American Muslim citizen 33-year-old Mohamed Fathy Suliman Needs Medication to Avoid Turning Into ‘Jihadist Muslim’, Charged in Attempt to Join ISIS
28
February 2021
Felony
Case Records rapper Conejo has been extradited back to Los Angeles from Mexico
to face murder charges! Reuters
-----------
•
American Muslim citizen 33-year-old Mohamed Fathy Suliman Needs Medication to
Avoid Turning Into ‘Jihadist Muslim’, Charged in Attempt to Join ISIS
• Delhi Muslims fear they
will never see justice for religious riot atrocities
•
Ask your doctor, not the Islamic scholar on safe fasting: Mufti TaqiUsmani
•
Iran To Support Syria In Fight Against Terrorism
•
Afghan security forces kill 46 Taliban terrorists in Kandahar
•
Fifteen attackers from Thailand attempt to sneak into Malaysia, says IGP
•
Saudi regime arrests brother of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr
•
Thousands rally in Tunisia to support moderate Islamist party’s push for govt
reshuffle
•
Four killed, chief imam, 25 others kidnapped in fresh attack on Kagara
North
America
•
Man Needs Medication To Avoid Turning Into ‘Jihadist Muslim,’ Charged In
Attempt To Join ISIS
•
US Intelligence Report : Murder of Khashoggi approved by MBS
•
Chef Anissa Helou Shares Foodways and Fine Art in the World of Islam
•
Rep. Lauren Boebert had this response to MSNBC host comparing her gun display
to Usama bin Laden's
•
In Iraq, pope to visit Mosul churches desecrated by Islamic State
•
Can Islamic Shrines’ Connection to Armenians Transform Azerbaijani Politics of
Erasure?
•
"FBI, New York police behind killing of US Muslim leader 'Malcolm X'"
- says family
•
Yang walks back tough anti-BDS stance during Muslim Democratic Club forum
--------
India
•
Delhi Muslims fear they will never see justice for religious riot atrocities
•
Law against 'Love jihad' not anti-Muslim, it's for all: Yogi Adityanath
•
It’s not easy being a Muslim in India
•
Kerala minister alleges racial profiling by probe agency
•
Kerala polls: Will bring law to prevent 'love jihad' if voted to power, says
BJP
•
Our community music group is much more than just a musical band: Soul’s Diet
brings Sufism to stage
•
Assam Assembly election 2021, Jania profile: Congress' Abdul Khaleque wiped out
AIUDF's Rafiqul Islam in 2016
-------
Pakistan
•
Ask your doctor, not the Islamic scholar on safe fasting: Mufti TaqiUsmani
•
TLP’s rally in Pindi puts traffic out of gear
•
Long march may not be needed: Maryam
•
Pakistan among 92 countries where UK strain detected
•
Senate poll keeps PDM committee distracted
•
Mega uplift package for Sindh by April: minister
•
Rules being framed to put special courts under IHC control
--------
Mideast
•
Iran To Support Syria In Fight Against Terrorism
•
Iran warns US claim of using ‘right to self-defense’ in assassination of Gen.
Soleimani
•
Israel blocks Palestine worshippers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque
•
PA condemns Israel violations against Islamic holy sites
•
The massacre of Ibrahimi Mosque
•
Extremist settlers storm Islamic shrines in Salfit, Ramallah under protection
of Israeli enemy forces
•
AKP, opposition leaders come together to commemorate late Islamist leader
Erbakan
•
Internet disruption reported in southeast Iran amid unrest
-------
South
Asia
•
Afghan security forces kill 46 Taliban terrorists in Kandahar
•
SL informs OIC about its decision to allow burial of Muslim Covid-19 victims
•
‘A huge relief to Muslim community’
•
Parliament delegation visits Tajikistan for the second time
•
IED explosions rock Kabul, Nangarhar provinces
•
90% of anti-terrorism operations ‘conducted’ by ANDSF: Ashraf Ghani
•
State cannot avoid responsibility
•
All credit goes to people: PM
•
Border Killings: Use non-lethal weapons
•
‘I Wake Up and Scream’: Secret Taliban Prisons Terrorize Thousands
--------
Southeast
Asia
•
Fifteen attackers from Thailand attempt to sneak into Malaysia, says IGP
•
Assigning 122 Islamic enforcers for Nur Sajatwitchhunt overzealous, says
transgender rights group
•
Jakim committee to review, strengthen Shariah criminal laws after landmark
ruling on ‘unnatural sex’
•
Driver of crashed bus carrying Covid-19 patients also tests positive for virus
•
DAP seeks to defend Malaysians from ‘financial ruin’ after govt raises Covid-19
penalties
•
IGP says RM10,000 penalty for Covid-19 super spreaders, repeat SOP violators
-------
Arab
world
•
Saudi regime arrests brother of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr
•
Egypt lifts ban on Ramadan's Taraweeh prayers in some mosques amid strict
coronavirus measures
•
Arab, Islamic states rejection of Congress report growing
•
Dubai extends Covid curbs till start of Ramadan
•
Sharjah opens new mosque with a capacity of 515 worshippers in Al Dhaid
•
Islamic financing growth to outpace conventional lending in GCC, core Islamic
markets in 2021
-------
Europe
•
Thousands rally in Tunisia to support moderate Islamist party’s push for govt
reshuffle
•
Russian air strikes ‘kill 21 Islamic State fighters’ in Syrian desert
•
Fears for religious freedom and parental rights if Equality Act becomes law
•
The battle for the soul of the Jewish community
•
Family fundraise for Twickenham COVID-19 victim
•
Staffordshire mosque to be used as a Covid vaccination centre
•
Dozens Injured During Protests Marking 27th Anniversary of Ibrahimi Mosque
Massacre
•
Anas Sarwar: UK’s first Muslim to lead a party follows in family footsteps
•
Over 60s in England to be invited for Covid-19 jab from Monday
-------
Africa
•
Four killed, chief imam, 25 others kidnapped in fresh attack on Kagara
•
Ex-DSS director: Some bandits are former Boko Haram members
•
SeyiMakinde donates 18-seater bus to Lanase Central Mosque
•
Nation of Islam economic programme (1934-1975)
•
Morocco Joins Islamic Organization for Food Security
•
How Buratai escaped Boko Haram ambush thrice –Major Banjo
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL; https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/ameri-muslim-citizen-33-year/d/124417
------
American
Muslim citizen 33-year-old Mohamed Fathy Suliman Needs Medication to Avoid
Turning Into ‘Jihadist Muslim’, Charged in Attempt to Join ISIS
Brian
Yalung
Feb
26 2021
Felony
Case Records rapper Conejo has been extradited back to Los Angeles from Mexico
to face murder charges! Reuters
--------------
When
it comes to terrorism, the United States does not take anything lightly. The case of 33-year-old Mohamed Fathy Suliman
is a bit creepy, alleging he turns into a “Jihadist Muslim” if he does not take
his medication. But it appears it goes beyond that.
Suliman
was charged on Tuesday after allegedly attempting to join ISIS. The federal
grand jury in Gainesville formally booked the US citizen for attempting to
provide material support for a designated foreign terrorist organization per
court records. The 33-year-old, if convicted, is facing up to 20 years in
prison, AP News reported.
"Protecting
national security is a top priority of this office," Lawrence Keefe, the
U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, said in a statement.
"We are absolutely committed to deterring, disrupting and dismantling the
plans of anyone who seeks to support a designated foreign terrorist
organization."
It
was in June 2014 when Suliman took a one-way flight from Orlando to Alexandria,
Egypt. Along the way, he had stops in Chicago and Istanbul. Instead of
proceeding to Egypt, he paid cash for a one-way airline ticket to the
Turkish-Syrian border town of Gaziantep, Turkey according to officials.
This
led to his arrest by Turkish authorities with the 33-year-old being accused of
illegally crossing Syrian borders. He was deported back to the United States.
Through
the course of the investigation, it was found in Suliman’s emails that he had
attachments that contained various audio files that consisted of messages
calling for jihad.
An
investigator testified that Suliman allegedly gets depressed and manic if he
does not receive medication. This was the part where he allegedly turns from a
moderate Muslim into a “Jihadist Muslim.”
Regardless,
the 33-year-old will now have to wait for his arraignment hearing to see what
lies ahead. This is set for next Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. EST. As mentioned
earlier, he faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted and faces a fine
of $250,000.
https://www.latintimes.com/man-needs-medication-avoid-turning-jihadist-muslim-charged-attempt-join-isis-466214
-------
Delhi
Muslims fear they will never see justice for religious riot atrocities
Hannah
Ellis-Petersen
28
Feb 2021
Muslims
offer Friday prayers at a mosque in Mustafabad, Delhi, two days after last
year’s riots. Photograph: Xavier Galiana/AFP via Getty
----------
For
a year, Irfan has remained almost entirely in his house, too terrified to
leave. A Muslim living in north-east Delhi, he says that his powerful Hindu
neighbours, many belonging to the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
party (BJP), are keeping a close watch on him. Jobless and afraid, he spoke in
whispers of his fear of being “eliminated” at any time.
“I
take a safe route to occasionally leave my house to see my lawyer,” said Irfan,
who requested a pseudonym for protection. “I know that BJP leaders and their
followers are after me so I move around very carefully. I have to stay alive at
least to see those who attacked me are brought to justice.”
It
was one year ago last week that Irfan’s life as a simple Muslim shopkeeper was
ripped apart: 23 February 2020, now known as the first night of the Delhi
riots.
For
three days, communal violence ripped through the north-east of India’s capital,
the worst religious conflict in the city in four decades. Though both Hindus
and Muslims were involved in the violence, it was predominantly Muslims who
fell victim to violent Hindu rightwing mobs roaming the neighbourhoods. Many of
those involved had travelled from outside Delhi and carried guns, rods and
explosives. Muslims were beaten, shot and lynched in the streets, thousands of
their shops and homes were attacked and at least four mosques were left in
charred ruins. Of the 53 who died in the violence, 40 were Muslim.
Irfan
is among those still fighting for justice. He was sheltering in his shop when a
mob of around 150 people, including many of his Hindu neighbours, descended,
throwing stones and armed with guns and rods. Irfan alleges they were led by a
local BJP leader, who put a pistol to his head. He says the rioters shouted
Hindu nationalist slogans and Muslim slurs as they looted his shop and then set
it on fire with a petrol bomb.
Irfan
had been a member of the BJP for almost a decade but, as a Muslim living in a
Hindu-majority area, it was not enough to protect him. Two days later, on 25
February, as neighbourhoods across north-east Delhi burned, the mob struck
again, targeting his house, this time allegedly led in part by Mohan Singh
Bisht, a local BJP politician who, Irfan says, threw a petrol bomb at his house
and led the mob with the cry: “Kill all katwa [kill all the circumcised
Muslims].” Several of Irfan’s neighbours confirmed this account to the
Observer.
Bisht
called the allegations lies. “There is no such case against me in any court in
the country,” he said. “I was not present in Delhi during the riots. How could
there be a case involving me in the violence?”
Yet
in the year that has passed, the police – who, Irfan alleges, were complicit in
the attacks – have repeatedly refused to register his case naming Bisht, other
local BJP leaders and some of his Hindu neighbours as the perpetrators.
More
than 25 Muslims in his neighbourhood were also allegedly denied the right to
file a case by police, despite claiming to know the identity of their
attackers.
They
took their cases to a lawyer, Mehmood Pracha, but Irfan is one of the few who
has kept up the fight after local BJP figures and police allegedly threatened
them with reprisals if they persisted in taking the matter to court. “I told
them on no condition would I withdraw,” said Irfan.
Irfan’s
case is not an isolated one. Hundreds of Muslim victims who have attempted to
file cases against their alleged Hindu attackers – who have often been
affiliated with the BJP – have spoken of being harassed and threatened by Delhi
police who have refused to register their cases. In some instances, when
victims went to police stations to identity and file their cases against
rioters, the police instead charged them or their family members with rioting.
Delhi
police, a predominantly Hindu force, is under the remit of the government’s
ministry of home affairs, led by Amit Shah, one of the most hardline Hindu
nationalist ministers in the BJP government.
Of
the nearly 1,750 people arrested in connection with the riots, more than half
are Muslim, even though disproportionate damage was done to their community. In
charge sheets filed by Delhi police, almost 70% name Muslims as the
perpetrators of attacks, even in cases when only Muslims were the victims.
Delhi police did not respond to requests for comment.
Syed
Zulfiqar, 34, a light-maker from Mohanpuri, was shot in the head on the 24
February when a local Hindu leader, whom he knew personally, fired at him
during the violence. “He pointed a gun at me and I heard him cry, ‘you are a
Muslim, we will kill you’, and then he fired the gun at me from a distance of
about 20 metres,” said Zulfiqar. “I almost died. But when I went to the police
station to register a case against this man, the police told me they would only
accept the report if I named my shooter as unidentified.” He alleges police
then filed riot charges against his brother.
Mohammad
Nasir Khan, 35, a government employee, who was shot in the eye and blinded when
a mob of influential local Hindu men he knew fired at him, has still not been
able to file his case. “I have tried so many times but it has been one year and
the police still refuse,” said Khan, wiping the gently weeping wound where his
eye once was.
Instead,
police filed their own report on Khan’s case in June, naming several Muslims as
the perpetrators of the attack and not mentioning the four local Hindus Khan
alleged shot him.
Pracha
is the lawyer representing many of these victims, yet he has also found himself
a target and, in December, his office was raided by dozens of members of Delhi
police special cell on allegations of forgery.
“Due
to the police’s proactive role in threatening, assaulting and intimidating the
riot victims, very few dare to open their mouths,” said Pracha. “The police
took some complaints from Muslim victims but only on the condition that they
would not name any police officer or any BJP member,” said Pracha.
In
several bail hearings against accused Muslims, the police have failed to
produce any evidence. At a hearing last week, a judge granted bail to three
Muslims accused of shooting another Muslim, 25-year-old Shahid Alam, during the
riots on the basis it was “hard to believe” that Muslims would kill other
Muslims in a communal riot.
Delhi
police have also been accused of protecting their own officers from being
charged. Hundreds of eyewitnesses – in allegations verified by CCTV footage –
accused police of both taking part in the attacks on Muslims, allowing the
Hindu mobs to target Muslims unimpeded and ignoring thousands of distress
calls. Last year, Amnesty International released a detailed report on the Delhi
police’s role in the riots. But not a single officer has yet been arrested or
charged.
Instead,
those who have felt the strong arm of the law since the riots are those who say
they had nothing to do with the violence at all.
After
Shah, the home minister, told parliament that the riots were a “deep
conspiracy”, Delhi police began a crackdown on anyone who had been involved in
peaceful anti-government protests in the months before the riots.
Activists,
academics, feminist collectives, students and civilians – who had been
described as “terrorists”, “traitors” and “jihadis” by government figures in
the weeks before the riots – have been charged with conspiring to stir up
communal riots in order to tarnish India’s reputation, some under draconian
terrorism laws.
Many
have described this as a turning point in the BJP government’s crushing of
democratic dissent. “The Delhi riots have been used by the police to go after
all activists and anti-government protesters in Delhi in the name of a false
conspiracy that has no basis in evidence,” said Nadeem Khan, co-founder of the
activist group United Against Hate, which has had multiple members arrested.
“The whole of Delhi civil society is living in a state of fear.”
Notably
absent from the Delhi police’s charge sheet are the names of many Hindu rioters
and BJP leaders, in particular Kapil Mishra, the local BJP leader whose speech
in north-east Delhi on 23 February, calling for his followers to clear the
Muslim protesters and “teach them a lesson”, is widely seen as sparking the
riots.
Mohammad
Jalaluddin: after being beaten almost to death last year, the imam is too
afraid to live in Delhi now. Photograph: Shaikh Azizur Rahman
Mishra
said the police had thoroughly investigated and cleared him. Echoing the Delhi
police, he said the riots were a result of a “well-planned anti-national
conspiracy by protesters to hijack the democracy of this country and create the
collapse of law and order”.
He
denied knowledge of the higher Muslim death toll in the violence, but added:
“Hitler died in world war two but do we call him a victim? Just because that
person has died doesn’t mean they were a victim. In any war or riot, more
people can die from one side because more were participating in the violence.”
Mishra
said he was working for communal harmony in north-east Delhi but added: “My
worry is that very deep-rooted hatred is being planted in the minds and hearts
of the Muslim community through false propaganda.”
In
the neighbourhoods affected by the riots, the scars are still deep and visible.
Dozens of houses sit vacant or locked up, spectral monuments to families who
fled back to their villages outside the capital, while neighbourhoods have
become divided down communal lines.
Sitting
in the recently rebuilt al-Faruqi mosque in the suburb of Mustafabad, Imam
Mohammad Jalaluddin carries a haunted look. He was beaten almost to death by
rioters who broke into the mosque and set it on fire on 25 February. His jaw,
smashed into three parts, is now constructed of steel plates and his face –
ripped completely in half – has been sewn back together. His fingers, built
back together with steel pins, no longer bend properly.
No
charges have been brought against Jalaluddin’s attackers. He and the mosque
president, Mohammad Fakhruddin, allege it was police officers who led the
violence, including firing tear gas into the mosque and beating the imams. It
was also allegedly police officers who returned the next morning to destroy the
CCTV evidence.
“I
find it very hard being in this mosque and sometimes I get flashbacks to what
happened to me and I start shaking and break into tears,” Jalaluddin said
softly.
“Next
week, I will go back to my village in Bihar and live there,” he added. “I
studied in a madrasa here since I was 10 and later became an imam. I loved this
city. But after the violence that left me almost dead –and I have survived by
the grace of Allah – I am too afraid to live here any longer.”
...
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/28/delhi-muslims-fear-they-will-never-see-justice-for-religious-riot-atrocities
--------
Ask
your doctor, not the Islamic scholar on safe fasting: Mufti Taqi
Usmani
Mohammad
Bilal Tahir
27
Feb 2021
Over
91% Muslims around the globe observed fasting in last holy month of Ramdan
despite COVID-19 pandemic and despite suffering from various chronic illnesses,
vast majority of Muslims would observe fast in the upcoming holy month, experts
and Islamic scholars said but called for more scientific evidence and research
in the area of diabetes and Ramadan to help people fast safely.
Despite
COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Muslims around the globe kept fast last year and
this year too, an overwhelmingly large number of people wish to observe fasting
in the upcoming holy month of Ramadan but those suffering from chronic
illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease should consult their
doctors and physicians for safe fasting and to reap the physical and spiritual
benefits of fasting, Islamic scholars and health experts told an international
health conference on Saturday.
“There
are some extreme views that fasting is very harmful for the diabetes’ patients
in all circumstances, and there are some who say fasting should be practiced
(even) in worst (health) conditions but I think medical practitioners will be
in a better position to explain to the patients as to how they should fast
safely”, renowned Islamic scholar Mufti TaqiUsmani said while addressing the
inaugural ceremony off 7th International Diabetes and Ramadan Conference 2021.
The
two-day online conference, organized by the Baqai Institute of Diabetology and
Endocrinology (BIDE) Karachi in collaboration with International Diabetes
Federation (IDF), Ramadan and Hajj Study Group and Diabetes and Ramadan (DAR)
International Alliance.
Top
health experts including diabetologists, endocrinologists, consultant
dietitians and researchers from different countries of Africa, Europe, Middle
East, South Asia and United States took part in the conference.
Mufti
TaqiUsmai maintained that millions of Muslims in the world suffer from different
chronic illnesses especially diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and other
health issues but they also want to observe fasting in the holy month of
Ramadan and want to know the medical facts and expert opinion whether they can
fast or not. “It is very welcoming that top health experts from different
countries of the world would discuss the issues like safe fasting for people
with different health conditions, especially in the COVID-19 era”, he added.
President
of International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Prof. Andrew Boulton said Ramadan is
one of the five fundamental principles of Islam and people with diabetes really
need to know how to look after their diabetes and glycemic control in the holy
month of Ramadan.
“Ramadan
this is year is more important as there is COVID-19 Pandemic and I hope this
meeting will discuss this issue too and answer all the questions in the minds
of people with diabetes about their diet, exercise and management of their
medicines whether they are taking oral medicines or injectables”, Prof. Boulton
said adding that international experts from different countries of the world
would be presenting their research on the issue of making fasting safer for the
Muslims.
Another
eminent diabetologist from Norway and President-elect of the International
Diabetes Federation (IDF) Prof. Akhter Hussain said studies show that over 80
percent of people with diabetes like to fast in the holy month of Ramadan while
a study conducted in 2010 revealed that around 95 percent of people with type 2
diabetes fasted for 15 days while 65 percent diabetics fasted for the whole
month.
“Unfortunately,
one in three people with diabetes don’t get proper education as how they can
fast safely in the holy month. I’m glad that research in the area of diabetes
and Ramdan has increased significantly during last five years but there are
still several areas where further research is required to answer questions
about different populations and where food habits are different”, he added.
One
of the key questions that comes into the mind of people is whether fasting is
beneficial or harmful for the people with diabetes, he said adding that people
also want to know the best diet they should take at the time of Sahoor and
Iftaar that prevents them from hypo and hyperglycemia.
Prof.
YakoobAhmedani said the people with diabetes and other comorbidities should
visit their physician at least 6 to 8 weeks before the start of Ramadan while
there is also a need to educate doctors and entire healthcare teams so that
they could help people in fasting safely.
Director
BIDE and renowned diabetologist Prof. Abdul Basit said in 2013, issues related
to diabetes and Ramadan were discussed in Manchester, UK and since then it has
been a long journey where a lot of research, guidelines and recommendations
have been presented for the safe fasting.
He
maintained that experts associated with their institutes have so far generated
over 27 publications of international standard while efforts are underway to
conduct more research and present scientific evidence on safe fasting for
people with diabetes and adding thanked IDF and allied bodies for their
cooperation in the conference.
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40068568/ask-your-doctor-not-the-islamic-scholar-on-safe-fasting-mufti-taqi-usmani
------
Iran
To Support Syria In Fight Against Terrorism
By
IANS
Feb
27, 2021
---------
Tehran:
Iran will keep supporting the Syrian government in fighting against terrorism,
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a telephonic conversation with
the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.
Zarif
reaffirmed that the Islamic Republic will continue its support for Syria in
various fields and in its efforts to ensure security and stability across
Syria, according to Tasnim news agency.
The
Iranian Foreign Minister also stressed the need for a solution that preserves
the interests, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Arab
country, Xinhua reported.
Mekdad
thanked Iran for supporting the Syrian people in the economic arena with the
purpose of mitigating the effects of unilateral economic sanctions.
The
conversation between the two senior officials of the regional allies followed
US air strikes that killed at least 22 pro-Iran fighters in eastern Syria on
Friday morning.
https://odishatv.in/world/iran-to-support-syria-in-fight-against-terrorism-521962
--------
Afghan
security forces kill 46 Taliban terrorists in Kandahar
Source
:Mehr News
February
27, 2021
The
Afghan Ministry of Defense announced that 33 members of the Taliban terrorists
were killed and 13 others were wounded in clashes with Afghan security forces
in Kandahar province.
Afghan
Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Friday that 33 Taliban terrorists
were killed and 13 others were wounded in clashes with the security forces in
the cities of Arghandab, Maiwand and Arghistan in Kandahar province, Anadolu
reported.
According
to the statement, Taliban terrorists attacked Afghan security forces
checkpoints and suffered heavy casualties and fled after the clash. On the
other hand, large quantities of weapons and ammunition belonging to this group
have also been seized.
Kandahar
province in southern Afghanistan is one of the most insecure provinces in the
country and the Taliban are active in some parts of it.
https://en.abna24.com/news//afghan-security-forces-kill-46-taliban-terrorists-in-kandahar_1118946.html
-------
Fifteen
attackers from Thailand attempt to sneak into Malaysia, says IGP
27
Feb 2021
JELI,
Feb 27 — The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) has not ruled out the possibilities
that the 15 individuals who are being tracked down by the Thai police following
a deadly attack in southern Thai last Thursday would attempt to enter this
country.
Inspector-General
of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador said, therefore, PDRM and the Malaysian
Armed Forces have enhanced security control at all Malaysia-Thailand borders so
as to prepare for any situation.
“Both
PDRM and Armed Forces are constantly reminded to strengthen the border
control...with what happened in Thailand, we do not rule out the possibilities
that they might attempt to sneak in.
He
said this in a news conference after visiting the new Jeli District Police
Headquarters construction site here, today, with Minister in the Prime
Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and Kelantan Police
Chief Datuk ShafienMamat also present.
Abdul
Hamid was commenting on the bomb explosion and shooting incident at a village
in Ra-ngae, Narathiwat last Thursday which killed two rangers while another was
hurt.
Ra-ngae
police chief PiyapakThongpanlertkun said initial investigations found that the
attackers consist of at least 15 individuals.
Meanwhile,
on PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who was called to give statements to
the police yesterday, Abdul Hamid said it was a normal procedure in any investigations.
Police
have recorded statements from Anwar on Friday evening over the joint statement
issued by the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council in January, which among
others rejected the government’s decision to enforce a nationwide emergency.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/27/fifteen-attackers-from-thailand-attempt-to-sneak-into-malaysia-says-igp/1953387
--------
Saudi
regime arrests brother of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr
Source
: Pars Today
February
27, 2021
Saudi
regime forces have arrested Mohammad Baqir al-Nimr, the brother of executed
Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and the father of Ali al-Nimr, who is serving
a jail sentence for allegedly taking part in anti-regime protests when he was
17.
