LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
February 05/17
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins17/english.february05.17.htm
News Bulletin
Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006
Bible Quotations For Today
From
everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to
whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/42-48/:"The Lord
said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in
charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time?
Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly
I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave
says to himself, "My master is delayed in coming", and if he begins
to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk,
the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at
an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the
unfaithful. That slave who knew what his master
wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a
severe beating. But
one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light
beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and
from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded."
While physical training is of
some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the
present life and the life to come
First Letter to Timothy 04/06-16/:"If you put these instructions before
the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished
on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed.
Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself in
godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable
in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. The saying is sure
and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and struggle, because we
have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all people,
especially of those who believe. These are the things you must insist on and
teach. Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in
speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I arrive, give attention to the
public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching.Do
not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy
with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your
progress. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in
these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your
hearers."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 04-05/17
Further investment in education Hezbollah, electoral reform and
Pandora’s box/Makram Rabah/Middle
East Eye/February 04/17
Aoun to Grandi: Help
Syrians go home/The Daily Star/February 04/17
Under Trump: New Directions for American Foreign Policy/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/February
04/17
I am Muslim and I am not angry/Mamdouh AlMuhaini/Al Arabiya/February
04/17
Question: "Is it important for a Christian to have daily
devotions?"/GotQuestions.org/February 04/17
Muhammad and Forced Conversions to Islam/Raymond Ibrahim/February 04/17
Why do so many Americans believe that Islam is a political ideology, not a
religion/Michael Schulson/The Washington
Post/February 04/17
Trump lashes out at travel ban ruling by 'so-called judge'/SEATTLE (AP)
February 04/17
The French Inquisition/France's New Dreyfus Trial, a Jihad against the
Truth/Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2017
Iran's Latest Missile Test: Scenarios and Implications for the New
Administration/Farzin Nadimi/The
Washington Institute/February 04/2017
Donald Trump and the road to presidential humility/Pierre Ghanem/Al
Arabiya/February 04/17
On the preservation and revitalization of Islamic traditions/Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/February 04/17
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on February 04-05/17
U.S. Denies Lebanon, Other Nations to be Added to New Travel Ban
Report: Parliamentary Polls Likely Postponed until September
Aoun to British Minister: Looking forward to having
UK's support to solve Displaced Syrians' problem
Aoun to British Minister: Looking forward to having
UK's support to solve Displaced Syrians' problem
British Embassy: Patel congratulates President and Prime Minister, demonstrates
increasing commitment through further investment in education
Harb Says a Referendum is a Way to Evade the
Elections
U.N. Peacekeepers Say Attacked by Mobs in the South
Kataeb delegation from Bnechii
: Discussions tackle methods to bring down 60's law, draft to improve fair
representation
Palestinian Detained over Ties to Costa Would-Be Bomber
British Minister visits Hariri: Lebanon should make the most of its partnership
with the international community
Demilitarized grenade found in Mount Beddawi
Army arrests wanted suspect following pursuit and shooting along Baalbek
Highway
British Embassy: Patel congratulates President and Prime Minister
Aoun to Grandi: Help
Syrians go home
Links From Jihad Watch Site for on February 04-05/17
Dems: Trump shouldn’t fight “Islamic extremism” only, that
will offend Muslims
Establishment
propaganda media in uproar over unproduced Bannon
film on jihad threat
Vox: Islam isn’t a race, but “Islamophobia”
is racism
Pakistan’s
ambassador in Kuwait says Kuwait hasn’t banned Pakistanis
DOJ
to defend Trump’s executive order on immigration
Austria:
Muslim MP calls for Christian symbols ban after burka
outlawed
Denver
police, DHS were warned about jihadi who killed
guard, chose to keep it quiet
Smuggling
migrants into Europe now a major funding source for the Islamic State
Tapson and Greenfield on “Blindness About Islamic Misogyny
at the Women’s March”
Establishment
propaganda media crows that Kellyanne Conway “made
up” terror attack to justify Trump’s ban
Muslim
with dark view of Islam attacks in Louvre 2 days after NY Times warns of
Trump’s “dark view of Islam”
Hugh
Fitzgerald: “I’m a Muslim — Ask Me Anything,” Answers 16-23
Links From Christian Today
Site for on February 04-05/17
US
Judge Overturns Donald Trump's Controversial Travel Ban
Delightful'
Friend Of Archbishop Of Canterbury Faced Charge Of Killing Zimbabwe Teen
Philippine
Catholic Church to slam 'reign of terror' behind war on drugs
Bishop
Blames Violent And Punitive Theology For Alleged Abuse At Christian Summer
Camps
Catholic
Theologian Slams Trump's Border Wall, Says 'Significant Spiritual Issues Are At
Stake
ISIS
Chops Off Hands Of 2 Kids In Front Of Their Families For Refusing Order To Kill
Captives
Millions
At Risk As Famine Looms In Somalia – Unless We Act Now
German
Magazine Sparks Furor With Image Of Trump Beheading Statue Of Liberty
What
Are The 5 Words That Never Fail To Touch Donald Trump's Heart?
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on February 04-05/17
U.S. Denies Lebanon, Other Nations to be Added to New Travel Ban
Agence France Presse/Associated
Press/Naharnet/February 04/17/The United States has
denied reports claiming that seven countries including Lebanon will soon be
added to a new travel ban list. An Executive Order recently signed by U.S.
President Donald Trump had imposed a 90-day pause on the entry into the
Report: Parliamentary Polls Likely
Postponed until September
Naharnet/February 04/17/Political parties have
realized that the parliamentary elections slated for May could be postponed
until September to be staged based on a new electoral law, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday. “The political
parties are fully informed that the polls will be staged on the last Sunday of
September and will be held based on a new law,” Lebanese Forces sources told
the daily. “Attempts to escape forward will not work because the polls
will be staged based on a new law simply because it is no one's benefit to
trigger enmity with the new term (of the President) in the first few months of
its inception,” the sources declared. “Additionally, it is in no major
political force's benefit to expose Lebanon during a stage of external
transformations that require consensus domestically, especially that everyone
is certain that President Michel Aoun does not intend
to show leniency in the issues of extension (of parliament term) and the 1960
law,” they continued to say. The political parties have intensified their
efforts in recent days in a bid to agree on a new electoral law before the
expiry of the deadlines. They are discussing several formats of a so-called
“hybrid” electoral law that combines the proportional representation and
winner-takes-all systems. One of the main obstacles is the Progressive
Socialist Party's rejection of proportional representation. The party has
warned that any law containing proportional representation would “marginalize”
the minority Druze community. The country has not voted for a parliament
since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The
2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the
next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Aoun to British Minister: Looking forward to having UK's
support to solve Displaced Syrians' problem
Sat 04 Feb 2017 at 17:13/NNA - President of the Republic General Michel Aoun welcomed on Saturday UK's State Minister of
International Development Affairs Priti Patel in the
presence of Britain's Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter, noting that Lebanon
is looking forward to enjoying the UK's support to solve the displaced Syrians'
problem. Patel congratulated Aoun on his election as
President of the Republic, underscoring the
"Our relations are strong and we would work to strengthen them, especially
in the economic field. We will also provide aid in shouldering the burden of
the displaced Syrians," Patel told the President of the Republic, pointing
out that her country would urge the International community to double their aid
to
Aoun to British Minister: Looking forward to having UK's
support to solve Displaced Syrians' problem
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - President of the Republic General Michel Aoun welcomed on Saturday UK's State Minister of
International Development Affairs Priti Patel in the
presence of Britain's Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter, noting that Lebanon
is looking forward to enjoying the UK's support to solve the displaced Syrians'
problem. Patel congratulated Aoun on his election as
President of the Republic, underscoring the
British Embassy: Patel congratulates
President and Prime Minister, demonstrates increasing commitment through
further investment in education
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - The British Embassy in Beirut issued the following press
release on Saturday: "Today, UK Secretary of State for International
Development Priti Patel announced that the UK is
delivering on its commitment to invest £160m over 4 years in quality education
in Lebanon. Compared to last year's enrolment figures, the funding will
contribute to getting 147,000 more children into public schools, while
maintaining free enrolment for all. The funding will support the London
Conference goal of reaching all children with education by 2016/17, provide
over three million textbooks, rehabilitate at least 10 schools, and raise
standards. The
Following her meeting with Prime Minister Hariri, Patel said:
"I am very pleased to have visited
Notes for editors
- Priti Patel is the Senior Secretary of
State responsible for the Department of International Development. The
Harb Says a Referendum is a Way to Evade the Elections
Naharnet/February 04/17/MP Boutros Harb stated that a suggestion made by President Michel Aoun to introduce a referendum shall political parties fail
to agree on a new electoral law, is a “method of circumventing the polls.”“Nothing prevents the parliament from approving a
draft referendum for the polls as suggested by President Aoun,
but the idea of a referendum is a way of circumventing the elections,” Harb said in an interview with VDL (93.3). The MP lamented
that political parties have failed so far to meet on common ground “we were not
able to agree on an electoral draft law, how would we
be able to agree on a referendum?”Harb ruled out the
possibility that a new electoral law approved by all parties would be found
before the constitutional deadline.He warned that
shall parties fail to find a consensual format, it “would lead to the
demolition of the entire political system.” Endeavors
have failed so far because none of the political parties succeeded at finding a
'magic format' that meets approval of all,” added the MP. President Michel Aoun warned Friday that he would propose a popular
“referendum” should the political forces fail to agree on a new electoral law.
