Muslim Rashtriya Manch Organises Ittehad-e-Millat, Paigham-e-Insaniyat & Mohabbat-e -Watan Event In Prayagraj
New Age Islam News Bureau
07 December 2022
Photo: The Times of India
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• US Judge Dismisses Case Against Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed Bin Salman Over Khashoggi Killing
• Germany Records 120 Hate Crimes Against Muslims In
Three Months
• TV Network Al-Jazeera Submits Slain Journalist
Shireen Abu Akleh’s Case To ICC
• Pakistan: Law Enforcement Agencies Tighten Noose On
Blasphemers On Social Media; Sixty-Two People Detained
India
• 3 Years After Supreme Court Order, Construction Yet
To Begin On Ayodhya's Mosque; Trust's Proposal Waiting to be Approved
• KTR Launches India’s First Multi-Faith Funeral
Facility In Hyderabad
• India, Central Asian countries discuss concerns over
‘terrorist acts’ in Afghanistan
• Ripples In Mathura On Babri Mosque Demolition
Anniversary
• Congress Drops Brahmin, OBC District Chiefs To
Adjust Muslims, Dalits In Jharkhand
• 1 arrested, 40 held for bid to chant Hanuman Chalisa
near mosque
• With no minority commission in Telangana, Muslims
left defenceless
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North America
• National Council of Canadian Muslims looks to
address harassment in the city with bylaw
• US lawmakers demand banking regulators address
discrimination against Muslims
• US opposes Al Jazeera’s bid to take the killing of
its journalist to ICC
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Europe
• EU freezes cooperation with Israeli police
• Danish authorities send letters to Syrian children,
threatening forcible expulsion
• UK Muslim shop owner offers help to would-be thief
after botched attempt to steal mobile phones
• Excerpt from new Salman Rushdie novel released
• Türkiye calls on Greece to abide by international
law, stop militarizing Aegean islands
• Georgian ambassador tells of his love for Turkish
java on World Turkish Coffee Day
• Bradford's Masjid-ur-Raashideen gets 'Safer Centre'
status
--------
Arab World
• Mosul Heals Slowly from Wounds Inflicted by Islamic
State, Five Years after its Fall
• How language and culture became pillars of
Saudi-China friendship
• UAE now has the world’s best passport, allowing
access to 180 countries
• UAE President Sheikh Mohamed receives President of
Israel
• PKK/YPG terror group kidnaps teenager suffering from
brain disease in northwestern Syria
• UAE leaders meet Afghanistan’s acting minister of
defence
• Damascus rejects Ankara’s offer for meeting with
Turkish President Erdogan, Top AKP official says
--------
Pakistan
• PM calls Hindu extremists’ revisionism nightmare for
Indian Muslims
• Pak Fundamentalists Lock Gurudwara Shaheed Bhai Taru
Singh, Calls It A 'Mosque'
• Pakistan Election Commission Moves To Oust Imran
Khan As PTI Chief
• Speakers for relaying Iqbal message to youth for
nation’s survival
• FC soldier martyred, beheaded in Bannu
• JI chief dubs Pakistan-Turkiye two bodies with a
single soul
--------
South Asia
• Taliban Let the Girls Sit For Graduation Exams, The
Decision Applies To 31 Out Of Afghanistan’s 34 Provinces
• Pakistan: Concerns Intensifying Over Growing
Differences With The Taliban In Afghanistan
• Guards beat Muslim political prisoner to death in
Myanmar’s Insein Prison
• Kazakhstan Inks Agreement to Manage
Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif Railway
• At Least 7 Killed and 6 Injured in Explosion in
Northern Afghanistan
• Afghanistan to Receive Over $100 Million in Aid from
Japan
--------
Southeast Asia
• Agreements Worth $29 Billion To Be Signed During
China’s Xi Visit To Saudi Arabia
• The Daunting Task Facing New Malaysian Prime
Minister Anwar Ibrahim: Uniting A Divided Country
• DAP Pledged To Uphold Position Of Islam, Malay Rights,
Says DPM Zahid
• Can South-East Asia stop the advance of Islamist
extremism?
• 1 killed, 3 injured in blast at Indonesian police
station
• Anwar files suit against Perak PAS chief over LGBT
claims
--------
Mideast
• Regime In Tehran ‘Terrified’ Of Opposition Figures
Inside Iran, Abroad: PMOI Spokesperson
• Iran Sentences Five Protesters To Death Over Death
Of Basij Member
• Hamas Briefs Embassies About 'Zionist Plans' For Al-Aqsa
Mosque
• Al-Khatib: 'Al-Aqsa Will Never Be For Anyone Except Muslims'
• Iran says nine people face death penalty over
nuclear scientist’s assassination
• Shops close across Iran amid strike calls; judiciary
blames ‘rioters’
• US forces trained senior PKK/YAT terrorist
'neutralized' by Türkiye, Ankara confirms
• Israel says won’t allow interrogation of soldiers
over journalist’s death
--------
Africa
• Burkina Faso Bans French State Broadcaster For
Giving Voice To Islamic Militants
• Human Rights Commission ‘Outraged’ As State
Department Excludes Nigeria From Watchlist
• Somalia forces recapture key town from extremists
• Sudan’s civilian, military parties sign framework
deal for new political transition
• Muslims in Uganda protest mosque raids, arbitrary
arrests
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Muslim Rashtriya Manch Organises Ittehad-e-Millat, Paigham-e-Insaniyat & Mohabbat-e -Watan Event In Prayagraj
Photo: The Times of India
-----
Dec 7, 2022
Prayagraj: Muslim Rashtriya Manch on Tuesday organised
Ittehad-e-Millat conference and Paigam-e-insaniyat & Mohabbat-e -Vatan
event in city.
Muslim Rashtriya Manch Margdarshak Indresh Kumar was
chief guest on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Kumar, apart from
pitching communal harmony, said, “People of all religions and communities have
equal rights in the country. He, however, said that he has devoted his entire
life to spread the message of patriotism and goodwill (sadbhawana) among the
people of the country.
He also narrated incidences of bringing terrorists
into national mainstream of the country in Jammu & Kashmir and claimed that
we have been spreading the message of peace and love for the past 30 years.
Kumar also claimed that Muslim women have now got relief from triple -talaq and
we are constantly connecting with people to spread the message of peace and
patriotism. Around 400 people including speakers from other cities including
Bhopal, and Mirzapur also attended the programme. Mohd Shoaib Khan presided
over the function.
Source: Times Of India
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US Judge Dismisses Case Against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Over Khashoggi Killing
Mohammed bin Salman, the
Saudi crown prince, in Jeddah in September. Photograph: Bandar Al-Jaloud/Saudi
Royal Palace/AFP/Getty Images
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Dec 7, 2022
WASHINGTON: A federal judge in Washington on Tuesday
dismissed a lawsuit filed by the fiance of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi
against Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, citing President
Biden's grant of immunity.
US District Judge John Bates suggested he was
reluctant to throw out the lawsuit but had no choice given the Biden
administration's decision.
"Despite the Court’s uneasiness, then, with both
the circumstances of bin Salman’s appointment and the credible allegations of
his involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, the United States has informed the Court
that he is immune," Bates wrote in the 25-page ruling.
In invoking the circumstances of Prince Mohammed's
appointment of head of state, Bates was referring to the fact that it was only
in September that Saudi King Salman named Prince Mohammed prime minister in a
royal decree.
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in October 2018
by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, an operation which US
intelligence believed was ordered by Prince Mohammed, known by his initials
MbS, who has been the kingdom's de facto ruler for several years.
The prince has denied ordering Khashoggi's killing but
acknowledged later that it took place "under my watch."
Attorneys for the US Department of Justice said in a
November court filing that the Biden Administration had determined that Prince
Mohammed, "as the sitting head of a foreign government, enjoys head of
state immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts as a result of that
office."
Khashoggi's fiance, Hatice Cengiz, said of the
decision at the time that: "Jamal died again today."
Biden was criticized for fist-bumping the crown prince
on a visit to Saudi Arabia in July to discuss energy and security issues. The
White House said Biden had told Prince Mohammed that he considered him
responsible for Khashoggi's killing.
Khashoggi had criticized the crown prince's policies
in Washington Post columns. He had traveled to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
to obtain papers he needed to marry Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.
Source: Times Of India
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original story:
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Germany Records 120 Hate Crimes Against Muslims In Three Months
In the past decade or so,
anti-Muslim violence in Germany has become a normalised reality. (AP Archive)
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December 6, 2022
Germany has reported 120 anti-Muslim crimes in the
third quarter of 2022, leaving ten people injured and several mosques
damaged.
According to the government's response to a question
from the left-wing party at the German federal parliament (Bundestag), which
was published on Thursday, the number of offences in the first quarter was 83
and 69 in the second quarter respectively.
According to the federal government, “no suspect” has
been arrested in connection with Islamophobic attacks in the third quarter. The
Prosecutor General at the Federal Supreme Court of Justice also “has not
initiated or begun any preliminary proceedings (...).”
Eleven such attacks were targeted against mosques.
Bodily injury, insult, incitement to hatred, vandalism or the use of prohibited
symbols were the other forms of crimes against Muslims.
Becoming a norm
In the past decade or so, anti-Muslim violence in
Germany became a normalised reality as what used to be seen as far-right fringe
elements have now achieved a political representation with several neo-Nazis
winning elections and entering the German parliament.
For example, in the 2013 parliamentary elections, the
Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had only garnered over 800,000 votes and
did not get into Germany's federal parliament in the Bundestag.
Fast forward four years, the party made a major
breakthrough – gaining more than 5.3 million votes as it ended up being the
largest opposition party in parliament.
As the vilification of minorities was enabled by
far-right politicians it resulted in the rise of hate crimes against Muslims.
The Hanau terror attack was one of the ugly
manifestations of such ugly posturing.
In February 2020, a far-right terrorist wreaked havoc
on two locations in Hanau – killing nine people, including four Germans of
Turkish origin.
The 43-year-old
attacker, Tobias Rathjen, later took his own life, as well as his mother's.
Source: TRT World
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TV Network Al-Jazeera Submits Slain Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s Case To ICC
Photograph (AFP)
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06 December ,2022
TV network Al-Jazeera submitted the case of slain
journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court on Tuesday,
saying she was killed by Israeli forces.
The Qatar-based channel said it had “unearthed new
evidence” on the death of the Palestinian-American, shot while covering an
Israel army raid in Jenin on May 11.
Any person or group can file a complaint to the ICC
prosecutor for investigation, but the Hague-based court is under no obligation
to take on such cases.
Al-Jazeera said its submission highlighted “new
witness evidence and video footage (that) clearly show that Shireen and her
colleagues were directly fired at by the Israeli Occupation Forces.”
“The claim by the Israeli authorities that Shireen was
killed by mistake in an exchange of fire is completely unfounded,” the channel
said.
An AFP journalist saw a lawyer representing
Al-Jazeera’s case entering the ICC’s headquarters to hand over their
submission.
The ICC last year launched a probe into war crimes in
the Palestinian territories, but Israel is not an ICC member and disputes the
court’s jurisdiction.
Israel said it would not cooperate with any external
probe into Abu Akleh’s death.
“No one will investigate IDF (Israeli military) soldiers
and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not
Al-Jazeera,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.
The Israeli army conceded on September 5 that one of
its soldiers had likely shot Abu Akleh after mistaking her for a militant.
The veteran reporter, who was a Christian, was wearing
a bulletproof vest marked “Press” and a helmet when she was shot in the head in
the Jenin refugee camp, a historic flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
After receiving complaints from individuals or groups,
the ICC prosecutor decides independently what cases to submit to judges at the
court.
Judges decide whether to allow a preliminary
investigation by the prosecutor, which can then be followed by a formal
investigation, and if warranted, charges.
In the majority of cases such complaints do not lead
to investigations, according to the ICC.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Pakistan: Law Enforcement Agencies Tighten Noose On Blasphemers On Social Media; Sixty-Two People Detained
Representative image
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6 December, 2022
Lahore [Pakistan], December 6 (ANI): Law enforcement
agencies in Pakistan are tightening the noose on blasphemers on social media
and arresting people allegedly involved in this activity, The Nation, a daily
newspaper based in Lahore, Pakistan, reported.
Sixty-two people involved in blasphemy have been
detained, The Nation reported.
Out of the arrested blasphemers nine have been given
capital punishment by courts and high courts have given two the death penalty.
Although none of the people involved in these cases has been let free on bail
by any court yet, The Nation reported quoting tentative statistics.
Organisations like Legal Commission on Blasphemy
Pakistan, Namoos-e-Risalat Lawyers Forum Pakistan, Legal Thinkers Forum,
Tehreek Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat Pakistan, World Khatm-e-Nabuwat Council,
Anjuman Ashiqaan-e-Muhammad, Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nabuwat Forum, Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nabuwat
Wukla Forum, Legal and Cyber Experts Forum, Razakaran-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat and
Islamabad Bar Association have come in the forefront to counter the rising
blasphemy cases on social media. The Nation reported that these organisations
have been seeing all the blasphemy cases through and through.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith
Harmony (MORA) had also reactivated its Web Evaluation Cell to control and
counter these blasphemy cases and has released social media handles to register
complaints for the cases of blasphemy, The Nation reported quoting a statement
given by MORA spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt.
According to The Nation, the Legal Commission on
Blasphemy Pakistan Secretary General Sheraz Ahmad Farooqui informed that
utilizing its Cyber Crime Wing’s expertise, the Federal Investigation Agency
(FIA) had booked an accused allegedly involved in the publication of indecent
content against the sacred books Quran and Bible on social media. However, it
had also arrested two miscreants allegedly involved in the proliferation of
desecration stuff on social media, he said in November this year.
Farooqui told The Nation that another accused had been
given the death penalty twice by the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) in Peshawar. In
the case, ATC Judge Fazl Sattar Khan had reserved the verdict of the court
saying that the accused had shared desecration content on the WhatsApp group
against the sanctity and prestige of the Holy Prophet Muhammad,
Ummahaat-ul-Momineen and the religion of Islam. Another accused Rabia Peerni
had been arrested after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against
her. She was accused of desecrating Islamic values and injunctions publicly and
making viral videos on social media.
According to The Nation, the National Assembly (NA)
had passed a unanimous resolution to withdraw appeals of the government from
the Supreme Court to annul the decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) against
the publication of blasphemous content on social media.
This resolution was moved in the NA by Pakistan Muslim
League Nawaz (PML-N) member Chaudhary Faqir Ahmad had told the Associated Press
of Pakistan (APP) that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had
challenged the decision in the apex court. (ANI)
Source: The Print
Please click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://theprint.in/world/pakistan-law-enforcement-agencies-tighten-noose-on-blasphemers/1251714/
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India
3 Years After Supreme Court Order, Construction Yet To
Begin On Ayodhya's Mosque; Trust's Proposal Waiting to be Approved
December 06, 2022
Ayodhya: Barbed-wire fencing and a board put up by the
Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation are the only indicators that a large mosque
complex is set to come up at this spot in Dhannipur village near Ayodhya.
The board bears an illustration of the proposed mosque
for which the Supreme Court had ordered allocation of a five-acre plot.
But three years after the top court settled the Ram
Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, there are no signs of any building
activity on the proposed mosque site.
The Ayodhya Development Authority is yet to approve
the trust's proposal. But the trust expects that this will now happen soon.
"We have submitted a detailed map of the proposed
complex to Ayodhya Development Authority. Its clearance was earlier delayed due
to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have now informed us that all the hurdles in the
clearance of the map are being ironed out," Indo-Islamic Cultural
Foundation Secretary Athar Hussain told PTI.
The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation is a trust tasked
by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board with the mosque's construction.
The Supreme Court's 2019 verdict paved the way for the
construction of a Ram temple at the site where the 16th century Babri Masjid --
demolished by 'kar sevaks' on this day in 1992 - stood. It also ordered the
allocation of a five-acre plot to the Muslim community for a new mosque.
A pothole-riddled road breaking off from the
Lucknow-Faizabad highway leads to Dhannipur village, 16 km from the district
headquarters.
Narrow roads lined with houses, a veterinary hospital
and a new farmers' centre give way to the large vacant plot of land, demarcated
for the mosque.
Until recently, the land was used for farming. It now
has a 10-foot-high barbed wire fence running along the perimeter.
"Construction will progress as soon as the map is
cleared. Till we get the clearance, it will be too early to tell anything about
the timeline," Hussain said.
The trust was expecting clearance from the development
authority by November-end to begin construction.