ALQST
for Human Rights, an independent NGO, reported on Thursday that Mohammad Baqir
al-Nimr had been arrested during a raid on his house in the town of al-Awamiyah
in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
He
is the brother of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Saudi cleric who called for reforms
and was executed by the Riyadh regime in January 2016.
The
arrest of Mohammad comes only a few weeks after the government of Saudi Arabia
commuted to 10 years a death penalty given to his son, Ali.
Ali
al-Nimr was sentenced to death over his alleged role in anti-regime protests in
the Eastern Province in February 2012, when he was 17 years old.
Eastern
Province has been the scene of peaceful demonstrations since February 2011.
Protesters have been demanding reforms, freedom of expression, the release of political
prisoners, and an end to economic and religious discrimination against the
oil-rich region.
The
protests have been met with a heavy-handed crackdown by the Riyadh regime.
Security forces have increased measures across the province.
https://en.abna24.com/news//saudi-regime-arrests-brother-of-shia-cleric-sheikh-nimr_1118941.html
--------
Thousands
rally in Tunisia to support moderate Islamist party’s push for govt reshuffle
27/02/2021
by:NEWS
WIRES
The
Islamist-inspired Ennahdha and liberal QalbTounes parties pushed for a
reshuffling of the government by Prime Minister HichemMechichi in mid-January,
introducing 11 new ministers.
Saied
has strongly criticised the reshuffle -- which was confirmed by parliament --
saying he had not been consulted and charged that some ministers were suspected
of corruption and conflicts of interest.
He
also refused to confirm the new ministers, including interior, justice and
health, leaving the government paralysed, in a country already reeling from
economic hardship and the coronavirus pandemic.
Saturday's
protest in the capital Tunis was called for by Ennahdha, and several protesters
said they rallied in support of the moderate Islamist party as well as for
unity and democracy.
"We
have a parliamentary system and it is not up to the president to decide who
will govern," said protester Mohamed Khlif, who travelled from the coastal
city of Sfax to take part in the rally.
Saied,
an independent academic and constitutional law expert, has also castigated the
procedure for naming the new ministers, saying it was unconstitutional.
"I
won't back down from my principles. I swore before God by putting my hand on
the Koran to respect the constitution," Saied was quoted as saying earlier
this month.
But
in the absence of a constitutional court in Tunisia, the political crisis has
dragged on for six weeks with no solution in sight to ease tensions between the
president, parliament and the government.
A
report published Friday by the International Monetary Fund said the
"Covid-19 crisis is exacerbating Tunisia's socio-economic
fragilities" and "led to an unprecedented economic downturn”.
The
IMF called for urgent reforms to reduce the fiscal deficit, which it said was
estimated to have reached 11.5 percent of GDP in 2020.
It
also made a series of recommendations, including for limits on energy subsidies
and lowering the wage bill.
https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20210227-thousands-rally-in-tunisia-to-support-moderate-islamist-party-s-push-for-govt-reshuffle
-------
Four
killed, chief imam, 25 others kidnapped in fresh attack on Kagara
By
Alfred Olufemi
February
27, 2021
Bandits
have resumed operations in Kagara, Niger State on the same day that 42 students
and other persons they kidnapped from a school in the town regained fredom.
No
fewer than four persons were on Saturday reportedly killed and scores kidnapped
in fresh attacks on the town and adjoining villages in Rafi Local Government
Area of the state.
According
to Musa Kwabe, a community leader in Kagara, eight persons were kidnapped in
Kundu and 11 others in nearby Gunna district.
He
said the four people killed were from Karako, a neighbouring village where
seven persons are still missing.
He
also told PREMIUM TIMES the bandits rustled many cows in the affected villages.
Muhammed
Hussein, a chief in Kagara and a former local council chairman, named one of
those kidnapped as Ibrahim Ruvo, who is a chief imam at Madaka village.
“One
chief Imam, Ibrahim Ruvo, was kidnapped around Madaka axis. He is yet to be
found.”
Mr
Hussein begged the state government to deploy more security operatives to the
affected communities to prevent further attacks.
The
spokesperson of the police in Niger, Abiodun Wasiu, told PREMIUM TIMES that he
would confirm the incident and send a feedback when contacted on Saturday
afternoon.
This
newspaper had reported how Kagara and its adjoining villages have been under
the siege of bandits for more than two years.
However,
it was the kidnapping of the schoolboys that brought the ordeals and sorrow of
the community to national attention.
In
that incident at the public secondary school on the outskirts of Kagara town,
bandits abducted 42 persons, including 27 students, three staff and 12 members
of their families.
The
bandits raided two of the five hostels in the school, Barde and Lafene halls,
to ferret out the students, in the process killing one of them, Benjamin
Habilah.
This
newspaper learnt that the schoolboys were released on Saturday morning after
more than nine days in captivity.
As
of the time of filing this report, the state government is yet to brief the
public on how it secured the release of the students and whether or not payment
of ransom was involved.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/445743-just-in-four-killed-chief-imam-25-others-kidnapped-in-fresh-attack-on-kagara.html
--------
North
America
US
Intelligence Report : Murder of Khashoggi approved by MBS
Source
:Tasnim News
February
27, 2021
Saudi
Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation to capture or
kill Jamal Khashoggi, the US intelligence report on the murder of the Saudi
journalist said.
"We
assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an
operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal
Khashoggi," the report's executive summary states.
"We
base this assessment on the Crown Prince's control of decision-making in the
Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Mohammed bin
Salman's protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince's support for
using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,"
the report says.
The
Biden administration provided the long-awaited declassified intelligence report
to Congress ahead of its public release on Friday.
The
congressionally mandated release of the report by the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence followed a phone call US President Joe Biden had with
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on Thursday. The four-page document,
titled "Assessing the Saudi Government's Role in the Killing of Jamal
Khashoggi" is dated February 11 and marked as declassified by Director of
National Intelligence Avril Haines on February 25.
Shortly
after the report's release, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new
"Khashoggi Ban" that allows the US to restrict visas for individuals
acting on behalf of a foreign government who are directly engaged in
"serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including those
that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or
other persons perceived to be dissidents for their work."
Blinken
said in a statement that the ban, which can cover family members as well, would
immediately be applied to 76 Saudi individuals "believed to have been
engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the
Khashoggi killing."
The
Treasury Department followed with sanctions against a former Saudi intelligence
official, Ahmed Hassan Mohammed al Asiri, as well as the crown prince's
personal protective detail, the Rapid Intervention Force, also known as the
'Tiger Squad.' These officials were designated under an executive order that
"builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and
corruption around the world," the department said in a statement.
Asked
why the US had failed to punish the crown prince personally, Blinken told
reporters at the State Department Friday that "what we've done by the
actions that we've taken is really not to rupture the relationship, but to
recalibrate it, to be more in line with our interests and our values. And I
think that we have to understand as well that this is bigger than any one
person."
In
an interview with NPR, Haines conceded the report could complicate US-Saudi
relations. "I am sure it is not going to make things easier," she
said. "But I think it's also fair to say that it is not unexpected."
The
Saudi Foreign Ministry released a statement saying the country "completely
rejects the negative, false and unacceptable assessment in the report
pertaining to the Kingdom's leadership, and notes that the report contained
inaccurate information and conclusions." It added that Khashoggi's killing
was an "abhorrent crime and a flagrant violation of the kingdom's laws and
values.
"Since
2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom's security and
intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials
would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's
authorization," the report says.
It
says that the 15-person Saudi team that arrived in Istanbul in October 2018
when Khashoggi was killed included members associated with the Saudi Center for
Studies and Media Affairs (CSMARC) at the Royal Court, led by a close adviser
of bin Salman, as well as "seven members of Mohammed bin Salman's elite
personal protective detail, known as the Rapid Intervention Force."
The
report notes that bin Salman viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom
"and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary, to silence
him."
The
intelligence report says that they still do not have visibility on when the
Saudis decided to harm the father of five. "Although Saudi officials had
pre-planned an unspecified operation against Khashoggi we do not know how far
in advance Saudi officials decided to harm him," it said.
The
report also noted that at the time of Khashoggi's murder, "the crown
prince fostered an environment in which aides were afraid that failure to
complete assigned tasks might result in him firing or arresting them."
The
lead Republican on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, said
in a statement he "strongly" supports the Khashoggi ban announcement
and called on Saudi Arabia to "permanently end intimidation, harassment
and violence against journalists and dissidents in order to restore the trust
of the United States and the world."
US
Democratic lawmakers who pushed for years for former president Donald Trump to
take a tougher stand on the Khashoggi case offered praise for the report's
release.
"His
courageous journalism cost Jamal his life. Yet, for years, the last
administration shielded the Saudi regime from any kind of responsibility or
scrutiny," Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement.
"Today, thanks to President Biden and DNI Haines, America is sending the
message that this lawlessness won't stand."
Rep.
Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Select Committee on
Intelligence, said that "the highest levels of the Saudi government,
including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, are culpable in the murder of
journalist and American resident Jamal Khashoggi, and there is no escaping that
stark truth laid bare." Schiff also said in a statement that the report "underscores
why Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's repeated claims that he was either
unknowing or uninvolved in this heinous crime are in no way credible."
Sen.
Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, said that "for too long, the United States failed to hold
Saudi Arabia accountable for the brutal murder of journalist, dissident, and
Virginia resident Jamal Khashoggi."
New
Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, went further, saying Biden had demonstrated his commitment
to transparency and compliance with law "by ending Donald Trump's cover up
of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi."
Shortly
after Khashoggi's October 2018 death, the CIA assessed with high confidence
that the crown prince had personally ordered the killing.
But
during the Trump administration, US intelligence officials never spoke publicly
or presented evidence about the murder at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul,
and at the time, Trump staunchly defended the country's young, de facto ruler,
who is often referred to as MBS.
Trump
told biographer Bob Woodward of the crown prince, "I saved his ass."
Woodward wrote in his book "Rage" that in January 2020, Trump also
boasted that "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to
get them to stop."
"This
was a heinous crime," he said in an interview with CBS in 2019. "But
I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was
committed by individuals working for the Saudi government."
In
June 2019, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or
arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, found that it was
"inconceivable" the royal heir wasn't aware of the operation. In
September 2020, a Saudi court sentenced eight suspects to prison, a sentence
Callamard called a "parody of justice."
On
Friday, Callamard called on the US to fully declassify its findings on
Khashoggi's "brutal extrajudicial execution," called on Saudi Arabia
to disclose how and where Khashoggi's remains were destroyed and said that
since his remains have yet to be located, the international crime of enforced
disappearance continues. "His loved ones continue to be subjected to
further suffering until Saudi Arabia discloses what was done with his
remains," she said.
Khashoggi's
fiancé, Hatice Cengiz, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an emotional live
interview by phone, "I am (more) devastated than ever before. Now I
believe he will never come back." She called on world leaders to take
action "for justice for Jamal."
Cengiz
was waiting for Khashoggi outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which he
entered to get paperwork necessary for their upcoming marriage. He was never
seen again.
https://en.abna24.com/news//us-intelligence-report-murder-of-khashoggi-approved-by-mbs_1119040.html
-------
Chef
Anissa Helou Shares Foodways and Fine Art in the World of Islam
by
Zimra Chickering
27-02-2021
Anissa
Helou, author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook “Feast: Food of the
Islamic World,” manages to exude glamour and intrigue not only through her
beautiful recipes and writings but also through Zoom. Her white button-down
shirt, rolled-up sleeves, popped collar and red cat-glasses, combined with her
open-air Sicilian kitchen and captivating anecdotes from a lifetime of cooking
all made me want to sit down with her for hours over a cup of coffee.
While
I may never be able to do that, the Feb. 20 lecture hosted by the Michael C.
Carlos Museum alongside the “Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through Time
& Place” exhibition allowed me to learn about Helou’s perspectives on food
and the stunning diversity of Islamic culture.
This
discussion centered around Helou’s comprehensive cookbook featuring common
foods, like bread, that unite disparate regions and showcase variety in Islamic
cuisine. Elizabeth Hornor, the moderator of the discussion and senior director
of education at the Carlos Museum, drew parallels between Helou’s food and
“Wondrous Worlds” as the art in that collection, much like the food, is both
heterogeneous yet interconnected across time and space.
The
commonality that Helou highlighted is ritual — the importance of food during
celebrations is both secular and religious. Food is a central tenant to
understanding forms of art. As Hornor pointed out, there is a critical focus on
hospitality in the Islamic world, so much so that there is an entire section
devoted to hospitality in the “Wondrous Worlds” exhibition.
Helou
celebrates hospitality through food as well, stating it is a tenant of Islam in
the Quran to assure every person is welcomed with food or drink when entering a
new home or shop. Whether a stranger, family member or new friend, you are
welcomed — Islam utilizes food as a medium of kindness and hospitality, and
this warmth also translates to one of the four pillars of Islam, “zakat,” or
charity.
The
second part of the lecture featured a cooking lesson by Henou as she explained
the process of making tachin, a baked crispy rice cake with lamb, which she
believes is the ultimate Persian party food.
It
became clear that rice is central to Islamic cuisine, which contributed to
Helou’s choice to prepare tachin in the first place — it’s a standout
rice-based dish. Helou thoroughly discussed the diversity of rice dishes in
Levantine countries, recalling that in one kitchen she worked in, the only test
for new chefs was simply to cook rice. If they could cook rice properly, they
were hired.
Helou
also spoke about wanting to see the “threads” of saffron in her rice, but I
came away feeling that her belief extends to the Islamic world as a whole. In
looking for the threads between food and culture that connect Islamic
countries, both Helou and the “Wondrous Worlds” exhibition created unity out of
diversity.
This
lecture celebrated the relationship between the arts of the table and the arts
of the gallery by highlighting both their vast diversity and their shared
sophistication, beauty and ritual. Helou actually stated that there is no “real
Middle Eastern cuisine.” Every country and culture is different and unique,
while still being connected by common staples. Similarly, the “Wondrous Worlds”
exhibition shows that while there is not necessarily one definition of Islamic
art, it is tied together by certain motifs and themes. Both food and art carry
this power to embody and celebrate an array of cultures, ideas and practices,
and it is a feast for the eyes and stomach to behold.
https://emorywheel.com/chef-anissa-helou-lecture/
--------
Rep.
Lauren Boebert had this response to MSNBC host comparing her gun display to
Usama bin Laden's
By
Joseph A. Wulfsohn
28-02-2021
ORLANDO,
Florida – Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., was quick to dismiss remarks made by
MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who compared her on-camera gun display to Usama bin
Laden's.
Boebert
rejected the "All In" host's comments, telling Fox News on Saturday
at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) she "heard"
about them but that she herself didn't catch what he said because "I don't
watch garbage."
Among
other GOPers, Hayes took aim at the freshman congresswoman on Tuesday for
building her "political identity" around guns and called her out for
displaying a collection of guns on a bookshelf behind her during a Zoom meeting
on the House Natural Resources Committee.
"Lots
of people immediately noted that the use of guns in that way as props and the
implicit threat that comes with them has a, you know, long, not necessarily
great history among various movements around the globe," Hayes told his
viewers. "Usama bin Laden, for one, liked to pose in front of a bookshelf
with a gun prominently displayed. The Irish Republican Army would display guns
in its propaganda posters and its murals and the Cuban Revolutionaries -- they
posed with guns all the time, too."
The
congresswoman, a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, explained Saturday
that it was her "first committee hearing" and that her Democratic
colleagues were "trying to ban guns" in the committee hearing room.
"The
Democrats wanted committee hearings done by Zoom. What do they care if I have a
gun in there? It's going to be all Republicans in there anyway and they
certainly don't care," Boebert said.
"I'm
not bowing down to this cancel mob," Boebert told Fox News. "I'm here
to represent the American people. I'm here to represent the people of
Colorado's 3rd District, and I promised them that I'd be their defender between
these radicals and the heavy hand of government and these overreaching
policies. So I'll take whatever hits are coming as long as I'm protecting the
people that I swore to stand in front of and guard."
When
asked if she had a message for Hayes, Boebert replied: "Well, I'd have to
know who he is first."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/rep-lauren-boebert-msnbc-chris-hayes-osama-bin-laden
--------
In
Iraq, pope to visit Mosul churches desecrated by Islamic State
By
Charlotte Bruneau
28-02-2021
MOSUL,
Iraq (Reuters) - In Mosul, adjacent to the Biblical city of Nineveh, four
churches representing different denominations occupy a small square surrounded
by low-rise houses, testament to the role Iraq’s once flourishing Christian
community played.
Today,
all four churches are either damaged or destroyed after Islamic State militants
occupied the city from 2014-2017, desecrated many of the buildings and used
them to run its administration, including as a jail and a court.
Air
strikes as Iraqi forces tried to dislodge the extremist group in fierce
fighting did the rest. Those walls still standing are scarred with bullet and
shrapnel holes.
“It
used to be a bit like the Jerusalem of the Nineveh plains,” said Mosul and
Akra’s Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel of “Church Square”, the name given
to the site that Pope Francis will visit on March 7 during his historic trip to
Iraq.
Michaeel
fondly recalled how, before the U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians from
different denominations would attend each other’s services on religious
festivals.
Those
days are gone. Today just one of Mosul’s surviving churches offers a weekly
Sunday service to a Christian population that has dwindled to just a few dozen
families from about 50,000 people.
Tolerated
by former President Saddam Hussein but persecuted by al Qaeda and then Islamic
State, Iraq’s Christians number around 300,000, one fifth of the total before
2003.
Some
are trickling back after Islamic State’s defeat, but others still see little
prospect in staying in Iraq and are looking to settle overseas.
A
Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Chaldean Catholic
church are situated cheek-by-jowl in and around the dusty square. Now the area
lies in ruins, as do other parts of the city.
The
pope is due to hold prayers for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa, known as
Church Square in English, as part of a four-day trip starting on March 5, a
visit Archbishop Michaeel described as highly symbolic and a message of hope.
Funded
by the United Arab Emirates, the restoration of the Syriac Catholic church of
Al-Tahera is being carried out by UNESCO in collaboration with local partners
and began in 2020.
Holding
pictures of the church before its destruction, assistant site coordinator for
UNESCO in Iraq, Anas Zeyad, pointed to delicate Syriac carvings on pieces of
greyish alabaster stone referred to locally as “Mosul marble”.
Damaged
by Islamic State before its roof was shredded by air strikes, the church was
used as a tribunal by the jihadist movement’s religious police, Zeyad said.
“It
has not been de-mined yet,” Zeyad explained, pointing to the sealed door
leading to the church that Islamic State commandeered as a prison.
Standing
next to a damaged piece of sculpted alabaster representing the Virgin Mary, Ali
Salem, from Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, said his team was
reviewing many such artefacts to determine which could be repaired and used
again.
“As
a Muslim I am proud to help rebuild these churches,” Zeyad said, adding that he
hoped “we see Christians come back to these places, so that we live together
again as we have for centuries.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-iraq-mosul-churches/in-iraq-pope-to-visit-mosul-churches-desecrated-by-islamic-state-idUSKCN2AS051?rpc=401&
--------
Can
Islamic Shrines’ Connection to Armenians Transform Azerbaijani Politics of
Erasure?
by
Simon Maghakyan
Last
fall’s war in the South Caucasus, during which Azerbaijan violently procured
most of its Soviet-era territories, has left many wondering whether the
continued erasure of the region’s Indigenous Armenian cultural monuments can be
prevented. While the haughty Azerbaijani government’s rhetoric and record could
hardly be less encouraging, a little-known group of regional monuments —
medieval Islamic mausoleums built by local, Christian Armenian craftsmen — may
offer a glimpse of hope for cultural preservation in and around the contested
region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
In
late November, in accordance with a controversial peace agreement, the defeated
Artsakh Republic ceded the Agdam district to Azerbaijan. The region encompasses
a vast array of cultural heritage sites, including the archeological site of
Tigranakert, a Hellenistic Armenian city. Until the excavations launched in
2006, Vankasar church was the only visible part of the major sacred Armenian
site. Nearby, a later Islamic monument sacred to Azerbaijanis memorializes one
of the region’s 14th-century Muslim lords. That monument also passed into
Azerbaijan’s possession.
Situated
in the village of Khachen-Dorbatli (Azerbaijani spelling Xaçındərbətli), the 14th-century
mausoleum has long reminded researchers of Armenian architecture. “It
represents a polygon with a sharp dome, built of processed yellowish
limestone,” wrote the late Armenian researcher Samvel Karapetyan in 2001. “The
style, execution technique, and artistic features of the heraldic scenes cut in
low relief around the niches of interior walls (bulls, tigers, other animals)
are similar to the reliefs of the western façade of SurbAstvatzatzin (the Holy
Virgin) church in Yeghvard.”
Researchers
before and after Karapetyan have also noted the similarities of the two
structures. A Russian-language book titled The Art of Azerbaijan, published in
Moscow in 1976 by well-known Soviet art historians Leonid Bretanitski and Boris
Vejmarn, writes of the mausoleum:
The
unique architecture and ornamentation of the mausoleum […] significantly expand
ideas of the interconnections between the art of the “Muslim” and “Christian”
regions of the Near East, Transcaucasia and Asia Minor […] It is framed by a
thread of hefty, finely-outlined and skillfully-executed rosettes, reminiscent
of the décor of the entrances of the Melik Ajar mausoleum and the temple-burial
vault in Yeghvard.
[…]
The mihrab and the contents of the inscription confirm that the “customer” was
a Muslim. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of elements in the architecture of
the mausoleum that speak of connections with the architecture of neighboring
Christian regions: the décor of the entrance, the solutions of the columns, the
character of stalactites. We especially note the images of living creatures,
which are rarely found in the ornamentation of Azerbaijan’s monuments […]
The
poignancy of the confident lines, the fleetness of the movements, the
sudden angles … speak of the remarkable craftsmanship of the artist. With their
motifs and manners of execution, they somewhat resemble the same “graffiti” of
[the churches of] Geghard and Saghmosavank in Armenia.
The
1994 book, The Caucasian Knot, also notes the similarities between the
Christian and Islamic structures. “The [Muslim] mausoleum at Khachen-Dorbatly
(1314 [Mongol period]), not far from Aghdam, reveals a great similarity in
sculpted décor to an Armenian funerary church of the same period, the chapel at
Yeghvard,” write LevonChorbajian, Patrick Donabédian, and Claude Mutafian.
Built within several years of each other, the striking similarities of the
Yeghvard chapel — situated just north of modern Armenia’s capital Yerevan — and
the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum go beyond such obvious commonalities as their
nearly identical depiction of wildlife or entry décor.
Left,
the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum, and, right, The SurbAstvatzatzin (the Holy
Virgin) church in Yeghvard (photographs courtesy Research on Armenian
Architecture)
According
to Donabédian, the two structures exhibit mutual influences of Christian and
Islamic art. “The chapel of Yeghvard was built in a small local principality,
which was one of the rare areas in Armenia where artistic activity was able to
continue during the tough period of Mongol domination,” he explained to
Hyperallergic. “This chapel distinguishes itself by its elegance, the abundance
and quality of its sculpted decoration, widely open to contacts with the Muslim
world, and by the presence, under its cupola, of a row of Persian tiles dating
from the end of the 13th century to early 14th centuries.”
In
addition to their visual similarities, the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum and the
Yeghvard chapel both have inscriptions identifying the architect. Naming an
architect on a medieval structure is not a common feature of local
architecture, Armenia-based researcher Raffi Kortoshian told Hyperallergic, and
must be a result of the architect’s popularity. The Yeghvard chapel’s Armenian
inscription identifies the architect as “VD SHAHIK,” with “VD” standing for
“vardpet” or master in the Armenian language.
Common
architectural features of the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum (left) and the
Yeghvard chapel, both built by architect Shahik, as presented in Raffi
Kortoshian, “The Arabic inscription of the Khachen-Dorbatli Mausoleum,” Vardzk
(in Armenian), Issue 14 (Fall 2020) (images courtesy Research on Armenian
Architecture NGO)
The
Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum’s Arabic inscription also names the architect,
but as Kortoshian points out, Soviet researchers misinterpreted it, without
even publishing the inscription’s photograph or sketch, as either “Shahbenzer”
or “Shakhenzi.” In 2017, writing in French, Donabédian and his co-author Yves
Porter published the mausoleum’s Arabic inscription in full: “Hadha al-‘imârat
al-marhumQutluKhwâdjah ibn Musâ al-muhtâjalârahmat-allah li-‘âlâ Fi târikh
rabi’ al-âkhirsanaarba’ ‘asharsab’amia ‘amalustâdshâhik (This is the building
of the late QutluKhwâdjah [ibn Musâ] needing the mercy of God the Most High. On
the date [of the month] Rabi’ al-âkhir of the year seven hundred and fourteen
/15 July-13 August 1314. Work of master Shâhik).”
While
Kortoshian, who has studied the inscription closely, agrees that the Arabic
text translates as “master Shahik,” he told Hyperallergic that
Donabédian-Porter “have erred in reading” the architect’s title as “ustad.”
