Hijab is not the Prime Attribute of being a Muslim: Chairman of the Kazakhstan’s Agency for Religion
Aktobe Education Department preparing a list of School Students wearing Hijab
France Herds Muslim faithful off streets after Prayer Ban
Abbas says will seek Palestinian state at UNSC
US warns Pak of sanctions over Iran gas pipeline deal
Bahrain Boils Under the Lid of Repression
Cross-border terror camps being reactivated: PM Manmohan Singh
Residents of Neelum Valley in PoK stage anti-militant protests
Egypt says peace deal with Israel not sacred
Naked Humiliation of a Female in Bangladesh
Buddhist monks destroy Muslim shrine in Sri Lanka: BBC
CIA probes assistance of NYPD spying on Muslims
'Islamophobia a means to justify US military industrial complex'
US should confront Pak on anti-India terror groups: Lawmakers
Norway massacre killer to appear behind closed doors
Two Muslims Shot Dead at Prayers in Thai South Mosque
Activists: Syrian Troops Kill 15 in Raids, Rallies
Cattle raiders kill 46 in in South Sudan
Malaysian Prime Minister Says He Will Abolish 2 Security Laws
Oklahoma argues for Sharia law ban in courts
HC blast: Forget English, he can’t even write Urdu, says Aamir’s father
As Modi begins fast, Gulberg’s last man says why he’s still there
Pakistan-born baroness reveals: Polygamy, welfare benefits and an insidious silence
Pak border region is the most dangerous place in the world: US
Fresh war of words as US ticks off Pak on terror
Kashmir interlocutors to submit report before October 12
Community efforts help release of 14 Indians from Dubai jails
Indian Mujahideen a lethal group inside India: U.S.
MAKKAH: Maid pleads not to deport love child with her
Rebels transforming Libya into Sharia state
Libyan rebels move on besieged towns
Libyan fighters in fierce push on Gaddafi bastion
UN Council to ease Libya sanctions: diplomats
Libyans divided: Some want reconciliation, some Qaddafi’s head
Protests in Yemen, New Signs President May Quit
Palestinians cannot achieve statehood through UN: US
World backs Syrian opposition
Egyptian Steel tycoon and a Mubarak crony jailed
Iran's 'damaged' president back for UN spotlight
MF Husain's 'Sprinkling Horses' fetches $1.14 mn
Al Qaeda core can be reduced to mere propaganda arm in 2 yrs: US
Iran will free 2 American hikers: Clinton
Famine Ravages Somalia in a World Less Likely to Intervene
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/hijab-prime-attribute-being-muslim/d/5490
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Hijab is not the prime attribute of being a Muslim: Chairman of the Kazakhstan’s Agency for Religion
Thursday, 09.06.2011,
“Wearing a hijab is not an indicator of whether a person is Muslim or not (…) It is more of an attribute of the Arabic culture, bedouin culture. Allowing Kazakh women to wear a hijab, to some extent we are losing our national identity.
"There are only about 16 million Kazakhs inside the country (…) therefore, we should primarily preserve our national traditions. I believe a hijab is not the prime attribute of being a Muslim”, he told journalists June 8.
“Islam has been developing in Kazakhstan not only for the recent 20 years (…) There are a lot of traditions – national traditions interweaved with religion traditions. We need to develop a renewed vision of rituals and certain traditions, including wearing religion clothes”, he said.
Lama Sharif Kairat Kayirbekuly was appointed Chairman of the Kazakhstan’s Agency for Religion June 7. Before that he served as Kazakhstan’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
http://en.tengrinews.kz/religion/2370/
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Aktobe Education Department preparing a list of school students wearing hijabs
Thursday, 15.09.2011,
Education Department of Aktobe oblast is putting together a list of school students wearing hijabs, KazTAG reports citing the Department. According to deputy head of the Department Zholdas Nurshin, this is “done to know their exact number”.
Besides, Nurshin noted, a documentary Adaskandar (Lost) is shown in education facilities of Aktobe oblast. The movie is about Aktobe resident Yerkin Doskaliyev convicted under terrorism charges. The movie is also shown to students of colleges and universities.
“I haven’t watched this movie yet. It was sent from the city administration. In my view, it is important for parents and students to know the threat imposed by non-traditional Islam,” he stressed.
Earlier Akim (Governor) of Aktobe oblast Arkhimed Mukhambetov suggested heads of educational facilities to convince girls wearing hijabs and niqabs to take them of
http://en.tengrinews.kz/people/4424/
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France herds Muslim faithful off streets after prayer ban
Sep 16 2011
Paris : A ban on praying in French streets came into effect on Friday, with thousands of the nation's Muslim faithful being moved to temporary alternative spaces for their day of prayer.
From Paris to Marseille, Friday's midday prayers will be led from disused barracks or other temporary buildings, after the question of Islam's visibility became a political issue under right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy.
France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population, this year banned the face-covering burqa and earlier this week Interior Minister Claude Gueant warned that “from September 16 there will be no more prayers in the street”.
“If anyone happens to be recalcitrant we will put an end to it,” Gueant said, suggesting police could be brought in.
“Prayers in the street are unacceptable, a direct attack on the principle of secularism,” Gueant said last month, citing the government's defence of the republic's secular values as reason for the new policies.
In Paris, a former barracks just north of the city limits has been designated the new prayer area for those living in the multi-ethnic Goutte d'Or neighbourhood, around two kilometres away.
The praying faithful at the Goutte d'Or's two mosques have overflowed into the streets since a nearby mosque where 4,000 people could pray closed years ago, sparking the ire of French right-wing and anti-immigration parties.
The neighbourhood's mosques are to be closed for at least the coming three Fridays in order to encourage those wanting to pray to go to the renovated barracks, one of the mosques' preachers, Sheikh Mohammed Hamza said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/847644/
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Abbas says will seek Palestinian state at UNSC
Sep 17 2011
The Palestinian president announced Friday he would seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the Security Council of the United Nations next week, a move strongly opposed by Israel and the US and adding significant tension to one of the most intractable conflicts in the Middle East.
The announcement by the president, Mahmoud Abbas, in a televised speech delivered at his headquarters in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was the first time he has formally committed to such a strategy, which Palestinian officials have been moving toward for months as their frustration over stalled peace talks with Israel has intensified. US, Israeli and European diplomats have struggled to dissuade Abbas and his aides from taking such a step.
“We need to have full membership at the UN,” Abbas said in the speech, which was broadcast live on Al Jazeera and other outlets. “We need a state, a seat at the United Nations and nothing more.” The US has said it would use its veto power at the Security Council to stop any Palestinian statehood bid, adhering to the American-Israeli view that the only way to achieve peace is through direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
A veto of the Palestinian bid for membership will serve as another blow to US credibility, as the Obama administration tries to place itself on the side of protesters across the Arab world seeking freedom, justice and a notion of dignity. For many in the region, the plight of Palestinians, under more than four decades of occupation, encapsulates those ideals.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who toured the region this week, highlighted that sense of responsibility to act on what many in the Arab and Muslim world see as long overdue recognition.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/847795/
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US warns Pak of sanctions over Iran gas pipeline deal
Sep 17 2011
Islamabad : The US has asked Pakistan to abandon the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline deal with Iran and instead pursue the TAPI project, warning that Islamabad may face US sanctions if it continues with I-P pipeline.
The US raised the pipeline project during the fourth round of a dialogue on energy with Pakistan that concluded in Islamabad on Thursday without any major tangible gains, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying.
The officials said US Special Envoy for International Energy Affairs, Ambassador Carlos Pascual, “advised” Islamabad to abandon its plans to import gas from Iran. He proposed instead that Pakistan should pursue the TAPI gas pipeline with Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and India.
“The proposed Iran-Pakistan (I-P) pipeline, if built, could raise concerns under the Iran Sanctions Act. We are encouraging Pakistan to seek alternatives,” said a US Embassy spokesperson.
