LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 26/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.july26.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
Do not keep striving for what you
are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/22-31/:"Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the
body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they
have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value
are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your
span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do
you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil
nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one
of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you you of little
faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to
drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive
after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead,
strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."
I found that Paul was accused
concerning questions of their law, but was charged with nothing deserving death
or imprisonment.
Acts of the Apostles 23/23-35/:"Then he summoned two of the centurions and said,
‘Get ready to leave by nine o’clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred
soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen. Also provide mounts for
Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor.’He wrote a letter to
this effect: ‘Claudius Lysias to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings.
This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, but when I
had learned that he was a Roman citizen, I came with the guard and rescued him.
Since I wanted to know the charge for which they accused him, I had him brought
to their council. I found that he was accused concerning questions of their law,
but was charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. When I was
informed that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once,
ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.’So
the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him during
the night to Antipatris. The next day they let the horsemen go on with him,
while they returned to the barracks. When they came to Caesarea and delivered
the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the
letter, he asked what province he belonged to, and when he learned that he was
from Cilicia, he said, ‘I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.’
Then he ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s headquarters."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials
from miscellaneous sources published on July 25-26/16
Mere Islam’ and the Munich
Massacre/Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/July 25/16
Following ISIS Attacks, Arab Journalists Call To Acknowledge Existence Of Muslim
Extremism; Reexamine Religious Texts/D. Hazan/MEMRI/July 25/16
Turkey-Russia Pact Threatens Western Interests in the Middle East/Con Coughlin/
Gatestone Institute/July 25/16
Will Sadrists target US troops in Iraq/Mustafa Saadoun/Al-Monitor/July 25/16
Will Gadhafi's son be Libya's next leader/Mustafa Fetouri/Al-Monitor/July 25/16
With freedom no longer the issue, what’s the biggest threat to Sisi/Mohammed
Nosseir/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
President Obama’s unfinished war/Andrew Bowen/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
How to be polite and an asset to your society/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/July
25/16
Erdogan’s falling out with the West makes him in need of Moscow/Raghida Dergham//Al
Arabiya/July 25/16
How Pokémon Go is the new bogeyman/Khaled Almaeena/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on
July 25-26/16
Jubeir from Nouakchott: Lebanese
must prioritize public interest to overcome presidential crisis
Salam Suggests Refugee Zones inside Syria, Arab Fund
Extremist Brother of Fadel Shaker Turns Himself in to Army
Franjieh Holds Talks with al-Rahi in Diman
Lebanese Comments on Mauritania Trigger Spat ahead of Summit
Arms, Flag Seized in Arsal as Army Arrests Brothers of IS Official
Palestinians Hand Over 3 Gunmen to Army at Mieh Mieh Camp
EDL Contract Workers Stage Sit-in as Man Tries to Immolate Self
Arsal Oversees Implementation of Curfew on Syrians
Ex-MP Yaaqoub Freed on Bail after 7 Months in Prison
Freshly released Hassan Yaacoub vows payback
Kataeb after periodic meeting: We reject return to 1960 electoral law via hybrid
laws
UNIFIL commander hails peace in southern Lebanon
Minister of Interior, Nohad Mashnouq meets Baabda lawmakers over completion of
municipal polls
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
July 25-26/16
Mortar fire from Syria falls in
Israel; IAF strikes source of fire
Five Saudi border guards killed in clashes in south, says TV
Iran regime hangs three in prison; man set to be hanged in public on Monday
UK: Human rights situation in Iran has worsened
150 boys and girls arrested near Iran capital for attending mixed-gender party
Syrian Migrant Killed by Own Bomb near German Music Festival
Arab Summit Cut to Single Day as Heavyweights Absent
Air Strikes, Rebel Fire Kill 19 in Syria's Aleppo
Egypt Policeman Killed in a Sinai Attack Claimed by IS
France Calls for Immediate Humanitarian Truce in Syria's Aleppo
Saudi Executes Convict for Murder
German police have 410 leads on possible terrorists among refugees
French minister rejects charges of changing report on Nice attack
Al-Qaeda chief urges kidnappings of Westerners
Links From Jihad Watch Site for
July 25-26/16
UK: Muslim hate preacher who glorifies jihad murder welcomed by
Archbishop of Canterbury
Hugh Fitzgerald: Cardinal Burke Breaks Ranks
As Pope heads to Poland to press it to take more Muslim migrants,
Poles arrest Muslim migrant with explosives
Islamic State claims responsibility for
jihad attack in Ansbach
Video: Robert Spencer on Fox on the spate of Muslim migrant jihad attacks in
Germany
UK pub asks Muslim to remove “Islam” hoodie, hate crime investigation begins
Arizona jihadi targeted Jewish center; lawyer asks for closed hearing due to
family’s safety concerns
Muslim goes to Munich shooting memorial, screams “Allahu akbar”
Jamie Glazov Moment: 9 Steps to Counter Jihad (Steps #4-6)
Raymond Ibrahim: ‘Mere Islam’ and the Munich Massacre
Germany: Muslim bomber carried powerful explosives, authorities say no evidence
of “extremism”
Germany: Jihad suicide bomber at wine bar was Muslim migrant
Germany: At least 1 dead, 11 injured in suicide bombing at wine bar
Jihad terrorists of Hizballah holding Qur’an memorization classes
If fighting in the path of Allah is terrorism, yes I am a terrorist”
100 jihadis still entering the Islamic State from Turkey each week
Al-Qaeda top dog urges kidnapping of Westerners until West frees
Muslim prisoners
July 25-26/16
Jubeir from Nouakchott: Lebanese
must prioritize public interest to overcome presidential crisis
Mon 25 Jul 2016 /NNA -
Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir, told the 27th Arab summit in Nouakchott
that the presidential crisis in Lebanon necessitated that the Lebanese give
priority to public interest over personal considerations. "There must be work to
put Lebanon on the track of development," he also indicated. "Today's summit is
held amid turmoil (...) the Palestinian Cause is an unchanging dossier at the
Arab League," he said. "There is Israeli intransigence regarding the
pillars of a peaceful settlement, in opposition to the international legitimacy
and the right of Palestine to an independent state with al-Quds as its capital,"
he added. As to Syria, al-Jubeir considered that the Syrian regime bore the
responsibility of a derailed peaceful solution to the crisis, accusing it of
carnage. "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shall have no role in the future of
Syria," he underlined.
Salam Suggests Refugee Zones inside
Syria, Arab Fund
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Prime Minister Tammam Salam took part in the 27th Arab
Summit in Mauritania on Monday and proposed the creation of safe refugee zones
inside war-torn Syria in order to alleviate the burden on the neighboring
countries that are hosting displaced Syrians. “Our summit convenes amid crises
and wars that are gripping several Arab countries and posing dangerous threats
to Arab national security, with the most dangerous crisis being the Syrian
plight, whose flames have lashed Lebanon and subjected it to enormous strains,”
Salam told the summit. “There are around 1.5 million Syrian refugees in a
country that has limited resources, a country that war has closed its borders
and severed its trade routes with the Arab countries... We are a small country
that is performing its brotherly duty without bragging about it. We are
receiving international aid that is still insufficient compared to the needs of
the refugees and the host communities,” the PM added. “In the face of this
situation, we turn to our Arab brothers and they are the ones who should hear
our pleadings,” he said. Accordingly, the prime minister suggested the creation
of an “Arab commission that would push forward the idea of establishing
residency zones for the refugees inside Syrian territory” and that would
“convince the international community” of such a proposal. “Catering to the
needs of the Syrians on their soil is less costly for the neighboring countries
and the international donors and it would be the best way to put an end to the
crime of the dispersion of the Syrian people,” Salam explained. “Until we can
achieve that, we call for setting up an Arab fund aimed at boosting the host
nations' capacity and at improving the refugees' living conditions,” the premier
added. Stressing that the presence of the refugees in Lebanon is “temporary,”
Salam reiterated that the Syrians will not be naturalized in Lebanon. “We are
looking forward to the day when peace prevails, so that the displaced can return
home,” he added. Lebanon hosts more than one million Syrian refugees -- roughly
a quarter of its population -- and has regularly been praised for opening its
borders to those fleeing the brutal conflict in its neighbor. But the refugee
influx has strained resources and tempers, with some Lebanese viewing the
years-long presence of Syrians as a burden, even an imposition. Separately,
Salam called on the Arab nations to go on the offensive against the “beast” of
terrorism and to “utilize all security, political and ideological assets to
fight it, in order to protect our security and the future of our sons, and
defend our reputation in the world.” The prime minister also stressed that
Lebanon is “keen on the higher Arab interest” and on “solidarity with our Arab
brothers in all their just causes,” referring to the latest spat between Lebanon
and the Gulf countries over Hizbullah's policies and rhetoric. “We are not
neutral regarding anything that harms the national security of our brothers,
especially the Gulf Cooperation Council nations, and we reject any interference
in the affairs of the Arab countries under any slogan,” Salam stressed. Saudi
Arabia had led the Arab League, the GCC and the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation in labeling Hizbullah “terrorist” over alleged illegal activities in
some Gulf states and Yemen.
Extremist Brother of Fadel
Shaker Turns Himself in to Army
Naharnet/July 25/16 /The brother of Fadel Shaker, an affiliate of detained
extremist cleric Ahmed al-Asir, turned himself in to the Lebanese army in the
southern city of Sidon on Monday, the National News Agency reported. Fugitive
Abou al-Abed Shmandur, the brother of Shaker, has turned himself in to the
Lebanese army intelligence at the Taamir checkpoint, NNA said. He has been
hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh. Two other supporters of
al-Asir identified as Mahmoud al-Qarout and Bahaa al-Birtawi, turned themselves
in to the Lebanese army at the camp a day earlier. Several members of Asir's
group had fled to the camp in the wake of the deadly Abra battle with the army
in 2013. Al-Asir, a firebrand anti-Hizbullah cleric, was apprehended in 2015
while trying to travel to Nigeria via Cairo with a fake Palestinian passport. He
is wanted for his role in deadly clashes with the army. Pop star turned fugitive
Fadel Shaker was sentenced to four-and-half years in jail in May 2015, but in
June the Cassation Court nullified the verdict and ordered a retrial. He was
released on bail in January. He became affiliated with extremist Salafist
movements linked to al-Asir, whose supporters waged deadly clashes with the army
in Abra. By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the 12
Palestinian refugee camps in the country, leaving security inside to the
Palestinian themselves, but the military has checkpoints at the camps'
entrances.
Franjieh Holds Talks with al-Rahi in
Diman
Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh held talks Monday evening in Diman
with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, state-run National News Agency
reported. Franjieh was accompanied by his wife Rima and the priest Estephan
Franjieh, NNA said. Talks tackled “the various developments in the Lebanese
arena” and the patriarch threw a dinner banquet in Franjieh's honor after which
a one-hour closed-door meeting was held between the two men, the agency added.
The closed-door meeting touched on “the local developments, especially the issue
of the presidential vacuum,” NNA said. Lebanon has been without a president
since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel
Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the
parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia,
launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but
his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties
as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is
more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his
parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
Lebanese Comments on
Mauritania Trigger Spat ahead of Summit
Associated Press/Naharnet/July 25/16 /Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the
Lebanese delegation attended the Arab League summit in the Mauritanian capital
on Monday but were not expected to spend the night there, the Associated Press
reported on Monday, shortly after Health Minister Wael Abu Faour questioned the
impoverished African nation's ability to host top delegations. The comments by
Abu Faour on a local TV show triggered a spat between Lebanon and Mauritania,
where Lebanese officials were attacked by journalists and on social media. "They
don't have the infrastructure and it's miserable," said Abu Faour. "The summit
will be held inside a tent," he added, apparently comparing it to previous
summits that were held in five-star hotels or luxury conference centers. The
minister later clarified on TV that his statements were not meant against the
people of Mauritania and said he got his information from a Lebanese delegation
that went to inspect where the summit will be held and where the official
delegations will be staying. He told al-Jadeed TV that the Lebanese delegation
will fly to Morocco and spend the night there, then fly to attend the summit,
leaving the same day without sleeping in Nouakchott.
The Arab League Summit chaired by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz
opened inside a large tent in Nouakchott on Monday. But Abu Faour's statements
angered Lebanese living in Mauritania who poked fun at their government and
politicians, citing a months-long trash crisis that hit Lebanon over that past
year and led to piles of uncollected trash building up in Beirut and its
suburbs. Prominent Palestinian journalist Abdul-Bari Atwan criticized Lebanese
politicians in a column he wrote in his online Rai al-Youm newspaper. "We don't
understand the arrogance by leaders who claim they are Arabs, toward a country
like Mauritania whose only guilt is that it is a poor country that does not have
oil or gold," Atwan wrote. Mauritanian journalist Naji Mohammed al-Imam wrote in
the daily al-Wahdawi that Abu Faour "lives amid mountains of trash" and
described Salam as a prime minister "by coincidence."
Arms, Flag Seized in Arsal as
Army Arrests Brothers of IS Official
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Two brothers of Islamic State official Hamza al-Jibbawi
were arrested in yesterday's raids in the restive northeastern border town of
Arsal, state-run National News Agency reported on Monday. The agency identified
the duo as Maan and Abdo al-Jibbawi, saying “hand grenades, ammunition, arms and
an IS flag were found in their house.” Also on Sunday, the army arrested the
“private doctor” of the so-called “emir” of the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in
the Syria-Lebanon border region. “The Lebanese army has managed to arrest in
(the northeastern border town of) Arsal the Syrian national J. Sharafeddine, who
is the private doctor of Abu Malek al-Talli,” al-Nusra's leader in the border
region, NNA said. The army has been implementing strict security measures in and
around Arsal since Saturday, in the wake of the attempted assassination of a
mayor and reports that Syrian and Lebanese militants have prepared a “hit list”
that includes the names of ten people in Arsal that the group intends to
liquidate. Ever since the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011, Arsal has served
as a key conduit for refugees, rebels, extremists and wounded people fleeing
strife-torn Syria. Militants from al-Nusra and the IS are entrenched in rugged
mountains in the town's outskirts and along the Lebanese-Syrian border and the
Lebanese army regularly shells their positions while Hizbullah and the Syrian
army have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border. IS and
al-Nusra briefly overran the town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by
the army after days of deadly battles. The retreating militants abducted more
than 30 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in
the captivity of the IS group.
