Muslim brotherhood split over Yemeni Shi'ite Insurgency
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michaelnoble
michaelnoble
The Shi'i Huthi insurgency in north Yemen has split opinion in the leadership of the global Islamist movement,the Muslim Brotherhood, it emerged today.
Division between the Syrian and Egyptian branches of the movement became apparent when the former today issued a statement to London based Al Quds Al Arabi describing the insurgency as a "vehicle of malicious intent". The statement, made by Syrian branch chief Sadr al Deen al Bayanuni, exhorted both Yemen and Saudi Arabia to confront "the tyrannical group".
In barely disguised allusion to Iran, he went on to say: "whoever follows events as they are developing in the Arab and Islamic world, from Iraq to Syria and from Lebanon to Yemen, will clearly realise that what is happening in Yemen is not merely an isolated incident but is in fact part of a well laid plan to cause political and demographic chaos, to undermine Arab and Islamic society. Its intent, through political turmoil, is to tear the region apart in order to control it."
He added: "How long has the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood warned of this plan, denouncing those who are perpetrating it and agitating in its cause. As the Huthi rabble army now advances into Saudi Arabian territory, the malicious conniving of those who are perpetrating this plot has become apparent. It is not a plot that has been hatched in the cause of an existential struggle, nor to defend human rights. Rather it is a plot to create a new political entity that will serve a strategic role in increasing division in the Arab and Muslim world."
The statement is in complete variance with the position expressed by the general in chief of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Akif, who called on King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia to cease military action in Yemen immediately, to prevent the shedding of Muslim blood and further civilian deaths.
The former spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in the west, Dr Kamal al Halbawi, also spoke to Al Quds Al Arabi about the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Huthi rebels in Yemen. He said: "I agree with what the general in chief of the Muslim Brotherhood has called for." He added: "it saddens me that some Saudi religious scholars have issued irregular edicts condemning the Huthi perspective as evil....they [the Huthis] are Muslims first and foremost and are just one sect of Shia just like any other Sunni sect."
The Saudi government has now enlisted the aid of its Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, who last Monday declared: "Iranian cooperation with Huthi rebels is a collusion for sin and aggression."
But whilst Al Halbawi strikes a more conciliatory tone regarding Huthi grievances, he is less flattering of Saudi meddling in the region. Referring to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an association of 56 Muslim countries promoting solidarity in political, economic and social affairs, al Halbawi added: "the OIC should convene a council of Islamic scholars to establish a position on the issue and encourage reconciliation in order to spare Muslim blood, rather than taking the side of Saudi Arabia. It should be able to operate with independence and not merely be a tool in the hands of the Saudis."
The sharp division in the Brotherhood raises questions over which stance will be adopted by its Yemeni political branch. It has, up until now, maintained a position of neutrality in relation to the conflict. It regards it as a domestic crisis which cannot be solved except through negotiations. It views the crisis as the product of dysfunctional government policy in the region that has failed to address justified grievances. It has called on the government to cease its military operations. Foreign interference moreover undermines Yemeni national interests.
Observers believe, however, that general members of the movement in the broader Arab world are sympathetic to Iran and Syria's strategy in the region, citing their support for the Palestinian resistance. Ali Belhaj, the second in command of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, has called on the Yemeni and Saudi governments to cease military action in north Yemen against the Huthis. Indeed he condemns the Saudi regime as "fighting a proxy war against Iran in the interests of the US."
The Huthi conflict has polarised political Islamist opinion. Jihadist opinion, however, is another issue altogether. Al Qaeda has always regarded Yemen as its spiritual wetnurse. Indeed Bin Laden's recent forebears called it home. But although Wahhabi al Qaeda and its jihadist affiliates have historically been hostile to the Shia of north Yemen, they harbour an even greater hatred of the Saudi regime, the region's most stalwart American ally.
But in reality, it may not after all be a choice for them of the lesser of two evils. With conflict raging in the north and a separate secessionist movement in the south, it will require the collective will of the international community to prevent Yemen from sliding into failure. And there's nothing that Al Qaeda loves more than a failed state. And with a failed state in the Arabian peninsular, they will be one step closer to realising its glorious dystopia.
Division between the Syrian and Egyptian branches of the movement became apparent when the former today issued a statement to London based Al Quds Al Arabi describing the insurgency as a "vehicle of malicious intent". The statement, made by Syrian branch chief Sadr al Deen al Bayanuni, exhorted both Yemen and Saudi Arabia to confront "the tyrannical group".
In barely disguised allusion to Iran, he went on to say: "whoever follows events as they are developing in the Arab and Islamic world, from Iraq to Syria and from Lebanon to Yemen, will clearly realise that what is happening in Yemen is not merely an isolated incident but is in fact part of a well laid plan to cause political and demographic chaos, to undermine Arab and Islamic society. Its intent, through political turmoil, is to tear the region apart in order to control it."
He added: "How long has the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood warned of this plan, denouncing those who are perpetrating it and agitating in its cause. As the Huthi rabble army now advances into Saudi Arabian territory, the malicious conniving of those who are perpetrating this plot has become apparent. It is not a plot that has been hatched in the cause of an existential struggle, nor to defend human rights. Rather it is a plot to create a new political entity that will serve a strategic role in increasing division in the Arab and Muslim world."
The statement is in complete variance with the position expressed by the general in chief of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Akif, who called on King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia to cease military action in Yemen immediately, to prevent the shedding of Muslim blood and further civilian deaths.
The former spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in the west, Dr Kamal al Halbawi, also spoke to Al Quds Al Arabi about the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Huthi rebels in Yemen. He said: "I agree with what the general in chief of the Muslim Brotherhood has called for." He added: "it saddens me that some Saudi religious scholars have issued irregular edicts condemning the Huthi perspective as evil....they [the Huthis] are Muslims first and foremost and are just one sect of Shia just like any other Sunni sect."
The Saudi government has now enlisted the aid of its Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, who last Monday declared: "Iranian cooperation with Huthi rebels is a collusion for sin and aggression."
