llLCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 29/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.may29.16.htm
News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006
Bible Quotations For Today
If I had not come and spoken
to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15/22-27:"If I had not come
and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for
their sin.
Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works
that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated
both me and my Father. It was to fulfil the word that is written in their law,
"They hated me without a cause."
‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to
testify because you have been with me from the beginning."
An angel of the Lord opened
the prison doors, brought them out, and said, ‘Go, stand in the temple and tell
the people the whole message about this life.’
Acts of the Apostles 05/12-21a.:"Now many signs and wonders were done among the
people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s
Portico.None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high
esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of
both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and
laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of
them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns
around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and
they were all cured. Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with
him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested
the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of
the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, ‘Go, stand in the
temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.’When they heard
this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching. When
the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and
the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them
brought."
Pope Francis's Tweet For
Today
Mary is an icon of how the Church must offer forgiveness to those who seek it.
Marie est l’Icône de la Mère Eglise qui offre le pardon de Dieu à tous ceux qui
l’invoquent.
مريم هي أيقونة الكنيسة الأم التي تفيض مغفرةَ الله على الذين يتضرّعون إليها.
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 28- 29/16
What's in store for Lebanon's nascent oil and gas sector/Matt Nash/Al-Monitor/May 28/16
The resurgence of oiléAbdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May
28/16
Iran's Air Force Overshadowed by the IRGC/Farzin Nadimi/Washington Institute/May
28/16
The Aerial Delivery of Humanitarian Aid in Syria: Options and
Constraints/Michael Eisenstadt/Washington Institute/May 28/16
Water Issues Are Crucial to Stability in Syria's Euphrates Valley/Fabrice
Balanche/Washington Institute/May 28/16
Jihad With the Iranian Rial/Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al Awsat/May 28/16
Stability – The New Politically Fashionable Word/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/May
28/16
Back home after clashes, Kurds in Turkey's Sur find only debris/Mahmut Bozarslan/Al-Monitor/May
28/16
Is Saudi Arabia bringing sexy back/Ibrahim al-Hatlani/Al-Monitor/May 28/16
Sweden Choosing to Lose War against Middle East Antisemitism/Nima Gholam Ali
Pour/Gatestone Institute/May 28, 2016
Sweden: Is Islam Compatible with Democracy?/Part I of a Series: The Islamization
of SwedenIngrid Carlqvist/Gatestone Institute/May 28, 2016
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 28- 29/16
Iraq begins
liberating heart of Fallujah
‘Half a million’ Syrians now living under siege
Arab league chief denounces Israel at peace talks
Erdogan condemns US support of Kurdish militias in Syria
Rockets fired from Syria land near Turkish airport
Turkey says 104 ISIS militants killed in strikes
Muslims in Turkey demand right to pray at Hagia Sophia
Sisi issues decree allowing Saudi citizen to buy Egyptian-only land
Muslim woman after Egypt mob riot: I ‘had no affair’ with Christian man
US strikes kill ISIS commander in Iraq’s Fallujah
ISIS gains territory near Turkish border
5 prisoners in Iran await sentences to be blinded, made deaf with acid
British MPs concerned over Iranian regime’s crackdown on teachers and activists
Receiving Iranian regime’s foreign minister amid wave of executions emboldens
mullahs in slaughter of Iranian people
Iran political prisoner transferred to dangerous prisoners' ward
Iran's Khamenei Warns of Western 'Schemes' as New MPs Meet
Iran: Female political prisoners in Evin barred from correspondence with their
families
UN: No Iranian violations of nuclear deal
Iran’s Khamenei warns of western ‘schemes’ as new MPs meet
Saudi Arabia and Iran fail to reach hajj deal
Another Israeli minister quits, citing rightist tilt
Firm hired to hunt for EgyptAir black boxes
‘Westerner’ among 7 ISIS suspects arrested in Yemen
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 28- 29/16
US sanctions loom over Hezbollah
officials
Report: Nasrallah to Punish Perpetrators Behind Celebratory Fire
Australian Producer Loses Job over Lebanon Child Recovery Operation
Security Forces Arrest Wives of Suspect in Bleiq's Murder and Others Involved
Last Minute Preparations ahead of Municipal Elections in North and Akkar
Mashnouq Says Torza Elections Will Be Held on Time
People Block Akkar Road Protesting Withdrawal of Municipal Chief from Polls
What's in store for Lebanon's nascent oil and gas sector?
Hariri responds to Kassem: Nasrallah should dialogue with both Aoun and Frangieh
so that one of them withdraws his candidacy
Hajj Hassan: Takfirist ideology a conspiracy against Islam
Seven soldiers injured in army tank deviation in Akkar
AUB graduates 1566 Students
Links From Jihad Watch Site for
May 28- 29/16
Minneapolis: “Moderate Muslims” enraged at trial of accused
Islamic State jihadis, claim entrapment
Liberal Party of Canada is considering adopting a policy to “aggressively
eliminate Islamophobia”
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: CAIR Markets ‘Islamophobin’ Gum As Cure For
‘Islamophobia’
After jihad mass murder in Brussels and Paris, Las Vegas police ask area Muslims
how they can help
Sweden: Police report blames Swedish girls for Muslim migrant sex attacks
Too sick to work” migrant gets to bring three wives, 20 children to Denmark
Islamic Republic of Iran: Students throw graduation dance party, get 99 lashes
each
DePaul Islamic chaplain has praised Anwar al-Awlaki and other jihad terrorists
Texas: Muslim assaults, spits on cops, says he’s affiliated with the Islamic
State
Raymond Ibrahim: 70-Year-Old Christian Women Stripped and Paraded by Muslims Not
First to Suffer This Way
Hugh Fitzgerald: Switzerland: What’s in a Handshake?
UK Sharia courts face government inquiry over “discriminatory” treatment of
women
Archbishop of Cologne: Worried about Islamic terror? Remember that Christianity
cost people’s lives in the past
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Flying Pig Alert: A DEMOCRATIC
Congressman (From CA!) Admits ISIS is Islamic
Latest Lebanese Related News published on May 28- 29/16
US sanctions loom over Hezbollah
officials
Reuters Saturday, 28 May 2016/Ministers and members of parliament belonging to
Lebanon's Hezbollah could be sanctioned under a new US law targeting the group's
finances, a US Treasury official said on Friday. The US Hezbollah International
Financing Prevention Act (HIFPA) passed in December threatens sanctions against
anyone who finances Hezbollah in a significant way. It has ignited an
unprecedented dispute between Lebanon's most powerful group - the heavily armed
Hezbollah - and a central bank widely seen as a pillar of the otherwise weak and
dysfunctional Lebanese state. When asked in an interview with television channel
LBC if the law could be applied to Hezbollah ministers and MPs in Lebanon, the
US Teasury's Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser said: "We
don't make a distinction among Hezbollah members."Iran-backed Hezbollah, whose
fighters played a major role in forcing Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon
in 2000, enjoys strong support in the Lebanese Shiite community. Its members
include government ministers, MPs, and local councilors. Classified as a
terrorist group by the United States, Hezbollah wields enormous political
influence in Lebanon and its powerful military wing is playing a major role in
the Syrian conflict. The Lebanese central bank and US officials have repeatedly
said the law does not target ordinary Lebanese citizens, or the Shiite community
in particular, and will not adversely affect the country's financial sector. "We
understand the difference between Hezbollah and the broader Shiiite community,"
Glaser said. "We are implementing this law world wide. Obviously it has specific
impact here in Lebanon because Hezbollah has a big presence here in Lebanon. But
Hezbollah is the target of this legislation, not the Shiiite. And I can't say
that strongly enough," he said.
Report: Nasrallah to Punish
Perpetrators Behind Celebratory Fire
Naharnet/May 28/16/Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah emphasized that he
will take severe regulatory measures against any of his supporters who fire guns
into the air during his speeches, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday. “Don't
be surprised if one day you hear that a certain division of Hizbullah has been
dissolved because of shooting firearms into the air. The decision will be
announced in media outlets,” al-Akhbar quoted Nasrallah as saying. His comments
came in a speech marking the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Imam al-Mahdi
Scouts Association. Nasrallah described the problem of random celebratory
gunfire each time he makes a televised appearance as “humiliating and a
disgrace.” He expressed frustration and anger over the issue, particularly that
several people were hurt and others were fatally wounded as a result of this
habit. Celebratory gunfire breaks out in Beirut and its Southern Suburbs each
time Nasrallah makes a televised speech. Last week, Wissam Bleiq, a member of
Beirut's firefighting department was killed in the capital after media reports
said a member of the alleged Hizbullah Resistance Brigades was the reason.
Speculation had emerged on whether he was the victim of murder or a stray
bullet. Another two teenagers in Beirut's southern suburb were hospitalized
after sustaining gunshot wounds during a speech for Nasrallah.
Australian Producer Loses Job
over Lebanon Child Recovery Operation
Associated Press/Naharnet/May 28/16/The producer behind an Australian television
program's involvement in a mother's botched child-snatching operation in Lebanon
has lost his job, as the show's founder dubbed the debacle "the gravest
misadventure in the program's history."The comment by Australia's "60 Minutes"
founder Gerald Stone came amid the release of a damning internal review into the
incident, in which the program paid a so-called child recovery agency to snatch
an Australian woman's two children back from her estranged Lebanese husband.
Sally Faulkner said her children's father, Ali al-Amin, took them from their
home in Australia to Beirut on a holiday last year and never returned. In April,
Faulkner and a "60 Minutes" crew covering her story went to Beirut in a bid to
get back the children. But after agents hired by "60 Minutes" grabbed the
children off a Beirut street, the four-member TV crew, Faulkner, two agents from
the Britain-based Child Abduction Recovery International company and two
Lebanese men were jailed on kidnapping charges. Stephen Rice, the producer of
the story, will leave the company effective immediately, while other staff
involved in the piece received formal warnings, according to a statement by the
program's network, Channel Nine. "We got too close to the story and suffered
damaging consequences," Nine CEO Hugh Marks said in a statement. The review,
conducted by current and former Nine executives, cited a series of failures,
including violating company policy by directly paying the child recovery agency
to snatch the children. The review also said the producers and reporting team
involved in the story failed to raise critical questions such as whether their
behavior could be seen as encouraging Faulkner to commit an illegal act in
Lebanon and whether the TV crew itself was breaking the law. "This has been the
gravest misadventure in the program's history," Stone, a member of the review
panel, said in a statement. "It's clear from our findings that inexcusable
errors were made." The children were snatched from their grandmother — al-Amin's
mother — and a domestic worker while on their way to school in Beirut. Security
camera footage showed assailants knocking the grandmother to the ground before
driving off with the children. A man was seen filming from the car. Faulkner and
the TV crew were released on bail and have returned to Australia, but the judge
in the case has said they will be expected to return to Lebanon to stand trial
if the charges against them are not dropped.
Security Forces Arrest Wives
of Suspect in Bleiq's Murder and Others Involved
Naharnet/May 28/16/The Internal Security Forces raided on Saturday the house of
the murderer of Wissam Bleiq, a member of Beirut's firefighting department, and
arrested his two wives in addition to five people who helped him flee to Syria,
the ISF said in a statement on Saturday. The assailant identified as Hussein al-Houwwari,
is a member of the resistance brigades, and is the prime suspect in the killing
of Bleiq in the Beirut neighborhood of Bourj abi Haidar. “After running
investigations and monitoring the surveillance cameras located in the said area,
the Intelligence Branch was able to define the car as a dark blue Grand Cherokee
that was driven by H.H.” said the statement. “Footage have shown that Houwwari
fired gunshots into the air when a traffic dispute erupted with another driver
and that the bullet hit Bleiq instead,” added the statement. Police raided the
suspect's residence to find that he has fled to Syria with the assistance of
several people who were arrested. The first wife of Houwwari, H.K., was arrested
for transporting and dealing drugs in collaboration with her husband and for
firing guns into the air from a military weapon on several occasions. His second
wife, A.N. was him at the time of the shooting when Bleiq was killed. Bleiq, the
administrator of the Nijmeh football club youtube channel, was killed by a shot
to the head on Saturday night. Speculation had emerged on whether he was the
victim of murder or a stray bullet.
Last Minute Preparations
ahead of Municipal Elections in North and Akkar
Naharnet/May 28/16/Fourty-eight hours before the polling stations open in the
North and Akkar governorates, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq followed up
on the administrative, security and logistical preparations to ensure a smooth
municipal electoral process on Sunday, al-Joumhouria daily reported. The total
number of voters eligible to vote in the governorate of the North is 580,095,
while 269,910 voters in the district of Akkar, said the daily. The ministry
voiced calls on the candidates running for the polls, to commit to the laws
governing the election, and has asked the Internal Security Forces to exert
strenuous measures in fighting any attempts of voter bribery. Early on Saturday,
the ballot boxes were distributed to heads of the polling stations. Lebanon's
last round of municipal and electoral battles will kick off Sunday, after three
similar rounds concluded over the last three weeks in Beirut, Baalbek, Mount
Lebanon, South and Nabatieh.
Mashnouq Says Torza Elections
Will Be Held on Time
Naharnet/May 28/16/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq announced on Friday that
the municipal elections in the northern town of Torza will be held as scheduled
on Sunday.The minister had previously issued a decree postponing the polls in
the Bcharre town. They were initially postponed due to “local tensions”. These
tensions could cause security clashes between families in the town, especially
after a number of candidates withdrew from the elections, explained Mashnouq at
the time. Residents of Torza had filed a petition requesting the delay. The
final round of the four-stage of the municipal elections are set to be held in
the North on Sunday.
People Block Akkar Road
Protesting Withdrawal of Municipal Chief from Polls
Naharnet/May 28/16/Supporters of incumbent municipal chief of Akkar al-Atiqa in
the district of Akkar, Khaled al-Bahri, blocked roads on Saturday protesting his
decision to resign and withdraw his nomination from the upcoming municipal
elections, the state-run National News Agency reported. The campaigners blocked
the road with dirt in front of the polling stations in the Akkar Secondary
School. NNA said that al-Bahri took the decision after one of the candidates
running for the municipal election set for Sunday, refused to withdraw his
nomination in favor of an uncontested win agreement reached between the town's
officials. The officials are making the necessary contacts to end the dispute.
Army troops and the Internal Security Forces were dispatched to the area to
control any potential of a security escalation. The municipal and mayoral
elections in the North and Akkar will be held on May 29.
What's in store for Lebanon's
nascent oil and gas sector?
Matt Nash/Al-Monitor/May 28/16
There’s a new debate brewing in the small circles that discuss the best
governance practices for oil and gas in Lebanon. While the caveats made Fouad
Makhzoumi sound reluctant, he picked a side. The owner of a pipeline design and
manufacturing concern, Makhzoumi wears his political ambition on his sleeve.
He’s run for elected office before and lost, but seems to be gearing up for
another battle.
At a live broadcast of a May 26 forum focusing on Lebanon’s oil and gas
potential, which he co-organized, Makhzoumi urged attendees and those watching
at home to support the country’s oil and gas regulator. Makhzoumi admitted that
he first assumed the regulator’s six-member board was staffed with political
appointees beholden to the sectarian leaders that chose them. Visiting their
offices to see them in action, however, convinced him they were doing serious
work, he said, adding that it’s best to just stick with the system in place,
which was established nearly six years ago, for now.
As far as Lebanese political drama goes, this is nothing (remember when Druze
politician Walid Jumblatt referred to Christian leader Samir Geagea as “What’s
his name”?). But it’s a new twist in the debate about how Lebanon should best
extract and monetize “the devil’s excrement” should it be found buried beneath
the waves in the country’s offshore acreage.
In 2010, the Lebanese parliament passed a law that governs offshore oil and gas
activities. Hydrocarbon policy (meaning the highest level decisions) fell to the
Cabinet. The Ministry of Energy was assigned a role, and the law also called for
establishing a semi-independent regulator — the Petroleum Administration (PA).
In many ways, it was the perfect Lebanese compromise. Without full independence,
the PA does not take power from the Ministry. Board seats are naturally divided
equally among Christians and Muslims (with the necessary suballocations), and
the presidency rotates on an annual basis, meaning no one faith or sect has
permanent control.
While praise of the PA has not been unheard of since the board was appointed in
late 2012, the regulator’s strategy for developing the sector has been
repeatedly assailed. Lebanon’s total offshore acreage is over 22,000 square
kilometers (around 8,500 square miles). The PA advised cutting it into 10
blocks, but many local news articles claimed the blocks were too big. The PA
also suggested licensing the blocks gradually (as opposed to all at once).
Again, local media buzzed with accusations that the PA’s plan would not fully
tap into the country’s potential resource wealth. The regulator’s vision for how
the state will earn revenues from oil and gas (for which there are a variety of
different models and formulas) has also been decried in the local press. Most
recently, the debate is whether Lebanon should form a national oil company, as
many, but not all, oil and gas producing countries have. With Lebanon’s first
licensing round currently on hold (and no end to the deadlock in sight), there’s
certainly time for debate, which is part of Mazkzoumi’s angle anyway.
In both late 2012 and late 2013, the Ministry of Energy gave its seal of
approval to two conferences on the subject. They were big to-dos, with industry
players and high-level officials from Lebanon and abroad. The Ministry clearly
wanted to keep a monopoly on the oil and gas conference market, even warning
citizens and potential attendees to be wary of unsanctioned forums on the
subject in April 2013. A press release from the time read, in part, “The
Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) and the Petroleum Administration (PA) provide
patronage for a number of these events, but is aware of others taking place in
which it is not involved. It should be noted therefore that the material
presented at conferences by third parties (particularly those events not
endorsed by either MEW or the PA) may not accurately reflect the position of the
MEW or PA.”
By the time late 2014 rolled around, delays were piling up. The Ministry’s 2013
conference had little new to offer from the year before because nothing in the
sector had happened. The 2014 conference was eventually canceled, but that same
year Makhzoumi partnered with Front Page Communications to host their first oil
and gas forum using the tag line “Lebanon’s National Wealth.”
