Muslim NGO Coalition Highlights State Sponsored Islamophobia across Europe
New Age Islam News Bureau
30 September 2022
Protestors hold a banner
reading "Block against fascism and islamophobia" during a
demonstration organised by far-left against far-right in Paris, on November 27,
2021. (Photo By Stephane De Sakutin / AFP) (Photo by Stephane De Sakutin/Afp Via
Getty Images)
------
• Clashes Over ‘Love Jihad’, Police Action — Garba
Venues Turn Political Arenas in Gujarat, MP
• Iranian Islamic Regime 'Does Not Represent' the
People: Mahsa Amini Protesters Insist
• Pakistan's Punjab CM Continues His Hate-Mongering
Rhetoric against the Ahmadiyya Community
• 1MDB Trial: Najib's Lawyer Shows Saudi Prince's
Second Letter Promising US$375m 'Gift' To PM, After Previous US$100m Gift
Letter
Europe
• Italy’s Muslim Communities Confident New Government
Will Protect Religious Freedom
• Hindu Man Thanks Muslim Activist after Leicester
Violence: ‘He Saved My Life’
• European Governments Accused Over 'Suppression of
Muslim Civil Society'
• Five Bangladesh cabbies in UK charged with people
smuggling
• Germany to seek EU sanctions on Iran over protests
crackdown: foreign minister
--------
India
• Ban on PFI act of 'political selfishness' aimed to
appease RSS: Mayawati
• Will Prevent Non-Believers from Entering Garba
Venues and Spreading Love Jihad, Says Bajrang Dal
• Gyanvapi Mosque Case: Why Are Petitioners Divided
Over The Carbon Dating Claims?
• PFI had plans to turn India into Islamic nation by
2047; RSS, BJP leaders were on radar: Maharashtra ATS chief
--------
Mideast
• French Charge D’Affaires to Iran Summoned Over
Anti-Tehran Rallies, Charlie Hebdo Cartoon
• Iranian President Urges US Guarantees on Avoiding
Past Misbehaviour
• IRGC Smashes Terrorist Strongholds by 73 Missiles,
Tens of Drones
• Iran ‘ruthlessly’ suppressing protests: Amnesty
International
• Human Rights Chief: US Lacks Legitimacy to Comment
on Rights of Iranians
• Iran Warns Against Emergence of Terror Groups in
Afghanistan
• Iran protests over young woman's death continue, 83
said killed
• Two injured, 90 arrested in clashes near Iran
embassy in Oslo
--------
Pakistan
• Resurgence of Terrorism Won’t Be Tolerated, General
Qamar Javed Bajwa Tells Commanders Conference
• Pakistan’s Progressive Transgender Law Faces
Opposition 4 Years Later
• Pakistan govt to launch multi-billion-dollars
initiative to protect Indus River
• Imran appears before Islamabad court to apologise to
Judge Zeba Chaudhry in person
• At least one killed, 20 injured in blast in
Balochistan’s Kohlu
• Pakistan would act as ‘bridge’ between China, US:
Bilawal
--------
Southeast
Asia
• Malaysia Welcomes ADB’s Member Countries to Leverage
Islamic Capital Market Synergies
• Social entrepreneur receives Commonwealth Points of
Light award
• Indonesia approves first home-grown Covid-19 vaccine
--------
South Asia
• US Envoy Fears Afghanistan could Witness a ‘Return
to Civil War’
• Kabul Suicide Blast Kills 19, Mostly Girls, At Education
Centre
• Iran Says Terrorism in Afghanistan Pose Threat to
Global Security
• Security interests widen trust gap between Afghan
Taliban, China
--------
Arab
World
• Opposition Groups Secure Nearly 60% of Kuwait's
National Assembly
• Lebanese lawmakers fail to elect new president
• Saudi Arabia condemns Iranian attacks on Iraq’s
Kurdistan region
• Saudi Arabia’s defence minister discusses situation
in Yemen with PLC head
• Yemen signs deal for oil derivatives from Saudi
Arabia
--------
North
America
• US Calls For Probe Of 7-Year-Old Palestinian Boy’s
Death During Israeli Raids
• US says citizen killed in Iran strikes on Iraqi
Kurdistan
• US imposes new sanctions on Iran oil exports and
front companies abroad
--------
Africa
• Gunfire Heard In Burkina Faso, Sparking Mutiny Fears
• Morocco arrests suspected ISIS member
• Suspected rebels kill 5 soldiers, civilian in
Nigeria
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-ngo-state-islamophobia-europe/d/128072
--------
Muslim NGO Coalition Highlights State Sponsored
Islamophobia across Europe
Protestors hold a banner
reading "Block against fascism and islamophobia" during a
demonstration organised by far-left against far-right in Paris, on November 27,
2021. (Photo By Stephane De Sakutin / AFP) (Photo by Stephane De Sakutin/Afp Via
Getty Images)
------
September 29, 2022
A coalition of Muslim NGOs will be highlighting state
sponsored Islamophobia across Europe during a conference organised by what is
billed as the world's largest regional security intergovernmental organisation,
with 57 participating states. Coalition members will gather at the Human
Dimension Conference of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe to be held in Warsaw over the next two days. The NGOs will decry what
they have identified as endemic state sponsored Islamophobia across Europe and
highlight what is being described as systematic suppression of Muslim civil
society across the continent.
The coalition includes groups from across Europe and
elsewhere. Some of them — Perspectives Musulmanes (France), CAGE (UK),
Assisting Communities Traumatised by Police (Austria), Lighthouse Advocacy
(UK), The Centre for Muslims' Rights (Denmark), INSAN (Sweden) and Muslim
Rights Watch (Netherlands) — are organising a fringe event at the conference to
highlight how European states have enabled the targeting of Muslim minorities
through an array of discriminatory laws and policies with far-reaching
implications for the rule of law and freedom in Europe.
Elias d'Imzalène of Perspectives Musulmanes will focus
on how France's state-led Islamophobia is dismantling all free spaces for
Muslims. "This Orwellian policy affects the very corpus of the Islamic
religion," said d'Imzalène in a press release. "Indeed, the Imams'
Charter prohibits imams from denouncing any form of Islamophobia,
discrimination and injustice and imposes a new reading of Islam ordered by the
State, an 'Islam of the police prefectures'. The police threaten to close any
mosque denouncing this new inquisition while a political hunt is also carried
out, targeting the dissenting voices of the community, thus making Muslim
expression [or free speech] essentially criminal."
Lighthouse Advocacy from the UK will highlight
evidence it has uncovered of unethical financial ties between British higher
education institutions and companies complicit in forced Uyghur labour.
"Lighthouse Advocacy urges the UK government to comply with the Modern
Slavery Act of 2015 and ban any import of goods from the Xinjiang region which
has been produced as a result of forced Uyghur labour," explained the
NGO's Ikram Hussain. "We also exhort British businesses and academic
institutions to follow suit in ending their ties with such companies profiting
from forced Uyghur labour."
The Managing Director of CAGE, meanwhile, will draw
attention to France's systematic obstruction policy and will note how it
amounts to a persecution of Muslims in the country. In his pre-conference
statement, Muhammad Rabbani, commented on rights guaranteed under international
law. "As defined by the Rome Statute, 'persecution' means the intentional
and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by
reason of the identity of the group or collectivity," he explained. "The
deliberate deprivation of the freedom of religion, opinion and association of
Muslim citizens of France that results from government policy and law, provides
evidence of State-led persecution of Muslims underway in France."
Source: Middle East Monitor
Please click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
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Clashes Over ‘Love Jihad’, Police Action — Garba
Venues Turn Political Arenas in Gujarat, MP
Photo: The
Print/Representational image of Bajrang Dal and VHP members | ANI
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NEELAM PANDEY and MANASI PHADKE
30 September, 2022
Delhi/ Mumbai: Garba events have emerged as centres of
political controversy in two BJP-ruled states — Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat —
ahead of assembly elections.
In both states, several alleged incidents of Muslim
youth trying to enter garba (folk dance) venues stoked trouble. In all
instances, the men were identified by workers of the Bajrang Dal, the youth
wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), who were keeping watch during the
dance events, a mainstay of the nine-day festival of Navratri that started
Monday.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, at the behest of the
Bajrang Dal, the police took action against Muslim youth who were rounded up
from garba pandals in three separate incidents. The Indore police confirmed to
ThePrint that these men used fake identification cards or names, and that
“preventive” action had been initiated against them.
Tannu Sharma, the Indore Bajrang Dal sanyojak
(coordinator), told ThePrint that all three incidents had taken place between
27 and 29 September. He further said
that if the police failed to take appropriate action, matters might escalate.
“There is a slogan that’s become popular in Madhya
Pradesh these days — pehle rokenge, phir tokenge aur uske baad thokenge (first
we will try to stop them, then interrupt them, and if that also doesn’t work we
will remove them),” he said.
Similarly, in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, Bajrang Dal members
allegedly assaulted Muslim men trying to enter garba venues in Ahmedabad in two
separate incidents.
Speaking to ThePrint, Vinod Bansal, national
spokesperson of the VHP, said fears of “love jihad” and concerns over “women’s
security” during garba events were behind the actions of Bajrang Dal workers.
“It’s a cultural as well as religious programme. We
have requested the state police and organisers to keep an eye on people trying
to create nuisance in such programmes,” he said.
On the presence of Bajrang Dal workers outside garba
pandals, he pointed out that “women’s security is a major concern and (people)
need to be checked so that women can participate freely”.
“Bajrang Dal workers have been vigilant. We are only
supporting the law enforcement agencies. Cases of love jihad and crime against
women have been reported from such pandals,” he claimed.
“We also don’t want non-believers to make rounds of
these pandals. They should either not go or should not be allowed,” he added.
Elections in Gujarat, where the BJP which has been in
power since 1995, are due later this year. The Madhya Pradesh elections are
scheduled for next year.
Both polls are crucial for the BJP as it is trying to
improve its double-digit seat tally of the 2017 elections in Gujarat, while in
Madhya Pradesh, the party’s performance in the recent municipal elections had
raised concerns.
‘A tool for love jihad’
The Bajrang Dal in Indore, MP, has informed the police
of three incidents at pandals over the last two days.
“On 27 September, we found a few men making videos of
Hindu girls who were doing garba. The Bajrang Dal activists found their actions
suspicious and when they tried to enquire about the men’s identity they turned
out to be Muslim youth who had given fake names. We called the police
immediately,” the Bajrang Dal’s Tannu Sharma said.
He also cited two other alleged incidents. “In
Dwarkapuri two Muslim men who were from Kolkata had entered a pandal using fake
IDs and again we asked the police to intervene. In the last incident, a youth
was found trying to take the contact numbers of the girls at the pandal and
when Bajrang Dal activists asked for his name he was found using a fake ID. We
handed him over to the police,” Sharma claimed.
The garba controversy in Madhya Pradesh comes days
after state culture and tourism minister Usha Thakur raised concerns about the
events being used as a tool for “love jihad” in the state. Following that, the
state government swung into action and asked garba organisers to check identity
cards of people before allowing them into the pandals.
Thakur had told reporters in Gwalior earlier this
month that no one would be allowed to enter garba pandals during Navaratri
without showing identity proof. According to her, garba events in the past had
been a “big way to carry out love jihad activities”.
On Tuesday, state home minister Narottam Mishra told
reporters: “Navaratri, the festival of worship of Maa Durga, is the centre of
our faith and is a religious programme. To maintain peace and harmony on such a
holy occasion, garba event organisers have been instructed to provide entry
only after checking identification cards.”
He further stated that the move was meant to ensure
there was no “untoward situation” at such events. “Everyone can come to offer
prayers to the goddess,” he said.
BJP MP Pragya Thakur took a harder line. She told
reporters in Bhopal this week that people from the Muslim community should not
be allowed in garba pandals. “Entry in garba pandals should be done strictly on
the basis of identity cards. People from the Muslim community should not be
allowed to enter. We want to keep our worship system pure,” she said.
The Congress questioned her statement and termed it
hate-speech.
“RSS chief (Mohan Bhagwat) should visit masjid imam,
go to madrasa… (PM Narendra Modi’s childhood friend) Abbas stayed at home with
him, his mother cooked food for Abbas on Eid. BJP state president stops his
speech at the time of azaan. Sadhvi should first show the courage to oppose
these people, then she should indulge in sowing the poison of hatred,” said
Congress leader Narendra Saluja.
According to a BJP leader, the party has always
focused on Hindutva issues as they are important for the community and that
“love jihad has been used to target innocent Hindu women”.
“The focus on Hindutva issues will be sharper in the
coming few months as the party does not want to give any scope to the Congress
to make headway on the basis of its so-called soft-Hindutva strategy,” said
another BJP leader.
Surprise checks, a teeka test
In Gujarat, members of Bajrang Dal allegedly stopped
Muslim men from entering two garba venues. “Our members keep conducting
surprise checks at such venues to ensure Muslims are not entering and there are
no possibilities of love jihad,” VHP spokesman Hitendrasinh Rajput told
ThePrint.
“During surprise checks on Tuesday at two venues, our
karyakartas (workers) saw some Muslim men harassing women. When we spoke to
them, their intention seemed malafide. It seemed they were inspired by the
concept of love jihad. There were some clashes, and fisticuffs,” he added.
Rajput said that like every year, the VHP has issued
an appeal for all non-believers and non-Hindus to stay away from Navaratri
venues. “It is a matter of devotion,” he explained.
According to Rajput, the VHP has informed the Hotel
and Restaurant Association (Western India) as well as OYO Rooms to ensure they
don’t rent out rooms to Muslim men accompanying Hindu women to “prevent love
jihad” during Navaratri.
Ashok Rawal, a senior Gujarat VHP functionary, told
ThePrint: “Bajrang Dal members stand outside garba venues and apply a teeka
(vermillion) on the forehead of people entering.”
“Those who are Hindu don’t mind the teeka. If anyone
opposes, we immediately sense something amiss and ask for their identification
to ensure they are not Muslim,” he said. “It is only a matter of creating
awareness,” he added.
Source: The Print
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Iranian Islamic Regime 'Does Not Represent' the
People: Mahsa Amini Protesters Insist
Protesters in downtown
Tehran make fire and block the street during a protest over the death of a
woman who was detained by the morality police. (Associated Press)
------
September 30, 2022
Iranian protesters spoke exclusively to Fox News
Digital to express their outrage against the Islamic regime in their country as
well as the desire to remove Ayatollah Khamenei as supreme leader of Iran since
the man "does not represent the people."
"We wanted to demonstrate not only to the regime
but also want people the world over [to know] — the Iranian people reject this
regime, and they want it overthrown," Mashhad, a 42-year-old teacher in
Iran, explained.
"Our ultimate goal and ultimate desire and demand
is the overthrow of the regime in its entirety, and we are very, very
determined to bring this about," she continued. "We want our voices
to be heard, and I assure you that we will bring down this regime. We have
absolutely no doubt in our minds that we can do it."
Protests started at the funeral for Mahsa Amini, 22,
after her death while in the custody of the morality police, who claim that she
merely fell into a coma following her arrest. Her family and some witnesses
instead said they saw evidence that the police had beaten her.
As of Thursday night, the protests reportedly spread
to 164 cities, with 300 people killed and 15,000 more arrested, according to
the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). Fox News Digital could not
verify these numbers, but other outlets have reported at least 100 cities with
protests and dozens dead as of this week.
Iran has seen an increasing number of protests over the
past few years, but the protests that started with Amini’s death feel different
to the citizens — both in scope, with women taking a more prominent role, and
in the severity of the regime’s response.
"It was much, much harsher, much more
severe," said Reyhaneh, 19, from Tehran. "Not only in the numbers of
the forces they had — the morality police, security force, plainclothes agents
and others — but also their treatment. They were very vicious, very brutal,
much more brutal before."
"What I have seen the last two days in Tehran,
they have risen up. I myself have taken part in these protests … what I have
seen is exemplary bravery and courage, especially because the uprising is being
led by women," she added.
"We wanted to demonstrate not only to the regime
but also people the world over: the Iranian people reject this regime."
The women spoke to Fox News Digital after Iranian
President Ebrahim Raisi spoke before the United Nations General Assembly. Raisi
allegedly helped carry out the 1988 "death commission" that led to
the deaths of thousands of political dissidents.
Mashhad asked why Western governments allowed Raisi to
speak to the U.N. and did not show they were "standing with the people of
Iran."
"Where is … freedom and support [in] supporting
this criminal? And [has] the blood of thousands on his hands, especially in
1988, the massacre," she said. "Why don't they … prosecute him and
hold him accountable?"
Mashhad first joined protests two years ago, but she
feels this one is different because people have seen how "shameless"
the Ayatollah and his regime are, leading to people of many ages and
backgrounds across the country to take to the streets.
Reyhaneh said there are examples of previous protests
that led to regime change and that the people have no reason to believe this
one can’t be same.
"We in our struggle … have put our lives in our
hands, willing to sacrifice our lives, and we will fight to the very end to
bring about freedom in Iran and already dramatic fundamentalism," she
said.
Source: Fox News
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Pakistan's Punjab CM Continues His Hate-Mongering
Rhetoric against the Ahmadiyya Community
Pervaiz Elahi (Twitter)
----
September 29, 2022
Pakistan's Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz
Elahi continued his hate-mongering rhetoric against the Ahmadiyya community in
Pakistan, saying that his party (PML-Q) plans to build a mosque that would be a
replica of Istanbul's Blue mosque where "Qaidanis" will not be
allowed.
Qaidanis is a religious slur used to refer to Ahmadi
Muslims in Pakistan.
He added that Ahmadiyyas will be given the rights as
given to other minorities. As per his statement, the government has already
finalized the deal with the engineers of Turkey's Blue Mosque and the work is
likely to start soon.
Elahi continued saying that the only difference
between the two mosques will be that in Pakistan's Blue Mosque there will be a
signboard that would display that "Qaidanis are not allowed".
Meanwhile, a Federal Minister and Member of the
National Assembly of Pakistan, Mian Javed Latif has launched a fresh
hate-filled campaign against the persecuted Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in
Pakistan, using religion to score political points, a press release by Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights read.
On Wednesday September 15, Latif appeared on Pakistani
State TV Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) to utter falsehoods and
propaganda against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which is already under
immense threat and subjected to cruelties and state persecution.
Pakistan's media regulatory body - the Electronic
Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has been criticised for not sanctioning
television channels from airing such hate-filled rhetoric.
The use of religion is not new in Pakistani politics
but the airing of such rhetoric on mainstream state media is a serious and
shocking use of state television and risks furthering an already vile hate
campaign against Pakistan's most persecuted community.
The Ahmadi Muslim Community is being used as a
scapegoat to score political points and malign political opponents, without any
regard for the risk of life and the hatred it spreads.
At the cost of further endangering the lives of
Ahmadis in Pakistan, this level of hate speech in mainstream media and social
media is shocking and inexcusable and likely to radicalise people further
against innocent Ahmadis.
As a result of such hate campaigns, an Ahmadi, Mr
Naseer Ahmed was killed last month on August 12 by an extremist radicalised by
hate-filled religious clerics, the press release read.
Another Pakistani politician, Federal Railway Minister
Khawaja Saad Rafique similarly stoked the fire of enmity against the Ahmadis
Muslims. He tweeted the anti-Ahmadi trope and baseless allegation that Ahmadis
were a conspiracy against Islam and a seditious group.
This format of hate speech and incitement which
falsely blame the country's ongoing instability on Ahmadi Muslims has a history
of triggering violent attacks against innocent Ahmadis.
On July 13, 2021, UN human rights experts expressed
their deep concern over the lack of attention to the serious human rights
violations perpetrated against the Ahmadiyya community around the world and
called on the international community to step up efforts to bring an end to the
ongoing persecution of Ahmadis.
It urged the international community to impress upon
the Government of Pakistan to honour its responsibility to provide effective
protection and freedom of religious practice to Ahmadis and that perpetrators
of such vicious actions should be brought to justice, to bring its laws and
practices in conformity with international standards.
Source: Business Standard
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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1MDB Trial: Najib's Lawyer Shows Saudi Prince's Second
Letter Promising US$375m 'Gift' To PM, After Previous US$100m Gift Letter
Lawyer Wan Aizudin Wan
Mohammed arrives at Kuala Lumpur High Court September 29, 2022. — Picture by
Yusof Mat Isa
-----
By Ida Lim
29 Sep 2022
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — Former prime minister Datuk
Seri Najib Razak was also promised a "gift" of US$375 million from a
purported Saudi prince in November 2011, on top of the same alleged Saudi royal
figure's previous promise just months earlier to give US$100 million as a
present, Najib's legal team claimed.
Najib's lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed produced in
the High Court today a purported letter by an individual going by the name of
"HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud" on November 1, 2011 to "His
Excellency Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak" at the latter's
personal residence at No. 11, Jalan Langgak Duta, Taman Duta in Kuala Lumpur.
Wan Aizuddin showed this purported letter during
Najib's trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1Malaysia
Development Berhad's (1MDB) funds, as part of the defence's attempt to show
that the millions of US dollars which had entered Najib's personal bank account
in the past had allegedly originated from gifts from Saudi royalty.
Showing this purported letter to the 38th prosecution
witness Yap Wai Keat, Wan Aizuddin read out parts of the November 1, 2011
letter in court, including: "Further to my letter dated 1 February 2011, I
have been following your work recently and I am impressed with the significant
work that you have done to govern Malaysia using Islamic principles and how you
are reintroducing Islam to the rest of the world in view of the current
perception that many people have since 9/11. Your suggestion to launch the
Global Movement of the Moderates shows a modern way of dealing with issues of
international terrorism and extremist groups.
"In view of the friendship that we have developed
over the years and your new ideas as a modern Islamic leader, in addition to my
earlier commitment, I hereby grant you a sum of up to United States Dollar
Three Hundred and Seventy-Five Million (US$375,000,000) Only ("Gift")
which shall be remitted to you at such times and in such manner as I deem fit
either directly from my personal bank account or through my instructed company
bank accounts (such as Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners Limited)," Wan
Aizuddin read from the purported letter.
The contents of the purported letter to Najib that was
read out also included the remark that Najib will have absolute discretion to
decide how to use the gift and that the gift was merely a "token
gesture" by the purported Saudi prince.
Yap, who is a former AmBank director of foreign
exchange and derivative sales, said he could not recall seeing such a document
as he does not handle such documentation. Yap also said it would be better to
ask Joanna Yu, who was the relationship manager at AmBank handling Najib's
personal accounts, about this document.
The November 2011 letter shown by Wan Aizuddin in
court today was virtually identical in wording to a February 1, 2011 letter
from the same purported figure who had promised to give US$100 million as a
gift to Najib, with the difference mostly being only the date and the amount
and details on how the money would allegedly be given.
The November 2011 letter carried the same disclaimer
that the gift of millions of US dollars to Najib should not be seen as an act
of corruption.
Wan Aizuddin tried to suggest that six transactions of
money that flowed into Najib's personal AmIslamic account ending 9694 from
November 2011 to November 2012 would all be covered under the purported
promised gift of US$375 million from the alleged Saudi prince.
But Yap said he would not be able to verify this just
based on the banking documents shown to him and the letter alone, again
pointing to Yu as being the person who would have a record of these
transactions.
Wan Aizuddin then suggested that mathematically, the
total sum of the six transactions would not exceed the US$375 million amount,
with Yap then agreeing to this.
The six inflows of money which Wan Aizuddin were referring
to are US$29,999,988 or over US$29 million from a sender known as the Ministry
of Finance Riyadh via the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Riyadh on November 25,
2011, a US$49,999,965 or over US$49 million from Prince Faisal bin Turkey bin
Bandar Al Saud via Riyad Bank in Saudi Arabia on April 24, 2012, a US$
24,999,965 or over US$24 million sum again from Prince Faisal via the same
Riyad Bank on June 25, 2012, a US$24,999,965 or over US$24 million from Prince
Faisal via Riyad Bank on August 14, 2012, a US$4,999,988 or almost US$5 million
from Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners via Standard Chartered Bank,
Singapore on October 30, 2012, a US$24,999,988 or over US$24 million again from
Blackstone and via the same bank on November 19, 2012.
When calculated, these six transactions would come up
to US$159,999,859 or over US$159 million.
Yesterday, Wan Aizuddin also tried to suggest that the
purported promised gift of US$100 million would explain the inflow of two
transactions of US$10 million each from Prince Faisal to Najib's account on
February 24, 2011 (equivalent to RM30,449,929.97) and June 14, 2011 (equivalent
to RM 30,179,909.46). But this has yet to be confirmed by witnesses in court.
Today, Wan Aizuddin also suggested that those two
transactions of US$10 million in February and June 2011, and a US$49,999,988
from the Ministry of Finance Riyadh on August 18, 2011 would all be covered by
the letter for the purported "personal gift or donation" of US$100
million, but Yap said he would not know as he does not deal directly with the
client and that the best person to check with on this would be Yu who was the
relationship manager at the bank handling Najib's accounts.
In his role in facilitating the conversion of
currencies, Yap said he was required to key in the code for the purpose of the
conversion into the bank's internal system called Murex, which was linked to
Bank Negara Malaysia's Ringgit Operations Monitoring System to provide reports
on large sums of foreign exchange transactions.
Yap confirmed that Yu had stated the purpose for the
inflow of funds involving Najib's AmIslamic account ending 9694 as just one of
these three reasons: "personal transfer" or "gift" or
"donation".
Yesterday, Wan Aizuddin had shown documents where Yu
had in a February 14, 2011 email applied internally within AmBank for Najib's
AmIslamic account ending 9694 to be known as "AmPrivate Banking-MR",
as well as other internal emails the same year which gave approval for Najib's
bank account to be identified in banking documents primarily as "AmPrivate
Banking-MR" instead of his name.
Yap today said that before he carried out the
conversions of US dollar into ringgit Malaysia for the two US$10 million
transactions in 2011, he had already known that the AmPrivate Banking-MR account
is Najib's account as Yu had informed him of this.
Yap said the reason that he was told of the account
holder's identity as being Najib was to enable him to correctly capture the
transaction into the bank's system and also because it was a
"sensitive" bank account "so that we don't easily talk too much
about the transaction".
Asked why it is a sensitive bank account, Yap
highlighted that Najib is a politically exposed person (PEP), adding: "So
that's why we have to be a bit more careful in terms of handling the account
and this involves a large transaction amount."
While saying that bank staff try not to reveal any of
its clients' information to any outsiders due to the Banking and Financial
Institutions Act, Yap went on to further explain that the account was also
sensitive as Najib was the prime minister then, and a large amount of the
transactions could affect the value of the ringgit if the markets were to find
out about the transactions.
Najib, dressed in a black pinstripe suit with a tie
featuring diagonal stripes, was seen holding a takeaway cup from the coffee
chain Gloria Jeans and documents when he entered the dock.
Najib's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor attended his
trial, while his son Norashman was also seen in the courtroom.
Previously, the prosecution had said it would prove
that the 1MDB funds which had entered Najib’s accounts would come up to a total
of RM2,282,937,678.41 or over RM2.28 billion.
Najib's lawyers had since yesterday been trying to
show that money which came into Najib's account are instead linked to the
purported gifts from the Saudi royal family.
Najib's 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk
Collin Lawrence Sequerah is scheduled to resume next Monday.
Source: Malay Mail
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Europe
Italy’s Muslim communities confident new government
will protect religious freedom
September 26, 2022
ROME: Islamic communities in Italy say they do not
expect a negative attitude toward the 3 million-plus Muslims living in the
country by the new right-wing government that will be formed after Sunday’s
general election, and “look forward” to working with the new Cabinet with
regard to the religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.
A concrete change in the country’s leadership is now
expected. The far right led by Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy
(Fratelli d’Italia) party, traditionally bound to the country’s right, gained a
solid majority in both branches of Parliament.
Almost certainly in mid-October, Meloni will be asked
by President Sergio Mattarella to form a new government.
She will then be the first woman prime minister in
Italy, leading what will be the first far-right government since the Second
World War.
The new leadership is expected to be tougher than
previous governments on illegal migrants, but nothing is expected to change in
the traditionally good attitude of Italy toward the Middle East and the Arab
world.
Italian political analysts also point out that the new
Cabinet is unlikely to show a tough face toward the Muslim population in the
country, especially since the League (Lega), the xenophobic and anti-migrant
party led by Matteo Salvini, performed poorly in the election. The League will
still be part of the majority, but will hold a much less powerful voice.
“We’re absolutely confident that every Italian
government will respect the Constitution, which includes in its founding
principles freedom of worship. We expect the new government will be attentive
to the rights of Islamic communities,” Yassine Lafram, president of the Union
of Islamic Communities of Italy, told Arab News.
Lafram said for Muslims in Italy, “there are still
many problems, from Islamic cemeteries to the need for a law regulating the
construction of places of worship for all religions.”
He also expressed his wish for a formal agreement
between the Italian state and its Islamic communities to be underwritten soon.
“It’s in the interest of the new government that there
be a full legal recognition of Islamic communities. It will boost integration,”
he said.
“We expect a lot from a government that promises to
represent all Italians. Italian Islamic communities can’t be accused of being
close to Islamic fundamentalism. We’re all citizens of the Italian Republic who
feel they’re an integral part of Italian society,” Lafram added.
Andrea Delmastro from the Brothers of Italy told Arab
News right after the election results were declared: “Good citizens have
nothing to fear, no matter their religion, as long as they respect the law. And
Italy’s attitude toward the Middle East isn’t going to change.”
In her victory speech, Meloni struck a moderate tone,
saying: “If we are called to govern this nation, we will do it for everyone, we
will do it for all Italians, and we will do it with the aim of uniting the
people (of this country).”
During the electoral campaign, the left warned that
Meloni could push Italy into Europe’s illiberal bloc alongside Hungary and
Poland, fighting against diversity and agitating against Brussels.
They quoted her past remarks, such as a speech from
2017 in which Meloni said mass-scale illegal immigration to Italy was “planned
and deliberate,” carried out by unnamed powerful forces to import low-wage
labor and drive out Italians.
“It’s called ethnic substitution,” Meloni said at the
time, echoing the far-right “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
She also said Italy “cannot think of Islamic
cemeteries in a country where there are not civilized cemeteries even for
Italians in several parts of the country.”
In more recent times, she often spoke of “good
integration” and “mutual respect” in a country where “the law has no religion
and must be respected whatever the citizen’s creed is.”
In defense of her rhetoric, those close to Meloni say
she has a strict stance on migrant traffickers and encourages integration, so
long as those who come to Italy share and respect its national values and laws.
The main points of Meloni’s political manifesto
concerning immigration, Delmastro said, involve the “fight against all forms of
antisemitism, Islamic fundamentalism and irregular immigration; the orderly
management of legal immigration flows along with the promotion of social and
labor inclusion of legal immigrants; and the blocking of vessels to prevent
human trafficking, in agreement with North African authorities.”
Imam Izzedin Elzir, former president of the Union of Islamic
Communities in Italy, stressed that Muslims in Italy “are a non-partisan
community, and we want to be an added value for the country.
Source: Arab News
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2169746/world
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Hindu man thanks Muslim activist after Leicester
violence: ‘He saved my life’
Sep 29, 2022
After a series of violent clashes in England's Leicester,
a story of humanity is now making rounds on the internet. In a viral video, a
Hindu man can be seen thanking a Muslim activist for saving his life from a
violent mob. The video also shows Ram Keshwala being attacked by a group of
Muslim men, reported Sky news.
The report added that Keshwala needed stitches after
his head was slashed during the violence in Leicester and was caught by men
believing a rumour that he had tried to run over the crowd that had taken to
the streets following a march by the Hindu community.
The video shows a man smashing his car and trying to
drag Keshwala out of his car when Majid Freeman steps in to save him and
appeals to leave the man and shuts the car door.
Speaking together, the two men recalled what happened
on September 17. "He saved my life... Because of that, I'm still
here," said Keshwala.
Recalling the incident, Freeman said: "It was
just mayhem. Everything was happening so fast. Other people were trying to
come, and I was just shouting 'stop, it's done now'".
Source: Hindustan Times
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European governments accused over 'suppression of
Muslim civil society'
By Simon Hooper
29 September 2022
Muslim civil society organisations have raised the
alarm about a rising tide of state-sponsored Islamophobia in Europe at a major
security and human rights conference in Poland.
France, Denmark and Austria were among countries
singled out over policies which campaigners said were contributing towards a
“systematic suppression of Muslim civil society” across the continent.
Addressing the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw on
Thursday, Lamies Nassri, a project manager at the Centre for Muslim Rights
(CEDA) in Denmark, said Islamophobia was spreading throughout Europe and called
on governments to protect their Muslim citizens.
Nassri told delegates: “It is your responsibility as
member states to see to it that citizens in these member states are protected
from state racism, surveillance, stigmatisation and violence both symbolically
and physically.”
Highlighting the situation in Denmark, Nassri said
Islamophobia was being “enabled directly through state policy and
participation” and was “no longer a far-right issue but is shared across the
political spectrum”.
Nassri said many Muslims in Denmark faced
discrimination through the country’s categorisation of people from non-western
backgrounds which, she said, took precedence over their rights as Danish
citizens.
'Ghetto laws'
She cited the impact on Muslim communities of the
so-called “ghetto laws”, a package of measures targeted at deprived
neighbourhoods with large populations from migrant and ethnic minority
backgrounds which the Danish government says are necessary to promote
integration.
Nassri said the laws were discriminatory against
Muslims and ethnic minorities, depriving them of their rights and portraying
them as “enemies within the state, who live in parallel societies that must be
fought".
“We also see this targeting in the way Muslims
families are portrayed as oppressive and controlling toward their children and,
as such, need to be surveilled,” she added, citing a law requiring non-western
residents in “ghetto” neighbourhoods to put their children into state nurseries
from the age of one “to get instruction in Danish values and language”.
Campaigners from France highlighted the impact on
Muslim communities of the so-called “imams’ charter” which was adopted last
year by the French Council of the Muslim Faith at the behest of French
President Emmanuel Macron.
Elias d’Imzalene of French NGO Perspectives Musulmanes
said the charter amounted to an “Orwellian policy” which sought to impose “a
new reading of Islam ordered by the state”.
“The police threaten to close any mosque denouncing
this new inquisition while a political hunt is also carried out, targeting the
dissenting voices of the community, thus making Muslim expression essentially
criminal,” said d’Imzalene.
Muhammad Rabbani, the managing director of Cage, a
UK-based advocacy organisation also working in France, said French Muslims
faced a “state-led programme of repression” in which organisations critical of
government policies faced being censored, shut down and criminalised.
Citing the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China, and
violence and discrimination against Indian Muslims enabled by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, Rabbani said: “France has now
joined the company of China and India, who are both carrying out a religious
persecution of an entire Muslim minority.”
'Real-life nightmare'
The conference also heard from Nehal Abdalla, an
advocacy officer at ACT-P, an Austrian organisation formed to support children
caught up in police raids in the aftermath of Operation Luxor.
Austrian counter-terrorism police raided 70 Muslim
households and arrested 30 academics and activists in the November 2020
operation, but none were subsequently charged with any offence.
Abdalla said that families and children caught up in
the early morning raids had awoken to a “real-life nightmare” which amounted to
“terrorising the Muslim community”.
She said: “Operation Luxor has succeeded in spreading
terror across the Muslim community despite failing to even prosecute one
individual successfully. The manner in which these raids were designed and
executed revealed a state-sanctioned programme of Islamophobia.”
The OSCE describes itself as “the world’s largest
regional security organisation”, drawing together 57 member states from Europe,
Central Asia and North America.
With the conference taking place in Poland against the
backdrop of Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, OSCE officials also
stressed the importance of defending human rights and fundamental freedoms in
opening remarks at the 10-day event.
Zbigniew Rau, the Polish foreign minister and current
OSCE chair, said: “Human rights are inalienable, and their articulation and
defence are among the greatest achievements of humanity. Denying human rights
to anyone, especially the vulnerable and weak, is to take away their dignity
and their sense of freedom and security.”
OSCE Secretary-General Helga Maria Schmid hailed the
work of civil society organisations, telling the conference: “Sustainable
security cannot be achieved without human rights, democracy and rule of law.”
Delegates at the conference will next week discuss the
impact of counter-terrorism policies on human rights in the OSCE region.
Source: Middle East Eye
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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/europe-muslim-civil-society-suppression-governments-accused
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Five Bangladesh cabbies in UK charged with people
smuggling
Sep 30, 2022
LONDON: The UK's national crime agency (NCA) has
broken up a sophisticated people smuggling network that allegedly involves five
Bangladeshi taxi drivers in London ferrying migrants to and from lorries that
illegally transport them into and out of Britain.
It follows an NCA probe into an organised crime group
involved in smuggling migrants using lorries. The cabbies, aged between 40 and
52, are all Bangladesh-born cab drivers with leave to remain in the UK. They
appeared before a court on Wednesday charged with attempting to facilitate
breaches of immigration law. They have not yet entered a plea.
Source: Times Of India
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Germany to seek EU sanctions on Iran over protests
crackdown: foreign minister
September 29, 2022
BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on
Thursday said she was pushing for EU sanctions on Iran over the Islamic
republic’s lethal crackdown on protests sparked by the death of a young woman
in police custody.
Source: Arab News
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2172076/world
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India
Ban on PFI act of 'political selfishness' aimed to
appease RSS: Mayawati
Sep 30, 2022
LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati on
Friday said the ban on the Popular Front of India ahead of elections in some
states was an act of "political selfishness" aimed at appeasing the
RSS.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief said this decision
was behind countrywide demands to also ban the RSS.
In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati said, "After
targeting PFI (Popular Front of India) in various ways across the country, the
Centre has finally banned it along with eight of its affiliates before assembly
elections and considering it a policy of political selfishness and appeasement
of the Sangh, there is less of satisfaction and more of restlessness."
In a related tweet, she added, "This is the
reason why the opposition parties are angry and attacking on this issue
considering the government's intentions to be flawed and the demand for banning
the RSS is also openly being raised that if PFI is a danger for the internal
security of the country why should other organisations like it should also not
be banned?
The Centre on Wednesday banned the PFI, which has
allegedly been involved in a series of violence and has "links" with
global terror groups like ISIS, along with several associates for five years.
The organisations which were also banned under the
stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act include Rehab
India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National
Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women's Front, Junior
Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
Source: Times Of India
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Will prevent non-believers from entering garba venues
and spreading love jihad, says Bajrang Dal
September 30, 2022
THE Bajrang Dal Thursday said that it will post its
volunteers outside garba venues in Gujarat to “guard” such events from the
“non-believers”, and prevent them from spreading “love jihad”.
“The non-believers (vidharmis) have no reason to
attend such events. Garba is not only a cultural event, but also religious. If
a non-believer attends it, it makes it clear about their intentions as to why
they want to attend the event,” said Vinod Bansal, the national spokesperson of
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an organisation which the Bajrang Dal is
associated with.
“There were various instances of physical assault,
rapes, love jihad, and kidnapping during such events before ,” added Bansal.
“It is our duty to protect our sisters. When the celebration
of Navratri started we even requested the non-believers to not attend our
events, through our social media handle. The recent (Wednesday night) case
which happened in Ahmedabad, where a case of a non-believer entering one of the
garba venue, happened because we want to protect our sisters. We got to know
about the event, we keep doing rounds of different venues, and keep a check on
such activities. Each venue is guarded by 5-7 of our volunteers, who keep doing
rounds,” said Rajesh Patel, a Bajrang Dal worker.
Source: Indian Express
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Gyanvapi Mosque Case: Why Are Petitioners Divided Over
The Carbon Dating Claims?
29 SEP 2022
Amidst the controversies over the plea requesting
carbon dating of the ‘Shivling’, claimed to be found in the Masjid premises of
Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex, the Masjid committee today submitted its
objections to the court.
Citing the order of the Supreme Court that had asked
the Varanasi District Magistrate to keep the structure safe, the Masjid
committee claimed that carbon dating may violate the order. As the major claim
of the Hindu petitioners is related to the worship of Shringar Gauri, the
disputed structure has nothing to do with it, contends the Muslim petitioners.
It also claims that to keep the structure safe,
neither any intervention from Archeological Department, nor any scientific
examination is welcomed.
Hindu petitioners last week requested carbon dating of
the claimed ‘Shivling’ that the Muslims side identified as a fountain connected
to the ‘wazookhana’, a place where they perform the ritual ablution before
Namaz. The Court asked for the response of the Masjid committee on September
29.
Division among Hindu Petitioners over Cardon Dating
However, all the Hindu petitioners are not on the same
board pertaining to their plea on Carbon Dating of the presumed ‘Shivling’.
Rakhi Singh, one of the five women who made the actual petition to the Varanasi
court that later got transferred to district court claiming the rights for daily
prayers, strongly opposed the proposal of carbon dating.
Pointing out that it amounts to sacrilege, she said,
“Carbon dating of the Shivling is an anti-religion act and a mockery of the
feelings and beliefs of all Sanatanis (Hindus)”. Echoing Singh’s stance, her
representative Jitendra Singh Bisen who is also the chief of Vishwa Vedic
Sanatan Singh termed the plea as ‘publicity stunt’.
“Demand for carbon dating of the Shivling is certainly
not acceptable and is a mere publicity stunt by the counsel, representing the
other plaintiffs in the case,” Bisen noted.
Interestingly, Bisen also reiterated almost the same
claims of the Masjid committee and said that the case has nothing to do with
the existence of Shivling as it deals totally with the right of daily prayers
within the Masjid complex that is located next to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath
temple.
Flexing their undisputable faith on the presence of
Shivling, Bisen continued, “We strongly believe that the Shivling existed there
since inception and we don’t need any carbon dating to prove it.”
“Carbon dating, if done, would be disrespect to the
Shivling and would be a mockery of the belief of all Sanatanis,” added Bisen.
However, negating that there is any split of opinion
among the Hindu plaintiffs, Hari Shankar Jain representing the rest of four
women said, “There are some people who think that conducting carbon dating
would further damage the Shivling or it is against the religion, which is not
true. The court is yet to decide on that front.”
Why is the Carbon Dating Proposed?
Receiving the petition of the five women who claimed
their primary rights of daily prayers before the idols on the outer walls of
the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, the district court ordered a videography of
the Mosque premises. Primarily the Mosque committee though submitted their
objections to such survey, it was not sustained.
The survey report notably mentioned the discovery of a
fountain like structure that could be called Shivling. The Hindu petitioners
took over the evidence and claimed that the presence of the ‘Shivling’ proves
Mughal King Aurungzeb’s demolition of a part of the Mandir to establish the
Mosque.
Earlier on September 12, the court had ruled that the
petition of Hindu devotees in the Gyanvapi Mosque case is maintainable,
rejecting the challenge to the petition by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee.
The Muslim petitioners had challenged the maintainability of the Hindu
petitioners' plea, arguing that it was not maintainable under the Places of
Worship Act 1991 which prohibits conversion of any place of worship and
mandates the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as
it existed on August 15, 1947.
Source: Outlook India
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PFI had plans to turn India into Islamic nation by
2047; RSS, BJP leaders were on radar: Maharashtra ATS chief
September 29, 2022
Emphasizing the urgent need to ban the Popular Front
of India (PFI), Maharashtra ATS chief Vineet Agarwal on Thursday said that the
outfit was planning to turn India into an Islamic nation by 2047 and big
leaders of the country including from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were
their target. Speaking to ANI, Agarwal said that it was very important to ban
PFI because they were slow poison for the country.
“PFI was banned in time.
Maharashtra ATS raided many places and arrested a
total of 21 people and many electronic gadgets were also confiscated. Post the
ban the organisation has been dissolved. Now, they don’t have any right to
regroup or protest on any platform except on the legal platform,” said the ATS
chief.
Agarwal said that the big leaders of the country and
the people of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were on the target of PFI.
He further said that the PFI members used to portray
themselves as persons associated with social development and physical education
to give lectures to incite people.
“PFI had opened training centers in many places of the
state and used to do anti-national work. PFI used to tell people in their
coaching center by referring to old videos and incidents that your people have
been subjected to a lot of atrocities, Mughals will not come to save you, you
have to save yourself. PFI used to tell participants to keep items for
self-defence like stones, knives, swords, bricks, sharp objects and other
things on their terraces,” he said.
The ATS Chief said that till now more than 2,000
people were trained in Maharashtra.
“We are using tools to recover their data, they had planned
to make India an Islamic country by 2047 by motivating people to commit hate
crimes when India will complete 100 years of independence. but the government’s
decision has toppled their plan. Every 5 years an agenda was prepared for the
same but they have been stopped in the middle and the right steps have been
taken,” said Agarwal.
“Target killing was their modus operandi by
identifying the target,” he added.
He further said that the ATS has also seized the bank
accounts of the arrested PFI members and terror funding is also being
investigated.
“There are lakhs of rupees in the seized bank accounts
of the PFI members and the money was being spent in the name of the outfit.
After verifying the information from where the money was coming into the PFI fund,
the ATS came to know that the money was coming from different places,” he
added.
Earlier, Maharashtra Home Department has issued an
order using powers under Section 42 of UAPA authorizing the Police
commissioners and District magistrates to exercise their powers against the
Popular Front of India (PFI).
“Maharashtra government home department has issued an
order using powers under section 42 of UAPA and with the previous approval of
MHA Central government. All the Powers under Sections 7 and 8 of UAPA will be
exercised by Police commissioners and District magistrates against the PFI and
other related associations,” said the sources from the Home Department.
The move comes a day after the Union Home Ministry
imposed a ban on the Popular Front of India for “terror links”.
Other states including Kerala and Tamil Nadu have
passed such orders declaring the PFI as an unlawful association.
“The power which has been directed to be exercised by
the State Government under section 7 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,
1967, stands delegated to the District Magistrate/ Commissioner of Police/
Superintendent of Police concerned, within their jurisdiction,” the order by
the Kerala government dated September 28 stated.
“The power which has been directed to be exercised by
the State Government under section 8 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,
1967, stands delegated to the District Magistrate/Commissioner of Police/
Superintendent of Police concerned, within their jurisdiction,” it further
added.
The order issued by the Tamil Nadu government dated
September 28, it read, “The Governor of Tamil Nadu hereby directs that all the
powers which are exercisable by the Government of Tamil Nadu under sections 7
and 8 of the said Act in relation to the aforesaid unlawful association, namely
“Popular Front of India (PEI) and its associates or affiliates or fronts
including Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India
Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization
(NCHRO), National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and
Rehab Foundation, Kerala” shall also be exercised by the Commissioners of
Police in the Cities and by the District Collectors elsewhere.”
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had made the announcement
through a notification issued late on Tuesday night, declaring “the PFI and its
associates or affiliates or fronts as an unlawful association with immediate
effect”.
Along with PFI, the ban is also imposed on its fronts,
including Rehab India Foundation (RIF). Campus Front of India (CFI), All India
Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization
(NCHRO), National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and
Rehab Foundation, Kerala as an “unlawful association”.
Source: The Statesman
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Mideast
French Charge D’Affaires to Iran Summoned Over
Anti-Tehran Rallies, Charlie Hebdo Cartoon
2022-September-29
Tehran on Thursday summoned French charge d’affaires to
Iran over an interventionist statement by the French Foreign Ministry,
participation of three state ministers of the country in anti-Tehran rallies in
Paris and a heinous act by Charlie Hebdo magazine.
The French charge d’affaires was summoned to the Iranian
Foreign Ministry in the absence of the country’s ambassador to Tehran.
The head of the Second Bureau of West Europe at Iran’s
Foreign Ministry told the French diplomat that Tehran strongly condemns the
intervention of the French Foreign Ministry and some French officials in Iran’s
domestic affairs.
The statement of the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs aims to purify the rioters who had no other goal but to destroy public
property and people's lives and property, the official added.
He blamed the French officials of playing a dual role,
by hosting grouplets that have been directly involved in unrests across Iran
over the past years and in the recent one on the one hand and by condemning the
Iranian Police for clashing with the same rioters on the other hand.
The official reminded the French diplomat of the way
the French Police dealt with the yellow vest protesters who had disrupted the
country’s peace and security.
In recent days, Iranian officials have blamed the
United States and the European Unions for meddling in Iran's internal affairs
over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died at the hospital a few
days after collapsing at a police station in the capital Tehran. They advised
the US and its allies against "opportunism and instrumentalization of the
issue of human rights" by misusing the incident.
Tehran reminded that the countries, which, themselves,
towed a "long history of warmongering and violence" throughout the
world, lacked the legitimacy that could authorize them to "moralize
others" concerning the human rights.
A full range of top Iranian officials have vowed
thorough investigations into the case, including the president, parliament
speaker, interior minister, prosecutor-general and police chief of the capital.
Also on Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned
Britain’s Ambassador to Tehran Simon Shercliff to voice the Islamic Republic's
protest over the pivotal role of the London-based Persian-language television
channels in provoking deadly riots in Iran.
Deadly riots erupted in several Iranian cities over
the death of Mahsa Amini.
"In response to the hostile atmosphere being
created by the London-based Farsi-language media outlets against the Islamic
Republic of Iran, the UK ambassador (Simon Shercliff) was summoned by the
foreign ministry’s Director General for Western Europe,” the Iranian foreign
ministry said in a statement.
"Strongly-worded note of protest was lodged to
the British diplomat over London's hosting the media, which have fiercely
sought in recent days to provoke violent protests and incite riots against the
Iranian government and the public," it added.
The statement went on to stress that such bids amount
to interference in Iran’s internal affairs and violate the country’s national
sovereignty.
Source: Fars News Agency
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Iranian President Urges US Guarantees on Avoiding Past
Misbehaviour
2022-September-29
Addressing the nation in a live broadcast on Wednesday
evening, President Rayeesi spoke about his recent visit to New York where he
took part in the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
He touched on negotiations to salvage the2015 nuclear
deal with the major powers in the world, reiterating a "good and
fair" agreement is within reach if the other parties provide strong
guarantees that they will not breach the deal again, referring to the United
States’ 2018 withdrawal from the landmark accord and the Western side’s failure
to live up to their commitments.
The president stressed that all sanctions imposed on
Iran by the former US administration need to be removed.
The Iranian president added Tehran needs strong
assurances that it can reap the economic benefits from the deal, known
officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and emphasized
that safeguards issue should be terminated by the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA).
He urged the United Nations (UN) nuclear agency to
stop politicizing the Iranian nuclear program and avoid coming under the
influence of the Israeli regime.
"The main point we emphasised was that the
Americans withdrew from the 2015 agreement and the Europeans did not fulfil
their obligations," Iran's president noted, explaining the details of his
meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
"Mr. Macron agreed that the Europeans did not
fulfil their commitments. I said that this time we should focus on adherence to
commitments. Our positions were such that he said that he would go and talk to
Americans and Europeans and express our positions to them and inform us about
it," Rayeesi said.
Iranian president emphasised on the guarantee of the
Western parties to Tehran to reach a good agreement, and stated, "We once
witnessed that they withdrew from the JCPOA and did not fulfil their
commitments, so we should be careful".
Iran stresses it has not quit the negotiating table
with the world powers, but will not put all its eggs in the negotiation basket
and will not wait for the United States to return to its commitments under the
2015 nuclear deal. Iranian officials stress that Tehran has not left the
negotiating table with the world powers, but arriving at a deal requires the US
pragmatic attitude.
The United States and Iran have traded responses via
the EU to a proposal put forward by the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell. Tehran
submitted its initial answer in mid-August and Washington replied to it about a
week later.
Washington claims that Tehran has taken "a step
backward" with its latest response to a European Union proposal, calling a
near-term agreement "unlikely".
Tehran says its response to Washington's view
regarding the EU's proposed draft text was constructive and transparent.
Officials stress that receiving guarantees from the Western side is the most
important issue in the talks and Iran wants stronger guarantees from the US to
clinch an agreement.
Tehran says it will not be able to trust Washington as
long as President Joe Biden continues the wrong policy of maximum pressure and
sanctions practiced by Donald Trump against Iran. Iranian officials say the
Biden administration has yet done nothing but hollow promises to lift sanctions
against Tehran. They blast the US addiction to sanctions, and slammed the POTUS
for continuing his predecessor's policy on Iran.
Tehran and the five remaining parties to the nuclear
deal have held several rounds of negotiations since April last year to restore
the agreement, which was unilaterally abandoned by Trump in May 2018.
In quitting the agreement, Trump restored sanctions on
Iran as part of what he called the “maximum pressure” campaign against the
country. Those sanctions are being enforced to this day by the Biden
administration, even though it has repeatedly acknowledged that the policy has
been a mistake and a failure.
Iranian officials say the ball is in the US' court,
and the Biden administration should assure Tehran that it will not repeat
Trump's past mistakes.
Diplomats have also criticized Washington for raising
excessive demands from Tehran during the nuclear talks, and blocking efforts to
reach an agreement on the JCPOA. They emphasized the Tehran's will to reach a
good, strong and lasting agreement, and stressed that the US should lift
unilateral sanctions, and assure Iran that it will not repeat its past mistakes.
Source: Fars News Agency
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IRGC Smashes Terrorist Strongholds by 73 Missiles,
Tens of Drones
2022-September-29
Commenting on the ongoing military operation in
Northern Iraq Brigadier General Pakpour stated so far 73 surface-to-surface
ballistic missiles and tens of kamikaze drones have hit the terrorist bases
which leaded to “complete destruction” of the designated targets.
"These targets were scattered across 42 points,"
he explained, adding that they were 400 km away from each other in some cases.
Since Saturday, the IRGC ground forces have launched a
series of aerial raids on the positions of Iraqi Kurdistan-based terrorist
groups, including the so-called Komala Party, which has gained a strong
foothold in the region bordering Iran.
Urging Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to
dismantle bases of the terrorist groups that sow sedition against the Islamic
Republic of Iran, General Pakpour vowed that the operation will continue until
the groups based in Northern Iraqi regions are “completely disarmed".
The operation came after the illegal entry of armed
teams linked with the Kurdish terrorist groups into the Iranian border cities
in recent days.
Iran's military announced in a statement that the IRGC
took action after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials failed to
take appropriate measures and ignored numerous warnings against the deployment
and activity of mercenaries and terrorists hostile toward Tehran.
The Iranian Armed Forces, specially the IRGC, have
repeatedly warned that they will never tolerate the presence and activity of
terrorist groups along the Northwestern border and will give strong and
decisive responses in case of anti-security activities.
The IRGC has on countless occasions attacked and
destroyed terrorist hideouts in the Kurdistan region with artillery fire,
missiles and drones.
Source: Fars News Agency
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Iran ‘ruthlessly’ suppressing protests: Amnesty
International
30 September, 2022
Iran is intentionally using lethal force to crack down
on protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, Amnesty International
said Friday, adding that without international action more people risk being
detained or killed.
Its warning came as another rights group said 83
people had been killed in two weeks of protests that started over Amini's death
following her arrest by morality police, as Iran pressed ahead with more
detentions of prominent figures.
“The Iranian authorities have mobilized their
well-honed machinery of repression to ruthlessly crack down on nationwide
protests in an attempt to thwart any challenge to their power,” Amnesty said.
“Without concerted collective action by the
international community that goes beyond statements of condemnation, countless
more people risk being killed, maimed, tortured, sexually assaulted and thrown
behind bars.”
It said its review of photos and videos showed “most
victims were killed by security forces firing live ammunition.”
The NGO said it had obtained a leaked official
document issued to the commanders of armed forces in all provinces on September
21 instructing them to “severely confront” protesters.
Another leaked document showed that on September 23,
the commander of the armed forces in Mazandaran province, where some of the
deadliest clashes have taken place, ordered security forces to “confront
mercilessly, going as far as causing deaths, any unrest by rioters and
anti-revolutionaries”.
Amnesty said it had confirmed 52 deaths in the
protests but the toll was likely higher. Another rights group, Oslo-based Iran
Human Rights, said that 83 people are now confirmed to have been killed.
Its warning comes as Iran presses ahead with an
intensifying crackdown that has seen the arrest of many journalists, activists
and other prominent figures.
Former Iranian international football player Hossein
Manahi was arrested Friday after supporting the protests on his social media
accounts, the state run IRNA news agency said.
Security forces also arrested singer Shervin Hajipour,
whose song “Baraye” (“For”) made up of tweets about the protests went viral on
Instagram, the rights group Article 19 and Persian-language media based outside
Iran said.
His song, which racked up millions of views on
Instagram and prompted many to comment that it moved them to tears, has now
been removed from his account.
The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists
says at least 29 journalists have been arrested in the crackdown.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Human Rights Chief: US Lacks Legitimacy to Comment on
Rights of Iranians
2022-September-29
Qaribabadi made the remarks on Wednesday in separate
meetings with the Belgian and German ambassadors to Tehran, Gian Marco Rizzo,
and Hans-Udo Muzel respectively.
The judiciary official strongly denounced the US' dual
policy on human rights, and stressed that Washington is in no position to
comment on the rights of Iranians as it has endangered their lives through
crippling sanctions.
He emphasized that Iran is determined to pursue the
rights of its citizens, including Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died at a
hospital a few days after collapsing at a police station in Tehran.
Qaribabadi noted that different investigative teams
were immediately formed by the government, judiciary and the parliament after
the news broke out.
“A special medical team, consisting of the heads of
the Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization, Medical Council of the Islamic
Republic of Iran and representatives of several
medical associations, was set up and tasked with investigating the
circumstances surrounding Ms. Amini’s death and reporting their findings in the
shortest possible time,” Iran’s rights chief pointed out.
“Unfortunately, some European countries and
international human rights organization have hastily and of course in a
politicized manner made claims that she was beaten up. Such allegations have
been rejected according to preliminary investigations and the Kasra Hospital’s
report. The cause of the death is under investigation, and the results will be
compiled and published soon,” he added.
He also denounced the United States and certain
European countries over their support for recent deadly riots in Iran.
There is "nowhere in the world where violent
gatherings, during which cold weapons as well as firearms are awash and public
property is damaged, described as peaceful", the official added.
“In Iran, hundreds of peaceful rallies and protests
are held every year without any problems. However, what has taken place in some
Iranian cities over the past few days has been accompanied by violent and
terrifying actions, acts of vandalism and damage to public and private
property,” Qaribabadi said.
“Rioters incite anyone to confront the police and
destroy public and private property. During the gatherings, a great number of
public and private property was set on fire or looted; several police officers
and ordinary citizens were killed or injured as a result of cold weapons and
firearms used by rioters. Banks, automated teller machines (ATMs), ambulances,
public transportation vehicles, police cars, fire engines and religious places
were widely attacked, destroyed and set on fire,” he stated.
Iran’s human rights chief also criticized the
positions of some European states concerning recent protests in Iran, noting,
“The countries that support and encourage non-peaceful demonstrations and acts
of violence are complicit in the damage caused and the blood of innocent people
spilled.
He also condemned Washington’s meddlesome actions
under the pretext of protecting the human rights of Iranians.
“How can [the United States of] America, which has
violated the human rights of millions of Iranians through its sanctions and
endangered the lives of many Iranians, claim to be supporting their rights?”
Qaribabadi questioned.
In recent days, Iranian officials have blamed the
United States and the European Unions for meddling in Iran's internal affairs
over the death of Mahsa Amini. They advised the US and its allies against
"opportunism and instrumentalization of the issue of human rights" by
misusing the incident.
Tehran reminded that the countries, which, themselves,
towed a "long history of warmongering and violence" throughout the
world, lacked the legitimacy that could authorize them to "moralize
others" concerning the human rights.
A full range of top Iranian officials have vowed
thorough investigations into the case, including the president, parliament speaker,
interior minister, prosecutor-general and police chief of the capital.
Iran has repeatedly denounced the sanctions as an act
of “economic war”, “economic terrorism”, and “medical terrorism”. Tehran has
condemned as "crime against humanity" the imposition of sanctions
against the Iranian nation by the United States, and stressed such unilateral
restrictive measures have put the lives of vulnerable people at risk by
hampering their access to medicine.
Source: Fars News Agency
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Iran Warns Against Emergence of Terror Groups in
Afghanistan
2022-September-29
Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the
situation in Afghanistan, Ershadi expressed concern over the reports on the
resurgence of Daesh-affiliated terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
"The de-facto authorities must commit to fighting
terrorism and ensure to take all appropriate steps to protect diplomatic and
consular premises against any intrusion or damage and prevent attacks on diplomatic
premises, agents, and consular officers," she said.
"Afghanistan must no longer serve as a haven for
terrorist groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda," Iran's deputy permanent
representative to the UN added.
The Iranian diplomat urged the de-facto Afghan authorities
to fulfill their international obligations as a member of the international
community and to establish an "inclusive and representative"
government that accurately reflects the country's multi-ethnic society.
"Only a government comprised of all Afghans can
guarantee and protect their rights," Ershadi stated.
Elsewhere in her remarks, the envoy stressed the
importance of fighting drug trafficking, saying that Iran is directly affected
by this menace and pays a high price for it.
"Over the past 40 years, Iran has played an
active role in combating drug trafficking in the region, in which, nearly 4,000
members of Iran’s law enforcement forces have been martyred and over 12,000
others have been injured," Ershadi continued.
She also noted that Iran has used its capacities and
resources to help the Afghan people overcome their challenges and said the
Islamic Republic has been hosting millions of refugees who have unfortunately
received minimal international assistance in the last 40 years.
After the Taliban takeover, Iran never closed its
border with Afghanistan and thousands of Afghans have entered Iran on a daily
basis since last year, she added.
"However, neighbors of Afghanistan, including
Iran, should not feel all the burdens associated with receiving Afghan
refugees. Other countries should welcome refugees as well," Ersahdi
pointed out.
She once again urged the international community to
continue to assist Afghanistan, saying, "Other conflicts must not divert
attention away from or ignore the situation in Afghanistan."
"While humanitarian and development assistance is
critical to keeping Afghans alive, maintaining basic services, and bolstering
the economy, they are not long-term solutions and must be supplemented by
sustained economic growth," the Iranian envoy added.
She further emphasized the need to fully release the
frozen assets belong to the Afghan people in full, "without being
politicized or conditional in any way".
Ershadi stressed, "Sanctions imposed on specific
individuals and entities in Afghanistan must also not obstruct humanitarian,
economic, or development cooperation with Afghanistan. The sanctions should not
have an impact on efforts to revitalize the Afghan economy, as the
Secretary-General has repeatedly called for measures to give the Afghan economy
breathing room."
She pledged the continuation of Iran's efforts to
assist the Afghan people and work with the war-ravaged country's neighbors and
other partners to "ensure durable peace and sustainable development in
Afghanistan."
Ershadi welcomed the appointment of Roza Otunbayeva as
the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of
the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
She vowed Iran will support UNAMA in its "efforts
to address the humanitarian crisis and facilitate the intra-Afghan political
process to promote peace and stability in the country."
The Taliban, who had previously ruled Afghanistan from
1996 to 2001, took power again on August 15 last year as the US was in the
middle of a chaotic troop withdrawal. The group announced the formation of a
caretaker government weeks later. Following the Taliban’s takeover, the US and
its allies rushed to cut off Afghanistan’s access to international aid and
froze nearly $10 billion in assets belonging to the country’s central bank.
Despite the Taliban’s assertion that they have brought
security to the nation, Afghanistan has seen regular attacks by armed groups,
many of them claimed by a Daesh affiliate known as the Islamic State in
Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), in recent months.
In Afghanistan, Daesh attacks have resulted in around
hunreds of deaths since the Taliban came to power last August, according to the
United Nations. The militants have primarily targeted religious and ethnic
minorities, as well as schools, mainly with suicide bombings.
Back in late April, Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim
Rayeesi warned that the war in Ukraine should not make the international
community forget the crisis in Afghanistan.
“The US and NATO presence in Afghanistan meant nothing
more than destruction and killing, and it did not provide security for
Afghanistan or the region,” Rayeesi said.
The president added that the war in Ukraine must not
divert international attention from the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, the
problems facing its people and the large number of refugees leaving the
country.
He also warned about a surge in threats against
Afghanistan and other regional nations.
Source: Fars News Agency
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Iran protests over young woman's death continue, 83
said killed
30 September, 2022
Protests continued in several cities across Iran on
Thursday against the death of young woman in police custody, state and social
media reported, as a human rights group said at least 83 people had been killed
in nearly two weeks of demonstrations.
Mahsa Amini, 22, from the Iranian Kurdish town of
Saqez, was arrested this month in Tehran for “unsuitable attire” by the
morality police that enforces the Islamic Republic's strict dress code for
women.
Her death has sparked the first big show of opposition
on Iran's streets since authorities crushed protests against a rise in gasoline
prices in 2019.
“At least 83 people including children, are confirmed
to have been killed in (the) #IranProtests,” Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based
group, said on Twitter.
Despite the growing death toll and a fierce crackdown
by authorities, videos posted on Twitter showed demonstrators calling for the
fall of the clerical establishment in Tehran, Qom, Rasht, Sanandaj,
Masjed-i-Suleiman and other cities.
State television said police had arrested a large
number of “rioters”, without giving figures.
Rights groups said dozens of activists, students and
artists have been detained and the Committee to Protect Journalists said on
Twitter that it had learned that security forces had arrested at least 28
journalists as of Sept. 29.
Meanwhile, Germany's foreign minister said on Thursday
she wanted the European Union to impose sanctions on Iran following Amini's
death.
In Norway, several people attempted to enter the
Iranian embassy in Oslo during an angry demonstration in which two people
sustained light injuries, Norwegian police said. Police detained 95 people,
public broadcaster NRK reported.
President Ebrahim Raisi said the unrest was the latest
move by hostile Western powers against Iran since its Islamic revolution in
1979.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Two injured, 90 arrested in clashes near Iran embassy
in Oslo
29 September, 2022
Two people were lightly injured and 90 others were
arrested on Thursday following clashes that erupted at a demonstration near
Iran's embassy in Oslo, Norwegian police said.
Several dozen protesters, some draped in the Kurdish
flag, gathered outside the embassy to protest the death of a Kurdish woman in
Iran after her arrest by the Islamic republic's morality police, as well as
Iranian strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Some of the demonstrators tried to break into the
embassy compound.
Televised footage showed people throwing objects and
hitting others with sticks.
“At this stage, two people are reported to have
sustained light injuries,” police wrote on Twitter.
A large number of law enforcement officers were
dispatched to the scene, and police said it had the situation “under control”.
Some 90 people were arrested, police official Arild
Jorundland told reporters at the scene.
It was not immediately known who organized the protest.
Some of the protesters chanted “Woman, Life, Freedom!” in Kurdish.
The demonstration came a day after Iran launched
missile and drone strikes that killed 13 people in Iraq's Kurdistan region,
accusing Kurdish armed groups there of fueling the Iranian protests that have
flared for 12 nights in a row over 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death.
Amini died on September 16, three days after she was
arrested for allegedly breaching Iran's strict rules for women on wearing hijab
headscarves and modest clothing.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Pakistan
Resurgence of Terrorism Won’t Be Tolerated, General
Qamar Javed Bajwa Tells Commanders Conference
September 29, 2022
RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar
Javed Bajwa on Wednesday ordered troops to leave “no stone unturned” in acting
against terrorists as he presided over the 252nd Corps Commanders’ Conference,
the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
The forum undertook a comprehensive review of
security, particularly of the situation along the country’s borders.
The COAS maintained that a resurgence of terrorism
would not be tolerated, and troops must use all means to act against terrorists
in coordination with all law enforcement agencies.
The ISPR statement further maintained that the COAS
expressed satisfaction over the operational preparedness of the army formations
and directed them to maintain strict vigilance against any threat.
Gen Bajwa also commended military efforts to reach
flood victims. According to the military’s media wing, besides discussing the
external and internal security situation, the meeting particularly focused on
the flood situation and ongoing relief efforts undertaken by the army
formations across the country.
They expressed solidarity with flood victims who were
“braving great difficulties” and resolved to extend maximum assistance for
their relief and rehabilitation.
According to the statement, the COAS commended troops
for reaching out to the people in distress and helping them mitigate their
sufferings.
He further lauded army doctors and paramedics for
providing emergency medical care to victims, particularly children and women,
as well as measures taken to check the spread of diseases in flood-hit areas.
Gen Bajwa also appreciated army engineers and the
Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for restoring accessibility to critical
routes and communication infrastructure on an emergency basis.
Source: Pakistan Today
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Pakistan’s Progressive Transgender Law Faces
Opposition 4 Years Later
September 28, 2022
Sarah Zaman
WASHINGTON —
Pakistan is considering amending a landmark
transgender rights bill passed in 2018 that some legislators and clerics argue
contradicts Islamic teachings on gender identity.
Rights activists, however, say the law is being
misunderstood and the “misinformed” debate against it is further endangering
the transgender community.
Hailed as among the more progressive laws on
transgender rights globally by the International Commission of Jurists, the
Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act gave transgender people in
Pakistan the right to choose their gender identity as they perceived it themselves
and to change it on previously issued government documents.
Opponents of the law claim the provision to choose or
change one’s gender is un-Islamic and could open the door to same-sex marriage,
currently prohibited in Pakistan.
In the last two weeks, at least four trans women have
been killed. Some trans-rights activists blame lumping “transgender” together
with “homosexuality” for the renewed targeting of their community.
Homosexuality is a punishable offense in Pakistan.
Hashtags such as “amend trans act” and “take back the
vulgar bill” were recently trending on Twitter.
Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, a member of the
conservative political party Jamat-e-Islami, is leading the charge against the
2018 law. He told VOA that allowing citizens to choose self-perceived gender
identity presents a “danger to the family and inheritance systems,” as it will
“open the door for 220 million people to choose to be anything.”
Pakistan uses the Islamic system of inheritance, which
divides assets among descendants based on their gender. Men get twice as much
as women. The act stipulated that a person identifying as a trans man would
also get twice as much as a trans woman.
2018 law
Pakistan’s 2018 law defines transgender as anyone with
a mixture of male and female genital features or ambiguous genitalia, a person
assigned male at birth but who has undergone castration, or any person whose
gender identity or expression differ from their assigned sex at birth.
Khan told VOA he does not believe “fully male” or
“fully female” persons should be given the right to choose their gender if
their gender perception does not match their physical or sexual anatomy.
Instead, “they should seek psychological help,” he said.
He said the law should only encompass those who cannot
be categorized as male or female at birth based on their sexual or reproductive
anatomy.
His proposed amendments to the 2018 law include
establishing medical boards that conduct detailed exams and then advise what
gender a person should be.
Transgender rights activists oppose examination by a
medical board to determine sexual and gender identity. Speaking to VOA,
activist Zanaya Chaudhry asked that since a medical exam is not required to
determine a man or a woman’s gender identity, “why is this discriminatory act
being forced upon transgender people?”
According to Chaudhry, the purpose of the 2018
legislation was only to protect the rights of transgender people, whom she
said, “were finally being accepted as human beings.”
Harassment, death threats
Abandoned by families and relegated to mostly begging,
dancing or sex work due to social stigma, transgender people in Pakistan
routinely suffer harassment and many face death threats and fatal attacks.
According to data collected by the International
Commission of Jurists and its partner organizations, at least 20 transgender
people were killed in Pakistan in 2021.
Only a decade ago, in 2012, the country’s top court
ruled that transgender people have the same rights as all other citizens and
ordered that a “third gender” category be added to national identity cards.
That ruling paved the way for the 2018 legislation,
which expressly prohibited discrimination against transgender people in
educational institutions, workplaces and health care, and it guaranteed them a
share in inheritance.
Human rights activist and lawyer Hina Jilani rejects
the notion the 2018 law is against Islam. She told VOA it’s perplexing that “a
law that gave identity to a marginalized community and was passed by the
parliament is being objected to now.”
Some transgender rights activists, however, are also
dissatisfied with the language of the 2018 law.
Speaking to VOA, transgender rights activist Almas
Bobby lamented that the trans community is still heavily stigmatized and unable
to avail basic rights. Bobby contended the number of “real” transgender people
in Pakistan is quite small and that this law protects those “who want to change
their sex only because of a personal preference.”
Like Khan, Bobby also believes that only those with
ambiguous genitalia should be called transgender.
New proposals
This week, Fawzia Arshad, a senator from one of the
most popular political parties, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), also
introduced a new bill to replace the 2018 legislation.
The proposals by senators Khan and Arshad focus on
only protecting those with genital ambiguities and removing the clauses that
allow a transgender person to choose their gender identity as they perceive it
and spell their share in family inheritance.
The Senate chairman has forwarded the matter to the
relevant standing committee for review.
The country’s religious court, known as Federal
Shariat Court, is also reviewing arguments in favor of and against the 2018
law.
Earlier, the Council on Islamic Ideology, a
constitutional body that reviews Pakistan’s laws in the light of the Quran and
the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings, also declared the 2018 law un-Islamic for
allowing one to choose self-perceived gender and gender reassignment.
While Pakistan’s law minister, Azam Nazir Tarar, has
rejected the criticism of the law being un-Islamic as “baseless propaganda,” he
has welcomed Khan’s proposed amendments, telling a press conference the word of
the religious court will now be final.
In 2018, the transgender rights legislation passed
with the support of all major political parties, although it was rejected by
religious parties, including Khan’s Jamat-e-Islami.
In 2021, when Khan first raised the issue to amend the
law, Shireen Mazari, then the human rights minister from the ruling party PTI,
opposed the move.
Source: VOA News
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Pakistan govt to launch multi-billion-dollars
initiative to protect Indus River
Sep 29, 2022
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government is set to launch a
mega multi-billion-dollar climate initiative to protect the mighty Indus River,
the cradle of the great civilisations of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, from
environmental degradation and anthropogenic activities, a senior minister
announced on Thursday.
The ‘Living Indus Initiative' will protect the river,
its marine ecology, and the communities dependent on it, Sherry Rehman, the
Minister for Climate Change, said.
“The Living Indus Initiative will cost $11-17 billion.
We will try to manage it through the fiscal facilities available,” she said at
a press conference.
She underlined that the Indus River was the world's
second most polluted river.
Replying to queries, the minister said it was the
biggest adaptation project that should be promoted for the benefit of the
country.
Rehman said the project would protect the cradle of
civilisations which was under serious threat due to environmental degradation
and anthropogenic activities.
She said that the project was conceived after thorough
consultations with academia, experts, stakeholders, and provincial governments.
The project will be launched at UN Climate Change
Conference 2022 in Egypt in November.
While elaborating on the Living Indus Initiative, the
minister informed that 25 initial interventions that were the priority areas
would be focused on as part of the project.
While elaborating on the key interventions, Rehman
said that the project would operate in the length and breadth of the country
whereas the private sector would be required to chip in the finances as there
was a lack of resources.
The priority interventions were nature-based
resilience agriculture, salinity control in lower Indus, Indus delta
protection, Indus cleanup from industrial effluent, green infrastructure, and
ground recharge, groundwater governance and others.
She said the Indus River was the “mother of the
nation” as it watered the entire agriculture system and humanity living around
it from the north to the south.
“We will have to ensure development in harmony with
nature, not against nature,” she said.
The minister said the UN had assisted the Ministry of
Climate Change to develop a detailed report on the Indus River to devise a
well-thought strategy to initiate its conservation and restoration as a living
river.
Source: Times Of India
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Imran appears before Islamabad court to apologise to
Judge Zeba Chaudhry in person
Tahir Naseer
September 30, 2022
PTI chief Imran Khan on Friday appeared before an
Islamabad sessions court to personally apologise to Additional District and
Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zeba Chaudhry.
Last month, the Islamabad High Court had initiated
contempt proceedings against Imran over his diatribe against Judge Chaudhry —
who had approved PTI leader Shahbaz Gill’s physical remand in a sedition case —
at a public rally in Islamabad’s F-9 Park on Aug 20.
Earlier this month, the IHC had said it would indict the
former premier, following which he had expressed the willingness to apologise
to the judge.
The next hearing is scheduled for October 3 (Monday).
Today, Imran and his lawyers appeared in Judge
Chaudhry’s court. However, the court reader, Choudhry Yasir Ayaz, and
stenographer Farooq told the PTI chief that the judicial magistrate was on
leave.
Imran then left a message for the judge with Ayaz.
“I have come to apologise to judicial magistrate Zeba
Chaudhry,” he could be heard saying to the court reader in a video shared by
the PTI on Twitter.
“You have to tell Madam Zeba Chaudhry that Imran Khan
had visited and wanted to apologise if his words hurt her sentiments,” he said.
The PTI chief then left the court.
Bail in Section 144 case confirmed
Earlier in the day, a district and sessions court in
Islamabad confirmed Imran’s interim bail in the case registered against him on
charges of violating Section 144.
A first information report (FIR) was registered
against Imran last month on charges of violating Section 144 (ban on public
gatherings exceeding four persons) by holding the rally in the capital on
August 20.
Additional Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal took up the plea
of the PTI chief on Friday amid tight security.
During the hearing, Imran’s lawyer Babar Awan said he
had recently found out that Imran had been booked under charges of behest. “Has
a statement been recorded in this regard?”
At this, the session judge asked if the investigating
officer in the case had written a statement on this. “No he did not,” the
prosecution replied, adding that they only had the statement of the officer who
had issued the notification.
Here, Awan said that this was the 21st FIR against
Imran. “Even if the investigation officer records his statement now, it won’t
be acceptable,” he contended.
Subsequently, the court confirmed the PTI chief’s
interim bail against surety bonds worth Rs5,000.
Contempt case
The decision to initiate contempt proceedings against
Imran was taken by Justice Aamer Farooq while hearing a petition challenging
Gill’s police remand. The court summoned Imran on August 31 and subsequently
issued him a show-cause notice.
A day before the hearing, the former prime minister
submitted a reply before the IHC wherein he expressed his willingness to “take
back” his words about the judge if they were “regarded as inappropriate” and
pleaded before the IHC that the judges who had agreed to initiate the case
against him should consider withdrawing themselves from the bench as, according
to him, they had pre-judged the matter.
However, the IHC had deemed the response to be
“unsatisfactory” and asked the PTI chief to submit a “well-considered”
response.
Following this, Imran submitted a fresh reply in the
court. In the revised response, however, Imran stopped short of rendering an
unconditional apology. He stated that “I have a profound regard and respect for
this honourable court and its subordinate courts and judge”.
On September 8, the IHC decided to Indict Imran, once
again calling his response “unsatisfactory”.
However, at the next hearing on September 22, Imran
offered to tender an apology to Judge Zeba and escaped the indictment.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
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At least one killed, 20 injured in blast in
Balochistan’s Kohlu
Ghalib Nihad
September 30, 2022
At least one person was killed and 20 injured in an
explosion in the main market of Balochistan’s Kohlu district on Friday.
According to the medical superintendent of the Kohlu
District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Asghar Marri, more than 21 patients were
brought to the facility.
“One person has died while 10 patients are in critical
condition. We have referred them to Dera Ghazi Khan,” he told Dawn.com.
Marri added that the remaining patients were being
treated at the Kohlu hospital.
Balochistan Education Minister Mir Naseebullah Marri
told Dawn.com that a medical emergency had been imposed at the hospital and
timely aid was being provided to the injured people.
“If the condition of the injured worsens, they will be
shifted to Multan,” he added.
Meanwhile, police and other law enforcement agencies
cordoned off the site of the incident but details about the nature of the blast
were yet to be confirmed.
Adviser to the Chief Minister for Home Mir Zia
Langove, in a statement, strongly condemned the blast and sought a report from
the Kohlu deputy commissioner.
He said terrorists would not be allowed to succeed in
their “nefarious purposes”.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712722/at-least-one-killed-20-injured-in-blast-in-balochistans-kohlu
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Pakistan would act as ‘bridge’ between China, US:
Bilawal
September 29, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on
Thursday has said that in times of geopolitical division Pakistan wants to be a
‘bridge by uniting’ the United States and China.
The PPP scion’s remarks came during an interview with
Foreign Policy, where he maintained that Pakistan’s “unique position as a
friend of both the United States and China” could help encourage cooperation
between the two countries.
Dubbing the claim of China not coming to Pakistan’s
aid in its recent time of need as “absolutely incorrect”. He maintained that
Islamabad’s relationship with Beijing was not new and had long bipartisan
roots.
“And I like to say that we wanted to be friends with
China when nobody wanted to be friends with China. Now, everybody wants to be
friends with China,” Bilawal added.
Responding to the interviewer’s assertation that the
US did not want to be friends with China, Bilawal said that “not everything is
about the geopolitical conflict of the United States and China”.
He stated that it was “preposterous” and “absolutely
ridiculous” that a conversation about US and China relations was occurring
while talking about Pakistan’s survival and ability to deal with “cataclysmic
flooding”.
The minister emphasised that climate change could not
be confronted if the two superpowers did not work together.
Commenting on Beijing’s lack of aid to Colombo during
their economic crisis, Bilawal maintained that Pakistan’s context was
“completely different” and that while the country was going “through a climate
catastrophe”.
The interviewer argued that Pakistan was going through
both an economic and a climate crisis.
“In the sense that that was solely an economic crisis
of its own dynamics. But as far as what China does—whether it’s with Sri Lanka
or Pakistan—that’s totally China’s decision. Just like it’s 100 per cent
America’s decision in either of these circumstances,” the minister replied.
He retained that Pakistan would rather continue to
play its past role of bridging the gap between the two countries than
exacerbate the gap.
“Right now, particularly when we’re drowning in
floods, I don’t want to play any part in exacerbating any tensions or being a
geopolitical football,” he said.
Regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, the foreign minister
was of the belief that the “broad consensus” within Pakistan had declared that
the country did not want to be “dragged into this conflict”.
“Particularly because we’re just coming out of a
decades-long conflict in Afghanistan, and frankly, we’re exhausted by what war
does and the consequences for any one country”.
Talking about Pakistan’s level of cooperation for the
US operation to kill al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bilawal stated that
Islamabad was unaware of the location of the individual and the operation to
take him out.
He further said that Pakistan did not offer its
airspace to the US because it was unaware of the operation.
“We were not aware of this. I don’t think anybody
was,” he said.
Climate change
FM Bilawal stated that he had proposed a Green
Marshall Plan for climate-stressed countries, all of which “contribute
negligibly to the global carbon funds”.
He furthered that he had talked about climate justice
and hoped to see it as a continuation of the “stated position of the president
of the United States, and the leaders of many countries in Europe, that we need
to invest, get the money together, not only for climate adaptation domestically
but also internationally”.
He maintained that the “great polluters” who caused
the crisis would “fund” the plan.
“We have to come up with out-of-the-box solutions, one
of which is the proposal of a debt swap for climate, where countries that owe a
debt to the great polluters would swap this debt,” he added.
Bilawal urged the private sector to invest in climate
adaptation and believed that the “public-private partnership model could be
adopted not only for green energy but also for green infrastructure”.
In response to questions about India, the foreign
minister stated that Pakistan had not received nor expected any help from
India.
The minister had no comments for his Indian
counterpart as their help was “their choice, their position”.
“I didn’t ask for help from the United States—they
volunteered it. Didn’t ask for help from China—they volunteered. Didn’t ask for
help from the Middle East—they volunteered. In times of human catastrophe, I
think it tests everyone’s humanity,” Bilawal remarked.
Military role
Discussing the army’s role in Pakistan and its
government, Bilawal stated that the army has been “a powerful force” with a
“turbulent history with the civilian government”.
“But we have long advocated for all institutions
within Pakistan conducting themselves within their legal mandate and transitioning
away from the more controversial roles that we’ve had in the past,” he
contended, adding that a significant development was the removal of former
premier Imran Khan through constitutional and democratic means.
“All prime ministers who were previously removed were
either by being hanged, exiled, or through some sort of judicial verdict. So
that’s a significant point in Pakistan’s political history, institutional
development, and democracy,” Bilawal said.
Source: Pakistan Today
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/09/29/pakistan-would-act-as-bridge-between-china-us-bilawal/
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Southeast
Asia
Malaysia Welcomes ADB’s Member Countries to Leverage
Islamic Capital Market Synergies
29 Sep 2022
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — Malaysia welcomes Asian
Development Bank’s (ADB) member countries to be part of the country’s journey
in leveraging Islamic capital market synergies for a climate resilient economy.
Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah
said a case in point is the issuance of the world’s first sovereign US dollar
Sustainability Sukuk by the Malaysian government in April 2021 to the value of
US$800 million (RM3.7 billion), which was oversubscribed by 6.4 times across
the world.
“Malaysia recognises the importance of a just
transition towards sustainability,” he said during the Board of Governors Business
Session at the 55th ADB Annual Meeting today.
Additionally, he said Malaysia welcomes ADB
facilitation efforts toward climate resilient economy with cumulative climate
financing amounting to US$100 billion for the period of 2019-2030 for its
developing member countries.
Meanwhile, Mohd Shahar said the Covid-19 pandemic has
adversely impacted the livelihood and the lives of people.
He said Malaysia believes ADB could play important
role in strengthening public healthcare post-pandemic to ensure healthcare and
fiscal resilience, which is also an important factor in supporting growth.
In this perspective, he said Malaysia called for
deeper regional cooperation and integration between ADB and member countries
for successful development strategies implementation.
He said another global concern is the increasing
percentage of ageing population and increased life expectancy which put further
pressure on the declining population growth in several member countries,
including Malaysia.
“This phenomenon, coupled with low fertility rate,
will cause labour market facing shortages of needed supply and may indirectly
impair climate resilient economic growth.
“As such, ADB’s assistance is sought for the
development of an inclusive and forward-looking policy framework in raising the
fertility level in the affected member countries’ population,” he said.
He said Malaysia also expressed the importance for ADB
member countries in promoting both biodiversity and green economy for a
sustainable and inclusive recovery.
Source: Malay Mail
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
Social entrepreneur receives Commonwealth Points of
Light award
September 29, 2022
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian social entrepreneur, Anja
Juliah Abu Bakar, has received the Commonwealth Points of Light award in
recognition of her exceptional voluntarism and service to the community.
The certificate, signed by the late Queen Elizabeth II
as the head of the Commonwealth before her recent passing, made the award even
more special to Anja Juliah who taught girls in rural communities about
menstrual health.
“This award came as an absolute surprise. Exactly 10
years ago, I started teaching girls in rural Borneo about menstruation and
sponsoring washable sanitary pads for them.
“As a result, the girls did not have to be absent from
school and realised education is their pathway to a better life,” she told a
press conference after receiving the award from British High Commissioner
Charles Hay at his residence here.
Anja Juliah, through her social enterprise, embarked
on a quest to address the issue of absentees among Malaysian girls in rural
communities after discovering that thousands of girls miss an average of 60
days of school a year due to lack of menstrual knowledge.
She said her effort in providing reusable sanitary
pads had enabled the girls to continue their studies comfortably besides
reducing the number of single-use sanitary pads going into landfills.
Meanwhile, Hay, in commending Anja Juliah’s efforts,
said she had helped to ensure girls in rural communities remained in schools
and get the basic education they needed.
The Commonwealth Points of Light award programme was
launched in the UK in 2018 when it chaired the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
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Indonesia approves first home-grown Covid-19 vaccine
September 30, 2022
Indonesia has approved its first locally developed
Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the head of the country’s public health
agency said on Friday, hailing it as a step toward “the nation’s independence
in access to medicine”.
Jakarta has stressed the importance of developing
national vaccines since the beginning of the pandemic but it currently relies
on China’s Sinovac and the Western-made Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA jabs.
The IndoVac jab, developed by state-owned
pharmaceutical company Bio Farma and Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine,
can now be used as a primary dose for an unvaccinated or partially vaccinated
adult in the world’s fourth most-populous country.
“The development … of a domestic vaccine is a pride
for us Indonesians as a foundation and as the first step to achieve the
nation’s independence in access to medicine,” head of the national food and
drugs agency (BPOM) Penny Lukito said at a press conference on Friday.
The medical chief said IndoVac had shown an efficacy
rate of 92 per cent, while there were no reports of death linked to it in
trials and reported side effects were “generally mild”.
A clinical study to use it as a booster jab is underway,
Lukito said.
The agency also announced it had granted emergency use
approval for an mRNA vaccine developed in China, becoming the first country to
do so.
The inoculation developed by Walvax Biotechnology will
be locally produced in Indonesia, the BPOM chief said.
The homegrown IndoVac jab has been granted a halal
certificate, meaning it can be administered in line with Islam in
Muslim-majority Indonesia.
Indonesia became the epicentre of Asia’s Covid-19
pandemic in July last year as the Delta variant swept through the country.
Daily cases declined significantly by the end of the
year but the spread of Omicron brought confirmed cases back to 30,000 a day.
It has since seen another sharp fall in case numbers
and eliminated quarantine requirements for vaccinated travellers.
In total, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has
reported over 6.4 million confirmed cases with nearly 160,000 deaths.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712721/indonesia-approves-first-homegrown-covid-19-vaccine
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South
Asia
US Envoy Fears Afghanistan could Witness a ‘Return to
Civil War’
By Arif Ahmadi
30 Sep 2022
KABUL, Afghanistan – The United States special envoy
for Afghanistan Thomas West said he fears Afghanistan “could see a return to
civil war in time”, calling the need for “political dialogue” in national
level.
Without a serious “national political dialogue” about
the future of the country among Afghans who have “genuine support in their
community, I really do fear…. we could see a return to civil war in time,” West
made the remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Highlight the current status of women rights in
Afghanistan, West said Washington would support a stable Afghanistan in which
the rights of all its people are ensured.
“We wish to see and to support the emergence of a
peaceful and stable Afghanistan that never again harbors terrorists … in which
the rights of all its people, women and men, boys and girls are upheld,” he
said, as TOLOnews quoted.
But the deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate Bilal
Karimi said that there is no need for national dialogue in the country, saying
“all the challenges that previously existed are currently solved” and
Afghanistan is now peaceful.
“The time for negotiations was when there was war in
the country and there were many sides—there was an invasion—now here is a central
government and the people are in a calm situation,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy
spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.
The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly reacted to the
international community’s calls to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan,
saying the government is already inclusive.
Earlier, several Afghan experts said the establishment
of an inclusive government could be a pathway to end challenges that currently
exist in Afghanistan, saying the conditions set by the international community
are the demands of the Afghan people.
“Forming an inclusive government is an important
factor for stabilizing security and the economy in Afghanistan,” said Sayed
Harron Hashimi, a political expert. “Such a government, and women and girls’
education, must be focused on.”
While world leaders, including international allies,
insist on forming an inclusive government in Afghanistan is key for formal
recognition of the current government, the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly
defied the odds, saying its leadership has already taken steps towards such.
“The Islamic Emirate has always been committed to
forming an inclusive government and took steps to prove it; on the other hand,
it is an eternal issue of Afghanistan and Afghan people.”
Source: Khaama Press
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/us-envoy-fears-afghanistan-could-witness-a-return-to-civil-war/
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Kabul Suicide Blast Kills 19, Mostly Girls, At
Education Centre
September 30, 2022
A suicide bomb attack on a classroom of hundreds of
people preparing for exams in the Afghan capital on Friday killed at least 19
people, with most of the casualties girls, police and a witness said.
The blast ripped through Kaaj Higher Educational
Centre, which coaches mainly adult men and women ahead of university entrance
tests.
“We were around 600 in the class. But most of the
casualties are among the girls,” Akbar, a student who was wounded in the
attack, told AFP from a nearby hospital.
The attack happened in the Dasht-e-Barchi
neighbourhood of western Kabul, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area home to the
minority Hazara community, the target of some of Afghanistan’s most deadly
attacks.
“Students were preparing for an exam when a suicide
bomber struck at this educational centre. Unfortunately, 19 people have been
martyred and 27 others wounded,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.
Families rushed to area hospitals, where ambulances
were arriving with victims and lists of those confirmed dead and wounded were
posted on the walls.
“We didn’t find her here,” a distressed woman looking
for her sister at one of the hospitals told AFP. “She was 19 years old. We are calling
her but she’s not responding.”
At at least one hospital, the Taliban forced families
of victims to leave the site, fearing that there could be a follow-up attack on
the crowd.
Videos posted online and photos published by local
media showed bloodied victims being carried away from the scene.
“Security teams have reached the site, the nature of
the attack and the details of the casualties will be released later,” Abdul
Nafy Takor, the interior ministry’s spokesman, earlier tweeted.
“Attacking civilian targets proves the enemy’s inhuman
cruelty and lack of moral standards.”
Frequently attacked neighbourhood
The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year
brought an end to the two-decade war and a significant reduction in violence,
but security has begun to deteriorate in recent months.
Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazaras have faced persecution
for decades, with the Taliban accused of abuses against the group when they
first ruled from 1996 to 2001.
Such accusations picked up again after they swept back
to power.
Hazaras are also the frequent target of attacks by the
Taliban’s enemy, the Islamic State armed group. Both consider them heretics.
Many attacks have devastated the Dasht-e-Barchi
neighbourhood, with several targeting women, children and schools.
Last year, before the Taliban returned to power, at
least 85 people — mainly girl students — were killed and about 300 wounded when
three bombs exploded near their school in the area.
No group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier IS
claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same neighbourhood
that killed 24, including students.
In May 2020, the group was blamed for a bloody gun
attack on a maternity ward of a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi that killed 25
people, including new mothers.
And in April this year, two deadly bomb blasts at
separate education centres in the area killed six people and wounded at least
20 others.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712718/kabul-suicide-blast-kills-19-mostly-girls-at-education-centre
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Iran Says Terrorism in Afghanistan Pose Threat to
Global Security
By Saqalain Eqbal
29 Sep 2022
While the international community as a whole is
concerned about the resurgence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Iran has
also expressed alarm, warning that terrorism in Afghanistan poses a threat to
regional and global security.
The re-emergence of terrorism in Afghanistan,
according to Zahra Ershadi, ambassador and deputy permanent representative of
Iran to the UN, poses a threat to both regional and international security.
The Iranian official placed a strong emphasis on
fighting terrorism and stated during the UN Security Council meeting that the
Taliban must uphold its commitment to this cause.
She also highlighted that the Taliban should ensure
the security of the diplomatic places in Afghanistan, emphasizing that
Afghanistan should not once again become a sanctuary for international
terrorist groups.
The establishment of an inclusive administration in
Afghanistan, according to Ershadi, is a major need, and she called on the world
leaders to honor their pledges in this way.
Previously, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in
the UN General Assembly session explicitly stated that Afghanistan has become a
safe haven for terrorists.
At the annual UN 77th session, the foreign minister of
Tajikistan also raised alarm over the re-emergence of terrorist organizations
in Afghanistan, adding that the nation rapidly attracts terrorists and turns
into a haven for them.
Source: Khaama Press
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/iran-says-terrorism-in-afghanistan-pose-threat-to-global-security-67575/
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Security interests widen trust gap between Afghan
Taliban, China
30 September, 2022
Beijing [China], September 30 (ANI): China has
apparently put a pause on investments or assistance in Afghanistan as the
country is unhappy with the Afghan Taliban due to its non-fulfilment of
commitment to safeguarding Beijing’s security interests.
The communist nation has started treating Afghanistan
with the utmost caution, making no big investments as the country’s interim
government failed to safeguard China’s security interests.
China merely provided USD 31 million worth of aid last
year, which included food supplies and coronavirus vaccines and this year in
June USD 7.5 million worth of humanitarian aid after an earthquake of 6.1
magnitudes struck the Afghan land, reported the Afghan Diaspora.
Highlighting the ongoing situation in Afghanistan and
the country’s ties with China, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao
Lijian said during a recent press briefing that “Beijing is unhappy with the
Afghan Taliban as the latter has not stamped out the East Turkistan Islamic
Movement (ETIM) from Afghanistan.”
He further said, “Judging from China’s communication
with the Afghan Taliban, the Afghan Taliban has said repeatedly that it will
not allow Afghanistan’s territory to be used by any terrorist organisations to
attack China or any other country. We hope the Afghan side can earnestly fulfil
this commitment,” during the briefing.
Earlier in July, a UN report threw light on the
situation and stated the ETIM has rebuilt several strongholds in Badakhshan in
northeast Afghanistan and expanded its area of operations, according to Afghan
Diaspora.
As per the UK’s Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism,
“The Taliban made no effort to expel the ETIM militants from Afghanistan
despite China’s pressure.”
Moreover, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
has been repeatedly targeted by Baloch separatists as well as terrorists
belonging to the TTP as they consider it an exploitative project, casting a
doubt on its successful completion in Pakistan, adding to the worries of China.
In another incident, nine Chinese workers were killed
in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the bus they were travelling in
suffered a blast. The deceased was working for the Dasu hydropower project
which was a part of the CPEC project in the Upper Kohistan area of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa- a stronghold of the TTP, the Afghan Diaspora reported.
In terms of the Belt and Road initiative, the growth
in direct trade has been limited so far. The complete lack of infrastructure or
managerial capability on the Afghan side limits their ambition, alongside
concerns about what they might be getting themselves into.
Even after almost a decade after Beijing initiated the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the implementation of several of its
important projects in Pakistan failed to generate any investments for the
country which is headed into an economic crisis.
Source: The Print
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://theprint.in/world/security-interests-widen-trust-gap-between-afghan-taliban-china/1148857/
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Arab
World
Opposition groups secure nearly 60% of Kuwait's
National Assembly
Ahmed Yousef
30.09.2022
KUWAIT CITY
Kuwaiti opposition groups secured nearly 60% of the
seats in the 50-seat National Assembly, according to the final results of early
parliamentary elections announced on Friday.
According to the results, only 23 members of the
previous parliament managed to keep their seats in the new parliament, while 27
are new members.
The state-run KUNA news agency said 305 candidates,
including 22 female candidates, ran for seats in the assembly.
The number of representatives of the Shia bloc rose
from six to nine.
Two people who are currently in jail also won seats.
The Muslim Brotherhood group in Kuwait, known as the
Islamic Constitutional Movement (Hadas), secured five seats, the same number as
in the previous parliament.
While the previous National Assembly had no women
members, the results showed at least two women joining the body.
On Thursday, Kuwaiti voters cast ballots in the Gulf
country’s parliamentary elections, the second such vote in two years.
Last month, Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah,
who has taken on most of the ruling emir's duties, dissolved the National
Assembly, citing a political standoff between the government and the
legislature.
Source: Anadolu Agency
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
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Lebanese lawmakers fail to elect new president
29 September, 2022
The Lebanese parliament failed to elect a new head of
state on Thursday to replace President Michel Aoun when his term ends on
October 31, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he would call another
session when consensus emerged on a candidate.
The bulk of votes cast by lawmakers at Thursday’s
session - 63 - were blank. Christian politician Michel Moawad won the backing
of 36 of 122 lawmakers who attended.
Unless consensus emerges on a candidate, the
presidency looks set to fall vacant when Aoun’s term ends, at a time of deep
financial crisis.
Reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s
sectarian system, the presidency has fallen vacant several times since the
1975-90 civil war.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
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Saudi Arabia condemns Iranian attacks on Iraq’s
Kurdistan region
29 September, 2022
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday
condemned Iran’s attacks on Iraq’s Kurdistan region and rejected any attacks
that threaten the country’s security.
“The foreign ministry emphasizes that it completely
rejects all attacks that threaten the security and stability of Iraq,” the
ministry said in a statement shared on its Twitter page.
It also voiced the importance of the international
community standing up against these Iranian violations which violate
international charters and norms.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they
fired missiles and drones at militant targets in the Kurdish region of
neighboring northern Iraq.
The strikes were reported after Iranian authorities
accused armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents of involvement in unrest now shaking
Iran, especially in the northwest where most of the country’s population of
over 10 million Kurds live.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
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Saudi Arabia’s defense minister discusses situation in
Yemen with PLC head
29 September, 2022
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin
Salman discussed the situation in Yemen with the Yemeni Presidential Leadership
Council (PLC) President Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, the Saudi Press Agency reported
Wednesday.
Al-Alimi received Prince Khalid at his residence
during his private visit to the Kingdom, SPA added.
During the meeting, Prince Khalid reiterated the
Arab-led coalition’s support to Yemen’s PLC and to its “positive initiatives
with the international community to establish security, peace and stability in
Yemen and to end the Yemeni crisis in order to reach a comprehensive political
solution that will move Yemen to peace and development.”
The meeting focused on efforts exerted to achieving
security and stability in Yemen as well as the humanitarian and developmental
assistance to the Yemeni people, while Prince Khalid highlighting the “deep
brotherly ties that bind the governments and peoples of the two countries.”
Source: Al Arabiya
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Yemen signs deal for oil derivatives from Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Asmar
29.09.2022
SANAA, Yemen
The Yemeni government said Thursday it has signed a
deal worth $200 million with Saudi Arabia to provide fuel to war-torn Yemen.
Under the deal, the Saudi Development and
Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) will provide 250,000 metric tons of
oil derivatives to Yemen, the state news agency Saba reported.
Saba said the deal will help increase the capabilities
of Yemeni government institutions and the stability of electric power in
various government and private institutions and the industrial sector.
Yemen has recently experienced a severe electricity
crisis amid a fuel shortage in the war-ravaged nation.
Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability
since 2014 when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country,
including the capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015
to restore the government to power.
Source: Anadolu Agency
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/yemen-signs-deal-for-oil-derivatives-from-saudi-arabia/2698523
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North
America
US calls for probe of 7-year-old Palestinian boy’s
death during Israeli raids
29 September, 2022
The United States called for a “thorough and
immediate” investigation into the death of a 7-year-old Palestinian boy on
Thursday, deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said, as Israeli
raids in the occupied West Bank sparked clashes.
Patel was asked in a press briefing about the death of
the boy. Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Rian Suleiman suffered a heart attack
when Israeli soldiers came to arrest his brothers in their West Bank home,
citing the boy’s uncle.
“The US is heartbroken to learn of the death of an
innocent Palestinian child,” Patel said.
“We support a thorough and immediate investigation
into the circumstances surrounding the child’s death” alongside an Israeli
military probe, he added.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
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US says citizen killed in Iran strikes on Iraqi
Kurdistan
29 September, 2022
The US said Thursday that one of its citizens was
killed in Iranian strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan as it separately announced fresh
enforcement of sanctions on Tehran's oil sales.
Iran's clerical state on Thursday carried out
cross-border strikes, with 13 reported dead, amid unrest at home sparked by the
death in custody of an Iranian Kurdish woman by the notorious morality police.
“We can confirm that a US citizen was killed as a
result of a rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan region” on Thursday, State
Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.
Citing privacy laws, he declined further details. But
he reiterated US denunciations of the strikes.
“We continue to condemn Iran's violations of Iraq's
sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Patel told reporters.
Asked if there would be retaliation, Patel said the US
has “a number of tools and a number of lines of efforts to continue to hold
Iran accountable for its destabilizing actions in the region.”
The United States has imposed sanctions on the
morality police -- accused by protesters of killing in custody 22-year-old Mahsa
Amini after she violated the Islamic republic's strict rules on women's dress
-- and has worked to support restoration of internet access inside Iran.
The unrest following Amini's death on September 16,
which has killed dozens, came as President Joe Biden's administration
negotiates indirectly through the European Union on returning to a 2015 nuclear
deal scrapped by his predecessor Donald Trump.
If Tehran agrees to the terms for returning to
compliance with the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action, the US would lift its unilateral ban on other nations buying Iranian
oil.
The Biden administration made clear Thursday it was
enforcing sanctions for now, announcing punitive measures over Iranian oil
trading of companies in China, India and the United Arab Emirates as well as
Iran.
Source: Al Arabiya
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US imposes new sanctions on Iran oil exports and front
companies abroad
29 September, 2022
The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on companies it
suspects of involvement in Iran's petrochemical and petroleum trade, including
some based in China, as Washington warned of further actions to enforce its
economic curbs on Tehran.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a
statement Washington placed sanctions on two China-based companies, Zhonggu
Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd, and WS Shipping Co Ltd, part of attempts to
thwart sanctions evasion on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical
products.
The US Treasury Department also slapped sanctions on a
network of companies involved in what it said was the sale of hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of Iranian petrochemical and petroleum products to
users in South and East Asia.
The action targeted Iranian brokers and front
companies in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and India, the Treasury said
in a statement.
Washington and Tehran's indirect talks to revive a
2015 nuclear pact, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
have broken down.
“As Iran continues to accelerate its nuclear program
in violation of the JCPOA, we will continue to accelerate our enforcement of
sanctions on Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sales under authorities that
would be removed under the JCPOA,” Blinken said in the statement.
“These enforcement actions will continue on a regular
basis, with an aim to severely restrict Iran’s oil and petrochemical exports.”
Source: Al Arabiya
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Africa
Gunfire heard in Burkina Faso, sparking mutiny fears
September 30, 2022
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso: Gunfire rang out early
Friday in Burkina Faso’s capital and the state broadcaster went off the air,
sparking fears of a mutiny nine months after a military coup d’etat overthrew
the country’s president.
It was not immediately known where Lt. Col. Paul Henri
Sandaogo Damiba was in the West African country. He had given a speech the day
before in Djibo, in the north of Burkina Faso.
Source: Arab News
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of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2172491/world
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Morocco arrests suspected ISIS member
29 September, 2022
Moroccan police said Thursday they had arrested a
suspected ISIS member, in cooperation with US intelligence officers, who was
accused of plotting a “terrorist” act.
The 29-year-old man was arrested in the economic
capital Casablanca “for his alleged involvement in the preparation of a
terrorist scheme aimed at seriously undermining public order,” Morocco’s
Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) said in a statement.
The suspect had carried out “reconnaissance visits to
identify certain security checkpoints, with a view to attacking them and using
their weapons in terrorist operations,” the BCIJ added.
The suspect had reportedly sought to “join terrorist
organizations” including those based in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in Syria
and Iraq.
In 2003, Casablanca was hit by a dozen suicide
bombers, killing 33 people and wounding dozens more.
Since then, Morocco has been spared major attacks, but
its security services regularly report foiling plots.
Source: Al Arabiya
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of the original story:
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/north-africa/2022/09/29/Morocco-arrests-suspected-ISIS-member
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Suspected rebels kill 5 soldiers, civilian in Nigeria
Ibrahim Garba Shuaibu
29.09.2022
KANO, Nigeria
Suspected separatist rebels killed five soldiers and a
civilian in an attack in Nigeria, police said on Thursday.
Rebels from the banned Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB) carried out the attack near Umunze, a town in Nigeria’s southeastern
state of Anambra, late on Wednesday, according to a police spokesman.
The official said security has been beefed up in the
region and efforts are underway to track down the perpetrators.
The IPOB has been waging a guerilla war against
security forces in southeastern Nigeria since at least 2017, the same year it
was banned and designated a terrorist group by the government.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/suspected-rebels-kill-5-soldiers-civilian-in-nigeria/2698515
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