Erdogan Aide Warns Saudi King against Executing Muslim Scholars
New Age Islam News Bureau
29 May 2019
Afghan soldiers and supporters carry the coffin
of Samiullah Raihan, a prayer leader and a religious scholar, during his
funeral in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Saturday. (Ghulamullah
Habibi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
---------
• Erdogan Aide Warns Saudi King against Executing Muslim Scholars
• Palestinian PM Calls on Britain to Recognize Sovereign Palestinian State
• In Kabul, a Moderate Cleric Hailed For Denouncing Extremists, Is Mourned After Mosque Bombing
• Scholars Gathering In Makkah Stress Importance of Moderate Islamic Discourse
• Arab Parliament Speaker: Mecca Summits to Unify Islamic, Arab Stance
• Imams Are the Messengers of Islam: King Abdullah of Jordan
• In A Survey Of American Muslims, 0% Identified As Lesbian Or Gay. Here's the Story behind That Statistic
• Pakistan Honors a Dominican Priest for Promoting Christian-Muslim Dialogue
• Malaysian Muslims Break Ramadhan Fast at Sikh Temple despite Threats
Mideast
• Erdogan Aide Warns Saudi King against Executing Muslim Scholars
• Palestinian PM Calls on Britain to Recognize Sovereign Palestinian State
• Why Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque matters for Muslims
• Yemen’s Houthis Launch Fundraising Drive For Cash-Strapped Hezbollah
• Iran Slams U.S. After Middle East Troop Buildup Is Announced
• Iran can sink U.S. warships with 'secret weapons', military official says
• Turkish military launches operation against militants in northern Iraq
• Arab Coalition targets Houthi positions in Sanaa
• Kushner, Greenblatt in Middle East to seek support for Trump's 'peace' plan
• Gaza’s Omari Grand Mosque: A combination of civilizations
--------
South Asia
• In Kabul, a Moderate Cleric Hailed For Denouncing Extremists, Is Mourned After Mosque Bombing
• Attacks by Extremists on Afghan Schools Triple, Report Says
• Officials: Taliban attacks kill 10 Afghan troops, four police
• 3 Injured In Blast at Bangladesh's Dhaka, ISIS Claims Responsibility
• Senior Afghan Taliban leader says insurgents want peace
• Taliban kill 23 in two attacks on Afghan forces
• In makeshift homes, Rohingya recall Ramadan in Myanmar
--------
Arab World
• Scholars Gathering In Makkah Stress Importance of Moderate Islamic Discourse
• Arab Parliament Speaker: Mecca Summits to Unify Islamic, Arab Stance
• Social Media Usage Peaks during Ramadan in Muslim Countries
• ISIS bombing kills 5, injures 10 who were extinguishing fire in disputed Kirkuk: source
• Iraqi troops kill two Islamic State terrorists in Nineveh
• Saudi Arabia shoots down Houthi drone targeting Jizan airport
• S. Arabia Plans to Set Up US-Backed Military Power in Eastern Syria
• Syrian Army, Air Force Heavily Pound Terrorists' Centers in Aleppo
• US sets up $75 mln grant to combat Iranian ‘disinformation’ in Syria
• Iraq sentences two more French citizens to death for joining Daesh
• Nechirvan Barzani elected president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan
--------
Africa
• Imams Are the Messengers of Islam: King Abdullah of Jordan
• Militants Kill 25 Nigerian Soldiers, Some Civilians, Sources Report
• ISIS commander arrested in Libya, Interior Ministry confirms
• Boko Haram Kills 7 Villagers In Borno, Steals Food
• Five dead in Boko Haram attack on Chadian army base
• U.S. airstrike kills 3 IS fighters in northern Somalia
• Somalia's frightening network of Islamist spies
• Four killed in new church attack in Burkina Faso
• Report: Top militant suspect transferred to Egypt from eastern Libya
--------
North America
• In A Survey Of American Muslims, 0% Identified As Lesbian Or Gay. Here's the Story behind That Statistic
• Kushner in Mideast to drum up support for peace plan
• Bolton: Ships sabotaged off UAE coast attacked ‘almost certainly by Iran’
• US calls for end to violence in Syria's Idlib
• Turkish aid body hosts fast-breaking meal in Cuba
• UN chief's aide rips Security Council over Idlib
• Truce only when US declares exit timetable, Taliban
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan Honors a Dominican Priest for Promoting Christian-Muslim Dialogue
• Pakistan Arrests 6 for Collecting Funds for Militant Groups
• Pak's Nukes Make Its Defence 'Invincible', Says Sharif from Jail
• PM Imran to lead Pakistani delegation at OIC summit in Makkah
• Militants hit army post in northwest Pakistan, kill soldier
• 3 ISIS and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Terrorists Arrested in Pakistan
• Internal politics stopped India’s invite to Modi's swearing-in: Pak FM
• Rights groups call for investigation of killing of Pakistani activists
• Defence secretary traces terror link to N. Waziristan attack
--------
Southeast Asia
• Malaysian Muslims Break Ramadhan Fast at Sikh Temple despite Threats
• Militants Attack Soldiers in Southern Philippines, Leaving 2 Children Dead
• JB Umno Youth condemns PKR MP for gurdwara ‘buka puasa’ event
• Indonesian plotters aimed to kill four top security officials
• Three killed in Ramadan violence in restive Thai south
--------
Europe
• Danish Prof Equates Islam with Nazism In Controversial Party Ad
• France Blasts ‘Dirty’ Saudi-Led War, But Keeps Arms Flow
• A Nazi Sympathizer Pleaded Guilty To Defacing A Synagogue. His Lawyer Says Conservatives Helped Radicalize Him.
• Taliban visits Moscow as Russia plays increasing role in Afghanistan
• German Jews Demand Ban on Hezbollah after Kippah Warning
• UK watchdog probing Islamophobia in ruling party
• Turkey congratulates Azerbaijan on 101st Republic Day
--------
India
• Easter Sunday Blasts: NIA Team Lands in Colombo to Probe Islamic State Link
• Indian High Commission in Pakistan invites President Alvi, PM Imran for Iftar
• Pakistan National among 2 JeM Terrorists Killed In Encounter in J&K's Anantnag
• Two terror suspects detained near military station in J&K’s Ratnuchak
• India issues fresh advisory on visiting Sri Lanka after Easter bombings
• Pakistan downplays Imran snub by India, pushes for dialogue
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/erdogan-aide-warns-saudi-king/d/118740
--------
Erdogan aide warns Saudi king against executing Muslim scholars
May 29, 2019
An advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has written to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, warning that the planned execution of Muslim scholars would bring nothing but “disaster” to the monarch.
In an open letter to King Salman published by Turkish daily Yeni Şafak on Monday, Yasin Aktay raised concerns about plans by the Riyadh regime to execute three imprisoned dissidents, Sheikh Salman al-Ouda, Sheikh Awad al-Qarni and Ali al-Omari, after the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The Saudi king, he said, would achieve nothing by executing the scholars.
“That which will bring disaster to you is executing Islamic scholars, which was recently announced. Scholars are the inheritors of prophets, and each scholar is a world on their own. The death of a scholar is like the death of the world. The killing of a scholar is like the killing of the world,” Aktay added.
He also noted that scholars are treasures of the Muslim community and their case is not a domestic issue.
“The matter of Islamic scholars is not an internal affair. The scholars in question are assets who are acknowledged and revered by the whole Muslim community. They are not your subjects; they are our common treasures, whose advice we heed, and who are beacons of light with their knowledge and stance. The sin of detaining them even an hour in the dungeon, let alone executing them, is enough to destroy an entire life,” Aktay said.
Erdogan’s aide further said that he had met with Ouda and believed that “he does not bear a grain of the extravagance” the Saudi regime had attributed to him.
“The claim of extremism toward Salman al-Ouda is a great slander. On the contrary, he is an extremely sympathetic and logical Islamic scholar who has made Islam appealing to youth and modern-day people with his familiar discourse,” he explained.
Contrary to Ouda, he added, official Saudi scholars — who advocate the radical Wahhabi ideology — encourage people to wage attacks in Afghanistan, ban women from driving and sow discord among Muslims and non-Muslims.
“While your official scholars claimed women were prohibited from driving, he (Ouda) said Muslim women rode camels and horses back in the time of our prophet, and that he did not understand why this was any different from driving a car. It was your official scholars that indoctrinated animosity when they said Muslims can never be friends with non-Muslims, while he said that being kind to and getting along well with non-Muslims who do not have animosity towards you, and co-existing in peace with them is the command of God,” Aktay said.
‘Turkey not an enemy, only seeks justice in Khashoggi case’
Elsewhere in his letter, the Turkish official called on King Salman to deliver justice in the case of the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October 2018, which is reported to have been ordered by the king’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Aktay stressed that he and other Turkish officials do not wish ill to the Saudi kingdom although bin Salman “may not like” him because of his role in the investigations related to Khashoggi’s case.
“There is the case of a person who was cruelly and savagely murdered. It is a necessity of justice to find and punish whoever killed him or had him killed. Justice, when served, is what will revive us, even if it is against our self and loved ones," Aktay said.
‘Use your wealth to end sufferings of Muslims’
Erdogan’s aide also urged the Saudi King to use his wealth to solve the problems of the Muslim world and bring an end to their suffering.
He said that the guardianship of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina does not consist solely of their maintenance, but makes the kingdom duty-bound to alleviate the sufferings of the Muslim world.
“The great wealth and blessings God has granted you give you more than ample opportunities to fulfill this responsibility to the fullest. The tragic contradiction between the wealth under your responsibility and the state of Muslims suffering from starvation and poverty across the world draws everyone’s attention. It is God, the owner of the two holy cities of which you are protector, that rules that the poor have a right over the wealth we own,” Aktay pointed out.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/29/597187/Turkey-Saudi-Arabia-King-Salman-Muslim-scholars
--------
Palestinian PM calls on Britain to recognize sovereign Palestinian state
May 29, 2019
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on Britain to implement its parliament's recognition of the Palestinian state on the ground.
British move “will be so important in light of Israel's intention to annex parts of the West Bank,” Shtayyeh said in a statement on Tuesday after meeting with a British parliamentary delegation in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
He also urged Britain to send a technical team to Palestine to investigate the Israeli deduction of Palestinian tax revenue dues.
Back in October 2014, the British Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the government recognizing Palestine as a state.
The ayes had it when 274 MPs voted to adopt the non-binding motion and only 12 voted against it.
The original motion stipulated that “this House believes that the government should recognize the state of Palestine alongside … Israel.”
Then Labour Party legislator Grahame Morris said recognizing a Palestinian state could help break the impasse in peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Tel Aviv regime before it was too late.
Conservative lawmaker Nicholas Soames also said that “to recognize Palestine is both morally right and is in our national interest.”
Britain does not designate Palestine as a state, but asserts it could do so at any time if it believed it would help the long-stalled talks peace process between the Palestinians and Israel.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/29/597166/Palestinian-PM-calls-on-Britain-to-recognize-sovereign-Palestinian-state
--------
In Kabul, A Moderate Cleric Hailed For Denouncing Extremists, Is Mourned After Mosque Bombing
By Pamela Constable
May 25, 2019
KABUL — The killing of a prominent pro-government cleric in a mosque bombing has left the Afghan capital shaken and prompted U.N. officials Saturday to denounce a marked escalation of civilian casualties during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Samiullah Raihan, a Sunni Muslim preacher who often appeared on television and condemned violence as not Islamic, was killed Friday while leading weekly prayers in the Al Taqwa mosque. A hidden explosive device detonated in the sanctuary.
Kabul police said Raihan and three worshipers were killed and at least 16 people were injured. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, but it came amid a surge in attacks by Taliban insurgents and Islamic State militants, both in rural areas and high-profile urban settings.
“Deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians . . . amount to war crimes,” Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement. “An attack in a mosque, especially at a time of prayer during Ramadan, is particularly heinous.”
The bombing followed a protracted spate of violence hitting civilians as well as security forces. It has seen no letup during Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and are encouraged to avoid provoking others. The violence also has coincided with meetings between Taliban and U.S. officials seeking a settlement to end the war.
Civilian casualties have remained high for several years. Between January and March, the United Nations said 581 civilians were killed and 1,192 were injured in conflict situations. That was lower than the same period last year, it said, but worrisome because more deaths were caused by pro-government attacks and airstrikes. Earlier this month, U.S. airstrikes in two embattled provinces mistakenly killed 14 civilians and 17 Afghan police.
Yamamoto lamented the “recent intensification of conflict” that has continued to take a “heavy toll” on civilians, and he urged “every party to redouble efforts” to protect them.
In the eastern Nangahar province, a raid by Afghan security forces against Taliban fighters mistakenly killed at least six civilians, including two children, provincial officials said Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
Attahullah Khogyani, the provincial governor’s spokesman, said 10 insurgents were also killed in the Friday night attack in Sherzad district.
In Kabul on May 8, a brazen insurgent attack on a building used by a U.S.-based development agency left nine people dead.
But the death of Raihan came as a personal shock to many Afghan Muslims who admired his stance against terrorism and violence.
The Islamic State has often attacked Shiite mosques, but assaults on Sunni targets are rare. The Islamic State and Taliban are Sunni groups. Security sources said Raihan had recently received death threats and traveled in an armored government vehicle. On Saturday, his body was flown by military helicopter to eastern Jalalabad city, his home base, for burial services.
“Mawlawi Raihan’s valor in the face of religious extremism, intolerance and misuse of Islam by terrorists was unmatched,” Javed Faisal, a former government spokesman, posted online Friday.
On Saturday, outside the heavily damaged mosque in a gritty industrial zone, dozens of men watched grimly while a Kabul TV crew filmed the scene. One factory worker named Isaak, 25, said he had just entered the mosque Friday when the bomb went off and people stampeded out.
Raihan, he said, “spoke the truth and said Muslims should not behave badly with others. He said the Taliban were not good because they kill innocent people.”
In an online video of his preaching, Raihan criticized the Taliban for vowing to disband the army.
“I am proud of my army, proud of my security, proud of my police,” Raihan said in Pashto. “I belong to this country. This is my homeland. I will live here and I will die here.”
Sayed Salahuddin and Sharif Hassan contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-kabul-a-moderate-cleric-was-hailed-for-denouncing-extremists-now-hes-mourned-after-mosque-bombing/2019/05/25/785bf02e-7edf-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html?
--------
Scholars gathering in Makkah stress importance of moderate Islamic discourse
May 29, 2019
MAKKAH: Scientists and intellectuals on the second day of sessions of the Makkah conference on the Islamic values of moderation, stressed the importance of moderate Islamic discourse and preserve the rights of minorities in non-Muslim countries.
They also hailed the active role of the Kingdom in reuniting Muslims, rejecting extremism, instilling moderate discourse and preserving the rights of Muslims and keeping them away from terrorism.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Dubyan, director general of the Islamic Cultural Center in London, noted that the conference organized by the Muslim World League convenes in difficult conditions witnessed throughout the Muslim world, which have been caused by an intellectual deviation that resulted in scourges, calamities, deviation in thoughts and attacking others.
Mohamed Salah Dinov, president of the Islamic Council of Russia, called for inculcating common denominators linking Muslims at the economic, cultural and social levels.
Scholars called for reuniting the ranks of the Islamic nation so that no one can destabilize and undermine it. This can be achieved by rejecting turmoil, encouraging moderation and equality, communicating with each other, strengthening the bonds of love between Muslims and fighting the wrong perceptions about Islam.
They also called on all Muslims to study their religion properly as sent down by Allah, a religion of love, moderation and authentic values that have contributed to the spread of Islam around the world.
Earlier on the first day of the event, the mufti of Tripoli and northern Lebanon, Sheikh Malik Al-Shaar, said the conference responds to all the conspiracies being plotted against Islam and Muslims.
Al-Shaar said that the words spoken at the conference were fit to be a curriculum contemplated by intellectuals and scholars.
He stressed that the Qur’an addressed the other, acknowledged their existence and established a common goal for coexistence.
The former mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mustafa Ibrahim, highlighted the importance of Muslim unity and said: “We have come to support Saudi Arabia in its attempts to unite Muslims, strengthen relations and promote moderation.”
Alfredo Milesi, the Italian minister for Middle Eastern affairs at the International Parliament for Safety and Peace and president of the European Muslim League, said that bringing together institutions, organizations and scholars in this holy month is a global phenomenon for which Saudi Arabia should be thanked.
He added that this conference sends a direct message to the whole world about the tolerance of Islam and the important role of Muslims in building civilized societies in Europe and the world.
Adviser to the Portuguese Minister of Defense Imran Mohammed said the conference shows the whole world that Muslims are united, which wins them the respect of the world.
He added that the importance of the timing and location of the conference, as well as its role in discarding disagreements and producing a united stance, should be taken into account.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1503401/saudi-arabia
--------
Arab Parliament Speaker: Mecca summits to unify Islamic, Arab stance
29 May 2019
The summits called by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Mecca have come at a crucial time considering the serious challenges facing the Arab and Islamic worlds, Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Dr. Mishal bin Fahm al-Salami, said.
