Forums - Current Affairs

Thoughts on Paris tragedy

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 19:48:51 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzP8e9b_OT8[youtube/]

Eygpt

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:01:48 +0000

By Yasmine Saleh

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's top military council gave the army chief, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a green light on Monday to seek election as president, a vote he is almost sure to win with Egyptians weary of turmoil unleashed by a pro-democracy uprising in 2011.

Sisi deposed elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July after mass unrest over his increasingly arbitrary and erratic rule, kindling political chaos and security crackdowns on dissent in the Arab world's most populous nation.

He has since taken on almost cult-like popularity in Egypt, with many seeing him as a decisive figure able to stabilize a country that has lurched from one economically ruinous crisis to another since the 2011 overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

"(The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) is looking forward with respect and reverence to the desire of the huge masses of the great Egyptian people in the nomination of ... Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for the presidency of the republic, which it considers a mandate and an obligation," the military high command said in a statement.

"The top army officials all okayed Sisi running for the presidency," said a security source. The 59-year-old career officer is expected to announce his candidacy within days.

Hours before top generals approved Sisi contesting the election, the presidency announced he had been promoted to field marshal from general, in what security officials said was a sign he is about to declare his candidacy for the presidency.

"The decision was expected and it is the first step before the resignation of the general and his candidacy announcement, which is now expected very soon," said a security official.

In order for Sisi to contest the election, he has to resign from his post as defense minister and from the military.

After toppling Mursi, Sisi unveiled a political road map that promised free and fair elections in Egypt, which is of great strategic importance because of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and control of the Suez Canal.

Sisi and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by phone on Monday, discussing the next steps in the country's political transition and acknowledging the firm U.S.-Egypt partnership in the face of recent militant attacks, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Hagel is considered an important channel of communications with Egypt because of the close military ties between Cairo and Washington.

The United States provides Egypt with about $1.55 billion in aid annually, most of it military assistance. But U.S. officials said in October the United States would withhold some of that assistance, including weaponry and cash, pending progress on democracy and human rights issues.

ISLAMISTS ACCUSE SISI OF COUP

Despite his popularity, Sisi has no pedigree as a democrat and has shown himself willing to apply deadly force against those who disagree with him.

The Muslim Brotherhood accuses him of staging a coup by effectively putting the Egyptian government back under the domination of the military as it was before Mubarak's exit and aborting its professed transition to democracy.

The Brotherhood holds Sisi responsible for what it says are widespread human rights abuses in a security crackdown that has killed nearly 1,000 Islamists. Top Brotherhood leaders including Mursi are all in jail and facing trial.

But in addition to many people in the street, Sisi enjoys the backing of the army, Egypt's most powerful institution, as well as the Interior Ministry, many liberal politicians and Mubarak-era officials and businessmen who have made a comeback since the political demise of Mursi.

Judging by his appeal, those forces are likely to give him plenty of time to prove himself as president, and there are no other politicians who could challenge Sisi anytime soon.

Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa El-Din, a moderate in the army-backed government, tendered his resignation on Monday.

Bahaa El-Din, a lawyer, had called for a more inclusive political process in a nation that, crippled by prolonged violent unrest that has shattered the economy, appears to be growing less tolerant of dissent by the day.

"A crucial stage of the road map is now over. It required keeping a unified front and avoiding disputes in order for the nation to emerge from constitutional and economic collapse," said a letter posted on Bahaa El-Din's Facebook page said. "Now that we start a new phase where the country is preparing for successive elections ... I ask that you accept my resignation."

Bahaa El-Din is in charge of an economic team that includes the ministers of finance, trade and industry, supply, planning and investment, as well as the governor of the central bank.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Peter Cooney)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/2...JM20140127

Saudi Arabia must decide on women drivers: Kerry

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 06:23:16 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/kerry-s...09654.html

RIYADH: US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was up to Saudi Arabia to decide when the time was right to allow women to drive.

"It's no secret that in the United States of America, we embrace equality for everybody regardless of gender, race, or any other qualification," Kerry said at a press conference in Riyadh.

"But it's up to Saudi Arabia to make its own decision about its own social structure and other choices, and timing," he added.

