Expect more war, hunger and extremism in 2018 – report
The post Expect more war, hunger and extremism in 2018 – report appeared first on Faith Matters.
Categories: Africa, conflict, Middle East, News, poverty, terrorism, War
The post Expect more war, hunger and extremism in 2018 – report appeared first on Faith Matters.
Categories: Africa, conflict, Middle East, News, poverty, terrorism, War
The post Egypt attack to spur on Saudi-backed Muslim military alliance against extremism and terrorism appeared first on Faith Matters.
Categories: Egypt, mosque, News, Saudi Arabia, terrorism
This is a public statement released by the British Libyan community in Manchester
The British-Libyan community in Manchester condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena on the 22nd May 2017. The perpetrator murdered innocent and defenseless people, including children. This attack was an attack on all of us. Such depraved acts have no basis in Islam. All those responsible for senselessly destroying the lives of innocent people do not deserve to live in our community and should be behind bars. We support the police in bringing the perpetrators to justice, and in protecting the people of Manchester and the rest of the UK.
Many members of the British-Libyan community in Manchester are doctors who stand side by side with their colleagues to ensuring that victims and other patients receive the best possible care at this difficult time. We take this opportunity to praise the emergency services for their dedication and efforts. Most importantly, our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the families who have lost loved ones, and the injured.
As a community we have lost many hundreds of people who bravely fought and defeated ISIS in Sirte, Libya, only a few months ago, and so we are affected by grief again. We stand together with all Mancunians to keep Manchester safe and strong.
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Categories: British Libyan community, Islamism, Manchester, News, Sirte, terrorism
President Donald Trump urged Arab and Islamic leaders on Sunday to unite and do their share to defeat Islamist extremists, making an impassioned plea to “drive out” terrorists while toning down his own harsh rhetoric about Muslims.
Trump singled out Iran as a key source of funding and support for militant groups. His words aligned with the views of his Saudi Arabian hosts and sent a tough message to Tehran the day after Hassan Rouhani won a second term as Iran’s president.
The U.S. president did not use his signature term “radical Islamic terrorism” in the speech, a signal that he heeded advice to employ a more moderate tone in the region after using the phrase repeatedly as a presidential candidate.
“Terrorism has spread all across the world. But the path to peace begins right here, on this ancient soil, in this sacred land,” Trump told leaders from about 50 Muslim-majority countries representing more than a billion people.
“A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and drive out the extremists. Drive them out! Drive them out of your places of worship, drive them out of your communities, drive them out of your holy land and drive them out of this earth.”
The president’s first speech abroad provided an opportunity to show his strength and resolve, in contrast to his struggle to contain a mushrooming scandal at home after his firing of former FBI Director James Comey nearly two weeks ago.
He portrayed the conflict as one between good and evil, not between civilizations, and made clear in a forceful tone that Washington would partner with the Middle East but expected more action in return.
“There is still much work to be done. That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism, and the Islamists, and Islamic terror of all kinds,” he said in his speech.
The advance excerpts of the speech had him saying “Islamist extremism.” A White House official blamed Trump’s fatigue for the switch. “Just an exhausted guy,” she told reporters.
The term “Islamist extremism” refers to Islamism as a political movement rather than Islam as a religion, a distinction that the Republican president had frequently criticized the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, for making.
As a candidate, Trump proposed temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States. In office, he ordered temporary bans on people from several Muslim-majority countries, which have been blocked by courts that ruled they were discriminatory.
The speech in a gilded hall bedecked with chandeliers is part of an effort to redefine his relationship with the Muslim world. Trump’s “America first” philosophy helped him win the 2016 election and has rattled allies who depend on U.S. support for their defence.
Trump received a warm welcome from Arab leaders, who set aside his campaign rhetoric and focussed on his desire to crack down on Iran’s influence in the region, a commitment they found wanting in Obama.
“For decades, Iran has fuelled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” Trump said. “It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this very room.”
Trump did not make overt mentions of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia or the other Gulf nations in his speech. White House officials has said he did not want to lecture, something they believe Obama did, unsuccessfully.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fired back at Trump in a tweet that Trump had attacked Iran in “that bastion of democracy & moderation” of Saudi Arabia and suggested he had “milked” his hosts for hundreds of billions of dollars in business deals.