In a statement released on Tuesday, al-Salami said that the summits are a great opportunity to unify the Arab and Islamic positions and ensuring the security of these countries.
He said that this is an important step toward confronting the challenges facing the region, preserving the sovereignty of these countries and ensuring the security of their people, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Dr. Mishal al-Salami expressed appreciation for “the leading and pivotal role played by Saudi Arabia and its keenness to protect the Arab and Islamic national security”.
He condemned as “acts of terrorism” the use of drones against pipeline booster stations in Saudi Arabia and the attack on four commercial vessels in the UAE’s territorial waters, adding that such incidents can potentially destabilize the global economy.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2019/05/29/Arab-Parliament-Speaker-Mecca-summits-to-unify-Islamic-Arab-stance.html
--------
Imams Are the Messengers of Islam: King Abdullah of Jordan
May 28, 2019
His Majesty King Abdullah met a select group of imams and preachers earlier this week to emphasise their importance in teaching and sending the correct message of Islam, based on tolerance towards other religions, promoting mutual respect for other faiths, ending all forms of discrimination against fellow man and woman and upholding compassion towards others.
Imams and preachers are the messengers of Islam, and unless they truly understand in depth the true teachings of Islam and its spiritual values, their sermons would fall short of their objectives, and worse still, could do more damage than good.
Islamic countries live in an era when Islam's true teachings have been willfully hijacked by extremists, who are bent on distorting its inner values for alien goals. This is where the role of imams and preachers comes in to reverse the tide of distortions perpetrated in a bid to distort the role and message of Islam for political gains or serve the geopolitical agendas of foreign powers.
Reshaping the minds and souls of imams and preachers in the right direction is no simple mission. By the time a correct policy is introduced to rectify the existing challenge facing preachers, it is often too late, as a man's mode of thinking and religious values have been hardened to the point they become immune to any enlightened religious doctrine.
It would seem that the process of reforming preachers and imams must begin in earnest. Enlightening preachers and imams must, therefore, begin at elementary and secondary levels of education and continue to the level of higher education. This process of reformation must also envisage having imams and preachers address in their sermons everyday concerns of people, including how to deal with high inflationary trends and how to make ends meet.
In other words, contemporary sermons must show the way how the true teachings of Islam and its inner values can be invoked in the search for solutions to mundane economic, social and even political challenges. This is after all what Islam is all about.
http://www.jordantimes.com/opinion/editorial/imams-are-messengers-islam
--------
In a survey of American Muslims, 0% identified as lesbian or gay. Here's the story behind that statistic
May 28, 2019
In the United States, you could count the number of mosques like Masjid al-Rabia on two hands. It's a small community built on "five pillars of inclusivity," including pledges to be "women-centered," anti-racist LGBTQ-affirming and welcoming to a variety of Islamic traditions.
Mahdia Lynn, a transgender woman, helped found the mosque in Chicago in 2016.
For several years, Lynn attended a mosque in a small conservative Muslim community in Oklahoma, where people believed she was a straight, cisgender woman.
"There was always the risk of being outed," said Lynn, a Shiite Muslim. "But at the time, I just wanted to focus on my faith."
There are a few mosques like Masjid al-Rabia around the world, notably in Berlin and Toronto. But the number of LGBT-affirming mosques and Islamic centers in the United States remains small.
Muslims for Progressive Values has eight "inclusive communities" in the United States, from Atlanta to San Francisco. Berkeley's Qal-bu Maryam Women's Mosque, which calls itself "America's first all-inclusive mosque," opened in 2017. Other like-minded mosques have struggled to find consistent congregants in recent years and closed down.
Imam Daiyiee Abdullah, 65, is one of the few openly gay Muslim clerics. For four years, he labored to build a mosque for LGBT Muslims in Washington, DC.
Frustrated, tired and running out of money, Abdullah gave up and moved to the mountains of Colorado, where the nearest inclusive mosque is an eight-hour drive away.
Liberal Muslims say there are hints of change. The percentage of American Muslims who said society should accept homosexuality has doubled in the last decade, to 52%, and is even higher among Millennials.
Still, for many LGBT Muslims, coming out of the closet to their families and religious communities can be a fraught decision.
Ani Zonneveld says she receives calls regularly from young gay and lesbian Muslims who have been threatened by their family or are afraid to reveal their sexual identity.
"I tell them that, unless you have a fantastic relationship with your parents, keep it in the closet until you finish high school and can leave the house," said Zonneveld, who heads Muslims for Progressive Values.
Religious spaces can be just as alienating, Zonneveld said. "What we have seen is that LGBT Muslims are not comfortable going to a mosque, and if they do, they definitely keep closeted."
They may even be reluctant to tell anonymous pollsters. According to a recent survey of more than 800 American Muslims, 0% identified as gay or lesbian.
'Islam is too important to leave anyone behind'
Muslims in the United States are among the most diverse religious communities in the world. While 82% are American citizens, nearly a third have been in the country for less than two decades. A plurality (41%) are white, but no racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of Muslim American adults.
That diversity also applies to attitudes towards gay, lesbian and transgender people. According to a recent survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 31% of Muslim-Americans said they hold a favorable opinion of LGBT people, 23% said "unfavorable" and 45% said they had "no opinion."
Among the Catholics, Jews and Protestants polled, only white evangelicals held less favorable views of LGBT people, the survey found.
Some Muslims have, like Lynn, hidden aspects of their identity for fear of being alienated or even endangered. But she said bigotry is no worse among American Muslims than in society at large.
"To act as if discrimination is unique to American Muslims is to buy into the Islamophobic narrative pushed by the right wing in this country, which is ironic, because it's the right wing that is systematically erasing transgender people's rights."
Lynn transitioned as a teenager, and converted to Islam later on, during a particularly painful period. Islam's spiritual regimens and rules for living offered a scaffolding on which to rebuild her life, the 31-year-old said.
"Islam saved my life, so I made the decision to give my life over to Islam."
She founded Masjid al-Rabia with two other Muslims in 2016.
"Part of our role as a community center is to create a space for those healing from spiritual violence," Lynn said.
This year, it's celebrating its first Ramadan as a fully operational community center.
Lynn described her community as both idealistic and incremental. It's small -- Friday prayers draw about a dozen worshipers to its downtown Chicago space -- but its very existence makes a radical statement.
While pushing for greater inclusivity in American mosques, she said it also provides a hospitable space where Muslims can practice their faith openly, regardless of race, gender, sect or sexual identity.
"We believe that everyone has a right to come to Islam as they are. Islam is too important to leave anyone behind."
Support in society, but not in mosques
Muslims disagree on how to interpret the Pew survey that showed an increasing acceptance of homosexuality.
Some said it signals growing support for LGBT political rights, but not in religious spaces like mosques and Islamic centers.
LGBT activists have broadly supported Muslim-Americans, rallying to their side in recent years to protest Trump administration policies. Prominent Muslim activists have argued that they need all the political allies they can muster.
"I will fight for anyone who fights for our community," activist Linda Sarsour said during a contentious panel discussion at an Islamic convention last year.
"And everybody is created by Allah and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. That is how we Muslims have to show up in these United States of America."
But Yasir Qadhi, an influential scholar and dean of academic affairs at the new Islamic Seminary of America in Dallas, said pro-LGBT-rights political activists are confusing young Muslims.
"You are sending a mixed message," he said at the Islamic conference. "Because at the end of the day, we do not believe that it is morally healthy to engage in intercourse outside of the bonds of marriage."
Contentious questions
In a recent interview, Qadhi said that he is grateful for LGBT Americans' political support. While he hasn't changed his theological views, he said he has softened his rhetoric.
"I will be the first to admit that we were overly harsh and perhaps we did marginalize people and make them feel as if they were not human or worthy of love," the scholar said.
Now, Qadhi often prefaces his remarks about homosexuality by noting that "feelings and inclinations" are not themselves sinful, and that homosexual acts should not be singled out for special condemnation.
LGBTQ Muslims should be welcomed at mosques, he said, but should not push for changes in Islamic theology or practice on mosque grounds.
"Whatever anyone does in their private life is not our business," Qadhi said. "I am never going to single out anyone in sermons for any sinful conduct. At the same time, in the mosque I am a part of, there is a clear red line: They cannot preach onto others that this is part of Islam, the same way I would not let a person sell liquor on our property."
The Fiqh Council of North America, a body of scholars who issue legal opinions based on Islamic texts, will take up transgenderism this year, said Qadhi, a council-member. Sexual reassignment surgery is permitted in Shiite Islam, but not among Sunnis, who comprise the majority American Muslims.
In most mosques, the genders are separated, and there have been conflicts about where Muslims in the process of gender transition should sit, Qadhi said. "Gender identity issues will be the big questions for the next several years."
But external and internal tensions can make it hard for Muslim-Americans to directly address contentious questions, said Dalia Mogahed, director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
"This is a huge source of division in the community right now," she said. "There are a lot of different opinions and, frankly, there is a lack of space to discuss it."
"When you have a community that is so under the microscope and being subjected to litmus tests for civility and tolerance, people become afraid and self-censoring"
Mogahed herself came under attack several years ago after a Gallup survey showed that no British Muslims -- as in, 0% -- said homosexuality was morally acceptable. Right wing provocateurs such as Milo Yiannopoulos seized on the survey to portray Muslims as a threat to gays and lesbians.
But Muslims in the United States and Britain have not mounted political or social campaigns against the LGBT community, Mogahed said.
"To conflate a religious belief with one community being a threat to another is unfair."
Behind the 0%
Like a lot of pro-LGBT Muslims, Imam Abdullah has migrated to online projects. He now runs the Mecca Institute, an Internet-based program to train a new generation of likeminded clerics. The program has three part-time students.
Because of media attention on his life and work, he said he draws attention when he visits American mosques.
"Sometimes people make derogatory remarks, like: There's that gay imam," Abdullah said.
"I've been asked in different parts of the country to leave the mosque, which is fine. I'm not going in to any mosque to try to change them. I am going there to pray."
In Washington, DC, weeks would go by without anyone showing up at his former mosque. Some closeted LGBT Muslims feared of being associated with "the gay mosque," he said.
"The personal trauma that so many went through made it hard for them to be public about their identity," Abdullah said.
The ISPU survey provides statistical backing for that sentiment. Of the 804 American Muslims polled, not one identified as gay or lesbian. Four percent identified as bisexual, 2% said they were "something else" and another 2% refused to answer the question.
Asked about the 0% statistic, Mogahed offered a nuanced interpretation. If 92% of American Muslims identified as straight, she said, then the remaining 8% may be lesbian or gay, even if they're reluctant say so.
"The fact that there is a segment of Muslims who identify as something other than straight means that, even though they may not be acting on that inclination or orientation, they have negotiated a space where they can still be Muslim," Mogahed said.
"There is enough space within the theology to be able to do that."
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/28/us/lgbt-muslims-pride-progress/index.html
--------
Pakistan Honors A Dominican Priest For Promoting Christian-Muslim Dialogue
May 29, 2019
A Catholic priest has been honored by the Pakistan government for his “exemplary services” to promote interfaith harmony and peace in his own country and worldwide.
Father James Channan, a Dominican who has spent 50 years following the spirituality of St. Dominic, received an award at the Interfaith Conference 2019 in Lahore on May 17 that was attended by more than 300 people including Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs.
Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, Pakistan’s federal minister for religious affairs and interfaith harmony, presented the award.
“Many people helped me to reach this place. I praise God, the Church, my community of Ibn-e-Mariam Vice Province of Pakistan, and all my friends,” said Father Channan.
“I especially thank my Muslim friends who always supported me and my work and keep on appreciating me to continue my mission to promote peace and harmony among the people of Pakistan.
“I am actively serving in this mission to build bridges between Christians and the people of other religions, especially with our Muslim brethren, but still I see there is an urgent need for interfaith dialogue.”
Father Channan said his work to promote peace and interfaith harmony brings him peace and mental satisfaction.
“I keep on thinking about ways to bring people of various faiths together, to help them to nurture and strengthen peace among them,” he said.
“Everybody is my neighbor, and being a follower of Jesus Christ I have to love everybody — it keeps me motivated and zealous. We always have to share this message that we are one human family, following different religions and faiths but living our faiths we have to promote love, unity and peace.”
Father Channan is the director of Lahore’s Peace Center, which was inaugurated by the late Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, then president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
“I work to provide facility to the people of various professions and age groups to come together for dialogue, which helps to remove discrimination, fundamentalism and extremism from our society,” he said.
Father Channan also serves as a regional coordinator of United Religions Initiative (URI) in Asia. URI is serving in 109 countries including Pakistan.
“We have 63 active groups of religious leaders, lawyers, journalists, youth, women and children. Our Peace Center is always available for programs or events to promote peace, interfaith harmony, interreligious harmony and Christian-Muslim dialogue,” he said.
Father Channan, who holds a licentiate degree in Islam and Arabic studies, said he had set his aim to promote Christian-Muslim unity when he was studying theology in Karachi in 1978.
“Looking at discrimination in society, I decided that I would work to break these walls of hatred and to promote acceptance and brotherhood among people belonging to various religions, cultures and ethnic backgrounds,” he said.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/pakistan-honors-priest-for-promoting-christian-muslim-dialogue/85291
--------
Malaysian Muslims break Ramadhan fast at Sikh temple despite threats
May 29, 2019
Despite criticisms by many right wing Muslims, a Malaysian member of parliament has gone ahead to break his Ramadhan fast at a Sikh temple.
Johor Baru MP Akmal Nasrullah Nasir said he was invited by the temple committee and as a gesture of goodwill, he agreed.
The reason? The mosque and the Sikh temple are located next to each other.
Akmal brought along several of his friends after they had performed their evening prayers at the An-Nur mosque before breaking his fast at the Johor Baru Gurdwara Sahib.
However, his acceptance to the gesture of goodwill by the Sikhs were criticised by several people online. Some even said that what he was doing was unIslamic.
But that didn't deter the 31-year-old lawmaker.
"I am aware of the comments and debates on social media," Akmal says.
"Anyone who wishes to instill a sense of respect (between races), the challenge is huge, and as a member of Parliament, I honour the invitation while upholding any concerns pertaining to religion and akidah," he adds.
This is not the first of his visit though. Akmal had done the same last year during Ramadhan as well.
Despite being a multi-cultural and multi-faith secular country, Malaysia has gradually seen the rise of Muslim fundamentalists among its major demographic, the Malays.
Thankfully, there are folks such as Akmal who preserve to struggle against the grain to bring awareness on the importance of being Malaysian.
https://sea.mashable.com/culture/4058/malaysian-muslims-break-ramadhan-fast-at-sikh-temple-despite-threats
--------
Mideast
Why Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque matters for Muslims
May 29, 2019
AMMAN: “There is a spot just in the center of Al-Qibli Mosque where you feel so light when you stand in it.”
This is the way Wasfi Kailani, of the Hashemite Fund for the Restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque, describes his favorite spot within Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the UNESCO World Heritage site also known to Muslims and Palestinians as Al-Haram Al-Sharif.
The spot that Kailani refers to is not far from Saladin’s pulpit, rebuilt by King Abdullah II of Jordan after it was destroyed in a 1969 arson attack.
“I feel that the holiest spot in the entire compound is in the center of the mosque,” he told Arab News. “It is the place from where Prophet Muhammad ascended to the heavens to meet God Almighty with all the prophets with him.”
For Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad, a spokesman for Fatah, the Palestinian political party, the most special spot is a small room under the Dome of the Rock mosque.
“It is called the Souls Cave,” Abu Zayyad told Arab News. “I like it for the high level of energy and spirituality that can be felt while praying inside it.”
His views are echoed by Ahmad Budeiri, a former BBC staffer, who was born in Jerusalem and has spent all his life there. “I enter the mosque to experience the beauty of its architecture,” he said. “Then I go down to the cave and I get the feeling that all the spiritual meaning in the mosque is condensed in that small space.”
Abla Rweis, a mother of three from Nablus, told Arab News that her favorite spot is the mosque itself. “It has a special holiness to it as it is where the holy prophet Muhammad spent the night on his ascent to heaven.”
Rweis is talking about Al-Isra wa Al-Miraj, the two parts of a Night Journey that Prophet Muhammad took. In Islam, Al-Isra wa Al-Miraj signifies both a physical and spiritual journey.
A little more than a decade on, Caliph Omar was in Jerusalem and he began building the first Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Aqsa means “the farthest,” a reference to the distance of Islam’s third holiest shrine from Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
For Khalil Attiyeh, a Jordanian parliamentarian, the feeling while going down the stairs from the Dome of the Rock to Al-Aqsa Mosque is special. But for many worshipers and visitors, the entire 144 dunum (144,000sq meters) of the Al-Aqsa compound is sacred.
Political activist Hazem H. Kawasmi said that his favorite
spot is across from the water fountain, where worshipers come for the ritual washing. “I have been coming to Al-Aqsa since I was a child. I love to sit on the stairs across from the mosque and gaze at the water fountain,” he said.
