Enraged Pakistan says NATO Attack Threatens War on Terror
Maldives Islamic Ministry condemns MPs for allowing UN Human Rights Commissioner to address parliament
25 BNP-Jamaat ministers, MPs guilty in 2001 post-poll violence
'Unveiled': A post-9/11 Portrait of Muslim Women
Contesting women's rights in Sudan
Bomb targets official in Pakistan’s Peshawar
Car bomb north of Baghdad kills 10
Blair’s government tried to get Oxford place for Saif Gaddafi
Prison officers must not be banned from growing beards, rules Maafushi Court
Sohrabuddin encounter: SC pulls up Modi government
New Kyrgyz President Atambayev pledges 'new page'
Bureaucrats drag at Durban as Maldives lobbies for survival
Ishrat Jahan encounter: Gujarat HC does not trust Modi's police, hands case to CBI
Court’s debunk allegations against Teesta Setalvad
Six Suspects Arrested For Terror Attacks In Kazakhstan
Two Pakistanis killed by NATO forces in Afghanistan: Locals
Seven Pakistanis kidnapped in Afghanistan: Police
Mali: Terrorists Kidnap Five, Kill One
Jewish settlements halting Middle East peace process: Pak Envoy to UN
Obama not to formally say sorry to Pak over NATO strike: report
Hard to believe Kayani didn't know of Osama's presence: ex-NSA
Pakistan Lacks Competent Leaderto Change Its Destiny
NATO: Pakistan resumes some cooperation
NATO attack could hurt war on terror: Pakistan
Libya Imposes Visas On Mauritanians, Algerians
Islamists gain in Egypt elections
Assaulted for protesting against ‘made snana'
Male Nurse Claims He Was Fired for Treating Muslim Women
Doctor sets out to heal Libya’s health system
Arab states awaken to tyranny within
Shaikh Khalifa addresses the nation on national day
Global corruption index reflects Arab Spring unrest
Egypt election results put Muslim Brotherhood ahead
Talks on Iraq NATO mission stall over immunity
EU expected to increase sanctions on Iran, Syria
US House approves faster green cards for Indian IT workers
Notes printed at foreign mint: ATS
Islamophobia and the future of elections in the US
Court to rule on Muslim prayer in German schools
10 principles of the Prophet
Ask the Religion Experts: How can we improve interfaith dialogue?
Witness in Mehanna trial describes Yemen meeting
AIR STRIKES TARGET AL-SHABAAB LEADERSHIP OUTSIDE MOGADISHU
Jordan's Abu Sayyaf: The Key Islamist Actor in Ma'an
A Profile of Sheikh Abdulcaadir Mumin: Al-Shabaab’s Leading Theological Guide
In His Own Words, Abu Zar al-Burmi: The Mufti of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Rebellion Without Reason: The Strange Survival of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army
School cancels enrollment of child with HIV+ father
Compiled By New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/enraged-pakistan-says-nato-attack/d/6037
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Enraged Pakistan says NATO attack threatens war on terror
By Chris Allbritton and Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD | Thu Dec 1, 2011
(Reuters) - Pakistan, enraged by a NATO cross-border attack that killed 24 soldiers, could end support for the U.S.-led war on militancy if its sovereignty is violated again, the foreign minister said, warning "enough is enough".
The South Asian nation has already shown its anger over the weekend strike by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan, depriving the talks of a central player in efforts to bring peace to its neighbour.
"Enough is enough. The government will not tolerate any incident of spilling even a single drop of any civilian or soldier's blood," The News newspaper on Thursday quoted Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as telling a Senate committee on foreign affairs.
"Pakistan's role in the war on terror must not be overlooked," Khar said, suggesting Pakistan could end its support for the U.S. war on militancy. Despite opposition at home, Islamabad backed Washington after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The U.S. Embassy released a video statement on YouTube by Ambassador Cameron Munter in which he expressed regret for the attack. (link.reuters.com/cyz35s)
"I would like to extend my most sincere condolences to the people and government of Pakistan, and especially to Pakistan's men and women in uniform, for the tragic incident that took place on Nov 26 in Mohmand Agency," he said, standing in front of U.S. and Pakistani flags.
"We regret it very much," he added in Urdu.
He said the United States took the attack "very seriously" and pledged a "a full, in-depth investigation".
"Pakistan and the U.S. have stood together for over 60 years," he said. "We have weathered previous crises together. I'm certain we will weather this one too, and emerge, together, as stronger partners."
But events seemed to be working against lowering tensions. Two Pakistani men were killed in Afghanistan early on Thursday and Pakistani border guards said NATO may have been responsible.
The officials said the two men, who were from the town of Chagai in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, were gathering wood 30 km (18.6 miles) inside Afghanistan. They said NATO helicopters fired on their vehicle.
"I can confirm that the bodies of two residents of Chagai have arrived from Afghanistan," said Chagai Assistant Commissioner Tufail Baloch. "But I do not have any information on how they were killed. It happened on Afghan soil so we don't have many details yet."
NATO officials had no immediate comment.
NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military border posts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday in the worst incident of its kind since 2001.
The top U.S. military officer denied allegations by a senior Pakistani army official that the NATO attack was a deliberate act of aggression.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in an interview: "The one thing I will say publicly and categorically is that this was not a deliberate attack."
The incident has given the army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history and sets security and foreign policy, some breathing room after facing strong criticism from both the Pakistani public and the United States after Osama bin Laden was killed in a secret raid by U.S. special forces in May.
The al Qaeda leader had apparently been living in a Pakistani garrison town for years.
Pakistanis criticised the military for failing to protect their sovereignty and U.S. officials wondered whether some members of military intelligence had sheltered him. Pakistan's government and military said they had no idea bin Laden was in the country.
Protests have taken place in several cities every day since the NATO strike along the poorly-defined border, where militants often plan and stage attacks.
Pakistan military sources said Islamabad had cancelled a visit by a 15-member delegation, led by the Director General of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Asif, to the United States that was to have taken place this week.
In an apparently unrelated attack, a bomb blew out a wall of a government official's office in Peshawar, the last big city on the route to Afghanistan, early on Thursday, police said. There were no reports of casualties.
Also in the eastern Afghan province of Logar, unknown gunmen abducted seven Pakistani engineers in Pul-e Alam, said provincial police chief Gulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai.
The United States has long wanted Pakistan, whose military and economy depend heavily on billions of dollars in American aid, to crack down on militant groups that cross its unruly border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan.
More recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Pakistan to bring all militant groups to the negotiating table in order to stabilise Afghanistan.
The NATO attack makes Pakistani cooperation less likely.
NATO hopes an investigation it promised will defuse the crisis and that confidence-building measures can repair ties.
Critics say Pakistan has created a deadly regional mess by supporting militants like the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network to act as proxies in Afghanistan and other groups to fight Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan says it has paid the highest price in the war on militancy. Thousands of soldiers and police have been killed.
"The sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war on terror are more than any other country," Khar was quoted as saying. "But that does not mean we will compromise on our sovereignty."
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/12/01/pakistan-nato-idINDEE7AT02920111201
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Maldives Islamic Ministry condemns MPs for allowing UN Human Rights Commissioner to address parliament
By Ahmed Nazeer
November 30th, 2011
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has issued a statement proclaiming that nobody is allowed to talk against Islam in the Maldives, “even in parliament”, as Islam is “the source of all laws made in the Maldives.”
The Ministry’s statement follows a call from UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay in parliament last week that the Maldives put a moratorium on the practice of flogging as punishment for extra-marital sex, while it holds a debate on the matter.
Pillay told parliament that flogging was a form of punishment “that is cruel and demeaning to women, and should have no place in the legal framework of a democratic country.”
The Islamic Ministry condemned the parliament’s decision to let Pillay speak, noting that MPs were handed a Dhivehi translation of her speech and should have been aware of what she was about to say.
‘’No Muslim has the right to advocate against flogging for fornication,” the Islamic Ministry stated.
“According to the Quran 100 lashes should be given for the woman and man involved in fornication,’’ the Ministry said, citing 33:36 of Quran which reads: ‘’It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.’’
The Ministry said that no international organisation, foreign country or individual had the “right to obstruct Maldivians from upholding Islamic principles.”
‘’To preserve this nation’s sovereignty, all Maldivian citizens are obliged to respect the articles in the constitution and uphold the constitution,’’ the statement read. ‘’No law against any tenet of Islam can be enacted in the Maldives, according to the constitution.’’
The Islamic Ministry said any calls or action against this would be condemned by the ministry “in strongest possible terms.”
Religious NGO Jamiyyathul Salaf has yesterday sent a letter to the UN Resident Coordinator in the Maldives, alleging that a call from UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay for a moratorium on flogging was “inhumane and disrespectful.”
In a press conference last week, Pillay also described the 100 percent Muslim provision in the Maldivian constitution as “discriminatory, and does not comply with international standards” which led to protests outside the UN head office in Male’.
http://minivannews.com/society/islamic-ministry-condemns-mps-for-allowing-un-human-rights-commissioner-to-address-parliament-28878
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25 BNP-Jamaat ministers, MPs guilty in 2001 post-poll violence
Star Online Report
A judicial commission has found 26,352 people, including 25 ministers and lawmakers of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, involved in the 2001 post-polls violence.
