Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Rights group says Egypt's Brotherhood incites sectarian hatred
18 hours ago
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
CAIRO (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accused Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday of inciting religious hatred that led to the lynching of four Shi'ite Muslims in Cairo this week.
Residents of the suburb of Zawiyat Abu Musallem surrounded a house where a prominent Shi'ite cleric had arrived on Sunday for a religious festival. They attacked the guests, killing at least four and mutilating their bodies.
Police arrested eight people over the killings.
"The brutal sectarian lynching of four Shia comes after two years of hate speech against the minority religious group, which the Muslim Brotherhood condoned and at times participated in," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the movement of President Mohamed Mursi, was not available for comment.
Conservative Sunni Muslims, fearing the spread of Shia Islam in Egypt, have increased their anti-Shi'ite rhetoric since a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in February, who called for a strategic alliance with Egypt.
Shi'ites, the majority in Iran, form a small minority of Egypt's 84 million population and keep a low profile.
"This horrific incident in Abu Musallem shows that Shi'ites can't even gather in the privacy of their homes to celebrate and heightens fear of persecution among all religious minorities in Egypt," Stork said.
President Mursi condemned the crime but his liberal opponents accuse him and his Muslim Brotherhood of allowing ultra-conservative Salafi allies to whip up anti-Shi'ite sentiment in return for their support.
Mursi was a guest of honor this month at a rally where a cleric described Shi'ites as heretics.
HRW's report said the investigation into the attack needed to look into the failure of police to intervene to halt the mob attack.
"The official response to the killings falls far short of what is needed to protect Shia in Egypt from future attack and protect their right to religious freedom," Human Rights Watch said.
(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Robin Pomeroy)
Battle intensifies between Egyptian state and broadcasters
7 hours ago
By Asma Alsharif and Shadia Nasralla
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
By Asma Alsharif and Shadia Nasralla
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
CAIRO (Reuters) - The owner of an Egyptian TV channel that satirizes Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was banned from leaving the country on Thursday, hours after Mursi attacked him by name, authorities shut down another channel and a state TV anchor resigned on air.
"This is dictatorship," a lawyer for business tycoon Mohamed al-Amin told Reuters. Amin's CBC channel has had legal run-ins before over its ridicule of President Mursi on a hit satirical program modeled on American comic Jon Stewart's "Daily Show".
Stewart appeared in person just last week as a guest of Bassem Youssef, the host of the weekly broadcast, who himself has been investigated for insulting the president and Islam.
Separately, a judicial source said a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Tawfiq Okasha, a television talk-show host and owner of the private Al-Faraeen channel, which has frequently criticized Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood. The grounds for the investigation was spreading false information.
The investment ministry, in charge of giving licenses to private channels, announced later on its Facebook page the closure of Okasha's channel for insulting the army and police and inciting the army's lower-ranked officers to launch a coup against senior officers. The channel ceased broadcasting.
Known for his on-air diatribes against Islamists, Okasha has been at liberty to work pending an appeal against a four-month sentence handed down for insulting Mursi last year.
The channel was given a one-month suspension last year, a decision Okasha had successfully appealed.
Meanwhile, state TV anchor Gamal al-Shaer resigned dramatically on air in protest at what he said were attempts by Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud, of the Brotherhood, to control the program's guests and subjects.
"I apologize, as the administration of state TV has issued a decree to stop the program because the talk did not please the officials and the information minister," Shaer said.
PRESIDENT BLAMES MUBARAK LOYALISTS
In an address to the nation on Wednesday to defend himself against opponents who plan mass rallies this weekend, Mursi blamed loyalists of fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak for thwarting his first year in office. He denounced several figures by name, including judges and owners of media organizations.
"Some dream of the return of the old regime, like Mohamed al-Amin," Mursi said. "They will not be left in peace until they pay what they owe the nation in taxes."
Hours later, Amin, who also owns anti-government newspaper Elwatan, called in to a CBC show to deny any wrongdoing.
State news agency MENA said prosecutors had blocked Amin's movements while it probed suspected tax arrears of about $60 million. Officials were not immediately available for comment.
His lawyer Mohamed Hammouda called the legal move an attempt to "get him and get the CBC channel and Elwatan newspaper and force them to bend to the president's will". He said he would seek to get the travel ban lifted and would sue Mursi for defamation.
"This is dictatorship of a kind Egypt has never seen before," lawyer Hammouda said. "And an attempt to get at rivals using force, and we do not accept that."
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Andrew Roche)
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Turkey's Erdogan seeks to further curb army power
2 hours ago
by: Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
by: Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, which faced a wave of street protests and riots this month, moved on Thursday to amend an article of the Armed Forces charter cited by generals in the past to justify coups as defense of public order.
Since he was first elected in 2002, Erdogan has radically cut back the power of a military that had toppled four governments in forty years. The last administration felled, in 1997, was led by an Islamist party to which Erdogan belonged.
Deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters the government had submitted proposals to parliament to amend article 35 of the charter, promulgated after a 1960 coup that resulted in the hanging of a prime minister. Erdogan has cited that prime minister, Adnan Menderes, as a political model.
The article was later used as the basis for interventions in 1970 and in 1980, to end months of left-right streetfighting, as well as 1997 when the army saw a danger from political Islam.
The amendment would replace the declared duty to "protect and watch over the republic" - a reference that for many Turks would imply strictly enforcing a secular order - with a more limited obligation to defend "the Turkish homeland against foreign threats".
COUP ALLEGATIONS
Erdogan, who has won three elections and despite recent protests has no clear political rivals, denies accusations he seeks to overturn the 90-year-old secular order. But in speeches in recent weeks he has railed against what he sees as the oppression of pious Muslims under previous governments.
Opponents accuse him of becoming increasingly authoritarian.
Hundreds of top officers have been arrested in recent years as part of an investigation into alleged plots against Erdogan. One, codenamed 'Ergenekon' foresaw the engineering of street protests and killings opening the way for an army takeover.
Erdogan blamed this month's protests and rioting - the largest show of public defiance of his time in office - on a foreign-backed conspiracy involving market speculators, "terrorist" groups and looters.
The demonstrations drew in leftists, secularists, nationalists, professionals, unions and students after police used water cannon and tear gas in a heavy handed attempt to disperse an initial demonstration against the development of an Istanbul park.
Parliament will discuss the bill in October after its summer recess.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
INSIGHT-Ex-Qaeda allies ready to fight for Mursi in Luxor
1 hr 29 mins ago
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - When President Mohamed Mursi made a hardline Islamist governor ofLuxor, it seemed his latest folly to many in this city, and across Egypt, who depend on tourists already scared off by unrest since the revolution.
Yet nominating a member of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, remembered for a 1997 massacre of visitors in Luxor that some call "Egypt's 9/11", showed the growing importance to the beleaguered Mursi and hisMuslim Brotherhood of a group whose leadership includes at least one unrepentant former associate of Osama bin Laden.
That man, cleric Refai Taha, and other leaders of al-Gamaa and its parliamentary wing in Luxor told Reuters they renounced violence because Islamist rule had now been achieved, through elections - but they would take up arms again to defend Mursi and were committed eventually to establishing full Islamic law.
"There is freedom now, so violence is not necessary," Taha, 58, said in an interview last week at a hotel on the Nile. "The revolution changed the situation in Egypt in ways we wanted."
But like other senior figures in al-Gamaa he warned that anyone trying to force Mursi out - referring to the military that oppressed the Islamists for decades, or liberal opponents planning mass protests next Sunday - would be met with force.
"Violence begets violence," said Taha, recalling attacks on the old regime and its tourist industry which he, unlike others in al-Gamaa, went on advocating until Hosni Mubarak was ousted.
Al-Gamaa gave in to the uproar in the tourist industry and resigned the Luxor governor's post on Sunday - for the national good - after failing to reassure angry hoteliers who feared it would immediately ban beer and bare flesh, killing their trade just as the gunning down of 58 foreigners had done 16 years ago.
But its role is clearly expanding at the side of a president unable, or unwilling, to build a coalition beyond the Islamist camp. Such hardline allies may further polarise a still fragile state in ways that trouble the Western powers which abandoned Mubarak when Egyptians pushed him aside demanding democracy.
Al-Gamaa supporters formed a vocal contingent at a rally in Cairo on Friday, organised by the Brotherhood to show Islamist strength ahead of protests the hitherto divided opposition plans on June 30, the first anniversary of Mursi's inauguration.
Al-Gamaa leaders were among those giving veiled warnings of a violent response to any move against the elected leader; they included Tarek al-Zumar, jailed for life over the 1981 assassination of Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, and Assem Abdel Maged, who once shared a cell with Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian who has led al Qaeda since bin Laden was killed.
Hardliners fear the end of the much bigger Brotherhood's hold on power would mean prison again for them, or death.
BIN LADEN
In Luxor, Taha blames the United States for his "rendition" from Damascus in 2001 to a life in Mubarak's jails. He was in Syria after time in Afghanistan with bin Laden and Zawahri and was seen by Washington as an heir to "blind cleric" Omar Abdel Rahman, al-Gamaa al-Islamiya's spiritual leader now serving a life term for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.
Until 2010, annual U.S. State Department lists of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" described Taha as "missing" since 2001. He is not mentioned by name in subsequent editions of the list.
Freed when Mubarak fell, he denied a U.S. assertion that he signed a 1998 al Qaeda fatwa calling for attacks on the United States but he said its government was "oppressive just like our former regime" and said his main difference from Zawahri was in his aim of an Islamic state in Egypt, rather than global jihad.
Sitting in the lobby of a tourist hotel, largely empty since the revolution, clad in a beige robe, the white-bearded sheikh defined his goals and those of al Qaeda: "Sheikh Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri see a need to administer justice all over the world. We demand justice be administered in Egypt."
Asked if that would mean banning alcohol or revealing clothing for tourists - something Mursi's government says it will not do - Taha said: "Just as you in America require Muslims to abide by American law when they enter your country, Americans who enter Egypt should abide by Egyptian law."
Were his ideas those of al Qaeda? "The same ideas," he said. "When there is an oppressive regime. If there's an oppressive regime, we, like all people in the world, we fight oppression."
ORGANISED MOVEMENT
After the Luxor massacre, Taha split with a faction in al-Gamaa which declared a ceasefire; the group now appears united and Taha, back in the southern home region where he helped found the movement in the 1970s, seems to command respect from leaders of the political party it set up in 2011 to contest elections.
The Building and Development Party won 13 of 508 seats in the lower house of parliament, allied with the Brotherhood.
A senior party official in Luxor, Hussein Ahmed Shmeet, echoed the concerns of Taha and other al-Gamaa leaders that it was ready to use force if had to protect Mursi: "If the nation is being destroyed, we must defend ourselves and protect the legitimate president and the state institutions," he said.
"If the army and police cannot protect state institutions and we see violence, the representatives of the Islamic groups must take to the streets to protect the state institutions," Shmeet said, adding for emphasis: "We are very organised."
Opponents worry that Egypt's Islamists also intend to keep power by force, even if voters turn against them. Shmeet insisted, however, that the movement has embraced democracy.
Al-Gamaa's numbers are unclear but its claims to be able to mobilise "popular committees" to fix problems locally were corroborated by Brotherhood officials who said Mursi choice for governor was prompted by its success in using local tribal and family structures to bring order where it once sowed chaos.
"Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya members in Luxor were born here," said local Building and Development Party leader Mohamed Bakry. "They know everyone in Luxor, they're cousins, friends, neighbours - our relations are very strong and so we can solve problems."
What the party did not do was force its new governor through the picket lines of angry tour guides and restaurateurs who set up barricades round the local administration building last week and painted the gate with a sign: "No entry for terrorists."
Its moderation toward the demonstrators, Bakry said, should reassure those who doubt it had put its militant past behind it.
"Everything the media are saying is not true," he said of alarmist headlines about Mursi's choice of "terrorist governor".
"Today is proof of that," he said. "Because if we had wanted to, we could have done something ... We were capable of it."
FEAR AND HOSTILITY
Such veiled references to al-Gamaa's strength do little to appease the many of Luxor's half million people who depend on foreigners coming to see its 3,500-year-old temples and tombs.
"Religion and violence is all they know," said Walid Nowendi of the liberal opposition Dustour Party as protesters burned tyres to form a barrier to the governor's office.
Across the Nile, sweeping the same green swath through the desert that has nourished Egyptian civilisation for millennia, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut stands as forlorn in the sunshine as it did in the months after it witnessed the horror of six gunmen methodically shooting down 62 people in November 1997.
A lone tour bus and a handful of minivans sat under a baking sun in the parking lot. "You should have seen how crowded this place was before the revolution," said Ahmed Hageb, 24, who works in the cafeteria. "For two years, we've suffered as we did after the 1997 attack ... This is because of the Brotherhood."
Mursi, in a newspaper interview, assured Egyptians economic problems were being addressed and, defending his choice of Luxor governor, insisted there was nothing to fear from al-Gamaa - its party, he said, "operates within the rule of law".
(Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Anna Willard)
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Islamic Revival: 7 Reasons Hezbollah Will Lose in Syria!
Islamic Revival: 7 Reasons Hezbollah Will Lose in Syria!: By Abu Anas Hezbollah has sent its fighters to Syria betting it can save the Assad regime. The city of Qusair was captured by the As...
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
End "Israeli" War Crimes: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Infiltrated by Zioni...
End "Israeli" War Crimes: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Infiltrated by Zioni...: By Laura Stuart Today as I was searching pro Israel /anti Muslim websites I discovered that Stand for Peace has been taken over by one ...
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Turkey protests test Obama's ties with Erdogan
3 hrs ago
By | Associated Press
Source: Yahoo News
By | Associated Press
Source: Yahoo News
WASHINGTON (AP) — Government crackdowns against protesters in Turkey could test the close ties between PresidentBarack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strategically important U.S. ally in a tumultuous region.
The demonstrations in Turkey, now entering their second week, cropped up after Erdogan's visit to the White House last month, which highlighted a variety of issues on which the U.S. needs Turkey's help. They include quelling the violence in Syria, stabilizing Iraq and stemming Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Erdogan, known for his brash and stubborn leadership style, has responded to the public outcry by questioning the legitimacy of the protesters. In a series of increasingly belligerent speeches to supporters Sunday, the prime minister warned that his patience was wearing thin and said those who do not respect the government will pay.
Hundreds of police in riot gear briefly fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at protestors in Istanbul's central Taksim Square early Tuesday, forcing many protestors who had occupied the square into a nearby park. Some groups also clashed with police at one edge of the square, setting off fireworks, firebombs and throwing stones at a police water cannon.
The clash mirrored previous confrontations between Turkish police and protestors, which have also involved the use of tear gas and water cannons. Turkish authorities are trying halt demonstrations, which have spread to nearly 80 cities across the country.
James Jeffrey, who served as Obama's ambassador to Turkey until 2010, said that in private discussions among U.S. officials "there's some wincing at the statements by Erdogan."
But in public, the White House has carefully avoided criticizing the prime minister directly, though the U.S. has urged Turkish authorities to exercise restraint. There also have been no known conversations between Obama and his Turkish counterpart since the protests began.
"We continue to have serious concerns about the reports of excessive use of force by police and large numbers of injuries and damage to property, and welcome calls for these events to be investigated," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday. "We also continue to urge all parties to refrain from provoking violence." He did not mention Erdogan.
"This is always the quandary for the U.S. government," said Bulent Aliriza, a Turkey analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "When you get that close to an ally, you become very careful about criticizing them."
That's the pattern the U.S. fell into with former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, an autocrat who found favor with the U.S. by protecting American interests in the Middle East. The U.S. only turned on Mubarak after the Egyptian people launched mass protests against his government in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring push for democracy that swept through the region.
Despite the unrest in Turkey, Erdogan doesn't appear in danger of losing power. But the protests have exposed pent-up hostility among many Turks who fear Erdogan is backsliding on his early record of democratic reform and seeking to impose his religious views on the secular nation.
The anti-government rallies started after police launched a pre-dawn raid against a peaceful sit-in protesting plans to uproot trees in Istanbul's Taksim Square. Since then, tens of thousands of mostly secular Turks have joined the demonstrations, turning them into Turkey's biggest anti-government disturbances in years.
For the White House, Erdogan's handling of the challenge to his leadership could complicate Turkey's close but complex relationship with the U.S.
Since taking office, Obama has taken significant steps to point to Turkey as a model for other majority-Islamic nations pursuing democracy and ties with the West. Three months after winning the White House, Obama put Turkey on the itinerary for his first foreign tour as president, a 2009 trip that was aimed in part at resetting the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world. While touring Turkey alongside Erdogan, Obama cast the ties between their two countries as a "model partnership."
Since then, the two leaders have spoken frequently by phone, conferred on the sidelines of international summits and held two White House meetings, most recently in May.
Despite the robust relationship between the U.S. and Turkey, Erdogan has created headaches for Obama before. In 2010, Turkey broke with the U.S. and voted against United Nations sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Erdogan also ratcheted up tensions with Israel earlier this year when he called Zionism "a crime against humanity."
The lengthy civil war in Syria has exposed perhaps the deepest rift between Erdogan and Obama. While both want Syrian President Bashar Assad out of power, the prime minister has become frustrated with Obama's reluctance to use military force to end the violence.
Erdogan pushed Obama during their recent talks to deepen U.S. involvement in Syria, but the Turkish leader received none of the assurances he sought.
Obama, however, has proven to have some measure of influence over his Turkish counterpart.
Earlier this year, Obama brokered a truce between Israel and Turkey, which had cut diplomatic ties following an Israeli attack on a Turkish aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Analysts say Erdogan would have been far less willing to accept an apology from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had Obama not also been on the line during the phone call.
Aliriza, the Turkey expert at CSIS, said Obama's success in restarting diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel underscores the influence Obama could have now in shaping the prime minister's response to the protests.
"There is only one man in this world that Erdogan listens to, and that's Barack Obama," he said.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Data-Driven Tech Industry Is Shaken by Online Privacy Fears
June 9, 2013
By DAVID STREITFELD and QUENTIN HARDY
Source:The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — The dreamers, brains and cranks who built the Internet hoped it would be a tool of liberation and knowledge. Last week, an altogether bleaker vision emerged with new revelations of how the United States government is using it as a monitoring and tracking device.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/technology/data-driven-tech-industry-is-shaken-by-online-privacy-fears.html?hp&_r=1&
By DAVID STREITFELD and QUENTIN HARDY
Source:The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — The dreamers, brains and cranks who built the Internet hoped it would be a tool of liberation and knowledge. Last week, an altogether bleaker vision emerged with new revelations of how the United States government is using it as a monitoring and tracking device.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/technology/data-driven-tech-industry-is-shaken-by-online-privacy-fears.html?hp&_r=1&
Limited health options for internally displaced Rohingya
June 9,2013
IRIN/Sittwe
Source: Gulf Times
IRIN/Sittwe
Source: Gulf Times
Aid workers are calling for better health access for an estimated 140,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, most of them Rohingya Muslims.
Although a number of NGOs and government mobile clinics are providing basic health services inside the roughly 80 camps and settlements, they are limited, and emergency health referrals remain a serious concern, they say.
According to Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF), conditions inside the camps, combined with the segregation of ethnic Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya and ongoing movement restrictions, are having a severe impact on healthcare.
Movement restrictions were slapped on Rohingyas around Sittwe, the Rakhine State capital, after bouts of sectarian violence in June and October 2012.
Another concern is the negative attitude of many ethnic Rakhine to assistance provided to Muslim IDPs.
“With threats and intimidation both to health provider and patient, this becomes an irreconcilable dilemma,” Carol Jacobsen of the medical NGO Merlin said, adding that “hostile access”, limited transportation and poor security were obstacles to healthcare for the Muslim population.
Aside from IDPs, thousands of Rohingyas in their villages or places of origin - many reachable only by boat - are restricted from travelling to local township hospitals in the event of a medical emergency, aid workers report.
“MSF has just returned from areas where whole villages are cut off from basic services,” said Ronald Kremer, MSF emergency co-ordinator in Rakhine State. “What we have seen shows that current policies such as movement restrictions are having a detrimental impact on people’s health. This includes TB patients unable to access the treatment they need to stay alive, and pregnant women dying unnecessarily because they have nowhere safe to deliver.”
It’s estimated there are 5,000 pregnant displaced women living in the camps.
“Normally, these women would be going to government hospitals or clinics,” said Marlar Soe, field co-ordinator for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Sittwe, noting that government midwives, who are largely ethnic Rakhine, are not going into the camps.
Almost one year after the initial violence in Rakhine State, more than half the IDPs are in Sittwe, one of nine strife-affected townships.
Most Rohingyas are confined to a series of camps on the outskirts of the town.
Security forces and metal barricades, topped with razor wire, prevent camp residents from leaving what activists are now describing as a ghetto-like prison. The 12-bed Dar Pai emergency hospital is the only government-run health facility for the more than 100,000 Muslim IDPs and residents in an area which encompasses 11 IDP camps and makeshift sites, as well as five Rohingya host communities.
Doctors are rarely seen and medicine is in short supply, say IDPs. “You’re lucky if you can get an aspirin there,” said Aung Win, a 57-year-old Rohingya man from the Mawlee quarter of Sittwe, referring to the hospital.
Edward Hew, head of relief operations for Mercy Malaysia, says it is time for the international community to come together with state health authorities to strengthen the Dar Pai hospital as it is currently the only option available.
“Many patients are not comfortable with being referred to Sittwe Hospital,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) currently provides emergency medical evacuation services to Sittwe Hospital.
“This, however, is not always easy given the security situation, as well as the limited number of beds (12) allocated for Muslims,” said one aid worker who preferred anonymity. Meanwhile, with monsoon rains having begun, there is growing concern about the risk of water-borne and communicable diseases.
“Many of the risk factors for an outbreak are present, including overcrowding, open defecation, limited potable water, poor hygiene standards and many living in makeshift shelters,” said Ingrid Maria Johansen, project co-ordinator for MSF in Sittwe, warning that an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea could spread quickly through the camps.
Islamists said to execute 15-year-old Syrian boy for heresy
10 hrs ago
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
comment: I don't know if this article has credibility, or not. It is from Reuters, which is a mouthpiece of the global oligarchy. Yet, it might be valid. There is tremendous ignorance in Islam amongst Muslims. Kufir (unbelief) is not a crime in Islamic Law. Anyone who kills some one because of their unbelief is committing murder. If, indeed, this story is correct than it shows the ignorance of some members of "Nusra Front".
There is no power, or might, except with The God. Oh people, killing anyone because of their disbelief in the Islamic Faith is murder. Anyone who kills an unbeliever -because of his/her unbelief -is accountable in front of Allah on The Day of Judgment for murder.
Here is the article:
AMMAN (Reuters) - Members of an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in the northern Syrian city ofAleppo executed a 15-year-old boy in front of his parents on Sunday as punishment for what the group regarded as a heretical comment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
comment: I don't know if this article has credibility, or not. It is from Reuters, which is a mouthpiece of the global oligarchy. Yet, it might be valid. There is tremendous ignorance in Islam amongst Muslims. Kufir (unbelief) is not a crime in Islamic Law. Anyone who kills some one because of their unbelief is committing murder. If, indeed, this story is correct than it shows the ignorance of some members of "Nusra Front".
There is no power, or might, except with The God. Oh people, killing anyone because of their disbelief in the Islamic Faith is murder. Anyone who kills an unbeliever -because of his/her unbelief -is accountable in front of Allah on The Day of Judgment for murder.
Here is the article:
AMMAN (Reuters) - Members of an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in the northern Syrian city ofAleppo executed a 15-year-old boy in front of his parents on Sunday as punishment for what the group regarded as a heretical comment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Mohammad Qataa was shot in the face and neck a day after being seized, said the pro-opposition monitoring group, which is based in Britain and uses a network of observers across Syria.
"The Observatory cannot ignore these crimes, which only serve the enemies of the revolution and the enemies of humanity," said the group's leader Rami Abdulrahman.
A photo released by the Observatory showed Qataa's face with his mouth and jaw bloodied and destroyed, as well as a bullet wound in his neck.
The Observatory, which based its report on witness accounts of the killing, said Qataa, who was a street vendor selling coffee in the working-class Shaar neighborhood, had been arguing with someone when he was overheard saying: "Even if the Prophet Mohammad comes down (from heaven), I will not become a believer."
The gunmen, who belong to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a militant group that started off known as the Nusra Front, took Qatta on Saturday and brought him back alive in the early hours of Sunday to his wooden stand, with whiplash marks visible on his body.
"People gathered around him and a member of the fighting brigade said: 'Generous citizens of Aleppo, disbelieving in God is polytheism and cursing the prophet is a polytheism. Whoever curses even once will be punished like this."
"He then fired two bullets from an automatic rifle in view of the crowd and in front of the boy's mother and father, and got into a car and left," the report said.
Abdulrahman said the boy's mother had pleaded with the killers, whose Arabic suggested they might not be Syrian, not to shoot her son. Qataa's parents said the youth had taken part in pro-democracy demonstrations in Aleppo.
Since last year, large parts of the city have fallen under the control of Islamist brigades, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, as well as other rebel units.
(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom.; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Christopher Wilson)
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Islamic Revival: Accounting the self (Muhaasabat An-Nafs)
Islamic Revival: Accounting the self (Muhaasabat An-Nafs): Accounting the self (Muhaasabat An-Nafs) according to the Tafseer of the Qur'aan, the Sunnah of the Prophet and statements of the Pre...
Friday, June 7, 2013
Tens of thousands await Turkish PM's return after protests
8 hours ago
By Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathon Burch
Source: Yahoo News
By Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathon Burch
Source: Yahoo News
ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters welcomed back Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan from a North African tour on Friday in a show of strength after a week of violent anti-government demonstrations across the country.
Erdogan addressed crowds from an open-top bus at Istanbul airport in a speech also broadcast live on television, as supporters, who had blocked roads to the airport for hours, chanted his name.
"We stood strong, but we were never stubborn ... We are together, we are unified, we are brothers," Erdogan told tens of thousands of his ruling party faithful.
Anti-government protesters also gathered in their thousands in central Istanbul and Ankara awaiting a speech that could appease or aggravate the crowds after a week of violent unrest.
Some of the demonstrators in Istanbul's Taksim Square chanted "Tayyip resign", while others sang and danced. In Ankara's Kugulu Park, thousands chanted anti-government slogans, sang the national anthem and swigged on beer.
What began as a campaign against planned construction on a leafy park in a corner of Taksim Square has grown into an unprecedented display of public anger over the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party.
Police backed by armored vehicles and helicopters have clashed with groups of protesters night after night, leaving three dead and some 4,000 injured, while thousands of Erdogan's opponents have massed peacefully in Taksim, surrounded by barricades of torn-up paving stones and street signs.
"It's all up to Erdogan and what he says right now. He will decide the fate of this resistance, whether it will calm (down) or escalate," said Mehmet Polat, 42, a ship captain who has not worked all week, coming instead to protest at Taksim.
"These people have been here for days. He has to understand it is for a reason," he said.
Erdogan has so far struck a defiant tone. Speaking in Tunis on Thursday, he condemned the "burn and destroy" tactics of some of those involved in the protests, and promised to press ahead with the plans for Taksim that triggered the unrest.
"If you say: 'I will hold a meeting and burn and destroy,' we will not allow that," he told reporters after meeting his Tunisian counterpart. "We are against the majority dominating the minority and we cannot tolerate the opposite."
He said that "terror groups", including one that claimed responsibility for a February 1 bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, were manipulating the crowds. Seven foreigners were among those arrested, he said.
The protesters are of a variety of political stripes, including far leftists, nationalists, environmentalists and secular Turks, and their numbers at Taksim have swollen at points to more than an estimated 100,000.
But despite the unrest, Erdogan remains by far Turkey's most popular politician, his assertive style and common touch resonating with the conservative Islamic heartland.
His AK Party has won an increasing share of the vote in three successive elections and holds around two thirds of the seats in parliament. A man who rarely bows to any opposition, he clearly has no intention of stepping down and there are no obvious rivals inside or outside his party.
Still, he faces a challenge in calming the protests without appearing to lose face.
"Erdogan cannot backtrack now. It would mean defeat," said Ali Aydin, 38, a car dealer in the Tophane neighborhood of Istanbul, a conservative bastion in the mostly Bohemian district around Taksim Square. "Weakness would destroy the party."
(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Philip Barbara)
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Egypt seeks French help with wheat imports
1 hr 26 mins ago
By John Irish and Valerie Parent | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
By John Irish and Valerie Parent | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
PARIS (Reuters) - France has received a formal request from Egypt for free grain storage and far easier payment terms for imports, official sources said, as the world's largest wheat buyer grapples with a prolonged economic crisis.
France, the European Union's top wheat exporter and one of Egypt's leading suppliers, is studying the request and is open to helping Egypt on a vital food security issue, a French diplomatic source said.
"We need to make an effort and if the French government has to push this forward it will," a diplomatic source told Reuters on Tuesday.
"It's an urgent matter. It won't be settled within hours but we're not talking either about an agreement in six months."
The diplomatic source said Egypt's request included assistance with building grain silos in Egypt; the stocking in France of French wheat bought by Egypt for up to six months free of charge, with shipment as and when needed by Egypt; and an extended payment period for wheat sales of nine to 12 months from shipment.
The extended period compares starkly with the "cash against documents" terms Egypt normally applies, in which grain is paid for on agreement of terms.
A source at the foreign trade ministry said it was too early to say whether France would approve the request.
Two years of political turmoil and economic crisis have eroded Egypt's hard currency reserves, making it difficult for the country to finance essential food and fuel imports.
Egypt's state grain buyer General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), which together with private importers normally obtains around 10 million tonnes of wheat per year, has not bought on international markets since February.
While Egyptian authorities have said they expect a bigger local harvest this year to replenish wheat stocks as part of a plan to phase out imports within four years, they are also trying to get assistance from suppliers.
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi failed in April to secure grain and a loan from Russia to help ease a deepening economic crisis.
The French finance ministry was now studying with French grain exporting firms a possible response to Egypt's request, the source said.
Traders were sceptical over the outcome.
"They (Egypt) have to import and the crux of the matter is money. And France isn't Qatar, Russia or the IMF," a European trader said.
The request was initially sent several weeks ago to the French embassy in Cairo, and was then discussed last week by the Egyptian ambassador in Paris with France's food industry minister, the source added.
Syria War Crimes Go from Bad to Worse to Even More Awful
3 hrs ago
By Dashiell Bennett | The Atlantic Wire
Source: Yahoo News
As the Syrian civil war drags on into its third summer, the conflict only grows larger and more vicious, with Hezbollah, Israel, Turkey, and even the North Koreans joining in the fight. Both the United Nations and Human Rights Watch have released new reports on the carnage created by the rebellion and they paint a frightening picture of a conflict that seems further than it has even been from a peaceful reconciliation. The U.N. report accuses both sides of committing war crimes, including "crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations" such as summary executions and attacks on civilians.
The U.N. also claims that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that chemical weapons have been used at least four times during the war, but much like earlier reports from American officials, they refuse to confirm who might be behind it. Because U.N. experts have not been allowed into the country to investigate, they say that they can't rule with any degree of certainty about who was behind the attacks, suggesting that even the rebels could be behind them.
But in another report that is arguably more disturbing than the chemical attacks, Human Rights Watch claims that 147 bodies have been found the river running through the city of Aleppo between January and March of this year, and that all appear to have been executed by government forces or their supporters. More than 230 bodies have actually been recovered but HRW was only able to positively identify 147 of the victims, some as young as 11. The river in question has become the unofficial dividing line of the city, separating the government controlled areas, from those neighborhoods currently in the hands of rebels.
Most disturbingly, these "official" crimes only seem to scratch the surface of the atrocities being committed everyday across the nation. The rest either go unreported or are impossible to verify, despite being chronicled on blogs, Facebook, and YouTube. One of the most recent and disturbing,was posted just yesterday. It shows a woman who allegedly raped, then shot by an Assad solider and left in the street as bait for rescuers, who were then killed by snipers as they tried to save her.
Part of the reason for the increased brutality is that Syria has become more than just a war between Assad and his people. Hezbollah, which has always positioned itself as a anti-Israeli resistance movement has wholeheartedly joined the fight on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, hoping to preserve their alliance with Syria and Iran. The Lebanese Shiite group fears a future Syriadominated by Sunni rebels (making the conflict a more sectarian battle every day), but should Assad fall, the repercussions will be felt in Lebanon and beyond. Their involvement also threatens to pull inIsrael, as well, sparking fears of a larger regional war.
And finally, even North Korea can't resist getting involved. Rebel groups claim that more than a dozen officers from Pyongyang's army have been spotted in Syria assisting the regime plans. It seems everyone has a stake in the outcome of this war, which probably explains why it's nowhere close to being resolved.
By Dashiell Bennett | The Atlantic Wire
Source: Yahoo News
As the Syrian civil war drags on into its third summer, the conflict only grows larger and more vicious, with Hezbollah, Israel, Turkey, and even the North Koreans joining in the fight. Both the United Nations and Human Rights Watch have released new reports on the carnage created by the rebellion and they paint a frightening picture of a conflict that seems further than it has even been from a peaceful reconciliation. The U.N. report accuses both sides of committing war crimes, including "crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations" such as summary executions and attacks on civilians.
The U.N. also claims that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that chemical weapons have been used at least four times during the war, but much like earlier reports from American officials, they refuse to confirm who might be behind it. Because U.N. experts have not been allowed into the country to investigate, they say that they can't rule with any degree of certainty about who was behind the attacks, suggesting that even the rebels could be behind them.
But in another report that is arguably more disturbing than the chemical attacks, Human Rights Watch claims that 147 bodies have been found the river running through the city of Aleppo between January and March of this year, and that all appear to have been executed by government forces or their supporters. More than 230 bodies have actually been recovered but HRW was only able to positively identify 147 of the victims, some as young as 11. The river in question has become the unofficial dividing line of the city, separating the government controlled areas, from those neighborhoods currently in the hands of rebels.
Most disturbingly, these "official" crimes only seem to scratch the surface of the atrocities being committed everyday across the nation. The rest either go unreported or are impossible to verify, despite being chronicled on blogs, Facebook, and YouTube. One of the most recent and disturbing,was posted just yesterday. It shows a woman who allegedly raped, then shot by an Assad solider and left in the street as bait for rescuers, who were then killed by snipers as they tried to save her.
Part of the reason for the increased brutality is that Syria has become more than just a war between Assad and his people. Hezbollah, which has always positioned itself as a anti-Israeli resistance movement has wholeheartedly joined the fight on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, hoping to preserve their alliance with Syria and Iran. The Lebanese Shiite group fears a future Syriadominated by Sunni rebels (making the conflict a more sectarian battle every day), but should Assad fall, the repercussions will be felt in Lebanon and beyond. Their involvement also threatens to pull inIsrael, as well, sparking fears of a larger regional war.
And finally, even North Korea can't resist getting involved. Rebel groups claim that more than a dozen officers from Pyongyang's army have been spotted in Syria assisting the regime plans. It seems everyone has a stake in the outcome of this war, which probably explains why it's nowhere close to being resolved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)