LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 30/17

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today
Jesus Shows Himself to the two Disciples on their way to Emmaus Village
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24/13-35./:"Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself
Second Letter to Timothy 02/08-13/:"Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 29-30/17
Angry debate in Egypt over reforms in Islam against radicals/Hamza Hendawi, Lee Keath & Mariam Fam/April 26/17
Donald Trump Is a Real /Charles Jabbour/The New York Times/April 29/17
Why Is Female Genital Mutilation Still Happening in the U.S./Phyllis Chesler/Fox News/April 29/17
Michael Flynn’s Fall Tells a Much Bigger Story/David Ignatius/The Washington Post/April 29/17
Smokescreens in Islam: Confusing the Public about the Facts/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/April 29/17
Saudi Arabia's 'Lavish' Gift to Indonesia: Radical Islam/Mohshin Habib/Gatestone Institute/April 29/17

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 29-30/17
Report: Electoral Law Meeting at Foreign Ministry 'Fails'
Report: Berri Annoyed with Parties Handling of Law Proposal
Zasypkin Says Lebanon Must Stage Parliamentary Polls
Clashes Erupt at Beddawi Camp, Army Controls Situation
Pickup Drivers Protest Competition from Syrians
Man who Crossed into Israel Handed Over to Lebanese Army
Machnouk: Azhar Conference exposed large part of terrorist organizations
Tripoli Customs seize huge quantity of 'Captagon' pills inside truck enroute to Saudi Arabia
Geagea: We stand in face of the dragon of corruption
Abi Khalil from Beddawi: To protect oil facilities, consumers and the operating private sector
Jumblatt, Najari convene in Mukhtara
Ten Syrians arrested in Khiyam on charges of fighting with terrorist groups
Palestinian factions go on high alert in Baddawi Camp

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 29-30/17
Pope from Al-Azhar: No to Violence in Name of Religion
Pope Francis greets people of Egypt with ‘Assalam Alaikum’
Security tight as Pope Francis celebrates open-air mass in Cairo
US troops monitor situation along Syria-Turkey border
Lavrov says Russia ready to cooperate with US on Syria
Syria’s Assad tells interviewer: ‘Yes, you are now sitting with the devil’
France’s Le Pen says would appoint Dupont-Aignan prime minister
ISIS claims deadly car bomb attack in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood
Three charged over 2015 Paris attacks
Erdogan: Turkey and US can turn Raqa into 'graveyard' for ISIS
US Marines return to Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand
Saudi embassy plotter made campaign manager in Iran’s presidential elections
UN deputy secretary general praises Yemen aid conference pledges
Coalition air strikes kill Saleh forces, Houthi militias in Yemen
Doctors confirm 250kg Egyptian woman’s move from India to UAE ‘in days’
Iran’s presidential candidates square off in first ever live TV debate
North Korea test-fires ballistic missile in defiance of world pressure

Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 29-30/17
Report: Electoral Law Meeting at Foreign Ministry 'Fails'
Naharnet/April 29/17/Efforts to reach a consensual electoral law to rule Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary polls continue but without any foreseeable results, al-Joumhouria daily said on Saturday.
Each political party "washes its hands of failure" to agree on a new law while maintaining adamant positions and distances itself from the complexity of the situation, which complicates things even further and obstructs an agreement, it added. The latest meeting between representatives of the country’s main political parties at the Foreign Ministry on Friday, reflects the reality of the situation amid reports that it failed to record a breakthrough. The daily quoted unnamed sources that participated in the meeting as saying: “No breakthrough has been recorded. The debate was closer to absurd, discussions went back to below zero.”Thursday's meeting included Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, MPs Ibrahim Kanaan and Alain Aoun of the FPM, Hizbullah secretary general's political aide Hussein al-Khalil, Lebanese Forces deputy head MP George Adwan, Prime Minister Saad Hariri's adviser Nader Hariri and MP Ghazi Aridi of the Progressive Socialist Party. Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri did not attend. According to information obtained by the daily, Bassil has insisted on his qualification law proposal dubbing it as “the best solution” for the complicated electoral situation. Nader Hariri supported Bassil, while the representative of Hizbullah expressed fundamental remarks about his proposal. The position of the Lebanese Forces was not fully supportive, and Adwan made a series of observations about the ability of this proposal to attract political consensus, reported the newspaper. However, the most prominent was the position of representative of the Progressive Socialist Party, Aridi, who gave a “lengthy strong-worded speech rejecting Bassil's proposal.”Aridi said: “You said we should consensually agree on a law, but we notice now that you retracted,” as he warned against putting the law for a vote at the parliament saying “this is dangerous and could divide the country.”“We support a proportional representation system, so let us discuss that. A qualification sectarian system is totally rejected. Although you claim to abolish sectarianism, here you are suggesting the qualification system which deepens it even further.”

Report: Berri Annoyed with Parties Handling of Law Proposal
Naharnet/April 29/17/Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri, refrained from attending what was described as an unprecedented meeting between various political parties over an electoral law, and that Berri is annoyed with the parties and their handling of his suggestion of an electoral law format, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday. The daily said that “Khalil's absence came upon Berri's request as an expression of dissatisfaction with how his latest law proposal was handled by the political parties.”A meeting over the electoral law was held Friday afternoon between the representatives of the country's main political parties: The Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah, al-Mustaqbal Movement, Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party. It was the first such meeting to be attended by a PSP representative and also the first one marred by the absence of Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri. Berri was quoted as saying: “The electoral atmosphere has been subjected to pleasant winds in the past few hours with positive and encouraging answers" to his proposal on proportional representation and the establishment of a senate.
The proposal was welcomed by President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who was very positive, MP Walid Jumblatt, and the Lebanese Forces, it added. However, Berri pointed out: “But things suddenly declined from positive to negative on Thursday afternoon, although we thought they were close to reach the happy conclusion until we received a negative response at midnight.”The daily said that FPM leader Jebran Bassil has texted Berri after 11:00 pm on Thursday rejection his electoral law proposal. Berri had announced early on Thursday that he had finalized two draft laws, one for the parliamentary electoral law and another for the establishment of senate. He sent them for political parties for deliberation. “I have nothing more to offer,” Berri said. "I gave them the best I could give. The ball is in their court now. I do not accept the parliament extension, nor vacuum. It is their responsibility to reach a consensus law, and I am waiting for Asked about the crucial May 15 legislative session, Berri said: “The meeting is still on schedule. If the quorum is complete it will be held, otherwise it will be deferred to another date until it convenes.”

Zasypkin Says Lebanon Must Stage Parliamentary Polls
Naharnet/April 29/17/Russian ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin stressed on Saturday that Lebanon must stage the parliamentary elections and pointed out that an electoral law is up for the Lebanese to decide. “We insist on the issue of staging the parliamentary elections, but the draft of an electoral law is an internal Lebanese affair,” said the ambassador in an interview to VDL (100.5). Turning to the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon he said: “The return of Syrian refugees back to their homeland must be discussed with the Syrian regime.”“My stay in Lebanon is not linked to the end of the Syrian war. And I leave it to the Russian administration,” he added. Pointing to international aid to help Lebanon cope with the burden of refugees he pointed out: “There is an international consensus on helping Lebanon, I do not see any contradictions or differences regarding the need to provide assistance to Lebanon against the backdrop of the Syrian refugees.”As for refugees encampments he remarked: “On the subject of the refugee camps in Lebanon, it is up to the Lebanese. We are against the safe zones issue. The return of refugees should be discussed with the regime," he said.

Clashes Erupt at Beddawi Camp, Army Controls Situation
Naharnet/April 29/17/Armed clashes erupted on Saturday in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Beddawi near the northern city of Tripoli , LBCI reported. Clashes between the Palestinian security committee, an armed group from al-Shaabi family and other wanted fugitives escalated when a Palestinian official in the camp, identified as Abou Adnan was shot at. LBCI said a member of al-Shaabi has opened the fire at the official who escaped unhurt. Lebanese army troops deployed in the area to contain the situation.

Pickup Drivers Protest Competition from Syrians
Naharnet/April 29/17/Drivers of pickup trucks staged a “symbolic” sit-in on Saturday in the northern district of Akkar protesting the competition from Syrians, the National News Agency reported. NNA said the drivers protested the spiking hiring of Syrian drivers to transport agricultural produce from Bekaa and Akkar to other Lebanese regions. They said some “companies are hiring Syrian drivers to work on pickup trucks owned by Lebanese to deliver produce, mainly potato, from Bekaa and Akkar to other regions. This has harmed the work of around 400 Lebanese drivers and truck owners.”The campaigners demanded the related Lebanese authorities to address the matter and vowed to escalate measures if no moves were taken. Rules adopted in January 2015 require Syrians to either register for residency through the U.N. -- on condition that they pledge not to work -- or through a Lebanese sponsor.

Man who Crossed into Israel Handed Over to Lebanese Army
Naharnet/April 29/17/A Lebanese man who crossed the border into Israel on Thursday was returned Friday to Lebanon via the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).“Lebanese national Ali Imad Mrad was handed over by the Israeli occupation forces to the UNIFIL forces at the Ras al-Naqoura border crossing,” Lebanon's National News Agency said. UNIFIL forces in turn handed over the man to the Lebanese army, which has since launched an investigation, NNA added. Israeli and Lebanese media reports have described Mrad as mentally unstable. In an interview with al-Jadeed television aired Friday, the man's father also said that his son has psychological problems. “My son sent me an SMS yesterday asking me to call him so I did. An Israeli soldier who speaks Arabic answered me and told me, 'Your son is safe and sound',” the father told al-Jadeed. “He asked me what's wrong with my son and I told him that my son is ill, abnormal and suffering from mental problems. He asked me about the type of his illness and whether he takes any medications and I told him that his exact condition is yet to be diagnosed,” the man added. Asked whether Ali had told him that he intended to cross into Israel, the father said: “Yes, my son had told me that.”“My son used to say that he is of Jewish origin. Can you imagine a normal person saying this?” the man told the reporter. Mrad had been arrested Thursday in the central bus station of the northern Israeli community of Kiryat Shmona, which is about 10 kilometers from the border, Israeli media reports said. “Israel's border battalion in Metula went on alert after it failed to detect the crossing of the man, who entered from the Lebanese town of Kfarkila,” NNA said on Thursday.
The incident prompted heightened security measures on both sides of the border.

