Giving election tickets to women against Islam, says Shahi Imam of Ahmedabad Jama Masjid
New
Age Islam News Bureau
05
December 2022
Shahi
Imam of Jama Masjid
File
picture
-------
• ISIS claims gun attack at Pakistan
embassy that wounded guard
•
Would India Invest In Afghanistan Under Taliban? Memories Of 1999 IAF Hijacking
Remain Fresh
•
Amend Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, Financial Services Act to protect
non-Muslim divorcees, children: Lawyer
•
Türkiye arrests 18 YPG/PKK, Daesh/ISIS terrorists in northern Syria
•
Iran state body reports 200 deaths in protests, Raisi hails ‘freedoms’
•
Gunmen kill 12, including imam, abduct others from mosque in Nigeria
•
Islamic State suspect extradited to Australia, charged with terror-related
offenses
•
US says Iran policy now focusing on deterring weapon deliveries to Russia
India
•
Muslim husband, Hindu wife booked under Haryana's anti-conversion law
•
‘Are there no men left?’: Ahmedabad’s Shahi Imam on women getting poll tickets
•
Muslim League not satisfied with Congress’ handling of Tharoor issue
•
Discussion on right-wing propaganda at Anti-Fascist Film Festival
•
‘Have nowhere to go’: Muslim voters in Gujarat rue a lack of options
•
In Ahmedabad’s Juhapura, voters say they are shunned, focusing on education
•
After Manipal University row, Rajasthan student calls out professor over
Islamophobic slurs
--------
Pakistan
•
LEAs tightening noose against blasphemers on social media
•
Ashrafi urges private banks to withdraw appeals to FSC’s Riba verdict
•
Pakistan's former premier Imran Khan accuses Gen Bajwa of playing ‘double game’
against his govt
•
PTI chairman’s politics weakens Pakistan: PM Shehbaz
•
IS claim of attack on embassy being verified: FO
•
Bilawal sees no urgency for general elections
•
Urdu Conference concludes with satire on ‘21st century’s Pakistan’
--------
South
Asia
•
Iran using former Afghan soldiers as military force: Taliban
•
Under Taliban, lives of former Afghanistan security forces under grave threat:
Report
•
Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid Meets With Afghans in UAE
•
20 Tons of Expired Food Burned in Northern Afghanistan
•
National Standard Authority Closes Down 20 Gas Stations in Northwestern
Afghanistan
•
UNICEF to Provide Cash Assistance to Tens of Thousands of Afghan Poor Families
--------
Southeast
Asia
•
Religious affairs minister to focus on strengthening unity among Muslim
community
•
Fearing persecution and child marriages, women's groups call for Suhakam review
of Terengganu Shariah amendments
•
GE15 shows political Islam has gained popularity, says Hadi’s son
•
New religious minister can lead Islamic reforms, says Jakim
•
Indonesia’s Proposed Criminal Code Reflects The Power Of Islamic Radicals
•
Indonesia villagers race to escape eruption as sky turns black
•
Appointment of Malaysia DPM Ahmad Zahid in important roles a ‘matter of great
concern’: Analyst
•
World Cup fans see double standard in stadium politics ban
•
Career leap for Tok Mat after years in state leadership
•
Indonesia set to pass key changes in criminal code that will ban sex outside
marriage
--------
Arab
World
•
Saudi Arabia hands down death sentences to six more political dissidents:
Rights organization
•
Saudi education ministry launches Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship
•
Two dead as protesters, police clash in southern Syria
•
World Cup host Qatar seeks to change minds on Islam
•
Two killed as protesters, police clash in Syria
•
Iranians in Iraq skeptical over end to morality police
•
Protesters storm governor’s office in southern Syria, gunfire heard
•
UN refugee agency chief calls for sustained support to Lebanon’s most
vulnerable
•
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed in Qatar for official visit
•
Saudi Arabia condemns ISIS attack on Pakistan embassy in Kabul
•
Iraq says over 18,000 stolen artifacts retrieved
•
IRGC forces only ‘a kilometer away’ from terrorists in Iraqi Kurdistan: Colonel
--------
Mideast
•
Iran abolishes morality police after months of protests
•
Iran state TV denies termination of morality police
•
Iran protesters call for strike, top legal cleric says morality police shut
down
•
Hamas, Islamic Jihad strongly condemn Israeli president's Bahrain visit
•
Iran Executes 4 Men for Cooperating with Israeli Intelligence
•
Israel forces kill Palestinian in West Bank: Officials
•
Misguided getaway sets off security alert at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport
•
Iran starts construction on $2 billion new nuclear power plant
•
Israeli court rejects release of longest-serving Palestinian detainee
•
Palestinians to remain steadfast in resisting Israeli occupation: Abbas
•
Morality police suspended 'from where it was formed': Iran’s judiciary
•
EU’s Borrell condemns point-blank shooting of Palestinian in West Bank
•
Yemen can return every attack with dozens of missiles, drones: Saree
•
Blinken warns the incoming Netanyahu regime against settlements, annexation
--------
Africa
•
Over 5,700 Nigerians who fled Boko Haram attacks return home: Official
•
Islamic leaders, group, others pray, mobilise support for Tinubu in Oyo, Ondo,
Lagos
•
Mali attacks using explosive devices claim lives of 9 soldiers
•
Thousands protest in Morocco over price hikes, ‘repression’
•
Tunisia’s labor union rejects December election, attacks President Saied’s
agenda
•
Libya’s Dbeibeh welcomes UN call for holding elections
•
Burkina Faso suspends broadcast of French radio RFI
--------
Europe
•
FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar records highest-ever attendance in tournament’s
history
•
Clashes break out in Italy as far-right, left-wing groups hold rallies
•
Northern Cyprus opposes Bob Menendez’s anti-Turkish remarks
•
Sweden extradites PKK/KCK terror group member to Türkiye
•
Iraqi in UK who saved baby niece via illegal entry granted leave to remain
--------
North
America
•
Blinken says US to work closely with Israel, continues to support two state
solution
•
US Navy seizes ammunition-laden vessel from Iran to Yemen
•
Canada imposes additional sanctions on Iranians, including former Tehran police
chief
•
US condemns shooting at Pakistan’s embassy in Afghanistan
•
Imam Abdul Alim Musa: US Muslim leader and advocate of Islamic Revolution
•
US looking for ‘excuse’ to derail talks on reviving Iran nuclear deal: Russian
source
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
--------
Giving
election tickets to women against Islam, says Shahi Imam of Ahmedabad Jama
Masjid
04.12.22
Shahi
Imam of Jama Masjid
File
picture
-------
The
Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad on Sunday said allotting tickets to
women in elections is a rebellion against Islam and weakens the religion.
Talking
to reporters here on the eve of the second and final phase of polling for the
Gujarat Assembly elections, the Shahi Imam, Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui, said women
are not allowed to offer Namaz (prayer performed by Muslims) because they have
a certain position in Islam.
"If
you talk about Islam...Do you see even a single woman offering Namaz? Namaz has
great importance in Islam. Had it been justified in Islam for women to come
before people, they (women) would not have been stopped (from entering) the
mosque.
"Women
are stopped from visiting mosques because they have a certain status in Islam.
Whoever (whichever party) gives tickets to (Muslim) women rebels against Islam.
Don't you have men (candidates) that you are bringing in women? This will
weaken our religion," the Shahi Imam said.
Voting
for 93 out of 182 Assembly seats will be held across 14 central and northern
districts of Gujarat on Monday.
The
first phase of voting for 89 seats in Saurashtra, Kutch and south Gujarat
regions was held on December 1, when an average voter turnout of 63.31 per cent
was recorded. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.
Source:TelegraphIndia
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
ISIS
claims gun attack at Pakistan embassy that wounded guard
Dec
4, 2022
Image:
AP/ Representative
----------
ISLAMABAD:
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for last week's gun attack on
the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan in which the head of the mission escaped
unharmed but a guard was wounded.
In
a brief statement late Saturday, ISIS claimed two of its fighters attacked “the
renegade Pakistani ambassador and his guards” while they were in the Pakistani
embassy's yard, wounding a guard and inflicting damage to the building. It gave
no further details.
Friday's
assault in the Afghan capital Kabul wounded Pakistani guard Israr Mohammad, who
belongs to the military's commando unit. But the mission's chief,
Ubaid-ur-Rehman NizamaniIt, was unharmed.
The
attack came amid rising tensions between the South Asian neighbors over
Islamabad's claims that anti-Pakistan government forces are orchestrating
militant attacks from hideouts in Afghanistan.
Mohammad
was transported to Pakistan for medical treatment.
In
Islamabad, the Foreign Ministry said it trying to confirm the ISIS claim.
Source:
Times Of India
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Would
India Invest In Afghanistan Under Taliban? Memories Of 1999 IAF Hijacking
Remain Fresh
By
UbeerNaqushbandi
04
DEC 2022
Taliban
celebrate one year of rule in Afghanistan.(File photo) Photo: AP/Ebrahim
Noroozi
-----------
In
2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during inauguration of Afghanistan’s brand
new Parliament building in Kabul, hummed lines of famous Bollywood song aloud:
‘yaarihaiimaanmera, yaare mere zindagi’.
Modi
chose ‘Zanjeer’ movie song to describe the India-Afghanistan bonhomie of nearly
the last two decades. The Afghan Parliament building built at a whopping cost
of 90 million dollars, was the latest in the long list of India’s investment in
the war-torn country, post-2001 invasion of Afghanistan by US.
That
was until August 2021 when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. Since
then, India has remained skeptical about maintaining ties with Afghanistan,
considering its rather unpleasant history with Taliban.
Now,
the Taliban has urged India to invest again in Afghanistan. The request came at
a recent meeting with the head of the Indian technical mission in Kabul. There
have been reports that Taliban is keen on India investing in Afghanistan.
India
has not taken a call on the request given the security situation in
Afghanistan, even as it maintains engagement with the regime in Kabul.
It
is not like India has completely cut off ties with Afghanistan’s new regime. It
has donated consignments of humanitarian assistance to the country including
40,000 metric tonnes of wheat, about 50 tonnes of medical aid consisting of
essential lifesaving medicines, anti-TB medicines, 500,000 doses of Covid-19
vaccine, essential medical and surgical items and 28 tonnes of other disaster
relief material.
Why
Taliban Wants India To Invest In Afghanistan
India
had been heavily investing in the country over the past years and its ties with
Afghanistan have been of geopolitical and strategic significance in the South
East Asia region.
India
has helped build infrastructure in Afghanistan which was in turmoil following
the Red Army takeover, subsequent war lord frenzy, and Taliban period from 1996
to 2001.
India
has contributed to the building of roads, dams, hospitals and schools in
Afghanistan. Its investment in Afghanistan until Taliban takeover is estimated
to be over 3 billion dollars. Afghans have appreciated the help and relations
between the two nations have been of bonhomie and mutual respect since the
2000s.
In
2011, India signed Strategic Partnership Agreement With Afghanistan to build
its infrastructure, education, investment and duty free access for Afghans to
the Indian market.
India’s
Dream Projects In Afghanistan:
Salma
Dam: Also known as the India-Afghanistan friendship dam, the 42 MW dam is
located in Herat province. It was started in 2016.
Zaranj-Delaram
highway: This 218 kilometer is highway is significant, since it allows India
access to landlocked Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar Port. The highway
assumes significance considering Pakistan’s blanket ban overland on India for
doing trade with Afghanistan.The highway has been built by India at 150-million
dollars.
Historical
Stor Palace: The19th century place in Kabul was rebuilt by India and inguarted
by PM Modi in 2016.
Besides,
India has built the country's electricity infrastructure. The notable addition
is the 220KV Pul-e-Khumri transmission line from Baghlan province to Kabul.
India has also built hospitals and beefed up the country's transport system.
India's
projects which are on halt in Afghanistan
India
has announced that it would construct
Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water
to 2 million residents. India has also announced 1 million dollar package for
the Aga Khan heritage project, the restoration of the Bala Hissar Fort south of
Kabul, whose origins go back to the 6th century.
In
2017, New Delhi and Kabul opened a direct air freight corridor, which boosted
the trade between the two countries.
Why
is India sceptical to work with Taliban in Afghanistan?
Investing
in Afghanistan helps India safeguard itself from potential terror attacks
launched on Indian soil from Afghanistan by anti-India forces. India has also
been accusing Pakistan of backing militants in Afghanistan as proxies against
India.
India
has also been critical of the Taliban, whom it considers close to its regional
rival, Pakistan. However, Taliban has hinted that it would like to have good
ties with all regional countries this time around.
The
most important troubling question for India this time when investing in
Afghanistan would pertain to Taliban's backing of the hijackers of an Indian
Airlines flight in 1999. The haunting memory still lingered in the memory of
most Indians.
Infamous
Kandahar hijacking in 1999:
Indian
Airlines flight, IC-814 air bound from Kathmandu to Delhi with 179 passengers
including 24 foreigners and 11 crew members on board was hijacked by five
masked men on December 24, 1999.
The
flight was made to land at Amritsar, Lahore and then UAE for refuelling. It was
before the hijackers finally took IAF plane to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The
hijackers had left the plane in Kandahar with a Taliban hostage to ensure their
safe escape.
Following
several rounds of negotiations, the Indian government led by Atal Bihari
Vajpayee gave in to the demands of the terrorists and released their three men
lodged inside an Indian jail.
he
released men included Jaish-e-Mohammad's Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Kashmiri
militant Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, who were taken by then External Affairs Minister
Jaswant Singh on a special plane to Kandahar.
The
hijackers had also murdered a passenger, RupinKatiyal.
Source:
OutlookIndia
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click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Amend
Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, Financial Services Act to protect non-Muslim
divorcees, children: Lawyer
ArinaMusthafa
05-12-
2022
BERNAMAPIX
----------
KUALA
LUMPUR: A lawyer is fighting to have the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act
1976 and Financial Services Act 2013 amended to ensure non-Muslim spouses and
children are not financially neglected in the event of a divorce.
Rachel
Chan said it began when a single mother with an autistic son was neglected by
her ex-husband, who refused to visit the child or pay for child maintenance.
Now,
she is calling on the public and other lawyers to band together to ensure such
a situation does not befall other divorcees.
Chan
wants an amendment to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 to include
an additional subsection (6) so that a free app owned and managed by the
government can be installed to monitor asset division and alimony payments to
the children of a divorced couple.
She
also wants sections 134(1) and (2) and Schedule 11 (6) of the First Column of
the Financial Services Act to be further enhanced with respect to disclosures
of money in Malaysian banks so that spouses are forced to be transparent and
cannot hide their banking account details when filing for divorce, since banks
would then be duty-bound to disclose the assets to the court.
“The
proposed changes are one of the ways to eradicate financial hardship among
non-Muslims as they ensure single parents and children from broken families
receive monetary compensation from errant ex-spouses who fail to adhere to
their child maintenance payment obligations.”
She
said making the amendments has become more important since former prime
minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in the parliamentary session on
Sept 15 last year that 76,786 divorce cases were recorded nationwide since the
Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.
Ismail
Sabri also said between March 2020 and August 2021, a total of 10,346 divorces
involved non-Muslim couples while 66,440 cases involved Muslims. Collectively
for Muslims and non-Muslims, Selangor recorded the highest number with 3,160
cases followed by Kuala Lumpur, with 2,893.
Chan
urged the government to develop a mobile app that is automated and backed by
computerised systems so that relevant information involved in a divorce can be
uploaded and monitored for adherence to the law and terms of the divorce
settlement.
On
identification of matrimonial assets subject to division, she said: “At the
moment, there is no way to determine if either spouse owns landed assets in
Malaysia and what are the bank account assets and the details thereof, unless
the parties involved divulge them.
“Local
councils may be able to ascertain the properties held by one spouse if the
other provides details of the (MyKad) and name. But this is subject to a letter
of authorisation being sighted by the local councils, and (even then), details
of properties are limited only to those situated in the local councils’ area of
jurisdiction.”
Chan
also said banks are prohibited from making disclosures in a family court as
under the Financial Services Act 2013, details of bank accounts and bank statements
are private and confidential.
Chan’s
call to amend the laws has gained the support of social activist Kuan Chee
Heng, better known as Uncle Kentang, and human rights lawyer Siti Zabedah
Kasim.
“This
is an honorable cause and a way to help single parents raise their children
without being financially neglected by their irresponsible ex-spouses. I have
seen cases where parents who raise their children alone were helpless and
suffered in silence. Chan’s effort to get the existing laws amended could be a
way out of their predicament,” Kuan said.
However,
while Siti Zabedah expressed support for Chan’s cause in that something needs
to be done to assist spouses who have been financially neglected after divorce,
she disagreed with the development of a mobile app that monitors divorce
settlements.
“I
believe producing a mobile app for this purpose would be inefficient and I
suggest Chan propose another way to monitor the assets of irresponsible
spouses,” she said.
Source:TheSunDaily
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--------
Türkiye
arrests 18 YPG/PKK, Daesh/ISIS terrorists in northern Syria
MerveYıldızalp
04.12.2022
At
least 18 YPG/PKK and Daesh/ISIS terrorists were arrested by Turkish security
forces in northern Syria, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
During
an operation on Saturday in Al-Bab and Jarablus, security forces nabbed 13
Daesh/ISIS members, including a senior operative of the terror group.
Separately,
five YPG/PKK terrorists, who were sent to Jarablus for plotting a terror
attack, were also arrested by security forces.
During the search at
addresses, Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, 253 cartridges, and 10 kg hand-made
explosives were seized.
In 2013, Türkiye
became one of the first countries to declare Daesh/ISIS a terrorist group.
The country has
since been attacked by the terror group multiple times, with over 300 people
killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb
attacks, and four armed assaults.
In response, Türkiye
launched operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks, including
several counter-terrorist operations such as Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive
Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).
In its more than
35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist
organization by Türkiye, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of
over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the
PKK’s Syrian offshoot.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Iran
state body reports 200 deaths in protests, Raisi hails ‘freedoms’
04
December ,2022
President
Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday hailed Iran’s Islamic Republic as a guarantor of
rights and freedoms, defending the ruling system amid a crackdown on
anti-government protests that the United Nations says has cost more than 300
lives.
A
top state security body meanwhile said that 200 people, including members of
the security forces, had lost their lives in the unrest, a figure significantly
lower than that given by the world body and rights groups.
The
protests, in their third month, were ignited by the death of 22-year-old
Kurdish woman MahsaAmini in the custody of morality police enforcing strict
mandatory hijab rules.
The
demonstrations have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all
layers of society, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical
leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Meanwhile,
a social media video appeared to show authorities demolishing the family home
of Elnaz Rekabi, a climber who competed in an international contest without a
headscarf in October. Rekabi later she had done so unintentionally, but she was
widely assumed to have expressed support for the protests.
State
media on Saturday quoted the head of the judiciary in northwestern Zanjan
province as saying the ruling to demolish the villa had been issued four months
ago as the family had failed to obtain a construction permit.
Unfazed
by the brutal crackdown, protesters have raised slogans against Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei, and repeatedly demanded an end to the Islamic government.
Social
media videos showed renewed protests late on Saturday in some parts of the
capital Tehran, including the eastern Haft Howz area where protesters could be
heard chanting: “Murderer Khamenei should be executed.” Reuters could not
immediately verify the footage.
The
authorities blame the revolt on foreign enemies, including the United States,
Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“Iran
has the most progressive constitution in the world” because it marries “ideals
with democracy,” Raisi said in a speech to parliamentarians, quoting an
unidentified African lawyer he said he met several years ago.
“The
constitution guarantees the (existence) of the Islamic system,” he said, adding
that it also “guarantees fundamental rights and legitimate freedoms.”
The
judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted the interior ministry’s state security
council as saying 200 people lost their lives in the recent “riots.”
AmiraliHajizadeh,
a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Monday that 300
people, including security force members, had been killed in the recent unrest.
Javaid
Rehman, a UN-appointed independent expert on Iran, said on Tuesday that more
than 300 people had been killed in the protests, including more than 40
children.
Rights
group HRANA said that as of Friday 469 protesters had been killed, including 64
minors. It said 61 government security forces had also been killed. As many as
18,210 protesters are believed to have been arrested.
A
prominent Baluch Sunni Muslim cleric, MolaviAbdolhamid, has called for an end
to the repression of protests through arrests and killings, and a referendum on
changing Iran’s government system.
“The
people’s protest has shown that the policies of the last 43 years have reached
a dead end,” he said in late November.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Gunmen
kill 12, including imam, abduct others from mosque in Nigeria
Dec
5, 2022
Gunmen
in Nigeria killed a dozen worshippers, including an imam, and kidnapped several
others from a mosque on Saturday night, local residents said on Sunday, in the
latest attack by armed gangs in the north of the country.
Armed
gangs, known as bandits, attack communities where security is stretched,
killing people or kidnapping them for ransom. The gangs also demand villagers
pay protection fees to be allowed to farm and harvest their crops.
Lawal
Haruna, a resident of Funtua, in President Muhammadu Buhari's home state of
Katsina, told Reuters by phone that the gunmen arrived at Maigamji mosque on
motorbikes and started shooting sporadically, which forced worshippers to flee.
About
12, who were attending night prayers, were caught in the gunfire and killed,
including the chief imam, said Haruna.
"They
then gathered many people and took them to the bush. I'm praying that the
bandits release the innocent people they abducted," said Abdullahi
Mohammed, another resident of Funtua.
Katsina
state police spokesman Gambo Isah confirmed the attack and said state-backed
vigilantes, with the support of some residents, had managed to rescue some
worshippers.
Katsina
is among several states in the northwest of Nigeria which share a border with
neighbouring Niger, allowing the gangs to move freely between the two
countries.
Nigeria's
military has been bombing bush camps used by the bandits, but the attacks
continue, raising fears about the safety of voters who will go to the polls to
choose Buhari's successor in February.
Source:
IndiaToday
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click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Islamic
State suspect extradited to Australia, charged with terror-related offenses
4
December 2022
MELBOURNE,
Australia — Australian police charged a high-profile Islamic State suspect with
six terrorism-related offenses Sunday, two days after he was extradited from
Turkey, officials said.
Neil
Christopher Prakash, 31, was accused of offenses including engaging in hostile
activity overseas, supporting a terrorist organization, and advocating
terrorism, police said.
He
was charged in Melbourne by a counter-terrorism team after landing in Australia
on Friday following his extradition, federal police said in a statement.
The
allegations carry maximum penalties ranging from five years to life
imprisonment.
Police
released a video that showed officers in black balaclavas at Melbourne airport
removing Prakash from a plane and escorting him across the tarmac to a waiting
car.
Prakash
was arrested in Turkey in 2016 after crossing into the country from Syria.
He
was sentenced in 2019 to seven years in prison by a Turkish court, which found
him guilty of belonging to a terrorist organization.
Prakash
was stripped of his Australian citizenship in 2018.
Police
have worked “tirelessly” to bring him before the courts, said Australian
Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Sandra Booth.
Authorities
estimate about 230 Australians have traveled to Iraq and Syria to take up arms
since 2012 — Prakash being one of the most prominent examples.
He
was featured in IS recruiting videos in which he urged Australians to “wake up”
and join the group.
Prakash
was described by former conservative prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as one of
the “key financiers or organizers” for IS in the Middle East.
Former
Australian attorney-general George Brandis in 2016 said Prakash had been killed
in Iraq following a targeted US airstrike.
It
was later determined that he was wounded but survived the blast.
Source:TimesOfIsrael
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--------
US
says Iran policy now focusing on deterring weapon deliveries to Russia
03
December ,2022
The
US will concentrate on Iranian weapons supplies to Russia and on supporting
protesters in the country, rather than on stalled talks to revive an
international nuclear deal, the Biden administration’s top Iran envoy said.
“Iran
is not interested in a deal and we’re focused on other things,” US Special
Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said in an interview on Saturday.
“Right
now we can make a difference in trying to deter and disrupt the provision of
weapons to Russia and trying to support the fundamental aspirations of the
Iranian people.”
Iran
is ramping up uranium enrichment activities and restricting international
monitoring. It was censured at last month’s International Atomic Energy Agency
meeting for stonewalling a probe into uranium particles detected a several
undeclared sites.
Iran
is demanding an end to the IAEA investigation as part of any resumption of the
nuclear deal, a condition that Malley and US allies reject.
“What’s
the point?” Malley said in Rome. “Why should we focus on it if Iran comes back
with demands that are unacceptable? At this point we’re not going to focus on
the nuclear deal because we can’t sort of keep going back and then being
played.”
While
contacts between European Union and Iranian officials are continuing and
negotiations aren’t formally suspended, there have been no talks since the end
of August, Malley said.
The
US now aims to “disrupt, delay, deter and sanction weapon deliveries to Russia
from Iran,” he said. The provision of missiles or assistance in the
construction of military production facilities in Russia “would be crossing new
lines,” he said.
While
the Kremlin denies using Iranian equipment, it has relied increasingly on
drones from Iran as it burns through its own stockpiles in attacking Ukraine.
Russian
Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev met with top Iranian leaders in
Tehran last month.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
India
Muslim
husband, Hindu wife booked under Haryana's anti-conversion law
Dec
03, 2022
Nine
people, including a 22-year-old Hindu woman and her Muslim husband, have been
booked under the state's anti-conversion law, police here said on Saturday.
The
woman's father, who filed the complaint, alleged that his daughter had recently
married a Muslim man and was forcibly to converted to Islam.
The
FIR against all nine accused was registered at SGM Nagar Police Station on
Friday, said police.
Dheeraj
Shukla, a resident of SGM Nagar, in his complaint said that his elder daughter
Sanskriti Shukla works in a private bank and has married a Muslim man.
He
alleged that one Javed Khan, a resident of SGM Nagar, made his daughter fall in
love with him, married her and forcibly converted her.
"Last
year, Javed's mother and relatives had come to my house with a marriage
proposal, but I rejected it. On October 28 this year, I received a court notice
which told me that my daughter had got married to Javed Khan and that she has
filed a protection petition in court," Shukla said in his complaint,
according to police.
"The
marriage is invalid as per law and action should be taken against them,"
he wrote, citing the anti-conversion Act passed in the state recently.
Following
his complaint, an FIR was registered against Sanskriti Shukla, her husband
Javed Khan, Javed's brother Firoz Khan, father Liyakat Ali, mother Payal,
Irshad, a witness to marriage, Mohammad Abdul Sajan, a Qazi, and notary public
Ishwar Prasad under sections 12(1), 12(5) of Haryana Prevention of Unlawful
Conversion of Religion Act, 2022, police said.
Source:
Hindustan Times
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
‘Are
there no men left?’: Ahmedabad’s Shahi Imam on women getting poll tickets
5
December, 2022
Ahmedabad
(Gujarat) [India], December 4 (ANI): Close on the heels of AIDUF chief Badruddin
Ajmal’s controversial remarks against Hindus, the Shahi Imam of Ahmedabad’s
Jama Masjid, Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui, stroked a fresh controversy on Sunday
saying women are contesting the Gujarat Assembly elections as “there are no men
left”.
“Those
giving election tickets to Muslim women are against Islam, as they are
weakening our religion. Are there no men left?” the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid
in Ahmedabad said.
The
remarks come a day ahead of the second and final phase of Gujarat Assembly
polls on Monday.
He
said there is nothing more important for Muslims than offering Namaz and there
is a reason why women aren’t allowed to offer Namaz in the open.
“If
you talk about Islam, there’s nothing more important than offering Namaz. Have
you seen any women offering the Namaz in public? If it was okay in Islam for
women to come out in public and offer Namaz, they wouldn’t have been stopped,”
Ahmed said.
He
said that women in Islam have a certain position and therefore, giving poll
tickets to women is completely unjustified.
Ajmal
had earlier said that Hindus, like Muslims, should get their children married
at a young age.
“Muslim
men marry at the age of 20-22 while Muslim women marry at 18, as stipulated by
the government. However, (Hindus) have one two or three illegal wives before
marriage. They don’t give birth to babies in order to save costs,” the AIUDF
chief said.
Ajmal
said, “They (Hindus) should also follow the Muslims in getting their children
married at a young age. Get the boys married at 20-22 and the girls married at
18-20 years and then see how many children are born.”
Source:ThePrint
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Muslim
League not satisfied with Congress’ handling of Tharoor issue
05th
December 2022
By
Vishnuprasad KP
MALAPPURAM: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the
second largest ally in the UDF, is not satisfied with the way Congress is
handling the Shashi Tharoor issue. The IUML MLAs expressed their
dissatisfaction during a meeting convened by party state chief PanakkadSadik
Ali Shihab Thangal in Malappuram on Sunday, ahead of the assembly session
beginning on Monday.
The
meeting mainly aimed at deciding on the party’s stance on various issues,
including the Vizhinjam protests and the proposed bill to strip the governor of
the chancellorship of the universities in the state.
“Congress
members fight with each other over Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor’s tour
in the state. The party thought that the issue ended during Tharoor’s Malabar
visit.
Now,
a similar situation has arisen during his South Kerala visit. The fight over
Tharoor will widen the rift in state Congress and it will not help the UDF
regain power in the state,” said a party source. During his Malabar visit,
Tharoor visited IUML leaders at the residence of Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal. The
IUML leaders also extended support to Tharoor’s programmes in the state.
An
IUML MLA from Malappuram said the party is not against Vizhinjam port. “We are
not against the project as it was initiated during the term of the UDF
government,” the MLA said. IUML state general secretary P M A Salam said the
government should also consider the demands of the Vizhinjam protesters. “We
don’t want to see the government completing the project by suppressing the protests,”
he said.
Salam
said the League MLAs will present the party’s stand on various matters during
the meeting of the UDF parliamentary members ahead of the assembly session. On
the stand to be taken on the ordinance that will be introduced in the assembly
to strip the governor of the chancellorship, Salam said it would also be
revealed at the UDF meeting.
Source:New
Indian Express
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Discussion
on right-wing propaganda at Anti-Fascist Film Festival
Debraj
Mitra | Calcutta
05.12.22
A
sinister objective is at the core of a synchronised propaganda blitz by the
Right-wing ecosystem, a spearhead against misinformation said at a city programme
on Sunday.
“Villainise
the Muslim around you. Day in and day out. Make that person undesirable. We see
it every day in the work that we do,” said Pratik Sinha, co-founder of
fact-checking website AltNews.
Sinha
and his colleague Muhammed Zubair — who spent nearly a month in jail earlier
this year on charges of hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets,
the arrest triggering widespread condemnation in India and abroad — were part
of a panel discussion on the closing day of the Anti-Fascist Film Festival at
MahajatiSadan in central Calcutta.
It
was organised by a forum called Bengal Against Fascist RSS-BJP and the People’s
Film Collective, an independent, people-funded body that screens films and
hosts conversations.
The
topic of the discussion was “How to Stop Fascism”.
Talking
about Aftab Poonawala, accused of killing his live-in partner and chopping her
body, Sinha talked of the immense interest that mainstream media had found in
the case.
“It
is a heinous crime. But his narco test, polygraph test, every single thing
about Aftab is being put out by the media. They are points of discussion
everywhere. The love jihad issue is raked up again. A synchronised propaganda
is being used to create a sense of fear, so much fear that next time someone
wants to date someone from another community, the family would wonder if their
daughter would end up in pieces,” said Sinha.
Poonawala
should be punished if proven guilty, but the crime should not be judged on the
basis of religion, said Sinha.
“The
communities will continue living separately, leading to further ghettoisation
of Muslims. That is what they want…. Any crime by a Muslim will make national
headline, day in and day out. This is their agenda,” he said.
The
same objective to demonise the Muslim community was behind the concerted
attempt to blame the spread of Covid on the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation in
Delhi in mid-March of 2020, Sinha said.
“Like
in Aftab’s case, the mainstream media was obsessed with Tablighi Jamaat. It
diverted attention from the plight of tens of thousands of migrant workers
returning home barefoot.... We were told that Muslims kept spitting to spread
Corona. That led to Muslims getting attacked,” he added.
Sinha
shared the story of a Muslim man with a paralysed right hand who accidentally
dropped a note at a petrol pump in Gujarat in April 2020. He was accused of
doing it deliberately to spread Covid.
A
case was started and the man had to spend 48 hours in jail, Sinha said. To
fight this project of hate, the country needs “informed and empathetic
citizens”, Sinha said.
Zubair,
who the moderator said was “uncomfortable in giving a speech”, took a couple of
questions from the audience. He was asked about his life in prison.
“The
cops were after AltNews as an organisation. They asked me how many employees
worked there, they asked their names. When I gave the names, they were shocked
to know that the majority of the employees were Hindus. ‘Why do you publish
anti-Hindu things then’, I was asked. The police were also fed on Right-wing
propaganda,” said Zubair.
Source:TelegraphIndia
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‘Have
nowhere to go’: Muslim voters in Gujarat rue a lack of options
Dec
05, 2022
By
Smriti Kak Ramachandran
Elections
do not hold out the promise of change for IshaqVhora, who sells fruit on the
busy Bhalej Road in Gujarat’s Anand. His cart is next to a garbage pit, but
buyers seem unconcerned by the ambience, or the lack of it. He is polite to a
fault and shows no impatience when customers fumble for change or digital
payments take too long. “I have nowhere to go...just need to make enough money
everyday to pay the rent and school fees,” he says.
His
two kids are studying in a private school, where the annual fee is ₹8,000. He
also has to pay ₹4,500 every month for rent. Election season means little to
him, he says, although he’s been watching speeches on his phone. The poll
promises of free electricity and education made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
have caught his attention.
“I
heard about the promise to make education free. It sounds encouraging,” Vhora
says. “The government school here is 5km away and the quality of education is
not good. So, we decided to cut corners where ever we can and send the kids to
a good English school.”
But,
“by now we know better than to believe election promises,” he quickly adds.
Vhora
says there is little about polls that excites him or his community. “In our
village Tarapur, people mostly vote for the Congress. Now people are a little
upset because these days MLAs also switch sides without qualms, so our vote is
wasted,” he says.
Across
the road from his cart are several posters of independent candidates, who are
summarily dismissed as spoilers by Vhora. “The fight is between the Congress
and the BJP, the rest are vote cutters. This new party (AAP) and the Owaisi
party (AIMIM) are all helping the BJP,” he says.
Limited
options
The
AAP and the AIMIM, which seem like options for the Muslim community in Gujarat,
are not necessarily viewed so by the community. In Ahmedabad’s Juhapura, a
predominantly Muslim locality, the reactions to questions about politics,
elections and representation of the community in polity evoke responses that
are cautious, but betray anger and disappointment.
A
homemaker said the community has been struggling to find its feet outside the
“safety” of localities that are essentially ghettos.
“Is
it possible for me to move out of Juhapura? Which builder will sell or which
owner will rent out their houses? We live here because we cannot live anywhere
else. In such a scenario, who has the time to wonder about party and politics.
We’ve been voting for the Congress, and the BJP has been forming the government
and that is how it will be. We will continue to struggle for good education and
health care,” she says, declining to be identified.
In
the same locality, a group of young men claim other parties are also growing cold
towards the community that accounts for about 10% of the state’s population and
is present in significant numbers in about 40 of the 182 constituencies.
One
of them who has inherited his father’s grocery store says over the years other
parties have also begun distancing themselves from the community. “They come
asking for votes, but they have definitely begun to field fewer Muslim
candidates. What does that imply?” he questions.
While
the BJP has not fielded a Muslim candidate for the assembly polls since 1998,
the Congress has given tickets to six Muslim candidates, and the AAP to three.
The AIMIM has the highest number of Muslim candidates at 11.
A
senior BJP leader said the prime consideration is “winnability” for the party.
“We don’t discriminate as far as our programmes and policy is concerned. If a
Muslim family is eligible for the PM AwasYojna or the Mudra scheme, does anyone
deny it to them on the basis of their religion? So, what should matter more,
representation that is symbolic or services?” he asks rhetorically.
The
BJP leader said the party is not rigid about fielding Muslims as that can be
seen from the list of Muslim candidates who fought on the party ticket during
the 2021 urban local body polls. He did not mention the total number, but in
several districts such as Baruch, the party fielded Muslim candidates.
The
BJP’s overtures towards the community are met with nonchalance. “Why does the
BJP need to resurrect the ghost of 2002 in their rallies and speeches? Other
parties are now following their model. Did the AAP or the Congress ask why 11
men were freed from jail,” asks the shopkeeper quoted above. He was referring
to the grant of remission to 11 men convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment in 2008 for raping a woman, BilkisBano, murdering seven of her
family members, including her three-year-old infant, during the 2002 communal
riots in the state.
Tried
and tested
Though
the BJP claims that it got support from Muslim voters in 2017 after Parliament
passed a law to outlaw Triple Talaq and is hoping for an encore based on the
implementation of the social welfare schemes and the targeted intervention
towards the Pasmanda, or the underprivileged sections, there is indication that
the Congress, despite misgivings, will remain the beneficiary of the Muslim
vote.
“When
you have little expectations, it is best to go with the tried and the tested,”
says the homemaker.
The
AIMIM, which was exuberant after its performance in the local body elections,
winning 17 seats in three municipalities, is viewed with suspicion and often
dubbed as “BJP’s B-team”.
Referring
to the community’s scepticism about the party that toes a hardline, AfrozAlam,
head of the political science department at the Maulana Azad National Urdu
University, Hyderabad, says, “It is crystal clear that the AIMIM does not
contest to get the votes of the Muslim community, but to mobilise the votes of
the non-Muslims. Barring the 1946 election (provincial election), when the
Muslims voted for the Muslim League, or in some cases in Assam and Kerala for a
Muslim party, the community does not vote for a predominantly Muslim party.”
Source:
Hindustan Times
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
In
Ahmedabad’s Juhapura, voters say they are shunned, focusing on education
Dec
05, 2022
By
Maulik Pathak
RafiaManiar,
54, was settling into a new life in Ahmedabad’s Vasna after getting married in
1990 when her life turned upside down. The residential society she moved into
with her in-laws was burnt down the same year in the 1990 communal riots. The
violence forced them to move to Muslim-majority Juhapura, which then had a lot
of open space. Juhapura now has little space as Muslims from other parts of
Ahmedabad and Gujarat have continued to move there in the aftermath of the 2002
riots.
Maniar
said Vasna is now a Hindu colony and she too has moved on. She added the 2002
riots are a thing of the past and cannot recur as people have become smarter.
“They know only innocent people die in riots and the real culprits are never
caught,” said Maniar, a henna artist. “I have no fear of Hindus. They are my
clients and I have good relations with them.”
Inflation,
poor roads, and lack of quality education were the key issues for Maniar as
Gujarat went to the polls in two phases on December 1 and 5. She said she was
unsure if any political party can solve their problems. “The area [Juhapura] is
cut off from the rest of Ahmedabad... [it is without] basic infrastructure like
gas connectivity, quality roads...[we face] issues [related to] drainage and
availability of water.”
Maniar
said the Muslim community needs economic prosperity. “There are girls in my
neighbourhood who have scored well and want to become doctors but they have to
change the streams due to lack of funds for education.”
Juhapura
is located on Ahmedabad’s outskirts and has been described as India’s largest
Muslim ghetto with a population of about 500,000. It falls under the Vejalpur constituency.
I
H Kadri, a Juhapura resident, and a corporate trainer, said they feel cut off
from the mainstream with all major parties the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) even refraining from campaigning in
their area. He added in the nearby Prahlad Nagar, there was high-decibel
campaigning. “Many Juhapura residents do not have voter identity cards and a
large number of us do not vote. We do not see any power in voting.”
Kadri
said the BJP does not care about their votes and the Congress has taken them
for granted. He added AAP is banking on soft Hindutva and has not actively
campaigned in their area.
The
Disturbed Areas Act, which was introduced in 1991 to replace a 1986 ordinance
the then Congress government issued, is seen as a major source of Muslim woes.
It prohibits Hindus and Muslims from buying and selling properties to each
other without a district collector’s permission.
In
2010, the law was amended and renamed Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable
Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in
Disturbed Areas Act. Originally meant for Ahmedabad, the law now covers cities
and towns including Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Bharuch.
The
2002 riots led to a massive influx of internally displaced people into
Juhapura. “If you are a Muslim in Juhapura, you will get a sense of what living
in a ghetto is. I cannot go anywhere else in Ahmedabad...where the Hindus live.
It is not just the Act. The Hindus are also not ready to accept us as their
neighbours,” said Asif Shaikh, a trustee of Juhupura’s Crescent School.
He
added neither the Congress, BJP nor AAP can do anything for them. “...we have
to progress on our own. Congress did not help me build a school for my
community. Neither did the BJP. Muslim votes are irrelevant.”
The
BJP has once again not fielded any Muslim candidates for the seventh time since
getting power in Gujarat first in 1995. The Congress has given tickets to six
and AAP four Muslim candidates.
Political
analyst Ghanshyam Shah said Muslims account for around 10% of the state’s
population and have a sizeable presence in 10-12 seats. “All parties have
alienated Muslims over the years. Their representation in Congress has also
gone down with each election. Congress does not openly take a stance for the
community. Gujarat’s Muslims have no voice.”
Shah
said the voting percentage in the Muslim majority seats went down in the 2017
elections, which showed a large number of them refrained from ballotting. He
said the AAP has also been silent over the release of the men convicted of
raping BilkisBano and murdering seven members of her family during the 2002
riots that left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims dead.
On
October 8, posters and banners of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in a Muslim skull
cap came up across cities of Gujarat. A day earlier, a video of AAP’s Delhi
minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, who was later forced to resign, attending an
event where Hindus vowed to convert to Buddhism went viral and drew a sharp
response from the BJP.
As
political parties treat them as pariahs, Muslims in Juhapura see education as
their redeeming feature. “In the last 14 years, 27 private schools have come up
in Juhapura. There are 2,300 students enrolled at my school but this is not
enough. We need many more schools. Education is the only way for Muslims to
progress,” said Shaikh.
He
said education was disrupted in the last 100 years for India’s Muslims. “Our
renewed focus on education can be seen across India.”
Nazneen
Lokhandwala, another Juhapura resident, echoed Shaikh, calling education their
biggest focus. “There are no colleges in Juhapura. Even for students who want
to study science at the higher secondary level, there are no schools in the
neighbourhood. There are no public gardens or recreational places. If there is
one positive change in the area, the water issues are getting resolved.”
Source:
Hindustan Times
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After
Manipal University row, Rajasthan student calls out professor over Islamophobic
slurs
Dec
04, 2022
By
Sharmita Kar
After
last month's Manipal University ‘terrorist row’, another incident of similar
communal slurs has come to light from a college in Rajasthan after a female
student from a Muslim background claimed that she had been facing threats after
she called out her professor for allegedly making prejudiced remarks during a
history class.
A
video of the woman narrating the incident was doing rounds on social media
platforms on Sunday.
The
incident reportedly happened on November 21 at MBR College in Balotra in
Rajasthan's Barmer district. In the video – that could not be independently
verified by Hindustan Times – the woman was heard saying that they were having
a discussion on Gautam Buddha when the history professor suddenly switched over
to talking about the Shraddha murder case. “Sir suddenly started saying ‘Do you
know Aaftab cut Shraddha in 35 pieces, he did not even have mercy, Muslims are
so merciless’…,” she claimed in the video in Hindi.
She
further claimed that the professor started making offensive remarks about her
religion like “Muslims say that if you kill one Hindu you’ll get rewarded by
Hajj and if you kill two, you'll get Jannat" and “they are terrorists,
they are Pakistani, stay away from them”. She added that when she got up from
her seat to protest, he told her it was “written in Quran”.
The
woman also alleged that the college authorities took no action and instead
asked her to end the discussion there. When she stepped out of the college, she
said, a person named Raju Chaudhury started threatening her. “He told me go to
the police station if you can, then you know what we will do to you…he ran his
car on my foot and asked his peers to take me inside the college…kept me locked
in for two hours…they said if you try to get out you know we are so many boys,
what we will do to you…so I told them I will not tell anyone,” she claimed,
adding that they followed her till her home and threatened her to keep her
mouth shut.
The
woman claimed that no action has been taken against the teacher so far.
Source:
Hindustan Times
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Pakistan
LEAs
tightening noose against blasphemers on social media
December
4, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
The law enforcement agencies (LEAs) was consistently tightening the noose
against blasphemers on social media and netting the people who are allegedly
involved in this criminal activity with every passing day.
According
to a tentative statistic, 62 blasphemers have been putted behind the bars so
far, nine of them have been awarded the capital punishment by the trial courts
while two of them have been awarded death penalty by the high courts.
In
addition, the accused under trial in blasphemous cases had never been granted
bail by any court of law yet.
To
curb the menace of blasphemous material on social media, a number of
faith-based organizations have got into momentum including Legal Commission on
Blasphemy Pakistan, Namoos-e-Risalat Lawyers Forum Pakistan, Legal Thinkers
Forum, Tehreek TehfuzNamoos-e-Risalat Pakistan, World Khatm-e-Nabuwat Council,
AnjumanAshqaan-e-Muhammad, TehfuzKhatm-e-Nabuwat Forum,
TehfuzKhatm-e-NabuwatWukla Forum, Legal and Cyber Experts Forum,
Razakaran-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat and Islamabad Bar Association.
These
religious organizations are pursuing the blasphemous cases till their logical
conclusions.
In
an exclusive talk with APP, Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan Secretary
General Sheraz Ahmad Farooqui informed that utilizing its Cyber Crime Wing’s
expertise, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked an accused
allegedly involved in publication of indecent content against the sacred books
Quran and Bible on social media on Tuesday.
However,
it had also arrested two miscreants allegedly involved in proliferation of
desecration stuff on social media on Wednesday, he added.
He
said a blasphemer namely Sana Ullah had been awarded death sentence twice by
the Anti-Terrorist Court, Peshawar-I.
Farooqui
said ATC Judge Fazl Sattar Khan reserved the verdict in the following case on
November 24, adding that the convict used to share desecration content on the
WhatsApp group against the sanctity and prestige of Holy Prophet Muhammad
(Peace Be Upon Him), Mothers of believers (Ummahaat-ul-Momineen) and the
religion of Islam.
He
further informed that a woman known as Rabia Peerni had been arrested after the
First Information (FIR) registration at the Data Darbar Police Station, Lahore
on Saturday. He said the accused was involved in desecration of Islamic values
and injunctions publicly and making viral number of videos on social media.
Meanwhile,
the National Assembly (NA) had passed a unanimous resolution to withdraw
appeals of the government from the Supreme Court to annul the decision of
Lahore High Court (LHC) against the publication of blasphemous content on the
social media.
The
resolution’s mover PML-N Member of National Assembly Chaudhary Faqir Ahmad told
APP that the then government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf challenged the
decision in the apex court instead of implementing it in letter and spirit.
He
urged the incumbent government to withdraw the appeals against the LHC’s
decision filed by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication
and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in the tenure of so
calledRiyasat-e-Madinah.
In
addition, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony had
reactivated its Web Evaluation Cell to control the increasing incidents of
blasphemy on social media.
The
Ministry’s spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt, talking to APP, informed that the
people could report blasphemous material if found on social media on the
official email address: reportblasphemy@mora.gov.pk, Facebook page:
@mora.official or WhatsApp number: 0306 3332555.
He
made it clear that hate material against the religion or sacred figures was
completely banned as per law and the Constitution. “Those allegedly involved in
this illegitimate activity would be taken to task as per law of the land,” he
added.
Source:Pakistan
Today
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Ashrafi
urges private banks to withdraw appeals to FSC’s Riba verdict
December
4, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East
Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Sunday said the private banks should withdraw
their appeals against the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) verdict on Riba (usury).
Talking
to APP, he said the government had taken practical steps by withdrawing appeals
of national and state banks from the apex court in a bid to get rid of the
interest-based economic system.
Ashrafi,
who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council, assured the government
all-out support of Ulema and Mashaykh in the implementation of FSC’s decision
in letter and spirit.
He
proposed all the financial institutions devise a combined strategy to make the
country’s economic system free of interest which was totally against the divine
commands.
He
also urged the government to take stern action against the people who were
allegedly involved in an interest-based system at the local level.
He
said Pakistan, currently, was facing a critical financial crisis and its
solution was lying in political stability and improved law and order situation
in the country.
He
urged all the religious and political parties to unite on one platform and help
cope with burgeoning polarization, extremism, and the new wave of terrorism
with collective efforts.
He
also appealed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan to come to the table-talk
to evolve consensus on the ‘Charter of Pakistan’ as it was the need of the hour
and it would help control increasing violence in the society and improve the
ailing economy of the country.
He
proposed that the way ‘Message of Pakistan’ was designed to promote religious
harmony in all sections of the society, there should be long-term policies on
the country’s social, economic, and foreign affairs issues in the shape of
‘Charter of Pakistan’ and it should be implemented by all the governments to come
and national institutions in the larger national interest.
Ashrafi
emphasized that Pakistan had to go out of the box in the matter of its foreign
policy as there was a paradigm shift in the external affairs of the Islamic and
Arab world.
He
also thanked the Saudi leadership for extending the term of deposit in the
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) from the Saudi Fund for Development.
Expressing
gratitude to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and
his Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, he said the relationship between Pakistan
and Saudi Arabia was like two brothers.
He
said Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s meetings with Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman would yield further cooperation in the shape of Saudi
investment in the days to come ahead in the country.
“Similarly,
other Islamic countries are also increasing trade and economic cooperation with
Pakistan,” he said expressing the hope that there would be good news from the
United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the near future.
Ashrafi
hinted that there was a big hand of the external forces and anti-state elements
behind an organized smear campaign against the national security institutions
and armed forces.
Source:
Pakistan Today
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Pakistan's
former premier Imran Khan accuses Gen Bajwa of playing ‘double game’ against
his govt
Dec
4, 2022
Pakistan's
ousted prime minister Imran Khan has accused former army chief Gen (retd.)
Qamar JavedBajwa of playing a "double game" against his government
and said that he committed a "big mistake" by extending the tenure of
then military chief in 2019.
Khan,
the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, made the comments during an
interview with a local TV channel on Saturday where he also regretted that he
put his trust in the then army chief Gen (retd.) Bajwa.
"I
would believe in everything General Bajwa would tell me because our interests
were the same… that we had to save the country,” said 70-year-old Khan, who
was ousted from power through a no-confidence motion in April this year.
Khan
also claimed that he received reports from Intelligence Bureau (IB) on “what
games were being played against his government”.
He
claimed that then military establishment was in contact with the Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif to topple his government and the plot
against him became clear following the removal of Lt Gen (retd.) Faiz Hameed as
ISI chief in October 2021.
"Whenever
I asked General Bajwa (about change of government), he would say it was not
possible. He said, ‘We want continuity’….I sent finance minister Shaukat
Tarin who briefed them (establishment) for two hours about the perils of the
fall of his government…He was also assured that don’t worry because ‘we want
continuity,’" Khan claimed.
Khan
said the then army chief was cutting deals with the then opposition parties
while assuring him of political support.
His
remarks came days after Moonis Elahi of Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid-e-Azam
(PML-Q) said in a TV interview that Bajwa asked him to vote for Khan on the
no-confidence motion. His remarks were used by the government to blast Khan's
allegation that the establishment orchestrated his downfall.
But
Khan, who is considered as an expert of using any situation in his favour,
exploited the statement of Elahi and said it showed that General Bajwa was
playing on both sides.
"Gen
Bajwa was playing a double game and I discovered later that even PTI’s members
were being given different messages,” he claimed.
Gen
Bajwa, 61, retired on November 29 after getting a three-year extension in 2019
by the then Prime Minister Khan, who turned out to be the biggest critic of the
Pakistan Army.
Nawaz
Sharif, who was disqualified and imprisoned when Bajwa was the army chief, has
also criticized him by name at public rallies on a couple of occasions.
In
his farewell address last week, General Bajwa had said that his decision to
keep the military establishment "apolitical" will shield it from the
"vagaries of politics" in the coup-prone country.
Since
Pakistan was created 75 years ago, the Army has seized power three times and
directly ruled the country for almost four decades.
In
reply to another question, Khan said a new military set-up had emerged and he
wanted to give some time to get themselves settled.
Meanwhile,
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday lashed out at Khan for aiming to seek
power even if it meant undermining the country's foundations.
"Imran’s
recent diatribe against parliamentary democracy is the latest in a series of
attacks that fly in the face of how democracy functions in modern
nation-states," the premier said in a tweet.
Khan's
"politics is aimed at making his way to power even if it means undermining
foundations this country stands on," the prime minister said.
During
the interview to Bol News, Khan also said that if the government is ready for
elections by the end of March, then his party won't dissolve the assemblies.
"Otherwise, we want to conduct polls by dissolving the KP and Punjab
assemblies," he added.
Khan,
the former cricketer-turned-politician, is the only Pakistani prime minister to
be ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament.
Source:IndiaToday
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
PTI chairman’s politics weakens Pakistan: PM Shehbaz
Syed
Irfan Raza
December
5, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Reacting to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s remarks about
former army chief Gen Qamar JavedBajwa, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday
lashed out at ex-premier for “undermining” the foundation of Pakistan just for
his own rule.
The
prime minister noted that the PTI chief had also recently launched a diatribe
against ‘parliamentary democracy’.
“PTI
leader’s [Imran Khan] politics is aimed at making his way to power, even if it
meant undermining foundations this country stood on,” Prime Minister Sharif
said on his Twitter handle.
PTI
leader Imran Khan’s recent diatribe against parliamentary democracy was the
latest in a series of attacks that flew in the face of how democracy functioned
in modern nation-states, he wrote.
PDM
rules out polls before Oct 2023
Although
the prime minister spent a silent day on Sunday as no official meeting took
place, he preferred to lash Imran Khan through his tweet.
Mr
Khan, in his recent interview, had said giving extension to Gen Bajwa as Chief
of Army Staff (COAS) was his ’biggest mistake“. This was also endorsed by
former speaker National Assembly AsadQaiser who also repented in a recent
interview with e private TV channel that granting Bajwa an extension was a
“mistake”.
Later,
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Atta Tarar said that PML-Q leader
Moonis Elahi tried to defame Mr Khan and Gen Bajwa by giving a statement that
the latter urged him to join Mr Khan at the time of no-confidence move against
the ex-premier despite the fact that Gen Bajwa himself had made it clear the
military establishment had been neutral at least since February 2022.
He
said Mr Khan was the king of U-turns and he had changed his threat of
dissolution of the assemblies and asked government for negotiations.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1724722/pti-chairmans-politics-weakens-pakistan-pm-shehbaz
--------
IS
claim of attack on embassy being verified: FO
Anwar
Iqbal
December
5, 2022
WASHINGTON:
With the Foreign Office saying it was verifying reports about the militant
Islamic State group’s claim that it had carried out attack on the Pakistan
Embassy in Kabul, an official US report to Congress doubts the Afghan Taliban’s
ability to counter IS.
“Independently
and in consultation with the Afghan authorities, we are verifying the veracity
of these reports,” the FO spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday, adding
the attack was a reminder of the risk militant activity posed to the region.
“We
must act resolutely with all our collective might to defeat this menace. On its
part, Pakistan remains steadfast in its commitment to combat terrorism,” the FO
official said.
Islamic
State-Khorasan Province, which claimed the attack, is affiliated with the
Islamic State in the Middle East.
US
doubts Afghan Taliban’s ability to counter IS
IS
claimed the attack was carried out by two of its members armed with “medium and
sniper weapons” and was targeting the ambassador and his guards who were
present in the courtyard of the embassy, according to Reuters.
US
report
Meanwhile,
an official US report to Congress has expressed doubts about the Taliban’s
ability to counter IS.
“Experts
disagree about the potency of the ISKP threat and the Taliban’s self-asserted
ability to counter the group without external assistance,” says the report sent
this week to Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
“An
arguably more potent armed threat to the Taliban is the local Islamic State
affiliate ISKP, a longtime Taliban adversary,” the CRS report adds.
It
points out that the ISKP has opposed the Taliban since its 2015 establishment,
viewing the Taliban’s Afghanistan-focused nationalist political project as
counter to IS’s universalist vision of a global caliphate.
According
to the CRS, since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021, “ISKP’s ranks
have swelled to as many as 4,000 fighters despite a concerted Taliban
offensive, and ISKP has claimed responsibility for a number of major attacks in
2022” inside Afghanistan.
CRS
is a Washington-based, congressional think-tank which serves as nonpartisan
shared staff to congressional committees and members of both the House and the
Senate. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress.
On
Friday, the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul came under attack with Chargé d’Affaires
to Afghanistan Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani being targeted. MrNizamani was unscathed
but his guard was critically wounded.
The
CRS report also examines how regional dynamics of neighbouring states directly
affect developments in Afghanistan and how “events in Afghanistan have
consequences for the neighbours” as well.
The
report regards Pakistan as the “most important” neighbour for Afghanistan,
which “has played an active, and by many accounts destabilising, role in Afghan
affairs for decades, including by actively supporting the Taliban during its
1990s rule and much of its subsequent insurgency.”
The
report points out that many analysts regarded “the Taliban takeover, at least
initially, as a triumph for Pakistan’s regional policy,” pointing to statements
of evident support for the takeover from Pakistani leaders.
But
the report also underlines recent “indications that the Taliban’s return to
power may pose challenges for Pakistan”.
It
cautions that the Taliban’s victory “may provide a morale and perhaps material
boost to Pakistan-based terrorist groups, including the banned
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is a US-designated foreign terrorist
organisation.
“TTP
attacks against Pakistani security forces increased after August 2021,
reportedly prompting the Pakistani government to seek the Afghan Taliban’s
mediation of several ceasefires, which appear to have broken down in late
2022,” the report adds.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1724719/is-claim-of-attack-on-embassy-being-verified-fo
--------
Bilawal
sees no urgency for general elections
December
5, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
While claiming that the coalition government has inherited from its predecessor
a ‘divided country’ and a ‘collapsed economy’, Foreign Minister and Pakistan
Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said he did not
see the need to hold early elections as was being demanded by Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
The
incumbent government, however, was looking for solutions to internal problems
and consensus at the international level, said Mr Bhutto-Zardari in an
interview with Al-Jazeera.
The
PPP chairman said in order to address the challenges inherited from the
previous government, it was essential that the whole country get united as no
single political party or individual could address the situation alone.
Rubbishing
the accusations of a ‘foreign conspiracy’ behind Mr Khan’s removal, he said
political leaders were supposed to speak the truth to their people instead of
coming up with conspiracy theories. He said it was for the first time that a
prime minister was removed constitutionally through a vote of confidence, not
through a coup or court order.
When
asked about the possibility of early elections, the PPP chairman said, instead
of “furthering democracy”, the early elections would “further Khan’s agenda”.
He
said it was important for the country to complete its five years term unless
there was any urgency, which currently was not there.
To
a question, the foreign minister said Kashmir was an unfinished agenda and
since Narendra Modi’s election, the space for Muslims in India as well as
Kashmir was shrinking.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1724731/bilawal-sees-no-urgency-for-general-elections
--------
Urdu
Conference concludes with satire on ‘21st century’s Pakistan’
Peerzada
Salman
December
5, 2022
KARACHI:
The concluding session of the 15th International Urdu Conference on Sunday
evening organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan was attended by a large
number of art and book lovers as writer Anwar Maqsood entertained them with his
satirical piece on ‘The 21st century’s Pakistan’.
He
said in these unliterary times, Ahmed Shah (president of the Arts Council) had
been striving to keep literature alive for the last 15 years. “But for me
(Maqsood) he instructs that I talk about Pakistan while Pakistan has nothing to
do with literature.”
He
said for the last 75 years, citizens of this country had been living a life of
poverty and other difficulties. Politicians don’t care much about them; they
only care about the people during elections. In order to improve lives of the
underprivileged the rulers six or seven times had sought assistance from other
countries, he said.
“The
poor say to them do that for your own selves, not in our name.”
Annual
moot calls for granting official status to Urdu, equal treatment to all
languages
The
council’s president then invited Dr Jaffer Ahmed to present a resolution. Some
of the points highlighted in the resolution were:
The
conference was organised at a time when the horrific effects of the pandemic
and floods are still being felt. Natural catastrophes don’t just have to do
with nature, but they also have to do with some measures taken by man, that is,
environmental pollution. We demand that environmental pollution should be given
importance to prevent such debilitating events in the future.
We
condemn the atrocities in Occupied Kashmir.
In
order to promote literary and cultural activities, a democratic atmosphere is a
must.
More
than half of Pakistan’s population is below the age of 30. Efforts should be
made to help give a boost to their creative abilities.
All
languages spoken in Pakistan should be treated equally and efforts should be
made to establish translation departments at educational institutions.
The
education budget should be increased and discrimination on the basis of
education must be eliminated.
Urdu
must be made the official language of the country.
The
audience passed the resolution unanimously.
After
that, Zubeida Birwani was given an award for best Sindhi novel.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1724662/urdu-conference-concludes-with-satire-on-21st-centurys-pakistan
--------
South Asia
Iran
using former Afghan soldiers as military force: Taliban
3
December, 2022
Kabul
[Afghanistan], December 3 (ANI): Iran is using former Afghan soldiers for their
military force and they are also being sent to fight in Syria alongside
Ukraine, said Taliban’s acting minister for refugees and repatriation, Khalil
Rahman Haqqani on Friday, TOLOnews reported.
“I
have shared this issue with them (Iranian authorities), Afghans have previously
been used in the fighting in Iraq and Syria, and it may have occurred in the
war in Ukraine as well,” Haqqani said during his visit to Afghanistan’s Parwan.
TOLOnews
reported citing the military analysts who stated that Iran is rather inducting
the former Afghan soldiers who have been found as refugees in Tehran after the
fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban in August last year.
Former
soldier Sarwar Niazi claimed, “They were compelled to contact other groups to
cover their family’s expenses, not only in Iraq and Syria but also in the
Ukraine war, where they were also recruited by the Russians.
However,
the Iranian embassy in Kabul refuted the claim that Tehran is sending former
Afghan soldiers to fight in the war in Ukraine, as per TOLOnews.
The
Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, causing the US-backed government to
step down. The country has been battered by the deepening economic,
humanitarian, and security crisis following the organization’s takeover.
Afghanistan
is currently grappling with a serious humanitarian crisis as according to
international assessments, the country now has the highest number of people in
emergency food insecurity in the world, with more than 23 million in need of
assistance and approximately, 95 per cent of the population having insufficient
food consumption.
Moreover,
the situation of human rights in Afghanistan has worsened since the collapse of
the Afghan government and the Taliban’s return to power in August last year.
Additionally,
the Ukraine crisis has had a massive impact on the rise in food costs and how
it was out of reach for many Afghans. Even while war has stopped in the nation,
grave human rights violations–particularly against women and minorities–remain
unabated.
Source:
ThePrint
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://theprint.in/world/iran-using-former-afghan-soldiers-as-military-force-taliban/1247187/
--------
Under
Taliban, lives of former Afghanistan security forces under grave threat: Report
3
December, 2022
Kabul
[Afghanistan], December 3 (ANI): In Afghanistan, the Taliban continue to
torture and detainment forcefully security officials who had worked under the
previous government, because of which the life of these officials has become
miserable, according to a report in the Afghan Diaspora Network (ADN).
The
Taliban took over Afghanistan after US and NATO forces left in August 2021.
Several reports and incidents of killings, torture and forced detainment of
security officials who had worked under the previous government have been
observed, because of which the life of these officials has become miserable,
says the report.
All
these incidents are the result of retaliatory revenge that the Taliban is
trying to assert on these former officials from the Afghan police, army,
intelligence, and militias that were fending off the Taliban with the help of
NATO forces says the author of ADN report, Elhamudin Afghan.
Many
of these former defence officials were successfully able to flee Afghanistan as
they were well connected to officials in the US and NATO forces. At present many
of these security officials who have escaped have settled in western countries
or have crossed the border and reached Iran. However, those who were
unsuccessful in leaving Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021 are now
bearing the brunt.
For
the past two weeks, there have been daily reports of killings in the eastern
region of Nangarhar province. ADN reported quoting Radio Azadi which reported
that the bodies of six people associated with the former government were found
in different areas of Jalalabad City. Much like what happened in Eastern
Nangarhar, in Kabul, an elite forces soldier of the former government was
killed along with his two brothers and his cousin in recent weeks, the report
mentioned.
ADN
reported quoting a November 2021 Human Rights Watch report to state that
Taliban had killed more than 100 of these former Afghan defence officials
within just three months of their takeover of Afghanistan’s Ghazni, Helmand,
Kunduz, and Kandahar provinces.
During
that time Afghan social media users shared many graphic videos of torture and
killings done by the Taliban to grab the attention of the western forces. It is
pertinent to say that no government has yet recognized the Taliban’s
government.
Locals
of Eastern Nuristan province said that the district officials of the Taliban in
Laghman province have arrested, tortured, and then killed in September this
year, Bahrumudin Nuristani who was a commander in the previous Afghan army in
the Mandol district.
People
in the Mandol and Doaba districts of Nuristan province demanded a probe into
Nuristani’s murder. ADN reported quoting a BBC report that the Taliban had
admitted that Nuristani was arrested and later died in Taliban’s detention.
ADN
took interviews of two members of the former Afghan security forces- Shawkat
Tareen and Abdullah Bawar – both pseudonyms used by the writer to hide the
identities for security reasons.
Tareen
recalled the day when the Taliban took over, a day that he and all his
colleagues cried. That day people from the Taliban tore Afghan flags, scattered
papers and insulted them. And now they have no hope for life as they are now
suffering, he was quoted as saying.
“I
remember that, on the day of the regime’s fall, most of the soldiers cried. The
Taliban pulled down our national flag, scattered our papers, and insulted us.
This is our terrible memory. Now we have no hope in life because we are
suffering,” Tareen said.
The
former Afghan official said that he now has neither physical, mental, social,
nor economic security, he is currently unemployed, depressed, and can sleep
only with the help of sleeping pills.
He
also pointed out that he was frightened about hearing that four of his former
colleagues had died between Iran and Turkey on the road to Europe and that his
two daughters are suffering under the Taliban regime, which has banned girls
from attending schools beyond the sixth class.
Similarly,
another security official from Eastern Laghman province quoted in the ADN
report states he was detained but released in August 2021. He said in the
interview given to ADN that he now does not believe that he will be able to see
an organized military for Afghanistan and added that if he gets a chance he
will flee Afghanistan.
Source:
ThePrint
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Mullah
Yaqoob Mujahid Meets With Afghans in UAE
December
5, 2022
During
a visit to the United Arab Emirates, a delegation of the Islamic Emirate led by
the acting defense minister, Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid, asked Afghans to return to
the country and take part in their country’s development.
In
a meeting with Afghan traders in the UAE, the acting minister of defense said
that he would speak with senior UAE officials about how to improve ties between
the two nations and address the challenges facing Afghans in the Gulf country.
"We
will meet with the relevant officials if there is a visa problem, an issue with
flights, or problems with prisoners. Even if there are problems inside
Afghanistan, for example, passport problems or other problems, I will try to
deal with these cases to the best of my ability without delay,” the defense
minister said.
Meanwhile,
the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate said that the delegation will meet with
the leadership and high-ranking officials of the UAE and discuss various
topics.
"This
trip is aimed to strengthen ties between the two nations and to help the 300,000
Afghans working in Dubai with their challenges, as well as other matters that
will be on the agenda. He will meet with the Sheik and other elders of that
country. He will also meet with several ministries,” said Zabiullah Mujahid,
the Islamic Emirate's spokesperson.
"They
might have a meeting, but this is not about political negotiations, nor is it
about any political process,” said Shahabuddin Delawar, acting minister of
Mines and Petroleum.
The
former president Hamid Karzai left the country on Saturday for the first time
in more than fifteen months at the same time as the delegation of the current
government officials.
"The
reason for his staying in Dubai is that he will receive a German visa there ...
and if any of the Afghans want to visit him in Dubai, this will not be a
problem,” said Shahzada Massoud, a close person to Karzai.
"These
are planned trips where both former and current politicians travel at the same
time and meet there for one or two days. these meetings are good for the future
of Afghanistan,” said Islamullah Muslim, a political expert.
Source:
ToloNews
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-181039
--------
20
Tons of Expired Food Burned in Northern Afghanistan
By
SaqalainEqbal
December
4, 2022
The
Directorate of Public Health in Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan stated
that about 20 tons of expired and substandard food were collected and torched.
The
environmental health director of the Public Health Kunduz Directorate, Ahmad
Noor Omarzai stated on Saturday, December 3 that 20 tons of expired food were
accumulated in 8 months.
According
to the health official, the expired food materials were collected from
wholesale and retail stores in Kunduz city and the surrounding areas and
estimated the cost of the materials at 5 million Afghanis.
According
to the Acting Director of Public Health in Kunduz, his office is committed to
preventing the sale of expired, substandard foods and medications and will take
legal action against the sellers.
The
authorities ordered the retailers to avoid selling low-quality, outdated
products and warned the residents to be careful of the materials’ quality and
expiration date to prevent related illnesses.
Previously,
the provinces’ public health offices would gather and burn expired,
poor-quality foodstuffs and medicines from the cities.
About
50 tons of expired medicinal and food items were collected and burned by the
Balkh province Directorate of Public Health a few weeks ago in Mazar-e-Sharif,
the provincial capital.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/20-tons-of-expired-food-burned-in-northern-afghanistan-56467/
--------
National
Standard Authority Closes Down 20 Gas Stations in Northwestern Afghanistan
By
SaqalainEqbal
December
4, 2022
The
Afghanistan National Standards Authority (ANSA) stated that it has closed down
20 low-quality gas stations in the Herat province of northwestern Afghanistan.
After
inspecting 100 filling stations in Herat province, the local authorities in
Herat province told the media on Sunday, December 12, that they had identified
and sealed 20 low-quality gas stations.
The
ANSA stated that it is committed to eliminating the oil mafia’s presence in the
country’s markets and fostering healthy competition among oil traders.
Due
to the increase in the price of petroleum products in the country’s markets,
the import of oil and gas from Iran to Afghanistan has resumed roughly a year
ago at the request of the current Afghan administration.
The
deputy of Islam Qala Customs in the province of Herat, ShafiqullahSamim, had
previously stated that the ANSA had inspected the oil entering the country from
Iran and that tankers would not be allowed to enter if the test result was not
optimal.
Afghanistan
imported a total of 400,000 tons of fuel from the contiguous country of Iran,
from May 2020 to May 2021.
Due
to the high cost of fuel, many drivers in Herat City had already abandoned
their cars, which caused a significant issue for the city’s residents.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
UNICEF
to Provide Cash Assistance to Tens of Thousands of Afghan Poor Families
By
SaqalainEqbal
December
4, 2022
The
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) announced that
over 100,000 destitute Afghan households across the country will receive cash
assistance at the onset of harsh and freezing winter from the agency.
According
to a tweet from UNICEF released on Sunday, December 4, millions of people in
poverty-stricken Afghanistan are unable to meet their families’ basic needs,
and as winter approaches, the situation will only worsen.
According
to the tweet, UNICEF will provide 112,000 destitute Afghan families with
seasonal cash assistance for them, in an attempt to extend “a lifeline to those
most in need.”
UNICEF
said that the poor in Afghanistan will receive financial assistance from the UN
agency with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
of the UK, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and
the German Foreign Office.
UNICEF
previously stated that it will distribute cash assistance to 111,000 families
across Afghanistan this winter.
The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported that 20 million
people in Afghanistan, or half the country’s population, are experiencing
severe food insecurity, amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The
ICRC also stated that Afghanistan’s economic woes and the harsh winter season
pose a threat to the lives of millions of Afghans while stressing the urgent
need for international assistance.
Source: Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Southeast Asia
Religious
affairs minister to focus on strengthening unity among Muslim community
05
Dec 2022
PUTRAJAYA
— The Religious Affairs Ministry will focus on efforts to strengthen unity of
the ummah in building national development, said its minister, Senator Datuk
Mohd Na’im Mokhtar.
He
said this was due to the current situation where there if a rift in the
society.
“InsyaAllah,
with prayers by the people and support from all religious agencies, we will
ensure that the objectives of Islam can be upheld in the country and we will succeed
in uniting the ummah.
“My
principle is ‘I seek to understand’ and today, with the holding opf the first
cabinet meeting, I’ll see what Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants,
so that we can set a focus to develop the country together,” he said.
MohdNaim
was met by reporters after scanning the time recorder card in his office to
symbolise him starting work as the Minister of Religious Affairs at his office
at the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) Building in
Putrajaya, today.
Meanwhile,
Mohd Na’im said he would hold meetings with stakeholders, such as government
agencies and related bodies, to understand their wishes and aspirations towards
empowering the ummah and nation-building.
Also
present was Jakim director-general Datuk HakimahMohdYusoff.
Source:
MalayMail
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Fearing
persecution and child marriages, women's groups call for Suhakam review of
Terengganu Shariah amendments
By
YiswareePalansamy
04
Dec 2022
KUALA
LUMPUR, Dec 4 — Two women's rights groups have called on the Human Rights
Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to conduct a human rights impact assessment of
the latest version of the Terengganu Shariah Criminal Offences Enactment 2022,
which among others, criminalises pregnancies out of wedlock.
In
a joint statement, Sisters in Islam and Justice for Sisters stressed that as a
party to the global Convention on Elimination All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women and the Convention on Rights of the Child, Malaysia holds the
obligation to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and children.
"The
amendments to the Enactment further exacerbate existing harmful impacts on
women, young people, LGBTQ persons, among others.
"Given
the harms of the amendments and its inconsistencies with the rights guaranteed
under the Federal Constitution, we urge Suhakam to undertake a human rights
impact assessment of the latest version of the Terengganu Shariah Criminal
Offences Enactment 2022," the groups said.
On
December 1, the Terengganu government passed four new sections under the
Shariah Criminal Offences (Takzir) (Terengganu) Enactment 2001, outlawing
witchcraft and shamanism, "females posing as males", females
conceiving or giving birth to a child out of wedlock, and sodomy.
"Females
posing as males" is an addition to the Shariah offence of "males
posing of females", which have traditionally been used to prosecute
transgender persons. Similarly, the offence is sodomy is used to prosecute gay
persons.
In
the statement, the women's groups lamented that the criminalisation of
out-of-wedlock pregnancies not only causes unnecessary trauma, but also burdens
and shames survivors of sexual assault and others.
"Unicef's
Situation Analysis of Adolescents shows pregnant teenagers are denied access to
education due to stigma and shame, resulting in them dropping out from school.
"Conversely,
the study also cites a 2015 nationwide study that showed a very low knowledge
on how to prevent unplanned pregnancies and lack of awareness of contraceptives
methods, aside from condoms and birth control pills of young people between 18
and 29 years old," they said.
They
also pointed out that the study showed Terengganu as one of three states with
the highest cases of child marriages applications via the Shariah courts.
"Sisters
in Islam and ARROW’s research shows sex and pregnancy out of wedlock being one
of the main contributing factors to child marriage in Malaysia," they
said.
ARROW
refers to the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women.
Source:
MalayMail
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
GE15
shows political Islam has gained popularity, says Hadi’s son
December
4, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: Political Islam has gained popularity in Malaysia and the conservative
religious politics of PAS is becoming more attractive to the young and
first-time voters as shown in the general election, says a party leader.
Chairman
of the PAS international affairs and external relations council, Muhammad Khalil
Abdul Hadi, said early analytical reports indicate that new young voters
supported the party, although their turnout was not as huge as other age
groups.
“The
political landscape in Malaysia is changing drastically. Looking forward, as
part of Perikatan Nasional, PAS which has always been seen as a religious and
conservative party shall prepare itself as part of the government in waiting
and function diligently as the party having the most seats in Dewan Rakyat.
“People
are anxiously waiting on how the cleric-dominated party will contribute to the
country especially on welfare and economic issues,” he said in an article in
the party’s organ Harakahdaily.
Khalil,
who is PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s son, said in the 15th general election
it won the greatest number of seats among all parties with 49 although the
Islamic party was never expected to win more than 10% of the 222 parliamentary
seats.
He
said this was based on the results of the last three national elections, where
PAS had won only between 18 and 23 seats.
He
added that prior to GE15, it was widely accepted that Terengganu, Kelantan,
Perlis, and Kedah were the only northern Malay heartlands where PAS and its
brand of conservative Islam were most prevalent.
“Outside
its usual strongholds, the party could only win if there were to be a
significant change in the voting pattern of both existing voters and, more
importantly, new voters.
“In
GE15, we witnessed this change in voting pattern for PAS all over the country.
In Penang, which is considered one of Malaysia’s most liberal states and has
the country’s only Chinese chief minister, PAS won two seats.”
He
said in the PermatangPauh parliamentary seat, PAS managed to force out Anwar
Ibrahim’s daughter Nurul Izzah of Pakatan Harapan, adding that the seat had
been held by Anwar, his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and his daughter since
1986.
He
attributed the party’s stellar performance mainly to the wave of young Malay
voters getting their first-hand information from social media platforms such as
TikTok .
Khalil,
who is Batu Buruk assemblyman in Terengganu, said statistics showed that 60% of
the six million new voters were Malays, adding that those in their mid-20s to
mid-30s tend to be conservative regardless of race.
Source:
FreeMalaysiaToday
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--------
New
religious minister can lead Islamic reforms, says Jakim
December
3, 2022
PUTRAJAYA:
The new minister for religious affairs, Na’im Mokhtar, can lead the way towards
reforming the management of Islamic affairs, according to the head of Jakim,
the Islamic development department.
Jakim
director-general HakimahMohdYusoff said Na’im has a strong background and
extensive experience in the administration of Islamic affairs, being a former
chief judge of the shariah court and former director-general of the shariah
judiciary department.
Hakimah
said her department believed that Na’im’s appointment would support the
amendments to the National Islamic Council regulations in March, one of which
calls for a state ruler to head the council on a two-year rotation.
Na’im,
55, is the first former chief judge of the shariah court to be appointed to the
Cabinet. He took office today, after being appointed to the Senate.
He
holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law, a PhD in shariah law, as well as
a diploma in Islamic administration and judiciary.
He
began his career as a law lecturer at the International Islamic University of
Malaysia from 1990 to 1997 before going into practice from 1997 to 1998.
He
was then appointed as the Petaling Jaya shariah court judge and was Kuala
Lumpur shariah court judge from 2001 to 2003. He has also been a senior shariah
prosecutor.
He
has also been in practice as a civil lawyer.
Nai’m
was appointed a visiting fellow at the Harvard Law School, Harvard University,
in 2013, and has been an adjunct professor at UniversitiTeknologi Mara’s law
faculty.
Source:
FreeMalaysiaToday
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--------
Indonesia’s
Proposed Criminal Code Reflects The Power Of Islamic Radicals
December
5, 2022
By
P. K. Balachandran
In
a sharp turn towards authoritarianism and archaic religiosity, Indonesia’s
parliament is expected to pass, within a few days, a new Criminal Code that
will extend the ambit of blasphemy, ban criticism of State Institutions and
criminalize cohabitation and sexual relations outside wedlock.
Justifying
the harsh new code, Deputy Justice Minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej told
Reuters: “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian
values.”
Observers
say that this is being done to meet mounting pressure from a growing Islamic
radical lobby which has been successfully propagating the view that non-Islamic
mores, beliefs and practices have debilitated and corrupted governance and the
social and economic order in Indonesia.
The
new trend of thought rejects modern democracy, secularism and also Pancasila,
Indonesia’s five foundational principles. The five principles of Indonesian
Pancasila are: one divinity; humanity; Indonesian unity; democracy; social
justice for all Indonesians. It believes
in the supremacy of Islam and Muslims in Indonesia.
The
Joko Widodo (Jokowi) government appears to be determined to go through with the
new Criminal Code because it has to refurbish its image to be seen as an
upholder of Islamic values ahead of the 2024 elections. Its overall image had
been dented by some of its recent economic policies and also its failure to
tackle the pandemic satisfactorily. The tried, tested and easiest way to
refurbish the image is to opt for the popular religious credo.
Controversial
Provisions
Among
the controversial provisions in the proposed code are the following: While
blasphemy against Islam is already a crime in Indonesia carrying imprisonment
as punishment, the draft code extends the ambit of the blasphemy law to cover
other religions that are officially recognized in Indonesia, namely,
Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
The
upshot of this would be a plethora of blasphemy charges right across Indonesian
religious spectrum.
Under
the new code, non-married couples who live together will be committing a crime
that carries six months’ imprisonment or a fine as punishment, although only if
reported to the police by their parents, children, or a spouse.
This
provision will target members of the LGBTQ community especially. Homosexuality
is already illegal in Indonesia.
Sex
outside marriage is deemed a criminal act. The proposed draft allows parents or
children to report unmarried couples to the police if they suspect them of
having sex. Sex before marriage and adultery will be punishable by up to a year
in jail.
The
danger in this is that it will curb the mixing of sexes, which is a key feature
of modern society.
The
new draft code would continue to criminalize abortions, with a potential jail
term of four years, although it allows abortion for medical reasons or if the
pregnancy is the result of rape as long as the pregnancy is of less than 12
weeks’ gestation.
However,
the proposed criminal code can be challenged in the Constitutional Court if it
is felt that it had not followed the correct procedure before it was passed,
including seeking relevant and transparent public participation.
Rise
of Fundamentalism
The
rush to tighten the criminal law by introducing Islamic concepts of morality is
attributed to rising Islamism in Indonesia, mainly inspired by Saudi Wahhabism
in the past 25 years.
In
his paper on the rising tide of Islamism in Indonesia, Prof. Baladas Ghoshal
former Chairman of the Southeast Asian Studies Center at Jawaharlal Nehru
University, delineates the journey of Islamization in Indonesia in recent
times.
Though
Indonesia is 88% Muslim, it is officially a secular country. The national
ideology of Pancasila proclaims unity and equality between all recognized
faiths. But Pancasila is under serious threat from Islamic fundamentalists.
These elements have been making rapid and deep inroads into the Indonesians’
minds and are now mainstream.
In
2021, the government wanted to name a road in Jakarta after the founding father
of secular Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The renaming was part of an
understanding with Turkey which had agreed to rename a street after the Indonesian
leader Sukarno. But Indonesian Islamic clerics opposed the deal saying that
Ataturk was an Islamic heretic. Street demonstrations thwarted the renaming
project.
In
2017, There was a street campaign against the then-Governor of Jakarta Basuki
“Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who was an ethnic Chinese Christian. Ahokwas accused of “blasphemy” after he referred to a
verse from the Qur’an. There was a widespread feeling that this was done only
because Ahok was a Chinese and a Christian.
“Sharia
law is spreading all the provinces of Indonesia. Citizens are enacting their
own variations of Islamic laws, and applying them to non-Muslims as well,”
Prof.Ghoshal points out.
The
Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) is the highest Muslim clerical council. In 2005,
the MUI issued a fatwa that banned liberalism, pluralism and secularism,
especially secularism. The hold of moderate organizations like Muhammadiyah and
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), has weakened since 2005, Prof. Ghoshal says.
And
MUI had State backing under Indonesia’s sixth President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono told the MUI’s National Congress on July 26, 2005, that he
wanted to give the MUI a “central role in matters of Islamic faith”.
The
MUI issued a fatwa on secularism legitimizing
vigilante groups which enforced Islamic morality. In 2005, the MUI
declared the Ahmadiyyas as “heretical”
prompting persecution of its followers. In 2006, MUI successfully
demanded that the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs
issue a joint decision on regulating the building of places of worship.
Following this, violence against Christians increased. From then on, hardliners
have been dominating the country’s political discourse, Prof. Ghoshal
says.
The
COVID-19 pandemic also fueled radical Islamism in Indonesia, adds Barbara
Kelemen in her paper in the series: COVID-19 in the Middle East and Asia:
Impacts and Responses.
Kelemen
identifies Rizieq Shihab, founder leader of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI),
as the greatest influence. Shihab was in exile in Saudi Arabia for three years.
The FPI propagates the view that deviation from Islamic tenets has been the
cause of all the ills of Indonesia. It has built its base by doing a lot of
humanitarian work, especially during natural disasters.
During
the pandemic, the Widodo government appeared to be protecting the economy
rather the peoples’ lives. As a result, it was losing popular support and
Shihab’s Islamic campaign was gaining ground. The government’s anti-worker and
anti-environmental laws also fueled popular discontent. Members of the
Indonesian Council of Young Intellectuals and Ulema, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia
and other Islamic groups also joined agitations against Widodo.
However,
even as the government cracked down on the protesters, and jailed Shihab, it was
also aware of the inherent strength of the Islamists. Widodo himself tried to
improve his religious reputation during the elections in 2019. His party, the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), has to keep its base intact to
fight the February 2024 national elections.
“While
Jokowi (Joko Widodo) is barred from running for president for another term, he
is probably trying to preserve his legacy while potentially preparing a path
for his son, Gibran RakabumingRaka, who ran and won mayoral elections in
Surakarta last year,” Kelemen points out.
Writing
in Council of Foreign Relations Joshua Kurlantzick says that Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto could be a
formidable challenger in 2024 as he could reflect the popular mood, including
the Islamic part.
Subianto
has been “closely linked to groups involved in demonizing and attacking
religious minorities, a classic tactic of an authoritarian populist,
”Kurlantzick points out.
In
the last elections, Subianto alleged that Widodo was a Chinese Christian.
Although Widodo won the election, these charges sparked riots in Jakarta,
Kurlantzick recalls.
Source:
Eurasia Review
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Indonesia
villagers race to escape eruption as sky turns black
Dec
4, 2022
LUMAJANG,
INDONESIA: Thousands of villagers living near Indonesia's Mount Semeru were
racing for refuge Sunday to the wail of emergency sirens as lava snaked towards
their homes under a black sky after the volcano erupted.
Locals
fled on motorbikes sometimes three at a time as a mushroom cloud of ash
approached and monsoon rains lashed the area in East Java.
"It
was dark and raining. The rain did not consist only of water, but also volcanic
ash. It was like mud," said an AFP journalist on the scene.
Indonesian
authorities raised their alert level for the volcano to its highest after the
crater spewed hot ash a mile into the sky.
It
came only a year after the volcano last erupted, killing at least 51 people and
laying waste to homes.
Rescue
workers were once again rushing to evacuate villagers in the area Sunday as a
colossal plume of ash engulfed all light.
One
emergency responder, Gunawan, filmed the clouds above as a midday sky turned
ominously dark as though midnight.
"It's
getting dark, bro," he said to the camera as a seismograph whistled in the
background.
The
internet was down and phone signals were patchy but villagers were alerted to
the danger by sirens and the beating of bamboo drums by local volunteers.
Semeru
is the highest mountain on Indonesia's main island of Java and lies around 800
kilometres (500 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta among a cluster of
craters in a moon-like landscape.
The
Southeast Asian archipelago nation has nearly 130 active volcanoes.
The
eruption last year left locals combing through ruined belongings after their
homes were blanketed in ash.
It
remains to be seen what damage the eruption will inflict this time with the
lava still edging towards homes and their owners told to remain eight kilometres
(five miles) from the crater.
Many
villagers, mostly women and children, took shelter in local halls and schools,
some as far as 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.
Gunawan,
who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said everyone was safe for now,
even if their possessions and homes might not be by day's end.
As
he flashed a peace sign at a camera against the backdrop of dark haze and
monsoon rains at his rescue post, he tried to reassure people.
Source:
Times Of India
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--------
Appointment
of Malaysia DPM Ahmad Zahid in important roles a ‘matter of great concern’:
Analyst
Jalelah
Abu Baker
05
Dec 2022
SINGAPORE:
The appointment of Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in
important roles amid accusations of corruption has “raised a lot of eyebrows
and is a matter of great concern”, an analyst said on Monday (Dec 5).
Mr
Ahmad Zahid is the deputy prime minister and minister of rural and regional
development. The Malaysian Cabinet was sworn in on Saturday.
Given
that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim needs the BN’s support - with its 30 MPs - to
form the government, his “hands are tied”, noted Ms Aira Azhari, senior manager
of research (democracy and governance unit) at the independent think tank
Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.
"At
the same time, you know, a lot of civil society activists, members of the
opposition as well, were hoping that some other mechanism or some other
compromise could have been reached,” she said.
Mr
Ahmad Zahid faces 47 charges – 12 for criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight for
corruption and 27 for money laundering – involving tens of millions of ringgit
belonging to charity foundation Yayasan Akalbudi (YAB).
He
is the foundation’s trustee and sole signatory for cheques. The hearing for the
YAB trial is ongoing.
“We
all need to keep the government accountable, hoping that none of the abuses of
power of the past will happen,” Ms Aira told CNA’s Asia First.
UMNO’S
ROLE
There
may be a “difficult, long and winding road” ahead, Ms Aira added, given the
upcoming polls of BN component party UMNO, where Mr Ahmad Zahid’s position as
president could be contested.
“He
might have challenges to that position, especially now that UMNO is split many,
many different ways. So, what happens if firstly, yes, he is found guilty and
secondly, what if he loses the party election?” she asked.
The
party’s upcoming annual assembly held from Dec 21 to 24 could also change the
situation, she said.
“During
that assembly … unhappy delegates can pressure the division chiefs who can
then, in turn, put pressure on the party president, Zahid Hamidi … maybe
pressuring him to pull out of the coalition,” she said.
“There
are a lot of variables there.”
She
added that Mr Anwar needs to balance these factors and try to keep his
government together.
UMNO
knows that it is critical for Mr Anwar to have them in the fold because they
bring the branding of the Malay, Muslim party, even though they have been
losing support among the Malay community, political analyst Ariel Tan told
CNA938’s Asia First.
Mr
Anwar should be able to get their support if he continues to keep them happy,
going into the vote of confidence challenge when Parliament sits on Dec 19, Ms
Tan said.
CALLS
FOR OLIVE BRANCH WITH PN
Ms
Tan, who is coordinator of the Malaysia Programme at the S Rajaratnam School of
International Studies, noted that there have been calls for a reconciliatory
gesture between the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) and its rival Perikatan
Nasional (PN).
For
instance, the PN coalition could be given a bigger role in parliamentary
committees, she said.
Another
option is appointing an opposition leader, ensuring that the opposition has
fair funding and representation at both the federal and state levels. Mr Anwar
could also consider an agreement with the opposition, the way former prime
minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob signed one with PH, Ms Tan said.
“I
think the one motivation for the opposition to play nice would be that the
electorate is tired of the political instability. On the other hand, it is
tempting for PN to try to undermine Pakatan Harapan the same way they did
before and try to get back into power,” she said.
“Power
is tempting and very seductive, because with power, you get resources, you get
prominence, and that will help them in the next election so they can't wait too
long to get back into power.”
ROLE
AS FINANCE MINISTER
Another
matter of concern is Mr Anwar assuming the finance minister portfolio, Ms Aira
said. She cited what happened with former prime minister Najib Razak, who was
also simultaneously finance minister and was jailed 12 years earlier this year
for graft and money laundering.
“I
don't know if this prime minister will change his decision, but I do hope that
this kind of abuse of power does not happen again, because Malaysia cannot
afford another 1MDB (scandal), she said.
Mr
Anwar will hold a special meeting on Monday, where he is expected to lay down
new rules.
“These
new rules, we don't know what they are. I'm hoping that it will hopefully be
more than just lip service and there will be some concrete action that the
Prime Minister wants his cabinet to take,” Ms Aira said.
She
pointed to compulsory public asset declaration as one such action that is
“extremely important”, especially for ministers.
“I
think that’s just the minimal level of scrutiny and accountability that should
be expected from our ministers,” she said.
Ms
Aira noted that some candidates did so in the run-up to the election but not
all did.
She
added that she hopes the Cabinet members will take the lead from Mr Anwar, who
rejected a Mercedes car purchased by the Prime Minister's Department for his
use, citing prudence.
GETTING
ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK
Ms
Tan noted that Mr Anwar, who first held the finance minister role 30 years ago
under the government of then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was popular with
the West at the time.
She
said that she does not expect Mr Anwar to try to rock the boat in the first
year given the political instability of recent years.
His
first job is to provide political stability and his second job is to steady
domestic confidence, she said.
“A
lot of the ringgit issues have to do with also low domestic confidence, sending
ringgit funds out. But he has an opportunity to cultivate international
confidence through his commitment to transparency, institutional reform, and
further market liberalisation,” she added.
She
noted that Malaysia has good economic fundamentals in terms of a young labour
force that is educated and English-speaking.
“It's
going to benefit from the decoupling of the global supply chain and so both the
West and Chinese companies would be open to looking at Malaysia,” she said,
although she acknowledged that the country is “losing some of its shine
vis-a-vis Indonesia and Vietnam," she said.
Source:
ChannelNewsAsia
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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/anwar-ibrahim-ahmad-zahid-dpm-cabinet-analyst-3122371
--------
World
Cup fans see double standard in stadium politics ban
December
3, 2022
DOHA:
The first World Cup in the Middle East has been anything but insulated from the
troubles of the volatile region, set against a backdrop of anti-government
protests in Iran and an upsurge in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Fans
are criticising what they see as inconsistent enforcement of Fifa rules by the
host country. Some were handing out “Free Palestine” t-shirts ahead of
Argentina’s match with Poland on Wednesday.
However,
while airing pro-Palestinian sympathies has been allowed, security forces have
clamped down on fans seeking to show support for protesters in Iran, who have
been demanding an end to clerical rule there.
The
contrast was laid bare this week outside the Al Thumama Stadium.
On
Thursday, security ushered through hundreds of fans draped in flags, hats, and
scarves showing support for Palestine ahead of the Morocco versus Canada match.
Two
nights earlier, security at the same stadium confiscated items showing support
for Iranian protesters, forcing fans to remove t-shirts and some flags ahead of
Iran’s crunch match against the US.
As
crowds dissipated after Iran’s 1-0 defeat, Reuters journalists saw guards chase
men in activist shirts through the stadium precinct, tackling one to the ground
as he screamed the cry of Iran’s anti-government protesters: “Woman Life
Freedom”.
Ahead
of the match, Fifa’s human rights department sent an email to fans who
complained about treatment at earlier Iran matches, clarifying that ‘Women.
Life. Freedom.’ or the name or portrait of MahsaAmini – the woman whose death
in Iranian police custody sparked the unrest – are allowed in stadiums.
Reuters
saw the text of the email.
Qatar’s
World Cup organisers said that “security authorities stepped in to de-escalate
tension and restore calm.” Qatar’s government media office did not respond to a
request for comment.
‘A
real problem’
While
fans see a double standard, analysts say the approach reflects the political
priorities of Qatar, a conservative Muslim country with an authoritarian
government that has long walked a diplomatic tightrope.
Its
policies have included building good ties with Iran while hosting the region’s
largest US military base, and hosting the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas
while previously having some trade relations with Israel and allowing Israelis
to fly direct to Doha for the World Cup – a first.
For
fans, inconsistent enforcement of rules had been “a real problem”, said Ronan
Evain, executive director of Football Supporters of Europe.
“What
we see in the end is that Fifa has lost control of its own tournament.”
He
said there had been “staggering” inconsistency over Iranian slogans, saying
fans had worn t-shirts declaring support for the protests at some games while
getting into trouble for wearing them at Iran’s matches.
He
saw similar inconsistency when it came to shows of support for LGBTQ rights,
for which Qatar has faced heavy criticism because of its ban on homosexuality.
While
rainbow flags are in theory allowed, “in practice we see that this is very
different,” he said.
“This
inconsistency is putting fans at risk,” he said.
Fifa’s
Qatar World Cup stadium code of conduct prohibits banners, flags, fliers,
apparel, and other paraphernalia of a “political, offensive, or discriminatory
nature.”
A
Fifa spokesman said it was “aware of some incidents where permitted items were
not allowed to be displayed at stadiums,” and continued to work closely with
Qatar to ensure full implementation of regulations.
Iranian-American
Saeed Kamalinia said he wore a t-shirt declaring “Women. Life. Freedom.” to six
games but concealed it on his way through security for two of Iran’s matches.
He
decided against wearing it to the US game, fearing a crackdown.
By
contrast, symbols of support for the Palestinians have been widely seen.
“I
felt welcomed by the Qatari people and by all present here. People greet us
with ‘Palestine Palestine’,” said Palestinian fan Saeed Khalil.
Maryam
Alhajri, a Qatari member of Qatar Youth Against Normalization, a vocal group
opposed to Arab normalisation with Israel, said pro-Palestinian sympathies
showed “that Palestine remains the primary Arab cause.”
Arab
states including the UAE and Morocco – cheered by many Arab fans for making it
to the last 16 – normalised ties with Israel in 2020.
For
Qatar, allowing shows of support for the Palestinians was part of a “hedging
strategy,” said Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown
University Qatar.
Source:Free
Malaysia Today
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--------
Career
leap for Tok Mat after years in state leadership
December
3, 2022
KUALA
LUMPUR: The appointment of Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan as defence
minister in the Cabinet led by Anwar Ibrahim is seen as a career leap for the
veteran politician.
Despite
being a new face in the federal Cabinet, Mohamad, popularly known as Tok Mat,
has the credibility accumulated over 25 years in politics to face the
challenges that come with the new portfolio.
Mohamad,
66, has extensive experience in the economy and state administration. He led
the Negeri Sembilan state government as menteribesar for almost 20 years since
2004.
He
has a strong personality, and that is seen as quite important in facing the
various security challenges as well as the threat of Covid-19 even though the
country has moved into an endemic transition phase.
Among
Mohamad’s proudest achievements is the huge potential development in Sendayan
with the construction of an air base on 303.5 hectares, occupied by the air
force since 2018.
Mohamad
stood in a parliamentary seat for the first time at the general election last
month and won comfortably with a 19,897-vote majority in a five-cornered
contest.
Source:Free
Malaysia Today
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--------
Indonesia
set to pass key changes in criminal code that will ban sex outside marriage
05
December ,2022
Indonesia
is expected to ratify sweeping changes to its criminal code on Tuesday, senior
officials confirmed, in a legal overhaul that critics say could wind back
hard-won democratic freedoms and police morality in the Southeast Asian nation.
Among
the most controversial revisions to the code are articles that would penalize
sex outside of marriage with up to one year in jail, outlaw cohabitation
between unmarried couples, insulting the president, and expressing views
counter to the national ideology, known as the Pancasila.
Deputy
speaker of the House of Representatives, SufmiDasco Ahmad, and Bambang
Wuryanto, head of the parliamentary
commission
overseeing the revision, told Reuters on Monday that parliament would hold a
plenary session on Tuesday to ratify the new code.
The
government and House of Representatives have agreed on the draft code, clearing
a hurdle to its passage.
Decades
in the making, the revision of the country’s colonial-era penal code has
sparked mass protests in recent years, although the response has been
considerably more muted this year.
Parliament
had planned to ratify a draft new code in September 2019, but nationwide demonstrations
over perceived threats to civil liberties halted its passage.
Legislators
in the world’s third-largest democracy have since watered down some of the
articles deemed most contentious.
Revised
articles on sex outside marriage and cohabitation, for example, now state such
complaints can only be reported by
close
relatives such as a spouse, parent or child, while insulting the president can
only be reported by the president.
But
legal experts and civil society groups say the changes don’t go far enough.
“This
criminal code is a huge setback for Indonesia,” said BivitriSusanti, a law
expert from the University of Indonesia.
“The
state cannot manage morality,” she said. “The government’s duty is not as an
umpire between conservative and liberal Indonesia.”
Articles
on customary law, blasphemy, protesting without notification and expressing
views divergent from the Pancasila
were
all legally problematic because they could be widely interpreted, she said.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Arab World
Saudi
Arabia hands down death sentences to six more political dissidents: Rights
organization
05
December 2022
A
human rights organization says the Saudi judiciary has sentenced six more
prisoners of conscience to death as the kingdom employs secret trials and
controversial rulings as a tool to further crack down on political prisoners
and possibly eliminate them.
Sanad
human rights organization, which defends political and civil rights in Saudi
Arabia, said the verdicts were passed irrespective of the international outcry
and criticisms over arbitrary executions of Saudi citizens at the hands of the
government.
Sanad
said the death sentences were issued against Mohammed Al Tahnoon, Mustafa Abu
Shaheen, Abdullah Ghazwi, Zuhair Al Samkhan, Mohammed Al Masbah and Razi
al-Shayib.
According
to the rights group, the fresh death sentences take the number of jailed dissidents
who face imminent execution to 59.
Sanad
also emphasized that the government of Saudi Arabia completely ignores
international warnings in this regard and continues to arbitrarily issue death
sentences against its political opponents.
In
late October, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) said in
a report that Saudi Arabia’s courts had convicted and sentenced more than a
dozen anti-regime activists to death following unfair trials and based on
confessions extracted through torture and ill-treatment.
The
international human rights organization said Saudi authorities had passed
capital punishments against 15 more prisoners of conscience.
Human
rights organizations argue that the harsh arbitrary sentences given by the
Saudi judiciary to imprisoned dissidents manifest the extent of the kingdom’s
disregard for international law, rampant injustice, and violations of human
rights and civil liberties.
Ever
since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in
2017, the kingdom has arrested hundreds of activists, bloggers, intellectuals
and others for their political activism, showing almost zero tolerance for
dissent even in the face of international condemnation of the crackdown.
Muslim
scholars have been executed and women’s rights campaigners have been put behind
bars and tortured as freedom of expression, association, and belief continue to
be denied by the kingdom’s authorities.
Source:
Press TV
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Saudi
education ministry launches Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship
05
December ,2022
Saudi
Arabia’s Ministry of Education has opened applications for the Custodian of the
Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program for the 2023/2024 academic year, the Saudi
Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday.
Applications
opened on Sunday and will be remain open until Monday.
The
program, launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, offers students the
chance to apply for a scholarship to study some of the best qualitative majors
at leading international universities, Dr. Amal Shuqair, Undersecretary of the
Ministry of Education for Scholarships, said.
The
universities which were selected offer degrees that would help achieve the
Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals and meet the requirements of the market, she said.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Saudi
education ministry launches Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship
05
December ,2022
Saudi
Arabia’s Ministry of Education has opened applications for the Custodian of the
Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program for the 2023/2024 academic year, the Saudi
Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday.
Applications
opened on Sunday and will be remain open until Monday.
The
program, launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, offers students the
chance to apply for a scholarship to study some of the best qualitative majors
at leading international universities, Dr. Amal Shuqair, Undersecretary of the
Ministry of Education for Scholarships, said.
The
universities which were selected offer degrees that would help achieve the
Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals and meet the requirements of the market, she said.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Two
dead as protesters, police clash in southern Syria
Dec
4, 2022
BEIRUT:
A protester and a policeman were killed Sunday in Syria's southern city of Sweida
as security forces cracked down on a rare demonstration by hundreds against
deteriorating living conditions.
Tensions
were high in the regime-held city after protesters threw rocks at a government
building and stormed it, removing a large picture of President Bashar al-Assad
from its facade, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"At
least one protester and one police officer were killed," Observatory chief
Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The
protester was shot dead when security forces opened fire after demonstrators
entered the building, he said, adding that government forces have fanned out in
the city, dispersing protesters.
Local
news outlet Suwayda24 confirmed the two deaths and said four others were taken
to hospital with gunshot wounds in the Druze-majority city.
The
Sweida region south of Damascus is the heartland of the Druze, who made up less
than three percent of Syria's pre-war population and have largely kept out of
the country's civil war.
That
war has killed nearly half a million people since it began in 2011 with the
brutal repression of anti-government protests, fragmenting the country and
causing economic collapse.
-
'Pursue the outlaws' - Suwayda24 posted images on social media earlier in the
day that showed protesters calling for the fall of the regime as security
forces stood guard outside the building.
Other
images showed a military vehicle on fire and burning tyres on main streets of
the city. Gunshots could be heard in some of the footage.
Syria's
interior ministry said a "group of outlaws" killed one policeman
while they tried to storm police headquarters.
Some
protesters carried weapons, the ministry said.
"We
will pursue the outlaws, and take legal measures against anyone who tries to
tamper with the security and stability of the Sweida governorate and the safety
of its citizens," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
State
television said "lawbreakers" had stormed the provincial government
building and "set fire to official documents and files".
Syria's
economy has been pummelled by both its long-running civil war and Western
sanctions against Damascus, and the value of the local currency has plummeted.
Ninety
percent of the population now lives below the poverty line and 12.4 million
people are food insecure, according to the United Nations.
Sweida
and other cities have been hit hard by nationwide electricity rationing and
chronic fuel shortages that severely hamper daily life.
The
government in recent days announced further austerity measures, including more
electricity rationing.
Source:
Times Of India
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
World
Cup host Qatar seeks to change minds on Islam
December
4, 2022
DOHA:
Proudly Muslim Qatar has taken advantage of the World Cup to reach out to the
hundreds of thousands of visiting fans to change minds about Islam or even make
conversions.
The
Gulf emirate is the first Muslim nation to stage a football World Cup and its
gas riches have endowed it with an array of grand mosques to pique the
curiosity of visitors.
Canadian
couple Dorinel and Clara Popa listened to the call to prayer at an
Ottoman-style mosque in Doha’s Katara cultural district.
It
is known as Doha’s Blue Mosque because of the sumptuous mosaics of blue and
purple tiles on the walls. A guide took the couple on a tour of the elaborate
interior dominated by a giant chandelier.
Dorinel
Popa, a 54-year-old accountant, said the couple were taking a first look at
Islam. “We have prejudice against the culture and the people,” because of a
lack of exposure to others, he said.
–
Coffee and faith –
“We
have some thoughts in our heads and now maybe some of them will change,” added
his wife, a 52-year-old doctor. The Qatar Guest Center, which supervises the
Blue Mosque, has brought dozens of Muslim preachers from around the world to
Qatar for the tournament.
Outside
the mosque there are booklets in different languages explaining Islam and the
Prophet Mohammed, along with Arabic coffee and dates.
Syrian
volunteer Ziad Fateh said the World Cup is “an opportunity to introduce
millions of people to Islam” and change “misconceptions” about a religion that
many in the West link to radicalism.
“We
explain to people more about ethics, the importance of family bonding, and
respect for neighbours and non-Muslims,” he added.
Near
the mosque, volunteers managed a table aimed at visiting women with a sign
saying: “Ask me about Qatar.” Those who stop are also offered Arabic coffee.
A
Palestinian volunteer, Somaya, said most of the questions concerned “the veil,
polygamy and whether women are oppressed in Islam.”
Qatar’s
record on women’s and LGBTQ rights has been heavily scrutinised in connection
with the World Cup. Nearby, visitors can watch a five minute virtual reality tour
of Islam.
The
campaign is being pursued across Qatar.
–
‘Happiness’ in Islam –
In
the Pearl district, where many expatriates live and frequent its expensive
cafes and restaurants, murals have been painted with quotes from the Prophet
Mohammed urging good morality.
Upscale
shopping malls carry advertisements promoting Islam. In the Souq Waqif market,
where thousands of fans gather every day, free books and pamphlets are left in
one alley with a sign saying: “If you’re looking for happiness… you will find
(it) in Islam”.
Near
the Souq, the Sheikh Abdulla bin Zaid Islamic Cultural Center is open 12 hours
a day for tours.
Some
Muslim leaders in Qatar have called for efforts to convert visiting football
fans to Islam. Sultan bin Ibrahim Al Hashemi, a professor of sharia law at
Qatar University who heads the Voice of Islam radio station, said the World Cup
should be used to find new converts as well as counter Islamophobia.
Hashemi
told AFP that in his meetings with foreign fans: “I will offer them to convert
to Islam.
“If
I find the opportunity, I will offer them Islam with ease and grace, and if I
do not find the opportunity, I will tell them that you are our guests and our
brothers in humanity.” But he stressed that Islam does not accept conversion
through coercion.
Social
media posts have claimed that hundreds of fans have changed faith but AFP’s
fact-checking service has shown those claims are fake.
An
official at Qatar’s ministry of religious endowments told AFP that the goal of
the state was not “the number of converts to Islam, but rather the number of
those who change their opinion about it.” Fans said they found the idea of
World Cup conversions absurd.
Source:
Pakistan Today
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/12/04/world-cup-host-qatar-seeks-to-change-minds-on-islam/
--------
Two
killed as protesters, police clash in Syria
December
5, 2022
BEIRUT:
A protester and a policeman were killed on Sunday in Syria’s southern city of
Sweida as security forces cracked down on a rare demonstration by hundreds
against deteriorating living conditions.
Tensions
were high in the regime-held city after protesters threw rocks at a government
building and stormed it, removing a large picture of President Bashar al-Assad
from its facade, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“At
least one protester and one police officer were killed,” Observatory chief Rami
Abdel Rahman said.
The
protester was shot dead when security forces opened fire after demonstrators
entered the building, he said, adding that government forces have fanned out in
the city, dispersing protesters. Local news outlet Suwayda24 confirmed the two
deaths and said four others were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds in the
Druze-majority city.
The
Sweida region south of Damascus is the heartland of the Druze, who made up less
than three percent of Syria’s pre-war population and have largely kept out of
the country’s civil war. That war has killed nearly half a million people since
it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests,
fragmenting the country and causing economic collapse.
Suwayda24
posted images on social media earlier in the day that showed protesters calling
for the fall of the regime as security forces stood guard outside the building.
Other
images showed a military vehicle on fire and burning tyres on main streets of
the city. Gunshots could be heard in some of the footage. Syria’s interior
ministry said a “group of outlaws” killed one policeman while they tried to
storm police headquarters. Some protesters carried weapons, the ministry said.
“We
will pursue the outlaws, and take legal measures against anyone who tries to
tamper with the security and stability of the Sweida governorate and the safety
of its citizens,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
State
television said “lawbreakers” had stormed the provincial government building
and “set fire to official documents and files”.
Syria’s
economy has been pummelled by both its long-running civil war and Western
sanctions against Damascus, and the value of the local currency has plummeted.
Ninety
percent of the population now lives below the poverty line and 12.4 million
people are food insecure, according to the United Nations.
Sweida
and other cities have been hit hard by nationwide electricity rationing and
chronic fuel shortages that severely hamper daily life. The government in
recent days announced further austerity measures, including more electricity
rationing.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1724758/two-killed-as-protesters-police-clash-in-syria
--------
Iranians
in Iraq skeptical over end to morality police
05
December ,2022
Iranians
in Iraq expressed skepticism at reports Sunday that Tehran has abolished its
feared morality police, a force indelibly associated with months of protests in
the Islamic republic.
Iran’s
morality police in mid-September arrested young Iranian-Kurdish woman
MahsaAmini for allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women,
and she subsequently died in their custody, triggering ongoing protests.
Late
Saturday, Iran’s attorney general said that the force had “been abolished.”
But
the move received short shrift in Iraqi Kurdistan, where Iranian opposition
groups have lately been the target of cross-border missile and drone strikes by
the regime.
“The
protesters’ slogan is not that the morality police should be disbanded,” said
Nachmil Abdi, who works in a shop selling women’s shoes.
“Yes,
one of the claims is an end to the compulsory headscarf,” she added. “But the
true demand is the elimination of the regime.”
Soma
Hakimzada, a 32-year-old journalist born in Iraqi Kurdistan to parents who fled
Iran, also viewed the move dimly.
“I
don’t think women appreciate this Iranian announcement,” she said, adding that
she hoped it would not dampen the fervor of protests inside the Islamic
republic.
Elsewhere
in Iraq, views were mixed.
“If
we want to have a morality police, it must be done with soft words,” pleaded
Wahid Sarabi, speaking in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, but who is from the
western Iran city of Hamedan.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Protesters
storm governor’s office in southern Syria, gunfire heard
04
December ,2022
Dozens
of demonstrators angry over worsening economic conditions in Syria stormed the
governor’s office in the southern city of Sweida on Sunday and set fire to
parts of the building amid a heavy exchange of gunfire, the authorities and
witnesses said.
Earlier,
more than 200 people had gathered around the building in the center of the
Druze-majority city, chanting slogans calling for the overthrow of Syrian
President Bashar Assad, they said, amid spiraling prices and economic hardship.
Syrian
state media said tens of “outlaws” stormed the governor’s office and burned
files and official papers.
Three
witnesses told Reuters the governor was not in the building which was vacated
before protesters stormed the offices.
“The
governor’s office was burnt completely from the inside,” said Rayan Maarouf, a
civic activist and editor of Suwayda 24, a local website that covers the
southern region, who said several people were wounded in the exchange of
gunshots.
“There
was heavy gunfire,” Maarouf told Reuters, saying it was not clear from where
the shooting came from in the heavily policed area.
Sweida
province has been spared the violence seen in other parts of Syria since the
start of the over-decade long conflict that began after pro-democracy protests
erupted against Assad’s family ruler were violently crushed by security forces.
The
minority Druze sect, whose faith draws its roots from Islam, have long resisted
being drawn into the Syrian conflict that pits mainly Sunni rebels against
Assad’s rule.
Many
community leaders and top Druze religious leaders have refused to sanction
enlistment in the army.
Syria
is in the throes of a deep economic crisis where a majority of people after a
devastating conflict that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions
struggle to afford food and basic goods.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
UN
refugee agency chief calls for sustained support to Lebanon’s most vulnerable
03
December ,2022
The
United Nations’ refugee agency chief called Saturday for sustained support for
Syrian refugees in Lebanon and vulnerable Lebanese citizens, three years after
the country’s economy began collapsing.
“We
must stand with Lebanon,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said at the end of a
three-day visit to Beirut.
He
urged the international community to help the country as it faces “one of its
hardest moments” and hosts “one of the largest refugee populations per capita
in the world.”
Since
late 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of an economic crisis dubbed by the
World Bank as one of the worst in modern history, dealing an especially heavy
blow to vulnerable communities, including refugees.
Hundreds
of thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon after the country’s civil war began in
2011 with the brutal suppression of anti-regime protests.
Authorities
say Lebanon hosts around two million Syrian refugees, while nearly 830,000 are
registered with the UN.
In
a statement, Grandi said sustained support for Lebanon was needed “now more
than ever... both to support Lebanese in need and the hundreds of thousands of
refugees that they have generously hosted for so many years.”
During
his visit, Grandi met with officials including caretaker Prime Minister Najib
Mikati “to discuss how to better support vulnerable Lebanese and refugees,” the
statement added.
Lebanese
authorities have long pushed for Syrian refugees to return to their home
country, and have made several repatriation efforts they describe as voluntary,
but human rights groups have branded the returns as forced.
“The
government reiterated its urgent appeal for an end to the refugee crisis,”
Grandi said, adding that UNHCR was working toward this goal “despite the
complex and challenging situation.”
Since
the Damascus regime regained control of most of Syria, some host countries have
sought to expel refugees from their territories, citing a relative end to
hostilities.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
UAE
President Sheikh Mohamed in Qatar for official visit
05
December ,2022:
President
of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is in Qatar for
an official state visit which commenced on Monday, the official Emirates News
Agency WAM reported.
Qatar’s
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani invited the UAE President to visit and
build on the existing brotherly relations between the two nations.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Saudi
Arabia condemns ISIS attack on Pakistan embassy in Kabul
04
December ,2022
Saudi
Arabia’s foreign ministry on Sunday strongly condemned an attack on the
Pakistani embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul, and the failed assassination
attempt against its Charge d’affaires.
The
ministry reiterated Saudi Arabia’s support for Pakistan, expressing its
solidarity with the Pakistani people, according to a statement carried by the
official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
ISIS
on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack, which Islamabad decried as
an “assassination attempt” against its ambassador.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Iraq
says over 18,000 stolen artifacts retrieved
04.12.2022
BAGHDAD
Iraq
has retrieved more than 18,000 smuggled artifacts, according to the country’s
foreign minister on Sunday.
“The
Iraqi government has made efforts to stop sabotage operations against
antiquities, as more than 18,000 smuggled artifacts have been returned,"
Fouad Hussein said at the opening of the 6th Forum of Arab Civilizations in
Baghdad.
The
top diplomat, however, did not provide any details when these artifacts were
returned.
"Most
of Iraq's civilizations have been subjected to various threats, and terrorism
has had a hand in destroying cultural landmarks, but these terrorist acts
cannot obliterate history,” Hussein said.
The
foreign minister called for bolstering bilateral cooperation and coordination
to retrieve all stolen antiquities.
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/iraq-says-over-18-000-stolen-artifacts-retrieved/2755353
--------
IRGC
forces only ‘a kilometer away’ from terrorists in Iraqi Kurdistan: Colonel
04
December 2022
A
commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the elite
forces are very close to the positions of terrorist groups in the Iraqi
Kurdistan Region but they will strike the terrorists only if they attack first.
Colonel
DelavarRanjibarzadeh, a commander of the IRGC in the border town of Sardasht in
Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province, made the remark in an interview with Lebanon’s
al-Mayadeen television network on Saturday.
Ranjibarzadeh
said the IRGC forces are monitoring the movements of terrorists in the
semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq and that they have been able to prevent
them from achieving their goals.
The
IRGC forces are capable of reaching the terrorists positioned in the Iraqi
Kurdistan Region “but they are not doing so out of respect for neighboring
countries,” he said. “We are a kilometer away from the terrorists’ strongholds,
and we are not targeting them if they do not attack us.”
He
explained that the IRGC has a lot of intelligence regarding the terrorists’
activities, adding, “We target them when attacked. Our forces are fully capable
of deterring the terrorists coming from the Kurdistan Region.”
“If
the IRGC did not bolster their positions in this region, the terrorists would
have violated it,” Ranjibarzadeh said. He added that the Iraqi forces had
pledged to send reinforcements to the region to provide security.
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.
Since
September 24, the IRGC has been targeting terrorist bases in Iraq’s Kurdistan
Region, amid reports that terrorists sought to ignite riots in Iran’s western
border cities.
In
a letter to the UN Security Council last week, Tehran clarified that operations
against hostile terror groups based in the Iraqi Kurdistan aim to defend the
country’s national security, urging the central Iraqi government to shoulder
its responsibility to maintain effective control over its entire territory and
internationally-recognized borders.
The
country, it added, has recently launched “necessary and proportionate military
operations” against terrorist groups’ bases in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,
which were “meticulously planned and precisely targeted terrorist locations.”
‘Iraq
not to use its land to attack neighbors’
Meanwhile,
the spokesman for the Iraqi armed forces, lauded on Sunday Iraq’s good
relations with the neighboring countries and stressed that Baghdad would not
use its land to carry out attacks against them.
“We
have good relations with all neighboring countries and we seek to develop them
in a way that serves the interests of the parties, with the need to respect
Iraq's sovereignty,” Yahya Rasool said at a press conference in the capital,
adding, “Iraq refuses to use its land to attack any neighboring country.”
Source:
Press TV
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--------
Mideast
Iran
abolishes morality police after months of protests
Dec
5, 2022
TEHRAN:
Iran has abolished the morality police, according to an announcement by the
attorney general carried on state media, following months of protests set off
by the death of a young woman who was being held by the force for supposedly
violating the country’s strict Islamic dress laws. The morality police “was
abolished by the same authorities who installed it”, the statement by attorney
general Mohammad Javad Montazeri said, according to state media reports. But he
went on to suggest that the judiciary would still enforce restrictions on
“social behaviour”.
He
also indicated that the authorities were reviewing the head scarf regulations.
But it was not clear whether the authorities planned to relax the hijab law,
which remained in force. There was, however, no confirmation of the closure
from the interior ministry which is in charge of the morality police, and
Iranian state media said Montazeri was not responsible for overseeing the
force.
The
announcement, reported by state news outlets on Saturday night, appeared to be
a major victory for feminists who have sought for years to dismantle the force
and for the protest movement ignited by the death of the young woman,
MahsaAmini, 22, in September. The unrest has amounted to one of the biggest
challenges in decades to Iran’s system of authoritarian clerical ruleand the
decision to scrap the morality police was the government’s first major
concession to the protesters. Residents posting on social media and newspapers
such as Shargh daily say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police
on the streets in recent weeks as authorities apparently try to avoid provoking
more protests.
The
primary role of the morality police was to enforce thelaws related to Iran’s
conservative Islamic dress code, imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and
recently invigorated by the country’s new ultraconservative president. The
dress code for women became an ideological pillar of the ruling clerical
establishment, central to its identity. The restrictions require women to cover
their bodies in long, loose clothing and their hair with a head scarf or hijab.
Despite mass protests,long black robes and chadors, a black head-covering that
reaches down the chest, became the norm for women.
When
Amini died in custody after being arrested by the morality police on a Tehran
street, the nationwide protests that followed focused initially on the Islamic
dress laws. The protests, now in their third month, have been led by women and
young people demanding an end to clerical rule andgreater social freedom,
tapping into years of pent-up anger. Protesters chanted “woman, life, freedom,”
tore off their hijabs, burned them in street bonfires and cut their hair in
symbolic acts of defiance. University students chanted “Killings after
killings, to hell with morality police!” But the protests soon grew to
encompass the entire range of discontents with Iran’s ruling establishment,
making it unclear whether protesters would be satisfied with this concession.
Demonstrators
fed up with political repression, censorship, corruption and economic
mismanagement have called for an end to the Islamic Republic. They have taken
aim directly at the most powerful man in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, whom they want removed from power.
In
recent years, Iranian women had grown bolder within the constraints of the
dress law, embracing colourful robes, barely covering their hair in loosewraps
and, in some cases, even letting their head scarves drop onto their shoulders,
baring their hair. Though the morality police still roamed the streets,
enforcement appeared spotty.
Source:
Times Of India
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--------
Iran
state TV denies termination of morality police
05
December ,2022
Iran’s
state-run al-Alam news channel on Sunday denied media reports claiming the
country’s morality police had been shut down.
Earlier
on Sunday, several news outlets reported that the Islamic Republic had
abolished its morality police which is tasked with enforcing the country’s
strict dress codes.
The
reports cited comments made by Iran’s attorney general Mohammad JafarMontazeri
at a religious conference on Saturday.
According
to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Montazeri was asked by one attendee “why
the morality police had been shut down,” to which Montazeri responded: “The
morality police has nothing to do with the judiciary and it was closed by the
same people that established it.”
“Though
of course, the judiciary will continue to monitor social behaviors across
society,” he added.
Al-Alam
said: “No official in the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the closure of
the morality police.”
The
main takeaway from Montazeri’s comments, al-Alam said, is that the morality
police have no relation to the judiciary.
“Some
foreign media have tried to characterize the attorney general’s statement as
the Islamic Republic’s withdrawal from its hijab (laws) and influenced by the
recent riots,” it added.
Protests
– referred to by authorities as “riots” – have swept across Iran since
September 16 when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman MahsaAmini died three days
after collapsing in police custody. She had been detained by Tehran’s morality
police for allegedly not complying with the regime’s strict hijab rules.
Demonstrators
have been calling for the downfall of the regime in the protests which have
become one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its
establishment in 1979.
Hijab,
which was made mandatory for women in Iran shortly after the country’s 1979
revolution, is considered a red line for Iran’s theocratic rulers. Women who
break the strict dress code risk being harassed and arrested by Iran’s morality
police.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Iran
protesters call for strike, top legal cleric says morality police shut down
Dec
5, 2022
DUBAI:
Protesters in Iran called on Sunday for a three-day strike this week, stepping
up pressure on authorities after the public prosecutor said the morality police
whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests had been shut
down.
There
was no confirmation of the closure from the interior ministry which is in
charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said public prosecutor
Mohammad JafarMontazeri was not responsible for overseeing the force.
Top
Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not change the Islamic
Republic's mandatory hijab policy, which requires women to dress modestly and
wear headscarves, despite 11 weeks of protests against strict Islamic
regulations.
Hundreds
of people have been killed in the unrest which erupted in September after the
death in custody of MahsaAmini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was
detained by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules.
Protesters
seeking to maintain their challenge to Iran's clerical rulers have called for a
three-day economic strike and a rally to Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square on
Wednesday, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts
unverified by Reuters.
President
Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran on the same day to mark
Student Day in Iran.
Similar
calls for strike action and mass mobilisation have in past weeks resulted in an
escalation in the unrest which has swept the country - some of the biggest
anti-government protests since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The
activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday,
including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members
of the security forces were killed.
Iran's
Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was
200, according to the judiciary's news agency Mizan.
Residents
posting on social media and newspapers such as Shargh daily say there have been
fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in recent weeks as
authorities apparently try to avoid provoking more protests.
On
Saturday, Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency
as saying that the morality police had been disbanded.
"The
same authority which has established this police has shut it down," he was
quoted as saying. He said the morality police was not under the judiciary's
authority, which "continues to monitor behavioural actions at the
community level."
Al
Alam state television said foreign media were depicting his comments as "a
retreat on the part of the Islamic Republic from its stance on hijab and
religious morality as a result of the protests", but that all that could
be understood from his comments was that the morality police were not directly
related to the judiciary.
Executions
State
media said four men convicted of cooperating with Israel's spy agency Mossad
were executed on Sunday.
They
had been arrested in June - before the current unrest sweeping the country -
following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the
Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim news agency reported.
The
Islamic Republic has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert
operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western
intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran.
The
prime minister's office in Israel, which oversees Mossad, declined to comment.
Iranian
state media reported on Wednesday that the country's Supreme Court had upheld
the death sentence handed out to the four men "for the crime of
cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for
kidnapping".
Source:
Times Of India
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Hamas,
Islamic Jihad strongly condemn Israeli president's Bahrain visit
04
December 2022
The
Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad
have condemned in the strongest term an ongoing visit to Bahrain by the Israeli
regime's president.
Hamas
official Basim Naim and Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salmi expressed the
condemnation on Sunday hours after Isaac Herzog became the first Israeli
president to ever travel to the kingdom.
Bahrain
signed a United States-brokered normalization agreement with the Israeli regime
during an event hosted by the White House in September 2020. Ever since, the
regimes in Manama and Tel Aviv have been trying to cement the so-called
detente, which has been denounced by Palestinians and their regional and
international supporters as a "stab in the back" of the Palestinian
cause of liberation from Israeli occupation and aggression.
Naim
called the visit "ignominious," and denounced Bahraini King Hamad bin
Isa Al Khalifah's bid to welcome "the head of an apartheid regime, who
leads the [world's] biggest terrorist structure" as "pathetic,"
the Palestinian Shehab news agency reported.
He
reminded that the Bahraini monarch was receiving the Israeli president as the
Israeli regime's forces continued executing Palestinians across the occupied
territories, saying as a result of the regime's deadly atrocities, the
Palestinian youths' blood had started to flow like a "river."
The
visit was also concomitant with Tel Aviv's ongoing violations against the
Muslim world's sanctities, most importantly the al-Aqsa Mosque's compound --
Islam's third-holiest site, Naim added.
The
Hamas official said by ingratiating itself to Tel Aviv, Manama was trying to
impose its will on the Bahraini nation. This is while "rulers derive their
legitimacy and [political] longevity from their nations' will" not from
fraternizing the nations' enemies, he concluded.
The
Islamic Jihad official, meanwhile, billed Herzog's trip as a measure aimed at
deflecting attention from the Israeli regime's atrocities and acts of terror.
Salmi
hailed the Bahraini nation for their protesting the trip, calling on all Muslim
and Arab nations to raise their voices against whatever instance of
normalization with the Israeli regime and confront Tel Aviv's efforts to make
inroads into their respective countries.
Outgoing
Israeli premier Yair Lapid, then the regime's top diplomat, visited Bahrain in
September last year to open the Israeli embassy there.
Source:
Press TV
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iran
Executes 4 Men for Cooperating with Israeli Intelligence
By
SaqalainEqbal
December
4, 2022
Iran
executed 4 people on Sunday and sentenced 3 others to imprisonment who were
accused of having cooperated with Israeli intelligence, local media reported.
According
to Iranian state media, Iran gave four men the capital punishment on Sunday,
December 4, who had been found guilty of working with Israel’s Mossad
intelligence agency, based in Sweden.
Israel
has long been charged by the Islamic Republic with conducting clandestine
operations on its territory.
The
four men were sentenced to death “for the crime of cooperating with the
intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping,” according to
Iranian state media, which announced the decision on Wednesday.
The
judiciary referred to them as “thugs” and said that Israeli intelligence
directed them when they destroyed public and private property, committed theft,
kidnapped people, and forced false confessions.
According
to the judiciary’s official news website, the four people — named Hossain
Ordokhanzada, Shahin Imani Mahmoodabad, Milad Ashrafi, and ManochehrShahbandi —
were hanged early on Sunday.
They
are supposed to have received training on how to mask their tracks, avoid
surveillance cameras, and switch vehicles, which the Iranian judiciary claimed
highlights Mossad’s role.
They
are also said to have purchased weapons and equipment while being paid in
cryptocurrency.
According
to the Mehr news agency, three other people who had been found guilty of crimes
like aiding in kidnapping, acting against national security, and possessing
illegal weapons received prison sentences of five to ten years.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
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https://www.khaama.com/iran-executes-4-men-for-cooperating-with-israeli-intelligence-67432/
--------
Israel
forces kill Palestinian in West Bank: Officials
05
December ,2022
Israeli
forces killed a Palestinian during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank on
Monday, Palestinian officials said.
The
Israeli military said it was checking the report.
During
an early morning Israeli raid near the city of Bethlehem, clashes erupted, and
one Palestinian was killed, according to Palestinian medical workers.
Several
other people were arrested, Palestinian officials said.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Misguided
getaway sets off security alert at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport
04
December ,2022
A
Palestinian car thief rammed through a checkpoint on the way to Israel’s main
airport on Sunday, authorities said, setting off a security alert in what they
described as the result of poor navigation on his part rather than an attempted
attack.
Video
circulated on social media showed passengers in Ben Gurion Airport’s departure
terminal crouching alongside their luggage as instructions sounded over
loudhailers.
Police
said the suspect, a Palestinian in Israel illegally from the occupied West
Bank, arrived at the airport checkpoint in a stolen car and raced through
toward the main terminal. During a brief pursuit, he was shot and arrested.
It
was at least the fifth such incident in recent months, an Israel Airports
Authority spokesperson said.
As
in previous cases, the suspect was believed to have taken a wrong turn off the
main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, Israeli officials said. That meant his
attempted getaway accidentally brought him to one of the country’s most
protected facilities.
“It
happens almost every week,” a police spokesperson said.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iran
starts construction on $2 billion new nuclear power plant
03
December ,2022
Iran
has begun the construction of a new nuclear plant in the southwestern province
of Khuzestan, the country’s atomic energy agency said Saturday.
Mohammad
Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announced in
televised remarks the start of construction of the 300-megawatt Karun power
plant in the Darkhovin district of Khuzestan.
Construction
of the plant will take seven years and is expected to cost between $1.5 billion
and $2 billion, he added on state television.
Eslami
said the power plant was “first set to be constructed by a French company,” but
that the firm had backed out of its “commitments” after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
“Later,
other countries avoided cooperation with the Islamic republic of Iran, because
of the sanctions,” he continued.
Under
a landmark deal struck in 2015, Iran agreed to mothball its Fordo nuclear plant
and limit its enrichment of uranium to 3.67 percent, as part of a package of
restrictions on its nuclear activities aimed at preventing it from covertly
developing a nuclear weapon.
Tehran
has repeatedly denied that it seeks to develop an atomic bomb.
In
return for the restrictions, major powers agreed to relax sanctions they had
imposed over Iran’s nuclear program.
But
the deal crumbled in 2018 when then US president Donald Trump pulled Washington
out of the agreement and reimposed crippling economic sanctions.
Iran
has since reopened its Fordo plant and last month said it had begun producing
uranium enriched to 60 percent there.
It
also operates a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which produces 1,000 megawatts
of power.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Israeli
court rejects release of longest-serving Palestinian detainee
Awad
al-Rujoub
04.12.2022
RAMALLAH,
Palestine
An
Israeli court on Sunday rejected a petition to release Nael al-Barghouthi, the
longest-serving Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails, according to a local
NGO.
In
a statement, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said the Ofer Military Court
decided to maintain a life sentence against the Palestinian detainee citing a
“secret file” against him.
Al-Barghouthi,
65, has been in prison for 43 years.
In
2011, he was released under a prisoner swap deal between Palestinian resistance
group Hamas and Israel.
In
2014, however, he was rearrested and his sentence reinstated.
His
defense lawyer filed a petition with the Israeli High Court four years ago
demanding al-Barghouthi’s release based on the terms of the prisoner swap deal
which state that Israel cannot re-arrest freed prisoners and re-instate their
sentence.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Palestinians
to remain steadfast in resisting Israeli occupation: Abbas
Nour
Abu Eisha
04.12.2022
GAZA
CITY, Palestine
Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday vowed to remain steadfast in resisting the
decades-long Israeli occupation.
In
a televised speech at a ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said
the Israeli aggression will be faced by expanding the popular and peaceful
resistance and further action at the international level.
The
Palestinian people will not surrender and "will remain steadfast in
resisting the [Israeli] occupation," he added.
Abbas
said the Palestinian Authority will continue efforts at the international level
"to compel Israel to end its occupation and stop its aggression," and
to hold Israel accountable for its violations against the Palestinian people.
“Every
hour, Israel commits crimes and violations against the [Palestinian] people,
land and sanctities,” the Palestinian leader said.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
EU’s
Borrell condemns point-blank shooting of Palestinian in West Bank
Abdel-Jabbar
Abu Ras
04.12.2022
EU
foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has condemned the shooting of a young
Palestinian by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank.
On
Friday, Palestinian activists shared a video on social media of an Israeli
soldier while scuffling with a young man in Huwara town, south of Nablus city.
As
the young man, who was identified as Ammar Mefleh, tried to escape, the Israeli
soldier shot him at point blank, leaving him badly injured. The Palestinian was
later pronounced dead.
"The
killing of a 22-year-old Palestinian on Friday by Israeli security forces was
the latest example of the recent uptick in violence," Borrell said in a
statement.
On
Friday, the EU condemned Israel’s use of lethal force against Palestinians in
the West Bank, citing that 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in
just 72 hours.
The
EU said that 2022 was the "deadliest year since 2006, with 140
Palestinians killed" by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East
Jerusalem.
Borrell
called for an investigation into the incidents that took place in the West
Bank.
"Those
responsible must be held fully accountable," he added.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Yemen
can return every attack with dozens of missiles, drones: Saree
05
December 2022
The
Yemeni Armed Forces' spokesman says the country has reached a level of military
capability that has enabled it to respond to the enemy's aggression with
remarkable firepower.
"In
the past, the enemy used to bomb Sana'a and other provinces. Now, however, we
are capable of returning every attack with dozens of missiles and drones,"
Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Sunday, Yemen's al-Masirah television
network reported.
Yemen's
Armed Forces are now prepared to respond to all sorts of offensives and have
managed to "create a [new] equation in the balance of fear and terror with
the enemy," he added.
Saudi
Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration
with its Arab allies and with arms and logistical support from the United
States and other Western countries.
The
objective was to reinstall Yemen's former Riyadh- and Washington-friendly
regime and crush Ansarullah. The popular resistance movement has been running
state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.
The
Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of the objectives, while killing
hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire Yemen into the site of,
what the United Nations calls, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Saree
considered the country's efforts to confront the enemy to be a "holy"
struggle. He commemorated the country's martyrs, saying they helped found the
basis of the security and stability that Yemen enjoys today.
Source:
Press TV
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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/12/05/693915/Yemen-Armed-Forces-military-capability
--------
Blinken
warns the incoming Netanyahu regime against settlements, annexation
04
December 2022
US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the United States would oppose
illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the occupied
regime is constructing irrespective of the international outcry against
it.
However,
Blinken on Sunday also said that Washington would judge Benjamin Netanyahu's
incoming regime by actions and not personalities.
Controversial
Israeli politician Netanyahu is likely to return to power after striking a
coalition deal with the extreme-right outfits including Religious Zionism,
which could be put in charge of constructing illegal settlements and the Tel
Aviv regime’s land grab policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Blinken
congratulated Netanyahu, who was snubbed by previous Democratic administrations
in Washington.
"We
will gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than individual
personalities," Blinken said.
More
than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
All
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security
Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied
territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians
want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as
its capital.
The
last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major
sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued illegal settlement
expansion.
The
top US diplomat said the Biden administration would work
"relentlessly" to preserve a "horizon of hope," however
dim, for the creation of a Palestinian state, according to AFP.
"We
will also continue to unequivocally oppose any acts that undermine the
prospects of a two-state solution including but not limited to settlement
expansion, moves toward annexation of the West Bank, disruption to the historic
status quo of holy sites, demolitions and evictions, and incitement to
violence," Blinken said.
Israel
held its fifth election on November 1 in less than four years which came after
the collapse of a motley coalition that tried to keep out the scandal-plagued
Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s
party-led coalition grabbed 64 seats in the Knesset, the regime's parliament,
which packs 120 seats.
The
Palestinian Authority (PA) has said the election results bode ill for
Palestinians.
"The
advance of far-right religious parties in Israeli elections... is testimony to
the rise of extremism and racism in Israeli society and from which our people
have suffered for years," the occupied West Bank-headquartered PA's Prime
Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said after the November 1 election.
Source:
Press TV
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Africa
Over
5,700 Nigerians who fled Boko Haram attacks return home: Official
Adam
Abu-bashal
05.12.2022
ABUJA,
Nigeria
Thousands
of residents in northeastern Nigeria who took shelter in neighboring countries
following attacks by the Boko Haram terrorist organization have returned to
their homes, an official said Sunday.
Air
Vice Marshall (retd) Lawal Alao, vice chairman of the Victims Support Fund
(VSF), said in a statement that 5,704 people who fled Boko Haram attacks six
years ago and took refuge in Cameroon and Niger returned to their hometown
after the Nigerian army restored security in the Marte area of Borno state.
They
were placed in government-built houses in the region, Alao said.
Boko
Haram launched a bloody insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 before
expanding to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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--------
Islamic
leaders, group, others pray, mobilise support for Tinubu in Oyo, Ondo, Lagos
05
December 2022
Organisations
and Islamic leaders from across Oyo State have declared support for the All
Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with
grand prayers.
A
popular Islamic preacher, Sheik Hamad Alfulanny, who spoke at the programme,
tagged “National Prayer for Bola Tinubu’s Endorsement,’ during the weekend, in
Ibadan and sponsored by owner of the hotel, Chief Dotun Sanusi, said that
pedigree and antecedent stands Tinubu out of other contestants vying for the
presidential seat, hence his wide acceptability.
Sanusi
said that Tinubu would foster peace and development if elected as Nigeria’s
next president.
SIMILARLY,
a support group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), under the auspices
of Independent Campaign Group for Bola Tinubu/Shettima, has said that it is
leaving no stone unturned towards ensuring victory for the party and its
presidential candidate at the polls in Ondo State.
Convener
of the group, Bayo Ikubuwaje, said that intensive mobilisation of
professionals, youths and women had begun across the 18 local councils of the
state.
BESIDES,
a former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. LanreOdubote, who
represented Epe Federal Constituency in Lagos State, yesterday, appealed to all
monarchs in Yorubaland and other stakeholders to support Tinubu in the 2023
general elections.
He
said Tinubu is the only presidential candidate among the contestants with the
necessary political prerequisite to take Nigeria out of the current mess.
Odubote,
while speaking on phone with The Guardian, said: “Tinubu can replicate how he
tamed insecurity in Lagos at the national level. He can also apply the same
economic policies and the assemblage of brains that transformed Lagos economy
at the national level if elected.”
Source:
Guardian Nigeria
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Mali
attacks using explosive devices claim lives of 9 soldiers
December
4, 2022
DAKAR:
Mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) killed nine Mali soldiers during
November in central and southern areas in thrall to a decade-long jihadist
insurgency, the military said Sunday.
The
armed forces “were in November 2022 the object of three IED attacks leaving
nine Fama (armed forces) troops dead in combat, eight injured, and three
vehicles damaged,” said a statement distributed to social media platforms.
The
bulk of the violence across the month was in the north but also hit the
southern region of Sikasso, previously largely spared unrest sparked by
jihadist groups such as the Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), led by an
Al-Qaeda-linked Tuareg, Iyad Ag Ghali.
Since
2012, thousands have died in Mali and hundreds of thousands have fled their
homes in an insurgency which has spread to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.
Despair
at the toll prompted Malian army officers to mount a coup in 2020.
The
following year saw Malian forces launch a large-scale operation against the
jihadists amid widespread reports the ruling junta had brought in Russian
paramilitaries – a move Bamako denies, but which prompted France to pull out
its troop support.
Mines
and IEDs are among the jihadists’ weapons of choice.
They
can explode on impact or be detonated remotely.
The
armed forces’ latest statement indicated troops had “neutralised” more than 70
“terrorists” during November.
The
troops also uncovered material used to make IEDs as well as livestock and grain
stocks, which local populations are being obliged to hand over to the jihadists
as a form of Islamic tax.
Source:Free
Malaysia Today
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--------
Thousands
protest in Morocco over price hikes, ‘repression’
05
December ,2022
Thousands
of protesters marched in Morocco’s capital Rabat on Sunday decrying the “high
cost of living and repression,” amid surging inflation and rising social
discontent.
“The
people want lower prices... The people want to eliminate despotism and
corruption,” chanted the crowd, estimated by journalists to be around 3,000
people, the largest such rally in recent months.
“We
came to protest against a government that embodies the marriage of money and
power,” said Younes Ferachine, a coordinator from the Moroccan Social Front
(FSM) group of political parties and left-wing trade unions that organized the
rally.
People
converged from across Morocco for the protest, which was also called to
highlight the cases of several jailed bloggers and journalists.
Hit
by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, poverty levels
are back to where they were in 2014, the government’s High Commission for
Planning said in a recent report.
Consumer
price inflation was 7.1 percent year-on-year in October, due in large part to
surging food prices, triggered partly by an intense drought that has hit
farmers.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Tunisia’s
labor union rejects December election, attacks President Saied’s agenda
03
December ,2022
Tunisia’s
labor union attacked the president’s political and economic agenda on Saturday,
including elections this month, saying it will no longer accept what it called
a threat to democracy in its clearest challenge to him yet.
The
UGTT union says it has more than a million members and has proven able to
paralyze the economy with strikes. It has at times backed President Kais Saied
after he seized most powers last year, but on other occasions has voiced tepid
opposition.
“We
no longer accept the current path because of its ambiguity and individual rule,
and the unpleasant surprises it hides for the fate of the country and
democracy,” UGTT’s leader Noureddine Taboubi said in a speech to thousands of
supporters.
“We
will not hesitate to defend rights and freedoms whatever the cost,” he added,
in his strongest criticism yet of the president.
Saied
shut down the elected parliament last year and moved to rule by decree before
writing a new constitution that was passed this summer in a referendum with low
turnout, setting up elections for a new, weakened legislature on December 17.
Most
political parties are boycotting the poll, saying the new parliament will have
no power and faulting procedures the president has decreed, which include
bringing the electoral commission under his purview.
Taboubi
said the December election would “have no color and taste” as a result of
Saied’s constitution and that the vote lacked national unanimity.
The
president’s critics have denounced his moves as a coup and have held repeated
street protests. Saied says his actions were necessary to save Tunisia.
Though
the UGTT has previously voiced concern, it has stopped short of openly opposing
his agenda, except for a strike in the summer over wages and spending cuts.
This
year, as the economy worsened, the new government Saied appointed angered the
UGTT by proposing subsidy cuts and the restructuring of state-owned companies
in a push for an IMF bailout needed to avert national bankruptcy.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Libya’s
Dbeibeh welcomes UN call for holding elections
Mohammad
Erteima
04.12.2022
TRIPOLI,
Libya
Head
of Tripoli-based unity government Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh on Sunday welcomed a call
by the UN envoy to Libya for holding elections in the country.
"I
welcome the statement of the Head of the United Nations Support Mission in
Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, in which he urged all the relevant parties to achieve
what he described as the "sole purpose" to go for elections,"
Dbeibeh said in a statement on Twitter.
On
Saturday, Bathily called "on political actors to accelerate discussions on
the way forward in the political process, and to create the conditions for the
holding of free and fair elections."
On
Wednesday, Libyan Parliament Speaker Agila Saleh said there is a consensus
between the East Libya-based assembly and the Tripoli-based High Council of
State, which acts as a senate, on the reformation of the country’s sovereign
institutions.
Oil-rich
Libya has remained in turmoil since 2011 when longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi
was ousted after four decades in power.
The
situation has worsened since last March when the Libyan parliament appointed a
new government led by former Interior Minister FathiBashagha, but Dbeibeh
insists he will cede authority only to a government that comes through an
"elected parliament," raising fears that Libya could slip back into a
civil war.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/libya-s-dbeibeh-welcomes-un-call-for-holding-elections/2755243
--------
Burkina
Faso suspends broadcast of French radio RFI
James
Tasamba
04.12.2022
Burkina
Faso’s military government on Saturday announced it has suspended the broadcast
of France’s Radio France Internationale (RFI) with immediate effect.
A
statement by government spokesman Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo accused the
broadcaster of giving voice to “a message of intimidation to the population
attributed to a terrorist leader.”
The
accusation was in reference to a message broadcast by RFI on Saturday, in which
the Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), or Group for the Support of
Islam and Muslims, an affiliate of the al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS terror groups,
threatened civilian volunteers helping the government in anti-terrorism
operations.
The
government has decided to “immediately suspend until further notice, the
broadcasting of Radio France Internationale programs throughout the national
territory,” the statement said.
“This
media (RFI) … contributes to a desperate maneuver of the terrorist groups to
dissuade thousands of Burkinabe” working to protect the country’s integrity, it
added.
Last
month, authorities announced that a recruitment campaign for volunteers
attracted more than 90,000 people.
The
military said it intended to enlist 15,000 volunteers at the national level and
another 35,000 at the community level.
The
suspension of RFI comes amid growing anger in Burkina Faso against France.
Last
month, protesters demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador attempted to
storm the French Embassy in the capital Ouagadougou.
The
protesters, mostly young men, accused France of being responsible for Burkina
Faso’s problems, including the persistent insecurity.
The
West African country has witnessed two coups this year.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/burkina-faso-suspends-broadcast-of-french-radio-rfi/2755016
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Europe
FIFA
World Cup 2022 Qatar records highest-ever attendance in tournament’s history
04
December ,2022
The
FIFA World Cup in Qatar has recorded the highest-ever attendance in the global
football tournament’s history, with a cumulative stadium attendance of 2.45
million spectators, a report finds.
A
report published by FIFA on its Qatar 2022 portal suggested that after 13 days
and 48 matches, the first edition of the tournament to be hosted in the Middle
Eastern region has seen a record turnout, with an average of 96 percent
occupancy, higher than the corresponding 2.17 million figure recorded during
its 2018 edition in Russia.
The
highest-ever attendance in the history of the World Cup since the 1994 final w
as seen at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar when 88,966 fans watched the Argentina
v. Mexico match last Saturday, November 26.
Another
interesting factor in this year’s edition of the World Cup is that teams from
all continents have advanced to the Round of 16, in another first for the
global tournament.
Three
teams from the Asia Pacific region – Australia, Japan and South Korea – reached
the knockout stages in a competition record for the region which previously
only had two teams in 2002 and 2010. Also remarkable was that two African teams
– Senegal and Morocco – also reached the knockout stages, last such occasion
took place in 2014.
“The
outcome of the group stage shows the extent to which more countries have
acquired the tools to compete at the highest level,” said FIFA’s Chief of
Global Football Development, Arsène Wenger, said in a statement on Sunday.
“This
is the result of better preparation and analysis of the opponents, which is
also a reflection of a more equal access to technology. It is very much in line
with FIFA’s efforts to increase football’s competitiveness on a global scale.”
One
particularly remarkable record was set by Portuguese football legend Cristiano
Ronaldo who was the first player in history to score at five editions of the
World Cup.
History
was also made by Stephanie Frappart, who became the first woman to officiate a
FIFA World Cup match, and, together with Neuza Back and Karen Díaz Medina,
formed the first all-female trio to take charge.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Clashes
break out in Italy as far-right, left-wing groups hold rallies
ROMA
04
December ,2022
Clashes
broke out Sunday in Italy after far-right and left-wing activists held separate
rallies against the Russia-Ukraine war.
A
group of about 300 far-right and pro-Russian activists gathered in Piazzale
Cadorna in the center of Milan to protest against sending weapons to Ukraine
and the expansion of anti-Russian sanctions.
Marching
with torches and Italian flags, they carried banners saying "We are united
against the war" and "No to hostility to Russia."
Meanwhile,
more than 500 left-wing demonstrators gathered in Largo Cairoli Square to
protest against the ongoing Ukraine war and "fascism."
Security
forces intervened when the left-wing group attempted to march toward the area
where the extreme rightists were holding demonstrations.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
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Northern
Cyprus opposes Bob Menendez’s anti-Turkish remarks
Mehmet
Kemal Firik
03.12.2022
The
Turkish Cypriot president on Friday slammed anti-Turkish statements by US Sen.
Bob Menendez over the Island of Cyprus.
The
admission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) as an observer
member of the Organization of Turkic States (TDT) and the visit of Gambian Vice
President BadaraJoof drew great attention across the world, the presidency
stressed in a statement.
That
is why the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo made various attempts to block the TRNC's
progress toward recognition. The EU, the US and some other forces also took
action, it said.
Turkish
Cypriot President Ersin Tatar underscored that the chairperson of the US Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, under the guidance of the Greek-Greek Cypriot
lobby, made claims on the status of the island with a pro-Greek attitude.
"First
of all, the chairperson of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the
whole world should know very well that the occupier who exists in Cyprus is the
Greek-Greek Cypriot duo who turned the Republic of Cyprus, in which the Turkish
Cypriot people are equal founding partners, into a Greek state by force of
arms, and this occupation still continues," Tatar said.
He
noted that supporters of the duo, who could not digest the steps to recognize
the TRNC, continued their attacks, expressing satisfaction that Menendez lifted
the arms embargo imposed by the US on the Greek Cypriot Administration of
Southern Cyprus and expressed that his support for armament could not be
accepted.
Cyprus
has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish
Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a
comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic
attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves
for their safety.
In
1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to
Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish
Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
It
has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017
initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye,
Greece and the UK.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/northern-cyprus-opposes-bob-menendez-s-anti-turkish-remarks/2754469
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Sweden
extradites PKK/KCK terror group member to Türkiye
Kenan
Irtak, EmrahGökmen
03.12.2022
Sweden
extradited a PKK/KCK terror group member to Türkiye on Friday.
Mahmut
Tat was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison in Sweden after he was
arrested on charges of being a member of the PKK/KCK terror organization.
He
applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015 because of his sentence but was denied.
Tat
was taken to a detention center in Molndal. After completing procedures he was
sent to Türkiye by plane.
Sweden
and Finland formally applied to join NATO in May, abandoning decades of
military non-alignment, a decision spurred by Russia's war against Ukraine.
But
Türkiye -- a NATO member for more than 70 years -- voiced objections to their
membership bids, accusing the two countries of tolerating and even supporting
terror groups.
Türkiye
and the two Nordic countries signed a memorandum in June at a NATO summit to
address Ankara's legitimate security concerns, paving the way for their
eventual membership in the alliance.
Under
the memorandum, Finland and Sweden extend their full support to Türkiye
countering threats to its national security. To that effect, Helsinki and
Stockholm are not to provide support to the YPG/PYD terror group or the
Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) -- the group behind the defeated 2016
coup in Türkiye.
In
its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK -- listed as a
terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for
the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
The YPG is its Syrian offshoot.
Turkish
officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have warned that Türkiye
will not give the nod to the memberships of Sweden and Finland until the
memorandum is implemented.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/sweden-extradites-pkk-kck-terror-group-member-to-turkiye/2754466
--------
Iraqi
in UK who saved baby niece via illegal entry granted leave to remain
December
04, 2022
LONDON:
An Iraqi man who saved his baby niece by bringing her to the UK illegally has
been granted leave to remain following years of legal attempts by the Home
Office to deport him, The Guardian reported.
Najat
Ibrahim Ismail, who arrived in Britain in 2004, saved his niece, Rwen Tahsin
Ibrahim, then only 7 months old, after she had sustained significant burn
injuries in a French refugee camp.
Her
parents had fled Iraq following the expansion of Daesh and in 2016 had traveled
to France.
Ismail,
35, heard the news of his relative’s injuries and traveled to Dunkirk, where he
drove his niece back to Britain illegally in a bid to give her access to urgent
medical care.
In
2017, he was prosecuted for assisting illegal entry into the UK.
As
a result, the UK Home Office pursued his deportation three times, but to no
avail.
Now
the 35-year-old, who is married to a British woman and has three children, has
been granted leave to remain following years of legal campaigning by his
solicitor.
His
niece — whose family has also been given leave to remain — has since made a
full recovery following the 2016 incident and is now in school.
Ismail
said: “For the first time I can sleep well. I’m the happiest person in the
world and I can’t stop smiling.
“I
can’t thank my solicitor enough. She saved my life.”
Though
a judge condemned Ismail’s actions in assisting the illegal entry, they said:
“I do accept that you were not a person who was trafficking for gain. These
were family members you decided to assist.”
Hannah
Baynes, Ismail’s solicitor, said: “We are very pleased that Najat will be
allowed to remain in the UK after so many years of uncertainty.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2210741/world
--------
North America
Blinken
says US to work closely with Israel, continues to support two state solution
05
December ,2022
The
US plans to work closely with Israel’s new government, Secretary of State
Antony Blinken told a left-leaning Jewish group in Washington on Sunday, and
continues to support a two-state solution to end the decades-long conflict with
Palestinians.
The
US administration expects “the new Israeli Government to continue to work with
us to advance our shared values, just as we have previous governments,” Blinken
told the nonprofit J Street liberal advocacy group. “We will gauge the
government by the policies it pursues rather than individual personalities,” he
said.
For
the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“Security
assistance to Israel is sacrosanct,” Blinken said, noting the more than $3
billion the US provides to Israel in foreign military funding.
Last
week, Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu reached a coalition
deal with the far-right Religious Zionism party, which opposes Palestinian
statehood and supports extending Israeli sovereignty into the West Bank.
Itamar
Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and
backing a group considered by Israel and the United States to be a terrorist
organization, is Israel’s new security minister, with responsibility for Border
Police in the occupied West Bank.
President
Joe Biden remains committed to “realizing the enduring goal of two states,”
Blinken said. “We believe Palestinians and Israelis, like people everywhere,
are entitled to the same rights and the same opportunities.”
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
US
Navy seizes ammunition-laden vessel from Iran to Yemen
Abdel-Jabbar
Abu Ras
04.12.2022
The
US Navy said it had seized a fishing trawler smuggling ammunition from Iran to
war-torn Yemen.
In
a statement, the Bahrain-based United States Fifth Fleet said the boat was
intercepted in the Gulf of Aden on Dec. 1 while carrying more than 50 tons of
ammunition rounds, fuses, and propellants for rockets.
“This
significant interdiction clearly shows that Iran’s unlawful transfer of lethal
aid and destabilizing behavior continues,” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said. “US
naval forces remain focused on deterring and disrupting dangerous and
irresponsible maritime activity in the region.”
Last
month, the US Navy said it had thwarted the smuggling of a huge shipment of
fuel for rockets in the Gulf of Oman on its way to Iran-aligned Houthi rebels
in Yemen.
There
was no comment from Iranian authorities on the US accusations.
The
US and the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen accuse Iran with supplying
Houthi rebels of weapons, an accusation denied by Tehran.
Yemen’s
civil war began in September 2014, when Houthi rebels captured much of the
country, including the capital, Sanaa. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia
entered the war in early 2015 to restore the government to power.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-navy-seizes-ammunition-laden-vessel-from-iran-to-yemen/2755185
--------
Canada
imposes additional sanctions on Iranians, including former Tehran police chief
Barry
Ellsworth
03.12.2022
TRENTON,
Canada
Canada
slapped more sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals Friday, including
on a former Tehran police chief who was seen in a Toronto gym in 2021.
"MoretzaTalaei
(is) a Second Brigadier General of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
and former commander of Tehran's Law Enforcement Forces," the Canadian
government said in a statement.
He
was Tehran's police chief in 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra
Kazemi was beaten to death after taking pictures of Tehran's Evin prison, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Under
the sanctions, Canada can ban those from entering the country and freeze assets
they have in Canada.
"We're
looking and continuing to look at all ways to ensure that the Iranian regime
knows its continued reprehensible behaviour is absolutely unacceptable,"
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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--------
US
condemns shooting at Pakistan’s embassy in Afghanistan
December
03, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
The US on Saturday condemned an attack a day earlier on the Pakistani Embassy
in Afghanistan’s capital, in which a senior Pakistani diplomat escaped unhurt
but one of his Pakistani guards was wounded, sending a wave of anger in this
Islamic nation.
Friday’s
assault comes amid rising tensions between the South Asian neighbors over
Islamabad’s claims that anti-Pakistan forces are organizing terrorist attacks
from hideouts in Afghanistan.
Shots
were fired at the embassy from a nearby building by an as-yet known assailant
or assailants. Shortly after the shooting, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz
Sharif took to Twitter on Friday, calling the attack an “assassination attempt”
against Pakistan’s head of mission in Afghanistan, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani.
Pakistan
repatriated the wounded guard Israr Mohammad by helicopter and he was being
treated at a hospital on Saturday.
The
embassy attack came days after Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani
Khar flew to Kabul to hold talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi
on a range of issues, including the latest threat from Pakistani Taliban who
recently ended a monthslong ceasefire with Pakistan and asked fighters to
resume attacks across the country.
In
Washington, US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday said the US
condemned the Embassy attack, telling reporters “we offer our sympathies and
wish a quick recovery to those affected by the violence.”
The
US is “deeply concerned by the attack on a foreign diplomat and we call for a
full and transparent investigation,” Price said.
The
US chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan, Karen Decker also condemned the attack on
Nizamani in a tweet Saturday.
“Outraged
at attack on my diplomatic counterpart @PakinAfg, Ubaid Nizamani; I am grateful
he is safe & wish a quick recovery to the brave security guard who was
injured. I join the call for a swift, thorough and transparent investigation,”
Decker wrote.
Muttaqi
on Friday evening called Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to
condemn the “terrorist attack” targeting Nizamani, according to a Pakistani
Foreign Ministry statement.
Muttaqi
assured Bhutto-Zardari that “the Afghan government will bring the perpetrators
of this heinous attack to justice swiftly,” the statement said.
Bhutto-Zardari
thanked Muttaqi and said the “Taliban government must prevent the terrorists
from undermining relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” the statement
said. It said Pakistan on its part reiterated its unwavering commitment to
fight terrorism, saying “Pakistan will be undeterred by such cowardly attacks.”
Friday’s
shooting comes a day after Pakistan demanded Afghanistan’s Taliban government
prevent terrorist attacks being organized from their soil by Pakistani Taliban,
who are hiding in Afghanistan.
Pakistan
made the request after a suicide bomber dispatched by the Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan group, or TTP blew himself up near a truck carrying police officers on
their way to protect polio workers near Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan
province. A police officer and three civilians were killed in Wednesday’s
attack.
The
Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who
seized power in their country last year as the US and NATO troops were in the
final stages of their pullout from Afghanistan.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2210371/world
--------
Imam
Abdul Alim Musa: US Muslim leader and advocate of Islamic Revolution
05
December 2022
By:
Mohsen Badakhsh
Muslim
communities in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area and across the United
States on November 25 bid tearful adieu to the revolutionary African-American
Muslim leader, Abdul Alim Musa, who devoted his entire life to the struggle
against American hegemony and Israeli apartheid while fervently championing the
cause of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
Imam
Musa was widely regarded as a leading advocate of the struggle against the
scourge of racism and White supremacy in the US as well as America’s global
hegemonic ambitions, following in the footsteps of Martyr Malcolm X, an
American Muslim civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1965 by undercover
government agents.
Perhaps
the most outstanding tribute to the life and legacy of Imam Musa is more than
50 years of indefatigable and selfless struggle for justice, peace and human
rights while persistently advocating the Islamic Revolution across the globe,
despite numerous obstacles on the way.
What
impressed me the most about Imam Musa in the early 1980s, when I was a student
activist in the Washington DC area, was his assertive, yet simple, talk about
his own life experience.
He
frankly spoke about being lured by federal agents into a highly profitable
business of distributing narcotics among youth in African American
neighborhoods and eventually being arrested and imprisoned before he converted
to Islam and dedicated the rest of his life to serve and spread the message of
Islam.
Born
in February 1945 as Clarence Reams in Arkansas, Imam Musa in the 1960s
accompanied his family to Los Angeles, California, where he was recruited to
become the CEO of one of the largest drug distribution centers on the West
Coast of the United States.
In
1981, after being released from prison in narcotics operations case, Imam Musa
converted to Islam and settled in Oakland, California, where he founded Masjid
al-Islam with the help and support of his elder brother, Buddy, and worked
tirelessly to give back to the society.
Imam
Musa was a Muslim leader who stressed the significance of building strong moral
character in his community members. His enlightening speeches underlined the
importance of Muslim unity across the globe. His travels throughout the world
provided him with a world-class education.
He
remained a symbol of struggle, defiance, humanitarianism, and optimism. He was
in effect a combatant for over five decades against any system that opposed the
full realization of humanity of any people regardless of their race, color or
religion.
Imam
Musa was also the leader and founder of the As-Sabiqun Movement. He believed
that we have to be the ones we are looking for. The movement was dedicated to
uplifting the Muslim world and particularly the Black community.
While
deeply critical of oppressive policies and practices of the US government
against African Americans and other minorities in the country, Imam Musa was
well-informed about international developments and passionately advocated the
cause of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli regime’s occupation and
atrocities, blasting Western powers for backing an illegitimate regime as part
of their abusive history of colonizing Africa and other regions of the world.
He
always hailed the struggle of other resistance groups and people that fought
against foreign-backed meddling and military invasions in places such as Syria,
Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Libya and elsewhere, slamming what he
bluntly described as subversive US-led military, political and economic
terrorism against independent and weak nations aimed at plundering their wealth
and resources.
Another
remarkable trait that defined Imam Musa was his continuing and impassioned
support for the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic in Iran.
He
closely followed developments in the country and courageously censured all
foreign and domestic schemes to destabilize the Islamic Republic, which he
praised as the best existing model for other Muslim nations to follow.
Imam
Musa believed that the Islamic Republic founded by Imam Khomeini in 1979
advocated justice and independence for all nations struggling against
West-backed autocrats.
In
addition to his incredible patience and resolve to continue with the Islamic
struggle, Imam Musa was also extremely kind and compassionate towards fellow
Muslims of all races and ethnic backgrounds.
While
expressing his love and affection for his former supporters and comrades, he
would kindly caution them against trusting what he described as “the Great
Satan,” insisting that their newly found affluent lifestyle may suddenly turn
against them if they remained indifferent about injustices perpetrated by
oppressors within their own communities and elsewhere.
In
fact, Imam Musa also shared with me a few years ago his displeasure and
concerns about a growing number of Muslim immigrant communities and Islamic
centers in the United States turning their backs on American Muslims and no
longer welcoming them in their centers as part of an effort to keep them in
some sort of ethnic-specific gathering places with little regard for issues
affecting the rights of Muslims across the US and the world over.
He,
of course, saw this as a direct outcome of persisting US surveillance of
mosques and Islamic centers across the country as well as its declared efforts
to spy on individuals attending Islamic centers and even recruiting Muslim
informants to spy on other Muslims.
As
a result, he said, many Muslims tend to avoid active participation in political
issues, fearing that they or family members could be targeted or harassed by
federal agents.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/12/05/693918/Imam-Abdul-Alim-Musa-US-Muslim-Leader-Obituary
--------
US
looking for ‘excuse’ to derail talks on reviving Iran nuclear deal: Russian
source
04
December 2022
A
Russian diplomatic source says the administration of US President Joe Biden is
looking for an “excuse” to derail talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal,
officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“Statements
are being made overseas every now and then that make one doubt the current US
administration’s commitment to its promises to bring the US back to the JCPOA,”
the unnamed source told Russia’s Sputnik news agency on Sunday, Tasnim
reported.
“Americans
are thrashing about and looking for a convenient excuse to derail from the
course on revival of the nuclear deal,” the source added, expressing hope that
Washington can more strongly show its dedication to renewing the landmark deal
and correcting prior mistakes.
The
source further said that the US should observe the United Nations Security
Council’s Resolution 2231, which endorses the JCPOA, and correct its own
violations of the resolution.
The
Russian source also said that experts with the Vienna talks have found during
months of work that the deal’s revival on the originally-agreed terms was
possible.
“For
this, our US colleagues just lack the political will to make the final step on
reaching an agreement on this matter. We hope that they will stop muddying
waters, pull themselves together and follow through on the revival of the
nuclear deal,” the source added.
Earlier
this week, US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said Biden is willing to
take military action against Iran if Tehran rejects Washington’s terms on the
nuclear deal. Malley also said Washington would rather focus its attention on
recent riots across Iran rather than the Vienna talks.
The
Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015 between Tehran and the United States, the
United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China during the presidency of
Barack Obama.
However,
Obama’s successor Donald Trump abandoned the JCPOA in May 2018 and slapped
cruel sanctions on Iran. Biden had vowed to resume talks to revive the deal and
remove the harsh US sanctions. Two years into his presidency, Biden has failed
to keep his promise and is now threatening to take military action.
Iran
maintains that it is necessary for the other side to offer some guarantees that
it will remain committed to any agreement that is reached.
The
talks to salvage the agreement kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna in
April last year, with the intention of examining Washington’s seriousness in
rejoining the deal and removing anti-Iran sanctions.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
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