Muslim State Reserves Right to Declare ‘Wajib-ul-Qatl’: Imam-e-Kaaba
New Age Islam News Bureau
29
Oct 2017
Photo: Raqqa: Syrian women escort bride Heba (centre) as they participate in celebrations during the first wedding after the ouster of the militant Islamic State group from the city.—AFP
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• Mixed Dancing At First Raqqa Wedding since IS
• Sufism Preaches the Message of Love, Peace: PTI Leader
• US Senators for Listing Pak as 'Country of Particular Concern' Over Religious Intolerance
• Taliban Attack Kills 13 Police in Northeast: Afghan Official
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Arab World
• Muslim State Reserves Right to Declare ‘Wajib-ul-Qatl’: Imam-e-Kaaba
• Mixed Dancing At First Raqqa Wedding since IS
• For Economic Reforms, Saudi Prince Needs ‘Moderate Islam’
• 75 Islamic State militants killed in Iraq in 72 hours
• Infighting Erupts among SDF Fighters over Distribution of Civilians' Possessions in Raqqa
• Eleven Militant Groups Intend to Join Peace with Syrian Gov't
• Iran: Inspection of Military Sites' Case Closed Forever
• Spokesman: S. Arabia Poisoning Yemen's Water by Biological Weapons
• Syrian Special Forces Dispatched to Borders with Jordan, Iraq to Hunt Terrorists
• More Terrorist Commanders Assassinated by Unknown Assailants in Southern Syria
• Hashd Al-Shaabi: US Should Account for Any Possible Threat to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis
• SDF besiege Islamic State militants in northern Deir Ezzor
• Islamic State members flee western Anbar toward Syria
• Iraq Sees ‘Progress’ In Talks on Kurdish Peshmerga Pullback
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Pakistan
• Sufism Preaches the Message of Love, Peace: PTI Leader
• Man in Rahim Yar Khan Handed Life Imprisonment for Committing Blasphemy
• Kunar’s Deputy Governor Abducted In Peshawar
• Maryam’s ‘leadership boast’ jolts embattled PML-N
• Law allowing Sharif to head PML-N challenged by SCBA
• Imran promises to reform FBR, NAB after coming to power
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North America
• US Senators for Listing Pak as 'Country of Particular Concern' Over Religious Intolerance
• British Islamic State Terrorist Begs to Return to UK and Face Justice
• Wrongly Held after 9|11, Canada Pays 3 Men $25m
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South Asia
• Taliban Attack Kills 13 Police in Northeast: Afghan Official
• South Asian Muslim Conference For Global Peace Kicks Off
• 8 killed, wounded in latest Taliban and ISIS clash in Nangarhar
• Two 'militants' killed in clash with tribal militia near Pak-Afghan border
• Bangladesh arrests three Islamist militants
• Rohingya hacks to death Bangladeshi amid rising tensions
• Durand Line closure to leave villagers starving, warns Pak official
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Europe
• UK: Furious Muslims Plan Boycott after Ban on Non-Stunned Halal Meat in Schools
• UK Muslim Lifestyle Expo 2017 attracts thousands
• Anti-Muslim Threat Found In Kent High-School Bathroom
• Putin, Erdogan discuss situation in Syria over phone: Kremlin
• 'Jihadi Jack' British Muslim convert charged with being a member of ISIS
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Africa
• Islamist Attack on Hotel in Somali Capital Kills 25 - Police
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Mideast
• Iran Will Continue To Produce Missiles, Says Rouhani
• Hamas Blames Israel for Assassination Attempt on Terror Commander Despite Threats from Islamic State
• Qatar's emir warns against military action in Gulf dispute
• Turkey arrests alleged Islamic State members ahead of holiday: Report
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Southeast Asia
• Myanmar Harvests Abandoned Rohingya Fields, Raising Fears for Return
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India
• Pakistan Man Tweets to Sushma Swaraj, Can Visit Mother in Noida Hospital
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Australia
• Australia's anti-Muslim One Nation party could make big gains in Queensland snap election
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-state-reserves-right-declare/d/113058
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Muslim State Reserves Right To Declare ‘Wajib-ul-Qatl’: Imam-e-Kaaba
ISLAMABAD: Imam-e-Kaaba Shaikh Saleh bin Muhammad Ibrahim has stated that only the Muslim state reserves the right to call for a person’s death and declare him ‘wajib-ul-qatl’.
Non-state actors cannot declare anyone infidel or apostate, stated Imam-e-Kaaba in an interview with local media outlet after he arrived in Pakistan last week.
On Wednesday, while addressing a Cabinet session, the Imam-e-Ka’aba underscored piety, sincerity and performance as vital ingredients for attaining prosperity and development.
He said that those countries in the world had been in a state of instability which failed to keep unity and harmony among their ranks. He stressed upon further strengthening of the unity and taking decisions in the larger interests of the country, irrespective of personal leanings.
Dr Salih, during a visit to Pakistan in April, had stated that state must take strong action against individuals who wrongly accuse others of blasphemy.
He said that Islam is a religion of peace, forgiveness, and tolerance and Muslims must deliver the message of Islam in a peaceful way.
pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/10/29/muslim-state-reserves-right-to-declare-wajib-ul-qatl-imam-e-kaaba/
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Mixed dancing at first Raqqa wedding since IS
October 29, 2017
RAQQA: At a house in Syria’s Raqqa, women and men danced together in celebration at a wedding that would have been unimaginable just months ago, when the militant Islamic State group ruled the city.
Residents said that Ahmad and Heba’s wedding, held on Friday in Raqqa’s western neighbourhood of Jazra, was the first in the city since US-backed forces seized it on Oct 17.
The dancers hopped and swayed to-and-fro as children ran around. Elders looked on approvingly from seats and benches on the edge of the makeshift dance floor.
Almost everything in the scene would have been impossible during the three years of brutal IS rule.
The group banned music and dancing, imposed a strict dress code, prevented women from wearing make-up, and forcefully prohibited the mixing of men and women.
But in Jazra, music mingled with the sound of generators providing the only electricity in the ravaged district, which like much of the city was heavily damaged during more than four months of fighting.
Jazra was one of the first districts of Raqqa to be captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that broke into the city in June.
The groom’s family, unlike many others who fled Raqqa during the fighting, were able to return to their neighbourhood and celebrate.
"We’re very happy, it’s the first wedding since the jihadists left,” Ahmed’s father Uthman Ibrahim said as he received guests.
“Before IS, there was dabke, songs and the traditional rituals of the region at our marriages, but IS banned everything, there was not a single celebration,” the man in his fifties said.
dawn.com/news/1366957/mixed-dancing-at-first-raqqa-wedding-since-is
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Sufism Preaches the Message of Love, Peace: PTI Leader
October 29, 2017
MULTAN: PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is also the custodian of the shrine Sufi saint BahauddinZakariya, said Sufism delivered a message of brotherhood and peace and their teachings were still relevant today as they were centuries ago.
He expressed these views while addressing the concluding ceremony of 778th Urs of BahauddinZakariya on Saturday.
Addressing the devotees at the last session of the Urs, Qureshi said Sufi saints delivered a message of love and peace.
“They spread brotherhood and harmony through their teachings. Their teachings are still relevant even today as they were centuries ago,” he said.
Qureshi also shed light on the role of saints in spreading the message of Islam which he said was a religion of peace, tolerance, love, harmony and brotherhood.
“Religious scholars, intellectuals and organisations should also work collectively to help eradicate terrorism.
Sufi shrines are the centres of education where importance of love and humanity is taught. The custodian of the shrine also praised the efforts of religious scholar Siddique Khan Qadri who has been organising the event for the last four decades.
Qureshi said he would also play his role for the betterment of society, adding he would visit Sindh very soon to spread the message of the saints.
Later, Shah Mehmood Qureshi offered a special dua for peace, progress and prosperity of Pakistan. Meanwhile, foolproof security arrangements were made by the district administration on the occasion while camps were set up by the Auqaf department and Pakistan Railways to facilitate the devotees who came to Multan from across the country.
tribune.com.pk/story/1544004/1-sufism-preaches-message-love-peace-qureshi/
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US Senators for listing Pak as 'country of particular concern' over religious intolerance
PTI | Updated: Oct 28, 2017
WASHINGTON: Six influential US Senators have urged secretary of state Rex Tillerson to designate Pakistan as a "country of particular concern" on the issue of religious freedom violation, saying its discriminatory laws continue to result in prosecution of individuals due to their faith.
Senators Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio, Chris Coons, Todd Young, Jeff Merkley and James Lankford wrote a letter to Tillerson ahead of the November 13 deadline before which the State Department needs to notify Congress on its country of particular concern (CPC) designations.
In the letter to Tillerson, who has just concluded a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the bipartisan group of Senators said that they believe "the State Department should designate Pakistan as a CPC as long recommended by US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"The government of Pakistan continues to perpetrate and tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations. Discriminatory constitutional provisions and laws, including the country's blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya measures continue to result in the unjust prosecution and imprisonment of individuals due to their faith," the Senators said in their letter to Tillerson.
"At least 40 people are currently sentenced to death or are serving life sentences for blasphemy. Religious minority communities, including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and Shia Muslims also experience religiously motivated and sectarian violence perpetrated by terrorist organisations and societal elements with relative impunity," said the letter.
Additionally, provincial textbooks with discriminatory content against minorities remain a significant concern, the Senators said in the letter dated October 27.
The Frank R Wolf International Religious Freedom Act requires the president to make CPC designations no later than 90 days after the release of the annual report and that Congress be notified no later than 90 days after these designations about the parties responsible for the violations prompting the designations, the actions the US government has taken in response, and the effectiveness of these actions.
"We therefore expect to receive CPC designations by November 13, 2017, and the notification of the responsible parties, actions taken, and the effectiveness of these actions by February 11, 2018.
"We believe promoting freedom of religion and belief is a moral imperative and encourages peace, stability and economic vibrancy. We look forward to working with you to help ensure this precious freedom has a central role in US foreign policy," the Senators added.
The Senators also sought the CPC designation of Myanmar over the issue of Rohingyas.