“Any electoral law must be based on unified standards and I will propose a
referendum should we reach a dead end,” Aoun told a
delegation from the Syndicate of Press Editors.
U.N. Peacekeepers Say Attacked by Mobs in
the South
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February
04/17/Groups of civilians attacked United Nations peacekeepers on patrol in two
incidents in southern Lebanon on Friday, damaging their vehicles but causing no
injuries, the mission said in a statement. The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL) said two patrols in the al-Mansouri and Majdal Zoun areas in south
Kataeb delegation from Bnechii :
Discussions tackle methods to bring down 60's law, draft to improve fair
representation
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - "Marada" leader Sleiman Franjieh welcomed on
Saturday at his residence in Bnechii a delegation
from Kataeb Party which included Former Minister
Alain Hakim, advisors of Kataeb leader Michel Khoury and Albert Costanian.
Following the meeting, Khoury said that the visit
came within their tour to various Lebanese leaders and references, stressing
that it aimed at discussing with MP Sleiman Franjieh all the suggestions and formulas regarding the new
electoral law. Khoury added that they discussed with Franjieh in specific, as with most of the leaders that they
visited, the " methods to bring down the 60's electoral law and suggesting
a new law that better secures fair representation for all sects, opens the
opportunity to new persons to be in the parliament, preserves diversity in
Lebanon and creates efficient opposition." Khoury
added that they are against any draft based on a sectarian, partisan or
annulment back ground. Khoury described discussions
with MP Franjieh as "friendly, honest and
serious," hoping that they would be able to face the constitutional crisis
that looms in the horizon. Khoury wished all
political parties would agree on an electoral law that satisfies all the
Lebanese.
Palestinian Detained over Ties to Costa
Would-Be Bomber
Naharnet/February 04/17/The Lebanese army
intelligence units arrested in south Lebanon , a Palestinian man over suspicion
of having ties to a would-be suicide attacker who attempted to carry out a
terror operation in Beirut's upscale Hamra neighborhood earlier this year, the National News Agency
reported on Saturday. The detainee identified as Hassan Majdi
Obeid was arrested in al-Zahrani's Sarafand area, NNA added. He is a friend and a co-worker of
failed suicide-bomber Omar al-Assi. Both have worked
at the
British Minister visits Hariri: Lebanon
should make the most of its partnership with the international community
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hariri
received today at the "House of Center" the British Secretary of
State for International Development, Priti Patel, in
the presence of the British Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter, the Minister of
State for Refugees Affairs Moein Merehbi
and Hariri's advisor for refugees affairs Nadim Mounla. After the meeting, Patel said: "I am
very pleased to have visited
Demilitarized grenade found in
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - A demilitarized-detonator bomb was detected in a building
under construction in Jebel Beddawi on Saturday,
whereby security forces enforced a blockade around the vicinity while a
military expert worked on transferring the bomb, NNA correspondent in Dinniye reported.
Army arrests wanted suspect following pursuit and shooting along Baalbek
Highway
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - Army units arrested, on Saturday, a wanted suspect after
long pursuit and open gunfire at the entrance to the town of Majdaloun along Baalbek's international highway, whereby he
was taken to Army barracks for investigation, NNA correspondent in Baalbek
reported.
British Embassy: Patel congratulates
President and Prime Minister, demonstrates increasing commitment through
further investment in education Hezbollah, electoral reform and Pandora’s box
Makram Rabah/Middle East
Eye/February 04/17
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/hezbollah-electoral-reform-and-pandora-s-box-783825264
Hezbollah has done everything to distract, delay and impede democracy. Its
endorsement of a new PR system is more of the same
The Lebanese public last went to the polls to elect representatives to
parliament in 2009. Those elections followed a deal reached by the Lebanese
factions in
The Doha Accord, as it came to be known, rewarded Hezbollah and their allies
for using their weapons against government forces who conceded defeat.
Ultimately,
The abysmal failure of the ruling class to elect a president for over two
years, forced the current parliament to extend its own term in office, which it
did unconstitutionally. This will expire in June this year.
Consequently with only a few more months remaining, the different political
factions are once more jostling to influence, or more precisely gerrymander, a
new election law which will give them victory.
The fistfight has been over the formula to adopt in the voting process rather
the division of the districts which will remain almost identical.
As it stands, the majority of the Christian politicians, led by president Aoun’s bloc are endorsing an ostensibly modern law which
introduces proportional voting (PR) which naturally gives their side a clear
disadvantage by preventing non-christian factions
from winning christian seats as they have customary
done in the past.
In contrast, other factions, chiefly amongst them Walid
Joumblatt the chief of the Druze, have been vocal
against such PR which ultimately disenfranchises and prevents them from
catering to their constituency within the larger clientelist
Lebanese system.
The most interesting part of this game however is the part played by
Hezbollah. Closer examination reveals a more elaborate plot in the making.
Hezbollah’s staunch endorsement of Aoun’s
electoral reform is to be expected, given that their alliance is now into its
eleventh year.
Strangely however, Hezbollah’s rejection of majoritarian
law and its zealous support of Aoun’s proportional
law appears to be against their interests, given that
any form of PR would reduce Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc as well as that of
its main Shiia ally, the Amal
Movement.
Has Hezbollah suddenly become altruistic? Their calculations are better
understood as a piece of a bigger and wider long-term strategy as a Lebanese
subsidiary of
Until 2005, when Syrian exodus from
Having never recognised the Taif Accord, which
ended the civil war, Hezbollah’s accommodation with the Lebanese state was
largely the result of a regional settlement which gave the late Hafez al Assad
custody over
This changed after the assassination of the then prime minister, Rafik Hariri, as Hezbollah had to step up to the plate,
take part in the executive branch of government and become fully immersed in
the trivialities of Lebanese politics.
Despite this tremendous shift, Hezbollah never endorsed, nor aspired to
empower, the Lebanese state but rather remained focused on preserving its own
parallel state structure which was primarily geared towards protecting the
interests of the Iranian revolution.
Consequently, its endorsement of PR, which weakens the grasp of the
traditional political parties and their leaders, is actually an attempt to make
the Lebanese state implode and to finally renounce the formula agreed at Taif. This aim is shared by Aoun.
Having blocked the presidential elections over the past two years by
boycotting the parliament sessions, Hezbollah have once and gain used the
banner of empowering Christians as a pretext for further deepening the
sectarian structure of government set by Taif.
In the bigger picture, Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war
has exposed them domestically, further implicating them in the Iranian-Russian
attempt to salvage what remains of Bashar al-Assad
and his regime.
The growing and now visible rift between
While
When the time comes,
This scenario will certainly push
Hezbollah’s investment in a harmless election law, which seemingly
empowers progressive elements, might appear tempting to some - but one has to
be aware of the Pandora’s Box this simple move might open.
Next time you hear any of Hezbollah’s representatives’ praise or endorse
any legislation or initiative to reform the Lebanese system, bear this in mind:
ultimately, if all this electoral maneuvering and
using democracy as a façade fails, Hezbollah can always fall back on what it
does best - using its arms to gets what it wants. This is the reality no ballot
box can mask.
- Makram Rabah is a
lecturer at the
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Aoun to Grandi: Help Syrians go
home
The Daily Star/February 04/17
The UNHCR head, who arrived on an official visit to
The president told Grandi that the international
community should work to facilitate refugees’ return by forming safe zones for
them in
“
“
The U.N. official said he had assured Aoun that UNHCR
would help those wanting to return. When pressed on the matter of returning
refugees, numerous U.N. officials in
Speaking after the meeting, Grandi said that when Aoun asked him what could be done to hasten the return of
refugees, the U.N. official told him a stable security atmosphere should be
secured. He added that a reconstruction plan for
As part of the official tour, Grandi also visited
Speaker Nabih Berri and
Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
“We reviewed the situation of the Syrian refugees in the country that, in
percentage terms, hosts the highest concentration of refugees in the world,” Grandi said, after the meeting with Hariri which was
attended by Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Mouin
Merehbi, Hariri’s adviser for refugee affairs Nadim Mounla and other officials.
He said he expressed his gratitude to Hariri for the work the Lebanese
government has been doing to host Syrian refugees. Grandi
also told the prime minister that a European Union-hosted humanitarian
conference in
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 04-05/17
The Pope Just Threw Shade
At Trump In The Classiest Way Possible
Carol Kuruvilla Associate Religion Editor/The
Huffington Post/February 04/17
Pope Francis hasn’t yet directly addressed President Donald Trump’s executive
order on refugees and immigrants ― but the pontiff is clearly thinking
about the large swath of humanity Trump is shoving to the margins.
Days after Trump signed a sweeping order dramatically restricting the number of
refugees and foreign nationals allowed to enter the United States, Francis
called on his flock to pray that the “poor, refugees, and marginalized” would
find “welcome and comfort in our communities.”
Curiously, he mentions “skyscrapers” and “real estate deals” ― two things
the president is intimately acquainted with.
