‘Love Jihad To Land Jihad’ — How A Small Uttarakhand Town Became Epicentre Of Polarisation Politics
New Age Islam News Bureau
16 June 2023
Uttarakhand
Police conduct a flag march after the imposition of Section 144 CrPC amid
communal tensions in Purola Wednesday | ANI
-----
India
• ‘Mahapanchayat’ Called By Hindutva
Organisations in Uttarakhand Against ‘Love Jihad’ Incidents Not Allowed Amid Tension
• Congress Government In Karnataka Is
New Muslim League: BJP
• Shihab Chottur, An Indian Man Walks
8,650 Km To Mecca On Foot To Perform Hajj
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South Asia
• Cash Aid Distribution to Orphans,
Widows, Disabled People to Resume in Afghanistan
• 16 Million Afghan Children In Need of
Humanitarian Aid: UNICEF
• ICRC: Unemployment has Damaged Lives
of Millions of People in Afghanistan
• Registration Process of Families of
Martyrs Resumed
• Russia Warns of Expanding Threat From
Daesh in Afghanistan
--------
North America
• CAIR-MA Welcomes Court Decision to
Grant Retrial to Muslim After Defence Attorney’s Islamophobic, Racist Posts
Surface
• Court Vacates Convictions Against
Black Muslim Man Because Of Attorney's Racist Posts
• Islamic State Soldier, Ibraheem
Musaibli, From Michigan Sentenced In
Rare Terrorism Case
• MA man has sex trafficking convictions
vacated after attorney's racist, anti-Islam posts uncovered
• US has resumed indirect talks with
Iran in effort to constrain nuclear program
• US, Iran in talks to cool tensions
with a mutual 'understanding'
• US, Iran inch toward understanding
aimed at easing tensions
--------
Arab World
• Bilateral relations, regional issues
and energy to top agenda as Saudi crown prince meets Macron
• Saudi citizens can now travel abroad
without being vaccinated against COVID-19
• Role of Saudi fathers shifting as
women join the workforce
• Drug smuggling attempts foiled in
Jazan region
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan 'Not Interested' In Picking
Sides Between US, China: Khar
• Promotion Of Religious Tourism To
Create Inter-Faith Harmony, Generate Revenue: Minister Of State Dr Ramesh Kumar
• CJP takes issue with enactment of new
SC law
• BHC upholds Imran’s arrest warrants
• Pakistan can ‘survive’ without IMF
support: Dar
• Plea seeking quashment of FIR against
PTI chief rejected
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Australia
• Muslim Groups Fear Unintended
Consequences Of 'Imprecise' IS Flag Ban
• Australia’s Mecca to Debut in Europe
With Bestselling SPF Cream
--------
Mideast
• 'I Told the Americans The Mideast Is
No Vegas' : Israeli Iran Expert Finally Breaks His Silence
• Israeli plan to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque
presents profound threat to Jerusalem status quo
• Israel’s new hypersonic defence system
defies Russia and Iran’s ‘impossible’ boast
• Saudi FM to visit Iran in first after
China deal, Iranian press reports
• Turkey summons Swiss ambassador over
demonstration against Erdogan
• No Israel normalization if Palestine
dispute not solved: US Saudi embassy
--------
Europe
• Muslim World League Asserts the
Importance of Promoting 'Constructive' Dialogue
• Madrid celebrates its Muslim past in
Spain’s new museum
• IAEA speaks on chances of
Russia-Ukraine nuclear safety deal
• Israel to sell tanks to ‘European
country’
• Sergey Karaganov: By using its nuclear
weapons, Russia could save humanity from a global catastrophe
--------
Southeast Asia
• Seven In 10 Of Malaysia's Shariah
Cases Is On Divorce; Money Top Cause Of Selangor's Muslims' Marriage Breakdown
• M’sia Reiterates Support For Palestine,
Condemns Desecration Of Al-Aqsa Mosque
--------
Africa
• NAF Denies Bombarding Miyetti Allah
Members, Insists Those Killed Were Terrorists
• Kano roundabout was demolished because
of anti-Islamic Christian cross on it: Government
• Uganda Airlines set for first pilgrimage
flight to Mecca in 40 years
• “It’s Against Islamic Values”: Gov’s
Aide Says Kano Roundabout Demolished Because of Large Christian Cross
• Moroccan Islamist leader sentenced to
one year for sex crimes
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/land-love-jihad-uttarakhand-polarisation/d/130009
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‘Love Jihad To Land Jihad’ — How A Small Uttarakhand Town Became Epicentre Of Polarisation Politics
Uttarakhand
Police conduct a flag march after the imposition of Section 144 CrPC amid
communal tensions in Purola Wednesday | ANI
-----
Shanker Arnimesh
15 June, 2023
New Delhi: A small town called Purola in
Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district is in the grip of communal tension, with
right-wing outfits in a stir over ‘land jihad’ and ‘love jihad’, and Muslim
organisations agitating over the “atmosphere of hatred” and “forced exodus of
community members”.
On Thursday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) and Bajrang Dal were gearing up for a Mahapanchayat in Purola to discuss
the “rising cases of love jihad”. However, the Uttarkashi district
administration, after the state government’s intervention, denied permission
for the Mahapanchayat and issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure, banning the assembly of four or more people.
Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand High Court
Thursday asked the state government to maintain law and order, and directed
concerned parties to refrain from social media debates on the issue. The state
government told the court that it had stopped the Mahapanchayat from happening,
to which the court said no gatherings should be held without government
permission.
Police put barricades on all roads
leading to Purola even as hundreds of people assembled and submitted a
memorandum to the district administration, demanding verification of minorities
who settled in the state, and strict action against those “involved in love
jihad”. They also threatened to start a major agitation if their demands aren’t
met.
Many protested in Purola and other parts
of Uttarkashi, decrying the denial of permission for the Mahapanchayat. The VHP
and Bajrang Dal called a ‘bandh’ (strike) due to which several shops stayed
shut.
Bajrang Dal President AnujWalia told
reporters: “It is a big conspiracy against Hindus to stop Mahapanchayat. We
demand removal of the district magistrate who is acting on behalf of Muslim
organisations.”
Meanwhile, Muslim outfits and religious
leaders plan to hold a rally in Dehradun Sunday to highlight the “hatred” in
the town.
Days ahead of the proposed Purola Mahapanchayat,
purported visuals of Muslims deserting their houses and shops in the town were
viral on social media. Posters threatening shopkeepers from the community,
asking them to leave Purola, also cropped up in various parts of the town.
Ankit Rawat, president of the Purola
Pradhan Sangathan (an organisation of village heads), who along with the Purola
Traders’ Association and right-wing outfit Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan gave the
call for the Mahapanchayat, had told ThePrint Wednesday: “We had a meeting with
the local administration and they denied us permission to hold the rally over
possible law and order issues.”
Soon after, however, he had said that
the “local VHP and Bajrang Dal units have taken over charge of holding the
rally, and we will participate in it to discuss various issues, including love
jihad”.
Wasim Ahmad, media in-charge of the
Muslim Seva Sangathan, the body planning the Sunday rally in Dehradun, told
ThePrint that their “Mahapanchayat will be organised under the leadership of
the Dehradun Qazi (Muslim religious leader) to discuss the atmosphere of hatred
in the state”.
He added: “It’s wrong to brand the
entire community in a certain way and pressure is mounting on us to leave our
businesses and houses in Purola. We have requested the Uttarakhand government
to take action in cases of spreading hatred.”
The chain of events prompted an NGO to
file a plea against the proposed Purola Mahapanchayat for urgent hearing in the
Supreme Court. A day before the event was supposed to be held, the court
refused to entertain the petition, stating that law and order was the
responsibility of the state government. It asked the petitioners to approach
the high court.
On Tuesday, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind
president Mahmood Madani had written to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar
Singh Dhami and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, expressing concern over the
tensions in Uttarkashi and “open threat of expulsion” to the Muslim community.
The same
day, Dhami told the media that the “state government is not against
anyone but will not allow Uttarakhand to become a soft target for love jihad,
incidents of which have been on the rise over the last few months”.
“I have asked the director general of
police to maintain peace in the state. We are conducting a verification drive
on people coming to the state…We will not allow land in the state to be used
for encroachment,” he further said.
What sparked these tensions?
The tensions stem from a 26 May incident
— two men, identified by the police as Jitendra Saini and Ubaid Khan, allegedly
abducted a minor girl in Purola town, sparking allegations of ‘love jihad’.
Both were arrested under the Protection
of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Next day (29 May), right-wing groups held
a big rally in the town, demanding that Muslims leave Purola. Videos of a mob
purportedly attacking shops owned by Muslims went viral.
In a 5 June letter to the Tehri Garhwal
administration, the VHP alleged that members of a particular community who
mostly work as ice cream sellers or scrap dealers have become a threat to Hindu
girls. The letter further said that Muslims have been given 10 days’ time to
leave the town, or the VHP, alongwith the Hindu Yuva Vahini, will block the
highway on 20 June in protest.
Meanwhile, a poster allegedly put up by
an outfit called Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan warned “love Jihadis” to vacate their
shops by 15 June.
This was followed by local media reports
that 42 Muslim shopkeepers had fled the town. Chairman of Pauri Municipal
Corporation and former MLA Yashpal Benam reportedly had to call off his
daughter’s marriage to a Muslim boy following protests by local VHP and Bajrang
Dal members. Mohammd Zahid, Uttarkashi district president of the BJP’s minority
cell, too shut his garment shop and fled Purola — where he resided for 25 years
— on 6 June.
Days ahead of the proposed Purola Mahapanchayat,
Virendra Rawat, VHP’s working president in the town, told ThePrint that “there
is no necessity of permission”.
“We have already sent letters to the
district administration about the whole issue and the threat from a particular
community in this district,” he added.
Echoing him, VHP spokesperson Vinod
Bansal said that the “Hindu community is being forced to hold the Mahapanchayat
against jihadi elements in Uttarkashi, and the local unit of the VHP is
supporting the community against jihadi elements”.
He added that the “Jamiat is wasting the
time of the Supreme Court and home minister” and that “they should restrict
their community to do love jihad and land jihad in Uttarakhand”.
CM Dhami on ‘love jihad, land jihad’
The phrases ‘love jihad’ and ‘land
jihad’ have frequently been used by CM Dhami.
In December last year, the Uttarakhand
assembly passed a bill to make the state’s anti-conversion law more stringent —
it defined the religious conversion of two people or more people as ‘mass
conversion’, and enhanced the punishment.
According to a new clause inserted in
section 2 of the law, a ‘mass conversion’ refers to a case where the ‘religion
of two or more persons is converted’, and ‘unlawful conversion’ means ;any
conversion not in accordance with the law of the land’. The clause provides for
jail of up to 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 50,000.
This unrest also comes at a time when
the Ranjana Desai Committee — constituted to frame a Uniform Civil Code for
Uttarakhand — is in the final stage of public hearings in Delhi before
submitting its report to the government.
Dhami had first brought up ‘land jihad’,
or ‘Mazar jihad’, after becoming chief minister in 2021. That year, he had
announced a survey of alleged illegal construction of Mazars, or mausoleums, on
forest land.
In April this year, Dhami said: “We are
not against anyone but encroachment in the name of Mazar will not be allowed.
We will not allow land jihad to prosper. We believe in law but will not allow
anyone’s appeasement.”
The forest department has reportedly
demolished over 300 mazar on forest land.
‘Religious polarisation to win LS polls’
The turmoil in Purola has prompted
reactions from opposition parties. Uttarakhand Congress president Karan Mahara
said the BJP was “creating religious polarisation in the name of love jihad to
win the 2024 Lok Sabha polls”.
“Why is the state government silent on
the hooliganism of the VHP? The country is run by the Constitution and not on
the whims of certain organisations,” he told ThePrint.
“For the government, every section of
society should be equal, but here, the state is itself creating an environment
of hatred and allowing the VHP to instil fear among the Muslims. Why was the
VHP silent over the Ankita Bhandari murder case in which the son of a BJP
leader was an accused? You can’t differentiate among people in the name of
religion,” he added.
BJP’s Uttarakhand president Mahendra
Bhatt dismissed the Congress’s claim, and said the Congress wanted to change
the demography of the state.
He told ThePrint: “It’s not a question
of allowing hatred, but rather a sinister design to change the demography of
Uttarakhand. Initially, mazars were constructed in the forest, but now such
incidents are happening at many places. It is the duty of the government to
maintain law and order.”
M. M. Semwal, a professor of political
science at Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, said religious
polarisation has been gaining ground in Uttarakhand, like in other states.
“During the era of (former CMs) Bhagat
Singh Koshyari and N.D Tiwari, the state’s politics revolved around
personalities, but since Dhami is not a towering figure, he is forming his own
Hindutva cult by allowing polarisation politics to secure his position in the
BJP and in the state,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Source: theprint.in
Please
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Jihadi Madrassas Should Also Provide
Space for Research and Development in Sciences: Afghanistan Acting Prime
Minister
Bakhtar News
Agency
-----
2023-06-15
Kabul (BNA) Acting Prime Minister and
Political Deputy, Maulvi Abdul Kabir, stated in a meeting yesterday with Sheikh
Abdul Wahid Tariq, the head of Jihadi Madrassas, that Jihadi Madrassas should
also allocate space for research and development in the field of Islamic
sciences, alongside teaching.
The Press Office of the Prime Minister’s
Office stated in a press release that Sheikh Abdul Wahid Tariq mentioned in the
meeting that new jihadi madrassas were established in five provinces this year
and have enrolled the Taliban.
Sheikh Tariq added that the activity and
curriculum procedures of the General Directorate of Jihadi Madrassas have been
prepared and will soon be implemented under the supervision of religious
scholars.
He said that he is striving to provide
high-level education in Jihadi madrassas, and to accomplish this goal, a
comprehensive and standardized curriculum is currently under development.
Sheikh Tariq also shared the plan of
reconstructing the buildings of Jihadi madrassas in every province.
At the same time, Maulvi Abdul Kabir
highlights the significance of Jihadi madrassas, emphasizing the need for
well-established religious education centers within the country. He further
emphasizes that the government is earnestly addressing this matter, recognizing
it as a crucial aspect of the current times.
Maulvi Abdul Kabir advocates for the
inclusion of modern sciences in the curriculum of religious madrassas,
alongside religious subjects. This ensures that graduates from Jihadi madrassas
possess the skills necessary to contribute to various institutions.
He emphasized that Jihadi madrassas
should not solely depend on traditional teaching methods, but also actively
encourage research and development in the realm of Islamic sciences.
Source: bakhtarnews.af
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https://bakhtarnews.af/en/maulvi-abdul-kabir-jihadi-madrassas-should-also-provide-space-for-research-and-development-in-sciences/
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Animated 'Spider-Man' Movie Banned From Muslim
Countries, Possibly Over Brief Transgender Messages
Image
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment YouTube video screenshot
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June 15, 2023
The newest animated
"Spider-Man" movie has been banned across the Muslim world, and many
suspect that it's due to brief scenes showing support for the transgender
agenda.
"Spider-Man: Across the
Spider-Verse" was released to great acclaim in the U.S. and has been
declared a box office success, but it will have to forego any gains from the
Middle East.
According to a report from Esquire
Middle East, the United Arab Emirates has said the movie did not pass
censorship requirements and will not be screened in the region.
Other countries banning the film include
Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain.
While the specific reason for the ban
was not disclosed, many suspect that it may have to do with brief scenes in
which signs in the background display support for transgender children. Some
transgender activists have theorized that a main character in the movie, Gwen
Stacy, is implied to be a transgender person.
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daily — directly to your inbox.
The movie shows a poster reading
"protect trans kids" displayed in the Stacy character's room, and her
father is seen wearing a transgender rights flag on his uniform.
The Media Council in UAE released a
statement Monday obliquely referring to the issue.
"We are monitoring and evaluating
the local media content being circulated, and we affirm that any content
contradicting the UAE values and principles, and media content standards
enforced within the UAE, will not be allowed for circulation or
publication," its statement read.
In 2022, 14 Asian and Middle Eastern
countries banned the "Lightyear" animated film over scenes of LGBTQ
characters. That movie went on to bomb at the box office, opening to only $51.7
million on its first weekend in second place. While the film was the fifth
highest grossing animated movie that year, it lost about $100 million for
Disney and Pixar, an enormous disappointment.
Source: theblaze.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.theblaze.com/news/spider-verse-banned-muslim-countries
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The Soaring Rise Of ‘Halal Tourism’ And
Why Non-Muslim Nations Are Jumping On The Bandwagon
Photo: Doha
News
-----
June 16, 2023
A fresh trend is making its presence
felt in the global tourism revival, and it is one you might be familiar with
without knowing.
From Bali’s euphonious call to prayers
in its famous beach resorts to Spain’s historical cities revealing their
Moorish past—Halal Tourism is becoming an irresistible force, reshaping the
landscapes of global tourism.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of
Muslims pack their bags and visit new destinations where they can unwind and
discover the beauty of new cities. However, travelling to a new location as a
Muslim can be quite challenging for many people who are not comfortable with
the choices of entertainment on offer at traditional resorts.
As the number of Muslim-travellers
continue to increase annually, the global tourism industry has found itself
morphing to adapt, bringing forth a whole new holiday concept to serve the 2
billion strong Muslim population.
Breaking down ‘Halal Tourism’
Halal tourism is a subset of tourism
geared towards Muslim families who abide by the values of Islam.
The term “halal,” Arabic for
“permissible,” signifies more than just food prepared according to Islamic law.
It extends to every aspect of life, including leisure activities, hospitality
services, and business ethics.
Halal tourism, therefore, means services
and facilities devoid of non-Islamic activities or substances, such as alcohol,
and offering features like prayer facilities, halal food, and separate swimming
pools or spa facilities for men and women.
The growth of this specific sector
corresponds with the rise in disposable income among the global Muslim
population, coupled with a broader demographic trend towards faith-based
ethical consumption.
According to a report by the Global
Muslim Travel Index (GMTI), Muslim travel spend is projected to reach $300
billion by 2026, up from $180 billion in 2019. The sector now accounts for 12%
of global travel expenditure, highlighting its burgeoning potential.
GCC travellers to pay £10 under new UK
electronic entry scheme
Driven by efforts to elevate tourism in
places like Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, and the rejuvenation of historical
sites, the demand for halal travel is on an upward trajectory.
As more destinations within the Organisation
of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) embrace halal tourism, the discovery of enticing
treasures tailored for Muslim tourists is becoming increasingly commonplace.
The forthcoming generation of Muslims,
as they join the workforce, is predicted to play a pivotal role in directing
the future expansion of this sector, according to a recent report by UnivDatos
Markets Insights.
Countries hopping on the trend
Leading the charge in this sector are
countries with substantial Muslim populations, like Malaysia and Indonesia.
However, non-Muslim-majority countries
are also jumping on the bandwagon.
Japan, for instance, has strived to
become more Muslim-friendly, hosting “Muslimah Fashion Shows” and bolstering
its halal-certified food industry. Spain, with its rich Islamic history, has
developed halal tours in cities like Granada and Cordoba, reviving its Moorish
past for visitors.
Yet, it’s Türkiye that’s leading the
pack, recognised as the world’s most Muslim-friendly travel destination by the
GMTI.
From its Ottoman-era mosques to halal
beach resorts along the Aegean Sea, Türkiye exemplifies the potential of halal
tourism. Beyond the traditional touristic offerings, the country excels in
providing Islamic financial services, halal cosmetic shops, and fashion outlets
with modest clothing.
The GMTI report, released annually,
analyses data from over 140 countries around the world for insights into which
destinations are best fit for the growing Halal travel segment.
However, halal tourism isn’t just about
catering to a niche audience, but it’s about embracing diversity in the tourism
sector. The increasing interest from both Muslim-majority and
non-Muslim-majority countries to tap into this market underlines the appeal and
commercial viability of the concept.
As the Muslim middle class continues to
grow, and as the world becomes more interconnected, the industry is expected to
see an exponential rise, providing significant opportunities for destinations
worldwide.
Source: dohanews.co
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://dohanews.co/the-soaring-rise-of-halal-tourism-and-why-non-muslim-nations-are-jumping-on-the-bandwagon/
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Jamat e Islami Pakistan Plans To Observe
‘Black Day’ Today For The “Theft Of Public Mandate”
Clashes were
reported between JI and PPP supporters outside the Arts Council of Pakistan in
Karachi on Thursday. — Screengrab from video provided by Imtiaz Ali
------
JUNE 16, 2023
JI’s Naeemur Rehman Thursday said that
the “theft of public mandate” was unacceptable to the party. “The people of the
city voted for us. These delimitations were fake. They were only done to
provide an advantage to one party,” he claimed. But at the same time, Rehman
said that it was his responsibility to protect “each and every vote” and refused
to accept the newly-elected mayor.