Tillerson has urged the Myanmar army to help the government end violence in the northern Rakhine state where unrest has forced over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/us-senators-for-listing-pak-as-country-of-particular-concern-over-religious-intolerance/articleshow/61292008.cms
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Taliban attack kills 13 police in northeast: Afghan official
AP | Oct 29, 2017
KABUL: An Afghan official says the Taliban have killed 13 police in an attack on a checkpoint in the northeasternKunar province bordering Pakistan.
HayatullahAmeri, chief of the Khan Abad district, near where the attack took place, says the insurgents stormed the checkpoint earlier Sunday. He says only one policeman escape the battle alive.
Taliban spokesman ZabihullahMujahid claimed the attack.
Afghan forces have struggled to combat a resurgent Taliban since US and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, switching to a counterterrorism and support role.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/afghan-official-taliban-attack-kills-13-police-in-northeast/articleshow/61319289.cms
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Arab World
Muslim State Reserves Right To Declare ‘Wajib-ul-Qatl’: Imam-e-Kaaba
ISLAMABAD: Imam-e-Kaaba Shaikh Saleh bin Muhammad Ibrahim has stated that only the Muslim state reserves the right to call for a person’s death and declare him ‘wajib-ul-qatl’.
Non-state actors cannot declare anyone infidel or apostate, stated Imam-e-Kaaba in an interview with local media outlet after he arrived in Pakistan last week.
On Wednesday, while addressing a Cabinet session, the Imam-e-Ka’aba underscored piety, sincerity and performance as vital ingredients for attaining prosperity and development.
He said that those countries in the world had been in a state of instability which failed to keep unity and harmony among their ranks. He stressed upon further strengthening of the unity and taking decisions in the larger interests of the country, irrespective of personal leanings.
Dr Salih, during a visit to Pakistan in April, had stated that state must take strong action against individuals who wrongly accuse others of blasphemy.
He said that Islam is a religion of peace, forgiveness, and tolerance and Muslims must deliver the message of Islam in a peaceful way.
pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/10/29/muslim-state-reserves-right-to-declare-wajib-ul-qatl-imam-e-kaaba/
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Mixed dancing at first Raqqa wedding since IS
October 29, 2017
RAQQA: At a house in Syria’s Raqqa, women and men danced together in celebration at a wedding that would have been unimaginable just months ago, when the militant Islamic State group ruled the city.
Residents said that Ahmad and Heba’s wedding, held on Friday in Raqqa’s western neighbourhood of Jazra, was the first in the city since US-backed forces seized it on Oct 17.
The dancers hopped and swayed to-and-fro as children ran around. Elders looked on approvingly from seats and benches on the edge of the makeshift dance floor.
Almost everything in the scene would have been impossible during the three years of brutal IS rule.
The group banned music and dancing, imposed a strict dress code, prevented women from wearing make-up, and forcefully prohibited the mixing of men and women.
But in Jazra, music mingled with the sound of generators providing the only electricity in the ravaged district, which like much of the city was heavily damaged during more than four months of fighting.
Jazra was one of the first districts of Raqqa to be captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that broke into the city in June.
The groom’s family, unlike many others who fled Raqqa during the fighting, were able to return to their neighbourhood and celebrate.
"We’re very happy, it’s the first wedding since the jihadists left,” Ahmed’s father Uthman Ibrahim said as he received guests.
“Before IS, there was dabke, songs and the traditional rituals of the region at our marriages, but IS banned everything, there was not a single celebration,” the man in his fifties said.
dawn.com/news/1366957/mixed-dancing-at-first-raqqa-wedding-since-is
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For Economic Reforms, Saudi Prince Needs ‘Moderate Islam’
October 29, 2017 2:46 AM
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The man who may soon be king of Saudi Arabia is charting a new, more modern course for a country so conservative that for decades there were no concerts or film screenings and women who attempted to drive were arrested.
Since catapulting to power with the support of his father, the king, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pushed changes that could usher in a new era for one of the United States’ most important allies and swing the kingdom away from decades of ultraconservative dogma and restrictions. He’s introduced musical concerts and movies again and is seen as the force behind the king’s decision to grant women the right to drive as of next year.
Prince Mohammed’s agenda is upending the ruling Al Saud’s longstanding alliance with the kingdom’s clerical establishment in favor of synchronizing with a more cosmopolitan, global capitalism that appeals to international investors and maybe even non-Muslim tourists.
Vision 2030
The prince grabbed headlines in recent days by vowing a return to “moderate Islam.” He also suggested that his father’s generation had steered the country down a problematic path and that it was time to “get rid of it.”
In his sweeping “Vision 2030” plan to wean Saudi Arabia off of its near total dependence on petrodollars, Prince Mohammed laid out a vision for “a tolerant country with Islam as its constitution and moderation as its method.”
Prince Mohammed, or MBS as he is widely known, used a rare public appearance on stage at a major investor conference in the capital, Riyadh, this week to drive home that message to a global audience.
“We only want to go back to what we were: Moderate Islam that is open to the world, open to all religions,” he said in the ornate grand hall of the Ritz-Carlton. “We will not waste 30 years of our lives in dealing with extremist ideas. We will destroy them today.”
Iran and Wahhabism
His remarks were met with applause and a front-page article in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. In expanded remarks to the paper, the 32-year-old prince said that successive Saudi monarchs “didn’t know how to deal with” Iran’s 1979 revolution that brought to power a clerical Shiite leadership still in place today.
That same year Saudi rulers weathered a stunning blow: Sunni extremists laid siege to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca for 15 days. The attack was carried out by militants opposed to social openings taking place at the time, seeing them as Western and un-Islamic.
The ruling Al Saud responded to the events of 1979 by empowering the state’s ultraconservatives. To hedge the international appeal of Iran’s Shiite revolution, the government backed efforts to export the kingdom’s foundational Wahhabi ideology abroad. This ultraconservative interpretation of Islam has guided life in Saudi Arabia since its foundation 85 years ago.
Indeed, Sunni extremists have used the intolerant views propagated by the ideology known as Wahhabism to justify violence against others.
To appease a sizeable conservative segment of the population at home, cinemas were shuttered, women were banned from appearing on state television and the religious police were emboldened.
Needed: jobs
Much is now changing under the crown prince as he consolidates greater powers and prepares to inherit the throne.
There are plans to build a Six Flags theme park and a semi-autonomous Red Sea tourist destination where the strict rules on women’s dress will likely not apply. Females have greater access to sports, the powers of the once-feared religious police have been curtailed and restrictions on gender segregation are being eased.
Unlike previous Saudi monarchs, such as King Abdullah who backed gradual and cautious openings, Prince Mohammed is moving quickly.
More than half of Saudi Arabia’s 20 million citizens are younger than 25, meaning millions of young Saudis will be entering the workforce in the coming decade. The government is urgently trying to create more jobs and ward off the kinds of grievances that sparked uprisings in other Arab countries where unemployment is rampant and citizens have little say in government.
Reforms, but only so far
The prince has to find solutions now for the problems he is set to inherit as monarch.
“What MBS is doing is a must requirement for any kind of economic reform. Economic reform requires a new Protestant ethic if you will, a new brand of Islam,” said MaamounFandy, director of the London Global Strategy Institute.
This new Saudi version of “moderate Islam” can be understood as one that is amenable to economic reforms; it does not close shops at prayer time or banish women from public life, Fandy said.
In other words, Saudi Arabia’s economic reforms require social reforms to succeed.
Buzz words like “reform,” “transparency” and “accountability” — all used by the prince in his promotion of Vision 2030 — do not, however, mean that Saudi Arabia is moving toward greater liberalism, democracy, pluralism or freedom of speech.
The government does not grant licenses to non-Muslim houses of worship, and limits those of its Shiite Muslim citizens.
Critics detained
The prince has also made no mention of human rights concerns. If anything, dozens of the prince’s perceived critics have been detained in a warning to others who dare to speak out.
Some of those arrested were seen as critics of his foreign policies, which include severing ties with Qatar, increasing tensions with Iran and overseeing airstrikes in Yemen that have killed scores of civilians and drawn sharp condemnation from rights groups and some in Washington.
Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed faces a Saudi public that remains religiously conservative. That means he still needs public support from the state’s top clerics in order to position his reforms as Islamic and religiously permissible.
These clerics, many of whom had spoken out in the past against women working and driving, appear unwilling or unable to publicly criticize the moves. In this absolute monarchy, the king holds final say on most matters and the public has shown it is welcoming the changes.
voanews.com/a/analysis-economic-reforms-saudi-prince-moderate-islam/4090797.html
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75 Islamic State militants killed in Iraq in 72 hours
29 Oct 2017
BAGHDAD: Seventy-five Daesh militants were killed during operations in Al-Anbar, in the last 72 hours, according to Brigadier-General YahyaRasul.
Spokesman for the Iraqi army’s Joint Operations Command (JOC), YahyaRasul, said that the joint forces of Iraqi army and Hashd al-Shaabi fighters killed 75 terrorists in Al-Qaim district, which was Daesh’s last stronghold in the western city of Anbar, since the beginning of the operation on Thursday.
That day, the Iraqi prime minister’s office announced that the army had launched fresh operations aimed at capturing Anbar’s Daesh-held border towns of Al-Qaim and Rawa.
Iraqi forces took control of a wide area including near villages and essential institutions, according to Rasul.
Earlier, Iraqi Defense Ministry’s Military Information Department also announced that the Iraqi army and Hashd al-Shaabi fighters liberated five villages, Al-khorbridge and Al-Qaim train station in the west of Anbar.
Also, Iraqi war planes hit eight positions which were under control of Daesh, in Al-Qaim and Rawa, leaving many militants dead, as well as an explosives depot and arms depot destroyed.
After overrunning vast territories in both Iraq and Syria in 2014, Daesh recently suffered a string of major defeats at the hands of the Iraqi army and a U.S.-led coalition.
In August, the terrorist group lost Tal Afar in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. One month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed "caliphate" -- fell to the Iraqi army following a nine-month campaign.
thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/29/10/2017/75-Islamic-State-militants-killed-in-Iraq-in-72-hours
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Infighting Erupts among SDF Fighters over Distribution of Civilians' Possessions in Raqqa
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) engaged in fierce clashes over distributing people's properties in the newly-captured Raqqa city in Northeastern Syria, militant-affiliated websites reported on Saturday.
The websites said that two groups of the SDF clashed with each other fiercely in Tal Alizstreet in the Central part of Raqqa city after disagreements and disputes erupted among them over distribution of stolen properties and possessions of the people.