Its third iteration included the most high-profile speakers the organizers have
yet been able to land, including US Special Envoy and Coordinator for
International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein, who is working as a mediator
between Lebanon and Israel on final delineation of their shared maritime border.
(Ever the diplomat, he offered no hints on how the negotiations are proceeding
during his keynote address.) Makhzoumi singles out Hochstein’s visit in
explaining to Al-Monitor how he judges the success of his attempts to influence
the sector via the conferences he lends his name to. “We were able to stir up
the pot,” he said. The conference’s headline takeaway message to the country’s
political class rang through loud and clear: Move forward with oil and gas and
make sure to do so in a transparent manner. Whether it has immediate impact is
anyone’s guess. It’s clear that Makhzoumi, however, is thinking medium to long
term. “Today, we have started with the municipal elections, which is an
indication that people are saying enough is enough. If we can help them to
organize themselves because of the cause of oil and gas … [to] come down the day
of [parliamentary] elections rather than sit and talk, I think we can make a
difference.”
Hariri responds to Kassem:
Nasrallah should dialogue with both Aoun and Frangieh so that one of them
withdraws his candidacy
Sat 28 May 2016/NNA - Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri responded in a series of
tweets, on Saturday, to Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Kassem,
who today called on the Future Movement to dialogue with MP Michel Aoun to elect
a President of the Republic. Hariri said: "We heard today Sheikh Naim Kassem say
that the obstacle to the presidency is the fact that the Future Movement does
not engage in direct negotiations with General Michel Aoun. Let Hezbollah
announce the measures it has taken to elect its candidate and ally General
Michel Aoun to the presidency. Or Let it honestly tell the Lebanese that Iran is
blocking the election of a President of the Republic by not mandating Hezbollah
to elect one of two March 8candidates."He added: "While waiting for the mandate,
and at the request of Sheikh Kassem, the Future Movement proposes to Sayyed
Nasrallah to gather his two allies Michel Aoun and Sleiman Frangieh around a
dialogue table with him, hoping that said dialogue between Nasrallah and his two
allies-candidates will lead to the proclamation of the withdrawal of one of them
for the benefit of the other, under the patronage of the Party that takes steps
and initiatives, Hezbollah!"
Hajj Hassan: Takfirist
ideology a conspiracy against Islam
Sat 28 May 2016/NNA - Minister of Industry, Hussein Hajj Hassan, said during a
Hezbollah event in Sibline, that takfirists have created a doctrine that
contradicts what Muslims have believed in for many years, noting that the goal
is to sabotage the image of Islam.
Hajj Hassan strongly denounced the takfirists' stand from Muslim sects such as
the Shiites and Alawites.The Minister called for the unity of the nation with
all its components, including Christians, Kurdish, and Persian. He added that
takfirists have no future.
Seven soldiers injured in army tank deviation in Akkar
Sat 28 May 2016/NNA - An army tank veered off-course along Haouchab- Kwaikhat
Highway in the region of Akkar on Saturday, causing the injury of 7 soldiers who
were rushed by the Red Cross to nearby hospitals in Akkar and Halba, NNA
correspondent reported.
AUB graduates 1566 Students
Sat 28 May 2016/Khuri: You are now Ambassadors of this great University!
NNA - The American University of Beirut (AUB) completed, on Saturday, the second
phase of its commencement ceremonies for the current academic year, by
graduating 1566 fresh undergraduates. The impressive ceremony, held on the Green
Field in AUB's lower campus, was attended by members of the Board of Trustees,
parents, alumni, and friends.
After the arrival of the graduates' procession and the procession of the
university President, Provost, Deans, Faculty members and Trustees in their full
academic regalia, the ceremony began with the Lebanese National Anthem.
AUB President Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri then spoke:
"Class of 2016, it has been a long, winding, and unforgettable road. Three,
four, five years or more before today, you came here full of hopes and dreams
and expectations, hopes and dreams that we hope we have nourished and enhanced,
even in the midst of emotional, economic and political turbulence. You leave
today equipped with knowledge, with power, and with the belief that you can
effect positive change in this world. You have learned much while you were at
AUB. You gained knowledge and confidence and resilience and you learned
teamwork. Like our magnificent sportswomen and men who sublimate their own egos
for the greater good of the team, you have had to play intellectual tennis,
social football, and mental jujitsu. You have emerged stronger and wiser, and
now you are ready to start to fly without a safety net. You, the best and the
brightest, emerged from your parental cocoon of safety into the social maelstrom
that is AUB, immersed in Lebanese and regional and international politics and
economics. Now you enter the world with your judgment sharpened and your views,
whatever they may be, tested, remolded and strengthened."
"Look around you at your classmates. Today, you will celebrate together.
Tomorrow you will step forth into the world, knowing that you are more
confident, more able, more resilient, and more determined than you were when you
first walked through these timeless gates to be forever transformed", he added.
"Eschew violence and cruelty, and struggle against social and economic
disparity. Understand all that you have seen that keeps our societies from being
more just. Inspired by what you have done individually and collectively here, go
out and change the world for the better. You are ready now. Now and forever you
are AUB's past, present and future, the ambassadors of this iconic city set on a
hill which, at 150 years old, taught you-as past generations were taught before
us-to dare to dream that you will do what we know you are capable of, that you
will change Lebanon, the Arab world, and the broader universe for the better.
Congratulations to you, your families and teachers, AUB Class of 2016, our
sesquicentennial year, and go forth with pride, purpose and humility and most of
all go with and in peace", Khuri ended.
The Graduating Class Speech:
Faculty of Arts and Sciences student Reem Abou Ibrahim, and Faculty of
Engineering and Architecture student Ali Ayoub, delivered a speech on behalf of
the graduates.
Abou Ibrahim:
"Reflecting back on the past three years that I have spent here at AUB, which
have passed entirely too quickly, the only thing I am positive of is that I
don't want to leave just yet".
"We've been fortunate enough to have received our education from one of the most
esteemed universities in the region. I myself have been even luckier to have had
the opportunity of studying here under the USP scholarship, to which I am
forever grateful," she added.
"Class of 2016, some of us has realized what their next step is, others have
managed to discover what they don't want to do, and maybe many are still in the
process of figuring out what they want. No matter what, all of us should know
that having reached this day is a great accomplishment on its own. I sincerely
hope we will someday be able to pay off the abundant dedication, guidance and
motivation of our parents, teachers and all those close to us, throughout our
educational journey", she said.
Ayyoub:
"Right from the start, I found myself getting involved in social activities,
student movements, and student representation. The days have gone by much too
quickly, as I am sure most of you feel like the first day of university was just
yesterday. But friends and colleagues don't be deceived; your journey has
actually just begun, you are the leaders of the future and by you, prosperous
nations are built."
"At this university, we are leaders in research, and we publish many papers, but
that is not what makes us special. What makes us special is the environment
which every one of you has contributed in creating. Over the past four years, I
can recall some formative episodes in my AUB journey that I like to call
"personality builders", he added.
"I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Talal Nizameddine, our dean of
student affairs, for always being there for students and representing their
interests on the administrative level. You have been an inspiration to me and,
I'm sure, an excellent role model for others. And of course, our President, Dr.
Fadlo Khuri, you have been a catalyst in improving student-administration
dialogue, and we are confident that the future of AUB is in good hands", he
ended.
Nadine Labaki:
"Thank you Dr. Fadlo Khuri, thank you AUB, proud loving parents, friends,
distinguished guests, beautiful graduating class of 2016… Apparently I am here
today to give you advice…to inspire you in a way! But it is actually you who
have been my inspiration for the past few weeks…"
"I learned that happiness for me is not at the top of the mountain but on the
road uphill to it, it is not eating the carrot but running after it… I heard
somebody say something in a conference one day , I don't recall who it was of
course-because I have the memory of a very old fish-but I do remember what he
said: Human beings are born butterflies, and die caterpillars and it stuck with
me since because I think it is true. Look at babies and children; look at how
free they are when they are only babies. They do as they please, talk as they
please, behave as they please, free like butterflies. And it is only with time,
when they start growing up and looking at this pointed finger telling them what
they should or shouldn't do, who they can be or cannot be that their wings start
to shrink and their backs start to bend under the pressure of society, and its
stare and what other people think", she added.
"I'm sure many of you see your degree as a ticket out of this country. To a big
city where you can make it big and conquer the world! I also left Lebanon for a
short while. But I asked myself, what is my mission in life and where am I
needed most? My answer and the answer for many more of you than you think,
graduating class of 2016, is right here. Lebanon. France doesn't need another
architect, London doesn't need another biologist, and Munich doesn't need
another engineer," she said.
"To the beautiful graduating class of 2016 congratulations; out there is world
waiting for your ideas, for your talents, for your capacities, there is a
country called Lebanon waiting to be saved! Waiting for you to save it. And as
you take off those hats today, whatever your goals is, weather your dream is to
see your plant grow or to solve world hunger promise me to ask yourself one
question every morning as you open your eyes: Am I happy? Because it is only
then that you can be the best version of whom you are?" she ended.
The Degrees:
President Khuri and the deans then distributed degrees to the 1564 undergraduate
students:
Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences 129
Faculty of Arts and Sciences 590
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture 476
Faculty of Health Sciences 55
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business 276
Rafic Hariri School of Nursing 40
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 28- 29/16
Iraq begins liberating heart of
Fallujah
By Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Saturday, 28 May 2016/The Iraqi Army has
declared on Saturday the start of an operation to liberate Fallujah’s city
center, considered to be ISIS stronghold in the western province of Anbar, Al
Arabiya News Channel reported. Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces deployed on the
edge of Fallujah Saturday for the first time since an operation was launched to
retake the militants-held city, top commanders said. The counter-terrorism
service (CTS), Iraq’s best-trained and most battle-tested fighting unit, moved
into position on the boundaries of Fallujah. “CTS forces, Anbar emergency police
and tribal fighters... reached Tareq and Mazraa camps” south and east of
Fallujah, Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the top commander in charge of the Fallujah
operation, told AFP. “These forces will break into Fallujah in the next few
hours to liberate it from Daesh,” he said, using an acronym for ISIS. CTS
spokesman Sabah al-Noman confirmed the deployment but would not comment on the
timing of an assault. “CTS forces moved to Fallujah to take part in clearing the
city from within. The operation is shifting to urban warfare after Iraqi forces
completed the siege of the city,” he said. “CTS forces will break into the city,
that’s what they specialize in,” Noman said. The news comes after paramilitary
forces sanctioned by the Iraqi government have withdrawn from an eastern
district in Fallujah they had taken from ISIS militants and handed over the area
to Baghdad central command troops and tribesmen, a senior military official said
Saturday. Head of Fallujah operations Lieutenant Commander Abdulwahab al-Saadi
said the decision over the district of Gourma came after an order from Iraq’s
General Command of the Armed Forces. The paramilitary forces, known as the
Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces in Arabic, were
initially made up of Shiite armed groups and volunteers after an edict by
influential spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
who called on Iraqis to fight ISIS. PMF forces are under the control of the
interior ministry, however, observers have criticized the paramilitary forces
for competing with the Iraqi army and threatening Baghdad’s central command.
Some of the militias that make up the group are said to be Iran-affiliated and
receive funding from Tehran. There were also reports of human rights violations
after PMF took part when liberating the Iraqi city of Tikrit last year. To ease
fears from the country’s Sunnis, who have long claimed marginalization by
Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that the PMF forces would not
participate in liberating Fallujah but will only work to surround the city,
which is Anbar's capital. However, sources to Al Arabiya News Channel said PMF
has participated in battles in both Gourma and Al-Sijr, north of Fallujah. On
Thursday, Baghdad Operations Command chief Lieutenant Abdulamir al-Shimari said
Gourma is now under Iraq’s control. He said Iraqi flags were raised and dozens
of ISIS militants were killed after recapturing the district.Iraqi forces
launched an operation to recapture Fallujah, an ISIS stronghold located just 50
kilometers west of Baghdad, at the start of this week. On Saturday, Al Arabiya
News Channel’s correspondent said ISIS hit back with a suicide car bombing to
halt the Iraqi army’s advance on Fallujah. US-led coalition air and artillery
strikes have killed 70 ISIS fighters in Fallujah, including the militants’
leader in the city, a military spokesman said Friday. Baghdad-based US Colonel
Steve Warren said that over the last four days, 20 strikes in the besieged city
had destroyed ISIS fighting positions and gun emplacements.(With AFP)
‘Half a million’ Syrians now
living under siege
AFP, United Nations Saturday, 28 May 2016/The number of Syrians living under
siege has grown by some 75,000 to total 592,700, underscoring the worsening
plight of civilians in the five-year war, the UN aid chief said Friday. Stephen
O'Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the
Security Council that the use of siege and starvation as a weapon of war was
"reprehensible" and "must stop immediately." The new figure, up from 517,700,
marks a further increase from a previous estimate of 486,700 people living in
besieged areas. It includes the residents of the Al Wa'er area of Homs in
western Syria that have been under siege by Syrian government forces since
March, said O'Brien. "Today 592,700 people are living in besieged areas because
of the appalling, deteriorating situation in Al Wa'er," he told the council. The
United Nations is preparing to begin humanitarian air drops over besieged areas
starting June 1, after its repeated demands for access to the blockaded towns
were refused. In May, Syrian authorities allowed aid deliveries to 14
hard-to-reach areas, far short of the requests to reach 35 towns on the UN list.
O'Brien said the Damascus regime had denied aid to more than 40 percent of the
target population for May, including in Aleppo, Al Wa'er and Talbiseh. Syrian
Ambassador Bashar Jaafari denied that his government was blocking aid and said
that 19 of the 26 UN requests for humanitarian convoys had been approved for the
month of May. Of the 19 approved convoys, the United Nations only sent three,
said Jaafari. The ambassador complained that the situation concerning
humanitarian aid "is manipulated" and that UN figures were "far from reality,
based on unknown sources or unreliable ones."According to the United Nations,
452,700 Syrians are living in towns besieged by regime forces, while 110,000 are
under siege by the Islamic State group in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. Some
20,000 are under siege by rebel groups in Foah and Kefraya in Idlib province and
10,000 are surrounded by both Syrian forces and rebel groups in Yarmouk in
Damascus. Boosting humanitarian aid is a key condition to be met before
political talks on ending the war can resume. The talks are aimed at reaching a
settlement to end the five-year war that has left 280,000 dead and driven
millions from their homes.
Arab league chief denounces
Israel at peace talks
AFP, Cairo Saturday, 28 May 2016/Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi blasted Israel
as a bastion of “racism and fascism” on Saturday at a meeting of foreign
ministers to discuss a French Middle East peace initiative. The Arab ministers
are expected to adopt a resolution on the plan to revive negotiations between
Israel and President Mahmud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. In his speech to the
ministers, Arabi, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, said the country “has
truly become today the last bastion of fascism, colonialism and racial
discrimination in the world”. Abbas has rejected an Israeli offer for direct
negotiations instead of the French multilateral peace initiative, which Israel
has turned down. The French initiative involves holding a meeting of foreign
ministers from a range of countries, including US Secretary of State John Kerry,
on June 3, but without the Israelis and Palestinians present. An international
conference would then be held in the autumn, with the Israelis and Palestinians
in attendance. The goal is an eventual relaunch of negotiations that would lead
to a Palestinian state. Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have
been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014. An
upsurge in violence since October has killed 205 Palestinians and 28 Israelis.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming
attacks, Israeli authorities say. The unrest has steadily declined in recent
weeks. Many analysts say that Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation
and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace
efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the recent unrest. Israel
says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a main cause of the
violence.
Erdogan condemns US support
of Kurdish militias in Syria
AFP, Diyarbakir, Turkey Saturday, 28 May 2016/Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Saturday condemned the United States' support of Kurdish fighters in
Syria after AFP pictures revealed US commandos wearing the insignia of a militia
branded a terror group by Ankara. "The support they give to... the YPG
(militia)... I condemn it," said Erdogan. "Those who are our friends, who are
with us in NATO... cannot, must not send their soldiers to Syria wearing YPG
insignia." Erdogan's comments came after an AFP photographer captured images of
US troops in Syria wearing insignia of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
Ankara regards the YPG as a terror group, accusing it of carrying out attacks
inside Turkey and being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for over three decades.
"The PKK, the PYD, the YPG, Daesh (ISIS), there is no difference. They are all
terrorists," Erdogan said. It had long been public knowledge that around 200 US
commandos are in northern Syria helping local militia target the ISIS group's de
facto capital Raqa and guiding in coalition air strikes. Erdogan, speaking in
the majority Kurdish city Diyarbakir, accused the US of being dishonest because
of its support for the militia and its political wing the Democratic Union Party
(PYD). "I believe that politics should be exercised with honesty," he said. The
US seeking to avoid a rift with ally Turkey, swiftly announced Friday that
special operations troops in northern Syria would henceforth stop wearing the
badge of the YPG guerrillas. However the State Department played down the spat,
insisting that Washington and Ankara remain close partners in the broader fight
against the Islamic State, despite disagreements about the role of the YPG.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused the United States of
"hypocrisy" and "double standards" and said the American soldiers might just as
well have worn the logo of al-Qaeda, the ISIS group or Boko Haram. The United
States has blacklisted the PKK as a "foreign terrorist organisation" but regards
its Syrian-based sister group the PYG as a useful ally in the face of the ISIS
threat. US military officials say they will continue to work with the YPG, which
provides the bulk of the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces" fighting the ISIS
group.