"We hope to get approval for the map of the
proposed mosque, hospital, community kitchen, library and research centre by
the end of this month. Soon after, we will start construction," Hussain
had told PTI in mid-November.
Construction of the Dhannipur Ayodhya Mosque is likely
to be completed by December 2023 while the remaining structures on the five-acre
Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah Complex will subsequently come up, he had said.
At that time, Hussain said that during applications
for a no-objection certificate from the fire department, it had objected to the
narrow approach road.
The district administration was immediately informed,
following which it completed the measurement of additional land to widen the
approach road, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation secretary had said.
The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation plans to build a
200-bed hospital, a community kitchen, a library with an archive of the 1857
Sepoy Mutiny along with a mosque at the site.
"All energy requirements of the proposed mosque
will be met by solar power to highlight the message of responsibility towards
nature," said Hussain.
When the land was allocated for the mosque, the
villagers had hoped for a brighter future.
Mohammad Gamu (60), whose home overlooks the proposed
site across the road, said, "I was born in this village like my father and
forefathers. I built this house 15 years ago. We had hoped that my family's
situation would improve after it was announced that the mosque would be built
here. But nothing has been done in three years." Gamu's wife complained
that she has not received any benefit of the PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala scheme or
the Kisan Samman Nidhi.
"Nobody in our family has a job and we work as
labourers to earn a living. The construction of the mosque brought us some hope
but now it seems that nothing will happen," she said.
The family members were hopeful that the new complex
would bring visitors and they could set up a small business. They also expected
a job for one family member at the complex.
"But not a single brick has been laid yet. By the
time the mosque is completed, we may no longer be here," Gamu added.
Village head Jeet Bahadur Yadav said the prices of
land soared following the announcement of the mosque complex's construction and
property dealers were regularly visiting.
"Property dealers, both from the Ayodhya and
nearby districts, frequent the village looking for property. Some villagers
even entertain them but I don't think anybody is ready to sell their lands as
of now," Yadav said.
"If people of the village get jobs, why will
anybody sell their property and move out?" he asked.
Source: ND TV
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KTR launches India’s first multi-faith funeral
facility in Hyderabad
6th December 2022
Hyderabad: Telangana minister for Municipal
Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD), inaugurated the country’s
first-of-its-kind facility for the burial ceremonies of the dead of three main
faiths in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
The crematorium, built by the Hyderabad Metropolitan
Development Authority (HMDA) near Fathullaguda in the city’s eastern outskirts,
can handle Hindu, Muslim, and Christian final rites. Furthermore, there will be
a possibility for distant families to see their loved ones’ final rituals.
The multi-faith funeral home was erected at a cost of
Rs 16.25 crore on 6.5 acres of land that had previously been utilised as a dump
yard by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for dumping
construction and demolition trash. According to an HMDA statement, all debris
from the construction site has been cleaned.
The statement stated that dedicated places have been
created for each group in order to encourage communal peace. Hindus have been
given 2.5 acres of the whole territory, while Muslims and Christians have been
given two acres apiece.
A sewage treatment facility with a capacity of 50
kilolitres per day (KLD) has been built to purify the water and reuse it for
landscaping purposes.
All three facilities feature their own office room,
cold storage, prayer hall, watchman’s room, bathroom block, cars for the last
journey, and parking space.
The ‘Mukti Ghat’ Hindu cremation is outfitted with two
electrical furnaces that will draw 90% of the power necessary from the 140 kW
solar power plant constructed on the property. A separate structure has been
built to accommodate Hindu customs for the 10th day rites.
Source: Siasat Daily
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of the original story:
https://www.siasat.com/hyderabad-ktr-launches-multi-faith-funeral-facility-in-fathullaguda-2473318/
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India, Central Asian countries discuss concerns over
‘terrorist acts’ in Afghanistan
SANJAY KUMAR
December 06, 2022
NEW DELHI: India and four Central Asian nations said
on Tuesday that Afghanistan should not be used for “any terrorist acts,"
following an inaugural security meeting focused on countering terrorism and
maintaining stability in the region.
India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval hosted
his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in New
Delhi, which followed an India-Central Asia leadership summit led by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in January.
Afghanistan was top of the agenda on Tuesday — similar
to the summit focus earlier this year — as officials raised concerns about the
developing situation in the crisis-torn nation.
“Afghanistan is an important issue concerning us all,”
Doval said. “We meet at a time when great churns in international relations and
uncertainty about the future.”
India has no diplomatic ties with Afghanistan and
closed its embassy in Kabul in August last year after US-led forces left the
country and the Taliban took over.
New Delhi had spent billions of dollars on
infrastructure and humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan after the previous
Taliban regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2001.
A joint declaration issued after Tuesday’s talks
“emphasized that the territory of Afghanistan should not be used for
sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist acts.”
India and the Central Asian countries, which in this
meeting had not included Turkmenistan, also pointed to the deteriorating
humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and called for action to provide
humanitarian assistance for its people.
Their security chiefs also discussed connectivity to
enhance trade and improve closer interaction. In addition, a “collective and
coordinated response” to address the issue of “terrorist propaganda,
recruitment and fundraising efforts” was essential, the statement reads.
The United Nations said last month that organized
crime and terrorist organizations “are thriving once again” in Afghanistan.
There have been several high-profile attacks in Kabul in recent months claimed
by the regional branch of Daesh, including a suicide blast outside the Russian
embassy in September and an attack on the Pakistan embassy last week.
The regional meeting was an opportunity for India to
“work together and engage” with the Central Asian nations to ensure that
“sources of financing groups are curtailed and that “the Taliban government in
Kabul is under pressure to perform on this issue,” Harsh V. Pant, head of
strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, told
Arab News.
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2211866/world
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Ripples in Mathura on Babri mosque demolition
anniversary
Piyush Srivastava
| Lucknow
07.12.22
Hindutva outfits tried to march to the Shahi Idgah in Mathura to recite the Hanuman
Chalisa and perform other rituals to mark the 30th anniversary of the
demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on Tuesday.
Over two dozen members of the Akhil Bharat Hindu
Mahasabha, the Dharm Raksha Sangh and other outfits were detained and some
Hindutva leaders put under house arrest as a large number of police and
paramilitary personnel were deployed across Mathura.
Several cases are being heard by courts demanding that
the land on which the Shahi Idgah stands be handed over to Hindus, with the
petitioners claiming it had been built after demolishing a part of the Krishna
Janmasthan temple. The communal campaign has intensified after the Supreme Court
in 2019 handed over the Ayodhya land where the Babri mosque stood to Hindus and
paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple.
Brajesh Bhadauriya, a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha
that is party to one of the Mathura cases, told reporters at the police
station: “We were going to do a jalabhishek of Lord Krishna at the idgah when
the police used force to stop us and brought us to the police station. We want
to pay obeisance to our God and recite the Hanuman Chalisa there. Today is an
auspicious day as we had got freedom from the Babri Masjid on this day 30 years
ago. We hope that the same will happen to the structure in Mathura as we want
the entire area to be handed over for the Krishna Janmasthan temple.”
Neeraj Gautam, national spokesperson of the Mahasabha;
Kalpana Agrawal, state president of the Mahila Hindu Mahasabha; and Saurabh
Sharma, Agra district unit in-charge of the organisation, were among those who
were detained by the police on their way to the idgah.
Triyug Vishen, superintendent of police of Mathura
rural, said: “We have also detained some members of the Mahakal Sena and the
Gaurakshak Sena.”
None could recall hearing about the Mahakal Sena
before Tuesday.
Martand Prakash Singh, superintendent of police of
Mathura city, said: “We have deployed police and paramilitary personnel in the
area. Anybody trying to break the law will be brought to book.”
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and some other Hindutva
organisations that had spearheaded the campaign against the Babri Masjid and to
build a Ram temple there have been saying after their “success” in Ayodhya that
they would now “take over” the Shahi Idgah in Mathura and the Gyanvapi mosque
in Varanasi. They claim that the structures in Mathura and Varanasi were built
after demolishing portions of the Krishna Janmasthan temple and the Kashi Vishwanath temple, respectively, during
Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s time.
Dinesh Sharma, treasurer of the Hindu Mahasabha, said:
“A large number of our leaders are camping in Mathura. They will keep trying to
reach the idgah. We warn the administration to let us do what we want or I will
immolate myself.”
Sanjay Haryana, state spokesperson of the Hindu
Mahasabha, said: “The government has deployed police at the gates of the homes
of many leaders and is preventing us from offering players where the Krishna
temple existed before Aurangzeb razed it. We will continue our effort and win
one day.”
Source: Telegraph India
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Congress Drops Brahmin, OBC District Chiefs To Adjust
Muslims, Dalits In Jharkhand
07th December 2022
RANCHI: Amid controversy over not giving proper
representation to Muslims and Dalits in the recently issued list of district
Congress presidents in Jharkhand, the party on Tuesday withdrew names of four
of its newly-appointed district presidents following protest from its Muslim
and Dalit cadres. In a hastily-prepared revised list of district presidents,
the All India Congress Committee dropped three Brahmins and one OBC from the
list.
Apparently, the decision was taken to accommodate
three Muslims and one Dalit. The revised list had three Brahmins — Shantanu
Mishra (Ramgarh), Srikant Tiwari (Garhwa), Anil Kumar Ojha (Sahibganj) and one
OBC Narayan Barnwal (Koderma).
Source: New Indian Express
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1 arrested, 40 held for bid to chant Hanuman Chalisa
near mosque
Dec 07, 2022
By Hemendra Chaturvedi
A member of a right-wing group was arrested and 40
others detained in Mathura on Tuesday for trying to recite the Hanuman Chalisa
inside the Shahi Eidgah mosque that abuts the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple,
officials said.
In Varanasi, a civil court deferred hearing on six
petitions pertaining to the Gyanvapi mosque. And in Ayodhya, which marked the
30th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, there were no public
demonstrations by Hindu or Muslim groups.
In recent months, Mathura and Varanasi have become
sites of fresh efforts by right-wing groups to lay claim to centuries-old
mosques that adjoin iconic temples. In Mathura, some petitioners want
worshipping rights in the Shahi Eidgah mosque which they say was built after
razing a portion of the Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple, the mythical birthplace of
Lord Krishna. In Varanasi, Hindu petitioners want the right to pray inside the
Gyanvapi mosque complex.
On Tuesday, efforts of members of the Akhil Bharat
Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) were thwarted by elaborate security arrangements that
were put in place after the group’s call to chant Hanuman Chalisa inside the
mosque to mark December 6, the day Babri Masjid was demolished.
“No one was allowed to violate the security cordon at
the mosque. Over 40 activists were detained from different locations in
Mathura. One of the ABHM office-bearers was stopped near Bhooteshwar when he
was found to be moving for jalabhishek (a ritual to offer Ganga water carried
in decorated carriage kanwar),” said Mathura SP Martand Prakash Singh.
Source: Hindustan Times
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With no minority commission in Telangana, Muslims left
defenceless
6th December 2022
Hyderabad: The minorities commission plays an
important role in protecting the constitutional and democratic rights of
minorities. However, the minorities commission was formed only once in the last
8 years and the government does not show any interest in forming a new commission
after the completion of the term.
During the separate Telangana movement, minorities
were promised that there would be no injustice to them in the new state and
they would be treated fairly for prosperity and development. Disheartened by
the injustices in the United Andhra Pradesh, the minorities, especially the
Muslims, not only supported but actively participated in the Telangana
movement.
Muslims expected that their constitutional and
democratic rights would be protected in the new state. Everyone is aware of the
failed election promises made to Muslims. In the last 8 years, the lack of
seriousness of the government has been revealed in issuing the budget for the
educational and economic development of minorities.
The government does not show any interest in forming a
new minorities commission after the completion of the term. After the formation
of Telangana in 2014, the commission did not exist for four years. In January
2018, the Commission was formed and Muhammad Qamaruddin was appointed as the president
and 6 members were nominated as the vice president. However, the term of the
commission expired in January 2021, and since then there is no commission
exists for the protection of minority rights.
The commission had three Muslim members, including the
chairman, while other members belonged to the Christian, Parsi, Sikh and Jain
communities. During the tenure of the commission, whenever the Muslims faced
any problem, they approach the commission. It was no less than a blessing for
the minority people.
The commission has the power to not only summon the
officials but also recommend action against them to the government in case of
default. As a result of the constitutional position and powers of the
commission, many problems were solved, however, the commission has not existed
for the past one year, as a result, the people are forced to run from pillar to
post in the government offices for their problems.
Source: Siasat Daily
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of the original story:
https://www.siasat.com/with-no-minority-commission-in-telangana-muslims-left-defenceless-2473450/
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North America
National Council of Canadian Muslims looks to address
harassment in the city with bylaw
By Easton Hamm
December 6, 2022
The National Council of Canadian Muslims is looking to
address harassment in the city of Saskatoon with a new bylaw.
The organization’s senior legal counsel spoke at a
city committee meeting Tuesday, asking them to consider implementing a
harassment bylaw in order to make the city a safe place for everyone.
“Our presentation today was to bring to council’s
attention what we see as being a gap, regulatory gap or legislative gap, for
citizens of Saskatoon who experience street harassment in public places,
whether it’s the bus, whether it’s in a mall, whether it’s in a park, a
library, whatever the case might be,” said Daniel Kuhlen.
“It allows people to safely go about their lives
without being verbally assaulted, or women getting off work being cat-called or
whatever, and it allows us as a city to say we need to be better.”
Kuhlen said this bylaw wouldn’t address the type of
harassment leading to a Criminal Code offence, but something still toxic and
harmful to the person experiencing it.
“Something as simple as yet disturbing as being in a
grocery store and hearing somebody say to another person, ‘Go back to where you
came from,’ or ‘Why are you here?'” Kuhlen said.
“I’m not saying that would trigger the anti-harassment
bylaw — if it was a one-off and the person walked away it might not — but if a
person is in another person’s face, the victims face repeatedly for five or 10
minutes and follows them out to their car, or to the bus stop, then maybe it
would.”
His proposed bylaw wouldn’t just protect the Muslim
community in Saskatoon, but people of all walks of life.
“Nobody should be judged based on how they look, or
how they dress, or what their ethnic composition may be, or what’s ascribed to
them in terms of their religious faith, or whatever the case might be,” said
Kuhlen.
Kuhlen said he is pleased with the questions asked by
committee on Tuesday and is overall pleased with the outcome of his
presentation.
During the committee meeting, councillors wanted to
know how the police play a part, and administration responded.
“If committee were to resolve that this be referred to
administration for a report, Saskatoon Police Services would be a key
stakeholder in any conversation,” said Lynne Lacroix, general manager at the
city of Saskatoon.
At the end of all questions and comments, Ward 2 Coun.
Hilary Gough motioned for administration to report back to committee with what
options are available, and what other cities have done.
Gough said she also wants to know the policing aspect
of the proposed bylaw.
Source: Global News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://globalnews.ca/news/9329652/saskatoon-harassment-bylaw/
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US lawmakers demand banking regulators address
discrimination against Muslims
6 December 2022
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Senator Elizabeth
Warren are leading an effort to urge American banking regulators to reassess
policies that discriminate against Muslim Americans and immigrant communities.
The two lawmakers, along with Senator Ed Markey and
congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Joyce Beatty, spearheaded a letter addressed to
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and several other banking regulator heads,
urging them to "modernise sanctions policies" and promote equal
banking access for Muslims.
"Countless US individuals, businesses, and
charities have been victims of discriminatory policies and practices that
appear to limit their access to financial services because of their religion or
national origin," reads the letter, which was sent last week.
"Many Muslim and Arab, Middle Eastern and South
Asian Americans, simply because of their connections - real or perceived - have
been systematically cut off from financial services."
Sending money abroad or even raising money for
charities has been difficult for some Muslims in the United States due to US
sanctions laws.
And with the rise of mobile payment apps including
Venmo, payments or transactions within the US have been flagged for using words
like "Palestine".
Last year, several people told MEE that their payments
on Venmo - donations to charitable causes for Palestine - were being restricted
if the payments had any combination of the words "Palestinian" or
"Palestine" alongside the phrase "relief fund".
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the
subsequent US-led "war on terror", several Muslim charities were shut
down by the Treasury Department.
"In some cases, the US government has smeared the
reputations of Muslim charities, Muslim community organizations, and associates
of Muslim charities without affording these organizations and individuals their
day in court or any other opportunity to clear their names," the American
Civil Liberties Union said in a 2009 report.