The SDF fighters opened fire at each other in the Raqqa streets, the websites added.
There is no report on the possible number of casualties in the clashes.
Earlier this month the SDF drove ISIL out of more regions in the Northeastern Raqqa city, imposing full control over the city.
The sources said that the SDF hunted the remaining pockets of ISIL gunmen and seized full control over Raqqa city.
They added that the SDF further started defusing bombs and landmines planted by the ISIL in the city.
Spokesman for the SDF Talal Salou said that the military operation in Raqqa ended, but the SDF forces would continue their cleansing operation to hunt the ISIL gunmen that were hidden in the region and to defuse bombs and landmines in the city.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806000907
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Eleven Militant Groups Intend to Join Peace with Syrian Gov't
TEHRAN (FNA)- Commanders of eleven militant groups in Eastern Qalamoun region in Damascus province are about to attend peace talks with the Syrian government on Sunday to end battle with the Syrian Army troops, a Russian media outlet reported.
The Arabic-language website of RT reported that leaders of eleven militant groups in Eastern Qalamoun have agreed to hold a meeting with Damascus official on Sunday to study the terms of a peace agreement after they negotiated with Russian military men in Humeimim peace center and the mediatory role of regional elites.
The Arabic RT reported that the militant groups with almost 2,000 gunmen are from five large towns in Qalamoun, adding that the gunmen would join the Syrian Army's back up forces after indorsing the peace agreement and receiving government amnesty.
The representative of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said that the militants' different pretexts and new demands in the peace process have been the cause of delay in holding final talks between the militants and the government.
The center added that Damascus has called for direct talks with militant groups' representatives to review the gunmen's amnesty application and to clean the towns from arms and military equipment.
Relevant reports said on Thursday that hundreds of tribal forces in DeirEzzur joined the Syrian army to help liberate ISIL's key base near the border with Iraq.
Media activists reported that over 500 forces from al-Bu Saraya tribe in DeirEzzur united with the army soldiers.
They also added that they were preparing to take part in the army operation to take back control of the strategic city of Albu Kamal at the border with Iraq from the ISIL terrorists.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806000698
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Iran: Inspection of Military Sites' Case Closed Forever
TEHRAN (FNA)- Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi underlined that the issue with the inspection of his country's military sites ended forever after Tehran permitted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Parchin in 2015.
"When there is no nuclear activity in a place, there is no reason to go there. They (the westerners) launched baseless propaganda in the international media in the past few years that certain activities were being carried out in Parchin site and finally, we were forced to end this issue once and forever and it happened and the case was closed and the IAEA's Board of Governors also confirmed it," Kamalvandi said on Saturday.
Noting that inspection of military sites has been stated neither in the 2015 nuclear deal nor the Additional Protocol to the NPT and the IAEA safeguards agreement, he said that the UN nuclear watchdog can merely demand for access to the centers in which nuclear activities are being conducted.
In relevant remarks in August, Iranian Government Spokesman Mohammad BaqerNobakht dismissed the US demand for inspection of Iran's military centers, stressing that these centers are secret and not open to everyone.
"Iran's military facilities are secret and not everyone can access them. They (the Americans) are just speaking their wishes and we defend our national interests," Nobakht told reporters in Tehran.
He also referred to the remarks by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley who demanded the IAEA to visit Iran's military sites, and said her comments are not worthy of listening or receiving attention.
Also in August, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said his country will not bow to the US demand and pressure on the IAEA to visit Iran's military sites.
"We don’t allow others to step into banned zones based on the nuclear deal, and the Agency's inspection will be certainly carried out within the framework of our internal policies," Qassemi said in reaction to Haley's demand from the IAEA to visit Iran's military sites.
We will not surrender to certain governments' excessive demands," he underscored.
Qassemi also expressed confidence that given its independence and responsibility to defend its international position, the IAEA is not likely to accept other countries' illogical and unrealistic demands.
The IAEA is tasked with monitoring Iranian compliance with the deal, a basically technical matter that falls within the agency’s area of expertise. The IAEA has consistently verified that Iran is in compliance since the deal started being implemented in January 2016.
The US is a party to the nuclear deal, which was negotiated under former US president Barack Obama. But the administration of US President Donald Trump, which took over in January this year, has been opposed to the accord and is believed to be looking for a way to potentially withdraw from it.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806001517
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Spokesman: S. Arabia Poisoning Yemen's Water by Biological Weapons
TEHRAN (FNA)- Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General SharafQalebLuqman dismissed speculations that contagious diseases like cholera are the result of sanctions and lack of hygiene in his country, and said Saudi Arabia is using biological weapons to spread such diseases among people.
"Poisonous gases were spread in the sky after the US, Saudi and Israeli fighter jets' direct airstrikes and they came down to the ground with the rain and penetrated and contaminated our underground waters," Luqman said on Saturday.
He added that after the latest airstrike using the banned gases, symptoms of cholera were seen in the Yemeni children.
"Therefore, it was a biological war as Saudi Arabia has already used all types of banned weapons against us," Luqman said.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 15,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has drove the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia's deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.
The cholera outbreak in Yemen which began in April, has also claimed 2,100 lives and has infected 700,000, as the nation has been suffering from what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as the “largest epidemic in the world” amid a non-stop bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia. Also Riyadh's deadly campaign prevented the patients from traveling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.
According to reports, the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which is the subject of a Saudi Arabian war and total embargo, is the largest recorded in modern history.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806001378
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Syrian Special Forces Dispatched to Borders with Jordan, Iraq to Hunt Terrorists
TEHRAN (FNA)- A large number of the Syrian Army Special Forces have been sent to the Southeastern part of the country to kick off a fresh phase of the operation in al-Sham Badiyeh (desert) to purge the borders with Jordan and Iraq of terrorists, military sources confirmed on Saturday.
The sources said that a large number of navies have left their bases in the coastal province of Lattakia for Southeastern Syria to launch fresh operation against the terrorist in al-Sham Badiyeh and later march toward the al-Tanf base that is under the occupation of the US forces and their allies near the Iraqi province of Anbar.
Well-informed sources reported earlier this month that the army troops pushed terrorists back from more than 8,000 sq/km of territories in Southeastern Damascus near the border with Jordan.
The army men engaged in fierce clashes with the remaining pockets of terrorists in Southeastern Damascus and seized control over several heights and hills.
The army men are now in control of all the hills and heights near the border with Jordan and purged terrorists from a large region covering 8,000 sq/km area in Southeastern Damascus after their recent advances in the region.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806001072
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More Terrorist Commanders Assassinated by Unknown Assailants in Southern Syria
TEHRAN (FNA)- Two senior commanders of the terrorist groups affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were killed in two assassination attempts in the Southern province of Dara'a, militant-affiliated websites disclosed on Saturday.
The websites reported that Ehsan AwazHawshan, one of the commanders of the FSA-affiliated Shabab al-Shona, was killed in a bomb blast in the town of Seida in Dara'a province.
In the meantime, Nasar al-Za'abi, a commander of Jeish al-Thora, was killed by unknown attackers' gun fire in the town of al-Yadoudeh in Dara'a province.
News websites reported earlier this month that FarouqQazal, the commander of Brigade 15 of Special Forces affiliated to Ferqat al-Qadesiyeh of the FSA, was killed when a bomb detonated in Dara'a al-Balad region in Dara'a city, adding that another militant was also wounded.
According to the websites, Qazal was defusing a bomb which was planted in front of the house of one of Ahrar al-Sham commanders named Abu Jamal Abu Nabovat when it was detonated.
Also, based on reports, infighting between the ISIL and FSA militants in Western Dara'a killed 10 ISIL militants, including two of its commanders namely Abu Mohammad Abedin and Abdollah al-Safouri.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806001243
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Hashd Al-Shaabi: US Should Account for Any Possible Threat to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis
TEHRAN (FNA)- Spokesman of Hashd al-Shaabi (Iraqi popular forces) Ahmad al-Assadi warned that the US enlistment of Hashd al-Shaabi deputy chief commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as a terrorist is a direct threat to his life and Washington should account for it.
"We take Washington responsible for any possible aggression and attack against Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis," al-Assadi told the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel on Saturday.
He also called on the Iraqi foreign ministry to show reaction to the US threat against Hashd al-Shaabi's deputy chief commander.
His remarks came after US State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert called al-Muhandis as "a terrorist".
In response, Iraq’s foreign ministry declared the Hashd al-Shaabi an “inseparable” part of the national forces, and rejected the United States’ labeling its deputy commander a terrorist.
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), under the deputy command of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, are a legal Iraqi force that has fought bravely against terrorism in Iraq, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday.
As such, the ministry rejected US comments describing al-Muhandis as a terrorist, and called on the US State Department to review their position, particularly in light of American support for the Iraqi forces.
en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960806000803
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SDF besiege Islamic State militants in northern DeirEzzor
Oct 28, 2017
DeirEzzor (Syria News) The Syrian Democratic Forces militia has carried out, on Saturday, an extensive offensive on the Islamic State group, in the northern countryside of DeirEzzor Province, Qasioun News reported.
The Syrian Democratic Forces managed to capture Namlya Village on the banks of the Khabour River, in northern DeirEzzor, after clashes with the Islamic State militants resulting in the killing of 9 ISIS fighters.
Furthermore, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) besieged the Islamic State militans near Khabour River, in northern DeirEzzor, one week ago, after crossing the river and seizing both al-Omar and al-Tanak Oil Fields, northeast of DeirEzzor.
It is noteworthy that the Syrian Democratic Forces militia was able to advance and recapture large areas of land, in northeasternDeirEzzor, backed by the US-Led coalition warplanes, within an offensive, codenamed al-Jazeera Storm that was launched last September.
iraqinews.com/arab-world-news/sdf-besiege-islamic-state-militants-northern-deir-ezzor/
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Islamic State members flee western Anbar toward Syria
Oct 29, 2017
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have fled from western Anbar to Syria, as security troops resume advancing, a security source said.
“IS militants left their guns and fled toward al-BuKamal in Syria after many leaders ran away and were killed in airstrikes by the Iraqi and U.S.-Coalition jets againsts their locations within liberations offensives in Qaim,” the source told AlSumaria News.
“The militant group urged its militants, using speakers of the mosques in Qaim, not to run away, and that whoever escapes would be considered as traitor, who breached the allegiance, and would be strictly penalized,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
In related news, the Joint Operations Command airdropped more than one million leaflets urging IS militants to turn in themselves.
A statement by the War Media Cell said, “the messages included instructions to civilians and threats to IS; either to surrender or die.”
The Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced on Thursday the launch of operations to liberate Qaim and Rawa towns.
Hundreds of thousands of messages were airdropped on Wednesday on the two towns informing civilians that security troops are coming to free them and urging them to stay away from the enemy.
Both towns have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it occupied one third of Iraq to proclaim a self-styled Islamic “Caliphate”.
iraqinews.com/iraq-war/islamic-state-members-flee-western-anbar-toward-syria/
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Iraq sees ‘progress’ in talks on Kurdish peshmerga pullback
October 29, 2017
BAGHDAD: Iraqi and Kurdish commanders made “progress” in talks on Saturday on Kurdish fighters withdrawing from disputed areas, Iraq’s chief of staff said hours before a truce in clashes over a key border post was due to expire.
But General Othman al-Ghanimi told reporters after the talks in central Nineveh province that there are “sticking points” that still need to be resolved.
“We have reached an agreement on some points,” he said, adding that the Iraqi side is still waiting to hear from the Kurds on a number of other issues. “There has been progress but the definitive solution is in the hands of the other (Kurdish) delegation. They must return to Kurdistan for consultation and give us their answer,” Ghanimi said. “We will remain in touch by phone,” he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday night ordered a 24-hour ceasefire in clashes between federal forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
The two sides had faced off since Thursday as Iraqi forces sought to capture the vital oil export point of Fishkhabur on the border with Turkey. Both armed and trained by the US in the fight against the militant Islamic State (IS) group, they had exchanged heavy artillery fire in the latest flare-up of a crisis sparked by a Kurdish independence vote on Sept 25.
Abadi’s spokesman earlier Saturday told AFP that a “joint technical committee” comprising Iraqi and Kurdish delegates was meeting to find a solution to the stand-off at the border post.
“The main task of this joint technical committee is to allow the deployment without violence of federal forces along the borders,” Saad al-Hadithi said. “Commanders of the federal forces and of the peshmerga are meeting to allow for this redeployment in a peaceful and humane fashion,” he said.
The aim of the talks was to negotiate the return to a 2003 “blue line” restricting autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to the three northern provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, said Hadithi.
dawn.com/news/1366982/iraq-sees-progress-in-talks-on-kurdish-peshmerga-pullback
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Pakistan
Sufism Preaches the Message of Love, Peace: PTI Leader
October 29, 2017
MULTAN: PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is also the custodian of the shrine Sufi saint BahauddinZakariya, said Sufism delivered a message of brotherhood and peace and their teachings were still relevant today as they were centuries ago.
He expressed these views while addressing the concluding ceremony of 778th Urs of BahauddinZakariya on Saturday.
Addressing the devotees at the last session of the Urs, Qureshi said Sufi saints delivered a message of love and peace.
“They spread brotherhood and harmony through their teachings. Their teachings are still relevant even today as they were centuries ago,” he said.
Qureshi also shed light on the role of saints in spreading the message of Islam which he said was a religion of peace, tolerance, love, harmony and brotherhood.
“Religious scholars, intellectuals and organisations should also work collectively to help eradicate terrorism.
Sufi shrines are the centres of education where importance of love and humanity is taught. The custodian of the shrine also praised the efforts of religious scholar Siddique Khan Qadri who has been organising the event for the last four decades.
Qureshi said he would also play his role for the betterment of society, adding he would visit Sindh very soon to spread the message of the saints.
Later, Shah Mehmood Qureshi offered a special dua for peace, progress and prosperity of Pakistan. Meanwhile, foolproof security arrangements were made by the district administration on the occasion while camps were set up by the Auqaf department and Pakistan Railways to facilitate the devotees who came to Multan from across the country.
tribune.com.pk/story/1544004/1-sufism-preaches-message-love-peace-qureshi/
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Man in Rahim Yar Khan handed life imprisonment for committing blasphemy
October 29, 2017
The additional district and sessions court in Rahim Yar Khan sentenced a man to life imprisonment on the charges of committing blasphemy, Dawn reported on Saturday.
The court also ordered the convict to submit Rs100,000 fine.
In his verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge Khursheed Ahmed Anjum ruled that the convict had committed blasphemy on the social media.
A spokesperson for the District Police Officer (DPO), Umar Saleem, told Dawn that a complaint was registered against Bhait in July last year for reportedly posting blasphemous content on social media.
A first information report based on the complaint was lodged after some time.
According to the DPO spokesperson, the convict was held in district jail for 90 days due to security reasons on the orders of district administration. The initial hearings of the "sensitive" case were also held in jail.
Earlier this month, a district and sessions court sentenced three men to death in Sheikhupura on charges of committing blasphemy.
The court had also fined them Rs200,000 each, but if they are unable to pay the fine, they would have to undergo six months of rigorous punishment.
In his verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge MianJavedAkram ruled that the three members of the Ahmadi community of Bhoaywal village had committed blasphemy by displaying a poster and banners at their place of worship in a manner that was offending.
Riaz Hussain, a shopkeeper, had filed a complaint against the three men at the Sharqpur police station.
In June, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had sentenced a man to death for sharing blasphemous content about Islam on social media, a government prosecutor said.
ATC Judge Shabir Ahmed announced the sentence for the 30-year-old accused in Bahawalpur, according to Shafiq Qureshi.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reflected that the court ordered the convict to submit Rs1 million fine. However, the convict had been ordered to submit Rs100,000 in fine. The earlier version also identified the name of the accused as Bhati. In fact, the name of the accused is Bhait. The errors are regretted.
dawn.com/news/1366904/man-in-rahim-yar-khan-handed-life-imprisonment-for-committing-blasphemy
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Kunar’s deputy governor abducted in Peshawar
October 29, 2017
PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: The deputy governor of Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Qazi Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi, was kidnapped from Peshawar’s Dabgari area on Friday, officials said.
Mr Ahmadi is a leader of GulbuddinHekmatyar’sHizb-i-Islami which signed a peace deal with the Afghan government in September last year.
The local law enforcement agencies did not know about Mr Ahmadi’s visit until his abduction was reported by his relatives and the Afghan consulate in Peshawar took up the matter with Pakistani authorities.
Law enforcement agencies were not aware of Afghan official’s visit; abduction may be linked to internal Hizb-i-Islami rivalry
No group has claimed responsibility for his kidnapping. However, it is being speculated that the incident could be linked to a political rivalry or an operation against the militant Islamic State group taking place in the Afghan province where Mr Ahmadi is serving as the deputy governor.
A senior police official told Dawn that the deputy governor’s brother Habibullah had approached the police and told them that Mr Ahmadi had come to Peshawar for treatment of his kidney ailment.
The official said that the deputy governor did not possess a passport or other documents to validate his arrival in Peshawar. He had visited different parts of Peshawar, including ShahiMehmanKhana and Qinchi Chowk, before some unidentified people took him away in a car from the Dabgari area within the jurisdiction of the East police station to some undisclosed location.
The police official said that the complainant, Habibullah, had switched off his mobile phone and was not in contact to help investigate the matter. He said the Foreign Office and the Afghan consulate had not contacted the police so far in this regard.
“We are investigating the case to get any clue through closed-circuit television cameras at the Torkham border and other sources regarding the whereabouts of the deputy governor, who had not followed the legal procedure for coming to Peshawar,” the official said.
However, the officials at the East police station denied having any information about the deputy governor. “We have no information in this regard,” said an official at the police station.
The arrival of the deputy governor and his subsequent abduction raised questions about the alertness of the law enforcement agencies about the movement of Afghans, a security analyst said.
Hizb-i-Islami is internally facing a rift after Mr Hekmatyar’s decision to sign the peace deal with the Afghan government and his return to Kabul. Several key leaders of Hizb have since gone missing or have been killed including one in Peshawar in May this year. The Hizb man killed in Peshawar — Haji Farid — was a personal aide to Mr Hekmatyar and his son’s father-in-law.
Therefore, security analysts believe Mr Ahmadi’s abduction could also be a result of the political rivalry.
But at the same time they do not discount the possibility of involvement of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in his kidnapping.
Kunar is also home to IS and TTP hideouts and a security operation against IS militants is under way in the deputy governor’s province in which several of its senior cadres have been killed. Therefore, some fear that the TTP, which is allied with the IS and forms its core fighting force, could have been involved in the kidnapping.
Last year, former governor of Afghanistan’s Herat province was also kidnapped from Pakistani capital Islamabad; he was later recovered by police from Mardan district.
dawn.com/news/1367010/kunars-deputy-governor-abducted-in-peshawar
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Maryam’s ‘leadership boast’ jolts embattled PML-N
October 29, 2017
ISLAMABAD/NEW YORK: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which is already reeling from rumours of a split in the wake of the ouster of Nawaz Sharif, was thrown another curveball on Saturday after the daughter of the former prime minister hinted that she might be given a leadership role in the party.
Although Maryam Nawaz Sharif — who celebrated her 44th birthday on Saturday — told the New York Times in a recent interview that there were people who thought she was “meant for a certain role”, she denied ever saying that her family had decided that she should take the reins of the party.
“The statement that ‘the family decided that I should be leading the party’ is wrongly ascribed to me. There never has been any such decision. Nawaz Sharif is and Insha’Allah will be leading PML-N. I am not even an aspirant. Am happy to be working as [a party] worker,” she tweeted on Saturday.
Ex-PM’s daughter disputes NYT quote; leaders say too early to say whether she or Hamza will lead the party
Although both she and senior party leaders deny the impression that the PML-N is a “divided house”, insiders admit there are ‘differences of opinion’ within the party, especially over the leadership vacuum created in the wake of the former prime minister’s ouster.
The impression is strengthened by reports of a rivalry between Ms Sharif and her cousin, Hamza Shahbaz, which is said to have been quelled only after the Punjab chief minister mediated between the two at a recent meeting.
In the NYT interview, Ms Sharif only had praise for her uncle and supported his chances of becoming the next prime minister. “He’s the most competent person. He’s my hero. I love him to death,” NYT quoted her as saying about Shahbaz Sharif.
Local PML-N leader and former MNA Shakil Awan, who defeated Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in the 2010 by-elections, endorsed Ms Sharif’s view, saying that there was no split in the party. However, he maintained that if Nawaz Sharif left office, it was his younger brother Shahbaz who deserved to take his place.
The whole party, he said, had complete confidence in Nawaz Sharif’s leadership. “There is no question about who will become party chief while Nawaz Sharif is still around,” he said.
However, Mr Awan admitted that there were concerns in the party, based mainly on the cases instituted against the Sharif family.
“The whole party is disturbed over why only one family is being targeted in the name of accountability, while those who openly committed corruption and became billionaires within in few years were still free to do anything,” he said.
The whole party believed that while Shahbaz Sharif and even former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan could have differences of opinion with Nawaz, but they all firmly backed the elder Sharif as their leader.
Nisar and his erstwhile cabinet colleague Riaz Hussain Pirzada have recently gone public with their own opinions about who should succeed the elder Sharif; the former doubting Maryam’s credentials and the latter suggesting that Shahbaz Sharif take over from his brother.
Cabinet minister and senior party leader Mushahidullah Khan, however, saw a political conspiracy behind such reports. The opposition, especially the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, he said, wanted to gain political mileage by propagating the narrative that there were rifts within the Sharif family.
“Nawaz Sharif is our party president and his decisions are unquestioningly accepted by party leaders and workers,” he said.
When asked about the possibility of Maryam or Hamza playing a leadership role in the party, he said that all such speculation was purely hypothetical while Nawaz Sharif was still there.
But, if such a decision was to be taken, it would also be made by Nawaz Sharif, he concluded.
Another PML-N leader, Rana Afzal, said that both Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz had different kinds of political experience, but it was not yet time to consider them to lead the party.
dawn.com/news/1367008/maryams-leadership-boast-jolts-embattled-pml-n
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Law allowing Sharif to head PML-N challenged by SCBA
October 29, 2017
LAHORE: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has challenged before the Lahore High Court a provision of the Elections Act, 2017, that paved the way for ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif to become chief of his Pakistan Muslim League party despite his disqualification in the Panama Papers case.
“The disqualification recorded by a court of law under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution cannot be overtaken by sub-constitutional law,” SCBA secretary Aftab Ahmad Bajwa argues in his petition filed through Advocate Azhar Siddique and also questions the election of Mr Sharif as president of the PML-N for being unconstitutional.
He says if a person cannot become a parliamentarian due to the operation of constitutional law, he surely cannot become head or office-bearer of a political party.
Mr Bajwa argues that it is a settled principle of law “what cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly”. He states that the election of Mr Sharif as president of the PML-N is a complete mockery of justice and fair play and against all canons of law.
He submits that parliament lacks unlimited and unfettered powers through a ruling party to bypass the doctrine of basic structure and other constitutional interpretations. He argues that all the laws relating to elections cannot be articulated through a single legislation.
The SCBA secretary pleads that a provision in a democratic form of government cannot lay down unlimited rights in view of Article 17, whereby it was clearly mentioned that every person has a right to form a political party subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law, such right cannot be already granted taken away by repealing Political Parties Order, 2002.
He says no provision can be made with aim and object to favour the one political party and all the opposition parties have shown their reservations regarding deletion of the conditions of disqualification and such legislation can’t be made operative through any procedure of law.
The lawyer also challenges Section 232 of the impugned Act, which provides that a disqualification shall not exceed more than five years.
The petitioner asks the court to declare that Nawaz Sharif having been disqualified by the Supreme Court under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution cannot be elected as the party head or office-bearer of the PML-N. He also asks the court to declare Sections 203 and 232 of the Election Act, 2017 to be completely without jurisdiction, unconstitutional, mala fide, void ab initio and of no legal effect.
dawn.com/news/1367009/law-allowing-sharif-to-head-pml-n-challenged-by-scba
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Imran promises to reform FBR, NAB after coming to power
October 29, 2017
MIANWALI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said that if his party came to power after next general elections his government will reduce poverty in the country by creating job opportunities and increasing wages of labourers.
He was addressing a rally here on Saturday.
Mr Khan said the PTI would change the culture of tax collection and accountability in the country by introducing reforms in the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Both the FBR and NAB needed major overhauling to work efficiently, he said and promised that his party would make the former able to bring all tax evaders under the tax net and the latter able to arrest all corrupt people in the country.
The PTI chief said whenever attempts were made to increase revenues those who already paid taxes were burned further by imposition of new taxes and no sincere efforts were made to bring more people under the tax net.
Mr Khan vowed to bring improvements in the country’s agriculture sector so that farmers could get right price of their yields.
The PTI chief criticised the performance of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s government, saying that both former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had given nothing to people except hollow promises. Development projects the two brothers talked about were seen only in government-funded advertisements, he said, claiming that the reality was contrary to it.
He accused the Sharif brothers of being involved in massive corruption and said the elder had been disqualified by the Supreme Court and the younger would soon be sacked on corruption charges.
He accused the Punjab chief minister of politicising the police force in the province. He said after coming to power the PTI would bring reforms in the police like its provincial government had done in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The KP government, he said, had introduced reforms also in the health and education sectors.
He appreciated the KP government for initiating a programme under which billions of trees were being planted in the province. He hoped that the programme would play an important role in reducing the pollution and minimising the impact of climate change.
Mr Khan said the people of Mianwali were the first to support him when he started his political career. It was the support of the people of this city which had made the PTI one of the biggest parties of the country. “The young people of Mianwali had expressed confidence in me when I launched the campaign for a corruption-free Pakistan,” he added.
Other PTI leaders also addressed the rally.
dawn.com/news/1367012/imran-promises-to-reform-fbr-nab-after-coming-to-power
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North America
US Senators for listing Pak as 'country of particular concern' over religious intolerance
PTI | Updated: Oct 28, 2017
WASHINGTON: Six influential US Senators have urged secretary of state Rex Tillerson to designate Pakistan as a "country of particular concern" on the issue of religious freedom violation, saying its discriminatory laws continue to result in prosecution of individuals due to their faith.
Senators Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio, Chris Coons, Todd Young, Jeff Merkley and James Lankford wrote a letter to Tillerson ahead of the November 13 deadline before which the State Department needs to notify Congress on its country of particular concern (CPC) designations.
In the letter to Tillerson, who has just concluded a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the bipartisan group of Senators said that they believe "the State Department should designate Pakistan as a CPC as long recommended by US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"The government of Pakistan continues to perpetrate and tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations. Discriminatory constitutional provisions and laws, including the country's blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya measures continue to result in the unjust prosecution and imprisonment of individuals due to their faith," the Senators said in their letter to Tillerson.
"At least 40 people are currently sentenced to death or are serving life sentences for blasphemy. Religious minority communities, including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and Shia Muslims also experience religiously motivated and sectarian violence perpetrated by terrorist organisations and societal elements with relative impunity," said the letter.
Additionally, provincial textbooks with discriminatory content against minorities remain a significant concern, the Senators said in the letter dated October 27.
The Frank R Wolf International Religious Freedom Act requires the president to make CPC designations no later than 90 days after the release of the annual report and that Congress be notified no later than 90 days after these designations about the parties responsible for the violations prompting the designations, the actions the US government has taken in response, and the effectiveness of these actions.
"We therefore expect to receive CPC designations by November 13, 2017, and the notification of the responsible parties, actions taken, and the effectiveness of these actions by February 11, 2018.
"We believe promoting freedom of religion and belief is a moral imperative and encourages peace, stability and economic vibrancy. We look forward to working with you to help ensure this precious freedom has a central role in US foreign policy," the Senators added.
The Senators also sought the CPC designation of Myanmar over the issue of Rohingyas.
Tillerson has urged the Myanmar army to help the government end violence in the northern Rakhine state where unrest has forced over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/us-senators-for-listing-pak-as-country-of-particular-concern-over-religious-intolerance/articleshow/61292008.cms
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British Islamic State Terrorist Begs to Return to UK and Face Justice
29 Oct 20175
A young terrorist who travelled to Syria to fight for Islamic State wants to return to the UK and face justice, it has been reported.
Shabazz Suleman, 21, disappeared on a family holiday in Turkey three years ago and was in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terror state, until its recent capture.
The former grammar school pupil from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, told The Times he has become disillusioned with jihadism and chose to desert the terrorist group.
Via encrypted messages he claimed he went through “intense” indoctrination by the group, adding: “I never thought I was being brainwashed until I saw the way they treat other Sunnis.”
The terrorist, who is now thought to be in the hands of a Turkish militia, reportedly admits undergoing weapons training and carrying out guard duties, but denies taking part in killings.
His father, Afzal Suleman, 46, claimed that he knew “for a fact” that his son had become a civilian and had not been on the battlefield for two years.
“At the end of the day if he has committed a crime he should go to court. We just want him home,” he said.
Shabazz Suleman (right) with a fellow jihadist (Credit: Facebook)
Around half of the estimated 850 Britons believed to have gone to join the extremists are already thought to be back in the UK.
Last week, Max Hill, QC, the government’s watchdog on terrorism laws, said that teenagers who had “travelled [to join Isis] out of a sense of naivety, possibly with some brainwashing along the way” might not be prosecuted.
He claimed authorities “should be looking towards reintegration and moving away from any notion that we’re going to lose a generation thanks to this travel”.
Meanwhile, government minister Rory Stewart said the only way to deal with British Islamic State fighters in Syria is to kill them “in almost every case”.
“These are people who have essentially moved away from any kind of allegiance towards the British government,” he told BBC radio.
“They are absolutely dedicated, as members of the Islamic State, towards the creation of a caliphate, they believe in an extremely hateful doctrine which involves killing themselves, killing others and trying to use violence and brutality to create an eighth century, or seventh century, state.
“So I’m afraid we have to be serious about the fact these people are a serious danger to us, and unfortunately the only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them.”
breitbart.com/london/2017/10/29/british-islamic-state-terrorist-begs-return-uk-face-justice/
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Wrongly held after 9|11, Canada pays 3 men $25m
AFP | Oct 29, 2017
OTTAWA: Canada settled a lawsuit with three citizens who were wrongly accused of terror links and tortured in Syria and Egypt for Can$31.5 million (US$24.6 million), local media said on Thursday. Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Elmaati and MuayyedNureddin had been arrested and tortured just after the 9/11 attacks.