“Our fight is not against the PPP or
Murtaza Wahhab, it is against theft and dacoity.” “It is against rigging done
by the ECP. Our fight is for the people of Karachi, Pakistan, and the province
of Sindh,” the JI leader asserted.\ Rehman further stated that his party held
the right to peaceful protests and would even approach the courts. Earlier, JI
chief Sirajul Haq also raised questions on the mayoral elections. “The election
of Karachi’s mayor through the kidnapping of elected candidates, buying of
votes, and rigging is a big question on the Constitution and democracy,” he
said in a tweet.
Terming the polls a “mockery of
democracy”, he alleged that the collusion between the Election Commission of
Pakistan (ECP) and the Sindh government was “evident”. In another tweet, the JI
chief said his party would observe “Black Day” across the country tomorrow
(June 16) and requested those who respected the Constitution to participate.
Separately, the JI also wrote a letter to the ECP, claiming that the electoral
body had failed to fulfil its responsibility of holding free and fair polls. It
stated that the party had been repeatedly writing to the watchdog and apprised
it of the “unethical” and “illegal” practices of the PPP but regretted that
timely action was not taken.
“On the occasion of the mayor’s
election, the gates of the voting hall were locked and 29 PTI members were
forcibly abducted from their homes by their elite force in the process,” JI
alleged, adding that the “majority was converted into a minority through
deception”.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk
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https://dailytimes.com.pk/1103988/ji-plans-to-observe-black-day-today/
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India
‘Mahapanchayat’ Called By Hindutva
Organisations in Uttarakhand Against ‘Love Jihad’ Incidents Not Allowed Amid
Tension
16th June 2023
DEHRADUN: The Uttarkashi police on
Thursday foiled a ‘Mahapanchayat’ called by Hindutva organisations to press for
their specific demand for a complete ban on the social and business activities
of a particular community in Purola.
The Nainital High Court has taken a
strong stand during the hearing on this matter on Thursday and has sought a
reply from the government within 3 weeks. A division bench of Chief Justice
VipinSanghi and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal directed the state government to take
strict action as per law in such cases.
The high court ordered the state
government to ban events like Mahapanchayat and register cases against Hindu organisations.
The HC directed, “No one shall participate in TV or social debates”. The High
Court also told the government that no poster banners will be put up in the
case.
Traders’ organisations in the Yamuna
Valley are furious with Section 144 imposed by the administration to stop the
maha panchayat in Purola. Major markets in Barkot, Nagaon, Purola, Mori and Damta remained completely
closed on Thursday. Shops have been closed in Purola and adjoining towns since
May 26.
Source: newindianexpress.com
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Congress Government In KarnatakaIs New
Muslim League: BJP
16th June 2023
BENGALURU: The Bharatiya Janata Party on
Thursday accused the Congress government in Karnataka of being anti-Hindu and
coming under the influence of the conversion mafia to reverse the changes made
to the anti-conversion law implemented by the previous BJP government.
Former chief minister and senior BJP
leader Basavaraj Bommai said that the Congress government indulges in politics
of hate and appeasement and considers revoking the previous government’s
decisions as its major achievement. Bommai said the Siddaramaiah government is
more focused on pleasing the party’s high command and not working for the
people of the state. The government’s decision to drop lessons on RSS founder
KB Hedgewar and Veer Savarkar is like an anti-national act.
BJP MLA BY Vijayendra said the
Anti-Conversion Bill aimed at preventing conversion by means of allurement,
coercion, force, fraudulent means and
also mass conversion. “By repealing the
law, Congress has succumbed to the pressures of conversion mafia and has given
a safe heaven for Conversion factories. Time and again, Congress has proved to
be Anti-Hindu, never taking steps to protect the interests of our ancient
Sanatana Dharma and its rich, ancient cultures and traditions,” he tweeted.
Former Union Minister and MLA
Basanagouda Patil Yatnal said
Siddaramaiah’s anti-Hindu agenda has been exposed.
BJP national general secretary CT Ravi
said after failing to provide people-friendly bhagyas, Congress is giving a
conversion bhagya to Kannadigas. “Congress is the new Muslim League and it will
go to any extent to hurt Hindus,” he tweeted
Source: newindianexpress.com
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https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2023/jun/16/congress-is-new-muslim-league-bjp-2585446.html
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ShihabChottur, An Indian Man Walks 8,650
Km To Mecca On Foot To Perform Hajj
June 16, 2023
A Muslim man has achieved his dream
after an adventurous 382-day journey to Mecca for the holy Hajj pilgrimage.
As Muslims journey to Makkah via air,
sea, or road for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, a 29-year-old Kerala native has
chosen an unconventional path to the holy land.
ShihabChottur embarked on an ambitious
journey on foot last year, covering a distance of 8,650 kilometres, to perform
the Hajj in 2023. The remarkable trek lasted for around 382 days in total, he
said in an interview with the Saudi TV channel Al Ekhbariya.
His journey began on 2 June 2022 and led
him through the lands of Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait before he finally
reached his ultimate destination, the holy city of Mecca, in June 2023.
His passage through Pakistan was briefly
halted, however, due to a four-month delay to obtain a transit visa. In that
time, Chottur said he was provided refuge at the Aafiyah Kids School in Khasa,
Amritsar, Punjab.
Despite the harsh roads and obstacles
faced on the months-long journey, including confrontations with predatory
animals in Iran and harsh winter weather, Chottur remained committed to the mission.
Hajj: Saudi Arabia to host 1,000
Palestinian relatives of martyrs and detainees
Speaking to Ekhbariya, Chottur shared
the details of his journey, which required carrying provisions including food,
water, clothes, and wood to keep warm during the nights.
He was no stranger to challenging
conditions, walking an average of 15 kilometres per day in cold weather, and
stretching his limits to nearly 50 kilometres per day in better conditions.
Upon arriving in Saudi Arabia, Chottur
travelled to Medina to visit the second holiest site in Islam – the prophet’s
mosque and burial ground of the last prophet of Islam. He stayed in the city
for 21 days before departing for Mecca.
While in Saudi Arabia, Chottur typically
walked about 25-60 kilometres per day. It took him nine days to cover the
440-kilometer distance between Medina and Mecca.
Now, Chottur is awaiting the arrival of
his mother Zainab, who will join him on the pilgrimage.
Chottur hopes that his incredible
journey serves as a source of inspiration to others.
“With good intentions, you can overcome
any challenge and achieve your goals,” he said.
Source: dohanews.co
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://dohanews.co/indian-man-walks-8650-km-to-mecca-on-foot-to-perform-hajj/
--------
South Asia
Cash Aid Distribution to Orphans,
Widows, Disabled People to Resume in Afghanistan
June 15, 2023
On Thursday the ministry announced it
has resumed the registration process of orphans, widows and disabled people,
which was ceased due to the assessment work and creating transparency in the
process in Kabul and all provinces of the country.
According to a news release, some 3500
disabled people, widows and orphans who were registered contrary to the
procedures of the Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled Affairs have been removed
from the list.
Sheikh Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Taliban’s
deputy minister of MoMDA said as of now 190,000 disabled people, 80,000 widowed
women and 350,000 orphans have been registered with the ministry.
Meanwhile, in the year 1402, the Finance
Ministry allocated only 12 billion Afghanis for the Ministry of Martyrs and
Disabled Affairs.
According to MoMDA, after allocating
funds for the provinces, the process of distributing cash aid will start before
the “Eid Festival” for the most vulnerable segment of society including widows,
orphans and disabled people.
In a previous report released by
Deutsche Welle (DW), there were some 150,000 disabled people in Afghanistan.
However, the latest statistics, it said that about 190,000 disabled people have
been registered with MoMDA.
According to the findings of
Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), 13.9% of the total
population of Afghanistan suffers from disabilities.
Source: khaama.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.khaama.com/cash-aid-distribution-to-orphans-widows-disabled-people-to-resume-in-afghanistan/
--------
16 Million Afghan Children In Need of
Humanitarian Aid: UNICEF
June 15, 2023
The UNICEF representative in
Afghanistan, Fran Equiza, stated in a video that many children in Afghanistan
carry responsibilities well above their years and that children’s rights are
constantly being degraded in Afghanistan.
“In a country with almost 16 million
children in need of protection and humanitarian assistance, in a country in
which way too many kids are burdened with responsibilities way beyond their
age, in a country where the children’s rights are eroded every day, having a
space like this offers the kids a respite, a safe and secure space where the
kids can rest, can relax, can play and can make friends,” he said.
He also said, “They don’t have clean
water to quench their thirst or blankets to sleep.”
He also pointed out that the condition
of children in the country is disastrous, as some children are breadwinners for
their families.
“Children as young as six are in
dangerous conditions to help their parents put a little food on the table,” he
said.
On the other hand, children are the most
vulnerable section of society, including violence, early marriage and a huge
responsibility.
“Too many live in fear of violence or
early marriage. Too many are burdened by the weight of a dual responsibility,”
he said. “Too many people have forgotten that Afghanistan is a children’s
crisis.”
The organization also reiterated that
nearly 2.3 million children are expected to face acute malnutrition in 2023.
He called on the world community and
international aid agencies to support Afghan children in this difficult time.
Since the Taliban’s control of the
country, following the sanction by the international community, the country has
faced financial, acute humanitarian, and human rights crises.
Source: khaama.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.khaama.com/16-million-afghan-children-in-need-of-humanitarian-aid-unicef/
--------
ICRC: Unemployment has Damaged Lives of
Millions of People in Afghanistan
15-06-23
According to the report, “in addition to
other humanitarian crises, unemployment has damaged the lives of millions of
people in Afghanistan. People living with disabilities are among the most
affected.”
The ICRC called on the international
community and development organizations to resume investing in Afghanistan.
“The ICRC welcomes any decision that
will enable Afghan families to better cope with the dire economic condition and
calls on the international community and development organizations to resume
investing in Afghanistan, to prevent the situation from worsening further,” the
report reads.
"A large part of this aid is
necessary to be used for large infrastructural and economic projects in order
to make the employment environment favorable for the people and to reduce the
economic problems of the people,” said Darya Khan Baheer, an economist.
In the meantime, some residents of Kabul
asked the Islamic Emirate and relief organizations to provide work
opportunities.
“The Islamic Emirate should increase
employment opportunities for poor and destitute people,” said Saifullah, a
resident of Kabul.
According to the Ministry of Economy, to
reduce poverty in the country, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure
projects.
"As much as Afghanistan's economic
infrastructure is strengthened, to that extent we will overcome poverty. Our
effort is to direct the international community's aid to infrastructure and
development projects,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, the deputy of the Ministry of
Economy.
A International Committee of the Red
Cross report stated that nearly twenty million people in Afghanistan, which
constitutes 44% of the country's population, do not have access to sufficient
food.
Based on the ICRC report, nearly 20
million Afghans (44 percent of the population) do not have enough to eat, and
an estimated 34 million Afghans (79 percent) live in poverty.
Source: tolonews.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan-183792
--------
Registration Process of Families of
Martyrs Resumed
15-06-23
According to the Ministry of Martyrs and
Disabled, more than 3500 families that were not deserving of help have been
removed from this ministry's list.
“The people who were not in accordance
with the plan of our ministry and were registered, they are removed, and in the
future these 3,500 people in fifteen provinces will be deprived of this
privilege…,” said Abdul Hakkim Haqqani, deputy of the Ministry of Martyrs and
Disabled.
The Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled
said that based on the order of the Islamic Emirate leader, the budget of this
ministry has increased from nine and a half billion to twelve billion.
“By the order of the leader of the
Islamic Emirate, twelve billion Afghanis have been officially allocated to the
budget of the Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled…,” said Kalimullah Afghan,
Financial and Administrative Deputy of the Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled.
This ministry emphasizes that they are
trying to pay the salaries of needy families before Eid al-Adha.
Dozens of families of martyrs and
disabled people have complained that they didn’t receive their allotted funds.
Source: tolonews.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan-183783
--------
Russia Warns of Expanding Threat From Daesh
in Afghanistan
June 15, 2023
According to Russian Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the Islamic State (IS), also named Daesh, is
trying to undermine the security and stability in Afghanistan and its
neighbouring countries with the support of externals.
“The security situation in Afghanistan
is tense,” she pointed out at a briefing on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum,” is involved in acts that are subversive to the
governments of the countries, Tass reported.
“the group seeks to undermine stability
in the Central Asian countries neighbouring Afghanistan. In this, ISIL is
encouraged by external forces; ISIL members themselves have confirmed that the
terrorist group receives funds from foreign intelligence agencies and there are
foreign terrorists among its fighters,” she added.
The Ministry also said that it is
challenging for the current regime of Kabul to control the situation as the
government is dealing with financial issues due to the Western sanctions.
“Kabul has been able to keep the
situation stable in the country, although that is not easy to do given
sanctions and Western countries’ move to block the Afghan Central Bank’s
assets,” Ministry said.
In May, Sergey Shoigy, Russian Defense
Minister, accused the United States of aiming to exploit militant groups,
including IS in Afghanistan, to destabilize the region.
During his meeting with his counterparts
from other CSTO member states, he made remarks to discuss regional issues and
challenges.
He asserted that Afghanistan continues
to be a source of instability and that the US plans to harness the potential of
terrorist groups to destabilize the region.
He also warned the nations of Central
Asia, especially the CSTO member states, warning them that illegal armed
organizations will likely try to invade their neighbours’ countries in the
future.
Meanwhile, “Russia, for its part,
continues to provide free assistance to the Afghan people,” Zakharova
emphasized. “In particular, another shipment of Russian food was delivered to
Afghanistan in May as part of our core contribution to the UN World Food
Program, which contained about one thousand tons of food,” she asserted.
Source: khaama.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.khaama.com/russia-warns-of-expanding-threat-from-daesh-in-afghanistan/
--------
North America
CAIR-MA Welcomes Court Decision to Grant
Retrial to Muslim After Defense Attorney’s Islamophobic, Racist Posts Surface
June 15, 2023
(BOSTON, MA, 6/15/2023) – The
Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MA),
the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today
welcomed a decision by that state’s Supreme Judicial Court to grant a new trial
to a Muslim defendant whose attorney made multiple Islamophobic and racist
posts over the course of several years on social media.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
approved a request for a new trial for Anthony Dew, a Black Muslim man, after
his state-appointed defense attorney was found to have expressed racist and
anti-Muslim views both to Mr. Dew personally and on social media. CAIR-MA
previously joined an amicus brief requesting a new trial.
In its decision, the Court wrote in
part:
The defense attorney’s “animus against
persons of the Muslim faith and his racism against Black persons, demonstrated
by his social media posts (some of which were made at the courthouse while he
was serving clients in his professional capacity), and manifest in his treatment
of the defendant — a Black, Muslim man — during the representation, presented
an actual conflict of interest…The defendant has shown that [the defense
attorney’s] biases infected his representation of the defendant.”
In a statement, CAIR-MA Legal Director
Barbara Dougan said:
“We are very pleased that the SJC saw
how, in their own words, the defense attorney’s Islamophobia and racism
‘infected’ his representation of his Muslim client, creating a conflict of
interest. It’s often hard enough for members of marginalized communities to
obtain justice in our criminal legal system. Here, the court refused to
minimize the level of religious and racial hatred that the defense attorney
displayed – indeed, publicly posted for the world to see — and ordered a new trial.”
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil
rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American
Muslims.
La misión de CAIR esproteger las
libertadesciviles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar
a losmusulmanesenlosEstadosUnidos.
Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational
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http://twitter.com/cairnational
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http://www.youtube.com/cairtv
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Donate to CAIR
https://action.cair.com/a/donate
Do you like reading CAIR press releases
and taking part in our action alerts? You can help contribute to CAIR’s work of
defending civil rights and empowering American Muslims across the country by
making a one-time contribution or becoming a monthly donor. Supporters like you
make CAIR’s advocacy work possible and defeating Islamophobia an achievable
goal. Click here to donate to CAIR.
If you would like to join CAIR’s media
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information, email: info@cair.com, CC ihooper@cair.com
END
Source: cair.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-ma-welcomes-court-decision-to-grant-retrial-to-muslim-after-defense-attorneys-islamophobic-racist-posts-surface/
--------
Court Vacates Convictions Against Black
Muslim Man Because Of Attorney's Racist Posts
Jun 15, 2023
The highest court in Massachusetts has
vacated sex trafficking convictions against a Black Muslim man whose
court-appointed attorney had a history of posting racist and anti-Muslim
vitriol on social media.
Attorney Richard Doyle had a conflict of
interest that deprived the defendant of his right to effective assistance of
counsel, "a right upon which our entire system of criminal justice
depends,” the Supreme Judicial Court wrote in its unanimous decision released
Thursday.
“Indigent and facing multiple felony
charges, the defendant was appointed counsel who openly posted, on his social media
account, his vitriolic hatred of and bigotry against persons of the Muslim
faith; his unabashed anti-Muslim rants were matched only by his equal scorn for
and racism against Black persons,” the court wrote.
The now-deceased defense attorney’s
racism continued even after he took the case, the court said.
The defendant, Anthony Dew, was
coincidentally released from prison on parole on Thursday, said his appeals
lawyer, Edward Gaffney.
“I'm happy, of course. Our position was
that he was denied his constitutional rights, and this decision confirms that
our position was correct,” Gaffney said.
It was a unique case.
“This situation was so strange. We could
not find a similar case and we could not fit this extreme fact pattern into
existing law," he said.
The Suffolk district attorney's office
now must decide whether to try the case, dismiss the charges, or negotiate
another plea deal.
“The anti-Muslim and racist sentiments
expressed by this defense attorney are reprehensible," Jim Borghesani, a
spokesperson for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, said in a statement.
“While we vigorously pursue convictions in every prosecution we bring forward,
we recognize the societal imperative of effective and unbiased representation
for all defendants. We are reviewing the underlying case and will determine our
future actions based on that review."
Dew was indicted in March 2015 on 19
charges, including five counts of trafficking a person for sexual servitude and
one count of rape.
On one of the first occasions Dew met
his defense attorney, he was wearing a prayer cap known as a kufi. Doyle
demanded he remove the cap and said, “Don’t come in this room like that
ever," according to the court. At another meeting, the attorney left the
room without speaking to Dew upon seeing that he was again wearing a kufi.
Doyle urged Dew to accept a plea deal in
the case, and in 2016, he pleaded guilty to all of the charges he faced, except
for rape, which was dismissed as part of the deal. He was sentenced to up to 10
years in prison.
Dew at the time had no idea that his
attorney from at least 2014 through 2017 had made a series of racists posts on
social media.
“These posts ... included a variety of
anti-Muslim slurs and statements calling for violence against and celebrating
the death of persons of the Muslim faith, posts mocking Black individuals, and
comments, some apparently made at a state court house, seemingly referring to
Doyle’s clients as ‘thugs’ and suggesting that Doyle’s nonwhite clients were
criminals," the court's decision said.
Dew did not become aware of his
attorney's bigoted posts until 2021, the same year Doyle died. Dew filed a
motion for a new trial and asked to withdraw his guilty pleas. A judge denied
his motion and it went to the high court.
Source: huffpost.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-convictions-overturned-racist-posts_n_648b6165e4b025003ee31ed9
--------
Islamic State Soldier, Ibraheem
Musaibli, From Michigan Sentenced In Rare
Terrorism Case
2023/06/15
DETROIT — An ISIS soldier from Dearborn
captured while fighting alongside the terror group in Syria five years ago was
sentenced Thursday to 14 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors sought a 35-year sentence,
which is more than three times as long as the sentence sought by lawyers for
Ibraheem Musaibli, who said he should have been sentenced to the mandatory
minimum 10 years in prison. Musaibli, 33, has been jailed since 2018 when he
was captured on a Syrian battlefield, making him one of a small group of
foreign fighters brought back from overseas to face terrorism charges in the
U.S.
A 14-year sentence is slightly longer
than average for terrorism cases in the U.S. At least 198 people have been
convicted of crimes related to the Islamic State and sentenced to an average of
13.3 years in prison, according to data compiled by George Washington
University's Program on Extremism.
Musaibli was sentenced five months after
jurors convicted him of providing material support to a terrorist group. Jurors
spent about four hours deliberating after a nine-day trial before convicting
Musaibli of all three charges against him. That includes conspiring to provide
material support and receiving military-type training from ISIS. The two
terrorism-related charges could have sent Musaibli to prison for 50 years.
"His trial gave an eye-opening
window into the inner workings of ISIS and how it used Americans in its terror
group," said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism.