JOINT FIGHT, ROYAL WELCOME
Introducing Trump, Saudi King Salman described their mutual foe Iran as the source of terrorism they must confront together.
“Our responsibility before God and our people and the whole world is to stand united to fight the forces of evil and extremism wherever they are … The Iranian regime represents the tip of the spear of global terrorism,” the king said.
Iran is a Shi’ite Muslim country. The groups the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Washington and New York are mostly Sunni Muslims, and enemies of Iran. Iranian-backed militia are also fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq.
The United States and Gulf Arab countries announced an agreement to coordinate efforts against the financing of terrorist groups.
Trump’s welcome in the region was put on display during a series of individual meetings with Arab leaders.
He praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, telling him: “You have done a tremendous job under trying circumstances.” The Obama administration had a difficult relationship with Sisi, who came to power after leading a military coup in 2013 during which hundreds of demonstrators were killed, and has since jailed thousands of opponents.
Trump promised to schedule a trip to Egypt soon, and he singled out the Egyptian’s choice of footwear, a pair of shiny black shoes. “Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes,” he said.
To Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Trump declared that the two nations had a lot in common and “there won’t be strain with this administration.”
The king lauded the relationship and said it had led to “great stability in the region and prosperity.” Bahrain is home to the U.S. fleet in the Middle East. Its Sunni Muslim royal family rules over a majority Shi’ite population and was occasionally rebuked by the Obama administration for harsh treatment of opponents.
Trump’s Riyadh visit kicked off his first presidential trip abroad, with Saudi Arabia the first stop on a nine-day journey through the Middle East and Europe.
Soon after Trump embarked on his trip on Friday, he was hit with more accusations that, with Comey’s firing on May 9, he was trying to squelch a federal investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia last year.
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Categories: Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Arab, Donald Trump, Islamic, Muslim, News, Saudi Arabia
A British man who stored material about missile systems on data sticks disguised as cufflinks and created an extensive online manual for members of Islamic State was sentenced to eight years’ jail on Tuesday.
Samata Ullah, 34, an unemployed man from Cardiff in Wales, had admitted five terrorism charges including membership of Islamic State (IS).
Police recovered 30 pairs of USB sticks disguised as cufflinks, which contained a guide to missile systems and instructions on how to avoid detection online.
Counter Terrorism Commander Dean Haydon said Ullah had set up an online self-help library which contained IS propaganda, guidance on encryption and anti-surveillance techniques.
“He’s created a one-stop shop for terrorists,” said Haydon in a statement, adding that Ullah used techniques the police had never seen before. “He was very technically competent… he was a very dangerous individual.”
Ullah posted video logs on his website to demonstrate his anti-detection techniques, featuring his gloved hand and voice-distortion technology to hide his strong Welsh accent.
In all, police recovered over half a million internet files and 150 digital devices.
Haydon said an investigation in Kenya had led police to Ullah, who had adopted multiple online personas, operating from dozens of email addresses and Twitter accounts.
The use of encryption by some internet companies “allows terrorists to operate with impunity”, Haydon said, a situation which he described as frustrating.
Ullah had been able to conduct most of his activities by himself in his bedroom in Cardiff.
“We found him quite a solitary character,” Haydon said. “His character in the virtual world was very different from the one in the real world.”
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Categories: Islamic State, News, Samatah Ullah, terrorism, USB cufflinks, Wales
Two Chinese nationals of Uighur origin were arrested on Friday for suspected links to the mass shooting in an Istanbul night club on New Year’s Eve, state-run Anadolu agency said.
Two suspects, Omar Asim and Abuliezi Abuduhamiti, who are Chinese citizens, were remanded in custody on charges of being members of an armed terrorist organisation, and aiding in 39 counts of murder.
Turkish authorities last week said the man who killed 39 people in an attack on an Istanbul nightclub was probably an ethnic Uighur.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria.
Anadolu news agency also said 35 people had been detained so far in relation to the attack. Uighurs were among those detained, local media reports said.
The Uighurs are a largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority in far western China with significant diaspora communities across Central Asia and Turkey.