Rockets fired from Syria land
near Turkish airport
Agencies Saturday, 28 May 2016/Two rockets fired Saturday from inside Syria
landed near the international airport of Gaziantep, a major Turkish border city,
although nobody was hurt, the Turkish news agency Dogan reported. One of the
projectiles landed in a residential complex for employees of Oguzeli airport,
some 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside the city and another came down in
scrubland, according to Dogan. The rockets fell around 10:50 am (0750 GMT), the
agency said, adding military officials and the governor of Gaziantep were
inspecting the damage. The nearby city of Kilis, just a handful of kilometres
from the Syrian border, has been struck several times this year by rockets which
Ankara says were fired by Islamic State fighters. Missiles rarely penetrate
deeper into Turkish territory. Those attacks have claimed at least 21 lives with
more than 70 injured, including five on Friday. Gaziantep lies around 30 km
further north away from the border. It was not clear if the rockets were
“strays” from fighting in northern Syria or if they constituted a deliberate
attack on the airport. Several European leaders including German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and European Council President Donald Tusk visited Gaziantep only
last month. Turkish forces say they have responded to rocket attacks by
bombarding ISIS positions in northern Syria. ISIS advance ISIS militants entered
a Syrian opposition stronghold in the country’s north on Saturday, marking the
extremist group's most significant advance near the Turkish border in two years,
Syrian opposition groups said. More than 160,000 civilians are trapped in the
fighting, which also forced the evacuation of one of the few remaining hospitals
in the area, run by the international medical organization Doctors Without
Borders. On Saturday, ISIS fighters staged two suicide bombings targeting
“opposition forces” near Marea, ISIS said via its news agency, Aamaq. Following
the suicide bombings, ISIS militants entered Marea and fighting began inside the
town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based
opposition media outfit that tracks Syria’s civil war.The territorial gains
around the rebel strongholds of Marea and Azaz, north of Aleppo city, are a blow
to the Turkey and Saudi-backed rebels, who have been struggling to retain a
foothold in the region while being squeezed by opponents from all sides. They
also demonstrated the ISIS group’s ability to stage major offensives and capture
new areas, despite a string of recent losses in Syria and Iraq. The ISIS
offensive targeting Syrian opposition strongholds near the Turkish border began
Thursday night. On Friday, militants of the group captured six villages near
Azaz, triggering intense fighting that trapped tens of thousands of civilians
unable to flee to safety while Turkey’s border remains closed. A few hundred
fled west to the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin. People are “terrified for their
lives,” the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. The group said
it has received confirmed reports that at least four entire families, including
women and children, were killed Friday on the outskirts of the town of Azaz. The
IRC runs centers for both children and women in Azaz and provides clean water
and sanitation to a camp supporting 8,500 people. More than half the camp’s
population has left to find safety elsewhere in the town, it said. The IRC also
relocated its staff from the centers and camp to shelter to safer areas of Azaz
until the situation enables them to return.
‘Deeply concerned’
The UN refugee agency said it was “deeply concerned” about the fighting
affecting thousands of vulnerable civilians. “Fleeing civilians are being caught
in crossfire and are facing challenges to access medical services, food, water
and safety,” it said in a statement Saturday. The advances brought the militants
to within few kilometers of the rebel-held town of Azaz and cut off supplies to
Marea further south. Marea has long been considered a bastion of moderate Syrian
revolutionary forces fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. Azaz, which
hosts tens of thousands of internally displaced people, lies north of Aleppo
city, which has been divided between a rebel-held east and government-held west.
A route known as the Azaz corridor links rebel-held eastern Aleppo with Turkey.
That has been a lifeline for the rebels since 2012, but a government offensive
backed by Russian air power and regional militias earlier this year dislodged
rebels from parts of Azaz and severed their corridor between the Turkish border
and Aleppo. The predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are
fighting for their autonomy in the multilayered conflict, also gained ground
against the rebels. In recent months, Syrian rebel factions in Azaz — which
include mainstream opposition fighters known as the Free Syrian Army along with
some ultraconservative Islamic insurgent factions — have been squeezed between
ISIS to the east and predominantly Kurdish forces to the west and south, while
Turkey restricts the flow of goods and people through the border.
Coalition retaliation
Turkish and US-led coalition airstrikes killed 104 Islamic State militants in
retaliation for the latest attack on a Turkish border province, Turkish media
reported on Saturday, citing military sources. Pro-government Sabah Daily news
reported five people were injured on Friday when rockets fired from ISIS
controlled territory in northern Syria hit Turkey’s border province of Kilis.
Kilis has been hit by rockets from ISIS-controlled territory more than 70 times
since January, killing 21 people including children, in what security officials
say has gone from accidental spillover to deliberate targeting. ISIS fighters
captured more ground near the Turkish border from Syrian rebels on Friday,
raising fears for a new wave of civilians fleeing the fighting.
‘Thousands displaced’
Human rights groups have warned that the ISIS advance in Aleppo has left tens of
thousands of displaced Syrians trapped along the closed Turkish border. To the
east in Raqa province, warplanes from the US-led coalition conducted air strikes
on ISIS positions north of Raqa city, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
But the Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting the militants group north of its de facto
Syrian capital had made no strategic progress on the ground, he said. Syria’s
war has killed more than 280,000 people and displaced millions since it started
with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011. (With AP,
Reuters and AFP)
Turkey says 104 ISIS
militants killed in strikes
The Associated Press, Ankara Saturday, 28 May 2016/Turkey's state-run news
agency says US-led coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire against ISIS
in Syria have killed 104 militants. Anadolu Agency says on Saturday said the
strikes came late Friday, hours after rockets fired from Syria hit a southern
Turkish town and wounded five people. It said the airstrikes and artillery fire
also destroyed 7 buildings used as ISIS headquarters. The claim could not be
independently verified, and Turkey has not explained how it can count casualties
in Syria. Cross-border fire from Syria has claimed 21 lives and wounded dozens
of others in the border town of Kilis this year. Authorities blame the attacks
on ISIS which has a presence in northern Syria. Turkey typically responds by
shelling ISIS positions.
Muslims in Turkey demand
right to pray at Hagia Sophia
AFP | Istanbul Saturday, 28 May 2016/Thousands of Muslim worshippers descended
on Saturday (May 28) on Istanbul’s world famous Hagia Sophia, the towering
former Byzantine church that is now a museum, to demand the right to pray there,
Turkish media reported. An imam led a prayer in front of the vast building that
was once a Greek Orthodox basilica, then a mosque and now a museum before crowds
called for it to be restored as a Muslim place of worship. “Let the chains
break, open Hagia Sophia,” chanted the crowds who gathered on the plaza in front
of the museum, according to Turkey’s Dogan news agency. “In the name of
thousands of our brothers we demand to be allowed to pray inside the Hagia
Sophia mosque,” said Salih Turhan, the president of the Anatolia Youth
Association which organised the demonstration coinciding with celebrations for
the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Built in the sixth
century, Hagia Sophia, which means Holy Wisdom in Greek, was converted to a
mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans conquered what was then called Constantinople.
After the Ottoman Empire crumbled and modern secular Turkey was founded on its
ruins, the mosque was transformed into a museum in 1935. The edifice, a
masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, features an immense dome supported by
huge pillars, its walls sheathed with marble and decorated with mosaics. After
the city fell to the armies of Sultan Mehmet II The Conqueror, four minarets
were added to the structure and the interior was decorated with Islamic art.
Sisi issues decree allowing Saudi citizen to buy Egyptian-only land
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 27 May 2016/Egypt’s President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi has issued a decree allowing a Saudi national to buy a land
previously allowed only for Egyptians to own, a statement published in the local
Al-Jarida al-Rasmiya newspaper showed on Thursday. The Saudi man, named Hamood
bin Mohammed bin Nassir al-Salih, wanted to purchase two pieces of land -
located on the Cairo-Alexandria desert highway - but was surprised to find out
that only Egyptians were allowed to be the owners, the paper reported. Without
explaining how, the paper said this prompted Sisi to issue a decree allowing
Salih to buy the land. The news comes after judicial sources told Reuters that
an Egyptian appeals court on Tuesday cancelled five-year prison terms handed to
47 people earlier this month for protesting a government decision to transfer
two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. Saudi and Egyptian officials say the
islands belong to the kingdom and were only under Egyptian control because
Riyadh had asked Cairo in 1950 to protect them. Egypt’s security has worsened
since the ouster of its Islamist President Mohammad Mursi in a military coup,
shaking its economy out of balance including its critical tourism sector. This
has prompted Sisi to deepen Cairo’s ties with the richer Gulf countries
especially Saudi Arabia. Showcasing the two countries’ cozying ties, Egypt’s
cabinet has recently approved a $2.5 billion grant from Saudi Arabia, which was
initially signed during King Salman Bin Abdel-Aziz’s visit to Cairo on 10 April,
the official Al-Ahram newspaper reported. Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed final
loan agreements worth over $24 billion during King Salman’s visit, according to
Egypt’s minister of international cooperation.
Muslim woman after Egypt mob
riot: I ‘had no affair’ with Christian man
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 27 May 2016/A Muslim woman in an
Egyptian village who was rumored to be in a relationship with a young Christian
man – an incident which prompted an angry mob to attack Christian homes and
strip naked the man’s mother – claims that rumors of her love affair are false.
During the violence, an armed Muslim mob looted and torched seven Christian
homes, and stripped naked the elderly mother of the Christian man, according to
local media reports. Egyptian authorities have arrested 11 men in relation to
the attack, which took place in the village of Karma in the province of Minya,
south of Cairo. Anba Makarios, Minya’s top Christian cleric, told a talk show
host on the private Dream TV network that the 70-year-old woman was dragged out
of her home by the mob who beat her and insulted her before they stripped her
off her clothes and forced her to walk through the streets as they chanted
Allahu Akbar, or “God is great.”However, a Muslim lady intervened and helped the
elderly lady cover her naked body, according to the Arabic language website of
Al Arabiya News Channel. Najwa, the Muslim woman who was believed by the mob to
be in love with a Christian man, said that the rumors were untrue, and started
after she asked her husband for a divorce, she told Al Arabiya. To spite her,
the relatives of her husband spread a story her a romantic affair with a
Christian young man, she told the channel’s website. Al Arabiya reported that
Najwa was in her forties and had three children.
Taboo topic
The hashtag “Egypt stripped naked” on Twitter gained traction shortly after it
was introduced. Extramarital affairs or sex between unmarried couples are taboo
among Muslims and Christians in Egypt. They often attract violent reactions in
rural areas, where questions of honor can lead to deadly family feuds that
endure for years or result in ostracizing the perpetrators. Christian men cannot
marry Muslim women in Egypt unless they convert to Islam first, but Muslim men
can marry Christian women. An affair between a Christian man and a Muslim woman
takes such sectarian sensitivities to a much higher and dangerous level and
often lead to violence if found out. According to a statement Wednesday by
Makarios, the Minya cleric, police arrived at the scene of Friday’s violence two
hours after the attack began. The family of the Christian man had notified the
police of threats against them by Muslim villagers the day before the attack, he
added. “No one did anything and the police took no pre-emptive or security
measures in anticipation of the attacks,” the cleric said, speaking in another
TV interview, also Wednesday night. “We are not living in a jungle or a tribal
society,” he told Ahmed Moussa, a prominent, pro-government talk show host on
the private Sada el-Balad television. Christians, who make up about 10 percent
of Egypt’s population of more than 90 million people, have long complained of
discrimination in the mostly Muslim nation. Sisi, in office since 2014, has
sought to address some of their grievances, changing election laws to allow more
Christians into the national legislature and easing restrictions on building new
churches and renovating old ones.(With the Associated Press)
US strikes kill ISIS
commander in Iraq’s Fallujah
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Friday, 27 May 2016/US-led coalition air and
artillery strikes have killed 70 ISIS fighters in Fallujah, including the
militants’ leader in the Iraqi city, a military spokesman said Friday.
Baghdad-based Colonel Steve Warren said that over the last four days, 20 strikes
in the besieged city had destroyed ISIS fighting positions and gun emplacements.
“We’ve killed more than 70 enemy fighters, including Maher Al-Bilawi, who is the
commander of ISIL forces in Fallujah,” Warren said, using an acronym for the
ISIS group. “This, of course, won’t completely cause the enemy to stop fighting,
but it’s a blow. And it creates confusion and it causes the second-in-command to
have to move up. It causes other leadership to have to move around,” he added.
Iraqi forces launched an operation to recapture Fallujah, an ISIS stronghold
located just 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Baghdad, at the start of this
week. Between 500 and 1,000 ISIS fighters hold Fallujah, and about 50,000
civilians are trapped inside the city, with the jihadists trying to kill those
who attempt to flee. US planes have dropped leaflets telling locals to avoid
ISIS areas, Warren said. “Those leaflets directed those who cannot leave to put
white sheets on their roofs to mark their locations. The Iraqi Army is working
hard to establish evacuation routes. And the local Anbar government has set up
camps for displaced civilians.” Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s
Shiites on Friday has called on Iraqi forces battling to retake the city of
Fallujah from ISIS militants to protect civilians trapped there. “Saving
innocent people from harm’s way is the most important thing, even more so than
targeting the enemy,” the Associated Press quoted Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
as saying. His comments were delivered at Friday prayers by his representative
Ahmed al-Safi in the holy city of Karbala. Rights groups have expressed concerns
for the tens of thousands of civilians estimated to still be in the city, which
has been in ISIS hands for more than two years. Head of Iraq’s federal police
said 720 civilians have been evacuated from northern Fallujah so far, the
independent Al-Sumaria News reported on Friday. “The families [evacuated] were
mostly women, children and they have been transferred to a secure location after
aid was channeled to them,” Lieutenant Shakir Jawodat said. The United Nations
said in a statement released Thursday that only 800 people have been able to
flee Fallujah since Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake the city.
Residents contacted inside Fallujah by the UN have said that the amount of bombs
and booby traps laid by ISIS in and around the city would make any flight very
perilous. Meanwhile, Iraq’s emergency task force said on Friday that ISIS
communication center in northern Fallujah was destroyed and four would-be
suicide bombers were killed.(With AP, AFP)
ISIS gains territory near
Turkish border
Agencies Friday, 27 May /ISIS fighters captured territory from Syrian rebels
near the Turkish border on Friday and inched closer to a town on a supply route
for foreign-backed insurgents fighting the militants, a monitoring group said.
The ultra-hardline group has been fighting against rebels in the area for
several months. The rebels, who are supplied via Turkey, last month staged a
major push against ISIS, but the group counter-attacked and beat them back. The
United States has identified the area north of Syria's former commercial hub
Aleppo as a priority in the fight against ISIS. The British-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said Friday's advance was the biggest by ISIS in
Aleppo province for two years. It brought the militants to within 5 km (3 miles)
of Azaz, a town near the border with Turkey through which insurgents have been
supplied. ISIS said in an online statement it had captured several villages near
Azaz. International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it evacuated
patients and staff from a hospital in the area as the fighting got closer, and
that tens of thousands of people were trapped between the front lines and
Turkish border. A Syrian NGO operating in the area said the latest assault by
ISIS had displaced 20,000 more people toward Turkey. The advance also cut rebel
supply lines from Azaz to the town of Marea farther southeast, isolating the
latter from other rebel-held areas, the Observatory said. In April, ISIS
militants seized another strategic town near the Turkish border from rebel
factions fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. The ISIS advances on
Friday encroach on a corridor of rebel-held territory that leads from the
Turkish border toward Aleppo city, which is divided between insurgent and
government control.
Aleppo battleground
Aleppo's northern countryside is the theater of several separate battles between
multiple warring sides in the five-year Syrian conflict, which has drawn in
military involvement of regional and world powers that back different groups.
Rebels supplied through Turkey have been fighting ISIS and separately battling
Kurdish forces in other areas. Ankara is concerned by Kurdish advances along its
border, where the Kurdish YPG militia already controls an uninterrupted 400 km
(250 mile) stretch. The United States supports the YPG and allied fighters in
its battle against ISIS farther east, including in Hasaka and Raqqa provinces.
The predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are fighting for
their autonomy in the multilayered conflict, also gained ground against the
rebels. That left the rebels in Aleppo with just one narrow corridor to the
outside world, through Idlib province. Those in Azaz are now squeezed between
ISIS to the east and the SDF to the west and south, while Turkey tightly
restricts the flow of goods and people through the border. Separately, al
Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Nusra Front and other insurgents late on Thursday
seized control of a town south of Damascus from government forces. Nusra Front
said in a statement it had captured Deir Khabiyeh, which is near an area where
government forces and allies have sought to tighten control of a road leading
south. Last week, government forces and Lebanese Hezbollah captured territory in
Damascus's eastern suburbs from insurgents. Nusra Front and ISIS are rivals in
the Syrian conflict and have been fighting each other, including near Damascus,
in separate battles from those between insurgents and government forces. On
Thursday, Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, said he plans for a
resumption of peace talks "as soon as feasible" between the government and
opposition but that he set no new date and expects that it will "certainly not"
come within the next two to three weeks, his office said. The lack of a firm
date for negotiations testifies to continued violence in Syria and difficulties
for UN efforts to ship humanitarian aid to beleaguered Syrians amid fighting
between President Bashar Assad's troops and their allies and rebel fighters. The
talks were suspended last month with little to no progress. (With Reuters and
AP)
5 prisoners in Iran await
sentences to be blinded, made deaf with acid
Saturday, 28 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI - At least
five prisoners in Iran’s notorious Gohardasht (Rajai-Shahr) Prison in Karaj are
awaiting sentences which would see them be blinded or made deaf with acid under
the Iranian regime’s fundamentalist law of retribution (qisas). According to
reports from inside the prison, some 40 kilometers from the Iranian capital
Tehran, the Iranian regime’s judiciary is pushing for the sentences to be
implemented quickly; however prison doctors have thus far refused to carry out
the draconian procedures. Mojtaba Saheli (Yasaveli), 31, who was previously
blinded in his left eye by the regime, was recently informed by prison officials
that he is to be blinded in the right eye with acid. On March 3, 2015 he was
blinded in one eye with acid in Gohardasht Prison in the presence of the
regime’s deputy prosecutor in Tehran Mohammad Shahriari and prison officials
after the draconian sentence was upheld by the regime’s Supreme Court. On August
3, 2009 he allegedly blinded a driver in Qom, south of Tehran, with acid. The
regime’s court in Qom sentenced Mr. Saheli to be blinded in both eyes with acid,
pay blood money and serve a 10-year prison term as part of the regime’s inhumane
law of retribution. Mr. Saheli is currently imprisoned in Ward 2 of Hall 4 of
Gohardasht Prison. He had been told to pay blood money to avoid the new blinding
sentence from being implemented on his right eye. According to one report, Mr.
