Islam Never Allows Extremism, Sculpture Of Bangabandhu Will Be Established In Bangladesh, Says Awami League
New
Age Islam News Bureau
29 November 2020
The statue of Lady Justice
stands after it was reinstalled near the Supreme Court complex in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, May 28(AP)
------
• Islam Never Allows Extremist, Sculpture Of Bangabandhu
Will Be Established In Bangladesh, Says Awami League
• A Shadowy Islamic State Cell Looking To Free Western
Jihadi Brides From Kurdish Refugee Camps
• Islamic Group's Investigation To Reveal 'Structural
Bias' Of Government Agencies Prior To Christchurch Terror Attack
• Pakistan: Muslim Bloc Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation Reaffirms 'Unequivocal' Support For Kashmir
• Organization of Islamic Cooperation States’
Normalization With Israel Betrayal Of Muslims
• Uttar Pradesh Police Files First Case Under New Law
Against ‘Love Jihad’
• President, Members Of Board Of European Muslim Forum
Send Letter To President Aliyev
• Congress Quietly Pays $850,000 In Settlement To
Muslim Aides Targeted In House Inquiry That Morphed Into Right-Wing Conspiracy
Theories
• Islamic Cleric, Hammed Ademola Warns Bobrisky: You
Will Regret Your Actions, To Be Transformed Into A Woman
• Islamist Terrorists Kill Four Salvation Army Members
in C. Sulawesi, Manhunt Launched
South Asia
• Islam Never Allows Extremist, Sculpture Of Bangabandhu
Will Be Established In Bangladesh, Says Awami League
• OIC Stands By the People and Government of Afghanistan
• Islamist group planned Friday protests on Facebook:
police
• Batticaloa Sharia Campus will not operate as a
private institution - G.L.
• Ghazni Car Bomb Claims 30, Wounds 21
• Doha Yields Agreement on Ground Rules: Intra-Afghan
Negotiations
-----
Arab world
• A Shadowy Islamic State Cell Looking To Free Western
Jihadi Brides From Kurdish Refugee Camps
• Egypt: Hundreds Of Muslim Villagers Attack Christians
After Alleged Facebook Comment On His Deemed Insulting To Islam
• UAE said blocking visas for 11 Muslim countries, as
Israelis allowed in freely
• Saudi Arabia ranked sixth for safest travel
-----
New Zealand
• Islamic Group's Investigation To Reveal 'Structural
Bias' Of Government Agencies Prior To Christchurch Terror Attack
• Christchurch mosque attack inquiry: Evidence
suppressed for 30 years, gunman's forever
• Christchurch mosque attack: Police admin failure
allowed terrorist to get gun licence - report
-----
Pakistan
• Pakistan: Muslim Bloc Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation Reaffirms 'Unequivocal' Support For Kashmir
• Imam Of Badshahi Mosque Visits Islamabad Chamber Of
Commerce And Industry
Our Correspondent
• Sindh High Court Orders To Stop Individuals Building
Mosques On State Lands
• Asad promises Karachi-like uplift projects for other
Sindh cities
• Opposition challenging govt writ, violating court
order: CM’s aide
• Ordinance restraining children from evicting aging
parents being considered
• ‘52pc of forced conversion cases reported in Punjab’
------
Mideast
• Organization of Islamic Cooperation States’
Normalization With Israel Betrayal Of Muslims
• Muslim World Battling Islamophobia ‘Virus’ Alongside
COVID-19, Says Erdoğan
• Iran Warns US, Israel Against 'Adventuristic' Moves
After Scientist Assassination
• Senior Pakistani Shia cleric: Zionists behind
assassination of Iranian scientist
• Hussein Ibrahim Taha to head Muslim bloc OIC
• Turkey condemns 'threat message' against Muslim
scholar in Greece
-------
India
• Uttar Pradesh Police Files First Case Under New Law
Against ‘Love Jihad’
• Samajwadi Party Against ‘Love Jihad’ Law, Will
Oppose It In House
• Tripura Hindu outfit seeks nationwide law to curb
‘Love Jihad’
• Muslims Constitute 30% Of West Bengal Voters; BJP
Eyes This Core Votebank Of Mamata Banerjee
-----
Europe
• President, Members Of Board Of European Muslim Forum
Send Letter To President Aliyev
• European Churches Defend Jews And Muslims Against
Circumcision Bans
• Ebbw Vale man charged with threatening to kill
Muslims
• Quebec mosque shooter has sentence reduced by 15
years
• Russian official: Fakhrizadeh was assassinated with
US green light
-----
North America
• Congress Quietly Pays $850,000 In Settlement To
Muslim Aides Targeted In House Inquiry That Morphed Into Right-Wing Conspiracy
Theories
• Senior US Senator Sanders slams 'reckless, illegal'
assassination of Iranian scientist
• UN Special Rapporteur: Extraterritorial targeted
killing violation of human rights
• Three US officials say Israel regime behind
assassination: New York Times
• The New Team In Washington Surveys West Asia Trump
Leaves Behind
------
Africa
• Islamic Cleric, Hammed Ademola Warns Bobrisky: You
Will Regret Your Actions, To Be Transformed Into A Woman
• Mozambique LNG prospects lifted by international
response to Islamist insurgency
• Boko Haram terrorists kill 43 farm workers in
Nigeria
• Boko Haram Attack: Northern Elders demand removal of
service chiefs
------
Southeast Asia
• Islamist Terrorists Kill Four Salvation Army Members
in C. Sulawesi, Manhunt Launched
• Stop pressuring Muhyiddin over DPM’s post, Ahmad
Zahid tells Umno members
• Dr Mahathir rallies Malaysians amid report of 266
suicides nationwide during MCO
• Ex-Mardi researcher slashed to death trying to deter
home invasion in Bangsar
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/islam-allows-extremism-sculpture-bangabandhu/d/123605
------
Islam Never Allows Extremist, Sculpture Of Bangabandhu
Will Be Established In Bangladesh, Says Awami League
Nov 28, 2020
The statue of Lady Justice
stands after it was reinstalled near the Supreme Court complex in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, May 28(AP)
------
DHAKA,(BSS) – Awami League Joint General Secretary
Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif today said Islam never allows extremist and people do not
support extremism in the country.
“Alem and Olema are respectable, they are representing
Islam. They are bearers and carriers of Islam. But there is no place for
extremism in Islam,” he said this, while speaking at a discussion and Doa Mahfil as the chief guest.
Hanif said the sculpture of Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be established in the country. No force
has the power to stop it, he said.
Dhaka South City Awami League (AL) unit organised the
discussion and doa mahfil marking 14th death anniversary of former city AL
president and ex-mayor of Dhaka Mohammad Hanif with its president Abu Ahmed
Mannafi in the chair. General Secretary of the unit Humayun Kabir also spoke in
the programme.
Hanif said, “You are talking about sculpture. There
are many sculptures in other Muslim countries in the world. None talks about
sculpture there. The sculpture of Bangabandhu will be established in Bangladesh
too, none has the strength and power to stop it.”
“People in Mecca don’t talk about sculpture. You are
speaking like the language of militants. As an independent state, the country
did not become independent after nine months war to hear Pakistani ghosts or
threats of Razakars. It’s an independent country. There is a government and
people,” he said.
The AL joint general secretary said the country’s Alem
society and Islamic scholars repeatedly cleared that sculptures and idols are
not the same but a communal force is creating unwanted debates over the
establishing of sculpture of Bangabandhu.
Hanif said a religious fundamentalist group is trying
to spread misinterpretation over the sculpture of Bangabandhu, the architect of
independent Bangladesh, to spread hatred among religious people.
Hanif said some people in the name of Alem, Olema and
Islamic scholars are trying to create an issue centering the sculpture of
Bangabandhu with ill motive.
Following the footsteps of Bangabandhu, his daughter
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as a devoted follower of Islam, is establishing
model mosque complex in every upazila to foster true Islamic practice, he
added.
Hanif said those who threaten Shapla Chattar again
should be ashamed, adding, “They should have an idea about the power of
government, our GDP is at 5, where the GDP is going down in the world during
the coronavirus pandemic. This was done due to the present government led by
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”
“Bangladesh is now a role model of development. No
development activities of the BNP government were visible. BNP’s politics is
full of false allegations. They always lie about the vote. Even there is no
issue in the political arena, but they are trying to make issue,” he said.
https://www.bssnews.net/?p=491678
---------
A Shadowy Islamic State Cell Looking To Free Western
Jihadi Brides From Kurdish Refugee Camps
By OMAR WAHID
29 November 2020
VEILED PLEA: A letter from a detainee at a camp in
Syria that has been posted on Facebook by a group raising funds for her escape
-----
A shadowy Islamic State fundraising cell seeking to
free Western jihadi brides from Kurdish refugee camps in Syria has been exposed
by The Mail on Sunday.
Undercover reporters spent weeks communicating with a
'fixer' in Turkey before catching a 'courier' on camera in London last Friday
picking up what he thought was a £4,500 donation to the terror group's cause.
As the Metropolitan Police began an investigation,
this newspaper can reveal the sophisticated network apparently created to fund
the escape of jihadi brides from camps in Syria. The camps include Al-Hol where
Shamima Begum, who fled Britain aged 15 to join ISIS five years ago, was held.
The Government last week launched a bid at the Supreme
Court to overturn a decision to allow Begum, now 21, to leave Syria and return
to the UK to challenge a decision by the Home Office to strip her of her
British citizenship.
Its lawyers argued that doing so 'would create
significant national security risks'. Meanwhile, there is mounting concern
about the resurgence of ISIS influence in the camps where an estimated 13,500
foreign women and children linked to the terror group are held.
According to a report last week, an Instagram group
called Caged Pearls – believed to be run by British women detained in Al-Hol
who are raising money to fund their escape from the camps – is advertising
itself with a poster reading: 'Al-Hol – The cradle of the new Caliphate.'
It was at the sprawling Al-Hol camp where the MoS
first learned in September that ISIS supporters were raising money in the UK to
help jihadi brides bribe their way to freedom, either to return to their
homelands or rejoin the remnants of the terror group scattered across the
Middle East.
One such fundraiser was named as 'Sumaya Holmes', who
had been smuggled out of the camp and travelled to Turkey. Holmes is said to be
the widow of a British convert who died fighting for ISIS in Syria and the wife
of a Bosnian jihadi now serving a prison sentence in his home country.
On her Facebook page, Holmes openly touts for
donations, posting photographs of women in burkas holding up placards pleading
for help to escape.
'Assalam Alaykum [May peace be upon you all] I am a
sister from camp Al-Hol and I need $6,000 [£4,500] so that I can escape from
PKK [Kurds]. Please, I ask everyone to help me and donate as much as they can,'
reads one sign.
Below it, Holmes has written: 'This is my friend and
she is in need of help. She sent me this photo yesterday...Please, even if you
can't help, pass it to those who can donate to her. Jazakallah Khayr [May God
reward you].'
Another picture posted by Holmes shows a woman holding
a piece of paper inside a tent. It reads: 'I am your Muslim sister in Al-Hol
camp. I need help from my brothers and sisters to be freed from the hands of
the SDF [Syrian Defence Forces]. Allah only knows our situation, and I am in
need of support. I need $7,000 [£5,200] to be able to get out with my children.
She sent the address and mobile phone number of a
fundraiser based in Britain who she said ran a money exchange that could
provide such a service. Again, the undercover journalist refused.
Holmes then provided details of a man called 'Anas' in
London who could collect the cash in person. When an offer to donate £4,500 was
made, Holmes wrote: 'Ok akhi [my brother] this amount of money you want to
contribute to free 1 sister or its for the sisters in camps?' The reporter
replied, 'Free one sister,' and received the response: 'OK i will see to one
sister insha Allah [God willing].'
Holmes had meanwhile been busy spouting her support
for ISIS on her Facebook page. In one post, she described Abdullakh Anzorov,
the Chechen who last month beheaded teacher Samuel Paty near Paris, as a
'hero', adding: 'There are no words that can describe my feelings towards him
and what he did for our Prophet, peace be upon him. Little Mujahid [jihad
warrior], you're an example to many Inshaallah [God willing] #chechanhero.'
'Akh [brother], how shall I bring the cash? In an
envelope or what?' the journalist asked when a time on Friday had been agreed.
'An envelope, please anytime, but tell me a quarter of an hour before you
arrive, please,' replied Anas.
In the event, the reporter changed the plan – citing
concerns that the police might be watching – and left an A4 brown envelope
under gas cylinders at a nearby service station. As it is illegal to hand over
money to a suspected terrorist, the envelope contained only a crossword puzzle
book. The journalist then informed Anas where he could find the package,
attaching a photograph of where he had left it.
Within moments, as an MoS team looked on, a bearded
man wearing a white crash helmet arrived on a silver scooter. He knelt down,
dragged out the envelope and smiled before messaging the reporter: 'File
received, let me check the money and tell you.'
The man was soon back in touch. 'There are [sic] no
money in the envelope, there is only a book. ??? ... It seems that you are not
serious about your subject.'
We immediately informed Scotland Yard. Last night, a
spokesman said the information was being assessed by counter-terrorism
detectives. Confronted yesterday, Anas denied involvement. 'No, no, I don't
take anything, you are wrong,' he said before hanging up. He did not answer
further calls.
In a series of messages on Facebook Messenger, Holmes
denied involvement. 'That's not true, you're bulls****ing,' she wrote. 'Good
luck with publishing your lies.'
With the UK's terror threat level at 'severe', the
revelations will reignite concerns about the dangers of ISIS supporters who
have returned to the UK or will seek to in future. Estimates suggest about 300
of the 900 Britons who went to Syria to join ISIS are back in the UK.
Dr Vera Mironova, an expert on ISIS and research
fellow at Harvard University, said: 'To escape from the camps costs about
$18,000 [£13,500] and the success of these campaigns shows the sheer amount
ISIS are able to fundraise online,' she said.
'Once the women are smuggled out, it is impossible to
monitor them. The women who collect money online are still with ISIS and are
trusted and supported by the organisation's members worldwide. They work with a
network of supporters globally.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8996835/The-shadowy-Islamic-State-cell-looking-free-Western-jihadi-brides.html
-----------
Islamic Group's Investigation To Reveal 'Structural
Bias' Of Government Agencies Prior To Christchurch Terror Attack
Cate Broughton
Nov 29 2020
Minister of internal affairs Jan Tinetti received the
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attacks on Christchurch mosques
last week.
