Islamic Societies Review WEEKLY

Friday, April 12, 2013

Rebel Keeps Kurds’ Guns Close at Hand in Peace Talks With Turkey

Friday, April 12, 2013 No comments

ZARGALI, Iraq — In a safe house made of cinder blocks and surrounded by grazing goats and sheep, nestled high in the remote mountains of northern Iraq, a Kurdish fighter who has waged a guerrilla war against Turkey for nearly three decades remains defiant in the face of peace.

“Our forces believe they can achieve results through war,” said the fighter, Murat Karayilan, who commands the thousands of fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the P.K.K.

For all the costs of the long war, Mr. Karayilan, his fighters and millions of Kurds believe it helped them achieve something they never would have without armed struggle: a recognition of Kurdish identity and more democratic rights.

Now, as the P.K.K. negotiates peace with Turkey to end one of the Middle East’s most intractable conflicts, it is clinging to its guns despite demands by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, that it lay them down as a condition of talks. This defiance suggests that the peace process, despite the hope it has engendered on both sides, could be longer and more arduous than at first anticipated.

“Our guerrillas cannot give up their arms,” said Mr. Karayilan, in an interview here in the safe house, which had a freezer full of ice cream and satellite television despite its remote location. “It is the last issue, something to discuss as a last issue to this process.”

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Iran Gets First Ever Kurdish Presidential Hopeful

Thursday, April 11, 2013 No comments

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s first ever ethnically Kurdish presidential hopeful is counting on the votes of the young, and those of the country’s Kurdish minority. But first, he has to get the green light to run by Iran’s conservative Guardian Council.

“I will have 80 percent of the Kurdish votes due to the Kurdish national cause,” said Seyed Mohammed Bayatiyan, who is planning on running in the June election, the eleventh presidential polls since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. Kurdish support, he says, should win him seven million votes.
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Bayatiyan was born in Bijar district in 1973. His father, the founder of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in the district, was killed by Kurdish Peshmarga forces.

From 1999 to 2006, Bayatiyan was the general secretary of the Iranian Islamic Council.

So far, 35 nominees have announced their nominations for the Iranian presidency.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Syria's al-Nusra pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 No comments

The head of Syria's jihadist al-Nusra Front has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri - but distanced his group from claims it had merged with al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"The sons of al-Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri," Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said in an audio message.
But, he added, "we were not consulted" on an announcement by al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Tuesday of a merger with al-Nusra Front.
"We inform you that neither the al-Nusra command nor its consultative council, nor its general manager were aware of this announcement. It reached them via the media and if the speech is authentic, we were not consulted," Jawlani said.
He added that the group would not be changing its flag or its "behaviour."
"Al-Nusra Front will not change its flag, though we will continue to be proud of the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq, of those who carry it and those who sacrifice themselves and shed their blood for it," said Jawlani, acknowledging he had fought in Iraq alongside the ISI, al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch.

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Egypt's army took part in torture and killings during revolution, report shows

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 No comments

Egypt's armed forces participated in forced disappearances, torture and killings across the country – including in the Egyptian Museum – during the 2011 uprising, even as military leaders publicly declared their neutrality, according to a leaked presidential fact-finding report on revolution-era crimes.

The report, submitted to the president, Mohamed Morsi, by his own hand-picked committee in January, has yet to be made public, but a chapter obtained by the Guardian implicates the military in a catalogue of crimes against civilians, beginning with their first deployment to the streets. The chapter recommends that the government investigate the highest ranks of the armed forces to determine who was responsible.

More than 1,000 people, including many prisoners, are said to have gone missing during the 18 days of the revolt. Scores turned up in Egypt's morgues, shot or bearing signs of torture. Many have simply disappeared, leaving behind desperate families who hope, at best, that their loved ones are serving prison sentences that the government does not acknowledge.

The findings of the high-level investigation, implicating Egypt's powerful and secretive military, will put pressure on Morsi, who assumed power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces after his election last June and has declined to prosecute any officers, despite allegations that some participated in abuse. They could also figure in the retrial of the toppled president Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib el-Adly, who are set to return to court on Saturday to face charges – perhaps supported by new evidence from the fact-finding committee – that they were responsible for killing protesters during the revolt.

