New Age Islam News Bureau
05 October 2022
France’s far-right party Rassemblement National
candidate for the 2022 French presidential election Marine Le Pen
-----
• Lawyers for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Argue PM Title Ensures Legal Immunity in US Courts Including the Jamal
Khashoggi Case
• Non-Aligned Movement Concerned About Distortion Of
Religions By Terrorist Groups: Iran Envoy to UN
• Right Group Warns Over US Collusion In Bin Salman’s
Immunity In Khashoggi Killing Lawsuit
• Muslims Bring 'Neelkanth', A Bird With Blue Neck,
For Hindu Devotees In UP to Start Dussehra Festivities
Europe
• Muslims in Germany’s Cologne welcome Friday call to
prayer over loudspeaker
• How Indian hashtags fuelled UK’s Hindu-Muslim unrest
• Legal battle continues in Belgium on extradition of
Iranian diplomat convicted for terrorist attack
• Hamas blasts UK PM’s remarks about being “huge
Zionist” as in line with Balfour Declaration
--------
Arab
World
• Newest Hindu Temple in Dubai Officially Opens Its
Doors To UAE Residents
• Al Khalifah regime trying to place slavery yoke on
Bahraini nation: Top Shia cleric
• Qatar reopens Museum of Islamic Art ahead of Fifa World
Cup
• Fans hiring $20,000-a-night superyachts in Dubai to
watch Qatar World Cup 2022 at sea
• Terrorist YPG/PKK kidnapped Syrian girl with heart
disease
• Assad regime seizes refugees’ farmlands in Idlib,
Syria
--------
Mideast
• Jerusalem Activists Mobilise Against Settlers
Storming Al-Aqsa Mosque
• Al-Aqsa: Israelis storm Jerusalem mosque ahead of
tense Yom Kippur holiday
• At least 63 killed in Iran suppression of Zahedan
protest: Human rights group
• Journalists condemn Turkey ‘disinformation’ bill
threatening free press
• ‘US hypocrisy’: Iran calls on Biden to mind own
human rights record, sanctions regime
• Iran’s IRGC strikes positions of terrorist groups in
northern Iraq
--------
North
America
• Detained US Citizen Namazi Allowed To Leave Iran
• The Hill fires Jewish American journalist for
calling Israel ‘apartheid’ entity
--------
India
• Muslim Family Makes Ravana Effigies for Agra Ramlila
Every Year
• MP Police Raze Houses of 3 Muslim Men Accused of
'Pelting Stones at Garba Venue' During Dispute
• Gujarat: 7 Hurt After Fight Over Location of Garba
Event; Cops Thrash Suspects In Full Public View
• Bouncers From The Minority Community At Garba Event
In Surat Attacked By Bajrang Dal Activists
• Four militants killed in separate encounters in
J&K's Shopian
• Jharkhand: Muslim man lynched to death by mob, cops
dismiss Islamophobia
--------
Africa
• Tunisia’s Islamists Under Siege As Saied Rolls Back
Democracy
• Sudan’s pro-democracy groups ask UN to help contain
paramilitary forces
• African Union invites Ethiopia’s government, Tigray
forces to peace talks
• Uganda’s president fires son from military over
threat on Twitter to invade Kenya
--------
Pakistan
• Armed Forces To Stay Out Of Politics, Says Gen Bajwa
• Attock jail employees rape, harass women visitors:
report
• Educational institutions shouldn’t be made
‘political arenas’: PHC
• Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif calls Imran Khan 'biggest
liar on earth'
• Imran gunning for ‘NRO’ at clandestine meetings,
says Maryam
• US cannot walk away from Pakistan: report
• Govt to call out army in case of march on capital
• Security forces kill four terrorists in Tank clash:
ISPR
--------
South
Asia
• Fading Afghan Media Give Space to Disinformation
• Three dead after Rohingya refugee boat sinks off
Bangladesh
• Taliban Visits Families of Education Centre
Explosion Victims
• U.S citizen missing in Afghanistan, family claims he
is in Taliban custody
--------
Southeast
Asia
• Islamic Banks Not Fully Digitised But Are Moving
Forward In Achieving The Potential Of Islamic Fintech, Says Shariah Scholar
• Despite Umno’s ultimatum, PAS unlikely to ditch PN,
says analyst
• PAS to meet Umno leaders soon to discuss GE15
cooperation
• A confident opposition wouldn’t delay GE15, says
Zahid
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/france-far-right-marine-mosque/d/128112
--------
France’s Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen: ‘Absolutely
No Choice’ But To Close Mosques
France’s far-right party Rassemblement National
candidate for the 2022 French presidential election Marine Le Pen
-----
OCT 05, 2022
France’s far-right politician, Marine Le Pen, has demanded
more mosques be closed in the country, Anadolu News Agency reports.
Her demand comes despite the closure of 24 mosques in
France in the past two years upon the order of Interior Minister, Gerald
Darmanin.
In an interview with French TV channel, BFMTV, Marine
Le Pen said: “He (Darmanin) closes a mosque there, a mosque here. He dismisses
a preacher once in a while, but he must close all extremist mosques in our
lands.”
Asked over her criteria for the closures, she said all
Muslims who have “radical rhetoric” should be deported.
Last year in August, France’s highest constitutional
authority approved a controversial “anti-separatism” law that has been
criticised for singling out Muslims.
The Bill was passed by the National Assembly last
summer, despite strong opposition from both rightist and leftist lawmakers.
Touching on the upcoming trial of Justice Minister,
Eric Dupond-Moretti, in a conflict of interest case, Le Pen demanded President
Emmanuel Macron remove him from the post.
Moreover, on an investigation opened against Alexis
Kohler, the Secretary-General of the Elysee, on charges of conflict of
interest, Le Pen asked: “Does Emmanuel Macron want to keep someone suspected of
conflicts of interest in such a critical position?”
Her National Rally party will propose a Bill for
Kohler’s removal, she said.
Regarding the sanctions on Russia, she claimed that
France’s sanctions against Russia did not work out, adding that the sanctions
have left the French in a difficult situation.
Russia had an additional income worth €40 billion with
oil exports during this period, she said.
Le Pen said this winter and the next will be even more
difficult because of Moscow’s gas supply cut-off to France, adding that the
sanctions were unthoughtful.
Source: Libyan Express
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.libyanexpress.com/frances-far-right-leader-absolutely-no-choice-but-to-close-mosques/
--------
Lawyers for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Argue PM Title Ensures Legal Immunity in US Courts Including the Jamal
Khashoggi Case
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during
the Gulf Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 14, 2021. — Reuters/File
----
October 5, 2022
RIYADH: Lawyers for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman have argued that his appointment as prime minister qualifies him for
immunity from lawsuits in US courts, including one related to the 2018 killing
of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Prince Mohammed, who previously served as deputy prime
minister and defence minister, was named prime minister by royal decree last
week, sparking concern from human rights activists and government critics that
he was looking to skirt exposure in cases filed in foreign courts.
His lawyers had previously argued that he “sits at the
apex of Saudi Arabia’s government” and thus qualifies for the kind of immunity
US courts afford foreign heads of state and other high-ranking officials.
Last week’s royal decree “leaves no doubt that the
Crown Prince is entitled to status-based immunity”, his lawyers said in a
filing on Monday in a case brought in 2020 by Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice
Cengiz.
The 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider turned
critic, in the country’s Istanbul consulate temporarily turned Prince Mohammed
into a pariah in the West.
But he has been welcomed back on the world stage this
year, notably by US President Joe Biden, who travelled to Saudi Arabia in July
despite an earlier pledge to make the country a “pariah”.
Last year, Biden declassified an intelligence report
that found Prince Mohammed had approved the operation against Khashoggi, an
assertion Saudi authorities deny.
The Biden administration has yet to weigh in on
whether it believes Prince Mohammed qualifies for immunity.
A judge had given US lawyers a deadline of Oct 3 to
file a “statement of interest” on the question.
But on Friday, citing Prince Mohammed’s new position,
the administration requested an additional 45 days to make up its mind.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1713526/prince-mohammeds-lawyers-argue-pm-title-ensures-legal-immunity
--------
Non-Aligned Movement Concerned About Distortion Of
Religions By Terrorist Groups: Iran Envoy to UN
05 October 2022
Iran’s deputy permanent representative to the United
Nations says the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is concerned about the distortion
of religions by terrorist groups to justify their heinous crimes.
Zahra Ershadi made the remarks during a meeting of the
UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee to discuss measures to eliminate
international terrorism.
She said the Non-Aligned Movement is concerned about
the arbitrary interpretation and misrepresentation of religions by terrorist
groups to justify their actions.
She said NAM condemns and rejects terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations, including state terrorism, and reiterates its support
for relevant UN resolutions regarding the legitimacy of the struggles of people
under foreign domination and occupation for freedom and exercising their right
to self-determination.
Speaking at the Sixth Committee’s Monday meeting,
Ershadi said all states must combat terrorism, including by prosecuting or
extraditing the perpetrators of terrorist acts.
She noted, however, that terrorism should not be
equated with the legitimate struggle of peoples under colonial or alien domination
and foreign occupation.
The brutalization of peoples remaining under foreign
occupation should continue to be denounced as the gravest form of terrorism,
she stressed.
She also said Iran rejects the use or threat of use of
force by any state against any Non-Aligned Movement member country under the
pretext of combating terrorism.
Terrorism is being perpetrated not just by terrorist
groups, but by certain states against civilians, scientists and government
officials, Ershadi said.
She recalled several assassinations and attacks,
including the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, “the hero of combating
[Daesh] in the Middle East”, in Baghdad International Airport by the former
United States administration, the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizaeh, an
Iranian nuclear scientist and deputy foreign minister, and the terrorist attack
by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz.
Those attacks and others, including cyberattacks on
critical infrastructure in Iran, were reprehensible practices of terrorism, she
said.
Also hypocritical, she continued, is the labeling of
people exercising their right to self-determination as terrorists and those who
support the oppressed peoples as sponsors of terrorism.
“It is the woeful tale of the Middle East,” she said,
underscoring the destructive role of foreign military forces in the region and
the protracted occupation of the Palestinian territory.
According to the top Iranian voy, unilateral coercive
measures were not only tantamount to terrorism, but also constituted crimes
against humanity, impairing appropriate resources required to combat terrorism
and for effective cooperation among member states.
Source: Press TV
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original story:
--------
Right
Group Warns Over US Collusion In Bin Salman’s Immunity In Khashoggi Killing
Lawsuit
04
October 2022
A
human rights group warns that Washington may use the “premier” title that Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman newly invented for himself as a legal ploy to
shield the allied kingdom’s de facto ruler from lawsuits filed against him in
the US, including those surrounding the gruesome murder of dissident journalist
Jamal Khashoggi.
In
an interview with Arabi 21 media outlet, Raed Jarrar, director of Democracy for
the Arab World Now (DAWN), slammed the administration of US President Joe Biden
for adopting a “very weak” position on Khashoggi’s murder, despite promises of
making the Saudis “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they
are.”
“We
regret the weakness of President Biden’s position, which was reflected in the
US relationship with most of the authoritarian regimes in the Arab world,
especially at the level of relations with Israel, the Egyptian regime or the
Saudi regime. These relationships have become cheap and disappointing,” he
said.
“Biden
could not change the course or approach of the previous US administration, but
we are putting pressure on the Biden administration internally in Washington,
whether as non-governmental organizations or with members of the US Congress,
to change these failed policies,” the activist said.
Jarrar
said the fabricated title of “prime minister” was an attempt by bin Salman to
avoid international lawsuits against the crown prince, who is widely reported
to have ordered the assassination, warning that Washington may choose to work
hand in gloves with MBS over his bid to secure immunity in the case.
Jarrar
said DAWN would pressure the American government not to recognize the step
taken by bin Salman. He underscored that “the legal team of the DAWN
organization will explain to the American court that this step should not
affect the course of justice at all.”
In
a royal decree on September 19, Mohammad bin Salman was appointed as prime
minister.
The
decree did not state the reason behind the appointment. However, experts
believe the decision was an attempt to protect him from the
potentially-damaging lawsuits related to the assassination of Khashoggi.
The
appointment by royal decree came as the administration of US President Joe
Biden was debating whether the crown prince qualified for immunity from
lawsuits filed in American courts.
Before
the crown prince’s new title was announced on Friday, a judge gave US lawyers a
deadline of October 3 to file a “statement of interest” on the immunity
question.
On
Friday, however, citing the crown prince’s new position, the administration
requested an additional 45 days to make up its mind, according to a court
filing which was seen by AFP.
At
a virtual commemoration event held on Friday, entitled “Advances toward Justice
for the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Four Years Later,” DAWN, an organization
founded by Khashoggi, said it would pursue the case until the end.
Sarah
Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director said, “MBS is playing a desperate ploy
to gain immunity by virtue of his made up title and so long as his father, King
Salman, remains the country's true head of state.”
“Regardless
of how the court rules on MBS’s immunity ploy, we will continue to press our
lawsuit against all remaining defendants, and we intend to commence discovery
of all relevant facts, including MBS's role in the murder,” she assured.
“Though
the Biden Administration has broken promise after promise to promote and defend
human rights in the region, DAWN persists in its efforts to change the approach
of the US foreign policy community so that the US will match its conduct with
its rhetoric of support for freedom and democracy,” Whitson said.
In
October 2020, two years after Khashoggi’s death, DAWN filed a complaint in the
US along with Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, accusing Crown Prince
Mohammed of being involved in a conspiracy that led to Khashoggi being
kidnapped, bound, drugged, tortured and assassinated.
Khashoggi,
who was murdered and dismembered by a Saudi hit squad at the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul on October 2, 2018, used to be a vocal critic of the Saudi regime and
the crown prince.
The
CIA concluded in 2018 that MBS had ordered the killing of Khashoggi,
contradicting Saudi Arabia's insistence that the crown prince had had no prior
knowledge of the plot.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Muslims
Bring 'Neelkanth', A Bird With Blue Neck, For Hindu Devotees In UP to Start
Dussehra Festivities
Photo:
Indian Express
-----
05th
October 2022
By
Namita Bajpai
LUCKNOW: It is believed that with every mile, the
language and essence of culture is changed in India, more so in Uttar Pradesh.
A non-descript village in Deoria district is another example of the adage as it
presents a unique example of communal harmony and amity between two
communities. Here, the Muslims make the Dussehra festivities for their Hindu
brethren possible through their unique gesture.
The
Muslim community of Ramnagar village toils for nine days in search of a bird
with blue neck popularly known as ‘Neelkanth’ and brings it to the village on
‘Navmi,’ a day ahead of Dussehra, the celebrations of which start only when the
Hindu community takes Darshan of Neelkanth.
As
per the common belief, it is auspicious to do Darshan of Neelkanth on Dussehra
day as Lord Ram had taken Darshan of the bird before eliminating the demon king
Ravan and bringing back Goddess Sita from his captivity.
“The
Muslim families make the Darshan of Neelkanth possible for us. Without its
Darshan, we cannot start the Dussehra puja and other celebrations. This has
been a 250-year-old tradition of this village,” says a villager Ramchandra
Yadav, adding that the uniqueness of the tradition lies in the fact that a
Muslim family makes the Darshan of Neelkanth possible.
“This
involves the Muslim community in Dussehra celebration with equal fervour and
gusto,” says Yadav, who calls it a glaring example of amity and mutual harmony
existing between the two communities in this small village. “The family of the
late Mukhtar has been keeping the unique tradition for years.
After
Mukhtar, who used to bring Neelkanth every year after a lot of hard work and
start the Dussehra revelries, now his wife Jismara is carrying the
responsibility with aplomb,” says Shri Krihan, an ex-cop.
As
per the villagers, the family members of Jismara leave home in search of
‘Neelkanth’ about 10 days ahead of Dussehra and make it a point to return to
the village with the bird at least a day ahead of Dussehra.
“Dussehra
teaches about showing mercy towards animals and birds as a lot of animals and
birds had joined Lord Ram in his endeavour to bring Sita back from the
captivity of Ravana,” says Jism Ara.
Explaining
further, the villagers say that on the day of Dussehra all the men, women and
children are made to take Neelkanth’s darshan and in the evening each family,
including Hindu and Muslims both, gather at the village Hanuman temple and
render bhajans together.
Liaquat
Ali takes the lead in singing bhajans dedicated to Lord Ram and Goddess a Sita
at Hanuman temple and Hindu devotees just follow him. In the night, after
worshipping it, the bird Neekanth, who is representative of the victory of good
over evil, is then set free on the night of Dussehra,” said Ajay Singh, who
teaches at the village school.
A
blue-neck bird and brotherhood
The
Muslims of Ramnagar village toils for nine days in search of a bird with blue
neck, the ‘Neelkanth’, for the Hindu community here, as Dussehra starts only
when they take darshan of the ‘Neelkanth’
Source:
New Indian Express
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click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Europe
Muslims
in Germany’s Cologne welcome Friday call to prayer over loudspeaker
Mesut
Zeyrek
04.10.2022
COLOGNE,
Germany
Muslims
in Germany's city of Cologne welcomed the permission granted to them for two
years to announce the call to prayer every Friday on loudspeaker.
Speaking
to Anadolu Agency, Abdurrahman Atasoy, the acting president of the
Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), said: "I hope we will
hold our first call to prayer (over loudspeaker) here on Oct. 14, after we deal
with the measures and issues that need to be resolved by the
municipality."
He
said the right to call to prayer is granted to Muslims by the constitution of
Germany.
Prior
to the first call to prayer, the Muslim community informed the residents of the
neighborhood about Islam and its tenets to remove any prejudice.
The
call to prayer invites worshippers to the mosque five times a day, however,
Friday is the holiest day of the week for Muslims.
Atasoy
also thanked Mayor Henriette Reker for granting the permission, adding that
Muslims living in Germany for generations are a natural part of the society.
Murat
Sahinarslan, director of MoscheeForum, an inter-faith group, said they filed an
application for the call to prayer last year in November with the city
authorities.
After
receiving feedback from the municipality regarding the report, Sahinarslan said
that there will be a few minor readjustments in the coming days.
"The
practice has been in force in the Duren Mosque for 35 years, the Rendsburg
Mosque in northern Germany has been holding outdoor call to prayer for years,
so we are not the first," he said.
"The
other mosques of Cologne have not applied yet, we are working in coordination
with the mosques affiliated with DITIB on this issue," he added.
The
outdoor call to prayer over loudspeaker every Friday will be held between 12
p.m. to 3 p.m., which will not last longer than five minutes and not go above a
certain volume so as not to disturb neighbors.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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How
Indian hashtags fuelled UK’s Hindu-Muslim unrest
Thomson
Reuters Foundation
October
4, 2022
LONDON:
Rumour had it that a Muslim girl had been kidnapped and a Hindu temple had sent
masked thugs into combat.
Add
in local fury over an India-Pakistan cricket match, and Hindu and Muslim men
were soon fighting on the streets of central England.
It
was a social media storm – mostly cooked up a continent away – that
materialised in real life in Leicester, where police made almost 50 arrests and
a community was left in tatters.
“It
is a powerful illustration of how hashtag dynamics on Twitter can use dubious
inflammatory claims to … escalate tensions on the ground,” said a spokesman at
fact-checking site Logically, which analysed the posts’ veracity.
Experts
say most of the incendiary tweets, rumours and lies came from India, showing
the power of unchecked social media to spread disinformation and stir unrest a
full continent away.
“I’ve
seen quite a selection of the social media stuff which is very, very, very
distorting now and some of it just completely lying about what had been
happening between different communities,” Peter Soulsby, Leicester’s mayor,
told BBC radio.
Rob
Nixon, who runs Leicestershire police, concurred, telling the BBC that
misinformation on social media had played a “huge role” in last month’s unrest.
To
counter some of these claims, police took to social media themselves, saying
they had fully investigated reports of three men approaching a teenaged girl in
an attempted kidnap, and found no truth whatsoever to the online story.
“We
urge you to only share information on social media you know to be true,” they
said.
Fact-checkers
also found no truth to claims that gangs of masked thugs were bussed into
Leicester.
Many
of the misleading posts alleging that Hindus and Hindu sites were being
attacked came from India, analysis showed.
Some
80% of tweets with geographic coordinates, or geo-tagged information, were
connected to India, Logically said.
“The
ratio of tweets geo-tagged to the UK versus those geo-tagged to India was
remarkably high for what, ostensibly, was a domestic incident,” a spokesman
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“The
involvement of high-profile figures in India setting the discourse was a key
element.”
BBC
Monitoring said that more than half of the 200,000 tweets it investigated came
from accounts geo-tagged to India, with hashtags such as #Leicester,
#HindusUnderAttack and #HindusUnderattackinUK.
Twitter
did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Horrific’
hashtags
The
fact-checks confirmed what several Leicester residents had suspected for years:
online disinformation and abuse aimed at religious minorities came increasingly
from users in India, and platforms were doing little or nothing to check it.
“The
events in Leicester did not happen out of the blue,” said Keval Bharadia at the
South Asia Solidarity Group, a British community non-profit.
“Friends
and family have been sending fake news and misinformation for years. It is a
never-ending stream of propaganda from troll armies,” he said.
A
spokesman for India’s ministry of home affairs did not respond to a request for
comment.
The
Indian High Commission in London, in a statement, said it “strongly” condemned
the violence against the Indian community in Leicester, and the vandalism of
“premises and symbols of Hindu religion”.
Some
commentators and rights groups say India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has a hand in the social media warfare that targets religious
and ethnic minorities.
The
BJP swept into power in India in 2014 and won by an even bigger margin in 2019,
its victories in part credited to its savvy tech cell and social media prowess,
fuelled by thousands of supporters it calls digital “yodhas” or warriors.
BJP’s
tech cell, as well as government appointed cyber volunteers, often abuse
religious minorities and spread disinformation about them on social media,
rights groups say.
In
a recent report, Dalit rights group Equality Labs said “nationalistic,
Islamophobic, and casteist disinformation” was spreading among expatriate
Indians via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and thousands of Whatsapp and Telegram
chat groups.
“Hindu
nationalism is one of the largest disinformation networks in the global South
Asian diaspora, with bigoted and often terrifying attacks against caste and
religious minorities,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs.
“Just
think about the horrific hashtags that are now normal,” said Soundararajan,
citing “presstitute” – a derogatory term for journalists – and “lovejihad”, an
Islamophobic conspiracy theory popular in India.
“Narratives
spread on WhatsApp have led to offline violence,” she added.
Mute
witness
While
expatriates have long absorbed content from India, and commented on events,
disinformation has mushroomed with the rise of social media platforms, said
Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Indian fact checking site AltNews.
“We
are so polarised now, and this is particularly true of non-resident Indians who
can’t check the reality on the ground,” he said.
“A
lot of hate speech and misinformation, particularly in regional languages, goes
unchecked on social media platforms.”
Much
of the noise emanates from Meta, formerly Facebook, which in 2019 commissioned
an independent assessment of its role in spreading hate speech and incitement
to violence on its platforms in India, following criticism by civil society
groups.
But
Meta has since said it would not release the full report, only saying that it
had “significantly increased” its content moderation workforce and language
support for India.
Twitter
– which has about 24 million users in India – has asked an Indian court to
overturn some government orders to remove posts which Delhi said spread
misinformation.
Last
month, in a rare rebuke, India’s Supreme Court said television was the “chief
medium of hate speech” and asked why the government was “standing by as a mute
witness”.
The
government has not responded to the charge.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Legal
battle continues in Belgium on extradition of Iranian diplomat convicted for
terrorist attack
Agnes
Szucs
04.10.2022
BRUSSELS
An
appeal against the law allowing the extradition of an Iranian diplomat jailed
for terrorism charges has been filed at the Belgian Constitutional Court, while
a first instance court approved the prisoner exchange, local media reported on
Tuesday.
Iranian
diplomat Assadolah Assadi was sentenced last year by a Belgian court to 20
years in prison for attempting a bomb attack at a protest near Paris in 2018.
According
to Belgian daily Het Niewsblad, a Brussels court prepared the legal ground for
extraditing Assadi to Iran based on a controversial deal between Brussels and
Tehran allowing prisoner exchange.
The
treaty, which was ratified by Belgian lawmakers in June, would enable the
return of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandeecasteele, who has been held in Iran
since February.
According
to critics, the deal would raise concerns if Assadi continued to serve his
prison sentence in his home country and might serve as a further ground for
Iran to take hostages.
The
legal battle will not end because, in the meantime, an appeal against the
treaty that would authorize Assadi’s extradition has been filed at the Belgian
Constitutional Court, daily Le Soir revealed on Tuesday.
The
motion asks for annulling the ratified law and immediately suspending its
application.
Foiled
bombing attack in Paris
The
Vienna-based diplomat was involved in a plot to kill leaders of the opposition
group National Council of the Resistance of Iran in 2018 in France, according
to the ruling of the Antwerpen Court.
Assadi
with his three Belgian-Iranian accomplices prepared to explode a bomb during
the opposition group’s protest near Paris but the attack was prevented by a
coordinated operation of the Belgian, German, and French police.
Despite
raising his diplomatic immunity, he was arrested in Germany in 2018 during his
holiday and extradited to Belgium.
Assadi
received 20 years in jail for transporting explosive materials from Iran to
Vienna.
His
accomplices, a Belgian-Iranian couple, who were arrested near Antwerpen with
500 grams of TATP explosive and a detonator, were sentenced to 15 and 17 years
in prison, and were deprived of their Belgian nationality.
Assadi
said during their trial that they had been blackmailed by Iran to take part in
the terror attack.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Hamas
blasts UK PM’s remarks about being “huge Zionist” as in line with Balfour
Declaration
05
October 2022
The
Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has censured British Prime Minister Liz
Truss for calling herself a “huge Zionist” who wants to strengthen London’s
relationship with Tel Aviv, saying the comments are in line with the UK’s 1917
Balfour Declaration, which set the stage for the creation of the Israeli entity
and occupation of Palestine.
“Her
statements about supporting Zionism mean she is standing at the Zionist
regime’s side and supporting aggression against the Palestinian nation,” Hamas
spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
He
added that such remarks are in line with British crimes, which began more than
100 years ago with the Balfour Declaration, against the Palestinian cause
against Israeli occupation.
The
Hamas official said the UK premier was one those who cover up the killing of
innocent children, adding, “This is shameful for the humanity.”
The
Balfour Declaration came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign
secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead
of the British Jewish community. It was published on November 2, 1917.
The
declaration was made during World War I (1914-1918) and was included in the
terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire.
It
is widely seen as the precursor to the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, when Zionist
armed paramilitary groups, who were trained and created to fight side by side
with the British in World War II, forcibly expelled more than 750,000
Palestinians from their homeland.
Speaking
at a Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) event during the Conservative Party
conference in Birmingham, Truss expressed her unwavering support for Israel.
“I
am so pleased to be here for the first time at the CFI event as your prime
minister,” she said on Sunday.
“As
you know I am a huge Zionist, I am a huge supporter of Israel, and I know that
we can take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength,” Truss
commented.
Last
month, Truss told Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid that she was considering
transferring the UK embassy in Tel Aviv to the occupied holy city of al-Quds.
If it happens, the contentious policy shift would be similar to that of the US
under ex-President Donald Trump in May 2018.
Angered
by the UK premier’s announcement, the Palestinians described the statements as
“a new Balfour Declaration” and said it proves Britain’s bias in favor of the
Israeli regime.
The
Gaza-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements condemned reports about
moving the British embassy to al-Quds.
“The
announcement by the British Prime Minister Liz Truss about her intention to
move her country’s embassy to al-Quds is a flagrant bias toward the occupying
regime,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Qanou said at the time.
He
warned that the move would not give Israel any legitimacy “over one inch of our
land.”
Hazem
Qassem, another Hamas spokesman, warned that moving the British embassy would
be considered as a new crime by Britain against Palestinian people.
Islamic
Jihad senior official Mohammed Shalah accused Britain of continuing to display
“arrogance” against Palestinians.
“We
are not surprised by what Britain is doing in light of the ongoing Arab and
Islamic silence,” Shalah said. “We blame the Arab and Islamic countries that
are supposed to support al-Quds.”
Another
Islamic Jihad official, Tareq Salmi, warned that the controversial British plan
would anger Arabs and Muslims.
He
denounced the move as a “hideous colonial aggression” against Palestinians,
adding, “Britain is directly responsible for the tragedy of Palestinian
people.”
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Arab
World
Newest
Hindu Temple in Dubai Officially Opens Its Doors To UAE Residents
October
05, 2022
DUBAI:
The newest Hindu temple in Dubai opened its doors to worshippers on Tuesday
following an official ceremony.
The
new Hindu House of Worship officially welcomed worshippers for the first time
following its inaugural by the UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence.
Sheikh
Nahyan bin Mubarak Al-Nahyan inaugurated the temple by lighting a lantern in
the temple’s multi-purpose hall on the ground floor, Al-Khaleej Times reported.
The
new temple in Jebel Ali is the latest addition to what is locally known as
“village of worship” which already houses nine religious shrines, including
seven churches, the Guru Nanak Darbar and Sikh Gurudwara.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2175456/middle-east
--------
Al
Khalifah regime trying to place slavery yoke on Bahraini nation: Top Shia
cleric
04
October 2022
Bahrain’s
most prominent Shia cleric has repudiated the country’s upcoming parliamentary
polls, saying the ruling Al Khalifah regime has shut the door on free elections
and political reforms in the tiny Persian Gulf Arab kingdom while trying to
enslave the nation.
“The
[Manama] regime slams the door in the face of any voter or democracy advocate
and seeks to place the yoke of slavery on the nation,” Grand Ayatollah Sheikh
Isa Qassim wrote in a post published on his Twitter page on Monday.
“The
regime actively directs every Bahraini citizen to the path of slavery and
vassalage. Isn’t there anyone who would fear God and sound the alarm on the
situation of his homeland and compatriots?” the senior cleric added.
Last
month, Bahrain’s main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society,
called for a boycott of the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country,
amid an escalation of political repression and absence of meaningful reforms.
In
a statement released on September 14, Al-Wefaq described the boycott of
November 12 polls as a national duty, emphasizing that the ruling Manama regime
maintains absolute control over the electoral process and seeks to install a
weak legislature, whose main task would be to burnish the image of the corrupt
Al Khalifah dynasty and cover up its human rights abuses.
It
added that the constitutional and political rift between the Bahraini regime
and the nation is deepening day by day, the main reason for which, it said, is
the lack of any social agreement between the two sides.
In
the absence of a real administration, the Al Khalifah regime continues its
authoritarian rule by imposing its political, economic, security and social
wills on the Bahraini nation, Al-Wefaq said.
Moreover,
Sheikh Qassim had in mid-July denounced the November 12 polls as “a new
disaster and calamity” for Bahrain, stating that the elections will only
reinforce the Al Khalifah dynasty’s reactionary and oppressive measures and
jeopardize the interests of the Bahraini people.
He
said in a statement at the time that the forthcoming legislative elections will
exacerbate the sufferings of the Bahraini nation, consolidate the dictatorship
of the ruling Manama regime, and broaden the hardship that people are
experiencing.
Demonstrations
have been held in Bahrain on a regular basis ever since a popular uprising
began in mid-February 2011.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Qatar
reopens Museum of Islamic Art ahead of Fifa World Cup
4
Oct 2022
Qatar
unveiled Tuesday its landmark Museum of Islamic Art after an 18-month
renovation ahead of the World Cup in a bid to be a "showcase" for the
Arab world.
"We
are the biggest Museum of Islamic Art in this region... and we are in the
middle of the Arab world," said museum director Julia Gonnella.
"Where better can you learn about Islamic culture and art and history than
here?"
The
museum showcases 14 centuries of Islamic art and artefacts from around the
world.
Constructed
on a purpose-built island on Doha's waterfront promenade, the building is the
work of the late US architect I.M. Pei, one of the best-known architects of the
20th century.
The
five-storey building has redesigned its collections, with some two-thirds of
the thousand exhibits new to the museum.
"Before
it was only about the art, now it's about culture," Gonnella said.
"We really want to tell the stories behind the masterpieces."
Qatar
has spent billions of dollars on new stadiums for the first football World Cup
in an Arab country, which kicks off on November 20.
Source:
Khaleej Times
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/gulf/qatar-reopens-museum-of-islamic-art-ahead-of-fifa-world-cup
--------
Fans
hiring $20,000-a-night superyachts in Dubai to watch Qatar World Cup 2022 at
sea
05
October, 2022
Football
fans are splashing out on $20,000-a-night superyachts in Dubai during the FIFA
World Cup 2022 to watch tournament matches on big screens while sailing on the
Arabian Gulf. Clients can push the boat out further with exclusive use of a
Michelin-starred chef.
As
tens of thousands of football fans plan to use neighboring countries as a base
for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Dubai – less than an hour’s flight away from the
footballing action - is expecting a bumper time for tourism.
While
supporters without tickets are expected to flock to fan zones, featuring big
screens, to watch a slice of the action in the emirate, other fans are splashing
out to make sure they can watch their teams in style.
UAE’s
biggest private yacht charter, Xclusive Yachts, have reported a surge in
interest in hiring outs its fleet of 70 yachts with people clambering onboard
to experience the world’s greatest football tournament in luxury.
Its
managing director, Amit Patel, told Al Arabiya English that early numbers
suggest they will record a surge of 300 percent in bookings during the
month-long tournament in November.
The
company anticipates taking some 3,000 people out on Dubai’s waters every day
during the World Cup with many football fans hiring the firm’s crown in the
jewel – a 43-meter superyacht – for a private overnight charter.
With
an overnight hire costing $20,000, guests onboard Stardom, a tri-deck superyacht,
can enjoy not only a Michelin-starred chef serving gourmet cuisine, but also a
Skydeck, five luxury cabins, a private fine-dining area, an onboard bar and Sky
Lounge and sunbathing deck.
“We
are expecting a more than 300 percent in yacht bookings in November and
December mainly due to visitors for the World Cup and Qatar who are also
looking for leisure activities in Dubai,” said Patel. “We expect a huge influx
of tourists who are coming from all around the world from different geographies
and different demographics. We have gotten a lot of requests to watch football
on board.”
Xclusive
Yachts have also launched a ‘shared service’ offer for groups of fans who want
to experience a few hours on the boat to watch games while sailing past some of
Dubai’s most iconic sites including JBR, the Atlantis, the Burj al Arab and
Dubai Marina.
While
more than a million football fans are expected to attend the tournament, many
fans are expected to choose to stay in Dubai, where there are about five times
as many hotel rooms.
Dubai,
the Gulf's most popular tourism destination, is already reporting strong
bookings in the fourth quarter, particularly during the four-week soccer
tournament.
“We're
seeing a lot of demand for the World Cup,” said Paul Bridger, chief operating
officer of Rove Hotels, a locally-owned hotel brand operating nine mid-tier
hotels across Dubai, in September.
Bridger
said bookings in the fourth quarter, which overlaps with Dubai's peak October
to February winter tourism season, were four times that of 2019, the year
before the pandemic.
Monther
Darwish, managing director of Dubai's five-star luxury Palazzo Versace, said he
expected his 215-room hotel to be fully booked from October to December, with
many guests expected to shuttle between Dubai and Doha throughout the World
Cup.
The
managing director of private jet operator DC Aviation Al-Futtaim, Holger
Ostheimer, said enquiries for chartered flights from Dubai to Doha had
increased three to fourfold.
Other
private jet companies across the UAE are also seeing a surge in bookings for
day trips to Qatar for the World.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Terrorist
YPG/PKK kidnapped Syrian girl with heart disease
Esref
Musa
04.10.2022
To
recruit her as a child fighter, the terrorist organization YPG/PKK kidnapped a
15-year-old girl suffering from a heart condition from a village in Aleppo,
Syria, near the Turkish border, according to local sources.
Redor
El Ahmed, the spokesperson of the Independent Kurdish Neighborhood, said:
“YPG/PKK terrorists kidnapped 15-year-old Busra E.K.B from the village of Ayn
al-Arab.”
The
so-called “Revolutionary Youth” terror group affiliated with the terrorist
YPG/PKK kidnapped the teenager a week ago, he added.
“Busra
has a heart condition,” he added.
In
the 2021 Children and Armed Conflicts report published this July, the UN
General Secretariat said the terrorist group YPG/PKK added 221 children to its
fighters in 2021.
It
also said the terrorist "Internal Security Forces," affiliated with
the YPG/PKK, recruited 24 children the same year.
The
terrorist YPG/PKK killed 55 children in Syria in 2021, according to reports.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Assad
regime seizes refugees’ farmlands in Idlib, Syria
Mehmet
Mesto
04.10.2022
The
Assad regime has confiscated farmlands owned by refugees and displaced citizens
in rural Idlib, northern Syria, local sources said Tuesday.
The
regime’s Agriculture Ministry seized the farmlands with claims it would
cultivate the lands and reap their returns, the sources said.
"The
lands offered for investment are the lands of ‘the hidden ones’," local
Al-Watan daily quoted Idlib Governor Thaer Salhab as saying.
He
said the seized lands can be given back to displaced persons “when their status
is settled by the regime.”
Idlib
fell out of regime control in 2015. Regime forces, however, have managed to
recapture dozens of villages and towns in the province since 2017, with Russian
and Iranian support, despite the Astana agreements that define Idlib as part of
a de-escalation zone.
The
Syrian regime had previously confiscated property and lands of opposition
activists and refugees in areas under its control.
Syria
has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar
al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/assad-regime-seizes-refugees-farmlands-in-idlib-syria/2702475
--------
Mideast
Jerusalem
activists mobilise against settlers storming Al-Aqsa Mosque
October
4, 2022
Palestinian
activists in occupied Jerusalem have called on their fellow citizens across the
occupied West Bank to mobilise and guard Al-Aqsa Mosque today and tomorrow
against planned incursions by Jewish settlers. The activists warned that the
illegal settlers are preparing to storm Al-Aqsa in large numbers to celebrate
the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday on 4 and 5 October.
On
Sunday, more than 200 settlers and dozens of Israeli soldiers stormed the
mosque, the third holiest site in the Islamic world. The mosque witnessed a new
violation by an extremist female settler who danced and sang in front of the
Dome of the Rock Mosque in a provocation that caused outrage among Palestinian
worshippers.
In
another provocative incident, Israeli Knesset Member Simcha Rotman blew the
ceremonial trumpet at the eastern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Settlers have
recently blown the trumpet in the Bab Al-Rahma Cemetery several times and
launched calls to blow them collectively at Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Rosh
Hashanah celebrations. Some did so over their telephones and said that they
look forward to being able to blow traditional trumpets in the mosque in person.
Source:
Middle East Monitor
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Al-Aqsa:
Israelis storm Jerusalem mosque ahead of tense Yom Kippur holiday
4
October 2022
Israeli
settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday morning
in large numbers ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
he
Islamic Waqf, a Palestinian-Jordanian body that runs the affairs of al-Aqsa,
reported that hundreds stormed the courtyards of the mosque in the early
morning, tightly flanked by Israeli police.
The
settlers provocatively toured inside the complex, performing religious rituals
and listening to explanations about the temple which some Jews believe used to
stand on the site.
The
Waqf added that dozens of Israelis blew shofars - musical horns - in between
the graves of Muslims in the Bab al-Rahma cemetery near the eastern wall of the
mosque.
Local
media reported that tight restrictions were applied on Palestinians wishing to
enter al-Aqsa, with some having their identification taken away from them and
others forcibly ejected from the area.
Ahead
of Yom Kippur, which takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Israeli authorities
raised the state of alert in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
All
major roads were closed in the occupied territories, in addition to the Karam
Abu Salem commercial crossing to the besieged Gaza Strip.
The
closures are due to be lifted at midnight on Wednesday, before being imposed
again on the following Sundays for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Near-daily
raids
Palestinians
have become accustomed to increased restrictions on their movement around the
time of Jewish holidays.
This
year, the closures come amid a heightened campaign of near-daily raids and
incursions by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.
The
army is also preparing to impose a two-day closure on the city of Nablus,
blocking all roads leading to it in fear of attacks by armed Palestinian
groups.
The
northern West Bank city had become the main flashpoint in recent weeks with
several settler attacks on Palestinian property reported and a number of
shootings at Israeli targets by Palestinian gunmen.
On
Tuesday, scores of Israeli settlers gathered on Hawara Street, south of Nablus,
performing religious rituals alongside rabbis and the heads of settlement
councils.
The
Palestinian Red Crescent said that 30 people had been treated late on Monday
for breathlessness from tear gas and four for bruising after Israeli army and
settler attacks south of Nablus.
Earlier
on Monday, two young Palestinians were shot dead and another was wounded after
Israeli forces opened fire on a vehicle near Ramallah.
Source:
Middle East Eye
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-aqsa-mosque-yom-kippur-ahead-tense-holiday
--------
At
least 63 killed in Iran suppression of Zahedan protest: Human rights group
04
October, 2022
At
least 63 people were killed last week when Iranian security forces “bloodily
suppressed” a protest in the city of Zahedan in southeastern Iran, the
Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO said on Tuesday.
The
clashes erupted after Friday prayers last week in Zahedan, the capital of the
Sistan-Baluchistan province which is home to the Baluch ethnic minority who
largely adhere to Sunni Islam and not the Shiism predominant in Iran.
The
incident took place in the midst of the nationwide demonstrations that erupted
following the death of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested by the morality
police.
But
rights groups have said the protest in Zahedan was sparked by accusations that
a police chief in the port city of Chabahar, also in Sistan-Baluchistan, had
raped a 15-year-old Baluch girl.
“On
September 30, people gathered after Friday prayer in Zahedan to protest against
the rape of a Baluch 15-year-old girl by Chabahar’s police chief, which was
bloodily suppressed by security forces,” IHR said, raising a previous toll of
41.
Accounts
posted on social media at the time had spoken of dozens of dead in Zahedan on
Friday while images had shown overwhelmed hospitals and bloodied corpses.
There
have also been reports of victims dying in hospitals due to lack of beds and
bandages to stop the bleeding.
Activists
have also charged that security forces have shot at protesters from
helicopters. IHR said four people driving in an open roof car were shot and
killed by fire from a military helicopter in north Zahedan.
Specialised
NGO the Baluch Activists Campaign has published on its Telegram channel the
names of all 67 of those it says were killed, adding that 300 were wounded.
Iranian
state media have, however, said that five members of the Revolutionary Guards
were killed in what it described as a “terrorist incident.”
The
police chief in Sistan-Baluchistan had said on state television that three
police stations were attacked in the province.
Sistan-Baluchistan,
which neighbors Pakistan, is one of Iran’s poorest regions. Activists have
complained over the last months that Baluch convicts were being executed in
disproportionate numbers as hangings surged in the Islamic Republic.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Journalists
condemn Turkey ‘disinformation’ bill threatening free press
04
October, 2022
Turkish
journalist organizations on Tuesday denounced a government-backed bill that
could see offenders jailed for three years for spreading “disinformation,”
saying it threatened freedom of expression.
The
bill, due to before parliament Tuesday after being floated by the ruling AKP
party in May, would force social media networks and internet sites to hand over
details of users suspected of “propagating misleading information.”
It
comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has long sought to muzzle
criticism, is facing his most challenging election since he came to power
nearly two decades ago.
The
ruling party’s approval ratings have dropped to historic lows ahead of the
election due by June next year thanks to a astronomical inflation and a
currency crisis.
“We,
the journalists, are warning both the lawmakers and the public once again as
part of our responsibility to society,” 10 journalist organizations said in a
joint statement outside parliament in Ankara.
“If
this law is implemented in its current form, the freedom of press, expression
and communication in our country will be brought under great pressure and
siege.”
Journalists,
accompanied by opposition lawmakers, wore black masks in protest and unfurled
banners: “Press is free,” “No to the censorship law” and “free press is
essential to democracy.”
Turkey
regularly ranks among the world’s worst jailers of journalists.
As
well as risking prison, journalists found to have broken the new law could also
lose their press cards.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
‘US
hypocrisy’: Iran calls on Biden to mind own human rights record, sanctions
regime
04
October 2022
Iran’s
Foreign Ministry spokesman has slammed the United States’ “hypocrisy” on human
rights, urging US President Joe Biden to mind his own country’s human rights
record and lift inhumane anti-Iran sanctions if he is truly concerned about
human rights.
“It
would have been better if Mr. Joe Biden, before taking up humanitarian
postures, had thought about the human rights record of his own country, though
hypocrisy needs no thinking,” Nasser Kan’ani said in a Tuesday Instagram post.
Kan’ani
further said the US president should instead be concerned about the numerous
sanctions Washington has imposed against the Iranian nation, “as their
implementation against any nation is a clear example of crimes against
humanity.”
People
across the world “have been and are witnessing the true and unmasked face of
American human rights” in many countries, including Palestine, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Syria and even on US soil, he added.
Kan’ani
was reacting to a statement released by the White House late on Monday in which
Biden accused Iran of a violent crackdown against nationwide protests following
the death of a young Iranian woman in a hospital days after collapsing at a
police station in the capital Tehran.
Biden
had pledged to place “further costs” on Iran, while at the same time claiming
that Washington would continue to support the rights of Iranians to “protest
freely.”
Protests
over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who fainted at a
police station on September 16 and was later pronounced dead at a hospital,
erupted first in her native province of Kordestan and later spread to other
parts of the country, including Tehran.
The
protests soon turned violent, with foreign-backed rioters going on the rampage
in several cities, attacking security officers, resorting to vandalism against
public property, and desecrating religious sanctities.
Speaking
in an address to military cadets in Tehran on Monday, Leader of the Islamic
Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei severely censured the deadly riots,
saying they were orchestrated in advance by the United States and the Israeli
regime.
Source:
Press TV
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iran’s
IRGC strikes positions of terrorist groups in northern Iraq
04
October 2022
The
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has once again targeted the positions of
terrorist groups operating near the country’s western borders in Iraq’s
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The
IRGC’s Ground Force pounded the positions of terror groups in Sidekan, north of
Erbil in Kurdistan region on Tuesday, with multiple rocket launchers,
precision-strike weapons and drones, according to a report published by Fars
news agency.
It
added that during the attacks, a gathering joined by one of the terrorist groups’
commanders was targeted, inflicting heavy losses on them.
Since
September 24, the IRGC have been targeting terrorist bases in Iraq’s Kurdistan
region on a daily basis, amid reports that terrorists sought to ignite riots
and unrest in Iran’s western border cities.
In
an interview on Monday, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said elements of
separatist terror groups, including the so-called Komala Party, in the northern
Iraqi region had made several moves against the country over the past years.
He
also noted that Iran had regularly voiced its opposition to these movements,
which the commander said were aimed at disintegrating Iran.
Iran
has on countless occasions warned Iraqi Kurdistan’s local authorities that it
will not tolerate the presence and activity of terrorist groups along its
northwestern borders, saying the country will give a decisive response should
those areas become a hub of anti-Islamic Republic terrorists.
Back
in May, the IRGC struck and demolished positions of terrorist groups operating
near the country’s western borders in Iraq’s northern Kurdish regional capital
of Erbil.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
North
America
Detained
US citizen Namazi allowed to leave Iran
05
October, 2022
Detained
US citizen Baquer Namazi has been allowed to leave Iran and his son has been
granted furlough from prison, the State Department said Wednesday, confirming
their release.
Namazi,
a former UNICEF official, was detained in February 2016 when the 85-year-old
went to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested
in October of the previous year.
The
United States has been pressing for the release of these two men and two other
Americans amid efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major
Western powers.
“Wrongfully
detained US citizen Baquer Namazi has been permitted to depart Iran, and his
son Siamak, also wrongfully detained, has been granted furlough from prison,” a
State Department spokesperson told AFP.
It
added that the older Namazi “was unjustly detained in Iran and then not
permitted to leave the county after serving his sentence, despite his repeated
requirement for urgent medical attention.”
“We
understand that the lifting of the travel ban and his son’s furlough were related
to his medical requirement.”
The
United Nations said last week that the pair had been allowed to leave Iran,
after an appeal from its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Both
were convicted of espionage in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Baquer
Namazi was released on medical leave in 2018 and had been serving his sentence
under house arrest.
At
least two other American citizens are currently held in Iran.
Businessman
Emad Sharqi was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for espionage, and
environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who is also a British national, was arrested in
2018 and released on bail in July.
A
drive to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in late November last year,
after talks were suspended in June as Iran elected ultra-conservative President
Ebrahim Raisi.
The
2015 deal -- agreed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France
and Germany -- offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its
nuclear program.
But
the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under president Donald Trump
and reimposed biting economic sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin rolling back
on its commitments.
On
Sunday, the United States rejected Iranian reports that Tehran’s release of US
citizens would lead to the unfreezing of Iranian funds abroad.
“With
the finalization of negotiations between Iran and the United States to release
the prisoners of both countries, $7 billion of Iran’s blocked resources will be
released,” the state news agency IRNA said.
But
the State Department dismissed any such link as “categorically false.”
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
The
Hill fires Jewish American journalist for calling Israel ‘apartheid’ entity
04
October 2022
Jewish
American journalist Katie Halper has been sacked by the corporate-owned US
media outlet The Hill over defending a Congress member’s portrayal of Israel as
an apartheid regime based on a list of facts.
The
41-year-old journalist, known for her podcast titled “Rising” for The Hill TV,
had drafted a factual monologue in defense of Democratic Representative Rashida
Tlaib against attacks on the Michigan lawmaker’s over her new anti-Israel
comments.
Tlaib
found herself in hot water in the Democratic camp and among pro-Israel lobbying
groups by saying recently, “I want you all to know that among progressives, it
becomes clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values yet back
Israel’s apartheid government.”
In
the monologue for “Rising,” Halper, who was the program’s co-host, argued that
the backlash against Tlaib was “outrageous” and criticized Israel’s unjust laws
and brutalization of Palestinians.
The
monologue also included the definition of apartheid according to international
law and quotations from human rights organizations such as Israel’s B’Tselem,
Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, which have all accused the
occupying regime of committing the crime of apartheid.
Initially,
executives at The Hill TV blocked Halper from broadcasting the segment. She
was, however, fired from her job later as she spoke publicly about the
censorship.
The
good news, according to Halper’s twitter account, is that she had shot the
censored video with an actually independent media outlet which was then hosted
by New York-based BreakThrough News.
In
the monologue based on facts, Halper criticized the lash against Tlaib, telling
colleagues and representatives who attacked Tlaib that “apartheid is not about
feelings but rather about facts.”
“I’m
not a Jewish colleague of Tlaib, but I am a Jew and I am outraged. Not by
Tlaib, but by the attacks on Tlaib. Rashida Tlaib is saying that Israel is an
apartheid state and that people who claim to have progressive values cannot
support an apartheid state. No matter how loose a definition of progressive we
use, it certainly excludes supporting a racist apartheid system,” Halper said
in the video.
In
the monologue, she also mentioned the definition of apartheid provided by the
UN’s International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of
Aparthied in Article II, which describes apartheid as “the inhuman acts
committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one
racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and
systematically oppressing them.”
Harper
also referred to the different organizations and figures who identify Israel as
an apartheid entity, including al-Haq, the al-Mezan center for human rights,
Adalah, Addameer Association, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
She
quoted former Israeli officials describing the entity as an apartheid regime.
Halper’s
video was showered with comments, many congratulating her on her bravery in
telling the truth. Reactions also poured in from activists and journalists who
expressed solidarity with Halper.
In
response to the sacking of Halper, Maximillian Alvare, a guest contributor at
Halper’s show, announced his resignation through a tweet.
“After
3 years as a regular guest contributor, I have notified the Hill that I will
not be going on Rising anymore. I stand in solidarity with Katie Halper &
our oppressed Palestinian siblings, & I stand resolutely against the
top-down decision to censor/fire Katie for telling the truth,” read the tweet.
In
turn, journalist Chuck Modi from Washington DC said in a tweet that Katie
Halper’s coverage is “most basic “water-is- wet” reporting. “Her firing, like
Marc Lamont Hill at CNN, is latest message to journos that if you want to keep
your job, you must keep lying. Appreciate Katie putting facts & justice above
all.”
Famous
actress Susan Sarandon also showed consolidation with Halper by re-tweeting the
video. She wrote,“This is What Got Katie Halper Censored & Canceled By The
Hill: Israel Is An Apartheid State – YouTube.”
Four
years ago, Marc Lamont Hill’s was fired by CNN after he gave a speech at the
UN, in which he called for Palestine to be free from Israeli occupation.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
India
Muslim
Family Makes Ravana Effigies for Agra Ramlila Every Year
OCTOBER
04, 2022
Every
year, a month ahead of Dussehra, 75-year-old Jafer Ali along with his family
gets down to the mammoth task of making effigies of Lanka king ‘Ravan’ and his
brothers for the Ramila here. Ali, who belongs to the fifth generation of a
family of artisans, said “We are invited by the committee members of Agra’s
Ramlila to make effigies and for about a month we stay at Ramlila ground to
complete effigies of different sizes." At the culmination of Ramlila, the
committee also felicitate Ali and his family.
Talking
about his skills, Ali, the eldest among the artisans told PTI, “I have been in
this profession since my childhood. Now the fifth generation of our family is
working in this profession. I used to come with my grandfather and father and
now I am leading other family members and workers." He has a family of 18
members and all are skilled in making effigies, he said. “In this year’s
Ramlila, which is taking place after a hiatus of two years due to COVID-19,
Ravan’s effigy is about 100 feet tall and that of his brothers Kumbhkaran and
Meghnath are 65 and 60 feet tall, respectively. The size of other effigies
depends on the demand of the committee members," he said, adding that
every year the size of the effigies differs.
“It
takes about one month to complete the effigies, which are made up of colourful
paper, twine rope and adhesive made up of white flour and bamboo sticks,"
Ali said. He said his family is happy to come again after COVID-19, which
affected the entire world.
“This
year there is a wave of joy, because we are able to showcase our skills,"
he added. 45-year-old Auli, another family member who helps Ali in making
effigies, said, “The wages are different for each worker and varies from Rs
500-Rs 700 a day. During this month-long event, more than 15 effigies and other
designs are made by us as per the scene in the Ramayan." Ali and his
nephew Amir Ahmad (50) claimed to have never faced any kind of discrimination because
of their religion.
“Nobody
here treats us like we belong to a different religion. We work as if it is our
home. Even children of our families come to watch the Dussehra
celebration." “The locals here love us. That is why my grandfather, father
and I along with other family members have been coming here to make these
effigies every year," he added. The district Ramlila which began about a
century ago attracts visitors not only from Agra but also from its nearby
Mathura and Firozabad districts as well.
Source:
News18
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
MP
Police Raze Houses of 3 Muslim Men Accused of 'Pelting Stones at Garba Venue'
During Dispute
Oct
5, 2022
New
Delhi: Madhya Pradesh police has razed the houses of three Muslim men booked in
a dispute between two groups at a Garba venue in Mandsaur district.
Nineteen
people have been booked in a fight which occurred on the night of October 2 at
Surjani village within the jurisdiction of the Sitamau police station.
A
report by Dainik Bhaskar notes that a man named Shivlal Patidar complained to
the father of one Salman Khan about the latter’s manner of riding the
motorcycle. A dispute erupted between the two. On the night of Sunday, October
2, Salman reached a garba venue with his associates to look for the man. A
fight ensued, in the course of which Salman hit a companion of Shivlal, named
Mahesh, with an axe, according to the paper. As more people gathered, Salman
and his associates pelted stones at the venue of the garba event, injuring one
woman, the report says.
The
news agency PTI has reported that four people were injured. Hindustan Times
reported that Mahesh and Shivlal, who are receiving treatment, are in a serious
condition.
Several
news outlets have reported the initial incident as a case of stones having been
hurled at a garba venue by Muslims, without mentioning the violent dispute.
“After
receiving information about stone pelting at a garba pandal due to a dispute
between two groups, the police reached the spot and brought the situation under
control,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Anurag Sujania told reporters.
A
case was registered against 19 persons under various sections of the Indian
Penal Code including 307 (attempt to murder) for hurling stones at the pandal.
Seven
of the accused were detained after a probe, Sujania said, adding that some of
the accused are “habitual offenders.”
The
SP said “illegal construction” of more than 4,500 sq ft worth more than Rs 4.5
crore, belonging to three of the accused, was demolished on Tuesday with the
help of the revenue department.
Source:
The Wire
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://thewire.in/communalism/madhya-pradesh-garba-mandsaur-demolition-bulldoze-muslim-house
--------
Gujarat:
7 Hurt After Fight Over Location of Garba Event; Cops Thrash Suspects In Full
Public View
Oct
5, 2022
New
Delhi: Gujarat police on Tuesday beat up in full public view some of the
accused of a case where seven persons were injured after an argument over the
location of a garba event in Gujarat’s Undhela village spiralled into violence
with Muslim residents objecting to holding the programme near a mosque.
The
initial incident over the location of the garba event took place late on
Monday, October 3. A day later, videos emerged showing police beating the
suspected attackers arrested in the case by holding them against an electric
pole in the village square in full public view.
Video
clips appear to show three arrested persons being brought out of a police van
near the event’s venue. They appear to be then taken towards an electric pole
and held against it by a policeman who pulled them by their hands. Another
policeman is seen hitting them below the waist with a baton.
The
videos also appear to show the accused apologising to a large group of people
gathered at the spot with folded hands after policemen ask them to do so.
Those
witnessing the beating at the site cheered the police action.
Local
news outlet VTV Gujarati News shared the video with a caption that NDTV
reported as having read: “10-11 heretics were brought to the village, where the
police taught them a lesson in public.”
Garba
skirmish
Police
have arrested 13 persons so far after a First Information Report (FIR) was
registered at the Matar police station, said deputy superintendent of police
V.R. Bajpai.
“The
village Sarpanch (head) had organised Garba (a popular Gujarati folk dance) at
a temple. A mob from the Muslim community tried to stop it from taking place,”
Bajpai was quoted as having said by PTI.
However,
the FIR itself, according to NDTV, notes that members from the Muslim community
in the village had objected to the garba being organised near a mosque, which
is located across the temple.
A
group of people gathered at the venue at around 11:30 pm and started hurling
abuses at the revellers and asked them to pack up, the FIR says. More people
joined them and the mob started pelting stones when the revellers continued to
play Garba, said the FIR. Some of them were armed with sharp weapons, and
sticks and they pelted stones at the temple, said the FIR.
The
mob allegedly pelted stones and at least seven persons, including a Gram
Rakshak Dal (GRD) jawan and a policeman, were injured, he said.
“The
FIR says a mob of 150 people, including women, attacked the group performing
Garba by pelting stones. As per the FIR, 43 of the accused have been identified
by name,” the official said.
Source:
The Wire
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://thewire.in/communalism/gujarat-garba-event-attacked
--------
Bouncers
From The Minority Community At Garba Event In Surat Attacked By Bajrang Dal
Activists
4th
October 2022
Surat:
Bajrang Dal activists and bouncers from the minority community clashed here
during a garba event here.
The
incident happened on Monday night and one bouncer was injured, who was treated
at a hospital.
As
the police reached on time the situation was controlled and the garba event
resumed soon after.
The
Bajrang Dal activists during their surprise checking on Sunday night had found
that Thakor Vadi garba organiser had hired a security team, which had Muslims
bouncers. The activists had asked the organiser to cancel the security service
and ensure that no Muslim bouncer was on duty, even though on Monday night
Muslim bouncers were at the security gate of the event, when activists asked
their name, they gave false identity with Hindu names which led to the clash,
said a local activist of Bajrang Dal.
“Some
clash was reported at Thakorji vadi garba event to the police, a team was
dispatched and the situation was brought under control. One person is said to
be injured, police don’t have detailed information, investigation is going on,
whosoever is responsible, will be arrested,” assured Sagar Bagmar, Deputy
Commissioner of Police, Surat.
Source:
Siasat Daily
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.siasat.com/bouncers-at-garba-event-in-surat-attacked-by-bajrang-dal-activists-2427180/
--------
Four
militants killed in separate encounters in J&K's Shopian
Oct
5, 2022
SRINAGAR:
Four militants were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in
Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district on Wednesday, police said.
Three
Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants were killed in the Drach area of Shopian,
while a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant was killed in the Moolu area of the
south Kashmir district, they said.
"Three
local #terrorists linked with proscribed #terror outfit JeM killed in
#encounter at Drach #Shopian," Additional Director General of Police,
Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said on Twitter.
He
said a local terrorist of the proscribed outfit LeT was killed in an encounter
in Moolu.
In
the Drach operation, two of the three killed terrorists were identified as
Hanan Bin Yaqoob and Jamshed, Kumar said.
Source:
Times Of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Jharkhand:
Muslim man lynched to death by mob, cops dismiss Islamophobia
4th
October 2022
A
22-year-old Muslim man was lynched to death by a mob with axes, tangi and
sticks in Gumla district on the Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh border. His motorcycle
was also burnt.
The
deceased – Ejaz Ansari – a resident of Jari in Jharkhand had gone to Patratoli
in Chhattisgarh for some work.
Siasat.com
spoke to Superintendent of Police Gumla district Dr Ehtesham Waquarib who said
that an FIR has been lodged against five men.
The
senior police officer added that Ansari had a criminal history. When asked if
it is a case of Islamophobia, the SP dismissed it.
“Ansari
had a criminal history. It is possible that he had an enmity with a local gang
in Chhattisgarh and that can be a possible reason for the murder,” the SP told
Siasat.com.
“The
killers are from Chhattisgarh and hence we are in constant touch with the
police there. However investigations are still underway and we cannot put a
finger on anything yet,” the SP said.
Ansari’s
family members were inconsolable when they heard the news. They threatened that
if no action is taken against the killers, they will not accept Ansari’s body.
Source:
Siasat Daily
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Africa
Tunisia’s
Islamists under siege as Saied rolls back democracy
Amberin
Zaman
October
4, 2022
TUNIS
— On a gray December morning, Noureddine Bhiri and his wife Saida slid into the
family car outside their home in Tunis’ El Manar neighborhood. With Saida at
the wheel, the middle-aged couple was about to set off for work when four blue
Ford SUVs screeched around them, blocking their path. “A group of bearded
youths in civilian clothes snatched the car keys out of my wife’s hands and
forced us to get out,” Bhiri recalled. The men were armed. “They shoved me into
the back of one of the jeeps. I thought to myself, ‘They are Islamic State.’ I
was terrified,” Bhiri said.
Bhiri,
64, a senior figure in the Islam-oriented Ennahda party, was held incommunicado
for three days in a heavily guarded shack in a forest outside Tunis where the
howls of wolves and grunts of wild boar filled the air. “Who are you? Why have
you kidnapped me?” he asked his captors repeatedly. He was offered no answer.
It wasn’t until he was moved to a state hospital after refusing food and drink
that Bhiri, a diabetic, discovered he was under “house arrest” because he posed
“a threat to Tunisia’s national security.” His ordeal lasted 64 days.
Last
week, Ennahda’s 81-year old leader, Rached Ghannouchi, was grilled by
counterterrorism police, spending 30 hours in different security units over
three days. Ali Laarayedh, a former prime minister and a fellow Nahdaoui, as
party members are known, was held for interrogation as well. All three leaders
are among some 800 individuals being investigated for supposedly encouraging
thousands of Tunisians to take up arms with assorted jihadis in so-called
“hotbeds of tension” in Libya and Syria during Ennahda’s first two years at the
helm of Tunisia’s first freely elected government that was formed in 2011.
Lawyer
Abderrazak Kilani, who is defending Ennahda, labeled the investigation a
“disgrace.” “There is nothing in the prosecution's case to prove these absurd
claims. The dossier is empty,” Kilani told Al-Monitor. Ghannouchi is due to
undergo further questioning on Nov. 28.
The
probe is part of a broader campaign targeting the party masterminded by
Tunisia’s authoritarian President Kais Saied. The outcome of that campaign will
have lasting repercussions for the future of Tunisia’s tottering democracy and
will likely resonate with political Islamists across the globe.
“It
was the most democratic party in Tunisia. It was the only one where there was a
lot of dissent factored into the system, where there was a dialogue between the
regions and the national center and there were shifts in policy based on what
the rank and file sought,” said William Lawrence, a former US diplomat and
nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute with sweeping knowledge of the
Maghreb.
“Ennahda
was the best model political Islam managed to produce,” said Tarik Celenk, a
prominent Muslim intellectual in Turkey, where another Islamist party and a
close Ennahda ally, the Justice and Development Party led by President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, has been in power for the past two decades.
Few
doubt that Saied’s goal is to crush the party and he’s tightening the vise
ahead of parliamentary elections that are due to be held on Dec. 17, despite
opposition vows to boycott them.
Riding
on a wave of popular fury over endemic corruption and a failing economy, the
inscrutable former constitutional law instructor shot to power in a landslide
in 2019. (Saied is not a professor, as he is commonly described. He was denied
a PhD after refusing in signature stubborn form to make minor tweaks to his
thesis that his examiners were asking for.)
Saied
has since sacked the government, dissolved the parliament, scrapped judicial
oversight and rammed through a new constitution giving him near unfettered
power as well as an electoral law which bans political candidates from running
on party lists.
Journalists
are being put behind bars under draconian new legislation criminalizing free
speech. The opposition and civil rights activists label his actions a coup.
“There
is a great danger that democracy will be lost,” warned Noureddine Boutar, CEO
of Tunisia’s influential first private broadcaster, Mosaique FM.
Even
as Saied paints Ennahda as dangerous zealots, Article Five of his new
constitution, approved overwhelmingly in a controversial referendum but with
less than 30% voter turnout, states that Tunisia is “part of the Islamic Ummah”
and that “it is incumbent upon the state alone to work to achieve the purposes
of Islam by preserving soul, honor, property, religion and freedom.”
“Saied’s
constitution goes [much farther] in establishing what you could call political
Islam and quite a patriarchal, retrogressive interpretation of it than Ennahda
ever proposed in their wildest dreams,” noted Monica Marks, an American
academic who closely studies Ennahda, during a panel organized by the Project
on Middle East Democracy, a Washington think tank.
In
June, the 64-year-old president sacked 57 judges on the grounds that they were
“changing the course of cases” and “disrupting investigations” — in other
words, for failing to indict Ennahda members.
“Kais
Saied is in contradiction with the ideals he claims to be embracing. He is
walking straight into a wall,” senior Ennahda official Ajmi Lourimi told
Al-Monitor.
A
devout Muslim, Saied has justified the moves on the grounds that the old rotten
system is unfixable, while casting the Islamists as the chief culprits of
Tunisia’s ills. Deservedly or not, a large number of Tunisians seem to agree.
“People don’t care about Ennahda’s problems. There is almost a sense of relief
over Ennahda getting what people see as just desserts,” Boutar said in an
interview with Al-Monitor.
Perhaps
the most telling indictment of all is that the Free Destourian Party led by
Abir Moussi, an unabashed advocate of toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,
is currently leading the polls. “The Muslim Brothers, we no longer want them
and we never want them ever again,” Moussi told Al-Monitor during an interview
at her party’s headquarters. “They should be banned.”
Ghannouchi’s
last hurrah?
Even
before Saied’s auto-golpe, the knives were out for Ennahda.
“Over
the years their failures in governance, which were only dwarfed by the failure
of other parties, became apparent and their popularity dropped. So every time
you have unrest in Tunisia, which is frequent, protesting crowds are as likely
to attack the local police station as they are likely to attack local Ennahda
headquarters to vent their anger,” Lawrence noted.
The
death in July 2019 of Beji Cais Essebsi, the secular former president whose
cohabitation with Ghannouchi marked a period of relative calm, gave Ennahda’s
enemies fresh life.
Within
the party itself, opponents of Ghannouchi’s compromising stance grew more
vocal.
Last
year over 100 members, including several senior figures, called for his
resignation in a joint petition and quit the party when he refused.
“After
the coup we went to Ghannouchi and said we need to reform. I asked him to step
down. He refused,” said Abdellatif Mekki, a former health minister who signed
the petition and left to form his own party. “We were supposed to have a
congress in 2020 to elect a new leader. His mandate had ended. But he held onto
power. Tens of people have left. If there is no reform, there can be no
future,” Mekki told Al-Monitor.
“I
want deep change, not just window dressing,” said Lourimi, who also signed the
petition.
“As
a political party we elected him and in the same way we will choose a new
leader. Any political party needs new blood,” said Ennahda official Mariam
Binnour as she stood outside the security building where Ghannouchi was being
held.
In
truth, by the neighborhood’s standards, Ghannouchi is anything but a despot.
Noureddine Arbaoui, who was among the 100 petitioners, continues to retain his
position as head of the political bureau. “As you can see I am here sitting
before you saying it’s time for Sheikh Ghannouchi to step aside and I still
have my job,” Arbaoui acknowledged with a grin.
Through
his hounding of Ghannouchi, Saied may unwittingly or not have thrown his bete
noir something of a lifeline. The party has rallied behind his calls to
prioritize Tunisia’s democracy and resist Saied, who is “the face of the
counter-revolution.”
Emerging
from his last interrogation session at the counterterrorism headquarters near
Tunis’ Carthage International Airport on Sept. 21, Ghannouchi looked crumpled
but erect as he flashed victory signs at supporters gathered to greet him.
“Freedom, Freedom! The police state is over! Down with the coup,” they chanted
as police in riot gear looked on.
In
a Sept. 23 interview at Ennahda’s headquarters in Tunis’ Montplaisir
neighborhood, Ghannouchi seemed a diminished man, his head bowed as he sat at
his desk. His voice was faltering, his hands were trembling, yet his message
was clear. He had no intention of stepping down. “I will carry out my duties
until June 2023,” when Ennahda’s next party congress is set to be held, he told
Al-Monitor, mustering the broad engaging smile that swayed thousands of
Tunisians for long years.
Dirty
deals
The
story of how Tunisia’s biggest and most influential party went from winning
power with around 1.5 million votes in 2011 — that’s four times as many as the
first runner-up — to scraping roughly a third as many in the last parliamentary
elections in 2019, is tightly intertwined with how the country’s democracy went
from being the envy of the post-Arab Spring world to a phantom on life support.
Two
themes dominate the hostility being leveled against Ennahda. One is that it
sought to bring the country under Islamist rule. The effort, by this telling,
was in full swing between 2011 and 2013, when the country was shaken by
extremist violence marked by by the assassinations of two prominent secular
leaders. The Ennahda-led government said it had evidence that Ansar al-Sharia,
an extremist militia with ties to al-Qaeda, had carried out the murders and
banned the outfit. Yet nine years on, Ennahda continues to be dogged by
allegations of complicity with the group.
The
other is that Ennahda wrecked the economy through a mix of incompetence,
corruption and greed. Hamma Hammami, a leftish politician, recently called it
“the Ennahda syndrome” — one that views the party “as responsible for every
problem, no matter what.”
Never
mind that Ennahda was the junior partner in a coalition with secular parties
for eight of the past 11 years, compromising its ideological principles
arguably more than any of its Islamist peers.
Ghannouchi’s
trademark pragmatism, inspired by the bloody suppression of fellow Islamists in
neighboring Algeria and deepened by the violent overthrow in 2013 of Mohammed
Morsi in Egypt, oiled the historic December 2013 pact with Essebsi, who was
elected president in December 2014.
The
deal struck between the “two sheikhs” behind closed doors saw the adoption of a
new democratic constitution free of any Islamist language lobbied for by
Ennahda hard-liners and the establishment of a coalition government between
their respective parties, in which Ennahda took a junior role.
The
entente had the support of the so-called quartet comprising the all-powerful
Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) and three other civil society groups that
was hailed as a model and crowned with a Nobel Peace award.
To
many, it now looks like more of a dirty deal struck between self-serving elites
at the expense of ordinary Tunisians.
Early
on, the lack of transparency and a partial amnesty for former regime figures
cast a pall and led to fierce internal debates within Ennahda. Public sympathy
over the unspeakable horrors endured by the Islamists under the previous regime
has worn thin.
“We
were saddled with other people’s grime,” said Mekki, the Ennahda defector.
“What
was keeping democracy on track was a sort of Tunisian-style pact of transition
whereby each side was protecting the other side’s ability to maneuver,” said
Lawrence, the former US diplomat. “The going joke about it was ‘You keep me out
of jail I’ll keep you out of jail,’” Lawrence told Al-Monitor.
Ordinary
Tunisians were indisputably freer but no richer.
Human
rights on empty stomachs
Endemic
corruption, poverty and a lack of opportunity and social justice were among the
main drivers of Tunisia’s 2011 Jasmine Revolution. Economically speaking, 11
years on, things are worse.
“Chicken
is 15 dinars per kilo. Before, you could get a whole chicken for 15 dinars and
in Ben Ali’s time, a chicken was three dinars. The revolution only harmed us,”
fumed a butcher in El Kabaria, a slum in southern Tunis.
“Tunisians’
expectations were so high after the revolution with respect to economic gains,
however the harvest was not good for many,” Ghannouchi acknowledged.
Many
Ennahda leaders point the finger of blame at the UGTT. Arbaoui said, “They
organized 30,000 strikes in the first two years. They paralyzed the country.”
The
current government is desperate to reach a deal with the International Monetary
Fund for a bailout. The IMF is demanding UGTT buy in as a prerequisite for any
deal. The union has long resisted demands to cap public sector wage hikes,
shave food subsidies and other harsh measures that would deepen public
suffering but without which IMF officials insist the economy cannot recover.
Hopes of an accord rose when the UGTT agreed to a lower increase in public
sector wages than it was initially seeking.
This
week, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said an agreement would be reached
"very soon." However, the union signaled that the concession was a
one-off and that collective action may ensue. “When there are painful choices,
we will be with our people in the front lines of the struggle and in the
streets," UGTT leader Noureddine Taboubi, said in a recent speech.
Unemployment,
which according to the World Bank stood at 18.4% in the last quarter of 2021,
has soared while the value of the Tunisian dinar has plunged below pre-2011
levels. Annual inflation is running at more than 8%. Tourism, a critical hard
currency earner, has yet to fully recover from a series of Islamic State and
al-Qaeda-linked attacks that killed scores of foreign tourists.
The
former government’s clumsy handling of the COVID-19 panemic, which claimed
nearly 30,000 lives, added to public incandescence. The wars in Libya and more
recently in Ukraine dealt further blows, prompting ever more Tunisians to risk
their lives aboard rickety boats to get to Italy. A growing number are opting
to travel by air via Turkey and Serbia on what is known as the Balkan route.
The
political gains of the revolution were nonetheless “great,” Ghannouchi
asserted. But a hostile media backed by assorted lobbies whose interests were
threatened downplayed the gains. “We failed in convincing public opinion that
we were operating in very hard circumstances,” Ghannouchi told Al-Monitor.
“Now
people have lost those freedoms and gained nothing in economic terms,”
Ghannouchi added. He believes that it won’t be long before Tunisians decide
once again to take fate in their own hands, which will bring the country’s
aspiring dictator down. “It’s a matter of time before the people will react en
masse. There is a real expectation that the Kais Saied regime can collapse
before the year ends.”
These
are uncharted waters for Tunisia and it’s hard to fathom what extremes Saied
may resort to and where the army stands. But the economy may yet prove his
undoing, and already there are signs of popular unrest. On Sept. 25 hundreds of
protesters took to the streets in Douar Hicher, a gritty low-income
neighborhood in Tunis, shouting, “Jobs, freedom, national dignity.”
For
the first time in recent memory, basic staples such as bottled water, coffee,
flour and cooking oil are in short supply because the state, which subsidizes
them, can no longer cough up the cash. When asked by a reporter whether sugar
was available, an employee at the giant French-owned supermarket Carrefour
responded, “We don’t have any sugar and I don’t know when we will.”
Health
care and education are in steady decline. The stench of uncollected garbage
rising above the city has become a symbol for the country’s chronically
unaddressed woes.
For
many the only bright spot on this otherwise bleak horizon is Ons Jabeur, the
tennis star and Wimbledon finalist who fellow Tunisians have nicknamed “Wazirat
Essaada,” or “The Ministry of Bliss.”
Bikinis
or bourkinis?
Yet
even with his popularity ebbing, a sizable number of Tunisians still give Saied
the benefit of the doubt.
“I
voted for Kais Saied in the last [2019 presidential] election because he is a
good and honest man,” said Dorsaf Mridi, a 39-year-old mother of three as she
shopped for vegetables in El Kabaria. “Yes, there is disappointment in Saied,
but Ennahda was a total failure,” she told Al-Monitor. She used to vote for
them, “but never again,” Mridi vowed.
“Before
the revolution I earned well. Today I can barely survive. I voted for Ennahda,
then for Essebsi, then again for Ennahda the last time. Corruption and theft
only increased,” said Mohammed Klibi, a 54-year-old casual laborer. “Maybe it’s
a good thing for the future that they close all the political parties,” he told
Al-Monitor.
“Kais
Saied is doing a great job,” said Dora Saidi, a high school student who was
playing hooky with her girlfriends at an outdoor café in the Medina. “Police
used to harass us over our clothing, even sexually, calling us indecent.
Ennahda allowed all this,” Shahd Chaouachi, 18, chimed in.
Some
prominent civil society figures who welcomed Saied’s dissolution of parliament
but decried his subsequent power grab, agree that Ennahda sought to impose
Islamist mores. Sami Tahri, a senior UGTT leader, told Al-Monitor, “Ennahda
wanted a religious society, with legal references to the Quran and the like.
And Ghannouchi, I can tell you, he was behind everything.”
Houssem
Hammi, general coordinator for the Soumoud coalition of civil rights groups,
agreed. “Democracy was a trampoline for their agenda. Salafists popped up like
mushrooms all over the place,” he recalled. “They were even directing traffic
here,” Hammi asserted during an interview at a trendy café in the upscale Al
Marsa neighborhood. “Can you imagine?”
Ennahda’s
reluctance to draw a clear line between itself and violent extremists in the
first messy years of its rule clearly fed mistrust. And its caricaturization of
the real lifestyle concerns of secular Tunisians and of women in particular,
conflating them with old regime “lobbies,” was another strategic gaffe.
“Too
much time was wasted discussing what ought to be the role of religion in the
constitution, et cetera. That was not the priority of the people,” said Boutar,
the media boss.
Even
today, Nahdaouis who might be labeled moderates on the Islamist spectrum
blithely defend informal Islamic inheritance laws whereby sons continue to
inherit twice as much as daughters.
All
of this obscured many of the bold positions Ghannouchi, who spent long years in
exile in London, subsequently embraced. They include backing some of the
region’s most progressive gender laws enshrined in the 2014 constitution and
promoting women within the party itself.
“The
ambiguity of its relationship with Ansar al-Sharia while trying to portray
themselves as allies of the security establishment, this effort to hold a
middle ground was problematic from the start,” said Fadil Aliriza, founder and
editor-in-chief of Meshkal.org, an independent news website covering Tunisia in
English and Arabic. “And they didn’t have a clear vision of how to run the
economy,” Aliriza told Al-Monitor. “They are organizationally coherent and
nationally present, but far less important than they used to be.”
Yet,
with the rest of the opposition still fragmented, there is no party that can
rival its reach. “It’s got cadres all over the country,” Lawrence said.
Many
Nahdaouis would say that their total lack of experience was their biggest
handicap of all.
“Ennahda
had no project to govern, no intellectual or technocratic cadres. They were
used to being critical of power, not exercising it,” said Hmida Ennaifer, a
leading intellectual who founded the Tunisia’s Islamist movement with
Ghannouchi and Abdelfattah Mourou. He split from the movement in in 1979 over
its deepening ties with the Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and believes Ennahda
should never have taken power to start with because its “Islamist ideology was
bound to collide with the realities of the modern state.”
Moreover,
“They were so busy proving they were not Islamic fundamentalists that they
didn't convey who they actually were or what they represented,” Ennaifer told
Al-Monitor.
For
some Nahdaouis, however, the pragmatism did not go far enough. Ahmed Gaaloul, a
member of Ennahda’s Shura Council and a Ghannouchi loyalist, reckons that
Ennahda should have pushed for blanket amnesty for all regime officials and their
business allies potentially facing prosecution from the get go. By the same
token, their victims should have been fully compensated as envisaged by the now
defunct but once promising Truth and Dignity Commission. Getting sucked into
the horse-trading over both was “a fatal flaw,” Gaaloul told Al-Monitor.
Source:
Al Monitor
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Sudan’s
pro-democracy groups ask UN to help contain paramilitary forces
04
October, 2022
Sudanese
pro-democracy groups will ask the country’s United Nations mission to help them
integrate a paramilitary force and former rebel factions into a unified army,
or disarm and demobilize them, according to a draft letter seen by Reuters.
The
letter, drafted by the Confederation of Sudanese Civil Society Organizations,
is backed by the main political groups sidelined in an October 2021 coup that
ended a power-sharing arrangement between civilians and the military, its
authors said.
For
the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
coup derailed a transition toward democratic elections after the overthrow of
Omar al-Bashir in a 2019 uprising. It also triggered anti-military street
rallies that protest groups are planning to intensify around the coup’s Oct. 25
anniversary.
The
appeal, which supporters said would be sent in the coming days to the UN
Special Representative in Sudan, Volker Perthes, focuses on the paramilitary
Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and former rebel groups that established a presence
in the capital, Khartoum, after signing a peace deal in 2020.
The
letter asks the mission, known as UNITAMS, to develop an urgent plan to
“initiate processes for reintegration, demobilization and disarmament of the
Rapid Support Forces and the armed movements.”
The
number of armies and militias in Sudan threatens peace and security in the
region and containing them was “one of the core competencies of the UN Security
Council,” it says.
It
also noted a pledge in July by the head of Sudan’s ruling council, military
leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to step aside from political negotiations.
Burhan’s
deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said last month Sudan’s military
leaders agreed that civilians should appoint a prime minister and head of
state.
UNITAMS,
in a statement to Reuters, said Perthes “agrees with both military and civilian
actors who see security sector reform and the integration of armed forces into
one unified army as a priority issue that needs to begin in a new transition
period.”
“The
United Nations stands ready to support developing such a process if asked to,”
it said.
No
new prime minister has been named since the coup, while the letter said
security forces continued to perpetrate “excessive and unprecedented violence”
against peaceful protesters with impunity.
Military
leaders have said peaceful protests are allowed and protest casualties will be
investigated. They also said that they disbanded the government last year
because of civilian infighting.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
African
Union invites Ethiopia’s government, Tigray forces to peace talks
05
October, 2022
The
African Union has invited Ethiopia’s government and rival Tigray forces to
peace talks in South Africa this weekend aimed at ending a two-year conflict,
in a letter seen by Reuters.
Three
diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the
authenticity of the October 1 letter, written by AU Commission Chair Moussa
Faki to Debretsion Gebremichael, who leads Tigray’s ruling political party.
For
the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
One
of the sources said neither side had yet confirmed its participation.
Contacted
by Reuters, Getachew Reda, a spokesman for Debretsion Tigray People’s
Liberation Front (TPLF) said he was not aware of imminent talks.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Uganda’s
president fires son from military over threat on Twitter to invade Kenya
Godfrey
Olukya
05.10.2022
KAMPALA,
Uganda
Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni fired his son as commander of the country’s land
forces after he threatened on Twitter to seize neighboring Kenya’s capital,
Nairobi.
The
Ugandan government also distanced itself from the spate of tweets posted Monday
by Lt. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, with the Foreign Ministry issuing a
statement Tuesday stressing that the government and people of Uganda treasure
the country’s strong bilateral relations with Kenya based on the two nations’
“shared history, common values, mutual respect, trust and the desire to build a
unified East African Community.”
"The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted the debate on social media in respect to
the relationship between Uganda and Kenya. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
wishes to clarify that the government of the Republic of Uganda does not
conduct its foreign policy and other official business through social media,”
it added.
In
the unprovoked tweets, Kainerugaba claimed his army could seize Nairobi in a
very short time.
“It
wouldn’t take us, my army and me, 2 weeks to capture Nairobi,” he said.
Kainerugaba,
dubbed “the tweeting general” of Uganda, has made controversial remarks on
Twitter in the past.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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Pakistan
Armed
forces to stay out of politics, says Gen Bajwa
Anwar
Iqbal
October
5, 2022
WASHINGTON:
Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa assured the nation on Tuesday
that the armed forces have distanced themselves from politics and want to
remain so.
The
army chief also reiterated his pledge to leave after the completion of his
second three-year term in two months, saying that he would do as he promised
earlier. He made these remarks at a lunch at the Pakistan Embassy in
Washington.
According
to the people who attended, Gen Bajwa addressed the gathering before the lunch
and then also made informal remarks while talking to his guests. He reminded
the nation that reviving the country’s ailing economy should be the first
priority of all segments of society, adding that without a strong economy the
nation would not be able to achieve its targets.
“There
could be no diplomacy either without a strong economy,” said the army chief in
his address to an audience which included a large number of Pakistani
diplomats.
After
the lunch, Gen Bajwa went to the Pentagon for a meeting with US Defence
Secretary Lloyd Austin.
According
to the ISPR, Gen Bajwa called on retired General Lloyd James Austin III,
Secretary of Defence; Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan, National Security Adviser; and
Wendy Ruth Sherman, Deputy Secretary of State.
During
the meetings, matters of mutual of interest, regional security situation and
bilateral cooperation in various fields were discussed.
The
army chief thanked the US officials for their support and reiterated that
assistance from “our global partners shall be vital for rescue/rehabilitation
of the flood victims in Pakistan”.
Source: Dawn
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1713477/armed-forces-to-stay-out-of-politics-says-gen-bajwa
--------
Attock
jail employees rape, harass women visitors: report
Mohammad
Asghar
October
5, 2022
RAWALPINDI:
The Provincial Intelligence Centre (PIC), in a report, has accused some Attock
district jail employees of raping and sexually harassing women visiting
prisoners.
It
also revealed that drug use had become widespread in Attock jail due to
presence of powerful mafias on its premises.
The
PIC field staff conducted discreet inquiry into the affairs of the district
jail and submitted the report to Inspector General of Prisons Mirza Shahid
Saleem Baig on Sept 30.
The
allegation by a jail employee about involvement of some staffers in sexual
harassment and rape of women visiting convicts was the most horrifying, the
report said.
“This
is quite disturbing and can lead to a scandal that will reflect poorly on the
Punjab administration,” it added.
The
PIC field staff recommended an inquiry into the affairs of the district jail by
a high-powered committee headed by an upright and honest officer in the rank of
an additional secretary.
The
jail staff found guilty of violating the jail manual or involved in torture,
corruption, extortion and sexual harassment should be punished, said the
report.
It
also recommended that the dignity and privacy of women visitors to the jail
must be safeguarded and female staff should solely be responsible to handle
them.
“Besides,
all detainees must be protected from sexual abuse and harassment,” the report
said, adding that the district jail was rife with unchecked corruption and
malpractices committed in connivance with jail officials.
“A
girl who visits the jail to see one of the inmates supplies drugs to the
prisoners.A pack of charas worth Rs500 outside is sold for Rs3,000 to Rs3,500
inside the prison,” the report said.
“Powerful
mafias of drug peddlers have deep roots inside the jail with the support of
jail administration and are making unchecked profit by selling contraband. And
they also pay due share to the jail management,” the report said.
It
also stated that some people being held in jail on drug-related offences had
started the heinous business of selling drugs to addicts with the support of
jail staff.
The
report said prisoners were reportedly allowed to get food of their choice from
outside after paying bribe to the staff, adding that rich and well-off
prisoners manage to get themselves admitted to government hospitals outside the
jail after bribing jail officials.
Meeting
between prisoners and their family members has become a lucrative business for
jail staffers.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1713561/attock-jail-employees-rape-harass-women-visitors-report
--------
Educational
institutions shouldn’t be made ‘political arenas’: PHC
October
5, 2022
PESHAWAR:
The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure with the holding of a
political meeting in an educational institution here and asked the advocate
general to convey its concern about it to the provincial government.
A
bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed M Attique
Shah observed that holding public meetings in educational institutions was
deplorable and that those institutions shouldn’t be turned into political
arenas.
Without
naming the Peshawar’s historical Edwardes College, where former prime minister
and PTI chief Imran Khan addressed students and used ‘offensive language’
against political rivals, the bench observed that if a party was permitted to
hold a meeting in an educational institution, its rivals would follow the suit
to the disadvantage of students enrolled there.
It
bench asked advocate general Shumail Ahmad Butt to convey the court’s concern
to the government.
Court
deplores public meetings in educational institutions
The
issue was taken up by the bench while hearing a petition of Hayatabad Township
resident Iftikhar Ahmad Malik, who sought orders for halt to heavy vehicular
traffic, including trucks and shipping containers, through some residential
parts of the township.
While
hearing that case, the bench addressed assistant advocate general Sophia Noreen
and observed that traffic jams on roads next to the high court and the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had become a routine.
The
chief justice observed that a bunch of protesters occupied roads near the
Rehman Baba Chowk, which caused the suspension of vehicular traffic for many
hours.
The
bench summoned AG Shumail Ahmad Butt and asked him whether the police had
failed in maintaining smooth flow of traffic.
The
bench asked the AG that the government should have designated a place for
holding protests instead of allowing protesters to gather on the Khyber Road, a
major artery in the provincial capital.
The
AG assured the bench that he would hold a meeting with the inspector general of
police and the representatives of the government to address the issue of road
blockades.
He
said as the IGP had gone to the federal capital to attend hearing into a case
before the Islamabad High Court, he won’t be able to meet him on Tuesday.
The
AG said he would hold a meeting with the police chief at the earliest.
The
bench observed that while designating a place for protests, the government
should ensure that that spot should not be located close to any educational
institution.
It
added that it had noted that a political party recently held a public meeting
in an educational institution, which was not a wise step.
The
AG assured the bench that he would convey the concern of the court on the
matter to the government for consideration.
He
said whenever the court had issued directives on issues, the government had
complied with them wholeheartedly.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1713541/educational-institutions-shouldnt-be-made-political-arenas-phc
--------
Pakistan
PM Shehbaz Sharif calls Imran Khan 'biggest liar on earth'
Oct
5, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called his predecessor, Imran Khan, a
cheat and the “biggest liar on the face of the earth”, whose policies,
according to him, had left the country’s economy in ruins.
In
an interview with a British newspaper, The Guardian, on Monday, Sharif spoke at
length about Khan, saying he had caused immense damage to the country’s
domestic and foreign affairs.
“Never
before was I concerned about our country’s future. Imran has injected an
infinite amount of poison in this society and made it hugely polarized as never
before … he is distorting facts and creating hate,” Sharif said.
Referring
to Khan’s purported audios discussing a cipher message from Washington, the
prime minister said they were “an irrefutable endorsement that he (Imran) is
the biggest liar on the face of the earth”.
He
alleged that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief had managed the country’s
affairs in a way that benefitted his “own personal agenda” and “in a manner
which can be only described as the most inexperienced, self-centred,
egotistical (and) immature politician in the history of this country”.
“I’m
not saying this with a sense of glee but a sense of embarrassment and concern.
My country’s image has been damaged hugely by these lies told out of mean
personal interest,” Sharif said.
Following
Khan’s ouster from office in April, he made repeated allegations that the vote
of no-confidence against him was a US conspiracy and presented minutes of a
diplomatic cable from Washington as proof of his claim.
Last
week, two audio recordings of private informal conversations, held by Khan in
his office when he was the prime minister, were leaked on social media.
In
both the clips, Khan could be heard discussing how to cook up a conspiracy
about a foreign threat and saying they would now “play with the diplomatic
cable”.
PM
Sharif said his forerunner would have to be “held accountable for all these
conscious criminal acts”, referring to the alleged discussion between Imran and
his principal secretary and ministers in the leak of how to use the cipher for
political gains.
Sharif
said he was “shocked”, when several world leaders, who he refused to name, had
personally raised Khan’s conduct with him during the UN General Assembly in New
York last month.
“Some
leaders told me in person about his personality,” Sharif said. “They told me he
was rude, he told lies, and he is a ‘narcissist’, quote unquote,” Sharif said.
He
spoke of his efforts to rebuild relations with several of Pakistan’s foreign
allies, which were seen to nosedive after 2018, when Khan came into office.
“Khan
has damaged Pakistan’s relations with the United States for no rhyme or
reason,” Sharif said.
Source:
Times Of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Imran
gunning for ‘NRO’ at clandestine meetings, says Maryam
Zulqernain
Tahir | Sheharyar Rizwan
October
5, 2022
LAHORE:
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday accused former prime
minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan of attempting to
seek an “NRO” (a reference to relief in court cases) from the powers that be
during “secret meetings” at the Presidency.
During
a press conference held hours after receiving her passport from the Lahore
High Court, Ms Sharif alluded to speculation that Mr Khan had met Army Chief
General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the Presidency last month. The meeting was said to
have been brokered by President Arif Alvi.
When
asked during a TV interview earlier this week, the PTI chief had neither denied
nor confirmed the meeting.
On
Tuesday, Ms Sharif was of the view that Imran Khan was making a hue and cry
after failing to get any relief from the establishment. “He wants them to
support him, and when they don’t he starts targeting them in public,” she
remarked.
Furthermore,
commenting on the dismissal of the contempt of court show-cause notice against
Mr Khan, she said she respected Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High
Court (IHC) for the decision, “but I want to tell the judiciary respectfully
that generosity cannot be shown to people like him”.
“Do
you realise what you’re encouraging by pardoning such people? After this anyone
can bully, abuse or threaten a woman in public gatherings and then apologise,
and then you’ll have to forgive them. This means (PML-N leaders) Talal
Chaudhry, Daniyal Aziz and Nehal Hashmi should be forgiven, and they should be
too because they didn’t do anything, they’re political people. But Imran has
been emboldened by this (decision),” she added.
Regarding
the return of former premier and her father Nawaz Sharif to the country, she
said the way for his return had been cleared (in the wake of a court decision
in the Avenfield apartments reference) and it was up to him to decide when to
come back.
She
said Nawaz Sharif just needed to file an application in the court in this case
and his way was clear.
“In
the days to come, I will put all efforts into making sure that Imran Khan is
sent behind bars for his crimes. I am happy that he is not convicted for
contempt as he is facing far more serious allegations of foreign funding,
Toshakhana and the cipher plot.”
When
asked if the elder Sharif would return along with her in November or December,
Ms Sharif said: “I wish he returns with me as I am going to London very soon to
see my father and brothers after three years.” She added she also had to
undergo surgery for a “rare disease” there. “I will come back after fighting
fit.”
Last
week, the IHC had acquitted Ms Sharif and her spouse retired Capt Safdar of the
charges levelled in the Avenfield apartments reference, setting aside an
accountability court’s July 2018 verdict.
According
to a PML-N insider, party supremo Nawaz would finalise the plan for his return
once he got relief in the Al-Azizia case in which he is facing seven-year
imprisonment. “A clean chit in both cases will pave the way for the three-time
premier’s return,” he said. Nawaz has been living in self-imposed exile in the
UK since Nov 2019.
Maryam
also wanted Mr Khan to face similar treatment that was meted out to her and her
father.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1713463
--------
US
cannot walk away from Pakistan: report
October
5, 2022
WASHINGTON:
The United States and Pakistan need to rebuild a modest but pragmatic
relationship, based on mutual respect for each other’s interests, and not on
exaggerated expectations, says a report released on Tuesday.
The
report, prepared by a dozen American scholars of South Asian affairs associated
with the Pakistan Study Group (PSG), Washington, has been released a day before
Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa is expected to meet US scholars and
think-tank experts at the Pakistan Embassy.
The
paper warns American policy makers that they cannot afford to walk away from a
country that involves three key regions — South Asia, Central Asia, and the
Middle East — and has borders with China and Iran and is close to Russia.
The
authors include a former US secretary of state for South Asia, two former US
ambassadors to Pakistan, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US and other
senior diplomats who have worked in Pakistan, and American scholars
specialising in South Asia.
According
to this paper, a modest, pragmatic relationship between the US and Pakistan
would involve understanding that Pakistan and the US will “continue to see
Afghanistan through different lens but can cooperate in maintaining peace in
that country and alleviating its people’s suffering”.
It
also reminds American policymakers that “attitudes toward India at both the
elite and popular levels in Pakistan will, at best, change slowly”.
The
report also notes that “public opinion in both the US and Pakistan acts as
constraints on bilateral relations”.
The
United States, however, can still induce Pakistan to change its overall
strategic calculus, which is based on Pakistan’s understanding of its security
environment, it added.
The
paper acknowledges that the United States and Pakistan have divergent views on
China and recommends “a more nuanced US policy on Pakistan”.
The
authors argue that the US engagement with Pakistan would benefit if it were
based on a realistic appraisal of Pakistan’s policies, aspirations, and
worldview.
“There
is a need to acknowledge that inducements or threats will not result in
securing change in Pakistan’s strategic direction,” the authors warn.
They
remind Washington that “it is not in American national security interests to
isolate Pakistan or irreparably breach the relationship.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1713476/us-cannot-walk-away-from-pakistan-report
--------
Govt
to call out army in case of march on capital
October
5, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Just a day after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad
Chaudhry claimed all the arrangements for his party’s long march to the federal
capital were in their final stages, the government decided to call out army and
deploy troops in Islamabad if PTI chief Imran Khan gave a call for the march.
The
decision was taken on Tuesday at a meeting, chaired by Interior Minister Rana
Sanaullah, held to evolve a strategy to tackle the much-trumpeted march by the
PTI.
Official
sources told Dawn that Pakistan Army would be deployed in the capital city’s
Red Zone to stop the entry of protestors in the high security area. The meeting
decided that the security of all important buildings and the Diplomatic Enclave
located in the Red Zone would be handed over to the Pakistan Army during the
protest march.
The
army troops would be called out in aid of civil administration under Article
245 of the Constitution, which says that “armed forces shall, under the
directions of the federal government, defend Pakistan against external
aggression or threat of war, and, subject to law, act in aid of civil power
when called upon to do so.”
Farmers
call off protest after government promises package
PTI
Chairman Imran Khan had recently told a gathering in Taxila that his long march
would give this time a ‘surprise’ to the government, which was clueless about
his plan.
He
said the march on Islamabad was aimed at pressing the authorities to hold early
elections. While he has yet to give a final date of the protest, he has
repeatedly said the government would find itself unable to control the ‘sea of
people’ if and when they reach Islamabad on his call.
At
the meeting, it was decided that Sindh police and personnel of paramilitary
forces, including Pakistan Rangers and Frontier Constabulary (FC), would be
requisitioned to assist the capital police force during the protest.
As
many as 30,000 personnel of Islamabad and Sindh police, Rangers and FC would be
available to ensure law and order, the interior minister told the meeting.
The
meeting was also briefed by security agencies about the planned long march. The
participants were told that 15,000 to 20,000 protesters might take part in it.
It
formally gave approval for ‘action’ against the individuals and organisations
that would provide financial and logistic support to the PTI protest. There
would be a complete ban on carrying firearms in the jurisdiction of Islamabad
during the protest.
Necessary
instructions were issued to ensure free movement of residents and to make sure
that schools and hospitals of Islamabad remain functional during the march. It
was also decided that the government employees assisting the marchers would be
identified and acted against under the Estacode, a government’s book of rules
and regulations to run all federal institutions.
Source:
Dawn
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Security
forces kill four terrorists in Tank clash: ISPR
October
4, 2022
RAWALPINDI:
The security forces on Tuesday killed four terrorists during intense exchange
of fire carried out in general area of Tank, South Waziristan District.
The
clash occurred as security troops observed and engaged terrorists’ movement in
general area of Tank, an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) news release
said.
The
security troops also recovered weapons and ammunition from the killed
terrorists.
Source:
Pakistan Today
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South
Asia
Fading
Afghan Media Give Space to Disinformation
October
04, 2022
Akmal
Dawi
The
Taliban have weakened and censored the media inside Afghanistan, but their
communications faults and governance shortcomings still receive widespread
exposure on social platforms.
Last
week, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) dismissed as false a
statement made by Khalid Hanafi, who runs the Taliban's Ministry for
Propagation of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice.
"Yesterday
we had a meeting with UNAMA and when we explained to them the fostering of
virtues, they said this fostering of virtue is also needed in Europe,"
Hanafi had said in a video widely circulated on social media.
"UNAMA
has, of course, said no such thing," the U.N. mission said in a tweet.
"Never
would I say that," Markus Potzel, deputy head of UNAMA, tweeted
separately.
Last
month, the Taliban's former education minister, Noorullah Munir, claimed that
in some parts of the country parents were not allowing their teenage girls to
attend secondary schools.
In
reality, the Taliban have closed secondary schools for girls, saying only
religious scholars can decide when and whether they can be reopened.
Such
statements by Taliban officials are not exceptional.
"The
Taliban have a long history in spreading disinformation," Wahed Faqiri, an
Afghan American analyst, told VOA.
Until
July 2015, the Taliban issued misleading public statements in the name of their
supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose death in April 2013 had been kept
secret, Faqiri said.
The
Taliban have confirmed covering up Omar's death for over two years but said
they did so out of strategic necessity, as they were fighting U.S. and NATO
forces in Afghanistan.
Invisible
rulers
Under
the Taliban, the once flourishing Afghan media have suffered major losses.
Up
to 80% of female Afghan journalists have lost their jobs and the rest face
serious restrictions, such as being required to wear a face mask while
presenting programs on television.
In
recent years, more than 215 of the country's 540 media outlets have closed
because of financial, social and political problems, according to the
organization Reporters Without Borders.
"We
can't even see the Taliban leader, so how can we report factually on his
leadership and decisions?" said one senior Afghan journalist in Kabul, who
preferred anonymity out of fear he could be targeted by the Taliban.
The
Taliban's current supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has not appeared in
public since assuming the position. Akhundzada's appointed chief minister and
his deputies, while seen in officially released videos, have not appeared in
any media interviews to answer questions about their governance.
"Communication
in the Taliban regime is one way. They just say what they want to say, but
never answer our questions," said the Afghan journalist.
While
Taliban officials claim their leadership is more accountable and popular than
that of the former Afghan Republic, independent surveys conducted in the
country present a different picture.
The
Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan has led to "unprecedented"
suffering among Afghans, according to a recent Gallup poll, which said 94% of
Afghans "rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering."
Before
the Taliban seized power, about 85% of Afghans said they had no sympathy for
the Taliban, according to the 2019 survey of Afghanistan by the Asia
Foundation.
Fact-checking
This
week, UNAMA sent a team to Panjshir Province in the north of Afghanistan to
authenticate allegations of serious human rights violations by Taliban
fighters.
The
U.N. delegation was deployed after purported videos of Taliban gunmen shooting
at prisoners of war surfaced on social media.
Some
Taliban officials have flatly denied human rights violations in Panjshir and
other parts of the country, but UNAMA has said, "Reports of alleged
killing of detainees by Taliban appear credible."
Given
the losses suffered and restrictions imposed on Afghan media, the U.N. is often
perceived as the only credible authority to fact-check and report major events
in Afghanistan.
"Journalists
and researchers mainly depend on the online medium [primarily vibrant social
media] and local personal contacts for authenticity check of news, but that is
a complicated process, unfortunately not possible for every journalist and
researcher," Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based independent researcher on
jihadism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, told VOA.
None
of the Taliban's numerous official accounts on social platforms is verified, as
U.S.-based providers such as Google, Meta and Twitter deny Taliban platforms.
Source:
VOA News
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Three
dead after Rohingya refugee boat sinks off Bangladesh
Oct
4, 2022
COX'S
BAZAR, BANGLADESH: At least three people drowned and nearly 20 others were
missing off the Bangladesh coast after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank
in rough weather on Tuesday, authorities said.
Dire
conditions in Bangladesh's refugee camps prompt hundreds each year to pay
smugglers for passage out of the country.
The
fishing trawler left at dawn and was bound for Malaysia before it ran into
trouble in the Bay of Bengal, with two coast guard search boats scrambling to
rescue survivors.
Police
said at least three bodies had washed ashore at the coastal town of Halbunia.
"We
recovered the bodies. They are three young Rohingya women aged between 18 and
20," police inspector Nur Mohammad told AFP.
Coast
guard station commander Ashiq Ahmed said the vessel was believed to be carrying
around 65 people after stopping at several coastal towns before embarking.
"We
have rescued 45 people including 41 Rohingya refugees and four
Bangladeshis," he told AFP.
"Nearly
20 people are still missing. The rescue operation is still going," he
added.
The
boat sank off the coast of Cox's Bazar district, near the site of sprawling
camps that are home to around a million Rohingya refugees.
Source:
Times Of India
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Taliban
Visits Families of Education Centre Explosion Victims
By
Saqalain Eqbal
04
Oct 2022
The
Chief of Staff to the Taliban Ministry of Interior Affairs met with the
families of the victims of the Kaaj education center explosion in the Hazara
neighborhood of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the ministry stated.
According
to the Taliban Interior Ministry’s announcement, the chief of staff of the
ministry, Zain Ullah Aber, visited the families of Kaaj tragedy victims to
convey the condolences and sympathies of the Acting Minister of Interior,
Sirajuddin Haqqani.
Mawlawi
Ibrahim, the deputy Taliban police chief for the Kabul province, stated in the
video released by the ministry that the attackers’ goal in the latest incident,
the Kaaj tragedy, was to harm all Muslims.
Having
said that harming Muslims was the intention, the Taliban security official
claimed that the enmity does not distinguish between Sunnis and Shiites
Muslims.
A
suicide bomber struck the Kaaj tutoring institution in the Hazara neighborhood
of west Kabul early on Friday, the 30th of September.
After
releasing the preliminary figures of 19 dead and 27 injured from the deadly
explosion west of Kabul, the Taliban Ministry of Interior has not yet provided
the updated numbers.
Nevertheless,
for the first time, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA) has taken action and released updated figures on the casualties of the
suicide attack on the Kaaj education center.
The
attack claimed the lives of at least 53 people, including 46 young girls, and
injured an additional 110, according to the UNAMA figures posted on its
official Twitter page.
Source:
Khaama Press
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https://www.khaama.com/taliban-visits-families-of-education-center-explosion-victims-463645/
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U.S
citizen missing in Afghanistan, family claims he is in Taliban custody
04
Oct 2022
An
Afghan-American national who had travelled to Afghanistan for working purpose
has gone missing in Kabul for over 8 weeks now, a family member said.
Mahmood
Shah Habibi, the former Afghan Aviation Authority Chief who had recently
travelled to Afghanistan is missing since August 10, Ahmad Shah, Habibi’s
brother told Khaama Press.
“He
has been working as an advisor with a telecom company in Shash-Darak of Kabul
for the last 3 years and he did not have any issues being in Afghanistan after
the fall of the country in the hands of Taliban”, Ahmad Shah said.
He
used to travel between Afghanistan and the United States in the last 12 months
without any problem, but the last time he travelled in August was detained by
the Taliban’s forces from his home in Shairpur, Habibi’s brother said.
“Not
only Habibi, but 29 other employees of the same company were also arrested on
the same day, many of whom were later released”, Ahmad Shah said.
We
tried to reach out to the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior and also to the Intelligence
Directorate to find out why he has been detained and when will he be released,
but they did not provide us any answer, Ahmad Shah added.
According
to Habibi’s brother, the incident has been reported to the U.S Department of
State to seek the U.S government’s help for his release.
“The
U.S Department of State has promised to get in touch with the Taliban and
negotiate with them on Habibi’s release, but we have not received any further
update from the U.S government yet”, Ahmad Shah said.
A
U.S Department of State official speaking to Khaama Press confirmed that they
are aware of US citizens being detained in Afghanistan and said they urge US
citizens not travel to to Afghanistan as the risk of violence and kidnapping
against the U.S citizens are high in Afghanistan.
The
U.S government source communicating with Khaama Press did not provide further
details on Habibi’s case saying they would not comment due to privacy
considerations.
A
close source to the Taliban’s administration who does not want to be named in
Khaama Press report confirmed that on August 10, the Intelligence Department
arrested Mahmood Shah Habibi, the Afghanistan’s former Aviation Authority Chief
with several other employees of Asia Consultancy Group (ACG), an
Afghan-American company that works in the telecom sector.
The
case in the connection of which Mr. Habibi and his colleagues have been
arrested is relatively very serious, the source told Khaama Press, but did not
provide further details.
This
comes as several other former Afghan officials who had returned back to
Afghanistan following the statement published by the Taliban’s administration
about the safe return of former officials and tribal leaders, many of those
whom had returned have reportedly left the country again.
Source:
Khaama Press
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Southeast
Asia
Islamic
Banks Not Fully Digitised But Are Moving Forward In Achieving The Potential Of
Islamic Fintech, Says Shariah Scholar
04
Oct 2022
KUALA
LUMPUR, Oct 4 — Islamic banks are not yet fully digitised but are moving
forward in achieving the potential of Islamic fintech, said shariah scholar Tan
Sri Mohd Daud Bakar.
The
recipient of The Royal Award for Islamic Finance 2022 said Malaysian banks have
started the transition of smart technologies into their systems.
“We
have to transform everything to digitalisation. After that, I would imagine in
the next few years or so, (we can see) some of the back offices, back end and
banks’ operations managed by a system that is not tired or biased.
“The
system can analyse 24/7 so people can apply for financing and get results at 3
am. So, this is the way forward we are looking at on functional perspective,”
he told reporters after the award conferment ceremony here today.
The
Royal Award was bestowed to Mohd Daud by Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Abdullah
Sultan Ahmad Shah, accompanied by the Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah.
Mohd
Daud, who currently serves as Shariah Advisory Council chairman for both Bank
Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), is widely
recognised for his contributions to the development of the global Islamic
finance industry.
He
is a shariah board member of international financial institutions and organisations
such as Amundi Asset Management (France), Bank of London and the Middle East,
Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (New York), Morgan Stanley (Dubai), and Sedco
Capital (Saudi Arabia).
He
was also instrumental in developing the first shariah standard on gold issued
by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions
(AAOIFI).
Mohd
Daud has established a few shariah advisory services and fintech companies
contributing to shariah-related framework and policies, product structuring,
human capital development and technology solutions.
A
prominent figure in Islamic finance thought leadership, Mohd Daud is an
award-winning author with more than 40 books written in various genres.
His
books shed light on modern scholars’ interpretation of shariah rulings and
their practical application in the Islamic finance industry.
Source:
Malay Mail
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Despite
Umno’s ultimatum, PAS unlikely to ditch PN, says analyst
October
5, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: PAS is likely to remain with Perikatan Nasional (PN) going into the next
general election (GE15) despite Umno’s ultimatum to it, said an analyst.
Azmi
Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said the reality was that PAS could lose many of
the seats it won in the last election if it stuck with PN and went head-to-head
with Umno.
However,
he said, the Islamic party would not want to be seen as ditching PN just to
improve its chances in GE15.
“Umno
is in a better position to face GE15 compared with PAS. If PAS wants to remain
in government, of course it would be better for it to be with Umno because of
the party’s clout among the Malays.
“While
there is a possibility that PAS could abandon PN, I believe it is more likely
to stick with PN for the election,” he said, adding this was because PAS could
still look towards working with Umno after GE15.
He
was commenting on Umno’s ultimatum to PAS to choose between it and PN in facing
GE15.
Last
week, Muhyiddin, who is PN’s chairman declared that PAS would stick with the
coalition in the coming polls and that there was “no issue” about the party
wanting to leave.
James
Chin of the University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute said PAS would likely
resist taking sides and continue its effort to bring the two parties together.
“It
wants Malay-Muslim unity. PAS was successful in doing this in 2020, so it won’t
want to change the formula,” he said.
Chin
said PAS might want to let the situation play out on its own.
“Even
at the height of its disagreement with Bersatu, where Muhyiddin had thrown a
couple of ‘tantrums’, PAS was still willing to talk to Umno.
“I
suspect that PAS understands that Bersatu is almost ‘finished’ on the ground,
so PAS will attempt to negotiate the best ‘package’ for itself with Umno,” he
said.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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PAS
to meet Umno leaders soon to discuss GE15 cooperation
October
3, 2022
BANTING:
PAS will hold a meeting with Umno’s top leaders soon to discuss cooperation
between them in the 15th general election (GE15).
PAS
deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the cooperation involved 27
parliamentary seats as well as seats in several states such as Selangor, Negeri
Sembilan and Penang which they have the potential to win if there was an
agreement between them.
“If
not on all seats, maybe in certain places. It is not impossible,” he told a
press conference in conjunction with the launch of the Selangor PAS election
machinery here last night.
However,
Tuan Ibrahim said any PAS discussion with parties outside the Perikatan
Nasional (PN) coalition will be reported to the PN presidential council to find
the best way for a political consensus.
PAS
is a component of PN with other members being Bersatu, Sabah STAR, SAPP and
Gerakan.
Commenting
on the three conditions set by Umno to PAS for it to return to the negotiating
table to face GE15, Tuan Ibrahim said the consensus framework needed to discuss
points of commonality.
Yesterday,
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Umno would return to the negotiating
table with PAS if it met three conditions. He did not reveal what they were or
whether they had been conveyed to the party.
Meanwhile,
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said the party welcomed Zahid’s statement
which expressed his openness to revive the ummah unity agenda following the
four-eyed meeting between the presidents of Umno and PAS on Sept 17.
“PAS
reiterates its commitment to be together in all efforts towards achieving the
unification of the ummah, especially among Malays and Muslims based on Verse 10
of Surah al-Hujurat, which emphasises the issue of peace between Muslims who
are at odds in some of their affairs,” he said in a statement.
He
also said PAS still hoped that a true unification of the ummah could be
realised among the main Malay and Muslim parties in the country.
“PAS
hereby takes the stance of studying Umno’s openness in this regard and will
make a final decision before this weekend, taking into account the aspects of
maslahah (the greater good) and the least mudhorat (risk),” he said.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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A
confident opposition wouldn’t delay GE15, says Zahid
October
2, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: If opposition parties were confident they were in a position of victory,
they would not delay holding the next general election by even a minute, says
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“Never
in the history of the Malaysian opposition have they had to make excuse after
excuse so that elections are not held.
“So,
why should more than 32 million Malaysians allow the opposition, including Nga
Kor Ming and DAP, to determine our future?” Zahid said in a Facebook post.
He
said opposition parties had been writhing like “worms in a fire” since Umno’s
Supreme Council decided that Parliament should be dissolved soon to allow an
early general election.
“Fear,
confusion, and anxiety are overwhelming the opposition as they approach the
people’s judgement on polling day,” he said, adding that this was why Umno had
been targetted and accused of disrespecting the Federal Constitution.
“(But)
is calling for GE15 defying the constitution or the King?” he said. He added
that in all its actions, Umno had been guided by the law and the Federal
Constitution “as we’re not your average political party”.
Zahid
urged the opposition to stop manipulating the people by spinning lies, as the
people already knew the truth.
He
also questioned which party it was that tried to sign the Rome Statute and
ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, which could have affected the power of the Malay Rulers.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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