Released in 2004 without charges, they returned to Canada, proclaimed their innocence and sued the govern ment for Can$100 million over its role in their detention. A 2008 independent inquiry led by retired Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci concluded that Canada's spy agency and federal police force had been "indirectly" responsible for the three men's mistreatment.
Canada's CBC news network last year obtained exclusive documents showing that Canadian officials had fed Syrian officials questions they asked the men who were detai ned and tortured.
Almost a decade after the independent inquiry , the government formally apologised to the trio in March "for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to their detention and mistreatment abroad and any resulting harm". But officials did not divulge the amount of a settlement reached at the time.
On Thursday, Scott Bardsley, spokesman for public safety minister Ralph Goodale, said: " A settlement with these three gentlemen who were seeking compensation was announced earlier this year". "However, I can't confirm the amount paid," he told AFP. The amount of the settlement was first reported by Montreal's Le Devoir newspaper. It was listed in a government public accounts document released earlier this month under "settlement of a claim for general damages" launched by three unnamed individuals.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/wrongly-held-after-911-canada-pays-3-men-25m/articleshow/61314481.cms
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South Asia
Taliban attack kills 13 police in northeast: Afghan official
AP | Oct 29, 2017
KABUL: An Afghan official says the Taliban have killed 13 police in an attack on a checkpoint in the northeasternKunar province bordering Pakistan.
HayatullahAmeri, chief of the Khan Abad district, near where the attack took place, says the insurgents stormed the checkpoint earlier Sunday. He says only one policeman escape the battle alive.
Taliban spokesman ZabihullahMujahid claimed the attack.
Afghan forces have struggled to combat a resurgent Taliban since US and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, switching to a counterterrorism and support role.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/afghan-official-taliban-attack-kills-13-police-in-northeast/articleshow/61319289.cms
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South Asian Muslim Conference for global peace kicks off
Published: October 29, 2017
NEPALGUNJ: Wishing for the global peace, the South Asian Muslim Religious Conference has kicked off in Nepalgunj today.
DauteIslami Nepal has organised the conference to serve the objective of enhancing fraternity, peace and security from religious front.
Jointly inaugurating the conference, Central chairperson of DauteIslami Haji Maulana Imran Attari and central member Abdullah Attari stressed that the global peace can be materialised only through human behaviour.
“Muslim leaders from eight SAARC countries including Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan are attending the conference to be wrapped up on October 30,” informed SaidrihanAttari, programme coordinator.
thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/south-asian-muslim-conference-for-global-peace-kicks-off/
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8 killed, wounded in latest Taliban and ISIS clash in Nangarhar
By KHAAMA PRESS - Sun Oct 29 2017
At least eight militants were killed or wounded during the latest infighting among the Taliban and ISIS militants in eastern Nangarhar province.
Accordign to the local officials, the latest clash broke out between the two sides in the early hours of Saturday morning in Khogyani district.
The officials further added that both sides suffered casualties during the clash with the ISIS suffering the most casualties.
The provincial government media office also confirmed the incident and said at least five ISIS militants were killed and three Taliban insurgents were wounded during the clash.
A statement by the provincial government said the incident took place at around 5 am local time Sprai area of the district.
The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the incident so far.
This comes as several militants were killed or wounded in a similar incident in Khogyani district of Nangarhar on 18th october.
According to the officials, two militants were killed from the ISIS side while three Taliban insurgents including one of their local leaders identified as Ismail who was also famous as Fawad were among those killed from the Taliban side.
The latest clashes take place despite the call by the Taliban group leader Mullah HebatullahAkhundzada to reach to an agreement for ceasefire, citing similarity of Jihadic efforts among the two groups.
khaama.com/8-killed-wounded-in-latest-taliban-and-isis-clash-in-nangarhar-03736
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Two 'militants' killed in clash with tribal militia near Pak-Afghan border
October 29, 2017
At least two suspected militants were killed in a clash with the Aman Lashkar, a pro-government tribal militia, near the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency on Sunday.
The clash began after the militants attacked a militia post in the Zakhakhel area in tehsil LadiKotal with heavy arms, according to security sources.
The sources said that no members of the Aman Lashkar were harmed in the attack, whereas two militants were killed in retaliatory firing.
Members of the militia recovered the bodies of the dead militants. Some of the attackers fled to Afghanistan, the sources added.
Security personnel remain vulnerable to attacks by militants in areas near the Pak-Afghan border.
Khyber Agency is one of the most sensitive of these areas. On Oct 3, a security official, Naib-subedarAzher Ali, lost his life in an alleged terrorist attack on the Pakistani post in Khyber Agency from across the Afghan border.
In September, 22-year-old lieutenant ArsalanAlam was martyred in a terrorist attack on a post in Rajgal valley.
The army recently concluded Operation Khyber IV in the Rajgal valley to effectively check and guard against" movement across the porous border in Khyber Agency.
dawn.com/news/1367045/two-militants-killed-in-clash-with-tribal-militia-near-pak-afghan-border
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Bangladesh eyes sterilisation to curb Rohingya population
October 29, 2017
PALONGKHALI: Bangladesh is planning to introduce voluntary sterilisation in its overcrowded Rohingya camps, where nearly a million refugees are fighting for space, after efforts to encourage birth control failed.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in August triggered an exodus, straining resources in the impoverished country.
The latest arrivals have joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled in earlier waves from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the stateless Muslim minority has endured decades of persecution.
Most live in desperate conditions with limited access to food, sanitation or health facilities and local officials fear a lack of family planning could stretch resources even further.
PintuKantiBhattacharjee, who heads the family planning service in the district of Cox’s Bazar where the camps are based, said there was little awareness of birth control among the Rohingya.
“The whole community has been deliberately left behind,” he told AFP, citing a lack of education in Myanmar, where the Rohingya are viewed as illegal immigrants and denied access to many services.
Bhattacharjee said large families were the norm in the camps, where some parents had up to 19 children and many Rohingya men have more than one wife.
District family planning authorities have launched a drive to provide contraception. They have asked the government to approve a plan to launch vasectomies for Rohingya men and tubectomies for women, Bhattacharjee told AFP. But they are likely to face an uphill struggle.
Many of the refugees told AFP they believed a large family would help them survive in the camps, where access to food and water remains a daily battle and children are often sent out to fetch and carry supplies.
Others had been told contraception was against the tenets of Islam.
Farhana Sultana, a family planning volunteer who works with Rohingya refugees in the camps, said many of the women she spoke to believed birth control was a sin.
“In Rakhine they did not go to family planning clinics, fearing the Myanmar authorities would give medicine that harms them or their children,” Sultana said.
Volunteers said they struggled to sell the benefits of birth control to Rohingya women, most of whom came to them for advice on pregnancy complications or help with newborns.
Sabura, a mother of seven, said her husband believed the couple could support a large family.
“My husband said we need more children as we have land and property (in Rakhine). We don’t have to worry to feed them,” she said.
dawn.com/news/1366959/bangladesh-eyes-sterilisation-to-curb-rohingya-population
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Rohingya hacks to death Bangladeshi amid rising tensions
PTI | Oct 28, 2017
COX'S BAZAR: A young Rohingya man hacked to death a Bangladeshi man on Saturday, police said, amid growing tensions in southeastern Bangladesh which has seen a massive influx of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in Myanmar in August triggered an exodus, straining resources in the impoverished country.
Police said the attack by the Rohingya man was linked to a family dispute. It is the latest of a string of crimes in the area which have alarmed local authorities.
"We've stepped up security after these incidents," deputy chief of Cox's Bazar district AfruzulHaqTutul told AFP.
The district's state prosecutor Mamtaz Ahmed told AFP that crime had recently increased in the area.
The UN has described Myanmar's crackdown on the Rohingya as "textbook" ethnic cleansing, and many of the refugees who arrive in Bangladesh bring horrific stories of brutalities including murders, rapes and arson.
This has prompted an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy in Muslim majority Bangladesh.
But Rohingya now outnumber Bangladeshis by two to one in the two main refugee towns of Teknaf and Ukhia in Cox's Bazar district, and local tensions are rising.
Locals complain that Rohingya are squeezing out poor Cox's Bazar villagers from the job market, especially in the booming construction sector and the fishing industry.
"The majority of the fishermen in our fishing trawlers are Rohingya. They are hard working and they can be employed at a low cost," Jashim Uddin, who owns a small fishing trawler, told AFP.
Others complained the influx of Rohingya had caused food prices and transport costs to spike.
"The vegetable prices are at a record high. But nobody seems to care or listen to our woes. They only care for the Rohingya," said Nazir Ahmed, a Bangladeshi resident of Ukhia.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/rohingya-hacks-to-death-bangladeshi-amid-rising-tensions/articleshow/61310380.cms
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Durand Line closure to leave villagers starving, warns Pak official
By KHAAMA PRESS - Sun Oct 29 2017
An official in the tribal regions of Pakistan has said the closure of the route along the Durand Line in Kurram Agency has left the villagers starving as he called on the authorities to take immediate actions to resolve the issue and reopen the crossing.
Trade union president Masaaib Hussain quoted by local media outlets said the villagers on the Pakistani side of the line are dependent mainly on trade activities.
He said the crossing was closed on 15th October in the aftermath of an explosion that left four Pakistani troops dead.
However, he said if the crossing remains further closed then the villagers would be threatened by the starvation.
The president of all transport association Rauf Hussain also expressed cocnerns regarding the closure of the crossing and urged the government to take immediate steps to reopen it.
He also called on the Afghan government to let the trade resume between the two countries and to give peace a chance.
This comes as the Pakistani authorities are saying that the fencing along the Durand Line will continue, claiming that the terrorist groups are using the Afghan soil to launch attacks on Pakistan.
However, the Afghan officials object the closure of the line, insisting that the issue of the Durand Line remains unresolved besides the closure of the line will divide the people residing on the two sides of the line.
khaama.com/durand-line-closure-to-leave-villagers-starving-warns-pak-official-03733
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Europe
UK: Furious Muslims Plan Boycott After Ban on Non-Stunned Halal Meat in Schools
by JACK MONTGOMERY29 Oct 201799
Islamic leaders are calling on Muslims to boycott school meals in the county of Lancashire, after it became the first local authority to refuse to supply non-stunned Halal meat to council-run establishments.