Machnouk: Azhar Conference exposed large part of terrorist organizations
Sat 29 Apr 2017/NNA - Interior and Municipalities Minister, Nuhad el-Machnouk, said on Saturday that "the Azhar Conference has lifted the cover off a large part of terrorist organizations."Speaking in a TV interview on the sideline of his partaking in the works of the "Azhar World Conference for Islam" currently held in Cairo, al-Machnouk considered that "the meeting between Sheikh of Azhar, Ahmad al-Tayeb, and Pope Francis reflects the determination to support reconciliation and collaboration in confronting terrorism and extremism.""Lebanon is a principal country in its call for peace between sects," added al-Machnouk."I was glad to participate in this Conference, and was enthusiastic at its end in confirming Lebanon's keen concern for this issue, which is accorded utmost importance by the highest Islamic and Catholic sides in the world, namely the Azhar Imam and the Pope," said al-Machnouk.

Tripoli Customs seize huge quantity of 'Captagon' pills inside truck enroute to Saudi Arabia
Sat 29 Apr 2017 /NNA - Members of Tripoli Customs managed, on Saturday, to intercept a truck smuggling a large quantity of "Captagon" pills as it was heading to Saudi Arabia on board a ferry, NNA correspondent in Tripoli reported. As the ferry was passing by Tripoli Port, a scanner machine spotted the smuggled quantities inside the truck. As a result, Tripoli Customs Director General, Badri Daher, arrived immediately at the scene while Tripoli Port Director, Ahmed Tamer, supervised the unloading of the truck.

Geagea: We stand in face of the dragon of corruption
Sat 29 Apr 2017/NNA - "Our war against corruption shall not be easy since the corruption temptations are many and those involved are even more," said Lebanese Forces Party Leader, Samir Geagea, on Saturday, stressing that "today, we stand in the face of the corruption dragon and shall never allow it to engulf us." Geagea's words came before a crowd of students from various schools, colleges and universities in Lebanon, during an event organized by LF's student section marking "Student Day" at the Party's general headquarters in Me'rab. "It is true that this path shall be difficult, but whoever said that it is easy to be honest, clean and human?" questioned Geagea. He emphasized that the second step at this stage is to restore the active and strong State, with all weapons, strategic decisions and foreign relations restricted to the State alone. He added: "We no longer wish to have employees who are a burden on the State, and who have been imposed solely for being electoral votes," underlining that "State employees ought to be an active, productive source.""Today, you are the new sprouts; be sure that the power in you is much greater than the apparent force. If you are armed with the necessary faith and determination, you can move mountains," said Geagea, addressing the students. "We are the children of the resistance that does not die; so were your ancestors, your fathers and your mothers, so is our generation, and so you will remain," Geagea concluded.

Abi Khalil from Beddawi: To protect oil facilities, consumers and the operating private sector
Sat 29 Apr 2017/NNA - Water and Energy Minister, Caesar Abi Khalil, highlighted on Saturday the need for protecting oil facilities, consumers and the private sector operating these facilities. Abi Khalil's words came during his visit to the oil installations in the region of Beddawi, where he toured the various sections of the refinery, accompanied by Oil Facilities Director General Sarkis Hallis. "We have to cater to protecting the Lebanese consumer, on one hand, and the strategic oil facilities, on the other hand," said Abi Khalil, adding that "we ought to preserve, expand and develop these facilities, so that they can play a more significant role.""In addition, we also have to protect the private sector, which also employs citizens and supports families," Abi Khalil went on, emphasizing the importance of preserving this "golden triangle.""We do not want to go beyond reasonable oil prices, causing a major economic crisis that we cannot afford; hence, we have to maintain these three sectors, which is our mission and mandate," he stressed.

Jumblatt, Najari convene in Mukhtara
Sat 29 Apr 2017/NNA - Democratic Gathering Head, MP Walid Jumblatt, met on Saturday with Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon, Nazih al-Najari, in presence of Deputies Akram Shehayeb, Wael Abu Faour and Ghazi Aridi. Discussions touched on latest developments and the general political situation in the country.

Ten Syrians arrested in Khiyam on charges of fighting with terrorist groups
Sat 29 Apr 2017/NNA - A state security unit in Marj'Ayoun arrested, on Saturday, ten Syrians in the town of al-Khiyam for their connections with terrorist groups and partaking in battles alongside al-Nusra Front and Daesh in Syria, whereby they were handed over to the military court for further investigations, NNA correspondent in Marj'Ayoun reported.

Palestinian factions go on high alert in Baddawi Camp
Sat 29 Apr 2017/NNA - Palestinian factions in Baddawi Camp went on alert after "al-Shaabee" group shot Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader, Abu Adnan Awda, without injuring him, National News Agency correspondent said on Saturday. Palestinian factions called on their militants to be fully ready, while schools and shops closed for fear of any security escalation in the region, NNA correspondent concluded.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 29-30/17
Pope from Al-Azhar: No to Violence in Name of Religion
Waleed Abdul Rahman/April 29/17/Cairo- Pope Francis, starting a two-day visit to Egypt on Friday, urged all religious leaders to unite in renouncing religious extremism and to counter effectively the barbarity of those who foment hatred and violence. Speaking during the International Peace Conference at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, the Pope said: “Let us say once more a firm and clear “No!” to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the name of God.”Pope Francis said his trip to Egypt was about “unity and brotherhood.”“In order to prevent conflicts and build peace, it is essential that we spare no effort in eliminating situations of poverty and exploitation where extremism more easily takes root, and in blocking the flow of money and weapons destined to those who provoke violence,” Francis said. After his landing in Cairo, Pope Francis first met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at Ittihadiya Presidential Palace in Heliopolis, where he was received with honors in a solemn ceremony. “Our welcome of the Vatican’s Pope on Egyptian lands is an announcement to the world about our strong national unity,” Sisi said after meeting with the Pope. The Pope also met on Friday with Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb at Al-Azhar institution headquarters in Cairo. They later arrived together at the closing session of the Al-Azhar peace conference in Cairo. The sheikh began his statement by requesting the audience to hold a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of terrorism in Egypt and the world, regardless of their religions. “The arms trade and production is the principal cause of our problems today,” al-Tayeb said. Later on Friday, Francis visited the St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya, where he met with head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, who said: “The visit of Pope Francis to Egypt is a new step for love and cooperation between nations.”Francis and Tawadros then presided over a prayer service in St. Peter’s church in central Cairo where 30 people were killed in a suicide bombing last December.

Pope Francis greets people of Egypt with ‘Assalam Alaikum’
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 29 April 2017/Pope Francis greeted the people of Egypt saying “Assalam Alaikum" (the Islamic greeting meaning "peace be with you”) at the Al Azhar institution in Cairo on Friday. The hall of people attending his speech responded with massive applause.
“Let us say once more a firm and clear ‘No!’ to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the name of God,” the pope told a peace conference at Egypt’s Al Azhar university, the revered, 1,000-year-old seat of learning in Sunni Islam that trains clerics and scholars from around the world. Francis’s trip, aimed at improving ties between Muslims and Roman Catholics, comes three weeks after ISIS suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in two Egyptian churches. The Pope is urged the leading imams to teach their students to reject violence in God’s name and preach peace, dialogue and reconciliation - not instigation to conflict. Francis recalled that Egypt’s ancient civilization valued the quest for knowledge and open-minded education, and that a similar commitment is required today to combat what he called the “barbarity” of religious extremism. Francis spoke to the grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, and other clerics on the first day of a two-day visit to Cairo. He says religious leaders were obliged to “expose attempts to justify every form of hatred in the name of religion, and to condemn these attempts as idolatrous cariacatures of God.”This visit is the first papal trip to Egypt since Pope John Paul II visited in 2000. The visit aims to encourage interchange with Muslim leaders and to show solidarity with Christians across the Middle East at a time of strife. ISIS succeeded in targeting Egypt’s Coptic Christians, in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria as Christian Egyptians were marking Easter.

Security tight as Pope Francis celebrates open-air mass in Cairo
Reuters Saturday, 29 April 2017/Pope Francis celebrated a Mass in Cairo on Saturday, the last day of a brief visit during which he urged Muslim leaders to unite against religious violence as Islamic militants threaten to rid the Middle East of its ancient Christian communities.
Francis’ trip, aimed at rebuilding ties with Muslim religious leaders, comes three weeks after Islamic State killed at least 45 people in attacks on two Egyptian churches. He has used the visit to launch a strong appeal for religious freedom and accuse extremists of distorting the merciful nature of God.
After a dense first day of meetings with political and religious leaders, the highlight on Saturday was the Mass in the Air Defence Stadium, where Vatican officials said 15,000 people gathered, among them Coptic and Anglican bishops.Crowds began to arrive early, waving Egyptian and Vatican flags to welcome Francis, who toured the stadium in a golf buggy to the sound of hymns performed by a choir and orchestra. At the end of his Mass for the Catholic community, Francis blessed Egypt as one of the earliest nations to embrace Christianity and repeated his call for tolerance. “True faith leads us to protect the rights of others with the same zeal and enthusiasm with which we defend our own,” he told the crowd. “God is pleased only by a faith that is proclaimed by our lives, for the only fanaticism believers can have is that of charity! Any other fanaticism does not come from God and is not pleasing to him!” His words echoed his message on the opening day of his visit, when he told an international peace conference at Al-Azhar, Cairo’s 1,000-year-old Sunni Muslim seat of learning: “Together let us affirm the incompatibility of violence and faith belief and hatred.”He also lamented the rise of “demagogic forms of populism” -- a possible reference to right-wing nationalist parties in Europe pushing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agendas.
Strict security
The unusual choice of venue for Saturday’s religious service highlights the security concerns surrounding the trip. Helicopter gunships circled the perimeter of the stadium and military jeeps patrolled the streets of the Egyptian capital on Saturday. The pope himself declined the use of an armored limousine, preferring instead to travel in an ordinary Fiat car to be closer to people. Francis will have lunch with Egyptian bishops and lead prayers at a Catholic seminary in the south of Cairo before heading back to Italy in the late afternoon. The visit was the first by Francis to Cairo but the second by a Vatican pope. Pope John Paul II came to Egypt in 2000, a year before the September 11 attacks on the United States that convulsed Western relations with the Muslim world. Egypt’s Christians comprise roughly 10 percent of the 92 million population -- making them by far the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Most of Egypt’s Christians are Coptic Orthodox with barely 200,000 members of Churches within the Roman Catholic fold. While Egypt has escaped the sort of sectarian violence that has decimated ancient Christian communities in Syria and Iraq, it is under threat from Islamic State militants who launched a campaign in December to wipe out Egypt’s Christians, carrying out three church attacks that have killed more than 70 people. The campaign presents a challenge for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremist and is fighting a long-running insurgency in North Sinai, where Islamic State murders have forced hundreds of Copts to flee. Sisi, who declared a three-month state of emergency after the Palm Sunday church attacks, appealed for more international cooperation to combat terrorism when he met Francis on Friday.

US troops monitor situation along Syria-Turkey border
Reuters Saturday, 29 April 2017/A commander of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Friday US forces would begin monitoring the situation along the Syria-Turkey frontier after cross-border fire between the Turkish military and YPG this week. The monitoring had not yet begun, but the forces would report to senior US commanders, Sharvan Kobani told Reuters after meeting US military officials in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border. The officials had toured Darbasiya which was hit by Turkish artillery fire earlier in the week. Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria and Iraq's Sinjar region on Tuesday in an unprecedented bombardment of groups linked to the PKK, which is fighting an insurgency against Ankara in Turkey's southeast. Those attacks killed nearly 30 YPG fighters and officials, a monitoring group reported. Since Tuesday the YPG and Turkish forces have traded artillery fire along the Syria-Turkey border. Turkey's bombardment of YPG positions complicates the US-backed fight against ISIS in Syria, where the YPG has been a crucial partner on the ground for Washington. The YPG is a key component of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighting groups involved in a campaign to drive ISIS out of its Syria stronghold, Raqqa. US NATO ally Turkey views the YPG and other PKK-affiliated groups as terrorists. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Friday US troops were deployed along the border.
“We continue to urge all the parties involved to focus on the common enemy which is ISIS,” he told reporters. Hundreds of US troops are deployed on the ground in Syria to support the Raqqa offensive.

Lavrov says Russia ready to cooperate with US on Syria
Reuters Saturday, 29 April 2017/Moscow is ready to cooperate with the United States on settling the Syrian crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported. Russian authorities reiterate periodically that they stand ready to renew cooperation with Washington on Syria and, more globally, on fighting terrorism. Relations between the two countries, however, are seen reaching another low after US fired missiles at Syria to punish Moscow's ally for its suspected use of poison gas earlier in April. Russia condemned the US action. Lavrov's deputy Mikhail Bogdanov also said on Saturday that Russian authorities hope that Syrian armed opposition will take part in Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan's Astana on May 3-4, Interfax reported.

Syria’s Assad tells interviewer: ‘Yes, you are now sitting with the devil’
By Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 29 April 2017/Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described himself this week as being seen by the West as a “devil.”In an interview with the pan–Latin American teleSUR this week, Assad said: "Yes, from a Western perspective, you are now sitting with the devil. This is how they market it in the West." Speaking on the subject of Donald Trump, the Syrian leader said the US president "has no policies," but is rather implementing decisions made by "the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, the big arms manufacturers, oil companies, and financial institutions."
"As we have seen in the past few weeks, he changed his rhetoric completely and subjected himself to the terms of the deep American state, or the deep American regime," Assad said. Assad said Trump had "changed his rhetoric completely and subjected himself to the terms of the deep American state, or the deep American regime" following a US air strike on a Syrian regime airbase earlier this month. The strike came in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack believed to be carried out by the Syrian government, a claim that Assad denies. “We have asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send specialized missions to investigate what happened. And every time, the United States obstructed these investigations or prevented sending such missions in order to carry out such investigations," Assad said. "This is what happened last week when we called for investigations over the alleged use of chemical weapons in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. The United States and its allies prevented OPCW from taking that decision."Experts from the world’s watchdog tasked with destroying chemical weapons are probing reports that toxic arms have been used 45 times in Syria since late last year, the body’s chief said Friday. Director general Ahmet Uzumcu said there was “a huge list of allegations” of the use of toxic arms reported to the operations hub of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). In the “second part of 2016, 30 different incidents, and since the beginning of this year, 15 separate incidents, so 45,” he told a reporters, brandishing a list of several pages which he chose to keep confidential. They include the April 4 sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun that was reported to have killed 88 people, including 31 children. “All these allegations are recorded by our experts, who follow this every day from our operations center,” Uzumcu said.The OPCW is currently trying to ensure it is safe enough to deploy its fact-finding team to the town for further analysis, after Uzumcu said last week that “incontrovertible” test results from OPCW-designated labs on samples taken from victims showed sarin gas or a similar substance had been used. (WIth AFP)

France’s Le Pen says would appoint Dupont-Aignan prime minister
Reuters, France Saturday, 29 April 2017/French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen said on Saturday she would appoint defeated first-round candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan as her prime minister if she was to be elected on May 7. Right-winger Dupont-Aignan, who scored 4.7 percent of votes in the first round on April 23, announced on Friday that he was backing Le Pen, as widely expected. “As President of the Republic I will name Nicolas Dupont-Aignan Prime Minister, supported by a presidential majority and united by the national interest,” she told a news conference in Paris at which the two politicians sat together. Dupont-Aignan said he had signed an agreement on the future government with Le Pen that took into account some “modifications” of her program. Polls on Friday showed centrist Emmanuel Macron winning the French presidential runoff with 59-60 percent of votes, although Le Pen has gained some ground since the start of the week.

ISIS claims deadly car bomb attack in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood
AFP, Baghdad Saturday, 29 April /A suicide car bomb attack on a traffic police compound in central Baghdad Friday killed at least four people and wounded six, security and medical sources said. The blast took place in Karrada, a neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital that has been repeatedly targeted in recent years. Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber and "killed four people, including a police lieutenant colonel. ) "Medical and police sources said at least another six people were wounded in the blast, which lit up the sky in the usually busy neighbourhood but struck a relatively quiet side street shortly before 11:00 pm (2000 GMT). One of the deadliest bombings to hit Karrada occurred in July 2016, when a suicide truck bomb explosion set teeming shopping arcades ablaze and killed more than 320 people. Nearly all suicide attacks are claimed by ISIS, which is defending its last major Iraqi bastion of Mosul against a massive operation launched by security forces last October.

Three charged over 2015 Paris attacks
AFP, France Saturday, 29 April 2017/Three people have been charged with supplying arms to militants who staged deadly attacks in 2015 on a Jewish supermarket in Paris and the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, a judicial source said. Those charged this week include Samir L., believed to be linked to the sale of weapons to the supermarket attacker, as well as Miguel M. and Abdelaziz A., who are thought to have been involved in trafficking arms between Belgium and France. Seven people have already been charged over the assaults. The attackers had a wide array of weapons including guns that came from Slovakia. Investigators are trying to piece together how France-based militant Amedy Coulibaly obtained the weapons used in the January 9, 2015 attack on the supermarket. Coulibaly killed four people after taking shoppers hostage at the Jewish store. Elite police later shot him dead as they stormed the building. He had killed a policewoman in the Montrouge suburb south of Paris the night before, when authorities think he may have initially been targeting a nearby Jewish school.The attack was part of three days of terror in the French capital that began with the raid on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine offices that killed 12 people.

Erdogan: Turkey and US can turn Raqa into 'graveyard' for ISIS
AFP, Istanbul Saturday, 29 April 2017/Turkey and the United States can join forces to turn ISIS’s defacto capital of Raqa in Syria into a “graveyard” for the militants, the Turkish president said on Saturday. “The huge America, the coalition and Turkey can join hands and turn Raqa into a graveyard for Daesh,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an Istanbul meeting, using an alternative name for ISIS. “They will look for a place for themselves to hide,” he said. Erdogan’s comments come ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump on May 16 in the United States. Turkey sees the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria as a terrorist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Ankara since 1984.But for the United States, the YPG is essential in the fight against the ISIS. Turkey this month announced that it had completed its half-year Euphrates Shield operation in northern Syria against militants and Kurdish militia, although it is keeping a presence to maintain security in towns now under control of pro-Ankara Syrian militia. Ankara is keen to join any US-led operation to clear Raqa of ISIS militants, but without Syrian Kurdish militia forces. Erdogan on Saturday said he would present Trump at their meeting next month with the “documents” proving YPG’s links to the PKK, which is designated as a terror group by Ankara and Washington. “We are telling American friends so as not to take a terror group along with them,” the Turkish leader said. Tensions escalated this week with cross-border clashes between Turkish forces and the YPG near the Syrian border. Turkey fired a barrage of artillery at the YPG, who returned fire with rockets on Turkish outposts on the border.

US Marines return to Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand
AFP, Afghanistan Saturday, 29 April 2017/US Marines returned to Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province Saturday, the first to be deployed in the war-torn country since NATO forces ended their combat role in 2014. Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson attended a handover ceremony marking the return of the prestigious force in the poppy-growing southern province, where American forces faced heated fighting until 2014, an AFP photographer said. Some 300 Marines will form part of NATO’s train, assist and advise mission in the province, which for years was the centrepiece of the US and British military intervention in Afghanistan -- only for it to slip deeper into a quagmire of instability. The ceremony marking the deployment, first announced in January, came one day after the resurgent Taliban announced the launch of their “spring offensive”, heralding a fresh fighting season. The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US troops over the last decade and blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency. The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from NATO allies. The Marines were among the first US forces sent to Afghanistan after the 2001 terror attacks in the United States. Several thousand were deployed in Helmand, where they engaged in bitter combat with the Taliban insurgency. Their fresh deployment in the province is the latest sign of how foreign forces are increasingly being drawn back into fighting the insurgency.

Saudi embassy plotter made campaign manager in Iran’s presidential elections
Saleh Hamid, Al Arabiya Saturday, 29 April 2017/Several news outlets in Iran are reporting that the main instigator behind the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s embassy and consulate in Iran on January 2016 has been named as a campaign manager for one of the presidential election candidates. Eshaq Jahangiri, first vice-president of Iran, confirmed Hassan Kerd Meehan, a hardline preacher and extremist cleric, is currently working as a campaign manager for Tehran mayor, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, one of the front-runners of the upcoming presidential elections. Iranian authorities arrested Kerd Meehan amid allegations that he led the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran soon after the incident, but was released in October last year. Jahangiri confirmed the report during the first ever live televised presidential debate when asked who he considered were responsible for the attacks on the Saudi missions last January.
“The Saudi Embassy’s attackers are working in one of the candidate’s election campaigns as you know. We also know very well as who financed the groups that attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran,” Jahangiri said. “Those same extremists are responsible for driving away 700,000 Saudi Shiite tourists to Iran after diplomatic relations between the two countries were cut off because of the attack,” Jahangiri added. It is claimed Kerd Meehan, who is also the director of religious institutions in Tehran and Karaj, was involved in the attack that saw angry crowds set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad using Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs.

UN deputy secretary general praises Yemen aid conference pledges
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 29 April 2017/In an interview with Al Arabiya’s UN Bureau Chief Talal al-Haj, the United Nations Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Amina J. Mohammed praised the aid collected for the Yemeni crisis during the recent Geneva conference but also warned on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria, Iraq and Libya. The international community raised $1.1 billion last Tuesday at a pledging event in Geneva to aid what is being considered “the world’s largest hunger crisis” according to the UN. “I think we are pleased with the response, but it’s obviously not enough and so we have to continue outside of those halls to get countries to come forth with the total budget needed which is just over $2.4 bln,” Mohammed told Al Arabiya in New York. Mohammed said that she believed countries who were present at the pledging event understood the urgency that while drought was inevitable, famine was not. “This (pledging event) is all about what we can do to avoid it. In the case of Yemen, it was a good outing and we continue to strive to get the rest of (the needed budget),” she added. On the same day as the pledging event for Yemen, hundreds of protestors reached the Red Sea city of Hudaydah, ending a weeklong march from the capital Sanaa to demand the Houthi-held port be declared a humanitarian zone. The protesters made the 225-kilometer walk, dubbed the “march for bread”, to call for unrestricted aid deliveries to Yemen. “Yemen today is experiencing a tragedy of immense proportions,” the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told country representatives gathered in Geneva last Tuesday. “We are witnessing the starving and the crippling of an entire generation,” he said, adding that Yemen is gripped by “the world’s largest hunger crisis,” Guterres added. Al Arabiya’s Talal al-Haj also spoke to recently-appointed Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and Iraq’s Permanent Representative to the UN Mohamed Ali Alhakim. He spoke on the challenges he anticipates he will face as an executive at ESCWA as well as the latest developments in the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS. Egyptian Archaeologist Zahi Hawass was also a guest of Al Arabiya’s Diplomatic Avenue and spoke on the threat of terrorism and its effects on several archaeological sites in Iraq, Syria and Libya and their destruction by the hands of ISIS.

Coalition air strikes kill Saleh forces, Houthi militias in Yemen
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 29 April 2017/Two field commanders and at least eight members belonging to militias loyal to former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed in raids north of the Khaled bin al-Waleed military camp at al-Mukha northwest of Taiz. According to sources of the popular resistance forces, Ghilan Atef was the one responsible for the mobilization of militants and the recruitment of fighters from Qafr region, who led them to fight with the militias supporting the coup.Authorities from Yemen’s legitimate government have accused Atef of committing many crimes, violations and abductions. Earlier, two senior Houthi militias were killed by members of the national guard during fierce battles that took place in the Mukha front. Those senior militia leaders were identified as Merdas Zakhim, who received training in Lebanon and Iran. The other was named Fahd Batesh Sherif, who died in Mukha and was considered a prominent militia leader in Bihan, Shabwa and battles along Yemen’s west coast.

Doctors confirm 250kg Egyptian woman’s move from India to UAE ‘in days’
Al Arabiya English Saturday, 29 April 2017/A Dubai-based doctor has confirmed to Al Arabiya English the current preparation to move the world’s former heaviest woman from India to a hospital in Abu Dhabi “in the coming days”.Dr. Shajir Gaffar, chief executive for Dubai and Northern Emirates at VPS Healthcare, confirmed that a medical evacuation team is currently in India’s Saifee Hospital where Eman Abd El-Aty – who once weighed nearly 500 kgs - to evaluate her condition and prepare for her move to Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi. “The whole multidisciplinary medical team is in India, led by Director of VPS Medical Evacuation department Senet Meyer. Logistics on a chartered flight for bed-to-bed transfer of patient Eman has taken shape and we are honored to conduct the mission within the next few days to UAE,” Gaffar told Al Arabiya English. Gaffar also confirmed that authorities at UAE’s ministry of interior have already issued an indefinite long- term courtesy entry visa, which Al Arabiya has obtained copies of, for Abd El-Aty and her sister Shaimaa. “We are very thankful to authorities in UAE and India for all the support extended so far. We are planning for a complete rehabilitation until all (of Eman’s) health parameters are controlled and once we know that she will lead a good quality life. This is part of VPS Healthcare Burjeel Hospitals corporate social responsibility,” Gaffar added.
Falling out with Indian doctors
Abd El-Aty’s case has gained worldwide attention in recent days following a row between her sister Shaimaa and hospital officials in India. Indian doctors claimed in recent weeks that Eman had lost “more than half her weight,” while her sister however has alleged that Eman has not lost as much weight as the hospital was claiming. Shaimaa also claims that doctors at Saifee Hospital in Mumbai are forcing Eman to be discharged and are using her case for publicity. She posted disturbing images and videos of Eman during her paralysis attacks. On Thursday, Saifee Hospital authorities reportedly called the police after Shaimaa gave water to Eman to sip without informing the doctor, because her sister was thirsty. Eman, who weighed 500kg before undergoing surgery in India last February, reportedly cannot swallow and is being fed through a tube. During an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel, Shaimaa said she is happy to accept an offer from the UAE as she had “lost complete trust and hope regarding Eman’s care in India”. “We have to find an alternative route to take at this point as I have lost complete hope in the Indian doctors. They told us that they will send Eman back to Egypt in the coming week but her condition is not stable as she is suffering from seizures and going in and out of comas. We hope we can find another hospital that will take her in,” she told Al Arabiya.

Iran’s presidential candidates square off in first ever live TV debate
AFP, Tehran Saturday, 29 April 2017/The six candidates standing in Iran's presidential election squared off in their first ever live television debate Friday, with moderate President Hassan Rowhani coming under fire from a key rival. Televised debates are a relatively new feature of Iranian presidential elections, and are believed to have influenced the results of votes in 2009 and 2013. Ahead of the May 19 poll, the interior ministry had announced a ban on live television debates, triggering an outcry that prompted a reversal of its decision. Three live debates are now expected to take place. Rowhani, who is hoping for a second term in office, and conservative rivals Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf all rejected the ban. On Friday, during the first live debate, Ghalibaf hammered Rowhani and his confidant and first vice-president, Eshaq Jahangiri, with both sides trading accusations of "lies" and making "insincere" comments.Ghalibaf berated Rowhani for failing to make good on a promise "to create four million jobs", saying unemployment was Iran's "biggest problem". Rowhani riposted by saying: "I never promised to create four million jobs. That's a lie." Unemployment, which stands at 12.4 percent, the lack of social housing and government aid to the underprivileged were the issues that dominated Friday's debate. Ghalibaf also accused Rowhani and his government of "bad management" and of "repeatedly saying that the government does not have the means" to solve the Islamic republic's problems. He also took a poke at Jahangiri, whose candidacy was a surprise entry at the last minute, saying the vice-president threw his hat in the ring only to back up Rowhani and help him in the debates. According to several reformists, Jahangiri is expected to pull out of the race after the three live television debates in order to support Rowhani. Jahangiri dismissed the attacks against himself and accused Ghalibaf of running the capital "with the mentality of a military man". A war veteran, Ghalibaf is a former Revolutionary Guards commander and police chief. This is his third run at the presidency.The other three candidates -- Raisi, a hardline judge and close ally of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, conservative Mostafa Mirsalim and reformist Mostafa Hashemitaba -- kept a low profile during the first debate.