Last week, the United States said it supports the "universal rights" of women to drive in Saudi Arabia, after an October weekend protest there saw several women defy the law by taking the steering wheel.

"We support the full inclusion of women in Saudi society. People throughout the world share the same universal rights to assemble and express themselves peacefully," said State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki.

"So certainly, we would support their ability to drive," Psaki said when asked about the Saudi campaign, in which women were encouraged to get behind the steering wheel on October 26 even if it meant confronting authorities.

Kerry said after talks with Saudi leaders: "There's a healthy debate in Saudi Arabia about this issue, but I think that debate is best left to the Saudi Arabian people who are engaged in it."

However, he added that everyone knew where the United States stood on this issue.

At least 16 women were stopped by police during a protest last month and were fined and forced along with their male guardians to pledge to obey the conservative-kingdom's laws.

A Saudi video mocking the kingdom's unique ban on female driving has gone viral, featuring a male performer singing "no woman, no drive", an adaptation of Bob Marley's "No Cry" hit.

- AFP/fa

US pastor arrested with kerosene-soaked Korans

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 07:21:34 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/us-past...16846.html

A controversial Florida pastor was arrested before he planned to burn almost 3,000 copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, US media reported.

Terry Jones, 61, was detained in the town of Mulberry, near Tampa, and faces charges of transporting fuel illegally and openly carrying a firearm, the Orlando Sentinel said.

Deputies said Jones was riding in a pickup truck that was towing a trailer carrying a large barbecue-like grill filled with kerosene-soaked Korans. He also had extra bottles of the fuel inside the truck bed, the Sentinel reported.

Jones's planned public burning of the Muslim holy book came with tensions high in the Middle East, and with possible international military action in Syria still on the table having been touted by US President Barack Obama.

According to Jones's website, he had plans to burn 2,998 Korans in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday, in recognition of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Jones was arrested alongside Associate Pastor Marvin Sapp minutes before the scheduled burning, the Sentinel said.

As pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, Jones in 2010 threatened to burn copies of the Koran, drawing widespread outrage in the United States and abroad, before he called the plan off.

In 2011, however, his congregation did burn the Muslim holy book and the following year he promoted an anti-Islam film.

All three incidents sparked violence in the Middle East and in Afghanistan and came despite pleas from US military officials to desist.

Tawaf made easy for disabled, elderly

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 08:43:14 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/tawaf-m...00363.html

At the orders of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, President of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais opened the temporary mataf bridge for disabled and elderly worshippers on Thursday.

Al-Sudais said that he was opening the bridge experimentally and the operational opening would take place today.

He said the 12-meter-wide and 13-meter-high bridge can accommodate 1,700 wheelchairs in one hour.

He added that one more level will be opened later and it will be linked to the first floor of the Grand Mosque. The bridge will be used by disabled people until the completion of the expansion work, the sheikh added.

The expansion of the mataf started on Nov.15.

The expansion undertaken at the orders of King Abdullah with the aim of increasing the comfort and safety of pilgrims. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Haj and Umrah Studies prepared a study on how to implement the expansion project.

The study recommended using the available space and potential of the mataf to the maximum while maintaining the architectural features of the Grand Mosque using advanced technology.

After the completion of the mataf expansion work, its capacity will increase to 105,000 pilgrims per hour. The capacity fell to 22,000 pilgrims per hour during the expansion period from 48,000 pilgrims.

Saudi with a golden heart spends savings on cancer-hit worker

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 08:40:59 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/saudi-g...00212.html

A Saudi spent all his savings and even borrowed money to have his illegal Bangladeshi guard treated for a brain tumor.

The worker, Mahboob, has been working for Abdullah Saad Al-Rouqi for seven years. He came for Umrah and overstayed at Huda Al-Sham village in Makkah region where Al-Rouqi gave him a job as a guard.

The disease was discovered during the period Al-Rouqi was completing procedures for the worker’s legalization following the King’s amnesty and before the extension to Nov. 3.

The worker fainted. He was transported to the hospital after Al-Rouqi arrived in Makkah following a visit to the Bangladeshi Embassy. There, he had the worker’s documents and passport issuance request approved.

