New Age Islam News Bureau
02
November 2020
More than 20 organizations that bring young Europeans together
have decried French President Emmanuel Macron’s response to the murder of a
teacher, saying it lacked wisdom and urged him to “reject hatred” and “divisive
rhetoric”.
----
• Delhi's India Islamic Cultural Centre Signboard
Defaced, Hindu Sena Says Its Workers Did it
• Hefazat-e-Islam Demands Capital Punishment In
Bangladesh For Insulting Prophet
• Malaysia: Mahathir Defends Anti-French Comments
Despite International Criticism
• Iranian First Vice President Urges West to Stop
Blasphemy under Guise of Freedom of Expression
• Nice Attack: Tunisia And France Discuss Migration
And 'Terrorism'
• Anti-France Rallies Over Blasphemous Caricatures
Grip Karachi
• UAE’s Mohammed Bin Zayed Condemns Violence, Hate
Speech In Call To France’s Macron
Europe
• European Groups Urge Macron To Reject Hatred And Divisive
Rhetoric and To Reconsider The Unilateral Assault On Muslims, Islam And The
Prophet Muhammad
• Macron remarks 'step toward moderation but not
enough'
• France: Police detain 6 people in Nice attack
• After Three Terror Attacks In Five Weeks, French
Muslims Stigmatised By Attacks, Feel Under Pressure
• Aliyev says Azerbaijan will fight ‘to the end’ if
Nagorno-Karabakh talks fail
--------
India
• Delhi's India Islamic Cultural Centre Signboard
Defaced, Hindu Sena Says Its Workers Did it
• Islam Gymkhana near Marine Drive Bans Rummy: It Is A
Club, Not A Madrasa, President Yusuf Should Not Play The Religion Card
• Haryana may do a Uttar Pradesh on law against love
jihad
• Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad backs Yogi
Adityanath, seeks law against 'love jihad'
• Pak’s Gilgit-Baltistan move bid to hide illegal
occupation: MEA
• Pak considers registering treason case against PML-N
leader over remarks on release of Abhinandan
• Cartoon row: Cong MLA arrested in Bhopal for protest
against French President
• India rejects Pak’s province status for
Gilgit-Baltistan
• Hizbul Muhajideen’s top terrorist Saifullah killed
in encounter in Kashmir’s Rangreth; police laud ‘huge success’
--------
South Asia
• Hefazat-e-Islam Demands Capital Punishment In
Bangladesh For Insulting Prophet
• Afghan-Taliban Delegations Agrees on Third Party
Mediation
• Negotiating Team Discusses Afghan Peace with
‘Various Strata of Balkh Province’
• Afghans Mark Unity Week Amid Wave Of Islamophobia
• Crackdown on dissent deepens in Bangladesh
• Malaysian Global Islamic Unity Forum Condemns War in
Afghanistan
• Taliban Probably Have Used Drone in Kunduz Attack:
Report
• At Least 50,000 Take Part In Anti-France Rally In
Bangladesh Capital
--------
Southeast Asia
• Malaysia: Mahathir Defends Anti-French Comments
Despite International Criticism
• Rights groups concerned over probe into Kedah event
organiser for ‘encouraging vice’ after raid against trans women
• PAS inclusive party that treats everyone equally,
says its appointed Sabah assemblyman
--------
Mideast
• Iranian First Vice President Urges West to Stop
Blasphemy under Guise of Freedom of Expression
• CBI Governor: Iran’s Foreign Currency Market Moving
towards Stability
• Senior MP Confirms Capturing of Terrorist Ringleader
behind 2018 Attack in Southwestern Iran
• FM Warns against Presence of Terrorists in Karabakh
Region
• Presidential Change Not to Change US Policy against
Iran
• Iranian Rights Group Urges UN to Impose Arms Ban on
Saudis to Stop Yemen War
• Israel’s Netanyahu praises President Trump policies
ahead of US election
• Iran arrests Iranian Arab opposition figure abroad,
Ahwazi group says he was abducted
• Thousands protest in Jerusalem against Israel PM
over coronavirus, corruption charges
--------
Africa
• Nice Attack: Tunisia And France Discuss Migration
And 'Terrorism'
• Tunisia arrests suspect over Nice stabbing attack
claim
• Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia restart controversial
mega-dam talks
• Sudan, UAE sign MoU to build solar power plants
• France’s interior minister to visit Tunisia, Algeria
to discuss security
--------
Pakistan
• Anti-France Rallies Over Blasphemous Caricatures
Grip Karachi
• Minister slammed over Taliban attack remarks
• PML-N Leaders Condemn Leadership’s ‘Anti-State’
Narrative
• Imran most incompetent PM in country’s history:
Siraj
• Remarks Recounting Release Of Wing Commander
Abhinandan Have Weakened State: Pakistan Minister
--------
Arab world
• UAE’s Mohammed Bin Zayed Condemns Violence, Hate
Speech In Call To France’s Macron
• Qatar’s Al Jazeera, France’s Macron receive backlash
after televised interview
• Israel will be wiped out despite Arab normalization:
Iraqi politician
• Anti-government protests turn to clashes in Iraq
• Lebanese Armenians spring to action to defend
Nagorno-Karabakh
• Protesters clash with police forces in Baghdad,
other Iraqi cities
--------
North America
• Israel’s Netanyahu Praises President Trump Policies
Ahead Of US Election
• US sells 1.1M barrels of Iranian oil after seizure
• US designates 8 companies over Iran petrochemical
sales
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/european-groups-urge-macron-reject/d/123346
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European Groups Urge Macron To Reject Hatred And Divisive Rhetoric and To Reconsider The Unilateral Assault On Muslims, Islam And The Prophet Muhammad
02 November 2020
More than 20 organizations that bring young Europeans
together have decried French President Emmanuel Macron’s response to the murder
of a teacher, saying it lacked wisdom and urged him to “reject hatred” and
“divisive rhetoric”.
----
More than 20 organizations that bring young Europeans
together have decried French President Emmanuel Macron’s response to the murder
of a teacher, saying it lacked wisdom and urged him to “reject hatred” and
“divisive rhetoric”.
“We would like to ask you and your government to
reconsider the unilateral assault on Muslims, Islam and the Prophet Muhammad
(Peace be upon Him),” the groups said in an open letter published on Saturday.
The European Muslim organizations slammed Macron’s
reaction to the killing of Samuel Paty, a history teacher, and the deadly knife
attack at a church in Nice which occurred in October.
Last month, Macron publicly attacked Islam in defense
of the publication of derogatory cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
He made the remarks at a national memorial for the
school teacher who had been murdered by a teenager of Chechen origin after he
showed his students the caricatures of the Prophet (PBUH) earlier published by
the magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The French president said he would not “renounce the
caricatures.” He described Islam as a religion “in crisis” and declared war on
“Islamist separatism,” which he claimed was taking over France’s estimated
six-million-strong Muslim population.
“Unfortunately, there has been neither wisdom nor
moral leadership in your response,” the European groups said in their letter.
“Maligning Islam and your own Muslim citizens, closing
mainstream mosques, Muslim and human rights organizations, and using this as an
opportunity to stir up further hatred, has given further encouragement to
racists and violent extremists.”
The signatories called on Macron “to reject hatred,
marginalization and divisive rhetoric, and use your leadership to bring people
together”.
While Muslims in France have denounced the killing of
the teacher, they have also expressed fears of collective punishment amid a
government crackdown against Islamic organizations.
In their letter, the groups denounced the French
government’s crackdown as “opportunistic behavior” that “undermines the
principles of the rule of law by closing down associations based on political
motivations and without sound legal procedures”.
Macron’s comments have angered not only the Muslim
community in France, but all Islamic nations, leading to protests and boycott
calls.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/02/637720/European-groups-Macron-hatred
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Delhi's India Islamic Cultural Centre Signboard
Defaced, Hindu Sena Says Its Workers Did it
NOVEMBER 1, 2020
The Islamic Cultural Centre signboard that was defaced
by members of Hindu Sena | Twitter | @imMAK02
-----
New Delhi: A signboard pointing to the India Islamic
Cultural Centre in the city's upscale Lodhi Road area was defaced on Sunday,
allegedly by rightwing group Hindu Sena that claimed its workers were
responding to radical terrorist activities in the world, particularly France.
Police said the posters, declaring "Jihadi Terrorist Islamic Centre",
were removed immediately and an FIR registered against unknown persons at the
Tughlak Road station after the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) reported the
matter.
"We have registered a case under Section 3 of the
Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act against unknown people. We are
scanning CCTV cameras installed in and around the vicinity but have not found
any relevant footage," a senior police officer said. Am NDMC official
added that police was informed "to take action as per norms". Hindu
Sena president Vishnu Gupta said he got to know that some of the group's
workers were behind it. When we asked the workers (karyakartas), they said
radical terrorist activities are taking place all over the world, particularly
in France Our workers expressed their anger against such activities by putting
posters at the India Islamic Centre, Gupta told reporters.
The Centre, which abuts the Lodhi Gardens in the heart
of Lutyens Delhi, is a hub of several cultural activities, including plays and
concerts. This is not the first time the Hindu Sena has defaced road signs in
the national capital.
In June this year, its workers defaced a signboard
outside the Chinese embassy here against the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in
clashes with the Chinese troops in Ladak Galwan Valley. Last year, the Babar
Road signboard was blackened by Hindu Sena workers who demanded that the name
of the road be changed.
In May 2015, signboards of Akbar Road and Feroz Shah
Road were plastered with posters of the group. Three people died in a knife
attack at a church in Nice last week. It was described by French President
Emmanuel Macron as an "Islamist terrorist attack". A few weeks ago,
an assailant decapitated a French middle school teacher who showed caricatures
of Prophet Muhammed for a class on free speech.
https://www.news18.com/news/india/delhis-india-islamic-cultural-centre-signboard-defaced-hindu-sena-says-its-workers-did-it-3031508.html
--------
Hefazat-e-Islam Demands Capital Punishment In
Bangladesh For Insulting Prophet
Fahim Reza Shovon
November 2nd, 2020
Several hundreds of leaders and activists
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh have gathered in front of national mosque Baitul
Mukarram in Dhaka on November 2, 2020. Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune
-----
The march towards French embassy began soon after the
speech of Junaid ended around 12:10pm
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh has demanded introducing
capital punishment in Bangladesh for anyone found guilty of insulting Prophet
Muhammad.
The demand came at a rally of several hundreds of
Hefazat leaders and activists, who gathered in front of National Mosque Baitul
Mukarram on Monday morning, to march towards and lay siege on the French
Embassy in Dhaka.
Hefazat-e-Islam Secretary General Junaid Babunagari
came up with the demand wile addressing a pre-march rally.
He also demanded that the Bangladesh government sever
all diplomatic ties with France protesting the display of a caricature of
Prophet Muhammad.
He also urged all the Muslim majority countries as
well as OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) affiliated countries to cur
all the diplomatic ties with France.
“France insulted our Prophet. We ask everyone to
boycott French products. Keep French products under your feet,” he added.
2020/11/dt-770-x-90-1604207604176.gif
The march towards French embassy began soon after the
speech of Junaid ended around 12:10pm.
They also warned Bangladeshi political parties of
paying a high price for refusing to condemn the incident and the remark of
French President Emmanuel Macron in this regard.
Blocking both sides of the roads, the march started
from the north gate of national mosque Baitul Mukarram, guarded by several
hundreds of Hefazat volunteers with whistles, where law enforcers were a few in
terms of their number.
Most of the Hefazat supporters at the gathering were
seen not wearing face masks.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/11/02/hefazat-e-islam-prepares-for-march-towards-french-embassy
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Malaysia: Mahathir Defends Anti-French Comments
Despite International Criticism
November 2, 2020
By Noah Lee and Nisha David
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad faced
international criticism Friday for saying that Muslims have a “right to kill
millions of French people” for past injustices but do not do so, as he pushed
back against Twitter and Facebook for having taken down his controversial
words.
The 95-year-old statesman, who stepped down as leader
of the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation eight months ago, posted those
words on the social media platforms Thursday after French President Emmanuel
Macron angered many in the Islamic world for defending his country’s secular
tradition and the right to free speech in public remarks about cartoons that
lampooned Prophet Muhammad.
The content deleted on Twitter and Facebook was in
response to Macron honoring a teacher who was beheaded by a teenage Muslim
migrant in a northern Paris suburb. Facebook apparently took down the entire
statement, according to reports.
“I am indeed disgusted with attempts to misrepresent
and take out of context what I wrote on my blog yesterday. Those who did that
highlighted only one part of paragraph 12 which read: ‘Muslims have a right to
be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past,’”
Mahathir said in a statement issued Friday. “They stopped there and implied that
I am promoting the massacre of the French.”
“There is nothing I can do with FB and Twitter’s
decision to remove my posting. To my mind, since they are the purveyor of
freedom of speech, they must at least allow me to explain and defend my
position,” the former two-time prime minister added.
The entire 12th paragraph of Mahathir’s original
statement on Thursday, which is posted on his website, says: “Muslims have a
right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of
the past. But by and large the Muslims have not applied the ‘eye for an eye’
law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t. Instead the French should teach their
people to respect other people’s feelings.”
The French teacher, Samuel Paty, was targeted after he
showed his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which many Muslims see
as offensive. During a ceremony, Macron had said that France would “not give up
cartoons,” in reference to caricatures of the Prophet.
“Samuel Paty became … the face of the republic, of our
will to shatter terrorists, to reduce Islamists, to live like a community of
free citizens in our country,” Macron said at a ceremony held at Sorbonne
University in Paris, where the French president granted the slain instructor
the republic’s highest award, the Légion d’Honneur.
The cartoons that Paty showed his class had been
published in Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine. In 2015, a dozen
people including members of the editorial staff were killed in an Islamic
State-claimed terrorist attack in and around the magazine’s offices in Paris
after it published a satirical cartoon of Islam’s founder.
Dr. M: ‘Primitive’
In his statement, Mahathir said the killing was not an
act he would approve as a Muslim, but it also pointed out that Macron had
violated free speech by insulting others.
“Macron is not showing that he is civilized. He is
very primitive in blaming the religion of Islam and Muslims for the killing of
the insulting school teacher. It is not in keeping with the teachings of
Islam,” he said.
Mahathir’s statement drew support from an unlikely
source in Malaysia and rebuke from across the globe.
Former Prime Minister Najib Razak who lost power in
2018 when Mahathir’s coalition pulled off an election upset, called for calm.
“The world shld [should] calm down & read
@chedetofficial statement in its full context. I’m sure he didn’t mean exactly
what he said. And even if he did, it’s his personal opinion not Malaysia’s,”
Najib said in a tweet. “In the meantime, someone should take away all his social
media accounts before he does more damage.”
Meanwhile, the United States Ambassador to Malaysia,
Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, issued a statement against Mahathir.
“I strongly disagree with Tun Dr Mahathir’s recent
statement. Freedom of expression is a right, calling for violence is not,” she
said.
The German Embassy in Kuala Lumpur joined in
condemning Mahathir’s words.
“The German Embassy is dismayed by the language Tun
Dr. Mahathir has employed. The order of the day is a de-escalation of words and
solidarity with the victims of violence. Germany shares the pain and sorrow of
her close partner and friend France,” it said.
In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison branded
Mahathir’s Tweet as “absurd and abhorrent.”
NGOs and political figures issued statements in
condemnation as well.
The Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) issued a
statement calling for Mahathir to apologize for his remarks and retract the
statement.
“A person of Dr. Mahathir’s caliber and public
standing, as a former head of state and seasoned leader and politician, carries
with him a larger responsibility of being careful with his words and refraining
from taking to hate speech and glorifying violence, because of the broader and
wider repercussions,” the group’s executive director, Wathshlah G. Naidu, said.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the
Facebook office in Malaysia said in an email that it had taken down Mahathir’s
posting for violating the social media platform’s policies.
“We do not allow hate speech on Facebook and strongly
condemn any support for violence, death or physical harm,” AP quoted the
statement as saying.
Meanwhile in Bangladesh, thousands of Muslims turned
out for an anti-France protest in Dhaka after Friday prayers to denounce recent
statements by President Macron and to call on him to apologize. They also
called on their government to end ties with France.
The main protest centered at the Baitul Mukarram
National Mosque in Dhaka, where riot police were deployed at intersection to
avert any violence.
MP Mahbubul Alam Hanif, the joint general secretary of
Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League party, responded to the protesters.
“It is completely illogical to call for overthrowing
the government for the France incident, people who are talking about it don’t
have any idea what they are talking about,” he told BenarNews. “We respect all
religion, we deny insulting any religion.”
“If we cut off relationships with France, Bangladesh
will face huge losses. We import very little from that country, but on the
other hand we export billions of dollars’ worth of products there including
garments.”
Ambassador summoned
Earlier this week in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian
government summoned the French deputy ambassador to respond to Macron’s
remarks.
“Malaysia is of the view that such elevated tension
does not bode well for the peaceful co-existence of all religions,” the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“During the meeting, the ministry reiterated
Malaysia’s position to strongly condemn any inflammatory rhetoric and
provocative acts that seek to defame the religion of Islam as the world has
recently witnessed in the forms of populist speeches and publication of profane
caricatures depicting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).”
And on Tuesday in Jakarta, the foreign ministry of
Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation – summoned the French
ambassador to voice its concerns about Macron’s stand on the satirical cartoons
and his defense of freedom of speech.
“We conveyed our condemnation of the French
president’s remarks that were insulting to Islam,” spokesman Teuku Faizasyah
told BenarNews.
Abdul Hadi Awang, president of Malaysia’s Pan Islamic
Party (PAS), said Macron’s statement exposed his hostility against Islam.
“This is actually a grave error that there is no
justification that can be produced in his defense, even if his sole aim is to
obtain votes in an election,” he said on Friday.
https://www.eurasiareview.com/02112020-malaysia-mahathir-defends-anti-french-comments-despite-international-criticism/
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Iranian First Vice President Urges West to Stop
Blasphemy under Guise of Freedom of Expression
Nov 01, 2020
Jahangiri said that it is matter of deep regret to
hear the news of insults and violence in the West, adding, “No one should insult
the Prophet of Islam in the name of freedom and democracy.”
He congratulated the Iranian people and world Muslims
on the Week of Unity, saying, "It is the honor of all Muslims to grow up
at this great school and to follow in the footsteps the Holy Prophet of
Islam."
The official assured that such impudent conducts are
intolerable for two billion Muslims around the world.
Noting that insulting Islamic sanctities will
definitely have repercussions, Jahangiri hoped that the French President
Emmanuel Macron would understand how harmful these moves can be.
In recent weeks and after a French teacher was
beheaded by an ISIL member after he displayed cartoons of the prophet of Islam,
French President Emmanuel Macron attacked Islam and the Muslim community,
accusing Muslims of "separatism", and he said previously that
"Islam is a religion in crisis all over the world".
The incident in Paris coincided with a provocative
move by Charlie Hebdo, a left-wing French magazine infamous for publishing
anti-Islamic content, which has drawn widespread anger and outrage across the
Muslim world.
The caricatures were first published in 2006 by a
Danish newspaper Jylllands Posten, sparking a wave of protests.
Meanwhile, 1,000 Iranian academics and university
professors in a letter to their French counterparts underlined the need for
them to choose the path of “independent rationality” and separate their path
from the French officials' support for sacrilege of Islamic sanctities.
“We invite you once again not to be observant about
what is going on in French society and politics, and to walk along the lines of
your independent rationality and moral conscience, and not permit official
politics in France to be subjected to such this ignorance, immorality and
imprudence, and force the world to line up against of you, because the life of
politicians is short, but the life of nations and their social capital is
long,” the letter said.
It warned about the fate of human society if freedom
is not limited to moral and human constraints and is rooted in vile desires and
evil purpose, and added, “There is no human right that has been validated and
legalized in contrast and contradiction of the other human beings’ rights.”
The letter asked the French academics if they do not
think that insulting the prophet of God [PBUH] who is respected by over one
billion people mean violating their rights?.
“How is it that your president does not adhere to even
the most fundamental principles of human rights while, in practice, offers a
definition for freedom of speech that is neither compatible with fairness nor
the intra-civilization arguments he claims,” it said.
“Although Emmanuel Macron, in terms of his political
position in France and Europe, finds himself in a situation where he needs such
staging and role playing, but undoubtedly what has happened is neither an
incident nor can be subsided to this rank.”
“Contrary to the biased view of Islam represented by
the Western media, this divine religion does not speak through the language of
violence, aggression and oppression and does not have a sharp sword in its
hand, but respects pure human feelings and emotions and Prefers reasoning,
argument and dialogue,” it added.
The letter was written after Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in a message to the French
youth strongly blasted the destructive role played by French President Emmanuel
Macron and his government in supporting hatred against Muslims and spreading
Islamophobia, following the recent sacrilege of Islam's Holy Prophet Mohammad
(PBUH) in the European country.
The Iranian Leader blasted the role played by the
French government in spreading Islamophobia, and raised important questions in
his message.
“Ask your President why he supports insulting God’s
Messenger in the name of freedom of expression. Does freedom of expression mean
insulting, especially a sacred personage? Isn’t this stupid act an insult to
the reason of the people who elected him?” he said in his message.
“The next question to ask is: why is it a crime to
raise doubts about the Holocaust? Why should anyone who writes about such
doubts be imprisoned while insulting the Prophet (PBUH) is allowed?” Ayatollah
Khamenei added.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990811000213
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Nice attack: Tunisia and France discuss migration and
'terrorism'
01 November 2020
Tunisian President Kais Saied spoke with his French
counterpart Emmanuel Macron Saturday about migration and "terrorism",
following a deadly knife attack in Nice allegedly perpetrated by a Tunisian,
the presidency said.
Saied and Macron discussed by phone repeated
"terrorist acts" against France as well as the "question of
illegal immigration and the solutions to be found together," a statement
from the Tunisian presidency read.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The Tunisian president deplored "all forms of
violence and terrorism" and referred to "numerous people who use
Islam to recruit other people with the goal not only of offending Islam, but
also destroying relations between peoples," according to the statement.
Illegal sea crossings to Europe from Tunisia have been
on the rise, largely driven by economic woes after a 2011 popular revolution
that many hoped would bring more significant change.
Tunisian citizen Brahim Issaoui, 21, is suspected of
brutally killing three people in Thursday's attack at the Notre-Dame Basilica
in Nice in southern France.
Issaoui is reported to have left Tunisia clandestinely
on September 14, making his way to the Italian island of Lampedusa -- a major
stepping stone for illegal migrants seeking to make a new life in Europe.
Earlier on Saturday, Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem
Mechichi instructed his interior and justice ministers to cooperate with French
authorities over the Nice attack investigation.
Tunisian authorities said they arrested two people on
Friday after a video posted on social networks carried a claim of responsibility
for the Nice attack by an unknown group.
"Jihadist" experts said the claim was not
credible.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/11/01/Nice-attack-Tunisia-and-France-discuss-migration-and-terrorism-
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Anti-France rallies over blasphemous caricatures grip
Karachi
02 Nov 2020
KARACHI: Many religious and political organisations on
Sunday took out rallies in different areas of the metropolis to condemn
publication of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in France and
urged people to boycott French products.
The organisations that staged rallies included
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F),
Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ).
Almost every party wanted the government to cut off
diplomatic ties with France as the protesters were not satisfied with the
explanation given recently by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The protesters also demanded that the French president
seek an apology from Muslims.
No untoward incident was reported from any area.
ISO rally
The city’s main rally was taken out by the ISO in
Clifton, where roads leading to the French consulate general near Teen Talwar
were closed to, what a senior police officer claimed, prevent protesters from
moving towards the foreign mission.
The protesters carried banners and chanted slogans
against the French president.
A spokesperson for the ISO said that their main
demands were to severe diplomatic ties with the French government and expulsion
of its envoy to Pakistan.
The ISO also urged the government to launch an
organised movement and pursue the OIC to lead a campaign against France.
The protesters also set the flag of France on fire.
Later, a delegation of the ISO submitted a memorandum
to a representative of the French consulate general. The protesters dispersed
peacefully.
Rallies by PTI, PML-F
The PTI also took out a rally at the same venue
against the publication of blasphemous caricatures and the French president.
Roads remained opened for vehicular traffic as PTI
workers and supporters protested at the corner of roads and dispersed
peacefully.
The PML-F staged a rally outside the Karachi Press
Club (KPC) where speakers said they would not tolerate any blasphemy against
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The party’s Sindh chapter general secretary Sardar
Rahim said the French president would have to seek an apology from Muslims.
ASWJ rally
The outlawed ASWJ also chose the road in front of the
Karachi Press Club as the venue of their rally.
ASWJ chief Allama Aurangzeb Farooqi told the
participants that the ‘criminal’ silence of the Muslim rulers was hurting the
sentiments of Muslims.
He asked the government to announce a boycott of
French products at official level.
It may be recalled that President Macron in his
interview with Al Jazeera tried to explain that he “understands the feelings of
Muslims about the caricatures”.
He claimed that “the caricatures are not a government
project rather the product of free and independent newspapers that are no
affiliated with the government”.
He added: “I think the reactions were due to lies and
misrepresentation and because people think I am in favour of these
caricatures.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1588074/anti-france-rallies-over-blasphemous-caricatures-grip-karachi
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UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed condemns violence, hate
speech in call to France’s Macron
Tamara Abueish
02 November 2020
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed
condemned the recent terrorist attacks in France in a phone call with French
President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme
Commander of the UAE Armed Forces offered his condolences to the president and
the families of the victims of the recent attacks, adding that he rejected any
justifications used by terrorists to excuse their crimes, Emirates News Agency
(WAM) reported.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The Crown Prince also stressed that violence is not
representative of the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.
“These violent atrocities are inconsistent with the
teachings and principles of all monotheistic religions that call for peace,
tolerance and love and emphasized the sanctity of human life,” WAM cited the
Crown Prince as saying.
“Under no circumstances should the Prophet be linked
to violence or politicization,” he said.
The Crown Prince also called on individuals of
different backgrounds to engage in respectful dialogue rather than resort to
hate speech and violence.
The phone call came after a recent string of attacks
following the murder of French teacher Samuel Paty by an extremist. Paty had
shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a class on the
freedom of speech – an act that Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
Macron had labeled the killing as an “Islamist” attack
and vowed to crackdown on radicalism.
Thousands of soldiers have also been stationed across
the country in front of places of worship and schools, after a knife-wielding
man killed three people in a church in the French city of Nice last week.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/11/02/UAE-s-Mohammed-bin-Zayed-condemns-violence-hate-speech-in-call-to-France-s-Macron-
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Europe
Macron remarks 'step toward moderation but not enough'
Ahmed Asmar
01.11.2020
A renowned Muslim scholar said on Sunday that the
French president's recent remarks, in which he said he understands the feelings
of Muslims shocked by blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, are a
"step toward moderation" but not enough for remedy of his earlier
statements.
"We expect from him the courage to openly
apologize to our beloved, the greatest Messenger Muhammad and to all
Muslims," Ali al-Qaradaghi, the secretary general of the International
Union for Muslim Scholars, tweeted.
The French leader told Al Jazeera Arabic that he
respects the sentiments of Muslims but will always defend freedom to speech and
expression.
Earlier, he defended the cartoons, paid tribute to
Samuel Patty, a teacher who was murdered on Oct. 16 after he showed the
derogatory images to his students, and described Islam "as a religion in
crisis." He also announced a crackdown against "Islamist
separatism" in France.
Last month, the cartoons were also projected on French
government buildings.
The Muslim scholar called on Emmanuel Macron to
initiate "constructive" and "serious" dialogue, and to
enact laws that prohibit and criminalize "insult and contempt against
Islam and religious sanctities."
Macron's controversial stance has led to international
condemnations, protests and calls to boycott French-made products.
Amid the outcry, on Oct. 29, a knife-wielding man
killed three people at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice. The violent
attack attracted global condemnation.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/macron-remarks-step-toward-moderation-but-not-enough/2027289
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France: Police detain 6 people in Nice attack
Cindi Cook
01.11.2020
PARIS
Police announced Sunday that an additional six people
have now been taken into custody over Thursday's brutal attacks in the French
city of Nice, according to local media.
The savage attacks occurred Thursday morning just
after 8.30 a.m. local time (0730GMT) when Brahim Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old
Tunisian-born immigrant, entered the Basilica of Notre Dame de l'Assumption and
fatally stabbed two women and one man. One of the women, a 70-year-old, was
decapitated.
Police arrested Aouissaoui that morning after firing
on him, and the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation
immediately, which is still underway.
Two more men, aged 25 and 63, were taken into custody
Saturday afternoon, detained at the home of another individual who had been
detained earlier on Saturday, according to reporting by Radio France International.
The men come from the town of Grasse, 40 minutes west
of Nice, according the BFM TV news channel.
A second suspect, a 47-year-old man, had already been
taken into custody Thursday evening. He is said to have interacted with the
assailant on Wednesday ahead of the attacks.
More details have also been revealed about Aouissaoui,
who remains hospitalized with serious injuries. He reportedly shouted
"Allahu Akbar" (God is great) several times as police tried to detain
him.
Despite police questioning, Aouissaoui's reasons have
yet to be uncovered.
"It is still too early to say if there were
others complicit, what his motivations were in coming to France, and when this
idea took root in him," a source close to the investigation said to RFI on
Saturday.
According to anti-terrorism Prosecutor Jean-Francois
Ricard, Aouissaoui had landed on the island of Lampedusa, off the coast of
Tunisia, on Sept. 20 before arriving in Bari, Italy on the mainland on Oct. 9.
He then crossed into France where documentation from the Red Cross revealed
more on his movements. Aouissaoui had been unknown to law enforcement before
Thursday.
Reporting by daily France24 indicates that
investigators are also looking into Aouissaoui's connections and relationships
in Sicily, suspecting he may have spent time on that island after traveling
from Lampedusa to Bari on a ship used to quarantine migrants.
Judicial sources further detail that Aouissaoui was
given an expulsion order once in Bari which commanded him to leave Italy within
a week. It is thought that the assailant did not depart but stayed in the town
of Alcaro for 10 days.
The attack in Nice is one of four acts of terror or
potential terror that occurred on Thursday. Two others happened in the French
cities of Avignon and Lyon and one in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the French
consulate.
Yet another incident occurred in Lyon Saturday
evening, the shooting of a Greek Orthodox priest by an assailant as he was
closing the church. The priest remains in the hospital critically wounded.
President Emmanuel Macron has called the attack in
Nice an act of "Islamist terror". Prime Minister Jean Castex moved
France to an emergency level anti-terrorism plan Thursday as a result of the
attacks.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/france-police-detain-6-people-in-nice-attack/2027159
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After Three Terror Attacks In Five Weeks, French Muslims Stigmatised By
Attacks, Feel Under Pressure
02 Nov 2020
PARIS: The pressure rises with each gruesome attack.
After three in five weeks, France’s Muslims are feeling squeezed.
A spotlight of suspicion was trained on them again
even before the latest acts of extremist violence, including two beheadings.
President Emmanuel Macron has forged ahead with his effort to rid Islam in
France of extremists, part of a project he labels separatism, a term that makes
Muslims wince.
Amid intensifying rhetoric and fresh attacks by
outsiders, including the killings of three people on Thursday at a Catholic
church in Nice, Muslims in France have kept their heads down and chins up. But
deep down, some are squirming, feeling they are being held responsible.
It's worrisome for Muslims, said Hicham Benaissa, a
sociologist who specialises in Islam in the workplace. Within his network, he
said, some talk about leaving France. The situation is tense. There is fear.
Islam is the second religion in France, which has the
largest Muslim population in Western Europe. But the country’s estimated five
million Muslims have walked a delicate line in search of full acceptance in
what for many is their nation of birth. Discrimination casts a shadow over some
and is an outright barrier to mainstream life for others.
France’s cherished value of secularism, which is meant
to ensure religious freedom, has in recent years been used by the state to
reign in customs practiced by some Muslims. The president’s proposed law may
mean further tinkering with the 1905 secularism law born out of a conflict with
the powerful Roman Catholic clergy.
Macron has prompted angry protests and calls for
boycotts of French products this past week from South Asia to the Mideast. He
is accused of spreading anti-Muslim sentiment, notably while eulogising the
teacher who was decapitated near Paris, by defending the French right to
caricaturise the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Samuel Paty was attacked outside his school on Oct 16
by a teenage refugee of Chechen origin for showing the caricatures in a civics
class. A young Tunisian man killed three people on Thursday inside the basilica
in the southern city of Nice, beheading one woman, The series of bloodletting
began on Sept 25 when a young Pakistani refugee injured two people outside the
former Charlie Hebdo newsroom office in Paris.
In January 2015, attackers massacred 12 people there
after the paper published caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). That trial is
underway.Muslims are neither guilty nor responsible ... We shouldn’t have to
justify ourselves, said Abdallah Zekri, an official of the French Council for
the Muslim Faith.
The attacks and Macron’s separatism plan, which
includes a partial overhaul of the way Islam is organised in France, from the
training of imams to management of Muslim associations, have drilled home the
divide. They also have focused attention on the cherished value of secularism
laicite in French which is enshrined in the French Constitution but is still
not clearly defined.
The presence of Islam was not something foreseen by
French society, said Tareq Oubrou, a leading imam in Bordeaux.
Tensions have run high in the past, notably with
changes to the secularism law, with a 2004 law banning headscarves in
classrooms and another in 2010 banning face-coverings. Secularism has always
been a smokescreen ... a hidden way to treat the question of Islam, Benaissa
said.
Rim-Sarah Alouane, a doctoral candidate at Toulouse
Capitole University, researching religious freedom and civil liberties, is
tougher. Since the 1990s, lacite has been weaponised and misused as a political
tool to limit the visibility of religious signs, especially Muslim ones, she
said.
The state needs to make sure to respect and fully
embrace its diversity and not consider it a threat, she said.
The rise of Islam into public view was gradual and
mostly went unnoticed until the far right seized upon it as a threat to the
French identity. Over the years mosques have multiplied, along with Muslim
schools.
Muslim men initially came to France to take menial
jobs following World War II. In the 1970s, immigrant Muslims working in car
factories, construction and other sectors were absolutely essential to French
industry, Benaissa said. Renault, for instance, installed prayer rooms.
Today, when a veiled woman arrives in a company, there
is ... a revolt. What happened? he asked.
Many Muslims, unlike their parents or grandparents,
are getting educations, better jobs and erasing the myth of return, he said.
Olivier Roy, a top expert, told a parliamentary
committee that most Muslims have worked to integrate into French culture. They
format themselves to the French Republic and complain they don’t get a payback
in return, don’t have the benefit of recognition, he said.
Macron conceded in a speech that France bears full
responsibility for the ghettoisation of Muslims in housing projects but insists
the planned law is not about stigmatising Muslims.
Yet stigmatism is part of life in France for many,
from being singled out by police for ID checks to discrimination in job
searches.
The Muslim is reduced to his religion, said Oubrou,
the Bordeaux imam. Everything is not Christian in the life of a Christian.
The religion with no single leader has multiple
strains in France, running from moderate to Salafist with a rigorous
interpretation of the religion to outright radical upstarts.
In his project, Macron envisions measures like
training imams in France instead of bringing them in from Turkey, Morocco or
Algeria.
Benaissa doesn’t underestimate the ideological
offensive of political Islam, but says a ferocious public debate is reducing
Islam to a single fear.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1588163/french-muslims-stigmatised-by-attacks-feel-under-pressure
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Aliyev says Azerbaijan will fight ‘to the end’ if
Nagorno-Karabakh talks fail
02 November 2020
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his troops
would “go to the end” should negotiations fail to result in an agreement by ethnic
Armenian forces to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding
regions.
Aliyev, speaking during a meeting with Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Azeri capital Baku, also said Armenia had “no
basis” to request Russian military assistance in the conflict.
Further shelling was reported by Azerbaijan and ethnic
Armenian forces in and around Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday. The death toll in the
region’s worst fighting in more than 25 years has already surpassed 1,000 and
is possibly much higher.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part
of Azerbaijan but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.
The conflict has brought into sharp focus the
increased influence of Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, in a former Soviet region
considered by Russia to be within its sphere of influence. Russia also has a
security alliance with Armenia.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has asked
Russia to outline the extent of the support it could expect from Moscow.
In response, Russia’s foreign ministry said on
Saturday it would provide “all assistance required” should the conflict spill
onto “the territory of Armenia” - land that is outside the current conflict
zone.
Aliyev, quoted by state news agency Azertag, said he
wanted to resolve the conflict through negotiations that would result in the
withdrawal of ethnic Armenian forces.
“Otherwise,” he said, “we will continue by any means
to restore our territorial integrity and ... we will go to the end.”
Azerbaijan’s advances on the battlefield since
fighting began on Sept. 27 have reduced its incentive to strike a lasting peace
deal and complicated international efforts to broker a truce. Three ceasefires
have failed to hold.
The ethnic Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh
military said that missiles been targeted at the town of Martuni, the village
of Karin Tak and the city of Shushi, just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the
enclave’s largest city, Stepanakert.
Armenia’s defense ministry said a second militant from
Syria had been captured on the battlefield. Azerbaijan has previously denied
the presence of foreign fighters.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said its army units in
Tovuz, Gadabay and Gubadli had come under shelling overnight. Combat on Sunday
was concentrated in Aghdere, Aghdam, Gubadli and Khojavend - the Azeri name for
Martuni.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s army says 1,166 of its soldiers
have been killed since Sept. 27 and the office of Nagorno-Karabakh’s human
rights ombudsman said the civilian death toll was 45.
Azerbaijan, which does not disclose its military
casualties, says 91 civilians have been killed. Russia has estimated as many as
5,000 deaths on both sides.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/11/02/Aliyev-says-Azerbaijan-will-fight-to-the-end-if-Nagorno-Karabakh-talks-fail
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India
Islam Gymkhana near Marine Drive Bans Rummy: It Is A
Club, Not A Madrasa, President Yusuf Should Not Play The Religion Card
Nov 2, 2020
MUMBAI: The 129-year-old sea-facing Islam Gymkhana
near Marine Drive, a popular sports hub and centre for socio-cultural
activities, is in the eye of a storm after its president Yusuf Abrahni banned
rummy and other card games on its premises.
Claiming that some members indulged in gambling while
playing rummy, Abrahni closed the card room on Friday, which was Eid-e-Milad or
Prophet Muhammad’s birth anniversary. The dissenting members have alleged that
“a very religious” Abrahni is changing the gymkhana’s “liberal” character and
turning it into a “Madrasa”.
“If Abrahni knew that some members gambled at the
gymkhana, why didn’t he lodge a police complaint?” asked Ishtiaq Ali, a member.
“It is a club, not a Madrasa. He should not play the religion card.”
Which Madrasa has jacuzzi, asks Islam Gymkhana prez
Defending his decision, Abrahni, also a former
Congress MLA, said: “We encourage all games and sports, but some members, in
the name of playing rummy or cards, gambled. Our records show that there were
five guests for one member at the cards room.”
“Ever since I took over as president last year, we
have added over a dozen games, including tennis, badminton, volleyball, a
women’s recreation section, a modern gym, jacuzzi, steam bath, sauna bath and
spa. Those who say I have turned it into a Madrasa should explain which Madrasa
has spa and steam bath facilities,” he said, adding that a swimming pool is in
the pipeline and its multi-purpose turf hosts football, volleyball and cricket
matches.
But Asif Farooqui, another Islam Gymkhana member,
said: “If they want to stop gambling, they should do it. But preventing
members, especially senior citizens, from playing cards is wrong. It will send
a wrong message.” Many non-Muslims are also gymkhana’s members, he added.
In the 1890s, the British gave sea-facing plots along
Marine Lines to build six gymkhanas to promote sports and games. Parsi, Islam,
Hindu, Catholic, Police and Grant Medical College Gymkhanas came up on the
plots leased by the city collector. Spread over 3.5 acres or 19,300 sq m, Islam
Gymkhana has hosted several cricket matches where legends like Sunil Gavaskar
and Sachin Tendulkar have played. The gymkhana team has also produced many
Ranji players, said a member of the Mumbai Cricket Association. Islam Gymkhana’s
banquet hall and a portion of the ground have hosted several glitzy parties and
wedding receptions.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-islam-gymkhana-bans-rummy-members-livid/articleshow/78990089.cms
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Haryana May Do A Uttar Pradesh On Law Against Love
Jihad
02nd November 2020
By Harpreet Bajwa
CHANDIGARH: A day after Uttar Pradesh announced of
bringing a law against ‘love jihad’, Haryana too is also considering legal
provisions against it. Citing the recent murder of a student in Faridabad’s
Ballabhgarh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the incident is
being linked to ‘love jihad’, a derogatory coinage used by right-wing activists
to refer to the alleged campaign of Muslims forcing Hindu girls to convert in the
guise of love.
Last week, 21-year-old college student, Nikita, was
shot dead in Ballabhgarh by a man. The victim’s family has alleged that the man
was pressuring her to convert to Islam in order to marry him. Earlier in the
day, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij tweeted the state government ‘is
contemplating a law against love jihad’.
A few right-wing Hindu outfits have alleged that the
woman’s murder is a case of love jihad. The working president of Vishva Hindu
Parishad (VHP) Alok Kumar met the victim’s family on Friday and expressed
concern over the incident. “A talented young, ambitious girl was murdered by
Islamic jihadists at a public place in broad daylight. It is very difficult to
bear this loss,” Kumar said.
On Saturday, Adityanath had said his government would
come out with a law to deal with ‘love jihad’ and used the Hindu funeral chant
‘Ram Naam Satya Hai’ to threaten those who don’t respect their daughters and
sisters.
He said posters would be put up of those involved in
‘love jihad’. Adityanath also welcomed the Allahabad High Court ruling
declaring that conversion for the sole purpose of marriage is not valid.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/nov/02/haryana-may-do-a-up-on-law-against-love-jihad-2218139.html
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Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad backs Yogi Adityanath,
seeks law against 'love jihad'
Nov 1, 2020
PRAYAGRAJ: The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP),
the apex body of all the 13 recognised Hindu monastic orders, has extended its
support to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for his announcement of soon
framing a stringent law to stop 'love jihad'.
ABAP president Mahant Narendra Giri said on Sunday,
“This is the appropriate time when strict action should be taken against the
people involved in love jihad, and the action should be so severe that even
their future generations never dare to do it. A strict law should be framed
against love jihad and enforced at the earliest.”
Love jihad is a planned conspiracy to convert Hindu
women by duping them and hence comes under the category of crime, he said.
Giri urged the CM to frame and enforce the law at the
earliest and said love jihad cases went on rising as previous governments never
did anything to stop the culprits.
Addressing election rallies in east UP on Saturday, CM
Yogi had said his government will bring a strict law to stop love jihad and
warned those faking identity for exploiting women to desist, else be ready for
‘Ram Naam Satya’.
“A racket was running across the country where some
Muslims posed as Hindus to marry Hindu girls and later forces them to convert.
Those Hindu girls, who refused to change the religion, were abandoned or killed,”
he added.
There is also an urgent need to find out who is
funding these love jihad incidents. Those involved in love jihad are trying to
defame Hindu religion through a planned conspiracy, the Mahant said.
He also appealed Hindu women to be very careful and
urged them to marry the grooms selected by their parents.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/akhil-bharatiya-akhara-parishad-backs-yogi-adityanath-seeks-law-against-love-jihad/articleshow/78986427.cms
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Pak’s Gilgit-Baltistan move bid to hide illegal
occupation: MEA
Nov 2, 2020
NEW DELHI: Pakistani PM Imran Khan further ratcheted
up tension with India on Sunday as he announced “provisional provincial status”
for Gilgit-Baltistan in an apparent move to annex the militarily occupied
territory, through which passes China’s controversial China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC), as Pakistan’s fifth province.
The announcement drew another scathing response from
India with the foreign ministry asking Pakistan to immediately vacate all
Indian territories under its illegal occupation instead of making efforts to
change their status.
The government said such attempts by Pakistan,
intended to camouflage its illegal occupation of Indian territories, could not
hide the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom for
over seven decades to the people residing in these Pakistan-occupied
territories.
The government reiterated that the UTs of Jammu &
Kashmir and Ladakh, including the area of “so-called Gilgit-Baltistan”, are an
integral part of India by virtue of the legal, complete and irrevocable
accession of Jammu & Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947.
"The government of Pakistan has no locus standi
on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it,” MEA spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava said, adding that India firmly rejected Pakistan’s attempt to bring
material changes to a part of Indian territory under its illegal and forcible
occupation.
Khan’s announcement, at a rally in Gilgit-Baltistan,
comes at a time his government is faced with protests by major opposition
parties who have united to corner him on a range of issues, including a failing
economy. These protests have seen members of Nawaz Sharif’s party PML-N even
targeting the Pakistan Army for its support to Khan’s government.
India believes Islamabad has been falsely claiming
that the people of militarily occupied Gilgit-Baltistan want to integrate with
Pakistan.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/paks-gilgit-baltistan-move-bid-to-hide-illegal-occupation-mea/articleshow/78989883.cms
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Pak considers registering treason case against PML-N
leader over remarks on release of Abhinandan
Nov 1, 2020
LAHORE: The Pakistan government is mulling over
registering a treason case against a senior Opposition leader for his
controversial statement that the country handed over captured Indian Air Force
pilot Abhinandan Varthaman to India under pressure, a top minister has said.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Sardar
Ayaz Sadiq on Wednesday said that "legs were shaking and forehead
perspiring" at a meeting of Pakistan's top leaders, including Army chief
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, wherein Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi
pleaded to release Wing Commander Abhinandan, saying if he was not released,
India would attack Pakistan.
"Legs were shaking and forehead perspiring, and
the foreign minister (Qureshi) told us, 'For God's sake, let him (Varthaman) go
back now because India is attacking Pakistan at 9 PM in the night'," Sadiq
said, recalling the meeting which was also attended by parliamentary leaders,
including those from Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and PML-N, and added that
"India was not planning to attack...They just wanted to kneel before India
and send back Abhinandan."
Responding to Sadiq's remarks, Pakistan Interior
Minister Ejaz Shah told reporters that the government was pondering over
registering a treason case against Sadiq as police have received a number of
complaints against him.
He said those toeing the line of India should better
go to Amritsar.
Posters of Sadiq have also appeared in Lahore, dubbing
him a "traitor".
A number of posters and banners with pictures of Wing
Commander Abhinandan and Sadiq were displayed in the constituency of the former
National Assembly Speaker.
Portraying Sadiq in Abhinandan's getup, the posters
read: "Mir Sadiq, Mir Jaffar... Ayaz Sadiq."
The PML-N has strongly reacted to the move blaming the
PTI government for 'awarding traitor certificates' to its political opponents.
PML-N Punjab information secretary lawmaker Azma
Bokhari said the one who put up "traitor" posters of Sadiq must be
having a criminal record like in the past cases registered against the PML-N
leadership.
The 37-year-old Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot was
captured by the Pakistani Army on February 27 after his MiG-21 Bison jet was
shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani jets during aerial combat.
In the early hours of February 26, 2019, the IAF jets
bombed the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camps in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
of Pakistan and avenged the Pulwama terrorist attack that claimed the lives of
40 CRPF personnel.
Before his jet was hit, Abhinandan downed an F-16
fighter of Pakistan. He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.
In a speech in the National Assembly, Sadiq said that
Prime Minister Imran Khan skipped the high-level meeting, which was attended by
top leadership, including Army chief Gen Bajwa and Foreign Minister Qureshi.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pak-considers-registering-treason-case-against-pml-n-leader-over-remarks-on-release-of-abhinandan/articleshow/78985196.cms
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Cartoon row: Cong MLA arrested in Bhopal for protest
against French President
Nov 02, 2020
A Congress MLA from Bhopal and 49 others were arrested
on Sunday for violating prohibitory orders by staging a protest on Thursday
against French President Emmanuel Macron over the row triggered by cartoons on
Prophet Mohammed, police said.
An FIR was registered by Bhopal police under section
188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of IPC against
the MLA from Bhopal central constituency Arif Masood and 2,000 people at
Talaiya police station on Saturday for staging the protest at Iqbal Maidan
against French President without taking any permission from the district
administration, said Upendra Jain, additional director general (ADG) of police,
Bhopal.
They were released on bail from the police station,
according to the police officer.
“They violated prohibitory orders issued by the
district collector in view of the coronavirus pandemic, hence the FIR and
arrest,” he added.
A heavy police force was deployed at Iqbal Maidan on
Sunday as messages were circulated for another protest at the same venue for
the evening.
The ADG said the messages were being circulated on
social media.
Before his arrest, Masood said, “People who gathered
at Iqbal Maidan on Thursday were not invited for the protest. People reached
there on their own to register their protest on the France issue.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cartoon-row-cong-mla-arrested-in-bhopal-for-protest-against-french-president/story-0RlavKrnh0AR25f2nVoQzO.html
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India rejects Pak’s province status for
Gilgit-Baltistan
Rezaul H Laskar and Imtiaz Ahmad
Nov 02, 2020
India on Sunday rejected the Pakistan government’s
decision to give “provisional provincial status” to Gilgit-Baltistan, saying
Islamabad has no locus standi on Indian territory under its illegal and
forcible occupation.
New Delhi’s response came hours after Pakistan Prime
Minister Imran Khan announced the decision during a visit to Gilgit-Baltistan,
giving another twist to the controversy over the region claimed by India as
part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
While addressing a gathering in Gilgit to mark the
so-called “independence day” of Gilgit-Baltistan, Khan also accused the Indian
government of trying to foment unrest in Pakistan and creating a divide between
the Shia and Sunni communities.
“I want to greet the people of Gilgit-Baltistan today
because we have decided that Gilgit-Baltistan will be given provisional
provincial status, which was their demand for long,” Khan said, speaking in
Urdu.
“We have made this decision while keeping in mind the
UN Security Council resolutions. We made the decision in between the UN
Security Council resolutions,” he said. He did not give further details or say
when Gilgit-Baltistan would become Pakistan’s fifth province. Khan also said
his government had a development package in mind for the region but that he
couldn’t announce details because of polls to be held on November 15.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava responded to the announcement by saying: “The government of India
firmly rejects the attempt by Pakistan to bring material changes to a part of Indian
territory under its illegal and forcible occupation.”
The union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh,
“including the area of so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’, are an integral part of
India by virtue of the legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu and
Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947”, Srivastava said.
“The government of Pakistan has no locus standi on
territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it,” he said. Srivastava further
said attempts by Pakistan to “camouflage its illegal occupation cannot hide the
grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom for over
seven decades to the people residing in these Pakistan-occupied territories”.
He added, “Instead of seeking to alter the status of these Indian territories,
we call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal
occupation.”
The Pakistan government intends to make
Gilgit-Baltistan a full-fledged province with constitutional rights such as
representation in both houses of Parliament. The plan has the backing of
Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
party is banking on the move to boost its chances in the elections in the
region.
Two years ago, the powers of the Islamabad-controlled
council for Gilgit-Baltistan were transferred to a local assembly. In 2009, the
Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order renamed the Northern
Areas as Gilgit-Baltistan and the region was given province-like status but
without representation in Parliament.
During his speech, Khan highlighted the importance of
a strong military in the face of what he described as a campaign by the Indian
government to foment unrest across Pakistan and to create a split between the
Sunni majority and Shia minority. He also said it was necessary for Pakistan to
have a strong military in view of the oppression of the Kashmiri people by the
Indian government following the scrapping of J&K’s special status on August
5 last year.
He praised Pakistan’s intelligence agencies for
foiling what he said were India’s moves to create unrest at a time when
opposition parties were making plans to discredit the military and judiciary.
Khan particularly defended army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa and Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed from attacks by the opposition
parties.
Referring to PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq’s remarks that
Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman – shot down in a dogfight during
the military standoff triggered by the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019 –
was freed by Pakistan because of fears of an impending attack by India, Khan
said the opposition leaders were “speaking like [Indian Prime Minister]
Narendra Modi”.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-rejects-pak-s-province-status-for-gilgit-baltistan/story-L5VG1Vf2NcY0wcZBJPXX5J.html
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Hizbul Muhajideen’s top terrorist Saifullah killed in
encounter in Kashmir’s Rangreth; police laud ‘huge success’
Nov 01, 2020
Edited by Poulomi Ghosh
Hizbul Muhajideen top operative Dr Saifullah was
killed during a gunfight in Rangreth area on Sunday, said police. One militant
was also captured alive during the operation that was launched in the morning
on a specific information, police said.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range Vijay Kumar
said that they had got an information that some militants who had come for
south Kashmir are hiding in the area in Rangreth. “A joint operation was
launched by Police, CRPF and later Army also joined,” he said.
Kumar said that one terrorist was killed and another
captured alive during the encounter. “Our sources have told us that the
terrorist killed in the operation is Hizbul Mujahideen chief commander, Dr
Saifullah.” He said that they are waiting for the family members of Hizb chief
to identify the body.
Kumar termed the killing of Saifullah a ‘big success’
for the security forces. “He is the second Hizb chief killed in the operation
this year. Earlier in May, Riyaz Naikoo who was operational commander was also
killed in an encounter in Pulwama and then Dr Saifullah was nominated as the
new Hizb chief. For security forces, this is a big success.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hizbul-muhajideen-chief-commander-dr-saifullah-killed-in-encounter-huge-success-say-police/story-MKb3ObLYixHnF1udWtdw7N.html
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South Asia
Afghan-Taliban Delegations Agrees on Third Party
Mediation
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
01 Nov 2020
The Afghan government and the Taliban have agreed that
Qatar will play a role in facilitating peace talks and advising negotiators to
both sides.
Sources in Doha says after the government and the
Taliban failed to resolve their differences, it was decided that Qatar should
play a mediative role.
According to the reports, the Qatari government will
not be able to participate in the Intra-Afghan talks but will be able to advise
the interlocutors of both sides individually when differences escalate.
Five countries: Qatar, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Norway,
and Germany are proposed for the mediating role, which was eventually agreed
upon.
The Afghan government and the Taliban have not yet
agreed on a basis for peace talks, which is one of the most serious differences
between the two.
Taliban still stresses the basis for the Intra-Afghan
talks should be the US-Doha agreement, but the Afghan government has reportedly
rejected. They credit the basis according to the resolution of the Consultative
Peace Jirga and the Kabul declarations.
Peace talks between the Afghan government and the
Taliban began on September 12, but so far, the two sides have not been able to
agree on a strategical policy or procedures for the talks.
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-taliban-delegations-agrees-on-third-party-mediation-876876/
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Negotiating Team Discusses Afghan Peace with ‘Various
Strata of Balkh Province’
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
02 Nov 2020
KABUL, Afghanistan – Following a series of
consultative meetings on Afghan peace, an online meeting was held Sunday
between members of the Afghan Negotiating Team and “different Strata of Balkh
province”, said State Ministry for Peace in a statement.
Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi, State Minister for Peace
and a member of the negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,
said the Ministry is a platform for connecting all different sections of
society with structures active in the field of peace.
“The ministry is working to connect different strata
with the negotiating team so that the people are directly informed about the
issues and developments in the peace process,” he said in the statement.
“The questions and issues raised in these meetings are
collected and documented and shared with the negotiating team and relevant
officials,” Naderi added.
Mohammad Farhad Azimi, Balkh Governor, said Afghan
people are at a critical juncture and the only solution is peace, adding an
unconditional peace is not acceptable to the people of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Mawlawi Atta-ur-Rahman Saleem, Deputy
Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), said those in
charge and Afghanistan as a whole should be able to make the most of the current
opportunity to resolve the crisis.
“The people of Afghanistan, the countries of the
region, the scholars of the Islamic world and the whole world are in a
consensus to end the crisis; Therefore, we must now hear more from the people,”
he said.
Mohammad Afzal Hadid, head of the Balkh Provincial
Council, called for sharing information retrieved form the negotiations with
the people, stressing the government and members of the negotiating team have
the support of the people in the peace process, according to the
statement.
Referring to the unity and agreement among the members
of the negotiating team, Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi said that they are working
with the aim of creating a dignified, lasting and real peace.
Last week, a virtual meeting was held Wednesday
between members of the Afghan Negotiating Team and members of the United Voice
of Afghan Women for Peace Policy (UVAWPP), said State Ministry for Peace in a
statement.
“The State Ministry for Peace facilitated the group’s
[UVAWPP] activities and the meeting was organized to connect them with the
negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” said Alema, Deputy
Minister of Human Rights and Civil Society, at the meeting.
Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi, State Minister for Peace,
including members of the team affirming the statement, said such meetings have
been held to widely involve the views and suggestions of women in peace
negotiations.
“The Ministry acts as a link between all active
structures in the negotiation process as well as the implementation of the
agreement and is responsible for facilitating and ensuring the systematic
relations of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with the people, in which
women have a valuable role,” Naderi added.
https://www.khaama.com/negotiating-team-discusses-afghan-peace-with-various-strata-of-balkh-province-34534/
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Afghans mark Unity Week amid wave of Islamophobia
01 November 2020
Afghans are marking the arrival of the birthday
anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad under the name of Unity Week.
At a time when Islamophobia is growing in some parts
of the world, and amid French president Emmanuel Macron’s recent insulting
comments about the holy prophet of Islam, people in Afghanistan are attending
ceremonies in Kabul as a show of respect and love for the prophet of over 2
billion Muslims.
Based on Islamic beliefs, the arrival of Unity Week -
as its titles suggests – serves as a big opportunity for Muslims to once again
return to the main teachings of the Prophet Muhammad such as strengthening unity
among Muslims.
Some others believe that the arrival of the birthday
anniversary of Islam's holy prophet is also an opportunity for mankind to
review the life and words of the Prophet Muhammad to see the real face of
Islam.
Besides calling for boosting Islamic brotherhood among
Afghans, those attending ceremonies marking Unity Week say the cementing of
national unity among people is one of the musts associated with Unity Week.
As observers say, the best way to lead the nation to
real national unity is to remove the obstacles on the way of the ongoing peace
talks between the government and Taliban in the Qatari capital Doha.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/01/637694/Afghanistan-Unity-Week-Islamophobia-Prophet-Muhammed-
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Crackdown on dissent deepens in Bangladesh
October 30, 2020
Asad Noor was born to a Muslim family in southeast
Bangladesh, but he renounced Islam and became a self-styled atheist in 2012.
Trouble started brewing for him when he began blogging
in 2016, mostly criticizing religions and religion-based injustices. He was
charged under Bangladesh’s draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) twice and spent
14 months in jail. He left Bangladesh in 2017 and since then has been based in
India.
“I have mostly written about rights of minorities and
injustices against them. I have been critical of Islamic extremism. That’s why
I have become a target of religious fanatics and the government,” Noor, 30,
told UCA News.
Noor has recently been facing the ire of an
Islamist-political nexus in Chittagong for supporting a Buddhist monk who has
been falsely accused of insulting Islam on social media. Secularists claimed
the monk has been targeted for opposing attempted grabbing of a local temple
and monastery.
In July, Noor was against charged under the DSA for
hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims with his social media posts.
In his absence, police allegedly detained and
interrogated his family members for hours on July 18 before releasing them due
to pressure from rights groups at home and abroad.
“Bangladesh's government attempts to present the
country as a bastion of pluralism and tolerance, but in reality there is no
freedom of speech. The DSA was formulated mainly to curb free speech and it has
truly become a weapon to muzzle free speech and dissent,” Noor said.
His family has been traumatized since police
detention, Noor said, adding that his younger sister “cries out in her sleep”
at night. “Their suffering has touched me deeply and hampered my regular
writings as well,” he added.
The case of Noor has become common in Bangladesh for
critics of religious extremists and the government in recent times, rights
groups say.
A disturbing development
In a joint statement on Oct. 24, four international
rights groups — Amnesty International, Asian Human Rights Commission, Human
Rights Watch and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights — deplored the government’s
crackdown “on those exercising their right to freedom of expression, and its
failure to comply with its international obligations to uphold fundamental
rights.”
The groups noted that family members of three
Bangladesh-born prominent bloggers and activists — Asad Noor, France-based
Pinaki Bhattacharya and Sweden-based journalist and rights activist Tasneem
Khalil — have been harassed by law enforcement agencies.
Bhattacharya, 57, a well-known government critic,
recently alleged that police interrogated and intimidated his elderly mother
and maternal uncle in Bogra district of northern Bangladesh.
Similarly, Khalil has alleged that on several
occasions police visited and questioned his mother, who is based in Sylhet
district of Bangladesh. In the latest case, two police officers visited her on
Oct. 27.
“Earlier today, two officers from the Special Branch
visited my mother Nazneen Khalil’s residence in Sylhet. As she is isolating
herself due to very high Covid-19 risk, my mother did not let them inside —
they stood outside the main door and talked to her via phone. She was
questioned about me, my siblings and our current whereabouts. They also wanted
to get personal details on me,” Khalil wrote on Facebook.
Earlier, the government blocked Netra News, a news
portal edited by Khalil, after the authorities accused it of publishing
anti-state content.
Rights groups deplored these threats to family members
and termed such actions as adding “to the serious concerns about the widespread
crackdown on activists, journalists, and others who question or criticize the
government.”
“Bangladeshi authorities should independently and
impartially investigate these allegations of harassment, hold members of
security forces accountable for their actions, and put an end to the
intimidation of family members of activists and those exercising their right to
freedom of expression,” they said.
Freedom of speech violated
Once known as a moderate Muslim-majority country with
a long-held tradition of religious harmony and pluralism, Bangladesh has seen a
sharp rise in Islamic militancy since 2013.
Islamic militants attacked and killed about 50 people
including nine atheist bloggers and writers, accusing them of defaming Islam
and the Prophet Muhammad, and it forced dozens of atheist bloggers to flee to
Europe and the US.
The government also arrested four atheist bloggers but
later released them on condition of not “hurting religious sentiments” anymore.
In 2018, the DSA was passed despite strong opposition
from journalists and free thinkers who argued the cyberlaw contained huge scope
for abuse and meant to gag media and freedom of speech.
Since then over 1,000 cases have been filed against
individuals and groups under the law, mostly over allegations of hurting
religious sentiment, local media reported.
The government needs to impartially investigate each
case of intimidation and harassment of family members of bloggers and
activists, says Nur Khan, former executive director of Dhaka-based rights group
Ain-O-Salish Kendra (Law and Arbitration Center).
“Without proper investigation and punishment for
perpetrators, a climate of fear will descend on Bangladesh, which has already
seen a crackdown on media and dissent. If this continues, democracy will die a
slow death,” Khan told UCA News.
The government has become ultra-sensitive and lost the
virtue of tolerance, says Holy Cross Father Liton H. Gomes, secretary of the
Catholic bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission.
“The government takes on anyone who somehow hits at
government interests. Everyone has a constitutional right to criticize the
government and it is unacceptable that their families face harassment,” Father
Gomes told UCA News.
“The government is afraid of criticism, but it could
learn much from criticism had it taken criticism positively. We are far from
learning how to tolerate and digest criticism.”
Government officials and allies have claimed
Bangladeshi citizens are allowed to exercise freedom of speech properly.
“There is no direct and indirect hindrance of freedom
of speech in Bangladesh,” Hasnul Haque Inu, president of the parliamentary
permanent committee on the Information Ministry, told BBC Bangla Service this
week.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/crackdown-on-dissent-deepens-in-bangladesh/90088#
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Malaysian Global Islamic Unity Forum Condemns War in
Afghanistan
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
02 Nov 2020
Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said
the Malaysian Global Islamic Unity Forum, one of the country’s largest and most
reputable Islamic non-profit organizations, condemned the ongoing war and
violence in Afghanistan.
This reputable organization declared the Afghan war
against the Islamic Sharia law and called it unlawful.
MoFA said in a released statement: “In a letter to the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Kuala Lumpur, GIUF called for an end to the
Afghan crisis through dialogues and negotiations.”
Earlier, the Association of Islamic Scholars of
Bangladesh had condemned the ongoing war in Afghanistan and called on all
parties in the conflict to end the war through negotiations.
https://www.khaama.com/malaysia-globa-islamic-unity-forum-condemns-afghanistan-war-887698/
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Taliban Probably Have Used Drone in Kunduz Attack:
Report
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
02 Nov 2020
New York Times report, a worrisome shift in the battle
tactics of the Taliban militants, the strike has reportedly targeted governor’s
compound in Kunduz Province.
On Sunday, an attack most likely carried out by a
drone, killed at least four security officers in Kunduz the northern part of
the country.
According to the officials, this could be the
Taliban’s first publicly used method in 19 years.
The strike killed four of the governor’s security guards
while they were playing volleyball inside the compound, and eight others are
left wounded.
Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, a member of Kunduz’s
provincial council, told New York Times, “It is not clear that it was an
explosion or a missile or drone attack.”
A similar type of Attack occurred in Kunduz’s governor
compound, leaving one person dead.
Such war methods were previously used by ISIS in Syria
and Iraq.
This is despite the fact that Intra-Afghan talks
between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar have stalled and the war
in the country has intensified.
Earlier, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said the
Afghan government has been successful in testing tools that can repel the
Taliban’s thermal, night vision attacks.
https://www.khaama.com/new-york-times-taliban-probably-have-used-drone-in-kunduz-attack-897868/
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At least 50,000 take part in anti-France rally in
Bangladesh capital
02 November 2020
At least 50,000 people rallied in the Bangladesh
capital Dhaka on Monday to demonstrate against French President Emmanuel
Macron’s defense of the right to criticize Islam as part of freedom of speech.
Police estimated some 50,000 people took part in the
protest, which demanded a boycott of French products and was prevented from
marching to the French embassy. organizers said more than 100,000 people took
part.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/11/02/At-least-50-000-take-part-in-anti-France-rally-in-Bangladesh-capital
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Southeast Asia
Rights groups concerned over probe into Kedah event
organiser for ‘encouraging vice’ after raid against trans women
30 Oct 2020
BY SOO WERN JUN
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — A coalition of local human
rights groups have expressed concern today over a recent investigation launched
into an event organiser in Kedah, allegedly for “‘encouraging vice”.
Following the raid on a private birthday where 30
trans women were singled out and arrested, the groups highlighted this
dangerous trend of punishing event organisers, allies, or those who are
inclusive of transgender persons.
“We are also deeply concerned by the investigation of
the organiser for ‘encouraging vice’ and the instructions by the Kedah Islamic
Department to end the event seemingly due to the inclusion and attendance of
transgender women,” the groups said.
“This is a dangerous trend as it punishes event
organisers, allies or people for being inclusive of transgender women. It
further perpetuates the harmful stereotypes of trans women being deviants,
sinners and criminals, leaving no room for social integration of transgender
women in society.
“The state action is counter-productive to building an
inclusive, safe and equal society,” they added.
They also called on Kedah Islamic enforcers to cease
the investigation and all forms of prosecution of transgender women.
On October 27, the Kedah Islamic Department raided a
birthday party where 30 transgender women out of 100 attendees were singled out
and given notice to report back at the state religious department to be
investigated under the Kedah Shariah Criminal Offences Enactment 1988.
According to the groups, the organiser, who was
celebrating his birthday, was also handed a notice to report back to the
department to be investigated for “encouraging vice”.
Section 7 of the enactment criminalises “transvestites”,
where “men wearing female attire or acting like women in public” can be
penalised by fine not more than RM1,000, jail not more than six month, or more.
Meanwhile, Section 23 of the same enactment
criminalises “encouraging vice”, and offenders can be penalised by fine not
more than RM500, jail not more than four months, or both.
The raid also resulted in the private event being
abruptly ended due to instructions by the Islamic enforcers.
The raid was carried out with the police, and news
reports suggest that some media outlets were also present at the raid.
“Following the constitutional review of Section 66 of
the Negri Sembilan Shariah Criminal Offences Enactment in 2015, there has been
a significant reduction of cases of arrest under the ‘posing as a man’ state
enactments based on our collective monitoring.
“However, we have observed a resurgence of raids and
arrests of transgender women in the last year. In most cases, the raids are a
result of an alleged ‘tip-off’ or complaint, and the trans women are mostly
subjected to ‘counselling’. This is a concerning trend,” they said.
The groups also reiterated that trans women are not
“pretending, posing or acting” as women.
“They are women, and as such express themselves in a
way that is authentic and representative of who they are and their identity,”
the explained.
In addition, the groups also expressed disappointment
in reports of the arrests by Malay tabloid Harian Metro and English daily New
Straits Times (NST), both under the Media Prima Bhd, which they said were
sensationalised.
It added that in the Harian Metro article and video
report, it not only misgendered trans women multiple times, but also contained
bias, disrespectful and inaccurate statements, language and title.
The activists have also questioned the presence of
Harian Metro at the raid and the motive of their coverage.
“We have contacted Harian Metro to make the following
changes in order to remove the prejudicial and sensational elements, and
maintain a factual, ethical and non-bias reporting.
“However, no changes have been made so far, and we
have not received a reply from Harian Metro,” the statement wrote.
The statement was undersigned by 14 groups which
included Justice for Sisters, SEED Malaysia, Pelangi Campaign, Tenaganita,
Amnesty International Malaysia, and Sisters in Islam.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/10/30/rights-groups-concerned-over-probe-into-kedah-event-organiser-for-encouragi/1917958
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PAS inclusive party that treats everyone equally, says
its appointed Sabah assemblyman
01 Nov 2020
KOTA KINABALU, Nov 1 — PAS is an inclusive party and
even in Sabah the people are well-treated regardless of their religious or
racial background, said newly appointed state assemblyman Dr Aliakbar Gulasan.
The Sabah PAS Liaison Committee secretary said there
was no question of PAS being branded as an Islamic party in the state because
the most important struggle for the party was equality for all.
“I will prove that PAS is an inclusive party. Islam is
a comprehensive religion not only in matters related to worship and divine
affairs, but in all dealings.
“I will also work for a broader agenda such as
conservation of the environment, maintaining cleanliness, integrity and others
because these are religious demands. PAS has been ruling Kelantan for 30 years
and the people are treated fairly and equally,” he told Bernama.
Aliakbar took his oath as Sabah state assemblyman on
Oct 8 and is the first PAS Sabah leader to be nominated a state representative.
PAS is part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition
together with Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) and Parti Progresif Sabah
(SAPP) and PN together with Barisan Nasional (BN) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS)
form Gabungan Rakyat Sabah that governs the state today.
Among other things Aliakbar said he would recommend
that the government prepares a strategic plan to increase better employment
opportunities for the people of Sabah.
“I will show that as a PAS representative integrity is
important and that PAS is actually a party that respects all races and
religions,” he said.
He said the current national integration measures,
especially involving the people would have to be strengthened to ensure that
Sabah, Sarawak and the Peninsula remain united to ensure long-term peace and
solidarity. — Bernama
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/11/01/pas-inclusive-party-that-treats-everyone-equally-says-its-appointed-sabah-a/1918291
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Mideast
CBI Governor: Iran’s Foreign Currency Market Moving
towards Stability
Nov 01, 2020
“The US cruel sanctions have left impact on foreign
trade and channels to bring foreign currency to the country but the government
will manage the situation through the plans already underway,” Hemmati said on
Sunday.
“We are gradually moving towards stability in exchange
rate in this market,” he added.
The Iranian rial has risen more than seven percent
against the US dollar in the last week.
The rial closed at 268,000 against the dollar on
Saturday, according to exchange price websites and reports from the unofficial
currency market in downtown Tehran.
A senior member of the Iranian parliament said on
Saturday that the dollar would continue to sink against the rial in the
upcoming days.
Hosseinali Hajideligani said that many households had
bought the dollar and other currencies over the past few weeks at illogically
higher prices only to protect their savings.
“Many profiteers encouraged the people to buy foreign
currencies at fake prices,” Hajideligani said.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990811000928
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Senior MP Confirms Capturing of Terrorist Ringleader
behind 2018 Attack in Southwestern Iran
Nov 01, 2020
“Osivad is under interrogation of the Iranian security
and intelligence forces,” Zonnouri was quoted as saying by ICANA (the
parliament’s news agency) on Sunday.
He added that Osivad was detained outside Iran and was
then transferred to the country.
“Certainly, the terrorist (Osivad) will be prepared
for a fair trial after interrogation and completion of the case and he will be
punished,” Zonnouri said.
Habib Chaab, also known as Habib Osivad is the former
leader and the current vice-president of the Al-Ahwaziya terrorist group, which
claimed responsibility for the September 2018 terrorist attack on a military
parade in Ahvaz, Southwest of Iran, which killed 26 and injured 69 others.
The terrorists attacked the bystanders watching the
annual Armed Forces' parades, marking the start of the Sacred Defense Week,
commemorating Iranians' sacrifices during the 8 years of the Iraqi imposed war
on Iran in 1980s, in disguise of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and
Basij (volunteer) forces, killing and wounding several people, including
innocent women and children.
None of the officials participating in the military
parades in Ahwaz city in Khuzestan province was injured in the attack.
Last February, the Danish Security and Intelligence
Service (PET) and the Netherlands police separately arrested and charged four
members of an anti-Iran terrorist group on suspicions of spying for Saudi
Arabia and plans to conduct terrorist attack in Iran.
Three members of the Arab Struggle Movement for the
Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA) or al-Ahwaziyeh terrorist group carried out
espionage activities from 2012 to 2018, PET said in a statement on February 3.
It said the three individuals “collected information
about individuals in Denmark and abroad and passed on this information to a
Saudi intelligence service," among other things.
A pretrial detention hearing is due on February 4.
In August, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced
it has arrested Jamshid Sharmahd, the ringleader of an anti-Iran terrorist
group based in the United States.
Sharmahd directed "armed operations and acts of
sabotage" in Iran from the US, according to the Intelligence Ministry.
Following a complicated operation, the ringleader of
the group, named Tondar (Thunder), was arrested and he is "now in the
powerful hands" of Iranian security forces, it said at the time.
Also, in October 2019, the Intelligence Organization
of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corp (IRGC) had managed to arrest Rouhollah
Zam, the administrator of counterrevolutionary website Amad News, in a
neighboring country.
The meticulous intelligence operation involved
outmaneuvering the intelligence services of certain Western countries,
especially France, which offered Zam guidance and protection for his operation.
“Intelligence forces had been keeping a watchful eye
on Rouhollah Zam’s movements for a long time and he stepped into the
intelligence trap set by IRGC some two years ago. Ultimately, we were able to
arrest him through cooperation with other intelligence services,” Second
Brigadier General Mohammad Tavallaei, a high-ranking IRGC official, said at the
time.
In June this year, Iran’s Judiciary sentenced Zam to
death after he was convicted of corruption on earth.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990811000851
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FM Warns against Presence of Terrorists in Karabakh
Region
Nov 01, 2020
“We are almost certain about the presence of
terrorists during clashes and we have certainly stressed that it does not
benefit anyone,” Zarif said on Sunday.
“During recent negotiations and even before that we
informed the officials of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia and Turkey that the
Islamic Republic of Iran will not tolerate such a situation,” he added.
Zarif, meantime, said that the terrorists are not
present near the Iranian borders, and added, “But the possibility of their
presence in a distance from our borderlines is still high and we have informed
both sides (Azerbaijan and Armenia) of this concern.”
Zarif had earlier this week sent his Deputy Seyed
Abbas Araqchi to Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia and Turkey to promote Tehran’s
initiative for the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over the Karabakh region.
Araqchi stressed that Tehran’s peace plan is based on
“a regional approach” with the participation of influential countries,
including Russia and Turkey.
The proposal also takes into account the realities on
the ground, he said, adding that three ceasefires have failed to bring peace to
the Karabakh as they did not consider those realities.
Iran’s initiative calls on warring sides to abide by
international rules such as respect for the rights of minorities and
humanitarian rights as well as non-aggression against civilians and return of
refugees. It further outlines a series of specific principles related to the
Karabakh crisis, among them ending the occupation and observing territorial
integrity and inviolability of borders, according to Araqchi.
He expressed hope that the plan could pave the way for
lasting peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, noting, "However, that it
is not an easy task because of problems and foreign interference."
"The Islamic Republic has always voiced its
readiness to establish a truce, start dialog and restore peace given its good
relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia and the critical condition in the
region," he emphasized.
The new escalation began on September 27 after
Armenian separatists — who have been seeking to break the region away from
Azerbaijan for around three decades — opened fire on Azeri soldiers. More than
1,000 people, including more than a 100 civilians, have reportedly died in the
violence.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the
highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of
Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic
Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
The fighting has been rated the worst to plague
Nagorno-Karabakh since 1992, when Armenians invaded the region and forced
Azeris into a retreat.
A number of stray shells and projectiles have crossed
the Iranian border, prompting stern warnings from Tehran.
The Ground Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps (IRGC) has deployed a mechanized brigade to protect the country’s
Northwestern border amid the ongoing clashes between the two former Soviet
republics.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990811000234
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Presidential Change Not to Change US Policy against
Iran
Nov 01, 2020
“US policy against Iran will not change under any
circumstances with the election of a Democrat or Republican president,” Jalali
said on Sunday, adding, “The fact is that the pressures imposed on Iranian
nation by enemy are unprecedented anywhere in the world.”
“Under such circumstances, we have been able to
maintain the independence of the country,” he went on to say.
In relevant remarks on Saturday, Brigadier General
Jalali said, “The Americans have gone after war against Iran’s vital
infrastructures after being disappointed in the military front.”
He added that most attacks against Iran’s
infrastructures are cyberattacks, explaining that the culprit behind such
attacks is not known.
General Jalali said that cyber systems now play a
major role in Iran’s vital infrastructures due to their rapid development,
stressing the need for strengthening the cyber defense infrastructures in the
country.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990811000709
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Iranian Rights Group Urges UN to Impose Arms Ban on
Saudis to Stop Yemen War
Nov 01, 2020
Secretary general of Iranian Youths’ Human Rights
Organization, Amin Ansari, made the remarks in a letter to UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres on Saturday.
"The Saudi government, supported and equipped by
Western states, is committing war crimes, including targeting civilians and
completely disregarding the principle of differentiation between military and
civilian targets", Ansari wrote, stressing the necessity of UN sanctions
on the Saudi regime to give up heinous crimes against the Yemeni oppressed
people.
The letter came amid the global marking of the UN
Disarmament Week, which is aimed at promoting awareness of disarmament issues.
Stating that international criminal courts have set
the stage for prosecution of culprits, Ansari underlined the need for the UN's
political will to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
"If the oppressed people of Yemen enjoy the
political will and serious support of the UN bodies, especially the Security
Council, the world will witness international criminal justice for the
founders, perpetrators and accomplices of this great crime," he continued.
Ansari also urged Guterres to boost his efforts to
support the rights of the defenseless Yemeni people and to use the world body's
potential to provide relief and humanitarian aid to the victims of the
war-ravaged country.
Saudi regime and a number of its regional allies
launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the
government of former fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power
and crush the popular Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data
Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the
war has claimed more than 100,000 lives for over the past five years; although
the facts on the ground and eye witness accounts put the number of the dead far
more than this figure.
Ansarullah movement, backed by armed forces, has been
defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from
fulfilling the objectives of the devastating war.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990811000291
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Israel’s Netanyahu praises President Trump policies
ahead of US election
01 November 2020
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday
praised President Donald Trump’s Mideast policies, even as he avoided openly
taking sides ahead of the US presidential election.
Netanyahu told reporters that US bipartisan support
has been “one of the foundations of the American-Israeli alliance.” He then
went on to say “that alliance has never been stronger” and praised a slew of
steps taken by Trump in favor of Israel.
He noted the tough US stance toward Iran, recognition
of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, recognition of Israel’s annexation
of the Golan Heights, the tolerant approach toward Israeli settlements and the
recent diplomatic pacts between Israel and three Arab countries.
“I can only hope that this policy that brings, that
isolates Iran and brings the fruits of peace, peace grounded in reality to the
people of Israel, to the Arab peoples of the region, I can only hope that this
policy will continue in the coming years,” Netanyahu said.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Despite his stated commitment to bipartisan ties with
the US, Israel’s closest and most important ally, Netanyahu has frequently been
seen as siding with the Republicans. Netanyahu had a cool relationship with
President Barack Obama, appeared to favor Republican challenger Mitt Romney in
2012 and then delivered a major speech to Congress in 2015 to argue against
Obama’s emerging nuclear deal with Iran.
After taking office, Trump unilaterally withdrew the
US from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, winning praise from Netanyahu.
While Trump is popular with the Israeli public,
Netanyahu’s close relationship with the president appears to be deepening a
divide with American Jews. Opinion polls have indicated that American Jews will
vote overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/01/Israel-s-Netanyahu-praises-President-Trump-policies-ahead-of-US-election
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Iran arrests Iranian Arab opposition figure abroad,
Ahwazi group says he was abducted
Yaghoub Fazeli
01 November 2020
Iran has arrested an Iranian Arab opposition figure
abroad and taken to him to Tehran, an Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday, amid
reports of abduction.
The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz
(ASMLA), an Iranian Arab separatist group, accused the Iranian regime in a
statement on Friday of abducting one of its former leaders while he was in
Turkey.
ASMLA said Iranian intelligence agents abducted Habib
Chaab – also known as Habib Eseywed – after “luring” him to Turkey.
Chaab is currently in Tehran being interrogated by
Iran’s security and intelligence forces, head of the Iranian parliament’s
national security and foreign policy committee Mojtaba Zolnour was quoted as
saying by the parliament’s website ICANA.
Chaab was “arrested abroad and taken to Iran thanks to
the vigilance of our country’s security and intelligence branches,” Zolnour
said, comparing the case to Ruhollah Zam.
Zam is an Iranian journalist-turned-activist who was
arrested by Iranian forces in October 2019 and later sentenced to death in
June.
Zolnour did not reveal the location or time of Chaab’s
arrest.
“After the necessary information is extracted from
this terrorist, he will appear in a fair court [hearing] to be punished for his
actions,” he added.
ASMLA, considered a terrorist organization by the
Iranian regime, seeks a separate state for the indigenous Ahwazi Arab
population inside Iran’s oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province, with its
capital city of Ahwaz.
An ethnic minority in Iran, Ahwazi Arabs say they are
deprived of decent living standards and civil rights, and face discrimination
due to their Arab identity and heritage.
Some see themselves as living under Persian occupation
and demand independence or autonomy.
In 2017, Ahmad Mola Nissi, ASMLA’s founder, was shot
dead in the Netherlands. A year later, Iran accused the group of being
responsible for a deadly attack on a military parade in Ahwaz that killed 25
people. AMSLA denies the accusation.
A number of Iranian dissidents have been arrested in
neighboring countries and taken to Iran over the past decade.
In August, Iran said it had arrested US-based
opposition figure Jamshid Sharmahd. Details of his arrest and subsequent travel
to Iran remain a mystery.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/01/Iran-arrests-Iranian-Arab-opposition-figure-abroad-Ahwazi-group-says-he-was-abducted
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Thousands protest in Jerusalem against Israel PM over
coronavirus, corruption charges
01 November 2020
Thousands of Israelis protested in Jerusalem on
Saturday in the latest weekly demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, his handling of the coronavirus crisis and the corruption charges he
faces.
Protesters waved Israeli and pink flags, which have
become a symbol of the protest movement, as they marched through Jerusalem
toward a square near Netanyahu’s official residence. Smaller demonstrations
were taking place elsewhere across the country.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Protesters held signs that read, “Saving the country,
fighting corruption” and “Revolution.”
The protesters criticize Netanyahu for what they say
is his bungling of the coronavirus outbreak and its economic fallout. Many of
the protesters also oppose Netanyahu serving as prime minister while under
indictment on three corruption charges: fraud, breach of trust and accepting
bribes.
Netanyahu denies wrongdoing in a series of scandals
involving billionaire associates and media moguls.
The protests have go on for months and kept a
spotlight on Netanyahu at a time when the long-serving leader’s popularity has
plummeted because of his handling of the virus outbreak in Israel.
The country is emerging in gradual stages from a
monthlong lockdown that the government imposed to tamp down infections.
Restrictions still in place have kept stores, hotels and restaurants closed
while the Israeli economy continues to take a hit.
Israel appeared to have successfully weathered an
initial outbreak in the spring, even as unemployment skyrocketed. But a hasty
reopening after a previous lockdown sent confirmed cases soaring and plunged
the country toward new restrictions.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/01/Thousands-protest-in-Jerusalem-against-Israel-PM-over-coronavirus-corruption-charges
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Africa
Tunisia arrests suspect over Nice stabbing attack
claim
Yousra Ounnes
31.10.2020
TUNIS
Tunisian security forces on Saturday arrested a man
for claiming responsibility of a knife attack in the southern French city of
Nice, according to a judicial spokesman.
Mohsen Dali, a spokesman for Tunisia’s anti-terrorism
prosecutor’s office, told Anadolu Agency that the suspect appeared in a video
claiming responsibility for the attack, which left three people dead by a
Tunisian migrant on Thursday.
He said the suspect was arrested for questioning,
without giving any further details.
On Thursday, a spokesman for a group calling itself
the Ansar Al-Mahdi in Tunisia and Arab Maghreb claimed responsibility for the
Nice knife attack in a video footage on social media.
On Friday, Dali said the Tunisian authorities were
investigating the authenticity of the claim.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/tunisia-arrests-suspect-over-nice-stabbing-attack-claim/2026148
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Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia restart controversial
mega-dam talks
01 November 2020
Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia kicked off Sunday the latest
round of talks over Addis Ababa’s controversial dam on the Blue Nile, waters
critical to the two downstream nations.
The week-long negotiations, held via videoconference,
include water ministers from the three countries, as well as representatives
from the African Union, European Union and the World Bank.
Previous three-way talks have failed to produce an
agreement on the filling and operation of the vast reservoir behind the
145-meter (475-foot) tall hydropower Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 percent
of its irrigation and drinking water, sees the dam as an existential threat.
Sudan hopes the dam will help regulate flooding, but
has also warned that millions of lives would be at “great risk” if Ethiopia
unilaterally fills the dam.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia views the project as essential for
its electrification and development, and insists that the flow of water
downstream will not be affected.
In July, Addis Ababa declared that it reached its
first-year target for filling the reservoir of the mega-dam, which can hold 74
billion cubic meters (2,600 billion cubic feet) of water.
Last month, US President Donald Trump appeared to
suggest that Egypt may destroy it in remarks that were seen by Ethiopia as
inciting “war.”
Egypt and Sudan have long called for a political
solution to the dispute, voicing rejection against any unilateral action by
Ethiopia.
The Blue Nile, which rises in the Ethiopian highlands,
meets the White Nile flowing from East Africa at the Sudanese capital Khartoum
to form the Nile, traditionally considered to be the world’s longest river.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/01/Sudan-Egypt-and-Ethiopia-restart-controversial-mega-dam-talks
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Sudan, UAE sign MoU to build solar power plants
01 November 2020
Sudan and the United Arab Emirates signed a Memorandum
Of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of solar energy plants with a
capacity of 500 megawatts (MW), the Sudanese energy ministry said in a
statement on Sunday.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
UAE, represented by one of its private companies, will
supply, build, install and operate plants for 20 years, the energy ministry
said, without specifying how many plants the deal would entail.
The Gulf country will also train and employ Sudanese
workers throughout the contract period, with a commitment by the Sudanese
government to purchase electricity at a competitive price, according to the
statement.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/11/02/Sudan-UAE-sign-MoU-to-build-solar-power-plants-operated-by-UAE-for-20-years
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France’s interior minister to visit Tunisia, Algeria
to discuss security
02 November 2020
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin will visit
Tunisia and Algeria later this week to discuss security matters with his
counterparts there, Darmanin told BFM TV on Monday.
Concerns over security and immigration have increased
in France after a fatal knife attack at a church in Nice last week.
France’s chief anti-terrorism prosecutor has said the
man suspected of carrying out the Nice attack was a Tunisian born in 1999 who
had arrived in Europe on Sept. 20 in Lampedusa, the Italian island off Tunisia.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/11/02/France-s-interior-minister-to-visit-Tunisia-Algeria-to-discuss-security-
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Pakistan
Minister slammed over Taliban attack remarks
Amir Wasim
02 Nov 2020
ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)
and Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday reacted strongly to the recent remarks
of Minister for Interior retired Brigadier Ijaz Shah in which he had allegedly
warned the opposition of attacks by the Taliban.
While the PPP sought an apology from the interior
minister over his remarks, the ANP called for his “immediate resignation”.
In a statement, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the
spokesman for PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, termed the minister’s
statement a violation of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism and
asked the latter to apologise to the entire nation and the workers of political
parties who were killed by terrorists during the war against terrorism.
Speaking at a ceremony at his hometown Nankana Sahib,
the interior minister had said the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had in reaction
to the ANP’s policies on terrorism attacked the party leadership and killed
many of its leaders, including Bashir Bilour and the son of Mian Iftikhar.
PPP demands apology, ANP the resignation of Ijaz Shah
“Today, I pray for the safety of those following the
N-League’s narrative and wish for them to get divine’s guidance,” Brig Shah had
stated in his speech which went viral on social media.
Senator Khokhar was of the view that threatening the
opposition with possible attacks by the Taliban was not only against NAP, but
it could also create difficulties for the country at the international level.
“These kinds of irresponsible statements by the
federal ministers have already caused a difficult situation for Pakistan in
Financial Action Task Force (FATF),” he said, adding that the ministers through
such statements were in fact “validating” the allegations being levelled
against Pakistan by the world.
Mr Khokhar said it was proved that former prime
minister Benazir Bhutto had correctly named Ijaz Shah as “one of her killers”.
“Due to this dual policy and actions, the world does
not recognise the sacrifices offered by thousands of our army troops and
citizens,” he said, adding that Ijaz Shah should ask for pardon from the entire
nation and the martyrs of the PPP, ANP and other political parties.
“Why the people who issue certificates of treason are
silent over this statement of Ijaz Shah?” he asked.
Mr Khokhar said the nation was now aware of the
reality of the allegation of treason and would soon hold Ijaz Shah and his
“selected patron” accountable.
The ANP demanded resignation of the interior minister
and formation of a truth commission over such an “irresponsible statement”.
Through its official social media account on Twitter,
the ANP quoted the party’s provincial chief Aimal Wali Khan as stating at a
public meeting in Buner Nawagai that the ANP not only called for formation of a
truth commission over sacrifices of the Pakhtuns but also demanded resignation
of the interior minister within 10 days. He said the ANP had always opposed the
“good and bad Taliban” distinction.
Earlier, ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan had also
termed the interior minister’s statement ‘irresponsible’ and ‘foolish’ and
declared that the diatribe had hurt the sentiments of ANP leaders and workers,
who had rendered sacrifices for restoration of peace in the country.
In a tweet, the ANP chief said the state would have to
give an explanation over the minister’s statement. “Was the ANP fighting the
war against terrorists for the protection of the state or against the state?
Where was the minister when the fight against terrorism was going on?” he
asked.
The ANP chief said the party felt proud of Bashir
Bilour, Rashid Hussain and hundreds of other workers who sacrificed their lives
during the fight against terrorism. He said the Taliban and other terrorist
organisations targeted the ANP leaders and workers for their stance against
terrorism and militancy.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1588127/minister-slammed-over-taliban-attack-remarks
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PML-N leaders condemn leadership’s ‘anti-state’
narrative
02 Nov 2020
TAXILA: PML-N leaders of Attock district have
distanced themselves from the recent “anti-state” remarks of the party
leadership, particularly the stance of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and
former speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq.
At separate press conferences in different towns of
the district on Sunday, PML-N member of the Punjab Assembly Jehangir Khanzada,
former member of the National Assembly Malik Itabar Khan and former MPA
Shahwaiz Khan criticised the recent remarks of Mr Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Mr
Sadiq.
Talking to journalists in his native town of Shadi
Khan in Hazro, Mr Khanzada termed Mr Sadiq’s statement “anti-state”.
“He should not have talked in such a way while
speaking in parliament,” the MPA said while highlighting sacrifices rendered by
the armed forces in the fight against terrorists.
He said the nation always stood by the armed forces
and would continue to do so in future.
Sitting, former lawmakers from Attock praise armed
forces for their sacrifices in the fight against terrorists
“The 220 million Pakistanis adore their armed forces
and the country,” he said. “Our armed forces are bravely defending the
motherland and we are indebted to soldiers for their supreme sacrifice for the
country.”
Former MNA Itabar Khan said he could not support the
“anti-national narrative” of Mr Sharif and Mr Sadiq. He said that Maryam Nawaz,
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman had made statements which did
not serve the interest of the country.
Mr Khan said he was saddened by the statement of Mr
Sadiq that targeted the Pakistan Army and its accomplishments. He said the
speech of the former speaker had caused anger and grief among patriot
Pakistanis.
Mr Khan also condemned what he called violation of the
sanctity of the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam by some PML-N leaders.
He said the Pakistan Democratic Movement was only
engaged in “politics of power” and did not give any importance to real issues
of the masses.
Shahwaiz Khan, former MPA from Hassanabdal, said he
did not support the party leadership’s recent “anti-state” stance and condemned
their criticism of state institutions. “The narrative of PML-N leadership is
pleasing the enemy,” he added.
He particularly criticised Mr Sadiq, alleging that the
latter had promoted “anti-state” agenda which was not in the interest of the
country.
The former MPA said his head hung in shame because of
Mr Sadiq’s controversial remarks. “The entire nation has been hurt by the
statements of Nawaz Sharif and Ayaz Sadiq. What they are doing is not good for
the country.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1588138/pml-n-leaders-condemn-leaderships-anti-state-narrative
--------
Imran most incompetent PM in country’s history: Siraj
02 Nov 2020
BAJAUR: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq here
on Sunday called Imran Khan the most incompetent prime minister in the
country’s history for not fulfilling even a single promise made with the nation
during last 27 months and said the ‘selected’ prime minister would definitely
win the world cup of liars if such an event was held.
Addressing a big pubic meeting in Bajaur Sports
Complex here to launch his party’s countrywide anti-government protest
movement, the JI chief alleged that wrong polices of the present government had
virtually turned Pakistan into a failed state.
He said that Imran had made tall claims of positive
changes in the country on the pattern of Riasat-i-Madina (the State of Madina)
when he assumed power. However, he said the PTI government totally failed to
fulfil even a single promise its leader had made with the nation.
JI launches anti-govt movement
Mr Haq said the government had not only put the
country into the worst financial crisis, but also damaged almost all public
organisations and institutions owing to its incompetence.
He alleged that the government’s bad economic policies
had rendered millions of people jobless in the country. He said the current
financial instability, record inflation, lawlessness and unemployment had
exposed the real face and anti-people agenda of the PTI government.
The JI leader claimed that most of people, including
‘selectors’ and strong supporters of PTI, were now disappointed at the
incompetence of the government.
He described the PM’s ongoing anti-corruption
narrative a serious and shameful joke with people and said a prime minister
whose most cabinet members were corrupt would never take practical action
against the corrupt elements in the country.
He alleged that most of the federal ministers, PM’s
assistants and advisers were heads of corrupt mafia who had also been involved
in the wheat and sugar crisis. However, he asked Imran Khan to take start from
his cabinet members if he was really interested in curbing corruption from the
country.
The JI chief blamed the government for damaging the
image of country’s institutions and said PTI had no moral authority to rule the
country.
He slammed the government for not allocating 3 per
cent share in the NFC awards to the tribal districts as per the 25th
constitutional amendment bill passed in 2018.
He said the JI’s anti-government movement was meant to
force the rulers to address the core problems of the people or to compel them
to leave the government instantly. He said their movement would continue till
their target was achieved. He said that such protest meetings would be held
across the country.
About Pakistan Democratic Movement, Mr Haq said most
of the PDM parties were corrupt and his party would never participate in such
an alliance.
JI provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and
other leaders also addressed the gathering, which was also attended by workers
from Dir and Mohmand districts.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1588116/imran-most-incompetent-pm-in-countrys-history-siraj
--------
Remarks recounting release of Wing Commander
Abhinandan have weakened state: Pakistan minister
Oct 31, 2020
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's information minister Shibli
Faraz has slammed PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq for his remarks recalling the
incident that led to the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman fearing
attack from India.
"The remarks by Ayaz Sadiq are beyond apology.
Now the law will take its course. Weakening the state is an unforgivable crime
for which Ayaz Sadiq and his companions must be punished," Faraz tweeted
on Friday.
This comes after the Pakistani lawmaker Ayaz Sadiq had
recounted the events of the February 2019 meeting during a speech in the
country's National Assembly, where he had revealed why Imran Khan's government
decided to release Abhinandan Varthaman.
Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader had said that
foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had in an important meeting pointed out
that if Pakistan did not release Abhinandan Varthaman, India would attack
Pakistan "that night by 9 pm."
The PML-N leader had to apologise for remarks after
backlash from the government.
Wing Commander Varthaman came into the limelight after
he shot down a Pakistani aircraft F-16, which had transgressed into the Indian
airspace during a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani air force on February
27, 2019 and in the process, his plane crossed over to Pakistani side and was
shot down.
Abhinandan was returned to India from the Attari-Wagah
border on March 1, 2019. He has been awarded the Vir Chakra on Independence Day
by President Ram Nath Kovind for his exemplary bravery.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/remarks-recounting-release-of-wing-commander-abhinandan-have-weakened-state-pakistan-minister/articleshow/78967544.cms
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Arab world
Qatar’s Al Jazeera, France’s Macron receive backlash
after televised interview
02 November 2020
Qatari news channel Al Jazeera and French President
Emmanuel Macron are receiving backlash over the latter’s televised interview on
the channel yesterday.
Viewers took to social media to express their thoughts
on what they consider to be the channel’s hypocritical decision to air the
interview with Macron after the outlet was one of the leading voices in the
campaign to boycott French products.
Some argued that Macron’s choice to address the Muslim
world through the Qatari channel was rewarding the network for its hate speech
and troublemaking in the region.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The Qatari channel’s figures stated their new position
shortly after the interview. Yasser Abu-Hilala, ex-managing director to Al
Jazeera and the current consultant, said the French products boycott paid off.
“This is how we gave Macron a lesson. The value of the boycott is to be of
limited duration and limited goals. An absolute boycott is worthless,” he
added.
Journalist Shaikh Walid Al-Salek said Al Jazeera’s
coverage over the past weeks incited violence in Muslims’ hearts in France and
awakened the phenomenon of Islamophobia. “Abu Hilala wanted, by a political
decision from Hamad, to stop the battle with Macron ... [Destroy] the
Brotherhood organization, true Islam did not witness anything more dangerous
than it,” he said on Twitter.
Another Twitter user considered the TV interview with
Macron on Al-Jazeera, nothing but a commercial deal, accusing the channel of
considering the interview a scoop for itself in exchange for Al Jazeera to
relieve pressure on France. “This scene brings us back to the exclusive scenes
that were shown on Al-Jazeera by Al-Qaeda to broadcast its inflammatory
messages to their sleeper cells,” he added.
Sources close to Macron said that the French president
seeks, in this “long” interview, to “clarify his vision calmly,” with his
desire to show that “his statements about fighting isolationism have been
distorted and (his statements) about cartoons are often manipulated”.
Macron also received criticism for his decision to be
featured on Al Jazeera, which is considered by many a propaganda tool for
extremists and Turkey – a nation currently at odds with France.
An Arab journalist criticized Macron, saying he
could’ve given a press conference to Muslim journalists rather than perceived
as rewarding the radicals who made a mockery of his interview.
On the other hand, some Arab media journalists were
shocked; one called Macron “an idiot.”
“How do you call to fight back radicalism, and your
choice is to be featured on the most radical media channel in the Middle East?
He thinks he is using them. The truth is that they used him. He rewarded the
people who for days celebrated the killing of Samuel Paty, and demanded revenge
from France and its president, now they say publicly, look we brought him to
his knees”, he added.
Macron gave his only interview to a journalist from
Al-Jazeera Arabic channel, famous for being the platform for extremist Muslims.
Although Macron defended his position that he was not against Muslims, this
message was not crucial to Al-Jazeera’s audience and its journalists, who
reflected their appreciation that Macron acknowledged and apologized to
Muslims. It was not accurate, Macron spent most of his interview trying to
explain the values of freedom in France, but the truth was not crucial for
Al-Jazeera and its audience.
Al Jazeera broadcasted the interview last Saturday at
16:00 GMT and lasted for about 50 minutes. It is the first interview conducted
by the French president since the start of the anti-France campaign by Qatar
and its ally Turkey. Radical media kept reporting statements attributed to
President Macron that he defended the publication of the cartoons of Prophet
Muhammad after the killing of a teacher near Paris.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/11/01/Qatar-s-Al-Jazeera-France-s-Macron-receive-backlash-after-televised-interview
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Israel will be wiped out despite Arab normalization:
Iraqi politician
01 November 2020
An Iraqi politician says Israel will be wiped off the
map even though the occupying regime is normalizing its relations with Arab
countries.
Nouri al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister and
current secretary general of the Islamic Dawa Party, referred on Friday to a
competition between a number of Arab states to forge formal diplomatic ties
with the Zionist entity.
Some Arab rulers have resorted to normalizing relations
with Tel Aviv in order to maintain their positions, he added.
Maliki also predicted that Israel will be wiped out of
the face of the earth, noting that whatever the regime builds on Palestinian
territories will return to the Muslims.
Warning that the Zionists are seeking to enslave
nations, he stressed that their hope for normalization with a Shia Muslim
country will never come true.
In mid-September, US President Donald Trump presided
over the signing of the normalization pacts between Israel, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.
On October 23, Trump said Israel and Sudan had opened
economic ties as a pathway toward normalized relations. As part of the
agreement, Trump took Khartoum off a US government list of countries allegedly
promoting terrorism.
Palestinians have condemned the normalization deals as
a treacherous "stab in the back" of their cause against the Israeli
occupation.
Maliki slams Macron's Islamophobic comments
Elsewhere in his remarks, Maliki strongly denounced
French President Emmanuel Macron’ insult to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Peace be
upon Him) and praised a wave of worldwide protests and condemnations.
He further expressed regret that some Arab rulers
failed to adopt a stance against Macron’s anti-Muslim comments.
In October, French history teacher Samuel Paty
provoked outrage by showing his students the blasphemous cartoons of Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) earlier published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
He was murdered outside his school in a Paris suburb
by a Chechen teenager, who was shot dead by police soon after the killing.
Macron characterized the incident as an “Islamist
terrorist attack.” He also claimed Islam
as a religion was in a state of “crisis” and defended the blasphemous
caricatures, which have hurt the feelings of Muslims in France and elsewhere.
'Foreign spy agencies seeking to exploit anti-govt.
protests'
Additionally, the Iraqi politician touched on
anti-government protests in Iraq, saying foreign intelligence agencies are
closely monitoring the situation and want sabotage and destruction to deal a
blow to the country.
He also emphasized that paralyzing ordinary people’s
lives and disrupting work is not a civilized approach.
Starting in October 2019, Iraqi people staged street
protests in several cities over unemployment and a lack of basic services,
calling for economic reforms and a meaningful fight against corruption in state
institutions.
Reports say some 550 people were killed and 30,000
injured as the rallies took a violent turn.
The protests led to the resignation of prime minister
Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who was replaced by Mustafa al-Kadhimi in May following
months of political deadlock.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/01/637657/Iraq-Nouri-Maliki-Israel-normalization
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Anti-government protests turn to clashes in Iraq
02 November 2020
Anti-government protests descended into clashes in
several Iraqi cities on Sunday, including the southern port city of Basra and
the capital Baghdad.
In Basra, police officers and troops fired into the air
to disperse around 500 protesters who had been throwing rocks, AFP
correspondents said.
Meanwhile, a few hundred young Iraqis returned to
Baghdad’s Tahrir Square for a flash protest, clashing briefly with security
forces.
Authorities had conducted a major operation to clear a
year-long anti-government encampment from the square – the epicenter of the
protest movement – and had only reopened it a day earlier.
Further south in Hilla, hundreds of students marched
with banners decrying the killing and kidnapping of activists in recent months.
“We’ll stay here, for the blood of our martyrs and the
love of our country,” said Abrar Ahmed, a student demonstrator in the city.
“It’s our revolution and we must continue it, as not a
single one of our demands were met!” she added.
A similar protest took place in the town of Kut, where
dozens turned out to demand justice for some 600 demonstrators who have been
killed in protest-related violence over the past year.
Unprecedented demonstrations erupted across Baghdad and
Iraq’s Shia-majority south in October 2019 as protesters called for jobs, basic
services, a total overhaul of the ruling class and an end to corruption.
There has been virtually no accountability for the
deaths in those rallies.
Two more activists were gunned down in Kut in recent
days.
The “October Revolution” marked its one-year
anniversary a week ago, with thousands hitting the streets of southern cities
and the capital.
But authorities swiftly reinstated calm, deploying in
large numbers in the squares and intersections that were once the hot spots of
the anti-government rallies.
Abdallah Ahmed, another student protesting in Hilla on
Sunday, insisted the movement was far from over.
“We’re not commemorating the revolution - we’re
continuing it,” he told AFP.
In the southern flashpoint city of Nasiriyah,
demonstrators torched tyres on a main highway to decry unemployment and poor
public services.
Iraq is one of the most oil-rich countries in the
world but has suffered chronic water and power shortages for decades.
The novel coronavirus pandemic and tumbling oil prices
have taken a heavy toll this year, with poverty rates expected to soar to 40
percent.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/02/Anti-government-protests-turn-to-clashes-in-Iraq
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Lebanese Armenians spring to action to defend
Nagorno-Karabakh
01 November 2020
When Lebanon’s financial crisis pushed Vartkes to
leave for Armenia this summer, he never imagined he would volunteer to fight in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The young Lebanese-Armenian didn’t think twice,
however, when the conflict between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces
erupted soon after his move.
“I wanted to go that night,” Vartkes, who asked not to
be identified by his last name, said by phone. He has yet to be called to back
troops in the region, which is recognized as part of Azerbaijan though governed
by ethnic Armenians.
“I feel like I have to do something for the country.”
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
An Armenian defense ministry official has said many
from the diaspora applied to volunteer without giving a precise number.
Hundreds from as far afield as Argentina and the
United States have rushed back to Armenia for combat training, a local
instructor says.
The fighting, some of the deadliest in the mountain
enclave in more than 25 years, has prompted mass mobilization across Armenia
and seen its vast global diaspora spring into action.
In Lebanon, a community of nearly 140,000 of Armenian
origin, one of the world’s largest, has fundraised and sent aid despite a
crippling currency crash. Many have had roots in Lebanon since their ancestors
fled mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a century ago.
Karapet Aghajanyan, the combat instructor in Yerevan,
who trains local and foreign volunteers, told Reuters around 10
Lebanese-Armenians have received training in his camp.
He said they arrived from Beirut after the fighting
broke out in late September to go to the frontline.
Scores of Lebanese of Armenian descent were already
leaving Beirut for Yerevan months before the fighting, members of the community
say. Lebanon’s economic collapse, and then the huge Beirut port explosion that
killed nearly 200 people in August, have fueled migration.
Lebanese MP Hagop Pakradounian, who heads the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation party, said there was no organization registering or
sending any volunteers from Lebanon.
He said no more than 20 people had gone from Beirut to
sign up, acting on their own. It was not clear if any were called to battle.
“We cannot prevent them at the end of the day. We try
to dissuade them but they have this impulse,” he said. “It’s an existential war
for the Armenian people, that’s why some youths are going.”
The violence has raised fears of a wider conflict
dragging in Turkey, which backs Azerbaijan, and Russia, which has a defense
pact with Armenia.
Azerbaijan rejects any solution that would leave
Armenians controlling the enclave. Armenians refuse to withdraw from territory
they view as part of their historic homeland.
On a main highway out of Beirut, white banners hung
from bridges read: “Stop Azeri aggression.”
In Lebanon’s largely Armenian town of Anjar, the head
of the municipality, Vartkes Khoshian, said even families worried about paying
bills had donated.
“The people gave more than they had,” he said. “We all
follow news minute by minute.”
This month, Anjar commemorated one of their own who
was killed in battle, Kevork Hadjian, an opera singer born in the Lebanese town
who lived in Armenia.
Many residents saw him as a hero.
The singer’s 74-year-old mother, Sosse Hadjian, said
she had spent days watching TV, weeping over slain fighters. But she didn’t
know her son was at the front until her brother delivered the news of his
death.
“I’m a mother who lost a son after all. It’s really
hard,” she said. “But I’m also proud he joined for Armenians, for the
homeland.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/11/01/Lebanese-Armenians-spring-to-action-to-defend-Nagorno-Karabakh
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Protesters clash with police forces in Baghdad, other
Iraqi cities
02 November 2020
Iraqi protesters have clashed with security forces as
people took to the streets of the capital, Baghdad, and other cities, including
the southern port city of Basra.
Police forces dispersed around 500 protesters, who had
been throwing rocks in Basra, on Sunday by firing into the air.
Meanwhile, brief clashes erupted in Baghdad between
security forces and a few hundred young people who returned to Tahrir Square on
Sunday for a flash protest.
On Saturday, security forces cleared out sit-in tents
from Tahrir Square and opened the previously blocked off roads.
The government said al-Jamhuriya Bridge, which
connects the square with the heavily fortified Green Zone housing some of the
main government offices and foreign diplomatic missions, had been opened for
the first time since it had been shut at the beginning of protests in October
last year.
Some of the demonstrators had welcomed the clearing of
the camp, saying it had been infiltrated by elements attempting to undermine
the protests with violence and disruption.
A protest also took place in Nasiriyah against
unemployment and poor public services. The demonstrators torched tires on a
main highway in the southern city.
Dozens of people also staged a protest in the town of
Kut, and demanded justice for those killed in demonstrations over the past
year.
A similar demonstration took place in the city of
Hilla.
The first anniversary of anti-government demonstrations
that erupted in October 2019 was marked last week by hundreds rather than an
anticipated thousands taking to the streets of Baghdad.
Protests erupted in Iraq in October last year over
unemployment and a lack of basic services, with demonstrators calling for
economic reforms and a meaningful fight against corruption in state
institutions.
Reports say about 600 people were killed and 30,000
injured as the anti-government rallies took a violent turn.
The protests led to the resignation of prime minister
Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who was replaced by Mustafa al-Kadhimi in May following
months of political deadlock.
In a televised address on October 24, Kadhimi vowed to
hold early and fair elections, a demand of many protesters, and called on
security forces not to fire at demonstrators, but also called on protesters to
"respect the uniform".
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/02/637732/Protesters-clash-police-Iraq
--------
North America
Israel’s Netanyahu praises President Trump policies
ahead of US election
01 November 2020
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday
praised President Donald Trump’s Mideast policies, even as he avoided openly
taking sides ahead of the US presidential election.
Netanyahu told reporters that US bipartisan support
has been “one of the foundations of the American-Israeli alliance.” He then
went on to say “that alliance has never been stronger” and praised a slew of
steps taken by Trump in favor of Israel.
He noted the tough US stance toward Iran, recognition
of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, recognition of Israel’s annexation
of the Golan Heights, the tolerant approach toward Israeli settlements and the
recent diplomatic pacts between Israel and three Arab countries.
“I can only hope that this policy that brings, that
isolates Iran and brings the fruits of peace, peace grounded in reality to the
people of Israel, to the Arab peoples of the region, I can only hope that this
policy will continue in the coming years,” Netanyahu said.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Despite his stated commitment to bipartisan ties with
the US, Israel’s closest and most important ally, Netanyahu has frequently been
seen as siding with the Republicans. Netanyahu had a cool relationship with
President Barack Obama, appeared to favor Republican challenger Mitt Romney in
2012 and then delivered a major speech to Congress in 2015 to argue against
Obama’s emerging nuclear deal with Iran.
After taking office, Trump unilaterally withdrew the
US from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, winning praise from Netanyahu.
While Trump is popular with the Israeli public,
Netanyahu’s close relationship with the president appears to be deepening a
divide with American Jews. Opinion polls have indicated that American Jews will
vote overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/01/Israel-s-Netanyahu-praises-President-Trump-policies-ahead-of-US-election
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US sells 1.1M barrels of Iranian oil after seizure
Beyza Binnur Dönmez
30.10.2020
The US Justice Department announced that Washington
sold around 1.1 million barrels of Iranian oil from four tankers bound for
Venezuela.
"Upon being presented with the court’s seizure order,
the ships’ owner transferred the petroleum to the government, and we can now
announce that the United States has sold and delivered that petroleum,"
Deputy Attorney General John Demers said Thursday in a press release.
Defending that the sale of oil to Caracas benefited
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a US-designated foreign terrorist group,
Demers said: "It is therefore with great satisfaction that I can announce
that our intentions are to take the funds successfully forfeited from the fuel
sales and provide them to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund
after the conclusion of the case."
In July, federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit to seize
the gasoline aboard the four tankers that Iran was trying to ship to Venezuela,
aiming to prevent the revenues from reaching Iran's coffers.
In August, President Donald Trump's administration
said it carried out "the largest seizure of fuel shipments from Iran"
which Venezuela had already paid for.
The South American country faces gasoline supply
problems due to the coercive US sanctions since crude oil is the country's main
export item. Iran's economy, traditionally dependent on oil exports, also
suffers from the US’s reinstating crippling economic sanctions, with many
countries cutting down oil imports from Iran, fearing economic penalties from
Washington.
Due to these sanctions, Venezuela and Iran agreed to
exchange fuel to supply the Latin American country.
A huge explosion on Tuesday affected the facilities of
Venezuela's main refinery Amuay, which is considered a "deliberate
terrorist attack" by the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The plant
was in the preventive maintenance phase to be prepared for startup in a few
days to increase gasoline production.
Venezuela's Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said that
the attack was "duly planned."
El Aissami said Thursday the country has "20 days
of strategic reserves" to respond to any terrorist group's actions
"that seeks to destabilize the tranquility and peace of the Venezuelan
people."
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-sells-11m-barrels-of-iranian-oil-after-seizure/2024831
--------
US designates 8 companies over Iran petrochemical
sales
Servet Günerigök
30.10.2020
WASHINGTON
The US sanctioned eight entities Thursday for their
alleged involvement in the sale and purchase of Iranian petrochemical products.
According to a Treasury Department statement, the
products were brokered by Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd., an entity that
Washington designated in January.
"These entities, based in Iran, China and
Singapore, engaged in transactions facilitated by Triliance or otherwise
assisted Triliance’s efforts to process and move funds generated by the sale of
those petrochemical products," said the department.
Washington accuses Tehran of using revenue from
petrochemical sales to finance its "destabilizing agenda of support to
corrupt regimes and terrorist groups" in the Middle East and Venezuela.
"The Iranian regime benefits from a global
network of entities facilitating the Iranian petrochemical sector," said
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“The United States remains committed to targeting any
revenue source the Iranian regime uses to fund terrorist groups and oppress the
Iranian people.”
They include Iran's Morvarid Petrochemical Company and
Arya Sasol Polymer Company; Singapore-based Jiaxiang Energy Holding Pte. Ltd.;
and Chinese companies Binrin Limited, Elfo Energy Holding Limited, Glory
Advanced Limited, Jane Shang Co. Limited, and Sibshur Limited.
All property and interests in property of persons
designated subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and Americans are prohibited
from engaging in transactions with them.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-designates-8-companies-over-iran-petrochemical-sales/2024043
--------
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