The 2001 passage of the Patriot Act also led to a
change in a US banking law, known as the Bank Secrecy Act, and required banks
and other financial institutions to monitor accounts for suspicious activity.
"Banking as a charity/nonprofit and ‘banking
while Muslim’ are not illegal and must stop being treated as such,"
lawmakers wrote in their letter.
"As elected officials, it is our responsibility
to amplify the voices of our constituents who feel powerless in the face of big
banks and unaccountable regulators."
The law has frequently been interpreted in a way that
has led to the profiling and targeting of Muslims and other individuals from
predominantly Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities.
Venmo, which PayPal owns, argues that it flags
transactions based on a policy that stipulates they must comply with sanctions
imposed by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
But Muslims have pointed out that the company doesn't
only flag the name of countries targeted by sanctions. In 2019, a woman in
Brooklyn said her transaction was flagged for review for using the word
"al-Aqsa", which was the name of the Bangladeshi restaurant she had
eaten at with friends.
In 2020, a woman in Chicago said her transaction on
Venmo was flagged for using "Ameen" in her description.
Source: Middle East Eye
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-lawmakers-banking-regulators-address-discrimination-muslims
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US opposes Al Jazeera’s bid to take the killing of its
journalist to ICC
07 December 2022
The United States opposes Al Jazeera's efforts to have
the Israeli regime prosecuted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over
Tel Aviv's murder of the Qatari news network's veteran journalist Shireen Abu
Akleh.
"We oppose it in this case," US State
Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Tuesday after the network
took the murder's case to the ICC.
Wearing press attire, 51-year-old Abu Akleh was
murdered in cold blood while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied
West Bank city of Jenin on May 11. Later, her funeral was also attacked by the
regime forces.
The Israeli military has only admitted that the
journalist had been "accidentally" killed by the regime forces’
gunfire.
Tel Aviv has insisted that it would neither open any
criminal investigation into the case, nor would it cooperate with any such
relevant probe.
Price reaffirmed the US's decades-old policy of
protecting the Israeli regime's against whatever instance of accountability at
international organizations, including the Hague-based court, over its
atrocities against Palestinians. The unwavering American policy has seen
Washington invariably use its veto power to block anti-Israeli resolutions at
the United Nations.
"We maintain our longstanding objections to the
ICC’s investigation into the Palestinian situation," Price said when asked
about Al Jazeera’s request from the court.
Source: Press TV
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of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/12/07/694028/United-States-Israel-Al-Jazeera-Shireen-Abu-Akleh
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Europe
EU freezes cooperation with Israeli police
Zain Khalil
07.12.2022
The European Union has frozen cooperation with the
Israeli police due to concerns regarding the upcoming government's policy,
according to Israeli media on Wednesday.
Last September, Israel and the EU signed a draft
agreement to improve the transfer of intelligence information. The deal,
however, needs approval by the European Parliament.
“The EU informed Israeli Ambassador Haim Regev that it
will, for the time being, stop promoting a draft agreement for intelligence
cooperation between the Israeli police and the European Police Agency,
Europol,” Haaretz newspaper said, citing well-informed sources.
Regev was handed the suspension decision last Friday,
according to the newspaper.
Israeli officials told Haaretz that the decision is
the first European indication that the change in Israeli policy in the occupied
West Bank will harm cooperation with the EU.
On Monday, the head of the EU’s Law Enforcement
Cooperation Unit, Rob Rosenberg, said “the final agreement may include minor
exceptions" limited to "the situation of material threats and the
need to protect the civilian population."
According to Haaretz, the emerging agreement is
expected to include a clause preventing Israel from using any information it
receives from Europe in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
International law views both the West Bank and East
Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish
settlement-building activity there as illegal.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/eu-freezes-cooperation-with-israeli-police/2757516
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Danish authorities send letters to Syrian children,
threatening forcible expulsion
Leila Nezirevic
06.12.2022
LONDON
Denmark, once renowned as a liberal society with
respect for human rights, has taken one of the hardest lines on asylum and
migration in recent years by becoming the first country in Europe to revoke
residence permits for Syrian refugees.
A 12-year-old Syrian, Ghazal Sbinati, has spent eight
years living and studying in Denmark.
She recently received a letter from the Danish
Immigration Service telling her that if she did not leave voluntarily, she
could be "forcibly sent to Syria.”
"I go to school and have many friends and I hope
we stay in Denmark," Sbinati told local broadcaster DR.
The Danish Refugee Council has since objected to the
policy, with a senior member branding it as "shocking."
"When you address a letter directly to a child
and write that they can be forcibly deported to Syria if they don't go
themselves, that's a completely different way for an authority to be talking to
a child and threatening them with what they're at risk of. I think that's
shocking," the council's head of asylum Eva Singer told Anadolu Agency.
Singer asserted that the letters should not be sent to
children under any circumstances as "the children cannot act on
them."
"In any case, the letters are also sent to the
parents, and that's normal procedure" once a decision is made, she said,
underlining that they should only be sent to adult guardians, and "should
not be sent directly to children."
Assem Swaif, who founded the human rights group Finjan
which advocates for Syrian refugees in Denmark, told Anadolu Agency that his
organization had been contacted by many parents who complained that their
children received deportation letters.
In one instance, he was contacted by a parent whose
nine-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter both got mail threatening them
with forced expulsion from the country.
Swaif's advocacy group is working to raise awareness
by informing the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other
organizations such as Save the Children about the issue so "we can protect
those children."
Sending letters to little boys and girls is
"really, really insane and inhumane," Swaif said.
The Nordic country has no repatriation agreement with
Syria, meaning that it cannot force refugees whose immigration status has been
revoked to leave.
Authorities instead place them at the so-called
"departure centers," dubbed Danish camps, in the hopes that this will
intimidate them into leaving voluntarily.
Singer, the refugee council's asylum chief, criticized
the policy and language used in the letters forced deportation, arguing that
the country's Immigration Service "should not process these cases until
they know whether they can forcibly be deported."
Syrian refugees told to go home
Danish law ensures temporary status for refugees
fleeing indiscriminate violence, rather than individual persecution.
This means that those with temporary protection risk
losing their status as soon as there is any improvement in the conditions of
the country from which they fled, even if the situation remains fragile and
unpredictable.
Human rights organizations worry that such laws could
encourage other European countries to focus on the decline in armed conflict
when making their asylum policies.
Swaif told Anadolu Agency that Denmark needed to
change its asylum law.
"People who seek asylum, they aren't migrants,
they're people seeking protection. They need protection. They're fleeing from
dictatorship, from torture. So, we need to consider them as refugees, not as migrants,"
he said.
Not all refugees are treated equally
Singer also pointed out that there were
"big" changes and differences in the terms of different categories of
refugees coming to Denmark and how they are received.
"For example, if you look at the way the refugees
from Ukraine have been received, there's a special law granting them temporary
protection, and that has been processed very, very fast," she said.
For Syrian and other refugees, things are a lot more
complicated as they must follow standard asylum procedures.
Singer thinks that one of the major issues in
Denmark's asylum policy is the emphasis on temporariness as individual refugees
may have their residence permits withdrawn even if changes in their home
country are "very, very small, even if they are only temporary."
This, she said, is a problem in terms of the
integration process for each individual but also in the terms of assessment,
which leads to "decisions which are very, very harsh, especially when you
look at refugees coming from Syria."
Denmark 'endangering' Syrian refugees
Singer accused the government of endangering Syrian
refugees by stripping them of their residence permits, despite them risking
abuse and persecution upon returning to Syria.
Earlier this year, the Immigration Service published a
report saying that returning Syrians were at risk of persecution by authorities
in the country gripped by civil conflict for over a decade, DR reported.
The report also said that Syrian authorities continued
to arrest, detain, interrogate, torture, extort, and kill returning refugees,
echoing similar findings in a separate EU report released earlier this year.
However, according to Singer, immigration authorities
are not taking this report into account when deciding to revoke refugee residence
permits.
"It shows that the authorities are not taking it
seriously enough," said Singer.
Authorities are justifying their decision by saying
that there had been a drop in military conflict in Syria.
Singer argued that on their return, Syrians were seen
as enemies as they have often left illegally amid the chaos of the violence.
That can increase the risk of "persecution when
they are sent home by the Danish authorities," she said.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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UK Muslim shop owner offers help to would-be thief
after botched attempt to steal mobile phones
Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
06.12.2022
LONDON
A Muslim shop owner in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire has
offered help to a would-be-thief after a botched attempt to steal mobile phones
from his shop remained fruitless, thanks to an automatic door lock.
Afzal Adam, owner of the small mobile phone shop,
posted the video of the incident in which a young man wearing a hood is seen to
have tried to leave the shop with telephones. He leaves the shop after handing
over the phone sets as Adam unlocked the door.
Adam; however, later on offered the man support via a
new Twitter post, appealing to him to come back for help if in need.
“The times are difficult for many of us at the moment,
so if you are struggling to put food on the table, please come visit us in
store to see how we can help,” Adam wrote, adding a Hadith (saying of Islam's
Prophet Muhammed): “Be merciful to others and you will receive mercy. Forgive
others and Allah will forgive you.”
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Adam said they installed
the automated lock system during the COVID-19 pandemic and the door lock can
only be released from under the counter.
“So what happened yesterday (at) about 3 p.m., this
young boy in the shop … and as soon as he had the two phones – valued around
£1700 pounds – he runs straight to the door trying to get out,” he said.
“He realized that it was not going to open because
he's locked and then obviously you saw the face of the of the of the man and he
came back a bit embarrassed and he gave the phones back to Hafiz Osman,
Mashallah,” which means what God has willed has happened.
He said: “So he put the phones back again and then he
was saying that, ‘you know, my friends told me to do this’ and ‘I'm not like
this … my friends encouraged me to come in here and steal.”
Adam said then they decided to let him go as “he
hasn't stolen anything now.”
“We've got the phones back, so better just let him go
rather than obviously him maybe causing some more damage.”
Islam orders compassion
Adam said he acted the way he did as “because Islam
doesn't teach us to show anger and oppression.”
He said: “Islam teaches us to be more merciful … So
it's better if we show some kind of compassion to him. Inshallah (if God
wills), Allah give him hidayet (guidance). Allah give us all hidayet. That is
what we're here for. And that is obviously you know, that's the way we are. So
better to let him go.”
‘I won’t press charges’
Adam said if the police call and ask whether he wanted
to press charges, he will tell them he would not.
“The police if they do ring me, because I'm sure they
will see the videos now and if they ask me if I want to press charges, I won't
press charges against him. I think what he's done, Inshallah, I hope he
understands and he changes his ways. I think that's better for him.”
Sympathizing with the young man, Adam said those
“young kids out there and the reason they are the way they are because of their
upbringing, because of the way they've been brought up because of the way the
friends are because of the circumstances that they are in.”
“This is a reason that they do what they do. And I
think as Muslims, we should be there, out there … at least trying to help these
people to make sure that they go in the right path.”
The mobile shop owner said they still do not know who
the young man was but if he needs help, “we are here for him.”
“I'm hoping from the video he gets the message
Inshallah and who knows he might come back.”
World-wide encouragement
Adam said he has received with his gesture a
world-wide appreciation and encouragement.
“You know, around 99% Mashallah have been so
encouraging and the messages we've been given and sent from the public from
around the world ... it's been overwhelming.”
“But at the same time I feel privileged that Mashallah
there's so many Muslims out there that do things like this.”
He said he also received some negative comments on his
invitation to help the young man, such as, 'we should have beaten him up,' but
Alhamdulillah (praise be to God) (most) have been very, very positive out
there. And yeah, it's been quite overwhelming.”
‘We need to show what Islam is’
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Excerpt from new Salman Rushdie novel released
December 6, 2022
NEW YORK: The author Salman Rushdie released excerpts
of a new novel on Monday, four months after he was severely injured in a
stabbing attack in the state of New York.
The New Yorker magazine published an excerpt online
entitled “A Sackful of Seeds” from the 15th novel by Rushdie, titled “Victory
City,” which is due to be published in early February by Penguin Random House.
The book tells the “epic tale” of a woman in the 14th
century in what is now part of India, the publishing house said.
The New Yorker said this excerpt will be published in
its print edition dated Dec 12 and due out for sale on Monday.
Rushdie, a Briton born in India, confirmed on Twitter
that the magazine has published an extract from “Victory City.”
It was the first time since Aug 9 that Rushdie posted
something on Twitter. He did so then to announce that his next book would come
out in February 2023.
Three days later, while Rushdie was on stage preparing
to give a lecture in Chautauqua, New York, a young man ran up and stabbed him
repeatedly.
The 75-year-old writer, who had received death threats
after the publication of his “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, was stabbed several
times in the neck and abdomen.
Rushdie was airlifted to a nearby hospital for
emergency surgery but ultimately lost his vision in one eye and the use of one
hand, his agent Andrew Wylie said in October.
The author had lived in hiding for years after Iran’s
first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his killing for what
he deemed the blasphemous nature of “The Satanic Verses”.
The suspect in the stabbing, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old
from New Jersey with roots in Lebanon, was arrested immediately after the
attack and subsequently pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The attack sparked outrage in the West but was praised
by extremists in Muslim countries like Iran and Pakistan.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
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Türkiye calls on Greece to abide by international law,
stop militarizing Aegean islands
Faruk Zorlu
06.12.2022
Calling on Greece to abide by international law,
Türkiye’s foreign minister on Tuesday said otherwise Ankara "will do what
is necessary"
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Romanian
counterpart Bogdan Aurescu in the capital Ankara, Cavusoglu said: "Either
Greece takes a step back and abides by agreements, or we will do what is necessary,"
referring to the violation of the demilitarized status of eastern Aegean
islands near the Turkish coast.
Letters Türkiye sent to the UN laying out Ankara's
legal arguments after Athens violated the islands’ demilitarized status
bothered Greece, Cavusoglu said.
Türkiye filed a complaint about Greece’s actions that
violate the demilitarized status of the eastern Aegean islands through a July
2021 letter to the UN chief.
These islands were given to Greece under the treaties
of Lausanne and Paris, on the condition of disarmament, he said, adding that
Greece is "directly violating these two agreements. So Greece does not
want peace."
There is a direct link between the status and
sovereignty of these demilitarized islands, he said, adding that if Greece does
not abandon this violation, the islands’ sovereignty will become a matter of
debate. Greece is taking negative steps toward Ankara's security, he added.
"If Athens doesn’t want peace, Ankara will do
whatever is necessary," he said.
On Greece's recent military drill on Aegean islands,
he said: "Greece continues its provocations. We cannot keep quiet about
it, and will continue to take the necessary steps both legally and in the
field."
Recently, Greece carried out a military drill on the
Aegean island of Rhodes, just 84 kilometers (52 miles) from the Turkish coastal
city of Fethiye.
Nordic countries' bid to join NATO
Touching on the extradition of a PKK/KCK terror group
member to Türkiye by Sweden to address Ankara's legitimate security concerns
paving the way for its NATO membership, he said: "The decision to
extradite him to Türkiye is pleasing. But this person was not on Ankara's list.
But the return of the people on the list to Türkiye and the freezing of their
assets are serious demands."
Sweden extradited PKK member Mahmut Tat to Türkiye on
Friday after he was arrested on charges of being a member of the terrorist
group PKK.
Calling on Sweden to take more steps such as freezing
terrorist assets and extraditing criminals to Türkiye, Cavusoglu said:
"Ultimately, the Turkish parliament and our people need to be convinced
these steps will be taken."
Membership in the alliance is subject to Finland and
Sweden fulfilling the requirements in the agreement they signed with Türkiye
this June, he added.
The Finnish defense minister's recent visit to Türkiye
was also important as Finland has given no explanation for its failure to lift
the arms embargo on Ankara, he said.
Türkiye expects Finland to lift it, he said, adding
that Ankara has fewer problems with Finland than with Sweden.
Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO in
May, abandoning decades of military non-alignment, a decision spurred by
Russia's war against Ukraine.
But Türkiye – a NATO member for more than 70 years –
voiced objections, accusing the two countries of tolerating and even supporting
terror groups.
Türkiye and the two Nordic countries signed a
memorandum in June at a NATO summit to address Ankara's legitimate security
concerns, paving the way for their eventual membership in the alliance.
Under the memorandum, Finland and Sweden extend their
full support to Türkiye countering threats to its national security. To that
effect, Helsinki and Stockholm are not to provide support to the YPG/PYD terror
group or the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) – the group behind the
defeated 2016 coup in Türkiye.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against
Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and
the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people,
including women, children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian offshoot.