Some twenty-seven schools in the county, including Church of England and Roman Catholic faith schools, currently serve non-stunned Halal meat, reports The Telegraph.
“This is an animal welfare issue. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim, sadly some people are trying to make it out to be,” said council leader Geoff Driver, who previously revealed that non-Muslim children at Christian and secular schools were being fed Halal meat without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
“My concern that animals that are slaughtered without being pre-stunned go through a lot of stress and torment when they’re actually dying,” he added.
Breitbart London @BreitbartLondon
Christian Schools Are Feeding Pupils Halal Meat breitbart.com/london/2017/09/22/christian-schools-serve-pupils-halal-meat/ …
3:30 PM - Sep 23, 2017
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UK Muslim Lifestyle Expo 2017 attracts thousands
The latest lifestyle trends for the U.K.’s Muslims came to center stage in northern Manchester city Saturday with an annual event that aims to attract around 15,000 visitors.
Rauf Mirza, one of the organizers of Muslim Lifestyle Expo (MLE), said the event aims to “project British Muslim community a positive light”.
Speaking with Anadolu Agency, Mirza said they, as the MLE, “have tried for three years to project a more positive image about British Muslims by all moderate lifestyle aspects people enjoy”.
“We have businesses participating from all across the U.K.”
Mirza expressed satisfaction with the participants’ interest, adding that they have invited people from non-Muslim backgrounds as well to enjoy the richness of Islamic culture.
In the event, the Greater Manchester Police, Royal Air Force and Home Office opened their stands for recruitment; they also explained their project to community members.
In front of her artwork exhibited on white panels, artist RanaazShahid spoke about how she was inspired by Islam itself while creating beautiful calligraphy portraits.
“I used Islamic geometry patterns. I see a lot of non-Muslims in my trips. There are people who want to learn about our culture, our religion and where all these Islamic geometry started from,” Shadid said.
The event brought together many Muslim entrepreneurs and communities from across the country.
Police officer A. Sardar explained the purpose of a stand by Greater Manchester Police force at the event.
Sardar told Anadolu Agency there is “massive emphasis on police forces to become more diverse”.
Gaza in 3D
“We have 120 Muslim officers within the Greater Manchester Police force,” he said, adding that they want to see the numbers go up.
A charity stand gave people an opportunity to see the full-scale destruction and poor living conditions in the Palestinian city of Gaza through 3D virtual goggles.
Sara, one of the visitors at the expo, described the scene brought to her via latest technology used by Human Appeal.
She said she can see destroyed buildings and children with worn-out clothes in Gaza.
A group of physicians and health professionals from Muslim Doctors Association provided free health check to visitors.
Books by Muslim authors and non-Muslim writers on Islam were also on display for visitors.
War and Peace In Islam, a book by three authors, including Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and other books were distributed at one of the book stalls at the event.
People listened to a beautiful performance from a Birmingham-based Nasheed and Qasedah group, and they also enjoyed a fashion show with models displaying the latest Muslim women fashion houses too on the first day of the MLE2017.
The expo is offering a variety of themes and activities, including live cooking demonstrations and celebrity chefs and aiming to keep the kids happy with plenty of activities.
The U.K.’s first Muslim lifestyle event was first launched in 2015.
The two-day event will last until Sunday evening.
turkiyenewspaper.com/technology/10859.aspx
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Anti-Muslim threat found in Kent high-school bathroom
Originally published October 28, 2017
Threatening, anti-Muslim graffiti found in a girls bathroom at Kent-Meridian High School has some families on edge.
“All Muslims dead on 10/30,” read the graffiti, which also included swastikas and the hashtag “MAGA” — commonly used to refer to the Trump campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Kent police are investigating and don’t yet know whether the threat, found Tuesday, is real, said Cmdr. Jarod Kasner.
Regina Elmi of the regional Somali Parents Association said she’s heard from parents who are scared to send their children to school.
The high school put a note on the bathroom Tuesday telling students not to use it, according to Hawa Ali, an older sister of two students there. One student went in anyway and took photos of the graffiti. They quickly spread on social media.
Ali said her sister got a text about the graffiti in math class.
On Friday, Principal Wade Barringer sent a letter to families of the school’s roughly 2,500 students. “Currently, there are no specific threats directed at individual students,” Barringer wrote. “However, we will implement extensive security measures on October 30 to help us maintain a safe campus.”
District safety officers and Kent police will have an increased presence, Barringer said.
Some families say they should have been notified sooner.
District spokesman Chris Loftis said the district, which called police immediately and started its own investigation, wanted to communicate in a thoughtful way that balanced informing and alarming.
“Students were already alarmed,” Ali said. “They found out on their own.”
Reports of hate crimes are on the rise locally and nationally. Muslims, Jews, blacks and LGBTQ individuals have all been targets.
Ali, whose family immigrated from Somalia, said her sister was once taunted by a fellow student, associating her with the Islamic State group, ISIS.
seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/anti-muslim-threat-found-in-kent-high-school-bathroom/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news
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Putin, Erdogan discuss situation in Syria over phone: Kremlin
October 29, 2017
(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Syria in a phone call with Turkish counterpart RecepTayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said Saturday.
Russian News Agency TASS quoted the Kremlin press office as saying that Putin and Erdogan had affirmed the importance of intensifying efforts to consolidate the de-escalation areas in Syria, combat terrorism and to revive the political settlement of the crisis.
The Kremlin added that the two sides also exchanged views on cooperation between the two countries.
en.abna24.com/news/europe/putin-erdogan-discuss-situation-in-syria-over-phone-kremlin_863243.html
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'Jihadi Jack' British Muslim convert charged with being a member of ISIS
28 OCT 2017
Jack Letts was captured in Syria by Kurdish YPG troops fighting against Islamic terrorists in the region.
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A 21-year-old British man known as 'Jihadi Jack' has been charged with being a member of ISIS.
Jack Letts travelled to Syria in 2014 and was captured in May this year by Kurdish YPG troops operating in the region.
Letts converted to Islam when he was at school in Oxford. He travelled to Syria and is believed to now be married with a child.
His parents – John and Sally Letts – deny he travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS and have started a petition calling on the UK Government to intervene and help him.
He said: "What do I want? I suppose initially I want to get out of prison , because I’m currently still in prison with the YPG and, eventually, just continue my life.
"I have no idea what is going to happen to me now. It’s the future, no one knows except for Allah. I want to see my mum, and explain to her some things."
The Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS) – which runs a self-declared autonomous region in Syria – says Letts had joined ISIS and is a prisoner of war.
A statement said: “The Democratic Federation of Northern Syria's policy with regard to prisoners of war is clear and fair.
“Isis brought inexplicable levels of terror on the peoples of Northern Syria/Rojava.
“Despite this fact, the DFNS is not less committed than European countries to treating the fighters from this terror group according to international human rights standards.”
The DFNS say that once an investigation into Letts is concluded the outcome will be communicated to his parents.
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Africa
Islamist attack on hotel in Somali capital kills 25 - police
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - An Islamist attack on a hotel in the Somali capital ended on Sunday after 25 people had been killed in a near 12-hour siege, police said, underlining the insurgents’ ability to carry out deadly attacks in the heart of the city.
“The death toll rises to 25 people including police, hotel guards and residents. The death toll may rise. We suspect some other militants disguised themselves and escaped with the residents who were rescued,” police officer Major Mohamed Hussein told Reuters.
“Three militants were captured alive and two others blew up themselves after they were shot,” he added.
The attack began around at 5 p.m. on Saturday with a car bomb. Gunmen then stormed the building after the bomb had destroyed its defences. The siege ended on Sunday morning.
A Reuters witness saw seven bodies lying inside the hotel.
The explosion destroyed the front of the three-storey hotel and a next door hotel was also damaged. Many Somali officials live in fortified hotels because they offer better security from attack.
Islamist group al Shabaab claimed the attack on Saturday. They want to overthrow the weak, U.N.-backed government and impose a strict form of Islamic law.
in.reuters.com/article/somalia-violence/islamist-attack-on-hotel-in-somali-capital-kills-25-police-idINKBN1CY04D?rpc=401&
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Mideast
Iran will continue to produce missiles, says Rouhani
Reuters | Oct 29, 2017
US has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying its missile tests violate a UN resolution.
US says the resolution calls on Tehran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuke arms.
Iran denies seeking nuke arms and says it has no plans to build N-capable missiles.
President Hassan Rouhani. (Reuters)President Hassan Rouhani. (Reuters)
DUBAI: Iran will continue to produce missiles for its defence and does not consider that a violation of international accords, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday in a speech broadcast on state television.
Rouhani spoke days after the US House of Representatives voted for new sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile+ programme, part of an effort to clamp down on Tehran without immediately moving to undermine an international nuclear agreement .
"We have built, are building and will continue to build missiles, and this violates no international agreements," Rouhani said in a speech in parliament.
"We will produce any weapons of any kind that we need and stockpile it and use it at anytime to defend ourselves," Rouhani said.
The United States has already imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying its missile tests violate a UN resolution, which calls on Tehran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons+ and says it has no plans to build nuclear-capable missiles.
Rouhani also criticised the United States over President Donald Trump's refusal earlier this month to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the 2015 accord on Iran's nuclear programme, even though international inspectors say it is.
"You are disregarding past negotiations and agreements approved by the UN Security council and expect others to negotiate with you?" Rouhani said.
"Because of the behaviour it has adopted, America should forget any future talks and agreement with other countries," Rouhani added, referring to unnamed countries in East Asia, an apparent reference to North Korea.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday that he could not imagine the United States ever accepting a nuclear North Korea, and stressed during a week-long trip to Asia that diplomacy was America's preferred course.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/iran-will-continue-to-produce-missiles-says-rouhani/articleshow/61319452.cms
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Hamas Blames Israel for Assassination Attempt on Terror Commander Despite Threats from Islamic State
29 Oct 20171
Ynetnews reports: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israel for the assassination attempt that took place earlier Friday against the commander of Hamas’s internal security forces in Gaza, Tawfiq Abu Naim.
“Through these crimes, Israel is trying to dissuade Hamas from its ways and its adherence to the rights and struggle of the Palestinian people,” Haniyeh said while visiting Abu Naim at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Meanwhile, sources in the Gaza Strip contradicted Haniyeh, saying the main assessment in the strip is that the Islamic State is responsible for the attack.
breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/10/29/hamas-blames-israel-assassination-attempt-terror-commander-despite-threats-islamic-state/
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Qatar's emir warns against military action in Gulf dispute
AP | Updated: Oct 29, 2017
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Qatar's emir has warned against any military confrontation over the ongoing diplomatic dispute between his country and four other Arab nations, saying it would only plunge the region into chaos.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said US President Donald Trump has offered to host a meeting between Qatar and its opponents — Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — to end the crisis between the American allies.
Speaking to the American television network CBS's "60 Minutes" news program, Sheikh Tamim said so far, however, there's been no response from the boycotting nations.
"It was supposed to be very soon, this meeting," he said.
The threat of a military confrontation between the countries loomed in the initial days following the start of boycott on June 5. Arabic language media in the boycotting nations suggested the need for a "Peninsula Shield" operation, which is the military arm of the Gulf Cooperation Council, though government officials downplayed the idea at the time. Saudi and UAE forces attached to Peninsula Shield previously deployed into Bahrain to put down its 2011 Arab Spring protests.
When meeting in Washington with Trump in September, Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah said that mediation by the American president helped avoid any violence.
"Thank God, now, what is important is that we have stopped any military action," said Sheikh Sabah, who himself has been trying to mediate the dispute.
In the "60 Minutes" interview, which will air Sunday night in the U.S., Sheikh Tamim acknowledged the alleged military threat.
"I'm fearful that if anything happens, if any military act happens, this region will be in chaos," he said.
His comments drew immediate criticism early Sunday from Emirati Minister of State for International Affairs Anwar Gargash.
"To go to the Western media and attack Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at this point is desperate," Gargash wrote on Twitter. Qatar "should accept its isolation without sniveling and do what it must."
The four countries boycotting Qatar allege the natural gas-rich nation funds extremists, and are opposed to its support for Islamist opposition groups and ties to Iran, with which it shares a massive gas field. Doha long has denied funding extremists.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/qatars-emir-warns-against-military-action-in-gulf-dispute/articleshow/61318327.cms
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Turkey detains 61 people over suspected Islamic State links: Anadolu
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 61 people over suspected links to Islamic State in anti-terror operations in two cities, the state-run Anadolu Agency said on Sunday.
Counter-terrorism police raided houses in Bursa, a northwestern province of Turkey, and detained 39 people including 28 Syrian nationals and two Azerbaijani nationals, Anadolu said. Eight of the detained suspects were minors, it said.
Early in the morning, police also detained 22 people in the northeastern province of Erzurum as part of an investigation into terrorist organisations. The detained included suspected senior members of the organisation, Anadolu said.
Police confiscated several weapons, ammunition and documents during the operations at several addresses, Anadolu said.
in.reuters.com/article/turkey-security/turkey-detains-61-people-over-suspected-islamic-state-links-anadolu-idINKBN1CY0A2?rpc=401&
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Southeast Asia
Myanmar harvests abandoned Rohingya fields, raising fears for return
AFP | Oct 28, 2017
YANGON: Myanmar's government began harvesting rice from farmland abandoned by Rohingya in northern Rakhine on Saturday, officials said, a move likely to raise concerns about the prospect of return for more than half a million refugees who have fled communal violence in the area.
The border region has been emptied of most of its Muslim residents since late August, when Myanmar's military launched a crackdown on Rohingya rebels that the UN has described as "textbook" ethnic cleansing.
Hundreds of villages have been burned to the ground, with more than 600,000 Rohingya -- a stateless group in mainly Buddhist Myanmar -- fleeing across the border for sanctuary in Bangladesh.
Under intense global pressure, Myanmar has agreed to repatriate "scrutinised" refugees who can prove their residence in Rakhine.
But details of the plan remain sketchy, seeding concern about who will be allowed back, what they will return to and how they will live in a region where anti-Rohingya hatred remains sky-high.
On Saturday the government began harvesting 71,000 acres of rice paddy in Maungdaw -- the Rohingya-majority area hit hardest by the violence -- according to state media and a local official.
"We started harvesting today in Myo Thu Gyi village tract," Thein Wai, the head of Maungdaw's Agricultural Department, told AFP.
"We are going to harvest some paddy fields of Bengalis who fled to Bangladesh," he said, using a pejorative term for the Rohingya commonly used by officials and the Buddhist public.
The official said he did not know what government would do with the rice or its proceeds.
Workers were bused in from other parts of the country to assist with the harvest, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
Rights groups blasted the government's harvest as part of a systematic effort to expunge the Rohingya from Rakhine.
"Government officials leading the harvest are clearly more concerned about these fields of abandoned rice than they ever were about the Rohingya people who sowed it," said Human Rights Watch's Phil Robertson.
"This all reinforces a singular, local level Rakhine message to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh that what's yours is now mine, and you're not welcome back."
Fortify Rights said the harvest was an "outrageous" move by authorities who have a long history of land grabs, particularly in ethnic minority frontiers.
Myanmar has denied charges of ethnic cleansing and defended its military campaign as a counter offensive targeting Rohingya militants who attacked police posts in late August, killing at least a dozen.
But media, rights groups and the UN have documented consistent accounts from Rohingya refugees of atrocities at the hands of Myanmar security officers, who are accused of killing civilians, raping women and torching homes in the wake of the rebel raids.
On Friday UN rights experts said they were "deeply disturbed" after speaking to refugees in Bangladesh.
The accounts they heard "point to a consistent, methodical pattern of actions resulting in gross human rights violations affecting hundreds of thousands of people," said MarzukiDarusman, who chairs the fact-finding mission.
Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- who has no control over the powerful army -- recently created a committee to oversee resettlement in Rakhine, where tens of thousands of other minority groups were also internally displaced by the violence.
The construction of homes for minorities such as the Mro has begun, according to state media, while Suu Kyi's government has enticed business tycoons to donate to the rebuilding effort.
But fear abounds that the rehabilitation will sideline the Rohingya -- a group that has suffered under decades of state-backed discrimination and rising Islamophobia.
Myanmar refuses to recognise the Rohingya as a distinct minority, rendering the 1.1-million strong group stateless.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/myanmar-harvests-abandoned-rohingya-fields-raising-fears-for-return/articleshow/61300714.cms
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India
Pakistan man tweets to Sushma Swaraj, can visit mother in Noida hospital
ShikhaSalaria | TNN | Oct 29, 2017
NOIDA: A tweet to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had recently got a Pakistani woman a visa to travel to India for a liver transplant. Her son, who has been spending anxious days in Faisalabad, will get to meet her after he again tweeted to Swaraj for help, and the minister responded with an affirmative.
On October 26, Fahad Ijaz tagged the minister and wrote in a Twitter post, "For God's sake, please help me. My mother is admitted to Fortis Noida. She is unwell. Please give me visa." The tweet got a reply from the minister in less than eight hours. "You will get a visa to see your ailing mother," Sushma tweeted at 5.44 am on October 27.
Nearly two weeks earlier, his 54-year-old mother Farzana was granted a visa for a liver transplant at a private hospital in Noida. Fahad's father Ijaz, donor Mohammad Shahbaz and two attendants were also issued a visa after Fahad had first tweeted for help on October 14. All four are currently in Fortis Hospital.
As per procedure, a report from a local hospital in the country from where the patient belongs to is sent to the hospital in the country where the surgery is supposed to take place. If the surgery is to be conducted in India, the hospital in India has to send a report to the Indian high commission in the patient's country. The high commission conducts its own inquiry at the local level after which a visa is issued. Accordingly, Farzana, Ijaz and the attendants got visas.
But things got complicated for the family because Ijaz has health issues too. Fahad said his father is a cardiac patient. "He is not keeping well. There are many things to be done for a patient and I want to help him with the same," Fahad told TOI over the phone from Pakistan.
After the minister's promise for help, officials from Fortis got in touch with him the same day, Fahad said. "Dear Mr Ijaz, please provide your contact details and our representative will reach out to you at the earliest with regards to your mother's health," Fortis Healthcare wrote.
Since four people have already been granted visa, the hospital authorities are now in the process of completing the verification process for Fahad. A medical visa is usually granted to three or four people, including attendants. "Since the visa norms became tighter, we have to be cautious about the credentials of a visa applicant," said an official.
A spokesperson for Fortis told TOI that Farzana needs a transplant. "A committee of doctors will decide about the date and timing of the transplant," the spokesperson said.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pakistan-man-tweets-to-sushma-swaraj-can-visit-mother-in-noida-hospital/articleshow/61313521.cms
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Australia
Australia's anti-Muslim One Nation party could make big gains in Queensland snap election
SYDNEY (BLOOMBERG) - A snap election in Australia's Queensland is poised to show a surge in support for populists in the traditionally conservative state.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk asked the state's acting governor to dissolve Parliament on Sunday (Oct 29) before announcing a Nov 25 vote.
The election is likely to be tight, with the balance of power potentially going to Ms Pauline Hanson's anti-Muslim immigration party One Nation: its estimated 18 per cent support state-wide may be even higher among disaffected voters in regional areas.
Parts of resource-rich Queensland are still recovering from the end of a once-in-a-generation mining investment boom, with the state's unemployment level increasing to 5.9 per cent last month, the country's second-highest.
While 125,000 jobs have been created since Ms Palaszczuk formed a minority government in 2015, just 24,000 of them have been full-time.
"I'm calling this election to give business and industry in our great state the certainty they need as we approach 2018," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane. "I'm asking Queenslanders for their support so my government can continue the job that we have started together."
Ms Palaszczuk called the election after disendorsing one of her lawmakers on Friday, leaving both her ruling Labour Party and the opposition Liberal-National coalition with 41 seats each.
Either party needs 47 to govern in its own right. One Nation is fielding candidates in around 60 of the 93 seats up for grabs, and Ms Palaszczuk has previously ruled out governing with the party.
Ms Hanson came to Australia's Senate dressed in a burqa in August, before removed her head covering to demand the government ban the garment in public places, claiming it could be used to abet terrorism plots.
As well as banning Muslim migration to Australia, she wants to install closed-circuit cameras in mosques and hold a widespread public inquiry into Islam.
straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australias-anti-muslim-one-nation-party-could-make-big-gains-in-queensland-snap
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-state-reserves-right-declare/d/113058