The worker, who has been in the hospital for the last three months, required two operations to open blocked cerebrospinal-fluid pathways and remove most of the tumor.

“The two operations were performed and he needs to continue chemotherapy,” said Al-Rouqi, who is currently the worker’s legal but temporarily employer after the worker applied for a new passport at his embassy.

Al-Rouqi paid SR80,000, of which SR30,000 was his marriage loan and SR20,000 his savings. He borrowed the rest of the amount.

“I can’t afford the costs of hospitalization anymore,” he said. “I haven’t still completed the procedures for correcting his residency status. I have approached several government department to help to solve the situation and I’m also hoping to find someone to donate the cost of the man’s treatment in a specialist hospital as I have spent all the money I had.”

Egypt's Islamists take to streets of Cairo, but protests peaceful

Sat, 13 Jul 2013 07:31:24 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/egypts-...49804.html

CAIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Egyptians marched on Cairo's streets in the early hours of Saturday to demand ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi be reinstated, but there were none of the deadly clashes that swept Egypt a week ago.

Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood called on Friday for "a day of marching on", and 10 days after the military overthrew Egypt's first freely elected president, large crowds descended on the capital waving flags and chanting slogans.

A week earlier similar scenes of protest turned violent when pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators clashed in cities and towns across the country, killing 35 people and widening the rift between Egyptians on different sides of the political divide.

Three days after that, Egypt was left reeling again when soldiers opened fire on a group of pro-Mursi demonstrators outside the Republican Guard compound in Cairo where he is being held, killing 53. Four soldiers also died.

The powerful military blamed the confrontation on "terrorists". Mursi's supporters call it a massacre and say those who died were praying peacefully when troops opened fire.

As midnight passed in Cairo, large crowds of Brotherhood supporters were still out. Near the Ministry of Defence, hundreds of demonstrators standing behind barbed wire shouted at soldiers standing a few dozen metres away.

"I am here to say 'no' to the military coup and 'yes' to Mursi, who I see as my legitimate president, although I am not in the Brotherhood and nor did I vote for him," said Ahmed Adel, a 22-year-old student, in downtown Cairo.

The army denies Mursi's overthrow was a coup, saying it ousted him to enforce the will of the people after millions took to the streets at the end of June to demand his resignation.

The Brotherhood contends it is the victim of a military crackdown, evoking memories of its suppression under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, toppled in an uprising in 2011.

But many of its opponents blame Islamists for the violence, and some have little sympathy for the demonstrators who died, underlining how deep the fissures in Egyptian society are.

DEFIANCE AT VIGIL

At a Cairo mosque where Mursi supporters have held a mass vigil for more than two weeks, crowds swelled as people were bused in from the provinces, where the Brotherhood has strongholds.

Amer Ali, a member of parliament who spent 13 years as a political prisoner under Mubarak, made the five-hour car journey from Assiut in the Nile valley with his wife and two children.

"We're here and we're not leaving," he said. "We came with our kids to support legitimacy, democracy, and ... the first freely elected president in the Arab world."

People squirted water from bottles to cool each other down. Dozens rested in the shade of tents, dozing or reading the Koran, conserving energy during the Ramadan fasting month when Muslims refrain from food and water during daylight.

Passions sometimes ran high.

"They killed our martyrs while they were praying!" screamed Soraya Naguib Ahmed, tears down her face visible through the slit of her full-face veil, referring to the clash on Monday.

Mursi remains in detention at the compound outside which the shooting took place, and judicial sources said he was likely to be charged soon, possibly for escaping prison during the 2011 uprising when authorities arrested many Brotherhood leaders. Mursi could also be charged for corruption or links to violence.

Asked whether Washington agreed with the German Foreign Ministry's call for Mursi to be released, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "We do agree."

She declined to say if the United States had officially conveyed its wish to Egyptian officials and the military.

Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement it was committed to a political "road map" drafted by the army which sets out a timetable for fresh parliamentary and presidential elections, possibly within months.

In reaction to international calls for Mursi's release, it added that Egypt's interim authorities would not revert to any "exceptional or illegal measure."

SINAI CONCERNS

The unrest has raised fears over security in the lawless Sinai peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Militant groups in North Sinai have promised more attacks and urged Islamists to take up arms in the region, which is near the Suez Canal, a vital waterway linking Asia and Europe.

The state-controlled Al Gomhuria newspaper ran a front page headline: "Sinai's Purification Operation in Days", referring to expectations the army would launch an offensive against militants in the region.

There have been almost daily attacks and skirmishes between radical Islamists and police and soldiers in Sinai since Mursi's ouster, some of them deadly.

Overnight on Friday, gunmen fired on a security checkpoint near the Suez Canal, but security personnel repelled the attack.

Mohab Mamish, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, told Reuters the shooting had no impact on the flow of ships.

"The Canal is very well secured and the attack was away from it and any of its administrative buildings," Mamish said.

The Suez is vital to Egypt's economy, decimated by two and a half years of turmoil since Mubarak was toppled.

Foreign reserves and wheat stocks are running low, although financial aid of $12 billion from three wealthy Gulf states is likely to ease the crisis in the short term.

In the longer term, the transition from the military-backed interim authorities to an elected parliament and president will be crucial to Egypt's stability.

Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said on Friday he had named centre-left politician and lawyer Ziad Bahaa el-Din as his deputy, and he expected to swear in a cabinet next week.

(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatty, Omar Fahmy, Peter Graff, Tom Finn, Maggie Fick, Noah Browning and Ulf Laessing in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Brotherhood leader arrested, Egypt's Islamists call protests

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 03:33:48 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/egypt-a...38967.html

By Asma Alsharif and Shadia Nasralla

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces arrested the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, security sources said, in a crackdown against the Islamist movement after the army ousted the country's first democratically elected president.

The dramatic exit of President Mohamed Mursi was greeted with delight by millions of jubilant people on the streets of Cairo and other cities overnight, but there was simmering resentment among Egyptians who opposed military intervention.

An Islamist coalition led by the Brotherhood called on people across the nation to protest in a "Friday of Rejection" following weekly prayers, an early test of Mursi's ongoing support and how the military will deal with it.

Perhaps aware of the risk of society being polarized, the new interim leader, judge Adli Mansour, used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood, Mursi's power base.

"The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed," he said.

Just before he spoke, the air force staged a series of fly pasts in the smoggy skies over Cairo, a stark reminder of the military's role in the latest upheaval. The stunt, involving dozens of aircraft, was repeated at dusk.

But a senior Brotherhood official said it would not work with "the usurper authorities". Another of its politicians said Mursi's overthrow would push other groups, though not his own, to violent resistance.

Mursi's removal after a year in office marked another twist in the turmoil that has gripped the Arab world's most populous country in the two years since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes across Egypt since Mursi's overthrow. In fighting late on Thursday between his supporters and opponents in his hometown of Zagazig northeast of Cairo, 80 more people were wounded.

The Man Too Handsome for Saudi Arabia Who Wasn’t

Sat, 04 May 2013 08:10:04 +0000

http://www.islawmix.org/the-man-too-hand...who-wasnt/

May 3, 2013 1:33 am

Saudi Arabia often makes US (and international) headlines for its laws (legal mishaps?) regarding women, sex and religious minorities. Some of these stories undoubtedly belong there, but a surprising number gain traction thanks to a small amount of research and suspension of critical engagement. It seems that when it comes to Saudi Arabia (and sometimes her theocratic counterpart Iran, albeit less so), the more bizarre the story may seem – in that way only the Saudi Arabia of our perception could normalize – the more believable it is.

News and blog media have a particular penchant for covering ridiculous, often inaccurate and even false fatwas (here's our quick definition and a more nuanced discussion on it). And in August 2012, the internet went into a bit of an uproar over the alleged building of an all-female city to promote women's participation in the workforce. Unfortunately, the dreams of the impending matriarchy were dashed when it was eventually revealed that the city was for both men and women, but created facilities specific for women to encourage their participation.

So, what's the latest Saudi Arabia headline wreaking havoc across the internet?

You have most probably heard by now that three Emirati men were allegedly thrown out of a cultural Janadriyah Festival by the Saudi religious police (pl. mutawaeen) for “being too handsome.” Most reports, however, have claimed the three men were actually deported from the Kingdom, itself, for their ‘seductive' lure that was apparently going to send the attending women into an incontrollable hormonal flux. Fementertainment blog, Jezebel, was amongst the first to reveal the identity of one of the alleged Emirati men, Omar Borkan Al Gala – a photographer, model, actor and poet. The internet went into self-fanning mode as several images of the young man went viral and thousands clamored to follow him on social media websites.

Unfortunately, no one in the English press bothered to actually fact check the story.

As it turns out, three men were not, in fact, deported from Saudi Arabia. Actually, no one was deported from Saudi Arabia and certainly not for being too handsome. And, actually, no one was even kicked out of the heritage and cultural festival except for a member of the religious police for protesting against the presence of a Gulf female singer. According to UK’s Al-Arab:

A member of the Saudi feared religious police, known as Mutawa, stormed the UAE pavilion at National Festival for Heritage and Culture, also known as Al Janadriyah, but was forced out by the Gulf Kingdom’s national guards.

The incident took place when the Mutawa member objected to the presence of the Emirati singer Aryam in her country’s pavilion.

A brief U-Tube film showed several guards surround the member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice before they escorted him out of the pavilion at the annual festival in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

And that's it.

There was, indeed, an incident involving Al Gala (and apparently him alone): according to the head of the mutawaeen, Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Sheikh (Arabic source), Al Gala had made his way into the family section of the event and was dancing inappropriately. Several complaints were made against him and he was taken aside by members of the national guard, questioned and that was it. He was not asked to leave the event, let alone the country. It turns out his uncomfortable dancing and not his uncomfortably good looks were the reason for some cause for concern and discomfort at the festival.

Al Gala has yet to deny the story and would probably find little reason to do so considering the amount of fame he is now enjoying as The Man Too Handsome for Saudi Arabia, which has helped boost his online personality as well as his career. It should also be noted that some of the sources who were the first to report, in Arabic, that three men were removed from the festival/deported from Saudi Arabia are no longer found online.

While the laughs and light-hearted news from the oil lands of strife are being welcomed by news readers and makers as a nice departure from the usual headlines, this sort of misreporting is not only common but feeds into dangerous and reductionist stereotypes of Muslims and Muslim countries, especially as these stereotypes relate to gender and sexuality's interplay with Islamic law. Somewhere the story of an awkward dancer making families uncomfortable and the story of a member of the religious police being removed from the same festival crossed paths to create a ‘sexy' news story that just made sense enough for the imagined Saudi Arabia.

The common tendency to take stories about incidents in Muslim countries at face value, without much (easy) fact checking (language need not be a barrier with the glory that is Google Translate), offers coverage that only fuels mischaracterizations of the role of religion in the public and legal spheres. Additionally, in these stories and the ensuing commentaries, Muslims cease to exist outside political and social caricatures and are made to fit neat cookie-cutter ideas and images.

In an era of fast-paced news where there is a tendency for any story to go viral within minutes across millions of blue screens, the responsibility for factual, non-gullible news has become dire. This is especially the case when it comes to stories about Muslims, Muslim countries and Muslim and Islamic law.

In The News This Week

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:39:04 +0000

Whats in the news this week.... discuss...

http://www.1stethical.com/blog/what-were-following/

Galloway Refused to Debate with an Israeli Student

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:16:41 +0000

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video...elis-video

Muslim Academies

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:37:07 +0000

Muslim Academies

Academies bill will enable a radical overhaul of England's schools, giving every school
the chance to convert to an academy and giving parents the right to create free
schools outside the control of LAs.The new schools will drive up standards and
the education would be in accordance with the needs and demands of the parents.
It will help native Brits, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities to set
up their own schools for the education of their children. It is nothing to do
with integration or segregation. Segregation already exists in British
schoolings, it is not going to widen. President Obama supports free schools in
America because they have benefitted the least well off the most. Educating
children is the priority.

It is wrong to assert that a small
unrepresentative group of Muslim activists tried to Islamises a state primary
school in Woking. The silent majority of Muslim parents would like to send
their children to state funded Muslim schools. They are not extremists who want
to change of ethos of those schools where Muslim children are in majority. It
is the democratic right of every Muslim parent to see that their children receive
balanced education, so that when their children grow up, they do not find themselves
cut off from their cultural roots and linguistic skills. It is a question of
common sense, humanity and reason that bilingual Muslim children must be
educated in state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role
models during their developmental periods. The whole world believes that people
who speak more than one language is a vital economic asset. Pupils who speak
more than one language do not cause difficulties. It is the politicians and
monolingual teachers who are the problems for bilingual pupils. Muslim school
will help to cultivate the child into a healthy, fully flourishing individual
with a passion for learning. There are
hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In
my opinion, all such schools may be opted out as Muslim Academies.

Muslim schools are not only faith schools;
they are more or less bilingual schools. Bilingual Muslim children need to
learn and be well versed in Standard English to follow the National Curriculum
and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. State schools with
monolingual teachers do not teach Standard English to Migrant children. Bilingual
Muslim children learn English in the playgrounds and in the streets. They speak
street language with its own grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The
teachers let them speak the same accent in the classroom. They have no courage
to stop them or correct them. This is one of the main reasons why one third of
children have difficulties with reading when they leave primary schools. Majority of such children are Muslims. In
other European countries and in the sub-continent argot and slang are not
allowed into the classroom. In Britain primary school teachers do not feel that
it’s their role to interfere with self-expression in any shape or form. They
encourage children to read poems and stories written in ethnic dialects.

Muslim faith schools are more or less
bilingual schools. Priority will be given to the teaching of Standard English,
Arabic, Urdu and other community languages. All Muslim children will learn and
be well versed in Standard English and Quranic Arabic and at the same time they
will learn and be well versed in one of the community language to keep in touch
with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry.
Majority of children will learn Urdu language because it is a lingua franca of
the migrants from the sub-continent. And majority of British Muslims are from
Pakistan and their national language is Urdu.

Iftikhar Ahmad

Swat Valley on edge after Malala shooting

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:39:30 +0000

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/feature...81308.html

Features

Swat Valley on edge after Malala shooting

Police not providing answers and locals scared after Taliban shoot Pakistani activist who fought to educate girls.

Asad Hashim Last Modified: 14 Oct 2012 21:00

inShare.0EmailPrintShareFeedback

The inside of the van where Malala Yousafzai, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramazan were shot [Asad Hashim/Al Jazeera]

Mingora, Swat - The case of Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani student activist who is struggling for life after Taliban gunmen attacked her on Tuesday, has captured the world’s attention.

Reports on her condition are being constantly circulated through the news and social media, while prayer and solidarity events have been held across the globe.

She was not, however, the only girl shot in that school van in the Swat Valley on Tuesday morning.

Tucked away in a small house in the Makan Bagh area of Mingora, Swat’s main town, lies Kainat Riaz, quietly recovering from the bullet wounds she suffered that day after a gunman opened fire inside the cramped confines of their school van.

“We were coming home from school, where we had an exam. It was our Urdu exam, so at that time I was discussing the paper with my friend. We were talking about how one of the fill-in-the-blanks was supposed to have one answer, but I put in another, when a young man stuck his head into the back of the van. He had a pistol in his hand,” she told Al Jazeera, of the morning of the attack.

“We were all terrified. I felt like I was watching a dream. We were screaming, and he told us to stop. When we stopped, he asked about Malala, asking who she was. When a classmate responded, he started firing. In the firing, Malala was hit and they then ran away. […]I don’t remember anything after that. I was in my teacher’s lap [and fell unconscious].”

Riaz was hit in her upper right arm; the bullet passing clean through without striking bone. Shazia Ramazan, another classmate, was less fortunate: her wounds required her to be evacuated to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar, from where she was expected to be discharged on Sunday, family members told Al Jazeera.

Family's ordeal

While Riaz’s wounds were not as severe as Malala’s, her family’s ordeal began after she had returned home and they realised that she would need immediate treatment for the bullet wound.

While Malala, who was the target of the attack and a national peace icon, was ably taken care of by doctors at the local Saidu Sharif government hospital, Riaz Ahmed, Kainat’s father, told Al Jazeera his daughter did not see the same level of attention.

“We received no support at the hospital. We had to buy all of the medicines ourselves. So much so that we even had to buy the thread for her stitches,” he said. “Even the syringe,” Kainat said.

All of this is at odds with the federal government’s statements on Riaz and Ramazan’s treatment. Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, said on Saturday that they were to be provided free medical care.

Raja Pervez Ashraf, the Pakistani prime minister, has echoed that sentiment, and the military, who is managing Malala’s care, said in a statement that the two girls were "also being taken care of at places where they can get best treatment".

“No one from the federal government has been in contact with us [about any of this],” said Ahmed, Kainat’s father, though he did point out that several local political leaders had visited and helped with sums of money in their individual capacities.

Al Jazeera asked Kainat if she felt her attackers would face justice.

"I don’t know," she said, simply.

Clouded in mystery

We put the same question to local police officials and, somewhat surprisingly, received little more guidance than Kainat had offered on the matter.

The investigation into the shooting has become shrouded in mystery, with police officials at each of the local police stations, including the one where the case was first filed, unable to furnish specifics regarding arrests or suspects.

Security outside the home of Kainat Riaz, another school girl shot by the Taliban [Asad Hashim/Al Jazeera]

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police officer who was working on the case told Al Jazeera that a special investigation team had been formed, with representatives from each of the local police stations, the public prosecutor’s office and the country’s intelligence services all represented.

He said that dozens of suspects had been rounded up and questioned, and that police were going through mobile phone data and witness testimony in order to narrow down their range of suspects.

Other police officials, however, confirmed that none of the at least 60 suspects who had been questioned by police in Swat had been held after their interrogations.

Others have been held elsewhere, however.

None of the investigators spoke on the record, citing concerns regarding the military’s orders on information regarding the high profile case.

“I think we are headed in the right direction,” said a police officer familiar with the case.

“It is a matter of days, we hope, before we are able to track down the suspects.”

"Swat’s people are helping us. They talk to us willingly - they want the local Taliban to be rooted out."

A habit of fear

While that may well be true, there is a surreal sense, when walking through the streets of Mingora, of seeing not a city in the present, but one upon which there still hangs the pallor of the two years, from 2007 to 2009, when the Taliban held sway here.

Residents will often refer to landmarks and buildings, for example, by citing how they were the site of a suicide attack, or how such-and-so government official had been killed there.

Al Jazeera spoke to residents and tradesmen near Khooni [blood] Chowk, a well-known intersection, where the Taliban used to string up the dead bodies of men they had executed for defying their edicts.

They continually cited how much better life had become since an army operation had driven the Taliban out into the surrounding areas, and how they were no longer as fearful.

At Khooni Chowk [blood Intersection], the Taliban have tied up the dismembered remains of men they killed for defying their edicts [Asad Hashim/Al Jazeera]

“People in Mingora do not feel like they have been attacked as a people and that the time will come again where fear will sit in their hearts," said Muhammad Raheem, 37, a shoe-seller at the chowk, who said he frequently witnessed dismembered dead bodies being tied up from a light pole as he came in to work in the years under the Taliban.

"Mingora’s people are taking this in their stride.

"We condemn the attack, and this was a very bad incident. It should not have happened."

Rehmat Ali, 36, who runs a cellphone store, said: "People will be scared, but as I see it, that fear is almost gone [compared to before].

"People send their kids to school, with prayers - but as far as the fear is concerned, it is almost gone.”

Fazal Wahab, 42, a local store-owner, echoed that sentiment. “The resistance will grow even more than before after this attack,” he told Al Jazeera.

“After the crisis with the Taliban, I have seen that the desire to educate one’s daughters has increased, not decreased.”

Police officials, however, tell a different story, about fear. They told Al Jazeera that while most people were entirely against the Taliban, they also feared for what would happen to them if they were seen to be co-operating with the authorities against them.

It’s a well-founded fear, given the Taliban’s record of targeted killings.

And on Saturday, the Taliban widened their net of potential targets in Swat, saying that they would now specifically target international news media, because their coverage of the shooting was discrediting the extremist force.

And what of Kainat Riaz’s fear?

She told Al Jazeera she did not sleep for two days after the attack, out of sheer terror. She even delayed going to the hospital, because she feared that the Taliban may launch a second attack on Malala Yousafzai after the first was unsuccessful.

“[but] I will go back to school as soon as the doctors say I can,” she said, confidently. “Ever since I was small my mother told me that I will do a job. And I want to be a doctor.”

Philippines signs truce with Muslim rebels

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:37:40 +0000

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-paci...um=twitter

The Philippine government and the largest Muslim rebel group have signed a preliminary peace pact that outlines steps to end the conflict in the country's troubled south by 2016.

Chief negotiators from both sides signed the "framework agreement"on Monday, in a nationally televised ceremony at the presidential palace attended by President Benigno Aquino, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Murad Ebrahim and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose country helped broker the deal.

The framework agreement calls for the establishment of a new autonomous region to be called Bangsamoro, or Muslim nation, in the southern region of Mindanao, by 2016.

The United Nations, the United States and other countries have welcomed the roadmap, achieved after 15 years of on-again, off-again negotiations between the MILF and various Philippine administrations, as a rare chance for peace.

However, the MILF's leadership, as well as independent observers and foreign governments, have warned the path towards peace remains littered with obstacles, and that Monday's signing does not guarantee an end to the conflict.

"We feel honoured to be welcomed in Manila, but I must stress this is just the beginning of the peace journey," Ebrahim's deputy for political affairs, Ghazali Jaafar, told AFP news agency on Sunday before flying to the nation's capital.

Independence struggle

Muslim rebel groups have been fighting for full independence or autonomy since the 1970s in Mindanao, which they consider their ancestral homeland from before Spanish Christians colonised the country in the 1500s.

The estimated four to nine million Muslims are now a minority in Mindanao after years of Catholic immigration, but they remain a majority in some areas.

Muslims would be a majority in the planned new autonomous region.

The conflict has left huge areas of Mindanao, a resource rich and fertile farming region covering the southern third of the Philippines, in deep poverty.

It has also led to the proliferation of unlicensed guns and political warlords who battle over fiefdoms, while smaller but more militant Islamic separatist groups have been able to create strongholds in lawless areas.

Most of the 150,000 people estimated to have died in the conflict were in the 1970s, when an all-out war raged.

A ceasefire between the MILF and the government in place since 2003 has largely kept the peace, but outbreaks of deadly violence have occurred over the past decade.

The MILF is the biggest and most important remaining rebel group, after the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed a peace pact with the government in 1996.

That peace pact led to an autonomous region in Mindanao, but Aquino described it last week as a "failed experiment" because of massive corruption and worsening poverty there.

The planned new autonomous region would replace the old one.

Obstacles to peace

Fresh attacks by the MNLF or small Islamic groups who still want independence are among the potential obstacles to the peace process.

Another is potential opposition from Catholic politicians and business leaders. The nation's parliament will have to approve the laws of the new autonomous region.

However, Aquino, who is one of the most popular presidents in the country's history, has invested a lot of personal political capital in pushing for an end to the conflict.

Experts have said that, unlike the unpopular Arroyo, Aquino may be able to convince the country's Catholic majority to support autonomy for Muslims.

The two sides have set 2016 as a deadline because that is when Aquino is required by the constitution to stand down after serving a single six-year term.

The formal peace talks have been held in Malaysia, and last week's announcement by Aquino that the "framework agreement" had been achieved came after months of intense negotiations in Kuala Lumpur.

Israel kills 3 on Egypt border, averts 'major attack'

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:17:24 +0000

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/israel-...36114.html

Israeli troops on Friday shot dead three heavily armed gunmen who sneaked across the Egyptian border and ambushed troops, averting "a very big terror attack," a military spokeswoman said.

"They opened fire toward IDF (Israel Defence Force) troops that were guarding the workers (building the fence) in that area. Another force that was nearby... rushed to the area and targeted those three terrorists," said spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, saying all three were killed.

"A very big terror attack was thwarted by the response of these soldiers."