-------
A report by Muslim Kiwis to the Royal Commission of
Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attacks is expected to highlight
failings of police, security services and customs prior to March 15, 2019, with
new information not previously released publicly.
The Federation of Islamic Associations of New
Zealand’s (FIANZ) report, to be released at 10.30am on Monday, would show
institutional racism, a lack of transparency and inadequate resourcing in
various agencies, FIANZ Royal Commission committee chairman Abdur Razzaq Khan
said.
“We are not there to blame any organisation, but we
are there to ensure that the dysfunctions, that people are aware of it, and we
can look for changes in the approach to various things the NZSIS and the police
are doing.”
The terrorist, a 29-year-old Australian national, was
sentenced to life without parole in August for the killing of 51 people, the
attempted murder of 40, and for committing a terrorist act. The massacre took
place at two Christchurch mosques on March 15, 2019.
The release of the group’s submission preceded the
Inquiry report, handed to the Minister for Internal Affairs last week, and
expected to be made public before Christmas.
Minister of internal affairs Jan Tinetti received the
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attacks on Christchurch mosques
last week.
more than $500m had been allocated to the NZSIS in the
previous 10 years, while its focus was Islamic terrorism at the expense of other
extremists and terrorists.
agencies ignored the international security landscape
in 2018, which pointed to an increase of violence and murder by right-wing
extremists in Western countries.
FIANZ Royal Commission committee chairman Abdur Razzaq
Khan said FIANZ met with the director-general of the New Zealand Security and
Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the police commissioner early this year to let
them know their findings in advance of the inquiry process.
“I mean the depth of information, we spent a lot of
time going through it, and a lot of what we found out subsequently came through
in the media.”
Recommendations made in the report included an inquiry
into the structure and function of the NZSIS; democratising the process of
setting and reviewing New Zealand’s intelligence priorities; addressing
institutional racism and increased focus on diversity and inclusiveness;
specific hate crime legislation and countering of right-wing extremism.
The Press and Stuff are as much a part of Canterbury
as a yawning nor’west arch. For 160 years our reporters have championed this
community, fought in your corner, and represented the uncrushable spirit of
Ōtautahi Christchurch.
We’re asking for your support to keeping fighting like
we did to get cold, damp social housing upgraded; to undertake investigations
like our work to solve the mystery of Angela Blackmore’s murder; to help make
this region a better place.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/123545909/islamic-groups-investigation-to-reveal-structural-bias-of-government-agencies-prior-to-christchurch-terror-attack
-----------
Pakistan: Muslim Bloc Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation Reaffirms 'Unequivocal' Support For Kashmir
MQureshiPTI
29-11-2020
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has
reiterated its "strong and unequivocal support" for disputed Kashmir
in a resolution adopted unanimously in the Muslim bloc's gathering in Niger,
Pakistan said.
Representatives of 57-member states attended the
two-day meeting that ended on Saturday during which OIC discussed issues
confronting the Muslim world.
The situation in India-administered Kashmir was one of
the session's main points of focus with OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers
reaffirming strong support for Kashmiris struggling for the region's right to
self-determination.
"The OIC categorically rejected illegal and
unilateral actions taken by India since 5 August 2019," the Pakistani
foreign office said in a statement, adding the resolution demanded that India
"cancel the issuance of domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris" as
well as other unilateral and illegal actions there.
Established in 1969, the OIC is the world's
second-largest inter-governmental organisation after the UN, with 57 member
states spread across four continents.
The OIC has previously condemned human rights violations
in Kashmir, its annexation by India, and the newly-introduced domicile laws
that allow non-Kashmiris to take jobs and buy properties in the disputed
Himalayan territory.
Kashmir, divided by a highly militarised de facto
border, is claimed by both Pakistan and India who rule it in parts. In 1947,
both countries gained independence from Britain. India immediately took the
dispute to the UN which called for a plebiscite in the region in multiple
resolutions.
Rebel groups in India-administered Kashmir have fought
for decades for the region's independence or a possible merger with Pakistan.
They enjoy popular support.
Since 1989, the fighting has left tens of thousands
dead, a number mostly made up of civilians. India has stationed more than
500,000 troops in the region.
Tensions soared again between the two nations last
August when the Indian government revoked Muslim-majority Kashmir's decades-old
semi-autonomous status and annexed it. This caused anger inside Kashmir as well
as in Pakistan.
The OIC and Pakistan want the changes reversed.
Kashmiris say India is enacting a demographic change in the region by settling
Hindu outsiders.
In Saturday's resolution, the OIC urged the
international community to evaluate their ties with India and include the people
of Kashmir in any peace process talks.
OIC emphasised that the territorial dispute,
specifically "granting the right to self-determination to the people of
Jammu and Kashmir" has remained unresolved on the agenda of the United
Nations Security Council for over seven decades.
Other items on the OIC agenda included the Palestinian
cause, Islamophobia, the plight of Muslim minorities and communities in
non-member states, and fundraising for the Rohingya case at the International
Court of Justice.
The member states also decided to hold further talks
on the Kashmir dispute in OIC's foreign minister's session in Islamabad next
year.
https://www.trtworld.com/asia/muslim-bloc-oic-reaffirms-unequivocal-support-for-kashmir-41889
----------
Organization of Islamic Cooperation States’
Normalization With Israel Betrayal Of Muslims
Source : Press TV
November 29, 2020
Iran has denounced the normalization of ties between
certain member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and
Israel as “a betrayal of Muslims” and a violation of the 57-nation body’s
principles.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Director General for
International Peace and Security Reza Najafi made the remarks at the 47th
session of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers in Niger’s capital, Niamey,
on Saturday.
Najafi expressed serious concerns about a decision by
certain OIC countries to forge formal diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv,
saying, "Any interaction with the fake and illegal Zionist regime, whose
life involves 60 years of crime, murder, torture and displacement of thousands
of Palestinians, is considered a betrayal of Muslims and a violation of the
fundamental principles of the OIC and will deal a serious blow to the unity of
the organization’s member states and the Muslim Ummah."
“A few members of the organization betrayed the Muslim
Ummah by revealing their secret relations with the Zionist regime,” he added.
Najafi further urged the international community to
strengthen efforts towards upholding the Palestinians’ inalienable rights to
return to their homeland and establish an independent state in the occupied
territories, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed
normalization pacts with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al
Nahyan and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani during an official
ceremony hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House in
mid-September.
Elsewhere in his comments, Najafi referred to Friday’s
assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was a
professor of physics at Imam Hussein University in Tehran and headed the
Defense Ministry's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND).
“Yesterday, an Iranian scientist was assassinated by
Israel’s mercenary terrorists. It may be related to the betrayal of [Muslims].
We strongly condemn this cowardly terrorist act and remind that the era of hit
and run is over,” he said.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said in a message on
Saturday that “the wicked hands of the global arrogance, with the usurper
Zionist regime as the mercenary, were stained with the blood” of the prominent
scientist.
The Iranian official also stressed that relying on
foreigners will not bring security for the countries in the region and will
rather cause despair for them.
“We call on everyone to engage in dialogue as the only
constructive and fruitful way to resolve differences. Together, we will mark a
better future for our region. As one of the founders of the OIC, the Islamic
Republic of Iran which believes in the principles of the organization, has put
friendship and brotherhood between Islamic countries at the forefront of its
foreign policy, and has always initiated and defended peace and security in the
Persian Gulf, Yemen, Syria and Iraq and Lebanon and other regional
issues," Najafi underlined.
Additionally, he condemned US unilateralism, including
economic terrorism against developing countries, amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“The world is now watching whether the new American
leaders will abandon the destructive, illegal and bullying methods of the
outgoing regime and opt for multilateralism, cooperation and respect for the
law or not …! Regardless of any change in the US government's approach, the
Islamic countries must be collectively determined to preserve their unity in
order to resolve problems.”
https://en.abna24.com/news//oic-states%e2%80%99-normalization-with-israel-betrayal-of-muslims_1090355.html
-----------
Uttar Pradesh Police Files First Case Under New Law
Against "Love Jihad"
by Alok Pandey,
November 29, 2020
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Police has filed its first case
under the state's new anti-conversion law, accusing a Muslim man of putting
pressure on a woman to change her religion.
The case was reported on Saturday at the Deorania
Police station in Bareilly district under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of
Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, cleared on Saturday by
Governor Anandiben Patel.
The Hindu woman's father has alleged that the accused
was trying to force her to convert to Islam. He has also reported that the
accused, on being confronted by his family, threatened to kill them.
"The boy had abducted the girl. So another case
was already filed against him. He was putting pressure on the girl to convert.
A case has been now filed under Sections 3 and 5 of the new ordinance. This is
besides sections of the IPC," Sansar Singh, Bareilly Rural Superintendent
of Police, told media.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Cabinet, on Tuesday,
okayed the ordinance, proposing a maximum punishment of 10 years for "love
jihad" related offences.
The new law mandates a jail term of the accused
between one to five years, with Rs 15,000 penalty, if convicted of carrying out
forceful conversions for marriage.
According to the new law, a marriage will be declared
"null and void" if the conversion of a woman is solely for that
purpose, and those wishing to change their religion after marriage need to
apply to the district magistrate.
In recent weeks, BJP-run states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,
and Madhya Pradesh have revealed plans to enact laws to counter alleged
attempts to convert Hindu women to Islam in the guise of marriage.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/love-jihad-uttar-pradesh-files-case-against-muslim-man-first-under-new-anti-conversion-law-2331697
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President, members of Board of European Muslim Forum
send letter to President Aliyev
28 November 2020
BAKU
President and members of Board of the European Muslim
Forum a sent a letter to Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
“Dear Mr. President,
On behalf of the European Muslim Forum, a pan-European
platform representing the interests of Muslims in all Europe, which
geographically includes your state and, of course, Azerbaijani Muslims are part
of the Muslim community of Europe, we express our profound respect to Your
Excellency and on behalf of the entire Muslim community of Europe we
congratulate on the outstanding victory of the Azerbaijani people and fraternal
Azerbaijan, which under your guidance won a history-shaping victory during the
blessed month of Rabi al-Awwal, the month of our Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) amid the unprecedented anti-Islamic hysteria and biased
explicit propaganda against the legitimate historical rights of the Azerbaijani
people to the lands of the historical Karabakh khanate. What you, your army and
your people have managed to do is something that the entire global Ummah, 1.7
billion of your fellow believers, is proud of today. The way you have achieved
this, in a coherent and organized manner, thanks to a well-defined strategy
with the sophisticated weaponry, the coherence and heroism of your troops, the
generosity towards the enemy and the unity of all the peoples and religions of
your country, this success is worthy of the highest appreciation and the
deepest respect.
As you probably know, our organization has repeatedly
raised the point of a fair solution to the Karabakh issue, the liberation of
the occupied, as well as the restoration of a huge number of monuments and
Muslim religious and historical sites that were in a deplorable and often
desecrated state, including the installation of latrines, stockyard, including
hog houses within the walls of mosques. We have proposed several times to hold
a large pan-European conference in support of the brotherly Azerbaijani people
and their legitimate claims. The fact that now the Azerbaijani people
themselves, despite many factors, liberated their lands is undoubtedly the best
scenario that could have happened at all, for which we are grateful to the
Almighty Creator and proclaim Salavats to our Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him).
For our part, continuing our initiatives, we kindly
ask Your Excellency to allow the delegation of European Muslim leaders to visit
the liberated territories of Azerbaijan, in order to see for themselves what a
sad condition the almost 30-year occupation of your lands has led to, and what
acts of vandalism and blasphemy against religion in general were in the
occupied territories, as well as for moral support and evidence of our
fraternal solidarity with the people of Azerbaijan and, of course, what is no
less important now is to inform about the real situation and the truth about
the Karabakh conflict, its origins, its tragic history, and its heroic ending.
We consider the most important points for our
delegation to visit Shusha, Agdam and Khojaly, where we would like to hold a
prayer at the place where the tragedy in Khojaly happened. We are convinced
that the “Caucasian Srebrenica” should receive its memorial as edification for
posterity.
We pray to the Almighty that no more military
operations will be conducted on the blessed lands of brotherly Azerbaijan and
that Karabakh will become a showcase of nobility, prosperity and friendship, as
it should be in our beloved brotherly Azerbaijan, as a role model for many
countries of Europe and the entire Eurasian region.
We take this opportunity to once again congratulate
Your Excellency, your people, and all the national and religious communities of
your wonderful country on this common victory, which we all are proud of,” the
letter said.
https://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/politics/3341875.html
---------
Congress Quietly Pays $850,000 In Settlement To Muslim
Aides Targeted In House Inquiry That Morphed Into Right-Wing Conspiracy
Theories
BY NOAM SCHEIBER
NOV 28, 2020
The House of Representatives quietly paid $850,000
this year to settle wrongful termination claims by five Pakistani American
technology specialists, after a set of routine workplace allegations against
them morphed into fodder for right-wing conspiracy theories amplified by
President Donald Trump.
Together, the payments represent one of the largest
known awards by the House to resolve discrimination or harassment claims, and are
designed to shield Congress from potentially costly legal action.
But aides involved in the settlement, which has not
previously been reported, said it was also an attempt to bring a close to a
convoluted saga that led to one of the most durable — and misleading — story
lines of the Trump era. The aides said its size reflected a bid to do right by
a group of former employees who lost their jobs and endured harassment in part
because of their Muslim faith and South Asian origins.
What started as a relatively ordinary House inquiry
into procurement irregularities by Imran Awan, three members of his family and
a friend, who had a bustling practice providing members of Congress with
technology support, was twisted into lurid accusations of hacking government
information.
In 2018, Trump stood next to President Vladimir Putin
of Russia at a now-infamous news conference in Helsinki, and implied that one
of the employees involved in the House case — a “Pakistani gentleman,” he said
— could have been responsible for stealing emails of Democratic officials
leaked during the 2016 campaign. His own intelligence agencies had concluded
that the stolen emails were part of an election interference campaign ordered
by Moscow.
“It is tragic and outrageous the way right-wing media
and Republicans all the way up to President Trump attempted to destroy the
lives of an immigrant Muslim American family based on scurrilous allegations,”
said Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who had employed Awan and is chairman of the
Ethics Committee.