For Arafat Amro, the Islamic Museum located within the compound is special because of its priceless contents. “It is a window to civilizations and history,” said Amro, who is also the musuem’s director.
“Everything here, from parchments, wooden works and metal items to stone carvings, reflects different times. Visitors who came to this mosque down the ages from different locations went back with the history of their Arab and Muslim forefathers etched in their memories.”
The Islamic Museum is located close to both Al-Buraq Wall and a gate through which groups of Jewish extremists often make uninvited incursions with an armed Israeli security escort.
The area was cleared of Palestinians soon after the capture in 1967 of East Jerusalem by Israel, marking the beginning of the occupation.
For Hazem Shunnar, a respected Palestinian economist, Al-Buraq wall is what he often thinks about “because the Israelis took it by force.”
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1503396/middle-east
--------
Yemen’s Houthis launch fundraising drive for cash-strapped Hezbollah
Albin Szakola
May 27, 2019
A Yemeni radio station broadcasting in support of the Yemeni rebel Houthi movement has launched a fundraising drive on behalf of Hezbollah, which has come under pressure from ramped-up sanctions.
Sam FM (99.1) on Friday called on its listeners to “support the masters of the mujahideen in this world, the purest people, Hezbollah” and donate to the “From Yemen the Faithful to the Resistance of Lebanon” campaign during the final 10 days of Ramadan.
The pro-Houthi station’s effort presents an unusual about-face in the relationship between the Houthis and Hezbollah, which is usually the provider of support to its Yemeni allies.
Last July, an Arab diplomat told The National on condition of anonymity that Hezbollah fighters and advisers were working alongside the Houthis in parts of Yemen. Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has voiced support for the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents.
On Sam FM, broadcaster Hamoud Mohammad Sharaf said his station’s fundraising efforts for Hezbollah would “have a significant impact in strengthening the Axis of Resistance,” in reference to the Tehran-led alliance that includes Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. His comments were made in an interview with the Houthi-run Saba news agency, which was republished by Sam FM’s Telegram account.
Mr Sharaf, who has also worked as a correspondent for Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Television, said the campaign for Hezbollah was the latest in a series of fundraisers inspired by Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al Houthi.
The pro-Houthi station raised more than 200 million Yemeni rials (Dh2.93m) for rebel military efforts during Ramadan in 2018 and 2019, Saba said.
Last week, Sharaf tweeted a statement stamped by the Houthi rebels’ drone, missile, air defence, navy and military industrialisation departments thanking Sam FM for a donation of 30.3 million Yemeni rials (Dh445,097).
Saba news agency said it expected the radio station’s collection effort for Hezbollah would also attract wide participation from the public and private sectors “in light of Hezbollah’s current stage of distress following the financial sanctions imposed by the United States.”
Hezbollah is blacklisted by numerous countries, including the US, UK and Gulf states, as a terrorist group. The US Department of Treasury imposed more sanctions on Hezbollah-related individuals and entities in 2018 than in any previous year. That same year, US President Donald Trump signed into law a Congressional bill expanding sanctions on foreign entities that support Hezbollah and its agents.
Sham FM’s announcement of its fundraising drive directed the station’s listeners to donate to an account held at Houthi-controlled Yemen Post, which advertises money transfer services in addition to its postal work.
The Houthis have used Yemen Post in the past to facilitate their activities, including a fundraising campaign to support a rival institution to the Central Bank after the internationally recognised government of Yemen under Abdrabu Mansur Hadi moved the institution from Sanaa to Aden.
Full report at:
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemen-s-houthis-launch-fundraising-drive-for-cash-strapped-hezbollah-1.866660
--------
Iran Slams U.S. After Middle East Troop Buildup Is Announced
By Palko Karasz
May 25, 2019
LONDON — Iranian officials lashed out at the United States on Saturday after the Trump administration said it would allow the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan and deploy about 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East to counter Iran.
“If they commit the slightest stupidity, we will send these ships to the bottom of the sea along with their crew and planes using two missiles or two new secret weapons,” Gen. Morteza Qorbani, an adviser to Iran’s military command, told the semiofficial news agency Mizan on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, also told the state news agency IRNA that the move to send troops to the Middle East was “extremely dangerous and it threatens international peace and security.”
“This should be addressed,” Mr. Zarif added.
The pending arms deal had drawn sharp criticism from American lawmakers angry over civilian deaths from the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen. Analysts said that officials in Tehran were likely to see it as a further deterioration in relations between the two countries, already worsening since President Trump’s decision last year to leave the Iran nuclear deal.
In response to that decision, rather than exiting the deal, which is still supported by European nations, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran this month announced a series of small steps to resume nuclear production restricted under the agreement. The White House then announced additional sanctions on Iran’s steel, aluminum, iron and copper sectors, accounting for 10 percent of the country’s exports.
The American troop increase is far less than the 20,000 forces that United States commanders in the region had sought. It includes 600 troops whose deployments will be extended, alongside 900 being newly sent to the Middle East.
Under White House plans revised after pressure from hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, the president’s national security adviser, if Iran were to accelerate work on nuclear weapons, defense officials envision sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East.
Still, Mr. Trump — who has been keen to disengage from conflict zones in the Middle East —was seen as unlikely to boost troops by more than 100,000, and Iran tends to exaggerate its successes when it comes to state-of-the art weaponry, according to experts.
Amid what many say are echoes of the buildup to the Iraq war in 2003, calls have intensified for Mr. Trump to walk away from the prospect of conflict with Iran. Trapped between the United States and trying to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive, European allies have also voiced opposition to a conflict.
And a few days ago, Mr. Trump himself sought to put the brakes on open confrontation, telling the acting defense secretary, Patrick M. Shanahan, that he did not want to go to war with Iran.
The latest surge in tensions comes just more than a week after some small signs of de-escalation. United States officials presented evidence that Iran had been removing missiles from small boats, which had been seen as a potential threat to American naval ships in the Persian Gulf and nearby waters.
Full report at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/world/middleeast/iran-us-troops-middle-east.html
--------
Iran can sink U.S. warships with 'secret weapons', military official says
MAY 25, 2019
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran can sink U.S. warships sent to the Gulf region using missiles and “secret weapons”, a senior Iranian military official was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency Mizan on Saturday.
The United States on Friday announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the Middle East, describing it as an effort to bolster defenses against Iran as it accused the country’s Revolutionary Guards of direct responsibility for this month’s tanker attacks. “America.. is sending two warships to the region. If they commit the slightest stupidity, we will send these ships to the bottom of the sea along with their crew and planes using two missiles or two new secret weapons,” General Morteza Qorbani, an adviser to Iran’s military command, told Mizan.
The U.S. actions were the latest by the Trump administration as it highlights what it sees as a threat of potential attack by Iran, and follows decisions to speed the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group as well as send bombers and additional Patriot missiles to the Middle East.
Full report at:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-arms/iran-can-sink-us-warships-with-secret-weapons-military-official-says-idUSKCN1SV049
--------
Turkish military launches operation against militants in northern Iraq
28 May 2019
Turkey’s military launched an operation with commandos, backed by artillery and air strikes, against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, the defense ministry said on Tuesday.
The military action began with artillery and air strikes on Monday afternoon and the operation by commando brigades began at 8 pm (1700 GMT) to “neutralize terrorists and destroy their shelters” in an area across the border from Turkey’s most southeastern region, the ministry said in a statement.
In a related development, Turkey has equipped Syrian armed factions it backs with fresh supplies of weaponry to help them try to repel a major Russian-backed assault, senior opposition officials and other sources said.
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2019/05/28/Turkish-military-launches-operation-against-militants-in-northern-Iraq.html
--------
Arab Coalition targets Houthi positions in Sanaa
29 May 2019
The Arab Coalition has targeted Houthi positions in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, including Houthi weapons stores in the al-Dulaimi air base, north of the capital.
Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki had said that they are continuously targeting Houthi posts in the air base as the militias have turned it into a base to manufacture and maintain drones, as well as to store weapons.
The Arab Coalition had announced in mid-May that it has launched an operation on Houthi military targets in Yemen to "neutralize the ability of the Houthi militia to carry out acts of aggression."
On Tuesday, Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said that they will not tolerate the Iran-backed Houthi militias targeting civilian facilities with drones.
Speaking at a press conference in Jeddah, al-Malki confirmed that the coalition has information about all the locations from where drones are being launched toward Saudi Arabia.
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2019/05/29/Arab-coalition-targets-Houthi-positions-in-Sana-a.html
--------
Kushner, Greenblatt in Middle East to seek support for Trump's 'peace' plan
May 28, 2019
Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner has gone to the Middle East to push the US-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace deal on behalf of hi father-in-law, US President Donald Trump.
Media agencies cited a White House official as saying on Tuesday that Kushner was leading a diplomatic delegation to Morocco, Jordan and Israel.
US Middle East special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, was in the delegation accompanying Kushner during the trip.
The official said one reason for this week's trip is to garner regional leaders’ support for a June 25-26 conference in Manama, Bahrain.
At the Manama conference, the US is set to unveil the first part of Trump's so-called “deal of the century”.
Trump’s Middle East peace deal is said to hugely favor the Israeli regime, and Palestinian leaders have been sharply critical of it.
Most Palestinian factions have dubbed Trump’s deal as “the slap of the century,” and boycotted the Manama conference.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected Trump’s deal, saying it would “go to hell.”
The participants in the conference in Manama were expected to be some 300 to 400 representatives and business executives from the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Possibly, a few Palestinian businessmen and representatives from G7 countries, Egypt, Jordan and Oman would be attending.
Full report at:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/28/597160/US-Kushner-Greenblatt-Middle-East-Manama
--------
Gaza’s Omari Grand Mosque: A combination of civilizations
May 28, 2019
GAZA CITY: Previously a pagan temple and then a church, the Omari Grand Mosque in Gaza City was converted to a Muslim place of worship under Caliph Omar ibn Al-Khattab.
During Roman and Greek rule, the site was a temple to worship the god Marna, said Heyam Al-Bitar, head of the tourism and archaeology department at the Tourism Ministry in Gaza. It was built during the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian.
The temple was converted to a church in 406 AD, and then into a mosque in 634 AD, said archaeologist Dr. Salim Al-Mubaid.
“It was the first mosque to perform Friday prayers in Gaza after the Islamic conquest,” he added.
During the Crusades, it was turned into St. John’s Cathedral in 1149 AD. It was converted back into a mosque in 1192 AD, but retained its Gothic architecture.
It was expanded by Mamluk Sultan Nasser Muhammad during Ottoman rule. Large parts of the mosque were destroyed during World War I, said Al-Mubaid. Historian Othman Mustafa Al-Tabbaa said it has 38 marble columns.
Al-Bitar said the mosque’s minaret, a model of Mamluk architectural style, is one of its most famous features. Its lower half is square and its upper half is octagonal.
The mosque’s library, built under Mamluk Sultan Al-Zaher Baybars, was a scientific beacon for scholars.
Having contained thousands of books and manuscripts on various sciences, the library was destroyed during the Crusades and World War I.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1503371/middle-east
--------
South Asia
Attacks by Extremists on Afghan Schools Triple, Report Says
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff
May 27, 2019
KABUL, Afghanistan — Attacks on Afghan schools tripled from 2017 to 2018, a Unicef report said Tuesday, as the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan continue to wage a campaign of violence against so-called softer targets, far from the battlefield.
The number of attacks increased to 192 from 68, a surge not seen since 2015, according to the report by the United Nations agency for children. The number of children not attending school also increased last year for the first time since 2002.
It is yet another sign of the deteriorating security situation across Afghanistan. To some Afghans, the report offered concrete evidence that the repressive Taliban regime is again on the rise, even as the United States attempts to negotiate a peace settlement with the group.
Nooria Nazhat, a spokeswoman for the ministry of education, said the government did not have any specific statistics to back up the Unicef report. But she added: “Every week we have a report about schools getting attacked in Afghanistan.”
In the last several months, 431 schools for both boys and girls have closed for “security issues,” Ms. Nazhat said, and the government is trying to reopen them.
The Unicef report noted that the use of schools as polling centers during the 2018 parliamentary elections was one reason for the uptick in attacks.
Henrietta Fore, Unicef’s executive director, said that education in Afghanistan was “under fire,” in a statement.
“The senseless attacks on schools; the killing, injury and abduction of teachers; and the threats against education are destroying the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of children,” Ms. Fore said in a statement.
More than a million children are unable to attend school across the country, according to the report, most of them girls.
Last month, in the western Farah Province, armed men set fire to two girls’ schools just outside the provincial capital, damaging both structures and burning the teaching materials within. The attacks ended classes for nearly 1,700 girls. Four other girls’ schools were also recently attacked in the province.
Before being ousted in 2001, the Taliban did not allow girls to attend school, and women were confined to their homes unless escorted by a male relative. During the course of the nearly 18-year-old war, Taliban fighters would often booby-trap schools or burn them outright to keep them from reopening after NATO and Afghan forces established control over an area.
There are roughly 17,500 schools across Afghanistan. About 1,000 of them remain closed because of the ongoing conflict, according to the Unicef report, a number that is roughly unchanged from last year.
Fatima Faizi contributed reporting from Kabul.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/world/asia/afghanistan-attacks-schools-unicef.html
--------
Officials: Taliban attacks kill 10 Afghan troops, four police
May 27, 2019
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bombing claimed by the Taliban killed 10 Afghan soldiers in the country’s west while insurgent attacks on security checkpoints in northern Afghanistan killed four policemen, local officials said Monday.
The soldiers were driving back to base after picking up their salaries in the country’s western Farah province. They were travelling in a Humvee when the explosion took place Sunday afternoon in the Bala Buluk district, said Shah Mahmmod Nahimi, a provincial councilman.
“The blast was so intense that no one in the Humvee survived,” he added.
Elsewhere, the Taliban targeted several checkpoints in northern Sari Pul province on Sunday night, killing four members of the security forces and wounding 22, said Zabiullah Amani, the provincial governor’s spokesman.
The attacks took place on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Sari Pul and triggered gun battles that lasted for hours, he said, adding that 15 Taliban fighters were also killed.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Farah attack in a statement on their website but did not make any announcements about the Sari Pul attack.
Meanwhile, a sticky bomb attached to a minibus carrying government workers in Kabul detonated on Monday morning, wounding 10 people, said police spokesman Ferdus Faramarz. One of the wounded was in critical condition.
Arab Haidari, from the religious affairs ministry, said all the wounded are ministry employees who were on their way to work when the explosion took place. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Both the Taliban and Islamic State militants regularly stage attacks in Kabul.
On Sunday, gunmen shot and killed a prominent religious scholar, Mawlavi Shabir Ahmad Kamawi, in Kabul, and last week, a mosque bombing killed another religious scholar during Friday prayers, also in Kabul.
Attacks have increased recently as Washington’s peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, presses ahead with talks with the Taliban, who refuse to negotiate directly with the Kabul government.
The talks so far have focused on a timetable for US troop withdrawal as well as Taliban guarantees that they won’t harbor terrorist groups or allow Afghanistan to be used as a staging ground for global terror attacks.
Full report at:
https://nypost.com/2019/05/27/officials-taliban-attacks-kill-ten-afghan-troops-four-police/
--------
3 Injured In Blast At Bangladesh's Dhaka, ISIS Claims Responsibility
May 27, 2019
DHAKA: A police officer and two others were injured in a powerful blast claimed by ISIS in Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
The explosives that led to the blast in a police pick-up van in Dhaka's Malibagh area on Sunday night might have been planted, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said on Monday.
"We think it (the explosive) was kept in the car and not hurled at the police," he said while talking to reporters after visiting the injured at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
"Based on primary investigation, we think it was an improvised bomb, but it was more powerful than the usual ones used here," he said.
An assistant sub-inspector and two others were injured in the explosion.
He said police have yet to identify the culprits.
Meanwhile, US-based SITE Intelligence Group said that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the blast targeting the police van in Dhaka.
Terming the incident as an act to spread fear, the DMP chief said: "If they (the attackers) wanted, they could have killed our police officials."
"Attacking a police vehicle or checkpost is a move to break down the police's morale and its initiative to oust terrorism from Bangladesh," he said.
The government has consistently ruled out the presence of the dreaded terror group in the Muslim-majority nation though experts have been maintaining that series of brutal attacks on minorities and secular activists had the hallmarks of ISIS group.
Bangladesh launched a crackdown on Islamist terrorists following the July 2016 terror attack in which terrorists stormed a Dhaka cafe and killed 22 people, including 18 foreigners, by firing indiscriminately. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Full report at:
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/malibagh-dhaka-bangladesh-3-injured-in-blast-at-dhaka-bangladesh-isis-claims-responsibility-2043834
--------
Senior Afghan Taliban leader says insurgents want peace
May 29, 2019
Senior Afghan Taliban officials including the group's top political advisor met with Afghan political figures in Moscow on Tuesday, saying they were committed to peace in Afghanistan — even as US-led talks appear to have stalled.