Instead, he insists, the architect’s name and title is spelled in the Arabic
inscription as “Shahikvd,” in which “vd” stands not for “ustad” but for its
Armenian equivalent, “vardpet.” Kortoshian acknowledged, nevertheless, that
further epigraphic studies of this and similar inscriptions are needed due to
some non-standard punctuations “to better understand the use of Arabic in
14th-century Armenia under Mongol-Turkic dominations.”
The
Arabic inscription of the KhachenDorbatli mausoleum. (photograph by Ch. and
J.-Cl. Hotellier, originally published in Donabédian P., Porter Y., « Eghvard
(Arménie, début XIVe siècle), La chapelle de l’alliance », Hortus
ArtiumMedievalium, 23/2, p. 837-8)
Additional
confirmation that the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum and the Yeghvard chapel share an
architect in ShahikVardpet arrives via a more recent discovery. In 2001, a
14th-century Islamic mausoleum was found in the basement of a disco club in
downtown Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Kortoshian says that the Arabic
inscription of the Yerevan mausoleum names a possible relative, perhaps the
father, of the man buried at Khachen-Dorbatli. The inscription also indicates
it was built six years before the mausoleum at Khachen-Dorbatli. Kortoshian
says the Yerevan mausoleum bears visual similarities to the structures in both
Khachen-Dorbatli and Yeghvard. Furthermore, it features bilingual inscriptions,
in Armenian and Arabic — a rare occurrence among Islamic tombs built by
Armenian craftsmen. While the Arabic version omits the name of the architect, Kortoshian
notes that the Armenian inscription acknowledges him as “SHAH[I]K VD.”
Incidentally, all of these three structures built by ShahikVardpet not only
name their architect but also identify the year of the construction’s
completion: the early 1300s.
An
interior view of the Yeghvard chapel (photograph by Hrair Hawk Khatcherian,
originally published in Donabédian P., Porter Y., « Eghvard (Arménie, début
XIVe siècle), La chapelle de l’alliance », Hortus ArtiumMedievalium, 23/2, p.
837-8)
The
toponym KhachenDorbatli itself memorializes the village’s hybrid history,
points out Ankara-based Azerbaijani researcher and linguist Cavid Aga. He told
Hyperallergic that the place name incorporates the wider region’s medieval
Armenian name, “Khachen,” with either the Islamic term “türbə” (mausoleum) or the Mongols’
Dörbet tribe. Aga finds the latter connection more probable because “The Yuan
Empire’s representative to the Mongolian Ilkhanate, BoladChingsang, was from
the Dörbet tribe and had an estate in Karabakh, where he died in 1313,” and
also because “Dorbatli” has been incorporated into other place names of the
region. According to Aga, many toponyms across this part of the world often
memorialize demographic changes, “like Baghanis-Ayrum, in which Baghanis is the
original Armenian name while Ayrum is the Turkic tribe that settled there.”
It’s
worth noting that in 2006, when Armenia brought up the issue of the erasure of
the Armenian Djulfa cemetery in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, the
Azerbaijan authorities responded with what is known as mirror propaganda,
baselessly alleging the “total destruction” of various monuments including the
“Gutlu Musa oglu tomb,” which is how Azerbaijani authorities often refer to the
Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum.
The
Khachen-Dorbatli is not the only Islamic monument connected with Armenian
architecture in the wider region of Artsakh or Karabakh, according to a 2010
publication of the nonprofit organization Research on Armenian Architecture.
The Islamic Monuments of the Armenian Architecture of Artsakh states that
“during the foreign domination of Armenia, outstanding Armenian masons were
often forced into carrying out different tasks within the construction activity
of this or that ruler.” The vast architectural knowledge acquired in
constructing Armenian churches was often used by foreign conquerors in the
building of new secular and religious sites. “All of these structures reveal
the influence of Armenian architecture,” notes the publication, “and bear […]
the apparent imprint of its traditional features.” According to the same text:
[…]
special mention should be made of the mausoleums (14th to 15th centuries) that
were erected in the Eastern regions of Historical Armenia, and particularly in
Artsakh, in the times of the Turkmen Kara Koyunlu nomadic tribes. These
mausoleums, which were built over the graves of the chieftains of these tribes
and are reminiscent of church domes, were designed by Armenian architects and
built by Armenian masters.
Armenian-built
Islamic mausoleums are no surprise to researchers like Stephennie Mulder,
author of the book The Shrines of the Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi’is
and the Architecture of Coexistence. Armenian influences upon Islamic
architecture are not limited to monuments constructed in historical Armenia.
“There is a tremendous amount of influence from Armenian stonemasonry on
Islamic architecture from about the 11th to14th centuries all throughout
Islamic lands,” she notes. “The walls of Cairo, for example, were built by an
Armenian army general, Badr al-Jamali, who became vizier to the Fatimid
Caliph.”
The
Armenian influence is so pronounced that Mulder even begins her class at the
University of Texas, Austin on circa 12th-century Islamic architecture with a
discussion on Armenian Church architecture. “It was perfectly usual for
Christians to work for Muslim patrons, and the Mongols took that up even one
more notch,” explains Mulder, in part because “antagonizing the enormous
variety of religious communities over which Muslim rulers found themselves presiding
was often antithetical to the goal of imperial stability.” Instead, she states,
medieval Islamic rulers frequently preferred a strategy of “pragmatic
accommodation” over conflict that stimulated shared architectural traditions.
Azerbaijani
scholar Elchin Aliyev, who has advocated for historical preservation, told
Hyperallergic that Armenian-Azerbaijani cultural commonalities in architecture
and beyond, including in cuisine and music, can help to pursue the “renewal of
good-neighborly relations.” He plans to visit the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum
this summer for the first time and acknowledges, by invoking Leonid
Bretanitski’s research, “the influence of Armenian architecture and antiquity
in the architecture of the mausoleum.” He also hopes to visit Yerevan one day
to study the Soviet-revitalized city’s “Stalinist” architecture, despite
accusing the Armenian government of “denying the existence of a vast cultural
heritage of Azerbaijanis in Armenia.” Aliyev is hopeful that “the existence of
Armenian architectural heritage in Azerbaijan” can become “one of the bridges
for cultural communication” in the region.
Despite
overwhelming scholarly evidence to the contrary, the government of Azerbaijan
may struggle with acknowledging the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum’s Armenian
architect. Government-linked Azerbaijani scholars officially argue that
Armenians did not even appear in the territory of modern Azerbaijan until the
19th century, despite the presence of thousands of sacred Christian and pagan
Armenian sites. Azerbaijani politicians have relabeled the latter, which
consist of mostly churches and cross-stones, as “Caucasian Albanian,” in
reference to a now extinct nation that is known predominantly through Armenian
history texts.
Starting
in the 1950s, after the death of Stalin and the onset of the Cold War thaw
under Nikita Khrushchev, then-Soviet Azerbaijan’s nationalist historiography
claimed association with the long gone Caucasian Albanians. The aim was to
compete with Armenian and Georgian cultural rebirth and pride in antiquity, a
trend that, in the Armenian context, commenced with Anastas Mikoyan’s March
1954 speech in Yerevan, calling for a more liberal line toward national
expression. Unfortunately, such pseudo-scientific approaches to regional history
became even more pronounced after the Soviet dissolution in 1991 and continue
to persist to this day.
What
may be seen by outsiders as inconsequential nationalistic historiography turned
into a violent campaign of cultural erasure in 1997. During that same year,
Azerbaijan embarked on a decade-long campaign to eradicate every trace of
Armenian history on the territory of a formerly disputed region, Nakhichevan
(known in Azerbaijani as Naxçıvan). My exposé, co-authored with Yale historian
Sarah Pickman, revealed that between 1997 and 2006, the government of
Azerbaijan covertly eradicated every trace of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past. The
victims of this brazen campaign of complete cultural erasure included 89
medieval churches, 5,840 ornate cross-stones or khachkars and over 22,000
historical tombstones. It is noteworthy that, even though the vast Christian
heritage of Nakhichevan had also been relabeled as “Caucasian Albanian,”
Azerbaijan’s historical revisionism still failed to secure their preservation.
In a potentially ominous foreshadowing, on February 26, 2021, in a
nationalistic speech rich with anti-Armenian demagoguery, Azerbaijan’s
authoritarian president repeated the lie that Armenians “moved to
[Nagorno-Karabakh] in the 19th-century.”
Nor
is Azerbaijan’s “Albanization” campaign limited to Armenian monuments. The
Georgian monastery complex of Davit Gareja, which has been subject to a heated
border dispute between Azerbaijanis and Georgians, has also been classified by
Azerbaijani scholars as “Albanian,” despite its Georgian inscriptions.
Meanwhile, as Azerbaijani officials continue to engage in “Albanizing” the
region’s past, they may have unknowingly acknowledged Armenian influence over
at least some Islamic mausoleums built in what is now Azerbaijan — by at least
not censoring relevant scholarship on the matter. For instance, the 1976
Bretanitski-Vejmarn work referenced earlier is considered so important in
Azerbaijan that it is actually available through Azerbaijan’s virtual
presidential library, which features regime-approved books for free, including
polemic and xenophobic titles like “Armenian Terror” and “Armenian Mythomania.”
Having
won the recent war over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan may either choose to
repeat the genocidal erasure in Nakhichevan or use cultural diplomacy to pursue
peace. Prospects for the latter are not looking great: While Azerbaijan
complains about Armenian desecration of some Islamic monuments, it is itself
engaged in the ongoing and large-scale destruction of Armenian memorials that
have come under its control. Kortoshian, nevertheless, hopes that the
Azerbaijani authorities will not erase the name of Shahik from the
Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum’s Arabic inscription, though the fear remains.
A
2006 Azerbaijani stamp featuring the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum, which was
under the control of the Republic of Artsakh at the time. (image courtesy RAA)
It
is at once both unconscionable and plausible to imagine that Azerbaijan, which
in 2006 issued a stamp to celebrate the Khachen-Dorbatli mausoleum, would
desecrate and revise the history of the exact Islamic monuments that it
considers sacred in order to continue its writing-out of Armenian history.
Destruction and preservation are political choices. In ShahikVardpet’s
interfaith architectural appeals for coexistence, Azerbaijan has a unique
opportunity to transform its politics of erasure into an embrace of cultural
diversity.
https://hyperallergic.com/618339/can-islamic-shrines-connection-to-armenians-transform-azerbaijani-politics-of-erasure/
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"FBI,
New York police behind killing of US Muslim leader 'Malcolm X'" - says
family
Source
: Hausa TV
February
28, 2021
The
family of Malcolm X have revealed a letter written by a deceased police officer
stating that the FBI and New York Police Department (NYPD) were behind the 1965
killing of the and prominent civil right activist.
Malcolm
X was a powerful speaker who rose to prominence as the national spokesman of
the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim group.
He
spent more than a decade with the group before becoming disillusioned and
publicly breaking with it in 1964. He moderated some of his earlier views on
the benefits of racial separation.
Raymond
Wood's cousin, Reggie Wood, joined some of Malcolm X’s daughters at the news
conference at the site where the Audubon Ballroom once stood to make the letter
public.
Raymond
Wood’s letter stated that he had been pressured by his NYPD supervisors to lure
two members of Malcolm X’s security detail into committing crimes that resulted
in their arrest just days before the fatal shooting.
Those
arrests kept the two men from managing door security at the ballroom and was
part of conspiracy between the NYPD and FBI to have Malcolm killed, according
to the letter.
Malcolm
X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz said she had always lived with uncertainty around
the circumstances of her father’s death.
“Any
evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible
tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” she told the news conference.
Some
historians and scholars have stated that the wrong men were convicted.
Manhattan’s District Attorney last year said it would review the convictions in
the case.
https://en.abna24.com/news//fbi-new-york-police-behind-killing-of-us-muslim-leader-malcolm-x-says-family_1119332.html
-------
Yang
walks back tough anti-BDS stance during Muslim Democratic Club forum
February
26, 2021
JNS
Andrew
Yang, the current frontrunner in the Democratic primary for New York City
mayor, walked back his firm stance against the BDS movement and promised to
meet with Palestinian American leaders on the issue.
“My
view on BDS is that because of its failure to disavow certain organizations
that have expressed violent intentions toward Israel that I disagree with it,
but I have complete respect for people who have a very different point of
view,” he said at a mayoral forum hosted by the Muslim Democratic Club of New
York on Wednesday, reported Politico.
Yang
said he has an issue with organizations that don’t disavow “very, very violent tactics”
towards Israel, though he doesn’t have an issue with individuals or activists
“making a case for what they think is right.”
In
it, he strongly denounced the BDS movement, saying “a Yang administration will
push back against the BDS movement, which singles out Israel for unfair
economic punishment.”
He
also said that BDS is “rooted in anti-Semitic thought and history, hearkening
back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses.”
However,
the mayoral candidate and one-time U.S. presidential candidate has been
challenged by pro-Palestinian activists upset over his comparison between the
BDS movement and Nazism. Earlier this week, Yang was accosted by
pro-Palestinian activists on the issue while touring businesses in Brooklyn,
N.Y.
Linda
Sarsour, a pro-Palestinian BDS activist, who questioned Yang at the mayoral
forum, said she believes that his stance does not come from a place of “bad
intentions,” but that it was a “stretch” to say BDS is similar to Nazi boycotts
of Jewish businesses, according to Politico.
Yang
said he would “be happy to sit with Palestinian leaders, activists, folks who
are engaged” in the issue. “I am very eager to learn, I’m very open-minded, and
I would appreciate the opportunity.”
https://www.jns.org/yang-walks-back-tough-anti-bds-stance-during-muslim-democratic-club-forum/
-------
India
Law
against 'Love jihad' not anti-Muslim, it's for all: Yogi Adityanath
India
Today Web Desk
February
27, 2021
Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the law brought in by
his government against the alleged practice of "love jihad" is not
anti-Muslim and it is applicable to people from all religions.
"The
law would be applicable even on Hindus if a Hindu does the same crime. It is
not anti-Muslims. Whoever commits a wrong, he will be punished as per the
law," Yogi Adityanath said.
Speaking
about the Uttar Pradesh assembly election that are due next year, Yogi
Adityanath said he is confident that the BJP would win 350 seats with its
allies and form a majority government.
"The
people of Uttar Pradesh have already decided it (BJP's victory). We have been
working in the interest of the people of the state," he said.
On
his relations with the Opposition, Yogi Adityanath said he regularly interacts
with opposition leaders. "They are not our enemies. I enquire about
Mulayam Singh Yadav's health. I also speak with Akhilesh Yadav."
Yogi
Adityanath will be one of the star campaigners of the BJP in the upcoming West
Bengal assembly elections. He said during his campaign for the party in Bengal,
he will speak about the model of governance in UP and the relationship between
the UP government and the Centre.
"West
Bengal is on the path of change. I am confident that the development that took
place in Uttar Pradesh, the development that one can see in BJP-ruled states,
the same development should also happen in West Bengal. The people of Bengal
should also reap the benefits of development. Bengal has been the land of
cultural nationalism in India," Yogi Adityanath said.
Asked
about the political controversies over the slogan of 'Jai Shri Ram' in Bengal's
politics, Yogi Adityanath said, "Why would we not raise slogan? 'Jai Shri
Ram' is a symbol of our daily greetings. Whenever people meet, be it in UP or
Bihar, people greet each other with 'Ram Ram'. Mamata Banerjee's 'Jai Siya Ram'
is no different from this."
Election
in West Bengal will be held in eight phases this time. Voting for the first
phase will be held on March 27 and the last phase on April 29.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/law-against-love-jihad-not-anti-muslim-it-s-for-all-yogi-adityanath-1773835-2021-02-27
-------
It’s
not easy being a Muslim in India
By
Karan Thapar
FEB
27, 2021
I
am not easily impressed. I have eclectic tastes, which frequently change,
leaving me unsure of what I like. So it’s not often I find a book compelling.
Ghazala Wahab’s Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam in India is definitely
one such. At times autobiographical, often anecdotal, frequently analytical,
and full of convincing research and illuminating history, it tells you what
it’s like to be an Indian Muslim.
“When
I started to write,” Wahab explains, “I wanted to address fellow Muslims and
tell them they needed to look beyond the mullahs and embrace modernity.” But as
she became aware “of just how vulnerable Muslims in India are” and how
“extremely fearful”, her focus altered. “How does one tell people just
struggling to stay alive they need to change their thinking, their manner of
living, their approach to religion?” That, you could say, is the predicament
facing our Muslim brothers.
Wahab’s
journey began when she realised people “perceive two distinct identities” in
her — Muslim and Indian. It led her to ask: “What does it mean to be a Muslim
in India?” But also a more inward-looking question: “Is it not possible to be
Muslim and forward-looking?” This book is an honest but also distressing answer
to both.
Over
the past year, the federal structure has come under strain. A BJP win in Bengal
and presence in government in Tamil Nadu will strengthen the Centre’s hand —
while a TMC win in Bengal and a DMK win in Tamil Nadu will strengthen the voice
of states (SANTOSH KUMAR/HTPHOTO)
Disha
Ravi has now been granted bail. However, in his judgment granting bail, Judge
Dhamender Rana said, “The offence of sedition cannot be involved to minister to
the wounded vanity of governments.” The government must heed this warning.
(REUTERS)
Censorship
and State monopoly on parliamentary telecast violate the democratic ideals of
accountability, transparency, and keeping the electorate informed. (Mohd
Zakir/HT Archive)
The
emotional turmoil of unrequited love is real, but we can put it behind us
fairly quickly if we try. Take cues from the 2009 film 500 Days of Summer. (FOX
SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES)
Wahab
believes there are external and internal forces that hold “Muslims in a pincer
grip”. The external is “the sociopolitical discrimination they face at the
hands of both lawmaking and law-enforcing authorities”. It often amounts to
physical and mental violence. It denies them equal opportunity, even justice.
“This forces Muslims to seek security in their own numbers, and they withdraw
into ghettoes on the periphery of the mainstream, thereby limiting their
choices in terms of accommodation, education and profession”. The internal force
is “the vicious cycle perpetuated by illiteracy, poverty and the
disproportionate influence of mullahs”. This keeps “a large number
undereducated and, therefore, unemployable”. It’s also “prevented the emergence
of a progressive, secular Muslim leadership”.
How
many of us, who view Muslims from the outside, understand this? Very few. Of
our rulers, even less. This is why Muslims “carry a double burden of being
labelled as ‘anti-national’ and as being ‘appeased’ at the same time”.
The
world Wahab reveals, the other side of a door we never walk through, is a
nightmare. Ponder on what Wahab writes of young Muslims, every one of them born
Indian with exactly the same rights as you and I. “Young Muslim men are
frequently picked up and held without charges indefinitely under some
anti-terrorist law or another.” Research shows “Muslim boys now have
considerably worse upward mobility than both scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes”. So is it surprising many mothers want their sons to go abroad? “A
Muslim boy in India will either be a wastrel or viewed as a rioter and be
killed by the police”.
Some
too poor to escape — yes, that’s the right word — pretend to be Hindu. They
change their names to give themselves another identity. “If I have a Hindu
name, no one will bother that I work with cattle skin,” Wahab was told. They’re
even prepared to convert. “Magar dilmeinkyahai yeh kisi ko kyapata (but how can
anyone tell what is in our hearts)?” I don’t know if this is true of a few or
many, but does that matter? Even if it’s one, it’s a tragedy that shames us.
Yet till I read Wahab’s book, I wasn’t aware of this.
There’s
also another dimension — you could call it the flipside — and Wahab is equally
forthright in writing of it. Moderate Muslims are not just caught between two
worlds but torn apart. “On the one hand, conservative or devout Muslims
disparage them; on the other hand, Hindus suspect them”. So what choice do they
have but to “keep their heads down and hope they won’t be called upon to take a
stand?” Yet these are the people many criticise for their silence. The truth is
it’s not easy to be a Muslim in India. Both the world outside and your own
community torment you. If you want to understand and, perhaps, see Muslims
through their own eyes, this is a book you should read.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/its-not-easy-being-a-muslim-in-india-101614433089075.html
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Kerala
minister alleges racial profiling by probe agency
Our
Correspondent
28.02.21
A
Kerala minister has alleged that officials of a central investigating agency
had racially profiled a man while interrogating him over a case linked to the
distribution of food kits sponsored by the UAE consulate general during Ramzan
last year.
State
minister of higher education and minority welfare K.T. Jaleel on Saturday said
the officials had questioned the Muslim youth from Malappuram who supplied
cloth bags to pack the Ramzan kits on why he was so close to the family of his
Hindu friend.
Two
central agencies had investigated the minister for alleged violation of Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) for accepting the Ramzan food kits and
copies of Quran sponsored by the Consulate General of UAE in Thiruvananthapuram
in 2020.
The
minister had all along maintained that he had not directly received anything
and had only helped the UAE consul-general organise and distribute the material
to the needy during the month of Ramzan.
“I
had asked my gunman (a Hindu) to see if anyone could supply cloth bags to pack
the Ramzan kits. He contacted his younger brother’s friend (a Muslim) who
agreed to supply them,” Jaleel told The Telegraph.
Jaleel
had helped the consulate source the dry rations for the Ramzan kits from
state-run Kerala State Co-operative Consumers Federation Ltd (Consumerfed) that
supplies affordable consumer essentials to the people. But the bags had to be
outsourced as the consulate, which engages in such charity in many countries,
wanted the Ramzan kits to be packed in cloth bags with the UAE insignia.
“One
evening, around three months ago, the officers of one agency that I won’t name
went to his house as if they were going to nab some big criminal. They then
took him away and started asking all kinds of questions. But what hurt him the
most was when they asked him why he was so closely connected to the Hindu
family (of the gunman),” Jaleel said, adding the officers were Malayalis and
not from any other state.
“They
kept asking him why were the two families (one Hindu and the other Muslim)
visiting each other’s homes,” said the minister, who is an Independent lawmaker
backed by the Left Democratic Front.
“This
young man who is hardly 25 years old came to me and wept and said for the first
time someone made him aware of his religion for all the wrong reasons. It came
as a shock to me since people in Kerala, especially in Malappuram, are known
for our syncretic culture that respects one another,” the minister said. “I
then informed the chief minister (Pinarayi Vijayan) about this and he too was
really shocked.”
The
alleged FCRA violation, still under investigation, was raised by the Opposition
soon after one of the biggest gold-smuggling attempts was busted at the
Thiruvananthapuram airport in July last year.
Customs
officials had found 30kg of gold ingots valued at Rs 14.82 crore when they
opened a diplomatic parcel from Dubai addressed to the attache of the UAE
consulate in the Kerala capital.
A
furore followed with the Opposition accusing the LDF government of colluding
with the smugglers. It was then that the issue of Ramzan kit emerged and was
probed by the customs department and Enforcement Directorate.
Jaleel
attributed the racial profiling of the man to the saffronisation of
investigating agencies. “They (the Centre) had posted officials with clear
Sangh parivar leanings to handle this case. Otherwise the religion of any man
wouldn’t have been raised, that too in Kerala,” Jaleel said.
He
noted how the customs had transferred its Kerala joint commissioner Aneesh B.
Rajan to Nagpur. One of the officers who started investigating the gold
smuggling case, Rajan was accused of being a Left sympathiser for telling the
media no one had called the airport customs to get the diplomatic baggage
released.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/kerala-minister-alleges-racial-profiling-by-probe-agency/cid/1808043
--------
Kerala
polls: Will bring law to prevent 'love jihad' if voted to power, says BJP
27th
February 2021
By
PTI
PALAKKAD:
The NDA in Kerala would bring in a law to prevent prevent 'love jihad" in
the state, if voted to power in the April 6 assembly elections, as such cases
are 'more prevalent' here than in Uttar Pradesh, BJP state chief K Surendran
said here on Saturday 'Love Jihad' is a term used by right wing activists to
refer to an alleged campaign of Muslims forcing Hindu girls to convert in the guise
of love.
Surendran
said the Christian community was now more worried about the practice as they
were reportedly being targetted, and had sought stringent action against it.
"Love
Jihad is more prevalent in Kerala than in Uttar Pradesh and a law is required
to prevent it. The christian community in the state is worried and have sought
stringent action against love jihad. This is of serious concern for them,"
Surendran told reporters here.
BJP-ruled
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had earlier brought in religious freedom laws
to stop conversions through marriage or by any other fraudulent means.
Asked
about senior BJP leader Shobha Surendran's recent statement that IUML was
welcome to the NDA if they leave behind their 'communal agenda' and accept the
leadership and policies of the Narendra Modi led government, the state chief
said the party would join hands only with those who leave their affiliation
with the IUML, Congress and CPI(M).
He
was speaking to reporters at a press meet at the end of the Palakkad leg of the
15 day state wide 'Vijay yatra', which got underway at Kasaragod on February
21, which was seen as the official launch of the BJP's poll campaign.
Various
union ministers and the saffron party's popular leaders and star campaigners at
the national level are expected to join the yatra in the coming days Union
Minister Amit Shah is expected to inaugurate the finale of the yatra at the
state capital on March 7, party sources said.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2021/feb/27/kerala-polls-will-bring-law-to-prevent-love-jihad-if-voted-to-power-says-bjp-2269812.html
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Our
community music group is much more than just a musical band: Soul’s Diet brings
Sufism to stage
by
Nagina Bains
February
27, 2021
“Aaorab
ji tussitaan aa sakde ho, vichudeekan la keassitaantyaarbaithehaan, lang
najaiyokithevichgali de bai kepehredarbaithehaan”. .. these are the lyrics
rendered by the lead vocalist of a band aptly titled Soul’s Diet.