Asked about US opposition to the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project at a weekly news briefing on Thursday, the Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said the project was in Pakistan’s interest as the country is facing an energy crisis. “It is the decision of the government of Pakistan to continue this cooperative project with Iran to ensure that energy is provided to the people as required,” she said.
The renewed opposition from the US to the Iran-Pakistan pipeline came just days after high-level talks between Tehran and Islamabad on the project.
Last week, Pakistan and Iran agreed to speed up the pipeline project. The two sides said they intend to go ahead with the project that would bring its first gas flow by 2014.
An unnamed senior Pakistani official said that despite opposition from the US, Islamabad would not abandon the pipeline project as an agreement had already been signed with Tehran.
The two-day Pakistan-US talks on energy ended without any significant developments despite initial high hopes, The Express Tribune reported.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/847789/
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Bahrain Boils Under the Lid of Repression
By ANTHONY SHADID
16 Sep, 2011
MANAMA, Bahrain — The battle began soon after sundown. And for the next six hours, in air heavy with heat and tear gas, phalanxes of police officers in helmets battled scores of youths in ski masks, as customers at a Costa Coffee not far away sat like spectators.
No one won in the clashes, which erupt almost every night in this Persian Gulf state. Five months after the start of a ferocious crackdown against a popular uprising — so sweeping it smacks of apartheidlike repression of Bahrain’s religious majority — many fear that no one can win.
“This is all cutting so deep,” said Abdulnabi Alekry, an activist whose car was stopped at one of the checkpoints of trash bins, wood and bricks the youth had fashioned during the clash in August. “The fabric here was never that strong, and now it is torn.”
In the revolts that have roiled the Middle East this year, toppling or endangering a half-dozen leaders, Bahrain, an island kingdom once best known for its pearls and banks, has emerged as the cornerstone of a counterrevolution to stanch demands for democracy. While the turmoil elsewhere has proved unpredictable — the ascent of Islamists in Egypt, the threat of civil war in Syria and the prospect of anarchy in Yemen — Bahrain suggests that the alternative, a failed uprising cauterized by searing repression, may prove no less dangerous.
The crackdown here has won a tactical and perhaps ephemeral victory through torture, arrests, job dismissals and the blunt tool of already institutionalized discrimination against the island’s Shiite Muslim majority. In its wake, sectarian tension has exploded, economic woes have deepened, American willingness to look the other way has cast Washington as hypocritical and a society that prides itself on its cosmopolitanism is colliding with its most primordial instincts. Taken together, the repression and warnings of radicalization may underline an emerging dictum of the Arab uprisings: violence begets violence.
“The situation is a tinderbox, and anything could ignite it at any moment,” said Ali Salman, the general secretary of Al Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest legal opposition group. “If we can’t succeed in bringing democracy to this country, then our country is headed toward violence. Is it in a year or two years? I don’t know. But that’s the reality.”
For decades, Bahrain’s relative openness and entrenched inequality have made it one of the Arab world’s most restive countries, as a Shiite majority numbering as much as 70 percent of the population seeks more rights from a Sunni monarchy that conquered the island in the 18th century. But February was a new chapter in the struggle, when the reverberations of Egypt and Tunisia reached Bahrain and, after bloody clashes, protesters seized a landmark known as Pearl Square, where they stayed for weeks.
The toll of the ensuing repression was grim: in a country of about 525,000 citizens, human rights groups say 34 people were killed, more than 1,400 people were arrested, as many as 3,600 people were fired from their jobs and four people died in custody after torture in what Human Rights Watch called “a systematic and comprehensive crackdown to punish and intimidate government critics and to end dissent root and branch.”
Activists trade stories of colleagues forced to eat feces in prison and high-ranking Shiite bureaucrats compelled to crawl in their offices like infants. Human rights groups say 43 Shiite mosques and religious structures were destroyed or damaged by a government that contended that it faced an Iranian-inspired plot, without offering any evidence that Tehran played a role. Backed by the armed intervention of Saudi Arabia, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa declared martial law in March, and though it was repealed June 1, the reverberations of the repression still echo across the island.
“They told me, ‘There are two ways we can deal with you — as a human or as an animal,’ ” Matar Matar, 45, recalled being told after he was arrested by men in civilian clothes in May and jailed for three months.
It mattered little, Mr. Matar said, that he was a popular former lawmaker, or a father of two. Beaten twice, he spent half the time in solitary confinement in a windowless room. He often heard the screams of others.
From the time of Mr. Matar’s arrest to his release on Aug. 7, the ferocity of the crackdown eased, though it remains pronounced. Despite government promises to return people to work, no one has given Mohammed al-Hamad his job back at the Bahrain Islamic Bank, where he worked for four years until he was fired March 31 for “bad behavior.”
“Any Shiite in Bahrain knows he’s targeted,” Mr. Hamad said. Just last month, 18 professors were fired from Bahrain University. Predictably, all were Shiite. “It was meant to frighten us, scare us and intimidate us,” said Abdulla Alderazi, secretary general of the Bahrain Human Rights Society and one of the 18. “But we can’t be intimidated anymore. That’s it. Enough is enough.”
Even amid the crackdown, officials insist that Bahrain remains a democratic country adhering to, in the words of Abdulla al-Buainain, a judge, the “rule of law.” (E-mails to the government information office and a public relations firm hired by Bahrain went unanswered.) But the frustration of Mr. Alderazi is evident across the kingdom. The most despised government figure for Shiites, Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the king’s 75-year-old uncle and the world’s longest-serving prime minister with four decades in office, has become the center of an attempt at a personality cult; his portraits adorn intersections. “Glory of the nation,” one describes him.
Checkpoints remain around Pearl Square. Its emblematic statue was torn down.
Most dangerous, though, is the exacerbation of sectarian hatred in a country that has never really reconciled the narratives of the Khalifa family’s long-ago conquest. No one claims that Sunnis and Shiites ever lived in harmony here. But the country stands as a singular example of the way venerable distinctions of ethnicity, sect and history can be manipulated in the Arab world, often cynically, in the pursuit of power.
Programs on state-owned television like “The Observer” and “The Last Word” baited activists as traitors and encouraged citizens to inform on one another. Vociferous battles were waged over social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter; boycott lists circulated by e-mail urging Sunnis to avoid Shiite-owned businesses. (Costa Coffee is Shiite-owned and the Starbucks franchises are Sunni-owned, residents said.)
“People are busy fighting each other, getting frightened by each other, forgetting about reform and letting the government and the system have everything,” said Munira Fakhro, a 69-year-old secular Sunni activist. “It’s an old game but it’s still working.”
As the status quo endures — some believe that the king may introduce reforms this month, while others remain skeptical — anger among many Shiites toward American policy has deepened. Though some appreciated President Obama’s criticism of the crackdown in May, many lament what they see as a double standard. In contrast to the treatment of Syria and Libya, they point out, no administration official is calling for sanctions against Bahrain, a country where the United States has its largest regional naval base, for the Fifth Fleet.
“Democracy isn’t only for those countries the United States has a problem with,” said Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Bahrain was never the stereotypical Persian Gulf confection where skyscrapers make no sense in the expansive desert. By the standards of the gulf region, education came early, and civil society flourished. But since the crackdown, the economy posted an anemic growth rate of 1 percent in the quarter ending in June after shrinking in the previous quarter. International meetings were canceled. So was the Formula One race this year, an event in which many in Bahrain took pride. Crédit Agricole, a French bank, is moving its regional headquarters to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this year.
The metaphor often used by those who lament the splintered society is fabric, as in torn, tattered and frayed.
“You know how it is,” said a 25-year-old protester named Hassan, who was arrested for demonstrating in June and whose last name is being withheld for his safety. “When you cut off hope, you leave no alternative.”
“Show me your beautiful face,” Hassan quoted a police officer as telling him before punching it three times. He said others joined in, beating him “as if eating cake.” He keeps a picture of one of those officers on his cellphone, as a reminder.