Saheli recently enquired from the prison’s office of implementations about his
sentence and was informed that the implementation order for his sentence had
been received, but until now no physician had been willing to break their
doctor’s oath to carry out the sentence. He was furthermore informed that the
regime’s judiciary is pressing for the sentence to be carried out and that at
any moment one of the doctors may decide to set aside their oath and carry out
the blinding sentence. Five prisoners are currently awaiting to be administered
acid on to their eyes and ears. They are:
Mojtaba Saheli (Yasaveli), 31, whose left eye has already been blinded, and who
is awaiting implementation of a sentence to be blinded in the right eye.
Fatollah Khojasteh, sentenced to be blinded in one eye and made deaf in one ear
with acid. An unnamed prisoner, sentenced to be blinded in both eyes with acid.
An unnamed prisoner, sentenced to be blinded in one eye and made deaf in one ear
with acid.
An unnamed prisoner, sentenced to be blinded in one eye with acid.
Dr. Sanabargh Zahedi, chairman of the Judicial Committee of the National Council
of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), earlier this month said: “The inhumane law of
retribution (qisas) has been implemented against the Iranian people for the past
37 years. These punishments date back to the medieval ages and show the clerical
regime’s reactionary nature. These inhuman punishments are clear violations of
all principles and norms of a modern judiciary, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and all civil and political covenants. Such punishments
undoubtedly constitute a savage form of torture and should be condemned by any
freedom-seeking person. The Iranian Resistance and NCRI members have since 1980
condemned the regime’s qisas law as anti-human.”“According to the logic of the
Quran and modern democratic Islam the first principle which applies to the penal
code is dynamism. Thus the Islamic penal provision should be interpreted within
the context of social and economic conditions and scientific progress. The
clerical regime is centuries away from this logic, and as such it is clear that
there is no possibility of reform within this regime,” he added. Amnesty
International in a statement on March 5, 2015 condemned the Iranian regime for
blinding Mr. Saheli in his left eye two days earlier. “Punishing someone by
deliberately blinding them is an unspeakably cruel and shocking act," said Raha
Bahreini, Amnesty International's Iran Researcher. "This punishment exposes the
utter brutality of Iran’s justice system and underlines the Iranian authorities'
shocking disregard for basic humanity. Meting out cruel and inhuman retribution
punishments is not justice. Blinding, like stoning, amputation and flogging, is
a form of corporal punishment prohibited by international law. Such punishments
should not be carried out under any circumstances.”
British MPs concerned over
Iranian regime’s crackdown on teachers and activists
Saturday, 28 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/NCRI - Members of
both Houses of Parliament of the United Kingdom have spoken out against the
crackdown against teachers and union activists by the mullahs' regime in Iran.
The all- party British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF) in a May
26 statement said it is "extremely concerned" over the recent arrest and
detention, under fraudulent national security charges, of teacher activists in
Iran for their peaceful political activism to fight for their improved
livelihood. The British lawmakers in particular condemned the harsh sentences
against Jafar Azimzadeh, Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, and Ismail Abdi who have
been sentenced to long prison terms, merely for their peaceful activities to
secure better wages and living-conditions for Iranian teachers and workers."We
warn that these prisoners of conscience are in a serious health condition due to
their hunger strike in protest to their unjust sentences along with the Iranian
authorities' ill-treatment and harassment of their families, fellow teachers,
workers, and union members," the BPCIF said in its statement. "The notion that
advocacy and peaceful activities meant to improve the livelihood of Iranian
teachers and workers constitute acts against national security is not only
ridiculous but appalling. Such a claim by the Iranian authorities can only be
interpreted as silencing legitimate demands and social dissents under the
pretext of national security."These repressive measures coincide with a recent
warning by a group of United Nations Human Rights experts “that over a dozen
political prisoners in Iran, including some prominent human rights defenders are
at risk of death in detention due to their worsening health conditions and the
continued refusal by the Iranian authorities to provide them with medical
treatment.” The Iranian authorities’ rationale for withholding treatment to
these prisoners is unacceptable especially since these prisoners “allegedly have
been arrested, detained and convicted purely for their peaceful exercise of
their fundamental freedoms and rights.”The UK Parliamentarians joined the UN
experts in reiterating the situation of political prisoners and activists. The
British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom BPCIF called for the immediate
release of political prisoners in Iran. It urged the UK government and the
relevant UN bodies to condemn the Iranian regime's extensive use of national
security charges to silence legitimate opposition and popular dissent. "This in
turn will pressure the Iranian authorities to release all political prisoners
and respect the Iranian people's right to freedom of expression, assembly, and
peaceful protests."
Receiving Iranian regime’s
foreign minister amid wave of executions emboldens mullahs in slaughter of
Iranian people
Saturday, 28 May 2016/National Council of Resistance of Iran/The planned trip by
the Iranian regime’s foreign minister Javad Zarif to Poland, Sweden, Finland and
Lithuania is taking place amid an unparalleled wave of executions in Iran. Last
week, in just two days, 21 prisoners were hanged in various cities of Iran. The
Iranian Resistance urges all defenders of peace and human rights to take
immediate action to cancel these visits. During the period that Zarif has been
the foreign minister of the religious fascism ruling Iran at least 2400 have
been hanged. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran,
in his latest report, expressed concern about the high number of executions,
torture, extracting confessions under torture, depriving prisoners of lawyers,
discrimination against women, execution of juveniles, pressures on religious
minorities, increasing suppression of free speech, and prohibition on any
political activity in Iran. He wrote that around one thousand people have been
executed in Iran in 2015 which is the highest number in the past 10 years.
According to this report, “At least 73 juvenile offenders were reportedly
executed between 2005 and 2015, and the number of juvenile offenders reportedly
executed in 2014-15 was actually higher than at any time during the past five
years.”Zarif is the representative of a regime that has immersed the region in
war and crisis through warmongering, export of terrorism, and extremism. In a
letter to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on May 13, he described Mostafa
Badreddin, a senior commander of this group, as “a great and tireless man” and
“full of love and emotion and epic in defense of the just ideals of Islam”
although Badreddin had been indicted by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for
Lebanon for his participation in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, former Prime
Minister of Lebanon. In January 2014, Zarif paid his respects to Imad Mughniyah,
former commander of Hezbollah, by placing a wreath on his grave. Zarif needs to
face justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes as a senior
representative of the most brutal dictatorship after the Second World War for
three decades. Empty propaganda about moderation of factions within this regime
is solely meant to justify trade with this regime. The only outcome of
establishing relations and conducting trade with this regime and receiving its
leaders is to embolden it to intensify its suppression and export of terrorism.
Relations with the Iranian regime should be made contingent on a halt to
executions and an end to export of terrorism and warmongering. This is the
demand of the Iranian people and an imperative for peace and to fight terrorism
in the region and the world.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/May 28, 2016
Iran political prisoner
transferred to dangerous prisoners' ward
Friday, 27 May 2016ظNCRI - According to reports from inside the notorious
Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, on May 25,
political prisoner Masoud Arab-Choobdar has been transferred to the dangerous
prisoners’ ward. Mr. Arab Choobdar was summoned to stand in the prison’s inner
courtyard for reasons that were not specified. After refusing to do so, he was
told that the head of the prison, Mohammad Mardani, wanted to discuss his
release. This turned out to be a lie, and when Mr. Arab-Choobdar came forward he
was seized by prison authorities and taken to a prison ward where the dangerous
prisoners are kept. It is standard practice for prisoners in Iranian facilities
to be separated according to prisoner type, with violent offenders isolated from
perpetrators of financial or other non-violent crimes, and political prisoners
confined to their own wards in several prisons. However, there are frequent
reports of regime authorities violating this standard by housing violent
criminals and political prisoners together, as a means of exerting additional
pressure on specific prisoners of conscience. Since Mr. Arab-Choobdar was taken
from the prison courtyard, there has been no additional information about his
location or condition. In April, Mr. Arab-Choobdar wrote from behind bars to the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran giving
an account of the appalling abuses being faced by dissidents in Iran’s jails. In
his letter to special rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed, Mr. Arab-Choobdar highlighted in
particular the mistreatment of political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison.
Iran's Khamenei Warns of
Western 'Schemes' as New MPs Meet
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 28/16/Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei urged newly-elected lawmakers Saturday to resist "schemes" from the
West as parliamentarians met in Tehran for the first time since elections
finished in April. "The turbulent state of the region and the world and the
international adventurism of oppressors and their vassals have confronted the
Islamic Iran with conditions more complicated than before," said a message from
Khamenei, read to a packed parliament chamber. Khamenei, who has the final say
on all matters in the country, repeated his familiar call for loyalty to the
principles of the 1979 revolution and resistance against Western infiltration.
"It is the revolutionary and legal duty of you to make the parliament a
stronghold against the schemes, charms and impudently excessive demands of the
Arrogance," his message read. "Arrogance" was a term first used by the Islamic
republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to describe Western powers,
especially the United States. The 290-member parliament was inaugurated in the
presence of 265 members, with three seats vacant after votes for two MPs were
nullified by Iran's constitutional oversight body, the Guardian Council, and a
third member died in a car accident. Elections for the key position of house
speaker and the presiding board are expected on Sunday or Monday. Only after the
position is filled will be clear whether Iran's conservatives or the
moderate-reformist allies of President Hassan Rouhani have a working majority.
According to an AFP count, no single party won an overall majority in elections
that saw Rouhani make huge gains. Reformists took 133 of the 290 seats, short of
a majority but ahead of conservatives, who took 125 seats. The role of the
independent members will be critical in the balance of parliament's partisan
powers. Incumbent conservative speaker Ali Larijani and reformist Mohammad Reza
Aref are the top candidates standing for the position. Iranian media say
Larijani, who supported last year's nuclear agreement with major powers, seems
to have the upper hand. Parliamentary polls were held in late February. A second
round took place in April for 68 seats where no candidate had obtained a minimum
25 percent of first round votes. Saturday's opening session comes less than a
year after long negotiations between Rouhani's government and world powers
culminated in a nuclear agreement that took effect in January and saw economic
sanctions eased on Tehran. Rouhani addressed lawmakers and said that to reach
its growth target of eight percent, Iran needed $30-50 billion dollars in annual
foreign investment. "Through elections people demanded improved lifestyle and
relations in peace and dignity with the outside world," he said. "We need
interaction to solve the problems and crises of the country." Rouhani also
praised Larijani for his support of the nuclear the deal and called for more
interaction between the government and parliament.
Iran: Female political
prisoners in Evin barred from correspondence with their families
Friday, 27 May 2016ظThe misogynic Iranian regime issued a directive prohibiting
all correspondence between female prisoners in Evin Prison and their families.
The women’s ward holds only female political prisoners. Female political
prisoners in Evin face all sorts of restrictions, including shortage of space
and beds, poor quality of food, lack of heating and cooling, and lack of
cultural nourishment. The regime ramps up pressures on them, especially the
mothers, by imposing all sorts of restrictions on them during family visits and
by depriving them of phone calls with their relatives outside prison. The
ratcheting up of repression, pressure and harassment of female political
prisoners arises from the regime’s fear of the effective and irreplaceable role
of freedom-loving Iranian women who are the vanguards in the fight against this
medieval and misogynic regime and who are the foremost force of change in
Iran.The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance calls on all
human rights organizations and defenders of women’s rights to condemn the
difficult conditions of women’s prisons in the clerical regime and urges
effective and urgent action for the unconditional release of all female
political prisoners. National Council of Resistance of Iran - Women's
Committee/May 26, 2016
UN: No Iranian violations of
nuclear deal
Agencies Friday, 27 May 2016/The UN nuclear agency has reported no new Iranian
violations of a landmark nuclear deal Tehran signed with six world powers that
limits its atomic prowess in exchange for sanctions relief. In a confidential
report obtained by The Associated Press and issued Friday, the International
Atomic Energy Agency also says Iran has corrected one infringement noted in
February by reducing its heavy water supply to the allowed limit of 143.3 tons
or below after exceeding it earlier in the year. Heavy water is used in reactors
that produce substantial amounts of plutonium, a potential path to nuclear
weapons. Some of the excess was exported to the US under an arrangement
criticized by US congressional opponents. Since then, the House of Congress has
voted to bar future US purchases.
‘Within limit’
In exchange for sanctions relief, Iran last July committed to keeping its
reserve of low-enriched uranium below 300 kg (662 pounds) and its stock of heavy
water, a non-radioactive product, at less than 130 metric tons. “Throughout the
reporting period, Iran had no more than 130 metric tons of heavy water ...
Iran’s total (low) enriched uranium stockpile did not exceed 300 kg,” the
International Atomic Energy Agency said in a quarterly report on Iran. The IAEA
is in charge of verifying Iran’s compliance with the deal it reached with the
United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. “There shouldn’t be
any surprises for anyone. Iran continues to honour its commitments,” a senior
diplomat said. “At this point in time it’s clearly below the 300 kg limit. It’s
not close to making us nervous.” In its last Iran report in February, the IAEA
said Iran had briefly overstepped the limit for its heavy-water stock, but then
came quickly back within the bounds of the deal. The breach did not worry
diplomats. (With AP and Reuters)
Iran’s Khamenei warns of
western ‘schemes’ as new MPs meet
AFP, Tehran Saturday, 28 May 2016/Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
urged newly-elected lawmakers Saturday to resist “schemes” from the West as
parliamentarians met in Tehran for the first time since elections finished in
April. “The turbulent state of the region and the world and the international
adventurism of oppressors and their vassals have confronted the Islamic Iran
with conditions more complicated than before,” said a message from Khamenei,
read to a packed parliament chamber. Khamenei, who has the final say on all
matters in the country, repeated his familiar call for loyalty to the principles
of the 1979 revolution and resistance against Western infiltration. “It is the
revolutionary and legal duty of you to make the parliament a stronghold against
the schemes, charms and impudently excessive demands of the Arrogance,” his
message read. “Arrogance” was a term first used by the Islamic republic’s
founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to describe Western powers, especially the
United States. The 290-member parliament was inaugurated in the presence of 265
members, with three seats vacant after votes for two MPs were nullified by
Iran’s constitutional oversight body, the Guardian Council, and a third member
died in a car accident. Elections for the key position of house speaker and the
presiding board are expected on Sunday or Monday. Only after the position is
filled will be clear whether Iran’s conservatives or the moderate-reformist
allies of President Hassan Rouhani have a working majority. According to an AFP
count, no single party won an overall majority in elections that saw Rouhani
make huge gains. Reformists took 133 of the 290 seats, short of a majority but
ahead of conservatives, who took 125 seats. The role of the independent members
will be critical in the balance of parliament’s partisan powers. Incumbent
conservative speaker Ali Larijani and reformist Mohammad Reza Aref are the top
candidates standing for the position. Iranian media say Larijani, who supported
last year’s nuclear agreement with major powers, seems to have the upper hand.
Parliamentary polls were held in late February. A second round took place in
April for 68 seats where no candidate had obtained a minimum 25 percent of first
round votes. Saturday’s opening session comes less than a year after long
negotiations between Rouhani’s government and world powers culminated in a
nuclear agreement that took effect in January and saw economic sanctions eased
on Tehran. Rouhani addressed lawmakers and said that to reach its growth target
of eight percent, Iran needed $30-50 billion dollars in annual foreign
investment. “Through elections people demanded improved lifestyle and relations
in peace and dignity with the outside world,” he said. “We need interaction to
solve the problems and crises of the country.”Rouhani also praised Larijani for
his support of the nuclear the deal and called for more interaction between the
government and parliament.
Saudi Arabia and Iran fail to
reach hajj deal
Saudi Gazette, Riyadh Saturday, 28 May 2016/An Iranian delegation wrapped up its
visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday without signing a final agreement on
arrangements for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and
Umrah has said. The ministry said the delegation decided to return to Tehran
without signing the final agreement despite two days of extensive talks. “The
Iranian Organization of Hajj and Visit will be held responsible before God and
the people of Iran for the inability of its pilgrims to perform Hajj this year,”
the ministry said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. The ministry
said it offered many solutions to meet a string of demands made by the Iranian
delegation, which arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Agreements had been
reached in some areas, including electronic visa issuance as Saudi diplomatic
missions in Iran remain closed. Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in January after
protesters torched the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad. The
ministry said Riyadh agreed to allow Iranians to obtain visas through the Swiss
Embassy in Tehran, which is looking after Saudi interests since the countries
severed ties. Saudi Arabia also agreed to allow Iranian carriers to fly half of
the pilgrims into Saudi Arabia and back despite a ban on Iranian airlines
following the diplomatic row, the ministry said.
Saudi rejects Iranian attempts to politicizing Hajj
The talks were the second attempt by both countries after an unsuccessful first
round last month to iron out differences and reach a deal on organizing this
year’s Hajj journey for Iranian pilgrims. According to the statement, the
ministry formally received the delegation and provided all facilities for the
members, including arrangements to perform Umrah. Marathon talks continued on
Wednesday and Thursday, with both sides raising all topics that had figured in
the previous round. The ministry suggested a number of solutions for all issued
raised by the Iranian side. It proposed issuing electronic visas within Iran in
accordance with a mechanism agreed by the Saudi Foreign Ministry. It suggested
Saudi and Iranian national carriers equally share the responsibility of
transporting the Iranian pilgrims. It also approved an Iranian request to allow
the Swiss Embassy to take care of the interests of Iranian pilgrims during their
stay in Saudi Arabia. “The ministry immediately coordinated with the competent
authorities to implement the agreements. But early Friday morning, the Iranian
mission expressed its desire to return home without signing the final Hajj
agreement,” the ministry said. The ministry clarified that the Kingdom has
reiterated its categorical rejection of attempts to politicize Hajj rituals.
