After Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story, ‘Ajmer-92’ Comes Under Cloud Even Before Its Release
New
Age Islam News Bureau
06
June 2023
[Photo:
File]/ ‘Ajmer-92’
----
India
• New Conversion 'Game Plan'? 4 Kids
Influenced to Adopt Islam while playing Fortnite, Says Ghaziabad Police
• Posters Asking Muslim Traders to Shut
Shops by June 15 in Uttarkashi Town of Uttarakhand
• Maharashtra: Congress renews pitch for
Muslim reservation
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Pakistan
• PTI Chief to Be Made ‘An Example’: Maryam
• Pakistan pours cold water on TTP’s
talks offer
• Soldier martyred in South Waziristan
clash: ISPR
• PDM unlikely to contest elections from
single platform, says Fazl
• Haq Do Tehreek chief threatens to
launch protest movement, again
--------
Southeast Asia
Indonesia Tops Halal Tourism in Global
Muslim Travel Index 2023
Indonesia, Germany Agree to Improve
Defense Collaboration
Malaysian King, Queen See off Haj
Pilgrims, Wish Them Safe Journey
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Africa
• Mayor Allah Jabu intensifies push to
‘paint Juba green’
• 2023 Hajj: Emir of Ilorin urges Muslim
pilgrims to pray for Nigeria
• Close Ranks Behind Tinubu, Warri
Cleric Urges Christians, Muslim Leaders
• CAN Appreciates Muslim Community for
the Release of 16 Abducted Worshippers
• Muslim, Christian Organisations urge
NLC, TUC to shelve planned strike action
--------
Arab World
• Saudi Green Initiative celebrates
World Environment Day
• Saudi aid centre chiefs meet Sudanese,
UN officials in Riyadh
• Saudi crown prince, Venezuela president
discuss relations in Jeddah
• Saudi culture minister meets German
counterpart in Berlin
--------
South Asia
• Exiled Afghan Prosecutors in Pakistan
Urge Intl Community to Help Them Resettle
• Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s ‘hot
zone for climate threats’
• Rohingyas should not be forced to
return: UN
• Islamic Emirate Leader Meets With
Provincial Education Leaders
• China Reiterates Support for Stability
in Afghanistan
• Islamic banks’ loan surges 9 times
their deposits in a year
• Afghan Allies to Receive 20,000 More
Visas under SIV
• 2 Killed, 6 Injured in Suicide Bomb in
Northern Afghanistan: Official Says
• Afghan Refugees Still Lack Safe
Pathways in the EU: Report
--------
Mideast
• At United Hatzalah, Jews, Muslims Work
Together To Save Lives In Israel
• Jihad calls for avenge of blood of
martyrs
• Saudi Arabia Executes 3 People in
Shia-Populated Eastern Region
• Belgian expert: Imam Khomeini
presented Islamic thought as modern alternative to Western liberalism
• Cairo Talks: Hamas, Jihad Open to
'Technocrat Cabinet'
--------
Europe
• Boston Councillor Mike Gilbert Accused
of 'Islamophobia' Accepts Mosque Invite to Discuss His Views
• Macron opposes NATO plans in Asia – FT
• Nikki Haley insists on WW3 if Ukraine
loses
• Instagram un-bans US presidential
candidate
--------
North America
• Muslim Youth, Community Members Call
on Philadelphia City Leaders to Address Gun Violence
• In Congo’s forests, Islamic State
money makes an insurgency more lethal
• The Prison System Can’t Stop Discriminating
Against Muslims
• Islamic Republic’s Cyber Army:
Cheerleaders, Zombies and Trolls
• White House: US consistent on need for
free, fair election in Bangladesh
--------
Australia
• Islamic State-linked Australians held
in Syria launch repatriation bid
• Australia's Most Decorated War Veteran
'Responsible for Murder' in Afghanistan: Federal Court Judge
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/kashmir-files-kerala-story-ajmer-92/d/129935
-----
After Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story, ‘Ajmer-92’ Comes Under Cloud Even Before Its Release
[Photo:
File]/ ‘Ajmer-92’
----
June 5, 2023
After the controversies over Kashmir
Files and The Kerala Story, ‘Ajmer-92’ has come under cloud even before its
release with Muslim organizations demanding a ban on the Bollywood movie.
All India Muslim Jamaat President
Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi has termed the film ‘Ajmer-92’ a
conspiracy to spread hatred in the country. He said a particular religion is
being targeted through films and social media.
Reacting to the film on Monday, Maulana
Shahabuddin Razvi said that the film was going to confuse the people of the
country and create division in the society.
The Maulana said according to
information, the film Ajmer 92 has misrepresented the Dargah. “The education
given there is said to be wrong as the film depicts. We strongly oppose this,”
he stressed.
He said the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin
Chishti of Ajmeri was a fine example of Hindu-Muslim unity, which has been
ruling the hearts of the people for centuries. The message of peace is always
given from Dargah Ajmer Sharif.
He noted that lately films and social
media are being used to create divisions in the society and spread hatred. No
film director can be allowed to desecrate Khwaja Sahib’s dargah. Films are
being used to target the followers of a particular religion. Hence, the Maulana
has requested the government to ban the film.
The film directed by Pushpendra Singh
claims to showcase true events of the gang rape and blackmail of over one
hundred school and college girls in Ajmer.
The film is likely to be released on
July 14.
Source: thestatesman.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.thestatesman.com/india/muslim-organisations-demand-ban-on-film-ajmer-92-1503187639.html
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Pakistan to Hang Christian, Nouman
Asghar, For ‘Blasphemous’ WhatsApp Images Sent By Bilal Ahmad, a Muslim
(Photo
courtesy of The Voice)
----
June 6, 2023
A court in Pakistan has sentenced a
Christian to death after he received cartoons of Mohammad, the founder of
Islam, in a WhatsApp chat message to his phone.
Nouman Asghar, 24, of Bahawalpur in Punjab,
was convicted of blasphemy under 295-c of the country’s Penal Code, which
carries the death penalty.
According to Fides news agency, he and
his family argued that the drawings of Mohammad were sent to him by Bilal
Ahmad, a young Muslim whom the police did not arrest.
The same drawings were also sent via
WhatsApp, a social media platform, to Sunny Mushtaq, the Christian cousin of
Ashghar, who is awaiting sentencing for blasphemy from the same Bahawalpur
Magistrates Court.
Trainee Sub-Inspector Fraz Ahmed of the
Faqirwali Police Station in Bahawalnagar said the pair were arrested in July
2019 after he received “secret information” that Mushtaq had printed the
sketches and was showing them to other people.
neeqa Maria Anthony, a lawyer from The
Voice legal group which is supporting the pair, said he was disappointed by the
sentencing of Asghar.
He said: “The magistrate ignored all the
procedures and dismissed all the evidence in favour of the accused.
“He only wanted to complete his ‘sacred
duty’ to punish an alleged blasphemer,” he told Fides news agency.
“We expect the same fate for Sunny
Mushtaq. They were arrested for a teenage game. Their families are suffering
greatly.
“Our legal team at The Voice is doing
everything necessary to grant them justice, helping their families and standing
by their side in these dark and difficult times.”
Mr Anthony described the prosecution of
the two men as “another example of the misuse of blasphemy laws” under which
scores of Christians have been prosecuted, often following fabricated
allegations.
Among the most notorious cases is that
of Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother who spent nearly a decade on death row after
she was sentenced to hang for allegedly insulting Muhammad following a dispute
with Muslim co-workers whom, she maintains, objected to her sharing their water
supply because she was a Christian. She
has always denied the blasphemy allegation.
Islamic extremists were so vocal in
demanding her execution that for her own safety she was held in solitary
confinement from November 2010 until her release on appeal in 2019.
Lazar Allah Rakha, a member of Asghar’s
legal team, said that his client was also the victim of a miscarriage of
justice.
“I’m extremely disappointed by the
conviction because there was absolutely no case,” Rakha told Morning Star News.
“There was no proof against Nouman, and
none of the witnesses produced by police could corroborate the blasphemy
allegation against him.”
He said that because there were “so many
contradictions in the case” he was “at a loss to understand why Bahawalpur
Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Hafeez Ur Rehman sentenced Nouman instead of
acquitting him”.
“This is murder of justice,” he said,
adding that he his client would appeal against conviction to the Lahore High
Court soon after the magistrates had explained their ruling in writing.
Asghar Masih, Nouman’s father said his
family, who are Anglicans, were “standing firm in our faith and looking to God
for Noman’s freedom”.
“The allegations in both First
Information Reports are baseless,” said Asghar Masi, a sanitation worker.
“Nouman was sleeping in the house when
he was arrested, but the police have alleged that he was in a park showing
blasphemous images to 9 to10 people at 3.30am.”
“Nouman’s mother and I yearn for him
every day. Our hearts broke today when our counsel informed us about the death
verdict. But our faith in Christ has not waivered, and we trust God that He
will rescue us from this suffering.”
Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’
2023 list of the world’s most dangerous places to be a Christian, up from
eighth the previous year.
(Photo courtesy of The Voice)
Source: catholicherald.co.uk
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://catholicherald.co.uk/pakistani-christian-sentenced-to-hang-for-blasphemous-whatsapp-sketches-on-phone/
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Selangor Sultan Wants Religious Polemics
to Be Resolved Immediately Using Wise, Orderly Approach
The Selangor
ruler also shared the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin
Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s sentiment in reminding the people in the country not
to turn religious issues into political polemics and disputes. — Bernama pic
-----
Tuesday, 06 Jun 2023
SHAH ALAM: Selangor's Sultan Sharafuddin
Idris Shah wants all parties to take a wise and orderly approach with a high
spirit of tolerance in dealing with sensitive religious issues.
"For the sake of unity and the
future of the country, any religious polemics should be resolved immediately,”
he said in a statement posted on Selangor Royal Office’s Facebook page on
Tuesday (June 6).
In this context, the Sultan also called
for the spirit of unity among the people to continue to be instilled and
nurtured at all levels along with the noble values of community life, in order
to maintain harmony.
Sultan Sharafuddin also shared the Yang
di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s
sentiment in reminding the people in the country not to turn religious issues
into political polemics and disputes.
Yesterday, Sultan Abdullah in his speech
during the investiture of federal awards and honours in conjunction with his
official birthday celebration at Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur, expressed deep
concerns over the issue of the use of the word "Allah” which he feared
would become a prolonged polemic and could affect national unity and the
well-being of the country if not resolved immediately.
According to the statement, Sultan
Sharafuddin is of the opinion that the content of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s
speech was very good and impressive and should be taken seriously by the
people.
Just like the King, the Selangor Sultan
also expressed concerns regarding the issue of the use of the word ‘Allah’
which is feared to become a protracted polemic that may affect national unity
and the wellbeing of the country, the statement read.
"The Sultan wants all parties to respect
the position of Islam as the religion of the Federation as stated in Article 3
of the Federal Constitution, where all citizens must also respect the position
of the Malay Rulers as the head of the religion of Islam,” it said.
In order to build a successful, credible
and dignified country, the Sultan said all citizens and politicians should
discard any rhetorical agenda that could lead to factionalism.
"Without factionalism, Malaysia has
great potential to grow into a fully developed and respectable nation,” he
added. – Bernama
Source: thestar.com.my
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/06/06/selangor-sultan-wants-religious-polemics-to-be-resolved-immediately-using-wise-orderly-approach
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Muslims Pay Money, Buy Motorcycles To
Free Abducted 16Christian Worshippersin Kaduna State
Photo by
Muhammad-taha Ibrahim
-----
June 6, 2023
The 16 abducted church worshippers, who
remained in captivity in Kaduna State, were released by their abductors on
Sunday after the Muslim community paid money and bought a motorcycle for the
bandits.
It will be recalled that 40 worshippers
were abducted by bandits at Bege Baptist Church, Madala near Buruku in Chikun
Local Government Area of Kaduna State during a Sunday service on May 7, 2023.
Some had managed to escape and returned
home, leaving the remaining 16 in the hands of the bandits.
Chairman of the Christian Association of
Nigeria, CAN, in Kaduna State, Rev John Hayab, told journalists in Kaduna,
yesterday, that they were full of gratitude to the Muslim community in the
area, who had assisted before the captives regained freedom.
He said: “The Muslim community where the
worshippers were abducted contributed money and bought a motorcycle as part of
the ransom required for the release of their Christian brothers and sisters in
captivity.
“This goes to show good, caring and
sincere neighbours that practically showed concern to the plight of their brothers
and sisters that were abducted and their sincere wish that they return home to
live together with them in peace and harmony.
“The exemplary life shown by the Muslim
community in Madala should be emulated by all in other parts of the state for a
united and peaceful coexistence that is needed for the overall development of
the state.
“The Muslim community has shown that one
does not need to be educated before doing the needful. Nigerians from all walks
of life should be their brother’s keepers in order to eliminate all forms of
insecurity in every part of the country.”
The 16 freed worshippers have reunited
with their families while those with injuries are in hospital receiving
treatment.
Source: vanguardngr.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/06/muslims-pay-money-buy-motorcycles-to-free-abducted-christian-worshippers/
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Saudis Review Options for Studying
Abroad As US Gun Violence Spirals
A group of
Saudi students from the University of East Anglia recently explored Cromer,
Norfolk; new experiences and exploring the world is one of the benefits of
studying abroad. (Instagram/ intouea)
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June 05, 2023
DUBAI: Seeing their children receive the
best possible education is every parent’s dream, and having a high number of
international students is a goal for every world-renowned tertiary institution.
However, in today’s changing world, various factors complicate the decision-making
process for students and parents.
Parents have to take many issues into
account, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the wave of shootings on school campuses
in the US. As the education landscape shifts, some Western institutions have
opened branches in foreign countries, including the Gulf region, appealing to
students who do not wish to, or cannot afford study abroad.
These days a growing number of Arab
parents, including Saudis, deliberate thoroughly before sending their children
to pursue their higher studies in the US — home to some of the most prestigious
education institutions and research centers in the world. Analysts and experts
say that the rose-colored dream of studying in the US has started to change
slightly owing to a confluence of academic, social, economic and security
factors.
“If you look at it (number of students
from Saudi and the rest of the Gulf region) in the span of the last … for
example, 10 years, yes it has changed. If you look at it since COVID, yes it
has changed. There isn’t a (hugely) significant decrease in the numbers, but
there is a decrease,” Dala Kakos, an education strategy specialist, told Arab
News.
Kakos, who has worked with the World
Bank and the Executive Council in Abu Dhabi, and Knowledge and Human
Development Authority in Dubai, says that while a sense of safety and security
is not the most important factor for students and parents, it is among the
highest priorities.
Saudi columnist Tariq Al-Maeena also
believes the number of Saudi students in the US has decreased. “The impression
of the numbers had been gleaned by what I had been following over the recent
years as well as discussions with a wide group of friends and acquaintances,”
he told Arab News.
“Already some Saudi students
(unfortunately) met a tragic end in the US at the hands of criminals.”
In January this year, 25-year-old
computer science student Al-Waleed Al-Gheraibi was stabbed to death in his
accommodation in Philadelphia. This was only the latest incident in which a
Saudi student was murdered in the US. In 2018, 23-year-old architecture student
Yasser Abualfaraj was found murdered in his apartment in Florida.
And two years prior, 24-year-old
business administration student Hussain Saeed Alnahdi was beaten to death in
Wisconsin. Other murders of Saudi students in the past decade were reported in
Australia, Canada, the UK and Malaysia, according to a press report by Al
Arabiya.
The increasing number of violent
incidents in the US is a worry for prospective students and parents. From 1966
to 2022, 12 mass shootings took place on US college campuses. During the same
period, there were 300 shooting incidents on college campuses, resulting in 94
deaths and 215 injuries, according to American press reports.
Some Europe-based websites are currently
posting short videos advising European students abroad on what to do during a
shooting.
Al-Maeena believes this is good advice
for all students. “We live in a relatively safe society; we are not conditioned
to be wary and alert, and sometimes we fall prey to those wishing us harm,” he
told Arab News.
“That is why it is imperative that any
student going overseas must attend some kind of awareness seminar to alert them
(to) all possible scams that may do them harm,” he said.
The exact number of Saudis currently
pursuing their higher education in the US is unknown, but it is estimated in
the tens of thousands. There has been an increase in the past, with the number
of Saudis studying in the US rising from 10,000 in 2007 to 120,000 in 2015,
with 600 taking up medicine.
Saudi Arabia is one of the top countries
from the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of number of students
studying in the US, while China and India lead on the global level. But even
this is changing.
According to the Institute of
International Education, the number of international students at US colleges
grew by just 0.5 percent in the 2018-2019 academic year, “bringing an end to a
decade of expansion.”
The results, posted on the website of
Foreign Policy, were due to a “slowdown” in the number of Chinese students, who
accounted for nearly one-third of all non-American students in the country.
Other countries, including South Korea, Japan, Iran, the UK and Saudi Arabia,
also “sent fewer students to the US” that year compared to the previous one.
The number of Saudi students in the US
has gone down after the Saudi government decided in 2016 to “reevaluate” its
scholarship program that covers many countries in the world, including the US.
New guidelines were introduced limiting participants to top-100 universities,
or top-50-rated programs in their fields.
The high cost of tuition is another
factor that could stop parents from sending their children abroad, according to
Kakos.
According to her, other factors include
tuition, location, proximity of relatives living abroad, having alumni parents,
and prestige.
“Prestige is a very heavy factor when
someone is an international student and they want to go abroad. This is a big
thing because you are making a big effort to leave, you will be representing
your country when you are there, and you also will be representing the
university when you come back home,” Kakos said.
Owing to its many renowned universities,
the UK is always an option for parents. By offering English-language degrees,
the US and UK are ideal destinations for those seeking to study abroad.
“Interestingly, there is an upward trend
of European universities offering English-speaking degrees,” Kakos said.
“Already, many of them are constantly increasing their postgraduate and
master’s and doctoral programs. But now, they (have) started to pay attention
to undergraduate programs. For example, Greece just announced that their
national universities have put forth at least 12 new majors in English.”
At the same time, the UK has made
attracting foreign students part of its national strategy. The country recently
organized official academic visits to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE to draw in
more students and increase their “market share,” Kakos said.
“They know the true value that they
could bring, which is financial, but also need more presentation in their
international students. They are focusing much more on gaining more
international students, specifically from Saudi Arabia. They voiced that and
they are pursuing that currently.”
Other options include Germany,
Australia, and even Japan, despite the language barrier.
Al-Maeena said “options are unlimited”
when it comes to education. Usually, the decisions “will be influenced by the
student’s family and past historical experiences. I know of one parent who graduated
from Japan some decades ago, and now has influenced his children to obtain
their higher studies there.”
The UK, which is the second-most popular
study destination after the US and home to the prestigious Oxford and Cambridge
universities, is receiving an increasing number of Saudi students, said Abigail
Davenport, head of Strathclyde Business School’s branch in the UAE.
“Over the years, leaders of GCC
countries have strived for knowledge-based economies, and have made great
strides in developing social, economic and education infrastructures …
Strathclyde has excellent relations with Saudi Arabia, in particular across
public and private sectors, as well as a long history of welcoming Saudi
students to the main campus in Glasgow,” she said.
“The UK is incredibly diverse, and
international students will get the chance to experience a multicultural
environment whilst still maintaining strong ties to their own culture,” she
told Arab News in a statement.
According to recent available figures
from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, during the 2020-2021 academic
year, there were 3,310 new Saudi students studying in the UK, of which 1,045
were undergraduates, 1,620 postgraduates, and 645 doctoral students.
In total, the number of Saudi students
studying at UK institutions almost doubled from the 2019-2020 to 2020-2021
academic years, according to British Council figures. Of the 14,070 current
Saudi students connected with UK higher education, 11,850 are studying at
institutions, 2,000 are enrolled in distance, flexible or distributed learning,
and a minority are studying at overseas branch campuses.
The opening of overseas branch campuses
is “definitely needed” and “a good strategy,” Kakos said, as it caters to
students who cannot or do not want to travel abroad. She added that a “blended
learning” experience, where studies are divided between physical classes and
online learning, is also becoming a huge trend.
Studying abroad, according to Kakos, has
many benefits, including new experiences, research potential, and access to
extracurricular activities that may not be available in one’s home country.
The students “stand to gain a lot but,
at the same time, branch campuses coming into the country would also be able to
give a lot more value to the overall educational landscape and the options
available to students in Saudi Arabia and the GCC in general.”
Source: arabnews.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2316421/saudi-arabia
---------
India
New Conversion 'Game Plan'? 4 Kids Influenced to Adopt Islam while playing Fortnite, Says Ghaziabad Police
JUNE 06, 2023
Ghaziabad police says it has uncovered a
new modus operandi with which young, impressionable children were influenced
and then converted to Islam. The racket was exposed when the father of a
juvenile filed a complaint in Ghaziabad’s police station alleging that his kid
is offering namaz five times a day, and when he confronted the child, he got
angry and said that he would leave the house and stay with the Maulvi he was in
touch with.
The accused whose digital name is Baddo
used to spot young, impressionable kids while playing Fortnite, said officials.
He would then allegedly tell the kids to recite verses of namaz to win the
game, and as planned they would win. This made the children believe in the
powers of the Quran and impressed them, they added.
Then these kids would be asked to join
the online streaming-cum-chatting platform Discord, which allows its users to
create servers and share content with each other. On Discord, these children
would then allegedly watch videos of Zakir Khan, and when impressed, they were
shown videos of Jaleel Imam.
Officials say till now four kids have
been identified who were influenced and converted through this modus operandi.
The complainant alleges that his child
used to leave the house five times a day without telling family members and
wouldn’t answer his parents even upon asking. The father got suspicious when
the kid began speaking extensively about Islam. The father then decided to
follow him and saw him entering the mosque. When confronted, he allegedly got
angry and told his father how Islam is the best religion. He was so influenced
that he told his father he would leave the house and start staying with the
maulvi and it was then that the father decided to file a complaint, say
officials.
Two people have been arrested in the
case so far. The first is the maulvi of Jama Masjid in sector 23 of Ghaziabad.
His call records show that he was in touch with two kids and used to tell them
about the timings of namaz, say officials. The other person is a man named
Nanni (aka Abdur Rehman) who has also been taken into custody. He was allegedly
the point person who used to speak to these kids. The main accused, who was
operating from Mumbra near Mumbai, is still at large. A team of Ghaziabad
police reached his residence but neither he nor any of his family members were
found, and a manhunt has been launched.
Ghaziabad police suspect a larger
conspiracy in the case and names of a few people operating from some European
countries have also come up in the initial investigation. Officials are
verifying more facts. Sources say the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s office has
taken cognisance of the incident and is monitoring the probe.
Source: news18.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.news18.com/india/new-conversion-game-plan-4-kids-influenced-to-adopt-islam-via-fortnite-and-discord-says-ghaziabad-police-8008585.html
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Posters Asking Muslim Traders to Shut
Shops by June 15 in Uttarkashi Town of Uttarakhand
Jun 06, 2023
According to people aware of the matter,
the Purola main market roughly consists of 650-700 shops and of these, around
30-40 are run by the Muslims.
Posters threatening Muslim traders to
shut shops by June 15 surfaced in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi town on Monday, amid
ongoing tensions over an alleged abduction attempt on a 14-year-old girl by two
men, including one from the minority community, last month, police said.
Both the men – Ubed Khan (24), a local
shopkeeper, and Jitender Saini (23), a motorcycle mechanic – were arrested on
May 27 for the alleged abduction attempt. Local residents alleged it was a case
of ‘love jihad’ – a term used by right-wing groups to describe an alleged
conspiracy by Muslim men to woo and seduce Hindu women, although courts and the
Union government do not officially recognise it.
The posters, in Uttarkashi’s Purola main
market, asked Muslim traders to vacate their shops before a mahapanchayat on
June 15.
“Love jihadiyon ko suchit kia jata hai
ki dinak June 15, 2023 ko hone wali mahapanchayat hone se purv apni dukanein
khali kar de. Yadi tumhae dwara aisa nahi kia jata, toh wakt par nirbhar karega
(Love jihadists are informed that they should vacate the shops prior to a
mahapanchayat on June 15. If they don’t, it (consequences) will depend on
time),” the poster, which calls for ‘Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan’ (campaign for
protection of land) said.
The posters surfaced two days after
members of right wing outfits held protests in Barkot and reportedly attacked
shops and houses belonging to Muslims. Police said efforts are on to identify those
behind the violence.
Police also said the posters were
removed on Monday itself and a probe is underway to identify the people who
pasted them. “We have removed these posters andare identifying the anti-social
elements who pasted them,” Uttarkashi superintendent of police (SP) Arpan
Yaduvanshi said.
According to people aware of the matter,
the Purola main market roughly consists of 650-700 shops and of these, around
30-40 are run by the Muslims.
A local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)
leader said the posters were pasted by local residents.
“These posters were put up by local
residents who want people from a particular community to leave the town to
ensure peace and communal harmony. They came here on the pretext of doing
business but are targeting girls and women from our community,” VHP leader
Virender Rana said.
The ongoing tension has prompted Muslims
to keep their shops shut and, in some cases, even flee the district.
“We are living in constant fear and
cannot return to Purola in such an atmosphere. If they want us to leave the
hills, authorities should compensate us for the property owned by us,” Saleem
(35), who runs a garment shop in Purola and has fled to his brother’s house in
Dehradun in the wake of the tension, said.
Another 40-year-old Muslim shopkeeper in
the market, who did not wish to be identified, said: “We condemn the abduction
bid and demand strict action against the culprits. We don’t support people who
indulge in criminal and illegal activities.”
On Monday, a few Muslim families handed
over a memorandum to Purolo sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), highlighting the
financial crisis they are facing and seeking security to reopen businesses. The
memorandum, seen by HT, also said the administration will be held responsible
if anything untoward happens to the Muslims.
“The law and order situation is under
control. We are keeping an eye on developments to ensure peace and harmony in
the town,” SDM Devanand Sharma said.
Tension gripped Uttarkashi on May 26
when the two men allegedly attempted to abduct the minor. Police said the
accused had fled after their abduction bid failed and were arrested the next
day from Hudoli village.
On May 29, a protest march in Purola
turned violent after some of the agitators attacked shops and establishments
belonging to the Muslims. A similar protest was held on Saturday, under the
banner of Yamuna Ghati Hindu Jagriti Sangathan. Nearly 900 people took part in
the stir.
The protesters also handed over a
memorandum to the SDM, seeking verification of people coming from outside for
doing business in the town. “In the garb of doing businesses in the town, some
people from a particular community have been indulging in immoral activities…
thereby, polluting the atmosphere,” the memorandum in Hindi, seen by HT, said.
Several shops run by the Muslims have remained shut since May 29.
“A verification drive of all Muslim
traders and shopkeepers should be conducted. Those who are delinquent types
shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the town. Others can operate freely,” Brij
Mohan Chauhan, president, Purola vyapar mandal, said.
Durgeshwar Lal, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) legislator from Purola, said he will discuss the matter with chief
minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
Source: hindustantimes.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/posters-asking-muslim-traders-to-leave-surface-in-uttarakhand-101685991761377.html
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Maharashtra: Congress renews pitch for
Muslim reservation
JUN 05 2023
In the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha and
Vidhan Sabha polls, the Congress in Maharashtra raised the pitch for
restoration of 5 per cent quota for Muslims in educational institutions and
government services.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee’s
working president and former minister Naseem Khan has raised the issue.
“For the upliftment of the Muslim
community, the reservation in education and government service is a must,” said
Khan addressing a gathering in which Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind felicitated three students
who had cleared the UPSC examinations.
These three students are Sayyed Mohammed Hussain, Aayesha Qazi, Shabina Ansari.
“All of them come from humble
backgrounds and they have made it to the top with their relentless efforts,” he
said.
A four-time former MLA from Mumbai,
Khan, in the past had served as ministers in several departments including home
and minority affairs.
Khan, who has been credited with
unveiling the plan to modernise madrasas, said that students need to be helped
out and reservation would go a long way in bringing the people to the
mainstream. “The aim is to bring the students to the mainstream, so ...
He said that when the Congress-NCP
Democratic Front government was in power from 1999-2014, it made efforts and
finally ensured that the Muslims and Maratha community get reservation.
The Congress-NCP government in 2014 had
issued an ordinance whereby they gave a five per cent quota to the Muslim
community, and 16 per cent to the Marathas. However, the BJP-Shiv Sena
government that came to power in the state in the successive poll...
When the Maha Vikas Aghadi government
comprising Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress came to power, Khan
corresponded with the government seeking restoration of quota to the Muslims.
“I demand the present Eknath
Shinde-government to ensure that the
Muslims are given reservations on the basis of economic backwardness, as it
would go a long way,” said Khan.
Recently he had also called up the new
Governor Ramesh Bais to direct the state government to restore Muslim quota.
Khan said that the spirit of the Sachar
Committee report must be maintained.
At this felicitation programmel Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind's Secretary (Legal Cell)
Gulzar Azmi, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind's State working president Hafiz Masood,
General secretary Maulana Haleem Ullah Qasmi, treasurer Mufti Yusuf along
with office bearers from...
Source: deccanherald.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/maharashtra-congress-renews-pitch-for-muslim-reservation-1225085.html
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Pakistan
PTI chief to be made ‘an example’:
Maryam
June 05, 2023
BAGH:
Holding PTI Chairman Imran Khan
responsible for the May 9 mayhem, PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz on Monday
lashed out at the former premier, saying the person who once boasted about
invincibility and vowed to “bring tears to other people's eyes” was “now
isolated and had been weeping alone”.
"Anyone who disrespects the
martyrs, sets their memorials on fire, or sets ablaze the fighter jets that
destroy enemy jets cannot be one of us. They cannot be Pakistani either,” she
said.
The PML-N senior vice president was
addressing a rally in Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) during her
mass contact campaign in the constituency of party candidate Mushtaq Minhas.
On the PTI leaders quitting the party,
she asked the crowd where the former ruling party was, adding that it “went
back to where it came from”.
“They dreamed of disintegrating the
PML-N, but today, the PTI itself has fallen into disarray. Those who used to
claim they were invincible and vowed to make others cry are now sitting alone
and weeping.”
Referring to Sardar Tanveer Ilyas,
Maryam said, “Even their [PTI] own prime minister of AJK is testifying against
them”.
Ilyas had recently announced to “move
forward together” with Jahangir Tareen, a sugar baron as well as a former close
aide of PTI chief before they developed differences and was now planning to
form a new party.
Without naming Imran, she said, “the
person had been hiding in a bunker” – a reference to PTI chief’s Zaman Park
Lahore residence – and maintained that he “will be made an example”.
Maryam said the PTI chairman had also
struck a deal on Kashmir with former US president Donald Trump.
“Whoever acted in such a manner towards
the martyrs and their memorials on May 9, listen carefully, the Pakistani
nation and the people of Kashmir will never forgive you. We will make an
example of you," she said.
“Who do you remember when you come
across the politics of vanadalism and hate,” she asked. When someone had
nothing progressive to show, she said, he committed such acts [of May 9].
Citing developments during former
premier Nawaz Sharif's tenure, the PML-N leader said if nine years of his
father’ tenure were excluded from 75 years of the country, nothing would be
found.
Maryam said the PML-N supremo faced
troubles, adding that he never allowed anyone to harm the country.
She urged the people to vote for PML-N
candidate Minhas and noted that there was no allegation of corruption against
him.
“I ask you to vote for Mushtaq Minhas,
and for the party that initiated development projects,” she added.
The government launched a massive crackdown
against PTI which landed in trouble following the rioting on May 9, a day the
country’s military and PDM government termed as “black day”.
In an unprecedented show of vandalism,
protestors allegedly belonging to the former ruling party vandalised public and
private properties and even attacked the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi,
and Lahore corps commander’s residence, also known as the Jinnah House.
The attack took place hours after
paramilitary Rangers personnel arrested party chairman in the Al-Qadir Trust
corruption case, later retitled as the £190 million National Crime Agency
scandal, on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau, from the
Islamabad High Court premises.
Following the clampdown, several senior
PTI leaders were arrested, and many dissociated themselves from the party.
So far, many senior-most PTI leaders,
including Fawad Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari, Imran Ismail, Ali Zaidi, Amir Kiyani,
Saifullah Nyazee, Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, have parted
their ways with Imran.
Besides a number of candidates, who were
awarded PTI tickets for Punjab Assembly elections, quit the party, condemning
the May 9 violence and attacks on military installations.
Simultaneously, several politicians also
became active to benefit from this realigning of the new political dynamics.
The foremost among them is Tareen.
It has been reported that Tareen was
forming his own political party amid speculations that those quitting the PTI
would join him. It was said that more than 60 lawmakers and top PTI leaders had
contacted him.
Source: tribune.com.pk
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2420340/pti-chief-to-be-made-an-example-maryam
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Pakistan pours cold water on TTP’s talks
offer
June 06, 2023
PESHAWAR:
Pakistani authorities have declined an
offer from the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to resume talks,
citing their previous negative experience with dialogue.
The TTP, through various sources and
individual contacts, expressed their willingness to re-engage in talks in
recent days. However, the government rejected the offer and instead urged the
militants to surrender, according to sources.
The government engaged in talks with the
proscribed TTP last year at the insistence of the Afghan Taliban government in
Kabul. For that purpose, a ceasefire was also announced.
However, the TTP unilaterally terminated
the truce in November last year, a few days before the appointment of Gen Asim
Munir as the new army chief of Pakistan.
Subsequent to the ceasefire's
termination, a wave of attacks on police, security personnel, and government
installations ensued, with particular emphasis on the southern districts of
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. These targeted attacks were attributed to the TTP.
A senior government official revealed
that during the previous rounds of talks, Afghanistan's acting interior
minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, acted as a mediator. However, it is important to
note that he did not hold the role of guarantor in those discussions.
“We need solid guarantees,” the senior
official told The Express Tribune. “Negotiations will be meaningless without a
solid guarantor. So when this offer was made it was rejected outright,” he
added.
The Pakistani authorities have made it
explicitly clear to the TTP that individuals willing to surrender are welcome
to do so, the officials said, adding that Pakistan sustained losses whenever it
engaged in talks with them. “That is why we are now asking for concrete
guarantees.”
The current coalition government, since
assuming power, has attributed the ongoing wave of terrorism in the country to
the talks held between the then-ruling PTI government and the TTP. In response
to parliamentary directives, a committee was formed on this matter, headed by
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. However, no meetings of the committee have taken
place thus far.
The Pakistani government has been urging
the Afghan Taliban to take action against the TTP. As part of this effort, the
Kabul government has detained or deported several TTP leaders.
Recent visits by Defence Minister
Khawaja Asif and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar to
Kabul were also linked to this issue. During the Afghan foreign minister's
visit to Pakistan, the matter was raised as well.
The senior official emphasized that the
Afghan Taliban would not employ force against the TTP, and Pakistan had no
intention of entering Afghanistan to dismantle TTP bases, given the friendly
nature of the neighbouring country.
The Express Tribune reported on Monday
that Pakistan had told the interim Afghan government that it could only
consider talking to the TTP if the terrorist outfit surrendered and laid down
arms.
Official sources privy to the
development told The Express Tribune on Sunday that Pakistan was no longer
seeking talks with the TTP under the present circumstances.
However, despite Pakistan’s refusal to
enter into peace talks with the militant group, the Afghan Taliban were still
keen on the process of dialogue to kick-start.
The Pakistani government has been urging
the Afghan Taliban to take action against the TTP. As part of this effort, the
Kabul government has detained or deported several TTP leaders.
Source: tribune.com.pk
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2420442/pakistan-pours-cold-water-on-ttps-talks-offer
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Soldier martyred in South Waziristan
clash: ISPR
June 05, 2023
A Pakistan Army soldier embraced
martyrdom in a fire exchange between security forces and terrorists in general
area Ladha of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan district on Monday, the
military said.
The Inter-Service Public Relations
(ISPR) said in a statement that the army troops effectively engaged the
terrorists’ location. However, during an intense exchange of fire, Lance Naik
Muhammad Sabir, a 30-year-old resident of Mansehra district, having fought
gallantly, embraced shahadat, it added.
Sanitisation of the area is being
carried out to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.
“Armed forces of Pakistan are determined
to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers
further strengthen our resolve,” the military’s media wing furthered.
A day earlier, two soldiers embraced
martyrdom while two terrorists were killed and another two injured in an
exchange of fire between Pakistan Army troops and terrorists in the North
Waziristan district.
"Own troops effectively engaged the
terrorists' location and two terrorists were sent to hell, while injuring
another two," read a statement issued by the ISPR.
According to the statement, weapons and
ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorists.
Source: tribune.com.pk
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2420354/soldier-martyred-in-south-waziristan-clash-ispr
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PDM unlikely to contest elections from
single platform, says Fazl
June 6, 2023
LAHORE: In opposition to Defence
Minister Khawaja Asif’s proposal, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has
expressed doubt about the likelihood of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)
parties contesting the next elections from a single platform, as PDM is not an
election alliance.
“The PDM is not an election alliance and
it is unlikely that it contests the next polls on one platform. Every party has
its own manifesto. However, the parties in the PDM may go for seat-adjustment
at local levels,” the PDM president said in a talk with journalists at the
residence of PML-N stalwart Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday.
Khawaja Asif of PML-N recently said the
PDM parties should contest upcoming elections together.
The PDM is a nine-party alliance with
PML-N leading it. The PPP is not part of this alliance, however, it has hinted
at making seat-adjustment with the PML-N, especially in Punjab.
The ruling coalition parties have
stepped up efforts to take full advantage of the crumbling of Imran Khan’s PTI
following the events of May 9. The PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, PML-Q, and the Jahangir
Khan Tareen group have all launched campaigns in anticipation of October, 2023
general elections and wooing the support of electables and the PTI deserters.
Like many coalition leaders, Maulana
Fazl also did not categorically say that the elections would be held this
October.
“We are political people who are in
favour of elections but the decision regarding (October) polls will be taken in
consultation with the coalition parties, just as the PDM made decisions in
consultation with the allied parties in the past,” Maulana Fazl said.
PPP senior leader and former governor
Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood also hinted at what is being considered by the federal
coalition. “The caretaker setup after the completion of the tenure of the
incumbent federal government may prolong for six months if it performs well
economically,” Mr Mahmood said.
The federal government’s tenure is
ending in August.
Ban on PTI to be welcomed
The JUI-F head said: “If the court bans
the PTI we will welcome it.” He also supported the trial of May 9 suspects
under the Army Act saying this never happened in the country that a political
party activists were involved in the attacks on the military installations.
He made it clear that there would be no
talks with Khan’s PTI as it had only to face law for May 9 violence.
Meanwhile, Maulana Fazl also called on
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at his Model Town residence in Lahore and
discussed the current political situation.
Source: dawn.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.dawn.com/news/1758235/pdm-unlikely-to-contest-elections-from-single-platform-says-fazl
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Haq Do Tehreek chief threatens to launch
protest movement, again
June 5, 2023
QUETTA: Haq Do Tehreek (HDT) chief
Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman has said the provincial government has backed out of
the agreement had it signed with HDT leaders accepting its demands, which led
to end of the month-long protest sit-in by the people of Gwadar last year.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday
along with Gwadar Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Naveed Kalmati as
well as other HDT leaders, he said the HDT would launch another protest
movement if government would not implement the agreement, as “we will not step
back and compromise on the rights of the people of Makran guaranteed by the
Constitution of the country”.
Maulana Rehman said the government was
not serious in solving the problems being faced by people of the province.
He blamed a nationalist party without
naming it for sabotaging the negotiations and impeding the agreement’s
implementation. “Not a single demand of the agreement has been fulfilled by the
government,” he lamented, adding that illegal trawler mafia was still active
and it was operating with impunity in Balochistan’s waters. He said the drug
mafia was free to do illegal business, spoiling the youth of Makran.
Maulana Hidayat says govt backed out of
pact it signed with group
He said Gwadar was being touted by the
government as the future economic hub of Pakistan, but the ground reality was
that people were still deprived of their basic rights and amenities. He said
not a single anti-snake vaccine was available in hospitals.
He said that 16 cases had been
registered by the government against him and 250 workers of HDT. Maulana Rehman
said that HDT leaders did not expect justice.
Source: dawn.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.dawn.com/news/1758038/haq-do-tehreek-chief-threatens-to-launch-protest-movement-again
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Southeast Asia
Indonesia Tops Halal Tourism in Global
Muslim Travel Index 2023
6 June 2023
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia managed to
grab the Top Muslim Friendly Destination of The Year 2023 in the Mastercard
Crescent Rating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2023 in Singapore, which is
an improvement from last year’s second place.
“We got an unexpected result that saw
Indonesia placing first in the Global Muslim Travel Index,” said Sandiaga Uno,
Tourism and Creative Economy Minister on Saturday, June 3.
He expressed his pleasant surprise by
stating that the first spot was aimed to be achieved in 2025, “But in 2023,
this team that prepared it managed to execute our finest programs which made us
place first. This is an achievement.”
Sandiaga Uno asserted that this achievement
is the result of a collaboration of related parties, especially the Indonesian
Halal Tourism Association (PPHI), Halal In Travel, Mastercard Crescent, and
other unmentioned collaborators.
Through this collaboration, PPHI was
able to win two awards at once, namely Stakeholder Awareness Campaign of the
Year from the Mastercard Crescent Rating GMTI Awards and Stakeholder Awareness
Campaign of the Year from the Halal In Travel Awards 2023.
“We are aiming for 8.5 million tourists
will be accommodated by halal tourism,” said the Minister.
The tourism ministry’s website states
five halal destinations in Indonesia filed under the Indonesia Muslim Travel
Index that are spread across Aceh, Lombok, West Sumatra, Riau Islands, and
Jakarta.
Source: en.tempo.co
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://en.tempo.co/read/1734117/indonesia-tops-halal-tourism-in-global-muslim-travel-index-2023
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Indonesia, Germany Agree to Improve
Defense Collaboration
6 June 2023
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia and
Germany have agreed to improve their defense collaboration, Defense Minister
Prabowo Subianto informed after receiving a visit from German Defense Minister
Boris Pistorius and his delegates at the ministry's office on Monday.
"Bilateral relation of Indonesia
and Germany, including in the defense aspect, is really good; it has been going
on for decades. We want to consistently improve this relation, such was the
main topic during the meeting," Subianto informed at a joint press
conference with Minister Pistorius.
He said that he and Pistorius will take
active measures to improve defense collaboration.
Pistorius said he held an intensive
discussion with Subianto, including during the International Institute for
Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue 2023 in Singapore the previous
week.
"For example, about the
Indo-Pacific area issue from Germany and Europe's point of views," the
German minister said.
The two also discussed Germany's
bilateral stance in the ASEAN and Indo-Pacific regions, he disclosed.
"Particularly with Indonesia, who
have been our great partner for decades," Pistorius added.
Prabowo Subianto said that he is
planning to officially return the German Minister's visit.
The efforts conducted by the two nations
in the defense aspect have included the provision of education to 670 personnel
from the Defense Ministry and military in Germany in 2022–2023.
Source: en.tempo.co
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://en.tempo.co/read/1733954/indonesia-germany-agree-to-improve-defense-collaboration
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MalaysianKing, Queen See off Haj
Pilgrims, Wish Them Safe Journey
Tuesday, 06 Jun 2023
SEPANG, June 6 — Yang di-Pertuan Agong
Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and Raja Permaisuri
Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah today bid goodbye to
Malaysian pilgrims who were leaving for the Holy Land for the 1444H/2023 Haj
season.
His Majesty told the Malaysian pilgrims
at the Sepang Haji Complex, Movenpick here that to be guests of God in the
largest gathering of Muslims in the Holy Land will teach the pilgrims to be
patient, tolerant and respectful of one another.
“Differences in skin colour, language,
race and rank no longer matter between Muslims who gather in the Holy Land,” he
added.
“The Haj gathering teaches us to work
together to achieve the desired goal. It also teaches us the noble values of
life in order to unite the ummah.
In his address, Al-Sultan Abdullah also
called on the pilgrims to learn from the unity of the ummah through the largest
gathering of people in the Holy Land to serve as an example and guide in
forging the spirit of unity and brotherhood in Malaysia.
Al-Sultan Abdullah also advised the
pilgrims to always protect the country’s good name, obey all health rules and
guidelines and observe the diet recommended by Tabung Haji (TH).
“Take this opportunity to be God’s
guests to worship and give charity with all your heart,” His Majesty said while
thanking the government and TH for always taking care of the welfare and
comfort of Malaysian pilgrims.
At the same time, he also called on TH
to continue to take proactive steps in improving the provision of
infrastructure services and facilities to the country’s pilgrims.
His Majesty also expressed his
appreciation to the government of Saudi Arabia for all the cooperation and
assistance rendered in the management of the Malaysian pilgrims and hoped that
the close ties that have been long established between Malaysia and Saudi
Arabia would continue for the benefit of the pilgrims.
Al-Sultan Abdullah and Tunku Azizah also
mingled with the pilgrims while wishing them a safe journey.
A total of 355 Malaysian pilgrims will
depart for the Holy Land on a Saudia Airlines flight to Jeddah at 5.35pm today
from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and are expected to arrive at
about 11.10pm (Saudi Arabia time).
Altogether, 31,600 Malaysian pilgrims
will perform the fifth pillar of Islam during this year’s Haj season, with the
help of 670 TH personnel.
Flights for this year’s haj season
include 98 special charter flights involving Malaysia Airlines and Saudia
Airlines compared to 48 flights last year.
The first flight departed on May 21 and
the last flight is on June 21, while the pilgrims will gradually return home
starting from July 6 and the last return flight is on August 2, 2023.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, TH group managing
director and chief executive officer Syed Hamadah Syed Othman, TH chairman Tan
Sri Azman Mokhtar and Saudi Arabia ambassador to Malaysia Mesaad Ibrahim
Abdullah Al Sulaim were also present. — Bernama
Source: malaymail.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/06/06/king-queen-see-off-haj-pilgrims-wish-them-safe-journey/72840
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Africa
Mayor Allah Jabu intensifies push to
‘paint Juba green’
June 6, 2023
The Mayor of Juba City Michael
Allah-Jabu launched the second phase of tree planting in Juba City with a
message of fighting the negative impacts of climate change.
Speaking to the media after planting the
trees on Monday, Allah Jabu said the city council had embarked on the tree
planting to keep Juba clean and green.
“We have started planting trees in order
to eradicate climate change and improve the planting of trees in the city of
Juba. We will continue to plant the trees in order for the city to be clean and
green,” Allah-Jabu said.
“It is the responsibility of the area
chief of Jebel to look into it and protect it from the wrongdoers.”
The Mayor planted 44 trees starting from
Jebel Market up to Giada along the roadside. He said the exercise is a
collective responsibility of the government and the citizens.
Allah-Jabu said the next tree planting
will be in Munuki, Gudele, and the Newsite along the main streets.
Meanwhile, the chief of the block of the
Jebel Residential area, David Albino Tombe, said there is a need to nurture the
trees so that they can mature as some of the previously planted vegetation and
had dried up.
“We need to open our eyes and protect
the trees, not only along the roads but at home. So this time we will make sure
that we take good care of these trees,” David said.
“Those ones who are near the side of the
road will be blamed if anything happens to the trees which were planted by the
City council,” David said.
In attendance was the second runners up
of Miss Little Africa Ritah Samantha who implored the citizens and the
government to plant trees and reduce pollution of the environment.
“So far I have planted 188 trees in
different parts of South Sudan in the past month, we need to exercise the
recycling of plastic and plant trees in order to reduce environmental risk,”
Ritah said.
Two years ago the Minister of Environment
and Forestry Josephine Napwon launched a project of planting 100 million trees
in South Sudan.
The first phase of tree planting launched was
last month in Hai Thoura where the Juba City Council authorities planted more
than 165 trees. The exercise came in the wake of the commemoration of the World
Environmental Day which focused on dealing with the menace of plastic
materials.
Source: cityreviewss.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://cityreviewss.com/mayor-allah-jabu-intensifies-push-to-paint-juba-green/
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2023 Hajj: Emir of Ilorin urges Muslim
pilgrims to pray for Nigeria
JUNE 5, 2023
The Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim
Sulu-Gambari, has urged the 2023 pilgrims from the state to offer special
prayers for the nation’s peace, unity and prosperity.
This is contained in a goodwill message
issued by the emir’s spokesman, Malam Abdulazeez Arowona, in Ilorin on Monday.
Mr Sulu-Gambari enjoined them to see the
opportunity of their visit to the holy cities of Madinah and Makkah in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a great opportunity to move closer to Allah.
The emir, who is also the chairman,
Kwara Council of Chiefs, Mai-Martaba, thanked Almighty Allah for his numerous
blessings on the people of Ilorin Emirate, the people of Kwara and Nigerians at
large.
He stressed that the pilgrims were
expected to pray for global peace and harmony while in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.
“I use this moment to thank Almighty
Allah and urge our pilgrims to pray for peace and unity of Nigeria, most
importantly, for the newly inaugurated leaders at the federal and state levels.
“I also enjoin pilgrims from Ilorin
Emirate and beyond to be good ambassadors of our dear country, by conducting
themselves in the most peaceful manner throughout their stay.”
The emir thanked sons and daughters of
Ilorin Emirate, government and people of the state for their continuous prayers
and support.
He prayed Almighty Allah to grant all
the pilgrims successful Hajj rites and journey mercies.
Source: gazettengr.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://gazettengr.com/2023-hajj-emir-of-ilorin-urges-muslim-pilgrims-to-pray-for-nigeria/
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Close Ranks Behind Tinubu, Warri Cleric
Urges Christians, Muslim Leaders
Jun 5, 2023
Popular Warri pastor and Founder/Senior
minister of God’s Judicious International Assembly, Arch Apostle Quest Timothy
Omajuwa, has urged Christians and Muslim leaders in Nigeria to live the truth
not just say the truth for Nigeria to move forward, stressing that the time for
religious leaders of all persuasions to close ranks behind the new president
has come in the best interest of Nigeria.
In his message to the nation on the
theme: ‘Time is ticking: Christianity and Islam should live the truth and not
just say the truth’, to herald the new administration at the Church
headquarters in Otughievwen, headquarters of Ughelli South Local Government
Area of Delta State, Arch Apostle Omajuwa charges Muslims and Christian leaders
who are wealthy to invest in their people and communities so as to stimulate
economic prosperity for the masses instead of relying on government alone.
The cleric noted that criticizing the
leaders without appreciating the huge responsibility on their shoulders was
grave disservice to the nation, stressing that real leadership was pressure
rather than pleasure. He therefore urged Mr President to make the people
understand his roadmap to economic recovery as he takes Nigeria through the
difficult valley of pains for true freedom.
‘’As we step into another phase in the
life of this country, let us appreciate the fact that this is not the time to
always criticize your leaders, for leadership is a huge responsibility if one
has to face and live the reality.
‘’If you assume any position of
leadership with the attitude of stealing you will think that leadership is gain
and gainful, but when you start fulfilling the real task of development and
making things happen to the advantage of those who elected you to the position
of leadership, then you will know that real leadership is not pleasure but
pressure.
‘’To our Muslim brethren, I have this
for you. Do not forget that Islam isn’t the end of this world but the end of
one’s life if truly you are in the faith. This presupposes selflessness. This
same message also goes to those who are very rich among Christians particularly
the rich pastors and general overseers. Your faith should be the instruments of
lifting and blessings and not a weapon of confusion and pulling down those who
have good intentions to make things happen in the midst of the people.
‘’Take a survey of the people in your
village and see for yourself how great you have impacted them positively from
the wealth God almighty has entrusted into your hands. When you are through
with this then you can start to encourage your government to do better. The
more we try to fight against the government in the performance deficit, the
more we cause the government to fight back by doing things that will make them
get away with their atrocity. Government will only respect and fear you if you
live by example and throw your support for it, but fighting against the
government when your own faults are visible doesn’t make the government fear or
respect you.
‘’I therefore use this medium to call on
our religious leaders to close ranks behind the new leadership and encourage
the government to succeed knowing that it’s a collective responsibility to do
so and a huge loss if we fail to do the needful.
‘’To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, I
have this to say. Taking Nigeria out of bondage is good, but making Nigerians
understand the process is better. Every slave cries for freedom not knowing
that freedom isn’t cheap. For One to stop crying, it also takes a cry because
the process of freedom is painful and not comfortable. When a slave doesn’t
understand this they can as well expose the leader to more danger than you can
ever expect. Jesus did try to free the world but the church, His own, killed
him. Those whom he healed and free physically are inclusive of the act of
negative action against Christ. There’s so much to learn than to teach when it
comes to leadership’’, Arch Apostle Quest Omajuwa added.
In a veiled reference to the removal of
subsidy on petroleum products, Apostle Omajuwa noted that President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu has very clear and good intentions for Nigeria ‘’but he must understand
that the current battle is between the rich and the poor.
Now that you are ready to stand up for
the poor, make them understand the process clearly so the same people you are
working to set free will not be used to set you ablaze. My prayer is that
Nature and spirits perform the role of a Coach so that you can understand
hidden wisdom’’ the cleric said.
Source: independent.ng
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https://independent.ng/close-ranks-behind-tinubu-warri-cleric-urges-christians-muslim-leaders/
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CAN Appreciates Muslim Community for the
Release of 16 Abducted Worshippers
June 5, 2023
Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed gratitude to the Muslim community in
Kaduna State over the release of 16 Abducted Baptist Worshippers.
Recall that about 40 worshippers were
abducted by bandits during a Sunday service on May 7, 2023, but miraculously
many of the kidnapped worshippers escaped leaving behind the 16 that just
regained their freedom.
The remaining 16 worshippers abducted by
bandits at Bege Baptist Church, Madala, near Buruku in Chikun local government
area of Kaduna state, have finally regained their freedom.
Speaking to journalists about their
release on Monday, Kaduna State Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
Chairman, Rev. John Joseph Hayab expressed gratitude to the Muslim community in
the area.
He said: “The Muslim community where the
worshippers were abducted contributed money and bought a motorcycle as part of
the ransom required to release their Christian brothers and sisters in
captivity.
“This goes to show good, caring and
sincere neighbours that practically showed concern to the plight of their
brothers and sisters that were abducted and their sincere wish that they return
home to live together with them in peace and harmony.”
According to Rev. Hayab, the exemplary
life shown by the Muslim community in Madala should be emulated by all in other
parts of the state for a united and peaceful coexistence needed for the overall
development of the state.
He stressed that the Muslim community
has shown that one does not need to be educated before doing the needful,
pointing out that Nigerians from all walks of life should be their brothers’
keepers to eliminate all forms of insecurity in every part of the country.
Rev. Hayab further explained that the 16
remaining abducted worshippers were released on Sunday, June 4.
According to him, many of them already
reunited with their families, while those with injuries are presently receiving
treatment in an undisclosed hospital.
Source: politicsnigeria.com
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https://politicsnigeria.com/can-appreciates-muslim-community-for-the-release-of-16-abducted-worshippers/
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Muslim, Christian Organisations urge
NLC, TUC to shelve planned strike action
June 5, 2023
A Group under the umbrella of Muslim
League of Nigeria (TML) has called on Nigeria Labour Congress ,Trade Union
Congress and other labour unions to
shelve the planned nationwide strike scheduled to commence on Wednesday in
protest of the pronouncement made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on removal of
subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit otherwise known as petrol.
The group also urged Nigerians,
especially the workers across the 36 states of the country to consider the long
term merit of removing the fuel subsidy
above the demerits.
According to the Muslim group, the
payment of over 12 Trillion Naira on Subsidy to few cabals under guise of
subsidy over the past 4 years was not only ridiculous, but insensitive to
economic realities.
“As a group of religious leaders, it is our duty and
responsibility to ensure we always pray for progress and development of our
country as well as messages of peace and unity to our adherents.”The group stated .
In a statement signed by the Chairman
and Secretary of the Muslim League of Nigeria (TML), Sheikh Musa El Yakoob
and Mallam Mustapha Harris, the group
said,”We can’t fold our arm and pretend all is well, when we see impending
tension and crisis brewing that are
capable of destroying the existing peace.
“We are not unaware that Nigerians continue to writhe in agony over sudden hike in the pump price of petrol and
soaring cost of good and services due to the removal of fuel
subsidy.”
Similarly, Forum of Nigerian Christian
Leaders(FNCL) also called on labour unions to consider the economic
implications of embarking on nationwide protest on Wednesday.
In the statement jointly signed by the
Chairman, Pastor James Adeleke; Vice Chairman ,Pastor Moses Onuoha
Secretary ,Pastor Eziekel Kanyip and
Asst. Secretary ,Pastor Garba Dickson,the Christian group urged President
Tinubu to convey an enlarged
stakeholders meeting with markers; entrepreneurs, labour unions and other
pressure groups to discuss and
reach amicable resolutions on the
matter.”
“We reliably gathered that the NLC
insisted on the announced plans to down tools from Wednesday, if the pump price
is not reversed, but are appealing to
the unions to consider exhausting all tools of lobbying and negotiation
to avoid subsequent hardship the strike action will cost the country.
“While we appeal to President Tinubu to
remain focused and committed to his campaign promises ,we are calling on him to
see the labour unions more as partners than enemies”.
Source: vanguardngr.com
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https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/06/muslim-christian-organisations-urge-nlc-tuc-to-shelve-planned-strike-action/
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Arab World
Saudi Green Initiative celebrates World
Environment Day
June 05, 2023
RIYADH: The Saudi Green Initiative is
celebrating World Environment Day on June 5 through the launch of programs to
reduce plastic waste and clean the oceans.
Designated by the UN, the theme of World
Environment Day 2023, “#BeatPlasticPollution,” will focus on ways to combat the
pollution generated by plastic waste.
Approximately 400 million tons of
plastic waste are produced annually, while only 9 percent of it is recycled
worldwide.
In efforts to improve waste management,
the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. has joined the Coalition to Eliminate Plastic
Waste with the aim of cleaning plastic from the oceans.
SGI is collaborating with the National
Center for Waste Management to develop a comprehensive national plan for waste
management in the Kingdom to strengthen its leadership in circular economy
practices. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2025.
Also in cooperation with the National
Center for Waste Management, the Saudi Investment Recycling Co. is leading a
waste management initiative in the city of Riyadh that will divert 94 percent
of the city’s waste from landfills and convert over 1.3 million tons of
biodegradable waste into agricultural fertilizers.
The ultimate goal is to remove 4.1
million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually and build an effective waste
management model to be implemented across the Kingdom by 2035.
Since the launch of SGI in 2021, 77
individual programs representing an investment of more than $186 billion in the
green economy are already in progress. The programs have three tangible
objectives: to reduce emissions, increase vegetation, and protect local
biodiversity and landscapes.
During June, SGI will implement an
ongoing campaign to raise awareness about environmental conservation efforts in
the Kingdom.
For more information about the ongoing
programs under the SGI umbrella to protect land and marine areas and enhance
biodiversity in Saudi Arabia, please visit: https://www.greeninitiatives.gov.sa/ar-sa/sgi-initiatives
Source: arabnews.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2316346/saudi-arabia
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Saudi aid center chiefs meet Sudanese,
UN officials in Riyadh
June 05, 2023
RIYADH: General supervisor of the King
Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, on Monday
met the charge d’affairs of the South Sudan Embassy in Saudi Arabia, ambassador
Khamis Hagar.
During their meeting in Riyadh, they
discussed cooperation and coordination on humanitarian and relief issues.
In separate talks, KSrelief assistant
general supervisor for operations and programs, Ahmed bin Ali Al-Baiz, met the
UN resident coordinator in the Kingdom, Dr. Rita Columbia, at the center’s
headquarters in Riyadh.
They reviewed ongoing aid projects and
ways to support vulnerable groups around the world.
Columbia thanked the Saudi government
for the important role it played in providing the necessary assistance and
facilities required for UN humanitarian organizations to carry out their work.
She also praised KSrelief for its project work around the world.
Since its establishment in May 2015, the
center has implemented 2,374 projects worth more than $6.2 billion in 91
countries in cooperation with 175 local, regional, and international partners.
According to a recent KSrelief report,
the main beneficiaries from its projects have been Yemen ($4.2 billion),
Palestine ($370 million), Syria ($367 million), and Somalia ($232 million).
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2316356/saudi-arabia
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Saudi FM receives Venezuelan counterpart
in Jeddah
June 05, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister
Prince Faisal bin Farhan received his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Eduardo Gil
Pinto in Jeddah on Monday.
During the meeting, they reviewed
aspects of cooperation between their countries and ways to enhance and develop
them in various fields.
The ministers also discussed increasing
coordination on many regional and international issues of mutual concern.
They also discussed efforts in laying
the foundations for international peace and security, and contributing to the
achievement of global sustainable development goals.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2316341/saudi-arabia
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Saudi culture minister meets German
counterpart in Berlin
June 05, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of
Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan met with his German counterpart
Claudia Roth during a visit to Berlin on Monday.
Prince Badr and Roth, the German
minister of state for culture and the media, discussed opportunities for
cooperation between their countries in the field of culture.
They also discussed strengthening their
bilateral partnership through the exchange of specialized delegations, the
implementation of special cultural projects, and the exchange of experiences
with regard to museums.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2316391/saudi-arabia
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South Asia
Exiled Afghan Prosecutors in Pakistan
Urge Intl Community to Help Them Resettle
June 6, 2023
On May 5, these exiled prosecutors,
lawmakers and civil society activists peacefully protested in Afghanistan Hotel
in the capital city of Islamabad and called on UNHCR, International
Organization for Migration (IOM) and the international community to reconsider
the dire situation and overwhelming uncertainty Afghan prosecutors are going
through.
The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) Pakistan has not yet initiated a common position regarding the
legal status of the exiled Afghan prosecutor and lawmakers. Richard Bennett,
the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and
Margaret Steroid in their reports have clearly highlighted that employees of
the judicial sector of the previous government including judges, prosecutors
and lawyers as “a group at serious risk” under the Taliban-run administration.
It is also stated that not only
prosecutors but also their family members are at grave risk of abduction,
persecution and death threats by the ruling regime. This situation has been
confirmed by Amnesty International and human rights organizations at the
national and international levels, however, no decisive actions have been taken
to help exiled the lawmakers to resettle in third countries.
However, the UNHCR has ignored these
reports and dozens of other undeniable documents, all of which prove the
overwhelming danger to the life and property of the prosecutors. “They deserve
the international support more than any other group,” said a participating
lawyer at the peaceful gathering.
Meanwhile, the UNHCR’s passive role in
the legal status of Afghan refugees, civil society activists, in particular, is
highly disappointing according to them. Currently, the UNHCR does not issue
refugee certificates or cards to Afghan migrants for unknown reasons,
complicating their situation as neither the European diplomatic missions nor
Canadian or Australian Embassies accept humanitarian visa applications
directly.
The UNHCR has prolonged assessing the
exiled prosecutors’ asylum applications to the extent as no single civil
society activist (prosecutor, lawyer, journalist) has been referred to any
foreign embassy over the past year and a half, according to participants.
Therefore, the Association of Afghan Prosecutors
in Pakistan once more urged the UN agencies (UNHCR, IOM) and the international
community to protect the exiled civil society activists and resettle them in
countries where they could live peacefully along with their family members.
Since the return of the Taliban to power
in August 2021, thousands of layers, prosecutors and journalists fearing death
threats from the Taliban, fled Afghanistan to the neighboring countries
including Pakistan and Iran. With nearly two years since the late regime change,
these exiled civil society activists are grappling with an unlimited number of
issues including their legal status in the host countries.
Source: khaama.com
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Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s ‘hot
zone for climate threats’
5 Jun 2023
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – Climate
experts in Bangladesh have expressed concern about massive refugee camps here –
some of the largest in the world – being located in an extreme-weather hot
zone.
Cox’s Bazar, a coastal region in
southeastern Bangladesh, is prone to cyclones, wildfires, and landslides.
Without prompt climate mitigation action and investment, Bangladesh’s coastal
population and the estimated one million Rohingya refugees it accommodates are
under severe threat, analysts say.
Although it narrowly escaped Cyclone
Mocha’s worst impacts, the area remains at great risk, scientists warn.
Saleemul Huq, a climate scientist and
director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, said
landslides pose the biggest problem in the Rohingya camps. Predicting heavy
rainfall patterns and cyclones is a challenging task, and this was evident
during the recent encounter with Cyclone Mocha.
“While Bangladesh as a whole may be
well-prepared, Cox’s Bazar remains a hot zone for climate threats,” Huq told Al
Jazeera.
“The timing of cyclones is unpredictable
as we saw with the recent threat towards Cox’s Bazar. Although the camps are
aware of the problems, the lack of cyclone shelters poses a major issue. Unlike
other coastal areas in Bangladesh, the camps lack proper shelters.”
If a cyclone were to directly hit Cox’s
Bazar, the situation would be devastating, he said.
“Bangladesh has been making progress in
addressing climate change, but we must acknowledge the lack of cyclone centres
in the camps, putting Rohingyas in great danger.”
The climate scientist said action must
be taken to ready the camps for the weather-related disasters to come.
“As the impacts of human-induced climate
change become more and more apparent and visible and lead to significant losses
and damages, it is necessary for all actors, including governments as well as
others, to work together in a whole-of-society approach going forward,” Huq
said.
Bangladesh is one of the most
climate-vulnerable nations in the world and tens of millions of people may be
forced to flee the low-lying coastline as sea levels rise in the coming years.
‘Could have been killed’
In the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which
hit neighbouring Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine the hardest, Cox’s Bazaar
district was impacted with more than 450,000 people affected, including more
than 21,000 Rohingya refugees.
Nur Ayesha, a 25-year-old Rohingya,
shared her harrowing experience and the challenges her family faces after the
storm.
“On the day of the cyclone, my children
went to school while I stayed at home with my youngest daughter,” Nur Ayesha
recalled.
“Suddenly, a tree fell inside the house
on me while I was cutting fish to prepare our meal. It was fortunate the tree
wasn’t too big, as both my daughter and I could have been killed. Trees fell
from all sides of my house, leaving my house broken, and the solar panel was
blown away. My husband is repairing the solar panel now.”
Nur Ayesha expressed disappointment at
the lack of support received from aid organisations for the clean-up. “Nobody
provided me with bamboo or any materials to fix my house. In the area where I
used to do farming, I managed to gather some bamboo on my own. I want to
strengthen my household, but it’s difficult to obtain the necessary materials.”
‘Burn in the flames’
Laila Begum, a 50-year-old woman from
the camps, pressed for better preparation from the fallout of extreme weather,
describing her experience with Cyclone Mocha.
“The wind blew off the thatch, ruining
our clothes and belongings inside. With no men in the household, only me and my
daughters, we were terrified and drenched by the heavy rain. The downpour
caused water to seep into the house. We need a stronger foundation to prevent
such incidents in the future,” Begum told Al Jazeera.
The camps are extremely vulnerable to
the effects of climate change. The materials used for constructing shelters are
highly prone to fires, a reality that contributes to a pervasive sense of
uncertainty and helplessness among the residents.
Mohammad Hasan, 60, a Rohingya refugee,
expressed concern about the close proximity of homes in the camps and the risks
from scorching temperatures.
“Each house is close to another and if a
fire were to break out, we would have no choice but to burn in the flames,” he
said.
Nur Islam, a 42-year-old refugee
shopkeeper in the camps, rushed home as Cyclone Mocha’s winds picked up. “My
nephew and I secured the thatch on our house and shop, anchoring the solar
panels with ropes to protect them from the cyclone.
“The government and NGOs provided
assistance to those with total losses, but families with less damage didn’t
receive any help. I had some materials that I used to reinforce my house, but I
need stronger materials.”
Hope for tomorrow?
Sanjeev Kafley, from the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), highlighted the
profound climate threats faced by the Rohingya refugees, as well as their hosts
along Bangladesh’s coast.
“It is essential to acknowledge that
these challenges extend beyond the confines of the camps, affecting the broader
local community. Cyclones do not discriminate; they impact both the camps and
the host community,” said Kafley.
“This crisis remains unpredictable with
an uncertain duration and an unknown future. The need for ongoing humanitarian
assistance is undeniable, making it crucial for us to explore strategies to
ensure our actions are both sustainable and climate conscious.”
Kafley linked the challenges of climate
threats in the refugee camps with the state of despair among the Rohingya
population.
“When you don’t have hope it is painful,
we are all actually surviving with hope. These risk factors around climate
change in the camps persist because of the absence of a durable solution. The
hope isn’t there,” he said.
“We must examine how the global
community perceives this agenda and join forces to support climate-friendly
humanitarian actions in Cox’s Bazar.”
Source: aljazeera.com
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Rohingyas should not be forced to
return: UN
Tue Jun 6, 2023
The Rohingyas wishing to return to Myanmar
should have access to clear, factual information to be able to make free and
informed decisions, and under no condition should be forced to return, said UN
Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly T Clements.
"We continue to advocate for creating
conducive conditions in Myanmar so that refugees can go back safely and in
dignity, and voluntary returns can be sustainable," she said wrapping up a
four-day visit to Bangladesh yesterday.
She visited the Rohingya camps in Cox's
Bazar, government officials, donors and humanitarian actors during her trip
here.
In a statement, Clements said the
Bangladesh government has assured her that it would not force any Rohingyas to
return to Myanmar.
This comes when Bangladesh and Myanmar,
under mediation by China, are discussing a pilot project for Rohingya
repatriation six years after the biggest Rohingya influx in 2017.
Currently, more than a million Rohingya
live in Bangladesh.
Clements also emphasized that the UN
Refugee Agency must be able to assess the voluntariness of refugees' choices.
She also called for livelihood and
self-reliance initiatives to be scaled up in Cox's Bazar to prevent the
humanitarian situation in the refugee camps from deteriorating as funding for
them is declining.
On June 1, the World Food Programme was
forced to cut food aid for the second time in three months due to a lack of
funding, which will result in higher malnutrition rates, school dropouts,
increased child marriage, child labour and gender-based violence, she said.
Clements also advocated for policies to
allow more durable materials, which are fire and weather resistant, to be used
for shelters.
Humanitarian agencies have appealed for
more than $876 million this year to support almost 1.5 million people,
including 920,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char, and 495,000
Bangladeshis in neighbouring communities.
As of June 2023, the Joint Response Plan
was only 24 percent funded. Predictable and sustained funding is needed to
avert a wider humanitarian disaster.
Source: thedailystar.net
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https://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-influx/news/bangladesh-germany-sustainable-rohingya-repatriation-3338516
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Islamic Emirate Leader Meets With
Provincial Education Leaders
06-06-23
According to Mujahid, Mawlawi Akhundzada
stressed the need for the extension of education to remote areas as well as the
improvement of educational quality.
“In the meeting, (the Islamic Emirate
leader) had some instructions for all heads of the provincial education
departments aimed at promoting better teaching, and for education be extended
to areas where there is no access to education yet,” he said.
The head of education in Parwan, who was
one of the participants at the meeting, said that he stressed the need to
finalize curriculum for primary schools.
“The curriculum of the school and
seminary should be the same, so that the distance between the schools and
seminaries is eliminated,” said Mohammad Hassan Haqqani, head of the Parwan
education department.
Mujahid said that the reopening of
schools for girls in grade 7-12 was not discussed in this meeting.
“This issue is, I think, not related to
the directors. That issue belongs to the religious clerics, to make decisions
about it,” he said.
Female students beyond grade six have
been deprived of school since the Islamic Emirate came to power.
“I cannot study anymore but I should be
allowed to,” said Bahara, a student.
The closing of schools for female
students above grade 6 has faced widespread reactions at the national and
international level.
Source: tolonews.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-183659
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China Reiterates Support for Stability
in Afghanistan
05-06-23
The Chinese defense minister made the
remarks at the 20th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
Shangri-La Dialogue.
He also said that China has provided
more than $49 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
Shangfu said that China has hosted
international initiatives and participated in meetings relevant to the
situation in Afghanistan.
The Islamic Emirate meanwhile called on
China to take practical steps toward the improvement of the situation in
Afghanistan.
“We want this policy to continue for the
stability and security that we have in Afghanistan. This is important for the
region. The regional countries and close countries should understand it and
support the Islamic Emirate,” said Zabiullah Mujuahid, the Islamic Emirate’s
spokesman.
Political analysts said that China wants
the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan.
“China wants an inclusive and modern
government in Afghanistan. Through that, China considers stability in
Afghanistan,” said Torek Farhadi, a political analyst.
“China has economic and political aims
in Afghanistan, but China will never do anything that does not benefit
Beijing,” said Torialai Zazai, a political analyst.
Earlier, in remarks at the China-Central
Asia Summit, the Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to help the people of
Afghanistan to maintain stability and realize peace.
Source: tolonews.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-183662
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Islamic banks’ loan surges 9 times their
deposits in a year
Tue Jun 6, 2023
Investments made by full-fledged Islamic
banks in Bangladesh surged nearly nine times their deposits in a span of a
year, raising questions as private sector credit growth has slowed in the entire
banking sector, official figures showed.
The banks registered an increase in
investments, or loans, by Tk 46,011 crore in January-March of 2023 compared to
the identical quarter of 2022. Deposits rose by Tk 5,169 crore during the same
period, data from the Bangladesh Bank showed.
On top of that, the full-fledged Islamic
banks, now numbered 10, were the biggest sufferers of fund withdrawals after
the banking sector was hit with fresh loan irregularities: they lost deposits
amounting to Tk 427 crore in the first quarter of this year in comparison to
the last quarter of 2022.
They collectively held deposits to the
tune of Tk 379,524 crore in March, down 0.11 per cent from Tk 379,951 crore in
December. It was up 1.38 per cent from March last year, however.
Investments at the banks stood at Tk
412,397 crore as of March, an increase of 1.18 per cent from three months ago
and 13.44 per cent a year earlier.
"The abnormal investment growth
against a feeble deposit growth is a matter of concern," said Ahsan H Mansur,
executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh.
"The indicators highlight the weak
financial health of the banks. The central bank should investigate why the
banks have given out an excessive volume of loans. The asset quality of the
banks should also be verified."
Some Shariah-based banks have also faced
a wide range of scams in recent times, denting the confidence of depositors.
Under such a situation, some banks,
including Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL), the largest private bank in terms
of deposits and investments, suffered from liquidity dearth resulting from fund
withdrawals.
The liquidity crunch prompted the
central bank in December to pump funds into a number of Islamic banks,
including IBBL, to enable them to meet emergency financing needs and comply
with regulatory requirements.
Zahid Hussain, a former lead economist
of the World Bank's Dhaka office, says that the economy has been sluggish in
recent periods owing to the uncertainty at home and abroad. Still, Islamic
banks have posted remarkable investment growth.
"The economy is facing an energy
crisis, which hurt the production of industries. But the banks have disbursed a
large amount of funds. This is interesting."
Private sector credit growth in
Bangladesh dropped to a 14-month low of 11.23 per cent in April owing to weak
credit demand amid the current business slowdown.
Fahmida Khatun, executive director of
the Centre for Policy Dialogue, says that the large volume of investments at a
time of crisis is not an indication of prudential banking.
The Shariah-compliant banks, which have
recently faced loan irregularities, were considered well-reputed lenders, but
their image has been tarnished, she said.
"Some Islamic banks even failed to
ensure the required cash reserve ratio."
The overall availability of excess
liquidity at the Shariah-based banks and the Islamic banking windows of
traditional lenders slipped to Tk 7,708 crore in March this year, from Tk
12,871 crore in December. Their collective surplus liquidity stood at Tk 29,999
crore in March last year.
Both Hossain and Fahmida also urged the
central bank to look into higher lending by the banks.
Source: thedailystar.net
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/banks/news/islamic-banks-loan-surges-9-times-their-deposits-year-3338941
----------
Afghan Allies to Receive 20,000 More
Visas Under SIV
June 6, 2023
US Senators introduced a new bill
seeking to bring stability to the visa program for Afghan allies, by doubling
the number of visas available and extending the program for five years.
The bill was introduced by Sens. Jeanne
Shaheen, D-N.H., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., aimed at reducing the backlog of
visa applications with several provisions to streamline the process.
“Afghanistan may not be on the front
pages anymore, however, the United States cannot forget the promise we made to
our Afghan allies who helped the US troop during the 20-year-long war mission
in the war-torn country,” Shaheen said in a statement last week.
Shaheen and Wicker are members of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, and Wicker serves as the top Republican on the
panel.
The program, known as the Special
Immigration Vis or SIV has faced delayed processing and backlog for years,
particularly with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Those Afghans who worked with the
American troops and left in Afghanistan are extremely worried about being
hunted down by the Taliban group. While the US military evacuated tens of
thousands of Afghans during the withdrawal, just a fraction were SIV applicants
or visa holders.
There are still thousands of SIV
applicants and their family members desperately waiting to hear about their
applications, who have already faced delayed processing.
As of the end of 2022, It is estimated
that nearly 63,000 Afghan applicants were waiting for what’s known as chief of
mission approval, which paved the way for extending the program for another
year.
Meanwhile, another 77,000 applicants
have already started the application process according to the State
Department’s most recent quarterly report.
Besides, the SIV program faced
opposition from some Republicans who are migration hard-liners, with the fear
of ending the program – it eventually found a home in the government spending
bill passed in December.
The currently authorized program until
2024 will be extended through 2029, aimed at issuing 20,000 more visas,
bringing a total of visas approved to 54,500.
Source: khaama.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-allies-to-receive-20000-more-visas-under-siv/
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2 Killed, 6 Injured in Suicide Bomb in
Northern Afghanistan: Official Says
June 6, 2023
According to Mahazudeen Ahmadi, the head
of the Information and Culture office, the blast occurred around 8:15 am local
time on Tuesday, adding that the blast targeted a vehicle carrying Taliban
deputy governor Mawlawi Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi.
He said two people were killed, and six
others were injured in the blast. However, he did not provide further details
on whether he had survived.
Meanwhile, the injured have been
transferred to the provincial hospital for medical treatment.
No one has claimed responsibility for
the blast so far. Further details are awaiting.
Source: khaama.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.khaama.com/2-killed-6-injured-in-suicide-bomb-in-northern-afghanistan-official-says/
--------
Afghan Refugees Still Lack Safe Pathways
in the EU: Report
June 5, 2023
Since the regime change in Afghanistan
in 2021, the need for protection and humanitarian assistance has increased.
Million people have been compelled to flee their homes, often using dangerous
routes.
According to the IRC report, Afghans
comprise the third-largest refugee group worldwide. Afghan refugees’
resettlement needs in the region have sharply risen, almost tripling yearly,
from 96,000 in 2022 to over 273,000 in 2023.
Since August 2021, European Union member
states have made public commitments to assist Afghans at risk access pathways
to Europe to increase humanitarian admissions, family reunification, and other
protection means.
However, only a small number of these
plans have materialized. Several challenges, including narrow eligibility
criteria, strict evidentiary requirements, and low processing capacity, limit
EU efforts’ scale, pace, and progress to bring Afghans to safety.
Meanwhile, Afghan refugees fled to
neighbouring countries, including Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. These
neighbouring countries struggle with political, economic, and environmental
issues, affecting refugees, including Afghans.
The report revealed that Afghan refugees
in Turkey had restricted access to healthcare, education, legal assistance and
welfare and enforced their repatriation. At the same time, some neighbouring
countries have stepped up security at their borders to prevent Afghans from
entering.
Apart from the lack of safe pathways
reaching to EU, asylum seekers and refugees often face the threat of pushbacks
or forcible returns once they reach European countries.
Refugees from Afghanistan are
particularly likely to report these violent acts, obstacles to fair and
thorough asylum procedures, and lengthy stays in inhumane detention-like
facilities after arrival. These containment measures have terrible
consequences: In the year leading up to March 2023, 92% of Afghans assisted by
the IRC’s mental health teams in Greece displayed signs of anxiety, and 86% of
them displayed signs of depression.
The report stress that the EU
institutions and states should urgently reaffirm their commitment to protecting
Afghans at risk and draw the lessons from this response.
Source: khaama.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-refugees-still-lack-safe-pathways-in-the-eu-report/
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Mideast
At United Hatzalah, Jews, Muslims Work
Together To Save Lives In Israel
JUNE 5, 2023
When Eli Beer set out to establish
United Hatzalah of Israel in 2006, his goal was getting to every medical
emergency within 90 seconds.
“If we had remained within our
communities, we would have never been able to get everywhere in 90 seconds,”
Beer, who today serves as the founder and president of the organization
recalled, speaking at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference, which took place in
New York on Monday. “In order to achieve our goal, we needed to reached out to
our neighbors and to people we didn't have a relationship with, starting with
the Arab community”
Some 17 years later, United Hatzalah
responds to almost 2,000 emergency calls every day, with hundreds of volunteers
from every sector of Israeli society, Jews, Muslims and Christians, secular,
religious and ultra-Orthodox, men and women.
United Hatzalah: Saving lives with
limited resources
“For me and my family, it has been
important to support Hatzalah because it saves lives with very limited
resources,” said Erica Gerson, a Board Member of the EMS organization and a
reform rabbi.
“In addition, it means so much to see
the humanity of Israel at its best within our organization,” she added. “It is
more than pluralism, it is really about humanity.”
Echoing the same sentiments were also
two Hatzalah volunteers, Batya Widawsky, a religious Jewish woman and a
resident of the West Bank, and Nazir Aweida, a Muslim man and a resident of
East Jerusalem.
“When we are at an emergency scene,
religion doesn’t matter, we work all together, people of all faiths, to save
people of all faiths,” said Widawsky.
“My family is very proud of what I’m
doing and people in my neighborhood are happy to have an EMS first respondent,”
Aweida highlighted. “As a Muslim, the Koran teaches me to help everyone in need
because saving a live is the highest value.”
“This is a message that I also want to
teach my children, to volunteer and to give more and more under the umbrella of
Hatzalah for the people of our country,” he concluded.
Source: jpost.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.jpost.com/conferences/article-745311
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Jihad calls for avenge of blood of
martyrs
[05/June/2023]
GAZA June 05. 2023 (Saba) - The Islamic
Jihad Movement in Palestine on Monday called for the escalation of resistance
to respond to the Zionist aggression and to avenge the blood of the martyrs
until freedom.
According to the Palestine Today agency,
Jihad confirmed in a press statement that the crime of targeting children and
innocent people among the Palestinian people is evidence of the extent of the criminality
of the fascist enemy, which continues its organized terrorism.
The movement mourned the masses of the
people of the martyr of Palestine, the child Mohammad al-Tamimi, three years,
who succumbed to his wounds in the village of Nabi Saleh in Ramallah last
Thursday.
The family explained that the body of
the child martyr will be handed over to his family Monday night at Rantis
Checkpoint, west of Ramallah, to be transferred to the Palestine Medical
Complex, and then he will be buried tomorrow in the village cemetery.
Source: saba.ye
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3244605.htm
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Saudi Arabia Executes 3 People in
Shia-Populated Eastern Region
2023-June-5
TEHRAN (FNA)- Saudi Arabia announced the
execution of three people in the Shia-populated Eastern Region over trumped-up
charges leveled against the religious minority members.
The announcement was made in a statement
by the Interior Ministry on Sunday. The death penalties were carried out
against Hussein bin Ali bin Muhammad Al-Mohishi, Fazel bin Zaki bin Hossein
Ansif and Zakaria bin Hassan bin Muhammad Al-Mohishi, presstv reported.
The Interior Ministry claimed in the
statement the three had been convicted of “joining a terrorist cell, possessing
weapons and armed assault on security centers and security men” in the Eastern
Region, also known as the Eastern Province.
The executions came less than two weeks
after authorities implemented death sentences against three young men from the
Shia-populated Qatif region over charges of involvement in sabotage activities.
Riyadh claimed the Saudi nationals “had
joined a foreign-based network in order to carry out acts of terror against the
kingdom".
They were found guilty of having
received training in the use of firearms and making bombs, smuggling men wanted
on security charges out of the country, bringing in ammunition and storing them
for the purpose of disturbing internal security.
Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich and
predominantly Shia Eastern Province has been the scene of peaceful
demonstrations since February 2011.
Protesters have been demanding reforms,
freedom of expression, the release of political prisoners, and an end to
economic and religious discrimination against the region.
The protests have been met with a
heavy-handed crackdown, with regime forces increasing security measures across
the province.
Ever since Mohammed bin Salman became
Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has ramped up arrests of
activists, bloggers, intellectuals, and others perceived as political
opponents, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of
international condemnations of the crackdown.
As a result, Muslim scholars have been
executed and women’s rights campaigners have been put behind bars and tortured
as freedom of expression, association, and belief continue to be denied.
Source: farsnews.ir
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14020315000059/Sadi-Arabia-Execes-3-Peple-in-Shia-Pplaed-Easern-Regin
--------
Belgian expert: Imam Khomeini presented
Islamic thought as modern alternative to Western liberalism
June 5, 2023
TEHRAN – Bresht Yunkerz, a Belgian
researcher and an interpreter for RT and Press Tv, says Imam Khomeini’s
philosophy of “neither East nor West, but the Islamic Republic” made him one of
the pioneers of the multipolar world order.
Yunkerz says Imam Khomeini’s record in
establishing the Islamic Republic “goes beyond the borders of the Iranian
nation.”
In an interview with the Tehran Times on
the 34th anniversary of Imam Khomeini’s demise, the Belgian scholar says, “It
seems likely that Imam Khomeini would play a leading role in ensuring Iran’s
place as a geopolitical pole in its own right, firmly defending its place in
the world, and more importantly its Islamic identity.”
Here is the full text of the interview:
How do you evaluate the impact of Imam
Khomeini's movement on the great revolutions in the world? Is Imam Khomeini's
philosophy still effective in fighting colonialism?
Imam Khomeini’s legacy on international
politics and the revolutionary movement worldwide, lies first and foremost in
the fact that he has proven once and for all that a modern alternative to
Western liberalism can be found within Islam.
Finding inspiration directly within the
revelations of our religion, the Imam challenged the largest imperialist
superpower in the world, and won. He inspired a nation to find courage and
fight on even in its darkest days, even when Saddam Hussein’s armies rampaged
through Iran and US-sponsored terrorism killed countless of innocents, to fight
back and sacrifice for justice.
Prior to Imam Khomeini, to many it
seemed infeasible, even impossible, that Islam or any other religion for that
matter, could be an inspiration for a revolutionary movement in the
contemporary era, let alone the basis for a modern and developed society. While
Islamic philosophers and writers such as Jalal al-e Ahmad and Ali Shariati
argued for exactly this sort of political approach, it was Imam Khomeini who
perfected it and put it into practice.
In your opinion, if Imam Khomeini was
alive today, what would have been his biggest concern in regard to global
developments?
As Imam Khomeini used to express his
geopolitical philosophy with the terms “neither East nor West, but the Islamic
Republic”, he can be seen as one of the earliest proponents of what is nowadays
known as the multipolar world order.
As the rise of Iran as a regional power
is joined by the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia on the world scale,
and as alternative power blocs are being formed that challenge Western hegemony
in the shape of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Belt and
Road Initiative, we are seeing the arrival of a world system that is no longer
dominated by a power cabal in Washington or London.
It seems likely that Imam Khomeini would
play a leading role in ensuring Iran’s place as a geopolitical pole in its own
right, firmly defending its place in the world, and more importantly its
Islamic identity.
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the former
Soviet Union, believed that Imam Khomeini's movement was able to leave a great
impact on the world. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
While Mikhail Gorbachev as a politician
and statesman brought utter ruin to his country, resulting in the collapse of
the Soviet Union, years of economic and social degradation and the geopolitical
victory of the US-dominated unipolar world order, his assessment of Imam
Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution in this regard was absolutely correct.
Iran has come a long way even more
forward since this statement by Gorbachev was made. While in the past, the
West’s attempt to isolate Iran were at least somewhat successful, the rise of
the Axis of Resistance and the close relations between Tehran and friendly
states such as Russia and China have fully broken the stranglehold of the West.
Iran has now fully taken its place as a regional powerhouse.
What is your opinion of Imam Khomeini's
statement that Western countries are not trustworthy and should not be
considered friends?
The so-called “nuclear deal” of the
JCPOA and the quasi-immediate US withdrawal from it, prove how right the Imam
was in making this assessment. The Western powers, the United States in
particular, speak with a forked tongue when it calls for peace, coexistence and
negotiations. At the end of the day, what the West wants, is for the world to
live only according to the rules that have been set out by the West itself. No
other alternative viewpoints are permissible in the unipolar liberal-capitalist
mindset.
We have seen time and again how
countries who either collaborate with the West, such as Iraq under Saddam
Hussein, or even merely try to find common ground and peaceful coexistence with
the West, such as Libya did, always end up paying a price in blood when they
inadvertently let their guard down.
Sure, the West as a geopolitical pole
can and must be approached with a bona fide diplomatic attitude, just like
every other legitimate country and political bloc on the world must be. But
this does not mean trusting them outright. Opening one’s country to the value
systems of the West, to the NGOs pushing this agenda, or to any form of
economic, social or military domination by the West, is a sure path to ruin.
In your opinion, can Imam Khomeini be
considered a global leader for popular revolutions?
Most definitely. The legacy of Imam
Khomeini is an inspiration for the Axis of Resistance, crucial for the Islamic
Resistance in countries such as Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and even
as far as Nigeria.
However, the Islamic Revolution has also
inspired countries, movements and political leaders across the globe, many of
whom are not even Muslim themselves. From the Bolivarian revolutionaries in
Venezuela, to the resurgent Russian anti-imperialists. Russian political
philosopher Aleksandr Dugin also openly draws inspiration from Iran, and has
repeatedly praised the Islamic Republic for its consistent ideological
alternative to Western unipolarity.
What is the greatest achievement of Imam
Khomeini's movement for the free people of the world?
The obvious answer is the establishment
of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a contemporary and developed democratic
republic that is based entirely within the fold of the Islamic religion. But
the achievement itself goes beyond the borders of the Iranian nation, as it has
united countless millions of people across the Islamic world and the Global
South in general to find inspiration and solace in their fundamental religious
values, and to stand up proudly against imperialism, hegemony and domination.
Source: tehrantimes.com
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https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/485419/Belgian-expert-Imam-Khomeini-presented-Islamic-thought-as-modern
--------
Cairo Talks: Hamas, Jihad Open to
'Technocrat Cabinet'
6 June 2023
Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements
continued their talks in Cairo with Egyptian security officials to discuss
several issues focusing on establishing "long-term calm" in Gaza and
improving the humanitarian and economic situation in the Strip.
Hamas announced an expanded meeting
began in Cairo between the head of the politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, and the
Secretary-General of the Jihad movement, Ziad al-Nakhala.
They discussed ways to strengthen their
strategic relationship "to serve issues of the resistance and the
Palestinian people." They also highlighted the attacks on the Palestinian
people in Jerusalem, al-Aqsa Mosque, and the West Bank.
A Palestinian source familiar with the
consultations said the meeting between the coalitions took place separately
from the discussions that the leaders of each faction held separately with
Egyptian security officials.
The leaders also met with a delegation
representing the Democratic Reform Bloc, led by Palestinian leader Mohammed
Dahlan.
The source, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat
on condition of anonymity, explained that the consultations between the
factions and the Egyptian side focused on "seeking a long-term calm in
Gaza" and "improving the humanitarian and economic situation in the
Strip."
He pointed out that the officials lauded
Egypt's role in maintaining calm in the sector and renewed the affirmation of
their response to these efforts to spare the enclave from any Israeli
escalation.
The source referred to a proposal to
form a Palestinian "technocratic government" that would supervise,
within a year, the parliamentary and presidential elections in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
Hamas and Jihad initially approved the
proposal, but they expressed to the Egyptian side their fear that the
Palestinian Authority (PA) might obstruct the move.
The source pointed out that the Hamas
movement feared President Mahmoud Abbas might hinder the proposal, citing his
decision to appoint a new constitutional court.
Hamas does not recognize the legitimacy
of the constitutional court and considers it a mere tool to circumvent the
Palestinian President's decision to dissolve the elected parliament, confirming
that Abbas does not intend to move forward with holding the elections.
On Thursday, four judges of the Supreme
Constitutional Court took the oath before the President in Ramallah after Abbas
issued a decision in May appointing new judges, following his previous decision
to retire seven.
In 2018, the President dissolved the
Palestinian Legislative Council, controlled by Hamas. The movement rejected the
decision saying it "has no constitutional or legal value."
The last elections for the Legislative
Council were held in 2006.
- Commodity entry
The source pointed out that the talks
also addressed ways to facilitate the entry of goods and merchandise into the
Gaza Strip in coordination with Egypt.
He indicated that the PA required
supervision of the crossings to collect customs, which Hamas also rejected.
Egypt had invited the Hamas and Jihad
leaders to a new round of consultations, which began last Saturday, after the
arrival of the members of the delegations of the two movements, whether from
the Gaza Strip or abroad.
The consultations mainly aim to maintain
calm in the Gaza Strip and ensure that the security situation does not lead to
another confrontation with Israel.
Source: english.aawsat.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/4366991-blinken-reveals-us-strategy-face-gravest-danger-middle-east
--------
Europe
Boston Councillor Mike Gilbert Accused
of 'Islamophobia' Accepts Mosque Invite to Discuss His Views
5th Jun 2023
Councillor Mike Gilbert was refused the
role at a meeting of Boston Borough Council on May 22 due to the posts he made
during the Qatar World Cup.
Coun Gilbert denied the posts were
racist and said he was highlighting aspects of Islamic doctrine.
During the discussion, Coun Dorrian, who
served as mayor at the time and chaired the meeting, entered the debate by
expressing her concern about the increasing prevalence of hate speech.
The National Secular Society later came to
Coun Gilbert’s defence, and wrote to councillors stressing that critical views
on Islam or any ideology “should not be automatically considered hateful”, and
alleging Coun Gilbert had been “unfairly smeared”.
The Standard has since spoken to the
Boston Imam – director of Boston Mosque and Islamic Centre, Abdul Hamid
Qureshi, who gave his take on Coun Gilbert’s Facebook comments.
“My immediate understanding of the views
expressed are that they are speculative and assumptive rather than factual,” he
said. “Secondly they are out of context and selective.
“I would love to sit with the person and
ask where these realities exist. How did he reach to these conclusions?
“I can’t comment on the political
decision which the council has made but I could say that the views expressed
are assumptions and selective with the most negative spin one could have.
He added: “I would love to invite the
person to visit the mosque and discuss the views expressed based on knowledge.”
We asked Coun Gilbert, of the Blue
Revolution party, if he would take the Imam up on his invitation. He told us:
“I’ll take him up on the offer, I’m very happy to do so.
“It will be good to chat to him about
ways to bring together what on the face of it seem like totally contradictory
value systems – namely secular western society and Islam.
“I’m surprised my comments were
described as ‘selective and out of context'. I’m looking forward to meeting the
director to establish exactly what that means.”
Source: lincolnshireworld.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.lincolnshireworld.com/news/people/boston-councillor-accused-of-islamophobia-accepts-mosque-invite-to-discuss-his-views-4169906
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Macron opposes NATO plans in Asia – FT
6 Jun, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron has
refused to approve a scheme to open a NATO liaison office in Japan, arguing the
bloc should not extend itself beyond the North Atlantic, the Financial Times reported.
Macron’s opposition to the new facility
planned for Tokyo, which would be NATO’s first such office in Asia, has
resulted in a monthslong deadlock within the bloc, eight sources familiar with
the talks told the FT on Monday.
Opening a liaison center in Japan would
require unanimous consent from NATO’s North Atlantic Council, meaning Paris has
the ability to scuttle the proposal. According to one of the sources reached by
the FT, Macron believes the body’s charter imposes geographic limitations which
bar NATO from expanding into Asia.
At a conference last week, the president
reportedly warned that pushing NATO to enlarge its “spectrum and the geography”
would be “a big mistake.”
Another unnamed source told the outlet
that Paris is unwilling to support any policy that “contributes to NATO-China
tension,” as Beijing has already made its misgivings known about the proposed
liaison office.
Last month, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Mao Ning said NATO should remain within its own sphere of influence
and not seek to grow its presence in Asia, arguing the region “does not welcome
bloc confrontation or military blocs.”
The scheme has been discussed
intermittently since 2007, when Japan’s then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe first
visited NATO’s headquarters, and was raised again in recent months. Tokyo has
steadily increased its cooperation with the bloc over the years, opening its
first NATO branch office in Brussels in 2018. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
became the first Japanese leader to attend a NATO summit last year.
The US-led military collective maintains
more than a dozen liaison centers around the globe, most serving as basic
contact points with officials from non-member states. Though NATO has not
presented its plans for Tokyo in detail, the office would reportedly serve a
similar function, and would have only a small staff.
Though Japan has said it is still in
discussions to open the office, Kishida recently noted that no final decision
had been made, also claiming that Tokyo has no interest in joining NATO despite
the stepped-up interaction over the last several years.
Source: rt.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.rt.com/news/577547-france-nato-japan-office/
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Nikki Haley insists on WW3 if Ukraine
loses
5 Jun, 2023
Allowing Ukraine to lose to Russia on
the battlefield will unleash world war, according to US Republican presidential
candidate Nikki Haley. The former South Carolina governor told a town hall
audience in Iowa on Sunday that arming Kiev was all about “preventing war” by
“sending a message” to America's rivals.
“When Ukraine wins, that sends a message
to China with Taiwan, it sends a message to Iran that wants to build a bomb, it
sends a message to North Korea testing ballistic missiles, it sends a message
to Russia that it’s over.”
“It is in the best interests of America,
it is in the best interests of our national security for Ukraine to win. We
have to see this through, we have to finish it,” Haley declared.
Regarding how the war might finish,
Haley was less forthcoming. “It would end in a day if Russia would pull
out," she suggested. “If Ukraine pulls out, then we’re all looking at
world war.” To prevent that, she explained, Kiev needed weapons – lots of them.
“A win for Ukraine is a win for all of
us, because tyrants tell us exactly what they’re gonna do,” Haley continued,
claiming “Russia said Poland and the Baltics are next,” should Ukraine fall.
“If that happens, we’re looking at a world war,” she repeated.
While much has been written about the
possibility of a Russian invasion of Poland or the Baltic states, even most US
experts admit these are unlikely. Invading any of those countries would trigger
Article 5, NATO’s mutual-defense clause, turning a conflict many have described
as a proxy war between Moscow and Brussels into a direct war between nuclear
powers.
Haley has been quick to set herself
apart on foreign policy matters from Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who
quipped earlier this year that it was the US, not Russia, that needed regime
change, and from challenger Ron DeSantis, who downplayed the conflict in
Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.”
During the town hall, she again scoffed
at the notion of remaining neutral in the conflict, insisting “This is a war
about freedom and it’s one we have to win.”
While Haley served as US ambassador to
the United Nations under Trump, she made no secret of her interventionist
leanings, even announcing an unexpected round of sanctions against Russia that
the White House then had to retract. She has urged the Biden administration to
give in to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s demands for F-16 fighter
jets for months and impose even more sanctions, insisting Washington is too
soft on Moscow.
Source: rt.com
Please click the following
URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.rt.com/news/577539-nikki-haley-ukraine-ww3-cheerleading/
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Instagram un-bans US presidential
candidate
5 Jun, 2023
Robert F. Kenedy Jr.’s personal
Instagram account was reinstated over the weekend, after the Democrat seeking
to challenge President Joe Biden in the party primaries complained that the
platform wouldn’t allow him to open a campaign profile.
“As he is now an active candidate for
president of the United States, we have restored access to Robert F. Kennedy,
Jr.’s Instagram account,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement.
On Thursday, Kennedy tweeted that Meta –
which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp – blocked his campaign from registering
an account, responding with an automated message that this violated “Community
Guidelines on account integrity and authentic identity.” He noted that his
personal profile, “banned years ago,” had not yet been reinstated.
“To silence a major political candidate
is profoundly undemocratic. Social media is the modern equivalent of the town
square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?”
he added.
The 69-year-old nephew of US president
John F. Kennedy entered the primaries in April and is currently polling around
20% among Democrats. Before going into politics, he was an environmental lawyer
and activist, notably on the issue of childhood vaccinations.
Facebook suspended his Instagram account
in February 2021, shortly after Biden took office, for allegedly “repeatedly
sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” Stone, the
spokesman for the since-renamed Meta, told CNN on Sunday that the decision was
“a mistake” and that the company had “resolved” the issue.
Both Facebook and Instagram banned the
accounts of RFK’s activist organization Children’s Health Defense in August
2022. They remained inactive as of Monday.
Getting Silicon Valley platforms to
censor “misinformation” and head off any claims critical of official narratives
was an important tactic of the “well-funded cabal of powerful people” who acted
to “fortify” the 2020 US presidential election, according to Time magazine.
The extent of these activities became
widely known in March, when a group of independent journalists cited internal
Twitter documents to reveal the existence of what they dubbed the
“censorship-industrial complex.” The documentation came to light after Tesla
and SpaceX founder Elon Musk bought Twitter last year.
In response to RFK Jr’s complaints about
Meta, Musk offered to host a discussion for Kennedy on the Spaces live audio
platform, which drew some 60,000 users on Monday afternoon. Musk has also
hosted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ announcement that he would run for the
Republican nomination against former president Donald Trump.
Source: rt.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.rt.com/news/577538-instagram-unbans-rfk-meta/
--------
North America
Muslim youth, community members call on
Philadelphia city leaders to address gun violence
June 5, 2023
Members of Philadelphia’s Muslim
community gathered at City Hall Monday, calling for more action in the fight
against gun violence and other issues impacting the community.
Emgage Pennsylvania and CAIR
Philadelphia organized the Muslim Day event, which connected city leaders and
Muslim students who shared their perspectives on growing up in Philadelphia.
“Most of the victims and perpetrators of
these crimes look like me. And some even have seemingly Muslim names,”
Christopher Coleman, a seventh-grader at New Medina Learning Institute, said
during a news conference Monday. “This tells me that no one is immune when
chaos disrupts the city and criminal activity goes up — so our city has an obligation
to stop this chaos, to stop the violence.”
As of June 4, 177 homicides have been
reported in Philadelphia so far this year, according to Philadelphia Police.
“You have never heard somebody cry until
you heard the cries of a mother who just lost her child to gun violence,”
Muslim rapper Tone Trump said while praising the young people in attendance for
keeping Philadelphia leaders “accountable.”
“That’s not just the councilman and the
mayor. We need to speak to our imams, our teachers, and hold them accountable
and say something’s not right. These streets are not safe,” he said.
George Lane, a sophomore at Sankofa
Freedom Academy Charter School, said he wants his peers to understand, “being
Muslim doesn’t mean being a threat or a target, but rather being a valuable
member of society with a unique perspective to offer.”
“My call to action is for Muslim
students to step up and not be afraid, because when we show up and speak out,
we not only create a more inclusive and understanding environment for ourselves,
but we also educate others and promote tolerance and acceptance,” Lane said.
Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., a
practicing Muslim, was present for the event and thanked those in attendance
for their engagement.
“As I look at these young people, I have
greater faith in the future of Philadelphia,” Jones said. “When asked by people
when I first came here, ‘What do Muslims want?’ We want freedom, justice,
equality just like everybody else.”
Emgage Pennsylvania Executive Director
Salima Suswell said the impacts of Philadelphia’s Muslim community have the
potential to be felt not just statewide, but nationally.
“Just the fact of us being here today in
these halls of power is a sign that we are being taken seriously,” Suswell
said. “And while all of this is enormously exciting, we must not forget that
there was a time where an event like this would not be possible. So I want to
remind everyone here today to take advantage of this moment, take some time to
reflect on what it meant to be a member of our community with all of its
challenges that we have worked so hard to overcome.”
Other issues discussed among students
and city leaders included providing halal meals and prayer accommodations in
schools, as well as improving school buildings throughout the city.
Source: whyy.org
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://whyy.org/articles/muslim-day-community-members-gun-violence/
--------
In Congo’s forests, Islamic State money
makes an insurgency more lethal
June 5, 2023
KAMPALA, Uganda — An insurgent group
founded in Uganda but now based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has
grown increasingly deadly after receiving money from the Islamic State,
according to defectors and researchers tracking the group.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department
imposed sanctions on four individuals in South Africa for transferring money on
behalf of the Islamic State, including to armed groups in Congo and Mozambique.
In January, U.S. troops killed Bilal al-Sudani, head of a major regional
Islamic State office, in a raid in northern Somalia.
Sudani’s office was most notorious for
funneling cash to the Islamic State in Afghanistan, which bombed U.S. troops at
Kabul airport in 2021. It also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the
rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Congo, according to a report released
Monday by the Texas-based Bridgeway Foundation, which works to end conflicts.
In the past year, the ADF has blown up
churchgoers, directed deadly suicide bombings, organized a jailbreak that freed
hundreds, and beheaded and burned villagers alive. In March alone, the group
killed 150 people, said the Kivu Security Tracker, a research group partly
funded by Bridgeway that tracks violence in eastern Congo. Former members of
the ADF told The Washington Post they had witnessed the execution of senior
leaders who opposed the Islamic State alliance; they also described increasing
violence, especially against local villagers.
The report on the group’s finances,
published by Bridgeway and George Washington University, and provided
exclusively to The Post before its public release, sheds light on the evolution
of Islamic State regional affiliates since the group lost its territory in Iraq
and Syria. Local affiliates such as the ADF operate independently but can
receive money and ideological guidance from the Islamic State’s regional
branches.
“The money means innocent people are
dying horrific deaths,” said Tara Candland, one of the report’s authors.
The ADF was founded in 1995 in Uganda as
an armed Islamist group, but a crackdown in the early 2000s forced the fighters
to flee across the border into the mountainous forests of eastern Congo. In
2021, the ADF was accused of orchestrating deadly bombings in the Ugandan
capital of Kampala that killed six people. Uganda sent troops into eastern
Congo, where they remain battling the insurgent group.
Bridgeway’s access to the defectors,
whose accounts informed the report on the ADF’s financing, is the result of the
foundation’s long history of working with the Ugandan military and Congolese
authorities. Bridgeway’s coordination with them attracted attention because
security forces from both countries are accused of rights abuses that include
torture and murder. A decade ago, the foundation funded private military
trainers to work with Ugandan soldiers hunting Joseph Kony, the commander of
the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group infamous for kidnapping children and
killing civilians.
Bridgeway said it does not fund the
security forces, but promotes defections from rebel groups and helps
deradicalize and reintegrate low-level members, including women and children,
who escape or are captured.
Killing of top ISIS militant casts
spotlight on group’s broad reach in Africa
The Post confirmed several details of
the Bridgeway report with a senior Somali intelligence official who had
knowledge of the 2021 conviction of a Somali financier who funneled $400,0000
to the Islamic State. A U.S. official working on counterterrorism financing
told The Post, “We know funds were going [from Somalia] to South Africa, the
DRC, Uganda.”
“It’s early days in Mozambique and the
DRC,” he said, using the initials for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
groups were trying to establish themselves, he said. The funding “was a
lifeline for them, buying time to establish localized funding mechanisms.”
Both officials spoke on the condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
It’s unclear exactly when the ADF
formalized its alliance with the Islamic State. The ADF received its first
documented financial transfers from the Islamic State in late 2017, after
months when it launched very few attacks, the report said. Its attacks have
grown more deadly and more frequent since then.
Four recent defectors, interviewed
separately in meetings arranged by Bridgeway, said the Islamic State alliance
was formed after the ADF founder was arrested in 2015 and the new leader, Musa
Baluku, sought to cement his position. Baluku cracked down on dissent. One
16-year-old girl, who said ADF fighters kidnapped her six years ago, said she
saw fighters behead three senior leaders who rejected the Islamic State
alliance, including the founder’s son. Three other defectors confirmed her
account. All spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“They used to say Islamic State was
supporting us and our cause and show us films from them,” she said. “Once they
brought us big veils and said they were a gift from Islamic State.”
Two pivotal young leaders — Tanzanian
Ahmed Muhamood, or “Abu Waqas,” and Ugandan Meddie Nkalubo, nicknamed “the
Punisher” — appeared soon after, defectors said. Muhamood presented himself as
an Islamic State emissary, displaying the flag and showing propaganda videos.
In 2017, the same year Islamic State
financier Waleed Zein in Kenya, who would come under U.S. sanction, sent the
first documented cash transfer to the ADF, Muhamood appeared in a video calling
for recruits to the Islamic State. Nkalubo set up a propaganda machine and
financial networks. The 16-year-old girl said Nkalubo also brought a drone to
accompany fighters.
“The Punisher was good with the
computer,” she said.
In 2019, Islamic State central claimed
its first attack on behalf of the group, and Baluku appeared in a video
reaffirming the previously unpublicized alliance. In October 2020, the Islamic
State’s central Amaq News Agency asserted responsibility for an attack by ADF
fighters on an army barracks and the Kangbayi prison in the eastern city of
Beni. The fighters freed 1,300 inmates.
A year later, Baluku declared the ADF
name dead in favor of Islamic State-Central Africa Province, a designation it
initially shared with rebels in Mozambique, where Islamist insurgents have
killed thousands and halted a multibillion-dollar gas project.
In March, the United States put a $5
million bounty on Baluku’s head under the Rewards for Justice program.
The ADF has trained fighters now active
in Mozambique, according to a report by researcher Dino Mahtani, which
circulated privately among U.N. Security Council members. Last year
Mozambique’s insurgents launched at least 415 attacks, the highest number ever,
the report said.
Source: washingtonpost.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/05/congo-islamic-state-adf-financing/
--------
The Prison System Can’t Stop
Discriminating Against Muslims
BY KHAWLA NAKUA
JUNE 05, 2023
For years at Lovelock Correctional
Institution in Nevada, Jummah prayers were provided to Muslims every Friday.
They weren’t always on time, but they were provided. Fridays are a very special
day for Muslims, and are often referred to as mini Eids. And with that comes a
special prayer, Jummah, which features a sermon followed by a short prayer in
the middle of the day.
But in the summer of 2018, Said
Elmajzoub, a Muslim who is incarcerated at Lovelock, noticed something
different. Jummah services weren’t being provided for Muslims anymore. “The
chaplain said that the only time they would be able to give us was 8:00 in the
morning on Friday, but he knew that would be wrong,” Elmajzoub told me. “So, I
filed the necessary paperwork and said please just give us any room. We just
need an hour on Friday afternoon.”
Filing grievances didn’t help, so he
filed a lawsuit. A year later, the Council on American–Islamic Relations got
involved in his case.
“There was a strong hint that Muslims
lost their rights to Jummah prayer because of a belief by the chaplain at
Lovelock facilities that he thinks Islam to be a racist, Black-supremacy
organization,” said Justin Sadowsky, a trial attorney at the CAIR Legal Defense
Fund. This belief was memorialized in writing. After an interfaith meeting in
2018, Lovelock chaplain Scott Davis wrote notes that were later presented in
court as evidence suggesting that he had offered an excuse to the group for why
Jummah prayers were ending and felt unable to tell them the real reason. “I
couldn’t say in front of all them that it is because they teach racism, hate,
black supremacy,” he wrote. “There would have been a riot.” (I reached out to
Davis and other prison officials at Lovelock, but they didn’t respond for
comment.)
This note was the smoking gun
Elmajzoub’s case needed. “CAIR said to me it’s probably the strongest case they
have ever seen because the prison was [so] stubborn and anti-Islamic in their
views, that they allowed other religions to gather and pray, they just wouldn’t
let Muslims do it,” said Elmajzoub.
What proceeded was a cat-and-mouse period
during which the Lovelock officials would alternate between saying that they
had fixed the problem and continuing to deny prayer space and blaming things
like a shortage of staff or prison lockdowns. Even after an eventual court
order forced the prison to offer Jummah services—and after the prison reached a
$90,000 settlement with Elmajzoub—the problems for Lovelock’s Muslims
continued.
Ever since Lovelock was required to
start offering Jummah services, Elmajzoub says routine prayer services have become
accompanied by heightened security measures. “It’s humiliating, because they
originally only started doing this to Muslims,” he said. “They take extreme joy
out of harassment.”
Ultimately, the discrimination against
incarcerated Muslims is not confined to one institution in Nevada. Muslims
across the country are experiencing repeated roadblocks when deciding to
congregate and pray. Records that I obtained from the Arizona and Oklahoma
departments of corrections show how lockdowns have been used to curb Jummah
prayers among Muslims.
“Jumah prayer has been canceled for two
Fridays in a row with no good explanation why,” reads one complaint from
Arizona that was dated April 6, 2020. “Other religious services has been … both
weeks with no delay.”
In Georgia prisons, lockdowns are
repeatedly being used to curb any form of congregational or Jummah prayer among
Muslims, incarcerated Muslims report. This is a problem “in a few different
state facilities,” said Javeria Jamil, an attorney from CAIR Georgia. “Jummah
will be removed because the prison had gone to lockdown because there was a
security issue, and when we dig further into it, it says one person misbehaved
and the entire Muslim population is being punished for it.”
In Prince George’s County Jail in Maryland,
prison officials have also used lockdowns and staff shortages to prevent
Muslims from congregating. The institution made a rule that if more than four
people were gathered they would classify that group as a gang, essentially
blocking Muslim prayer gatherings. This past December, CAIR Maryland and the
Maryland Muslim Prison Project did a joint press conference outside the jail to
demand religious accommodations for incarcerated Muslims. This followed an
incident in which a SWAT team was called to break up a Jummah service. As
Zainab Chaudry, CAIR Maryland’s director, said, “No one should ever have the
SWAT team called on them for exercising their constitutionally protected right
to peacefully assemble for prayer.”
This isn’t the only documented instance
of attempts to pray resulting in violence against incarcerated Muslims. Two
years ago in Missouri, a prison guard ordered nine Muslims to stop in the
middle of Jummah prayers. Some stopped, while others rushed to finish, and
that’s when the prison guard began pepper-spraying them and beating them,
according to a court document submitted by CAIR Missouri. “This one particular
night, an officer came in, told them to stop, and within two minutes a response
team was in with pepper spray and attacking them,” said Kimberly
Noe-Lehenbauer, a civil rights attorney at CAIR. The officers were not
disciplined. (I reached out to the Missouri Department of Corrections, but they
declined to comment, since this case is going into litigation.)
Many lawyers I spoke with for this
article indicated that part of the reason why congregational and Jummah prayers
are repeatedly stopped in prison is because these institutions treat Muslims as
a de facto security threat.
“There’s a default equation of Islam and
security risk. That doesn’t apply to other faiths,” said Christina Jump, the
civil litigation department head at the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims
in America. “When it comes to Muslims having access to prayer materials and the
concept of more than one inmate gathering at a time, [it] scares some
facilities.”
Muslims in prisons and jails across the
country are often seen as being part of a gang instead of a religious group.
“So, if one incarcerated Muslim does something that is a violation of prison
rules,” says Jamil from CAIR Georgia, “then the Muslim population gets
punished. And the way it manifests itself is denying congregational Jummah to
all Muslims.”
Even in a progressive state like
California, Muslims still have a hard time congregating and praying. An
investigation last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center showed a video that
was produced by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and
Training in 2009 that portrayed incarcerated Muslims as a gang. A year later
the video was sent to police departments, community colleges, and law
enforcement training facilities across the state. This video was only removed
after the center’s investigation. “Being Muslim literally classifies you in
another category—as gangs,” said Khirad Zahra Siddiqui, a Ph.D. candidate in
criminology, law, and society at the University of California. “There literally
is this idea that Islam doesn’t merit religious protection the way that other
religions do.”
It’s important to note that there’s a
long history of prison officials disregarding the rights of Muslims to practice
their faith by citing “security” concerns. During the height of the popularity
of the Nation of Islam between the 1940s and 1960s, Muslims in prison were
repeatedly spied upon, and weren’t allowed to congregate or obtain religious
material.
Things started to improve in 1964, when
the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Cooper v. Pate that Muslim
prisoners had the right to obtain a Quran.
For decades after Cooper v. Pate,
Muslims, for the most part, had their religious rights protected and could
practice their faith freely, including by congregating and having Jummah
prayers. But that changed after 9/11. Muslims in prison, just like those
outside of prison, were being surveilled and discriminated against. Shortly
after 9/11, the purported threat of Islamic radicalization in prison garnered
national attention. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, for example, told a
Senate hearing in 2006 that prisons were “fertile ground for extremists.” In
2011, Rep. Peter King went so far as to hold a hearing in the House Committee
on Homeland Security titled “The Threat of Muslim-American radicalization in
U.S. prisons.” During a Fox News interview, King called Muslims “the only group
in prison which is tied to overseas terrorists, which is part of an existential
threat to the United States.”
All of this has helped lead us to this
moment, in which Muslims are still treated as a security threat and denied
basic religious rights in prisons across the country.
Today at Lovelock facilities, Jummah
prayers are happening. However, before Muslims enter the prayer room, they must
go through a federal metal detector and get patted down. Once inside, there are
always three or four guards listening and watching as they pray, according to Elmajzoub.
“They could have 150 people come to the chapel and there’ll be no guards
inside, they won’t get patted out, they won’t go through metal detectors,”
Elmajzoub says of how other faiths are allowed to pray. “We go, 15 to 20 of us,
there will be four guards patting us down, searching with metal detectors and
asking stupid, belittling questions.”
Unfortunately, this is what constitutes
progress for Muslims trying to practice their faith in American prisons.
Source: slate.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/being-a-muslim-in-prison-discrimination.html
--------
Islamic Republic’s Cyber Army:
Cheerleaders, Zombies and Trolls
05-06-23
Psychological warfare, known by a number
of names including psychological operations and “psy ops," is one of the
oldest tactics employed in wars. Such tactics are aimed at undermining the
enemy’s morale and its will to fight or resist and, sometimes, at persuading
the enemy to change its position. Another kind of psy-ops is propaganda aimed
at strengthening the morale and the resolve of allies or one’s own forces.
Efforts to manipulate the minds of prisoners of war and political prisoners are
also part of psychological warfare.
In this two-part report, we examine how
the Islamic Republic wages psychological warfare against its opponents, which
tools it uses and whether it observes any red lines in its psychological
operations.
The first part is available here. This
second part introduces you to the Islamic Republic’s cyber-army or, as the
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei characterizes it, “the officers of the soft war.”
***
The protests in Iran in the aftermath of
the disputed 2009 presidential election, called the world’s first “Twitter
revolution,” was the opening chapter in a new era of people’s venture into
politics and protest organization. Using social media to organize and to report
on the protests was the biggest domestic challenge that the Islamic Republic
regime had faced since its establishment. Social media enabled the people to
organize big rallies within a few hours, something that previously required
months.
Furthermore, social media made possible
the live coverage of protests and the wide coverage of human rights violations,
including the savage treatment of protesters by security forces. The videos and
first-hand reports by eyewitnesses brought the crimes committed against
peaceful protests to the attention of the world.
Faced with this great challenge, the
Iranian government immediately got to work and, besides cutting off the
internet, expanding filtering and trying to completely cut access to the
world-wide web, it started to organize various units of its cyber-army to
overcome the loud voices of the people on social media.
In the spring of 2018, the quarterly
Journal of Security Knowledge published an article titled “A study on the role
of the tactics of psychological operations in controlling the 2009 unrest.” In
this article, Majid Shamani, a teacher at Imam Hossein University which trains
officers and personnel for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
analyzed the role of psy ops in the suppression of the protests. The article
examined the different types of peaceful protests, the performance of the
forces of suppression, the coverage of protests by government-affiliated media
outlets and an opinion poll of members of six battalions of Tehran's security
brigade Al-e Mohammad.
In this study, Shamani concluded that
psychological operations, along with intelligence gathering, is one of the most
effective ways in suppressing protests. He then suggested the following
actions:
Understanding the opportunities and
unavoidable challenges of social media, and using these opportunities for
defense against attacks by antagonists
Informing and mobilizing public opinion
on social media aimed at attacking hostile networks
Pathology and analysis of actions taken
to control unrest
Creating psychological operations
think-tanks and training the commanders in psy op tactics
Devising tactics that can be used on
social media to control unrest
Launching and producing programs for the
IRGC through the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and broadcasting
them on various networks.
In the autumn of 2020, the quarterly
Police Science published an article titled “The role of intelligence grandees
in controlling unrest by riot police,” which emphasized the special role of
psychological operations next to intelligence operations. Quoting from a book
by Habibollah Jan-Nesari, deputy director of riot police training at the time,
about the suppression of 2009 protests, the article said that “no effort must
be spared in identifying the enemy before the unrest” starts.
The article then emphasized the
importance of “the role of infiltrators in the ranks of the opposition and of
conducting psychological operations among the rioters in order to downgrade the
rioters’ demands and reactions, and sometimes to mislead the rioters and
identify the core leaders of the unrest.”
This is exactly what the government
started doing at least a few months after the start of the 2009 protests, and
these operations have become more extensive and more complex.
These operations are conducted by
various groups, each with its own duties and functions. We classify the most
important of these groups into three categories: “cheerleaders,” “zombies” and
“trolls.”
The Cheerleaders
Cheerleaders are the same traditional
propagandists that publicly publish and promote the government’s version of
events. They seek to win verbal disputes and want to push public discourse in a
direction that the Islamic Republic favors. Their cyber accounts usually
display specific symbols that make them easy to identify – for example, the
Islamic Republic’s flag in the “bio” section of the page or a picture of General
Ghasem Soleiman, the assassinated commander of the IRGC’s expeditionary Quds
Force. The cheerleaders’ most important duty is to launch, promote and spread a
line of discourse that is usually selected by security agencies and is then
trumpeted on social media.
The cheerleaders are either selected
from among well-known faces like actors, TV figures, athletes and celebrities
or “long-term investments” who show promise of growth on social media.
Social media are built on an algorithm
that can be called the “attention economy.” They do not exclusively show you
posts by those you follow. These posts are chosen based on their level of
attention and on the amount of attention you have paid to similar posts.
Aside from how much a post might be to
your taste, it will be seen by others depending on the responses, positive or
negative, it gets from you and others before you. In other words, social media
treats the content that they publish like merchandise.
A merchandise that receives more initial
responses, positive or negative, is treated by the social networks’ algorithms
as a popular merchandise and is shown to more people. It makes no difference
whether you responded to it with disgust or with love. The only thing that is
important for social media is to increase the interaction of users with their
platform because it makes selling ads possible.
Moreover, one of the dominant behavioral
patterns on social media originates from the herd instinct. This means
following the “herd” without interference by one’s power of reasoning and
analysis.
Therefore, the chances of responding or
even endorsing a post that thousands have endorsed or responded to is several
times higher than the chances of a post with the same content but with a low
number of responses and endorsements. But what if we could artificially create
such mass responses? Wouldn’t it help us to dominate the conversation and
divert the discourse toward where we want it to go?
The Zombies
This is where the second group, the
“zombies,” are brought in.
The duty of zombies is to create this
first response. Their task is to endorse and republish the posts that the
cheerleaders produce so that both the cheerleaders and their posts would be
viewed more and more. An army of fake accounts, including zombie accounts, promote
these posts and, as a result, they are seen by the public more and more.
More importantly, the high volume of
responses to these posts create the illusion that many social media users agree
with their content or that the number of users who think along the same lines
is very high.
A large number of zombie accounts are
internet bots, software applications that run automated tasks on the internet,
which are guided by Islamic Republic agencies responsible for cyber operations.
Another part of these accounts are guided by human operators.
Usually, each operator is responsible
for 20 to 50 fake accounts, and they endorse and republish content created by
the cheerleaders. The volume of original posts produced by these accounts is
usually close to zero and that is why some social media analysts call them
“sock puppets,” referring to the hidden hand whose owner talks through these
fake accounts.
Zombie accounts can be identified by a
few characteristics:
The number of their “following” is
always greater than their “followers.”
Their “handles” (usernames or nicknames)
do not resemble real names or even aliases. They mostly resemble the serial
number or a meaningless word such as “hs20ljf028$” or “kaywhyeleenq.”
Their level of activity is either
extremely high or extremely low. In the past six months, they have either
tweeted thousands of times or none at all.
They joined social media or became
active at the same time that political unrest started. For example, the account
“Tanha” was active from January 2018 to April 2018 and from November 2019 to
May 2010 and became active again in September 2022.
Of course, these are their general
characteristics and they do not mean that all such accounts belong to the
government, but if they show some of these features then they are definitely
suspect.
Zombies play the role of foot soldiers
in online battles. They provide the ammunition for the battle of narratives on
social media, i.e. attention and endorsement, in order to spread the discourse
favored by the cheerleaders and allow attacks by trolls on undesirable
narratives.
Besides an army of zombie bots that it
has deployed to support its psychological operations, the Islamic Republic has
recruited thousands of real people as well for this purpose. In January 2017,
Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, deputy to Iran’s attorney-general at the time and a
current member of the Supreme Court, reported that 18,000 volunteers had been
recruited to survey “counter-revolutionary” content in cyberspace. And in
November 2020, Mohammad Reza Yazdi, commander of Tehran’s Mohammad Rasoulollah
Corps, the biggest military unit in Iran responsible for crushing protests,
reported the formation of 144 cyber battalions to counter the “enemies’
distortions.”
These cyber battalions play the same
role in cyberspace as the role played by forces of suppression in the streets.
By using zombie accounts, they promote the content produced by the cheerleaders
and allow the trolls to conduct their activities.
The Trolls
An internet troll is usually defined as
a person who engages in verbal harassment by posting inflammatory messages
online intended to provoke others into displaying emotional responses, or to
manipulate others' perceptions. But government trolls, who are the most
important forces in the psychological operations conducted by states like
Russia, China and the Islamic Republic are a little different. They play
different roles in different arenas. Sometimes, like Ruhollah Momen-Nasab,
former head of the Culture Ministry’s Digital Media Center and the current secretary
of cyberspace activities of the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces
political party, spread disinformation by creating numerous fake accounts under
the names of famous figures, and, sometimes, launch campaigns of fake news
under the guise of opposition figures. But the most important job of the trolls
is to create confusion and mayhem.
Unlike cheerleaders, they are not
seeking to promote specific narratives even if the content they publish might
seem otherwise. The most important task for trolls is to create suspicion and
destroy trust. If people are suspicious of everything, either nobody would
believe anything or anybody would believe something.
Jenna Matthews, a social media
specialist, says that the troll’s most important goal is to make people believe
there is no truth. They only want to create confrontation and sow divisions,
and it does not matter whose side they take.
The Islamic Republic has created one of
the biggest troll armies in the world. In October 2018, Twitter reported that
it has taken action against states that try to conduct campaigns of fake news
and misinformation on Twitter. In the same year, Twitter took down 4,779
accounts belonging to agents of the Islamic Republic while blocking only four
similar Russian accounts.
Twitter classified these accounts based
on their mission: 1,666 of the accounts had tweeted around 2 million times,
presenting the world news as narrated by media outlets and Twitter accounts
affiliated with the regime, which is the mission of the zombies; 248 accounts
exclusively tweeted propaganda against Israel; the other 2,865 accounts held
counterfeit IDs. By faking the IDs of actual journalists or by claiming that
they worked for reputable international media outlets, they tried to distort
and confuse the discussions on political issues in Iran.
Government trolls, especially those
focusing on psychological warfare against protesters, follow a specific formula
which can be recognized by those who have a chance to closely examine their
work.
Degrading Discourse to a Game: They
downgrade social and political developments to a game, to something like a
sports competition that leaves you no choice but to support one team or the
other. This is how they polarize the situation and control the most extreme
parts of both sides. In a situation where rational dialogue is needed to find
solutions, everything turns into a childish competition between one side and
the other.
Verbal Radicalism: They usually protest
against the government more than anyone else. They say things against the
government that can lead to heavy punishment. In this way, they gain the trust
of the target group. They also appear more extremist than anyone else in
supporting the group they claim to support. And they know very well which
groups are ready to accept them as like-minded or at least allies and which
ideas have the potential to be radicalized to the point of reaching a
nightmarish idea or a bad joke.
Attacking Effective and Practical
Actions: Verbally, trolls are the brave generals on the battlefield. But if an
effective and pragmatic idea is presented, they will attack it without
exception because, on the one hand, their job is to drain the energy of
protesters through verbal extremes and empty but radical slogans, and, on the
other hand, they aim to prevent effective organization, gathering of forces,
and planning for action. Government trolls always agree with the general ideas
but do not agree with any detailed program or planning. For example, government
trolls forcefully encourage attacking the government, dismantling the
oppression machinery and taking revenge on the mercenaries, but, at the same
time, warn against practical steps for seeking justice, organizing protests in
front of the parliaments of Western countries, building networks for financial
support of strikes, creating political organizations or fundraising groups for
the families of the prisoners.
Focusing on Promoting Distrust and
Despair: The trolls’ most important task is the same as the main goal of
psychological operations, i.e., weakening the enemy's morale and breaking the
resistance, unity and order of the opposing forces.
Inciting verbal quarrels and
hate-mongering against different groups in a comprehensive and daily manner
ultimately leaves the public with a chaotic and disappointing scene which
suggests that resistance forces have disintegrated, whereas what we see is
merely a puppet show by cyber forces in which an army of zombies and groups of
inexperienced and ignorant social media users play the role of foot soldiers.
Source: iranwire.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://iranwire.com/en/technology/117218-islamic-republics-cyber-army-cheerleaders-zombies-and-trolls/
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White House: US consistent on need for
free, fair election in Bangladesh
June 6, 2023
The United States has reiterated its
call for holding a free and fair election in Bangladesh.
“We've been consistent on the need for
Bangladesh to hold free and fair elections,” said National Security Council
Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby at a media briefing at the
White House.
Kirby made the remarks when his
attention was drawn to the much-discussed letter from six congressmen to US
President Joe Biden, seeking measures for a free and fair election in
Bangladesh.
“Look, we've been consistent, and I'm
aware of the communication,” Kirby said.
To demonstrate that commitment, he said,
the State Department recently announced a “3C” visa policy that would restrict
visas to individuals who “undermine” Bangladesh's elections.
On Monday, State Minister for Foreign
Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said there are many “exaggerations, lack of
information and inconsistency” in the letter from the six US congressmen to
President Biden.
“But constructively, we will reach out
to all these members,” he told reporters while responding to a question, noting
that such activities might increase in the coming days as the election nears.
Talking to reporters at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Shahriar Alam said they saw such letters in the past, too.
“Over the last seven days, I tried my
best to explain where the relationship between Bangladesh and the United States
stands today,” he said, adding that propaganda and misinformation against the
government was also there earlier.
Source: dhakatribune.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.dhakatribune.com/foreign-affairs/2023/06/04/hasan-ties-with-us-warm-and-flourishing
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Australia
Islamic State-linked Australians held in
Syria launch repatriation bid
5 June 2023
SYDNEY, Australia — Groups of Australian
women and children stranded in detention camps in Syria launched a joint legal
bid on Monday to be repatriated.
The 17 children and nine women have
spent years languishing in the Al-Hol and Roj camps in Kurdish-controlled
northeastern Syria, following the 2019 collapse of the Islamic State group.
In many cases, the Australian citizens
are the wives, sons and daughters of IS fighters, who forced their families to
live in the jihadist group’s self-proclaimed caliphate.
Aid group Save the Children Australia
filed the case on behalf of the women and children, saying the government was
“morally and legally” obliged to repatriate them.
“After spending four years living in
hard conditions, this legal case was not the first choice of action by these
Australian citizens in Syria,” STCA chief executive Matt Tinkler said.
“Every day these Australian children are
left in Syria is another day their safety and wellbeing are at risk.”
In October last year, the Australian
government repatriated four women and 13 children from the camps.
Tinkler said there were initially hopes
more rescue missions would follow, but these had slowly faded in the face of
government “inaction.”
“Australia’s unwillingness to bring the
remaining children home is a source of international shame,” he said.
The Australia-based families of those
still stuck in Syria said they had spent four years anxiously waiting to be
reunited.
“The repatriations last October raised
their hopes and ours,” they said in a joint statement. “It showed that the
government could repatriate our family members, who are all Australian
citizens, and we still hope that work will continue.”
“They are our loved ones. They are
Australians. They are sick. They are in danger. We must bring them to safety
now.”
The issue of repatriations has been a
politically contentious one in Australia, where the conservative opposition
party has repeatedly cited national security concerns when arguing against the
returns.
Source: timesofisrael.com
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following URL to read the full text of the original
https://www.timesofisrael.com/islamic-state-linked-australians-held-in-syria-launch-repatriation-bid/
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Australia's Most Decorated War Veteran
'Responsible for Murder' in Afghanistan: Federal Court Judge
05-06-23
Ben Roberts-Smith, holder of the
Victoria Cross and other top military honours, was also "not an honest and
reliable witness in ... many areas" and a bully toward other Australian
soldiers, Federal Court Judge Anthony Besanko said in his full judgement
released on Monday.
Besanko on Thursday threw out
Roberts-Smith's defamation case against three Australian newspapers which had
accused him of unlawful killings in Afghanistan. Besanko said the media outlets
had proven substantial truth in their reporting, ending a case which lifted the
veil of secrecy over the elite SAS.
Australian civil courts require a lower
threshold to prove accusations than criminal courts do. Roberts-Smith has not
been charged with any offences and has not commented since the ruling. His
lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Roberts-Smith has since quit
his job as a television executive.
Besanko delayed releasing reasons for
his judgement until Monday to allow the Australian government time to ensure it
did not inadvertently divulge national security secrets.
"I have found that the applicant
(Roberts-Smith) was complicit in and responsible for the murder of EKIA56 ...
in 2009 and the murder of Ali Jan at Darwan on 11 September 2012 and the murder
of the Afghan male at Chinartu on 12 October 2012," Besanko said in his
736-page civil court judgment.
Roberts-Smith was accused by the
newspapers of ordering a lower-ranking soldier to shoot dead an "older Afghan
male", identified in the case as EKIA56, to "blood the rookie",
he said.
In addition, Besanko said: "I find
that in a compound in Chinartu ... the applicant, through an interpreter
ordered (an un-named person) to shoot an Afghan male who was under detention".
A soldier who was there "shot the
Afghan male in circumstances amounting to murder. The applicant (Roberts-Smith)
was complicit in and responsible for murder," the judgment said.
Besanko found Roberts-Smith engaged in a
"campaign of bullying" against another Australian soldier, including
what he called a "death threat" when Roberts-Smith said: "if
your performance doesn't improve on our next patrol, you're going to get a
bullet in the back of the head."
He also said Roberts-Smith was not a
reliable witness in one of the country's longest-running defamation cases and
had reasons to lie.
"The applicant has motives to lie,
being a financial motive to support his claim for damages in these proceedings,
a motive to restore his reputation which he contends has been destroyed by the
publication of the articles and significantly, a motive to resist findings
against him which may affect whether further action is taken against him,"
Besanko said wrote.
"I find that the applicant was not
an honest and reliable witness in ... many areas," he added.
Roberts-Smith, 44, was seen as a
national hero, with his portrait hanging in the Australian War Memorial, for
his actions during six tours of Afghanistan from 2006 to 2012 and military
citations. A 2020 report found credible evidence that members of Australia's
Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) killed dozens of unarmed prisoners in the
lengthy Afghan war. Only one soldier has been charged.
The Australian government is looking for
“a way forward” to compensate families of victims of alleged war crimes in
Afghanistan, the defense minister told legal advocates, the Guardian
reported.
Officials continue to warn about the
complexity of the compensation issue, one of the key outstanding
recommendations from the Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian
special forces soldiers, according to the Guardian.
TOLOnews reached out to some family
members of the victims in Uruzgan provinces, where the Australian soldiers were
settled under the command of ISAF/Resolute Support forces.
The residents claim that hundreds of
people were either killed or wounded in night raids being conducted by
Australian forces in Uruzgan.
Source: tolonews.com
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original
https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan-183663
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URL:
https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/kashmir-files-kerala-story-ajmer-92/d/129935