Turkish officials have warned that Türkiye will not
approve the memberships of Sweden and Finland until the memorandum is
implemented.
Unanimous consent from all 30 existing allied
countries is required for a country to join NATO.
Relations with Romania
Praising the "significant opportunities"
offered by Romania to Türkiye, Cavusoglu said the economies of both countries
are growing and Romania's economic development is "truly admirable."
Romania is Türkiye's major trading partner in the
southeastern European region.
"Of course, we decided to take our relations to a
higher level and establish a high-level strategic cooperation council mechanism
with Romania, and we also agreed on the document," he added.
Soon Türkiye will welcome the Romanian prime minister
and both countries’ leaders will sign a high-level strategic partnership
agreement, he added.
On the countries’ trade volume, he said: "Last
year, the trade volume reached $8.5 billion, this year the increase continues
and will exceed $10 billion, he said, adding that $15 billion is the target.
The investment of some 17,000 Turkish companies in
Romania has exceeded $7 billion, he said.
For his part, Aurescu said Türkiye is Romania’s number
two trading partner.
The signing of a high-level strategic partnership
agreement will enable cooperation between Ankara and Bucharest to grow and
become more comprehensive, he said.
On the landmark grain corridor agreement mediated by
Türkiye and the UN this summer, Aurescu praised Ankara’s efforts.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Georgian ambassador tells of his love for Turkish java
on World Turkish Coffee Day
Behlul Cetinkaya
06.12.2022
Georgia’s ambassador to Türkiye declared his love for
Turkish java Monday on the occasion of World Turkish Coffee Day.
"There are many coffee producing countries in the
world, but making coffee in Türkiye is something else," George Janjgava
told Anadolu Agency.
Describing Turkish coffee as one of a kind, Janjgava
said it has an important place in his life.
“You know, there is a saying in Türkiye: ‘The memory
of a cup of coffee lasts 40 years.’ Yes, this is true,” he added.
A Turkish employee at the embassy always makes his
special Turkish coffee, and Janjgava said he enjoys two cups every day.
Janjgava said Turkish coffee is also consumed in
Georgia, adding the history of the Turkish coffee drinking habit in his country
goes a long way back.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Bradford's Masjid-ur-Raashideen gets 'Safer Centre' status
By Yusef Alam
December 6, 2022
Masjid-ur-Raashideen, in Heaton, was awarded the
status after complying with core standards accredited by Strengthening Faith
Institutions (SFI).
SFI, a national organisation backed by the Government,
has developed the accreditation scheme for faith institutions throughout
Bradford and the UK as a whole.
It aims to create safer spaces for children and young
people and to give parents confidence when making a choice about sending their
children to out-of-school settings.
Faith organisations need to show that they have
knowledge of child protection, have safeguarding policies in place and have a
designated safeguarding lead.
Health and safety policies are also a must, as is
having a qualified first aider.
“We are pleased to have received this status, and it
reaffirms our duty to protect children and young people from harm,” said Hafiz
Imtiaz Mussa, Chairman of Trustees at Masjid-ur-Raashideen.
“It is imperative that faith organisations are
equipped with the knowledge and awareness that will enable them to detect
things like abuse and ill-treatment.
“We have been working with SFI to develop policies,
procedures and training our staff to achieve this.”
Source: The Telegraph And Argus
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Arab World
Mosul Heals Slowly from Wounds Inflicted by Islamic
State, Five Years after its Fall
DECEMBER 07, 2022
Five years after it emerged from the Islamic State
group’s jihadist rule, Iraq’s once thriving cultural centre of Mosul has
regained a semblance of normalcy despite sluggish reconstruction efforts.
However, like in much of oil-rich but war-ravaged
Iraq, ramshackle public services and deep economic difficulties continue to
hamper people’s daily lives.
Ghazwan Turki is just one of Mosul’s many residents
who struggle to make ends meet in the former IS stronghold, where the jihadists
declared the establishment of a “caliphate" in 2014.
Mosul urgently needs “job opportunities for families
that have no income, to improve their living conditions", Turki said.
The father of 12 and aged in his 40s, who lived for
years in displacement camps, juggles shifts as a taxi driver and different odd
jobs.
“We have to borrow money and get into debt to cover
half of our family’s needs," said Turki, who shares a single-storey house
with his brother.
While acknowledging “progress" in rebuilding
efforts, he described “overcrowded schools, where there are 60 or 70 students
to a classroom".
Iraqi forces with the help of a US-led coalition
wrested back Mosul in July 2017 after gruelling street fighting, and Iraq
claimed victory over IS on December 9 that year.
Signs of reconstruction dot the city of 1.5 million,
with workers constructing a new bridge, and cafes and restaurants buzzing.
But many buildings and public hospitals are still in
ruins, and in the Old City, some areas are still just piles of rubble.
‘LACK OF JOBS’
Mosul, Iraq’s second city, has historically been among
the Arab world’s most culturally significant settlements — a hub for trade and
home to mosques, churches, shrines, tombs and libraries.
Today, in the wider Nineveh province, a third of
people are estimated to be unemployed and 40 percent live in poverty, according
to local authorities.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which has provided aid
to some 100,000 Mosul residents, has noted “rising unemployment, high dropout
rates (at schools), and limited economic opportunities across the city".
NRC’s communication coordinator Noor Taher said that
although reconstruction continues, many people are particularly worried about
“under-resourced schools, overstretched teachers and lack of jobs".
The International Rescue Committee says that “economic
conditions in Mosul remain dire for many families".
An IRC survey of over 400 homes reported “an alarming
spike" in child labour rates, with around 90 percent of families sending
at least one minor to work and some three-quarters toiling in “informal and
dangerous roles" such as construction, or litter and scrap metal
collection.
Mayor Amin al-Memari said the city was working on
several “strategic projects", but funding remained a key obstacle.
Despite the construction of about 350 schools in just
two years, Mosul still needs 1,000 more to end the “chokehold" in
education, Memari added.
There is also “a significant shortage in the health
sector," he said, with more hospitals needed, including with oncology and
cardiovascular surgery departments.
“Before, we had all of this in Mosul," Memari
said.
‘SPIRIT OF OLD MOSUL’
In Mosul’s war-damaged Old City — only steps from the
iconic Al-Nuri mosque, where former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his
only confirmed public appearance — Bytna (“Our Home") cafe is busy.
But when co-founder Bandar Ismail opened it in 2018,
people were sceptical.
“We tried to revive the spirit of Old Mosul by opening
this cafe, to attract residents and draw them back to this neighbourhood,"
26-year-old Ismail said.
“At first… people mocked us and said ‘who will come
here?’ The whole area was destroyed, there must have been just two families
here."
Today, customers sip coffee and smoke their hookahs in
the cafe, which also hosts musical performances and art events.
Source: News18
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How language and culture became pillars of Saudi-China
friendship
RASHID HASSAN
December 06, 2022
RIYADH: Since Saudi Arabia and the People’s Republic
of China formalized diplomatic relations in 1990, cultural ties between the two
countries have blossomed into a robust relationship based on mutual respect.
Affirming the importance of this deep friendship, the
iconic Boulevard Riyadh City in February this year celebrated Chinese New Year
as part of the Riyadh Season entertainment festival.
The colorful occasion was attended by Chen Weiqing,
the Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia, officials from the embassy, and a large
number of visitors.
The celebration took several forms across the
Boulevard zone. All its screens were lit red by midnight, displaying beautiful
Chinese cultural images such as traditional houses and red lanterns, with
congratulatory remarks written in Chinese, Arabic and English.
On the occasion Weiqing told Arab News: “The Spring
Festival is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese people. The
Boulevard Riyadh City lights up the symbolic red color of China, letting the
Chinese people around the world feel the cordial greetings and best wishes from
our Saudi friends.”
He added: “This is a great honor to celebrate our
Lunar New Year, and we hope in this new year we will strengthen our bilateral
relationship and friendship in different fields. This is the beginning of a new
cultural era in bilateral relations. We have a lot of common principles, now we
have a very strong cultural linkage, so I think in the future China and Saudi
Arabia will be one of the closest partners.”
Further strengthening the cultural bonds, the world
premiere of “Nine Songs” last Saturday filled the Saudi city of AlUla with
excitement, with every seat occupied at the outdoor Wadi Al-Fann venue.
Created especially for AlUla by Rui Fu, the Chinese
musician, vocalist and artistic director, “Nine Songs” brought together a
world-class ensemble of performers from across the globe. Fu’s vocals were
accompanied by new compositions played on violin, harp, dulcimer, oud, guqin
and taiko drums, with remarkable costumes, scenery and lighting adding to the
theatrical display.
Fu’s new work is inspired by the Chu Ci (Songs of
Chu), an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry from the first century B.C., while
also responding to AlUla’s stunning geological structures.
In June this year King Fahd National Library in Riyadh
added to its collection Chinese books donated by the National Library of China.
The books — covering subjects including history,
economics, tourism and culture — are distributed in Arabic and English. They
include literature on the Chinese language and some for children, which serve
as an opportunity for Saudis to become familiar with the country and its
culture.
Dr. Mansour bin Abdullah Al-Zamil, secretary of the
King Fahd National Library, said: “We attach great importance to strengthening
cooperation in the cultural field with the National Library of China.”
In July this year China’s Sinopec, one of the largest
energy and chemical companies in the world, gifted 2,000 books on Chinese
culture to King Fahd National Library.
It was marked in a ceremony attended by senior
officials from both countries, including Beijing’s ambassador, who inaugurated
the Chinese books corner at the library.
The section was established by Sinopec as part of its
mission “to offer a window on China for Saudi citizens, provide reference books
for students, beneficiaries, and graduates, and provide support for teaching
Chinese in the Kingdom.”
Significantly, Saudi Arabia announced a cultural
cooperation award with China on the occasion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman’s visit to the country in February 2019.
Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Saudi
minister of culture, announced the “Prince Mohammed bin Salman Award for
Cultural Cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the People’s
Republic of China.”
The announcement was made during Prince Badr’s visit
to the King Abdulaziz Public Library at Beijing University. The library was
inaugurated in 2017 by King Salman during his official visit to China, when the
monarch was also awarded an honorary doctorate.
The cultural award honors outstanding Saudi and
Chinese academics, linguists and innovators. The categories include for the
best scientific research in the Arabic language, artistic creative work,
translation of a book from Arabic to Chinese and vice versa. In addition, there
are prizes for personality of the year and the most influential personality in
cultural circles for the year. The awards form part of the common objectives of
both the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“This partnership in the name of Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman is an embodiment for joint commitment to building cultural bridges
between the two countries, developing the cultural exchange and enhancing
artistic and academic opportunities for our citizens,” the minister has said.
During the crown prince’s 2019 tour Saudi Arabia and
China agreed to include the Chinese language as part of the curriculum at
schools and universities in the Kingdom.
The agreement came during a meeting between the crown
prince and a high-level Chinese delegation in Beijing, in a bid to strengthen
bilateral friendship and cultural cooperation.
The inclusion of the Chinese language is aimed at
enhancing the cultural diversity of students in the Kingdom. It is an important
step toward opening new academic horizons for students of various educational
levels, will serve as a bridge between the two people, and promote trade and
cultural ties.
Moreover, King Abdulaziz Public Library in April this
year signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bayt El-Hekma Chinese Group
as part of the two nations’ cultural cooperation. The MoU includes joint
translations and publications, mutual visits, and the holding of scientific meetings
and specialized exhibitions.
Source: Arab News
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UAE now has the world’s best passport, allowing access
to 180 countries
07 December ,2022
The United Arab Emirates, home to glitzy Dubai, has a
new record to add to its list: the world’s most powerful travel document.
That’s according to a Passport Index published by
Arton Capital that features a top-ten dominated by European countries.
With a UAE passport travelers can enter to 180
countries hassle-free — seven more than European countries such as Germany and
Sweden, and nine more than Japan, whose travel document was ranked as the
world’s best earlier this year in a list published by Henley & Partners.
The Asian country ranks 24 on Arton’s index with easy access to 171 countries.
Throughout the pandemic, the UAE largely stayed away
from the full-scale lockdowns seen around the world, instead relying on strict
mask mandates and inoculations. The government’s nimble handling of the
pandemic drew in visitors from around the world looking to escape curbs in
their home countries.
“Global mobility is rapidly rising, despite the
eruption of conflict in Europe and growing tensions over borders,” Arton said
in a statement. “Though the world continues to feel the aftershocks of the
pandemic, surprisingly, traveling has never been easier, with steady growth in
passport power across the board, a trend that we predict will continue into
2023.”
The passport ranking adds to the UAE’s growing list of
accolades, which include the world’s tallest building, deepest swimming pool
and tallest hotel.
Arton said the passports of almost every single
country around the world became more powerful this year, with nations keen to
reap the economic benefits offered by enabling greater freedoms of movement.
Still, the year-on-year gains in the UK slowed
relative to some European states and the trend may continue as Britain
struggles to strike the visa agreements achieved by states within the EU, Arton
warned.
“This is largely attributable to the consequences of
leaving the common market and the freedom of movement associated with that,”
according to Arton. The country is currently ranked 25th, with easy access to
171 countries.
Source: Al Arabiya
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UAE President Sheikh Mohamed receives President of
Israel
06 December ,2022
President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed
bin Zayed Al Nahyan has met with President of Israel Isaac Herzog who is on a
working visit to the UAE to participate in the Abu Dhabi Space Debate.
Israel normalized diplomatic relations with the UAE
and its Gulf neighbor Bahrain two years ago under US sponsorship.
Sheikh Mohamed met with President Herzog and his wife,
First Lady Michal Herzog, at Al Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi on Monday, state news
agency WAM reported.
The two leaders discussed areas of collaboration
between the UAE and Israel and their interest in promoting progress and
stability across the region.
They also exchanged views on a number of issues of
mutual concern.
The meeting highlighted the role of the Abu Dhabi
Space Debate in facilitating dialogue between participants in the global space
sector to explore opportunities for sustainable growth and collaboration.
Source: Al Arabiya
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PKK/YPG terror group kidnaps teenager suffering from
brain disease in northwestern Syria
Esref Musa
06.12.2022
The PKK/YPG terrorist organization abducted a
15-year-old patient with hydrocephalus, a condition caused by fluid buildup in
the brain, in northwestern Syria for forced recruitment, a local Kurdish
opposition group said on Tuesday.
Redor al-Ahmed, the spokesperson of the Independent
Kurdish Neighborhood, told Anadolu Agency that PKK/YPG terrorists kidnapped the
teenager whose initials are T.H. in the Manbij district of Aleppo province.
The PKK/YPG often takes young people and children it
abducts or detains to training camps, where they are cut off from their
families.
In the 2021 Children and Armed Conflicts report
published this July, the UN General Secretariat said the terrorist group
PKK/YPG added 221 children to its fighters in 2021.
It also said the terrorist "Internal Security
Forces," affiliated with the PKK/YPG, recruited 24 children the same year.
The PKK/YPG killed 55 children in Syria in 2021, while
the "Afrin Liberation Forces" and "Internal Public Order
Forces" affiliated to the terror group killed 18 children.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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UAE leaders meet Afghanistan’s acting minister of
defence
December 07, 2022
DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed
Al-Nahyan and Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum met with
Afghanistan’s acting minister of defense during his official visit to the country.
The leaders discussed bilateral ties and areas of
potential cooperation with Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob in two separate meetings in
Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reported state news agency (WAM).
Source: Arab News
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Damascus rejects Ankara’s offer for meeting with
Turkish President Erdogan, Top AKP official says
07 December 2022
A senior member of Turkey’s ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) says Damascus has turned down Ankara’s request for a
meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Turkish counterpart,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after more than a decade of bitter enmity since the
outbreak of Syria's conflict.
Orhan Miroglu told Russia’s Sputnik news agency that
“Syria intends to put off the meeting until after the Turkish presidential
election,” which is scheduled to be held on June 18 next year.
On Friday, Reuters news agency reported that despite
Russia’s mediation efforts, the Syrian president has resisted meeting with his
Turkish counterpart.
According to the report based on three different
Syrian sources, Assad rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to meet
with Erdogan.
Two of the sources said Damascus believes such a
meeting could support Erdogan ahead of next year’s Turkish election, especially
if Ankara addresses its goal of repatriating some of the 3.6 million Syrian
refugees from Turkey.
Stating that there will be no rapprochement before the
upcoming Turkish poll, the source said, “Why hand Erdogan victory for free?” He
added that Syria had also turned down the idea of a foreign ministers’ meeting.
