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Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11/27-32: "A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’ When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!

Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested
Letter to the Hebrews 02/14-18//03/01-06: "Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.
For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also ‘was faithful in all God’s house.’ Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 20-21/15
Muslim cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Nasr: “The Islamic State is a byproduct of Al Azhar’s programs”/Raymond Ibrahim/November 20, 2015
How Iraq just legalized discrimination of minorities/Ali Mamouri/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
Are the attacks in Paris connected with attacks in Israel/Mazal Mualem/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
Will Rouhani only serve one term as president/Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
Is defeating the Islamic State impossible/Ali Hashem/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
Khamenei’s Reinterpretation of Nuclear Deal and the Implications/Amir Toumaj/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
Israel’s Islamic Movement: Context and Possible Implications/Grant Rumley/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
Terror on the Cheap: Paris Attacks Required Little Funding/Jonathan Schanzer/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
A France-U.S. Anti-Islamist Alliance/Reuel Marc Gerecht/The Wall Street Journal/.ovember 20/15
Terrorist Financing: Kidnapping, Antiquities Trafficking, and Private Donations/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
Morocco's High Council Of Ulema In Fatwa Following Paris Attacks: 'Terror Is Forbidden In Islam; Only The Ruler May Declare Jihad'/MEMRI/November 20/15
The City of Light Goes Dark/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/November 20/15
Exposed: Obama’s Love for Jihadis and Hate for Christians/Raymond Ibrahim/November 20/15
Iran hardliners: ISIS bit the leg of its owners/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/November 21/15
Paris attacks: moving beyond the clash of civilizations/Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/November 21/15

Qahwaji on Independence Day Urges Military to be Fully Prepared
Naharnet/November 20/15/Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji called on the military on Friday to stay watchful and attentive both on the southern border to confront the Israeli enemy and on the eastern border and inside Lebanon to deter terrorism. “Stay fully prepared, both on the southern border to confront the Israeli enemy and to adhere to (U.N.) resolution 1701 and on the eastern border and inside to strike terrorism with an iron fist and its sabotaging cells to preserve the civil peace in the country,” said Qahwaji in the order of the day marking Independence Day. “The attempts of terrorism and its schemes will fail before your vigilance and strong confrontations,” he added. Lebanon marks on Sunday the 72nd anniversary of the country's independence. On the soldiers abducted in the northeastern town of Arsal, Qahwaji stressed saying: “We hereby vow to follow up on the case of the kidnapped soldiers and to exert all efforts needed to free them and bring them back to their families and institution. “The tasks entrusted to the army will never make us forget the suffering of our soldiers who were abducted by terrorist groups.” Several servicemen have been taken hostage by the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front during clashes with the army in August 2014.Attempts to free them have failed so far in light of the conditions set by the kidnappers, some include freeing prison inmates in return.

Planes to Fly Longer as Russia Asks that Beirut Flights Avoid Area over Mediterranean
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/Russia asked Lebanon Friday to ensure that flights from Beirut airport avoid an area over the eastern Mediterranean for the next three days, Transport and Public Works Minister Ghazi Zoaiter said. Russia, which is carrying out air strikes in Syria, "has asked the Lebanese authorities that planes leaving Beirut airport towards the west avoid overflying an area in Mediterranean territorial waters because of maneuvers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday," he said. Zoaiter said Lebanese authorities had "reservations about the Russian request" and were "studying it."
Middle East Airlines, Lebanon's national carrier, later said that “all of Saturday's flights will take off on time.”“In line with the memo issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation about using a new air route between Lebanon and Cyprus, all of Saturday's flights will take off on time but some flights to the Arab Gulf countries and the Middle East will spend more time in the air due to the new air routes,” MEA said. Meanwhile, Lebanese Ambassador to Cyprus Youssef Sadaqa told Lebanon's National News Agency that negotiations between MEA's office in Cyprus and the Cypriot civil aviation directorate had ended with an agreement on "a secure air route for Lebanese flights.""This route will be over the southern region" of the Mediterranean, he added. Lebanon's Directorate General of Civil Aviation later reassured that "flight operations at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport will not be interrupted."The Transport Ministry meanwhile announced the creation of “an emergency cell” tasked with “taking the necessary measures and establishing communication with the International Civil Aviation Organization and the relevant aviation authorities to maintain takeoff and landing operations while abiding by the highest standards of public safety.” Later, a senior airport official said discussions were underway with the Russian authorities on the routes flights would take. Rather than departing towards the west, or approaching from that direction, flights would be directed to first fly south above Sidon and Sarafand to "keep them away from the perimeter of the maneuvers," he said. While no details were given on where the Russian exercises would take place, the Syrian coast is due north of Lebanon's, so redirecting air traffic to the south would lower any risks. No details were available on the nature of the maneuvers, as Moscow has made no public announcement about them and officials at the Russian defense ministry could not be reached for comment when contacted by AFP.In Beirut, the foreign ministry said Lebanon had "not received any official request... from Moscow. It was the Lebanese air traffic control that received a fax from the Russian navy."In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Zoaiter had said that he contacted Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam to "take the appropriate stance."LBCI television said Zoaiter met with the airport director and the director general of civil aviation and that the conferees discussed the possibility of "maintaining aviation through replacing the northern route with a southern route over Sarafand." NNA had earlier reported that "the relevant airport authorities have received a cable from the Russian navy saying that it will stage three days of naval exercises and drills according to specific coordinates as of midnight."“This will have a direct impact on Lebanon's airspace and on aviation from and to Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, which will bring air traffic to a near halt,” NNA quoted the airport authorities as saying. “Even if Cypriot authorities agree to this, most airlines will suspend their flights from and to Lebanon due to distance and other logistic reasons related to aviation,” Lebanese airport authorities said. LBCI had earlier reported that Moscow had asked Lebanon to “divert civilian flights from Lebanese airspace to international airspace as of midnight” and that “the request also involves neighboring countries.”Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat slammed what he called the Russian “orders” to Lebanon. “The Russians have asked us to close our airspace for three days … Does (Foreign) Minister (Jebran) Bassil know of this? What a successful visit to Moscow!” Jumblat tweeted, referring to an official visit Bassil made to Moscow on Tuesday. “We do not want to become another Moscow neighborhood and there should be respect for Lebanese sovereignty,” he added.

General Security Arrests al-Nusra Would-Be Suicide Bomber
Naharnet/November 20/15/The General Security announced Friday that it has foiled an attempt to carry out a suicide bombing in the country. “As part of the monitoring of the terrorist groups' activities and the pursuit of their sleeper cells, the General Security arrested Lebanese national Y. D. over intelligence information that he belongs to a terrorist group and was plotting to stage an act of sabotage,” it said in a statement. “During interrogation, he confessed to belonging to the terrorist al-Nusra Front group and to plotting a bombing with a suicide vest,” it added. He was referred to the relevant judicial authorities upon the end of interrogation. Dozens of suspects -- including would-be suicide bombers -- were arrested and several suicide vests were seized in recent days as security forces launched massive nationwide raids. The crackdown comes in the wake of deadly suicide blasts in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh that killed 43 people and wounded around 240 others. The attack, among the worst in years, was claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.

Report: Kataeb Stance at Cabinet Will Not Hinder Executive Authority
Naharnet/November 20/15/The Kataeb Party reiterated its stance that its ministers will not sign draft laws and decrees at cabinet due to its objection to the ongoing presidential vacuum, reported the daily An Nahar on Friday. Kataeb ministerial sources told the daily: “The party's position will not obstruct the executive authority's role, but it will delay its work.” Media reports on Thursday said that the Kataeb ministers will refrain from signing laws and projects at cabinet. Such a step will complicate the adoption of the laws, especially since some of them require the signatures of all ministers because the cabinet is playing the role of the president in the absence of a head of state, the reports added. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the polls. The parliament held a legislative session last week to tackle pending draft laws. The meeting was boycotted by the Kataeb Party because it deems holding legislative sessions in the absence of a president as illegal.

Report: Security Forces Cooperating with International Agencies in Terrorism Fight
Naharnet/November 20/15/The Lebanese security agencies are increasing their coordination with foreign ones in their fight against terrorism, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday. A security source told the daily: “The coordination between the two sides has increased because the fight against terrorism has exceeded geographical borders.” “Dormant cells have been awakened due to political developments,” it added. “The terrorist organizations believe that targeting the West with assaults, pressure, and confusion may halt the western campaign against them,” they stated. “Lebanon in turn will be a target because it is part of the war on terror,” warned the source. Furthermore, it noted that the security agencies' discovery of a number of terror cells can be credited to the exchange of intelligence between them and foreign agencies. The Lebanese authorities have in recent days uncovered a number of terror cells, arresting a number of suspects and confiscating weapons, explosives, and detonators.Last week, twin suicide bombings targeted the Bourj al-Barajneh district in southern Beirut. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack that left over 43 people dead.

Berri Warned of Israel's 'Real Threat' to Lebanon's Oil Wealth
Naharnet/November 20/15/Speaker Nabih Berri received on Thursday a message from the Lebanese Petroleum Association that Lebanon's offshore oil wealth is under threat from Israel, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday. It said: “Lebanon's wealth is under real threat from Israel due to its excessive actions in stealing its oil.”Lebanese authorities had received information that Israel had started drilling oil and gas wells near Lebanon's Exclusive Economic Zone by its southern border, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Friday. Parliamentary sources told the daily that one well lies four kilometers off Lebanon's maritime borders, while the other is nine kilometers away. This means that drilling can eat away at Lebanon's wealth, warned the sources. The Ministry of Energy had issued a report warning authorities that if they did not take action in this file, then the country is facing a real danger of losing its wealth. The sources explained that parliament had issued the necessary laws linked to tackling the petroleum file, but it is now a victim of political dealings between the government and various political forces. In March 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 34.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the territorial waters of Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Cyprus. In August 2014, the government postponed for the fifth time the first round of licensing for gas exploration over a political dispute. The disagreements were over the designation of blocks open for bidding and the terms of a draft exploration agreement. Lebanon and Israel are bickering over a maritime zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars. Lebanese officials have continuously warned that Israel's exploration of new offshore gas fields near Lebanese territorial waters means the Jewish state is siphoning some of Lebanon's crude oil. The U.S. had offered to mediate between the sides in an attempt to reach a solution. Beirut argues that a maritime map it submitted to the U.N. is in line with an armistice accord drawn up in 1949, an agreement which is not contested by Israel.

Another Lebanese independence day without a president
Nayla Tueni/November 21/15/Lebanon still suffers from a presidential vacuum as it marks its 72nd Independence Day this week. The country is like an old man no longer capable of keeping up with ordinary life. State institutions’ work is almost at a standstill, there has been no president since 2014, the government is paralyzed, and parliament only convenes when necessary. Meanwhile, people suffer as problems such as the trash crisis remain unsolved. Dialogue has failed to agree on how to constitutionally run state affairs. Instead, politicians argue over an electoral law and the Syrian crisis. Electing a president will not protect us from terrorism, but it will reflect a domestic consensus and garner foreign support. This is what Lebanon needs to confront difficulties regarding security, the economy and society. Electing a president restores regularity to the work of institutions that have lost citizens’ trust. Electing a president restores regularity to the work of institutions that have lost citizens’ trust. The cabinet has failed to resolve the trash crisis due to sectarian divisions. Political bickering and pre-conditions continue. One party names a candidate, another vetoes him. It is all a waste of time, and a violation of the constitution as long as someone obstructs electing a president and boycotts parliamentary sessions on the matter. It is a violation of the independence achieved by our grandparents, who were wiser, more patriotic, and less loyal to foreign parties. Parties need to stop throwing the ball in each other’s court in an attempt to achieve populist victories. The collapse of the country will hurt everyone.

At Least 27 Dead as Gunmen Seize Over 100 Hostage at Mali Hotel, Qaida-linked Group Claims Attack
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/Jihadist gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Friday, firing automatic weapons and seizing more than 100 guests and staff in a hostage-taking that left at least 27 people dead. Special forces staged a dramatic floor-by-floor rescue at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, according to local television and security sources, to end the nine-hour siege. The assault added to fears over the global jihadist threat a week after the Paris massacre that left 130 people dead. The Qaida-linked jihadist group al-Murabitoun claimed responsibility for the attack. "We the Murabitoun, with the participation of our brothers from Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, claim the hostage-taking operation at the Radisson hotel," said a man's voice in an audio recording broadcast by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. Al-Murabitoun, headed by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was founded in 2013 and presents itself as the West African branch of al-Qaida. Al-Murabitoun was born of the fusion of Belmokhtar's al-Qaida breakaway group "Signatories in Blood" and MUJAO, one of the jihadist groups that seized northern Mali in early 2012. "Signatories in Blood" allegedly masterminded the January 2013 siege of an Algerian gas plant in which around 40 hostages, mainly Westerners, were killed. Malian television broadcast chaotic scenes from inside the hotel as police and other security personnel ushered bewildered guests along corridors and across the main lobby. Malian security sources said at least 27 hostages had been killed, adding that French special forces had been "participating in operations alongside Malians.""The hostage-taking is over. We are in the process of securing the hotel," a Malian military source said, as civil protection officers removed the victims in orange body bags. Two U.S. special forces troops who happened to be at the nearby U.S. embassy for meetings assisted in the rescue of six Americans. France's defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said several countries had long been searching for Belmokhtar. "He is likely behind this attack although we are not completely certain of it," Le Drian told France's TF1 television channel. The palatial 190-room Radisson, regarded as one of west Africa's best hotels, attracts entrepreneurs, tourists and government officials from across the world with its luxury spa, outdoor pool and conference suites. Witnesses talked of around a dozen armed assailants, but the Malian military source reported the deaths of three "terrorists who were shot or blew themselves up", adding that the total number of gunmen was not more than four.
Waving in desperation
A paramedic said three security guards had been wounded while an AFP correspondent saw a police officer, who had been shot, being evacuated by security forces. An AFP photographer saw a white man appear several times at a window on the second floor, apparently appealing for help. A Chinese tourist quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency said the "smell of smoke spread through the corridors and rooms" and that the internet was down.The men are believed to have entered the hotel around 0700 GMT at the same time as a car with diplomatic plates, with many guests still in their rooms. The nationalities of the victims have not yet been revealed, although a Belgian regional assembly official, in Mali for a convention, was among those killed, his parliament said. India said 20 of its nationals were freed while Xinhua said at least seven Chinese were involved. Twelve Air France employees were in a "safe place", the company announced, while seven Turkish Airlines crew members, seven Algerians and two Germans were also freed. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon led international condemnation of the "horrific terrorist attack" suggesting the violence was aimed at destroying peace efforts in the country.
Security questions
Malian soldiers, police and special forces were at the scene soon after the attack began, along with members of the U.N.'s MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali and French troops deployed in west Africa under Operation Barkhane. Paris said before the rescue it was sending around 40 officers from an elite French unit of paramilitary police specialized in hostage situations. France has more than 1,000 troops in its former colony, a key battleground of the Barkhane counter-terror mission spanning five countries in Africa's restive Sahel region. Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was in Chad for a summit of regional leaders, cut short his trip to fly home. Questions were raised over security at the hotel, with one regular guest, a French consultant, telling AFP that cars entering the compound were not always properly searched. The attack follows a hotel siege in August in the central Mali town of Sevare in which five U.N. workers were killed along with four soldiers and four attackers. Five people, including a French citizen and a Belgian, were also killed in an assault on a Bamako restaurant in March, the first such incident in the capital targeting Westerners. The north fell under the control of Tuareg rebels and jihadist groups linked to al-Qaida in mid-2012. The Islamists sidelined the Tuareg to take sole control but were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013. Large swathes of Mali remain lawless despite a June peace deal between the former Tuareg rebels and rival pro-government armed groups.

IS Claims Deadly Attacks on Yemen Barracks with Army Blaming Qaida
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/The jihadist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for attacks on the army in southeast Yemen on Friday, after the military had blamed al-Qaida for the assaults that cost dozens of lives. IS said in a statement, quoted by SITE monitoring group, that 50 Yemeni troops were killed in multi-pronged attacks including a suicide bombing and clashes in Hadramawt province. The Yemeni army earlier said al-Qaida had launched the attacks on army positions near the town of Shibam, and that 12 soldiers and 19 jihadists were killed. Medics later said the army lost 15 men and that several civilians were wounded. Hadramawt province is a stronghold of al-Qaida whose militants control its capital Mukalla. The IS group is also present in Yemen feeding on chaos in the country where a Saudi-led Arab coalition has been battling Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels opposed to the government.
Both al-Qaida and IS are visibly present in Yemen's second city Aden, where the Saudi-backed government has set up a temporary headquarters after the Huthis took over the capital Sanaa. On October 6, the temporary headquarters came under attack in a series of bombings that lightly wounded several ministers and killed 15 people. IS claimed the bombings which also hit military installations used by coalition troops. In its latest claim, IS said its operation on Friday targeted "three barracks of the apostate Yemeni army" on a road near Shibam in Hadramawt, SITE reported. IS said its fighters seized the barracks, killing or wounding those inside and that later a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into army reinforcements sent to the area. The statement claimed that in all 50 soldiers were killed and said that clashes with Yemeni troops were still underway.
- 'Manhattan of the Desert' -
The army and local officials earlier blamed Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for the attacks. The main assault was staged at the western entrance to Shibam, known as the "Manhattan of the Desert" and listed as a UNESCO world heritage site for its high-rise mud-brick buildings, the army said. Local officials said fierce clashes broke out after jihadists exploded a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol, while a suicide bomber blew up a car at an army post near a residential area. "The blast damaged many homes, wounding several civilians," a medical source said in the nearby town of Seiyun, where the casualties and the bodies of the dead soldiers were transported. Among the first bloody attacks that IS claimed in Yemen were a series of bombings against Shiite mosques in Sanaa in March that killed 142 people.The jihadist Sunni Muslim IS considers Shiites as heretics. Taking advantage of Huthi advances in northern and southern Yemen and the collapse of central authority, al-Qaida seized control in April of the port city of Mukalla. For its part, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has imposed a strict version of sharia Islamic law in areas of Yemen under its control. The group has executed or lashed those it accused of "crimes" including homosexuality and sorcery. Those accused of theft have their hands cut off.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram kills 49 in suicide bombings
AP, Nigeria Thursday, 19 November 2015/The suicide bomber exploded as truckers were tucking into dinner at the bustling marketplace where vendors urged them to buy sugar cane. At least 34 people were killed and another 80 wounded in Yola, a town packed with refugees from Nigeria's Islamic uprising, emergency officials said Wednesday. Later Wednesday, two more suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano and injured 53, according to police. Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said more than 100 were wounded. The blasts were the latest by Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown extremists whose 6-year insurgency has killed 20,000 and forced 2.3 million to flee their homes. Boko Haram was named Wednesday as the world’s most deadly extremist group in the Global Terrorism Index. Deaths attributed to Boko Haram increased by 317 percent in 2014 to 6,644 compared to 6,073 blamed on the Islamic State group. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to IS in March and calls itself that group's West Africa Province.
Wednesday’s explosions came as President Muhammadu Buhari pressed his campaign against Nigeria’s endemic corruption, blamed for hampering the fight against the insurgents. Buhari accused his predecessor’s national security adviser of stealing billions of dollars meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram, when soldiers had just a few bullets and the Islamic extremists were rampaging across northeast Nigeria. Critics long have blamed corruption for the military’s failures, asking how the insurgents can be better armed than Nigerian soldiers despite an annual defense budget of more than $5 billion, supplemented last year by a loan of $1 billion. Buhari ordered the arrests of several former high-ranking officials allegedly linked to fraudulent and fictitious arms contracts totaling $5.4 billion, one of his advisers, Femi Adesina, said in a statement. “Thousands of needless Nigerian deaths would have been avoided” if the money had been properly spent, Adesina said.
The unending violence has torn apart Nigeria’s northeast. In the city of Yola, hit by a suicide bombing for the third time in as many months, relatives searching for missing loved ones converged on the two main hospitals. “I couldn't find them at the hospital so I had to come to the mortuary,” said a distraught Musa Adamu. He said his brother, Kamal, was selling sugar cane to truckers and his uncle had gone to look for him. Adamu found both their bodies in the morgue. Eight children were among the dead, said Yola Specialist Hospital director Dr. Bala Sa’id. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. condemns the bombings and renews its commitment to work with Nigeria and its neighbors to defeat Boko Haram and to address violent extremism in the region.“We denounce the callous terrorist acts that have taken place repeatedly in Nigeria and other countries in the Lake Chad Basin and offer our condolences to the victims and their families,” he said. “Of course, those responsible for these crimes must be held accountable.”Many Nigerians welcomed the order for the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the former national security adviser accused of diverting billions that should have equipped the army.“Beyond corruption, Dasuki should be charged for high treason: Men, women and children died because their armed forces could not defend them,” one angry Nigerian, D. Olusegun, tweeted. Buhari ordered the arrest of Dasuki, a key adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan from 2012, and other unnamed high-ranking officials mentioned in an interim report by a committee investigating arms procurement since 2007 that Buhari ordered after he took office in May. Dasuki is accused of awarding “phantom contracts” to buy 12 helicopters, four fighter jets and munitions worth $2.9 billion that never were supplied, Adesina said. Buhari fired him in July. In a statement, Dasuki said the allegations were “laughable” and that “I am not a thief or treasury looter as being portrayed.”He said he has a November 2015 memo from the then chief of air staff acknowledging receipt of the jets and helicopters.An October memo confirmed receipt of 250 kilograms of bombs and accessories costing $2.89 million with freight costs of $1.2 million, Dasuki said. “It is not for me to go and find out whether the equipment was delivered or not. I am not the one keeping the inventories,” he said.Dasuki insisted the presidential committee had never asked him to give evidence, though Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service, has said that Dasuki refused to answer the committee’s questions.
Security agents said that was why they have been besieging Dasuki’s home in Abuja, the capital, despite a Federal High Court order allowing him to travel abroad for medical care. The court had allowed Dasuki bail after he pleaded innocent to other charges of money-laundering, involving more than $423,000 found in cash, and illegal possession of arms seized at two of his homes. Dasuki said he was proud that in the final months under his watch Nigeria’s military ousted Boko Haram from its self-declared Islamic caliphate. That offensive came as Jonathan faced elections. In the year before, soldiers fled before the extremists, allowing them to seize control of a large swath of northeast Nigeria. Soldiers told The Associated Press they were going into battle without food and armed with just 30 bullets each. Dasuki, 60, had usurped the role of the Ministry of Defense in procuring weapons. A retired army lieutenant-colonel, Dasuki participated in every coup in Nigeria since the 1980s.

Muslim cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Nasr: “The Islamic State is a byproduct of Al Azhar’s programs”
Raymond Ibrahim/November 20, 2015
Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Nasr, a scholar of Islamic law and graduate of Egypt’s Al Azhar University—regularly touted as the world’s most prestigious Islamic university—recently exposed his alma mater in a televised interview. After being asked why Al Azhar, which is in the habit of denouncing secular thinkers as un-Islamic, refuses to denounce the Islamic State as un-Islamic, Sheikh Nasr said: It can’t [condemn the Islamic State as un-Islamic]. The Islamic State is a byproduct of Al Azhar’s programs. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic? Al Azhar says there must be a caliphate and that it is an obligation for the Muslim world [to establish it]. Al Azhar teaches the law of apostasy and killing the apostate. Al Azhar is hostile towards religious minorities, and teaches things like not building churches, etc. Al Azhar upholds the institution of jizya [extracting tribute from religious minorities]. Al Azhar teaches stoning people. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic? Nasr joins a growing chorus of critics of Al Azhar. Last September, while discussing how the Islamic State burns some of its victims alive—most notoriously, a Jordanian pilot—Egyptian journalist Yusuf al-Husayni remarked on his satellite program that “The Islamic State is only doing what Al Azhar teaches… and the simplest example is Ibn Kathir’s Beginning and End.”Ibn Kathir is one of Sunni Islam’s most renowned scholars; his Beginning and End is a magisterial history of Islam and a staple at Al Azhar. It is also full of Muslims, beginning with Muhammad, committing the sorts of atrocities that the Islamic State and other Islamic organizations and persons commit. In February, Egyptian political writer Dr. Khalid al-Montaser revealed that Al Azhar was encouraging enmity for non-Muslims, specifically Coptic Christians, and even inciting for their murder. Marveled Montaser: Is it possible at this sensitive time — when murderous terrorists rest on texts and understandings of takfir [accusing Muslims of apostasy], murder, slaughter, and beheading — that Al Azhar magazine is offering free of charge a book whose latter half and every page — indeed every few lines — ends with “whoever disbelieves [non-Muslims] strike off his head”?The prestigious Islamic university—which co-hosted U.S. President Obama’s 2009 “A New Beginning” speech—has even issued a free booklet dedicated to proving that Christianity is a “failed religion.”In short, the phenomenon known as “ISIS” is not a temporal aberration within Islam but rather a byproduct of what is considered normative thinking for Al Azhar—the Islamic world’s most authoritative university.

U.S. Says Strike in Iraq 'Likely' Killed Four Civilians
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/Four civilians, including possibly a child, were "likely" killed in a U.S. air strike against an Islamic State group checkpoint in Iraq in March, an investigation released Friday found. It marks only the second such concession since the start of a coalition air campaign in Iraq and Syria -- the U.S. military in November 2014 admitted accidentally killing two children during a strike in Syria. The U.S. military, which for more than a year has led the coalition bombing IS extremists' positions in the two countries, investigated the Iraq incident after a woman said her car had been destroyed with five civilians in it. "The preponderance of the evidence gathered during the investigation indicates that the air (strike) likely resulted in the deaths of four non-combatants," the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. "One of the non-combatants may have been a child."Officials say a U.S. A-10 air-to-ground combat plane targeted the checkpoint on March 13, near an IS-held area of Hatra in northern Iraq. "However, before coalition air forces could complete the air strike, two vehicles arrived at the checkpoint and parked within the target area," the investigation states. Because the drivers of the cars were talking to people at the checkpoint for about 40 minutes while other vehicles drove through, the U.S. pilot and supervisors decided the drivers were "ISIL and therefore lawful targets."The A-10 air crew did not realize four "additional personnel" had been in the vehicles. According to the report, it was not possible to definitively prove the gender or age of the victim who might have been a child. Colonel Pat Ryder said that 26 other similar cases or allegations are under various stages of review. "We regret the unintentional loss of lives and keep those families in our thoughts," Lieutenant General CQ Brown of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said. "Our goal is to defeat Daesh (the IS group), a terrorist organization that continuously wraps itself around the population, and we do everything we can to prevent unintended deaths or injuries to non-combatants."

Jewish Groups slam Trump's proposed registry for Muslims in the US
DANIELLE ZIRI/J.Post/11/21/2015/The American Jewish Committee as well as the Anti-Defamation League denounced on Friday Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s latest proposal to create a database for all Muslims living in the United States. During a campaign stop in Iowa, Trump told an NBC reporter he would “certainly implement” a registry forcing Muslims to “sign up at different places” and make themselves known. According to a report by the New York Times, asked later how such a database would be different from Jews having to register in Nazi Germany, the republican front-runner repeatedly said, “You tell me,” before dismissing the question. The American Jewish Committee issued a statement calling Trump’s idea “outrageous” and “un-American.” “Singling out any ethnic or faith group to register with the government is morally repugnant, not to mention unconstitutional,” AJC Executive Director David Harris said. “What Mr. Trump proposes, in this case targeting all Muslims, is a horror movie that we Jews are quite familiar with.”Harris added that such a move can “easily lead to heightened discrimination, persecution, and scapegoating. And, in the United States, there is no place for this kind of divisive, hateful rhetoric.” Harris called on the response to security threats to focus on individuals whom authorities believe could pose a danger, instead of concentrating on a religious or national community as a whole. The Anti-Defamation League joined the opposition in a statement and called Trump’s claim “deeply troubling” and “reminiscent of darker days in American history.”“Such a proposal is not only inimical to our cherished civil liberties, but it also wildly misses the goal of finding a rational balance between civil liberties and the security measures necessary to protect those liberties.”The ADL also criticized Republican presidential hopefuls Senator Ted Cruz for recently making “regrettable’ statements saying that the US should only take in Christian refugees, and Ben Carson, for Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs.”In the midst of the heated debate on Syrian refugees following the tragedy in Paris, the Republican candidates have criticized President Obama’s plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States in the next fiscal year.JTA contributed to this report.

Russia Pounds IS Jihadists with 'For Paris' Bombs
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/Russia is pounding the Islamic State jihadists in Syria with bombs emblazoned with the words "For our people" and "For Paris" after Moscow vowed vengeance following the bombing of a plane over Sinai. Russian television broadcast a video in which a man is seen scrawling "For our people!" and "For Paris!" in black pen on aerial bombs minutes before a warplane is set to take off from the country's airbase in Syria. "For our people! For Paris! Pilots and technicians of #Hmeymim airbase sent a message to terrorists by airmail," the Russian defense ministry said on its official Twitter account. "The armed forces are conducting an aerial campaign of retribution," the defense ministry said in a separate statement, adding the military had begun coordinating their operations with the French. Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to hunt down and "punish" those behind a bomb attack that brought down a passenger jet over Sinai last month, killing all 224 people, mostly Russian holidaymakers, on board. After the carnage in Paris which claimed the lives of 130 people Putin and French President Francois Hollande agreed to "ensure closer contact and coordination" in their countries' operations in Syria. The two leaders will meet at the Kremlin next week. Unverified images have been circulating on the internet of Syria-bound U.S. missiles bearing the handwritten inscription "From Paris with love." Russia has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria since September 30, the country's largest foreign intervention outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. The Islamic State group said it had bombed the Russian jet in Egypt in retaliation for the bombing raids.

Palestinian 'Apostate' Gets Saudi Death Sentence
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/A Palestinian in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death for apostasy, a rare ruling which can be appealed, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. The ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom's use of the death penalty -- typically carried out by beheading -- has drawn widespread international criticism. A lower court on Tuesday issued the sentence against Ashraf Fayad, said Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for the New York-based HRW. That decision, apparently after an appeal, overturned another lower court's ruling in 2014 sentencing Fayad to four years' prison and 800 lashes. "I read the court documents," Coogle said. The complaint against Fayad stemmed from a cultural discussion group at a cafe in the Gulf state's southwestern city of Abha. "What Ashraf claims is that he had a falling out with other members of the group," Coogle said. One man claimed he heard Fayad say things against God, while a religious scholar accused Fayad of blasphemy in a volume of poetry he had written a decade previously, Coogle said. At the first trial, witnesses for Fayad testified that the man who complained was probably "out to get him". As for the second accusation, Fayad denied the book was blasphemous but apologised in case it was. Because of that remorse and the complainant's possible ulterior motives, the court "didn't want to sentence him to death", Coogle said. On Tuesday, however, the second court did not consider the testimony of Fayad's witnesses. Arguing that "repentance is for God", it sentenced him to death, the researcher said. As the verdict is a lower court ruling, it can still be reviewed by an appeals court and the supreme court. All executions also have to be ultimately approved by King Salman. Under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death. "It's pretty rare" to have a conviction for apostasy, Coogle said. Saudi media reported one other death sentence issued this year for apostasy -- abandoning one's faith. London-based Amnesty International last week said 151 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year, the highest figure since 192 people were put to death in 1995. On Tuesday, the European Union issued a statement saying that a number of people had been put to death recently in Saudi Arabia after convictions for drug trafficking. "The European Union is opposed to capital punishment in all cases and without exception," it said. Saudi Arabia's interior ministry says the death penalty is a deterrent to crime.

Russian Minister Says '600 Fighters' Dead in Cruise Missile Attack on One Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/Russia on Friday unleashed cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea at targets across Syria, the defense minister said, as Moscow kept up its intensified bombardments in the war-torn country. Moscow fired 18 missiles from ships in its Caspian Sea fleet at seven targets in the Raqa, Idlib and Aleppo provinces, defense minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. It was the second time that warships have been used since the start of the bombing campaign on September 30. Moscow has stepped up its strikes in Syria with long-distance bombers after confirming for the first time on Tuesday that a bomb downed a Russian airliner in Egypt last month. Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a briefing that cruise missile strikes against one target near the Islamic State-controlled city of Deir Ezzor had killed "more than 600 fighters," but did not specify when the strike had taken place. At least eight people were killed in at least 50 air strikes in the eastern Deir Ezzor province Friday, during which dozens of oil tankers were destroyed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Russia has also doubled the number of jets it has based in government-held territory in Syria to 69 over the past few days, Shoigu said. Putin praised the Russian operation in Syria but said it was "still not sufficient" to wipe out the jihadists in the country and that a "large volume of work" lay ahead. Russia is bombing in Syria at the request of its longstanding ally President Bashar Assad, while a U.S.-led coalition is conducting its own air campaign against IS.

Heavy Syria Air Strikes Kill 8, Destroy Oil Tankers
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/At least eight people were killed in at least 50 air strikes on Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province Friday, during which dozens of oil tankers were destroyed, a monitor said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids were carried out either by Syrian or Russian war planes. The Britain-based Observatory said it had documented at least 50 strikes in different parts of the oil-rich province, large parts of which are controlled by the Islamic State group. It said dozens of oil tankers and other vehicles used for transporting crude had been destroyed. "This is the first time Deir Ezzor has experienced strikes of this intensity," the monitor said. The strikes come after the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS said earlier this week it had destroyed 116 fuel trucks used by the jihadists in Albu Kamal, an IS-held town in Deir Ezzor. A coalition spokesman said that was part of a strategy to "start degrading (IS') financial ability." The coalition began strikes in Syria last year, and Russia launched its own aerial campaign there on September 30. Also in Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said fierce fighting was ongoing between regime forces and IS militants who tried to storm the military airport in the province, which is held by the regime.IS militants had failed to enter the airport, but fighting was ongoing outside it and at least eight regime forces and 22 IS fighters had been killed. Most of Deir Ezzor is held by IS, but the regime has clung onto the military airport and the provincial capital.

Russian Strikes in Syria Kill more than 1,300, Says Monitor
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/More than 1,300 people, around two-thirds of them combatants, have been killed in Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow's aerial campaign began on September 30, a monitor said Friday. The figure supplied by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is more that double the overall toll it gave in its last report on the Russian campaign three weeks ago. The Britain-based Observatory said it had documented 1,331 deaths in Russian air strikes, most of them of Islamic State group jihadists or other fighters.. It said 381 IS fighters had been killed, along with 547 militants from Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front and other rebel forces. The strikes also killed 403 civilians, including 97 children, according to the monitor. The Observatory's last toll for the campaign, on October 29, put the number of killed at nearly 600. Russia says its aerial campaign targets IS and other "terrorists" but rebel forces and their backers accuse Moscow of focusing on moderate and Islamist fighters over jihadists. Several medical groups have also accused Russia of strikes that have hit field clinics and hospitals in Syria. Russia's intervention in Syria follows that of a US-led coalition that has been carrying out strikes against IS in the country since September 2014. The U.S.-led coalition does not coordinate with Damascus however. According to the Observatory, the U.S.-led strikes have killed at least 3,649 people since they began, around six percent of them civilians.The monitor said in late October that U.S.-led raids had killed 3,276 IS fighters, 147 members of Al-Nusra or Islamist groups and 226 civilians.

Heavy Syria Air Strikes Kill 8, Destroy Oil Tankers
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/At least eight people were killed in at least 50 air strikes on Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province Friday, during which dozens of oil tankers were destroyed, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids were carried out either by Syrian or Russian war planes. The Britain-based Observatory said it had documented at least 50 strikes in different parts of the oil-rich province, large parts of which are controlled by the Islamic State group. It said dozens of oil tankers and other vehicles used for transporting crude had been destroyed. "This is the first time Deir Ezzor has experienced strikes of this intensity," the monitor said. The strikes come after the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS said earlier this week it had destroyed 116 fuel trucks used by the jihadists in Albu Kamal, an IS-held town in Deir Ezzor. A coalition spokesman said that was part of a strategy to "start degrading (IS') financial ability."The coalition began strikes in Syria last year, and Russia launched its own aerial campaign there on September 30. Also in Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said fierce fighting was ongoing between regime forces and IS militants who tried to storm the military airport in the province, which is held by the regime. IS militants had failed to enter the airport, but fighting was ongoing outside it and at least eight regime forces and 22 IS fighters had been killed. Most of Deir Ezzor is held by IS, but the regime has clung onto the military airport and the provincial capital.

Israelis, Palestinians Bury Dead after Surge in Violence
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 20/15/Israelis and Palestinians buried their dead on Friday after one of the deadliest days in nearly eight weeks of lone wolf violence that is challenging Israeli security thinking. Three Israelis, an American and a Palestinian were killed on Thursday in two attacks by Palestinians in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank. Both assailants were arrested. The killings came after a few days of apparent calm, shattering hopes the wave of violence was subsiding. Violence since the start of October has killed at least 86 people on the Palestinian side, including one Arab Israeli, 15 Israelis, an American and an Ethiopian. Israeli security officials quietly admit they are preparing for months of attacks while analysts said new checks will be needed to prevent further bloodshed. In Kfar Etzion south of Jerusalem, more than 1,000 mostly Orthodox Jews attended the funeral of Yaakov Don. He was killed Thursday afternoon when an assailant opened fire from a car near a Jewish settlement block south of Jerusalem before crashing into pedestrians. In Hebron, around 2,000 Palestinian crowded outside the Al-Hussein Ibn Ali mosque to mourn Shadi Arafa, who was killed in the same attack. His brother Baha said he was hit by Israeli fire although an investigation is underway to determine the exact circumstances of his death. Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces erupted after the funeral. The body of the third victim, American Ezra Schwartz, is being flown back to the United States for burial.Two Israelis killed in the Tel Aviv attack when a Palestinian stormed into an office building with a knife were buried in separate funerals also on Friday.
New pressures
The Tel Aviv stabbing was the first attack to take place in Israel's commercial capital since the wave of unrest erupted in October. Analysts said it was a concerning new trend as the perpetrator had a permit to work in Israel, was married with five children and had no previous criminal record. Tens of thousands of Palestinians with work permits travel into Israel daily and are traditionally perceived as a low threat. Writing in the Israel Hayom newspaper, Yoav Limor suggested the attack may lead to tighter restrictions. "If there are more terror attacks committed by people with permits, this will necessitate, at the very least, more stringent checks," said Limor. Benedetta Berti, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, said the latest attacks suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strategy for containing the violence was failing. "There has been a perception that the stabbings were going to wind down and eventually go away and this could be managed through additional deployment of troops or more checkpoints, but it has just been proven untrue," Berti told AFP. The assailants have largely been acting alone rather than in coordination with militant parties, making it nearly impossible to predict where and when attacks will occur. A senior military source told AFP the security services had no previous records of over 90 percent of the attackers. Yoram Schweitzer, a former head of the Israeli army's counter-terrorism department, said it was likely such attacks would continue."If somebody is doing an operation on a whim, with no prior planning, most probably we won't have any intelligence about it. So we have to try to defuse these operations on the ground."Berti said that for now the level of attacks was manageable, but there was pressure on the Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamist Hamas movement to back the uprising. "If you start to see more organized backing then the genie is out of the bottle," she said.

How Iraq just legalized discrimination of minorities
Ali Mamouri/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
Amid all the suffering they are already subject to, the minorities in Iraq now have to deal with a National Identity Card Law that systematizes infringement on their rights. This law, which parliament passed in late October, came after the numbers of Iraqi minorities dwindled, following the massacres and organized attacks that have caused the displacement of the vast majority of them.According to statistical projections, Iraq will be a minorities-free country in the near future, which brings to mind the displacement of the Jewish minority in Iraq in the 1950s and 1960s. The Iraqi legislator was supposed to take this fact into account, as it undermines Iraq’s political system and promulgates a law that promotes the presence of minorities in Iraq and protects them from the dominance and political encroachment by the majority (Muslims). However, the opposite happened. Indeed, the National Identity Card Law originally was supposed to facilitate administrative formalities for Iraqi citizens, as it confers to these citizens one identity instead of several identities to complete the required formalities with governmental institutions. However, this law tackles details that are not related to the main objective and has turned into a form of discrimination against non-Muslim minorities.
Article 26 of this law includes two provisions that set the foundation for a systematic discrimination against minorities, which may end their presence in the country:
A non-Muslim may switch his religion according to the law.
A minor is registered as Muslim following a conversion of any of the parents to Islam.
These provisions mean that only non-Muslims can convert their religion to Islam according to the law, while Muslims cannot convert their religion. Moreover, a child born within a marriage between a Muslim and non-Muslim shall take on the Muslim religion, regardless of the gender of the Muslim parent. This means that if one of the parents converts to Islam the child will automatically become a Muslim.
This law sparked the resentment and objection of all religious minorities whose members of parliament suspended their attendance to parliamentary voting sessions as a sign of protest. Christian MP Yonadam Kanna stated in a press conference held on the day of the vote on the law in parliament, in the presence of other minority representatives, “Article 26 is unfair and inconsistent with the principles of the constitution and violates its articles. Article 26 deprives human beings of their will to choose their own faith, religion and conviction. It is contrary to the Islamic principle that there is no compulsion in religion.”
In the same vein, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church Louis Raphael I Sako expressed in a statement issued on Oct. 31 that he regrets the article was approved. He said, ”We submitted a request to amend the law a few months ago to the Iraqi parliament based on our pursuit of justice and equality, but the decision was unfair to non-Muslim minorities.” He added, "This is an unfortunate departure from the principle of pluralism and respect for diversity and privacy.”
Indeed, religious minorities, civil society organizations and democratic groups staged several demonstrations and protest rallies against this law in various regions of Iraq, such as in Erbil on Nov. 5.
In this respect, Masarat Foundation, which specializes in minority affairs, held a conference on Nov. 4 at the Mandaeans (an ancient indigenous minority in Iraq) headquarters in Baghdad, which was attended by representatives of various Iraqi religious minorities to denounce Article 26.
Masarat Foundation Chairman Saad Salloum told Al-Monitor, “Minorities feel that there is systematic and integrated discrimination policy against them and that the Iraqi legislator is complementing the mission of the Islamic State (IS) in imposing the Islamic religion on minorities and causing them to flee the country in the near future.”
Saib Khidir, the representative of the Yazidis in the Iraqi Council for Interfaith Dialogue, specified that the new law is reproduced from a law passed under Saddam Hussein. He told Al-Monitor, ”What is happening is a continuation of the policy of discrimination against minorities that started under the Baathist regime. The new National Identity Card Law reproduced the text of the Civil Status Law No. 65 of 1972 [Article 21/III], which specifies that a minor is registered as Muslim following a conversion of any of the parents to Islam."
Those who opposed Saddam's regime, and who are now in power, because he did not give them their religious rights are reproducing discriminatory laws today. Khidir describes the new law as a clear violation of human rights and several articles of the Iraqi Constitution, including Article 2 that specifies that the constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and guarantees the full religious rights to freedom of religious belief and practice of all individuals such as Christians, Yazidis and Mandean Sabeans, and Article 42 that states that each individual shall have the freedom of thought, conscience and belief.
Numerous civil rights activists believe the Iraqi legislator did the opposite of what is expected from him under the circumstances, since the law must be based on the implementation of positive discrimination in favor of minorities in cases where there is a possibility of marginalization and discrimination, or the threat of extinction. This means that in such cases, minorities should be provided with further protection and assistance, to preserve their presence in the country.
The current situation on the ground in Iraq is as follows:
The indigenous regions of the minorities have fallen under IS control since June 2014.
Most of the minorities members have left the country, and the rest are displaced across Iraq.
The Iraqi government is unable to provide security and a decent life for these minorities.
The controversial article is not deemed a religious necessity, however, which means that its removal will not lead to the violation of Islamic teachings. Moreover, it is possible for the national identity card not to include a religion field, which is the most appropriate solution for the worsening sectarian situation in Iraq. There are also other legal options such as suspending the religion of children of mixed-religion families until they reach adulthood, when they can choose their religion. The situation of minorities in Iraq has reached the most dangerous level in history, which is worsened by this law. One may say that minorities are taking their last breath in a country that does not provide them with any protection and fundamental rights and freedoms. One may also wonder whether the Iraqi government, at all levels, is aware of the seriousness of the situation faced by these minorities, and of the dangerous social and humanitarian consequences of the demise of their physical and cultural presence in Iraq.

Are the attacks in Paris connected with attacks in Israel?
Mazal Mualem/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
“The Paris attacks provided the Cabinet with the support it needed to outlaw [the northern branch of] the Islamic Movement,” said a senior Likud minister, explaining the timing of a decision after it had been postponed repeatedly over the past few weeks. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added, “As soon as the scope of the Paris attacks became clear, it was obvious that this was the right time. The whole world was reeling from Islamic terror. Moves of that sort have legitimacy, and the focus would be less on us now.” According to him, the move was a necessary one. “It is just too bad we didn’t do it earlier,” he said.From the moment that details about the events in Paris came out Nov. 13, it was only a matter of time until Israeli politicians on the right, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would use the bloody attacks to promote their narrative. Outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic Movement was a move directly connected, time-wise, to the effects of the Paris attacks. The international press was focused on events in Europe, French fighter jets were bombing Islamic State territories, and the Americans were actively involved in destroying the group’s oil tankers. Given this mood, the Security Cabinet could take certain steps that it ordinarily could not without provoking a powerful international response against Israel. Even the Zionist Camp fell in line. Its leaders, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, both supported the decision.
Israel’s Islamic Movement is a religious and political organization that was founded in the 1970s to bring Israel’s Arab citizens closer to Islam. There was an ideological rift in the movement in the 1990s, while the Oslo process was underway. As a result, the movement split into the more radical northern branch, which opposed the Oslo Accord and established ties with Hamas, and the southern branch, which is considered more pragmatic and moderate. Some in Israel claim that the northern branch is one of the major contributors to the current wave of violence that erupted on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Even before making their decision about the Islamic Movement, just hours after the attacks in Paris took place, the leaders of the Israeli right released statements linking the tragedy in the French capital to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. That the incident in Paris came during a wave of Palestinian terrorism in Israel made it possible for them to argue that “we’re all in the same boat” in the struggle against Islamic terror.
As soon as the Sabbath was over, the chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, wrote a Facebook post expressing solidarity with the French people, accompanied by a wistful photo of the Eiffel Tower at sunset. What stood out most in his statement, however, was his effort to link the terrorist attack in France to the conflict with the Palestinians: “We share the pain of our French brothers and sisters. This time, all the tears, the messages of consolation and tweets from celebrities will not be enough. From Jerusalem to Paris, from New York to Madrid, the free world is under attack by radical Islam. It is time to wage an uncompromising war against them, with relentless strikes against their territory, until victory. There is no other way.” His comments inspired thousands of likes and shares.
The number-two person in HaBayit HaYehudi, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, also wrote a popular Facebook post less than a day after the events in Paris. She linked the terrorist attack in Europe with another that occurred that same day in the southern Mount Hebron region, in which a father and son were killed. “I share in the anguish of the Litman family of Kiryat Arba, and in the pain of the families of those killed in Paris. Fundamentalist Islamic terror does not distinguish between Jews and Christians, between Israelis and French. As far as it is concerned, we are all heretics. We will fight against this terrorism with all the strength we have, and we will win.”
Shaked and Bennett may be right that the Islamic State’s terror can strike anywhere, but their efforts to blend the attack in Paris with the wave of Palestinian stabbings in Israel are a stretch. They are only doing it because it is convenient for the right and supports its arguments.
The hope of Netanyahu, Shaked, Bennett and other politicians from the right that others in Europe or the United States will adopt their narrative is both arrogant and detached from reality. Furthermore, the attempt to link the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Islamic State terrorism is a double-edged sword, as Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström made quite clear. Wallström provoked a furor in Israel when she said, “The Palestinians see that there is no future,” while discussing the kind of radicalism that led to the terrorist attack on French soil.
Spokespeople for the right must remember that just as the Israeli occupation is not the motive behind the Islamic State’s terrorist attacks, they cannot argue that Palestinian terrorism — motivated, at least in part, by nationalist and territorial claims — is part and parcel of the Islamic State’s campaign of terror. When Netanyahu and his ministers link Paris to Jerusalem, they are laying the groundwork for statements like that made by the Swedish foreign minister. In another excellent example of this kind of misstep, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said, “The State of Israel must serve as an example and spearhead the struggle against extreme Islam, whose messengers have slaughtered innocent people in Paris, New York, Madrid and Israel. Hamas and the Islamic State share an ideological platform that leads to attacks around the world and a wave of terrorism in this country.” If that is the case, how can we possibly complain about the Swedish foreign minister’s remarks? Right-wing supporters expressed sorrow and solidarity on the social networks, with some of them seeming to gloat. Many expressed the hope that the people of France will come to identify more with Israel.
Meanwhile, the center-left is being forced to close ranks or maintain its silence. This time, leaders of that camp prefer to avoid infuriating the public with claims that there is no significant link between what happened in Paris and what is happening in Jerusalem or that the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict does not depend on the global war against terror. Not one of them has said that Netanyahu and his coalition partners are exploiting terrorism in Europe to push the need to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians down the road for a few more years. Even if the center-left is acting solely out of political considerations, it is serving the narrative of the right and delaying any chance we might have to resolve the conflict.

Will Rouhani only serve one term as president?
Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
The weekly paper of Iran’s Hezbollah (Ansar-e Hezbollah) argued that President Hassan Rouhani will be the first one-term president in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. While Iran’s hard-liners have still not grown accustomed to being out of power since the eight years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the article raises valid points about the administration’s stumbling regional diplomacy and criticism over Rouhani’s tight-knight inner circle. Yalasarat al-Hussein, the news site of Ansar-e Hezbollah, wrote that Rouhani being a one-term president is both a “wish and a prediction.” The article jokingly said that they hope writing this would not cause them to be closed down by Rouhani’s Culture Ministry. The concern is not out of place, as a number of conservative newspapers have been temporarily suspended by the Rouhani administration. According to the article, Rouhani has not been able to satisfy either base in Iranian politics, neither the religious nor what the article refers to derisively as the “worldly,” people who care about their material well-being rather than their spiritual well-being. The article presumes that the “materialistic base” in the country is the one who voted for Rouhani in June 2013. It continued by saying that rents as well as the cost of food, gasoline, natural gas and utilities have increased under Rouhani's presidency, and that there are still no signs of when the international sanctions will be removed. The latest reports state that in accordance with the nuclear deal and Iran’s compliance in reducing its nuclear activities, banking and oil sanctions will be removed Jan. 12, approximately a month later than some analysts had previously expected. Not only has the Rouhani administration failed to improve the economy, but they have also failed in regional relations, particularly with neighboring Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, the article wrote. Yalasarat references a number of public embarrassments for the administration, such as Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir’s repeated refusals to meet with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the October arrests of Iranian female teachers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain expelling the Iranian envoy and recalling its own ambassador from Iran. The article also alluded to the dysfunction within the administration, accusing Rouhani’s inner circle of having “cut his connection to his Cabinet and not permitting the ministers to meet with the president.” Rather, the article asserted, Rouhani has delegated meetings with the ministers to his special advisers, including his brother Hossein Fereydoun, Akbar Torkan, cultural adviser Hesam al-Din Ashna, spokesman Mohammad-Bagher Nobakht and Chief of Staff Mohammad Nahavandian. Rumors of dysfunction in the administration are not new: In September four ministers, for unknown reasons, felt the need to write Rouhani a detailed letter warning him about serious shortcomings in the economy. Yalasarat concluded that Iranian voters will not forget these failings, and come June 2017 they will send Rouhani packing. While those elections are still far off and the Rouhani administration still has time to recover economically, the article can also indirectly serve as an attempt to discourage the hopes of the moderate faction ahead of the February 2016 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections. The conservative-dominated parliament has played an antagonistic role against the moderate administration, summoning ministers at a record level with the constant threat of impeachment hanging over their heads. At a Cabinet meeting Nov. 18, Rouhani said that the administration is “not pushing for the victory of a special faction” in the elections. But parliamentary elections typically have a lower turnout than presidential elections, and if the moderate faction in Iran hopes to perform well, they will need to encourage a normally hesitant population to show up. Editor's note: This article has been updated since its initial publication.

Is defeating the Islamic State impossible?
Ali Hashem/Al-Monitor/November 20/15
While working on a documentary about Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, I had the chance to meet Abu Omar, a former IS operative who was once an inmate in the infamous Camp Bucca facility that brought together all those who later became the ruling elite of the most notorious terrorist group in modern history. I asked Abu Omar whether there was any recipe to defeat IS, which seemed unbeatable. In response, he smiled and said, “First, the world will have to really believe it exists — that it’s not an American conspiracy, nor a Turkish secret project, nor an Iranian-Syrian backed organization — that it’s simply the most advanced edition of global jihad resulting from 30 years of experience. It also must not be conceded that no one can win this war.” Since the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924, the dream of reviving the caliphate has been alive in the souls of those adopting political Islam as a doctrine. Ordinary Muslims' feelings of weakness and a sense of disconnection with and lack of support from the regimes that have ruled the Arab and Muslim world grew over time and was inherited by members of the Muslim millennial generation who wanted to belong to an entity that blends power, religion and modernity. IS came with the three together. While many might debate the last point, IS is using cutting-edge technologies in many of their activities, including in the professional use of media tools that fulfill a feeling of superiority through well-crafted videos and clips. As for power, IS was able to prove its strength by creating a de facto state within the borders of Syria and Iraq, challenging the world powers and showing a high level of discipline in the areas under their control. The other element, religion, is the magnet that directly or indirectly attracts people to IS, for the group introduces itself as the guarantor for the application of God’s rule on Earth, and that the caliph is a continuation of the Prophet Muhammad’s legacy. The fact is that the Islamic State, as a doctrine and practice, has been an unbeatable model in the Sunni Muslim world to those seeking this blend of religion, power and modernity. Sunni and Shiite Islamists shared many similar aspirations until the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran succeeded in toppling the Shah; at the time, Sunni Islamists such as Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, the co-founder of al-Qaeda with Osama bin Laden, celebrated Imam Ruhollah Khomeini’s victory in one of Amman’s mosques. Later it became clear that the revolution was more an answer to the aspirations of Shiite Islamists than Sunnis; therefore, the next stop for Azzam and his comrades was Afghanistan, and they later became what were called the Afghan Arabs.
When the creation of the Islamic State was announced, one of the main strategies adopted by its leadership was social engagement. The de facto, self-styled state opened its doors to jihadi foreigners, and thousands came with their families and settled in cities under IS control; according to a UN report, more than 25,000 from over 100 nations have made it to IS territory. Some of them get married to women from tribes in the areas in order to strengthen ties and complicate any attempts to oust IS. The foreign jihadis are persona non grata in their home countries, and if IS falls, their lives and future may be endangered wherever they may be; they have no safe haven but the Islamic State and therefore will fight to the last man standing to keep it alive. Part of its social and economic strategy was to engage the main tribes in control of the oil business; this helps not only in providing profits but also in strengthening ties with local tribes.
The thinking is that IS tied several knots around its core to make it extremely difficult for enemies to target it effectively. This apparently meant that three years of ground and air operations, international and regional attempts to counter IS and direct media and public campaigns did not effectively harm the group, and now it is able to function in several countries in several continents and is capable of carrying out its tactics with effective command and control, with the multiple attacks in Paris being a strong example. To defeat IS, the world needs to hit the core of the group, and this means untying the shroud of knots surrounding it and cutting blood off from IS' heart. A counter model is needed to fight the IS model, a model that is powerful, modern and shows real respect and appreciation for Islam. With such a model it would be easier to deprive the terrorist entity of sympathizers who might become future operatives. As former IS operative Abu Omar told me, “IS is very clever and smart in attracting people with potential; they know how to talk to them and how to address their ambitions. They are also very smart in exploiting mistakes committed by their enemies, and use these mistakes to prove to their supporters why they are the right choice.” He said, “I was behind their walls; therefore, I understand the mentality. If you really want to finish IS, you need to address people’s concerns, let the sheikhs talk to youths and stop making big mistakes. IS is surviving as the result of the dire mistakes committed by governments of the region.” Defeating IS should not be impossible if the above is addressed and serious military and economic steps are taken to prevent the group from expanding both financially and geographically. This means doing battle on the war fronts and imposing sanctions on countries and individuals financing the group or allowing money to flow to it or buying goods, mainly oil, from territories under its control. Long-term strategic steps must be taken or IS will be here to stay and expand.

Khamenei’s Reinterpretation of Nuclear Deal and the Implications
Amir Toumaj/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative to the council, reiterated Tuesday that the government would continue to implement the supreme leader’s “stipulations about the JCPOA.” He was referring to Khamenei’s letter to President Hassan Rouhani on October 21 laying out new conditions for the implementation of this summer’s nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Shamkhani added that the council had formed a committee to implement Khamenei’s unilateral reinterpretation of the deal. The letter raises serious concerns about the nuclear deal’s enforcement. For one, Khamenei’s letter challenges the agreed-upon timetable for the agreement’s implementation. According to the JCPOA, Iran was to begin redesigning the Arak heavy water reactor and shipping out 98 percent of its low-enriched uranium after the deal went into effect (“Adoption Day”) on October 18. According to Khamenei’s letter, however, that must happen only after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “closes the file” on the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Tehran’s past nuclear program. Practically speaking, this translates to a two-month delay, with the IAEA report due out by December 15. More troublingly, the supreme leader demands that the U.S. and the EU remove, in writing, the “sanctions structure.” This is a reference to the non-nuclear sanctions (terrorism and human rights), as well as the sanctions that could be “snapped back” if Iran is found to be in significant non-compliance over the first eight years of the agreement. Notably, the Obama administration relied on these sanctions to assuage Congressional concerns about the JCPOA. More importantly, Khamenei’s conditions represent a significant reversal on key aspects of the nuclear deal.
It is also worth noting that Iran has made it clear that it will continue to reinterpret the ballistic missile provisions of the agreement. Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of the Armed Forces General Staff Headquarters and a close disciple of Khamenei, told senior military commanders on November 3 that Iran would build missiles with a 2,000-kilometer range. That announcement came days after Iran tested a long-range ballistic missile. The test and ongoing construction clearly violate United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1929. After the provisions of UNSCR 1929 are terminated, Iran’s continued ballistic missile activities will be in violation in UNSCR 2231, which endorses the JCPOA. While the West has voiced concern over the ballistic missile issue, none of the P5+1 member states have commented on Khamenei’s letter or on his new committee. To Khamenei, this could signal tacit acceptance of his conditions. To ensure that this is not the message, the U.S. administration and Congress should declare their inflexibility on the supreme leader’s reinterpretation of the deal and make clear that the final draft of the JCPOA, deeply flawed as it may be, is just that—final.
**Amir Toumaj is a research analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @AmirToumaj

Israel’s Islamic Movement: Context and Possible Implications
Grant Rumley/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
Israel outlawed the northern branch of the Islamic Movement on Tuesday over ties to terror groups and attempts to incite violence against Israelis. Israelis believe the measure can help bring an end to the recent spate of violence; the move gives authorities the right to arrest anyone caught working with the group. However, Arab-Israeli groups have already called for a general strike on Thursday, and one Arab-Israeli member of Knesset slammed the ruling as a “declaration of war.”The northern branch of the Islamic Movement is the hardline splinter group of the broader Muslim Brotherhood movement in Israel. The movement – with a membership of roughly 20,000 – rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s after winning several municipal elections in northern Israel. Under the leadership of the radical cleric Raed Salah, the northern branch has leveraged the Arab Israeli population’s sense of disenfranchisement to oppose Israeli policies and its very existence as a Jewish state. The group habitually calls on its members to take to the streets, boycotts all interaction with the government, and regularly accuses Israel of altering the status quo on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Salah’s home-base of Umm al-Fahm – Israel’s second-largest Arab city – annually hosts tens of thousands in rallies to “defend” Jerusalem’s contentious al-Aqsa Mosque. Salah himself has forged close relations with Hamas in Gaza, met with an Iranian intelligence agent, and sailed with the 2010 Gaza flotilla on its ill-fated journey to the Strip. The 57-year old Salah has been arrested several times over connections to terror groups, incitement, and assaulting a police officer. Israel’s decision to ban the organization comes shortly before Salah is set to serve an 11-month prison term. His sentence has, so far, only seemed to enhance his leadership. Other Arab-Israeli leaders criticized the sentence, with some calling it a ruling “against the entire Arab population,” while a member of Knesset urged: “We must stop the campaign against the Islamic Movement.” Many Israelis believe Salah has contributed to the current upsurge in terror attacks rocking the country. His annual rallies for al-Aqsa and constant claims that Israel is altering the status quo – coupled with his longstanding ties to Hamas – have played a significant role in the escalating anti-Israel fervor among Palestinians in East Jerusalem. This was the logic behind the ban. But the move could also backfire, and help Salah generate new adherents.
**Grant Rumley is a research analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @GrantRumley

Terror on the Cheap: Paris Attacks Required Little Funding
Jonathan Schanzer/Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
The U.S. government imposed sanctions on two French citizens in September for their ties to the Islamic State. One of them, Emilie Konig, who traveled to Syria in 2012 to fight for IS, “directed individuals in France to attack French government institutions.” It is unknown whether Friday’s Paris attacks are connected to this in any way. But even if there is a connection, traditional terror finance tools, such as designations, do little to counter this kind of attack. The coordinated terrorist assault on Paris on Friday night appears to have been disturbingly inexpensive. Suicide belts, automatic weapons, and ammunition were the extent of the gear the eight-man team required. Beyond that, they probably only required food, communication, shelter, and travel. If anything, the most expensive aspect of the operation was incurred long ago: the indoctrination and military training. Remove that from the terrorism finance calculus, and the Paris operation likely cost under $250,000. Urban warfare is a cheap and deadly form of terrorism. This has been made clear repeatedly in recent years. The 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya carried out by al-Shabaab, and the 2015 attack on Western tourists in Tunisia by Islamic State supporters were all attacks that required various levels of training but minimal funding. As the wealthiest terrorist group in history, IS would clearly not struggle to finance such an inexpensive attack. But it also would not be difficult for eight men – more if we include the others arrested in Belgium – to pool together enough cash as an independent cell, and to do so outside of the electronic banking system, where funds can be tracked. If the U.S., France, and other Western allies are serious about disrupting IS financing, they will need to address the systemic challenges, including ongoing donations from deep-pocket donors in the Gulf, as well as the oil and antiquities trade across the Islamic State’s borders. But even that may not be sufficient. The Islamic State raises most of its funds through racketeering and taxes. Land is therefore its most valuable resource. But to deprive the Islamic State of that likely requires new military strategies beyond the tactical bombing campaign that has been waged to date. **Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is vice president for research at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

A France-U.S. Anti-Islamist Alliance
Reuel Marc Gerecht/The Wall Street Journal/.ovember 20/15
Even before the French-born Kouachi brothers went on a shooting rampage at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in January, French officials knew their luck was running out. Paris had always counted on its internal-security services—the finest counterterrorist force in the West—to keep the peace. However, the post-Arab Spring chaos and the American withdrawal from Iraq gave rise to Islamic State and reanimated al Qaeda, and this started overloading the capacity of France’s counterterrorist agencies. As a French internal-security official put it to me a month ago, “We just can’t surveil anyone else.”The massacres of Nov. 13 may well prove as momentous as 9/11. France is no longer a great power. Yet, fascinated by the might and freedoms of the U.S. and diffident about their own capacities, the French underestimate their influence. Frenchmen largely set the narrative for Western elites after the second Gulf War started going south. Remember the 9/11 Le Monde editorial—“Nous sommes tous Américains” (We are all Americans)—written by Jean-Marie Colombani. The guardian of France’s center-left establishment, Mr. Colombani juxtaposed sympathy for a wounded U.S. with criticism and schadenfreude. Washington hadn’t been sufficiently attentive to the enmity-producing exercise of its unchallenged, unbalanced power.He added that the American “hyper-power” had brought this evil upon itself by giving rise to Osama bin Laden by arming Muslim radicals against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Read liberal American critiques of post-9/11 America—including President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech, with its apologies, cautions and irenic aspirations—and hear the echoes of French critiques. But imagine if Paris had joined the Americans in the invasion of Iraq; the now-dominant Western narrative of that conflict might have been very different. Because of the attacks Friday, the narrative will change. The soft-power-heavy, somewhat guilty Western analysis of Islamic militancy—where the progressive-minded avoid referring to Islam in describing an antipathy that sanctifies killing—is now dead in Europe and will soon be irretrievably embarrassing across the Atlantic.
President Obama’s inability to have an adult conversation about Islam’s manifest problems with modernity, which also tore Christianity apart, have kept the West’s loudest bully pulpit from provoking contentious and entirely appropriate debates among Muslims. The advancement in the Middle East of grand modern causes—the abolition of slavery, the slow march of women’s social and political rights, the expansion of education, the brutal tug of war between secularism and religion—has always been stirred by Western thought and actions. Having the French more vigorously in this game will help compensate for the politically correct, ahistoric timidity that has seized much of the intelligentsia in the U.S. and Britain. Trailblazers in analyzing modern Islamic fundamentalism, the French could well rescue the American left from its fixation on Islamophobia. They could provide encouragement and cover to American liberals to reflect and act without fear of being labeled Islamophobes (who are a dime a dozen on the American right and, as handmaidens of isolationism, don’t matter). The attacks will make the French prouder and more protective of Western civilization. Several Western military incursions into the Middle East may lie before us. If we are to sustain that fight against Islamic State and other radical Muslims who mean us harm, Westerners obviously need to know—to feel it in their cultural bones—why they are fighting. Such things are not a given, as anyone knows who has watched President Obama try to transform the Afghan conflict from a “war of necessity” to a “war of choice.”Washington always needs European allies to reinforce the moral purpose of sustained military action. The British are probably finished as a power of consequence. That leaves the French.
If they are committed to seeing this fight through to the end, the French make it more likely that the U.S. will commit more ground troops in Iraq and, as consequentially, put soldiers into Syria to create a defensible haven where civilians and the armed Sunni opposition can gather without fear of attack. Europe’s refugee and counterterrorist nightmares have no chance of resolution until the Syrian war is stopped. The French and Americans are currently in a perverse situation since they have de facto aligned their military actions with the Shiite Alawite regime of Bashar Assad against the Syrian Sunni population. As long as the Alawites and their Russian, Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese allies are slaughtering Sunnis—and they are doing the lion’s share of the killing in the war and are driving the refugee crisis—Islamic State is unlikely to be defeated. And Islamic State’s propaganda, depicting France and America as allies of Shiite butchers, will continue to have real influence among Sunni Muslims in Europe. Both Paris and Washington know this, even if they want to pretend that a political solution is possible without militarily checkmating the Assad regime and its friends. If the French are willing to commit the Foreign Legion in Syria, an idea no longer unthinkable, it is much more likely that the Americans will consider ground troops and the arduous, dangerous, long-term effort to stabilize Syria. Although profoundly constrained by the size of its armed forces, France could serve, as Margaret Thatcher did for George H.W. Bush, as a back stiffener and force multiplier. Franco-American alliances have never been easy. But it wasn’t merely a desire to enjoy Paris that convinced the Americans to put the center of their European counterterrorist efforts in France after 9/11. However faltering, the French remain the backbone of Europe’s defense against Islamist terrorism, which makes them the front-line defense of the U.S. Nous sommes tous en guerre. We are all at war. The rest remains in Monsieur Colombani’s imagination.
**Mr. Gerecht, a former case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Terrorist Financing: Kidnapping, Antiquities Trafficking, and Private Donations
Foundation for Defense of Democracies./November 20/15
Chairman Poe, Ranking Member Keating, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you on behalf of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance for the chance to testify before you today. As a think tank analyst who focuses on the Arab Gulf monarchies, I have concluded that several of America’s allies in the Middle East – namely, Qatar, Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia – are best characterized as America’s frenemies on the issue of terror finance: important partners on some issues that pursue problematic or adversarial positions over terror finance emanating from their territories. As such, I will devote a significant portion of my testimony today to documenting these countries’ negligence on combating private terror finance and recommending steps that Washington can take to highlight and disincentivize such harmful conduct. However, because we are joined by Diane Foley here today, I would first like to take the opportunity to seriously grapple with the challenge posed to American interests by the problem of non-state terrorists who increasingly use kidnapping for ransom to fund their violent activities.
The toll that kidnapping takes on victims, families, employers, and their communities is immense. Perhaps because the magnitude of this toll is so difficult for the rest of us to fully comprehend, I believe that there is a tendency for policymakers to be somewhat callous or even Pollyannaish by presuming that this problem can be addressed without a serious new investment of resources and rethinking of U.S. policies in this issue area. And all this must be done without letting the heinous crimes of terrorists exert control over our decisions by forcing under- or over-reactions in American foreign policy.
I believe that the Obama administration’s new policies for addressing hostage issues are a big step in the right direction that should be applauded. However, they fall short in one critical area by failing to articulate a coherent and viable new strategy to deter foreign governments, in both Europe and the Gulf, from allegedly continuing to pay direct or indirect state ransoms to terrorists on a massive scale. I believe I witnessed a starker version of such wishful thinking as a one-time staffer on this Committee. I watched with astonishment as my boss and mentor, the late Chairman Tom Lantos (D, CA), put his arm around the wife of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hezbollah and inaccurately promised her that America would help bring her husband home alive. Sadly, we later learned that her husband had already passed away, having succumbed to wounds incurred when he was captured.
Rather than letting ourselves be blinded by optimism or idealism, we must recognize that U.S. policy today is failing to deter our own allies from fueling the terrorist threat by irresponsibly rewarding kidnapping for ransom at a state level. Finally, while this hearing will also focus on the terror finance challenge of antiquities trafficking by violent groups such as the Islamic State (IS), I will defer to the other witnesses in this regard. I would also like to note that FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance has a forthcoming comprehensive report in which coauthors Yaya Fanusie and Alex Joffe analyze the strategic role of antiquities trafficking in financing the Islamic State.

Morocco's High Council Of Ulema In Fatwa Following Paris Attacks: 'Terror Is Forbidden In Islam; Only The Ruler May Declare Jihad'
MEMRI/November 20, 2015 Special Dispatch No.6225
The following report is from MEMRI's Counter-Radicalization Initiative.
The day after the November 13, 2015 terror attacks in Paris, Morocco's High Council of Ulema issued a fatwa on the distinction between jihad for the sake of Allah, which is legitimate, and terror, which is absolutely forbidden in Islam. The fatwa listed the different kinds of jihad (such as "jihad of the mind" and "jihad of the pen"), and stressed that armed jihad is a last resort, to be used only in extreme necessity, when the Muslims have been attacked and all peaceful avenues have been exhausted. The fatwa emphasized that, even then, only the ruler has the authority to declare armed jihad, and nobody else may do so at his own discretion. Morocco's High Council of Ulema consists of 47 senior clerics and is headed by the King, who, according to the Moroccan constitution is the Emir Al-Muminin (Commander of the Faithful, a title usually reserved for the Caliph). The Constitution also stipulates that the High Council of Ulema is the only religious body in the country authorized to issue official fatwas. On the order of King Mohammed VI, on November 14 the Moroccan Ministry of Endowments also issued instructions to preachers and imams on teaching the people the correct Islam and the true meaning of jihad.
The following is the text of the council's fatwa, followed by the instructions of the Endowments Ministry. [1]
The Fatwa Of The High Council Of Ulema
"In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful,
"Following the events that took place in France and brought about the death of innocent people under the excuse of waging jihad for the sake of Allah, and in order to remove any doubt as to what is jihad and what is not jihad, the High Council of Ulema is happy to clarify the truth in this matter. [It wishes to explain] what really [counts] as jihad in Islam and what is not jihad but rather [and act of] terror, aggression, terrifying peaceful people and killing innocents and is absolutely forbidden in Islam, as Allah said: '...Do not commit aggression, for surely, God does not love aggressors' [Koran 2:190], and also: 'Whoever killed a human being –except as punishment for murder or for spreading corruption in the land – shall be regarded as having killed all mankind' [Koran 5:32].
"As for legitimate jihad, it is of several kinds, the most important of them being jihad of the soul, which comes to shape, tame and cultivate the soul and prepare it to bear responsibility. Next come jihad of the mind, which is performed by training and polishing the mind and using it in a way that benefits humanity; jihad of the pen, performed by writing books and essays that enlighten the mind and confront doubts and false accusations directed at Islam and the Muslims; jihad of money, [performed] by making generous donations, which is one of the 'gates of good' [leading to Paradise], and also by contributing to social and economic development. "As for armed jihad, Muslims do not resort to it except in cases of extreme need, when their enemies attacked them [first] and all peaceful options have failed. Jihad in this case is the last resort, and even then, it can only be declared on the order of the supreme imam [i.e., the ruler]. This is the sole prerogative of the ruler, for Islam has granted him alone the authority to declare [jihad], to call [on Muslims to join] it and to organize it – and no individual or organization may launch [jihad] at their own discretion. "The religious scholars of Islam, past and present, have been careful to stress this [sole] prerogative [of the supreme imam] for the sake of the unity of the [Islamic] ummah and in order to keep it from disintegration, from internal struggles and from failures that would blacken its image.
"[Signed:] Mohammed Yessef,
"Secretary-General, the High Council of Ulema"
The Endowment Ministry's Instructions To Preachers And Imams
"Following the criminal acts perpetrated by sinful hands in Paris, which resulted in injuries and deaths, and since the perpetrators of these unlawful acts purport to be members of the Muslim faith, and... justify their crimes based on [Islam], and lie about the religion to the extent of claiming that they carried out [the attacks] in defense of Islam... the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, on the instruction of Emir Al-Muminin [the King], may Allah preserve him, calls on the religious authorities, including the preachers and imams, to continue indoctrinating the people and guiding them on the straight path, while presenting religious and logical arguments to remind them and enlighten them, as follows:
1.In order to understand the true definition of jihad one must appeal to the religious scholars of the [Muslim] ummah.
2. Violence and coercion of every kind are alien to the [Muslim] faith and da'wa [preaching].
3. Those who tarnish the image of Islam must not be allowed to do so, for this image is [the image] of all Muslims in the eyes of Allah and in the eyes of other nations.
4.Individuals and groups must keep the gang of misguided and misleading [people] from imposing an erroneous understanding of the religion.
5.Examining the events taking place today, it is clear to all that neither Islam nor the Muslims benefit from them, nor does humanity [at large], whose wellbeing depends upon peace, dialogue and compassion.
6.The message of Islam includes values of [doing] good and of love, and the acts of the extremists hinder this message from reaching the world.
7. The religious model that exists in the Moroccan Kingdom – both its ideological and practical aspects, and the concurrent activity towards a comprehensive revival – is a model that can repair the image of the faith and convince others. This requires [us] to keep this model unblemished.
8. In addition to the inculcation of the correct religion, there must be awareness that the terrorist plan is based on intimidation and on [sparking] doubts [in people's minds], and that it will be thwarted someday thanks to the dedication of the ummah, the faith of the believers and the guidance of the reliable religious scholars..."
Endnotes:
[1] Habous.gov.ma, November 14, 2015.
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8868.htm

The City of Light Goes Dark
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/November 20/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6924/paris-attacks-radical-islam
The targets in all the Paris attacks were not chosen "randomly." Charlie Hebdo stood for the Enlightenment value of free speech, for the right to challenge, even to make fun of figures who deem themselves above criticism: politicians, religious leaders, the rich and famous. It stood for the right to be secular: for refusing to fence off religion, or award believers greater respect than non-believers.
Like the attempts to shut down all criticism of Islam -- whether in novels such as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, cartoons such as those of Muhammad drawn and published in Denmark, or debates between academics -- the Charlie Hebdo killings were intended to instil fear and silence all honest discussion of Islam and its values.
Through bold criticism in a secular manner, European states have been able to create a more pluralistic, tolerant, and humane culture. For devout Muslims (not just radicals), this is blasphemy of the worst sort: democracy, made by man and not by Allah, is evil, and tolerance for all beliefs is a path to hell.
This ongoing failure to admit that the law of jihad is explicitly cited by spokesmen for Islamic State is the root cause of our inability to fight this war. The ancestors of today's Europeans knew how to fight against Islamic encroachment, but today, hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants, some of them devoted to waging jihad, are being given free access to enter Europe.
Who does not love Paris? Puritans do not love Paris. Puritans hate, music, song, dance, poetry, fun and love. Today, such people are represented above all by extremist Muslim doctrinaire fundamentalists. They seem to despise women without veils; call music Satanic; regard painted images as an insult to an angry God; consider football a sin, and a restaurant serving wine as the embodiment of evil. They do not respond to a life-affirming bustle and the ideals an open, tolerant, democratic, liberal, humanitarian, egalitarian West.
When Sir Karl Popper wrote, at the end of the Second World War in 1945, his two-volume classic, The Open Society and its Enemies, he laid bare the evils of totalitarian systems, both left and right -- Communism and Fascism. He would never have guessed that soon a Third World War would be taking place between radical Islam and the West.
Last week, the City of Light went dark. In January of this year, some Islamist gunmen had attacked the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and another had gunned down shoppers in a kosher supermarket. U.S. President Barack Obama, in an interview with Matt Yglesias, commenting on the supermarket attack, glossed over the motives behind it: "It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you've got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris." [Emphasis added]
Two days after last week's attacks, when reporters asked Obama if he would consider additional action against The Islamic State (IS), he declined to give a straight answer. The killings, he said, were "based on a twisted ideology." As so many times before, Obama would not define what ideology -- the belief system of radical Islam, based on violent passages from the Qur'an and Hadith, and modelled on the jihadist actions of generations of Muslims, beginning with Muhammad himself.
This ongoing failure to admit that the law of jihad is explicitly cited by spokesmen for Islamic State is the root cause of our inability to fight this war. The ancestors of today's Europeans knew how to fight against Islamic encroachment, but today, hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants, some of them devoted to waging jihad, are being given free access to enter Europe. At least one of last Friday's killers in Paris appears to have travelled from Syria and entered Europe through Greece.
The targets in all the Paris attacks were not chosen "randomly." Charlie Hebdo stood for the Enlightenment value of free speech, for the right to challenge, even to make fun of figures who deem themselves above criticism: politicians, religious leaders, the rich and famous. It stood for the right to be secular: for refusing to fence off religion, or award believers greater respect than non-believers.
Through bold criticism in a secular manner, European states have been able to create a more pluralistic, tolerant, and humane culture. For devout Muslims (not just radicals), this is blasphemy of the worst sort: democracy, made by man and not by Allah, is evil, and tolerance for all beliefs is a path to hell.
Like the attempts to shut down all criticism of Islam -- whether in novels such as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, cartoons such as those of Muhammad drawn and published in Denmark, or debates between academics -- the Charlie Hebdo killings were intended to instil fear and silence all honest discussion of Islam and its values.
The kosher supermarket attack was clearly anti-Semitic. Like the multitude of such attacks on Jewish schools, museums, synagogues, and individuals, it celebrated the rise of a new anti-Semitism in Europe, an anti-Semitism (often expressed through anti-Zionism) that has been carried out by the political left, hand-in-hand with Muslim radical groups.
Jews on European streets are the one people most intensely hated by many Muslims (again, not just radicals). The freedom French Jews have for a long time enjoyed (despite high levels of indigenous anti-Semitism) is an affront to Islam, in which Jews especially must be converted, rendered submissive, or killed. Unfortunately, many Europeans have gone out of their way to be helpful. Just the day before the Paris attacks, the EU had singled out Israel, as usual, to label goods to help anti-Semitic, racist Europeans hurt Palestinians and Israelis with an unjust, sanctimonious boycott.
A leader of a British Islamic educational institute writes that, "One should abstain from evil audacities such as listening to music." Another graduate speaks of the "evils of music;" calls London's Royal College of Music "satanic," and claims that music is the way in which Jews spread "the Satanic web" to corrupt young Muslims. Is it, then, surprising that a handful of fanatics gunned down more than 80 innocent young people who had gone to enjoy a rock concert in the Bataclan Theatre?
As sports (apart from archery and horseback riding) are also activities much disliked by fundamentalist imams, three jihadis, in an apparent rebuke to such games and frivolity, went to a football stadium in Paris last Friday night and, although they could not get in, they blew themselves up outside it.[1]
The Nazis hated jazz and modern art (even as they stole it), but not even they rejected all music and all art. Hitler luxuriated in the operas of Wagner and fancied himself no mean painter, even if the art world may not have agreed with him. But today's fascists care for nothing but their own increasingly expansionist beliefs.
As Hamas members have said more than once to Israelis, with whom the Europeans have more in common now than they would like to admit, the extremist Muslims will conquer in the end because "we love death more than you love life." Nothing could better sum up the bitter reality of the Paris attacks.
In a television interview on BBC News at Ten on Sunday night, a singer, Maude Hacheb, expressed her response to the killings: "If they want to break the country, they have to break young people. I think for them, music is no good, fun is no good, love is no good. So I guess it was really significant they go to the Bataclan."
*Denis MacEoin, based in England, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
[1] Cricket has been condemned by a Pakistani imam as a sacrilegious "waste of time," playing chess has been compared to dipping one's hands in the blood of pigs, and ultra-conservative Muslim clerics have condemned football as a Jewish and Christian tool to undermine Islamic culture. Saudi Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Barrak has warned in a fatwa that football "played according to [accepted international rules] has caused Muslims to adopt some of the customs of the enemies of Islam, who are [preoccupied with] games and frivolity."

Exposed: Obama’s Love for Jihadis and Hate for Christians
Raymond Ibrahim/November 20/15
Obama recently lashed out against the idea of giving preference to Christian refugees, describing it as “shameful”: “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” loftily added the American president.
Accordingly, the administration is still determined to accept 10,000 more Syrian refugees, almost all of whom will be Muslim, despite the fact that some are ISIS operatives, while many share the ISIS worldview (as explained below).
Yet right as Obama was grandstanding about “who we are,” statistics were released indicating that “the current [refugee] system overwhelmingly favors Muslim refugees. Of the 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far, only 53 are Christians while 2,098 are Muslim.”
Aside from the obvious—or to use Obama’s own word, “shameful”—pro-Muslim, anti-Christian bias evident in these statistics, there are a number of other troubling factors as well.
For starters, the overwhelming majority of “refugees” being brought into the United States are not just Muslim, but Sunnis—the one Muslim sect that the Islamic State is not persecuting and displacing. After all, ISIS—and most Islamic terrorist groups (Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Hamas, et al)—are all Sunnis. Even Obama was arguably raised a Sunni.
In this context, how are Sunnis “refugees”? Who are they fleeing? Considering that the Obama administration defines refugees as people “persecuted by their government,” most of those coming into the U.S. either aided or at least sympathized with the jihad against Assad (even if they only revealed their true colors when the time was right).
Simply put, some 98% of all refugees belong to the same Islamic sect that ISIS does. And many of them, unsurprisingly, share the same vision—such as the “refugees” who recently murdered some 120 people in France, or the “refugees” who persecute Christian minorities in European camps and settlements. (Al Azhar—the Sunni world’s most prestigious university of Islamic law, which co-hosted Obama’s 2009 “A New Beginning” speech—was just recently exposed as teaching and legitimizing all the atrocities that ISIS commits.)
As for those who are being raped, slaughtered, and enslaved based on their non-Sunni religious identity—not by Assad, but by so-called “rebel” forces (AKA jihadis)—many of them are being denied refuge in America.
Thus, although Christians were approximately 10 percent of Syria’s population in 2011, only one percent has been granted refuge in America. This despite the fact that, from a strictly humanitarian point of view—and humanitarianism is the chief reason being cited in accepting refugees, Obama’s “compassion”—Christians should receive priority simply because they are the most persecuted group in the Middle East.
At the hands of the Islamic State, which supposedly precipitated the migrant crisis, Christians have been repeatedly forced to renounce Christ or die; they have been enslaved and raped; and they have had more than 400 of their churches desecrated and destroyed.[i]
ISIS has committed no such atrocities against fellow Sunnis, they who are being accepted into the U.S. in droves. Nor does Assad enslave, behead, or crucify people based on their religious identity (despite Jeb Bush’s recent, and absurd, assertions).
Obamashould further prioritize Christian refugees simply because his own policies in the Middle East have directly exacerbated their plight. Christians and other religions minorities did not flee from Bashar Assad’s Syria, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, or Muamar Gaddafi’s Libya. Their systematic persecution began only after the U.S. interfered in those nations in the name of “democracy” but succeeding in only uncorking the jihadi terrorists that the dictators had long kept suppressed.
Incidentally, prioritizing Christian refugees would not merely be an altruistic gesture or the U.S. government’s way of righting its wrongs: rather it brings many benefits to America’s security. (Unlike Muslims or even Yazidis, Christians are easily assimilated into Western nations due to the shared Christian heritage, and they bring trustworthy language and cultural skills that are beneficial to the “war on terror.”)
Finally, no one should be shocked by these recent revelations of the Obama administration’s pro-Muslim and anti-Christian policies. They fit a clear and established pattern of religious bias within his administration. For example:
While inviting scores of Muslim representatives, the State Department is in the habit of denying visas to solitary Christian representatives.
When a few persecuted Iraqi Christians crossed the border into the U.S., they were thrown in prison for several months and then sent back to the lion’s den to be enslaved, raped, or murdered.
When the Nigerian government waged a strong offensive against Boko Haram, killing some of its terrorists, Secretary of State John Kerry fumed and called for the “human rights” of the jihadis (who regularly slaughter and rape Christians and burn their churches). More recently, Kerry “urged Tajikistan not to go overboard in its crackdown on Islam.”
When persecuted Coptic Christians planned on joining Egypt’s anti-Muslim Brotherhood revolution of 2013, the U.S. said no.
When persecuted Iraqi and Syrian Christians asked for arms to join the opposition fighting ISIS, D.C. refused.
When the UN Security Council held a meeting to discuss the genocide against Christians and other minorities, although “many high level delegations from UN member states addressed the Security Council meeting, some at the Foreign Minister level, the United States failed to send … a high ranking member of the State Department.”
Most recently, as the White House works on releasing a statement accusing ISIS of committing genocide against religious minorities such as Yazidis — who are named and recognized in the statement — Obama officials are arguing that Christians “do not appear to meet the high bar set out in the genocide treaty” and thus likely not be mentioned.
In short, and to use the president’s own words, it is the Obama administration’s own foreign and domestic policies that are “shameful,” that are “not American,” and that do not represent “who we are.”
Yet the question remains: Will Americans take notice and do anything about their leader’s policies—which welcome Islamic jihadis while ignoring their victims—or will their indifference continue until they too become victims of the jihad, in a repeat of Paris or worse?
[i] Even before the new “caliphate” was established, Christians were and continue to be targeted by Muslims—Muslim mobs, Muslim individuals, Muslim regimes, and Muslim terrorists, from Muslim countries of all races (Arab, African, Asian, etc.)—and for the same reason: Christians are infidel number one. See Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians for hundreds of anecdotes before the rise of ISIS as well as the Muslim doctrines that create such hate and contempt for Christians who are especially deserving of refugee status.
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Iran hardliners: ISIS bit the leg of its owners
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/November 21/15
Tehran’s reaction to the Paris attacks has been intriguing and contradictory. President Hassan Rowhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif sent a message of condolence to French President Francois Hollande.“In the name of the Iranian people, who have themselves been victims of terrorism, I strongly condemn these crimes against humanity and offer my condolences to the grieving French people and government,” said Rowhani, who canceled what would have been the first Iranian presidential visit to Europe in 10 years. Tehran has used ISIS to consolidate its regional power. Before the rise of the group, Iran had a hard time legitimizing its role in Iraq and its support of Assad. However, what about the final decision-makers in Iran? Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has chosen to be silent, but his positions can often be determined by analyzing statements from powerful hardliner political figures, his close advisers, or conservative media.Keyhan newspaper, considered Khamenei’s mouthpiece, had a headline on its front page stating: “The rabid dog of the Islamic State bit leg of its owners.” Iranian police have prevented people from gathering in public to mourn those killed in Paris.
Using ISIS
The hardliners appear to be using the attacks to buttress their narrative about crises in the Middle East. Part of the narrative is that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was created by the West and regional countries to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the West needs to drop its opposition to him to defeat the group and avoid further attacks such as those in Paris. This suggests that Iranian leaders will not moderate their policies on Syria, Iraq, Yemen or Lebanon. As such, the Vienna talks on Syria will be fruitless. Iranian leaders have failed to comprehend that their support of Assad has directly contributed to further radicalizing and militarizing the Syrian conflict, leading to the emergence and empowerment of extremist groups. Tehran has used ISIS to consolidate its regional power. Before the rise of the group, Iran had a hard time legitimizing its role in Iraq and its support of Assad. Tehran can also use ISIS to strengthen its Shiite militias, which have played a crucial role in countries such as Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Iran might display some efforts in fighting ISIS, but it is in Tehran’s interest to maintain the group.

Paris attacks: moving beyond the clash of civilizations
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/November 21/15
Who is calling for a clash of civilization in our world today? Is it the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria? No doubt about it. Or the Muslim Brotherhood? Some people certainly think so. Or is it Iran’s Islamic Revolution and its values, that border more on extreme nationalism than sectarian Shiite supremacist ideology?
Through Iran’s posturing and meddling in the affairs of states - ranging from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain, to name a few - one cannot exclude the undertones of a clash of civilizations made by its leadership. Some suggest that Jewish extremism is indirectly aligned to that clash, as it advances its ultimate goal - one that states that the modern state of Israel is best protected by Jewish state to stand up to a possibly ever-spreading ISIS. The latest attacks on Paris seem to serve one objective, and that is to raise tensions and intolerance. ISIS hopes to sow the seeds of fear and hatred in the open, civil societies spread out across Europe and the rest of the world for the past six or seven decades.
Seeds of fear
The latest attacks in Paris will no doubt awaken fears and embolden the extreme right, not just in France, but across the continent. For the ISIS-linked cells that committed this heinous crime against Parisians did not spare the Christians or the Muslims, the Buddhists or the atheists, women or men, or the young or the old. The attacks did not differentiate between lovers of music, whether of hard rock, heavy metal or jazz. The criminals were blind to other nationalities and did not care if they killed French citizens or with them people from 20 different nationalities. They did not select their targets according to creed, beliefs, sects or ethnicities. They vented their anger on our way of life, and they were out to kill our way of life that for some reason they do not like, because someone somewhere told them it was the source of all evil. The criminals - and I will not call them terrorists as they wish to be called - are playing a dangerous card.
A mosaic of society
The areas they targeted represent a basic mosaic of modern society: a cafe, an Asian restaurant, a concert hall, and a football ground. Above and beyond, those who terrorized by the indiscriminate violence and weaponry were aiming at something more cruel. In the ninth, tenth and eleven districts of Paris, people to a great extent are colorblind. Most are politically correct and serve somehow as an example of coexistence - if not a totally perfect one.In these parts of Paris, the French Africans live with the White Catholic French from Normandy, the French Arabs are neighbors with Chinese. Jews live beside Muslims, while the Christians thrive happily with the Buddhists.
Winning over terror
In those same neighborhoods, an entente cordiale exists, despite differences. In a way, the city’s left-wing bourgeois, bohemian population resembles the world’s hard-working people from all classes, who are accustomed to living together no matter what. It is no wonder that Paris receives millions of visitors each year, who come to sip coffee on its many terraces at the corners of many boulevards, and to feel illuminated by the history found on Parisian streets. Those visitors want to be inspired by living an everyday life in Paris and then maybe wherever they go back to later. In the areas targeted by ISIS, Cambodians made peace with the Vietnamese and Chinese, while Algerian immigrants made peace with their former colonial brethren, while the Jews returned in force and repopulated synagogues that Nazi Germany once emptied of worshippers. Today in Paris, despite the wounds and the gravity and scale of the attacks, it is time to demonstrate a further attachment to living that same way of life that cannot help but resemble that piano player who returns every day to Place de la Republique, intent on playing for remembrance and healing, and in his own way expressing what President Hollande said: that the French republic will win over terror.And I hope that the piano player will play away the dangers of an imposed clash of civilizations.

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