Palestinians Hand Over 3
Gunmen to Army at Mieh Mieh Camp
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Palestinian factions on Monday handed over to the Lebanese
army three suspects accused of involvement in a shooting incident at the Mieh
Mieh refugee camp, an army statement said. “Following coordination between the
two sides, the army's intelligence directorate has received from the Palestinian
security forces at Sidon's Mieh Mieh camp the Palestinians Hamza Youssef Saidawi,
Mustafa Ahmed Hasanain and Qassem Mohammed Shibli,” the army said. “They were
involved in yesterday's armed attack on the Palestinian national Khaled Abu Jida,
in which he was critically wounded before succumbing to his injuries this
morning,” it added. The detainees are being interrogated under the supervision
of the relevant judicial authorities, the army noted. The Palestinian factions
and the Lebanese security forces have boosted their cooperation in recent days,
in the wake of reports suggesting that the jihadist Islamic State and al-Nusra
Front groups are trying to boost their presence in some Palestinian camps.
EDL Contract Workers Stage
Sit-in as Man Tries to Immolate Self
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Electricite Du Liban contract workers staged sit-ins on
Monday in various Lebanese regions pushing a longstanding demand for their
full-time employment, the National News Agency reported on Monday. Protesting
contract employees in the southern city of Tyre staged a protest inside the
company's headquarters. Meanwhile around 5 staff members continued their work
normally, NNA said. In Beirut, a protesting employee identified as Amer Moussa,
has reportedly tried to immolate himself outside the EDL main branch. Several
parallel strikes kicked off in Bekaa and South Lebanon. “Our strike is gradually
escalating and might move to other places similar to the parliament and the
ministry of energy,” the employees threatened.
Arsal Oversees Implementation of Curfew on Syrians
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Municipal chief of the restive northeastern border town of
Arsal Bassel al-Hujeiri said on Monday that the municipal police and residents
of the town will make sure that a curfew decision on Syrian refugees that will
kick off tonight is well respected. “A number of members of the municipal police
and some residents of the town will supervise the implementation of a curfew
decision on Syrian refugees that will start Monday at 10:00 pm,” al-Hujeiri told
VDL (100.5). Last week, Arsal decided to impose a nighttime curfew on Syrian
refugees, two days after one of the town's mayors was critically wounded in an
assassination attempt. Several municipalities across Lebanon have imposed
similar curfews on Syrian refugees and workers. Such measures have spiked
recently after a string of suicide bombers attacked al-Qaa town on Lebanon's
border with Syria. A gang of Syrian and Lebanese nationals has compiled a hit
list that includes the names of ten people in Arsal that the group intends to
liquidate, al-Hujeiri said last Friday. Ever since the Syrian revolt erupted in
March 2011, Arsal has served as a key conduit for extremists, refugees, rebels
and wounded people fleeing strife-torn Syria.
Arsal Oversees Implementation
of Curfew on Syrians
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Municipal chief of the restive northeastern border town of
Arsal Bassel al-Hujeiri said on Monday that the municipal police and residents
of the town will make sure that a curfew decision on Syrian refugees that will
kick off tonight is well respected. “A number of members of the municipal police
and some residents of the town will supervise the implementation of a curfew
decision on Syrian refugees that will start Monday at 10:00 pm,” al-Hujeiri told
VDL (100.5). Last week, Arsal decided to impose a nighttime curfew on Syrian
refugees, two days after one of the town's mayors was critically wounded in an
assassination attempt. Several municipalities across Lebanon have imposed
similar curfews on Syrian refugees and workers. Such measures have spiked
recently after a string of suicide bombers attacked al-Qaa town on Lebanon's
border with Syria. A gang of Syrian and Lebanese nationals has compiled a hit
list that includes the names of ten people in Arsal that the group intends to
liquidate, al-Hujeiri said last Friday. Ever since the Syrian revolt erupted in
March 2011, Arsal has served as a key conduit for extremists, refugees, rebels
and wounded people fleeing strife-torn Syria.
Ex-MP Yaaqoub Freed on Bail
after 7 Months in Prison
Naharnet/July 25/16 /Former MP Hassan Yaaqoub was released on bail Monday after
he spent around seven months in jail on charges of orchestrating the kidnap of
Hannibal Gadhafi, the son of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. “Under the
chairmanship of Judge Afif Hakim, the Mount Lebanon Accusatory Body has approved
a ruling ordering the release of ex-MP Hassan Yaaqoub on LBP 30 million bail,
which had been signed by Examining Magistrate Ziad Makna,” state-run National
News Agency reported.Shortly after the ruling was approved, Yaaqoub headed from
the Sacre Coeur Hospital in Hazmieh where he was receiving treatment to a
protest tent outside the Higher Islamic Shiite Council on the airport road,
where his family had been observing an 80-day long sit-in demanding his release.
The former lawmaker received a hero's welcome at the location, with his
supporters and relatives launching firecrackers and firing celebratory gunshots
into the air. “For 38 years now, Gadhafi has been Lebanon's enemy, in speeches
and according to the law, and the person who is in prison now is Gadhafi's son,”
Yaaqoub said, in an apparent attempt to justify the abduction of Hannibal
Gadhafi. “Why was the family of Sheikh Mohammed Yaaqoub treated in this manner?”
the ex-MP added, referring to his father who disappeared while accompanying
revered Shiite Imam Moussa al-Sadr on a 1978 trip to Libya. Moammar Gadhafi was
largely accused of being behind the kidnap of al-Sadr, Yaaqoub and the
journalist Abbas Badreddine who was accompanying them. Lebanon's judiciary
officially indicted Gadhafi in 2008 with involvement in the disappearance of the
three men. “The monuments of flesh and blood will roll under feet,” Yaaqoub
added, slamming those who “remained silent” while his family was staging street
protests to demand his release.“Talk has ended and actions will start and we
will settle scores,” the ex-MP went on to say.
Freshly released Hassan Yaacoub vows
payback
Mon 25 Jul 2016/NNA - Former lawmaker Hassan Yaacoub arrived this afternoon at
the tent where his mother had been striking for almost 80 days, at the airport
road, National News Agency correspondent reported on Monday. Crowds of relatives
and friends gathered to receive Yaacoub, who was released today following 7
months of detention, over the abduction of Hannibal Gaddafi. In a statement to
reporters, the son of Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub--who went missing in Libya in 1978
alongside Imam Moussa Sadr and journalist Abbas Badreddine--vowed "payback." "We
have finished talking; work has just started," he said.
Kataeb
after periodic meeting: We reject return to 1960 electoral law via hybrid laws
Mon 25 Jul 2016/NNA - Kataeb Party voiced rejection of the return (even partial)
of 1960 electoral law via the suggested hybrid laws that distort true
representation, consecrate logic of electoral machine and close the door in
front of the aspired change by the Lebanese. "Single constituency as a system
guarantees the elimination of all these defects and ensure fair representation,"
Kataeb said in a statement in the wake of its politburo periodic meeting every
Monday, under the chairmanship of Part chief Sami Gemayel, to dwell on an array
of hour issues. On the eve of the Arab Summit in Mauritania, Kataeb beseeched
Arab League states to shoulder responsibility towards the Syrian refugees,
whether at the financial level or through hosting them in Arab countries
especially those enjoying geographical spaces, economic potentials and political
stability, the matter that allows secure and decent accommodation for refugees.
UNIFIL
commander hails peace in southern Lebanon
Mon 25 Jul 2016/NNA - UNIFIL General Commander, Major-General Michael Beary,
visited on Monday the Eastern Sector, and inspected the coordination and
operations on the field. In his word before a peacekeeper brass, Beary hailed
UNIFIL efforts to preserve peace. "Peace and stability in this region during the
past ten years prove the success of our mission; and this is how we shall carry
it on," he said.
Minister of Interior, Nohad Mashnouq meets Baabda lawmakers over completion of
municipal polls
Mon 25 Jul 2016/NNA - Minister of Interior, Nohad Mashnouq, met on Monday with a
delegation of Baabda lawmakers, with whom he discussed an array of developmental
and electoral affairs. Following the meeting, MP Fadi Alawar told reporters that
talks mainly touched on the completion of the municipal polls in the regions
where local authorities were still unelected. He added that talks also featured
on the presidential vacuum. The delegation comprised, alongside Alawar, MPs
Alain Aoun, Naji Gharios, and Hikmat Dib.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 25-26/16
Mortar fire from Syria falls in
Israel; IAF strikes source of fire
Jerusalem Post/July 25/16/A
mortar shell fired from Syria fell near the border fence in the Israeli Golan
Heights on Monday evening. The shell was an apparent stray, fired in the course
of civil war battles in the area, the army said.Following the fire, an Israel
Air Force aircraft struck the source of the fire, the IDF said. "The IDF views
the Syran regime as responsible for its territory, and it will not tolerate any
attempt to harm the sovereignty and security of Israel and its residents," the
military said.
Five Saudi border guards killed in clashes in south, says TV
Mon 25 Jul 2016/NNA - Five
Saudi border guards were killed on Monday in clashes with armed groups seeking
to enter from Yemen, state television al-Ekhbariya reported, citing the Saudi
interior ministry. A ministry statement added the border guards detected
attempts by "hostile" armed groups to cross the border on several fronts in the
southern region of Najran on Monday morning. Eight hours of clashes ensued. The
statement did not identify the armed groups, but Saudi forces and fighters from
Yemen's Houthi movement have traded fire across the border frequently during
Yemen's more than 15-month-old war. Peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's
government and the Houthis to end the conflict have dragged on for more two
months with few concrete results. A truce that began on April 10 has dampened
fighting, but skirmishes continue almost daily. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab
allies intervened in Yemen's war in March 2015 on behalf of the internationally
backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The conflict has killed
at least 6,400 people and caused a humanitarian crisis. ---Reuters
Iran regime hangs three in prison; man set to be hanged in public
on Monday
Sunday, 24 July 2016/NCRI – Iran’s fundamentalist regime on Saturday hanged
three prisoners in a jail in northern Iran. The regime is set to hang a man in
public on Monday. In a statement on Saturday, the regime’s judiciary in Gilan
Province, northern Iran, announced that the three prisoners were hanged in the
presence of judicial officials in the Central Prison of Rasht. They were
identified only by their initials and ages: F. B., 40; A. M., 32; and H. D., 31.
An unidentified prisoner will be hanged in public in the town of Songhor,
western Iran, at dawn on Monday, state media reported.
The public execution will take place at the former site of the oil stocks, next
to the town’s power terminal, the state-run Soheil-e Songhor website reported on
Sunday. The mullahs’ regime hanged another nine prisoners on Wednesday in the
city of Karaj, north-west of Tehran.The regime hanged 18 prisoners last weekend,
including two cases in public. A woman was among those hanged on July 17.The
regime hanged nine prisoners collectively on July 13 in Gohardasht Prison in
Karaj.More than 270 Members of the European Parliament signed a joint statement
on Iran last month, calling on the European Union to “condition” its relations
with Tehran to an improvement of human rights. The MEPs who were from all the EU
Member States and from all political groups in the Parliament said they are
concerned about the rising number of executions in Iran after Hassan Rouhani
took office as President three years ago.Amnesty International in its April 6
annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least
977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before.""Iran
alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East and North
Africa, the human rights group said.There have been more than 2,500 executions
during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President. The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran in March announced that the
number of executions in Iran in 2015 was greater than any year in the last 25
years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the executions as examples of “God’s
commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belong to the people
UK: Human rights situation in
Iran has worsened
Monday, 25 July 2016/NCRI - The human rights situation in Iran has worsened in
the past six months, the United Kingdom has said. In its 'Human Rights Priority
Country update report' for January to June 2016, published on July 21, the UK's
Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "There has been little change in the human
rights situation in Iran between January and June 2016. In many respects, the
situation has worsened, despite President Rouhani pledging to improve the rights
and freedoms of the citizens of Iran when he was elected.""Iran’s use of the
death penalty continues to be a serious concern. There were an estimated 966
executions in 2015, the highest number of executions in over 10 years, and there
have been 170 recorded executions in the first six months of 2016. Iran
continues to pursue the death penalty for juvenile offenders, in direct
contradiction of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a
signatory. Iran also routinely uses the death penalty for crimes not
internationally recognised as “most serious” for which the death penalty can be
used, for example drugs-related offences," the report said. The report also
highlighted the Iranian regime's crackdown on the use of online social media.
It said: "On freedom of expression, the crackdown on social media use came to a
head in November 2015 when the cyber unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) arrested over 170 individuals, accusing them of publishing
“obscene” content on instant-messaging mobile apps. Reports of some of the
arrests cited “facilitating users’ access to obscene content via groups on
mobile networks, publishing obscene Iranian and foreign content in text and
visual format, encouraging people to commit offences, and publishing texts that
insulted national figures”. After investigation, 29 individuals were detained
for further questioning and 8 have been arrested, awaiting trial."
On freedom of religion the report said: "The Iranian constitution only formally
recognises 3 religions other than Islam: Christianity, Judaism and
Zoroastrianism. Despite this, minority religions, and even non-Shi’a Muslims,
face persecution and harassment in Iran. Non-recognised religions, such as the
Baha’i faith, are particularly heavily persecuted. May saw the 8th anniversary
of the incarceration of seven Baha’i leaders, who are sentenced to 20 years’
imprisonment. A group of 24 Baha’i bloggers detained in November 2015 are still
awaiting formal trial and are being held in a prison in Golestan."
Prison conditions in Iran "continue to cause concern," the FCO report said,
"particularly at Evin Prison in Tehran. Reports indicate that prisoners face
“dreadful” conditions including lack of primary facilities, violence and sexual
harassment."
"Monthly inspections of prison sections are carried out with “extreme violence”,
with guards beating the inmates with batons and breaking their personal
belongings. Prisoners often have no access to fresh air and sunlight, and they
experience unhygienic conditions. Access to adequate and appropriate medical
care for prisoners detained in Iran also continues to be a major concern."
The report goes on to say:
"Hundreds of human rights defenders and political prisoners continue to be
arrested and detained in Iran. Many have been arrested on vague political
charges such as “propaganda against the regime”.
