Police Yet To Register Case Against Accused Of Tricking Schoolchildren Into Pledging To “Fight, Die Or Kill” For A Hindu Rashtra In Sonbhadra
New
Age Islam News Bureau
31
December 2021
Footage
shows the schoolchildren (faces blurred by this newspaper) taking the pledge to
“fight, die and kill” to create a Hindu Rashtra. The Telegraph
----
• First-Ever
Body Of Hindu Leaders To Take Care Of The Community’s Temples Across Pakistan
• Helping
Hindus And Others Is Part Of Islamic Ethics, Says Turkish Scholar
• Growing
Beard Is Only A Recommendation, Not Mandatory: Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan
• Egypt's
Azhar Grand Imam Congratulates Pope Tawadros, Vatican, All Christians Worldwide
On Christmas
India
• Indian
Muslims Got ‘Less Religious’ Since 2016, Shows CSDS Study. 44% Reported
Discrimination
• All
India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam, Related To Dargah Ala Hazrat, Proposes Muslim
Agenda Before Political Parties Ahead Of 2022 UP Assembly Polls
• Kashmiri
woman, married to Pak terrorist, tells how Hizbul treats family of dead
terrorists
• Muslim
Personal Law Board Launches ‘The Journal of Law and Religious Affairs’
• Building
Good Ties With Islamic Nations Is One Of PM Modi's Achievement: Captain G
Parthasarathy
• MP,
Chhattisgarh Govts Spar Over Arrest of Hindu Seer Kalicharan Who Commented on
Gandhi, Islam
• 3
terrorists, including one from JeM, killed in Srinagar encounter
--------
Pakistan
• Pak
cabinet OKs supplementary budget to win funds from IMF
• Ababeel
Squad, Set Up To Curb The Increasing Street Crimes, Members Living In Police
Lines Mosque
• 90%
terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan target CPEC projects: Pak
counter-terrorism dept
• Pak
Islamic scholar against court order to demolish Karachi mosque
• Four
killed in bomb attack on workers of JUI faction in Quetta
• PM
Imran feels Nawaz will return only after deal
• COAS
lauds services of medical community during pandemic
--------
Mideast
• 165
Jewish settlers defile Aqsa Mosque under police guard
• Gaza
military drills prove any aggression against Aqsa Mosque will cost Israel
dearly: PRC spokesman
• Tehran
launches rocket into space: Iran media
• Palestinian
journalists raise alarm about content suppression by Facebook
• Abbas
to Putin: Israeli-occupied West Bank poised for ‘explosion’
• Report:
Israel demolished 69 Palestinian homes in Silwan, issued 172 demolition orders
in 2021
• Islamic
Jihad: Palestinian resistance ready to face any Israeli aggression
• Iran
marks 12th anniversary of nationwide rallies held to support Islamic
establishment
• 11
Yemeni troops killed, 16 injured in Houthi strike
--------
South Asia
• Afghanistan
Ministry Of Vice And Virtue Has Ordered Their Forces Against Invading
"People's Privacy"
• Ex-Afghan
president says had no choice but to flee Kabul
• Taliban
to investigate torture of former security personnel
• Pakistan’s
first consignment of 1,800 tons of wheat arrives in Afghanistan
• 11
Years After Trying To Kill Each Other, Ex-Marine Meets Talib Again
--------
Arab World
• Raghad
Saddam Hussein remembers slain father 15 years on
• Iraqi
president convenes new parliament for January 9: Decree
• Guardian:
Assassins of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi living in luxury villas in
Riyadh
• Yemen
calls on UN Security Council to hold Saudi Arabia, its arms suppliers to
account for devastating war
• 1
injured in car bombing in northern Syria
• King
Salman says Iran’s destabilizing acts remain a ‘great concern’ for Saudi Arabia
--------
Europe
• 9
Serbs Indicted For Killing Over 100 Muslim Bosniaks In The 1992-95 War
• Muslim
Brotherhood found a new home in Europe
• Mental
Health No Longer Taboo In Muslim Communities, Say UK Specialists
• COVID-19
pandemic deepens online Islamophobia in Europe
• Ex-head
of UK armed forces admits nobody understood Afghanistan’s politics
• British
Muslim hikers receive overwhelming support in response to racist comments
• More
than 90 jailed terrorists could be freed early from British prisons
--------
North America
• Gabriel
Boric's Election Win In Chile 'Bad News For Israel': Report
• US
Says 'Remains Concerned’ Over Iran’s Scientific Progress Amid Sanctions
• Ghani
blames US deal with Taliban for fall of Afghanistan
• Turkish
presidential aide says 1st attempt made on joint mechanism between Turkey, US
--------
Southeast Asia
• Stricken
Boat With Over 100 Rohingya Muslims Allowed To Dock In Indonesia
• Guan
Eng: Vernacular School Ruling Enshrines Legitimate Rights Of Non-Malays In
Country’s Social Contract
• Will
Indonesia be the next Abraham Accord nation?
--------
Africa
• Atiku,
Others Mourn As Islamic Scholar Who Refused Dialogue With Boko Haram Dies
• Six
Nigerian, Niger troops killed by Islamic State, security forces say
• 3
killed as thousands protests in Sudan to demand 'civilian rule'
• Somali
military kills 9 al-Shabaab terrorists
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/police-schoolchildren-kill-hindu-rashtra/d/126074
--------
Police
Yet To Register Case Against Accused Of Tricking Schoolchildren Into Pledging
To “Fight, Die Or Kill” For A Hindu Rashtra In Sonbhadra
Footage
shows the schoolchildren (faces blurred by this newspaper) taking the pledge to
“fight, die and kill” to create a Hindu Rashtra. The Telegraph
----
Piyush
Srivastava
31.12.21
Uttar
Pradesh police have not yet registered a case against those accused of tricking
schoolchildren in Sonbhadra into pledging to “fight, die or kill” for a Hindu
Rashtra, with officers waiting for “instructions” from their superiors who have
been busy with “election-related” meetings.
In
neighbouring Uttarakhand — another BJP-ruled, poll-bound state — the police
registered a case almost a week after some speakers advocated a genocide of
Muslims at a December 17-19 sadhus’ conclave in Haridwar, and have issued
notices to a couple of accused.
However,
the FIR does not name convener Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati.
A
police officer from Sonbhadra said on Thursday that an inquiry had been conducted
into Tuesday's administration of the "fight, die and kill" oath to
children, but no case had been registered in the absence of a complaint.
"We
have traced the schoolchildren; we have also traced the Twitter handle from
which a video of the event was posted. But we can move forward only when
someone comes to have a case registered," the officer said, requesting
anonymity.
"Our
superiors had asked us to conduct the inquiry and we have informed them orally
about it. They are in an election-related meeting and will instruct us further
after a few days."
Jitendra
Singh, manager of the private school --- Vimla Inter College -- at Robertsganj
in Sonbhadra, had told The Telegraph on Wednesday that a crew claiming to be
from the Sudarshan News channel had asked to take the schoolchildren to a
nearby park to film a debate.
The
school had allowed it, having no idea that an oath to kill would be
administered to the Class XI and XII boys.
Suresh
Chavhanke, CMD and editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, had tweeted a video of
the event on Tuesday.
Jitendra,
who was at a Varanasi hospital in connection with a nephew's treatment, told
this newspaper over the phone on Thursday: "I am definitely going to take
this issue up once I'm back in Sonbhadra."
He
said the police had not contacted him yet.
Jitendra
added that "I personally belong to the RSS" and insisted the
organisation "does not preach violence" and was against those who
"want to push the country towards violence".
School
principal Shiv Narayan Lal said: "Many of the students who attended the
event (took the oath) at the Chacha Nehru Park are from families with links
with the RSS. But it doesn't mean they support criminal acts."
Chavhanke's
office had on Wednesday morning said he would respond within 48 hours if any
questions were posted to him on Twitter. He had not responded to this
newspaper's queries till Thursday evening.
A
video has been circulating since December 26 in which Narasinghanand, head of
the Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad, purportedly says in Hindi: "I consider
(Nathuram) Godseji as god. He is worth worshipping…. We are alive today because
of him. Godse didn't die for himself, he died for us…. Gandhi was a pile of
dirt…."
The
audio continues: "Gandhi was such a liar…. It was because of the betrayal
of Gandhi and (Jawaharlal) Nehru that while there are 800 crore (sic) people in
the Hindu community, we don't have even one inch of land to call our own. He
(Gandhi) is not worth (being revered as) Father of the Nation.”
Calls
to Narasinghanand's number remained unanswered.
Source:
Telegraph India
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
First-Ever
Body Of Hindu Leaders To Take Care Of The Community’s Temples Across Pakistan
File
photo of Hindu Shri Krishna Temple pictured in Pakistan | Photo Credit: AFP
----
December
30, 2021
The
government announced the setting up of the first-ever body of Hindu leaders to
take care of the community’s temples across the country.
The
Ministry of Religious Affairs constituted the Pakistan Hindu Mandir Management
Committee on the pattern of the already-functional Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Management
Committee.
According
to a statement, the inaugural meeting of the body was chaired by Minister for
Religious Affairs Noor ul-Haq Qadri. The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB)
chief briefed the meeting on the matters.
The
ETPB is a statutory board that manages religious properties and shrines of
Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated to India following the partition.
“The
committee will look after matters related to Hindu places of worship,” Qadri
said.
The
committee comprising Dewan Chand Chawla, Haroon Sarab Dayal, Mohandas, Naranjan
Kumar, Megha Arora, Amit Shadani, Ashok Kumar, Versi Mill Dewani and Amar Nath
Randhawa will be headed by Krishna Sharma.
“Pakistan
has created history by constituting the committee on the demand of the Hindu
community,” Sharma said.
Qadri
said that the problems of the minority population of Pakistan are being solved
on a priority basis and the formation of the committee will be instrumental in
resolving the issues of the Pakistani Hindu community.
The
minister went on to say that despite religious and cultural diversity,
tolerance and acceptance of each other is humanity, adding that evil elements
want confrontation in Pakistan on the basis of religion, sect and linguistics.
“The
new committee will act as a bridge between the non-Muslim population and the
State,” he said.
He
said that according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, efforts were
being made for the welfare of the non-Muslim population.
Hindus
form the biggest minority community in Pakistan. According to official
estimates, 7.5 million Hindus live in the country.
The
majority of the Hindu population is settled in Sindh where they share culture,
traditions and language with Muslim residents.
Source:
Pakistan Today
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/12/30/body-of-hindu-leaders-set-up-to-take-care-of-temples/
--------
Helping
Hindus And Others Is Part Of Islamic Ethics, Says Turkish Scholar
Sean
Augustin
A
group of International Islamic University Malaysia students helped clean up a
flood-hit Hindu temple in Klang.
-----
December
31, 2021
PETALING
JAYA: A celebrity preacher’s call for Muslims to refrain from cleaning up the
houses of worship of non-Muslims is wrong on two fronts, a prominent Turkish
scholar said, adding that such remarks are offensive.
Mustafa
Akyol said in today’s modern world Muslims are fellow citizens with people of
other faiths, or even those without any religious faith at all.
He
said the status of citizenship implies a civil contract based on mutual
respect, similar to the Constitution of Medina which was signed by the Prophet
Muhammad with Jews and the polytheists of Medina.
“In
Malaysia, Hindus are similarly fellow citizens, and Muslims should help them
when they are in need.
“This
would not be a violation of Islamic principles. Quite the contrary, it would be
a reflection of Islamic ethics,” said Akyol, a senior fellow on Islam and
modernity at the Cato Institute, a US-based libertarian think tank.
He
told FMT that while the Quran does include condemnation of “mushrikun”
(polytheists) in Arabia during the Prophet’s time, these group of people were
also oppressors who tortured the first Muslims in Mecca for merely saying, “Our
Lord is one”.
In
other words, the Quran’s condemnation is against a specific people — Meccan
polytheists who persecuted the first Muslims, he explained.
This
condemnation could not be extended to other non-Abrahamic faiths around the
world. “That is also why, in Islamic history, Hindus were accepted as ‘the
People of the Book,’ who, according to Islamic law, deserve religious freedom.”
Yesterday,
celebrity preacher Azhar Idrus was reported as saying that Muslims could clean
up mosques and surau, but not non-Muslims’ houses of worship that were affected
by the floods.
In a
Tiktok video, Azhar made reference to the story of Prophet Ibrahim, who
demolished idols in a temple in his town.
“So,
don’t interfere. It’s your own matter and your own religion. To idol
worshippers, we don’t want (to interfere),” he said, according to a report in
The Vibes.
“We
have our own religion. We can clean up mosques and surau, but we do not wash
idols. And through that, we can differentiate those who are faithful from those
who are impious.”
His
comments, which earned the ire of netizens, come in the wake of a video that
went viral on social media featuring a group of students from the International
Islamic University Malaysia cleaning a flood-hit Hindu temple in Klang.
Akyol
said he believed Muslims did no wrong by respecting Hindu temples and even
helping restore them, even though they do not believe in Hindu gods.
“But
we honour Hindus as fellow human beings, who, just like us, deserve sympathy
and respect,” he said.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Growing
Beard Is Only A Recommendation, Not Mandatory: Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan
Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan said that growing beard is just a recommendation to
people and that it is not mandatory/ Photo: Khaama Press
----
31
Dec 2021
Ministry
of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice of the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan said that growing beard is just a recommendation to people and that
it is not mandatory.
The
ministry in a Twitter post directed all the Taliban affiliates not to force
people to grow beards and that this is a personal choice.
It
comes after the ministry’s provincial offices’ directions over preventing
trimming and shaving beards in some provinces aroused national and
international reactions.
On
the other hand, the ministry in its recent directions directed drivers not to
seat two women in the front seat and totally avoid seating women who have not
observed Islamic hijab.
The
directions have also said that a woman cannot travel alone for more than 45
miles.
The
Ministry of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice that was replaced by the
ministry of women affairs is one of the strictest administrations of the
Taliban that deals with the attitude and physical appearance of people.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/growing-beard-is-only-a-recommendation-not-mandatory-taliban-5685687/
--------
Egypt's
Azhar Grand Imam Congratulates Pope Tawadros, Vatican, All Christians Worldwide
On Christmas
Egypt
s Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb
----
30
Dec 2021
"My
sincere congratulations to my friends; Pope Francis, Pope Tawadros, Archbishop
Justin Welby, Patriarch Bartholomew I as well as to all Christians around the
world on the occasion of Christmas," El-Tayyeb wrote in Arabic, English
and French on his social media accounts.
"I
pray that the Almighty continues to bless us with peace, love and fraternity,
while sparing, the world from hatred and war," the head of the world's
leading Sunni Muslim institution said.
In
recent years with the approach of Christians feasts, some hard-line Egyptian
Islamic clerics have argued that Muslims should not greet Christians, who make
up around 15 percent of Egypt’s 102 million population, on religious or social
occasions.
Scholars
of Al-Azhar in recent years have individually stated that greeting Christians
and non-Muslims on their celebrations is acceptable.
In
2019, the International Electronic Fatwa Centre of Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque has
said that Muslims may greet and exchange gifts with Christians during their
religious celebrations and on social occasions.
Coptic
Egyptians, who make up the largest portion of Christians in the country,
celebrate Christmas on 7 January.
Egypt
is also home to a number of other denominations, which observe Christmas on 25
December.
On
Tuesday, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church announced that it would hold the
Christmas mass on 6 January at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ at the
New Administrative Capital due to COVID-19 concerns.
The
mass will be broadcast live on television, according to news reports.
The
church added that it will not receive well-wishers for the same reason.
Source:
Ahram Online
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/454376.aspx
--------
India
Indian
Muslims got ‘less religious’ since 2016, shows CSDS study. 44% reported
discrimination
NIKHIL
RAMPAL
31
December, 2021
New
Delhi: Young Muslims “stand somewhat apart” from their Hindu, Sikh, and
Christian cohorts as they are the only community to have recorded a significant
decline in religious activities over the last five years, according to a survey
report released earlier this month.
The
report, titled ‘Indian Youth: Aspirations and Vision for the Future’, was based
on a survey conducted in July-August this year on 6,277 people aged 18-34
across 18 states. The study was carried out by the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies (CSDS) under its research programme Lokniti, in
collaboration with German think tank Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).
The
survey found that the proportion of Muslims praying, fasting, visiting mosques,
and reading or watching religious material was lower than it was in 2016, when
the last CSDS-Lokniti survey was conducted.
Muslims
also stood apart from other communities in another respect: their experience of
being discriminated against by their friends because of religion. While two
other religious minorities, Christians and Sikhs, were similar to Muslims in
expressing a “strong sense of despair” about communal harmony in India, a much
lower proportion of them reported experiencing religious discrimination.