“Safar”
an event in the befitting environs of the Yogamoreshala at Kansal gave the
group an open space not only in its physical context but also openness to
acknowledge, encourage the community folk singers who have taken upon
themselves to carry the legacy of the old folk tales and songs to our doorstep.
Soul’s
diet is the brainchild of Vikram, a young artist who after having worked in the
commercial space, felt the thirst for satiating the need for soul enrichment
and encouraging other lesser-known artistes to initiate the youth and remind
the others of Sufism which lies more in thought, lyrics and letting go.
Vikram
says: “Our community music group is much more than just a musical band. It is a
thought, an effort of like-minded people on the path of self-realisation to
instil within us all a moment of silence that has always been there. Music has
always been a medium to take us deep within. And so, we too have come up with
different flavours of music like kirtan, Sufi, which you may choose from, as a
nourishment for your soul.”
Vikram
accompanied by five other young artistes with Gurdeep on the rabab and
mandolin, an instrument lesser heard in the city, and others on dholak, flute,
keyboard and synthesizer.
Of
course, the vocalist who puts in melody through his vocal chords was a reminder
of the Sufi style of rendition with his eyes in sync with his inner magic and
his fingers on the harmonium, Sat Singh Nagar reminded one of the Ajmer sharif
and HazratNizammuddin dargah where many an evening the Sufi within swirls to
such magic.
The
Yogamoreshala , which is a yoga studio run by Hugo (Hartaj) has to its credit a
space willingly open to music, art, theatre as Hugo believes yoga is within.
“YogAmoreShala
is a space which came into being to bring in people together and offer them
tools to connect within to the person who resides within and to simplify life.
We offer and host different modalities and embodiment practices to assist an
individual. To the core the teachings and sharing’s are in YOGA. It blends in
through different traditions and lineages taking into account the practices
that best work for the modern man living in the 22nd century, ” he says.
Besides
Yoga, Shamanic Breathwork Journey, Ecstatic Dance, Sound Healing, Drum Circle,
Expression through Music and Fitness Programs are offered.
“Hum
to aatmakikhurak de raheinhain,” Vikram says. “In the times of organic food and
immunity booster doses and vaccine, the soul maybe ready and we have the
nourishment here in soul’s diet and Yogamoreshala.”
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/our-community-music-group-is-much-more-than-just-a-musical-band-souls-diet-brings-sufism-to-stage-7206939/
-------
Assam
Assembly election 2021, Jania profile: Congress' Abdul Khaleque wiped out
AIUDF's Rafiqul Islam in 2016
February
27, 2021
FP
Research
Jania
constituency is located in Assam's Barpeta district.
It
falls under the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency.
In
the 2016 Assembly election, the constituency had a total of 173,385 registered
voters.
Voter
turnout in previous election
The
voter turnout in Jania in the previous
Assembly election was 88.72 percent.
Past
election results and winners
In
the 2016 Assembly election, the INC's Abdul Khaleque, with 86,930 votes, wiped
out AIUDF's Rafiqul Islam, who got just 57,194 votes.
In
the 2011 Assembly election, the AIUDF's Rafiqul Islam, with 59,978 votes,
comfortably beat INC's Abdul Khaleque, who netted 42,464 votes.
Assam
has a total of 126 Assembly seats, elections for which are being held in three
phases between 27 March and 6 April.
The
first phase of the Assembly election will take place on 27 March in 47
constituencies, whereas polling in the second phase will see 39 constituencies
going to vote on 1 April.
The
Jania constituency will go to polls in the third and final phase of the Assam
Assembly election along with 39 other Assembly seats on 6 April.
The
date of making nominations for the first, second and third phase are 9 March,
12 March and 19 March, respectively, while scrutiny of nominations will take
place on 10 March, 16 March and 20 March, respectively. The last date for
withdrawal of candidatures are: 12 March, 17 March and 22 March, respectively.
https://www.firstpost.com/politics/assam-assembly-election-2021-jania-profile-congress-abdul-khaleque-wiped-out-aiudfs-rafiqul-islam-in-2016-9257671.html
-------
Pakistan
TLP’s
rally in Pindi puts traffic out of gear
Staff
Reporter
February
28, 2021
RAWALPINDI:
A worst traffic jam was witnessed on main arteries of the garrison city on
Saturday due to a rally held by Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) to mark the
death anniversary of Mumtaz Qadri.
The
participants gathered on Murree Road at Liaquat Bagh and blocked the main road
and then moved to BharaKahu in Islamabad, creating a gridlock. Though traffic
police made a diversion plan, people suffered a lot. Traffic on Saddar-Murree
Road was diverted towards Kutchery Chowk from Marrir Chowk. Raja Bazaar-Murree
Road traffic was diverted from DAV College Chowk and Akbar International Hotel
and vehicles coming from Committee Chowk (underpass and main junction) were
diverted towards DhokeKhabba.
The
rally led by TLP chief Maulana Saad Hussain Rizvi was attended by central
patron Pir Qazi Mahmood Ahmad Qadri, AllamaPir Syed Zaheerul Hassan Shah,
AllamaPir Syed InayatulHaqShah Sultanpuri, Mufti Ghulam Abbas Faizi and others.
The TLP chief said France had insulted 56 Islamic countries by passing an
anti-Islamic bill.
“It
has challenged the honour of more than one and a half billion Muslims. Now all
Muslim rulers are united in their honour and faith,” he said.
Other
leaders of the party delivered speeches at Faizabad and said TLP would continue
its struggle for the imposition of Islamic laws in the country and would
complete the mission of TLP founder Khadim Hussain Rizvi.
They
said the PTI government had failed to deliver and was wrongly using the name of
the state of Madina. They said every Muslim was ready to sacrifice their lives
for the dignity of the holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Without
the implementation of the Islamic system, corruption will not be eradicated
from the country. They said people were fed up with the slogans of the
government.
They
said inflation had reached the highest level in the history of the country
making life miserable for the poor while the rich were living in palatial
houses.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609813/tlps-rally-in-pindi-puts-traffic-out-of-gear
--------
Long
march may not be needed: Maryam
Zulqernain
Tahir
February
28, 2021
LAHORE:
PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Saturday hinted at the chance that the
Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) long march, planned for the next month to
supposedly oust the Imran Khan government, may not be held after all.
“There
is a possibility that the long march may not be needed,” said the PML-N leader
in reply to a question whether the PDM’s long march would end before moving
beyond the PML-N’s bastion of Gujranwala.
She
was talking to reporters here on Saturday before receiving her cousin Hamza
Shehbaz, who was released from the Kot Lakhpat Jail on bail after spending 20
months in prison in a money laundering case instituted by the National
Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Earlier,
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the president of the opposition alliance PDM, had
announced that the long march on Islamabad would be held from March 26 to
overthrow the government.
Answering
a question about the PML-N joining hands with the ruling Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over the Senate polls in Punjab from where all 11
candidates have been elected unopposed, she said: “It is better if you do not
ask me about this.”
A
source close to her said that Ms Nawaz was not happy over her party’s decision
to go for an unopposed Senate election in Punjab. Ms Nawaz wanted the election
in Punjab on March 3 to expose the fissures within the PTI. She is of the view
that through the unopposed election, the opposition had provided relief to
Imran Khan, the source said.
The
PTI has credited PML-Q senior leader and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry
Parvez Elahi with evolving a consensus among the ruling party and the
opposition — PML-N and PPP — to have their senators elected as per their
numbers in the Punjab Assembly.
“There
was no rigging, no quarrel, and no bickering. The Senate polls were held
successfully in Punjab. Another successful inning of the Pakistan Muslim League
for strengthening democracy,” PML-Q MNA Moonis Elahi had tweeted.
Critical
of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Maryam Nawaz said only one constituency (NA-75)
had exposed the “theft” by Imran Khan. “He used to talk about free and fair
elections and umpires. In this by-poll, the umpire was kidnapped and even then
he [Imran Khan] failed to win this election.”
Ms
Nawaz hoped that the disgruntled PTI members would vote for the PDM candidate,
Yousuf Raza Gilani, for an Islamabad Senate seat against Hafeez Sheikh. “Imran
Khan got selected last time through rigging, but in the future he stands no
chance and his party’s lawmakers know this. Therefore, some of them will not
vote for the PTI candidate,” she claimed.
When
asked about her cousin Hamza Shehbaz’s role in the PML-N, Ms Nawaz said: “Hamza
has worked for the party relentlessly. We both are helping each other. Whatever
duty the party assigns us we will do it.”
A
good number of PML-N workers had gathered outside the Kot Lakhpat jail to
receive the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly. Upon his release, Mr
Hamza and Ms Nawaz led a rally of party workers towards the Sharifs’ Model Town
residence. At a couple of points, he also addressed the charged party workers.
Speaking
on the occasion, Mr Hamza said: “No corruption has been established against me,
Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Ahsan Iqbal. This government has
not launched a single development project in about three years.”
He
said the opposition could not sit with “vote, sugar and flour thieves”, adding
that the government had made the life of the common man miserable.
PML-N
information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said the opposition leader had braved
20 months of illegal imprisonment and responded to Imran Khan’s political
victimisation with courage and resilience. She said Mr Hamza had become a
symbol of defiance against persecution by the “NAB-Niazi unholy alliance”.
The
former information minister said: “The PTI could not prove a single penny of
corruption by Hamza even after exhaustive abuse of power, illegal detention,
mental torture, smear campaign and unconstitutional treatment. The role of the
NAB-Niazi alliance will always be quoted as one of the darkest chapters in
history.”
The
Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Hamza Shehbaz in a money
laundering reference. Mr Hamza had sought bail primarily on the ground of
inordinate delay in conclusion of the trial proceedings after the Supreme Court
denied him the relief with a directive to approach the high court with fresh
grounds.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609868/long-march-may-not-be-needed-maryam
-------
PA
condemns Israel violations against Islamic holy sites
February
27, 2021
MEMO
The
Palestinian Authority (PA) on Friday condemned Israeli violations against
Islamic holy sites in the occupied cities of Jerusalem and Hebron, Anadolu
Agency reported.
In
a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry, the PA announced: "Israel
imposes measures and arbitrary restrictions to block worshippers from reaching
worship houses, and it is working hard to extend its domination of them and
Judaise them."
The
statement disclosed that such measures "mount to flagrant violations of
freedom of worship," citing that Israeli occupation forces were blocking
Palestinian worshippers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the Friday
prayer.
The
Israeli occupation authorities prevented Adhan (call to prayer) from occurring
at Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron during the
Jewish holy days.
It
is worth noting that 55 per cent of the area of Al-Ibrahimi Mosque was occupied
in 1994, following a massacre carried out by an Israeli settler during the dawn
prayer, killing 29 worshippers.
Al-Ibrahimi
Mosque is located in the Old City of Hebron, which falls under Israeli
occupation control. Around 400 Israeli Jewish settlers live in the occupied
Palestinian area protected by 1,500 Israeli occupation soldiers.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210227-pa-condemns-israel-violations-against-islamic-holy-sites/
--------
Pakistan
among 92 countries where UK strain detected
Ikram
Junaidi
February
28, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
The federal government has claimed that Pakistan is among 92 countries in the
world where the UK strain of Covid-19 has been detected, urging people to
follow health guidelines and go for vaccination.
On
the other hand, following the emergence of 1,315 more patients and 33 deaths in
a single day, the overall number of cases since the first patient was reported
in the country last year has reached 578,797, with the positivity rate of 6.49
per cent. Besides, 12,837 people have succumbed to the deadly virus till now.
“The
new strain is being seen across the world and continues to be detected in
samples in Pakistan. While this strain does not cause more severe disease,
there is evidence that its transmission is faster,” a statement issued by the
Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) stated.
“This
highlights the need to continue following prescribed standard operating
procedures (SOPs) and guidelines issued by the government and to get vaccinated
when your turn comes. The ministry is continuously monitoring the situation
through a robust surveillance system,” the statement added.
An
official of the NHS ministry, requesting not to be named, said the UK strain
cases were mostly being found among people returning from abroad.
The
NHS ministry spokesperson, Sajid Shah, told Dawn that people should pay no heed
to rumours and get themselves vaccinated as it would help achieve the target of
herd immunity.
“Registration
of healthcare workers and citizens over 60 years of age is continuing. Pakistan
will also get the vaccine under Covax in the first week of March and then
vaccination will start within days,” he said.
According
to data of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 8,912,918 tests
have been conducted since the first case was detected in the country on Feb 26,
2020, out of which 578,797 have contracted the virus, showing a positivity rate
of 6.49pc.
According
to the breakdown, 257,730 people got infected in Sindh, 170,817 in Punjab,
72,003 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 44,106 in Islamabad, 19,038 in Balochistan,
10,147 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 4,956 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
As
many as 12,837 deaths were recorded across the country out of which 5,337
occurred in Punjab, 4,335 in Sindh, 2,070 in KP, 496 in Islamabad, 200 in Balochistan,
297 in AJK and 102 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Replying
to a question regarding the confusion prevailing about whether people over 60
years should get vaccinated, spokesperson Sajid Shah said citizens should pay
no heed to false information.
“The
confusion was created because the government decided not to administer the
Chinese vaccine to people over 60 years. The decision was made because
Sinopharm did not include sufficient number of people over the age of 60 in its
clinical trial. However, there is no such issue with the Oxford-AstraZeneca
vaccine, which is going to reach Pakistan in the first week of March,” Mr Shah
said.
“A
few days ago we issued a statement that Covid-19 vaccines were being
administered in over 60 countries, out of which 32, including the UK, were
using Oxford-AstraZeneca,” he said.
It
is worth mentioning that the confusion arose following a statement issued by
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan in which he
said Sinopharm should not be administered to people aged over 60.
However,
the very next day he clarified that he did not mean to say that the vaccine was
hazardous for senior citizens. “Since clinical data did not show that the
vaccine was given to people over 60 years, it was decided to administer it only
to those who were a maximum of 60 years of age,” he said.
The
special assistant had said that other vaccines, including Oxford-AstraZeneca,
had no such issue, and in future even Sinopharm might be administered to people
of all age groups under a new research.
Sinopharm
vaccine, meanwhile, is being given to people over 60 in the United Arab
Emirates as well as other countries.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609866/pakistan-among-92-countries-where-uk-strain-detected
--------
Senate
poll keeps PDM committee distracted
Amir
Wasim
February
28, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
The opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) that has set March 26 as
the date for starting its anti-government long march is yet to finalise the
modalities of the protest, including its duration, as its member parties remain
preoccupied with the preparations for the upcoming Senate elections.
The
PDM steering committee that had been assigned the task to finalise a strategy
for the long march met thrice in Islamabad last week, but the participants consumed
most of the time in discussing the plan for the March 3 polls, according to
sources.
The
sources said the PDM member parties had already agreed to hold a sit-in after
reaching the capital, but their differences over the modalities and duration of
the sit-in were yet to be resolved, as one of the two major opposition parties
was not convinced to convert the long march into an ‘indefinite’ sit-in.
Talking
to Dawn here on Saturday, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) secretary general
Farhatullah Khan Babar, who is also a member of the PDM steering committee,
confirmed that all their previous meetings remained focused on the Senate
elections since the PDM’s parties had announced that they would jointly contest
the polls.
“The
discussion on the long march issue will now be held after the Senate election,”
declared Mr Babar while taking credit for the PPP in convincing other
opposition parties to take part in the Senate election instead of boycotting
it.
“Our
[PPP’s] narrative proved true. Had we left the field open for them [the
government], then Imran Khan would have taken the advantage by telling the
people that look the thieves have run away,” the PPP stalwart said, claiming
that the PDM’s announcement to jointly contest the Senate election had already caused
much “political damage” to Mr Khan.
Mr
Babar even hinted that they might change the date of the long march. He said
they had announced that the long march would start on March 26, but the final
date and its modalities were yet to be decided.
In
response to a question, the PPP leader disclosed that in the last meeting of
the PDM heads earlier this month, they had decided that the opposition parties
would stage a sit-in “which will continue for more than a day” but it had not
been decided as to how long it would continue.
He
said not only the PDM, but all the component parties were to finalise their
respective strategies for the long march and sit-in.
“In
how many days, we will reach Islamabad after starting long march from different
parts of the country? From where the main leaders will start the march? Where
will they culminate in Islamabad? How long they will stage the sit-in? We are
yet to find replies to all these questions,” he admitted.
Mr
Babar said if PPP workers from Larkana, Sukkur and other parts of Sindh arrived
in Islamabad, then arrangements would have to be made for them and the party
leadership would also be required to be present with their workers.
When
contacted, information secretary of the main opposition Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) Marriyum Aurangzeb said the steering committee might form
some sub-committees to finalise the long march plan, which would be presented
before the PDM leadership after its approval by the steering committee.
On
February 4, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief and PDM convener Maulana Fazlur
Rehman after presiding over a meeting of the heads of the member parties in
Islamabad had announced that they would jointly contest the Senate election and
“start” their anti-government long march to Islamabad on March 26.
Briefing
reporters after more than six-hour-long meeting of the PDM party heads, the
Maulana had stated that the decision to hold a march on Islamabad had been
taken. “Caravans from all over the country will leave for Islamabad on March
26,” said the PDM convener while refusing to divulge details of the plan.
The
sources said the JUI-F and the PML-N were of the opinion that the opposition
lawmakers should submit their resignations during the long march. The two
parties, they said, had suggested to the PPP that they could even consider the
option of resigning only from the National Assembly if the PPP was not ready to
sacrifice its provincial government in Sindh.
During
the meeting, the sources said, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif suggested that before
launching the long march, they should also consider the option of giving a call
for shutter-down and wheel-jam strike in the country.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609867/senate-poll-keeps-pdm-committee-distracted
-------
Senate
poll keeps PDM committee distracted
Amir
Wasim
February
28, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
The opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) that has set March 26 as
the date for starting its anti-government long march is yet to finalise the
modalities of the protest, including its duration, as its member parties remain
preoccupied with the preparations for the upcoming Senate elections.
The
PDM steering committee that had been assigned the task to finalise a strategy
for the long march met thrice in Islamabad last week, but the participants
consumed most of the time in discussing the plan for the March 3 polls,
according to sources.
The
sources said the PDM member parties had already agreed to hold a sit-in after
reaching the capital, but their differences over the modalities and duration of
the sit-in were yet to be resolved, as one of the two major opposition parties
was not convinced to convert the long march into an ‘indefinite’ sit-in.
Talking
to Dawn here on Saturday, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) secretary general
Farhatullah Khan Babar, who is also a member of the PDM steering committee,
confirmed that all their previous meetings remained focused on the Senate
elections since the PDM’s parties had announced that they would jointly contest
the polls.
“The
discussion on the long march issue will now be held after the Senate election,”
declared Mr Babar while taking credit for the PPP in convincing other
opposition parties to take part in the Senate election instead of boycotting
it.
“Our
[PPP’s] narrative proved true. Had we left the field open for them [the
government], then Imran Khan would have taken the advantage by telling the
people that look the thieves have run away,” the PPP stalwart said, claiming
that the PDM’s announcement to jointly contest the Senate election had already
caused much “political damage” to Mr Khan.
Mr
Babar even hinted that they might change the date of the long march. He said
they had announced that the long march would start on March 26, but the final
date and its modalities were yet to be decided.
In
response to a question, the PPP leader disclosed that in the last meeting of
the PDM heads earlier this month, they had decided that the opposition parties
would stage a sit-in “which will continue for more than a day” but it had not
been decided as to how long it would continue.
He
said not only the PDM, but all the component parties were to finalise their
respective strategies for the long march and sit-in.
“In
how many days, we will reach Islamabad after starting long march from different
parts of the country? From where the main leaders will start the march? Where
will they culminate in Islamabad? How long they will stage the sit-in? We are
yet to find replies to all these questions,” he admitted.
Mr
Babar said if PPP workers from Larkana, Sukkur and other parts of Sindh arrived
in Islamabad, then arrangements would have to be made for them and the party
leadership would also be required to be present with their workers.
When
contacted, information secretary of the main opposition Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) Marriyum Aurangzeb said the steering committee might form
some sub-committees to finalise the long march plan, which would be presented
before the PDM leadership after its approval by the steering committee.
On
February 4, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief and PDM convener Maulana Fazlur
Rehman after presiding over a meeting of the heads of the member parties in
Islamabad had announced that they would jointly contest the Senate election and
“start” their anti-government long march to Islamabad on March 26.
Briefing
reporters after more than six-hour-long meeting of the PDM party heads, the
Maulana had stated that the decision to hold a march on Islamabad had been
taken. “Caravans from all over the country will leave for Islamabad on March
26,” said the PDM convener while refusing to divulge details of the plan.
The
sources said the JUI-F and the PML-N were of the opinion that the opposition
lawmakers should submit their resignations during the long march. The two
parties, they said, had suggested to the PPP that they could even consider the
option of resigning only from the National Assembly if the PPP was not ready to
sacrifice its provincial government in Sindh.
During
the meeting, the sources said, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif suggested that before
launching the long march, they should also consider the option of giving a call
for shutter-down and wheel-jam strike in the country.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609867/senate-poll-keeps-pdm-committee-distracted
-------
Mega
uplift package for Sindh by April: minister
Mohammad
Hussain Khan
February
28, 2021
HYDERABAD:
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar
said on Saturday that the prime minister would announce a massive development
package for other parts of Sindh, like Karachi, once it was finalised by the
end of April.
He
said despite the 18th Amendment and a little increase in provincial revenues,
the provinces were still almost totally dependent on federal funds.
He
was talking to journalists in Wapda Colony after chairing a meeting of officers
of different federal government departments. MuttahidaQaumi Movement-Pakistan
parliamentarians Salahuddin, Sabir Kaimkhani, Rashid Khilji, Nasir Qureshi and
Nadeem Siddiqui and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’sFirduous Shamim Naqvi were
present on the occasion.
He
said if the people of Sindh didn’t accept Sindh barrage conceived by Wapda why
would the federal government spend billions on it.
He
said the federal government would consult the Sindh government over the
development package through the Executive Committee of National Economic
Council (Ecnec), which was a relevant forum to discuss such projects.
He
said a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) had to be postponed in
view of increasing political temperatures because of Senate polls.
He
said he saw no threat to the PTI-led coalition government, adding that since
2019 he was tired of hearing that the PTI was in trouble
Mr
Umar said circumstances showed how ugly Senate elections had become as
“conscience is being sold by many”. He said the PTI was a democratic party in
which people expressed dissenting views on award of party tickets for Senate
seats but they were loyal with the party and stood by its decisions.
He
said Liaquat Jatoi, a PTI leader from Sindh who has raised questions over award
of party ticket to Saifullah Abro, had been asked to explain his point of view.
He
said the seats the PTI lost, including one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in recent
by-elections were discussed in media. But no one discussed the seat which the
PTI had lost in 2018 and won in recent by-polls. Wazirabad seat was won by
PML-N with a margin of over 30,000 votes in 2018 which, the party alleged, were
massively rigged. However, this time, the PML-N won it with 5,000 lead with no
rigging allegations. He said the by-polls showed that the ratio of the PTI’s
vote had increased while PML-N’s declined.
He
said leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh was being
subjected to vindictive actions for raising voice against the Sindh government,
Murad Ali Shah and Asif Ali Zardari. He said PPP’s vote bank driven by love for
the Bhuttos had reduced and largely became a ‘vote of fear’.
The
minister said the federal government was planning large-scale investment in
Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and Sukkur Electric Supply Company to improve
their service delivery under the proposed development package for Sindh.
Under
an Asian Development Bank-funded programme, smart meter project was going to be
introduced so that only those consumers faced action who did not pay bills
instead of their entire area suffering power cut.
He
said an identical project of smart meters is part of the China Pakistan
Economic Corridor to be approved in coming meeting of Pakistan-China Joint
Cooperation Committee.
Mr
Umar said a CCI meeting would be held after Senate polls. “We felt perhaps time
is not ripe now for discussing constructive matters in the CCI.”
He
said the Sindh government had no objection to execution of K-IV project by the
federal government and had given its consent for it. Now Wapda would be its
implementation agency and it would spend whatever amount of fund was needed on
its completion.
Mr
Umar said the idea behind devolving powers to the provinces under 18th
Amendment was that they would increase revenue generation and would not rely on
Centre. “Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened. The provinces have increased their
revenues but only a little. Still, they completely rely on Centre for receipt
of funds.” He said the Federal Board of Revenue had exceeded its revenue
collection target this year.
Wind
energy projects, he said, would be approved through auction and the federal
government had designed three categories for them, irrespective of their
provincial location.
He
said earlier wind power projects were approved through a flawed policy and now
the projects in category I and II were given go ahead while those in
category-III were dropped regardless of their location.
Earlier,
Asad Umar held meetings with PTI MQM-Pakistan and Grand Democratic Alliance
leaders and discussed political situation in Sindh and development-related
matters with them, adds APP.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609865/mega-uplift-package-for-sindh-by-april-minister
--------
Rules
being framed to put special courts under IHC control
Malik
Asad
February
28, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
The law secretary on Saturday informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the
government was making rules to bring Federal Judicial Complex (FJC) under the
administrative control of the IHC.