Home Minister Shahara Khatun disclosed the findings at a press briefing at her ministry on Thursday.
The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders included former ministers Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Tariqul Islam, Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed and Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu, ex-lawmakers Delawar Hossain Sayedee, Shahidul Haq Jamal and Abdus Salam Pintu.
“The government will now take legal action against the accused,” the minister said.
She said of the over 18,000 complaints of violence in the 15 months following the 2001 national elections, the commission found evidence of 5,571.
Informing that many sufferers of the crimes have applied for financial help, Shahara said the government will disburse financial assistance depending on its capability.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=34101
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'Unveiled': A post-9/11 portrait of Muslim women
By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun
December 1, 2011
Not long after 9/11, playwright and actress Rohina Malik attended her best friend's wedding wearing a hijab.
"There was an American wedding going on in the same place as our Pakistani wedding," Malik said. "A guest from the American wedding saw me and had a really strong response to my veil. It got really ugly very fast. I knew afterward that I wanted to write about it."
What Malik ended up writing was "Unveiled," a provocative one-woman play that she will perform at Theatre Project. She portrays five Muslim women living in the West, post-9/11.
Since a sold-out premiere run in 2009 at Chicago's 16th Street Theater, the London-born Malik has performed "Unveiled" throughout the country.
During the 10th anniversary of 9/11, she did the show in San Francisco. At a Q&A session after one performance, Malik spotted a young man crying.
"He was from a very white neighborhood in Orange County," the playwright said. "He told me that right after 9/11, they literally chased an Indian man out of his community. Fear and ignorance can be a deadly combination."
On another occasion, a teary college student stayed behind to apologize to Malik for believing that Muslim women wore the veil to celebrate 9/11.
"Unveiled" is about fighting myths, stereotypes and intolerance.
"One of the characters is a hip-hop rapper who says the veil is a problem, except when it's on a nun's head," Malik said. "One is wearing a veil because she is spiritual; it's about God and faith. The Muslim woman is supposedly wearing one because she has been forced by a man, she's oppressed, or she's anti-American. It's really crazy."
Malik, 35, makes another point about veil-wearing, one that some non-Muslim women might not have considered.
"There is a feminist interpretation," she said, "where the veil is a way of saying, 'I'm going to cover up my body so you can't look at me as a sexual object.'"
The daughter of an Indian mother and Pakistani father, Malik decided to wear the hijab for spiritual reasons when she was 19. "No one forced me to wear it," she said. "My family opposed it."
The veil serves as a thread to link the play's characters. So does tea. Each of the women drinks a particular variety.
Those characters include a Pakistani-born dressmaker (she relates a wedding reception incident like the one Malik experienced) and an African-American Texan who has reconnected with Islam. The rapper is a West London teen who tells of how her mother tried to bleach the girl's dark skin.
From all of these stories, Malik aims to provide audiences an opening into a culture greatly misunderstood in the West. She also wants to be entertaining. "A lecture about the Muslim community can be so boring," she said with a laugh.
Malik developed a love for theater attending a school in London with a vibrant drama department, where she overcame shyness through acting.
"Everybody was laughing, not at me, but with me," she said. "That had a really big impact on me. I remember the racial tension in my class between white students and the minorities. Theater taught me how art can bring people together."
After her family moved to Chicago when she was 15, Malik found herself in another theatrically active high school and wrote her first play. Today, playwriting is her primary focus; she recently had pieces workshopped and commissioned by Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
Performing "Unveiled" remains a big part of Malik's schedule.
"There has been a sprinkling of negative reactions to the play," she said. "I've had people walk out, calling it 'Islamist propaganda.' Some Muslims have been offended by the strong language. But the response has been overwhelmingly positive. And most people stay after to continue the dialogue. It doesn't end when the play ends."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-arts-story-1202-20111201,0,2860509.story
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Contesting women's rights in Sudan
Islamist policies targeting women have had far-reaching consequences. But women are not passive victims. Rather, women are mobilizing for and against the state. Gender has become perhaps one of the most contested arenas in Sudanese politics.
In her doctoral thesis The Many Faces of Political Islam in Sudan: Muslim Women’s Activism for and against the State, Liv Tønnessen identifies three different groups promoting competing gender ideologies for and against the state.
-They hold strongly diverting views on women’s rights. Neither of them see their emancipation struggle as opposing or resisting Islam. On the contrary, they locate their struggle within various interpretations of Islam, says Tønnessen.
Victorian notions of motherhood
The Islamists advocate gender equity, not gender equality, claiming that women and men are biologically different and should therefore not have equal rights. They reject ratification of CEDAW, deeming the convention to be of no relevance to Sudanese society. They call for Islamic, not Western, solutions for Muslim women. According to Islamists, women can participate in war and in the armed forces; they can be ambassadors, doctors and professors, members of parliament and presidential advisors . But when it comes to women’s rights within the family, they preach conservative values underpinned by male guardianship.
-Paradoxically, a woman can become president in Sudan, but only if her husband allows it, says Tønnessen.
She underlines the fact that conservative family values are not unique to Islamists in Sudan.
-Their family values have a lot in common with the ideals of womanhood during the Victorian era, where femininity was centered around family, motherhood and respectability.
Feminist readings of the Quran
Islam has a reputation of being anti-woman among scholars, policy makers, journalists as well as in the public opinion of Europe and the United States, according to Tønnessen. Yet, she has met Islamic feminists in Sudan who find support for gender equality in the Quran. The majority of Sudanese feminists do not strive for Western and secular feminism. In their opinion, the answer is a distinctive Islamist feminist ideology which relies on Sharia as well as international human rights. Their activism focuses particularly on women’s inequality within the family.
- According to the Islamic feminists, Muslim women are oppressed because of patriarchal interpretations of Islam rather than Islam itself, says Tønnessen.
-More conservative than the state could ever imagine
The Sudanese Salafists advocate gender segregation based on a Saudi Arabian model. Their ideal is a “protected” Muslim woman in the private as well as the public spaces. They oppose any ratification of CEDAW, and argue for further restrictions in family law.
-The Salafists argue for more patriarchy and thereby reinforcing male guardianship. The Sudanese state allows women to divorce their husbands on certain conditions, like impotence or cruelty. The Salafists believe that women’s right to divorce should be revoked, says Tønnessen.
The Salafists’ opposition to the state’s gender policies clearly does not take the direction Western policy makers and feminists wish for. This is a reminder not to demonize the Sudanese state while romanticizing the opposition, according to Tønnessen.
- Parts of the opposition are more conservative and discriminatory towards women than the Islamist state ever imagined, she says.
Trial lecture: 1 December, 15:
http://www.cmi.no/news/?944-contesting-womens-rights-in-sudan
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Bomb targets official in Pakistan’s Peshawar
(Reuters)
PESHAWAR - 1 December 2011, A bomb exploded near the office of a regional government official in the often restive northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar early on Thursday, police officials said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
A wall of the district coordination officer’s building collapsed after the blast, which was heard throughout Peshawar, the last major city on the route to Afghanistan.
Peshawar is also not far from Mohmand, the district where a strike by NATO-led forces at the weekend killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and plunged often uneasy relations between Washington and Islamabad to new lows.
Taliban militants have often launched suicide attacks in and around Peshawar in their campaign to topple the Pakistani government for its support of the U.S.-led war against militancy.
The army has launched a series of offensives against the Pakistani Taliban but have failed to subdue the group, which is close to al Qaeda and is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan, an unstable, nuclear-armed US ally.
Pakistani Taliban officials have said the group is holding exploratory peace talks with the Islamabad government.
Since the weekend strike in Mohmand, Pakistan has announced it will boycott an international conference on the future of Afghanistan in Germany next week, depriving the talks of a central player in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has labelled that attack as a deliberate act of aggression, although that has been categorically denied by senior US military officials.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/December/international_December13.xml§ion=international&col=
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Car bomb north of Baghdad kills 10
Baquba: Dec 01 2011, A car bomb in a market in confessionally mixed Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killed 10 people and wounded at least 20 today, medical and security officials said.
"We counted 10 bodies and at least 20 wounded in the explosion of a car bomb parked near a vegetable market in Khalis," an Iraqi army colonel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The casualty toll was confirmed by a medic at the main hospital in the Diyala provincial capital, Baquba. "We received 10 bodies and admitted 25 wounded. Two policemen were among them," said Dr Firaz al-Dulaimi.
The deaths came just weeks before US troops are due to complete a withdrawal from Iraq that has raised concerns about the ability of Iraqi forces to maintain security.
The end-of-year pullout brings to a close an almost nine-year war that has left thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/car-bomb-north-of-baghdad-kills-10/882789/
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Blair’s government tried to get Oxford place for Saif Gaddafi
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor, 30 Nov 2011
The Blair government tried to secure a place at Oxford University for Saif al-Islam, the son of Muammar Gaddafi.
A senior Foreign Office official contacted the university in 2002 as part of efforts to establish better relations with the Libyan regime, according to a report.
“It was made clear that the FCO would appreciate help in this case since Libya was opened up to the West again,” Professor Valpy FitzGerald said in the report. The request came two years before Mr Blair’s deal in the desert, which formally reopened diplomatic links.
The approach was disclosed by an inquiry, carried out by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, into the “disastrous” relationship that subsequently developed between Gaddafi’s Libya and the London School of Economics.
