Israeli Apartheid

Muslim leaders in India demand protection from persecution

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Hundreds of Muslim leaders in India demanded on Tuesday that the government protect their community from persecution, saying Muslims were being unfairly targeted in a police crackdown after bombings across the country.

"Today, with the injustice and harassment, Islam and Muslims in this country are under threat," said Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, influential leader of the Jama Masjid mosque, the largest in north India.

"We have been quiet for a long time, but we cannot take this anymore. We too have rights."

Bukhari said neither the ruling Congress nor the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were a suitable option for the Muslims, who make up 13 percent of India’s population.

"They think we only have these two options," he said, addressing a crowd of Muslim leaders and others on the lawns of the Jama Masjid, a 17th century mosque built by Mughal kings.

"But water will find its way, it will find its own level."

Bombings have killed hundreds of people in recent months, and Muslim leaders accuse the police of indiscriminate arrests of young Muslim men who have been paraded before the media.

Muslims are key voter bases for the Congress and for regional parties.

"Just as the Congress and the BJP use terrorism to secure their voter base, the Muslim leaders are also using it to secure their position," said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management.

Dubai hamas killing suspects passports fraudulent

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: BBC news)

Passports belonging to the alleged killers of a top Hamas official in Dubai are fraudulent, the British and Irish governments have said.Ireland said the names and passport numbers of three suspects did not match anything issued by its officials.Britain said it believed the six British passports were also fraudulent.

Mr Mabhouh was murdered in a Dubai hotel room, police say

Arrest warrants were issued for the suspects named by police in Dubai, where Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in a hotel room on 20 January.Two more men, one using a French passport and one using a German passport, are also suspected of playing parts in the assassination.The French foreign ministry said it was "not able to confirm the nationality of this person", according to AFP news agency.German officials said the passport number was either incomplete or wrong, Associated Press reported.

Police in Dubai have issued arrest warrants for 11 suspects they want to question about the killing of a senior Hamas official in Dubai. The suspects include six men travelling on false British passports.

Three other suspects, including one woman, were travelling on false Irish passports. Two further suspects had French and German papers. Dubai police say they appeared to be a professional hit-squad.

Press statement

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

MRN saddened by death of Ayatollah Sayyed Fadlullah

By Dr Firoz Osman – Secretary General,MRN

MRN’s Dr Anver Suliman with the late Sheikh Fadlullah during a visit to Beirut in 2001

The Media Review Network is saddened with the news of the demise of the Islamic luminary and leader Ayotollah Muhammed Husseini Fadlallah, on Sunday, 4th July, at the age of 75 years, in Lebanon.Sayyed Fadlullah served as a highly influential beacon of truth for all the oppressed peoples of the world.

He often explained that Judaism, Christianity and Islam were all Divine religions. However he always differentiated between a Jew anywhere in the world and the Zionists that came to Palestine and occupied the Holy Land.

He supported the ideals of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and advocated the corresponding Islamic movement in Lebanon. In his sermons, he called for armed resistance to the Israeli occupations of Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, along with opposition to the existence of Israel.

He once said that the slogan "land for peace‌ was a betrayal of Palestinian blood and of the sacred cause of Palestine." His extensive charitable works added to his popularity. Sayyed Fadlullah established a network of schools and orphanages in poorer suburbs of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. His outspoken political views made him a target.

A 200kg car bomb exploded near Fadlallah’s Beirut home in 1985. He was unharmed, but dozens of people were killed in a nearby apartment building, which was demolished by the blast.

Bob Woodward, an American investigative journalist, linked the blast to the US Central Intelligence Agency, though US officials have long denied any involvement.

Dr Anver Suliman of the MRN had the honour of meeting with the esteemed Ayatollah in Beirut in 2001. His erudition and spiritual advice will be missed by many, but his legacy of justice for the worlds oppressed will remain an inspiration forever.

Police state in the making

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Samah Jabr

(source: Ma’an News Agency)

Although United States-sponsored security coordination with the Palestinian Authority started in the nineties, the scale and nature of US intervention in Palestinian affairs intensified through the program headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton that was launched by the Bush administration in 2005.

When Hamas ousted Fateh from the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the atmosphere then became ripe to escalate the growth of this political mutation that transformed former “national heroes” into “terrorists”. While Hamas security forces in Gaza are considered illegal, governments in Europe and North America provide generous financial support to the PA and its security forces.

In an address at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Dayton said (as if this were a compliment) that his program had created a “new kind of Palestinian man.” Three battalions of 500 men each have graduated from the program, and more are currently in training to engage in a series of offensives against members of the resistance groups in the West Bank.