North Korea test-fires ballistic missile in defiance of world pressure
Reuters, Seoul Saturday, 29 April 2017/North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile on Saturday, the South Korean and US militaries said, defying warnings from the United States and the reclusive state’s main ally, China, which have tried for years to rein in its arms programs. The test, from an area north of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, appeared to have failed, US and South Korean officials said, in what would be North Korea’s fourth successive unsuccessful missile test since March. The test came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the UN Security Council that failure to curb North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs could lead to “catastrophic consequences”. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the missile was probably a medium-range weapon known as a KN-17 and appears to have broken up within minutes of taking off. South Korea said the North was playing with fire and warned it of tougher UN sanctions. The South Korean military said the missile, fired from the Pukchang region in a northeasterly direction, reached an altitude of 71 km (44 miles) before disintegrating a few minutes into flight. It said the launch was a clear violation of UN resolutions and warned the North not to act rashly. The North has been conducting missile and nuclear weapons related activities at an unprecedented rate since the beginning of the year and is believed to have made some progress in developing intermediate-range and submarine-launched missiles. US President Donald Trump, who told Reuters in an interview on Thursday North Korea was his biggest global challenge, said the launch was an affront to China. “North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!,” Trump said in a post on Twitter after the launch. The United States has been hoping North Korea’s sole major ally, China, can bring pressure to bear. But China says the United States must not over-estimate the influence it has over its neighbor. Just before the missile test, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN Security Council on meeting on North Korea it was not only up to China to solve the North Korean problem. “The key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side,” Wang said.
Both China and Russia rebuked a US threat of military force.
There was no immediate reaction to the launch from China. Japan condemned it as unacceptable. Trump, in his interview with Reuters, said he had praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping for “trying very hard” on North Korea, though Trump warned a “major, major conflict” between the United States and North Korea was possible. Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks over fears the North may conduct a long-range missile test, or its sixth nuclear test, around the time of the April 15 anniversary of its state founder’s birth, or the day marking the founding of its military this week.
In a show of force, the United States is sending the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it will join the USS Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea on Tuesday.
With North Korea acting in defiance of the pressure, the United States could conduct new naval drills and deploy more ships and aircraft in the region, a US official told Reuters.
‘COMPLICATED TIMING’
The timing of the launch suggested a complex North Korean message to the world, said Kim Dong-yub, an expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. “It was planned at a complicated timing around the end of the South Korea-US joint military drills, the United States talking about military options and the announcement of North Korea policies and the Security Council meeting,” Kim said. South Korean and US forces have been conducting annual military drills since the beginning of March that conclude at the end of April. Kim said North Korea might have got the data it wanted with the missile’s short flight, then blown it up in a bid to limit the anger of China, which disapproves of the North’s weapons programs and has warned it against further provocation. North Korea rattled world powers in February when it successfully launched a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that it said could carry a nuclear weapon. It also successfully tested ballistic missiles on March 6. It is not clear what has caused the series of failed missile tests since then.
The Trump administration could respond to the test by speeding up its plans for new US sanctions, including possible measures against specific North Korean and Chinese entities, said the US official, who declined to be identified.“Something that’s ready to go could be taken from the larger package and expedited,” said the official. The UN Security Council is likely to start discussing a statement to condemn the missile launch, said diplomats, adding that it was unlikely to be issued on Friday. The Security Council traditionally condemns all missile launches by Pyongyang.
“It could have happened today exactly because we had the meeting,” Italian UN Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, chair of the Security Council’s North Korean sanctions committee, told reporters. “It’s illegal, it should not be done, it’s another provocative action by North Korea.” But such routine condemnation and a series of sanctions resolutions since 2006, when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, have done little to impede its push for ballistic missiles and nuclear arms. The South Korean politician expected to win a May 9 presidential election, Moon Jae-in, who has advocated a more moderate policy on the North, called the test an “exercise in futility”. “We urge again the Kim Jong Un regime to immediately stop reckless provocative acts and choose the path to cooperate with the international community including giving up its nuclear program,” Park Kwang-on, a spokesman for Moon, said in a statement, referring to the North Korean leader. Moon has been critical of the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system in the South intended to counter North Korea’s missile threat, which China also strongly objects to.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 29-30/1
Angry debate in Egypt over reforms in Islam against radicals
https://apnews.com/a5976d60391946eab7d3ec16d988a44a
By: Hamza Hendawi, Lee Keath & Mariam Fam/April 26/17
CAIRO (AP) — It was a startling collision of religion and politics. Egypt's president proposed a new law that would prevent Muslim men from ending their marriages simply by saying "divorce" three times. The country's top institution of Islamic clerics, Al-Azhar, bluntly rejected the idea, saying Islam gives men that right and nothing can change that. In the months since, that confrontation escalated into a blistering feud over who speaks for Islam and how to bring reforms. Pro-government media accuse Al-Azhar of failing to modernize its teaching to counter militant thought that breeds jihadi movements and violence like the Islamic State group's recent attacks on Egypt's Christians. This weekend, Pope Francis meets in Cairo with Al-Azhar's grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, their second meeting in a historic initiative to improve Muslim-Christian dialogue.
Al-Azhar is revered in Egypt and is prestigious across the Muslim world. A 1,000-year-old university of scholar-clerics, it teaches new generations of Sunni clerics and produces research that for many spells out what being a Muslim entails.
Although it is traditionally touted as the bastion of moderate Islamic thought, it is also conservative in instinct — wary of new ideas and debate, and fixated on maintaining authority. It vehemently condemns militant attacks and denounces extremist thinkers as perverting Islam. But critics say it is plagued by the same sort of literalism and adherence to historic texts of interpretation that radicals thrive on and that feed intolerance and discrimination against women and minorities, including Christians. In recent years, it has pushed for the closing of a TV show of a broadcaster who said canonical books of interpretation should be purged of ideas promoting violence and hatred for non-Muslims. In another case, Al-Azhar suspended one of its professors on allegations of "promoting atheism" after he taught from books by liberal writers.
"Our nation will never be a modern and civil state as long as Al-Azhar continues to live on its present rationale," said Mohammed Abu Hamad, a pro-government lawmaker who has recently authored a draft bill that give authorities more controls and limit the number of years its grand imam can serve.
Al-Azhar issued an angry statement last week, calling the criticism "a betrayal" and maintaining its graduates are "messengers of peace, security and good neighborliness."The government campaign raises another worry — that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is trying to impose greater control on Al-Azhar. The more Al-Azhar is seen as a branch of the Egyptian state, the less legitimacy its voice on Islam has, supporters argue. Radical jihadi sheikhs already dismiss Al-Azhar as "clerics of the sultan" willing to skew "true Islam" to meet the ruler's wishes.
Soon after taking office in 2014, el-Sissi called for the "modernizing of religious discourse," saying Muslims had to dramatically rethink how to address issues to stem Islamic militancy. He has never given specifics, but tasked Al-Azhar with leading the initiative.
Last year, he showed his displeasure with the lack of change, warning that Al-Azhar's clerics would be "held accountable by God" for not modernizing discourse. He ordered his Religious Affairs Ministry to write standardized sermons for all mosque preachers, despite Al-Azhar objections.
The unusual clash over divorce came earlier this year. Criticism accelerated, particularly after IS suicide bombers attacked two churches on April 9, killing 45 people. Some in pro-government media blamed Al-Azhar, saying it had not tackled extremism or had even fueled it.
"Al-Azhar has failed to counter terror," declared Ahmed Moussa, the most vocal of el-Sissi's supporters on television. After the attacks, el-Sissi ordered the creation of a new state body tasked with fighting terror and addressing radicalism, seen as circumventing Al-Azhar.
Al-Azhar has pushed back with unusual vehemence. For weeks, its mouthpiece, the weekly newspaper Voice of Al-Azhar, has expressed outrage over the criticism, even blaming government failures for terror attacks.
El-Tayeb defended Al-Azhar's role, saying its clerics "stand firm against mistaken ideas that distort religion." At its heart, Al-Azhar is an education network of hundreds of "ulema," or religious scholar-clerics, who study the Quran and the thousands of sayings of the prophet as well as the vast library of interpretations of those texts written by scholars over the centuries. From that analysis, they produce explanations, dissertations and opinions on proper belief and practice. Its college produces clerics who work in mosques around the world.
Those books of interpretation — some of them hundreds of years old and collectively known as "al-turath" or "heritage" — have become nearly unquestioned canon and are used in the Al-Azhar curriculum.
But some include deeply hard-line ideas. For example, media have pointed to books that teach that Muslims must not greet Christians on their holidays or that building churches is a sin. Others say fighting "infidels" is a duty or that those who convert from Islam to another religion should be killed, or call for oppression of homosexuals.
Ayman al-Sayyad, a writer on religious issues, said jihadi thought "is not coming from nothing," and extremists can find backing in the volumes of interpretation. "In Al-Azhar's library, you can find two books next to each other on the shelf giving opposing views on one topic, like punishment of an apostate."
Al-Azhar's leadership says the conclusions that radical clerics and terror groups reach are complete misreading — such as the permissibility of declaring other Muslims infidels, of killing civilians and of using suicide bombings as well as the duty to wage jihad against Western nations and their Mideast allies. Shariah punishments like stoning adulterers and amputations for thieves, Al-Azhar says, are not applicable in the current age. Still, texts with those ideas get taught, sometimes uncritically, in Al-Azhar's colleges because they are seen as part of the canon alongside moderate interpretations. They are also taught at the network of elementary, middle and high schools Al-Azhar runs across Egypt, which teach religion alongside math and sciences and other topics.Critics in pro-government media say such texts should be thrown out. But Al-Azhar has resisted what it sees as "unqualified outsiders" weighing in. Islam Behery, a young reformist religious researcher, ran into trouble when he said on his TV program that books of heritage should be purged of ideas that fuel terrorism. A criminal court sentenced him to a year in prison on charges of "contempt of religion," a rare punishment. He was released late last year by a presidential pardon after serving most of his sentence. Al-Azhar, though it denies being behind the complaint that led to his trial, has pushed for Behery to be taken off the air, accusing him of undermining the fundamentals of Islam. Al-Azhar's personnel aren't fit to bring about change, "and it isn't letting others do it, either," he said in an interview with the AP. "When I keep on saying, 'These books are wrong and don't represent Islam,' and Al-Azhar imprisons me, it is reinforcing (extremists') ideas," he said. Mahmoud Mehana, a senior Al-Azhar official, said committees have reviewed all the institution's books and curricula. "They contain nothing that is insulting (to others) or calls for terrorism or violence," he told the AP. "The heritage is correct, but those who implement it are wrong," he said. Al-Sayyad, the writer, argues that Al-Azhar needs to include all the texts. But rather than just declaring hard-line interpretations wrong, discussion must be made freer to let more progressive ideas emerge and address them. "There will be no liberalization of the religious discourse, or anything else for that matter, unless a climate of freedom prevails in society."Associated Press Writer Sam Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

Donald Trump Is a Real Republican
Charles Jabbour/The New York Times/April 29/17
Claremont, Calif. — What kind of conservative is President Trump? He must be some kind of conservative, because for nearly 100 days and counting, liberals have poured on him the kind of vitriol they do not reserve for moderates or ideological nobodys. Inside the Beltway, some famous conservatives have joined in the sport but for the opposite reason, that Mr. Trump, they claim, is no conservative but a populist demagogue out to discredit and destroy their beloved movement. In his three major public speeches so far — his remarks at the Republican National Convention, his Inaugural Address and his speech to a joint session of Congress — Mr. Trump did not mention conservatism at all. Even at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he claimed simply, and almost in passing, that his election was a victory for “conservative values.” What those were he did not specify, except to say that Americans believe in “freedom, security and the rule of law” and in standing up for America, American workers and the American flag.
These formulas are sufficiently broad to encourage both sides of the White House jostling between Stephen Bannon, the chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law. Rather than focus on the infighting, we need to look at the president’s overall agenda and try to put it into a longer, and sharper, historical perspective. Granted, there has never been a president quite like Mr. Trump, but his positions are not as outré or as outrageous as they are often portrayed. Mr. Trump remains the kind of conservative president whom one expects to say, proudly and often, “the chief business of the American people is business.” Although Calvin Coolidge said it first, Mr. Trump shows increasing signs of thinking along broadly Coolidgean lines, and of redirecting Republican policies toward the pre-New Deal, pre-Cold War party of William McKinley and Coolidge, with its roots in the party of Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Trump is not and never was a movement conservative. Apart from a youthful flirtation (is there any other kind?) with Ayn Rand, he has displayed little to no patience for libertarianism, traditionalism, neoconservatism or the other endangered ideological species that the movement has sought to conserve for so many decades.
“Don’t forget,” he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News during the campaign, “this is called the Republican Party. It’s not called the Conservative Party.”He raised in that remark, glancingly, the possibility that conservatism ought to be measured by the standards of Republicanism, or at least ought to be defined in conjunction with Republican principles and history, rather than the other way around — that is, rather than simply taking today’s conservatism as the standard to which to hold the Republican Party. Mr. Trump’s policies suggest that what he calls his “common sense” conservatism harks back to the principles and agenda of the old Republican Party, which reached its peak before the New Deal. In those days the party stood for protective tariffs, immigration tied to assimilation (or what Theodore Roosevelt called Americanization), judges prepared to strike down state and sometimes federal laws encroaching on constitutional limitations, tax cuts, internal improvements (infrastructure spending, in today’s parlance) and a firm but restrained foreign policy tailored to the defense of the national interest. Are these not the main elements of Trump administration policies?
It’s not that Mr. Trump set out consciously to return the Republican Party to its roots. By temperament and style he’s more attracted to President Andrew Jackson, whose portrait now hangs in the Oval Office. “I’m a fan,” he said after visiting Jackson’s home, the Hermitage, near Nashville, in March. It’s more likely that his own independent reading of our situation led him to similar conclusions and to similar ways of thinking. The bread crumbs he dropped at the joint session pointed in that direction. President Trump quoted a well-known statement by Lincoln in 1847 that “the abandonment of the protective policy” will “produce want and ruin among our people.” Lincoln was a great protectionist before he became the great emancipator.
But Mr. Trump could have as easily quoted McKinley’s 1896 platform (protection is “the bulwark of American industrial independence and the foundation of American development and prosperity”) or Coolidge’s in 1924. Mr. Trump praised Dwight Eisenhower not for ending the Korean War, say, but for building “the last truly great national infrastructure program,” the Interstate System of highways.
The old Republican Party stretched from Lincoln to Herbert Hoover and continued to influence Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. It dominated national politics to an extent that the modern conservative Republican Party, forged during the Cold War, could only dream of: Between Lincoln’s election in 1860 and Hoover’s loss to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, the party elected every president but two (Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson) and controlled both houses of Congress for about 46 of the 72 years. Those halcyon days coincided with a determined embrace of Trump-like policies. It helped, to be sure, that the Democrats spent those decades living down their shameful support of slavery, secession and Jim Crow.
Yet President Trump cannot simply ignore the modern conservative movement. For one thing, its two great successes, victory in the Cold War and reigniting economic growth (through Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, spending policies and regulatory reforms), have made plausible his own visions of post-Cold War foreign policy and a resurgent economy. After those successes, however, modern conservatism mostly marked time and dreamed of limiting government. It had vain imaginings of how to build a conservative majority in the electorate, but nothing more.
Mr. Trump offers a way out of the stalemate, toward electoral success and ideological renewal that begins with a return to former Republican policies that put Americans first, on trade, immigration, infrastructure and more, which are attractive to millions of working- and middle-class voters.
The old Republican Party also had a sizable progressive or liberal wing. As his fondness for Jackson shows, Mr. Trump is more a populist than a progressive, but in any case he will be fighting mostly over the party’s definition of conservatism, trying to stretch an orthodoxy, or a clutch of orthodoxies, to accommodate a governing majority. Nonetheless, he will have some room to reach to his left, or to the center, and could invoke Theodore Roosevelt as a model, without necessarily following T.R. on his later Progressive Party bender.
America today is a very different country from what it was in the 1920s or the late 19th century, when Republicans reigned. So the Trump administration’s policies will have to be a mixture of old and new. It’s too early to tell whether this mixture will evolve into a doctrine of Trumpism. Few presidents’ policies, principles and persona are so distinctive that they congeal into an “ism.”The movement that brought him to power is, by Mr. Trump’s own admission, almost spontaneous and still strangely nameless. It cannot fill the thousands of executive branch positions at his disposal; for that, he needs to rely mainly on the broad conservative movement and the Republican Party. It’s likely, then, that his administration will have to maneuver between the older and the current strains of conservatism, and between the populist and establishment sensibilities. On foreign policy he has demonstrated a pugnacity easily exceeding the old Republican Party’s. Though he will move trade policy toward greater protection, he will fall far short of McKinley’s standards.
Donald Trump’s populism may be protean, but look for it to move both conservatism and the Republican Party closer to their former selves.

Why Is Female Genital Mutilation Still Happening in the U.S.?
Phyllis Chesler/Fox News/April 29/17
http://www.meforum.org/6662/female-genital-mutilation-still-happening-in-the-us
Originally published under the title "FGM is Illegal in the United States. So Why Is It Still Happening Here?"
Knowingly subjecting someone to female genital mutilation (FGM), whether within U.S. borders or abroad ("vacation cutting"), is illegal under federal law. Let's be clear: FGM (female genital mutilation) is illegal in the United States. That fact did not stop Drs. Humana Nagarwala, Fakhruddin Attar, and his wife Farida Attar, from allegedly performing these criminal and human rights atrocities against two vulnerable 7-year-old girls in the Detroit metro area. The physicians and Attar's wife have all been arrested. According to Fox 2 News in Detroit the three have been charged with female genital mutilation and conspiracy. The doctors are also charged with making false statements to investigators and trying to obstruct the investigation. For years, many Muslims have insisted that the practice of FGM has nothing to do with Islam, that it is, originally, an African and pagan custom. This may be true. However, many Muslims believe it is religiously required. Many Muslims believe female genital mutilation is religiously required. Boldly, cleverly, the Detroit-area physicians are arguing that FGM is a "religious practice" and that to interfere with it is tantamount to religious discrimination. There is some proof that Mohammed allowed a female "exciser" to perform this mutilation -- but he advised her not to "overdo it." In the Islamic world, FGM is practiced most widely in the in the Arab Muslim Middle East, both in the Gulf and in African states such as Egypt, Somalia, and Sudan; but it has increasingly spread to Muslim communities in Central Asia (parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran) and to the Far East (Malaysia and Indonesia).
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not at all like male circumcision. Not only is the capacity for sexual pleasure destroyed, but complications are routine and include bleeding, painful urination, cysts, and dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections. The growth of scar tissue can make marital intercourse a nightmare and turn childbirth into an experience of danger and torture.
The New York Times opted not to use the term FGM in its article about the Nagarwala/Attar case. The paper's Health and Science editor later explained that the term is too "culturally loaded." FGM also increases the likelihood of newborn deaths. In addition, some girls and women develop fistulas and become incontinent. They are doomed to defecate and urinate without control. Absent effective surgery, this is a life-long condition that leads to a woman being shunned by her family. And then there is a life-long post-traumatic stress disorder that normally accompanies the experience of having been forced into such suffering, traditionally at the hands of a female butcher, usually the mother or grandmother. In the West, misguided concepts of "multi-cultural relativism" and fear of offending an increasingly hostile Muslim and African immigrant population has condemned those girls and women who live among us and who deserve their rights under Western law. Whether FGM is understood to be a religious or a tribal custom, like polygamy, child marriage, normalized daughter-and-wife battering, incest, and "honor killing," it has no place in the West.
Those who choose to live here should obey our laws; the freedoms for which we have fought should extend to all Americans, not only to some. **Phyllis Chesler, a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum, is an emerita professor of psychology and women's studies and the author of sixteen books.

Michael Flynn’s Fall Tells a Much Bigger Story
David Ignatius/The Washington Post/April 29/17
Flynn’s luck has run out in recent months. He was fired as national security adviser for misleading colleagues about his questionable discussions last December with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Now he’s under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general for failing to get approval for payments he received from Russian and Turkish sources, despite a clear warning in 2014 that such approval was required. The puzzle is why Flynn, who had a reputation as a meticulous tactical intelligence officer during his Army career, was so careless when he left the military. The story is a personal tragedy for Flynn, but it illustrates a larger problem in the national-security community. When intelligence officers such as Flynn move from compartmented boxes to a wider world, they often make mistakes. They’ve been living inside super-secret units that resemble a closed family circle. They don’t understand the rules of public behavior. They’re not good at being normal. And they often pay a severe price.
There are numerous examples of this transition problem. James J. Angleton, the CIA’s legendary counterintelligence chief, was secretive to the point of paranoia when he was at the agency. But when he left in the 1970s, he couldn’t stop talking to journalists and others about his conspiracy theories. Some other former CIA officers are similar: They work the press or lobbying clients the way they used to work their agency assets. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, one of Flynn’s mentors, got fired as commander in Afghanistan after he and his staff made inappropriate comments to a Rolling Stone journalist. Gen. John Allen, a much-admired commander in Afghanistan, got involved in an email correspondence with a would-be Florida socialite that led to a Pentagon investigation, which derailed his appointment as NATO commander. Gen. David Petraeus, perhaps the most celebrated commander of his generation, pleaded guilty to improperly sharing classified information with his biographer, with whom he was romantically involved.
Each of these people served the country in remarkable ways. But looking at the difficulties they encountered, one senses a pattern. Senior command is a world unto itself. The tribal culture that envelops all our military and intelligence personnel is especially tight for our most secret warriors. They sometimes miss the signals that life outside will be different.
Flynn certainly got a clear warning when he left the military after serving as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. On Thursday, the Pentagon released a letter he received Oct. 8, 2014, about “the ethics restrictions that apply to you after your retirement.” The instructions listed eight areas of “post-employment restrictions,” including an obligation to get approval for any foreign compensation. Flynn apparently cruised through that red light when he accepted $45,000 for speaking to the Russian government’s television-propaganda channel in 2015, and when he received more than $500,000 in 2016 from a firm with close ties to the Turkish government. Flynn retroactively registered as a foreign-government representative for work on behalf of Turkey that occurred on the eve of Donald Trump’s election and Flynn’s selection as national security adviser.
It’s unclear whether Flynn disclosed these foreign-government payments and other foreign contacts, as required, in renewing his security clearances at the White House, where he oversaw the nation’s most sensitive, compartmented programs. Failure to reveal such information can sometimes violate Section 1001 of the U.S. criminal code, known as the “false statements” provision. When military and intelligence promotion panels review candidates for top positions, it’s said they pay special attention to whether officers have the judgment to manage the subtle, unpredictable problems that arise for commanders. Can they communicate to their subordinates, colleagues at other agencies, members of Congress and, when appropriate, the public? The military and intelligence agencies promote some spectacularly talented people, but something in this process is misfiring.
Military commanders need to know how to communicate in a wide-open world. But a word of caution: The sunlight can be blinding. Good people can do dumb things. They get so used to living by their own code that they sometimes don’t register what the law says.

Smokescreens in Islam: Confusing the Public about the Facts
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/April 29/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10283/islam-facts
Qadri's admirable take on terrorism conceals another large elephant in the room. Islam has for centuries used violence against non-Muslims in what is considered a legitimate manner: through jihad. It is not simply that Muslim armies have fought their enemies much as Christian armies have engaged in war. Jihad is commanded in the later verses of the Qur'an, is endorsed in the Traditions and the biography of Muhammad, and codified in the manuals of shari'a law. Qadri knows this perfectly well, and at times inadvertently reveals as much in several ways.
Qadri does not just insist that Islam is a religion of peace and security. By tucking all references to jihad in footnotes in transliterated Arabic, he never has to explain what it is about and how it relates to his rulings on what is and what is not permissible.
It is hard to be a reasonably knowledgeable Muslim and not know that calls for violence pervade the Qur'an and sacred traditions, or that Islamic armies have been fighting European Christians, Indian Hindus, and others since the 7th century.
Islam, after all, conquered Persia, Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East, Greece, Spain and most of Eastern Europe -- until its armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1863.
Following the terrorist attack outside Britain's Houses of Parliament on March 22, 2017, it was not surprising or wrong that many Muslims denounced the attack and declared it to be un-Islamic. Two days afterwards, Dr. Mohammed Qureshi, chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Shropshire Islamic Foundation, said:
We need to be united in this situation. We should not give any religion a bad name and these people need to be dealt with in full force and there should be zero tolerance when it comes to dealing with them. My heart goes out to these victims. And my heart goes out to the people's families and those who are injured. I pray they all have peace in their minds.
He added:There is no place for these acts in the religion of Islam. The people are being radicalised and the young and vulnerable people need to be protected. We need to disassociate this with Islam, as Islam is a religion of peace. This view was echoed in a press release by the Foundation, in which sympathy for the dead and their families was followed by a commitment to non-violence: "as a community, we need to come together to condemn violence and hatred and work towards cohesion and tolerance". More recently, a document about Islamophobia published by the Green Party of the United States affirmed the purportedly peaceful character of Islam: The highest goal of the Islamic faith is Peace. Peace is pursued over all and for Muslims the world over, 'holy war' has nothing to do with the concept of jihad. The Arabic word translates as 'struggle,' and is used a handful of times in the Quran to speak of the struggle to stay on the righteous path, to fulfill obligations to family, community and Creator, what the Islamic scholars call a higher jihad. These claims, however, seem innocent of the verses that say:
So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds.... And those who are killed in the cause of Allah -- never will He waste their deeds. Surah Muhammad [47:4]
Or: And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. [Sahih International] Verse (8:60)
There are said to be 123 verses in the Quran concerning fighting and killing for the cause of Allah -- more than a few.
These claims also show that many people seem to be buying into the narrative of Islam as a perfect religion of peace, even if saying so runs counter to more than 1400 years of history and the official record of classical Islamic scholarship about jihad. Islam, after all, conquered Persia, Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East, Greece, Spain and most of Eastern Europe -- until its armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1863.
At the same time, there can be no doubt that Muslim leaders who speak out against terrorism and radicalism need our support and that they must be the very people governments, churches, and the security services speak to and work with if we are to head towards the deradicalisation of Muslim communities in the West. Qureshi's remarks deserve to be taken at face value. Neither he nor his foundation and its associated mosque and academy has any known links to radicalism. They belong to the largest mainstream form of Sunni Islam, the Hanafi school of Islamic law, and there is no overt reason that Qureshi is not sincere in his belief that Islam is a religion of peace.
At the same time, however, he must know better. His own second name is Mujahid, which means "a fighter in the jihad". Not only that, but his mosque is, like most others in the UK, Deobandi in orientation; and it is out of Deobandi madrasas [Islamic religious schools] that the Taliban originated. Deobandi Islam, although mainstream, has over the years appealed to Muslims in Pakistan and abroad who have a fundamentalist disposition. Qureshi cannot be unaware of that. It is hard to be a reasonably knowledgeable Muslim and not know that calls for violence pervade the Qur'an and sacred Traditions, or that Islamic armies have been fighting European Christians, Indian Hindus, and others since the 7th century.
What we in the West know is that a string of modern politicians and churchmen in Europe and North America have, like Qureshi, insisted -- perhaps in a sometimes-desperate attempt to dissociate Islamic terrorism from the religion of Islam -- that Islam is a religion of peace. The violence, they say, is a perversion of Islam, and they say this even as terrorist after terrorist invokes Islam as his motivation and shouts "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is the greatest!"] while committing the crime. Terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State, confidently quote the Qur'an, Traditions [Hadith] and shari'a legislation to justify their attacks.
Western leaders often turn to Muslim imams and scholars to confirm their view that Islam is essentially like modern Judaism or Christianity, if not a mirror image of the Quaker religion. A major expression of this approach is a book by a leading Pakistani scholar, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. Translated into English, this book of some 400 pages is entitled, Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings (London, 2010). It has been widely praised as an outstanding authoritative text that demonstrates that terrorism of any kind is contrary to Islamic teachings and law -- an argument reinforced by hundreds of citations from the Qur'an, Traditions, and a host of classical Muslim authorities.
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri (1951-) is a scholar and religious leader with an LLB and a PhD in Islamic Law; a politician (he founded the anti-government Pakistan Awami Tehreek party in 1989), and an international speaker. He is touted as having studied since childhood the many branches of religious studies under his father and other teachers, and having authored on Islamic topics one thousand books (not an uncommon claim among Muslim writers). He comes from a Barelvi/Sufi background, the main opposition to Deobandi Islam in Pakistan and abroad. Qadri is also the head of Minhaj-ul-Quran, an international organization that promotes Islamic moderation and inter-faith work.
Qadri and his organization have made a mark on political and religious leaders in many places. On September 24, 2011, Minhaj-ul-Quran held a large conference in London's Wembley Arena. Qadri and other speakers issued a declaration of peace on behalf of representatives of several religions, scholars and politicians. The conference was endorsed by the Rector of Al-Azhar University (the chief academy in the Sunni Islamic world); Ban Ki-Moon (Secretary General of the UN); Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation); David Cameron (British Prime Minister); Nick Clegg (British Deputy Prime Minister) and Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), among others.
It is not surprising, then, that Qadri's fatwa has made a great impression on many concerned about terrorism instigated and carried out by organizations that lay claim to a connection with Islam. There can be no doubt that a condemnation of Islamic terrorism coming from an eminent Muslim figure is an important contribution to the struggle to contain and eventually eliminate not just the terror but the radicalisation that inevitably precedes it.
At the same time, however, it may be argued that while Qadri presents strong religious rulings that reject acts such as suicide bombings that characterise modern movements as in Islamic State, he fails to prove his claim that, "Islam is a religion of peace and security, and it urges others to pursue the path of peace and protection" (p. 21). His fatwa, in fact, only proves that certain types of violence and certain types of victims are illegal within Islamic scripture and law. It does not show that Islam is, in its essence, a pacifist, peace-loving faith. Let us try to disentangle this.
The fatwa rightly devotes several chapters to important topics: "The Unlawfulness of Indiscriminately Killing Muslims" (chapter 2); "The Unlawfulness of Indiscriminately Killing Non-Muslims and Torturing Them" (chapter 3); "The Unlawfulness of Terrorism against Non-Muslims – Even During Times of War" (chapter 4); "On the Protection of the Non-Muslims' Lives, Properties and Places of Worship" (chapter 5); and "The Unlawfulness of Forcing One's Belief upon Others and Destroying Places of Worship" (chapter 6).
This is certainly a massive improvement on the rulings of Salafi sheikhs who support Islamic terrorist groups and issue fatwas to support things such as murder and suicide bombings. The leading Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for example, for a long time insisted that suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian terrorists were a legitimate form of self-defence -- and his fatwas encouraged other sheikhs to advocate suicide attacks.
The average reader is unlikely to read the entire book; even in a glance through it, much will be missed. One might well assume that Islam, as portrayed by Qadri, opposes terrorism for much the same ethical reasons that Jews, Christians and others oppose it. But a close reading shows that he is operating from a different premise to non-Muslims. His concern is to read everything in a close context of Islamic law -- not ethics. This is particularly noticeable in the legal underpinnings he gives to almost everything. He devotes chapters 8-11 (pp.171-237) to an extremely conventional discussion of the evils of rebelling against an Islamic government even if its ruler were corrupt. Terrorists, he asserts, are to be condemned because they take up arms against their governments. By this definition, the rebel groups fighting against Bashar al-Assad in Syria must be condemned because they have taken up arms against their lawful ruler.
He also devotes chapters 12-17 (pp. 239-395) to drawing a comparison between today's terrorists and the earliest Muslim rebellious group, the Kharijites. The Kharijites emerged after the first schism in Islam, following the assignation of the third Caliph, when they rebelled against both the fourth Caliph, 'Ali, and the man who became the ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750), which created the first Islamic Empire. The dissenters shocked followers of the young faith by declaring those with whom they disagreed to be apostates worthy of death. In their first years, they murdered hundreds of Muslims. Their use of terror against other Muslims and their rebellion against the Islamic state earned them a reputation as the greatest threat to the unity of the Muslim world. By focusing so narrowly on the Kharijites in his anti-terror polemic, Qadri reveals that his concerns are based purely on Islamic considerations, not broader concepts of justice. Christians, Jews, secularists, and others, for instance, condemn terrorism as a breach of human rights, Judaeo-Christian ethics, and international law. Qadri is not interested in any of those things, just the impropriety of terrorist actions in relation to Islamic law. This narrow view allows him to ignore the wider questions of violence in Islamic scripture, law, and history.
Qadri's admirable take on terrorism conceals a large elephant in the room. Islam has for centuries used violence against non-Muslims in what is considered a legitimate manner, through jihad. It is not simply that Muslim armies have fought their enemies much as Christian armies have engaged in war. Jihad is commanded in the later verses of the Qur'an, is endorsed in the Traditions and the biography of Muhammad, and codified in the manuals of shari'a law. Qadri knows this perfectly well, and at times inadvertently reveals as much in several ways.
The word jihad, for example, occurs many times in the fatwa, usually when he refers in footnotes to chapters in the great Tradition collections -- records of prophetic injunctions to holy war; the prophet's own engagements in jihad, or his sending out raiding parties to engage with non-believers. Thus, when Qadri tells us that it is unlawful to kill non-Muslim women and children, the elderly, traders and farmers, and so forth, he is citing the rules of engagement in jihad, and not that holy war against non-Muslims is foresworn in Islamic texts. Everything he cites against the use of terrorism is actually taken from classical sources that explain the rules that apply to fighting jihad; not that jihad is illegitimate.
Qadri does not merely insist that Islam is a religion of peace and security. By tucking all references to jihad in footnotes in transliterated Arabic, he never has to explain what Islam is about and how it relates to his rulings on what is and what is not permissible. He expands on this theme:
"The most significant proof of this is that God has named it Islam. The word Islam is derived from the Arabic word salama or salima. It means peace, security, safety and protection. As for its literal meaning, Islam denotes absolute peace. As a religion, it is peace incarnate." (p. 21).
A few pages later, he expands on this, writing a long passage "On the Literal Meaning of the Word Islam" (pp. 25-34), interspersed with quotations illustrating this. He correctly links the word "Islam" to the three-consonant root "s-l-m", which has undisputed connections to concepts of peace and security. He even writes at one point "... every noun or verb derived from Islam, and every derivative or word conjugated (sic) from it, essentially denotes peace, protection, security and safety".
Just a minute. Qadri is a fully trained Arabist; he even makes references to major Arabic dictionaries. So he really has no excuse for writing such nonsense. It is exactly that on at least two levels. Arabic roots create dozens of words with different meanings, and "slm" is particularly rich in vocabulary. Salma and silm may indeed mean "peace", but salam means both "forward buying" and a variety of the acacia tree. Sullam means a ladder, stairs, a musical scale, a means, instrument or tool. Salama means "blamelessness, flawlessness, and success". Salim can mean "healthy" or "sane". Sulama means the "phalanx" bone. Sulaymani is mercury chloride –there are many more examples.
At a deeper level, most Arabic verbs can have up to fifteen (more usually ten) forms, each with different meanings. The root that Qadri relates to peace has almost no forms that relate to peace at all. The fourth form, aslama, is the one that gives us the verbal noun islam. The fourth form has several meanings, none of which refers to peace. Instead, it means "to forsake, leave, abandon, to deliver up, surrender, to resign oneself or to submit". The most reliable Arabic-English dictionary by Wehr translates islam as "submission, resignation", including submission to the will of God. Unfortunately for Qadri, therefore, Islam does not mean peace. The word for peace is salam. The word Islam means, unambiguously, submission [to the will God or Allah].
Let us return to Chapter 5, where Qadri inadvertently reveals the extent of the pretence he is making that Islam is a religion of peace that cares for non-Muslim lives and property. The examples he gives are genuine, but he omits a crucial fact. Only Jews and Christians (and later, Zoroastrians in Iran) are entitled to protection within a Muslim state or empire. Qadri calls them "citizens", but the truth is that only Muslims can be regarded in that light. Jews and Christians are dhimmi peoples, tolerated under certain humiliating conditions. They are somewhat favoured on account of their having been sent scriptures and prophets, but disfavoured because they have not accepted Allah, or God's last prophet, Muhammad. Moreover, if they initially resist Muslim invaders, they must be fought through a jihad war. Once defeated, they only have the right to keep their lives, property, and places of worship on payment of a special tax known as jizya, a form of protection money. They are also forced to live under severe restrictions, penalties and mistreatment designed to humiliate them and keep them in their place as the inferiors of Muslims. By not speaking of dhimmitude, the payment of jizya, or more than one thousand years of vulnerability of Christian nations to jihad wars, Qadri again pulls the wool over unquestioning, if well-meaning, eyes of non-Muslims.
So what exactly is Qadri up to? He is concealing important information and distorting the Arabic vocabulary in order to drive home a narrative of Islam's deep connection to peace and security. His strictures against terrorism are sincere and valuable, yet his whitewashing of historical, legal and scriptural treatment of non-Muslims and the actual practice of jihad only serves to perpetuate a myth.
Qadri and many others who adopt this position are, sadly, engaged in setting up a smokescreen. The tactic, as a comment explains, may be found online:
"To get people to believe in two contradictory beliefs, present them both as part of a larger belief system where it is more important to accept the whole system than question 'minor' inconsistencies within it."
That, surely, is exactly how Qadri and so many others (even members of America's left-leaning parties) come to function.
It is crucial to be able to see and identify this smokescreen if we do not want to throw the baby (opposition to Islamic terrorism) out with the bathwater (whitewashing the truth). Nevertheless, it is vital to expose and to challenge it if we are ever to come to terms with the true nature of Islam as an expansionist, religio-political ideology.
When Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri conceals important information and distorts Arabic vocabulary in order to drive home a narrative of Islam's deep connection to peace and security, he is engaged in setting up a smokescreen. (Image source: ServingIslam/Wikimedia Commons)
*Dr. Denis MacEoin has spent a lifetime studying Islam and related matters. He has been a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute since 2014.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Saudi Arabia's 'Lavish' Gift to Indonesia: Radical Islam
Mohshin Habib/Gatestone Institute/April 29/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10228/indonesia-saudi-arabia
Prior to Saudi Arabia's attempts to spread Salafism across the Muslim world, Indonesia did not have terrorist organizations such as Hamas Indonesia, Laskar Jihad, Hizbut Tahrir, Islamic Defenders Front and Jemmah Islamiyah, to name just a few. Today, it is rife with these groups.
A mere three weeks after the Saudi king wrapped up his trip, at least 15,000 hard-line Islamist protesters took to the streets of Jakarta after Friday prayers, calling for the imprisonment of the capital city's Christian governor, who is on trial for "blaspheming the Quran."
In a separate crisis, crowds were demanding that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (known familiarly as Ashok) be jailed for telling a group of fishermen that, as they are fed lies about how the Quran forbids Muslims from being governed by a kafir (infidel), he could understand why some of them might not have voted for him. If convicted, Ashok stands to serve up to five years in prison.
Accompanied by a 1,500-strong entourage, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz arrived in Indonesia on March 1 for a nine-day gala tour. He was welcomed warmly not only as the monarch of one of the world's richest countries, but as the custodian of Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina.
While appearing to be taking a holiday rather than embarking on an official state visit -- the 81-year-old sovereign spent six days at a resort in Bali -- the king had some serious business to attend to. In what was advertised as an effort to promote "social interaction" between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia -- with His Majesty announcing a billion-dollar aid package, unlimited flights between the two countries and the allotment of 50,000 extra spots per year for Indonesian pilgrims to make the hajj to Mecca and Medina – it seems as if the real purpose of the trip was to promote and enhance Salafism, an extremist Sunni strain, in the world's largest Muslim country, frequently hailed in the West as an example of a moderate Islamic society.
President Joko Widodo of Indonesia (foreground, left) meets with King Salman of Saudi Arabia (foreground, right), at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Indonesia. (Image source: Indonesian Presidential Palace)
Jakarta-based journalist Krithika Varagur, writing in The Atlantic on the second day of the king's visit, describes Saudi efforts in Indonesia:
"Since 1980, Saudi Arabia has devoted millions of dollars to exporting its strict brand of Islam, Salafism, to historically tolerant and diverse Indonesia. It has built more than 150 mosques (albeit in a country that has about 800,000), a huge free university in Jakarta, and several Arabic language institutes; supplied more than 100 boarding schools with books and teachers (albeit in a country estimated to have between 13,000 and 30,000 boarding schools); brought in preachers and teachers; and disbursed thousands of scholarships for graduate study in Saudi Arabia."
This Saudi influence has taken a serious toll on Indonesia, 90% of whose 250 million people are Sunnis. Despite its pluralistic constitution, which says, "The state guarantees each and every citizen the freedom of religion and of worship in accordance with his religion and belief," Indonesia -- which declared independence in 1945 -- has grown increasingly intolerant towards Christians, Hindus and Shiite Muslims.
Prior to Saudi Arabia's attempts to spread Salafism across the Muslim world, Indonesia did not have terrorist organizations such as Hamas Indonesia, Laskar Jihad, Hizbut Tahrir, Islamic Defenders Front and Jemmah Islamiyah, to name just a few.
Today, it is rife with these groups, which adhere strictly to Islamic sharia law, Saudi Arabia's binding legal system, and which promote it in educational institutions. Like al-Qaeda and ISIS, they deny women equal rights, believe in death by stoning for adulterers and hand amputation for thieves, and in executing homosexuals and "apostate" Muslims.
The most recent example of the way in which this extremism has swept Indonesia took place a mere three weeks after the Saudi king wrapped up his trip. On March 31, at least 15,000 hard-line Islamist protesters took to the streets of Jakarta after Friday prayers, calling for the imprisonment of the capital city's Christian governor, who is on trial for "blaspheming the Quran."
This paled in comparison to the crowds -- numbering about 200,000 at each violent rally -- which flooded the city last November, December and February. The crowds were demanding that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (known familiarly as Ashok) be jailed for telling a group of fishermen that, as they are fed lies about how the Quran forbids Muslims from being governed by a kafir, an infidel, he could understand why some of them might not have voted for him. If convicted, Ashok stands to serve up to five years in prison.
Sadly, such a jail term is nothing, when one considers the Islamist prison that the country as a whole has become -- courtesy of King Salman and his lavish "gifts."
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.