Tuesday, July 21, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca could be under threat because of swine flu.
Britain today joined a growing list of countries in the MIddle East and Africa to issue advice to Muslim pilgrims not to travel to Saudi Arabia if they are elderly, pregnant, very young or have a long-term medical condition that may leave them more vulnerable to the disease.
The advice, issued by the UK’s Association of British Hujjaj (Pilgrims), follows a recommendation by Saudi health officials that anyone travelling to Mecca or Medina should receive the seasonal flu vaccine at least two weeks before their visit.
The Saudi authorities also said that pregnant women, children, chronically ill and elderly people should skip the Haj this year.
Quarantine facilities have been set up in Saudi airports and millions of vaccine doses have been pre-ordered.
The Association of British Hujjaj said that Saudi Arabia’s warning had “sent a shock wave” through Britain’s Muslim community.
The association’s health experts warned: “British pilgrims have always been at high risk of infections due to the crowded conditions at ceremonies, accommodation sites and on public transport. Therefore pilgrims must follow the guidelines issued by the authorities and they should be vaccinated against the swine flu virus once this vaccine is available at least two weeks before their departure to perform pilgrimage.”
In a statement today the association said: “Take the swine flu threat seriously, be safe than sorry and contact your doctor before travelling.” >>> Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent | Tuesday, July 21, 2009
PBS / FRONTLINE / INTRODUCTION: In the spring of 1980, America was at a dramatic crossroads in the Middle East: President Carter's attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran had just ended in failure, oil prices were rising steadily, and the U.S. economy was in shambles. At that moment, the PBS series WORLD -- the precursor to FRONTLINE® -- broadcast perhaps the most controversial film in the history of public television.
Amid a clamor of political uproar and international front-page headlines, "Death of a Princess" told the true story of a young Saudi princess and her lover who had been publicly executed for adultery. The broadcast ignited protests from both the Saudi Arabian and U.S. governments and big oil companies. >>> | April 19, 2005
Death of a Princess >>>
House of Saud >>>
THE INDEPENDENT: Chairman of home affairs committee welcomes decision to give sanctuary to woman with illegitimate child
Ministers are considering asylum applications for 10 Saudi Arabian nationals who claim they are at risk of persecution if they are forced to return to the Middle Eastern kingdom, it emerged last night.
The new cases were made public after The Independent revealed the plight of a Saudi princess who was granted asylum in Britain after she had an illegitimate child with a British man.
The young woman, who has also been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for asylum after she told a court that she faced execution if her husband found out about her adultery and she was forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
Immigration and asylum experts said last night that asylum cases from women fleeing the kingdom were very rare. But Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said of the case: "This is the kind of person that our asylum laws are designed to protect. A woman and her unborn child should under no circumstances be sent back to a country where it is likely that they will be harmed. I welcome the decision made in this case."
New figures released by the Home Office also showed that a further 15 Saudis were refused asylum by the Government last year. There are no details about the sex of each of the applicants nor for the number of asylum applications received this year.
Mr Vaz called for more information to be made public about claims from Saudi Arabia. He said: "This is a country with a questionable human rights record. It is important to make clear the number of people who are fleeing similar treatment."
The princess's case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments.
The woman, who comes from a very wealthy Saudi family, says she met her English boyfriend – who is not a Muslim – during a visit to London. They struck up a relationship after he gave her his telephone number in a department store. She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband – a member of the royal family of Saudi Arabia – had become suspicious of her behaviour, she persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She feared for her life if she returned to Saudi Arabia.
She persuaded the court that if she returned to the kingdom she would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law – specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing. Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her. >>> Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor | Tuesday, July 21, 2009
WELT ONLINE: Dass sehr viele Iraner die Herrschaft der Mullahs ablehnen, haben sie auf den Straßen demonstriert. Mittlerweile zeigen sich ernsthafte Risse in der Theokratie. Im offenen Machtkampf zwischen verschiedenen Mullah-Fraktionen stecken Anzeichen einer Agonie des Systems. Der Iran treibt auf eine Revolution zu.
Von Lenin stammt die klassische Definition einer revolutionären Situation. Sie tritt ein, wenn die Beherrschten nicht mehr so wollen und die Herrschenden nicht mehr so können wie bisher. Wie es aussieht, treibt der Iran auf eine solche Situation zu.