But whilst Al Halbawi strikes a more conciliatory tone regarding Huthi grievances, he is less flattering of Saudi meddling in the region. Referring to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an association of 56 Muslim countries promoting solidarity in political, economic and social affairs, al Halbawi added: "the OIC should convene a council of Islamic scholars to establish a position on the issue and encourage reconciliation in order to spare Muslim blood, rather than taking the side of Saudi Arabia. It should be able to operate with independence and not merely be a tool in the hands of the Saudis."
The sharp division in the Brotherhood raises questions over which stance will be adopted by its Yemeni political branch. It has, up until now, maintained a position of neutrality in relation to the conflict. It regards it as a domestic crisis which cannot be solved except through negotiations. It views the crisis as the product of dysfunctional government policy in the region that has failed to address justified grievances. It has called on the government to cease its military operations. Foreign interference moreover undermines Yemeni national interests.
Observers believe, however, that general members of the movement in the broader Arab world are sympathetic to Iran and Syria's strategy in the region, citing their support for the Palestinian resistance. Ali Belhaj, the second in command of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, has called on the Yemeni and Saudi governments to cease military action in north Yemen against the Huthis. Indeed he condemns the Saudi regime as "fighting a proxy war against Iran in the interests of the US."
The Huthi conflict has polarised political Islamist opinion. Jihadist opinion, however, is another issue altogether. Al Qaeda has always regarded Yemen as its spiritual wetnurse. Indeed Bin Laden's recent forebears called it home. But although Wahhabi al Qaeda and its jihadist affiliates have historically been hostile to the Shia of north Yemen, they harbour an even greater hatred of the Saudi regime, the region's most stalwart American ally.
But in reality, it may not after all be a choice for them of the lesser of two evils. With conflict raging in the north and a separate secessionist movement in the south, it will require the collective will of the international community to prevent Yemen from sliding into failure. And there's nothing that Al Qaeda loves more than a failed state. And with a failed state in the Arabian peninsular, they will be one step closer to realising its glorious dystopia.
A prominent Iranian cleric accused the Saudi government yesterday of the ongoing genocide of the Yemeni Shi'ites.
In a statement reported in the Iranian news agency Mahr, Ayatollah Nasir Makarim Shirazi claimed that the current Saudi military operations against the Yemeni Shi'ite rebels south of the border were being conducted with the collusion of the US, whose regional interests are being served by the suppression of Shi'ite political activism.
The five year long Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion against the central government has undergone a dramatic escalation since last June when Saudi Arabia began launching air strikes against Huthi positions. The rebel movement has claimed that the operations have resulted in wide scale population displacement and hundreds of civilian deaths.
Earlier this month the rebels claimed they shot down a Yemeni government fighter jet, the third since last August. On each occasion, the Yemeni military has explained the losses as technical failures.
The military hardware required to shoot down fighter jets would seem to support Saudi claims that the rebels are being armed in the cause of a proxy war being waged by Iran, a claim strenuously denied by Shi'i Iran.
Source Al Quds al Arabi, Press TV
Fears of growing Iranian influence in Sudan emerged after the first ever Shi’ite festival was celebrated in the South last Friday, according to today’s al-Sharq al-Awsat.
The occasion was the birthday of the Twelth Imam, one of the most important figures in mainstream Shi’ite faith. Hundreds of Shi’ites from across Sudan attended.
Shi’ism has hitherto enjoyed no historical presence in Sudan. Until recently, Sudan has been an entirely Sunni bastion. Anecdotes of Shi’ite conversion in Sudan have circulated in recent times but only the Arabic press has accorded it any significance.
The festival was held in the district of Jabal Awliya (literally the “Mountain of the Saints”) which lies 40 km south of the capital Khartoum. Celebrators came from Nile State, Kordafan, and White Nile State. They included secondary school pupils, university lecturers, political activists, and journalists.
Interestingly, their number also included students from the religious seminaries in Qom, the centre of Shi’ite learning in Iran. A number of Sudanese intellectuals known for their sympathetic attitude to Shi’ism refused to comment to al-Sharq al-Awsat on last Friday’s celebrations.
Analysts in Khartoum concur that in the Arabic speaking world, Sudan has witnessed the largest increase in Shi’ite conversion. However, a Sudanese expert in the ministry for religious movements in the country said to the paper: “their number does not exceed the hundreds.” He dismissed reports of rapid Shi’ite expansion in Sudan as exaggeration. He said: “Yes, Shi’ite proselytizing does occur in different areas in Sudan, but it’s proceeding very slowly.”
Muhammad al-Khalifa, an expert in the same institution said: “their number in the country as a whole is 700.” He explained that the first emergence of Shi’ism in Sudan began in the mid eighties. Although tentative, it was organized. It gained pace when President Umar al-Bashir and the Islamists came to power. The Islamic Movement in Sudan (al-Haraka al-Islamiyya) embraced a number of intellectual and sectarian schools “amongst whom were the Muslim Brotherhood, a Salafist group, and other leaders who were viewed as Shi’ite in practice, or at the very least, sympathetic to Shi’ism.”
He said that organized Shi’ite activity was begun by the cultural attaché of the Iranian revolution, affiliated to the Iranian embassy in Khartoum. It gave rise to a number of writers in the Islamic Movement who had strong sympathies with Shi’ism.
Al-Khalifa believes that Shi’ite groups still operate in secrecy in Sudan. He claims that in recent years a number of politicians and journalists have revealed their affiliation to Shi’ism. The most prominent of these figures is the religious leader Sheikh al-Nayl Abu Qurun, a member of one of the largest Sufi orders in the country whose stronghold is in Umm Dawa Ban, a region east of Khartoum. The Sheikh sparked controversy recently in Sudan by donning the black turban, a practice normally associated with Shi’ite practice. Members of his order, however, have denied his affiliation to the Shi’ite faith.
Sudanese experts in the phenomenon of Shi’ism in the Sudan say that the faith is spread through cultural events, free Farsi lessons, and the free distribution of books, especially in Sudan’s peripheral regions.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat’s sources say that Shi’ites are mainly concentrated in Khartoum. They also have a significant presence in the South East in North Kordofan, and Nile State, north of Khartoum. The Sudanese government has not yet objected to their activities, conscious as it is of maintaining its good relations with Iran.
They are not, however, a unified group. Aside from unaffiliated converts, the Shi’ite population is broadly divided into three main movements. The smallest movement affiliates itself to the ideas of Ayatollah Khomeini. The second largest attaches itself to Imam Taqi al-Mudarris, an Iraqi cleric from Karbala. The largest movement, however, allies itself to Grand Ayatollah Hassan Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the Lebanese group Hizbullah.
The Shi’ite phenomenon in Sudan perhaps provides the context for the Israeli air strike in January in North Sudan. The strike is believed to have targeted an Iranian arms convoy heading from Port Sudan to the Gaza strip.
In neighbouring Egypt, earlier this year, the government apprehended what it claimed was a Hizbullah cell that was planning to attack Israeli targets in Sinai. Three members of the alleged 49 strong Hizbullah cell were Sudanese. It is not known whether or not they are Shi’ite converts.
In late June, the Egyptian authorities arrested 306 Shi’ites in Cairo. The arrests were made in connection with the Hizbullah cell investigation. One of their number was an Egyptian cleric who notoriously converted to Shi’ism ten years ago. Egypt, like Sudan, is a Sunni stronghold.
Earlier this year, Morocco severed diplomatic relations with Iran over fears of Shi’ite expansion.
Although other Sunni Arab states have expressed anxiety that Iran is extending its hegemony through Shi’ite proselytizing, Sudan is yet to join the anti-Shi’ite Arab alliance.
Yesterday, the press office of the Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd al-Mahdi confirmed that his personal bodyguard was involved in the robbery of the Ziwiyah Bank in Karrada, Baghdad last month.
The armed robbers, whose number included two security officers, stormed the bank, killing 8 and making off with $7 million.
Yesterday the interior ministry confirmed that five people arrested in relation to the robbery were members of Abd al-Mahdi’s bodyguard. Two suspects have already fled the country. Their whereabouts are unknown.
Abd al-Mahdi, however, asserts that only one member of his guard was involved.
The Vice President is a prominent member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), an Iranian backed Shi’ite political party.
ISCI affiliated media outlet Buratha News reports that one of the suspects arrested confessed that he hid the stolen money in the offices of al-Adala, an ISCI affiliated newspaper, where he worked as a security guard. He did so in the belief that the offices would never be raided.
Buratha’s sources deny that the criminals had any political affiliation.
Iraqi TV station al-Sharqiyya says its sources claim that the robbery was committed after Iran began to withhold funds for its client Iraqi political parties and militias due to the current crisis in Iran.
The incident reveals the extent to which the state security apparatus has been infiltrated by criminal gangs. Opposition parties have consistently criticized the corruption and lack of transparency involved in the way in which security appointments are made.
Iraqi social commentator, Muntadhir Ibrahim, said that the robbery came as no surprise and that more robberies are expected in the run up to the forthcoming elections. The vast majority of bank robberies after the beginning of the US occupation of Iraq were committed immediately before and after the elections of 2006.
(Sources: Buratha News, al-Sharqiyya, Azzaman, al-Quds al-Arabi)
Clashes between Algerians and Chinese migrant workers in Algiers yesterday may heighten fears that Al Qa’ida in the Maghrib is poised to open a new front against China.
Violence erupted after a confrontation between an Algerian shop owner and a Chinese migrant worker in the Eastern district of Bab Al-Zawwar in Algiers. Eye witnesses say that an Algerian shop owner remonstrated with a Chinese worker who had parked his car in front of his shop, blocking trade and access. When the Chinese worker responded with abuse, the Algerian punched him. The Chinese worker returned half an hour later with fifty fellow countrymen armed with knives and canes. Violence ensued when Algerians rushed to the shop owner’s aid.
The violence comes at a time of increasing tension between Algerians and migrant Chinese workers, of whom 50,000 are estimated to be living and working in Algeria, largely in construction. At the same time 70% of Algerian men under 30 are unemployed.
Last month, the Chinese embassy in Algeria urged its citizens to exercise caution in the face of threats against Chinese interests, issued by Al Qa’ida in the Maghrib. The threats were made in response to the recent conflict between the Chinese government and its ethnic Uighur Muslim population. The embassy demanded that the Algerian government provide tightened security measures for Chinese commercial interests. They include several large construction projects as well as the building of a 1,200 km east-west road.
Chinese anxieties concerning Algerian terrorism emerge at a time when former Algerian Islamist extremists have urged the government to broaden its counter terrorism measures by providing financial aid to the families of those who have renounced violence. The government is presently considering issuing a new amnesty in order to weaken Al Qa’ida’s following. “Repentant terrorists” however have warned that poverty is forcing some to return to violence after they co-operated with the last amnesty.
Extremist groups, who base themselves in Algeria’s mountainous regions, subsist on donations, robbery and financially motivated kidnapping, in order to provide for the families of its footsoldiers.
Hasan Hamida, 31, told Reuters: “I know men who were with me who have returned to the mountains because they cannot find work.” Hamida surrendered himself to the authorities during the last amnesty. The state failed to provide him with work and he was forced to sell cigarettes on the street to provide for his wife and four year old daughter. He said: “I have nothing but remorse for what I did in the past. I just want to focus on the present. But life for us is really hard and I need help.”
International organizations estimate that 200,000 Algerians died in the conflict in the 90s between the government and Islamist extremists. Al Qa’ida in the Mahgrib, who are interested less in local issues and more in the internationalization of Islamist ideological causes, still pose the greatest threat to stability in the country. In June, the government said that Al Qa’ida killed 18 policemen. In the same month the organization killed a British hostage who was being held in neighbouring Mali.
Sheikh Ahmad, who surrendered in the last amnesty in 2000 said: “Current living conditions offer no encouragement to those living in the mountains to come down and give up the struggle.”
During the last amnesty the government offered some financial assistance to former extremists. It is wary, however, of appearing to be rewarding violence.
Shiekh Ahmad, who lives in Buoira, 100 km east of the capital, was for 7 years the leader of an extremist group called the “Green Brigade of Death”. He said he struggles each day to provide the 10 Algerian dinars (0.14 US dollars) that it costs to take his four sons to school. He said: “Ever since I gave myself up, I haven’t received a single dinar from the authorities.” He said that he and fellow extremists feel despondent in the face of Algerian bureaucracy. Since they and their families spent such a long time in the mountains, far from the reach of state administration, they officially do not exist. He said: “It’s impossible to get the simplest of documents such as a passport or birth certificate for a son who was born in the mountains…we feel marginalized. It’s not right.”
He added: “We’re not interested in politics. All we want is a decent life.”
With the growing ill will that the masses of Algeria’s unemployed feel towards the 50,000 Chinese migrant workers living amongst them, it appears that Al Qa’ida may find fresh wind in its sails as its attempts to find a new pretext by which to destabilize long suffering Algeria. A new front against China may prove to be the ideal means by which to reinvent itself.
Human Rights First has condemned the recent arrest, by Saudi Secuirty forces, of a son of a Saudi Shi'ite cleric.
The organisation says that the arrest of Nimr Baqir al-Nimr's son is merely a tool with which to persecute the Shi'ite cleric who is currently in hiding. And well he might.
In March he delivered a speech which threatened the Saudi state with the unleashing of a Shi'ite separatist movement if it does not address the problems of anti-Shi'ite discrimination. He said: "Our dignity is more valuable than the unity of this land … If we don’t get our dignity, then we will have to consider seceding from this country.”
The speech comes at a time of increasing tension between the Saudi state and its Shi'ite minority, which comprises 15% of the population. In February, violent clashes occurred between Shi'ite pilgrims and the religious police in Medina, the second holiest sanctuary in Islam. Male pilgrims confronted the religious police whom they believed were secretly filming their wives and daughters. When they demanded the alleged footage, they were arrested. Violent clashes ensued. Three pilgrims died and scores were arrested. Protests erupted in Qatif and Al-Awamiyya, which lie in the Eastern Province where Shi'ites comprise 75% of the population. The Eastern Province also happens to be Saudi Arabia's main oil producing area. Al-Awamiyya lies five miles away from Ras Tanura, the base of Aramco.
Like most Shi'ite communities in the Middle East, the story of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ites has been the struggle to find political agency in a nation state dominated by a Sunni, in this case Wahhabi, elite. But unlike their co-religionists in Iraq or Lebanon, Saudi's Shi'ites were almost entirely excluded from the process of state formation.
Whilst the Ottomans allowed them freedom of worship, when Ibn Saud wrested the Eastern Province from Ottoman control, they found themselves confronted by a theology that regarded them as crypto-polytheists on account of the veneration of their twelve Imams, descended from the Prophet through the line of his grandson Al-Hussein. In Wahhabi rhetoric, Shi'ism was the product of Jewish subterfuge as personified by Abdullah bin Saba, an arguably fictitious seventh century Yemeni Jew. According to Wahhabi heresiology, Ibn Saba attempted to spread dissension in the emerging Islamic empire through the deification of Ali, the father of the Prophet's grandsons al-Hasan and al-Hussein. In the consciousness of puritanical Sunni Islam, the Shi'ite is equivalent to the crypto-Bolshevik Jew who spreads political dissension, undermines sound governance and corrodes the moral fabric of society.
When faced by the new Saudi power, the more militant Shi'ites emigrated to Bahrain and Iraq, leaving behind the more quietistic, who endured harsh taxation and the restriction of their religious practices. In 1927 in Al-Hasa, Shi'ite leaders were forced to recant their faith and "embrace Islam". Shi'ite houses of ritual mourning were destroyed and Wahhabi imams installed in Shi'ite mosques. Draconian taxation eventually drove Shi'ite landowners from the country, the property being quickly snapped up for bargain basement prices by opportunists. The collapse of the natural pearl industry further marginalised them economically and they were prevented from engaging in civil society and attaining government posts. With the discovery of Saudi's vast oil reserves in 1936 in the Shi'ite dominated east, they have since worked as labourers in Saudi oil rigs, seeing little benefit from the wealth they yielded. But since the Iranian Islamic revolution they have become increasingly assertive, although no evidence of Iranian backing can be established.
The idea of an Iran led Shi'ite crescent of power stretching across the Middle East is an unhelpfully simplistic analysis of the region. It derives its appeal from a comforting Huntingtonian symmetry. However, it is in the interests of both Saudi Arabia and its patrons to see that the fiction does not become a reality through the perpetuation of anti-Shi'ite discrmination.
No sex please, we're Gazan!
Posted by michaelnoble
michaelnoble
The sexual morality of Gazan society has become a cause of increasing concern for Hamas in recent weeks.
The Union of Palestinian Lawyers in Gaza has criticised a new edict that imposes strict Islamic dress code on female lawyers appearing in court. The edict, which the Union condemns as an "infringement of liberty" was issued by the Hamas Board of Justice in Gaza.
Union chairman, Ali Mihna, released a statement yesterday in which he said the edict "was issued by a body that has no legal or constitutional legitimacy. It has no powers to issue such an edict. The UPL is the only body that has jurisdiction in the affairs of lawyers."
He added: "The edict is a dangerous infringement of civil liberties and contradicts the fundamental principles that govern the legal profession." The Union's general assembly urged non-compliance with the edicts issued by the Board.
The Board was formed by democratically elected Hamas. When it was deposed by Fatah, Hamas established the Board as an alternative to the judicial authority administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The edict requires female lawyers to cover their heads and to wear the jilbab, a loose fitting outer garment that entirely conceals the shape of the female body. The edict comes at a time when the deposed Hamas government, which nevertheless controls Gaza, has decided to implement a law, passed last month, entitled "The General Moral Conduct Act". The law is to be implemented gradually, firstly through a media campaign aimed at inculcating "virtuous culture" with the Qur'anic slogan: "...and call to the path of your Lord with wisdom and spiritual counsel".
Shiekh Yusuf Farhat, the director of "spiritual counsel and guidance" at the ministry for religious endowments, said to Al Quds Al Arabi that the new law comprises provisions that protect the moral character of society by preventing immodesty and the mixing of sexes and prohibiting sexually provocative billboards and the use of mannequins in shop window displays.
Needless to say for Hamas, it is Israeli subterfuge that is the cause of the supposed moral degradation of Gazan society. On 15th July Al Quds Al Arabi reported that Hamas police claimed to have intercepted consignments of powerful aphrodisiacs more potent than viagra. The aphrodisiacs, seized in Khan Yunis, and which take the forms of pill,potion or chewing gum, are said to inflame the libido of both sexes alike. Hamas police were alerted to the existence of the contraband when an officer observed his daughter suddenly behaving in a strange manner. No details are provided as to the nature of her lascivious conduct.
Hamas Police spokesperson, Islam Shahwan, said to Al Quds Al Arabi that the contraband is produced in Europe and transported into Gaza via Israeli controlled checkpoints. It is smuggled by Israeli drug dealers who sell it at a negligible price. He asserted that Israel is smuggling in the contraband in order to destroy the fabric of Gazan society.
It appears therefore, that after two years of the draconian Israeli blockade, the Talibanisation of Gaza is just about to gain momentum.
Source: Al Quds Al Arabi
The Union of Palestinian Lawyers in Gaza has criticised a new edict that imposes strict Islamic dress code on female lawyers appearing in court. The edict, which the Union condemns as an "infringement of liberty" was issued by the Hamas Board of Justice in Gaza.
Union chairman, Ali Mihna, released a statement yesterday in which he said the edict "was issued by a body that has no legal or constitutional legitimacy. It has no powers to issue such an edict. The UPL is the only body that has jurisdiction in the affairs of lawyers."
He added: "The edict is a dangerous infringement of civil liberties and contradicts the fundamental principles that govern the legal profession." The Union's general assembly urged non-compliance with the edicts issued by the Board.
The Board was formed by democratically elected Hamas. When it was deposed by Fatah, Hamas established the Board as an alternative to the judicial authority administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The edict requires female lawyers to cover their heads and to wear the jilbab, a loose fitting outer garment that entirely conceals the shape of the female body. The edict comes at a time when the deposed Hamas government, which nevertheless controls Gaza, has decided to implement a law, passed last month, entitled "The General Moral Conduct Act". The law is to be implemented gradually, firstly through a media campaign aimed at inculcating "virtuous culture" with the Qur'anic slogan: "...and call to the path of your Lord with wisdom and spiritual counsel".
Shiekh Yusuf Farhat, the director of "spiritual counsel and guidance" at the ministry for religious endowments, said to Al Quds Al Arabi that the new law comprises provisions that protect the moral character of society by preventing immodesty and the mixing of sexes and prohibiting sexually provocative billboards and the use of mannequins in shop window displays.
Needless to say for Hamas, it is Israeli subterfuge that is the cause of the supposed moral degradation of Gazan society. On 15th July Al Quds Al Arabi reported that Hamas police claimed to have intercepted consignments of powerful aphrodisiacs more potent than viagra. The aphrodisiacs, seized in Khan Yunis, and which take the forms of pill,potion or chewing gum, are said to inflame the libido of both sexes alike. Hamas police were alerted to the existence of the contraband when an officer observed his daughter suddenly behaving in a strange manner. No details are provided as to the nature of her lascivious conduct.
Hamas Police spokesperson, Islam Shahwan, said to Al Quds Al Arabi that the contraband is produced in Europe and transported into Gaza via Israeli controlled checkpoints. It is smuggled by Israeli drug dealers who sell it at a negligible price. He asserted that Israel is smuggling in the contraband in order to destroy the fabric of Gazan society.
It appears therefore, that after two years of the draconian Israeli blockade, the Talibanisation of Gaza is just about to gain momentum.
Source: Al Quds Al Arabi
An Israeli settler organization is to buy dozens of properties in Jordan through European Jewish intermediaries.
Arieh King, chairman of the Israeli Land Fund, said that his organization is preparing to buy land which used to be the property of Jews during the era of the Ottomans and the time of the British Mandate, which ended in 1946 with the independence of the state of Jordan. He said: "We have the deeds".
The organization inflamed Palestinian feeling with their purchase of land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem which Israel occupied in 1967.
He said: "We are trying to convince European Jews to buy property in Jordan". Jordanian law prohibits Israelis from buying property. The project is still in its infancy. However, it is feared that this project will cause tension between Israel and Jordan which signed a peace agreement in 1994.
The organization regards Jordan as part of "Eretz Yisrael", or "Greater Israel".
Nabil Sharif, the Jordanian Minister for Media and Communications, said that Jordanian law reserves for the Minister of Finance, the right to veto such a purchase. He said that if the property in question exceeds the size of 10 dunams (about 1000 square metres) then the matter needs to be referred to the cabinet. He also said that whilst Ottoman deeds have historic value, they have little legal weight. The 1933 property law annulled these documents and they can no longer be relied on.
Hamza Mansur, the chairman of the Consultative Council of the Islamic Action Party, said that some Jordanians have already been subjected to enormous pressure to sell their land by "Zionist" intermediaries. He said the area affected by such pressure is the governorate of Ajlun, which lies 47 metres north-west of the capital Amman.
He added that some people in Ajlun have been offered blank cheques in exchange for their land.
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
The widow of Yasser Arafat yesterday denied claims by Fatah's chaiman that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conspired with Ariel Sharon to murder her husband.
Faruq Al-Qaddumi's claim is that he has minutes of a meeting between PA, Israeli and US representatives that indicate a plot to kill the former PLO leader. The alleged plot includes President Abbas and Muhammad Dahlan, former head of the PA's secret police in Gaza. Al-Qaddumi further claims that he has a tape that records Arafat himself indicating his knowledge of the plot outlined in the minutes.
Arafat's widow Suha affirmed her support for Abbas yesterday as Fatah's executive committee also declared its confidence in Abbas's leadership. Four military wings of the Fatah movement, however, declared their loyalty to Al Qaddumi. They include the powerful Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. In a joint statement they said: "We affirm our allegiance to the leader Al-Qaddumi. We honour his firm stand in the armed struggle and the fight against corruption. He is the cornerstone of Palestinian security."
Hamas have refused to comment on the controversy, saying that it is an internal Fatah issue.
One of the most prominent PLO leaders, Al-Qaddumi has headed the political office of the PLO and Fatah since 1973. He was sidelined in Palestinian politics after the Oslo Accords in 1993 which he rejected as a betrayal of the PLO's principles. He boycotted the Palestinian National Authority as illegitimate.
He succeeded Arafat as Fatah's political chairman after the latter's death. Although he had responsibility for representation abroad, Abbas purged PLO embassies of Al-Qaddumi supporters. Abbas has attempted to isolate him further by holding the upcoming Fatah conference in occupied Palestinian territory, making impossible the attendance of many of Fatah's exiled old guard, including Al-Qaddumi.
Rumours about the PA's involvement in the death of Arafat have circulated ever since it refused an international investigation into the event.
Abbas's supporters have expressed anxiety over Al-Qaddumi's ability to attract hardline militant elements within the Fatah movement. The recent statement signed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has demonstrated that such private fears are not unfounded.
(Source Al Quds Al Arabi)
Two candidates running for the Kurdish North Iraqi presidential elections have accused the current president of the region, Masud Barzani, of theft and corruption on a massive scale. Their accusations also implicate the party of Jalal Talabani, the current president of Iraq.
One of the two candidates, Dr Kamal Mirawadli, stated: “a member of one of the two ruling parties has informed me that we have no idea where $30,000,000 from the goverment budget which the governing parties – namely the National Unity Party and the Democratic Party - have been administering, has gone.”
Mirawadli added “our airports have been used for no purpose other than the smuggling of money.”
He continued: “if Masud Barzani wins the elections, this will not be a victory (for Kurdistan).”
In an open letter to the leader of the Kurdish Parliament, another presidential candidate Dr Hilo Ibrahim Ahmad, leader of the Kurdish Development Party, and brother in law of Talabani, accused the Kurdish government of stealing oil and smuggling it to Iran at a vastly reduced price.
He demanded an urgent inquiry into the theft of crude oil from fields close to Irbil. He also promised to disclose documents that reveal the identities of the people involved.
In his letter he said: “For months now, some elements have been secretly despoiling the resources of Kurdistan without anyone from the government or Parliament holding them to account or scrutiny.”
He called on the Kurdish Parliament leader to summon the minister for natural resources for questioning in front of an all party committee.
The presidential elections will be held on 25th July.
(Source: Al Quds Al Arabi)
The Egyptian foreign minister yesterday guaranteed the right of passage of Israeli warships using the Suez canal.
In a press conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Ahmad Abu-l Gait asserted that the Israeli right of passage was provided for by the 1888 Convention of Constantinople. He said that Israeli warships enjoy right of passage so long as they bear no hostile intent towards Egypt.
An Egyptian security official confirmed to Al Quds Al Arabi that two Israeli warships, the Hanit and the Eilat, passed along the Suez Canal yesterday from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. The source, which requested anonymity, added that the Egyptian government implemented tight security measures along the banks of the canal. He also confirmed that numerous civilian and military Israeli ships have been using the canal ever since the signing of the peace treaty between the two countries in 1979.
Last month, reports emerged of an Israeli submarine using the canal to cross into the Red Sea where Israel has increased its military presence.
Hardline Saudi Cleric Dies
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A leading member of the Saudi Council of Senior Clerics died yesterday, aged 78, after a long struggle with terminal illness.
Sheikh Ibn Jibrin was known for his hardline edicts against other religions and Islamic confessions outside of the Saudi Wahhabi state religion. His most notorious edict prohibited prayers for a Hizbullah victory in the Israeli-Lebanese war in July 2006.
He recently sparked controversy in Germany, where he sought treatment for his illness and faced prosecution for incitement to terrorism.
The charge was brought by an Iraqi immigrant who accused Ibn Jibrin of inciting the murder of Christians and Shi'ites in Iraq and the destruction of churches and Islamic mausoleums.
The Saudi authorities intervened and returned him to Saudi Arabia before the completion of his treatment.
He will be buried today after his funeral prayer in Riyadh in the Turki bin Faisal Mosque.
(Source Al Quds Al Arabi).
Sheikh Ibn Jibrin was known for his hardline edicts against other religions and Islamic confessions outside of the Saudi Wahhabi state religion. His most notorious edict prohibited prayers for a Hizbullah victory in the Israeli-Lebanese war in July 2006.
He recently sparked controversy in Germany, where he sought treatment for his illness and faced prosecution for incitement to terrorism.
The charge was brought by an Iraqi immigrant who accused Ibn Jibrin of inciting the murder of Christians and Shi'ites in Iraq and the destruction of churches and Islamic mausoleums.
The Saudi authorities intervened and returned him to Saudi Arabia before the completion of his treatment.
He will be buried today after his funeral prayer in Riyadh in the Turki bin Faisal Mosque.
(Source Al Quds Al Arabi).
Palestinian refugess are to move to Kurdish North Iraq according to the Palestinian ambassador to Baghdad.
Dalil Al Qasusi, who visited Irbil with a Palestinian delegation last week, did not confirm a date by which the 13,000 refugees will be settled.
Despite entreaties, other Arab states had previously refused to admit them.
Source (Al Quds Al Arabi)
Dalil Al Qasusi, who visited Irbil with a Palestinian delegation last week, did not confirm a date by which the 13,000 refugees will be settled.
Despite entreaties, other Arab states had previously refused to admit them.
Source (Al Quds Al Arabi)
Six Al Qaida operatives were sentenced to death yesterday by the Yemeni Court for State Security in the capital San'a.
Known as the Tarim cell, an area in the province of Hadramawt, the group comprised 11 yemenis, 4 Syrians and a Saudi of Yemeni origin. They were convicted for a campaign of terror in Yemen in 2008 that hit foreign embassies, oil refineries and tourist and military targets. Amongst those killed were two Belgian tourists. The cell called itself "the Yemeni Army Brigades".
Those who received the death penalty were Rawi Salim bin Sa'dun Al Sa'iri (22), Haytham Sa'id Mubarak (21), Khalid Muslim Batis (32), Sai'd Naif Sai'd Sankar (24), Sultan Ali Suleyman Al Sa'iri (25) and Ali Muhsin Salih Sa'id Al Akbari (24).
When raided, the cell was found to be in possession of 43 bags of gunpowder, 2 suicide bomb belts, a metal workshop, RPG launchers, home made rockets, women's clothing and numerous false identity documents.
When he issued his decision, the condemned men threatened retaliation against the judge Muhsin Alwan, saying: "The Yemeni Army Brigades sentence the judge and apostate collaborator to death." Mr Alwan nodded in mocking acceptance of their sentence. He sentenced tens of others to terms of imprisonment ranging from 8 to 15 years.
The condemned men rejoiced in court at their sentences. From the metal cage in which they were held during the hearing, they cried: "By the Lord of the Ka'ba, I have prevailed". The Ka'ba is the ancient cuboid structure in Mecca that represents the Muslim prayer direction. They fell on their knees and foreheads in prostration, a public act of religious gratitude for their imminent martyrdom. None declared any intention to appeal their sentence.
During the hearing and afterwards, San'a ground to a halt under tight security measures in anticipation of Al Qaida reprisals in retaliation for the harshest sentences yet passed by the State Security Court since its establishment several years ago.
(Source: Al Quds Al Arabi)
Known as the Tarim cell, an area in the province of Hadramawt, the group comprised 11 yemenis, 4 Syrians and a Saudi of Yemeni origin. They were convicted for a campaign of terror in Yemen in 2008 that hit foreign embassies, oil refineries and tourist and military targets. Amongst those killed were two Belgian tourists. The cell called itself "the Yemeni Army Brigades".
Those who received the death penalty were Rawi Salim bin Sa'dun Al Sa'iri (22), Haytham Sa'id Mubarak (21), Khalid Muslim Batis (32), Sai'd Naif Sai'd Sankar (24), Sultan Ali Suleyman Al Sa'iri (25) and Ali Muhsin Salih Sa'id Al Akbari (24).
When raided, the cell was found to be in possession of 43 bags of gunpowder, 2 suicide bomb belts, a metal workshop, RPG launchers, home made rockets, women's clothing and numerous false identity documents.
When he issued his decision, the condemned men threatened retaliation against the judge Muhsin Alwan, saying: "The Yemeni Army Brigades sentence the judge and apostate collaborator to death." Mr Alwan nodded in mocking acceptance of their sentence. He sentenced tens of others to terms of imprisonment ranging from 8 to 15 years.
The condemned men rejoiced in court at their sentences. From the metal cage in which they were held during the hearing, they cried: "By the Lord of the Ka'ba, I have prevailed". The Ka'ba is the ancient cuboid structure in Mecca that represents the Muslim prayer direction. They fell on their knees and foreheads in prostration, a public act of religious gratitude for their imminent martyrdom. None declared any intention to appeal their sentence.
During the hearing and afterwards, San'a ground to a halt under tight security measures in anticipation of Al Qaida reprisals in retaliation for the harshest sentences yet passed by the State Security Court since its establishment several years ago.
(Source: Al Quds Al Arabi)
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are now pursuing artificial insemination as the only way of continuing a semblance of family life, reported yesterday’s Al Quds Al Arabi.
Three days ago in
The film explores the phenomenon of long term prisoners attempting to smuggle their semen out of prison in the hope of becoming fathers.
Artificial insemination for the wives of prisoners is an idea supported by Abd Al-Nasir Firwana, the director of research at the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoners. He himself spent many years in an Israeli prison. In a press conference on Tuesday, he said: “We must address the plight of the thousands of married prisoners in the jails of the Israeli occupation and the silent suffering of their wives”. Nearly a third of Palestinian prisoners are married men.
He spoke of previous attempts to smuggle semen out of prisons. All failed because the smugglers have to endure hours of waiting at numerous Israeli checkpoints in the scorching sun, nervously clutching their illicit cargo. Like all semen, Palestinian ejaculate does not like to be kept waiting, especially when it is hot and bothered.
Mr Firawana calls on the Israeli legal system to uphold the rights of prisoners to become fathers. Precedent however undermines this hope.
Arab Israeli Walid Diqqah, languishing in an Israeli jail since 1986, lodged a case recently in the Israeli High Court. He was appealing the decision of the Prison Authority to refuse him conjugal visits which were permitted to his fellow Jewish Israeli inmates. The court refused his appeal, distinguishing his case on the grounds that he was a security threat, rather than just a common criminal.
But even if the Israeli legal system answers Mr Firwana’s call, acceptance of the practice by Palestinian society is another matter entirely. In communities where family honour is everything, it is likely that wives who conceive this way will have to brave stigmatization and sometimes rejection. Palestinian society will have to undergo a seismic change in attitude before these prisoners can enjoy the pleasure of long distance fatherhood.
Egyptian opposition MPs have demanded the removal of Egypt's leading religious figure after his second meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres according to today's Al Quds Al Arabi.
In the last few days, Egyptian anger has been provoked when the media broadcast images of Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi meeting Shimon Peres in Kazakhstan for an interfaith dialogue. Popular discontent has been stirred at the spectacle of their most senior religious figure rushing towards normalisation of relations with Israel more swiftly than its own politicians. Al Azhar University,founded in the tenth century, is the leading centre of religious learning in Sunni Islam.
In a statement to Al Quds Al Arabi, Muslim Brotherhood lawyer Subhi Salih said that "the government must take a firm stand against the Sheikh of Al Azhar and must remove him from his position."
He added:"The appearance of such an esteemed figure in the same picture as the war criminal Shimon Peres damages the prominence of Al Azhar which occupies a place of immense respect in the hearts of the world's Muslims. There is no other option but to remove the Sheikh from his position."
An Egyptian court yesterday began examining a case brought by a lawyer demanding the severing of diplomatic relations with Iran.
The lawyer, Samir Sabri, accuses Iran of a pattern of behaviour that undermines Egyptian interests and security. The case will also assess his demand that the Egyptian Government owned satellite Nilesat withdraws its licence from Al Manar, the Lebanese channel affiliated to Hizbullah.
Sabri accuses the media outlet of slandering Egypt as an agent of the US and Israel and of disparaging the Egytian President Hosni Mubarak. He claims that Iran, by its course of conduct, is striving to extend its hegemony over the entire Gulf region and to hijack the Palestinian cause in the interests of its nuclear programme.
Violent demonstrations erupted in Yemen yesterday as protestors demanded a separate state for the south according to today's AlQuds Al Arabi.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the end of the civil war in 1994 when northern government forces subdued the socialist forces of the south.
One demonstrator was killed in Aden, the former capital of South Yemen. Government security forces arrested hundreds of others, detained journalists and blocked all roads leading to the city.Eye witnesses said that security forces contained hundreds of protestors, provoking clashes with civilians that led to four casualties.
In Al Habilayn, in the southern province of Lahij, thousands of protestors demanded independence for the south which was united with the north in 1990.
Violence also erupted in the southern province of Dali when security forces used tear gas and opened fire on civilians in an attempt to disperse the protests. In the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, the local authorities organised counter demonstrations calling for Yemeni unity.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the end of the civil war in 1994 when northern government forces subdued the socialist forces of the south.
One demonstrator was killed in Aden, the former capital of South Yemen. Government security forces arrested hundreds of others, detained journalists and blocked all roads leading to the city.Eye witnesses said that security forces contained hundreds of protestors, provoking clashes with civilians that led to four casualties.
In Al Habilayn, in the southern province of Lahij, thousands of protestors demanded independence for the south which was united with the north in 1990.
Violence also erupted in the southern province of Dali when security forces used tear gas and opened fire on civilians in an attempt to disperse the protests. In the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, the local authorities organised counter demonstrations calling for Yemeni unity.
Growing anxiety over impending US-Israel military strikes on Iran has dominated the thoughts of the alternative Arabic media. Abdel Bari Atwan's column in today's Al Quds Al Arabi succinctly expresses the rationale underpinning this anxiety.
He observes that after two months of conspicuous silence on the issue of Iran, we are currently hearing an escalation of US and Israeli hostile rhetoric now that the "velvet uprising" has been contained.For Mr Atwan,it is clear that the Obama administration was counting on the uprising to bring down the current Iranian regime from within, sparing the US the financial, strategic and human cost of military action.It was this hope that explains the pressure that the US exerted on Israel not to pursue unilateral military action against Iran. Now that demonstrations are restricted to a few small gatherings in front of the Council for the Protection of the Constitution in Tehran,the military option has never appeared more attractive. It is clear that the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei understands this. Indeed it is with this in mind that yesterday he issued a baleful warning to the Western Powers "who poke their noses into the affairs of the Islamic Republic". Mr Atwan identifies six indicators that presage an attempt at regime change in Iran, indicators that bear a striking resemblance to those we witnessed during the build up to the invasion of Iraq.
1. In a press conference with Gordon Brown yesterday, Nicholas Sarkozy opined that "the Iranian people deserve better leadership." This same expression was used by George Bush and other Western statesmen leading up to the invasion of Iraq.Sarkozy is perhaps the most enthusiastic European proponent of military action.
2. Last Sunday, Joseph Biden seems to have given Israel a green light to take military action against Iran when he affirmed Israel's right as a sovereign nation to take any action against Iran it deems appropriate.
3. According to the last edition of the Sunday Times, Saudi Arabia has given Israel its tacit approval to use its airspace in the event of an Israeli air strike on Iran. Netanyahu rushed to deny this report even before the Saudis, whom one would expect to do so. It is the swiftness of the Israeli denial that grabs the attention.
4. After a visit to the Gulf States,John Bolton, chief agitator in favour of the Iraq war and military action against Iran, wrote in the New York Times that the leaders of the Gulf states are anxious that the Iranian nuclear threat is eliminated.He added that it is completely logical for Israel to use Saudi airspace in order to achieve this.
5. An Israeli nuclear submarine supported by a number of Israeli warships have been conducting military maneuvres along the Suez canal heading for the port of Eilat, then returning to its base at Haifa. The fact that the Egyptian government has allowed this indicates that it too has given its blessing to such an operation.
6. Israeli F-16 fighter planes have begun practising with US forces mid-air refueling maneuvres in the Mediterranean.
Time will tell if Mr Atwan, a frequently accurate harbinger of sorrow, will be proved correct.
Last night the Jordanian government ordered the closure of an Iranian state Arabic language channel in Amman, according to today's Al Quds Al Arabi.
Jordanian media minister, Dr Nabil Al Sharif, who withdrew Al Alam's press visas, has also banned Press TV, the Iranian state English language channel, from working in Jordan.
To many in the Arab world, Al Alam has become known as the "Safavid Channel" in reference to the powerful dynasty that ruled Iran in the sixteenth century and which established Shi'ism as the state religion. Some accuse the channel of spreading Shi'ism in the Arab Sunni heartlands.
For others, the channel's unswerving focus on conditions in Gaza surpasses that of Al Jazeera, a channel which some believe has lost its edge.
The Jordanian government has not yet provided any reason for its decision.
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