“There’s no other choice but violence,” he said. “We can’t back down.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/world/middleeast/repression-tears-apart-bahrains-
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Cross-border terror camps being reactivated: PM Manmohan Singh
Sep 16, 2011
NEW DELHI: Calling for tighter security vigil in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday warned that terrorists were waiting in camps across the border to infiltrate into the state.
Addressing the all-India conference of director generals and inspector generals of police here, Singh said the security situation in the state had witnessed "a gradual, yet substantial" improvement in the recent months.
"There are reports of a large number of terrorists waiting in camps across the border and attempts to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir are increasing," Singh said. Cross-border terror camps are being reactivated, the PM said. He, however, did not name Pakistan.
"We need to be ever vigilant if infiltration attempts are to be foiled and security maintained," he added.
The Prime Minister described the recent Mumbai and Delhi blasts as a "grave reminder" of the great challenge that terrorists posed to India's national security.
"The national security situation continues to be uncertain. Recent terror attacks in Mumbai and Delhi are a grave reminder to great challenge posed by terrorists to our nation's security," Singh said after distributing the police meritorious service medals to officers.
He also noted that left-wing extremism had also claimed lives of many innocent people and policemen.
The Mumbai blast took place July 13 and the Delhi blast outside the high court premises Sep 7, both claiming many lives and injuring many more.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cross-border-terror-camps-being-reactivated-PM-Manmohan-Singh/articleshow/10003406.cms
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Residents of Neelum Valley in PoK stage anti-militant protests
Sep 16, 2011
ISLAMABAD: Residents of the Neelum Valley in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have staged protests against renewed militant activity in the area due to fears that the presence of rebels could jeopardise a nearly eight-year-old ceasefire with India.
Local residents said militants from the Pakistani heartland are flocking to Neelum Valley and crossing into Jammu and Kashmir to launch attacks there, the BBC reported.
The residents feared that retaliatory fire from the Indian side might threaten life in Neelum Valley and a ceasefire that was put in place in late 2003.
The area was a major staging post for militants during 1990-2003.
Information about the latest spate of protests in Neelum Valley trickled out slowly as the area is very remote, the report said.
During a congregation to mark the Eid festival on August 31, residents of Athmuqam town passed a resolution which declared that any attempt to disrupt peace in the area would be resisted by the people.
A week later, two large demonstrations were held in Athmuqam to protest the influx of militants, which local residents argued had sparked border skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian forces.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Residents-of-Neelum-Valley-in-PoK-
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Egypt says peace deal with Israel not sacred
16 September 2011
CAIRO: Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said that Egypt's peace deal with Israel is not sacred. He was speaking during an interview with a Turkish television channel.
"The Camp David agreement is not a sacred thing and is always open to discussion with what would benefit the region and the case of fair peace ... and we could make a change if needed," he said in the interview, which was also broadcast on Egyptian state television.
Ties between Egypt and Israel took a blow last week after protesters ransacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, forcing the evacuation of staff and the departure of the ambassador.
The attack late on Friday, in which crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag, was the worst since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state.
It was the latest episode in worsening relations between Egypt and Israel since the killing of six Egyptian policemen on their common border as Israel hunted gunmen after a deadly attack last month.
Ties between Egypt and Israel, which have been bound by a peace treaty since 1979, have entered a period of turbulence since the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak by a popular uprising in February.
Activists behind Mubarak's fall have urged a revision of the treaty and the call echoed by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood after the embassy attack.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article502230.ece
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Naked humiliation of a female in Bangladesh
Sep 16, 2011
Her name is Samira Kaizer, hailing from an affluent family in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, with sound educational background and capability of speaking multiple languages. Fun-loving Samira used to roam around various places in the city, during her leisure time, with friends and buddies. She was a regular visitor at Dhaka's Westin Hotel, Radisson Hotel, Sonargaon Pan Pacific Hotel and other top graded clubs and restaurants. In professional life, Samira takes care of her family business as well as works as even manager of various parties organized in the city. Her name is well-known to most of the leading corporate houses as well as in the diplomatic circle.
Recently Samira's name prominently came [along with her photograph] as lead news in one of the vernacular dailies in the country. The daily newspaper tried its best to label her as a "whore". After investigating the over-enthusiasm of the newspaper in publicly maligning Samira Kaizer, series of worrisome information of police collaborated media terror on civilians was clearly exposed.
It has been learnt that, several high-ranking and mid-ranking police officers are regularly visiting various clubs and posh hotels in the city. In most cases, these officers demand food and alcoholic beverage at no charge. This is not only in case of clubs and posh hotels. Large sections of police officers regularly visit the restaurants and fast food shops in their respective jurisdictions and demand food without pay. Some officers even go with the whole bunch of their family members. Restaurant owners are rather made captive in the hands of the police officers, because rejecting free food would surely welcome "dire consequences" for the owners, as Bangladeshi police is infamous enough of putting innocent people into severe legal harassments.
Full report at:
http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1801/naked-humiliation-of-a-female-in-bangladesh
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Buddhist monks destroy Muslim shrine in Sri Lanka: BBC
Sep 16 2011
Colombo : Buddhist monks have reportedly destroyed a Muslim shrine in Sri Lanka.
This incident took place last Saturday in Anuradhapura, an ancient Buddhist city and UNESCO world heritage site, the BBC reports.
A Sri Lankan news website showed photographs of a crowd including monks, apparently destroying a small structure while some others waved Buddhist flags and burnt a green Muslim flag.
Meanwhile, a monk who admitted to have masterminded the demolition of the Muslim shrine, has said that he arranged a gathering of around 100 monks, including some from other Asian countries, to take action because local Muslims were allegedly trying to convert the shrine into a mosque despite new constructions being illegal on this site with its many Buddhist temples.
He said local government officials arrived and said they would remove the shrine within three days, but the crowd said "we cannot wait" and proceeded to destroy the structure.
Some witnesses have alleged that the incident took place in the presence of police, but they did not do much to prevent it.
However, the police denied they were present there.
"This is a fabricated story. No media in Sri Lanka has reported this and we don''t have any police report. If this happened there would have been a complaint. We have not received any complaint," a police spokesman said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/buddhist-monks-destroy-muslim-shrine-in-sri-lanka-bbc/847625/
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CIA probes assistance of NYPD spying on Muslims
Sep 16, 2011
The CIA has launched an internal review over whether it illegally helped New York police spy on Muslim communities in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Although the CIA is prohibited from conducting domestic spying, the Associated Press revealed last month the agency helped the New York City Police Department develop a so-called "Demographics Unit" that used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons without any evidence of wrongdoing and spy on people carrying out jobs typically done by Muslims. Democracy Now
HIGHLIGHTS
The following are the highlights of the investigation by The Associated Press:
The agency's unprecedented cooperation with the NYPD was a subject of an eight-month investigative reporting project by The Associated Press. The AP found that NYPD intelligence officers analyzed hundreds of mosques and student organizations, infiltrating dozens of them.
Full report at:
http://presstv.com/usdetail/199313.html
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'Islamophobia a means to justify US military industrial complex'
Sep 16, 2011
Anti-war activist Don DeBar says the FBI is spreading Islamophobia in the United States to "fan the flames of fear" and justify the U.S. military and prison industrial complexes.
"You have to have an enemy [and] to have an apparatus to deal with the enemy," DeBar said in an interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Thursday.
In order to justify its prison and military industrial complexes, the U.S. needs "someone they are aimed at," and it needs "to have people afraid of someone," DeBar noted, adding that "Muslims are the ones that replaced the communists in the American fable of fear".
According to the FBI training material obtained by the Danger Room, the FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that "main stream" [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a "funding mechanism for combat."
At the Bureau's training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more "devout" a Muslim, the more likely he is to be "violent"
http://presstv.com/usdetail/199363.html
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US should confront Pak on anti-India terror groups: Lawmakers
Sep 16 2011
Washington : Two top US lawmakers have questioned Pakistan's "duplicative role" in the war against terror, blaming ISI for aiding extremists, particularly against India, while criticising the Obama administration's lack of assertiveness against Islamabad on the issue.