This
was stated in a report submitted by Secretary Law Raja Naeem Akbar to the IHC
in response to a petition filed against the ‘disorder’ in the Federal Judicial
Complex (FJC).
At
present, IHC lacks administrative jurisdiction over the FJC, which houses 13
special courts, including anti-terrorism courts, accountability courts courts
and FIA courts. The staff of these courts is controlled by the law ministry.
Secretary
law Raja Naeem Akbar also informed the court that the district courts complex
would be constructed in Sector G-11/4 whereas the site for the lawyers complex
is in Sector G-10.
The
accountability courts would continue functioning in the FJC whereas the
tribunals situated in the judicial complex would be relocated to the
alternative place.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609823/rules-being-framed-to-put-special-courts-under-ihc-control
------
Mideast
Iran
warns US claim of using ‘right to self-defense’ in assassination of Gen.
Soleimani
February
27, 2021
Source
: Iran Press
Iran’s
ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations has warned of a
growing tendency among some countries to resort to threats or use of force
under the pretext of exercising their right to self-defense, referring to the
assassination by the US of Iran’s Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani as a case
in point.
“If
unchecked, the right to self-defense will not only be abused more frequently by
such states, but also they will institute further exceptions to the principle
of the prohibition of the threat or use of force,” IRAN quoted Majid
Takht-Ravanchi as saying in an address to the UN Security Council Open Arria
Formula Meeting on right to self-defense in New York on Wednesday.
He
pointed to the US’s brutal assassination of Lt. General Soleimani, the
Commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, in Iraq
early in 2020 in a gross violation of the basic norms and principles of
international law.
He
said the US administration, through its communication to the Security Council
president, desperately attempted to “justify such an obvious act of terrorism
through a series of fabrications and an extremely arbitrary interpretation of
the Charter’s Article 51.”
To
justify the crime, Trump baselessly claimed the Iranian general was targeted
because he was planning “imminent and sinister” attacks on US diplomats and
military personnel.
However,
Takht-Ravanchi added, “Many
international law scholars and practitioners have categorically rejected such
an interpretation of the right to self-defense.”
The
US military murdered Lt. General Soleimani along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,
Deputy Head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi, and their companions by targeting their
vehicle outside the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
The
cowardly act of terror was carried out under the direction of former US
President Donald Trump, with the Pentagon taking responsibility for the strike.
Elsewhere
in his address, Takht-Ravanchi commended as “one of the greatest
accomplishments” of the Security Council the prohibition of the threat or use
of force, save the two exceptional cases authorized by the UN Charter, and said
the preservation and full observance of the cardinal principle of international
law are a “collective responsibility that must be fulfilled responsibly.”
The
Iranian diplomat highlighted the importance of an obligation by all countries
to protect their citizens and territories and enjoy an inherent right to
self-defense.
https://en.abna24.com/news//iran-warns-us-claim-of-using-%e2%80%98right-to-self-defense%e2%80%99-in-assassination-of-gen-soleimani_1118943.html
-------
Israel
blocks Palestine worshippers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque
February
27, 2021
MEMO
Israeli
occupation forces on Friday placed military barricades at the entrances of the
Old City, obstructing Palestinian worshippers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque,
Safa Press Agency reported.
According
to a Safa Press Agency reporter, the Israeli forces prevented Palestinians from
Israel and the occupied West Bank from entering the Old City.
The
Israeli occupation forces stopped the Palestinian worshippers and inspected
their ID cards, allowing very few to enter into the Old City and reach Al-Aqsa
Mosque.
Recently,
Israeli occupation settlers, protected by the Israeli occupation forces, have
started to enter into Al-Aqsa Mosque from all of its gates, unlike previously
when they entered mainly through Al-Magharbeh Gate.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210227-israel-blocks-palestine-worshippers-from-reaching-al-aqsa-mosque/
-------
PA
condemns Israel violations against Islamic holy sites
February
27, 2021
MEMO
The
Palestinian Authority (PA) on Friday condemned Israeli violations against
Islamic holy sites in the occupied cities of Jerusalem and Hebron, Anadolu
Agency reported.
In
a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry, the PA announced: "Israel
imposes measures and arbitrary restrictions to block worshippers from reaching
worship houses, and it is working hard to extend its domination of them and
Judaise them."
The
statement disclosed that such measures "mount to flagrant violations of
freedom of worship," citing that Israeli occupation forces were blocking
Palestinian worshippers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the Friday
prayer.
The
Israeli occupation authorities prevented Adhan (call to prayer) from occurring
at Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron during the
Jewish holy days.
It
is worth noting that 55 per cent of the area of Al-Ibrahimi Mosque was occupied
in 1994, following a massacre carried out by an Israeli settler during the dawn
prayer, killing 29 worshippers.
Al-Ibrahimi
Mosque is located in the Old City of Hebron, which falls under Israeli
occupation control. Around 400 Israeli Jewish settlers live in the occupied
Palestinian area protected by 1,500 Israeli occupation soldiers.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210227-pa-condemns-israel-violations-against-islamic-holy-sites/
--------
The
massacre of Ibrahimi Mosque
February
27, 2021
Dr
Belal Yasin
Twenty-seven
years ago, on 25 February, 1994, an Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein shot
at hundreds of Palestinians gathering for Al-Fajr prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque
in the occupied city of Hebron.
Goldstein
took advantage of the gathering of the worshippers in the prostration position
and the closure of the mosque's doors by the occupation soldiers, to kill 29
Palestinians and wound more than 150 others.
The
massacre did not end until the Israeli forces shot at the attendees of the
victims' funeral, raising the death toll of the massacre to 60.
Despite
the atrocity of the massacre, it was widely supported by the Israeli occupation
and settlers. When asked if he felt sorry for those killed by Goldstein, Jewish
Rabbi Moshe Levinger remarked: "The death of an Arab makes me feel sorry
as much as I pity the death of a fly."
Goldstein
is considered a saint by Israeli authorities, who transformed his grave into a
shrine and assigned a number of honour guards to perform the military salute
every day before his grave.
The
Arab and Muslim countries were outraged and condemned the criminal attack via
peaceful demonstrations, demanding an end to the Israeli settlements and the
prosecution of the occupation for its repeated crimes. However, the Israeli
authorities argued that Goldstein was insane and was receiving treatment,
making it legally impossible to hold him responsible for his actions. This is
how the occupation managed to escape the legal responsibility for this crime.
Despite
the attempts of Israeli media to mislead the public about what really happened
during the massacre, the United Nations (UN) Security Council approved, on 18
March, 1994, a resolution condemning the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, and called
on the Israeli authorities to take measures to protect the Palestinians,
including the disarming of settlers.
This
decision resulted in the formation of an international mission in the city of
Hebron, with the aim of monitoring the practices of the occupation. Because of
a report issued by the international mission, which between 1994 and 2019
monitored more than 42,000 violations committed by the Israeli authorities
against the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused in
January 2019 to extend the stay of the international observers.
The
media office of Netanyahu quoted him stating: "We will not allow an
international force that works against us to stay any longer," considering
that the mission of the observers, which consisted of documenting violations of
his soldiers against the Palestinians, is an anti-Israel act.
The
Ibrahimi Mosque massacre was not just a passing event, but rather an act
planned to impose a new reality through which the occupation could achieve its
goals, seeking to expel the Palestinians from the Old City and control the
Ibrahimi Mosque – exactly what Hebron is witnessing now.
Since
the massacre, the city of Hebron has been subjected to a series of measures
that changed its historical features and strengthened Israeli settlement,
including:
According
to the aforementioned, it is clear that the Israeli authorities are encouraging
settlers to commit more massacres against the Palestinians by iconising the
perpetrator of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, and refusing to commit to the UN
Security Council resolution, recommending the protection of Palestinians and
disarming the settlers.
On
the other hand, the occupation state restricted the movement of Palestinians
and gave the green light to settlers to expand their settlements and kill
Palestinians, destroying their property and attacking their religious
sanctities. This prompted many residents of the Old City to leave for fear of
being harmed by Zionist gangs. Therefore, the international institutions must
work harder to end the Israeli occupation and implement UN Resolution 242 to
ensure that such massacres do not happen again, and to end the daily violations
against Palestinians in the city of Hebron.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210227-the-massacre-of-ibrahimi-mosque/
-------
Extremist
settlers storm Islamic shrines in Salfit, Ramallah under protection of Israeli
enemy forces
Source
: Palestine Info
February
27, 2021
Dozens
of fanatic Jewish settlers stormed at dawn Friday the Islamic shrines in
KiflHaris town, north of Salfit, under protection of the Israeli occupation
forces (IOF).
Local
sources reported that the settlers performed Talmudic prayers in Islamic shrines
until the morning hours. The IOF soldiers set up a military checkpoint at one
of the town's entrances and closed the iron gate at its main entrance.
Meanwhile,
a group of settlers raided on Thursday evening the outskirts of Al-Tira
neighborhood in Ramallah to perform Talmudic rituals under the IOF protection.
Eyewitness
stated that IOF set up a military checkpoint on the road linking Al-Tira
neighborhood and Ain Qinya town to protect settlers who arrived in the area in
several vehicles.
https://en.abna24.com/news//extremist-settlers-storm-islamic-shrines-in-salfit-ramallah-under-protection-of-israeli-enemy-forces_1119045.html
-------
AKP,
opposition leaders come together to commemorate late Islamist leader Erbakan
Ahval
Feb
27 2021
Top
officials from Turkey’s ruling party and opposition leaders came together on
Saturday for a ceremony commemorating the country’s late Islamist prime
minister Necmettin Erbakan,GerçekGündem news site reported.
The
ceremony organised by the Islamist Felicity Party marking the 10th anniversary
of Erbakan’s death in Ankara, saw attendance from the leader of the main
opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Future
Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu, Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) leader Ali
Baban and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co chairman Mithat
Sancar, the news site said.
Erbakan,
acknowledged as the the most influential figure of Islamism in Turkey, rose to
prominence in the 1970s at the head of the Milli Görüş (National View) Islamist
movement he founded and served as prime minister between 1996-1997. Prominent
members of Milli Görüş, including now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, went on
to found the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that has run Turkey
since 2002.
Ankara’s
CHP mayor Mansur Yavaş was also in attendance in attendance in Saturday’s
event, GerçekGündem said.
Erdoğan
was not present for the commemoration ceremony of his mentor Erbakan and AKP
was represented by the deputy chairman MahirÜnal, it said.
https://ahvalnews.com/necmettin-erbakan/akp-opposition-leaders-come-together-commemorate-late-islamist-leader-erbakan
-------
Internet
disruption reported in southeast Iran amid unrest
AP
FEB
27, 2021
Iran’s
impoverished southeast experienced wide disruptions of internet service over
the past week, internet experts said Saturday, as unrest gripped the remote
province after a string of fatal border shootings.
Several
rights groups reported in a joint statement that authorities shut down the
mobile data network in the restive provinces of Sistan and Baluchistan, calling
the disruptions an apparent “tool to conceal” the government’s harsh crackdown
on protests convulsing the area.
The
reports of internet interference come as Iranian authorities and semi-official
news agencies increasingly acknowledge the turmoil challenging local
authorities in the southeast — a highly sensitive matter in a country that
seeks to repress all hints of political dissent.
For
three days starting Wednesday, the government shut down the mobile data network
across Sistan and Baluchistan, where 96 percent of the population accesses the
internet only through their phones, rights groups said, crippling the key
communication tool. Residents reported a restoration of internet access early
Saturday.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/internet-disruption-reported-in-southeast-iran-amid-unrest-101614432260833.html
--------
South
Asia
SL
informs OIC about its decision to allow burial of Muslim Covid-19 victims
27
February 2021
Kelum
Bandara
Sri
Lanka was to inform in writing to the General Secretariat of the Organisation
of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) yesterday about its decision to allow the burial
of Muslim Covid-19 victims, Daily Mirror learns.
The
Government decided to reverse its mandatory cremation policy based on
recommendations by the technical committee of experts appointed to look into
it. The gazette notification giving effect to this decision was issued on
Wednesday night under the signature of Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi.
The
burial of bodies of Covid-19 victims are allowed in accordance with directions
by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) at a cemetery or a place
authorised by him.
The
OIC raised concerns about the mandatory cremation policy earlier. OIC Secretary
General Yousef Al Othaimeen said at the meeting of the High level Segment of
the UNHRC that the OIC is concerned with the situation of Muslims in Sri Lanka
since they are denied the right to be buried.
He
called for the Government to allow Muslims to bury their people dying of
Covid-19 in accordance with their religious rites.there are 13 OIC countries
which are members of the UNHRC this time. Their support is crucial for Sri
Lanka to defeat the resolution to be moved by the core group of countries led
by the United Kingdom.the zero draft of the resolution also refers to the
burial issue. Some of the Islamic countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Iran have already spoken in favour of Sri Lanka at the UNHRC. Sri Lanka has
already rejected the resolution.
http://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/SL-informs-OIC-about-its-decision-to-allow-burial-of-Muslim-Covid-19-victims/108-206679
------
‘A
huge relief to Muslim community’
28-02-2021
Camelia
Nathaniel
Speaking
to the Daily News, former MP M.M. Zuhair PC said that the Government’s decision
to permit burials of COVID-19 victims was a huge relief to the Muslim community
in Sri Lanka. He said that the Government’s decision to only permit the
cremation of COVID-19 victims was understandable as it was a new virus and no
one knew how to deal with it. “Understandably, the medical experts were not
very clear at that time. But, subsequent investigations and reports, including
by the WHO said very clearly that burials will not necessarily lead to the
spread of COVID-19. While all citizens wish to have a dignified burial, for
Muslims in particular, this is a tremendous relief to them.
They
were under tremendous psychological pressure of getting infected with COVID-19
as they were worried of the consequences. I am sure many would have avoided
normal treatment if they were suspected cases due to the fear that they may be
cremated in case they fall victims to COVID. Now the restoration of the burials
will facilitate the burial of Muslims and others who wish to be buried and will
take away the people’s fear to seek treatment if they are suspected of having
contracted the virus.”
He
said that they were worried that this issue should not become a cause for
radicalization in the community. “That was causing us much worry far beyond
other factors.”
Therefore,
he said that the restoration of the burial facilities for COVID-19 victims is a
most welcome move by the Health Minister after having recovered from COVID-19
herself.
He
also pointed out that the Quarantine Act clearly allows for both options of
burial and cremation and said that clearly that provision should not have been
removed by the Gazette. “Our view is that that is a violation of the law as
well. Hence, we need not have dragged this matter this far and it should have
been resolved much earlier. But, its better late than never and we are very
grateful and relieved.”
Health
Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi informed party leaders about the decision to
permit the burial of coronavirus victims on Thursday (25).
“In
the case of burial, the corpse of such person shall be buried in accordance
with the directions issued by the Director General of Health Services at a
cemetery or place approved by the proper authority under the supervision of
such authority,” the Gazette notice states.
Sri
Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader Rauff Hakeem had also tweeted saying he and
his colleagues from several political parties had a pleasant and fruitful
discussion with the Pakistani Prime Minister.
“He
expressed confidence in the capacity of our Leaders to improve harmony among
all Sri Lankans and address their citizens’ grievances with view to foster
goodwill among nations,” Hakeem tweeted.
Also
commenting on the issue, SJB-MP Mujibur Rahuman said that the lifting of the
ban on burials was the result of much agitation by the Muslim community. He
said that this issue need not have been allowed to drag on to a point where it
reached the UNHRC. “If the Government had listened to the experts earlier and
allowed the burials, this matter would not have caused so much resentment and
division. In fact, many Muslims voted for the present Government, but with this
issue, they are now disgruntled. We also feel that the Pakistani Prime
Minister’s visit also had some influence on the Government’s decision to
finally allow burials of Covid victims. Anyhow, I am sure all Muslims in this
country are relieved that the Government has finally approved burials of COVID
deceased,” he said.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2021/02/27/local/242687/%E2%80%98-huge-relief-muslim-community%E2%80%99
--------
Parliament
delegation visits Tajikistan for the second time
By
Khaama Press
28
Feb 2021
A
parliamentary delegation was led by Mir Rahman Ramani the Afghan Wolesi Jirga
speaker to Tajikistan on Saturday, during their visit they will meet senior
Tajikistan officials to discuss the peace process.
The
number of lawmakers accompanying Rahmani is nearly 20 people, this will mark
parliament’s second trip to Tajikistan.
Lawmakers
hinted that Tajikistan plays a very important role in the Afghan peace process
and stability, countries under Russian influence can “ play an important role
in the Afghan peace process” a lawmaker told media.
Previously,
many government officials and Afghan politicians visited different neighboring
countries and beyond to discuss the Afghan peace process.
https://www.khaama.com/parliament-delegation-visits-tajikistan-for-the-second-time/
--------
IED
explosions rock Kabul, Nangarhar provinces
By
Khaama Press
27
Feb 2021
At
least two people died and three were wounded in explosions in Kabul and
Nangarhar provinces on Saturday.
FerdawsFaramarz,
a spokesman for the Kabul Police HQ said that a corolla-type vehicle was
targeted by magnetic IED at around 9:00 am this morning in the outskirts of
Kabul city.
According
to police one person was killed and two others were injured when their vehicle
was hit by a magnetic bomb in Bagrami district of Kabul city.
On
the other hand, Abdul Qahar Qadir, a member of the provincial council of
Nangarhar was wounded when an IED blast hit his vehicle in the city of
Jalalabad on Saturday afternoon, local officials reported.
An
innocent civilian was killed during the explosion.
This
comes to Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum’s arrival after 20 months in Kabul amid
escalated violence despite the peace process.
Chairman
of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, President’s
Advisor for Security and Political Affairs Mohammad Mohaqiq, welcomed Dostum at Hamid Karzai International
Airport.
Dostum
during his speech said, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are targeting innocent people
and that both will be “terminated” for their atrocities.
He
also called on Ashraf Ghani to find a political consensus for the Afghan peace
process, adding that Afghanistan is at a “critical stage in the history,” the
Afghan elected leader must “bring politicians together”
Dostum
indicated that minor negligence could turn the history “against us”, Dostum
said.
He
said that the opportunity for bringing prolonged peace in the country should be
seized.
https://www.khaama.com/explosions-in-kabul-nangarhar-kills-3-342277/
--------
90%
of anti-terrorism operations ‘conducted’ by ANDSF: Ashraf Ghani
By
Khaama Press
27
Feb 2021
President
Ashraf Ghani on the day of Armed Forces Day reiterated that Afghanistan is in
need of a dignified and permanent peace and that the international community
kept Afghan away from the fundamental right of peace for many years.
According
to the Afghan president, 90% of the counterterrorism operations are conducted
by the Afghan National Army and Defense Forces.
“Today’s
Afghanistan is not the one it was in the past, the one that was protected by
others. Today, you are safeguarding it. We are very close to self-reliance”,
Ghani added.
During
the ceremony, President Ghani said that security forces have played an
important role in fighting international terrorism, and they can protect the
values of and gains of the country.
Referring
to his recent speech at UN Security Council, President Ghani said: “My main
sentence was that for the last 40 years, the international community has kept a
massive nation away from their fundamental right which is peace and this is unacceptable.”
“We
want peace and we want dignified peace and a peace that is ensured by the power
of our security and defense forces and with the will of the people. This peace
will come,”
Ghani
said the violence must end and that there should be no more bloodshed and no
one should remain deprived of education anymore.
President
Ghani stressed that the violence and bloodshed must end and no one is deprived
of education.
He
said the next government and president will be decided by the Afghan people
themselves.
“The
people of Afghanistan have elected their government and president and they will
elect the next president of Afghanistan,” Ghani added, “It is the right of the
nation and the security and defense forces will prove that change will be legal
and based on the nation’s will; otherwise, the tenure of the Republic is
clear”.
The
Afghan National Defense and Security member’s day was celebrated nationwide,
with strong feelings and emotions still intact for a peaceful future of
Afghanistan.
Deputy
Defense Minister, Shah Mahmood Miakhil during the ceremony said the Afghan
forces made a huge sacrifice by releasing Taliban prisoners for the purpose of
prolonged peace.
https://www.khaama.com/9
State
cannot avoid responsibility
February
28, 2021
Staff
Correspondent
Hours
after protesting writer Mushtaq Ahmed's detention under the Digital Security
Act and subsequent death in custody, Ruhul Amin himself was sued under the
controversial law.
"If
such writings sent Mushtaq to jail and then to death, depriving him of bail six
times, then arrest me too," read a Facebook post that Ruhul, a coordinator
of left-leaning Shramik-Krishak-Chhatra-Janata Oikya Parishad, wrote on Friday.
He
shared a digital poster of a protest march from Shahbagh to the JatiyaSangsad,
called for yesterday, and also some screenshots of Mushtaq's Facebook posts.
Around
10:00pm, Detective Branch officials picked him up along with Niyaz Murshid
Dolon, convening committee member of his organisation, from their mess in
Goakhali area of Khulna city.
BM
Nurujjaman, deputy commissioner, Detective Branch at KMP, said Ruhul was sued
under the Digital Security Act for trying to destabilise the state, creating
social unrest and over other reasons.
While
the demand for scrapping this law gets louder, especially after the death of
writer Mushtaq, Ruhul is just another name added to the long list of people
detained under DSA.
Last
year, as many as 457 people of different professions were prosecuted and
arrested in 198 cases filed under the Digital Security Act, noted UK-based
Article 19 in its annual report.
Of
this figure, 75 were journalists, while others included teachers, students,
folk musicians and cultural artists. Nearly half of the journalists prosecuted,
32, were arrested.
In
a statement yesterday, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said the
"repressive" Digital Security Act, under which Mushtaq was arrested,
should be abolished.
The
graft watchdog observed that by formulating the DSA, a "fatal weapon"
has been handed to the so-called influentials to suppress voices of dissent.
Mushtaq's
death proves that the government and state machineries do not have what it
takes to tolerate criticism, it further stated.
TIB
Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said there were questions as to why Mushtaq
was denied bail six times while the other accused in the case was not.
"It
will not be an exaggeration to say the Digital Security Act has been misused to
gag the voices of dissent and critics," he added.
In
a separate statement, the National Human Rights Commission said the state
cannot avoid the responsibility of writer Mushtaq's death.
In
another development, the US State Department has called on Bangladesh to
conduct a transparent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed and uphold
the right of freedom of expression.
"We
are concerned by Bangladeshi writer Mushtaq Ahmed's death in custody while
detained under the Digital Security Act," US State Department Spokesperson
Ned Price tweeted yesterday, a day after 13 heads of foreign missions in Dhaka
issued a joint statement on the issue.
"We
call on the Government of Bangladesh to conduct a transparent investigation and
for all countries to uphold the right of freedom of expression."
On
May 6 last year, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Mushtaq, 53, at his Dhaka
home for "spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government
activities".
On
Thursday evening, he fainted and then was taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad
Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
Mushtaq
used to write under the pen name Michael Kumir Thakur. His book
"KumirChasher Diary" was published in November 2018, and he was
working on another book.
Protesters
took to the streets in the capital and elsewhere for the second consecutive day
yesterday to press home their demands -- justice for the death of Mushtaq,
scrapping of DSA and immediate release of all those imprisoned under the
controversial law, including cartoonist Ahmed Kishore.
In
Dhaka, police sued seven detained protesters along with 150 unnamed others with
10 charges, including attempted murder, following a clash between policemen in
Shahbagh during a torch procession on Friday.
The
seven are Md Tamjid Haider, 22, Nozir Amir Chowdhury Joy, 27, ASM Tanjimur
Rahman, 22, Md Akib Ahmed, 22, Md Arafat Saad, 24, Nazifa Jannat, 24, and
Joyoti Chakravarty, 23.
A
sub-inspector of Shahbagh Police Station filed the case yesterday, confirmed SM
Shamim, senior assistant commissioner (Ramna zone) of DMP.
Amid
the protests yesterday, several hundred policemen were seen deployed in three
places of the capital -- Shahbagh, Press Club, and ShaheenMinar areas.
At
a rally in front of Press Club in the morning, NagarikOikya Convener Mahmudur
Rahman Manna said the government is trying to suppress dissenting voices with
controversial laws like DSA.
Former
diplomat Sakib Ali, also a NagarikOikya member, said Mushtaq was an ex-cadet
and he feels ashamed of the silence of this community over the death.
"I
am an ex-cadet and was a student of 22th batch of Faujdarhat Cadet College.
Mushtaq was a student of the 27th batch…. We knew him as the first crocodile
farmer of Bangladesh. He was not a man of traditional thinking. He had been
working out of the box with all of his creative mind."
Activists
of left-leaning student bodies brought out a procession from the TSC area of
Dhaka University around 12:30pm. They called for nationwide protests and
besieging the home ministry on March 1 and a procession towards the Prime
Minister's Office on March 3.
Speaking
at a rally, Al Kaderi Joy, convener of Progressive Students' Alliance, demanded
justice for the police action on the demonstrators on Friday and immediate
release of the detained fellow activists.
Golam
Mostafa, central president of Bangladesh Students Federation, said the
government is gagging the voices of the people for expressing their views.
"We
did not want this Bangladesh. Corruption has spread all over the country… There
are constant lies from different levels of the state. Democracy cannot be
established on lies. Liars must be resisted."
