Twitter Takes Down Gujarat BJP Post Featuring Caricature of Muslims Being Hanged
New Age Islam News Bureau
22 February 2022
Photo: Vibes of India
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• Suisse Secrets: ‘Gen. Zia’s ISI Head Swindled CIA’s
Mujahideen Cash For Afghan-Soviet War’
• Afghanistan Again Becoming Terrorist Breeding
Ground: MI5 Chief
• Egypt Journalist, Ibrahim Issa, Accused Of 'Contempt
Of Islam' After Questioning Prophet's Ascension
• Facebook Allows Vigilantes In Ethiopia To Incite
Ethnic Massacres, Probe Finds
India
• Diktat In Uco Bank, In Bihar: ‘No Cash If Hijab
Isn’t Removed’, Saba Tabassum Told
• Bid To Make Hijab Binding On All Muslim Women: Karnataka
Govt To HC
• Police book ‘Mangalore Muslims’ FB account for
spreading hate message
• Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa blames 'Muslim
goons' for Bajrang Dal activist's murder in Shivamogga
• Minister’s attack on Muslims sparks political
controversy
• Karnataka: Murder of Bajrang Dal member triggers
anti-Muslim riots
• Muslim student leader’s death sparks protests in
West Bengal, CM orders probe
• Hijab row: One held for demonstration in Varanasi
• India rebuts UN Human Rights Council criticism over
Rana Ayyub
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan: Court slams federal Investigation agency
for invoking Anti-Terrorism Act against journalist
• Pakistan’s export of terror keeps flowing like
river, says report
• All eyes on Pakistan army as opposition gears up for
no-trust move against Imran
• Pakistan govt to counter 'Aurat March', promote
international hijab day: Report
• Pak PM summons three high-level meetings ahead of
Oppn’s long march
--------
South
Asia
• Ex-British FM: West Has Inflicted Catastrophic
Damage On Afghanistan
• Taliban to create Afghanistan ‘grand army’ with old
regime troops
• No progress has been made by Taliban for inclusive
govt in Afghanistan: US envoy Thomas West
• Taliban Reject Fresh US Criticism of Kabul
Government
--------
Arab
World
• Rapprochement With Israel After Solving Palestinian
Issue: Saudi FM
• Imam Muhammad Bin Saud: Saudi Arabia’s Founder
Records Heroism And Achievements In Ink Of Pride
• Egypt To Allow Mass Prayers, Re-Open Women's Prayer
Areas In Mosques In Ramadan 2022
• Hariri brother joins Lebanese political fray ahead
of vote
• Saudi FM says nuclear deal with Iran must help
resolve region’s issues
• ‘May our countries prosper’: Pakistani PM greets
Saudi leaders on founding day
• Poverty, fear drive exodus from Syria’s one-time
Daesh capital
--------
North
America
• US, Egypt launch group to prepare for COP27 climate
summit
• US Navy plans launch of Mideast drone force
alongside allies
--------
Europe
• Putin Declares Lugansk And Donetsk Independent
Republics
• Russia continues efforts to solve Syria crisis with
Iran help: Lavrov
• EU signs deal with Qatar to open diplomatic mission
in Doha
• Turkish, Greek officials meet in Athens
• West targeting Russia with same campaign of lies it
waged against Syria: FM
--------
Mideast
• Human Rights Watch Slams ‘Baseless’ Terrorism Charge
For Turkish Human Rights Defender
• Israel Hands Muslim Judge Permanent Supreme Court
Seat
• ‘Significant progress’ seen in Vienna nuclear talks:
Iran foreign ministry
• Israel withdraws plan to confiscate church land in
Jerusalem
• Israeli army detains 36 Palestinians in West Bank
raids
--------
Africa
• Stakeholders Demand Muslim Students’ Rights To Hijab
In Kwara Schools
• Nigerian Military Kill 6 ISWAP Commanders In
Airstrikes
• Turkish president vows to boost ties with African
countries
• Jordanian Royal Court rejects ‘inaccurate’ claims
surrounding King Abdullah’s accounts
--------
Southeast
Asia
• Bangladeshi Construction Worker In Singapore Jailed
For More Than Two Years After Donating Money To Support Terrorism In Syria
• Indonesian mosques told to keep the noise down
• SIS lauds Federal Court ruling Shariah courts’
judicial review powers unconstitutional
• Eight Children Dead after Fatal Fire at W. Java
Islamic School
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/twitter-gujarat-bjp-caricature-muslims/d/126426
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Twitter Takes Down Gujarat BJP Post Featuring
Caricature of Muslims Being Hanged
Photo: Vibes of India
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Scroll Staff
Twitter on Sunday removed an offensive post by the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gujarat unit that featured a cartoon depicting a group
of Muslim men being hanged in in the wake of Friday’s court verdict that
sentenced 38 people to death in the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts case.
The background of the cartoon showed the tricolour and
the scene of the blasts. “Satyamev Jayate [Truth alone triumphs],” the caption
to the post read. “No mercy to the perpetrators of terror.”
The tweet has been taken down for violating the
platform’s rules on hateful imagery.
As of Monday morning, several posts featuring the
cartoon could be seen on Facebook. Some accounts on Instagram, which is owned
by Facebook, have also posted the cartoon. As of Monday morning, the posts have
not been taken down. Several people who objected to the post on Facebook got a
response from the platform stating that the caricature did not violate its
community standards, according to Boom Live.
Gujarat BJP’s media convener Yagnesh Dave claimed that
the caricature was made on the basis of reports in newspapers and news
channels, and did not intend to target any community, The Indian Express
reported. He argued that all newspapers and channels had shown images of the
convicts and the caricature was based on them.
The Congress’ spokesperson in Gujarat Manish Doshi
said that no party should engage in politics on court judgements in sensitive
cases, The Hindu reported. He alleged that the BJP was seeking to polarise
people in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
“We all know that terrorism has no religion, and no
one knows it better than the Congress which has lost two former prime ministers
to it,” Doshi said.
The Gujarat BJP put out the tweet five days after the
party’s unit in Karnataka tweeted the names and addresses of some of the girls
who have moved the High Court seeking permission to wear hijabs in educational
institutions. Sharing minors’ identities without their consent contravenes
sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The Karnataka BJP later deleted the tweet.
The verdict
On February 18, a special court in Gujarat sentenced
38 of the 49 convicts to death in the bomb blasts case. Special Judge AR Patel
sentenced the rest of the accused persons to life imprisonment.
As many as 22 explosions ripped had through the city
of Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, leaving 56 dead and over 200 injured.
The police had claimed that people associated with the
banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen were responsible for the serial blasts.
Indian Mujahideen is a faction of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of
India.
Source: Scroll
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original story:
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Suisse Secrets: ‘Gen. Zia’s ISI Head Swindled CIA’s Mujahideen
Cash for Afghan-Soviet War’
A file photo of General
Akhtar Abdur Rahman Khan. — Photo courtesy Generalakhtar.pk
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Feb 22, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s slain ISI chief Gen. Akhtar
Abdur Rahman Khan has been named in the ‘Suisse secrets’, a massive leak of
confidential data of people around the world from Swiss banking giant Credit
Suisse. Khan headed the nation’s spy agency under dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq and
was responsible for establishing a network of CIA-funded mujahideen fighters
against the Russian invasion and occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
The US and Saudi governments matched funding to the
jihadists, dollar for dollar, in the CIA’s Swiss bank account. Dollars for
jihad poured in from other west Asian nations. The last recipient of these
black budgets was the ISI, led then by Gen. Akhtar. In 1988, Akhtar died along
with his boss Zia-ul-Haq in a plane crash.
Mohammad Yousaf, the General’s colleague in ISI, and
Steve Coll, author of the ‘Ghost Wars’, have claimed that Akhtar decided where
this cash went next. To train the mujahideen in sophisticated weaponry, the CIA
trusted him with millions of dollars. By 1984, the CIA’s Afghanistan budget
stood at some $200 million.
“It was easy at that point in time to open Swiss
banking accounts of any manner or type for transfer of overt funds. Akhtar was
doing it to fill his own pockets. A lot of money was siphoned off from the
Afghan war and into his bank accounts,” the Organised Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project (OCCRP) quoted a South Asian intelligence source. OCCRP is a
network of journalists from around the world that sifted through the data.
According to OCCRP, one of the two Akhtar family
accounts at Credit Suisse — held jointly by Akhtar’s sons Akbar, Ghazi, and
Haroon — was opened on July 1, 1985, when they were in their late 20s and early
30s.
“That same year, US President Ronald Reagan would
raise concerns about where the money intended for the Mujahideen was going. By
2003, this account was worth at least $3.7 million at the time. A second
account, opened in January 1986 in Akbar’s name alone, was worth more than $9.2
million at the time,” the report stated.
In a message to OCCRP, Akhtar’s son Ghazi Khan said
the information presented by reporters about his family’s Swiss accounts was
incorrect.
Source: Times Of India
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original story:
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Afghanistan Again Becoming Terrorist Breeding Ground: MI5
Chief
MI5's chief has warned
that Afghanistan could again become a hotspot for terrorist activity.
(File/AFP)
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February 21, 2022
LONDON: Afghanistan is once again becoming a breeding
ground for Islamist terrorists, and British extremists have already attempted
to travel there, the head of the UK’s security service MI5 has warned.
Ken McCallum said he is concerned about “terrorist
infrastructure and networks reconstituting” in Afghanistan, which has now been
ruled by the Taliban for around half a year.
As the Taliban reclaimed the country, Western security
chiefs warned that it could again become a hotbed of terrorist training and
indoctrination.
As early as September last year, MI5 was braced for an
“increase in inspired terrorism’ and the “potential regrowth of Al-Qaeda-style
directed plots” after the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan “heartened and
emboldened” Islamist terrorists.
McCallum told the Daily Mail that his service has now
detected the “beginnings of some travel attempts” by Britons to enter
Afghanistan.
In September, he said, MI5 had “flagged two risks,”
one of which was the “immediate morale boost that Afghanistan would give to
extremists here.”
The second was “the slower burn risk of terrorist
groups reconstituting themselves within Afghanistan and projecting the threat
back at the West including the UK.” McCallum said: “We have seen versions of
both of those risks beginning to materialize.”
He added: “Clearly we have seen some people interested
in traveling to Afghanistan in pursuit of some of those goals.
“We have seen the beginnings of some travel attempts
and so with our partners we remain very vigilant.”
He also warned of evolved threats from terrorists,
including a potential biological attack on British soil.
“Al-Qaeda, for example, determinedly engaged in
research and development. This is never something which has gone away as a
risk,” McCallum said, adding that the global impact of COVID-19 may have also
inspired potential terrorists.
“It will have occurred to many people that biological
or viral or their agents can be tools of significant game-changing events,” he
said.
The Taliban has promised that it will never allow its
territory to be used by foreign terror organizations — as it had for Al-Qaeda
ahead of the 9/11 attacks — but some in the West have reacted with skepticism.
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2028931/world
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Egypt Journalist, Ibrahim Issa, Accused Of 'Contempt
Of Islam' After Questioning Prophet's Ascension
Egyptian TV presenter
Ibrahim Issa in Cairo on May 4, 2014 [STR/AFP/Getty Images]
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February 21, 2022
Egypt has launched an investigation into a journalist
after he said that Prophet Mohammed's night journey from Makkah to Jerusalem
was "a completely delusional story."
Ibrahim Issa told viewers during his private TV show
on Friday that some scholars have disputed the ascension of the Prophet (peace
be upon him) and that Muslim preachers who ignore texts denying the journey
took place have "Salafist views".
Egypt's Islamic advisory and governmental body Dar
Al-Ifta said on Saturday that the journey "definitely happened and can't
be denied in any way."
Egyptian actor Mostapha Darwish announced he would no
longer be in the film, the Atheist, because Issa wrote the script.
Over recent years there has been a surge in blasphemy
cases in Egyptian courts which rights groups say is part of a wider culture of
intolerance.
In 2020 Egypt's minister of higher education suspended
a university professor after a video was shared online in which he insulted the
Quran.
He was later accused by students of "contempt for
the Islamic religion."
In 2015 four Egyptian teenagers faced up to five years
in prison and their teacher seven years after they were accused of insulting
Islam after a video circulated of them mocking Daesh.
In 2017 university professor Dr Mona Prince was accused
of "glorifying Satan" and "spreading destructive ideas"
after she taught John Milton's Paradise Lost to her students at Suez
University.
Source: Middle East Monitor
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Facebook Allows Vigilantes In Ethiopia To Incite
Ethnic Massacres, Probe Finds
Civilians walk past an
abandoned tank in southern Tigray. Thousands have died since fighting broke out
in the region in November 2020. (Photo by AFP)
-----
21 February 2022
US-based social media platform Facebook has come under
renewed scrutiny for persistently allowing user activists to incite ethnic
massacres in Ethiopia’s escalating war.
According to a probe by UK-based Bureau of
Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Observer newspaper released Sunday,
Facebook continues to permit users to post content that triggers violence
through hate and misinformation.
The investigation tracked down relatives who have tied
Facebook posts to the killings of loved ones, pointing out that a senior member
of Ethiopia’s media blamed the major corporation for “standing by and watching
the country fall apart.”
The complaints came amid an intensifying focus on
Facebook’s content moderation decisions, with it previously being blamed for
playing a role in the ethnic persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook’s parent company
Meta Platforms, revealed on Wednesday that former British deputy prime
minister, Nick Clegg, would be president of global affairs.
He said the move aimed to help the rebranded US
technology company repair its reputation following the testimony of
whistleblower Frances Haugen, who insisted that Facebook was “literally fanning
ethnic violence” in Ethiopia.
The development also comes as Facebook considers
launching an independent inquiry into its work in Ethiopia after its oversight
board urged the company to probe how the platform had been used to spread hate
speech.
TBIJ and Observer investigators interviewed a number
of fact-checkers, civil society organizations and human rights activists in the
country, describing Facebook’s support in the investigation as far less than it
should be.
Others said they felt requests for assistance had been
ignored and meetings failed to materialize.
Such failures, they said, helped to incite a conflict
in which thousands have died and millions been displaced since clashes broke
out between government forces and armed opposition groups from the Tigray
region in November 2020. Both sides have been accused of perpetrating
atrocities.
Rehobot Ayalew, of the Ethiopian fact-checking
initiative HaqCheck, said: “Most of the people have low media literacy, so
Facebook is considered to be credible.”
"We come across [Facebook] images that are
horrifying and hateful content,” Ayalew said. “You’re not getting the support
from the platform itself that is allowing this kind of content. They can do
more [but] they’re not doing anything.”
A number of civil society groups have similar
complaints of feeling ignored and sidelined. Facebook organized a meeting with
several groups in June 2020, to discuss how the platform could best regulate
content before scheduled elections. As of November, two of the organizations
involved said they had heard nothing about any subsequent meetings.
Haben Fecadu, a human rights activist who has worked
in Ethiopia, said: “There’s really no excuse. I’ve doubted they have invested
enough in their Africa content moderation.”
“The problem is not specific to Tigray. Ethiopian
citizens from every corner across ethnic groups are severely affected by
hateful content circulating online.”
Compounding the concern is that, according to
disclosures provided to the US Congress by Haugen, Meta has known about the
risks of such problems for years.
In January 2019 an internal report on “On-FB Badness”
– a measure of harmful content on the platform – rated the situation in
Ethiopia as “severe”, its second-highest category.
Almost a year later Ethiopia had risen to the top of
Facebook’s list of countries where it needed to take action.
A presentation dated Dec. 10, 2020 evaluated the risk
of societal violence in Ethiopia as “dire” – Meta’s highest threat warning and
the only country to receive that ranking.
More than a year on, it is alleged that the firm has
frequently ignored requests for support from fact-checkers based in the
country. Some civil society organizations say they have not met with the
company in 18 months.
Source: Press TV
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India
Diktat In Uco Bank, In Bihar: ‘No Cash If Hijab Isn’t Removed’, Saba Tabassum Told
Dev Raj
22.02.22
A higher secondary student in Bihar and her father
have said a public sector bank asked her to remove her hijab if she wanted to withdraw money.
The girl, Saba Tabassum, said the incident took place
at Uco Bank’s branch in Begusarai’s Mansur Chak on February 10. It spilled out
in the public domain after video footage recorded by her family did the rounds
on Monday.
Saba told reporters on Monday: “I went to the bank
branch and filled up the money withdrawal form. When my number came, the
cashier refused to give the money till I removed my hijab. I told him that I
always come like this and withdraw money, but he refused to listen to me. I
also refused to remove the hijab.”
When Saba pressed the cashier to give the money, he
refused and dared her to call whoever she wanted to.
“I called up my father and elder brother. After much
argument, the bank officials yielded and gave me the money,” she said.
Saba said the officials did not mention Karnataka —
now the ground zero of the hijab controversy — but were trying to replicate a
similar experiment here.
“They wanted to insult us. Nowhere is it written that
we cannot go to the bank in the hijab. The bank officials never refused me
money in the hijab earlier. I do not know why they did so this time. I have
always visited the bank in the hijab,” she said.
The video shows a bank official asking Saba’s father
Muhammad Matin Alam to meet the branch manager and stop recording the incident.
Alam asks him to either show a letter or order banning the use of the hijab in the
bank or give it in writing. He also refused to stop filming the incident.
Soon other bank officials joined the argument and
asked Saba’s family to stop recording the video, which they refused.
“If you are talking about law, act as per the law. The
mobile will continue to record. My son sends money from outside every month.
This is my daughter. You are asking her to remove the hijab. Show us the order
or give us in writing,” Alam says in the video.
“If you are trying to implement something that is
happening in Karnataka, then show us the directions given by the government,”
Alam says in the video.
Officials of the bank were not available for comment
despite repeated attempts by this newspaper.
Flooded with adverse comments from across the country, Uco Bank tweeted:
“Bank respects the religious sentiments of the citizens and does not
discriminate its esteemed customers on the basis of caste or religion. Bank is
checking the facts on this issue.”
Later, the bank uploaded another tweet saying its
executives “have met the customer and her family. The customer conveyed her
satisfaction with the bank’s service. Being an organisation since
pre-Independence India and with an existence of 79 glorious years, UCO Bank is
committed towards the expectations and trust of our citizens”.
Source: Telegraph India
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Bid to make hijab binding on all Muslim women:
Karnataka govt to HC
Feb 22, 2022
BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Monday informed
the high court that by praying for an order that the hijab is essential to
Islam, the petitioners who have challenged its order on uniforms in government
PU colleges are seeking to get a declaration that it would be binding on every
Muslim woman.Continuing his arguments on behalf of the state government before
a full bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, advocate-general
Prabhuling K Navadgi claimed that the petitioners want to bind everybody, not
just the petitioners, by such a ruling.
Citing Constituent Assembly debates and Supreme Court
judgments to elaborate how the "doctrine of essentiality" has
evolved, the state government asserted that the hijab is not an essential
practice of Islam. Arguing that the petitioners have placed "zero material"
to substantiate their claim that wearing a hijab is an essential religious
practice, the state government requested the court to decide the issue one way
or the other.
"The GO (government order) is innocuous and is
consciously innocuous. The controversy would not have arisen had the
petitioners requested permission for the headscarf as a dress. They say,
'Permit us as it is a religious symbol'," he said. The question is whether
it is part of a religious practice, and once this controversy is settled the
right of the student to enter their institution will also get settled, he
added.
Quoting the Supreme Court's Justice Chandrachud's
opinion in the Sabarimala judgement, Navadgi said modern jurisprudence says it
is a constitutional court that has to ultimately decide such issues.
"Every activity of religion cannot be considered
an essential practice. The last test is the binding nature of the religion. If
it is optional, it cannot be binding. It must be compelling, that if you
disobey you cease to be part of the religion," the AG said, adding that
the petitioners' claim that the hijab is essential to religion should be tested
on these principles.
Quoting a Supreme Court judgment, Navadgi argued that
food and dress cannot be essential practices of religion. Dwelling on the issue
of essential religious practice, the AG referred to the Shiroor Mutt case and
three other judgements as also debates in the Constituent Assembly involving KM
Munshi and Dr BR Ambedkar. This was prompted by queries from Justices Krishna S
Dixit and JM Khazi vis-a-vis conscience and religion. Justice Khazi asked
whether essential religio-us practice includes "religious
conscience". Justice Dixit reminded the AG about debates on conscience in
the Constituent Assembly.
Source: Times Of India
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Police book ‘Mangalore Muslims’ FB account for
spreading hate message
FEBRUARY 21, 2022
Over 1,000 social media accounts under constant vigil,
says Police Commissioner
The Cyber, Economic and Narcotics Offences Police in
Mangaluru on Monday registered a suo motu case under the provisions of the
Indian Penal Code and the IT Act against those operating “Mangalore Muslims”
Facebook page for inciting communal hatred and violence in the backdrop of the
murder of Shreeharsha in Shivamogga on Sunday.
Personnel in the social media cell of the Police
Commissioner’s office noticed the posts on the FB page and complained to the
CEN Police.
Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar told reporters
here on Monday that the FB post termed Shreeharsha as a “street dog” who was
killed for defaming the prophet in the year 2015. Whoever insults the prophet,
including television anchor Ajith Hanumakkanavar, will meet the same fate, the
post said.
It also said that Minister K.S. Eshwarappa financed
the murder of Shreeharsha through Muslims and if he is interrogated, the truth
behind the Shivamogga murder will come out.
The complaint also said that the FB page has
continuously been posting provocative and insulting statements and material
against Hindu leaders for long. Its aim appeared to be creating a divide
between communities and inciting communal violence.
Meanwhile, it has been found that Mohammed Rafique
shared posts from “Mangalore Muslims” page in other groups, including
“Political Adda”, and engaged in discussions.
Continuous monitoring
The Police Commissioner said that no one should
believe that they can escape from the long arms of the law after spreading
rumours and hate messages on social media. The police have been keeping
constant vigil on their activities through their social media cell. Not only
those creating the posts but also those who share such posts will be dealt with
under the law, Mr. Kumar cautioned.
Source: The Hindu
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Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa blames 'Muslim goons'
for Bajrang Dal activist's murder in Shivamogga
21st February 2022
BENGALURU: Karnataka BJP Minister for Panchayat Raj
and Rural Development, KS Eshwarappa on Monday while reacting to the murder of
a Hindu activist in Shivamogga district, said that it was an act carried out by
some goons belonging to a particular community and the statements by the
Congress have encouraged the attacks.
"I'm very disturbed by the murder of a Bajrang
Dal activist. He was killed by 'Musalmaan goondas' (Muslim goons)," he
said.
Miscreants hacked Harsha, a 23-year-old Bajrang Dal
activist, to death on Sunday night in Shivamogga. Prohibitory orders have been
clamped for two days in the district following incidents of stone pelting and
burning of vehicles. The city has been turned into a police fortress. The
police department is on high alert throughout the state.
Eshwarappa said: "... goondas can't have such
courage. I have spoken to Home Minister Araga Jnanedra on the issue. These
goondas are encouraged by Congress state President D.K. Shivakumar's statement
on the hijab row alleging that 60 lakh saffron shawls have been sponsored by
the BJP leaders and his statement on removing the national flag and hoisting of
saffron flag.
"The responsibility of the family of the murdered
youth is the responsibility of the organisation. The youth was a good man and
honest person. I am travelling to Shivamogga to meet his family."
B.K. Hariprasad, the leader of the Opposition in
Council, condemned Eshwarappa's statement. "His statement will spoil the
peace in the society," he said.
D.K. Shivakumar stated that proper investigation has
to be conducted on the murder and culprits, whoever it may be, should not
escape from the clutches of law. They should not be protected, he said.
Source: New Indian Express
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Minister’s attack on Muslims sparks political
controversy
Feb 22, 2022
Karnataka minister for rural development and
Panchayati Raj, KS Eshwarappa, on Monday alleged the involvement of Muslims in
the murder of a Bajrang Dal activist on Sunday night, even though police have
not made any statement to the effect.
Alleging that Muslim anti-social elements had killed
the activist, Harsha, Eshwarappa told reporters on Monday,“I’m very disturbed
by the murder of a Bajrang Dal activist... I’m going to Shivamogga now to
analyse the situation. We’ll not allow ‘goondaism’.”
Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said that police had
clues on who the perpetrators were. “They will be nabbed as soon as possible. I
have directed the police authorities to prevent any untoward incident in
Shivamogga,” he said.
Bommai did not comment on Eshwarappa’s allegations.
“All I can say is that investigation will bring out the truth,” he said.
Eshwarappa is already facing criticism from the
opposition Congress for his remarks that the saffron flag will replace the
tricolour in several years.
Responding to Eshwarappa’s allegations, Karnataka
Congress chief, DK Shivakumar, said: “He has already violated the Indian Flag
Code. A case must be registered against him and he must be sacked… It (Harsha’s
killing) has nothing to do with the hijab issue. It was the result of personal
enmity between two groups... the police must thoroughly investigate the
incident.”
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah demanded the
resignation of home minister Araga Jnanendra over the incident. He said: “The
murder was committed in Shivamogga district from where the home minister,
Eshwarappa and Yediyurappa hail. I demand the resignation of the home
minister...” he added.
Source: Hindustan Times
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Karnataka: Murder of Bajrang Dal member triggers
anti-Muslim riots
Anjana Meenakshi
21st February 2022
Following the murder of Harsha, a 23-year-old Bajrang
Dal member, riots have broken out in various pockets of Shimoga district in
Karnataka. The specific target of the riots seems to be localities where
chiefly Muslims reside.
While there is no clarity on who killed Harsha,
Bajrang Dal cadres and BJP leaders in the state seem to believe that Muslim
individuals were responsible for the murder.
After the murder, several vehicles in the area were
set on fire, and police were compelled to deploy heavy artillery to prevent the
situation from escalating. The administration has imposed curbs on public
gatherings and ordered that schools and colleges will stay shut.
Despite the police response, a video that has garnered
steam on social media bears proof of the starting of a riot. Bajrang Dal
members can be seen pelting stones at Muslim houses in the Azad Nagar area of
Shimoga.
Who was Harsha?
Harsha was a 26-year-old Bajrang Dal member who was
employed as a tailor. He was stabbed repeatedly by unidentified persons and
despite medical assistance, Harsha succumbed to the wounds. The police have
arrested three people in connection with the murder case.
Reactions to the murder
Bajrang Dal state convenor Raghu Sakleshpur, speaking
to NDTV stated that he was unhappy with the police action in the case. He
further argued that Harsha was an active member and they will soon decide what
the next course of action should be.
Karnataka’s rural development minister KS Eshwarappa
has claimed that the state Congress chief DK Shivakumar was instigating the
killings. He further alleged that “Muslim goons murdered Harsha.”
No connection with the hijab row
NDTV quoted a police officer as saying that the attack
seems to have been carried out by four people. Denying reports linking the
murder to the hijab row, the officer said Harsha knew the assailants and this
seems to be the result of an old rivalry.
State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra has said the probe
so far has not revealed any link between the murder and the hijab controversy.
He further said that the violence could have arisen out of different instances.
Source: Siasat Daily
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.siasat.com/karnataka-murder-of-bajrang-dal-member-triggers-anti-muslim-riots-2279713/
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Muslim student leader’s death sparks protests in West
Bengal, CM orders probe
21st February 2022
Anis Khan, a student of Aliah University in West
Bengal, who had been an active part of the protests against the contentious CAA
and NRC was found dead near his residence in Howrah’s Amta, on February 19.
A complaint was filed and an FIR was registered under
IPC section 302 (Punishment for Murder) at Atma Police Station based on the
complaint of Khan’s father.
Khan’s family has alleged that a group of four men
dressed in police uniforms who had come looking for Khan, pushed him off the
rooftop of the building.
Anis Khan had reportedly received threat calls in May
2021, from members of Trinamool Congress and had filed a complaint in this
regard.
Following his death, protests erupted on Saturday night
at Jadavpur University and Aliah University, with around 600 students blocking
the seven-point Park Circus crossing during the protest march, in Kolkata.
Clashes took place between the students and the police
as cops attempted to control crowds and the march was stopped.
According to media reports, Anis Khan was also a
supporter and a leader of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) and was at the
forefront of CAA-NRC protests held at the Circus Maidan.
Following the protests, the state announced that a
special inquiry committee has been set up to probe into the alleged murder
case.
Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee on Monday directed the
committee comprising the chief secretary, Director General of Police, and a few
others to file a report within a span of 15 days, after a thorough
investigation into the case.
Source: Siasat Daily
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Hijab row: One held for demonstration in Varanasi
22nd February 2022
Varanasi: The Shivpur police have arrested a youth for
staging a demonstration with scores of children in front of a school on Airport
Road, demanding school authorities not to allow wearing hijab by Muslim girl
students.
School principal Nirmala Rathore made it very clear
that the dress code is strictly followed in the school and no student is
allowed to wear hijab.
On her complaint, police lodged an FIR against
Himanshu Chaturvedi of Bharlai area and also arrested him.
Inspector Shivpur, S R Gautam said that Chaturvedi,
along with many minor boys and girls, gathered in front of the school on Monday
and started a demonstration.
The demonstrators carried a banner and placards with
messages like ‘ban hijab’ and ‘follow dress code’.
Chaturvedi alleged that the school principal had
permitted many students to come to school in hijab.
On getting the information, Shivpur cops reached the
spot and took the demonstrators under custody. Gautam said that as all the boys
and girls accompanying Chaturvedi were minors, they were asked to go home after
issuing a warning to not indulge in such acts at a time when model code of
conduct is also in force in view of the assembly election.
After taking Chaturvedi into custody, the cops started
investigating the matter.
The principal of the school termed the allegations of
Chaturvedi as baseless and asked the cops to go through CCTV footage to see how
dress code is followed in her institution. She said that school authorities
were not answerable for the attire of anyone worn outside school campus but
inside the school dress code is followed strictly.
Source: Siasat Daily
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https://www.siasat.com/hijab-row-one-held-for-demonstration-in-varanasi-2279974/
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India rebuts UN Human Rights Council criticism over
Rana Ayyub
22.02.22
The UN Human Rights Council has said the probe against
Indian journalist Rana Ayyub should end while The Washington Post newspaper has
run a full-page statement in her support, calling her a “target of prejudiced
investigations” and underscoring that “the free press is under attack in
India”.
The Indian government responded to the UN council by
saying the “allegations of so-called judicial harassment are baseless and unwarranted”. India said it expected the special rapporteurs to be “objective”.
Ayyub told The Telegraph on Monday that she would have
been “thrown under the bus” had it not been for international support as
solidarity from the Indian counterparts
had been minimal.
Earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate had
attached the bank deposits of Ayyub, a critic of the Narendra Modi government
at the Centre. Deposits of over Rs 1.77 crore have been frozen, pending a probe
into alleged money laundering through her charitable work during the pandemic.
The probe was initiated on the complaint of an
activist of a Ghaziabad-based NGO, the Hindu IT Cell. Ayyub had denied the
allegations with accounts of her expenditure from funds collected through the
widely recognised Ketto platform.
The Telegraph
On Monday, in a statement tweeted by the UN, two of
its independent special rapporteurs said: “In response to Ms. Ayyub’s efforts
to shine a light on public interest issues and hold power to account through
her reporting, she has been maliciously targeted with anonymous death and rape
threats by organised groups online…. The lack of condemnation and proper
investigation by the Government, coupled with the legal harassment it has
itself inflicted on Ms. Ayyub, has only served to falsely legitimise the
attacks and attackers and further endangered her safety.”
The statement by Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the
right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur
on the situation of human rights defenders, added: “It is imperative that the
authorities take urgent measures to protect her from the onslaught of threats
and hate online and end the investigation against her.”
India’s permanent mission in Geneva said in a
tweet on Monday: “Allegations of
so-called judicial harassment are baseless & unwarranted. India upholds the
rule of law, but is equally clear that no one is above the law. We expect SRs
(special rapporteurs) to be objective & accurately informed. Advancing a
misleading narrative only tarnishes @UNGeneva’s reputation.”
A source said: “This will be followed up by a note
verbale from our permanent mission in Geneva. They will also take it up with
the UN office in Geneva.”
According to the Committee for the Protection of
Journalists, at least four journalists were killed in India in retaliation for
their work last year — the highest in
the world then. At least eight are in prison for their work, the latest being
Fahad Shah, the editor of website The Kashmir Walla.
The full-page statement of support, published on
Sunday by The Post’s Press Freedom Partnership and the Coalition Against Online
Violence, ran under headline, “THE FREE PRESS IS UNDER ATTACK IN INDIA”.
It read: “Almost every day Rana Ayyub faces threats of
violence and death.
“She has been the target of prejudiced investigations
and online harassment. Her bank account was frozen over her charitable work.
“Journalists should not fear persecution and smear
campaigns.
“#WeStandWithRana”.
Ayyub told this newspaper on Monday: “The Washington
Post also has been witnessing what is happening to me…. Many Hindu Rightwing
organisations in the US and India have written to them to remove me as a Global
Opinions writer. This time, my (Global Opinions) editor Elías López... asked
why the Indian media was not doing anything?”
Ayyub added: “Through the worst I have seen over the
couple of years — the publication of my book, the accusations from the BJP — I
have never seen any kind of solidarity from the Indian media. There are raids
on NDTV, NewsClick, Newslaundry, you have people standing up in solidarity.
When it happened to me, despite the fact that there was a clarification out
there, I did not see it (in the press).”
The Delhi Union of Journalists has issued statements
in Ayyub’s support since the ED and income tax investigations began against her
last year. She expressed her disappointment at the silence of the Editors Guild
of India (EGI) as well as the TV media trial against her and said that the
probes against her began after her essay in Time magazine on the Modi
government’s failures in the pandemic last year.
In response to a question from this newspaper, EGI
secretary general Sanjay Kapoor said: “We have issued a statement against the
vicious and criminal harassment of women journalists that includes Rana Ayyub,
although we did not name her…. It is very difficult to say anything about
financial cases, but we believe that she should get a fair deal. There is always
the fear of harassment in such cases and it is a pity that she has to face
this. She deserves support and solidarity’.
Source: Telegraph India
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Pakistan
Pakistan: Court slams federal Investigation agency for
invoking Anti-Terrorism Act against journalist
22 February, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], February 22 (ANI): The Islamabad
High court on Monday, lambasted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), for wrongly
invoking the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act
(Peca to arrest journalist, Mohsin Jameel Baig.
During the hearing, Justice Minallah issued a
show-cause notice to the Federal Investigation Agency’s cybercrime wing director
for “wrongly” invoking the draconian Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA)
sections against Baig, reported The Dawn.
“The threat to free speech or abuse of oppressive and
draconian powers having the effect of stifling the rights of the people cannot
be tolerated in a democratic society governed under the Constitution,” observed
Justice Minallah as quoted by the publication.
“Do you think there is no rule of law?” Justice
Minallah further questioned. “Has a martial law been imposed in this country?”
Last Friday, the International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) had expressed its ‘deep concern’ over the arrest of senior
journalist Mohsin Jamil Baig under the Anti-Terrorism Act after an alleged
‘cybercrime complaint’ was lodged by Federal Minister for Communications Murad
Saeed Baig.
Notably, the Imran Khan government recently made
amendments to the PECA, where the definition of a “person” has been broadened
to include any company, association, institution, organization, authority, or
any other. Furthermore, anyone found guilty of attacking a person’s “identity”
will now be sentenced to five years instead of three years.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President
Maryam Nawaz on Sunday lashed out at Imran Khan over the amendments. Taking to
Twitter she said, “These laws will ultimately be used against Imran and
company.”
The media Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising All
Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors
(CPNE), Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Pakistan Broadcasters
Association (PBA) and Association of Electronic Media Editors and News
Directors (AEMEND) has outrightly rejected the draconian amendments to the
PECA, saying it is a flagrant move to undermine the freedom of the press,
speech and defiant voices in the country.
Source: The Print
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Pakistan’s export of terror keeps flowing like river,
says report
21 February, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], February 21 (ANI): There seems
to be no cessation of terrorism emanating from Pakistan despite the country
facing economic and political turbulence, says a media report.
The case of Malik Faisal Akram, a British-Pakistani
national who took four persons hostage at a synagogue in Texas in the US, is a
fit one. Later, it surfaced that he had been radicalized in Pakistan in 2020,
Islam Khabar reported.
On the other hand, despite claims of having controlled
domestic terrorism to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Maulana Masood
Azhar, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief, continues to roam free in Pakistan spewing
venom against the West and India, said the report.
The report stressed that Pakistan must be blacklisted
as the country that has lied to the FATF about the activities of the JeM.
Citing the case of Malik Faisal Akram, the 44-year-old
British national who had been radicalized in Pakistan in 2020, the report said
that “this should not come as a surprise as it is a well-known fact that
Pakistan is the jihadi factory of the world”.
Akram had been on the watch list of MI 5, the British
internal intelligence service, as a “subject of interest” in 2020 and was
investigated in the second half of that year after his return from Pakistan for
six months, Islam Khabar reported.
It further reported that MI 5 interrogated him and
even checked all his computers and other documents.
“Faisal Akram had been the head of the Islamic Centre,
Reza Masjid on Rondell Street in London, where Muslims of Pakistani origin
largely prayed. Faisal Akram had been based in Blackburn, Lancashire and had
been branded as a ‘menace’ by the local police for expressing his desire to be
on board in one of the planes that destroyed the World Trade Centre in 2001.
It also came to notice during the interrogation that
Faisal had visited Pakistan eleven times between 2007 and 2020. He had also
been a member of the Tablighi Jamaat and had been convicted three times in the
past for various petty crimes in the UK,” Islam Khabar reported.
According to the report, the Faisal Akram case points
to the larger problem of the internationalization of terror by Pakistan.
Recently, evidence emerged that Pakistan
misrepresented facts before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), about
Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, Islam Khabar reported.
It further reported that in October 2021, Pakistan
told the FATF Plenary Session that the JeM chief Masood Azhar was untraceable
and had been declared a proclaimed offender. This claim was soon proved false
by the appearance of several write-ups by Masood Azhar calling for jihad.
“Reports of JeM leaders organising and attending
conferences throughout Punjab (Pakistan) and other provinces, seeking recruits
and funds, besides holding indoctrination and training camps have also cropped
up in social media and the Pakistani press. On 19 September 2021, Azhar wrote
an article criticising the media for circulating fake news instead of
celebrating the Islamic victory in Afghanistan. On 29 December 2021, he called
for jihad in the name of Allah,” Islam Khabar reported.
Source: The Print
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://theprint.in/world/pakistans-export-of-terror-keeps-flowing-like-river-says-report/840995/
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All eyes on Pakistan army as opposition gears up for
no-trust move against Imran
Feb 22, 2022
ISLAMABAD: As political temperature in Pakistan soars,
prime minister Imran Khan faces the heat of a no-confidence motion in the
coming weeks, as announced by the opposition parties on February 11 in the
National Assembly. The 342-member National Assembly must have 172 votes for the
no-confidence motion to ensure Khan’s removal. Though no date is decided yet
for the vote, the opposition claims it has more votes than required.
To galvanise legislators for the vote, several
opposition parties have announced long marches to Islamabad in March. Asif Ali
Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will march to Islamabad from Karachi on
February 27. The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of nine
opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Maulana
Fazlur Rehman-led right-wing Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (FUI-F), has announced
its march on Islamabad to March 23.
The opposition has also claimed that the
“establishment”, a euphemism for the military’s powerful grip on Islamabad,
will stay “neutral” and will not come to the rescue of the “selected PM”, a
crucial factor behind the opposition’s confident push for Khan’s removal. The
opposition has long alleged that the 2018 polls were rigged by the
establishment, and that Khan’s government cannot survive a day without military
support.
Government sources reject the opposition’s claim that
the “establishment is annoyed at Khan’s incompetent governance”, saying there
is no discord between Khan and the men in uniform. Amid these counter claims,
the military and the government have avoided speaking in public on thorny
issues, which could determine Khan’s exit.
One such issue is the retirement of the incumbent army
chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. His term, which Khan extended for three years
in 2019, ends in November. The opposition is determined to deny Khan the
opportunity of appointing the next army chief, which is only possible with his
removal.
According to Islamabad’s political grapevine, Khan is
likely to replace Bajwa with Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, former ISI chief, currently
posted as corps commander of Peshawar. As ISI chief, Hameed was also
Islamabad’s “emergency” emissary to Kabul soon after the Afghan capital fell to
the Taliban last August.
Bajwa transferred Hameed out of the ISI last October
within months of the Kabul visit. Khan’s insistence to retain him as ISI chief
apparently contributed to the PM’s strained relations with the establishment.
Hameed’s transfer was part of a reshuffle of the army brass.
The opposition's mistrust of Hameed also stems from
the concern that he was allegedly behind the anti-blasphemy sit-in protests of
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a right-wing party, against the previous
government.
With Hameed as army chief, the opposition fears harsh
government reprisal leading to an uneven playing field in elections due in
2023. There are fears that if Khan survives a no-trust move, he will possibly
announce the next army chief before April-end.
Source: Times Of India
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Pakistan govt to counter 'Aurat March', promote
international hijab day: Report
Feb 22, 2022
As women in Pakistan prepare for 'Aurat March' scheduled
to be held on International Women's Day on March 8, the Imran Khan government
is seeking to thwart their efforts for women empowerment by hailing hijab in
order to promote conservatism, said a think tank, Policy Research Group
(POREG).
In order to roll back 'Aurat March' organised every
year by Pakistani women on International Women's Day, Minister for Religious
Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to declare
March 8 as International Hijab Day.
The minister has claimed that the 'Aurat March' held
across Pakistan on that day since 2018 goes "against the principles of
Islam."
In his letter to Imran Khan, Qadri has suggested a
regressive measure to alter "the status of an UN-designated international
day that aims to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political
achievements of women", reported the think tank.
"No organisation should be allowed to question or
ridicule Islamic values, norms of society, hijab or the modesty of Muslim women
at the Aurat March or any other event held in connection with International
Women's Day as these acts hurt the sentiments of Muslims in the country,"
read the letter written by the minister.
However, Qadri's statement drew flak from women
lawmakers, diplomats and civil society leaders, following which, he issued a
clarification saying "Obscenity and hooliganism in the name of rights
should not be allowed under any circumstances," further alleging that his
letter "reflected the collective thinking of the Pakistani society,"
reported POREG.
Aurat March, which was first held in the city of
Karachi in 2018, is now organized every year to celebrate International Women's
Day. The march highlight the issues women face in Pakistan.
In the last four years, educated urban women, many
from mainstream political parties and from the academia in Pakistan have made
good use of the Aurat March on the streets and on social media to create
awareness of women's dismal conditions in the country, according to the think
tank.
Source: Hindustan Times
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Pak PM summons three high-level meetings ahead of
Oppn’s long march
22 February, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], February 22 (ANI): Pakistan
Prime Minister Imran Khan has summoned three high-level meetings on Monday to
discuss matters related to the Opposition’s long march and current political
situation of the country.
Imran Khan will chair Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
central executive committee meeting tomorrow at PM House.
This is a major development in Pakistan’s politics as
the meeting is called just ahead of the Opposition’s long march. Notably, the
opposition parties have formed a committee to move a no-confidence motion
against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in Punjab province.
The opposition party PML-N has mobilised all its MNAs,
MPAs, ticket holders and office bearers to bring a no-confidence motion in
Punjab province.
Pakistan opposition is jettisoning mutual hatred to
ouster Khan. They are planning a no-confidence motion or street protests or
even a combination of both in a joint fight against Khan’s misgovernance.
Opposition parties like Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP),
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the allies of Imran Khan – Muttahida
Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) are setting aside their
differences to ouster ‘Kaptaan’ (Imran Khan).
PPP and PML-N have announced separate long marches on
Islamabad with the former’s starting on February 27 and the latter’s March 23.
Source: The Print
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of the original story:
https://theprint.in/world/pak-pm-summons-three-high-level-meetings-ahead-of-oppns-long-march/841661/
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South
Asia
Ex-British FM: West has inflicted catastrophic damage
on Afghanistan
21 February 2022
Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband says
the West has inflicted catastrophic damage on Afghanistan and its own
reputation by imposing a policy of starvation on the country.
Many of the US allies and Western governments have
largely suspended their financial assistance to Afghanistan since the US troop
withdrawal and the Taliban takeover last year, triggering the rapid collapse of
public finances.
“What we are doing is not making it worse for the
Taliban, it is making it worse for the people. We are not punishing the
Taliban. It is ordinary Afghans that are paying the price of peace,” Miliband
told British daily the Guardian on Sunday.
“It is not just a catastrophe of choice, but a
catastrophe of reputation. This is a starvation policy," he added.
The Biden administration has frozen assets belonging
to the Afghan Central Bank since the withdrawal of its occupation forces from
the country in August 2021, spawning one of the world’s most rapidly growing
humanitarian crises.
“If we wanted to create a failed state we could not
have a more effective policy mix than the one we have at the moment,” Miliband
said.
"The choice is a very brutal one. It is not ‘do
you help the Taliban or not?’ It is “do you help the people or not?’. This is a
government where already 75 percent of its spending came in the form of
international aid and has gone overnight.”
Miliband stressed that the US sanctions have a
“chilling effect” on the Afghan economy, and called on Washington for a change
in the foreign policy.
He warned the crisis was so deep that the UN’s appeal
for $4 billion this year was likely to rise to $10 billion next year.
“There is no money to pay salaries. Some teachers and
hospital workers have not been paid since April. That has to change,” he said.
The White House announced last week that the US Treasury
planned to use $7 billion of Afghan funds frozen in the US banks for
compensation to the alleged families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and
humanitarian aid.
The decision prompted angry demonstrations in
Afghanistan, where people rallied in the streets, chanting slogans and carrying
placards reading "Stop Enmity with the Afghan People" and "9/11
Has Nothing to Do with the Afghan People".
“In these tragic circumstances you can give more aid
until you are blue in the face, and it will not solve the structural problems.
I am in the ridiculous position of running an aid agency and I am saying ‘don’t
just give out humanitarian aid, you have to underpin the economy’,” said
Miliband who is chief executive of the International Rescue Committee.
He said the alleged carve-outs in US and international
sanctions for humanitarian purposes “do not touch commercial entities so if you
are a private agricultural or food importer who has to touch the government at
the border in some way you are scared you are going to get caught up in the
sanctions.”
Source: Press TV
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Taliban to create Afghanistan ‘grand army’ with old
regime troops
22 Feb 2022
The Taliban is creating a “grand army” for Afghanistan
that will include officers and troops who served the old regime, says the
official tasked with overseeing the military’s transformation.
Latifullah Hakimi, head of the Taliban’s Ranks
Clearance Commission, also told a news conference on Monday that they had
repaired half the 81 helicopters and planes supposedly rendered unserviceable
by the United States-led forces during last year’s chaotic withdrawal.
He said Taliban forces took control of more than
300,000 light arms, 26,000 heavy weapons and about 61,000 military vehicles
during their lightning takeover of the country.
Afghanistan’s armed forces disintegrated in the face
of a Taliban onslaught ahead of the August 31 US-led force withdrawal, often
abandoning their bases and leaving behind all their weapons and vehicles.
The Taliban has promised a general amnesty for
everyone linked to the old regime, but nearly all senior government and
military officials were among the more than 120,000 people who evacuated by air
in the final days.
Many of the rank and file remained, melting back into
civilian life and keeping a low profile for fear of reprisals.
The United Nations said in January that more than 100
people linked to the old armed forces have been killed since August.
Hakimi insisted, however, that the Taliban amnesty had
worked well. “If it hadn’t been issued, we would have witnessed a very bad
situation,” he said.
“The suicide bombers who were chasing a person to
target him are now the same suicide bombers protecting him,” he added.
There has been little evidence the Taliban has
absorbed former troops into their ranks but, over the weekend, it named two
senior ex-Afghan National Army officers to top posts in the defence ministry.
Both are specialist surgeons attached to the country’s
main military hospital.
“Our work on the formation of an army is going on,”
Hakimi said. “Professionals including pilots and engineers, service persons,
logistical and administrative staff (from the previous regime) are in their
places in the security sector.”
Hakimi said they would form “a grand army… according
to the country’s needs and the national interests”, although he did not specify
a size.
He said the army would only be one that the country
could afford.
Source: Al Jazeera
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/22/taliban-create-grand-army-afghanistan-old-regime-troops
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No progress has been made by Taliban for inclusive
govt in Afghanistan: US envoy Thomas West
February 22, 2022
The US special representative for Afghanistan, Thomas
West said that the Taliban has made no effort for an inclusive government in
Afghanistan.
Talking virtually at an event at the Munich Security
Conference on Afghanistan on Saturday, West said that the Taliban has been
productive in areas such as girls’ education, while in other areas–such as the
formation of an inclusive government–no progress has been made, reported Tolo
News. He said that the US is expecting the Taliban to deliver on its
commitments over girls’ education and inclusive government.
“The formation of an inclusive government is not only
the US’s call, but Iran, Pakistan, and the Central Asian states, China and
Russia share the same call,” West said.
“We must see a dialogue with all segments of Afghan
society unfold,” he added.
Norway Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt speaking at
the same event said the Oslo talks were the first step of engaging with the
Taliban toward the formation of an inclusive government and respect for human
rights, reported Tolo News.
“This was the first step; it was only the first step
for more inclusive government because that is the solution,” she said.
“We are also following very closely what they are
going to do when it comes to girls’ right to education. We cannot continue
financing their schools when those schools are only for boys. Moreover, the
inclusive government will be a pre-condition for any development in Afghanistan
in my opinion,” said Huitfeldt.
She also said Norway is reluctant to recognize the
Taliban. “I did not meet them because we are reluctant to recognize them and
will not do that,” she said.
Women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj answering a
question over whether humanitarian assistance alone will be enough to end the
humanitarian crisis in the country, said, “No, it will not be.”
“It is like trying to stop bleeding from a gushing
wound with a bandage. We cannot put a bandage on a gushing wound and expect for
the bleeding to stop,” Saraj added.
Source: The Statesman
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Taliban Reject Fresh US Criticism of Kabul Government
February 21, 2022
Afghanistan’s Taliban Monday strongly defended their
government against fresh criticism by the United States that the male-only
leadership in Kabul is "dominated by one ethnicity" and lacks
inclusivity.
"This is invalid and we reject it," Taliban
spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA when asked for his reaction to the
critical remarks made by the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Tom West.
"In our government, all the requirements within
the framework of our society and values have been taken into
consideration," Mujahid insisted.
West said Saturday, while speaking at an international
security conference in Germany, that his meetings with Taliban leaders on
respecting women’s rights to education and work have been productive, but he
found them "rigid" on the question of a representative government.
"There is not one woman in a position of
leadership in this government. Overwhelmingly it is dominated by one ethnicity.
I think there is a dearth of professionals at the senior most levels of this
government who are exceedingly well-educated," West said.
The Taliban are ethnic Pashtun, the majority group in
Afghanistan, and their interim Cabinet mostly consists of senior leaders of the
group, including those who are under longstanding terrorism-related U.S. and
United Nations sanctions.
The Islamist group regained power from the now-deposed
Western-backed government in August and the U.S. along with its NATO allies
withdrew all troops from the war-torn country after 20 years.
The Taliban quickly installed an interim government,
known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, but the international community
has not yet recognized them as the legitimate rulers of the country.
Before considering the legitimacy issue, foreign
governments want the hardline group to govern the country through a broad-based
ruling system that represents all Afghan ethnicities, respects human rights,
including women’s rights to education and work, and disallows terrorists from
using the country for cross-border attacks.
Restrictions on women
The Taliban had banned females from education and work
in their previous government from 1996 to 2001. Since returning to power six
months ago, the hardline group has placed restrictions on women such as
requiring them to wear hijab and undertake long road trips only if accompanied
by a close male relative.
Most public sector women employees, except for those
in the health and education departments, have not been allowed to resume their
duties.
Monday, the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of
Virtue and the Prevention Vice, responsible for administering the group’s
strict interpretation of Islam, announced that female government employees will
be dismissed from jobs if they do not wear all-covering hijabs or veils while
at work.
However, the Taliban have opened private and public
universities to female students and have pledged to allow all school-age girls
back to school in late March. They have blamed delays on financial constraints
and the time it takes to ensure that female students resume classes in
accordance with Islamic Sharia law.
West stressed on Saturday that Washington is not alone
in urging the Taliban to meet the international expectations, saying that
Afghanistan’s neighbors along with regional countries, including China, Iran and
Russia, are also backing the call.
Taliban leaders traveled to Qatar last week for the
latest round of meetings with foreign government representatives, including
diplomats from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), on a range of
issues, including diplomatic recognition for their government and economic as
well as humanitarian aid for Afghanistan.
In its post-meeting statement, the GCC stressed the
need for the Taliban to devise a national reconciliation plan that
"respects basic freedoms and rights, including women’s right to work and
education."
Pakistan, which shares a long border with Afghanistan
and is known for traditionally maintaining close ties with the Taliban, has
also been urging them to ensure political inclusivity and respect human rights
if they want "mainstreaming" of their country in the community of
nations.
However, Pakistan’s national security advisor, Moeed
Yusuf, while speaking alongside West at the conference in Germany, said that
abandoning Afghanistan would worsen humanitarian conditions in a country
ravaged by years of war and natural calamities.
Source: VOA News
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https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-reject-fresh-us-criticism-of-kabul-government-/6452038.html
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Arab
World
Rapprochement with Israel after solving Palestinian
issue: Saudi FM
21.02.2022
JERUSALEM
Saudi Arabia said Monday any rapprochement with Israel
will come after reaching a just solution to the Palestinian cause.
“The priority now is to find an arrangement so that
Israelis and Palestinians can sit together and have a peace process that can be
worked on," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said in an
interview with Israeli newspaper Maariv on the sidelines of the Munich Security
Conference.
"The integration of Israel in the region will be
a huge benefit not only for Israel itself but for the entire region," he
added.
The top Saudi diplomat said the lack of a political
horizon for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis would
"strengthen the most extreme voices" in the region.
There was no confirmation from the Saudi authorities
of the interview with the Israeli daily.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly reiterated its commitment
of the Arab parameters for peace with Israel expressed in the 2002
Saudi-proposed Arab Initiative, which calls for normalizing relations with Tel
Aviv in return for withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Imam Muhammad Bin Saud: Saudi Arabia’s founder records
heroism and achievements in ink of pride
February 22, 2022
RIYADH — The Founding Day is one of the glories of
this nation, as the first Saudi State’s banner was raised high by Imam Muhammad
Bin Saud, reiterated Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at King
Abdulaziz University Dr. Manal Al-Muraiteb.
Since the guardianship of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud in
the year 1139 AH / 1727 AH, the reins of affairs in Diriyah established the
first building blocks of the current Saudi State.
Imam Muhammad was known for his good conduct, loyalty
and honesty. He was also brave and firm, and a man of many good deeds.
During his reign, a wall of Diriyah was built in 1172
AH (1758). It consisted of two parallel walls of clay, and between them, stones
to support it. Its length was 7 kilometers and it had towers.
He prioritized managing its affairs and entrusted the
responsibilities of the army to his eldest son and later the second ruler of
the first Saudi State, Imam Abdulaziz.
Dr. Al-Muraiteb stated that, ultimately the building
blocks of Saudi rule began to take shape, and it succeeded in annexing most of
the regions of the Arabian Peninsula and unifying it into one political unit in
several stages.
She explained that the founder of the first Saudi
State, Imam Muhammad Bin Saud, was known for his good opinions, excellent
management, and piety.
“He succeeded, during a difficult historical time, in
creating the foundations of the country, while dealing with a society that was
not familiar with unity nor stability. And I consider my best evidence is the
descriptions of the conditions of the region before the rule of the Imam.”
“The country was living in constant terror between an
enemy who took it by oppression and an ally who took it by treachery.”
So, Imam Muhammad Bin Saud was able, with his
experience and political skill, to reunite the following Diaspora, and enforce
unity, on the ruins of division.
He united the discordant tribes and feuding regions,
established security, and made the country enjoy political stability and
economic prosperity.
Dr. Al-Muraiteb pointed out those 40 years old period
of Imam Muhammad’s rule was full of generosity and achievement until his death
in 1179 AH (1765).
The first Saudi State grew to become a habitat and
haven for tribes and immigrants, which led Sheikh Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahhab to
reach Diriyah and settle there for its prominent political and economic
position in Najd. He found support and assistance from Imam Muhammad Bin Saud.
Source: Saudi Gazette
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Egypt To Allow Mass Prayers, Re-Open Women's Prayer
Areas In Mosques In Ramadan 2022
21 Feb 2022
The ministry also announced it would re-open women’s
prayer areas at mosques during Ramadan, ending a two-year ban, if precautionary
measures are followed.
In Ramadan 2021, the ministry allowed in-mosque daily
prayers and mass night prayers (Taraweeh) during Ramadan under precautionary
measures against COVID-19 and on the condition that Taraweeh prayers not exceed
half-an-hour.
On the other hand, the ban on Ramadan charity banquets
– which are traditionally held publicly in the streets – is still in effect.
Late-night prayers (Tahajjud), or seclusion in mosques
for a period of time in Ramadan (Itikaf), will not be allowed either.
In Ramadan 2020, the government allowed Taraweeh
prayers at some authorised mosques with a limited number of worshipers, and
banned it elsewhere nationwide. It also banned the Tahajjud, Itikaf and Ramadan
charity banquets last year.
Source: Ahram
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https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/461488.aspx
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Hariri brother joins Lebanese political fray ahead of
vote
21 February ,2022
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s older brother says
he hopes upcoming elections in crisis-hit Lebanon will bring about a new
generation of leaders, adding that he’ll do whatever he can to bring about
positive change and accountability for past corruption.
Bahaa Hariri also describes the Lebanese militant
group Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, calling it part of the country’s
“failed past.”
His statements to The Associated Press this week came
a month after his brother, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, announced he was
bowing out of politics and would not run in parliament elections scheduled for
May. Hariri’s bombshell decision marked the first time in three decades the
powerful Sunni family is out of politics, adding uncertainty in a country
grappling with a financial meltdown.
Bahaa Hariri has not said whether he will step in and
run for office himself.
The two brothers have been at odds since Saad Hariri
took over the mantle of his slain father, Rafik Hariri, after he was
assassinated in a massive truck bombing in 2005. Afterward, the family chose
Saad Hariri to lead, skipping over his brother, Bahaa, who is several years his
senior.
Bahaa, who is seen as confrontational compared to the
more moderate Saad, has in recent years criticized his brother for being too
soft and compromising on Hezbollah, coexisting with the Iran-backed group in
successive coalition governments he led. That also cost him support from Sunni
powerhouse Saudi Arabia, the rival of Iran, who came to perceive him as too
lenient with Hezbollah.
Mired in financial troubles and having lost Saudi
Arabia’s political support, the former premier announced he was leaving
politics and would not run in the elections, calling on his political movement,
the Future Movement, to take the same step.
Bahaa Hariri has not said whether he will be running
himself or will only support candidates in the elections. It is also not
entirely clear whether Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman sees him
as the kingdom’s new man in Lebanon.
The 56-year-old businessman has lived outside Lebanon
for most of his life. He has been widely criticized for staying away, only
parachuting in when his brother hit trouble. Many among those who revolted
against the political class in 2019 are unlikely to support Bahaa Hariri, whose
family was blamed for corruption in the post-civil war era.
Bahaa Hariri’s name was first mentioned in Lebanese
media reports as a possible Saudi-backed candidate to replace his brother when
Saad Hariri announced his resignation from the Saudi capital in November 2017,
citing Hezbollah’s dominance of Lebanon.
He later came back as premier and then resigned again
in 2019 in response to nationwide mass protests against the country’s ruling
class.
“The difference between me and family members who have
practiced politics in the last 15 years is very wide and I cannot accept the
failed policies practiced by some, which led the country to this collapse,”
said Bahaa Hariri, in an indirect reference to his brother.
“The people are demanding a new generation of
leadership that is completely divorced from those who for the last 15 years led
us to where we are today — a failed state.”
Hariri, who replied Sunday to written questions sent
to him by the AP from his base in London, suggested he would not work with
Hezbollah.
“I see Hezbollah as the failed past not the future of
Lebanon. Terrorist organizations destroy countries they don’t build nations,”
he said. “The people don’t need more bullets, they need bread, jobs,
electricity, and a government that serves all the people.”
Bahaa Hariri worked in his family’s construction and
development company, Saudi Oger, in Saudi Arabia. He later left the company and
now runs his own real estate and investment businesses.
Bahaa Hariri has recently been spending significant
money in Lebanon, funding an online media platform called Sawt Beirut
International and a political movement called Sawa Li Lubnan, or Together for
Lebanon, casting it as a vehicle for change.
Among his priorities, he said, is to have an open and
transparent financial audit of the entire government and banking sector.
Source: Al Arabiya
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--------
Saudi FM says nuclear deal with Iran must help resolve
region’s issues
21 February ,2022
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Monday that
the nuclear deal with Iran must be a starting point to resolve the region’s
issues.
Noting the EU’s significant role in the negotiations
to revive the deal in Vienna, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan
told Al Arabiya that the Kingdom looks forward to the EU’s role regarding the
region’s security and stability.
Meanwhile, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell told
Al Arabiya that the EU will inform Saudi Arabia of the results of the
negotiations in Vienna.
Borrell stressed that the security of the Gulf is
important to the EU, adding that the EU will appoint an envoy to the Gulf soon.
The Vienna talks, which began in April 2021, aim to
bring Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal and facilitate a US
return to the agreement.
Washington withdrew from the deal in 2018 under
then-President Donald Trump, reimposing sweeping sanctions on Tehran.
Gulf, European role
Saad bin Mohammed al-Arifi, head of the Saudi mission
to the EU, said the Gulf-European meeting in Brussels will discuss several
issues including national security, energy and digital economy as well as Gulf
and European efforts to improve Yemen’s humanitarian situation.
Arifi told Al Arabiya that the Kingdom and all Gulf
Cooperation Council countries look forward to seeing Iran end its attempts to
attain nuclear weapons and stop its support to “terrorist” militias that
destabilize the region’s security.
Mutual cooperation
Prince Faisal met with Borrell on Sunday on the
sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany and discussed relations
between Saudi Arabia and the EU as well as means to strengthen them and improve
mutual cooperation and coordination.
Source: Al Arabiya
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‘May our countries prosper’: Pakistani PM greets Saudi
leaders on founding day
February 22, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on
Tuesday greeted Saudi leaders over the Kingdom’s “historic” founding day,
wishing prosperity for the two nations and their people.
This is the first time Saudi Arabia will celebrate the
anniversary of the founding day of the first Saudi state on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Saudi Founding Day celebrates the founding of the
first Saudi State, the Emirate of Diriyah, by Imam Muhammad Bin Saud in 1727 —
which occurred in February of that year. On Jan. 27, King Salman issued a Royal
Order to commemorate Feb. 22 every year as the nation’s founding day.
“On the historic Founding Day of Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, I extend our heartiest greetings to the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques, HM King Salman bin Abdulaziz; HRH Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman;
& brotherly people of the Kingdom,” Khan said on Twitter. “May our two
countries & our people prosper.”
“Taking into account that the middle of the year
1139H, corresponding to the month of February of the year 1727, signals the
commencement of the reign of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud, marking his founding of
the first Saudi State,” the King’s Royal Order read.
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2029466/saudi-arabia
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Poverty, fear drive exodus from Syria’s one-time Daesh
capital
February 22, 2022
RAQQA, Syria: In a square that a few years ago was a
grim stage for the Daesh group’s brutal rule in the Syrian city of Raqqa,
Mahmoud Dander sat deep in thought.
He wants to leave Syria, but has a problem: The
75-year-old has no money. He recalled the old days before protests and wars led
to his country’s collapse and national currency crash: Syria wasn’t thriving
back then, but he had work, his children had university degrees and decent
futures, and food was always on the table.
That’s all gone now. “We have fallen, just like our
currency,” he said.
Raqqa, the former de facto capital of the
self-proclaimed Daesh caliphate and home to about 300,000 people, is now free,
but many of its residents try to leave. Those with property are trying to sell
it to save up for the journey to Turkey. Those without money struggle to get
by.
At least 3,000 people left Raqqa for Turkey in 2021,
according to the city’s civil council co-chair Mohammed Nour.
Their reasons span the spectrum of post-war life in
Syria, one of the world’s most complex conflict zones. They include economic
collapse and widespread unemployment following one of the worst years of
drought, as well as fears of an Daesh comeback and a proliferation of criminal
gangs. And there is the looming specter of conflict between rival powers that
control various parts of northern Syria, including Turkey, Russia and Syrian
government forces.
On the surface, the city’s slow recovery from Daesh
rule is evident. Cafes and restaurant are full of patrons. Kurdish-led forces
stand guard at every major intersection.
But poverty is rampant in the majority Arab city
administered by US-backed Kurdish-led forces. People line up for basics such as
bread. Unemployed young men sit around. Water and electricity are limited. Many
live among bombed-out ruins. Local officials say at least 30 percent of the
city remains destroyed.
Poverty and unemployment drive young men into the arms
of Daesh. Kurdish investigators say new Daesh recruits captured last month had
been lured by money. At the same time, the Kurdish-led city administration
received applications from 27,000 job seekers last year, but had no jobs.
Milhem Daher, a 35-year-old engineer, is in the
process of selling his home, businesses and properties to pay a smuggler to
take him and his family of eight to Turkey, a key route for Syrian migrants
trying to win asylum in Europe.
He plans to leave as soon as he has enough money.
Daher had survived Raqqa’s recent violent history,
including the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, and the 2014 takeover by
Daesh militants who turned the city into the capital of their caliphate
spanning parts of Syria and Iraq. A US-led coalition dropped thousands of bombs
on the once vibrant city to drive out Daesh, liberating it in 2017. Daesh lost
its last territorial foothold in Syria in 2019.
Daher emerged from the dark chapter ready to invest,
but said he faced many obstacles, including a lack of resources and export
markets. “If you sell to locals, it won’t generate profit,” he said.
For his first project, Daher bought seeds to cultivate
vegetables. When it was time to harvest, traders weren’t interested in paying
the asking price.
He purchased trucks to lift rubble amid reconstruction
efforts. But the quality of the vehicles quickly degraded as a result of poor
fuel in the market and lack of materials for upkeep. A potato chip factory and
Internet service company also floundered.
Finally, Daher bought livestock, but a devastating
drought led to shortages in animal feed. His cattle died.
Now he is selling off what remains of these failed
businesses to start a new life. He needs $10,000.
In Raqqa, having money can also be a problem as
kidnappings-for-ransom are on the rise.
Real estate developer Imam Al-Hasan, 37, was taken
from his home and held for days by attackers in military fatigues. To secure
his release, he paid $400,000, money belonging to him and traders who trusted
him with their life savings. He complained to the local authorities, but he
said nothing was done. A month after the ordeal, bruises are still visible on
his face and legs.
Al-Hasan, too, is selling his home and belongings.
“There is nothing left for me here,” he said.
Two of Al-Hasan’s relatives who left in September and
recently arrived in Europe said that apart from economic uncertainty it was the
threat of more violence that pushed them to leave.
“At any moment the situation could explode, how can I
stay there?” said Ibrahim, 27. He and Mohammed, 41, spoke under the condition
that only their first names be used, citing security concerns for their wives
and children still living in the city.
Like many others, their journey from northeastern
Syria to Europe began via tunnels along the town of Ras Al-Ain, which straddles
the border with Turkey.
The smuggler had charged $2,000 per person. From
there, the path to Europe was riddled with risk.
Ibrahim arrived in Germany last week after an arduous
journey that began in Belarus. Mohammed walked for treacherous miles before
setting off for Greece by boat. He ended up in The Netherlands in October.
Mohammed is waiting for a chance to bring his family
from Raqqa to Europe, he said in a phone interview. For now, he is without
work.
Source: Arab News
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2029441/middle-east
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North
America
US, Egypt launch group to prepare for COP27 climate
summit
21 February ,2022
The United States and Egypt on Monday launched a joint
working group to prepare for the UN climate change summit being held in Egypt
in November, a US envoy said.
John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for
climate, said the group is focused on the UN’s COP27 conference in the Red Sea
resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. He said Egypt, which is chairing the summit, has
already begun its preparations and set ambitious goals.
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channel online or via the app.
Kerry said other world tensions, including the ongoing
Ukraine crisis, “will not change the reality of what is happening every day
with respect to our climate,” and called the issue an “international threat for
all of us.”
He said the climate issue is not about politics.
“There is no ideology in this. This is not anything to
do with some of the issues” of concern for the US administration, Kerry said at
a news conference in the capital of Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh
Shukry. Neither official took questions from reporters.
Kerry, who also met with Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah el-Sissi, was referring to conflicts in the Middle East and likely
Egypt’s human rights record, which has drawn criticism from the US and other
Western governments.
Shukry said they discussed priorities and goals of the
Egyptian-chaired COP27, including making funds available to developing counties
to implement the Paris 2015 agreement on climate change. He did not further
elaborate.
The former US senator and secretary of state, who
landed in Cairo on Sunday, spoke at the American University in Cairo on the
future of international climate action in the leadup to COP27. He called for
concerted efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions by a minimum of 45 percent by
2030.
“The test ahead of us is not just a political and
diplomatic challenge to tame mother nature — it is a test pitting human nature
against itself,” he said.
In the news briefing, Kerry said they aim to implement
all promises made in last year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. In the
2021 summit, almost 200 nations accepted a compromise deal, which outside
experts said showed progress, but not success.
That deal didn’t achieve any of the three UN goals:
Pledges that would cut world carbon dioxide emissions by about half, $100
billion in yearly climate aid from rich countries to poor ones, with half that
money going to help the developing world adapt to the harms of a warming world.
“Our goal this year, in addition to fulfilling all
promises made in Glasgow, is to include more countries to the 1.5
degree-efforts,” he said.
Keeping global warming from going beyond 1.5 degrees
Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) was the most ambitious goal in the 2015 Paris accord.
The planet has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit)
compared to preindustrial times.
Also on Monday, the Council of Europe warned in a
statement that a lack of at-scale funding for “resilient and just energy transitions”
in developing countries is an obstacle for green and sustainable development.
Source: Al Arabiya
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US Navy plans launch of Mideast drone force alongside
allies
21 February ,2022
The US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet announced Monday
the launch of a new joint fleet of unmanned drones with allied nations to
patrol vast swaths of the region’s volatile waters as tensions simmer with
Iran.
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet, told
The Associated Press that 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and submersible,
would dramatically multiply the surveillance capacities of the US Navy,
allowing it to keep a close eye on waters critical to the flow of the global
oil and shipping. Trade at sea has been targeted in recent years as Tehran’s
nuclear deal with world powers collapsed.
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channel online or via the app.
“By using unmanned systems, we can just simply see
more. They’re high-reliability and remove the human factor,” Cooper said on the
sidelines of a defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi, adding the systems are “the
only way to cover on whatever gaps that we have today.”
Cooper said he hopes the drone force using artificial
intelligence would be operational by the summer of 2023 to put more “eyes and
ears on the water.”
The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet includes the crucial
Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent
of all oil passes.
It also stretches as far as the Red Sea reaches near
the Suez Canal, the waterway in Egypt linking the Mideast to the Mediterranean,
and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.
The high seas have witnessed a series of assaults and
escalations in recent years, following former President Donald Trump’s decision
to pull the United States out of the nuclear deal and reimpose devastating
sanctions.
A maritime shadow war has played out as oil tankers
have been seized by Iranian forces and suspicious explosions have struck
vessels in the region, including those linked to Israeli and Western firms.
Iran has denied involvement in the attacks, despite evidence from the West to
the contrary.
“It’s been well-established that Iran is the No. 1 in
the primary regional threat we are addressing,” Cooper said. “There’s the
ballistic missile, cruise missile and UAV (drone) component, both in their
capability and their mass proliferation, as well as well as the proxy forces.”
Iran sponsors proxy militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon
and Yemen that give it a military reach across the region.
As Yemen’s 7-year-old civil war grinds on, the
Iran-backed Houthis have dispatched bomb-laden drone boats toward Saudi waters
that have damaged vessels and oil facilities.
“What the Houthis are doing, it is an entirely
completely different operation that’s offensively oriented,” Cooper said. “What
we are doing is inherently defensively oriented.”
There has also been a recent string of tense
encounters between Iranian and American naval boats in Mideast waters. The confrontations
have underscored the risk of an armed clash between the nations.
Notably, however, Cooper said the US has not seen such
an episode in the past few months, as diplomats in Vienna attempt to
resuscitate the tattered atomic accord.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Europe
Putin Declares Lugansk And Donetsk Independent
Republics
February 22, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree
recognizing breakaway Lugansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine as
independent republics.
Putin made the announcement live on television after
an an emotional address in which he referred to eastern Ukraine as “ancient
Russian lands” and said it was “managed by foreign powers”.
"I deem it necessary to make a decision that
should have been made a long time ago - to immediately recognize the
independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk
People's Republic," he said.
Announcing his recognition, Putin signed treaties on
friendship, cooperation and mutual aid with Donetsk leader Denis Pushilin and
Lugansk leader Leonid Pasechnik.
Putin also told Russia's defense ministry to deploy
troops into the two regions to "keep the peace" in a decree issued
shortly after announcing his recognition of their independence from Ukraine.
The decree said Russia now had the right to build
military bases in the breakaway regions and that troops' mission would be to
uphold the peace.
In a lengthy televised address, Putin described
Ukraine as an integral part of Russia's history and said he was confident the
Russian people would support his decision.
He also vented his grievances against the West, saying
the recognition was a direct result of the failure of the 2014 Minsk agreements
designed to put an end to a protracted fighting between Ukrainian troops and
pro-Russia forces.
The Russian leader took a swipe as Western powers
which support Ukraine, saying "they are not interested in peaceful
solutions – they want to start a blitzkrieg”.
"Every day they are amassing troops in the
Donbas.”
Putin also accused Ukraine of “extreme nationalism,”
and “Russophobia”, saying Kiev was sending saboteurs to target Russian
infrastructure and attempting to “drag foreign states into conflict with our
country.”
He denounced Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO as an
“immediate threat of attack” against his country.
Earlier, Ukraine rejected as “fake news” claim that
Russia had killed five “saboteurs” attempting to cross into the country.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of
continuing to fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine and "trying to stage a
pretext" for an invasion.
"I condemn Russia's decision to extend
recognition to the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic' and 'Lugansk
People's Republic'," Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said European Union
countries have agreed to impose a limited set of sanctions "targeting
those who are responsible" for Russia's recognition of the breakaway
regions.
Source: ABNA24
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https://en.abna24.com/news//putin-declares-lugansk-and-donetsk-independent-republics_1232147.html
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Russia continues efforts to solve Syria crisis with
Iran help: Lavrov
February 22, 2022
Sergey Lavrov announced his participation in the
upcoming Astana Summit in Turkey's Antalya, saying that Moscow will continue to
facilitate the process of resolving the Syrian crisis with Iran and Turkey's
help.
Moscow intends to take part in the upcoming Astana
group’s foreign ministers meeting on Syria initiated by Turkey, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an address to participants in the Eleventh
Middle East Conference hosted by the Valdai International Discussion Club on
Monday.
His address was read out by Russian Special
Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov, TASS
reported.
"The Astana group remains the most effective
mechanism for international efforts aimed at facilitating the Syrian settlement
process, where we continue to interact with our Turkish and Iranian partners.
Nur-Sultan capital of Kazakhstan hosted the 17th international meeting on Syria
in December 2021," the address reads.
"We soon plan to compare our positions at a
foreign ministers meeting initiated by Turkey," Lavrov noted.
He was hopeful that Syria would be reinstated in the
Arab League "in the near future."
Ambassador and Deputy Representative of the Islamic
Republic of Iran to the United Nations Zahra Ershadi, at a recent UN Security
Council meeting on the situation and humanitarian developments in Syria,
pointed to the recent meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey within the
framework of the Astana process and said, “Member states, as guarantors of
Astana Summit, called for an improvement in the humanitarian situation in Syria
and called on the international community, the United Nations and humanitarian
agencies to increase their assistance to Syrian people."
Source: ABNA24
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EU signs deal with Qatar to open diplomatic mission in
Doha
Agnes Szucs
21.02.2022
BRUSSELS
The European Union on Monday said it will open its
diplomatic mission in Doha.
Stefano Sannino, the secretary-general of the European
External Action Service, and Qatari State Minister for Foreign Affairs Soltan
Bin Saad Al-Muraikhi signed an agreement in Brussels to establish a new EU
Delegation to Qatar, the EU diplomatic service said in a statement.
The opening of an EU delegation is “the latest
milestone in the partnership between the EU and Qatar” and it “will help the EU
further strengthen the very solid bilateral cooperation with Qatar,” the
statement added.
The number of EU delegations and offices worldwide
will reach 145.
It will function as a “fully-fledged diplomatic mission,
responsible for the EU's political and economic relations with Qatar,” the
announcement explained.
According to the EU, the relations between the bloc
and Qatar “have been strengthening steadily over recent years”, citing the
Human Rights Dialogue launched in 2018 and the Comprehensive Air Transport
Agreement that Qatar signed with the EU in 2021.
The statement also called Qatar’s assistance to
repatriate EU nationals at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the
support to evacuate EU citizens as “telling examples of the nature of the
partnership between the EU and Qatar.”
On the margins of the EU foreign ministers meeting in
Brussels on Monday, EU top diplomats met their counterparts from the Gulf
Cooperation Council to discuss trade, regional and global security, as well as
green and digital transition.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Turkish, Greek officials meet in Athens
Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı
21.02.2022
Turkish and Greek deputy foreign ministers on Monday
met in the Greek capital.
In a Twitter post, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said
that Turkiye’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal held his third working
meeting with his Greek counterpart Kostas Fragkogiannis.
The meeting was part of the “Positive Agenda” dialogue
focusing on economic and trade sectors, the ministry said.
It also posted photos from the meeting on Twitter.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkish-greek-officials-meet-in-athens/2508798
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West targeting Russia with same campaign of lies it
waged against Syria: FM
21 February 2022
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad says the same
campaign of lies and hypocrisy once launched by the West against Syria is
currently being waged against Russia as Washington seeks escalation of tensions
by hyping a long-claimed Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Mikdad made the remarks in a meeting with his Russian
counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in the capital Moscow on Monday, during which the
two diplomats exchanged views on the latest developments in Europe and West
Asia.
“The campaign of hypocrisy, lies and deception waged
by the West is the same as the campaign it launched against Syria,” Mikdad was
quoted as saying by Syria’s official news agency, SANA. “Western countries
encourage Ukraine to launch attacks on Russia, supply it with weapons,
establish bases, violate international agreements on non-proliferation,
continue to work on expanding NATO, and threaten the Russian Federation and
other countries in the world.”
The top Syrian diplomat underlined Damascus’s support
for all the efforts made by Moscow to overcome the crises that the West is
trying to create with regard to Ukraine, saying that those who practice
misinformation, media propaganda and media terrorism against Syria are the ones
doing the same thing against the Russian Federation.
Washington has over the past month kept accusing
Moscow of planning to attack Ukraine by stationing as many as 190,000 troops on
and around Ukraine’s borders. Russia has rejected the allegations, saying the
military build-up is defensive in nature.
In a major step to de-escalate, Moscow announced last
week that some of the troops deployed in areas bordering Ukraine would return
to their bases. It also released footage showing tanks and armored vehicles
being loaded onto railway flatcars. The US and its NATO allies, however, claim
they have seen no significant withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine's
border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the
US is deliberately designing a scenario to lure Russia into a war over Ukraine,
as the Kremlin has repeatedly reiterated that the expansion of NATO’s military
infrastructure in Ukraine constitutes a red line for Moscow and that any future
expansion must exclude Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.
During the meeting with Lavrov on Monday, Mikdad said
his visit to Moscow constitutes an opportunity to expand coordination between
the two countries in various domains of mutual interest.
“The main goal of our two countries is that peace,
stability, freedom and equality prevail in today’s world. In this field, it is
necessary to underline the important and key role that Russia, under the
leadership of President Vladimir Putin, plays in promoting security and
stability not only in the Middle East but in Europe now,” Mikdad said.
‘Syria reserves right to respond to Israeli
aggression’
Elsewhere in his remarks, Mikdad pointed to Israel’s
sporadic attacks on the Syrian territory and said the Israeli aggression is in
defense of its allied terrorists in Syria, warning, “If the Israeli attacks on
Syria continue, the country has the right to respond. Sooner or later, they
will find out that Syria is able to respond.”
Lavrov, for his part, underlined coordinated efforts
aimed at achieving a political solution to the crisis in Syria, which, as he
said, would guarantee the preservation of the country’s sovereignty,
independence, unity and territorial integrity. “We will not allow Western
attempts to obstruct our joint work and efforts within the framework of our
strategic cooperation.”
The Russian foreign minister censured Israel’s
aggression on the Syrian soil. “We strongly condemn Israeli attacks on Syria,
which could escalate tensions in the region. Israeli attacks not only violate
Security Council resolutions but also undermine Syria's counterterrorism
efforts.”
Lavrov said the humanitarian situation in Syria was
“very dangerous,” adding that Moscow condemns unilateral sanctions against
Syria as the measures imposed by the West would lead to further suffering of
the Syrian people.
Source: Press TV
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Mideast
Human Rights Watch slams ‘baseless’ terrorism charge
for Turkish human rights defender
February 22, 2022
ANKARA: The prosecution of a human rights defender
demonstrates the Erdogan government’s policy of “bringing baseless criminal
charges against people involved in legitimate and peaceful civil society
activities,” Human Rights Watch said today.
Ozturk Turkdogan, co-chair of the Human Rights
Association, Turkey’s oldest human rights group, is scheduled to stand trial in
Ankara on Tuesday to face charges of “membership in a terrorist organization.”
If found guilty, he could face five to ten years
behind bars.
He will also face separate trials for “insulting” the
interior minister and “insulting the Turkish nation, Republic of Turkey, state
institutions and bodies.”
Each could land him an additional two years in jail.
Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at
Human Rights Watch, said: “The prosecution of Ozturk Turkdogan, the long-term
co-chair of the Human Rights Association, is an attempt to criminalize
legitimate human rights work and the right to free speech.”
All indictments against him were prepared in December
2021.
“The fact that Ankara prosecutors prepared three
indictments against Turkdogan in a single month for speeches and statements
that do not advocate violence and were made over several years points to a
political order from above behind these criminal proceedings,” Williamson said.
HRW said the evidence in the indictment charging
Turkdogan with “membership in a terrorist organization,” the most serious
charge he faces, consists of Turkdogan’s speeches, statements and conversations
in his capacity as the co-chair of the Human Rights Association.
It cites statements made in broadcasts in Kurdish
media outlets, including in which he calls for the end of the prolonged
solitary confinement of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party.
The indictment also cites three photographs found on
Turkdogan’s laptop showing banners prepared by the Human Rights Association.
Two protest solitary confinement in prisons and the
treatment of sick prisoners while a third calls for the recognition of Saddam
Hussein’s Anfal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1980s as a genocide against
Kurds.
Source: Arab News
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2029361/middle-east
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Israel hands Muslim judge permanent Supreme Court seat
February 21, 2022
JERUSALEM: Israel today named Khaled Kabub as its
first Muslim judge to gain a permanent seat on the Supreme Court, the Jewish
state’s highest judicial authority, court authorities said.
More than 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab, and there
has been an Arab jurist on the top court since 2003, but all previous
appointees have been Christian.
Kabub, 63, has become the first Muslim permanently
named to the tribunal in the nation where Arabs, Christian and Muslim, have
complained of systematic discrimination.
Previously a judge at the Tel Aviv district court,
Kabub was one of four new justices appointed by a committee comprised of
Supreme Court judges, ministers, lawmakers and lawyers.
Born in Jaffa, he studied history and Islam at Tel
Aviv University. He completed his law degree there, then worked in private
practice before becoming a judge.
The only other Muslim to have sat on the Supreme Court
was Abdel Rahman Zoabi, who was given a temporary, one-year term, in 1999.
Israel’s Supreme Court regularly hears cases that
touch on flashpoints in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including alleged
violations by troops in the occupied West Bank.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
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‘Significant progress’ seen in Vienna nuclear talks:
Iran foreign ministry
21 February ,2022
Talks in Vienna on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal
between Iran and world powers have made “significant progress,” Iranian foreign
ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday at a weekly press briefing.
Separately, Iran’s top security official Ali Shamkhani
said talks with European negotiators were ongoing and would continue while
negotiations with the United States were not on the agenda because they would
not be the source of “any breakthroughs.”
Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington have been
held in Vienna since April amid fears about Tehran’s nuclear advances, seen by
Western powers as irreversible unless agreement is struck soon.
Khatibzadeh said “nothing is agreed until everything
is agreed” in the Vienna talks.
Reuters reported last week that a US-Iranian deal is
taking shape in Vienna after months of indirect talks to revive the nuclear
pact, which Washington abandoned in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.
The draft text of the agreement also alluded to other
issues, including unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian funds in South
Korean banks, and the release of Western prisoners held in Iran.
Iran is ready to swap prisoners with the United
States, Iran’s foreign minister said on Saturday, adding that talks to revive
the nuclear deal could succeed “at the earliest possible time” if the United
States made the necessary political decisions.
The 2015 deal between Iran and major powers limited Iran’s
enrichment of uranium to make it harder for Tehran to develop material for
nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against
Tehran.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Israel withdraws plan to confiscate church land in
Jerusalem
Zain Khalil
21.02.2022
JERUSALEM
Israel on Monday withdrew a controversial plan to
expand an Israeli park onto church-owned lands in the Olive Mount in occupied
East Jerusalem.
In a statement, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority
said it had withdrawn the plan amid opposition from church leaders, Israeli
newspaper Haaretz reported.
Last year, the authority started a campaign to expand
the park onto the Olive Mount, an area that is home to Christian holy sites.
Earlier on Monday, church leaders in Jerusalem said
they sent a letter to Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg
to call for halting the confiscation of church-owned land in the Olive Mount.
Copies of the letter were also sent to the
Consuls-General of Turkiye, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Sweden in
Jerusalem.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Israeli army detains 36 Palestinians in West Bank
raids
Kais Abu Samra
21.02.2022
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Israeli army forces detained 36 Palestinians in
overnight raids across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a Palestinian
NGO said on Monday.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said in a
statement that the arrests targeted citizens from the West Bank cities of
northern Jenin, central Jerusalem and Ramallah, and southern Hebron.
Usually, Israeli forces raid cities and towns in the
West Bank to arrest Palestinians on the pretext that they are wanted by Israeli
forces.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-army-detains-36-palestinians-in-west-bank-raids/2508359
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Africa
Stakeholders demand Muslim students’ rights to hijab
in Kwara schools
Tunde Oyekola
22 February 2022
The Kwara Muslim stakeholders have advised the State
Government not to deny female Muslim students of their fundamental human rights
by not allowing the usage of hijab as part of their uniform in public schools.
The group, in a statement by its chairman, Alhaji
Is-haq Abdulkarim, which was made available to our correspondent in Ilorin on
Monday, said the government should be proactive in its decision on female
Muslim students’ uniforms.
Abdulkarim urged the government to ignore advice to
emulate how a neighbouring state government handled the issue of hijab in its
public schools, warning that doing such would be counter-productive.
He explained that “hijab is no longer a contentious
issue as several superior Courts of record have ruled in its favour in Kwara,
Osun and Lagos States – to mention a few; warning that Kwara State Government
must enforce its lawful order of optional wearing hijab in all public schools
as contained in its Circular issued since March last year.
Abdulkarim condemned the criminal acts of killing and
maiming of innocent students and parents in Ijagbo and called on Kwara State
Government not only to ignore the advice of that clergyman but to fish out the
criminals that unleashed mayhem on the people at Oyun Baptist High School
Ijagbo on Thursday 3rd of February, 2022 and get them arrested and prosecuted.
He said, “it was unfortunate that the State Government
allowed some criminals to take over a public school for three weeks where
female Muslim students were denied access to their school and the school was
not shut until life was lost and people were maimed.”
He called for compensation for the life of 25-year-old
Habib Idris who was killed and immediate compensation as well for those wounded
and are being treated in various Hospitals in Offa and Oyun local government
council areas.
“In any civilised Society, once there has been court
judgement on any particular matter, there must not be violations; what is
happening in Kwara State shows weakness of the Government in dealing with the
matter of fundamental human rights of citizens and enforcement of law and
Order”, he said.
He accused the police of bais, incompetence and
dereliction of duty, adding, “where the security agents colluded with the
criminals to turn students back home illegally and watching harmlessly without
arresting criminals that were macheting them on the day ‘hell was let loose’!
This would no longer be tolerated, he warned.”
Recall that Kwara state government last week
instituted a 7 member committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the
crisis at Oyun Baptist High School Ijagbo and gave the committee three weeks to
conclude its assignment.
Source: Punchng
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Nigerian military kill 6 ISWAP commanders in
airstrikes
Ibrahim Garba Shuaibu
21.02.2022
KANO, Nigeria
Nigeria’s military has eliminated six notorious commanders
of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist group through
airstrikes in Borno state, an official said Sunday.
They included Amir Buba Danfulani, a senior ISWAP
commander tasked with indoctrinating ethnic Fulanis and herdsmen into joining
the terrorist group, said Nigerian Air Force spokesman Air Commodore Edward
Gabkwet.
Danfulani also coordinated activities of the
terrorists, including the deployment of spies as well as tax collectors.
Five other key terrorist leaders were killed in the
airstrikes, including Musa Amir Jaish, Mahd Maluma, Abu-Ubaida, Abu-Hamza, and
Abu-Nura Umarun Leni.
The well-coordinated airstrikes were conducted by the
Nigerian Air Force under the air component of Operation Hadin Kai at various
locations in the northeast.
Gabkwet said Super Tucano fighter jets, helicopters,
and other aircraft were deployed in the week-long operations that were carried
out simultaneously in different locations.
“Prior to the execution of the special mission,
intelligence identified terrorist training camps at Tumbun Kaiyowa and Tumbun
Allura that are most active with ISWAP/Boko Haram activities.
“The camps were also used by terrorists in firing
projectiles against Nigerian Army locations in Mallam Fatori,” he said.
He said that consequently, the air component of
Operation Hadin Kai deployed some aircraft that degraded the insurgents’
capabilities in order to prevent future attacks on troops and friendly
locations while ensuring the success of ongoing operations.
Gabkwet said the aircraft dropped several bombs on the
targets at Tumbun Kaiyowa and directed rockets and cannon fire at Tumbun
Allura, adding the fleeing surviving terrorists were also eliminated with
fighter helicopters.
He said a similar operation was conducted at Parisu
and Njimia within the Sambisa Forest, where three different aircraft types for
specific purposes bombarded the targets.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/nigerian-military-kill-6-iswap-commanders-in-airstrikes/2508181
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Turkish president vows to boost ties with African
countries
Enes Kaplan and Fatma Esma Arslan
22.02.2022
DAKAR, Senegal
Turkiye’s president vowed Monday to boost relations
with African countries as he visited the Senegalese capital Dakar as part of
his four-day mini-tour of Central and West Africa.
“We will continue to enhance our relations with
African countries on the basis of sincerity and solidarity,” Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said during a joint press conference with his Senegalese counterpart
Macky Sall.
Erdogan noted that with the communique, action plan
and joint implementation report adopted during the 3rd Turkiye-Africa
Partnership Summit in Istanbul, a road map had been set out in Turkish
relations with Africa for the 2022-2026 period.
“We discussed all aspects of Turkiye-Senegal relations
at our talks with my treasured brother,” he said. “We exchanged ideas on how we
can further advance our relations in every area. We once again gladly observed
that we share the same determination to deepen our cooperation.”
The Turkish president also said he will be attending
the opening ceremony Wednesday of Dakar Olympic Stadium, which was built by
Turkish entrepreneurs.
“I am very proud that the new stadium, which will add
new ones to Senegal’s sports successes, was constructed by a Turkish firm. I
wholeheartedly congratulate the great success the Senegalese National Team
achieved in the Africa Cup of Nations by winning the championship,” he added.
Noting that the bilateral trade volume between Turkiye
and Senegal had reached $540 million in 2021, Erdogan said “our goal is to
elevate this figure to some $1 billion in a short span of time.”
“We attach great importance to structuring our
investments in a way to prioritize human resources while advancing our
relations,” he said.
“For instance, 1,000 of the total 1,500 workers
employed in the Dakar Olympic Stadium project were our Senegalese brothers and
sisters.
“The contributions of our companies within the
Emerging Senegal Plan will continue with the support of the Senegalese people,”
Erdogan added.
“Also, our firms in Senegal carry out activities in
the areas of energy, steel production, health care, the food industry,
ready-mixed concrete production and gold processing on the basis of mutual
interest.”
Erdogan also mentioned the “close cooperation in the
area of development.”
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency
(TIKA), which “has since 2007 completed 186 projects in Senegal with a total
value of $12 million, is determined to maintain its activities,” he said.
“The Turkish Maarif Foundation, for its part, provides
education for 287 students at 13 schools in Senegal,” he said, adding “the
number of Senegalese students granted Türkiye scholarships since 1992, on the
other hand, has reached 187.”
Erdogan also thanked Senegalese officials “for the
support they provide to our fight against the FETO terrorist organization. We
have no doubt that this support and solidarity will continue.”
The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its
US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016
in Turkiye which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.
Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running
campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish
institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Erdogan and Sall signed five agreements, including one
on security.
For his part, Sall praised Turkish companies that have
initiated various investment projects in the country and said investments
between the two countries should increase even more.
Sall said he invited Erdogan to the opening of the
stadium on Feb. 22 and the invitation turned into an official visit.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Jordanian Royal Court rejects ‘inaccurate’ claims
surrounding King Abdullah’s accounts
February 21, 2022
AMMAN: The Jordanian Royal Court on Monday rejected as
“inaccurate” and “misleading” news reports about foreign bank accounts
reportedly belonging to King Abdullah.
In a statement, the Royal Court said the reports
included “inaccuracies, and outdated and
misleading information that were employed with the aim of defaming Jordan and
His Majesty, as well as distorting the truth.”
The statement, seen by Arab News, came after the
emergence of a series of reports in the international press based on leaked
data from Credit Suisse, a leading Swiss bank.
The reports claimed King Abdullah had six accounts
with Credit Suisse, one worth around $224 million.
The Royal Court said the total balance mentioned in a
number of reports is “inaccurate and exaggerated, as a result of significant
duplicative counting.”
The data, leaked to Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung,
contains details of 18,000 bank accounts for prominent global figures, which
were held from the 1940s to the 2010s, including by the sons of former Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, Alaa and Gamal, who allegedly held a total of six
accounts at various points, including one in 2003 worth $196 million.
“The majority of the sums listed in the accounts (of
King Abdullah) relate to the sale of a large Airbus 340 airplane for $212
million, and replacing it with a smaller, less costly Gulfstream aircraft. His
Majesty had inherited two planes from His Majesty the late King Hussein, which
were sold, with the resulting sum used to replace them more than once over the
past 20 years, including the sale of the Airbus 340 and the purchase of the
Gulfstream aircraft currently used by His Majesty,” the statement said.
The closed accounts, the Royal Court added, include an
account with deposits inherited by King Abdullah from King Hussein.
Regarding an account belonging to Queen Rania of
Jordan, the Royal Court said that it was established as a trust fund for the
king’s children. The funds came from the king’s private wealth, and the account
was entrusted to the children’s mother, as they were minors at the time, the
statement said.
In response to reports, linking the monarch’s wealth
to foreign aid, the Royal Court said the king’s “private assets have always
been independent of the Treasury and public funds.”
The Royal Court reaffirmed that all international
assistance coming to Jordan is “subject to professional audits, and their
allocations are fully accounted for by the government and donor entities, in
accordance with cooperation agreements subject to the highest standards of
governance and oversight.
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2029251/middle-east
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Southeast
Asia
Bangladeshi construction worker in Singapore jailed
for more than two years after donating money to support terrorism in Syria
22 Feb 2022
SINGAPORE, Feb 22 — Attracted by the ideologies of a
Syrian-based terrorist organisation, a former construction worker in Singapore
decided to donate close to S$900 (about RM2,794) to various foreign groups to
support its cause.
Yesterday, Ahmed Faysal, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi,
was given a jail sentence of 32 months, or two years and eight months, after he
was found guilty of five offences under the Terrorism (Suppression of
Financing) Act.
Ten other charges were taken into consideration for
the sentencing, which was backdated to Dec 23 last year, the date of his
remand.
Ahmed donated between S$5 and S$399.57 on 15 occasions
between Feb 12 and Oct 27 in 2020, which amounted to about S$892.
Influenced by propaganda
Speaking on behalf of the prosecution, Deputy Public
Prosecutor (DPP) Esther Wong said that Ahmed first learnt about jihad and the
Syrian civil war through Facebook.
He said that he understood jihad to be the “fight for
Islam” and “for oppressed and tortured Muslims”, DPP Wong added.
Ahmed would use various Facebook accounts and pages to
spread his pro-jihadist views and “glorified the soldiers of jihad and their
deaths”.
He initially supported the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (Isis), and even considered going to Syria to support the terrorist
organisation to “destroy the Syrian government and establish an Islamic
caliphate”.
However, he did not have the money to do so and needed
to continue working in Singapore to support his family back in Bangladesh.
In 2019, Ahmed became disillusioned with Isis after
watching videos of Muslim scholars condemning the terrorists for killing
innocent civilians in the process of establishing their caliphate.
He then changed his allegiance to support another
militant group, the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), that similarly aimed to
establish its own Islamic caliphate in Syria.
DPP Wong said that Ahmed was under the impression HTS
was “less brutal than Isis in achieving its goals”.
HTS was formed in January 2017 by the Al-Nusrah Front,
an Al-Qaeda affiliate, and was deemed by the United Nations Security Council as
a terrorist entity in June 2018.
DPP Wong also said that Ahmed was aware that the
Syrian city of Idlib was under the control of HTS and that he supported the
group’s war against the Syrian government.
When he was informed that HTS had detained, tortured and
executed civilians, he continued to support the group in its fight against the
Syrian government, which he believed to be oppressing Syrian Muslims, DPP Wong
added.
The donations
Around the same period he began supporting HTS, Ahmed
started following the Facebook page of a “Dr Shajul Islam”, a purported medical
doctor with Bangladeshi roots who was supposedly working in a hospital in Idlib
run by an entity known as Medical Aid Syria.
On Facebook, Dr Shajul supported the overthrowing of
the Syrian government by violent means, and he also voiced his support for HTS
members in achieving that objective, DPP Wong said.
He would livestream videos on Facebook to appeal for
money as part of a fundraising campaign, which he claimed was for the hospital
he worked at, saying that it treated injured HTS soldiers.
Influenced by Dr Shajul’s publicised content, Ahmed
made donations to Medical Aid Syria on at least 11 occasions through his
Singapore-issued debit card via various online channels.
DPP Wong said that Ahmed “did not know or find out
how” his donations to Medical Aid Syria would specifically be used.
“At the time he sent the money, he was aware that the
money could be used to benefit HTS soldiers in Idlib. He therefore had
reasonable grounds to believe that the money transferred would be used, in
part, to benefit the HTS, a terrorist entity,” she added.
In 2020, Ahmed came to learn of another fundraiser
through Dr Shajul.
This time, it was a campaign supposedly held by a
charity called “One Nation”, registered in Britain, and the money was
purportedly to be used to build emergency homes in Syria for people whose
houses were destroyed.
Ahmed sent money to One Nation on at least four
occasions intending to benefit the people in Idlib, which included HTS soldiers
fighting against the Syrian government.
It was not stated how Ahmed’s activities came to the
attention of the authorities, but he was eventually arrested under the Internal
Security Act for terrorism-related activities and given a detention order on
Nov 2, 2020.
He was eventually charged for the offences on December
23 last year.
‘Ready for jihad’
At the time of his arrest, seven knives were found in
Ahmed’s possession.
He admitted to buying two kitchen knives, three pen
knives and one foldable knife. He also bought three to four foldable blades and
three to four boxes of penknife blades, with each box containing 10 penknife
blades.
Ahmed said that he bought these weapons to be “ready
for jihad”, but had no intentions to use them in Singapore because he wanted to
“remain out of trouble and support his family by working here”, DPP Wong said.
However, he said that he would use the knives in
Bangladesh if Hindus attacked Muslims and the government there took no action
against the perpetrators.
The prosecution noted that Ahmed had not conceived any
specific plans at the time of his arrest and did not “intend specific
consequences” through his actions.
Source: Malay Mail
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Indonesian mosques told to keep the noise down
Ryan Dagur
February 21, 2022
The Indonesian government has addressed religious
minority complaints about noisy mosque loudspeakers by issuing new guidelines
which regulate their use in nearly 750,000 mosques across the country.
Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qoumas
released the guidelines on Feb. 21 aimed at local governments, the Indonesian
Ulema Council, Indonesian Mosque Council, heads of Muslim organizations and
administrators of mosques.
He said the use of loudspeakers in mosques is a
necessity for Muslims as a medium for broadcasting Islam in the community but
it is important to realize that Indonesian people are also diverse, including
in terms of religion and belief.
"Efforts are needed to maintain brotherhood and
social harmony. This guideline is published as an effort to increase peace,
order and harmony among citizens," he said.
The guidelines amend several provisions in the old
rules published in 1978.
One of them is related to amplified readings of the
Quran that can be broadcast at least 10 minutes before the call to prayer,
reduced from 15 minutes in the old rule.
This new rule also limits the use of loudspeakers that
point outside the mosque during daily prayers. The exception only applies to
religious holidays such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, where loudspeakers can
point outside given that generally those who attend worship are outside the
mosque.
The guidelines also regulate the volume and quality of
the sound produced by loudspeakers, namely "a maximum of 100 decibels with
good sound quality or not discordant."
Mosque administrators are asked to use good acoustic
settings. When using loudspeakers with recording playback, attention should be
paid to the quality of the recording.
The use of mosques’ loudspeakers has often sparked
protests over their noise from minority groups.
In 2018, a 44-year-old Buddhist woman in North Sumatra
was sentenced to 18 months in prison for complaining about the volume of the
call to prayer from a mosque's loudspeaker near her house in Tanjung Balai
town.
In May last year, a man in Gading Serpong in Tangerang
district of Banten province also protested a call to prayer, prompting hundreds
of Muslims to stage a demonstration outside his home.
Source: UCA News
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https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-mosques-told-to-keep-the-noise-down/96194
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SIS lauds Federal Court ruling Shariah courts’
judicial review powers unconstitutional
21 Feb 2022
BY SHAHRIN AIZAT NOORSHAHRIZAM
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Civil society organisation
Sisters In Islam (SIS) lauded the Federal Court’s decision to declare as
unconstitutional today the Selangor state legislative assembly’s attempt to
empower the Shariah courts to conduct judicial reviews of Islamic authorities’
decisions.
SIS executive director Rozana Isa also described as
“groundbreaking” the Federal Court’s assertion that judicial review remains the
inherent right of the civil courts as well as its interpretation on the
definition of Muslims as natural persons.
“The decision by the Federal Court to invalidate
Section 66A of the Administration of the Religion of Islam (State of Selangor)
Enactment 2003 (ARIE) on the grounds of unconstitutionality is proof that the
Federal Constitution is supreme and the state may not over reach and exclude
the judiciary in decision making process. With this matter now resolved, we can
now focus on our pending appeal case in the Court of Appeal,” she said in a
statement today.
“The Federal Court asserts that judicial review is an
inherent right of the civil courts. The judgment also included that the
interpretation of the courts on the definition of Muslims as natural persons
was also groundbreaking.
“However, we are also cautious of the Federal Court
judgment on the issue of the content of the Fatwa which was decided to be still
under the purview of the Shariah Courts.”
Section 66A of the Administration of the Religion of
Islam (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003 is the Selangor state law that
attempted to give Shariah courts in Selangor the power to hear and decide
judicial reviews on decisions made by those such as the Selangor Islamic
religious council (Mais) and Selangor’s fatwa committee.
This is what Section 66A — which was struck down as
invalid today by the Federal Court — states: “The Syariah High Court, may, in
the interest of justice, on the application of any person, have the
jurisdiction to grant permission and hear the application for judicial review
on the decision made by the Majlis or committees carrying out the functions
under this Enactment.”
Earlier today, a nine-judge panel at the Federal Court
unanimously declared that the Selangor state legislative assembly has no
authority to make an enactment giving the Shariah courts the power to carry out
judicial reviews of Islamic authorities’ decisions.
Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired
the panel, said the Federal Court finds Section 66A of the Administration of
the Religion of Islam (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003 — the Selangor state
law that attempted to give Shariah courts the power to hear and decide judicial
reviews — to be against the Federal Constitution.
In January 2020, SIS Forum had filed an application to
the Federal Court for leave to challenge Section 66A and named the Selangor
state government as its respondent. The Federal Court later allowed the
Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) to be an intervener or to be part of
the case.
The Federal Court had in September 2020 granted leave
for the application to be heard, and the nine-judge panel had on October 12
last year heard the arguments by all those involved in the case.
Source: Malay Mail
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Eight Children Dead after Fatal Fire at W. Java
Islamic School
FEBRUARY 21, 2022
Jakarta. At least eight young students died after a
fire broke out at an Islamic boarding school in Karawang, West Java, on Monday.
Police said the victims are aged between seven and 13
years old and they were having a nap when the second floor of Miftahul Khoirot
Islamic School building caught fire.
The flames began at around 1:00 p.m. reportedly
because of a faulty electric fan that ignited a fire and burned a mattress
before developing into a disaster, Karawang Police Chief Adjunct Chief Commissioner
Aldi Subartono told Kompas news website.
He said two other students were hospitalized with
minor injuries, adding that an investigation is underway to determine the cause
of the deadly blaze.
The district fire department received a call around 30
minutes after the fire started to engulf the upper part of the building. It
took about an hour for firefighters to put out the fire.
The school has four separate buildings and the one
engulfed in flames was occupied by younger students.
“The incident occurred at around the midday break so
the majority of students were having a nap,” a student identified as Yanyan
Bahari, 15, told Kompas.
Source: Jakarta Globe
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of the original story:
https://jakartaglobe.id/news/eight-children-dead-after-fatal-fire-at-w-java-islamic-school
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/twitter-gujarat-bjp-caricature-muslims/d/126426