Muslims
went from highest to lowest in religious activity in 5-yr span
The
2016 CSDS youth survey, conducted on a sample size of 5,681, found that Muslim
youths reported higher religiosity than any other group. In that year, 97 per
cent of Muslim respondents said they prayed regularly, followed by Hindus (92
per cent), Sikhs (92 per cent), and Christians (91 per cent).
However,
in 2021, only 86 per cent of Muslim youth said they prayed regularly — a
decline of 11 percentage points from five years ago. In comparison, the share
of youth who report praying regularly has risen among Sikhs (96 per cent) and
Christians (93 per cent), and declined only marginally for Hindus (88 per
cent).
Similarly,
there has been a sharp decline in the proportion of Muslim youths visiting
places of worship.
In
2016, 85 per cent of Muslim respondents reported that they visited their place
of worship (at various frequencies), but in 2021, only 79 per cent said they
had done so. While there was a decline among other religions too, it was the
highest among Muslims — 6 percentage points, followed by 4 percentage points for
Hindus (to 88 per cent from 92), 2 percentage points for Christians (to 89 per
cent from 91), and 1 percentage point for Sikhs (to 96 per cent from 97).
Self-perception
of religious participation
Overall,
19 per cent of respondents said their religious participation had witnessed an
increase, while 17 per cent said it had declined, 57 per cent said it had
stayed the same, and 7 per cent did not give a response.
Here
too, a greater share of Muslims than other religions reported a net decline in
their perception of their religious participation.
While
18 per cent of Muslim youngsters observed an increase in their religious
participation, 20 per cent felt that their religious participation had gone
down.
For
Christians and Sikhs, the share of respondents observing both an increase and
decrease was the same, at 25 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.
Hindus
reported a net increase in their perception of their religious participation.
About 20 per cent of Hindu respondents reported a rise in religious participation,
while 16 per cent observed a fall.
Pessimism
about religious harmony in India
The
CSDS report took note of data from the National Crime Records Bureau, pointing
out that 857 cases of communal/religious rioting were registered in 2020,
nearly doubling from 438 in 2019.
The
report also mentioned recent “hate crimes and lynchings” targeting minority
communities as well as the new citizenship law for religious minorities from
India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours. In this context, the survey asked the
respondents whether they thought religious harmony would improve or worsen in
the next five years.
While
only 19 per cent of Hindus said they believed there would be a deterioration in
communal harmony, the minorities were far more pessimistic — 31 per cent of
Christians and 33 per cent each of Muslims and Sikhs said they believed
religious amity would decline.
The
report’s authors dug deeper into the views of Muslim youth on the grounds that
the community has “borne the brunt of discrimination and violence in recent
years”.
According
to the report, the “despair” about religious co-existence was higher among the
Muslims who lived in states with a Muslim population higher than the national
average of 14.23 per cent. Taken together, these states — Assam, West Bengal,
UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Kerala — were more likely to be pessimistic about
religious harmony.
In
these states collectively, 35 per cent of Muslims said they expected a
deterioration compared with 23 per cent in states with a lower-than-average Muslim
population.
The
survey further found that Muslims in states which had a higher-than-average
Muslim population were also more likely to report religious discrimination,
arguably because there was “a greater chance of interaction” between the
majority and minority communities.
Perception
of religious discrimination
According
to the 2011 Census, Hindus comprise about 80 per cent of the population,
followed by the three biggest minority communities — Muslims (14.23 per cent),
Christians (2.3 per cent), and Sikhs (1.72 per cent).
Among
the minorities sampled in the survey, Muslims reported experiencing
discrimination from their friends most frequently.
About
44 per cent of Muslim respondents said they faced discrimination from their
friends, with 13 per cent saying this happened often and 31 per cent saying it
occurred sometimes. Only 18 per cent Christians (4 per cent often, 14 per cent
sometimes) and 8 per cent Sikhs (3 per cent often, 5 per cent sometimes)
reported such discrimination, the survey data showed.
While,
on average, 70 per cent of the respondents said they never faced discrimination
for their religion, this was only 49 per cent for Muslims.
“What
is interesting here is that unlike on the issue of religious harmony where
there was some sort of unanimity of opinion among youths from different
religious minorities, on the issue of facing discrimination, Muslims were quite
alone in feeling so,” the report said.
Are
Muslims really getting less religious?
The
survey report in its discussion of the results said it seemed
“counter-intuitive” that Muslim youth appeared to be less religious than
before.
“One
would think that being at the receiving end of hate, discrimination, and
violence would have resulted in an even greater proportion of Muslims turning towards
their faith,” the report said, adding that it was possible that some Muslim
respondents may have felt “less comfortable” about revealing their religious
practices.
ThePrint
spoke to Islamic scholars for their views on the findings of the study, and
found that they were generally sceptical.
Source:
The Print
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
All
India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam, Related To Dargah Ala Hazrat, Proposes Muslim
Agenda Before Political Parties Ahead Of 2022 UP Assembly Polls
December
30, 2021
The
All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam has decided to present Muslim agenda before the
political parties ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
It
has held consultations with top clerics of the state and deliberations are on
to finalise the draft agenda before handing it over to the political parties.
Assembly elections in five states are due early next year and UP has the major
chunk of Muslim population among the states going to polls.
Shahabuddin
Razvi, the General Secretary of organisation, which is related to Dargah Ala
Hazrat, said: "The issues related to minority especially Muslims have
taken a backseat as each party wants to tap the majority votes and for this
they are ignoring a large chunk of the population so the Tanzeem will put forth
our agenda ahead of polls."
For
this, a committee has been formed which is discussing the ground issues with
leading community leaders and also has asked the public for their feedback and
suggestions.
The
All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam, is the same organisation which has launched a
'Muttahida Hindustan' or 'One India' movement in the subcontinent. Maulana
Shahbuddin Razvi had said that they want India of old time like the way it was
in 1658 AD. He was endorsed by other prominent Muslim persons on the dias.
The
Muslim body, which claims to be the prominent organisation of the Barelvi sect,
is also working on social reforms of the community and trying to eradicate
social evils from the Muslim society.
Source:
Free Press Journal
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Kashmiri
woman, married to Pak terrorist, tells how Hizbul treats family of dead
terrorists
December
30, 2021
Razia
Bibi, a Kashmiri woman who was married to a Pakistani terrorist and abandoned
by Hizbul leadership to her fate upon his husband's death while speaking to a
news agency said that the lives of youth of Kashmir are being ruined by
misusing the name of Islam.
"I
collected some money and decided to go back to India. Coming back to India was
a very good decision. My children are really happy. Pakistan does not take care
of their own citizens, what will they do for those who go from here? There is
no humanity in Pakistan," Razia Bibi said
In
another development, for the first time since insurgency broke out in Kashmir,
the total number of terrorists active in the valley has fallen below 200 and
the recruitment of youngsters by terror outfits has also been kept in check,
top security officials said on Thursday.
Addressing
a press conference in the Qazigund area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir,
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar and General Officer
Commanding (GoC) of the Army's 15 Corps Lieutenant General D P Pandey said the
security situation has improved in the valley.
"Majority
of the operations conducted this year were based on human intelligence,"
Lt Gen. Pandey said, adding that the number of active terrorists in the valley
has come down to 180.
Source:
India TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Muslim
Personal Law Board Launches ‘The Journal of Law and Religious Affairs’
December
30, 2021
Pervez
Bari
NEW
DELHI – The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) launched “The Journal
of Law and Religious Affairs” with the release of the first edition of the
journal here at an impressive ceremony at the India International Centre in the
presence of prominent Muslim clerics and legal luminaries.
In
his introductory remark, Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, General Secretary of
the AIMPLB, called “The Journal of Law and Religious Affairs” a documentary on
law, which he said was the most important need of human society in this age of
lawlessness.
He
further said, “There are people of different views in the society but it is the
law that compels them to establish justice in the society.”
The
purpose of Islamic law, he said, is to create an atmosphere of justice and
peace in the society. Unity in diversity is the special identity of this
country and if one religion and one civilization are imposed on the entire
population, it will affect all aspects of the country. He asked what if the
government decides what to eat, what to wear, when to get married which is not
the government’s job.
Speaking
on the occasion, Maulana Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi, Secretary of the AIMPLB and
Rector of Jamea Tul Hidayat, Jaipur, pointing out the state of justice in the
country, said it was the most difficult task for ordinary citizens in India to
get justice. The judicial struggle becomes even more difficult, especially if
the state and its affiliates are active against minorities.
He
said that the law requires that justice should be done to every person who is
on the verge of death. “Today’s need is for us to gain legal awareness.”
The
saying, “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, applies to the common man. Knowing
the law and knowing the solution, everyone can defend himself and fight against
injustice in the society.
Speaking
on the occasion as Guest of Honour, Kapil Sibal, former Union Minister for
Justice and Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court, explained the difference between
justice and judgment, and said that the Journal of the AIMLB would play a key
role in ensuring justice.
Elaborating
on the difference between justice and judgment, he said, “Decisions are made
here (in a court of law), not justice. This journal would play an important
role in coordinating justice and decision making. The law is for the society
and the society keeps on changing and therefore the law also needs to be
changed. The court is not familiar with the transformation of society, but such
a research journal would act as a bridge between the court and society.
He
said that the Parliament could make a law, but the Supreme Court decides
whether the law is valid or not. “Everyone has a different understanding of the
law, and when I read the law something new comes to the fore,” he said.
“History
tells us that the law has changed and it is not a stone’s throw away.”
As
for the understanding of law, he said it is necessary to understand the law and
what the need of the society is at that time at the time of its making. Since
the law is made for the society and if it is not in accordance with the
society, the society will not accept it.
Renowned
lawyer Sanjay Hegde, acknowledging the importance of the role of the journal of
AIMPLB in understanding the law, said the journal would play a significant role
in creating an understanding of the Muslim community law. Every citizen here
has an equal right and protest is a democratic right of every citizen, he
stressed.
Maulana
Asghar Imam Mehdi Salafi, Ameer of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, said that the law
means implementation of the law in the true sense and the law can be enforced
only by obeying the law. He urged the AIMPLB to take up the issues in a
civilized manner wherever such a situation exists.
Source:
Clarion India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://clarionindia.net/muslim-personal-law-board-launches-the-journal-of-law-religious-affairs/
--------
Building
Good Ties With Islamic Nations Is One Of PM Modi's Achievement: Captain G
Parthasarathy
31st
December 2021
By
Prabhu Chawla And Kaveree Bamzai
NEW
DELHI: What has been Narendra Modi’s
greatest achievement during his seven-and-a-half year tenure as India's Prime
Minister? As far as diplomatic relations are concerned, former diplomat Captain
G Parthasarathy says it has been his ability to build an excellent relationship
with Islamic countries, barring Pakistan.
Parthasarathy,
who served as the Ambassador of India to Myanmar, High Commissioner of India to
Australia, High Commissioner of India to Pakistan and High Commissioner of
India to Cyprus at various points, along with former Indian Ambassador to the USA
Meera Shankar, were in conversation with The New Indian Express' Editorial
Director Prabhu Chawla and senior journalist and author Kaveree Bamzai, in an
episode of E-Expressions' Platinum Pride series.
"His
(Prime Minister Modi's) greatest achievement is building an excellent
relationship with all Islamic countries in the world. He has personally good
relations with Iranians and the Arab world, especially with the monarchs,"
said Parthasarathy, adding that this could benefit in building of better trade
relationships.
"We
also have a good relationship with Sheikh Hasina. Things with Sri Lanka have
been steadily improving since Manmohan Singh's time," he said. Both
Parthasarathy and Shankar agreed that India's foreign policy, irrespective of
governments, has changed according to the requirement of the times and has had
continuity.
During
the course of the conversation, the duo also touched upon subjects like
Pakistan and China and how the countries could potentially affect life for us
in India. Pointing out that this is a difficult time for the country, Shankar
said, "You have a Russia which has shifted closer to China. You have a
China that is tied up with Pakistan for its energy security and access to the
Gulf and you have an America which is trying to compete with China which may
have also left it a bit late. For India, the choices become fairly
difficult."
Parthasarathy,
on the other hand, said, "Russians treat us equal to China in defence
matters. There is a balancing act. Historically, they don’t trust the Chinese.
They look at them as the successors of Gengiz Khan."
He
also reminisced about 1971, when Russia had deployed forces on borders with
China and sent a submarine to the Indian ocean.
Source:
New Indian Express
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
MP,
Chhattisgarh Govts Spar Over Arrest of Hindu Seer Kalicharan Who Commented on
Gandhi, Islam
DECEMBER
30, 2021
The
arrest of Hindu religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj from Madhya Pradesh on
Thursday has triggered political barbs between the ruling parties in
Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Kalicharan
was arrested by a team of Chhattisgarh police from Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho
this morning and taken to Raipur.
The
arrest by Chhattisgarh police did not go down well with senior BJP leader and
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra who accused the Congress-led
Chhattisgarh government of “breaching inter-state protocol."
Mishra
has also directed Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Vivek Johri
to speak with Chhattisgarh DGP on the matter of breach of inter-state protocol.
“I have an objection to the manner in which Chhattisgarh police arrested
Kalicharan. They (CG police) could have informed the Madhya Pradesh police
prior to arresting Kalicharan. It is a complete violation of interstate
protocol. I have directed MP DGP to speak with Chhattisgarh DGP to seek an
explanation from them," Mishra said addressing a press conference.
In
response to Mishra’s statement, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel
said: “MP Home Minister should clarify whether he is happy or not with the
arrest of Kalicharan. Why is he upset?"
Kalicharan
Maharaj was arrested for his derogatory remark on Mahatma Gandhi at a ‘dharma
sansad’ or religious meeting in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur a couple of days
ago. His disrespectful statement had promoted chief patron Mahant Ramsunder Das
disowning the event and walking off the stage in anger at the same event.
“Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi destroyed the country. Salutations to Nathuram Godse, who
killed him," he was heard saying during his speech at a religious meeting
in Raipur.
As
per police, Kalicharan booked a guest house in Khajuraho but did not stay
there, instead went to a rented house some 25 km from Khajuraho to evade the
police. To evade the police from tracking, all his close aides had also
switched off their phones, sources said.
On
Thursday morning, a team of 10 policemen tracked him down, arrested and took
him back to Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur. A senior police officer told IANS
that Kalicharan has been arrested. “Kalicharan has been arrested from Madhya
Pradesh’s Khajuraho area and taken to Raipur," said a senior police
official from Chhattisgarh requesting not to be named.
The
police official also said that the Kalicharan will be produced before a court
in the evening.
A
video clip, being widely circulated on social media, Kalicharan Maharaj can be
seen declaring that the aim of Islam is to capture the nation through politics.
“Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi destroyed the country. Salutations to Nathuram Godse, who
killed him," he had said during his speech at a religious meeting in
Raipur.
Pramod
Dube, a Raipur based Congress leader, who was one of the invitees at ‘dharma
sansad’ has lodged an FIR against Kalicharan in a Raipur police station.
Speaking
to IANS on Thursday, Dube said that he was present in the meeting when
Kalicharan made derogatory remarks on Mahatma Gandhi. “As per the ‘dharma
sansad’ rules, each speaker had to give a speech on five subjects pertaining to
the Hindu religion. The idea of organising ‘dharma sansad’ was to talk on Hindu
religion like how to encourage more number of youth toward the Hindu religion.
Source:
News18
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
3
terrorists, including one from JeM, killed in Srinagar encounter
Dec
31, 2021
NEW
DELHI: An encounter broke out in Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar on early Friday
where three terrorists including one affiliated with terror outfit
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were eliminated.
"One
of the killed terrorists has been identified as Suhail Ahmad Rather of terror
outfit JeM. As revealed during yesterday's Press Conference, terrorist Suhail
was also involved in Zewan Terror Attack. All terrorists involved in the Zewan
attack have been neutralised," Kashmir Zone Police on Twitter quoted
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar.
Earlier
the Jammu and Kashmir police had informed that in the initial exchange of fire,
three Police personnel and one Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel
got injured and were subsequently shifted to hospital.
The
encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists in the Pantha Chowk
area of Srinagar on Thursday night.
General
Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps, Lt General DP Pandey on Friday said that the
infiltration attempts from the other side of the border into Jammu and Kashmir
have gone down this year, adding that terror groups are trying to recruit young
children aged 15-16 years.
Source:
Times of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Pakistan
Pak
cabinet OKs supplementary budget to win funds from IMF
Dec
31, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan's cabinet on Thursday approved a supplementary budget that plans to
end exemptions on sales tax and levy new duties as part of fiscal tightening
measures aimed at winning funding from the International Monetary Fund.