A third source, a Syrian diplomat, said Damascus “sees
such a meeting as useless if it does not come with anything concrete, and what
they have asked for so far is the full withdrawal of Turkish troops.”
Earlier, Erdogan said normalization of relations with
crisis-stricken Syria was possible.
“Just as relations between [Turkey] and Egypt take
shape, ties with Syria can follow the same path in the next period,” Erdogan
said on November 27.
He was referring to an ongoing normalization process
between Turkey and Egypt, which saw Erdogan meet with his Egyptian counterpart,
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, at the FIFA World Cup in the Qatari capital city of Doha.
Ankara severed its ties with Cairo in 2013 in protest at the latter's bloody
crackdown on the followers of late Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.
“There is no room for hard feelings in politics,”
Erdogan also said.
Turkey cut off its relations with Syria in March 2012,
a year after the Arab country found itself in the grip of rampant and hugely
deadly violence waged by foreign-backed militants and terrorists, including
those allegedly supported by Ankara.
Since 2016, Turkey has also conducted three major
ground operations against United States-backed militants based in northern
Syria.
The Turkish government accuses the militants, who are
known as the People's Protection Units (YPG), of bearing ties with the
Kurdistan Workers' Party terrorist group.
Source: Press TV
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Pakistan
PM calls Hindu extremists’ revisionism nightmare for
Indian Muslims
December 6, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday
said that a process of revisionism put into motion by the Hindu extremists had
become a living nightmare for Indian Muslims and other minorities.
Taking to his twitter handle on Tuesday, the prime
minister referred to the 30th anniversary of demolition of historic Babri
Mosque, which was razed to ground by the Hindu zealots in Ayodhya, India during
1992.
The prime minister urged the world community to take
note of the rising religious hatred in India.
“Today marks the 30th anniversary of demolition of
historic Babri Mosque. A process of revisionism put into motion by Hindu
extremists has now become a living nightmare for Indian Muslims & other
minorities. World needs to take note of rising religious hatred in India,” the
prime minister posted a tweet along with pictures of the demolished mosque.
On December 6, 1992, a group of Hindu zealots razed
the mosque on a disputed religious site in the state of Uttar Pradesh,
triggering clashes with minority Muslims that left 2,000 people dead.
In September 2020, the Supreme Court of India
acquitted 32 people accused of criminal conspiracy and inciting a mob to tear
down the mosque.
Pakistan condemned the construction of a temple at the
site of the Babri mosque which was torn down by mob of Hindu zealots 30 years
ago.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Foreign Office called
out New Delhi for acquitting the suspects and supporting the construction of
the Ram Temple, which has long fuelled Hindu-Muslim tension in India, on the
site.
“We condemn the ongoing construction of a Hindu temple
on the site of the demolished mosque, and the acquittal of the criminals responsible
for its destruction.”
The statement demanded the Indian government ensure
that Babri Mosque “is rebuilt on its original site” and the criminals
responsible for its “destruction are awarded befitting punishment.”
In November 2019, the Supreme Court ruled the original
site will be handed over to Hindus for the construction of the temple, and a
“suitable plot” of land measuring five acres would be allotted to a
government-owned Muslim body either by the central government or state of Uttar
Pradesh, of which Ayodhya is a part, to construct a mosque.
The Foreign Office noted that Hindu supremacist groups
in India were now demanding the conversion of some other mosques into temples,
including the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi. “These demands might lead to more
tragedies like that of the Babri Mosque,” it added.
““There is a persistent assault on the religious
freedoms of the Indian Muslims. The ruling party in India continues to incite
hysteria and hatred against Muslims.”
PM welcomes SC’s suo moto on Arshad Sharif’s murder
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday
welcome the suo moto notice taken by the Supreme Court on the killing of
prominent journalist Arshad Sharif.
In a Twitter post, the prime minister assured that the
government would extend full cooperation to the Court. “I welcome Supreme Court
taking suo moto notice of the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif.”
Shehbaz Sharif mentioned that he had already written a
letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for constitution a judicial commission
to probe the murder.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday headed by Chief Justice
of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial directed the government to register the first
information report (FIR) of Arshad Sharif’s murder by tonight.
Source: Pakistan Today
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Pak Fundamentalists Lock Gurudwara Shaheed Bhai Taru
Singh, Calls It A 'Mosque'
Satender Chauhan
Dec 7, 2022
Pakistan's Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) has
closed Gurudwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh, located in Lahore, for worship,
claiming that it is a mosque. Pakistan's ETPB along with some fundamentalists
has put a lock on the Gurudwara which has angered the Sikh community in the
Islamic nation.
A dispute has been going on for a long time regarding
the Gurudwara situated in Lahore, The Dawn reported. A large number of devotees
visit this Gurudwara everyday and recite Guru Granth Sahib, the report said.
The Gurudwara, located in Shaheed Ganj Naloukha area,
has a long and tumultuous history, having been a bone of contention between the
city’s Sikhs and Muslims.
This is not the first time when Pakistan has locked a
Gurudwara and claimed it to be a mosque. A similar incident was reported two
years ago, when a prominent Gurudwara was declared a mosque, prompting the
Indian authorities to intervene in the matter and lodge a protest. India had
then stated that Gurudwara is a place of reverence and the Sikh community
considers it as 'sacred'.
The Gurudwara is located a little outside the walled
city of Lahore, in an area called Nalaukha that is believed to have once housed
the fabled palace of Prince Dara Shikoh. Shikoh served as governor of Lahore
before his assassination at the hands of his younger brother, Aurangzeb, the
report stated.
The Sikhs believe that it was at this site that
hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children from the community
were massacred on the orders of Mir Mannu, the governor of Lahore and
representative of the Mughal Empire.
The Sikhs claim Mir Mannu himself allowed them to set
up a Gurdwaras here after they agreed to help him in the conquest of Multan at
the behest of Diwan Kaura Mal, who was consequently given charge of Multan by
Mir Mannu, the report mentioned.
Source: India Today
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Pakistan election commission moves to oust Imran Khan as PTI chief
Dec
7, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan’s Election Commission on Tuesday initiated the process to remove PTI
chief Imran Khan from his post following his disqualification in the Toshakhana
case.
A
notice has been issued to the former PM and the case has been fixed for hearing
on December 13, Dawn newspaper reported, quoting a top ECP official. Khan,70,
is in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch
he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository
called Toshakhana and selling them for profit.
He
was later disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under Article
63 for making “false statements and incorrect declaration”. As per the ECP
records, the gifts were bought from the Toshakhanafor Rs 21. 5 million on the
basis of their assessed value, while they were valued at around Rs 108 million.
Source:
Times Of India
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Speakers
for relaying Iqbal message to youth for nation’s survival
December
6, 2022
SARGODHA:
Allama Iqbal has a strong bond with the youth. So, there is a need to promote
and properly relay Iqbal’s message among the youth which is necessary for the
survival of the nation. This was stated by the former Inspector General of
Police and Chairman Allama Iqbal Council Islamabad Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema while
delivering a special lecture on Iqbal’s personality and message at University
of Sargodha on Tuesday.
The
event was presided over by UoS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Qaisar Abbas while
Regional Police Officer Azhar Akram, District Police Officer Tariq Aziz,
members civil society, Deans, Heads, In-charges and a number of students also
attended the lecture.
Addressing
the ceremony, Prof Dr Qaiser Abbas said that Allama Iqbal focuses on human
unity, solidarity while visualising a society where everybody is technically
trained and socially civilized. Youth must take action to show forefathers that
this generation and this country are not less than anyone else. We cannot
remain passive and wait for miracles to happen, he added.
Dr
Abbas further added that Iqbal is the poet not only of the world of Islam but
also of the whole world and the crushed humanity. He further said that it is
important to make our young generation aware of Iqbal’s favors and services,
Iqbal’s poetry is not of any one era but a beacon of light in every era.
Zulfiqar
Ahmad Cheema said “Allama Muhammad Iqbal was a poet, philosopher, scholar,
knight, politician and an authority on Islam all rolled into one single mortal
being. His work inspired not only the birth of Pakistan, but also brought
Muslims of his days out of ignorance, providing them with the confidence and
guidance they needed to realise their true potential. Allama Iqbal believed
that we did not have to be impressed with the West or get lost in the East’s
afsaney, but needed to look for a modern social system” he added.
He
said that the only way to change the course of Muslim history, according to
Allama Iqbal, is for young people to adopt all the characteristics of eagles by
adhering to the Sufi path of Faqr, or becoming faithful disciples of the Holy
Prophet (PBUH) by doing as he did.
“We
got a separate country for the protection of our culture and values and to
adhere to our values in this country. The New generation has been pushed to an
inferiority complex under a conspiracy and youth will have to come out of this
darkness and depression” said Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema. He advised the students to
believe in themselves as the future of their country is brighter than their
expectations.
He
added that Iqbal wished to influence young people in the direction of virtue,
Islam, destiny, and ultimately excellence. Iqbal’s words pierce the young
people of his time, inspiring them to rise up and become contributing members
of society. His words still have an influence on people today, he further
added.
Source:
Pakistan Today
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FC
soldier martyred, beheaded in Bannu
Ghulam
Mursalin Marwat
December
7, 2022
LAKKI
MARWAT: A Frontier Constabulary soldier was martyred and beheaded by unknown
attackers in Janikhel town of Bannu district, according to police.
The
deceased was gunned down, along with his son inside their home, according to
the FIR. The victims have been identified as Rehman Zaman, 45, and Shahid, 18.
The
victim’s widow, in her statement, told the police that her husband and son were
asleep in the house late on Monday night when they heard loud noises. When they
came out of the bedroom, they saw around 20 armed men in the compound.
She
claimed that unidentified gunmen shot the victims and then beheaded her
husband’s body.
Tribal
elder gunned down in North Waziristan; D.I. Khan DPO survives attack on convoy
The
assailants took away the head with them, the widow said, claiming that it was a
result of her husband’s government job.
She
said her family had no dispute with anyone and that her husband was employed
with the Frontier Constabulary.
Meanwhile,
locals claimed that the assailants hung the head from a tree in the Bachki
market area which was spotted by tribesmen in the morning who then informed the
police.
The
police shifted the bodies to the district headquarters hospital in Bannu city
for medico-legal formalities.
A
case has been registered against unknown assailants at the Janikhel police
station.
Tribal
elder killed
In
Mirali subdivision of North Waziristan district, a tribal leader, identified as
Malik Alamgir Khan, was shot dead by unknown assailants when he was going to
his village, Hyder Khel.
The
attack came a day after a local was killed in the Tapi area of the district.
The attacker was also killed after the victim’s relatives chased him.
Three
‘militants’ killed
In
Dera Ismail Khan, three alleged militants were gunned down, while a top police
official survived an attack on his convoy on Tuesday.
According
to the police, the alleged militants were killed in a joint operation by the
police and security agencies in Girah Mastan village of Dera Ismail Khan.
A
district police spokesman said the operation was jointly conducted by the
Counter-Terrorism Department, security agencies and local police on information
about the presence of militants in the area.
As
the forces circled in on their hideout, the militants opened fire. In the
ensuing gunbattle, three alleged militants were killed who were later identified
as Munib, Junaid and Shaukat, belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan
Gandapur group, according to the police.
In
Khoi Barah area of Darazinda tehsil, District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad
Shoaib remained unhurt in an attack targeting his convoy.
A
constable travelling with the squad was injured and several vehicles were
damaged in the attack.
According
to a police spokesman, DPO Shoaib was on a visit to check security measures for
the ongoing polio campaign in Darazinda tehsil when his convoy came under
attack.
As
the convoy reached the Basic Health Unit in Khoi Bhara, militants opened
indiscriminate fire, the spokesman added.
The
police promptly retaliated, but the attackers managed to flee.
Later,
police and security personnel cordoned off the area and started a search
operation to track down the attackers.
Source:
Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1725083/fc-soldier-martyred-beheaded-in-bannu
--------
JI
chief dubs Pakistan-Turkiye two bodies with a single soul
December
6, 2022
ISAMABAD:
Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, Sirajul Haq said on Tuesday that Jamaat
highly values brotherly relations Pakistan and Turkey and wanted to see Ummah
united for the common cause.
“Both
the countries could provide leadership to the Muslim world to cope with the
different challenges particularly Islamophobia.”
Ameer
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan, Sirajul Haq expressed the views during a meeting
with Turkiye Ambassador Dr Mehmet Pacaci here on Tuesday. They discussed
bilateral relations between the two countries and matters of mutual interests
during a meeting held here.
JI
(Foreign Affairs) Director Asif Luqman Qazi was also present on the occasion.
Appreciating
the role of Turkish President on Palestine and Kashmir issues, the JI chief
said that both the nations supported each other on Kashmir and Northern Cyprus.
He highlighted the Islamic world should set aside their mutual differences and
pose unity among their ranks.
He
said unity among Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran was the need of the
hour to counter the influence of western civilization, adding that Turkey and
Pakistan were two bodies with a single soul as they had centuries old religious
and cultural relations.
Haq
said Turkey occupied a distinct position in the Muslim world and the government
of President Erdogan was the torch-bearer of great Turkish civilization and
glory. The JI chief said that the eyes of the entire Muslim world were on
Turkey.
Source:
Pakistan Today
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
South Asia
Taliban
Let the Girls Sit For Graduation Exams, The Decision Applies To 31 Out Of
Afghanistan’s 34 Provinces
Dec
7, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Afghan girls will be allowed to take their high school graduation exams this
week, an official and documents from the Taliban government indicated Tuesday —
even though they have been banned from classrooms since the former insurgents
took over the country last year.
According
to two documents from the Taliban ministry of education, the decision applies
to 31 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Ehsanullah Kitab, head of the Kabul
education department, said the exams would take place on Wednesday. He provided
no other details and it was not clear how many teenage girls would be able to
take the exam. One of the documentssaid the exams would last from 10 am to 1
pm. A second document, signed by Habibullah Agha, the education minister who
took office in September, said the tests would be held in 31 Afghan provinces.
Source:
Times Of India
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Pakistan:
Concerns Intensifying Over Growing Differences With The Taliban In Afghanistan
Seema
Guha
07
DEC 2022
There
was euphoria in Pakistan when the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan last
August. The day after the Taliban came into Kabul, Imran Khan the then-prime
minister greeted the takeover as throwing off the shackles of slavery. The long
cherished hopes of getting a Pakistan- friendly government in Kabul which would
take care of its strategic interests was now within reach.
Yet
less than sixteen months since the
Taliban rule was cemented ties between the two countries is coming under increasing stress. Initially,
Islamabad tried to downplay the differences and called for talks to sort out
the irritants, but now Pakistan is also losing patience, more so because of the
Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) or the
Pakistani Taliban’s presence in Afghanistan. Using Afghanistan as a base they
strike across the Durand Line on Pakistani territory. Despite repeated
assurances, the Taliban has not acted against the TTP. They share the same
ideology and is keen to convert Pakistan into a religious state with sharia law
in place, much like in Afghanistan.
TTP:
the spoiler in Pakistan- Afghanistan ties
The
Taliban’s military victory over the US and NATO forces has given self-belief
and new impetuous to the TTP and various Islamic groups that if Taliban could
defeat the world’s only super power, they could do the same with their
governments. The blowback from Afghanistan is becoming a major problem for
Islamabad. There has been an upsurge in Islamic militancy in Pakistan’s tribal
areas and reports from the local press say that these groups are back to
threatening businesses and collecting funds under duress. The Pakistan security
forces are under attack in tribal areas once more.
In
April this year the TTP conducted 19 terror strikes and one cross-border
attack. Negotiations between the TTP and the Pakistan government were held with
the help of Taliban’s interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Lt Gen. Faiz
Hameed, the former spy chief who was then the corps commander in Peshawar. The
negotiations led to a ceasefire announcement in June. But it was an uneasy
truce from both sides. Things came to a head on August 22, when two senior TTP
leaders were attacked and killed inside Afghanistan. It is well known that the
Haqqani brothers are close to the ISI, and General Faiz Hameed as ISI chief was
dispatched to Kabul to make peace among the warring Taliban factions during the
formation of the government. The TTP no longer trusts Haqqani and say that the
killing of their top commanders took place in Afghan soil under his watch. Finally on
November 28, the ceasefire was formally called off by the Taliban,
though it had by then remained mostly a commitment on paper. And to show its
intent on November 30, a TTP suicide bomber blew himself up near a police truck
in Balochistan, killing three people and injuring 28. The group claimed
responsibility and said this was in retaliation for the killing of its two top
commanders. Lat month the Taliban had
launched as many as sixty bomb and gun
attacks on security forces inside Pakistan.
