Smugglers hide IS militants on boats filled with migrants, Abdul Basit Haroun says
Arab World
Influential Cleric Qaradawi Condemns Egypt Death Sentences
Iraqi Peshmarga Forces Kill 13 ISIL Terrorists in Iraq's Mosul
Al-Nusra Front Executes 6 ISIL Terrorists in Syria
Egypt Hangs Six Convicted Militants with Link to Islamic State
Men in Qatar jailed for shaving expat’s moustache
ISIS dead in U.S. Syria raid climbs to 32: monitoring group
Fighting in Syria’s Palmyra leaves 76 dead
South Asia
Eight Afghan Soldiers Martyred, 15 Insurgents Killed In Military Operations
Police want ban on militant outfit Ansarullah
Car bombing of EU vehicle kills at least 3 in Kabul
Afrasheem murder suspect dead in Syria, claims family
Africa
Girl Suicide Bomber Kills Seven in Nigeria
Morocco to Allow Abortion in Cases of Incest, Rape and Malformation
Nigerian restaurant shut down for serving human flesh
Libya bans Bangladeshi workers' entry
ISIS recruits as Tunisia grapples with freedoms
India
Control Hindutva Forces, Stop Ghar Wapsi Movement: Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind
SIMI Suspect’s Kin: ‘This Is Our Country Too, That’s Why I Am Expecting Justice’
This Afghan Captain Goes Home with Indian Hands
Ishrat Jahan Case: N K Amin Set to Be Reinstated, Says Govt
What is it to be the only Muslim family in a colony in Bhavnagar, Gujarat?
Pakistan
Imran Criticises Morsi Death Sentence: 'Egypt Should Learn From Pakistan'
US Drone Attack in NWA Kills Six
In world's most dangerous country for journalists, female reporters try guns for a change
24 arrested in targeted operations across Karachi: Rangers
Saudi beheads Pakistani, 84 executions in 2015
Europe
ISIS Militants ‘Hidden’ Among Europe Migrants
Losing Their Religion: The Hidden Crisis of Faith among Britain’s Young Muslims
German spy agency told US of bin Laden's presence in Pakistan: German media
Anti-terror campaign uses Zayn Malik as poster boy to stop British girls becoming Jihadi brides
Charlie Hebdo to Fire Moroccan Journalist Zineb El Rhazoui
North America
Morsi Verdict Alarms US, Experts See 'War' On Brotherhood
Top Isis Fundraiser Killed In Rare US Raid In Syria: White House
Hezbollah invites journalists on mock patrol on Syrian front: NYT
Obama recalls 1991 action against Saddam to assure GCC states of help during crisis
Rabbi handed six years for secretly filming women
Mideast
Pope Calls Palestinian Leader Abbas "Angel of Peace"
Iran will protect "oppressed" people in the region: Khamenei
Israel commemorates Jerusalem 'reunification'
Hadi urges implementation of U.N. resolution
UN envoy urges extension of Yemen humanitarian truce
Southeast Asia
Because Of Greed, Malaysian Would Rather Watch Rohingya Die, Perlis Mufti Says
Organizers Cancel Malang LGBT Event over Threats
Lawmaker Urges TNI to ‘Rethink’ TNI Virginity Tests
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
----------
Arab World
Influential cleric Qaradawi condemns Egypt death sentences
17 May 2015
Senior Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi has condemned death sentences passed on himself, former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and 105 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood group over a mass jail break in 2011.
In a video statement posted on Qaradawi's twitter account on Sunday, the elderly Qatar-based cleric who is also a spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood said the rulings were “nonsense” and violated Islamic law.
“These rulings have no value and cannot be implemented because they are against the rules of God, against the people's law...no one will accept it,” Qaradawi said in the statement, which was broadcast by Al Jazeera's Arabic news channel in Qatar.
In line with all death sentences, the decisions issued on Saturday will be referred to the grand mufti, Egypt's religious authority, for a non-binding opinion.
A final court ruling is expected on June 2.
The charges relate to Mursi's escape along with other Brotherhood leaders from a prison north of Cairo during the 2011 Arab Spring unrest. Qaradawi denied involvement in the escape in his video statement and said he was in Qatar at the time.