"While the prison sentence is shorter than what the government requested,
it's generally on par with sentencing...for other similar convicted American
terrorists who traveled to Syria."
U.S. District Judge David Lawson also
ordered Musaibli to serve 10 years of supervised release.
"This defendant chose to join a
brutal, foreign terrorist organization and then to fight against the United
States," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in a statement. "For his
betrayal of our nation and his fellow citizens, he is deserving of a long
sentence."
Memorandums filed in federal court
portray starkly different portraits of the son of a perfume shop owner who
became radicalized by watching lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki. Musaibli stole his
pregnant wife's jewelry, abandoned his family, traveled to Syria, swore
allegiance to ISIS, fired an assault rifle on the battlefield and fought U.S.
and coalition forces, prosecutors said.
"To this day, Musaibli has neither
taken responsibility for serving ISIS as a foreign fighter nor shown remorse for
his actions," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hank Moon and Michael Martin wrote
in a sentencing memorandum.
Musaibli is among at least 27 Americans
who have been captured alive in Syria and Iraq in recent years. Musaibli and at
least nine others have been charged with terrorism crimes since 2020 and
accused of supporting ISIS.
The sentence is shorter than others
issued to people convicted after traveling overseas to support ISIS. Emraan
Ali, a U.S. citizen with ties to Florida who joined ISIS in Syria, was
sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in April. A Virginia man, Mohamad Jamal
Khweis, also was sentenced to 20 years in 2017 after joining ISIS in Iraq.
An Indiana woman, Samantha Marie
Elhassani, was sentenced in 2020 to more than six years for financing terrorism
after being repatriated from Syria aboard the same military flight as Musaibli.
Prosecutors used Musaibli's own words
against him in calling for the decades-long sentence, quoting a comment he made
in 2016: "I will never give up jihad even if my kids have to beg on the
streets and I have to eat leaves from tree. ..."
In requesting a 10-year sentence,
Musaibli's lawyers characterized him as a man with cognitive and developmental
challenges who failed to live up to his ideal as that of a committed Muslim
man.
Musaibli was not a leader or a committed
radical, his lawyers argued. Instead, he "was manipulated by propaganda
into traveling to Syria to help women and children," defense lawyer James
Gerometta wrote.
"Rather than a committed radical,
he ran from fights and violence," the lawyer wrote. "He sought (ISIS)
charity and, rather than asking what he could do for (ISIS), asked what (ISIS)
could do for him. Similarly, even when praising (ISIS) in some communications,
he condemned attacks on civilians; those were not the true mujahedeen and such
attacks were sinful.
"He has, and always will be,
susceptible to manipulation and easily influenced," Gerometta added.
Musaibli's family mounted an attempt to
minimize his prison sentence. His parents, siblings, wife and ex-wife — who
prosecutors say was abandoned when the Dearborn man left to join ISIS —
described the father-of-four as a kind, loving, charitable, peaceful man who as
a child was so delicate he would cry at the sight of violence.
"My husband (Ibraheem), was and
still is a good-hearted and tender man," wife Arzaq Saleh wrote to the
judge. "My life with him was (like) a dream, because it was short, but
like paradise."
Source: nordot.app
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://nordot.app/1042216438448537777?c=592622757532812385
--------
MA man has sex trafficking convictions
vacated after attorney's racist, anti-Islam posts uncovered
June 15, 2023
The highest court in Massachusetts has
vacated sex trafficking convictions against a Black Muslim man whose
court-appointed attorney had a history of posting racist and anti-Muslim
vitriol on social media.
Attorney Richard Doyle had a conflict of
interest that deprived the defendant of his right to effective assistance of
counsel, "a right upon which our entire system of criminal justice
depends," the Supreme Judicial Court wrote in its unanimous decision
released Thursday.
"Indigent and facing multiple
felony charges, the defendant was appointed counsel who openly posted, on his
social media account, his vitriolic hatred of and bigotry against persons of
the Muslim faith; his unabashed anti-Muslim rants were matched only by his
equal scorn for and racism against Black persons," the court wrote.
The now-deceased defense attorney’s
racism continued even after he took the case, the court said.
The defendant, Anthony Dew, was
coincidentally released from prison on parole on Thursday, said his appeals
lawyer, Edward Gaffney.
"I'm happy, of course. Our position
was that he was denied his constitutional rights, and this decision confirms
that our position was correct," Gaffney said.
It was a unique case.
"This situation was so strange. We
could not find a similar case and we could not fit this extreme fact pattern
into existing law," he said.
Dew's appeal to the high court was
supported by the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, which filed a brief with the court on his behalf.
"It’s often hard enough for members
of marginalized communities to obtain justice in our criminal legal
system," Legal Director Barbara Dougan said in a statement. "Here,
the court refused to minimize the level of religious and racial hatred that the
defense attorney displayed – indeed, publicly posted for the world to
see."
The Suffolk district attorney's office
now must decide whether to try the case, dismiss the charges, or negotiate
another plea deal.
"The anti-Muslim and racist
sentiments expressed by this defense attorney are reprehensible," Jim
Borghesani, a spokesperson for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, said in
a statement. "While we vigorously pursue convictions in every prosecution
we bring forward, we recognize the societal imperative of effective and
unbiased representation for all defendants. We are reviewing the underlying
case and will determine our future actions based on that review."
Dew was indicted in March 2015 on 19
charges, including five counts of trafficking a person for sexual servitude and
one count of rape.
On one of the first occasions Dew met
his defense attorney, he was wearing a prayer cap known as a kufi. Doyle
demanded he remove the cap and said, "Don’t come in this room like that
ever," according to the court. At another meeting, the attorney left the
room without speaking to Dew upon seeing that he was again wearing a kufi.
GRAND JURY INDICTS EX-BOSNIAN PRISON
CAMP GUARD FOR LYING ABOUT REFUGEE STATUS
Doyle urged Dew to accept a plea deal in
the case, and in 2016, he pleaded guilty to all of the charges he faced, except
for rape, which was dismissed as part of the deal. He was sentenced to up to 10
years in prison.
Dew at the time had no idea that Doyle
from at least 2014 through 2017 had made a series of racist posts on social media.
"These posts ... included a variety
of anti-Muslim slurs and statements calling for violence against and
celebrating the death of persons of the Muslim faith, posts mocking Black
individuals, and comments, some apparently made at a state court house,
seemingly referring to Doyle’s clients as ‘thugs’ and suggesting that Doyle’s
nonwhite clients were criminals," the court's decision said.
Dew did not become aware of his
attorney's bigoted posts until 2021, the same year Doyle died. Dew filed a
motion for a new trial and asked to withdraw his guilty pleas. A lower court
judge denied his motion and it went to the high court.
Source: foxnews.com
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ma-man-sex-trafficking-convictions-vacated-attorneys-racist-anti-islam-posts-uncovered
--------
US has resumed indirect talks with Iran
in effort to constrain nuclear program
June 15, 2023
The United States has quietly resumed
indirect talks with Iran in an effort to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program,
multiple sources told CNN.
The talks resumed late last year, months
after an effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal collapsed. The Trump
administration withdrew from the landmark agreement in 2018 and Iran has
increasingly grown its nuclear program in violation of the deal, formally known
as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Although sources say there have been
some indications of progress, one source said “we’re just not there yet” on an
agreement, and both the US and Iran have denied that an interim deal has been
reached.
Stakes are high for the renewed efforts,
which come ahead of the 2024 US presidential election and will face scrutiny
from lawmakers and a key US ally in the Middle East: Israel.
The US is also engaged in trying to
secure the release of multiple Americans who have been detained in Iran –
something the administration has called a top priority. There are three
Americans who have been designated as wrongfully detained who are imprisoned in
Iran: Siamak Namazi, EmadSharghi, and MoradTahbaz. An American resident, Shahab
Dalili, is also detained.
Biden administration officials have for
months said that Iran’s breakout time – how long it would need to produce
enough weapons-grade material for one nuclear bomb – had dwindled to a matter
of weeks, with one Defense Department official saying in February that it could
be as short as 12 days. The breakout time does not mean that Iran could produce
an actual bomb in that period.
For months following the failure of the
JCPOA revival attempt and amid nationwide protests in Iran, the Biden
administration said publicly that the nuclear deal was “not on the agenda,” but
said that they were committed to using diplomacy to prevent Iran from acquiring
a nuclear weapon.
However, talks quietly resumed late last
year, with countries including Oman serving as intermediaries. A top
administration official, Brett McGurk, has traveled multiple times to the Gulf
nation for the indirect discussions with Iranian government representatives.
US approved $2.7 billion bank
And in what could be seen as a
confidence building measure, the US approved a waiver allowing the transfer of
$2.7 billion from Iraq to Iranian banks, in a move State Department
spokesperson Matthew Miller called “consistent with transactions that have
taken place over – going back a number of years.”
“Number one, Iran can only access its
funds held in accounts for Iraq for humanitarian and other non-sanctionable
transactions,” he said Tuesday. “Number two, that these are actions that have
taken place for several years, dating back to the previous administration,
where the United States has approved similar transactions on an ongoing basis,
consistent with US law and in full coordination with the Government of Iraq.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson
said Monday that Tehran exchanged messages with the United States through Oman
“a few weeks ago.”
“The basis of the negotiations to lift
sanctions is the JCPOA. We do not have a new framework. We do not endorse any
negotiations for an interim agreement or new arrangements to replace the
JCPOA,” Nasser Kanaani said in a briefing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu suggested this week that his government would remain opposed to a
deal with Tehran, reportedly saying, “Our position is clear: Israel will not be
bound by any deal with Iran and will continue to defend itself.”
On Thursday, US Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Austin met with his Israeli counterpart in Brussels, where “both leaders
agreed to continue working together to address the wide range of threats posed
by Iran, including its nuclear program, destabilizing regional activities, and
proliferation of uncrewed aerial systems and other lethal assistance throughout
the Middle East and to Russia,” according to a Pentagon readout.
Earlier this week, Iranian negotiator
Ali BagheriKani met with officials from the so-called E-3 countries – France,
Germany, and the United Kingdom – in Abu Dhabi, UK Foreign Office political
director Christian Turner said on Twitter.
Plan C
If an agreement on the nuclear issues
was reached, it is unlikely it would restore the limits of the JCPOA, but would
rather be an effort to put a box around Iran’s growing nuclear program.
“They’ve moved on to what you would call
Plan C, which is try to constrain Iran and try to limit worst case outcomes,
but without trying to reach an actual agreement for the next year plus given
the political constraints that the administration faces and not wanting to draw
attention or resources away from China and Russia,” said Henry Rome, a senior
fellow at the Washington Institute.
A US official told CNN that the
administration’s diplomatic engagements were focused on “constraining its
destabilizing behavior and ensuring it does not acquire a nuclear weapon.” They
said they want to see Tehran curb its nuclear program, stop supporting proxy
groups carrying out attacks in the region, and stop supporting Russia in its
war in Ukraine.
“We continue to use our diplomatic
engagements to pursue all of these goals, in full coordination with our
partners and allies,” the official said.
“We believe diplomacy is the best path
forward, as we have said since the outset of this Administration. But, as
always, we have other options available to us if Iran chooses not to act,” they
said, adding that their “diplomacy is matched and backed by deterrence.”
“Our actions earlier this year, for
example, sent a clear message to Iran, which have resulted in a significant
reduction of attacks against US personnel,” the official said.
On the issue of the detainees, Oman’s
foreign minister told al-Monitor that the two sides are “close.”
“This is probably a question of
technicalities,” he told the publication.
In the past, one aspect of a prospective
deal for the detainees has involved the unfreezing of billions of dollars of
frozen Iranian assets from South Korea.
Source: edition.cnn.com
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--------
US, Iran in talks to cool tensions with
a mutual 'understanding'
By ParisaHafezi, John Irish and Arshad
Mohammed
June 16, 2023
DUBAI/PARIS, June 16 (Reuters) - The
United States is holding talks with Iran to sketch out steps that could limit
the Iranian nuclear programme, release some detained U.S. citizens and unfreeze
some Iranian assets abroad, Iranian and Western officials said.
These steps would be cast as an
"understanding" rather than an agreement requiring review by the U.S.
Congress, where many oppose giving Iran benefits because of its military aid to
Russia, its domestic repression and its support for proxies that have attacked
U.S. interests in the region.
Having failed to revive a 2015 Iran
nuclear deal, Washington hopes to restore some limits on Iran to keep it from
getting a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel and trigger a regional arms
race. Tehran says it has no ambition to develop a nuclear weapon.
The 2015 deal, which then-President
Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, had capped Tehran's uranium enrichment at 3.67%
purity and its stockpile of this material at 202.8 kg (447 pounds) - limits
Tehran has since far exceeded.
U.S. and European officials have been
searching for ways to curb Tehran's nuclear efforts since the breakdown of
indirect U.S.-Iranian talks. The willingness to restart discussions illustrates
the rising sense of urgency in Western capitals about Iran's programme.
The U.S. government has dismissed
reports it is seeking an interim deal, using carefully constructed denials that
leave open the possibility of a less formal "understanding" that
could avoid congressional review.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller
denied there was any deal with Iran.
However, he said Washington wanted
Tehran to de-escalate tensions and curb its nuclear programme, cease support
for regional proxy groups that carry out attacks, halt support for Russia's war
on Ukraine and release detained U.S. citizens.
"We continue to use diplomatic
engagements to pursue all of these goals," he added, without giving details.
An Iranian official said: "Call it
whatever you want, whether a temporary deal, an interim deal, or a mutual
understanding - both sides want to prevent further escalation."
In the first instance, "that will
involve prisoner exchange and unblocking part of Iran's frozen assets", he
said.
Further steps might include U.S.
sanctions waivers for Iran to export oil in return for ceasing 60% uranium
enrichment and greater Iranian cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, he
said.
COOLING DOWN
"I'd call it a cooling-down
understanding," said a Western official on condition of anonymity, saying
there had been more than one round of indirect talks in Oman between U.S.
National Security Council official Brett McGurk and Iran's chief nuclear
negotiator, Ali BagheriKani.
U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley
has also met Iran's ambassador to the U.N. after months of Iran refusing direct
contact.
The Western official said the idea was
to create a status quo acceptable for all, getting Iran to avoid the Western
redline of enriching to 90% purity, commonly viewed as weapons grade, and
possibly even to "pause" its enrichment at 60%.
In addition to the 60% pause, both sides
are discussing more Iranian cooperation with the International Atomic Energy
Agency and not installing more advanced centrifuges in return for the
"substantial transfer" of Iranian funds held abroad, the official
said.
The official did not specify whether the
pause meant Iran would commit not to enrich above 60% or whether it would stop
enriching to 60% itself.
AVOIDING AN IRAN-ISRAEL CLASH
The order of the steps and how they
might relate to a release of three detained U.S. citizens held by Iran was also
unclear. Officials have previously said freeing them might be connected to the
release of frozen funds.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson
said on Monday the two nations could exchange prisoners soon if Washington
showed goodwill, saying there were talks through intermediaries, without giving
details. Iran's mission to the U.N. did not immediately respond to a detailed
request for comment.
The Western official said the key U.S.
objective was to keep the nuclear situation from worsening and to avoid a
potential clash between Israel and Iran.
"If (the) Iranians miscalculate,
the potential for a strong Israeli response is something that we want to
avoid," he said.
U.S. officials appear to avoid saying
they are seeking an "agreement" because of a 2015 law under which
Congress must get the text of any accord about Iran's nuclear programme,
opening a window for legislators to review and potentially vote on it.
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican, wrote to President Joe Biden on Thursday
saying "any arrangement or understanding with Iran, even informal,
requires submission to Congress".
(This story has been refiled to correct
the dateline to June 16)
Reporting By ParisaHafezi in Dubai, John
Irish in Paris and Arshad Mohammed in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Additional
reporting by Ramu Ayub, Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington;
Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Don Durfee and William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust
Principles.
Source: reuters.com
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--------
US, Iran inch toward understanding aimed
at easing tensions
16-06-23
The US and Iran are inching toward an
understanding to free prisoners while creating space for diplomacy aimed at encouraging
nuclear restraint and reduced threats to seize oil shipments.
Negotiations in Oman and on the
sidelines of United Nations meetings led to an initial agreement for Iran to
free US prisoners, while the US would release payments owed to the Islamic
Republic that were frozen by sanctions, according to officials with knowledge
the talks.
Diplomats are also pushing Iran to
voluntarily limit its uranium-enrichment levels and boost its cooperation with
international monitors in return for allowances to ship more crude, said one
person familiar with the Iranian position.
“There is some diplomacy in play,” said
Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official, who was in Vienna this
week to meet with diplomats assigned to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“There will at least be a cease-fire put in place, they won’t escalate more.”
The developments mark the best signs of
progress between the two global rivals in several months, and follow heightened
tensions over Iran’s nuclear program after a drop in international examinations
and the detection of uranium particles just below weapons grade.
The first stage of the plan is already
in train, with the US making substantial arrangements to waive sanctions that
prohibited Iraq from paying about $2.7 billion owed to Tehran for natural-gas
shipments. A similar waiver is expected for South Korea, which owes Iran $7
billion for oil purchases. In return, at least three US prisoners will be
freed.
The detainees’ release will happen
within the following days or weeks, according to the officials. Iran’s top
diplomat has been suggesting since March that the two countries were on the
cusp of a prisoner exchange.
Asked about the diplomacy on Wednesday,
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to discuss the status of
Americans being held by Iran and denied any nuclear deal was in the works.
Officials underscored the current talks
aren’t focused on the atomic tensions that have intensified in the wake of the
Trump administration’s 2018 decision to scuttle the so-called JCPOA accord,
which lifted sanctions in return for strict monitoring and nuclear-fuel limits.
Iran’s government responded by restricting some IAEA activities and
dramatically boosting uranium enrichment.
Further diplomacy would focus on reaching
an understanding that falls short of a signed agreement, according to the
officials.
The US wants pledges that Iran won’t
exceed 60 percent levels of uranium enrichment and will work with IAEA
investigators to clarify the provenance of decades-old uranium particles
detected at two undeclared sites. In return, Iran expects the US to stop
blocking tankers and seizing oil shipments at sea.
More progress
In an additional sign of progress
between the two countries, the officials highlighted renewed cooperation
between the IAEA and Iran over the last month. Agency officials were allowed to
install sensitive, high-tech monitoring equipment at fuel factories, which can
detect enrichment inventory beyond Iran’s declared limits.
Iran voluntarily agreed to avoid triggering
more tensions such as those seen in February, when trace uranium particles just
below weapons grade were detected, according to another senior diplomat. The
IAEA reported last month that Iran had answered some of its inspectors
questions and is working toward resolving the rest.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said
this week he would support a nuclear deal with the West as long as the
country’s installed atomic capacity isn’t touched.
“You may want to reach some agreements,
that’s not a problem, but the infrastructure shouldn’t be touched or
destroyed,” Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Sunday.
Talks between the US and Iran haven’t
broached imposing any limits on the installed capacity, according to the
officials.
Source: english.alarabiya.net
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--------
Arab World
Bilateral relations, regional issues and
energy to top agenda as Saudi crown prince meets Macron
June 16, 2023
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron
will welcome Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to a one-on-one
luncheon meeting at the Elysee Palace on Friday.
This visit is expected to be longer and
the talks more multifaceted than during the crown prince’s previous trip to
Paris in July last year. It will provide the two leaders with an opportunity to
discuss bilateral relations and the latest developments in numerous issues of
common interest.
Additionally, the crown Prince’s visit
will be punctuated by several other events, most notably an International
Bureau of Expositions meeting, and a summit organized by France to discuss a
new Global Financing Pact.
It also follows the recent announcement
of the resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, an
event that caught France’s attention. The Elysee responded to it by saying
“there is in this normalization of diplomatic relations with Iran a potential
for easing tensions in the region that must be verified.’
In the view of the French, “the issue is
not so much the normalization of relations with Iran but the demonstration of
what Iran and Saudi Arabia together can make of this normalization on certain
subjects where the two countries have so far been opposed.”
Therefore, the meeting offers a chance
to review the effects this normalization could have on the main issues of
common interest between France and Saudi Arabia, in particular the situations
in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and the ongoing saga of the Iran nuclear deal.
Regarding Lebanon, Paris indicated it
had “heard the Saudis repeatedly say that this country was lost due to the
domination of Hezbollah or Iran’s influence,” and France “wants to clarify this
point and, without taking sides, make sure that the Saudis can engage with the
Iranians” in a discussion that creates favorable conditions for the election of
a president” in Lebanon.
With the political process in Lebanon
deadlocked, and the country in the grips of a severe financial crisis, the
president’s office has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October
last year.