Congressman Brad Sherman said at a Congressional hearing on India-US relationships yesterday that the US should confront Islamabad on its duplicative role, pointing out that Pakistan-based terror groups with links to al Qaeda, have inflicted a series of attacks on India.
"I've consistently called the State Department and others in our government to call out Pakistan for its often duplicative role in the struggle against terror. Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, has for too long aided violent extremists," he said.
"Several Pakistani groups including Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed have links to al-Qaeda. These groups have launched numerous attacks against the Indian population and government, including the deadly assault against the Indian parliament in New Delhi in 2001," he said.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/us-should-confront-pak-on-antiindia-terror-groups-lawmakers/847612/
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Norway massacre killer to appear behind closed doors
Sep 16, 2011
OSLO: A Norwegian appeals court decided Thursday that the self-confessed killer of 77 people in two July 22 attacks will appear behind closed doors in his court appearance next week.
The decision overturned a lower court ruling earlier this week which said Anders Behring Breivik, 32, could appear in public for the first time.
"Borgarting appeal court has just decided that the court meeting on Monday ... will be held behind closed doors," it said in a statement, adding that a press conference would be held after the hearing.
A lower Oslo court said Monday it did not see how the suspect's presence in public would "complicate the case by divulging elements that would harm the inquiry."
But police, who have previously asked for closed hearings out of concern that Behring Breivik might try to communicate with any possible accomplices, had appealed the decision.
The September 19 hearing is aimed at extending the killer's custody, and deciding whether to keep him in solitary confinement.
The 32-year-old Norwegian has admitted killing 77 people in twin attacks on July 22, first setting off a bomb at the Labour government offices and then carrying out a shooting massacre at a Labour youth summer camp on an island near Oslo.
In a manifesto he published on the Internet just before the attacks, Behring Breivik professed his hatred for Western-style democracy, saying it had spawned the multicultural society he loathed.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Norway-massacre-killer-to-appear-behind-closed-doors/articleshow/9996054.cms
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Two Muslims Shot Dead at Prayers in Thai South Mosque
16 Sep, 2011
YALA, Thailand (Reuters) - Suspected insurgents walked into a packed mosque and shot dead two Muslims in a brazen attack during Friday prayers in Thailand's rebellious deep south, police said.
The victims were a police officer and a defence volunteer and nearly 100 people witnessed the killings in Yala province by four Muslims believed to be separatists.
Ethnic Malay Muslims form the majority of the population in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, where an insurgency has claimed nearly 4,800 lives since 2006.
The main targets for the shadowy militants are members of the security forces, teachers and government officials, but Muslims are often killed for working for the Thai state or acting as informants.
The region was an independent sultanate a century ago before it became part of mostly Buddhist Thailand.
Shootings in mosques have happened several times in the three provinces.
In June 2009, 11 Muslims were killed at prayer at the Al-Furqan mosque in Narathiwat. Many Muslims and rights groups believed that attack was carried out by Buddhist vigilantes. No one has been charged with the killings.
Friday's killings in Yala came a day after five paramilitary rangers were shot dead in an ambush in Pattani province after the pickup truck they were riding in was hit by a bomb.
The rubber-rich region borders Malaysia and is just a few hours by car from some of Thailand's best-known tourist beaches such as Krabi and Phuket. However, the near-daily shootings and bombings have been concentrated in the three provinces and neighbouring Songkhla.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/09/16/world/asia/international-us-thailand-south.html?ref=world&gwh=2B38C17CEFA2E3406A8488F67C7AC6EA
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Activists: Syrian Troops Kill 15 in Raids, Rallies
16 Sep, 2011
BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say the Syrian regime has killed 15 people during the latest raids and opposition protests across the nation.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says two protesters were killed in the central city of Homs when security forces started shooting at demonstrators who streamed into the streets after Friday prayers.
The group also says raids earlier on Friday killed five in the central province of Hama and eight people in the northwestern region of Jabal al-Zawiya.
The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, also put the day's death toll at 15.
The popular uprising started in Syria in mid-March and President Bashar Assad has reacted with deadly force.
The U.N. estimates some 2,600 people have been killed.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces opened fire at protesters who streamed into the streets after Friday prayers, hours after troops killed at least four people in raids in the central province of Hama, activists said.
The activists said there was no immediate word on casualties regarding the shooting at protesters after the prayers. The Syrian opposition called for protests Friday, labeling it, "we will continue until we bring down the regime."
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/16/world/middleeast/AP-ML-
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Cattle raiders kill 46 in in South Sudan
16 September 2011
KHARTOUM: At least 46 people were killed and around 5,000 cows stolen in the latest tribal violence in newly independent South Sudan, authorities said.
South Sudan became independent in July after a 2005 peace deal with Khartoum that ended decades of civil war but the oil-producing nation has been struggling to end tribal and rebel violence that has killed around 3,000 people this year.
The violence threatens to turn the new nation into a failed state and could upset the stability of its east African neighbors.
In the latest incident, youths from Warrap state attacked villages in neighboring Unity state last weekend, officials said on Thursday.
“It’s a disastrous issue. A group with fire-arms came to villages in Mayendit. They came to raid cattle but also killed women and children,” Unity state minister of information Gideon Gatpan said, adding that another 40 people were still missing.
Analysts say cattle theft is on the rise, driven by inflation of bride prices, which are traditionally paid in cows.
At least seven rebel militias are fighting the new government’s forces in remote parts of South Sudan, a country roughly the size of France.
South Sudan has accused Khartoum of supporting militias but the north denies this, and many rebels say they are fighting against what they see as corruption and ethnic discrimination in the south’s government, charges it denies.
http://arabnews.com/world/article502164.ece
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Malaysian Prime Minister Says He Will Abolish 2 Security Laws
By LIZ GOOCH
Sep 16, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The decision by Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia to abolish two controversial security laws that allow for detention without trial and to relax laws governing the media is an attempt to revive public support ahead of elections which many believe could be called by early next year, analysts said Friday.
Mr. Najib announced on Thursday that he would repeal the Internal Securities Act and the Emergency Ordinance, which rights groups say have been used to silence government critics. He also said that publications would no longer have to renew their printing licenses annually and that the government would review laws relating to freedom of assembly.
The two security laws will be replaced with new legislation. It was unclear, however, how long people still may be detained without charge under the new laws.
“The abolition of the I.S.A., and the other historic changes I am announcing this evening, underline my commitment to making Malaysia a modern, progressive democracy that can be proud to take its place at the top table of international leadership,” Mr. Najib said in a televised address Thursday.
“Many will question whether I am moving too far, too fast. Some will say that the reforms should only be carried out in small steps, or not at all,” the prime minister said. “To them I say, if a reform is the right the thing to do, now is the right time to do it. There may be short-term pain for me politically but in the long-term the changes I am announcing tonight will ensure a brighter, more prosperous future for all Malaysians.”
When he came to power in 2009, Mr. Najib pledged to embark on a series of reforms, but he has been criticized for being slow to act.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/world/asia/malaysian-prime-minister-says-he-will-abolish-2-security-laws.html?ref=world
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Oklahoma argues for Sharia law ban in courts
Sep 16, 2011
Earlier this week in a federal court of appeals, lawyers representing the state of Oklahoma argued in favor of the reinstatement of a state law that would expressly ban Islamic Sharia Law from being recognized in court, Reuters reported.
The "Save Our State" amendment was supported by 70 percent of voters last year. Critics said that the law created polarization and alienation of Muslims, while supporters said that the law prevented foreign laws from overriding U.S. law. Rawstory
HIGHLIGHTS
Solicitor General Patrick R. Wyrick argued that the law is meant to prohibit judges from looking at the legal precepts of other cultures, which immediately became the topic of questioning by the panel. AP
The panel gave no indication how it would rule, but at least one judge, Scott Matheson, asked why the measure was crafted to apply explicitly to just one religion. TPM
"There's no mention of any other specific law," Matheson said in the hearing. "We just have Sharia law singled out."