In a message the Taliban have not altered since talks with the US started last autumn, Taliban co-founder and political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said the insurgents want an end to 18 years of conflict — but would only sign a deal after foreign forces quit Afghanistan.
The Taliban are “really committed to peace, but think the obstacle for peace should be removed first”, Baradar said in a rare televised appearance at the start of the two-day meeting marking 100 years of diplomatic ties between Russia and Afghanistan.
“The obstacle is the occupation of Afghanistan, and that should end,” Baradar added.
Baradar — who helped Mullah Omar found the Taliban — was appointed its political chief in January following his release from a Pakistan prison.
Examine: Which way the Afghan peace process is headed
Tuesday's Moscow meeting once again cut out senior members of President Ashraf Ghani's government, which the Taliban consider a US-backed puppet regime, though the head of the Kabul administration's high peace council had been slated to attend.
Other Afghan politicians — including former president Hamid Karzai and candidates challenging Ghani in a presidential election slated for September — were also present.
The talks mark the second time Taliban leaders have met with Afghan figures in Russia, following a February summit that saw the former foes praying together and chatting over meals.
Former warlord Atta Muhammad Noor said the previous Moscow meeting had yielded “quite positive results”. “We are for having good relations with our brothers, with the Taliban,” Noor said.
“Let's step back a little, embrace each other and create conditions for the start of peace”.
Moscow appears to be gaining influence in the ongoing process, with the US announcing last month that Washington had reached a consensus with China and Russia on the key formula for a peace deal it is negotiating in Afghanistan.
But a recent sixth round of talks between US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban ended in Doha this month with no tangible progress cited by the negotiating teams.
While the Taliban insist foreign forces must leave Afghanistan before it can agree to peace, the US has refused to agree to a withdrawal until the Taliban put in place security guarantees, a ceasefire, and other commitments including an “intra-Afghan” dialogue with the Kabul government and other Afghan representatives.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who opened Tuesday's meeting, said Russia and Afghanistan have “a shared aim — fighting terrorism” and reiterated that Moscow supports a complete withdrawal of foreign forces.
Full report at:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1485150/senior-afghan-taliban-leader-says-insurgents-want-peace
--------
Taliban kill 23 in two attacks on Afghan forces
May 29, 2019
KABUL: Afghan officials said on Tuesday that two Taliban attacks targeted Afghan security checkpoints in the country’s west and east, killing at least 23 members of the security forces.
In western Ghor province, Abdul Hai Khateby, the governor’s spokesman, says 18 policemen and pro-government militiamen were killed and seven were wounded in hours-long gunbattle with insurgents near Feroz Koh, the provincial capital. No group immediately took responsibility for the attack.
In eastern Logar province, Mohammad Naser Ghairat, a provincial councilman, said insurgents overran an army checkpoint in the district of Baraki Barak on Monday, killing five soldiers there.
Ghairat said four soldiers were also wounded while the Taliban captured four others. He says the insurgents stole a Humvee and ammunition from the checkpoint. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Logar attack.
Attacks against Afghan schools soar
The number of attacks on schools in Afghanistan nearly tripled last year, Unicef said on Tuesday, cutting children’s access to education amid worsening security in the war-torn nation.
Attacks on Afghan schools increased from 68 in 2017 to 192 in 2018, the first increase in such incidents since 2015.
Afghanistan’s ongoing war, now in its 18th year, resulted in more than 1,000 schools being closed by the end 2018, Unicef said, depriving some 500,000 children of their right to learning.
“Education is under fire in Afghanistan,” Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement.
“The senseless attacks on schools; the killing, injury and abduction of teachers; and the threats against education are destroying the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of children.” Using schools as voter registration centres for parliamentary elections last year was one factor in the increase in attacks, Unicef said.
About 3.7 million school children between the ages of seven and 17 — accounting for almost half of all school-aged children in Afghanistan — do not attending school, according to the UN agency.
It blamed insecurity, poverty and discrimination against girls — who make up about 60 per cent of children not in education.
The Taliban opposed education for girls when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
After the Islamist extremists were toppled in a US-led invasion, millions of girls began to receive an education.
But schools, students and teachers have been coming under increasing fire.
Full report at:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1485257/taliban-kill-23-in-two-attacks-on-afghan-forces
--------
In makeshift homes, Rohingya recall Ramadan in Myanmar
May 29, 2019
DHAKA: For the past two years, during Ramadan, an overwhelming sadness takes over 15-year-old Ahmed Kamal, a Rohingya refugee at the Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh.
He says it is at this time, specifically during iftar, that he misses his mother, Halima Begum, the most.
Begum was brutally killed in September 2017 by the Myanmar army during a crackdown on thousands of Rohingya — many of whom fled to Bangladesh to escape the persecution.
“My mother used to prepare so many homemade foods during iftar and we all used to enjoy it. But everything is lost now,” Kamal told Arab News.
For many of the Rohingya living at Cox’s Bazar, Ramadan brings with it a sense of nostalgia and memories of days well spent.
“We used to have a get-together with relatives during Ramadan at our home in Mongdu township. All year, I used to wait for this Ramadan get-together with our maternal cousins, grandparents and uncles,” Saleha Khatun, a 13-year-old refugee girl from Kutupalang Rohingya camp, said.
“Some of our relatives were killed in September 2017, a few of them stayed in Rakhine and some fled to Cox’s Bazar. Our greater family is now completely scattered and I miss my relatives a lot in this Ramadan month,” she added.
More than 1.1 million Rohingya are currently lodged at various refugee camps, with nearly 750,000 taking shelter in Bangladesh since August 2017 when the violence escalated in the northern Myanmar province of Rakhine. For most of the Rohingya, this is their second Ramadan in Bangladesh since the great exodus.
“Last year we didn’t get enough food for iftar to break the fast. Sometimes we had to drink only water but this year there is enough — we have received food from the World Food Program (WFP),” Rashid Khan, a refugee from Balukhali camp, told Arab News.
The WFP also distributed dates to families in refugee camps specifically for Ramadan, which were donated by Qatar.
Gemma Snowdon, the WFP’s communications officer at Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News: “We have scaled up our e-voucher food assistance system in time for Ramadan, which means families have access to a wider range of food. Using an electronic card, families can shop at one of the WFP e-voucher outlets in the camps, and access things such as fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, dried fish, spices, and the usual staples.”
She added that the program gave the Rohingya a greater range of choice for Ramadan, as opposed to basic rice, lentils and oil they were previously receiving. There are also special offers on food from retailers who operate the WFP e-voucher outlets so people can receive more than they usually do.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1503476/world
--------
Arab World
Social Media Usage Peaks during Ramadan in Muslim Countries
29.05.2019
People in the Middle East spend close to 58 million more hours on Facebook during Ramadan and watch more YouTube videos — everything from beauty tips and recipes to sports and TV dramas — than any other time of the year, making the holy month not only the most important one for Muslims, but also the prime time of the year for advertisers.
For Facebook, which also owns Instagram, and Google, which owns YouTube, Ramadan brings a welcome boost of business in the region.
"Consumption and time spent on our platforms does indeed increase," said Ramez Shehadi, Facebook's managing director for Mideast and North Africa.
People stay up a lot more at night during Ramadan and have more downtime — especially before iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daylong fast, and the sabur when people gather to eat before another day of fasting. All that translates to 5% more time spent on Facebook's platforms, or what is nearly 58 million more hours, Shehadi said. Put another way, there are almost 2 million hours of additional time spent daily on Facebook in the Mideast during Ramadan. Ramadan is also the peak season for advertising in the region, as TV dramas and soap operas get a 151% increase in viewership on YouTube during the holy month, according to Google.
"Our revenue is a function of people's engagement," Shehadi said. "The more that they engage on our platforms, the more that advertisers want to be able to reach those that are engaging. That's what drives our revenue."
Google does not disclose total watch time for YouTube during Ramadan, but says that in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for example, viewing of sports videos jumps by 22%, travel videos by 30%, and action games, simulation and video games by 10-20% during the holy month.
People also spend 27% more time watching religious content on YouTube in Ramadan.
"To us, YouTube brings people together. We see a lot of people wanting to watch things together," said Joyce Baz, Google's head of communications in Mideast and North Africa.
https://www.dailysabah.com/religion/2019/05/29/social-media-usage-peaks-during-ramadan-in-muslim-countries-1559086418
--------
ISIS bombing kills 5, injures 10 who were extinguishing fire in disputed Kirkuk: source
May 25-2019
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An alleged Islamic State bomb late Saturday killed five people who were going to their farm fields in the disputed province of Kirkuk to put out fires that had also been started by the terrorist organization, local media reported.
“An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in the evening, in the al-Abbasi sub-district of the al-Hawija district of Kirkuk, killing four civilians and wounding two others,” Alsumaria reported, quoting a security source.
One of the injuries seemed to have been fatal as shortly after another source told Kurdistan 24 that five “farmers and firefighters” had died in the incident. It added that 10 others had been injured. All were transported to the nearest hospital in Hawija city.
The victims were attempting to put out a major fire at an agricultural farm, which Islamic State members had set ablaze, the source added. The flames had spread quickly, carried by strong winds in the rural area.
Hours before the incident, local officials told Iraqi media that similar fields had been burned in other parts of the province, south of the capital city of Kirkuk between the towns of Tuz Khurmatu and Bashir.
As the harvesting season begins, Islamic State sleeper cells seem to be employing a new extortion tactic in areas with weak security, demanding “taxes” from farmers or their fields would be torched. So far, they have burned thousands of acres of land.
Full report at:
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/8b044c51-0a88-4fbe-a215-1f86c173767d
--------
Iraqi troops kill two Islamic State terrorists in Nineveh
by Mohammed Ebraheem
May 25, 2019
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi troops killed on Saturday two Islamic State terrorists, who planned to carry out a motorbike bomb attack in Nineveh province.
Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jubouri, the commander of Nineveh Operations, told AlSaumaria News that an army force received intelligence information on the presence of two IS terrorists in Tal Abta district in Nineveh.
Backed by federal police and tribal fighters, the army force managed to kill the pair and seized a booby-trapped motorbike, which they planned to use in a terrorist attack, Jubouri said.
He added that the motorbike was successfully dismantled by the explosives experts.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
Full report at:
https://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/iraqi-troops-kill-two-islamic-state-terrorists-in-nineveh/
--------
Saudi Arabia shoots down Houthi drone targeting Jizan airport
26 May 2019
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it shot down a bomb-laden drone deployed by the Houthi rebels in Yemen to attack an airport in the kingdom, the latest in a series of attacks targeting the kingdom.
The Saudi air force intercepted and destroyed the drone that targeted Jizan airport, close to the southern border with Yemen, the Saudi-UAE-led coalition fighting the rebels said.
"While we confirm our right to defend our country, we stress that the terrorist Houthis will pay a dear price," said alliance spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malaki, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
The Saudi announcement came hours after the Houthis said they used an armed drone to attack warplane runways at Jizan airport. The airport is used by thousands of civilians every day, but the coalition reported no casualties.
The attack comes after the Houthis on Thursday targeted Najran airport, also near the Yemeni border, with an explosives-laden drone.
That attack - the third against Najran airport in 72 hours - targeted a Patriot air defence system, rebel-run Al Masirah TV reported. Civilian airports throughout the Middle East often host military bases.
The kingdom said the last Najran attempted drone attack was also intercepted by its air defences and destroyed.
'Aggressor countries'
A Houthi leader said on Sunday the group resumed drone attacks deep inside Saudi Arabia this month in response to what he called the coalition's spurning of "peace initiatives" by the rebels.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi also dismissed Saudi accusations the attacks had been carried out on the orders on Iran - at a time of growing tension between Tehran and Riyadh alongside its Western and regional allies.
"We are independent in our decisions and ... we are not subordinated to anyone," Houthi told Reuters news agency by phone.
He said the rebels had agreed to halt air raids last year "in good faith" and had been ready to take more steps.
"But unfortunately the aggressor countries misinterpreted these efforts [as weakness] and regarded them with contempt and indifference," Houthi, the head of the group's Supreme Revolutionary Committee, added.
He said the Houthis had unilaterally withdrawn from three Red Sea ports and he accused the Saudi-led coalition of failing to reciprocate.
There was no immediate reaction to his statement from Riyadh, which has not yet recognised the port pullout.
Worst humanitarian crisis
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to push back an advance by the Houthis, who still hold the capital Sanaa, and to restore to power President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Since then, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, relief agencies say.
The war triggered what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis with 24.1 million - more than two-thirds of the population - in need of aid.
Earlier this month, the Houthis attacked an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia with a series of drone attacks.
Full report at:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/saudi-arabia-shoots-houthi-drone-targeting-jizan-airport-190526173558856.html
--------
S. Arabia Plans to Set Up US-Backed Military Power in Eastern Syria
May 28, 2019
The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen TV network quoted tribal sources in Eastern Euphrates as saying that Saudi Arabia intends to start and sponsor a military force with financial and military back up through a number of tribes in the region.
It pointed to Saudi Arabia's military and financial backup to reinforce Deir Ezzur military council affiliated to the Syrian Democratic Forces in the region, and said Riyadh plans to once again bring to the scene the militants affiliated to al-Ghad that operate under the command of Ahmad al-Jarba in Eastern Syria allegedly to fight Turkey's aggression.
Since the beginning of the Syrian War, the US has been looking for setting up a tribal army in Eastern Syria comprising 40,000 combatants with billions of dollars of financial support by Saudi Arabia.
Meantime, the Arabic-language al-Watan Online news website reported that a new military convoy comprising 50 trucks carrying weapons as well as military and logistical equipment arrived in areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Deir Ezzur province via Simalka crossing from the Iraqi territories.
In a relevant development earlier this monht, tens of trucks carrying US military and logistical aids have been dispatched to the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Eastern Euphrates despite declaring the end of the ISIL by Washington, media sources said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that a convoy comprising 60 trucks containing logistic and military consignments as well as prefabricated houses was sent to Eastern Euphrates via Simalka crossing in Northern Iraq.
Full report at:
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980307000608
--------
Syrian Army, Air Force Heavily Pound Terrorists' Centers in Aleppo
May 28, 2019
The Syria Army engaged in fierce clashes with Faylaq al-Sales terrorists as artillery units pounded the Ankara-backed militants' military positions near the town of al-Bab in Northern Aleppo, the Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper reported.
Field sources, meantime, reported that several military vehicles of the Turkey-backed terrorists were destroyed in clashes with the Syrian army, adding that several militants were killed in exchange of fire.
The sources further said that the Syrian Army's artillery units also pounded the terrorists' military positions in the town of Khalseh in Southern Aleppo.
The Syrian Air Force carried out several airstrikes over territories South-West of Aleppo province, AMN reported.
According to a military source in Aleppo city, the Syrian Air Force specifically targeted the Regiment 46 Base that is located just North of the provincial borderline of Idlib.
The heavy bombardment by the Syrian Air Force came just days after the Syrian Army sent a large number of reinforcements to the Southern Aleppo town of Al-Hadher.
In a relevant development on Sunday, Kurdish media said that the Syrian and Russian armies had dispatched a large number of troops to Northern Hama and built new military positions there to confront a possible aggression by the Turkish Army.
The Xber24 news website reported that the Russian troops have built four military points in the city of Tal Rafat in Northern Syria to support the Syrian Army in the war on terrorism.
It pointed to the arrival of a large number of Russian Army forces together with heavy weapons to the military points and equipment of these bases, and said that these forces have reinforced their military points in the town of Kashta'ar in Northern Aleppo and some new commanders have also been appointed to the mission.
Meantime, it said that the Russian military reinforcements came as differences have intensified between the Turkish and Russian sides after Ankara supported Tahrir al-Sham in its attacks on the Syrian Army.
According to a military source in Aleppo, the Syrian Army has also sent reinforcements from the capital, Damascus, and Homs to the Southern countryside of the province. The reinforcements have reportedly arrived at the key town of Al-Hadher.
Full report at:
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980307001062
--------
US sets up $75 mln grant to combat Iranian ‘disinformation’ in Syria
28 May 2019
The United States State Department has set up a $75 million grant to be spent in Syria to combat ISIS and the “disinformation” carried out by Iran inside the country.
According to the Department of State Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the grant opportunity – Supporting Local Governance and Civil Society in Syria – will be given to the eligible NGOs and will help advance the US government’s policy in the war-torn country.
The grant is meant to ensure the defeat of ISIS and to counter violent extremism in Syria and achieve a political resolution to the ongoing conflict in the country under the auspices of the UN Security Council Resolution 2254, the report said.
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2019/05/28/Report-US-strategy-in-Syria-includes-grant-to-combat-Iranian-disinformation-.html
--------
Iraq sentences two more French citizens to death for joining Daesh
May 28, 2019
An Iraqi court has sentenced two more French citizens to death after they were found guilty of joining the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and involvement in acts of terror across the conflict-ridden Arab country and neighboring Syria, bringing the total number of former French terrorists condemned to death this week to six.