An Egyptian regarded as one of Islam's top thinkers, Qaradawi's religious shows on Al Jazeera have been watched by millions.
His criticism of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the former army chief elected to succeed Mursi after a popularly backed takeover in 2013, has added to a rift between Qatar and other Gulf Arab states.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia considers the Islamist group a terrorist organisation and has heavily funded Sisi's cash-strapped government.
Amid the tensions, Qaradawi's televised Friday sermons have gone off the air, but he continues to criticize Egypt's new rulers in conferences and statements to the press and followers.
“It's the right of people to revolt against corruption and unfairness. I still call on people to revolt,” Qaradawi said.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/17/Influential-cleric-Qaradawi-condemns-Egypt-death-sentences.html
----------
Iraqi Peshmarga Forces Kill 13 ISIL Terrorists in Iraq's Mosul
17 May 2015
The Iraqi Kurdistan Pishmarga Forces shelled the ISIL's positions in Nineveh province, Northern Iraq, and killed at least 13 fighters, local sources said.
The sources said that the Pishmarga forces shelled the ISIL terrorists' strongholds in the nearby areas of Khursibad and Nawaran areas, in the Northwestern part of Mosul.
“At least 13 insurgents were killed during the assault and more wounded,” the sources went on to say.
Whilst making gains in the Anbar province in Western Iraq, the ISIL militants have been suffering heavy losses in the Northern parts of the country recently.
Earlier this month, Pishmarga forces repelled the ISIL terrorists' attacks and killed at least 15 of them in the Sinjar frontline near the district of Snunie, in Nineveh.
“The ISIL launched an attack on our Sinjar frontline, close to the Snunie district, but we immediately responded to the attack and drove all the terrorists out,” the source said.
“The ISIL left 15 of their militants killed in the battlefront,” the Pishmarga officer revealed.
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940227000952
----------
Al-Nusra Front Executes 6 ISIL Terrorists in Syria
17 May 2015
The Al-Nusra Front group killed half a dozen members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as the infighting between the Takfiri terrorist groups has intensified.
Abu Malek al-Teli, the Al-Nusra leader, confirmed that his men have killed 6 ISIL members, Lebanese news website Al-Nashreh reported.
The executed ISIL members had been taken as hostage along with 17 others in Arsal heights.
The ISIL has also accused Al Nusra Front of abducting one of its commanders named Abu Dajaneh Ebadeh in Eastern Ghouta.
On Wednesday, tens of terrorists were killed and dozens more injured in heavy infighting between the ISIL and Jaish al-Fath Takfiri groups in the Damascus countryside in the Southern parts of Syria.
At least 15 ISIL forces were killed and 60 more were taken captive in Al-Qalamoun region in Damascus countryside.
The infighting occurred after Jaish al-Fath in a statement warned the Salafi youth against joining the ISIL.
The Qalamoun region is located Northeast of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The infighting seems to have erupted after ISIL turned down an Al-Nusra Front's call for supporting it in the war on the Syrian troops, and tried to open an independent front in the region of Qalamoun.
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940227000417
---------
Egypt hangs six convicted militants with link to Islamic State
17 May 2015
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities hanged six men convicted of killing soldiers Sunday, police said, ignoring appeals to spare them amid allegations that two of them had been in custody at the time of their alleged crimes.
Prosecutors said they were members of the Sinai-based Ansar Beit al-Maqdis jihadist group, which late last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
A military court upheld the death sentences last March, following a trial in which the six were convicted of carrying out the attacks in the months after the army's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Human rights groups had appealed for a stay of execution, saying two of the defendants had been in custody at the time.
Amnesty International said the men underwent a “grossly unfair” trial and that the only witness during the trial was a secret police officer.
The sentence was carried out by hanging in a Cairo jail, the officials said.
Some of the men had been arrested when police and soldiers raided their safehouse north of Cairo in March 2014.
Two army explosive experts and six militants were killed in an ensuing gunfight, adding to the list of charges against the six men.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182520/egypt-hangs-six-convicted-militants-with-link-to-islamic-state
----------
Men in Qatar jailed for shaving expat’s moustache
17 May 2015
Two Gulf nationals in Qatar have each been handed one year prison sentences for shaving the moustache, beard and head of an expatriate driver.
The court in Doha accused the two men of being guilty of attacking and humiliating the Asian driver, Gulf News reported.
The defendants claimed that they were forced to react after the Asian driver had overtaken their car in a reckless way which almost caused them to hit the road’s side pavement on a major Doha road.
They also claimed that they were driving in a calm manner when they were almost hit by the Asian driver who wanted to get ahead of them without any forewarning.
The driver claims that he was driving normally on the road when another car kept signaling him to pull over when he ignored despite the persistence of the other vehicle.
After a brief chase, he decided to stop and enquire about the reasons the two people in the other car wanted him to stop.
The Asian driver said in comments carried by Al Raya, a local daily, “The two defendants held me and tied me up on the back seat of my car.”
“Then, one of them took out a shaver and shaved off half of my head, beard and moustache. They eventually untied me and sped away in their car. I alerted the police and an investigation was launched,” he added.
The two men were subsequently arrested and referred to public prosecution for questioning before being put on trial.
They confessed to abusing the victim claiming they wanted to teach him a lesson for allegedly endangering people’s lives through reckless driving.
The court issued the jail sentence and turned down other requests from the victim’s lawyer.
The nationalities of the victim and the co-defendants were not revealed.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2015/05/17/Men-jailed-for-shaving-expatriate-s-moustache-in-Qatar-.html
----------
ISIS dead in U.S. Syria raid climbs to 32: monitoring group
17 May 2015
A US special forces raid in eastern Syria killed 32 members of the Islamic State jihadist group, including four leaders, a monitoring group said Sunday.
"The US operation killed 32 members of IS, among them four officials, including IS oil chief Abu Sayyaf, the deputy IS defence minister, and an IS communications official," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
US officials have said "about a dozen" people were killed in the operation on Friday night, which was conducted by Iraq-based US commandos in order to capture Abu Sayyaf.
Abdel Rahman said three of the four leading officials killed in the raid were from North Africa, but that the IS communications official was Syrian.
US President Barack Obama approved the special forces operation, a rare use of "boots on the ground" by the United States, which has fought the jihadists almost entirely from the air.
The operation targeted an IS compound at al-Omar, one of Syria's largest oil fields, which is located in the eastern Deir Ezzor province.
A US official speaking on condition of anonymity said the commandos engaged the jihadists "at very close quarters... there was hand-to-hand combat".
US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter called the operation a "significant blow" to IS, while Adam Schiff, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said US attacks "have put increasing pressure on the economics undergirding the terrorist organisation".
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/17/ISIS-dead-in-U-S-Syria-raid-climbs-to-32-monitoring-group.html
----------
Fighting in Syria’s Palmyra leaves 76 dead
17 May 2015
Syrian government troops and militia put up fierce resistance on Sunday to an ISIS assault on one of the jewels of the country's heritage, ancient Palmyra.
At least 47 regime loyalists and 29 jihadists were killed as ISIS overran northern neighborhoods of the adjacent modern town of Tadmur late on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based watchdog reported heavy artillery exchanges in the west of the town, close to the UNESCO-listed world heritage site.
But there were no immediate reports of damage to the ancient city's colonnaded street or its 1st and 2nd century temples.
ISIS was bringing up reinforcements from its stronghold in the Euphrates Valley to the east after sustaining heavy losses in its advance on the oasis town northeast of Damascus, provincial governor Talal Barazi told AFP.
The town's peacetime population of 70,000 has been swamped by an influx of civilians fleeing the ISIS advance.
"We are taking all necessary precautions, and we are working on securing humanitarian aid quickly in fear of mass fleeing from the city," Barazi said.
Syrian antiquities chief Mamoun Abdulkarim voiced extreme concern for the ancient site and its adjacent museum, in light of the destruction wreaked by ISIS on pre-Islamic sites like Nimrud and Hatra in neighboring Iraq.
"I am living in a state of terror," Abdulkarim told AFP, adding that ISIS "will blow everything up. They will destroy everything."
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/17/Fighting-in-Syria-s-Palmyra-leaves-76-dead.html
----------
South Asia
Eight soldiers martyred, 15 insurgents killed in separate military operations
May 17 2015
Eight soldiers have embraced martyrdom and 15 insurgents killed in newest military operations across the country, Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced Sunday morning.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Defense states that the eight soldiers embraced martyrdom in landmine explosion and militant fire in past 24 hours.