“Their names were smeared on cable TV, their children
were harassed at school, and they genuinely feared for their lives,” Deutch
added. “The settlement is an acknowledgment of the wrong done to this family.”
The case originated in 2016, when officials in the
House, then controlled by Republicans, began investigating claims that the
specialists had improperly accounted for purchases of equipment and bent
employment rules as they worked part-time for the offices of dozens of
Democratic lawmakers.
In the hands of the chamber’s inspector general and
later the Capitol Police, the investigation slowly expanded to include concerns
that the workers had illicitly gained access to, transferred or removed
government data and stolen equipment.
In early 2017, the House stripped their access to
congressional servers, making it impossible for them to continue their work.
One by one, the lawmakers terminated them.
But as the inspector general’s findings were shared
with Republican lawmakers and trickled into conservative media in early 2017,
they began to take on a life of their own. The Daily Caller, which led the way,
published allegations that the workers had hacked into congressional computer
networks, and other right-wing pundits speculated that the group were Pakistani
spies.
Trump, in addition to his comments in Helsinki,
repeatedly amplified conspiracy theories about the investigation on Twitter,
where he referred to a “Pakistani mystery man.” At one point, he publicly urged
the Justice Department not to let one of the workers “off the hook.”
But in the summer of 2018, the department did just
that, taking the unusual step of publicly exonerating Awan. The department
concluded in a court filing that after interviewing dozens of witnesses, and
reviewing a Democratic server and other electronic records, it had found “no
evidence” that Awan illegally removed data, stole or destroyed House equipment,
or improperly gained access to sensitive information.
The statement came during a sentencing hearing for an
unrelated offense — that Awan had lied about his primary residence on an
application for a home-equity loan, for which he was sentenced by judge to one
day of time served and a three-month supervised release.
House officials and the Capitol Police revisited their
investigation of Awan and his colleagues after the Justice Department’s
findings became public. The review found that the original investigation had
reached certain conclusions about misbehavior that were not necessarily
supported by facts, but upheld the ban on their access to the House computer
network, preventing their reinstatement, congressional aides said.
Awan’s lawyers approached the House after Democrats
took control of the chamber in 2019 to discuss a possible settlement. Many of
the lawmakers who had employed him pushed their leaders to strike a deal.
The resulting agreement was signed by Rep. Zoe Lofgren
of California, the chairwoman of the Administration Committee, in January and
paid out this summer. It resolved claims brought by Awan and the other four staffers
under the Federal Tort Claims Act that House officials behaved negligently in
their second inquiry after the Justice Department found no evidence of illegal
conduct.
The settlement also resolved claims that House
officials inflicted emotional distress on the group, and that the initial
investigation was motivated by the employees’ religion, national origin, race,
or political affiliation.
In a statement, Lofgren said that the employees had
threatened to sue various House members, offices and other employees, “seeking
millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.” She said the House
decided to settle “due to the likelihood of an unfavorable and costly
litigation outcome,” although she asserted that based on the information it had
at the time, the House had been right to revoke their network access.
Awan declined to comment on the settlement. Peter
Romer-Friedman, one of the Awans’ lawyers, said that they would “never forget
the courage and kindness” of lawmakers who had stood by his clients.
Awan was born in Pakistan in 1980 and moved to
Northern Virginia in 1997. While in college, he worked as an intern for a
company that provided IT services to congressional offices. He was hired
directly by the office of Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida after graduating and
worked setting up email accounts and new equipment like phones and laptops for
staff members.
Over the years, other Democratic members of Congress
hired Awan to perform similar work under an arrangement that made him a “shared
employee” and for which he was typically paid $20,000 each year per member of
Congress. As the workload grew, Awan brought on two of his brothers, his wife
and a friend to assist him, and they became shared employees as well. Together
they eventually worked for more than 30 members of Congress.
Their employers included Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
of Florida and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who was recently named by
President-elect Joe Biden to a top White House position. The connection to
Wasserman Schultz, who was the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee
at the time of the 2016 email hack, is what prompted the baseless theories
seized on by Trump that Awan, not the Kremlin, was responsible.
House investigators found that Awan and his four
co-workers violated certain administrative rules — for example, working as a
team in which they would provide services to offices that didn’t technically
employ them, and breaking up payments for equipment like iPads into increments
that were below $500, the point at which a purchase would trigger a more
cumbersome procurement process.
But Joshua Rogin, Deutch’s chief of staff, said in a
declaration accompanying a separate defamation lawsuit brought by the Awans
against the Daily Caller and others that he did not believe that the
arrangements violated House rules and that he was unaware that the rules the
five were accused of violating had been enforced against any other House
employees.
“I understood this investigation to be both
politically motivated and based on bias over their nationality, ethnicity and
religion,” he said in the declaration.
In January of 2019, Luke Rosiak, a reporter for the
Daily Caller News Foundation who had written more than two dozen stories about
Awan, published a book in which he reported that one or more of the family
members had hacked congressional servers, stolen cellphones and laptops and
sent equipment to government officials in Pakistan. The book also refers to
Imran Awan as a “mole.”
In an interview with the Epoch Times in July of that
year, he referred to Awan as “basically an attempted murderer, an extortionist,
a blackmail artist, a con man.”
Awan and the family members and friend who worked with
him on Capitol Hill are suing Rosiak, The Daily Caller and Salem Media Group,
the owner of Rosiak’s book publisher, Regnery, for defamation and unjust
enrichment. The case is currently pending in court.
Matthew Lee, a lawyer for The Daily Caller, declined
to comment on details of the litigation but called the plaintiffs’ account of
events “one-sided.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-nyt-congress-settlement-trump-20201128-gcnri4dnvzdajefo325eouxkei-story.html
-----------
Islamic Cleric, Hammed Ademola Warns Bobrisky: You
Will Regret Your Actions, To Be Transformed Into A Woman
November 28, 2020
By John Owen Nwachukwu
Islamic cleric Hammed Ademola has said Nigerian
crossdresser Bobrisky would regret going under the knife to be transformed into
a woman.
The cleric in a viral video claimed he was told in a
revelation that Bobrisky does not have more than 3 years to live.
Ademola said Bobrisky, who recently revealed he had
cut off his manhood is spending money gotten from the devil.
Insisting that Bobrisky’s money is from the devil, the
cleric, who spoke in Yoruba language, warned Bobrisky to change his ways
because his end is near.
He also extended the warning to friends of the popular
bleaching cream dealer, asking them to stay away from him or they would soon
have problems in their lives.
https://dailypost.ng/2020/11/28/you-will-regret-your-actions-islamic-cleric-warns-bobrisky-video/
----------
Islamist Terrorists Kill Four Salvation Army Members
in C. Sulawesi, Manhunt Launched
BY :RULLY SATRIADI
NOVEMBER 29, 2020
Jakarta. The National Police and Indonesia Military
has launched an operation to hunt down an Islamist terror group East Indonesia
Mujahidin, or MIT, hiding in a forest in Sigi, Central Sulawesi, after the
terrorist allegedly killed a Christian family in The Salvation Army church's
outpost on Friday.
This was the third violent attack by the terror group
in the last three months. Ali Ahmad, also known as Ali Kalora, lead an
estimated ten followers and has been evading the government's military
operation in the Central Sulawesi jungle for the past two years.
"Today, we are deploying 100 troops from the
Tinombala Task Force, Central Sulawesi Police Mobile Brigade, and Indonesia
Military to carry out the pursuit of the Ali Kalora group," Brig. Gen. Awi
Setiyono, the National Police spokesman, said on Saturday.
The police first received a report on Friday that an
unknown group attacked a family in Lemban Tongoa village in Sigi and burned
their houses, Awi said. The first police arrived at the scene at 01:00 on
Friday, finding four bodies and seven houses burned down. Two of the bodies
were mutilated, while one of them was beheaded.
Adjutant Chief Comr. Yoga Priyahutama, the Sigi police
chief, lead an investigation team that questioned five witnesses at the scene.
The witnesses identified three of the attackers as
members of East Indonesia Mujahidin, based on the terrorists' photograph the
police shown to them, Awi said.
MIT was a terror organization mainly operating in
Central Sulawesi, with an affiliation to Southeast Asia transnational terrorist
group Jemaah Islamiyah. Ali Kalora emerged as the group's new leader after a
police operation in July 2016 killed MIT charismatic leader Santoso.
In August, the group ambushed and robbed a vehicle
carrying medical workers. In a separate incident, MIT took two farmers'
hostages and killed one of them. The military operation in the last two years
has reduced the group fighting force to around a dozen members, who hide in the
thick jungle of Central Sulawesi.
The Salvation Army said in a statement on Saturday
that the victims were the church's members working in a Sulawesi outpost,
looking to establish the church work and develop a society there.
Brian Peddle, international leader of The Salvation
Army, denounced the terror attack. "Throughout all aspects of Salvation
Army ministry and influence, we work for peace," he said.
"We find the news from Lembantongoa greatly
disturbing. Our hearts go out to our people who have been victims of evil and
to the families of those whose faith has caused such harm. I call upon all
Salvationists to pray for each person who has been affected, for the continuing
witness of our people, and for healing in the communities," he said.
Yusak Tampai, The Salvation Army's territorial
commander for Indonesia, urged around 60,000 of the church members in the region
to "remain calm but alert and careful, spreading a strong message of hope
and uniting in prayer to strengthen each other."
Erik A. Kape, The Salvation Army's commander for Palu,
said on Sunday that four men falling victim in Friday's attack were part of The
Salvation Army's small congregation in the village.
"The congregation consists of 12 families, with
around 40 people. They hold regular mass service every week and Sunday school
for the children there," Erik said.
"I was a little bit disappointed that it was
described [in the news] as a residential house used as a church. That was
wrong. I can assure you that it was a church because I was the one who
officiated it last Christmas," Erik said.
"We hope the security apparatus to arrest the
perpetrators immediately. Let this be the last thing. No more innocent victims
should die,” Erik said.
Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) strongly
condemned Friday's attack and called for the government to catch the terrorists
and secure the area.
"This incident demonstrates barbaric acts that
should be denounced by all civilized people," Philip Situmorang, a PGI's
spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.
"We continue to pray for and support all the
government's efforts to maintain the security and order of the people in the
Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, that is free from acts of terror
and extremism," Philip.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
also condemned the attack. “There must be no room for terrorists in this
country," Dedi Askary, Komnas HAM representative for Central Sulawesi,
said.
The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and the National Democratic
Party also released statements to condemn the attack on Saturday, while other
parties remained silent.
Zainal Abidin, the chairman of the Central Sulawesi
Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB), called all parties in Central Sulawesi to
remain calm and not link the attack to any religion.
"Any religion does not teach and justify the act
of killing fellow humans," Zainal, who is also the chairman of the
Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in Palu, said.
https://jakartaglobe.id/news/islamist-terrorists-kill-four-salvation-army-members-in-c-sulawesi-manhunt-launched
----------
South Asia
OIC Stands By the People and Government of Afghanistan
M.A.Ansari
November 29, 2020
Kabul (BNA) The Government of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan welcomes the OIC standing by the people and Government of
Afghanistan with its Resolutions 4/47-POL on Situation on Afghanistan, 4/47-POL
on Crimes of Daesh and 5/45-POL on Regional Initiatives in Support of
Afghanistan, all adopted during the 47th Council of Ministers of Foreign
Affairs of the OIC meeting held on the 27th and 28th November in the Niamey, Niger.
The OIC called on the Ulema and religious institutions
across its member’s states to declare the war against the Muslim state and
people of Afghanistan illegitimate and call for the support of the peace talks.
Reflecting collective support of the Islamic states for the Afghan peace talks,
these resolutions explicitly welcomed the start of the Afghan peace talks and
commended the Afghan Government’s good will gesture of the release of the
Taliban prisoners.
Condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan
– particularly those targeting civilians such as the recent attack in Bamyan,
Kabul University, Kosar training center and the maternity hospital in Kabul –
the OIC called on the Taliban to reduce violence and agree to an immediate
ceasefire.
The OIC has, as an institution, reiterated its full
support and commitment to the peace talks in Afghanistan and has asked the
international community to do the same. It specifically asked states to support
an Afghan owned inclusive peace process, to reach a political solution based on
the renunciation of violence, cutting ties with terrorist groups, preservation
and advancement of the Afghanistan’s democratic, political and socio-economic
and development achievements of the past 19 years and respect of the Afghan
Constitution – benefiting all Afghans.
The OIC restated its support to the Afghan Government
in its efforts to bring peace, both through the peace talks and through the
work of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces in their fight against
terrorism. The OIC welcomed the successful renewal of the partnership between
the international community and Afghanistan through the 2020 Afghanistan
Conference in Geneva, especially in ensuring economic and social development in
Afghanistan.
The OIC and its members state documented their support
of various regional economic and infrastructure initiatives that aim to enhance
corporation between Afghanistan and its neighbors. These include the
trans-Afghanistan railway project, TAPI Mega project and CASA 1000 regional
power project.
The Government of Afghanistan appreciates the OIC
resolutions and values them as the refection of the collective Islamic
international community’s viewpoint. The Government of Afghanistan is looking
forward to working closely with the OIC and its members states in order for the
contents of these resolution to be put in practice.
https://bakhtarnews.com.af/muslim-world-stands-by-the-people-and-government-of-afghanistan/
----------
Islamist group planned Friday protests on Facebook:
police
Senior Correspondent
29 Nov 2020
Protests and counter-protests erupted over the
construction of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue. The Islamists
launched protests against the demonstration by an organisation, named the
Muktijuddho Mancha, which demanded the arrest of Mamunul for opposing the
construction of Bangabandhu’s statue.
Mamunul, who is also acting secretary general of
Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and president of its youth front Bangladesh Jubo
Khelafat Majlish, demanded the removal of the statue of the Father of the
Nation in Dhaka’s Dholairpar at a party event in the capital on Nov 13.
The radical group took out a procession on Nov 27
after gathering at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on the pretext of Friday
prayers. They ended up clashing with the police, according to two cases filed
with Paltan and Ramna police.
Abu Bakr Siddique, OC of Paltan Police Station, said
they had arrested 14 people on charges of obstructing police duty. Another nine
people were arrested on similar charges, said Monirul Islam, OC of Ramna Police
Station.
The arrestees were produced in a court on Saturday.
The police did not seek a remand order for them. Most of the arrestees are aged
between 18 and 30. Most of them are madrasa students, the police officials
said.
According to the case details, the Muktijuddho Mancha
occupied the Shahbagh intersection, demanding the arrest of Mamunul for his
remarks opposing the construction of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s
statue. The Muktijuddho Mancha also burnt the effigies of Mamunul.
Madrasa students and other supporters of Mamunul, who
gathered in the guise of worshippers, took out a procession after the Friday
prayers in protest against the Mancha’s demonstration.
They marched on from the Nightingale point to Shantinagar.
Clashes erupted after the police moved to disperse them at Shantinagar. The
protesters threw brickbats at the police before fleeing through the alleyways
in nearby areas.
Citing some arrestees, the case with the Paltan police
states that the protests were galvanised by the Facebook group, “Shahikhul
Hadis Muhammad Mamunul Haque Supporters Group”.
https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/11/29/islamist-group-planned-friday-protests-on-facebook-police
----------
Batticaloa Sharia Campus will not operate as a private
institution - G.L.
Sandasen MARASINGHE
29-11-2020
The Batticaloa Sharia Campus will not be allowed to
operate as a private institution under its present management board, Education
Minister Professor G.L. Peiris told Parliament yesterday.
Professor Peiris also said that the Batticaloa Sharia
Campus will be absorbed by the Government and it shall be linked with a major
university so that the campus’s facilities could be utilized by the students.
“The present Government will never allow extremist
forces to operate in the country unlike the Yahapalana Government,” Prof.
Peiris also assured.
Prof. Peiris made these observations responding to a
question raised by Parliamentarian Dr. Kavinda Jayawardena regarding the
controversial Batticaloa Sharia Campus.
“During our rule before 2015, we never allowed
extremists to influence our society. But the Yahapalana Government in the
pretense of reconciliation, allowed all sorts of extremists to enter the
country. Some such extremist influencers were given on-arrival-visa during the
Yahapalana regime. We always had a mechanism to eradicate such extremist
campaigns,” Prof. Peiris observed.
MP Dr. Kavinda Jayawardena questioned whether the
courses at Batticaloa Campus include Sharia law and in reply the Minister
Peiris said that the Government will closely scrutinize what goes into the
syllabus. The Professor also said that the Government will not allow the campus
to offer degrees in such subjects.
The Minister said the Government has decided to
increase the number of students who are enrolled in universities and the
Batticaloa campus could be used to facilitate the increased number of students.
Minister Peiris also pointed out that the extremists
were nurtured by the previous Yahapalana Government and the country had to face
the consequences. “This Batticaloa campus has facilities that are better than
those of the Peradeniya University. Where does this money come from? These
monies have entered the country in billions. The Central Bank needs to probe
into this matter as to how such a large amount of money made it into the
country.
They should find where the source is. The CBSL
External Resources Department should investigate it. We shall never allow such
financial transactions to take place. We will monitor as to what purpose these
monies are brought into the country,” he said.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2020/11/28/local/234710/batticaloa-sharia-campus-will-not-operate-private-institution-gl
----------
Ghazni Car Bomb Claims 30, Wounds 21
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
29 Nov 2020
A suicide vehicle attack occurred close to a public
protection unit in Ghazni province on Sunday, officials confirmed.
The bomber detonated “a Humvee vehicle, loaded with
explosives” near the public protection police unit.
Aref Rahmani, Ghazni Representative in Parliament told
Khaama Press, that at least 30 people were killed and 15 others were wounded
following the attack, a member of the provincial council told media.
But Zahirshah Nikmal, Director for Ghazni’s Public
Health department reported to Khaama press that at least 21 people are injured,
Seven of the injured are in extremely critical condition.
The death toll in the casualties are expected to rise
further, all casualties are said to be security members of the Unit.
In another suicide incident caravan of Atajan
Haqbayan, the head of Zabul Provincial Council was hit with another suicide
attack in the Qalat city of this province, Haqbayan, and three others were
wounded in the attack.
Haqbayan, after the attack talked to the media, he
seemed mildly injured in the incident.
It is said that at least three individuals are killed
and 22 people including children were injured in the car bomb attack on the
head of Zabul’s provincial council.
In a similar report, Koh-e-Safi district governor of
Parwan province was wounded in an ambush by unknown gunmen attack on his
vehicle, Abdul Ghafoor Popalzai district governor of Kalakan confirmed to
media.
The district governor was on the Kabul-Parwan highway
when the incident happened.
https://www.khaama.com/ghazni-car-bomb-claims-30-wounds-21-098098/
----------
Doha Yields Agreement on Ground Rules: Intra-Afghan
Negotiations
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
29 Nov 2020
DOHA, Qatar – The Afghan and Taliban negotiating teams
have agreed on the procedural rules after months of struggle, said Mohammad
Naeem Wardar, a spokesman for Taliban’s political office in Qatar, Saturday
evening.
This came days after an exclusive interview with Khaam
Press Wardak said the Afghan and Taliban negotiating teams met on peace
dialogues but had not yet reached to any agreement, denying reports that Doha
talks have agreed on procedural rules.
While reports on such a breakthrough has been
circulating around for weeks now, the spokesman confirmed on Saturday that both
side of the negotiations “finalized” an agreement in 21 articles on November
15; but did not make any formal announcement prior to this report.
“…negotiations between the negotiating teams was
completed and finalised in 21 articles on the 15th of November 2020,” he said
in a tweet. “The mentioned procedure was interpreted in the existence of the
host/facilitator country on 17th November 2020.”
Wardar also said a copy of the agreement “was handed
over to the host/facilitator country” soon after both side of the negotiation
agreed on terms and condition that can potentially lead to the main talks – the
intra-Afghan negotiations on peace in Afghanistan.
The intra-Afghan talks launched on September 12, 2020;
since then the negotiations were halted due to disagreement on the ground rules
for the talks.
https://www.khaama.com/doha-yields-agreement-on-ground-rules-intra-afghan-negotiations-34534/
-----------
Arab world
Egypt: Hundreds Of Muslim Villagers Attack Christians
After Alleged Facebook Comment On His Deemed Insulting To Islam
Sat 28 Nov 2020
by Tola Mbakwe
Hundreds of local Muslim villagers in Barsha in Minya
governorate attacked the homes and properties of local Christians on Wednesday.
According to persecution watchdog Christian Solidarity
Worldwide (CSW), the incident began after rumours circulated that a Christian
man, who remains anonymous to ensure his security, had posted a comment on his
Facebook page that was deemed insulting to Islam. The man claims that his page
had been hacked.
The aggressors also tried to attack the church of Abou
Sefin, where the congregation was celebrating the beginning of the Coptic fast.
CSW said minibus belonging to the church was set on fire and several homes and
properties were damaged, but no one was hurt. Police were arrived quickly, and
arrested a number of local Muslims and Christians who were involved in clashes.
The allegation that sparked the violence comes amid a
significant increase in the number of people arrested on charges relating to
contempt of religion and blasphemy during 2020.
CSW’s CEO Scot Bower said: “While we are relieved that
nobody was hurt in this incident, the Egyptian government must do far more to
combat sectarian violence and bring an end to the culture of collective
punishment in the Minya region. This incident must be thoroughly investigated,
with those responsible brought to justice. The societal hostility underpinning
sectarian discord, which facilitates frequent outbreaks of violence in the
area, must also be addressed.”
CSW has urged Egyptian authorities to engage positively
with human rights organisations to promote religious diversity through civic
engagement and education.
Lord Jesus, thank You for the steadfast faith of our
brothers and sisters in Egypt. May they know how much they are loved and valued
in Your sight. Bring home the women and girls who have been abducted and
restore them to their families and communities. Please change the hearts of
those who wage war against Your people and reveal to them Your great love and
mercy.
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https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/egypt-hundreds-of-muslim-villagers-attack-christians-after-alleged-facebook-post
---------
UAE said blocking visas for 11 Muslim countries, as
Israelis allowed in freely
By AP and TOI STAFF
28 November 2020
Travel agencies in countries across the Middle East
and Africa said the United Arab Emirates has temporarily halted issuing new
visas to their citizens, even as the Gulf state allows Israelis into the
country visa-free following the normalization deal between the two countries.
Confusion over the unexplained UAE visa ban targeting
11 Muslim-majority nations, in addition to Kenya, swirled after a leaked
document from Dubai’s state-owned airport free zone surfaced this week,
declaring restrictions against a range of nationalities.
Emirati authorities have not acknowledged the
suspension that comes as the UAE welcomes Israeli tourists for the first time
in history, the coronavirus pandemic surges across the region and those
searching for work in the federation of seven sheikhdoms increasingly overstay
their tourist visas amid a cascade of business shutdowns and lay-offs.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that
Israel and the UAE have agreed on a plan that will allow Israelis to travel to
the Gulf nation even before a mutual visa-waiver program comes into effect.
The two nations, which established formal diplomatic
relations in September, have signed and ratified the visa-waiver program.
However, it will only go into effect 30 days after both countries send each
other official missives about the program.
Until the program takes effect, Foreign Minister Gabi
Ashkenazi and ministry officials asked Abu Dhabi for an interim solution for
visa-free travel, the Foreign Ministry said.
They agreed that Israeli airlines will be granted
permits to enter the UAE for all Israeli passengers on their flights via an
electronic process.
Israel’s cabinet on Sunday ratified the mutual visa
exemption agreement. The ministers voted unanimously to approve the treaty,
which was signed in Tel Aviv last month. The UAE government reportedly ratified
the agreement on November 1.
The UAE-Israel visa exemption agreement will mean that
citizens from both countries will be allowed to enter each other’s countries without
having to go through the hassle of applying for a visa first.
It is the first such arrangement between the Jewish
state and an Arab country. Notably, even Israel’s closest ally, the United
States, has so far refused to sign a visa exemption agreement with the Jewish
state.
On Thursday a flydubai plane landed in Dubai from Tel
Aviv with some 200 Israelis on board for the return leg of the first commercial
flight to Israel by the UAE’s state-owned airline. The Emirati budget airliner
is offering twice-daily flights between the two cities.
Travel agents in Pakistan said the UAE has barred
single men under the age of 50 from the country, although those traveling with
family can still obtain visas. Last week, Pakistan’s foreign office said it had
“learnt that the UAE has temporarily suspended the issuance of new visit visas”
in a move “believed to be related to the second wave of COVID-19.”
Bestways Travel company south of Islamabad was
skeptical. “With such specific age and gender limits, obviously this has
nothing to do with the coronavirus,” agent Jamchit Agha said. He said it was
more likely tied to security concerns, or fears about young men overstaying
visas to find jobs in Dubai, the region’s financial hub. Dubai relies on
millions of low-paid expat workers from Southeast Asia.
Several travel companies across Afghanistan also
claimed the UAE had stopped issuing visas to citizens, without offering any
explanation.
In Kenya, speculation has spread that the country
landed on the UAE’s blacklist over a spate of fake certificates showing
negative results on coronavirus tests used to travel to the UAE, resulting in
21 arrests Thursday.
Two travel agents in Lebanon, a country that has sent
legions of skilled workers to the UAE as its own economy plunged, confirmed
visa applications were currently on hold except for those with a foreign
passport or residency in a third country.
Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said
Iraq has not been officially informed of an Emirati travel ban against its
citizens, but the country was aware of the reported blacklist and is following
up through diplomatic channels. An employee at Dubai’s budget airline,
flydubai, in Baghdad said the company was taking far fewer visa applications,
pending instructions expected next week.
Saeed Mohammed, an agent at Arabian Nights Tours in
Dubai, said he frequently faces difficulties obtaining UAE entry visas for
Iranians, Turkish citizens and those from Yemen’s rebel-held capital due to
simmering political tensions.
Despite long-standing visa troubles, Mohammed said
he’s never seen the 100% visa rejection rate of the past week, with some dozen
visitor visas denied each day from Yemen, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and other
countries.
One travel agent in Istanbul said she wasn’t at all
surprised by the ban, especially given the UAE’s growing trend of rejecting
Turkish visas over the past few months — the result of a political rivalry, not
the coronavirus, she added.
Israel’s national carrier El Al said Monday that,
starting on December 13, it will operate 14 weekly flights to Dubai, including
three on Sundays and Thursdays and two on other days, presumably excluding
Saturdays.
Prices will start at $299 (about NIS 1,000) per
ticket, the company said, with premium tickets starting at $599 (more than NIS
2,000) and Business Class tickets at $899 (NIS 3,000 and change).
During a visit to Israel by Bahraini Foreign Minister
Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani last week, Israel and Bahrain — which have
similarly recently normalized relations with US mediation — signed an agreement
allowing citizens from each country to apply online for a visa to the other
country by December 1.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/uae-said-blocking-visas-for-some-muslim-countries-as-israelis-allowed-in-freely/
-----------
Saudi Arabia ranked sixth for safest travel
RAWAN RADWAN
November 28, 2020
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has ranked sixth among the safest
travel destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to an article published by Wego Travel Blog,
called “Safe Places to Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” the Kingdom was
the only Middle East country in the group. Countries were chosen according to
an EU methodology for its travel risk assessment.
The classification methodology includes
epidemiological criteria, countries’ ability to significantly decrease and
stabilize the spread of the virus for a sustained period of time, health system
capacity, and centers with large-scale testing capacity to detect and monitor
infections.
Its daily death count has been decreasing as of late,
with fewer than 20 deaths per day since Nov. 12. The total number of deaths
recorded in the Kingdom since the beginning of the pandemic has reached 5,870.
There are approximately 5,000 active cases and the
number of recoveries has reached 346,023, with 401 recorded recoveries on
Saturday. The Kingdom’s recovery rate is 96.9 percent.
Riyadh recorded the highest number of new cases with
55, Jeddah was second with 28, Madinah had 15 cases and Makkah 12. There are
675 patients in critical care units, a decrease from Friday’s 698.
Health clinics set up by the ministry as testing hubs
or treatment centers have helped hundreds of thousands of people around the
Kingdom since the outbreak.