"This chapter sheds light on new and extremely disturbing incidents that implicate the military in serious human rights violations," said Hossam Bahgat, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "In particular, it uncovers new details on one of the most secret aspects of the 18 days of revolt that ended with the ouster of Mubarak: the role played by the armed forces in supporting Mubarak against protesters from the date they were deployed on 28 January 2011, until the first military statement was issued in support of the protesters on 10 February."

Syria's Jihadists face test of government in eastern city

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 No comments

A month after they pulled down a statue of President Bashar al-Assad's once feared father, people in a city in eastern Syria are living under a Jihadist regime that could be a taste of what is in store for the country if Assad himself is overthrown.
Hardline Islamist brigades patrol streets abandoned by police. A religious court has replaced a collapsed judicial system, and minorities have fled, according to civic activists in Raqqa, the largest city to fall to the opposition since the uprising against four decades of Assad family rule broke out in March 2011.
The Jihadist show of force coupled with the absence of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the main grouping of the political opposition, could consolidate an Islamist sweep in the north and east of the country. But the experience of Raqqa, where there have been demonstrations and strikes, shows that Islamist rule has got off to a difficult start.
The east, which accounts for all of Syria's oil output and most of its grain production, borders Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, where Sunni Jihadists opposed to the Iranian-backed Shi'ite government in Baghdad are also active.
Since falling, Raqqa has been in effect run by Ahrar al-Sham, one of the best organized of hundreds of opposition formations fighting to oust Assad, and its Islamist allies, opposition campaigners in the area said.
They said the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front has a strong presence in the city and cooperates with Ahrar. The Iraqi wing of al Qaeda announced on Tuesday that Nusra was now its Syrian branch and the two groups would operate under one name -- the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
Activist Maen Khader said Ahrar were quick to take control of the power and water departments, which are providing a mostly uninterrupted service, largely because a main hydro-electric dam on the Euphrates River, 40 km (25 miles) to the southwest in the town of Tabaqa, had been overrun by jihadists.
Unlike the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey to the north, looting in Raqqa has been minimal, Khader said.

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Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Tunisia Now Exporting “Jihadis”

Tuesday, April 09, 2013 No comments

Tunisian families have begun to dread knocks on their doors, or late-night phone calls, fearing that the messenger will bear the news that their son has been smuggled out of the country to join the “jihad” in Syria.

Families here told IPS that they have no way of contacting their sons once they leave — whether by choice or coercion they will never know — for the warring nation nearly 3,000 miles away. At most, family members receive an inaudible telephone call from Libya, where the soon-to-be militants are trained, the muffled voice on the other end of the line saying a quiet and final goodbye.

After that point, no news is good news. If they are contacted again, it will only be an anonymous caller announcing the death of a son, brother or husband, adding that the family should be proud of their martyred loved one.

The next day, the family might find a CD, slipped under the door, containing filmed footage of the burial.

There are no reliable data on exactly when young Tunisian men began rushing to join the Free Syrian Army, currently engaged in a battle to depose Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, but experts and civil society activists are agreed on one thing: the number is increasing.

On Mar. 29, local sources reported that between 6,000 and 10,000 men have left the country, while the Algerian press say the number could be closer to 12,000.

Families tell IPS the self-proclaimed jihadists leave in secret, often under cover of darkness, and change their names en route so that Facebook and internet searches yield no results. They believe mosques and charity organisations serve as fronts for this “recruitment” process.

Widely considered the cradle of the Arab Spring, Tunisia has gained a reputation as a progressive country, bolstered by the strong democratic current that toppled former dictator Zine Abadine Ben Ali in January 2011. The election of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda in October 2011 further raised hopes that the country would stay on track towards a more inclusive future.

But beneath the moderate veneer, a strong ultra-conservative undercurrent remained, steered by Salafist-controlled mosques – like Fath, Ennassr, Ettadhamen, and the great mosque of Ben Arous located on the outskirts of Tunis – that are now serving as headquarters for the smuggling of fighters.