The university built up increasingly extensive ties with the regime over almost a decade after admitting Saif in 2002. It allowed him to start a PhD in philosophy despite concerns over his academic ability and accepted a £1.5 million donation from his personal charity with limited inquiries into the source of the cash.
Full Report at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8926790/Blairs-government-tried-to-get-Oxford-place-for-Saif-Gaddafi.html
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Prison officers must not be banned from growing beards, rules Maafushi Court
By Ahmed Nazeer
November 30th, 2011
Maafushi Court has ruled that growing a beard for men in Islam is more than a Sunnah and almost ‘waajib’ (obligatory), after a group of prison officers working for the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) filed a case against a requirement that male officers shave off their beards.
Delivering the verdict, Maafushi Court Judge Ibrahim Hussain said that men should not be told to shave their beards ‘’to make them look like women’’. All Prophets, from Adam to Mohamed (PBUH), grew beards, reported Raajjeislam.
‘’While the beard is more than a Sunnah and almost an obligatory thing in Islam, and while some scholars say it is obligatory, no employee in this 100 percent Muslim nation should be forced to shave their beard,’’ the website quoted the judge as saying.
‘’The court hereby orders the DPRS to ensure that no employee is asked to shave their beard.’’
The judge also added that as the Maldives is a 100 percent Muslim nation, no law against the tenets of Islam can be enacted in the Maldives.
http://minivannews.com/society/prison-officers-must-not-be-banned-from-growing-beards-rules-maafushi-court-28910
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Sohrabuddin encounter: SC pulls up Modi government
TNN | Dec 1, 2011,
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Gujarat government to submit CDs with call details of senior state police officials allegedly involved in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
The apex court pulled up the state government for not handing over crucial CDs to the CBI in connection with the case.
The Centre on Wednesday had asked the Supreme Court to initiate contempt proceedings against former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah and his lawyer Ram Jethmalani for questioning the impartiality of the judge who ordered the CBI probe in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising said the allegation of conspiracy among the Judge (Justice Tarun Chatterjee now retired), the Centre and the CBI made by Shah amounts to contempt of court.
"The alleged interest of the judge whether personal or otherwise is not only fanciful but the averments to that effect are nothing short of contempt of this court," she said before a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai.
She was referring to the contentions of Shah who alleged that the CBI was used by the Centre and in this conspiracy the possible bias of the judge played a critical role for getting the case transferred to the agency.
Questioning the order of January 12, 2010, senior advocate Jethmalani, appearing for Shah, said that at the time of passing the order the judge was himself under the scrutiny of the CBI in the Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam and he should have at the first instance recused himself from hearing the fake encounter case.
The Centre, while refuting all the allegations, said that the politician, a close aide of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, has failed to produce any evidence to substantiate the claim.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sohrabuddin-encounter-SC-pulls-up-Modi-government/articleshow/10942669.cms
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New Kyrgyz President Atambayev pledges 'new page'
Dec, 01, 2011
Kyrgyzstan has sworn in a new president in the former Soviet nation's first peaceful transfer of power.
Almazbek Atambayev promised to open a "new page" in the country's history and called for ethnic unity.
Mr Atambayev, 55, was prime minister until comfortably winning elections in October.
The country's first two presidents were unseated in bloody uprisings. Kyrgyzstan won independence after the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago.
Election observers found major shortcomings in the 30 October vote and Mr Atambayev's opponents have refused to recognise the result.
But correspondents say the very fact a largely peaceful and credible election was held in a region notorious for autocrats was significant progress.
'Stability'
Mr Atambayev, a wealthy businessman from the north who made his money in the early 1990s, has promised to bring prosperity to the impoverished Central Asian nation.
Our corrupt state should be left in the past - it's time to stop holding protests and get to work”
Full Report at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15980862
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Bureaucrats drag at Durban as Maldives lobbies for survival
By Eleanor Johnstone
November 30th, 2011
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
UN Chief Climate Change official Christiana Figueres quoted former South African president Nelson Mandela in her opening speech to the 17th UN Climate Conference, which began Monday in Durban, South Africa. Figueres urged all parties to be flexible.
At the top of the agenda is renewing the Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to cut greenhouse emissions which is due to expire at the end of 2012.
Within hours of the opening discussions, however, Canada said it would not commit to a second term of the Kyoto Protocol and even moved to withdraw early, while China, a leading emitter, and the G77 group said their participation in a global deal depended on all developed nations signing a second Kyoto term.
The United States said China’s participation was a basic requirement for its own involvement, but provided no guarantee.
The European Union voted in favor of a second term, but stipulated that the largest emitters, US and China, should agree to legally-binding emission cuts by 2015.
The UN conference is attended by approximately 15,000 delegates from 194 nations.
Departing for Durban today, Environmental Minister Mohamed Aslam said the Maldives would not relent to any country during the talks. During the 12-day conference, Aslam said the Maldives would lobby for a new international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent a rise in sea levels.
“We can’t go on without finding a conclusion to this. The Maldives will lobby for and say whatever we have to say to any country it is that we will not be able to move forward without endorsing this agreement. Our survival will be our top priority,” he told Haveeru.
The last climate talks were held in Copenhagen in 2010 amidst great international excitement and pressure. However, the vague outcome–an accord with no binding articles – disappointed the public to the point of protests in Copenhagen.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem tried to correct public skepticism at the Climate Vulnerable Forum in Dhaka earlier this month.
Full Report at:
http://minivannews.com/politics/bureaucrats-drag-at-durban-as-maldives-lobbies-for-survival-28880
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Ishrat Jahan encounter: Gujarat HC does not trust Modi's police, hands case to CBI
Agencies , Express news service
Ahmedabad:Dec 01 2011, ,The Gujarat High court on Thursday handed the Ishrat Jahan encounter case to central agency CBI, ending the state police's role in the probe.
The order, perceived to be an embarrassment to the Narendra Modi government – since his police had justified the killings – comes 10 days after a special investigation team concluded the encounter was staged. The court Thursday directed SIT member Satish Verma, who spearheaded the SIT investigation, to assist the CBI in its probe.
Ruling out handing over the sensitive case to the Gujarat Police, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and the SIT, the Bench listed out a set of reasons for its mandate in favour of the CBI.
The court enumerated 12 reasons why the case should not be given to the state police.
In a clear reference to the trust deficit in Gujarat Police, the court said, “The agency to probe the case must instill confidence and should have credibility among the victims,
therefore we find it fit not to assign the case to the state police.”
The court also ruled out assigning the investigations to the SIT citing difference of opinion among its members and majority of them being not willing to continue with the probe as the reason for not handing over the responsibility to it.
The HC did not give its mandate to the NIA, citing the issues concerning its jurisdiction and competence, besides limited scope for cases that it can take up.
The division bench of justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha
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Court’s debunk allegations against Teesta Setalvad
Javed Anand
Trustee, Citizens for Justice and Peace
Mumbai: One would have thought that the job of a newspaper is not simply that of a post office but to provide credible information to its readers.
Several newspapers have reported that Rais Khan, a former employee of Citizens for Justice and Peace has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing the organisation's secretary, Teesta Setalvad, and lawyer Suhail Tirmizee of doctoring affidavits of victim-witnesses in the Supreme Court supervised trial of five major carnage cases in Gujarat in 2002. That this is newsworthy is not in question.
But should not the report also have reminded readers that in two of these five cases the court has given its verdicts -- Best Bakery (March 2006) and Sardaparura (November 2011) -- and in BOTH cases the exoneration of Teesta Setalvad are part of the judicial pronouncements? In the Best Bakery case, Zahira Shaikh was even sent to jail by the Supreme Court when a committee appointed by it concluded that her charges against Teesta Setalvad (similar to those levelles against her by Rais Khan now) were totally baseless".
As reported by prominent national dailies, the court order in the Sardaparpura case, too, fully endorses the role of Teesta Setalvad and Citizens for Justice and Peace in the justice process.
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Six Suspects Arrested For Terror Attacks In Kazakhstan
ASTANA -- December 01, 2011, Kazakh police have arrested six suspected associates of an alleged terrorist who killed seven people in the southern city of Taraz earlier this month, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Prosecutor-General's Office spokesman Nurdaulet Suindikov told journalists in Astana on November 30 that "the spiritual leader of the terrorist group is among" those arrested.
He said the criminal group was created earlier this year and consists of people with prior convictions for different violent crimes.
Suindikov said the leader of the group "has been persuading its members to conduct jihad, namely to attack and kill police in order to establish an Islamic caliphate."
Suindikov added that forensic tests established that the group member who committed a terrorist act in Taraz on November 12 was under the influence of drugs at the time.
A man identified only as Kariev, and said to be 34 years old, shot seven people dead in running battles with security forces in Taraz. Four members of the security forces and two civilians were among those killed. Kariev later set off an explosive device when cornered by security troops, killing himself and another policeman.
Kariev's attack was preceded by two bombings in the western city of Atyrau on October 31.
A suspected extremist allegedly associated with an Islamic jihadist group called Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) seemed to accidentally blow himself up in the Caspian Sea port city, causing no other casualties.
Suindikov said at a press conference on November 30 that the Atyrau city court ruled on November 25 that Jund al-Khilafa is a terrorist organization and banned it.