The
IMF approval is also a pivotal endorsement for Pakistan's economy, which is
struggling with external and current account deficits, a depreciating currency,
struggling foreign reserves and rising inflation. The IMF agreed last month to
revive a stalled $6 billion funding programme, but demanded further budgetary
tightening and central bank autonomy from Pakistan before the next tranche
could be approved.
Source:
Times of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Ababeel
Squad, Set Up To Curb The Increasing Street Crimes, Members Living In Police
Lines Mosque
December
31, 2021
PESHAWAR:
A number of members of the Ababeel Squad are residing in the upper portion of
the main mosque at Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines after finding no place to
live in barracks.
The
special squad was set up recently to curb the increasing street crimes.
The
police officials have come under criticism for setting up the Ababeel Squad in
haste and not providing them the required facilities including decent
accommodation.
Some
barracks at the lines were vacated for them so they could stay there. “Many of
the cops could not get anyplace and have no option but to live in the upper
portion of the mosque,” said an official.
Source:
The News Pakistan
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/921310-ababeel-squad-members-living-in-police-lines-mosque
--------
90%
terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan target CPEC projects: Pak
counter-terrorism dept
Dec
30, 2021
PESHAWAR:
Pakistan counter-terrorism department (CTD) on Wednesday said that 90 per cent
of the terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan target the multi-billion
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Deputy
Inspector General (DIG) CTD Javed Iqbal Wazir told The News International that
over 90 per cent of the terrorist groups are planning attacks and operating
from across the border (Afghanistan). He said these groups mainly target CPEC
projects, key installations, polio teams and economic activity.
The
department had busted five major groups of Islamic State - Khorasan Province
(IS KP) during operations in Peshawar and Bannu region during the last year.
The
held terrorists were involved in over 40 incidents of target-killing, including
attacks on polio vaccination teams, said DIG CTD.
Wazir
said that 110 terrorists were killed and 599 others were arrested by the CTD
during operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) this year.
The
CTD chief added the arrested and killed terrorists included a number of most
wanted people who were carrying millions of rupees as head money, reported The
News International.
Source:
Times of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Pak
Islamic scholar against court order to demolish Karachi mosque
Dec
30 2021
New
Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS): Leading Pakistani Islamic scholar and Darul Uloom Karachi
head Mufti Taqi Usmani has tweeted against a court order to demolish the Madina
Masjid on Karachis Tariq Road, Samaa TV reported.
The
Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday ordered the demolition of several
structures constructed on encroached lands in Karachi, including the Madina
Masjid, a multi-storey building near the Dolmen Mall.
The
court found that the mosque was constructed on a piece of land allotted for a
park.
Usmani
said in his tweet that the order to demolish the mosque and to establish a park
is "absolutely unjustified". This mosque on the Tarid Road was built
25 years ago and has been used by worshipers since then, he said, as per the
report.
The
religious scholar said that it is incomprehensible that such a mosque should be
ordered to be demolished without first hearing the people living in the
neighbourhood. The court itself should review the issue immediately, he said.
Usmani,
who served at the Federal Shariat Court from 1981 to 1982, pioneered the
concept of Islamic banking in Pakistan.
Warning
Pakistan Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad and Sindh province Chief Minister Murad Ali
Shah of dire consequences, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Sindh Secretary
General Rashid Mahmood Soomro also said that the party won't allow
implementation of the court's order to demolish the mosque in Karachi, Friday
Times reported.
Source:
Daiji World
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=909923
--------
Four
killed in bomb attack on workers of JUI faction in Quetta
Saleem
Shahid
December
31, 2021
QUETTA:
Four people were killed and 16 others injured in a bomb explosion near the main
gate of a college at Jinnah Road area here on Thursday night.
Police
said unknown people planted an improvised explosive device near the main gate
of Science College and detonated it with remote control at 9.40pm, resulting in
the killing of four people and injuries to 16 others.
They
said the target of the blast was leaders and workers of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-Ideological
group) who had come to attend Shuhada Conference organised by the party’s
student wing.
“The
powerful explosion took place when the participants of the conference were
coming out of the college at the conclusion of the conference,” a spokesman for
the Counter Terrorism Department said.
The
deceased and the injured were all seminary students and workers of the
JUI-Ideological group.
Provincial
emir of the party Maulana Abdul Qadir Luni, Maulana Mehmood-ul-Hussan Kazmi,
Maulana Abdul Sattar Chishti and other leaders escaped unhurt in the blast as
they had left the college premises just before the blast.
Police
and personnel of other law enforcement agencies rushed to the scene of the
blast and after cordoning off the area shifted the bodies and the injured to
civil hospital where a state of emergency was declared.
“We
have received four bodies and 19 injured,” Dr Javed Ahmed, medical
superintendent of the civil hospital told Dawn, adding that the condition of
four injured was serious.
The
bomb disposal squad collected evidences from the explosion site. “It was a
remote-controlled IED,” a senior official of the BDS said, adding that the
device was planted close to a car which was parked near the main gate of the
college.
Several
vehicles and motorcycles were damaged by the impact of the blast while
windowpanes of nearby buildings were smashed.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1666756/four-killed-in-bomb-attack-on-workers-of-jui-faction-in-quetta
--------
PM
Imran feels Nawaz will return only after deal
Syed
Irfan Raza
December
31, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Imran Khan hinted on Thursday that former prime minister and
supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif will not return to
the country without first striking a “secret deal” on the issue.
“He
[Nawaz Sharif] had also returned to the country from Saudi Arabia [in 2007]
under a deal,” the prime minister said while talking to some journalists in the
corridors of the Parliament House.
When
he was asked about reports that Mr Sharif could return to the country soon, Mr
Khan said: “When he [Nawaz] had gone to Saudi Arabia, we used to hear that he
was [either] coming today or tomorrow.”
In
response to a question regarding speeches by Leader of the Opposition in the
National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister said: “[A] speech of
Shehbaz Sharif is like his job application.”
Insists
his government is not in trouble; PTI to hold its elections next year
He
said his government was managing its affairs well and was under no threat from
the opposition. “The government is not in trouble,” he remarked.
Earlier
in the day, Prime Minister Khan presided over a special meeting of the federal
cabinet that approved the Supplementary Finance Bill 2021, which was
subsequently introduced in the National Assembly by Finance Minister Shaukat
Tarin.
In a
tweet on the matter, federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the
cabinet had approved the finance bill and it would be tabled in the National
Assembly.
Prime
Minister Khan also presided over a meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s
(PTI) parliamentary party where Mr Tarin explained features of the finance bill
and responded to the legislators’ queries about amendments to the State Bank
Act.
After
the meeting, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told journalists that it was
the parliamentarians’ right to be acquainted with the legislation about to be
tabled in the parliament.
In
response to a question, he said parliament was empowered to amend any law with
a simple majority, if required, to remove any lacuna in it.
The
meeting of the PTI’s parliamentary party was attended by cabinet members as
well as other members of the parliament.
Party
elections
The
prime minister also chaired a meeting of the PTI’s Central Executive Committee
(CEC), which decided the party would hold its elections in 2022 under its
slightly amended constitution of 2015.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1666755/pm-imran-feels-nawaz-will-return-only-after-deal
--------
COAS
lauds services of medical community during pandemic
December
30, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has appreciated the
exemplary role and services of the medical community as front line warriors
against the coronavirus pandemic.
The
army chief expressed this while addressing the 54th convocation ceremony of
College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) as chief guest at Jinnah
Convention Centre on Thursday, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)
in a statement.
The
COAS emphasised that doctors and healthcare workers are the heroes who despite
all challenges worked tirelessly for the safety and well-being of the people of
Pakistan during Covid-19. He reiterated that the nation pays tribute to all
those doctors and paramedics who sacrificed their lives as first responders in
battling against pandemic while saving many precious lives.
While
mentioning the immense contributions of the Army Medical Corps to the national
health care system, the army chief said that all available resources will be
utilised to ensure safety and security of people of Pakistan.
Source:
Pakistan Today
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Mideast
165
Jewish settlers defile Aqsa Mosque under police guard
December
30, 2021
At
least 165 Jewish settlers escorted by police forces desecrated the Aqsa Mosque
in Occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Wednesday morning and later in the
afternoon.
Those
settlers entered the Mosque in different groups through its Maghariba Gate and
toured its courtyards under tight police protection, according to local
sources.
During
their tours at the Islamic holy site, the settlers received lectures from
rabbis about the alleged temple mount and a number of them provocatively
performed Talmudic prayers.
Meanwhile,
the Israeli occupation police imposed movement restrictions on Muslim
worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque’s entrances and gates.
The
Aqsa Mosque is exposed to daily desecration by Jewish settlers and police
forces in the morning and the afternoon except on Fridays and Saturdays.
The
Israeli police close al-Maghariba Gate, which is used by Jews to enter the
Mosque, at 10:30 am after the settlers complete their morning tours at the holy
site. Later in the afternoon, the same gate is reopened for evening tours by
settlers.
Source:
ABNA24
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://en.abna24.com/news//165-jewish-settlers-defile-aqsa-mosque-under-police-guard_1213586.html
--------
Gaza
military drills prove any aggression against Aqsa Mosque will cost Israel
dearly: PRC spokesman
30
December 2021
The
spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees (PRC) has hailed the joint
military drill staged earlier this week by various resistance factions in the
Gaza Strip, saying the war game convey the message that any aggression against
the holy al-Aqsa Mosque will cost Israel dearly.
Mohamed
al-Barim, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mujahid, said in an interview
with the Palestinian Arabic-language Shehab news agency that the message of the
war game for the Tel Aviv regime is that any damage to the occupied al-Quds and
the al-Aqsa Mosque compound will elicit a strong collective response from all
Palestinian resistance factions.
He
added that the drill also relayed the message that resistance fighters will not
sit idly by, and will tirelessly seek freedom of all Palestinian prisoners
being kept behind bars in Israeli jails and detention centers.
Palestinian
resistance factions launched a joint military drill in the Gaza Strip on
Sunday.
The
factions said in a joint statement that the exercise was aimed at the exchange
of expertise and enhancement of combat preparedness.
Sunday’s
military training was the first between Palestinian factions since the 11-day
war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and the
Tel Aviv regime, during which the Israeli military killed at least 260
Palestinians, including 66 children.
Tensions
have been running high in the occupied territories for months over Israel’s
settlement activities and its planned eviction of Palestinian families from their
ancestral homes.
Palestinian
groups and activists have warned that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians
and its settler assaults in the occupied West Bank will lead to a new Intifada
(uprising).
The
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says it will not remain silent in the
face of Israel’s ever-growing aggression and settlement expansion across the
occupied Palestinian territories.
In a
statement released on the 13th anniversary of the 2008-2009 war on Gaza, Hamas
said to sit idly by was not permitted while Israel accelerated its Judaization
campaign and settlement activities in occupied al-Quds and the West Bank.
Hamas
pledged to build up its defensive capabilities and military strength to
confront Israel on multiple fronts.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Tehran
launches rocket into space: Iran media
30
December ,2021
Iran
said Thursday it launched a rocket with a satellite carrier bearing three
devices into space, though it’s unclear if any of the objects entered orbit
around the Earth.
The
report, carried by state TV and several local news agencies, did not say when
the launch was conducted nor what devices the carrier brought with it. However,
the launch comes amid ongoing negotiations in Vienna over Iran’s tattered
nuclear deal. Previous launches have drawn rebukes from the US.
Ahmad
Hosseini, a Defense Ministry spokesman, identified the rocket use as a Simorgh,
or “Phoenix,” rocket. He said the three devices were sent up 470 kilometers
(290 miles).
Hosseini
was quoted as saying the “performance of the space center and the performance
of the satellite carrier was done properly.”
However,
no one immediately said if the objects launched reached orbit. Iran has
suffered a series of setbacks in its space program in recent launches.
Iranian
media recently offered a list of upcoming planned satellite launches for the
Islamic Republic’s civilian space program. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard runs its own parallel program that successfully put a satellite into
orbit last year.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Palestinian
journalists raise alarm about content suppression by Facebook
31
December 2021
Palestinian
activists and journalists, backed by rights groups, have raised the alarm about
Facebook’s pro-Israeli bias leading to an unjust suppression of their content
on the social media network.
Sada
Social, a Palestinian social media monitoring center, launched a social media
campaign called "Facebook Censors al-Quds" after a record 600
Palestinian accounts or pro-Palestinian Facebook posts were restricted or
deleted in 2021.
Rama
Youssef, an al-Quds-based journalist who volunteered for the campaign, said
Facebook adheres to an Israeli point of view and has "double
standards."
Iyad
al-Rifai, a media expert with Sada Social, said Facebook while looking into
posts targets the word "Shahid", an Arabic equivalent for martyr used
by Palestinians to describe people killed by Israeli forces.
Rifai
said he had asked Facebook for transparency about the issue but the social
media network claimed it reviewed posts according to its own policies as well
as "local laws and international human rights standards.”
The
media expert said he was concerned that deleting accounts might discourage
Palestinians from "engaging with pivotal issues" for fear of losing
"their digital history and presence.”
Rifai
said he obtained from Facebook "promises to improve the working mechanisms
of the algorithms so as to differentiate between journalistic content and
ordinary content," but he feared they offered "temporary rather than
radical solutions.”
Christine
Rinawi, a Palestine TV’s correspondent, posted a video on her Facebook account
in which Israeli security forces were seen fatally shooting a Palestinian on
the ground over an alleged stabbing attack.
Shortly
after she posted her video, Rinawi, who has nearly 400,000 followers, noticed
it had been removed from her account.
The
Palestine TV’s correspondent said this was not her first experience with
Facebook's enforcement, adding that her account had already been restricted
after she shared footage of a November attack in al-Quds.
The
Arab Center Washington DC think-tank confirmed reports by Palestinian
journalists regarding censorship on Facebook in multiple incidents.
The
think-tank said the Israeli regime pushes to censor "tens of thousands of
posts and accounts" that support a Palestinian point of view.
Leading
human rights groups said in October that the platform had "suppressed
content posted by Palestinians and their supporters speaking out about human
rights issues in Israel and Palestine.”
In
the midst of the Gaza war back in May, Facebook acknowledged widescale deletion
of Palestinian posts and attributed it to a technical bug that it claimed was
seeking to fix.
The
issue of censorship by Facebook comes as Israelis routinely and overtly spark
violence against Palestinians via their posts on social media, without being
prosecuted.
Source:
Press TV
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Abbas
to Putin: Israeli-occupied West Bank poised for ‘explosion’
30
December 2021
Palestinian
Authority head Mahmoud Abbas has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that
Israeli raids and other acts of aggression have put the occupied West Bank on
the brink of an “explosion.”
Abbas
told the Russian president during a telephone conversation on Thursday that
Israeli settlements, land confiscation, home demolitions and "settler
terrorism" are becoming a casus belli for a new revolt in the West Bank,
the official Wafa news agency reported.
“The
continuation of these Israeli measures will lead to an explosion of the
situation,” the Palestinian Authority head added.
He
also rejected “economic and security steps" offered by Israeli leaders,
saying they are not "a substitute for the political track."
The
Palestinian leadership will have to take “key decisions” at an important
session of the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
expected to be held in the coming months, he said without elaboration.
The
remarks came following Abbas' rare visit to Israel on Tuesday for talks with
Israeli minister of military affairs Benny Gantz that the Israelis said focused
on “security and civil matters”.
Abbas
said in the absence of a political track, the Israeli regime continues to
stifle the Palestinian economy and deduct from tax revenues.
Russia
is a member of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators, along with
the UN, the US and European Union.
The
Palestinian Authority president said Israel’s endless settlement expansion, its
confiscation of Palestinian lands, and its demolition of Palestinian homes and
“settler terrorism” are creating an undercurrent of rage and insurrection among
the Palestinians.
The
meeting with Gantz at his home was the first by Abbas since 2010. Months
earlier, Gantz visited Abbas in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority
(PA), which rules over the West Bank.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/12/30/673737/Palestine-Abbas-Russia-Putin-Israel-Gantz-West-Bank
--------
Report:
Israel demolished 69 Palestinian homes in Silwan, issued 172 demolition orders
in 2021
30
December 2021
Palestinian
activists say Israel tore down at least 69 Palestinian homes in the flashpoint
Silwan neighborhood of East al-Quds and issued orders for demolition of another
172 buildings during 2021.
Fakhri
Abu Diab, a member of the Defense of Silwan Land Committee, said on Thursday
that the demolition campaign by Israeli forces displaced 342 Palestinians,
including a large number of children and women.
The
implementation of the eviction orders could render 10,000 Palestinians homeless
in the coming weeks or months. Diab said the massive displacement of Palestinians
amounts to "ethnic cleansing."
Forced
displacement, or the unlawful transfer of civilians in the occupied
territories, violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime
under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Israel
also filed indictments against 90 owners of homes and fined them 4,370,000
shekels under the pretext of the so-called illegal construction, he added.
The
United Nations has reported a 21 percent increase in the number of Palestinian
structures that were confiscated or destroyed this year.
Israel
regularly flattens Palestinian homes and structures in al-Quds on the pretext
that they lack building permits, expropriating more Palestinian lands to expand
its illegal settlements.
The
international community considers Israeli settlement construction illegal under
international law.
Nearly
700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of
the West Bank and East al-Quds.
The
UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned Tel Aviv’s settlement
projects in the occupied Palestinian lands.
Diab
also said Israel had seized hundreds of donums of lands for the construction of
new illegal settlements.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/12/30/673735/Palestine-al-Quds-Silwan-Fakhri-Abu-Diab-Israel--
--------
Islamic
Jihad: Palestinian resistance ready to face any Israeli aggression
December
30, 2021
The
Palestinian resistance in Gaza is ready to face any Israeli aggression, a
senior leader of Al Quds Brigades –the military wing of Islamic Jihad in
Palestine– said on Wednesday.
These
remarks came following the completion of a military drill carried out jointly
by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.
"The
Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip is united and ready to face any new
Zionist aggression," the senior leader of Al Quds Brigades, who remained
anonymous, said.
"The
liberation of the Palestinian prisoners and Al Aqsa Mosque are at the top of
our priorities," he said.
The
leader added: "This military drill is a message to the Arab and Muslim
worlds that Gaza is strong enough, and will not be defeated easily."
Meanwhile,
he reiterated that resistance was the "strategic choice" of the
Palestinian people to liberate their land.
Source:
Middle East Monitor
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iran
marks 12th anniversary of nationwide rallies held to support Islamic
establishment
30
December 2021
Iranian
people have staged nationwide rallies to mark the 12th anniversary of huge
demonstrations held across the country in support of the Islamic establishment.
The
demonstrators, from various social strata, took to the streets in the capital
Tehran and other cities on Thursday, carrying placards and chanting slogans in
solidarity with the Islamic establishment.
The
event commemorated the 12th anniversary of the 2009 nationwide
pro-establishment rallies on the ninth of the Persian calendar month of Dey,
which falls on December 30.
The
nationwide demonstrations have since been lauded as Dey 9 epic.
The
million-strong 2009 rallies restored tranquility to the country after months of
political wrangling and foreign-backed riots, and ended what the Iranian
authorities described as sedition ensuing the presidential election in June
that year.
During
the riots, a group of demonstrators offended the sanctities of the Iranian
people on the day of Ashura, which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam
Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam and grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The
unrest was orchestrated by two of the presidential candidates who had lost the election,
claiming that the results had been rigged. Both remain under house arrest on
charges of provoking the public and harming the national security.
‘Sedition
failed to confuse Iranian people’
Iran’s
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber took part in the Thursday ceremony in
Tehran.
Addressing
the ceremony, the representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah
Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Abdollah
Haji-Sadeqi said the “darkness induced by the sedition failed to make people
confused about the realities.”
He
added that by taking part in post-election demonstrations in support of the
Islamic establishment, people “put the last nail in the coffin of a sedition
whose master plan was made in more than a decade and even its name had been
mentioned by one of the [US] senators during a session of Senate four years
earlier.”
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/12/30/673722/Iran-anniversary-Islamic-Republic-rallies-
--------
11
Yemeni troops killed, 16 injured in Houthi strike
December
30, 2021
AL-MUKALLA:
At least 11 Yemeni government troops were killed and 17 others wounded on
Thursday when an explosion caused by a Houthi missile or drone strike rocked
their military base in the southern province of Shabwa, local officials and
media reports said.
Soldiers
from the Giants Brigades were regrouping inside a military base in the Markha
Al-Soufla district when a large explosion ripped through the base, a local
government official told Arab News.
“The
Giants Brigades were getting ready to advance toward other areas in Markha
Al-Soufla to defend them against Houthi incursions,” the official, who asked to
remain anonymous, said.
Local
media reports said the explosion was caused by a ballistic missile fired by the
Houthis, but other sources said that an explosives-rigged, Houthi-controlled
drone attacked the base.
On
Tuesday night, two ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis landed inside Ataq
airport in the provincial capital of Shabwa, shortly after the Giants Brigades
took charge of the airport from local military units.
The
newly appointed governor of Shabwa, Awadh Mohammed Al-Wazer, visited the
wounded soldiers in Ataq hospital.
Yemeni
military analyst Khaled Al-Nasi said that the military commanders were
expecting Houthi attacks on the new troops in Shabwa and had taken precautionary
measures.
“This
is the nature of war, but this (Houthi attack) will not affect the work of the
Giants’ forces and their mission in Shabwa,” he said on Twitter.
Hundreds
of troops from the Joint Forces, an umbrella term for three major military
units including the Giants Brigades, were relocated from government-controlled
areas in Taiz and Hodeidah to the southern province of Shabwa to reinforce
government troops battling the Houthis.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1995606/middle-east
--------
South Asia
Afghanistan
Ministry Of Vice And Virtue Has Ordered Their Forces Against Invading
"People's Privacy"
Dec
30, 2021
KABUL:
In a surprising decree, the Taliban-led ministry of Vice and Virtue has ordered
their forces against invading "people's privacy" and asked them not
to take the phones of people and go through them.
A
spokesperson for the vice and virtue ministry warned that the Islamic Emirate
would punish those security forces who violated the decree, TOLO news reported.
"Acting
Minister of Vice and Virtue Shiek Mohmmad Khalid has said at different events
that the Islamic Emirate forces are not allowed to take the phones of people
and go through them," said ministry spokesperson Mohammad Sadeq Akif.
This
comes a few days after the outfit had ordered that some taxi drivers in Kabul
not carry male and female passengers at the same time.
"Last
week, they told us that men and women should not be in a vehicle at the same
time," said Abdullah Jan, a driver.
Despite
such decrees and actions, the Taliban continue to say that it is committed to
women's rights based on Islamic Regulations.
Since
the Taliban took over in August, signs of Taliban brutal rule of 1996-2001 have
started reappearing on the streets of Kabul.
Source:
Times of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Ex-Afghan
president says had no choice but to flee Kabul
Dec
30, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
Afghanistan's former president said he had no choice but to abruptly leave
Kabul as the Taliban closed in and denied an agreement was in the works for a
peaceful takeover, disputing the accounts of former Afghan and US officials.
Former
President Ashraf Ghani said in a BBC interview that aired Thursday that an
adviser gave him just minutes to decide to abandon the capital city. He also
denied widespread accusations that he left Afghanistan with millions in stolen
money.
Ghani's
sudden and secret departure Aug. 15 left the city rudderless as US and NATO
forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from the country
after 20 years.
"On
the morning of that day, I had no inkling that by late afternoon I would be
leaving," Ghani told BBC radio.
His
remarks conflicted with other accounts.
Former
President Hamid Karzai old the Associated Press in an interview earlier this
month that Ghani's departure scuttled the opportunity for government negotiators,
including himself and peace council chairman Abdullah Abdullah, to reach an
11th-hour agreement with the Taliban, who had committed to staying outside the
capital.
After
calling the government defense minister Bismillah Khan, the interior minister
and police chief and discovering all had fled the capital, Karzai said he
invited the Taliban into Kabul "to protect the population so that the
country, the city doesn't fall into chaos and the unwanted elements who would
probably loot the country, loot shops."
But
Ghani in his radio interview with British Gen. Sir Nick Carter, former chief of
defense staff, said he fled ``to prevent the destruction of Kabul,'' claiming
two rival Taliban factions were bearing down on the city and were ready to
enter and wage a bitter battle for control. There was no evidence upon the
Taliban entry of the rival factions Ghani referred to.
The
insurgent force quickly took control of the palace and according to
humanitarian aid workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
wanted to speak privately, and who were there at the time, the Taliban moved to
protect their compounds.
Still,
the Taliban's entry into the capital was met with widespread fear and a deep
longing by many to flee their desperately poor homeland despite billions of
international money over the 20 years the U.S.-backed governments had been in
power.
Ghani
in his interview denied widespread accusations that he left Afghanistan with a
cache of stolen money. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction John Sopko has been tasked with investigating those allegations.
Successive
Afghan governments, as well as independent foreign and Afghan contractors, have
been accused of widespread corruption over the last 20 years with dozens of
reports by Sopko documenting the most egregious incidents of corruption.
Washington has spent $146 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan since the
overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, yet even before the insurgents returned in
August, the poverty level in Afghanistan was at 54 percent.
Earlier
this week Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative
reporting organization with 150 journalists in more than 30 countries, listed
Ghani among the world's most corrupt leaders. Belarus President Aleksandr
Lukashenko was named the most corrupt with Ghani, Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former Austrian
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz among the finalists for the title of most corrupt.
After
being told by his national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib that his personal
protection force was not capable of defending him, Ghani said, he decided to
leave. Saying Mohib, who "was literally terrified," gave him just two
minutes to decide whether to leave, Ghani insisted he was not sure where he
would be taken even after he was on the helicopter getting ready to evacuate
Kabul.
Source:
Times of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Taliban
to investigate torture of former security personnel
31
Dec 2021
Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan said they will investigate cases of former security
personnel being kidnapped, tortured, and arrested by rank and file of IEA.
A
spokesperson of the IEA Ahmadullah Wasiq said that they are fully committed to
the general amnesty announced by Supreme Leader Hebtullah Akhundzada and will
not allow anyone to violate amnesty.
Ahamdullah
Wasiq said that all cases of the former commanders, security officials, and
activists being mistreated by Taliban affiliates.
It
comes a day after the Supreme Leader himself in a meeting with the provincial
officials of Kandahar asked the Taliban affiliates to respect his general
amnesty and stop extrajudicial punishment.
“The
cases are not to that extent that is shown on social media. Places, where
mistreatment is seen, will be fully under our surveillance.” Said Wasiq.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/taliban-to-investigate-torture-of-former-security-personnel-8687/
--------
Pakistan’s
first consignment of 1,800 tons of wheat arrives in Afghanistan
30
Dec 2021
The
first consignment of 1,800 metric tons of what was donated by Pakistan arrived
in Afghanistan and was handed over to Afghan officials at the eastern crossing
point between the two countries, Torkham.
The
ceremony at Torkham was attended by Shehzad Arbab, special assistant to PM
Imran Khan, officials from Afghan National Disaster Management Authority, and
Pakistan’s Consul General Abidulllah Khan.
This
is the first consignment of the 50,000 metric tons of wheat donated by Pakistan
to Afghanistan.
Pakistan
embassy in Kabul in a statement said that the total amount of wheat will be
dispatched to Kabul, Nangarhar, Panjshir, Balkh, Badakhshan, Bamyan, Daikundi,
Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Herat, Khost, and Paktika provinces in the next few
weeks.
Earlier,
Pakistan had provided the Afghan people with foodstuff, medications, and
shelter in various provinces.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
11
Years After Trying To Kill Each Other, Ex-Marine Meets Talib Again
Thomas
Gibbons-Neff
31.12.21
The
tea was hot. The room, oppressive and dusty. And the Taliban commander I sat
across from in a bullet-scarred building in southern Afghanistan had tried to
kill me a little over a decade ago.
As I
had tried to kill him.
We both
remember that morning well: February 13, 2010, Marja district, Helmand
Province. We were about the same age: 22. It was very cold.
Mullah
Abdul Rahim Gulab was part of a group of Taliban fighters trying to defend the
district from the thousands of American, coalition and Afghan troops sent to
seize what at the time was an important Taliban stronghold.
He
didn’t know it when we recently met, but I was a corporal in a company of
Marines that his fighters attacked that winter morning so many years ago.
With
the insurgents’ victory in that 20-year war secured this summer, Gulab, now a
high-level commander, was sitting with me in Marja’s government headquarters, a
mess of a building the Americans had refurbished years ago.
I was
his guest, along with two of my colleagues from The New York Times. I told him
that the fight for Marja had been important in the eyes of the US, but that
most people had heard only one version of the story of the battle. Not the
Taliban perspective.
It
was 2010, and the Taliban were once again becoming a potent military force,
threatening nearly every part of Afghanistan. In Marja, the insurgents were
taxing local residents, administering cruel and quick justice, and taking in a
significant amount of income from the poppy harvest.
Operation
Moshtarak, as the US military called the 2010 mission to seize the district,
was the first set-piece battle of President Barack Obama’s counterinsurgency
troop surge, which failed.
Eleven
years later, Gulab and I still remember the call to prayer that February
morning in the village of Koru Chareh, a hamlet set amid half-flooded poppy
fields, not far from the centre of Marja. The surrounding trees, leafless,
looked like dead outstretched hands.
“The
skies over Marja were full of helicopters, and dropped American soldiers in
different areas,” Gulab said.
I had
just moved with my team of seven other Marines to a small mud-brick pump house,
having landed with more than 250 other troops a few hours earlier. As the sun
rose, Gulab gathered his band of Taliban fighters from a nearby village.
Soon
after, the mullah, loud and angry, came over the mosque loudspeaker. Gulab and
his Taliban fighters prayed.
Then
the shooting started.
“It
was a very tough fight,” Gulab said.
He
wasn’t wrong. By the end of the day, a Marine engineer was dead and several
others wounded. The insurgents suffered their own casualties.
With
the war ending this August, the places where I had once fought as a Marine are
now reachable again — stretches of land where my friends died and I watched my
country’s military failures unfold. Now, as a journalist for The Times, I
wanted to return to report on what had changed, and what hadn’t, on and around
these former battlefields.
In
November, my drive back to the district, now controlled by the Taliban, was
easy enough. The roads were busy with motorbikes and trucks packed with cotton.
The pavement was pockmarked with craters from the roadside bombs the insurgents
had once placed beneath them. Abandoned military and police outposts dotted the
highway like sporadic Stonehenges.
Marja
was as I remembered, but some things had changed. There was a paved road. The
canals were dry.
And
the war was over.
The
two-storied building we had once occupied as a command centre, where my friends
Matt Tooker and Matt Bostrom were shot that day in February, was now a
midwives’ clinic.
On
this trip back to Marja, men weren’t allowed inside. But through the cracked
door, I could see the steps where my wounded friends had sat, bandaged, on
painkillers and smiling, before the evacuation helicopter swooped in.
Around
the same time that a Taliban marksman put a burst of gunfire into my teammates,
Gulab lost one of his fighters — as if the pendulum of violence that played out
that day was trying to balance itself.
“My
friends were shooting at the foreigners from a garden and one was killed,”
Gulab said, before explaining how his men planted explosives meant for
advancing Marines like me.
“For
each IED, one Talib was there to detonate it,” he said.
Gulab
joined the Taliban in 2005, a year before I enlisted in the Marines. He had
just lost two brothers in the fighting, both Talibs.
I
grew up in the Connecticut suburbs. Gulab grew up in an isolated and
mountainous part of Helmand Province.
“When
I was a child I was going to the madrasa, and our mullah was telling us, ‘The
foreigners want to occupy our country, and you guys, you should be ready to
defeat them,’” Gulab explained. “I hoped to join the mujahideen.”
By
the time I landed in Marja, Gulab was a seasoned fighter who had survived
American airstrikes as the steady churn of US and Nato troops flooded into
southern Afghanistan.
He
was in charge of about 60 fighters and understood how to navigate the rules of
engagement that kept foreign troops from killing unarmed Taliban fighters who
tossed their weapons into the nearest ditch.
Whenever
US forces got close, Gulab said, “We would drop our weapons and then come out
on the streets and say ‘hi’ to them, and they’d ask us, ‘Where are the
Taliban?’ and we’d reply, ‘We don’t know’. After that, kids and villagers would
collect our weapons and keep them in their homes until we got them back.”
Gulab
said his fighters would use children to spot patrols and call his men as soon
as the Americans left their posts. He mentioned it as a casual aside, but a
decade ago, as we started to learn that eight-year-olds were putting our
friends’ lives at risk, we wondered — and argued about — how far we’d be
willing go to make sure none of us died in a war we had already realised we
were losing.
As
Gulab recounted his memories of all the ways his friends killed my friends and
vice versa, I looked at his rifle next to my right arm. He had propped it in
the chair next to me before I sat down. It was an American M4 carbine, much
like the one I carried in 2010.
For a
brief moment I was in between time, between the beginning of my war and its
end.
The
rifle was a familiar tool, once an extension of myself and always within arm’s
reach. But now that it was no longer needed, it was little more than a mass of
plastic and steel, and it had no bearing on how I interacted with Marja and
Gulab. He was no longer an enemy but a man sitting on the floor, pondering his
next sentence. He wasn’t fighting in a war that seemed like it would never end.
And neither was I.
He
had won his war. I had lost mine.
Source:
Telegraph India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Arab World
Raghad
Saddam Hussein remembers slain father 15 years on
30
December ,2021
Saddam
Hussein’s daughter has marked 15 years since her father was executed by calling
on Iraqis to unite and come to terms with the changes in the Arab world.
Sitting
in front of a portrait of her slain father, Raghad Saddam Hussein said it was
time for Iraqis to forgive one another regardless of sect or background, “even
those who made mistakes.”
In an
interview with Al Arabiya earlier this year, Hussein said Iran deemed Iraq
“free for taking” due to an absence of real and legitimate authorities.
In
her latest speech, she said Iraq should not side with an Arab side over another
Arab. “We will urge them to avoid disagreements and conflicts amongst each
other because their strength is our strength,” she said in a recorded message.
WATCH:
Saddam Hussein's daughter, Raghad, marks 15 years since he was executed by
calling on Iraqis to unite and come to terms with changes in the Arab
world.https://t.co/VmKfs13wq6 pic.twitter.com/Et75TuM675
— Al
Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) December 30, 2021
Hussein,
who has not ruled out a future in Iraqi politics, said the only Iraqis who
should not forgive others are the parents of the “October Revolution” victims.
She was referring to the protesters that were shot, beaten and killed by Iraqi
security forces or Iran-backed militias.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iraqi
president convenes new parliament for January 9: Decree
30
December ,2021
Iraq’s
new parliament will convene on Jan. 9, according to a decree issued on Thursday
by President Barham Salih, preparing the way for lawmakers to put a new
government in place.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Guardian:
Assassins of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi living in luxury villas in
Riyadh
31
December 2021
At
least three members of a Saudi hit squad convicted of involvement in the
gruesome killing of prominent dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside
the Saudi consulate in Istanbul back in October 2018 are reportedly living and
working “in seven-star accommodation” inside a government-run security compound
in the Saudi capital Riyadh
According
to a report published by British daily newspaper The Guardian, a source
connected to senior members of Saudi intelligence said the assassins are believed
to be staying in villas and buildings run by Saudi Arabia’s Presidency of State
Security, and are being kept far from the walls and bars of its infamous
prisons.
The
source has spoken to two witnesses who claim to have seen the men.
They
said family members frequently visit the men, who are able to use a gym and
workspaces on the site.
All
the three men were among the defendants sentenced in December 2019 before the
so-called Riyadh Criminal Court, in a trial broadly condemned as a sham, for
“committing and directly participating in the murder” of The Washington Post
columnist and Saudi critic.
The
source confirmed that Salah al-Tubaigy, the forensic scientist who dismembered
Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, was one of those seen inside
the facility.
Mustafa
al-Madani, the body double dispatched by the hit squad team to create the ruse
that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, has also been seen, as has Mansour
Abahussein, who is accused of leading the operation.
Both
witnesses have visited the compound on several occasions in the past two years.
They say the men were relaxed and appeared to be performing normal duties.
Visitors,
including caterers, gardeners, technicians and family members, frequently
attend the compound, according to the intelligence source.
The
sightings cast further doubt on Riyadh’s claims to be holding the killers to
account and come as Saud al-Qahtani, a former top aide to Saudi Arabia’s crown
prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), is quietly edging back to
power, with social media influencers loyal to the Riyadh regime seeking to
reintroduce him as a figure who has served the kingdom.
Qahtani
has been acquitted of any involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, despite a western
intelligence assessment that he had masterminded the assassination at the Saudi
crown prince’s behest.
Khashoggi
was murdered on October 2, 2018 after he entered the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul to obtain a document stating that he was divorced, so that he could
marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.
Recording
and other evidence gathered by Turkish authorities revealed how a team of Saudi
agents subdued, killed and then dismembered the journalist inside the
diplomatic mission.
Saudi
Arabia initially issued conflicting stories about Khashoggi’s disappearance,
but eventually said that he was killed in a “rogue” operation.
US
court tosses Saudi suit against former top Saudi intelligence officer
Additionally,
a US judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a Saudi state-owned firm against former
top Saudi intelligence official Saad al-Jabri.
It
ruled that a rarely used US government intervention to stop the release of
classified information prevented the case from proceeding.
“The
court is unconvinced” that it could rule for Sakab Saudi Holding Co. without
involving the materials that the US government deemed state secrets, US
District Court of Massachusetts Judge Nathaniel Gorton said.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Yemen
calls on UN Security Council to hold Saudi Arabia, its arms suppliers to
account for devastating war
30
December 2021
Yemeni
Foreign Minister in the National Salvation Government Hisham Sharaf Abdullah
has called upon the UN Security Council to hold Saudi Arabia and its arms
suppliers to account in accordance with the international law over their war
crimes in the crisis-stricken Arab country.
Abdullah,
in identical letters addressed to the rotating president of the Security
Council Abdou Abarry and members of the UN body, asked them to expose the
groundless nature of allegations at the center of the Saudi letter to the
Council on December 28.
Earlier,
in a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the president of the
Security Council, the permanent representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN,
Abdallah al-Mouallimi, had asked the world body to hold Yemen's Houthi
Ansarullah movement accountable for their retaliatory attacks on Saudi targets,
claiming that those attacks endangered peace.
In
reaction, the Yemeni foreign minister urged the Security Council to assume its
responsibilities with regards to international peace and security, particularly
in the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf region, and to take measures that
would stop Saudi Arabia’s constant threats and indiscriminate bombardment of
civilian facilities, and protect the Yemeni nation against terrorism and crimes
being perpetrated by the Riyadh regime and its allies
Abdullah
stressed that Saudi Arabia is seeking to portray itself as a victim in order to
evoke the international community’s sympathy, and escape global condemnation
over flagrant violation of the international law.
The
Yemeni foreign minister highlighted that incontrovertible and straightforward
facts about the Saudi-led war on Yemen cannot be denied.
“It
was Saudi Arabia that launched this barbaric military aggression and took the
entire Yemeni territories under attack with the most sophisticated rockets and
missiles as well as internationally banned chemical weapons,” Abdullah pointed
out.
“It
is fairly bizarre that the Security Council and the international community
keep mum and do not condemn the crimes being committed on a daily basis by the
Saudi-led coalition of aggression, but rush to cry foul when Sana’a exercises
its right of self-defense under the international law and the Charter of the
United Nations and targets Saudi military sites and strategic facilities with
its domestically-developed armament,” the letter read.
“Saudi
Arabia is either working directly or through its allied Takfiri terrorist
groups to put obstacles in the way of Yemen peace, and is pressing for the
settlement of Yemen conflict according to its own interests. All this happen
while the kingdom is not taking into account the humanitarian catastrophe which
it has caused in Yemen,” Abdullah underscored.
The
top Yemeni diplomat went on to say that the Salvation Government and all
Sana’a-based political factions reject all attempts aimed at Saudi hegemony over
Yemen, but welcome just and honorable peace for the entire Yemeni nation.
He
called on Saudi Arabia and its allies to review their positions and rectify
their miscalculations, emphasizing that Riyadh should realize that a
comprehensive political solution to Yemen's crisis is the key to normalcy of
life in Yemen and establishment of good neighborly relations.
The
Yemeni foreign minister also underlined the need for goodwill and urgent
measures in order to pave the way for political peace negotiations and stop the
Saudi-led war on Yemen.
He
said practical steps must be taken in order to ensure full withdrawal of
foreign forces from Yemeni territories, reopen Sana'a International Airport to
commercial and civil flights, facilitate the entry of ships loaded with oil
derivatives, natural gas and commercial goods to the port of Hudaydah, and
resolve a series of problems that have held up salaries for public sector
workers.
Abdullah
finally called on the Security Council to adopt a clear stance towards Yemen
peace by adoption of a binding resolution, and demanded an end to the brutal
Saudi-led aggression and siege.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
1
injured in car bombing in northern Syria
Omer
Koparan
30.12.2021
AZAZ,
Syria
One
person was injured in a car bomb attack in the Azaz city, northern Syria on
Thursday.
According
to preliminary reports, the explosion caused damage to property in the Syrian
opposition-held city.
The
injured person was taken to a local hospital.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/1-injured-in-car-bombing-in-northern-syria/2461265
--------
King
Salman says Iran’s destabilizing acts remain a ‘great concern’ for Saudi Arabia
December
30, 2021
RIYADH:
Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday expressed hopes that Iran would abandon
its policy of destabilization and aggression and cooperate in bringing peace
and stability to the Mideast region.
“Iran
is a neighboring country to the Kingdom. We hope that it will change its
negative policy and behavior in the region and shift towards dialogue and
cooperation,” the king said in his annual speech to the Saudi Shoura Council.
His
wide-ranging speech, delivered virtually in view of the resurgent COVID-19
pandemic, also reaffirmed Saudi Arabia's initiative to end the conflict in
Yemen and support for the people of Lebanon in the face of economic crisis and
security threats from the Hezbollah.
Saudi
Arabia and its Arab and Western allies have accused Iran of supporting
militias, including the Hezbollah of Lebanon, the Houthis of Yemen and the
Hashd of Iraq in fighting its proxy wars.
Iran's
nuclear weapons program has also been a cause for concern, with Israel
threatening to take preemptive action unless it is stopped, a move that is
feared to spark a conflagration.
“We
are following with great concern the policy of the Iranian regime that
destabilizes security and stability in the region, including the establishment
and support of sectarian and armed militias, the systematic deployment of its
military capabilities in the countries of the region, and its lack of
cooperation with the international community regarding the nuclear program and
its development of ballistic missile programs,” King Salman said.
“We
are also following up on the Iranian regime’s support for the terrorist Houthi
militia, which stretches the war in Yemen, exacerbates the humanitarian crisis
there, and threatens the security of the Kingdom and the region,” he said.
Yemen
conflict
King
Salman reaffirmed Saudi Arabia's initiative "to end the conflict in Yemen
and supports global and international efforts to reach a political solution, in
accordance with the three references: The Gulf initiative and its
implementation mechanism, the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference, and
UN Security Council Resolution No. 2216”.
Apart
from supporting Yemen's legitimate government in containing the threat of the
Iranian-backed Houthis, Saudi Arabia has continued to provide aid of various
kinds to alleviate the human suffering of the Yemeni people. Houthis dislodged
the government of then President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi from Yemen's capital,
Sanaa, in 2014 promoting intervention by a coalition of Arab states led by
Saudi Arabia.
Since
then on, the Houthis have been bombarding mostly civilian targets in the
Kingdom's southern borders with missile and armed drone attacks.
Saudi
Arabia has been prodding the parties involved "to accept political
solutions" to end the conflict, but the United Nations-brokered peace
negotiations have so far been unsuccessful.
On
Lebanon, the king said Saudi Arabia continues to stand by its Lebanese
brothers.
He
urged Lebanon's leaders "work to achieve what the brotherly Lebanese
people aspire to in terms of security, stability and prosperity, in addition to
stop Hezbollah’s terrorist control over the country.”
On
Afghanistan, he said Saudi Arabia is "closely following the
developments" as he stressed the "importance of the stability and
security of Afghanistan instead of being a haven for terrorist
organizations."
"The
Kingdom also urges intensifying regional and international efforts to provide
humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Afghan
people. In this regard, the Kingdom called for a special meeting of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Ministerial Council in December 2021, to
provide relief to the brotherly people of Afghanistan,” he said.
Vision
2030
The
king took the occasion to commend Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he
credited for the various visionary projects being undertaken as part of the
Kingdom's Vision 2030 program.
He
mentioned the start of the second phase of Vision 2030, the goal of which is to
create a diversified economy.
Saudi
Arabia's economy had been dependent on the oil industry, which had proven to be
disadvantageous as the price of oil has continued to drop worldwide. To achieve
the goals of Vision 2030, King Salman launched wide-ranging reforms, such as
developing non-oil industries, allowing women to play a bigger role in
nation-building, and developing the tourism industry and opening up the Kingdom
to global tourists.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1995201/saudi-arabia
--------
Europe
9
Serbs Indicted For Killing Over 100 Muslim Bosniaks In The 1992-95 War
December
30, 2021
A
Bosnian war crimes prosecutor has indicted nine Bosnian Serbs for the killing
of around 100 Muslim Bosniaks, including seven entire families, early in the
1992-95 war, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Twenty-six
years after the end of its devastating war between Orthodox Serbs, Catholic
Croats and Muslim Bosniaks in which about 100,000 people had died, Bosnia is
still searching for people who went missing and seeking justice against the
suspected perpetrators.
At
the same time, the Balkan country is going through its worst post-war political
crisis, with Bosnian Serb leaders’ threat of pulling out of Bosnia’s national
institutions, including the joint armed forces, raising fears of a new
conflict.
The
nine men, the former members and commanders of the Bosnian Serb wartime army,
are accused of killing the Bosniak civilians from the area around the
southeastern Bosnian town of Nevesinje, including dozens of women, elderly
people and small children.
Source:
Blue Print
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.blueprint.ng/bosnian-war-9-serbs-indicted-for-killing-over-100-muslims/
--------
Muslim
Brotherhood found a new home in Europe
Giulio
Meotti
December
30, 2021
After
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi overthrew the Egyptian government led by the Muslim Brotherhood,
the Islamist leadership ended up in jail. The Economist tells us that Ibrahim
Mounir, the new Supreme Guide, now lives and works from London, from which he
"oversees the international network of the Brotherhood and has good
relations with foreign governments".
"In
the depths of the British capital, the Muslim Brotherhood office has become one
of the most active branches of the Islamist group," writes Foreign Policy.
London
was the "natural home" for the Islamic Brotherhood. It was already
home to the Brotherhood's English-language site, "Ikhwanweb". Gomaa
Amin, the second in command and the oldest member of the Brotherhood not in
prison, also lives in London. The son of Essam al-Haddad, arrested by the
Egyptian security forces, is one of the leaders of the London wing. They use
facade foundations, such as Cordoba, which takes its name from the Spanish city
that was long conquered by Islam.
The
Sunday Telegraph revealed that the main hubs for the Brotherhood's operations
in Europe are Westgate House, a building to the west of London, and Crown
House, to the north. "They contain at least 25 organizations linked to the
Brotherhood".
And
from London, the Muslim Brotherhood is now launching mega projects in the heart
of Europe.
The
Europe Trust, a UK-based organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, has
just acquired a € 4 million property in Berlin's Wedding district, reports Die
Welt. “Wedding - a former working-class neighborhood in Berlin - has been
transformed into a stronghold of political Islam and a hotspot for religious
extremists. Now it is known for being a community full of mosques, shops,
Islamic cultural centers and associations ”.
Jean-Louis
Harouel, law historian at the Paris II University and author of Human Rights
Against the People (Liberilibri), in the weekly Valeurs Actuelles, has just
explained that Islamists have found a great ally in Brussels. “Institutional
Europe is the worst enemy of the peoples of Europe”.
A
pro-Islamic partisanship that has manifested itself just recently with the
attempt by the Council of Europe to launch a major propaganda campaign,
co-financed by the European Union, in favor of the hijab, presented as an
instrument of women's freedom. "The Council of Europe strongly supports
the expansion of Islam in Europe, declaring that 'Muslims are at home in
Europe' (resolution 1743)," explains Harouel. “European leaders, like
those of Western European countries, persist in denying that Islam is not only
a religion, but also a civilization, and a civilization hostile to European
civilization. They refuse to see the obvious, which is that Europe is currently
a victim of the muffled process of Muslim conquest."
"It
is in this spirit of submission that the European Union urged its officials to
refrain from talking about Christmas, so as not to anger Muslims by naming a
Christian holiday. The remains of Christianity have more legitimacy on European
soil than those who claim to import other cults and other civilizations, who
must be prevented from enslaving Europeans by subjecting them to some form of
dhimmitude ”.
If
the European Commission and the Council of Europe seem to work daily against
the defense of European identity and civilization, the two composite
institutions have a very generous hand (with European taxpayers' money) when it
comes to granting funds to associations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. 64
million euros of public subsidies granted since 2007, this is the count just
established by Global Watch Analysis: "At the top of the Islamist
organizations that receive European subsidies there are three types of
associations: Islamist humanitarian NGOs, youth or women's associations and
community organizations that they are conducting a 'legal jihad' against the
opponents of Islam ”.
The
latest Brussels madness was revealed by Fild. The European Union has financed a
program against "gender Islamophobia" - more than 160,000 euros of
public money - under the aegis of the European Institute for the Mediterranean.
The objective of this project is to: teach journalism students from Belgium and
Spain to recognize and combat "gender Islamophobia".
Fatiha
Agag Boudjahlat, teacher and essayist from Toulouse, tells Fild that “it is the
new semantic Trojan horse used by the Islamists. They appropriate the image of
women for their soft power, as well as for their economic influence. Today the
pseudo-NGOs approved by the European Union or the European Council pass off
their Islamist demands as struggles for civil rights. And of course you
understand that the defense of women's rights is more consensual than that of
bearded men in qamis ”.
Source:
Israel National News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Mental
health no longer taboo in Muslim communities, say UK specialists
SARAH
GLUBB
December
30, 2021
LONDON:
Discussing mental health is becoming more acceptable among Muslim communities
in Britain and misconceptions are being properly addressed, experts have
claimed.
“Mental
health has been around for a long time, but we have not accepted it or actually
sought help, and now we need to get minority communities in the UK, and
globally, to understand that mental health is not a stigma, it’s not black
magic or jinn possession, it is actually an illness,” Mohammed Kothia, an
emotional support specialist, told Arab News.
“There’s
a realization now that it’s ok to not be ok, it’s better to speak and address
the problems one has, rather than suffer in silence or brush it under the
carpet,” he said.
Another
common misconception is that non-religious mental health professionals will
impose their views on you and undermine your Islamic beliefs, Kothia added.
Muslim
communities tend to go spiritual healers who may have no mental health
background, rather than skilled, qualified professionals who have ethical
obligations and a code of conduct.
“It’s
important to seek help in the correct place, and I think as a community, maybe
we have failed at times to do that,” he said, adding: “If Islam and your
spirituality is an important factor in your life, then you should have an open
discussion with your therapist or counselor.”
Kothia
said that Muslims have the same issues as everyone else.
For
example, the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns have caused stress, anxiety,
depression and isolation to affect all groups. Families have struggled with
death and grieving, especially when they were unable to see loved ones during
the final stages of their lives or to perform normal funeral rites due to
government restrictions.
Kothia
said financial implications may become more severe in the months to come due to
the pandemic, a rise in inflation, unemployment — especially among youth — cost
of living, and a worsening energy crisis.
Personal
wellbeing in the UK during the first and second wave of the pandemic was among
the lowest levels in a decade, the Office for National Statistics said in its
annual report earlier this month.
There
has been a significant increase in the number of people accessing mental health
services in the last year, according to the UK National Health Service, and as
a result, a number of charities and organizations have taken a proactive focus
to address the core of the problem.
Kothia,
who is also heavily involved at his local mosque in east London and sees the
issues in the community firsthand, said in the last five years, there had also
been a massive rise in Muslim and other minority counselors and emotional
support volunteers that are “breaking barriers,” and the next stage is to get
more Muslim specialists in the field.
The
other positive is the youth are now being taught about mental health, with
hopes that it will not be stigmatized.
This
comes down to education, Kothia said, which is why “awareness in the Muslim
community and the wider society, will lead to more of us working in the field,
and the more awareness we can bring to our communities, then naturally, that
collective work will lead to a positive outcome.”
The
London-based mental health and bereavement charity Supporting Humanity runs a
free emotional support helpline, and said in the last three months they have
seen a sharp increase in calls.
Many
people feel they are not heard and are worried of being judged, so the key is
active listening, anonymity and confidentiality, Kothia, who also volunteers at
the helpline, said. “We underestimate the power of lending an ear and
listening.”
Supporting
Humanity, which was set up at the start of the pandemic and has trained nearly
30 people to be mental health advisers, said the elderly were among their top
callers.
“The
pandemic has left a lasting impact on our elderly, and their anxiety and
depression levels, and I think the government hasn’t addressed this issue that
‘shielding’ has had a massive impact on our society,” Kothia said.
Levels
of loneliness in Britain have increased since last spring, and 5 percent of
people (about 2.6 million adults) said that they felt lonely “often” or
“always,” and that proportion increased to 7.2 percent of the adult population
(about 3.7 million) by February, the ONS said in April.
“Some
of them have been struggling for years and they talk about how they thought
about committing suicide numerous times, how they trap themselves in a room
because they’re embarrassed or scared to go and talk to other people, there’s
so many people out there with various different mental health issues,” said
Idris Patel, the charity’s CEO.
He
also said more marketing campaigns and outreach programs are needed in
community centers, schools and universities, businesses, GP surgeries as well
as religious centers and mosques as they are “catchment areas” for people who
are suffering or contemplating suicide.
The
charity also regularly trains imams to explain the differences between black
magic and mental health, directing people to professionals and charities, and
highlighting free services.
Suicide
and attempted suicide rates in the Muslim community have increased,
particularly among youth, which account for half of the British Muslim
population. A report released in July by the Better Community Business Network,
a Muslim-led organization supporting mental health and positive wellbeing of
Muslim communities across the UK, in partnership with the University of East
London, found that 64 percent of Muslim youth said they experience suicidal
thoughts and nearly one-fifth said they had turned to no one when undergoing
difficulties.
Addiction
is another major issue, Patel said, as parents are not tackling the root of the
problem, are embarrassed to admit their child has a drug or alcohol problem,
and do not seek professional help. So is domestic violence, he added.
Shamam
Chowdhury was introduced to the charity after her 22 year-old son was murdered
and needed funeral services, and was also introduced to mental health and
emotional support.
British-Bangladeshi
Mohammed Aqil Mahdi, an accounting and finance student at Greenwich University,
was found stabbed to death in east London on Nov. 6. Three suspects have been
charged with murder.
“I
was very overwhelmed because I’ve never been in this kind of situation and one,
I’ve just lost my son, which was shocking itself, and second, not knowing or
understanding anything,” she said.
With
police inspectors contacting her for statements, and then finding out she would
not be able to see her son until after the postmortem examination, the 45
year-old single mother felt lost and alone.
The
charity stepped in and handled all the paperwork, logistics, postmortem, the
ghusl (the washing process Muslims have to undertake before burial), the burial
and the funeral (janazah) prayer, as part of the end-to-end bereavement
services its offers to help people focus on grieving.
“When
you are in that kind of situation where you’ve just lost, I would say, your
most valuable thing in this world, and then being in a situation where you have
no clue how to go about these things,” she said, describing the torment of her
experiences, but added that an emotional support adviser made her feel “like
there was a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1995681/world
--------
COVID-19
pandemic deepens online Islamophobia in Europe
Omer
Tugrul Cam
31.12.2021
BRUSSELS
2020
saw a rise in online Islamophobia as COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed and daily
life shut down across Europe, according to a report.
The
report called "European Islamophobia Report 2020" was prepared by
Enes Bayrakli, an international relations professor at Istanbul-based Turkish-German
University, and Farid Hafez, a political scientist from Georgetown University's
Bridge Initiative.
The
report included 37 academics, experts, civil society activists' contributions
to the coverage of 31 European countries.
According
to the report, the COVID-19 epidemic, which severely affected Europe in 2020,
had different effects on Islamophobia.
"In
some countries, with the forced retreat of everyday life to the intimate
private sphere, physical Islamophobia has decreased. Yet, at the same time,
Islamophobia has moved to the private sphere and is being spread especially in
social media."
This
report underlines, "The overwhelming majority of European states do not
record Islamophobic incidents as a separate category of hate crime. The
recording of anti-Muslim/Islamophobic crimes by the police as a separate
category of hate crime is essential to uncover the real extent of this problem
and to develop counter-strategies to combat it."
This
report also says in the EU, only 12% of Muslims who have been discriminated
against report their cases to the authorities.
It
also shares statistics for the previous years as well as for 2020. Accordingly,
the situation in European countries was as follows:
Austria
and the Czech Republic
A
total of 812 anti-Muslim hate crimes were documented in Austria in 2020. This
figure is over double the number of 2019 with 385 cases.
Due
to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of online hate crimes rose. In
comparison, 3,215 cases were documented in 2020, 1,822 digital hate messages in
2019. Of these cases, 144 had anti-Muslim content.
A
total of seven incidents related to anti-Muslim prejudice were recorded by a
human rights organization in the Czech Republic.
Germany
A
total of 901 Islamophobic crimes were registered by the Federal Criminal Police
Office in Germany in 2020.
In
the country, 18 anti-Islam demonstrations were held, 16 of which were organized
by the racist PEGIDA movement in the same year.
In
2019, a total of 31,472 extremist crimes with a political background were recorded
in the country. Compared to the previous year, such crimes increased by 13.8%.
In total, 21,290 of these crimes were committed by right-wing extremists.
Extremist violent crimes decreased by 13.7% to 925 in 2019.
Of
the 8,585 hate crimes in Germany, 2,032 were recorded as anti-Semitic and 950
as Islamophobic crimes.
In
2019, 3,703 crimes were detected in the "anti-foreigner" crime
category. Of these, 506 were violent offenses.
France
235
Islamophobic cases were recorded in France in 2020. This number was 154 in
2019. There was a 14 % increase in anti-Islamic actions and a 79% increase in
threats.
According
to the latest study by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights,
crimes committed with racial motives rose by 11% in 2019. There was a 54%
increase in Islamophobic acts.
In
the organization's research called "the Collective against Islamophobia in
France," Islamophobia increased in the country in 2019, and 800 actions
were recorded in this context. Islamophobic actions increased by 77 % in two
years by 2020.
It
was reported that the organization could not publish data for 2020 as it was
targeted and shut down by the government.
Belgium,
the Netherlands
According
to the statistics published in 2020 in Belgium, 90.6% of recorded Islamophobic
cases pertaining to individuals were enacted against women in the preceding
year. This is up from 75% of all victims being female in 2018.
26.3%
of Islamophobic cases were related to employment. 48% of Islamophobic cases
were recorded in the capital Brussels, 23% in Wallonia, and 4% in Flanders.
According
to reports in the Netherlands, people with a migration background, mainly
Turkish and Moroccan, and Muslims, face relatively high discrimination.
It is
stated that these people feel strongly stigmatized, discriminated, and
excluded, to the extent of people retreating from society, losing their faith
in institutions or simply giving up when it comes to education or finding a
job.
Scandinavia
Statistics
show that Muslim women experience discrimination in their labor force
participation in Denmark. It is determined that Muslim women who wear a hijab
have to send %60 more job applications than white Danish women.
Also,
minority ethnic women have to make 18% more job applications than white Danish
women.
Hate crimes
in Finland decreased by 1.2% to 899 cases in 2019.
In
the previous year, this number was 910 cases. On the other hand, the number of
ethnic agitation cases rose to 105 from 34. As in previous years, the majority
of the victims in these incidents were Muslims.
72%
of the hate crimes recorded in Finland were related to the person's ethnic
background and 14% were related to their religious background. Somalis, Iraqis,
and Turks suffered the most from these attacks, respectively.
Spain
In
2019, hate crimes increased by 6.8% compared to the previous year in the
country.
A
total of 1,706 complaints were made over hate crimes. Of these, 66 were related
to religion, and 515 to racism and xenophobia. No segregated statistics for
anti-Muslim bias are available.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/covid-19-pandemic-deepens-online-islamophobia-in-europe/2462001
--------
Ex-head
of UK armed forces admits nobody understood Afghanistan’s politics
December
30, 2021
LONDON:
The former head of the British armed forces has admitted that no one involved
in operations in Afghanistan had a “true understanding” of the politics of the
country. Gen. Sir Nick Carter also described the withdrawal from the country
and the collapse of its Western-backed government as “shocking.”
Speaking
to BBC Radio 4, he said it is “probably still true” that the majority of
Afghans would not support the Taliban.
Discussing
the calamitous end in August of NATO’s two-decade campaign in Afghanistan,
Carter said: “I think at the end of the day it comes down to politics, the
local politics in Afghanistan, and I don’t think there was ever a true
understanding of the political dynamics on the ground, and therefore the
ability to be able to rationalize that.”
Speaking
of the chaotic scenes during the evacuation effort in Kabul, he said that “they
were shocking moments for all of us.
“And
of course you think of so many people in times like that. You think of all of
those who’ve committed their lives to the cause over the last 20 years, you
think of the Afghan people, and of course you wonder how it ended like that —
because we thought we had a good plan, we were going to deliver something at
the end of all of that. It was a true shock, I think, to most of us who’d been
involved.”
Carter
served as chief of the defense staff until the end of November. He said the
West must now engage with the Taliban to prevent a devastating humanitarian
crisis.
“I
also think it’s important that we engage because we might be able to encourage
them to govern in a different way,” he added. “And the fact that they are
governing in an utterly uninclusive way is something that we need to worry
about.”
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1995661/world
--------
British
Muslim hikers receive overwhelming support in response to racist comments
December
30, 2021
LONDON:
The founder of a Muslim hiking group in Britain has said they have received an
“overwhelming response in terms of solidarity” after racist comments were made
about the group on Facebook.
One
of the hikers, who shared photos from the Christmas Day walk in England’s Peak
District, said they had seen a comment “comparing the walkers to the Serengeti
wildebeest migration.”
Haroon
Mota, the founder of Muslim Hikers, led more than 100 people on a Christmas Day
hike. He said he chose Dec. 25 as the route would be quieter than usual.
But
after sharing photos from the trip on Facebook, the walkers were accused of
damaging the area and not being “proper walkers,” as well as having racist
comments made about them.
Mota,
from Coventry, told the Press Association: “There were some very racist
comments being made.”
“These
types of comments, racist comments, only make it more problematic for those
from our community who feel less empowered to get outside.
“For
people who might be joining for the first time, they might think ‘oh wow, is
this what people actually think?’
“One
of the reasons why we set up Muslim Hikers was so that we could stand together
and for greater diversity and inclusion.
“We’ve
been working extremely hard to create a culture of confidence in the outdoors.”
Another
hiker, Selma Mehboob, 43, shared pictures from the day on a local Facebook
group, but was met with abuse by a minority of people.
She
told PA: “I have never seen comments made like this about any other groups of
people walking in this Facebook group, so why was it picked up when I posted
our trek?
“Someone
made a comment that it’s not racism, just that some people enjoy hating on
others.
“Whilst
I appreciate there is truth in that, unfortunately there were some racist
comments such as comparing the walkers to the Serengeti wildebeest migration.
“The
majority of comments had been wonderfully supportive and I need to stress how
heart warming and reassuring the support has been for the trek, but I noticed
early on that there were some quite disparaging and mocking comments.”
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1995646/world
--------
More
than 90 jailed terrorists could be freed early from British prisons
December
30, 2021
LONDON:
More than 90 convicted terrorists could soon be released from British prisons,
figures have revealed, with some due to appear before the Parole Board within
months.
Emergency
laws were implemented by the UK government in 2020 after two attacks were
carried out in quick succession by terrorists recently freed from jail.
Those
laws blocked the early release of terrorists from jail, forcing them to serve
at least two thirds of their sentence. Their cases must also be appraised
individually by the Parole Board.
There
are 92 such cases, with some due to come before parole judges in 2022, The
Times has reported.
Among
those due to appear before the Parole Board is Rangzieb Ahmed — the first
person to be convicted in the UK of directing terrorism after heading a
three-man Al-Qaeda cell preparing to commit mass murder, whose case is expected
to be ruled upon in March.
That
same month, the Parole Board will consider the early release of Jawad Akbar,
who plotted to bomb a shopping center in Kent and a club in London in 2004.
Neo-Nazi
Jack Coulson, who manufactured a bomb in his bedroom, will be considered for
release in February.
The
revelation that dozens of terrorists could be freed from jail imminently
prompted calls from MPs for a review of the parole system for terrorists.
David
Jones, Conservative MP for Clwyd West, said: “These are by any standards
seriously dangerous criminals, and there will be huge concern at the prospect
of their release next year.
“The
government should urgently review the parole rules to ensure that those who
continue to pose any threat are not granted early release.”
Dominic
Raab, the justice secretary, is expected to publish reforms in the new year.
The anticipated changes include renaming the Parole Board to emphasize its
focus on protecting the public.
Richard
Holden, Conservative MP for North West Durham, said: “The government is rightly
reviewing the Parole Board and it is vital this includes a proper review of the
rules regarding terrorists, ensuring the rules relating to them are the most
stringent of all.”
Since
the new legislation came into force in 2020, 117 cases have been referred to
the Parole Board. So far 11 people have been freed and 14 refused release.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1995641/world
--------
North America
Gabriel
Boric's election win in Chile 'bad news for Israel': Report
28
December 2021
The
historic win of Gabriel Boric, a supporter of Palestine and the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, in Chile's presidential
election has sparked concerns in Tel Aviv.
An
article published in London-based Arabic newspaper Rai al-Youm noted that the
35-year-old leftist’s election win was “a bad news for Israel”.
Boric,
who is slated to assume office on March 22, defeated his far-right rival
Antonio Kast earlier this month to become the South American country’s youngest
leader ever.
The
article in Rai al-Youm stressed that Boric’s election win “represented a model
for generalizing ‘the global hatred against Israel’”.
It
said a number of Israeli analysts and observers had “warned of the danger of
Boric’s election and its repercussions” on the Israeli regime not only because
of his support for Palestine but also due to his condemnation of the Tel Aviv
regime for perpetuating genocide against Palestinians.
Citing
Israeli journalist Amnon Lord’s article published in Hebrew-language daily
Israel Hayom, it said the victory of Boric is considered “a bad news for
Israeli because the radical left in South America …considers them [the Jewish]
servants of the Israeli imperialism, and, with the passage of years, the
countries of South America have become opponents of Israel, and in which
slogans that say that Israel is pursuing a policy of racial segregation against
Palestinians are promoted.”
The
article further said that Tel Aviv is “disturbed” by latest political
developments in Chile and is “attempting to exaggerate anti-Jewish conditions
there” in order to pursue “early blackmail policy against the winning
president”.
The
article noted that the decision-making circles in Tel Aviv see the victory of
Boric as “a golden opportunity” for the BDS, which works to end international
support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply
with international law.
It
stated that Boric’s victory could be “generalized in other countries” and the
wave could expand beyond Latin America to North America, home to Israel’s main
supporters, the US and Canada.
According
to the Israeli assessment, the newspaper said, the latest developments in Chile
require “a quick response to stop this series that it considers hostile, amid
the spread of similar phenomenon in the European continent for a long time.”
The
anti-Israel and pro-Palestine narrative has been growing louder in the Israeli
media and intelligentsia circles in recent years.
Earlier
this year, B’Tselem, an Israeli advocacy group, referred to the regime in Tel
Aviv as “apartheid regime” that systematically oppresses the Palestinians via
military occupation and racist laws.
Israel
occupied the West Bank and East al-Quds during the Six-Day War in 1967. It
later annexed East al-Quds in a move not recognized by the international
community.
Palestinians
want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East
Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
About
600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation
of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/12/28/673558/Chile-new-president-raises-concerns-Israel
--------
US
says 'remains concerned’ over Iran’s scientific progress amid sanctions
31
December 2021
The
United States has voiced concerns over Iran’s launch of research devices into
space, which marked another major milestone and scientific achievement for the
Islamic Republic in the midst of the “toughest ever” US sanctions against the
country.
“The
United States remains concerned with Iran’s development of space launch
vehicles,” a US State Department spokesperson said on Thursday after Iran
successfully launched a rocket carrying three research devices into space.
The
spokesperson claimed that Iran’s space launch vehicles pose a “significant
proliferation concern” and that they “incorporate technologies that are
virtually identical to, and interchangeable with, those used in ballistic
missiles, including longer-range systems.”
Earlier
on Thursday, a spokesman for Iran’s Defense Ministry announced that the
country’s domestically-built satellite carrier rocket, Simorgh (Phoenix),
launched three research devices in a space research mission that scored yet
another achievement for the Islamic Republic’s civilian space program.
“We
will speed up work so that we can become one of the six countries that can
launch satellites into the GEO (geostationary) orbit,” Ahmad Hosseini said.
Nevertheless,
the US spokesperson claimed that Tehran’s space launches violate UN Security
Council Resolution 2231.
Resolution
2231 was adopted on July 20, 2015, endorsing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program. The US exited the deal on May 8, 2018
to impose sanctions against the Islamic Republic without any legal
justification.
According
to the resolution, “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related
to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons,
including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”
The
US has occasionally referred to the resolution to condemn Iran’s defensive
missile program and its satellite launches.
Iran
contends that it has never negotiated over its missile program and that nothing
in Resolution 2231 prohibits the country from its defensive missile activities,
citing the non-mandatory terminology used in it.
Also,
Tehran reassured the world by signing the JCPOA that it does not seek nuclear
weapons, citing repeated reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) that certified Iran’s full compliance with the 2015 deal.
Despite
Iran’s strict compliance with the JCPOA, the US withdrew from the pact and
reinstated harsh economic sanctions against Iran that the deal had lifted.
Tehran
fully honored its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA for an entire year after
the US withdrawal giving the remaining parties ample time to secure its
interests, but as it received no compensation for US sanctions, the Islamic
Republic began to gradually and transparently reduce its nuclear commitments,
in a legal move under the 2015 pact.
As
Iran has pressed ahead with its nuclear advancements, IAEA Director General Rafael
Grossi continued to confirm that he doesn’t have “any credible information”
that Tehran is seeking a nuclear weapon.
Sanctions
failed to hamper Iran’s progress: Analyst
Keaten
Mansfield, a political analyst, told Press TV that Iran’s space exploration
program shows that US sanctions have not been able to hamper its progress.
He
lamented the imposition of severe sanctions by the US government on Iran and
other independent countries, saying the sanctions are aimed at hampering the
scientific development of the targeted countries.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Ghani
blames US deal with Taliban for fall of Afghanistan
30
December ,2021
Afghanistan’s
former president, Ashraf Ghani, has blamed the US deal with the Taliban for the
collapse of his government and claimed that he was made a “scapegoat” after he
secretly fled the country.
“Two
different factions of the Taliban were closing in from two different
directions,” Ghani said in one of his first interviews since escaping
Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates last August. “And the possibility of a
massive conflict between them that would destroy the city of five million and
bring havoc to the people was enormous,” he explained as to why he fled.
For
all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Despite
claims to the contrary by Ghani’s predecessor that the Taliban had agreed not
to take over Kabul, Ghani’s sudden exit paved the way for a quick fall to the
extremist group.
Ghani
said the US deal with the Taliban led to “a violent coup, not a political
agreement, or a political process.”
It
was also reported that he left with briefcases filled with millions of dollars
in cash.
“I
want to categorically state, I did not take any money out of the country,” he
told the BBC. “My style of life is known to everyone. What would I do with the
money?”
The
US is investigating these allegations.
As
for the deal between the US and the Taliban, which would have seen the US draw
down its troop presence in return for peace talks with Ghani’s government, the
former Afghan president said this was the problem.
“Instead
of a peace process, we got a withdrawal process,” he said. He claimed the deal
“erased” him and his government.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Turkish
presidential aide says 1st attempt made on joint mechanism between Turkey, US
Kasim
Ileri
30.12.2021
WASHINGTON
Ankara
sent a letter to Washington on the establishment and functioning of a mechanism
on bilateral relations and issues agreed on by Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and his US counterpart Joe Biden, said Turkey’s presidential spokesman.
Ibrahim
Kalin visited the US to attend the 20th MAS-ICNA (Islamic Circle of North
America-Muslim American Society) Annual Convention in Chicago that brings
together tens of thousands of Muslims from all over the world. In an exclusive
interview with Anadolu Agency, Kalin answered questions, particularly on
Turkish-American relations.
Q:
You have been at the MAS-ICNA Convention held by Muslim umbrella organizations
in Chicago for three days. You met with Muslim opinion leaders. Can you comment
on this convention and your meetings with Muslim opinion leaders?
A:
The MAS-ICNA meeting is the largest annual meeting of the American Muslim
community. It is held in Chicago every year at Christmas time and there is
really great participation. We try to participate as much as possible. Of
course, we have Turkish citizens living here, and they participate. This year,
we are here with our ambassador (Turkey's Ambassador in Washington Hasan Murat
Mercan), our consul (Turkey's Consul General in Chicago Engin Turesin). We have
other student friends. We held various meetings to represent our country as
much as possible and to strengthen the relations between the American society
and the prominent leaders of the society and Turkey. It was a very productive
meeting.
As
you know, Turkey has a special place for the American Muslim community because
many of them come to Turkey. Some people come and invest, some come to Turkey
for vacation or education programs. This place (convention) also provides a
good environment for Turks living in the US to mingle with other Muslim
communities. Here, of course, the American Muslim community is made up of
extremely diverse elements, and their representatives are here in groups. Of
course, the US is a big country, people are living in different ways in many
different parts of the country. Of course, we have always cared about
strengthening our ties with them. As you know, every time our president comes
to the US, he always receives and talks with the leaders of the American
society in New York if he is in New York, or Washington if he is in Washington,
or in other cities he visits. We care about these relations in terms of our
ties with the US in general, because the prominent representatives and leaders
of the American Muslim community hold different positions in many fields from
politics to the economy, from the media to local politics, and we care about
strengthening relations with them for our country.
Foreign
Ministry sent letter to US for joint mechanism
Q:
You talked about relations with the US. 2021 is about to be over and there has
been a new administration in Washington for nearly a year. You have spoken to
your counterpart many times. Can you evaluate the Turkish-American relations in
2021 to cover the approaches of the new administration?
A:
Now, Turkish-US relations have a long and deep-rooted history. Our relationship
is defined at the strategic partnership level, we are also two allied countries
within NATO. But we also witness that the US policies which do not take into
account Turkey's national interests from time to time move away from this
spirit of alliance. There are two to three main issues that overshadow and
poison Turkish-US relations, on which we cannot agree. One of them is the
support given to the PYD and YPG by the US administrations since the (former US
President Barack) Obama period. We have said this support was a wrong policy
from the very beginning, and we repeatedly state that it needs to be changed.
Once support has been given to the PYD and YPG for the fight against Daesh
(ISIS), you cannot eliminate a terrorist organization by supporting another
terrorist organization in principle. Secondly, everyone knows that the YPG and
PYD in Syria are the Syrian branches of the PKK. Americans know this too,
others know as well. Thirdly, it should be underlined that it has created great
discomfort, especially within the Syrian society. Because if you try to build a
policy about Syria by pulling a group to your side -- in other words, only one
ethnic group within the Syrian opposition and society, or a certain group from
within that group that is a Kurdish group that supports the PKK or is a member
of the PKK -- it is obvious that there will be great difficulties in terms of
territorial integrity, political unity and future of Syria. This is one of our
main issues of contention.
Secondly,
there are CAATSA (Combating America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act)
sanctions that are unfairly applied to Turkey due to the S-400 issue. Again,
within this framework, we were subjected to unfair and unlawful practices such
as removing Turkey from the F-35 program.
Thirdly,
the fact that the US has not taken concrete steps regarding the FETO (Fetullah
Terrorist Organization) structure in the US, which does not satisfy us,
constitutes the main points of dispute in the relations between Turkey and the
US. Our expectation, of course, is to implement a policy review process that
takes into account Turkey's national interests. When the Biden administration
came to power, after the Trump era, we contacted them at every level and
expressed our concerns and demands on these issues, and we continue to do so.
Finally, as you know, in the meeting of our president with Mr. Biden on the
margins of the G20 Summit in Rome, these issues were discussed in detail. Not
only these controversial issues, but also developments in the Caucasus, the
process in Syria, Iraq, the fight against terrorism, the Eastern Mediterranean,
and other issues, and developments in Ukraine were also discussed in detail.
As a
result of that meeting, it was agreed to establish a mechanism that will deal
with all issues in Turkey-US relations. Currently, our Foreign Ministry has
sent a paper to the American side on how the structure of this mechanism will
be, what issues will be addressed and how the process will work. Our work on
this continues. Comprehensively, we want to conduct these relations based on
mutual interest and respect, as an equal, fair, and transparent relationship,
but while doing this, of course, Turkey's own national interests, priorities,
and threat perception come first. In this context, our negotiations continue to
advance these relations on the right ground and act with a positive agenda, and
we will continue to work in this direction from now on.
Q:
There are meetings between the Turkish-US defense delegations, and a mechanism
is being established between the foreign ministries, based on what you
mentioned. Do you think it is possible to open a new page between Turkey and
the US? What are your expectations for the next year in this regard?
A: If
certain conditions are met, if certain steps are taken, especially on the
issues related to Turkey's threat perception and national security interests, a
new page will be certainly opened. These relations can progress with a much
more positive agenda, but of course, we can't proceed by ignoring or delaying
the main issues. Despite this, we will continue to do our best to solve these
problems with a positive agenda, from the defense industry to the fight against
terrorism, from trade to regional issues to develop a relationship based on
mutual interest and respect.
If
Turkey has a role in Ukraine crisis, Turkey will take it
Q:
There are concerns in the capitals of Western countries that Russia may attempt
a second invasion of Ukraine. What is Turkey's position on this issue, and what
exactly is Turkey's path towards solving this crisis?
A:
First of all, we are following the tension between Russia and Ukraine with
great concern. Our president has also constantly addressed this issue in his
meetings with both Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Mr. (Ukrainian
President Volodymyr) Zelensky, as well as in meetings with other European
leaders, the president of the US, and other regional leaders. Our advice to
both parties is to lower this tension as soon as possible and take the
necessary steps to prevent a military conflict in the Donbass region in eastern
Ukraine. In this regard, our president told Zelensky and Putin that if Turkey
or himself is expected to play a role in this issue, they can do their bid.
Here, of course, reducing the tension is in everyone's interest.
A new
military conflict, Russia's entry into Ukrainian territory, some military
movements in or on Ukraine, the mobilization of militia forces, or experiencing
conflicts will not benefit anyone.
It
will further increase tensions in the entire region. Thousands of Ukrainians
have already lost their lives due to this tension, and we, of course, have good
relations with Russia in principle, but at the same time, we have a clear
stance on the protection of Ukraine's territorial integrity. Our advice to both
parties is to stay away from such a conflict, reduce tensions, and to settle
their issues through negotiations. If there is a role for Turkey in this
direction, Turkey will certainly play it. Because Turkey has good relations
with both countries at the same time. There are not many countries like Turkey
today. In other words, some countries have relations with Ukraine, but their
relations with Russia are not good, some are the opposite, but our president
has very good relations with both Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky.
In
other words, if there is a role that Turkey can play in the implementation of
smart diplomacy and an effective diplomatic process in this period, of course,
our president will happily fulfill it. The international community also needs
to be very careful. It is of great importance that they display an approach
aimed at reducing tensions and resolving problematic issues between the two
sides, rather than escalating statements or attitudes. Because, you know, the
issue is not just between Russia and Ukraine. When you look at it from a larger
perspective, the issue is reflected in Ukraine as a result of the tension
between Russia and the Western alliance, Russia and NATO, Russia and America,
and Europe. As we are in constant contact with the Western alliance, the US,
Europe, and a part of that alliance and a NATO member country, we are in the
process. Our advice to the Americans and Europeans is to take genuine,
concrete, and convincing steps to reduce tensions If this is achieved, of
course, an important ground for the solution of the issue will be formed, a new
climate will be formed, and everyone should do their best to support this. This
is our main advice to everyone.
Armenian
diaspora needs to act responsibly
Q:
Moscow will also host the process of normalization of relations between Turkey
and Armenia. Can I get your assessment of the process of normalizing relations
with Armenia?
A: If
you remember, when Turkey ended its diplomatic relations with Armenia and
closed its border gate in 1992, the main issue was the (Armenian) occupation of
Karabakh. Today, with the victory that came after the 44-day war last year, the
Karabakh problem has been resolved. Karabakh has regained its original place as
the Azerbaijani territory and the issue that caused us to end our relations
with Armenia in 1992 has also disappeared. So, there is no reason not to
normalize it anymore. From the very beginning, our president already had said
Turkey would also take steps to normalize relations with Armenia in parallel
with the process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Therefore, as you know,
special representatives were also appointed in this direction.
I
believe that the process will rapidly and constructively advance from now on.
There is also a will on the Armenian side in this direction. Our will is
already clear and specific on this matter. We do not have a biased approach
towards Armenia. As our neighbor, of course, we want the border to be re-opened
and diplomatic relations to restart. For this, certain conditions must be met
and certain issues must be negotiated. The process, which will be carried out
by special representatives, aims at exactly this.
Here,
I would like to underline the following: Armenia's normalization of relations
with Azerbaijan and Turkey will contribute to the whole region and will also
benefit Armenia more. Because Armenia is a small, poor, underpopulated, and
landlocked country, with extremely limited trade routes. If Armenia signs a
peace treaty with Azerbaijan, its relations with Azerbaijan will improve. If
its relations are normalized with Turkey, different developments will occur in
many areas from border trade to border security, to flights of Turkish
Airlines, and all these will benefit Armenia and the people of Armenia. We also
have very good relations with the Armenian citizens living in our country. God
forbid, we have always taken a very clear stance in case of discrimination or
an attack against them. We have relations with the Turkish Armenian community
at all levels. They can reach us at any time when they have a problem.
Normalization
with Armenia will certainly enable Turkish Armenians to establish relations
with Armenia more easily and bring relief in other areas, but the Armenian
diaspora, which is concentrated in two countries of the world, including France
and the US, must also act responsibly. Claiming that the 1915 events were
"genocide" through certain obsessions and bringing it to the agenda
as a precondition will no longer benefit anyone, especially after this point.
Now a new page has been opened in the Caucasus, a new era has begun, and the
diaspora communities should also see this truth, and they should adopt a manner
and attitude that will be for the benefit of Armenia and the benefit of the
region. If this happens, everyone will benefit from it. A new period of peace
and stability begins in the Caucasus and all countries benefit from it.
Turkey
to continue to stand by Libyan people, legitimate government
Q: As
you know, the election process in Libya is stuck. The election has been
postponed and there is political uncertainty in the country. What does Turkey
offer to overcome this crisis, and can you talk about Ankara's contributions to
the resolution of the crisis?
A: We
have supported the political process in Libya from the very beginning to the
end, and we will continue to support it from now on. Elections were one of the
steps and stages of this political process. We made the necessary suggestions
for it to be held, but the Libyans decided to postpone the elections with an
agreement among themselves since the conditions were not suitable there. There
is an ongoing political negotiation process among the Libyans on how long the
elections will be postponed, what will happen in the postponement process, who
will manage this process and how will different issues from political party law
to the constitution be settled in this period until the next elections. We are
supporting this process and will continue to do so.
It is
something that we have supported from the very beginning, that the eastern,
western, and southern groups come together in Libya and that legitimate actors
take part in a legitimate political process. In this process, you know, we
signed an important agreement with Libya. These are the Maritime Boundary
Treaty and the Military Cooperation and Training Agreement. These agreements
still remain valid. Even if there are objections from some groups in Libya or
some countries in the region, Libyans have a very clear and unequivocal stance
on this issue. In other words, the legitimate Libyan government has no
objection to these agreements, and they have the will to continue these
agreements as they are. This is pleasing for us. Therefore, as Turkey, we will
continue to stand by the Libyan people and the legitimate government, both in
terms of security, supporting the political process, and rebuilding Libya, and
strengthening its infrastructure. Hopefully, this new political process is
announced to everyone with a new calendar and a transparent roadmap as soon as
possible without causing any tension or conflict. We will continue to stand by
the Libyans as a supportive and facilitating actor in the process led by the
Libyans, whenever they will be held, and in whatever way, they will be planned.
2021
was difficult year
Stressing
that 2021 was a difficult year considering the effects of the COVID-19
pandemic, he said: “This (pandemic) has had very different effects on people's
social mobility, individual life, of course, on the global economy, national
economies, and regional developments.”
“There
have been natural disasters. I hope 2022 will be the year where peace,
prosperity, stability, and trust are rebuilt and spread for all of us, and a
year all can benefit equally from blessings, wealth, peace, stability, and
security. As Turkey, we will continue to play its role both in our own region
and in global issues, under the leadership of our president. He has been saying
for a long time, ‘The world is bigger than five.’ We saw once again how fragile
the global system was, bigger than the world's five and all other countries
combined. At the same time, our president also made a call that 'a fairer world
is possible.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Southeast Asia
Stricken
boat with over 100 Rohingya Muslims allowed to dock in Indonesia
December
31, 2021
KRUENG
GEUKUH (REUTERS) - More than 100 Rohingya refugees who had been adrift on a
sinking boat off the western coast of Indonesia were allowed to disembark early
on Friday (Dec 31), after authorities relented following international pressure
to allow the group to seek refuge.
In a
video seen by Reuters, the refugees left the boat in heavy rain and boarded a
bus, while authorities sprayed them with disinfectant.
Oktina
Hafanti, an official at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), told reporters that the 105 refugees would be kept in quarantine for
10 to 14 days and undergo health checks.
The
group of Rohingya, which included children and pregnant women, had been spotted
by fisherman on their wooden skiff off the coast of Aceh province on Sunday.
Authorities
had initially agreed to provide humanitarian aid before planning to turn the
vessel away, but changed that decision after warnings about the condition of
the vessel and calls from UNHCR and groups such as Amnesty International to let
the boat land.
A
fisherman who had approached the boat when it was at sea said the vessel had
sustained engine damages and was leaking, and was at risk of sinking. He also
said some refugees had indicated that they needed food.
Mr
Usman Hamid, executive director for Amnesty International's Indonesia chapter,
said the government had reacted late but appreciated that authorities had
listened to Acehnese fishermen and accepted the refugees.
The
vessel was towed by an Indonesian navy ship on Thursday to shore.
Source:
Straits Times
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Guan
Eng: Vernacular school ruling enshrines legitimate rights of non-Malays in
country’s social contract
31
Dec 2021
BY
KENNETH TEE
KUALA
LUMPUR, Dec 31 ― The recent High Court ruling on vernacular schools was crucial
in preserving the legitimate rights of non-Malays within the social contract that
gave independence and eventually led to the formation of Malaysia, DAP
secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.
He
was earlier referring to the High Court ruling on Wednesday that Malaysia’s
vernacular schools were consistent with its Federal Constitution, when
rejecting a lawsuit seeking for the government to abolish education using
Mandarin and Tamil.
In
his New Year message, Lim said religious extremism, racism and systemic
corruption are among the biggest threats towards national unity and integration
between Malaysians that hindered balanced economic development and equitable
economic growth.
“The
reliance on provoking the sentiments against minorities are deliberately aimed
at dividing the people to distract attention from the abject failures of governance
and fighting corruption.
“Whilst
this may not put a stop to extremists and racists trying to burn down the
Federal Constitution, it is ordinary Malaysians regardless of race, religion
and background that will ultimately prevail in defeating them,” he said in a
statement.
Of
note, Lim claimed the aforementioned failures included the mismanagement of the
Covid-19 pandemic by the federal government which resulted in some 2.7 million
infections and some 31,000 deaths nationwide.
He
also cited the recent flooding that ravaged peninsular Malaysia the weekend
before Christmas as as another example of failure, where racial sentiments were
stoked after the motives of non-Muslims volunteers in providing aid to Muslim
flood victims were deliberately questioned.
“Fortunately,
Malays and Muslims have come out to condemn such extremism giving hope for a
Malaysia that is open-minded, moderate and tolerant.
“Malaysians
coming together in the recent flood disaster to help each other is encouraging
and reminds us that we belong to one big Malaysian family, that is not
artificially manipulated for political purposes.
Source:
Malay Mail
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Will
Indonesia be the next Abraham Accord nation?
By
AMOTZ ASA-EL
DECEMBER
30, 2021
The
plan was brave: land 150 marines in Dutch New Guinea, incite the natives to
rebel, and then have their land – a chunk of equatorial rain forests and
wetlands the size of Poland – join the 13-year-old Republic of Indonesia.
Militarily
the operation that took place 60 years ago next month nosedived. Dutch jets
detected the approaching flotilla and the Dutch navy intercepted it, sinking
one vessel, disabling the rest, and killing 39 Indonesian troops.
Politically,
however, the attack was a big success, as America forced the Netherlands to
retreat, much the way it had forced Britain and France to abandon the Suez
Canal to Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt in 1956, despite his military defeat.
Nasser’s
Indonesian equivalent was Sukarno, whose eviction of the Dutch emboldened him
as he maneuvered between East and West while replacing democracy with
autocracy. However, by 1965 his geopolitical acrobatics got out of hand,
resulting in a civil war between the American-backed military and the
Chinese-backed Communists.
One
year and hundreds of thousands of fatalities later, Indonesia sidelined its
founder and veered west. That included a slow retreat from Sukarno’s
anti-Israeli dogmatism, a glacial journey that should now reach its
destination.
ISRAEL
WAS quick to realize Indonesia’s importance, recognizing it in 1950, ahead of
most other countries.
However,
five years later Sukarno hosted an African-Asian conference that became a
landmark in anti-Israeli diplomacy. What began with a rejection of Israel’s
request to participate in the conference culminated in a resolution calling on
Africa and Asia to take the Arab side in the Middle East conflict.
Sukarno’s
successors remained formally anti-Israeli, but down in the field they quietly
changed course.
The
two countries began trading, and what started in 1967 with a shipment of
military uniforms became by the 1980s a shipment of Skyhawk fighter jets, which
were later followed by Israel Aerospace Industries’ drones.
Military
cooperation eventually spread to other fields, with Israeli telecoms arriving
in Indonesia, and Indonesian textiles, diamonds and coconuts arriving here.
Israel
became increasingly legitimate. In 2005, an El Al plane landed in Aceh,
Sumatra, with 75 tons of emergency aid for tsunami victims. In 2008, Magen
David Adom signed a deal to train paramedics in Indonesia. Then Indonesian
pilgrims began arriving in Israel, growing since last decade to an annual
30,000. Though disrupted by 2018’s fighting in Gaza, and then by the pandemic,
this traffic is expected to resume.
While
trade is believed to have already exceeded an annual half a billion dollars,
diplomatic contacts also evolved.
In
1993, Yitzhak Rabin arrived in Jakarta and met with Sukarno’s successor,
Suharto. In 2000, Shimon Peres landed in Jakarta, in his capacity at the time
as regional cooperation minister. In 2003, former president Abdurrahman Wahid
visited Israel. In 2013, then-economy minister Naftali Bennett arrived in Bali
for a gathering of the World Trade Organization.
Added
up, this is a trend with a clear direction, one obviously steered from above,
and seeking a middle road between the paths of Indonesia’s two neighbors:
Singapore, which has been openly friendly with Israel since its establishment
in 1965, and Malaysia, whose hostility to Israel is second only to Iran’s.
It
was a good course, from Indonesia’s viewpoint, for its time, but now that time
is up, because this middle road has become historically anachronistic,
diplomatically foolish and strategically absurd.
THE
ANACHRONISM is about Israel’s place in the world.
Back
when Indonesia chose to treat Israel as a mistress, rendezvousing with it only
in the dark, the Jewish state was still ostracized by two superpowers, China
and the Soviet Union, as well as the rest of the Eastern Bloc, and also India,
which until 1992 refused to admit an Israeli ambassador (though it did allow an
Israel consulate in what then was called Bombay.)
Today
this history is so distant that to younger Israelis it sounds like prehistory.
Over the past 30 years, Israel has had full diplomatic, commercial and cultural
relations with all the superpowers. Trade with all of them is vibrant, and some
of it is in fact strategic, like the defense relationship with India or the
exchange of academic and infrastructure enterprises with China.
This
means that by shunning Israel the way it does, Indonesia is relegating itself
to the company of economic laggards like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Indonesia, with 270 million people sprawled on more than 17,000 islands between
Oceania and China, is in a position to become a major world power. Shunning
Israel will not serve that cause.
The
foolishness is about the Indonesian attitude’s Arab context.
Back
when Suharto shaped Jakarta’s attitude, Israel was at war with the entire Arab
world, and he consciously surrendered to Arab pressure not to recognize the
Jewish state. Today, Israel is formally at peace with five Arab countries,
including the largest, Egypt, and is in the process of normalizing relations
with a sixth country, Sudan. Collectively, these countries are home to half the
Arab world’s population.
Where
in this configuration does Indonesia want to belong: alongside Egypt and the
United Arab Emirates, or between Syria and Yemen?
Beyond
diplomacy and economics looms the most crucial reason for which Jakarta should
reconcile with Jerusalem: religion.
Source:
Jerusalem Post
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-690234
--------
Africa
Atiku,
others mourn as Islamic scholar who refused dialogue with Boko Haram dies
30
December 2021
President
of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, Ibrahim Ahmad, died in Kano State
Thursday.
Ahmad,
who refused to join a committee set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan to
dialogue with members of Boko Haram, died after a protracted illness.
The
late Ahmad, presidential aspirant of the Social Democratic Party, was buried in
Kano, according to Islamic rites.
Reacting
to Ahmad’s death, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in
the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, said, “I am saddened by the passing to the
eternal glory of the President-General of the Supreme Council of Shari’ah in
Nigeria, Sheikh (Dr) Ibrahim Datti Ahmed.
“Sheikh
Datti’s passing has left a huge vacuum. He will be remembered for his
leadership and enormous wisdom with which he deployed in steering the affairs
of the Council for Shariah. As a man of peace and a firm believer of the
philosophy of “Live and Let’s Live”, Sheikh Ahmed Datti did his best possible
to stay uncontroversial all through his years.
“More
importantly, he never allowed himself to be dragged into matters capable of
disrupting the fragile peace we enjoy as a multi-religious and multi-ethnic
society.”
Also,
An Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern, described
Ahmad as a giant scholarly figure.
MURIC’s
reaction was contained in a statement issued by its director and founder,
Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Thursday.
MURIC
said, “Dr Ahmad Datti was an energetic Islamic activist of no small measure. A
trained medical doctor, he was the president of the Supreme Council for Shariah
in Nigeria. The deceased played a prominent role in the spread of Shariah in
the Northern states of the country from 1999 onwards.
Source:
Punchng
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://punchng.com/atiku-others-mourn-as-islamic-scholar-who-refused-dialogue-with-boko-haram-dies/
--------
Six
Nigerian, Niger troops killed by Islamic State, security forces say
DECEMBER
30, 2021
Six
troops from Nigeria and Niger were killed by Islamic State West Africa Province
(ISWAP) militants during an operation this month, a joint military force said
on Thursday.
ISWAP,
which split from Boko Haram five years ago and pledged allegiance to Islamic
State, has been fighting troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger
in the Lake Chad region.
A
Multinational Joint Task Force (MTJF) comprising soldiers from Nigeria and
Niger had targeted Islamist insurgents near Lake Chad basin but met strong
resistance and came under fire from mortar attacks and improvised explosive
devices, MTJF spokesman Colonel Muhammad Dole said in a statement.
Two
officers and four other ranks from both countries were killed and 16 wounded,
Dole said, without providing an exact date. Twenty-two militants were killed
and 17 captured while gun trucks and other weapons and ammunition were
destroyed, he said.
The
region were the attacks took place is part of Nigeria's northeastern Borno
state, the center of the Islamist insurgency in which about 300,000 people have
died and millions left dependent on aid, according to the United Nations.
Source:
Jerusalem Post
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-690246
--------
3
killed as thousands protests in Sudan to demand 'civilian rule'
Buhram
Abdel-Men'em
30.12.2021
KHARTOUM,
Sudan
At
least three protesters were killed on Thursday amid rallies that took place in
different areas across Sudan, including its capital Khartoum, that demanded the
restoration of civilian rule, according to medical professionals.
At
least three protesters have been killed by live munitions in Omdurman, the twin
city of the capital Khartoum across the White Nile River, while dozens were
injured or affected by tear gas, the Central Committee of the Sudanese Doctors
said in a statement.
"The
security organs have used massive violence against the protesters especially in
Omdurman where at least three killed and others injured, hospitals have been
also attacked. We warned the security forces not to use the massive violence
and stop it immediately," said the statement.
In
the meantime, offices of the media outlets, including the Al-Arabiya, Skynews,
and Alsharg TV channels, have been raided by the security forces, the Sudanese
journalist network said in a statement Thursday evening.
Al-Arabiya
further published a video showing some of its staff injured due to the attack
on their office by the security forces.
The
rallies took place in several areas in Khartoum, Kasala, and Port Sudan in the
country's east, as well as the northern city of Atbara, according to Anadolu
Agency correspondent on the ground.
During
the rallies, protesters called for democratic civilian rule and decried a
recent political deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
Internet
services on Thursday were down in the capital and other areas prior to the
demonstrations as providers cut mobile services, with only landline connections
remaining available.
Neither
authorities nor internet providers have so far commented on the issue.
On
Wednesday, security authorities closed multiple bridges and overland routes,
installing concrete barriers and barbed wire on roads leading to the
presidential palace.
The
calls for protest were made by the Sudanese Professionals Association, which
rejected the deal signed last month and called for full civilian rule.
Sudan
has been in turmoil since Oct. 25 when the Sudanese military dismissed Hamdok's
transitional government and declared a state of emergency.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Somali
military kills 9 al-Shabaab terrorists
30.12.2021
MOGADISHU,
Somalia
Somali
forces on Thursday killed nine al-Shabaab terrorists as they thwarted an attack
on the country's strategic town of Balad, state media and officials said.
"The
Somali National Army (SNA) has killed at least nine Al-Shabaab terrorists in an
ambush in parts of Bal'ad district in Middle Shabelle region this
morning," Somali National News Agency (SONNA) reported citing a senior
military official.
Two
Somali soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in the pre-dawn
attack, the official said.
Heavy
weapons were used in the attack and five civilians were killed, Ibrahim Said, a
local administrator in the Middle Shabelle region told Anadolu Agency over the
phone.
The
target of the attack was road construction machinery stored at a site in the
town, said officials who spoke to Anadolu Agency.
A
90-kilometer (56-mile) road is under construction in the agriculture town
located on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/somali-military-kills-9-al-shabaab-terrorists/2461291
--------
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