“We live in cities that throw up skyscrapers and shopping centers and strike
big real estate deals but they abandon a part of themselves to marginal
settlements on the periphery,” he said in the video published on February 2.
“The result of this situation is that great sections of the population are
excluded and marginalized: without a job, without options, without a way out.
Don’t abandon them.”
Pope Francis shows drawings made by children on his flight back to
The YouTube video announced Francis’ prayer intentions for the month of
February. Every month, the pope encourages Catholics to join his worldwide prayer
network in praying for a specific theme. February’s theme asks Catholics to
“welcome the needy.”
The pope has often spoken out about the plight of migrants and refugees, emphasizing that welcoming them is a Christian
duty. Mirroring Jesus’ actions in the Bible, the pope traditionally washes the
feet of a few followers during the Christian holy day known as Maundy Thursday.
Last year, he chose to wash and kiss the feet of 12 refugees. A few weeks
later, after a trip to
On Wednesday, the Vatican’s deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, told an Italian Catholic television station that
the Holy See is concerned about Trump’s order.
“Certainly there is worry because we are messengers of another culture, that of
openness,” a top-ranking
Pope Francis welcomes a group of Syrian refugees after landing at Ciampino airport in
In the
After the inauguration, Francis sent the new president a telegram that both
congratulated Trump and reminded him of his responsibility to take care of the
poor and marginalized. While the pontiff hasn’t spoken about the executive
order itself, his views on refugees can probably be summed up in an exchange he
had with pilgrims in
Iran is world's biggest state sponsor
of terrorism, US says
BBC/February 04/17/ US Defence Secretary James Mattis
has called Iran the world's "biggest state sponsor of terrorism",
amid rising tensions between the two nations. His comments come a day after the
Trump administration imposed new sanctions against
The Revolutionary Guards, set up to defend
'Playing with fire'
US officials said the sanctions, targeting 13 people and 12 companies, were in
response to last Sunday's missile test and what they called Iran's
"continued support for terrorism". They are the first
State Department reverses visa ban,
allows travelers with visas into
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department will allow people with valid
visas into the
"We have reversed the provisional revocation of visas," the State
Department official said in a statement. "Those individuals with visas
that were not physically canceled may now travel if
the visa is otherwise valid."
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati
and Julia Edwards Ainsley; Editing by Bill Trott)
Father of Louvre attack suspect: My son
is innocent
Ashraf Abdel-Hamid, Al Arabiya Saturday, 4 February 2017/Gen. Ridha
Rifai’i al- Hamahmy, the
father of the Egyptian accused of being involved in the Louvre attack in which
a knife wielding man attempted to enter gallery the, has revealed new
information about his son.
In an interview with Al Arabiya, Gen. Hamahmy said his 29-year-old son, is completely innocent
and has evidence to support it. He said Abdullah is currently employed in a
legal consulting firm in Sharjah, in the UAE. He told
Al Arabiya he called him a few days ago to tell him
that he was traveling with his colleagues on a business trip to
His father said he was ‘shocked’ to hear about his son’s involvement in the
Louvre attack, saying Abdullah was completely innocent of all charges for
several reasons. He said Abdullah was being charged with assaulting a police
officer with a knife, while in fact the police officer was more than 190 cm
tall, while Abdullah’s height is only 157 cm. Abdullah was shot four times
after slightly injuring a soldier patrolling the underground mall in
Iran: If Enemies Do Wrong, Missiles
Will Come Down on Them
Naharnet/Associated Press/February 04/17/Iran's
missiles will come down on the country's enemies if they do wrong, a senior
commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard was quoted as saying in a
Saturday report from semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guard's
airspace division, said: "If the enemy does not walk the line, our
missiles come down on them." Hajizadeh's
comments came during a Revolutionary Guard military exercise aimed at testing
its missile and radar systems. The exercise was taking place in a
35,000-square-kilometer (13,515-square-mile) area in Semnan
province in northern
Anti-IS Syria Force Launches New Phase in Raqa Campaign
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February
04/17/US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters announced on Saturday a new phase in
their campaign for the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, but said they needed more weapons to win. The Syrian
Democratic Forces launched their campaign to capture the city last November and
have taken some ground further up the
In a first,
"Coalition forces provided our Arab contingent with vehicles, but the
numbers are very small and we hope they will increase in the coming days,"
SDF spokesman Talal Sello
said on Saturday. Local SDF commander Rojda Felat said additional equipment that had been requested was
not arriving quickly enough. "The weapons that we need to liberate Raqa are tanks, Dushkas (heavy
machine guns) and armoured vehicles," Felat, 38,
told AFP.
"There has been a delay in the arrival of weapons we need, but the support
will be increased in the next phases," she said. Felat
could give no timeline for when the SDF would reach the outskirts of Raqa, but said: "In this phase, we will get closer."Of the roughly 30,000 fighters within the
alliance, around two-thirds belong to the Kurdish People's Protection Units
(YPG), which
Shot Louvre attacker's condition
improving: French prosecutor
Sat 04 Feb 2017/NNA - The condition of the man shot and seriously wounded
outside the Louvre museum when he set upon French soldiers with a pair of
machetes is improving and he is out of danger, the
Defiant Iran in missile exercise after
sanctions
Agencies Saturday, 4 February 2017/Iran is to deploy missiles for a
Revolutionary Guards exercise Saturday in a show of defiance a day after the
United States imposed sanctions over a ballistic missile test launch last
weekend. The Guards' Sepahnews website said the
manoeuvres were aimed at demonstrating their "complete preparedness to
deal with the threats" and "humiliating sanctions" from
Syrian Democratic Forces launch new phase
in Raqqa
Reuters,
Anti-Nusra Front
demo in Idlib ‘start of new revolution’
By Leila Alwan/Al ARabiaya/Saturday,
4 February 2017/In spite of the military battles, every Friday residents in Idlib come together to protest peacefully against the
Syrian regime to reignite the spirit of the 2011 revolution.But
this Friday was quite different. Activists and local residents of the
rebel-held city chanted the same hymns they usually do, but instead of Assad,
substituted “Goddamn you, Jolani” referring to Mohamad al-Jolani, head of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham formerly
known as the al-Nusra Front. Al-Dana, Maeret Noaman and other towns
filled with hundreds of people who defied the al-Nusra
Front. Since 2011, every Friday protest across Syria was organized under a
united theme, but yesterday’s title was, ‘No room for al-Qaeda in Syria’.Activist and aid worker Khaled
Salame told Al Arabiya
English that this the beginning of a new revolution in Syria. “The people are
ready to revolt against anything that stands in the face of their freedom.”He said these past days brought him back to 2011.
“The banners of al-Qaeda have fallen, and the Syrian revolution flag has risen
once again,” he said.
‘Liberating
“I said this two years ago, the way to liberating
U.S.-backed Syrian force in new phase of Raqqa assault
Reuters/ By Rodi Said and Tom Perry
RAQQA PROVINCE, Syria/BEIRUT, Feb 4 (Reuters) - An alliance of U.S.-backed
militias started a new phase of its campaign against the Islamic State-held
city of Raqqa on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) , aiming to complete its encirclement and sever the road
to militant strongholds in Deir al-Zor province.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement the action was being
undertaken with "increasing support from the (U.S.-led) international
coalition forces" through both air strikes and backing from coalition
special forces on the ground.
The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, launched its
multi-phased campaign aimed at encircling and ultimately capturing Raqqa in November. It is the main
Fighting also raged between Islamic State and Syrian government forces
northeast of
Islamic State is being fought in separate campaigns in
A SDF commander told Reuters the forces had so far advanced a few kilometres
(miles) in the latest phase, which aims to capture areas to the east of the
city, including the highway linking it to Deir al-Zor province.
Deir al-Zor, which is
almost entirely in Islamic State hands, stretches all the way to the Iraqi
border. A Kurdish military source told Reuters on Tuesday that the goals of
this phase included capturing the main highway.
Several hundred
Representatives of the U.S.-led coalition looked on as the statement declaring
the start of the new phase was read out in a village in northern Raqqa province.
PHASE THREE
This is the third phase of the Raqqa operation. The
first phase targeted areas north of Raqqa city. The
second, targeting areas to the west of the city, is ongoing, with SDF forces
yet to capture the Islamic State-held
Air strikes on Friday in Raqqa hit two bridges over
the
The
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week requesting the
Pentagon, joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to
submit a preliminary plan in 30 days for defeating Islamic State.
One key decision awaiting the Trump administration is whether to directly
provide weapons to the YPG.
The U.S.-backed campaign against Islamic State in
The Turkish campaign, which also aims to prevent further expansion of YPG
control, has been encountering fierce Islamic State resistance in al-Bab since December.
Syrian government forces have staged a rapid advance of their own towards al-Bab in the last two weeks. (Writing by Tom Perry in
Kobi Gideon/The Daily Beast/February
04/17/
NCRI/Saturday, 04 February 2017 19:20 /Criminal Court of the Western Lorestan province in
Day After Warnings, Iran Regime's IRGC
Starts Missile Tests
NCRI/Saturday, 04 February 2017 19:20 /IRGC Commander: “We will not stop
enhancement of our capability specially the missile industry” Only a day after
a senior official of the United States of America warned about Iran's missile
tests, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced the start of a new
Missile Drill in Semnan east of Tehran.