"Anyone associated with Jund al-Khilafa in Kazakhstan will be officially charged with terrorism and extremism," he said.
http://www.rferl.org/content/six_suspects_arrested_for_terror_attacks_in_kazakhstan/24407405.html
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Two Pakistanis killed by NATO forces in Afghanistan: Locals
By Shehzad Baloch
QUETTA: December 1, 2011, Two Pakistanis were allegedly gunned down by NATO forces in the Bibijan area of Afghanistan, which borders the Chagai district of Balochistan.
Balochistan Levies confirmed the incident and said that the that two men had been shot dead in the Helmand province of Afghanistan on Thursday morning.
“The two men went to visit their relatives living inside Afghanistan from Chagai, when NATO forces opened fire on them, killing both instantly,” relatives told local journalists.
The dead men were identified as Abdullah and Mohammad Usman, residents of Chagai district. The relatives are yet to receive the bodies.
People living on either side of the border often visit each other as they have had close relations since centuries. People from Chagai also travel to the other side of the border for collecting wood and to work as labour.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/300618/two-pakistanis-killed-by-nato-forces-in-afghanistan-locals/
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Seven Pakistanis kidnapped in Afghanistan: Police
By AFP
PULI ALAM: December 1, 2011, Seven Pakistani workers have been kidnapped in an area troubled by the Taliban near the Afghan capital Kabul, police said Thursday.
The Pakistanis – engineers and workers assigned to a hospital construction project in Logar province – were returning to their accommodation after work when they were snatched at gunpoint on Wednesday.
“They were going home from work. Along the road, their minivan was stopped by unknown gunmen, their driver was forced out of the car and all were taken away to an unknown location,” Logar police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghliwani said.
The abduction comes as Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan and the United States are at a low after cross-border Nato air strikes killed 24 Pakistani troops on Saturday.
“We’ve launched a search operation. We hope to find them and free them very soon,” said Roghliwani.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction but police said the kidnapping might have been carried out by “criminal gangs” seeking a ransom.
The Taliban, leaders of a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan, were not immediately contactable for comment.
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Mali: Terrorists Kidnap Five, Kill One
By Jemal Oumar
December 1, 2011 Terrorists suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) kidnapped five tourists and killed another in two separate incidents in northern Mali last week.
The first kidnapping occurred Thursday (November 24th) when two Frenchmen were abducted from their hotel in the Malian city of Hombori. Then on Friday, three foreigners were taken from a restaurant in central Timbuktu by a group of armed men. Another tourist, a German national, was killed while resisting the terrorists.
The Malian government condemned the attacks in a statement issued Friday, vowing to take “all measures necessary to ensure the security and stability of the region”. The statement dubbed the attackers “terrorists” who were “targeting the safety and security of the north of Mali”.
The statement stressed that the government was determined to pursue the kidnappers and anyone who would undermine regional stability. Additional security forces were deployed throughout Timbuktu following the attacks.
“The kidnapping took place in rather vague conditions. We are still in the stage of gathering information,” Jeune Afrique quoted French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe as saying.
The journal added: “Malian military forces as well as a number of French officers in charge of training the elite forces in the Malian army kicked off investigations and are combing the area, in search of the two French citizens who were kidnapped between Wednesday and Thursday from La Dombia hotel.”
Full Report at:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/01122011-mali-terrorists-kidnap-five-kill-one/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
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Jewish settlements halting Middle East peace process: Pak Envoy to UN
By APP
UNITED NATIONS: December 1, 2011, Pakistan’s Envoy to the United Nations (UN) Abdullah Hussain Haroon on Wednesday told the UN General Assembly that Palestinians should not be expected to negotiate when their land is taken over in the name of “new settlements.”
Pakistan has made a fervent call on the international community to help break the stalemate in the Middle East peace process resulting from Israel’s policy of building Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian territories.
Haroon said that settlement activity and the peace process cannot move together.
The envoy reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Palestine’s struggle for the right to independence. He said that the peace process leading to a final settlement was stalled by the Israeli regime’s constant expansionist policy.
He said there was no reversal in the deteriorating living conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, while Israeli defiance of the international community on the issue of settlements and its high level of impunity were destroying the peace process and inflicting innumerable hardships on the Palestinian people under its illegal occupation.
The envoy called on Israel to ease its blockade of Gaza and to allow the free flow of people and commerce.
The present stalemate in the peace process could not be broken without sustained and meaningful engagement by the international community, said Haroon, emphasizing that it was important for the international community to work on halting Israeli settlement and helping Palestinians strengthen state and institution building.
Haroon said that Palestine should also be ensured of a progress on the status of the UN membership application.
Lasting solutions to the wider Arab-Israeli conflict were essential to comprehensive peace in the Middle East, the envoy said, stressing that it was imperative to address its root cause, the Israeli occupation of Arab territories.
People of all races and religions in the Middle East had suffered for the last six decades, he pointed out, underscoring the need for concerted action and political will to build a lasting peace that could save succeeding generations from the tragedies and tribulations of their ill fated predecessors.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/300649/jewish-settlements-halting-middle-east-peace-process-haroon/
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Obama not to formally say sorry to Pak over NATO strike: report
New York: Dec 1, 2011 The White House has ruled out President Barack Obama offering "formal condolences" to Pakistan over the killing of its 24 soldiers in a NATO strike, as suggested by his top diplomat in Islamabad in a desperate bid to salvage deteriorating ties, a media report said today.
"The White House has decided that President Obama will not offer formal condolences – at least for now – to Pakistan for the deaths of two dozen soldiers in NATO airstrikes last week, overruling State Department officials who argued for such a show of remorse to help salvage America's relationship with Pakistan," 'The New York Times' said, reflecting the mood prevailing in the administration on Pakistan right now.
The request for this came on Monday, two days after the NATO attack, from US envoy to Pakistan Cameron Munter, who said that a formal video message from Obama was needed to help prevent the rapidly deteriorating relations between the two countries from cratering, administration officials were quoted as saying by the daily.
Full Report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/obama-not-to-formally-say-sorry-to-pak-over-nato-strike-report/882833/
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Hard to believe Kayani didn't know of Osama's presence: ex-NSA
Agencies
Washington: Dec 01 2011, James Jones was privy to intelligence and classified docs when planning for the secret mission on Osama bin Laden started.
Months after Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in a covert operation in Abbottabad, a former US national security adviser has said it is "inconceivable" that Pakistani army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani did not know where the al-Qaeda chief was hiding.
"I think that's inconceivable," Gen (Retd) James Jones told the popular Charlie Rose show on the PBS news network last evening.
His comments came when asked: "Do you accept that Gen Kayani and others did not know that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan?"
Jones, who was the National Security Adviser to President Barack Obama from January 2009 to October 2010, said "My personal opinion is that I just find it hard to believe."
The response from Jones gains significance as even though he was not the top Obama adviser when operation bin Laden took place on May 2 in Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad, he was indeed part and parcel of the Obama team and privy to the intelligence information and classified documents when the planning for this secret mission started.
"This is getting back to my point about there is no logic here" in Kayani and others in Pakistan not knowing about bin Laden's hideout, Jones said, when asked "So what were they thinking about?"
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hard-to-believe-kayani-didnt-know-of-osamas-presence-exnsa/882763/
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Pakistan Lacks Competent Leaderto Change Its Destiny
“In Pakistan, there is not yet a single political leader who can change the destiny of the people.”
―Scholar and historian NasimYousaf
NasimYousaf, a well-known intellectual, scholar and historian,is highly concerned about the future of Pakistan. According to him,in Pakistan, there is not yet a single political leader who can change the destiny of the people. He further stated, “Pakistan has been led, governed, and controlled by a certain category of people – those who are near-sighted, selfish, or highly corrupt. If such leadership continues, it would be wishful thinking to imagine Pakistan moving forward!”He said that those who are talking of a bright futurefor the country are giving false hopes to the public. According to him, Pakistan desperately needs a leader like AllamaMashriqi (Founder of the KhaksarTehrik). The legendary AllamaMashriqi served his nation with the utmost devotion and sought no monetary gains or public office.
Mr. Yousaf regretted that mainstream Pakistanis are unaware of what constitutes real leadership. He felt that this deficiency has resulted in Pakistaniscontinuingto electinsincereor corrupt politicians.According to him, dishonest leadership is the main reason that Pakistan ranksfar behind even othernations that achievedindependencearound the same time.In the nearly sixty-five years since Pakistan’s independence, many countries around the world have been able to achieve rapid growth.Mr. Yousaf stated, “In my travels to various Asian countries, including China and South Korea, I was flabbergasted by their pace of development and progress. Additionally, Germany, which was torn apart in World War II, has reemerged as a world power.”These countries’ progress demonstrates that thisamount of timeis sufficient for a nation to rise.
Mr. Yousaf felt that politics in Pakistan has unfortunately become a means to make money, gain power, and advance selfish agendas, rather than a means to serve the people. He lamented that “corruption has seeped into Pakistani society; this disease has converted Pakistan into a seriously sick patient, one whose hopes of progress are dim unless cured.”Mr. Yousafsuggested that the time has come for people to demand thattheir leaders adopt the life of a common man, much like the respected AllamaMashriqi did. The masses must “discard those leaders who live in luxury while the nation lives in poverty and who keep their assets or bank accounts outside Pakistan.”He urged the print and electronic media to play its role in finding sincere leaders and not promoting corrupt individuals. He regretted that television and talk shows mostly provided a platform for leaders who were either incapable or insincere. He felt that television channels must provide equal opportunity to all parties, regardless of their size.