Full report at:
http://presstv.com/usdetail/199318.html
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HC blast: Forget English, he can’t even write Urdu, says Aamir’s father
Arun Sharma
Sep 17 2011
Kishtwar : There is gloom in Chinar Gali and the area around Kishtwar’s Government Degree College from where the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and J&K police arrested three students. Their families claim they are innocent and hope they would come back home soon.
Police — who had got custody of Abid Hussain and Shariq Ahmed last week — on Thursday evening secured a seven-day remand for Amir Abbas from the court of Principal District and Sessions Judge M L Manhas. They, however, let off Hilal Amin who had been detained along with Aamir.
Sitting in a small room in a mohalla near the degree college, Raiza Begum is inconsolable. She continues to wail even as women from the neighbourhood try to tell her that Aamir, 19, will return home soon as he is innocent. She has not cooked anything at home since September 14 when two policemen in plain clothes took her son saying, “Saab bula rahein hein..”
“They told me that he would return home soon,” says Ghulam Abbas, his father. ``As he did not return home that night, I went to the district police headquarters next morning. However, police did not allow me even to enter the premises.”
Aamir has a history of epilepsy. “He has been suffering from fits since he was one and a half (years old),” the father says. Abbas says his son has never ventured out of Kishtwar alone. “Except for the mosque and his maternal grandparents’ house, he did not know even the lanes and mohallas in Kishtwar,” he says.
His father says Aamir was a poor student and passed Class XII after two unsuccessful attempts. Abbas says his son, who has enrolled for a correspondence course at Moulana Azad University, can’t even write Urdu properly. “Forget sending an e-mail in English, he cannot correctly write even Urdu,” he says.
Investigators claimed that Aamir had passed on the pen drive with the email which claimed responsibility for the blast to Shariq and Abid to be sent to media organisations.
Shariq, who passed his Class X with distinction, was picked up from his home on September 10 afternoon. Since then, his mother Salima has not slept, says Shariq’s father Mohammad Afzal, an employee in the forest department. Afsal says his son was in school when the bomb went off outside the Delhi High Court, and not at home watching news channels as the investigators had claimed.
He says Shariq went to Global Internet Café to play video games after coming back from school and returned home three hours later. Afsal remembers that his son was very happy as he played for one hour and half by paying just for one hour.
“My son has been busy with his studies and tuitions right from early morning till late at night,” he says. He shows a timetable Shariq had prepared for his daily schedule of school, tuitions, studies at home—it even has a half-hour slot for his grandmother.
“We are being patient as we are sure that our child is innocent,” Afzal says but adds it is tough to duck the grandmother’s questions about Shariq.
Also in Chinar Gali is the house of Abid, another 16-year-old student of Islamia Faridia Higher Secondary School, who, too, was picked up from home last week. “He has been traumatised ever since his mother died of blood cancer in 2004,” says his father Attaullah Bhawani, a class-IV employee at Kishtwar’s Deputy Commissioner’s office.
“I don’t know as to how he managed to pass the Class X examination when I know that he cannot even write an application to say he is ill,” says Attaullah.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/847833/
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As Modi begins fast, Gulberg’s last man says why he’s still there
ADAMHALLIDAY
Sep 17 2011
Ahmedabad : On the eve of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s fast, the spotlight is back on Gulberg Society. However, 68-year-old Kasam Allahnoor Mansoori is used to these passing nudges when the world remembers a massacre. What he is more acquainted with are the dark, quiet shadows that fall in later — that have never left the society since that day of February 28, 2002, and where he remains now the only resident.
As he wades through grass and hops across puddles, and walks up the two short steps into the front room of his home, Mansoori gestures towards a spot in the wall — “Ehsanbhai (Ehsan Jafri) had his armchair here. He would sit in it and read books, watch TV, look out the window at the grounds there.”
The frame of the window is now sooty, the metal of its grills corroded. Sunlight struggles to break through the untrimmed trees, overgrown grass and the moss that covers the walls of the compound, which once housed families in 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings. A heavy stench covers the street outside this poor neighbourhood, waste overflowing from three large waste containers. From the outside, the now infamous address is easy to miss.
As a lone armed sentry sits on a plastic chair, keeping an eye on visitors, a cow strolls in. Mansoori smiles, “It comes to eat the grass.”
He lives in a corner house just next to the main gate, alone after his two surviving sons moved out not long ago to houses of their own. “I remain,” he says without emotion, “because my father lived here and brought us all up here. Besides, their spirits won’t allow me to leave.”
He is talking of his wife, a son, a daughter, three daughters-in-law and six grandchildren who were among the 69 killed here.
Mansoori talks without stopping for a while. “No one comes here. On Fridays, neighbourhood Muslims come to offer namaaz,” he says, pointing to a small mosque just inside the gate.
“Jab tak Ehsaanbhai the, yeh Society mein har koi khush tha (Till Ehsanbhai was alive, everyone was happy in this Society). Even today when we make bajra rotis and mutton at home, we miss him. He loved the mutton and bajra rotis my mother made for him on the chulha).”
Mansoori’s mother lived next door to Jafri. Each Friday, Mansoori lights an incense stick in both houses, which remain the same as the day of the riots.
“I remember I was at home when Pandesaheb (P C Pande, Police Commissioner during the riots) came to call him, but he said no. Ehsanbhai told my father, ‘How can I go with them? I am worried for my wife and children’. I was hardly gone half an hour to donate blood to a relative, when news came that a mob had burnt down Gulberg Society,” he remembers.
Mansoori laments the fact that people have since moved away and cut off all links to a place belonging to their ancestors. “I don’t feel alone here,” he adds. “My wife Jebunissah is still here.”
When they come to visit, he tells his grandchildren to go and play in the houses. “I don’t want them to remain scared,” Mansoori says. “They tell me that at dusk, she holds their hands and brings them back to the house.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/847837/
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Pakistan-born baroness reveals: Polygamy, welfare benefits and an insidious silence
By Baroness Flather
Sep 16, 2011
In this disturbing and brave exposé, a Pakistan-born baroness reveals how some of her countrymen have as many children as possible by several wives so as to milk our welfare system...
Behind the creation of the modern welfare state lay a noble ideal. The post-war generation of politicians and civil servants were motivated by the desire to protect the vulnerable, the sick and those in genuine poverty.
Tragically, over recent decades, the system has become corrupted. It might have once been a safety net for those in real difficulties but, today, parts of the benefits structure have become a lucrative racket for claimants who lack any sense of social responsibility.
Through its generosity, which now costs taxpayers more than £200??billion a year, Britain’s social security system incentivises idleness and fecklessness.
And one of the most worrying aspects of this — and which is something that has been a taboo subject for far too long, because of sensitivities about the issue of race — is the way the system is exploited by some migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
As I said in Parliament this week, there is now a growing wealth of evidence that the generosity of the welfare state encourages some Muslims from these two regions — along with plenty of white families — to produce ever larger families in order to claim extra payments and publicly-subsidised housing. And it’s something the system seems to allow too easily.
Full report at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2037998/Polygamy-welfare-benefits-insidious-silence.html#ixzz1Y6cMY4PI
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Pak border region is the most dangerous place in the world: US
Sep 16, 2011
WASHINGTON: Pakistan's border region remains the most dangerous place in the world and Federally Administered Tribal Areas remains epicenter of the world's worst of global jihad, a top Pentagon official has said.
Pakistan's border region remains, as both President Obama and a Pakistani authorities recently put it, "the most dangerous place in the world."
"Pakistan's FATA remain the epicenter --- the "Star Wars Bar," if you will -- of the world's worst of global jihad," said Michael Vickers, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
"The continued presence of groups, like TIP (Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan), the Haqqani Network, and the Commander Nazir Group who provide al-Qaida with safe haven and make common cause with it ensures that the FATA will almost certainly remain a principal area of US counterterrorism focus well after core al-Qaida is dismantled and ejected from the region," Vickers said at a conference early this week at the National Defense University.