Jabhat Al Nusra, Syrian Islamic Rebel Group, Merges With Al Qaeda In Iraq

Tuesday, April 09, 2013 No comments

BEIRUT — Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria's extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers.

A website linked to Jabhat al-Nusra confirmed on Tuesday the merger with the Islamic State of Iraq, whose leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, first made the announcement in a 21-minute audio message posted on militant websites late Monday.

Jabhat al-Nusra has taken an ever-bigger role in Syria's conflict over the last year, fighting in key battles and staging several large suicide bombings. The U.S. has designated it a terrorist organization.

The Syrian group has made little secret of its links across the Iraqi border, but until now it has not officially declared itself to be part of al-Qaida.

Al-Baghdadi said that his group – the Islamic State of Iraq – and Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra will now be known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

"It is time to announce to the Levantine people and the whole world that Jabhat al-Nusra is merely an extension and part of the Islamic State of Iraq," he said.

He said that the Iraqi group was providing half of its budget to the conflict in Syria. Al-Baghdadi said that the Syrian group would have no separate leader but instead be led by the "people of Syria themselves" – implying that he would be in charge in both countries.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Brazil, China, and India Are Fat, And Getting Fatter

Monday, April 08, 2013 No comments

In China, the growth rate of new Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants is 13 percent a year, compared with 2.9 percent in the U.S. And as the chain has expanded, so have Chinese citizens' waistlines. Recently, the aspiring BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) met in sunny Durban, South Africa, for their fifth summit to discuss their plans for creating their proposed BRICS Development Bank (BDB). Despite ongoing doubts that these nations will be able to quickly come to an agreement over where and how the bank will function, there is hope that these differences can be overcome.

But there is one issue that the BRICS leaders seemed to have overlooked. That is, how will the BRICS bank address these nations' ongoing struggle to contain the spread of disease? Diseases commonly attributed to economic wealth and prosperity, such as obesity and diabetes, are on the rise and will inevitably threaten their bristling economies should the BDB fail to adequately invest in healthcare infrastructure.

The proposed BDB bank is mainly focused on providing loans and grants - approximately $4.5 trillion in total - to finance infrastructural development projects in the BRICS and other developing nations. This funding will be used to construct railroads, bridges, highways, and ports. Created as an alternative " Bretton Woods for the developing nations," loans will be provided at favorable lending terms. The bank will also provide a currency reserve of $100 billion dollars to be used in times of economic crisis. Another implicit goal through this banking endeavor is to decrease the BRICS and other developing nations' ongoing reliance on the World Bank and IMF for financial assistance while creating a lending facility that better understands developing nations' context and needs.

Christian mourners, mob, police clash in Egypt

Monday, April 08, 2013 No comments

CAIRO (AP) — A mob threw rocks and fired birdshot Sunday at several hundred Christians marching in a protest against Egypt's Islamist government after the funeral of four Christians killed in sectarian clashes over the weekend.
The Christians were chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, just as several thousand did earlier during the funeral service nearby in the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo.
The attacking mob, described by witnesses as residents of the area, forced the marchers to take shelter inside the sprawling cathedral complex. They also showered the protesters with rocks from the roofs of nearby buildings, according to witness Ibrahim el-Shareef.
Mohammed Sultan, director of Egypt's national ambulance services, said at least 17 people were wounded in the clashes.

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WikiLeaks publishes 1.7m US diplomatic records

Monday, April 08, 2013 No comments

WikiLeaks has published more than 1.7m US records covering diplomatic or intelligence reports on every country in the world.

The data, which has not been leaked, comprises diplomatic records from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, covering a variety of diplomatic traffic including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence.

Julian Assange said WikiLeaks had been working for the past year to analyse and assess a vast amount of data held at the US national archives before releasing it in a searchable form.

WikiLeaks has called the collection the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD), describing it as the world's largest searchable collection of US confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications.

Assange told Press Association the information showed the vast range and scope of US diplomatic and intelligence activity around the world.