“Neither Saudi Arabia nor France are in
a mindset to do things in place of the Lebanese,” the presidential palace said,
instead stressing “the common need to promote stability and security” in the
country.
On the situation in Syria, the French
President “will be interested in hearing the crown prince tell him how to get
President Bashar Assad to comply with a number of Saudi demands, the details of
which are not yet known,” the Elysee said.
Iran’s nuclear program will also be
discussed as “it is important for us to hear the crown prince's assessment of
the intensity of the Iranian threat as he perceives it and what he expects from
the restoration of diplomatic relations, as well as how he intends to deal with
the Iranians on this issue.”
Outside of the region, the war in
Ukraine will not be overlooked despite the density of topics on the agenda. On
this issue, Paris said it “does not have specific requests to make to Saudi
Arabia, apart from the request made to all our partners to fully consider the
fact that the war in Ukraine is a conflict with global implications and risks
repercussions throughout the world, including the Middle East.”
It added: “What we ask the Saudis, like
all our partners, is to help us speed up the end of the war,” which from a
French viewpoint would mean victory for Ukraine on the ground, leading to peace
negotiations with Russia aimed at restoring Ukrainian security and sovereignty.
In a broader context, the Elysee notes
the crown prince’s visit, which takes place at his request, “aims to define the
objectives of bilateral cooperation that are necessary for the partnership we
have with Saudi Arabia in perfectly identified areas.”
These areas include issues related to
security and defense, and the energy transition, in particular the Kingdom’s
lofty ambitions in terms of energy.
Regarding Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the
Expo 2030, a decision on which is not due until autumn next year, France has
already announced its support. It remains to be revealed whether the crown
prince will attend the summit, organized by France, to discuss a new Global
Financing Pact, which us due to take place on June 22 and 23.
During the gathering, Macron aims to
assemble a broad coalition of willing countries to “produce the necessary
funding shock to address both the needs of poverty reduction in the South, and
as fair a green transition as possible,” the Elysee said.
Source: arabnews.com
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--------
Saudi citizens can now travel abroad
without being vaccinated against COVID-19
June 15, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi citizens no longer need to
be vaccinated against COVID-19 to travel outside the Kingdom, the Ministry of
Interior has announced.
The decision was made based on
recommendations by health authorities based on the local and global stability
of the pandemic, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday. Experts will
continue to monitor the situation closely, it added.
Source: arabnews.com
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---------
Role of Saudi fathers shifting as women
join the workforce
June 15, 2023
RIYADH: A breadwinner, protector,
leader, teacher and helper — these roles were historically perceived as the
roles of a father, but cultural and social reforms in Saudi Arabia and the
increased participation of women in the labor force have redefined fatherhood
in the Kingdom.
Ahead of Father’s Day, which falls on
June 18, Saudis celebrate the changing role of fathers in society amid social
and cultural shifts in the Kingdom.
“Nowadays, we rarely see fathers who
spend the majority of their time at work and see their children only on the
weekends. My father, may Allah bless him, was like that,” said 37-year-old Hala
Al-Subaie, a mother of two and an accountant.
“Back then fathers solely held the
responsibility of being the main provider in the family, and they wanted to
make sure that their kids have everything they need. I guess that was their way
of love then,” she added.
Modern-day fatherhood comes in various
forms. Gone are the binary roles of a father being the breadwinner and a
disciplinarian, and a mother being a homemaker.
“It is common to see a father at the
community park with his kids or pushing a stroller down the street,” said
Remaz, a mother and a pharmacologist based in Dhahran.
She added: “After my long shift in the
hospital, I take my daughter to the park out of guilt of not seeing her all
day, and there I see fathers with their kids, some playing with their kids,
others watching their kids while sitting on the bench.”
Women’s empowerment under Vision 2030,
which includes measures to expand women’s economic inclusion, and promote
cohesive equality between men and women in society, has altered the traditional
role of a Saudi father.
During the 52nd session of the UN Human
Rights Council, Saudi Human Rights Commission President Hala Al-Tuwaijri revealed
that the share of women employed in the Kingdom increased from 21 percent to 35
percent in five years as a result of the Kingdom’s efforts to boost women’s
participation in the labor market.
With mothers also being essential
providers today, fathers have started to take on roles vastly different from
men of previous generations.
Today, besides contributing as one of
the providers in the family, fathers are seen more actively participating in
parenting, from being with their wives during childbirth to simply being more
involved on a daily basis.
“Being called a father and being a
father are two different things — something I realized becoming a father
myself,” said Omar Al-Khaldi.
He added: “I love being involved with
all aspects of my daughter’s life. I want to be able to create core memories
with her, and I want her to be proud of me, and this surely requires love,
trust and affection, something beyond just being one of the providers in the
family.”
Today’s fathers welcome the changes in
the Kingdom and are strongly motivated to father their children differently
from how they were raised.
Having an involved father means having a
figure who is emotionally engaged and is involved in childcare, and exerts
influence in child-rearing decisions. An involved father also cooks, changes
nappies and ensures that all the children’s needs are met.
Fathers’ involvement in the lives of
their children, such as in education, can have a lasting and positive impact on
their school performance.
“It was important for me to have an
involved father for my children. Specializing in child development and teaching
second-grade kindergarten, I can spot children who have an involved father
figure from those who don’t,” said Raghad Saeed, a mother and kindergarten
teacher based in Riyadh.
“The impacts, positive or negative, can
have aftereffects on their lives, too.”
Other positive impacts of an involved
father include higher levels of sociability, confidence and empathy,
strengthened family bonds, and an improvement in a child’s cognitive abilities,
particularly in early childhood development.
Source: arabnews.com
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A father’s role is irreplaceable, and
their loving presence is needed in the lives of children.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2322401/saudi-arabia
--------
Drug smuggling attempts foiled in Jazan
region
June 15, 2023
JAZAN: Security officials in Jazan have
arrested two people for attempting to smuggle qat.
The drugs were found hidden in a vehicle
in Al-Ardah governorate. Legal action is now being taken against the two
citizens held.
In a separate operation, officers in the
region’s Al-Harth governorate seized 150 kilograms of qat.
Anyone wishing to report information on
suspected drug-smuggling, or the selling of narcotics can call 911 in Makkah,
Riyadh, and the Eastern Province, and 999 in the rest of the Kingdom. The
General Directorate of Narcotics Control can be contacted on 995 or via email.
Saudi Arabia has lately intensified its crackdown on drug smuggling operations.
Last year, Saudi authorities seized
narcotics with a street value of up to $1 billion and arrested eight expats in
what is believed to be one of the biggest drug busts the Kingdom has
witnessed.Authorities discovered the 47 million amphetamine pills during a raid
on a warehouse in Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The drugs have a street value of between
$470 million and more than $1 billion, based on figures cited in the
International Addiction Review journal.
Source: arabnews.com
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--------
Pakistan
Pakistan 'not interested' in picking
sides between US, China: Khar
June 15, 2023
Amidst the growing global rivalry
between the US and China, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani
Khar has said that Pakistan is not interested in picking sides between the two
powers since it has always been on good terms with both.
Instead, Khar talking to a European news
outlet POLITICO insisted that Islamabad was apprehensive about the fallout of
an all-out rupture between the US and China.
In such an instance, Pakistan would face
an unfavourable strategic choice.
"We are highly threatened by this
notion of splitting the world into two blocs," Khar said.
She further said that the country is
very concerned about this decoupling or anything that splits the world further.
"We have a history of being in a
close, collaborative mode with the US We have no intention of leaving that.
Pakistan also has the reality of being in a close, collaborative mode with
China, and until China suddenly came to everyone's threat perception, that was
always the case."
Front-line states closely watch Pakistan
in the contest for strategic influence in Asia.
Over the years, as Washington's
cooperation with India has increased, Pakistan has gotten closer to China —
especially after the latter's investment in the China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC).
However, Washington is still a
significant military partner for Pakistan, while Beijing has recently pledged
to deepen economic investment and military cooperation with the country.
In April this year, Khar made headlines
when the Washington Post leaked records — termed Discord Leaks — of a
discussion between her and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Per the leaked documents, Khar said that
Pakistan should avoid appeasing the West and that its desire to maintain a
strategic partnership with the US would sacrifice the full benefits of its
original strategic partnership with the long-term friendly nation China.
While Khar refused to comment on that
leak during the interview with POLITICO, she said the US was
"unnecessarily" fearful and defensive about being toppled from its
plinth of global leadership.
She argued that Pakistan's partnership
with the US remained vital in healthcare, technology, trade and combating
climate change.
"I don't think the leadership role
is being contested, until they start making other people question it by being
reactive," she said.
"I believe that the West
underestimates the value of its ideals, soft power," she added, stressing
Washington's role as the world's standard setter.
She further added that China's most
significant selling point for Pakistan was an economic model for lifting a vast
population out of poverty.
Kabul question
However, during the interview, Khar
maintained that Washington's policy on Afghanistan — intended to weaken the
Taliban were backfiring — were causing a humanitarian and security crisis,
pushing many Afghans to "criminal activities, narcotics strategy and
smuggling."
She further added that then-prime
minister Imran Khan had reacted "rather immaturely" when Afghan
Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
"Khar said Islamabad was taking a
highly diplomatic approach in seeking to win round the Taliban in Afghanistan,
pursuing political engagement and focusing on economic development — rather
than strong-arm tactics," POLITICO reported.
Furthermore, she rejected the idea that
any other country could play a role in helping Pakistan defeat the Taliban with
military deployments.
"When it comes to boots on the
ground, we would welcome no one," she said.
Regarding the stalled bailout programme
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Khar was asked if she reckoned
Washington was holding back on supporting Pakistan, partly to test whether
China would step up and play a bigger role in ensuring the country's stability.
The secretary of state replied: "I
would be very unhappy if that were the case."
'Tread carefully'
Moreover, in her interview, Khar was
wary about Europe's role in the Indo-Pacific region and the naval dimensions of
EU plans — especially to any vision of an Indo-Pacific strategy dedicated to
trying to contain Chinese power in tandem with working with India.
Khar said Europe should tread carefully
in calibrating its plan for the region, POLITICO said.
"I would be very concerned if it is
exclusively or predominantly a military-based strategy, which will then confirm
it is a containment strategy, it must not be a containment strategy," she
said of the EU's Indo-Pacific agenda.
"[If it's] a containment strategy
of a certain country, which then courts a certain country that is a very
belligerent neighbor to Pakistan, then instead of stabilizing the region, it is
endangering the region."
Source: thenews.com.pk
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Promotion Of Religious Tourism To Create
Inter-Faith Harmony, Generate Revenue: Minister Of State Dr Ramesh Kumar
June 15, 2023
SWAT:
Chairman of Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Gandhara Tourism and Minister
of State Dr Ramesh Kumar on Thursday said that Malam Jabba located in the Swat
Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is a picturesque tourist destination
renowned for its natural beauty and adventure opportunities but unfortunately
affected due to threat of terrorism.
During his two-day visit to Buddhist
Archaeological sites in Swat valley, Minister Kumar visited Malam Jabba and
said he visited Malam Jabba to promote inter-faith harmony and generate revenue
through promotion of religious tourism.
Minister for State Dr Ramesh Kumar said
that nestled amidst the stunning Hindu Kush mountain range, Malam Jabba offers
breathtaking panoramic views, and lush green meadows attract tourists from all
over the world.
The region is blessed with a moderate
climate, making it an ideal getaway for nature lovers, hikers, and skiing
enthusiasts, Kumar added.
The resort offers well-groomed slopes,
ski lifts, and equipment rentals, catering to both beginners and experienced
skiers, said Dr Kumar.
Ramesh Kumar further said that the
region is also home to several beautiful lakes and offers a variety of other
activities for tourists to enjoy.
He said Malamjabba boasts a rich
cultural heritage, with several historical sites and archaeological remains
scattered throughout the valley.
Tourists can visit ancient Buddhist
stupas, monasteries, and ruins that provide insights into the region’s past and
generate employment opportunities for locals.
He said that he is working on bringing a
National Gandhara Tourism Policy to boost religious tourism.
“It is a place where you can immerse
yourself in the beauty of mountains, rejuvenate your senses, and create
unforgettable memories,” Dr Ramesh Kumar added.
The minister earlier visited heritage
sites including Bazira, Shigardar Stupa, Ghelegay Buddhist monument, museum,
Butkara Stupa 1 and 2, Saidu Stupa, Wali Swat graveyard, White Palace and other
close vicinity sites.
Source: pakistantoday.com.pk
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CJP takes issue with enactment of new SC
law
June 16, 2023
ISLAMABAD: The country’s top judge said
on Thursday that the Supreme Court had no issue with the new law, expanding the
scope of review petitions under Article 184(3), but the problem lay in the way
the law was enacted.
Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial’s remarks
came while heading a three-member bench which heard a set of appeals
challenging the Supreme Court (Review of Judgments and Orders) Act, 2023 and
the ECP review against the verdict fixing May 14 as the date for holding Punjab
Assembly elections.
The chief justice observed that the
government can enact any law which provides an effective remedy in case of the
apex court’s decisions but the problem lies with the method and manner of
enacting the law. He said changes should have been made through a
constitutional amendment and not ordinary law.
While defending the law, Attorney
General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan highlighted the evolution and
expansion of the Supreme Court’s review jurisdiction from time to time.
Justice Munib Akhtar, a member of the
bench, observed that by enacting the law, the government has created a special
class for decisions made under Article 184(3).
The court could decide appeals against
the high courts’ decisions under Article 185 of the Constitution but the scope
of review has been expanded into appeals on decisions made by the apex court
under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan emphasised the need
for understanding how and why the SC’s review jurisdiction has been expanded.
He wondered what the scope of review would be if a case landed in the court
under Article 184(1) of the Constitution.
Source: dawn.com
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--------
BHC upholds Imran’s arrest warrants
June 16, 2023
QUETTA: A division bench of the
Balochistan High Court has upheld the arrest warrants of PTI Chairman Imran
Khan and rejected his petition to suspend the warrants.
A two-member bench, comprising Chief
Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Amir Nawaz Rana, on Thursday took up Mr
Khan’s petition against the arrest warrants issued by an anti-terrorism court
in connection with the murder of senior lawyer Abdul RazzaqShar.
The petition, filed by Iqbal Shah
advocate on behalf of Mr Khan, in the Balochistan High Court pleaded that after
the registration of FIR, his client got a protective bail from the IHC till
June 19.
During Thursday’s hearing, the court
heard the petitioner’s counsel and later rejected the plea. The court, in its
order, said the murder investigation was ongoing and the provincial government
had constituted a JIT to probe the issue.
Officials said the Quetta Anti-terrorism
Court issued warrants the other day as police approached the court to arrest Mr
Khan after the protective bail granted by the IHC ended.
Source: dawn.com
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.dawn.com/news/1759983
--------
Pakistan can ‘survive’ without IMF
support: Dar
JUNE 16, 2023
Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator
Mohammad Ishaq dar on Thursday reiterated that Pakistan was an asset rich
country and it could survive without any support from the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
Briefing the Senate’s Standing Committee
on Finance and Revenue, the minister stated that the annual budget had been
prepared without the Fund’s consultation, whose reservations could be
addressed, according to a press release. He told the committee, which met with
Senator Saleem Mandviwala in the chair, that the information technology (IT),
agriculture and SME sectors were ‘drivers of growth’ and exemptions given to
those sectors were inevitable for the economic growth of the country, which
currently stood at 0.29 percent. He said the annual budget allowed freelancers
to retain 35 percent of their revenue. Besides, freelancers earning $ 2,000
were exempted from sales tax and they could also procure duty free hardware.
He maintained that in the current fiscal
year, a return of $ 2.5 billion was expected from the IT industry, which would
reach $4.5 billion by next year. The exemptions were given to the industry
keeping in view its potential growth, he added.
The minister said import restrictions
were imposed to curb the massive inflows. The external debt of the country had
increased from $70 billion to $100 billion in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
regime, which was clearly an outcome of its financial indiscipline, he added.
He said expenditure bill should be made by keeping in view the external debt
and import restrictions would be uplifted by June 30.
Ishaq Dar said as far as prevention of
illegal border trade was concerned, coordination among intelligence agencies
and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was of vital importance and
deliberations with authorities concerned had also been conducted for in that
regard. Senator Taj Haider proposed that the tariff on tennis and badminton
racket and other sports equipment should be exempted.
Ishaq dar said fixation of tariff was a
prerogative of the Commerce Ministry and their recommendation would be
forwarded to it.
Senator Zeeshan Khanzada highlighted the
issues confronted by the industry in opening of letters of credit (LC’s)
opening and inquired as to what steps had been taken by the Finance Ministry
for the repression of illegal border trade.
Senator Irfan Siddiqui said the
employees of Radio Pakistan had not been paid from the past three months and
proposed 5 percent radio fee in the annual vehicle registration fee to curb the
financial crunch of the institution.
He also suggested that PTV fee, which
was being charged to consumers in electricity bills, should be enhanced from Rs
35 to Rs 50 and the additional amount should be given to Radio Pakistan.
The Senate body acknowledged the
proposal and referred it to the Finance Ministry for consideration. However,
Senator Saadia Abbasi rejected the proposal. Senator Mian Abdul Qadir said
final tax of 7.5 percent on the construction companies had been changed into
initial tax with an increase of 1 percent. Besides that, an assessment would
also be conducted on their payments, he added.
He suggested that the current 8.5
percent tax should be charged as final tax not as an initial tax. The committee
directed the ministry to look into matter. Representatives of auto spare parts
dealers and FATA Steel Mills Association also submitted their proposals for
reduction in sales taxes and customs duty to the committee, which forwarded
them to the Finance Ministry for consideration. Besides committee members
Saadia Abbasi, Dilawar Khan, Kamil Ali Agha, Zeeshan Khanzada, Taj Haider,
Engr. RukhsanaZuberi, Irfan Siddiqui, Kauda Babar and Mian Abdul Qadir, and
Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, the meeting was also attended by FBR
Chairman Asim Ahmad and senior officers of relevant departments.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://dailytimes.com.pk/1103986/pakistan-can-survive-without-imf-support-dar/
--------
Plea seeking quashment of FIR against
PTI chief rejected
June 16, 2023
QUETTA:
The Balochistan High Court (BHC)
dismissed a petition on Thursday that sought to quash the FIR against former
Prime Minister Imran Khan in relation to the murder of senior lawyer Abdul
RazzaqShar Advocate.
The constitutional petition was filed by
Syed Iqbal Shah Advocate and other lawyers, requesting the cancellation of the
FIR against the former premier in connection with the killing of Abdul
RazzaqShar.
Abdul RazzaqShar Advocate was fatally
shot in an incident on Quetta’s Airport Road on June 6. Shar had previously
filed a petition seeking the registration of a treason case against Imran Khan
for dissolving the parliament.
Following the incident, Siraj Ahmed
Advocate, the son of RazzaqShar Advocate, nominated Imran Khan as a suspect in
his father’s murder case.
A division bench of the BHC, comprising
Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Muhammad Amir Rana, dismissed the
petition. The lawyers had argued in their plea that Imran Khan had no
involvement in the senior lawyer’s murder, citing his presence at the Islamabad
High Court (IHC) and being interrogated by a joint interrogation team (JIT)
during the time of the incident.
The court noted that the FIR against
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, registered at the Jameel Shaheed Police Station Killi
Almas, cannot be quashed without a proper investigation. The bench further
emphasized that the investigation was still ongoing and could not be impeded at
this stage, either under Article 199 of the Constitution or under Section 561-A
of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Consequently, the petition was dismissed
by the bench, which ordered that the investigation should continue accordingly.
Source: tribune.com.pk
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2421946/plea-seeking-quashment-of-fir-against-pti-chief-rejected
--------
Australia
Muslim groups fear unintended
consequences of 'imprecise' IS flag ban
16 June 2023
Labor's plan to ban the flag of the
self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) includes "highly offensive"
language and risks unintentionally leading to false police reports, says a
Muslim advocacy group it consulted.
But the Australian Muslim Advocacy
Network (AMAN) has welcomed the "tone and intention" behind Labor's
bill and is "confident" the wording can be "better drafted"
before it becomes law.
Introducing the Counter-Terrorism
Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill to
parliament on Wednesday, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus included the IS flag in
a ban on Nazi symbols in public and online.
But the bill also prohibits symbols
"likely to be confused" with the flag, which includes writing
commonly used by Muslims, sparking concerns of erroneous reporting by members
of the public.
"You will find [that writing] in
all sorts of forms, whether on a black flag, on a white flag … It's outside
mosques. It's on people's necklaces," one senior Muslim spokeswoman has
told SBS News.