Leaders
of the Narayanganj Cultural Alliance demanded justice for the death of Mushtaq
at a protest programme in front of Narayanganj Press Club at Chashara yesterday
noon.
Rafiur
Rabbi, advisor to the alliance, said, "This government has taken away the
right to vote in Bangladesh. This government has deprived the people of
Bangladesh of their right to express. This government has taken away the right
to speak, the right to justice. This government has enacted the Digital
Security Act only so that people can't speak against the irregularities and
corruption."
Meanwhile,
the home ministry yesterday formed a five-member committee led by its
Additional Secretary TarunKantiSikder to investigate Mushtaq's death and submit
a report within four working days.
The
Gazipur district administration also formed a two-member committee over the
death of writer Mushtaq. The committee has been asked to submit its report
within two working days.
https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/state-cannot-avoid-responsibility-2052165
-------
All
credit goes to people: PM
February
28, 2021
Unb,
Dhaka
Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said Bangladesh's graduation from the group of
the least developed countries (LDCs) to a developing one stemmed from her
government's relentless efforts, planning and hard work over the last 12 years.
"The
people of the country did all these things. Staying in government, we just gave
policy support to create the scope. It's a historic moment and a moment of
pride for the nation," she said.
The
premier was speaking at a virtual press conference marking the UN's final
recommendation for Bangladesh's graduation from the LDC group.
Hasina
strongly hoped Bangladesh would get its place as a dignified country at the
world stage following its graduation to a developing nation.
"Father
of the Nation Bangabandhu had turned Bangladesh into a least developed country
lifting up the war ravaged country in just three and a half years' time. And
Bangladesh Awami League -- a party founded at the hands of the great leader -- established
the country as a developing nation in this Golden Jubilee year of its
independence," she said.
In
her written speech, the premier gave credit to the people of the country for
this saying the coordinated efforts of all made the milestone achievement
possible.
The
PM said being the daughter of the Father of the Nation, she felt proud of this
achievement as she herself remained engaged in the process of development
strides.
"UN
Committee for Development Policy reviews the issue of a country's graduation
from LDC based on income per capita, human assets, and economic and
environmental vulnerability," Hasina said.
In
continuation of Bangladesh's fulfillment of these criteria in the first
triennial review meeting of the CDP in 2018, Bangladesh also met all the three
criteria this year for graduation from LDC to a developing country, she added.
Highlighting
various economic indices, the PM said Bangladesh's GDP now rose to $330.2
billion, and export income to $40.54 billion, while foreign reserves already
reached $44.03 billion.
Besides,
Bangladesh has already been self-reliant in food, fish, egg, meat, and
vegetable production, while it is the third country in the world in terms of
paddy production, she said.
The
premier said today's Bangladesh is not what it was 12 years ago. Ninety-nine
percent people have been brought under electricity coverage, digital services
have been expanded up to the marginalised people in villages, and a
revolutionary change has taken place in the ICT sector through Bangabandhu
Satellite, she said.
Talking
about the novel coronavirus pandemic, Hasina said the year 2020 was a critical
year not only for Bangladesh but also for the entire world due to pandemic.
She,
however, mentioned that the government has been able to keep the national
economy moving by taking various steps like giving financial assistance and
stimulus packages to affected groups.
The
PM said the vaccination drive has already begun across the country with a total
of 28,50,940 people getting vaccinated as of Thursday.
Responding
to queries from journalists, Hasina said the government was carrying out the
vaccination campaign so that everyone can take shots as per the WHO guidelines.
"I've
already instructed [the authorities] to bring home another three crore doses of
vaccines. We are taking steps so that the second doses are available with the
completionof the first-dose vaccination."
"I
will surely take the vaccine, but I want the people of the country to take it
first. If one life can be saved with my vaccine, that's the big achievement.
Isn't it?"
Hasina
said she wants to see first how many people can be brought under the
vaccination coverage. "We have a target. We will provide vaccine up to
that level. If any vaccine dose is left after that, I will take my one."
The
premier also said if any country is unable to produce the vaccine, then
Bangladesh will do that. "I have already asked the pharmaceutical
companies, which are capable of producing vaccines, to get ready. We're looking
for bringing the vaccine seed."
She
said she has asked the teachers and others involved with educational
institutions to take vaccine as the government is trying to resume academic
activities very soon.
Asked
about the "magic" behind keeping economic activities vibrant
alongside keeping people safe during the pandemic, Hasina said it was not a
magic at all. "It is the sincerity and our responsibility to the country
and its people."
The
premier expressed her firm optimism that Bangladesh would soon be established
as a developed, prosperous and dignified country at the world stage if the pace
of development continued.
https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/all-credit-goes-people-pm-2052157
-------
Border
Killings: Use non-lethal weapons
February
28, 2021
Staff
Correspondent
Bangladesh
has once again asked its counterpart India for using "non-lethal"
weapons in the Indo-Bangla border to bring down the border killing to zero.
Mostafa
Kamal Uddin, Senior Secretary of Public Security Division of the home ministry,
led the Bangladesh delegation while Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Union Home Secretary,
led the Indian delegation.
After
the virtual meeting held at a city hotel, Senior Secretary Mostofa Kamal Uddin
told reporters that "we have discussed bringing down the border killing to
zero. There has a principle to use the non-lethal weapon to avoid
causality."
He
further said that they have discussed in the meeting to improve the
relationship in the future between two countries and India assured to exchange
cooperation and support.
It
should need to be mentioned that India has assured to bring down the border
killing into zero in different level meetings with Bangladesh several times
earlier.
According
to a database of Ain O Salish Kendra, at least 49 Bangladeshi citizens have
been killed along the India-Bangladesh border by Indian Border Security Force
in 2020.
In
the meeting, both Secretaries reiterated their commitment to further expand and
strengthen cooperation in the security and border-related issues, according to
sources.
An
official, who attended the meeting, told The Daily Star that they have informed
India that yaba pills are now entering from their country to Bangladesh.
In
response to it, India said that they did not produce Yaba. Myanmar produced the
pills and they may use India for transit. "But India assured that they
will be remain alert," said the official.
India
further asked Bangladesh to install a thermal scanner in every flight that goes
to the country so that it can be checked very carefully about carrying any
lethal weapons, according to sources.
In
response to it, Bangladesh said that they have a flight connection with many
other countries and thus it is not possible to install the scanner with the
flight.
It
was the 19th home secretary-level talk between Bangladesh and India. The meeting
was scheduled to held on last year but it postponed for Covid-19.
The
Indian delegation was supposed to visit Bangladesh but it finally held
virtually for the pandemic, according to ministry officials.
Jahangir
Alam, additional secretary (political and ICT) of the home ministry, told The
Daily Star that India discussed for early completion of fencing along the
Indo-Bangla border.
A
high official of the ministry, present in the meeting, said that they also
raised the smuggling of Phensedyl into Bangladesh and India responds that they
use it as their cough syrup and what can they do if anyone uses it for
addiction.
Both
sides reaffirmed not to allow the territory of either country to be used for
any activity inimical to each other's interests. Both sides appreciated the
cooperation between the two countries and the action taken to address the
menace of terrorism and extremism effectively.
The
effective functioning of the Coordinated Border Management Plan to control the
illegal cross-border activities was appreciated by both sides.
Both
sides agreed to further enhance the level of cooperation to prevent the
smuggling of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and contraband, reads the Indian
ministry release.
Bangladesh
appreciated the assistance provided by India in the field of training and
capacity building for various security agencies, the release added.
https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/border-killings-use-non-lethal-weapons-2052149
-------
‘I
Wake Up and Scream’: Secret Taliban Prisons Terrorize Thousands
By
Adam Nossiter
Feb.
27, 2021
FAIZABAD,
Afghanistan — The Taliban prison is a ruined house, a cave, a filthy basement
in an abandoned dwelling, or a village mosque. Beatings or worse are a
certainty, and the sentence is indefinite. Food, if there is any, is stale
bread and cold beans. A bed is the floor or a dirty carpet. The threat of death
— screamed, shouted, sometimes inflicted — is ever-present.
Malik
Mohammadi, a calm 60-year-old farmer, watched the Taliban put to death his
32-year-old son Nasrullah, an army officer, in one such prison. Over a period
of nine days last year, Nasrullah, an epileptic, was refused medicine by his
captors. He was denied food. His father saw blood coming from his mouth, and
bruises from beatings. On the 10th day, he died.
Such
repression is part of the Taliban’s strategy of control in the territories
under their rule. While the Afghan government and Taliban negotiators in Qatar
fitfully talk about meeting for talks, even as the idea of real peace recedes,
the reality is that the insurgents already hold much of the country. An
approaching U.S. withdrawal, coupled with a weak Afghan security force scarcely
able to defend itself, means the group is likely to maintain this authority and
its brutal ways of invoking submission.
ImageFaizabad,
a town in Afghanistan’s far north and the capital of Badakhshan Province, is
inhabited by numerous ex-prisoners of the Taliban, as the insurgents control
many of the roads from here to the capital, Kabul. Making that journey means
exposure to Taliban checkpoints, and capture.
Faizabad,
a town in Afghanistan’s far north and the capital of Badakhshan Province, is
inhabited by numerous ex-prisoners of the Taliban, as the insurgents control
many of the roads from here to the capital, Kabul. Making that journey means
exposure to Taliban checkpoints, and capture.
One
of the Taliban’s most fearsome tools for doing so is a loose network of
prisons, an improvised archipelago of mistreatment and suffering, in which the
insurgents inflict harsh summary judgment on their fellow Afghans, arbitrarily
stopping them on the highway. Mostly, they are looking for soldiers and
government workers. The government too has been accused of mistreatment in its
prisons, with the United Nations recently finding that nearly a third of the
Afghan army’s prisoners have been tortured.
In
the Taliban’s case, the detained are locked up in hidden makeshift prisons, a
universe of incarceration in which the hapless charges are often moved, day
after day, from ruined house to isolated mosque, and back again — without any
sense of how long their detention will last. The approach is anything but
discriminating.
“It
keeps coming back to me in my sleep,” said Sayed Hiatullah, a 42-year-old
shopkeeper in Faizabad. Last year, Mr. Hiatullah was falsely accused at a
Taliban checkpoint of working for state security. He was imprisoned for 25
days.
“I
relive my memories 100 percent, every second, every minute,” said
AtiqullahHassanzada, 31, an ex-soldier captured last year on his way to a military
hospital in Kabul, speaking on the floor of his home. “I was beaten on the
backs of my thighs and on the shoulder,” he said.
Faizabad,
a town in Afghanistan’s far north and the capital of Badakhshan Province, is
inhabited by numerous ex-prisoners of the Taliban, as the insurgents control
many of the roads from here to the capital, Kabul. Making that journey means
exposure to Taliban checkpoints, and capture.
The
effect of these arbitrary imprisonments is one of terror. “I begged them,
crying, to release me,” said Mr. Hiatullah. “They would beat me even more.”
“The
Taliban stopped the vehicle and arrested me,” said Naqibullah Momand, traveling
to his home in Kunduz Province last year. “They put their hand on my heart to
check my heartbeat,” said the 26-year-old television presenter.
For
the Taliban, a rapid beat would have indicated guilt; Mr. Momand forced himself
to remain calm, but he still ended up spending 29 days locked in a two-room
house with 20 others, sleeping on a dirty carpet on the floor, a single light
bulb illuminated all night, before his captors conceded he wasn’t a member of
the Afghan military.
“The
low-level Taliban members’ behavior is very bad,” said Fazul-Ahmad Aamaj, an
elderly, semiofficial mediator in Faizabad, the best-known of about 15 in
Badakhshan. People whose relatives have been captured often turn to Mr. Aamaj
for help. He has secured the release of dozens of the group’s captives, through
negotiations involving family, tribal elders and money.
For
local commanders, the mosque makes an ideal jail. “It’s the one central place
in the village; in a lot of the villages, the mosque is synonymous with the
Taliban,” said Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Centre for the Study of Armed
Groups, who has studied Taliban justice extensively. “It’s the way they enforce
behavior.”
The
Taliban also operate a parallel network of civil courts in which religious
scholars judge land disputes and family quarrels. These courts, with their
swift judgments, have gained a reputation of sorts for efficiency and are
welcomed by many Afghans, particularly compared to the government’s corrupted
justice system. Taliban courts also judge murders and perceived moral and
religious infractions. Here the emphasis is on “punishment”; the system “relies
on beatings and other forms of torture,” Human Rights Watch said in a report
last year.
Crimes
perceived as political, like working for the Afghan government, or fighting for
it, inhabit a different universe. There are no courts for such crimes. Local
Taliban commanders have absolute authority “to arrest anyone they deem
suspicious,” Human Rights Watch said.
Mohammed
Aman, 31, a government engineer, said he was pulled over on the highway from
Ghazni to Kabul one afternoon last November, handcuffed and taken to a mosque.
“There were 10 or 11 others, handcuffed to a chain, inside the mosque,” he
said. “We were praying, early in the morning. They came, and they beat us,”
said Mr. Danishjo, who was held in another mosque.
“One
of the Taliban flogged us in the courtyard of the mosque,” said Abdel Qadir
Sharifi, 25, who was captured when his military base was overrun. “I believed
they were going to kill me.”
Death
is the ever-present threat, sometimes inflicted but more often used as a
fearsome bargaining chip to gain what the Taliban want: money, a prisoner
exchange, or a painfully extracted pledge to renounce government service. The
deliberate, often slow, putting to death of captives also occurs.
Summoned
along with village elders to negotiate his son’s release in exchange for
Taliban prisoners, Mr. Mohammadi was able to see his son three times during
Nasrullah’s brief captivity.
“They
tried to sit him up. But he kept falling down,” Mr. Mohammadi recalled. The
Taliban shouted at him: “‘Do you see what is happening to your son?’’’
The
next day the Taliban moved Nasrullah to a ruined house. By the ninth day, he
had lost consciousness. He was filthy, covered in urine and excrement.
His
captors allowed Mr. Mohammadi to wash him in cold water. But it was too late.
“He was dying,” his father said. “The last time I saw him, it was in the yard
of the destroyed house,” he said.
After
the death of his son, the Taliban tormented him. “Why don’t you cry?” they
asked. “I told them, I don’t want to cry in front of the trees and the stones,”
said Mr. Mohammadi.
His
other son, Rohullah Hamid, 35, a lawyer in Kabul, who took part in the failed
effort to get his brother released, said: “Every day, dozens of Afghans die
because of the Taliban. The Taliban are the enemy of humanity.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-prison.html
------
Southeast
Asia
Assigning
122 Islamic enforcers for Nur Sajatwitchhunt overzealous, says transgender
rights group
BY
ASHMAN ADAM
27
Feb 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR, Feb 27 ― Justice for Sisters (JFS) has labelled the Selangor Islamic
Religious Department’s (Jais) attempt to detain cosmetics entrepreneur Nur
Sajat as extreme, and called for the state Islamic authority to end all
prosecution against her immediately.
In
a statement, the transgender rights group expressed its extreme concern about
the persecution against Nur Sajat and charges of allegedly “insulting Islam”
for merely being herself.
“We
are astonished by the financial and human resources that are being allocated
for this search and arrest operation against Sajat.
“All
these actions by JAIS are extreme and demonstrate their overzealousness in
arresting and detaining Sajat at all costs for merely expressing herself and
her gender identity,” the group said.
JFS
went on to questions the charges against Sajat ― which are allegedly connected
to a religious event that she organised in 2018 where she appeared in a baju
kurung.
“Her
wearing a baju kurung is deemed as an insult to Islam. Further, as a result of
the series of doxing efforts by both state and non-state actors, the recorded
identity on her birth certificate as well as her identity card was disclosed to
the public, setting the stage for her prosecution,” it said.
JFS
added that while detractors may accuse Nur Sajat of bringing this action onto
herself for not attending court, there are deeper structural issues that need
to be addressed first.
It
added that it is also important to understand and empathise with the mental
health burden and stress experienced by those prosecuted for their gender
identities as the Shariah courts deny the queer communities their dignity and
adds barriers for them to seek redress and remedies.
The
advocacy group added that the continuous prosecution against Nur Sajat based on
her gender identity is a violation of Article 8, which safeguards persons from
gender-based discrimination.
“While
the state attempts to view gender through a binary lens, gender is a
multilayered and umbrella term which includes gender identity, gender
expression and gender stereotypes,” it said.
Underlying
the state persecution against Nur Sajat is the criminalisation and
non-recognition of trans, intersex and non-binary persons, said the group, with
this raising serious questions regarding Muslim trans, intersex and non-binary
persons’ freedom of religion in Malaysia.
“It
appears as if the state only allows LGBTQ persons to exist if they fall into
the state’s definition of a Muslim person, and requires non-gender conforming
individuals to ‘change’, ‘supress’ or ‘rehabilitate’ themselves, all of which
have been rejected by international medical and human rights bodies due to its
harmful effects on the well-being of LGBTQ people,” it said.
Earlier
this week, Jais said it had deployed about 122 personnel and enforcement
officers to find and arrest Nur Sajat, following her failure to attend a
Shariah High Court proceeding last Tuesday in relation to a case three years
ago.
The
charge against Nur Sajat was made in accordance with Section 10 (a) of the
Shariah Crimes (State of Selangor) Enactment 1995 which provides for a sentence
not exceeding RM5,000 or imprisonment not exceeding three years or both, if
convicted.
Section
10 refers to the Shariah offence of insulting Islam or causing Islam to be
insulted either by mocking or blaspheming the faith and its associated
practices and rituals either in a written, pictorial or photographic form.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/27/assigning-122-islamic-enforcers-for-nur-sajat-witchhunt-overzealous-says-tr/1953276
-------
Jakim
committee to review, strengthen Shariah criminal laws after landmark ruling on
‘unnatural sex’
27
Feb 2021
Bernama
KUALA
LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Syarak and Civil Law Technical Committee under the Islamic
Development Department (JAKIM) will hold discussions with relevant parties in
its efforts to improve syariah laws, especially those related to syariah
criminal offences in the country.
Minister
in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Zulkifli Mohamad
Al-Bakri said this was following the Federal Court’s decision that declared as
unconstitutional a provision in the Selangor syariah law which makes it an
offence to engage in unnatural sex, last Thursday.
“The
committee will hold a consultation session with states and stakeholders in an
effort to strengthen and streamline syariah laws in Malaysia,” he said in a
statement today.
In
this regard, he called on all Muslims in the country to respect the court’s
decision and urged them to refrain from making any speculation on the matter.
A
nine-member bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat held that
Section 28 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995 relates
to matters that fall under the Federal Constitution’s Ninth Schedule Federal
list, under Parliament’s power to enact laws.
The
court granted a declaration sought by a 35-year-old man that Section 28 is
invalid on grounds that it made provision with respect to a matter that the
Selangor state legislature was not empowered to make laws and was therefore
null and void.
Section
28 of the enactment makes it in an offence for any person who performs sexual
intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal and shall
be liable to a fine not exceeding RM5,000 or a maximum three-year jail term or
whipping not exceeding six strokes or any combination, on conviction.
On
Aug 21, 2019, the man, whose identity is being withheld on the request of his
lawyers, was charged with attempting to commit sexual intercourse against the
order of nature with certain other male persons in a house in Selangor on Nov
9, 2018.
He
pleaded not guilty to the charge and his trial at the Syariah High Court has
been stayed pending the outcome of his legal challenge. —
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/27/jakim-committee-to-review-strengthen-shariah-criminal-laws-after-landmark-r/1953418
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Driver
of crashed bus carrying Covid-19 patients also tests positive for virus
27
Feb 2021
Bernama
KUALA
LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The driver of a bus ferrying 40 Covid-19 patients involved in
an accident at the UPM Toll Plaza in Serdang this afternoon, has also been
confirmed positive for the disease.
Selangor
Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department chief Supt Azman Shari’at said
the 41-year-old driver who suffered a leg injury in the incident was sent to
the Serdang Hospital for treatment where a Covid-19 screening was carried out
on him.
A
urine drug test also came back negative, he said, adding that investigations
were still ongoing.
“In
the incident at about 2 pm, the bus carrying 40 passengers went out of control
before skidding into the Touch ‘n Go lane and crashing into the toll booth.
“The
crash is believed to be due to the failure of the bus’ braking system, based on
a statement from the bus driver,” he told Bernama.
The
bus was among a convoy of 11 buses ferrying 431 Covid-19 patients from the
Changkat Jong Cluster from TelukIntan, Perak to the Covid-19 Quarantine and
Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) MAEPS 2.0 in Serdang, Selangor.
All
the passengers, including eight who were injured, were taken to PKRC MAEPS 2.0
for treatment.
The
case is being investigated under Section 43 of the Road Transport Act 1987.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/27/driver-of-crashed-bus-carrying-covid-19-patients-also-tests-positive-for-vi/1953434
------
DAP
seeks to defend Malaysians from ‘financial ruin’ after govt raises Covid-19
penalties
BY
SHAHRIN AIZAT NOORSHAHRIZAM
27
Feb 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR, Feb 27 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today his party is
examining the law to see how it can help Malaysians once the new penalties for
Covid-19 regulation violations kick in next month.
The
Opposition lawmaker reiterated his party’s objection to the latest revisions to
the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) Ordinance 2021
that sharply raises the compound fines from the present RM1,000 to RM10,000 for
individuals and RM50,000 for companies found in breach of the government’s
anti-virus standard operating procedures (SOPs) from March 11.
“The
current levels of compound fines would be sufficient to drive home the message
to strictly comply with the SOPs. There is no need to force them to financial
ruin when such penalties should be set based not on the wealthy but on the poor’s
ability to pay,” Lim said in a statement.
He
said he has tasked his party’s legal bureau chief Ramkarpal Singh who is also
Bukit Gelugor, and Beruas MP Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham to look into the amended laws
“to see how we can save Malaysians from financial ruin”.
He
said that instead of resorting to such harsh and exorbitant preventive
measures, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government should undertake a
rehabilitative approach first.
“The
PN government is essentially blaming the people for the recent escalation in
Covid-19 cases that has made Malaysia the worst nation in Asean, when it is the
PN’s ministers incompetency, lack of leadership and mismanagement that is the
real cause,” Lim said.
He
emphasised that equal enforcement of the law for government elites as well as
ordinary citizens would be far more effective in curbing the spread of
Covid-19, together with the 3Ts of testing, tracing of all close contacts of
infected people.
The
matter is stipulated in the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious
Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 through a Federal Government gazette
uploaded on the official portal of the Attorney-General’s Chambers. It also
states that companies or corporations that violate the SOPs can be fined up to
RM50,000.
However,
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador clarified earlier today
that the new penalties will only be imposed on repeat SOP violators and those
who cause mass Covid-19 infections.
“We
admit that many people misunderstand (the move) and worry about the compound
amount of up to RM10,000. It is not for all offences, including failing to wear
face masks.
“It
is for certain offences, namely, for those who are stubborn by committing the
offences repeatedly as well as those who violate the SOP, including interstate
travel, causing the spread of Covid-19,” he was quoted in Jeli, Kelantan as
saying by national news agency Bernama.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/27/dap-seeks-to-defend-malaysians-from-financial-ruin-after-govt-raises-covid/1953378
-------
IGP
says RM10,000 penalty for Covid-19 super spreaders, repeat SOP violators
27
Feb 2021
Bernama
JELI,
Feb 27 — The enforcement of RM10,000 compounds, effective March 11, will only
be imposed on individuals who breach the Movement Control Order (MCO)
repeatedly, as well as those who can trigger the spread of Covid-19, said
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador.
He
explained that the government’s decision to increase the compound from RM1,000
to RM10,000 was not for all offences related to violations of the standard
operating procedures (SOPs).
“We
admit that many people misunderstand (the move) and worry about the compound
amount of up to RM10,000. It is not for all offences, including failing to wear
face masks.
“It
is for certain offences, namely, for those who are stubborn by committing the
offences repeatedly as well as those who violate the SOP, including interstate
travel, causing the spread of Covid-19,” he said when met by reporters after
visiting the construction site of the new Jeli district police headquarters
(IPD) here, today.
On
Feb 25, it was reported that individuals who violated the rules or SOPs set for
the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic will face a maximum fine of
RM10,000, starting on March 11.
The
matter is stipulated in the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious
Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 through a Federal Government gazette
uploaded on the official portal of the Attorney-General’s Chambers. It also
states that companies or corporations that violate the SOPs can be fined up to
RM50,000.
Abdul
Hamid said that the individual issued with a RM10,000 compound, however, could
appeal for reduction to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
“Probably,
from a compound of RM10,000, they will only need to pay RM200 after the appeal,
depending on the reasons given,” he said, adding that the police would only be
involved in enforcing SOPs compliance by issuing a compound and do not accept
compound payments.
Abdul
Hamid said that the police would recommend to the MOH to impose the RM10,000
compound on entertainment premises that operate without a licence.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/27/igp-says-rm10000-penalty-for-covid-19-super-spreaders-repeat-sop-violators/1953365
--------
Arab
world
Egypt
lifts ban on Ramadan's Taraweeh prayers in some mosques amid strict coronavirus
measures
Menna
Alaa El-Din
27
Feb 2021
Mass
night prayers during Ramadan (Taraweeh) will be permitted in some mosques with
the adoption of preventive measures against the coronavirus, the state-run MENA
agency quoted NouhEssawy, the endowments under-secretary for mosque affairs, as
saying on Saturday.