Dass sehr viele Iraner die Herrschaft der Mullahs ablehnen, haben sie auf den Straßen bewiesen; nun zeigen sich ernsthafte Risse innerhalb der Theokratie. Beim Freitagsgebet hat Ayatollah Ali Akbar Haschemi Rafsandschani, Ex-Präsident und Kampfgefährte des Revolutionsführers Khomeini, die Legitimität des gegenwärtigen Regimes infrage gestellt. Die Regierung habe zunächst das Vertrauen in das Volk verloren, das Volk darauf das Vertrauen in die Regierung, so Rafsandschani. Er forderte die Freilassung inhaftierter Demonstranten, Freiheit der Presse und – indirekt zwar, aber deutlich – eine Revision oder Wiederholung der Präsidentenwahl. Anders sei die „Krise“, die das „System gefährdet“, nicht zu bewältigen. Das ist ein Gorbatschow-Moment. >>> Von Alan Posener | Donnerstag, 18. Juli 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Increasing numbers of non-Muslims are turning to Sharia courts to resolve commercial disputes and other civil matters, The Times has learnt.
The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) said that 5 per cent of its cases involved non-Muslims who were using the courts because they were less cumbersome and more informal than the English legal system.
Freed Chedie, a spokesman for Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siqqiqi, a barrister who set up the tribunal, said: “We put weight on oral agreements, whereas the British courts do not.”
In a case last month a non-Muslim Briton took his Muslim business partner to the tribunal to sort out a dispute over the profits in their car fleet company. “The non-Muslim claimed that there had been an oral agreement between the pair,” said Mr Chedie. “The tribunal found that because of certain things the Muslim man did, that agreement had existed. The non-Muslim was awarded £48,000.”
He said that the tribunal had adjudicated on at least 20 cases involving non-Muslims so far this year. The rulings of the tribunal are legally binding, provided that both parties agree to that condition at the beginning of any hearing.
Anti-Sharia campaigners, who claim that the Islamic system is radical and biased against women, expressed alarm at the news. Denis MacEoin, who wrote a recent report for the think-tank Civitas examining the spread of Sharia in Britain, said that MAT’s claims about non-Muslim clients “raises all sorts of questions”.
He added: “You really need to ask why. What advantages could that possibly have for them going to an Islamic court? Any [Sharia] court is going to be implementing aspects of a law that runs contrary to British law, because of the way it treats women for example.” >>> Fiona Hamilton, London Correspondent | Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Hardliners have forced out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s deputy, despite his being a member of the President’s family.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie’s departure comes just four days after he was appointed. Mr Mashaie, whose daughter is married to President Ahmadinejad’s son, had outraged clerics and politicians after saying that the Islamic Republic was a “friend of the Israeli people”.
Mr Mashaie’s resignation was announced by Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language television station. Last week another vice-president, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who headed Iran’s nuclear programme, also resigned. Mr Mashaie also attracted conservatives’ disapproval after allegedly watching unveiled women dancing at a tourism exhibition in Turkey two years ago.
The resignation came amid reports that a British Embassy employee would be released on bail after three weeks in jail on charges of inciting unrest after last month’s disputed election.
Hossein Rassam, chief analyst at the embassy in Tehran, was the last of nine embassy staff accused of involvement in opposition rallies.
The President had shown a “twisted face to clerics and elites” by appointing Mr Mashaie, said Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hardline Ahmadinejad ally. “Ahmadinejad should not challenge conservatives with such decisions. I request the President to replace him before more criticisms are made,” he said.
The President’s choice of first vice-president does not need Parliament’s approval but his new cabinet ministers will.
Mr Ahmadinejad would have struggled to get his ministerial choices past parliament. Mr Mashaie’s departure could make that task easier. >>> Michael Purcell in Iran | Sunday, July 19, 2009
YNET NEWS: Islamic Movement leader tells Arab children Israeli occupation of Jerusalem must end
Thousands of Arab children headed to Jerusalem Saturday to celebrate the annual festival of the Al-Aqsa Children's Fund initiative, which prompts Muslim youngsters to donate their allowance in favor of the mosque and Islamic Movement institutions.
The movement's Northern Branch's Deputy Chairman, Sheikh Kamel Khatib, spoke to the children and stressed that Muslims will never give up any parts of the holy Muslim site.