Mr. Yousafsaid that if Pakistanis want to produce genuine leaders and reformers like Mashriqi, his simple and uncontaminated life and times need to be highlighted as an example for the nation and future generations to learn from.In Mr. Yousaf’s words,“Pakistan’s destiny will not change unless the nation gets a visionary, self-sacrificing and competent leader like the great Allama.”
NasimYousaf (grandson of AllamaMashriqi) is the author of many books and articles on AllamaMashriqi and the KhaksarTehrik. His works have been published in “Harvard Asia Quarterly” and “World History Encyclopedia” (USA), and he has presented papers in scholarly conferences in the USA.His forthcoming book entitled “Mahatma Gandhi &My Grandfather, AllamaMashriqi” uncovers many hidden realities behind the freedom of the Indian sub-continent.
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NATO: Pakistan resumes some cooperation
By Ashraf Khan and Deb Riechmann-
KABUL, November 30, 2011Afghanistan (AP) — Pakistan resumed some cooperation with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan following NATO strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers by working with the coalition to prevent another cross-border incident from escalating, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The airstrikes have severely strained the already troubled relationship between Pakistan and the United States, jeopardizing Washington’s hopes of enlisting Islamabad’s support in winding down the Afghan war.
Pakistan is still outraged by the soldiers’ deaths and has retaliated by closing its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies, demanding the U.S. vacate an air base used by American drones and boycotting an international conference aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.
But NATO said Islamabad communicated with the alliance to prevent an exchange of artillery fire late Tuesday from turning into another international incident.
German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, expressed hope that Pakistan’s cooperation in resolving the incident in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province signaled the two sides could recover from the recent tragedy. He did not provide more details about targets or who was doing the shooting but said no damage or injuries were reported.
Smoke rises after a reported NATO airstrike in Pakistan’s tribal area of Mohmand, along the Afghanistan border, on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations Department)
Full Report at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/30/nato-pakistan-resumes-some-cooperation/
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NATO attack could hurt war on terror: Pakistan
(Reuters)
ISLAMABAD - 1 December 2011 Pakistan, enraged by a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 soldiers, could withdraw its support for the US-led war on militancy if its sovereignty is violated again, the foreign minister suggested in comments published on Thursday.
The South Asian nation has already shown its anger over the weekend strike by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan. It stood by that decision on Wednesday, depriving the talks of a central player in efforts to bring peace to its neighbour.
“Enough is enough. The government will not tolerate any incident of spilling even a single drop of any civilian or soldier’s blood,” The News newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as telling a Senate committee on foreign affairs.
“Pakistan’s role in the war on terror must not be overlooked,” Khar said, suggesting Pakistan could end its support for the US war on militancy. Despite opposition at home, Islamabad backed Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Pakistan military sources also said it had cancelled a visit by a 15-member delegation, led by the Director General of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Asif, to the United States that was to have taken place this week.
Full Report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/December/international_December20.xml§ion=international&col=
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Libya Imposes Visas On Mauritanians, Algerians
By Jemal Oumar
December 1, 2011
Algerian and Mauritanian nationals no longer have unrestricted entry to Libya. The National Transitional Council (NTC) removed citizens of the two countries from the list of states that enjoyed visa exemptions under the former regime, Algeria’s Echorouk reported recently.
Less than two weeks later, the Mauritanian government recognised the NTC. The decision came “in view of the formation of the new Libyan government under Dr Abdurrahim El Keib”, the government said in a November 24th statement.
Mauritania announced “its support for the development and building efforts in that brotherly country, and its full preparedness to work side by side with the new Libyan government in enhancing co-operation and partnership between the two countries, to start a new beginning of joint Maghreb action”.
Only Tunisians remain exempt from visa requirements.
Practical instructions were issued to customs authorities to “start withdrawing a number of Arab countries” that could freely enter Libya without obtaining visas from Libyan embassies, Echourouk reported November 12th. Syrian and Egyptian nationals are also subject to visa regulations.
The restrictions have already come into force. According to Mauritania’s aqlame.com, Royal Air Maroc refused to carry Mauritanian nationals to Libya two weeks ago “under the pretext that it had orders from its central administration not to carry Mauritanians to Libya without entry visas”.
“Ambiguity in this issue is causing us a lot of confusion and embarrassment with our clients,” the site cited Mauritanian travel agents as saying. “The Libyan embassy in Nouakchott is saying that it doesn’t have information about imposing a visa requirement on Mauritanians going to Libya. Tunis Air accepts to carry Mauritanians while Royal Air Maroc says that it has instructions not to carry them without visas.”
The new rules will particularly impact students pursuing their degrees in Libya.
“I returned to Mauritania when the Libyan crisis broke out,” medical student Mohamed Ali Ould Ahmed told Magharebia. “I have a strong desire to return to Libya to complete my studies. In the new Libya, I hope to see an atmosphere of acceptance of brothers from neighbouring countries.”
Meanwhile, political observers warn that visa restrictions could endanger the prospects of building a united Maghreb.
For Full Report:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/01122011-libya-imposes-visas-on-mauritanians-algerians/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
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Islamists gain in Egypt elections
ATUL ANEJA
December 1, 2011
Early counting in Egypt's parliamentary elections appears to confirm the region-wide trend of Islamists — moderate, hard-line and some who are yet to be fully tested — emerging as the most potent force in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Following the first phase of elections which ended on Tuesday, counting in Luxor, Cairo and elsewhere is showing that the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has solidly outpaced its rivals in many of the constituencies.
The ultra-conservative Al Nour party is also doing well in some districts. It is either leading over the other contenders or is in second place to the FJP.
Except in a few constituencies, non-religious parties are, so far, heavily trailing the Islamists, who are not contesting as a unified bloc. The FJP and Al Nour are not pre-poll allies, though the latter is open to participation in a coalition. The Al Nour comprises mainly Salafists, who seek to recreate a society based on pristine Islam.
Hazy picture
Full Report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2675388.ece
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Assaulted for protesting against ‘made snana'
ANISHA SHETH
KUKKE SUBRAHMANYA, December 1, 2011, A TV grab of K.S. Shivaramu, leader of a backward classes group, being assaulted outside the Kukke Subrahmanya temple near Mangalore on Wednesday.
Drop Acharya from Cabinet for supporting ritual: Dalit forum
The leader of a backward classes organisation was assaulted here on Wednesday after demanding an end to a “casteist” ritual performed in the government-run Kukke Subrahmanya temple in Sullia taluk.
State president of the Karnataka Rajya Hindulida Vargagala Jagruta Vedike K.S. Shivaramu was assaulted by a group of around 10 people outside the temple after he met Assistant Commissioner of Puttur subdivision Sundar Bhat and submitted a memorandum urging the Dakshina Kannada administration to prohibit the ritual of ‘made snana'.
As Mr. Shivaramu was speaking to the media about the memorandum, a group of people surrounded him.
After he finished speaking, they began arguing with him. Soon the group began to rain blows on Mr. Shivaramu, who started running. He was chased, caught and thrashed again.
Though Mr. Shivaramu was given police protection, the police stepped in only after the group chased him and beat him up. The police then took him to the government hospital.
Before he was assaulted, Mr. Shivaramu said that the ritual of ‘made snana' was “inhuman” as well as “unscientific”. He said that it should be banned.
“But, before that, the practice of serving food inside the temple only for a particular caste should be stopped,” Mr. Shivaramu said. He added that the continuation of the practice “in the name of tradition and religion is being done to perpetuate superstitious beliefs”.
‘Will prepare report'
Full Report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2675394.ece?homepage=true
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Male Nurse Claims He Was Fired for Treating Muslim Women
by David J. Rusin • Nov 30, 2011
In one of the more intriguing cases to emerge recently, male nurse John Benitez Jr. filed suit against the city of Dearborn, Michigan, for sex discrimination last week, charging that he had been terminated for tending to Muslim women at a government-run medical facility after receiving contradictory instructions about the need to adhere to gender separation:
Benitez, 63, of Madison Heights, worked at the city's taxpayer-funded health clinic. He alleges he was ordered by a female supervisor not to treat conservative Muslim women, specifically those wearing head scarves, according to the lawsuit. He was told the clinic's male Muslim clientele did not want a male treating female patients.
He complied until November 2010, when a doctor ordered him to treat Muslim women as he would any other patient. Benitez followed the doctor's order and was fired less than one month later, according to the lawsuit.
An Associated Press item clarifies that his former female supervisor is Muslim and "told Benitez to refer patients wearing hijab to her, rather than treating them himself." The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave the suit a green light in October.
Alarming on their own, the allegations also reinforce a pair of trends tracked by Islamist Watch:
Full Report at:
http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2011/11/male-nurse-claims-he-was-fired-for-treating
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Doctor sets out to heal Libya’s health system
By Ashish Kumar Sen-The Washington Times
November 30, 2011
Libya’s new health minister says rampant corruption and nepotism have taken a “terrible toll” on the North African nation’s health care system.
Dr. Fatima Hamroush told The Washington Times that hospitals have been stretched to the breaking point by the thousands of people wounded in the eight-month uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year regime.