The
latest flashpoint was the December
2 attack on the Pakistan embassy in
Kabul, where the aim according to the Pakistan foreign office statement was to kill Charge affairs (CDA), Ubaidur
Rehman Nizamani. Luckily while nothing happened to him a security guard was
critically wounded. The Taliban government promised to swing into action and
some of those involved have now been captured. Pakistan had repeatedly asked
the Taliban to act against the TTP but the response has been tardy at best.
TTP
terror is now posing a major threat to Pakistan. This is why Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif raised it while speaking
at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this year. He pointed to the
presence of foreign terror groups in Afghanistan, including the Al Qaeda, the
Islamic State-Khorasan or the ISK what the ISIS is known as in the region, the
TTP and the central Asian terror outfit. It is a fact that the Taliban has not
been able to drive out the ISK and the
rest of the terror groups from Afghanistan. It is just not Pakistan but many
other Central Asian Republics are anxious over the presence of foreign fighters
in Afghanistan. The Kabul government reacted sharply to the Pakistan Prime
Minister’s speech. According to reports in the Pakistani press, Sher Abbas
Stanekzai, Taliban’s deputy foreign minister in a statement had accused
Pakistan of a manipulating the Afghan conflict for its economic advantage. He
added a threat for good measure` `If we
rise against this, no one will be able to stop us.’’
Disputed
Border
Successive
governments in Afghanistan have not accepted the Durand Line as the border
between the two countries. Clashes have happened in the border areas between
the Taliban and the Pakistan security forces. Kabul regards the border fencing
being built by Pakistan as illegitimate and an attempt to change the status
quo. Afghans are removing the barbed wires whenever possible, leading to
skirmishes across the Durand Line.
India
Factor. The Haqqani network was responsible for two attacks on the Indian
mission in Kabul, in one of which an Indian defence attaché and a young Indian
diplomat were killed.
India
Factor
For
Pakistan, the return of the Taliban last year meant the rollback of Indian
influence in its backyard. After 2001, India succeeded in clawing back its way
into Afghanistan as both Hamid Karzai and
Ashraf Ghani allowed India to spread its wings across Afghanistan
after the first Taliban regime ensured New Delhi was out in the cold.
The Indian airlines plane hijacked from Kathmandu on Christmas Day 1999 was
flown to Kandahar and the Taliban government watched India’s prisoner exchange
with glee from the sidelines.
India’s
$ 3 billion development assistance to
Afghanistan helped in rebuilding damaged infrastructure destroyed by decades of
civil war and its small water supply and electricity projects touched the lives
of ordinary Afghans. Goodwill for India spread across Afghanistan much to the
consternation of Pakistan.
The
Taliban nurtured and trained by Pakistan’s military was virulently anti-India.
The Haqqani network was responsible for two attacks on the Indian mission in
Kabul, in one of which an Indian defence attaché and a young Indian diplomat
were killed in 2008. India’s consulates in Mazhar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad, Herat,
Kandahar were also targeted. Unlike other countries, India consistently refused
to engage with the Taliban, and solidly backed Karzai and Ghani. It was only at
the end that New Delhi when it was clear that the Taliban was taking over that
a meeting was held with their representatives in Doha.
Source:
Outlook India
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Guards
beat Muslim political prisoner to death in Myanmar’s Insein Prison
2022.12
A
Muslim political prisoner and former parliamentary candidate accused of
plotting acts of terrorism was beaten to death by prison guards in Myanmar last
year, according to Sean Turnell, the former economic advisor to deposed State
Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Khin
Maung Shwe, 44, had been sentenced to 65 years in prison for allegedly plotting
to blow up parliament and a shopping center in Myanmar’s commercial capital of
Yangon in 2016.
Turnell,
an Australian national who was was released from prison by the junta in a
general amnesty on Nov. 17 after nearly two years behind bars, said in a social
media post last week that Khin Maung Shwe, also known as Ya Kut Bai, was killed
after trying to mediate in a fight in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison.
“My
dear friend Khin Maung Shwe,” Turnell wrote in a post to his Facebook account.
“He stood up for me. He kept me healthy. He kept me sane. He saved my life.”
“He
was beaten and kicked to death by prison guards in Insein, a month after I was
transferred up to Naypyidaw.”
Turnell
called Khin Maung Shwe “a hero who I will honor as long as I live,” and praised
him for his kindness during their time together in Insein Prison, where the
Australian was serving a three-year jail term for violating the Myanmar
Government Secrets Act, despite being officially appointed by the National
League for Democracy-led government.
“Thank
you to various people in Myanmar who helped me track down some of the
circumstances of my friend’s murder,” he wrote.
Beaten
with iron rods
RFA
Burmese spoke with former political prisoner Thiha Win Tin who confirmed that
Khin Maung Shwe died on Nov. 18, 2021, from internal injuries he suffered in a brutal
beating a day earlier.
After
intervening in a fight between fellow inmates and two men jailed for the
assassination of NLD legal expert Ko Ni in 2017, Khin Maung Shwe was ordered by
the prison warden to be dragged to his office and beaten with iron rods.
Afterwards,
he was placed in solitary confinement without receiving treatment for his
injuries and discovered dead the following day, Thiha Win Tin said.
“When
the prison notified his family, they said that he died of heart failure,” Thiha
Win Tin said. “It was definitely not a heart failure. He was beaten to death by
the prison guards and fellow inmates.”
Thiha
Win Tin claimed that among those who beat Khin Maung Shwe were prison guards
Tun Win Ktike, Soe Zin Aung, and Myint Win Maung, who he said “hated him for
being a believer in Islam.”
Myanmar’s
55.8 million people are predominantly Buddhists. Muslims, who make up slightly
more than 4% of the population, regularly face discrimination in society.
On
Nov. 18, 2021, prison authorities notified Khin Maung Shwe’s relatives of his
death, a person close to the family who spoke on condition of anonymity told
RFA, and when they went to retrieve his corpse they found serious injuries to
his head, face, and other parts of his body.
RFA
contacted Khin Maung Shwe's family members by phone, but they refused to answer
questions about his death citing security concerns and emotional distress.
Little
regulation of prisons
Kyee
Myint, a human rights lawyer and legal expert, told RFA that prison officials
in Myanmar, including those in Insein Prison, regularly ignore regulations and
intentionally abuse and oppress political prisoners.
“They
don’t understand the prison regulations, nor do they need to. They just have to
follow orders,” he said. “In the prisons, they use stooges [from the inmate
population] who bully and coerce political prisoners. They govern the prison
that way, not by law.”
Kyee
Myint noted that inmates Kyi Lin and Tin Myint, who were convicted of
assassinating NLD high court lawyer Ko Ni, were Buddhist nationalists with
close ties to the junta and were given special privileges by authorities in
Insein prison.
Attempts
by RFA to contact junta Prison Department spokesman Naing Win for comment on
the killing of Khin Maung Shwe in Insein prison, went unanswered on Tuesday.
A
former prison warden who declined to be named for security reasons told RFA
that prison staff are expressly forbidden from beating inmates in Myanmar, a
practice that was abolished in 1972.
“There
is absolutely no right to beat prisoners, according to existing prison laws and
manuals,” the former warden said. “Depending on the degree of wrongdoing by
prisoners, we can only give punishments such as solitary confinement, hard
labor, and reduction of food rations.”
A
‘natural leader’
When
asked about his fellow inmate who occupied the cell next to his in Insein
Prison, Turnell told RFA via email that Khin Maung Shwe was the most admirable
human being he had ever known and the kind of person who could have changed
Myanmar for the better.
“[He
was] smart, resourceful, empathetic, and with a practical and intuitive
understanding of economic policy-making to boot,” Turnell wrote.
“I
had nothing that I needed to cope with a situation way beyond my experience or
resources,” he said. “In numerous acts of incredible generosity he shared
whatever he had, and defended me against some of the guards who tried to
intimidate this 'foreigner.' He had not much himself except his courage,
compassion and humanity.”
Turnell
said Khin Maung Shwe helped him secure food, taught him how to keep his clothes
clean and dry, and “provided me with all the implements I needed to stay alive”
while incarcerated.
Source:
RFA
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/beating-12062022180506.html
--------
Kazakhstan Inks Agreement to Manage Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif Railway
By
Arif Ahmadi
December
6, 2022
Kabul,
Afghanistan – The Afghan officials signed management of the
Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif railway with a Kazakhstani company named Mansour Fatih,
after months of discussion on the topic.
The
company will manage technical issues for the railway, getting paid over $4.1
million annually, according to sources.
According
to Bakht Rahman Sharafat, the acting head of Afghanistan Railway Authority, the
current leadership will pay only about 25% of what the previous Uzbekistan
company would receive for the service.
“We
were paying $15 million to the Sogdiana Trans, and the Sogdiana Trans company
from Uzbekistan was only providing us service for 22 kilometers, only in
Hairatan port,” he said as TOLOnews qutoed.
“This
new company (Mansour Faith) will provide service for 106 kilometers,” he added.
Meanwhile,
the deputy head of the Fatih Company, Bisn Bai Makhanov, said that they would
increase the number of employees based on capacity.
“We
have earned this contract through bidding,” he said.
Asian
Development Bank helped Afghanistan build a 75-kilometer single-line railway
between the town of Hairatan and Mazar-e-Sharif, the second largest city in the
country.
Hairatan
serves as the gateway for almost half of Afghanistan’s total imports. The
project will also upgrade the train stations and provide institutional support
to develop a railway sector plan.
Railway
Lines in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
has three railway lines in the north of the country: The first is between
Mazar-i-Sharif and the border town of Hairatan in Balkh province, which then
connects with Uzbek Railways of Uzbekistan.
The
second links Torghundi in Herat province with Turkmen Railways of Turkmenistan.
The third is between Turkmenistan and Aqina in Faryab province of Afghanistan,
which extends south to the city of Andkhoy.
The
country currently lacks a passenger rail service, but a new rail link from
Herat to Khaf in Iran for both cargo and passengers was recently completed.
Passenger
service is also proposed in Hairatan – Mazar-i-Sharif section and
Mazar-i-Sharif – Aqina section.
Afghanistan’s
rail network is still in the developing stage. The current rail lines are to be
extended in the near future, the plans include lines for cargo traffic as well
as passenger transportation.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/kazakhstan-inks-agreement-to-manage-hairatan-mazar-e-sharif-railway/
--------
At
Least 7 Killed and 6 Injured in Explosion in Northern Afghanistan
By
Saqalain Eqbal
December
6, 2022
Security
officials in the northern Afghan province of Balkh said that an explosion in
Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh, on Tuesday resulted in at
least 7 fatalities and 6 injuries.
According
to the sources, a roadside mine detonation in the Said Abad intersection of
Mazar-e-Sharif’s police district 3 took place on Tuesday, December 6.
The
spokesperson for the Balkh chief of police, Asif Waziri, said that the
explosion targeted a 505-type bus carrying oil employees of Hairatan port.
The
security official of Balkh province said the explosion has resulted in 7
confirmed fatalities and 6 injuries according to the preliminary reports of the
blast.
He
further stated that the death toll could swell given the severity of the
explosion and the passengers who were in the targeted vehicle at the time of
the explosion.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/at-least-7-killed-and-6-injured-in-explosion-in-northern-afghanistan-764354/
--------
Afghanistan
to Receive Over $100 Million in Aid from Japan
By
Saqalain Eqbal
December
6, 2022
The
government of Japan will provide roughly 106.7 million dollars to Afghanistan,
according to a statement from the Japanese Embassy in Kabul, to support the
realization of humanitarian programs and basic needs.
The
embassy stated in a tweet sent out this morning, Tuesday, December 6, that
these assistance projects would be carried out by UN agencies, and other
international, and non-governmental organizations with the objective of
enhancing livelihoods using a variety of approaches.
According
to the Japanese Embassy, with the addition of this aid package, Japan’s overall
assistance to Afghanistan from August 2021 to the present will amount to $335
million.
After
the current administration took control of Afghanistan, Japan has now provided
the country with three aid packages. Previously, in October, the Japanese
government provided Afghanistan with a donation of roughly $58 million.
The
Japanese media previously reported that the government of Japan has decided to
provide the poverty-stricken and war-torn Afghanistan with over $100 million in
aid to address the current humanitarian crisis in the country.
According
to the Japanese government, the assistance would be distributed to 16
international organizations, including the UN World Food Program (WFP), World
Health Organization (WHO), and the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund
(UNICEF), to help improve medical and health conditions and provide food and
water.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/afghanistan-to-receive-over-100-million-in-aid-from-japan-35784/
--------
Southeast Asia
Agreements
worth $29 billion to be signed during China’s Xi visit to Saudi Arabia
06
December ,2022
More
than 20 initial agreements worth SAR 110 billion ($29.26 billion) will be
signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week,
the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Tuesday.
The
Chinese president will embark on an official visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday
at the invitation of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
Xi’s
visit to the Kingdom will run until December 9 during which a Saudi-Chinese
summit headed by King Salman and the Chinese president, with the participation
of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will be held.
In
addition to the deals, China and Saudi Arabia will sign a strategic partnership
agreement and a plan to harmonize the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 with China’s Belt
and Road Initiative.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
The
daunting task facing new Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim: uniting a
divided country
December
6, 2022
James
Chin
It’s
been some journey for Anwar Ibrahim, the new Malaysian prime minister appointed
last month. It took 24 years to go from being the country’s deputy prime
minister in 1998 to becoming the prime minister today, at 75 years old. Along
the way, he was jailed twice, found guilty on charges of sodomy, beaten up by
the police commissioner, charged with corruption and finally, received a royal
pardon.
Many
consider Anwar to be one of the only real Muslim democrats fighting to keep
Malaysia multiracial and multicultural. On the surface, this was the fairytale
ending for that fight.
No
single coalition won the bare majority required to form government when the
election results were announced on November 19. After five days and direct
intervention by the king and the Malay Rulers, Anwar was picked to be the prime
minister after proving he could cobble together a majority coalition under
Pakatan Harapan (The Alliance of Hope).
It’s
likely many Western governments breathed a sigh of relief on seeing Anwar
triumph, as the other leading coalition, Perikatan Nasional (National
Alliance), was running on a conservative, nationalistic Islamic platform. There
wasn’t a single ethnic Chinese or Indian elected under the Perikatan Nasional,
despite the fact non-Malays make up at least one-third of the population.
Anwar’s
coalition, on the other hand, had more than 40 elected Chinese and Indian MPs.
No
wonder many are calling the Anwar administration the “New Malaysia”. Yet the
challenges facing Anwar are colossal.
A
divided Malaysia
Malaysia
after the polls is a totally divided country. The two biggest parties in
parliament are Parti Islam Malaysia (part of the conservative Perikatan
Nasional) and the Democratic Action Party (part of Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan
coalition). Parti Islam Malaysia won 49 seats, making it the largest single
party in the 222-seat parliament. The Democratic Action Party is the second
largest party with 40 seats.
Parti
Islam Malaysia, as the name suggests, wants Malaysia to be a fully-fledged
Islamic state, including throwing out the current constitution and Westminster
style of government. It also strongly believes non-Muslims in Malaysia
shouldn’t enjoy full political rights, but instead be treated as “dhimmi”.
Dhimmi
is an Islamic term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state. Often translated
into English as “protected person”, a dhimmi doesn’t enjoy equal political
rights as a Muslim and must pay a special tax to the Islamic state to retain
their protected status. This status includes rights like property, life and the
right to follow non-Islamic religions.
Among
Islamic scholars there are disputes over exactly what a dhimmi person is
entitled to under an Islamic state, but they all agree a dhimmi isn’t
recognised as a full citizen, as understood by the West, in an Islamic state.
The
Democratic Action Party is totally opposite to Parti Islam Malaysia. Largely
supported by non-Malays (receiving about 90% of the ethnic Chinese vote), it
believes in a liberal, secular Malaysia where everyone enjoys the same
political rights.
The
majority of the Malay community is becoming more conservative and supports
Parti Islam Malaysia, while most non-Muslims are equally strong in supporting
the liberal, secular Democratic Action Party. Since their ideologies are poles
apart, we are really looking at two different Malaysias.
Racial
politics
If
that wasn’t complicated enough, people often forget there’s a third distinct
political circle. There are two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo –
Sabah and Sarawak. They are totally different from Peninsular Malaysia in terms
of history, demography, language and culture.