About 200 buses packed with children from Arab communities nationwide headed to Jerusalem since early morning hours. The children presented the cashboxes from their communities, and Islamic Movement officials estimated that a total of NIS 3 million (roughly $750,000) was raised this year. The event was attended by movement heads, sheikhs, and Arab dignitaries, including Sheikh Khatib who arrived with his four children.
'A big lie'
In his speech to the youngsters, Khatib said: "We have no partners here at the mosque," referring to Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich's recent visit to the site. "The al-Aqsa Mosque is a holy and occupied place, just like the whole of Jerusalem, which was occupied by the IDF in 1967. The occupation must be removed from the mosque in particular, and from Jerusalem in general."
"The Jews should not be thinking that they can build their Temple on the ruins of the al-Aqsa Mosque," Khatib said. "This day won't come. Those who dream that we, the Muslims, will renounce part of the al-Aqsa mosque should know that their dream will not see the light." >>> Sharon Roffe-Ofir | Saturday, July 18, 2009
NZZ am Sonntag: Die britische Regierung will den früheren Premierminister Tony Blair zum EU-Präsidenten machen. Der Widerstand gegen diesen Plan ist gerade unter den britischen Bürgern gross.
Die frischgebackene britische Europa-Ministerin, Glenys Kinnock, hat vergangene Woche in Strassburg verkündet, ihre Regierung unterstütze «selbstverständlich» den früheren britischen Premierminister Tony Blair als Kandidaten für das zu schaffende Präsidium des Europäischen Ministerrates. Die eben geadelte Gattin des früheren Labour-Vorsitzenden Neil Kinnock lobte Blairs Charakterstärke und behauptete, er geniesse grossen Respekt.
Der Gedanke, Blair in dieses vorläufig weder existierende noch genau definierte Amt zu hieven, ist nicht neu. Schon im Januar 2008, als Blairs unfreiwilliger Abgang aus der Downing Street noch weniger als ein Jahr her war, portierte der französische Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy seinen Kollegen: «Er ist intelligent, er ist tapfer, und er ist ein Freund», begründete er. >>> Martin Alioth, Dublin | Sonntag, 19. Juli 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: IT WAS his British passport that consigned a young writer to three days of torture. The man, who has asked to be identified only as Reza, was arrested in Tehran during an anti-government protest, beaten and threatened with death for being a “British spy”.
His broken nose and ribs have started to heal but the psychological scars remain, even though he is now safely back in London.
The 30-year-old’s story is one of the few to emerge from the prisons in which, international groups say, thousands of men and women arrested since the disputed June 12 presidential election have been held.
Reza, whose real name is being withheld to protect his family in Tehran, has lived in Britain since childhood but travelled to Iran last month for a writing project.
He voted for Mir Hossein Mousavi, the presidential candidate who claims that his defeat by the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Reza joined the hundreds of thousands who poured onto the streets to protest.
On June 20, the day after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, endorsed Ahmadinejad’s victory, Reza was leaving a demonstration when two militia men blindfolded him and bundled him onto the back of a motorcycle. >>> Marie Colvin | Sunday, July 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The suicide bombers behind the deadly twin blasts at Jakarta hotels on Friday were members of the al-Qaeda-linked regional terror outfit Jemaah Islamiyah, Indonesian police said today.
Police also confirmed they had identified one of the two suicide bombers.
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has carried out dozens of bombings in Indonesia over the past decade including the 2002 attacks in Bali that left more than 200 dead, mostly foreign tourists.
"We confirm that the attackers are from Jemaah Islamiyah because there are similarities in the bombs used," Indonesia’s national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a press conference in Jakarta earlier today.
He said an exploded bomb left in a guestroom of the JW Marriott, which was attacked along with the nearby Ritz-Carlton, resembled devices used in the Bali bombings and one discovered in a recent anti-JI raid on an Islamic boarding school.
"They are from the same school. We found similar tools, similar materials and similar methods," he said. >>> | July 19, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The caller introduced herself as Cathy from Massachusetts. She had a couple of modest points to make about the benefits of a national health service but Glenn Beck, one of America’s most ferocious right-wing broadcasters, was in no mood for a discussion about “socialist medicine”.
“Cathy, get off my phone,” he yelled, his voice rising several octaves. “Get off my phone, you little pinhead. Get off my phone . . . I’m losing my mind today.”