The men sentenced to death on Tuesday were identified as Karam Salam Mohammed el-Harchaoui and Brahim Ali Mansour Nejara. They are among a group of 12 French citizens, who were captured by US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria and handed over to Iraq earlier this year.
El-Harchaoui, 33, lived in Belgium before he left for Syria in 2014. He was wounded in one of the battles he fought alongside Daesh militants in Syria.
His wife told The Associated Press he joined the terror group in Syria in 2014, was sent to Iraq to fight, escaped, traveled back to Syria's northeastern town of al-Shaddadah, then to Raqqah where he was wounded in an airstrike in 2016. He was jailed for fleeing, and then released. The two later met and married in October 2015, after which he was arrested again.
Nejara, 23, helped run a network that apparently recruited Europeans to join Daesh. He appeared in a video titled "Paris has collapsed" a week after a series of violent attacks targeting cafes and a concert hall in the French capital city of Paris on November 13, 2015, which took the lives of at least 129 people. The video shows a fictitious destruction of the Eiffel Tower, according to Jean-Charles Brisard of the Center of the Analysis of Terrorism.
Nejara, speaking before the judge, said that he was forced to make the video because Daesh was looking for someone who could speak French. He said he was threatened with prison, when he requested to appear masked in the video, before the militant outfit agreed to his request.
On Sunday, a criminal court in the Iraqi capital Baghdad sentenced three French Daesh members to death. A fourth was handed down the death sentence on Monday. They can appeal their sentences within a month.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday that his government is working to spare the French men sentenced to death from execution.
He said the Daesh militants should be tried where they committed their crimes.
“We are multiplying efforts to avoid the death penalty for these ... French people,” he said on France-Inter radio station. He didn't elaborate, but said he had held talks with Iraqi President Adel Abdul Mahdi about the case.
Iraq has been trying hundreds of suspected Daesh members, many of whom were detained as the outfit’s strongholds crumbled throughout Iraq. This includes hundreds of foreigners.
Hundreds of European nationals traveled to the Middle East to join Daesh after the terror group captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria in mid-2014.
Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the country on December 9, 2017.
On July 10 that year, he had formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in Iraq.
In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.
Full report at:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/28/597145/Iraq-sentences-two-more-French-citizens-to-death-for-joining-Daesh
--------
Nechirvan Barzani elected president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan
May 28, 2019
Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers have elected Nechirvan Barzani as president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Barzani, who had been serving as regional prime minister since 2006, won 68 votes from the 81 lawmakers present in the 111-seat chamber on Tuesday.
The vote was boycotted by members of the parliament’s second biggest party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and two smaller parties amid a rift between the main political forces in the region.
The 52-year-old Barzani, the deputy leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, is the nephew of the previous and only other holder of the office, Masoud Barzani.
The post has been vacant since November 2017, when the former president resigned after Kurdistan held a controversial independence referendum.
In September 2017, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) defied stern warnings from the central government in Baghdad and several other states, and held a referendum on separation from mainland Iraq. Kurdish officials said a majority of people had voted ‘Yes’ to secession.
In response, the central government called the vote “unconstitutional” and adopted a series of bans against Erbil.
Full report at:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/28/597126/Iraq-Kurdistan-region-president-Nechirvan-Barzani
--------
Africa
Militants Kill 25 Nigerian Soldiers, Some Civilians, Sources Report
May 25, 2019
MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA —
Islamist insurgents killed at least 25 soldiers and a number of civilians in an
ambush in northeast Nigeria on Saturday morning, two security sources said, the second deadly attack on the army this week.
Militants opened fire as the soldiers were escorting a groups of evacuees from a village in Borno state, where Boko Haram and other militants have been fighting for a decade.
"They ambushed and surrounded the vehicles of both the soldiers and the civilians and opened fire on them," said one of the sources, part of a vigilante group that fights alongside the military against the insurgencies. "They exchanged fire for some minutes before the Boko Haram militants overpowered the soldiers."
Nigeria's government has said the Boko Haram insurgency and the rival Islamic State West Africa Province group are on their last legs.
Tough fight
But sustained efforts to eradicate the militants have failed and the military continues to suffer heavy losses. The war has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced millions more.
The soldiers were evacuating villages in the region on Saturday to carry out operations against Boko Haram, the sources said. One said the civilian convoy had as many as 50 vehicles.
Nigerian military spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Islamic State's West Africa branch claimed responsibility for a raid in Nigeria in which it said 20 soldiers had been killed, and released a video purporting to show the execution of nine other Nigerian soldiers.
https://www.voanews.com/a/militants-kill-25-nigerian-soldiers-some-civilians-sources-report/4932514.html
--------
ISIS commander arrested in Libya, Interior Ministry confirms
May 27, 2019
The Ministry of Interior said Sunday that security forces managed to arrest ISIS Amir Al-Hisbah as well as another militant linked to al-Qaeda last month, without disclosing further details.
In a statement, the ministry confirmed its cooperation with friendly and neighbouring states in joint programs to combat crime and terrorism.
Regarding the war on Tripoli, the ministry said it will present evidence to the UN Security Council proving the involvement of warlord Khalifa Haftar's militias in war crimes and the integration of terrorist and criminal groups into their ranks.
The ministry clarified in the statement that it had detected some radical groups involved in the aggression on Tripoli, drawing on a religious fatwa that accuses the party fighting to defend Tripoli as being non-Muslims.
Full report at:
https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/isis-commander-arrested-libya-interior-ministry-confirms
--------
Boko Haram Kills 7 Villagers In Borno, Steals Food
MAY 27, 2019
At least 7 persons have been killed and two critically injured when Boko Haram terrorists attacked Jere local council area of Borno state on Monday morning, SaharaReporters can confirm.
The terrorists stormed Wulari Bulama-Isa village behind Bakassi IDP camp near Maiduguri at about 2 am is during Moslem Subhi prayer, slaughtering no less than seven persons.
Sources in the Civilian Joint Task Force who spoke to SaharaReporters said those who were killed include members of the CJTF.
The killing they said was selective and the invaders looted and stole foodstuff from the villagers.
One resident Bulama Bashir who confirmed the incident said, " We could not bath the deceased as a result of the blood stain, they slit their throats; none of them were shot.
Full report at:
http://saharareporters.com/2019/05/27/boko-haram-kills-7-villagers-borno-steals-food
--------
Five dead in Boko Haram attack on Chadian army base
26/05/2019
Four soldiers and a cameraman died on Saturday night from an attack by Boko Haram on the northern shore of Lake Chad.
Members of the terrorist group attacked Chadian army base around one o’clock in the morning killing a soldier. Meanwhile a delegation of the army general staff on the ground, had one of the convoy’s vehicles reportedly hit a mine killing two soldiers on the spot, while a third one died a few hours later as a result of his injuries.
Obed Nangbatna, a national television cameraman who was part of the mission also die from a hemorrhage.
Full report at:
https://www.africanews.com/2019/05/26/five-dead-in-boko-haram-attack-on-chadian-army-base/
--------
U.S. airstrike kills 3 IS fighters in northern Somalia
2019-05-25
MOGADISHU, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The United States military said on Saturday that it killed three Islamic State (IS) fighters in Somalia's Puntland region in an air attack on Friday.
The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement that no civilians were killed or injured in the strike which was conducted in cooperation with Somali government targeting ISIS (the IS) encampment in the Golis Mountains.
The statement said the Golis Mountains are a known area for al-Shabab camps and ongoing fighting between al-Shabab and ISIS Somalia.
Robert Huston, deputy director of operations at AFRICOM, said persistent pressure on the network ensures the threat is contained while degrading al-Shabab capabilities.
Full report at:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/25/c_138089338.htm
--------
Somalia's frightening network of Islamist spies
27 May 2019
Somalia's militant Islamists remain relatively undiminished, despite a 12-year UN-backed campaign against them, largely thanks to its sophisticated web of spies, writes the BBC's Mary Harper.
Often, when I return to the UK from Somalia, I get a phone call from al-Shabab. It usually happens even before I talk to my family, while I am waiting for my luggage or in a taxi on the way home.
Once, after a trip to the south-western Somali town of Baidoa, I was given a detailed account of what I had done and where I had been.
"You walked to a bank but it was shut. You knocked on the doors and tried to open them. You took some photos," said the man from al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda.
"Your bodyguards were not at all professional. They were wandering about, chatting amongst themselves with their guns slung around their shoulders, instead of keeping watch over you."
When I ask members of al-Shabab how they know all these things, how they can be so accurate, my contacts simply tell me they have friends everywhere.
I tell them I am scared they know my itinerary so intimately, but they tell me not to worry as they have far more important targets than me. However, they do say I could be in "the wrong place at the wrong time" and suffer the consequences.
'They are everywhere'
I presume some of the people who track my movements in Somalia are part of the militant group's ruthless intelligence wing, the Amniyat. Others might be people who work on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, receiving small sums for imparting information.
Even more terrifying is the way the militants track people they want to recruit, threaten or kill.
"Al-Shabab are like djinns [spirits]. They are everywhere," said one young man the militants wanted to punish because he sold fridges and air conditioners to members of the UN-backed Somali government and the African Union intervention force [Amisom], both considered enemies by al-Shabab.
Another man who had defected from al-Shabab explained how, one day, a member of the group called him to tell him the colour of the shirt he was wearing and which street he was walking down on a particular day at a particular time.
Others have spoken about how militants come to their houses and places of work inside Mogadishu to threaten or try to recruit them. All this, despite the fact that the group "withdrew" from the capital in August 2011.
"The Amniyat is the veins of the organisation. It is all-powerful. If the Amniyat was destroyed, there would be no al-Shabab," says Hussein Sheikh Ali, a former security adviser to the Somali president and director of the Hiraal Institute, a Mogadishu-based think tank.
He says the Amniyat is more than an intelligence unit.
"It literally controls al-Shabab. As well as its core purpose which is intelligence gathering, it deals with sensitive areas of security. If a senior member of al-Shabab is sick or injured, the Amniyat will deal with it. It manages finances of a secret and delicate nature, and plans the big terror attacks inside and outside the country."
People in the Amniyat are better paid than other members of the movement. They have spread their tentacles far and wide, including in place considered to be safe.
'At home in enemy territory'
One time, when I didn't leave the heavily protected international airport, and stayed in accommodation on the base, a militant called to say it knew I had been in Somalia.
Mohamed Mubarak, a researcher based in Mogadishu, estimates that the number of people in the Amniyat ranges from between 500 and 1,000.
"They are designed to live in enemy territory. They spend most of their time in government territory," he says.
According to Mr Mubarak, women play a crucial role in helping members of the Amniyat.
"Women support the Amniyat. They are part of its infrastructure. Al-Shabab wives have to help them by providing a bed for the night, feeding them, transporting things for them and passing on messages."
The Amniyat is highly secretive. Its members hide their identities from each other. Mr Mubarak explains how Amniyat cells do not know the details of other cells. Members cover their faces when they meet amongst themselves, even within the same cell.
"Only their leaders know their faces," he says.
'Like Stalinist secret police'
The Amniyat has a number of different departments. The main one focuses on intelligence and counter-intelligence, while others deal with bombings and assassinations.
People who defect from al-Shabab are terrified the Amniyat will track them down.
Defectors in a rehabilitation centre said the only way they could be safe from al-Shabab would be to flee Somalia.
"Al-Shabab calls me on the phone," said one man who had fought with the group for six years. "I will try to melt away in a big city like Mogadishu or Baidoa, but I am scared they will find me there. I will only be safe if I go to Europe or the Gulf."
Although the US has increased airstrikes in Somalia in recent months, it is facing great difficulty in destroying al-Shabab. This is partly because so many members of the Amniyat hide in plain sight in government territory, making them impossible to target.
According to Richard Barrett, a former director of British global counter-terrorism operations who now works in Somalia, the Aminyat is "the elite of al-Shabab, with a reputation both inside and outside the movement as efficient, ruthless and disciplined".
Full report at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48390166
--------
Four killed in new church attack in Burkina Faso
27 May 2019
Four people were killed in an attack on a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso, the latest in a string of assaults on Christian places of worship in the region.
"The Christian community of Toulfe was the target of a terrorist attack gathered for Sunday prayers," the bishop of Ouahigouya, Justin Kientega, said in a statement on Sunday. "The attack left four of the faithful dead."
A security source told AFP news agency "heavily armed individuals attacked the church … as the faithful were celebrating Sunday mass" in the town of Toulfe, 240km northwest of the capital Ouagadougou.
"[The attack] caused panic in the village and many residents sought cover in their homes or in the bush," a local resident said.
Last week, gunmen killed four Catholics in a religious procession, days after a priest and five others were murdered at mass.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks that threaten to upend traditionally peaceful relations between majority Muslims and Christians who make up one-quarter of the country.
The government has blamed unnamed armed groups operating in the country and Africa's surrounding Sahel region.
Raids began in 2015 in the north before singling out Ouagadougou and other regions, notably in the east.
Nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015 - mainly in hit-and-run raids, according to an AFP tally.
Armed groups target Christian clergy as well as Muslim scholar they do not consider sufficiently conservative in a country where traditionally both religions have co-existed peaceably.
France has deployed 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission code named Barkhane to help local forces flush out fighters.
Full report at:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/killed-church-attack-burkina-faso-190526192956228.html
--------
Report: Top militant suspect transferred to Egypt from eastern Libya
29 May 2019
Top Egyptian militant suspect Hisham al-Ashmawy was transferred to Egypt from eastern Libya in a military aircraft, Egyptian state television said on Wednesday.
Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer, was apprehended in the Libyan city of Derna late last year and has been long sought by Cairo on charges of orchestrating a deadly desert ambush on police and other high-profile attacks.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2019/05/29/Report-Top-militant-suspect-transferred-to-Egypt-from-eastern-Libya.html
--------
North America
Kushner in Mideast to drum up support for peace plan
28 May 2019
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is in the Middle East to drum up support for his as-yet unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, according to a White House statement published on Tuesday.
A White House official said that Kushner, along with Trump’s special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt and special Iran envoy Brian Hook, are in Morocco and will visit Jordan and Israel later this week.
The trip comes as the US prepares to roll out the economic portion of the plan at a conference in Bahrain in late June.
The Palestinians have already rejected the peace plan and have urged Arab nations to avoid the conference.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2019/05/28/Kushner-in-Mideast-to-drum-up-support-for-peace-plan.html
--------
Bolton: Ships sabotaged off UAE coast attacked ‘almost certainly by Iran’
29 May 2019
US National Security Adviser John Bolton says the ships sabotaged off the UAE coast “were navel mines almost certainly by Iran”.
In statements made on Wednesday during his visit to the UAE, Bolton added that the US is very confident that they, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia are all on the same page about the priority and risk of an Iran with nuclear weapons.
Bolton had arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday ahead of talks scheduled for Wednesday.
“We are consulting more closely with our allies in the region to discuss what to do next this is one of the reasons I’m here,” Bolton said.
Tensions have risen between Iran and the United States after an attack this month on oil tankers in the Gulf. Washington blamed the attacks on Tehran, which denied the accusations.
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2019/05/29/Bolton-Ships-sabotaged-off-UAE-coast-attacked-almost-certainly-by-Iran-.html
--------
US calls for end to violence in Syria's Idlib
Michael Hernandez
28.05.2019
WASHINGTON
Ongoing hostilities between the Syrian regime and its allies, and opposition forces in northwestern Syria must end immediately, the U.S. said Tuesday.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told reporters that Washington "continues to be alarmed" by airstrikes being carried out by Russia and the Syrian regime in Idlib province.
"Indiscriminate attacks on civilians and public infrastructure such as schools, markets and hospitals is a reckless escalation of the conflict and is unacceptable," she said. "The relentless violence is generating massive civilian displacement in Idlib."
Ortagus estimated that roughly 300,000 people have been forced to flee violence in Idlib, just hours after the UN said the number of persons displaced from the ongoing conflict is around 270,000.
Some 1.5 million people currently reside in Idlib, roughly half of whom have been displaced from other parts of the country.
Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be expressly prohibited.
The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the ceasefire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.
Earlier Tuesday, Ursula Mueller, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' top humanitarian affairs official, lambasted the Security Council for a history of inaction in Syria, questioning what it will do to prevent another catastrophe, this time in Idlib.
"Can't this council take any concrete action when attacks on schools and hospitals have become a war tactic that no longer sparks outrage?
Full report at:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-calls-for-end-to-violence-in-syrias-idlib/1491589
--------
Turkish aid body hosts fast-breaking meal in Cuba
Mehmet Alaca
28.05.2019
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) hosted a fast-breaking meal, or iftar, Tuesday in the Cuban capital of Havana.
TIKA has been boosting ties between Turkey and the Latin American and Caribbean region, Turkey's Ambassador to Cuba, Ayse Berris Ekinci, said during the event.