Sabah
and Sarawak are very multiracial. Interracial and intercultural marriages are
common, and there’s little in the way of a religious divide. While political
Islam is trying to make headway in both states, locals have made it clear they
reject the extreme form of Islam promoted by Parti Islam Malaysia.
For
the past half century, the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak have watched the
obsession with racial politics and the rise of political Islam in the
peninsular with bewilderment and fear. Many remember a time prior to the 1970s
when Islam in the region was not used as a weapon in the political arena.
Political
Islam in Malaysia only really took off after the 1979 Iranian revolution and
the influx of Saudi money for spreading Islam in the region in the 1980s.
Many
in Malaysia saw the rise of political Islam, but nobody expected it to arrive
so soon. For years people were warning that “identity politics” had taken over
the Malay community and it was more or less unstoppable.
Parti
Islam Malaysia had been laying the groundwork since the 1990s by building
private Islamic kindergartens, Islamic high schools, and Tahfiz schools (Quran
memory schools). This indoctrination was allowed to proceed because the
Malaysian authorities were afraid of offending the religious establishment, and
the state itself was in competition with Parti Islam Malaysia to show who was
more Islamic.
So
we have three different Malaysias: Parti Islam Malaysia’s Islamic version, the
Democratic Action Party’s secular version, and the pluralistic Borneo version.
Can
Anwar Ibrahim, the man who wrote a book on “his vision for a more tolerant,
pluralistic Asia”, bring the three into a single modern, progressive state?
Source: The Conversation
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
DAP
pledged to uphold position of Islam, Malay rights, says DPM Zahid
06
Dec 2022
ROMPIN,
Dec 6 — Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today that DAP
has provided guarantees to accept and comply with the four Articles enshrined
in the Federal Constitution, including Islam and the special rights of Malays.
Ahmad
Zahid, who is also Umno president, said the other two Articles relate to Malay
Rulers and the Malay language, adding that the guarantee was provided by DAP
secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook during a meeting between Barisan
Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) before the forming of the Unity
Government.
Umno
deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri
Dr Zambry Abd Kadir were also present at the meeting.
"My
first question as BN president was what about the position of Islam, Malay
rights, Malay language and the Malay Rulers? When the question was posed, the
DAP secretary-general replied, we are the new DAP, new leadership and we accept
all Articles in the Constitution, including those four,” he said in a speech at
a gathering at Dewan Terbuka Rompin here today, in the presence of Mohamad,
Zambry and Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail.
He
added that party grassroots need not worry because he as Umno president and BN
chairman would never sell them out, and would ensure the party remains relevant
to continue championing the rights and needs of the people.
"I
urge myself and all levels of the party... this is our test. We must preserve.
Do not let our differences in opinion lead to schism.
"Close
ranks and unite so that Umno and BN can continue to be relevant not only in the
Unity Government but also for the future. We promise to serve the people
together with our friends in the government,” he said, as he reminded BN
elected representatives at state and parliamentary levels to serve the people
throughout the entire five-year period and not just in ‘seasons’.
Ahmad
Zahid also urged voters voting in the Tioman state election to choose BN
candidate BN Datuk Seri Mohd Johari Hussain as a show of support to the Unity
Government, both in Pahang and at the federal level.
He
also promised to assist development in Tioman as prioritised by Wan Rosdy,
including upgrading the cargo jetty in Kampung Tekek, Pulau Tioman, building a
new mosque in Felda Selendang and constructing a mini stadium at Kampung Kolam
here.
The
election for Tioman state seat will take place tomorrow following its
postponement after the death of Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Md Yunus
Ramli, 61, hours before polling began on Nov 19.
The
election will see a contest between Mohd Johari, Nor Idayu Hashim (PN), Osman A
Bakar (Pejuang) and independent candidate, Sulaiman Bakar.
Source:
Malay Mail
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
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Can
South-East Asia stop the advance of Islamist extremism?
SHOLTO
BYRNES
December
6, 2022
This
year’s G20 summit, held in Bali, Indonesia, featured a first: the G20 Religious
Forum, or R20, organised by two of the world's largest Islamic non-governmental
organisations, the Muslim World League based in Makkah, and Indonesia’s up to
90-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama. As well as the leaders of those two groups,
speakers included a Catholic cardinal, the secretary general of the Protestant
World Evangelical Alliance, and high-level representatives of Hinduism,
Shintoism, Judaism and the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq.
The
R20 communique called for religious and political leaders “to join in building
a global alliance founded upon shared civilisational values” and the launch was
announced of the East-West Bridge Building Initiative – a new NGO “designed to
use religious diplomacy to build bridges between diverse groups around the
world”.
This
Islamic-led event was fitting for South-East Asia, a region with a Muslim
population of about 240 million people, but which also contains hundreds of
millions of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Taoists and others, and is guided by
the principle of “unity in diversity” – the national motto of the R20’s host
country, Indonesia, and a frequently cited phrase in Malaysia, the other main
Muslim-majority country in the region.
This
was reinforced in the latter by the recent formation of a national unity
government under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. More than half of his cabinet
are Muslim Malays, but the rest are made up of Chinese, Indian and indigenous
ethnic groups from the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak. With the country’s
chief Sharia judge taking up the position of religious affairs minister, the
line-up underlines the long-standing view of successive Malaysian governments
that there is no contradiction between being a devoted Muslim and being
tolerant of others. On the surface, all seems to match up with the much-vaunted
claim that moderation is a way of life in the region.
But
even as states in another area home to hundreds of millions of Muslims – the
Arabian Gulf – are becoming more open and progressive, while being careful to preserve
their Islamic culture, values, traditions and laws, there is an emerging tide
in the other direction in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the latter, there was a
huge vote swing to the Islamist party PAS in last month’s general election. The
party won the largest number of seats – 49 – in the country’s 222-seat
parliament, and in the negotiations that followed, since no one had a majority,
a federal government dominated by PAS was a real possibility.
Most
Malaysians, for whom worries about the cost of living and the impact of severe
flooding during the current monsoon are their main concerns, will be very glad
that did not happen. Where PAS is in power, in the state of Terengganu, it has
in the past few days shown its priorities for the 21st century by introducing
fines for hair salons that allow customers of both sexes and legislation to
make sorcery, an evil with which the country is hardly plagued, a criminal
offence.
Of
course there is nothing wrong with people having conservative views on religion
or morality, but in the past compromises were always made in the interests of
diversity and national unity. In Malaysia, Sharia, mainly to do with family
matters, applies only to Muslims, and not to the 36 per cent of the population
who are not. In Indonesia, Aceh province is the only local government allowed
to enforce Islamic criminal law as it was granted special autonomy as part of
an agreement to end an insurgency. The constitution guarantees “all persons the
right to worship according to their own religion or belief”, and while the
country’s guiding philosophy, Pancasila, includes “belief in the divinity of
God”, it does not specify a particular religion.
The
demand that the rules of one community should be the rules for all is not new,
but it is being articulated far more noisily and angrily now, and the chances
that those demands will be translated into legislative action are far higher
than in the past. This is a threat to pluralism and stability – as Malaysia’s
nine hereditary rulers, who are heads of Islam in their states, recognised when
they issued a statement last week urging all to “cease and desist” racial and
religious incitement, and instil the “spirit of togetherness” among Malaysians
instead.
Perhaps
some have been complacent about this rising tide of religious conservatism and,
far more worryingly, intolerance, because the changes have been incremental
over many decades. In Indonesia, there was no place in politics for such
sentiments under the 30-year rule of Gen Suharto. Within three months of his
resignation in 1998, however, 42 Islamist parties had been formed. In Malaysia,
many date the beginning of this trend to then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s
taking on a young Islamist firebrand as his protege in 1982. Mr Anwar rapidly
scaled the ministerial ranks, becoming deputy prime minister until falling out
with his mentor in 1998.
Today
a much-changed Mr Anwar is Prime Minister, and Indonesian President Joko
Widodo, also considered a reformer, was one of the first to call to
congratulate him. But protecting the pluralism so cherished by their countries
is a challenge for both Muslim leaders. One solution may be that, just as some
allege that in the past, the trend towards religious conservatism owed much to
Middle East-funded dakwa – missionary – activities, South-East Asia should
consider today the example of a Gulf that is forging a path where religion and
modernity not only co-exist but complement each other.
Source:
The National News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
1
killed, 3 injured in blast at Indonesian police station
December
7, 2022
JAKARTA:
One person was killed and several were wounded in an explosion at a police
station in Indonesia’s West Java province today shortly after a man with a
knife entered the building, police said.
Bandung
police official Aswin Sipayung told Metro TV that the explosion occurred just
after the man went into the police building at about 8.20am.
National
police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan told the detik.com news website that the
person killed was the suspected perpetrator of the attack.
Police
did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
Footage
from Metro TV showed damage to the police station, with some debris from the
building on the ground and smoke rising from the scene. Residents told local
media they had heard a loud explosion.
The
source of the blast was not immediately clear.
Islamic
militants have carried out attacks in the world’s largest Muslim-majority
nation, including at churches, police stations and venues frequented by
foreigners.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
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Anwar files suit against Perak PAS chief over LGBT claims
December
5, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: Anwar Ibrahim has filed a defamation suit against Perak PAS chief Razman
Zakaria over the latter’s claim that Anwar, who is PKR president, would promote
a LGBT agenda, allow same-sex marriage and support the communist agenda.
The
suit was filed at the High Court in Taiping, which issued a summons for Razman
to appear in court. He has been given 14 days to make an appearance.
Anwar
is demanding damages and an injunction to prevent Razman from making further
defamatory statements against him.
The
suit follows a letter of demand for a public apology, RM5 million in damages
and a written assurance that he will not repeat the allegations.
Anwar’s
lawyer, SN Nair, had previously said Razman’s allegations implied that Anwar
had abused his powers as an MP, was deceitful, a traitor, a hypocrite and not a
good Muslim.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Mideast
Regime
in Tehran ‘terrified’ of opposition figures inside Iran, abroad: PMOI
spokesperson
December
06, 2022
LONDON:
A fire at the London office of an Iranian opposition group is proof the regime
in Iran is “terrified” of its opponents both inside and outside the country,
according to a spokesperson for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran
Organization.
The
blaze started in a shed next to the PMOI offices in Cricklewood, northwest
London, during the early hours of Monday morning, police confirmed.
The
London Fire Brigade also said it sent three engines after being called to a
fire at 2:15 a.m. with firefighters finding the ground-floor bin room
destroyed. The service said that no injuries were reported.
Metropolitan
Police Detective Superintendent Tony Bellis ruled out the fire being a targeted
attack or caused by terror-related motives, but did say the incident was being
investigated with the help of the Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command “due to the
location of the incident and the organization based at the adjacent premises.”
However,
the National Council of Resistance of Iran, of which the PMOI is a member,
issued a statement accusing the Iranian regime of being behind the attack.
Hossein
Abedini, the deputy director of the UK office of the Parliament in exile of the
NCRI, said: “State terrorism is in the DNA of the clerical regime.”
He
added: “With the rise and continuation of the nationwide uprising of the
Iranian people to overthrow the mullahs, which has continued for 80 days
despite brutal repression, the clerical regime has resorted to more terrorism
and threats against the Iranian opposition to compensate for its critical
situation and to boost the morale to its demoralized forces.”
Aware
that the PMOI is the most organized and efficient opposition force within Iran
and runs highly effective campaigns abroad, the regime in Tehran “from Ali
Khamenei down, top to bottom” wants to “scare and silence” PMOI operatives
behind ongoing protests rocking the country, spokeswoman Laila Jazaeri told
Arab News.
“They
are definitely terrified, because Khamenei has no solutions (to the unrest)
inside Iran,” she said. “They are using live ammunition, (we’ve seen) 700
deaths, 30,000 arrests, only in the past five days 13 people were executed
including a woman.”
She
added that the regime also fears a new generation of Iranian protesters active
in this year’s unrest who have “no fear” and are “not going to go back home
until the regime is gone.”
The
fire comes shortly after the head of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence
agency, recently said security services had foiled more than a dozen planned
attacks by Tehran on people who are considered “enemies of the regime” based in
the UK.
“The
(Iranian) regime hasn’t been able to suppress the protests inside the country,
and now it is exporting its terrorism and suppression outside Iranian borders,”
Jazaeri said, adding that she had been warned by police about threats to her
own safety.
The
NCRI’s Abedini said it was time that governments and authorities pushed for
Iranian embassies to be shut down.
“The
time has come for a decisive response. It is time for the Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps to be proscribed as a terrorist entity in its entirety and the
embassies of the clerical regime, which are the centers of terror and
espionage, be closed immediately,” he added.
Jazaeri,
echoing Abedini’s statement, told Arab News that the PMOI in the UK had been
pushing for the closure of Tehran’s embassy in London.
“We’ve
been putting pressure on (authorities) for the shutting down of the Iranian
Embassy, trying to tell them that it is merely an espionage house, where they
recruit terrorists and carry out money-laundering. It should be closed down,”
she said.
Source:
Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2211806/world
--------
Iran sentences five protesters to death over death of Basij member
06
December ,2022
Iran
has sentenced five protesters to death for their alleged role in the killing of
a member of the pro-regime Basij militia, the judiciary said on Tuesday,
bringing to 11 the total number of people sentenced to death over the unrest
sparked by Masha Amini’s death.
Judiciary
spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said 11 others, including three minors, were
sentenced to “long-term imprisonment” for their alleged role in the death of
Ruhollah Ajamian, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The
court rulings are not final and could be appealed, said Setayeshi.
According
to state media, Ajamian was killed by a group of “rioters” – a term used by
authorities to refer to anti-regime protesters – in the city of Karaj last
month.
The
Basij is a paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran typically deploys members of the Basij across the country when faced with
protests to suppress them.
Iran
has reported the deaths of several Basij members since the start of protests
sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman
Amini in mid-September.
Amini
had been detained by Tehran’s morality police for allegedly not complying with
the regime’s strict hijab rules.
Demonstrators
have been calling for the downfall of the regime in the protests which have
become one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its
establishment in 1979.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Hamas briefs embassies about 'Zionist plans' for Al-Aqsa Mosque
December
6, 2022
The
Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has briefed fifty embassies and foreign
institutions in the occupied Palestinian territories about the "Zionist
plans" for Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hamas sent a letter containing details of the
meeting between senior Israeli police officers and settler leaders involved in
raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. The meeting was apparently held
in the presence of Ayala Ben-Gvir, the wife of far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir,
who is to become Minister of National Security.
"The
settler leaders called during the meeting for an increase in the number and duration
of raids at Al-Aqsa Mosque," the movement told the embassies in the letter
also circulated to the media. It added that the illegal settlers want more
gates leading into the mosque compound to be opened for them, and reduced
police supervision. The demands of the settlers, said Hamas, were met to such
an extent as to "secure the settlers' movement, safety and security."
The
Palestinian resistance movement pointed out that, "These dangerous plans
and policies will inflame the situation inside and outside the occupied
Palestinian territories."
Hamas
reiterated that Al-Aqsa Mosque is not like any other mosque; it is the third
holiest place for more than 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, and its
protection is part of their religious beliefs.
Moreover,
documented historical research published by UN bodies has not proven beyond
doubt any Jewish religious or other right to the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa
Mosque, insisted the movement. It added that international resolutions and
conventions covering the situation in the mosque call on the occupying power to
maintain the status quo. Israel's annexation of Jerusalem as its
"undivided capital" is not recognised in international law.
Source:
Middle East Monitor
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Al-Khatib:
'Al-Aqsa will never be for anyone except Muslims'
December
6, 2022
Deputy
Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, yesterday
reiterated that "Al-Aqsa Mosque will never be for anyone except
Muslims."
Speaking
to Kuwait's Al-Mugtama Magazine, Al-Khatib stressed that the "dangerous
conspiracies against Al-Aqsa Mosque and its Western Wall necessitate that all
Palestinians come together and make sure that they will never give up their
rights to this holy site."
He
called on Palestinians to double their presence within the mosque's yards.
Israelis,
backed by the Israeli government and protected by heavily armed occupation
forces, carry out daily raids into Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source:
Middle East Monitor
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Iran
says nine people face death penalty over nuclear scientist’s assassination
06
December ,2022
Nine
people will face the death penalty in Iran over the assassination of one of the
country’s top nuclear scientists, the judiciary said Tuesday.
Mohsen
Fakhrizadeh was killed when his car was ambushed on a highway outside Tehran in
November 2020, in an attack Iran blamed on its regional arch-foe Israel.
The
nine defendants were charged with “corruption on earth” and collusion with Israel,
both capital offenses in the Islamic Republic, judiciary spokesman Massoud
Setayeshi said.
