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Fourth mosque targeted in France last weekend
The Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France reports that in addition to those at Ozoir-La-Ferrière and Besançon, a fourth mosque was the target of an Islamophobic act this weekend: at Meximieux in eastern France. On Saturday mosque officials found an envelope containing slices of ham in the mailbox. When they went to the police station to lodge a complaint, officers refused to register it on the grounds that the letter only contained pork and was not accompanied by a letter with insults or threats.
Hamza Dziri, one of the mosque officials, contacted the CCIF. He was distraught, as this is not the first time acts of hatred have been directed against the mosque. While it was under construction he found stickers on the walls, windows and site gates featuring swastikas and tricolor flags and bearing the name of a mysterious organisation of "patriots".
In January 2012 vandals broke a window and damaged the scaffolding. After that the site was placed under guard by members of the mosque and fifteen days later two vandals had returned, throwing stones at the glass door and breaking it. They escaped by car, but the guard was able to identify the registration number, which enabled the police to arrest the perpetrators. The vandals received suspended prison sentences and had to pay compensation.
With such a history, the CCIF observes, it is not surprising that Hamza Dziri says he is "worried".
The protection of places of worship should not be left solely to the faithful, the CCIF says. Following antisemitic attacks in France, schools and synagogues have been placed under police surveillance. The CCIF concludes: "In the current situation where mosques are the target of Islamophobic acts every week, the competent authorities must urgently put in place a security plan for Muslim places of worship."
Baghdad court hands down second death sentence to Saudi
A criminal court in Baghdad sentenced Shadi Al-Sadhi, a Saudi prisoner, to death for a second time, a local newspaper reported.
He was accused of illegally crossing into Iraq from Syria and joining the "Islamic Army".
In a statement, the Iraqi High Judicial Council said Al-Sadhi was captured by the American forces in Baghdad and had confessed to illegally entering the country.
The head of the committee of Saudis detained in Iraq, Thamer Al-Blaihed said that this is the second death sentence handed to Al-Sadhi.
He added that another Saudi inmate was also sentenced to death twice in four months.
Meanwhile, Saudi Ambassador to Jordan Fahd Al-Zaid said the Saudi Council of Ministers has approved an exchange of prisoners agreement between the Kingdom and Jordan.
The head of Saudi affairs at the embassy, Saled Bedaiwi, said there are 44 Saudis in Jordanian prisons.
The plenipotentiary minister in the embassy Hamad Al-Hajri said most of the cases were drugs-related and there were a few cases involving immoral behavior.
Of the 44 prisoners, 24 have been sentenced to between three to seven years in prison. Nineteen prisoners are still waiting to be sentenced.
One Saudi prisoner who had been convicted of terrorism and was sentenced to death, but the embassy appealed the sentence and the convict is now serving a life sentence.
Jordanian Ambassador in Riyadh Jamal Al-Shamaylah put the number of Saudi prisoners in Jordan at 58.
Al-Shamaylah confirmed that his country’s cabinet has approved the prisoner exchange deal and it will soon be ratified by the parliament. He expects the agreement to take effect by the middle of this year.
Al-Shamaylah said there are about 200 Jordanians in Saudi prisons. Charges against them mostly involve financial irregularities filed by their Saudi employers.
He was accused of illegally crossing into Iraq from Syria and joining the "Islamic Army".
In a statement, the Iraqi High Judicial Council said Al-Sadhi was captured by the American forces in Baghdad and had confessed to illegally entering the country.
The head of the committee of Saudis detained in Iraq, Thamer Al-Blaihed said that this is the second death sentence handed to Al-Sadhi.
He added that another Saudi inmate was also sentenced to death twice in four months.
Meanwhile, Saudi Ambassador to Jordan Fahd Al-Zaid said the Saudi Council of Ministers has approved an exchange of prisoners agreement between the Kingdom and Jordan.
The head of Saudi affairs at the embassy, Saled Bedaiwi, said there are 44 Saudis in Jordanian prisons.
The plenipotentiary minister in the embassy Hamad Al-Hajri said most of the cases were drugs-related and there were a few cases involving immoral behavior.
Of the 44 prisoners, 24 have been sentenced to between three to seven years in prison. Nineteen prisoners are still waiting to be sentenced.