Tehran had banned its pilgrims from coming to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah this
year.
Another Israeli minister
quits, citing rightist tilt
Reuters, Jerusalem Friday, 27 May 2016/Israel's centrist environment minister
announced he was resigning on Friday in protest at the inclusion of
ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman in the coalition government, the second such
cabinet walkout in a week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed up Lieberman
as Israel's new defense minister on Wednesday in a pact beefing up his coalition
to six parties with control over 66 of parliament's 120 seats, up from a
razor-thin majority of 61. "The recent political maneuvering and defense
minister's replacement are, in my view, grave actions that ignore what is
important for the country's security and will bring about more extremism and
rifts among the people," Environment Minister Avi Gabbay said in a resignation
statement. Gabbay is with Koolanu, the lone centrist party in the coalition,
with 10 lawmakers in parliament. His announcement comes days after the former
defense minister, Moshe Yaalon of Netanyahu's conservative Likud party, stepped
down in protest at his portfolio being offered to Lieberman. Gabbay had sparred
with Netanyahu over government plans to develop Israeli natural gas reserves in
the Mediterranean sea under a consortium that critics say will limit competition
and keep prices high. VIDEO: Why is the new Israeli coalition raising US
concerns?
Firm hired to hunt for
EgyptAir black boxes
Agencies Saturday, 28 May 2016/Egypt has hired a private firm to help find
EgyptAir MS804’s black boxes in an area narrowed down by an emergency signal
sent when it hit the Mediterranean last week. The Egyptian-led investigative
committee said in a statement on Saturday that Deep Ocean Search (DOS) was
taking part in the search, after the civil aviation ministry in Cairo said it
had contracted the company. “The investigative committee has received a
satellite report which indicated that an ELT (emergency locator transmitter) had
been detected, and it has relayed the coordinates to the search” teams, the
statement said. It did not indicate when search teams had been told about the
signal, which would have been transmitted and detected when the aircraft came
down on May 19 while flying from Paris to Cairo. Meanwhile, sources close to the
investigation said on Friday that no new radio signal has been received from an
EgyptAir jet since the day it crashed in the Mediterranean last week. A radio
signal picked up on the day of the crash from the plane’s ELT allowed officials
to determine a broadly defined search zone, but nothing new has since been
detected, the sources told Reuters. “There has been nothing since day one,” a
source familiar with the investigation said. EgyptAir had said after the crash
that a distress signal had been detected by the Egyptian military, which later
denied the report. The Airbus A320 with 66 people aboard, including 30 Egyptians
and 15 French nationals, crashed in the Mediterranean between the Greek island
of Crete and the Egyptian coast. French and Egyptian aviation officials have
said it is too soon to determine what caused the disaster, although an attack on
the aircraft has not been ruled out. An image grab from Egypt's military on May
21, 2016 shows some debris that the search teams found in the sea after the
EgyptAir Airbus A320 crashed in the Mediterranean. (AFP).DOS says it can operate
at depths of up to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) and has a robot capable of mapping
the seabed. France’s aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted
automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight
control unit before contact was lost. A French vessel carrying specialist probes
designed to detect black box pinger signals arrived on Friday at the search
zone, sources on the investigation committee said. The vessel contains equipment
from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, that can pick up
black-box pinger signals over long distances up to 5 km (3 miles), according to
the company's website. These are separate from the signals transmitted by the
ELT, which sends a radio signal upon impact that is not designed to continue
emitting once the plane is submerged underwater, said a source familiar with the
investigation. The French vessel will conduct a deepwater search in “four or
five” areas within the 5 km search zone believed to contain the two black boxes,
with the possibility of expanding the zone should nothing be detected, the
source said. (With AFP, Reuters)
‘Westerner’ among 7 ISIS
suspects arrested in Yemen
AFP, Aden Saturday, 28 May 2016/Yemeni authorities on Saturday arrested seven
ISIS group suspects, including one “Westerner”, in second city Aden, a police
officer told AFP. The arrests are part of a government offensive against ISIS
and al-Qaeda, which have claimed a wave of deadly attacks in recent months in
Yemen’s south and southeast. Among these were twin bombings claimed by ISIS that
hit loyalist forces in Aden on Monday, killing at least 41 people. “We arrested
seven Daesh (ISIS) members, among them a Western Muslim, in Mansura” district of
Aden, said officer Munir al-Yafie, who took part in the raid, without giving
further details. ISIS and al-Qaeda have exploited the power vacuum created by
more than a year of conflict between pro-government forces and Iran-backed
militias to expand their zones of control in Yemen. Government forces drove the
rebels out of the port city of Aden and other southern provinces since July with
support from the Saudi-led Arab coalition which launched its operations in Yemen
in March 2015. But authorities have struggled to secure Aden, where militants
emerged after the rebels left the city. Aden is serving as the temporary
government headquarters as the Houthi militias control capital Sanaa.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on
May 28- 29/16
The resurgence of oil
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/May 28/16
The best news so far this year is that oil prices have risen, reaching just over
$50 per barrel. Prices were expected to continue declining to around $20,
expanding the economic crisis and shaking the whole Middle East, not only
petroleum-exporting countries. The price rise does not prevent a new phase of
economic pain, but it has lifted spirits in drained markets. It was attributed
to unrest in the Nigerian oil regions, ongoing reforms in some Middle Eastern
oil facilities - which chose the least costly time for reform - and ongoing
conflict in Libya, Yemen, Syria and Iraq. However, the price may decline again
this year, if not for sure in coming years. The implications and risks concern
us all. The nightmare of cheap oil began with the extraction of shale oil in
economic quantities, and increasing its competitive share in the market to a
point that made the United States an oil exporter. Consequently, for the first
time we felt a serious threat to the reality that we were used to for decades,
which relies almost solely on oil. Sadly, the price rise will result in
increased war-funding in the region. Without a collective, careful policy to
avoid war, all that the region will earn from oil will be spent on war
Ripple effect
This is not limited to the Gulf but includes countries such as Egypt, which
depends on oil sales and remittances from its citizens in oil-producing
countries. Countries that do not have oil partly rely on selling products to
oil-producing countries, labor remittances or financial aid. The situation in
the Gulf countries is the most difficult, because they do not currently have
alternatives. They are afraid because of the rapid decline in oil prices that
was accompanied by the cancellation of many government projects, the slowdown in
payments for contracting companies, and reduced payments to employees. On the
one hand this created a pessimistic climate, but on the other it led many to
accept the idea of economic change, reducing dependence on oil and cutting
subsidies on goods and services. The price rise is not meant to renew our
addiction or stall economic reform, because $50-$70 per barrel will not be
enough to pay government expenses and the fiscal deficit. Sadly, the price rise
will result in increased war-funding in the region. Oil itself is a cause of
conflict. Without a collective, careful policy to avoid war, all that the region
will earn from oil will be spent on war. Can a country such as Iran - which did
not witness one prosperous era in its modern history, and which has never
benefited from its oil resources due to war - be convinced? Its nuclear deal and
economic openness are worthless if it is determined to raise spending on war and
militias in the region. Despite rising oil prices and the openness of world
markets to Iran’s oil, it will not be enough if it does not change its
understanding of the world around it.
Iran's Air Force Overshadowed by the IRGC
Farzin Nadimi/Washington Institute/May 28/16
A recent crash highlights the air force's struggles to maintain its readiness
and budget at a time when Revolutionary Guard leaders are pushing for a
deterrence posture based solely on their own ballistic missile arsenal.
On May 24, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) lost yet another young
fighter pilot, Maj. Roozbeh Nazerian, in an accident involving a Russian-made
MiG-29 jet on a routine training flight. It was the IRIAF's thirteenth aviation
accident and fourteenth fatality in just five years, and it triggered an
emotional response among Iranians on par with the recent army casualties in
Syria. While occasional spikes in accident rates might seem normal in any air
force around the globe, Iran's problems are distinctive because it has a
shrinking and unrenewable air fleet, lower-than-average flight hours, and
massive budgetary disadvantages compared to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) -- a result of both international sanctions and shifting
priorities at the highest levels of the regime leadership.
UNDER PRESSURE
In recent years, the IRIAF managed to secure just enough funding to overhaul and
upgrade some of its surviving military aircraft, but their age and wear make
full replacement long overdue. The air force has been under pressure from those
who question its viability for some time, and it lost all of its air-defense
assets to a new army branch in 2009. Meanwhile, the IRGC enjoys a favorable
position with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, attracts a much larger share of the
direct annual defense budget and indirect funds, and has steadily transformed
itself into a dominant economic force. It has also managed to convince the
Supreme Leader that a dynamic missile program will enhance deterrence more
effectively than the IRIAF ever could.
This argument seemed to have some merit at first -- right up until Russian
forces intervening in Syria demonstrated that flexible and persistent air power
could be a better force multiplier than any ballistic missile arsenal. When
Moscow ordered its first airstrikes there last September, they were quickly seen
as a turning point for the embattled Assad regime; in contrast, a ballistic
missile force would likely have limited utility during such a fast-changing,
asymmetric war.
The IRIAF reportedly took the opportunity to lobby Khamenei on revitalizing the
air force, and for a while it appeared to secure its future by plucking some
money away from the IRGC's missile projects. In response, however, the IRGC
launched a public-relations frenzy, showcasing the survivability of its
medium-range missiles by hosting elaborate televised tours of vast underground
missile complexes. It also claimed to possess more accurate missiles, such as
the Emad with a claimed "circular error probable" of only 8 meters.
In contrast, despite making about $230 million in the past year through
overhauling military and civilian aircraft (according to the published budget),
Iran's aviation industry has been unable to develop a viable design for a modern
fighter jet of its own, and any claims to the contrary have proven to be
deceptive. This makes a foreign purchase the only viable option for a major
IRIAF upgrade in the foreseeable future.
THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION
After the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, Tehran turned to Moscow to replenish its
battered air force. The first of thirty-five MiG-29s arrived in September 1990,
followed by a squadron of Sukhoi Su-24 long-range strike jets. Although these
aircraft were delivered with a twenty-year support commitment, the promised
Russian technical documentation and assistance were lacking, eventually
undercutting the improvement in capabilities that the new planes represented.
Today, the IRIAF's fleet continues to lag behind its Western counterparts in
both readiness and performance. The air force has even had to bring experienced
technicians out of retirement to cope with the growing challenge of keeping its
aircraft flying.
Last summer, Iran sent a high-ranking delegation to the MAKS-2015 air show in
Moscow. It was led by President Hassan Rouhani's science and technical advisor,
Sorena Sattari, son of the late air force commander Gen. Mansour Sattari, who
had spearheaded the previous drive to buy Russian jets. According to the Russian
state-run media outlet Sputnik, the trip led to announcements that Iran might
purchase up to 100 advanced Su-30 fighter-bombers and Yak-130 jet trainers as
part of a larger $8 billion arms deal. Rumors of a similar agreement with China
emerged as well.
Yet UN Security Council Resolution 2231 restricts all such sales to Iran for
five years after adoption day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
the nuclear agreement that went into force in October. During that time,
potential sellers need to seek the council's approval before shipping any combat
aircraft to Iran. Moscow and Beijing seem reluctant to openly contravene that
restriction, so it is unclear whether and when any new fighter jets will
actually end up in Tehran's hands.
BUDGET CRUNCH
According to the latest figures published by the Iranian legal portal Shenasname,
the government's unclassified defense budget for the current Persian fiscal year
of 1395 (March 21, 2016, to March 21, 2017) is $9 billion, a 43 percent increase
over the previous year. While this amount is small in comparison to Saudi
Arabia's $45.9 billion budget, the IRGC and certain other military branches no
doubt have additional sources of revenue, and their official funding was further
expanded when parliament appropriated another $1.4 billion using money released
under the JCPOA.
Yet the air force was apparently left out of this budgetary windfall. The
national armed forces (Artesh) will receive $2 billion this year, but only $5.3
million of that is to be spent on "refurbishing the air force fleet" -- a paltry
amount when one considers that a single Su-30 costs $47-53 million. Similarly,
only $3.5 million is earmarked for rebuilding air bases, and $8.3 million for
overhauling army helicopters. The Iranian aviation industry received nothing
from the budget this year, perhaps because it is expected to rechannel some of
the money it made last year into overhaul projects.
In contrast, the IRGC has reportedly been allocated $4.9 billion, a 67 percent
increase over the previous year, to which should be added the Basij
Organization's budget of $357 million. Moreover, the General Staff of the Armed
Forces will have a separate $684 million budget -- a 34 percent increase --
which includes $430 million to be set aside for "improving defensive
capabilities." This budget can benefit the IRGC or the Artesh. Currently, Iran
sources a majority of its arms and military equipment locally, so the
restrictions on foreign purchases are not as crippling to other branches as they
are to the IRIAF.
While the current situation favors the IRGC -- which continues to dominate
Iran's defense budget and battle planning with its underground missiles and
agile naval programs -- the national air force hopes an eventual reintroduction
to international suppliers will help it get back on its feet. In the meantime,
IRIAF leaders can try to show Iran's decisionmakers that conventional armed
forces are a more sustainable option than a secretive ballistic missile program
run by a rival revolutionary organization with an eccentric agenda and few
practical bounds. And perhaps someday, a responsible, modern Iranian air force
can emerge to work with the international community in the region and beyond.
Whether the IRIAF is ever permitted to play such a role abroad, or even gain
ground at home vis-a-vis the IRGC, will depend on the Islamic Republic's future
political trajectory.
**Farzin Nadimi is a Washington-based analyst specializing in the security and
defense affairs of Iran and the Persian Gulf region.
The Aerial Delivery of
Humanitarian Aid in Syria: Options and Constraints
Michael Eisenstadt/Washington Institute/May 28/16
While airlift operations may provide temporary relief for a number of besieged
and hard-to-reach communities, urgently enhancing the military capabilities of
moderate opposition groups is ultimately the only way to effectively counter the
Assad regime's use of food as a weapon.
The Assad regime's use of food as a weapon has been a central feature of the
Syrian civil war. Regime forces have used "surrender or starve" tactics to great
effect. Humanitarian supply efforts have repeatedly been obstructed by regime
forces, as well as by the Islamic State (IS), some rebel groups, and criminal
elements. According to the United Nations, 408,200 persons in besieged or
hard-to-reach communities are now in dire need.
Thus, at the conclusion of a May 17 meeting, the International Syria Support
Group (ISSG) called on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to establish "air
bridges and air drops for all areas in need" if UN ground convoys "[continue to
be] denied humanitarian access to...designated besieged areas" after June 1. The
hope, apparently, is that the threat of a humanitarian airlift will cause the
Syrian government to allow more ground convoys through. Yet the past does not
provide grounds for optimism. That being the case, what might a humanitarian
airlift in Syria accomplish and what challenges might it face?
Yet Another Problem From Hell
The ISSG's May 17 statement identified seven neighborhoods on the eastern and
southwestern outskirts of Damascus (total population 250,000-300,000) that are
besieged by Syrian government forces and in need of immediate relief: Arbin,
Darraya, Douma, East Harasta, Moadamiya, Zabdin, and Zamalka. (Zabdin has since
fallen to government forces, and East Harasta and Douma were finally reached by
aid convoys in the past week.) And it identified nine other communities in need,
seven besieged by government forces: al-Fua, Kefraya, Kafr Batna, Ein Tarma,
Hammura, Jisrein, Madaya, Zabadani, and Yarmouk. The ISSG is now considering
humanitarian airlift operations for these areas. Even if additional land
corridors open up, airlift operations may be necessary to augment ground convoys
in some areas and may be the only option in others. But if the Syrian government
is unwilling to allow convoys through, it is unlikely to approve airlift
operations -- and the WFP is unlikely to attempt the latter without regime
assent.
Aerial Delivery of Humanitarian Aid
Generally, the most reliable and cost-effective way to deliver humanitarian aid
is by ground. But in wartime, ground corridors may be blocked or too dangerous
to use. In such circumstances, ground resupply efforts can be supplemented or
replaced by airlift operations, and the delivery of supplies via "air bridge" or
airdrop.
Air bridges. Entailing aid delivery via airports, highway landing strips, or
unimproved airfields, an air bridge can augment aid brought in overland and help
mitigate the risk faced by long ground convoys. In some cases, air bridges may
require heavy ground security to protect airfields, personnel, and supplies, and
to escort convoys distributing these supplies to local communities.
During the 1948-1949 Berlin Airlift, U.S. and British aircraft delivered
approximately 2,325,000 tons of cargo for the two million residents of West
Berlin, who were blockaded by Soviet forces. And during the war in Bosnia
(1992-1995), a UN peacekeeping force (UNPROFOR) was tasked to secure Sarajevo
airport, establish safe corridors, and guard food convoys delivering aid to
residents of that besieged city and, later, beyond.
Airdrops. The delivery of aid by parachute is the least favored option. It often
entails significant wastage when cargo containers are damaged on impact, are
pilfered, looted, or diverted, or fall into the wrong hands. Moreover, the
intended beneficiaries often put themselves at risk by crowding drop zones or
trying to recover supplies from difficult or dangerous terrain (e.g., areas
containing unexploded ordnance). Finally, depending on the aircraft type, the
quantity of aid delivered per sortie via airdrop is usually less -- sometimes
significantly less -- than can be delivered per sortie via air bridge, due to
cargo packing, rigging, and loading constraints. But if circumstances are
sufficiently dire, the benefits will outweigh the risks.
The United States has tremendous experience conducting military and humanitarian
airdrops. In Afghanistan (2001-present), it has conducted tens of thousands of
airdrops to sustain forward-deployed U.S. forces, relying on robust
communications, experienced planners, cargo packers and riggers, GPS-guided
delivery systems, and highly capable aircraft like the C-17 Globemaster III to
facilitate precision resupply in difficult terrain. These operations are enabled
by armed ground elements that can communicate with and guide transport aircraft
to ensure the accurate delivery and successful recovery of supplies. In most
cases, however, resupplied forces will consist of no more than a few dozen
soldiers.
GPS-guided systems like the expensive and scarce Joint Precision Aerial Delivery
System (JPADS) are often used when precision, high-altitude drops or standoff is
required. However, because the United States reuses JPADS, it is not a suitable
option when the guidance unit cannot be recovered. Moreover, because JPADS was
acquired to resupply military units generally consisting of dozens of personnel,
rather than civilian concentrations numbering in the thousands, most models can
deliver only relatively small payloads.
The United States and international community have also conducted humanitarian
airdrops on other occasions, including the initial phase of the mission to aid
Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq in 1991; in response to a man-made famine in
Sudan in 1998, constituting the largest WFP food airdrop in its history; and
after Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.
More recently, in Syria and Iraq, the United States and Britain in 2014
airdropped aid to thousands of Yazidi Iraqis fleeing IS forces on Sinjar
Mountain. A few months later, the United States airdropped supplies to isolated
Iraqi military forces outside the northern Iraqi town of Bayji. In 2014-2015,
America dropped tons of weapons and ammunition to Kurdish and other antiregime
forces in northern Syria, though at least once, IS fighters recovered military
equipment from misdirected pallets. And this year, the WFP as well as the Syrian
and Russian air forces have conducted airdrops over the IS-besieged town of Deir
al-Zour in eastern Syria. Residents of Deir al-Zour complain, however, that food
drops are collected and hoarded by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Syrian
Arab Army, and provided to regime loyalists or sold to others at extortionate
prices.
Syrian Airlift Options
The use of air bridges and airdrops could play out as follows in the Syrian
context:
Air bridges. Twelve of the sixteen aforementioned besieged or hard-to-reach
communities are in the Damascus area and located adjacent to, or relatively
near, at least five major operational air bases: Mezze, Damascus International
Airport (used by Iran to airlift troops and arms into Syria), Marj Ruhayyil,
Marj al-Sultan helicopter base, and Dumair. All five could conceivably support
air bridge operations, assuming the assent of Syrian government and opposition
forces. (Marj al-Sultan and Dumair are in contested areas -- the latter in an
area threatened by IS, which has not cooperated with efforts elsewhere to
deliver humanitarian aid.) There may also be highway landing strips in this
area. But the aid will have to be distributed by convoys, and if the regime
continues to obstruct humanitarian convoys -- as it has for years now -- it
won't matter if the aid entered Syria by land or air bridge.
Airdrops. The twelve Damascus-area communities in need are densely packed
suburban neighborhoods or towns. Potential drop zones include small parks,
vacant lots, or fields; the use of precision-guided delivery systems, such as
JPADS, would be essential for success. However, without the ability to recover
and reuse the guidance units, this course of action would be unsustainable,
given that not enough JPADS-type systems are available to support a major,
long-duration humanitarian operation. Conversely, unguided pallets would likely
damage elements of the surviving urban infrastructure (e.g., power lines), many
would themselves be damaged on impact by exposed rebar and rubble, some might
produce collateral damage by landing on pedestrians or collapsing residential
structures, and a certain percentage would be recovered by regime forces --
explaining why airdrops in open areas adjacent to some of these neighborhoods
would not be feasible. Finally, these neighborhoods are located in the heart of
Syria's national air-defense system; Syrian government acquiescence would be
necessary to ensure the safety of relief operations.
Scale and scope of the effort. According to published figures reflecting
planning assumptions for humanitarian operations, 550 tons of food supplies
could provide partial rations for 100,000 people for thirty days. This would
equate to about 1,500 tons of food per month for the 250,000-300,000 residents
of the six neediest still-besieged communities around Damascus. The Russian
IL-76 -- used by the WFP and the Syrian and Russian air forces -- can carry
40-50 tons of cargo. Total capacity depends on the aircraft model, cargo type,
and mode of delivery. That would equate to 10-15 IL-76 sorties per month. (By
comparison, U.S. C-130 and C-17 military transport aircraft, also operated by
several regional air forces, can carry 18-20 tons and 82-85 tons of cargo,
respectively.) If more sorties were to be flown, more people in need could be
served.
Conclusion
The airfields and roadways around Damascus are used routinely by the Assad
regime to bring in troops, equipment, and military supplies from Iran and
elsewhere; there is no reason they cannot also be used to bring in humanitarian
aid. But an air bridge will not obviate the need for ground convoys to deliver
the aid, which the regime has often obstructed as part of its "surrender of
starve" tactics, or to incentivize truces in strategic areas. As for airdrops,
they are a highly problematic and inefficient means of delivering aid to
populations in built-up areas, and are ultimately also dependent on Syrian
government assent.
To date, ground convoys have reached but a fraction of those in need in besieged
and hard-to-reach areas -- according to the United Nations, 12 percent in
January, 25 percent in February, 21 percent in March, 42 percent in April, and
only 1 percent in the first week or so of May. Some besieged areas have not
received food aid in years. Moreover, according to the WFP, 4 million people in
Syria receive monthly food rations, out of the 8.7 million in need of food
assistance. The besieged communities are but the tip of a massive iceberg.
If Damascus does not permit food convoys to access besieged and hard-to-reach
communities, air bridges will make no difference. To this end, Washington and
the international community should exert maximum pressure on Moscow to make good
on its Geneva and Vienna commitments regarding humanitarian access, and press
the Assad regime to let food convoys through. If Moscow cannot influence Assad
on this point, it will not likely be able to influence Assad regarding a
political transition in Syria.
If ground convoys continue to be obstructed, and a political solution to the
Syria conflict proves unattainable in the near term, the United States should
much more energetically and urgently pursue the only course of action that
promises a potential long-term solution to the regime's "surrender or starve"
tactics: providing moderate Syrian opposition groups with the means to break the
sieges imposed by regime forces on their communities.
**Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Fellow and director of the Military and
Security Studies Program at The Washington Institute.
Water Issues Are Crucial to
Stability in Syria's Euphrates Valley
Fabrice Balanche/Washington Institute/May 28/16
Regardless of who drives the Islamic State out of the Euphrates Valley
agricultural zone, they will need to address the legacy of failed regime
irrigation policies that are once again creating tension among local tribes.
Military movements in eastern Syria suggest that a major offensive will take
place this year to eradicate the Islamic State (IS) presence in the area. The
Syrian army is advancing toward Deir al-Zour and Tabqa with the help of Russian
aviation, while U.S.-supported Kurdish and Arab fighters under the flag of the
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are closing in from the north (see PolicyWatch
2614, "The Battle for Deir al-Zour: A U.S.-Russian Bridge Against the Islamic
State?"). Meanwhile, the Arab tribes living under IS rule in the Euphrates
Valley have pledged allegiance to the group for now, but they would likely
abandon it if outside forces posed a serious threat.
Accordingly, the time has come to prepare for "the day after IS" in the
Euphrates area, particularly regarding the various economic issues that will be
key to local political stabilization. Regardless of who controls the area next
-- whether the Assad regime, the SDF, or other players -- they will face the
problem of water scarcity, which has long driven the area's political and
economic dynamics.
STATE IRRIGATION AS A MEANS OF CONTROL
The portion of the Euphrates Valley between Assad Lake and Abu Kamal is an arid
zone where agriculture is difficult without irrigation, since annual rainfall is
usually less than 10 inches. Nevertheless, the most recent Syrian agricultural
census (2004) showed that 46 percent of the population in Raqqa province and 43
percent in Deir al-Zour province worked in agriculture -- more than twice the
nationwide average of 20 percent. And the actual share of the local population
who derive their main income from agriculture is even higher because many
farmers prefer to define themselves as "civil servants" or "housewives" instead
of fellah (peasant) or muzaree (farmer), terms that have pejorative connotations
in the area.
These figures are more understandable when one considers that oil production has
created very few jobs in the Euphrates Valley. Most of the workers in the
state-owned oil industry hail from the regime's Alawite heartland and other
western provinces, and refinery operations are located elsewhere (mainly Homs
and Banias). Given this economic isolation and other factors, many Euphrates
Valley residents considered themselves an internal colony of Syria well before
the current war.
Their main complaint against the central government has been its constraints on
agriculture, particularly its mandatory production plans and quasi-monopoly on
water resources. In the provinces of Raqqa, Deir al-Zour, and Hasaka, the
ministries that supervise irrigation and agriculture have long forced farmers to
enroll in programs obligating them to produce only cotton, cereals, and sugar
beet. The state also supervised every aspect of the market through bureaucratic
public companies, from seed distribution to commercialization. In fields
irrigated by the Euphrates Valley dams, farmers enjoyed almost free water, but
it was delivered according to a government schedule that was only suitable for
the crops that the regime mandated be grown, making agricultural diversification
impossible. In the minds of Baathist politicians, however, the large dam and
irrigation projects were a means of domesticating not only the Euphrates River,
but also the tribes that lived along it. When water was plentiful and fields
sufficient for every family, social peace reigned, but the situation
deteriorated rapidly in the past decade, contributing to the 2011 uprising.
Between 1960 and 2010, the population of Deir al-Zour and Raqqa provinces
increased from 400,000 to 2,000,000, and farm size naturally decreased with this
rapid population growth. At the same time, the regime's ambitious plans to
extend irrigated land outside the Euphrates Valley were never carried out due to
lack of funds and water shortages. As a result, illegal wells and pumping
multiplied, with some tolerance from the government for political reasons or
simply because of corruption. Authorities were more flexible with Arab tribes
along the Euphrates than with Kurds in Hasaka province, where irrigated areas
were reduced considerably due to lack of state investment and a failure to
modernize irrigation techniques.
The drought of 2007-2010 accelerated these problems, especially because it
occurred at a time when the state was reducing its subsidies, tripling the price
of fuel, making individual irrigation extremely costly, and imposing water
savings through a restrictive irrigation modernization plan. These measures were
largely ineffective because they were formulated under emergency circumstances
and implemented within a very corrupt environment. For example, subsidies were
often hijacked by rich farmers with the complicity of officials, while small
farmers were threatened with penalties because they continued to irrigate in a
traditional way.
State irrigation has been poorly managed from a technical standpoint as well.
Open irrigation canals do not allow the use of sprinklers or drip methods due to
lack of pressurization, causing a shameful waste. For instance, if a farmer
using this gravity feed method wants to get one cubic meter of water to his
crops, he must draw seven times that amount from whatever source he is using.
With a sprinkler system, however, he would need to draw just two cubic meters,
and with a drip system just one. But what incentive do farmers have to acquire
expensive equipment if water is almost free in state-irrigated land? They have
more reason to use such water-saving technology in farms that use wells, where
low water tables have forced many to abandon cost-prohibitive pumping and leave
some fields fallow. Between 2001 and 2009, agricultural land decreased in areas
irrigated by wells (e.g., Thawra district, Tal Abyad, and Hasaka province) but
expanded in the Euphrates Valley, where well use is low.
Given this series of mistakes and the ever-looming challenge of scarcity in arid
regions, resolving water issues in the Euphrates Valley will be difficult
without causing public discontent. Yet the regime's approach to irrigation
clearly failed and was an important contributor to the current uprising.
IRRIGATION UNDER THE ISLAMIC STATE
Since establishing control over most of the Euphrates Valley during the war, IS
has created a Department of Agriculture comparable to the regime's bureaucracy.
It mandates which crops can be grown, uses similar irrigation management
schemes, and imposes heavy taxes on farmers. Thanks in large part to the group's
lack of expertise, however, irrigation services have deteriorated sharply
compared to the prewar period, making the collection of taxes by the IS "Zakat
Department" unbearable. The lack of water in previously state-irrigated land has
spurred many farmers to drill unregulated wells. This in turns means increased
pumping, which is costly under normal circumstances but even more so now because
coalition bombing of oil facilities has made it difficult to obtain the fuel
needed to power the pumps. Above all, local farmers lack fertilizers and
pesticides, which have become rare and expensive because they can only be
procured from the government zone through smugglers.
As a result of these problems, agricultural yields are decreasing sharply, and
IS has been unable to refill the wheat silos it previously emptied in order to
win the population's support. If the current circumstances persist, the next
inevitable drought cycle will be catastrophic.
CONCLUSION
The challenge of fixing irrigation problems in the Euphrates Valley should be
anticipated before eradicating IS there. A large modernization plan for
irrigation and agriculture is essential to stabilizing the valley, but whoever
is responsible for this effort will face the same physical and social
constraints. Local water resources are inherently limited and will likely become
even scarcer in the coming decades. Some waste can be reduced by using modern
irrigation techniques and abandoning water-intensive crops such as cotton, but
such efforts require great discipline and a high level of development that is
currently incompatible with the valley's tribal society. Therefore, the
authorities who take the Islamic State's place will face a cruel dilemma,
because if nothing concrete is done soon, the scarcity of resources will
exacerbate tribal competition for them.
Restoring stability in the valley will be much easier if Turkey respects the
international agreement for sharing Euphrates water with Syria. The agreed
minimum flow is 500 cubic meters per second, but the current level seems to be
significantly lower today, and neither IS nor the Assad regime is in a position
to protest. Accordingly, the water issue will give Ankara much leverage over
whoever controls the Euphrates Valley.
**Fabrice Balanche, an associate professor and research director at the
University of Lyon 2, is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute.
Jihad With the Iranian Rial!
Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al Awsat/May 28/16
Our newspaper published a story about Iran allocating an annual budget for the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organisation after relations between them were
restored. An official at the organisation’s press office said that Iranian
support “is not an accusation” and denied that the organisation is affiliated to
any party in the region. He also pointed out that the movement’s policy always
focussed on “distancing Palestine from any axes”. Is this correct? Just by
researching the PIJ and its relationship with Tehran on Iranian news sites or
Palestinian ones that are supportive of the movement, the researcher finds a
series of dramatic contrasts! In July 2015 the leaders of the movement announced
“a state of anger” due to Iranian support being stopped and this resulted in the
Secretary General of the PIJ Ramadan Shallah and his deputy not attending a meal
organised by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the southern suburbs. The
Palestinian news agency Sama quoted sources that said that Iranian support,
which is considered the primary source of funding for the movement, was stopped
because of the movement’s position on some issues in the region which resulted
in “clear independence from the Iranian position”.
The sources also said that as the organisation is a Sunni Islamic movement, “it
does not allow its position to be dictated by anyone, particularly with regards
to the issues of the Arab and Islamic nation. The movement has an independent
and specific vision that has not changed in decades”. On the other hand, while
Shallah was in Tehran he was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying “The victory
of Gaza would not have been possible without strategic Iranian support”!
According to IRNA news agency, Shallah said that “shifts in some Islamic
countries provided Zionists with the opportunity to commit whatever crimes they
want to”. Speaking about the current situation in Egypt, Shallah hinted at “the
conflicting policies pursued by Egyptian officials” in recent years and said
that “Arab countries have not and will not support the popular uprising in
Palestine” and added that Iran “is the only country supporting the uprising and
the families of martyrs”! Have the movement’s shifts ended? Absolutely not!
Here is the surprise- according to what IRNA published, when Shallah met Hashemi
Rafsanjani, he said that the movement considers defending Iran as tantamount to
“defending Islam” in the same way that the Supreme Leader said that “Defending
Palestine is defending Islam” when the two met last. However, some Palestinian
newspapers said that Shallah is the one who said that “Defending Palestine is
defending Islam”. Who do we believe here; the PIJ or Iran? Do we believe the
“policies” of the PIJ or the impact of the Iranian rial? What is clear is that
in this period of jihad with the Iranian rial, everything is permissible for
Tehran’s allies regardless of whether they are Sunni or Shiite!
Stability – The New
Politically Fashionable Word
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/May 28/16
“I can tell you what the world needs right now in one word: stability!” This was
how a senior British official enlightened us at dinner the other evening.
The observation was all the more acute because right now, caught in the
maelstrom of a referendum on their membership of the European Union, the British
are heading for anything but stability. Whatever the outcome of the referendum,
the Brits have a bumpy road ahead. If they vote to get out, Prime Minister David
Cameron might find it hard to hang on to his post, giving the signal for a
zoological power struggle within his Conservative Party. If they vote to stay
in, the party might tear itself apart as a result of its inability to
accommodate so many supersized egos with a tiny majority in the House of
Commons.
What is interesting in all this is that the referendum was one of those things
that the great Talleyrand identified as “unnecessary moves that, in politics,
are worse than making mistakes.” The great man’s first commandment to
politicians was not to do what they didn’t need to do.
Talleyrand was not concerned with emitting clever sayings to be remembered by.
He was reflecting the essence of modern western democracies long before they had
matured into what they are today. In such democracies the task of the government
is to do few things, slowly, always taking care not to intervene where it need
not.
Anyway, one thing is certain: stability isn’t what we are going to get in the UK
in the foreseeable future which means until the next general election,
theoretically set for 2020. Stability also seems unlikely in the United States,
at least until the presidential election in November. Even then, if Donald Trump
emerges as the victor, Washington might not settle down to a new cruising speed
for at least another year.
I don’t share the Jeremiads issued by those who equate a Trump victory with the
advent of Jericho’s trumpet. However, the Maverick is sure to give us all a
bumpy ride for a while.
The current political landscape in Europe isn’t promising for stability either.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel who was dubbed “the most powerful woman in
the world” only a year ago, is on a slippery slope amid growing fears that she
might be forced out in next years’ general election.
In France only incurable optimists still think President Francois Hollande has a
chance of being present in the second round of next May’s presidential election,
let alone winning a second term.
Prospects for stability are no better in other smaller European states. The
Austrians have narrowly avoided having a president from the anti-EU right. But
the man they got represents another brand of radicalism in the name of
ecological concerns. The cushy duo of Social Democrats and Christian democrats
that ruled the country since its emergence from World War II has been shattered,
opening an expanding vacuum.
Spain is still unable to form a government with fringe parties throwing as many
monkey wrenches in the machine as they can. In Greece the Cyriza clique is
courageously trying to prevent the boat from sinking. In former Communist bloc
nations in central and Eastern Europe, radical parties of right and left are
either in power or hold their sword of Damocles above the heads of weak
governments.
In the old Nordic countries, once regarded by the soft-left as images of
paradise on earth, mass immigration, rising xenophobia, dwindling native
demography and backlash from both left and right have produced an explosive
cocktail that can hardly be regarded as conducive to stability.
Belgium is paying for its decades of stupid sectarian feud between the Flemish
and Walloon communities while discovering to its horror the presence in its
midst of a Muslim immigrant community that won’t simply assimilate.
Looking for stability you won’t find it even in Russia either, though Vladimir
Putin’s continued popularity bolstered by an iron fist and a hand of gold
remains impressive. With oil prices stuck at a low level producing cash flow
problems, Russian middle classes are beginning to worry about their future while
the Kremlin, having spent vast sums on adventures in Georgia, Ukraine and, more
recently, Syria is faced with a plethora of bills pouring in.
What about China? Surely, you might say, we can expect stability there. That may
be partly true. The Communist Party continues to have immense powers, at least
enough to crush any dissent while the People’s Republic still enjoys an annual
economic growth rate that Europeans would die for. And, yet, the whole place is
full of tension in the form of industrial strikes, bankrupts, party in-fighting
and stepped up rhythm and tempo of rural to urban immigration. Not an Epinal
image of stability, in any case.
Staying with the so-called BRICS, once slated to lead the world, Russia and
China are not the only members of the club to be in trouble. Brazil has already
taken the plunge into the unknown by impeaching President Dilma Roussef,
provoking her Workers’ Party and its charismatic leader “Lula” to promise to
prepare “a crushing revenge.” Another member of BRICS, India, appears to enjoy a
measure of brittle stability for the moment, largely thanks to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi who still enjoys a period of grace.
As for South Africa, the presidency of Jacob Zeuma, the most controversial
figure in that country’s post-Apartheid politics is all but over amid amazing
stories of corruption and misconduct.
Elsewhere in Africa, no fewer than 11 civil wars continue at various degrees of
intensity, and the results of some of these are seen in the shape of endless
waves of refugees reaching the Mediterranean shore in Libya.
What about the old Commonwealth countries. Well, Australia and New Zealand seem
to enjoy a measure of stability on the margins of a volcanic world while Canada,
under a new Prime Minister, is still trying to find a way of doing things
differently even if there is no need to do so.
A few stable spots on the world map form an archipelago of exceptions: Holland,
Luxembourg, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and, last but not least, Japan. They are
all exceptions to the rule in their respective regions.
As for the Greater Middle East, the emergence of at least six failed states with
two more heading in that direction gives no promise of stability. The few
nations that remain stable should guard that treasure as carefully as they can.
However, they would be wrong to mistake stagnation for stability. A decade ago
the most fashionable word in the global political lexicon was “change”. Today is
it “stability”. The world realized that change is not always necessarily good.
Do we have to wait another ten years to reach the same conclusion about
stability?
Back home after clashes,
Kurds in Turkey's Sur find only debris
Mahmut Bozarslan/Al-Monitor/May 28/16
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Some tall buildings in Diyarbakir’s ancient district of Sur
serve as observation towers these days. After months of being refugees in their
own city, local residents are finally allowed to return to some neighborhoods
where fierce clashes between Kurdish militants and the security forces raged
earlier this year, leaving the area in unrecognizable shape. Climbing on top of
multistory buildings that survived the clashes, Kurdish civilians are now
anxiously surveying the damage, while many are desperate to spot their homes —
or what remains of them — in areas that remain sealed off, months after the
security crackdown ended in March.
Shortly after the entry ban to some streets was lifted recently, a group of
women climbed the steps of a five-story building, stopping on each floor and
peering into open doors. Some residents were back to collect usable belongings.
The women wished them well, and, moving on, grumbled, “Let Allah punish those
who put us through this.”
Once on top of the building, they were stunned, hardly able to recognize the
place they had lived in for years. Overcoming the initial shock, they joined
others on the roof in an anxious exercise to locate their homes. “Look, that’s
our house,” one of the women said. “No, that’s not it,” another countered, “Your
house was behind the mosque.”
The once narrow streets, where cars were barely able to pass, now looked like
spacious avenues. They were beyond recognition, if it weren’t for some
historical landmarks. The building atop which the people had gathered was just
at the boundary of the still sealed-off zone. Other roofs in the vicinity were
similarly full with people, asking the same question, “What has become of my
house?”
Some, like Firat Dalkiran, painfully discovered that not even wreckage was left
where their homes once stood. Hoping to see his house intact, Dalkiran had
rushed to the area early in the morning, as soon as the ban was lifted. Now he
was gazing at an empty plot, where a piece of a wall was the only trace left
behind from his home. “What we’ve seen here is just ruins. In fact, I couldn’t
locate even the ruins [of my house]. If it weren’t for the school, I wouldn’t
have managed to locate it. Only a wall is left, which I recognized by the
ceramic tiles on it,” Dalkiran told Al-Monitor. “All my belongings are gone. My
uncle — who lived in the same neighborhood — lost everything after spending his
70 years working. He fled in his pajamas, unable to take even his pants.”
Unlike Dalkiran, some were happy to discover their homes were intact. They
excitedly sought help from journalists, asking them to zoom in their cameras on
the buildings. But their joy soon disappeared as they realized the interiors of
their homes were burned.
Muzaffer Cukur, a man in his 50s with hair graying and eyes welling up, silently
looked around. What he was looking for was not a house, but a body — the one of
his niece Rozerin Cukur, who was killed in the clashes in January. The
authorities, who claim the young woman was a militant, say they have been unable
to recover the body. Family members, however, say she had nothing to do with the
militants and are now combing the area, street by street, hoping to find the
body. “We heard from the media last night that some streets are now free to
enter and so we came here to look for the body of our child. We are looking high
and low [but] we’ve found no trace so far,” Cukur told Al-Monitor, as Rozerin’s
father, Mustafa Cukur, joined him in the search.
Historical landmarks in Sur, which was last year added to UNESCO’s World
Heritage List, also suffered their share of destruction. The walls of the
Armenian Catholic church are partially destroyed, while the nearby Haci Hamit
Mosque is missing its minaret, with a dome riddled with bullets. Another
Armenian church, Surp Giragos, had its windows shattered and interior damaged.
Still, those ancient monuments were lucky compared to regular construction in
the area. A building with an intact door was almost impossible to find. The
warring parties had used some buildings as a fighting base, others as places to
rest. The staircases were littered with empty tins; one was also stained with
blood. At the bloodied spot, a piece of paper reading “body #1” was left behind,
suggesting that the security forces had been here for a crime scene report. A
couple seemed relieved they had escaped with relatively little damage, but
grumbled that their apartment was broken into, with the bedroom and closets
rummaged. They claimed it was the security forces who had entered, while their
neighbor showed Al-Monitor a binocular that was left behind.
A flurry of activity was underway in the 14 streets where the entry ban was
lifted on May 22. Residents hurried to collect intact belongings before leaving
Sur for good. One of them, Medine Demir, was able to recover only a pressure
cooker. “I’ll keep it for the rest of my life — as a reminder of these days,”
she told Al-Monitor.
The tensions in Sur began last year after young militants of the Kurdistan
Workers Party opposed state authority, digging trenches in residential areas to
keep the security forces away. Though the ditches were initially filled, the
militants managed to entrench themselves back. Following the Nov. 28 killing of
the local bar association president, Tahir Elci, the authorities imposed a
round-the-clock curfew in the area, setting the stage for lengthy clashes and
forcing thousands of civilians to flee, a scenario that repeated itself in other
regions across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. The scope of the curfews was
at times expanded or scaled back; the security crackdown in Sur ended after 103
days in early March. According to security sources, 71 members of the security
forces and about 200 militants were killed. Some areas are still off-limits to
residents as the security forces continue to comb the terrain and remove rubble.
Is Saudi Arabia bringing sexy
back?
Ibrahim al-Hatlani/Al-Monitor/May 28/16
The Saudi Commission on Public Entertainment announced May 20 it will start
issuing permits for movie theaters to open next year for the first time in four
decades. The idea is getting mixed reviews.
Movie theaters have been banned since the 1970s. Before that, theaters were
always surveilled and often subjected to raids by the Commission for the
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) to make sure movies did not
contain sex scenes. Sometimes Saudis in Jeddah, Riyadh and Taif would
unofficially show Arab, Indian and American movies in fenced-off areas in
exchange for money. But Saudi authorities shut theaters down completely when an
organization called “The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong"
seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979 and declared that the Mahdi,
the redeemer of Islam, had arrived. The siege lasted only two weeks, but the
government subsequently enforced Islamic code more stringently.
The Commission on Public Entertainment is currently working toward opening
comedy clubs in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam and will hold music festivals and
shows. Although the Council of Senior Scholars appointed by the king still bans
singing and music, it has announced its support for the king’s decrees without
dealing with the issue of entertainment, as it hopes to avoid upsetting the king
and his son Mohammed bin Salman.
King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud established the Commission on Public
Entertainment on May 7, at the same time he was issuing several other decrees
that involved a major Cabinet reshuffling and ministry restructuring. The
commission is charged with organizing and developing entertainment activities to
encourage internal tourism, despite the presence of the Saudi Commission for
Tourism and National Heritage, which was established in 2000 to attend to
internal tourism and improve it.
During an April 25 interview on Al-Arabiya channel, Mohammed, who is the defense
minister and head of the Council of Development and Economic Affairs, talked
about his vision of entertainment for Saudi Arabia as a strong investment tool
that will allow the kingdom to reduce its economic reliance on oil by 2030. When
Al-Arabiya asked him what he wants to offer the Saudi people as part of the
entertainment scene, he answered, “In terms of standard of living, the Saudi
level of income is among the best in the world, but the problem is that citizens
do not have many options to spend on entertainment.”
The public entertainment commission's goal of helping Saudis find suitable local
venues in which to spend their money, according to Mohammed’s vision, caught the
interest of Saudis on social media, where it has its own hashtag —
#Entertainment Commission — and has generated mixed reactions. Some journalists
and artists have voiced their support for the commission and believe it will
foster Saudi artistic capacities. Some Saudi economists, such as King Faisal
University economics professor Mohammed Al-Qahtani, think the commission will
provide job opportunities for young people as Saudi tourists spend their money
locally.
But some Saudis expressed their skepticism regarding the effectiveness of such a
commission for several reasons. Citizens’ chronic problems and needs go beyond
their thirst for entertainment. Economic adviser Barjas al-Barjas said Saudis
are far more concerned about housing, health and social care. Islamist academic
Mohammed al-Saidi, responding to claims that local entertainment will reap
billions of dollars that Saudis previously spent abroad, pointed out that
Emiratis spend a lot of money on entertainment abroad, even though they have
plenty in their country.
The Saudi government paved the way for the entertainment commission in April
with a decision that was no less controversial among conservatives: Authorities
cut back the privileges of the CPVPV. The heads or members of the committee’s
centers are no longer allowed to arrest people, chase them, ask for their
documents or check their IDs. These tasks are now restricted to the police. The
decision stated that CPVPV's duties will be limited to monitoring public
attitudes and gently addressing people should it observe any behavioral
irregularities in public places.
The king's Cabinet-reshuffling decisions included another controversial move: to
bring back Sheikh Saad al-Shathri to the High Council of Senior Islamic Scholars
and appoint him adviser to the royal court. Shathri was dismissed from his
position in 2009 following a decree from then-King Abdullah, who was angry at
Shathri’s objection to men and women mingling at social events and to holding
music festivals on the campus of King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology in Jeddah in western Saudi Arabia.
Saudi media outlets, as usual, welcomed the royal court’s recent decisions and
called them huge achievements. They did not, however, give a convincing
explanation to the public for two apparently conflicting decisions.
On one hand, the royal court establishes the Commission on Public Entertainment
and welcomes concerts, movie theaters and entertainment groups where men and
women mingle. On the other hand, the court brings back Shathri to the High
Council of Senior Islamic Scholars, knowing that all the council's members,
including Shathri, forbid music and mingling among men and women.
Shathri has made statements in support of reducing the CPVPV's privileges and
praising Vision 2030, indicating that he has become more understanding of the
new administration’s aspirations in Riyadh — and even more ready to provide
religious justifications to support the kingdom’s decisions.
Sweden Choosing to Lose War against Middle East Antisemitism?
Nima Gholam Ali Pour/Gatestone Institute/May 28, 2016
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8099/sweden-antisemitism
Who invited this "Salafist megastar," who denies the Holocaust and is known for
making anti-Semitic statements, to visit Malmö? What do you do when
anti-Semitism in Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, is so normalized that
children in a public school can endorse a conference with anti-Semitic elements?
Anti-Semitism is such a gigantic problem in Malmö that even senior city
officials cannot understand how it became so normalized. They seem to dismiss it
as part of a non-Swedish culture that, in a multicultural society, must be
tolerated, even accommodated.
If there are children in Swedish public schools today who are promoting an
anti-Semitic conference, what will these children do in the future?
Is Sweden really turning into a country where Jews are no longer welcome,
someday to become a country without Jews? And if that happens, what does that
say about Sweden? And who will come next after the Jews?
Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, is an important, visible part of Sweden. If
you read the Municipality of Malmö's political objectives, which the Municipal
Council of Malmö has endorsed, you will see that "racism, discrimination and
hate crimes do not belong in open Malmö." The reality, however, is different.
Anti-Semitism there has reached bizarre levels -- with politicians and other
policymakers in Sweden doing nothing about it.
On April 30, 2016, the Islamic imam and preacher Salman Al-Ouda, who has been
described in the Swedish media as a "Salafist megastar," visited Malmö. Al-Ouda
apparently inspired Osama bin Laden, has claimed that the Holocaust was a myth,
and is known for making anti-Semitic statements.
The first question anyone should ask is: Who invited such a person to visit
Malmö?
It turned out that it was a politician from the Green Party, currently part of
the Swedish government's ruling coalition, and which also governs in Malmö
locally, together with the Social Democrats.
The second question that anyone should ask is: What kind of reception did Al-Ouda
receive in such a large Swedish city?
Well, Al-Ouda got to speak at one of Malmö's most famous conference facilities,
Amiralen, described on the official website of the Municipality of Malmö as a
part of the city's cultural heritage. Al-Ouda was also invited by the Alhambra
Muslim student association, at Malmö University. In other words, even though
Malmö's policies officially state that racism has no place in Malmö, Al-Ouda, an
anti-Semite, was treated as a diplomat.
On May 6, just a week after Al-Ouda's visit, the fourteenth "Palestinians in
Europe Conference" was held in Malmö. One of the conference's organizers, the
Palestinian Return Centre, has close ties to the Hamas terrorist organization.
The Palestinians in Europe Conference was held at Malmömässan, another famous
conference center in Malmö. When a Swedish pro-Israel organization, Perspektiv
På Israel, sent an email to the CEO of Malmömässan, Lasse Larsson, to warn him
that an anti-Semite was going to speak at his conference center, Larsson
replied:
"We, MalmöMässan, do not take positions on the substance of the matter, but have
entrusted this to our authorities that have given the go-ahead and therefore we
will allow the conference to be conducted."
The problem is that if you allow someone to spread hatred against Jews, you need
to have a clear position. Would he have allowed the hall to be used to spread
hate speech against African-Swedes or homosexuals or women?
In Malmö, when it comes to Middle Eastern anti-Semitism, there is currently no
clear position from any major institution.
When it was revealed that one of the speakers at the Palestinians in Europe
Conference was to be the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrim Said
Sabri, who has also repeatedly made anti-Semitic remarks, an announcement came
that two Swedish Members of Parliament, Hillevi Larsson (Social Democrat) and
Daniel Sestrajcic (Left Party), would also speak at it. This arrangement
appeared to be no coincidence. In October 2015, both of these MPs spoke in Malmö
at a rally in which participants celebrated knife attacks against Jews in
Israel. Additionally, when the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Malmö in
2013, it was Daniel Sestrajcic, then chairman of Malmö's Municipal Cultural
board, who argued that Eurovision should suspend Israel.
After the Perspektiv På Israel organization revealed that Sestrajcic and Larsson
were to participate in the Palestinians in Europe Conference with Sheikh Sabri,
a known anti-Semite, Israel's ambassador to Sweden wrote a critical op-ed for a
major Swedish newspaper -- after which the two MPs cancelled their appearance.
Wait, it gets worse. Prior to the Palestinian conference, a public school class
in Malmö participated in an video advertisement promoting it. The advertisement
was filmed on the premises of the Apelgårdsskolan public elementary school. The
idea that in Sweden a public school openly endorses a Palestinian conference to
which an anti-Semite is invited to speak may also sound bizarre, but that is
exactly what took place.
As this author also happens to be a member of Malmö's school board, it seemed
normal to contact the school's director and the municipal councilor responsible
for primary schools, to report the advertisement. The councilor never responded
-- but the school's director did. The advertising video, he said, was just a
"call to participate in the conference."
What do you do when anti-Semitism in Sweden's third-largest city is so
normalized that children in a public school can endorse a conference with
anti-Semitic elements?
Although the school director's reply was published in the online magazine
Situation Malmö (of which this author is the editor), the media in Malmö was, as
always, silent.
Apelgårdsskolan elementary school in Malmö (left) openly endorsed a conference
to which Sheikh Ekrim Said Sabri, who has repeatedly made anti-Semitic remarks,
was invited to speak. Right: Hillevi Larsson, a Social Democratic MP
representing a district of Malmö, accepted an invitation to speak at the same
conference where Sheikh Sabri was scheduled to speak. Larsson is pictured
showing off a Palestinian flag and a "map of Palestine" in which Israel does not
exist.