The radar systems also used in the massive drills included long-range Qadir radar system with a tracking range of up to 1,100 kilometers, Matla al-Fajr radar system with a range of 500 kilometers
and capable of tracking different kinds of aircraft and drones and Kavosh radar system with a range of 150 kilometers
and capable of tracking air threats at low altitudes, including cruise missiles
and different aircraft.
In late January, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace
Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced
that his forces will take part in a massive military drill in the near future.
"The main aim of the upcoming war game is to display IRGC's
capabilities in producing the him-made military
equipment," General Hajizadeh said, addressing a
ceremony in the Northeastern city of
No matter what the enemies do and even if they try to impose restrictions on
Iran, "we will not stop enhancement of our capability, knowledge and
production in defense fields, specially the missile
industry", Hajizadeh said, addressing Iranian
university officials and professors in Tehran. Hajizadeh
had also announced earlier this month that the country has increased the number
of its ballistic missiles, while increasing their precision-striking
capability.
"In addition to enhancing the precision-striking power and quality of
ballistic missiles, the Iranian authorities and experts have used innovative
and shortcut methods to produce inexpensive missiles and today, we are
witnessing an increase in production (of ballistic missiles)," General Hajizadeh said in Tehran.
His remarks came after Iranian Defense Minister
Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan
underlined that his country sees no limit for the range of the ballistic
missiles that it is developing.
"We don’t have any limit for the range of liquid or solid-fueled ballistic missiles," Dehqan
said in a meeting in the Central city of
He underlined the indigenous nature of most Iranian weapons and military
equipment, and said, "90 percent of the country's defense
systems have reached an acceptable standard and enjoy competitive quality
compared with the weapons of advanced countries; production of the national
individual weapons and efforts to improve the quality and precision-striking
power of ballistic missiles are among the defense
ministry's achievements in the defense field."
General Dehqan added that Iranian experts have also
taken long strides in building satellites, satellite carriers, missile launch
pads and research work in defense areas.
His remarks came as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) fired 2
home-made 'Qadr H' ballistic missiles from the
The missiles were fired on the sidelines of the main stage of the IRGC drills
in
One missile had a message written on it that said in Hebrew: "
Iran: Call to Stop Execution of a Juvenile
NCRI Statements/Saturday, 04 February 2017 /The Iranian Resistance calls on all
international human rights organizations, especially the United Nations High
Commissioner on Human Rights and Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights in Iran, to take urgent and effective action to stop the
execution of a juvenile.Hamid Ahmadi,
currently in prison, is set to be executed for a crime he allegedly carried out
at the age of 17. After enduring 9 years behind bars, Ahmadi
was transferred to solitary confinement of Lakan
Prison in
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/February 3,
2017
Iranian Resistance Welcomes New
Sanctions on Iran Regime
NCRI/Saturday, 04 February 2017/Position of Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin,
the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran (NCRI), on new sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime:
Welcoming the new sanctions and Stressing the need to impose total sanctions on
the Revolutionary Guards and other entities involved in suppression, terrorism
and fundamentalism. “Imposing sanctions against numerous individuals and
companies affiliated to the clerical regime for their role in missile
proliferation and terrorism is a positive step in confronting the illegitimate
and terrorist dictatorship whose record includes 120,000 political executions.
But in order to deal with the threats emanating from the Godfather of
state-sponsored terrorism and the biggest source of war and instability in the
region that has played the most significant role in ISIS’s
ascension to power and survival, it is imperative to impose comprehensive
sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), its affiliated entities, the
Ministry of Intelligence, and other entities involved in suppression and export
of terrorism. The IRGC and its affiliated militias and their commanders
including Qassem Soleimani
and Iraj Masjedi (the
Iranian regime’s ambassador to
On Wednesday February 1, U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn put the
Iranian regime “on notice” over the regime's recent ballistic missile test
launch, calling it a "provocative" breach of a UN Security Council
resolution. On Friday, Flynn announced in a statement that the U.S. was
sanctioning 25 individuals and entities that provide support to the regime’s
ballistic missile program and to the IRGC Quds Force:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
February 03, 2017
Statement by National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn on Iran
Today, the United States sanctioned twenty-five individuals and entities that
provide support to Iran’s ballistic missile program and to the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism
and engages in and supports violent activities that destabilize the
The international community has been too tolerant of
The days of turning a blind eye to
Iran: 110 Military Commanders
Convicted of Election Fraud in 2005
NCRI /Saturday, 04 February 2017/Ali Motahari, a
Deputy Speaker of the Iranian regime’s parliament has said that the former
chairman of the regime’s expediency council Ali-Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani believed in 2005 that the elections had been engineered.
“Rafsanjani complained in this regard, as a result of which 110 military
commanders were convicted of ‘election manipulation’”, Motahari
said in an interview with the state-run Jamaran
website on February 2. Motahari added that
“Rafsanjani told me that he was worried it would be too bad for the system if
the court ruling was going to be implemented, so he decided not to pursue it
any further.”As Motahari
claims, the reason for Rafsanjani’s candidacy in the
2005 Presidential election was not that he was seeking power, but he entered
the race due to his alarm at the presence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Ahmadinejad was
smart and found out soon that part of the system wanted Rafsanjani to be
sidelined”, maintained Motahari. Regarding Rafsanjani’s disagreements with the regime’s supreme leader
Ali Khamenei, Motahari said
that “Hashemi Rafsanjani believed that the election
had not been healthy. As a matter of fact, the disagreement between Hashemi and the leader began right at that time, namely
from the time Ahmadinejad entered, since the leader
totally believed in Ahmadinejad and strongly
supported him whereas Hashemi regarded Ahmadinejad as a threat for the revolution (regime), and
this naturally led to a disagreement.” On February 24, 2016, Rafsanjani pointed
to Khamenei’s support for Ahmadinejad,
saying that “all the achievements of the revolution was
put on sale in the 2005 presidential election. I warned the authorities as well
as public broadcasting officials while talking to reporters at the time, not to
act on a whim, setting
Iranian Resistance President-elect Maryam Rajavi said that Rafsanjani’s
death on January 8, 2017 would lead to the regime losing its “internal and
external equilibrium.”
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 04-05/17
Under Trump: New Directions for American Foreign Policy
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/February
04/17
With the U.S. Senate endorsing the nomination of Rex Tillerson
as the new Secretary of State, President Donald J Trump’s national security
team is now complete, ready for action.
The Trump team differs from those of previous presidents in a number of ways.
To start with, Trump has decided to seek a tighter grip for himself by
granting Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, or even Svengali as critics claim, a seat at the National Security
Council (NSC).
Next, he has decided that his National Security Advisor, Lt. General
Michael Flynn, would fix the NSC’s agenda in
consultation with Bannon.
This would give the inner-circle of presidential advisers a tighter grip
on the choice of issues that the administration wishes to focus on.
Another important decision is to deprive the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
top echelon of the
Lowering the profile of the Top Brass need not be regarded as a major
event if only because the top echelon of the Trump administration includes two
retired four-star generals, Defence Secretary James Mattis
and Homeland Secretary John F. Kelly, plus Flynn who has three stars.
The new Trump configuration also diminishes the role of the State
Department, the vehicle for American diplomacy. Trump believes that the
department has morphed into an exclusive club for cosmopolitan liberals more
concerned about the sensibilities of foreign foes than the interests of the
Tillerson’s choice as Secretary of States indicates
Trump’s determination to shake the State Department. A businessman, Tillerson would be able to cast a fresh glance at all
aspects of
It would be interesting to see how long would Tillerson
resist “going native” and adopting the discourse and style of the State
Department professionals.
The “inner circle” also includes Kt McFarland, a veteran of all
Republican administrations since President Richard Nixon, who has been named
Deputy National Security Adviser. Legal “know-how” for the inner circle would
be provided by Don McGahan, named as White House
Counsel.
Also expected to be part of the inner circle is Nikki Haley, named as
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations with a seat on the Cabinet.
Two more members of the administration are likely to acquire some
influence, at least on aspects of Trumps policy related to international trade
and the changing patterns of the global energy market.
They are Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
The Trump ream differs from previous administrations in a number of ways.
To start with it consists mostly of people who have been successful in
their respective fields of activity and do not owe their place and prestige to
political patronage. This means that we could expect real debate at least
within the inner circle.
Under Obama, the standard response of senior administration members was
“yes, sir”. Under Trump one may get a better deal, at least with “yes, but.”
The average American public servant is often excessively concerned about
“what-is-in-it-for me”, with an eye on the next rung of the ladder he might
climb. Trumps team may be different if only because of the age of its members,
six years older than the average for members of the last three administrations
and the fact that most members do not envisage further political careers.
Another factor is the personal wealth of the members of the new team that
includes several billionaires. (Obama’s administration had no billionaires;
most of its members were only millionaires.)
But what will the new team do?
Though no definite answer could be suggested as yet, there are indicators
pointing to the direction that
Some analysts, especially in
The “America First” slogan of Trump isn’t new however; it was launched in
the late 1930s by people like the politician Huey Pierce, Father Charles
Coughlin and the aviator Charles Lindbergh with a view to keep the
With Trump, however, it means active engagement with the aim of securing
better “deals” for the
In the 1930s the slogan was really meant to convey an “America Alone”
sentiment. Trump reads it differently to imply that
That sentiment is shared by the vast majority of Trump’s new team, men
and women who have extensive experience of the outside world plus command of foreign
languages.
Trump’s “America First” slogan is laced with a feeling of resentment
prompted by the belief that the
The average American could be world champion of friendship and generosity
even to the point of fighting and dying on distant battlefields to save friends
and allies. But he simply goes mad if he gets the feeling that the friends and
allies he has saved simply took advantage of him, and pour
scorn on him in secret.
Trumps promise, not to say threat, to tear up trade agreements is largely
motivated by that anger. However, once it becomes clear that even the worst
trade agreements have served
What remains to be seen is the ability of the new team to translate what
is a simple, not to say simplistic, slogan into the backbone of a coherent
world-view and practical foreign policy.
Unlike Obama who believed, or pretended to believe, that his own ersatz
charm and persiflage could move the biggest hurdles, Trump feels that what
matters when the chips are down is the relative power of any two sides involved
in a relationship. That point is amply made clear in Trump’s book “The Art of
the Deal” in which he recommends bullying, bluster and bluffing as legitimate
tools of negotiations.
In Trump’s vision of the world, no nation is assigned a permanent label,
and even the
A nation could be an ally or even a friend but act as an adversary or
even an enemy in particular instances and on specific issues. Trump has two
cases most in mind. The first concerns the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) which he has described as “obsolete.”
This does not mean he wants to abolish NATO; in fact last month he
indicated he wants to strengthen it. But he certainly would insist on the
allies meeting their commitments both in terms of financial contribution and
allocation of resources.
Next, Trump has served notice on allies, including Japan South Korea,
The conventional wisdom is that Trump will be “soft” on Russian President
Vladimir Putin and his projection of power in the area of influence of the
deceased Soviet Empire. However, Putin’s strategy is primarily aimed at
promoting his own image as a strong nationalist leader standing up against
Western bullies.
Obama fell into Putin’s trap by talking tough and doing nothing to
increase the cost of Russian expansionism. Trump is likely to do the opposite:
turning the volume down on Putin but making sure he pays the maximum price for
his cheat-and-retreat shenanigans. This is why Trump’s 30-minute long telephone
conversation with Putin did not include any reference to the easing of
sanctions on
Trump may adopt a similar tactic against the Islamic Republic in
In fact, Islamic Republic President Hassan Rouhani
has publicly stated that without Obama’s help in the context of the “nuclear
deal”
There is much speculation regarding Trump’s intention to scrap the
However, no such dramatic action may be necessary. Instead, the new
administration may do two things. First, it could stop operating as a lobby for
the mullahs, as Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry did. That would
send a strong signal to the rest of the world that the mullah’s regime remains
a pariah and has a long way before qualifying for “business as usual.”
Secondly, Trump may administer some of the mullahs’ own medicine in the
form of low-intensity operations and proximity pressure. In fact, Gen. Flynn,
followed by Trump himself, this week put Tehran on notice that the Islamic
Republic is now under close observation and that its’ every move would receive
the response it merits.
That is in contrast with Obama’s policy of boasting about “all options
are on the table” while violating international law to help the mullahs under
the table.
The Middle East, with special attention paid to
The Trump administration has better and more direct knowledge of the
region than did that of Obama. General Mattis was in
command in
Both generals Kelly and Flynn to could be
regarded as old
The fact that Trump has cited the “total destruction” of ISIS (Da’esh in Arabic) as a top priority adds to the importance
of reviewing
Eliminating
Here, too, the conventional wisdom claiming that Trump would allow
However, the new administration’s aims, as put by Tillerson
during the Senate hearings, include two objectives that do not tally with such
a Machiavellian scheme. Tillerson fixed two goals:
The departure from power of Assad and the destruction of
More importantly, perhaps, Tillerson insisted
that the two objectives should be attained together.
This means that
Obama’s policy failed because the
Trump may offer a new “deal” under which
According to
Only thanks to Gen. Flynn, a specialist in Turkish affairs, relations
with
The fact that
An infusion of massive Iranian support could still prevent the total
defeat of the Houthis and their allies, at least for
the time being. The Trump administration’s aim is to make
In his style as a deal-maker, Trump may also enlist
The new Trump team has the great advantage of being bound together with a
set of clear ideas which, though debatable, could provide the
This new team believes that America’s enemies have little power but use
all of it against the U.S. while the U.S. has a lot of power but has been
afraid of using even a tiny it of it against its foes.
The new team claims its aim is to make sure that fear changes camp and
that cowardice finds a home with
How well, or how badly, the new team may pursue that aim remains to be
seen.
**Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief
of the daily Kayhan in
I am Muslim and I am not angry
Mamdouh AlMuhaini/Al Arabiya/February 04/17
In 2011, a mosque that was going to be built in the Ground Zero area near the
World Trade Center that witnessed the 9/11 attack, caused a huge controversy.
Those who were against constructing it said that the location is inappropriate,
while Muslims and their supporters conveyed a correct point of view, stating that
they are not responsible for the actions of terrorists, even if the
perpetrators were Muslims.
This is a logical argument but the other side of the argument that will always
be repeated and echoed was stated by the mosque’s imam, Sheikh Faysal Abdul Raouf, saying that
the prevention of the construction will anger Muslims and mobilize them against
the West. However, the reality is that a small number of Muslims was interested
in this topic or has even heard of it. At the end, the center was built few miles
from the controversial location and we have not heard Muslims objecting in the
streets.
The same story was recently repeated on a larger scale. The
After the last decision and its repercussions, the argument of “angry Muslims”
is more than ever humiliating because it puts all the Muslims in one category
as if they were just a rigid group of people angered and entertained by the
same thing, even if it is a trivial issue. It is even more humiliating because
it assumes that it is easy to manipulate the feelings of Muslims and treat them
like children who are not incapable of independent thinking and they react
about the same thing differently. What hurts me and angers me is different from
what angers and hurts my friend or my brother; assuming the opposite would make
us some puppets without opinion or core values.
I remember that once a professor said something during his lecture, and then
apologized for all Muslim students in the room. That was the most humiliating
apology I have ever heard in my life because he put us all in the same basket,
as if we were a flock of identical sheep.
What is even more humiliating is that they do not react in the same way about
all other religions and cultures; they know that what angers one person will
not anger the others, so the same professor did not have to apologize to
everybody, formulating an apology that would work for fools.
There is an exploitative mean side. The mosque’s Imam, Abdel Raouf has used “angry Muslims” as an excuse to terrorize
and intimidate the opponents from these unrestrained beasts in order to be
victorious in his own battle, without thinking for one second that he is
hurting our image and reputation. The same applies to those who are against the
ban, like famous religious figures who use us at every opportunity as a
boogeyman that scares frightened foreigners from our savage anger that can
explode at any moment. This is why we have become a valuable tool in the
negotiations and conflicts; this tool can end the debate swiftly.
They terrorize Muslims who see things from another angle, or even have a
different opinion; they label them as racists and fascists
Such argument is repeated in Western press that
perceives us with the same amount of inferiority. This argument is used by
politicians and journalists who claim to defend Muslims in order to achieve
their interests and damage the reputation of other currents under the pretext
of distorting the image of Islam and Muslims.
Strangely enough, the rational Muslim figures in the West are under attack from
the same press, under the pretext of their alliance with the right-wing radical
currents. The situation is weird. They terrorize Muslims who see things from
another angle, or even have a different opinion; they label them as racists and
fascists.
This issue has a deeper and more dangerous side used by radicals who promote
and boost such concerns for obvious reasons.
They want to portray Muslims as if they were a huge bloc so that they would be
able to control them and achieve 3 goals. They use them in negotiations with
the West, under the pretext that they can control this vicious monster and at
the same time isolate this monster and deepen its hostility and isolation from
other civilizations, and thirdly they benefit personally on the financial and
social level, through detaining the keys to money and power.
Maybe it's time to stop this erroneous and humiliating argument. I am a Muslim
and I am not angry and you cannot manipulate my mind and emotions easily. There
are millions of Muslims like me.
Question: "Is it important for a
Christian to have daily devotions?"
GotQuestions.org
Answer: Daily devotions is a phrase used to denote the
discipline of Bible reading and prayer with which Christians start or end their
day. Bible reading in daily devotions can take the form of a structured study
using a devotional book or a simple reading of certain passages. Some people
like to read through the Bible in a year. Prayer in daily devotions can include
any or all of the different types of prayer—praise, confession, thanksgiving,
petition, and intercession. Some people use prayer lists for their daily
devotions. Others prefer to pray as they read the Word in an interactive
manner, listening for God speaking to them through the Bible passages and
responding in prayer. Whatever the format of daily devotions, the important
thing is that our daily devotions, as the name implies, be truly devoted to God
and occur daily.
It is important to spend time with God in daily devotions. Why? Paul explains:
“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The experience of having God’s light shine
in our hearts comes in our times spent in the presence of God. Of course, this
light comes only from knowing God through Christ. The marvelous
treasure of the Holy Spirit is given to each Christian, and we need faith to
believe and act upon that truth. In all reality, if we truly yearn to
experience the light of our Lord, we will need to be with God every day.
Someone once said, “The gospel brings man to God; devotions keep him close to
God.” The apostle James wrote, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James
4:8). As the children of God seek a closer relationship with God, they will
find God is closer than ever. In their daily devotions, Christians seek to draw
close to God’s heart, understand more about Him, obey His commands, and hold on
to His promises. The impure and double-minded will have no such yearning in
their hearts. In fact, they will seek to separate themselves from God as much
as possible.
In daily devotions, we want to draw near to God. The expression “draw near” was
originally associated with the priesthood in
The sincere believer knows that God wants His people to draw near to Him with
true and pure hearts, and that’s what daily devotions are all about. “Let us
draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies
washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). This verse applies the language of the
Old Testament ceremonial system to us today. Just as those ancient priests prepared
themselves to be near God, we also should prepare ourselves spiritually to
worship Him, whether in formal worship or in our personal devotional times.
After salvation, the spiritual growth begins. The believer will, like Enoch,
naturally want to walk with God (Genesis 5:22). He will, like Asaph, desire to be near God (Psalm 73:28). He will, like
the disciples, yearn to pray effectively (Luke 11:1). In short, the child of
God will want to find time for daily devotions.
Muhammad and Forced Conversions to Islam
Raymond Ibrahim/February 04/17
What are we to make of the glaring contradiction between the Koran’s claim that
“there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256) and the many other verses that
call for war, slavery, and death to those who refuse to submit to Islam (9:5,
et al)—to say nothing of the militant behavior of the
prophet of Allah, Muhammad? This is the question Stephen M. Kirby examines in
his new book, Islam’s Militant Prophet: Muhammad and Forced Conversion to
Islam.
Rather than offer speculations or cite nearly 1,400 years of Islamic history
that is heavy laden with forced conversions, Kirby answers the question in an
objective and meticulous fashion—in a fashion that any Muslim will be hard
pressed to counter: he focuses exclusively on the career of Muhammad, from its
beginnings in 610 till his death in 632, as recorded in Islam’s primary
sources, the Koran and Hadith, and as understood or
interpreted by Islam’s most authoritative scholars, such as Ibn
al-Kathir. Along the way, readers are provided useful
explanations—again, directly from Islam’s learned scholars themselves—of arcane
or misunderstood doctrines, such as abrogation, which is essential for any
exegesis.
The long and short of it all?
The command of “no compulsion in Islam” was a unique command that had doctrinal
authority for only a little over two years. It was abrogated both by the Sunnah and the Koran. Its short lifetime was preceded and
followed by commands that non-Muslims were to be given the option of converting
to Islam, fighting to the death, or, at times, paying the Jizyah.
Muhammad was indeed the militant prophet of a militant religion that supported
forced conversions to Islam.
Before reaching this conclusion, Kirby offers example after example of Muhammad
giving non-Muslims—pagan Quraysh, Jews, and
Christians, almost always people who had no quarrel with him aside from
rejecting his prophetic authority—two choices: convert or suffer the
consequences, the latter of which often manifested as wholesale massacres.
It’s also noteworthy that, according to Islam’s earliest histories, sincere
belief in Muhammad’s prophet claims is lacking. The overwhelming majority of
those who converted to Islam did so either under duress—literally to save their
heads—or else to be part of Muhammad’s “winning team.” Conversion was the price
for one man, Malik bin Auf, to get his kidnapped
family back from Muhammad.
Insincere, coerced conversion is especially evident in Muhammad’s conquest of
Rather tellingly, the Muslim historians who recorded these non-Muslim
conversions to Islam saw no contradiction between the coerced and insincere
nature of the conversions and the Koran’s claim that “there is no compulsion in
religion.” For instance, in Muslim historian Taqi
al-Din al-Maqrizi’s (d. 1442) multivolume history of
Egypt, anecdote after anecdote is recorded of Muslims burning churches,
slaughtering Christians, and enslaving their women and children. After each
incident, the pious Muslim historian concludes with, “Under these circumstances
a great many Christians became Muslims.” (One can almost detect in inaudible “Allahu Akbar.”)
Aside from sporadic bouts of persecution, the entrenched dhimmi
system (see Koran 9:29)—itself a form of coercion—saw the increasingly
impoverished Christians slowly convert to Islam over the centuries, so that
today they remain a steadily dwindling minority. In The Arab Conquest of Egypt,
Alfred Butler, a 19th century historian writing before the age of political
correctness, highlights this “vicious system of bribing the Christians into
conversion”:
[A]lthough religious freedom was in theory secured
for the Copts under the capitulation, it soon proved in fact to be shadowy and
illusory. For a religious freedom which became identified with social bondage
and with financial bondage could have neither substance nor vitality. As Islam
spread, the social pressure upon the Copts became enormous, while the financial
pressure at least seemed harder to resist, as the number of Christians or Jews
who were liable for the poll-tax [jizya] diminished
year by year, and their isolation became more conspicuous. . . . [T]he burdens
of the Christians grew heavier in proportion as their numbers lessened [that
is, the more Christians converted to Islam, the more the burdens on the
remaining few grew]. The wonder, therefore, is not that so many Copts yielded
to the current which bore them with sweeping force over to Islam, but that so
great a multitude of Christians stood firmly against the stream, nor have all
the storms of thirteen centuries moved their faith from the rock of its
foundation.
In short, the Koran’s claim that “there is no compulsion in religion” seems
more of an assertion, a statement of fact, than a command for Muslims to
uphold. After all, it is true: no Muslim can make a non-Muslim say the words
“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” But that
doesn’t mean they can’t enslave, extort, plunder, torture, and slaughter those
who refuse.
http://raymondibrahim.com/2017/02/03/muhammad-forced-conversions-islam/
Why do so many Americans believe that Islam is a political ideology, not a
religion?
By Michael Schulson/The Washington Post/February
03/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/02/04/michael-schulson-why-do-so-many-americans-believe-that-islam-is-a-political-ideology-not-a-religion/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/02/03/why-do-so-many-americans-believe-that-islam-is-a-political-ideology-not-a-religion/?utm_term=.0659b9bf6a56
For many Americans, last week’s executive order on immigration was a clear case
of religious discrimination since it singles out Muslim-majority countries and
gives preferential treatment to non-Muslim refugees from those countries.
The implication seems to be that, in keeping with President Trump’s campaign
promises, the
For other Americans, the executive order might not seem like a case of
religious discrimination — not because the policy doesn’t differentiate between
Muslims and non-Muslims, but because they are skeptical
that Islam is actually a religion at all.
Google Islam, religion and politics, and it’s easy to
find websites like PoliticalIslam.com, which claims to use “statistical
methods” to prove that “Islam is far more of a political system than a
religion.”
The argument travels outside the Internet fringe of conspiracy theories. “When
we discuss ‘Islam,’ it should be assumed that we are talking about both a
religion and a political-social ideology,” former assistant
“Islam is not even a religion; it is a political system that uses a deity to
advance its agenda of global conquest,” said John Bennett, a Republican
lawmaker in the
A thoughtful, educated evangelical pastor recently told me that he thinks
“religious liberty just needs to be protected for all belief systems, but there
also needs to be clarity as to if Islam is fully a religion, or if it’s really
a political movement disguised as a religion.”
The idea has adherents at the highest levels of power. “Islam is a political
ideology” that “hides behind the notion of it being a religion,” national
security adviser Michael Flynn told an ACT for
The growing popularity of this idea speaks to a profound disconnect in American
conversations about faith — and it offers a way that many self-proclaimed
advocates of religious liberty might defend discriminatory policies against
Muslims.
It is difficult to think of a definition of religion that does not include
Islam — an ancient tradition with practitioners who believe in one God, pray
and try to live their lives in accordance with a scripture.
So why has this particular canard taken off?
Wajahat Ali, a writer, attorney, and the lead author
of “Fear, Inc.,” a report on American Islamophobia,
traces the idea’s recent surge to anti-Islam activists David Yerushalmi and Frank Gaffney. In 2010, Gaffney’s Center for
Security Policy published a report, “Shariah: The
Threat to
“Though it certainly has spiritual elements, it would be a mistake to think of shariah as a ‘religious’ code in the Western sense,” the
report argued. It also suggested banning “immigration of those who adhere to shariah … as was previously done with adherents to the
seditious ideology of communism.”
“They misdefine sharia in a
way which is not recognizable to any practicing Muslim,” Ali said. But the idea
was influential. By the summer of 2011, more than two dozen states were
considering anti-sharia legislation. More recently,
Gaffney reportedly advised Trump’s transition team.
For many Americans, confusion about religious law, political ideology and sharia may reflect a distinctly Christian, and especially
Protestant, way of thinking about the nature of religion.
“It’s hard to talk about this sometimes because there is no equivalent of sharia in the Christian tradition,” said Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution and the author of “Islamic Exceptionalism:
How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World.” “Even
when you’re talking to well-intentioned, well-meaning people who really want to
understand, explaining sharia is very challenging
because there’s nothing in Christianity that’s quite like it.”
This kind of wide-ranging religious legal code may be unfamiliar to many Christians,
but it’s not unique to Islam. There are strong similarities between sharia and Jewish law, or halakhah,
which itself descends from legalistic sections of the Bible that both Jews and
Christians consider scripture. Both words derive from roots meaning “path” or
“way.”
Judaism has also been accused of being as much a political program as a
religion. The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” an influential anti-Semitic
forgery, falsely depicts Jews describing Judaism as “the one and only religious
and political truth.”
Both sharia and halakhah
include laws for communal as well as personal life. These traditions do not
necessarily draw sharp legal distinctions between religious and other kinds of
spaces.
Certainly, some Muslims may believe that faith touches all parts of their
lives, including their political involvement. But the same could be said for
devout members of almost any other religious tradition.
The entanglement of faith and politics is not unique to Islam. Consider the
televangelist Pat Robertson, who ran for president in 1988 because, he
believed, God wanted him to do so. After he lost, Robertson wrote about his
hope for “one of
Nevertheless, Robertson told viewers in 2007 that “Islam is not a religion” but
instead “a worldwide political movement.”
The idea of Islam as a political ideology fits well with our particular
political moment. Since the fall of communism, some Western intellectuals, most
notably the late Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, have argued
that the next great global struggle will be between Western civilization and
Islamic civilization.
“The ideology that is against the
Increasingly, there seems to be a disconnect between those who understand the
national conversation about Islam in terms of religious rights and the
protection of religious minorities, and those who see it as a conversation
about large-scale ideological battle.
As Cesari points out, thinking about Islam in these
terms allows people to reconcile a commitment to First Amendment rights with a
sense of Islam as an existential political enemy. The stakes could be high.
“Once you look at Islam as a political ideology, especially one that is
threatening, you can ignore or neglect all kinds of civil procedures or
protection of religious freedoms that go with the status of being religious in
this country.”
**Michael Schulson is a freelance journalist in
Trump lashes out at travel ban ruling
by 'so-called judge'
SEATTLE (AP) February 04/17— A federal judge's ruling temporarily lifting a ban
on travel to the U.S. from certain countries triggered confusion in airports
around the world as airlines began boarding flights bound for America and
federal lawyers took steps to reinstate the ban. As the impact of the ruling
took hold, President Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter early Saturday morning,
referring to U.S. District Judge James Robart as
"this so-called judge" and calling his decree "ridiculous."
"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes
law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be
overturned," Trump tweeted. "When a country is no
longer able to say who can and who cannot come in & out, especially for
reasons of safety & security - big trouble!"The White House said it would try to get a court to
reinstate the ban that prompted the State Department to cancel visas for 60,000
or more people from the affected countries, causing widespread confusion at
airports when some travelers were detained and others sent back. An internal
email circulated among Homeland Security officials Friday night told employees
to immediately comply with the judge's ruling. However, the
"We don't know what the effect will be, but we're working to get more
information," the embassy told The Associated Press in a statement. A pair
of prominent Middle Eastern air carriers announced they would begin allowing
passengers from the seven affected countries. Both Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, national carrier of the
The judge's decision was a victory for
"The state has met its burden in demonstrating immediate and irreparable
injury," Robart said. The White House has argued
that it will make the country safer. Spokesman Sean Spicer released a statement
late Friday saying the government "will file an emergency stay of this
outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we
believe is lawful and appropriate."
Soon after, a revised statement was sent out that removed the word
"outrageous."
"The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the
constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American
people," the statement said. A State Department official, speaking on
condition of anonymity because the matter is under litigation, said Friday:
"We are working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and our
legal teams to determine how this affects our operations. We will announce any
changes affecting travelers to the
In their arguments to the court, Washington state and Minnesota said the
temporary ban on entry for people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya
and Yemen and the global suspension of the U.S. refugee program significantly
harms residents and effectively mandates discrimination.
After the ruling, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said people
from the affected countries can now apply for entry to the
The judge's ruling could be appealed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Federal attorneys had argued that Congress gave the president authority to make
decisions on national security and immigrant entry. But in his written order
released late Friday, Robart said it's not the
court's job to "create policy or judge the wisdom of any particular policy
promoted by the other two branches," but rather, to make sure that actions taken by the executive or legislative branches
"comports with our country's laws." Court challenges of the ban have
been filed nationwide from states and advocacy groups. Washington Solicitor
General Noah Purcell said his state's focus is the way the president's order
targets Islam. Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, and
the travel ban was an effort to make good on that campaign promise, Purcell
told the judge. "Do you see a distinction between campaign statements and
the executive order?" Robart asked. "I
think it's a bit of a reach to say the president is anti-Muslim based on what
he said in
Purcell said there is an "overwhelming amount of evidence" to
show the order is unconstitutionally directed at the Muslim religion.
The judge then questioned the federal government's lawyer, Michelle
Bennett, about Trump's rationale.
Robart, an appointee of President George W.
Bush, asked if there had been any terrorist attacks since 9/11 by people from
the seven counties listed in Trump's order. Bennett said she didn't know.
"The answer is none," Robart said.
"You're here arguing we have to protect from these individuals from these
countries, and there's no support for that." Bennett argued that the
states can't sue on behalf of citizens, and the states have failed to show the
order is causing irreparable harm. Robart disagreed,
and rejected a request from Bennett for an immediate stay of his order.
The State Department said Friday that Trump's order canceled
visas for up to 60,000 foreigners from the seven majority-Muslim countries,
contradicting a Justice Department lawyer who said Friday that about 100,000
visas had been revoked.
The State Department clarified that the higher figure includes diplomatic and
other visas that were actually exempted from the travel ban, as well as expired
visas.
The French Inquisition/France's New
Dreyfus Trial, a Jihad against the Truth
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/February 04/2017
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9885/france-bensoussan-trial
"It is a shame to deny this taboo, namely that in the Arab families in
France, and everyone knows it but nobody wants to say it, anti-Semitism is
sucked with mother's milk." — George Bensoussan,
historian of Moroccan heritage, on trial for saying that.
"When parents shout at their children, when they want to reprimand them,
they call them Jews. Yes. All Arab families know this. It is monumental
hypocrisy not to see that this anti-Semitism begins as a domestic one. " — Smaïn Laacher,
French-Algerian professor of sociology.
This witch-hunt against Bensoussan is symptomatic of
the state of free speech today in
In December 2016, Pascal Bruckner, a writer and philosopher, was also brought
to court for saying: "We need to make the record of collaborators of
Charlie Hebdo's murderers." He named the people
in
Muslims, especially young Muslims, as the new revolutionary labor class. It did not matter that most of them
were not working: they were "victims".
"Anti-racist vigilance became a gag rule... Anti-racist organizations are
in the denial of 'Muslim racism.'" — Alain Finkielkraut,
philosopher and academic.
An important red line in
On January 25, 2017,
Georges Bensoussan, a highly regarded Jewish
historian of Moroccan extraction, and an expert on the history of Jews in Arab
countries. (Image source: Jusqu'au dernier video screenshot)
Not only did the Islamist CCIF and the Jewish LICRA unite against him, but also
the French Human Rights League, SOS Racism and MRAP (Movement against Racism
and for Friendship with People).
Bensoussan is being prosecuted for remarks he made
during a "France Culture" radio debate, about antisemitism
among French Arabs:
"An Algerian sociologist, Smaïn Laacher, with great courage, just said in a documentary
aired on Channel 3: It is a shame to deny this taboo, namely that in the Arab
families in France, and everyone knows it but nobody wants to say it,
anti-Semitism is sucked with mother's milk."
The documentary that Bensoussan was referring to was
called "Teachers in the
"Antisemitism is already awash in the domestic
space... It... rolls almost naturally off the tongue,
awash in the language... It is an insult. When parents shout at their children,
when they want to reprimand them, they call them Jews. Yes. All Arab families
know this. It is monumental hypocrisy not to see that this anti-Semitism begins
as a domestic one."
No complaint was filed against Laacher. But as soon
as Bensoussan, in the heat of a radio debate,
referred to Arab anti-Smitism as "sucked in with
mother's milk", CCIF, followed by all anti-racist associations, brought Bensoussan to supposed justice. Their accusation was
simple: "mother's milk" is not a metaphor for cultural anti-Semitism
transmitted through education, but a genetic and "essentialist"
accusation. It means: "all Arabs are anti-Semitic" -- in other words,
Bensoussan is a racist.
Professor Smaïn Laacher, of
the
Judgment will be rendered March 7.
This witch-hunt against Bensoussan is symptomatic of
the state of free speech today in
In December 2016, Pascal Bruckner, a writer and philosopher, was also brought
to court for saying in 2015, on Arte TV, "We need to make the record of
collaborators of Charlie Hebdo's murderers". He
named people in
It was not the first time that Islamists filed complaints against people they
dislike. Charlie Hebdo was twice brought to court by
Islamist organizations. Twice, the accusations of Charlie's Islamist accusers
were dismissed.
But with the Bensoussan trial, we are entering in a
new era. The most venerable, the most authentic anti-racist organizations --
some of them are older than a century -- are, shamefully, lining up with
Islamist organizations.
This tipping point was initiated in the 1980s by with SOS Racism. This
organization, founded to organize young Muslims and help them to assimilate
into French society rapidly, became a political movement, manipulated by the
Socialist Party. SOS Racism and its slogan, "Don't hurt my buddy",
rapidly became a new direction to the working class. With the working class
attracted by the far-right party Front National, the Socialist party needed a
new "clientele". They chose Muslims, especially young Muslims, as the
new revolutionary labor class. It did not matter that
most of them were unemployed: they were "victims".
Thirty years later, it is easy for Islamist organizations to take the reins of
this ideology of victimization, and to transform "anti-racism" into a
fight against "Islamophobia".
In 2016, at a symposium in
"Today, CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia)
is the leading anti-racist organization. This is terrifying. Today, CCIF and Indigenous
of the Republic are the leading fighters against racism... not against
anti-Semitism, because they do not care. This is not the question for them. And
they are very clever to recruit "useful idiots" like rap singers. And
Muslim youths, who have good reason to protest being those "left
behind" in French society, see their idols
promoting CCIF and its accusations of "state racism". In 2016, how is
it possible to talk about a racism practiced by the state in the
In 2017, what is unbelievable is to see the same Alain Jakubowicz and the Jewish LICRA sitting side by side in
court with CCIF to file a complaint against a prominent historian who simply
speaks what he sees about the cultural transmission of anti-Semitism within the
French Arab and French Muslim community.
Richard Abitbol, president of the Confederation
of French Jews and Friends of Israel, accused Jakubowicz
and LICRA of obeying the "necessity for them to find a Jewish scapegoat to
build a virginity in order to comply with those who
fight Islamophobia".
To evaluate the treason of this Jewish anti-racist movement colluding
with its worst enemy, it is important to remember that LICRA has been created
to defend Samuel Schwartzbard. In 1920, in
But the LICRA disarray can be generalized to all the
"anti-racist" movements. SOS Racism -- which in 2008 supported the
firing of a veiled Muslim employee by her employer -- is today a follower of
CCIF.
The venerable French League of the Human Rights (LDH), in 2006, had two
prominent members -- Antoine Spire and Cedric Porin
-- resign from the CCIF and publish an op-ed in Le Monde
accusing the CCIF "of responding to the racism experienced by young people
of immigrant background by showing complacency towards the Islamist
organizations that claim to represent them".
When the French philosopher Robert Redeker
received death threats from Islamists terrorists because he criticized Islam,
"the LDH stated that it did not share the "noxious ideas" of Mr Redeker, but conceded that, "whatever one thinks of
the writings of Mr Redeker, there is no reason for
him to undergo such treatment".
Regarding the MRAP (Movement against Racism and for Friendship with
People), it is enough to say that its leader, Mouloud
Aounit ,
publicly joins Muslim Brother Tariq Ramadan to fight "Islamophobia'.
In September 2009, Sihem Habchi,
president of the feminist association Ni Putes, Ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Submitteds),
wrote in France Soir: "When I see MRAP, LDH, and
Ligue de l'Enseignement
accept excision as a cultural practice, I realize that these people are not
ready to help me to be free".
In court, in defense of Bensoussan,
Alain Finkielkraut, philosopher and academician,
explained to the judge: "A rogue antiracism makes
you to criminalize a concern instead of fighting the cause of this concern. If
the court obeys to this injunction, it will be a moral and an intellectual
catastrophe". Finkielkraut should have added : a political and civilisationnal
catastrophe.
Later, at the radio Finkielkraut added:
"Anti-racist vigilance became a gag rule. (...) For a long time, racism in
*Yves Mamou is a journalist and author based in
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights
reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
Iran's Latest Missile Test: Scenarios
and Implications for the New Administration
Farzin Nadimi/The
Washington Institute/February 04/2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/02/04/farzin-nadimithe-washington-institute-irans-latest-missile-test-scenarios-and-implications-for-the-new-administration/
Regardless of how the details surrounding Sunday's launch shake out, it was an
unhelpful move at a time when the Trump administration is determining its
policy toward Iran's missile program and broader regional behavior.
According to recent media reports,
Analyzing the systems that may have been tested is important because it could
give valuable insights into
BALLISTIC AND CRUISE SCENARIOS
Quoting unnamed U.S. officials, Reuters noted on January 30 that Iran had
quietly tested a ballistic missile out of its Semnan
test range the previous day. Satellite tracking purportedly showed the missile
traveling 1,013 km (630 miles) before its journey ended, apparently in failure.
While the nature of the launch is still under investigation by
In September, Defense Minister Hossein
Dehghan declared that
Yet according to unnamed German intelligence sources quoted by Die Welt
newspaper, a Soumar land-attack cruise missile was
tested up to a range of 600 km (373 miles) -- whether instead of or in addition
to a Shahab-type ballistic missile is unclear.
Whatever the case, the original Kh-55 design can achieve ranges of up to 2,500
km (1,550 miles) at a speed of Mach 0.7, carrying either a 410 kg conventional
warhead or a 250 kiloton nuclear warhead. Although it is an outdated design, it
could still pose an elevated threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf,
During the 1990s,
As for the international legal implications of Sunday's launch, they may depend
on the type of missile tested. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 called on
A FAILED SATELLITE LAUNCH?
An outside possibility is that Sunday's incident was an attempted satellite
launch to mark the Islamic Republic's so-called "Fajr"
festivities. During a televised interview on January 26, Vice President for
Science and Technology Sorena Sattari
stated
According to Iranian media, the regime was also expected to launch its heaviest-ever satellite before the Persian New Year --
the 100 kg remote-sensing Tolou-1. The satellite was supposed to be lifted to a
500 km low earth orbit using a new Simorgh space
launch vehicle, and separate reports have indicated that a Simorgh
launch was imminent. In addition,
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Whatever the January 29 missile incident turns out to be, it is undoubtedly an
unhelpful move at a time when the new
Going forward,
The international community is also concerned that
*Farzin Nadimi is a
Washington-based analyst specializing in the security and defense
affairs of
Donald Trump and the road to presidential
humility
Pierre Ghanem/Al Arabiya/February
04/17
In recent days, Trump supporters have had reason to
cheer his early executive actions that have been in line with his campaign
promises. He announced his Supreme Court pick, he announced a new military
strategy to defeat ISIS, he suspended immigration to the
Gorsuch is, no doubt, a conservative but he not a far-right figure.
Previously Trump claimed he knows more about ISIS than
The
He has stopped Syrian refugees from entering the
Also, he is threatening American companies with the tax cudgel, but nothing
has been implemented yet, and as for the wall, it will be funded through the
congressional appropriations process.
In fact, the
Trump expressed his disinterest in the daily intelligence briefing,
saying he “gets it when he needs it,” but the Tuesday and Wednesday schedules
confirm him receiving a daily briefing even more comprehensive than the ones
previously received by Obama, according to the White House.
On Wednesday, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn said from the White
House briefing room that
On Friday, Trump imposed sanctions on
Presidential modesty is an outcome of a mishap; the 9/11 attacks left
George W. Bush dazed, Barack Obama realized the limit of his popularity after
the Gulf of Mexico oil spills, soon afterwards, his party lost the mid-term
elections.
Today, the world may see the new
**Pierre Ghanem is an Al Arabiya
correspondent based in Washington, D.C.
On the preservation and revitalization of
Islamic traditions
Mshari Al Thaydi/Al Arabiya/February 04/17
Dr. Radwan al-Sayyed, is a
professor and Sheikh in the field of political ideology in Islam, or ‘Islamic
politics’ as it is known.
He studied at the Religious Institute in
Dr. Sayyed was recently granted the King Faisal
International Prize for Islamic Studies. He deserves it and much more for his
research and modernizing approach, and for fusing the old methods of
scholarship with modern curricula. He used this brilliantly in his studies and
in counselling, from which I personally benefited a lot.
I am strongly convinced that the reason for the overall climate around Muslims
today is because of the lack in reading religious and heritage-related
material, and not vice versa!
What is important now is that our ‘Mawlana’ Sheikh Radwan,
is interested in the rehabilitation of Hanbalism and Salafism. He wants to free them from secular defections and
political media scrutiny that are very far from noble sciences. He also wants
to defend them from ‘ignorant defenders’.In his
interview with Al Arabiya by Fahd Shoqiran,
Dr. Sayyed spoke about this sensitive matter and
said: “I do not know why they hate Sunni Islam in particular (some secular Arab
intellectuals), despite the fact that those who have succeeded in establishing
a religious state in modern times are Iranian Shiites.”
He then talked about the important studies of an American professor of
Lebanese origin, Dr. Georges Makdissi, who was
interested in the 60s in Hanbali studies and restored
its importance in academia, unlike what was prevailing in Orientalist
studies.
“Makdissi’s main idea of the Hanbali people was that they were preachers and responsible
for the Sunni doctrine, and he disapproved Goldziher
who believed that Ash’arism was the doctrine of the
Sunnis, not the Hanbali school,” he said.
Finally, Dr. Sayyed is not a fan of Hanbalism or Salafism. On the
contrary, he calls for the preservation and revitalization of Islamic
traditions. He speaks from the point of view of a scientific scholar, who
studies political tendencies and sectarian implications in Islamic Studies.
In the interview, Radwan stressed that Salafists should be modernized and not pushed towards
extremism. In fact, the eradication of Salafism is
impossible as it is a broad current supported by Muslims, but who would understand
it, he queries.
I am strongly convinced that the reason for the overall climate around
Muslims today is because of the lack in reading religious and heritage-related
material, and not vice versa!
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat.