India: Hardline Hindus push Modi to allow temple on disputed Indian site

January 5, 2019 Article

Hindu nationalists linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party urged him on Wednesday to push through laws to allow the building of a temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque, a flashpoint in tensions with minority Muslims.

A long-running dispute over the site in the northern town of Ayodhya has flared back into life in recent months in the build-up to national elections due before May.

The Supreme Court is weighing petitions from both communities on what should be built there and Modi told Reuters partner ANI on Tuesday that the judicial process should take its course.

A day later, Alok Kumar, the international working president of Vishva Hindu Parishad, responded: “The Supreme Court is taking its own sweet time and Hindus can’t wait endlessly to see a temple there.”

“We’ll persuade the government of Prime Minister Modi to issue legislation to start the process of a grand temple in Ayodhya,” he told journalists. He wanted the legislation in place before the government’s term ends, he added.

A Hindu crowd tore down the mosque in 1992, triggering riots that killed about 2,000 people across India, in one of the worst instances of communal violence since the partition of the country in 1947.

Vishva Hindu Parishad, also known as the World Hindu Council, has been spearheading a campaign over the past three decades to build a temple on the site of what Hindus say is the birthplace of Lord Ram, one of their most revered deities.

Over the past few months, the group allied to Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has organised rallies of tens of thousands of activists, monks and other supporters, at a time of growing political and cultural tensions.

At the other end of the country from Ayodhya, in the southern state of Kerala, two women defied a centuries-old ban on entering a Hindu temple on Wednesday, sparking protests and calls for a strike by conservative Hindu groups outraged by their visit.

The post India: Hardline Hindus push Modi to allow temple on disputed Indian site appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Ayodhya, Hindu nationalists, Narendra Modi, News, Vishva Hindu Parishad

U.S. targets suspected USS Cole bombing planner in Yemen

January 5, 2019 Article

A U.S. strike targeted a militant in Yemen believed to be one of the planners of a deadly bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole in 2000, but the results of the strike were still being assessed, the U.S. military said on Friday.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the strike on Jan. 1 in the Marib governorate of Yemen had targeted Jamal al-Badawi, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 and was wanted for his role in the USS Cole attack. He escaped from prison in Yemen twice, once in 2003 and again in 2006.

There is a $5 million (3.93 million pounds) reward for information leading to his arrest.

On Oct. 12, 2000, two men in a small boat detonated explosives alongside the Navy guided missile destroyer as it was refuelling in Aden, killing 17 sailors, wounding more than three dozen others and blasting a gaping hole in its hull.

The post U.S. targets suspected USS Cole bombing planner in Yemen appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Aden, Jamal Al-Badawi, News, USS Cole, Yemen

IS Jihadi Ordered Me to Launch Oxford Street Attack, Muslim Convert Tells Court

January 4, 2019 Article

A Muslim convert has told how he was ordered by an Islamic State jihadi to launch a ram or bomb attack on Oxford Street to “make them pay in blood”.

Lewis Ludlow, 27, from Rochester in Kent, researched and scouted for targets around London and wrote down plans before his arrest last April.

The defendant, who called himself the Ghost and Eagle, also recorded a pledge of allegiance to IS, saying he had nothing but “animosity and hatred”.

He plotted the attack after being stopped from travelling to the Philippines, the Old Bailey heard.

The former Royal Mail worker has pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism in the UK and funding terrorism abroad.

Giving evidence, he told how he had rejected an MI5 advance in March 2017 but agreed to engage with the Prevent programme.

Ludlow said he wanted to travel to the Philippines in February last year to find a wife and start a “new life” but kept his plans a secret from his Prevent mentor.

When he was stopped at the airport, he felt “bitter” and “heartbroken”, he said, adding: “I felt that I was trapped like an animal unable to escape its cage.”

On learning he would not be travelling, his IS-supporting friend in the Philippines Abu Yaqeen first asked him to send money to help pay for bullets and medical supplies, Ludlow said.

The defendant, who has autism, went on to describe how Yaqeen gradually talked him into plotting an attack in Britain.

He claimed he went to London to print off a picture of the black IS flag and research “busy shopping centre” on the orders of Yaqeen.

“On this plot, it was a bit like wheeling in very slowly. I thought to myself, I don’t think he will try to make me do something stupid like try to harm someone,” Ludlow said.

Later, Yaqeen told him he had to “kill” people during a chat on an encrypted app, he said.

Ludlow said: “He said to me, ‘The reason I asked you to research busy shopping centres is because you need to do something against these kuffar in the land of the crusader’.

“I said, ‘What do you mean’. He said, ‘You have to kill them’ and then he tried to encourage me to prepare to get involved in an act.

“I said no at first, I did not want to because I felt this was a bit scary and then he said, ‘You have to do it. You have to kill them, make them pay in blood, you must get revenge. They are not innocent. They deserve to die’.

“He said the best way to do so was using a ram attack. He said in order to achieve such a spectacular attack we should use a truck bomb attack to achieve the necessary effect.

“He said to me, ‘Don’t you want to die a martyr? They deserve it’.”

Ludlow said Yaqeen mentioned targets including Oxford Street, St Paul’s Cathedral and Shia temples.

The defendant said he was told to go to London to “scout”, take pictures, make notes and prepare an oath.

He told the court he photographed various potential targets including Madame Tussauds and around Oxford Street.

Ludlow said he wrote notes about killing up to 100 people in a ram attack or using an improvised explosive device to “maximise” casualties.

Asked if he had anywhere in mind, Ludlow said: “He just said Oxford Street. There was no particular building mentioned.”

Rebecca Trowler QC, defending, asked: “Do you accept at that time you intended that the kind of attack described in these notes would at some point in the future be carried out?”

Ludlow said: “At that particular time yes but there was no date set.”

He claimed Yaqeen was persistent and put pressure on him, so he “went along with it and followed his instructions”.

In the end, Ludlow said he decided to stop and ripped up his notes because he felt “guilty at what I had done”.

The defendant told the court he suffered from anxiety attacks like “whispers from the devil”.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC will conclude the sentencing at a later date.

The post IS Jihadi Ordered Me to Launch Oxford Street Attack, Muslim Convert Tells Court appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Abu Yaqeen, Islamic State, Lewis Ludlow, News, Oxford Street Attack, Prevent

Channel 4, Yemen and the Ongoing Human Rights Abuses

January 3, 2019 Article

On the 6^th of December 2018, Channel 4 broadcast an interview with Adel al-Hassani, who used to be a commander with Yemeni forces that fought against Al-Qaeda and who fell foul, allegedly of UAE forces. His story and his alleged torture is highlighted in the Channel 4 documentary by Jonathan Rugman.

The documentary highlights alleged human rights abuses that are significant and which seem to point to sustained levels of torture. Indeed Al-Hassani suggests systemic torture was used against dissidents.

The Channel 4 documentary is important since it highlights a window on a war that is as dirty as is it is confusing. No party in this war comes out clean and what is clear is that many sides and interested parties are involved in a propaganda campaign that is deeply problematic. Yemen has become a battleground for a series of dirty tricks. The real impact and the victims are the poor and marginalized communities who pick up the pieces of this horrendous conflict inflicted on the Yemen population.

Which brings us to the following point. Adel al-Hassani, is described in the Channel 4 investigation as someone who fought al-Qaeda. No-one can doubt this or verify this apart from what is listed in the Channel 4 documentary. We simply want to highlight the fact that in the documentary, al-Hassani sings a Nasheed that has been repeatedly sung by Islamists as a rallying tune in their struggle against what they perceive against injustice. This is not to suggest that al-Hassani is an Islamist, though the song has been used by others as a rallying call for Islamists. It has therefore been used by others as a rallying call for an armed violent response.

The lyrics of the song can be translated into the following:

غرباء و لغير الله لا نحني الجباه
Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa
[We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah

غرباء و ارتضيناها شعارا في الحياة
Ghurabaa’ war tadhainaa haa shi’aaran lil hayaa
[We are] strangers and we have chosen this to be the motto of life

إن تسأل عنا فإنا لا نبالي بالطغاة
Inta sal ‘anna fa inna laa nubaali bit-tughaat
If you ask about us, then we do not care about the tyrants

نحن جند الله دوما دربنا درب الاباة
Nahnu jundullaahi dawman darbunaa darbul-ubaa
We are forever the soldiers of Allah, our path is the path of the resistant

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers! Strangers! Strangers!

لا نبالي بالقيود بل سنمضي للخلود
Lan nubaali bil quyuud, bal sanamdhii lil khulood
We never care about the chains, rather we’ll continue forever

فلنجاهد و نناضل و نقاتل من جديد
Fal nujaahid wa nunaadhil wa nuqaatil min jadeed
So let us make Jihad, and battle, and fight from the start

غرباء هكذا الاحرار في دنيا العبيد
Ghurabaa’ hakazhal ahraaru fii dunya-al ‘abeed
Ghurabaa’ this is how they are free in the enslaved world

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers… Strangers… Strangers…

كم تذاكرنا زمانا يوم كنا سعداء
Kam tazhaakkarnaa zamaanan yawma kunna su’adaa`
How many times have we remembered a time when we were happy

بكتاب الله نتلوه صباحا و مساء
Bi kitaabillaahi natloohu sabaahan wa masaa`
with the book of Allah, reciting it in the morning and the evening

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers… Strangers… Strangers…

غرباء و لغير الله لا نحني الجباه
Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa
[We are] stranger and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah

غرباء و ارتضيناها شعارا للحياة
Ghurabaa’ war tadhainaa haa shi’aaran lil hayaa
Ghurabaa’ – we have chosen this to be the motto of life

In the Channel 4 documentary, the narrator states the following when Al-Hassani sings the Nasheed.

“We don’t care about tyrants, we only bend our foreheads to God.”

This is only part of the Nasheed and its context, and whilst Channel 4 were right in highlighting the human rights abuses that have so dogged the people of Yemen and which have also led them to pay such a high price, we believe that a better description of the Nasheed and its context could have been provided. Indeed, Channel 4 can simply make an addition on its web-site providing some context to the Nasheed in question, otherwise it can throw up a range of questions when shown in its current format. That song can therefore provide a dual meaning to various individuals watching the same film.

This contextualization is important since if we are to understand the nature of what is taking place in the Middle East, we need to understand the complexities and nuances. In this case, we sympathise with the case of Al-Hassani and his displacement from Yemen. We also are deeply aggrieved at the heavy price that the Yemeni population has paid through significant human rights abuses. They have suffered catastrophically because of proxy wars in the region. This is not acceptable, nor can it be excused.

We hope that this request is something that Channel 4 may consider, given that it takes pride in its journalistic reporting.

The post Channel 4, Yemen and the Ongoing Human Rights Abuses appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Adel al-Hassani, Channel 4, documentary, Islamism, Opinions, Yemen

Boston Marathon bomber appeals conviction, death sentence

December 28, 2018 Article

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Thursday asked an appellate court to overturn his conviction and death penalty sentence for helping carry out the 2013 attack, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

Lawyers for Tsarnaev, 25, argued in a brief filed with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that a lower-court judge’s refusal to move the case to another city not traumatized by the bombings deprived him of a fair trial.

The attorneys acknowledged that their client, then 19, carried out the attack along with his now-deceased 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

But they argued that wall-to-wall media coverage of the bombings meant that nearly the entire jury pool was exposed to news about the attacks, which included “heart-wrenching stories about the homicide victims, the wounded and their families.”

“The pre-trial publicity was damning: the more a prospective juror had seen, the more likely she was to believe that Tsarnaev was guilty and deserved the death penalty,” Tsarnaev’s lawyers wrote in a 500-page brief.

They said U.S. District Judge George O’Toole also ignored evidence that two jurors had commented on the case on social media before being picked and prevented the defence from telling jurors about Tsarnaev’s brother’s ties to a 2011 triple murder.

That evidence, they said, would have supported their sentencing-related argument that Tsarnaev was a junior partner in a scheme run by his older brother, “an angry and violent man” who had embraced radical Islam.

The appeal came after a federal jury in 2015 found Tsarnaev guilty of placing a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the world-renowned race on April 15, 2013, as well as fatally shooting a policeman three days later.

The same jury later found that Tsarnaev deserved execution for six of the 17 capital charges of which he was found guilty, which were related to the bomb he personally placed at the marathon’s finish line.

That bomb killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest fatality, and 23-year-old Chinese exchange student Lingzi Lu. The bombing was one of the highest-profile attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

Tsarnaev’s brother died after a gunfight with police four days after the bombing, which ended when Tsarnaev ran him over with a stolen car.

The manhunt for Tsarnaev ended when he was found hiding in a boat dry-docked in Watertown, Massachusetts.

The post Boston Marathon bomber appeals conviction, death sentence appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Boston Marathon Bombing, death penalty, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, News, Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Belgian judge orders repatriation of six children of Islamic State militants

December 28, 2018 Article

A Belgian judge has ordered the government to repatriate six children of Islamic State (IS) militants and their mothers who have been detained in a camp in Kurdish-controlled Syria, the national news agency Belga said on Wednesday.

Tatiana Wielandt, 26, and Bouchra Abouallal, 25, both Belgian citizens, and their children have been held in the Al-Hol camp in since the defeat of IS in nearly all territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.

Belga quoted the court ruling as ordering the Brussels government to take all necessary and possible measures to ensure the six children and their mothers can return to Belgium.

It must do so within 40 days after being notified of the decision or pay a daily penalty of 5,000 euros for each child, up to a maximum 1 million euros, newspaper De Tijd said. The Belgian government can appeal the ruling.

No comment was available from the court on Wednesday due to a public holiday. A lawyer for the two women was not immediately available for comment.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry said it would “analyse the situation together” with the justice and interior ministries.

Hundreds of European citizens, many of them babies, are being kept by U.S.-backed Kurdish militias in three camps since IS was ousted last year from almost all the large swathes of territory it seized in 2014-15, according to Kurdish sources.

European nations have been reluctant to take them back, regarding children of jihadists both as victims and threats – difficult to reintegrate into schools and homes.

European diplomats say they cannot act in a region where Kurdish control is not internationally recognised. Moreover, there is little popular sympathy for militants’ families after a spate of deadly IS attacks across western Europe.

The Kurd say it is not their job to prosecute or hold them indefinitely, leaving the women and children in legal limbo.

However, mounting concern over the apparent abandonment of hundreds of children with a claim to EU citizenship – most of them under six – is pushing governments to quietly explore how to tackle the complexities of bringing them back.

The post Belgian judge orders repatriation of six children of Islamic State militants appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Islamic State, Kurdish, Militants, News, repatriation, Tatiana Wielandt

Friend of PM Plot Terrorist Found Guilty of Making His Travel Plans

December 27, 2018 Article

A friend of an Islamic State terrorist who plotted to assassinate the Prime Minister has been found guilty of preparing to join terrorists abroad.

Mohammed Aqib Imran, 22, made arrangements to travel for jihad, around the time Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 21, was set on a suicide attack on the heart of Government.

Rahman, from Finchley, north London, helped his like-minded friend by recording an IS sponsorship video for him, the Old Bailey heard.

The pair were snared by a network of online role-players from the Met Police, MI5 and the FBI.

Rahman’s plans to kill Theresa May were scuppered when undercover officers handed him a jacket and rucksack packed with fake explosives.

Following a trial in July, Rahman was convicted of preparing acts of terrorism and Imran was found guilty of possessing a terrorist handbook.

Rahman also pleaded guilty during his trial to assisting Imran in the preparation of terrorist acts by recording a sponsorship video.

Following a retrial, former student Imran was further found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism abroad on or before November 28 2017.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told jurors: “At the heart of this case is a developing radicalisation in the minds of two men who came to know each other online and afterwards met and began to collaborate.

“Both thought about travelling abroad to further their cause, going to a conflict zone such as Syria to lend support to violence. Each also contemplated carrying out terrorist acts of violence here in the UK.

“Mohammed Imran – he elected to travel and set about assembling money, acquiring a fake passport, engaging in research and otherwise equipping himself with the information and means to travel aboard for violence for terrorist purposes

“In the case of the other, Naa’imur Rahman, his conclusion was that lethal violence here, directed at the very heart of the UK Government, was the only effective way to pursue his intentions.

“Before his arrest prevented it, he was, he believed, just days away from his objective, which was no less than a suicide attack by blade and explosion, on Downing Street and, if he could, upon Prime Minister Theresa May herself.”

The court heard how Imran’s preferred destination was Libya or possibly Jordan with a view to onward travel to Syria.

He had saved money to pay for a fake passport and researched travel options, the court heard.

He downloaded the manual How to Survive in the West – a Mujahid’s Guide 2015 with a view to joining IS, the jury was told.

Imran, from Sparkhill in Birmingham, denied the charge against him, claiming he only wanted to get married to a woman in Denmark he had met online.

The jury deliberated for just under 18 hours to reject his explanation and find him guilty of preparing to engage in acts of terrorism.

In August, Rahman, who is originally from Birmingham, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the recorder of London, requested a report from the probation service before sentencing on any potential “future risk” from Imran, as it was “a really important question, the safety of the public”.

Imran is due to be sentenced on January 25.

Following the verdict, Jenny Hopkins, head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division in the CPS, said: “Mohammad Imran was desperate to join Daesh rather than remain in the UK.

“He was ready to give up everything to kill in the name of a warped world view.”

The post Friend of PM Plot Terrorist Found Guilty of Making His Travel Plans appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Islamic State, Mohammed Aqib Imran, Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, News

Iraqi Christians celebrate Christmas one year after Islamic State defeat

December 26, 2018 Article

Iraqi Christians celebrated Christmas on Tuesday amid improved security, more than a year after the country declared victory over Islamic State militants.

In northeast Mosul, people attended a mass on Monday (December 24) at the Grand Immaculate Church, surrounded by blackened walls still tagged with Islamic State graffiti. Dozens of worshippers prayed and received communion, and then gathered around the traditional bonfire in the church’s courtyard.

The militants had ravaged Christian areas, looting and burning down homes and churches, stripping them of all valuable artefacts and smashing relics.

Faced with a choice to convert, pay a tax or die, many Christians in the Nineveh Plains, chose to flee. Most sought refuge in nearby towns and cities, but many sought permanent asylum abroad.

In Baghdad, at the St. George Chaldean Church, Christians turned out in force to attend a mass on Tuesday (December 25).

Key Shiite and Sunni clerics were also present at the mass.

It was from a Mosul mosque that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a “caliphate” in 2014, spanning northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

The militants seized vast swaths of territory in north and west of Iraq in June 2014. But U.S-backed Iraqi forces recaptured the areas and declared final victory against ISIS in 2017.

Iraq’s Christian population has shrunk from 1.5 million to about 400,000 since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The post Iraqi Christians celebrate Christmas one year after Islamic State defeat appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Christmas, Iraqi Christians, Islamic State, News

Britain commissions review of Christian persecution worldwide

December 26, 2018 Article

Britain has commissioned an independent review into the persecution of Christians to find practical steps to support followers of a religion that it said has been subject to a dramatic rise in violence worldwide.

Some 215 million Christians worldwide faced persecution for their faith last year, it said, with Christian women and children particularly vulnerable and often subject to sexual violence as a result of their beliefs.

Last year, on average, 250 Christians were killed very month because of their faith, it said.

“So often the persecution of Christians is a telling early warning sign of the persecution of every minority,” Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Today I have asked the Bishop of Truro to look at how the British government can better respond to the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.

“We can and must do more.”

The review will map Christian persecution in key countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, analyse British support and recommend a comprehensive policy response, the government said.

The post Britain commissions review of Christian persecution worldwide appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Bishop of Truro, Britain, Christian Persecution, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, News

Concerned Woman Calls Police Fearing Carol Singers ‘from Leeds’

December 24, 2018 Article

A concerned woman fearing “up to no good” carol singers was one of several unusual phone calls received by a police force during “Mad Friday”.

North Yorkshire Police shared details of the incident as part of a “tweetathon” documenting every call received between noon on Friday and 6am on Saturday, a period known to be one of the busiest of the year for forces across the country.

In one post, sent at 8.36pm on Friday, the force said they had been contacted by a woman in Harrogate about the carol singers, who are believed to have been from nearby Leeds.

The tweet said: “Caller from #Harrogate who is aware of Christmas carol singers in the area who she believes are from Leeds.

“Caller believes they are up to no good as they are not local to area – observations passed to local officers.”

The post triggered a series of comical responses from social media users, including one who suggested that the force should “build a wall and make Leeds pay for it”.

Another said that the caller might have been baffled by hearing the hymn Silent Night being sung “in a Leeds accent”.

One user joked that he had seen the singers in the famous Betty’s tea room earlier in the day, saying they had “asked for their crusts to be left on, and didn’t leave a tip”.

The force received hundreds of calls during the “tweetathon”, including one about a milkshake being thrown in a takeaway and another complaining about their neighbours’ “loud sex”.

The last Friday before Christmas, nicknamed “Mad Friday” and “Black Eye Friday”, is regarded as a hectic time for emergency services as it is a popular night to host festive parties.

The post Concerned Woman Calls Police Fearing Carol Singers ‘from Leeds’ appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: Carol Singers, Christmas, Leeds, News, Police