives from 25 nations, international organizations, Afghan civil society, and women’s groups attended, aiming for comprehensive peace efforts.

In May 2023, the UN held the first Afghanistan Conference in Doha without Taliban participation, seeking a unified international approach. Despite invitations to the Taliban for the second conference, they refused, demanding sole representation, which the UN Secretary-General deemed unacceptable.

Source: khaama.com

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Afghanistan’s exports and imports reach $10.3 billion last year

May 15, 2024

The Afghanistan National Statistics and Information Authority announced that the value of Afghanistan’s exports and imports reached $10.3 billion last year.

The authority stated in a release Wednesday, May 15, that exports amounted to $1.777 billion, and imports reached $8.576 billion.

According to the National Statistics and Information Authority, fruits were the most exported item, amounting to $645.5 million.

The statement also indicated that medicinal plants, minerals, and vegetables ranked second, third, and fourth, respectively.

The authority emphasized that petroleum and oil products, with a total value of $1.377 billion, accounted for the largest share among import items, followed by machinery, transportation equipment, and grains, which ranked second with a value of $1.015 billion, and textiles, metals, and metal products, which ranked third and fourth.

This comes amid massive criticism by experts who say there is no transparency regarding the extraction of the country’s minerals and natural resources, which are the nation’s wealth.

Meanwhile, the expenditure of this national wealth is uncertain, and the current administration has not considered sustainable development criteria.

According to reports, Afghanistan’s exports were primarily to Pakistan, Iran, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier, the World Bank had reported that Afghanistan had $1.9 billion in exports and $7.8 billion in imports in 2023.

Source: khaama.com

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https://www.khaama.com/afghanistans-exports-and-imports-reach-10-3-billion-last-year/

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Acting Economy Minister and UN Official Discuss Plans for Humanitarian Aid and Developmental Cooperation

2024-05-15

KABUL (BNA) Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, the Acting Minister of Economy, held a productive meeting today, Wednesday with an official of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The meeting primarily focused on strengthening and expanding cooperation between Afghanistan and the UN in both humanitarian and developmental spheres.

The discussions centered on mobilizing humanitarian assistance to alleviate the widespread financial and human losses caused by the recent floods.

During the meeting, the Acting Minister of Economy reaffirmed the Ministry’s unwavering commitment to allocate all available domestic resources and foreign aid in accordance with national priorities.

The OCHA official expressed deep sympathy for the victims of the recent floods and assured continued support from UN agencies.

He emphasized that the UN would provide ongoing humanitarian assistance, emergency aid, and developmental support to the people of Afghanistan, underscoring the organization’s dedication to helping the nation recover from the devastating natural disaster.

The discussions between the Acting Minister of Economy and the UN official reflect a shared commitment to collaborative efforts in addressing the immediate and long-term needs of flood-affected communities.

Source: bakhtarnews.af

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https://www.bakhtarnews.af/en/acting-economy-minister-and-un-official-discuss-plans-for-humanitarian-aid-and-developmental-cooperation/

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Qatar Extends Humanitarian Aid to Flood Victims in Baghlan, Strengthening Ties with Afghanistan

2024-05-16

KABUL(BNA): Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, the Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs, held a significant meeting with the designated official responsible for humanitarian assistance from Qatar in Baghlan.

The Deputy’s office highlighted a pivotal meeting between Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, the Deputy PM for Economic Affairs, and Mashal Al-Hajri, the official responsible for humanitarian assistance from Qatar, in the district of Barka Baghlan.

During the meeting, Deputy PM Baradar, extended gratitude to Qatar for its humanitarian aid to the flood victims in Baghlan. He emphasized that such cooperation enhances and strengthens relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Mashal Al-Hajri, the official responsible for humanitarian aid from Qatar, conveyed solidarity with the victims of the recent floods, underlining Qatar’s assistance to Afghanistan as a gesture of goodwill, aimed at alleviating the problems of the affected individuals in that province.

Highlighting the robust political and economic ties between Qatar and Afghanistan, He stressed the importance of further expanding these relations across various field.

The fourth humanitarian aid shipment from Qatar, comprising 45.5 tons of essential food and non-food items to aid the recent flood victims in Baghlan, has successfully arrived at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport. The authorities of the Afghan Red Crescent Society’s northern zone have received and assumed responsibility for its distribution, ensuring timely assistance reaches those in need.

Source: bakhtarnews.af

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https://www.bakhtarnews.af/en/qatar-extends-humanitarian-aid-to-flood-victims-in-baghlan-strengthening-ties-with-afghanistan/

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