One Saudi prisoner who had been convicted of terrorism and was sentenced to death, but the embassy appealed the sentence and the convict is now serving a life sentence.
Jordanian Ambassador in Riyadh Jamal Al-Shamaylah put the number of Saudi prisoners in Jordan at 58.
Al-Shamaylah confirmed that his country’s cabinet has approved the prisoner exchange deal and it will soon be ratified by the parliament. He expects the agreement to take effect by the middle of this year.
Al-Shamaylah said there are about 200 Jordanians in Saudi prisons. Charges against them mostly involve financial irregularities filed by their Saudi employers.
Kerry to visit Riyadh next month
US Secretary of State John F. Kerry will embark on his first overseas journey as America’s top diplomat next week, a whirlwind tour of nine nations in 11 days with a heavy focus on how to end nearly two years of bloodshed and civil war gripping Syria.
US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement Wednesday that Kerry will visit Saudi Arabia in the first week of March.
She said that during his visit to Riyadh, the Secretary of State will discuss with Saudi officials cooperation between the two countries and issues of common concern. He will participate in a ministerial meeting with his Gulf Cooperation Council counterparts. The State Department official said Kerry’s visit also will include stops in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, with meetings on a range of topics, including the ongoing French military intervention in Mali and the impending withdrawal of US military forces from Afghanistan.
Kerry will skip Israel. He had been expected to visit Israel and the West Bank and push for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians ahead of President Obama’s trip to the country next month.
“Given the fact that the government’s coalition negotiations in Israel are still under way,” Nuland said, “the secretary will be traveling there with the president when he visits later in the spring in lieu of making his own separate trip in February to Jerusalem and Ramallah.”
The Feb. 24 to March 6 tour will be highlighted by a diplomatic gathering in Rome of representatives from European and Middle Eastern powers who are supporting opposition forces seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Leaders of the Syrian Opposition Council are expected to attend the Rome meeting. Kerry also is expected to meet them privately, Nuland said.
US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement Wednesday that Kerry will visit Saudi Arabia in the first week of March.
She said that during his visit to Riyadh, the Secretary of State will discuss with Saudi officials cooperation between the two countries and issues of common concern. He will participate in a ministerial meeting with his Gulf Cooperation Council counterparts. The State Department official said Kerry’s visit also will include stops in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, with meetings on a range of topics, including the ongoing French military intervention in Mali and the impending withdrawal of US military forces from Afghanistan.
Kerry will skip Israel. He had been expected to visit Israel and the West Bank and push for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians ahead of President Obama’s trip to the country next month.
“Given the fact that the government’s coalition negotiations in Israel are still under way,” Nuland said, “the secretary will be traveling there with the president when he visits later in the spring in lieu of making his own separate trip in February to Jerusalem and Ramallah.”
The Feb. 24 to March 6 tour will be highlighted by a diplomatic gathering in Rome of representatives from European and Middle Eastern powers who are supporting opposition forces seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Leaders of the Syrian Opposition Council are expected to attend the Rome meeting. Kerry also is expected to meet them privately, Nuland said.
Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador to Sri Lanka
Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Colombo in a tit-for-tat decision amid tensions after a Sri Lankan nanny convicted of murder was beheaded in the kingdom, the official SPA news agency reported.
"Based on the decision by the Sri Lankan government to withdraw its ambassador from the kingdom, the [Saudi] foreign ministry has recalled its ambassador in Sri Lanka for consultations," SPA reported late Tuesday quoting a ministry spokesman.
Tensions between both countries have been strained since the January 9 execution of Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek, who was only 17 when she was charged with smothering a four-month-old baby in Saudi Arabia in 2005.
Nafik was found guilty of smothering the infant in her care after an argument with the child's mother, the Saudi interior ministry said.
Last month, Sri Lanka's Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella announced that women under 25 were now banned from going to Saudi Arabia to work as maids, adding that it was the first step towards a worldwide travel ban for low-paying jobs.
The United States and the United Nations have led international condemnation of the execution.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.
In 2012, the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The US-based Human Rights Watch put the number at 69.
This year, it has so far beheaded 14 people.
Israel on alert over Palestinian protests
The Israeli army is on high alert ahead of protests expected to be held outside Israel’s Ofer prison, north of al-Quds (Jerusalem), in solidarity with thousands of imprisoned Palestinians.
The army is bracing itself for protests on Friday outside the notorious prison in solidarity with more than 4,000 Palestinians in Israeli detention.
On Wednesday, Palestinian protesters held a demonstration in the West Bank city of Ramallah in solidarity with hunger strikers in Israeli jails.
Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian protesters supporting those on hunger strike in the West Bank town of Huwara on February 19. The troops used teargas and sound bombs to disperse the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Palestinian inmate Saamer al-Isaawi, who has been on hunger strike for more than 200 days, is expected to appear in court on Thursday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has voiced deep concern over the dire condition of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails.
Many of the Palestinian prisoners are under Israel’s administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows the Tel Aviv regime to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time.
Israel’s PM again asks for international action on Iran
Israel is drawing a parallel between North Korea and Iran, saying nuclear proliferation by rogue states could turn the Middle East into a “tinderbox.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says North Korea’s nuclear test last week is a warning to the international community that tougher action is needed to stop Iran from acquiring the atom bomb.
“Have sanctions, tough sanctions, stopped North Korea? No. And the fact that they produced a nuclear explosion reverberates everywhere in the Middle East, and especially in Iran. They say ‘Where’s the world, where’s the international community, where’s the tough response?’ ”
Both Iran and North Korea are under stiff Western sanctions aimed at curbing their nuclear programs. But Netanyahu told Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that Iran will remain defiant unless more is done.
“Sanctions alone will not stop the nuclear program of Iran. They have to be coupled with a robust, credible, military threat.”
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Israel and the West believe the Islamic Republic is building atomic weapons that could threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said over the weekend that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, but if it wanted to, no country could stop it from doing so.
The U.S. and some other countries are due to meet Iranian officials in Kazakhstan later this month to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program. The U.N. has placed sanctions on Iran.
Netanyahu has warned that if sanctions and talks fail, Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own.
“The world has to decide whether it allows this terror regime that breaks all norms to have access to atomic bombs.”
The prime minister said Iran will top the agenda when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Israel next month.
US is major recipient of humanitarian aid from UAE
In an attempt to sway Americans’ low and undecided opinions about the United Arab Emirates, the UAE is providing millions of dollars of foreign aid to the US to rebuild schools and donate to nonprofits in storm-ravaged regions.
While the US is the largest provider of foreign aid, the UAE is writing checks for the US to help out where its own government does not provide enough assistance, the Washington Post reports.
“Tell me what you need,” a UAE embassy staffer working in Washington told a school official in Joplin, Mo., where a devastating tornado killed 161 people and destroyed six schools in 2011.
By building soccer fields and schools, donating to hospitals and nonprofit organizations, and helping in the Hurricane Sandy relief effort, the UAE is hoping to gain a better image among Americans.
After a 2006 UAE embassy survey found that 30 percent of American respondents had an unfavorable view of the emirates and 70 percent had no opinion, the country decided to change that. UAE ambassador to the US Yousef al Otaiba in 2008 began an initiative to create favorable opinions of his country among those who remain undecided.
“We had a responsibility to educate Americans about who we are,” Otaiba told the Post. “We have been in Afghanistan with you. We went into Libya. We’re the largest export market for the US in the [Middle East] region.”
But despite being an important American ally, US citizens overwhelmingly know little or nothing about the UAE. So in addition to lending a helping hand abroad, the UAE is bringing its assistance directly into American communities.
“We spot needs and we try to help,” Otaiba told the Post. And wherever the embassy believes financial help is needed, the UAE makes a generous humanitarian donation. During the past two years alone, the UAE government has funded the construction of all weather-artificial turf soccer fields in low-income neighborhoods across Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Chicago – and plans to build three more this year. The embassy also provided 2,200 Joplin children with their own MacBook laptops, spent $5 million to build an intensive-care unit at a Joplin hospital, and provided $150 million to the Washington, DC-based Children’s National Medical Center.
The UAE has also made hefty donations to numerous other hospitals and now plans to donate to food banks. Otaiba has also promised to provide about $5 million to each of the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in New York and New Jersey.
While other countries primarily donate money to the US to promote their own languages and traditions through programs like study-abroad grants, the UAE has taken an unusual approach by donating millions of dollars to disaster relief and construction efforts that don’t directly benefit the UAE.
And even despite the country’s generous initiatives, some Americans have kept their misconceptions about the predominantly Muslim region. When public schools in Joplin accepted $1.5 million worth of donations, some conservative radio commentators and Joplin residents accused the school system of accepting “Islamic blood money”.
Still, the UAE has not given up its attempt to change American misconceptions – and US organizations continue to receive generous donations from the UAE, while their own government spends money elsewhere.
تنخواہ حلال کر کے کھائیے!
خیرپور سے ایک خیر کی خبر یہ آئی ہے کہ ایک کالج کے اساتذہ نے اپنی تنخواہ حلال کرکے کھانے کا حلف اٹھایا ہے۔ کالج کے پرنسپل نے ان سے یہ حلف لیا کہ وہ روزآنہ کالج آئیں گے اور طلبہ کو پڑھائیں گے۔ چند ماہ قبل اسی کالج کے اساتذہ نے کالج میں امتحانات کے دوران نقل نہ ہونے دینے کا حلف اٹھایا تھا جس کے بعد انٹر کے امتحانات کے دوران اس کالج میں نقل نہ ہونے دی گئی۔ یہ خبر پڑھ کر دل نہ صرف باغ باغ ہوا بلکہ خوشی سے جھوم بھی اٹھا کیونکہ سسٹم پر تنقید کرنا اور اسے برا بھلا کہہ کر ساری ذمہ داریوں سے بری الذمہ ہوجانا تو بڑا آسان ہوتا ہے لیکن اسی سسٹم میں رہتے ہوئے اپنی اصلاح کرنا اور پھر اس پر سختی سے کاربند رہنا انتہائی مشکل کام ہوتا ہے۔ جب قدم قدم پر مختلف قسم کی مافیاؤں نے اپنے پنجے گاڑے ہوئے ہوں تو اپنے تئیں انتہائی ایماندار ہونے کے باجود ثابت قدم رہنا اور ہر طرح کی دھمکیوں کا سامنا کرنا ایک مقدس جہاد سے کم نہیں ہوتا۔ اگر دیکھا جائے تو کالج کے اساتذہ کو جو مشاہرہ دیا جاتا ہے وہ اتنا کم ہوتا ہے کہ اگر اسے مرغی سے تشبیہ دی جائے تو غلط نہ ہوگا اور اس کے مقابلے میں وزراء اور مشیروں کو جو کچھ ملتا ہے اگر اسے بکرے سے تشبیہ دی جائے تو بھی غلط نہ ہوگا ۔ اب اگر ایک کالج کے اساتذہ اپنے مرغی حلال کرکے کھا سکتے ہیں تو پھر ان حضرات کو بھی اپنا بکرا حلال کرکے کھانا چاہئے اور ایمانداری سے اپنے فرائض انجام دینے چاہئیں۔ وفاقی اور صوبائی کابینہ کو بھی ایسا ہی حلف اٹھانے کی اشد ضرورت ہے۔ کچھ عہدے ایسے بھی ہوتے ہیں جہاں خدمات کے عوض بیل جتنی تنخواہ پیش کی جاتی ہے، اس بیل کو حلال کرکے کھانا اکیلے ان کے لئے انتہائی مشکل کام ہوگا چنانچہ ایسے لوگوں کو اپنے بیل کے حصہ داروں کو بھی سمجھانا ہوگا تاکہ حق حلال کی کھانے کی عبادت میں وہ بھی شامل ہو سکیں۔ یہ خبر ایک چھوٹی سی مثال ہے کہ معاشرے میں پائی جانے والی خرابیوں پر رونے اور کڑھنے کے بجائے انفرادی سطح پر قدم اٹھا کر بھی کچھ نہ کچھ اصلاح کی جانب جایا جا سکتا ہے، جب ہم انفرادی سطح پر ایسی سوچ کو فروغ دیں گے تو بدی کے پیروکاروں کے قدم ضرور لڑکھڑائیں گے۔۔۔ بس ضرورت ہے اپنے اوپر اعتماد اور تھوڑی سی ثابت قدمی کی۔۔۔!!
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