Terming al-Qaida as a "parasite" that cannot survive without its host, he said "the parasite also infects its host. In recent months, we have been reminded that our relationship with Pakistan is not without tension or frustration."
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pak-border-region-is-the-most-dangerous-place-in-the-world-US/articleshow/10002321.cms
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Fresh war of words as US ticks off Pak on terror
Sep 16, 2011
ISLAMABAD: The US warning on militants based in Pakistan, blamed by Washington for this week's attack on the US embassy in Kabul, works against counter-terrorism cooperation between the two allies, the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
It was referring to comments by US defence secretary Leon Panetta that Washington would do whatever it takes to defend American forces in Afghanistan from Pakistanbased militants.
"We believe these remarks are not in line with the cooperation that exists between the two countries," foreign ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told reporters.
US officials suspect militants from the Haqqani network were behind Tuesday's rocket attack on the US embassy compound in the Afghan capital, as well as a truck bomb last Saturday that wounded 77 US force ambers.
"Time and again we've urged the Pakistanis to exercise their influence over these kinds of attacks from the Haqqanis. And we have made very little progress in that area," Panetta told reporters flying with him to San Francisco.
"I think the message they need to know is: we're going to do everything we can to defend our forces." Pakistani officials said there was no proof of such crossborder operations.
The comments are likely to raise tension between the uneasy allies. Relations dropped to a low point after a unilateral US special forces raid killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Fresh-war-of-words-as-US-ticks-off-Pak-on-terror/articleshow/10001715.cms
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Kashmir interlocutors to submit report before October 12
16 SEPTEMBER 2011
Ruling out any delay in submission of their report, Centre-appointed interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir will submit it to the government before October 12.
“Our term comes to end on October 12. The report will be handed over before October 12,” Dilip Padgaonkar, who heads the three-member team of interlocutors, told PTI here on Friday.
“There will be absolutely no delay. I don’t know where people get this stuff from,” he said while referring to media reports about delay in submitting their report to the Centre.
The panel comprising veteran journalist Mr. Padgaonkar, academician Prof. Radha Kumar and former Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari were appointed by the Centre to find out practical, feasible and workable solution regarding Jammu and Kashmir by accommodating aspirations of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to the largest possible extent.
In a reply to a question about media reports that interlocutors may recommend making special status for J&K under Article 370 of the Constitution as a “permanent” one, Mr. Padgaonkar said, “I don’t respond to such speculation.”
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2458965.ece
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Community efforts help release of 14 Indians from Dubai jails
16 SEPTEMBER 2011
Fourteen Indians, who were languishing in jails in Dubai for non-premeditated murders and other traffic accident related cases, have been released in the last one year under an initiative launched by a community organisation here which paid blood-money.
The initiative called Project Eagle launched by Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC) has managed to secure the release of 14 Indians in the last one year, its senior official said.
K. Kumar, head of ICWC, said the organisation raised a total of 729,000 dirhams (Rs. 9,433,276.84) after an appeal to the Indian community to help those stuck in jail for non- premeditated murders and other traffic accident related cases.
ICWC was established under the patronage of the Indian Consulate which reaches out to the most vulnerable sections of the Indian community in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
“This has given us a sense of satisfaction and made us feel proud of our collective efforts. We are already focusing on the next set of four cases to help Indians who are languishing in jail for unfortunate reasons,” Mr. Kumar told PTI.
Six of the men who benefited from Project Eagle have gone back to their old jobs and this has given them a new lease of life. The project has a clear brief of helping Indians as long as the cases are genuine and not premeditated.
The corpus that makes this possible has come about through donations from individuals, businessmen and companies who wrote cheques from Rs 259. (20 dirhams) to Rs. 1,684,434.02 (130,000 dirhams).
Since its inception in 2000, ICWC has managed to secure the release of 45 Indians in blood-money cases from prison. A core team of four ICWC volunteers have made this possible.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2458940.ece
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Indian Mujahideen a lethal group inside India: U.S.
16 SEPTEMBER 2011
Indian Mujahideen is the first India-based terrorist group to be designated as foreign terrorist group by the U.S. and is a lethal terrorist outfit, U.S. officials said.
“They are a very lethal terrorist group in their own right in India. They have carried out a number of attacks within India’s borders on innocent civilians, and although not confirmed, there’s a suspicion that they were responsible for the recent bombings in Mumbai on July 13,” Mark Toner, State Department spokesman, said.
The sanction slapped on Indian Mujahideen by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sends a very clear message to the world that the U.S. considers this to be an international terrorist organization.
He said the U.S. and India would continue to work closely.
“Frankly it’s India that bears the brunt of these attacks. We have a robust strategic dialogue with India. They are a close ally and partner. One of the elements of that is close counterterrorism cooperation,” Mr. Toner said in response to a question.
“Yes, this (Indian Mujahideen) is the first Indian-based group the Department has designated as a FTO,” a State Department official told PTI.
However, two other separatist groups -- Babbar Khalsa International and International Sikh Youth Foundation -- were slapped sanctions under the Executive Order 13224 terrorist groups in June 2002.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2458396.ece
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MAKKAH: Maid pleads not to deport love child with her
16 September 2011
MAKKAH: An Asian maid who gave birth to an illegitimate child has begged authorities not to deport the boy with her, claiming it would put both their lives in jeopardy.
The woman already served two years in a Makkah prison for the crime and is awaiting deportation, the Arabic daily Shams reported Thursday. The child was to be adopted by a Saudi family, but the authorities have decided the boy should go with the mother.
The Asian woman, who is married, expressed fears that her husband would kill her and the child if she takes him home with her.
The Saudi couple, who had no children of their own, adopted the child from a child care home in the holy city. They had no idea that the child was illegitimate.
A preacher for Makkah prisons, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Shahrani, appealed to the authorities not to deport the child with his mother.
“It is unimaginable for a woman to go back to her family after an absence with a child not conceived with her husband. She will definitely face grave consequences,” he warned.
Al-Shahrani asked the authorities to leave the boy with his foster parents, who love him dearly and are insisting on keeping him.
A spokesman of the passport police said it was not up to his department to deport the child or not. “We are an executive organization implementing the decisions of the concerned authorities.”
Assistant spokesman for Makkah police Lt. Col. Zaki Al-Rihaili also said the child’s future was not in their hands. “Our work ends when we turn over suspects to the Prosecution and Investigation Commission,” he said.
The Social Affairs Ministry said the case had many complications. The ministry’s spokesman Muhammad Al-Awad said according to the law, the child should accompany his mother. He, however, accepted exceptional circumstances in this case and said the boy should be left with the Saudi family.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article502215.ece
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Rebels transforming Libya into Sharia state
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Sep 16, 2011
Finally, my previous forecasts have turned true, once again! American President Barack Hussain Obama is very cunningly implementing his hidden desire of giving birth to few more Sharia states in the world. With this mission in mind, Obama helped ouster of secularist government of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Husni Mubarak government in Egypt and now Muammar Gaddafi government in Libya. I am no fan of any of the mentioned dictators, who ruled their countries for decades, thus looting public wealth, but, of course, I cannot support Obama's theory of replacing the corrupt secularists with radical Jihadists. Following the claimed fall of Gaddafi regime in Libya, rebel leader, who now heads the Libyan interim government [National Transition Council], Mustafa Abdul Jalil recently in a public gathering said, "We will not accept any extremist ideology, on the right or the left. We are Muslim people, for a moderate Islam, and will stay on this road. We strive for a state of the law, for a state of prosperity, for a state that will have Islamic Sharia law the basis of legislation."
