Shahbag Square in Dhaka Sprang Back To Life As Thousands Cutting Across Religions Raised Voice against the Attack on Hindu Temples, Durga Pandals and Homes
New
Age Islam News Bureau
19
October 2021
Monday's rally against communal violence at
Shahbag, led by students, staff and faculty from Dhaka University. Twitter/
@MarginalS4th
------
•
Islamic State Khorasan Warns Of More Attacks in Kashmir amid a Series of
Targeted Killings
•
No 'Evidence' Of Forced Conversion to Islam in Pakistan, Claims Study by
International NGOs
•
Muhammad Again among UK’s Most Popular Baby Names
•
Reviving the Prophet's Guidance Needed To Save Muslims from Those Who Kill
Innocents: Al-Azhar Grand Imam
South Asia
•
Pakistan allows 1,000 Afghan students to cross Torkham
•
Taliban needs legitimacy at home in order to gain international recognition,
says former President Karzai
•
Zalmay Khalilzad steps down, Thomas West to continue as spl-representative to
AFG
•
Afghanistan transfers injured people in Kandahar blast to Iran for treatment
--------
India
•
BJP Objects to Rajasthan’s Grant for Modernisation of Muslim Seminaries
•
Pakistan Is Directing Local Kashmiri Militants to Specifically Target
Non-Muslims, One Security Official Said
•
Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu extends greetings on Milad-un-Nabi
•
S Jaishankar terms meeting with counterparts of US, UAE, Israel as 'fruitful'
•
Indian Army guns down six LeT terrorists in Rajouri jungles, fire-fight on
•
Karnataka: 11 Cases against Hindus And Muslims In One Month, In Moral Policing
Incidents
•
MP: Curfew after Clashes Erupt Over 10-Year-Old Muslim Boy's Presence at Garba
Venue
•
Dongri gets India’s first gate dedicated to Karbala martyrs
•
Afghanistan in food crisis, India plans to send 50,000MT of wheat
•
Karnataka: Muslim Couple's Chicken Shop Vandalised by Hindutva Group, Cops
Advise 'Compromise'
--------
Pakistan
•
Scholars, Saints’ Role Pivotal In Spreading Islamic Teachings: Punjab CM
•
Future of Pakistan directly linked with Riyasat-e-Madina: Tahir Ashrafi
•
Bajwa stresses Pakistan’s desire for ‘enduring ties’ with US
•
Soldier martyred in fire exchange with terrorists in N Waziristan
--------
Europe
•
EU Extends Sanctions against Daesh/ISIS, Al-Qaeda Terrorists
•
EU Says No Nuclear Talks with Iran on Thursday in Brussels, Contradicting
Tehran
•
Greece suppresses fundamental rights of Turkish minority in Western Thrace:
Mufti
•
ICJ starts hearing in Azerbaijan case against Armenia for racial discrimination
•
UK government urged to make good on Shariah-compliant loans promise
--------
Arab World
•
Nasrallah: Lebanese Forces Real Agenda Is Civil War, Hezbollah Has 100,000
Fighters
•
Lebanon tensions test alliance between Shia Hezbollah, Christian Aoun
•
Sisi congratulates Egyptians, Arab and Islamic nations on Milad un Nabi
•
‘He lied’: Iraqis still blame Powell for role in Iraq war
•
Iraq arrests mastermind of deadly 2016 bombing
•
Joint naval exercise kicks off between Saudi Arabia, US
--------
Mideast
•
Tens of Extremist Jewish Settlers Defile Al-Aqsa Mosque under Heavy Police
Protection
•
More than 150 Houthis killed, injured in Yemen’s Abedia: Arab coalition
•
President Rayeesi: ISIL Terrorists Tasked to Complete West's Destructive
Mission in Afghanistan
•
Israeli scuba diver discovers ancient Crusader sword
•
Iran: US should lift sanctions to prove it wants nuclear deal talks
•
Turkey shifting Syria strategy after Kurdish militia’s attacks
--------
North America
•
Hackers Deface Trump's Presidential Website, Urge Readers to 'Not Forget Allah'
•
Canada Must Look Out For the Shia Minority In Afghanistan
•
US envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad steps down from position
•
US State Department watchdog to review end of Afghanistan operations
•
US does not attend Moscow conference on Afghanistan
--------
Southeast Asia
•
Sultan Nazrin Calls On Scholars, Leaders to Wage Jihad against Corruption
•
On Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, PM Ismail Sabri urges Malaysians to treat
differences as source of strength
•
Prophet Muhammad teaches people to remain united regardless of backgrounds, PM
says in Maulidur Rasul message
--------
Africa
•
43 people killed by suspected gunmen stormed marketplace in Nigeria
•
Milad un Nabi celebrations: Niger Governor urge Muslims to rise against those
promoting violence, insecurity
•
Milad un Nabi: Gov. Ugwuanyi felicitates with Muslims, calls for renewed faith
in God, prayers
•
Father of MP’s suspected killer ‘despises terrorists’ after run-ins with
Al-Shabaab
•
Gunmen kill dozens in Nigeria’s troubled north
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/shahbag-bangladesh-dhaka-durga-temple/d/125604
--------
Shahbag
Square in Dhaka Sprang Back To Life As Thousands Cutting Across Religions
Raised Voice against the Attack on Hindu Temples, Durga Pandals and Homes
Devadeep
Purohit
19.10.21
Monday's rally against communal violence at
Shahbag, led by students, staff and faculty from Dhaka University. Twitter/
@MarginalS4th
------
Shahbag
Square in Dhaka sprang back to life on Monday as thousands cutting across
religions trooped down to the seat of protest in the Bangladesh capital to
raise their voice against the attack on Hindu temples, Durga pandals and homes
and shops belonging to the Hindu community in the past few days.
Not
once but twice on Monday, demonstrations rekindled memories of February 2013
when Shahbag Square drew international attention as the epicentre of a protest
against fundamentalist forces in Bangladesh.
In
the afternoon, a 1,000-plus congregation, including students of Dhaka
University and monks of Iskcon and the Ramna Kali temple, blocked the crossing
for five hours. In the evening, marchers with torches staged a demonstration.
“Scores
of Muslim brothers and sisters either joined the protest or pledged support to
our cause. This is the beauty of a secular and inclusive Bangladesh,” said
Joyjit Dutta, a Dhaka University student and a spokesperson for the protesters
who had assembled in the afternoon.
Dutta
hails from Cumilla, where the attacks began on Ashtami when rumours of alleged
blasphemy, spread on social media, prompted some zealots to attack local
temples and Durga pandals.
Over
the past few days, the attacks have spread from one district to another and
reports of clashes — resulting in at least six deaths, according to official
sources — have come from Chandpur, Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban,
Moulvibazar, Gazipur, Chapainawabganj, Feni and several other districts.
On
Monday afternoon, after laying siege to the crossing for five hours, the mostly
young protesters left around 3pm following requests from law-enforcement
agencies. They vowed to return to the same venue after 24 hours if the Sheikh
Hasina government failed to meet their seven demands, including the arrest and
“highest punishment” of those behind the attacks on Hindu temples, homes and
businesses across Bangladesh.
Those
who gathered in the evening said they would return to the venue on October 20
with a much bigger turnout and hold a slew of programmes across the country to
protest the rise of fundamentalist forces.
The
two congregations were at best a trickle compared with the turnouts the square
had witnessed in the past, but the gatherings were significant in view of the
recent developments in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country tied to the
principle of secularism.
Imran
H. Sarkar, a prominent face of the Shahbag movement of 2013, was at the
forefront in the evening. “We will not let Bangladesh be taken over by
zealots.... The government has to take stern measures,” Sarkar said.
“This
was the first day of our programme.... It will be bigger in the coming days,”
Dutta said.
Despite
the deployment of additional security personnel in 22 districts and a strong
message by Hasina that the attackers would not be spared, more than 90 houses
were vandalised and 25 homes belonging to Hindus were torched in Rangpur’s
Pirgonj on Sunday night following rumours that a local Hindu youth had made a
blasphemous post on Facebook.
Bangladesh
home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters on Monday afternoon that the
government would rebuild the homes and compensate the losses suffered by the
victims.
But
the visuals of the attacks came as a surprise to scores of Bangladeshis, from
all religions.
“All
these deserve unequivocal condemnation. Such acts of arson were not witnessed
even after the Babri mosque demolition in 1992.… This is not the Bangladesh for
which we fought against Pakistan in the War of Liberation (1971). I fought for
an inclusive and non-communal Bangladesh, but if that has not happened, my
purpose is defeated,” said Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, a decorated war veteran
and a former foreign secretary.
Several
prominent Bangladeshis this correspondent spoke to over the phone echoed these
feelings and expressed dismay at the attacks that have continued over the past
few days amid allegations that the law-enforcement agencies did not act
promptly despite repeated requests for protection from the victims.
The
attacks have come as an embarrassment for the Hasina-led Awami League, with the
Opposition in Bangladesh and a section of civil society contending that the
attacks could not have continued without support from the ruling party.
The
Awami League has accused the Opposition alliance of the BNP and the
Jamaat-e-Islami of masterminding the attacks to create communal tension in the
country.
Sources
in the ruling party said the government realised the damage the attacks could
cause and had drawn up a plan -- following a meeting between Hasina and senior
party colleagues on Monday evening -- to handle the situation politically.
“Our
party will observe harmony gatherings and peace marches across the country on
Tuesday.... Information minister Md Hasan Mahmud will visit Rangpur tomorrow to
meet the victims. Soon, our leaders will travel across the country with the
message of peace,” Biplab Barua, office secretary, Awami League, said on Monday
evening.
Realising
that the attacks on minorities will shift the focus from Bangladesh’s success
story as a burgeoning economy, the government is organising a briefing with
diplomats in Dhaka on Tuesday that would be addressed by junior foreign
minister Shahriar Alam.
The
damage-control measures by the government, a senior journalist said, are likely
to bring the situation under control.
“Now
that the government has woken up, there will be a temporary calm, but the
attacks in different parts of Bangladesh will resume after a few months,” said
the journalist, who did not wish to be named.
“Over
the past 10 years or so, the attacks during Durga Puja have become an annual
feature. Most of the time, the attacks begin with allegations of blasphemy and
later it is found out that it was only a rumour. Unless the perpetrators of the
attacks are given exemplary punishment, this will never stop.”
Source:
Telegraph India
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Islamic
State Khorasan Warns Of More Attacks in Kashmir amid a Series of Targeted
Killings
Arvind
Ojha
October
18, 2021
The rising attacks on civilians has prompted the
security agencies to heighten security and intensify crackdown on militant
activities in the Kashmir Valley. (Photo: PTI/Representational)
------
Amid
a series of targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir, terror group Islamic State
Khorasan Province (ISKP) has warned that more such attacks could take place in
the Valley.
The
21st edition of ISKP's India mouthpiece 'Voice of Hind' carried a photo that
shows a hawker being shot from behind. The caption to the photo reads "WE
ARE COMING".
ISKP
had also released the video of the shooting after the killing of a non-local
street vendor in Jammu and Kashmir.
The
magazine also carries a photo of Hindu deities with a trident, indicating that
they would be targeted. A few days ago, security agencies caught many
terrorists who were planning to carry out blasts during the festival season.
ISKP
has been releasing the Voice of Hind magazine since February 2020, which
emerged as a fountainhead of large-scale radicalisation of Muslim youth in the
Valley.
ISKP's
sleeper cell is spread across Jammu and Kashmir. Security agencies had issued
an alert that terrorist organisations could carry out terrorist activities in
Jammu and Kashmir.
Security
agencies also suspect that Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI is behind the
recent attacks.
Many
small organisations have been formed to carry out terrorist attacks, which
would then take responsibility for attacks and target killings, agencies said.
The
National Investigative Agency (NIA) has cracked down on several people linked
to ISKP in the Valley. On October 10, NIA carried out raids at 16 locations in
the Valley.
Targeted
killings in Kashmir
Eleven
civilians have been murdered by terrorists in Kashmir in the last 15 days,
including five non-locals. On Sunday, terrorists shot down two non-local
labourers and injured another in Kulgam district of South Kashmir.
On
Saturday last week, a street hawker from Bihar and a labourer from Uttar
Pradesh were killed in two back-to-back attacks by terrorists.
Earlier
this month, a street hawker from Bihar, Virendra Paswan, was killed by
terrorists in Srinagar's Eidgah area.
The
rising attacks on civilians has prompted the security agencies to heighten
security and intensify crackdown on militant activities in the Valley. On
Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said thirteen terrorists have been
killed in the union territory in nine encounters over the last nine days.
Source:
India Today
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
No
'Evidence' Of Forced Conversion to Islam in Pakistan, Claims Study by
International NGOs
October
18, 2021
KARACHI:
A
Pakistani think tank claims to have debunked reports by several international
and domestic NGOs that girls from the minority Hindu community are being forced
to convert to Islam in the country, mainly in the southern Sindh province.
“There
is no evidence suggesting that non-Muslims, including underage girls, have been
forcibly converted to Islam in Sindh,” said the study by the Islamabad-based
Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) on Sunday.
The
"largest long-term" study, the IPS said, is based on the 10-year
episodic fieldwork, interviews with a cross-section of Sindhi society, and
statistical analysis of data acquired from seminaries and courts across the
province.
It
comes days after a parliamentary panel rejected anti-forced conversion
legislation, following the opposition from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The Hindu lawmakers protested the decision.
The
proposed law stipulated punishment between five to 10 years and a fine to any
person who uses criminal force to convert a person to another religion.
According
to Sufi Ghulam Hussain, who led the research, most of the alleged forced
conversion cases highlighted by the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
the minority leaders over the past decade are based on newspapers’ reports
rather than first-hand information.
“When
we analyzed the NGO reports and data, we, in most of the cases, could not find
the record of the so-called victims of forced conversion. Even, the data itself
appeared to be contradictory,” Hussain told Anadolu Agency.
Read
Scores protest Christian girl’s ‘forced conversion’
Hussain
and his team's fieldwork consisted of 200 "in-depth" interviews with
a cross-section of Muslim and non-Muslim population, content analysis of over
400 audio recordings, and a review of 19 NGO reports.
The
quantitative sample comprised 6,055 cases of converts documented and collected
from 2008 to 2020. Some 32 families, 24 couples (of whom females were mostly
new converts), 16 males, 24 leaders of the Hindu community, 22 religious
clerics, 21 civil society activists, eight lawyers, two police officers, and
two magistrates were interviewed during the study, Hussain added.
“The
key hypothesis was to investigate whether non-Muslim girls below the age of 18
are forcibly converted to Islam. Analysis of data shows that of the total
recorded cases of conversion involving freewill marriages in this study, only a
fraction was of minor marriages,” Hussain said, adding: “Given the prevalence
of marriages below 18 years in rural Sindh, this is not unexpected.”
“None
of the cases verified by this research proved to be forcible conversion whereby
‘force’ means coercion, blackmail, deception or the threat to kill a person or
his/her parents. Contradictory to the commonly propagated perception, it was
found that coercion is often used by parents and the community of the
converting individual to revert such a person,” the study claimed, insisting:
“This is in the form of political pressure, influencing the local
administration and state institutions, social media campaigning, NGO activism,
invoking caste or community honor, appealing to patriarchal ego, mobilizing
separatist elements, and even torture.”
Lal
Malhi, a Hindu parliamentarian from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party
of Prime Minister Imran Khan, however, rejected the report, claiming that the
government itself acknowledged that the issue exists in "three to four
districts".
“The
government itself is admitting that the issue is there but it is not ready to
pass a law to contain that,” he told Anadolu Agency, referring to the rejection
of the anti-forced conversion bill by the parliamentary panel.
“We
are not against conversion. If someone wants to change his or her religion,
that's a personal matter. But, there must be a proper legal and constitutional
procedure for that, which unfortunately is not there at the moment,” he went on
to say, demanding that no one should be allowed to convert before the age of
18.
“We
do not allow a person to vote before he or she turns 18 for certain
understandable reasons. Then how come an underage person is allowed to change
his or her religion,” he added.
Complicated
phenomenon
Malhi,
however, admitted that there is no proper data compilation of forced conversion
cases in the country.
“This
is true that we (Hindu community) don't have proper data. But this does not
mean the problem is not there,” he said.
Amar
Guriro, a Karachi-based journalist who has been covering religious minorities
for over a decade, thinks that the issue is "exaggerated".
“No
doubt, there could be some genuine cases of forced conversion of Hindu or other
minority girls in the country, but it is not as widespread as it is depicted,”
Guriro told Anadolu Agency.
“Both
(Hindu and Muslim) communities have been living together in Sindh for
centuries. Sindhi Muslims traditionally harbor sympathies for Sindhi Hindus.
Forced conversion is not that easy here,” he went on to argue.
“Abduction
of girls, whether Hindu or Muslim, has nothing to do with religion or
conversion. It is a general phenomenon in rural areas, involving powerful
people in stereotype feudal Sindh province of Pakistan, where a majority of
Pakistani Hindus live,” he added.
The
absence of credible data compounded by several socio-economic, and cultural
issues has made the issue further complicated, Guriro maintained.
Due
to a strict caste system, inter-caste marriages are not encouraged in Hindu
society. Cousin marriages are also forbidden in the Hindu religion.
“A
majority of Hindu parliamentarians are rich and belong to the upper caste. They
highlight the issue only if a girl from their caste converts (to Islam).
Otherwise, in the case of girls from the Scheduled (lowest) Caste, there is no
hue and cry,” he contended.
In
April 2019, the Islamabad High Court found that the two Hindu sisters from
Sindh had voluntarily converted to Islam.
The
ruling came following an investigation by a five-member commission, which
included several left-wing human rights activists, who had claimed that the
girls were abducted and forced to marry Muslim men.
In
several cases, Hindu and Christian men have also converted to marry Muslim
women.
Push-and-pull
factors
Hindus
make up 4% of the total 210 million population of Muslim-dominated Pakistan. A
majority of the Hindus – nearly 92% - belong to the Scheduled caste of Hindus.
Over 90% of Hindus live in Sindh.
The
study found that several socio-economic, religious, and cultural push-and-pull
factors come into play in the process of conversion from one religion to
another.
Read
How long will Pakistan continue to ignore forced conversions?
“In
most cases, a normative ritual to convert and socio-economic incentive (push
factors), desire to marry and inspiration from Islam and its religious mentors
(pull factors) are the key factors that constitute the conversion process,” it
said.
Some
92% of the Hindu population in Pakistan comprises Dalits, who are unable to
marry off their girls into upper-class Hindu families, the report said.
Among
the total sample, 4,490 individuals converted because their families were
either sufficiently Islamized already over decades or they were pulled by
better social and economic support system among Muslims.
“Presence
of 229 male converts in the sample negates the popular perception of only women
being converted to Islam. About 970 individuals, who are couples, included
several widows who could not remarry while being Hindu and individuals who
wished to marry their cousins against the dictates of Hindu society,” the study
went on to say.
Several
marriages, it added, took place between the persons of two distinct castes,
which again is disallowed in Hindu ethos, and conversion offers an option for
them. This is a major push factor as out of the total cases of conversion (723)
involving marriage, 617 belong to Scheduled Caste Hindus.
Source:
The Tribune Pakistan
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
Muhammad
again among UK’s most popular baby names
October
18, 2021
LONDON:
Muhammad was the fifth most popular name for male British babies in 2020, the
UK’s Office for National Statistics revealed on Monday.
Mohammed
and Mohammad were also among the 100 most popular baby boy names in the UK –
ranking 32 and 74 – though neither came close to the Muhammad spelling.
Noah,
an important figure in all three Abrahamic religions, was the fourth most
popular name for male British babies.
Two
other Muslim names — Ibrahim and Yusuf — made it into the top 100 for 2020. All
three spellings of the prophet’s name, as well as Yusuf and Ibrahim, have been
climbing in popularity consistently since 1996, ONS data shows.
Muslims
from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds transliterate the name Muhammad
differently into English, but all are named in reverence of Islam’s most loved
figure.
Despite
being spelled differently by different groups, the origins and intention behind
the naming are likely shared by each culture and ethnicity employing it.
It
is likely that the name is even more popular than the ONS rankings suggest, but
the methodology of dividing names based on their spellings makes it unclear
exactly how it ranks against other top names.
Other
popular names for male British babies included George, Oliver, and Arthur. The
eldest child of Prince William and Kate Middleton is called George, while the
middle name of their third child is Arthur.
Sian
Bradford, a statistics officer at the ONS, said: “Popular culture continues to
provide inspiration for baby names, whether it’s characters in our favorite
show or trending celebrities. Maeve and Otis, characters from the program ‘Sex
Education,’ have seen a surge in popularity in 2020. While the name Margot has
been rapidly climbing since actress Margot Robbie appeared in the film ‘The
Wolf of Wall Street.’”
Archie
leapt into the top 10 of baby names for boys — likely because Prince Harry and
his wife Meghan Markle chose that name for their firstborn.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1950241/world
--------
Reviving
the Prophet's guidance needed to save Muslims from those who kill innocents:
Al-Azhar Grand Imam
Amr
Kandil
17
Oct 2021
Al-Azhar
Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb stressed on Sunday the necessity to revive
Prophet Muhammad's guidance as a way to save Muslims from those who falsely
claim to abide by the instructions of the prophet and follow his religion and
jurisprudence, while they kill innocents.
The
grand imam of Al-Azhar, the world's most prestigious Islamic Sunni institution,
made the remarks during the celebration of Milad un Nabi - Prophet Muhammad's
birth anniversary - at Manara International Conference Centre in New Cairo.
Egyptian
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, state
officials, and religious scholars attended the celebration, which was hosted by
the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf).
In
his speech, El-Tayyeb extended greetings to El-Sisi, the Egyptian people, and
Arab and Islamic nations on the occasion of the Milad un Nabi.
The
grand imam noted that the late well-known Irish writer George Bernard Shaw
praised Islam as a system that establishes the pillars of peace and hailed
Prophet Muhammad as a man who would solve all the problems of humanity today.
"If
Bernard Shaw thinks the return of Muhammad's guidance is necessary to save our
world today, I see that this has become more of a necessity to save our Muslim
communities from inhumane conditions," El-Tayyeb said.
He
added that these conditions have been imposed by "some people who claim
they abide by the instructions of the prophet, and his religion and
jurisprudence, while they kill innocents."
El-Tayyeb
castigated those individuals who "turn Allah's mosques … to arenas for war
where lives are lost, blood is shed, bodies shattered, sanctities violated, and
the rights of people, and the rights of women, girls and children
squandered."
The
grand imam warned that brutal killings committed by Muslims against Muslims
fuel "far-right tendencies in the West and East" and increase the
so-called "Islamophobia".
He
described the Prophet Muhammad as a forgiving person who was never harsh or
bad-tongued or immoral.
"He
was not a loud person who raises his voice in the streets and markets. He did
not repay evil with evil, but rather with pardon and forgiveness," he
said.
El-Tayyeb
added that the Prophet Muhammad "never hit someone with his hands except
in Jihad, never beat a servant or a woman, and was never seen avenging any
injustice he suffered so long as God's prohibitions were not violated."
During
the celebrations, the grand imam presented a vintage version of Al-Azhar Mushaf
(Quran) that has taken over 20 years to be prepared and featured with geometric
motifs inspired by precious Quranic manuscripts that date back to the Ilkhanid
and Mamluk eras.
The
guilding in this version of the Mushaf has been preserved by high-quality
papers made from cotton, while the cover is made of cow leather. It was typeset
using King Fouad’s handwriting, automatically regenerated via computer under
the supervision of skilled calligraphers.
Sunday’s
event commemorated the Milad un Nabi, which comes every year on 12 Rabi'
Al-Awwal – the third month of the Islamic calendar – and falls this year on 19
October on the Gregorian calendar.
The
event started with reciting verses of Holy Quran.
Minister
of Religious Endowments Mokhtar Gomaa presented the president a series of Ro'ya
(Vision) publications issued by the ministry to correct religious
misconceptions.
During
the celebration, El-Sisi honoured a number of religious figures from Egypt and
the Islamic world for their intellectual contributions.
In
a speech, El-Sisi affirmed that Egypt will continue "building awareness
and reforming religious discourse as a collaborative, participatory
responsibility."
Source:
Ahram
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/429042.aspx
--------
South Asia
Pakistan
allows 1,000 Afghan students to cross Torkham
18
Oct 2021
Pakistan’s
embassy based in Kabul in a statement said that up to one thousand Afghan
students were allowed to cross Torkham crossing into the country.
The
statement that was released on Sunday, October 17 reads that the Afghan
students were stranded since the Taliban takeover and were finally allowed in
two different batches.
Earlier,
hundreds of students were returned from Torkham crossing point after being made
to wait for the whole day at the crossing.
Pakistan
embassy later said that the students lack proper gate pass to cross.
Pakistan
has rarely kept the Torkham crossing point east of Afghanistan and Spin Boldak
in the southeast after the Taliban takeover.
The
decision has put tens of thousands of people in grave trouble in both countries
as they often cross the points for family visits, education, and business.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/pakistan-allows-1000-afghan-students-to-cross-torkham-436436/
--------
Taliban
needs legitimacy at home in order to gain international recognition, says
former President Karzai
Oct
19, 2021
KABUL:
Former President Hamid Karzai said that the Taliban needs legitimacy nationally
in order to gain recognition by the international community.
In
an interview with Voice of America (VOA), he advised the Taliban to gain
national legitimacy through elections or by holding a Loya Jirga (a national
grand assembly), reported Tolo News.
Further,
Karzai also said the Islamic Emirate should have a constitution to run the
country.
"National
legitimacy and international recognition are important. Steps should be taken,
and the first step should be paving the way for national legitimacy via a Loya
Jirga or enforcing the Afghanistan constitution. National legitimacy is
acquired either through elections or by holding a Loya Jirga," he said.
Karzai
also said that Pakistan should not interfere in Kabul's internal affairs. He
stated that Pakistan should base its relations with Afghanistan on
international norms and principles, adding that it cannot represent
Afghanistan, reported Tolo News.
"These
days Pakistan speaks in a way as if it represents us. No, Pakistan is not the
representative of Afghanistan or its people," he added.
Meanwhile,
a number of international relations analysts said holding a Loya Jirga is not
practical at the current time and that the world should find alternative ways
for engaging with the Islamic Emirate, reported Tolo News.
Source:
Times of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Zalmay
Khalilzad steps down, Thomas West to continue as spl-representative to AFG
19
Oct 2021
Joe
Biden’s special envoy for Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad resigns from
his post and is all set to leave his office this week as the US Department of
State plans to start an investigation over the withdrawal of US troops from
Afghanistan and the deadly evacuation of Kabul.
The
native Afghan veteran diplomat served in this post for the past three years
both during President Trump and Joe Biden’s tenures.
Though
Zalmay Khalilzad is widely criticized for not putting pressure on the Taliban
to reconsolidate with the Afghan government, secretary of state Antonio Blinken
praised his efforts and thanked him.
Khalilzad
succeeded to ink US-Taliban agreement but failed to make the latter reach an
agreement with the Afghan government.
The
former US ambassador to Afghanistan and United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad
previously planned to resign from his post in May when Joe Biden announced
troops’ withdrawal to be completed before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, he was
asked to stay in his post and he did.
Source:
Khaama Press
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Afghanistan
transfers injured people in Kandahar blast to Iran for treatment
October
19, 2021
The
wounded of the recent terrorist attack on Afghanistan's Kandahar Fatemieh
Mosque have been transferred to Iran for treatment.
The
injured Afghans in the terrorist attack on Friday at the Fatemieh Kandahar
Grand Mosque were transferred to the Islamic Republic of Iran on Monday due to
lack of hospital facilities.
Meanwhile,
the humanitarian aid of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Afghanistan reached the
victims of the terrorist attack in Kandahar today.
The
aid included medicine and 25 tons of food delivered to the people of Kandahar
by agreement of the Taliban interim government in Afghanistan.
The
ISIS terrorist group has twice attacked Shiite mosques in Kandahar and Kunduz,
Afghanistan, in the last ten days, martyring and wounding hundreds of people.
The
Taliban had promised to confront and suppress the ISIS terrorist group in
Afghanistan.
Source:
ABNA24
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India
BJP
objects to Rajasthan’s grant for modernisation of Muslim seminaries
By
Sachin Saini
Oct
19, 2021
The
Rajasthan government has invited fresh applications for grants up to ₹25 lakh under its modernisation scheme launched in 2019 for
Muslim seminaries or madrasas even as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) has accused the ruling Congress of misusing public money for religious
activities. The BJP has called the scheme “Muslim appeasement”.
State
minority affairs minister Saleh Mohammad rejected the BJP’s criticism as
“baseless politics” and underlined the scheme is in line with the Prime
Minister’s 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities. “If they have
issues, they should ask the Prime Minister to stop the programme,” he said.
Under
the scheme, the seminaries are provided with computers, internet connectivity,
smart classes, furniture and other basic necessities.
Mohammad
said the state government wants to promote quality education for 200,000
students studying in these seminaries and allocated ₹3
crore in 2019-20, ₹5 crore in 2020-21, and ₹17 crore for 2021-22 for the
scheme. He added there
are 6,000 registered Muslim seminaries in the state. Mohammad said only those
that fulfil the conditions under the scheme will get the grants.
Source:
Hindustan Times
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Pakistan
Is Directing Local Kashmiri Militants to Specifically Target Non-Muslims, One
Security Official Said
By
Harinder Baweja
Oct
19, 2021
Instructions
to kill non-Muslims in Kashmir, including by name, are being passed on to local
militants in the Valley, several security officials told HT, even as they
grapple to secure the soft targets.
“The
instructions are clear. Pakistan is directing local militants to specifically
target non-Muslims,” one security official said. Another top official
confirmed, saying, “Some non-Muslim names were passed on to local militants and
we were able to secure them.” Neither official wished to be identified.
Violence
has spiked dramatically in the Valley over the last few weeks and at least 11
civilians have been killed in the month of October alone. Two non-local
labourers from Bihar were killed in South Kashmir on Sunday and another
grievously injured.
The
Valley is currently full of non-locals, especially since it is apple-picking
season, and security estimates put their number at 300,000 to 400,000.
To
be sure, it isn’t only non-locals that are being targeted. It is also locals
belonging to minority communities.
Earlier
in October, ML Bindroo, a well-known Kashmiri Pandit pharmacist was gunned
down, as was a Sikh teacher, leading to large-scale insecurity amongst the
minority communities. According to security estimates, close to 50,000 Sikhs
and Pandits reside in the Valley.
“Fears
of a demographic change are spurring the targeted killings. The new
‘non-Muslim’ attacks also started after the Union Territory started a portal
for Pandits in mid-August, to help then reclaim the property they had left behind.
The Centre is perceived as being anti-Muslim,” said another official, who did
not want to be identified.
The
administration has started moving non-Kashmiri labourers to the safety of
security camps but the exercise is difficult because they have to step out for
work.
In
a change in strategy, local youth joining the ranks of militants are now not
announcing their arrival to the path of violence, so as to not garner
attention. The recruitment of locals by terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammad has not ebbed. According to home ministry officials, at least
87 locals joined the ranks of militants by August-end this year. The figure for
2020, for the same period, was 103.
Source:
Hindustan Times
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Vice-President
Venkaiah Naidu extends greetings on Milad-un-Nabi
Oct
19, 2021
NEW
DELHI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday extended greetings on
Milad-un-Nabi, praying that the path shown by Prophet Muhammad continues to
guide the people in building a just, humane and harmonious society.
Milad-un-Nabi
marks the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad.
"The
holy Prophet showed humanity the righteous path of compassion, tolerance and
universal brotherhood. May his eternal message continue to guide us in building
a just, humane and harmonious society," the Vice-President secretariat
tweeted, quoting Naidu.
Source:
Times of India
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S
Jaishankar terms meeting with counterparts of US, UAE, Israel as 'fruitful'
Oct
19, 2021
TEL
AVIV: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Tuesday termed his first
meeting with the Foreign Ministers of the US, UAE, and Israel as 'fruitful' and
said the Ministers discussed working together on economic growth and global
issues.
"A
fruitful first meeting with Israeli APM and FM Yair Lapid, UAE Foreign Minister
Abdullah bin Zayed and US Secretary of State Secretary Antony Blinken this
evening," EAM said in a tweet.
"Discussed
working together more closely on economic growth and global issues, agreed on
expeditious follow-up," he added in the tweet.
Jaishankar's
remarks came after the minister along with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid
joined a virtual meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UAE
Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed.
Source:
Times of India
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Indian
Army guns down six LeT terrorists in Rajouri jungles, fire-fight on
By
Shishir Gupta
Oct
19, 2021
The
Indian Army has gunned down six terrorists belonging to Pakistan based
Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the ongoing encounter in the thick jungles of Rajouri
sector with efforts on to neutralise the remaining three to four Islamic
jihadists by the 16 Corps troops.
After
the Indian Army lost nine men in engaging the terrorists in Rajouri jungles,
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat visited the area on October 16 to hold
discussions with the local commanders handling the ongoing counter-terrorist
operations. It is understood that the Indian Army commanders were told to wait
or tire out the terrorists in deliberate operations rather than pro-actively
engaging them on their terms.
“Casualties
to our troops have occurred due to the advantage the terrorists took by
operating in buddy pairs of two. This allowed them to continuously change
position and engage a larger body of troops, resulting in casualties,” said a
Indian Army commander.
According
to South Block, as many as nine to 10 LeT terrorists infiltrated from Pakistan
towards the jungles between Rajouri-Poonch district borders in the past two to
three months. While many infiltration
bids were foiled on the LoC and along the fence, the Pak terrorists were buoyed
with their success in Afghanistan and to that extent the terror surge was
anticipated by the Indian Army and the security agencies.
While
the Indian troops were raring in “josh” to get the terrorists, on the spot
instructions were issued to establish a cordon around the area with presence of
terrorists. The change in tactics was that now it was left to the terrorists to
make the movement to get replenishments from the nearby villages for survival
and thus expose themselves as targets. “ Jungle warfare required patience and
the instructions to troops are to be cautious and avoid casualties by engaging
the terrorists head-on. Since time is not a constraint, we will tire out the
terrorists and eliminate them,” said a commander.
Although
it is a matter of time when the Indian Army counter-terrorist troops eliminate
the remaining terrorists, the plethora of weapons and night vision devices left
by the US troops in Afghanistan will raise the level of violence in Kashmir as
Pak based jihadists groups believe that they can occupy Jammu and Kashmir like
Taliban militarily occupied Afghanistan.
Source:
Hindustan Times
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Karnataka:
11 Cases against Hindus And Muslims In One Month, In Moral Policing Incidents
ANUSHA
RAVI SOOD
19
October, 2021
Bengaluru:
On 26 September, a group of medical students belonging to different communities
were allegedly stopped, intimidated and harassed by a group of Hindu men at the
coastal town of Surathkal in Karnataka. Five members of the Bajrang Dal were
arrested two days later, but let off on bail on the same day.
About
a week earlier, on 20 September, a gang allegedly assaulted and harassed a
group of three people belonging to different communities while they were eating
at a hotel in Puttur. A Hindu woman who was part of the group filed a
complaint, following which two members of the Hindu Jagaran Vedike (HJV) were
arrested.
On
18 September, two Muslim men allegedly stalled, assaulted and abused a Hindu
man for dropping his Muslim woman colleague home in Bengaluru. Both men were
arrested within 12 hours, booked under non-bailable sections, and sent to
prison.
On
27 August, six paramedical students were allegedly heckled, harassed and
threatened in Bantwal for mingling despite belonging to different faiths.
Following a complaint by one of the girls, three persons from the HJV were
arrested but let off on bail.
Last
week, on 8 October, two Muslim men were arrested by the Shivamogga police for
allegedly waylaying and assaulting a Hindu man for dropping his Muslim woman
friend.
A
day later, Moodabidiri police arrested two Bajrang Dal workers for allegedly
waylaying the car of a Muslim couple travelling with two more Hindu girls,
before abusing and harassing them. By 9 pm the same day, they were let out on
bail with the intervention of the local BJP MLA.
On
10 October, a video of a group of men seemingly intimidating, threatening a
Muslim man and a Hindu women for travelling on a bike, forcing the woman’s
father to arrive on the spot to take the girl away, went viral.
These
are just some of the instances of moral policing in recent times in Karnataka —
a phenomenon that isn’t entirely new to the state but one that has seen a
sudden spurt over the last two months.
Just
in the past month alone, at least 11 cases of moral policing have been reported
in Karnataka. Of the 11 cases that made it to the headlines, the perpetrators
were Hindus in eight, and Muslims in three.
While
moral policing has been a steady affair in the coastal districts of Karnataka
for over a decade, it has now, worryingly, spread to other districts.
Over
the last month, three cases of moral policing have been reported from
Shivamogga, Mandya and even capital Bengaluru.
Through
all of this, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai drew flak after appearing to
white-wash the crimes, especially the ones involving Hindu vigilantes.
“When
sentiments are hurt, naturally, there will be action and reaction,” Bommai told
reporters Wednesday in communally sensitive Mangaluru. “We need morality in
society, don’t we? Can we live without morality?” he asked reporters who had
raised the moral policing issue.
Barely
three weeks earlier, for a case involving Muslim suspects, Bommai had a
different take. “My Govt (sic) deals with such incidents with an iron hand,”
the chief minister had tweeted.
Bommai
also got into an ugly spat with leader of opposition Siddaramaiah on Twitter.
After
the Congress leader slammed the chief minister’s justification of moral
policing, Bommai called Siddaramaiah “an icon of anti-Hindus” and claimed he
presided over the “killing of Hindu activists as Tipu Sultan did”.
Bommai’s
stand also appears to have emboldened fringe Hindu outfits in the state. Just a
day after his apparent whitewashing of moral policing, the Bajrang Dal and the
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) held a “Trishul Deekshe” event in Mangaluru, where
they allegedly handed over sharp weapons to their cadre — a claim the outfits
have rejected.
The
VHP, though, doesn’t deny its involvement in moral policing. “I welcome the
chief minister’s statement. When our sentiments are hurt, we will definitely
react,” Sharan Pumpwell, the Mangaluru district VHP secretary, told The Print.
“There
is no need to file cases against us. It is not like we are thrashing people. We
feel that our women need to be protected,” he added. “It is not our intent to
harass or assault women. We only want to create awareness against being trapped
by Muslim men.”
Sharan
owns a security firm that often doubles up as his personal information network
since it deploys security personnel to malls, offices, and educational
institutions, among other places. He claimed over 200 Hindutva workers have
been booked this year alone for vigilantism.
“People
come to us complaining about Hindu women being seen with Muslim men. Our
workers, their networks, common people in buses, marketplaces, parks, on roads
in hotels etc inform us of such interfaith mingling,” Sharan said.
The
politics around moral policing in Karnataka
The
country first saw a real glimpse of moral policing in Karnataka on 24 January
2009, when goons of the Sri Ram Sene — a Right-wing Hindu outfit founded by
Pramod Muthalik — barged into a pub in Mangaluru and assaulted young men and
women. Nine years after the brutal attack, all accused in the case were
acquitted.
In
the 12 years since, Karnataka has seen instances of moral policing — largely in
the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi — especially on Valentine’s
Day and New Year’s Eve. Now, vigilantism fueled by religious intolerance
appears to be spreading across the state.
Talking
about Bommai’s statements on moral policing, sources in the BJP say he is being
careful to impress the party’s ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS), to offset any criticism of him not upholding the ideology of the
BJP and Sangh Parivar. Bommai doesn’t have roots in the RSS.
“Hindutva
will be the primary poll pitch for the BJP in Karnataka in 2023,” a national
general secretary of the party had earlier told The Print.
Another
reason for the spurt in such cases, a Karnataka Congress office-bearer said,
was his party’s silence.
“Whether
it is the goons of Bajrang Dal or VHP or PFI or SDPI, vigilante activities in
Karnataka are rising because the Congress is refusing to speak up about it,” he
said.
“The
Congress is under the wrong impression that if it stays away from speaking
about moral policing and peddles soft Hindutva, it can win back Hindu votes.
That will never be true.”
Unlike
Hindutva organisations that take pride in moral policing, however, the Popular
Front of India (PFI), a controversial Kerala-based Muslim organisation, denies
involvement in such cases.
“It
might have been true that our workers were indulging in moral policing a few
years ago but it has not happened in recent times… As part of our training and
policy we prohibit such activities,” Anis Ahmed, national general secretary of
the PFI, told The Print.
Many,
meanwhile, have called for new legislation to deal with these cases.
“We
desperately need an anti-vigilante law in India. Whether it is moral policing
or lynchings or opposition to interfaith relationships or conversion
vigilantism, a law against vigilantes is the need of the hour,” Congress
spokesperson Lavanya Ballal said.
Ballal
herself allegedly came under attack from vigilantes. On 30 September, a man
claiming to be a Hindutva worker phoned in and threatened Lavanya with assault
on a live television debate. She has filed two complaints against the man who
threatened her but, 16 days after the incident, the identity of the accused has
not been established.
Karnataka
Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, however, said there was no need for such laws.
“There
is no need to bring in a new law to curb moral policing. Miscreants will be
punished by police within the tenets of existing laws,” he told ThePrint. “Our
laws are strong enough. This is a social issue and society should discuss this.
There is a need for creating awareness because everything cannot be solved with
laws.”
Source:
The Print
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MP:
Curfew After Clashes Erupt Over 10-Year-Old Muslim Boy's Presence at Garba
Venue
Kashif
Kakvi
October
19, 2021
Bhopal:
A day-long curfew was imposed and nearly two dozen people were arrested after a
clash erupted over the alleged presence of 10-year-old Muslim boy at a garba
venue in Sendhwa city of Madhya Pradesh’s Barwani district, on October 13.
Located
on the Maharashtra border, Sendhwa has a history of communal incidents.
According
to Barwani Police, a dispute erupted when a Muslim boy was spotted at a garba
venue in the Moti Bagh locality. This was objected by a Hindu teenager who had
had a previous tiff with the Muslim boy’s family. Heated arguments turned into
a brawl which got worse as adults got involved in the fight which saw stone
pelting as well.
“A
trivial fight among boys became a communal incident and soon, the communities
came face-to-face and pelted stones at each other, leaving a dozen people
injured including women and children,” said Deepak Shukla, Superintendent of
Police, Barwani district.
The
officials said that a “lack of trust” between two communities and WhatsApp
rumours which spread like wildfire soon after the stone pelting turned one
community against another.
Sensing
the gravity of the incident owing to the festive season and the spread of
rumours, the district administration clamped Section 144 of the Criminal
Procedure Code since the night of the incident – October 13 – and imposed a
day-long curfew the following day.
As
the news of stone pelting reached the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of
Sendhwa, Tapasya Parihar, she along with Baldev Mujalda, in-charge of Sendhwa
police station, rushed to the spot with police forces. However, police were
attacked by the locals. Stone pelting
left four injured, said police.
Meanwhile,
a crowd of over 500 men of the majority Hindu community picketed the Sendhwa
Police station demanding an FIR be lodged and arrests be made among Muslims.
This mob manhandled a 14-year-old boy, his mother and two of his relatives who
had gone to the police station to register a complaint after the minor child
sustained a head injury during the stone pelting among two communities.
Police
had to use mild force to rescue the child and his family.
An
eyewitness said that the mob not only roughed up the child and his family, but
also manhandled Sayed Afzal, the chief Muslim cleric of the city and a Congress
leader, Mohammad Samar, who had gone to the police station for a meeting called
by the SP, Deepak Shukla, to control the situation.
“We
would have been lynched by the mob if the cops did not rescue us,” Sayed Afzal
told The Wire over phone.
The
mob dispersed after police assured them of action. But even after they had
dispersed, some miscreants targeted shops owned by Muslims and attacked the
place of worship which was foiled by the police. “The angry mob damaged a car
and a motorcycle in Sadar Bazaar area, forcing police to resort to
lathicharge,” said an official.
“It’s
unfortunate that a fight between the two kids took a communal turn and took
away the happiness of the festivities which came after a year of
COVID-19-induced restrictions,” said Chotu Choudhary, a BJP leader and vice
president of Sendhwa Municipal corporation. Choudhary added that they were
“cooperating with administration to bring peace.”
In
a bid to restore normalcy, district administration held separate meetings with
members of both communities to prevent further escalation. Later in night,
police registered three FIRs in connection with the incident, booked over 30
people from both communities and arrested 15 people in a late night operation,
SP Shukla told The Wire.
The
first FIR was registered against three for pelting stones at a police convoy,
under sections 143, 148, 149, 353, 307 and 327 of the IPC. One arrest has been
made in this case.
20
Muslims, 6 Hindus booked
The
other two FIRs were lodged against the Hindu and Muslim communities
respectively, under the same sections – 143, 148, 294, 323 and 506 of the IPC –
naming 26 people. Twenty of them are Muslims and six are Hindus.
Until
Monday night, police have arrested 22 people in all three cases.
The
following day, police held a joint meeting urging members of the both
communities to maintain peace. “The consensus arrived at in the meeting was
that not more than 200 people will take part in Rawan Putla Dahan. The
scheduled processions of Duga Visarjan and Eid Milad-un-Nabi would be cancelled
only allowing in-house events,” said Sendhwa SDM Parihar.
“We
have urged the members of the Muslim community to celebrate Eid Milad-un-Nabi
in their mohallas as permission for the procession has been denied due to
tension,” the SDM added.
Source:
The Wire
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Dongri
gets India’s first gate dedicated to Karbala martyrs
Mohammed
Wajihuddin
Oct
19, 2021
MUMBAI:
The busy Hazrat Abbas Street in Dongri that houses Khoja Shia Isnashari Jamaat
and its Jama Masjid has just added another jewel to its crown. It has got
Baab-e-Shohda-e-Karbala, India’s first gate commemorating the martyrs of
Karbala.
Prophet
Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussain, along with 72 companions, including some
family members, were massacred at the Battle of Karbala (Iraq) in 680 CE by the
army of Ummayad king Yazid.
During
Muharram, the Dongri street turns into a ‘mourning zone’ with hundreds of Shias
flocking to it. “Locals had been demanding for long to have a gate at the mouth
of this street. Besides paying tribute to the martyrs of Karbala, this gate
also beautifies the lane and will become an important landmark of the
locality,” said local MLA Amin Patel who funded the construction of the
28-fthigh and 31.5-ft-wide gate. “We wanted a structure that could last
centuries and also become an important landmark on Mumbai’s pilgrimage-tourism
map,” he added.
Martyrdom
gate to ‘last for over 200 years’
Architects
Aadil Shakir Lokhandwala and Haque Mohd Musaib Abdul Mohammed were engaged to
execute the plan.
Local
MLA Amin Patel, corporator Javed Juneja, president of World Federation of Khoja
Shia Isnashari Muslim Community, UK, Shaikh Safdar Jaffar, the Jamaat’s India
president Safdar Karmali, among others, attended the gate’s inauguration on
Monday.
For
eight months, artisans in Makrana (Rajasthan) hand-carved Jaisalmer stones to
prepare the pillars and slabs. “Apart from yellow Jaisalmer stones, we have
used Italian marble, blue stones and mother of pearls which collectively give
the structure a majestic look. The gate is a blend of Persian and Mughal style
of architecture,” said Lokhandwala. He added that it will last for over 200
years and brave storms, scorching sun and heavy rains.
Many
Shias felt there could not have been a more appropriate place than this to put
up the gate that commemorates the martyrs of Karbala. “This street has always
been associated with the Shia sentiments because of the Jamaat, Jama Masjid,
the Imambada and Mehfil-e-Shah-e-Khorasan, another sacred Shia site. In the
next lane is Kesar Baug which sees a huge crowd of mourners in Muharram. I am
glad this gate has come up here,” said Karmali.
Source:
Times of India
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Afghanistan
in food crisis, India plans to send 50,000MT of wheat
Sachin
Parashar
Oct
19, 2021
NEW
DELHI:With Afghanistan’s food crisis driving millions to the brink of
starvation, India is considering options to transport 50,000 metric tonnes (MT)
of wheat and medical aid to the Taliban-ruled country.
The
government needs to circumvent what it has described as the challenge of
efficient logistics to be able to despatch any food aid to Afghanistan though.
India wants unhindered and direct access for those handling humanitarian aid to
Afghanistan and believes only the UN is equipped to monitor, as foreign
minister S Jaishankar said last month in a UN address, a non-discriminatory
distribution of humanitarian assistance across all sections of the Afghan
society. Indian aid will depend on whether or not this ``enabling environment''
is created.
The
UN World Food Programme had said earlier this month that it was in touch with
Indian authorities for procurement of wheat from India for Afghanistan. India
had last year delivered 75,000 MT of wheat to Afghanistan but that was through
the long and circuitous Chabahar port route.
One
of the options being considered is to transport wheat to Afghanistan by road
via the Attari-Wagah border with Pakistan but that will be a complicated
exercise given that Pakistan doesn’t allow 2-way trade for India and
Afghanistan through that border. It only allows Afghanistan to export goods to
India. India though is learnt to be in touch with Pakistan on this issue. For
any such proposal to materialise, UN will have an important role to play in the
logistics.
Source:
Times of India
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Karnataka:
Muslim Couple's Chicken Shop Vandalised by Hindutva Group, Cops Advise
'Compromise'
October
19, 2021
New
Delhi: Karnataka Police allegedly refused to register an FIR when a Muslim
family approached them alleging that their chicken shop had been vandalised by
a Hindutva group which demanded that it be closed for a temple opening, Indian
Express has reported.
The
incident, outside Belagavi city, reportedly took place on October 8 and only
came to light after a video began to be shared on social media.
Express
has reported that the Hindutva group had demanded that the shop, owned by one
Hasab Sab and his wife, Afsana Hasan Sab Khureshi, be closed on the occasion of
a temple inauguration.
Notably,
there was no order from the administration on this.
Afsana
told the news outlet that while the couple did close shop by the “stipulated”
11 am, they sent two workers to clean it in the afternoon.
These
workers were assaulted and the shop, vandalised. When the couple rushed to the
shop, they received threats from members of the Hindutva group. “They
threatened us that they would not allow us to live in the town and tried to
extort money from us,” Afsana said.
When
the couple approached police, the latter held a meeting to affect a
“compromise” in spite of the fact that the couple had asked for action against
the attackers.
“The
police told us that they had ‘settled the matter and would not intervene in our
business and told us that there was no need to file a complaint,” Afsana told
Express.
But
no real compromise had been reached, Afsana said, as when the couple attempted
to reopen the shop, the attackers continued to trouble them and attempted to
get money from them with threats of eviction from the village.
Source:
The Wire
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Pakistan
Scholars,
Saints’ Role Pivotal In Spreading Islamic Teachings: Punjab CM
October
19, 2021
LAHORE:
Punjab
Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has stressed religious scholars to
lead the mission of spreading the teachings of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
through their platforms and motivate the people to follow the blessed way of
life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
While
addressing the international Mashaikh and Ulema conference held under the aegis
of the Auqaf department on Monday in connection with Ashra
Shan-e-Rehmatul-lil-Alameen, the chief minister said religious scholars and
Sufi saints have always rendered commendable services for Islam.
“They
have played their role for the collective good of the country. The purpose of
celebrating Ashra Shan-e-Rehmatul-lil-Alameen is to sensitise the world that
Muslims’ utmost love and affection for Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is beyond
every love. The reverence and honour of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will
always prevail over everything,” he asserted.
The
CM said 10,574 Shan-e-Rehmatul-lil-Alameen scholarships, valuing Rs273.80
million, have been given to bright and needy students.
As
many as 29,142 scholarships will be given this year and the amount will be
increased to Rs1 billion, he said.
“Seerat
Chairs have been established in IUB, Ghazi University DG Khan, Okara
University, GCU Faisalabad, University of Chakwal and BZU Multan to fund the
research,” he said.
“Ashra
Shan-e-Rehmatul-lil-Alameen will be celebrated with more zeal and enthusiasm
next year and I also pay tributes to PM Imran Khan for initiating the tradition
of officially celebrating Ashra Shan-e-Rehmatul-lil-Alameen,” added the chief
minister.
Auqaf
Minister Saeedul Hassan Shah, Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad and Auqaf Secretary
Nabeel Javed also spoke on the occasion.
SACM
Hasaan Khawar, secretaries, religious scholars and notable persons of other
religious communities also attended the conference.
Source:
The Tribune Pakistan
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Future
of Pakistan directly linked with Riyasat-e-Madina: Tahir Ashrafi
October
19, 2021
FAISALABAD -
Special Representative to Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Allama
Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi said on Monday the future of Pakistan was directly linked
with Islamic welfare state on the pattern of Riyasat-e-Madina.
Addressing
a Seeratun Nabi Conference here at District Council Hall, he said that Pakistan
was achieved on the basis of “Kalimah Tayyabah” and Prime Minister Imran Khan
was fully committed and sincere to transform the country into a true Islamic
welfare state on the pattern of Riyasat-e-Madina.
In
this connection, he said the government had also announced to celebrate Ashra
Rehmatul-lil-Alameen so that faithful could be educated with true Islamic
teachings by arranging Seerat conferences and seminars across the country.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had also formally inaugurated Ashra
Rehmatul-lil-Alameen in Islamabad, he added.
Ashrafi
said: “We claim to be true followers of Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him),
therefore, we must follow Uswa-e-Hasna and avoid from telling lie, deceiving
others, taking bribe, occupying illegal lands, increasing artificial prices,
hoarding, usurping rights of sisters and daughters as well as rights of
parents, relatives and neighbors.
He
said: “Being Muslims we are duty bound to work hard to implement true Islamic
teachings in the society and for this purpose, we should promote Uswa-e-Hasna
at maximum extent”. He said that today there was a flood of obscenity and
nudity, so we have to stop it by following Seeratun-Nabi.
Tahir
Ashrafi said the aim and vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan was very clear as
the PM wanted to introduce and spread the teachings of Islam across the whole
world.
He
said that Islam gave much emphasize on cleanliness as it declares it half of
the faith, therefore, we should concentrate on cleanliness of houses, streets
and surroundings areas to ward off various diseases like dengue.
He
said that marriage had become difficult today due to lack of dowry so we should
launch a vigorous campaign against dowry as it has become a major societal evil
which deprives millions of poor girls from wedding as their parents cannot
afford dowry. “Islam teaches us not to spent money on useless rituals, so we
should abolish these rituals from our death and birth anniversaries so that
this amount could be spent on constructive purposes and development of the
country”, he added.
He
said that Islam was a religion of peace and gave much emphasis on character
building. “We should learn from the life of holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him)
and his caliphs including Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique, Hazrat Umar Farooq, Hazrat
Usman Ghani and Hazrat Ali if we want to lead a successful life in this world
and hereafter”, he added.
He
said the era of four caliphs was also a beacon for us, therefore, conferences
should also be arranged to highlight the life aspects of righteous caliphate.
Ashrafi said that some elements were worried about why the government had
adopted the policy of self-reliant. In this connection, PM Imran Khan had
decided that no one would be allowed to use Pakistani land against anyone and
now Afghanistan had also followed this policy and assured that its land would
not be used against anyone.
He
said the opposition should make legitimate criticism and avoid from uttering in
Indian tune against armed forces and national institutions. He said, “We have
maintained peace during Muharram and now Ulema will also cooperate for
religious harmony on the eve of Jashn-e-Milad”.
Source:
The Nation Pakistan
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Bajwa
stresses Pakistan’s desire for ‘enduring ties’ with US
October
19, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa reiterated Pakistan’s desire for “enduring ties”
with the United States.
He
was talking to US Charge d’affaires to Pakistan Angela Aggeler, who called on
him.
The
Inter-Services Public Relations, the media affairs wing of the army, said the
two discussed “matters of mutual interest, current security situation in
Afghanistan and bilateral cooperation in various fields”.
“Pakistan
desires to maintain the tradition of bilateral engagement and wishes for an
enduring relationship with the United States,” Gen Bajwa was quoted as having
told the American diplomat.
The
ISPR said Gen Bajwa emphasised the need for a “global convergence” on
Afghanistan to avoid humanitarian crisis. He called for “coordinated efforts”
for economic uplift of the Afghans.
Source:
Dawn
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1652825/bajwa-stresses-pakistans-desire-for-enduring-ties-with-us
--------
Soldier
martyred in fire exchange with terrorists in N Waziristan
October
18, 2021
A
soldier was martyred on Monday as security forces exchanged fire with
terrorists in North Waziristan’s Spinwam area, the military’s media wing said.
The
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), in a statement, said intense firing
took place after the terrorists had fired on a security forces’ checkpoint.
Following
the terrorists’ move, the troops had initiated a prompt response and effectively
engaged the terrorists’ location, the military’s media wing said.
The
martyred soldier was identified as Sepoy Saifullah, 25, resident of Karak,
according to the ISPR. The security forces are carrying out an area clearance
to eliminate any terrorists found in the area.
The
development comes three days after security forces had gunned down a terrorist
in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali area, the ISPR had said.
Source:
Pakistan Today
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Europe
EU
extends sanctions against Daesh/ISIS, al-Qaeda terrorists
Agnes
Szucs
18.10.2021
BRUSSELS
The
European Union prolonged on Monday its sanctions regime against Daesh/ISIS and
al-Qaeda terrorists for another year.
“Currently, six individuals are subject to
restrictive measures, which consist of a travel ban to the EU and an asset
freeze,” the Council of the EU announced in a news statement following the
decision of EU foreign ministers.
In
addition to these sanctions, EU operators are also forbidden from making funds
available to the blacklisted terrorists.
The
sanctions are extended until Oct. 31, 2022.
The
EU has sanctioned perpetrators of terrorist acts and those who provide support
to and incite such acts or recruit for Daesh/ISIS and al-Qaeda or their
affiliates since 2016.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/eu-extends-sanctions-against-daesh-isis-al-qaeda-terrorists/2395415
--------
EU
says no nuclear talks with Iran on Thursday in Brussels, contradicting Tehran
18
October ,2021
The
EU will not hold talks with Iran to revive the abandoned 2015 nuclear deal on
Thursday in Brussels, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.
“We
are at a critical point in time for the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal]… Everybody is
determined to bring the JCPOA on track, so we are working hard to go back to
Vienna,” Borrell told reporters.
“No,
next Thursday there is not going to be a meeting as far as a I know… We made
clear to the Iranians that time is not on their side and its better to go back
to the negotiations table quickly,” he added.
This
contradicts Iran’s announcement that its lead nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri,
would go to Brussels for discussions on Thursday.
The
EU has been trying to restart negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal
which was abandoned after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the
accord in 2018.
Negotiations
over reviving the nuclear accord have stalled since the election of Iranian
President Ebrahim Raisi in June.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Greece
suppresses fundamental rights of Turkish minority in Western Thrace: Mufti
Tevfik
Durul
19.10.2021
XANTHI,
Greece
Greek
authorities suppress the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Muslim Turkish
minority in Western Thrace, the elected mufti (Muslim scholar and legal expert)
of Xanthi (Iskece) has said.
Speaking
to Anadolu Agency, Ahmet Mete said the heads of the Muslim Turkish minority in
Western Thrace are “threatened and insulted.”
Noting
that the mufti institution in Western Thrace was regulated by the principles in
the Treaty of Lausanne, he said the Greek authorities did not give the rights
to the minority group it was entrusted to.
The
appointment of muftis by Greek authorities weaken the position of muftis in
Western Thrace, he said, adding that a man with a primary school degree was
appointed to the position in Xanthi.
Mete
said the Islamic clerics have an important role for the unity and solidarity of
the minority in the region, adding that they will continue their “rightful
struggle" against moves that divide the society.
Mete
and his predecessor Mehmet Emin Aga have previously been convicted by Greek
courts for usurping authority.
The
Western Thrace region of Greece is home to a Muslim Turkish minority of around
150,000 people, where muftis have legal jurisdiction to decide on the family
and inheritance matters in the local community.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
ICJ
starts hearing in Azerbaijan case against Armenia for racial discrimination
Selman
Aksunger
18.10.2021
The
International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday began hearing a
suit filed by Azerbaijan against Armenia for racial discrimination.
Azerbaijan
accused Armenia of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which both states are signatories.
Due
to the coronavirus epidemic, the hearing was held in a "mixed
format," which will continue on Tuesday. Some members of the court
attended the hearing in person and others via video.
The
claims that Armenia breached the international convention on the prevention of
racial discrimination were presented by an Azerbaijani team led by Deputy
Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov.
Azerbaijan
also requested the court to adjudicate interim measures to put an immediate end
to Armenia's violations.
Last
week, hearings on Armenia's claim against Azerbaijan for violating the same
convention were held.
Azerbaijan-Armenia
relations
Relations
between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense
since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as
Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan,
and seven adjacent regions.
When
new clashes erupted on Sept. 27 last year, the Armenian army launched attacks
on civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violated several humanitarian
cease-fire agreements.
The
two countries signed a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020 to end the
fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
UK
government urged to make good on Shariah-compliant loans promise
CHRISTOPHER
HAMILL-STEWART
October
18, 2021
LONDON:
MPs, campaigners and Islamic finance professionals will deliver a letter to UK
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday urging him to take action that would
end the annual exclusion of thousands of British Muslims from higher education.
A
survey by the Muslim Census, published on Monday, found that thousands of young
British Muslims choose not to go to university every year because the loans
they rely upon to fund their studies bear interest.
“There
is a genuine and widespread need for ASF (alternative student financing), and
its absence is leading to unequal access to university,” reads the letter
signed by Lord Sharkey, MP David Timms, Islamic Finance Guru CEO Ibrahim Khan,
Rizwan Yusoof of the National Zakat Foundation and Asha Hassan, a student
finance campaigner.
It
is religiously prohibited for Muslims to borrow or lend money upon which
interest is paid. This means British-Muslim students are forced to pay up to
£9,000 ($12,361) per year upfront for their education, as well as cover all
their own living expenses. Muslim Census found that of its survey’s 36,000
respondents, roughly 10 percent missed out on higher education entirely because
of a lack of alternative financing options.
A
further one in six self-financed their education, which “resulted in severe
restrictions with regards to which course and university they decide to
attend,” it said.
Extrapolated
to the UK’s Muslim population as a whole, these results mean that more than
4,000 potential students are forgoing a university education every year, while
close to 6,000 are forced to self-fund.
In
2013, then-Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to deal with the inequity in
access to education for Muslims, saying: “Never again should a Muslim in
Britain feel unable to go to university because they cannot get a student loan
simply because of their religion.”
But
nearly 10 years since that promise was first made, Muslims are still being
forced to choose whether to pursue an education or stick to the principles of
their religion, Hassan told Arab News.
“This
is really important to our community, but we’ve so far felt like we have no
voice. This letter is hopefully a chance for the prime minister to see that this
is a big issue,” she said.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1950291/world
--------
Arab World
Nasrallah:
Lebanese Forces real agenda is civil war, Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters
18
October ,2021
Lebanon’s
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah accused on Monday the Lebanese Forces party of
seeking to ignite a “civil war” in the country after last Thursday’s violence.
“The
real agenda of the Lebanese Forces party is the civil war because it leads to
the displacements of Christians and confines them to a certain area, and thus
the establishment of a Christian canton dominated by the Forces party where
there is no room for anyone else,” Nasrallah said in his first remarks since
the bloody street violence.
Nasrallah
stressed that his Iran-backed militia has never been stronger and added that it
has 100,000 “trained and armed” fighters armed with weapons at its disposal.
This was the first time Nasrallah disclosed the size of his militia.
“I
advise the Lebanese Forces party to give up this idea of internal strife and
civil war. You are wrong one hundred percent, your calculations are wrong. The
region has never seen Hezbollah as strong as it is now,” he said.
He
also demanded an investigation into the events of last Thursday to hold those
responsible accountable for their actions, adding that Hezbollah would take
action if the judiciary did not.
Tensions
over the investigation into the Beirut blast ignited street violence which led
to seven deaths, all of whom were Shia.
They
were killed in what the powerful Shia militia Hezbollah called an ambush by the
Lebanese Forces, a Christian party led by Samir Geagea.
The
Lebanese Forces denied the accusation and pointed the finger of blame at
Hezbollah for provoking trouble by sending supporters into the Christian
neighborhood of Ain al-Remmaneh where it says four residents were wounded
before a shot was fired.
The
street violence, the worst in over a decade, began as supporters of Hezbollah
and its Shia ally, Amal, began gathering for a protest to demand the removal of
Judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the blast that killed more than 200
people.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Lebanon
tensions test alliance between Shia Hezbollah, Christian Aoun
18
October ,2021
Worsening
sectarian tensions in Lebanon are testing an alliance between Shia Hezbollah
and its Christian ally President Michel Aoun, who may lose ground to their
rivals as they step up opposition to the Iran-backed group's influence.
Analysts
believe divisions that have deepened since an outbreak of violence in Beirut
last week may play to the political advantage of Aoun's long-time Christian
adversary, Samir Geagea, a Hezbollah opponent with close Saudi ties.
For
the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
alliance between the heavily armed Hezbollah and Aoun has been a defining
feature of Lebanese politics since 2006: Hezbollah helped Aoun become president
in 2016, while Aoun has provided important Christian backing for the armed
status of the group, which is more powerful than the Lebanese army.
But
strains have been growing, specifically over Hezbollah's opposition to the
investigation into who was to blame for last year's catastrophic explosion at
the Beirut port, which, while killing many Muslims, did most of its damage in
Christian parts of the city.
The
dilemma facing Aoun sharpened last week when tensions over the investigation
ignited Beirut's deadliest street violence in years, reviving memories of the
1975-90 civil war.
All
of the seven dead were Shias, killed in what Hezbollah has called an ambush by
the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party led by Geagea.
The
LF denies this and blames the other side for provoking trouble by sending
supporters into the Christian neighborhood of Ain al-Remmaneh where it says
four residents were wounded before a shot was fired.
The
violence began as supporters of Hezbollah and its Shia ally, Amal, began
gathering for a protest to demand the removal of Judge Tarek Bitar, who is
investigating the blast that killed more than 200 people.
“Today,
you have Christians rejecting these scenes of getting back to civil war
memories, and at the same time not happy with the way Shia are expressing their
opposition to the Judge Bitar process,” said a source familiar with thinking in
the Free Patriotic Movement, the party founded by Aoun.
The
FPM and Hezbollah had not decided to part ways, but the course of events was
separating them, the source said.
Officials
from Hezbollah and the FPM did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment.
Biggest
loser
Hezbollah
has accused Bitar of bias as he has sought to question some of its allies on
suspicion of negligence that led one of the largest non-nuclear explosions
ever.
Geagea,
who stands by Bitar, has said Thursday's trouble began when Hezbollah and Amal
supporters vandalized cars, clashed with residents and tried to enter homes in
Ain al-Remmaneh.
“It
wasn't the Lebanese Forces that defended the area ... all the people of Ain
al-Remmaneh did that,” Geagea said in an interview late on Friday.
The
view that Ain al-Remmaneh was attacked was widely shared among Christians, said
Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
“There
is some kind of agreement among Christians on supporting the port blast
investigation and the right to self defense - and that Hezbollah and Amal
attacked the area before they were attacked themselves,” he said.
“Geagea
so far seems to have gained some popularity among Christians.”
Nabil
Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Annahar newspaper, said the FPM had made a
mistake by accusing Geagea of the violence and he enjoyed wide sympathy among
Christians.
“I
see the FPM as the biggest loser,” he told Reuters.
The
army is investigating Thursday's violence.
It
initially said gunfire had targeted protesters but later stated there had been
an altercation and exchange of fire while protesters were on their way to the
demonstration.
A
soldier suspected of firing towards protesters is under investigation.
The
FPM is the biggest Christian party. In Lebanon's last parliamentary election in
2018, the FPM, Hezbollah and other parties that support the group's possession
of weapons secured a majority.
Hezbollah's
opponents hope this can be overturned in 2022, with Christian seats seen as the
main battleground.
In
addition to the port blast, Aoun's presidency has been overshadowed by a
massive financial meltdown that has plunged more than three quarters of the
population into poverty.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Sisi
congratulates Egyptians, Arab and Islamic nations on Milad un Nabi
18
Oct 2021
"I
extend my sincere congratulations to the Egyptian people and the Arab and
Islamic nations on the anniversary of the birth of our faithful Prophet, whose
birth was a turning point in human history," El-Sisi tweeted.
"May
the peace of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad, the role model, the paragon, and
the righteous epitome of the leader, who carried the message of heaven and took
responsibility with courage and faced adversity with determination, will and
patience.
"I
pray to God on this blessed occasion to protect Egypt and our Arab and Islamic
peoples from all evil,” he added.
El-Sisi
attended on Sunday a celebration of Milad un Nabi at Manara International Conference
Centre in New Cairo.
Source:
Ahram
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/429098.aspx
--------
‘He
lied’: Iraqis still blame Powell for role in Iraq war
18
October ,2021
For
many Iraqis, the name Colin Powell conjures up one image: the man who as US
secretary of state went before the UN Security Council in 2003 to make the case
for war against their country.
Word
of his death Monday at age 84 dredged up feelings of anger in Iraq toward the
former general and diplomat, one of several Bush administration officials whom
they hold responsible for a disastrous US-led invasion that led to decades of
death, chaos and violence in Iraq.
His
UN testimony was a key part of events that they say had a heavy cost for Iraqis
and others in the Middle East.
“He
lied, lied and lied,” said Maryam, a 51-year-old Iraqi writer and mother of two
in northern Iraq who spoke on condition her last name not be used because one
of her children is studying in the United States.
“He
lied, and we are the ones who got stuck with never-ending wars,” she added.
As
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell oversaw the Persian Gulf war to
oust the Iraqi army in 1991 after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
But
Iraqis remember Powell more for his UN presentation justifying the invasion of
their country more than a decade later by casting Saddam as a major global
threat who possessed weapons of mass destruction, even displaying a vial of
what he said could have been a biological weapon. Powell had called Iraq’s
claims that it had no such weapons “a web of lies.” No WMD were ever found,
however, and the speech was later derided as a low point in his career.
“I
am saddened by the death of Colin Powell without being tried for his crimes in
Iraq. ... But I am sure that the court of God will be waiting for him,” tweeted
Muntadher al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist who vented his outrage at the US by
throwing his shoes at then-President George W. Bush during a 2008 news
conference in Baghdad.
In
2011, Powell told Al Jazeera he regretted providing misleading intelligence
that led the US invasion, calling it a “blot on my record.” He said a lot of
sources cited by the intelligence community were wrong.
But
in a in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, Powell maintained that on
balance, the US “had a lot of successes” because “Iraq’s terrible dictator is
gone.”
Saddam
was captured by US forces while hiding in northern Iraq in December 2003 and
later executed by the Iraqi government.
But
the insurgency that emerged from the US occupation grew into deadly sectarian
violence that killed countless Iraqi civilians, and the war dragged on far
longer than had been predicted by the Bush administration and eventually helped
give rise to the Islamic State group. President Barack Obama pulled US troops
out of Iraq in 2011 but sent advisers back in three years later after the
Islamic State group swept in from Syria and captured large swaths of both
countries.
Powell’s
UN testimony “resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis. This blood
is on his hands,” said Muayad al-Jashami, a 37-year old Iraqi who works with
nongovernmental organizations.
While
he did not suffer direct losses, al-Jashami said he continues to struggle with
stress and panic attacks as a result of growing up with war, displacement, and
years of terrorist bombings in the country.
Aqeel
al-Rubai, 42, who owns a clothes and cosmetics shop in Baghdad, said he doesn’t
care if Powell regretted the faulty information he gave on WMD.
Al-Rubai,
who lost his cousin in the war, also blames the US for the death of his father,
who had a close call during the sectarian blood-letting that followed the US
invasion, and later had a fatal heart attack.
“What
does that remorse do for us? A whole country was destroyed, and we continue to
pay the price,” he said.
“But
I say may God have mercy on him.”
Elsewhere,
Powell was remembered as “a towering figure in American military and political
leadership over many years, someone of immense capability and integrity,” by
former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who backed the US campaign and
invasion.
German
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that Powell was a “straight-talking foreign
policy official” and a “trans-Atlantic bridge-builder.”
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Iraq
arrests mastermind of deadly 2016 bombing
18
October ,2021
Iraq
said Monday it has detained the mastermind behind a deadly 2016 bombing in a
Baghdad shopping center, which killed around 300 people and wounded 250.
The
suicide car bombing in the central Karradah district was the deadliest attack
by a single bomber in the Iraqi capital after the 2003 US-led invasion that
toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
For
the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Two
Iraqi intelligence officials said the man identified as Ghazwan al-Zobai, an
Iraqi, was detained during a complex operation that was carried out with the
cooperation of a neighboring country they did not name. He had been tracked by
authorities for months.
They
told The Associated Press that al-Zobai was detained in an unidentified foreign
country and transported to Iraq two days ago. They spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to speak of the operation on the
record.
The
29-year-old al-Zobai was an al-Qaeda militant when he was imprisoned by the
Americans in Iraq at Cropper prison until 2008, and then escaped from Abu
Ghraib prison in 2013. He joined the ISIS group after that.
The
officials said al-Zobai plotted many attacks in Iraq, the most infamous of
which was the 2016 bombing in Karrada in 2016. He operated under the Alias Abu
Obaida.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Joint
naval exercise kicks off between Saudi Arabia, US
19
October ,2021
The
joint naval exercise Indigo Defender-21 between Saudi Arabia and the US kicked
off earlier this week on Sunday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA)
reported.
The
mixed bilateral naval exercise kicked off in the presence of Assistant
Commander of the Western Fleet, Commander of the exercise, Admiral Mansour bin
Saud Al-Juaid, and Naval Colonel Daniel Bailey of the US Navy, according to
SPA.
The
exercise maneuvers, which will last for ten days, aim to strengthen relations
and military cooperation, raise the level of combat readiness between the Royal
Saudi Naval Forces and the US Navy, and exchange experiences in the field of
port protection, the exercise commander said.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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--------
Mideast
Tens
of extremist Jewish settlers defile al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy police
protection
October
19, 2021
Dozens
of extremist Jewish settlers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
Occupied Jerusalem on Monday under heavy police protection.
Eyewitnesses
said that the settlers guarded by Israeli police broke into the holy site
through its Al-Magharba Gate, southwest of the Mosque, and performed
provocative tours in its courtyards.
An
Israeli court has recently ruled deeming the performance of Jewish silent
prayer within the Al-Aqsa Mosque premises not a "criminal act".
Source:
ABNA24
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
More
than 150 Houthis killed, injured in Yemen’s Abedia: Arab coalition
October
18, 2021
RIYADH:
The Arab coalition said on Monday that it carried out 38 operations targeting
the Houthi militia in Abedia and the surrounding villages in the Yemeni
governorate of Marib.
The
coalition said more than 150 militia members were killed and 13 Houthi vehicles
destroyed in the operations in the previous 24 hours.
The
coalition said that “international organizations must assume their
responsibilities toward the civilians (who have been) trapped in Abedia” for
weeks.
The
Iran-backed Houthi militia mounted a brutal offensive in February to take
control of one of the last remaining government strongholds. The energy-rich
region has served as a safe haven for internally displaced people fleeing the
fighting since the conflict began in 2014.
The
Arab coalition began hitting Houthi targets in Abedia last week following an
escalation in the militia’s incursions.
This
comes as Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak warned of the
“dangerous repercussions” of the Houthis’ escalating offensive on civilians and
displaced people in Marib governorate.
His
comments came during a meeting with the chief of the International Organization
for Migration’s mission for Yemen, Christa Rottensteiner.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1950341/middle-east
--------
President
Rayeesi: ISIL Terrorists Tasked to Complete West's Destructive Mission in
Afghanistan
2021-October-18
The
Iranian president made the remarks while appointing Hassan Kazzemi Qomi as his
special envoy for Afghanistan affairs during cabinet meeting on Sunday.
President
Rayeesi, meantime, condemned the recent attacks on Muslims and mosques in the
cities of Kunduz and Kandahar which resulted in death and injury of hundreds of
people, and said, "Such attacks are carried out with the purpose of
creating discord, war and bloodshed in Afghanista."
The
Iranian president reiterated that the rising number of terrorist acts are in
line with the destabilizing policy by the US in Afghanistan.
President
Rayeesi renewed Iran's suport for Afghan people, and said, "The Islamic
Republic is ready to help Afghanistan to restore security and stability to that
country."
More
than 60 people were killed in three back-to-back explosions that hit the Bibi
Fatima mosque during Friday prayers, one of the biggest blasts in Kandahar. It
came just a week after a bomb attack killed more than 150 people and left
scores of others injured at a Shia mosque in the northeastern city of Kunduz.
Source:
Fars News Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Israeli
scuba diver discovers ancient Crusader sword
19
October ,2021
An
Israeli scuba diver has salvaged an ancient sword off the country’s
Mediterranean coast that experts say dates back to the Crusaders.
Israel’s
Antiquities Authority said Monday the man was on a weekend dive in northern
Israel when he spotted a trove of ancient artifacts that included anchors,
pottery and a meter-long (yard-long) sword.
The
diver was about 150 meters (170 yards) off the coast in five-meter-deep
(5.5-yard-deep) water when he made the discovery.
Experts
say the area provided shelter for ancient ships and is home to many
archaeological treasures, some dating back 4,000 years. But such discoveries
can be elusive because of the constantly shifting sands.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iran:
US should lift sanctions to prove it wants nuclear deal talks
19
October ,2021
Iran’s
president said Monday the US should lift the sanctions on his country to prove
it is serious about restarting stalled nuclear talks in Vienna.
In
an interview with state TV, Ebrahim Raisi said Iran is after “goal-oriented”
talks with the West and said Iran “never left” the negotiation table.
“Lifting
sanctions is an indication of seriousness of the other party,” he said.
Talks
between Iran and European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, alongside
Russia and China, have been stalled since June. Raisi's administration, which
took office in August, has not fixed a date for resuming talks.
“The
Islamic Republic is serious in this issue, we should see seriousness in the
other party,” too, Raisi said.
The
2015 nuclear deal saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in
exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Iran has insisted its nuclear
program is only for peaceful purposes.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Turkey
shifting Syria strategy after Kurdish militia’s attacks
October
19, 2021
ANKARA:
Turkey is shifting to a proxy force strategy and diplomacy with the US and
Russia to counter the Kurdish People’s Defense Units in Syria instead of
deploying its own troops, analysts have said.
It
comes after senior Turkish officials hinted at a strategy change regarding the
war-torn country following deadly attacks by the militia in the
Kurdish-dominated Tal Rifaat region, which targeted Turkish police officers.
The
militia has also engaged in a cross-border shelling campaign against nearby
Turkish villages.
President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara was “determined to remove all threats in
northern Syria,” while Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu pledged that Turkey
“would do what is necessary for its security,” adding that neither the US or
Russia had kept their promises to ensure the withdrawal of the militia from the
Syrian border.
But
the Turkish government has said that the military will pursue a “much more
different campaign” in northern Syria, sparking debate over whether Ankara will
engage in diplomatic talks with the US and Russia before launching possible
military action.
The
militia is the chief local partner of the US in its fight against Daesh in the
region, while Turkey considers the Kurdish group and its political wing, the
Democratic Union Party, as Syrian extensions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party, which has fought a civil war against the Turkish state for more than
three decades.
In
the meantime, the Syrian Liberation Front branch of the Syrian National Army
said that it is “determined to clear our regions from all terror groups,”
including the Kurdistan Workers’s Party, Democratic Union Party and Daesh.
Soner
Cagaptay, director of the Turkish program at the Washington Institute, said
that every time Russian President Vladimir Putin has allowed Turkey to enter
Syria and seize territory from the Kurdish militia, he has demanded that Turkey
end its support for rebel groups.
“This
involved a land exchange with either Turkey taking territories from the YPG
(Kurdish People’s Defense Units in Syria) or the Bashar Assad regime taking
territories from the hands of the rebels. But this new model that we are
talking right now is a bit different from this one. Now, Turkish-backed troops
in Syria, instead of Turkish troops, might move in to take an area from the YPG
with a tacit agreement from Putin,” he told Arab News.
According
to Cagaptay, Ankara’s broader strategy is to divide the militia-controlled
zones and prevent the formation of any future political entity in the group’s
territory.
“The
recent Erdogan-Putin deal in Sochi aimed at implementing this new model,” he
said.
Amid
particularly sensitive times for US-Turkey relations, a growing emphasis on
diplomatic channels outweighs military action, he added. Erdogan is expected to
discuss the issue with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20
summit in Rome at the end of October.
After
their recent meeting in Sochi, Erdogan will also talk to Putin following his
meeting with Biden.
According
to Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund of
the US, the threat that Turkey sees in the Kurdish militia is the possibility
of a Kurdish state being formed close to its borders.
“Ankara
is therefore taking whatever measures it can to prevent this from happening,”
he told Arab News.
Unluhisarcikli
said that current conditions mean that it is unsuitable for Turkey to conduct
military operations against YPG-held territories in northwest or northeast
Syria.
Therefore,
Ankara will push diplomatic channels to proceed efficiently, he added.
“Turkey
is already in a tense relationship with Russia over Syria’s rebel-held Idlib
province and would not like to add a new layer to these tensions. At a time
when Turkey is trying to improve relations with US, it would not like to
introduce a new headache,” he said.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1950471/middle-east
--------
North America
Hackers
Deface Trump's Presidential Website, Urge Readers to 'Not Forget Allah'
18
October 2021
Hackers
defaced former President Donald Trump’s presidential website Monday and
redirected visitors to a page by Turkish hacktivist group RootAyyildiz who
urged readers to “not forget Allah.”
"Do
not be like those who forgot Allah, so Ally made them forget themselves. Here
they really went astray," the site read.
The
message was in Turkish. The suspected hacker has been blamed for briefly
defacing President Joe Biden’s official campaign website in November 2020.
Biden's
website displayed a message in Turkish with the country's flag placed at the
top with aliases and usernames such as “MarbeyliWerom,” “b4rbarøsas,” and
“oneshot.”
A
photo of the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II, was also on the
site with a footer note saying: “We are the ones who stopped the tanks with
their bare hands on the night of July 15.
"We
are those who killed death that night. We have been waiting for Archers Hill
for 15 centuries! We are the keepers of that golden banner that will never miss
its shadow on us.”
Source:
News Max
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/hackers-trump-website-deface/2021/10/18/id/1040989/
--------
Canada
must look out for the Shia minority in Afghanistan
Oct.
19, 2021
The
suicide explosion this last Friday in the Lady Fatima Mosque in Kandahar,
Afghanistan, has taken 47 lives and injured many more.
This
act of terror comes on the heel of another terrorist explosion only one week
earlier in Kunduz that killed at least 50 and injured over 150. That explosion
also targeted the Shia minority population during the Friday prayers.
Canada
has an opportunity and responsibility to act. Leaving the security of the Shia
minority to the Taliban is like trusting the fox to guard the henhouse.
First,
Canada can increase the number of Afghan refugees it takes, particularly from
the vulnerable Shia minority.
Second,
Canada must ensure much-needed aid reaches the Afghan people, but bypasses the
Taliban.
Source:
The Star
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
US
envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad steps down from position
October
19, 2021
The
United States' special envoy for Afghanistan is stepping down following the
chaotic American withdrawal from the country, the US State Department said on
Monday.
Zalmay
Khalilzad will leave the post this week after more than three years on the job
under both the Trump and Biden administrations. He had been criticised for not
pressing the Taliban hard enough in peace talks begun while Trump was president
but Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked him for his work.
“I
extend my gratitude for his decades of service to the American people,” Blinken
said of Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and
Afghanistan.
Khalilzad
had initially planned to leave the job in May after Biden’s announcement that
the US withdrawal would be completed before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11
attacks in September. However, he was asked to stay on and did so.
Khalilzad
had served as the special envoy for Afghan reconciliation under both the Trump
and Biden administrations since September 2018, when then-secretary of state
Mike Pompeo brought him on board to lead negotiations with the Taliban and the
Afghan government.
An
Afghan native, Khalilzad was unsuccessful in getting the two sides together to
forge a power-sharing deal but he did negotiate a US agreement with the Taliban
in February 2020 that ultimately led to the end of America’s longest-running war.
The
agreement with the Taliban served as the template for the Biden
administration’s withdrawal of all US forces from Afghanistan, which many
believe was conducted too hastily and without enough planning. Thousands of
Afghan citizens who worked for US forces there over the past two decades were
left behind in the rush to leave as were hundreds of American citizens and
legal residents.
President
Joe Biden and his aides frequently said the agreement that Khalilzad negotiated
tied their hands when it came to the pullout and led to the sudden takeover of
the country by the Taliban, although administration critics noted that Biden
had abandoned the “conditions-based” requirements for a complete US withdrawal.
In
interviews and in his resignation letter described to the AP, Khalilzad noted
that the agreement he negotiated had conditioned the final withdrawal of US
forces to the Taliban entering serious peace talks with the Afghan government.
He also lamented that those negotiations and consequently the withdrawal had
not gone as planned.
Despite
the criticism, Khalilzad remained on the job, although he skipped the first
high-level post-withdrawal US-Taliban meeting in Doha, Qatar earlier this
month, prompting speculation he was on his way out. Khalilzad will be replaced
by his deputy Thomas West, who led the US delegation to that last round of
talks in Doha.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1652926/us-envoy-for-afghanistan-zalmay-khalilzad-steps-down-from-position
--------
US
State Department watchdog to review end of Afghanistan operations
19
October ,2021
The
US State Department’s inspector general will review the end of the Biden
administration’s diplomatic operations in Afghanistan, including the emergency
evacuation of the US embassy in Kabul, a spokesperson said on Monday.
The
department’s acting inspector general will also look into its Special Immigrant
Visa Program, the processing of Afghans for admission as refugees, and their
resettlement in the United States.
The
acting inspector general, Diana Shaw, notified Congress on Monday that her
office was launching “several oversight projects” related to the end of the US
military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan.
A
congressional aide said a briefing by the IG was scheduled for Tuesday.
The
planned evaluation was first reported by Politico.
The
US-backed Afghan government collapsed in mid-August as the Taliban swept
through the country at lightning speed and marched into the capital, Kabul.
US
Republicans have harshly criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for
the spectacular collapse of the two-decade war effort, although the president’s
approval ratings have largely recovered from an initial hit tied to the chaotic
withdrawal.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
US
does not attend Moscow conference on Afghanistan
19
Oct 2021
US
department of state on Monday, October 18 said that they will not send a
representative to a Russia-hosted conference that is concentrated on
Afghanistan.
Spokesperson
of the state department Ned Price reasoned logistic problems for which the
United States will not be participating in Moscow talks.
Moscow
is all set to host a conference on Afghanistan tomorrow, October 20.
Taliban
have also been invited to the talks that have been confirmed and the de-facto
authorities will be taking part in Moscow talks.
Iran,
Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan are said to be
participating in the conference.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/us-does-not-attend-moscow-conference-on-afghanistan-4754745/
--------
Southeast Asia
Sultan
Nazrin calls on scholars, leaders to wage jihad against corruption
18
Oct 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR, Oct 18 — The Deputy Yang
di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Nazrin Shah said that Muslim scholars and leaders must
pool their energy and work together in the fight against corruption.
He
said corruption is a harmful cancer that had been proven to be the cause of the
people’s suffering and poverty, the fall of governments and rulers, the
collapse of nations and empires and the ruins of civilisations and cultures.
“Therefore,
scholars and leaders cannot close their eyes, deafen their ears and hold their
tongues against acts of corruption,” said Sultan Nazrin.
The
ruler said so many incidences of corruption have been reported recently, adding
that based on the news reports, corruption is not only widespread but also
happening on a large scale.
“It
is more worrying when it is being carried out more boldly and openly,” the
ruler said in a message in conjunction with the Maulidur Rasul celebration
aired over RTM tonight.
Sultan
Nazrin said when the ummah is suffering, leaders have a big role in creating a
peaceful world and prosperous life.
He
said the people long for a fair and just leadership that bravely upholds the
truth and firmly implements justice based on the law as well as a leadership
that does not commit injustice, does not oppress, cheat and is not a hypocrite.
“The
ummah has been voicing out their longing for a leadership that is not corrupt,
does not abuse power, does not practise nepotism and does not commit breach of
trust.
“The
ummah longs to be led by leaders who practise the leadership qualities of
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alai Wassalam (SAW), qualities that (all leaders) must
follow,” the ruler said, adding that the well-being of a nation and the
prosperity of a country is greatly influenced by the characteristics and
sensibility of its leaders.
He
said, if leaders are constantly aware of their responsibility to God as well as
to the ummah and the country, the ummah will prosper, national treasures will
be managed transparently, resources to be distributed fairly and national
wealth will not be wasted.
“Leaders
will not allow dishonest wealth accumulation especially involving ways that
sideline the rules and ridicule the law,” he said.
Sultan
Nazrin said those who are entrusted to lead the ummah must follow the
leadership wisdom exhibited by Rasulullah SAW.
“Prophet
Muhammad SAW is an example, a figure of outward good looks that reflects inner
beauty. Through his leadership, he succeeded in building a great civilisation
that had raised the ummah to the stage of glory,” said Sultan Nazrin.
Source:
Malay Mail
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
On
Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, PM Ismail Sabri urges Malaysians to treat
differences as source of strength
19
Oct 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR, Oct 19 — Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has called on Malaysians to
treat differences as an advantage rather than a weakness, and similarities as a
source of strength in dealing with the current twin crises of economy and
health.
The
prime minister said as a Malaysian Family, everyone needed to work together to
revive the country and adapt to new norms.
“Let
us forge and strengthen unity with the bond of love and tolerance as a big
Malaysian Family.
“Whoever
we are, whether a father, mother, child, neighbour, employee, head of an
office, community leader, religious leader or political leader, we have to play
the role to revive the country for the well-being of the Malaysian Family.”
He
said this in a special message in conjunction with the Maulidur Rasul
2021M/1443H celebration that was broadcast live on RTM1 today.
Ismail
Sabri said the rise and fall of a race and country are dependent on their unity
and solidarity.
“Rasulullah,
for example, had made a peace treaty with the various tribes living near
Madinah in the northern and southern regions to increase understanding and
renew relations based on the principle of truth as well as to avoid chaos and
clashes of power.
“Don’t
let differences of opinion and approach cause us to lose our value of ukhuwah
(brotherhood) and spirit of unity that have been established for so long,” he
said.
Based
on the belief that Rasulullah SAW is the best role model for mankind including
when he became the head of state in building Madinah, Ismail Sabri said the
government would continue to emulate the initiatives implemented by the Prophet
as a guide in the country’s administration for the prosperity of the Malaysian
Family.
“To
this end, various policies, initiatives and incentives will be introduced and
planned by the government so as to ensure that no members of the Malaysian
Family are left behind in enjoying the wealth and prosperity of the country,”
he said.
According
to him, Rasulullah SAW, among others, introduced Sahifah Madinah or the
Constitution of Madinah for political stability, in which its core values
managed to create the elements of togetherness and mutual respect between the
communities, thus uniting them as one family.
“The
stability of the country in terms of sustainable health and wellbeing as well
as economic prosperity were the elements that had been given special attention
by Rasulullah as the caliph of Madinah. Prophet Muhammad SAW in his
administrative policy also prioritised the welfare of all the people of Madinah.
“Rasulullah
also ensured that the country’s revenue was shared and distributed fairly to
all the people. Apart from that, he always encouraged the people of Madinah to
develop the agriculture and business sectors as an economic resource at that
time,” he said.
In
the context of humanity, Ismail Sabri said Rasulullah was a model in upholding
the brotherhood of humanity when he sought to eliminate any form of
discrimination based on religion, race, skin colour or descent.
“This
shows that Islam is a religion that is built on the principle of takrim
al-insan or honouring of humanity.
“It
is also in line with the Federal Constitution, including Article 12 which
accords the right to education to all citizens without any discrimination on
the basis of their religion, race, descent, gender or place of birth,” he said.
On
the theme of this year’s Maulidur Rasul celebration, which is ‘Manhaj Rabbani
Ummah Berkualiti’, Ismail Sabri said it led to the norms of life that emphasise
the principles of the Manhaj Rabbani policy, namely blessings, peace,
godliness, devotion and justice.
He
said all these values were in line with the three main thrusts of the Malaysian
Family concept, namely inclusivity, common ground and contentment in addition
to 20 other values such as compassion, faith, love and musyawarah (consensus
through discussion).
Source:
Malay Mail
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Prophet
Muhammad teaches people to remain united regardless of backgrounds, PM says in
Maulidur Rasul message
18
Oct 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the unity
concept brought by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has taught Malaysians to stay united
regardless of their backgrounds so as to create a harmonious Malaysian Family.
He
said this unity concept that Prophet Muhammad introduced transcended tribal
groups, religions and creeds.
He
said that when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated to Madinah, he succeeded in not
only uniting the Muhajirin (early followers of Islam who migrated from Makkah
to Madinah) and the Ansar (local inhabitants of Madinah) through the Charter of
Madinah but also the Jews.
Source:
Malay Mail
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Africa
43
people killed by suspected gunmen stormed marketplace in Nigeria
October
19, 2021
At
least 43 people were killed when suspected gunmen stormed a marketplace in
northern Nigeria on Monday, according to a local official.
"We
just finished a meeting with some stakeholders, and I have confirmed that we
unfortunately lost 43 people to that incident," Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the
governor of Sokoto state, said in a statement.
Tambuwal
said security forces were dispatched to the region, adding more forces should
be deployed to deal with security problems.
Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the incident, saying the days of those
responsible for the attack are numbered.
Earlier,
Sokoto government spokesman Muhammad Bello said the assault was carried out by
unidentified attackers in the Goronyo region.
He
said the attack also left many wounded.
Sokoto
is often targeted by armed groups. Twenty people were killed and many others
wounded in a similar armed attack on Oct. 10.
Source:
ABNA24
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Milad
un Nabi celebrations: Niger Governor urge Muslims to rise against those
promoting violence, insecurity
October
18, 2021
By
Priscilla Dennis
Niger
State, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, has advised Muslims across the nation to
rise against all those promoting violence and insecurity in Nigeria.
The
Governor gave this advice in a message to commemorate the Milad un Nabisigned
by his Chief Press Secretary, CPS, Mrs Mary Noel Berje in Minna.
He
regretted the attitude of miscreants who use the religion of Islam as facade to
perpetrate heinous crime.
Bello,
however, insisted that only genuine love and an ending social equilibrium can
frustrate the spread of violent ideology in the society.
The
statement noted, “humanity is fast losing its essence due to obvious disregard
to religious teachings and practice. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and indeed Islam
preaches peace, tolerance, unity and
togetherness”.
Source:
Daily Post
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Milad
un Nabi: Gov. Ugwuanyi felicitates with Muslims, calls for renewed faith in
God, prayers
October
19, 2021
By
Emmanuel Uzodinma
Governor
Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has felicitated with the Muslim faithful on
this year’s commemoration of Milad un Nabi, calling on all Nigerians to renew
their faith in God and intensify prayers for the country to surmount its challenges.
In
his goodwill message, Gov. Ugwuanyi urged Muslims and indeed all Nigerians to
remain committed to the core values of the nation’s founding fathers so that
the concerted efforts at sustaining the peace, unity and progress of the
country will be fully actualized.
The
governor pointed out that the significance of Milad un Nabi anchored on love,
sacrifice, obedience, tolerance and charity, as exemplified by the deeds and
teachings of Holy Prophet Muhammad, is germane to the peaceful co-existence,
unity and prosperity of Nigeria.
Source:
Daily Post
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Father
of MP’s suspected killer ‘despises terrorists’ after run-ins with Al-Shabaab
October
18, 2021
LONDON:
The father of the suspect accused of murdering British MP David Amess is said
to “despise terrorists” after being targeted himself with death threats by
Somali extremists.
Ali
Harbi Ali, 25, from London, is being held by police over the suspected murder
of Amess on Friday.
Ali
is estranged from his parents, the Daily Mail reported, and his father Harbi
Ali Kullane is said to “despise terrorists” after his time working alongside
the Somali prime minister before coming to the UK in 1996.
A
security source told the Daily Telegraph that Kullane was himself involved in
countering extremist narratives while working with the Somali government.
The
source said: “He was quite involved in countering Al-Shabaab’s message in his
role as comms director, and he received death threats from them for doing so,
which is common for anyone involved in a high-profile position in the
government.”
Ali
was referred to Britain’s counterterrorism program five years ago after his
teachers noticed his views becoming increasingly radical.
Estranged
from his family, the young man was enamored with hate preacher Anjem Choudary,
who had himself been jailed on terrorism-related charges until recently.
Choudary’s
videos, his former friends told The Sun, turned Ali from a “popular pupil into
an extremist.”
Kullane
has reportedly been in contact with British security services, who are
analyzing Ali’s phone and looking for an explanation as to his movements and
thought processes ahead of the sudden attack.
Officials
are reportedly not yet clear on why the man chose Amess as the target, but a
government insider told the Daily Telegraph: “He was unlucky. He was not
targeted because of his political party. David Amess was not specifically
targeted.”
Amess,
69, was stabbed 17 times during the attack, which took place during his surgery
— weekly open meetings in which politicians meet their local constituents.
The
attack has raised questions in Britain over the effectiveness of its
de-radicalization program Prevent, which was already under review after a string
of other terrorist incidents.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1950416/world
--------
Gunmen
kill dozens in Nigeria’s troubled north
October
18, 2021
ABUJA:
Gunmen from a suspected criminal gang attacked a village market in northwest
Nigeria’s Sokoto’s state killing dozens of people, the state government said
Monday.
Heavily
armed gangs known locally as bandits have terrorized northwest and central
Nigeria for years, raiding and looting villages, but attacks have become even
more violent in recent months.
“We’re
not sure of the (death toll) figure. But it is 30 something,” Sokoto’s
government spokesman Muhammad Bello said in a statement, adding that the attack
occurred on Sunday evening in Goronyo district.
“It
was a market day and there were many traders,” Bello told AFP by phone.
Police
spokesman Sanusi Abubakar also confirmed that bandits attacked Goronyo late on
Sunday.
“Our
sercurity operatives are there to conduct investigations,” Abubakar added,
without giving details.
Phone
networks in the area have been suspended for weeks to disrupt the gangs’
operations, making information-gathering tricky.
A
gang raided another village market on October 8, in Sabon Birni district near
the border with Niger, killing 19 people.
Since
last month, Nigerian troops have been conducting air and ground operations on
bandit camps in neighboring Zamfara state.
Telecom
services were also shut down in Zamfara, and parts of Kaduna and Katsina
states.
Officials
in Sokoto are worried that bandits are relocating to the state as a result of
operations in Zamfara.
“We’re
faced and bedevilled by many security challenges in our own area here,
particularly banditry, kidnapping and other associated crimes,” wrote Bello, on
behalf of the state governor.
Governor
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, he said, had requested “the presence of more forces in
the state and the deployment of more resources.”
Last
month 17 Nigerian security personnel were killed when gunmen attacked their
base in Sabon Birni, an assault the military blamed on Islamic State-aligned
jihadists.
Bandits
have no known ideological agenda, but concerns have grown of jihadist inroads
in the region.
Violence
has spiralled in recent months across the northwest, forcing thousands of
already vulnerable people to flee their homes in a situation that aid agencies
fear risks becoming a humanitarian crisis.
Since
January 2020, about 50,000 people fled from their homes in the northwest alone,
according to the International Organization for Migration.
Source:
Arab News
Please
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/1950256/world
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/shahbag-bangladesh-dhaka-durga-temple/d/125604
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