Several UK/Iranian dual nationals are currently being detained in Iran. The
Iranian government does not recognise dual nationality, and on this basis it
denies access to UK consular officials. We have therefore been unable to assess
the wellbeing of the prisoners or confirm that they are receiving adequate legal
advice and medical treatment. UK Ministers and officials have raised their
concerns regarding these cases with the Iranian authorities on multiple
occasions and will continue to do so.
Women do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men in Iran. There continue
to be a number of debates between various factions of the regime about the
rights of women. We expect that the next round of the UN Human Rights Council
will be dominated by women’s rights issues, which will raise awareness of this
issue; we hope to see progress as a result. Two proposed bills which were making
their way through the Iranian parliament in 2015 caused outrage both inside and
outside Iran. Human rights groups said the bills would set Iranian women back
decades and reduce them to ‘baby-making machines’. The bills were drafted after
the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described family planning as an
imitation of Western lifestyles, and requested that Iran’s population be
doubled. As far as we are aware, these proposed bills are still being debated by
parliament but we suspect that the decision to advance the bill will be taken by
the new Majles in the second half of 2016. The Bill to Increase Fertility Rates
and Prevent Population Decline aims to ban all surgeries intended for permanent
contraception, except in cases where there are threats to physical health. The
bill would also decrease funding for birth control programmes which provide
subsidies for modern contraceptives."
150 boys and girls arrested near
Iran capital for attending mixed-gender party
Monday, 25 July 2016 10:17
NCRI - Iran's fundamentalist regime arrested 150 boys and girls for attending a
mixed-gender birthday party near the capital Tehran, the regime’s local police
commander said on Monday. The arrests took place at an overnight party in a
garden in the vicinity of Islamshahr, south-west of Tehran, according to Colonel
Mohsen Khancherli, the regime's police commander for the west of Tehran
Province. Khancherli told the Tasnim news agency, affiliated to the regime's
terrorist Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, on Monday (July 25): "After we
obtained a report about a mixed-gender party in a garden in the vicinity of
Islamshahr in the west of Tehran Province, an operation was carried out by the
police and another organization, leading to the arrest of dozens of boys and
girls."
"Some 150 boys and girls had gathered at the mixed-gender party under the guise
of a birthday party in this garden which is situated next to a studio where
unlawful music was produced and recorded. Upon arrival of the police, all those
present were arrested and sent before the judiciary," he said. Khancherli
claimed that given the popularity of gardens in the west of Tehran Province, the
regime's suppressive state security forces (police) are constantly monitoring
venues and gardens in that area, with police commanders carrying out snap
inspections of sites. "With the arrival of summer, the police surveillance at
these sites will be stepped up," he added.
This follows news last week that more than 50 young Iranians were arrested by
the regime's suppressive state security forces at a party near Tehran.
The Tasnim news agency reported on Friday (July 22) the arrest of more than 50
young men and women at a party in the town of Davamand, east of Tehran.
Tasnim quoted Mojtaba Vahedi, the head of the regime's judiciary in Damavand, as
saying that the organizers of the party had invited people to attend via online
social networks.
Vahedi added security forces initially monitored the social sphere and after
carrying out the necessary investigations obtained a warrant to clamp down on
the party and arrest the party-goers.
Judicial files have been opened against those arrested at the party, Vahedi
said. He added: "Families must be more vigilant regarding their children to make
sure they do not end up in such circumstances."
Commenting on this development, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said:
“The clerical regime has never been so isolated at home and loathed by the
Iranian people, in particular by the youth and women. As such, it is resorting
to more and more repressive measures to confront this growing trend. This once
again proves that the notion of moderation under Hassan Rouhani is a total myth.
But it also indicates the vulnerable and shaky state of a regime that cannot
even tolerate private festivities of the people, particularly the youth. It is
becoming more evident that the mullahs are totally paranoid of any social
gathering in fear of a popular uprising.”
Some 35 young men and women were flogged in May for taking part in a
mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony near Qazvin city, some 140
kilometers northwest of Tehran, the regime's Prosecutor in the city said on May
26.
Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki, a notorious mullah, said a special court session was
held after all the young men and women at the party were rounded up, the Mizan
news agency, affiliated to the fundamentalist regime's judiciary, reported on
May 26.
"After we received information that a large number of men and women were
mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin ... all the participants at the
party were arrested," he said.
Niaraki added that the following morning every one of those detained received 99
lashes as punishment by the so-called 'Morality Police.'
According to Niaraki, given the social significance of mixed-gender partying,
"this once again required a firm response by the judiciary in quickly reviewing
and implementing the law."
"Thanks God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict
and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours,"
Niaraki added.
The regime’s prosecutor claimed that the judiciary would not tolerate the
actions of “law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in
birthday parties and graduation ceremonies.”
Similar raids have been carried out on mixed-gender parties across Iran in
recent weeks.
Syrian Migrant Killed by Own Bomb
near German Music Festival
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/July 25/16 /A Syrian migrant set off an explosive
device near an open-air music festival in southern Germany that killed himself
and wounded a dozen others, authorities said Monday, the third attack to hit the
region in a week. The 27-year-old had spent time in a psychiatric facility, but
the authorities said an Islamist motive for the attack on Sunday night in the
city of Ansbach appeared "likely". Germany is reeling after nine people died in
a shopping centre shooting rampage in Munich on Friday and four people were
wounded in an axe attack on a train in Wuerzburg on July 18. All three attacks
were in Bavaria, which has been a gateway for tens of thousands of refugees
under German Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal asylum policy. Police said the
man intended to target the music festival on Sunday but was turned away because
he did not have a ticket, and set off the explosive device outside a nearby
cafe. The perpetrator was killed in the blast, police said in a statement, and a
spokeswoman said 12 people were wounded, three of them seriously.
"My personal view is that it is very likely that this was a real Islamist
suicide attack," regional interior minister Joachim Herrmann said.Herrmann added
that beyond the heightened security fears, he was worried "the right to asylum
would be undermined" by the events of the past week. Sunday's explosion happened
just outside a cafe in Ansbach city centre, not far from where more than 2,500
people had gathered for the concert, at around 10 pm (2000 GMT). -
Attacker known to police -Police blocked off the area and emergency services
were at the scene. Bomb experts were also sent to determine the cause of the
blast. Ansbach deputy police chief Roman Fertinger said there were "indications"
pieces of metal had been added to the explosive device. Herrmann said the
attacker, who came to Germany two years ago but had his asylum claim rejected
after a year, had tried to kill himself twice in the past and had spent time in
a psychiatric clinic. The assailant, who lived in Ansbach, was already known to
police, in particular for an offence linked to drugs, Herrmann also told news
agency DPA. Stephan Mayer, a deputy from Merkel's conservative bloc, insisted
that it was "completely wrong to blame Angela Merkel and her refugee policy" for
the rash of violence over the last week. But Mayer told the BBC that the 1.1
million migrants and refugees Germany let in last year represent a "big
challenge" for law enforcement, even as the influx has dwindled in recent
months. "We were not able to register and control all the migrants that crossed
the German border," said Mayer, interior affairs spokesman for the Christian
Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats. "We
have to regain sovereignty and we have to regain the rule of rights. There's a
lot of space for improvement." Europe has been on edge for months after a string
of deadly attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, including
bombings in Brussels and carnage at Bastille Day celebrations in the southern
French city of Nice. - Obsessed with mass murder -Police on Sunday released more
details of Munich mall attacker David Ali Sonboly, saying the 18-year-old was
depressed and had spent two months in a psychiatric unit last year.
The teen who had German and Iranian nationality, was obsessed with mass killings
and spent a year preparing for the shooting spree, police said. At least 35
people were also wounded during Sonboly's attack, which began at a McDonald's
outlet and ended with him turning his 9mm Glock pistol on himself. Investigators
have ruled out any link with IS jihadists, although he appeared to have planned
the assault with chilling precision for a year. Police have also arrested a
16-year-old Afghan friend in connection with the shooting. Hundreds of people,
many of them in tears, gathered on Sunday outside the Munich shopping centre
where the attack took place to pay tribute to the victims. Already steeped in
grief and shock, Germans were further rattled by news that a Syrian refugee had
killed a 45-year-old Polish woman with a machete in the southwestern city of
Reutlingen. Police said that incident on Sunday, in which three others were
injured, did not bear the hallmarks of a "terrorist attack". "When a man and
woman have an argument, we assume that we are dealing with a crime of passion,"
a local police spokeswoman told DPA. Three people were also injured in the
attack, which ended when the 21-year-old assailant was deliberately struck by a
BMW driver trying to stop the man. NTV showed amateur video footage of the
suspect running away from the scene before cutting to him lying on the ground,
his face bloodied and his hands cuffed by police.
Arab Summit Cut to Single Day
as Heavyweights Absent
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/July 25/16 /A 22-nation Arab summit to tackle the
region's various crises was cut back to a single day of talks Monday due to the
absence of heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi stayed at home because of "a busy domestic schedule" while Saudi King
Salman's no-show was due to "health reasons," an Arab League source told AFP.
The summit, originally scheduled for two full days, is to focus primarily on
security and on plans for a joint security force across a region fraught with
tension, notably in Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
However pre-summit ministerial talks showed there were sharp divisions over
attitudes towards the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as over
Turkey's incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan. Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president
who is wanted for genocide and war crimes by The Hague-based International
Criminal Court, flew into the Mauritanian capital for the talks. Also present
were the heads of state of Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, Comoros and Djibouti as well as
the premiers of Lebanon and Libya. It is the first Arab League summit hosted by
Mauritania since it joined the organization in 1973. Foreign ministers on
Saturday called for a "definitive solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and welcomed a French and Egyptian initiative to help revive dormant
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Air Strikes, Rebel Fire Kill
19 in Syria's Aleppo
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/July 25/16 /Air strikes and barrel bomb attacks
killed 16 civilians in rebel-held parts of Aleppo province on Monday, with rebel
rocket fire onto government areas killing three more, a monitor said. The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 civilians had been
killed in multiple air strikes on the town of rebel-held Atareb in Aleppo
province. The group said the strikes in the early hours of Monday morning were
believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes, and hit several
locations including a market area. Russia is a key ally of the government and
began air strikes in support of regime forces in September 2015. The Observatory
-- which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information -- says
it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location,
flight patterns and the munitions involved. Footage obtained by Agence France
Presse of the aftermath of the strikes showed the local civil defense unit
trying to put out a fire in the rubble of one collapsed building. Nearby, people
combed through the debris trying to extract medicine from what appeared to be
the remains of a pharmacy or clinic. Elsewhere, crushed fruit and vegetables
were mixed in with pieces of brick and concrete. In Aleppo city meanwhile, at
least six civilians were killed in barrel bomb attacks by government forces on
eastern rebel-held neighborhoods, the Observatory said. The monitor said the
toll was expected to rise because of the number of people with injuries and
still trapped under rubble.An Agence France Presse journalist at the scene of
one of the attacks in the Al-Mashhad neighborhood said civil defense workers
were struggling to retrieve survivors who were trapped under heavy pieces of
debris. He said rescuers had managed to pull one boy alive from the rubble, but
the rest of his family were dead and still trapped beneath the remains of a
collapsed building. Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by
the conflict that began in March 2011 with anti-government protests. The city
has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel
control in the east since mid-2012. In recent weeks, government forces seized
parts of the only remaining supply route into the city's east, severing
opposition neighborhoods from the outside world and prompting food shortages and
spiraling prices. The government regularly bombs the east of the city, and
rebels often fire rockets into western districts. The Observatory said at least
three civilians had been killed in rebel fire on western Aleppo on Monday.
Syrian state news agency SANA said the dead were a pregnant woman and her child.
More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and
more than half the country has been displaced.
Egypt Policeman Killed in a Sinai Attack Claimed by IS
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/July 25/16 /Egypt's interior ministry said a
gunman shot dead a police officer in north Sinai in an attack claimed on Monday
by the Islamic State group. The gunman shot the police major in El-Arish, the
provincial capital of North Sinai, on Sunday night, the ministry said in a
statement. The jihadist group's Egypt affiliate has been waging an insurgency in
the peninsula that has killed hundreds of policeman and soldiers. The group said
in a statement circulated on social media that its fighters "assassinated" the
major and made off with his car and automatic rifle. The jihadists have kept up
the attacks in Sinai, mostly roadside bombings and ambushes, despite a massive
military campaign to uproot IS from the eastern peninsula bordering Israel and
the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Most of the group's attacks have targeted security
forces, but it has also attacked Egyptian Christians and tourists. The group
claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner carrying holiday makers
from an Egyptian resort last year, killing all 224 people on board.
France Calls for Immediate
Humanitarian Truce in Syria's Aleppo
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/July 25/16 /France on Monday called for an
immediate humanitarian truce in Aleppo after four hospitals were bombed in the
besieged Syrian city and civilians were killed by barrel bomb attacks. French
Ambassador Francois Delattre compared Aleppo's plight to that of Sarajevo during
the Bosnian war and said "the Security Council simply cannot accept such war
crimes -- yes war crimes -- to repeat again."Delattre spoke to reporters ahead
of a council meeting to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Syria, in particular
Aleppo where regime forces this month seized the only remaining supply route to
the city. Syria and its allies are "determined to besiege, starve and bomb
Aleppo until they reach their military goal -- eradicating the opposition --
this is what the siege is all about," said Delattre. "France calls for an
immediate humanitarian truce in Aleppo and the Ghouta, 20 years after the siege
of Sarajevo," he added, referring to the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus.
Over the weekend, four hospitals were bombed in Aleppo, jeopardizing medical
care for more than 200,000 desperate civilians. "Enough is enough now," British
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said. Rycroft said the council was looking at
possible action to address the crisis in Aleppo, but did not provide details. On
Monday, air strikes and barrel bombs killed 16 civilians in Aleppo, according to
the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. More than 280,000 people
have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and more than half the
country has been displaced.
Saudi Executes Convict for
Murder
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/July 25/16 /Saudi Arabia on Monday executed a
convicted murderer, the interior ministry said, raising to 106 the number of
death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year. Fahd al-Ishan was
convicted of stabbing to death another Saudi citizen, the ministry said in a
statement on the official SPA news agency. He was executed in the northern Jawf
region. The kingdom on Sunday carried out the death penalty against four
citizens convicted of murder. Most people executed are beheaded with a sword.
Saudi Arabia's growing use of the death penalty has prompted Amnesty
International to call for an "immediate" moratorium on the practice. The kingdom
imposes the death penalty for offences including murder, drug trafficking, armed
robbery, rape and apostasy. The London-based watchdog's Middle East and North
Africa head Philip Luther has warned that "at this rate, the Kingdom's
executioners will soon match or exceed the number of people they put to death
last year."Amnesty says the kingdom carried out at least 158 death sentences in
2015, making it the third most prolific executioner after Iran and Pakistan.
Amnesty's figures do not include secretive China. Murder and drug trafficking
cases account for the majority of Saudi executions, although 47 people were put
to death for "terrorism" offences on a single day in January.
German police have 410 leads
on possible terrorists among refugees
By Reuters Berlin Monday, 25 July 2016/Germany’s federal criminal police have
410 leads on possible terrorists among refugees in the country, a local
newspaper reported on Monday. The Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper said that
compared with 369 leads in mid-May since the beginning of the migrant crisis
last year. Investigations have been launched in 60 cases, the newspaper said. It
cited federal BKA police as saying they did not currently have any concrete
indications of attack plans. “In view of continuing migration to Germany we must
assume that there could be active and former members, supporters and
sympathizers of terrorist organizations or Islamist-motivated war criminals
among the refugees,” the newspaper quoted federal police as saying.
French minister
rejects charges of changing report on Nice attack
Reuters, Nice Monday, 25 July 2016/France’s interior minister rejected on Sunday
an assertion by a senior Nice security official that his staff tried to change a
report into policing on the night of the Bastille Day attack that claimed 84
lives. France’s Socialist government has come under fire for not doing enough to
prevent a delivery man from ploughing a refrigerator truck into a crowd of
revelers leaving a July 14 fireworks display on the Riviera city’s beachfront
promenade. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he would file a defamation
lawsuit after the head of Nice’s extensive video surveillance network said in a
newspaper interview that someone from his staff had sought changes to her
report. Led by regional government president Christian Estrosi, conservative
politicians from Nice have aggressively questioned whether officers from the
national police were present in sufficient numbers on the night of the attack.
The government has repeatedly rejected this accusation. “For 10 days now, we
have nearly every day faced attacks, insinuations and lies from some of those
bearing political responsibility in Nice,” the normally unflappable Cazeneuve
said with visible agitation on France 2 television. Nice, a city of nearly
350,000 people, is France’s most heavily policed city with nearly 600 officers
municipal police officers and other security agents - more than much larger
cities - and an extensive network of surveillance cameras. Sandra Bertin, head
of Nice’s video surveillance network, told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper
that someone from Cazeneuve’s staff had ordered her the day after the attack to
say that officers from national police force were present at certain places
where the attack had occurred. “I dealt with someone who wanted a report
indicating where there were municipal police, road barriers and also clearly
stating that national police could be seen at two points,” she said.“Maybe
national police officers were there, but they could not be seen in the videos,”
she said, adding that the ministry official harassed her for an hour on the
subject.
Al-Qaeda chief urges
kidnappings of Westerners
Reuters Monday, 25 July 2016/Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared in an
audio interview calling on fighters to take Western hostages and exchange them
for jailed extremists, the monitoring service SITE Intelligence Group said on
Sunday. In recording posted online, al-Zawahiri called on the global militant
network to kidnap Westerners “until they liberate the last Muslim male prisoner
and last Muslim female prisoner in the prisons of the Crusaders, apostates, and
enemies of Islam,” according to SITE. Reuters could not verify the authenticity
of the recording. Zawahiri is believed to be seeking refuge in the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border area that is the Taliban’s base.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on
July 25-26/16
Mere Islam’ and the Munich
Massacre
Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/July 25/16
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2016/07/24/mere-islam-and-the-munich-massacre/
A German-born 18-year-old of Iranian descent named Ali Sonboly went on a
shooting spree last Friday. He reportedly targeted young children and murdered
nine.
This incident is a reminder that the ongoing terrorization of the West is not
limited to the Islamic State (ISIS), “extreme” Wahhabi or Salafi interpretations
of Islam, or terrorists posing as refugees entering the West.
Ali Sonboly was none of those. He was born and raised in Germany and, based on
his name and Iranian heritage, was most likely of Shia background.
But he was a Muslim. He screamed Islam’s ancient war cry “Allahu Akbar” during
his rampage and, less significantly, launched his attack on the one day of the
week that many calculated Islamic attacks on non-Muslims occur: Friday.[1]
And that is the grand lesson of the Munich massacre. Mere Islam—to borrow from
C.S. Lewis’ famous book about the many commonalities shared by most Christian
denominations—is responsible for the ongoing terrorization of the West.
If you doubt this, simply turn to a recent study. It found that Muslims of all
sects, races, and sociopolitical circumstances—not just “ISIS”—are responsible
for persecuting Christians in 41 of the 50 worst nations to be Christian in:
Shia Iran is the ninth worst nation, “Wahhabi” Saudi Arabia is 14th, while
“moderate” countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are ranked 30 and 43
respectively.
The common denominator in all these nations is ISLAM—without qualifier.
Even ISIS’ abhorrent treatment of Christians and other non-Muslims is only an
extreme reflection of what Muslims in general are doing to non-Muslims all
around the world. See “Muslim Persecution of Christians,” reports which I’ve
been compiling every month for five years this month, and witness the nonstop
discrimination, persecution, and carnage committed against Christians by
“everyday” Muslims—from the highest authorities to the basest mobs. Each monthly
report (there are currently 58) contains dozens of atrocities, any of which if
committed by Christians against Muslims would receive 24/7 blanket coverage.
While the media concoct any number of lies to dispel the Islamic nature of the
Munich attack—the usual strategies, especially talk of “grievances,” are already
being employed —the fact remains: for all the differences and tensions between
Europe’s native and Muslim populations, the Christians being persecuted by
Muslims are often identical to their persecutors in race, ethnicity, national
identity, culture, and language. There is no political dispute, no land dispute.
Nor do these disempowered and ostracized Christian minorities have any political
power—meaning there are no Muslim “grievances” either.
So why are they hated and hounded? Because they are Christians—that is,
non-Muslim infidels—and that’s the real reason Western people are being
terrorized by Muslims, most recently (or at least as of this writing) in Munch.
Ugly or not, this truth, that mere Islam—not “ISIS,” “Salafism,” “Wahhabism,” or
“Shiism”—promotes hate for and violence against non-Muslims will never be
remedied until those in positions of leadership first acknowledge it. And, with
the notable exception of Donald Trump, they are very far from doing so.
Notes:
[1] Lamenting how Muslims are often riled against “infidels” during weekly
Friday mosque sermons in Egypt, a Coptic Christian once said, “Let me tell you …
we [Christians] know that every Friday is a day of death; that the day after
Friday, on Saturday, we’ll be carried to the morgue!”
Following ISIS Attacks, Arab Journalists Call To Acknowledge Existence Of Muslim
Extremism; Reexamine Religious Texts
D. Hazan/MEMRI/July 25/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/07/25/d-hazanmemri-following-isis-attacks-arab-journalists-call-to-acknowledge-existence-of-muslim-extremism-reexamine-religious-texts/
Introduction
The large number of terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS in Western countries
over the past year – including the July 14 truck attack in Nice, France (84
dead, some 100 wounded), the June 12 shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida
(49 dead, over 50 wounded), the March 22, 2016 combined attacks in Brussels,
Belgium (32 dead, over 300 wounded), and the combined attacks in Paris, France
in November 2015 (129 dead, 350 wounded) – has sparked a wave of harsh criticism
in the Arab and Islamic world, both due to the fear of Western responses and the
increase of Islamophobia, and due to the torrent of youths who flock to the
extremist organization.
Alongside the many articles that stressed that terrorist attackers do not
represent Islam and operate out of outside interests, there have been an
increasing number of articles in the Arab media calling to acknowledge that
Islam, and the obsolete interpretations of it that are still applied today, are
indeed related to the wave of global terrorism. Writers called on Muslims to be
honest and admit the existence of Muslim religious extremism instead of blaming
others, and to uproot it. The writers argued that the source of ISIS's extremist
ideology is the Muslim social and cultural structure and that Muslims must
therefore declare a war on this "cultural affliction" in their midst. According
to them, this war requires fundamental reforms in Islamic interpretations
alongside reforms in cultural, governmental and education patterns in Arab
countries, which, they say, cause many Muslims to harbor covert sympathy for
ISIS.
Many writers argued that most of ISIS's religious practices are drawn from the
most important Islamic law books, while stressing that these laws do not reflect
explicit Koranic dictates, but rather the opinion of jurisprudents that lived in
a certain reality that is no longer relevant today. Therefore, they explained
that in order to rescue the universal values of Islam from the culture of
ignorance, backwardness, and violence, the Islamic jurisprudents of today must
critically and rationally review the history of Islam and its religious texts,
and adapt Islamic interpretations and laws to the spirit of the times, while
taking into account the current circumstances and the greater good. In their
opinion, some Islamic dictates should even be cancelled altogether to conform
with universal progressive values such as liberties and human rights.
The writers harshly criticized the passive response of Muslims to ISIS crimes.
According to them, clerics make do with condemning the crimes of terrorist
organizations, and some even take part in spreading extremist ideologies
themselves. They argued that "ideology can only be combatted with ideology" and
that no one other than clerics can "defeat and eliminate terrorism based on
uncompromising ideology." Therefore, the clerics must combat extremist religious
discourse that captures the hearts of many youths, and systematically refute its
ideas and rulings as part of ideological, practical, and informational programs.
In this context, some of the writers mentioned the silence of the Muslim
Brotherhood, which they said begat these extremist takfiri organizations and now
refrains from coming out against them and their ideology.
The writers also pointed to the confusion afflicting the common Muslims today,
whether due to the refusal of Islamic religious institution to accuse ISIS and
its ilk of apostasy, or whether because matters that were once uncontroversial
in Islam – such as offensive jihad and slavery for prisoners of war – are
currently forbidden according to modern world norms.
The writers stated that changing the religious discourse was a vital and urgent
step, since the ongoing political and cultural situation in the Arab and Muslim
world is "a wonderful recipe for extremism and backwardness," and that
preserving and sanctifying ancient Islamic heritage would birth groups even more
extreme than ISIS and lead Muslims to their doom.
The following are excerpts from these articles:
Palestinian Writer: We Must Admit That Terrorism Is Tied To Islam And That
Muslim Education Inculcates Implicit Support For ISIS
In a July 17, 2016 article in the London daily Al-Hayat following the July 14
truck attack in Nice, France, Khaled Al-Hroub, a Palestinian writer and academic
living in Britain, called on Muslims to admit that terrorism perpetrated by
Muslims is indeed tied to Islam, and that education in their schools and mosques
establishes implicit support for ISIS, and then to work to uproot this
phenomenon, as it does them great harm: "The terrorism in Nice deals another
blow to our collective consciousness... [This is] terrorism that attributes
itself to the religion [of Islam] and savagely and barbarically strikes
everywhere [in the world]... Our repeated claims that the perpetrators of [this]
terrorism are nothing but 'a gang' that does not represent us are no longer
effective, because why is it that the 'gangs' of others do not do what our gangs
do? And what culture, education, and atmosphere gave rise to our gangs and
motivated them to perpetrate indescribably horrible crimes?...
"Why can't our resistance to oppression be respectable, honest, and chivalrous,
rather than contemptable and immoral?... What is the source of this contemptable
resistance that currently controls our arenas, [resistance] that targets only
civilians and behaves in a cowardly manner when confronted face-to-face with the
enemy? We must deal with reality... as it is, without flinching... The moral
superiority of a just cause is the main source of its strength and the reason
for its survival and for people to flock to it... Experience has proven the
failure of barbarism and terrorism...
"Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri's madness in blowing up the World Trade Center in New
York did not defeat the U.S.; on the contrary – it delivered Afghanistan and
Iraq as compensation. The resistance of [Abu Mus'ab] Al-Zarqawi and his group in
Iraq... using terrorism, led to many disasters including: establishing the
American presence [in Iraq] and extending it; releasing the sectarian demon in
Iraq and exporting it; dividing and dismantling Iraq; and ingraining terrorism
in the heart of the Arab world... The strategy of suicide operations that Hamas
used for years gave Israel the justification to construct the separation fence,
increased global sympathy for [Israel] and caused countless disasters to
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank...
"Is terrorism attributed to religion related to the religion itself? The answer
is yes, because the religion – any religion – is nothing but [a sum of all]
explanations and interpretations of sacred texts by clerics... Religious
interpretations that can easily be understood to mean that martyrdom means a
cheap suicide [inside] a café or club frequented by 'infidels' are very common
in our religious, educational, and mosque culture, and must be dealt with...
What view [can] we develop regarding non-Muslims if every week we hear thousands
of preachers call on Allah to 'not leave a trace of them'? Every day, our sons
read texts and books in schools that establish nothing but a patronizing and
disrespectful view regarding non-Muslims...
"We must first of all admit that education in [our] schools and mosques lays the
foundations for 'implicit ISISism'... [This implicit ISISism] is the largest and
most important source feeding the [explicit] barbaric ISISism that has managed
to acquire weapons and implement large parts of the implicit ISISism that
[previously] was not given a chance to express itself. The ISIS phenomenon [that
emerged] here over the past decades is not restricted to a certain town, society
or sect, but rather cuts across countries, curricula and sects, and burns among
the Shi'ites just as it burns among the Sunnis, and its proponents compete in
destroying our societies.
"The future of this region and of its peoples and societies depends on uprooting
the 'implicit ISISism.' It takes great courage to admit its existence and work
to deal with it strategically. [This must be done] patiently, for it is no easy
task to fix the damage it has caused with a short-term policy."[1]
Sa'id Nasheed, a Moroccan writer and intellectual, also responded to the Nice
attack with an article in the London-based daily Al-Arab calling on Arabs and
Muslims to reform their religious discourse in order to deal with extremist
takfiri thought in their midst, and to undermine it in a methodical and critical
way – lest the world lose its patience with all Muslims: "The truck that ran
over... dozens of French people as they celebrated their national holiday in
Nice in Southeast France, it does not matter where it came from or what route it
took. It doesn't matter whether the truck was laden with weapons or explosives,
since we know that the [real] explosives were in the mind of the driver. We are
likely facing a new strategy of global jihad that aims to kill as many people as
possible, by all possible means. This has made the security task even harder and
more complex, and so the important question is: Where did all these mines
scattered in the brains [of terrorists] come from, and how did they end up in
the truck driver's head?...
"The basic problem of the Islamic world is the lack of sufficient courage to
pose the most important and relevant question: From where do we draw this
ability to be resentful and filled with hate, to disregard human life and to
permit the shedding of blood? We lack sufficient courage [to answer this
question]; in fact, we seem to lack even minimal self-integrity when we insist
on ridiculously blaming others.
"We must understand that the ideas of takfiri [jihad], which have sparked civil
wars and schism in most Arab and Islamic countries... currently threaten many
Western capitals and place all of us [Muslims] in the defendant's seat. What
have we done to methodically and critically counter these charged views that
spread like a plague from mind to mind?... Intellectuals, media personalities,
and politicians of other faiths combat their own religious extremism. What [do
we do] about our [religious] extremism?
"Terrorism is not embodied by a truck and nothing else – it is first and
foremost an idea and a concept. Therefore, we cannot eliminate extremist thought
without reforming the religious discourse – a reform Muslims themselves must
enact... without beating around the bush. This means that the ball is in our
court and that the world will not wait on us forever, especially not now, when
the threat has spread everywhere. We are bound to be strongly pressured on this
front. Instead of resisting the pressure, which would spark the fires of
extremism, wisdom requires us to not avoid [our] obligation."[2]
Palestinian Writer: Every Muslim Anywhere May Have Some Measure Of Sympathy For
ISIS; We Must Make Islam Compatible With Universal Values
Following the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in June 2016,
Ihlam Akram, a Palestinian writer and human rights activist living in the U.K.,
published an article in the liberal Saudi website Elaph calling on Muslims to
conduct a comprehensive review and research of Islam in order to enact reforms
and make it compatible with 21st century universal values. She wrote: "The last
conversation between [Orlando attacker Omar Mateen] and the U.S. [police]
emergency dispatcher, in which he swore fealty to [ISIS], is just another proof
that any Muslim anywhere might harbor some sympathy [for ISIS] in his heart,
even [Muslims] thousands of miles away. This reflects a failure by Western
education systems to impart humanitarian values to its Muslim [pupils],
including those born in the West...
"All worlds' armies, as modern and sophisticated as they may be, cannot defeat
and eliminate terrorism originating in uncompromising ideology. This [task] must
be carried out first of all by the bodies that presume to be [Islamic] religious
institutions. Yes, we must rewrite and reinterpret Islamic history and amend the
religion in accordance with universal values... This change is not the
responsibility of Western countries, but rather our own [responsibility as
Muslims], both in the West and in the Arab region. This change cannot begin
without enacting fundamental reforms in the Arab region, as part of which all
[Arab] regimes must relinquish their clandestine patronage over religious
institutions and enact reforms in the legal and educational systems in order to
substantially improve [Arab and Muslim] society so it conforms with the 21st
century and plays an active role in the world. As for Western countries, [like
the one] in which I am a citizen – they must reexamine their domestic policies
regarding their new citizens and completely abolish religious schools belonging
to all faiths, and also reconsider their foreign policies and ties with Islamic
countries, for better or worse...
"The refusal of religious institutions to accuse the false [Islamic] State of
apostasy increases the confusion of all Muslims anywhere. It may also prove that
there is no such thing as extreme religious ideology versus moderate ideology,
but that there is some flaw [in Islam] and that the time has come to bring it
all under intense scrutiny for the purpose of reform."[3]
Egyptian Writer: Culture Of Arab Societies Produces Violent Islam Whose
Followers Murder Anyone Who Disagrees With Them
Egyptian writer and animation screenwriter Amr Hosny published an article in the
Egyptian daily Al-Tahrir accusing Arab and Muslim society of being oversensitive
regarding the honor of Islam, leading to them being violent and murderous
towards others: "Every time an extremist Muslims commits a horrifying crime
against humanity, some people come out and shriek that he has nothing to do with
Islam, while ignoring the fact that views and ideologies do not exist as
abstract entities, but rather take shape in the minds and behavior of those who
believe in them in accordance with the surrounding culture that defines the
nature of their relations with the other. The culture of our Islamic societies
in this generation, particularly Arab societies, produces a violent Islam whose
believers simply murder anyone who disagrees with them under the pretext of
being offended. This, while they [the Muslims] never consider anyone else's
feelings but their own...
"Omar Mateen, the young American Muslim of Afghan origin who massacred 50
homosexuals, was offended because he saw two men kissing, but was not [offended]
by [the act of] murdering 50 people. After all these crimes, members of other
cultures more readily accept extremism on behalf of their governments and people
against Muslims [in general] and Arabs in particular, since [in their eyes] they
are [all] potential terrorists who must be uprooted from their societies.
"We must recognize the existence of a flaw in the Islamic culture – particularly
the Arab [Islamic culture] – that beats in the heart of the Muslim... and causes
him to become convinced that the other deserves to be killed if he offends [the
Muslims'] religious sensibilities..."[4]
Jordanian Writer: We Must Urgently Reexamine Islamic Religious Texts; Clerics
Not Fulfilling This Duty
In an article in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Jordanian researcher and
pundit Muhammad Barhouma called to enact urgent and radical religious reforms in
the Arab and Islamic world that fit the times and revoke the legitimacy of
violence and killing in the name of Allah. According to him, Muslim clerics are
not fulfilling their duty on this front: "Though we appreciate the condemnations
[of the November 2015 Paris attacks] by the Council of Senior Scholars [in Saudi
Arabia] and Al-Azhar [in Egypt], true religious reform in the Arab and Muslim
world still hasn't happened, because one of the [necessary] pillars for it are
the clerics, the vast majority of whom do not fulfill their duty when it comes
to reform. [Apparently] they are not yet convinced that the religious texts we
possess, as well as the interpretations and explanations of these religious
texts, require urgent reexamination, criticism, dismantling, additions,
omissions, and development so that they match the spirit of the times and human
progress; that is, the values of liberty, human rights and respect for the
principle of equality among all people and of strengthening trust among them.
The policy currently undertaken [in the Arab and Muslim world] is based on
tyranny and corruption. In our current culture, philosophy, art, and morality
wither away, and clerics avoid the realization that there is a need to reexamine
religious texts, remove vagueness from them, and revoke the legitimacy for
violence that they contain, as they constitute a wonderful prescription for
extremism and backwardness. Dealing with this will gradually increase the
progressive content of the religion, and provide meaning that does not
marginalize life, development, and human rights...
"This call is addressed not just to the Arab and Muslim world, but also to
[Islamic] institutions in the West, since we can no longer excuse extremism and
terrorism by citing the problems of immigration and Muslim integration into
Western societies, feelings of isolation, and the younger generations' search
for an identity there. One of the first stages of the solution lies in religious
reform that revokes the religious legitimacy of interpretations of religious
texts permitting 'killing in the name of God.'"[5]
Senior Saudi Journalist: Muslim Clerics Should Completely Disprove Takfiri
Jihadi Ideological Arguments
Qinan Al-Ghamdi, a senior Saudi journalist and former editor of the government
daily Al-Watan, penned an article arguing that condemning terrorism was not
enough, and the situation required critically reading the texts of takfiri
jihadi ideology and systematically disproving them: "Are condemnations and
repudiations enough to forever rid ourselves of terrorism on both the
ideological and the practical levels? I believe they are absolutely not
enough... We can, for example, order the Shura Council [the Saudi parliament] to
reexamine and debate the law to combat racism, sectarianism, takfir, incitement
and suborning crime, which it opposed [in the past], since this can have a
broader and deeper impact than [mere] condemnation and repudiation, and it would
be best for the present and future of our country that this be done as soon as
possible.
"As for the other elements and Islamic institutions, chiefly the Council of
Senior Scholars... I wish they would [accompany their] repeated condemnations
following every terrorist attack with practical and informational ideological
programs in order to erode the ideology of terrorism that Al-Qaeda relied on and
now ISIS is relying on. [These groups] have seduced sons of the homeland, led
them astray, and recruited them using takfiri sectarian ideologues and inciters
who are members of a stream that [originally] branched out from the Muslim
Brotherhood organization...
"It is the duty of the Council of Senior Scholars, and specifically the
preachers at the Ka'ba Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, to
review this entire [takfiri jihadi] ideology, critically read its texts, and
respond to them. These are not Koranic texts but rather various interpretations
and fatwas that terror theoreticians and prominent figures have exploited for
their earthly goals, turning our youth into kindling for their fires in the
heart of our homeland and elsewhere... This is the only way to dry out the
swamps of terrorism. As for the mosquitos already bred by the swamps, the
security personnel and loyal sons of the homeland are clearly committed to
eliminating them, but this must be accompanied by a law that defines
sectarianism, racism, takfir, and incitement as crimes, and with [efforts to]
dry out all the ideological swamps – otherwise it will all be pointless, as
incitement will continue and the ideological swamps will breed more mosquitos,
thus keeping the homeland trapped in the cycle of terrorism."[6]
Saudi Journalist In Series Of Articles: Actions Of Al-Qaeda, ISIS Originate In
Past Islamic Religious Texts And Interpretations; We Must Issue Fatwas In Line
With The Times
Writing in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, Saudi journalist Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh
argued that ISIS faithfully represents the texts from Islamic heritage, which
reflect a reality that is no longer relevant today, and that there was therefore
a need to update Muslim law to fit the times: "Today, it is more urgent than
ever to renew the [Islamic] religious discourse in form, content, and goals...
since Muslims have become confused, as many issues that were once considered
uncontroversial principles are now banned in accordance to the norms set by the
modern world, such as slavery for prisoners of war, offensive jihad, and so on.
ISIS and its actions, for example, did not fall from the sky and are not new; on
the contrary, they draw most of their religious laws from the most important
religious texts and from interpretations by religious scholars regarding those
texts and their practical implementation... How can we operate according to the
words, rulings, and attitudes of [past] jurisprudents [on matters not explicitly
mentioned in the Koran] who did not experience our reality...? This is our
fundamental problem, which initially birthed Al-Qaeda and later ISIS. These two
groups are the best examples of what I am saying. We cannot dismiss their
actions by saying that they 'do not represent Islam' when most of their actions
originate in books from our past heritage, [books] that dealt with matters of
the day in accordance with the conditions and norms of that period, which are
different from the conditions and norms of our own period. Therefore, in order
to deal with the current discourse, there is no choice but to issue fatwas that
match our time and not ancient periods...
"Those who examine the history of Islam will find that many issues in religious
texts, and rulings regarding them, were meant to deal with problems that did not
exist during the time of the Prophet... [In the same manner,] we must generate a
modern religious discourse that matches new developments and [deals with]
earthly problems, otherwise the entire world, both Muslim and non-Muslim, should
expect ISIS, or even newer takfiri groups, to [continue] leveling charges of
apostasy against anyone who commits even the most minor infractions and call to
kill them."[7]
Sanctifying Old Islamic Heritage Will Breed Groups More Extreme Than ISIS, Lead
Muslims To Doom
Aal Al-Sheikh made similar remarks in articles following the November 2015 Paris
attacks, warning that cleaving to violent Muslim heritage would be disastrous
for Muslims: "We must not let conspiracy [theories] make us forget that the
heritage passed down to us – specifically regarding offensive jihad, slavery,
and capturing prisoners, for example – are not in line with the times, and that
the insistence on cleaving to it due to its [supposed] status as a sacred
heritage that must remain unharmed will lead us Muslims and Arabs to doom –
literally, and not metaphorically... Just as Al-Qaeda begat ISIS, so will ISIS
and its suicide culture beget even more cruel, barbaric, and dangerous
[groups]..."[8]
Muslims Should Learn From The West, Which Rescued Itself From Medieval Culture
And Became Enlightened
In another article, Aal Al-Sheikh called on Muslims to stop making excuses for
their heritage and deal with it critically and rationally, just as Western
societies had done, or else they would continue to be "invading barbarians and
murderers." He wrote: "Those who read the history of today's leading Western
societies will see that the reason they emerged from medieval culture and
entered into the age of enlightenment, which led them to cultural superiority in
all scientific and theoretic fields, is that they dealt with their heritage in a
critical, rational, and substantive way. They legislated rational laws enabling
the principles of pluralism and diverse opinions without making them absolute
and without reservations... They led their people to view rationality and
scientific standards as crucial factors in their daily considerations. If,
instead of dealing [with their heritage], they would have made excuses for their
culture and used them to explain their situation and place blame for it on the
culturally-superior other, as some of our intellectuals do today; and if they
had [adopted] conspiracy [theories], as some other intellectuals do, they [too]
would have remained invading barbarians and murderers...
"Our mental problem... is that we read our history, specifically its glorious
parts, in an unscientific manner, and view our own period using the rationale of
yesteryear while refusing to read it according to today's rationale and using
current critical tools. This is what has eventually caused us to fall into the
trap of this terrible disaster that currently afflicts us, which is the
terrorism whose best representatives are ISIS and its ilk, [organizations] that
use history, statements made by [ancient] jurisprudents, and certain
[historical] events as evidence [that their way is correct], and take things out
of context, circumstance, and time period, and superimpose them on our era,
believing that these historic testimonies are proof enough that their actions
are religiously proper."[9]
Caliph ‘Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Also Adapted His Rulings To The Times And To The
Benefit Of All Muslims
Aal Al-Sheikh also penned an article condemning clerics for not disproving
ISIS's religious ideology, as early Islamic generations did regarding the
Kharijites[10] and thereby eliminated them: "Why don't our clerics come out
against [ISIS], disprove the religious justifications they use to establish
[their claims], and respond to them using evidence and explanations, thus saving
the masses from them and their damage? Ideology can only be combatted with
ideology. Early Islamic generations succeed in eliminating the Kharijites, for
example, and other wayward groups that caused suffering to Islam, only after
they confronted their clerics, and read, addressed and disproved their ideas and
writings, causing them first to wither and eventually to disappear...
"To date we have yet to deal with ISIS's ideology in a comprehensive, brave and
serious manner. We have not disproved its evidence or addressed what it says in
a substantive manner, based on proof and while [stressing] that statements made
by clerics in the near or distant past do not necessarily apply to our period,
its circumstances, its upheavals and its disasters. By the way, this was one of
the most important attitudes utilized by [Caliph] Omar ibn Al-Khattab [ruled
634-644] in his religious rulings on worldly matters. This supreme genius caliph
excelled in adapting the considerations in his rulings to the circumstances and
in seeking the greater good of the Muslim public in all matters. Thus, for
example, he suspended the Koranic punishment for theft [having one's hand cut
off] during the Year of Al-Ramada (a period of famine during his rule). He was
also the one who stopped giving [alms money] to people whose hearts had be
brought closer [to Islam][11] because he believed that this money [had been
given them] due to political considerations during the time of the revelation
[of the Koran], but that in his own time, when the [Islamic] state was already
strong, it was no longer justified to continue paying money to this group of
Muslims. Additionally, he was the one who banned marriage to Christian or Jewish
women [at a certain period], for a social reasons and in pursuit of the greater
good, as he saw it.
"Why, therefore, can't we see his way as a custom and a path for us [to
follow]?... If we follow texts [literally] and heed the words of and rulings of
[past] clerics... and their rulings on matters that do not have explicit laws,
while taking things out of their historical context and ignoring the
requirements of the public interest in our current time and not their own, then
we must not condemn the members of ISIS for taking the [same] path in their own
religious conduct..."[12]
Arabs have their sights set on "the 21st century" but run in the opposite
direction (Al-Rai, Jordan, December 10, 2015)
Moroccan Journalist: We Must Rescue Religious Values From The Culture Of
Ignorance, Backwardness, And Violence
Taoufik Bouachrine, a Moroccan journalist and editor of the online daily
Alyaoum24.com, penned a scathing article following the November 2015 Paris
attacks. He called on Muslims to adapt Islamic heritage to modern times, and
argued that one of the three factors leading to the birth of ISIS and its ilk is
the lack of religious reform in the Islamic world for over a century. According
to him: "From the days of Jama Al-Din Al-Afghani[13] and to this day, Muslims
have not seen a new plan to rescue the values of the global Islamic faith from
the culture of ignorance, backwardness, and violence – [a culture that has]
surrounded [the Muslims] since they absconded from the throne of modern culture
centuries ago and went from producing values of progress to consuming them. We
Muslims have yet to discover the formula for adapting the religious lifestyle to
the values of the modern era, and we do not steer ourselves towards a historic
reconciliation between Islamic heritage and modern democracy. The narrow
understanding of texts and violent interpretation of the religion, as well as
the political use of the Koran and the exploitation of the Sunnah of the Prophet
have [all] become ingrained in the structure of fundamentalist organizations.
And because the political and economic climate in the Arab world is rife with
tyranny, poverty, dearth, and ignorance, ISIS and Al-Qaeda before it... found
gunpowder and ammo for their guns and canon."[14]
Palestinian Writer: No Justification For Clerics' Silence In Light Of ISIS
Crimes And Their Refusal To Declare ISIS Non-Muslim
Muhammad Yaghi, a columnist for the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Ayyam,
condemned the silence of Muslim clerics and urged them to wage ideological war
against extremist thought by refuting the foundations on which it is based: "We
must search for the real reasons for extremism, and not suffice with repeating
the refrain that the West is responsible [for it], because this alone cannot
explain the phenomenon... Some attribute the phenomenon of extremism or the
spread of madness to poverty, unemployment, the blocking of the horizons of
millions of Muslim youths, tyrannical regimes, and the Israeli occupation.
Undoubtedly, these causes are all real... and we can obviously show examples of
cases where people joined ISIS for these reasons. But these reasons are not the
[true] root of why people join ISIS and its ilk. Thus, for example, ISIS media
does not discuss poverty or unemployment or the Israeli occupation, but rather
focus on the war against the infidels, Shi'ites, and Crusaders, building the
caliphate state, and jihad for the sake of Allah.
"ISIS focuses on a narrow interpretation of Islam: it presents a discourse of
Islamic interpretation that captures the hearts of dozens of its recruits. This
discourse is precisely the factor that must be combatted – yet it is the one
topic that is never discussed. Those who call themselves jurisprudents see ISIS
distorting all human values [in the name of Islam], yet they do not stand up and
say that its actions are crimes that have nothing to do with Islam. None of them
say that the phenomenon of taking hostages and slaves has nothing to do with the
shari'a and that its time has past. On these matters, clerics are as silent as
the dead...
"There is no explanation for the silence of the Muslim Brotherhood and for the
so-called Council of Senior Scholars’ refusal to remove ISIS from the fold of
Islam. There is no excuse for the Muslim Brotherhood's refusal to protest
against the bombing of a mosque, while they fill the streets every time some
newspaper publishes a cartoon that offends Islam. ISIS can only be defeated...
by destroying the ideological foundations on which it is based... This is the
mission of those who claim to be versed in Islam, and it is their moral duty to
their peoples. However, unfortunately, they turn their backs on [their
peoples]."[15]
Saudi Writer: ISIS Culture Ingrained In The Hearts Of Many Muslims; We Must
Combat This Ideological-Cultural Affliction
Mashari Al-Dhaidi, a Saudi journalist and senior editor in the London-based
daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, called on Muslims to stop denying reality and launch a
war against ISIS ideology in order to defend Islam and the majority of Muslims.
Al-Dhaidi said that terrorist attacks committed by Muslims around the world have
become a nearly daily occurrence and that each attack "inspires other sick and
lowly people around the world" to emulate it. According to him: "This [ISIS]
culture is ingrained in the hearts of many Muslims, and [we] do not lay a finger
on the hiding places of this ideological-cultural affliction. On the contrary –
every time a researcher or intellectual tries to neutralize these ideas [and
remove them] from public education, mosques, and preacher pulpits... they are
accused of spying and Westernization, are ignored by the authorities in Arab and
Muslim countries, and become prey to opportunists and the rabble they lead.
"A true and fundamental start [in combating terrorism] is confronting this
culture and facing the consequences, difficult as they may be. Those who say
that ISIS, Al-Qaeda before it, and other ideological abscesses like them, are
products of some intelligence apparatus, or the result of political oppression
or economic or cultural deprivation, are denying the clear truth, namely that
this is a cultural-educational problem. True, ISIS and its ilk undoubtedly do
not represent the majority of the world's Muslims, and they harm Muslim
countries and interests even more than they harm the West. But the fact is that
refraining from declaring an ideological-psychological war – and not just a
security-military war – on the culture that birthed Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and their
ilk, will harm all Muslims in the world, including those with Western
citizenships. In fact, this is a war of the Muslim majority to defend Islam and
the majority of Muslims."[16]
* D. Hazan is a research fellow at MEMRI.
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Hayat (London), July 17, 2016.
[2] Al-Arab (London), July 16, 2016.
[3] Elaph.com, June 16, 2016.
[4] Tahrirnews.com, June 14, 2016.
[5] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 9, 2015.
[6] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), February 3, 2016
[7] Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), April 5, 2016.
[8] Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), November 20, 2015.
[9] Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), November 24, 2015.
[10] The first sect to break away from Islam.
[11] A term originating in Koran 60:9, referring to people who converted to
Islam but whose faith did not run deep. Due to their influence and status in the
Quraysh tribe, the Prophet Muhammad gave them alms money to please them and
strengthen their faith so that they would not come out against Islam, which was
still weak at the time.
[12] Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), November 27, 2015.
[13] A pioneer of the modernist movement in Islam in the 19th century. Called to
break free of the bonds of traditional Islam, abandon superstitions that became
ingrained in it, and enact educational, but mostly political, reforms to unite
Islamic countries against the Western world, which he saw as a threat.
[14] Alyaoum24.com, November 19, 2015.
[15] Al-Ayyam (PA), November 20, 2015.
[16] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 9, 2015.
Turkey-Russia Pact Threatens
Western Interests in the Middle East
Con Coughlin/ Gatestone Institute/July 25/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8538/turkey-russia-pact
In recent months the Kremlin has hinted that keeping Assad in power is not its
primary concern. Rather its main objective in Syria is to keep its
strategically-important bases in the country.
This has led to suggestions that, in return for building closer relations with
Turkey, Moscow might be prepared to do a deal whereby Assad is removed from
power and Russia's military interests in the country are safeguarded.
If that outcome could be achieved, then Russia and Turkey would be able to forge
a powerful partnership, one that would pose a serious threat to Western
interests in the Middle East and beyond.
The deepening diplomatic pact between Turkey and Russia represents yet another
damning indictment of the Obama Administration's ability to maintain relations
with Washington's traditional allies in the Middle East.
Western diplomats regard the decision by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
to restore relations with Moscow last month as part of a carefully-coordinated
attempt by Ankara to build a new power base in the region.
For decades Turkey, a key NATO member, has said that it wants to forge closer
ties with the West, to the extent that Turkish diplomats insist that Ankara is
still serious about joining the European Union.
But the increasingly hard-line Islamist approach taken by Mr Erdogan in the wake
of the failed military coup, which has seen tens of thousands of judges,
academics and journalists forced from their jobs, has caused the Turkish
government to realise the prospects of maintaining relations with its Western
allies are remote so long as it continues with the current crack-down.
This had led Mr Erdogan to embark on a campaign to reach out to countries such
as Russia, which he regards as a viable alternative to the U.S. in protecting
Turkey's interests in the region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embarked on a campaign to reach out
to countries such as Russia, which he regards as a viable alternative to the
U.S. in protecting Turkey's interests in the region. Pictured: Russian President
Vladimir Putin with Turkish President Erdogan (then prime minister), meeting in
Istanbul on December 3, 2012. (Image source: kremlin.ru)
The Turkish leader's disillusionment with U.S. President Barack Obama predates
the tensions caused by the military coup and Turkey's demand that Washington
extradites the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of
orchestrating the failed military coup.
The fall-out between Mr Erdogan and Mr Obama dates back to the American
president's failure to follow up on his threat to launch military action against
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he used chemical weapons against his own
people in Syria's brutal civil war.
From the outset of the conflict, Mr Erdogan has been committed to the overthrow
of the Assad regime, which is accused of supporting Kurdish separatist groups.
It is for this reason that the U.S. has accused Turkey of turning a blind eye to
the activities of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists on its
lengthy border with Syria.
Indeed, the big stumbling block preventing Turkey from having better relations
with Russia was that Moscow was helping to keep the Assad regime in power
through the military intervention by Russian forces that began last year.
But in recent months the Kremlin has hinted that keeping Assad in power is not
its primary concern. Rather its main objective in Syria is to protect its
strategically-important military bases in the country.
This has led to suggestions that, in return for building closer relations with
Turkey, Moscow might be prepared to do a deal whereby Assad is removed from
power and Russia's military interests in the country are safeguarded.
And if that outcome could be achieved, then Turkey and Russia would be able to
forge a powerful partnership, one that would pose a serious threat to Western
interests in the Middle East and beyond.
**Mr Coughlin is Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor of London's Daily Telegraph.
© 2016 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.
Will Sadrists target US
troops in Iraq?
Mustafa Saadoun/Al-Monitor/July 25/16
BAGHDAD — Alaa Abboud, the spokesman for the Peace Brigades, the armed faction
of the Sadrist movement, said in a TV interview with a local Iraqi channel July
20, “We will target the US forces anywhere they are in Iraq. We are not only
keen on targeting them, but thirsty for their blood.”This followed threats by
the head of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, July 17 to target US military
troops that are allegedly to be sent to Iraq soon to take part in the battle to
liberate Mosul. Sadr, who fought a fierce battle against US forces in 2003 in
the city of Najaf in southern Iraq, continues to believe that US military
personnel should be targeted by his armed groups.
The Shiite cleric's threats came following the visit of US Secretary of Defense
Ashton Carter to Iraq on July 11. Carter said, “We are pleased to tell you today
that [the Pentagon] has agreed to send 560 more troops to Iraq to provide
critical support to Iraqi forces, in terms of infrastructure and logistic
capabilities in the Qayyarah military airport.”
Before Carter’s announcement on sending more US troops to Iraq, Sadr had hinted
in a TV interview July 6 about his intention to target the US Embassy in Iraq by
saying, “The [US] embassy has harassed us before and now it is our time to
harass it.”
Today, Sadr has a force within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) known by the
name of the Peace Brigades, which he said were ready to target US forces
anywhere in the country. This places the Iraqi government in an awkward position
with its US ally, which has been supporting the war against terrorism and signed
the Strategic Framework Agreement with Iraq.
What is strange is that Sadr has a political bloc in the Iraqi government and
parliament. Iraq has positive bilateral relations with the United States and is
working under the Strategic Framework Agreement signed between the two countries
in 2011 and voted on by the Iraqi parliament. As per the agreement, the United
States is committed to provide support and assistance to Iraq on all levels.
Saad al-Hadithi, the spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, told
Al-Monitor, “The position of the Iraqi government and its prime minister, Abadi,
is very clear, which is to cooperate with the United States and accept the
provided support in their fight against terrorism. Those who make other
statements speak for themselves only.”
“American advisers have been in Iraq since August 2014 and they are helping Iraq
in its war against terrorism. They have not been targeted by any party. The
presence of these advisers or any US military personnel comes as part of the
Strategic Framework Agreement,” he said.
In fact, a number of US advisers have been stationed in Ain al-Asad air base in
Anbar province and have not been attacked. It appears that Sadr’s statements are
part of the attempts to pressure the Iraqi government and embarrass it in front
of the United States, especially since the dispute between Sadr and Abadi is
growing increasingly.
It is not likely that Sadr would order his forces to target US soldiers
participating in the battle against the Islamic State, given the military
hardships on the ground and especially since Sadr’s followers are likely
following orders by the Iraqi official troops.
In the most recent protest July 15 in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, Sadr and his
followers shouted, “America leave,” calling for the closure of the US Embassy in
Baghdad and the expulsion of all those who work under the US government
umbrella. In a statement July 13, Sadr went as far as to accuse Iraqis who
worked with US institutions and applied for asylum or immigration in the United
States of having no honor.
Sadr’s threats against the US Embassy in Baghdad are nothing new. He said March
8, “All embassies in the Green Zone [the heavily fortified area that includes
Iraqi government buildings and diplomatic missions] in Baghdad will be safe from
any attack, should Iraqi [protesters] wish to enter it, except for the US and
British embassies.”
Sadr, however, is not the only one to threaten the US forces in Iraq. The PMU,
which is closely linked to Iran, considers the US troops to be an occupying
force and has threatened to target them. Threats and statements have yet to be
translated into actual acts on the ground, despite the US advisers’ presence in
western Iraq for two years now.
Thus, any party seeking to target US military forces could find itself at
loggerheads with the Iraqi government, which does not view the US troops as an
occupying force in Iraq but as a force working with the Iraqi forces, which
gives them legitimacy to be present on Iraqi territory.
Will
Gadhafi's son be Libya's next leader?
Mustafa Fetouri/Al-Monitor/July 25/16
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, has been
released from jail in Zintan, a town in western Libya, after spending nearly
five years there since his capture in November 2011. After his father was killed
on Oct. 20, 2011, by rebel groups that captured his hometown Sirte with NATO
help, Seif tried to leave Libya.
In August 2015, the young Gadhafi was sentenced to death by firing squad by a
Tripoli-based court. However, the sentence was not carried out and was condemned
by Human Rights Watch that accused the self-proclaimed government of
politicizing the courts.
Seif never attended the court’s hearings, as he did not fall under the
authorities in Tripoli because he was jailed in Zintan, whose local authorities
and militias are allied with the Tobruk-based government that consider
themselves part of the Libyan Armed Forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter. Fearing
for his safety, he did not attend his trial. Instead he spoke to the court via
video.
The Tobruk-based government is the elected government of Libya and recognized
internationally; however, it was forced to flee the capital in August 2014 when
Islamist-led militias proclaimed their own government in Tripoli.
In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Seif, his father
and Gadhafi’s chief of intelligence Abdallah Sanusi. The ICC dropped the case
against Gadhafi after his death and accepted that Sanusi be tried in Libya.
In 2015, one of Seif's regular visitors told Al-Monitor on condition of
anonymity that the only obstacle for his release is his safety once he leaves
prison. Keeping him in Libya requires “huge security arrangements, and taking
him abroad will mean that he will have little influence on events inside the
country,” the source said.
His release was legally based on the general amnesty law passed by the
internationally recognized Libyan government and enacted by the Zintan court.
His defense team announced July 6 that he had been released April 12 and that
for security reasons the news had not been made public. It was decided that it
would be in Seif's best interest to remain in Zintan, which pledged to protect
him as long as he stayed in town. Karim Khan, who led Seif's defense team,
announced that his team of lawyers will ask the ICC to drop the case against
Seif, since he has already been tried in Libya for the same crimes and thus
cannot be tried again.
Now that Seif has been released, the question is what role he could play in the
war-torn country. Sources close to him have informed Al-Monitor that he has
already started contacting people inside Libya and abroad who are supporting
him, trying to come up with his own plan to salvage the country.
He is positioned to play a role within the tribal structure in Libya. The
majority of tribes that supported his father in the 2011 civil war see him as a
savior, and they are willing to support him as their de facto leader in any
political process to bring about national reconciliation and reunify the
country. This is especially true since the United Nations-brokered political
dialogue and the Government of National Accord have so far failed to deliver
stability and security, let alone anything tangible to alleviate the hardships
Libyans are facing on a daily basis, which include power cuts, shortage of money
in the banking system and soaring prices.
Al-Monitor learned, by having been part of these discussions, that tribal
leaders who support Seif are willing to accept him as their only representative,
or what is known in tribal customs as “next of kin.” This means he will be the
only person responsible for accepting any terms of a reconciliation accord that
might be reached in exchange for agreeing to forgive crimes committed by the
rebels since 2011, such as murders for the sake of national reconciliation.
Politically and in the face of the deteriorating security and economic situation
in the country, many Libyans are looking to Seif as a potential positive player,
given the failure of the successive governments that have run the country since
October 2011. In fact, those who supported his father make up the majority in
absolute numbers, and if organized behind an effective leadership with certain
tribal and political credentials, they could be a very effective force that will
be hard to ignore.
Also, the tribal forces in the country have largely been sidelined by the
successive UN envoys to Libya who tried — and so far have failed — to make any
tangible progress in saving the country. One of the reasons for this has been
the lack of organization of the tribes within one political entity that could be
taken seriously as a credible negotiating partner. Indeed, tribes opposing the
so-called February 17 Revolution have organized themselves in what is known as
the Supreme Council of the Libyan Tribes, but it lacked political coherence and
strong leadership backed by a clear mandate to lead. This role could well be
played by Seif, as he enjoys wide public support and clear tribal credentials
starting with his own Gadhafa tribe.
In a tribal society like Libya, tribes — particularly the major ones such as
Warfalla and Tarhuna — are the cornerstone of any future settlement in the
country, and without involving them, little can be achieved, as has been the
case for the last five years. Successive UN mediators have so far failed to do
much in solving Libya’s political turmoil, mainly because they ignored the
tribal base of the country. In this context, Seif could play a major political
role.
Seif's release also coincided with the recent release of six high-ranking
officials from his father’s regime who were in jail in Tripoli. The released
officials include Mohamed al-Zwai, the last parliament speaker under Gadhafi,
and former undersecretary Mohamed al-Sharif. The move appears to be a step on
the long road of reconciliation in Libya without which no side could solemnly
rule the country, let alone help it heal its wounds.
With
freedom no longer the issue, what’s the biggest threat to Sisi?
Mohammed Nosseir/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
“Bread, freedom and social justice” were the spontaneous slogans chanted by
Egyptians who revolted in Jan. 2011. Five and a half years later, the
significant deterioration in all three areas of grievance has led Egyptians to
accept trading freedom and social justice for bread. However, due to President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s inadequate economic policies, acquiring bread - a symbol
for improved economic conditions - is itself a challenge. Egyptians have rarely,
over many centuries, experienced either freedom or justice. Freedom of
expression in Egypt is a risky business; every writer knows that his or her work
could cause them to be questioned at any time. The state does not officially
accuse its citizens of criticism; it looks for other mistakes they may have
committed to bring legal charges against them. The true essence of justice is
not applied in Egypt; not just in politics, but also in business and even in
social disputes. The absence of justice means that thousands of innocent
Egyptians are imprisoned at any given moment, and millions of others are forced
to make unfair concessions.
Economy
The economic slowdown that the country has been experiencing for almost five
years now has prompted many Egyptians to accept a return to the unpleasant era
of former President Hosni Mubarak, in the hope of bringing the economy back on
track. The economic challenges constitute a completely new mission for Sisi,
whose entire career has been in the military. The president, who lacks economic
vision, is implementing a number of policies that are undermining the economy.
After spending $13 billion on the Suez Canal waterway (which witnessed a drop in
revenue in the following months due to global trade conditions), Sisi - who is
fond of mega projects - is now preparing to build Cairo Capital City, a project
strongly condemned by economic experts. During my regular trips abroad, when
appropriate I often encourage my foreign acquaintances to visit and invest in
Egypt. It offers many fabulous tourist sites, and as a developing country it
offers a relatively high return on investment (ROI). Over time, I learnt that
tourists not only seek sightseeing tours. They want a pleasurable experience
overall, from the moment they arrive to the moment of departure. Any minor
misbehavior can spoil the entire trip and eventually reduce the number of
tourists visiting Egypt. If the economy does not recover soon, Sisi could follow
his predecessors.
Listening to the experiences of many tourists, I noticed that some of the issues
that bother them result from the actions of people who work in the industry -
“human errors” that could be easily corrected by a firm-handed government
determined to attract tourists. Not addressing such issues has resulted in a
substantial reduction in tourism revenue; we receive tourists who are willing to
compromise the quality of their experience, and who thus spend substantially
less during their stay.Decent ROI is certainly not the only factor that
investors are after. An investor from the Arab Gulf, about to acquire a factory
in Upper Egypt, once shared a story with me. He was meeting with the company
board during the final acquisition phase, when one of the company workers
suddenly entered the meeting room and proceeded, for almost 15 minutes, to
deliver a sermon on religion to the entire board.
The potential investor told me he had expected a board member to immediately
instruct the worker that this was not the right time or place for his lecture,
but no one did anything. The man finished his lecture and left the room. As a
result, the investor decided against placing his money in this type of
environment.
Sisi needs to comprehend that Egypt’s economic crisis is correlated to his
policies. The debt increase is directly associated with the unwise spending of
resources, and with the fact that we are not truly combating corruption.
Likewise, the drop in tourism is directly linked to government inaction
regarding matters that annoy tourists. The adoption of a poor monetary policy
has led to the slowdown of businesses. Not addressing the challenges faced by
investors has discouraged new ones from investing in Egypt, and deterred
existing ones from expanding their investments. Sisi needs to realize that there
is a strong connection between democracy and economics. Entrepreneurship will
not flourish unless there is room for freedom of expression. Egypt’s challenges
are solvable, but they need to be tackled by our most qualified citizens, not by
those who simply praise the ruler. If the economy does not recover soon, Sisi
could follow his predecessors.
President Obama’s unfinished
war
Andrew Bowen/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
As President Obama’s counter-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk arrives in Jeddah for
meetings to follow-up on last week’s summit in Washington, the state of the
efforts in the fight against ISIS remains a mixed bag for Washington and the
broader 30-plus-member coalition. On the one hand, ISIS’s territory globally
continues to shrink. In Libya, government forces are making significant gains
against the group in Sirte. In Iraq, their territory continues to shrink as
Iraqi forces make slow, grudging gains to re-take and hold liberated territory
(over 50% of Iraqi territory has been recaptured from ISIS since Prime Minister
Abadi took office). Last week’s counter-ISIS summit in Washington focused on
preparing for the offensive to re-take ISIS’s main stronghold in Iraq, Mosul.
Such a recapture of Iraq’s second largest city (while there’s no definitive
timeline for its reclamation) would mark a major symbolic turning point in the
over two-year-long campaign against ISIS. On the other hand, ISIS remains a
destructive threat to global security. According to the United Nations, during
the month of Ramadan, the extremist group conducted or indirectly fomented over
393 attacks in 16 countries. From Nice to Istanbul, ISIS has shown that its
ideology has a global audience and resonance and that it can draw on both
directly supported fighters or self-radicalized individuals to carry its banner
well beyond Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen. The group also appears
well lodged into its stronghold in Raqqa. US National Security Advisor Susan
Rice acknowledged last month at a discussion at The Washington Post with David
Ignatius that the prospects of retaking both Mosul and Raqqa by the end of the
administration seemed remote.
The Washington Summit
Last week’s counter-ISIS summit in Washington, hosted by Secretary of Defense
Ash Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry, focused predominantly on the
prospects of retaking Mosul and its aftermath. While Secretary Carter used the
forum as an opportunity to praise the progress so far against ISIS in Iraq, the
battle for Mosul looms large and will likely be the most sizeable challenge for
the coalition. US Army General Joe Votel, Commander of US Central Command in an
interview with The Wall Street Journal noted, “One of the key things that I took
out of the meeting…with respect to Mosul is that we shouldn’t underestimate the
amount of preparation necessary to take on an operation like that.” It’s still
unclear whether the timeline for retaking Mosul is reasonable and the operation
(once launched) could drag into the new US administration. The prospects of
retaking both Mosul and Raqqa by the end of the administration seem remote. Even
after the capture of Mosul, the humanitarian challenge that confronts Washington
and its global and regional partners is substantial. With a million or so
residents, the United Nations has warned that the fall of Mosul could grow to be
the largest humanitarian challenge in the world in 2016 with massive casualties
and large internal displacement. According to the UN, almost nearly 6 million
Iraqis are likely to be displaced by the time Mosul falls. While some Iraqis
have resettled, many remain in camps. Kerry announced Thursday that he had
secured $2.1 billion for humanitarian and stabilization support for Iraq as it
manages the resettlement and reconstruction of recently liberated areas and on
the horizon, Mosul. These pledges will unlikely provide the capacity and the
capabilities necessary for Iraq’s government to address the short to medium term
challenges of re-integrating these territories back into Iraq and in providing
the humanitarian assistance needed to offer recently liberated Iraqis a
prosperous future.
Iraq’s fragmentation
While political reconciliation and accommodation was raised during the meetings,
the challenges of political reform remain a serious roadblock. It’s frankly more
than just returning to the status quo prior to the city’s fall to ISIS in 2014.
Even though Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has made limited strives for reform
and is a noted break from his predecessor, Nouri Al-Maliki, Baghdad’s government
is still predominantly a sectarian-dominated government tightly aligned to Iran.
The political reforms needed to address Sunni grievances haven’t been
sufficiently addressed to give these new liberated areas hope that the future
will be any different. As long as there’s no alternative political future, ISIS
or other extremist groups will find opportunities to take advantage of this
disenfranchisement. The employment as well of Shi’a sectarian militias to help
regain these territories could further exacerbate tensions (as they already have
in the most recent battles for Fallujah and Ramadi). Without such reforms,
regional partners will continue to be wary about fully investing in Prime
Minister Abadi’s efforts to stabilize Iraq.
The final months
While this summit was largely ceremonial and Washington will continue to press
on its current operations in Iraq and Syria with the possibility of recapturing
Mosul, the challenge ISIS poses will live on past President Obama. Iraq’s full
liberation and stabilization will almost certainly be a challenge President
Obama leaves to Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump as she or he enters office in
January 2017. The challenge ISIS poses then will be one that the next President
will have to seriously confront in the broader context of Syria, Iraq, Yemen,
Libya, and Afghanistan. President Obama has approached ISIS conveniently at
times as an eco-system of its own to avoid entangling himself already further
into the broader socio-economic and political challenges that confront the
states and societies that are afflicted by this group. Secretary Clinton has
shown a demonstrated understanding of the complexities ISIS poses both
regionally and globally and has shown a deeper willingness to take more
pro-active action than President Obama. Mr. Trump seems intellectually incapable
of grasping the challenge this group poses and equally demonstrates a profound
lack of understanding on how to effectively project and use American force to
secure and protect the US homeland and its allies. His remarks on accepting the
nomination in Cleveland and further to 60 Minutes and The New York Times
underscored a man deeply out of his depth to confront this long war ahead. For
Washington’s regional partners, ISIS poses a deepening homeland security
challenge and concerted efforts need to be taken now to deny these groups a
space to recruit and gain followers. The UAE and Saudi Arabia’s pro-active
efforts to counter ISIS’s destructive narrative and ideology have been notable.
Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have active government centers to counter this group’s
extremist ideology in social media. These practices should be more widely
employed by regional governments.
How to be polite and an asset
to your society?
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
The shape of the city and the behavior of its sons, their rhetoric and how they
deal with reality, from streets to gardens, driving vehicles, respecting queues
and how residents deal with strangers gives an indication about the city you are
entering and how civilized it is. Cities refine human behavior, or so they must.
Civilization is science and related to behavior, but this has not been formed in
many cities worldwide because there is a vast difference between cities full of
buildings and those that contain meanings and activate them within the lived
roles. Interestingly, civil concepts were the interest of Muslim philosophers
centuries ago.
Civil science
“Civil science examines the varieties of acts, administrative approaches,
morals, qualities and characteristics which acts and approaches are based on,
and which aims are achieved for,” said renowned Muslim philosopher Al-Farabi
(874-950). “It examines how these should be present... and how their presence in
humans is about having virtuous acts and approaches distributed in cities and
nations in order and mutually used.” Civil concepts were the interest of Muslim
philosophers centuries ago. Civilization is also discipline, and is the basis of
establishing the strict law abided by, and the development of the social
aspiration to change for the best and cooperate with one another to create a
reality that benefits everyone. This was the vision of John Locke (1632-1704),
who considered individuals’ concession of certain freedoms as the basis of
establishing a reality beneficial to all. It is a big wish that people’s
civility befits their city.
**This article was first published in Okaz on July 25, 2016.
Erdogan’s falling out with
the West makes him in need of Moscow
Raghida Dergham//Al Arabiya/July 25/16
In whose interest is it for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to launch a
crackdown on judicial, educational, and military institutions, impose a state of
emergency, and vow to execute those behind the coup against his Islamist
government? In whose interest is it for Erdogan to establish for himself and his
ruling party what can be termed a Sultan’s Guard along the lines of the
Republican Guard and the Revolutionary Guard in Saddam’s Iraq and the Mullah
regime in Iran respectively? Who wants to petrify Erdogan into purges and
liquidations that bypass all transparency and democratic principles? Erdogan may
appear victorious at home as he consolidates and expands his powers, but he is
effectively under siege both from within and from without. Turkey is still being
tested, and Erdogan is leading a deeply destabilized country. If anything, this
is proof of the failure of his approach to governance, beginning with his
systematic coup against secularism and the separation of mosque and state. The
humiliation of and the assault on the Turkish regular army’s prestige is not to
the credit of Erdogan as head of state, but quite the contrary.
Erdogan’s adventures abroad
Even before the coup attempt, the president was deliberately sidelining the
army, thus helped dismantle one of the most important institutions of the modern
Turkish state and subjecting national security to severe risk just to protect
his authoritarian administration even as this opened the door to Kurdish
statehood. Erdogan’s adventures abroad, for example in Egypt and Tunisia where
he backed the Muslim Brotherhood overthrow of secular regimes, exposed his
regional ambitions and made him a direct interferer in other countries’ affairs.
What he has done in Syria is also proof of not only a failed approach but also
overconfidence. Indeed, Erdogan was allegedly one of the first to defend Bashar
al-Assad from international accountability, when the Syrian dictator stood
accused of assassinating Lebanese leaders, journalists, and intellectuals. Then
he was the first to sell the illusion that the regime in Damascus could be
easily toppled, with a sense of arrogance that has cost others too much. He was
also accused of helping spawn extremist fundamentalist and terrorist groups in
Syria. Today, after he chose confrontation with Russian President Vladimir Putin
in Syria for a long period of time, before apologizing to him for downing a
Russian jet in Syrian airspace, he is gearing up to visit the Kremlin and meet
with Putin in the first 10 days of August – battered by the coup attempt and
afraid of another, he is willing to make concessions in Syria albeit not in
Turkey. The two men have a radical ideological dispute that a transient
mandatory partnership will not fix: Putin considers the project of the rise of
Islamists to power anathema while Erdogan is the godfather of the project and
its expansion into Arab countries, and if he could, into the five Muslim
republics surrounding Russia. The prospects for bargains and deals between the
two men are open-ended, particularly since both leaders are suspicious of the
United States regardless of who is in the White House, and both are more than
keen to teach the Europeans a lesson or two. It is therefore important to have a
clear picture of what happened in Turkey on the night of the failed coup. But
more importantly, we must scope out the implications of the coup attempt, not
just in Turkey but also in the country’s immediate neighbors, the region and the
world.
Accusations
Some spoke of an alleged US role in the coup. The inefficient and odd coup also
sparked many speculations. Some even accused Erdogan himself of staging the coup
to give himself cover to gather more extraordinary powers and eliminate his
opponents. Some ask how he managed to survive without being detained or
assassinated, whether in Marmaris where he was on holiday or in mid-air as he
returned to Istanbul. Others cited Washington’s delayed official reaction as
evidence of US complicity whether in staging the coup or in thwarting the coup,
both meaning to threaten Erdogan. Everything is possible in our age of
contradictory alliances. In the beginning, US President Barack Obama was a big
fan of the Turkish “moderate Islamist” model, to the point that he adopted it
and sought to market it. He backed the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak and lent his support to the Muslim Brotherhood administrations that took
power in Egypt and Tunisia. Erdogan and Obama were effectively partners in that
stage of the Arab Spring, which the Muslim Brotherhood hijacked for their own
power-grabbing project from Egypt to Syria via Tunisia, Yemen, and Libya.
Democracy and secularism in Turkey have been toppled not through the failed coup
attempt, but at the hands of the rulers who will remain in power. Perhaps the
crisis in Syria was the biggest milestone in US-Turkish relations having the
biggest role in souring them because of the Kurdish element as well as the
Islamic State group (ISIS) and Nusra Front, and Ankara’s alleged ties to such
groups. This is not to mention the issue of Syrian refugees, which has been used
by Turkey to destabilize Europe.
For one thing, the Kurds are a key element in US anti-ISIS efforts in Syria and
Iraq. Washington is supplying Kurdish groups with military assistance and has
not accepted Turkey’s request to designate the Kurdistan Workers Party or the
Kurdish Democratic Union Party as terror groups, angering Erdogan.
For its part, Washington is angered by what it sees as direct Turkish support
for terror groups in Syria, which Erdogan blundered into adopting and blundered
into renouncing them too late. In addition, Western capitals accuse Erdogan of
deliberately using the Syrian refugee crisis to destabilize Europe, and see him
as a de facto partner of Putin in deliberately undermining the European Union.
Another key issue has to do with the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives
in Pennsylvania. Erdogan accuses Gulen of masterminding the coup, and has asked
Washington to extradite him as a “sponsor of terrorism”. It is not clear what
kind of evidence Erdogan will provide in an official request to Washington, and
what the US response will be, or how much this will impact US-Turkish relations
further.
Nevertheless, it is very unlikely for a direct confrontation to take place
between the two NATO allies. Turkey’s Incirlik airbase, used by the US to launch
airstrikes against ISIS, will remain vital. That is unless Turkey’s relationship
with NATO radically changes, to the point of Turkish withdrawal, unlikely but
not impossible especially if European pressures force Erdogan to choose between
EU and NATO membership, and adopting further repressive measures to restore his
power at home. Here, improving Turkish-Russian relations could be a gateway to a
strategic partnership that could turn the two foes into two reluctant partners.
Moscow might adjust to the religious rule in Turkey. Ultimately, Russia and the
Islamic Republic of Iran are strategic allies. But Moscow would most probably
not consent to any new attempt by Ankara to destabilize Egypt and re-float the
Muslim Brotherhood there, although this could be used by Turkey to bargain. For
Putin red lines include having a pledge and guarantees from Erdogan that the
Muslim Brotherhood project to seize power will not be implemented in the Muslim
republics neighboring Russia. They will also include a demand for active and
serious Turkish participation in the fight on ISIS in Syria and the designation
of the Nusra Front and similar groups as terrorists, as well as cutting off
supplies to Syrian rebels that Moscow sees as its enemies in Syria. Turkish
consent to Assad remaining in power, even if temporarily, is also part of
Moscow’s demands and Ankara seems willing to oblige, even if Damascus was caught
celebrating the attempted coup.
Western pressures
How many of Putin’s demands Erdogan could meet depends on Western pressures and
the internal Turkish equation. One of the most important issues that will affect
Turkey’s future in NATO has to do with the traditional military establishment
that Erdogan has destroyed and replaced with Islamist generals. Some are asking
whether this will create problems for NATO or whether the alliance is willing to
coexist with the Islamization of the institutions of the Turkish state, and the
implications for the security of NATO? To be sure, Erdogan has deliberately
clipped the wings of the army to re-forge it into an entity loyal to him and his
party. He has adopted a strategy of shoring up security and intelligence
agencies loyal to him at the expense of the secularist army, rendering the
latter an object of derision instead of a symbol of the state and the
constitution. So the question is how this will affect Turkey’s membership at
NATO level. Putin may not welcome the Islamization of the Turkish army, but he
will not resent much the impact this will have on Turkey’s NATO membership and
her growing isolation in Europe, as this would be in Russia’s strategic
interests. However, it is important not to underestimate the Russian hostility
to the rise of Islamists to power – which will be in the heart of the future of
Russian-Turkish relations. It is also important to note the mistrust between the
two men. Each wants the other to have the weaker hand in negotiations. Today, it
is Erdogan who has the weaker hand, and Putin will no doubt take advantage if
not pleasure as receives his apologetic visit to Moscow, where Erdogan will be
panicked about the prospect of another coup during his absence from Ankara and
about stronger odds for the success of Kurdish separatism.
Clearly, Erdogan the ‘dictator’ is fit for his Russian counterpart, not only
because of the superficial resemblance, but also because of the hostility to the
West. Erdogan’s repression will bring him closer to Moscow and make him in a
position where he needs more the occupant of the Kremlin. This is not to mention
the billion-dollar joint projects that will be brought back into the pipeline
after the Turkish apology and the coup attempt, and the coming Turkish-Russian
understanding in Syria, in which Aleppo will be the first indicator. According
to reports, Russian intelligence tipped off Erdogan about unusual movements,
rescuing him from detention or assassination. If these reports are true, this
highlights a major shift in relations between Erdogan, and Russia and Israel,
which resumed only two weeks ago and which will grow stronger now. The direct
victim will be the Palestinian Authority. For one thing, Hamas will grow more
self-confident following the failed coup against the Muslim Brotherhood. For
another, Turkish-Israeli relations will improve if the Israelis indeed ‘rescued’
Erdogan. Egypt will also be impacted by Russian-Turkish rapprochement after the
botched coup. Indeed, Egypt had wagered on a confrontation between Turkey, and
the US and Europe, as something that would benefit Cairo, but is now concerned
by the implications of Russian-Turkish accords. The reactions from most Gulf
states and Iran to the coup attempt were similar, based on the need to respect
elected governments and rejecting coups. It is not clear yet whether what
happened was an Islamist coup against Islamists in government, bearing in mind
that Erdogan and Gulen were once partners in steering Turkey away from
secularism; or whether the coup was secular-motivated. Either way, the claim
that the Turkish people took to the streets to support Erdogan and his
authoritarianism is wrong. The Turkish people are divided. Some went to the
squares in obedience of the orders to humiliate the regular army, many of whom
were supporters of the ruling party. But others did so to protect the country
from civil war, not to support turning democracy into a tool of tyranny and
dictatorship.Democracy and secularism in Turkey have been toppled not through
the failed coup attempt, but at the hands of the rulers who will remain in power
on the ruins of civil institutions and the regular army equally.
**This article was first published in Al-Hayat on July 22, 2016 and translated
by Karim Traboulsi.
How Pokémon Go is the new
bogeyman
Khaled Almaeena/Al Arabiya/July 25/16
In every period of history there are characters or issues that seem to disturb
people and cause anxiety or fear. They are referred to as “bogeymen”. There have
been many such bogeymen in history as a result of threats that people perceived
to be real and dangerous. In the 1950s in the US, Communists were the bogeymen.
In his maniacal fear of Communism, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy created a Red
Scare and carried out a witch hunt to cleanse the US of Communists. This gave
rise to the expression “there is a red under every bed.”Heartfelt anguish was
caused to people and the witch hunt professionally and permanently scarred many
film producers, writers and others for life. Today in the US, Muslims are the
new bogeymen. However, the most recent bogeyman is Pokémon Go. While this new
smartphone game has attracted attention worldwide, it has also caused alarm and
consternation here in Saudi Arabia. Conspiracy theories have sprung up with some
raving and ranting about how Pokémon Go is actually a surveillance trick on the
part of the American government to spy on us. Suddenly, we seem to have
forgotten ISIS, Palestine and a lot of other problems as we grapple with the
supposed dangers hidden within the latest augmented reality mobile phone game.
There are edicts by certain scholars denouncing the game to be un-Islamic, a
waste of time and a plot to steer us off our course! A Jeddah businessman
countered such thinking by asking if corruption was not also un-Islamic, if by
not paying workers their salaries and benefits on time and treating them badly
was not un-Islamic and ended by asking which course exactly are we heading for.
Debates are raging across society about Pokémon Go which indicates that we are
totally oblivious to the real dangers to our future – overpopulation,
corruption, intolerance and scarcity of water to name only a few. We seem to
have gone totally out of control. All kinds of statements, many of which are
hilarious, are being made by some of our officials! However, all of this fuss
about Pokémon Go only gives me a sense of sadness about the disappointing state
of our society. Suddenly, we seem to have forgotten ISIS, Palestine and a lot of
other problems as we grapple with the supposed dangers hidden within the latest
augmented reality mobile phone game.
That tells us everything about our society!
**This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on July 24, 2016.