“I am not inheriting roses from the previous government. I am inheriting a very corrupt health care system,” Dr. Hamroush said in a phone interview from her home in Dublin.
“When corruption is on such a large scale, like an infectious disease, it is incompatible with progress.”
Last week, Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdurraheem al-Keib appointed a 24-member Cabinet with Dr. Hamroush, an ophthalmologist, as one of two female ministers in the government. The other is Mabrouka Jibril, who will serve as the minister of social affairs.
The Cabinet will run the interim government until the election of a national assembly in eight months.
Dr. Hamroush, who left Libya 17 years ago, said the health care system will require a major overhaul. “We have to have a clean start. It is not one man’s task. It is a colossal task,” she said.
Full Report at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/30/doctor-sets-out-to-heal-libyas-health-system/
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Arab states awaken to tyranny within
By The Washington Times
November 29, 2011
The 22-nation Arab League finally put some teeth into its act and imposed heavy economic, financial and political sanctions on another Arab nation, Syria.
It remains to be seen whether the league’s actions will stop the bloodshed in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has brutally and ruthlessly murdered more than 3,500 pro-democracy demonstrators over the past eight months.
Either way, Syria will be isolated more than ever, which is bound to have a profound impact on the nation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/29/arab-states-awaken-to-tyranny-within/
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Shaikh Khalifa addresses the nation on national day
(WAM)
ABU DHABI, V, Our country has made remarkable achievements that have catapulted it to the ranks of advanced nations, thanks to the sincere and tireless efforts spearheaded by the late Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and his fellow founding fathers, who toiled in silence to initiate a march whose aims fit with our genuine national values and principles, said President, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Addressing the nation in a statement to Diraa Al Watan Magazine, on the UAE’s 40th national day, Sheikh Khalifa greeted Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Their Highnesses the Supreme Council Members and Rulers of Emirates, for their support, and for the care they give to the march of the Union, protecting the country, defending its gains and meeting the aspirations of its people.
He added that over the last 40 years, the State has channelled all its efforts and potentials to serve its citizens, and it has invested all of its resources and energies in the building of a federal, pioneering modern state in which the values of solidarity, coherence and unity have been deepened, the concepts of work, dedication and participation have been promoted, and in which the sense of belonging and pride in the achievements of the glorious federal march has been upheld.
Full Report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2011/December/theuae_December26.xml§ion=theuae
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Global corruption index reflects Arab Spring unrest
Berlin:Dec 01 2011, , Awareness of corruption has risen in some Arab countries in the wake of their uprisings earlier this year, a global league table released by Transparency International showed on Thursday.
North Korea was included in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI) for the first time and was judged the most corrupt country, along with Somalia, putting them at the bottom of the table.
Tunisia fell to 73rd place from 59th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 3.8 from 4.3 in the 183-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.
Tunisia became the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings in January when a wave of protests forced former President Zine al-Abidine to flee to Saudi Arabia.
The revolution set the template for uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen which have re-shaped the political landscape of the Middle East.
We have seen a new movement in Arab nations, TI Managing Director Cobus de Swardt said.
You now have not only a push for basic human rights but also for public accountability. The lack of public accountability has been recognized as a major problem.
Egypt fell to 112th from 98th, with a CPI of 2.9, and Syria slipped to 129th from 127th. Yemen and Libya shared 146th place last year and dropped to 164th and 168th this year respectively.
De Swardt said change now appeared much more driven by the demands of grassroots movements - which this year also included heavy anti-corruption protests in India - than by governments being proactive in improving transparency.
Full Report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/corruption-index-reflects-arab-spring/882745/
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Egypt election results put Muslim Brotherhood ahead
guardian.co.uk,
30 November 2011
Egyptian officials count ballots at an open-air election centre in Cairo. Photograph: Amr Nabil/AP
Political Islamists look likely to dominate Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliament, with sweeping victories for religious parties predicted in the first round of elections.
With preliminary results trickling through from Cairo, Alexandria and seven other regions, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party seems set to emerge as the biggest winner, with some analysts estimating it will capture about 40% of seats in the new legislature. Al-Nour, a more conservative Salafist party, looks likely to secure second place.
Despite some notable individual triumphs, Egypt's liberal and leftist political forces appear to have fallen short compared with their rivals, though the Egyptian Bloc – a largely secular alliance headed by the billionaire telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris – will be encouraged by its strong showing in certain districts in the capital.
Official results from the first round will not be announced until Thursday , before a series of runoff ballots on Monday. Under a complex electoral system, the country is voting in three regional phases, with final results for the lower house of parliament arriving on 13 January and for the upper house on 14 March.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/30/egypt-election-results-muslim-brotherhood
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Talks on Iraq NATO mission stall over immunity
Associated Press
Baghdad: Dec 01 2011, , NATO fears that its servicemen would not receive fair trials in Iraq with the prevelant anti-West sentiments. (Reuters)
The issue of legal immunity for foreign troops in Iraq, which already torpedoed plans to keep a US military presence in the country, has emerged as a key stumbling block in talks over the extension of a NATO training mission here.
As with the US, Iraq is insisting that all troops in its country must be subject to its laws and judicial system. The US and NATO are leery of that, fearing that servicemen could not receive fair trials in a county where anti-Western sentiment runs high.
Iraq bases its demand on past incidents of violence.
Prominent among them are the 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in which 17 Iraqis were killed by private American security guards and an incident in Haditha, when US troops killed 24 Iraqi civilians.
The impasse forced the Obama administration to stick to a previous agreement to withdraw all American troops by the end of the year. The same issue could torpedo an extension of the NATO trainers, despite Iraq's stated wishes.
In July, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki requested that the alliance extend the NATO Training Mission in Iraq until the end of 2013.
The goal of the training mission is to help develop Iraqi commanders at or above battalion level. The Iraqi forces have received training on individual weapons and how to maneuver as small units, but they have never been trained on how to maneuver as a large unit or to coordinate air and ground forces, for example.
Advisers mentor faculty at Iraq's National Defense University and conduct an exchange program in which Iraqi officers are sent for staff training in participating countries.
Full Report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/talks-on-iraq-nato-mission-stall-over-immunity/882803/
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EU expected to increase sanctions on Iran, Syria
BRUSSELS (AP), December 1 2011, Britain's foreign minister accused Iran's government Thursday of supporting repression in Syria, as he and European Union counterparts discussed imposing more sanctions on both countries.
Mobs stormed the British Embassy in Tehran, the Iranian capital, for hours Tuesday, prompting Britain to pull its diplomats out of the country. Germany, France and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors in solidarity.
"There is a link between what is happening in Iran and what is happening in Syria," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on his way into the meeting in Brussels.
He said Iran has aided Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 3,500 anti-government protesters since March.
The EU has already imposed sanctions on people or businesses in both countries. Those relating to Syria are aimed at stopping Assad's crackdown. Nabil Elaraby, the head of the Arab League, which has also imposed financial sanctions on Syria, will join the EU foreign ministers for their discussion of the situation there
The EU sanctions relating to Iran are largely aimed at making the country give up any efforts to develop nuclear weapons — efforts Iran denies it is making.
New sanctions targeting individuals or entities in both countries are widely expected Thursday. But the foreign ministers appeared split over whether to impose an embargo on Iranian oil.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9973969
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US House approves faster green cards for Indian IT workers
IANS | Dec 1, 2011,
US House of Representatives has passed a bill modifying the visa system.
WASHINGTON: In a move that may allow more highly skilled immigrants from India and China to obtain the so-called green cards faster, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill modifying the visa system.
The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigration Act (HR 3012), eliminating per-country caps on employment-based visas and instituting a first come first served system, drew broad, bipartisan support, passing the House with a vote of 389-15 Tuesday.
The bill is expected to move swiftly through the Senate.
Currently, immigration law limits employment-based green cards allowing permanent residence for citizens from any one country to no more than seven per cent of the total green cards approved by the State Department in any particular year.
The rule makes it easier to obtain a green card for applicants from smaller countries that don't generate a significant amount of applications, but makes it tougher for workers from big countries that provide most of the foreign tech workers sought by companies.
Individuals from India, the source of most tech industry immigrants to the US, often have to wait up to 10 years for a green card due to the per-country cap.
The High-Skilled Immigration Act, which was introduced to Congress in September by Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, aims to correct such imbalances by switching to a first come, first served system for the roughly 140,000 employment-based green cards awarded each year.
Full Report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/careers/job-trends/US-House-approves-faster-green-cards-for-Indian-IT-workers/articleshow/10941780.cms
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Notes printed at foreign mint: ATS
Kanchan Chaudhari, Hindustan Times
Mumbai , November 25, 2011, The alleged fake Indian currency notes (FICN), seized by the state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) from three suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives arrested after the July 13 blasts in the city have been printed in the official currency printing press of a sovereign country. The ATS revealed
this in the charge sheet filed against the trio – Haroon Rashid Abdul Hamid Naik, Asrar Ahmed Abdul Hamid Taylor and Azhar-Ul Islam Mohammed Ibrahim Sidhhiqui, on November 16, 2011.
“The preliminary analysis reveals that many covert features of genuine Indian currency were successfully imitated,” stated the charge sheet. “These features can only be achieved using sophisticated machinery, which is sold only to sovereign governments,” the chargesheet noted.
The charge sheet adds that ordinary criminals cannot acquire the highly sophisticated machinery that appears to have been used. “The perfection of window and watermarks formation indicates that the FICN paper was manufactured on regular currency-making machines, which can only be owned by a country/state,” it said. “This means some foreign country is involved in this act (of circulating fake currency in Indian markets,” the charge sheet further stated.
The ATS has found that the nature of the fake currency seized in the past is similar to that found with the trio, and has concluded that a wide network is operating in the circulation of FICN.
Full Report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Notes-printed-at-foreign-mint-ATS/Article1-773686.aspx
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Islamophobia and the future of elections in the US
by Dogan Koç*
30 November 2011,
A recent report by the Center for American Progress titled “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America” exposed a network of a small group spending millions of dollars to spread hate against Muslims and Islam in the United States.
With the efforts of this network and some radical elements in American society, there is an increasingly negative approach to Muslims in the US.
In this public crusade, marginal conservative groups lead the way. During an election season, these marginal groups play an important role and affect the rhetoric of politicians. Republican candidates in particular seem to be affected the most. For instance, Herman Cain stated in an interview in March that he “will not” appoint any Muslims in his cabinet if he were elected president. Although four months later he apologized, later in a recent interview Cain claimed that “a majority of Muslims share the extremist views.”
In March, Republican Congressman Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, scheduled hearings on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response,” and he invited so-called experts from the Islamophobia network to testify. Representative King’s efforts raised criticism for “indulging an Islamophobic fixation and casting collective guilt and aspersions on the entire Muslim American community.” King is also known for his anti-Muslim statements.
As recently as last Veterans Day, Republican State Representative Rick Womick from Tennessee, a local politician from Murfreesboro, stated in a meeting with a small local group of around 150 people that the US cannot have Muslims in the military because it cannot trust them. He also said that “if they are devout Muslims and follow the Quran and the Sunnah, then I feel threatened because they are commanded to kill me.”
Anti-Muslim rhetoric pleases a small number of marginal motivated populations in the Republican Party. However, it has a downside, too. Although, American politics is less based on party affiliations compared to European politics, parties still do matter.
Full Report at:
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-264413-islamophobia-and-the-future-of-elections-in-the-usby-dogan-koc*.html
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Court to rule on Muslim prayer in German schools
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
In a landmark case, Germany's Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig will rule on Wednesday whether schools need to provide practicing Muslim pupils with a place and the opportunity to pray.
The case revolves around Yunus M., who was 14 years old when he was barred from observing midday prayers in the corridor of his school in Berlin. Although Muslims have been praying in German schools for decades, his case marks the first time German courts have had to rule on the issue.
"I think the case has been hyped from both sides. Now, we have almost reached the final legal stage and that's why it's now turned into a political debate," said Aiman Mazyek, of Germany's Central Council of Muslims. "In the past, schools have been more pragmatic and laid-back about the issue, but now that has been pushed back."
Other experts on Islam, such as Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf at the University of Bonn, chime in with that view, arguing that schools have usually had a flexible approach to Muslim prayers, allowing midday and afternoon prayers to be combined, for example. "The majority of Muslim legal experts agree it's possible to shorten or combine prayers because of illness, travel, or requirements at work," she said.
Employers have had a practical approach to Muslim prayers since the 1960s. Depending on the company, Muslims are allowed to observe prayers if it does not interfere with their work.
Full Report at:
http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2011/11/30/court-to-rule-on-muslim-prayer-in-german-schools.html
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10 principles of the Prophet
Nov 24, 2011
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the most successful man in the entire human history. Being the last Prophet of Islam, he not only set a good example for the whole mankind but also showed to them how to achieve success in this world. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, a prominent Islamic scholar, has identified 10 successful principles taught by the Prophet.
“By studying the life of the Prophet we can derive those important principles of success,” he wrote in an article. “To begin from the possible” is one of those principles. The Prophet’s wife Ayesha (may Allah be pleased with her) has explained this principle through a Hadith in which she said: “Whenever the Prophet had to choose between two options, he always opted for the easier one” (Al-Bukhari). To choose the easiest option means to begin from the possible and one who begins from the possible will surely reach his goal.
To see advantage in disadvantage was the Prophet’s second important principle, says Khan. In the early days of Makkah, there were many problems and difficulties. But a verse in the Qur’an, “With every hardship there is ease, with every hardship there is ease,” (94:5-6) inspired Muslims. They learned from the verse that if there are some problems, there are also opportunities at the same time. “And the way to success is to ignore the problems and avail the opportunities,” Khan points out.
Changing the place of action was another principle, which is derived from the Hijrah. According to Khan, Hijrah was not just a migration from Makkah to Madinah but was a strategic move by the Prophet to find a more suitable place for Islamic work.
“Make a friend out of an enemy” was the fourth principle, which the Prophet learned from the Qur’an, which enjoined upon him the return of good for evil. The Qur’an then added, “You will see your direst enemy has become your closest friend” (41:34). “It means that a good deed in return for a bad deed has a conquering effect over your enemies,” Khan wrote in his article.
After the Battle of Badr, about 70 of the unbelievers were taken as prisoners of war and many of them were educated people. The Prophet announced that if any one of them would teach 10 Muslim children how to read and write he would be freed. This was the first school in the history of Islam in which all the students were Muslims and all the teachers were from the enemy rank. Here comes the fifth principle: Wring success out of failure.
The power of peace is stronger than the power of violence is the sixth principle. When Makkah was conquered, all of the Prophet’s direst opponents were brought before him. They were war criminals, in every sense of the word. But the Prophet did not order to kill them. He simply said: “Go, you are free.” The result of this kind behavior was miraculous. Most of them embraced Islam.
No to dichotomous thinking was another principle of the Prophet. “In the famous Muta battle, Khaled bin Waleed decided to withdraw Muslim forces from the battlefield because he discovered that the enemy was disproportionately outnumbered. When the Muslim forces reached Madinah, some commented “O Furrar” (deserters). The Prophet said “No. They are Kurrar” (men of advancement).” Those Madinah Muslims, who commented wrongly about their forces, were thinking dichotomously, either fighting or retreating. The Prophet said no. There is also a third option, and that is to avoid war and find a time to strengthen yourself to make a powerful comeback. History tells us that the Muslims, after three years of preparation, advanced toward Rome and won a resounding victory.
To bring the battle in one’s own favorable field was the Prophet’s eighth principle. Before the Hudaibiyya Treaty the unbelievers were determined to engage Muslims in fighting, because obviously they were in an advantageous position. But the Prophet, by accepting their conditions unilaterally, entered into a pact. It was a 10-year peace treaty. Until then, the meeting ground between Muslims and non-Muslims had been on the battlefield. Now the area of conflict became that of ideological debate. “Within two years, Islam emerged as victorious because of the simple reason of its ideological superiority,” the scholar said.
Gradualism instead of radicalism was the ninth principle, which is well-established by a Hadith reported by Al-Bukhari. Ayesha says that the first verses of the Qur’an were related mostly to heaven and hell. And then after a long time when the people’s hearts had softened, the specific commands to desist from adultery and drinking were revealed in the Qur’an. “This is a clear proof that for social changes, Islam advocates the evolutionary method, rather than the revolutionary method,” Khan explained.
To be pragmatic in controversial matters was another of the Prophet’s important principles, he said. During the writing of the Hudaibiyya Treaty, the Prophet dictated these words: “This is from Muhammad, the Messenger of God.” The Quraysh raised their objections over these words. The Prophet promptly changed the word and ordered to write simply Muhammad son of Abdullah. This pragmatic approach adopted by the Prophet brought peace and prosperity for Muslims and accelerated the propagation of Islam.
http://arabnews.com/lifestyle/islam/article538181.ece
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Ask the Religion Experts: How can we improve interfaith dialogue?
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN NOVEMBER 28, 2011
Rev. RAY INNEN PARCHELO is a novice Tendai priest and founder of the Red Maple Sangha, the first lay Buddhist community in Eastern Ontario.
It hasn’t always been fashionable to consider seriously faiths other than one’s own. My co-worker remembers telling a friend and church-mate that she was soon to marry but not in their small-town church. In total surprise, the friend asked of the groom, “Well, what is he then?” In their one-church community, it seemed unimaginable that someone might worship elsewhere. Now, in our increasingly diverse nation, we are all usually members of one or another minority faith, and “What is he?” is more often the default question.
The Christian-Buddhist dialogue movement has grown over the past few decades, as these different faiths recognize the benefit of learning from each other. In Buddhism and Christianity in Dialogue, Perry Schmidt-Leukel proposes three phases of interfaith engagement. At the lowest and least useful level, the one most like adolescent high-school debates, each side presents their faith. They analyse, criticize and challenge (even mock or condemn) the other, trying to prove how their faith is vastly superior. Claims of superior logic on one hand or supreme power of one’s “book” on the other, keeps both sides from really learning much. The next level is where the mocking or combative element disappears and there is some attempt to learn, but always from the safe assumption that “my faith is the true one.” This is mere tolerance. The third and most useful kind of interfaith dialogue is open to gaining new insights about one`s own faith by practising and studying with others in their faith. This Schmidt-Leukel describes as “the challenge of mutual transformation.”
