LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

September 05/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today

The Parable Of the Samaritan who helped an Injured & abandoned Assaulted man, while a Priest & A Levite did not do so
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10/25-37/:"Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, "Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend."Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’'

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandment
Letter to the Romans 13/08-14/:"Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 04-05/16

Is Dr. Geagea Going To Sign A “Paper Of Understanding” With Hezbollah?/Elias Bejjani/September 04/16
Geagea reiterates call to elect Aoun as president/Joseph A. Kechichian/ Gulf News/September 04/16
Conventionality is a tool of Lebanese politicians/Mohamed Kawas/The Arab Weekly/September 04/16
Egyptian president said to be frustrated over al-Azhar/Mona Kamal/The Arab Weekly/September 04/16
Al-Azhar mosque: A Muslim centre of soft power/Mohamed Zainhe/The Arab Weekly/September 04/16
Lebanon’s speaker, Berri, shows his true colors/Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor//Al Arabiya/September 04/16
Does Saudi Arabia need relations with Israel?/Jamal Khashoggi//Al Arabiya/September 04/16
Church Attacks: Love Alone Will Not Save Us/George Igler/Gatestone Institute/September 04/16
Calling Trump names won't stop him becoming US President/Simon Heffer Simon Heffer/Telegraph/04 September/16
Maryam Rajavi's speech in the seminar of Iranian communities in Europe/NCRI/04 September/16
Europe Debates the Burkini/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 04/16
Three takeaways from the Hangzhou G20 Summit/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya//Al Arabiya/September 04/16
The WhatsApp dinner party/Turki Aldakhil//September 04/16/September 04/16

New guide to support teachers in creating an inclusive and compassionate classroom for Muslim students/Canadian Human Rights Commission/September 04/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 04-05/16

Is Dr. Geagea Going To Sign A “Paper Of Understanding” With Hezbollah?
Geagea reiterates call to elect Aoun as president
Geagea Urges Aoun for President, Hariri for PM, Says Lack of 'Partnership' Can't Continue
Report: Washington Still Sees Hizbullah 'Terrorist Organization'
Fadlallah: Stable Security Beholden to 'Resistance'
Qahwaji Says Gulf States Provided Much for Lebanon, Refuses Interference in Their Affairs
Report: Security Measures Upped, Jumblat Receives Assassination Threats
Rifi cables Cabinet, Interior Minister requesting expulsion of Syrian ambassador and dissolving Arab Democratic Party
Zaiter from Germany: Vacancy in leading security posts unacceptable
Abou Faour : FPM ministers’ should reconsider their decision in boycotting cabinet
Pharaoun for agreeing on package deal: presidential elections, new electoral law and consent on oil file
Kobeissi in favour of dialogue to elect president, parliament and form a government
Mikati: Foreign initiatives are no substitute for inter Lebanese agreement
Conventionality is a tool of Lebanese politicians
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 04-05/16

Pope Francis Proclaims Teresa a Saint
U.S. Says no Syria Deal, Blames Russian Backtracking
Syrian troops advance near Aleppo in attempt to impose siege
UK PM May: Government to set out progress on Brexit this week
Britain, Russia hope to improve strained relations
Israeli tank fire targets Hamas post in response to shooting
Obama: US will help bring Turkey coup plotters to justice
Turkish warplanes pound 10 PKK targets overnight
U.S. Will Help Bring Turkey Coup Plotters to Justice
Paris: Seminar of representatives of Iranian communities in Europe
Philippines seeks three over deadly blast
 

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on September 04-05/16
Prisons: jihadi training camps
Iran produces film showing Iranians destroying US aircraft carriers
UK: Yorkshire Ripper converts to Islam to get protection, favorable treatment in prison
Germany: Muslim migrants sexually assault women during rampage at party
UK journo: Syrian kidnapper who shot me twice is now a CIA-vetted “moderate”
How Google’s search engines use faked results to manipulate people’s views of jihad
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson addresses ISNA, Muslim group linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood
Prisons: jihadi training camps

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 04-05/16

Is Dr. Geagea Going To Sign A “Paper Of Understanding” With Hezbollah?
هل يوقع د.جعجع ورقة تفاهم مع حزب الله؟
Elias Bejjani/September 04/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/04/elias-bejjaniis-dr-geagea-going-to-sign-a-paper-of-understanding-with-hezbollah%D9%87%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%AF-%D8%AC%D8%B9%D8%AC%D8%B9-%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%81/
Really, I can’t understand what Dr. Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces Party (LF) is doing and for what?
There is No logic, No comprehensible rational, or any kind of heroism at all in the sudden shocking derailing from his deeply rooted resistance past to the adaption of pro Hezbollah stances within a very short time.
The man and against all odds took a 180 degree deviation track, and is strongly and openly supporting the Lebanese Iranian puppet and Trojan, MP. Micheal Aoun for the Presidency post that has been vacant for more than two years because of Hezbollah’s intimidation, Iran’s occupational -expansionism agenda, and anti-constitutional stances.
Yesterday Dr. Samir Geagea loudly and fiercely called on the Lebanese members of parliament to immediately elect MP. Micheal Aoun as a president, and bizarrely alleged that this election will be a salvation means for Lebanon.
For heavens sake how could the pro-Iranian Aoun save Lebanon when he himself is an Iranian hostage, puppet, and a mere anti-Lebanese robatic tool.
Aoun has been for the past 11 years against Lebanon’s independence, freedom, sovereignty, democracy, common living, existence, history, identity and not honouring all the Maronite historical national convictions?
Politically, Geagea is committing suicide and at the same solidifying the Iranian occupation and hegemony for nothing in return at all, neither for himself as a politician, not for our people, or for Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty.
MP. Micheal Aoun in 11 years after signing the humiliating “Paper of understanding” with Hezbollah has got nothing from this Iranian terrorist military and denominational proxy in spite of all the cowardice succumbing that he offered.
In the same context, Aoun’s past in reality and practicality is totally ashamed of his present as well as from his future.. and definitely Geagea’s harvest from his pro Iranian coup against himself , against his strong patriotic image, and against his past will not be any different no matter what.
The question is, where Lebanon is heading to after Geagea’s surrender?
Personally, I feel so sad and extremely disappointed, because Dr. Samir Geagea who is well known to be a man of faith, hope and principles is totally replicating the Syrian-Iranian deadly Micheal Aoun’s deviation that took place in year 2006 in the aftermath of the “Paper Of Understanding” that he signed with Hezbollah.
In conclusion, Sadly, all what Dr. Geagea needs to become another Aoun is signing a “Paper Of understanding” with Hezbollah, and quite Frankly I will not be surprised if this happens, although I pray that such a deadly sin shall not occur.

Geagea reiterates call to elect Aoun as president
Joseph A. Kechichian/ Gulf News/September 04/16
In a surprise move in January Geagea backed arch-rival Aoun for the post despite wanting the seat for himself
Beirut: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has reiterated his call to elect Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun for president.
The seat has been vacant since Michel Sulaiman’s term ended in May 2014. Political currents in the country related to the war in Syria has contributed to the duration of the vacancy.
On Saturday, Geagea called on all parliamentary blocs to support his nomination.
In a thinly-veiled call to Iran-backed Hezbollah he said “especially the blocs that are allied with Aoun”.
He also reiterated his call for Sa’ad Hariri to be elected as Prime Minister.
The two had a fall-out over Hariri’s proposal to elect Sulaiman Franjieh to the post of president, but Geagea later said that the LF alliance with Hariri’s Future Party remained strong.
Both Geagea and Aoun have been battling it out for the post, but in a surprise move in January the former announced his formal backing of his arch-rival.
Aoun is supported by Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian March 8 allies for the presidency, while Geagea had been the official candidate for the March 14 coalition, including both the LF and Future parties.
Observers believe Iran, through its Hezbollah proxy, wants to keep the Lebanese state weak and has no interest in electing a president.
Geagea’s surprise backing of Aoun, was viewed by many as a way to test Hezbollah’s sincerity in electing a president since his backing would ensure quorum in the parliament.
But since January, Hezbollah has been mum over its reasons to keep the seat vacant.
On Saturday, Geagea also stressed the importance of Muslim-Christian partnership.
“I want to remind everyone that just as partnership without sovereignty has no meaning, sovereignty without partnership also has no meaning and the situation that was created by the era of [Syrian] hegemony over Lebanon must come to an end.”
His comments were addressed to Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law who has been under fire recently for suppressing internal dissent against him within the FPM party.
Bassil attended an FPM dinner in the Koura (North Lebanon) on Saturday, vowing to “destroy” what he called the “corrupt structure” that ruled the country between 1990 and 2005.
“The 1990-2005 era was based on marginalising and eliminating a part of Lebanese society ... The Syrians withdrew from Lebanon and ended their hegemony, but it was replaced by the Four-Party Coalition, which extended Syria’s dominance for an additional period before eventually collapsing,” he said, focusing his ire on Sunnis—and especially assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s Future Movement.
Geagea offered a more reserved statement on parliamentary elections scheduled for the spring of 2017.
He said holding them without a new electoral law or the absence of a president would “achieve nothing.”
Geagea concluded, although without mentioning Hezbollah by name, that the party was disinterested in the rise of a real republic in Lebanon based on the equation ‘a strong republic means a weak party and weak republic means a strong party’.

Geagea Urges Aoun for President, Hariri for PM, Says Lack of 'Partnership' Can't Continue
Naharnet/September 04/16/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed Saturday that the only solution to the country's long-running presidential void crisis is the election of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun as president and the re-designation of al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri as premier. “The first practical step that is needed to overcome our current crisis is neither the national dialogue table that we have long tried nor the package deal that we have long searched for without managing to find it,” said Geagea at an LF-organized rally commemorating “the martyrs of the Lebanese resistance” in Maarab. “The needed practical step is the election of a president,” Geagea added, noting that the presidential election is being obstructed by “local and foreign parties and for declared and undeclared reasons.”The so-called undeclared reasons are “topped by some parties' disinterest in the rise of a real republic in Lebanon based on the equation 'a strong republic means a weak party and a weak republic means a strong party,'” the LF leader said, apparently referring to Hizbullah. “The only practical solution to hold the presidential elections is supporting General Aoun's presidential nomination. Some might have questions regarding General Aoun's platform, alliances or performance, but let them give us feasible alternatives,” Geagea went on to say. “The solution lies in the election of General Aoun as president and the designation of our ally Saad Hariri as prime minister,” he underlined. Geagea expressing support for the FPM's latest political rhetoric on Muslim-Christian partnership, Geagea added: “I want to remind everyone that the same as partnership without sovereignty has no meaning, sovereignty without partnership also has no meaning and the situation that was created by the era of (Syrian) hegemony over Lebanon must come to an end.” “For all these reasons, I call on all parliamentary blocs, especially the blocs that are allied with General Aoun, to support his nomination, practically and not verbally, away from all maneuvers and ploys, and away from all sensitivities and narrow calculations. This is the only way that can allow us to hold presidential elections,” the LF chief said. He also cautioned that parliamentary elections without a new electoral law would achieve nothing. Such a vote “would practically be a term extension for the current parliament and all its problems -- in terms of representation and everything else,” Geagea warned.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Report: Washington Still Sees Hizbullah 'Terrorist Organization'
Naharnet/September 04/16/Washington emphasized that the United States will continue to regard Hizbullah as a terrorist organization and will continue to tighten surveillance and sanctions against its institutions and members, the Saudi Okaz daily reported on Sunday. “U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon had stressed during meetings with Lebanese officials that the U.S. will not back down from regarding Hizbullah as a terrorist organization and tightening surveillance and sanctions against its institutions and members,” well-informed sources in Beirut told the daily. They added that Shannon had stressed the U.S. position as for Hizbullah during his visit to Beirut in addition to “the US administration's support for Lebanese banks mainly the Central Bank with regard to the threats it has been subject to and the pressure it faced, and to support the Lebanese army in its war against terrorism.”The Arab League, United States, France, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands,and Israel have classified Hizbullah as a terrorist organization. In December 2015, the U.S. Congress voted to impose sanctions on banks that deal with Hizbullah. In May, Lebanon's central bank instructed the country's banks and financial institutions to comply with the new measure against the Lebanese Shiite group. Hizbullah has fiercely criticized the law and accused central bank governor Riad Salameh of "yielding" to Washington's demands. The sources added: “Lebanese officials concluded after their meetings with Shannon that the U.S. administration has no intention of launching any initiative with regard to Lebanon's presidential impasse, which heralds the possibility that Lebanon's crisis will prolong until a new U.S. president is elected.”Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, and MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum.

Fadlallah: Stable Security Beholden to 'Resistance'
Naharnet/September 04/16/Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Hassan Fadlallah said on Sunday that Lebanon is enjoying a stable security situation because of the protective “umbrella” of the Resistance in its fight against Israel and terrorism, the state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday. “The country today is in dire crisis at all levels, and the State is in a stage of fatigued constitutional and administrative institutions despite the efforts exerted by the security agencies to keep Lebanon a safe place. That's why the current stable security situation is beholden to the protective umbrella provided by the Resistance through fighting the Israeli enemy during the July 2006 war, and fighting to prevent the takfiri project from stretching out to Syria and Lebanon,” added Fadlallah. “We need an internal equation that protects political, social, financial and economic stability,” he added. The MP stressed the need for bold stances to help the country out of its impasse, he said: “In light of the difficult circumstances that our country is witnessing, we need to undertake brave decisions and bold steps. “What are some Lebanese parties waiting for to help solve the internal Lebanese crisis? Starting with the problem of the presidency and the convention of the parliament. Are they waiting for the U.S elections to end or waiting for the war in Yemen to end?” he asked. “Why are they constantly telling the Lebanese to let time pass because there is no possibility of a solution at the time being, why don't we take some serious, responsible and national initiatives to address our problems, why are some waiting for solutions to come by plane?” he continued to say. Fadlallah concluded and warned: “If we leave things for the time factor to solve or bet on the changes (in the region) we would then be increasing the deterioration of the State and destroying its structure which will collapse upon the heads of all.”