No doubt, sensing his imminent defeat in the next Presidential election, Barack Hussain Obama has accelerated his 'mission Islamization'. Here we all need to remember one point that, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah – all welcomed the ouster of Gaddafi in Libya. Earlier they welcomed ouster of Ben Ali and Husni Mubarak. And of course, such 'over-whelming' excitement by the radical Islamist as well as Jihadist groups, clearly show to the world that, in all the three cases, radical Islam became winner while United States and the West are losers.
Full report at:
http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1798/rebels-transforming-libya-into-sharia-state
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Libyan rebels move on besieged towns
Sep 17 2011
Bani Walid : The forces of Libya’s new leaders attacked two besieged towns Friday, storming into Bani Walid and pushing forward at Sirte, as they tried to finish off resistance from supporters of Muammar Gaddafi.
At Bani Walid, a bastion of tribal loyalists in the desert 180 km southeast of Tripoli, anti-Gaddafi fighters moved forward under mortar, rocket and sniper fire, advancing from house to house and sheltering behind walls as shrapnel and bullets flew.
Though the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said they took a key valley leading to the centre, the defence remained ferocious after a two-week siege of the town where senior figures in the old government may have taken refuge.
On the outskirts of Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace on the Mediterranean coast, scores of trucks mounted with heavy machineguns advancing on the city. Reorts suggestes the airport there had been taken.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/847801/
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Libyan fighters in fierce push on Gaddafi bastion
Sep 16 2011
Bani Walid : Libyan revolutionary forces faced fierce resistance as they streamed into one of the remaining bastions of support for Moammar Gaddafi on Friday.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit came a day after the French and British leaders traveled to Libya as the international community rallies around the interim government's efforts to establish legitimacy and start rebuilding the country despite continued fighting against loyalists of Gaddafi, who remains on the run.
Libyan fighters in dozens of pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons were making their way from the north into the center of town of Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometres) southeast of Tripoli. Explosions and gunfire resounded across the area and smoke billowed into the sky as fierce clashes broke out.
One of the fighters, Hisham Nseir, said the frontline is "very heated and chaotic'' and his troops were meeting with heavy resistance from Gaddafi's men.
Commander Abdullah Abu-Asara told The Associated Press that his men were just over a mile (2 kilometres) away from reaching the very heart of Bani Walid and that the main obstacle in their way was Wadi Zaytun, an elongated valley full of Gaddafi snipers.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/libyan-fighters-in-fierce-push-on-gaddafi-bastion/847607/
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UN Council to ease Libya sanctions: diplomats
16 September 2011
Britain officially registered a resolution to ease Libya assets and arms sanctions at the UN Security Council and expects a vote on Friday, diplomats said.
The resolution would set up a UN mission to help Libya’s interim government hold elections and write a new post-Muammar Gaddafi constitution.
Following talks among the 15 council members, provisions were added to the original draft, putting more stress on human rights, the need to involve women in decision-making and to protect African migrants who have been attacked.
‘There is a lot of agreement now on the draft. Everyone agrees that the Security Council has to do something quickly for the people of Libya,’ a western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The final resolution, obtained by AFP, welcomes the ‘improved situation’ in Libya and highlights the council’s determination to make sure that tens of billions of dollars of assets frozen by the Security Council in February and March ‘shall as soon as possible be made available to and for the benefit of the people of Libya.’
The resolution would lift asset freezes and other measures against Libyan National Oil Corporation and Zueitina Oil Company, and ease sanctions against the central bank, Libyan Arab Foreign Bank, Libyan Investment Authority and Libyan African Africa Investment Portfolio.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/September/international_September644.xml§ion=international
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Libyans divided: Some want reconciliation, some Qaddafi’s head
16 September 2011
TRIPOLI: A cheering crowd welcomed Mustafa Abdel Jaleel, chief of the Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), when he made his first public appearance at Martyrs Square here in the capital and called for reconciliation rather than revenge against the ousted regime of Muamar Qaddafi.
The half-hour address, in which Jaleel never mentioned Qaddafi’s name, was punctuated by celebratory gunfire. But elsewhere in Tripoli the gunfire is just as often a cry of anger and revenge against the man who ruled Libya with an iron fist for more than four decades.
Not far away from Martyrs Square, Abdul loaded his anti-aircraft gun and shot out two rounds after learning — as it turns out, incorrectly — that one of Qaddafi’s sons was captured. No matter what those in control of the country say, Abdul Rahman declared, Qaddafi must be hanged.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article502234.ece
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Protests in Yemen, New Signs President May Quit
16 Sep, 2011
SANAA Yemen (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Yemen Friday demanding the resignation of the president, a day after the U.S. State Department said it hoped a power transfer deal could be signed within a week.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been hanging on to his post despite local, regional and international pressure to leave office. Al-Qaida linked militants have been taking advantage of the turmoil to overrun parts of southern Yemen.
Saleh has come close to signing the Gulf Cooperation Council's power transfer proposal several times, only to back out at the last minute. It offers him and his family immunity from prosecution over the deaths of protesters in exchange for leaving office.
Saleh has been in Saudi Arabia since early June, when he was seriously wounded in an attack on his compound in Sanaa. On Friday a Saudi official said he will not return to Yemen.
While that could be an indication that he will agree to leave office, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said that in his conversations with Saleh, the president expressed discontent with the Gulf Cooperation Council's proposed deal. Saleh, according to the official, felt that Saudi Arabia cheated him by backing the accord following pressure from the United States.
The official said he met Saleh at the palace where he is residing in Riyadh and that the president was with a number of his children. He said the luxurious palace offered to Saleh by Saudi leaders is meant to show the extent to which they want him to remain in the kingdom.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/15/world/middleeast/AP-ML-
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Palestinians cannot achieve statehood through UN: US
Sep 16, 2011
WASHINGTON: Infuriated over Palestinian leaders' drive for statehood, the US on Friday warned them that they cannot achieve it by passing of a resolution at the United Nations and insisted that the best way to get it is through negotiations with Israel.
"The Palestinians will not, and cannot, achieve statehood through a declaration at the United Nations. It is a distraction, and it's counterproductive," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
"That remains our position. We continue to be focused with great intensity on the need to get Israelis and Palestinians together again in direct negotiations, because that is the path towards a two-state solution and Palestinian statehood," he said.
President Barack Obama, he said, believes that the only way to resolve the issues between the Palestinians and the Israelis and to ultimately create a Palestinian state is through direct negotiations.
US has threatened to veto any Palestinian application for full membership of the UN or go to the General Assembly for enhanced observer membership this month.
In San Francisco, secretary of state Hillary Clinton warned Palestinians that their effort is shortsighted and cannot succeed, saying the road to peace and two states living side by side does not go through New York.
"It goes through Jerusalem and Ramallah," she said. "It is our absolute conviction that we need to get the parties back into negotiations on a direct face-to-face basis and that they have to be at that negotiating table working through the framework that President Obama laid out in May. That remains our focus. We are absolutely committed to pursuing that," Clinton said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Palestinians-cannot-achieve-statehood-through-UN-US/articleshow/10004530.cms
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World backs Syrian opposition
16 September 2011
ISTANBUL: Syrian opposition activists meeting in Istanbul announced the members of Syrian National Council to provide an alternative to President Bashar Assad’s government as a brutal crackdown continued in their homeland.
Addressing a news conference at the end of four days of talks, Basma Kadmani, a Syrian exile living in France, said the council aimed to help topple Assad’s dictatorship within six months and form an interim government thereafter.
“The political vision of the council will give a push to the escalation of the revolutionary work we are seeing,” she said.
“This group, based on previous initiatives, and on what the street is demanding, is calling for the downfall of the regime with all of its limbs.” While condemning the Syrian government’s repressive response to pro-democracy protests, the international community has bemoaned the lack of a unified opposition that it could talk to.
By finalizing names of its members, drawn from Syria’s various political, religious and ethnic groups, the council hopes to fill that gap. “The next step will be international recognition, and the council will act in accordance with the wishes of the Syrian people,” Adip Shishakly, a member of a prominent Syrian political family, said at the end of the Istanbul meeting.