Takkad centers provide COVID-19 testing for those who
show no or mild symptoms or believe they have come into contact with an
infected individual, while the Tetamman clinics offer treatment and advice to
those with virus symptoms, such as fever, loss of taste and smell, and
breathing difficulties.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1769796/saudi-arabia
---------
New Zealand
Christchurch mosque attack inquiry: Evidence
suppressed for 30 years, gunman's forever
Isaac Davison
28 Nov 2020
Evidence given by ministers and public sector bosses
to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attack will
be suppressed for 30 years.
And an interview with the Australian-born terrorist
will never be released out of concern it could inspire and assist further
attacks.
The inquiry's report was provided to Internal Affairs
Minister Jan Tinetti yesterday and will be publicly released on December 8,
after first being shared with victims' families and political party leaders.
It will detail any failings by police, spies, and
other government agencies in the leadup and aftermath to the mosque shootings
on March 15, 2019, in which 51 people were killed.
In a final minute issued yesterday, commissioners Sir
William Young and Jacqui Caine said evidence and submissions by public sector
chief executives and current and former ministers would be subject to
non-publication orders for 30 years.
National security was cited as a reason for the
suppressions. Full publication of the evidence could provide a "how-to
manual for future terrorists", the commissioners said. Those concerns
would likely have "dissipated" in 30 years, they said.
"We told them that our process was private and
that we would not publish in our report what they told us without first going
back to them.
"If there are significant failings, the people at
the top are responsible for that. And so I find it difficult that those people
would continue in their roles.
"Also, for past ministers of the Crown who are
included in that, there is no accountability for them unless the report itself
contains sufficient evidence and submissions that recounts any failings,
negligence, incompetence on their part."
A coroner's inquest would also allow exploration of
aspects of the attack which the Royal Commission had ruled out, such as the
role of social media companies or recommendations for gun reforms.
The commissioners noted that some members of Muslim
communities, academics and public sector agencies wanted the inquiry's
interview with terrorist Brenton Tarrant to be published.
"Some people are frustrated that, by his guilty
pleas, the individual avoided a trial at which the reasons for the terrorist
attack might have been explored," their minute said.
The transcript would be provided to the New Zealand
Police and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) to help them
improve their knowledge of extreme right-wing and lone actor terrorists, the
commissioners said.
But it would not be publicly released because it
included details about how he planned and prepared for the attack and could
enable further attacks.
It also included acknowledgements by the terrorist
about what he felt were "mistakes" in the way he carried out the
terrorist attack - which could be read by potential terrorists as
"advice".
A number of individuals involved in the inquiry would
also have their identities suppressed, including the police officers who vetted
Tarrant for his firearms licence and the people who provided references for
him.
"I know this will have been a challenging process
for whānau, survivors and witnesses of the terrorist attack and I want to
acknowledge their engagement," she said in a statement yesterday.
"It is only right that they have the space and
opportunity to privately reflect on the findings. We ask people to respect
their privacy during this time," Tinetti said.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/christchurch-mosques-terror-attack-evidence-suppressed-by-royal-commission-for-30-years/
-----------
Christchurch mosque attack: Police admin failure
allowed terrorist to get gun licence - report
Patrick Gower
29-11-2020
A failure by police to follow their own administrative
guidelines allowed the March 15 terrorist to get his gun licence, according to
an investigation by leading members of New Zealand's Muslim community.
It found the terrorist should never have got the gun
licence because he did not have appropriate referees - but police gave it to
him anyway.
Mahrukh Sarwar and Nour Malak investigated how police
let the terrorist get a gun licence that allowed him to buy the weapons he used
in last year's attack.
The police forms show one referee must be a spouse,
partner, or next-of-kin who normally resides with or is related to you, and the
other must be a person who is unrelated to you, over 20 years old, and knows
you well.
The type of gun used in the attack was subsequently
banned, but the report shows when the terrorist got his license, police had
"deprioritised" checks.
"Due to increased demand in other police priority
areas, fewer resources have been available for firearms licensing activities in
the 2017-18 year," it says.
"And because they were putting all their
resources and all their focus on the Muslim community, they missed right-wing
extremism and they missed the Christchurch terrorist."
The report details that, starting with Anders
Breivik's mass murder in Norway in 2011, there have been 45 white supremacist
terrorist attacks that should have been warning signs for our spies.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/11/christchurch-mosque-attack-police-admin-failure-allowed-terrorist-to-get-gun-licence-report.html
----------
Pakistan
Imam Of Badshahi Mosque Visits Islamabad Chamber Of
Commerce And Industry
Our Correspondent
November 29, 2020
Islamabad : Imam and Khateeb of Badshahi Mosque,
Lahore Molana Syed Muhammad Abdul Kabir Azad visited Islamabad Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (ICCI).
He held a meeting with ICCI President Sardar Yasir
Ilyas Khan and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest including the role
of religious scholars in promoting peace, tolerance and interfaith harmony in
the society.
Molana said that business community was playing an
important role in the economic development of the country by promoting business
and industrial activities besides making significant contributions towards the
public welfare projects, which was laudable.
He discussed the prospects of promoting sharia
compliant businesses that would give further boost to the business and economic
activities in the country.
Molana said the Ulema were playing crucial role in
foiling any nefarious agenda against Pakistan as they were the flag-bearers of
unity, brotherhood, tolerance and peace in the society.
He said the Ulema belonging to all schools of thought
were one on integrity and stability of the country and would never let the
elements working against the interests of Pakistan to succeed in their
conspiracies.
Speaking on the occasion, the ICCI president highly
appreciated the services of Molana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir Azad for Islam
and promotion of interfaith harmony in society.
He said that Molana Saheb was playing key role in
promoting a positive and true image of Islam and Pakistan at national and
international level, which was commendable.
He said ICCI would consider organizing a seminar on
promoting sharia compliant businesses where Molana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir
Azad would be invited as Chief Guest.
He said the peace and harmony was very important for
better growth of business activities and hoped that our Ulema would continue to
play their positive role in making Pakistan a peaceful and harmonized country.
ICCI Vice President Abdul Rehman Khan, Baser Daud,
Tariq Nusrat Wani, Khalid Chaudhry and others also spoke on the occasion and
paid tribute to the great services of Molana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir Azad
for Islam and Pakistan.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/750728-imam-of-badshahi-mosque-visits-chamber
-----------
Sindh High Court Orders To Stop Individuals Building
Mosques On State Lands
Our Correspondent
November 28, 2020
SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court circuit bench Sukkur on
Friday ordered all the deputy commissioners to remove encroachments and
directed them to prevent any construction even for a mosque by individuals on
state lands, suggesting the government to build mosque and appoint Pesh Imam
and Mowzaan on salary.
While hearing a petition against the encroachment on
proposed lands and revenue quarters, the SHC ordered the deputy commissioners
to remove all illegal encroachments from the state lands and proposed housing schemes,
especially from the revenue employees’ quarters. Meanwhile, the court has
ordered all the deputy commissioners to vacate not only revenue department’s
quarters but other properties as well. The court had adjourned the case till
December 17.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/750459-shc-orders-to-stop-individuals-building-mosques-on-state-lands
----------
Asad promises Karachi-like uplift projects for other
Sindh cities
M.B. Kalhoro
29 Nov 2020
SUKKUR/LARKANA: Federal Minister for Planning,
Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has vowed that the federal
government will soon announce Karachi-like development packages for other
cities of Sindh.
During his interaction with media personnel in Sukkur
and Larkana on Saturday, Mr Umar held the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP)
government in Sindh responsible for problems of the province.
Speaking at a workers’ convention titled ‘Youth of
Sukkur’ and later to reporters at Jatoi House in Sukkur, he severely criticised
the leaderships of the PPP and other opposition parties, saying that they had
no interest in solving problems of the people.
He criticised the opposition parties for what he
called their non-seriousness towards the real issues of the people. He claimed
the PTI government wanted to sit with the opposition for finding ways to solve
the problems of the people, but the opposition parties were not ready to talk
about the real issues of the people.
Mr Umar said the federal government was fully aware of
problems being faced by the people of Sindh, adding that it would execute
federal-funded development projects in the province.
The federal minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan
was deeply concerned about the rising inflation in the country and he would
soon take important decisions to control it.
He said the prime minister wanted to provide equal
opportunities to the people of all parts of the country and for the purpose he
had planned many initiatives. PM Khan and his team were working to make this
country secure and its people prosperous, he added.
He said the prime minister had announced a development
package for nine districts of Balochistan. Imran Khan was not the leader of
only Punjabis, Pakhtuns, Sindhis, Balochs or Mohajirs, instead he was the
leader of every Pakistani and he would work for all of them, he explained.
Mr Umar said that Pakistan’s response to the Covid-19
pandemic had been appreciated globally. He cautioned the people that cases of
coronavirus were rising in the country, urging them to follow the government’s
prescribed SOPs (standard operating procedures) to prevent the spread of the
second wave of the virus in the country.
The federal minister said the government was making
all-out efforts to protect the people from the virus and save their livelihoods
from its impact.
He said the government had a plan to make Pakistan
Steel Mills functional and federal Minister for Privatisation Mohammadmian
Soomro was working on this plan. The government would increase its capacity of
production which would provide employment opportunities to the people.
Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Firdous
Shamim Naqvi, members of the provincial assembly Sidra Imran, Bilal Ghaffar,
Arsalan Taj, Shahzad Qureshi, Dr Sanjay Gangwani, Mehmood Moulvi, Mubeen Jatoi
and others were present on the occasion.
Also speaking at some gatherings in Larkana, Mr Umar
again criticised the opposition parties and said that the leaders of these
parties had joined hands to pressurise Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Despite billions of rupees had been allocated for
Larkana, the city was in a very bad condition, he said, adding that no major
development project was launched by the provincial government for the city.
He claimed that there was a political stagnation in
Sindh, adding that for breaking this political stagnation all political parties
should support the prime minister’s vision.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1593008/asad-promises-karachi-like-uplift-projects-for-other-sindh-cities
----------
Opposition challenging govt writ, violating court
order: CM’s aide
Aamir Yasin
29 Nov 2020
RAWALPINDI: Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief
Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan on Saturday lashed out at opposition
parties and said that they were not only challenging the government writ and
exposing people to Covid-19, but openly violating the court orders.
Addressing a press conference at the Rawalpindi Press
Club, she said the law will take its course against the Pakistan Democratic
Movement (PDM) leadership for breaking the stadium’s locks in Multan.
Accompanied by PTI North Punjab President and MNA
Sadaqat Ali Abbasi, the special assistant noted that the second wave of
Covid-19 was proving to be more dangerous as compared to the first one and the
next two weeks were very crucial.
She said they accepted the democratic right of the
opposition parties but it was also “our responsibility to protect the lives of
the people from coronavirus so we will not spare those who violate the law and
play with people’s health”.
Firdous Ashiq Awan said it was strange that PML-N
leaders were spreading hatred in Multan on the day when their mother’s body was
lying at home for burial and they were busy in politics.
She said that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar knew
the democratic rights of the opposition but it is their responsibility to
protect the people from Covid-19.
“The miscreants are trying to take law in their hands
in Multan which is the city of saints. The law has the power to stop them and
also provide the constitutional and legal protection to the people,” she said.
“According to our traditions, there is nothing more
important than honor and respect of mother. Nawaz Sharif should have shown
courage and participated in funeral of his mother,” she said.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1592957/opposition-challenging-govt-writ-violating-court-order-cms-aide
-----------
Ordinance restraining children from evicting aging
parents being considered
Malik Asad
29 Nov 2020
ISLAMABAD: The government is considering a proposal to
promulgate an ordinance that would restrain children from evicting their aging
parents from their homes.
Federal Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem on Saturday
discussed the proposal with Prime Minister Imran Khan to promulgate the
ordinance to prescribe the right of parents to evict their children and their
spouses and protect rights of parents living with their children, a Law
Ministry statement said.
Firstly, it should restrain children from evicting
their parents from their homes if the houses are owned by the children.
Secondly, if the houses are owned by parents, they should have the right to
evict children and their spouses through simple procedures i.e. within 10 days
through intervention of the police or district management. Thirdly, if houses
are constructed with funds provided by parents or grandparents, but they are
registered in the names of children, some remedy is to be provided to parents
till the time they are alive.
Dr Naseem told Mr Khan that if such an ordinance were
promulgated it would earn the prime minister, law minister, the entire cabinet
and also the president prayers of all parents of Pakistan.
Within a matter of seconds, the prime minister
approved the proposal and asked the law minister to urgently draft the
ordinance.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1593004/ordinance-restraining-children-from-evicting-aging-parents-being-considered
----------
‘52pc of forced conversion cases reported in Punjab’
Staff Reporter
29 Nov 2020
LAHORE: Minority rights organisation Center for Social
Justice (CSJ) held a consultation where they denounced the rise in the
incidents of forced conversion of women, and specifically of underage girls
from the religious minority communities.
CSJ stressed that around 162 questionable conversions
had been reported in the media between 2013 and 2020 and abuses which had
occurred in violation of religious freedom enshrined in Pakistan’s constitution
of 1973.
According to CSJ data, around 52 per cent of the
incidents of alleged forced conversions had occurred in Punjab, 44pc in Sindh,
while 1.23pc each were reported in the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas,
while one case (0.62pc) was reported from Balochistan.
The highest number of such cases — 21 — was reported
in Bahawalpur during the past seven years roughly. Similarly 14 cases were
reported in Lahore, 12 in Karachi, 10 in Faisalabad, 8 in Hyderabad, 6 each in
Tharparkar, Ghotki and Kasu, 5 in Badin, 4 each in Umarkot and Sialkot.
The figures show that 54.3pc of the victims (girls and
women) belonged to the Hindu community, 44.44pc Christian while 0.62 pc
belonged tothe Sikh and Kalash communities.
Over 46.3pc of the victims of forced conversion were
minors clearly (some 32.7 pc of them aged between 11-15 years), while only
16.67pc of the victims were above 18 years, though the claim was not always
verified by the lower courts through record of the National Database and
Registration Authority (Nadra), school etc.
Speakers at the event agreed that the actual ratio of
the underage victims could be higher because the exact age of over 37pc of the
victims was not mentioned in the reportage.
A steady increase in conversions from three cases in
2013, to 13 in 2014, 20 in 2015, to 31 in 2016 was reflected in the data.
Dropping slightly to 23 in 2017, then further to 11 in 2018. However, the
highest number of 49 cases was reported in 2019, while 13 cases have been
reported till November 2020.
Peter Jacob, Executive Director of CSJ and Chairperson
of the People’s Commission for Minorities’ Rights stated that due to the
absence of adequate response from the state, involuntary, unethical and
manipulated conversions and marriages pose a serious threat to the social
cohesion, religious freedom and the respect for human rights.
They said an administrative and policy intervention on
an urgent basis was necessary to protect the rights of religious minorities,
especially of minority women and children.
“The government should strengthen institutional
protection of minority rights by undertaking legal, policy and administrative
measures to cater to the challenges of forced conversions in Pakistan,” he
said.
The participants initiated a signature campaign
addressed to the prime minster, urging the government to consider
recommendations presented by the People’s Commissions for Minorities Rights and
CSJ.
The recommendations urged the federal human rights
ministry to carry out a comprehensive study and analysis of the issue,
including the under-trial cases; the parliamentary committee established in
November 2019 should only make statements based on factual inquiries and
comprehensive data analysis.
It was demanded that police must investigate all such
cases under Section 498-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, as this enactment was
particularly relevant to forced conversion and marriages involving minority
women. The law has not been applied since its enactment in 2017.
They also said that the majority Act be amended to
bring it in conformity with the NADRA Act and other laws.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1592945/52pc-of-forced-conversion-cases-reported-in-punjab
-----------
Mideast
Muslim world battling Islamophobia ‘virus’ alongside
COVID-19, says Erdoğan
Nov 28 2020
AHWAL
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday
condemned what he called the rising Islamophobia in Western countries, saying
Muslim countries were battling the “virus” of prejudice against Islam alongside
the deadly coronavirus.
The Turkish president referred specifically to France,
accusing the European nation of “contempt” towards the Prophet Muhammad “under
the guise of freedom of thought,” state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Erdoğan’s remarks arrive amid an ongoing row with
France over French President Emmanuel Macron’s crackdown on radical Islam,which
he maintains has become a global problem, and efforts to create an Islamic
model native to France devoid of what he calls foreign influence. The Turkish
president has blasted his French counterpart over his stance, while calling on
Muslim countries to boycott all French products.
“Cultural racism, discrimination, and intolerance have
reached levels that cannot be concealed in countries that for many years have been
hailed as cradles of democracy,” Erdoğan said in a video message to the 23rd
annual convention of the Muslim American Society.
Noting that the marginalization of Muslims due to
their beliefs, language, names, or dress has become ordinary in many countries,
Erdoğan said Islamophobia and xenophobia had become a trend guiding state
policy in some Western countries.
This year, the Muslims world has been confronted by
only the deadly coronavirus, but the “virus that is Islamophobia,” Erdoğan
said.
https://ahvalnews.com/islamophobia/muslim-world-battling-islamophobia-virus-alongside-covid-19-says-erdogan
---------
Iran warns US, Israel against 'adventuristic' moves
after scientist assassination
Source : Press TV
November 29, 2020
Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid
Takht-Ravanchi says there are “serious indications of Israeli responsibility”
in the assassination of Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
and the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday evening, Iran’s ambassador to the
world body said that the Islamic Republic reserves the right to defend itself.
“The cowardly assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh --
with serious indications of Israeli responsibility in it – is another desperate
attempt to wreak havoc on our region as well as to disrupt Iran’s scientific
and technological development,” Takht-Ravanchi said in the letter.
The letter came hours after Fakhrizadeh, the head of
the Defense Ministry's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research
(SPND), was assassinated by terrorists in his vehicle in a small city east of
the capital Tehran in an attack that also involved a car bombing.
“Warning against any adventuristic measures by the
United States and Israel against my country, particularly during the remaining
period of the current administration of the United States in office, the
Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its rights to take all necessary measures to
defend its people and secure its interests,” the letter further read.
The letter went on to refer to the assassination of
several prominent Iranian scientists in terrorist attacks over the past decade,
saying that there was strong evidence that some foreign parties were behind
those assassinations.
“Over the current decade, several top Iranian
scientists have been targeted and assassinated in terrorist attacks and our
firm evidence clearly indicates that certain foreign quarters have been behind
such assassinations,” it said.
“One of the latest services of Martyr Fakhrizadeh was
his outstanding role in the development of the first indigenous COVID-19 test
kit, which is a great contribution to our national efforts in curbing the
COVID-19 pandemic at a time when Iran is under inhumane sanctions of the United
States, strictly preventing our access to humanitarian goods including
medicines and medical equipment,” he said.
In conclusion, Iran’s envoy urged Guterres and the
UNSC to strongly condemn the terrorist act and take necessary measures against
its perpetrators.
What was clearly a state-sponsored assassination of
our prominent scientist was also a clear violation of int'l law, designed to
wreak havoc on our region.
Separately on Friday, Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ebrahim
Raeisi said the “big crime” was carried out by “traitorous elements linked to
foreigners and international Zionism with the sinister goal of hindering the
country’s scientific progress.”
Raeisi further praised the scientist’s role in
speeding up Iran’s advancements in various scientific fields, including the
nuclear industry, saying Fakhrizadeh’s martyrdom will not block the country’s
path forward.
He called on the country’s security and intelligence
institutions in addition to relevant judicial bodies to do their utmost to
arrest and serve justice to the criminals and mercenaries involved in the crime
as soon as possible.
https://en.abna24.com/news//iran-warns-us-israel-against-adventuristic-moves-after-scientist-assassination_1090331.html
----------
Senior Pakistani Shia cleric: Zionists behind
assassination of Iranian scientist
Source : Irna
November 29, 2020
Secretary General of Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM)
strongly condemned the assassination of a prominent Iranian scientist Mohsen
Fakhrizadeh, and said the Zionist regime and the United States are behind the
heinous cowardly act.
Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri in a statement on
Saturday said the Zionist regime is playing with a fire which will soon engulf
the illegitimate state.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Research and
Innovation Organization of the Iranian Defense Ministry, was assassinated by
terrorists in a terrorist attack near Tehran on Friday afternoon.
Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri added that agents of the
United States and the Zionist regime have assassinated the prominent defense
scientist of Iran which is very unfortunate.
He said targeting Iran's most important figure is the
worst aggression and interference in the internal affairs of the states, adding
that the Zionists are playing with fire which will soon engulf the illegitimate
Israeli regime.
He said that the United States, the Zionist regime and
some Arab dictators in the region States are bent on destroying the peace of
the region.
Allama Jafri added that the US is on the verge of
collapse and the end of the Zionist regime is an eternal and undeniable fact.
He said only some of their mercenaries in the region have the illusion of
showing their power by buying security from outside.
Addressing some Arab rulers, he said that they should
stop spreading hatred and a hypocritical approach and play a role in
strengthening the position of the Islamic world.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacting
to the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Head of the Research and Innovation
Organization of the Ministry of Defense, highlighted the Israeli regime’s role
in the act.
“Iran calls on int'l community—and especially EU—to
end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror,”
Zarif wrote in his Twitter account on Friday.
https://en.abna24.com/news//senior-pakistani-shia-cleric-zionists-behind-assassination-of-iranian-scientist_1090326.html
----------
Hussein Ibrahim Taha to head Muslim bloc OIC
Omer Erdem
28.11.2020
Hussein Ibrahim Taha from Chad was on Saturday elected
as the next secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Taha was elected as the two other contenders from
Benin and Nigeria decided to support him and Al-Othaimeen withdrew his own
candidacy.
Established in 1969, the OIC is the world’s second
largest inter-governmental organization after the UN, with 57 member states
spread across four continents.
Upon completion of his primary and secondary education
in Chad, Taha started his undergraduate studies in Paris at the National
Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in 1972.
Taha, who was appointed as Chad's Ambassador to Taiwan
in 2001, continued his diplomatic career until 2017 as the Ambassador to
France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and the Vatican.
He was appointed as an Adviser to the President and
Deputy Secretary General in 2019 after his ministerial duty, and was nominated
for the OIC General Secretary by the Chadian government in November 2020.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/hussein-ibrahim-taha-to-head-muslim-bloc-oic/2059182
----------
Turkey condemns 'threat message' against Muslim
scholar in Greece
Nov 29 2020
AHVAL
Turkey slammed on Saturday a racist threat message
written on the elevator of an apartment building in northeastern Greece where
Islamic scholar Ahmet Mete is residing.
"This incident once again revealed the
intolerance of racist and extremist groups in Greece towards the existence of
the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace and their representatives,"
Turkey's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said.
"We expect the Greek state to enlighten the
heinous incident and bring its perpetrators to justice by carrying out an
investigation with due seriousness and sensitivity," he added.
Western Thrace’s Muslim-Turkish minority of around
150,000 people has long been an issue of contention between Ankara and Athens
with Turkey calling out Greece for what it calls failure to grant full rights
to the minority, including a state denial of ethnic identity and restrictions
on freedom of religion.
https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-greece/turkey-condemns-threat-message-against-muslim-scholar-greece
---------
India
Samajwadi Party Against ‘Love Jihad’ Law, Will Oppose
It In House
Pervez Siddiqui
Nov 29, 2020
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party will oppose the ‘love jihad’
law on forced religious conversions when it comes up in the assembly next
month. SP president Akhilesh Yadav made the announcement after Governor
Anandiben Patel signed the ordinance.
Yadav said SP is not in favour of such law and will
oppose it strongly. “We will ask government to bring a law which guarantees
doubling of farmers’ income,” he said, questioning the law as government
schemes offer incentives for inter-faith marriages.
“On one hand, the government offers Rs 50,000 to those
opting for inter-caste and inter-religion marriages, and on the other, they
have brought this law,” he added.
He also cast doubts on ‘selling’ a mall and expressway
and said it will be probed ‘when time comes’.
The SP chief accused BJP of selling a government-owned
shopping mall worth Rs 1,000 crore to a private entity at throwaway prices. He
further added that an expressway was also being sold in a similar fashion.
“Time will expose the corruption this government is
indulging in,” he added.
He said it is ironic that government talks of zero
tolerance for corruption but, in an international survey, the country has
figured on the top of the list of nations where bribery is most prevalent.
Hitting out at CM Yogi Adityanath’s announcement of
setting up 10,000 MW solar power units, Yadav said, “He does not know anything
about a solar panel.”
“During SP government, we had set up a solar power unit
on the suggestion of country’s President. The unit produced enough power to
meet the needs of an entire village, but this government snapped the supply
saying the villagers have not paid bills.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/akhilesh-sp-against-love-jihad-law-will-oppose-it-in-house/articleshowprint/79469754.cms
----------
Tripura Hindu outfit seeks nationwide law to curb
‘Love Jihad’
Priyanka Deb Barman
Nov 28, 2020
The Hindu Jagaran Mancha in Tripura is demanding an
effective law to curb alleged ‘love jihad’ across the country and nearly 300
members of the outfit blocked the National Highway at Subhash bridge in Udaipur
of Gomati district on Friday in support of their demand.
Citing instances of alleged ‘love jihad’ across the
country and claiming that incidents like the recent abduction and rape of a
Hindu minor girl at Boxanagar-- a border village in Sepahijala district— by a
youth from a minority community were on the rise, the agitators demanded a
stringent law to curb forced interfaith relationships.
A case was registered on October 27 against the youth
under Section 366 (A), 376 and 4 of POCSO Act. Within a few days after her
abduction during the Durga puja festivities, the minor girl was recovered from
Durlabhnarayan area in the district, but the accused is yet to be arrested.
“The protesters demanded a strict law to check love
jihad. The prime accused in the abduction and rape of the minor is absconding
and police investigation is on to trace the accused,” said Dhrubha Nath, Udaipur
sub divisional police officer.
“Around nine cases of Love Jihad were lodged at
different police stations in Tripura during the Covid-19 pandemic. No accused
has been arrested in any of these cases. A law can act as a safeguard for such
cases,” said Uttam Dey, Jagaran Mancha president.
However the police rejected the claim and said no such
case related to purported ‘love jihad’ was lodged in the state in past
three-four months.
The protest comes on a day when Uttar Pradesh governor
Anandiben Patel gave assent to an ordinance against forcible or fraudulent
religious conversions, which provides for imprisonment of up to 10 years and
fine of up to Rs 50,000 under different categories.
Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of
Religion Ordinance, 2020 has been brought in by the Yogi Adityanath government
to curb religious conversions only for the sake of marriage. According to the
ordinance, a marriage will be declared “null and void” if the conversion of a
woman is solely for that purpose and those wishing to change their religion
after marriage need to apply to the district magistrate.
Madhya Pradesh government has also indicated that it
would double the duration of sentence to 10-years of rigorous imprisonment from
a 5 year sentence for cases of forceful religious conversions and marriages by
enticement or fraud.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/tripura-hindu-outfit-seeks-nationwide-law-to-curb-love-jihad/story-hdXgAEZOBXS29YLO38ImzO.html
----------
Muslims constitute 30% of West Bengal voters; BJP eyes
this core votebank of Mamata Banerjee
Ravi Dubey
Nov 27, 2020
As the West Bengal Assembly elections are nearing,
political parties have started to woo Muslim voters. This is considered the
core vote of the Trinamool Congress; the Left-Congress also keeps an eye on it.
Now BJP has also started expanding its reach to this community. BJP's Bengal
in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya said in a meeting on Wednesday that our party's
specialty is that 'Siraj and Jai Shri Ram' sit together on its platform. He
said this because Siraj Khan, a former TMC Zilla Parishad member of Midnapore,
joined the BJP along with his supporters. Vijayvargiya claimed that the
difference between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee is that while the PM carries everyone along, the Chief Minister of
West Bengal advocates a special class.
About 30 percent of Muslim voters in Bengal are in a
decision-making role in about 100 of the state's 294 seats. Muslim voters in
Bengal are considered the core vote bank of TMC since 2010. However, along with
the Left and Congress, the BJP is now trying to bring the Muslim community into
its fold.
In West Bengal, it is not easy for any party to ignore
the Muslims and win the electoral battle. The BJP also held Muslim conferences
to woo 30 percent strong Muslim votes in the 2018 Bengal Panchayat elections.
The BJP had given tickets to more than 850 people from the Muslim community, in
which 27 had won. In the 2016 assembly elections, the BJP fielded 6 Muslim
candidates.
https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/news-muslims-constitute-30-of-west-bengal-voters-bjp-eyes-this-core-votebank-of-mamata-banerjee-2858784
----------
Europe
European Churches Defend Jews And Muslims Against
Circumcision Bans
John Burger
11/28/20
At a time when anti-Semitism has shown up in more ways
and more places in Europe, a number of countries are considering a ban on a
practice that has been deeply ingrained in Jewish life for eons.
Denmark’s Parliament is expected to vote soon on a
motion to ban circumcision, according to Rabbi Andrew Baker, the American
Jewish Committee’s director of international Jewish affairs, writing at
Religion News Service this week. Finland and Belgium are considering similar
legislation, he said. In recent years, legislators and activists in Iceland,
Germany and Sweden have attempted to prohibit the practice.
Baker attributes the push for bans, in part, to
children’s rights defenders who claim it is an act of disfigurement and
mutilation. “In fact, some compare it to female genital mutilation, a barbaric
procedure that is banned in most countries,” he writes.
While medical circumcision of infants is common in
America, the practice is much rarer in Europe. But in Jewish and Muslim
communities, circumcision is still considered a religious obligation, but
western Europeans, who are “strongly secular,” tend to view organized religion
with scepticism and even disdain, he explained.
Baker is also convinced that anti-Muslim animus plays
a role in the current anti-circumcision campaign. “The politicians leading the
charge in the Finnish Parliament are members of a right-wing, nationalist party
well-known for attacking Muslims but with little interest in children’s
rights,” he writes.
Churches in Europe have spoken out against the proposals.
Two years ago, when Iceland was considering such legislation, the Council of
Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) issued a statement saying the move “would
not only amount to an infringement of the fundamental human right of Freedom of
Religion or Belief, but would also be perceived as a signal that people with a
Jewish or Muslim background are no longer welcome to Iceland.”
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the CCEE, said
that “the Catholic Church is particularly committed to defending the child’s
right, which also includes the right — the duty of the family to educate their
children according to their own religious convictions. This initiative is
against religious freedom and the principles of democracy proper to a civil
society.”
Last year, The Church of Sweden voiced support for
Jewish and Muslim communities in their fight against the proposed circumcision
ban.
Both Sweden and Germany adopted compromise legislation
that imposed some conditions regulating the procedure and provided additional
medical oversight, while still permitting a circumcision to take place in a
synagogue or family home, Baker said.
https://aleteia.org/2020/11/28/european-churches-defend-jews-and-muslims-against-circumcision-bans/
----------
Ebbw Vale man charged with threatening to kill Muslims
By Iwan Gabe Davies
29-11-2020
A MAN was remanded in custody after being charged with
threatening to kill Muslims, burn down a mosque and blow up council buildings.
Robert John Armstrong, 44, from Ebbw Vale, appeared
before Newport Magistrates’ Court charged with making threats to kill and
threatening criminal damage.
The defendant faces allegations he threatened to kill
“members of the Muslim community”, Blaenau Gwent council employees and “people
of Pakistani origin”.
Armstrong also faces charges under the Criminal Damage
Act of threatening to burn down a mosque and blow up Blaenau Gwent council
buildings.
Armstrong, of Station Road, Waunlwyd, is due to appear
before Newport Crown Court on December 23.
https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/18906550.ebbw-vale-man-charged-threatening-kill-muslims/
----------
Quebec mosque shooter has sentence reduced by 15 years
BY LIBYAN EXPRESS
NOV 28, 2020
The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled in the case of
the city mosque shooter by reducing his sentence by fifteen years, making it so
he is eligible for parole after serving 25 years.
Alexandre Bissonette who shot and killed six people in
a mosque in 2017 was sentenced to forty years without the possibility for
parole, but due to a court ruling that considers serving life sentences
consecutively unconstitutional, he is now eligible to apply for parole after
just 25 years served.
Bissonette pleaded guilty to the murder of six men and
injury of nineteen others in a mosque shooting in 2019, his lawyers claimed
that he was not islamophobic and could use from psychiatric help and not
prison.
People have taken to social media to express their
disdain for the ruling in favour of Bissonette, saying it is unfair that the
victim’s families will still be grieving in 25 years and he’ll have the chance
to be back out in the world in his early 50s, the same age of some of his
victims.
Bissonnette showed no remorse during his trial and
expressed a desire to take the lives of more Muslims in his interrogation, stating
that he wanted to protect people from possible future terrorist attacks.
https://www.libyanexpress.com/quebec-mosque-shooter-has-sentence-reduced-by-15-years/
----------
Russian official: Fakhrizadeh was assassinated with US
green light
Source : Pars Today
November 28, 2020
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the Research and
Innovation Organization of the Ministry of Defense, was assassinated and
martyred on Friday afternoon local time in Damavand, Tehran Province, by
unknown individuals during an armed conflict with his bodyguards.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent
Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations on Friday, in
response to the martyrdom of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the Research and
Innovation Organization of the Ministry of Defense, referred to the New York
Times report in which three intelligence officials blamed the Israeli regime
for the assassination.
"What the New York Times analysis says is a
reflection of the United States' readiness to give the green light to foreign
political assassinations," he wrote on Twitter.
Addressing the US green light, Russia's deputy
ambassador to the United Nations emphasized: "Not a thing to boast for a
democratic country."
https://en.abna24.com/news//russian-official-fakhrizadeh-was-assassinated-with-us-green-light_1089956.html
----------
North America
Senior US Senator Sanders slams 'reckless, illegal'
assassination of Iranian scientist
Source : PressTV
November 29, 2020
Senior US Senator Bernie Sanders says the
assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was an
"illegal" move aimed at undermining possible talks between Iran and
the incoming US administration.
However, US President Donald Trump’s former hawkish
national security advisor John Bolton defended the assassination, and claimed
that the “threat” of Iran developing a nuclear weapon fully justifies the
“pre-emptive attack”.
Earlier in the day, a senior US official told the
Washington Post that the United States had nothing to do with the scientist’s
killing and believes Iran has been told that.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
to discuss a sensitive matter, said there was little doubt Israel was behind
the attack.
The former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency
described the assassination as a crime that risked to inflame regional conflict
in the Middle East.
“This was a criminal act & highly reckless. It
risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict. Iranian
leaders would be wise to wait for the return of responsible American leadership
on the global stage & to resist the urge to respond against perceived
culprits,” tweeted Brennan, who ran the CIA under President Barack Obama from
2013-2017.
Brennan said he didn’t know whether a foreign
government authorized or carried out the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, but
said, “Such an act of state-sponsored terrorism would be a flagrant violation
of international law & encourage more governments to carry out lethal
attacks against foreign officials.”
https://en.abna24.com/news//senior-us-senator-sanders-slams-reckless-illegal-assassination-of-iranian-scientist_1090329.html
----------
UN Special Rapporteur: Extraterritorial targeted
killing violation of human rights
Source : Mehr News
November 28, 2020
In reaction to the assassination of an Iranian
scientist, UN Special Rapporteur said that an extraterritorial targeted
killing, outside an armed conflict, is a violation of international human
rights law.
In a tweet on Friday, Agnes Callamard wrote,
"Murder of #MohsenFakhrizadeh, #Iran's top nuclear scientist: many
questions still as to the circumstances of his killing. No State or non-State
actors have yet claimed responsibility."
"An extraterritorial targeted killing, outside an
armed conflict, is a violation of international human rights law prohibiting
the arbitrary deprivation of life and a violation of the UN Charter prohibiting
the use of force extraterritorially in times of peace," she added.
"International human rights obligations apply to
the conduct of a State outside its territory as confirmed by the International
Court of Justice, the Human Rights Committee, the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, States have engaged in
acts of aggression resulting in deprivation of life violate ipso facto their
treaty obligations," she said.
"States that fail to take reasonable measures to
settle their int'l disputes by peaceful mean fail to comply with their positive
obligation to ensure the right to life," Callamard noted.
Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on Friday in a
multi-pronged attack involving at least one explosion and small fire by a
number of assailants in Absard city of Damavand County, Tehran province.
https://en.abna24.com/news//un-special-rapporteur-extraterritorial-targeted-killing-violation-of-human-rights_1090017.html
----------
Three US officials say Israel regime behind
assassination: New York Times
Source : Press TV
November 28, 2020
Three US officials have said that Israel was behind
the assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in a terrorist attack
near the capital Tehran, according to a report.
“One American official — along with two other
intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the
scientist,” The New York Times reported on Friday.
“It was unclear how much the United States may have
known about the operation in advance, but the two nations are the closest of
allies and have long shared intelligence regarding Iran,” it added.
Fakhrizadeh,59, had been targeted on Friday in a
multi-pronged attack involving at least one explosion and small fire by a
number of assailants in Absard city of Damavand County, Tehran Province.
The attack targeted the vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh,
who headed the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation
and Research (SPND), the Fars news agency said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Mohammad Javad Zarif roundly
condemned the terror attack, saying there were “serious indications” of the
Israeli regime’s role in the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, a professor of physics
at Imam Hussein University of Tehran.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist
today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate
warmongering of perpetrators,” he said in a tweet.
The top Iranian diplomat called on the international
community, especially the European Union, to “end their shameful double
standards & condemn this act of state terror.”
Fakhrizadeh’s name was mentioned multiple times in a
presentation in 2018 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which
he repeated baseless claims about the Iranian nuclear program.
The regime has been behind the assassination of
several Iranian nuclear scientists. It has also conduced cyberattacks on
Iranian nuclear sites.
That’s a telling analysis from @nytimes reflecting
readiness of US establishment to give green light to political extra
territorial assasinations. Not a thing to boast for a democratic country! #Iran
#Fakhrizadeh https://t.co/OdFum1ftLu
The New York Times summarized the “chilling message”
that “American officials” wanted to send to Iranian top scientists with the
assassination of Fakhrizadeh: “If we can get him, we can get you, too.”
Indistinguishable from Mafia talk.
Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN,
Dmitry Polyanskiy, tweeted, “That’s a telling analysis from @nytimes reflecting
readiness of US establishment to give green light to political extra
territorial assassinations. Not a thing to boast for a democratic country!
#Iran #Fakhrizadeh.”
https://en.abna24.com/news//three-us-officials-say-israel-regime-behind-assassination-new-york-times_1089960.html
----------
The New Team In Washington Surveys West Asia Trump
Leaves Behind
Saeed Naqvi
27 Nov 2020
For the new team being announced by the Biden
administration any innovation can only follow repair work of the considerable
wreckage that is being left behind by the outgoing team.
At this moment of transition, what construct does one
place on the outgoing Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s participation in the
cloak-and-dagger meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu in the mega city of Neom being built
on the Red Sea? The drama of this meeting was heightened by Netanyahu’s office
denying the meeting in tones which seemed to suggest that the Israelis were not
busting their guts to keep the meeting secret. A pretense of secrecy was
essential because otherwise “MBS” would be in “trouble”.
Netanyahu’s Education Minister, Yoav Galant, could not
contain his joy at the “amazing achievement” because the “Sunni world” was
joining the Israel-US alliance to counter “Iranian Shiite extremism”.
This Shia-Sunni confrontation, real or simulated, has
been the game ever since the Shah was toppled in Iran. Why then this secrecy
now? Why is MBS so scared being seen in an embrace with Netanyahu on Saudi
soil? Because his people will find out? Do his people matter? But it turns out
that human rights is an article of faith with the incoming Secretary of State,
Antony Blinken. This may well be a source of anxiety not just for Saudi Arabia
but all monarchies and authoritarian systems. Are there any in our vicinity?
A hint about MBS’s source of anxiety was available in
the other crucial virtual meeting the Saudi king had with President Tayyip
Erdogan of Turkey. The Turkish strongman is part of a quadrangle which both,
Washington (the incoming administration) and MBS, Netanyahu too, should by
analyzing.
After the Soviet collapse in 1991, it was elementary
that creating a distance between Moscow and Beijing would remain a US strategic
goal. But George W Bush and his deluded Neocons asked for the moon – full
spectrum global dominance into the American Century. The financial crisis of
2008 rapped them hard on the knuckles. American decline was well underway when
Trump greased the downward slide even more effectively.
The evolving Biden team will contemplate at the
menacing quadrangle I mentioned at the outset. To begin with, Moscow and
Beijing have never been closer. The duet spotted the potential of Iran too, and
included it in the club. After all, Washington is just about to dust up the
Iranian nuclear file for a resumption of a conversation with Tehran.
No sooner had Trump lost the election, when Imran Khan
was on his maiden trip to Kabul. This, when the US troop withdrawal from the
Afghan capital had run into the sort of snags which US representative for
Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad was trying to sort out. Was the Pakistan Prime
Minister now effectively being positioned to handle the Afghan file? This became
a very real anxiety in both Tehran and New Delhi. But Iran being re-invited on
the nuclear file, mollifies it somewhat. How happy New Delhi should be with its
exertions in the Quad (US, Australia, Japan, India) only time can tell. The
Japanese Foreign Minister has already clarified: our membership of the Quad is
not directed against any country.
So, while the US was on the Trump rollercoaster and
coping with the social mayhem and galloping Covid, other countries were moving
increasingly in concert. There has been so much continuous chanting of the
Shia-Sunni conflict that real and abiding antipathies have been lost sight of.
A convenient point of departure to explain this
narrative are the two events in December, 1979, which rattled the Saudis,
indeed the world – Ayatollah Khomeini’s return, signaling the Iranian
revolution. Around the same date, an anti-monarchy Sunni, Juhayman al-Otaybi,
defied the Saudi state by occupying the holiest Muslim Mosque of Mecca.
Unable to flush out Otaybi and his armed supporters,
Saudis sought Western help. A situation emerged which to a non-Muslim would
read like a comedy. Since non-Muslims are not allowed in Mecca, US and French
soldiers had to be converted to Islam to enter the mosque and accomplish the
holy task of killing Otaybi and his men. This “rebellion within” gives Saudis
nightmares. But they feel more secure externalizing the threat. They have
persistently targeted Iran and Shiaism as threats to themselves, Israel,
indeed, the West. When did you last hear of the 15-day siege of the Mecca
Mosque?
To point fingers at the Muslim Brotherhood
(Al-Ikhwanul Muslimoon) as the enemy would isolate most of the GCC Sheikhdoms
from the larger Muslim “Umma”. They would then be perceived as only the
“Wahabi” sect of the Sunni world.
Incalculable Saudi wealth, particularly after the
quadrupling of oil prices following the 1973 Yom Kippur war, had the Western
Military Industrial Complex salivating on Arab petrodollars. The oil-rich
Sheikhs are, by formal agreements, dependent on Western arms. Their wealth plus
their links to Israel give them considerable control on Western media which has
quite shockingly harped only on the Shia-Sunni conflict.
When the Arab Spring dethroned Hosni Mubarak, Muslim
Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi became Egypt’s President. Coming to power of a
Brother in Egypt caused the Saudis to load their camels with their billions and
turn up in Cairo to stabilize General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s coup in Cairo.
Brothers in power in Egypt was anathema to the Israelis too because the Hamas
in Gaza would now have help from all sides. Brother in Turkey, Qatar and Egypt.
They were ideologically coherent with Hamas.
At the Shia end, the Hezbullah in Lebanon, Iran, the
Alawi elements in the Syrian Army, the Shia majority in Iraq, war-tried Houthis
of Yemen are all supporting the Palestinian cause to the hilt.
No, it is not the Shia-Sunni divide which is bothering
MBS and Netanyahu. What worries them deeply is the Shia-Sunni combine zeroing
in on the Israelis and the Wahabis in unlikely comradeship.
https://www.milligazette.com/news/8-international/33765-new-team-washington-surveys-west-asia-trump-leaves-behind/
------------
Africa
Mozambique LNG prospects lifted by international
response to Islamist insurgency
By David Whitehouse
27 November 2020
Police forces from both Tanzania and Mozambique have
agreed to conduct joint operations against terrorist groups at their shared
border following an attack in October in which more than 20 locals in a
Tanzanian village were beheaded.
The cooperation is a sign that Mozambique “will have
the help that it needs,” says Alessandro Nanotti, a former project manager at
the Rovuma LNG project for Italy’s Eni. “It’s happening already.” Delays to the
start of production at Rovuma, scheduled for 2024, are now likely to be limited
to those caused by COVID-19, he says. “It does improve the prospects.”
Mozambique needs to ask for joint intervention, but
has so far failed to do so as it wants to show it’s in full control, says
Nanotti. It has mostly relied on private military contractors from countries
such as Russia and Zimbabwe. Yet neither Mozambique’s army, which is unequipped
for modern war, nor the contractors are capable of ending the insurgency.
“Mozambique can’t rely on itself any more.”
It’s only when the death toll started reaching tragic
figures that the insurgency moved up the international agenda. The beheading of
more than 50 people in the Muatide village of northern Mozambique led French
President Emmanuel Macron to call for an international response to the
insurgency.
Nanotti traces the roots of the insurgency which began
in 2017 to the successive expulsions of Islamic State (IS) fighters from Kenya
and Tanzania. The IS units ended up in northern Mozambique because they didn’t
have anywhere else to go.
Once there, they joined forces with a local youth
movement that was disenchanted by the lack of local jobs, he says. Though
northern Mozambique is predominantly Muslim, this local movement was not a
radical Islamic one, he adds. “It was not about religion. Radical Islam was a
way to identify themselves” from 2017.
Supporting the Mozambique government won’t be
straightforward. Northern Mozambique is a difficult region to access and better
infrastructure is needed to get there, Nanotti says. Even drones would struggle
to detect insurgents operating from forest areas, he adds.
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The prospects of a global energy transition towards
renewable sources means that the window of opportunity to develop new LNG
projects is closing, Nanotti argues. Liquefaction of natural gas entails 8% to
9% of the gas being emitted, meaning that cleaner alternatives will have
priority for new development, he says. The next few years are the “last chance”
for Mozambique to produce LNG. “You have to do it now.”
https://www.theafricareport.com/52389/__trashed-21/
----------
Boko Haram terrorists kill 43 farm workers in Nigeria
Guardian, AFP
November 29, 2020
Boko Haram militants killed at least 43 farm workers
and wounded six in rice fields near the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri
on Saturday.
The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and
slit their throats in the village of Koshobe, the militia said.
“We have recovered 43 dead bodies, all of them
slaughtered, along with six others with serious injuries,” said militia leader
Babakura Kolo, who helped the survivors.
“It is no doubt the handiwork of Boko Haram who
operate in the area and frequently attack farmers.”
The victims were labourers from Sokoto state in
north-west Nigeria, roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away, who had
travelled to the north-east to find work, said another militiaman Ibrahim Liman
who corroborated the death toll.
“There were 60 farmers who were contracted to harvest
paddy in the rice fields. 43 were slaughtered, with six injured,” Liman said.
Eight others were missing, presumed to have been
kidnapped by the terrorists, he said.
The bodies were taken to Zabarmari village, two
kilometres away, where they would be kept ahead of burial on Sunday, said
resident Mala Bunu who took part in the search and rescue operation.
The attack is one of the worst waged by the rival
terrost groups in the region since Boko Haram’s insurgency began in 2009.
Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, said through a
spokesman in a tweet: “I condemn the killing of our hardworking farmers by
terrorists in Borno state. The entire country is hurt by these senseless killings.
My thoughts are with their families in this time of grief. May their souls rest
in peace.”
Nigerian government officials have long insisted that
terrorists were “technically defeated” and reduced to sporadic attacks.
Refugees across the north-east have been urged to return home to a region the
government has said is now safe.
But beyond major cities and garrison towns where
military presence is strong, significant parts of north-east Nigeria remain
acutely vulnerable, with people effectively occupied and governed by roaming
terrorist groups. Attacks in the north-east – particularly targeting farmers,
security forces and aid workers – have increased in recent years.
Last month Boko Haram militants slaughtered 22 farmers
working on their irrigation fields near Maiduguri in two separate attacks.
Boko Haram and ISWAP, its IS-linked rival, have
increasingly targeted loggers, herders and fishermen in their violent campaign,
accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and the local
militia fighting them.
At least 36,000 people have been killed in the
conflict, which has displaced about two million since 2009.
The violence has also spread into neighbouring Niger,
Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militants.
The attack took place as voters went to the polls in
local elections in Borno State. The elections had been repeatedly postponed
because of an increase in attacks by Boko Haram and ISWAP.
African publication HumAngle reported that the people
of the village are refusing to bury the bodies of the 43 victims until the
state governor has witnessed the atrocity.
https://en.abna24.com/news//boko-haram-terrorists-kill-43-farm-workers-in-nigeria_1090365.html
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Boko Haram Attack: Northern Elders demand removal of
service chiefs
By The Nigeria Voice
29-11-2020
A group of Northern Elders under the aegis of
Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace Development have commended the Sultan of
Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar for demonstrating the courage to speak
on the deplorable security situation in the troubled region.
According to the group, the position of the Sultan
aptly captured a true reflection of the state of insecurity in the North which
they maintain, is largely responsible for the food crisis bedevilling the
country.
In the bid to proffer lasting solution to the security
challenges, the Coalition called for the immediate removal of the Service
Chiefs as part of the restructuring of the security architecture of the
country.
While reflecting to Sultan’s position, the Coalition
in a statement co-signed by its national coordinator, Mr Zana Goni and the
National Women Leader, Hajia Mario Bichi, submitted that the Sultan vindicated
their consistent alarm on the state of insecurity in the region.
In the bid to address the myriad of crises bedevilling
the region, the group called on other prominent Northern leaders to join their
voices in projecting the true position of things in the region, with the view
to draw the attention of relevant authorities.
The statement read: “More importantly, they reiterated
their call on President Muhammadu to rejig and restructure the security
architecture in the country, in order to cause meaningful change in status quo.
It continued: “We most respectfully commend the Sultan
of Sokoto, our father, for stating the true position of things in the North, as
it concerns insecurity.
“We had said it over and over again, that the state of
insecurity had reached a point where our farmers can hardly access their farms,
even as travellers on busy highways can no longer guarantee their safe arrival
without being kidnapped.
“Our mothers, fathers and children are now at the
mercy of terrorists and bandits, who kill, harass and destroy property without
being confronted, in many instances, by our security operatives.
“As patriotic elders, we think the position of the
Sultan is a Clarion call to our dear President, His Excellency Muhammadu
Buhari, to restructure the security architecture in the country without further
delay.
” We applaud our President for ensuring huge budgetary
allocation to the military and security sectors, thereby demonstrating his
interest in securing lives and property.
“We, however, regret that our Security Chiefs have not
shown commensurate commitment in tackling these security challenges, owing to
what we see as lethargy and spent ideas.
“Accordingly, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to
sack the Service Chiefs without further delay, and appoint younger senior
officers that will bring fresh perspectives and ideas to bear in addressing the
deteriorating security situation in the North in particular, and the country in
general.”
Recall that the Sultan of Sokoto had at last
Thursday’s meeting of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), expressed
grave concern over the precarious security situation in the North, saying the
region was now the worst place to live.
Reflecting on the activities of bandits in the North
West, the Sultan said: “people leave foodstuff in their houses for bandits.”
While calling for urgent action through actionable
engagement, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria said: “Security
situation in Northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation”, regretting
that no strong media platform could report the story to the world.
The monarch had said: “Few weeks ago, over 76 persons
were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there alongside the
governor to commiserate with the affected community.
“Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the
media because it’s in the North. We have accepted the fact that North me
doesn’t have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits.
“People think the North is safe but that assumption is
not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country. Because bandits
go around in the villages, households and markets with their AK 47 rifles and
nobody is challenging them.
“They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect
change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts I know because I
am at the centre of it. I am not only a traditional ruler; I am also a
religious leader.
“So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can
speak for the North in this regard because I am fully aware of the security
challenges there. We have to sincerely and seriously find solutions to the problem;
otherwise, we will find ourselves soon, in a situation where we would lose
sleep because of insecurity.
“As religious leaders, we must promote peace, love,
unity and tolerance among our followers. We will discuss all these issues at
the close door session of the meeting and possibly come out with strong
suggestions for government,” the Sultan noted.
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/294208/boko-haram-attack-northern-elders-demand-removal-of-se.html
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Southeast Asia
Stop pressuring Muhyiddin over DPM’s post, Ahmad Zahid
tells Umno members
29 Nov 2020
by Ahmad Zamzahuri
BAGAN DATUK, Nov 29 — Umno president Datuk Seri Dr
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has asked the party’s leaders and members not to pressure
Muhyiddin Yassin to reinstate the deputy prime minister’s post and give it to
Umno.
Ahmad Zahid said appointments as deputy prime
minister, minister and deputy minister are the absolute prerogative of the
prime minister.
“As such, there should not be any open speculation,
interpretation or analysis on the post of deputy prime minister although it
must be admitted that this matter has been discussed at party meetings. The
appointment is the prerogative of the prime minister.
“Any parties can request but let’s not pressure
because we have to respect the power accorded to the prime minister,” Ahmad
Zahid, who is Bagan Datuk Member of Parliament (MP), said after joining local
residents for breakfast at Warung Kopi Atan Deris at the Hutan Melintang jetty
here today.
Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, in
an exclusive interview with a local Malay daily, said the issue of Umno asking
for the deputy prime minister post would be raised after the debate on Budget
2021 in the Dewan Rakyat has been completed.
Ismail Sabri said apart from the senior minister post
held by him, Umno had not been given other senior portfolios despite having the
largest bloc of MPs in the Perikatan Nasional government.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/11/29/stop-pressuring-muhyiddin-over-dpms-post-ahmad-zahid-tells-umno-members/1927159
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Dr Mahathir rallies Malaysians amid report of 266
suicides nationwide during MCO
BY KEERTAN AYAMANY
29 Nov 2020
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 — Former prime minister Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad today called on Malaysians to not despair and come together to
face the burdens that have materialised as a result of the movement control
order (MCO).
Through a video published on his Twitter page, the
senior politician responded to recent reports citing police statistics that 266
Malaysians took their own life from the months of March to October this year,
during the various phases of MCO.
“I believe we will be able to overcome this challenge
because God does not test us if we cannot endure it.
“Rest assured, there is light at the end of the
tunnel,” he said.
He said that when faced with seemingly insurmountable
challenges, there will always be those who begin to lose all hope.
“It is true that the pain is felt more acutely by
those who shoulder the burden than those who are observing from afar.
“Insyallah, we will overcome these trials and
tribulations together,” he added.
On November 18, Malay daily Kosmo! quoted Bukit Aman
Management Department director Datuk Ramli Din as saying 25 per cent of the
suicide cases during the MCO were caused by debt, followed by 24 per cent due
to family problems, and 23 per cent due to marital woes.
A further 15 per cent were reportedly due to
relationship breakups, while work pressure, psychological problems and drugs
were among the reasons cited for the remaining 13 per cent of cases.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/11/29/dr-mahathir-rallies-malaysians-amid-report-of-266-suicides-nationwide-durin/1927176
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Ex-Mardi researcher slashed to death trying to deter
home invasion in Bangsar
29 Nov 2020
by Ahmad Zamzahuri
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 — A former researcher of the
Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) was slashed
to death by two burglars who broke into his house in Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar
here early today.
Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief
SAC Nik Ros Azhan Nik Ab Hamid said Dr Wan Hassan Wan Embong, 71, was believed
to have been slashed with a parang when he tried to put up a fight against the
burglars, who broke in through the kitchen window of the double-storey
bungalow.
Wan Hassan, who suffered injuries to the face and
neck, was believed to have died at the scene, he told Bernama when contacted.
His wife, a 70-year-old government pensioner, had
slash wounds on the right hand, he said.
Nik Ros Azhan said there was a blackout and the couple
were alone at home when the incident happened at 3.30am.
Nik Ros Azhan said the couple's daughter called the
police after her mother informed her of the incident.
“Efforts to track down the suspects are continuing,
including by viewing the CCTV recordings of neighbouring houses because the
victims’ house did not have a closed-circuit camera,” he added.
Nik Ros Azhan said the suspects fled with a wallet and
laptop computer, among other things, but the actual value of belongings taken
by the burglars has yet to be established.
The body of Wan Hassan was taken to the Universiti
Malaya Medical Centre, where his wife was treated.
He said the case was being investigated under Section
302 of the Penal Code for murder.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/11/29/ex-mardi-researcher-slashed-to-death-trying-to-deter-home-invasion-in-bangs/1927148
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