Qahwaji Says Gulf States Provided Much for Lebanon, Refuses Interference in Their Affairs
Naharnet/September 04/16/Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed keenness to maintain good relations with the Gulf countries as he urged Lebanese expats working in the Gulf states not to engage in political affairs of the hosting country, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Sunday. “Qahwaji reiterated eagerness to keep the best relations with the Arab Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar, which are hosting thousands of Lebanese as he reminded of their offering to Lebanon during its time of crises,” visitors to Qahwaji quoted him as saying. “We do not want to boycott (relations) anyone, nor do we want to intervene in the affairs of anyone. I have called on the Lebanese expats working in the Gulf countries not to engage in political affairs of the hosting states. People of the gulf, mainly people of Kuwait, consider Lebanon their second home. We are aware of the magnitude of emotion they have for Lebanon and its stability and the Lebanese have the same feelings towards them,” the visitors added quoting the Army Commander. On the Egyptian initiative towards Lebanon, they conveyed Qahwaji's satisfaction with the role played by Egypt towards Lebanon. They highlighted the latest visit of the Egyptian Foreign Minister to Lebanon, Sameh Shoukri, and said that Qahwaji expects the visit's outcome to be up to the expectations by virtue of Cairo's continued contacts with Damascus and other regional states which could reflect positively on Lebanon's stability.

Report: Security Measures Upped, Jumblat Receives Assassination Threats
Naharnet/September 04/16/Assassination threats against Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat emerged lately and the security measures were upped around his place of residence in Beirut, ministerial sources told Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday. “The security team of head of the Democratic Gathering bloc leader Jumblat has intensified the measures near his place of residence in Beirut after reports that his name is on a list of assassinations to be carried out by the Islamic State group,” the source told the daily. “The information turned out to be serious threats against Jumblat. It carries a message that he is in the danger circle once again,” added the source. Other sources close to Jumblat said “precautionary measures were taken near Jumblat's residence in the area of Clemenceau.” A pro-Iranian newspapers affiliated to the Syrian regime leaked the news and said that the Islamic state group has called for the assassination of Jumblat, the daily reported. The leaked info triggered concerns among the PSP leader and his Druze community, it added.
 

Rifi cables Cabinet, Interior Minister requesting expulsion of Syrian ambassador and dissolving Arab Democratic Party
Sun 04 Sep 2016/NNA - Resigned Justice Minister, Ashraf Rifi, cabled on Sunday the government, asking officially for the expulsion of the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon and lodging a complaint before the United Nations against the Syrian regime for evidence of involvement of the Syrian intelligence services in the bombing of Taqwa and Salam mosques and attempts at creating sectarian strife and chaos in Lebanon. Rifi also cabled Interior and Municipalities Minister, Nouhad Machnouk, calling for the dissolution of the Arab Democratic Party involved in above mentioned crime by ensuring refuge to perpetrators. He also requested the dissolution of the Islamic Tawheed Movement, headed by Hashem Minkara, for the same reasons.

Zaiter from Germany: Vacancy in leading security posts unacceptable
Sun 04 Sep 2016/NNA - Minister of Public Works and Transportation said during a ceremony in Germany, commemorating the absence of Imam Moussa Sadr, that vacancies in top security posts is unacceptable due to the critical situation the country and region are passing through. Zaiter addressed Amal supporters in Germany, assuring them that head of Amal Movement, Speaker Nabih Berri, was carrying on the legacy of Sadr. He described the latter as a "nation in one man.""Berri stands by the legacy of Imam Sadr in order to protect Lebanon from tempests raging through the region," said the Minister, "he sponsors dialogue tables...and calls for meeting Constitutional deadlines in all empty posts, with the categorical refusal of keeping any leading security post empty."

Abou Faour : FPM ministers’ should reconsider their decision in boycotting cabinet
Sun 04 Sep 2016/NNA - Public Health minister Wael Abou Faour, said that Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) ministers’ should reconsider their decision in boycotting the cabinet. Abou Faour’s stance came during a ceremony held in honor of Al Manara school students’ in west Bekaa. He added that former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, was a national need for all Lebanese, even for his political opponents.

Pharaoun for agreeing on package deal: presidential elections, new electoral law and consent on oil file
Sun 04 Sep 2016/NNA - "It is necessary to agree on a package deal that begins with the election of a new president, approve a new electoral law and then reach consensus over oil file," Tourism Minister, Michel Pharaoun said on Sunday. The Minister added that the pact in Lebanon exists but its misapplication leads to strained relations between Lebanese counterparts, especially when it comes to important Constitutional deadlines such as presidential elections and agreement on a new law for legislative elections. Pharaoun called for postponing upcoming cabinet sessions if the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) continued to boycott the next sessions. He noted that applying the pact starts by agreeing on neutralizing Lebanon from regional conflicts, and the pact's principles are based on closing and demarcating the Lebanese-Syrian border as well as benefiting from Hezbollah by agreeing on a defensive strategy and by applying UN Resolution 1901. Pharaoun warned against strife on the backdrop of provoking the public to take to the streets under the slogan of "sectarian interests" adding that dialogue alone could be the key solution to decrease tension. Commenting on the extension of the mandate of General Kahwaji, Pharaoun considered the decision taken as the best in the wake of current political crisis because it would preserve stability and security in the country. "The FPM-Lebanese Forces (LF) now have more impact than ever before on Christian opinion especially in the presidential elections' file after their reconciliation," he concluded.

Kobeissi in favour of dialogue to elect president, parliament and form a government
Sun 04 Sep 2016/NNA - Member of Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc, MP Hani Kobeissi, said on Sunday that the importance of internal dialogue resides in ensuring the election of a President and a Parliament as well establishing a new government.  The MP, who spoke during a ceremony in southern Lebanon, said it was not enough to wait for diktats from abroad to resolve political crises. He recalled that his political party, including Amal movement and Hezbollah, was committed to dialogue leading to national unity and then the election of a president to be followed by the establishment of a government and agreement on a new electoral law.

Mikati: Foreign initiatives are no substitute for inter Lebanese agreement
Sun 04 Sep 2016/NNA - Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday that Arab and foreign initiatives are not a substitute for the agreement among the Lebanese. Mikati, who spoke during the graduation ceremony of students of the Arab University of Beirut, Tripoli branch, explained that the choice between being subordinate to foreign powers, and stubbornness on the local scene were vain. In his words, it was necessary to anchor genuine cooperation between Lebanese parties on the basis of trust to manage public affairs and deal with crises in the country. MP Mikati did not fail to mention the indictment issued by the Judiciary in the case of the attack on two mosques in Tripoli, noting that he never interfered in the work of judicial power, but that he expected it to do justice and punish the perpetrators in question. "The judiciary assumes national and moral responsibility to find criminals and bring them to court. These criminals, and whatever faction they belonged to, targeted believers in places of worship," he added. Mikati concluded that Tripoli protected Lebanon from discord in the attacks, a fact that should push the state to do justice by the city and to its martyrs.

Conventionality is a tool of Lebanese politicians
Mohamed Kawas/The Arab Weekly/September 04/16
Too much reliance on conventionality obstacles deepen social divisions to levels reminiscent of civil war times.
BEIRUT - Conventionality has been part of Lebanon’s political system since the country’s independence in 1943. It refers to the political elite’s commitment to a convention that established a social and political contract among the Lebanese — some sort of an unwritten spirit of the constitution. At conventionali­ty’s heart lies veneration of partner­ship among Lebanon’s sects, espe­cially in matters not clearly covered by the written constitution. Lebanon has 18 religious confes­sions represented in parliament. The constitution does not provide for a confessional distribution of key government posts. The Leba­nese have conventionally agreed that the president should be Chris­tian Maronite, the parliament speaker Shia Muslim and the prime minister Sunni Muslim. The convention also stipulates that the army’s commander be selected from among Christian Maronite officers. Despite the civil war (1975-90) and the 1989 agree­ment in the Saudi city of Taif on constitutional reforms that ended the war — including amendments to the prerogatives of the president, the cabinet and parliament — the Lebanese stuck to their conventions about the division of power. The constitution says that parlia­ment’s 128 seats should be evenly divided between Muslims and Christians; this is understood to in­clude all constitutional institutions. Late prime minister Rafik Hariri, a key powerbroker in the Taif accord, always said; “We stopped count­ing.” With this, he underscored that power should always be shared evenly between Muslims and Chris­tians despite Muslims outnumber­ing Christians. Calls in 2012 by Hezbollah Secre­tary-General Sayyed Hassan Nas­rallah for a constituent congress to rewrite the constitution and agree on a new political system have been widely interpreted as an attempt to replace the Muslim-Christian 50-50 division with a partition in thirds among Christians, Sunnis and Shias. The Free Patriot Movement, led by Michel Aoun (the official head is Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law), spearheads a campaign against the Lebanese cab­inet; it froze its ministers’ participa­tion in cabinet meetings in protest attempts to extend the term of the army’s commander, General Jean Kahwaji. Prime Minister Tammam Salam insisted on having a cabinet meeting on August 25th, holding up his prerogatives as the one who sets the dates of the meetings and de­cides their agendas.
The Christian Phalange Party, led by Member of Parliament Sami Ge­mayel, withdrew its ministers from the cabinet in June. Labour Minister Sejaan Azzi, a Phalange Party mem­ber, rejected Gemayel’s orders and stayed in his post; he was ejected from the party. The Lebanese Forces Party, led by Samir Geagea, refused to take part in the cabinet. Some in­dependent Christian ministers did not attend the meeting in a show of solidarity with their Aounist coun­terparts. Aounists say Christian minis­ters who attended the meeting are poorly representative of Christian voters; hence, the cabinet meet­ing lost its conventionality. This triggered a verbal dispute between Aounist and independent Christian ministers. A key part in this disa­greement was the minister of State for the Affairs of Displaced People, Alice Shabtini, an ally of former president Michel Suleiman, whose term expired in May 2014, and par­liament has since failed to elect a successor. With the president’s post vacant, the cabinet as a whole as­sumes his powers, according to the constitution.
The Shia Amal-Hezbollah alliance pulled its ministers out of prime minister Fouad Siniora’s cabinet in November 2006 in protest against the cabinet’s measures to establish an international tribunal to look into Hariri’s assassination in 2005. The two parties, with the most Shia representatives in parliament, said their absence stripped the cabinet of conventionality. Nabih Berri, par­liament’s speaker since 1992 and Amal’s leader since 1980, has re­fused to present draft laws prepared by Siniora’s cabinet for ratification by parliament on lack of conven­tionality claims.
Obviously, conventionality has become a tool by political forces to hinder decisions they deem un­savoury once legal and constitu­tional hindrances fail. Too much reliance on conventionality ob­stacles deepen social divisions to levels reminiscent of the civil war times, observers say, arguing that such non-constitutional hindrances amount to stirring primitive confes­sional bigotries. Legal experts warn that such an approach may become a habit eve­ry time a confession feels uneasy about a certain matter. This would introduce interruptions to the cabi­net, which has been generally un­productive since Suleiman stepped down and political forces failed to elect a successor. The presidential vacuum is a major assault to con­ventionality taking into considera­tion that Lebanon is the only Arab country led by a Christian presi­dent. The Aounists’ insistence that Aoun be elected president although he does not have enough votes in parliament puts a spoke into the wheel of conventionality, the ex­perts said. The observers warned that Salam may retaliate to the most recent Aounist campaign against the cabinet by stepping down, a move that would undermine the ex­ecutive authority. Any convention­ality whims would prove useless in such an eventuality.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 04-05/16

Pope Francis Proclaims Teresa a Saint
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 04/16/Pope Francis on Sunday proclaimed Mother Teresa a saint, hailing her work with the destitute of Kolkata as a beacon for mankind and testimony of God's compassion for the poor. The revered nun's elevation to Roman Catholicism's celestial pantheon came in a canonization mass in St Peter's square presided over by Pope Francis in the presence of 100,000 pilgrims. "For the honor of the Blessed Trinity... we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) to be a Saint and we enroll her among the Saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church," the pontiff said in Latin. Francis said that even though the nun had been declared a saint, she would always be Mother Teresa to the Catholic family. Echoing his own vision of a "poor church for the poor", the pope described Teresa's work as "eloquent witness to God's closeness to the poorest of the poor."To applause, he added: "Mother Teresa loved to say, 'perhaps I don't speak their language but I can smile'. "Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer." Francis also used his sermon to recall Teresa's fervent opposition to abortion, which she termed "murder by the mother" in a controversial Nobel Peace prize speech in 1979.- Pizza for the poor -The ceremony came a day before the 19th anniversary of Teresa's death in Kolkata, the Indian city where Teresa spent nearly four decades working in wretched slums. With the 16th century basilica of St Peter's and an azure sky providing the backdrop, the faithful basked in the late summer sun as Francis presided over a ritual mass that has barely changed for centuries. Such was the demand from pilgrims, the Vatican could easily have issued double the number of tickets but for space and security restrictions. Helicopters had buzzed overhead earlier, testifying to a huge security operation. Some 3,000 officers were on duty to ensure the day passed off peacefully for the pilgrims and scores of dignitaries from around the world. Among the crowd were some 1,500 people who are helped by the Italian branches of Teresa's order, the Missionaries of Charity. After the mass they were to be Francis's guests at the Vatican for a giant pizza lunch served by 250 sisters and 50 male members of the order. Teresa spent all her adult life in India, first teaching, then tending to the dying poor. It was in the latter role, at the head of her now worldwide order that Teresa became one of the most famous women on the planet. Born to Kosovan Albanian parents in Skopje -- then part of the Ottoman empire, now the capital of Macedonia -- she won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize and was revered around the world as a beacon for the Christian values of self-sacrifice and charity. But she was also regarded with scorn by secular critics who accused her of being more concerned with evangelism than with improving the lot of the poor. - Disputed legacy -The debate over Teresa's legacy has continued after her death, with researchers uncovering financial irregularities in the running of her order and evidence mounting of patient neglect, insalubrious conditions and questionable conversions of the vulnerable in her missions. By historical standards, Teresa has been fast-tracked to sainthood. John Paul II was a personal friend and as the pope at the time of her death, he was responsible for her being beatified in 2003. Achieving sainthood requires the Vatican to approve accounts of two miracles occurring as a result of prayers for Teresa's intercession. The first one, ratified in 2002, was of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, who says she recovered from ovarian cancer a year after Teresa's death -- something local health officials have put down to medical advances rather than the power of prayer. In the second, approved last year, Brazilian Marcilio Haddad Andrino says his wife's prayers to Teresa led to brain tumors disappearing. Eight years later, Andrino and his wife Fernanda were in the congregation on Sunday. Also in the crowd at St Peter's was Teresa Burley, an Italy-based American teacher of children with learning difficulties, who said the new saint inspired her vocation. "I remember growing up admiring the things she did for children and the poor," she told AFP. "We need to remember we are here to help each other. We need to be here for those who can't help themselves."Many Indians have made the trip to Rome, among them Abraham, an expatriate living in London, who said Teresa's life had set a unique example to the world. "She practiced Christianity. The majority of Christians only spend their time talking about it," he said.

U.S. Says no Syria Deal, Blames Russian Backtracking
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 04/16/The U.S. said Sunday it had not yet struck a hoped-for deal with Russia on stemming the violence in Syria's brutal civil war, blaming Moscow for backtracking on issues it thought were settled. President Barack Obama said earlier that the two sides were "working around the clock" on the sidelines of a summit in China, but that it was "a very complicated piece of business." The State Department said a deal was close and could be announced by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, but hours later admitted defeat for now. "Russians walked back on some of the areas we thought we were agreed on, so we are going back to capitals to consult," a senior State Department official said. Kerry and Lavrov will meet again on Monday in Hangzhou, where G20 leaders are gathered, he added. Moscow and Washington support opposite sides in the Syrian conflict, which erupted in March 2011 after President Bashar al-Assad unleashed a brutal crackdown against a pro-democracy revolt. Successive rounds of international negotiations have failed to end a five-year conflict that has left more than 290,000 people dead and forced millions to flee, a key contributor to migrant flows into Europe. Russia is one of Assad's most important international backers while the U.S. supports Syria's main opposition alliance and some rebels, with other countries and forces also involved. "Trying to corral all of those different forces into a coherent structure for negotiations is difficult," Obama said Sunday. "But our conversations with the Russians are key." - Fears for Aleppo -The U.S. and Russia co-chair a UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, which has been struggling to ensure access for desperately needed aid across the country. The battered second city Aleppo, which is divided between government and opposition control but surrounded by loyalist forces, has emerged as a major concern with urgent calls for a ceasefire to alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe. The talks in Hangzhou are the latest round of diplomacy on Syria, after marathon negotiations between Kerry and Lavrov in Geneva last week failed to yield a final deal. Kerry then listed two main priorities to ensure any new ceasefire holds: responding to violations by the Damascus regime and checking the rising influence of the former al-Nusra Front. That group has renamed itself Fateh al-Sham Front after renouncing its status as al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, but Kerry stressed that "Nusra is al-Qaeda, and no name change by Nusra hides what Nusra really is and what it tries to do". Earlier truces have rapidly deteriorated, and Obama warned Sunday that the US was approaching the talks "with some scepticism"."But it is worth trying," he said. "To the extent that there are children and women and innocent civilians who can get food and medical supplies and get some relief from the constant terror of bombings, that's worth the effort."

Syrian troops advance near Aleppo in attempt to impose siege
The Associated Press, Beirut Sunday, 4 September 2016/Syrian state media and an opposition activist group are reporting that government forces are advancing near the northern city of Aleppo in an attempt to impose a siege on rebel-held parts of the city. Sunday’s push comes a month after insurgent groups captured several military academies south of Aleppo and opened a corridor into rebel-held parts of Syria’s largest city and former commercial center. Since then government forces and their allies have been trying to recapture the area.State news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops have captured the Armament Academy and are “continuing their advance in the area to impose almost a total siege on the gunmen in Aleppo.”The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that government troops captured the academy.

UK PM May: Government to set out progress on Brexit this week
Reuters, London Sunday, 4 September 2016/The British government will set out next week the work it has done so far on preparing to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Since taking office in July, May and her Brexit minister David Davis have given little detail about what Britain’s future relationship with the EU will look like, saying only they want it to involve curbs on immigration and a good deal on trade.
“He (Davis) will be making a statement to parliament this week about the work that the government has been doing over the summer and obviously how we are going to take that forward in shaping the sort of relationship we want with the EU,” May told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show ahead of the G20 summit in China. May has been clear she will not trigger Article 50, the formal process of leaving the bloc, this year but said the government would not delay getting on with Brexit. “I am very clear also that the British people also don’t want the issue of Article 50 just being kicked into the long grass,” she said.

Britain, Russia hope to improve strained relations
Reuters, Hangzhou, China Sunday, 4 September 2016/Britain and Russia said on Sunday they hope to improve their relations through dialogue following the first meeting between new British Prime Minister Theresa May and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Relations between London and Moscow have been strained by differences over Ukraine and Syria in addition to Britain’s complaint that flights by long-range Russian bombers near British air space have increased. May said she hoped for an open dialogue with Russia even though the two countries have serious differences, speaking at the start of a meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Hangzhou city in China. “While I recognize there will be some differences between us, there are some complex and serious areas of concern and issues to discuss, I hope we will be able to have a frank and open relationship and dialogue,” May said. Putin, in apparent reference to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, told May that “everyone understands that you and your team are facing difficult challenges”. “We wish you success and hope that we will be able to bring our bilateral relations to a higher level than they are at today,” he said. The discussion between Britain and Russia touched on issues including terrorism, Syria, security and drug trafficking, Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev said following the meeting. “They have searched for common grounds on where the dialogue could be resumed,” Ulyukayev said. In a telephone conversation last month, Putin and May agreed to meet to improve poor relations, expressing dissatisfaction about the state of ties, the Kremlin said at the time.

Israeli tank fire targets Hamas post in response to shooting
AFP, Jerusalem Sunday, 4 September 2016/Israeli tank fire targeted a Hamas post on the Gaza Strip border overnight after gunfire at Israeli forces in the area, with no injuries reported, officials said Sunday. Palestinian security sources in Gaza run by Islamist movement Hamas, confirmed the post in the northern Gaza Strip in the Beit Lahia area had been targeted and said no one was hurt. Israel’s army said it responded with tank fire after its forces were targeted by gunfire along the border between the Palestinian enclave and Israel. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008 and there are frequent flare-ups along the border.Israel regularly responds to rocket fire from militants in Gaza with air strikes. Last month, it carried out dozens of strikes in Gaza in response to rocket fire, a far larger response than usual. Some analysts questioned whether the response was the result of a new approach by hardline Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who took office in May.

Obama: US will help bring Turkey coup plotters to justice
AFP, Hangzhou, China Sunday, 4 September 2016/The United States is committed to bringing the perpetrators of the attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to justice, President Barack Obama said Sunday. Ankara accuses US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the July uprising. At talks with Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Obama said: “We will make sure that those who carried out these activities are brought to justice.”Tensions between the two NATO allies have risen sharply since the failed coup attempt against Erdogan on July 15, with Ankara launching a wide-ranging crackdown and demanding that the US extradite Gulen. An exiled former imam living in the eastern state of Pennsylvania, Gulen strongly denies any involvement with the bid to overthrow Erdogan. The dispute has soured public perceptions of the United States in Turkey and risks undermining a deep security relationship. US officials insist they will extradite Gulen if Turkey can present proof he was actually involved. The meeting in Hangzhou was the two leaders’ first face-to-face encounter since the coup attempt. Obama said the US was committed to “investigating and bringing the perpetrators of these illegal actions to justice” and assured Erdogan of American cooperation with Turkish authorities. Since July, Ankara has detained, removed, or arrested tens of thousands of people within the judiciary, military, education system and police force for alleged links to Gulen’s movement or the coup itself. US-Turkey tensions have also been strained by Turkey’s bombing of Kurdish militia positions in northern Syria.The targets included Kurdish groups that are backed by Washington and seen by it as integral to the fight against ISIS.
Ankara accuses them of being in league with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militia group which has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks inside Turkey.

Turkish warplanes pound 10 PKK targets overnight
Reuters, Istanbul Sunday, 4 September 2016/Turkish warplanes hit 10 Kurdish militant targets in Turkey’s southeast and east overnight, the state-run Anadolu Agency said on Sunday, citing security sources. The air strikes capped one of the most violent single days of fighting in the largely Kurdish southeast in recent years. The military has said that more than 100 militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were either killed or injured in clashes on Saturday. Turkey’s southeast has been rocked by waves of violence following the collapse last year of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the state and the autonomy-seeking PKK. Fighter jets pounded four PKK targets in the Cukurca district of the southeastern Hakkari province on Saturday evening, Anadolu said, citing the security sources. Six more positions were bombed in the region between the eastern Agri and Van provinces shortly after midnight, it said. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died since it started its insurgency more than three decades ago.

U.S. Will Help Bring Turkey Coup Plotters to Justice
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 04/16/The United States is committed to bringing the perpetrators of the attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to justice, President Barack Obama said Sunday. Ankara accuses U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the July uprising. At talks with Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Obama said: "We will make sure that those who carried out these activities are brought to justice." Tensions between the two NATO allies have risen sharply since the failed coup attempt against Erdogan on July 15, with Ankara launching a wide-ranging crackdown and demanding that the U.S. extradite Gulen. An exiled former imam living in the eastern state of Pennsylvania, Gulen strongly denies any involvement with the bid to overthrow Erdogan. The dispute has soured public perceptions of the United States in Turkey and risks undermining a deep security relationship. U.S. officials insist they will extradite Gulen if Turkey can present proof he was actually involved. The meeting in Hangzhou was the two leaders' first face-to-face encounter since the coup attempt. Obama said the U.S. was committed to "investigating and bringing the perpetrators of these illegal actions to justice" and assured Erdogan of American cooperation with Turkish authorities. Since July, Ankara has detained, removed, or arrested tens of thousands of people within the judiciary, military, education system and police force for alleged links to Gulen's movement or the coup itself. U.S.-Turkey tensions have also been strained by Turkey's bombing of Kurdish positions in northern Syria. The targets included Kurdish groups that are backed by Washington and seen by it as integral to the fight against the Islamic State group. Ankara accuses them of being in league with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group which has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks inside Turkey.

Paris: Seminar of representatives of Iranian communities in Europe
NCRI/Sunday, 04 September 2016/
Edward Rendell: There is only one way that freedom will come to the people of Iran, and that's with regime change
Bernard Kouchner: A special tribunal to prosecute the mullahs for their crimes
The first day of the seminar of the Iranian communities in Europe was held on Saturday, September 3, 2016, at the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Auvers-sur-Oise. A number of international dignitaries participated and addressed the seminar. Ed Rendell, Chairman of the Democratic National Convention in July 2016 and former Governor of Pennsylvania noted the horrifying massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and said: "What could be more galling than to hear that Iran's current Minister of Justice was a member of the Death Commission in 1988?” He said this shows how moderate, Rouhani's cabinet is and a regime with such a minister needs to be prosecuted. The former leader of the US Democratic Party added, "There is so much in common between what the MEK (PMOI) have fought for and what the original American patriots fought for... These people are standing up for an ideal." He reiterated, "There is only one way that freedom will come to the people of Iran, and that is with regime change." Dr. Bernard Kouchner, former Foreign Minister of France, also said, "I ask myself what the human rights defenders were doing at the time (of the 1988 massacre)?" He called for a "special tribunal to prosecute the mullahs for their crimes."Dr. Kouchner added: "The massacres did not take place only in 1988. Iran continues to have the highest execution rate per capita. The executions have even increased after the nuclear deal."Mr. Struan Stevenson, President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association and former member of the European Parliament, told the seminar: "What has happened about the 30,000 who were massacred in 1988? Nothing from the West at all. If the United Nations is to retain one ounce of credibility they must take this up at the UN Human Rights Council this month in Geneva. It must be a key item on the agenda. It must go before the UN Security Council. The perpetrators and murderers must be held to account; they must be brought to justice." The Iranian Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi was the keynote speaker at this seminar. She called on the international community and western governments to put the leaders of the Iranian regime on trial for their crimes against humanity in Iran, particularly the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. She also demanded that all relations with the Iranian regime be made contingent on halt to death penalties. Underlining that the movement to bring justice to the 30,000 political prisoners massacred in 1988 is part of the campaign to overthrow the Iranian regime, she urged all the people of Iran to rise in support and solidarity to expand the movement.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/September 3, 2016

Philippines seeks three over deadly blast
By AFP, Davao, Philippines Sunday, 4 September 2016/Philippines police Sunday were searching for three people wanted for questioning over the bombing of a night market in President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown blamed on an Islamic militant group. The blast, which tore through a bustling market in the heart of Davao city on Friday, killed at least 14 people and led to the president imposing a “state of lawlessness” in the country. The head of Davao police on Sunday described how a man was seen leaving a bag with the bomb inside at the market while being followed by two women. Police are searching for the three - and possibly a fourth person - over the bombing, which has been widely blamed on the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group. Senior Superintendent Michael John Dubria told reporters the man had gone for a massage in the market and left the bag in that area. “We believe the improvised explosive device exploded when the person left,” he said, adding that the two women had been following the man. Another person may have detonated the device with a cellphone, he suggested. He would not say who was behind the blast but said the bomb, using a mortar shell, was similar to those used by “threat groups” in the troubled central region of Mindanao. There are several Muslim outlaw groups in that area, including separatist guerrillas but the Abu Sayyaf are based elsewhere, in the southern islands of Jolo and Basilan. Davao is the hometown of President Rodrigo Duterte, who had recently ordered an offensive against the Abu Sayyaf. He has said that the explosion was in retaliation for the military operation against the group in their stronghold in Jolo.However Chief Inspector Andrea De la Cerna, spokeswoman of a task force investigating the explosion, said they were not ruling out other motives for the attack. “We have copies of the CCTV (closed-circuit television), we have eight possible witnesses but we have named no one (as suspects),” she told AFP. Duterte believes the attack was “80 percent” likely an act of terrorism, his spokesman, Martin Andanar told reporters on Sunday. After the bombing, Duterte declared a national “state of lawlessness”, which his security adviser said gave the military extra powers to conduct law enforcement operations normally done only by the police. The military is continuing to press an offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo following a clash on August 29 that left 15 soldiers dead. However military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said that the Abu Sayyaf has since been avoiding any confrontation.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on September 04-05/16

Egyptian president said to be frustrated over al-Azhar
Mona Kamal/The Arab Weekly/September 04/16
Observers say failure of al- Azhar to initiate requested reforms, inability of presidency to replace grand imam of al- Azhar will create friction.
Cairo - There is frustration in the Egyptian presidency at the failure of al-Azhar — the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning — to re­form the curricula of its schools, changing education methods of its preachers and detaching Islam from extremism, sources close to the presidency said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fat­tah al-Sisi called on al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb to create reforms and rid curricula taught to tens of thousands of al- Azhar students of material that could lead to extremism.
The president’s requests were not being taken seriously by al-Azhar, observers said.
“One of the reasons this is hap­pening is that al-Azhar is controlled by the very people who encourage extremist thinking,” said Sayed al- Qemni, a writer who has criticised al-Azhar. “Nothing good will come out of al-Azhar under its current leadership.”
Government sources, who re­quested anonymity, said an early August meeting between Sisi and Tayeb was a “last chance” for the grand imam to initiate reforms en­visaged by the president.
Sisi, the sources added, views al-Azhar as an international seat of learning that has the responsibil­ity to stem extremism, correct mis­understandings of Islam and turn religious discourse into a tool for peace, not for bloodshed.
His vision is in response to the eruption of what has been de­scribed as an “extremist tsunami” in which there is a misunderstand­ing of Islam.
Egypt has been battling an Islam­ist insurgency in the Sinai peninsu­la. There militants, who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), call Egyptian Army troops “infidels” and Sisi an “apostate”.
In January 2015, Sisi told Tayeb that correcting wrong religious ide­as and purifying religious thinking of extremist thoughts were part of his mission.
“I will complain to God against you [if you do not carry out this mission],” Sisi said.
Sisi has called for a religious revo­lution.
Frustration at al-Azhar is appar­ently growing within the cabinet. “Nothing has been done since the president called for renewing reli­gious discourse,” Culture Minister Helmi al-Namnam said August 25th at a conference in Alexandria.
The presidency has a list of meas­ures to reform al-Azhar and a num­ber of radical clerics — thought to be standing in the way of reform — who must be replaced, sources said.
Sisi does not have the authority to replace al-Azhar’s grand imam, who is usually selected from mem­bers of the Islamic Research Acad­emy, the highest intellectual body within al-Azhar. Members of the academy nominate one of their number to lead al-Azhar. The nomi­nation must be approved by the president but the president cannot sack the imam once the nomination is accepted.
Tayeb, 70 and described by some academics as a “walking Islamic encyclopaedia”, was nominated as grand imam in 2010 when Hosni Mubarak was president. Islamist president Muhammad Morsi tried to replace Tayeb with a loyalist.
Observers say the failure of al- Azhar to initiate requested reforms and the inability of the presidency to replace the grand imam of al- Azhar will create friction.
“The fact is that al-Azhar, as it stands now, is not qualified to ini­tiate reforms and any calls in this regard will be sabotaged by its lead­ers,” liberal writer Tarek Heggy said, “but the sure thing is that President Sisi will not get tired of demanding this reform.”
Al-Azhar matters in any interna­tional effort to neutralise radicals and fight extremism because it is the one entity that produces thou­sands of preachers every year. Tens of thousands of foreign students study at al-Azhar, giving it great international leverage. A change within al-Azhar can reverberate in Islamic circles around the world, observers say.
This change is under way, ac­cording to Mohamed Mehanna, an adviser to the grand imam of al- Azhar. He said it has established a new academy, which will soon start training preachers.
“President Sisi supports al-Azhar and the role it plays in renewing re­ligious discourse,” Mehanna said. “Reports about the president’s frus­tration at al-Azhar have nothing to do with the reality.”

Al-Azhar mosque: A Muslim centre of soft power
Mohamed Zainhe/The Arab Weekly/September 04/16
Hosting thousands of foreign students, Al-Azhar university is at forefront of drive to defend moderate Islam against international wave of extremism.
General view of al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. Cairo - There is continuing de­bate over the role which Al-Azhar mosque, built more than 1,000 years ago, could be playing in­side and outside Egypt. Al-Azhar university — believed to be the oldest Islamic one in the world — hosts thousands of foreign students and is at the forefront of a drive to defend moderate Islam against an international wave of ex­tremism. “Al-Azhar has been a centre of knowledge for hundreds of millions of Muslims through the years and throughout the world,” said Azmi Megahid, a professor of Islamic civilisation at al-Azhar university. “Now, as extremists kill people in the name of Islam, al-Azhar is mov­ing to show that Islam has nothing to do with extremism and that it came to spread peace and love in the world.” Inside Egypt, the mosque, which was probably named after Fatimah al-Zahra, one of Prophet Moham­mad’s daughters, was at the heart of political, religious and social ac­tion for hundreds of years.
Its scholars renewed Islamic thought, advised Muslims on day-to-day affairs, travelled across Egypt to illuminate believers on the tolerant nature of the Islamic reli­gion and acted to defy despots who sometimes ruled the country. Al-Azhar’s influence weakened in the decades before Egypt’s 2011 revolution but after the upris­ing it again came to the forefront of events. Its imam sanctioned the ouster of Islamist president Muhammad Morsi in 2013. The mosque sends clerics to stop occa­sional flare-ups of sectarian strife in Egypt. It also legally acts to silence critics, although much to the cha­grin of free speech campaigners.
Al-Azhar was built in two years, starting from 971, the year when the city of Cairo began to be con­structed. The mosque is insepara­ble from its university, which was established as a school of theology in 988. The school started as an Is­maili Shia one but later became a Sunni school and remains so.
It is considered by the vast ma­jority of Sunni Muslims as the most prestigious school of Islamic law. Al-Azhar, which maintains a com­mittee of certified scholars to judge individual Islamic questions, a press for printing the Quran, trains preachers to speak about Islam.
“This mosque was built to be a change-maker in the life of the people of this country,” said Sheikh Hassan Mustafa, a scholar at al- Azhar. “It first oversaw the change of faith of the people from Shia to Sunni and now it seeks to drive the people away from radicalism to moderation, which is at the heart of Islam as a religion.”
The mosque is a grand structure that houses centuries of architec­tural styles. Its entrance is through the 15th-century Barber’s Gate, where students used to have their heads shaved and which leads into a courtyard that dates to the tenth century. It is overlooked by three stately minarets.
The latticework-screened resi­dential quarters of the schools on the right side date to the Mamluk period. Al-Azhar university’s library, which was consolidated in 1897, is said to include 99,062 books and 595,668 volumes of precious manu­scripts, some as old as the eighth century. About 100,000 students, including foreign ones, study at al- Azhar university. The style of education at the uni­versity remained relatively infor­mal for much of its early history. At the beginning, there were no entrance requirements, no formal curriculum and no degrees. The ba­sic programme of studies was — and still is — Islamic law, theology and the Arabic language. The university teaches a full cur­riculum of modern courses, such as medicine, languages, pharmacol­ogy, engineering, sciences, media and agriculture. Al-Azhar mosque has undergone many renovations, restorations and additions but most of those are said to have destroyed much of the mosque’s original character. The oldest part of the mosque is said to be its original prayer hall, which is made of five aisles parallel to the old Qibla wall with the cen­tral nave cutting through them in the middle, running from the court in the west to the wall in the east.
Wael al-Roubi, a 33-year-old law­yer from the northern coastal city of Alexandria, travelled to Cairo to pray at al-Azhar. “It is really worth the pains of the journey,” Roubi said. “It is a won­derful place where history and faith are intertwined in a unique man­ner.”

Lebanon’s speaker, Berri, shows his true colors

Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor//Al Arabiya/September 04/16
Nabih Berri, head of Lebanon’s primarily Shiite Amal Movement who has served as Parliamentary Speaker since 1992, has finally confirmed what many Lebanese have long suspected. Rather than a senior official representing all religious sects and a respected mediator between Iran’s radical proxy Hezbollah and the 14 March /Future Movement, he seems to have indelibly stamped Hezbollah’s flag on his forehead.
His speech, delivered before a crowd of thousands on Wednesday August 31 marking the disappearance of one of Amal’s founders Imam Musa Al Sadr and his companions in Libya 38 years ago, included the obligatory muscle-flexing against Israel and was so one-sided it could almost have been penned by Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
While blaming Libya’s late leader Muammar Qaddafi for “the worst type of abduction,” Berri expressed the belief that Sadr, born in the Iranian city of Qom in 1928, is still alive. It seems he was creating a crowd-pleasing scenario to give the mesmerised hope that someday their founder will pop up sporting a beard down to his knees.
A host of conspiracy theories whirl around the cleric’s disappearance, each more farfetched than the other. In 2008, Lebanon indicted Qaddafi but Libya denied the accusations asserting Sadr and his delegation left the country on a plane to Rome while suggesting he may have been the victim of a Shiite power struggle. That sounds more plausible than the idea that 88-year-old Sadr is in hiding or imprisoned or that Qaddafi had him killed over theological differences of opinion. Qaddafi was quirky but in my mind he was no Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s supreme leader who reportedly thinks nothing of executing officials for the crime of slouching in their chair. The Libyan leader had no motive. Amal should research closer to home to find out who benefited from their former chief’s vanishing.
Concerning
Of far more concern to me is Berri’s endorsement of Hezbollah’s call for a new political system based on proportional representation spelling an end to the Taif Agreement mandating seats in Parliament divided equally between Christians and Muslims while increasing the powers of the Sunni prime minister over those of the Maronite president.
Lebanon is politically stagnated and is still without a president due to Hezbollah’s insistence on Michel Aoun, the former head of the March 8 spearhead, the Free Patriotic Movement that signed a memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah.
I have long argued that Lebanon should dump its antiquated confessional system bequeathed by the French occupiers and in most countries on the planet – especially those without sectarian issues – proportional representation giving political parties seats in parliament in proportion to the popular vote, is workable. But the very real danger for Lebanese Sunnis, Christians and Druze is overall the entire country, Hezbollah and its political allies could potentially collect more than half the votes correspondingly garnering over 50 per cent of parliamentary seats.
I feel deeply sorry for the Lebanese people and worry for the fate of their homeland, a country that grabbed my heart during my first ever visit in the early 1970s
“Proportional representation is the cure for our national diseases and it is the vehicle by which we can be transported to citizenship rather than isolation and bigotry,” he said. What he seems to mean is that handing control to Hezbollah, Amal and their allies would silence opposing voices. His eagerness for proportional representation contradicts his 2014 commitment. “Power-sharing between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon would not change under any circumstance,” he assured the Lebanese then, claiming to speak on behalf of Shiites, Sunnis and Druze. Another troubling aspect of Berri’s impassioned speech was his implied threat to destabilise his fragile country if things do not go his way. “Let us stop political absurdity...In the face of forces that are continuing their coup against the political life,” he said, adding, “We will resort to the power of the people, if needed.” The forces” he refers to are the political parties that object to an Aoun presidency and the question remains what he means by “the power of the people” as opposed to people’s decision which could be interpreted as a referendum.
Opaque
The phrase is not transparent. Is he talking about legitimate street protests or twisting arms using armed Shiite militias? If the latter, he is raising the spectre of civil war, the last thing Lebanon needs when such divisions in surrounding countries have amounted to an open invitation for ISIS and other terrorist fanatics to step-in. Berri’s threats to Israel will not leave its Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu shivering in his shoes but the topic needed to be brought up as an entree for his recommitment to what he calls his country’s ‘Diamond formula’ – the adherence to army-people-resistance. “Disarming the resistance before eliminating Israel’s threat is a heresy,” he said, which basically means never. Israel is not going anywhere soon and as long as Lebanon remains under the control of an Iranian-backed armed entity, peace is unlikely to occur during anyone’s lifetime.
Hezbollah and Amal have allegedly become one and, if reports are to be believed, Berri and Nasrallah share the booty on behalf of Tehran. In July, Berri urged Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to “rectify” their relations with Iran which he termed an economic necessity.
Riyadh has behaved appropriately. In April, the controversial Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr who heads two militias was in Beirut meeting with Nasrallah.
Now, according to the Lebanese National News Agency, Muqtada Al Sadr flew to Beirut on Wednesday, a visit that coincides with that of a high-level Houthi delegation which, a few days ago, has been in Baghdad lobbying Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has recognised them as “representatives of Yemen.”
An unconfirmed report claims Al Sadr and the Houthi delegation accompanied by members of Iraq’s Hashd Al Sha’abi militias are meeting with Nasrallah in South Lebanon. It is evident that Lebanon is an Iranian hub for Shiite criminals who have launched a war against Sunnis.
When Iranian government officials have been heaping insults upon Saudi and boast of Iran’s domination of Arab capitals, including Beirut, there will be no GCC-Iranian detente unless and until the ayatollahs begin behaving like good neighbours rather than aggressors.
Earlier this year, Mr Berri was elected by colleagues in the Arab Parliament – founded within the Arab League to give voice to ordinary Arab citizens – to serve a three-year term as the Parliament’s President. He does not deserve to hold that post since his allegiances lie not with Arabs but with Iranians.
In June, commentator Emile Khouri wrote: “Iran is continuing with its plan to cause a complete political vacuum in Yemen” to paralyse the state so that it is ripe for Hezbollah’s takeover; he may well be right on that score and it appears Berri is oiling the way.
‎Now that Berri seems to have wrapped himself in the Hezbolah/Iranian flag, I believe it is time for the GCC to designate this individual as ‘persona non-grata.’
I feel deeply sorry for the Lebanese people and worry for the fate of their homeland, a country that grabbed my heart during my first ever visit in the early 1970s. Until its people find a way to wrest it from Iran’s clutches, the dark clouds preventing its blossoming politically, economically, diplomatically and socially will continue to obscure its tomorrows.
For me, who once spent wonderful summers in Lebanon, believed in its people, celebrated their successes and did not hesitate to invest in their future, this is one of the saddest realities of my life!

Does Saudi Arabia need relations with Israel?
Jamal Khashoggi//Al Arabiya/September 04/16
Saudi Arabia does not need any relation or normalization with Israel. Interest in the Palestinian cause is declining, so the issue of establishing ties with Israel should also decline.
The top Saudi priorities are economic reforms, and facing security threats represented by Iranian expansion and the collapse of neighboring countries. Israel has no direct role in these issues, and should not take part in them.
The voluntary visit of a retired Saudi major general to Israel was followed by articles in a mainstream Saudi newspaper about the supposed benefits of normalization and relations with Israel. International newspapers and research centers then focused on this issue, to the extent that some even see a looming breakthrough in bilateral ties. Other newspapers have spread rumors of meetings that did not take place between senior Israeli and Saudi officials.
As Israeli diplomats have said, Saudi Arabia refrains from establishing any ties with Israel. To do so, the kingdom would have to put aside its Islamic symbolism and status as guarantor of the two holy mosques, as well as its history, its previous positions stressing the restoration of Palestinian and Arab rights, and its firm rejection of any meetings or formalities with Israeli officials or embassies. How would this benefit the kingdom?
I expect people to say Israel will support Riyadh with economic reforms and security threats, due to its alleged influence from Moscow to Washington, and will finally make concessions to the Palestinians to encourage normalization.
The worst thing Riyadh could do in terms of its public relations in the Muslim world is be allied with Israel against Iran. That would be the long-awaited gift Tehran is waiting for
However, Israel cannot offer any help with economic reforms. Whatever the kingdom needs is accessible without its help. If we presume that we need to buy an advanced Israeli device to accomplish a strategic Saudi project, there are a thousand third parties that are ready to buy the device and re-export it to us.
Security
Israel cannot do much regarding security threats. It would be a burden while we establish Muslim and Arab alliances. The worst thing Riyadh could do in terms of its public relations in the Muslim world is be allied with Israel against Iran. That would be the long-awaited gift Tehran is waiting for.
What could Israel offer in Yemen or Syria to support Saudi Arabia? Would it stand with Salafist Islamist groups in Syria and provide them with anti-aircraft weapons, knowing that they are an exact copy of its main rival Hamas? Can it provide anything that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar cannot?
Saudi Arabia is leading the coalition in Yemen, and does not need more assistance or support. It could end the battle militarily if it was not for complex political calculations and the lives of Yemeni civilians. Saudi Arabia and the international community are trying to find a peaceful solution, though the kingdom can end the war if the latest diplomatic efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry fail. In both cases, there is no need for Israel.
It is strong in intelligence, but it is impossible for it to have data in Yemen that Saudi Arabia is unaware of, and are worth normalizing relations with Israel for. This also applies to Syria, where Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Qatar have tremendous intelligence sources. There is also an international “circle” that shares intelligence data, including the United States, European countries, Saudi Arabia and its allies.
Influence
Israeli influence is exaggerated. Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East Project, which focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, agrees, saying: “There is a strong feeling, not only among Arabs but also in China, that Israel has a strong influence in decision-making circles in capitals like Washington and London. It is an exaggerated issue and it is not wise to rely on it outside Israel’s direct interests. Israel is only defending and protecting its interests.”
When Israel recruited international politicians to stop Iran’s nuclear project, it was concerned about its own security, not that of the region. Israel is certainly not concerned about weapons being used against Syrians.
Riyadh would never need Israeli influence to promote its interests in Washington or any European capital. History has proven that the kingdom has enough influence to solve its problems alone, whenever an arms deal was hindered or whenever it needed a vote in the UN Security Council.
Does Israel have the same objectives as Saudi Arabia in Syria? Does Israel really want President Bashar al-Assad’s regime out - especially since it coexisted with him and his father for half a century - and replaced by an elected government dominated by Islamists and people against Israel’s occupation? Certainly not, according to statements by Israeli politicians and what is published by Israeli research centers.
Those who say establishing ties with Israel will improve the situation for Palestinians should read Levy’s article “Netanyahu wants peace without the Palestinians,” published last month in Haaretz newspaper. It is clear that the Israeli-British Levy is more realistic than Saudi normalization advocates.
**This article was first published in al-Hayat on Sept. 3, 2016.

Church Attacks: Love Alone Will Not Save Us
George Igler/Gatestone Institute/September 04/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8795/church-attacks
The fate of the Middle East's remaining Christians appears little these days in mainstream media news stories, which presently focus on terrorist outrages in Europe instead. Given the recent targeting of churches in several European nations, the omission is unfortunate.
Rather than candidly facing up to the religious roots which motivate terrorist outrages, politicians and the press in Europe often pick up on outpourings of grief and express the need for "unity" as a means of dealing with such violence.
The Australian academic, Dr. Mark Durie, has noted that this perspective contains a grave error: it is often used "as a pretext to censor those who ask the hard questions."
"Fight those who do not believe in Allah ... those who have been given the Book [Jews and Christians] until they pay the tax [jizya tribute] ... and they are in a state of subjection." – Koran, 9:29, (Shakir translation)
In the north-eastern Syrian city of Al-Qamishli, nestled on the border with Turkey, Islamic fundamentalists bombed St. Charnel Church, an ancient site of worship for the Assyrian Orthodox Christians.
On July 18, reported ARA News, gunmen detonated explosives inside the church. Activists point the finger of responsibility at ISIS. "We saw a huge fire and security forces arrived and extinguished the fire. But the church was completely destroyed, you can see only ashes here," remarked one eyewitness to the attack.
The fate of the Middle East's remaining Christians -- often open to abuse and attack at any moment -- appears little these days in mainstream media news stories, which presently focus on terrorist outrages in Europe instead. Reporting has likewise been dominated, since 2015, by coverage of the continuing Muslim migration from Africa and Asia into Europe.
Given the recent targeting of churches in several European nations, the omission is unfortunate.
On December 31, as a precursor to an orgy of mass sexual assaults committed against German women, the Christmas congregants of Cologne cathedral were left terrorized by Muslim migrants.
On February 15, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was compelled to admit that attacks on Christian places of worship and cemeteries in France had leapt by 20% the previous year, with 810 recorded.
On March 27, news emerged that the jihadist group responsible for the Brussels airport and metro train bombings during the same month, "was planning to massacre worshippers at Easter church service across Europe, including Britain."
During April, Italian authorities made multiple arrests against a jihadist gang planning to attack both the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.
On the night of June 25, the jihadist war cry of "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is the Greatest"] was daubed over the statue of St. Petronius -- the city's patron saint -- in Bologna, Italy.
On June 27, witnesses reported that a criminal yelling an "Allahu Akbar" desecrated St. Paul's Church in Malmö, Sweden, and smashing its windows.
And on July 26, nuns and an aged priest were taken hostage in Normandy, France. Resisting by his altar, 85-year old Father Jacques Hamel had his throat slit by a jihadist. The churchman's tomb has become a site of pilgrimage.
Heavily armed German police guard the Cathedral in Bremen in March 2015, after receiving intelligence information that jihadists planned to attack the city's Cathedral and synagogue.
In the Middle East, in Syria, Christian communities, though living peaceably with their Muslim neighbors within recent memory, now find those very neighbors turning on them with the rise of fundamentalism.
Close at hand to where Christianity first began, Syria and its immediate neighbors hold various denominations that evolved in the centuries after the crucifixion. These include remnants of the Armenian, Melkite Greek and Syriac Catholic churches, and Armenian Apostolic, Syrian Oriental and Greek forms of Orthodoxy as well.
Ironically, these relatively unknown denominations of Eastern Christianity survived in the region, under a status of perpetual religious humiliation following their Islamic conquest. As extensively recorded by the Australian theologian Dr. Mark Durie, this status -- commonly called "dhimmitude" -- dominated the Islamic world, only waning in the last century.
During the same stretch of history, a jihad-wracked Europe later became largely subject to the strictures of Roman Catholicism, which commanded religious unity. Theologically, the continent was then rent asunder by the Protestant Reformation, beginning in 1517.
Throughout this time in the Islamic world -- and up to the present day in ISIS territory --– those Christians and Jews subjected to Islam who refused to convert to Mohammed's religion, had to pay a tax that prevented them from being slaughtered at whim by Muslims.
The jizya tax against conquered non-Muslims began being reintroduced by ISIS in June 2014.
As Durie notes, the underlying "pact of surrender came to be known as a dhimma or 'covenant of liability.'"
Based on the precedent of Khaybar[1], and also on the way Muhammad treated conquered Jewish farmers ... the institution of the dhimma was developed in Sharia law to provide for those of the conquered "People of the Book" who refused to convert to Islam.
Any community which negotiated a surrender to Islamic armies and became incorporated into the Dar al-Islam [Abode of Islam], was subject to a dhimma pact. This fixed the legal, social and economic place of non-Muslims in the Islamic state. In return, the people of the pact, known as dhimmis, were required to pay tribute (jizya) and other taxes in perpetuity to the Muslim Community (the Umma), and to adopt a position of humble and grateful servitude to it.
The rationalization for these historic events, and the violence which accompanied their eventual imposition, were enshrined by "divine" revelation, with verse 9:29 of the Koran stating (Shakir translation):
Fight those who do not believe in Allah ... those who have been given the Book [Jews and Christians] until they pay the tax [jizya tribute] ... and they are in a state of subjection.
As Carey Lodge at Christian Today reported, of the assault on the church in Al-Qamishli, "the attackers stole donation boxes from the church before detonating their explosives."
A significant proportion of Europe's present Muslim population in countries as far ranging as the UK, Germany, Belgium, France and Sweden, subsist financially on state welfare assistance.
In increasingly Islamized neighborhoods, few take the time to consider the security ramifications of just how long Europe's generous benefits systems are likely to survive -- many question their sustainability -- while European Union officials often state that mass immigration is in fact the solution to maintaining them.
What will happen when and if Europe's benefit systems do fail at some future date, given Western Europe's radically altering demography?
Rather than candidly facing up to the religious roots which motivate terrorist outrages, politicians and the press in Europe often pick up on outpourings of grief and express the need for "unity" as a means of dealing with such violence.
On November 20, following such calls for unity in the aftermath of the jihadist horrors visited on the Bataclan Theater in Paris, Durie noted, however, that this perspective contains a grave error: it is often used "as a pretext to censor those who ask the hard questions."
Accusations of bigotry are frequently leveled at European politicians such as Mogens Camre, in Denmark, Geert Wilders, in the Netherlands, and Björn Höcke, in Germany, who find the consequences of Islamic immigration alarming.
The presumption appears to be that if only such individuals and the unsettled masses they represent would show more fondness, tolerance and compassion towards Muslim immigration, all would ultimately be well in the fullness of time.
As Durie warns, however:
In this struggle it is wrong to privilege either love or truth, for we will need both. Truth without love can cause endless heartache. This is true. But love without truth can cause a naive blindness which meekly tolerates abuse and leads to suicidal submission.
This is likely to be a very long war. ... Yes, we will all need a lot of compassion. But without truth to strengthen it, love alone will not save us.
George Igler, between 2010 and 2016, aided those facing death for criticizing Islam across Europe.
[1] A key battle in early Islamic history leading to the slaughter and conquest of Jews.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
 

Calling Trump names won't stop him becoming US President
Simon Heffer Simon Heffer/Telegraph/04 September/16

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/04/calling-trump-names-wont-stop-him-becoming-us-president/
Just two months before the free world elects its next leader – if you believe America leads the free world, that is – the world’s liberal media seem united on two things. The first is that Donald Trump is a monster. The second is that he will lose the US presidential election on November 8.
The first contention may well be true. I am not sure I would want Mr Trump to marry my daughter (if I had one), and he has said and done things both as a businessman and as a politician of which most civilised people would not be proud. However, as I have been writing here since last autumn, his defeat is no certainty.
It is one thing for an army of pundits, mainly in America but also here, to decide that because they think a man is vile, with opinions to match, he cannot win an election. But there is no logic behind that assertion. One need only look at some who hold high elected office in our own and other democracies to work that out. The present leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, for example – about to be returned to that position by a thumping majority – has feted the Irish Republican Army and associated with some of the vilest anti-semites.
Mr Trump defies gravity. Every time he says something that would end the career of a politician in most of the Western world, his poll ratings rise. A crude attempt to libel his wife has just spectacularly backfired. Mrs Clinton leads in the polls, but the gap is closing. After the conventions she led in a Fox News poll by 9 per cent. Now she leads in the same poll by 2 per cent. Her leads have particularly shrunk in swing states. The liberal establishment in America, while pretending Mr Trump is toast, quakes with fear at the thought that he just might pull it off.
Cover of Feb 1 2016 edition of the New Yorker magazine, featuring a cartoon of presidents J F Kennedy, Lincoln, Washington, Teddy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in disgust watching Trump on TV
The New Yorker magazine has continuously mocked Trump during his presidential bid Credit: New Yorker magazine
Earlier in the summer The New Yorker, the parish magazine of East Coast liberalism, published an issue in which every cartoon ridiculed Mr Trump. Its readers were not entirely charmed, one or two pointing out that if Mr Trump really was irrelevant, what was the point in emphasising his existence in this way? Since then it has avoided saturation coverage, but most editions of the magazine include something painting Mr Trump as deeply undesirable, or highlighting elements of his campaign as if it were a freak show. The daily email the magazine sends its subscribers also routinely contains another exercise in solemn vilification of the Republican candidate. These boys are clearly worried.
"One or two readers of The New Yorker pointed out that if Mr Trump really was irrelevant, what was the point of an issue with every cartoon ridiculing him?"
And they are right. First, Mrs Clinton remains unappealing to a vast body of Americans, including to many Democratic party supporters. The question of the potential security breach for which she was responsible in using a private email server has harmed her character. The FBI documents just published exposing her carelessness with classified information reinforce the impression that when it comes to important regulations, there is one law for her and one for everybody else.
Hillary Clinton with her personal assistant Huma Abedin in Las Vegas
Hillary Clinton's conduct over questions about her email server may weaken her further Credit: Steve Marcus/Reuters
She is funded by the sort of squillionaire Wall Street types middle America has come to blame for its financial woes. She has not given a press conference for over 270 days, which starts to cause some, even in the obedient US media, to wonder what she might have to hide. She has done nothing to consolidate the “bounce” she enjoyed after her convention, because she has very little new to say. Her campaign has consisted of telling people to vote for the profoundly under-achieving and corrupt political establishment that has so failed America since the Reagan years.
Mr Trump, by contrast, has managed to engage with millions of Americans who had given up on politics, and offer them something different. It may be rank populism, it may be demagoguery, it may repel many other millions of people, but it has energised legions who have for decades felt that America’s political class disdained them. In some cases, but far from all, they are less educated and live in unsophisticated places, but their votes count the same as that of a millionaire on the Upper East Side with a PhD.
Trump supporters at a rally
This is the key to Mr Trump’s possible success, and it echoes lessons of Brexit. We are in the process of leaving the European Union because another populist, Nigel Farage, had connected with those alienated from British mainstream politics. He got them out to vote. The 72 per cent turnout was the highest in any UK poll since the 1992 election.
I suspect Mr Trump will marshal millions – possibly tens of millions – of Americans who would never normally vote in a presidential election. The turnout in 2012 was just 54.9 per cent – though that represented an improvement on 49 per cent in 1996, when Mrs Clinton’s husband won his second election, shortly before his impeachment for perjury about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. In 2012, more than 106 million Americans of voting age did not bother to vote. They are Mr Trump’s captive audience.
When will Hillary and Trump finally face each other? Play! 01:02
Impartial observers of the present race also believe some pollsters are oversampling Democratic supporters in their fieldwork. If that is true, Mr Trump could already be ahead. Again, we should look to our own recent experiences. The polls more or less consistently forecast a Remain victory, and although there was nothing like the unanimity of pundits against Brexit that there is against Mr Trump, those who did back Remain bought entirely in to the “Project Fear” argument, which seems only to have provoked millions of others to defy them and their scaremongering.
"I suspect Mr Trump will marshal millions – possibly tens of millions – of Americans who would never normally vote in a presidential election"
America is in a terrible mess and I doubt that even Mr Trump, given two terms, could sort it out. He has worrying views on international security. If he follows a protectionist line he will reduce America’s economic power, deepening the poverty and inequality already prevalent there. And the last thing America seems to need are more volatile young men walking around with guns. But they see things very differently away from the salons of Manhattan and Washington, or the poolside parties of Bel Air: and just how differently we may be about to find out.
 

Maryam Rajavi's speech in the seminar of Iranian communities in Europe.
NCRI/Sunday, 04 September 2016
MARYAM RAJAVI: IRANIAN REGIME'S LEADERS MUST BE PROSECUTED FOR THE 1988 MASSACRE- SPEECH AT THE SEMINAR OF IRANIAN COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE- SEPTEMBER 3, 2016
I call on my fellow countrymen and women to rise up in support and solidarity to expand the movement to obtain justice.
Honorable dignitaries,
Dear friends,
Sisters and brothers,
I am very pleased to see you, the representatives of the Iranian communities. We have gathered here to convey the voice of Iran's profoundly discontented society.
In recent weeks, a powerful social wave has arisen against the Velayat-e Faqih regime; at its core, the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. In fact, this atrocity has become a central grievance in the Iranian people’s protests against the criminal and murderous regime, and a pivotal issue of their demand for the establishment of freedom.
Let us look back on those horrifying days:
Exactly 28 years ago, when Khamenei was the regime's president, Rafsanjani was the regime's speaker of parliament and the acting commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, and Rouhani was his deputy, tens of thousands of political prisoners were languishing in prisons across the country.
Some of the prisoners had been arrested when they were only 16 or 17 years old. Now, after seven years, they had grown up, becoming 23 or 24-year-old young men and women. Some of them had already finished their sentences and some had only a few months left.
Yet, instead of these prisoners’ being released, they found themselves facing an ominous threat: Khomeini's representative delegations had begun making rounds in all prisons, questioning each and every one of the prisoners. Their central question was whether or not the prisoners support the People's Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK). In a matter of a few weeks, the prisons become staging grounds for mass hangings.
In the corridors of death, prisoners walk to the gallows with cries of “hail to Massoud Rajavi.” Some sing the anthem of “Freedom.”
How many? Initially, a few thousand. In subsequent weeks, they become several thousand, and a few months later, their numbers swell to exceed 30,000.
Their courage illuminates this dark chapter in Iran's history, and does not fade despite the passage of time.
Let’s recall, for a moment, the Prison of Arak. The warden tells the prisoners: “Do not ever think that you will survive to be welcomed with flowers by the people.” Ghassem Bastaki, a wrestling champion, answers: “When our people come with flowers, we are prepared to be found among the martyrs.”
Or Evin Prison. Monireh Rajavi, 38, mother of two young daughters, has completed her six-year sentence, but she is executed instead of being released. Her only crime is that she is the sister of the Resistance's Leader Massoud Rajavi.
And here, in Evin’s corridor of death, Mahmoud Hassani, a Tehran University student of economics, is walking in a group of 60 prisoners, whispering his own poem:
In the darkness of night,
When you see a shooting star in the sky
Remember the burning flames
Who were extinguished in the cold nights of Evin
So that other stars might rise with the dawn
Here we find one of the cellblocks of Ahwaz Prison. Two mullahs, two executioners, shout: “You must take a stand. On one side is Khomeini and on the other is Massoud Rajavi. Which side are you on?” A young woman cries out from the back of the ward: “Long live Massoud, death to Khomeini!'” It is Sakineh Delfi, 26, from Abadan. Prison guards attack her, badly beating her, to no avail. The whole cellblock is now roaring. Of the 350 inmates in this cellblock, 349 are hanged.
Here is Cellblock 9 in Gohardasht Prison, housing 103 inmates. Ninety-nine of them are executed. In the death corridor, one of them is asked: “Where is this?” He responds: “This is the end of the line and I have made my decision.” The prisoner is 25-year-old Mehran Bigham.
These are the hills near Orumiyeh Lake. A large number of political prisoners have been brought here. One, Bahman Shakeri, has been in prison for seven years although he finished serving his sentence two years ago. The Revolutionary Guards are beating them on the head with clubs and iron rods until they die. Their cries have attracted villagers to the scene.
This is Hall No. 19 in Cellblock 3 of Gohardasht Prison. The prison guard is angered by a painting on the wall. The artist is soon sent to join the line of prisoners going for execution. His name is Akbar Latif.
And now we are outside Masjid-Soleiman Prison. A 4-year-old girl named Tanin is holding a bouquet of flowers, waiting for her daddy. Instead, prison guards give her a Quran and a set of clothes and tell her that they belonged to her father, the courageous prisoner Shahrokh Namdari.
Back in Gohardasht Prison, a prisoner sends her message by tapping on the wall: "Friends, they have given me 20 minutes to write my last will. They are executing everyone here. Send my regards to the Mojahedin." Her name is Zahra Khosravi.
And here is the torture chamber. The lashes of the whip strike, one after the other, but there is no cry from the prisoner. The torturer pleads, "We don't want any information from you. Just scream!" But the prisoner keeps silent. Soon afterwards, she is placed on death row. She is Azadeh Tabib, a young, joyful and patient woman who has repeatedly defeated her torturers.
28 years later, when the dialogue between the executioners and Mr. Montazeri is revealed, we hear one of them admitting that the resistance of young Mojahed women had crushed him.
Now, the Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK) are walking, one by one, through those blood drenched corridors: One is Ashraf Ahmadi, a political prisoner under the Shah; another is Fatemeh Zare'ii, the PMOI candidate in the parliamentary elections in Shiraz; three others are from the same family: Hossein, Mostafa and Massoumeh Mirzaii.
Khomeini had issued a decree: “Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin are waging war on God and are condemned to execution.”
Khomeini and his accomplices wanted to do away with the notion of resistance for freedom, so not only did they exterminate vast numbers of Mojahedin and other resistant prisoners, but they also concealed all the evidence of this atrocity and denied it all together. They have not yet revealed any information on the locations of these victims' graves. Khavaran cemetery, discovered through the efforts of families of the victims, is today a sacred memorial to those who gave their lives for freedom. We salute them, a thousand times over, from here to Khavaran, whose pure soil is colored with blood and tears.
Dear friends,
The public revelation of the audio file of Mr. Montazeri's remarks has sparked a confrontation between the people of Iran and the illegitimate, blood-thirsty ruling regime. The conflict is based on all of the foundations laid in the course of the massacre in 1988. As a result:
• A new wave has emerged from within Iranian society, a wave of wrath, protest, and demands, rising to a movement for justice.
• The foundations of the regime have cracked at numerous points, and strife over this issue has been so serious that it forced the mullahs' parliament into an extraordinary session.
• Khomeini's edict for the massacre has been questioned by the clergy and seminary students, and the majority of the regime's senior clerics have refrained from defending the decree.
Accordingly, we challenge the ruling regime:
Do you not consider blood-thirsty Khomeini an Imam and a saint? If so, then why do you avoid publishing his decree in your media?
At the very least, show the text of his edict for the massacre of the Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK) on your state television.
Publish the records of the trials of those executed.
Announce the names of the members of the commissions who held the trials in all of the provinces.
Hand over the last wills of the victims of the massacre to their families.
Publish the complete list of names of the victims and the locations of their graves which have been concealed to date.
And to the regime's internal factions and the proponents of reform within this religious dictatorship we say:
If disparaging the Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK) ensures your safety and security, so be it, but you must condemn the massacre in 1988. After all these years of complicity and collaboration in the regime's evil-doings, for once distance yourselves from this heinous atrocity.
And to the clerics in all the seminaries, we say: Break your long silence over the 1988 massacre and do not evade your responsibility.
To the international community and western governments, we say:
Standing up to the violations of human rights in Iran is also the responsibility of Western governments, because the consequences of this regime are not confined to Iran. The terrorism and fundamentalism emanating from Tehran have victimized defenseless people in Nice, Paris, Brussels, etc. Make your relations with the Iranian regime contingent on an end to executions in Iran. Put Khamenei and his accomplices on trial in an international court for crimes against humanity, specifically in 1988. And respect the Iranian people's Resistance for regime change.
And finally, I call on my fellow countrymen and women to rise up in support and solidarity to expand the campaign for justice. Demanding justice for the martyrs is part and parcel of the movement to overthrow the clerical regime, and must be carried forth to its final end.
Only in the past few weeks, the campaign inside Iran has managed to identify a number of members of the death commissions and obtain new names and documents, including the photographs of a number of victims of the massacre.
We must drive the mullahs to a point where they do not dare to repeat such crimes. One-hundred prisoners were executed over the last month. They included 25 Sunni political prisoners from Kurdistan. And there was the execution of three of our Arab compatriots. These killings must be stopped and the murderous regime must be toppled.
I call on freedom-loving Iranians, and all members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance, in Iran and all over the world, to expand the movement to obtain justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre. You must insist on this demand and persist in this campaign until justice is achieved for the human rights abuses committed by the mullahs' religious tyranny.
Dear friends,
The events of the recent crisis were not merely a revelation of the executioners' confession to the massacre of prisoners; the most important result was the recurrence of Khomeini's death and the demise of the spirit dominating his clerical regime on the one hand, and the rejuvenation of the Iranian Resistance on the other.
This was clearly pointed out by Khamenei when he said, "The PMOI lovers inside the country wish to whitewash them and give them an aura of legitimacy and innocence while distorting the image of the Imam (Khomeini)."
The Assembly of Experts, the highest institution in the Velayat-e Faqih regime, also declared in its official statement that they intend to "undermine the Islamic regime, the principle of Velayat-e Faqih, and the exalted status of the leader… among the people on the one hand; and on the other, to cleanse the image of the PMOI by presenting them as victims of injustice."
In his 1989 edict, Khomeini elaborated on the most important reason for the ouster of Mr. Montazeri, writing: "Since it has become clear that after me (Khomeini), you (Montazeri) will hand over Iran to liberals and through them to the Hypocrites (Mojahedin), you have lost the competence and legitimacy for future leadership of the regime."
In subsequent years, the regime's officials repeated their claim of having annihilated the PMOI/MEK and the Iranian Resistance thousands of times, but were frustrated by the Mojahedin's 14 years of steadfast endurance in Ashraf and Camp Liberty.
Two days ago, it was the third anniversary of the mass executions of 52 PMOI members in Ashraf. In the raid carried out on the orders of Khamenei, seven people, including six women, were taken hostage. To date, there has been no information on the hostages.
The massacre in Ashraf was part of a larger plan by the Iranian regime to annihilate the Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK) altogether. But the plan failed and today, once again, the regime's leaders are primarily concerned about the status of the Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK)in Iran and among their people.
Fellow compatriots,
Twenty-eight years after the massacre of political prisoners, the movement to obtain justice for them, and the wave of general respect and admiration for them attest to a fundamental truth. That truth is that the blood of those pure souls still runs in the veins of our nation. Not a single drop has been wasted. Their suffering and perseverance was not in vain.

That truth is that the mullahs and their accomplices' false declarations that resistance for freedom is useless, have been discredited. Those who concealed the massacre, or attempted to justify and legitimize it, or blamed the Mojahedin (PMOI or MEK) for it, are now exposed to history's ridicule.
They thought that no one would ever hear the cries of those freedom fighters from the gallows and execution grounds. They thought the ultimate expression of humanity and honor could be buried in torture chambers and cells.
But the blazing sun of truth rose from the depth of the dungeons, from the darkness of the execution yards, from the vehicles which transported the blood-drenched bodies, and from the mass graves covered by lime and cement, because resolve and sacrifice for freedom can neither be annihilated nor denied.
Today, their suffering and strife have culminated in blocking the regime and opening the way for freedom.
This steadfastness has borne fruit in the strength and progress of the resistance movement on the 51st anniversary of the foundation of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), and will bring about a republic of freedom and equality; a republic based on separation of religion and state, on equality of women and men, on equal rights and autonomy for ethnic minorities in the framework of a united Iran, and on abolition of the death penalty.
History always reveals to us the greatness of the men and women who made it. And these 30,000 have made history in Iran's path towards freedom.
Hail to freedom
Hail to the martyrs
Hail to the people of Iran

Europe Debates the Burkini
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 04/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8855/europe-burkini
"We will colonize you with your democratic laws." — Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Egyptian Islamic cleric and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.
"Beaches, like any public space, must be protected from religious claims. The burkini is an anti-social political project aimed in particular at subjugating women... It is not compatible with the values ​​of France and the Republic. Faced with such provocations, the Republic must defend itself." — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
According to the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, the high court's ruling against burkini bans, "far from appeasing [Muslims], will instead increase passions and tensions."
"Beaches are equated with streets, where the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols is also rejected by two-thirds of the French." — Jérôme Fourquet, director of the French Institute of Public Opinion (Ifop).
The French city of Nice has lifted a controversial ban on Muslim burkinis after a court ruled such prohibitions illegal. Bans on the full-body swimsuits have also been annulled in Cannes, Fréjus, Roquebrune and Villeneuve-Loubet, but they remain in place in at least 25 other French coastal towns.
The row over burkinis — a neologism blending burka and bikini — has reignited a long-running debate over Islamic dress codes in France and other secular European states (see Appendix below).
On August 26, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, ruled that municipal authorities in Villeneuve-Loubet, a seaside town on the French Riviera, did not have the right to ban burkinis. The court found that the ban — which was issued after the jihadist attack in Nice on July 14, in which 86 people were killed — was "a serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of movement and the freedom of conscience." The judges ruled that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a "demonstrated risk" to public order. There was, they said, no evidence of such a risk.
Although the ruling applied only to the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet, observers said the ruling would set a legal precedent for the 30 other cities and towns which have also implemented bans on burkinis.
The high court decision overturned a lower court ruling, issued August 22, which said the burkini ban was "necessary, appropriate, and proportionate" to ensure public order.
The case was brought by the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) and the Human Rights League (LDH). The two groups have vowed to file lawsuits against any municipality with a burkini ban, which they say violates the religious freedom of Muslims in France.
Patrice Spinosi, a lawyer for the LDH, said that in the absence of a demonstrated threat to public order, the high court "has ruled and has shown that mayors do not have the right to set limits on wearing religious signs in public spaces. It is contrary to the freedom of religion, which is a fundamental freedom."
By contrast, the ban's proponents — from across the political spectrum — argue that burkinis are political, not religious, garments.
Writing for Le Figaro, French commentator Yves Thréard warned:
"The worst case scenario would be that the debate drags on and strays into considerations totally foreign to this outrageous outfit. Secularism and religion are irrelevant here. The burkini is not a Koranic prescription, but another manifestation of political Islam, militant, destructive, seeking to question our way of life, our culture, our civilization. Veils in schools, street prayers, halal school menus, sexual apartheid in swimming pools, hospitals, driving schools, niqab, burqa... for thirty years this infiltration has been undermining our society, seeking to destabilize. It's time to slam the door in its face. Youssef al-Qaradawi, the famous Egyptian preacher, formerly a lecturer in France, warned: 'We will colonize you with your democratic laws.' Through our indifference as well as our naïveté, we have long been complicit in this deadly and nasty business."
According to French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, burkinis are "the affirmation of political Islam in the public space." In an interview with La Provence, Valls, a Socialist, said:
"I support those who issued the bans... Beaches, like any public space, must be protected from religious claims. The burkini is an anti-social political project aimed in particular at subjugating women. Behind the burkini lies the idea that women, by nature, are harlots, impure, and that they should be completely covered. It is not compatible with the values ​​of France and the Republic. Faced with such provocations, the Republic must defend itself."
Laurence Rossignol, the Socialist Minister for the Families, Children and Women's Rights, also said she supported bans on burkinis. In an interview with Le Parisien, she said:
"The burkini is not some new line of swimwear. It is the beach version of the burka and it has the same logic: to hide women's bodies in order to better control them. Behind this there is a deeply archaic vision of the place of women in society. There is the idea that, by nature, women are impure and immoral and should therefore hide their body and disappear from the public space.
"The burkini agitates so much because of its collective political dimension. It does not only concern the women who wear it. The burkini is the symbol of a political project that is hostile to diversity and empowerment."
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently stated that "the burkini is an anti-social political project aimed in particular at subjugating women... It is not compatible with the values ​​of France and the Republic. Faced with such provocations, the Republic must defend itself." Pictured above: Four policemen in Nice, France, are pictured forcing a woman to remove part of her clothes because her outfit violated the city's burkini ban, on August 23. They also fined her for the violation. (Image source: NBC News video screenshot)
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently announced that he will be a candidate in the 2017 presidential elections, said that if elected he would "change the constitution" and press for a nationwide ban on burkinis. At a campaign rally on August 26, Sarkozy, a conservative, said:
"I will be the president who re-establishes the authority of the state. I want to be the president who guarantees the safety of France and of every French person...
"I refuse to let the burkini impose itself in French beaches and swimming pools...there must be a law to ban it throughout the Republic's territory. Our identity is under threat when we accept an immigration policy that makes no sense."
In an interview with Le Figaro, Sarkozy elaborated:
"Wearing the burkini is a militant political act, a provocation. The women who wear them are testing the resistance of the French Republic. If we do not put an end to this, there is a risk that in ten years, young Muslim girls who do not want to wear the burkini or the veil will be stigmatized and pressured into doing so."
Henri Leroy, the mayor of Mandelieu-La-Napoule, one of the first French towns to ban the burkini, said Muslim residents should be reminded that "they are French first and of Muslim confession second." He added: "Our Republic has traditions and customs that need to be respected."
The conservative mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, said the burkini is a "uniform that is the symbol of Islamic extremism." City manager Thierry Migoule said the burkini is an "ostentatious outfit that signals allegiance to terrorist movements that have declared war on us."
The mayor of Fréjus, David Rachline, wrote that the high court's ruling was a "victory for radical Islam, for political Islam, which is advancing in our country."
Lionnel Luca, the conservative mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, said the burkini ban was needed to "counter the creeping Islamization that is progressing in our country." He added that the high court's ruling, "far from appeasing [Muslims], will instead increase passions and tensions."
Ange-Pierre Vivoni, the Socialist mayor of the Corsican town of Sisco, imposed a ban on burkinis "to protect the population" following a Muslim rampage that occurred on August 14, when a tourist took a photograph of several burkini-clad women swimming in a creek. More than 400 people eventually joined the brawl, in which local Corsicans clashed with migrants from North Africa. The following day, more than 500 Corsicans marched through the town shouting "To arms! This is our home!"
Opinion polls show broad public support for bans on burkinis. According to an Ifop poll published by Le Figaro on August 25, 64% of people in France are opposed to the burkini on beaches; only 6% support it. Ifop director Jérôme Fourquet said: "The results are similar to those we measured in April about the veil and headscarf on public streets (63% opposed). Beaches are equated with streets, where the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols is also rejected by two-thirds of the French."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
Appendix
Burka Bans in
European Countries
The French row over burkinis — a neologism blending burka and bikini — has reignited a long-running debate over Islamic dress codes in other European countries.
Austria. On August 13, Norbert Hofer, the Austrian Freedom Party's (FPÖ) candidate for president, called for a burka ban. "I think it makes sense," he said. Several days later, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Integration, Sebastian Kurz of the ruling Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), said a new integration law would include restrictions on the burka. "A full body veil is hindering integration," Kurz said. "The burqa is not a religious symbol, but a symbol for a counter-society."
Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said a blanket ban on burkas would be "constitutionally problematic." He said a partial ban on burkas at border crossings and while driving automobiles is more realistic.
A nationwide poll published on August 25 found that 75% of Austrians favor a burka ban.
The FPÖ had previously called for a burka ban in July 2014. At the time, Kurz rejected the idea, calling it an "artificial debate."
In June 2016, the town of Hainfeld became the first municipality in Austria to ban the burkini in public swimming pools. In Vienna, local media have reported a "notable increase" in the number of women wearing burkinis in public swimming pools in the capital.
Baltics. In April 2016, the Latvian government announced a proposal to ban the burka. The government said the purpose of the law, which it hopes will enter into force in 2017, is to ensure that Muslim immigrants respect the country's values. Burka bans are also being discussed in Estonia and Lithuania.
Belgium. In July 2011, Belgium became the second European country after France to ban the burka. Offenders face a fine of €137 ($150) and up to seven days in jail. In the five years since the ban has been in place, more than 70 women have been ticketed for wearing the garment in public. This number includes 67 women in Brussels and seven in Liege.
In August 2016, Nadia Sminate, a Belgian MP of mixed Moroccan and Flemish origin, called for a complete ban of the burka. In an interview with De Standaard, she said:
"We absolutely must avoid having women walk around Flanders in burkinis. Not in the pool, and not on the beach. I do not think women want to walk on the beach in such a monstrosity in the name of religion. If we allow this, we put the women on the margin of society. We live in Flanders and we make the rules. If we say we need to set limits and enforce our values, we must do that."
Britain. On August 31, a YouGov poll found that a majority of Britons are in favor of banning the burka in public spaces. According to the poll, 57% of Britons support a ban; 25% are opposed. The only age group to oppose a ban was 18-24 year-olds; all others were in favor, with the oldest 65+ group supporting a ban by 78% to 12%. All major political parties also had a plurality of voters in favor of a ban. A separate question asked by YouGov found that 46% of Britons want to ban the burkini; 30% are opposed.
Bulgaria. In June 2016, the Bulgarian Parliament approved a new law that bans the burka. The move makes Bulgaria the third European country to pass such a law after France and Belgium. The ban applies to Bulgarian citizens as well as to anyone in the country on a temporary basis.
The law states that clothing that conceals the face may not be worn in the Bulgaria's central and local administrations, schools, cultural institutions, and places of public recreation, sports and communications.
Covering the head, eyes, ears and mouth will be permitted only when necessary for health reasons, professional necessity and at sporting and cultural events. The ban will also apply to houses of worship.
The law provides for a fine of 200 leva (€100; $115) for a first violation of the ban. For second and further offenses, the fine is 1500 leva (€755; $430) and loss of social benefits.
Anyone who persuades others to cover their faces is subject to a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of 5000 leva (€2,500; $2,850). If the person persuaded to cover the face is a minor, the penalty increases to a maximum five years in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 leva (€5,000; $5,700).
Czech Republic. In March 2016, a Muslim student filed a lawsuit against a nursing school in Prague after she was banned from wearing a hijab (Muslim veil covering head and neck) during classes. The school argued that students should not have their heads covered in the classroom.
Denmark. In August 2016, the Danish People's Party said it would present parliament with a proposal for a burka ban. In an interview with Metro Express, party spokesman Kenneth Kristensen Berth said the garment must be outlawed for security reasons:
"There are several examples, primarily in the Middle East, where people dressed in burkas have been suicide bombers. It is only a matter of time before it will happen in Europe. I have just returned from London, where the number of burkas in the streets has increased quite considerably. They can be used to plant bombs without being detected."
France. In April 2011, France became the first European country to ban the burka and niqab. In July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights upheld that ban.
After the July 2016 jihadist attack in Nice, in which 86 people were killed, at least 30 cities and towns banned the burkini on public beaches.
On August 26, the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, ruled that municipal authorities in Villeneuve-Loubet, a seaside town on the French Riviera, did not have the right to ban burkinis. Although the ruling applied only to the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet, observers said the ruling would set a legal precedent for the rest of France.
Opinion polls show broad public support for bans on burkinis. According to an Ifop poll published by Le Figaro on August 25, 64% of people in France are opposed to the burkini on beaches; only 6% support it. Ifop director Jérôme Fourquet said: "The results are similar to those we measured in April about the veil and headscarf on public streets (63% opposed). Beaches are equated with streets, where the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols are also rejected by two-thirds of the French."
Germany. On August 18, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière announced a proposal for a "partial burka ban" that would prohibit the wearing of Muslim face veils in public spaces, including kindergartens, schools, universities, government offices and while driving a vehicle.
"We reject full-face veils," de Maizière said. "Not just the burka, any full-face veils that only show a person's eyes. It does not fit into our society, for our way of communicating, for our societal cohesion. This is why we demand that you show your face."
In an August 12 interview with Bild, Julia Klöckner, the deputy chief of the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), said:
"The full-face veil greatly hinders the integration of women here. It is not a sign of religious diversity, but represents a degrading image of women. It is banned in France, and the European Court of Human Rights has upheld that ban."
In a July 30 interview with Die Welt, CDU politician Jens Spahn said:
"A ban on full-face veil, of the niqab as well as the burka, is overdue, as a signal to the world. Imagine how this conversation would be if we were fully veiled while we are talking to each other. I do not want to encounter any burka in this country. In this sense I am burkaphobe."
In an opinion article for Bild, Bassam Tibi, a former professor at the University of Göttingen who calls himself a "European Muslim," wrote that he fully supported a burka ban:
"A burka ban would be a smart political measure against certain people sealing themselves off in parallel societies, for an inclusive integration of Muslim migrants and for the security of the Federal Republic of Germany."
A new poll published by Infratest dimap on August 26 found that 81% of Germans are in favor of banning the burka in public spaces. The poll found that 51% support a total burka ban.
On August 22, a court in Osnabrück ruled that a student in the city will not be allowed to wear her veil to class. The Sophie Scholl had originally accepted the student but reversed its decision when she insisted on wearing her niqab in class. School officials said the open communication needed in education would not be possible if only the student's eyes are visible.
In June, the Bavarian town of Neutraubling banned burkinis in public swimming pools after female patrons complained that the garment is unsanitary. Mayor Heinz Kiechle asked: "I don't understand why it is necessary to wear a burkini on evenings when the pool is reserved for ladies-only swimming."
Italy. As of January 1, 2016, the burqa and niqab have been banned from all public offices and hospitals in the northeastern region of Lombardy.
On August 17, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Italy will not ban the burkini because such a move could provoke a backlash in the Muslim community. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, he said:
"The interior minister has a responsibility to ensure public safety and to choose a level of toughness that never becomes a provocation that potentially invites attacks."
Malta. In October 2015, the government debated a ban on burkas in public after a photograph emerged showing a woman driving an automobile while wearing a full-face veil. Article 338 of the Criminal Code states that it is a threat to public order if anyone "in any public place, wears any mask, or disguises himself, except at the time and in the manner allowed by law." Some members of the government said the existing law should be clarified to specifically outlaw burkas.
A local imam, Mohammed Elsadi, said a burka ban would threaten integration and social harmony in Malta. He added: "In a global world where people of different cultures live together and interact in so many ways and in so many spheres of life, it is more beneficial for any country to grant as much individual freedoms as possible." He said Muslims should be allowed "all the freedom to exercise their own cultural norms and way of life."
Equality Minister Helena Dalli countered:
"There are several thousands of Muslims in Malta, and many have been here for a long time, even generations. The burka and the niqab are not garments that one would associate with this community, so a clearer ban on face coverings should have no impact on the vast majority of Muslims in any way."
Netherlands. In May 2015, the Dutch government approved a partial ban on face-covering Islamic veils on public transport and in public areas such as schools and hospitals. Offenders are subject to a fine of €405 ($450). The ban does not apply to wearing the burka or the niqab on the street.
Norway. In August 2016, a cross-party commission on integration proposed banning burkas and niqabs in public institutions and prohibiting hijabs in public schools. In a 50-page report titled "Ten Commandments for Better Integration," the commission called for clear national guidelines on Islamic dress codes to improve integration.
"To improve integration, we must encourage greater participation in public life," Labor Party politician Jette Christensen said. "Therefore, we cannot allow covered faces."
Progress Party politician Maryan Keshvari added: "We cannot allow the premier Islamist uniform in Norwegian schools."
In 2013, the Norwegian parliament rejected a burka ban on the argument that Norway risked being censured by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Ever since the ECHR upheld the ban in France in July 2014, Norwegian supporters of a ban have tried but failed to get parliament to approve a similar ban in Norway.
Slovenia. In November 2015, the opposition Democratic Party (SDS) submitted a draft law to ban burkas and niqabs in public and to tighten conditions to obtain asylum in Slovenia.
"When in Slovenia, people should respect Slovenian culture and Slovenian customs," SDS head Janez Janša said. "That is why we drafted a bill that seeks to ban the burka in public."
SDS MP Vinko Gorenak added: "We must adapt to their customs when going to their places. There is no reason why we shouldn't demand the same of them when they are in our cultural environment."
Spain. In December 2010, the Catalan city of Lérida enacted a ban on burkas in public spaces. In February 2013, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional. The court said the ban "constitutes a limitation to the fundamental right to the exercise of the freedom of religion, which is guaranteed by the Spanish Constitution." The court said that the limitation of a fundamental right can only be achieved through laws at the national level, not through local ordinances.
In September 2014, during a parliamentary debate over the Law on Public Security (Ley de Seguridad Ciudadana), Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz called for banning the burka in public spaces. He said the issue has two dimensions: security and the dignity of women.
"In my opinion, the burka is a garment that violates the dignity of women," Fernández Díaz said. "But this is not within the scope of responsibility of the Interior Ministry." In terms of security, he said the burka "makes it difficult to identify individuals who commit crimes."
In August 2016, a water park in the Catalan city of Girona banned the burkini "for security reasons." In June 2014, the Basque city of Vitoria banned the burkini in public swimming pools. In November 2014, a driver in Vitoria stopped a burka-clad woman from boarding his bus.
Switzerland. On July 1, 2016, a burka ban entered into force in Ticino, the first Swiss canton to do so. Offenders are subject to a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs (€9,100; $10,000). The move followed a September 2013 referendum in which 65% of voters in the Italian-speaking canton voted in favor of the ban.
*Follow Soeren Kern on Twitter and Facebook
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Three takeaways from the Hangzhou G20 Summit
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Al Arabiya//Al Arabiya/September 04/16
With summer quickly coming to an end, the global diplomatic pace is set to predictably quicken, with the most important event on the calendar being the G20 summit—the gathering of the 20 most economically important global players--held this year September 4-5, in Hangzhou, China. As is usually the case with such conclaves, the specifics of what is being discussed matter far less than the underlying narratives at play here. For Saudi Arabia, the only Arab member of the G20, as well as the rest of the attendees, there are at least three major takeaways.
Number 1: This is China’s Coming Out Party
With America preoccupied by the most divisive presidential campaign in memory (whoever the victor is will be the least popular newly elected president in the history of modern polling), and with Europe unable to manage anything resembling acceptable rates of growth, all eyes will be on China.
Despite fears of a hard landing, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime has so far managed to steer China through rough waters relatively skilfully, with Chinese growth in the first two quarters of 2016 settling at a highly respectable 6.7% of GDP, numbers any European country would kill for. To put China’s extraordinary recent economic rise into its proper context, of all the goods and services produced by the People’s Republic in its history, over half have been produced from 2008 onwards.
Given, the trend rate of growth in the Eurozone is an anaemic 1%--with America chugging along at a more respectable 2%--there is simply no getting around the fact that China, along with its rival India, remain the only two large countries on the planet capable of being the new global economic motor of future growth. China will symbolically use the Hangzhou summit to make the geostrategic point that the long 500-year era of western dominance is definitively over. China’s rise is the reason President Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Modi of India, and President Putin of Russia will all be at the meeting. Simply put, China is too important to ignore.
Practically, these G20 meetings have assumed greater importance with the relative decline of earlier G8 gatherings, then a club of the previously dominant Western economies
Number 2: Economics, and not politics, will dominate the G20 gathering
Fully making the most of the host’s prerogative, Xi Jinping will keep the focus of this G20 meeting firmly on economics rather than politics. There are two basic reasons for this. First, with even mighty China slowing, some of the Emerging Markets failing to live up to their promise (Turkey, Brazil, South Africa), Europe a basket case, and America becalmed, there is a pressing macroeconomic need to identify future drivers of global growth—beyond China and India—and try to get the flailing rest to right their paths.
Second, China is certainly trying the change the subject, as its aggressive forays into the South China and East China Seas over the past few years have alarmed local countries such as Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as well as the far-away ordering power, the United States.
Following the recent ruling in The Hague that China’s over-sized claims to nine-tenth’s of the South China Sea are without legal merit—and China’s disgruntled response ignoring the ruling—the last thing Beijing wants is to debate this issue on its home turf, where staunch allies Japan and the US could outnumber and humiliate their hosts. As such, politics will be soft-peddled as much as possible in favour of discussing the world’s economic woes.
Number 3: Never expect much from these international gatherings
Practically, these G20 meetings have assumed greater importance with the relative decline of earlier G8 gatherings, then a club of the previously dominant Western economies. Following on from the Lehman crisis, when it became apparent to all but the most clueless that a club composed of the US, Japan, and the major European powers simply no longer represented global economic reality, the larger but more representative G20 has largely filled its place, as it broadly accurately represents economic power realities in our multipolar world.
That is the step forward for the G20, but sadly there is a major structural step backwards, impeding its effectiveness. It is almost impossible to get a group of 20 people, let alone nations, to agree to anything: We could not get 20 random people from off the street to agree on a common ice cream flavour, let alone anything of importance. So it goes for the G20. At the height of the post-Lehman economic crisis the G20 was highly useful as globally the right people were in the room to make dramatic macroeconomic decisions. In more usual, more normal times, this very cumbersome organisation is largely just a talking shop.
So my advice to the Saudi diplomats attending the Hangzhou conference is simple. Look for my three takeaways and gauge the broader global narratives they represent. But don’t expect much to practically come out of your very long trip.

The WhatsApp dinner party
Turki Aldakhil//September 04/16/September 04/16
In the 1980s, the fax machine (the machine which allowed documents to be sent from Riyadh to Jeddah) was talked about as though it was part of the legend of the One Thousand and One Nights. The idea was deemed impossible, even a lie, by some of those who heard about it.
A few decades before that, two men from Saudi Arabia’s al-Qassim region visited Jerusalem and saw an airplane. When they returned to Saudi Arabia, one of them enthusiastically began to tell people about the airplane saying it was an iron bird which people climbed into using a ladder. He explained how the iron bird swallowed dozens of people and flew to Beirut where it opened its mouth and those who’d been swallowed exited.
Those who heard the story made fun of it as it was unbelievable. Perhaps one of them asked: “How do you know it’s a lie?” And later answered himself: “Due to the amount of exaggeration!”The man who narrated the story sought the help of his friend who saw the airplane with him and said: “This man will be my witness!” Everyone looked toward him and he said: “This is not true. I did not see anything!” When the two men left, the former reprimanded the latter for what he did.
“We were together and you saw it with your own eyes. Why did you say my story was a lie?” the man who narrated the story asked his friend. The latter replied and said: “It’s better if people say one of us is claiming something than to say both of us are liars! People will not believe this story even if there were ten witnesses.”
When King Abdulaziz introduced the telegram, people could not comprehend it and many claimed that jinn were behind it.
When King Abdulaziz’s first car was brought into the country, people offered fodder to the car to honor the king’s vehicle.
It took decades for inventions to change people’s lives. The invention of the wheel expedited primitive economies and changed the face of commerce.
Today, technology is advancing every hour, not every year.
It’s perhaps difficult for us to understand this acceleration but this is the face of life today – a life in which we accept a friend’s invitation to dinner but the attendees barely talk to each other except via WhatsApp!
**This article was first published in Okaz on Sept. 4, 2016.

Canada govt uses the phony term Islamophobia ("a word created by fascists & used by cowards to manipulate morons”)
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New guide to support teachers in creating an inclusive and compassionate classroom for Muslim students
August 25, 2016 – Ottawa, Ontario – Canadian Human Rights Commission
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is proud to help launch a new guide that will help Canadian teachers better understand and provide support to students living with the effects of geopolitical violence and Islamophobia.
Working in collaboration, the Islamic Social Services Association (ISSA), the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), and the CHRC set out to create a guide that will help Canadian teachers create safer and more inclusive spaces for Canadian Muslim students.
“For the sake of our children, we must all be intolerant of intolerance. The classroom should be a place where every child feels safe and understood,” said Chief Commissioner, Marie-Claude Landry. “This guide invites the reader to step into the shoes of a Muslim child in Canada who may be grappling with various forms of trauma or rejection—a child who is simply looking for validation and a safe space in which to grow and learn.”
Canada’s human rights watchdog is following, with growing concern, the impact of Islamophobia on the most vulnerable in our communities— our children and youth. “This is not a Muslim issue—this is a Canadian issue,” said Chief Commissioner Landry. “It is the responsibility of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and of every Canadian citizen, to help counter these negative messages, images and stereotypes. By working together we can help achieve full inclusion for every Muslim person in Canada.”
The guide, entitled Helping Students Deal with Trauma Related to Geopolitical Violence and Islamophobia, is available in both English and French online as well as to order in print form.
The Commission joins ISSA and the NCCM in gratitude to The Canadian Red Cross for their financial support on this project that will help so many young Canadians.
Quotes
“For the sake of our children, we must all be intolerant of intolerance.”
—Marie-Claude Landry, Ad. E., Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission
“The classroom should be a place where every child feels safe and understood. This guide invites the reader to step into the shoes of a Muslim child in Canada who may be grappling with various forms of trauma or rejection—a child who is simply looking for validation and a safe space in which to grow and learn.”
—Marie-Claude Landry, Ad. E., Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission
“This is not a Muslim issue—this is a Canadian issue. It is the responsibility of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and of every Canadian citizen, to help counter these negative messages, images and stereotypes.”
—Marie-Claude Landry, Ad. E., Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission
Associated Links
Helping Students Deal with Trauma Related to Geopolitical Violence and Islamophobia
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