The suspect, who authorities have not named, shot his way into exclusive Istanbul nightclub Reina and opened fire with an automatic rifle, throwing stun grenades to allow himself to reload and shooting the wounded on the ground.
Among those killed in the attack were Turks and visitors from several Arab nations, India and Canada.
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Categories: Abuliezi Abuduhamiti, Chinese, Istanbul nightclub attack, News, Omar Asim, Uighur
The BBC aired a trailer for the comedy ‘Real Housewives of ISIS‘ which featured women in hijabs apparently within the Islamic State and curtailed of their rights. Sketches involved Muslim women wearing suicide vests and one lamenting on how her husband liked 40 virgins and why he did not like her alone.
Other scenes highlighted a Muslim woman getting a chain from her husband, for the camera only to pan out and to find that she was chained to the kitchen sink and unable to be mobile. Other elements involved online grooming and a fusion of social media with Jihadi conversations about death and destruction.
The trailer was part of ‘Revolting’, a new comedy show from a BAFTA winning satire team that was behind ‘The Revolution will be televised.’
The trailer spread across social media and split opinions with some in the United States suggesting that the BBC had “turned a corner” from being “politically correct”. Others suggested that the “Brits alone could produce something like this.”
Whatever people’s points of views, the material is definitely edgy and fuses with it a sense of modernity and technology and a sense of hopelessness within the women which is turned into a powerful statement. However, the type of material means that discussions will continue on within social media.
Comments from individuals who shared the clip on-line were split:
The post ‘Meet the Real Housewives of ISIS’ Splits Opinions appeared first on TELL MAMA.
Categories: BBC2 Comedy, Housewives, News, Real Housewives of ISIS
Anjem Choudary, Britain’s best-known Islamist preacher whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison on Tuesday for inviting support for Islamic State, Sky News reported.
Choudary had been convicted previously by a jury at London’s Old Bailey court of using online lectures and messages to encourage support for the banned group which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.
Notorious in Britain where the tabloids denounce him as a hate preacher, he is also well-known abroad, making regular TV appearances in the wake of attacks by Islamist militants to blame Western foreign policy for targeting Muslims.
Prosecutors said that in postings on social media, Choudary had pledged allegiance to the “caliphate” declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said Muslims had a duty to obey or provide support to him.
Choudary had denied the terrorism charges and claimed the case was politically motivated. He was found guilty after trial in July.
The former head of the now banned organization al-Muhajiroun, Choudary became infamous for praising the men responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
Despite his often controversial comments and refusal to condemn attacks by Islamists such as the 2005 bombings on the London transport system, Choudary has always denied any involvement in militant activity and had never been previously charged with any terrorism offence.
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Categories: Al-Muhajiroun, Anjem Choudary, Daesh, News, Old Bailey, Sentencing
The Islamic State group announced on Tuesday that one of its longest-serving and most prominent leaders, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed in Syria, depriving the organization of the man in charge of directing attacks overseas.
A U.S. defence official told Reuters the United States carried out an air strike in the Syrian town of al-Bab against a senior Islamic State member. The official declined to disclose the target and said the operation was still being reviewed.
A senior Syrian rebel official had said earlier that Adnani was most probably killed in al-Bab in Aleppo province.
Adnani had been one of the last living senior members, along with self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that founded the group and stunned the Middle East by seizing huge tracts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
As Islamic State’s spokesman, Adnani was its most visible member. As head of external operations, he was in charge of attacks overseas, including Europe, that have become an increasingly important tactic for the group as its core Iraqi and Syrian territory has been eroded by military losses.
Advances by Iraq’s army and allied militia towards Islamic State’s most important possession of Mosul have put the group under new pressure at a moment when a U.S.-backed coalition has cut its Syrian holdings off from the Turkish border.
Those military setbacks have been accompanied by air strikes that have killed several of the group’s leaders, undermining its organisational ability and dampening its morale.
A U.S. counter-terrorism official who monitors Islamic State said that Adnani’s death will hurt the militants “in the area that increasingly concerns us as the group loses more and more of its caliphate and its financial base … and turns to mounting and inspiring more attacks in Europe, Southeast Asia and elsewhere”.
Under Adnani’s auspices, Islamic State has launched large-scale attacks, bombings and shootings, on civilians in several countries outside its core area, including France, Belgium and Turkey.
The official said Adnani’s role as propaganda chief and director of external operations have become “indistinguishable” because the group uses its online messages to recruit fighters and provide instruction and inspiration for attacks.
Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency reported that Adnani was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo.” Islamic State holds territory in the province of Aleppo, but not in the city where rebels are fighting Syrian government forces.
Amaq did not say how Adnani, born Taha Subhi Falaha in Syria’s Idlib Province in 1977, was killed. Islamic State published a eulogy dated Aug. 29 but gave no further details.
INROADS INTO ISLAMIC STATE
Recent advances by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, and by Syrian rebels backed by Turkey, have made inroads into Islamic State holdings in Aleppo province, cutting them off from the Turkish border and supply lines along it.
Iraqi army advances against the jihadist group mean that Baghdad is on track to retake Mosul from it by the end of this year, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command General Joseph Votel said earlier on Tuesday.
Among senior Islamic State officials to have been killed in air strikes this year are both Abu Ali al-Anbari, Baghdadi’s formal deputy, and the group’s “minister of war”, Abu Omar al-Shishani. Adnani had joined the group under its founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
There are conflicting reports as to where and how he died.
A senior Syrian rebel official said Adnani was most probably killed in the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in an air strike. Citing unconfirmed reports, he said Adnani was in the Aleppo region to raise morale as the group comes under mounting pressure.
Hisham al-Hashimi, a security analyst who advises the Iraqi government on Islamic State, said Adnani was injured in a coalition strike on Aug. 17 near al-Rai, north of Aleppo, where Islamic State is fighting Turkish and U.S.-backed Syrian rebels.
Hashimi said he died from his wounds on Monday.
Islamic State’s territory around Aleppo is of particular significance to the group because it is also the location of Dabiq, where an Islamic prophecy holds the last battle between Muslims and infidels will rage, heralding the end of time.
FACE OF GROUP
Iraq said in January that Adnani had been wounded in an air strike in the western province of Anbar and then moved to the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State’s capital in Iraq.
Adnani is a Syrian from Binish in Idlib, southwest of Aleppo, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State’s predecessor al Qaeda more than a decade ago and was once imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq, according to the Brookings Institution.
He was from a well-to-do background but left Syria to travel to Iraq in order to fight the U.S. forces there after its 2003 invasion, and only returned to his homeland after the start of its own civil war in 2011, a person who knew his family said.
He has been the chief propagandist for the ultra-hardline jihadist group since he declared in a June 2014 statement that it was establishing a modern-day caliphate spanning swaths of territory it had seized in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
Adnani has often been the face of the Sunni militant group, such as when he issued a message in May urging attacks on the United States and Europe during the holy month of Ramadan.
The United States designated him a “global terrorist” this year and says he was one of the first foreign fighters to oppose U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq since 2003 before becoming spokesman of the militant group.
There is a $5 million reward on his head under the U.S. “Rewards for Justice” programme.
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Categories: Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, Adnani, Idlib, Islamic State, killed, News, Taha Subhi Falaha
After much fanfare, What British Muslims Really Think, aired on Channel 4 last night, hosted by Trevor Phillips.
It promised “an extensive and rigorous survey to get a better understanding of British Muslims’ attitudes to living in Britain and British institutions”; but did it deliver on its promise?
One major problem was the arguments put forward by Trevor Phillips. On several occasions he misrepresented polling data. The first example concerns how social Muslims are with non-Muslims. He led with the stat that 56 per cent mix with non-Muslims outside of their home on a daily basis. Yes, it’s true that 21 per cent visit non-Muslims once a year, and the same figure never visit non-Muslim homes. Audiences were not told, however, that 17 per cent of Muslims have social visits from non-Muslims in their homes on a daily basis. That figure rises to 19 per cent on a weekly basis and a fifth on a monthly basis. Muslims polled by ICM make a similar effort to visit the homes of their non-Muslims friends on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Nor did Trevor Phillips seek to interrogate this question. He did not consider why some Muslims would not visit the homes of non-Muslims. Did he not consider the health of individuals? Disability or long-term health issues may limit social activities and visits. What of economic factors like the cost of bus fares in deprived areas limiting social mobility and activities?
