Posters Offering A Reward Of US Dollar 62,860 To Kill A Pakistani Christian, Faraz Pervaiz, For Posting Anti-Islam Content On Social Media Have Appeared In Karachi
New Age Islam News Bureau
07 November 2020
Posters offering a reward to kill an exiled Pakistani
Christian accused of blasphemy are displayed in Karachi in southern Pakistan.
(Photo supplied)
------
• First Islamic School For Transgender Muslims Opens
In Bangladesh; Clerics Calling It A First Step Towards Integrating The
Discriminated Minority Into Society
• Rights Group Has Called On The International
Community To Pressure Saudi Arabia To Release Dozens Of Activists, Bloggers And
Others
• Dozens of Houses of Worship Closed, Vandalized in
Indonesia: Rights Commission
• With No Credible Evidence, ‘Love Jihad’ Cases Are
Rapidly Coming Undone, An NDTV Investigation Has Found
• Those Held Over Vienna Attack Are Part Of Islamist
Scene, Austria Says
• Iran’s UN Diplomat: Western Provocative Rhetoric
Threatening Human Rights
• Nice Attack: Tunisia Will Accept Deportees From
France If Judicial Rights Guaranteed
• Groups Say More Than Half Of All Muslim-American
Candidates, 57 out of 110 Win US Office
Pakistan
• Posters Offering A Reward Of US$62,860 To Kill A
Pakistani Christian, Faraz Pervaiz, For Posting Anti-Islam Content On Social
Media Have Appeared In Karachi
• PML-N chief trying to stir up rebellion in Army: PM
• Bilawal among ‘public office’ holders ordered to
leave GB
• Afghan refugees’ return witnesses sharp decline in
current year
--------
South Asia
• First Islamic School For Transgender Muslims Opens
In Bangladesh; Clerics Calling It A First Step Towards Integrating The Discriminated
Minority Into Society
• Afghanistan Violence Jumps 50 Percent Amid Peace
Talks: Watchdog
• AAF Airstrikes Claim Taliban Intelligence Commander,
9 Others
• Renowned Journalist Killed In A ‘Magnetic IED’
Blast: Kabul
--------
Arab world
• Rights Group Has Called On The International
Community To Pressure Saudi Arabia To Release Dozens Of Activists, Bloggers And
Others
• Eight Members Of Syria's New Government Sanctioned
By EU
• Protester killed in southern Iraq during clashes
with police as tensions flare again
• US sanctions Lebanon’s Gebran Bassil for Hezbollah
ties, corruption
• Hezbollah, Iran preventing Lebanese recovery: Expert
--------
Southeast Asia
• Dozens of Houses of Worship Closed, Vandalized in
Indonesia: Rights Commission
• China Slams US for Delisting Xinjiang's East
Turkistan Islamic Movement as Terrorist Outfit
• The never-ending political game of Mahathir Mohamad
--------
India
• With No Credible Evidence, ‘Love Jihad’ Cases Are
Rapidly Coming Undone, An NDTV Investigation Has Found
• Pakistani troops shell villages and forward posts
along LoC in J&K’s Poonch and Kathua
• India says taking Bangladesh temples vandalisation
reports seriously
• Civilian, Pak Lashkar duo killed in J&K
encounter; injured ultra surrenders
• Kashmiri Pandits being used as vote bank by BJP:
Farooq Abdullah
• Valley's youth being pushed to pick up arms again:
Omar Abdullah
--------
Europe
• Those Held Over Vienna Attack Are Part Of Islamist
Scene, Austria Says
• Athens' First Government-Funded Mosque In Nearly 200
Years Opens For Friday Prayers
• 3 teens charged in French teacher’s beheading
• France attacks: Horrified by deadly attacks, French
Muslims protect church
• Nice knife attacker flown to French capital of Paris
for treatment
• Macron urges Europe to strengthen border controls
after terror attacks
• Greek police arrest man as IS suspect on Tajikistan
warrant
• Belgian police arrest two minors planning a
terrorist attack
--------
Mideast
• Iran’s UN Diplomat: Western Provocative Rhetoric Threatening
Human Rights
• Iranian, UN Envoys Review Recent Developments in
Afghanistan
• Yemeni embassy in DC condemns ‘anti-American’,
‘anti-Semitic’ Houthi ceremony
• Cuba and Iran forge an alliance against US sanctions
• Saudi warplanes bombard Yemen’s residential areas in
Ma'rib, al-Jawf
• Palestinian prisoner ends hunger strike after 103
days: Rights group
• Houthis continue to target civilian areas in Yemen:
Military spokesman
--------
Africa
• Nice Attack: Tunisia Will Accept Deportees From France
If Judicial Rights Guaranteed
• Nigerian troops kill 22 Boko Haram militants
--------
North America
• Groups Say More Than Half Of All Muslim-American
Candidates, 57 out of 110 Win US Office
• Election Dispute Increases Risk Of Political
Violence, Analysts Warn
• Oregon man charged with conspiring to aid Islamic
State
• Quebec City sword attack suspect appears in court,
victims identified
• Despite Trump-Erdogan ties, Turkey says it will work
with whoever wins US election
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/posters-offering-reward-dollar-62860/d/123404
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Posters Offering A Reward Of US$62,860 To Kill A Pakistani Christian, Faraz Pervaiz, For Posting Anti-Islam Content On Social Media Have Appeared In Karachi
Kamran Chaudhry
November 06, 2020
Posters offering a reward to kill an exiled Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy are displayed in Karachi in southern Pakistan. (Photo supplied)
------
Posters offering a reward of 10 million rupees
(US$62,860) to kill a Pakistani Christian for posting anti-Islam content on
social media have appeared in Karachi in southern Pakistan.
“The price of the head of Blasphemer Maloon [cursed]
Faraz Pervaiz has been set at one crore [10 million]. The only punishment for
insulting the Prophet is beheading,” states the poster emblazoned with a photo
of Pervaiz, who lives in Thailand.
Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, a Barelvi sect of Islam, also
printed its contact numbers and address on the poster.
“We shared the references of blasphemous content of
his videos in several applications to the FIA [Federal Investigation Agency].
Cases have been registered against Faraz, son of Pervaiz Roshan. But the FIA
hasn’t acted so far,’ the banner states, referring to blasphemy cases
registered against Pervaiz in 2017.
Pervaiz, a human rights activist, is using the poster
as the profile picture on his Twitter account.
Last year the father of three moved his family to a
secret location outside Bangkok after his location was revealed in a video
released on social media that went viral. The video, made by a Pakistani Muslim
refugee, called for “every Muslim in this world” to travel to Bangkok and kill
Pervaiz.
Pervaiz has been receiving threats since speaking out
for minority Christians after the 2013 attack on Joseph Colony of Lahore by a
mob that looted and destroyed 116 houses and two churches. He led protests
demanding action from the police and ran a blog in which he challenged both the
politics and theology of Islam, presented his own interpretations of the Quran
and criticized the Prophet Muhammad.
He fled Pakistan in 2014 after radical Muslims grew
enraged by caricatures, statements and videos he and his father, a political
leader, posted on various accounts.
The first bounty of $62,000 for Pervaiz was offered in
2015 by the political party Tahreek-e-Labbaik. In 2016, a cleric placed a
bounty on his head equal to about $124,000.
In 2016, the Christian asylum seeker reported an
attack by four Muslims at a grocery store.
Blasphemy is a serious allegation in deeply
conservative Muslim Pakistan.
On Nov. 4, a security guard of the National Bank of
Pakistan rallied in Quaidabad city of Punjab province after killing Malik Imran
Hanif, his bank manager, for alleged blasphemy.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/islamists-offer-bounty-to-kill-pakistani-christian-blasphemer/90193
--------
First Islamic School For Transgender Muslims Opens In
Bangladesh; Clerics Calling It A First Step Towards Integrating The
Discriminated Minority Into Society
November 6, 2020
Bangladesh opened its first Islamic school for
transgender Muslims on Friday
------
DHAKA: Bangladesh opened its first Islamic school for
transgender Muslims on Friday with clerics calling it a first step towards
integrating the discriminated minority into society.
The madrasa is one of a series of recent moves in
Bangladesh to make life easier for the Muslim-majority nation’s up to 1.5
million transgender people.
The LGBT community faces widespread discrimination in
the South Asian country, with a colonial-era law still in place that punishes
gay sex by prison terms, though enforcement is rare.
But about 50 transgender students read Quranic verses
to mark the opening of the Dawatul Islam Tritio Linger Madrasa, or Islamic
Third Gender School, on the outskirts of the capital Friday.
“I am ecstatic,” Shakila Akhter, a 33-year-old
student, told AFP.
“We are grateful to the clerics for this beautiful
move.”
Akhter was born a girl and had always wanted to become
a doctor or lawyer, but those ambitions were thwarted when she left home while
still a child to join a transgender commune.
“We are Muslims, yet we can’t go to a mosque,” Akhter
said.
“We can’t even mix with other members of society.”
A group of clerics led by Abdur Rahman Azad
transformed the top floor of a three-storey building into the school with funding
from a local charity.
Azad’s team already offers Quranic lessons to seven
transgender groups in Dhaka and said the madrasa grew out of the need for a
permanent base for the community.
Up to 150 students – nearly all adults – will get
lessons similar to those in a traditional madrasa, where the Quran is taught
along with Islamic philosophy, Bengali, English, maths and social sciences.
Azad said transgender people, known as Hijras in
Bangladesh, have suffered too much.
“For too long they have been living a miserable life.
They can’t go to schools, madrasas or mosques. They have been victims of
discrimination. We, society and the state are to blame for this,” he said.
“We want to end this discrimination. Allah does not
discriminate between people. Islam treats everyone as a human being. Hijras
should enjoy all rights like any other human being.”
In 2015 Islamist extremists hacked to death a leading
gay activist and editor of an LGBT magazine, while other prominent homosexuals
have since fled the country.
But steps forward have been made for the community.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government
has since 2013 allowed trans to be identified as a separate gender.
Last year they were allowed to register to vote as a
third gender, and their numbers will be counted in a census to be carried out
next year across the country of 168 million.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/11/06/first-school-for-transgender-muslims-opens-in-bangladesh/
--------
Rights Group Has Called On The International Community
To Pressure Saudi Arabia To Release Dozens Of Activists, Bloggers And Others
06 November 2020
UN experts express concern over the worsening health
condition of hunger-striking Saudi women
------
A human rights organization has called on the
international community to seriously pressure Saudi authorities to release
dozens of activists, bloggers and others who have been perceived as political
opponents and arrested for their public opinions.
The Skyline International Foundation asked the United
Nations and relevant international organizations to stop growing violations of
public freedom in the ultra-conservative country, and launch an investigation
into the arrest campaigns that happen in the kingdom.
The Stockholm-based organization highlighted that
Saudi Arabia is one of the first countries to exercise tight control over the
Internet and social media platforms, and utilizes blocking techniques or
punishment with imprisonment and fines in order to silence dissent voices.
Skyline condemned the practice as a flagrant
restriction of public freedoms and the right to opinion and expression.
The human rights organization further noted that Saudi
Arabia’s digital authoritarianism blatantly contradicts Article 17/1 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that “No one
shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy,
family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and
reputation.”
In recent years, Saudi authorities have rounded up
hundreds of perceived political opponents, detained more than a dozen women’s
rights activists, and continued mass prisoner executions.
Public protests, political parties and labor unions
are banned in the traditionally closed-off country, where the media are tightly
controlled and criticism of the royal family can lead to prison.
The crackdown gathered pace in September 2017 with the
arrests of prominent religious leaders, some of whom could now face death
penalty.
Top businessmen and senior officials were arrested two
months later in a purported anti-corruption campaign. The measure was
criticized as a power play and shakedown of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s
potential political rivals.
Bin Salman also stands accused of being directly
involved in the cruel murder of well-known Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal
Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, after he
entered the premises to obtain paperwork for a planned marriage with his
Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz.
Turkish officials say his body was dismembered by the
Saudi killers and his remains are yet to be found.
Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur for
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, investigated Khashoggi’s
murder.
She has said “credible evidence” links the Saudi crown
prince to the killing of the Washington Post journalist and said he should be
investigated.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/06/638025/Skyline-rights-group-demands-release-of-dozens-of-Saudi-dissidents
--------
Dozens of Houses of Worship Closed, Vandalized in
Indonesia: Rights Commission
2020-11-06
At least 23 houses of worship in Indonesia were
forcibly closed or vandalized over the past three years, as religious
minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation continued to face
discrimination, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said
Friday.
The cases recorded from 2017 to 2019 are likely the
tip of the iceberg as many such incidents are not formally reported to Komnas
HAM, according to its chairman, Ahmad Taufan Damanik.
Only 21 cases were reported to the commission in the
previous period of three years, mostly in greater Jakarta, he said.
"Although statistically the increase in the
number of complaints submitted to Komnas HAM is not too high, these were actual
events that occurred in our communities," he said in a video conference.
Incidents reported to Komnas HAM included the forced
closure of an Ahmadiyah mosque following complaints from the local community in
the city of Depok, near Jakarta, in 2017, he said.
Ahmadiyah congregations have often been targets of
persecution by authorities and hardline Islamic groups. In 2011, an attack by a
group of men armed with machetes on a house where about a dozen Ahmadis were
gathering in the town of Pandeglang, West Java killed three people.
