Supreme Court Silence On The Place Of Worship Act 1991 Worries Muslim Community: Huge Numbers Of Namazis Prayed At Gyanvapi
New Age Islam News Bureau
03 February 2024
Gyanvapi_Gyanvapi_G_NewAg.jpg)
Gyanvapi Masjid
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·
Supreme
Court Silence On The Place Of Worship Act 1991 WorriesMuslim Community: Huge Numbers Of Namazis Prayed At Gyanvapi
·
Muslims
Allowed To Eat Lab-Grown Meat If It's From Halal Animal Cells: Mufti Of
Singapore
·
Stop
Condemning LGBTQ+ Persons, Playing Politics With Their Rights: Humanist Group
·
Half Of
U.S. Adults Say Israel Has Gone Too Far In Its War Against Hamas, Poll Shows
·
800 US, EU
Officials Pen Letter Slamming West’s Stance On Gaza
-----
India
·
'Kargil
Bandh', 'Leh Chalo': Buddhist And Muslim Alliances Call For Ladakh Statehood
·
Right-Wing
Group Moves Agra Court Against Annual Urs At Taj Mahal
·
Gyanvapi
Mosque Row: No Puja Was Ever Held In Basement, Says Muslim Personal Law Board
·
Hindu
prayers at cellar of Gyanvapi mosque to continue as Allahabad HC declines stay
on Varanasi court order
·
BJP’s
‘Qaumi Chaupal’ To Woo Muslims In 4,100 Villages In UP
----
Southeast Asia
·
Islamic leaders
in Malaysia urge cancellation of Ed Sheeran concert over singer’s pro-LGBT
stance
·
Muslim
religious leaders' swift action helped guide S'poreans amid ongoing Middle East
conflict: DPM Heng
·
Malaysia
welcomes EU's proposal for international peace conference on Israel-Palestine
conflict
·
Fake news,
online hate swell Indonesia anti-Rohingya sentiment
·
Japan
provides over $13 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan
·
Over 100
Rohingyas flee Malaysian camp after riot
-----
Africa
·
Islamic
State Describes Intense Campaign Against Shabaab In Northern Somalia
·
UI Muslim
alumni empowers members with entrepreneurial, career skills
·
38 killed
and 52 wounded in communal clashes over land in South Sudan
-----
North America
·
Thousands
protest outside Columbia against campus treatment of pro-Palestinian groups
·
UN
Experts: Terrorist Threat Is High In Africa Conflict Zones And Afghanistan, And
Rose In Europe
·
US, Qatar,
Egypt engage in 'sensitive' diplomatic efforts to secure Gaza hostage release
·
US court
'implores' Biden to reconsider support for genocide in Gaza
·
US hits 85
sites in Iraq, Syria linked to Iran’s IRGC, militias after fatal drone attack
-----
Europe
·
Islamist
Extremists Including Youth Who Failed To Report Chemical Bomb Plot Jailed
·
Anti-war
movement in Greece denounces country's plan to host EU's Red Sea mission
·
German
lawmakers bemoan launch of pro-Erdoğan Islamist party just days after MPs
·
expedited
citizenship and voting rights for 2.5 million migrants
·
UK Muslims
should 'punish Labour' over lack of Gaza ceasefire by not voting, says Ghassan
Abu Sitta
·
WHO chief
warns of disease outbreaks due to 'inhumane condition' at Gaza's European
Hospital
----
Pakistan
·
Imran Claims
Receiving ‘Offer’ As Iddat Case Verdict Due Today
·
24
terrorists killed in three-day Balochistan action: ISPR
·
ECP-Sindh
issue notices to JI, MQM-P, PML-N and MQM-H
·
Imran
awaits decision on 4 other serious cases
·
Stay of
1.3m illegal immigrants extended
·
Pakistan,
China underscore commitment to peaceful, stable Afghanistan
----
South Asia
·
US To Explore
Reopening Consulate In Afghanistan Without Recognizing Taliban Rule
·
US
Inspector Warns Congress; ISIS Threats Resurge In Afghanistan
·
Taliban’s
Mining illegitimate, revenue spending unclear: Ashraf Ghani
·
Expelled
Afghan migrants from Pakistan borrow money to survive: WFP
·
1,100'
Drug Factories Demolished Since Islamic Emirate's Return: Hamkar
·
Rights
Group Proposes Criteria for Representatives at Doha Meeting
------
Mideast
·
Israeli Restrictions
Prevent Thousands From Attending Al-Aqsa Friday Prayers
·
Al-Qassam
Brigades Announces The Killing Of 15 Zionist Soldiers From A Distance Of Zero
In Gaza City
·
UN
estimates 17,000 Gaza children separated from parents
·
Deadly
strikes hit ‘pressure cooker’ Rafah ahead of Gaza truce push
·
Raeisi:
Iran’s response to any potential attack would be ‘decisive and strong’
·
Another
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps adviser killed in Israeli attack in Syria
·
Battles
continue across Gaza, with conflict now Israel’s longest since 1948 war
·
Palestinian
journalists: CPJ commits $300,000 in immediate funding
·
Iran
embassy in Syria Israeli airstrike on Damascus
----
Arab World
·
Millions-Strong
Yemen Rally Vows Continued Palestine Support
·
Yemen's
Ansarullah vows to stand by Iraqi, Syrian resistance groups 'in battlefield'
after US strikes
·
Saudi
foreign minister, Blinken discuss Gaza during call
·
GCC
secretary-general meets foreign ambassadors in Riyadh
·
KSrelief
in Kazakhstan to assess need for volunteer medical program
-----
Australia
·
How
Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with
Islamic State
Compiled by
New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/sc-worship-act-namazis-gyanvapi-muslim/d/131650
------
Supreme Court Silence On The Place Of
Worship Act 1991 Worries Muslim Community:
Huge Numbers Of Namazis Prayed At Gyanvapi
Gyanvapi Masjid
----
03.02.24
Pheroze L. Vincent, Piyush Srivastava
Several senior clerics and Muslim
leaders on Friday expressed the community’s anguish at recent legal and
administrative developments over Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Mosque, suggesting the
judiciary and bureaucracy were “grossly compromised” but saying they still had
faith in justice and democracy.
The pain, expressed at a news conference
in Delhi, found an echo in Varanasi where 3,000 Namazis — six times the usual
number — prayed at the mosque on the first Friday after its basement was opened
to Hindus for worship on a district court’s orders.
Mosque committee members said the
numbers reflected the “simmering discontent in the community”, which also
observed a bandh in Varanasi city.
At the Delhi news conference, organised
by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Mahmood Madani of the
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) said: “It won’t be wrong to say that we are seen as
enemies and are being treated as such.”
He added: “Upholding the rule of law is
everyone’s responsibility. ‘Might is right’ is the law of the jungle. If might
is right then remember, might changes hands.”
The comments came against the background
of Wednesday’s order by the Varanasi district court allowing Hindu worship in
the basement; Allahabad High Court’s refusal to stay the order on Friday; and
the district court’s order for an ASI survey of the Gyanvapi compound on
another petition that alleges the mosque was built after demolishing parts of
the original Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
The ASI report purportedly says that
Hindu idols are buried under the compound, buttressing the claims of the Hindu
side which wants the mosque shifted. The mosque authorities have contested the
findings.
A joint statement was released at the
news conference. In it, the Personal Law Board, both factions of the JUH (a
clerics’ body), the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith Hind, Shahi Imam Mukarram Ahmed
of Delhi’s Fatehpuri Masjid, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and the All India
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen requested the President and the Chief Justice of
India to address their fears that the judiciary and bureaucracy “have been
grossly compromised”.
“The swift initiation of this action
(puja at the Gyanvapi basement), despite the court granting a seven-day window
for the administration to make necessary arrangements, raises questions about
apparent collusion between the administration and the plaintiff, attempting to
foreclose any effort by the Mosque Managing Committee to pursue remedies
against the District Court order…. It is imperative to clarify that no pooja
was ever conducted in this basement (before),” it said.
“The continued silence on the Place of
Worship Act 1991 by the Supreme Court has become a source of deep worry for the
Muslim community in the country…. We believe that this time the dignity of the
country and the impartiality of the judicial system and administrative affairs
have been grossly compromised.”
The 1991 Act stipulates status quo on
the nature of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, with the
exception of the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site. However, several court cases
have been filed seeking that the site of the Gyanvapi and that of the Shahi
Idgah Mosque in Mathura’s “Krishna Janmabhoomi” be handed over to Hindus to
build temples.
Some Muslim intellectuals have suggested
the community voluntarily hand these places over to Hindus.
Responding to this, JUH secretary Niaz
Farooqui told The Telegraph: “When have you given us the opportunity to? After
the Babri verdict, there was peaceful acceptance. Yet, now, might is being
enforced and people are being forced to give up these mosques as well.”
Speaking from Varanasi, a member of the
mosque committee who sought anonymity told this newspaper: “We can
intermittently hear chants of ‘Har, Har Mahadev’ from the basement and are
feeling suffocated.”
While Vyas family members and priests
from the Kashi Vishwanath temple conducted puja, the administration installed a
grille window from the temple side for ordinary devotees to watch the puja from
18ft away. The temple and the mosque share a compound.
Source: telegraphindia.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/muslims-throng-gyanvapi-mosque-in-
----
Muslims Allowed To Eat Lab-Grown Meat If
It's From Halal Animal Cells: Mufti Of Singapore
A piece of
cultivated chicken as it cooks on a grill at a Eat Just office on Jul 27, 2023
in Alameda, California. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images North America/Justin Sullivan)
------
03 Feb 2024
Justin Ong Guang-Xi
SINGAPORE: It will be permissible, or
halal, for Muslims to consume lab-cultivated meat if the cells are from animals
that are also halal, and the final ingredients do not contain any non-halal
components.
Dr NazirudinMohd Nasir, the Mufti of
Singapore, said that this decision is an example of how fatwa research has to
evolve with modern technology and social change.
He was giving a speech on Friday (Feb 2)
to launch a two-day conference on fatwa in contemporary societies.
In Islam, fatwas are religious rulings
to guide the Muslim community on the various aspects of religious life and are
formal interpretations of Islamic law by a qualified religious scholar known as
a mufti.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister-in-charge
of Muslim Affairs, told reporters on the sidelines of the conference that the
issue of lab-cultivated meat had been studied by the Islamic Religious Council
of Singapore (MUIS) since 2022, and that the fatwa for this decision by MUIS
will be issued "soon".
"We can be one of the first
countries in the world to actually lead in this field, not only producing
cultivated meat, but in also ensuring it is halal for Muslims to consume,"
he added.
The fatwa has since been issued.
"Novel foods, which can be produced
through more environmentally sustainable means compared to traditional
agriculture and aquaculture, offer a practical way to contribute to
environmental sustainability," MUIS said in a media release on Feb 3.
It added that the religious guidance was
developed because questions arose about its permissibility for Muslim consumption,
after Singapore approved of the sale of cultivated meat products in here in
2020.
"There is a global impetus for
alternative, sustainable food solutions. While still currently in the
developmental stage, with the eventual emergence of novel foods, it is
necessary to have a clear religious position early on the permissibility of
consumption of such foods," MUIS said.
The conference, held at the Parkroyal on
Beach Road hotel, was attended by about 400 guests comprising international
religious leaders, ambassadors, as well as religious and community leaders
here. Deputy Prime Minister Heng SweeKeat was also present.
In a speech to launch the conference, Dr
Nazirudin said that the religious authorities should allow for adjustments to
its rulings as technological developments and social changes take place.
“We could certainly work towards an
Islam that seeks to preserve and protect all human life, and secure all forms
of well-being, instead of holding an exclusivist view that limits who and what
we work with,” Singapore's top Islamic leader said.
One such development is that of
alternative food sources. Singapore is the first country in the world to
approve the sale of lab-grown meat.
Dr Nazirudin said that while there are
those who argue that there is no need for such food sources and that the Muslim
community should continue to enjoy “real” food such as real meat, the Fatwa
Committee of MUIS had carefully considered whether lab-cultivated meat is
permissible for consumption by Muslims.
Previously, there was no Islamic ruling
on whether lab-cultivated meat may be consumed by Muslims here.
Dr Nazirudin said that the committee,
which he chairs, visited laboratories where meat is cultivated in bioreactors.
He acknowledged that there were “a lot of new things to learn from the
technology itself”.
“While these are originally animal
cells, we are essentially dealing with something fundamentally different,” he
said. “So how should we, in Islamic jurisprudence ... treat something that
looks familiar ... yet is fundamentally different?
"When should we apply
well-established principles and rules, and when do we have to think afresh?”
He said that one option is to play it
safe and let future generations deal with the issue, but doing so will risk a
larger crisis in the future.
“The committee decided that it is
permissible, it is halal, to consume lab-cultivated meat where the cells are
from animals that are halal or permissible in Islam, and where the final
ingredients do not contain any non-halal components,” he added.
Dr Nazirudin also said that the Muslim
community will need to contend with another novel issue, which is the role of
artificial intelligence (AI).
For example, generative AI such as
ChatGPT can help boost fatwa research and outreach in “comprehensive and
responsible" ways.
“There are many possibilities, but also
landmines. The onus is on us to figure out how it can enhance our work,” he
added. “We are not suggesting for AI to replace the fatwa committee, the Mufti
... some of us still need our jobs for now.”
Studies are underway on how to engineer
and train large language AI models to look at Singapore’s fatwas and its
methodologies, he noted.
“By doing this, generative AI can help
us identify important dimensions and aspects of a new question or issue we want
to deal with ... We don't want the AI to issue the fatwas, we want the AI to
tell us what are the areas (we) must respond to and discuss when looking at a
particular question.
"This will help us minimise gaps
when issuing a fatwa.”
To this end, his team at the Office of
the Mufti has embarked on an AI project with Google, supported by Smart Nation
Singapore, an initiative by the Singapore Government to create solutions by
harnessing technology.
The conference is the second edition of
the inaugural one in 2017, and continues on Saturday with more discussions on
lab-grown meat, AI, finance and medical technology.
Source: channelnewsasia.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/muslims-singapore-lab-grown-meat-halal-animal-cells-mufti-4096896
----
Stop Condemning LGBTQ+ Persons, Playing
Politics With Their Rights: Humanist Group
The group
noted that before now, other politicians had made statements sanctioning
discrimination and persecution of gays in Ghana.
------
February 2, 2024
The West African Humanist Network has
urged politicians to stop fuelling hatred and persecution of gay people in the
region.
According to Leo Igwe, a member of the
group in a statement on Friday, this followed some homophobic pronouncements
and remarks by politicians in Ghana.
Commenting at a recent meeting with the
clergy, Mr John Mahama, the National Democratic Congress' presidential
candidate in the 2024 election, said he was against gay marriage because
same-sex relationships were incompatible with his Christian faith.
He reportedly said: "The faith I
have will not allow me to accept a man marrying a man, and a woman marrying a
woman...I don't believe that anybody can get up and say I feel like a man
although I was born a woman, and so I will change and become a man."
The group noted that before now, other
politicians had made statements sanctioning discrimination and persecution of
gays in Ghana.
It said, “The president of Ghana, Nana
Akufo-Addo, said while addressing an Anglican church community in February 2021
that same-sex relationships would not be legalized under his presidency. His
statement elicited thunderous applause from ardent attendees at the event,
including clerics.
“The speaker of the parliament, Alban
Bagbin, said that he would rather die than support the rights of gay people.
“Unfortunately, politicians allude to
their faiths to justify their opposition to gay rights.”
According to the organisation, it is
pertinent to remind politicians that Ghana is a secular country, not a
religious state.
It said, “The constitution guarantees
equal rights for all Ghanaians without discrimination.
“The West African Humanist Network
condemns the wave of hatred and persecution of LGBTQ+ persons in the region. As
the presidential election draws near, the network urges candidates of the
various parties to exercise caution and wisdom.
“They should desist from playing
politics with the rights of LGBTQ+ persons in Ghana. Politicians should learn
to separate religion from politics.
“They should realize that gay people are
human beings, they are citizens. And their rights are human rights. Politicians
should campaign to represent all citizens, both gay and straight, and protect
the rights of minorities They should campaign as democrats, not as Christian or
Muslim theocrats. “Politicians should strive to govern based on the
constitution not according to their faiths and beliefs.”
Source: saharareporters.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://saharareporters.com/2024/02/02/stop-condemning-lgbtq-persons-playing-politics-their-rights-humanist-group-tells-west
----
Half Of U.S. Adults Say Israel Has Gone
Too Far In Its War Against Hamas, Poll Shows
Pro-Palestinians
demonstrators march around Times Square demanding a ceasefire, amid the ongoing
conflict between Israel and Hamas, during a protest in New York City, U.S.
File. | Photo Credit: Reuters
------
February 03, 2024
Half of the U.S. adults say Israel’s
15-week-old military campaign in Gaza has “gone too far,” a finding driven
mainly by growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents,
according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research.
Broadly, the poll shows support for
Israel and the Biden administration’s handling of the situation ebbing slightly
further across the board. The poll shows 31% of the U.S. adults approve of Mr.
Biden’s handling of the conflict, including just 46% of Democrats. That’s as an
earlier spike in support for Israel following the Hamas attacks October 7 sags.
Melissa Morales, a 36-year-old political
independent in Runnemede, New Jersey, says she finds herself watching videos
and news from Gaza daily. Images of Palestinian children wounded, orphaned or
unhoused by the fighting in Gaza make her mind go to her own 3-year-old boy.
Israel’s offensive has gone too far, Ms.
Morales says, and so has the Mr. Biden administration’s support for it. Mr.
Biden has supported Israel militarily and diplomatically since the first hours
after the Hamas militant group’s October 7 attacks.
John Milor, a cybersecurity expert in
Clovis, California, who describes himself as a Republican-voting independent,
says he remains “100%” behind Israel. But Mr. Milor notices more young people
in his circle speaking out against Israel.
The poll shows 33% of Republicans now
say Israel’s military response has gone too far, up from 18% in November, 52%
of independents say that, and 62% of Democrats say they feel that way. In all,
50% of U.S. adults now believe Israel’s military offensive has gone beyond what
it should have, the poll found. That’s up from 40% in an AP-NORC poll conducted
in November.
The poll also shows about half of U.S.
adults are extremely or very concerned that the latest war between Israel and
Hamas will lead to a broader conflict in the West Asia.
Source: thehindu.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/half-of-us-adults-say-israel-has-gone-too-far-in-its-war-against-hamas-poll-shows/article67804821.ece
----
800 US, EU Officials Pen Letter Slamming
West’s Stance On Gaza
Palestinians
line up for free food distribution during the ongoing Israeli air and ground
offensive in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP)
-------
February 02, 2024
LONDON: A group of about 800 officials
spanning the US, UK and EU have signed a public letter condemning the support
of their governments for Israel’s war in Gaza.
It is the first time that officials from
across Western countries have coalesced to criticize the levels of support
their governments have given toward Israel, supporters told the New York Times.
The letter urges a change in direction
by Western governments toward the war, with signatories warning that they tried
to raise concerns internally but were rebuffed.
“Our governments’ current policies
weaken their moral standing and undermine their ability to stand up for
freedom, justice and human rights globally,” it says.
“There is a plausible risk that our
governments’ policies are contributing to grave violations of international
humanitarian law, war crimes and even ethnic cleansing or genocide.”
The letter does not include the names of
signatories over fears that they could face repercussions domestically, said
one official who has worked for the US State Department for more than two
decades.
It comes amid growing anger within the
ranks of civil services in the US, UK and Europe, with officials angered over
the foreign policies of their governments.
Of the roughly 800 signatories, 80 are
from the US, with the majority working for the State Department.
One source said national-level officials
from eight NATO member states, as well as Sweden and Switzerland, had approved
the letter.
Officials from EU institutions make up
the highest number of signatories, followed by the Netherlands and the US.
Josh Paul, who worked for the State
Department overseeing arms transfers but resigned in October over disagreements
with the Biden administration, warned of “unprecedented tensions” within the
civil service.
“The political decision-making of
Western governments and institutions has created unprecedented tensions with
the expertise and duty that apolitical civil servants bring to bear,” he said.
“One-sided support for Israel’s
atrocities in Gaza, and a blindness to Palestinian humanity, is both a moral
failure and, for the harm it does to Western interests around the globe, a
policy failure.”
The multi-country letter follows a
series of similar pronouncements by officials in the US. In November, President
Joe Biden received a letter from more than 500 employees across 40 agencies
condemning his policies on the war.
Within the EU dissent has also mounted,
with hundreds of officials representing the bloc’s humanitarian and aid agenda
also penning similar letters last year to EU leaders.
Only several EU member states have
publicly called for a ceasefire in Gaza or a moderation of European support
toward Israel, most prominently Ireland, Spain and Belgium.
Berber van der Woude, a former Dutch
diplomat who supports the signatories of the letter, told the New York Times:
“Being a civil servant doesn’t absolve you from your responsibility to keep on
thinking. When the system produces perverse decisions or actions, we have a
responsibility to stop it. It’s not as simple as ‘shut up and do what you’re
told’; we’re also paid to think.”
Source: arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2452786/world
------
India
'Kargil Bandh', 'Leh Chalo': Buddhist and Muslim alliances call for Ladakh statehood
03.02.24
Muzaffar Raina
Buddhist and Muslim alliances in Ladakh
that are fighting for the region’s statehood and special status have called for
a “Kargil Bandh” and “LehChalo” on Saturday to force the Centre to accept their
demands.
The Leh Apex Body, an alliance
representing Buddhist groups in Leh, and the Kargil Democratic Alliance, which
represents Muslim groups in Kargil, have asked Leh residents to take part in a
march and Kargil residents to observe a complete shutdown on Saturday.
The two alliances have asked people to
unite to fight for statehood and special status under the sixth schedule of the
Constitution, the creation of a public service commission, job reservations for
locals, an early recruitment drive and separate representation for Leh and
Kargil districts in Parliament.
The call has come as the central
government on Friday announced a second round of talks between its
representatives led by Union minister of state for home, Nityanand Rai, and
Ladakh representatives on February 19 in Delhi.
The Centre had set up a committee led by
Rai in January last year to discuss the demands of Ladakh’s twin districts —
Kargil and Leh.
The committee was reconstituted last
November since there were accusations that it was making no progress. The
reconstituted committee held the first round of talks in December in Delhi.
“Announcements were made in Parliament
that we would be empowered but the fact is today we are facing historical
disempowerment. We hope our joint efforts will bear fruit,” Sajjad Kargili, a
leader in the Kargil Democratic Alliance, said in a video, asking Kargilites to
observe a complete shutdown and Leh residents to take part in the march in
large numbers.
“This is a joint struggle for all of us,
for democracy, protection of our culture and language,” he added.
Ladakh was carved as a separate Union
Territory out of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 when Jammu and Kashmir itself was
reduced to a UT and its special status was withdrawn.
Ladakhi Buddhists had cheered the
decision, while Muslims had opposed the move. The two communities, otherwise
known for hostilities against each other, have since then joined hands for land
and job reservations as they fear they will be overwhelmed by non-locals.
They have held multiple joint protests
to press for their demands, but the Centre seems unwilling to budge.
The two communities joined hands last
week against the Union health ministry’s decision to change the name of its
health and wellness centres to “Ayushman Arogya Mandirs”. Following the
outrage, the BJP-led Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, proposed
to re-brand these centres as “Tsey-Ring NadmedTsonas” (centres of long life and
well-being in local Bhoti language) and delete the suffix Mandir.
The protest was led by the Ladakh
Buddhist Association, whose president CheringDorjey accused the Centre of “playing
with the sentiments of the Ladakhi people”.
Source: telegraphindia.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/kargil-bandh-leh-chalo-buddhist-and-muslim-alliances-call-for-ladakh-statehood/cid/1998003
---
Right-wing group moves Agra court
against annual Urs at Taj Mahal
3rd February 2024
Agra: A right wing organisation has
filed a petition in an Agra court seeking prohibitory injunction against the
observation of the ‘Urs’ at Taj Mahal.
The petitioner, Akhil Bharat Hindu
Mahasabha, has also challenged free entry inside the Taj for ‘Urs’.
Agra Court has accepted the petition and
has fixed March 4 as the date of hearing in the matter.
The celebration of three-day ‘Urs’ will
take place this year from February 6 to February 8.
The period is observed to mark the death
of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who got the Taj Mahal constructed in 1653 on the
banks of Yamuna in Agra.
Petitioner’s counsel Anil Kumar Tiwari
said, “On Friday, the petitioner ABHM through its divisional head Meena Diwakar
and district president Saurabh Sharma filed a petition in the Court of IV
Additional Civil Judge (Junior Division) Room No 4 at Civil Court premises in
Agra.
“They have sought for a permanent
prohibitory injunction against the committee celebrating the ‘Urs.'”
He added, “The petitioner has also
objected to having entry free at Taj Mahal for Urs.”
ABHM spokesperson Sanjay Jat contended
that the body had filed the petition on the basis of an RTI which revealed that
neither the Mughals, nor the British allowed Urs to take place inside the Taj.
“The petition has been filed on the
basis of an RTI filed by a Raj Kishore Raje, an historian of Agra city. In the
RTI, he asked ASI who permitted ‘Urs’ celebration and ‘Namaz’ in Taj Mahal
premises. ASI replied that neither Mughals, nor the British government or the
Government of India have allowed ‘Urs’ celebration in the Taj Mahal,” Sanjay
Jat told PTI.
He added, “So, on that basis we have
filed a petition seeking for the prohibitory injunction, stopping the
organisers of Shahjahan ‘Urs’ Celebration Committee, headed by Saiyyad Ibrahim
Zaidi, from celebrating the ‘Urs’ at Taj Mahal.”
The three-day Urs sees the rituals of
‘chadarposhi’, ‘sandal’, ‘gusul’, ‘kul’ and others.
On the last day of the ‘Urs’, a ‘chadar’
1,880-metre-long or more is offered.
Source: siasat.com
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---
Gyanvapi mosque row: No puja was ever
held in basement, says Muslim Personal Law Board
Feb 02, 2024
In a statement on Friday, the AIMPLB
countered the Varanasi court order and said no puja was ever held at Gyanvapi
mosque's basement called Vyas jikatahkhana.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board
on Friday said no puja was ever held at the basement of the Gyanvapi Mosque
where the Varanasi district court recently allowed the Hindus to offer prayers
in a historic judgment. Hours after the order, the basement called Vyasjika
Tahkhana was opened after 31 years and prayers were offered.
The Muslim side approached the Supreme
Court which asked them to move the Allahabad high court. The high court on
Friday adjourned the matter till February 6. Meanwhile, the Hindu side has been
offering prayers five times a day.
'Overnight breaking of iron grills'
The AIMPLB expressed concern over the
swift initiation of puja after breaking the iron grills and placing idols.
"It is imperative to clarify that no pooja was ever conducted in this
basement. The District Judge's decision, based on an absurd and baseless claim,
is highly questionable, given its timing on the last day of his service,"
the AIMPLB said. Varanasi district judge Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha passed the
order allowing the Hindu side to offer prayers on the last day of his work.
In the statement, the AIMPLB said they
have requested time to communicate their concerns to President Droupadi Murmu.
"This matter goes beyond preserving the dignity of the courts; it is also
about safeguarding minority communities and marginalised sections from feeling
deprived and frustrated," the Muslim body said.
Similar claims are being made on Shahi
Eidgah of Mathura, the Sunheri Masjid in Delhi, they said adding that the trend
of unwarranted claims on places of worship raises serious concerns.
AIMPLB president Maulana Khalid
Saifullah Rahmani said the notion that a temple was demolished to build the
Gyanvapi mosque in wrong because Islam does not allow taking away someone's
land to build a mosque.
"In the Babri Masjid decision, it
was accepted that the temple was not brought down to build a mosque but the
decision was made in the favour of the other side on the basis of 'aastha
(faith)'. Courts should rule on the basis of facts and not 'aastha'," he
said.
Friday namaz at Gyanvapi amid heavy
security
A day after the Hindu side started puja
at the basement of the mosque, a large number of people offered the Friday
namaz amid heavy security. A bandh was observed in Varanasi's Muslim-dominated
areas, called by the mosque committee.
Source: hindustantimes.com
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----
Hindu prayers at cellar of Gyanvapi
mosque to continue as Allahabad HC declines stay on Varanasi court order
Feb 2, 2024
NEW DELHI: The Allahabad high court on
Friday refused to stay the Varanasi court order allowing Hindu side to offer
prayers in the southern cellar of Gyanvapi mosque.
The court also adjourned till February 6
hearing on an appeal filed by the Anzuman Intezamia Masjid Committee
challenging the Varanasi court ruling.
It asked the mosque panel to amend its
pleas to include a challenge to a January 17 order consequent to which the
January 31 order was passed.
The bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan
Aggarwal said that the mosque side should first challenge the order of January
17, 2024.
In that order, District Magistrate
Varanasi has been appointed as the receiver, and after that, the DM took
possession of the Gyanvapi premises on January 23.
After this, the district court, by an
interim order dated January 31, gave permission to Kashi Vishwanath Temple
Trust to perform puja in the basement through a priest.
The court asked lawyer SFA Naqvi, who
was representing the mosque committee, why the basic order of January 17, 2024
was not challenged.
He said that the committee intends to
challenge the order soon. However, it challeneged the January 21 order urgently
because as soon as the ruling was pronounced, the district magistrate made
preparations at night and started the puja within nine hours.
Vishnu Shankar Jain, the Hindu side
lawyer, objected to the maintainability of the appeal.
He said that the original order has not
been challenged.
The subordinate court has not granted
relief to the plaintiff. The authority has been given to the temple trust.
The Masjid Intezamia Committee had also
gone to the Supreme Court in the early hours of Thursday, but the Supreme Court
suggested that it should approach the high court.
On January 31, the Varanasi district
court allowed the Hindu side to offer prayers in the southern cellar of
Gyanvapi mosque. The court directed the Varanasi district magistrate to make
arrangements within seven days for 'puja' to be performed by the Hindu side and
a pujari (priest) nominated by Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust.
After the order of the court,
"puja" and "aarti" were performed in the early hours on
Thursday.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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---
BJP’s ‘Qaumi Chaupal’ to woo Muslims in
4,100 villages in UP
Feb 3, 2024
LUCKNOW: Amid a spiralling Hindutva
pitch, BJP is set to reach out to the minority community by organising ‘Qaumi
Chaupal’ in nearly 4,100 Muslim-dominated villages across the state. Qaumi is
an Urdu term meaning something related to people or community.
The campaign scheduled to be carried out
by the minority wing of the UP BJP from next week essentially aims to cover as
many as 23 Lok Sabha seats where Muslims electorate has a sizable presence. It
will wind up by March, just before the poll campaign begins.
The seats which the saffron outfit seeks
to touch as part of the campaign include Saharanpur, Kairana, Bijnor, Baghpat,
Meerut, Amroha, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Rampur, Sambhal, Moradabad, Bareilly,
Nagina, Aligarh, Agra, Sant Kabir Nagar, Azamgarh, Lalganj, Pilibhit,
Shravasti, Ghazipur, Bahraich and Muzaffarnagar.
Of the 23, as many as 11 Lok sabha seats
were won by the SP-BSP combine in 2019 LS polls. Of these, the BJP, however,
later managed to wrest Azamgarh and Rampur from SP.
UP BJP minority morcha president Basit
Ali said that the idea of the campaign was to “initiate a dialogue” with the
Muslims and assuage their apprehensions, if any, about the saffron party. “We
need to initiate communication with the minorities who, otherwise, have been
one of the key beneficiaries of the various welfare schemes initiated by
central and state govts,” Ali told TOI.
Sources said that the functionaries of
the minority morcha will camp in the Muslim-dominated villages, meet the
respective gram pradhans and other influential sections of the community and
discuss the issues which need to be resolved. Sources said that the BJP seeks
to feel the raw pulse of the minority community after the recent inauguration
of the Ram temple and amid the ongoing legal tussle over the Gyanvapi complex
and Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura.
The campaign is seen as BJP’s yet
another attempt to blunt aggression of the opposition, primarily the Akhilesh
Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, in Uttar Pradesh.
The development comes close on the heels
of the ‘Modi Bhaijaan’ campaign which was formulated by the BJP in UP to bridge
the gap between the party and Muslims. The party had earlier planned a ‘Sneh
Yatra’ to reach out to Pasmanda (backward) Muslims, who have a sizable
population. The campaign, however, could not take off despite PM Narendra Modi
insistence to focus on socio-economic status of Pasmanda Muslims.
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Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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-----
Southeast Asia
Islamic leaders in Malaysia urge
cancellation of Ed Sheeran concert over singer’s pro-LGBT stance
02 Feb 2024
Rhea Yasmine AlisHaizan
SINGAPORE: British singer-songwriter Ed
Sheeran has become the latest target of calls in Malaysia to bar performances
in the country by artists who support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) community.
Islamist party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia’s
(PAS) ulama (cleric) faction, as well as the Penang mufti, have in recent days
called on the government to block Sheeran’s concert, which is slated for Feb 24
at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
Analysts say PAS' move – largely a
repeat of what it did for British band Coldplay’s Malaysia gig last November –
is likely to fire up its conservative voter base, even if chances of the
concert being cancelled are slim.
In a statement on Thursday (Feb 1), PAS
ulama chief Ahmad Yahaya called on the government to “take a firm stand by
cancelling the concert by a Western artist when Muslims are on the verge of
Ramadan”. This year, the Muslim fasting month is expected to start on March 12.
“What is more saddening is that … the
invited artist has a background of (supporting the) LGBT ideology which is
firmly rejected by Malaysia,” he said.
The PAS ulama faction has repeatedly said
that pro-LGBT Western artists “should never be allowed to perform in the
country”, he added.
The party had similarly lobbied for
Coldplay’s concert in Malaysia last year to be cancelled.
And in response to concerts by Korean
girl group Blackpink and American singer Billie Eilish, the party had urged the
government to “control” the increasing number of concerts and performances held
by foreign artists.
“The brouhaha over Ed Sheeran's concert
– and Coldplay’s before that – reflects the strategy of the opposition to use
ethnoreligious issues such as the LGBT (issue) to strike at the current
government. (It is) simply driving a wedge to widen the polarisation seen in
the country now,” said Dr AzmilMohd Tayeb, a political scientist at
UniversitiSains Malaysia.
Dr SyazaShukri, head of the political
science department at the International Islamic University Malaysia, said that
PAS’ move is a “confirmation” to its conservative voter base – predominantly
located outside the country’s capital city – that the party is loyal to its
struggle.
“Most of the people calling for
restrictions are those who live outside of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. (The
cancellation of this concert will not really) affect them, so that is why it is
easier to call for a government intervention (to cancel the concert),” she told
CNA.
She added that PAS’ opposition to
foreign artists is politically expedient. “It’s easier to call for a boycott of
foreign artists because these are not typically the celebrities that
conservative voters turn to – they listen to local artists, and local artists
do not face restrictions,” said Dr Syaza.
“(But) of course (PAS) will use the
argument that these artists support the LGBT (movement) as the justification.”
‘MANUFACTURED CONTROVERSY WILL HAVE
CHILLING EFFECT’
The call to cancel Sheeran’s concert,
part of his + - = ÷ × Tour, was initiated by Penang mufti Wan Salim Mohd Noor
last Wednesday.
Addressing the issue, Communications
Minister Fahmi Fadzil said last Friday that both the Central Agency for
Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (PUSPAL) and the
Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) would have already reviewed
Sheeran's concert application before he was given permission to perform.
If there is a need to revise the approval,
the government would look into the matter according to its current guidelines,
said Mr Fahmi in remarks reported by the Malay Mail.
But Mr Ahmad said PUSPAL should have
stricter conditions to ensure no LGBT elements infiltrate the country through
foreign artists.
Homosexuality is a crime in
Muslim-majority Malaysia, and the United Kingdom band The 1975 ignited
controversy last July when vocalist Matty Healy criticised the country's
anti-LGBT laws and kissed a male bandmate onstage at the Good Vibes Festival.
Following the incident, the Malaysian
government instructed organisers of concerts by foreign artists to create a
"kill switch" that would instantly stop a concert by cutting the
power supply.
The latest attempts to block Sheeran’s
concert could deter other foreign artists going forward, said UniversitiSains
Malaysia’s Dr Azmil.
“The opposition knows that its chance to
force the cancellation of the concert is slim but the manufactured controversy
will have a chilling effect on performers planning to hold concerts in Malaysia
in the future,” he said.
“(These performers) might just skip
Malaysia and hold the concert elsewhere in the region where it is more
receptive and not controversial.”
Source: channelnewsasia.com
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----
Muslim religious leaders' swift action
helped guide S'poreans amid ongoing Middle East conflict: DPM Heng
February 02, 2024
"Here in Singapore, our religious
leaders walk the talk and serve as role models for how different communities
can build trust and respect one another as fellow Singaporeans," said
Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, HengSweeKeat.
He was speaking at the Conference on
Fatwa in Contemporary Societies 2024, centred around the theme "Empowering
Muslims Communities of the Future Through Fatwas.
This was the first major conference on
fatwas in Singapore since the Covid-19 pandemic, and hosted by the Islamic
Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).
Heng's speech was delivered on Feb. 2,
the first of two days over which the conference took place.
In light of the shifting tides of modern
societies, the conference covered topics such as how contextualised fatwas can
cultivate intellectual and ethical empowerment in Muslims, as well as how fatwa
institutions can address the evolving needs of the Muslim community.
Heng gave the opening speech as guest of
honour, where he spoke about Singapore's approach to maintaining a
"harmonious duality between our citizens’ civic and religious
identities".
He also lauded the efforts of Muslim
religious leaders in helping to strengthen social and religious cohesion.
Singapore's Mufti NazirudinMohd Nasir
also spoke at the event, touching on topics including the need to embrace
change, and the challenges faced by Muslims living as minorities.
Interacting as equals across race and
religion
"Over the years, we have built a
nation where citizens of different races and religions treat and interact with
one another as equals," Heng said.
He spoke about the institutions and
legal frameworks that "recognise and uphold the interests of individual communities,
while at the same time, safeguard social cohesion and harmony".
One such framework is the Administration
of Muslim Law Act, which allows Singaporean Muslims to apply Islamic law in the
areas of marriage, divorce, and estates.
Another would be the Maintenance of
Religious Harmony Act, which lets authorities take action against those who
incite hostility between different religious groups.
Heng spoke about the Protection from
Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, enacted in 2019 in response to how
online platforms have been "exploited" to propagate falsehoods and
spread ill will across different communities.
He also highlighted the President
Council for Minority Rights (PCMR), which advises Singapore's President on
safeguarding the interests of minority communities by ensuring that proposed
legislation does not disadvantage any racial or religious community, and noted
that Nazirudin was recently appointed to the PCMR.
Heng said that while laws and
institutions are important, maintaining religious harmony rests upon the norms,
values and beliefs of every member of our society.
He noted the important role that
religious leaders play in shaping their communities.
Balancing religious and civic roles
Heng said Muslim religious leaders are
important in guiding the community through challenging times, and in responding
to complex issues in the context of Singapore’s multiculturalism.
He cited examples from the Covid-19
pandemic, when the Fatwa Committee sought practical solutions that addressed
community needs, while also safeguarding public health and preventing the
spread of the virus.
This included crucial and timely
guidance on the closure of mosques, holding multiple Friday prayer sessions,
and deferment of Haj during the pandemic.
Maintaining social cohesion and harmony
As respected and influential figures,
Heng said, religious leaders greatly shape the norms and behaviours of their
communities.
He went on to talk about the country's
success in building a "reservoir of trust and understanding" during times
when tensions between communities might run high.
Heng pointed to the Israel-Hamas war
that broke out in October 2023, with tensions spiking in the Middle East.
In the early days after the war began,
Nazirudin publicly exchanged letters with Singapore’s Chief Rabbi.
In the letters, the religious leaders
reaffirmed the importance of solidarity and co-existence between religious,
even in the face of differences.
Muslim religious leaders and asatizah
also stepped forth to urge local Muslims to pray for peace and to guard against
the divisive rhetoric surfacing in other parts of the world.
This decisive leadership was what helped
both Singaporean Muslims and Singaporeans to respond to the crisis with
solidarity, compassion, and empathy, Heng stated.
He also noted that Singaporeans from
different faiths have contributed to fundraising campaigns in response to the
humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Singapore's model Muslim community
The efforts by Muslim leaders to
strengthen social and religious cohesion have even garnered international
recognition, Heng pointed out.
In 2022, the Fatwa Committee was
conferred the Imam Al-Qarafi Award by the General Secretariat for Fatwa
Authorities Worldwide based in Egypt.
The award acknowledged Singapore’s
Muslim community as a model for others to emulate, in how different religious
communities could co-exist peacefully and harmoniously while preserving their
own identities.
Singapore was the first recipient of
this award from a minority-Muslim country.
Having acknowledged the achievements of
the religious community both past and present, Heng then turned to face the
future.
He brought up the important role of
Muslim religious leaders in guiding the community towards new solutions that
deal with evolving social and community needs.
For instance, progressive fatwa thinking
over several decades has led to proposed amendments to the Administration of
Muslim Law Act for a new community fund called the WakafMasyarakat Singapura.
This will enable estates to be
bequeathed and pooled into an Islamic endowment fund to better support the
Muslim community’s future socio-religious needs, such as developing asatizah
and upkeeping mosques.
Adapting to modern times and challenges
Nazirudin too spoke about the need to
embrace the changing times.
He remarked:
"It is my hope that this
conference, and Singapore, in particular, can contribute meaningfully to a
reset and refresh in the ways we think of fatwas and religious guidance."
Nazirudin noted that the Fatwa
Conference had taken place before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the pandemic being a period of
global emergency and suspension of normal life, it reinforced the belief that
the faith community can overcome difficult challenges with the right commitment
and preparations, he said.
The pandemic served as a reminder that
the community must similarly be prepared for new realities to come, in a world
"where geopolitics have become more uncertain and turbulent, where peace
is under serious assault, and the environment is truly in danger."
"Some of the new realities require
minor adjustments, but some require significant shifts in our mindset and
approaches," Nazirudin said.
He cautioned that fatwas could be both a
source of strength or weakness for the community.
It could either nurture "dynamism,
confidence, hope, and resilience in religious life" or breed
"ambivalence, complacency and pessimism".
Nazirudin went on to acknowledge the
challenge faced by Muslims living as minorities, where the nature of their
societies mean they often encounter complex questions and challenges, and have
to contemplate difficult adjustments to religious life.
Without as many historical references to
fall back on, this challenge is more pronounced.
Nazirudin said the unique situation of
Muslims living as minorities was such that he would "go so far as to argue
that their experiences are a linchpin to Muslim law", adding that these
experiences add to and reinforce its richness and dynamism.
Important for Muslim community at large
MasagosZulkifli, Minister for Social and
Family Development, Second Minister for Health and Minister-in-charge of Muslim
Affairs spoke to the media after the event on Feb. 2, saying the conference was
important for the Muslim community at large, and not just for religious
students and scholars.
He said:
"It's important for them to know
that in order for us to navigate the challenges that communities like ourselves
will face in terms of the changes in technology, circumstances, environment,
fatwa is one of the best means to contemporise those issues and to find
solutions in order for us to thrive in such an environment.
So they must also understand that it
takes expertise. It takes a lot of deliberation in depth and mastery of the
knowledge in the areas that fatwa will need to be produced."
Masagos expressed his hope that
understanding this process would allow the Muslim community to appreciate
"not just the difficulty, but the impact that fatwa will make in their
lives."
Other events
The conference also hosted the launch of
the second edition of the Fatwa Compilation Series, titled "Fatwa of
Singapore: Inheritance, Estate Planning and Distribution".
The text focuses on matters concerning
inheritance, estate planning, and wealth distribution.
Day two of the conference on Feb. 3 will
see various international scholars giving keynote speeches.
These will touch on topics such as the
evolution of fatwas in contemporary contexts, the building of trust and
community with community-centred fatwa issuance, and collaborative and
interdisciplinary approaches in making contextualised fatwas.
Fatwa Lab will also be hosting various
sessions on food technology, artificial intelligence, medical technology, and
finance.
Source: mothership.sg
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the text of the original story
https://mothership.sg/2024/02/dpm-heng-fatwa-conference-speech/
---
Malaysia welcomes EU's proposal for
international peace conference on Israel-Palestine conflict
February 3, 2024
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has welcomed the
European Union's (EU) proposal to host an international peace conference aimed
at drafting a roadmap for a two-state solution to resolve the longstanding
Israel-Palestine conflict.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan
said the end of the decades-old Israel occupation of the Palestinian
territories is fundamental for a viable two-state solution, as well as enduring
peace and security in the Middle East.
"For any path to a sustainable
peace, all parties' voices must be given adequate space to speak for
themselves. All voices must be elevated, and all voices must be empowered, for
dialogue to be meaningful.
"That is what we proved today, in
our own discussion, at the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting. I hope that we can afford
others the liberty of expression that we allow ourselves and each other,"
he said during the 24th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on
Friday.
On the same development, Mohamad
underscored the need for collaborative efforts between the ASEAN and the EU to
ensure global peace and stability.
Emphasising the shared commitment to
peace, he highlighted that both ASEAN and the EU were founded on the principle
of maintaining peace within their respective regions.
"Over the past few months, we have
seen violence and the threat of war loom once again over the Middle East. Even
more worrying is the possibility that this may grow into a multilateral
conflict.
"Given the ongoing global
polycrises and worrying developments in the Middle East, it is critical to
ensure that peace remains our first and ultimate priority. The spectre of
another regional or world war must be immediately vanquished.
"The marginalisation of the United
Nations system and disregard for the UN Charter and international law cannot be
allowed to continue. No country should be allowed to continue violating these
laws with impunity. There should be no double standards," he said.
Mohamad also pointed out the urgent need
for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
Malaysia welcomed the decision of the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the case initiated by South
Africa against Israel.
He noted the application of the 1948
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by the ICJ
was deemed crucial in addressing the ongoing crisis. – BERNAMA
Source: nst.com.my
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https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/02/1009325/malaysia-welcomes-eus-proposal-international-peace-conference-israel
-----
Fake news, online hate swell Indonesia
anti-Rohingya sentiment
03 Feb 2024
JAKARTA, Feb 3 — Arriving on a rickety
boat in western Indonesia from squalid Bangladesh camps after weeks at sea late
last year, hundreds of Rohingya refugees came to shore only to be turned around
and pushed back.
The persecuted Myanmar minority were
previously welcomed in the ultra-conservative Aceh province, with many locals
sympathetic because of their own long history of war. But a wave of more than
1,500 refugees in recent months has been treated differently.
A spate of online misinformation in the
world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has stoked what experts say is
rising anti-Rohingya sentiment culminating in pushback, hate speech and
attacks.
In December, hundreds of university
students entered a government function hall in Banda Aceh city hosting 137
Rohingya, chanting, kicking refugees’ belongings and demanding they be
deported. The refugees were relocated.
“The attack is not an isolated act but
the result of a coordinated online campaign of misinformation, disinformation
and hate speech,” the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.
On social media, anti-Rohingya videos
have been spreading since late last year, racking up more than 90 million views
on TikTok alone in November, according to HokkySitungkir, TikTok analyst at
Bandung Fe Institute.
It began after some local media outlets
reported the Rohingya’s arrival with sensational headlines, said Situngkir.
The reports have framed the mostly
Muslim Rohingya as criminals with bad attitudes and Indonesian community
leaders have reinforced this narrative.
Some TikTok users have reshared the
sensational articles and videos, which would help generate more views and
money.
“Sometimes when the sensation is too
big, it turns out to be misinformation,” Situngkir told AFP.
‘Seems coordinated’
President Joko Widodo has called for
action against human traffickers responsible for smuggling Rohingya and said
“temporary humanitarian assistance will be provided” to refugees while
prioritising local communities.
But a few days after the attack on a
refugee shelter, the Indonesian navy pushed away a Rohingya boat approaching
the Aceh coast.
Jakarta — not a signatory of the UN
refugee convention — has appealed to neighbouring countries to do more to take
in the Rohingya.
On TikTok, dozens of fake UNHCR accounts
have flooded Rohingya videos with comments.
“If you don’t want to help, just give
them one empty island so they can live there,” one read, presented as if it was
written by a real UNHCR account.
A post sharing a report that Indonesia’s
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin was considering moving the refugees to an island was
viewed three million times.
A verified account wrote underneath:
“Big no! It is better to expel them, no use in sheltering them.”
Ismail Fahmi, analyst for social media
monitor Drone Emprit, told AFP the narrative “seems coordinated” but presented
as if “it was organic”.
The campaign started with posts from
anonymous confession accounts, and then several users with large followings
replied with anti-Rohingya messages, making the narrative appear to be
trending, he said.
Locals say social media is making such
anti-Rohingya sentiment appear widespread, but that was not reflected across Aceh
day-to-day.
“It seems massive when we observe it on
social media,” said Aceh fishermen community secretary-general Azwir Nazar,
acknowledging that Rohingya defenders online were treated as a “common enemy”.
But, he said, “In reality, in our daily
lives, things seem normal.”
Election narrative
Some of the most viewed videos peddling
misinformation showed overcrowded vessels claiming to be ships carrying
Rohingya to Indonesia.
The footage, viewed millions of times on
TikTok, actually showed ferry passengers on domestic Bangladesh routes,
according to an AFP Fact Check investigation.
Another video claimed Rohingya damaged
an East Java refugee centre — more than 2,300 kilometres from Aceh.
An AFP Fact Check investigation debunked
the claim through interviews with authorities who said the perpetrators were
not Rohingya.
The videos were uploaded on TikTok and
video platform Snack, then reposted on other social media sites like Facebook
and by local media outlets with millions of followers, boosting the misinformation’s
reach, AFP’s Fact Check team found.
AFP, along with more than 100
fact-checking organisations, is paid by TikTok and Facebook parent Meta to
verify videos that potentially contain false information.
Both organisations declined AFP requests
for comment.
Some videos and comments were also
related to this month’s presidential election.
Some mocked candidate AniesBaswedan,
saying he supports the Rohingya because he recommended they be housed “in a
separate place” to avoid conflict.
Others praised front-runner and Defence
Minister PrabowoSubianto who has said Indonesia should “prioritise our people”.
But in several presidential debates so
far, the candidates have not mentioned Rohingya migration.
For some in Aceh, anti-Rohingya feelings
have stemmed from frustration at a lack of a government solution.
But the inflated anti-refugee posts have
left them wondering if that feeling is genuine.
“Only Allah knows whether (the posts
are) all humans,” said Nazar.
“Or perhaps, with the technology now,
there might be AI or robots involved.” — AFP
Source: malaymail.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2024/02/03/fake-news-online-hate-swell-indonesia-anti-rohingya-sentiment/116138
------
Japan provides over $13 million in
humanitarian aid to Afghanistan
Fidel Rahmati
February 3, 2024
The World Food Program (WFP) has
announced that Japan has contributed $13.5 million in humanitarian aid for
Afghanistan. This agency stated on Friday, the 2nd of February through a
newsletter that this fund will be provided for food assistance and emergency
nutrition for individuals facing food insecurity.
The organization continues to emphasize
that by providing this aid, it will also support the humanitarian aviation
services of the United Nations.
TakeyoshiKuramaya, Japan’s envoy to
Kabul, mentioned that alongside the people of Afghanistan, nearly one-third of
the country’s population currently doesn’t know where their next meal is coming
from and they urgently need food assistance.
Hsiao-Wei Lee the Director of the World
Food Program in Afghanistan, has praised the Japanese government as a strong
and reliable partner for this agency, stating that Japan’s assistance has been
critical for many families across the country.
According to the World Food Program,
with the fund provided by Japan, assistance will be provided to nearly 630,000
people, including over 42,000 mothers and malnourished individuals.
Previously, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Taliban had announced a $36 million aid package to various
sectors in Afghanistan.
According to the statistics of this
agency, Japan has contributed $73 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan
over the past three years.
It is worth mentioning that Japan has
also provided assistance to Afghanistan in various sectors such as education,
health, and development projects in the past two years.
Source: khaama.com
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https://www.khaama.com/japan-provides-over-13-million-in-humanitarian-aid-to-afghanistan/
-----
Over 100 Rohingyas flee Malaysian camp
after riot
Feb 3, 2024
More than 100 Rohingya refugees escaped a detention centre in Malaysia after
a riot broke out, with one man killed after being hit by a vehicle on a highway
as he fled, police said yesterday.
Rohingyas experience persecution in
their predominantly Buddhist homeland of
Myanmar, with many fleeing to affluent,
Muslim-majority Malaysia or refugee camps in Bangladesh.
They often endure harrowing, months-long
sea journeys to arrive in Malaysia by boat or sneak into the country via its
porous border with Thailand.
If caught, they are often sent to detention
centres that rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy.
A total of 115 Rohingya migrants and 16
others -- all of them men -- rioted in their detention building before escaping
the Bidor temporary immigration depot in northern Perak state late Thursday,
local police chief Mohamad Naim Asnawi confirmed to AFP.
Source: thedailystar.net
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-influx/news/over-100-rohingyas-flee-malaysian-camp-after-riot-3534811
----
Africa
Islamic State describes intense campaign
against Shabaab in northern Somalia
February 2, 2024
In the latest issue of the Islamic State’s
weekly Al-Naba newsletter, the global jihadist organization describes in detail
a fierce campaign its so-called Somali Province waged against Shabaab,
al-Qaeda’s East African branch. The reported campaign lasted for a little under
a year and allegedly resulted in the Islamic State’s men gaining more territory
in northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland.
The two sides have violently clashed at
least 51 times, largely in northern Somalia, since the emergence of the Somali
Islamic State faction in late 2015 according to data kept by the author for
FDD’s Long War Journal.
Around 36 of these incidents were
between March and December 2023, assuming the Islamic State’s record keeping is
truthful and accurate. During this period, the Islamic State also claims its
men killed or wounded at least 238 members of Shabaab, though this number
cannot be independently verified and is likely an exaggeration.
According to the Islamic State, the
sustained campaign against Shabaab began in earnest in March 2023, after
previously preventing the al-Qaeda branch from advancing on its positions over
the prior two months.
In March, however, the Islamic State’s
men retaliated, ambushing Shabaab’s nearby patrols and raiding small villages
held by the group in Somalia’s northern Balidhidin District of Puntland (and
likely the larger neighboringIskushuban District) throughout the month.
These clashes were previously reported
in local media. For instance, Hiraan Online stated that at least 40 militants
from both sides were killed in these clashes throughout most of March 2023. The
Somali website also reported that the clashes that month began when the Islamic
State conducted a suicide bombing against Shabaab’s positions in the area.
The Islamic State did not confirm the use
of a suicide bombing its Al-Naba report, however.
The Al-Naba report goes on to state that
April 2023 also witnessed more intense clashes, all roughly within the same
area southeast of the coastal city of Qandala. For example, Al-Naba states that
between April 1 and May 1, 2023, the two sides clashed an additional nine
times.
Between May and July 2023, the Islamic
State again recorded at least another 16 battles, with some being recorded as
mortar/rocket strikes or IED blasts against Shabaab’s men and vehicles
patrolling in the region.
Sporadic clashes, at least an additional
six times, including clashes, mortars, and further IED incidents, were then
recorded between August and December 2023. It was after these last clashes that
the Islamic State claims Shabaab’s men withdrew from the area and the Somali
Province was able to capture large swaths of land in the area.
In the immediate aftermath of reportedly
taking over Shabaab’s previously held territory in December, the Islamic State
says its men undertook an extensive da’wah [proselytizing] campaign, with
loudspeakers, to sensitize remaining Shabaab members and locals of the
religious malpractices of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.
In other villages, Al-Naba states that
the Islamic State’s men provided food and medical aid to locals and dismantled
IEDs left by Shabaab. Though these public relations moves are unconfirmed, they
are nevertheless meant to portray the Somali Province in a positive light and
thus garner public support.
Besides the initial foray of hostilities
in March 2023, local media did not report on any of the additional battles
claimed by the Islamic State over the rest of the year. Likewise, Shabaab’s
media and propaganda apparatus were also silent on these battles (though if
they indeed had the losing hand, there would be an incentive to hide this
conflict).
Assuming the Islamic State is correct,
however, would mean that it now controls slightly more territory in the remote
areas of northern Somalia than it previously did. Despite the obvious
propaganda value of such a victory against the larger, more capable al-Qaeda
branch in the area, it holds little significant value on the ground.
The Islamic State’s Somali Province
continues to be notably smaller and weaker than its rival Shabaab. It cannot
project power to the same degree as the al-Qaeda branch and its attack claims
in Somalia only occur sporadically, with just 10 claimed operations in Somalia
in 2023 (apart from the claimed clashes with Shabaab).
Indeed, this is echoed by the latest
report from the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring
Team. The report notes that the Somali Province boasts just 100-150 fighters in
Puntland – though it does maintain active cells in Mogadishu.
The report also notes that territorially
the Somali Province is severely limited by Shabaab. Al-Naba’s writers seemingly
know this fact, as even in their own write-up they admit that Shabaab still
maintains control over the Cal Madow Mountains, which straddles Somaliland and
Puntland and connects with the Cal Miskaat Mountains, where the Islamic State
has its bases.
Instead, the Somali Province’s real
strength, and significance for the Islamic State’s global enterprise, is
hosting the Al-Karrar regional office. Al-Karrar acts as the command hub for
all of the Islamic State’s activities in central, eastern, and southern Africa.
Financing, directives, and other support
flow from Al-Karrar to various groups, like the Central Africa Province or
Mozambique Province, or cells, such as in South Africa, from the so-called
office in Puntland. Though the latest UN report notes that Al-Karrar might have
been weakened following the death of one of its directors, Bilal al-Sudani,
last year.
Nevertheless, the most recent Al-Naba issue
provides an interesting look into the activities of one of its most silent,
albeit financially significant, affiliates of the Islamic State.
At best, it presents a
semi-fictionalized version of events of the ongoing war between its men and
al-Qaeda’s men in Somalia. At worst, it documents a rebirth of sorts of a group
attempting to bounce back following the detrimental loss of one of its key
leaders.
Caleb Weiss is an editor of FDD's Long
War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses
on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.
Source: longwarjournal.org
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/02/islamic-state-describes-intense-campaign-against-shabaab-in-northern-somalia.php
----
UI Muslim alumni empowers members with
entrepreneurial, career skills
ShakirahAdunola
03 February 2024
Watershed Leadership Training, an
initiative of the University of Ibadan Muslim Graduates’ Association (UIMGA),
has reiterated its commitment to nurture its members with viable
entrepreneurship skills to scale up their businesses.
The entrepreneurial training initiative,
which is the first of its kind, having commenced in 2023, is geared towards
attaining its target of impacting the lives of members and business owners in
the country.
During the convocation ceremony of the
first set of participants of the training, the National President of UNIMGA,
Mujeed Adebayo Ibrahim, called on the Nigerian government to provide an
enabling environment for business owners as this is the only way the economy
can be stabilised.
He said: “The government can’t provide
jobs for everybody but with an enabling environment, people will have the
opportunity to establish the skills they have acquired without going through
stress. Instead of people looking for government jobs, they can equally be
employers of labour.”
Ibrahim urged the government at all
levels to prioritise security and power, as this will attract investors locally
and internationally. “The government needs to be more proactive regarding
security and provide power to avert inflation.
The key players in the industry are leaving the country for two reasons,
insecurity and power. If the government can provide these two, those who are
living will come back, while those around will expand.”
Also speaking, Chairman, UNIMGA, Lagos
Chapter, AdulhakeemTayeBadru, said the initiative is part of the philosophy of
an Alumni association, where you can put a value on the table in the capacity
development of members. “We started with entrepreneurship training. Every
environment has its peculiar challenge and it comes with opportunity as well.
So, reorientation is what we are bringing to the programme, to begin to see
positive opportunities in the country.”
The incoming Chairman and Management
Board, Ahmad Yahya, said the purpose of establishing the programme is for
capacity building of members and alumni. “Those still in university and the
alumni will have employability skills. Also, those who want to establish
business will have the requirement to upscale their businesses.”
He added that the facilitators of the
programme are members who are accomplished professionals in various fields.
“Virtually all businesses have financial challenges, subsequently, we will be
looking at the various options that will be open to our members. Such as
cooperative, joint ventures, partnership and bank products.”
A graduate, Eng. AdemuyiwaMikaheel
Tijani said: “The experience of the programme was massive and enlightening.
Before I joined the programme I was having challenges with my business, which
has to do with my team, finances etc.
Midway through the programme, I was able to restructure my business and
my productivity was improved.”
Source: guardian.ng
Please click the following URL to read
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https://guardian.ng/news/nigeria/ui-muslim-alumni-empowers-members-with-entrepreneurial-career-skills/
----
38 killed and 52 wounded in communal
clashes over land in South Sudan
February 2, 2024
Residents of a swampy area in central
South Sudan battled with cattle herders who moved in looking for water and
pasture during the dry season, and at least 38 people were killed and 52
suffered gunshot wounds, officials said Thursday.
The fighting started Wednesday and
tensions remained high Thursday night, with officials reporting "minor
clashes" and apprehension over revenge attacks in the remote area.
The information minister of Warrap
state, William WolMayom, said fighting took place in the Alor area, which is in
Lakes state and borders both Warrap and Unity states.
Mayom said security forces had been sent
to calm the situation and to move the cattle herders away from the disputed wet
lands.
"The violence has been
de-escalated, but minor clashes are still being reported in inaccessible swampy
areas and casualties cannot be fully verified," Mayom said.
A police spokesperson for Lakes state,
Maj. Elijah MaborMakuach, said 19 of the dead and 17 of the wounded were
civilians from Warrap state and 19 of the dead and 35 wounded were from Lakes
state.
Makuach said young herders from Warrap
migrated to the Alor area with their cattle two weeks ago and began burning
brush and the temporary shelters of residents. He said the herders were looking
for pasture and water in the swampy lands of Alor.
The bloodshed came four days after at
least 52 people, including a U.N. peacekeeper, were killed and 64 wounded by
gunmen who attacked villagers in Abyei, an oil-rich region that is claimed by
both Sudan and South Sudan. Officials said that violence also arose from a
dispute over land.
South Sudan won its independence from
Sudan in 2011 after more than 39 years of war and then plunged into a ruinous
internal conflict from 2013 to 2018 that stagnated development. Many guns
remain in the hands of civilians who fought in the conflicts.
Source: africanews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.africanews.com/2024/02/02/38-killed-and-52-wounded-in-communal-clashes-over-land-in-south-sudan/
---
North America
Thousands protest outside Columbia
against campus treatment of pro-Palestinian groups
February 03, 2024
New York Jewish Week via JTA – Thousands
of demonstrators gathered outside Columbia University on Friday, in protest of
the suspension of campus pro-Palestinian groups as well as an incident last
month in which students were allegedly sprayed with a foul substance.
At least one person was arrested at the
rally.
The rally on Friday was led by Within
Our Lifetime, the prominent, hardline pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas activist group
in New York City that endorsed and celebrated the Palestinian terror group’s
October 7 mass terror attack, in which thousands of Palestinian terrorists
massacred 1,200 people across southern Israel, mostly civilians, and abducted
253 as hostages. The group has also frequently called for Israel’s elimination.
It took place with the university locked
to the public, in a sign of how the campus climate has continued to sour.
Within Our Lifetime advertised the rally
on social media by saying it was in response to an attack using “skunk spray”
that was carried out by “Zionists,” without providing evidence. Skunk spray is
a foul-smelling liquid mixture sometimes used by police in Israel to disperse protesters,
including Palestinians and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The university has described the
substance as “foul smelling spray” and said in a Tuesday statement that the
incident was under investigation by the NYPD but did not provide further
details. The incident took place at an unauthorized protest, and the university
said last month that the alleged perpetrators had been banned from campus.
There was a small group of pro-Israel
counter-protesters opposite the demonstration on Friday, which took place outside
the gates to Columbia in Morningside Heights. Dozens of police officers,
including from the NYPD’s riot control unit, locked down the area around the
dueling protests, tightly restricting foot traffic to the different groups from
behind metal barricades. Officers also blocked access to subway stations in the
vicinity.
Protesters chanted to “globalize the
intifada,” a mainstay of Within Our Lifetime protests that refers to violent
Palestinian uprisings against Israel. Palestinian terror attacks during the
Second Intifada, two decades ago, killed an estimated 1,000 Israelis.
The protesters also chanted, “Columbia
you will see, Palestine will be free” while beating drums, as well as,
“Columbia you can’t hide, you support genocide.”
A Columbia spokesperson told the New
York Jewish Week that the school was prioritizing campus safety and that staff
“are coordinating resources to ensure the safety of our community.”
The rally was advertised by campus
student groups, including Columbia University Apartheid Divest. The group, a
coalition of student clubs, was established in 2016 and resurrected in the fall
after Columbia suspended its campus chapters of Students for Justice in
Palestine and the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace for repeatedly violating
university policies by holding unsanctioned protests.
Columbia upheld the suspension of the
two groups at the start of this semester because the clubs had not yet shown “a
commitment to compliance with University policies.”
SJP and JVP are listed as the two
leading clubs in Apartheid Divest, drawing charges from the Columbia Jewish
Alumni Association, a recently formed group, that the suspended clubs were
using Apartheid Divest as a front to continue their activities. Jewish Voice
for Peace shared the announcement of Friday’s rally on its social media feeds.
“The university is looking the other way
and ignoring that the same kids are doing the same thing and they’re deciding
not to enforce and it’s just disappointing,” Ari Shrage, a board member of the
alumni association, told the New York Jewish Week last month.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas
war on October 7, Within Our Lifetime has blocked traffic, demonstrated at
transportation hubs and holiday events, and targeted civic institutions for
alleged links to Israel, including the Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer
hospital.
Within Our Lifetime grew out of a local
branch of SJP, and its leader, NerdeenKiswani, is a former activist with the
student group. Within Our Lifetime and the national umbrella for SJP both route
their funding through a small nonprofit in suburban New York City, called
Wespac. and both backed the October 7 attack. National SJP advertised Friday’s
rally at Columbia.
Columbia was a focal point for
controversy in the weeks after October 7, amid dueling protests for and against
Israel and the reported assault of an Israeli student.
It is one of several elite schools to
have drawn scrutiny amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The presidents of three other elite
universities told lawmakers in December that calling for the genocide of Jews
did not necessarily violate university policy, provoking a firestorm of
controversy that led two of them to step down.
Columbia’s president, MinoucheShafik,
was invited to appear before Congress at the same hearing, but declined, citing
a scheduling conflict.
Source: timesofisrael.com
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-protest-outside-columbia-against-campus-treatment-of-pro-palestinian-groups/
---
UN experts: Terrorist threat is high in
Africa conflict zones and Afghanistan, and rose in Europe
February 2, 2024
The terrorist threat from al-Qaida, the
Islamic State group, and their affiliates remains high in conflict zones in
Africa and in Afghanistan – and threat levels have risen in some regions
including Europe, U.N. experts said in a new report.
The panel of experts said in the 23-page
report that the relationship between Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and al-Qaida
remains close, and unnamed member states report that "the high
concentration of terrorist groups" in the country is undermining the
security situation in the region.
The greatest threat within Afghanistan
still comes from the Islamic State "with its ability to project into the
region and beyond," the experts said in the report to the U.N. Security
Council covering the period until Dec. 16, 2023, which was circulated
Wednesday. Regionally, they pointed to a succession of attacks in neighboring
Iran and Pakistan and threats in Central Asian nations.
The panel said, however, that while none
of the al-Qaida affiliated groups have recovered the capability to launch
long-range operations, "they harbor global ambitions." And it said
"covert and calibrated efforts to rebuild capability" have been
reported.
The Islamic State group broke away from
al-Qaida over a decade ago and attracted supporters from around the world.
Despite its defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later. The panel said
the combined IS strength in the two countries is still between 3,000 and 5,000
fighters. In Iraq, they are carrying out "a low-intensity insurgency with
covert terrorist cells" while in Syria attacks have intensified since
November, the experts said.
The panel said the three-month delay in
naming the current IS leader, Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, following the
death in the fighting of his little-known predecessor "is judged
indicative of internal difficulties and security challenges"
Some unnamed U.N. member nations have
assessed that serious pressure from counter-terrorism operations in Syria and
Iraq raises the possibility that the Islamic State could move its leadership
and "center of gravity" to Africa or Afghanistan, with Africa more
likely, the experts said.
In West Africa and the Sahel, the panel
said, "violence and threat have escalated again" in conflict zones,
raising concerns among U.N. member nations. The experts point to "a
deficit in counterterrorism capabilities," which Islamic State and
al-Qaida affiliated groups are continuing to exploit.
"The situation is becoming ever
more complex with the conflation of ethnic and regional disputes with the
agenda and operations of these groups," they said.
In East Africa, the experts said, the
Somali government is continuing its military offensive against al-Shabab, an
al-Qaida affiliate, but they said U.N. member nations assess that despite
significant losses from air strikes and military operations, "al-Shabab
remains resilient. It has an estimated 7,000 to 12,000 fighters, and an
estimated $100 million annual income, mostly from illegal taxation in the
capital Mogadishu, and southern Somalia, they said.
The panel said al-Qaida has improved its
media productions which appeared aimed at restoring the extremist group's
credibility, attracting recruits, and filling the void over its inability to
announce a new leader.
But that messaging changed after Hamas'
Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel, the experts said.
The attack killed 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and Hamas and other extremists took about 250 people hostage,
according to Israeli authorities. In Israel's ongoing offensive in response to
Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas, more than 27,000 people have been killed,
according to the territory's health ministry which doesn't distinguish between
civilian and combatant deaths.
The experts said Al-Qaida has focused on
"the sanctity" of the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam
which is in a compound in Jerusalem sacred to Jews and Muslims, with some
communications stressing "an obligation for individuals to take action to
the limits of their ability."
"Member States are concerned that
it (al-Qaida) could exploit the situation to recover relevance and tap into
popular dissent about the extent of civilian casualties, providing direction to
those keen to act," the panel said, and they "are concerned that the
renewed narrative could inspire self-initiated attacks globally."
Across Europe, the experts said,
"formal terrorist threat levels have risen … following fatal attacks in
late 2023 in France and Belgium, in addition to numerous non-lethal terrorist
incidents and arrests in several European countries."
Source: africanews.com
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.africanews.com/2024/02/02/un-experts-terrorist-threat-is-high-in-africa-conflict-zones-and-afghanistan-and-rose-in-e/
----
US, Qatar, Egypt engage in 'sensitive'
diplomatic efforts to secure Gaza hostage release
DiyarGüldoğan
03.02.2024
The US, Qatar and Egypt are carrying out
"sensitive" diplomatic engagements to secure the release of hostages
in the Gaza Strip, the American envoy to the UN said Friday.
"We've been working tirelessly with
Qatar, Egypt and other regional partners on a strong, compelling proposal.
"Our engagement is the best
opportunity to reunite all hostages with their families," Linda
Thomas-Greenfield told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
The US has continued to work toward a
sustainable resolution to the conflict so that Israelis and Palestinians can
live side by side and enjoy equal security, dignity and freedom,
Thomas-Greenfield added.
The proposal would move all parties
"one step closer" to creating the conditions for a sustainable
cessation of hostilities, she said.
"The (UN Security) Council has the
obligation. That's the obligation to ensure that any action we take in the
coming days increases pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal," she said.
Thomas-Greenfield said there are two
Security Council resolutions on Gaza and added that a draft resolution
demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, put forward by Algeria, could
jeopardize "sensitive negotiations" to broker a deal for the release
of hostages.
"Ultimately, now is the time to
allow space for the sensitive hostage negotiations to proceed to get behind
(UN's Gaza) special coordinator (Sigrid) Kaag's proposal," she said.
Without giving a timeframe for
negotiations, the envoy said: "Negotiations take time, but we're giving it
that time we're giving it the effort on the ground."
The Palestinian resistance group, Hamas,
confirmed Tuesday it received a proposal that was reached Sunday in a Paris
summit between Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the US for a cease-fire deal and
hostage swap with Israel.
Source: aa.com.tr
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/us-qatar-egypt-engage-in-sensitive-diplomatic-efforts-to-secure-gaza-hostage-release/3126416
----
US court 'implores' Biden to reconsider support
for genocide in Gaza
02 February 2024
A US federal court has implored the
President Joe Biden administration to reconsider its “unflagging support” for
Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The court in California made the comment
in a ruling in response to a lawsuit that accused Biden and his senior
administration officials of complicity in Israel’s genocidal acts in Gaza.
Judge Jeffrey White of the US District
Court dismissed the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on Thursday, saying that
the matter lay outside the jurisdiction of his court.
“The court is bound by precedent and the
division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising
jurisdiction in this matter.”
Still, the ruling said it “implores
defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military
siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
The judge explained his decision that
the matter lay outside the jurisdiction of his court, because the Palestinian
groups were asking it to interfere with US foreign policy.
“Because any determination to challenge
the decision of the executive branch of government on support of Israel is
fraught with serious political questions, the claims presented by plaintiffs
here lie outside the court’s limited jurisdiction,” White said.
Israel's war on Gaza 'plausibly' amounts
to genocide
The court also ruled that Israel’s war
on Gaza, which began in early October, “plausibly” amounts to genocide.
“Yet, as the ICJ [International Court of
Justice] has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide,”
the judge said.
The case was brought by Palestinian
human rights groups and individual Palestinians against the US president, his
secretary of state Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs disputed
the court’s jurisdictional finding, indicating an argument for a potential
appeal or request for the case to be reconsidered.
Brad Parker, a senior adviser at Defense
for Children International Palestine — one of the two organizational plaintiffs
in the case — described the court’s decision as “disappointing.”
“We know that US weapons are integral in
the genocide that we’re documenting as a Palestinian human rights
organization,” The Intercept quoted him as saying.
“It’s clear what President Biden’s
complicity is in the destruction of Palestinian life,” Parker said.
Ahmed Abofoul, a Palestinian attorney at
Al Haq — the second organizational plaintiff — said, “The judge acknowledged
that genocide is being committed,” but that “basically what he was saying is
just that his hands are tied.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs vowed to do
everything “to end that complicity, and ultimately end the genocide.”
More than 27,000 Palestinians have so
far been killed in the war, into which the Biden administration has poured more
than 10,000 tons of military hardware.
Source: presstv.ir
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/02/719356/US-court-implores-Biden-to-reconsider-support-for-genocide-in-Gaza
-----
US hits 85 sites in Iraq, Syria linked
to Iran’s IRGC, militias after fatal drone attack
February 03, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — The US military
launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by
Iranian-backed militias and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed
three US troops in Jordan last weekend.
US President Joe Biden said in a
statement: “The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or
anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know
this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
Biden and other top US leaders had been
warning for days that America would strike back at the militias, and they made
it clear it wouldn’t be just one hit but a “tiered response” over time. Biden
made that point again in his statement, saying: “Our response began today. It
will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
The massive barrage of strikes hit more
than 85 targets at seven locations, including command and control headquarters,
intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites
and other facilities that were connected to the militias or the IRGC’s Quds
Force, the Guard’s expeditionary unit that handles Tehran’s relationship with
and arming of regional militias.
The US strikes appeared to stop short of
directly targeting Iran or senior leaders of the IRGC’s Quds Force within its
borders, as the US tries to prevent the conflict from escalating even further.
Iran has denied it was behind the Jordan attack.
National Security Council spokesman John
Kirby said the targets “were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties
and based on clear, irrefutable evidence that they were connected to attacks on
US personnel in the region.” He declined to detail what that evidence was.
The strikes took place over about 30
minutes, and three of the sites struck were in Iraq and four were in Syria,
said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Staff.
US Central Command said the strikes used
more than 125 precision munitions, and they were delivered by numerous
aircraft, including long-range B-1 bombers flown from the United States. Sims
said weather was a factor as the US planned the strikes in order to allow the
US to confirm it was hitting the right targets and avoiding civilian
casualties.
It’s not clear, however, whether militia
members were killed.
“We know that there are militants that
use these locations, IRGC as well as Iranian-aligned militia group personnel,”
Sims said. “We made these strikes tonight with an idea that there would likely
be casualties associated with people inside those facilities.”
Two Iraqi militia officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists
said that three houses used as headquarters were targeted in al-Qaim, Iraq,
including a weapons storage area. An operations headquarters of the Popular
Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias, in Akashat, Iraq,
and weapons stores were targeted.
The assault came just hours after Biden
and top defense leaders joined grieving families to watch as the remains of the
three Army Reserve soldiers were returned to the US at Dover Air Force Base in
Delaware.
It was unclear what the next steps will
be, or whether the days of US warnings have sent militia members scattering
into hiding, making it more difficult to detect and strike them. But it was
evident that the recent statement released by Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the main
Iran-backed militias, saying it was suspending attacks on American troops had
no impact on the administration’s plans.
Just Friday morning, Iran’s hardline
President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated earlier promises by Tehran to potentially
retaliate for any US strikes targeting its interests. We “will not start a war,
but if a country, if a cruel force wants to bully us, the Islamic Republic of
Iran will give a strong response,” Raisi said.
In a statement this week, Kataeb
Hezbollah announced “the suspension of military and security operations against
the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi
government.” But Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the other major Iran-backed groups,
vowed Friday to continue military operations against US troops.
The US has blamed the Islamic Resistance
in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the deadly attack in
Jordan, but has not yet narrowed it down to a specific group. Kataeb Hezbollah
is, however, a top suspect.
Some of the militias have been a threat
to US bases for years, but the groups intensified their assaults in the wake of
Israel’s war against Hamas following the October 7 attack on Israel that killed
1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage.
The war has led to the deaths of more
than 27,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the
Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The terror group’s figures are unverified,
don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, and list all the
fatalities as caused by Israel — even those believed to have been caused by
hundreds of misfired rockets or otherwise by Palestinian fire.
Israel has previously said it has killed
some 10,000 Hamas members, in addition to some 1,000 killed in Israel in the
aftermath of the terror group’s October 7 invasion and onslaught.
Iran-backed militia groups throughout
the region have used the conflict to justify striking Israeli or US interests,
including threatening civilian commercial ships and US warships in the Red Sea
region with drones or missiles in almost daily exchanges.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday,
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that “this is a dangerous moment in the
Middle East.” He added, “We will take all necessary actions to defend the
United States, our interests and our people. And we will respond when we
choose, where we choose and how we choose.”
“At this point, it’s time to take away
even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said.
As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia
groups had launched 166 attacks on US military installations since Oct. 18,
including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a US
military official. The last attack was January 29 at al-Asad airbase in Iraq,
and there were no injuries or damage.
The US, meanwhile, has bolstered
defenses at the base in Jordan that was attacked by the Iran-backed militants
on Sunday, according to a US official.
And the Israeli military said its Arrow
defense system intercepted a missile that approached the country from the Red
Sea, raising suspicion it was launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The rebels did
not immediately claim responsibility.
A US official also said the military had
taken additional self-defense strikes inside Yemen Friday against Houthi
military targets deemed an imminent threat. Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite
news channel, said that British and American forces conducted three strikes in
the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, a Houthi stronghold.
While previous US responses in Iraq and
Syria have been more limited, the attack on Tower 22, as the Jordan outpost is
known, and the deaths of the three service members crossed a line, the official
said.
That drone attack, which also injured
more than 40 service members — largely Army National Guard — was the first to
result in US combat deaths from the Iran-backed militias since the war between
Israel and Hamas broke out. Tower 22 houses about 350 US troops and sits near
the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border
is only 6 miles (10 kilometers) away.
Also on Friday, the US Treasury imposed
new sanctions on a network of firms in Iran and Hong Kong that are accused of
helping Iran procure technology to make ballistic weapons and drones. And the
US hit six Iranian officials with sanctions for allegedly committing a series
of malicious cyber activities against critical infrastructure in the US and
other nations.
Source: timesofisrael.com
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-hits-hard-at-irans-irgc-sites-in-iraq-and-syria-following-fatal-drone-attack/
----
Europe
Islamist extremists including youth who
failed to report chemical bomb plot jailed
02 February 2024
Al-Arfat Hassan, 21, from Enfield, was
sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing chemicals for a terrorist
purpose. A youth, 17, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for
failure to disclose his knowledge relating to the terrorist activities of
Hassan. Both were also convicted of possession of an Islamic State video.
They were sentenced today at the Central
Criminal Court.
The youth, from Leeds, failed to tell
the police about Hassan’s terrorist activities despite being fully aware of
Hassan’s intentions as evidenced by text messages and voicenotes shared between
them.
They both viewed the Islamic State
propaganda video which provided detailed instructions on manufacturing
explosives, a bomb and killing people with knives.
The CPS presented evidence that Hassan
and the youth were dedicated to Islamic State inspired extremist beliefs. This
included showing the jury a video of Hassan where he held a samurai sword and
exchanged messages with another person stating he was prepared for martyrdom.
He bought knives and purchased chemicals
online that he intended to use to construct an improvised explosive device. One
of the knives was of the same type used to carry out an execution featured in
the Islamic State instructional video he and the youth had viewed.
He also created drill music videos with
lyrics referring to Alan Henning, a British man taken hostage and killed by
Islamic State, and James Foley, a US journalist captured and killed in Syria.
Hassan and the youth also downloaded a
substantial amount of Islamic State video content that glorified terrorism.
In relation to the youth, the jury was
shown evidence that he bought a knife and tried to purchase other knives, in
addition to exchanging almost daily extremist messages and graphics over a
number of months with Hassan.
Nick Price, Head of the CPS Counter
Terrorism Division, said: “Al-Arfat Hassan claimed to be a provocative digital
music creator, but the evidence was clear that he had a violent, extremist
mindset and was taking active steps to prepare to commit terrorist acts.
“Hassan said he wanted to kill
thousands, and he had a plan and location in mind. His collection of knives and
items to create an explosive device showed these were not idle boasts.
“The youth in this case had a fixation
with killing in the name of religion. He told the court that he had been
supporting Al-Arfat Hassan through a difficult time when in fact he was
enthusiastically encouraging him to carry out a bomb attack.
“Thanks to the work of the UK’s counter
terrorism police, and dedicated CPS prosecutors, these individuals have been
convicted of these dangerous crimes.”
Source: cps.gov.uk
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/islamist-extremists-including-youth-who-failed-report-chemical-bomb-plot-jailed
----
Anti-war movement in Greece denounces
country's plan to host EU's Red Sea mission
Ahmet Gencturk
02.02.2024
A Greek anti-war movement denounced the
government’s plan to host the EU’s mission for the Red Sea in the central city
of Larissa.
“We note that the Houthis are attacking
ships going to or coming from Israel, demanding an end to the slaughter of
Palestinians. Instead of Greece calling for an end to the genocide, which would
allow, among other things, the restoration of free and safe navigation, it
attacks those who are trying to stop it,” the Anti-War Movement in Larissa said
in a statement, according to the daily Documento.
Furthermore, the statement maintained
that the country is increasingly getting involved in the war in Ukraine by
sending arms, contributing to EU efforts to support Ukraine, and hosting US
military assets and troops.
“In the event of a further escalation of
the war in Ukraine, as well as the country's participation in military
operations in the Middle East, the targeting of Larissa and our country is not
a fantasy scenario but an immediate and real danger,” it said.
Therefore, it added: “No one should be
kept quiet by the latest developments. The possibility of generalization of war
is more visible than ever, and vigilance and action are required to prevent
dangerous governmental designs.”
Source: aa.com.tr
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/anti-war-movement-in-greece-denounces-countrys-plan-to-host-eus-red-sea-mission/3126168
-----
German lawmakers bemoan launch of
pro-Erdoğan Islamist party just days after MPs expedited citizenship and voting
rights for 2.5 million migrants
February 02, 2024
THOMAS BROOKE
Politicians from the mainstream parties
in Germany have expressed their concern over the registration of a new
political party sympathetic to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — a move
that may lay the foundations for an increasing Islamic community to enjoy
significant representation in the Bundestag.
The Democratic Alliance for Diversity
and Awakening (DAVA) has been authorized to contest the European Parliamentary
elections in June this year and has plans to stand across the whole of Germany
in the next federal elections.
The party is an offshoot of Erdoğan’s
Justice and Development Party (AKP), the largest political party in Turkey and
the sixth-largest political party in the world by membership.
DAVA leader TeyfikÖzcan said earlier
this week his aim is for the party to “establish itself nationwide.” Another
leading figure in the party, FatihZingal, said the new group would defend the
rights of “people with foreign roots” and campaign against “anti-Muslim
racism.”
Özcan further denied that party
officials had any contact “with representatives of foreign governments either
before it was founded or after it was founded.” However, Germany’s mainstream
politicians aren’t so sure and have gone public with their grave concerns that
a party with ties, directly or indirectly, with Turkish Islamists will damage
German democracy.
“An Erdoğan offshoot running for
election here is the last thing we need,” said Germany’s Green Agriculture
Minister CemÖzdemir, a German-born politician with Turkish-born parents.
Long-serving conservative politician,
Jens Spahn (CDU), feared that DAVA would become “another extremist party” in
Germany.
Deputy chairwoman of the governing
Social Democrats (SPD) Serpil Midyatli — another German politician born to
Turkish immigrants — told Tagesspiegel that “there is more than enough evidence
that Erdoğan and the AKP are behind DAVA.”
“It is to be feared that there will be
massive advertising in some circles. Apparently, there is great fear that
Erdoğan is worried about his influence thanks to the successful integration of
the vast majority of German Turks. For me it is clear: There should be no
financing and control from Ankara,” she added.
Iranian-born BijanDjir-Sarai, the
general secretary of the junior coalition partner Free Democratic Party (FDP),
warned that Dava “runs the risk of becoming an extension of Erdoğan’s
nationalist, Islamist, and anti-Semitic regime in Germany and the EU” and said:
“That shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”
Do Germany’s mainstream parties only
have themselves to blame?
Yet, politicians from the governing
federal coalition aren’t exactly helping themselves.
While complaining that such a party
could be used as a political vehicle for Erdoğan’s Islamist ideology to
encroach on Germany’s political landscape, Berlin as recently as last month
passed a new controversial naturalization law, slashing the time required for
migrants to reside in Germany before they can claim citizenship and the right
to vote.
Foreign nationals living in Germany will
soon be able to obtain citizenship after just five years instead of the
previous eight, and in some cases, migrants who can show “special integration
performance” will be instantly naturalized after just three years of residence.
The new law also relaxes the requirement
for elderly foreign nationals to show proficiency in the German language, while
children of foreigners who have lived in Germany for five years or more will be
automatically naturalized.
Critics of the new policy claimed the
federal government was pushing through the legislation for political gain in a
bid to expand voting rights to those with migrant backgrounds more amenable to
voting for left-wing parties.
However, the government’s plan could
soon backfire with the introduction of Islamist parties to Germany’s political
discourse which may resonate more with Germany’s new voters.]
Source: rmx.news
Please click the following URL to read
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https://rmx.news/germany/german-lawmakers-bemoan-launch-of-pro-erdogan-islamist-party-just-days-after-mps-expedited-citizenship-and-voting-rights-for-2-5-million-migrants/
-----
UK Muslims should 'punish Labour' over
lack of Gaza ceasefire by not voting, says Ghassan Abu Sitta
02 February, 2024
Sofia Aboudari
Renowned British-Palestinian doctor
Ghassan Abu Sitta has urged UK Muslims to "punish" the Labour Party
for its role in perpetuating Israel's war on Gaza.
Abu Sitta, who spent over 40 days as a
volunteer performing surgery in the Gaza Strip as part of a Doctors Without
Borders medical team, has urged British Muslims to refrain from backing
politicians who voted against a permanent ceasefire for the war-torn enclave.
In a post on X earlier this week, the
doctor said: "The Labour party must be punished. Labour politicians who
have the blood of children on their complicitous hands should never get the
Muslim vote."
Speaking to The New Arab on Thursday,
Abu Sitta said Muslims should not show their support in the polls for any
politician who voted against a ceasefire for Gaza, irrespective of the party
they belong to.
"I think the Muslim vote should not
go to any politician, from Labour or the Conservatives, who voted against the
ceasefire," Abu Sitta said.
"These politicians have the blood
of Palestinian women, children and men on their hands."
"Muslims in the UK need to
organise, and need to find those politicians who voted for the continuation of
the war and make this a career-ending move," he urged.
"Only then in the future,
politicians will think long and hard about not doing this and taking the Muslim
vote for granted."
More than 27,000 people have been killed
in Gaza since Israel launched war on the Palestinian territory on 7 October.
In the almost four months since the war
began, there have been widespread calls for a ceasefire in Gaza that would
dramatically reduce bloodshed and allow humanitarian aid to enter the enclave
and be distributed to those in need.
British MPs voted at the House of
Commons in November against such a ceasefire, including a majority of MPs from
the Labour Party.
Many MPs from Labour, a party that
historically has a strong Muslim voter base, rebelled against its leadership in
response to the vote. Some resigned from the party in protest.
Party leader Keir Starmer has also on
multiple occasions insisted on Israel’s so-called right to
"self-defence", despite the ever-mounting death toll and destruction
in the Palestinian territory.
New parties have also emerged to
challenge Labour seats in future elections.
The party appears to be reeling from the
rebellion, with it reportedly polling Muslim voters as part of "damage
control" amid discontent over its position on Gaza.
Abu Sitta, an award-winning surgeon with
decades of experience, has spoken on several occasions of the horrors he
witnessed in Gaza under Israeli bombing treating wounded Palestinians.
"The kind of pressure the vote in
parliament would have put if the government and the leadership of the Labour
Party had been defeated, could’ve ended the war earlier," Abu Sitta said
on the vote for a ceasefire.
Source: newarab.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.newarab.com/news/uk-muslims-should-punish-labour-over-gaza-dr-abu-sitta
------
WHO chief warns of disease outbreaks due
to 'inhumane condition' at Gaza's European Hospital
BurakBir
02.02.2024
The head of the World Health
Organization (WHO) Friday expressed his concern over the condition of the
European Hospital in southern Gaza, saying the situation increases the risk of
disease outbreaks.
TedrosAdhanomGhebreyesus said that
22,000 people are sheltering at the European Hospital in southern Gaza due to
the ongoing intensive fighting in Khan Younis, which also impedes access to the
hospital.
"@WHO team and partners yesterday
witnessed extreme crowding inside the facility — truly inhumane conditions for
patients, health workers and those without a safe place to shelter," he
wrote on X.
Saying that the 670-bed capacity
hospital now serves 800 patients, Ghebreyesus noted that the emergency
department, intensive care unit, surgery and wound care, child and neonatal
care, and laboratory and radiology services have limited functionality.
"Limited access to clean water and
sanitation increases the risk of disease outbreaks," said the WHO chief,
reiterating his call for a cease-fire.
Israel has killed more than 27,000
people in the Gaza Strip in response to the Oct. 7 cross-border offensive by
Hamas, which took the lives of 1,200 people. The military onslaught has caused
mass displacement and destruction and created conditions for famine in Gaza.
Source: aa.com.tr
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/who-chief-warns-of-disease-outbreaks-due-to-inhumane-condition-at-gazas-european-hospital/3126368
----
Pakistan
Imran claims receiving ‘offer’ as Iddat
case verdict due today
February 3, 2024
Malik Asad
ISLAMABAD: A local court on Friday
reserved its verdict in the case related to the marriage of former prime
minister Imran Khan with Bushra Bibi during the latter’s Iddat period.
Senior civil judge QudratUllah will
announce the decision on the complaint of Khawar Fareed Maneka on Saturday
(today) in a makeshift court at Adiala Jail.
Meanwhile, in a revealing interaction
with journalists during a recess in proceedings, Mr Khan confirmed backchannel
contacts with the powerful military establishment through Bushra Bibi, but
disclosed that he had refused a proposed ‘deal’.
The judge reserved judgement after
recording the statements of Mr Khan and Bushra Bibi under Section 342 of the
Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
During proceedings, the defence counsel
concluded the cross-examination of Khawar Fareed Maneka, the ex-husband of
Bushra Bibi; Aun Chaudhry, who was a witness to the Nikkah ceremony; and Mufti
Saeed, who solemnised the Nikkah.
During the cross-examination of Mufti
Saeed, the defence counsel argued that the witness was part of the team of
‘Operation Khalifa’, a coup attempt made in 1995.
The counsel alleged that Mufti Saeed was
arrested along with former Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi and ex-Brig
MustansarBillah for mutiny against the government, but later became an approver
against the army officers.
Mr Khan’s counsel also cross-examined Mr
Maneka on Friday.
A day earlier, Advocate Usman Riaz Gill
had cross-examined him in the same case. He questioned as to why Mr Maneka
remained silent from 2017 to Nov 24, 2023. He stated that Bushra Bibi’s
ex-husband filed the complaint after he was picked up in a corruption case and
had been detained for over a month.
The lawyer claimed that the complaint
was filed as an afterthought and under duress.
Talking to the media persons, Mr Maneka
dispelled the impression of enjoying perks during the PTI’s government. He
claimed that he learned about the marriage of his ex-wife with Mr Khan through
the newspaper, and then a story by journalist Umar Cheema was published claiming
that the Nikkah was solemnised during the Iddat period.
“I also contacted Jahangir Tareen and he
assured me that the Nikkah would be reversed,” he said, adding that the
assurance never materialised.
‘Backchannel talks’
Meanwhile, talking to reporters during
the break, Imran Khan confirmed backchannel contacts with the establishment but
claimed that he had refused the offer. He once again dispelled the impression
that his spouse was shifted to Banigala to serve a 14-year sentence under a
deal.
Mr Khan said that someone in the
establishment indirectly approached Bushra Bibi and asked her to convince him
(Imran) to stand down for three years and behave nicely, and then he would be
given an open field based on ‘good conduct’.
The former premier said that the offer
was made before his conviction while he was in prison. “They want me to stay
quietly in Banigala,” he said.
Asked how he responded to the offer, Mr
Khan said, “I said that I will not step back from my demand of a democratic
system at any cost.”
He added, “I held several meetings with
former army chief retired Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa for holding of free and fair
elections. I will not accept any other deal.”
Mr Khan said that his message to the
military establishment was that they should think about the 250 million people
of Pakistan. “Rigged elections will lead to political instability in Pakistan,
and the economy that is on the life support line will collapse eventually,” he
said.
Mr Khan also claimed that the PML-N and
the Election Commission if Pakistan had planned to hijack the upcoming
elections.
“I would call all the political parties,
Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Peoples Party and others, to watch their votes,” he
said, urging all parties to ensure that Form-45 of every polling station must
be signed in the presence of their polling agents.
Mr Khan, however, rejected the idea of
getting PPP’s support, saying that “the day I seek help from (Asif Ali) Zardari
would be judgement day”.
Mr Khan also alleged that ex-Gen Bajwa
started conspiring against his government from the very beginning of the PTI’s
regime. He also claimed that PML-N leader Khawaja Asif was a close friend of Mr
Bajwa’s father-in-law.
“Gen Bajwa, in order to get a second
extension, connived with Shehbaz Sharif. They could have toppled the PTI regime
much earlier, but they had to delay the regime change plan because of the
coronavirus outbreak,” Mr Khan claimed. However, he offered no explanation on
why his regime gave the former army chief an extension if they suspected his
intentions.
Mr Khan also claimed that the former
army chief “fabricated the cipher case” against him, whereas it was a
conspiracy against the elected regime.
He alleged that in a meeting with him at
the Prime Minister House, a high-ranking member of the military establishment
had advised him not to raise the cipher issue in public.
Mr Khan also claimed that he had never
thought of elevating the former ISI chief Faiz Hamid to the post of army chief.
“Gen Bajwa conveyed to the PML-N that I wanted to appoint Faiz Hamid as the army
chief,” he added.
Source: dawn.com
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1810851/imran-claims-receiving-offer-as-iddat-case-verdict-due-today
----
24 terrorists killed in three-day
Balochistan action: ISPR
February 03, 2024
By Muhammad Anis
RAWALPINDI: Security forces killed 24
terrorists during a clearance operation which was completed on Friday following
attacks on Mach and Kolpur Complexes in Balochistan.
On the night of January 29 and 30, terrorists
attacked Mach and Kolpur Complexes which was repulsed.
“The terrorists were then hunted down in
the ensuing sanitisation and clearance operations which have now been concluded
after clearing and securing the area,” Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR)
said in a statement on Friday.
A total of 24 terrorists have been
gunned down during the three-day operation.
Shehzad Baloch, Attaullah, Salahuddin,
Abdul Wadood and Zeeshan are key terrorists among the dead. The identification
process of the remaining terrorists is in process.
However, during an intense exchange of
fire, four LEAs members along with civilians were martyred.
Source: thenews.com.pk
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https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1154132-24-terrorists-killed-in-three-day-balochistan-action-ispr
----
ECP-Sindh issue notices to JI, MQM-P,
PML-N and MQM-H
2024-02-03
KARACHI: Election Commission of Pakistan
(ECP) Sindh has issued notices to Jamaat-e-Islami, Muttahida Qaumi Movement
Pakistan (MQM-P), Muslim League-N and MQM Haqiqi candidates and sought
explanations for the violation of election code of conduct in the city.
Officials said ECP is ensuring a strict
monitoring of code of conduct across the province.
The District Monitoring Officer Korangi
has sought an explanation while issuing notices to the workers of JI, MQM-P,
PML-N and MQM-H on illegal actions in PS 91 Korangi.
A notice was issued to an independent
candidate in PS 100 District East for violating the code of conduct, an
explanation was sought.
The monitoring teams of the Election
Commission conducted operation against the illegal use of signboards, posters
and banners, flags, and all other advertising materials in public places,
parks, government offices in Karachi East, Keamari, and Central.
Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh
Sharifullah while issuing instructions to the District Monitoring Officers has
said that the full implementation of the code of conduct should be ensured in
any case.
Source: brecorder.com
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.brecorder.com/news/40287099/ecp-sindh-issue-notices-to-ji-mqm-p-pml-n-and-mqm-h
---
Imran awaits decision on 4 other serious
cases
February 03, 2024
Kasim Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: With three convictions
already announced, Imran Khan awaits decisions on at least four other serious
cases against him.
The three convictions against Imran Khan
involve two Toshakhana cases and one cipher case. However, former prime
minister Imran Khan is yet to discover the outcome of the Al-Qadir trust scam
involving 190m pounds, May 9 riots cases, ‘unIslamic’ Marriage Case and
Contempt case being heard by Election Commission of Pakistan. In the past week,
Imran Khan has been sentenced for 10 years in jail in the Cipher case along
with Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
On the very next day, in Toshakhana
reference, Imran Khan was jailed for another 14 years along with his spouse
Bushra Bibi with a fine of Rs787 million each.
Whereas, previously, Khan was convicted
in a separate Toshakhana case on Aug 5, and sentenced to three-year
imprisonment by an Islamabad district court. The High Court had suspended his
sentence in the same Toshakhana case; however, the court had later rejected
Imran Khan’s another petition requesting for suspension of his conviction.
Nevertheless, with these three
convictions already announced, Imran Khan still awaits decisions on at least
four other serious cases against him.
On Dec 1, 2023, the National
Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a corruption reference against Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan, his wife Bushra
Bibi and six others in the Accountability Court in the £190 million National
Crime Agency (NCA) scam commonly known as the Al-Qadir Trust case.
Imran Khan also awaits indictment in
different May 9 riot cases. Last month, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) extended
the judicial remand of Imran Khan along with Shah Mehmood Qureshi till February
6.
On Jan 16, a trial court indicted former
prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi in an ‘unIslamic’ marriage
case. Later a petition was filed for dismissal of this case which was rejected
by the Islamabad High Court Judge Justice Amir Farooq.
The Election Commission of Pakistan
(ECP) has also proceeded in a contempt case against Imran Khan for allegedly
hurling contemptuous remarks against the electoral watchdog. Khan filed a
petition in Lahore High Court challenging his jail trial in this contempt case.
In August 2023, IK was convicted in
Toshakhana case and sentenced to three-year imprisonment by Islamabad District
Court following a reference by the Election Commission.
Whereas the recent sentence of 14 years
was in connection with the NAB reference involving alleged under-valued
purchase of Graff jewelry set gifted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman
to the former first couple, Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi.
Recently, The News reported that NAB is
working on a new reference against Khan which is about the remaining gifts that
IK received and retained at a nominal price and which were not accounted for in
the previous challan. There were around 108 sets of gifts Khan got and 58 of
them were retained by paying an amount that was allegedly far less than their
market value. The value of those is being re-assessed to determine the
difference between the amount paid and what should have been paid.
Source: thenews.com.pk
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1154118-imran-awaits-decision-on-4-other-serious-cases
----
Stay of 1.3m illegal immigrants extended
February 03, 2024
ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has
approved the extension of the stay of 1.3 million illegal immigrants.
According to sources, the extension of proof
of residence card was approved on the summary of the Ministry of Saffron.
Extension of stay of Afghan refugees till March 2024 has been approved. The
Cabinet Division had earlier returned the Saffron ministry’s summary with
objection. The decision to extend was made on the recommendation of the
coordination cell related to Afghanistan.
Pakistan once again showed generosity
and approved the request of the Afghan government. Due to the non-approval of
the extension, the stay of the refugees had become illegal.
Source: thenews.com.pk
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1154120-stay-of-1-3m-illegal-immigrants-extended
----
Pakistan, China underscore commitment to
peaceful, stable Afghanistan
February 03, 2024
Pakistan and China have underscored
their commitment to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
This was emphasized during a meeting
between Additional Foreign Secretary (Afghanistan & West Asia) Ambassador
Rahim Hayat Qureshi and Chinese Special Envoy on Afghanistan Ambassador, Yue
Xiaoyong in Islamabad.
Both sides emphasized the need for
enhanced coordination for regional stability.
They also underlined the crucial role of
neighbouring countries of Afghanistan for a peaceful, stable and prosperous
region.
Source: radio.gov.pk
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.radio.gov.pk/03-02-2024/pakistan-china-underscore-commitment-to-peaceful-stable-afghanistan
----
South Asia
US to explore reopening consulate in
Afghanistan without recognizing Taliban rule
Fidel Rahmati
February 2, 2024
According to a report, the United States
is exploring the possibility of reopening its consulate in Afghanistan under
Taliban rule without formally recognizing the Taliban regime.
According to a newly released strategy
document from the State Department, the United States is “cautiously” and
without officially recognizing the Taliban, exploring the possibility of
reopening its consulate in Afghanistan under the group’s control, as reported
by the Voice of America.
This move indicates a possible change in
U.S. policy, moving towards limited engagement with the isolated Islamist
regime, to achieve various security, political, and economic objectives.
According to Voice of America, the State
Department’s guidance in this report states: “We support transparency and
accountability, along with access for American citizens to consular services,
in coordination with the Taliban.”
Nevertheless, a State Department
spokesperson told Khaama Press that there has been no change in the U.S.
position, and they reiterated this stance. “no near-term plans to return any
diplomatic functions to Kabul.”
Even though the strategy paper talks
about planning to return to Kabul, the spokesperson didn’t provide any details
about where and how they might set up a consular access mission in Kabul in the
future.
In the new U.S. State Department report,
it is stated: “Even as the United States does not officially recognize the
Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, we must establish
effective working relationships with them to advance our goals and increase our
understanding of the Taliban’s readiness and ability to fulfil their
commitments to [Washington].”
According to the report, the United
States’ new strategy encompasses four areas, including counterterrorism
efforts, economic assistance, local engagement, and the provision of consular
services to American citizens, as well as aiding Afghan migration to the United
States.
The document also emphasizes support for
the work of the U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs in securing the release
of American hostages detained in Afghanistan.
Voice of America also reports that the
document underscores the United States’ commitment to discussing the
fundamental rights of the Afghan people, particularly the rights of women and
girls.
Following the fall of the previous
government and the Taliban’s takeover, the United States closed its embassy in
Afghanistan, and this institution currently operates under its staff in Doha.
Source: khaama.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.khaama.com/us-to-explore-reopening-consulate-in-afghanistan-without-recognizing-taliban-rule/
---
US inspector warns Congress; ISIS
threats resurge in Afghanistan
Fidel Rahmati
February 2, 2024
The Special Inspector General for
Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has issued a report to the United States
Congress, raising concerns about the resurgence of Al-Qaeda threats in
Afghanistan.
In this report, the inspector stated
that the Al-Qaeda leader, likely located in Afghanistan, has issued statements
demanding attacks on U.S., European, and Israeli embassies and buildings.
The inspector presented his quarterly
report to the U.S. Congress on Thursday, February 1st underscoring the security
landscape in the country.
Within this report, the inspector
detailed America’s aid levels to Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover, as
well as the economic situation and human rights conditions in Afghanistan under
Taliban control.
The U.S. special inspector’s report
mentioned that following the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Al-Qaeda
leader based in Afghanistan released three press statements, in which he called
for attacks on U.S., European, and Israeli embassies and buildings.
According to the report, a sanctions
monitoring team had previously reported that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban still
maintain close ties, with the Taliban providing support to this group.
The inspector’s report also highlighted
an increase in ISIS attacks on Hazaras and Shia communities in Afghanistan and
stated that terrorist threats in Afghanistan have continued over the past three
months.
Earlier, the United Nations Security
Council had disclosed in a recent report that the Taliban maintains its
relations with Al-Qaeda, and the Al-Qaeda organization has established eight
new training camps in Afghanistan.
These four Al-Qaeda camps have been
created in the provinces of Ghazni, Logar, Paktia, and Zabul, and the
organization has set up an arms depot in Panjshir.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s
spokesperson, rejected the new information from the United Nations Security
Council regarding Al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan and called it a
“systematic plan” for spreading accusations and rumours against the Taliban.
Previously, the American magazine Long
War Journal had reported that some members of the Al-Qaeda network work as key
managers within the Taliban administration.
According to this report, the deputy
head of the Taliban’s intelligence department, the director of education for
the group’s defense ministry, and Taliban governors in Kapisa and Nuristan are
among the Al-Qaeda members working in the Taliban administration.
Source: khaama.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.khaama.com/us-inspector-warns-congress-isis-threats-resurge-in-afghanistan/
-----
Taliban’s Mining illegitimate, revenue
spending unclear: Ashraf Ghani
Fidel Rahmati
February 3, 2024
Ashraf Ghani, former President of
Afghanistan, says that mining extraction contracts handed over secretly by the
Taliban lack international legitimacy.
Mr. Ghani stated that it is unclear for
how long the Taliban is granting these mining contracts and where the revenues
from them are being used.
On Thursday, the 1st of February, Mr. Ghani spoke in a podcast
about Afghanistan’s economic situation, stating, “It is unclear on what
principles Afghanistan’s assets are acquired, and where the proceeds from what
is sold go.”
The Taliban has claimed that it will
award mining extraction through voluntary means. However, there is no mechanism
in place to create transparency regarding the process of awarding these mines
to companies.
Furthermore, due to limited access to
information, there is little data available regarding the income generated from
mines and how these revenues are used.
Ashraf Ghani stated that Afghanistan’s
illicit economy has a very close connection to the global criminal network.
According to him, the latest United Nations report shows that the exports of
two types of drugs, heroin and amphetamines, from Afghanistan to various
countries have increased.
The former President of Afghanistan
commented on mining extraction contracts, saying, “It is unclear under what
conditions the Taliban auction Afghanistan’s mines, and these contracts are
conducted unlawfully in broad daylight, lacking international legitimacy.”
He added that the capital from these
mines belongs to all the people of Afghanistan, but it is not used in accordance
with the law and transparently, with “everything happening behind the scenes.”
Ashraf Ghani highlighted China’s broken
promises during his presidency. He explained that China had pledged to support
oil extraction contracts in MesAynak and northeast Afghanistan by providing
electricity, constructing railways to coal mines, and establishing industrial
facilities. However, when the time came to deliver on these commitments, China
did not follow through on its word.
Ashraf Ghani says that Afghanistan cannot
rely solely on customs revenues; its economy needs fundamental development, and
a regular financial system must be established to distribute resources equally
in all sectors, allowing people to stand on their own feet.
He also added that there are signs of
corruption in the Taliban’s customs, but this corruption is still in its early
stages.
In addition, Ashraf Ghani in this
podcast compared the government’s revenues during the Republic period with
those of the Taliban and stated that the Taliban’s domestic revenues have not
increased compared to the Republic period.
However, he admitted that the Taliban
has increased the level of taxation on the general public, worsening the
economic situation of the people compared to the Republic era.
Source: khaama.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story\
https://www.khaama.com/talibans-mining-illegitimate-revenue-spending-unclear/
----
Expelled Afghan migrants from Pakistan
borrow money to survive: WFP
Fidel Rahmati
February 2, 2024
The World Food Program (WFP) has
recently announced that Afghan returnees forcibly expelled from Pakistan are
currently borrowing money just to survive.
The organization revealed this on
Thursday, February 1st, by releasing a video clip, stating that over half a
million Afghan migrants have been forcibly deported by the Pakistani government
in nearly five months.
The agency added that Afghan migrants
are now forced to borrow money just to survive, without any facilities or
support.
The organization’s website states that
currently almost all expelled migrants are in a state of confusion.
The World Food Program has stated that
some of these returning migrants are still hungry and, more than anything else,
they need food assistance.
This comes as the Ministry of Refugees
and Repatriations of the Taliban of Afghanistan announced yesterday that the
Japanese ambassador has reported 100 million yen in assistance for various
sectors to support returning migrants in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations
of the Taliban in Afghanistan, citing the Japanese ambassador in Kabul,
emphasized that this money will be used for shelter, tents, winter clothing
packages, and health sectors for Afghan migrants.
Source: khaama.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.khaama.com/expelled-afghan-migrants-from-pakistan-borrow-money-to-survive-wfp/
----
1,100' Drug Factories Demolished Since
Islamic Emirate's Return: Hamkar
MitraMajeedy
February 2, 2024
The deputy minister of Counter
Narcotics, Abdul Haq Hamkar, said that at least 1,100 drug factories have been
demolished since the return of the Islamic Emirate to power.
In an interview with TOLOnews, Hamkar
said that over 20,000 counternarcotics raids happened, in which more than
13,000 people have been arrested within the same period.
“Around 20,700 operations have been
conducted, in which 13,700 people have been arrested and introduced to the
Supreme Court,” he said.
According to Hamkar, based on the decree
of the Islamic Emirate’s leader, the cultivation and production of drugs in
Afghanistan has dropped.
He also criticized the international
community for not taking practical steps to help Afghanistan counter narcotics.
“The cultivation was demolished. We
assure everyone that the poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is eliminated,”
Hamkar said.
He said that over 3 million drug addicts
are currently in Afghanistan and that more than 100,000 of them have been
collected by the interim government.
“We have collected and treated the drug
addicts who didn’t have shelters. Some of them now have good lives and are at
home,” Hakmar said.
The deputy minister for counternarcotics
said that approximately 15,000 hectares of land have been cleared poppy
cultivation and cannabis for hashish.
Source: tolonews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-187252
---
Rights Group Proposes Criteria for
Representatives at Doha Meeting
HadiaZiaei
February 2, 2024
Human Rights Defenders Plus (HRD+)
proposed a criteria for the participation of civil society representatives in
the Doha conference.
The Human Rights Defenders in a proposal
said: “The Human Rights Defenders Plus (HRD+) welcomes both the holding of this
conference and the invitation of representatives of civil society and human
rights defenders to this conference.”
According to HRD+’s proposal, to
maintain transparency and strive for greater impact, it asks that the following
criteria be considered when selecting civil society representatives:
Selection through a clear and
transparent channel: The United Nations must have a clear and transparent
mechanism for the selection of real civil society representatives inside and
outside the country so that those who attend the session on behalf of civil
society and human rights defenders have the necessary legitimacy.
Full commitment to human rights values:
Individuals attending the session on behalf of civil society and human rights
defenders must have a firm commitment to human rights values and an acceptable
track record in defending these values, and are selected in consultation with
civil society bodies and human rights defenders.
Lack of political and ideological
affiliation: Due to the sensitivity of the topic, persons who have political
affiliations and ideological commitments to political and religious movements
should not attend this meeting as representatives of civil society and human
rights activists.
Accountability and regular communication
of representatives: The representatives of civil society and human rights
defenders at this conferece must have strong communication and the ability to
respond to the main body of civil society and be accountable for their actions
and responses at the conference.
The significant and prominent role of
women: Due to the prevalence of gender apartheid in Afghanistan, at least half
of the civil society representatives should be women human rights defenders so
that they can directly convey the voice of protest and the views of women to
the other participants.
The English language requirement:
Knowledge of English should not be a criterion for participation in the
conference and should not prevent women human rights defenders in particular
from attending the conference.
Meanwhile, some women's rights activists
inside the country want the United Nations to provide opportunities for women
who operate inside the country to participate in the Doha conference.
Tafsir Syahposh, a women’s rights
activist, told TOLOnews: "It has more effects because those who live in
Afghanistan are aware of all the cases, but the women who are outside
Afghanistan, we are not saying that they cannot represent, but they do not know
the cases that we know inside Afghanistan."
"The pain we are suffering and the
human crisis that the nation is facing currently, especially women -- only we
can express our pain, not those who are outside of Afghanistan. They only lost
their positions and power," said FazelaSorosh, another women’s rights
activist.
The Doha conference will be hosted by
the United Nations on February 18th and will last for two days.
Source: tolonews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-187242
----
Mideast
Israeli restrictions prevent thousands
from attending al-Aqsa Friday prayers
02 February 2024
Israeli restrictions prevented thousands
of Palestinians from holding Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, with officials
saying only 13,000 of the faithful could enter the mosque's compound.
Over 50,000 Palestinians attend Friday
prayers in the mosque on regular Fridays, according to the Islamic Endowments
Department in al-Quds.
The regime has imposed restrictions on
the entry of Palestinians into the mosque since it launched its brutal
onslaught against Gaza. The regime's troops intensify those restrictions on
Fridays.
Palestinian media reports said Israeli
forces allowed only the elderly people to get inside the mosque.
Hundreds of Palestinians held prayers in
the streets of the Old City of al-Quds amid the heavy presence of Israeli
forces.
Hundreds of settlers break into al-Aqsa
Mosque in al-Quds under the protection of Israeli forces, in yet another act of
desecration of the holy site.
This was the 17th Friday since October
7, when Israel launched an intense bombing campaign that has turned much of
Gaza to rubble and killed over 27,000 people, mostly women and children.
The regime's violence against
Palestinians in al-Quds and the wider West Bank has escalated concurrent with
the war on Gaza, with Palestinians saying over 6,600 Palestinians have been
arrested so far during the period.
Israeli settlers have also launched many
mob attacks on civilians in the West Bank.
Source: presstv.ir
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/02/719354/Israeli-restrictions-prevent-thousands-from-attending-al-Aqsa-Friday-Prayers
------
Al-Qassam Brigades announces the killing
of 15 Zionist soldiers from a distance of zero in Gaza City
[02/February/2024]
GAZA February 2. 2024 (Saba) - The
Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas,
announced on Friday evening that its fighters managed to kill 15 Zionist
soldiers from a distance of zero in the Jawazat area, west of Gaza City.
Al-Qassam said in a military statement,
"Our mujahideen managed to finish off 15 Zionist soldiers from zero
distance in the Jawazat area, west of Gaza City.
It also announced the destruction of a
Zionist troop carrier with a "Yassin 105" missile in the same area.
For its part, the Al-Quds Brigades, the
military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced that its fighters were
able to target a Zionist force of ten soldiers who were holed up in a house in
the Al-Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Yunis, with a "TPG" shell,
killing and wounding them.
The Al-Quds Brigades announced that it
had shelled with 60-caliber mortar shells a gathering of Zionist soldiers and
vehicles in the axis of progress west of Khan Yunis.
Source: saba.ye
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3301481.htm
---
UN estimates 17,000 Gaza children
separated from parents
February 03, 2024
GENEVA: The UN said on Friday it
estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left
unaccompanied or separated nearly four months into the war.
“Each one has a heartbreaking story of
loss and grief,” said Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the UN children’s agency
UNICEF in the Palestinian territories.
“This figure corresponds to 1 percent of
the overall displaced population — 1.7 million people,” he told a media
briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Jerusalem.
Crickx said that tracing who the
children were was proving “extremely difficult,” as sometimes they were brought
to a hospital where they may be wounded or in shock, and “they simply can’t
even say their names.”
He said that during conflicts, it was
common for extended families to take care of children who lost their parents.
However, in Gaza, “due to the sheer lack
of food, water or shelter, extended families are themselves distressed and face
challenges to immediately take care of another child as they themselves are
struggling to cater for their own children and family,” said Crickx.
Broadly, UNICEF terms separated children
as those who are without their parents, while unaccompanied children are those
who are separated and also without other relatives.
He said the mental health of children in
Gaza was being severely affected by the war.
“They present symptoms like extremely
high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite, they can’t sleep, they
have emotional outbursts or panic every time they hear the bombings,” he
explained.
Before the conflict erupted, UNICEF
estimated that more than 500,000 children in the Gaza Strip needed mental
health and psycho-social support.
Now it believes that “almost all
children are in need” of such help — more than one million children, said
Crickx.
“Children don’t have anything to do with
this conflict. Yet they are suffering like no child should ever suffer,” said
Crickx.
“No child should ever be exposed to the
level of violence seen on Oct. 7 — or to the level of violence that we have
witnessed since then.”
He called for a ceasefire so that UNICEF
could conduct a proper count of children who are unaccompanied or separated,
trace relatives, and deliver mental health support.
Source: arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2453011/middle-east
----
Deadly strikes hit ‘pressure cooker’
Rafah ahead of Gaza truce push
February 03, 2024
GAZA: Deadly strikes were reported early
Saturday in the overcrowded Gaza border town of Rafah — dubbed a “pressure
cooker of despair” by the UN — as international mediators readied a new push to
seal a tentative truce deal between Israel and Hamas.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced
Palestinians have fled south to Rafah since the outbreak of the war, with the
former city of 200,000 now housing more than half of Gaza’s two million-plus
population, a WHO representative said Friday.
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency
OCHA said it was deeply concerned about the escalation of hostilities in nearby
Khan Yunis, which have pushed more and more people south in recent days.
“Most are living in makeshift
structures, tents or out in the open,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said during a
briefing in Geneva.
“Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair,
and we fear for what comes next.”
An AFP journalist in the city heard
powerful explosions shortly after midnight on Saturday, with the Hamas-run
health ministry later reporting 14 people killed in two strikes there.
The ministry said more than 100 people
in total were killed across the territory overnight.
Abdulkarim Misbah, one of the many people
seeking refuge in Rafah, said he had first left his home in the northern
Jabalia refugee camp for Khan Yunis, only to be uprooted again.
“We escaped last week from death in Khan
Yunis, without bringing anything with us. We didn’t find a place to stay. We
slept on the streets the first two nights. The women and children slept in a
mosque,” the 32-year-old father said.
The family later received a donated
tent, setting it up right beside the Egyptian border.
“My four children are shivering from the
cold. They feel sick and unwell all the time,” he said.
Winter storms and torrential rain lashed
Gaza on Friday, with some people wearing hazmat suits left over from the Covid
pandemic as protection against the harsh weather.
Mounting deaths
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s
unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of
around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on
official figures.
Militants also seized about 250
hostages, and Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 27 believed to
have been killed.
In response, Israel launched a withering
offensive that has killed at least 27,131 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly
women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said
Friday that an estimated 17,000 children in Gaza had been left unaccompanied or
separated from their parents due to the war.
“Each one has a heartbreaking story of
loss and grief,” said spokesman Jonathan Crickx.
Nearly four months of fighting have
devastated the coastal strip, while an Israeli siege has resulted in dire
shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines.
Image analysis released Friday by the
UN’s satellite center UNITAR based on footage collected on January 6 and 7
showed that “approximately 30 percent” of Gaza’s structures had been affected
by the war.
The International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), meanwhile, announced the deaths of
three Palestinian Red Crescent workers — two on Wednesday and one on Friday —
around Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis.
“Any attack on health care workers,
ambulances, and medical facilities is unacceptable,” the IFRC said in a
statement.
Truce talks
The soaring civilian death toll in Gaza,
as well as fears among Israelis over the fate of the hostages, have fueled
calls for a truce.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
will travel to the Middle East yet again in the coming days to press a new
proposal involving the release of Israeli hostages in return for a pause in the
fighting, the State Department said.
Blinken will visit Qatar and Egypt — the
mediators of the proposal — as well as Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi
Arabia starting Sunday, it added.
The trip — his fifth since the war broke
out — comes after Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said there
were hopes of “good news” about a fresh pause to the fighting “in the next
couple of weeks.”
He said a truce proposal thrashed out in
Paris earlier this week had “been approved by the Israeli side” and received a
“positive” initial response from Hamas as well.
However, a source close to the group
told AFP: “There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet — the
factions have important observations — and the Qatari statement is rushed and
not true.”
A Hamas source said it had been
presented with a plan involving an initial six-week pause in fighting that
would see more aid delivered into Gaza and exchanges of certain Israeli
hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The leaders of Hamas and its Gaza ally
Islamic Jihad, Qatar-based Ismail Haniyeh and Ziyad Al-Nakhalah, respectively,
discussed the latest development and said any future ceasefire must lead to “a
full withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Gaza, Haniyeh’s office said.
Expanding tensions
The war has sparked a surge in attacks
by Iran-backed groups in the region in support of the Palestinians.
The US military launched a wave of air
strikes against Iranian forces and Tehran-backed fighters in Iraq and Syria on
Friday in retaliation for a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US
soldiers on Sunday.
US forces in the Middle East and their
allies have faced stepped-up attacks since the war in Gaza began, coming under
fire more than 165 times since mid-October.
Friday’s air strikes were directed at
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and “affiliated militia
groups,” and hit “more than 85 targets,” the US Central Command said in a
statement.
Also on Friday, the Israeli army said
its defense system “successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface missile that
approached Israeli territory in the area of the Red Sea,” with Yemen’s Houthi
rebels claiming they had fired missiles toward Israel.
Source: arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2453116/middle-east
-----
Raeisi: Iran’s response to any potential
attack would be ‘decisive and strong’
02 February 2024
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says
Tehran will not start a war but will give a decisive and strong response to any
adventurism seeking to bully the Islamic Republic.
"We have said many times that we
will not be the initiator of any war, but if a country or a cruel force wants
to bully the Islamic Republic of Iran, it will respond firmly," Raeisi
said in an address to a large crowd of people in the city of Minab in the
southern province of Hormozgan on Friday.
He said Iran's military power does not
pose any threat to the countries in West Asia but it is a source of security
that the regional states can rely on.
Raeisi said the enemies used to resort
to the language of threat against Iran and even said a military option was on
the table, but now they announce that they do not seek any confrontation with
the Islamic Republic.
Raeisi reiterated the deterrent nature
of Iran's military might.
The president further pointed to his
tour of an exhibition of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy
earlier in the day and said the enemies cannot tolerate such innovations by
Iranian experts and specialists.
US officials have in recent days spoken
of plans to launch a series of strikes against Iranian targets inside Iraq and
Syria in response to an attack that killed three American soldiers in Jordan at
the weekend. US President Joe Biden blamed what he called "Iranian-backed
groups" mainly based in Iraq for the attack, which also wounded at least
34.
Iran has denied any involvement in the
attacks on US forces in the region, saying regional resistance groups do not
take orders from Tehran, nor does the Islamic Republic have a role in their
decisions to carry out retaliatory operations in defense of the Palestinian
people.
Source: presstv.ir
Please click the following URL to read
the text of the original story
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/02/719350/Iran-US-Raeisi-Minab-Hormozgan-attack-firm-response-IRGC-Navy-threat-language-
----
Another Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps adviser killed in Israeli attack in Syria
IkrameImaneKouachi
02.02.2024
A member of the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed on Friday in an air strike launched by the
Israeli army on the Syrian capital Damascus, according to Iran's semi-official
news agency.
Tasnim news agency reported that a
member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Saeed Ali Dadi, was killed in
the attack that targeted southern Damascus.
The agency noted that Dadi was a
“military advisor.”
On Friday, the Syrian regime's news
agency SANA announced that air defense systems responded to an "Israeli
aggression" that targeted points south of Damascus.
Since the onset of the Syrian civil war
in 2011, Israel has occasionally carried out attacks on military positions
belonging to Iran-backed groups and the Syrian army in Syria.
Source: aa.com.tr
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----
Battles continue across Gaza, with
conflict now Israel’s longest since 1948 war
2 February 2024
EMANUEL FABIAN
Intensive fighting continued throughout
the Gaza Strip Friday as Jerusalem and international actors awaited Hamas’s
officials response to a proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal.
And with Saturday set to be the 120th
day of the Israel-Hamas war, a new milestone was set this week as the conflict
became Israel’s longest open war since 1948’s War of Independence. Though that
war, at some 20 months, is unlikely to be surpassed, the war is now longer than
the First Lebanon War (1982; 116 days), and far longer than the Second Lebanon
War (2006; 34 days), the Yom Kippur War (1973; 19 days) and the Six Day War
(1967; six days).
There is no clear end in sight to the
ongoing war, with Israel insisting that even should a deal be struck for a
truce and the release of Israeli captives, such a pause would be temporary and
the war will not end until Hamas is removed from power in the territory.
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday
that troops killed dozens of Hamas gunmen in the Khan Younis area over the past
day, raiding several Hamas sites in the area, seizing weapons and carrying out
strikes on Hamas cells and buildings used by terror operatives.
Meanwhile, in central Gaza, the Navy
carried out strikes along the Strip’s coast, aiding ground forces of the Nahal
Brigade which is operating in the area, the IDF said.
In northern Gaza’s Shati camp, the IDF
said the 401st Armored Brigade killed more than 10 gunmen over the past day.
Separately, in an unusual incident
overnight, the IDF said the Iron Dome intercepted a “suspicious aerial target”
that infiltrated Israeli airspace from Gaza. An alert had sounded on the Home
Front Command’s mobile app in open areas, but not in any towns.
Meanwhile, the IDF said troops fighting
in Gaza had recovered documents detailing the use by Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad of mosques for terror purposes.
According to a military statement,
dozens of mosques across the Gaza Strip have arms dumps and tunnel entrances,
and also serve as “operational gathering points.” The IDF added that documents
recently found in Khan Younis show the extent of Hamas’s influence on religious
leaders in Gaza and “infiltration into local religious leadership positions
with the intent of promoting hate speech, instigating violence and encouraging
civilians to join terrorist groups.
“The exploitation of religious leaders
and mosques by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip for promoting
terrorism, storing explosives and carrying out attacks represents the grave
misuse of religious institutions for military operations, effectively turning
worshipers into human shields,” the statement charged.
The IDF also released footage and
detailed recent operations carried out by the 99th Division in the central Gaza
Strip. The division’s main objective is to hold a “corridor” splitting Gaza in
two, preventing Hamas operatives and weaponry from crossing from the southern
part of the Strip to its north.
In one operation, carried out by the
646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, the IDF said troops discovered a rocket
manufacturing plant in the Nuseirat area. In another operation, reservists of
the Yiftah Brigade raided a Hamas bank in central Gaza, where some NIS 100,000
in cash and intelligence documents were seized from an underground vault,
according to the IDF.
The IDF said the division’s 179th
Reserve Armored Brigade killed hundreds of Hamas gunmen in recent weeks,
destroyed several major Hamas tunnels, seized weapons, and demolished the
terror group’s sites.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said
Friday that at least 27,131 Palestinians had been killed and 66,287 had been
wounded in the war since October 7. The terror group’s figures are unverified,
don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, and list all the
fatalities as caused by Israel, while Israel assesses many were caused by
hundreds of misfired rockets or otherwise by Palestinian fire. Israel assesses
it has killed 10,000 Hamas operatives in Gaza fighting, in addition to some
1,000 killed in Israel during the terror group’s October 7 invasion and
onslaught.
On Thursday Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant vowed that the Israeli military will reach and dismantle Hamas’s Rafah
Brigade, just as it is currently working to do to its battalions in the Khan
Younis area of southern Gaza.
Gallant stated that ongoing operations
have severely weakened the terror group’s ability to wage war and that the
pressure will force it to agree to release hostages it kidnapped during the
October 7 attack on Israel.
“Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade boasted
that it would stand against the IDF, now it’s falling apart, and I am telling
you here, we are completing the mission in Khan Younis and we will also reach
Rafah and eliminate everyone there who is a terrorist who is trying to harm
us,” Gallant said.
He said the IDF’s operations in Khan
Younis were “progressing with impressive results,” and that it was “much more
difficult for Hamas.”
“They don’t have weapons, they don’t
have ammunition, they don’t have the ability to treat the wounded, they have
10,000 dead terrorists [throughout Gaza] and another 10,000 wounded who are not
functioning,” Gallant stated.
“It’s a blow that is eroding their
ability [to fight],” he said.
Gallant told the troops that their
actions, both above ground and underground in Khan Younis, “bring the return of
the hostages closer, because Hamas only understands strength.”
International mediators are making
efforts to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas that would see at least some
of the 136 hostages held in Gaza returned in exchange for a weeks-long truce
and the release of Palestinian security prisoners. If an agreement is reached,
it would be the first time captives are released since a week-long truce in
November, when 105 captives were freed from captivity.
War erupted between Israel and Hamas
with the terror group’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists
burst across the border by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and
seizing over 250 hostages of all ages — mostly civilians.
Vowing to destroy the terror group,
Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza.
Source: timesofisrael.com
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https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-says-battles-continue-across-gaza-conflict-now-longest-since-1948-independence-war/
----
Palestinian journalists: CPJ commits
$300,000 in immediate funding
2024-02-03
NEW YORK: The ongoing Israel-Gaza war
has had an unprecedented and devastating effect on journalists. By late January
2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had documented the killing of
more than 80 journalists and media workers in the conflict, the majority of
them Palestinian reporters trapped inside Gaza.
CPJ’s reporting also points to ongoing
press freedom violations across the occupied West Bank against journalists
reporting on the war, including assaults, arrests, information blackouts, and
the killing of family members.
Amid continuous airstrikes and the
blocking of international journalists from entering Gaza, local journalists are
on the frontlines of this story as they try to survive every day.
Like much of the civilian population of
Gaza, Palestinian journalists are struggling to cope with food, fuel, and water
shortages while lacking access to protective gear and sometimes unable to
recharge their phones or replace their damaged equipment.
To ensure that journalists have access
to basic supplies at this crucial time, CPJ has committed $300,000 in emergency
funds to support Palestinian journalists.
The funds are being disbursed via local
and regional organizations, namely the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate
(PJS), Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), and Palestinian NGO
Filastiniyat, who are best placed to assist and will cover equipment
replacement, emergency shelter, food, and medical supplies as required.
Source: brecorder.com
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---
Iran embassy in Syria Israeli airstrike
on Damascus
Feb 3, 2024
TEHRAN, Feb. 03 (MNA) – Iran's Embassy
in Syria has slammed the Israeli airstrikes on southern Damascus on Friday that
resulted in the martyrdom of an IRGC advisor.
In violation of international laws and
Syrian sovereignty, the Zionist terrorist group launched a missile attack on a
residential neighborhood in the suburbs of Damascus, and a military advisor of
the Islamic Republic of Iran was martyred, the embassy wrote on X.
IRGC military advisor Saeed Alidadi was
martyred during the Israeli regime's airstrikes on Syria on Friday.
Syrian military sources on Friday
reported that the Israeli regime has targeted areas in southern Damascus from
the occupied Golan.
The Syrian air defense systems managed
to down several Israeli missiles, the sources added.
Back in January, the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the martyrdom of several of its
advisory forces in an Israeli strike on Syria.
The Iranian advisors, who are present in
Syria at the official invitation of the Syrian government, have played an
important role in helping the Syrians fight terrorism and help establish peace,
stability, and lasting security in this country.
Source: mehrnews.com
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https://en.mehrnews.com/news/211612/Iran-embassy-in-Syria-Israeli-airstrike-on-Damascus
----
Arab World
Millions-strong Yemen rally vows
continued Palestine support
02 February 2024
Millions took to the streets of Yemen on
Friday to voice support for Gazans in the face of a brutal Israeli onslaught
against the besieged territory.
The rallies in the capital San’aa
converged in the Al-Sabeen Square, the largest square in the city.
The protesters waved Palestinian flags
and stressed their support for the oppressed nation until all the Palestinian
lands were liberated.
They also chanted slogans against the US
and UK, condemning their support for Israel and their aggression against Yemen.
The demonstrators chanted slogans
including “Oh Gaza, oh Palestine... all Yemenis are with you” and “Oh Gaza, we
are with you... you are not alone”.
One of the signs carried by marchers
read, "America is the mother of terrorism."
In a declaration issued at the end of
the event, protestors urged Yemeni armed forces to carry out larger attacks in
the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden against Israeli interests.
The statement called on the Arab and
Muslim people to put pressure on their governments, especially those
governments who hold ties with the Israeli regime, to do more to support
Palestine.
The statement also called for the globe
to boycott American and Israeli goods, noting that this would increase the
financial strain on the regime and its backers.
The northern city of Sa’ada and dozens
of other cities across the Arab country also witnessed similar protests.
Yemenis have been holding massive
rallies in solidarity with Gaza for 17 consecutive weeks since the regime’s
brutal war on Gaza began.
The first pro-Palestine march was held
on October 7, the day Hamas launched a surprise multi-pronged operation that
caught the regime flat-footed.
Yemen has launched military operations
against the Israeli regime in support of Gaza and targeted Israeli-linked ships
in the Red and Arabian seas, vowing to continue such operations until the
regime stops its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Source: presstv.ir
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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/02/719361/Millions-strong-Yemen-march-vows-country-to-stick-to-its-support-for-Palestine
----
Yemen's Ansarullah vows to stand by
Iraqi, Syrian resistance groups 'in battlefield' after US strikes
03 February 2024
Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement
has condemned US airstrikes on Iraq and Syria, expressing firm support for
anti-terror resistance groups operating in both countries.
“We declare our support and solidarity
with resistance factions in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere across the
region and emphasize that we will stand by them in the battlefield,” Ali
al-Qahoum, a member of Ansarullah's political bureau, said on Saturday.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its
forces struck more than 85 targets in the two countries “with numerous aircraft
to include long-range bombers flown from the United States”.
US President Joe Biden said in a
statement that the strikes were the first in a series of actions by Washington
in response to a drone attack that killed three soldiers at a remote US base in
Jordan.
Ansarullah has emerged as a potent force
in the fight against Israeli-US invasion of Gaza and regional dynamics,
presenting a daunting challenge to the United States.
The resistance group has weathered
numerous strikes by the US and Britain on Yemen to target vessels bound for
Israeli ports in solidarity with the Palestinians who for the past four months
have been subject to one of the most ferocious bombing campaigns in the recent
history.
The United States has provided Israel
with a steady supply of weapons and intelligence support and blocked UN
resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
Last month, Ansarullah declared all US
and British vessels “legitimate targets” after the two countries launched a
series of military strikes on Yemen.
In Iraq, resistance forces have
conducted dozens of strikes on the US-run military installations in both Iraq
and Syria amid growing anti-US sentiments in the region over Washington’s support
for the Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza.
After Friday's strikes in western Iraq
near the Syrian border a spokesman for Prime Minister Mohamed Shia’ al-Sudani
said in a statement that the attacks are a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty” and
will bring “disastrous consequences for the security and stability of Iraq and
the region”.
Source: presstv.ir
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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/03/719388/Yemen%E2%80%99s-Ansarullah-slams-US-aggression,-expresses-support-for-resistance-groups
----
Saudi foreign minister, Blinken discuss
Gaza during call
February 02, 2024
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of
Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Friday received a phone call from
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Kingdom’s foreign ministry said.
During the call, they discussed regional
and international issues of common interest, particularly the developments in
the Gaza Strip and its surroundings.
The two sides also discussed the efforts
to deal with the security and humanitarian repercussions of the Gaza war.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2452811/saudi-arabia
-----
GCC secretary-general meets foreign
ambassadors in Riyadh
February 02, 2024
RIYADH: Secretary General of the Gulf
Cooperation Council Jassem Mohamed Albudaiwi has held a series of meetings in
Riyadh with foreign ambassadors to Saudi Arabia.
On Friday, he met the South Korean
Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Park Joon-yong at the general secretariat
headquarters in Riyadh.
The secretary-general reviewed with the
ambassador the developments of the free trade agreement between the GCC
countries and South Korea, which was signed in December 2023. Both sides
expressed their desire to enhance cooperation between the GCC and South Korea
and increase focus on areas of mutual interest such as education, health,
investment and pharmaceuticals.
Albudaiwi said that economic and trade
relations between the GCC and South Korea were progressing following the
initial signing of the free trade agreement, which would bring economic
benefits to both sides.
The meeting also reviewed relations
between the GCC and South Korea, and the importance of enhancing strategic
dialogue through the areas of cooperation outlined in the joint action plan.
Additionally, the meeting discussed the latest regional and international
developments and issues of mutual interest.
In a separate meeting, Albudaiwi met
with Slovakia’s Ambassador to the Kingdom Rudolf Michalka at the general
secretariat’s headquarters in Riyadh on Friday.
Also Albudaiwi met with Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Kingdom VakhtangJaoshvili,
the council reported.
During the meetings, the officials
discussed ways to strengthen relations between the GCC, Georgia and Slovakia.
They also exchanged views on current
regional and international events and issues.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2452931/saudi-arabia
----
KSrelief in Kazakhstan to assess need
for volunteer medical program
February 03, 2024
RIYADH: A medical team from the King
Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center visited Kazakhstan on Thursday to
assess the need for volunteer medical programs in the country.
The Saudi Embassy in Kazakhstan provided
coordination and follow-up for the team’s visit.
During the trip, the team met the Kazakh
Deputy Minister of Health Vyacheslav Dudnik to discuss strengthening medical
and relief cooperation between the two countries.
The KSrelief team, made up of
volunteers, expressed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to providing medical and
humanitarian support to partner countries as part of its efforts to assist
people in need worldwide.
Last month, KSrelief stepped up aid and
medical projects in five countries: Yemen, Lebanon, Turkiye, Somalia and
Pakistan.
Since launching in 2015, KSrelief has
implemented 2,670 projects worth more than $6.6 billion in 95 countries, in
cooperation with 175 local, regional and international partners.
According to a report by the agency, the
bulk of the support has gone to Yemen ($4.3 billion), Syria ($391 million),
Palestine ($370 million) and Somalia ($227 million).
KSrelief programs cover food security,
health, sanitation, shelter, nutrition, education, telecommunications and
logistics.
Source: arabnews.com
Please click the following URL to read
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2452961/saudi-arabia
----
Australia
How Australian undercover police ‘fed’
an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State
2 February 2024
Counter-terrorism police encouraged an
autistic 13-year-old boy in his fixation on Islamic State in an undercover
operation after his parents sought help from the authorities.
The boy, given the pseudonym Thomas
Carrick, was later charged with terror offences after an undercover officer
“fed his fixation” and “doomed” the rehabilitation efforts Thomas and his
parents had engaged in, a Victorian children’s court magistrate found.
Thomas spent three months in custody
before he was granted bail in October 2022, after an earlier bail was revoked
because he failed to comply with conditions.
Thomas, an NDIS recipient with an IQ of
71, was first reported to police by Victoria’s Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) and then by his parents because of his fixation with Islamic
State, which included him accessing extremist material online and making
threats to other students.
On 17 April 2021, his parents went to a
police station and asked for help because Thomas was watching Islamic
State-related videos on his computer and had asked his mother to buy
bomb-making ingredients such as sulphur and acetone.
Thomas was investigated and charged with
two terror offences by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), which comprises
Australian federal police, Victoria police and Asio members.
Related: Australia’s surveillance laws:
let’s hear from those at the pointy end before the spies
The court granted a permanent stay on
the charges in October last year, but a copy of the decision has only recently
been published.
“The community would not expect law
enforcement officers to encourage a 13-14 year old child towards racial hatred,
distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child’s fixation on
ISIS,” magistrate Lesley Fleming said in the decision.
“The community would not expect law
enforcement to use the guise of a rehabilitation service to entice the parents
of a troubled child to engage in a process that results in potential harm to
the child.
“The conduct engaged in by the JCTT and
the AFP falls so profoundly short of the minimum standards expected of law
enforcement offices [sic] that to refuse this [stay] application would be to
condone and encourage further instances of such conduct.”
Fleming found the JCTT also deliberately
delayed charging Thomas with offences until after he turned 14, as it made it
harder for him to use the defence of doliincapax, which refers to the concept
that a child is not criminally responsible for their actions.
Police also inappropriately searched
Thomas’s property shortly before he was charged, Fleming found.
“There was a deliberate, invasive and
totally inappropriate search of [Thomas’s] bedroom without lawful excuse.
“The search involved multiple Victoria
Police members under the guise of attending to provide support to the family
within the CVE [Countering Violent Extremism] framework.
“The conduct of the law enforcement
officers involved subterfuge.”
Fleming, who noted that English was not
the first language of Thomas’s parents, found his father told police “he was
prepared to sacrifice my son for the safety of the Australian community”.
There was no evidence the AFP took any
action in relation to the DHHS complaint, Fleming found. An online persona
which later communicated with Thomas was activated a day earlier.
How the undercover operation unfolded
After Thomas’s parents spoke to Victoria
police, Fleming found a decision was made by the force to manage Thomas
“therapeutically”.
His parents provided Victoria police
access to Thomas, their home, his phone, his mother’s phone, and to personal
information about his school and psychologist.
Less than month after Victoria police
started working with Thomas, a case manager was told by a psychologist who was
working with them that Thomas’s “verbalisations need to be considered within
the context of his ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and possible cognitive
impairment.
“One of the key diagnostic criteria for
ASD is highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or
focus,” the psychologist told the case worker.
“It is suggested that ISIS represents a
circumscribed interest: an intense, narrow preoccupying interest that provides
intense focus, social identity for him, a topic to be researched … as well as a
topic of conversation that brings him attention.”
A police officer who performed a report
based on information downloaded from Thomas’s phone found that he appeared
fascinated with China and symbols of the Chinese Communist party and that there
were no religious images or verses from the Qur’an present.
Victoria police also arranged for an
Imam to meet regularly with Thomas to discuss Islam and answer any questions he
may have had.
But three months after his parents went
to police, the JCTT started an operation targeting Thomas, code-named
Bourglinster.
It would run in parallel with the
efforts to counter his violence extremism.
An online covert operative was tasked
with communicating to Thomas using two personae: a 24-year-old Muslim man from
NSW, and a more extreme person located overseas.
The purpose of the operation was to find
Thomas online and “engage him in chat to ascertain his intent if any”, the
operative told the court. The strategy was to gather intelligence and
information that could be used to charge Thomas with terrorism offences.
On the first occasion Thomas spoke with
the operative online, he asked the officer: “are you a spy” and “do you work
with the Asio”, to which the operative, in the role of the first persona,
responded “I hate these killab [dog]”.
The operative then wrote “should I ask
the same of you akhi” to which Thomas replied “I am 13 years old”.
The operative chatted with Thomas on 55
of the next 71 days, including during breaks at school and late at night.
The operative told an operational
psychologist, who was expected to provide advice to him about how to
communicate effectively online with Thomas, that “this … is a kid on the
spectrum, I’m letting him do all the talking [and] just building rapport”.
There were 1,400 pages of online chats
between the pair, Fleming found.
Related: Labor commits $255m for
security agencies to monitor people released from indefinite detention
The first persona introduced Thomas to
the second, more extreme, persona, who encouraged him to make a bomb or kill an
AFP member.
But the operative gave evidence that
Thomas was naive, and living a “fantasy life online”, including by asking
questions like whether he could join the kids’ section of Islamic State.
On 8 August 2021, Thomas sent a photo to
the operative which showed him wearing his school uniform, a hoodie and a face
mask and holding a knife with “ISIS” written on it in marker.
His house was searched within days, and
he was charged less than two months later.
Fleming found that AFP assistant and
deputy commissioners had been involved in authorising the operation which
resulted in Thomas being charged, and that “the AFP was at all times aware of
TC’s age, his complex mental health issues, and his fixation on ISIS”.
A decision to arrest Thomas was
authorised by an assistant commissioner after a detective superintendent failed
to inform them that they had information the undercover operation was having a
negative impact on therapeutically changing Thomas’s behaviour.
Fleming said the prospect of diverting
and rehabilitating Thomas was always destined to fail once the operative
started communicating with him, and the magistrate could not accept evidence
given by police that these efforts had primacy over the criminal investigation.
“It is a nonsense to expect this Court
to accept that an effective rehabilitation process can be undertaken when there
is a seasoned covert operator online engaging TC, encouraging TC’s fixation and
that TC’s rehabilitation team, his parents and his psychologist are oblivious
to the existence of the [covert operator].
“The rehabilitation of TC was doomed
once the [operator] connected online…befriended TC and fed his fixation,
providing him with a new terminology, new boundaries and an outlet for him to
express, what was in part, his fantasy world.”
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com
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https://uk.news.yahoo.com/australian-undercover-police-fed-autistic-140007518.html
----
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/sc-worship-act-namazis-gyanvapi-muslim/d/131650