The
mosques allowed to hold Taraweeh prayers are those the state permitted to open
for Friday noon prayers due to their strict adoption of preventive measures to
curb the spread of the pandemic.
With
Ramadan beginning in April, Essawy said a ban has not been lifted on the
organisation of the holy month's charity Iftar banquets nor on solitary retreat
in mosques, known as itikaf.
Taraweeh
prayers, considered the most spiritual prayers held during Ramadan, were banned
last year as Egypt had stopped in March all congregational religious activities
nationwide to curb the spread of the virus in the overpopulated country.
Taraweeh
prayers in Ramadan 2020 were performed by a mosque imam and two mosque workers,
and broadcast on Al-Quran Al-Kareem radio station.
Egypt
saw an unprecedented Ramadan in 2020 as restrictions to contain the pandemic,
including an extended overnight curfew in place since March, took a toll on the
cherished rituals of Islam’s holiest month.
The
temporary shutdown of the practices were lifted over the summer, allowing major
mosques to reopen for daily prayers later in late June, with weekly Friday
prayers resumed in late August.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/404923/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-lifts-ban-on-Ramadans-Taraweeh-prayers-in-so.aspx
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Arab,
Islamic states rejection of Congress report growing
February
27, 2021
CAIRO/RIYADH
— The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States and the Arab Parliament
led a growing number of Arab and Islamic states in rejecting the report
submitted to the US Congress about killing of Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi
while supporting the statement issued by the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry
regarding the report.
In
Cairo, the Arab Parliament affirmed its support for the statement issued by the
Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry regarding the report that was submitted to the US
Congress about killing of Khashoggi, expressing its categorical rejection to
prejudice the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia and everything that would prejudice
its leadership and independence of its judiciary.
The
Arab Parliament stressed the pivotal role that Saudi Arabia plays, under the
leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and the Crown
Prince, in consolidating security and stability in the Arab region and at the
regional level.
It
also stressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's policy in support of maintaining
international peace and security, and its main role in combating terrorism,
violence and extremist ideology, as well as consolidating and spreading the
values of moderation and tolerance at all levels.
In
Riyadh, GCC Secretary General Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf expressed his
support for the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia regarding the report that was submitted to the US Congress about
the murder of Khashoggi.
The
GCC Secretary General affirmed his appreciation of the great and pivotal role
played by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in enhancing the regional and
international security and peace, its great role in combating terrorism, and
supporting international community efforts exerted to fight it and drying up
its sources.
He
also pointed out that the report was no more than an opinion unsupported by any
decisive proofs, stressing that what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is doing,
under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown
Prince, in supporting regional and international security and peace as well as
combating terrorism, is a well-established and appreciative historical role.
He
also expressed his support for all measures that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
takes in order to maintain its rights, enhancing its gains and supporting its
role in enhancing the culture of moderation and mediocrity.
In
Aden, the Republic of Yemen expressed its absolute solidarity with the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia's leadership and people, and its full support for the Foreign
Ministry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's statement, regarding the report that
was submitted to the US Congress about the murder of Khashoggi.
In
a statement carried by the Yemeni News Agency (SABA), the Yemeni Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Expatriates affirmed the pioneering role of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King
Salman and Crown Prince, and their strong keenness on the security and
stability of the region and world peace.
It
also expressed its categorical rejection of everything that would prejudice the
sovereignty of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its figures and independence of its
judiciary.
In
Abu Dhabi, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) expressed its support for the Saudi
Arabian Foreign Ministry’s statement regarding Khashoggi.
In
a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation expressed its confidence in and support for the Saudi judiciary, as
well as Saudi Arabia's commitment to enforcing the law with transparency and
integrity, and holding those responsible to account.
The
Ministry affirmed the UAE's solidarity with Saudi Arabia in its efforts to
maintain stability and security in the region and its key role in the axis of
Arab moderation and security.
Meanwhile,
the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs too expressed support to the Saudi
Arabia's Foreign Ministry statement, regarding the report that was provided to
the US Congress about the crime of killing Saudi citizen Khashoggi.
In
a statement, Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs, affirmed the importance of
the role which played by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, regionally and
internationally, in supporting the policy of moderation, the rejection of
violence and extremism, and its constant endeavor to support security and
stability, under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King
Salman and the Crown Prince.
Earlier,
Bahrain expressed its support for the statement of the Saudi Arabia's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, regarding the report that was provided to the US Congress
on the crime of killing Khashoggi.
In
a statement, Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed the importance of
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's fundamental role, under the leadership of the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin
Salman, its policy of moderation on the regional, Arab and international
levels, and the efforts it exerts in strengthening regional security and
stability as well as the Global economic growth.
The
Republic of Djibouti too expressed its support for the statement of Saudi
Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, regarding the report that was provided to
the US Congress about the killing of Khashoggi.
Djibouti
stressed its rejection of everything that would undermine the sovereignty of
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or represent interference in its internal affairs,
stressing at the same time the centrality of the role that the Kingdom plays,
under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman and
the Crown Prince, in establishing security and stability at the regional and
international levels, combating terrorism, rejecting violence and extremism,
and consolidating the values of tolerance, moderation.
Meanwhile,
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, special aide to Pakistan Prime Minister
on Religious Harmony and Middle East, chairman Pakistan Ulema Council, said
Saudi Arabia's leadership is respected by Pakistan and the entire Islamic
world.
“Peace,
security and stability of Saudi Arabia is dear to entire Muslim Ummah and
Pakistan,” he said, adding, Pakistan supports Saudi Arabia on the Khashoggi
issue.
“Jamal
Khashoggi was a citizen of Saudi Arabia and all the respective circles and
sections including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, have expressed
satisfaction on steps taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the issue of
Khashoggi.”
Ashrafi
also underlined that any action against the security, stability and sovereignty
of Saudi Arabia will not be accepted and tolerated. “A negative propaganda
campaign is being made against the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. The Crown
Prince has reinforced the policies of to strengthen and stabilize the Islamic
Arab countries. —SG/SPA
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/603928/SAUDI-ARABIA/Arab-Islamic-states-rejection-of-Congress-report-growing
-------
Dubai
extends Covid curbs till start of Ramadan
DUBAI,
1 days ago
Dubai’s
Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management, headed by Sheikh Mansoor
bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced that the Covid-19 precautionary
measures introduced in the beginning of February will be extended until the
start of Ramadan in mid-April.
The
decision is based on an evaluation of the evolving Covid-19 situation, data
showing the effectiveness of intensified safety measures and the
recommendations of frontline authorities, said a Wam news agency report.
The
Supreme Committee said the country’s response to the pandemic is part of an
integrated plan to combat COVID-19. Commending the National Emergency Crisis
and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) and the Ministry of Health and
Prevention for their success in coordinating counter-pandemic measures, the
Committee said it will continue to monitor local and international developments
to ensure the optimal response.
The
committee praised the pace of the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Dubai and the
UAE. As of February 25, more than 5.8 million vaccine doses and over 30 million
tests were administered in the UAE. The country has one of the highest
vaccination and testing rates globally. These figures demonstrate the strength
and preparedness of the UAE’s healthcare system, the committee said.
The
committee urged the public to continue observing precautionary measures,
stressing that their commitment is critical to counter the pandemic. Observing
preventive protocols and safety guidelines remain the most effective ways of
combating the virus, the committee added.
tradearabia.com/news/HEAL_379325.html
-------
Sharjah
opens new mosque with a capacity of 515 worshippers in Al Dhaid
28-02-2021
Staff
Reporter
The
Department of Islamic Affairs in Sharjah inaugurated the Shifa mosque located
in the Al-Ateen area in Sharjah.
The
place of worship can accommodate around 515 worshippers, including 65 women. It
is located along Al Dhaid Road.
The
mosque is built on a total land area of 4,601 square metres, and was built
according to the Islamic architectural style mixed with modern character,
topped by five circular domes and a lighthouse with a height of 21 metres, with
the presence of service facilities from toilets, ablution, housing for the
imam, and a number of car parks.
The
Department of Islamic Affairs in Sharjah said the new mosque is in line with
the vision of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of
the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah. The Sharjah Ruler aims to create and
"nurture an atmosphere of faith for the residents of the Emirate",
the authority added.
https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2021/02/27/sharjah-islamic-affairs-opens-new-mosque-can-accommodate-around-515-worshippers
-------
Islamic
financing growth to outpace conventional lending in GCC, core Islamic markets
in 2021
Babu
Das Augustine
February
27, 2021
Dubai:
Despite difficult operating conditions in most countries amid pandemic-driven
economic downturns, demand for Islamic financing assets (lending) across the
core Islamic markets will grow in 2021, according to rating Moody’s.
The
rating agency said while the Islamic financing remained resilient in 2020 and
it expects growth to continue into 2021. In the GCC mergers between Islamic and
conventional banks, where surviving entities are Islamic banks, will drive
further one-off increases in assets, as they did in 2019 and 2020.
Growth
in Islamic financing assets remained steady in 2020, despite a marked slowdown
in economic activity across core Islamic banking markets (which include the
GCC, Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey), and continued to outpace conventional
asset growth. As a result, the market share of Islamic financing assets in core
Islamic markets increased to 32.8 per cent of total financial assets (including
conventional bank loans) in September 2020, from 31.4 per cent in December 2019
and 30.4 per cent in
Islamic
finance penetration in the GCC accelerated in the past decade to reach 45.7 per
cent in September 2020 from 32 per cent in 2009. Saudi Arabia was the main
contributor to this growth, although similar trends prevailed in the other GCC
countries as well. Similarly, the industry has flourished over the years in
Malaysia, making its Islamic finance industry the second largest globally.
“Overall,
the core Islamic finance markets benefited from increased demand from
consumers, which powered strong financing growth of around 8.1 per cent in
compound annual terms in the last three years, compared with a 6.2 per cent
increase in conventional bank financing,” said Ashraf Madani, VP-Senior Analyst
at Moody’s.
In
addition to customer demand, Moody’s said, proactive government legislation and
mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have driven growth in Islamic banking
assets. In the GCC, there has been a flurry of acquisitions and consolidations
in the past few years and the trend accelerated in 2020 amid lower oil prices
and deteriorating economic conditions.
In
several cases, Islamic banks are acquiring conventional banks and emerging as
the surviving entity, substantially adding to their asset bases. All M&A
transactions in the GCC in 2020 involved at least one Shariah-compliant bank.
In
Saudi Arabia, the merger between National Commercial Bank and Samba announced
inOctober 2020 will reinforce National Commercial Bank's position as the
largest bank in the country with an estimated market share of 31 per cent of
assets and 30 per cent of deposits (as of Q2 2020). It will also create the
world's largest Shariah-compliant bank along with AlRajhi and Kuwait Finance
House.
In
Qatar, the announced merger between Al Khalij Commercial Bank PQSC and Masraf
Al Rayan QPSC (A1 stable, baa2) will make the resulting entity the fourth
largest Islamic finance institution in the region. In Kuwait, the merger
between Kuwait Finance House and Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank, once
completed, is likely to create the world's second largest Islamic bank.
Other
mergers in 2020 include: the acquisition of Noor Bank by Dubai Islamic Bank in
January 2020 with $75 billion in combined assets, the stake increase of
Bahrain's National Bank of Bahrain in Bahrain Islamic Bank in January 2020 with
$11.7 billion in combined assets, and an $8.2 billion merger between Oman Arab
Bank and Alizz Islamic Bank finalised in July 2020.
Saudi
Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE remain the largest markets for Islamic finance
globally. Overall, Saudi Arabia remains the largest market for Islamic finance
globally, with financing assets rising to $361 billion as of September 2020
from $323 billion in December 2019.
Despite
the pandemic-induced economic recession and drop in oil prices, Islamic
financing continues to expand in Saudi Arabia, propelled by growing demand from
corporate and retail clients for Shariah-compliant products and a supportive
regulatory environment with coordination between the Ministry of Finance, Saudi
Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the Capital Market Authority.
“We
expect Islamic assets in Saudi Arabia to account for 80 per cent of systemwide
loans (including both conventional and Islamic financing assets) over the next
12-18 months, from 78 per cent in 2019,” said Madani.
https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/islamic-financing-growth-to-outpace-conventional-lending-in-gcc-core-islamic-markets-in-2021-1.1614418217646#
--------
Europe
Russian
air strikes ‘kill 21 Islamic State fighters’ in Syrian desert
Feb
27, 2021
Russia
launched at least 130 air strikes in Syria over the past 24 hours, killing at
least 21 Islamic State (IS) fighters, according to a UK-based activist group on
Saturday.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian onslaught followed a
series of IS attacks on Friday that killed at least eight members of a militia
fighting to support the Syrian government.
The
air strikes focused on a vast desert area stretching from the central province
of Homs to the border with Iraq that has recently become the focal point of
increasingly frequent fighting between IS and Syrian government forces, backed
by Russian air power.
Despite
having lost the large areas of territory it had controlled since 2014, IS has
continued to launch attacks in the Badia desert area.
More
than 1,300 government troops have been killed in such clashes since late March
2019, as well as 145 pro-Iran militia members and more than 750 IS fighters,
according to the Observatory.
Russian
raids in the desert region generally “target small groupings of IS militants as
well as their vehicles,” said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Observatory.
“It
is a difficult operation for the Russians because there are no fixed positions
for IS fighters who are always on the move,” he told AFP.
Since
Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, more than 387,000 people have been killed
and millions forced from their homes.
https://www.syriahr.com/en/206858/
-------
Fears
for religious freedom and parental rights if Equality Act becomes law
BRANDON
SHOWALTER
27
February 2021
Legal
and medical experts and concerned parents have warned that the Equality Act,
which passed in the House Thursday, will have lasting implications for
children, parental rights, and religious freedom if it becomes law.
The
500-plus page bill, which passed by a vote of 224-206 adds sex, gender identity
and sexual orientation to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The measure was
reintroduced in the House where it was first passed in 2019 before it stalled
in the Senate. It adds sexual orientation and gender identity as protected
categories in nondiscrimination law. The measure also strips away key religious
liberty provisions and conscience protections in the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act.
Its
effects would be far-reaching because it redefines "public
accommodation" to include "any establishment" that provides a
service, including churches, shelters operated by religious groups, faith-based
adoption agencies, and educational institutions associated with religious
denominations and associations.
The
three Republicans who joined Democrats in voting for the measure included Reps.
Tom Reed and John Katko, both of New York, and Brian Fitzpatrick of
Pennsylvania.
During
a virtual event hosted by the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, Rep. Vicki
Hartzler, R-Mo., and Autumn Leva of the Family Policy Alliance, detailed
various concerns they have about the Equality Act and its implications for
Americans if it's passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe
Biden.
Other
speakers at the Heritage event were Maria Keffler of Partners for Ethical Care,
Dr. Michelle Cretella of the American College of Pediatricians, and Greg Baylor
of Alliance Defending Freedom.
Hartzler,
a former teacher and track coach, explained that the bill, if enacted, would
erase all the gains that women have made in athletics by allowing
trans-identified males to compete in girls' sports. Thus far, 20 states have
introduced legislation intended to keep sports sex-segregated.
Parental
rights are also in serious jeopardy with this potential law, she continued. If
the Act passes in the Senate it will filter down to what is taught in public
school classrooms and parents won't be able to object to content because it
will be seen as a discrimination issue.
Similarly,
parents' rights to make healthcare decisions for their children would erode
with the Act, according to Hartzler, referencing a 2018 case where a judge removed
custody from the parents because they objected to their 17-year-old child being
prescribed experimental cross-sex hormones.
Hartzler
is supporting the Heritage Foundation's Promise To America's Children, a
national movement the think-tank has put forward to oppose the Equality Act
and, more broadly, the imposition of gender ideology on children in the public
sphere.
The
Promise, as Heritage states, aims to "create and support laws that will
protect children's health, safety, and families — especially their
relationships with their parents, who have the primary responsibility to love,
protect, and educate them."
During
the 90-minute House debate over the bill on Thursday, Rep. Sean Patrick
Maloney, D-N.Y., claimed the Equality Act posed no threat to religious freedom
and that such concerns being raised by Republicans were "ridiculous."
Maloney
then accused the bill's opponents of using religious freedom as a ruse to
conceal their "pro-discrimination against gay people."
In
response to Maloney's accusations, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, declared:
"Here it is, on page 25. It says specifically, 'The Religious Freedom
Restoration Act of 1993 shall not provide a legal basis for a claim' [against a
religious discrimination charge].
"The
founders said in the first right, in the First Amendment to the Constitution,
you can practice your religion as you see fit. But right here in their bill
today, the Democrats say 'No you can't,'" Jordan asserted.
Rep.
Mike Quigley, D-Ill., also derided Republicans' religious freedom arguments as
nothing more than "transphobia," "homophobia," and
"hate," The Epoch Times reported.
During
the Heritage Foundation's panel Tuesday, Cretella of the American College of
Pediatricians noted how the issue of gender dysphoria in children has become
politicized. It's this politicization that she says has corrupted the entire
profession of medicine.
The
vast majority of medical professionals, therapists, and counselors believe that
the best course of treatment for the condition is to first take a very thorough
psychological assessment of the child in pursuit of underlying factors, she
explained.
"Those
in authority over the medical education system and directives to practicing
physicians now recommend that all children, regardless of their age, be affirmed
in their gender confusion. We are essentially gaslighting children into the lie
that they could be born in the wrong body," Cretella said in her remarks.
This,
then, will put them on a medical pathway in which their normal puberty will be
chemically arrested and will be followed up by opposite-sex hormones, she
added. The combination of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones yields
potentially lifelong sterility.
"We
already have physically healthy girls as young as 13 being referred for double
mastectomies. This is institutionalized child abuse," she asserted.
"We are taking emotionally troubled youth, psychologically abusing them by
reinforcing their gender-sexual confusion, and then experimenting on them with
toxic drugs and mutilating surgeries."
Cretella
has been contacted by doctors both domestically and internationally who say
that it is now "career-ending" for them to suggest to a family or to
their colleagues in a professional setting that these dysphoric children need a
psychological assessment.
Asked
what she thinks could happen in 10 years should the Equality Act become law,
Cretella said medical professionals who object to gender-transitioning of
children and believe in the principle of "first do no harm" will be
eliminated from practice. The ones you'll be left with are the ones who believe
in "experiment first, ask questions later."
Maria
Keffler noted that among the most concerning aspects of radical gender ideology
that is all the rage in culture is how young schoolchildren are being instructed
by teachers using curricula that is not factual or rooted in science.
"And
we're teaching this to our children en masse. It's shocking when you see what's
being done in the schools ... and where it's coming from. ... It's about making
money. It's about furthering an agenda.
"Children
are being taught from kindergarten upward that some boys have a vagina, some
girls have a penis, and that kids can be any gender they want to be, she
continued.
Keffler
recounted that she has heard stories of elementary school children being asked
to stand up in class to tell everyone about their "gender identity."
She
added that she can no longer, in good conscience, say that public schools are
safe places for children. Many people still don't realize how dire the situation
has become, she asserted, especially as some school officials advise teachers
to deceive parents by allowing students to lead double lives by portraying an
opposite-gender identity while at school.
The
Equality Act will exacerbate this highly politicized approach within medicine,
psychology, education, and other professional fields, according to Greg Baylor
of Alliance Defending Freedom.
Because
of the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in nondiscrimination
provisions, any entity that receives federal taxpayer dollars is subject to
such policies. Among the largest recipients of taxpayer funds are public
schools.
When
asked whether religious freedom protections outlined in federal law would be
preserved if the Equality Act becomes law, the ADF attorney noted the lack of
religious exemptions in the bill. At the state and local level where similar
statutes have been adopted, such carve-outs are present.
"But
with the Equality Act you have none of that, there is no exemption for
religious employers, there is no exemption for religious foster care providers,
there is no exemption for religious schools."
It
is debated whether existing legal provisions can protect certain religious
entities from discrimination claims, such as Title VII in the Civil Rights Act,
the section pertaining to employment and section in the Fair Housing Act, the
provisions of which would likely apply to religious colleges that have
sex-segregated dormitories.
But
the most destructive feature is how the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is
impacted, he said, a law that was passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis
and signed into law by former President Bill Clinton. The Equality Act
expressly forbids invoking RFRA from the portions of the civil rights laws that
it amends.
This
previous approach to religious liberty is "gone, I'm afraid," he
said, "and it's even to the point of essentially repealing large chunks of
RFRA."
When
a federal law conflicts with state law, federal law wins, he said. Thus, if a
state statute establishes that males who identify as female cannot participate
in girls' scholastic sports, the Equality Act's revisions to Title XI would
trump the state law.
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/fears.for.religious.freedom.and.parental.rights.if.equality.act.becomes.law/136436.htm
--------
The
battle for the soul of the Jewish community
Jack
Shamash
28
February 2021,
There
are two groups in the Jewish community – mainstream Jews who, while still
religious, do their best to assimilate into the wider community and the
Chareidi, ultra-orthodox Jews who tend to shun British society. Those two
groups are now locked in a struggle for the future of the Jewish community.
For
over 100 years, the Chareidi – with their distinctive costume, based on the
fashions of 18th century Poland – have had a sort of symbiotic relationship
with the mainstream. If mainstream Jews needed kosher slaughterers, rabbinical
judgements, circumcisions and even rabbis for the smaller pulpits, they relied
on the Chareidi. They were the ones with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Jewish
law. But tensions which have been simmering away in recent years are now
becoming more pronounced.
The
Chareidi community is doubling in size roughly every 15 years, because of its
high birth-rate. Families with ten children are common. There are currently at
least 40,000 ultra-orthodox Jews. This is in contrast to the mainstream Jewish
community which is in sharp decline. According to the Institute of Jewish
Policy research, by 2050 the majority of Jews in Britain are likely to be
strictly orthodox. Because of this demographic shift, the failings of the
Chareidi are increasingly coming under the spotlight.
Eve
Sacks – daughter-in-law of the former chief Rabbi, Lords Sacks – is one of
their most vociferous critics. ‘The Chareidi community is like a cult. Members
have no means of getting away. My main concern is about human rights,’ she
says. She has befriended members of the community and offers support to those
who are struggling.
She
introduced me to Izzy Jacobs, now 23, who was brought up in the centre of the
community in London’s Stamford Hill. Izzy has severed his links with the
community. ‘I was brought up as a member of the Czernobyl sect. I wasn’t taught
English and I learnt to read from the signs on shops.’ At the age of 19 he was
pushed into marriage. ‘I couldn’t stand the discipline. The final straw came
when I had a row with in-laws because they wanted me to wear white socks. It
was stupid.’
One
young man, who is desperately trying to break away, pointed out that it’s not
just codes of dress which are regulated, but every aspect of life. Another
young man told me: ‘Anything that distracts from religion is frowned on.
Hobbies or interests are seen as a waste of time.’ Within the community,
secular newspapers and books are frowned on, the internet is strictly forbidden
– except for work – and television is denounced as a ‘sewer running through the
living room’. At most schools, ball games are forbidden.
Women’s
lives are closely controlled. One woman, who was also a friend of Eve Sacks,
told me. ‘If people saw me driving, I’d get a phone call from the headmaster of
my children’s schools. I was told that I’d be turned into an outcast. My
husband works for a firm in the community. We were worried that my husband could
lose his job.’ There is also strict segregation of sexes. Six years ago, local
rabbis put up notices insisting women should walk on one side of the road and
men on the other. They were made to back down after the police intervened.
The
community has been criticised for ignoring Covid-19 laws. This is not simply
because they don’t understand the rules, but because the community feels
wearing masks and limiting the size of weddings would be a surrender to secular
values. Instead of warning against travel or communal events, community leaders
have simply sent out letters highlighting loopholes that allow families to
avoid the regulations. Many schools have continued to operate normally,
claiming – often with dubious evidence – that pupils are mainly from the
families of key-workers.
Until
now, Chief Rabbis have been reluctant to attack the Chareidi community, but
after it was revealed that the community had been holding large wedding
ceremonies, in defiance of Covid-19 regulations, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis let
them have it full blast, distancing the ultra-orthodox from the rest of the
community. He described their behaviour as ‘a shameful desecration of all that
we hold dear… such illegal behaviour is abhorred by the overwhelming majority
of the Jewish community.’
Schooling
is a major issue. There is a large network of orthodox schools, but the
standards are often shockingly poor. A recent Ofsted report for one school –
Talmud Torah Bobov Primary – found the school inadequate in almost every
respect. Final year students, aged 13, were not taught English at all. Eve
Sacks explained the problem with orthodox education. ‘Children are lucky if
they get one or two GCSEs. I get a couple of calls a week from women who want
their kids to get qualifications. I tell them to take their kids out of
Chareidi schools and find a mainstream Jewish school.’
A
particularly contentious issue is what critics describe as ‘forced marriage’.
Marriages are strictly arranged, so that partners will usually only meet once –
for about half an hour – before they get married. Pressure to go through with
the marriage is enormous. Sex education is forbidden. For men and women,
marriage can be traumatic because they have to lose their virginity to someone
they have known for less than an hour.