In 2017, authorities sealed off a building being
constructed by the As Sunnah Islamic foundation in Gresik, East Java, saying it
did not have a permit. Police took action after complaints by local Muslims who
accuse As Sunnah of adhering to Wahhabism, an austere form Islam practiced in
Saudi Arabia.
In February 2019, the government of North Lombok on
Lombok island stopped the construction of a Hindu temple ostensibly to
“maintain peace and order” in the mainly Muslim community.
In the same year, the local government in Bantul,
Yogyakarta revoked a construction permit for a Pentecostal Christian church
following a rejection from local Muslims.
Taufan said a decree on religious harmony and places
of worship issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Religious
Affairs in 2006 was partly to blame for the discriminatory acts, and urged the
government to revise it.
The decree stipulates that a religious congregation
must obtain signatures of support from 60 local households of a different faith
before building a house of worship.
"If there is no clear and firm action on the 2006
decree, freedom of religion and beliefs will continue to face hurdles,"
said Taufan.
Paulus Tasik Galle, an official at the Center for
Religious Harmony at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said the regulation was
based on an agreement among councils of different religions.
“If we want to review it, we have to leave it to the
religious councils,” he said at the discussion with Komnas HAM.
‘Veto power’
Earlier this week, a senior official at the Religious
Affairs Ministry said the 2006 regulation should be elevated to the status of a
presidential decree, to get regional officials more involved in resolving
interfaith disputes, as well as more funding for government-backed forums that
promote interfaith harmony.
"This increase in the level of the regulation
could strengthen ... the commitment of regional leaders to religious harmony
and moderation," Nizar Ali, the secretary-general of the Ministry of
Religious Affairs, was quoted as saying in an article on a ministry website.
Human Rights Watch said in May that the regulation
allows the majority religious group in each area to have veto power over
religious minorities.
“As a result, most minorities in predominantly Sunni
Muslim Indonesia have difficulties establishing or renovating their houses of
worship,” it said.
“The veto power has empowered Muslim extremists to
take the law into their own hands, pressuring local governments to close down
houses of worship of minority religions,” it said.
Despite a pledge by Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to scrap the
regulation during his campaign for the presidency in 2014, it remains in force.
The vice president Jokowi chose for his second term – Ma’ruf Amin – was one of
its authors.
The Tirto.id news website said at least 32 churches
were closed during Jokowi’s first five years in office.
The United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its 2020 annual report recommended that Indonesia
be placed on “the U.S. Department of State’s Special Watch List for engaging in
or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the
International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).”
“In 2019, religious freedom conditions in Indonesia
generally trended negatively compared to the previous year,” the report said in
its chapter on Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Citing reports from local NGOs, the commission listed
“discrimination, hate speech, acts of violence and rejections of permits to
build houses of worship for minority religious communities” as types and
examples of intolerance.
USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal
government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.
The commission monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief
abroad and makes policy recommendations to the U.S. president, secretary of
state, and Congress.
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/tolerance-11062020170903.html
--------
With No Credible Evidence, ‘Love Jihad’ Cases Are
Rapidly Coming Undone, An NDTV Investigation Has Found
November 06, 2020
Kanpur/New Delhi: Across India - from Karnataka to
Haryana - BJP chief ministers are stoking fears, promising to bring laws to
combat "love jihad" - the unproven right-wing conspiracy theory that
Muslim men try to seduce non-Muslim women and have covert to Islam.
The most strident has been Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath, who issued a not-so-veiled warning that those who
practise "love jihad" will be sent on their "antim sanksar"
or last rites.
But in Adityanath's UP, the one BJP state in which the
police are probing so-called "love jihad", the cases are rapidly
coming undone, an NDTV investigation has found.
In August this year, the UP police created a Special
Investigation Team or SIT in Kanpur, to probe alleged cases of "love
jihad".
Two months later, half of the 14 cases the police were
investigating have collapsed, and a final closure report has been filed after
the police concluded that these were consensual relationships between Hindu
women and their Muslim partners, according to Vikas Pandey, who is in charge of
the SIT.
"From 14, only 7 are still being
investigated," he said.
Of the remaining seven, NDTV closely scrutinised three
cases which seem on the brink of unravelling for similar reasons: in two cases,
the so-called women victims clearly say that they were not coerced by their
Muslim partners into marriage or conversion, while in another, the neighbours
claim that the boy and girl were in a relationship before it turned sour.
One of the cases being probed by the police - and
which triggered the narrative of a "love jihad" outbreak in Kanpur is
that of a young woman called Shalini Yadav.
On August 7, Shalini's mother filed a police complaint
alleging that her daughter was threatened and taken away at gunpoint by a man
called Mohammed Faisal, who lives in a Kanpur neighbourhood called Juhi Colony,
forcibly converted her to Islam and was trying to force her into prostitution
and trafficking.
Four days later, on August 11, Shalini uploaded a
now-viral video saying she had converted and married of her own will. She also
repeated her assertions of free will in a statement to the courts - a Delhi
sessions court, and the Delhi High Court. Even her conversion certificate,
reviewed by NDTV, says "I accept Islam by my own choice."
Her mother, Satarupa Yadav, however, insists that it
is a conspiracy - a claim she cannot back with evidence.
"It is Love Jihad. Because she was a minor when
she was trapped. She is 22 now. She is speaking under pressure," she told
us.
When we ask the mother of proof of the more outrageous
allegations - that Faisal and her family were attempting to traffic her - she
falters. All she can offer is that she "feels" and they (Muslims) are
"the type".
When we met Shalini, now Fiza Fatima, and her husband
Mohammed Faisal near the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, she stuck to her stand: the
allegations in the FIR are false.
"I am standing here confidently and speaking. I
have done an MBA. Do you think I am so educated but still anybody can come and
'behla phuslakar' (coerce) he can take me away? Don't I have any sense? Am I a
baby girl that somebody will say something and I will get brainwashed" she
asked.
Her husband, when asked why she converted and not him,
said he was willing to convert as well. He said that when they had gone to the marriage
registrar's office, and they were asked who would be converting, he had put up
his hand, along with Fiza. However, she wouldn't allow him and insisted that
she wanted to convert.
Regardless of the lack of credible evidence of any
wrongdoing, on August 20, Yogi Adityanath's media adviser tweeted the viral
video of Shalini Yadav, aka Fiza Fatima, citing it as an example of "love
jihad".
Nine days after his tweet, the UP police constituted a
Special Investigation Team to probe similar FIRs of Hindu girls who had married
or had relationships with Muslim boys.
The SIT set out to probe 14 FIRs in all, but at the
core of the narrative of a nexus were three FIRs, involving Hindu girls in a
relationship with Muslim boys from the same locality - Juhi Colony.
Another case still being probed is of Ekta Verma, who
married a man called Mohsin, who like Faisal is also said to be from Juhi
Colony.
In August 24, Ekta's father Hari Kishore Pasi filed an
FIR that a gang of boys from Juhi Colony, including Mohsin and Faisal, were
threatening to take his daughter, Ekta, away under "Love Jihad".
The FIR also claims that Mohsin, Ekta's husband, as
well as members of the so-called gang, used casteist slurs against him.
When we met Ekta, like Shalini, she says she converted
and married Mohsin of her own free will and has the conversion papers to prove
it.
When we asked her father for proof of his allegations
of conspiracy, he says it's because all the boys are known to each other and
that call records prove this.
Despite Ekta's assertion of free will, the police
arrested Mohsin as well as his friend Aamir and two others. Mohsin has since
been released after her statement. But Aamir is still in jail.
We asked the police why the Shalini Yadav and the Ekta
Verma cases were still open, given that there is so far little evidence of
criminality.
Mr Pandey, in charge of the SIT, said that it is
because the Muslim men the girls married are from the same locality and there
were some connections between the cases.
Off camera, a member of the SIT also claimed to have
call records to show the boys were in touch.
Aamir's mother, Ekta, Shalini and Faizal all say the
men were not part of any gang, and that they did not know each other.
We get a glimpse of another aspect of these cases from
Ekta (who know goes by the name of Alia Khan), of the involvement of Sangh
Parivar groups.
She claims that members of the Bajrang Dal had come to
her family home and threatened her.
"They said that if you don't agree (to leave
Mohsin and stay with her own family), then we will do whatever we need
to," she said.
This involvement of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or VHP
and the Bajrang Dal was seen in all the cases NDTV investigated, but their role
seems to be the clearest in the case of a 16-year-old girl from Kanpur who left
home in February this year, which is still being probed by the SIT.
We have concealed all identities relating to this case
because of her family's assertion that she is a minor.
The 16-year-old's brother filed an FIR in September
alleging that a Muslim boy from their neighbourhood had taken away his sister
in February, converted her and forced her to stay with the boy.
He says that his sister came home just a few days
earlier, complaining of domestic violence and death threats and that they use
casteist slurs against her.
We were told that the girl is no longer in Kanpur and
that she is staying with family in their village. When we spoke to her over the
phone, she corroborated the allegations in the FIR.
She said that she had gone with the boy, because he
had threatened her and that she was forcibly converted and made to do a Nikah
as well.
"I had nothing to do with him. He was just from
my locality," she says when asked if they had been in a relationship.
But the Muslim boy's family assert the girl is not a
minor and she had come to their home of her own free will.
The boy's mother says that they had been in love with
each other for three years and that everybody in the neighbourhood was aware.
She said that it was after the girl's aunt started visiting at their home, that
the girl changed her mind.
The boy's family also shared documents of their court
marriage held in February, which states that the girl is 18. His mother also
claims that one of the witnesses was in fact the girl's aunt.
Their neighbours, who are Hindus as well, support this
version of events. They say that the girl had been happy when she was staying
at the boy's home and that the Bajrang Dal may have been involved in getting
the case filed.
They cite a story that appeared in the Hindi daily,
Amar Ujala, on September 4, 2020, which says "the girl's brother reached
the police station with Bajrang Dal workers on Wednesday and got a report
filed".
Moreover, when we tried contacting the girl's brother
who is currently in Maharashtra, he directed us towards the Bajrang Dal's
Kanpur district convenor, Amarnath Verma saying that he was in fact overseeing
the case.
Mr Verma said that they were supporting the family,
and helped at the time of getting police complaint registered. He said they had
supported them morally and even encouraged the brother to file the complaint.
The sequence of events in fact shows how the Yogi
Adityanath government, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal appear to
have acted in tandem in getting an SIT formed to investigate these cases of
inter-faith relationships.
Five days after Adityanath's media adviser tweeted the
Shalini Yadav video, the VHP met and submitted a memorandum to top police
officials in Kanpur on August 25, demanding they take the strict action against
those who indulge in "Love Jihad".
They ended with a warning that if the incidents did
not stop "the Bajrang Dal will do the job of teaching these anti-social,
anti-national elements a lesson".
However, instead of acting against an open threat of
vigilante violence, the SIT was formed four days later on August 29.
Mohit Agarwal, the Kanpur Inspector General, denied
any influence of Sangh Parivar groups when asked.
"Many people had come with (the parents of the
girls). Now don't know which organisation or community they were from... This
is mainly based on the parents' demands," he said.
Deen Dayal Gaur, the Kanpur Zone Joint secretary of
the VHP who had also signed the memorandum, said they had met the top police
officials, and that they keep meeting them.
He also said that they would be meeting the police
again in November to find out more about what happened.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/with-no-credible-evidence-love-jihad-cases-in-kanpur-crumble-2321766
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Those held over Vienna attack are part of Islamist
scene, Austria says
NOVEMBER 5, 2020
VIENNA (Reuters) - All 15 people arrested in
connection with a deadly rampage in Vienna on Monday are part of the radical
Islamist scene and just under half have criminal convictions, some for
terrorism offences, Interior Ministry officials said on Thursday.
A 20-year-old native of the city, who had previously
been jailed for trying to join Islamic State in Syria, was shot dead by police
within nine minutes of opening fire on bystanders and bars on Monday. He killed
four people.
“We are dealing with a violent perpetrator who was
evidently intensely involved in the network of political Islam, of
sympathisers, who took on their ideology,” Interior Minister Karl Nehammer
said.
The 15 are being held on suspicion of belonging to a
terrorist organisation. Seven of them have criminal convictions, Of those, four
are for terrorism-related offences, Director General for Public Security Franz
Ruf said.
Of those four, two involved acts of violence like
assault and two were for attempted so-called honour killings, Ruf said, adding:
“One can see that all are to be linked to the radical Islamist milieu”.
Switzerland has also arrested two men in connection with
the attack, and Austria was in close contact with another unspecified country
in its investigation, Nehammer said.
Separately, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer
told parliament there was a connection between the attack and people in Germany
who are “monitored around the clock”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/austria-attack-scene-int/all-15-held-over-vienna-attack-part-of-islamist-scene-ministry-official-idUSKBN27L1YM?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
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Iran’s UN Diplomat: Western Provocative Rhetoric
Threatening Human Rights
2020-November-6
Zareyian made the remarks during a virtual address to
the committee on Thursday evening, which was held on the subject of a report by
the UN Human Rights Council.
He voiced concern over the hateful remarks recently
made by Western politicians, he said, “The Islamic Republic fully believes in
freedom of speech but not the sort that incites hatred against others.”
“Muslims, migrant communities and Africans have been
the target of dangerous rhetoric, which is a glaring abuse of freedom of
expression,” the Iranian envoy said, adding, “We also express our serious
concern about the increase in insults to Islamic sanctities in Western
countries.”
In recent weeks and after a French teacher was
beheaded by an ISIL member after he displayed cartoons of the prophet of Islam,
French President Emmanuel Macron attacked Islam and the Muslim community,
accusing Muslims of "separatism", and he said previously that
"Islam is a religion in crisis all over the world".
The incident in Paris coincided with a provocative
move by Charlie Hebdo, a left-wing French magazine infamous for publishing
anti-Islamic content, which has drawn widespread anger and outrage across the
Muslim world.
The caricatures were first published in 2006 by a
Danish newspaper Jylllands Posten, sparking a wave of protests.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday October 27,
summoned the French Chargé d' Affaires, Florent Aydalot, over the French
President's recent remarks against Islam.
The French Charge d’ Affaires was summoned to the
Foreign Ministry, in absence of its ambassador, to hear Iran’s condemnation of
the growing anti-Islamic moves and remarks in France.
Aydalot received the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s
condemnation of the sacrilegious acts in France and the following unacceptable
remarks of the French authorities that have hurt the feelings of nearly 2
billion Muslims in the world and millions of Muslims in Europe.
“Any insult and disrespect to the Prophet of Islam
(PBUH) and the pristine values of Islam are strongly condemned and rejected by
every person and in every position,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry official who
met the French diplomat said.
"It is of deep regret to incite Islamophobia and
spread hatred in the name of freedom of expression, which should serve
relations, empathy and peaceful coexistence among human societies."
The French official said he would convey Iran's strong
objection to Paris very soon.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also
blasted sacrilege of Islam’s Prophet (PBUH) in the European states, warning
that disrespecting the sanctity of nearly two billion Muslims for the crimes of
Wahhabi groups would only heightens extremism.
“Muslims are the primary victims of the cult of hatred
(Wahhabism), empowered by colonial regimes and exported by their own clients,”
Zarif wrote on his twitter page on Monday October 26.
He said that insulting 1.9bln Muslims and their
sanctities “for the abhorrent crimes of such extremists is an opportunistic
abuse of freedom of speech”.
“It only fuels extremism,” Zarif warned.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13990816000393/Iran%E2%80%99s-UN-Diplma-Wesern-Prvcaive-Rheric-Threaening-Hman-Righs
--------
Nice attack: Tunisia will accept deportees from France
if judicial rights guaranteed
06 November 2020
Tunisia will accept all Tunisian migrants deported
from France following the fatal stabbings at a church in Nice as long as all
judicial appeals have been exhausted, its interior minister said on Friday.
The French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is
visiting Tunisia and Algeria to discuss security matters including the
deportation of dozens of migrants following the attack.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
An assailant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is
Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice last
month in France's second deadly knife attack in two weeks with a suspected
“Islamist” motive.
The suspected attacker, a 21-year-old from Tunisia who
had arrived in Europe on September 20 in Lampedusa, the Italian island off
Tunisia that is a main landing point for migrants from Africa.
"We are ready to accept every Tunisian, but with
conditions preserving the dignity and giving him rights to access to all stages
of judicial appeals in France before the deportation," Interior Minister
Taoufik Charfeddine said.
Tunisia, which faces a challenging economic situation
and political instability since the 2011 revolution, saw a large increase in
the flow of migrant boats towards Italy in the past three years.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/11/06/Nice-attack-Tunisia-will-accept-deportees-from-France-if-judicial-rights-guaranteed
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Groups Say More Than Half Of All Muslim-American
Candidates, 57 out of 110 Win US Office
November 7, 2020
WASHINGTON: More than half of all Muslim-American
candidates for public office who ran in the general election won their races, a
trio of Muslim advocacy groups said Friday.
Anadolu Agency (AA) reported that the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (Cair), Jetpac and MPower Change said of the 110
Muslim-Americans who ran for a variety of posts, 57 emerged or are projected to
emerge victorious following the Nov 3 general election.
The individuals ran in competitions that spanned 24
states and Washington DC, and the number of Muslim candidates in the election
is the highest the groups have tracked since 2016.
Of the 57 victors, seven made history as the first
Muslims elected to their respective state offices, it said.
“Increasing our political representation is a critical
part of defeating the violent rise of Islamophobia here and around the world
because it forces elected officials and the media to include our perspective in
the narrative on healthcare, the economy, criminal legal system, and every
other issue impacting American life,” AA quoting Mohammed Missouri, executive
director of Jetpac, said in a statement.
In all, the advocacy groups tracked roughly 170
candidates who ran for office, including those who were eliminated in primary
contests, and therefore did not make it to the Nov 3 election.
That figure is roughly 30 more than the previous high
of 134 Muslim-American candidates who ran in 2018.
Jetpac, Cair, and MPower said they plan to distribute
a full list of local, primary and general election candidates after general
election results are certified, it added.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/11/07/groups-say-over-half-of-muslim-candidates-win-us-office/
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Pakistan
PML-N chief trying to stir up rebellion in Army: PM
Fazal Khaliq
07 Nov 2020
SWAT: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, “like a jackal sitting in London, is trying to stir
up a rebellion in the Pakistan Army by alleging it is involved in politics and
calling for changing the Army and ISI chiefs”.
By doing so, he (Sharif) was “making India happy and
proving himself one of the biggest enemies of Pakistan,” the PM said while
addressing a public gathering at Grassy Ground in Mingora after launching the
Sehat Card Plus programme for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said Mr Sharif had run away from the country under
the pretext of illness, adding that he was a “money worshipper” and had amassed
his wealth by looting the country.
The prime minister said (PML-N vice president) Maryam
Nawaz was also openly accusing the Army of interfering in politics. She was
taking advantage of being a woman because women were given respect in Pakistan,
he added.
“Nawaz Sharif and his sons cannot dare attack the
Pakistan Army in the country and this is why they have fled abroad. Since
Maryam Nawaz knows that we will not send her behind bars because she is a
woman, she has started spewing venom against the Army,” he said.
He said every solider of the Pakistan Army had
rendered sacrifices for the safety of the country and patriotic Pakistanis
would never allow corrupt politicians to hurl allegations against the Army.
Rebuking the “corrupt political leaders who have
gathered under the umbrella of the Pakistan Democratic Movement”, Mr Khan said
a group of thieves and looters had gathered and was asking for NRO after
looting the country.
“Two major political parties looted the country during
the past 30 years but now it is decisive time to take action against the
corrupt and looters,” he said.
The PM reiterated that he would never grant NRO to the
politicians who had looted the country and if he did so it would be high
treason with the country.
He said that Gen Pervez Musharraf had committed a mistake
by granting NRO to the corrupt politicians, including Asif Ali Zardari and
Nawaz Sharif, due to which the external debt of the country had increased
manifold and now the PTI government was paying it back.
About provision of free health facilities to every
person in KP through Sehat Card Plus programme, the PM said no other government
could accomplish such an amazing deed, except the PTI administration, and the
credit for it went to KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.
“Now every family (from KP) can get Rs1 million for
medical treatment anywhere in the country,” Mr Khan said.
For the first time in the country’s history, he said,
the people would be able to have their own houses by paying their prices in
instalments under the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme.
He said the PTI had founded a new Pakistan which was a
replica of the model of the Madina state, where every citizen would be valued
and would get justice. He said provision of free health facilities to every
person in KP was the first step towards transforming Pakistan into the social
welfare state of Madina.
“We have already introduced the uniform national
curriculum in the country after which the child of poor and rich people will
receive similar education,” he said. Court cases would be decided in one year
in Naya Pakistan as the government had got the civil procedure act amended, he
added.
PM Khan urged the youth to adopt the way of noble
people and work hard for development of the country. “If you people follow the
path of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), no doubt you will lead the country towards the
state of Madina where humanity and rule of law prevailed,” he said, adding that
due to the model of the Madina sate, the Muslims had ruled the world for
centuries.
The prime minister said the new Pakistan founded by
PTI would follow the Islamic principles of the state of Madina.
He said the fate of Swat would soon change due to
construction of a motorway and promotion of tourism. “Swat will soon witness a
wave of prosperity which it has never seen before, because of promotion of
tourism. Tourism has the potential of bringing speedy prosperity in the
country,” he said, adding that the promotion of tourism in KP would bring
unprecedented benefits to the entire country.
Prominent among those who attended the public meeting
were National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, federal Minister for Communication
and Postal Services Murad Saeed, CM Mahmood Khan, KP Minister for Labour and
Culture Shaukat Yousafzai, the MNAs and the MPAs.
Earlier, PM Khan along with the chief minister and
others visited Gabin Jabba, a recently developed touristic spot.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1589053/pml-n-chief-trying-to-stir-up-rebellion-in-army-pm
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Bilawal among ‘public office’ holders ordered to leave
GB
Jamil Nagri
07 Nov 2020
GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court on Friday
ordered Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, federal
minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur and other
public office holders to leave the region within 72 hours for violating the
code of conduct for elections.
The order was passed on PPP Gilgit-Baltistan vice
president Jamil Ahmed’s petition with the GB Chief Court pleading to expel
federal ministers and public office holders from GB till the conclusion of
election on Nov 15 for violating elections code of conduct.
As the code of conduct under the Election Act of 2017
bars only public office holders, including the president and prime minister,
chairman and deputy chairman of senate, speaker and deputy speaker of an
assembly, federal ministers, ministers of state, governors, chief ministers,
provincial ministers, advisers to the premier and chief ministers, mayors,
chairman, nazim and their deputies, from taking part in election drive in any
manner whatsoever, the court order refers to the definition of public office
holder as per National Accountability (NAB) Ordinance 1999 that includes member
of parliament as well.
Chief Court says PPP leader, ministers and others
violated code of conduct for elections
A two-member bench of the GB Chief Court comprising
Chief Judge Malik Haq Nawaz and Ali Baig ordered to expel from the boundary of
GB all those individuals who fall in the ambit of para 18 of the code of
conduct framed for the Gilgit-Baltistan general elections 2020, within three
days of passing of the order.
The court order says public office holder “has not
been defined as who will be placed in the category of public office holder”.
This term has been defined in the NAB ordinance, it
mentions while also barring the elected members of assemblies and Senate from
running election campaign.
While addressing a press conference here in Gilgit on
Friday, GB Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Raja Shahbaz Khan asked the PPP
chairman and federal minister Ali Amin Gandapur and other public office holders
to leave Gilgit-Baltistan to implement court order.
Mr Khan said a total of 130 notices had been issued to
leaders of different political parties, including PPP, PML-N, PTI, PML-Q and
JUI-F, for violating election code of conduct. He asserted that leaders of all
political parties needed to obey and implement the elections code of conduct
and Election Act 2017.
“I appeal to all the concerned to go from GB
themselves without damaging the environment,” he said.
The chief election commissioner has said police and GB
scouts would perform election duties, while the army would have no role in the
upcoming election. Of the 1,234 polling stations in Gilgit-Baltistan, 415
polling stations have already been declared ‘highly sensitive’.
Mr Khan rejected the pre-poll rigging allegations and
said all measures were being taken to ensure free, fair and transparent
election in GB.
‘Bilawal is not public office holder’
Meanwhile, PPP’s GB president Advocate Amjad Hussain
has said Mr Bhutto-Zardari is not a public office holder and the election code
of conduct allows him to participate in the election campaign.
The GB election commission had adopted Election Act
2017, which did not bar Mr Bhutto-Zardari from leading the election campaign, Advocate
Hussain said while addressing a press conference here in Gilgit.
He was accompanied by other office-bearers of the
party Jamil Ahmed, Sadia Danish and Javed Hussain.
Calling the move unprecedented, Advocate Hussain said
members of the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan had never been barred
from taking part in the election campaigns in the history of Pakistan.
He said it seemed the focus of the chief election
commissioner was the PPP leadership.
The para 18 of the code of conduct under the Election
Act, 2017, says: “The President, Prime Minister, Chairman/Deputy Chairman
Senate, Speaker/Deputy Speaker of an Assembly, Federal Ministers, Ministers of
State, Governors, Chief Ministers, Provincial Ministers, Advisers to the Prime
Minister and the Chief Ministers, Mayors/Chairman/Nazim, their deputies and
other public office holders shall not participate in election campaign in any
manner whatsoever. This provision will be applicable to the caretaker setup.”
He said the Election Act stopped the PM and ministers,
but the CEC had never sent them any notice for violating the code of conduct.
He further said the leadership of a banned outfit was working in one of the
constituencies to support their candidate.
About legislation on Khalisa Sarkar and other issues
of Haq-i-Malkiyat, he said the PPP needed 12 seats.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1589056/bilawal-among-public-office-holders-ordered-to-leave-gb
--------
Afghan refugees’ return witnesses sharp decline in
current year
07 Nov 2020
PESHAWAR: The UNHCR-sponsored voluntary repatriation
of registered Afghan refugees to their country witnessed a sharp decline in the
current year as only 1,000 individuals have so far returned to Afghanistan from
Pakistan.
The number of refugees who repatriated from Pakistan
in the corresponding period last year was 1,597 individuals.
Officials attributed the “record” downturn in the
return of refugees to Covid-19 pandemic in the region and deteriorating
security situation in Afghanistan.
The UN refugee agency has now extended voluntary
repatriation process till the end of December following decrease in the number
of refugees returning to their country.
UNHCR spokesperson cites Covid-19 as main reason for
the downturn
“For the first time the lowest number of Afghan refugees
returned to their country since the beginning of voluntary repatriation from
Pakistan,” said an official, adding that despite payment of cash assistance of
$200 per person for meeting their immediate humanitarian needs, refugees did
not want to go back to their country.
The UN agency usually suspends voluntary repatriation
process in October every year because of winter in the refugees’ home country
and restarts the programme in March.
The UNHCR facilitates repatriation process twice a
week (Monday and Tuesday) owing to the pandemic.
Pakistan currently hosts over 1.4 million registered
refugees in addition to near 600,000 Afghan citizens’ card holders who do not
enjoy the status of refugees.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been providing shelter to the
largest population of Afghan nationals, including registered refugees, followed
by Balochistan.
The refugee agency spokesperson, Qaiser Khan Afridi,
told Dawn that 1,000 Afghans (around 245 families) had returned to their
country since March under the voluntary repatriation programme.
He said refugees returned to their country via Torkham
and Chaman border crossing points in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,
respectively.
“The main reason for decline in return of refugees is
the pandemic,” said the spokesperson. He said it had been decided to continue
the repatriation process till December. The UNHCR has facilitated voluntary
return of 4.4 million Afghans from Pakistan since 2002.
Meanwhile, legal status of over 1.4 million registered
refugees in Pakistan also hangs in the balance after expiry of Proof of
Registration (PoR) in June. Officials said the Pakistan government had yet to
make a decision about renewal of PoR cards to validate stay of the refugees.
They said that future of the registered refugees was
uncertain because of expiry of the PoR cards.
The spokesperson said the UN agency had taken up the
matter with the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions and the
Commissionerrate for Afghan Refugees, requesting for giving further extension
to the refugees.
He said the ministry had submitted its recommendations
and the UN agency was hopeful that the decision would be taken very soon.
He said extension in PoR cards would be a big relief
for the refugees who were facing uncertainty as validity of their cards had already
expired.
He said that UNHCR always favoured long-term extension
of at least a year in PoR cards. Pakistan has been renewing PoR cards every
year for the last nine years.
The federal government had in 2017-18 also issued
Citizen Cards to 600,000 Afghan nationals who did not enjoy the refugee status.
ACCs facilitate undocumented Afghans to temporarily
stay in Pakistan until they return to their country to obtain a passport and
Pakistani visa.
Besides, a sizeable number of undocumented Afghan
nationals are also residing in Pakistan.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1589019/afghan-refugees-return-witnesses-sharp-decline-in-current-year
--------
South Asia
Afghanistan violence jumps 50 percent amid peace
talks: Watchdog
5 Nov 2020
Violent attacks in Afghanistan have surged by 50
percent over recent months, even as the Kabul government and the Taliban
launched unprecedented peace talks in September, a US watchdog warned on
Thursday.
Despite brief lulls provided by two temporary
ceasefires over the summer, fighting has raged across the country as the
Taliban launched devastating attacks on provincial capitals and security
installations, with fears the violence may jeopardise negotiations.
Attacks against Afghan forces and civilians were 50
percent higher in the three months to the end of September when compared to the
previous quarter, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in its quarterly report to the US Congress.
“Overall enemy-initiated attacks this quarter were
also characterized as ‘above seasonal norms’,” the report added.
The watchdog reported 2,561 civilian casualties this
quarter, including 876 deaths, up 43 percent from the April to June period.
The report’s publication comes as scattered calls to
boycott the ongoing peace talks have been raised following back-to-back attacks
on education centres in Kabul claimed by ISIL, but which some government
officials insist were carried out by the Taliban.
Earlier this week, at least 22 students were killed in
Kabul University in an attack claimed by ISIL.
Little progress has been made in meetings between
Afghan government negotiators and the Taliban since the talks started on
September 12, with negotiations stalled over the basic framework of talks and
an agenda still undecided.
Both sides have routinely accused each other of upping
hostilities and killing civilians.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who negotiated a
separate deal with the Taliban in February, has repeatedly warned that
“continued high levels of violence can threaten the peace process and the
agreement and the core understanding that there is no military solution” to the
Afghan conflict.
US influence over Afghanistan’s battlegrounds is on
the wane, however, with the Pentagon looking to withdraw all its troops that remain
in the country by next May.
Confusion over the ongoing US election vote count has
raised further questions over whether Washington’s withdrawal from Afghanistan
after 19 years of war will continue on schedule or accelerate if Trump clinches
another term in the White House.
The Trump administration signed an agreement with the
Taliban in February, which called for the withdrawal of US forces and a
guarantee by the Afghan armed group not to harm US security interests.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/5/afghanistan-violence-jumps-50-percent-amid-peace-talks-watchdog?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
--------
AAF Airstrikes Claim Taliban Intelligence Commander, 9
Others
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
07 Nov 2020
Taliban Intelligence Commander for Nadali District of
Helmand Province was killed, with 9 other militant fighters.
The Afghan Defense Ministry tweeted, Head of Taliban’s
intelligence for Nadali district of Helmand Province was killed with 9 others
and Muhibullah, Taliban’s shadow governor for Helmand was wounded in an
airstrike yesterday.
Earlier, ANDSF has reportedly cleared the Arghandab
district of Kandahar Province from Taliban stronghold.
During the MOD’s reciprocal operations, more than 200
of the Taliban fighters were killed and tens of other members belonging to this
group are reported wounded.
This comes as President’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi,
President’s Spokesman, condemned the attack on former journalist Yama Siawash,
and an employee of the Central Bank, who had just recently started working with
the government.
https://www.khaama.com/aaf-airstrikes-claim-taliban-intelligence-commander-9-others-987987/
--------
Renowned Journalist Killed In A ‘Magnetic IED’ Blast:
Kabul
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
07 Nov 2020
Famous journalist, Yama Siawash, was killed in an
explosion in Kabul this morning.
Baktash Siawash, a former member of parliament and
brother of Yama Siawash confirms to media, that Yama Siawash was killed in the
blast in the Maroryan-E-Char area in PD9 of Kabul City.
Yama Siawash with three other people is reported dead
in the explosion, according to ANP, the explosion happened at around 7:45 am on
Saturday morning.
The Magnetic IED targeted the journalist and two
others inside the vehicle.
There are no reports of the wounded in the incident.
The renowned journalist previously worked as Tolo TV’s
political Program anchor, he was well-known for his journalism in the political
field.
He recently had been working as an employee for Da
Afghanistan Bank.
https://www.khaama.com/renowned-journalist-killed-in-a-magnetic-ied-blast-kabul-987978/
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Arab world
Eight members of Syria's new government sanctioned by
EU
06 November 2020
The EU on Friday added eight ministers from the new
Syrian government formed in August to its sanctions blacklist for their role in
President Bashar al-Assad’s violent repression of civilians.
The decision by the EU’s 27 member countries bans the
ministers from travelling to Europe and will see their assets frozen.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The EU’s official journal on Friday added the names of
the ministers of oil and mineral resources, industry, health, agriculture and
three ministers of state.
The ministers of finance, justice, trade, transport,
culture, education and water resources had already been added on October 16.
The new government of Prime Minister Hussein Arnous,
who has been on this list since 2014, is the fifth to be formed in Syria since
the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
With the additions, the crisis in Syria has put 288
people and 70 entities under EU sanctions.
EU sanctions have been in force against the Assad
regime since December 2011 and are subject to annual review.
The Syrian conflict erupted in early 2011 when Assad’s
forces staged a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, sparking violence
that has since claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
After nine years of war, Assad controls some 70 per
cent of Syrian territory.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/06/Eight-members-of-Syria-s-new-government-sanctioned-by-EU
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Protester killed in southern Iraq during clashes with
police as tensions flare again
06 November 2020
Iraqi security forces opened fire during clashes with
hundreds of protesters in the southern city of Basra on Friday, killing one
demonstrator and wounding several others as tensions flared once again,
hospital officials said.
The clashes erupted after some of the protesters tried
to set up tents in a public square, a week after similar, previously erected
protest tents in Basra and Baghdad had been removed.
Dozens of young Iraqis were seen running away in panic
after the shots were fired in Basra.
Last Saturday, Iraqi forces cleared out sit-in tents
from Baghdad's central Tahrir Square that had been the epicenter of
anti-government mass protests that erupted last year. They also removed tents
in Basra's Bahriya Square and in other southern cities that have seen major
protests throughout the past year.
The removal of the tents has led to tensions and
protesters in Basra have been trying to erect them again, holding
demonstrations in the city for the past three days.
They are also demanding the sacking of the governor
and an investigation into previous killings of protesters.
The hospital officials said seven protesters were
wounded in Friday's clashes. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with
regulations.
More than 500 people were killed during the
months-long protest movement that began in October 2019 in Baghdad and across
the mainly Shia south, many of them demonstrators shot by Iraqi security
forces.
Despite reaching unprecedented numbers in late 2019
and successfully mounting pressure on the country's elites, the anti-government
protests have been largely dormant in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Activists also blamed the drop in numbers on a violent crackdown by Iraqi
security forces and militia groups, as well as kidnappings and targeted
assassinations.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/06/Protester-killed-in-southern-Iraq-during-clashes-with-police-as-tensions-flare-again
--------
US sanctions Lebanon’s Gebran Bassil for Hezbollah
ties, corruption
Joseph Haboush and Nadia Bilbassy-Charters
05 November 2020
The United States has sanctioned Lebanon’s Gebran
Bassil for his role in endemic corruption as well as his support for Hezbollah,
senior government officials announced Friday.
“He represents everything wrong with the broken
Lebanese system,” a senior government official told reporters in a phone call
to discuss the move that came under corruption-related sections in the
Magnitsky Act.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Bassil is Lebanon’s former foreign minister and the
son-in-law of President Michel Aoun.
A statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
Bassil had been “involved in approving several projects that would have steered
Lebanese government funds to individuals close to him through a group of front
companies.”
His role in providing political cover for the
Iran-backed Hezbollah was also related to the move.
“And I want to tie this to Hezbollah ... his political
partnership has enabled Hezbollah to further expand its political influence and
contribute to the broken government system,” the senior government official
said.
This comes as part of Washington’s maximum-pressure
campaign against Iran and its proxies around the region.
Friday’s designation should come as no surprise, a
separate official said. Bassil helped “strengthen endemic corruption” in
Lebanon while also abusing his positions in government for personal gain, the
official said.
Asked if the decision could be undone, another
official said any individual who is designated may challenge.
“But there is no mistake here. It is not typical for
these types of designations to be undone,” the official said.
The official also noted that if Bassil were to change
his behavior and support for corruption in Lebanon, “it’s certainly something
the [US] government will consider.”
Bassil responded after the announcement by saying
“sanctions have not scared me.”
Earlier this year, the US expanded the scope of
sanctions on Lebanese officials to include non-Hezbollah members. Ali Hasan
Khalil, the former finance minister and top political aide to Speaker Nabih
Berri, was sanctioned alongside former Public Works Minister Yousef Fenianos.
Bassil impeding government formation
Lebanon has been without a government since August
after Hassan Diab resigned following the deadly Aug. 4 Port of Beirut
explosion.
Lawmakers designated Mustapha Adib, Lebanon's
ambassador to Germany, to form a new government. He also stepped down after
failing to form the government he wanted - free of influence from the
traditional political parties.
Saad Hariri was then nominated on October 22 to try to
form a government. Although reports suggested he had made quick progress in his
efforts to form a new government, momentum appears to have slowed in recent
days.
Bassil and Hezbollah did not name Hariri; however,
they have demanded certain representation in the next government.
A State Department Spokesperson told Al Arabiya
English that the selection and appointment of a new government was a decision
for the Lebanese people to make.
But, the spokesperson added: “As Secretary [of State
Mike] Pompeo has repeatedly stated, business as usual is not acceptable.”
Asked if the US would work with a new Lebanese
government that included Hezbollah, the official skirted the question.
“Iranian-backed Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that is more concerned
with its own interests and those of its patron Iran, than what is best for the
Lebanese people,” the official said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/11/06/Lebanon-s-Gebran-Bassil-to-be-sanctioned-by-US-over-Hezbollah-ties-Sources-
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Hezbollah, Iran preventing Lebanese recovery: Expert
November 07, 2020
LONDON: Hezbollah and Iran are preventing Lebanon from
enacting badly needed reforms to emerge from political, social and financial crises,
Ziad Majed, associate professor and program coordinator for Middle East
pluralities at the American University of Paris, said on Friday.
Iran “is contributing to conflicts in the region, thus
opening Lebanon as a theater to many of the terrible events of the region,”
Majed said during a virtual panel discussion organized by the Council for
Arab-British Understanding and attended by Arab News.
Alia Moubayed, a financial analyst, said the
dysfunctional political system has contributed to Lebanon’s financial issues.
“The existential nature of (this) crisis stems from
the fact that it’s a multipronged crisis. It’s a balance-of-payments crisis …
It’s also a debt crisis. Lebanon’s debt has been above 140 percent for decades,
and most recently it has just continued to edge up. We got to a point where
this debt became increasingly unsustainable, leading to basically a debt
default,” she added.
“It’s also a banking crisis. The banking system was
attracting capital from abroad and offering exorbitant returns at risk of not
being paid, to the extent that up to 75 percent of the assets of banks were
exposed to the sovereign and Central Bank risk. All the money in dollars
amounted to more $120 billion; the Central Bank, not being able to print
dollars, was unable to give (funds) back.”
Moubayed said this is having serious social impacts on
ordinary Lebanese. “Per capita income more than halved in less than a year.
Almost 80 percent of the value of the currency has been lost,” she added.
“This obviously led to hyperinflation — more than 120
percent. That’s really wiping out the savings of Lebanese (people) but also
undermining many livelihoods, particularly for the poor. Poverty rates exceed
50 percent, compared to 37 percent in 2019.
“There was also the horrible explosion that happened
at the heart of the Beirut port, which deepened contraction of GDP (gross
domestic product). The economy is really reeling.”
Ziad Abdel Samad, executive director of the Arab NGO
Network for Development, said the Aug. 4 blast was a pivotal moment for the
country — symbolic as well as material.
“The Beirut blast … was the manifestation of the
government’s failure. Both corruption and negligence disabled the main agencies
from doing their jobs properly,” he added.
Moubayed said: “We find ourselves with a lack of
willingness, competence and … ability to move the country on a virtuous path.
It’s being thwarted by the political elite because somebody has to bear the
brunt of these losses. That means those who benefited for most of this time … are
now trying to avoid this overhaul.”
Majed agreed, saying: “In this kind of configuration,
it’s extremely difficult to modify electoral law, to modify the concept of the
power-sharing formula, and to talk about a citizenship that’s capable, through
its creativity and activism, to reconstruct a new Lebanon or political system.”
He added: “If you combine with that the whole
financial management or all the economic crises and the current terrible
situation, you have a country that’s just pushing some of its people to leave,
and that’s terrible.”
Abdel Samad, though, suggested a complete rethink of
social and economic approaches in Lebanon, based on “creating a big coalition”
to “adopt an urgent reform agenda” and “recover the state and stolen assets”
from the political elite.
“It’s easy to see the collapse of Lebanon will create
serious threats to the region. Lebanon is hosting more than 1 million Syrian
refugees and around 500,000 officially registered Palestinian refugees,” he
said.
“It’s important to underline that any external
pressure and functions can help, but won’t have the expected result unless they
rely on a strong local movement able to break the status quo and lead the
nation to real changes.”
Moubayed said if political change happens, a roadmap exists
to solve Lebanon’s financial issues.
“We need a capital control law that would reduce the
leakages out of the system. Another immediate action would be a rationalization
of the costly subsidy system that isn’t benefitting those who need it,” she added.
“In addition to these measures, we need to approach
the crisis in a comprehensive way — solid debt restructuring that would address
the unsustainability of public finances.
“The second pillar of the approach would be the
restructuring of the banking system in order to put back the financial sector
to its right size, because it’s clearly an oversized system that the society
and economy can’t sustain, but also (there would need to be) stronger
regulation.
“The third (pillar) would be a strong social protection
system that Lebanon has been lacking. Clearly the whole structure of governance
(needs) reform. I don’t think Lebanese citizens are willing to undergo more
pain if we don’t establish a system of good governance based on an independent
judiciary … strong accountability (and) transparency.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1759521/middle-east
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Southeast Asia
China Slams US for Delisting Xinjiang's East Turkistan
Islamic Movement as Terrorist Outfit
NOVEMBER 06, 2020
China on Friday sharply criticised the US for
delisting Xinjiang's separatist militant outfit East Turkistan Islamic Movement
from its list of terrorist organisations, saying it reflected Washington's
"double standards" on fighting global terrorism. In a major policy shift
on November 5, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted the ban on East
Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which was designated as a terrorist
organisation by the UN's 1267 counter-terrorism committee in 2002 for its
alleged association with al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
China accuses ETIM, which is entrenched in Uighur
Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang province, of being responsible for
numerous violent attacks in the province and outside, including one at the
Forbidden City in Beijing, killing several people. The US in recent months has
stepped up its criticism of China's treatment of about 12 million minority
Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Since last year, China has been under severe
international criticism including from the UN and western countries over
allegations that it is holding over a million people, mostly ethnic Uyghurs, in
internment camps in Xinjiang, in a bid to wean them away from religious
extremism. The resource-rich Xinjiang province is home to Turkik speaking
Uighur Muslims. The province is restive for several years over settlements of
Han Chinese.
China defends the camps, describing the facilities as
re-education centres aimed at de-radicalising sections of the Uyghur Muslim
population from extremism and separatism. Asked for his reaction on the US move
to delist ETIM, which calls itself a separatist outfit, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here on Friday that China
deplores and rejects US decision.
The ETIM is a UN Security Council listed terrorist
organisation and is recognised as such by the international community, he said.
Wang said that the ETIM has long been engaging in violent terrorist activities,
causing massive casualties and property loss and posing a grave threat to the
security and stability in China, the region and the world.
Fighting ETIM is an international consensus and an
important part of the international counter-terrorism fight. The US was a
co-sponsor of the listing of the ETIM in the UN in 1267 committee and now it is
flip-flopping on its position, he said. This once again shows those in power at
Washington has double standards on counter-terrorism and has ugly two-faced
approach to terrorist organisations. Terrorist organisations are terrorist
organisations, he said.
The US should correct its mistake and do not whitewash
terrorist organisations and do not soft-pedal on international
counter-terrorism cooperation, Wang added. Last year, China released a rare
documentary showing for the first time some of the deadly attacks conducted by
the ETIM in Xinjiang, justifying the massive crackdown and detention of
thousands of Uyghur Muslims in the restive province amidst mounting
international criticism.
https://www.news18.com/news/world/china-slams-us-for-delisting-xinjiangs-east-turkistan-islamic-movement-as-terrorist-outfit-3051296.html
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The never-ending political game of Mahathir Mohamad
By Sophie Lemiere
07 Nov 2020
PARIS: Self-reinvented Mahathir Mohamad won the 2018
general election, but less than two years later, the fairy tale ended.
In February, under pressure from internal dissenters
in his coalition, Mahathir resigned from the government. The old ruling party
(United Malay National Organisation, or UMNO) then came back to power in a new
political formation.
By the end of May, as Mahathir’s political descent
continued, he was expelled from the party that he had founded in 2016.
Yet the political genius, who turned 95 in July, has
not given up and is continuing to mastermind his way back to power.
On Oct 5, in the midst of a continuing drama among
political elites, Mahathir made another U-turn, announcing that he might be
(again) running for the next general elections.
An election due in 2023 could in fact be called as
early as 2021. Could Mahathir come back for a 25th year of rule?
A LONG CAREER IN POLITICS
Mahathir ruled over Malaysia for 22 years and resigned
in 2003, promising he would never return to politics. Yet the country’s longest
serving prime minister never truly left the political scene and continued to
express strong opinions through his blog Chedet (a nickname from his school
days).
He also kept an important role in UMNO, the party he
presided over for years and that ruled over Malaysia for 61 years.
Mahathir was, and still is, a controversial leader,
notorious in the West for his anti-Semitic and anti-Western speeches, most
recently by fiercely attacking French President Emmanuel Macron’s criticisms of
Islam. He is celebrated in other parts of the world for the same reasons.
In Malaysia and beyond, Mahathir is a symbol of the
country’s economic successes and its rapid development in the 1980s and 1990s.
Despite the contentious politics of his time in
office, from his criticism of human rights to his extensive use of patronage,
Mahathir has kept a very particular place in Malaysia’s history and in the
minds of Malaysians.
The younger generation of voters not born during his
rule see the man as a wise and experienced leader, and they are drawn to his
old patriarchal figure. Older generations have changed their mind over his
controversial legacy and, by lack of alternatives, praised his comeback.
In 2016, in an unexpected turn, Mahathir resigned from
UMNO and founded a new party (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, or Bersatu) with
his son Mukhriz and current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. He also allied
with the opposition he had repressed under his rule, led by Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar is the leader of the Reformasi movement, which
he created in 1998 after having been sacked from Mahathir’s government. He was
then imprisoned on charges of corruption and sodomy until 2004.
In 2016, the alliance of the two archenemies came as a
surprise to most, in a context where Malaysia’s government was under attack for
the involvement of its top leaders, including then-Prime Minister Najib Razak,
in the world’s largest financial scandal: The 1MDB scandal.
Taking advantage of a dramatic political scenario,
Mahathir reinvented his narrative to present himself as a political messiah
with a democratic agenda, to save Malaysia from “Najib’s kleptocracy”.
He promised that, if victorious, he would release the
leader of the opposition, Anwar, who had been in jail on new sodomy charges
since 2015. A pact was sealed between the two rivals, and Mahathir also agreed
to hand over power to Anwar within a few years.
DRAMA IN 2020
In January, power struggles within the ruling
coalition – due to Anwar’s eagerness to take over, and Mahathir’s reluctance to
let him do so – precipitated what Mahathir coined the “New Malaysia” era to
end.
The ruling coalition and the entire government
collapsed, and with them, Malaysia’s supposed hopes for democracy under
Mahathir.
His phenomenal narrative did not translate into an
effective mode of democratic governance. His political pragmatism did not
compensate for his old-fashioned way of rule; nor for the weaknesses of a
politically dysmorphic government built on a disparate coalition lacking a
clear ideology.
While the context of 2018 – characterised by the chaos
of the opposition, the pragmatism of desperate leaders, and the frustration of
voters – had created a golden opportunity for Mahathir to win that year, these
exact same factors (compounded with severe miscalculations and overconfidence)
led him to lose power in 2020.
In February, after less than two years in power,
Mahathir resigned. While Anwar hoped his time had come to take over, the
Malaysian king decided otherwise.
In March, to end the feud between Anwar and Mahathir,
the king unexpectedly appointed a third man to succeed Mahathir: Muhyiddin
Yassin. (Malaysia is a parliamentary monarchy, and the king has the
constitutional power to appoint the prime minister from within the parliament
majority.)
Muhyiddin, then the vice president of Bersatu, became
prime minister.
In early June, Mahathir was sacked from Bersatu, along
with four other leaders, including his son Mukhriz. Muhyiddin, co-founder of
Bersatu, could not afford another rivalry from within.
MUHYIDDIN’S DIFFICULT POSITION
Mahathir’s sacking, and the return of UMNO to the
government, created new political shifts.
After seven months in power, tested by one of the
largest pandemics in recent history, Muhyiddin is now in a difficult position,
and Malaysia is in a continuing political crisis.
Despite relatively sound management of the crisis,
Muhyiddin is probably on his way out. His position in the new government
coalition (Perikatan Nasional) is relatively weak vis-a-vis the weight and
popularity of UMNO, the old ruling party he allied with.
Many in the opposition and in his own party are
pushing for his resignation and fresh polls.
On Sep 23, Anwar announced he had the parliament
majority to unseat Muhyiddin. Mahathir, who created a new party in August –
Pejuang, or the Homeland Fighter’s Party – did not support Anwar’s claim.
Anwar declared he intended to create a Malay-Muslim
government allied with his former enemies UMNO and the Malaysian Islamic Party
(PAS), despite tensions between these parties and Anwar’s major ally the
Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP).
While Anwar’s move created even further instability,
Mahathir and other members of parliament took this opportunity to call for a
no-confidence vote to be tabled at the next parliamentary session (due Nov 6).
In response, Muyhiddin attempted to declare a state of
emergency as a way to block the next parliament session. The Malaysian king
opposed Muyhiddin’s demands, calling the shots for the second time this year.
Muyhiddin’s fate is now in the hands of his allies,
and specifically UMNO leadership. Without UMNO’s support, the government will
fall.
Muyhiddin has no other choice but to resign before
being pushed out; in this climate, an early general election seems unavoidable.
RETURN TO THE MOTHERSHIP
As personality politics continue to take center stage,
the emergence of a new generation of leaders seems difficult.
Former Minister of Sports and Youth Syed Saddiq
created his own political entity last month, Muda, the party of youth; but its
popularity has yet to materialise. However, Syed is a fervent supporter of
Mahathir, and at age 28 he is not prime minister material (at least in the
Malaysian context).
With his new party, Pejuang, Mahathir hopes to build
an alternative to the Anwar-led opposition. However, the multiplication of
Malay-based parties risks further splitting the Malay votes; another possibility
is a major return to the mothership: UMNO.
In an overconfident move, Anwar recently announced he
had the support to switch the parliamentary majority in his favor to unseat
Muhyiddin, which has deepened the fractures in the opposition.
In what looks like political desertion, Anwar’s image
as a reformist is cracking, and the democratic mirage of Mahathir is the sole
alternative.
While some observers have questioned the authenticity
of Mahathir’s democratic agenda, Anwar’s new alliances and attempt to overtake
the government have proven he is no longer the democrat he once was.
Mahathir’s image of wisdom has been reinforced by the
distance he took from Anwar’s attempt to bring Muhyiddin down.
At the same time, it’s possible that the opposition’s
divisions between the eternal rivals Anwar and Mahathir could mean the return
of the old party.
At 95, Mahathir is keeping up the fight. Though his
chances of returning to power are thin, it is not impossible.
In some sense, he has already won against the odds by
both masterminding a long and twisted political plot, and by re-writing his
legacy as a victorious democrat.
Like all people, Malaysians have been hit by the
pandemic. The economic as well as political recovery will take some time, time
that all sides are taking to regroup, strategise, and plot their next political
steps.
If Mahathir were to be elected again, it would mean a
25th year in power. Mahathir’s political destiny is uncertain, but he still has
a few cards in his hands to keep playing this never-ending political game.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/malaysia-politics-mahathir-anwar-muhyiddin-election-umno-pejuang-13479084
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India
Pakistani troops shell villages and forward posts
along LoC in J&K’s Poonch and Kathua
Posted by Ayshee Bhaduri
Nov 07, 2020
Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing and
shelling on forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) and the
International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Kathua districts in
violation of the ceasefire, officials said on Saturday.
Mortar shelling in the Mankote sector along the LoC in
Poonch started around 2.30 am, while the cross-border firing along the IB in
the Hiranagar sector continued throughout the night, the officials said.
They said there was no report of any casualty or
damage on the Indian side.
“At about 2:30 am, Pakistan initiated unprovoked
ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling mortars along the
LoC in Mankote sector Army retaliated befittingly,” a defence spokesman said.
The officials said the firing and shelling between the
two sides stopped around 4 am.
Pakistani Rangers started the firing on border
outposts in Karol Krishna, Satpal, and Gurnam around 10 pm on Friday, prompting
strong retaliation by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel guarding the
border, the officials said.
The exchange of fire between the two sides continued
till 5.10 am, they said, adding the Pakistani firing caused panic among the
border residents who were forced to spend the night in underground bunkers.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pakistani-troops-shell-villages-and-forward-posts-along-loc-in-j-k-s-poonch-and-kathua/story-c4JvV3EcQwzxoE691mWQUL.html
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India says taking Bangladesh temples vandalisation
reports seriously
Nov 7, 2020
NEW DELHI: India is taking reports of vandalisation of
Hindu temples in Bangladesh “very seriously”, the government said on Friday.
This was the first government response after Congress
member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury highlighted the fact that over 15 Hindu temples
had been attacked in Bangladesh. After allegations of disrespect to Islam on
some Facebook posts surfaced, Chowdhury had asked the Centre to take up the
issue with the Sheikh Hasina government. The Modi government has very close
ties with the Bangladesh government but has remained silent over the temple
attacks.
According to media reports from Bangladesh, temples at
Nasirnagar in Brahmanbarhia district in Bangladesh were vandalised on Sunday
and over 100 houses in the area belonging to Hindus were looted.
After the violence, which reportedly lasted for hours,
two temples in adjacent Madhabpur in Habigunj also came under attack, the
report said quoting police and eyewitnesses. Six people have been arrested for
their alleged involvement in the attack and paramilitary forces and police were
deployed at Nasirnagar and Madhabpur Upazila headquarters, the report said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-says-taking-bangladesh-temples-vandalisation-reports-seriously/articleshow/79092278.cms
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Civilian, Pak Lashkar duo killed in J&K encounter;
injured ultra surrenders
Nov 6, 2020
SRINAGAR: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from Pakistan
and a civilian were killed in an overnight anti-terror operation in Pampore in
south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. An injured terrorist surrendered during the
gunfight, taking the total number of ultras who surrendered during live
encounters to nine so far this year, IGP (Kashmir Range) Vijay Kumar said on
Friday.
The slain terrorists were identified as Umar Bhai and
Huzaifa, police said. One of them was killed late Thursday while the other was
slain when the anti-terror operation — that had been temporarily suspended
owing to darkness — resumed on Friday morning. The surrendered terrorist,
Khawar Sultan Mir, belongs to Pampore’s Drangbal area. All three were Lashkar
affiliates.
On Thursday evening, a joint team of Army’s 50RR,
CRPF’s 110Bn and Awantipora Police launched a cordon-and-search operation in Pampore’s
Lalpora Chatlam area based on intelligence inputs about the presence of
terrorists there, IGP Kumar said.
An encounter broke out soon after holed-up ultras
opened fire at the search party. Two civilians, Abid Nabi and Kifayat Ahmad,
were injured in the crossfire. Abid succumbed during treatment at Srinagar’s
SMHS Hospital on Friday while Kifayat was in a stable condition at Srinagar’s
Bone and Joint Hospital, police said.
“The terrorists were given a chance to surrender when
Mir laid down his arms and yielded in an injured condition. He was shifted to a
hospital,” a police statement said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/civilian-pak-lashkar-duo-killed-in-jk-encounter-injured-ultra-surrenders/articleshow/79087934.cms
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Kashmiri Pandits being used as vote bank by BJP:
Farooq Abdullah
Nov 6, 2020
JAMMU: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah
on Friday accused the BJP of using Kashmiri Pandits as vote bank and said the
community is still waiting for their return and rehabilitation in the valley.
Abdullah also said that the real development in Jammu
and Kashmir would come when there will be a people's government.
"For 28 years, they are saying that Kashmiri
Pandits will be taken back to their homes in the valley. They are in power for
more than five years but they are still waiting for the day of their
return," Abdullah said addressing his party workers at a jam-packed
Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here.
He accused the BJP of spreading hatred among
communities and asked "how long will you use them as vote bank".
"You have always used them," Abdullah, who
arrived in Jammu for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 and
bifurcation of the erstwhile state into union territories in August last year,
said.
"People are the real fountain of power. When
there will be elections, bring forth the people who can help the masses and are
not self-centric,” he said, adding “the real development will come to J&K
when there will be people's government and all rights of the people restored."
Asserting that the National Conference is not
"anti-national", he said those who are hurling such wild allegations
should check their vision.
"We are not the ones whom you could buy or make
them to tear apart their clothes," he said, referring to a BJP leader who
tore his shirt to claim that he is a nationalist to the core.
"How many more you will buy (in J&K). I know
there are some elements in NC as well. I have seen a lot (in politics) and the
day is not far when another group will come and they will buy you as well,"
he said.
He asked the party workers to remain steadfast and
united to thwart such conspiracies.
"We have to remain cautious as they are trying to
divide us on the basis of religion and region.... This nation is strong as
people from different backgrounds, regions, climates and languages are one. A
Madrassi, a Bengali, a Maratha who are not habitual to below 30 degrees Celsius
is guarding Ladakh sector in minus 30 degrees Celsius," he said, adding
"we are together and one because of our nation".
He said the BJP cannot be "my master and I am not
afraid of them.”
Asking his party workers to be patient in the face of
abuse by opponents, he said they can burn his effigy and abuse him because it
is a weapon of the weak and the strong replies with patience and a smile.
"As long as your party is strong, nobody can
force you down,” he said, asking people not to worry though there will be
attempts to create “confusion and divide” them.
"Those who are accusing us of being Pakistanis
are in reality the ones who are supporting Pakistan. If something wrong happen,
they would be the first to chant Pakistani slogans,” he said.
He said National Conference workers do not tear
clothes to demonstrate nationalism.
Abdullah also appealed to the people of Jammu not to
burst firecrackers on Diwali festival to reduce air pollution amid the Covid-19
pandemic.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/kashmiri-pandits-being-used-as-vote-bank-by-bjp-farooq-abdullah/articleshow/79085655.cms
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Valley's youth being pushed to pick up arms again:
Omar Abdullah
Nov 6, 2020
JAMMU: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on
Friday claimed that the recent "missteps" of the Centre have pushed
the Valley's youth to pick up arms again.
"In 2012, 2013, and 2014, there was barely any
youth resorting to arms. The number of men, who joined the militancy over a
period of 12-13 years, is now being matched in a matter of months these
days," the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said at a public
gathering here on Friday.
He added the number of youth joining militancy in one
year earlier is similar to those joining in a month now.
"They said that by removing Articles 370 and 35A,
people, who were distraught with the Indian administration, would completely be
assimilated into the rest of the country. But I'd like to say with conviction
that after this, these people are even more alienated than before,"
Abdullah said.
He went on to ask about the visible development of the
Union territory. "Where are development works? One year, three months is
long enough to get started on such projects. We'd always say don't be under a
misconception that removing Articles 370 and 35A will solve all problems. It is
the biggest misstep for J&K. We're not safe on our own land," he
added.
Abdullah's father Farooq Abdullah said if Jammu and
Kashmir wanted to go to Pakistan, they would have done so in 1947. "No one
could have stopped it. But our nation is Mahatma Gandhi's India and not the
BJP's," said the National Conference veteran
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/valleys-youth-being-pushed-to-pick-up-arms-again-omar-abdullah/articleshow/79084612.cms
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Europe
Athens' First Government-Funded Mosque In Nearly 200 Years
Opens For Friday Prayers
NOVEMBER 6, 2020
ATHENS (Reuters) - After years of delays caused by red
tape, cutbacks and opposition from religious and political factions, the first
government-funded mosque in Athens since 1833 opened its doors to worshippers
on Friday.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims from countries
including Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh live in Athens but the
city has not had a formal mosque since it forced occupying Ottomans to leave
nearly 200 years ago.
Plans to build a mosque in Athens began in 1890 but it
took decades for them to materialise due to opposition from a predominantly
Christian Orthodox population and nationalists, sluggish bureaucracy but most
recently a decade-long financial crisis.
Amid a coronavirus outbreak, only a limited number of
worshippers, wearing masks and sitting at a distance from each other due to
COVID-19 restrictions, attended prayers.
“It is a historic moment for the Muslim community
living in Athens, we have been waiting for this mosque for so long,” said
Heider Ashir, a member of the mosque’s governing council. “Thanks to God,
finally, we have a mosque which is open and we can pray here freely.”
But other Muslims were unhappy with the mosque’s
appearance. A grey, rectangular structure with no dome or minaret, has no
resemblance to other graceful, ornate mosques in Europe.
“It does not at all look like a place of worship, it
is a small, square, miserable building,” said Naim El Ghandour, head of the
Muslim Association of Greece. “We thank them very much for the offer, but we
will fight to reach it to the level that we deserve.”
Under a lockdown to curb a surge in COVID infections,
gatherings for formal worshipping will be banned from Saturday until Nov. 30.
“We will pray at home, and as soon as the lockdown is
over the mosque will again be open for the worshippers,” Ashir said.
https://in.reuters.com/article/greece-religion-mosque/athens-first-mosque-in-nearly-200-years-opens-for-friday-prayers-idINKBN27M2I0
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3 teens charged in French teacher’s beheading
November 7, 2020
FRANCE: Three teenagers were indicted Friday in the
murder of French history teacher Samuel Paty, beheaded last month after showing
cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed to his students during a free speech lesson, a
judicial source told AFP.
Two 18-year-old men and a 17-year-old girl have been
charged with “criminal terrorist conspiracy”, the source said. They were
arrested on Tuesday.
The men – one French and one a Russian of Chechen
origin – are suspected of having been in contact with Paty’s killer,
18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, and have been placed in pre-trial detention.
The girl was placed in a youth detention centre. She
had been in contact with one of the two men.
Paty, 47, was decapitated near his school in a Paris
suburb by Anzorov, also a Chechen, in response to a social media campaign
denouncing the teacher’s use of cartoons published by satirical weekly Charlie
Hebdo in a class on freedom of expression.
His murder sparked a torrent of outrage that prompted
President Emmanuel Macron to crack down on Islamist extremism and violence in a
country reeling from a wave of jihadist attacks since 2015 that have killed
more than 250 people.
Anzorov was shot and killed by police.
Ten people have now been charged in the case,
including a 14-year-old and 15-year-old accused of pointing Paty out to his
killer.
The three latest suspects were detained in separate
regions of eastern France, a source said, hundreds of kilometres from the Paris
suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine where Paty was killed, and far from the
Normandy city of Evreux where Anzorov lived.
Also charged in the case is a known Islamist radical
who helped an outraged father of one of Paty’s students stir up a campaign
against him on social media.
The father has also been charged, as have three others
accused of helping Paty carry out the killing.
Being charged in France does not necessarily mean a
suspect will end up on trial, as a case can still be dropped for lack of
evidence.
Supporting terrorism
Also Friday, prosecutors in the northern city of
Cambrai said three teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 were charged with
“supporting terrorism” for threats made during a national tribute to Paty on
Monday.
Similar incidents were reported in several French
cities where youngsters suggested Paty had got what he deserved for showing the
cartoons, viewed as offensive by many Muslims.
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told RTL radio
Friday that about 400 such incidents had been reported during a minute of
silence observed for Paty at schools countrywide, “some expressed mildly,
others more forcefully”.
Legal action is likely in about a dozen more serious
cases, Blanquer said.
Macron’s vociferous defence of French freedom of
speech in response to Paty’s murder has sparked furious protests in several
Muslim-majority countries.
Charlie Hebdo republished the caricatures in September
to mark the start of a trial for 14 suspects accused of complicity in the
massacre of 12 people, including cartoonists, at the paper’s Paris offices by
two jihadist gunmen in January 2015.
An Algerian man was convicted this week by a court in
Pontoise northwest of Paris to six months in prison for “glorifying” Paty’s
murder on social media and describing the killer as a “martyr”, judicial
sources said Friday.
He was also banned from France for 10 years, which
means he will be sent back to Algeria after serving his sentence.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/11/07/3-teens-charged-in-french-teachers-beheading/
--------
France attacks: Horrified by deadly attacks, French
Muslims protect church
06 November 2020
As a French-born Muslim, Elyazid Benferhat’s stomach
turned when he heard about a deadly attack on a church in Nice labelled by
authorities as an "Islamist extremist" one. Then he decided to act.
A self-described man of peace and pragmatism,
Benferhat and a friend gathered a group of young Muslim men to stand guard
outside their town's cathedral for the All Saints’ holiday weekend, to
symbolically protect it and show solidarity with Catholic churchgoers.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Parishioners at the 13th-century church in the
southern town of Lodeve were deeply touched. The parish priest said their
gesture gave him hope in a time of turmoil.
Benferhat, speaking with a distinctive southern French
accent, identified himself as “more French than anything.” While his mother was
born in Algeria, he was born in France and grew up speaking only French.
“But I am also Muslim ... and we have seen
Islamophobia in this country, and terrorism,” he told The Associated Press.
“In recent years, I’ve had a pit in my stomach,”
because every time Islamic extremist violence strikes France, he said, French
Muslims face new stigmatization, even though “we had nothing to do with it.”
He called the beheading of a teacher near Paris last
month — targeted because he showed his class caricatures of the Prophet
Muhammad for a debate on free expression — an act of “unbelievable,
unprecedented cruelty.”
Then when three people were killed last Thursday in
the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice, Benferhat said he was so sickened that he
wanted to do something “so that everyone wakes up.”
Benferhat, who works for French oil company Total and
coaches at a local football club, talked to a Muslim friend who was in Nice
that day, “and we had this idea. We needed to do something beyond paying homage
to the victims. We said, we will protect churches ourselves.”
They recruited volunteers among their friends and at
his football club, and guarded the church that night and again for Sunday Mass.
He said they also coordinated with local police, after France’s government
promised to increase security at sensitive religious sites.
“It’s very good, these young people who are against
violence,” the cathedral’s priest, the Rev. Luis Iniguez, told the AP.
When a local newspaper published a photo of
parishioners posing with their Muslim guards, Iniguez hung it inside the Gothic
cathedral, which serves as an anchor for town life. “People were happy to see
that,” he said, especially amid recent concerns about tensions between France
and the Muslim world, on top of ongoing fears of the virus.
The small-town gesture drew national attention, and
with it, online invective from some far-right voices.
But Benferhat said the response has been “90%
positive.”
His group is considering how to take the idea forward,
and would like to do it again for Christmas, and for other towns to follow
Lodeve’s lead. But for now all religious services in France are banned at least
until Dec. 1 to try to slow fast-rising virus infections.
Whatever he does next, he says, “it will come from the
heart.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/11/06/France-attacks-Horrified-by-deadly-attacks-French-Muslims-protect-church
--------
Nice knife attacker flown to French capital of Paris
for treatment
06 November 2020
The Tunisian migrant who was shot and seriously
wounded after killing three people in a knife attack on a French church last
month was flown Friday from the southern city of Nice to Paris for treatment.
Brahim Aouissaoui, 21, was flown under heavy guard to
Le Bourget airfield north of the French capital, according to airport sources.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
“He is gone, and for us it’s a relief,” Michel
Fuentes, secretary general of the FO Sante medical labour union, told AFP.
Staff at the CHU Pasteur hospital treating Aouissaoui
had expressed “concern” about his presence there, he said, adding that for many
it brought back bad memories of the July 14 terror attack on the city four
years ago that killed 86 and injured dozens.
France last week raised its attack alert to the
highest level after Aouissaoui killed three people in Nice, in the third
alleged jihadist attack in just over a month.
The attack came two weeks after the beheading of
history teacher Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee for having shown
his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a lesson on freedom of speech.
Aouissaoui had arrived in Europe from Tunisia in
September, reached France by crossing the Mediterranean to Italy and then
crossed into France overland.
He was shot several times by police after his killing
spree.
Eric Ciotti, a politician from the Alpes-Maritimes
department of which Nice is the capital, said on Twitter the suspect was
transferred to Paris “in response to my request and that of the medical
community.”
French President Emmanuel Macron this week vowed to
step up border security after the latest attacks.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/11/06/Nice-knife-attacker-flown-to-French-capital-of-Paris-for-treatment
--------
Macron urges Europe to strengthen border controls
after terror attacks
05/11/2020
Europe must rethink its open-border Schengen area,
including a more robust protection of the zone's external frontiers, President
Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, after a spate of Islamist attacks in France
and Austria.
The tighter controls were needed to curb clandestine
immigration, said Macron, adding that the criminal gangs illegally trafficking
migrants into Europe were often linked to terror networks.
"I am in favour of a deep overhaul of Schengen to
re-think its organisation and to strengthen our common border security with a
proper border force," Macron said during a visit to the Franco-Spanish
border.
The president said he would present proposals to
European Union partners at an EU summit in December.
Europe is reeling from two attacks in the past week
that involved assailants who moved freely between Schengen member states.
On Oct. 29, a Tunisian man killed three people in a
church in Nice. Brahim Aouissaoui had arrived on the Italian island of
Lampedusa, which lies off North Africa, five weeks earlier. After being
transferred to the mainland, Aouissaoui travelled into France by train hours
before launching his attack.
The jihadist who killed four people in Vienna on
Monday travelled to neighbouring Slovakia in July in an attempt to buy
ammunition, Austrian officials said.
Macron said the recent attacks were a warning to
Europe that "the terrorist risk is everywhere".
The proposals that Macron would put to EU nations
would be based on principals he set out in a letter to citizens ahead of
European elections last year, a junior minister said.
In that letter, Macron wrote that Europe needed a
common border force and a single asylum office, strict border control
obligations and for each member state to supply intelligence under the
authority of a European Council for Internal Security.
On Thursday, the president said France would double
the number of police manning its borders.
Nearly 628,000 non-EU citizens were found to be
illegally present in the bloc in 2019, up 10% on the previous year, according
to Eurostat data. More than 717,000 non-EU citizens were refused entry, the
highest number on record.
France's border police chief told Macron there had
been a surge in attempted crossings of the Franco-Spanish frontier since it
reopened in June following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. Many came from
Algeria and Morocco, agents said.
"We need to bolster our fight against illegal
immigration and traffickers who, increasingly often, have links to
terrorism," the president said.
The Schengen zone consists of 22 of the 27 European
Union member states, as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
Britain and Ireland are not part of it.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20201105-macron-urges-europe-to-strengthen-border-controls-after-terror-attacks?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
--------
Greek police arrest man as IS suspect on Tajikistan
warrant
November 5, 2020
THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greek police said Thursday they
have arrested a 27-year-old man on an international arrest warrant issued by
Tajikistan on suspicion of him being a member of the Islamic State group.
Police said the man was arrested on Wednesday in the
southern town of Tripoli. They said Greek authorities are in contact with
authorities in Tajikistan to verify the man’s details and the contents of the
arrest warrant.
The suspect is being held in custody.
Police said the man arrived in Greece as an asylum
seeker in 2017 with his wife and two children, and currently lives in refugee
apartment housing in Tripoli. The man has denied any connection to ISIS, and
says the case against him is politically motivated as his wife is related to an
opposition figure in Tajikistan.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed without permission.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/greek-police-arrest-man-as-is-suspect-on-tajikistan-warrant/2020/11/05/c8e9cc56-1f82-11eb-ad53-4c1fda49907d_story.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
--------
Belgian police arrest two minors planning a terrorist
attack
05 November 2020
Belgian police arrested two minors, who were suspected
of planning a terrorist attack against the police, in the area of Eupen in the
Liège province last weekend.
Searches took place in Eupen and La Calamine, both in
the Liège province, last Saturday. In a press release, the federal prosecutor’s
office specified that the two minors, aged 16 and 17, were brought before the
investigating judge and the juvenile judge, and were then placed in a youth protection
institution.
They were arrested on suspicion of attempting a terror
attack and for participation in a terrorist organisation last Saturday, the
federal prosecutor confirmed to RTBF.
The two had allegedly recorded a video message in
which they had sworn allegiance to terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS),
and were planning to attack at least one police station, reports De Morgen.
Belgium’s Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis (OCAM)
will maintain the current level of a terrorist threat at 2, on a scale of 4,
for the whole country. Level 2, described as “medium“, means a threat is
“unlikely but not non-existent.”
The two were arrested on Saturday, meaning before the
attack in the Austrian capital of Vienna, which was claimed by IS, took place
on Monday.
Several terrorist attacks have taken place in recent
weeks, particularly in France. In mid-October, a teacher was killed in a Paris
suburb after showing Mohammed cartoons in class, and about ten days later,
three people were killed in a knife attack in the city of Nice.
“Our security services are on standby day and night
and are very alert,” Federal Minister for Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne told
VRT. “We work well together with our international partners and read along on
social media. There is, of course, no such thing as zero risk. This case shows
that the danger has not gone away.”
https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/139347/belgian-police-arrest-two-minors-planning-a-terrorist-attack-islamic-state-is-eupen-la-calamine-liege-vienna-body-for-threat-analysis-ocam-ocad-mohammed-cartoons-paris-vincent-van-quickenborne/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
--------
Mideast
Iranian, UN Envoys Review Recent Developments in
Afghanistan
2020-November-6
Aminian wrote on his Twitter page that he had a
constructive meeting with Lyons and exchanged views with her on the recent
events in the Central Asian country.
Dozens of students were killed and wounded during an
armed attack on Kabul University's campus after three gunmen stormed the
building in the Afghan capital on Monday morning, the Afghan government and a
security official said.
An Afghan soldier on the scene also told The National
that while the campus had been evacuated, many of those wounded remained inside
as police faced off the assailants and eventually killed them all.
The Afghan health ministry said at least six people
were injured, including a professor and a student although that number is
likely to go up.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh
condemned the terrorist attack on Kabul University in Afghanistan which killed
and injured dozens of people, including students.
"The black minds and tainted hands of terrorists
are targeting the innocent people, the future of Afghanistan and the clean
souls of that land's children," Khatibzadeh tweeted on Tuesday.
He added that in this all-out fight against terrorism
and extremism, Iran stands by the people and government of Afghanistan.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13990816000410/Iranian-UN-Envys-Review-Recen-Develpmens-in-Afghanisan
--------
Yemeni embassy in DC condemns ‘anti-American’,
‘anti-Semitic’ Houthi ceremony
Tamara Abueish
07 November 2020
The Iran-backed Houthi militia “unabashedly” showcased
their “appalling anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric” during a police
academy graduation ceremony in Yemen’s Sanaa, the Yemeni embassy in Washington
said on Thursday.
A video shared by the embassy on Twitter shows
uniformed men holding the Nazi salute and chanting, “Death to America. Death to
Israel. Curse the Jews.”
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
“Rather than looking like militias in traditional
attire, Iran-backed Houthis seek to appear as [a] uniformed &
professionalized force. Either way, it is to brutally repress the population in
Yemen,” the embassy said.
Yemen’s embassy called on the international community
to condemn the Houthis’ “brazen” and “hateful” behavior, adding that the group
will turn the country into a police state if they are not stopped.
In recent weeks, the militia has been ramping up its
efforts to strike Saudi Arabia and several areas in Yemen outside its control.
Iran has been backing the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war
against the internationally-recognized government.
Currently, the Houthis control the Yemeni capital
Sanaa, while the official government is based in the city of Aden.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/11/07/Yemeni-embassy-in-DC-condemns-anti-American-anti-Semitic-Houthi-ceremony
--------
Cuba and Iran forge an alliance against US sanctions
06 November 2020
Cuba and Iran's foreign ministers met in Havana on
Friday to reinforce their mutual support in the face of crippling US sanctions.
Cuba's official newspaper Granma said Bruno Rodriguez
and Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif would mark "the mutual solidarity between
both nations, faced with the toughening of sanctions by the current US
administration on countries that don't bend to its will."
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel
online or via the app.
US President Donald Trump's administration pulled out
of the Iran nuclear agreement and has announced more than 130 measures to
reinforce the embargo Cuba has faced since 1962.
"Cuba will support the peaceful use of nuclear
energy and technology to contribute to socio-economic development, and will
condemn the decision of the United States government to unilaterally withdraw
from... the Nuclear Agreement with Iran," added Granma.
It said the US decision "violates the rules of coexistence
between states, and could provoke serious consequences for stability and
security in the Middle East."
Zarif's visit to Cuba comes two days after he arrived
in Venezuela, another regional ally subject to US sanctions.
Granma said Zarif and Rodriguez "will talk about
possible commercial links and cooperation" with Cuba's Deputy Prime
Minister Ricardo Cabrisas.
The US embassy in Havana responded to Zarif's visit
with a Tweet from Washington's top diplomat in Latin America, Michael Kozak.
"Iran's Zarif and the Castro regime have a lot in
common: human rights abuses, authoritarianism, stealing Venezuela's wealth, and
the propagation of their malign influence throughout the world. Their
relationships underscore their lack of legitimacy," said Kozak.
Granma said Zarif would end his visit to the region by
attending the inauguration of Bolivia's president-elect Luis Arce on Sunday.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/11/07/Cuba-and-Iran-forge-an-alliance-against-US-sanctions
--------
Saudi warplanes bombard Yemen’s residential areas in
Ma'rib, al-Jawf
07 November 2020
Saudi fighter jets have launched a series of
airstrikes against residential areas in Yemen’s Ma'rib and al-Jawf provinces.
The al-Masirah television network reported that the
warplanes fired five missiles at Ma'rib’s Medghal district on Friday.
The Saudi bomber jets also dropped a missile in
al-Jawf’s Khabb wa ash Sha'af district and another in Rahabah neighborhood of
the same province, the report added.
There has been no report yet on the number of
casualties.
Saudi Arabia launched a devastating military
aggression against its southern neighbor in March 2015 in collaboration with a
number of its allied states, and with arms support from the US and several
Western countries.
The aim was to return to power a Riyadh-backed former
regime and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement that has taken control of
state matters.
The war has failed to achieve its goals, but killed
tens of thousands of innocent Yemenis and destroyed the impoverished country’s
infrastructure. The UN refers to the situation in Yemen as the world's worst
humanitarian crisis.
Yemeni fighters regularly target positions inside
Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the Riyadh regime’s bloody military campaign
against the nation.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/07/638075/Saudi-warplanes-Yemen-Ma-rib-Jawf
--------
Palestinian prisoner ends hunger strike after 103
days: Rights group
06 November 2020
A Palestinian human rights group says a Palestinian
prisoner who had been on hunger strike for over three months since he was
arrested by Israeli military forces has ended his strike following an agreement
with Israeli authorities to release him late this month.
According to a Friday report by the Palestinian
Prisoners Society (PPS), the agreement provided for the release of Maher
al-Akhras from jail on November 26 and the non-renewal of his current
administrative detention order.
Under the agreement, the Palestinian man, who had been
on hunger strike for 103 days, would spend the remaining period of his current
term in hospital for medical treatment.
The 49-year-old Palestinian prisoner, a father of six,
was detained on July 27 and held under a four-month administrative detention
order, with no charge and based on alleged, secret evidence not available even
to his lawyers. He went on hunger strike to protest his arrest and condition.
The United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), and
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as many human
rights group had expressed serious concern about Akhras’ health condition and
called for his immediate release.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held under
administrative detention, in which Israel keeps individuals for up to six months,
a period that can be extended an infinite number of times. Women and minors are
held that way as well.
Palestinian detainees resort to open-ended hunger
strikes in an attempt to protest the detention. They hold Israeli authorities
responsible for any deterioration of their health in jail.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in
Israeli jails.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/11/06/638053/Palestinian-prisoner-ends-hunger-strike-after-103-days-Rights-group
--------
Houthis continue to target civilian areas in Yemen:
Military spokesman
November 07, 2020
DUBAI: The Houthi militia has continued to attack
civilian areas in the cities of Marib, Taiz, and districts south of Hodeidah,
state news agency Saba New reported.
“(The) Houthi insurgent militia fired a ballistic
today, Friday, a ballistic missile on a residential quarter in Marib city,
dropped on a building, resulting in material damages and panic among the
population,” Armed Forces Brigadier General Abdu Mujalli said in a statement on
Friday.
These “repeated attacks” have intensified recently,
and have claimed the lives of children and women, the general added.
Mujalli urged the United Nations and other
international organizations to condemn the acts of the terrorist acts of the
Houthis.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1759556/middle-east
--------
Africa
Nigerian troops kill 22 Boko Haram militants
2020-11-05
LAGOS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian troops have killed
22 Boko Haram militants after ground security forces repelled the group's
attacks on an army base in past few days in the northeastern state of Borno, a
military spokesman said on Thursday.
The successes were achieved with "superior
firepower and support from the Air Task Force", a component of the ongoing
Operation Lafiya Dole, said John Enenche, a military spokesperson in an update
on various military operations in the restive northeast region and other parts
of the country between Friday and Wednesday.
Enenche said the troops "exhibited its
operational readiness" in repelling militants' attacks launched within the
period, without specifying an exact date.
He said the troops have recovered caches of arms and
ammunition as well as equipment during the encounters.
According to the spokesperson, troops in conjunction
with local vigilantes also arrested a Boko Haram member at Damaturu, capital of
northeast Yobe state while "the terrorist was trying to purchase arms and
ammunition".
Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist
state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, extending its attacks to countries in
the Lake Chad Basin. Enditem
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-11/05/c_139494035.htm
--------
North America
Election Dispute Increases Risk Of Political Violence,
Analysts Warn
November 5, 2020
HANNAH ALLAM
Domestic terrorism analysts have warned for weeks
about the possible triggers of election-related violence: a protracted vote
count. Claims of rigging. Rampant disinformation. Protesters and vigilantes.
For all the worry about voter intimidation on Election
Day, the aftermath was always the more urgent concern for groups and scholars
who track how political disagreements spiral into street violence or extremist
mobilizing. Now, the moment they dreaded has arrived, with a contentious vote
count plunging the U.S. into an open-ended danger zone.
"As I've said repeatedly, the period between
Election Day and election results is dicey," tweeted researcher J.J. MacNab
of George Washington University's Program on Extremism. "When definitive
information is lacking, conspiracy theories thrive."
Increasingly, extremism trackers say, the threat of
unrest isn't just from a radical fringe but from ordinary people who are
whipped up by partisan, conspiratorial messages. Already, Trump voters are
coalescing by the tens of thousands in Facebook groups associated with the
hashtag campaign "Stop the Steal"; one group amassed more than
350,000 members before it was removed for spreading disinformation. The group
had called for "boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the
vote."
In many cases, right-wing organizers are reactivating
the same channels they used over the summer to protest pandemic lockdown orders
or to form vigilante groups against the perceived threat of militant leftists.
After months of arranging pro-Trump convoys and gathering disparate factions
under the "Liberate" or "Reopen" banners, organizers have
ready conduits for moving grievances to the streets.
"You can see the same thing happening over and
over again," said Melissa Ryan, chief executive of Card Strategies, a
consulting firm that tracks disinformation. "They try to create this
impression that it's people spontaneously showing up to protest because they're
angry, but it's the exact opposite. It's the same folks that show up every
time, and it's the same groups giving them directives and messaging."
Most right-wing media outlets are spinning a narrative
of rampant irregularities, echoing President Trump's attempts to undermine the
integrity of the election. The relentless attacks prompted the beleaguered
registrar of Clark County, ground zero for the Nevada count, to announce
beefed-up security measures for his staff.
"We will not allow anyone to stop us from doing
what our duty is and counting ballots," Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria
told a news conference.
Some of the most inflammatory language is coming from
the White House and Trump himself. Twitter took the extraordinary measure of
adding warning labels to several of the president's tweets. Trump repeatedly
has suggested that there's something nefarious about the mundane, laborious
process of counting an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots in the middle of
a pandemic. His supporters also promoted "Sharpiegate," the debunked
claim that Trump voters were given Sharpie markers to fill out their ballots
with, the idea being that the heavy ink might invalidate them.
When it comes to fueling unrest, "the bully
pulpit is going to be one of the main factors," said Brian Levin, director
of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State
University, San Bernardino.
"From what we've been seeing, the sustained
nature of the invective, particularly when it's coming from the highest transmitter
in the land, can result in multiple spikes," Levin said.
The wild card, Levin added, is that 2020 isn't like
previous years. This time, a disputed election is unfolding in a polarized
nation that's in the throes of a pandemic and a recession. Usually, Levin said,
a burst of political violence is triggered by one big event. He's worried that
prolonged uncertainty could bring waves of unrest.
"This is a whole different circumstance because
usually the catalytic event has a beginning and end time," Levin said.
"This is going to go on for some time."
So far, only small street protests have taken place,
drawing activists from both the left and the right in several cities. But the
worry is that those could spiral once the vote is called. A Trump loss, Levin
said, could help reunite the mishmash of his supporters who came together over
the summer to fight lockdowns.
"We not only had small-business people and
outdoor enthusiasts, as well as anti-vaxxers, but we also had QAnon folks, we
also had Second Amendment insurrectionists and even some racists get into this
milieu," Levin said.
"When we see groups and movements that have their
issues or connections to the mainstream severed or eroded," he warned,
"they tend to act more as an insurgency."
In an October report about the risk of domestic
terrorism, the Center for Strategic and International Studies concluded that
"in the event of a Democratic presidential victory, the threat could
involve specific attacks by radicalized white supremacists, militias, and other
related individuals."
A roundup of memes and social media posts compiled by
MEMRI, a group that monitors extremist messaging, shows hate groups and
neo-Nazi commentators promoting racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories
about the election. In some cases, the posts amount to clear calls for
violence.
But analysts emphasized that the threat is no longer
confined to the far-right extremist world — it's much closer now.
"I fully anticipate that we're going to see some
events in the coming weeks that are going to be troubling and unfortunate. And
they're not all going to be committed by individuals that are neo-Nazi
skinheads that have dedicated their lives to this," said Michael Jensen, a
researcher at the University of Maryland who led a new study on hate crime
offenders. "They're going to be committed by seemingly regular folks that
have gotten kind of caught up in the madness of the moment around the
election."
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/05/931829801/election-dispute-increases-risk-of-political-violence-analysts-warn?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
--------
Oregon man charged with conspiring to aid Islamic
State
By Andrew Selsky
Nov. 5, 2020
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man was indicted Thursday
after authorities said he supported the Islamic State group by distributing
articles on how to kill and maim with a knife and encouraging readers to carry
out attacks.
Hawazen Sameer Mothafar, 31, appeared in federal court
in Portland on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a
designated terrorist organization and providing such support, U.S. Attorney
Billy J. Williams and FBI Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon said.
“The threat of ISIS-inspired terrorism remains very
real thanks, in part, to an army of online supporters who produce propaganda
that aims to incite ‘lone actor’ operators in the U.S. and around the world,”
Cannon said.
Mothafar, who has physical disabilities and uses a
wheelchair, was released on condition that he limit travel and the use of
electronic devices.
The federal public defender appointed to represent him
did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Mothafar lives in a
Portland suburb.
The indictment by a federal grand jury alleges that
between February 2015 until the time of his arrest Thursday, Mothafar conspired
with Islamic State group members to provide support, including creating and
editing publications and articles.
He also is accused of providing technical support to
members of the group overseas on opening social media and email accounts.
In December 2019, according to the indictment,
Mothafar attempted to acquire information on the piloting of a drone for Saleck
Ould Cheikh Mohamedou, an Islamic extremist who was convicted of attempting to
assassinate then President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania. Mohamedou is
currently incarcerated in the African nation.
Mothafar is accused of providing assistance to Al
Dura’a al Sunni, or Sunni Shield, a pro-Islamic State internet-based media
organization that published Al-Anja! newspaper, including by moderating private
chat rooms.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/oregon-man-charged-with-conspiring-to-aid-islamic-state/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
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Quebec City sword attack suspect appears in court,
victims identified
6 November 2020
A 24-year-old man accused of killing two people with a
sword and injuring five others on Halloween night in Quebec City made a brief
court appearance Thursday while four of the injured, including two French
nationals, were named.
The suspect, Carl Girouard, who suffers from mental
disorders according to several local media, appeared at the hearing via video
conference from a detention centre.
The Montreal area man is charged with two counts of
premeditated murder and five of attempted murder.
Prosecutor Francois Godin told reporters outside the
Quebec City courthouse that a bail hearing was scheduled for November 20.
"This morning, we asked the judge to lift a
publication ban" on details of the case that would allow for the release
of the victims' names, he added.
Four of the injured consented to being named publicly.
They are Remy Belanger, Gilberto Porras, Lisa Mahmoud and Pierre Lagrevol.
The latter two are French nationals who have been
living in Canada for several years, according to the police. They did not
immediately respond to AFP requests for interviews.
The suspect wanted to kill as many people as possible
during the rampage, which police said was motivated by what they called
personal reasons, and not terrorism. He had planned the attack in advance.
Armed with a "Katana-type" sword and dressed
in medieval clothes, Girouard sowed terror and death over several hours in the
streets of Old Quebec's fortified walls and ramparts, targeting victims at random.
Because of pandemic restrictions, Halloween
festivities were scaled back and there were few people outside.
He was arrested shortly before 1 am Sunday by the
waterfront after a manhunt.
The two people killed were Quebec City residents
François Duchesne, 56, and Suzanne Clermont, 61.
Clermont was a hairdresser and Duchesne was director
of communications and marketing at the Musee national des Beaux-Arts in Quebec.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack a
"terrible tragedy."
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/quebec-city-sword-attack-suspect-203354332.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1693620_
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Despite Trump-Erdogan ties, Turkey says it will work
with whoever wins US election
07 November 2020
Turkey is ready to work with whoever wins the U.S.
election, two top Turkish officials said on Friday, despite a friendship with
President Donald Trump that has helped the two countries through turbulent
times.
“Regardless of which candidate takes office in the
U.S., we will pursue a sincere approach to improve our relations,” Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
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channel online or via the app.
The decades-old partnership between the NATO allies
has gone through unprecedented tumult in the past five years over disagreements
on Syria policy, Ankara’s closer ties with Moscow, its ambitions in the eastern
Mediterranean, U.S. charges against a state-owned Turkish bank and an erosion
of rights in Turkey.
Cavusoglu said Turkey had worked with Democrat and
Republican administrations alike and overcome difficulties with both.
He spoke as Democratic presidential candidate Joe
Biden took a narrow lead over President Donald Trump in the battleground state
of Georgia, putting the White House within Biden’s reach as undecided states
continued to count votes.
Washington has threatened sanctions on Turkey for
purchasing Russian missile defence systems but Trump’s administration has
avoided imposing sanctions.
“Of course, individuals have an impact, positive and
negative. The sincere friendship between our president and Mr. Trump continued
through the most difficult times,” Cavusoglu said.
Analysts say Turkey’s bilateral ties could suffer if
Biden becomes U.S. president. The lira, which is already trading at a record
low against the dollar, could come under more pressure.
However Erdogan’s top aide, Vice President Fuat Oktay,
said Ankara was not afraid of sanctions.
“No country, including America, has the chance to
implement a foreign policy, programme or policy in the region in spite of
Turkey or by excluding Turkey,” Oktay told broadcaster A Haber.
“Turkey is no longer a country which shrinks from, or
is scared of, sanctions. Sanctions would increase further our resolve and our
determination,” he said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/11/07/Despite-Trump-Erdogan-ties-Turkey-says-it-will-work-with-whoever-wins-US-election
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