An audio clip of the exchange was duly posted online where it was heard by several million listeners, one of whom likened Beck's outraged shrieks to “a cartoon mouse being stabbed in the scrotum with knitting needles”.
Americans have long been used to airwaves filled with wild political rants. But with President Barack Obama in the White House and Democrats in control in Washington, the gates have been opened to what some are describing as a new age of conservative rage.
The angry white men, whose voices were largely silenced by the excitement and pride that greeted Obama’s election last January, are back with a vengeance. >>> Tony Allen-Mills in Washington | Sunday, July 19, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Construction halted, westerners jailed for adultery - but prostitutes do well
Andrew Blair says he will pick me up from outside my sleaze-bucket of a hotel, give it 20 minutes or so, got some work to finish off. He has a job again, contracts apparently “coming out of his ears”, which is good, because until recently he had earned a certain notoriety for not having a job and, more to the point, for the manner in which he went about finding a new one. He drove around Dubai, back in January this year, from the plug-ugly creek to the plug-ugly marina, in his white Porsche, with a sign in the back window saying he wanted a job; vroom vroom he went, gizza job. Scratch scratch scratch went the keys and coins along the side of his car whenever it was parked up.
Such conspicuous flaunting of vulgar affluence seems to me entirely appropriate for this foul city — especially when combined with an admission of desperation and hopelessness, that scrawled sign and telephone number in his rear window. Fur coat and no knickers, etc. But, unaccountably, the local expats found it all a little contemptible and the journalists — none of whom possessed Ferraris — sniggered long and loud in print, out of exquisite Schadenfreude. Just look at this idiot on his uppers, was the subtext. But the ploy worked, and Andrew is once again in gainful employment as a construction project manager, and therefore can remain in this country where they deport you if you’re skint, so who’s laughing now? Not Andrew, as it happens. The whole episode, he says, made him think, made him change his ways. Those first two years out here in this dusty and scorched semi-reclaimed desert were enormous fun: huge tax-free income, palatial apartment — “the crème de la crème” — silent or monosyllabic servants, all that sex (a city containing 8,000 air hostesses can’t be bad), the fast cars, the alcohol.
But he’s a changed man, he says; that epic, shallow, soul-destroying materialism and vulgarity now leave him cold. Being out of work for a while left him a little bruised but a better person, understanding that money and consumer durables are not everything. A changed man. Although not that changed, I notice, as the white Porsche pulls up.
“Why did you leave Britain?” I ask him, slung well below sea level in the bucket seat as we cruise the baked streets past the filthy, crumbling apartment blocks where the Bangladeshi slave labourers live or die, 10 or 12 to a room, and then into the hideous bling of downtown Dubai, a vast architectural experiment conducted by, seemingly, Albert Speer and Victoria Beckham. One skyscraper appears to be gilded in gold leaf, another looks like the birthday cake of a spoilt five-year-old brat — and all of them trying desperately to be taller, flashier, more grotesque than the one next door.
“Well, you know,” he says, in a soft Scottish burr, “I think it was the immigration more than anything else.”
“But Andrew, you’re an immigrant now…” >>> Rod Liddle | Sunday, July 12, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: THE Foreign Office is threatening to cancel a state visit by the Queen to Bermuda after a row with the island over its “unacceptable” decision to give sanctuary to four former inmates of Guantanamo Bay.
The boycott is being considered after Bermuda infuriated David Miliband, the foreign secretary, by allowing the four men, all Chinese Muslim Uighurs, to stay on what is an overseas British territory.
The move followed a secret deal struck between Washington and the Bermudans. It was carried out without consulting Britain or the island’s governor.
Miliband protested to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, about the pact. He told her the move was “invalid” because it breached Bermuda’s constitution, under which the UK has control over the island’s foreign and security policy.
The Uighurs are Muslim separatists from Xinjiang province. They had fled to Afghanistan in 2001 to escape Chinese oppression and were detained after they went to Pakistan.
Their arrival in Bermuda last month sparked an angry response from Sir Richard Gozney, the island’s governor. He summoned Ewart Brown, the Bermudan prime minister, for a dressing down. >>> David Leppard | Sunday, July 19, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
LE FIGARO: Les ravisseurs des deux agents de renseignement, enlevés mardi à Mogadiscio, ont annoncé vouloir juger leurs otages, coupables «d'espionnage au profit des ennemis d'Allah», selon les principes de la loi coranique.
Les négociations sur la libération des deux agents français de renseignement de la DGSE, enlevés mardi à Mogadiscio, s'annoncent de jour en jour plus difficiles. Un haut responsable des extrémistes islamistes des shebab, qui les ont kidnappés, ont annoncé samedi vouloir les juger eux-mêmes... Selon les principes de la charia. Les captifs «aidaient le gouvernement somalien apostat et leurs espions, donc ils seront bientôt jugés et punis selon la loi coranique», a tranché ce haut responsable. «Ils feront face au tribunal pour espionnage et être entrés en Somalie pour aider les ennemis d'Allah». «La décision sur leur sort dépendra du tribunal islamique qui entendra les charges pesant contre eux», a-t-il ajouté. Son mouvement est considéré comme proche d'al-Qaida, est connu pour son application extrême de la charia : lapidation, amputation comme exécutions publiques. >>> C.J. (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Samedi 18 Juillet 2009
MACLEANS: Somalia may become the world’s next extremist stronghold
When a Maclean’s reporter reached Somali journalist Abdi Ahmed Abdul on his cellphone as he walked back to his home through the streets of Mogadishu, he quickly ended the call, apologizing later that evening by explaining that it would not be safe for him to be heard speaking English by members of al-Shabab—the Islamist militia that controls much of the country and whose leadership has been linked to al-Qaeda. “I am scared,” Abdul said. “If they see me talking to somebody in English, I’d be in danger. If anybody is speaking in English, they think he is a spy. It means I am passing information to foreigners, what they call Christians or infidels, people they don’t like.”
Abdul lives near one of the main markets in Mogadishu, a place he calls a “stronghold of the Shabab.” He asked that his real name not be printed. “If they read this, they will come and look for me and blow my brain up.” His family has fled twice to other parts of the country. He’s considered leaving himself, but is now afraid to try.
Abdul’s description of Somalia under al-Shabab is similar to that of Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule. Al-Shabab’s rule is guided by a medieval and repressive interpretation of Islam, and it has attracted foreign jihadists—who may have international ambitions—to Somalia.
This spring, Abdul says, two teenage boys and a teenage girl were sentenced to be lashed 100 times for having premarital sex. The sentence has not yet been carried out, but in June, four men accused of stealing cellphones all had a hand or foot hacked off with machetes after they were convicted by an al-Shabab Islamic court. And in October, a 13-year-old rape victim was stoned to death in front of some 1,000 spectators. “It happens—the amputations, the stoning to death, the whippings, forbidding music,” he says. “They tell women to wear the hijab. They banned films. They even control the memory cards of mobile phones to check if there are pornographic films or films that are anti-Islamic. No cinemas. No music. They even force people to pray.”
Al-Shabab, meaning “the Youth” in Arabic, grew out of the Islamic Courts Union, which briefly controlled Somalia in 2006. Ethiopian troops and covert American Special Forces toppled the Islamic Courts Union in 2006 and 2007, and a “transitional” government was installed in its place. The most radical elements from the ICU then formed new Islamist groups, such as al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam, meaning “Party of Islam,” to oppose the government, which since January has been led by Sheik Sharif Ahmed. Ahmed was previously leader of the Islamic Courts Union but is a moderate Islamist compared to those in al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab receives money and arms from Somalis in the diaspora, from wealthy Arabs in the Gulf, and from Eritrea. Along with its allies, it controls all but a few pockets of Somalia outside the de facto autonomous regions of Somaliland and Puntland—the latter of which has become famous of late as an epicentre for piracy. The Transitional Federal Government has not been toppled because of the protection of some 4,000 African Union soldiers. Its writ barely extends over a few square blocks of Mogadishu. In recent weeks, Somalia’s security minister, Omar Hashi Aden, was killed in an al-Shabab suicide car bomb attack, and scores of parliamentarians have left the country. Barely half remain. “Even an AK-47 bullet fired by the opposition groups can hit the presidential palace,” says Abdul.
Abdul says most Somalis don’t support the Shabab, but are “ruled by fear.” Some still fight against it. When militants desecrated graves and mosques sacred to followers of the spiritual Sufi branch of Islam, normally peaceful Sufis took up arms on the side of the government against al-Shabab, defeating them in several battles in central Somalia. >>> Michael Petrou | July 16, 2009
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