At
the end of January, an influential group called Nahamu, which is run by a group
of Jewish women, presented a paper on forced marriage to the Home Office. It
wants the Government Forced Marriage Unit to give guidelines to the orthodox
community. It also wants children to be taught that they have the right to
refuse. And it is asking the Government to engage with Chareidiorganisations to
help establish clear guidelines for acceptable practice. The critics have found
a favourable response from the Prime Minister. Boris Johnson, commenting on the
report, said that forced marriage was ‘despicable, inhuman and an uncivilised
practice.’
The
media has also taken a stronger line against the Chareidi. The popular Netflix
series Unorthodox portrays the community as manipulative and corrupt. But even
the mainstream Jewish press has taken a harsh line. The two major Jewish papers
– the Jewish News and Jewish Chronicle – have started running blogs by critics
such as Eve Sacks, Yehudis Fletcher (founder of Nahamu) and YehudisGoldsobel,
the chief executive of Migdal Emunah which supports Jewish sex abuse victims.
They have made it clear that corruption, sexual abuse and coercion are
all-too-often part of Chareidi life. For people wanting to break away from the
derech (traditional Jewish pathway), there are support groups such as Gesher EU
and a large Facebook Group ‘OTD’ (off the derech) which has 3,000 members.
'Until recently the leadership of the community has tried to ignore the issue –
simply telling people not to read the Jewish press
The
mainstream Jewish community is having to face the fact that its numbers are
dwindling. Communities such as those in Glasgow are facing the closure of
synagogues and merging of communities, while the Chareidi are growing.
The
Chareidi are now organising to fight back against the critics. Chaya Spitz, who
runs an organisation called Interlink, speaks on radio and gives newspaper
interviews, has said that forced marriages are an ‘alien concept in Judaism’
and suggested that the high incidence of Covid-19 in the community is due to
poverty and overcrowding. A related organisation, Chinuch UK, representing
Chareidi schools, was established two years ago. It claims that Ofsted's
complaints are simply crass attempts at ‘social engineering’ and are motivated
by a liberal contempt for traditional values and a desire to impose sex
education on an unwilling community.
For
the future, the Chareidi community will certainly have the weight of numbers.
But whether it can withstand the tide of criticism remains to be seen.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-jewish-community
--------
Family
fundraise for Twickenham COVID-19 victim
By
Frankie Adkins
26th
February 2021
A
family from Twickenham are fundraising to build a mosque in honour of their
58-year-old relative who passed away from COVID-19.
Rena
Kamaly died sadly on February 13, 2021.
She
left behind a big family – the eldest sister of six siblings, a mother of six
children and a grandmother of 16.
Now,
her relatives are coming together to raise money for a mosque in Jogonathpur,
Bangladesh in Rena’s name.
Her
niece, Tasnya Chowdhury, said: “She had a heart of gold and would always put
others first especially when it came to her family.
“Those
who know her would agree she was well known for her hospitality and the
delicious food she would cook.
“With
your donations and duas (prayers) we can ensure there is always a memory of her
in the village as well as providing a mosque for everyone to pray in and food
for the poor and needy.”
The
family are already halfway to their target but need more help reaching £5000.
Tasnya
added: “We’re asking for any small amount you are able to give. If 1000 people
give £5 we will reach our target.
“Please
reach into your hearts and help us to do so.”
https://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/19122516.family-fundraise-twickenham-covid-19-victim/
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Staffordshire
mosque to be used as a Covid vaccination centre
ByAdnan
Rashid
27
FEB 2021
A
Staffordshire mosque is to be used as a Covid vaccination centre in a bid to
encourage more people to get the jab.
The
Central Jamia Mosque Rizvia, in Uxbridge Street, Burton, will be hosting the
event from the Pakistani Community Centre next door to the mosque on Friday,
March 5, between 2pm and 4pm.
The
service will be available to those who have pre-booked a vaccination and meet
the criteria for the priority list between groups one and six, reports
StafordshireLive.
Phonelines
will be open on Monday and Tuesday, March 1 and March 2 only. The cut off for
bookings will be 5pm on Tuesday, March 2. No walk ins will be allowed.
Previously
the mosque was used a testing station venue in a bid to encourage the community
in Burton to get tested for Covid-19 after an outbreak of the virus in the
town. The testing station was deemed to be successful and again the mosque is
hoping for as many people as possible to take advantage of this service.
You
can try the Stoke-on-Trent newsletter here, by clicking this link. If you like
what you see, you can sign up in seconds and it will be delivered straight to
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Stoke-on-Trent news.
Tariq
Hussain, spokesman for the mosque said: "I am pleased to say that
following discussions between our mosque's senior executive team and the chairs
of the clinical commissioning group they have been able to bring the
vaccination programme to our door step.
"The
priority is groups 1-4, which means getting the over 65's vaccinated. We are
also working on getting those vaccined who are over 18, but have health
conditions and once that is confirmed we will inform the public.
"Please
get yourselves vaccinated. It is safe and will give you protection from serious
illness and prevent the virus from spreading.
"It
has been very difficult to get this vaccination centre arranged and therefore
we must take advantage of it.
"The
uptake of this facility will help in future with bringing other health services
into our community."
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/staffordshire-mosque-used-covid-vaccination-5052527
--------
Dozens
Injured During Protests Marking 27th Anniversary of Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre
27
February, 2021
Asharq
Al-Awsat
Two
Palestinian children were injured and dozens of civilians suffocated in Hebron
and various occupied Palestinian cities on Friday as the Israeli army attempted
to oppress peaceful protests marking the anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque
massacre.
In
Hebron, Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades and tear gas at citizens who
marched the streets from Ali al-Bakka Mosque in the city center to commemorate
the massacre’s 27th anniversary and condemn the occupation forces’ measures and
attacks on the Mosque.
Demonstrators
raised the Palestinian flag and pictures of the mosque and the martyrs while
chanting slogans denouncing the settlers and the army’s crimes against
Palestinians.
On
Feb. 25, 1994, during dawn prayer, hundreds of Palestinians were attacked by
mass shootings and bombings at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The attack killed
29 worshippers and injured 150 others.
Israeli
soldiers who were present back then closed the doors of the mosque to prevent
worshipers from leaving and did not allow the entrance of people who tried to
save the wounded.
Palestinians
launched their weekly peaceful rallies after Friday prayers to protest this
massacre and the continuation of repression, Judaization, occupation, and
settlement policies.
In
the weekly anti-settlement protest in KafrQaddum to demand the reopening of the
village street, which has been closed for more than 17 years, a 10-year-old
child was wounded with a sponge-tipped bullet in the chest.
Dozens
suffocated and five others were arrested after the Israeli army dispersed
marches condemning settlement in the occupied West Bank.
On
Friday at dawn, dozens of settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army
forces, stormed the Islamic shrines in KafelHaris town, north of Salfit city.
Friday
prayers were performed on the ruins of the Alayan family demolished building by
the occupation municipality in Deir Jarir village.
https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2830766/dozens-injured-during-protests-marking-27th-anniversary-ibrahimi-mosque
-------
Anas
Sarwar: UK’s first Muslim to lead a party follows in family footsteps
PA
Media
Sat
27 Feb 2021
Anas
Sarwar has continued a family tradition in political precedent setting by
becoming the UK’s first Muslim to lead a party.
Sarwar’s
father, Mohammed, was the first Muslim MP, elected to Glasgow Central in 1997,
before going on to be governor of the Punjab region in his native Pakistan.
The
Glasgow MSP recalled opening a hand-delivered envelope at his childhood home in
1997 to see a mocked-up picture of his mother with a gun to her head, saying:
“Bang, bang, that’s all it takes.”
Despite
racist threats and abuse,Sarwar left his job as a dentist in 2010 to enter the
world of politics, winning the same Westminster seat as his father in an
election in which the Labour party lost power after 13 years to a Tory-Liberal
Democrat coalition.
His
time as an MP also brought with it leadership responsibilities, with Sarwar
elected to be deputy leader of Scottish Labour from 2011 to 2014, as well as
the job of coordinating the party’s campaign during the independence
referendum.
In
2015, he lost his seat to the Scottish National party’s Alison Thewliss as the
party swept Scotland, winning all but one of the constituencies north of the
border.
The
following year, he was elected to Holyrood on the Glasgow regional list, and
just more than 12 months later would be fighting his first leadership election,
taking on the eventual winner, Richard Leonard, who polled 56.7% of the vote.
Since
his loss, Sarwar has been the party’s health spokesperson – before an
acrimonious sacking by Leonard which he claimed to have heard about through
social media – and most recently as constitution spokesperson, as well as
campaigning for an inquiry into issues at the Queen Elizabeth university
hospital in Glasgow.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/27/anas-sarwar-becomes-uks-first-muslim-to-lead-a-political-party
-------
Over
60s in England to be invited for Covid-19 jab from Monday
28
February 2021
By
Maddie Goodfellow
NHS
England said that the letters will start landing on doormats from Monday, explaining
how people can make an appointment to get jabbed through the national booking
service.
It
comes as leaders from 60 of the UK's black majority churches joined forces on
Sunday to show their support for the Covid-19 vaccine to their congregations.
They
will say they support the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine programme, and urge
their congregations to seek out the facts about the vaccine from trusted
sources.
The
alliance of Christian leaders, which includes Bishop of Dover the Rt Rev Rose
Hudson-Wilkin, said they felt compelled to act after data suggested black
people are among those most likely to be hesitant about receiving the Covid-19
vaccine.
This
initiative has been organised by Christian umbrella organisations Churches
Together in England, Evangelical Alliance and YourNeighbour.
A
total of 17,254,844 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between
December 8 and February 26, according to provisional NHS England data,
including 16,679,881 first doses.
NHS
England said the latest batch of invites arriving this week will mean everyone
in the first seven priority groups will have been offered a jab, with people
aged between 50 and 60 set to be invited shortly.
Sir
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: "Since around four
fifths of 65-69 year olds have now been vaccinated, we're rapidly working our
way down the generations, with people ages 60 plus now able to come forward.
The
push to get as many of the most at-risk people protected means nine in 10
people in the top four priority groups have received a jab, NHS England said.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/over-60s-england-invited-covid-19-jab-monday/
--------
Africa
Ex-DSS
director: Some bandits are former Boko Haram members
by
Jesupemi Are
February
27,2021
Speaking
when he featured on an Arise TV programme on Saturday, Amachree said he learnt
this from the confession of some bandits.
He
added that unlike the Niger Delta militants protesting pollution of their
areas, bandits do not deserve amnesty as they are “faceless criminals”.
“Some
of them have confessed to having fought with Boko Haram. And now, you have
these people infiltrating, collecting money for ransoms, raping women and
sending them back to Boko Haram.
“Anybody
who is comparing them to militants in the Niger Delta, I want to ask the person
to tell me what their objectives are. You cannot as a country be dealing with
faceless criminals, who are harassing your populace, and let them go free.
“What
happened in the Niger Delta is totally different from what we are experiencing
now. In the Niger Delta, people were protesting for the pollution of their
environment. And because of that, they said ‘if you are taking the oil and we
are not going to benefit from it’, then they started blowing up oil
installations.”
Amachree
added that while leaders of militants are known, some of the bandits are
foreigners who want to live on their own terms in Nigeria.
“For
these bandits, we are talking of criminals, some of whom we have discovered are
not from Nigeria. So, they are coming into this country, occupying our
ungoverned spaces and trying to live there under their own conditions. So,
these bandits are thieves,” he added.
https://www.thecable.ng/ex-dss-director-some-bandits-are-former-boko-haram-members
------
SeyiMakinde
donates 18-seater bus to Lanase Central Mosque
February
27, 2021
Nigeria
News
Oyo
State Governor, Engineer SeyiMakinde has approved the donation of an 18-seater
bus to the Lanase Central Mosque, Aremo, Ibadan.
The
governor, who was represented by his Special Assistant on Islamic Affairs,
Alhaji Abdrasheed Abdul-Azeez said that the bus will greatly help the
propagation of Islam in the state.
While
presenting the bus, Abdul-Azeez said that the governor was highly appreciative
of the support and prayers of the Islamic community to the success and
stability of his administration thus far.
He
also urged the Imam to continue to work for peaceful coexistence among all
religions in the state.
The
Governor’s aide said that the league of Imams and Alfa’s in the state has a
duty to always preach peace and religious harmony, adding that by emphasising
such in their sermons, the society will be better for all while the unity and
oneness of the country will be enhanced.
According
to him, economic growth of the state can only be guaranteed in an atmosphere
where there is tolerance and love, adding that people should support the
success of the governor SeyiMakinde- led administration to enable a peaceful
environment.
While
appreciating the governor for the donation, the chief Imam of Lanase Central
Mosque, Imam MuritadhaOlanase, commended the administration for enabling growth
in the state.
He
prayed for the success of the present administration, saying that religious
harmony is of the essence in an environment in search of growth.
https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2021/02/27/seyi-makinde-donates-18-seater-bus-to-lanase-central-mosque/
-------
Nation
of Islam economic programme (1934-1975)
Black
History Month
Feb
27, 2021
The
Honourable Elijah Muhammad led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in
1975. The NOI is an Islamic religious organisation founded in Detroit,
Michigan, in 1930. Its followers are mostly Black people who are often referred
to as the Black Muslims. Under Elijah Muhammad’s leadership, the NOI brought a
message of self-reliance, independence, and respect to Blacks who were often
confined to poor inner-city neighbourhoods because of racial discrimination
under systemic White supremacy.
From
very early in the movement, Elijah Muhammad was the spiritual and
organisational leader of the Nation of Islam. However, Muhammad actually
credited the founding of the NOI to Wallace Fard Muhammad, who in 1930 began
teaching Blacks an unorthodox form of Islam in the poverty-stricken areas of
Detroit. His ideas and beliefs appealed to the approximately 8,000 Detroit
Blacks, who quickly joined his movement between 1930 and 1934. Among these
converts was Georgia-born Elijah Poole who later became the Honourable Elijah
Muhammad, the leader of the NOI when Fard Muhammad mysteriously disappeared in
1934. Elijah Muhammad preached that Wallace Fard Muhammad was Allah (God) and
that he was Fard’s messenger.
Elijah
Muhammad led the expansion of the NOI beyond Detroit to other cities, often
recruiting from among the most impoverished urban Blacks. He gave them a Black
nationalist philosophy centred on the fight against the systemic oppression of
White America. Muhammad’s message enhanced the psychological self-image of
Blacks but it also focused on helping individual Blacks and the Black community
develop economic success. While the NOI advocated economic self-reliance since
its inception, Muhammad in 1964 introduced the Three-Year Economic Plan — also
known as the National Savings Plan — specifically to help Blacks achieve
financial independence. Under this plan, he urged Black people to sacrifice for
three years, purchasing no more than what they needed and in line with their
incomes to save money. While he urged this programme for NOI members, he hoped
that all Black Americans would follow these ideas as well.
For
members of the NOI, however, a large portion of the savings would be sent to
the NOI headquarters in Chicago, where the organisation’s leaders would
allocate it towards collective economic development, including the purchase of
arable land where vegetables could be grown and cattle could be raised. The
plan also encouraged NOI members to purchase commercial real estate and
timberland. The timber could be used to build homes for poor Blacks. Lands with
clay could be used to manufacture bricks, which could be used to build brick
homes that would then be sold at affordable prices to indigent people in Black
communities.
The
Three-Year Economic Plan required NOI members who could afford to do so to
pledge one tenth to one third of their income to economic development. Members
were also required to patronise NOI-owned businesses or to open their own
economic enterprises, which would be advertised in Muhammad Speaks, the NOI’s
official newspaper.
With
a peak membership of 70,000 by the early 1960s, the NOI’s Three-Year Economic
Plan used the collective savings of the members to expand and concentrate Black
capital to develop both organisation-owned and individual member-owned
businesses. These businesses in turn promoted the NOI’s goal of an independent,
self-contained, and Black-controlled economy. In Chicago alone, the NOI
organised 15 different businesses, including Your Supermarket, Shabazz Grocery,
Chicago Lamb Packers, Shabazz Bakery, Good Foods, Shabazz Restaurant and Salaam
Restaurant, Shabazz Barber Shop, and a clothing factory. Across the US, NOI
businesses by 1970 included grocery stores, dress shops, dry cleaners,
bakeries, and restaurants that provided food, cooked meals and clothing to both
Muslims and non-Muslims at affordable prices.
In
the mid-1960s, the NOI purchased and developed farms in Michigan, Alabama, and
Georgia that provided fresh meat and vegetables for its growing number of urban
supermarkets. Despite opposition from local Whites in the South — including Ku
Klux Klan members who poisoned or shot cattle and attempted to sabotage crops —
these NOI farms provided meat and produce delivered by a fleet of NOI trucks,
and at one point an airplane, to NOI stores. As such, the NOI had created the
first Black-owned national food production and distribution network, a
longstanding dream of Black nationalist organisations.
NOI
businesses also offered a wide variety of employment opportunities for
inner-city residents, including serving as managers, clerks, secretaries,
bakers, cooks, butchers, waiters, accountants, mathematicians, technicians,
plumbers and carpenters. Muslims and non-Muslims were employed in NOI-owned
businesses. In 1958, for example, the NOI operated a dry-cleaning plant located
at 608 East 63rd Street in Chicago. The plant was managed by Herbert Muhammad,
one of Elijah Muhammad’s sons, and directly employed five NOI members full
time. Although the plant had two NOI delivery trucks, non-NOI members also were
employed, often using their own vehicles to assist in the pick-up and delivery
of dry cleaning in exchange for a 35 per cent commission on merchandise
collected from and distributed to customers.
While
Muhammad Speaks was officially the newspaper of the NOI from 1960 to 1975, it
was also one of the organisation’s most profitable enterprises. The newspaper
grew rapidly because of the national network of male NOI members who
distributed it. By 1969, the NOI produced the paper with an all-Black printing
crew in one of its buildings on a printing press capable of turning out 50,000
copies per hour. By the end of 1969, 400,000 copies of Muhammad Speaks were
printed per week. Those numbers grew to a record 950,000 in one week in 1974,
making the paper one of the largest Black-owned publications in the nation.
Although
the NOI urged women to prioritise working in the domestic sphere as wives and
mothers, many women contributed to the Economic Development Plan serving in
leadership roles as captains, lieutenants and secretaries. They also worked as
teachers, directors and principals within the NOI’s parochial schools, the
University of Islam. Moreover, women wrote for and edited the Muhammad Speaks
newspaper and some became managers and shopkeepers of the movement’s
businesses. Sister Ethel Sharieff, a daughter of Muhammad, was also involved in
these economic activities. Sharieff managed the NOI clothing shop for women in
Chicago, which employed three full-time Muslim women and at times hired
non-Muslims. Many non-Muslims also patronised the clothing store.
Some
Muslim employees indicated that they made more economic progress and were more
economically secure than other Blacks from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
They attributed their economic security to their adherence to Muhammad’s
Three-Year Economic Plan, which helped them to save money by eliminating the
desire to purchase liquor, tobacco, expensive clothes and cars. They also saved
money by restricting their diet to one meal per day, when possible, in
accordance with NOI guidelines, which in turn reduced food expenditure.
The
NOI’s economic development programme peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
With an estimated 250,000 active members worldwide in 1975, the Nation had a
formidable base of customers and employees to ensure the prosperity of many of
their enterprises. With this additional capital, the NOI began acquiring large
existing businesses. In 1968, the NOI purchased a four-storey, 60,000 sq ft
building in Chicago’s South Side for $1 million. The building was used to
accommodate the Muhammad Speaks newspaper operations. That same year, the NOI
purchased a combined restaurant and supermarket — Salaam Restaurant and Your
Supermarket — in Chicago for another $1 million, along with a lamb
slaughterhouse for $100,000, which provided meat for the
restaurant-supermarket.
In
January 1973, the NOI gained a controlling interest in the Guaranty Bank and
Trust Company. This South Side Chicago bank expanded under NOI management to
hold more than $10 million in assets and employ more than 500 people by 1975.
This “bank for the Black man,” as Elijah Muhammad called it, reflected now
decades-old capital accumulation practices by the NOI and indicated that the
Nation was one of the wealthiest Black organisations in the United States.
By
1974, NOI enterprises had taken on an international dimension with its
agreement with a Peruvian fishing distributor to provide one million pounds of
whiting fish from that South American nation. NOI members sold the fish
door-to-door in Black neighbourhoods to Muslims and non-Muslims alike,
promoting it as three times cheaper than land-produced meat, easier to digest —
and, unlike catfish, whiting was not a “bottom feeder”. In 1974, minister Abdul
Rahman Muhammad, from Atlanta, estimated that 200,000 pounds of fish were sold
in the month of September alone.
By
1975, the Nation of Islam operated hundreds of businesses throughout the US,
which collectively employed more than 11,000 people. The estimated annual
revenue from these businesses was approximately $30 million per year. At the
time of the death of the Honourable Elijah Muhammad on February 25, 1975, the
net worth of the NOI totalled $80 million. That wealth was used to enhance the
economic security of its members and to support the expansion of the NOI’s
religious mission and the establishment of more than 75 temples across the US
in 1975.
The
NOI’s economic programme declined after Elijah Muhammad’s death. Wallace D.
Muhammad, Muhammad’s son, began to dissolve the NOI’s business enterprises
owing to mismanagement. Wallace also de-emphasised the NOI’s Black nationalist
agenda and moved the organisation towards Sunni Islam. In 1977, minister Louis
Farrakhan, who served as the NOI’s national spokesman from 1967 to 1975,
reinstituted the NOI that Elijah Muhammad established, and has since
repurchased many of the farms and businesses that were lost during the
post-1975 shift. The NOI or its individual members continue to own and operate
several businesses in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
Originally
starting from a base of 8,000 impoverished Detroit residents in 1934, the
Honourable Elijah Muhammad had transformed the Nation of Islam into an economic
powerhouse with an enormous impact on the national Black community, which
included both Muslims and non-Muslims.
https://www.royalgazette.com/opinion-writer/opinion/article/20210227/nation-of-islam-economic-programme-1934-1975/
--------
Morocco
Joins Islamic Organization for Food Security
By
Abdelmalek El Morabit
Feb
26, 2021
Rabat
– Morocco signed a statute to officially join the Islamic Organization for Food
Security (IOFS) on Thursday, February 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Mustapha
Mansouri, the Moroccan ambassador in Saudi Arabia and permanent representative
to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and Yousef bin Ahmad
Al-Othaimeen, the OIC secretary general, signed the document. The two held a
meeting to discuss areas of Morocco-OIC cooperation and ways to further improve
them, according to Morocco’s state media.
Al-Othaimeen
welcomed Morocco’s “central role” at the organization and its importance to
joint Islamic action, the organization said in a statement.
Working
with the IOFS will allow Morocco to expand in many areas, particularly in
agriculture, such as in financing projects and research and in introducing new
technologies and practices.
By
joining the organization, Morocco has more chances to explore other
international markets, especially in central Asia and Africa as they comprise
the majority of the organization’s member states.
The
membership also offers the opportunity to improve bilateral diplomatic and
economic relations with Kazakhstan as it hosts the organization.
Morocco
is positioned to play a major role in global food security. Its strategic location on the African
continent particularly allows opportunities to support food security in Africa.
Morocco is the world’s largest exporter of phosphate, with phosphorus being a
key ingredient in fertilizers.
Established
in 2013, IOFS is an OIC agency whose mission is to ensure food security for
member countries and provide expertise and support for projects in the areas of
agriculture, rural development, and food security.
Morocco
has been a member of the Jeddah-headquartered OIC since its establishment in
1969.
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2021/02/336110/morocco-joins-islamic-organization-for-food-security/
--------
How
Buratai escaped Boko Haram ambush thrice –Major Banjo
February
28, 2021
BOLA
BAMIGBOLA
Major
Daniel Banjo, (retd.), a former course mate of ex-Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen.
Tukur Buratai (retd.), on Saturday, said Buratai was ambushed three times while
battling Boko Haram insurgents.
The
ex-army boss spoke at an interfaith prayer organised for him by the Olowu of
Kuta, Oba Adekunle Oyelude, in the monarch’s Kuta, Osun State palace. The event
was attended by dignitaries from within and outside Osun State.
Buratai,
who was represented by Banjo and Wing Commander Mamman Yusuf (retd.), said
efforts to contain insurgents by the army under his command was not appreciated
by Nigerians.
In
his remarks, Banjo said, “I remember, about three times, he (Buratai) called me
in the middle of the night. He was at the warfront. He would call and say
things are happening here and Nigerians are not appreciative of what we are
doing.
“He
wouldn’t sleep for weeks. He was ambushed three times and he jumped into the
bush with his men, with Kalashnikov (AK-47 rifles) and they would be able to
kill some and arrest some.”
Oba
Oyelude said the people of the community would remain grateful to Buratai for
the assistance he rendered towards the completion of a bridge linking the
community to Ede.
The
Olowu said, “For decades, several prominent political office-holders have tried
to help us construct the Ede/Kuta Bridge, but they could not. However, on
bringing the request before Lt.-Gen. Buratai, he granted it and ensured it was
built.
“This
is enough of an achievement for me as a monarch. The bridge is almost 100 years
old, and now, the communities in this area have been linked and the villagers
are now liberated.”
https://punchng.com/how-buratai-escaped-boko-haram-ambush-thrice-major-banjo/
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/ameri-muslim-citizen-33-year/d/124417
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