Young Muslims were also more likely to have non-Muslim friends visit their homes on a daily basis. And social mixing also exists on social media platforms. These factors were simply ignored.
The ICM poll has its flaws but it remains a comprehensive look at the views of 51 per cent of self-identified Muslims in England and Wales. Nor did the poll explore the diversity of Islamic belief – were individuals Sunni, Shia, Deobandi?
Just over a fifth of Muslims polled make no effort to visit a mosque, and 17 per cent only attend on special occasions. This is not a measure of religiosity; but it speaks to how individuals interpret their own faith. The documentary failed to show the diversity of belief outside of liberal and conservative binaries.
Trevor Phillips drew a comparison between how Christians and Muslims understand their faiths. This matters in the context of freedom of expression. ICM’s data did show a clear divide between Muslims and the control group sample on blasphemy.
Responses in the control group were more in favour of publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. A fifth of non-Muslims who rejected this position were Christian.
Opinions in the control group sample were even more divided on the question of publishing cartoons that mock the prophet Muhammad. Almost half said that publications should not have this right. And that included 32 per cent of non-religious people and 50 per cent of Christians.
His own analysis of the polling data allowed him to argue that policy makers had misjudged the aspirations of Muslim integration when compared to Hindu and Sikhs.
Difficult questions around women about obeying their husbands may owe to cultural conservatism given the over-representation of South Asians in the poll data. Phillips did at least seek some understanding of this question. One woman suggested that obedience in the context of pleasing God would suffice. How representative these positions are of course, are open to interpretation and insinuation.
It’s true that 35 per cent of 18-24 year olds also found polygamy acceptable. He did not inform the audience that 34 per cent of Muslims aged 18-24 did not find it acceptable. Disagreement on this issue grew with each age category until we arrive at the over 65s.
This pattern continued into the question of integration. Trevor Phillips gave weight to the small majority of Muslims who wish to lead a separate Islamic life. Yet he did not reveal that 49 per cent of Muslims want to integrate with non-Muslims in all aspects of life. And that is broadly true among British Muslims young and old.
Phillips goes on to speculate that 500,000 Muslims in Britain want to live parallel, separate lives. He does not afford the same level of speculation for the greater number of Muslims seeking total integration. This type of speculation appeared earlier in relation to sympathy for suicide bombings among four per cent of Muslims; but not for the one per cent of the control sample who also expressed sympathy.
A proclivity towards antisemitic tropes is a troubling finding. Yet British Muslims also expressed tolerance towards Jewish communities.
Phillips also made a confusing statement about the caliphate and ISIS. Just 7 per cent endorsed the principal of a caliphate. That figure drops to 3 per cent when asked if they support how ISIS established their violent version of a caliphate.
ICM also justified the use of the word ‘sympathy’ in relation to violence and support for terrorism because it had appeared in other surveys. Yet again, our understanding of this vague term remains open to interpretation. Putting aside social desirability bias, a small minority of Muslims still expressed any sympathy for terrorism or violence.
Muslims (34 per cent) were also more likely than the control group survey (30 per cent) to report individuals to police if they suspected their involvement in terrorism in Syria. Yet this was not reflected in the documentary.
Other points missing from the documentary included that non-Muslims had also expressed similar levels of sympathy for violence against unjust governments. That also extended to use of violence against police injustice.
Muslims were also more likely to condemn the use of violence to protect their family. This is also true for non-violent radical groups. Nor were the desires or sympathies for violence among non-Muslims explored.
The poll does highlight some troubling and positive views among British Muslims. At times Phillips did highlight some nuances in the poll data – like the generational divide on LGBT issues.
Misrepresenting ICM’s poll data does not improve debate.
The post How Trevor Phillips misrepresented ICM’s poll on British Muslims appeared first on TELL MAMA.
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Categories: anti-Islam, Britain, Caliphate, Channel 4, ICM, integration, LGBT hate, Media, News, Survey, Trevor Phillips
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