Thursday, July 03, 2014
Wappnen sich die Saudis gegen die Isis-Krieger?
Russian View: The Murky Side of Exceptionalism: US Military Footprint All over Arab World
From Prison to Jihad: Islamists Seek Supporters among German Inmates
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| Muslim prison chaplain Husamuddin Meyer visits a jail in Wiesbaden, Germany, several times a week as he attempts to connect with prisoners and prevent them from adopting more extremist forms of Islam, like Salafism. |
The evening sun shines through the barred windows onto the 18 men. They're wearing ruby-colored T-shirts and black pants. Some nudge each other's shoulders out of sheer boredom, while others linger in groups at the corner of the sparse room. The men speak Turkish, Arabic and German. One keeps glancing out the window into the prison yard.
A man with a full beard and violet-colored turban strides before the prisoners, his colorfully striped linen robe flowing behind him. Husamuddin Meyer rolls out his prayer rug and begins to pray. Swaying back and forth, he seems almost to be singing the Arabic verses.
The men stand silently in two rows in front of Meyer, backs straight and eyes staring straight ahead. They then kneel, lowering their heads until their foreheads touch the ground. They repeat this four to five times before chanting, "Allahu akbar," God is great. Meyer gestures with his hand and the prisoners form a semi-circle around him to listen to him telling a story from the Koran. Nobody interrupts.
Meyer is a Muslim chaplain; he wears a beard, a turban and a ring on his finger as prescribed by the Sunna. He also walks with a wooden cane, whose thud announces his arrival when he swiftly makes his way through the prison corridors. He visits the correctional facility in the central German city of Wiesbaden three times each week, where he prays together with Muslim prisoners and provides them with religious counseling.
Meyer is hoping to show the prisoners the path to Allah. More importantly, though, he is seeking to sway the faithful away from more radical interpretations of the Koran. He warns in particular against Salafism, the fundamentalist stream of Islam that is currently enjoying growing popularity among young men. When he discusses the issue, his generally pleasant voice suddenly hardens. "Salafism is like a disease," Meyer says. "Once somebody has it, they start infecting others." » | Lisa Schnell | Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Ermittlungen wegen Bestechung: Franzosen lehnen Rückkehr Sarkozys in die Politik ab
Paris - Nicolas Sarkozy wollte sich eine Rückkehr in die Politik offenhalten, im August oder September sollte es eine Entscheidung geben. Nun haben die Wähler ihre Meinung kundgetan: Fast zwei Drittel der Franzosen lehnen eine Rückkehr des früheren Präsidenten Nicolas Sarkozy ins politische Geschäft ab. » | kes/dpa | Donnerstag, 03. Juli 2014
Der Kalif als Befehlshaber der Gläubigen
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| Hier regierten die Sultane: Blick auf Konstantinopel, die Hauptstadt des Osmanischen Reiches, um 1869. |
Die islamistische Kampf- und Terrororganisation Islamischer Staat versucht weiterhin, nach der Einnahme Mossuls und anderer Städte auf Bagdad vorzurücken und die Hauptstadt des Irak einzunehmen. Sie will die von den Schiiten beherrschte Regierung von Ministerpräsident Nuri al Maliki stürzen und hat jetzt ein „Kalifat“ mit ihrem Anführer Abu Bakr al Bagdadi als „Kalifen“ ausgerufen, das irgendwann einmal den Irak und Syrien umfassen soll.
Nur in einem solchen streng „islamischen“ Gebilde könnten Muslime angemessen leben, behauptet die Terrororganisation und rekurriert dabei auf die islamische Geschichte, wie sie sich seit dem Wirken des Propheten Mohammed (571 bis 632) bis zum Jahre 1924 abgespielt hat - als eine Reihe von sich religiös legitimierenden Herrschaften und Dynastien, von denen die meisten sich in der Tat in der Nachfolge des Propheten sahen, mit mehr oder weniger Berechtigung, und noch dazu in sunnitischen oder schiitischen Varianten. Ihr Gegensatz spielt auch heute wieder eine Rolle, er ist voll entbrannt. » | Von Wolfgang Günter Lerch | Dienstag, 03. Juli 2014
China Bans Ramadan Fasting in Muslim Province
Students and civil servants in China's Muslim northwest have been ordered by the state to avoid taking part in traditional fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Statements posted in the past week on websites of schools, government agencies and local party organisations in the Xinjiang region said the ban would protect students' wellbeing and prevent the use of schools and government offices to promote religion, the AP news agency reported on Thursday.
Statements on the websites of local party organisations said members of the officially atheist ruling party should also avoid fasting, although the month of Ramadan, which began at sundown on June 28, is observed by Muslims.
"No teacher can participate in religious activities, instill religious thoughts in students or coerce students into religious activities," said a statement on the website of the "Number 3 Grade School" in Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang. » | Source: Associated Press | Thursday, July 03, 2014
Coffee Shop Attacked in Lebanon for Not Closing during Ramadan
Two unidentified men on a motorcycle threw the bomb at Makiya café whose owner insists on opening his shop for customers who do not observe Ramadan fasting.
Observant Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadan.
One of the city’s residents, who refused to be named, said that Makiya is one of the cafés in the northern city which opens its doors to non-fasting customers who have chronic diseases, such as diabetes, pressure, kidney and ulcers, pointing out that they are regular customers. » | Nisrine Hatoum, Al Arabiya News | Thursday, July 03, 2014
Pope Francis Makes Exorcisms Official Catholic Practice as Demon-fighting Priests Recognised under Canon Law
The International Association of Exorcists, a group of 250 priests battling the forces of evil across 30 countries, has now had its statutes approved by the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, the church’s newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported.
It gives legal recognition to the performance of an exorcism, and was a cause for joy – according to the head of the association.
The Reverend Francesco Bamonte told L'Osservatore: “Exorcism is a form of charity that benefits those who suffer.” » | Adam Withnall | Thursday, July 03, 2014
Airport Security May Be Tightened Permanently After US Warning – Clegg
A tightening of security at UK airports may remain in place on a permanent basis in the face of a new extremist bomb threat to transatlantic aircraft, Nick Clegg has said as he warned of the dangers posed by a "medieval, violent, revolting ideology".
Speaking after the government announced an increase in airport security amid fears in the US that terrorists in Syria and Yemen were developing explosives that could be smuggled on to planes, the deputy prime minister said the new measures would not be temporary.
"I don't think we should expect this to be a one-off temporary thing," Clegg said on his weekly LBC phone-in. "We have to make sure the checks are there to meet the nature of the new kinds of threats. Whether it is forever – I can't make any predictions. But I don't want people to think that this is just a sort of a blip for a week. This is part of an evolving and constant review about whether the checks keep up with the nature of the threats we face."
Clegg was speaking after US officials told Reuters that security at European airports would be increased following intelligence that al-Qaida operatives in Syria and Yemen had joined forces to develop bombs that could avoid detection and bring down aircraft. The US did not specify which airports or countries would be affected, nor did it say what triggered the extra precautions. Read on and comment » | Nicholas Watt, Josh Halliday and Vikram Dodd | Thursday, July 03, 2014
Saudi Arabia Sends 30,000 Troops to Iraq Border
Saudi Arabia has sent 30,000 troops to reinforce its long northern desert border after Iraqi troops withdrew from the other side, according to reports[.]
Fighters from Islamic State, the jihadist group, and its allies have already seized frontier posts on Iraq's western borders with Syria and Jordan. The southern border with Saudi Arabia, which regards itself as vulnerable to the threat of jihadism, is more than 500 miles long.
Large parts of it are with Anbar province, the centre of Islamic State power in Iraq and now almost entirely under the control either of the group itself or of Sunni Arab tribes that have allied with it.
The last serious incursion into Saudi Arabia also came from Iraq, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Iraqi forces were eventually repelled from the Saudi town of Khafji, the following January, but only after they were attacked from the air by American jets. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Thursday, July 03, 2014
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Nicolas Sarkozy: Allegations against Me are Grotesque, and the Judges Are Biased
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| Nicolas Sarkozy, centre, is brought in by police for questioning on Tuesday by a judge investigating allegations of corruption. |
To the French right it was political persecution and a plot to undermine Nicolas Sarkozy's eventual return to power. To the left it was the country's justice system doing its job and showing that no man – not even a powerful former president – is above the law.
But on Wednesday night it was Sarkozy's turn to speak after a day in which he was put under formal investigation for allegations of corruption, trafficking influence and receiving information violating professional secrecy.
The move came more than 15 hours after he was first summoned to a police station on the outskirts of Paris and told he was being held in custody – a first for a former president in modern France.
Three others, Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog and two magistrates, have also been put under investigation in the case. All deny any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday night, Sarkozy appeared on television for the first time since leaving the Elysée Palace in 2012 to claim the justice system was being used as a "political instrument" against him and to lash out at the magistrates and France's Socialist government.
"In our country, the country of human rights and the right of law, there are things that are being organised … everything is being done to give an image of me that is not the truth. To all those watching and listening, I want to say that I have never betrayed their confidence. I have never committed an act against republican principles or the law," he said.
Wearing a sombre suit and tie, the former president looked tanned and clean-shaven – recent photos showed him with fashionable stubble – and came out fighting, describing the accusations as "grotesque", and accusing the judges of being politically biased and determined to humiliate and destroy him. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Wednesday, July 02, 2014
The Lemon Seller Now Turkey’s ‘Sultan’
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| Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan greet AK Party (AKP) members at a meeting where he is named as his party's candidate for the country's first direct presidential election in Ankara on Tuesday. – Reuters |
The religiously devout but charismatic prime minister is now seeking to extend his 11-year domination of Turkey by standing in a presidential election that would make him Turkey’s longest serving ruler since its founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
But the man dubbed the “Sultan” is enduring the most turbulent phase of his career, accused of being an autocrat and lashing out erratically at critics, from former allies to Twitter users.
Months of political turmoil in the wake of the Gezi street protests have cast a shadow over Erdogan, once hailed as an emerging global player after Turkey’s decade of unprecedented growth.
“I am not a dictator. It is not even in my blood,” he said last year.
But as tales of official graft and sleaze spread through social networks, the 60-year-old has become increasingly irritable and combative, branding his critics “traitors” and “terrorists.” » | AFP | Tuesday, July 01, 2014
Australian Jihadist Preacher Musa Cerantonio on His Way to Syria or Iraq
Melbourne-born Musa Cerantonio, regarded internationally as an influential cheerleader for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, appeared on Twitter early Wednesday morning to heap praise on the group and its announcement of a new Islamic state.
The former Catholic is believed to have been hiding out in the Philippines for months and is reportedly wanted by the Australian Federal Police.
Mr Cerantonio's announcement came as Attorney-General George Brandis confirmed the government was looking at ways to make sure Australians returning from fighting with extremists in the Middle East would not pose a danger at home. (+ video) » | David Wroe | Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Putin verbietet das Fluchen
Wladimir Putin mags offenbar lieber fein - zumindest was den Sprachgebrauch seiner Landsleute betrifft: So ist In [sic] Russland [ist] am Dienstag ein umstrittenes Gesetz in Kraft getreten, das vulgäre Ausdrücke in den Medien, im Theater und in Filmen untersagt. Der Staatspräsident persönlich hatte das Gesetz im Mai dekretiert. » | DiePresse.com | Dienstag, 01. Juli 2014
Nicolas Sarkozy Charged with Corruption
France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged with corruption and influence peddling, French prosecutors said on Wednesday, a dramatic move in a criminal probe that could wreck his hopes of a political comeback.
The decision came after Mr Sarkozy was questioned for 15 hours, marking the first time a French ex-head of state had been taken into custody in a criminal investigation.
The right-wing leader had been detained at a police station in a Paris suburb in connection with a suspected attempt to illegally influence judicial proceedings in one of a raft of colourful corruption cases he is implicated in.
Mr Sarkozy turned up at the station in Nanterre in a black saloon car with tinted windows at 8:00 am (0600 GMT).
After the lengthy questioning, the former president was taken in the early hours of Wednesday to appear before a judge, where he was charged with corruption and influence peddling, the prosecution said in a statement to AFP.
If convicted of those charges, he could face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. » | AFP | Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Obama the 'Imperial President'?
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