While not ruling out foreign military intervention in Syrian as more protesters call for international protection, Kadmani said the focus for now was on stepping up diplomatic and economic pressure on Assad.
Some 140 people were chosen as council members, of whom 40 percent were based outside Syria, but more could be appointed later.
A list of 72 members was circulated but the names of those inside Syria were mostly withheld to protect them from reprisals by Assad’s security forces.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon called Thursday for “coherent” new international action over the deadly crackdown.
“When he has not been keeping his promises, enough is enough and the international community should really take coherent measures and speak in one voice,” the UN secretary general told a press conference.
Members of the European Parliament called Thursday for the immediate departure of Assad who they said had lost all legitimacy.
In a resolution adopted in Strasbourg, Parliament called on Assad and his regime to “relinquish power immediately.” “The Syrian regime is calling its legitimacy into question by choosing a path of repression instead of fulfilling its own promises on broad reforms,” the resolution said.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article502225.ece
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Egyptian Steel tycoon and a Mubarak crony jailed
16 SEPTEMBER 2011
Egyptian Steel tycoon and a leading power broker Ahmed Ezz has been handed down a 10-year prison sentence and fined about USD 11 million by a criminal court here, in the first conviction of a crony of former President Hosni Mubarak.
A close aide of Mubarak's son Gamal, Ezz was convicted on corruption charges in a trial running parallel to that of fallen Egyptian head of state, Al Jazeera reported.
Among the wealthiest figures in Egypt at the apex of Mubarak's regime, Ezz was famous for his brash and domineering style, Italian tailored suits, multiple wives, the way he crooked his index finger in a gesture of command and his conviction was one of the most vociferous demands of the revolution.
The tycoon received his sentence yesterday, dressed in prison whites and standing in a defendant's cage in the courtroom. His company's stock dropped in value by nearly 9 per cent on the news.
The court also sentenced two more Mubarak-era figures, former minister of commerce Rashid Mohammed Rashid and deposed chairman of the country's Industrial Development Authority Amr Assal.
Rashid, once a face for reform and clean government, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison and a USD 230 million fine for illegally helping Ezz obtain permits for his steel empire.
Full report at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/pioneer-news/top-story/6817-egyptian-steel-tycoon-and-a-mubarak-crony-jailed.html
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Iran's 'damaged' president back for UN spotlight
Sep 16 2011
Cairo : There was a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his annual trip to the United Nations for two big objectives: Basking in the attention of America's media hub and personally delivering the views of the Islamic Republic to Western leaders.
The spotlight seeking is still there. But what's missing this year is any sense that Ahmadinejad is still a trusted messenger for the ruling clerics after trying to expand the limits of his power and being batted down harshly.
“He's damaged”, said Ahmad Bakhshayesh, a political affairs professor at Tehran's Azad University. Dubai-based analyst Theodore Karasik sees 'a badly wounded lame duck' arriving in New York for the UN General Assembly session that begins Tuesday.
There's little doubt about Iran's political pecking order these days: Ahmadinejad and his allies are sharply diminished while the theocracy and its protectors -- including the hugely powerful Revolutionary Guard -- are grinding away at any opposition.
This suggests Ahmadinejad's voice may be as booming as ever at the UN -- and in possible side trips around New York -- but his role as an emissary of Iran's ruling system is severely muted.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/irans-damaged-president-back-for-un-spotlight/847541/
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MF Husain's 'Sprinkling Horses' fetches $1.14 mn
Sep 16 2011
New York : A collection of over 20 paintings by legendary artist M F Husain fetched USD 4.7 million at auctions held at the prestigious Christie's and Sotheby's here.
An auction held today at Sotheby's of 11 masterpieces by late Husain fetched a total of USD 557,500 with one of his paintings 'Man with Sitar' selling for USD 146,500.
However, proceeds from the Sotheby's auction paled in comparison to those generated at Christie's two days ago, where a single Husain work was sold for USD 1.14 million.
At the Christie's sale, 'Sprinkling Horses' went under the hammer for USD 1.14 million, one of the highest amounts ever paid for the late master's work.
It was among the 13 paintings that were auctioned at Christie's sale of South Asian modern and contemporary art. The 13 paintings were sold for a total of USD 4.2 million.
Eleven Husain paintings were on sale at Sotheby's, which presented Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art including Indian Miniature Paintings as part of its week of Asian art auctions.
A legendary artist, whose work often landed him in controversy, Husain passed away in June this year at the age of 95. He was among the first and few artists from India to be in the 'one million dollar club'.
His 'Empty Bowl at the Last Supper' was sold for two million dollars in 2005, which was at that time the highest sum ever paid for a work of modern Indian art.
In 2008, Husain's 'Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata' fetched USD 1.6 million, setting a world record at Christie's South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mf-husains-horses-fetches-1-mn/847530/
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Al Qaeda core can be reduced to mere propaganda arm in 2 yrs: US
Sep 16 2011
Washington : Observing that this year alone core of al-Qaeda has lost eight of its top 20 leaders, a top Pentagon official said with the current level of counter terrorism operations, the core of this terrorist outfit could be reduced to a mere propaganda arm.
"Assuming sustained counter-terrorism (CT) operations against the group, within 18 to 24 months, core al Qaeda's cohesion and operational capabilities could be degraded to the point that the group could fragment and exist mostly as a propaganda arm, and power could devolve to regional affiliates," Michael Vickers, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, said.
"The strategic defeat of al-Qaeda is now for the first time within our reach," he said, adding the operational dismantlement of core al-Qaeda is only another step, albeit a huge one, toward the group's eventual strategic defeat.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/al-qaeda-core-can-be-reduced-to-mere-propaganda-arm-in-2-yrs-us/847517/
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Iran will free 2 American hikers: Clinton
Sep 16 2011
San Francisco : US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she was confident Iran would free two US hikers convicted of spying and rejected concerns about the delay in their release.
"At this point we are not at all concerned because we have received word through a number of sources, publicly and privately, that the decision will be executed... and that we will see their return to their families," she said.
Clinton, speaking to reporters after talks with Australia in San Francisco, said that it was not unusual for Iran to take time in implementing decisions and declined to speculate on whether there was a rift inside the regime.
"We have seen in the past some delays that have occurred after decisions were announced," Clinton said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in interviews Tuesday that hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who have been held in Iran for more than two years, would be released imminently.
But Iran's judiciary, which is dominated by ultra-conservatives, said that no decision has been taken.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/iran-will-free-2-american-hikers-clinton/847515/
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Famine Ravages Somalia in a World Less Likely to Intervene
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
16 Sep, 2011
DOLO, Somalia — Is the world about to watch 750,000 Somalis starve to death? The United Nations’ warnings could not be clearer. A drought-induced famine is steadily creeping across Somalia and tens of thousands of people have already died. The Islamist militant group the Shabab is blocking most aid agencies from accessing the areas it controls, and in the next few months three-quarters of a million people could run out of food, United Nations officials say.
Soon, the rains will start pounding down, but before any crops will grow, disease will bloom. Malaria, cholera, typhoid and measles will sweep through immune-suppressed populations, aid agencies say, killing countless malnourished people.
In a way, this is all déjà vu. In the early 1990s, Somalia was hit by famine, precipitated by drought and similarly callous thugs blocking food aid and producing similarly appalling images of skeletal children dying in the sand. In fact, the famine back then was in the same area of Somalia, the lower third, home to powerless minority clans that often bear the brunt of this country’s chronic troubles.
But in the 1990s, the world was more willing to intervene. The United Nations rallied behind more than 25,000 American troops, who embarked on a multibillion-dollar mission to beat back the gunmen long enough to get food into the mouths of starving people.
Contrast that with what happened last week. At a lackluster famine summit meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, proposed to forcefully establish humanitarian corridors, so that food aid could be delivered to Shabab-controlled areas. Few Western donors were enthused.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/world/africa/famine-hits-somalia-in-world-less-likely-
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/hijab-prime-attribute-being-muslim/d/5490