The topic of anti-Semitism is so normalized in Malmö that when children are
promoting a conference with anti-Semitic elements, it is not something the media
even writes about. The omission seems part of an editorial policy of
deliberately choosing not to report about Islamic and Palestinian anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism, is, in fact, such a gigantic problem in Malmö that even senior
politicians and officials in the city seem not to understand how it became so
normalized. They seem to dismiss it as part of a non-Swedish culture that, in a
multicultural society, must be tolerated, even accommodated.
It is only in Muslim countries -- and evidently extreme liberal countries such
as Sweden -- that a public school could promote a conference with anti-Semitic
elements without anyone reacting.
That this happens in one of Sweden's largest cities, means that leading
politicians in the country are aware of this rough anti-Semitic wave, but prefer
not to do anything about it.
Some of the reasons for this preference are:
Large-scale immigration from countries where anti-Semitism is normalized.
A strong pro-Palestinian engagement among Swedish politicians that has resulted
in a totally surreal debate about the Israel-Palestine debate, in which Israel
is unjustly demonized.
A desire among political parties in Sweden to win the votes of immigrants.
A Swedish multiculturalism that is so uncritical of foreign cultures that it
cannot differentiate between culture and racism.
A fear of sounding critical of immigration.
Important Swedish institutions, such as the Church of Sweden, legitimizing
anti-Semitism by endorsing the Kairos Palestine document.
Sweden has officially surrendered to the Middle Eastern anti-Semitism.
The period of April-May 2016, and the visits by assorted anti-Semites to Malmö,
show a regrettable pattern. In Sweden in general, and Malmö in particular, there
are too many politicians, senior officials, journalists, heads of schools and
companies that do not distance themselves from anti-Semitism.
Such a condition cannot only be described as bizarre; it is extremely dangerous.
There are Jewish communities in Malmö and elsewhere in Sweden. Jews are one of
Sweden's five recognized minorities. As one of the countries that has joined the
Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities, Sweden has an obligation to stop the normalization of anti-Semitism
in Sweden.
When politicians and senior officials let children in Sweden's third-largest
city endorse a racist conference, with which even the most extreme anti-Israel
Swedish MPs refuse to associate, it is obvious that Sweden wishes to lose its
fight against Middle Eastern anti-Semitism. Allowing schoolchildren to endorse
anti-Semitism deserves nothing but condemnation, whether in Gaza or in Sweden.
We expect this pattern in Sweden of indulging anti-Semitism to be fixed.
If there are children in Swedish public schools today who are promoting an
anti-Semitic conference, what will these children do in the future? In a
European continent where Western values are being challenged by Islamic values
and European security is threatened by Islamic extremists, these children are
being abandoned and being forced into choosing racist values, because Swedish
authorities refuse to say "No" to Middle Eastern anti-Semitism.
The more normalized Middle Eastern anti-Semitism becomes in Sweden, the more you
see Palestinian and other Arabic and Islamic organizations pushing the limits of
how openly they can express it. You start asking yourself, will Sweden someday
become a country without Jews. And if that happens, what does that say about
Sweden? And who will come next after the Jews? To cleanse a country of Jews
through massive Islamic immigration is no better than doing the same thing
through cattle-cars or concentration camps.
Is Sweden really turning into a country where Jews are no longer welcome?
Have the institutions in Sweden really chosen to lose the fight against Middle
Eastern anti-Semitism and to let extremist Islam win?
**Nima Gholam Ali Pour is a member of the board of education in the Swedish city
of Malmö and is engaged in several Swedish think tanks concerned with the Middle
East. He is also editor for the social conservative website Situation Malmö.
Gholam Ali Pour is the author of the Swedish book "Därför är mångkultur
förtryck"("Why multiculturalism is oppression").
Follow Nima Gholam Ali Pour on Twitter and Facebook
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. 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.
Sweden: Is Islam Compatible with Democracy?/Part I of a Series: The Islamization
of Sweden
Ingrid Carlqvist/Gatestone Institute/May 28, 2016
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8129/sweden-islam-democracy
It is not a secret that democracy can be used to abolish democracy.
It may have finally begun to dawn on the people that Swedish Sweden will soon be
lost forever, and in many areas replaced by a Middle Eastern state of affairs,
where different immigrant groups (mainly Muslims) make war on each other as well
as on the Swedes.
According to Dr. Peter Hammond, in his book Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The
Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat, the goal of Islam is not to convert
the whole world, but rather, to establish sharia law all over the world.
There is no country where Islam is dominant that can be considered a democracy
with freedom of speech and equal justice under law.
In Sweden’s last census in which citizens were asked about their religious
beliefs, in 1930, fifteen people said that they were Muslims. Since 1975, when
Sweden started its transformation from a homogenous, Swedish country into a
multicultural and multi-religious one, the number of Muslims has exploded. Now,
approximately one million Muslims live here — Sunni, Shia and Ahmadiyya from all
the corners of the world — and Mosques are built and planned all over the
country.
No one, however, seems to have asked the crucial question upon which Sweden’s
future depends: Is Islam compatible with democracy?
The Swedish establishment has not grasped that Islam is more than a private
religion, and therefore it dismisses all questions about Islam with the argument
that Sweden has freedom of religion.
Two facts point to Islam not being compatible with democracy. First, there is no
country where Islam is dominant that can be considered a democracy with freedom
of speech and equal justice under law. Some point to Malaysia and Indonesia —
two countries where flogging and other corporal punishments are meted out, for
example, to women showing too much hair or skin, as well as to anyone who makes
fun of, questions or criticizes Islam. Others point to Turkey as an example of
an “Islamic democracy” — a country which routinely imprisons journalists,
political dissidents and random people thought to have “offended” President
Erdogan, “Islam” or “the nation.”
Second, Muslims in Europe vote collectively. In France, 93% of Muslims voted for
the current president, François Hollande, in 2012. In Sweden, the Social
Democrats reported that 75% of Swedish Muslims voted for them in the general
election of 2006; and studies show that the “red-green” bloc gets 80-90% of the
Muslim vote.
It is no secret that democracy can be used to abolish democracy — yet, this
crucial issue is completely taboo in Sweden. Politicians, authorities and
journalists all see Islam as just another religion. They seem to have no clue
that Islam is also a political ideology, a justice system (sharia) and a
specific culture that has rules for virtually everything in a person’s life: how
to dress; who your friends should be; which foot should go first when you enter
the bathroom. Granted, not all Muslims follow all these rules, but that does not
change the fact that Islam aspires to control every aspect of human life — the
very definition of a totalitarian ideology.
While the establishment closes its eyes to the problems that come with a rapidly
growing Muslim population in Sweden, ordinary Swedes seem to be growing
increasingly upset. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, however, appears to be at a
complete loss as to why this is. He recently told the British newspaper,
Financial Times:
“But the more surreal thing is that all the numbers are going in the right
direction, but the picture the public have is that the country is now going in
the wrong direction. It’s not only a question about if they are afraid of the
refugee crisis; it’s as if everything is going in the wrong direction.”
This comment says a lot about how disconnected Prime Minister Löfven is from the
reality that ordinary Swedes are facing. The mainstream media withhold
information about most of the violence that goes on in, and around, the asylum
houses in the country, and it is not very likely that Stefan Löfven reads the
alternative media sites; he and others in power have, in unison, dubbed them
“hate sites.” He obviously has no idea about the anger and despair many Swedes
are now feeling. It may have finally begun to dawn on them that Swedish Sweden
will soon be lost forever, and in many areas replaced by a Middle Eastern state
of affairs where different immigrant groups (mainly Muslims) make war on each
other as well as on the Swedes.
The people suffering most cruelly in the “New Sweden” are the elderly. The costs
of immigration borne by the welfare state have led to a quarter of a million
retirees living below the EU poverty line. Meanwhile, the government recently
added another 30 billion kronor (about $3.6 billion) to the migration budget.
The 70 billion kronor ($8.4 billion) Sweden will spend on asylum seekers in 2016
is more than what the entire police force and justice system cost, more than
national defense costs, and twice the amount of child benefits.
Sweden’s 9.5 million residents are thus forced to spend 70 billion kronor on
letting citizens of other countries come in. In comparison, the United States,
with its 320 million residents, spent $1.56 billion on refugees in 2015. The
editorial columnist PM Nilsson commented in the business paper, Dagens Industri:
“To understand the scope of the increase in spending, a historic look back can
be worthwhile. When the right bloc came to power in 2006, the cost was 8 billion
[kronor] a year. In 2014, it had gone up to 24 billion. That summer, then
Minister of Finance Anders Borg talked about the increase being the most
dramatic shift in the state budget he had ever seen. The year after, 2015, the
cost rose to 35 billion, and in 2016, it is projected to rise to 70 billion.”
For many years, the politicians managed to fool the Swedish people into thinking
that even if immigration presented an initial cost, the immigrants would soon
enable the country to turn a profit. Now, more and more research indicates that
the asylum seeker immigrants rarely or never find work. The daily newspaper
Sydsvenskan reported in February, for example, that 64% of Malmö’s immigrants
are still unemployed after living in Sweden for ten years. The government openly
calculates in its budget that in four years, 980,000 people will be living on
either sickness benefits, disability pensions, unemployment benefits,
“introduction benefits” or social welfare.
Swedes, who for many years have paid the highest taxes in the world without
whining, are now taking to social media to express their anger that their money
is going to citizens of other countries. More and more Swedes are choosing to
emigrate from Sweden, mainly to the other Nordic countries, but also to Spain,
Portugal and Great Britain, where taxes on pensions are considerably less.
But there are worse problems than the economic aspect. A sense of insecurity and
fear has gripped the many Swedes who live close to asylum houses. On some level,
the government seems to have grasped that danger: in a recent decision to
continue maintaining border controls, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman wrote:
“The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och
beredskap), MSB, makes the assessment that the flow of migrants still brings
challenges to upholding security in society, when it comes to the ability to
maintain certain important public functions, among other things. Several of
these challenges are expected to persist over time. The Police Authority’s
assessment is still that a serious threat to public order and internal security
exists. The Immigration Service still advocates border controls.”
Despite these ominous words, politicians still do not seem to understand that
many Swedes are already experiencing “a serious threat to public order and
internal security.” New asylum houses are opening at an alarming pace, against
the will of the people living near them. In the Stockholm suburb of
Spånga-Tensta, on April 15, local authorities held a public meeting, the purpose
of which was to allow local residents to ask the politicians and officials
questions about planned housing for 600 migrants — next to a school. The
meeting, which was filmed, showed a riotous mood among those gathered there,
many shouting that they were going to fight “until their last breath” to keep
the plans from materializing.
Some of the comments and questions were:
“We have seen how many problems there have been at other asylum houses –
stabbings, rapes and harassment. How can you guarantee the safety for us
citizens? This is going to create a sense of us against them, it’s going to
create hate! Why these large houses, why not small ones with ten people in each?
Why haven’t you asked us, the people who live here, if we want this? How will
you make this safe for us?”
“We already have problems at the existing asylum houses. It’s irresponsible of
you to create a situation where we put our own and our children’s health in
jeopardy, with people who are not feeling well and are in the wrong environment.
Why is this house right next to a school? What is your analysis?”
“Will Swedes be allowed to live in these houses? Our young people have nowhere
to live. You politicians should solve the housing issue for the people already
living here, not for all the people in the world.”
When the chairman of the meeting, Green Party representative Awad Hersi, of
Somali descent, thanked the audience for the questions without giving any
answers, the mood approached that of a lynch mob. People shouted: “Answer!
Answer our questions! We demand answers!”
Everything points to the so far docile Swedes now having had enough of the
irresponsible immigration policy that has been going on for many years, under
socialist and conservative governments alike.
People are furious at the wave of rapes that have given Sweden the
second-highest rate of rape in the world, after only Lesotho, and that recently
forced the Östersund police to issue a warning to women and girls not to go
outside alone after dark. People are scared: the number of murders and
manslaughters has soared. During the first three months of this year alone,
there have been 40 murders and 57 attempted murders, according to statistics
compiled by the journalist Elisabeth Höglund.
The authorities have long claimed that lethal violence in Sweden is on the
decline, but that is compared to a record-breaking year, 1989, when mass
immigration to Sweden was already in full swing. If one instead were to compare
the present to the 1950s and 1960s, when Sweden was still a homogenous country,
the number of murders and manslaughters has doubled. Recently, the Swedish
National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet), BRÅ, had to
admit that lethal violence did, in fact, increase in 2015, when 112 people were
killed — 25 more than the year before. It was also revealed that the kind of
lethal violence that has gone down was run-of-the-mill drunken homicides
committed by Swedes, while the number of gangster-style hits carried out by
immigrants has gone up dramatically. Improved trauma care for wounded victims
also helps keep the number of murders and manslaughters down.
A recent poll showed that 53% of Swedes now think immigration is the most
important issue facing the country. The change from 2015 is dramatic — last
year, only 27% said that immigration was most important. Another poll showed
that 70% of Swedes feel that the amount of immigration to Sweden is too high.
This is the fourth year in a row that skepticism about the magnitude of
immigration has increased.
More and more people also seem to worry about the future of Sweden as a
democracy with an increasing number of Muslims — through continued immigration
as well as Muslim women having significantly more children than Swedish women
do.
As statistics on religious beliefs are no longer kept, no one knows exactly how
many Muslims are in Sweden. Last year, a poll showed that Swedes believe 17% of
the population is Muslim, while the actual number, according to the polling
institute Ipsos Mori, may be more like 5%. The company does not account for how
it arrived at this number, and it is in all likelihood much too low. Ipsos Mori
probably counted how many members Muslim congregations and organizations have,
but as Islam is also a culture, and the country is equally affected by the
Muslims who do not actively practice their faith, yet live according to Islamic
culture.
In 2012, the Swedish alternative newspaper, Dispatch International, calculated
how many Muslims were registered residents of Sweden at that time, based on the
Swedish name registry. The number the paper arrived at was 574,000, plus or
minus 20,000. For obvious reasons, illegals and asylum seekers were not
included. The actual number may therefore have been much higher.
Since then, close to 300,000 people have sought asylum in Sweden. Not all of
them have had their applications approved, but despite that, very few actually
leave Sweden. The Immigration Service told Gatestone Institute that only 9,700
people were deported last year. Most asylum seekers are Muslim, which means that
the number of Muslims in Sweden is fast approaching one million, or 10% of the
population.
In his book Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary
Threat, published in 2005, Dr. Peter Hammond describes what has always happened
throughout history when the number of Muslims in a country increases. Admittedly
generalities, Hammond outlines the following:
As long as the Muslims make up about 1%, they are generally considered a
peace-loving minority who do not bother anyone.
At 2-3%, some start proselytizing to other minorities and disgruntled groups,
especially in prison and among street gangs.
At 5%, Muslims have an unreasonably large influence relative to their share of
the population. Many demand halal slaughtered meat, and have been pushing the
food industry to produce and sell it. They have also started to work toward the
government giving them autonomy under sharia law. Hammond writes that the goal
of Islam is not to convert the whole world, but rather, to establish sharia law
all over the world.
When Muslims reach 10%, historically, lawlessness increases. Some start to
complain about their situation, start riots and car fires, and threaten people
they feel insult Islam.
At 20%, violent riots erupt, jihadi militia groups are formed, people are
murdered, and churches and synagogues are set ablaze.
When the Muslims reach 40% of the population, there are widespread massacres,
constant terror attacks and militia warfare.
At 60%, there is the possibility of uninhibited persecution of non-Muslims,
sporadic ethnic cleansing, possible genocide, implementation of sharia law and
jizya (the tax for “protection” that unbelievers must pay).
When there are 80% Muslims in the country, they have taken control of the
government apparatus and are, as in, for instance, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Iraq, committing violence in the name of Islam or political power.
When 100% are Muslims, the peace in the house of Islam is supposed to come —
hence the claim that Islam is the “religion of peace.”
Hammond also writes that in many countries, such as France, Belgium, Great
Britain and Sweden, most of the Muslim population lives in Islamic enclaves —
and apparently prefer not to be assimilated into a Western society. This
detachment strengthens the group internally, allowing them to exercise greater
power than their share of the population might indicate.
Hammond’s description of the 10%-limit accurately describes Sweden. In the
so-called exclusion areas, there are car torchings every day, and riots occur in
the cities. (To name but a few examples, there were serious riots in Malmö 2008,
Gothenburg 2009, Stockholm 2013, and Norrköping and Växjö 2015.) Sometimes, the
unrest starts after a local Muslim has been arrested or shot by the police.
Muslim leaders then immediately say they sympathize with their people’s
reaction. During the Husby riots in 2013, Rami Al-Khamisi of the youth
organization “Megafonen” wrote: “We can see why people are reacting this way.”The artist Lars Vilks, who drew the Muslim prophet Muhammed as a roundabout dog,
has been the target of several assassination attempts, and now lives under
round-the-clock police protection.
Yet, almost no one in Sweden is willing to speak of these problems and how it
all fits together. For months, Gatestone Institute has called politicians, civil
servants, organizations and various minority groups, to ask how they feel about
Islam in Sweden. Do they think Islam is compatible with democracy, freedom of
speech and legal equality — and if so, in what way or what way not?
The questions seemed to provoke anger as well as fear. Some of the people we
called said they were angry at the mere questions, but assured the callers that
Islam poses no problem whatsoever for Sweden. Others appeared frightened and
refused to answer altogether. In the hopes of getting at least some honest
answers, we presented ourselves as ordinary, concerned Swedes. Countless people
hung up the phone, and in general, many answers pointed to an abysmal ignorance
about what Islam is, what consequences the Islamization of a country might have,
or how much trouble Sweden really is in. The country appears totally unprepared
for what lies ahead.
Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished
Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.
Follow Ingrid Carlqvist on Twitter
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