Interfaith dialogue will improve when the participants in that dialogue move beyond self-promotion and self-defence. The entire project of faith activity is one of opening ourselves up to new and deeper understandings, and in that there can be little room for the kind of smug defensiveness or bitter attacks that hobble too many contemporary interfaith endeavours. Doubt, risk, open investigation at the intellectual level and sincere, respectful sharing at the spiritual level belong in religious dialogue. A closed mind and a closed heart are signs of spiritual stagnation, not vitality.
Full Report at:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Religion+Experts+improve+interfaith+dialogue/5774502/story.html
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Witness in Mehanna trial describes Yemen meeting
By Milton J. Valencia
They gathered in the basement of Ahmad Abousamra’s Stoughton home in 2006, after they learned the FBI was interested in them, and they wanted to make sure to get their stories straight, particularly about their trip to Yemen two years earlier.
“Anything else is speculation . . . The point is there’s no testimony of us going for such and such false reasons, because we went there for one reason, to study,’’ Abousamra had said, according to a recording of the conversation that was played for jurors yesterday in the terrorism trial of Tarek Mehanna.
Mehanna responded later, “Yeah, but I’m going to leave it at the things that are documented, that I can’t deny.’’
All along, a close friend of theirs, Kareem Abuzahra, was wearing a wire in cooperation with the FBI, and he recorded the conversations among himself, Mehanna, and Abousamra.
Prosecutors played the taped conversation for jurors in federal court yesterday in an attempt to show Mehanna and Abousamra were trying to coordinate their story for investigators questioning their trip to Yemen in 2004, allegedly in search of terrorism training.
The trip to Yemen lies at the heart of Mehanna’s trial on charges of conspiring to support terrorists and to kill in a foreign country and of lying to investigators. Abousamra was also charged, but fled to Syria after he was first approached by the FBI in 2006.
Abuzahra, 31, a close friend of both men from Lynnfield, agreed to cooperate with investigators and testify under the protection of immunity from prosecution, and for the last two days he has described a close circle of friends who spoke of jihad, who promoted the ideology, and who planned to train in Yemen so that they could fight Americans in Iraq.
“After the American invasion of Iraq, we saw it as an invasion on Islam, and we saw the Americans as valid targets,’’ he said.
Full Report at:
http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/11/29/witness-mehanna-trial-describes-yemen-meeting/cdfcfSZt2MjTqE8n4BuK7H/story.html
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AIR STRIKES TARGET AL-SHABAAB LEADERSHIP OUTSIDE MOGADISHU
On the night of November 13, airborne missiles targeted a meeting of high-value al-Shabaab leaders near the town of Afgoye, 32 kilometers (approx. 17 miles) west of the decimated Somali capital of Mogadishu. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys—the quondam head of the now defunct Islamic Courts Union—Ahmad Abdi Godane “Abu Zubayr”, who is described as al-Shabaab’s operational leader (see Militant Leadership Monitor, January 2011), and possibly “Mr. ‘Amrika,’” likely a reference to the Alabama-born Omar Hammami (a.k.a. Abu Mansour al-Amriki) and al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Mohamud Rage (a.k.a. Ali Dheere), were believed to be attending the summit when missiles of unconfirmed origin struck the compound.
In addition to the strikes in Afgoye, missiles were also reported in the vicinity of the K50 airport south of Mogadishu (Daily Nation [Nairobi], November 15). Godane and Aweys were gathered at Lantaburo (alt. Lanta Bur; Latana Buro), the site of a notorious detention center run by the KGB-modeled National Security Service during the Siad Barre regime (Suna Times, November 14) in the vicinity of Afgoye. A Transitional Federal Government (TFG) source described the attack as a sea-borne one coming from American warships off the Somali coast (Mareeg Online, November 14). Afgoye is on a list of ten towns the Kenyan Defence Forces plan on overtaking in order to rid the region of al-Shabaab training camps, which can provide sanctuary for the group’s leaders (Nairobi Star, November 15). It is not only unclear whether or not any top al-Shabaab leaders were in fact killed in the strike, but follow up reports on the mysterious incident indicate that Sheikh Aweys is perhaps alive. Godane and Rage have since provided proof of life according to a Kenyan military spokesman (Daily Nation [Nairobi], November 17).
Full Report at:
http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09PORTLOUIS292.
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Jordan's Abu Sayyaf: The Key Islamist Actor in Ma'an
Murad Batal al-Shishani
One of the significant yet underreported impacts of the Arab Spring on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was the visible participation of jihadis protesting in the streets of Amman and other major Jordanian cities such as Ma’an, Salt, Irbid and Zarqa. Inspired by the power of the Arab Spring revolutions to effect demonstrable change in Tunisia and Egypt, Jordan’s jihadis, who have most often espoused political violence as the sole means to achieve their stated goals, joined alongside more secular minded protestors in calling for change in the kingdom.
The jihadi demonstrations in Jordan came to an abrupt end by April when a demonstration after Friday prayer in Zarqa, the hometown of the late leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, was followed by clashes. Violence erupted between jihadis and pro-government Jordanians and security forces that resulted in some 80 injured policemen. Jordan’s State Security Court charged 146 Islamists on April 24 with plotting terrorist attacks (Jordan Times, April 26). The principal demand of the jihadis has been the release of their imprisoned comrades. In the wake of the over 100 new prisoners added to their list after the Zarqa debacle, the jihadis then clamored for the release of the new prisoners as well. Some of these men were released by a special royal pardon in October.
This movement showed that jihadis in Jordan are now clearly divided between the more pragmatic traditional faction, which supports peaceful action and the neo-Zarqawists who still hold that violent jihad is the most effective course of action. The latter consider themselves inheritors and defenders of al-Zarqawi’s destructive legacy. This new schism in Jordan’s Salafi-Jihadi movement has shown the influence of those who support the former such as Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Muhammad al-Tahawi (see, Militant Leadership Monitor, May, 2011). A vital new member called Mohammad al-Shalabi (a.k.a. Abu Sayyaf) joined them after he was released from prison.
Full Report at:
http://www.as-ansar.com/vb/showthread.php?t=48198, October 6, and http://www.as-ansar.com/vb/showthread.php?t=48096, October 4.
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A Profile of Sheikh Abdulcaadir Mumin: Al-Shabaab’s Leading Theological Guide
Raffaello Pantucci and A.R. Sayyid
The appearance of Sheikh Abdulcaadir Mumin, alongside al-Shabaab’s senior leadership, in May 2011 at the group’s official press conference acknowledging Osama bin Laden’s death was something of a coming out for Mumin. Largely unknown outside the Somali-speaking community, he has until now lurked in the background of overtly radical Somali circles. Previously a prominent feature on the London Somali scene, Mumin, first appointed as the head of propagation for the Banaadir administrative region and its capital Mogadishu, appears at present to have risen into a senior position as one of al-Shabaab’s key theological guides.
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In His Own Words, Abu Zar al-Burmi: The Mufti of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Arif Rafiq
Background
A ferociously combative polemicist, Abu Zar al-Burmi (a.k.a. Abu Zar Khanjari; Abu Zar Azzam) has been recently identified on jihadi forums as the mufti of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), one of the most radical groups based in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). [1] Al-Burmi, however, has described himself in the past as being part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). [2]
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Rebellion Without Reason: The Strange Survival of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army
Andrew McGregor
After decades of carrying out unspeakable atrocities and thousands of kidnappings in Central Africa, the elusive commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, appears to have narrowly escaped capture by the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) twice in recent weeks. The UPDF emerged from the bush with only some of his clothing and his wash basin to show for their efforts (Daily Monitor [Kampala], October 16).
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School cancels enrollment of child with HIV+ father
The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta, , Thu, 12/01/2011 , On World AIDS day, Dec. 1, a child whose father has HIV was forced to give up her dream of enrolling in an elementary school in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, next year because the school canceled her seat after learning of her father’s status.
Fajar Jasmin, the HIV-positive father and an environmental activist, said on Thursday that he had received a text message from an SD Don Bosco I elementary school board member saying that the school and the foundation had agreed to cancel his daughter’s seat in the school.
“With a heavy heart, we have to cancel our decision to accept Imi as an SD Don Bosco student because other parents objected to Imi’s presence,” the message says, referring to Fajar's daughter.
“My daughter has been formally accepted to enroll in the school next year. When discussing the tuition, I told them I was HIV positive because I hoped that the school would be ready to treat my daughter fairly if they found out my situation,” Fajar told The Jakarta Post.
He said that the school later asked him to meet with the foundation’s management.
“My wife later said that we did not have to pay for tuition. The school management asked us to give them my daughter’s HIV tests result instead,” he said.
Fajar said that he refused to comply with the requirement, arguing that it was discriminatory, as the school had only asked his daughter to submit the results.
“My wife refused to submit a test result. The foundation said that without the result, my daughter could possibly not enroll in the school,” he said.
The 1994 National Strategy to Tackle HIV/AIDS in Indonesia stipulates that an HIV/AIDS test should be taken voluntarily and that the test results are confidential.
Fajar is planning to take legal action on the matter.
“I'm suing them. I'm not doing this for me. Any possible compensation will be donated to other people with HIV,” he said.
As of Thursday afternoon, SD Don Bosco I management could not be reached for comment. (swd)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/01/school-cancels-enrollment-child-with-hiv-father.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/enraged-pakistan-says-nato-attack/d/6037