“Fakhrizadeh’s
case has 15 defendants,” Setayeshi told a news conference.
Along
with those facing the death penalty, a further six people had “other accusations”
leveled against them, he said.
In
September, Tehran’s chief prosecutor Ali Salehi had announced 14 people were
indicted in the case.
The
charges against them included “colluding with the purpose of disrupting
national security” and “actions against national security,” Salehi said at the
time.
Fakhrizadeh
had been under US sanctions for his role in Iran’s nuclear program when he was
killed.
Iranian
authorities claimed the attack included a bombing and a remote-controlled
machine gun.
Israel
has never commented on the killing.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Shops
close across Iran amid strike calls; judiciary blames ‘rioters’
05
December ,2022
Iranian
shops shut their doors in several cities on Monday, following calls for a
three-day nationwide general strike from protesters seeking the fall of
clerical rulers, with the head of the judiciary blaming “rioters” for
threatening shopkeepers.
Iran
has been rocked by nationwide unrest following the death of Iranian Kurdish
woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 in police custody, posing one of the strongest
challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Amini
was arrested by Iran’s morality police for flouting the strict hijab policy,
which requires women to dress modestly and wear headscarves.
The
semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday that an amusement park at a
Tehran shopping center was closed by the judiciary because its operators were
not wearing the hijab properly.
The
reformist-leaning Hammihan newspaper said that morality police had increased
their presence in cities outside Tehran, where the force has been less active
over recent weeks.
Iran’s
public prosecutor on Saturday was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour
News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded. But there
was no confirmation from the Interior Ministry and state media said the public
prosecutor was not responsible for overseeing the force.
Last
week, Vice President for Women’s Affairs Ensieh Khazali said that the hijab was
part of the Islamic Republic’s general law and that it guaranteed women’s
social movement and security.
In
the shop protests, 1500tasvir, a Twitter account with 380,000 followers focused
on the protests, shared videos on Monday of shut stores in key commercial
areas, such as Tehran’s Bazaar, and other large cities such as Karaj, Isfahan,
Mashhad, Tabriz, and Shiraz.
Reuters
could not immediately verify the footage.
The
head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, said that “rioters” were
threatening shopkeepers to close their businesses and added they would be
swiftly dealt with by the judiciary and security bodies. Ejei added that
protesters condemned to death would soon be executed.
The
Revolutionary Guards issued a statement praising the judiciary and calling on
it to swiftly and decisively issue a judgement against “defendants accused of
crimes against the security of the nation and Islam.”
Security
forces would show no mercy towards “rioters, thugs, terrorists”, the
semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the guards as saying.
Witnesses
speaking to Reuters said riot police and the Basij militia had been heavily
deployed in central Tehran.
The
semi-official Fars news agency confirmed that a jewelry shop belonging to
former Iranian football legend Ali Daei was sealed by authorities, following
its decision to close down for the three days of the general strike.
Similar
footage by 1500tasvir and other activist accounts was shared of closed shops in
smaller cities like Bojnourd, Kerman, Sabzevar, Ilam, Ardabil and Lahijan.
Kurdish
Iranian rights group Hengaw also reported that 19 cities had joined the general
strike movement in western Iran, where most of the country’s Kurdish population
live.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
US
forces trained senior PKK/YAT terrorist 'neutralized' by Türkiye, Ankara
confirms
Ferdi
Turkten
07.12.2022
US
forces in Syria trained a senior PKK/YAT terrorist who was neutralized by
Türkiye in July, Turkish security sources confirmed on Wednesday.
Security
sources said the neutralized terrorist was Civana Heso, code-named Roj Habur,
one of the three terrorists who were "neutralized" by the Turkish
military in late July. She was the so-called Jazira regional head of the
PKK/YAT in Syria.
After
the three terrorists were neutralized, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) praised
them and extended a message of condolence to their families, a move harshly
criticized by Turkish officials.
"Salwa
Yusuk (AKA Ciyan Afrin) a Deputy Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) -- along with 2 fellow female fighters -- was killed in an attack near
Qamishli, Syria, on July 22, 2022," CENTCOM said on Twitter on July 24.
Türkiye
has long criticized US support for the terrorist PKK and its offshoot in Syria,
known as the YPG. While Washington claims it fights Daesh/ISIS terrorists with
the help of its PKK/YPG allies, Ankara says using one terror group to fight
another makes no sense.
The
terrorist Heso received special military training from US forces in Syria and
in turn trained more terrorists to act against Türkiye at the so-called Dilovan
academy, where she had previously given PKK/YPG terrorists assassination
training, according to the security sources.
Members
of the organization trained by the terrorist harassed and attacked Turkish
forces in the Operation Peace Spring zone in northern Syria and in Türkiye's
southeastern Mardin and Sirnak provinces.
The
PKK established its so-called anti-terrorist units, known as the YAT, in 2014,
operating as supposed special forces in Syria and engaging in organized
infiltration, ambushes, and similar actions against security forces on the
border, the sources said.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Israel
says won’t allow interrogation of soldiers over journalist’s death
Abdelraouf
Arnaout
06.12.2022
JERUSALEM
Outgoing
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Tuesday he will not allow any
interrogation of Israeli soldiers in connection with the killing of Al Jazeera
journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
"No
one will interrogate the IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about
fighting morals, certainly not Al Jazeera network," Lapid said on Twitter.
Early
on Tuesday, Al Jazeera television said it filed a lawsuit with the
International Criminal Court (ICC) over Abu Akleh’s killing while covering an
Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank.
The
Doha-based network said the lawsuit includes “new witness evidence and video
footage that clearly show that Abu Akleh and her colleagues were directly fired
at by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).”
“The
evidence presented to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) confirms, without any
doubt, that there was no firing in the area where Shireen was, other than the
IOF shooting directly at her,” Al Jazeera said.
Abu
Akleh, 51, a Palestinian-American journalist, was killed on May 11, and the
Palestinian Health Ministry said she was shot in the head while covering an
Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.
In
September, the Israeli army said Abu Akleh was likely killed by
"wrong" gunfire from an Israeli soldier.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
Africa
Burkina
Faso bans French state broadcaster for giving voice to Islamic militants
December
7, 2022
Press
freedom groups have condemned Burkina Faso's halting of broadcasts by French
media outlet Radio France International (RFI).
Ouagadougou's
military leaders linked the ban to RFI reporting that the junta describes as
false. Critics say the military is seeking to control news and information as
it struggles against worsening insecurity. Burkina Faso is the second West
African country, after Mali, to take the French broadcaster off the air. Both
countries are under military rule.
In
a statement, the Burkinabe military junta says RFI made false reports
pertaining to an alleged foiled coup attempt last week and had given voice to
Islamist militants. In the wake of the ban, announced Saturday, RFI issued a
separate statement saying it “strongly deplores” the authorities’ actions and
will "explore all avenues to restore RFI's broadcasting.”
RFI
also cited its unwavering commitment to the freedom to inform and to the
“professional work of its journalists. Jonathan Rozen is with the Committee to
Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group.
“The
Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by and investigating the suspension
of French broadcaster RFI in Burkina Faso. It’s unfortunate that as people in
Burkina Faso and across the Sahel grapple with insecurity, authorities have
chosen to deny access to a prominent source of news and information,” he said.
Reporters
Without Borders, or RSF, says the authorities' decision will prevent other
journalists from reporting on terrorism and could be illegal. Sadibou Marong is
RSF’s West Africa director.
“CSC
is the media regulator, which according to the law has the prerogative to
suspend or sanction the media. Unless the law has been changed this is also a
violation of the media regulation laws,” said Marong.
Burkina
Faso has been at war with militants linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda for
more than six years. As the violence has worsened, so has political
instability, with the country enduring two military coups this year, one in
January, one in September. Both juntas have promised to resolve the country’s
security problems.
Andrew
Lebovich is an analyst with Clingendael Institute, a Netherlands-based research
group. He says the current junta led by Ibrahim Traoré is under increasing
pressure to produce results.
“Attacks
have continued, and the junta is still significantly under threat and still
faces I think important pressures. I think political pressures, but also
pressure even potentially within the military, so there’s a lot for them to
balance right now and I don’t think they’ve shown real signs of success yet,”
he said.
The
action against RFI comes after a number of anti-French protests across the
country in recent months. Some blame Burkina Faso's military partnership with
its former colonizer for the failure to stop the violence.
Source:
Observer
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
--------
Human
rights commission ‘outraged’ as State Department excludes Nigeria from
watchlist
Dec
07, 2022
By
Jonah McKeown
For
the second year in a row Nigeria has been left off of the U.S. State
Department’s list of countries that engage in or tolerate the world’s worst
religious freedom violations, despite regular reports of kidnappings and
killings of Christians, sparking outcry from members of a bipartisan government
watchdog group. For more than two decades, the U.S. president has been required
to annually review the status of religious freedom in every country in the
world and designate those governments and entities that perpetrate or tolerate
“severe” religious freedom violations as Countries of Particular Concern
(CPCs). U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this year’s
designations on Dec. 2, and although several Islamic terrorist groups active in
Nigeria were listed, Nigeria itself was not. In Nigeria as a whole, at least
60,000 Christians have been killed, many by their Muslim countrymen, over the
past two decades. An estimated 3,462 Christians were killed in Nigeria in the
first 200 days of 2021, or 17 per day, according to a study.The U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a statement that its
leaders were “outraged” by Nigeria’s exclusion from the list as well as the
exclusion of India, where reports of Hindu nationalism and violence against
Christians have emerged in recent years.
“There
is no justification for the State Department’s failure to recognize Nigeria or
India as egregious violators of religious freedom, as they each clearly meet
the legal standards for designation as CPCs. USCIRF is tremendously
disappointed that the Secretary of State did not implement our recommendations
and recognize the severity of the religious freedom violations that both USCIRF
and the State Department have documented in those countries,” said USCIRF chair
Nury Turkel. “The State Department’s own reporting includes numerous examples
of particularly severe religious freedom violations in Nigeria and
India.”Nigeria was included in the State Department’s list of CPCs in 2020 but
not in the 2021 or 2022 lists, despite Christians reporting little to no
improvement in their situations. USCIRF has been recommending the designation
of Nigeria as a CPC since 2009. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and
the demographics overall are almost evenly split between Christians and
Muslims. Nigeria’s Christians, especially in the northern part of the country,
have for the past several decades been subjected to brutal property
destruction, killings, and kidnappings, often at the hands of Islamic extremist
groups. Some U.S. and Nigerian officials have characterized the attacks as
climate-change-spurred clashes over resources and land, a claim that Christian
leaders have denounced as “incorrect and far-fetched.”Nigerian Christians have
said that the Muslim-controlled government has largely responded slowly,
inadequately, or not at all to the problem of Christian persecution. President
Muhammadu Buhari’s government, in power since 2015, has been accused by Amnesty
International and other human rights groups of ineptitude, indifference, and
even complicity in the surge of raids, killings, kidnappings, and rapes
targeting Catholics and other Christians.Bishop Jude Arogundade, bishop of the
Diocese of Ondo in southwestern Nigeria, observed to CNA that “whenever the
[U.S.] Democrats are in power they look away from the killings of Christians in
Nigeria. It was very visible during Obama’s administration. We will keep up the
pressure to get the world’s attention. Those who have died will not die in
vain.”
Arogundade
knows firsthand about the persecution that Christians are facing in Nigeria —
in June, a group of armed men attacked a parish in his diocese, St. Francis
Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, killing at least 41 people. That community is
“still waiting for justice,” said Arogundade. Other Nigerian Catholic leaders
such as Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah have criticized the government harshly for
their “silence” despite numerous attacks on Christians.
Last
summer, five Republican U.S. senators signed a letter to Blinken calling on the
secretary of state to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.
Source:
Herald Malaysia
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Somalia
forces recapture key town from extremists
06
December ,2022
Somali
government forces and allied militias have recaptured a strategic town held by
al-Shabaab extremists since 2016, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on
Tuesday.
The
army and local clan militias known as “Macawisley” have retaken swathes of
territory in the central states of Galmudug and Hirshabelle in recent months in
an operation backed by US airstrikes and an African Union (AU) force, ATMIS.
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the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Pro-government
forces entered the town of Adan Yabal in Hirshabelle, around 220 kilometers
(140 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu, after the al-Qaeda-affiliated
extremists withdrew, the president said.
“Somali
government forces are in Adan Yabal this morning... They (al-Shabaab) did not
even fight and vacated instead,” Mohamud said in a televised address.
Colonel
Mohamed Ali, one of the operation’s commanders, told AFP the extremists fled
when they learned the army was approaching.
“We
have taken the town without any resistance and the army is in full control,” he
added.
Military
sources said the extremists pulled out on Monday evening.
ATMIS,
which supported the operation with helicopters, said al-Shabaab had used Adan
Yabal as a training base.
The
force welcomed its return to Somali government control.
The
extremists, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s
internationally backed federal government for 15 years, also used the town as a
logistics hub.
Mohamud
accused al-Shabaab of making off with electric pumps from the town’s wells and
forcing people to “flee with them, to be human shields.”
The
president, who declared an “all-out war” against al-Shabaab after his election
in May, said the effort to rid Hirshabelle and Galmudug of the group was in its
“final stages” with only “pockets” of resistance remaining.
Forced
out of the country’s main urban centers around 10 years ago, al-Shabaab remains
entrenched in vast swathes of rural central and southern Somalia and continues
to carry out deadly attacks in Mogadishu.
On
October 29, 116 people in the capital were killed in two car bomb explosions at
the education ministry, and eight civilians died in a 21-hour hotel siege on
November 27.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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Sudan’s
civilian, military parties sign framework deal for new political transition
05
December ,2022
Sudan’s
military and political parties signed a framework deal on Monday that provides
for a two-year civilian-led transition towards elections and would end a
standoff triggered by a coup in October 2021.
The
initial agreement would limit the military’s formal role to a security and
defense council headed by a prime minister, but leaves sensitive issues
including transitional justice and security sector reform for further talks.
The
deal has already faced opposition from anti-military protest groups and
factions loyal to the regime of former leader Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in
2019.
Protests
broke out in at least two areas of the capital Khartoum before the signing
ceremony at the presidential palace, an eyewitness told Reuters.
The
military did not appoint a new prime minister since last year’s coup, which
halted a power-sharing arrangement between the military and the Forces for
Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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Muslims
in Uganda protest mosque raids, arbitrary arrests
Godfey
Olukya
06.12.2022
KAMPALA,
Uganda
Muslims
in Uganda from all segments of society protested Monday against the arbitrary
arrests of Muslim leaders during raids on mosques.
Muslim
clerics, parliamentarians, businessmen and community members collectively came
out to condemn the arrests, which they say are illegal and uncalled for.
"It’s
discriminatory for the government to always raid mosques and violently arrest
sheikhs without following the law and detain them incommunicado without
producing them in courts of law," said Asuman Basalirwa, chairman of the
Parliamentary Muslim Forum and a member of parliament representing Bugiri
municipality.
Muslim
members of parliament (MPs) also protested against the disrespect of the
sanctity of mosques by security agencies which enter the places of worship with
their shoes on as they carry out arrests.
Among
those arrested recently was the deputy leader of the Tabligh Muslim sect in
Uganda, Sheikh Yahaya Mwanje, and more than 10 other Muslim worshippers. The
Muslim MPs demand that Sheikh Yahaya be released unconditionally and that
security agencies allow access to suspects by their families and lawyers or
that they be produced in courts of law.
They
further demand that other Muslims detained in prisons be produced in courts of
law or the government and the security personnel responsible for these acts
will be sued and there will be a nationwide mobilization of Muslims.
Katikamu
South MP Hassan Kirumira said they will not sit back while their fellow Muslims
are abducted illegally.
In
a related development, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council held a press
conference in the capital, Kampala, where council’s spokesman, Ashiraf Zziwa
Muvawala, condemned the violent arrests.
“We
are scared about the manner in which Muslim leaders are being arrested. Many
Muslims are being arrested nowadays, and we are not aware why they are being
arrested,” he said.
Hajj
Abdul Munyokoli, a prominent businessman, said that some Muslim businessmen
have been arrested, and up to now, they do not know where they are being held.
He said they condemn such arrests.
In
the past four weeks, more than 15 Muslims have been arrested in various parts
of the country by security agencies. Police spokesman Fred Enanga said that
some of those arrested have cases to answer for and will soon be taken to
court.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/muslims-in-uganda-protest-mosque-raids-arbitrary-arrests/2756322
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