The iftar was also attended by students studying in Cuba from Syria, Yemen, Chad and other African countries, representatives of the Islamic Council of Cuba, TIKA and Turkish Airlines officials as well as Turkish businesspeople, diplomatic representatives and officials from Cuban state television and radio.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/turkish-aid-body-hosts-fast-breaking-meal-in-cuba/1491502
--------
UN chief's aide rips Security Council over Idlib
28.05.2019
WASHINGTON
A top aide to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres tore into the Security Council on Tuesday, lambasting it for a history of inaction in Syria and questioning what it will do to prevent another catastrophe in the country's northwest.
"There is no question today about whether you, Members of this Council, are aware of the tragic humanitarian situation in Syria -- you clearly are," Ursula Mueller, Guterres' humanitarian affairs official, told the council.
"The question today is what you will do to protect civilians in Idlib -- the latest example of an entirely known, predictable, and preventable humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes," she added.
Some 1.5 million people currently reside in Idlib, roughly half of whom have been displaced from other parts of the country.
Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression would be expressly prohibited.
The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the ceasefire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.
Four civilians were killed in a regime attack in the opposition-held province, Syria's White Helmets civil defense agency said Tuesday, one day after it reported that 17 civilians were killed in separate attacks.
More than 160 civilians have been killed and roughly 270,000 others have been displaced this month alone due to heavy shelling and aerial bombardment between the regime and opposition forces, according to the UN.
Amid the ongoing attacks, Mueller fumed at the Security Council during Tuesday's session.
"Can't this Council take any concrete action when attacks on schools and hospitals have become a war tactic that no longer sparks outrage?
Full report at:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/un-chiefs-aide-rips-security-council-over-idlib/1491466
--------
Truce only when US declares exit timetable, Taliban
Elena Teslova
28.05.2019
A Taliban official on Tuesday categorically ruled out any immediate ceasefire in Afghanistan, but said it was possible after the withdrawal of foreign troops.
"The political office in Doha is capable to establish a ceasefire all over the country. But our policy is that all foreign forces should leave Afghanistan and for that we are holding talks with Americans,” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Suhail Shaheen told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.
He said after the announcement of a timetable for withdrawal by foreign forces, the Afghans would sit together to chalk out a mutually agreed agenda.
“When there is bombardment, when there are night raids, when the country is occupied, how a ceasefire can be possible?" Shaheen asked.
Shaheen, said his delegation was in to Moscow to attend a meeting, marking the centenary of relation between Afghanistan and Russia. He added that there was no plan to hold talks with representatives of Afghan government on the sidelines of the meeting.
"This meeting is not about intra-Afghan dialogue, it is about celebration of 100 years of relations between the two countries. This was the context. This meeting was only about relations between the two countries -- Russia and Afghanistan -- to discuss their ups and downs, and about our expectation of good relations in future with Russia," he said.
Asked about the talks between his group and Afghan government, Shaheen said Afghans would sit together, only after the withdrawal of foreign forces. He said it was up to Afghan people to decide who should be included in that gathering.
"We are talking to Afghans but not to the Afghan government and that is based on our policy because the country is still occupied. And the timetable of withdrawal of the foreign forces has not been announced, yet. When it is announced, then we will talk and sit together with Afghans and decide about the future," he said.
Mohammad Suhail Shaheen also added that the Taliban hoped progress in achieving peace in Afghanistan.
"We see some progress in achieving peace. We can say we hope and expect to reach to a sustainable peace in Afghanistan. That is why we are talking to Americans."
The Taliban's spokesman described last meetings with the interlocutors "fruitful".
He said Tuesday meeting in Moscow was a chance for Afghans to sit together and exchange views about future of Afghanistan in order to resolve the crisis and address to the problems of Afghanistan.
Full report at:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/truce-only-when-us-declares-exit-timetable-taliban-/1491307
--------
Pakistan
Pakistan arrests 6 for collecting funds for militant groups
May 29, 2019
MULTAN, Pakistan – Pakistani police say six people have been arrested for allegedly collecting funds for two outlawed militant organizations.
Muhammad Ashraf, an official with the Punjabi police's counterterrorism department, said Saturday that the arrests were part of crackdown against terror financing in the province.
He said those arrested were raising money for Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but did not disclose the amount of money recovered.
The Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility a deadly Feb. 14 suicide attack in the Indian-held portion of the disputed Kashmir region. The bombing sharply raised tensions between India and Pakistan and brought the two nuclear rivals to the brink of war.
The leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed was added to the United Nations' sanctions blacklist earlier this month.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been involved in the killing of minority Shiites.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/pakistan-arrests-6-for-collecting-funds-for-militant-groups
--------
Pak's nukes make its defence 'invincible', says Sharif from jail
May 28, 2019
As Pakistan Tuesday marked the 21st anniversary of its atomic tests, jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said that his decision to make the country a nuclear power has made its defence "invincible."
On May 28, 1998 Pakistan carried out five nuclear tests at Chaghi in Balochistan province during Sharif's tenure as prime minister. The day is since observed as Youm-e-Takbeer in Pakistan.
Pakistan's nuclear tests came days after India successfully carried out the atomic tests in Pokhran on May 11.
"May 28 is an unforgettable day in the history of Pakistan. On this day, the defence of the country was made invincible when Pakistan emerged on the world map as a nuclear power," 69-year-old Sharif, supremo of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said in a message which was shared on his party's Twitter handle.
"Youm-e-Takbeer is a day of nation's honour. A sign of nation's unprecedented bravery, it also gives a message to the country's enemies that there would be dire consequences in case of any misadventure against Pakistan," he said in the message from the Kot Lakhpat jail where he is currently undergoing a seven-year-sentence in a corruption case.
Sharif said his government was threatened with economic sanctions in case of the atomic tests. He also said that Pakistan was offered billions of dollars for not conducting the tests. "But I accepted all the challenges and went ahead with the tests," he said.
The PML-N chief claimed that external forces hatched conspiracies against him for making the country an economic power for his approval of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor due to which he was being punished - first forced to go on exile and later sentenced to jail.
"In the solitary confinement, I assure the nation that I will never compromise on the constitutional rights of the people, people's right to vote and country's security and sovereignty," he said.
Sharif has been serving a seven-year prison term at the jail since December 24, 2018 when an accountability court convicted him in one of the three corruption cases filed in the wake of the apex court's July 28, 2017 order in Panama Papers case.
Full report at:
https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/pak-s-nukes-make-its-defence-invincible-says-sharif-from-jail-119052800916_1.html
--------
PM Imran to lead Pakistani delegation at OIC summit in Makkah
May 29, 2019
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will represent Pakistan at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Saudi Arabia on May 31.
Saudi King Salman invited 57 members of the OIC to attend the summit, Arab News reported, adding that key issues facing the Muslim world, including “strengthening unity among Muslim states amid rising tensions in the Arabian Gulf”, will be discussed at the two-day summit.
The fourth session of the summit will be held in Makkah.
While speaking to media before departing for Saudi Arabia, Qureshi said he was going to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC which would set the tone for the summit.
He said that the situation in Iran and the rising tensions would be discussed during the meeting, and added that Pakistan would present its point of view.
Qureshi said that he would speak to his counterparts and the OIC secretary general at the sidelines of the meeting. He added that a session of the Kashmir Contact group is also expected.
The OIC summit is among three summits Saudi Arabia is hosting in Makkah this week to allow US ally Riyadh the chance to present unified Islamic, Arab and Gulf fronts against its arch-rival Tehran.
Iran itself has not yet confirmed whether it will attend the meeting of the OIC, of which it is a member.
Tensions have soared in the Gulf, with the United States deploying an aircraft carrier and bombers there over alleged threats from Iran.
Washington has reinstated tough sanctions against Tehran and decided to deploy 1,500 more troops to the Middle East amid sabotage attacks on oil facilities.
Two Saudi oil tankers, among four vessels, were the targets of mysterious acts of sabotage off the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this month, and Iran-aligned Yemeni rebels have stepped up drone attacks on the kingdom — one of which resulted in the temporary shutdown of a major oil pipeline.
Tehran has repeatedly threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 35 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil passes.
Full report at:
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/05/28/qureshi-leaves-for-saudi-arabia-to-attend-oics-council-of-foreign-ministers/
--------
Militants hit army post in northwest Pakistan, kill soldier
By Munir Ahmed
May 27, 2019
ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani military said Monday militants attacked an army post in a troubled region bordering Afghanistan where ethnic tensions have recently flared up with minority Pashtuns, triggering a shootout that killed a soldier.
It remained unclear who was behind the attack late Sunday on the Makki Garh security post in North Waziristan. Five soldiers were also wounded in the clashes.
Just hours earlier, authorities said a minority Pashtun group led by two lawmakers attacked another army post in the same region, the Khar Kamar post, setting off a shootout that killed three activists. According to the army, lawmakers Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar were seeking to pressure authorities to release terror suspects arrested recently in North Waziristan.
Wazir and Dawar represent a Pashtun rights group that has denounced what it says is the military’s excessive use of force against tribesmen in the region. Wazir and eight others were arrested in the Khar Kamar incident.
Dawar said they attacked no one and claimed their convoy was targeted by the security forces while traveling to a planned protest rally in the area.
The military later said troops found five bullet-riddled bodies about a mile away from the Khar Kamar post, but it was unclear who the victims were and who killed them.
Elsewhere, security officials arrested three suspected militants in two raids in eastern Punjab province, foiling possible attacks, the province’s counter-terrorism department said Sunday.
In the first raid, in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, a man was arrested for suspected links to the Islamic State group, the agency said. Grenades and “funds for terrorism financing” were seized during the operation. In the second raid, two members of the outlawed Sunni Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group were arrested for planning to target minority Shiites.
Full report at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-arrests-3-suspects-in-2-raids-on-militant-hideouts/2019/05/27/82364ad0-8039-11e9-b585-e36b16a531aa_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.14931ad86103
--------
3 ISIS and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Terrorists Arrested in Pakistan
May 27, 2019
Lahore: Three terrorists belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militant groups have been arrested by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials in Pakistan's Punjab province.
According the CTD of Punjab police, separate teams raided whereabouts of the suspected terrorists in D G Khan and Sialkot districts and arrested the three terrorists on Sunday.
In the first raid, the CTD said it arrested an active member of ISIS, Mohammad Sadaqat, in D G Khan, some 400-km from Lahore and recovered hand grenades and weapons. It said Sadaqat along with his accomplices wanted to target officials of law enforcement agencies.
It said the suspect is being interrogated and his other accomplices in the area will also be arrested.
In the raid in Sialkot, some 130-km from Lahore, two terrorists who were involved in sectarian killings were arrested on Sunday.
The CTD said both suspects are members of LeJ and they were involved in killing of some people of Shia sect. Weapons have been recovered from them. They have been shifted to undisclosed location for investigation.
The CTD last week arrested six members of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and (LeJ) from different parts of Punjab province for collecting funds for "financing terrorism".
"The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab government in a massive crackdown has arrested six activists of the proscribed organisations from various parts of the province for collecting funds for financing terrorism," the CTD said.
It said Muhammad Zahid and Irfan Ahmad of JeM were arrested from Gujranwala, and Zafar Iqbal of JeM from Rawalpindi. Similarly, Muhammad Hanzala and Hamza of LeJ were arrested from Lahore while Ijaz Ahmad of the same banned organisation from Multan.
The CTD said those arrested were collecting funds for terror financing for their proscribed organisations JeM and LeJ.
"No member of any proscribed organisation will be allowed to collect funds for financing terrorism and extremism under the law of land, the CTD said.
The Pakistan government had arrested over 100 members of banned outfits including JeM chief Masood Azhar's son and brother and taken control of JeM, JuD and FIF properties including seminaries and mosques across the country following immense international pressure built up after the Pulwama attack in February.
Full report at:
https://www.news18.com/news/world/3-isis-and-lashkar-e-jhangvi-terrorists-arrested-in-pakistan-2161461.html
--------
Internal politics stopped India’s invite to Modi's swearing-in: Pak FM
May 28, 2019
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that internal politics in India has stopped New Delhi from sending an invitation to Prime Minister Imran Khan for his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony on Thursday.
Speaking to local media, Qureshi explained that BJP’s election campaign had focused entirely on Pakistan-bashing. “India’s internal politics did not permit the government to extend an invitation to Khan. It was unwise to expect that New Delhi could get rid of this narrative soon,” the FM said.
He said relations between India and Pakistan were based on reciprocity and PM Khan had congratulated PM Modi as a goodwill gesture when his party had secured a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha polls. “The Indian PM had congratulated Imran Khan after he won the general election last year and wrote a letter as well,” Qureshi said.
The minister said a meeting for the sake of dialogue to find a solution to the Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek disputes would be more significant than attending the swearing-in ceremony. “Finding a new way to resume dialogue is essential if PM Modi wants development of this region. The only way is to sit with Pakistan and find solutions to the problems through consultations,” Qureshi said.
According to diplomatic sources, Modi and Khan could still meet at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan next month.
An Indian government statement on Monday said the leaders of Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Bhutan — all members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) alongside India — have been invited to Modi’s swearing-in. The leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Mauritius have also been invited.
Full report at:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-foreign-minister-says-indias-internal-politics-stopped-delhi-from-inviting-imran-to-modi-oath-taking/articleshow/69549230.cms
--------
Rights groups call for investigation of killing of Pakistani activists
May 28, 2019
ISLAMABAD: Human rights groups have called on Pakistan to investigate the killing of three people by the military during a protest by ethnic minority Pashtun people against heavy-handed treatment by the security forces.
The army said its troops exchanged fire with protesters on Sunday when they assaulted a security post in the northwest, near the Afghan border.
The protesters were complaining about the mistreatment of a woman by soldiers.
The violence is the most serious incident in a long-running confrontation between the authorities and the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which campaigns for civil rights for the Pashtun people.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was alarmed by the use of military force and called for a parliamentary commission to investigate.
"The Pakistani government should immediately order an independent and effective investigation into the reported killing of at least three activists," the rights group Amnesty International said in a statement.
The army said 10 protesters and five soldiers were wounded. The PTM said 30 people were wounded.
Pashtuns live in northwest Pakistan and southeast Afghanistan, divided by a colonial-era border that Afghanistan has never recognised.
The military has accused the PTM of being funded by foreign intelligence agencies - a veiled reference to old rival India and its Afghan allies - to stoke unrest in Pakistan's Pashtun lands after the Pakistani army defeated Islamist militants there.
The PTM rejects the accusation, saying it is a grassroots movement working for the rights of Pashtun people, who it says suffered through years of conflict between the security forces and Islamists.
Two Pashtun members of parliament were at the protests and one was arrested and the other wounded.
Full report at:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/rights-groups-call-for-investigation-of-killing-of-pakistani-activists/articleshow/69545929.cms
--------
Defence secretary traces terror link to N. Waziristan attack
May 29, 2019
ISLAMABAD/KHAR: Defence Secretary retired Lt Gen Ikramul Haq on Tuesday informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence that the recent incident in North Waziristan’s Boyya area had its roots in the arrest of two suspects for their alleged involvement in the terrorist attack on an army check post last month.
He made it clear that no one would be allowed to challenge the writ of the state.
According to the military, the Kharqamar check post in Boyya was attacked by a mob following which the troops retaliated. The incident left at least three people dead and five soldiers wounded.
The defence secretary said a member of the National Assembly, Mohsin Dawar, had started a sit-in on May 26 against the detention of two suspects in connection with the last month’s attack on the army check post. He said the tribal elders (Mishran) and law enforcement agencies had reached an agreement to end the agitation and release one of the suspects. However, MNAs Dawar and Ali Wazir obstructed the deal and stopped the protesters from ending their agitation, the NA committee was informed.
Both parliamentarians had a heated exchange with the troops on the scene after which the protesters pelted stones and used weapons that left five soldiers wounded, he said, adding that the mob later tried to attack the post, compelling the troops to retaliate.
The committee denounced the incident and said that a few people could not be allowed to aggravate the security situation.
“The committee unanimously condemned the attack on the forces at Kharqamar check post in North Waziristan and decided to hold a meeting of the committee in future in that area,” a statement issued by the committee on the incident said.
Bajaur jirga
Meanwhile, addressing a jirga of Tharkani and Utmankhel tribes of Bajaur district at Bajaur Scouts headquarters on Tuesday, army’s sector commander (north) Brig Naeem Akbar Raja called upon the elders and religious leaders of the tribal areas to stay vigilant in thwarting the conspiracy by some anti-state elements against peace in the region.
He said the attack on the Kharqamar checkpoint in North Waziristan had exposed the real agenda and mission of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leaders as they only wanted to sabotage peace that had been restored with the joint efforts of the tribal people and security forces.
Brig Akbar said the PTM had only been exploiting the identity of Pakhtun community for vested interests. He said peace and normalcy had been restored to the region with the joint efforts of the area people and security personnel. He said neither the security forces nor the area people would allow them to sabotage peace for their vested interests, adding that he was optimistic that the tribal people would strongly reject such elements. He said the writ of the state was the key to peace and prosperity of citizens.
He asked the jirga members to foil the nefarious agenda of such elements by keeping close watch over their activities. He advised them to protect the youth from being exploited by the PTM for their agenda to sabotage peace in their areas.
The officer said the courageous and brave residents of Bajaur had defeated the anti-state elements in the past as well. They had received appreciation not only from the security forces but also from the entire nation. After the defeat of militants and their supporters in Bajaur some years ago, Brig Akbar said, a significant increase in socio-economic activities was witnessed in the region. However, he said, some elements for their vested interests were trying to disturb peace and normalcy in the area in the name of ‘Pashtun rights’.
The jirga members said they were responsible people of the region and vowed that no one would be allowed to sabotage peace in the district, which had faced militancy for years. They said Bajaur residents were peace-loving people and there was consensus among them not to provide space to the anti-peace elements in the region.
They said the people of Bajaur very well understood the importance of peace as normalcy had been restored to the area after a lot of sacrifices. They said they would continue to make efforts to strengthen the peaceful environment in the region.
Full report at:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1485273/defence-secretary-traces-terror-link-to-n-waziristan-attack
--------
Southeast Asia
Militants Attack Soldiers in Southern Philippines, Leaving 2 Children Dead
By Jason Gutierrez
May 26, 2019
MANILA — Militants linked to the Islamic State attacked a group of soldiers on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, setting off a clash that left two children dead, the military said on Sunday.
Six militants from the insurgent group, known as Abu Sayyaf, were also killed in the gun battle on Saturday in a remote village near the town of Patikul, in Sulu Province, the military said. Five soldiers and two civilians were wounded.
The soldiers had been sent to the area, where local Islamist insurgencies have long battled the state, to discuss development projects with village elders. While those discussions were underway, they were attacked by about 30 Abu Sayyaf militants.
Capt. Jaime Abibas of the Philippine Army’s Special Forces unit said the troops had held off the militants and tried to protect villagers who were caught in the crossfire.
He said the civilians had told him: “Please help us, the Abu Sayyaf will kill us and raze our village if they are allowed to enter.”
The two children who were killed were identified as Jahida Usab, 12, and Saiful Abdun, 1.
Brig. Gen. Divino Rey Pabayo Jr., commander of Joint Task Force Sulu, said the militants were trying to keep the government from establishing a stronger presence in the area and diminishing the rebels’ sway among locals.
“The death of the two innocent children and the wounding of other civilians are indicative of the A.S.G.’s desperate actions of sowing fear among the local populace,” he said, using an abbreviation for Abu Sayyaf Group.
The weekend battle on the predominantly Muslim island of Jolo, which took place during the holy month of Ramadan, came five months after an Abu Sayyaf faction bombed a cathedral in Jolo, the capital of Sulu Province, killing 23 people and wounding about 100. The church had been a frequent target of militants, some of whom have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
President Rodrigo Duterte deployed additional forces in the region to search for the perpetrators of the church attack, for which officials blamed an Abu Sayyaf leader, Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan.
Mr. Sawadjaan is believed to have replaced Isnilon Hapilon as the regional Islamic State emir after Mr. Hapilon was killed in 2016 during the government’s successful effort to recapture the southern city of Marawi from Abu Sayyaf.
The military said that the attack on Saturday was not unexpected, because soldiers had been pursuing Mr. Sawadjaan’s fighters in the area. In February, militants fired mortar rounds at a group of soldiers conducting a medical mission in Patikul.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/world/asia/philippines-abu-sayyaf-jolo.html
--------
JB Umno Youth condemns PKR MP for gurdwara ‘buka puasa’ event
28 May 2019
BY BEN TAN
JOHOR BARU, May 28 — Johor Baru Umno Youth has condemned a “buka puasa” event that will be organised at a Sikh gurdwara here later today, claiming it was insensitive to Muslims.
Its chief Hairi Mad Shah said his party also criticised Johor Baru MP Akmal Nasrullah Nasir’s decision to attend the event.
“Umno Youth understands YB Akmal’s desire to foster unity among multiracial communities, but what he is doing is not right.
“In Islam, Ramadan is considered a holy month, the month of Allah SWT. Is it proper for this noble month that Muslims are brought to break fast in a gurdwara?” questioned Hairi in a statement today.
Hairi, who is also the Johor Umno Youth chief, explained that there are many more places that Akmal can hold the breaking fast event, such as in a mosque, surau, orphanage, old folks home and also in his own parliamentary service centre.
“He can invite multiracial and religious communities to break fast together, no problem.
“But inviting Muslims to break fast at other religious worship centres by a Muslim MP is extremely unfortunate.
“What more, when Muslims are in the last 10 days of Ramadan,” said Hairi.
He said efforts to strengthen and nourish the spirit of unity among the people in the country which are of various races, religions and beliefs should not be realised with such a practice.
Hairi said he hoped Akmal could be more sensitive to the matter so as not to affect the faith of Muslims.
“I hope that the programme’s venue be changed or cancelled to maintain the good name of the gurdwara,” he said.
Earlier today, Akmal defended his decision to hold a multicultural iftar programme in a Sikh religious compound, following criticisms by certain Muslims on social media.
The PKR politician, who was also labelled as crazy over the programme, explained that he chose a non-Muslim locale for the breaking of fast programme this evening because firstly, it is a multicultural event and secondly, it would be held in a community hall separate from the Sikh worship area.
The event, titled “Majlis Iftar Muhibbah Bersama YB Akmal Nasrullah Nasir”, is scheduled to be held at the Johor Baru Sikh Gurdwara Sahib from 6.30pm today.
Full report at:
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/05/28/jb-umno-youth-condemns-pkr-mp-for-gurdwara-buka-puasa-event/1757076
--------
Indonesian plotters aimed to kill four top security officials
28 May 2019
Unidentified plotters linked to recent violent protests against Indonesia’s president planned to kill at least four of the country’s most senior security officials, police said on Tuesday.
Police announced on Monday they had arrested six people suspected of plotting to assassinate four officials during chaos surrounding protests against the confirmation last week of President Joko Widodo’s election victory.
National police chief Tito Karnavian on Tuesday revealed the identity of the four allegedly targeted for assassination: the chief security minister, head of the intelligence agency, chief maritime minister and a special presidential security adviser.
Karnavian declined to reveal more details of the plot, or say who was suspected of being behind it.
“We are still looking into who masterminded the plot and soon we will prosecute them,” Karnavian told a joint news conference with one of the targets - chief security minister Wiranto.
Last week, eight people were killed and more than 900 hurt in two nights of clashes between supporters of defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and security forces.
Security officials said they believe the violence, which broke out after Widodo was confirmed the winner of last month’s presidential election, was organized by several groups, including one linked to ISIS extremist group and another to a retired special forces general accused of smuggling weapons to Jakarta.
National police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said on Monday that six suspected assassins had been arrested - five men and a woman - some of whom had carried weapons at last week’s protests.
He said the six had been paid 150 million rupiah ($10,434) but did not say by whom. They had been charged with possession of weapons, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“The assassination plot is intended to create fear ... we are working according to procedure and our intention is to safeguard national security,” Wiranto told the news conference.
Court challenge
Police said the suspects had revealed the identity of the targets - intelligence agency chief Budi Gunawan, Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and special adviser to the president, Gories Mere, as well as Wiranto, during interrogation.
The suspects had also carried out surveillance on the head of a private polling firm. On election day, several pollsters had showed Widodo winning the election based on a “quick count” of a sample of votes cast.
On Monday, police showed reporters a number of weapons they said they had seized from the suspects including a rifle with a telescopic sight which they said was homemade.
Calm has returned to the capital after last week’s protests but 40,000 police and soldiers remain on duty. Restrictions on social media to prevent the spread of hoaxes have been lifted.
Prabowo’s political party, Gerindra, denied any links to the clashes and accused the police of brutality against their supporters.
Prabowo alleged “massive cheating and irregularities” in the election and refused to concede defeat. Election authorities said Widodo won more than 85 million of the 154 million votes cast.
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2019/05/28/Indonesian-plotters-aimed-to-kill-four-top-security-officials-.html
--------
Three killed in Ramadan violence in restive Thai south
28 May 2019
Two people, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in a market place bombing in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, a military spokesman said Tuesday -- an apparent retaliatory attack for the killing of a wanted rebel leader.
Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, have since 2004 been plagued with conflict between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state, which annexed the region around a century ago.
Around 7,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in violence that rarely makes international headlines despite taking place a few hours south of some of Thailand’s tourist hotspots.
On Monday afternoon, the insurgents detonated a motorcycle bomb at a crowded market place in Nong Chik, Pattani province, killing two civilians.
“A 14-year-old boy and a 38-year-old woman died,” Colonel Thanawee Suwannathat, spokesman for the southern army, told AFP.
Four military rangers were wounded in the blast.
The bombing appeared to be in “retaliation” for the death of a fugitive suspected rebel leader in neighboring Yala province earlier in the day, who was shot dead as authorities surrounded his house, Thanawee told AFP.
The 37-year-old suspect, named as Abdulloh Lateh, was “head of operations” in the Yaha district.
The highly secretive rebels, who are pushing for autonomy from Thailand, operate in small village cells, with their senior leaders based overseas far from the reach of Thai authorities.
The grinding conflict is characterized by tit-for-tat attacks that usually target symbols of the Thai state and its security forces but civilians from both Muslim and Buddhist communities often get caught in the crossfire.
The region usually sees an uptick in violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends next week.
Monday’s violence came a day after another bomb attack in Songkhla province killed a police officer at a checkpoint, wounding three others.
Video footage of Sunday’s attack showed a plume of thick smoke as the blast went off, leaving a police officer’s body lying in the middle of the road.
Thailand’s junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha -- who is expected to return as a civilian prime minister in the coming days -- condemned the latest attacks as “inhuman”.
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2019/05/28/Three-killed-in-Ramadan-violence-in-restive-Thai-south.html
--------
Europe
Danish prof equates Islam with Nazism in controversial party ad
May 28, 2019
The Danish anti-immigration party Stram Kurs ("Hard Line"), which idenfies itself as a group of "ethno-nationalist utilitarians", has presented 82-year-old psychology professor Helmuth Nyborg as one of its top candidates.
In a film featured on the TV2 website, Nyborg has argued that Islam is a "dangerous totalitarian system" on par with socialism and Nazism and warned that it is taking over Denmark.
"My childhood was destroyed by Nazism. I learned to distance myself from totalitarian systems. When I became interested in demographics — population forecasting and development — I discovered that Denmark is being taken over by yet another totalitarian system. Namely, Islam", Nyborg proclaimed in TV2's project "Speaking from the beer crate", where candidates share their thoughts while standing on an empty beer crate.
In 1966 <…> I entered university and entered Marxist milieus. There, I learned that socialism was as totalitarian as Nazism. I also had to distance myself from that as well", Nyborg explained in his "beer crate speech".
On TV2's Facebook page, Nyborg's speech was met with mixed reactions. Some have accused the professor of holding "fascist" views, while others had another take on his controversial opinion.
"He is old enough to remember what the resistance people said after the war: 'never again'. And remember that nationalism only leads to war and misery", a user commented.
Nyborg is a controversial figure among the Danish public for his research on topics such as the inheritance of intelligence and the relationship between sex and intelligence. In one of his pieces, he reported a five-point average IQ difference in favour of men, which has led to strong reactions in the Danish public and academia. In another article, he argued that immigration from third-world countries to Denmark would cause a dysgenic effect on the country's average IQ over time.
Prior to his career as an intelligence researcher at Aarhus University, Helmuth Nyborg spent time as a sailor and a world-class canoeist, winning a bronze medal at the 1960 summer Olympics in Rome.
Despite only being founded in 2017, Stram Kurs has quickly risen to prominence, first through controversial street performances such as Quran burnings, which provoked mass unrest. Today, 120,000 Danes are estimated to throw their weight behind the Islam-critical party, which seeks to ban Islam and expel the country's Muslims, and according to several measurements, Stram Kurs may gain seats in parliament.
https://nation.com.pk/28-May-2019/danish-prof-equates-islam-with-nazism-in-controversial-party-ad
--------
France blasts ‘dirty’ Saudi-led war, but keeps arms flow
May 28, 2019
France has urged Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to stop the “dirty war” on Yemen, but says, at the same time, that it will continue its controversial arms sales to the Persian Gulf states.
“Yes, it’s a dirty war, yes it has to be stopped, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates must stop” the fighting, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Inter radio on Tuesday.
“Yes, we must be extremely vigilant with arms sales to these two countries, which is what we are doing,” he said.
France is among the top weapons exporters to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, two key members of a coalition waging war on Yemen since March 2015. Tens of thousands have reportedly died since the onset of the warfare, which seeks to restore the former Yemeni officials, who are close to the Saudi kingdom.
Paris spurns accounts blaming it for selling weapons that are being used against civilians in the Arab world’s most impoverished nation. It also insists that the arms are being deployed in the service of “self defense.”
Last month, Disclose, an investigative reportage website, published findings from a classified French military note that said French weapons were being used in the war.
Three Disclose reporters were subsequently questioned by France’s domestic intelligence agency, a move that drew protests from press freedom advocates, AFP reported.
Disclose has also reported plans for loading weapons onto two France-bound Saudi-flagged vessels.
Pressure resulting from the first disclosure, which came earlier in May, prompted Riyadh to decide against picking up the cargo.
Later, the whistleblower said another Saudi Arabian cargo ship was set to arrive in the south of France on Tuesday to pick up munitions for French Caesar cannons.
The cargo, it said, would be loaded at the Mediterranean port of Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille.
“I learned about the imminent arrival of the Bahri Tabuk cargo ship this morning,” the French news agency cited Pierre Dharreville, an MP for the Fos-sur-Mer region, as telling journalists, and calling for a “moratorium” on arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless, the spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, which has been defending the country against the Saudi-led invasion, welcomed Le Drian’s remarks, Lebanon’s al-Manar television network reported.
Full report at:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/28/597147/France-Saudi-Arabia-United-Arab-Emirates-war-Yemen-weapons
--------
A Nazi sympathizer pleaded guilty to defacing a synagogue. His lawyer says conservatives helped radicalize him.
By Katie Mettler
May 27, 2019
After Nolan Brewer pleaded guilty to charges in connection with painting swastikas on an Indiana synagogue’s property and setting the yard ablaze, his attorney argued in court documents that the 21-year-old man did not deserve prison time.
He had been influenced heavily by his wife, Kiyomi Brewer, his attorney wrote in a sentencing memo filed last week, and putting Nolan Brewer in prison would only further stoke the prejudiced beliefs that had inspired the couple to commit those acts.
Prisons are hotbeds for brainwashing by white supremacists, Nolan Brewer’s lawyer, Samuel Ansell, wrote in a sentencing memo filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Probation and significant community service were more appropriate punishments, Ansell wrote.
But a federal judge sentenced Nolan Brewer to three years in prison for conspiring to violate the civil rights of Congregation Shaarey Tefilla in Carmel, Ind., a crime to which Brewer pleaded guilty.
Brewer’s case has found its way to the national spotlight since the ruling not because of discourse over the length of his sentence — but because of a name Ansell mentioned in his sentencing memo: conservative commentator and Daily Wire editor in chief Ben Shapiro.
Ansell argued that Brewer’s radicalization was heavily influenced by what his wife, who was 17 at the time of the crime, had been reading online. “According to Nolan, she began with rightwing yet mainstream views such as those presented on Fox News,” Ansell’s sentencing memo said. “She then moved on to writings by Ben Shapiro and articles on Breitbart News which bridged the gap to the notorious white supremacist and anti-Semitic propaganda site Stormfront.”
Nolan Brewer “bought into the propaganda,” Ansell wrote.
Shapiro and other conservative commentators have taken to social media to defend Shapiro’s work, arguing that his identity as an Orthodox Jew made him an unlikely source for the Brewers’ anti-Semitic ideals and actions.
“Yes, if there’s one thing I’m known for — as one of the most prominent Orthodox Jews, targets of the alt-right, and critics of the alt-right in America — it’s directing Nazis to attack synagogues,” Shapiro wrote in a tweet Sunday. “What garbage.”
Shapiro is a leading conservative voice among millennials, a Harvard Law graduate with millions of social media followers. He has criticized President Trump but upholds many of the same views as the conservatives who support the president do — including outlawing abortion, repealing the Affordable Care Act and cutting taxes for the wealthy. He previously worked for Breitbart News.
This case is not the first time that Shapiro’s name has been cited by those accused of hate-motivated crimes.
In the month before Alexandre Bissonnette attacked a Quebec City mosque in 2017, killing six people and injuring 19, he visited Shapiro’s Twitter feed 93 times, according to evidence presented at Bissonnette’s sentencing hearing.
Shapiro, in an interview with Fox News last year, rejected the insinuated connection, saying:
"Now I have 1.4 million Twitter followers so I guess the idea from the left is that if somebody sees enough of my tweets they’re inevitably going to become a terrorist. Weird that I don’t have a spate of enormous terrorism across the country thanks to my Twitter followers.”
Shapiro has previously claimed that the majority of Muslims are radicalized, a false assertion citing math that was later debunked by PunditFact, a fact-checking publication run by Poynter.
Before they vandalized the synagogue in Carmel, a suburb of Indianapolis, the Brewers had been slowly radicalizing, reading white supremacist propaganda from the Internet and discussing its meaning, prosecutors said. Kiyomi Brewer had radicalized first. She participated in chat forums and would share her findings with her husband when he got home from work, prosecutors said.
At work, Nolan Brewer was not shy about his views, either, prosecutors said. Co-workers testified that he tried to recruit them into Nazi thinking and that he bragged about what he and his wife had done at the synagogue.
In late July, the couple spray-painted red and black Nazi flags and two iron crosses on the synagogue property, then set the ground ablaze, court documents state. They had previously planned to set the synagogue itself on fire with “Drano bombs,” which are “overpressure explosive devices,” but canceled their plan in the moment, prosecutors said.
The federal judge also ordered Nolan Brewer to pay the synagogue $700 in damages.
Full report at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/27/nazi-sympathizer-pleaded-guilty-defacing-synagogue-his-lawyer-says-conservatives-helped-radicalize-him/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2373b98b9e91
--------
Taliban visits Moscow as Russia plays increasing role in Afghanistan
Jonathan Brown
May 28, 2019
A senior Taliban leader has said the Islamist insurgency group “wants peace” in Afghanistan, at an event in Moscow celebrating diplomatic relations between Russia and Afghanistan.
Abdul Ghani Baradar made the comments at the start of an official visit by a Taliban delegation to Moscow. The visit is the latest sign that Russia is becoming an indispensable broker in the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan.
The 14-member delegation, headed by Mr Baradar, the Taliban’s chief negotiator, arrived on Tuesday as part of a two-day tour. It includes an event marking Russia’s diplomatic ties with Afghanistan and informal talks with Afghan politicians, Russian and Taliban representatives said.
“We invited both the Taliban and Afghan politicians to a solemn meeting dedicated to 100 years of diplomatic relations,” Russia’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, told the TASS news agency on Monday. “They have the right and desire to communicate after that, and they will have such an opportunity.”
The Islamist insurgent group’s third visit to Russia in less than one year comes as its leaders have intensified negotiations with the United States over the past few months to agree a drawdown of international troops from Afghanistan.
The Taliban, however, has refused to negotiate with the Afghan government in Kabul, describing it as a “puppet” regime whose terms are dictated by Western diplomats. Talks between the Taliban and Afghan government officials fell through at the last minute in May following disagreements over the size and composition of the Afghan delegation.
The Afghanistan Embassy in Moscow confirmed Ambassador Latif Bahand’s attendance of the ceremony on Tuesday on behalf of the Afghan government, marking a century of diplomatic relations between the countries, but it was not clear whether he would meet members of the Taliban delegation.
Addressing the attendees, former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai said: “We, the people of Afghanistan, appreciate Russia’s efforts for hosting talks on Afghan peace.”
According to a statement by the Taliban’s spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, the delegation will also meet Afghan politicians and elders in Moscow on Wednesday. No further details were specified. A spokesperson for the High Peace Council, a government body responsible for negotiating with the Taliban, confirmed on Monday that its chairperson, Mohammad Karim Khalili, would attend on Tuesday.
“It is expected that these efforts will pave the way for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban,” HPC spokesman Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed said.
The US has struck out harshly at Russia’s deepening role in the conflict in Afghanistan and its increasingly public relationship with the Taliban. Late last year, the outgoing senior US general in Afghanistan, John Nicholson, accused Russia of trying to “undercut” Washington’s gains.
The US and Afghan government officials have also repeatedly accused Russia of arming the Taliban and providing it with training, claims that officials in Moscow deny.
Full report at:
https://www.thenational.ae/world/taliban-visits-moscow-as-russia-plays-increasing-role-in-afghanistan-1.867154
--------
German Jews Demand Ban On Hezbollah After Kippah Warning
MAY 28, 2019
The nearly 100,000-member Central Council of Jews in Germany urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration to outlaw the entire terrorist entity Hezbollah.
Just days after Dr. Felix Klein, Merkel’s commissioner to combat antisemitism and support Jewish life in Germany, said it is not safe for Jews to wear kippot in public, the council’s weekly German Jewish paper Jüdische Allgemeine reported on Monday that “The Central Council of Jews in Germany calls for a ban of the Shi’ite militia Hezbollah.”
Council head Dr. Josef Schuster said that “a full ban of Hezbollah’s organization has already happened in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,” adding that “Hezbollah is heavily financed by Iran, and Hezbollah poses, in its entirety, a threat to the entire world.”
Germany and the EU merely outlawed Hezbollah’s so-called military wing in 2013. In addition to the Netherlands and the UK, the US, Canada, Arab League and Israel classify all of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity.
“A continuation of the distinction between their individual wings would be negligent and should therefore be corrected as soon as possible,” Schuster said.
Ibrahim Mousawi, the terrorist group’s own spokesman, has said that: “Hezbollah is a single, large organization. We have no wings that are separate from one another.”
Schuster also criticized the Berlin authorities for allowing the annual al-Quds Day rally to take place on Saturday.
“The al-Quds demonstration conveys nothing but antisemitism and hatred of Israel,” Schuster said. Jüdische Allgemeine quoted Schuster saying the rally “is as an Islamist propaganda campaign against Israel that seeks the conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of Israel,” and at which the Iranian mullah regime is praised.
“It’s incomprehensible to us that this demo is approved year after year,” he said.
Berlin’s Mayor Michael Müller said in 2017 that he would crack down against the al-Quds Day march in the heart of Berlin, but he has taken no action to stop the antisemitic rally since that announcement. In May, Müller’s Social Democratic Party think tank the Friedrich Ebert Foundation hosted an Iranian regime Holocaust-denial institute in Berlin.
In February, Müller’s social democratic colleagues – German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Niels Annen, an undersecretary at the foreign ministry – celebrated Iran’s Islamic revolution.
Michael Spaney, executive director of the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, said in a statement on Monday that 1,600 radical Islamists are expected to attend the al-Quds rally on Saturday. An opposition protest titled “Against the al-Quds March! No Islamism and Antisemitism in Berlin” is slated to also be held on Saturday.
At past marches observed by The Jerusalem Post, a mixture anti-Israel activists – Hezbollah members, pro-Iranian regime supporters, neo-Nazis, pro-boycott Israel activists and supporters of the designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – have participated in the march.
“The BMI does not comment on concrete prohibition considerations in general,” a spokesman for Germany’s Interior Ministry (BMI) wrote to the Post in March after the UK banned Hezbollah. “This applies regardless of whether there is reason to do so in individual cases.”
BMI has provided the same answer to Post queries since 2008 about whether Merkel’s administration plans to outlaw all of Hezbollah, while the EU has banned its “military arm” since 2013.
According to 2018 German intelligence reports analyzed by the Post, there are 950 Hezbollah operatives in the federal republic who raise funds, recruit new members and spread Hezbollah’s lethal antisemitic ideology.
“According to the case law of the Federal Administrative Court, the entire Hezbollah is against the idea of international understanding in the sense of the Basic Law, because it fights the right of existence of the State of Israel with terrorist means,” BMI’s spokesman said. “Such an objective is antisemitic in nature.”
Full report at:
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/German-Jews-demand-to-ban-Hezbollah-after-kippah-warning-590810
--------
UK watchdog probing Islamophobia in ruling party
May 28, 2019
The top human rights watchdog in the United Kingdom is investigating claims the ruling Conservative Party has been beset by an Islamophobic culture.
A spokeswoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said on Tuesday that the body had received complaints about the increase of hate and abuse attacks against Muslims among members and supporters of the Tory party.
“We have received complaints regarding the Conservative party and are considering them in line with our usual processes,” said the official.
“As part of our standard process, we have written to the Conservative party to ask for information in order to help assess the complaints,” she added.
The announcement comes hours after The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) filed a complaint to the EHRC about a visible inaction on the side of the government and the ruling Conservatives on the spread of Islamophobic comments among senior politicians and party members.
MCB secretary general said the organization was forced to lodge a complaint as Tory authorities had repeatedly failed to address the case.
“It is a sad day for us to have brought this complaint to the doors of the EHRC, but the concerns of Muslims at large about Islamophobia within the Conservative party have fallen on deaf ears,” said Harun Rashid Khan.
Khan said Islamophobia had become so prevalent among the Conservatives and their supporters that it could no longer be tolerated as a minor problem related top certain individuals within the party.
“We have taken this step after an unprecedented number of cases have been brought to our attention, suggesting a culture within the Conservative party where Islamophobia is not only widespread, but institutional,” he said.
Experts believe senior Tory politician have helped hate crimes against Muslims in the UK surge through their Islamophobic comments.
Full report at:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/28/597144/UK-Islamophobia-Conservatives-human-rights-watchdog
--------
Turkey congratulates Azerbaijan on 101st Republic Day
Busra Nur Bilgic
28.05.2019
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday congratulated Azerbaijan on its 101st Republic Day.
“I would like to congratulate on the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I send my greetings to the friendly and brotherly people of Azerbaijan and to my brother [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev,” Erdogan said in a Twitter post.
Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also extended greetings on the Republic Day of Azerbaijan in a Twitter message, wishing Turkey and Azerbaijan “more beautiful, brighter and stronger days” in the future as “one nation, two states”.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkey-congratulates-azerbaijan-on-101st-republic-day/1491583
--------
India
Easter Sunday blasts: NIA team lands in Colombo to probe Islamic State link
by Deeptiman Tiwary
May 29, 2019
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team is in Colombo to investigate possible links between two alleged Islamic State modules it is currently probing with the Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka that killed over 250 people.
“A team of two NIA officers led by an IG is currently in Sri Lanka to explore links between Easter Sunday bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim and members of two IS modules busted by the agency recently,” said a Home Ministry official.
Following the bombings, Indian agencies including the NIA, began cracking down on suspected IS sympathisers who may have been in touch with Hashim while he was in India. Investigations have found that before the bombings, Hashim had spent a few months in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and had met several young men. Incidentally, on April 29, the NIA arrested a Kerala youngster for being inspired by Hashim and planning to carry out suicide attacks.
Last year, the agency had arrested a few men from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu for allegedly being members of Islamic State and from the phones of one of the accused, the NIA had recovered a provocative video of Hashim where he allegedly exhorts youth from south India to rise for the cause of Islam and hints at a big attack in the offing.
It was based on this information, which was further developed by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), that Sri Lanka was given intelligence about the impending attack on churches and hotels.
Similar videos were also found in the possession of Riyas Abubakar, a Kerala youth arrested by the NIA on April 29 on suspicion of being an IS recruit and “for conspiring to commit a terrorist act”.
The Palakkad resident was also identified as Abu Dujana. “He has disclosed that he has been following speeches/videos of Zahran Hashim… for more than a year and has also followed the speeches of (Islamic preacher) Zakir Naik. He admitted that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala,” said an NIA statement. It is with regard to these two cases that the NIA team is in Colombo, said sources.
The Indian Express had reported on April 30 that intelligence agencies are tracking over a dozen men from Tamil Nadu and Kerala whose phone numbers were found in the Call Data Records (CDRs) of Hashim.
Hashim is believed to have spent close to three months in India, possibly from late last year, and the CDRs pertain to this period and the months since his return to Sri Lanka, sources said, adding that the NIA team in Colombo will also probe these details.
Investigators, meanwhile, suspect that Hashim broke away from the Lanka-based National Thowheeth Jamaat (NTJ), which has been blamed for the blasts, to form his own outfit recently.
“He floated a group of his own named Nation of Thowheed Jamaat, perhaps alluding to the idea of a Caliphate. He got around 35 young men to join him. The suspicion is that it is these people who carried out the attack,” a security official said. The NTJ had issued a statement condemning the blasts.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/easter-sunday-blasts-nia-team-lands-in-colombo-to-probe-islamic-state-link-5753545/
--------
Indian High Commission in Pakistan invites President Alvi, PM Imran for Iftar
May 29, 2019
ISLAMABAD: The High Commission of India to Pakistan has extended an invitation to President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan for Iftar dinner on June 1.
Other Pakistani dignitaries invited include Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser.
The Commission invites all dignitaries each year, but normally prime ministers do not attend the event.
Ties between India and Pakistan were frayed in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack. But on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan called Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi and congratulated him on his re-election.
During the conversation, Modi “stressed that creating trust and an environment free of violence and terrorism” was “essential for fostering cooperation for peace, progress and prosperity in our region,” according to a Ministry of External Affairs report.
The phone call on Sunday was the first conversation between the two leaders after the Pulwama terror attack on 14th February in which more than 40 Indian security personnel died.
No invitation has been extended to Imran Khan for the oath-taking ceremony of Narendra Modi on 30th May.
Full report at:
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/05/28/indian-high-commission-invites-pm-imran-president-alvi-for-iftar/
--------
Pakistan national among 2 JeM terrorists killed in encounter in J&K's Anantnag
May 28, 2019
SRINAGAR: Two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists, including a Pakistani national, were Tuesday killed in an encounter with security forces in the forests of Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, police said. Based on specific intelligence inputs, security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in the Kachwan forest area of Kokernag in the south Kashmir district, a police spokesman said.
The operation turned into an encounter as the terrorists opened fire at the search party, he said.
In the subsequent exchange of fire, two gunmen were killed, the official said.
He said one of them was identified as Faisal Nazir Mir, a resident of Anantnag, and incriminating materials recovered at the site of the encounter revealed that the other was a Pakistani citizen.
As per the police records, both were affiliated with the JeM, the official said, adding that Mir had joined the outfit recently.
"The Pakistani terrorist, as per the police records, was involved in conspiring and executing a series of terror attacks on security establishments and many other civilian atrocities. He was wanted by the law for his complicity in a series of terror crimes, and several terror crime cases were registered against him," the spokesman said.
He said incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, were recovered from the site of the encounter.
Full report at:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pakistan-national-among-2-jem-terrorists-killed-in-encounter-in-jks-anantnag/articleshow/69549271.cms
--------
Two terror suspects detained near military station in J&K’s Ratnuchak
May 28, 2019
JAMMU: Indian Army detained two terror suspects on Tuesday after they were found moving suspiciously and videographing near the military station in Ratnuchak, in the outskirts of Jammu city. The duo was sent to Joint Interrogation Centre for questioning.
The detained were identified as Mushtaq Ahmed from Kathua and Naseem Akhtar of Rajouri.
Sleuths recovered some videos, pictures and maps from the two, and suspect they have Pakistani links as could be established from the seizure. Examination of their phones revealed the duo has recently been in touch with people from Pakistan and has Pakistani contacts in their phonebooks.
Full report at:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/two-terror-suspects-detained-near-military-station-in-jks-ratnuchak/articleshow/69549215.cms
--------
India issues fresh advisory on visiting Sri Lanka after Easter bombings
May 28, 2019
India Tuesday issued a fresh advisory to citizens travelling to Sri Lanka to be careful and vigilant after a series of devastating blasts on Easter Sunday killed over 250 people in the island nation.
In its latest advisory, the Ministry of External Affairs assured citizens that the security situation in Sri Lanka is gradually returning to normal with the lifting of curfew and restrictions on social media and the opening of schools.
Indian nationals, however, are advised to be careful and vigilant in their visit to the country. It also asked Indians requiring any assistance to get in touch round the clock with the Indian High Commission in Colombo and Assistant High Commission in Kandy as well as Consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota.
In the aftermath of the blasts last month, the MEA had asked citizens not to undertake non-essential travel to the island nation.
On April 12, nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people. Several Indians were among the victims of the serial explosions.
Full report at:
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-issues-fresh-advisory-on-visiting-sri-lanka-easter-bombings-5753092/
--------
Pakistan downplays Imran snub by India, pushes for dialogue
May 28, 2019
Imtiaz Ahmad
Pakistan has played down a decision by the Indian government to not invite Prime Minister Imran Khan to Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, saying India’s “internal politics” did not permit the latter to extend an invitation, Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday.
“His [Modi’s] entire focus [during the election campaign] was on Pakistan-bashing. It was unwise to expect that he can get rid of this narrative [soon],” foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news channel.
On Monday, Indian officials said there were no plans to invite Khan to PM Modi’s oath-taking ceremony. Hindustan Times reported that India was keen on leaders from BIMSTEC countries attending the event. This grouping excludes Pakistan.
An Indian government statement said the leaders of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan — all members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation — had been invited to Modi’s swearing-in.
The government’s decision to invite leaders of BIMSTEC nations for PM-elect Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 30 reflects India’s reluctance to engage with Pakistan. The external affairs ministry had said on Monday the invitations were in line with India’s focus on ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
In 2014, Modi had invited SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) leaders, including then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony, in a move that was seen by analysts as an initiative by India to reach out to neighbouring countries.
Full report at:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pakistan-downplays-imran-snub-by-india-pushes-for-dialogue/story-1mDsGVaPdywKkw59ROs7CP.html
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/erdogan-aide-warns-saudi-king/d/118740
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism