Supreme Court Issues Notice to Indian Government on Uniform Age of Marriage for Muslim Girls
New Age Islam News Bureau
10 December 2022
Representative Image/ The Print
----
• Florida Teacher Used Whistle To Disrupt Muslim
Students' Prayers While Telling Them 'I Believe In Jesus!'
• Saudi Crown Prince: Arab States Look Forward To New
Phase of Partnership with China
• China Supports Palestinian Nation’s Just Cause Aimed
at Restoring Legitimate Rights: Xi
• Islamic Architecture, Cultural Values Well Protected
In Hungary: Ambassador of Hungary to Pakistan
India
• Probe Sought Into Madrasas Enrolling Non-Muslim Kids
Following Complaints from Different Sources
• Muslim Couple Threatened, Prevented from Watching
‘Kantara’, Supporting Hindu Culture, In Karnataka by Muslim Youth
• A Private Member’s Bill To Set Up A Committee To
Prepare A Uniform Civil Code Was Introduced In The Rajya Sabha, Opposition
Protests
• Congress's Imran Khedawala Only Muslim MLA In
182-Member Gujarat Assembly
• ‘Unknown to law’, says Karnataka HC on Muslim couple
adopting unborn Hindu child
• No decision on love jihad law, studying similar
legislations in other states: Fadnavis
--------
North America
• US Asks UN Not To Sanction Companies Doing Business
In Illegal Israeli Settlements
• Turkish actor becomes face of Canadian NGO’s
campaign
• US defence budget trims millions of dollars
benefiting terrorist group PKK/YPG
--------
Arab World
• UAE Issues New Law on Personal Status for
Non-Muslims to Be Applied From February 1, 2023
• Chinese President Xi says Chinese-Arab Relations
have achieved historic leap
• Qatar’s Emir, Fujairah ruler among GCC leaders in
Riyadh for summit with China
• Gulf Cooperation Council summit rejects Iranian
intervention in region
• Iraq's new electoral system leaves Turkmen at risk
of political discrimination: Party chief
--------
Mideast
• Iran says uranium traces came in waste from abroad
• At Least Five Jews Arrested By Iran during Protests
against Islamic Republic
• Iran’s Raisi promises to pursue crackdown on
protesters; cleric critical of execution
• Raisi says Iran will pursue punishing protesters
‘with determination’
• Netanyahu's government 'most extreme, crazy' in
Israel's history, warns outgoing premier
• Israelis rapped for blocking Christian permits to
visit Bethlehem
--------
Pakistan
• Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Scales Up Attack on
Security Forces Post Truce Withdrawal
• UK Sanctions Controversial Sindh Cleric Responsible
For Forced Marriages of Non-Muslims
• Pakistani Journalist's Killing In Kenya A
Pre-Meditated Murder: Report
• Bilawal tells world to break ‘stereotypes’ about
Pakistan
• Google to open office in Pakistan next week: IT
minister
• All-out facilities for 385,000 Afghans crossing into
Pakistan through border points monthly
--------
South Asia
• Taliban Pushes Afghan Media to Margin Again, Impose
Further Restrictions
• Islamic Emirate: Anti-Corruption Commission to
Resume Activity
• Finance Ministry takes notice of dollar, wheat, urea
'smuggling to Kabul'
• Two opposition leaders arrested in Bangladesh
• Afghanistan’s War Widows Desperate Demand for Work
• Anti-Corruption Commission to Resume Operation Soon:
Taliban
• Expansion of Afghan Refugee Sponsorship Program; A
Pathway to Canada
--------
Southeast Asia
• Sarawak Premier Says State Practices Moderate Islamic
Approach to Maintain Racial Harmony
• Group pleads with Malaysia to find Rohingyas feared
dying at sea due to mistaken identity
• Malaysia’s PM Anwar names 27 deputy ministers to
complete his leadership team
• Anwar Ibrahim is good news for the Muslim world
• Already under probe for Islamophobia claim, Hadi now
accuses DAP of milking Malay disunity
-------
Europe
• UK's Daily Mail Apologizes To Pakistan Premier Over
Corruption Allegations
• Russia trying to get ballistic missiles from Iran,
says Britain
• Türkiye emphasizes effective cooperation with
Bulgaria to manage border security
• UK summons Iran's charge d'affaires over protester's
execution
• UK sanctions Russian and Iranian officials, citing
human rights abuses
• UK sanctions 10 Iranians as part of global offensive
• Australia imposes sanctions on Iran, Russia over
human rights violations
--------
Africa
• New ‘Ruthless Conflict’ Displaces Thousands in South
Sudan
• South Sudan’s Ruling Party Endorses President Kiir
as Candidate for another Term
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/supreme-court-uniform-age-muslim-girls/d/128603
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Supreme Court Issues Notice to Indian Government on Uniform Age of Marriage for Muslim Girls
Representative Image/ The Print
----
10 December, 2022
Pranay Lad
The NCW petitioned the SC on Friday to equalise the
minimum age of marriage for Muslim girls with that of people of other religions,
and the SC responded by giving notice to the Centre.
In response to a plea by the National Commission for
Women (NCW) asking that Muslim girls be allowed to marry at the same age as
those of other religions, the Supreme Court sent notice to the Centre on
Friday.
DY Chandrachud, the Chief Justice of India, and
Justice PS Narasimha asked the Centre for a response within four weeks. In
India, the legal minimum age for marriage is presently 21 for men and 18 for
women. But for Muslim women, the legal marriage age is considered to be 15
years old, or when they reach puberty.
According to the NCW, permitting Muslims to get
hitched at puberty (about 15) is arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory, and
against the law.
Even the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses
Act (POCSO), according to the argument in the lawsuit, forbids consenting to
sex for anybody under the age of 18.
It stated that the PIL was filed to enforce the
fundamental rights of young Muslim women to have Islamic personal law be
consistent with laws that apply to people of other faiths.
A 15 years old Muslim girl is competent to enter into
a contract of marriage with a person of her choice under Muslim Personal Law,
the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s ruling stated. Earlier, the Supreme Court agreed
to consider the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
appeal of that ruling.
In order to help the court, it had served notice on
the Punjab government and named eminent lawyer Rajshekhar Rao as an amicus
curiae.
A 15-year-old Muslim girl was found to be competent to
enter into a contract of marriage with the person of her choice by the High
Court in June, according to the court’s ruling, which referenced the
marriage-related rules of the Muslim Personal Law.
The NCPCR aimed to guarantee the correct application
of statutory legislation created expressly to safeguard children under the age
of 18.
In support of its arguments against the High Court’s
decision, the Commission emphasised the provisions of the PCMA of 2006 and the
POCSO, which protect children from sexual offences.
According to NCPCR, the ruling violates PCMA, which is
a universally applicable secular law, according to the petition.
No minor under the age of 18 is allowed to offer a
legally binding consent, according to POCSO regulations, it stated.
The high court’s decision was based on a petition
filed by a Muslim couple from Pathankot who claimed their relatives had
threatened them for getting married without their consent and who had come to
the court seeking protection.
The girl and the male, who was 21 years old, claimed
to have wed in accordance with Muslim customs.
The High Court had awarded the Muslim couple
protection, adding that it is evident from the statute that a Muslim girl’s
marriage is governed by Muslim Personal Law.
Source: Newsx
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.newsx.com/marriage-muslim-sc-notice-uniform-age/
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Florida teacher used whistle to disrupt Muslim
students' prayers while telling them 'I believe in Jesus!'
Students in school
classroom
© Raw Story
-----
Matthew Chapman
December 09, 2022
On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that a charter
school teacher in South Florida has been dismissed after she reportedly used a
whistle to disrupt the prayers of Muslim students.
"A TikTok video of the incident shows the
unidentified teacher entering her office and blowing a whistle upon seeing two
students praying," reported Alec Karam.
"I believe in Jesus so I’m interrupting the
floor, excuse me," the teacher said. "And why are they in my office?
Who told them to come in here?"
Muslims and Christians both worship the same deity,
known alternatively in various faiths as Yahweh or Allah. Indeed, Muslims
revere Jesus as a holy prophet, one of several who revealed partial revelations
before Muhammad, although they do not consider him to be the Son of God.
"Officials of Franklin Academy, the South Florida
public charter school where the incident happened, said they launched an investigation
into the teacher’s conduct after the 'troubling' video surfaced, ultimately
firing her," said the report. In a statement, the school said that
“Franklin Academy does not tolerate discriminatory behavior.”
Over the past year, a number of scandals around
discriminatory behavior from teachers have emerged from Florida.
In May, a teacher in Duval County Public Schools in
the Jacksonville area called a middle school student the N-word and told him
"Black people are beneath White people." And in September, an art
teacher at Manatee High School in Bradenton was fired after he told a student
who didn't stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to "go back" to
"Mexico or Guatemala."
Source: Rawstory
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.rawstory.com/florida-teacher-fired/
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Saudi Crown Prince: Arab states look forward to new
phase of partnership with China
Saudi Arabia’s Crown
Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is pictured with leaders during the China-Arab
summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on December 9, 2022. (Reuters)
-----
09 December, 2022
Arab countries seek to improve cooperation with China
and look forward to a new phase of partnership, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman said on Friday at the China-Arab summit.
“The Kingdom is working on enhancing cooperation [with
China] to serve international stability,” the Crown Prince said at the summit
which brought together Arab leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping who is on
a three-day official visit to the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Xi said the summit “will lead to a brighter
future,” adding that China seeks “comprehensive cooperation” with Arab states
to serve Chinese-Arab mutual interests.
The president also voiced the importance of
maintaining the region’s stability, adding that China supports Arab efforts to
reach “political solutions” to urgent matters in the region.
Xi also said that Islamophobia and extremism must be
confronted, adding that “terrorism” must not be associated with a specific
religion or race.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Xi said the
“historical injustice” which the Palestinian people have endured “must not go
on,” adding that China supports the establishment of a Palestinian state along
the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also
highlighted the significance of Arab-Chinese ties, saying coordination with
China must be increased to resolve regional and international crises.
Commenting on current challenges, al-Sisi said water
security represents “an existential threat,” hence the matter must be a
priority in terms of cooperation.
He also called on Ethiopia to engage “in reaching a
final solution to the issue of the Renaissance Dam.”
The massive $4.2 billion dam has been at the center of
a regional dispute ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.
Egypt and Sudan view it as a threat because of their
dependence on Nile waters, while Ethiopia deems it essential for its
electrification and development.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he
stands with China against the “malicious campaigns” it’s facing.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abbas condemned
Israel’s attempts to alter the Arab identity of Jerusalem and said Israel must
be held accountable for its violations.
“The international community must boycott any Israeli
government that does not recognize peace,” he added.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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China Supports Palestinian Nation’s Just Cause Aimed
At Restoring Legitimate Rights: Xi
On the afternoon of
December 8 local time, President Xi Jinping met with Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas in Riyadh.
-----
09 December 2022
Chinese President Xi Jinping says Beijing firmly
supports the Palestinian nation’s just cause aimed at restoration of their
legitimate national rights, as Palestinians have been struggling against the
occupying Israeli regime for decades.
Xi made the remarks during a meeting with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh on Thursday on the
sidelines of the first China-Arab States Summit and a meeting with leaders of
the six-member Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Xi highlighted that China and Palestine have maintained
a long-standing friendship, and that they have trusted and supported each other
for over half a century.
“China and Palestine enjoy a time-honored friendship
and the friendship between our peoples is deeply rooted in our hearts. For more
than half a century, we have always trusted and supported each other. While
leading the people in realizing Chinese-style modernization, the Communist
Party of China will remain committed to safeguarding world peace, promoting
common development, upholding international fairness and justice, and building
a community with a shared future for the people,” the Chinese president said.
“No matter how the international and regional
situation may change, China firmly supports the just cause of the Palestinian
people and will always stand with them,” he said.
For his part, Abbas thanked China for its unwavering
support to Palestinian people.
“The Palestinian nation is proud of our relationship
with Chinese people. As a major country with great influence in the world,
China has always firmly supported Palestinian people. I would like to convey to
you and to all Chinese people the sincere gratitude of Palestinian people,” he
said.
“We firmly support the one-China principle and believe
that China's position on all international occasions is just. Therefore, we are
ready to stand firmly with China on all issues. This is beyond doubt,” the
Palestinian president said.
Xi arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday afternoon for a three-day visit that is mainly focused
on energy ties as Beijing seeks to further boost its economy, and Saudi Arabia
looks to expand its alliances with the East, amid rising tensions with the
United States.
Arab leaders convening in Riyadh include Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Tunisian President Kais Saied, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani,
Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister
Najib Mikati have also taken part.
Source: Press TV
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Islamic Architecture, Cultural Values Well Protected
In Hungary: Ambassador Of Hungary To Pakistan
Ambassador of Hungary to
Pakistan Mr Bela Fazekas/ Photo: Pakistan Today
------
December 9, 2022
LAHORE: Ambassador of Hungary to Pakistan Mr Bela
Fazekas has said that there are traces of ancient Islamic architecture in
Hungary. He said that Islamic architecture and other cultural values had been
protected in Hungary.
He was addressing a week-long art exhibition based on
Islamic architecture and culture in Hungary jointly organized by Punjab
University and Hungarian Embassy at College of Art & Design’s Grand Hall on
Friday.
Federal Secretary Investments Asad-ur-Rahman Gillani,
former Provincial Minister for Minority Affairs Ijaz Alam Augustine, CAD
Principal Dr Sumera Jawad, External Linkages Director Prof Dr Shobia Khuram,
deans of various faculties, faculty members and students were present on the
occasion.
Addressing the event, Ambassador Béla Fazekas,
welcomed the participants of the exhibition and said that we wanted people here
to know about Islamic heritage in Hungary. He said that the architecture of the
Ottoman Empire was impressive.
He said that in 2013, the Turkish and Hungarian
governments started projects to secure Islamic buildings. He said that Hungary,
Turkey and Pakistan were developing excellent relations. He said that Ertugrul
Ghazi’s drama serial was also very popular in Hungary.
The Hungarian Ambassador said that we will celebrate
the joint cultural year next year together with Turkey. He said that the first
two principals of PU Oriental College, GW Leitner and Sir Marc Aural Stein came
from Hungary.
Source: Pakistan Today
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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India
Probe Sought Into Madrasas Enrolling Non-Muslim Kids
Following Complaints from Different Sources
10th December 2022
By Kavita Bajeli-Datt
NEW DELHI: The
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked all states
and union territories to conduct a detailed inquiry of all government-funded
and recognised madrasas admitting non-Muslim children. In a letter to all the
chief secretaries, NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said, “The inquiry should
include physical verification of children attending such madrasas. After the
inquiry, admit all such children in schools for formal education.”
The Commission wrote to the states and union
territories following various complaints from different sources. Kanoongo said
it is noted that children belonging to a non-Muslim community are attending
government funded/recognised madrasas.
He said in various states and UTs, several children
attend institutions like madrasas, which are of three types Recognised
Madrasas, Unrecognised Madrasas and Unmapped Madrasas. Madrasas, as
institutions, are primarily responsible for imparting religious education to
children.
However, it is also learnt that those Madrasas funded
by the government or recognised by the government are imparting spiritual and,
to some extent, formal education to children, he said. The NCPCR chief said it
is learnt that some states/UTs are providing these madrasas with scholarships
too.
He said this is a clear-cut violation and infringement
of Article 28(3) of the Constitution of India, that prohibits educational
institutions from obligating children to take part in any religious instruction
without the consent of parents.
Source: New Indian Express
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
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Muslim Couple Threatened, Prevented from Watching
‘Kantara’, Supporting Hindu Culture, In Karnataka by Muslim Youth
Dec 09, 2022
Mysuru: A Muslim couple was threatened and prevented
from watching the film, Kantara, at Sullia in Dakshina Kannada district on
Wednesday afternoon, police said.
According to eyewitnesses, the couple, both college
students belonging to Kerala and studying in KVG institutions, came to watch
the film at Santhosh theatre. Seeing the girl’s hijab, a nearby shopkeeper
alerted Muslim youth who came and questioned the couple for watching the movie.
The boy was assaulted by the group for watching
Kantara, which, according to the complaint, the attackers said was supporting
Hindu culture. Later the couple returned from the theatre without watching the
movie.
“We have received information through social media.
The couple didn’t file a complaint, but we tracked them down and asked them to
file a complaint. Based on their complaint, we have registered an FIR and we
are on the lookout for the suspect,” said Dileep Rai, sub-inspector of Sulia
police station.
The FIR has been registered under sections 341
(wrongful restraint), 323 (assault), 504 (intentional insults) and 506
(criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
“No one has the right to deny fundamental rights to a
person for any reason. We have launched search to nab the group which assaulted
the boy,” Rai added.
In another incident, Malavalli town police in Mandya
district registered a complaint against a woman for allegedly imitating Daiva
Nartakaand and collecting money from devotees. In a complaint, S Puneet Kumar,
a resident of Malavalli town, said that the woman, Shivalingamma, was doing
pooja at her home for three years on Kanakapura road.
After the release of the movie Kantara, the woman
started imitating the movie hero recreating the scream, which is revered as a
sigh of the presence of god by some communities in coastal Karnataka. The
complaint stated that the woman collected gold and cash from devotees claiming
to invoke god inside herself.
“We have received a complaint from one person alleging
that the woman imitating like Kantara movie and collecting money, and gold from
devotees. We have summoned the woman to the police station for questioning. She
said she is doing pooja every Monday and Friday at her home for three years for
the well-being of devotees,’’ Malavalli town police station inspector B Rajesh
said.
If any other person who lost the money or gold gives a
complaint, police will register an FIR, he added.
“The crowd of devotees started swelling after the
release of the film Kantara as the woman imitating the hero through a divine
scream. The woman announces the time in the previous day that god invoked
her,‘’ S Puneet Kumar the complainant said.
He said that the woman claiming invoked god demanding
devotees to donate gold mangal sutra and cash to god, promising god would solve
the problems. The brother of a woman collects offerings by devotees,” he said.
Source: Hindustan Times
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A Private Member’s Bill To Set Up A Committee To
Prepare A Uniform Civil Code Was Introduced In The Rajya Sabha, Opposition
Protests
Anita Joshua
| New Delhi
10.12.22
A private member’s bill to set up a committee to
prepare a uniform civil code was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Friday amid
protests from the Opposition, which suspects the BJP will use its majority in
Parliament to push this through with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
After the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the abrogation of
Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370, a uniform civil code is
the next item on the BJP’s agenda.
In recent months, the BJP governments in Uttarakhand,
Gujarat, Assam and Karnataka have said they want to implement the uniform code
in their respective states.
Although the bill has come to the House several times
since 2020, this is the first time the BJP has pushed ahead with it.
The bill was introduced after chairman Jagdeep
Dhankhar ordered a vote as demanded by MDMK member Vaiko, who led the
Opposition’s charge against it.
The BJP had come prepared and was able to muster 63
votes in favour of the introduction while the Opposition could manage only 23
against.
The RJD’s Manoj Jha said that BJP member Kirodi Lal
Meena had tried to introduce the bill at least six times in the past and faced
stiff opposition.
“This bill came for introduction on very many
occasions earlier. Good sense prevailed. My friends from the BJP requested Dr
Kirodi Lal Meena not to proceed further. I am witness to six such occasions,”
he said.
Vaiko, T. Siva of the DMK and several CPM members had
submitted separate notices opposing the introduction of the bill.
Explaining the Opposition’s concern, Siva said: “If
the bill is introduced, it becomes the property of the House. Automatically, it
will be taken up for consideration. When it is taken up for consideration and
debated, it will be put to vote, and as they have the majority, automatically
it will get passed.”
Once a private member’s bill is passed, it is up to
the government to ignore it or own it and bring an official bill to Parliament
for enactment. The CPM’s John Brittas underlined that the 21st Law Commission
had said: “A uniform civil code is neither necessary nor desirable.”
Leader of the House and Union minister Piyush Goyal
urged the members to allow the bill to be introduced and said the founding
fathers of the Constitution had in their wisdom included a uniform civil code
in the Directive Principles of State Policy.
CPI member Binoy Viswam wrote to the Rajya Sabha
chairman to register his concern over the bill.
“In today’s India, such a discussion would lead to
unwanted debates and rift in our social life. I request you to drop the
consideration of the bill,” he wrote.
Jawhar Sircar of the Trinamul Congress said every
Opposition party resisted the bill’s introduction.
He described the bill as “unconstitutional, unethical
and anti-secular” and said: “It is being introduced as a private member’s bill
by an indulgent government to test the waters in a very dangerous game.”
Source: Telegraph India
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/uniform-civil-code-bill-enters-parliament/cid/1903030
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Congress's Imran Khedawala Only Muslim MLA In 182-Member
Gujarat Assembly
December 10, 2022
Ahmedabad: Imran Khedawala of the Congress is the only
Muslim candidate elected to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly in the just
concluded polls, which saw the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) register a
landslide victory.
The outgoing Assembly had three Muslim legislators,
all from the Congress.
Mr Khedawala, the sitting Congress MLA from the
Jamalpur-Khadia Assembly constituency in Ahmedabad city, won the election by a
margin of 13,658 votes on Thursday to retain the seat.
He defeated his nearest rival, Bhushan Bhatt of the
BJP, in the Muslim majority constituency, where state president of the All
India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and former MLA Sabir Kabliwala was
also in the fray.
The Congress had fielded six Muslim candidates,
including three siting MLAs. Of these, five candidates, including two MLAs,
lost.
In 2017, three of five candidates from the minority
community fielded by the main Opposition party had emerged victorious. Muslims
account for around 10 per cent of Gujarat's population.
Congress candidate and sitting MLA Gyasuddin Sheikh
lost to BJP's Kaushik Jain in the Dariapur Assembly segment of Ahmedabad
district. Another legislator of the Opposition party, Mohammed Javed Pirzada,
faced defeat in Wankaner in Morbi district at the hands of the saffron outfit.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate took away 53,110
votes and contributed in the defeat of Pirzada.
In the Abdasa seat in Kutch district, Congress' Muslim
candidate Jat Mamad Jung was defeated by a margin of around 9,000 votes by BJP
nominee and former Congress MLA Pradhyumansinh Jadeja.
The AAP had fielded Muslim candidates on three
Assembly seats - Jamalpur-Khadia, Dariapur and Jambusar - but none of them won.
The BJP did not field a single Muslim candidate, while
12 All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) nominees from the minority
community were in the fray, but all of them were trounced. Two of these AIMIM
candidates finished third in their respective constituency.
Source: ND TV
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‘Unknown to law’, says Karnataka HC on Muslim couple
adopting unborn Hindu child
10th December 2022
BENGALURU: Expressing shock over an unregistered
agreement entered into by a Muslim couple to adopt an unborn child of a Hindu
couple, the Karnataka High Court said that such an agreement is “unknown to
law”.
Terming it a case of adoption for money, a division
bench of Justice B Veerappa and Justice K S Hemalekha upheld an order passed by
a trial court in Udupi which had rejected a plea filed by the Muslim couple
seeking directions to appoint them as the adoptive parents and guardians of a
minor child, who is now two years nine months old, under the provisions of the
Guardians and Wards Act.
The high court said that the agreement was entered
into on March 21, 2020, five days before the birth of a girl child, whose
mother had almost completed nine months of pregnancy. Thereby the appellants,
both adoptive and biological parents, have violated the rights of the child.
Dismissing the appeal filed by the adoptive and
biological parents of the child against the judgment of the trial court, the
high court said that even ‘Mohammedan Law’ does not recognise such adoption.
“It is shocking that an agreement is entered into between two parties with
regard to an ‘unborn child’. It is for the District Child Protection Unit to
take responsibility of all such cases. It is well established that an unborn
child has a life and rights of its own, and the rights of unborn are recognised
by law”, the court observed.
Child was sold in name of adoption, says HC
While the adoptive couple are aged 39 years and 33
years, the biological parents are aged 36 years and 32 years. If the biological
parents came forward to give the child for adoption due to poverty, they could
have surrendered the child to the authorities concerned with child welfare.
Source: New Indian Express
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No decision on love jihad law, studying similar
legislations in other states: Fadnavis
December 10, 2022
The Maharashtra government is studying laws regarding
interfaith conversions passed by other states, and is yet to take a call on
such a law of its own, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday.
Fadnavis was replying to a question about
Maharashtra’s stand regarding a law on love Jihad, during an interaction with
the media on Friday afternoon.
Asked if such a law is likely to be tabled before the
upcoming Winter Session of the state legislature, Fadnavis said, “We have not
taken any decision yet. We are studying all aspects. We are also taking this
time to study similar laws in other states.”
The issue of love jihad has come up following the
murder of Vasai resident Shraddha Walkar, who was allegedly killed by her
live-in partner Aftab Poonawala and chopped into 35 pieces in their Delhi
residence. On Friday, Shraddha’s father Vikas Walkar met Fadnavis at his
official residence Sagar Bungalow in Mumbai.
State BJP MLA Nitesh Rane, in a statement to the media
on Friday, claimed that the “government is bringing in a law in coming days” to
prevent love jihad.
“A strong and efficient anti-conversion law or love
jihad law is the need of the hour in Maharashtra. Every day, in every corner of
the state, we see Hindu girls being targetted and cheated. The future is darkened
by members of a specific community. The government is now bringing in a law in
coming days to prevent this,” he said.
The BJP, over the last one month, has staged protests
across Maharashtra, urging the Delhi Police to investigate the Love Jihad angle
in the murder case. Party leader and state Minister for Women and Child
Development, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, had also directed the state women commission
to form a special squad to trace women who have been estranged from the
families.
“Love jihad” is a term often used by right-wing
activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious
conversion through marriage.
Source: Indian Express
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/love-jihad-laws-maharashtra-fadnavis-8315917/
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North America
US asks UN not to sanction companies doing business in
illegal Israeli settlements
10 December 2022
The United States has acknowledged pressing the United
Nations not to impose sanctions on companies doing business in illegal Israeli
settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The US State Department issued the statement on Friday
days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Biden administration
would oppose Tel Aviv’s land grab policy in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The State Department said that it had approached the
UN human rights office with concerns about the blacklist, whose first
publication in 2020 incensed Israel.
The United States "continues to oppose any work
to update it" and has raised concerns "directly with the Office of
the High Commissioner" for rights, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel
told reporters.
"Our view is that this database only serves to
reinforce an anti-Israel bias that too often finds traction in UN venues,"
he said.
"Also, this database poses a genuine threat to
companies doing business or considering business operations in the region,” he
added.
The administration of former President Donald Trump
had reversed longstanding US opposition to illegal settlements in the occupied
West Bank, and denounced the initial publication of the blacklist -- which
listed US companies including Airbnb, Expedia and TripAdvisor.
Blinken in a speech on Sunday said that Washington
would judge Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming regime by actions and not
personalities.
Controversial Israeli politician Netanyahu is likely
to return to power after striking a coalition deal with the extreme-right
outfits including Religious Zionism, which could be put in charge of
constructing illegal settlements and the Tel Aviv regime’s land grab policies
in the occupied Palestinian territories.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230
settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East
al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under
international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement
activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future
independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
Source: Press TV
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Turkish actor becomes face of Canadian NGO’s campaign
Seyit Aydoğan
10.12.2022
TORONTO
Turkish actor Engin Altan Duzyatan, known for his
leading role in the popular television series, Resurrection: Ertugrul, has
become the face of a Canadian NGO’s campaign for clean drinking water on
Friday.
Duzyatan, who came to Canada at the invitation of
Human Concern International (HCI), one of the oldest humanitarian organizations
established by Canadian Muslims, held a news conference in the national capital
of Ottawa with the group’s CEO Mahmuda Khan and Liberal Party lawmaker Iqra
Khalid.
The actor said he is committed to raising awareness
about the effects of climate change around the world.
He said he traveled to Africa to document the effects
of the lack of access to clean water on communities and noted his striking
encounter with facts that deeply affected him, starting in Kenya.
“Fifty-three percent of African people do not have
access to clean water, and three out of 10 newborns die from diseases caused by
contaminated water,” he said.
The Canadian government supports water infrastructure
investments in fragile and post-conflict countries, he said, but it needs to do
more to support sustainable water projects in developing countries.
“As part of the UN's commitment to the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, Canada has a responsibility to its own people by
eliminating long-term water restrictions on indigenous peoples' reserves,” he
said.
“I support HCI's call for the government of Canada to
fulfill its commitment to addressing access to clean water in Canada,” the
Turkish actor added.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/turkish-actor-becomes-face-of-canadian-ngo-s-campaign/2760145
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US defence budget trims millions of dollars benefiting
terrorist group PKK/YPG
Kasim Ileri
09.12.2022
WASHINGTON
As it moves towards final approval, the US military
budget for 2023 cuts millions of dollars in military aid that would have aided
terrorist groups in northern Syria and northern Iraq, but still leaves millions
more for the groups, which threaten the Turkish border and local civilians.
The US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill,
which passed in the House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 350-80,
cuts more than $35.81 million from the Iraqi part of the anti-Daesh/ISIS fund,
which the PKK/YPG terror group will also benefit from, and almost $18.37
million from the Syrian part.
Following its House of Representatives approval, the
$858 billion NDAA bill now heads to the Senate for a final vote, and if passed
there, to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
Through many years and several US administrations,
Türkiye has strenuously objected to US military aid – in the form of weapons,
ammunition, and training – and partnering with the terrorist YPG/PKK, a branch
of a terrorist group that has resulted in the deaths of some 40,000 people in
its terror campaign against Türkiye. The US says it works with the YPG/PKK to
fight Daesh/ISIS, while Turkish officials say using one terror group to fight another
makes no sense.
In the US bill, as part of the fight against
Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria, $502.92 million of nearly $541.7 million
requested to be given to US partners, including the terrorist group PKK/YPG,
was still approved, including an inflation adjustment.
A table attached to the bill said $35.81 million of
$358.15 million of the requested for Iraq was found unjustified, so the total
was cut to $322.2 million.
The table also says that $18.37 million of the $183.67
million that PKK/YPG terrorists will benefit from in Syria is unjustified, so
ultimately nearly $165.31 million was approved for activities including
cooperation with the terrorist group.
Taiwan, Ukraine, Türkiye
The wide-ranging bill, which includes raising military
salaries by 4.6% and requires the Pentagon to convert fleets of non-tactical
vehicles to zero-emission standards, also provides for $10 billion in military
assistance to Taiwan by 2027. The status of the self-governing island, which
China sees as its territory, has become increasingly contentious since then-US
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited it this August.
On the Ukraine war, now nearing its 10th month, the
bill allocates $800 million to finance the Ukrainian Security Assistance
Initiative, and also allocates $6 billion in funds to support US military
operations in Europe.
Articles linking the sale of F-16 fighter jets to
Türkiye to restrictive conditions were also removed from the final version of
the bill – a step that Ankara had pressed for.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against
Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and
the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including
women, children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian branch.
Following after a terrorist attack in Istanbul last
month that killed six people and injured dozens and was blamed on the YPG/PKK,
Türkiye launched airstrikes on terrorist YPG/PKK positions in northern Iraq,
near the Turkish border, and has said a ground operation might come at any
time.
In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to
declare Daesh/ISIS a terror group.
The country has since been attacked by the terror
group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in
at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed assaults.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Arab World
UAE Issues New Law On Personal Status For Non-Muslims
To Be Applied From February 1, 2023
09 Dec 2022
The UAE has announced a Federal Decree-Law on Personal
Status to all non-Muslim foreigners in the country, to be applied from February
1, 2023.
The Federal Personal Status Law comes in line with the
UAE’s continuous efforts to develop its legislative ecosystem and supports the
country’s endeavours and ambitions for the next 50 years, through strengthening
the country’s position as a destination for tolerance, family stability and
demographic diversity, a Wam news agency report said.
The provisions of the decree-law apply to non-Muslim
foreigners residing in the country unless someone adheres to the application of
his country’s law. Moreover, non-Muslim foreigners may agree to implement other
legislation on family or personal status in force in the UAE instead of the
provisions of this decree-law.
The decree-law provisions regulate the marriage
conditions and the procedures of contracting and documenting the marriage
before the competent courts.
Source: Trade Arabia
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https://www.tradearabia.com/news/MISC_404064.html
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Chinese President Xi says Chinese-Arab Relations have
achieved historic leap
10 December ,2022
China’s President Xi Jinping said relations between
the People’s Republic of China and the Arab countries witnessed great
developments, as the two sides established strategic partnership relations and
joint development for a better future following the inaugural China-Gulf summit
in Saudi Arabia.
In his closing speech during the Arab-China Summit for
Cooperation and Development, President Jinping said that the Arab-China summit
worked to strengthen construction to confront the food, energy and climate
crisis, and is committed to find political solutions to thorny issues and
working to maintain peace and security in the region, and calls for reaching
mutual benefit and enhancing harmonious coexistence between different
civilizations.
He added that the People's Republic of China has
established comprehensive strategic partnership relations with 12 Arab
countries separately, and signed cooperation documents to enhance the Belt and
Road initiative with 20 Arab countries, state news agency SPA reported
Saturday.
Furthermore, he said 17 Arab countries expressed their
support for the global development initiative, confirming that 15 Arab
countries joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Seventeen
cooperation mechanisms have been set up within the framework of the China-Arab
Cooperation Forum.
The Chinese president stressed that the Chinese-Arab
relations have achieved a historic leap, bringing tangible benefits to the two
peoples and injecting more stability factors into the region and the world
He noted that the Arab-China summit was a complete
success, as the two sides agreed to work with all efforts to build the
Chinese-Arab community for a common future towards the new era, which is a
milestone in the history of Chinese-Arab relations.
President Jinping stressed the Chinese side's keenness
to take this summit as a new starting point to work to devote the Chinese-Arab
friendship represented in solidarity, equality, interests, mutual benefit and
inclusiveness, and to advance promising prospects for cooperation.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Qatar’s Emir, Fujairah ruler among GCC leaders in Riyadh
for summit with China
09 December ,2022
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani arrived
in Riyadh on Friday to participate in the China-Gulf summit which will bring
togwther Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council
countries.
At King Khalid International Airport, Sheikh Tamim was
received by Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of
Riyadh; Prince Mansour bin Khalid al-Saud, Saudi Ambassador to Qatar; Bandar
bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, ambassador of Qatar to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
and Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf, Secretary General of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) for the Arab States.
The inaugural China-Arab summit is set to take place
in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Friday.
The ruler of UAE emirate Fujairah Sheikh Hamad bin
Mohammed al-Sharqi also arrived in Riyadh representing the UAE's delegation
participating in the summit.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was among the
first Arab leaders to arrive in Riyadh Thursday in preparation for the
China-Arab summit which will also be held on Friday.
Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal, Sudan’s Sovereign
Council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Iraqi
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied and
Libya’s Presidency Council head Mohammed al-Menfi also landed in Riyadh.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Gulf Cooperation Council summit rejects Iranian
intervention in region
Ibrahim al-Khazen
10.12.2022
ISTANBUL
The 43rd summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
announced Friday its rejection of what it described as Iranian interventions in
the region.
It called for the continuation of implementing the
Istanbul grain deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The announcements came in the final statement of the
summit which was held in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
The statement urged Iraq to respect the sovereignty of
Kuwait and stressed enhancing the military collective work between GCC
countries to achieve collective security.
On Dec. 2, Kuwait asked Iraq to withdraw three Iraqi
ships that crossed into Kuwait's territorial waters.
The summit hailed the success of Qatar hosting the
World Cup and decided that Doha will hold the presidency of the 44th GCC
summit.
Regarding the Palestinian issue, the statement
stressed activating efforts of the international community to solve the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It also demanded a halt to targeting Palestinians
in occupied Jerusalem and rejected any move to annex any Israeli settlement
built in the occupied West Bank to Israel.
The GCC urged Lebanese parties to honor the
Constitution in Lebanon and implement political and economic reforms.
I also said the GCC Ministerial Council will follow up
with Kuwait to name a successor to GCC's Secretary General Nayef Al-Hajraf.
The summit was headed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman and was attended by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani,
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal
Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Omani Deputy Prime Minister Fahd bin Mahmoud and Hamad
Al-Sharqi, ruler of the Fujairah Emirate, representing the United Arab
Emirates.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Iraq's new electoral system leaves Turkmen at risk of
political discrimination: Party chief
Omer Faruk Mandanoglu
09.12.2022
The latest changes in Iraq's election law have caused
tension in the country, especially among Iraqi Turkmens, who are losing seats
in the Kirkuk region in early general elections held in October 2021.
Turkmens demanded that the changes be reviewed, citing
the country's demographic structure as the cause behind their losing seats in
Turkmen areas in the elections.
The leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), Arshad
Salihi, said the new narrowed electoral zone system, dividing Kirkuk into three
electoral districts, had affected the Iraqi Turkmens' political representation.
"While Kurds and Arabs were able to secure their
votes in their densely populated areas, Turkmens had to compete for them,"
he added.
Salihi emphasized that the people of Kirkuk could not
be represented correctly in the Iraqi parliament under the new system.
"The Arabization and Kurdification policies
implemented in Turkmen villages resulted in Kirkuk Turkmens losing their seats
in the last election," he added.
Iraqi Turkmens punished constantly
Turkmens have constantly been punished in Iraq, seen
as an "extension" of neighboring Türkiye, according to Salihi, who
added they were ignored for seats in Iraqi governments, parliaments, and
ministries.
"We have struggled to be represented and take
charge in government," he said.
Salihi pointed out that after the coalition government
formed in 2022 was dissolved, the newly formed administration held talks with
Kurdish representatives, as well as Shiite and Sunni Arabs, but not with
Turkmen representatives.
"They found it more beneficial for Turkmens not
to take part in the new government," he asserted.
"Both the Shia and Sunnis in the government
negotiated with the Kurdish representatives over Kirkuk. They didn't want to
the deal break or the bargaining to be harmed by including the Turkmens. The
Iraqi authorities still see us as an extension of Türkiye."
Turkmens seek Turkic world's help
Salihi emphasized that Turkmens should reconsider
their attitude towards the central government should it continue its policy of
changing the demographic structure of Turkmen areas of Kirkuk and other parts
of Iraq.
The ITF leader pointed out that the Turkic ethnic
group has always "defended the territorial integrity of Iraq. However,
they have always been exposed to more political discrimination."
"We were constantly excluded from the Council of
Ministers and the parliament," he added.
Salihi said it was a serious danger that the PKK
terrorist organization and its extensions resided in places where Turkmens
live.
"Housing terrorist organizations in our region
may endanger Kirkuk and its future," he said.
"As Iraqi Turkmens, we struggle to maintain peace
and security in our region, the reason that pushed us to request support from
Türkiye and other Turkic states, which has displeased the Iraqi
government," he added.
He concluded that if Iraqi authorities continue their
"discriminatory policy" against Turkmens, they would continue
"knocking on outside doors."
Three separate electoral districts in Kirkuk
Iraq's election law 2020/9, enacted for the elections
held on Oct. 10, 2021, was the first such provision in the country based on the
narrowed electoral district system.
Turkmen parties expressed their concern over the
division of Kirkuk, which is home to a large Turkmen population, into three
separate electoral districts.
This division of the region, which is represented by
12 parliament seats in total, into three separate electoral districts, could
lead to a great loss of Turkmen votes in the elections, Turkmens have said.
The first electoral constituency that Kirkuk was
divided into consists mainly of Kurdish voters and has five seats. The second
includes both Kurdish and Arab voters but is mainly home to Turkmen voters and
has four seats, while three seats were given to the third constituency, where
Arab voters dominate.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Mideast
Iran says uranium traces came in waste from abroad
09 December ,2022
Iran’s nuclear chief has said traces of enriched
uranium found on its territory by UN inspectors were brought into the country
from abroad, disputing claims of secret nuclear activity.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA,
has for months been pressing Tehran to explain the presence of the nuclear
material at three undeclared sites.
The discovery further complicated efforts to revive
the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has been hanging by a thread since the United
States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.
In remarks published Thursday by Hamshahri newspaper,
the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said the
traces came from waste brought into Iran from other countries.
Eslami said the places visited by UN inspectors were a
cattle farm, an abandoned mine and a landfill.
“In the landfill, they took samples from the waste
that entered Iran from different countries,” the report quoted him as saying.
“This does not mean the place of discovery was a
nuclear site or that it was an undeclared nuclear activity.”
“The waste came from Iraq and from other countries,”
Eslami said.
“We have prevented the entry of much of this waste...
They were not nuclear substances from our own manufacturing but perhaps traces
from previous use in the country of origin.”
In a resolution last month, the IAEA’s board of
governors deplored the lack of cooperation an “technically credible” answers
from Tehran.
As a result, the agency said it was unable to
guarantee the authenticity and integrity of Iran’s nuclear program.
But Eslami said Tehran has “provided documented and
argued answers to the request” of the UN nuclear watchdog.
An IAEA delegation had planned to travel to Tehran in
November, but the visit did not take place.
Source: Al Arabiya
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At least five Jews arrested by Iran during protests
against Islamic Republic
By Benjamin Weinthal
December 9, 2022
At least five Iranian Jews were arrested by Iranian
security forces over the last few weeks during nationwide protests engulfing
the theocratic Islamic state, The Jerusalem Post can reveal.
Karmel Melamed, an Iranian-American journalist who has
deep sourcing within the Persian Jewish community in Iran and in the Iranian
diaspora, told the Post that "my contact source who is in contact with the
Jewish leadership in Iran has confirmed that indeed five Jews have been
arrested in Iran recently, but one was released after a one-week detention.”
He added that "the four remaining Jews are still
in jail, awaiting adjudication of their cases by the Iranian authorities along
with many other young people who have been arrested for their involvement in
the protests. Of the four Jews are in custody and two of them are university
students from Tehran who were rounded up with the scores of other student
protestors.”
Some detained Jews are Tehran university students
Melamed, who has written extensively about Iranian
Jews, said “one of the Jews in custody is a Jewish student from Shiraz who was
arrested for flying a small drone in his city. The flying of any drones by
civilians is strictly prohibited by the Iranian regime in Iran.”
According to Melamed, “right now the Jewish leadership
in Tehran is working closely with the regime's authorities to help secure their
release.”
The 20-year-old Armita Abbasi, who sports a Star of
David necklace in photographs of herself, was arrested and raped by the Islamic
Republic’s security forces in October. CNN reported that, in contrast to most
Iranian dissidents within Iran, she “did not anonymize her anti-regime posts”
on social media.
CNN, which did not note that Abbasi wore a Star of
David, reported that leaked accounts “suggested that Iranian security forces
tortured and sexually assaulted Abbasi.”
Abbasi is not Jewish.
Sheina Vojoudi, a spokesperson for the Senate of the
National Iranian Congress, told the Post: “Ask the Islamic Republic where
Armita Abbasi, the girl with Magen David is? She was arrested, raped and
tortured. Where is she now?"
Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled the Islamic
Republic of Iran due to repression, added that the "Jewish community in
Iran is under pressure. Like other Iranians, also Jewish Iranians, are
oppressed. The Jewish people must admit whatever the Islamic Republic tells
them to show the world that the Jewish people in Iran have religious freedom,
but it’s a lie. They can easily be accused of espionage and cooperation with
Israel. They can be sentenced to dreadful penalties and all their properties
can be confiscated.”
Melamed said "The statements recently released by
the Jewish community and Christian communities leaders in support of the
Islamic regime in Iran during the recent protests should be given zero
credibility because they were likely made under duress from the Iranian
regime's Intelligence Ministry. Sadly the regime's thugs always direct the
Jewish and other religious minority leaders in Iran to make favorable
statements about the regime in the media or often parade them in front of
western news television programs to praise the regime as a part of a propaganda
effort to make the regime look good. These Jewish and Christian leaders in Iran are forced to
comply with the regime's demands otherwise they know their communities will
face possible dire consequences for their failure to comply.”
He added that “The Jewish protestors who were arrested
in Iran recently are most likely younger people and I'm not at all surprised
that they've joined the protests with other young Iranians in the streets
there. While their older Jewish parents and grandparents may have witnessed or
experienced the brutality of the Iranian regime against Iran's Jews over the
last 43 years and have fear of the regime, the younger generation of Iran's
Jews has not and are following other young people who also have no fear of the
regime and are only demanding freedom for themselves.”
According to Melamed, ”the young protestors in Iran
all see themselves as Iranian collectively and do not differentiate among one
another based on religion as the Iranian regime does. I personally believe that
since the Islamic regime has been trying to force state-sponsored religion down
the throats of these young people for so long, they are altogether turned off
by any organized religion.”
Tehran-raised Jew: Iranian Jews want to see Islamic
regime toppled
George Haroonian, an Iranian-American Jew who was born
in Tehran, told the Post that "It is absolutely normal that young Iranian
Jews like other young Iranians would participate in" the protests against
the regime.
"Their arrests in general does not mean that they
have been pinpointed as Jews. All are young men. The number of arrestees is so high, they do
not have enough people to interrogate the
arrestees."
He added that "A lot of Iranian Jews do not,
traditionally, want to speak up. Families are not saying their names or asking
people to fight for them. They are fearful the authorities will hurt them, like
other Iranians. Nothing unusual with this regime. The young man who was
executed yesterday, his family did not speak up."
Source: J Post
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Iran’s Raisi promises to pursue crackdown on
protesters; cleric critical of execution
10 December ,2022
A prominent cleric on Friday said the death sentence
of an Iranian protester involved in anti-government unrest violated sharia law,
as President Ebrahim Raisi promised to press on with a crackdown a day after
the man’s execution.
On Thursday, Iran hanged Mohsen Shekari, who had been
convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in
Tehran, the first such execution after thousands of arrests over the unrest,
drawing a chorus of Western condemnation.
Nationwide protests that erupted after the death in
police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16
pose one of the biggest challenges to theocratic rule in Iran since the 1979
Islamic Revolution.
“The identification, trial and punishment of the
perpetrators of the martyrdom (killing) of security forces will be pursued with
determination,” Raisi said at a ceremony honoring security forces killed during
protests, according to state media.
Molavi Abdolhamid, an outspoken Sunni cleric in the
Shia-ruled Islamic Republic, criticized the death sentence, according to his
website.
“When someone has not killed but only blocked a road
and stabbed and injured a Basij (militia) member with a knife, he cannot be put
to death under sharia,” Molavi Abdolhamid said.
“Listen to these protests and negotiate with the
people of Iran. Beating, killing and executing this nation is not right. This
protest will not be quelled by killing people,” he said, addressing
authorities.
State media published a video of what it said was
Shekari’s confession where he appears with a bruise on his right cheek. He
admitted to striking a member of the Basij militia with a knife and to blocking
a road with his motorbike alongside one of his friends.
Human rights groups said Shekari was tortured and
forced to confess.
A video widely shared on social media showed
protesters shouting from north Tehran rooftops late into the night “We are all
Mohsen” and “Khamenei is a murderer” - in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei.
Another video showed people lighting candles in front
of Shekari’s home late on Friday. Reuters could not immediately verify the
videos.
In Geneva, UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker
Turk called the execution “very troubling and clearly designed to send a
chilling effect to the rest of the protesters.” He called on the Iranian
authorities to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty.
In a Friday prayers sermon, however, hardline cleric
Ahmad Khatami thanked “the judiciary for sending the first rioter to the
gallows.”
Iran’s foreign ministry rejected Western criticism of
rights abuses during the crackdown as meddling in Iran’s internal affairs and
in violation of international law.
“Under the slogan of supporting human rights or
women’s rights, (Western countries) incite and promote violence against the
integrity of the nation and Iran’s national security,” ministry spokesperson
Nasser Kanaani said in a statement carried by state media.
Amnesty International has said Iranian authorities are
seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called “sham trials
designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has
rocked Iran”.
Iran has blamed the unrest on its foreign foes
including the United States, although protesters have come from all walks of
life in the Islamic Republic and have drawn public support from prominent
cultural and sports figures, as well as a sister and a niece of Ayatollah
Khamenei.
Germany on Friday condemned the execution, called on
Tehran to immediately end its violence against protesters and confirmed it had
summoned the Iranian ambassador in Berlin.
Britain announced sanctions on Friday against 30
people worldwide, including officials from Russia, Iran and Myanmar it deems
responsible for human rights abuses or corruption.
Molavi Abdolhamid made his critical comments from
Zahedan, the capital of restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, home to Iran’s
Baluch minority who have faced discrimination and repression for decades,
according to human rights groups.
Protests were held in Zahedan and other cities of the
province on Friday, according to online videos.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Raisi Says Iran Will Pursue Punishing Protesters ‘With
Determination’
09 December, 2022
Iranian authorities will determinedly pursue punishing
anti-regime protesters, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday, a day after
Iran carried out its first death penalty over demonstrations sparked by Mahsa
Amini’s death.
Speaking at a meeting with families of members of the
security forces who have been killed in the unrest, Raisi stressed that
punishing “rioters” and those behind deaths of regime agents “will be followed
up with determination by the relevant institutions,” the semi-official Tasnim
news agency reported.
Iran carried out on Thursday its first execution over
the ongoing protests in the country, hanging 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari.
Shekrai had been convicted of wounding a member of the
security forces and blocking a street in Tehran, in what rights groups called a
“sham trial.”
The execution has triggered global condemnation.
Protests – referred to by the regime as “riots” – have
swept across Iran since September 16 when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman
Amini died after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.
Since Amini’s death, demonstrators have been calling
for the downfall of the regime in a movement that has become one of the boldest
challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Netanyahu's government 'most extreme, crazy' in
Israel's history, warns outgoing premier
Abdel Raouf Arnaout
09.12.2022
JERUSALEM
The incoming government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is
shaping up to be the “most extreme and crazy” in Israel’s history, outgoing
Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned on Friday.
“Netanyahu is weak and his partners are younger, more
determined and more extreme than him, and have subdued him unconditionally,”
Lapid said on Twitter.
He vowed to continue “fighting for our beloved
country, for our democracy, for our soldiers, for the future of our children.”
An election this November paved the way for Netanyahu,
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, to return to power.
On Friday, he was granted 10 additional days by
President Isaac Herzog to form a government, extending the initial deadline of
Dec. 11 until Dec. 21.
Netanyahu has been wooing religious hardliners and
far-right forces to cobble together a new government, with opposition parties
warning that their policies could undermine democracy and fuel conflict.
If Netanyahu is unable to finalize a government within
the extended deadline, Herzog could assign the task to another political
leader.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Israelis rapped for blocking Christian permits to
visit Bethlehem
HAZEM BALOUSHA
December 09, 2022
GAZA CITY: Christians in the Gaza Strip hope to
celebrate Christmas each year and reunite with their families, but Israeli
restrictions on movement are preventing thousands from taking part in the
occasion.
Israel has been accused of strictly limiting permits
to pray in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to a limited number of
worshipers.
The Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority — the body
responsible for communicating with Israeli officials at Erez crossing — said
that Israel rejected more than 260 applications.
An anonymous source told Arab News that the authority
received approval for only about 640 people from the more than 900 applications
submitted.
A senior Israeli security official told journalists in
a phone briefing that about 200 people were denied access to Israel after being
denied security clearances.
About 1,100 Christians live in the Gaza Strip,
according to statistics issued by the Latin Monastery Church in Gaza.
The number of Christians in Gaza has fallen in past
years as a result of migration, owing to the dire economic situation, siege and
successive Israeli offensives.
Many have moved to the West Bank or emigrated abroad.
“We feel very sorry that not all Christians were
granted the necessary permits,” Kamel Ayad, director of public relations at the
Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, told Arab News.
“It is our right as Christians to witness Christmas
celebrations in the birthplace of Christ in Bethlehem as it is available to all
Christians of the world to travel to,” said Ayad.
Ayad added that the usual practice every year was to
send a list of the names of Christians who wish to obtain a permit to travel
during the Christmas period.
In most cases the issuance of permits is random,
meaning that only some members of Christian families can visit Bethlehem, said
Ayad.
The YMCA in Gaza lights up a large Christmas tree each
year at the association square with participation of Christians and Muslims.
Israel has imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip
since Hamas took control of the area by the armed force in mid-2007.
Hani Farah, secretary-general of Gaza’s YMCA, said
that Israel “practices all forms of repression and violations against the
Palestinians, regardless of their religion or gender.”
He added: “Just as Israeli bombs and missiles do not
differentiate between the Palestinian and the Palestinian, the blockade and its
repressive measures do not differentiate between a Muslim and a Christian. We
are all trapped in Gaza and we share pain and suffering.”
Sanaa, a Gaza Strip Christian, received approval for a
permit, but her husband and her three children did not.
She said: “What should I do with the permit alone
without my family?”
Sanaa told Arab News: “The spirit of Christmas is for
all family members to gather in one place. I cannot attend the Christmas
celebration in Bethlehem alone. This happens every year. One or two members of
the family only get a permit.”
Israel controls the entry and exit of Palestinians
through the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, and grants permits only
to humanitarian cases and several thousand daily workers, in addition to some
aid workers in international organizations.
Hamas condemned the Israeli ban of Christians from
traveling to the West Bank during Christmas.
“We condemn the Israeli occupation’s banning of
Christian Gazans from accessing sacred places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem on
religious holidays,” said a statement.
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2213716/middle-east
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Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Scales Up Attack on
Security Forces Post Truce Withdrawal
Dec 10, 2022
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Taliban have intensified their
attacks against security officials in the country’s volatile northwest and
southwest since the group last week called off the truce with Islamabad, declar
ed earlier this year, forcing the military to launch a crackdown.
The talks between the Pakistan government and the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), facilitated by the Afghan Taliban, had broken
down months earlier, but the ceasefire had r emained in force till last week.
Since then, TTP has unleashed a wave of attacks against security forces.
On Monday night, a Frontier Constabulary soldier,
Rehmat Zaman, was beheaded after being shot dead along with his son at his
house in Bannu, a district adjacent to the restive North Waziristan. Rehmat’s
wife told police th at her husband and son were asleep when about 20 armed men
entered their compound. When the family came out, the gunmen shot the two men.
They then chopped off Rehmat’s head and hung it from a tree in the nearby
market. The same day a tribal elder was shot dead in Mirali town of North
Waziristan. This was preceded by the killing of three policemen in Nowshera
district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In the last three days, two top police officials
survived attacks on their convoys, claimed by the TTP, in the northwest. The
group was also behind asuicide attack on a police truck that left four dead and
nearly two dozen injured in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan
province.
Source: Times Of India
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UK Sanctions Controversial Sindh Cleric Responsible
For Forced Marriages of Non-Muslims
Atika Rehman
December 10, 2022
LONDON: A controversial Pir from Sindh was placed on
the British government’s sanctions list on Friday, making Pakistan one of 11
countries where rights violators will be punished.
In a comment to Dawn, the British High Commission
said: “The UK takes freedom of religion or belief very seriously and is
committed to protecting minorities around the world. The new package of
sanctions targets those violating fundamental freedoms. This includes Mian
Abdul Haq, a cleric of the Bharchundi Sharif shrine in Ghotki, Sindh, who is
responsible for forced marriages and forced religious conversions of
non-Muslims and minors. This sanctions package does not include any other
Pakistani national.”
The sanctions effectively mean that designated
individuals will be unable to do any business or undertake economic activity
with UK citizens or businesses, and that they will be denied entry to the UK.
The pir, popularly known as Mian Mithu, is notorious
in upper Sindh for his alleged involvement in the forced conversion and
marriages of minor Hindu girls. He has denied the allegations on several
occasions and even claimed to have promoted religious harmony in Sindh.
Mr Mithu came in the spotlight after he allegedly
converted a Hindu girl, Rinkle Kumari, who was later renamed Faryal, to Islam
in February 2012, before her marriage to a local Muslim, Naveed Shah.
The conversion, Mian Mithu had claimed, was not
forced. He found himself in the news yet again in September this year.
He made headlines when he reportedly led a large
number of people who took to the streets in protest against an alleged incident
of blasphemy.
In 2008, the pir won a National Assembly seat on a
PPP ticket, but the party denied him a ticket in 2012.
In 2015, Imran Khan attempted to invite him into the
party fold but was forced to disassociate himself with the cleric after
protests from the Hindu community.
In 2021, activists on Twitter called out the PTI
government after Mian Mithu was invited by the Council of Islamic Ideology to
deliberate on legislation around forced conversion.
Clerics expressed reservations on a draft bill, and a
parliamentary panel ultimately rejected the bill despite protest from minority
lawmakers.
The cleric is one of 30 individuals who have been
sanctioned in total. Of these, 18, including Mr Mithu, have been targeted for
“violations and abuses of human rights”.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1725577/uk-sanctions-controversial-sindh-cleric
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Pakistani journalist's killing in Kenya a pre-meditated murder: Report
Dec 9, 2022
ISLAMABAD: A team set up by the Pakistani government
to probe the killing of a well-known Pakistani journalist in Nairobi said it
found several contradictions in the version given by Kenyan authorities, and
believes it was a case of pre-meditated murder.
TV journalist Arshad Sharif, who had fled Pakistan
citing threats to his life, was shot dead in Nairobi in October. Kenyan
officials said it was a case of mistaken identity and police hunting car
thieves opened fire on his vehicle as it drove through a roadblock without
stopping.
A two-member fact-finding team from Pakistan that
travelled to Kenya and conducted a number of interviews, examined and
reconstructed the crime scene and examined the deceased's phones and computers,
said in a 600-page report that Sharif's killing was a pre-planned murder.
"Both the members of the (fact-finding team) have
a considered understanding that it is a case of planned targeted assassination
with transnational characters rather than a case of mistaken identity,"
said the report, copies of which were submitted to Pakistan's Supreme Court.
"It is more probable that the firing was done,
after taking proper aim, at a stationary vehicle," it said.
Kenyan authorities declined comment on the specifics
of the report.
"The investigation into the matter is still
ongoing, so there is not much I can tell," said Resila Onyango,
spokesperson for the Kenya National Police Service.
A multi-agency team is conducting the investigation,
he said, adding that the team will apprise authorities when they are done with
the probe.
The chairperson of the Kenyan police watchdog
Independent Police Oversight Authority, Anne Makori, also told Reuters
investigations were still ongoing.
Pakistan's interior minister Rana Sanaullah had said
before the release of the report that Sharif's body had bruises and torture
marks, suggested it was a targeted killing.
The fact-finding team highlighted one wound in
particular on Sharif's back, saying it appeared to have been inflicted from
relatively close range.
The report noted there was no corresponding
penetration mark of a bullet on the seat on which Sharif was sitting when the
shooting purportedly took place, calling it a "ballistic
impossibility".
"The injury had to have been caused either before
the journalist got into the vehicle, or the shot was fired from a relatively
close range, possibly from inside the vehicle, and almost certainly not a
moving vehicle," the report said.
Case of treason
Sharif had fled from Pakistan citing threats to his
life after the government registered several treason cases against him.
One of the treason cases stemmed from reporting Sharif
did that led to an accusation he had spread a call from an official in a
previous government, led by former cricket star Imran Khan, for members of the
armed forces to mutiny.
Both Sharif and the official in the previous
government denied inciting mutiny.
Former prime minister Khan said Sharif had been
murdered for his journalistic work. He and his successor Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif, not related to the journalist, had called for a judicial investigation.
The fact-finding team's report also pointed out
apparent contradictions in the autopsy reports in Kenya and Pakistan.
The post-mortem report in Pakistan identified 12
injuries on Sharif's body whereas the Kenyan report identified just two
injuries pertaining to gunshot wounds.
Source: Times Of India
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Bilawal tells world to break ‘stereotypes’ about
Pakistan
December 10, 2022
KARACHI: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has
called upon the world to move away from its stereotypical image and look
towards Pakistan as a “promising emerging market” full of opportunities.
The foreign minister met Singapore President Halimah
Yacob and his counterpart Dr Vivian Balakrishnan during his visit to the
country on Friday.
In an interview with the Singapore-based English
language daily The Strait Times before the visit, the foreign minister said
there was a need for the world to have a fresh look at Pakistan away from its
stereotypical image.
“As a young political leader, I strongly feel that the
world needs to have a fresh look at Pakistan, away from its stereotypical
image,” he said.
Meets Singapore FM and president; calls the country
‘an emerging market’, ‘full of potential’
“There are so many opportunities in Pakistan awaiting
the world, for which the first step is to lift the travel advisories against
the country. I strongly feel that the world needs to look at us more
objectively, as a promising emerging market,” he told The Strait Times.
Mr Bhutto-Zardari remarked that online trading and
e-commerce activities were on the rise in Pakistan and Asian countries that
outsource IT and financial services and can benefit from the young population.
He said Pakistan was keen to forge closer cooperation
with Southeast Asia’s digital economy and enhance ties with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), especially in the technical and vocational
education sector.
“Some recent initiatives of Asean are of great
interest to Pakistan which we believe are bound to unlock immense trade and
investment opportunities for emerging economies including Pakistan,” he said in
the interview.
Meetings with president, FM
During his meetings with President Yacob and Foreign
Minister Balakrishnan, Mr Bhutto-Zardari emphasised the importance accorded by
Pakistan to its relations with Singapore, which is a key partner in Asean, a
press release issued by the Foreign Office said.
In the meeting with Ms Yacob, the two leaders welcomed
the progress in bilateral relations and expressed the desire to consolidate
cooperation in diverse fields.
During the breakfast meeting with his Singaporean
counterpart, the foreign minister highlighted the importance of regular
interaction and dialogue and high-level visits to promote people-to-people
contacts, the FO added.
The two leaders agreed to “unlock the potential for
economic cooperation” and collaborate in the fields of agriculture, digital
economy and digital finance. They also exchanged views on the regional
situation and agreed to stay in contact to promote cooperation.
Facebook monetisation
The foreign minister also visited the Asia-Pacific
headquarters of Meta — the parent company of Facebook — where he launched the
“Stars Programme” for content monetisation in Pakistan.
Source: Dawn
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of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1725517/bilawal-tells-world-to-break-stereotypes-about-pakistan
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Google to open office in Pakistan next week: IT
minister
Kalbe Ali
December 10, 2022
ISLAMABAD: While Twitter and Facebook have expressed
their inability to establish offices in Pakistan in near future, the world’s
largest search engine and video-sharing platform Google is set to open a
liaison office in Pakistan.
IT and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haque on Friday
announced the global giant has already registered itself as a company in
Pakistan.
“A delegation of Google is scheduled to come to
Pakistan early next week from Singapore and the company will likely announce
the establishment of a functional office here,” Mr Haque told Dawn.
He also disclosed that TikTok has also agreed to
establish a liaison office in Pakistan.
However, Google has already taken a lead in this
regard and the company has already been registered with the Securities and
Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Karachi registry.
Registration is the first step towards the
establishment of the office, which is one of the requirements under the Removal
and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards)
Rules 2021.
Twitter, Meta still reluctant on inconsistent
policies, say industry sources
The social media platforms will have to abide by the
laws and the norms of Pakistan after getting registered and opening offices.
The rules also require the social media platforms to
have their “servers” in Pakistan to ensure that the data was secure. Currently,
the data of all the platforms are stored outside the country.
The IT minister has recently expressed confidence that
more social media platforms will establish their offices in Pakistan, but
industry sources said that Twitter and Meta have been reluctant so far.
A senior executive of one of the telecom companies in
the country said that both Twitter and Meta were undergoing some radical
structural changes, and they have laid off a large number of employees in the
region and globally too.
“The members of negotiating teams for Pakistan in
Meta, representing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have been changed,
therefore no headway is expected in discussions with Meta and Twitter,” the
executive said.
On the other hand sources in the telecom industry said
that despite assurances by the IT ministry regarding a business-friendly
environment, the inconsistent policies have led to mistrust among the companies
and they were hesitant to establish offices in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on
Friday visited the Asia Pacific headquarters of Meta (Facebook), Singapore to
launch the “Stars Programme” for monetisation in Pakistan.
Source: Dawn
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of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1725570
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All-out facilities for 385,000 Afghans crossing into
Pakistan through border points monthly
December 9, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has taken all-out facilitative
measures at all five Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing points to ensure
smooth processing of Afghan people, despite a heavy inflow of around 385,000
people a month.
Currently, Pakistan has five crossing points
operational with Afghanistan, which include Chaman, Torkham, Kharlachi, Ghulam
Khan and Angoor Ada.
Around 13,000 people move to and from Afghanistan
through these crossing points that include pedestrians, patients, traders,
tourists and transporters. In addition to hundreds of trade convoys, around
385,000 Afghan travel through the crossing point a month.
Despite limited resources and workforce, Pakistan is
manning over 100 counters at the crossing points to ensure the smooth
processing of a heavy inflow of cross-border movement.
No other bordering country has such an exodus at their
border crossings, a security official commented.
Around 79 counters have been placed at Chaman and
Torkham, the busiest crossing points.
Though Pakistan has an Integrated Border Management
System (IBMS) in place at main crossings, which supports One Document Regime
(valid visa/ passport). However, to facilitate their Afghan brethren, Pakistan
also allows a large number of Afghans especially patients, journalists, women
and traders to cross the border on Tazkera (non-valid) documents, on
humanitarian grounds.
The security official said that exclusive counters at
crossing points have been operational for Afghan patients and women only.
Afghans entering Pakistan either on valid or invalid
documents are allowed to extend or renew their status to stay in Pakistan.
Border crossing for Afghan people even without
passports to earn a livelihood, visit a relative, address any medical emergency
or get an education is an exclusive offer extended by Pakistan, which no other
neighbor offers.
However, despite all the said facilitations, the
Afghan and Indian media keeps maligning Pakistan by reporting incidents of
perceived mistreatment of Afghans by Pakistani authorities at Pak-Afghan border
crossing points, causing resentment among Afghan masses towards Pakistan.
The fact is that, as per official data, around 6,000
Afghan nationals are refused entry into Pakistan every month due to the obvious
reasons of having insufficient documents or even no documents.
Source: Pakistan Today
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South Asia
Taliban pushes Afghan media to margin again, impose
further restrictions
10 December, 2022
Kabul [Afghanistan], December 10 (ANI): Instead of
sharing a strategy to favour the media personnel in Afghanistan, the Taliban
has pushed the media outlets in the country to the margin once again, saying
that the authorities are planning to formulate a proper direction for the media
outlets, Khaama Press reported on Friday.
The remarks were made by an executive of the
Information and Cultural Affairs Department of Balkh, Mohammad Younis Rashid,
after a recent gathering in Northern Mazar-e-Sharif province between the media
and the Taliban’s acting government.
Instead of drawing a comprehensive roadmap for the
freedom of journalists in the country, the group put further restrictions on
the media outlets in the war-torn country, Khaama Press reported.
“We have experienced limitations on media after the
takeover of the current regime. Unfortunately, these restrictions will further
push the media to the margin,” said the head of a private media outlet in
Balkh, Abdul Baseer Abid.
As to locals in the country, the lack of a particular
blueprint has posed a severe challenge for Afghan media to grow and prosper,
especially after the Taliban took control of the country in August last year.
“The lack of a particular roadmap is a great challenge
for the media to grow, therefore, the government should introduce a single policy
that would fit with media and journalism,” stated Sayed Mohammad Yazdan, a
local journalist, Khaama Press reported.
Several humanitarian organizations have called out the
violations against the journalists in the Afghanistan.
In the wake of the excessive rise in crime against
journalists in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power, the United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated the human rights violation of
at least 200 reporters in its report, earlier in November.
Taking to Twitter, UNAMA said, “Human rights abuses of
more than 200 reporters in Afghanistan recorded by UNAMA since August 2021.
Record high numbers include arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment, threats and
intimidation.”
“Media in #Afghanistan is in peril. Let us all help #ProtectJournalists
#EndImpunity,” UNAMA tweeted.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August
last year, it rolled back women’s rights advances and media freedom revoking
the efforts on gender equality and freedom of speech in the country.
According to a report by the South Asian Media
Solidarity Network (SAMSN) over 45 per cent of journalists have quit since the
terrorist outfit assumed power. The ever-increasing restrictions against media
in Afghanistan have also drawn widespread criticism globally with the United
Nations (UN) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) decrying the
arrests, demanding the Taliban stop harassing local journalists and stifling
freedom of speech through continued detentions and threats.
Source: The Print
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Islamic Emirate: Anti-Corruption Commission to Resume
Activity
December 10, 2022
On International Anti-Corruption Day, the Islamic
Emirate spokesperson said that the Anti-Corruption Commission will restart its
work soon.
According to the spokesman, because of financial
issues, the commission's operations had been suspended.
"If there was a need for an anti-corruption
department, we have it already. Because of economic challenges it has been
suspended. As far as the fight against corruption is concerned, there is
currently no corruption in the offices," said Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman
of the Islamic Emirate.
The deputy spokesman added that the current
governmental organizations are free from corruption now.
"The anti-corruption department is necessary. For
government offices in some countries, corruption levels are low because they
have an anti-corruption department," said Maiwnd Rohani, a governance
expert.
Meanwhile, some citizens of the country called on the
current government to fight against corruption in the country.
The citizen added that corruption in government
institutions has decreased compared to the past, but this problem has not been
completely removed.
"In the current government, the level of corruption
is very low but it's not zero," said Ahmad Zia, a Kabul resident.
"In some departments there is no corruption, and
it will solve the problems of the people a little bit," said Bakht Munir,
a Kabul resident.
The Islamic Emirate said that they were committed to
removing corruption from the government departments from the first day of their
takeover. And now they completely have removed corruption from the government
departments, they say.
Political analysts consider the existence of
independent institutions important.
Source: Tolo News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-181110
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Finance Ministry takes notice of dollar, wheat, urea
'smuggling to Kabul'
Khaleeq Kiani
December 10, 2022
ISLAMABAD: An inter-ministerial huddle on Friday noted
with concern that many of the challenges confronting the country were being
aggravated by smuggling, mostly on western borders and decided to take robust
measures to stop the outflow of foreign currency and critical imported
commodities.
The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq
Dar was told that various reports suggest that not only foreign currency but
wheat and urea were imported at huge subsidies at the cost of scarce foreign
exchange flowing to Afghanistan.
The participants of the meeting were flabbergasted
that the smuggling of urea, wheat and currency was happening despite the
presence of a large workforce of civil and armed forces and customs and fencing
of over 2,500km of borders at the cost of more than Rs50 billion. It was
observed that while it was humanely difficult to monitor such a long border yet
this could not be allowed to go on.
Mr Dar directed that all stakeholders should put their
acts together in a coordinated manner beyond routine responsibilities in the
nation’s interest while also keeping in mind the sensitivities across the
border.
Finance minister stresses coordinated efforts in the
national interest
“Everybody will have to play a role because no single
institution could overcome the situation without the cooperation of others,”
the finance minister said. The meeting felt it ironic that large dollar amounts
were moving out purportedly in the name of coal being imported from Afghanistan
in local currency.
“The meeting discussed and reviewed the economic
situation and current mechanism of foreign currency, wheat and urea smuggling,”
said a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, adding that various
measures were discussed in order to strengthen the anti-smuggling regime.
The measures were not specified in the statement.
Still, an official said all the stakeholders particularly customs intelligence,
frontier constabulary and intelligence agencies were asked by the finance
minister to come up with their respective roadmaps on an urgent basis to
address the menace, causing serious financial and foreign exchange loss to the
kitty when it faced historic challenges.
The meeting was also attended by law minister Azam
Nazeer Tarar, Special Assistants to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Tariq
Bajwa and Tariq Pasha, SBP governor, secretaries of finance and interior and DG
Federal Investigation Agency and Customs and senior representatives of
intelligence agencies.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text of
the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1725569
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Two opposition leaders arrested in Bangladesh
December 10, 2022
DHAKA: Two top leaders of Bangladesh’s main opposition
party were arrested by police on early Friday, a day before a planned rally to
call for the prime minister’s resignation.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party general secretary Mirza
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Mirza Abbas, a former minister and member of the
party’s top decision-making body, were taken from their homes at about 3am on
Friday Zahiruddin Swapan, head of the BNP’s media wing, said.
Protests sparked by power cuts and fuel price hikes
have erupted across the country in recent months, demanding that Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina step down in favour of fresh elections under a caretaker
government.
Friday’s police action came two days after security
forces in the capital Dhaka fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd of
thousands of Bangladesh Nationalist Party supporters preparing for the December
10 rally, leaving at least one dead and scores wounded.
Source: Dawn
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of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1725512/two-opposition-leaders-arrested-in-bangladesh
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Afghanistan’s War Widows Desperate Demand for Work
By Nizamuddin Rezahi
December 9, 2022
Women who lost their husbands in the war in the
Southern Helmand Province desperately ask the interim government of Afghanistan
to provide them with work.
The prolonged war in Afghanistan took the lives of
scores of innocent civilians including men, women, and children across the
country. Thousands of women lost their daily bread earners in either fighting
against the insurgent groups or standing against the previous regime. The
consequences of the never-ending war have adversely affected the lives of every
segment of society, women, and girls in particular.
“In the absence of my husband, I have to work and
support my family. I have five children, and I would do every possible work to
feed my family before they die from hunger and poverty. The current government
should pay serious attention to the living conditions of the war widows because
they have no other alternative to look for,” said a local Helmand
resident.
Despite the flowing humanitarian aid since the
overthrow of the previous regime last August, the economic situation in
Afghanistan is worsening. Foreign-based organizations ceased operations.
Similarly, public and private businesses have shrunk due to regime change and
uncertain political conditions, leading to a massive unemployment rate.
Over the past years, certain women supported their
families through handicrafts, however, due to the recent political changes, the
handicraft business has declined with low demand for the product.
Source: Khaama Press
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of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/afghanistans-war-widows-desperate-demand-for-work/
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Anti-Corruption Commission to Resume Operation Soon:
Taliban
By Arif Ahmadi
December 10, 2022
Kabul, Afghanistan – The Taliban spokesperson
Zabiullah Mujahid, on International Anti-Corruption Day, said the
Anti-Corruption Commission will resume its work soon, according to sources,
whose operation has been suspended.
Mujahid addresses financial issues as the main reason
why the commission has suspended its operation.
“If there was a need for an anti-corruption
department, we have it already,” he said as TOLOnews quoted. “Because of
economic challenges it has been suspended.”
According to the spokesperson, the government offices
are free of corruption under their leadership since the last August 2021.
“As far as the fight against corruption is concerned,
there is currently no corruption in the offices,” he exclaimed.
Highlighting the effectiveness of the anti-corruption
commission, governance expert believe such department is necessary to eradicate
misconduct within an organization.
“The anti-corruption department is necessary. For
government offices in some countries, corruption levels are low because they
have an anti-corruption department,” said Maiwnd Rohani, a governance expert.
Meanwhile, a number of Afghan citizens called on the
current leadership to fight against corruption in the country, saying the
problem has not been completely removed from the system.
“In the current government, the level of corruption is
very low but it’s not zero,” said Ahmad Zia, a Kabul resident, as local media
quoted.
“In some departments there is no corruption, and it
will solve the problems of the people a little bit,” said Bakht Munir, another
Kabul resident.
Political analysts consider the existence of
independent institutions important, saying such will resolve economic problems
in the country.
“Whenever political and economic problems have been
resolved in a country is when corruption decreases,” said Toryalai Zazai,
political analyst.
Source: Khaama Press
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/anti-corruption-commission-to-resume-operation-soon-taliban/
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Expansion of Afghan Refugee Sponsorship Program; A
Pathway to Canada
By Nizamuddin Rezahi
December 10, 2022
After the collapse of the previous regime in August
2021, the Canadian people extended their helping hands to those Afghan families
and friends fleeing for their lives, and they are still ready to support more
asylum seekers.
The Canadian government and people have been extremely
generous to the people of Afghanistan. Their unconditional support has
continued for the people of Afghanistan over the past two decades across
different domains. Even after the Taliban’s takeover, they moved thousands of
vulnerable Afghan families to Canada through a so-called emergency program.
Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada introduced
a temporary federal program dedicated to Afghan nationals less than two months
ago, waiving the need for official refugee status, as long as the refugees meet
the Canadian government’s criteria to be privately sponsored.
However, the demand was so high that the program
reached its cap of 3,000 applications within the initial 20 or 30 minutes,
leaving many sponsors frustrated, who raised funds and took full preparation to
fill out an application.
“I am pleased the government opened this temporary
program and hopes there will be more refugees without official refugee
recognition status who are accepted, highlighting Afghans are one of the
largest refugee populations in the world,” said Iris Challoner, MOSAIC’s
refugee sponsorship program manager.
Meanwhile, the private sponsorship group is another
scheme through which eligible Afghan families could move to Canada who already
have relatives to sponsor. But the major obstacle is the legal status of
Afghans who have fled to Pakistan and Iran. They need to have official
recognition from those states or the United Nations Higher Commissioner for
Refugees.
Source: Khaama Press
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Southeast Asia
Sarawak premier says state practices moderate Islamic
approach to maintain racial harmony
10 Dec 2022
KUCHING, Dec 10 — Premier Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari
Tun Openg said the appointment of five Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) MPs proved
that the state has always adopted a moderate approach in its Islamic teaching.
The GPS chairman said practising a moderate Islamic
approach was necessary in order to maintain racial harmony in the state.
“This is because our people here are united. The
Muslims unite, and we understand our non-Muslims (Sarawakians) very well, and
they believe in us because our practice is based on knowledge,” he said, adding
that the state did not condone racial or religious bigotry.
“Be balanced, don’t be too obsessed. We must be
moderate. Yes, you can talk and preach about Islam, we fight for Islam but we
also must be careful.
“If we want to make more people to believe in Islam,
we must talk about science. You rationalise it. Use the Islamic astronomy
knowledge theory and apply it.
“Don’t be obsessive,” he said during the opening ceremony
of the Sarawak-level Falak (Astronomy) Seminar at the Sarawak Islamic
Information Centre here yesterday.
Abang Johari explained better understanding in
scientific knowledge in preaching Islam would strengthen inter-religious
relationship.
“Astronomy itself is a knowledge of science. Al Falaq
is related to astronomy. Its philosophy articulates how our solar system
including the stars in the sky, the earth, the sun, everything is bound to by
an equilibrium that makes it balance.
“The core of science is research, it has to be done
and has to be learned from the creation of Allah SWT. Just look at the balance
created by Allah to stabilise our planet earth today. Our philosophy of life is
to be balanced,” he said.
Abang Johari also said that GPS had never expected
that one of its MPs would be appointed as a deputy prime minister.
He believes the appointment of Datuk Seri Fadillah
Yusof as deputy prime minister demonstrated Sarawak’s capability in managing
its politics.
“Who would have thought that a Sarawakian would become
a deputy prime minister. This happened because we had proved to them that we
manage our own politics well.
Source: Malay Mail
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Group pleads with Malaysia to find Rohingyas feared
dying at sea due to mistaken identity
By Julia Chan
09 Dec 2022
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 ― A humanitarian group has urged
Malaysians authorities to urgently launch a search mission for a boat with
Rohingya refugees who were allegedly dying after being left stranded for days
within the country’s search-and-rescue (SAR) limits.
Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network’s Rohingya Working
Group chairman Lilianne Fan asserted that her group has information that showed
up to 180 Rohingyas remained adrift in the Andaman Sea near Thailand’s Ranong
province, which was within Malaysia’s SAR region.
Thai authorities had launched a separate mission that
recovered another boat, which Fan claimed may have been mistaken for the one in
need of rescue
“It is critical that Malaysia verify if this boat in
serious distress is the same one that was rescued by Thais and if not, Malaysia
should fulfil our international responsibility to rescue boats in distress in
our SAR region without discrimination,” said Fan.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Fan, who is also director of
the Geutanyoe Foundation, said she was in touch with the families of the
passengers onboard and given coordinates of the boat’s location at 4pm from a
satellite phone aboard.
Fan said that their information put the number of
passengers at between 160 and 180 Rohingyas, including some 50 women and 30
children, who left Bangladesh on November 26. According to her, the boat was
taking on water and its engine disabled days ago.
“Many passengers including women and children have
already passed away on the boat as they ran out of food and water in the last
five days,” she said.
Fan also asserted that Malaysian authorities were not
taking any action as they believed Thailand have already rescued a boat of
Rohingya refugees today.
“However, there have been multiple boats at sea and we
have concerns the boat in distress was not the one rescued by the Thais. To our
knowledge there are multiple boats left and in the sea, different from the boat
that was found by oil rig workers yesterday and handed over to the Myanmar
Navy,” she said.
“They have been in serious distress at sea in the
Andaman Sea for more than a week, and there are people dying. They are in need
of urgent rescue and humanitarian assistance and Malaysia has the international
responsibility to conduct search and rescue operations for boats in distress in
this region,” Fan added.
She said that her organisation has so far been in
touch with the Home Ministry, the Defence Ministry, the Malaysian Red Crescent
Society, the Malaysian Consultative Council for Islamic Organization (Mapim)
and several members of Parliament.
“I am sure that our government has looked into it but
they believe that Thailand has been conducting rescues so right now they are
not looking,” she said.
According to the last GPS coordinates received from a
satellite phone on the boat at 4pm, the last known location of the boat is
approximately 388km from Ranong, 352 km from Port Blair, and 619 km from
Langkawi.
The United Nations UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) had in a statement Wednesday urged countries in the region to save the
lives of about 200 Rohingya refugees whose boat has been stranded off the coast
of Thailand since December 1.
Unverified information suggests a number of Rohingya,
including women and children, have already lost their lives, and there is a
significant risk of additional fatalities in the coming days if people were not
rescued.
It was also reported by Reuters earlier today that a
Vietnamese oil service vessel rescued 154 Rohingya from a sinking boat in the
Andaman Sea and has transferred them to Myanmar’s navy.
The vessel, Hai Duong 29, was en route from Singapore
to Myanmar when it spotted the boat in distress 458.7km south of the Myanmar
coast on Wednesday.
Source: Malay Mail
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Malaysia’s PM Anwar names 27 deputy ministers to
complete his leadership team
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
on Friday named 27 deputy ministers for his unity government, seven days after
naming his Cabinet ministers.
The names were unveiled at a news conference in
Malaysia’s administrative capital of Putrajaya after they were approved by the
Malaysian King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, earlier on Friday. The deputy
ministers will be sworn in before the King at 3pm on Saturday.
Datuk Seri Anwar on Dec 2 unveiled a slightly smaller
Cabinet than that of his predecessor, totalling 28 full ministers that included
himself and two deputy prime ministers.
Mr Anwar is also the Finance Minister. The Finance
Ministry will have two deputy ministers – Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan from the
Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and Mr Steven Sim from Pakatan Harapan (PH).
The deputy minister for the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry is Mr Liew Chin Tong (PH), who was the deputy defence
minister when PH helmed the government in 2018.
The deputy defence minister is Mr Adly Zahari (PH),
who was formerly Melaka chief minister.
The deputy ministers in other key ministries are:
- Home Affairs – Mr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN)
- Law and Institutional Reform – Mr Ramkarpal Singh
(PH)
- Foreign Affairs – Mr Mohamad Alamin (BN)
- Transport – Hasbi Habibollah (Gabungan Parti
Sarawak, or GPS)
- Education – Ms Lim Hui Ying (PH), younger sister of
Mr Lim Guan Eng, a PH leader and chairman of the Democratic Action Party
- Higher Education – Mr Yusof Apdal (Parti Warisan),
younger brother of former Cabinet minister Shafie Apdal.
Malaysia’s unity government is made up of four main
coalitions: PH led by Mr Anwar with 82 seats, BN with 30, GPS with 23 and
Gabungan Rakyat Sabah with six, making a total of 141 seats in the 222-strong
federal Parliament.
Mr Anwar has said he also has support from other smaller
coalitions and parties for a total of 148 parliamentary seats, or a two-thirds
majority.
The Anwar administration is burnishing its reformist
credentials by reviewing projects and plans approved by past administrations.
The PH alliance’s election manifesto also promised to fight corruption.
Mr Anwar on Friday said the government will continue
to be consistent in its efforts to combat corruption.
“By celebrating and upholding integrity, it can propel
Malaysia towards holistic excellence that will include the physical and
spiritual aspects, values and identity,” he said in a Facebook post on Friday,
which is also International Anti-Corruption Day.
Separately, Malaysia’s anti-graft agency said its
investigation into the alleged misuse of Covid-19 era stimulus packages by the
previous administration will focus on RM92.5 billion (S$28.4 billion) spent by
the government.
This comes a day after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission (MACC) said that it had opened an investigation into the alleged
misappropriation of RM600 billion of public funds for tackling the pandemic.
The MACC said on Thursday that it would summon former premier Muhyiddin Yassin
and two former Cabinet ministers who served in his administration for
questioning over the case.
Source: Straits Times
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Anwar Ibrahim is good news for the Muslim world
DR. AZEEM IBRAHIM
December 09, 2022
The news has been particularly fraught and relentless
recently; so much is happening. A major war in Europe continues, financial
issues such as inflation and energy price rises sweep the world in developed
and developing nations alike, and there is a World Cup to watch and dissect.
In the current climate, it is hard to find time to
stop and think — and harder still, sometimes, to acknowledge tentative good
news stories. But that only makes it all the more vital to ensure that we do
indeed stop to mark such moments.
One such tentative positive step was recently taken by
Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim, a perennial opposition leader, took office as prime
minister last month. That he might do so seemed unlikely, even impossible, for
more than two decades. In all that time, during crisis after crisis, scandal
after scandal, Ibrahim toiled in the political wilderness. It was a very
difficult road.
Even now, as the BBC reminds us, Ibrahim will not have
an easy ride. There are forces arrayed against him that threaten to render his
time in office short and unsuccessful.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First, a
reminder of who Ibrahim is, what he represents and why his election, after all
these years, is good news not only for Malaysia but for the whole of the Muslim
world.
In the 1990s, Ibrahim was his country’s finance
minister and deputy prime minister. His long tenure and steady hands meant he
was internationally respected. His time as head of Malaysia’s economy coincided
with a period of remarkable growth and optimism. It was the era of the Asian
tigers.
Not only a competent finance minister, Ibrahim also
proved from the beginning of his political career to be a socially aware
Muslim. From the 1970s he was at the head of an Islamic revival movement in
Malaysia. As a co-founder of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (the Muslim Youth
Movement of Malaysia), his party and ideals combined social concerns and care
for the poor and dispossessed with an explicit vision of Islam.
Ibrahim’s politics were shaped around a vision of a
kind of multiethnic, globally aware Islam. He was, and is, a proud Malay and a
proud Muslim. In contrast to transnational Islamism, Ibrahim favors social
progress within nation states. His vision for Malaysia sees it taking its place
both within the Islamic community and the wider world.
All of this will be central to his future plans
because Malaysia has many problems. It is a corrupt society where the rule of
law is an inconsistent principle. For years, the country was run by a
succession of prime ministers whose Byzantine sense of politics was accompanied
by an almost imperial taste for wealth and luxury.
Competent economic management is a soothing balm in
the aftermath of such crises and scandals. So, too, is a modest philosophy of
government steeped in the civic teachings of Islam, led by a party that
consists of a multiethnic, multifaith coalition.
Such virtues, once expressed, tend to spread. If
Ibrahim succeeds, Malaysia will transcend the recent scandal and turmoil and
could well become a beacon for the region and the wider Muslim world: A country
that recovered from poor governance, greed and moral corruption, and sought
through its own efforts to instead build a brighter future for its people.
Ibrahim faces many challenges, not the least of which
includes the global economic crisis. With China in perpetual slowdown and the
US and Europe teetering on the brink of recession, the prospects of growth for
many countries have been depressed.
Ibrahim cannot imagine that he will enjoy immediate
success. The headwinds he faces are strong. But as his supporters have said,
would the people of Malaysia rather be led by an experienced man long kept out
of positions of power, or by the leaders from its recent history: Men accused
and even convicted of corruption, or men whose political coalitions failed to
stand the test of time?
We must hope that the long-awaited leadership of this
perennial opposition figure proves capable of bringing about the transformation
that Ibrahim’s supporters have so long imagined, for their sake.
Source: Arab News
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2213661
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Already under probe for Islamophobia claim, Hadi now
accuses DAP of milking Malay disunity
By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
09 Dec 2022
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi
Awang today accused DAP of exploiting divisions in the Malay polity to further
its agenda, adding to his anti-Islam claim against the Pakatan Harapan
component for which he is under police investigation.
In a post on his Facebook page, Hadi appeared to have
referenced Malay political leaders that are now working with the DAP, in a
litany of allegations that included them having insatiable thirst for power and
wealth.
Hadi claimed greed was why these Malay leaders were
willing to collaborate with a party that allegedly worked against Islam, an
allegation the PAS president has repeatedly made without substantiating.
Alluding to the Melaka sultanate’s fall to the
Portuguese, Hadi suggested that today’s Malay political leaders have allowed
“foreign invaders” — likely a euphemism for DAP — to conquer their land because
they are preoccupied with endless power tussles.
“The arrival of the invaders was made easy because of
the divisions among the rulers and their subjects, alongside the thirst for
wealth and power to the point that they would sell their dignity, faith and
community. At the end they relinquished everything to the invaders and all
races that are enemies of Islam,” he wrote.
Hadi claimed the ideology underpinning the DAP to be
“clearly anti-Islam” but suggested that Malay-Muslim political leaders were
turning a blind eye to justify forming political cooperation because they want
to be in power.
“Today, DAP is praised supposedly because their
leaders claimed to have changed even if their ideology remains clearly
anti-Islam. All they (DAP leaders) have done is keep quiet without actually
changing the party’s foundation together with other parties that abet them,”
the PAS president said.
On November 28, Hadi accused DAP of spreading
Islamophobia in another lengthy Facebook rant that featured the usual diatribe
against the PH component member as a party allegedly bent on “destroying”
Islam.
In August, he accused non-Muslims and non-Bumiputera
of making up the bulk of what he called “roots of corruption” — those who chase
illicit gains — to the detriment of the country’s economy and politics.
The police questioned Hadi over his claims on Monday.
Source: Malay Mail
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Europe
UK's Daily Mail apologizes to Pakistan premier over
corruption allegations
Aysu Bicer
09.12.2022
LONDON
UK's tabloid Daily Mail has apologized to Pakistani
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over a 2019 article which accused him of stealing
British aid money meant for earthquake victims.
The news story, ‘Did the family of Pakistani
politician who has become the poster boy for British overseas aid STEAL funds
meant for earthquake victims,’ written by journalist David Rose, was published
on July 14, 2019 when former Prime Minister Imran Khan was in power.
The article alleged that Sharif and his family members
misappropriated funds out of more than £500 million ($612 million) aid provided
by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) for the devastating
2005 earthquake victims when he was the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s
largest province.
Both Sharif and DFID denied the charges, with the
former filing a defamation case against the newspaper in a UK high court,
seeking withdrawal of charges, damages and an apology.
In a clarification published on its website on
Thursday, the British newspaper said that "we reported on an investigation
by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau into Mr Sharif and suggested that
the money under investigation included a not insubstantial sum of British
public money that had been paid to the Punjab province in DFID grant aid.
"We accept Mr Sharif has never been accused by
the National Accountability Bureau of any wrongdoing in relation to British
public money or DFID grant aid. We are pleased to make this clear and apologise
to Mr Sharif for this error."
According to Murtaza Ali Shah, a senior Pakistani
journalist based in London who had been following the case, the Daily Mail has
withdrawn all allegations of corruption after an out-of-court settlement with
Sharif and his son-in-law Imran Ali Yousaf. The article has also been removed
from all of the publication's platforms as part of the agreement, he said.
Following the apology, Sharif thanked God for his
"vindication," saying "brazen lies" have been exposed and
that "disinformation & fake news have limited shelf life."
Rose, the journalist who wrote the story, tweeted on
Friday that the newspaper has not apologized for other allegations in the
article, such as those covering alleged money-laundering.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Russia trying to get ballistic missiles from Iran,
says Britain
09 December ,2022
Russia is attempting to obtain more weapons from Iran,
including hundreds of ballistic missiles, and offering Tehran an unprecedented
level of military and technical support in return, Britain’s UN Ambassador
Barbara Woodward said on Friday.
Woodward also said that since August Iran had
transferred hundreds of drones - also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
- to Russia, which had used them to “kill civilians and illegally target
civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine.
Iran denies supplying the drones to Moscow, and Russia
has denied its forces used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
“Russia is now attempting to obtain more weapons,
including hundreds of ballistic missiles,” Woodward told reporters.
“In return, Russia is offering Iran an unprecedented
level of military and technical support. We’re concerned that Russia intends to
provide Iran with more advanced military components, which will allow Iran to
strengthen their weapons capability,” she said.
The Iranian and Russian missions to the United Nations
did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran has promised to provide Russia with
surface-to-surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian
officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters in October.
The United States said on Wednesday that it has seen
the continued provision of Iranian drones to Russia, but that Washington had
not seen evidence that Iran has transferred ballistic missiles to Russia for
use against Ukraine.
Woodward spoke ahead of a Security Council meeting
later on Friday, requested by Russia, on weapons from the Ukraine conflict that
Russia says are “falling into the hands of bandits and terrorists” elsewhere in
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
She also said that Britain was “almost certain that
Russia is seeking to source weaponry from North Korea (and) other heavily
sanctioned states, as their overstocks palpably dwindle.”
The United Nations is examining “available
information” about accusations that Iran supplied Russia with drones, UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council in a report
earlier this week, as he faces Western pressure to send experts to Ukraine to
inspect downed drones.
Britain, France, Germany, the United States and
Ukraine say the supply of Iranian-made drones to Russia violates a 2015 UN
Security Council resolution enshrining the Iran nuclear deal.
Russia argues that there is no mandate for Guterres to
send UN experts to Ukraine to investigate the origin of the drones.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Türkiye emphasizes effective cooperation with Bulgaria
to manage border security
Faruk Zorlu
09.12.2022
Türkiye emphasized the need for effective cooperation
with Bulgaria to deal with border security in the management of irregular
migration, the Turkish president said on Friday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his
Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said:
"We focused on the need for effective cooperation in the management of
irregular migration."
This bilateral cooperation will further develop with
the completion of the modernization of the border gates on the Bulgarian side
and the strengthening of the food inspection infrastructure, he added.
He said the trade volume between Türkiye and Bulgaria
reached $6 billion last year, adding that the common goal decided on Friday's
talks was to increase it to $10 billion in a short time.
The issue of cooperation opportunities on energy security
was on the agenda, he said, adding that Türkiye's Energy and Natural Resources
Ministry will take the necessary steps to help to meet Bulgaria's demand.
Meanwhile, for his side, Radev appreciated Türkiye's
efforts to help forge a grain corridor deal and its support for Bulgaria's need
for liquefied gas.
Friday's talks were "very helpful," he said,
underlying the importance of increasing the security of border gates by taking
steps jointly.
Bulgaria also hailed Ankara's efforts to prevent the increasing
illegal immigration, he added.
On July 22, Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine
signed a landmark agreement in Istanbul to resume grain exports from three
Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which had been paused in February due to Russia’s
war on Ukraine.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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UK summons Iran's charge d'affaires over protester's
execution
Ahmet Gürhan Kartal
09.12.2022
LONDON
The British government on Friday summoned Iran's top
envoy to the country over the execution of a protester, a Foreign Office
statement said.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly "instructed the
FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) to summon" Mehdi
Hosseini Matin, Charge d'affaires of Iran, after Tehran carried out the first
execution of a protestor since demonstrations began in September over the death
of a young woman in police custody, it said.
"The execution of Mohsen Shekari by the Iranian
regime is abhorrent. He is a tragic victim of a legal system in which
disproportionate sentences, politically motivated trials and forced confessions
are rife," Cleverly said.
"We have made our views clear to the Iranian
authorities -- Iran must immediately halt executions and end the violence
against its own people," he added.
Following reports of the execution, the foreign
secretary said in a statement on Thursday that the UK was "outraged."
FCDO officials held a meeting with Matin to "underline
that in the UK's view this is a grossly disproportionate action, which is
designed to intimidate ordinary Iranians and stifle voices of dissent."
Matin was also told that the UK "opposes the
death penalty in all circumstances and urged Iran to immediately halt
executions and the imposition of death sentences."
The execution was ordered for Muhsin Shikari, who,
according to the Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran's judiciary,
"threatened citizens with a cold weapon and injured a security guard during
protests on Sattar Khan Street" in the Iranian capital Tehran
Shikari was given the death penalty on Nov. 20 and the
execution was carried out on Thursday morning.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/uk-summons-irans-charge-daffaires-over-protesters-execution/2759859
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UK sanctions Russian and Iranian officials, citing
human rights abuses
December 09, 2022
LONDON: Britain on Friday announced sanctions against
30 people worldwide, including Russian and Iranian officials, targeting those
it deems responsible for acts of torture, sexual violence, and the violent
repression of street protests.
The move came a day after France announced plans for
new European Union sanctions against Iran over human rights abuses in its
security crackdown on popular unrest there as well as its supply of drones to Russia
before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The British government said its sanctions were
coordinated with international partners to mark International Anti-Corruption
Day and Global Human Rights Day. They encompassed individuals involved in
activities including the torture of prisoners and the mobilization of troops to
rape civilians.
“Today our sanctions go further to expose those behind
the heinous violations of our most fundamental rights,” Foreign Secretary James
Cleverly said in a statement.
Those sanctioned include Russian Col. Ramil
Rakhmatulovich Ibatullin for his role as the commander of the 90th Tank
Division, which has been involved in fighting since Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine earlier this year.
The government said there have been multiple allegations
made against serving members of the 90th Tank Division, including the
conviction in Ukraine of a senior lieutenant on sexual abuse charges during the
conflict.
Russia, which has said it is conducting a “special
military operation” in Ukraine to eliminate threats to its security, has denied
committing war crimes or targeting civilians.
Britain also sanctioned 10 Iranian officials connected
to Iran’s prison systems. This included six people linked to the Revolutionary
Courts that have been responsible for prosecuting protesters with sentences
including the death penalty.
Nationwide protests that erupted after the death in
police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16
have posed one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its
establishment in 1979.
The British government sanctioned Ali Cheharmahali and
Gholamreza Ziyayi, former directors of Evin prison in Tehran, which it said was
a facility notorious for the mistreatment of both Iranian and foreign detainees.
The foreign office said the sanctions against 11
countries across seven sanctions regimes were the most that Britain has ever
imposed in one package.
Britain also sanctioned figures involved in Myanmar’s
military, which it said were involved in committing massacres, torture and
rape.
Source: Arab News
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of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2213496/world
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UK sanctions 10 Iranians as part of global offensive
09 December ,2022
Britain on Friday announced wide-ranging sanctions
against 30 targets worldwide, including officials in Iran accused of pursuing
“egregious sentences” against anti-regime protesters.
The sanctions against the 10 people connected to
Iran’s judicial and prison systems came after the clerical regime’s first
execution of one such protester, which has triggered global condemnation.
“This includes six individuals linked to the
Revolutionary Courts that have been responsible for prosecuting protestors with
egregious sentences including the death penalty,” the government in London
said.
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channel online or via the app.
Two of the Iranians now subject to a UK travel ban and
assets freeze are former directors of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran: Ali
Chaharmahali and Gholamreza Ziaei.
The sanctions, timed to mark world days for
anti-corruption and human rights, hit individuals across 11 countries -- “the
most that the UK has ever brought together in one package,” the foreign
ministry said.
They include five people from Russia and Russian-held
Crimea amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which has attracted successive
waves of UK sanctions against Moscow.
Others on the list, accused of violating human rights,
are from Nicaragua, Pakistan and Uganda.
The UK also highlighted orchestrated sexual violence
in sanctioning two local officials in South Sudan, one extremist group in Mali
and three junta entities in military-ruled Myanmar.
Designated individuals from Kosovo, Moldova and Serbia
were accused of corruption.
“Today our sanctions go further to expose those behind
the heinous violations of our most fundamental rights to account,” Foreign
Secretary James Cleverly said.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Australia imposes sanctions on Iran, Russia over human
rights violations
10 December ,2022
Australia’s foreign minister said on Saturday the
government would place targeted sanctions on Russia and Iran in response to
what it called “egregious” human rights violations.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement
Australia was imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions on 13 individuals and two entities,
including Iran’s Morality Police and Basij Resistance Force, and six Iranians
involved in the crackdown on protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa
Amini in custody in September.
In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald,
Wong said the sanctions applied to Seyed Sadegh Hosseini, whom she described as
a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was being
listed for his alleged role in “indiscriminate use of violence against
protesters”.
“The Iranian regime’s flagrant and widespread
disregard for the human rights of its own people has appalled Australians, and
the perpetrators must be held accountable,” Wong wrote in the newspaper on
Saturday.
Seven Russians involved in what the foreign minister
said was the attempted assassination of former opposition leader Alexei Navalny
would also have human rights sanctions imposed on them, Wong said in her
statement, issued with Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts.
In addition to human rights sanctions, Wong said
Australia was placing further targeted financial sanctions on three Iranians
and one Iranian business for supplying drones to Russia for use against
Ukraine.
“The supply of drones to Russia is evidence of the
role Iran plays in destabilizing global security. This listing highlights that
those who provide material support to Russia will face consequences,” she said.
The announcement comes after Australia’s center-left
Labour government in October imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel
bans on 28 Russian-appointed separatists, ministers and senior officials after
President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of four regions of Ukraine.
Since the start of the conflict, Australia has
sanctioned hundreds of Russian individuals and entities, including most of
Russia’s banking sector and all organizations responsible for the country’s
sovereign debt.
It also has supplied defense equipment and
humanitarian aid to Ukraine, while outlawing exports of alumina and aluminum
ores, including bauxite, to Russia.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Africa
New ‘Ruthless Conflict’ Displaces Thousands in South
Sudan
Benjamin Takpiny
08.12.2022
JUBA, South Sudan
Fighting between rival army groups in remote areas of
South Sudan's Upper Nile State has spread into a camp housing people displaced
by the violence, religious leaders said Thursday.
The bloodshed has killed an unknown number of people
while rape, murder and kidnapping have been reported as the conflict
intensifies.
Father Paolino Tipo Deng, a Comboni missionary priest
and chairman of Upper Nile Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation, urged
warring parties to embrace peace and dialogue in a bid to restore stability.
“We condemn and reject such senseless and unnecessary
war among people of one nation who are supposed to be living in peace and
harmony, collaborating together for their good,” Deng told Anadolu Agency in
the nation’s capital of Juba. “We urge the warring parties to a cease-fire and
stop blood-shedding.”
The conflict erupted in August between the Sudan
People’s Liberation Army-in-opposition (SPLA-IO) faction, led by Gen. Simon
Gatwech Dual, and the Agwelek militia force under Gen. Johnson Olony.
The conflict later on expanded to members of the Nuer
and Shiluk communities. The root cause of the conflict concerns land.
Deng urged the government to intervene and stop the
conflict which has resulted in the deaths of civilians and displacement of
thousands from their homelands.
“We call on the president, first vice president and
all peace partners to take immediate action to stop the fighting and open up
their hearts in a sincere dialogue to address the root causes of this
conflict,” said Deng.
The abduction of women and children and the
destruction of properties and livelihoods have also been reported.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, is alarmed by the
escalating conflict which has displaced at least 20,000 people, some of them
forced to flee for their lives up to four times as the conflict rages. At least
3,000 have already fled to neighboring Sudan, further intensifying South
Sudan’s refugee crisis, the largest in Africa.
The armed conflict erupted in the village of Tonga on
August 15. Violence has since spread further to northern parts of the states of
Jonglei and Unity. It is currently advancing in the Upper Nile’s Fashoda county
and is threatening the town of Kodok.
“Desperation is rising, and more people are fleeing as
conflict intensifies,” said UNHCR’s Representative in South Sudan, Arafat
Jamal. “Civilians are under attack in this ruthless conflict; we must ensure
their protection.”
Women and children and others at high risk make up the
majority of those displaced. Some elderly people or those with disabilities,
have been unable to flee and are compelled to hide in bushes and along the
White Nile River during attacks.
Fleeing civilians are visibly traumatized and report
killings, injuries, gender-based violence, abductions, extortion, looting and
burning of properties. Many have lost their homes and have been separated from
their families.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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South Sudan’s Ruling Party Endorses President Kiir as
Candidate for another Term
Benjamin Takpiny
07.12.2022
JUBA, South Sudan
South Sudan’s ruling party on Wednesday endorsed
President Salva Kiir as its candidate for another term in the elections that
will be held at the end of 2024.
Kiir has been the country’s only president since it
gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and the country's 2011 provisional
constitution did not provide a presidential term limit.
South Sudan has since grappled with a five-year civil
war and the slow implementation of a peace deal signed in 2018.
“I am humbled and honored by your decision to nominate
me for these two important tasks ... to be the sole candidate in the
forthcoming convention, and also the flag bearer for the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement (SPLM) party in the general election,” Kiir said after
being endorsed by his party members.
“I hope I will not fail you. ... I believe that we
will fight together whatever battles that are coming,” Kiir said.
There has been no other declared candidate for the
2024 presidential elections, but Vice President Riek Machar is expected to run
for the presidential elections. Machar is also a longtime Kiir rival and a
former rebel leader.
In 2013, the political disagreement in the country
caused a split within the army, leading the soldiers that are loyal to the
respective leaders to fight.
The National Liberation Council, the highest party
organ of the ruling SPLM, has also endorsed Kiir’s deputies and
secretary-general.
Stance of main opposition
Puok Both Baluang, the head of the National Committee
for Information and Public Relations of the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), also Machar's acting spokesman, stressed that
Machar remains a member of the SPLM party.
Baluang also warned Kiir’s faction against making
decisions that can jeopardize cooperation.
He said they are ready for elections if all security
arrangements and repatriation of refugees and internally displaced people are
completed.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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