'Imprecise' language prompts concern
The government consulted with the AMAN
before introducing the bill, and Mr Dreyfus agreed to explicitly distinguish
between IS and the Islamic faith.
AMAN policy advisor Rita Jabri Markwell
broadly supports the plan, which shifts the emphasis away from harsh sentencing
to lower-level offences with room for rehabilitation. She said Labor was
"recognising the value" of Australian Muslims.
"We've seen in in the remarks of
the Attorney-General ... recognising that IS has been a scourge on the world,
but also particularly been a scourge on the Muslim community," she told
SBS News.
But AMAN was not consulted on specific
wording prohibiting symbols likely to be "confused with [or] mistaken
for" the IS flag.
The flag includes the Shahada, an
affirmation of faith prominently featured in Islamic architecture and artwork
in Arabic lettering. A banned symbol can be a "modified version" of
the IS flag, and would not need to be a flag itself.
After seeing the full bill, AMAN is part
of a group of Muslim advocates now warning that language could prompt false
police reports and encourage the public to "see a core tenet of Islam in a
criminal light".
AMAN fears "imprecise"
language could be introduced "into a field already marred by confusion and
anti-Muslim bias".
“There is a whole bunch of everyday
religious material that is so sacred to us as Muslims, which may be confused by
police and by other members of the public," Ms Jabri Markwell said.
"We've already had that confusion
for many years, which we're trying to repair, and we're afraid that this may be
heading in the wrong direction.”
AMAN confident Labor will find 'the
right balance'
The bill includes exemptions on
religious grounds, given the swastika - significant to Hindus, Buddhists, and
Jains - closely resembles the Nazi Hakenkreuz, which is set to be prohibited.
Police and the courts will be relied on
to determine whether a symbol meets that threshold.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) will assess the bill, and Ms Jabri Markwell
is confident Labor will find the "right balance" if it looked "a
little bit more closely" at the language.
That language also included the use of
the phrase "global jihadist ideology", which AMAN described as
"highly offensive".
Despite being co-opted by some violent
extremist groups, "jihad" is mainly interpreted as a Muslim's
internal struggle to live out the values of their faith.
“We don't want [extremism] to become
what Australians think of when they think of 'jihad'," Ms Jabri Markwell
said.
"We are fighting such a difficult
battle because there's been so much conflation and confusion. But we believe
that we can take back ownership of our own stories as Muslims.
“We think that the inclusion of that
term is really a backward step, and it's unnecessary. The government could
refer to ‘IS ideology’ or things associated with IS. That [would be] a lot more
precise.”
AMAN has also urged Labor to remove
references to "religiously-motivated" extremism from Australia's
counter-terror definitions, which it argued affirmed a distortion of Islam
pushed by both IS and racist nationalists.
Mark Dreyfus says government 'consulted
extensively'
A spokesperson for Mr Dreyfus said Labor
had "consulted extensively" before introducing the bill and stressed
that the PJCIS process was yet to play out.
"We would welcome AMAN and other
groups with an interest in the bill providing submissions to that
inquiry," they said.
Diana Abdel-Rahman, the executive member
of the Canberra Islamic Centre, described the decision and its timing as “baffling”.
She also feared the potential impact of
erroneous reporting.
“I think you'll have those who mistake
the symbolism, there will be those who overtly want to [confuse] it to create
chaos. It’ll be both,” Ms Abdel-Rahman told SBS News.
“The wording of that flag is an actual
Islamic phrase and words that are used commonly in this mosque that we're
sitting in right now.
“You will find it in all sorts of forms,
whether on a black flag, on a white flag … It's outside mosques. It's on
people's necklaces.”
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi accepted
banning the IS flag was reasonable but said prohibiting symbols that closely
resembled it "needs to be carefully interrogated".
Senator Faruqi also questioned the
timing of the move, which came nearly a decade after similar bans in Europe,
and years after the fall of IS' so-called Caliphate.
"Unless there are clear protections
for resembling symbols which are commonly used by Muslims, this could lead to
wrongful policing and Islamophobia," she said.
"The far-right and white
nationalism is a standalone problem that needs to be dealt with. For some
reason, the government felt a need to drag Muslims into this very specific
debate about Nazism."
Source: sbs.com.au
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/muslim-groups-fear-unintended-consequences-of-imprecise-is-flag-ban/8t7ckn8hm
--------
Australia’s Mecca to Debut in Europe
With Bestselling SPF Cream
June 16, 2023
LONDON — Australia’s largest prestige
beauty retailer, Mecca, is making its first foray into Europe and the western
market with the launch of its number-one bestseller, a multitasking SPF cream
from its in-house label, Mecca Cosmetica.
To Save Face SPF50+ Superscreen will
launch on Monday in the U.K., and is a milestone for the retailer, which was
founded by Jo Horgan in 1997.
The sunscreen, which is made in
Australia, will be sold direct-to-consumer on Mecca’s new U.K. site, and
retails for 35 pounds.
The plan, according to Marita Burke, the
company’s “chief Mecca-maginations officer” is to roll out related SPF
products, such as a serum and body care, in the next six to 12 months.
In an exclusive interview, Burke said
Mecca is launching with To Save Face “because it’s our best product, and we
want to put our best foot forward into this market. SPF is becoming a category
with quite a lot of momentum behind it because we are all acutely aware of the
damage the sun can do.”
Burke added that the active skin care
people are using now is making their skin even more sensitive to the sun.
Launching with a single sunscreen will
give Mecca a “really good sense of how well our product can stack up against
the needs of the U.K. customer, who is very similar to the Australian customer
in many ways,” Burke said.
It’s a key moment for Mecca.
The retailer celebrated its 25th
anniversary last year, while Mecca Cosmetica, a collection of high-end
essentials developed in tandem with in-house experts and consumers, turns 10
years this year.
It has 109 stores in Australia and New
Zealand and a 25 percent share of Australasia’s 4.2 billion Australian dollar
prestige beauty market.
Late last year, Horgan told WWD Beauty
Inc. that Mecca’s goal is to be “the world’s most loved beauty destination.”
She added that if Mecca has an offer
“that appeals to customers and that customers love, which seems to be the case,
then it is our responsibility to take that more broadly.”
Horgan suggested that it was time to
explore new hemispheres, and described Europe in particular as a “thriving
market. We would clearly have to consider it along with other markets. That’s
the phase we are in,” she said.
To Save Face offers broad spectrum
SPF50+ UVA and UVB protection. Mecca describes the cream as “practically
weightless” and with no white cast. It was designed with makeup-wearers in
mind, and can double as a moisturiser as it’s almost undetectable on the skin,
according to the company.
Key ingredients include Vitamin E;
Glycerin; Maritime Pine Bark extract, an antioxidant; and Sodium PCA, meant to
hydrate the skin.
“In Australia, SPF is a way of life.
It’s like brushing your teeth in the morning. We wear it our entire lives, ant
it’s a daily step within our skin care routine,” Burke said. “The reason we launched
[To Save Face] was because we were all pretty tired of the clumpy, gooey,
gluggy products that we were putting on our skin.”
She added that To Save Face was the
result of much in-house research and many consultations with Mecca customers
who had been asking for an SPF that could work harder, and disappear into the
skin like a moisturizer.
“And so, over time, we found ourselves
developing a product that was actually more than the SPF. It has an ability to
sit underneath makeup, which made it the perfect primer” Burke said.
Burke declined to detail Mecca’s sales
targets for the U.K., but noted that the SPF category here is in double-digit
growth. “I do think that there is need for SPF that can actually deliver on the
skin care benefits,” she said.
Asked about a further rollout in Europe,
Burke said Mecca sees the U.K. as a testing ground and wants to gauge the
product’s popularity here before moving into other markets. “Ultimately, we see
this as a launch across the U.K., and the EU,” she said, adding that the plan —
eventually — is to feed more Mecca Cosmetica products into Europe.
“There are a number of top sellers in
Australia from the Mecca Cosmetica line that I think the U.K. would embrace. I
think there is a real opportunity here,” she said.
The U.K. is one of Europe’s most
competitive beauty arenas. According to Euromonitor, it is the second largest
European beauty market after Germany, and is in the top 10 worldwide.
Sephora reentered the market with a
long-awaited opening in March, while Harrods has launched a new, stand-alone
beauty concept called H Beauty, which has stores in cities including Edinburgh,
Bristol and Newcastle.
Boots, meanwhile, has ramped up its
beauty offer in major retail hubs, while Space NK is also in expansion mode,
having opened its biggest unit at Westfield London, not far from Sephora,
earlier this year.
The beauty floors at retailers such
Harrods, Selfridges, Fenwick, Harvey Nichols and Liberty are buzzing with
customers of all ages seeking new products, and personalized experiences across
a range of price points.
Asked whether Mecca might eventually
open a physical store in Europe, Burke said “never say never,” although the
focus for the moment is direct-to-consumer, online distribution.
To support the launch, Mecca has set up
a local website and fulfilment centers. Mecca will also benefit from the new
Australia-U.K. Free Trade Agreement, which came into effect on May 31. It
eliminates tariffs on more than 99 percent of Australian goods exports to the
U.K.
The To Save Face launch won’t be
splashy. Burke said Mecca plans to rely on a group of brand alumni living in
London who are “perfectly placed to be able to bring the product to life” as
soon as it lands next week.
Source: wwd.com
Please click
the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/skin-care/australia-mecca-debut-europe-bestselling-spf-cream-1235689005/
--------
Mideast
'I Told the Americans The Mideast Is No
Vegas' : Israeli Iran Expert Finally Breaks His Silence
Jun 16, 2023
As the titanic battle over the members
of the Judicial Appointments Committee raged this week in the Knesset –
effectively the decisive stage in the war defending Israeli democracy – intense
talks continued over the fate of the Iranian nuclear project. According to
Israeli intelligence, the United States and Iran are close to formulating new
understandings after five years of almost total disconnect.
According to the understandings, Iran
will freeze its high-level enrichment of uranium, just before a breakthrough
that will give it sufficient fissile material to manufacture one nuclear bomb
(and within half a year, seven bombs). In exchange, the United States will free
up Iranian assets frozen in foreign banks to the tune of about $20 billion.
Israel is watching the developments from
the side, almost unable to exert influence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
did voice a short objection this week to the compromise that’s shaping up; but
in practice, despite the bombastic declarations heard frequently from Israel,
new understandings will reduce the likelihood that the Israeli threat to mount
an independent attack on the nuclear sites will be actualized.
Besides, many of the experts in the
security establishment support the new understandings and view them as the
least of the evils. Some of the leading figures in the professional cadre,
including former director of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman and
his successor, Maj. Gen. AharonHaliva, were also against the Israeli move in
2018 that pushed U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the nuclear
agreement that had been signed three years earlier.
Brig. Gen. Oren Setter closely followed
the twists and turns of the Iranian affair for almost two decades. Setter, who
last month completed three years as head of the Strategic Division in the
Israel Defense Forces’ General Staff and almost 30 years of service in the IDF,
held key positions in the Strategy Directorate, Military Intelligence, the
Directorate of Defense Research and Development and other intelligence bodies.
He is a graduate of the army’s Talpiot Program, holds a PhD in operations
research and was awarded the Israel Security Prize.
He wrote his doctoral dissertation at
Tel Aviv University but also spent time at Harvard, where he researched the
nuclear issue. Almost all his service was performed in the shadows. His
interview this week with Haaretz is the second interview he's ever given to the
media, and the first in which his full name is given and his photograph
published.
Existential threat
Like his colleagues in the intelligence
community, Setter is well aware of the progress between Washington and Tehran,
but recommends it be viewed in proportion. “What needs to be understood is that
the contacts that are currently being talked about are a tactical matter,” he
says. “Neither side is ripe for something bigger, in any direction. As things
look, Iran is recoiling from crossing the threshold and progressing to
producing uranium at the level of military enrichment, 90 percent. And the
United States, for its part, does not want to use military force and is not
ripe to enter negotiations on a new agreement.
“There is a kind of physics of
negotiations underway here,” Setter continues. “It requires the articulation of
a conception and afterward a negotiating process that could last two years or
so. The present administration doesn’t have that time at the moment, ahead of
the presidential election in November 2024. Working out understandings will
also improve the communications channel between the sides. That’s needed in
case of a future miscalculation between them.
“Overall,” he adds, “the question now is
how to gain time, stabilize the highly sensitive situation that prevails and
bring about optimal conditions ahead of a future discussion on a better
solution. To examine how to minimize the danger of crossing the threshold and,
contrariwise, preserve levers for negotiations down the line. It’s a narrow
path to navigate. The Americans tend to aspire to achieve slightly more
agreements at the price of slightly less pressure. Israel relies more on
deterrence.”
According to Setter, “Most of the
countries that have gone nuclear worked in parallel to obtain fissile material
and develop a weapon system. The Iranians are an anomaly. In 2003, they froze
the weapons program over the American invasion of Iraq. Since then they have
been moving ahead mainly on the uranium enrichment track. The best image I’ve
been able to come up with is this: Imagine a climbing expedition on Everest.
Ninety percent of the effort is invested in reaching the summit. But then you
need to go back down. That takes time, there’s more work, but in the big
picture you will reach the destination. There is no substantive question
there.”
“We no longer have a safety distance of
a year from breakthrough to going nuclear,” he says, such as existed after the
signing of the agreement. “Iran is two weeks from breakthrough, one step away
from arriving at 90 percent enriched uranium, a sufficient amount for a bomb.
But confusion exists between conquering the summit and completing the journey.
In order to descend from the mountain properly – in other words, to transform
the bomb into a weapon and complete its adaptation to a nuclear warhead for a
missile – about two more years are needed.”
The U.S. chief of staff, Gen. Mark
Milley, said recently that the Iranians might opt for an abbreviated track to
develop a weapon, such as manufacturing a “dirty bomb.” Setter doesn’t see that
as highly-probable. “Milley hinted that it’s possible to do it a lot less
orderly and less safely. From our experience with Iran, they mostly do things
the way they should be done. I’m not sure that they will be in a terrible hurry
to complete the development of a weapon.”
Preventing weapon development is far
more complicated, he says. “The part that’s easier to supervise, through the
International Atomic Energy Commission, is the fissile material. That’s
measurable and it’s the heart of the agreement. There is no orderly supervisory
mechanism over the development of a weapon. The facilities are smaller and it’s
easy to conceal them. In enrichment, Iran progressed by degrees. In recent
years – more centrifuges, faster and more advanced accumulation of uranium
enriched to 20 percent and then to 60 percent.
“The fact that they didn’t take the
final step – enrichment to 90 percent – wasn’t due to lack of ability.
Refraining from that is a strong indication that they understand that this is a
serious crossing of a threshold, which will exact steep prices. It will be a
step everyone will assert unequivocally: We are moving to weapons development.
The response – global, economic and perhaps also military – will be different.
On the other hand, they are using this as an effective threat. It’s not by
chance that the international community is recoiling from intensifying the
sanctions, or that the IAEC is not referring the discussion of their
violations, the so-called ‘open files,’ to the UN Security Council. It’s a
mutual deterrent balance.”
In the short term, Setter avers, the
world “will have to clarify what the most effective way is to deter Iran from a
breakthrough. In the long term, the question is how to keep them significantly
distant from the summit. Our situation analysis is very close to that of the
United States and European countries. The disparity in approaches lies not in
the analysis but on the question of how to distance them from the goal.”
Perhaps, Setter says, there is something
to the American way of thinking, expressed by President Theodore Roosevelt when
he spoke of the need to walk softly and carry a big stick. “Part of formulating
the strategy is understanding the motives of the other sides. On the Iranian
side, there is a deep feeling that when the Americans withdrew from the agreement,
they were tricked. The previous agreement did not protect them at all from an
American withdrawal. There is a deep Iranian feeling that that wasn’t fair.
From their point of view, they fulfilled the terms of the agreement and were
shafted. Their dignity was affronted and therefore they will cope with
tremendous economic difficulties and will not give in. That’s why the pressure
on them didn’t work.
“In the past few years we’ve categorized
the Iranian moves in the nuclear project as consolidation in the threshold
region, which is below going nuclear. They not only stepped up enrichment, they
scattered the centrifuges in better-protected sites. The goal is to create a
more robust and immune infrastructure,” Setter says. Drawing closer to Russia
also serves the Iranians, he notes. They may have received advanced air-defense
systems in return for the drones they supplied to the Russians. “They are
taking steps that are intended to create a feeling that there is no point in
attacking the nuclear sites, in part because they shortened the duration of
subsequent rehabilitation even after aerial bombing.”
Still, in the past two years Israel
renewed its military preparations for an attack in Iran, and is making sure to
publicize them at every opportunity. Setter reiterates the accepted view in the
army that maintaining a credible military threat could in itself act as an
incentive for Iran to enter into serious negotiations after the U.S. election.
“It needs to be clear to them that Israeli intelligence is following from
close-up and that military capabilities to attack Iran exist.”
Do you think a military attack is a
'type of solution?'
“Yes. You put it well: ‘A type of
solution’ – certainly not in the Syrian and Iraqi sense of total annihilation,
when a lone Israeli attack destroyed a lone reactor, which was built using a
plan from abroad. The Iranian program includes more facilities and is based on
local capabilities. Physically, they will be able to rehabilitate from
everything. But the price of an intensive military confrontation is very steep,
and they know that we can act again.”
What is the degree of Israeli influence
on the U.S. position on Iran?
“My angle is a partial one. There are
smaller forums in which I did not take part. But my feeling, over the years,
was that they were listening to us. They have an appreciation of our
professional understanding, along with the knowledge that sometimes we do
things that they are less pleased with. There is a great deal of openness to
listen, coupled with skepticism. The record of Israeli recommendations is
mixed, including the recommendation to withdraw from the agreement. A few times
the Americans felt that we had not evaluated Iran’s response correctly, and the
U.S.'s situation did not improve in the wake of such recommendations.”
The Strategic Division in the General
Staff, established by former Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, where Setter
operated, devoted part of its activity to formulating recommendations for
long-term Israeli strategy against Iran. In Iran, Setter says, there is “very
deep enmity toward Israel. Even a certain dimension of antisemitism. It
combines nationalist and religious layers and a Shiite perception of defending
the downtrodden, together with Iranian recoil from the West. And there are many
historical accounts, from the 1970s down to today.
“Their approach,” he continues, “is also
manifested in regional activity and in the upgrading of their missile system.
There is high scientific-technological capability, along with a dramatic
development in conventional abilities – missiles, cruise missiles and drones.
The supply of Iranian drones to Russia would have sounded fantastical to us 20
years ago. They have very advanced drone capabilities, from their own
development and also from copying. These things interconnect: the missiles
allow them better protection for the nuclear project, alongside an offensive
threat against us via proxy forces, terrorism and cyber.
“In recent months there has been an
Iranian attempt to undermine the regional alliance against them. They are
working for rapprochement with the Sunni Arab countries and to reduce hostility
toward them, partly in response to the Abraham Accords. Not one country in the
region changed its basic opinion on Iran. The Sunni-Shiite rift exists. But the
war in Yemen exacted a steep price from the Gulf states, and they are trying to
abate tensions. Everyone is talking with everyone. There are a lot more hues in
the Middle East now. Contrariwise, the Iranian threat to us has become broader,
multidimensional. If the regime there does not fall, they will be our enemies
for the coming decades.”
Is there a future existential threat to
Israel here?
“I see a threat of that sort in them,
because Israel’s existence very much occupies the regime, and not in a positive
sense. They are not a crazy state, nor are they a completely rational state.
Most of the time the decision-making process was very orderly, after many
deliberations and cost-benefit analyses. The advantage is that Iran is not
North Korea. The leader consults, is aware of feelings among the people, of
reactions in the international community. One can work in the face of that. But
you have to step into their shoes, to understand how they see the world.”
Setter occasionally irked his superiors
over the last few years, by insisting on presenting independent professional
positions and forecasts. But now, when he’s asked whether the renewed
negotiations between the United States and Iran spell the final collapse of the
Israeli position that the nuclear agreement must be abandoned, he replies
cautiously, as one who has yet to completely doff his uniform.
The bottom line, Setter says, “We are
not at a good point today. Looking back on 2018, not everything is black and
white. Underlying the American decision to withdraw [from the agreement] was a
desire to bring massive pressure on Iran so that it would be possible to limit
its nuclear project more significantly than in the 2015 agreement, which did
indeed have flaws, such as the absence of an inbuilt clause for extending the
agreement beyond 2031. At that stage, according to the agreement, Iran receives
legitimization for the project with very few restrictions. That is a
fundamental flaw.
“But the rest of the world wasn’t with
us and with Trump, when the president decided to withdraw from the agreement.
As such, we lost a cardinal element – international unity against Iran – which
was a significant achievement in 2015. Russia and China supported the
agreement, and Iran became more flexible. After 2018, when the Americans went
back to putting economic pressure on Iran, I thought that was more likely to
bring about stubbornness than concessions. On the other hand, I was wrong
enough times in my evaluations to know that the second scenario was also
possible.”
Over the past three years, in response
to Iran’s violations of the agreement (which from Tehran’s point of view were a
response to the U.S. withdrawal), a series of sabotage acts against Iranian
nuclear sites have been attributed to Israel. The Americans claimed – and this
also resonated in IDF Military Intelligence – that this approach was actually
spurring the Iranians to accelerate their nuclear program. Here, too, Setter
says, somewhat diplomatically, that “Iran exploited some of the attacks on its
soil to advance the program. The heart of the matter is that they did so
without paying the full price vis-à-vis the international community. The world
developed an understanding towards Iran, and they exploited this in a very
sophisticated way.”
“From my angle, as a professional,
things were always presented in full to the decision-makers. In 2015, I
presented the nuclear agreement to the security cabinet for almost two hours.
From my experience, all told, the discussion was very substantive. I completely
accept that the political decision-makers sometimes have information that we
don’t, for example during the Abraham Accords negotiations, we didn’t
understand the full picture. There is also a political understanding of how the
public sees things.
“As a young officer in the Directorate
of Defense Research and Development, I engaged in operations research on the
different systems for intercepting rockets. At the time, there was a conception
in the army that there was no need to invest in those systems: people would go
down to the bomb shelters in any case. The rockets weren’t accurate and were
barely lethal. It would be better to invest in offense. I remember how the
defense minister at the time, Amir Peretz, said that the public needs something
between itself and the threat. You don’t need something hermetic, but feeling
like ducks in a shooting gallery was intolerable. Peretz was right. In the end,
Iron Dome is a phenomenal success.”
Natural partner
Setter does not accept the analysis that
has been voiced frequently in Israel over the past few months, to the effect
that we are now witnessing a process in which the United States is pulling out
of the Middle East. “There is no such event,” he says. “In the American order
of priorities, Russia is now an acute threat to security, and China is a
threatening long-term competitor. If I were in their shoes, those would be my
priorities, too. They are not on the way out. They understand that if they
leave the region to its own devices, that will bounce back to affect them. I
told them more than once: ‘The Middle East is the opposite of Las Vegas – what
happens here doesn’t stay here.’
“They need to preserve capabilities and
forces in the region. It’s true that they removed military equipment from
emergency depots in Israel. There’s a war on now in Ukraine, in the heart of
Europe. The order of priorities has changed. But the Americans will not leave.
I am convinced of that. They perceive a presence here as an important interest:
because of Israel, because of the threat from Iran and from ISIS, because of
their relations with Gulf states.”
The General Staff Strategic Division
coordinated the liaison with CENTCOM, the U.S. military’s Central Command,
which two years ago became the responsible body for working with the IDF. In
Setter’s view, “That is a dramatic change in the level of cooperation. CENTCOM,
more than European Command with which we worked previously, is a natural
partner, both because of the geographical division and because the Middle East
is at the center of their mission. The joint air defense exercise we conducted
with them recently was the most extensive ever.”
The Abraham Accords, he believes,
increased the potential for military cooperation with the Gulf states,
including those with which Israel doesn’t yet have diplomatic relations with.
“We need to approach this cautiously and gradually. Things take time. There
won’t be a regional defense pact here, or NATO. But joint coordination between
the air defense systems can serve everyone. CENTCOM is critical for that.
Things are moving ahead, in part because it’s an American interest.”
In recent years, Setter, as IDF
representative, took part in the talks on setting the maritime border with
Lebanon. Like the entire security community, he too presented a professional
opinion that the agreement reached by the previous government was reasonable
under the circumstances.
“The very fact that an agreement was
signed with an enemy country is not trivial,” he says. “The agreement doesn’t
restrain Hezbollah's military activity, but it burrows deep under its ideology
of struggle. In the end, the Lebanese state signed a binding agreement with
Israel. If in the end a rig is established in the Lebanese gas field, that will
be a restraining element. They need quiet at sea, so they will be able to drill
with the aid of an international consortium. That is critical for Lebanon,
which is facing economic collapse.”
Source: haaretz.com
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https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-16/ty-article/.premium/with-two-decades-of-experience-this-israeli-iran-expert-finally-breaks-his-silence/00000188-c09d-d2e6-a9ab-e59d00770000
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Israeli plan to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque
presents profound threat to Jerusalem status quo
JUNE 15, 2023
Earlier this week, an Israeli member of
parliament publicly suggested that the Al-Aqsa Mosque should be divided between
Muslims and Jews, confirming fears long held by Palestinians over Israel’s
future goals for control over the holy site.
The plan was proposed by Amit Halevi, a
member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, in an
interview with an Israeli newspaper.
Halevi suggested that the holy site be
split into 30% for Muslim worship and 70%, including the area where the Dome of
the Rock is, for Jewish worship and control.
“If they pray there, it does not make
the entire Temple Mount a holy place for Muslims,” Halevi said, using the
Jewish term of Temple Mount to refer to Al-Aqsa, Middle East Eye reported. “It
wasn’t and it won’t be.”
For decades, Palestinians have sounded
alarms over Israeli efforts to exert more control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound, which is the third holiest site in Islam, and the holiest site in the
Jewish religion. In recent years Israeli police raids into the compound have
become more frequent and more violent. Settler incursions and Jewish worship at
the site — forbidden as part of the
“status quo” — are increasingly frequent, while Palestinian access to the site
is being progressively restricted.
During Passover this year, which
coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, settler groups offered cash
rewards to any Jew who sacrificed an animal in the compound or got arrested
trying to do so, further provoking Palestinians, who at the same time, were under
attack by Israeli forces.
All of these changes on the ground,
coupled with recent inflammatory tours by right-wing ministers like Itamar
Ben-Gvir, who has openly said, “we are in charge here” while inside the
compound, point towards a future in which Halevi’s proposal doesn’t seem so far
beyond the realm of possibility.
Following the election of a hardline
right-wing government in 2022, the voices of Jewish religious nationalists like
Ben-Gvir, who hold some of the highest positions of power in the new
government, have become more prominent.
This has meant that the voices calling
for Jewish control over the site, and even the destruction of the mosque, are
no longer fringe extremists but mainstream politicians occupying key positions
of power within the new government. These top ministers provide backing and
legitimacy to hardline Zionist groups, such as the Temple Mount Faithful, which
seek to take over the Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple in its place.
Moreover, many figures in Israeli society
and politics want the Muslim and Palestinian identity of the site to be
replaced with a Jewish one. And slowly but surely, by changing facts on the
ground and introducing plans like Halevi’s into the mainstream consciousness,
that reality is taking shape.
Such statements like those of Halevi’s
can no longer be disregarded as extremist ideations and fantasies, but should
be taken at face value: Al-Aqsa is under attack.
What does the division plan look like?
In addition to suggesting the Al-Aqsa
Mosque compound, which in total spans around 35 acres inside Jerusalem’s Old
City walls, be split into Muslim and Jewish sites of worship, Halevi also laid
out the plans for complete Israeli control over the site — both the proposed
Muslim and Jewish sections.
In his interview, Halevi also called for
expanding and easing Jewish access to the site and suggested that Jordan’s
administration of Al-Aqsa be revoked, Middle East Eye reported. Essentially,
Halevi wants a complete overhaul of the status quo of the site — a very fragile
international agreement, upon which Israel is a signatory, that recognizes
Jordanian custodianship over the site and has been increasingly threatened and
violated by Israel in recent years.
According to the agreement, the site is
under the administrative authority of the Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem
Islamic Waqf. The status quo also allows for non-Muslim visitation but no
non-Muslim worship.
While on paper Jordan is still the
custodian of the site, Israel already has full control over access to it, with
checkpoints at all the gates manned by armed Israeli border police officers who
determine who goes in or out. This control also translates into frequent
Israeli raids on the site and inside the mosque, as well as the facilitation of
settler and Israeli government minister raids into the compound.
Essentially, there is the “status quo”
on paper and the actual status quo that Israel has been enforcing on the ground
for decades. Which begs the question, would Halevi’s proposal of revoking Jordanian
custodianship really be that drastic of a change, or would it simply be
formalizing Israel’s existing de facto control over the site?
No matter which way you look at it,
however, Palestinians stand to lose.
Total Israeli control would mean even
more restrictions on Palestinian access to the holy site, which, in addition to
being a religious sacred space, is also politically symbolic of Jerusalem’s
Palestinian identity.
That’s why dividing Al-Aqsa and taking
control over it wouldn’t just threaten the religious identity of the site —
which is sacred to 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide — but would further threaten
an already shrinking Palestinian existence in Jerusalem.
Could Israel really divide the Al-Aqsa
Mosque?
The most explosive and revealing part of
Halevi’s interview was when he suggested that the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound,
which in total spans around 35 acres inside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, be
split unequally, with 70% allotted for Jewish worship.
The suggestion to divide the site, which
is designated solely for Muslim worship according to international agreements
(to which Israel is a signatory), and hand the vast majority over to Jewish
worshippers, while shocking, did not feel surprising.
The plan was reminiscent of many similar
divisions in modern Palestinian history — think, the UN partition plan for
Palestine in 1947, which gave more than 50% of Palestine to a Jewish state; or
more recently with Israel’s division of holy sites in Palestine, like the
Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem.
In 1994, following the massacre of 29
Palestinian Muslim worshipers by a Jewish-American settler in Hebron, Israel
divided the Ibrahimi Mosque (where prophet Abraham, his wife Sarah, and their
progeny are believed to be buried) under the pretext of “security concerns.”
The mosque, which at the time was a place of exclusive Muslim worship, was
suddenly divided into a Mosque (40%) and a Synagogue (60%), with separate
entrances for the two.
Today, the Ibrahimi mosque is a heavily
militarized area — for Palestinians. To access the mosque, Palestinians must
pass through a number of Israeli military checkpoints, including metal gates,
electronic turnstiles, and biometric screenings. Worshipers are also under
constant surveillance by a network of cameras.
The same is true for Rachel’s Tomb,
which is believed to be the place where Rachel, the wife of Jacob, passed away.
A holy site for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, the site was completely closed
off to Palestinians and the residents of Bethlehem in 2002 when Israel built
the Separation Wall around the tomb, effectively annexing it and turning it
into a site now accessible primarily to Jewish worshipers, or those who can
access it from the other side of the wall. The area around the tomb has also
been turned into a permanent military base and the Israeli army’s central
command in the heart of Bethlehem City, from which Israeli forces routinely
shoot at and kill Palestinians.
The fact that Israel has tried and true
experience of dividing and conquering Palestinian land and holy sites, all in
plain sight of the international community, has naturally made Halevi’s
statements incredibly worrying to Palestinians.
If Israel has already been so successful
in the division and takeover of Palestinian holy sites, what’s to stop the
state from doing the same with the Al-Aqsa Compound, which is regarded as the
holiest site in Judaism?
Since the establishment of the state,
Israel has been working towards full control over Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa
Mosque compound, despite the fact that the city is illegally occupied and that
international law stipulates that the occupying power has no sovereignty over
that territory, and thus cannot make any permanent changes to it.
During Israel’s occupation of the city
in 1967, it completely destroyed an entire Palestinian neighborhood, the
Moroccan quarter, in order to expand it into what is now the Western Wall Plaza
to facilitate the easy entry of Jewish worshipers to the Western Wall bordering
the Al-Aqsa compound. In 2003 Israel permanently closed off one of the gates to
the compound, Bab al-Rahma. Another gate, the Moroccan Gate, Bab al-Magharib,
has also been completely taken over by Israeli armed forces, is completely
off-limits to Palestinians, and is used to facilitate Jewish settlers into the
compound. In recent years, Israel established a permanent military watchtower
and base outside Damascus Gate, the entrance to the Muslim Quarter, and in 2017
tried — but failed due to popular Palestinian civil disobedience — attempted to
install metal detectors at the gates to the mosque.
If history is any indication, the only
backlash that Israel will face will likely be from Palestinians themselves,
while the international community stands by issuing conciliatory statements and
appeals for “calm” and the maintenance of the “status quo.”
Source: mondoweiss.net
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https://mondoweiss.net/2023/06/could-israel-really-divide-the-al-aqsa-mosque/
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Israel’s new hypersonic defence system
defies Russia and Iran’s ‘impossible’ boast
15 June 2023
Israel is building the world’s first air
defence system dedicated to shooting down hypersonic missiles in a major
challenge to Russia and Iran, who have claimed that they are impossible to
shoot down.
The Israeli defence firm Rafael is
working on a new “Sky Sonic” system that is specifically designed for
intercepting hypersonic missiles, which can fly in the upper atmosphere and
travel at five times the speed of sound.
The Sky Sonic system will “enable us to
intercept all kinds of hypersonic threats – hypersonic ballistic missiles,
hypersonic cruise missiles,” Yuval Steinitz, the chairman of Rafael Advanced
Defense Systems Ltd, told Reuters news agency.
A CGI video demonstration provided by
Rafael showed an interceptor missile being fired from a ground battery. The
interceptor’s warhead detaches itself and flew towards an incoming missile.
A Rafael spokesman said Sky Sonic would
soon undergo flight tests but did not provide a schedule for when it might be
ready. The Israeli military has not commented on the announcement, while the
Pentagon has been briefed on the project according to Reuters.
The announcement hints at a potential
new era of European air defence in which Israel – which is also selling Germany
a £3 billion Arrow 3 interception tool – plays a major role.
However, as Sky Sonic is still being
developed, and Israel remains reluctant to provide Kyiv with military support,
it is unlikely that it will be deployed in Ukraine in the near future.
Both Russia and Iran have stepped up
production of hypersonic missiles in recent months amid claims that they cannot
be intercepted, in what could prove to be a major defence headache for Israel,
Ukraine and their allies.
Russia’s Kinzhal hypersonic missiles are
already being fired at Ukrainian cities, while Iran’s new “Fattah” missile has
been pointed at Tel Aviv, possibly to deter a potential Israeli strike on the
regime’s nuclear programme.
Tehran is also sending hundreds if not
thousands of missiles and drones to Moscow for use against Ukraine, and in
return is set to receive powerful Russian fighter jets which could be used by
the regime to attack Israel.
“The war in Ukraine, and Russia’s use of
Iranian drones there, has reshuffled European priorities and created new
openings for deepening engagement with Israel,” said Hugh Lovatt, a senior
Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“Faced with a new array of security
challenges emanating from Russia, the EU and its member states now increasingly
view Israel as an important security partner that can provide access to
valuable military weaponry and cyber technology,” he added.
“For many European capitals, including
strong supporters of Palestinian rights, national security interests are
overriding concerns over Israel’s actions against Palestinians.”
YehoshuaKalisky, a senior researcher at
Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said: “Regarding the Russian
hypersonic missiles, they operate effectively, but they are not ‘game changers’
as we can see from the results of the war during the last week. Their use looks
to me like another vehicle used to destroy infrastructure or to hurt civilians.”
“About the Iranians, it looks that they
carried out only ground tests – probably it is not operational yet,” he added.
Israel is increasingly concerned about
Russia’s military support for Iran, but at the same time is resisting pressure
from the United States to arm Kyiv, or at least grant the use of its powerful
Iron Dome air defence system.
This is partly because Russia has a
large Jewish population which Israel fears could be persecuted in the event
that relations significantly deteriorate. Russia also controls much of the
airspace over neighbouring Syria, where Israel frequently launches air strikes
on Iranian-backed militia groups.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime
minister, has privately complained to Vladimir Putin about his military support
for Iran, the US news website Axios reported on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the head of Germany’s
defence committee approved a €3.99 billion (£3.34 billion) payment for Israel’s
Arrow 3 air defence system, which will be able to shoot down missiles above the
atmosphere and grant air cover to neighbouring EU member states.
The funds were drawn from Chancellor
Olaf Scholz’s €100 billion defence package, which is aimed at bolstering German
security in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Last week Iran, Israel’s arch-nemesis in
the region, unveiled what it claimed was the regime’s first domestically
produced hypersonic missile, dubbed the Fattah, which can supposedly fly at 15
times the speed of sound and strike Tel Aviv within 400 seconds.
Rafael is already well-known as the
Israeli state-owned contractor behind the Iron Dome missile defence system
capable of intercepting around 90 per cent of rockets launched at Israel from
the Gaza Strip.
It also developed David’s Sling, a
similar system that was used successfully for the first time during the May
9-13 round of fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
According to Israeli media reports, the
country already has defence systems that should be capable of taking down
hypersonic missiles, but none have been tailored to that threat specifically.
In response to the Iranian hypersonic
missile being revealed last week, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister
said “to any such development, we have an even better response,” without
elaborating.
While Iran’s Fattah has not yet been
used in battle, Russia reportedly fired six of its Kinzhal hypersonic missiles
at Ukraine in May and all of them were intercepted, Ukrainian officials said,
suggesting the weapon’s capabilities may have been exaggerated.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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Saudi FM to visit Iran in first after
China deal, Iranian press reports
June 15, 2023
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister
Prince Faisal bin Farhan will head to Tehran on Saturday, Iranian news outlets
reported, in a historic visit after years of estrangement.
Prince Faisal is expected to hold talks
with senior Iranian officials, according to Iran’s semi official news agency
Tasnim. It was not immediately clear which officials the top diplomat will
meet.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry revealed
the planned visit earlier this week. In a press conference on Monday,
spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said the Saudi official will take part in the
reopening of the Saudi Embassy in the Iranian capital.
Riyadh has yet to comment on the
reports.
The visit comes after the two countries
reached a landmark deal in March brokered by China to restore ties. Since then,
the former regional foes have engaged in a whirlwind of diplomacy to end their
dispute and advance economic relations.
Earlier this month, Iran officially
reopened its diplomatic mission in Riyadh. The embassy had been closed since
2016, when Saudi Arabia ordered Iranian diplomats to leave the kingdom in
response to a group of protesters storming the Saudi Embassy in Tehran to
condemn the execution of a Shiite cleric by Saudi authorities.
The reopening came days after the Saudi
and Iranian foreign ministers met in South Africa on the sidelines of a meeting
of the BRICS group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on
June 2. Faisal and Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed the latest
developments in the Saudi-Iranian relations, the Iranian Foreign Ministry
reported, adding that the Saudi top diplomat said he would visit Tehran soon.
In April, the two officials met in
Beijing in the first official gathering between the countries’ top diplomats in
more than seven years. The decades-old Saudi-Iranian feud, fueled by a struggle
over regional dominance, has deeply divided the region and resulted in a series
of conflicts-turned-proxy wars in several countries, including in Yemen and
Syria. The rivalry has also led to instability in Lebanon and Iraq.
Although the Saudi-Iranian deal was
hailed as an important step toward regional stability, some analysts do not
believe there will be a quick resolution of the conflicts. “While reducing the
intensity of regional competition may help redirect political energy to the
core internal conflicts, the prospect of swift solutions remains slim,” the
International Crisis Group wrote in a report in April.
Source: al-monitor.com
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https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/06/saudi-fm-visit-iran-first-after-china-deal-iranian-press-reports
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Turkey summons Swiss ambassador over
demonstration against Erdogan
June 15, 2023
ANKARA, June 15 (Reuters) - Turkey has
summoned the Swiss ambassador to Ankara over a demonstration in Zurich against
President Tayyip Erdogan, including burning of an effigy and banners being
displayed, a foreign ministry source said on Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mehmet Kemal
Bozbay told Switzerland's ambassador Jean Daniel Ruch that the acts were
unacceptable and requested an investigation to determine those involved, the
source added.
Source: reuters.com
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No Israel normalization if Palestine
dispute not solved: US Saudi embassy
15th June 2023
Washington: In light of the United
States’ efforts to bring Israel and Saudi Arabia closer, the Saudi Embassy in
Washington made it clear that an agreement is only possible after a solution to
Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is reached.
The spokesman for the Saudi embassy in
Washington, Fahad Nazer, said in an interview with Arab News, “Israel has a lot
of potential, normalization can do wonders; trade, cultural exchanges, but for
that to happen, for the kingdom to take that step, we need that core dispute
with the Palestinians to be resolved.”
The US is trying to broker talks between
Israel and Saudi Arabia to establish diplomatic relations much like it did
between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco in 2020.
However, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly
stated that it will make a deal with Israel if a Palestinian state is created
in line with the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
“Saudi Arabia’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict has been clear and consistent for many years, it was the late King
Abdullah who in 2002 introduced the Arab Peace Initiative, the proposal offers
Israel normalisation with all members of the Arab states, in return for a just
and comprehensive peace with the Palestinians based on a two-state solution,”
Nazer told Arab News.
“That offer remains on the table. We
hope they go back to the negotiating table, to try and resolve this dispute,
which has brought much pain and suffering across the region,” he added.
The spokesperson’s interview with Arab
News comes in response to remarks made last week by Saudi Foreign Minister
Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who claimed that efforts to normalise relations
between the region and Israel would be of “limited benefits” until the
Palestinians were granted their own state.
He told reporters after his meeting with
his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, who was visiting Riyadh, “We believe
that normalization with Israel is in the interest of the region and that it
will bring great benefits to everyone.”
Israel continues to occupy East
Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law and blockades the
Gaza Strip. Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 160 Palestinians
since the beginning of 2023.
Source: siasat.com
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https://www.siasat.com/no-israel-normalization-if-palestine-dispute-not-solved-us-saudi-embassy-2615314/
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Europe
Muslim World League Asserts the Importance
of Promoting 'Constructive' Dialogue
15-06-23
The Secretary-General of the Muslim
World League (MWL), Mohammed al-Issa, reiterated the importance of the
solidarity of religious institutions, which helps promote constructive dialogue
and understanding between people.
The Sec-Gen met the Egyptian Mufti
ShawkiAllam on the sidelines of the Building Bridges Between East and West
Forum at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Issa asserted that cooperation between
religious institutions promotes tolerance and coexistence.
He noted that through continuous
communication and exchanging experiences and knowledge, the institutions could
contribute to presenting a tolerant and balanced religious vision of current
global challenges.
The Mufti stated that cooperation and
coordination between religious institutions boost people's religious awareness,
spread peace and tolerance, and correct misinformation propagated by extremism
and militancy groups.
He stressed boosting joint efforts
enhancing communication and understanding between peoples, and promoting human
values, asserting that it is the best way to achieve global peace and societal
stability.
Allam said during the meeting that the
fatwa must be based on the scientific methodology, the legal rooting of peace,
and the awareness of contemporary reality, according to a statement to the
Egyptian Dar al-Iftaa.
Allam explained that Dar al-Iftaa has a
pioneering experience in training and qualifying muftis through three-year
programs.
Egypt's Dar al-Iftaa trains several
scholars to become religious figures in their home countries.
The exchange of experiences between
religious institutions contributes to expanding knowledge and mutual
understanding of religious and social issues and enables religious institutions
to benefit from each other's experiences, develop work methods, and address
current challenges.
Allam gifted Issa the shield of the
"General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide" in appreciation
for his efforts in promoting global peace and understanding.
Mufti's advisor Ibrahim Najm stated that
the Mufti would meet several UN leaders to build communication and cooperation
bridges and set joint practical goals and programs to enhance communication and
knowledge sharing to confront Islamophobia, hate speech, and extremism.
Source: english.aawsat.com
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https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/4385276-alimi-calls-urgent-int%E2%80%99l-action-support-yemen%E2%80%99s-presidential-leadership-council
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Madrid celebrates its Muslim past in
Spain’s new museum
15-06-23
Madrid, Spain – A crucial part of
Madrid’s Islamic heritage goes on display for the first time towards the end of
this month as a new museum opens its doors to the public in the Spanish
capital.
One of the star attractions of the
Galeria de ColeccionesReales is part of Madrid’s original Umayyad fortified
wall.
While the discovery of this medieval
wall is not new, the language used to promote the exhibit signals that after
years of vacillating, Spain’s capital is finally prepared to embrace its Muslim
past.
Drawing from the latest archaeological
evidence, the museum endorses the narrative – long widely accepted in academic
circles – that Emir Muhammad I of Córdoba founded Madrid in the ninth century.
“Madrid is the only European capital
with Islamic origins,” said Álvaro Soler, the archaeologist and curator
responsible for the exhibit.
Soler added that this fact has long been
an inconvenient truth: “When Felipe II decided to establish the capital in
Madrid [in 1561], he was embroiled in religious wars against the Turks. He
found himself facing the paradox that he was going to put the capital in a
Muslim city. And that’s how the whole process of manipulating the city’s
history began.”
The archaeological record reveals the
true story.
The museum was built on the site of the
original fortified wall right by Madrid’s Royal Palace, which itself sits on
top of what was once the city’s alcázar (castle).
Right in the heart of the city, the area
is rich with archaeological remains.
During the construction of the building
in 1999, the wall and three towers were discovered along with the remains of a
gate.
Archaeologists also uncovered numerous
artefacts from the time when Madrid was known as Maŷrīṭ.
Visigoth skeleton
Nonetheless, Spain’s press was
particularly fascinated by “Valentín”, an eighth-century skeleton found on the
site in 2009.
In February 2011, chief archaeologist
Esther Andréu explained to El País newspaper that this individual was probably
a wandering Visigoth shepherd.
In June, newspapers El Mundo and ABC
picked this story up with the headline “Visigoth skeleton casts doubt on the
origins of Madrid”.
This was a huge reach: Andréu had not
said the skeleton was evidence of a settlement.
Soler is annoyed this story is still
being discussed. “We have the man in question in a box. But to be able to say
that you have a Visigoth population in Madrid, you have to have a basilica or a
cemetery or a church, something conclusive,” he says.
He pointed out that a single skeleton in
the middle of what was once the countryside does not prove a thing. “The
Visigoths are usually buried with grave goods and we have nothing.”
While the right-wing press misconstrued
Andréu for a sensationalist headline, she still sticks to her claim that the
skeleton was Visigoth citing the carbon dating of the corpse: “I don’t have any
doubt. It’s from the eighth century.”
Daniel Gil, professor of Arabic and
Islamic studies at Madrid’s Complutense University, countered that
“technically, the Visigothic state disappeared with the Islamic conquest in the
second decade of the eighth century”.
“In 712, the Muslims had already
conquered Toledo and the surrounding region,” he said. “Although it is true
that the Umayyad power took a long time to consolidate the area – that is why
Madrid was founded – from 712 onwards we can no longer speak of Visigoths but
of Andalusians, even if they were at odds with the emirs of Cordoba.”
Gil is committed to making sure citizens
are aware of the city’s Islamic past and has worked with the Spanish non-profit
organisation The Islamic Culture Foundation (FUNCI) on various projects,
including the 2010 renovation of Parque Emir Mohamed I to ensure it had the
correct vegetation from the time of al-Andalus – the Muslim-ruled area of the
Iberian Peninsula.
History and political climate
The park sits right by the museum
beneath another section of Madrid’s ninth-century wall that was discovered in
the 1950s.
According to Gil, this wall has been, at
times, treasured and often abandoned depending on the political climate. “When
they inaugurated the park in the 90s, there were some very large plaques in
Spanish and Arabic that paid homage to Muhammad I as the founder of Madrid.
These plaques were removed when the park was renovated and are in a municipal
warehouse. They [the city council] have never wanted to put them back.”
While there are some weather-worn
plaques about Madrid’s Islamic heritage on the street close to the wall, there
is nothing in the park itself.
Gil also pointed out that the park is
usually shut to the public: opening times are restricted to weekends and some
entrances are even barred during these times.
Another curious decision made by the
local government, this time the larger autonomous community of Madrid, is that
any archaeological findings made within the city go to a museum about 40km (24
miles) away in Alcalá de Henares rather than the Museum of San Isidro in the
city centre.
A strange choice seeing as the Museum of
San Isidro is located where the city’s morería once stood – the area where
Madrid’s Muslim community lived after the Christian conquest in 1083.
The museum’s director, Eduardo Salas,
said: “There is a very nice piece that would really be my favourite, but the
original is in Alcalá de Henares.”
The piece in question is a model of a
city gate that might have been a toy or an incense burner.
“That piece appeared when excavations
were made here in the museum,” Salas said. “The old Moorish door was right in
front of the main door of the museum and this little model appeared here. While
not necessarily the Moorish door, it is a model of an Islamic door, of an
Islamic walled enclosure. But we have a reproduction. We would love to have the
original.”
The Museum of San Isidro is dedicated to
the origins of Madrid and has a fine if rather limited collection of Islamic
ceramics.
Some of these artefacts come from a
previous dig carried out when an underground car park was constructed in the
1990s by the Royal Palace under the Plaza de Oriente.
An 11th-century watchtower from the time
of al-Andalus was also discovered at the time. While it is on display, it sits
hidden within the car park without any signposting.
Gil thinks this is indicative of the
uneasiness authorities have with admitting the Islamic origins of Madrid, which
dates back to the study of medieval texts in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“When the Arabic sources about the
foundation of Madrid by Mohammed I were disseminated [in 1938], there was a
widespread narrative officially, and in academic sectors as well, that is still
alive today that, OK, Muhammad I founded the city of Madrid, but there was
already a population of Visigoth origin, of Roman origin, or whatever,” Gil
said.
“Then, as archaeology has progressed, it
became clear that there are no traces prior to Islam in the historic centre of
Madrid.”
The new museum
The display in the new museum is based
on the latest available evidence.
In a huge room dedicated to remains
found on site, visitors can hear about the city’s origins as one of a line of
forts built to guard Toledo against attacks from the Christian north.
The video installation shows a 3D
reconstruction of Maŷrīṭ and tells the story of Spain’s capital highlighting its origins as
an Islamic outpost.
The Galería de las ColeccionesReales
will be inaugurated by Spain’s king and queen on June 25 and will open its
doors to the public on June 29.
Source: aljazeera.com
Please
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IAEA speaks on chances of Russia-Ukraine
nuclear safety deal
15 Jun, 2023
Russia and Ukraine are very unlikely to
strike a deal on maintaining the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant
unless the fighting is stopped, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Thursday.
“Reaching a written agreement would be
unrealistic at this stage because – as we know, there are no peace or ceasefire
negotiations between the parties,” Grossi was quoted as saying by TASS after
arriving at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which is located dangerously
close to the front line.
The IAEA team inspected the facility 10
days after the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam collapsed, causing a reservoir used
to cool the plant’s reactors to be drained. Grossi said that the water level at
the cooling pond was sufficient to keep the facility operational for the time
being.
“On the one hand, we can see that the
situation is serious, the consequences [of the dam’s destruction] are there,
and they are real,” Grossi told reporters. “At the same time, there are
measures that are being taken to stabilize the situation.”
Grossi added that inspectors would
monitor the developments on the ground “to help prevent a nuclear accident.”
Five out of the plant’s six reactors
have been shut down, while the remaining unit is producing a low level of power
to maintain the facility’s functionality. Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly
accused each other of shelling the plant. They have also blamed one another for
the destruction of the Kakhovka dam last week, which caused flooding and
prompted evacuations of civilians on both sides of the front line.
Russia’s national atomic plant operator,
Rosenergoatom, said on Tuesday that its personnel would ensure the safety of
the Zaporozhye nuclear facility and that a mobile pumping unit had recently
been brought to the plant.
Source: rt.com
Please
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https://www.rt.com/news/578109-grossi-russia-ukraine-deal/
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Israel to sell tanks to ‘European
country’
15 Jun, 2023
Israel is negotiating the sale of older
Merkava tanks to two unnamed countries, one of which is in Europe, the Defense
Ministry in West Jerusalem revealed on Thursday. The deal is the first of its
kind and is expected to come through within the next three months, if approved
by the US.
“There are two potential countries with
which we are holding advanced negotiations. I am barred from naming them, but
one is on the European continent,” YairKulas, the head of the Israeli Defense
Ministry’s directorate for international cooperation (SIBAT), told the finance
outlet Calcalist.
Kulas explained that many European
countries have emptied their arsenals to supply Ukraine, and are seeking to
replenish them with more modern systems, “which is where Israeli industries
come into the picture.” Producing tanks takes time, so it’s easier to buy them
used, he added.
“There is a potential of several hundred
million shekels there,” said Kulas, which would equate to tens of millions of
dollars. On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Ministry reported $12.5 billion in
weapons sales for 2022, amounting to an all-time record.
According to the outlet YNet, the deal
involves around 200 “orphaned” tanks retired from active service and gathering
dust at maintenance depots. The Defense Ministry had intended to dismantle them
and sell them for scrap iron before the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine
last year drastically changed the situation on the global weapons market.
Israeli inspectors checked on the tanks and found them “serviceable enough to
be sold.”
The Times of Israel reported that the
deal is “on the verge of a final signature” and is expected to be completed
within about three months.
Israel has previously exported the
Merkava to one international client. In July 2022, the Philippines received two
armored bridge-layer (AVLB) units, based on the Merkava IV chassis. The sale of
actual combat tanks would be without precedent, and the first for any European
operator.
The tanks in question are Mark II and
Mark III models, as the Israel Defense Forces currently operates mainly the
Mark IV, with the Mark V starting to enter service. The Pentagon’s blessing is
required because the tanks’ engines and several other components are
American-made.
The Merkava (“chariot”) is an Israeli
design developed domestically in the 1970s, using the lessons of wars with
Egypt and Syria. All versions have the engine in the front, with the turret set
back and a fighting compartment opening to the rear, enabling dual-use as an
infantry carrier. It is designed specifically for urban combat and crew
survivability.
Source: rt.com
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--------
Sergey Karaganov: By using its nuclear
weapons, Russia could save humanity from a global catastrophe
14 Jun, 2023
By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary
chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic
supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher
School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow
This article has sparked major debate
among experts in Russia about nuclear weapons, their role and the conditions of
their use.
This is especially the case given Sergey
Karaganov’s status as a former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and
Vladimir Putin, and his position as head of the Council on Foreign and Defense
Policy, a noted Moscow think tank.
Some prominent figures have reacted with
dismay, while others have been less critical.
RT has decided it would be beneficial
for our readers to read it in full. The following piece has been translated and
lightly edited.
***
Our country, and its leadership, seems
to me to be facing a difficult choice. It is becoming increasingly clear that
our clash with the West will not end even if we achieve a partial – let alone a
crushing – victory in Ukraine.
Even if we completely liberate the
Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, it will be a minimal victory.
A slightly greater success would be to liberate the whole of eastern and
southern Ukraine within a year or two. But it would still leave part of the
country with an even more embittered ultra-nationalist population pumped full
of weapons – a bleeding wound that threatens inevitable complications, such as
another war.
The situation could be worse if we
liberate the whole of Ukraine at the cost of monstrous sacrifices and are left
with ruins and a population that mostly hates us. It would take more than a
decade to “re-educate” them.
Any of these options, especially the
last one, will distract Russia from the much-needed shift of its spiritual,
economic, military and political center to the East of Eurasia. We will be
stuck with a wasteful focus on the West. And the territories of today’s
Ukraine, especially the central and western ones, will attract resources – both
human and financial. These regions were heavily subsidised even in Soviet
times.
Meanwhile, hostility from the West will
continue; it will support a slow-burning guerrilla civil war.
A more attractive option is the
liberation and reunification of the east and south, and the imposition of
capitulation on the remnants of Ukraine with complete demilitarization,
creating a buffer, friendly state. But such an outcome would only be possible
if we are able to break the West’s will to support the Kiev junta, and use it
against us, forcing the US-led bloc into a strategic retreat.
And here I come to a crucial but hardly
discussed issue. The root cause of – and indeed the main reason for – the
Ukrainian crisis, as well as many other conflicts in the world, and the general
increase in military threats, is the accelerating failure of the contemporary
Western ruling elites.
This crisis is accompanied by an
unprecedentedly rapid shift in the balance of power in the world in favor of
the global majority, driven economically by China and partly by India, with
Russia as the military and strategic anchor. This weakening not only infuriates
the imperial-cosmopolitan elites (US President Joe Biden and his ilk) but also
frightens the imperial-national elites (such as his predecessor Donald Trump).
The West is losing the advantage it has held for five centuries to siphon off
the wealth of the entire world by imposing its political and economic order and
establishing its cultural dominance, mainly by brute force. So there is no
quick end to the defensive, but aggressive, confrontation that the West has
unleashed.
This moral, political and economic
collapse has been brewing since the mid-1960s, was interrupted by the collapse
of the USSR, but resumed with renewed vigour in the 2000s (the defeats of the
Americans and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crisis of the
Western economic model in 2008 were milestones).
In order to slow down this seismic
shift, the West has temporarily consolidated itself. The US has turned Ukraine
into a punching bag to tie the hands of Russia, the politico-military lynchpin
of a non-Western world freed from the shackles of neocolonialism. Ideally, of
course, the Americans would simply like to blow up our country and thus
radically weaken the emerging alternative superpower, China. We, either not
realizing the inevitability of the clash or hoarding our strength, have been
slow to act preemptively. Moreover, in line with modern, mainly Western,
political and military thinking, we were rash in raising the threshold for the
use of nuclear weapons, inaccurate in assessing the situation in Ukraine, and
not entirely successful in launching the current military operation.
By failing internally, Western elites
have actively fed the weeds that have taken root in the soil of 70 years of
prosperity, satiation and peace. These comprise of anti-human ideologies: the
denial of family, homeland, history, love between men and women, faith, service
to higher ideals, everything that is human. Their philosophy is to weed out
those who resist. The aim is to neuter people in order to reduce their ability
to resist modern “globalist” capitalism, which is becoming more and more
obviously unjust and harmful to man and humanity.
Meanwhile, a weakened US is destroying
Western Europe and other countries dependent on it, trying to push them into a
confrontation that will follow Ukraine. The elites in most of these countries
have lost their bearings and, panicked by the crisis in their own positions at
home and abroad, are dutifully leading their countries to the slaughter. At the
same time, because of greater failure, a sense of powerlessness, centuries of
Russophobia, intellectual degradation and a loss of strategic culture, their
hatred is almost more intense than that of the US.
Thus, the trajectory of most Western
countries clearly points towards a new fascism, which could be called “liberal”
totalitarianism.
In the future, and this is the most
important thing, it will only get worse. Truces are possible, but
reconciliation is not. Anger and despair will continue to grow in waves and
waves. This vector of Western movement is a clear sign of the drift towards the
outbreak of World War Three. It has already begun and could erupt into a
full-blown conflagration either by accident, or due to the growing incompetence
and irresponsibility of the ruling circles of the West.
The introduction of artificial
intelligence and the robotization of war increase the risk of unintended
escalation. Machines can act outside the control of confused elites.
The situation is aggravated by
“strategic parasitism” – in 75 years of relative peace, people have forgotten
the horrors of war, have stopped fearing even nuclear weapons. Everywhere, but
especially in the West, the instinct for self-preservation has weakened.
I have spent many years studying the
history of nuclear strategy and have come to an unequivocal, if unscientific,
conclusion. The advent of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of
the Almighty, who, appalled that mankind had unleashed two world wars within a
generation, costing tens of millions of lives, gave us the weapons of
Armageddon to show those who had lost their fear of hell that it existed. On
that fear rested the relative peace of the last three-quarters of a century.
But now that fear is gone. The
unthinkable in terms of previous notions of nuclear deterrence is happening – a
group of ruling elites, in a fit of desperate rage, have unleashed a full-scale
war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.
The fear of atomic escalation must be
restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.
It is not only, and not even so much,
what the future world order will look like that is being decided in the fields
of Ukraine right now. But rather whether the world we are used to will be
preserved at all, or if all will be left is radioactive ruins, poisoning the
remnants of humanity.
By breaking the West’s will in imposing
its aggression, we will not only save ourselves and finally free the world from
the Western yoke of five centuries, but we will also salvage the whole of
humanity. By pushing the West towards catharsis and the abandonment of the
hegemony of its elites, we will force it to retreat before a global
catastrophe. Humanity will be given a new chance to develop.
Proposed solution
f course, there is an uphill struggle
ahead. It is also necessary to solve our own internal problems – to finally get
rid of the mindset of Western-centrism and of the Westernizers in the
administrative class. Especially the compradors and their peculiar way of
thinking. Of course, in this area, the NATO bloc is helping us, unwittingly.
Our 300-year journey around Europe has
given us a lot of useful lessons and it has helped us to form our great
culture. Let us cherish our European heritage. But it is time to return home,
to ourselves. Let us begin, with the baggage we have accumulated, to live in
our own way. Our friends in the Foreign Ministry have recently made a real
breakthrough by referring to Russia as a civilizational state in their foreign
policy concept. I would add – a civilization of civilizations, open to the
North as well as to the South, to the West as well as to the East. Now the main
direction of development is to the South, to the North and, above all, to the
East.
The confrontation with the West in
Ukraine, however it ends, should not distract us from the strategic internal
movement – spiritual, cultural, economic, political, military and political –
towards the Urals, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. A new Ural-Siberian strategy
is needed, one that includes several powerful spiritually uplifting projects,
including, of course, the creation of a third capital in Siberia. This movement
should become part of the much-needed formulation of the “Russian Dream” – the
image of the Russia and the world to which one aspires.
I have often written, and I am not alone
in this, that great states without a great idea cease to be such or simply
disappear into the void. History is littered with the graves of powers that
lost their way. This idea should be created from above and not rely, as fools
or lazy people do, on what comes from below. It must correspond to the deepest
values and aspirations of the people and, above all, it must take us all
forward. But it is the responsibility of the elite and the leadership of the
country to formulate it. The delay in putting forward such a vision is
unacceptably long.
But for the future to come to pass, the
resistance of the forces of the past – i.e. the West – must be overcome. If
this is not achieved, there will almost certainly be a full-scale world war.
Which will probably be the last of its kind.
And here I come to the most difficult
part of this article. We can keep fighting for another year or two, or even
three, sacrificing thousands and thousands of our best men and grinding up
hundreds of thousands more who are unfortunate enough to fall into the tragic
historical trap of what is now called Ukraine. But this military operation
cannot end in a decisive victory without forcing the West into a strategic
retreat or even capitulation. We must force the West to abandon its attempts to
turn back history, to abandon its attempts at global domination, and to force
it to deal with its own problems, to manage its current multifaceted crisis. To
put it crudely, it is necessary for the West to simply “piss off” and end its
interference in the direction of Russia and the rest of the world.
However, for this to happen, Western
elites need to rediscover their own lost sense of self-preservation by
understanding that attempts to wear down Russia by playing the Ukrainians
against it are counterproductive for the West itself.
The credibility of nuclear deterrence
must be restored by lowering the unacceptably high threshold for the use of
atomic weapons and by moving cautiously but quickly up the ladder of
deterrence-escalation. The first steps have already been taken through
statements to this effect by the president and other leaders, by beginning to
deploy nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles in Belarus, and by
increasing the combat effectiveness of the strategic deterrent forces. There
are quite a few steps on this ladder. I count about two dozen. It could even go
as far as warning our compatriots and all people of good will about the need to
leave their homes near the objects of possible nuclear strikes in countries
directly supporting the Kiev regime. The enemy must know that we are ready to
launch a preemptive retaliatory strike in response to its current and past
aggression in order to prevent a slide into a global thermonuclear war.
I have often said and written that with
the right strategy of deterrence and even use, the risk of a ‘retaliatory’
nuclear or other strike on our territory can be minimized. Only if there is a
madman in the White House who also hates his own country will the US decide to
strike in ‘defense’ of the Europeans and invite retaliation by sacrificing a
hypothetical Boston for a notional Poznan. The Americans and the Western
Europeans are well aware of this, they just prefer not to think about it. We,
too, have contributed to this recklessness with our peace-loving
pronouncements. Having studied the history of US nuclear strategy, I know that
after the USSR acquired a credible nuclear retaliatory capability, Washington
never seriously considered using nuclear weapons on Soviet territory, even
though it publicly bluffed. When nuclear weapons were considered, it was only
against “advancing” Soviet forces in Western Europe. I know that the late
Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt fled from their bunkers as soon s
the question of such use came up in an exercise.
Movement down the ladder of
containment-escalation should be fairly quick. Given the current direction of
the West – and the degradation of most of its elites – each successive decision
it makes is more incompetent and ideologically veiled than the last. And, at
present, we cannot expect these elites to be replaced by more responsible and
reasonable ones. This will only happen after a catharsis, leading to the
abandonment of much ambition.
We cannot repeat the ‘Ukrainian
scenario’. For a quarter of a century we were not listened to when we warned
that NATO enlargement would lead to war; we tried to delay, to “negotiate”. As
a result, we ended up in a serious armed conflict. Now the price of indecision
is an order of magnitude higher than it would have been earlier.
But what if the present Western leaders
refuse to back down? Perhaps they have lost all sense of self-preservation?
Then we will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries to bring
those who have lost their senses back to their senses.
We will have to make this choice
ourselves. Even friends and sympathizers will not support it at first. If I
were Chinese, I would not want an abrupt and decisive end to the conflict,
because it will draw back US forces and allow them to gather forces for a
decisive battle – either directly or, in the best Sun Tzu tradition, by forcing
the enemy to retreat without a fight. As a Chinese person, I would also oppose
the use of nuclear weapons because taking the confrontation to the nuclear
level means moving to an area where my country is still weak.
Also, decisive action is not in line
with the Chinese foreign policy philosophy, which emphasizes economic factors
(with the accumulation of military power) and avoids direct confrontation. I
would support an ally by providing him with rear cover, but I would go behind
his back and not enter the fray. (In this case, perhaps I don’t understand this
philosophy well enough and am attributing motives to my Chinese friends that
are not their own.) If Russia uses nuclear weapons, Beijing would condemn it.
But Chinese hearts would also rejoice in knowing that that the reputation and
position of the US had been dealt a severe blow.
How would we react if (God forbid!)
Pakistan attacked India, or vice versa? We’d be horrified. Upset that the
nuclear taboo has been broken. Then let us help the victims and change our
nuclear doctrine accordingly.
For India and other countries of the
world majority, including nuclear weapon states (Pakistan, Israel), the use of
nuclear weapons is unacceptable, both for moral and geostrategic reasons. If
they are used “successfully”, the nuclear taboo – the notion that such weapons
should never be used and that their use is a direct route to nuclear Armageddon
– will be devalued. We are unlikely to win support quickly, even if many in the
Global South would feel satisfaction at the defeat of their former oppressors
who plundered them, carried out genocides and imposed an alien culture.
But in the end, the victors are not
judged. And the saviors are thanked. Western European political culture does
not remember, but the rest of the world does (and with gratitude) how we helped
the Chinese to free themselves from the brutal Japanese occupation, and many
Western colonies to throw off the colonial yoke.
Of course, if they do not understand us
at first, they will have all the more incentive to educate themselves. Still,
it is very likely that we can win, and focus the minds enemy states without
extreme measures, and force them to retreat. And after a few years, we take
take up a position as China’s rear, as it is now performing for us, supporting
it in its struggle with the US. Then this fight can be avoided without a big
war. And we will win together for the good of all, including the people of the Western
countries.
At that stage, Russia and the rest of
humanity will pass through all the thorns and traumas into the future, which I
see as bright – multipolar, multicultural, multicolored – and giving countries
and peoples the opportunity to build their own destinies in addition to the
common one, which should unite worldwide.
Source: rt.com
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--------
Southeast Asia
Seven in 10 of Malaysia's Shariah cases
is on divorce; money top cause of Selangor's Muslims' marriage breakdown
By Ida Lim
Friday, 16 Jun 2023
KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 — A total of
306,454 cases or 73 per cent of cases in Shariah courts throughout Malaysia
from 2015 to 2019 were for the dissolution of marriages, with 90 per cent of
such cases filed by the wife as the plaintiff, the Department of Shariah
Judiciary Malaysia (JKSM) has said.
In an article published by the local
daily Utusan Malaysia, JKSM's corporate communications chief Roziana Mat Amin
also shared her findings after studying 669 marriage dissolution case files in
Selangor, on the top 10 factors — including 21 subfactors — leading to the
collapse of family institutions in these Selangor cases.
Roziana said the five “dominant” factors
are due to finances (with subfactors of not giving “nafkahzahir” or maintenance
funds, a lifestyle of having debts, finances which are not yet firm, spending
beyond means); being abandoned by the other spouse; interpersonal skills or
character (spouse's bad attitude, lack of responsibility, lack of communication
and ineffective communication); abuse; and sexual (not fulfilling “nafkahbatin”
or marital obligations for more than four months, not achieving satisfaction,
sexual intercourse against the order of nature and frequent sexual
intercourse).
Roziana listed the five other factors as
being external (relationship with other women or men, interference from
mother-in-law and lack of support from parents/relatives); polygamy; religious
factors (not fulfilling religious obligations and lack of religious knowledge);
health (spouse with disability, illness, weak/old spouse and no offspring); and
due to underage marriage.
Roziana noted that the delay of Shariah
court cases have often been linked to failure to serve court documents, absence
of the defendant, absence of family representative to attend the meeting with
the hakam (marital conciliator) or the reconciliation committee, lawyers
requesting for postponement or because the judge is on leave.
While she did not state who the
defendants are, defendants in marriage dissolution cases in Shariah courts
would typically be the husband, since the wife files 90 per cent of such cases
as the plaintiff.
However, Roziana said the reasons why cases
seeking the dissolution of marriages in Shariah courts drag on are often
synonymous or overlap with the reasons for the marriage dissolution itself.
Citing former JKSM director-general and
former chief Sharie judge Datuk MohdNa'im Mokhtar — who is now the minister in
the Prime Minister's Department in charge of religious affairs — Roziana said
he had given the benchmark of 365 days for Shariah court cases to be resolved,
with those taking more than a year to resolve being considered as backlog cases
Citing her own analysis using various
statistic models to explore how marriage dissolution factors are related to
delays in Shariah cases being resolved, Roziana said she found that the four
"most significant factors" for the delays in the Shariah court include
external factors (with the relationship with other women or men being the most
dominant sub-factor) and interpersonal or character factors (with the spouse's
bad attitude being the most dominant subfactor).
Using the statistical test of simple
logistic regression, Roziana found that relations with other women or other men
give the highest risk ratio or 2.17 times for the delay in such Shariah cases
being resolved, followed by external factors (1.90) and bad attitude of spouse
(1.83).
Using the odd ratio statistical test,
she found that the four factors of marriage dissolution that gives the most
impact towards late resolution of such cases are the spouse's bad attitude,
lack of support from parents and relatives, the spouse's sexual intercourse
against the order of nature and relations with other women or other men.
Roziana said there were also 11
significant factors contributing to the delay in the resolution of Shariah
cases seeking for marriages to be dissolved, namely lack of responsibility, not
giving “nafkahzahir” or funds for maintenance, an indebted lifestyle, spending
beyond means, not achieving sexual satisfaction, lack of communication,
ineffective communication, abuse or hitting of wife or husband or children,
emotional disorders, interference by mother-in-law and not fulfilling religious
obligations.
“Interestingly, the findings of this
test also shows the dissolution factors due to being abandoned by the spouse,
frequency of sexual relations, health and underage marriage are not the causes
for delays in resolution of cases in court,” she said in her article.
Beyond the above reasons for marriages
breaking down, Roziana said there are three other factors with the most
significant impact on the late resolution of such Shariah cases, including the wife's
appointment of lawyers, frequency of the court proceedings, and delay in
issuance of court orders.
In the same article, she urged lawyers
and the Shariah courts dealing with the defendant for marriage dissolution
cases to be more thorough and firm in conducting the cases, to avoid the
manipulation of procedures which would contribute to the backlog of cases.
Source: malaymail.com
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https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/06/16/seven-in-10-of-malaysias-shariah-cases-is-on-divorce-money-top-cause-of-selangors-muslims-marriage-breakdown/74578
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M’sia reiterates support for Palestine,
condemns desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque
15-06- 2023
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has reiterated its
support for the struggle of the Palestinian people and strongly condemned the
unlawful actions of the Israeli army, their human rights violations and
desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr MohdNa’im Mokhtar conveyed this message
to the Grand Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Dr Ekrima Sabri, who paid him a
visit at his office here today.
MohdNa’im said Malaysia had always been
consistent in fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people centred on
justice and was against any issue of violence and cruelty.
“I also affirm our undivided support for
the Palestinian people and their struggle for independence from the illegal
Israeli occupation.
“Support is also given to achieve the
aspiration to establish an independent Palestinian state based on the pre-1967
borders and with Jerusalem as its capital,“ he said in a press conference after
the meeting.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Dr Ekrima Sabri
expressed his appreciation to Malaysia for always supporting and helping
Palestine in any situation.
He also emphasised that the
responsibility of protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque lies with all Muslims and not
just the Palestinians.
“This is because Al-Aqsa Mosque is highly
revered much like Masjidil Haram and Masjid Nabawi,“ he said, adding that the
media also plays an important role in spreading information on Palestine and
anything that happens there.
Sheikh Dr EkrimaSabri’s media conference
was translated by the Special Officer to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department (Religious Affairs), Syed Amru Syed Abdullah. – Bernama
Source: thesundaily.my
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https://www.thesundaily.my/local/m-sia-reiterates-support-for-palestine-condemns-desecration-of-al-aqsa-mosque-JB11109725
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Africa
NAF Denies Bombarding Miyetti Allah
Members, Insists Those Killed Were Terrorists
June 15, 2023
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has
dismissed allegations by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of
Nigerian (MACBAN) claiming that scores of its innocent members, on their way
from Makurdi, were killed in an airstrike in Nasarawa State.
NAF spokesman, Air Commodore
AyodeleFamuyiwa, said those killed in the airstrike were terrorists.
He insisted that no innocent person was
killed in the said operation.
His words:
“Let the people who said innocent people
were killed provide the evidence and let the press do that analysis and let the
truth come out.”
He decried the sustained attempts by
some human rights bodies “to put the military in disrepute”.
He expressed concern that the Nigerian
press was leveraging on the position of the human rights bodies without
necessarily hearing from the Air Force.
The NAF spokesperson further added:
“We have not seen any information of the
images of innocent citizens that were killed, even from the media.
“The position of the NAF is that the
attack was well-planned, and the bombardment struck the terrorists. If there
were a contrary to this, let them provide the evidence.
“The military has information which
cannot be declassified now in the scene.
“I will enjoin the press to investigate
this to ascertain the veracity of the claims that the bombardment struck
innocent citizens.
“If you can observe, after that
bombardment, there were no such terrorist activities in that area.”
Source: politicsnigeria.com
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https://politicsnigeria.com/naf-denies-bombarding-miyetti-allah-members-insists-those-killed-were-terrorists/
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Kano roundabout was demolished because
of anti-Islamic Christian cross on it: Government
JUNE 15, 2023
BaffaBichi, Secretary to the Kano State
Government, has explained why Governor Abba Kabir-Yusuf’s administration
demolished the government house roundabout monument.
There has been outrage across the state,
following the demolition of the roundabout, built by the immediate past
government of former Governor AbdulahiGanduje to honor Kano’s Golden Jubilee.
In response to the criticism, the
governor, via his Chief Press Secretary, SanusiDawakinTofa, had initially
stated that the structure was poor and could collapse within a year.
However, speaking on Freedom Radio Kano
on Wednesday, the SSG alleged that the roundabout also carried a huge Christian
cross, which he claimed was against Islamic theology.
Mr Bichi went on to say that the edifice
was also impeding vehicles’ views of all routes that ran through it.
“The roundabout is obstructing the view
of motorists, and secondly, if you use a drone camera, you will see that the
roundabout has large design of a cross on top of it.
“And over 9.99 or 100 percent of Kano
indigenes are Muslims. So you can’t have a structure with a large inscription
of the cross on it. It’s against Islamic values,” said Mr Bichi.
“Our clerics told us that whenever our
beloved Prophet Muhammad saw anything, no matter how little, with a sign of
cross on it, he would ensure that such a thing is destroyed.
“So any picture of Kano you snap, you
would see a large sign of the cross on it, even the Muhammadu Buhari underpass
in Hotoro has a similar design, and I can assure you that plans are underway to
make sure those symbols are removed from the bridge,” he added.
Regarding other structures being
demolished across the state, Mr Bichi went on to reiterate that they were
illegally acquired by officials from the previous administration.
He insisted that the government would
only pay compensation to persons who presented valid evidence of ownership
paperwork.
“Anyone who is defending the
encroachment of public institutions like hospitals, schools and Eid grounds is
sick and needs medical attention.
“If you encroached on government land
and the government collected it back, there is no way you could claim any
compensation.
“All these structures we are demolishing
were illegally acquired and shared among officials of the outgone
administration.
“So, anyone demanding compensation
should go and meet the person that sold the properties to them, because the
monies were never remitted into the government account.
“If government collects your property to
build infrastructure for the masses, it is obligatory that such individuals
would be compensated but that’s not the case here,” Mr Bichi stressed.
Source: gazettengr.com
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https://gazettengr.com/kano-roundabout-was-demolished-because-of-anti-islamic-christian-cross-on-it-government/
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Uganda Airlines set for first pilgrimage
flight to Mecca in 40 years
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Entebbe, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The
new Uganda Airlines will make its inaugural flight for the annual Muslim
pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest Muslim city in Saudi Arabia. In a statement
issued on Thursday, Uganda Airlines describes the flight as a significant
milestone for the national carrier after 40 years and an important moment for
pilgrims as they embark on the holy journey hiatus.
Uganda Airlines plans to transport 500
Muslim pilgrims from different parts of Uganda aboard the Airbus A330. The
first flight will depart from Entebbe and arrive in Jeddah, a key Saudi Arabian
port city on the Red Sea, the gateway for pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina.
Hajj, which is one of the Five Pillars
of Islam, involves the greater Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. It takes place in
the last month of the Islamic year, and it is considered a religious obligation
for all adult Muslims, provided they have the financial means to undertake the
journey.
According to the press statement, “The
official flag-off ceremony will be held at Entebbe Airport officiated by the
Minister of Works and Transport, Muslim leaders, foreign diplomats, and other
government officials. The return flight will be operated from Medina to
Entebbe.”
Uganda Airlines, was revived to replace
the former Uganda Airlines that operated from 1977 to 2001. It resumed
operations in August 2019. The airline currently serves a range of
destinations, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilimanjaro, Dar-es-Salaam, Zanzibar,
Mogadishu, Bujumbura, and Juba, among others.
Source: independent.co.ug
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https://www.independent.co.ug/uganda-airlines-set-for-first-pilgrimage-flight-to-mecca-in-40-years/
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“It’s Against Islamic Values”: Gov’s
Aide Says Kano Roundabout Demolished Because of Large Christian Cross
June 15, 202
Unlock the best of Legit.ng on
Pinterest! Subscribe now and get your daily inspiration! The Kano State
government has revealed that the rehabilitated roundabout structure awarded by
ex-governor AbdullahiGanduje was demolished because it had a large inscription
of the Christian cross on it. BaffaBichi, the Secretary to the Kano State
Government, revealed this while speaking on the radio on Wednesday, June 14.
He stated that it was against the
doctrine of Islam for a monumental structure and landmark of a state dominated
by Muslims to carry the inscription of Christians.
Governor's aide gives more reasons for
demolition of famous roundabout
He added that the structure was
demolished because it often obstructs the view of drivers accessing all routes
linked through it.
Bichi further elaborated on the need for
the doctrine of Islam to be adhered to and why it must be paramount to every
Muslim.
Kano govt under Abba Yusuf tears down
Ganduje’s multi-million naira project
Meanwhile, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has
continued his demolition spree to help reshape the city of Kano, as promised in
his campaign. The governor recently supervised another knocking-down exercise
two meters away from the government house. The demolished structure was a
multimillion-naira roundabout project remodelled for N160 million by
ex-governor AbdullahiGanduje.
Source: legit.ng
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.legit.ng/nigeria/1539558-s-islam-values-govs-aide-kano-roundabout-demolished-large-christian-cross/
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Moroccan Islamist leader sentenced to
one year for sex crimes
15-06-2023
A Moroccan court on Wednesday 14th June
2023 sentenced a leader of the kingdom’s principal Islamist movement, which
rejects the king’s authority over religion, to a year in prison for “sexual
harassment”, an official in the movement said. Al Adl Wal Ihsan (Justice and
Dignity) seeks a state under Sharia Islamic law but rejects any violence in
pursuit of that goal. The group is tolerated but unrecognised by Moroccan
authorities.
The court in the city of Meknes
sentenced Mohamed Baassou for the harassment offence as well as “insult to
modesty”, but dismissed a charge of human trafficking, Hassan Bennajeh, a
leader of Al Adl Wal Ihsan, told AFP. He said Baassou’s sentencing “only
confirms that he was targeted for the group he belongs to and his opinions”.
THE MOROCCAN COURT FOUND THAT HE’S USED
TO THAT TECHNIGUE
Aicha El Guella, the lawyer for the
complainant, said Baassou “took advantage of the vulnerability of his victim by
promising work to achieve his ends. The investigation found that he used the
same technique with other women.” In addition to his jail time, the court
ordered Baassou to pay 60,000 dirhams ($6,000) to the complainant.
Several journalists and others in
Morocco have also been sentenced for sex-related offences over the past few
years. They denied the accusations and said they were targeted for their views.
Moroccan authorities say such cases have nothing to do with freedom of
expression and the kingdom’s judiciary is independent.
Source: thesouthafrican.com
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/moroccan-islamist-leader-sentenced-to-one-year-for-sex-crimes-15-june-2023/
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URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/land-love-jihad-uttarakhand-polarisation/d/130009