The statement does not contain information about the exact location of the incidents.
MoD statement further states 15 militants were killed and 10 others wounded during separate military operations conducted in four provinces in past 24 hours.
20 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were also discovered and defused by military during these operations, Ministry of Defense statement adds.
Beside causing casualties to the security forces, IEDs are considered the second biggest cause of civilian casualties during the ongoing Afghan war.
A newest report released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that a rise of 16 percent was recorded in civilians casualties in the first four months of 2015 compared to the first four months of 2014.
2,937 fatalities have been recorded in these four months out of which there are 974 deaths and 1,963 wounded.
http://www.khaama.com/eight-soldiers-martyred-15-insurgents-killed-in-separate-military-operations-3368
----------
Police want ban on militant outfit Ansarullah
17 May 2015
Police have finally proposed imposing a ban on radical Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, believed to be involved in the killing of secular activists since 2013.
“Although we are yet to learn about its organisational structure, police have requested the government to ban Ansarullah’s activities as a pro-active and preventive measure,” SM Jahangir Alam, acting deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said yesterday.
If banned, Ansarullah activists will not be allowed to hold meetings, processions or preach its ideologies – either secretly or publicly. According to the police, such activities would be termed anti-state and the law enforcers would take legal action under the Anti-Militancy Act.
Detectives suspect that Ansarullah is now working as the Bangladesh representative of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), formed last year following Al-Qaeda’s call to extend its activities in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is also linked to other militant and around 60 organisatioPolice want ban on militant outfit Ansarullah groups as their ultimate goal is the same – establishing an Islamic state in Bangladesh.
Full report at:
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/may/17/police-want-ban-militant-outfit-ansarullah#sthash.DVERJNec.dpuf
----------
Car bombing of EU vehicle kills at least 3 in Kabul
17 May 2015
A suicide car bomber rammed a European Union vehicle near the main airport in Afghanistan's capital on Sunday, killing at least three people in the latest attack in the city, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL), which advises Afghan law enforcement authorities.
The insurgents have launched a wave of attacks around the country since the drawdown of most foreign troops last year to a small training force.
EUPOL spokeswoman Sari Haukka-Konu confirmed that one of the mission's vehicles was hit by an explosion near Kabul airport.
She said all the EUPOL personnel "are in a safe place" with non-fatal injuries, but another person travelling in the vehicle was killed. She did not give the person's nationality.
Police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi said a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla rammed a foreign vehicle on the road from Kabul's main airport to a NATO military installation nearby.
He said at least two Afghan civilian bystanders were killed and 18 people were wounded.
The bomber struck about 200 metres from the main airport entrance along the road leading to NATO's adjacent base. Reuters TV footage showed the mangled remains of the car.
Rescuers carried wounded Afghan civilians from the scene, which police cordoned off.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility saying that two vehicles were destroyed and seven foreign troops were killed. The insurgents frequently report inflated casualties in their attacks.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/world/article/car-bombing-of-eu-vehicle-kills-at-least-3-in-kabul#sthash.xiKrYIY3.dpuf
----------
Afrasheem murder suspect dead in Syria, claims family
17 May 2015
A suspect in the murder of MP Afrasheem Ali, Azlif Rauf, has died while fighting in Syria, his family has claimed.
Azlif’s brother wrote on Facebook on Friday that he had “lived like a lion and died as a hero.” The family was reportedly informed of Azlif’s death on Thursday night by Maldivians in Syria.
Sources close to the family told Haveeru that the Maldivian jihadis had sent a photo of the dead ex-military officer.
However, there has been no independent verification of Azlif’s death and opposition politicians have questioned whether he had gone to Syria.
A police media official said the police do not have any information on the case. The police are not investigating any cases involving Azlif at present, the official said.
Reliable sources told Minivan News in January that Azlif left to Turkey with six members of Malé’s Kuda Henveiru gang and crossed the border into Syria.
Full report at:
http://minivannews.com/politics/afrasheem-murder-suspect-dead-in-syria-claims-family-98190#sthash.HefOJnyX.dpuf
----------
Africa
Girl suicide bomber kills seven in Nigeria
17 May 2015
KANO: A girl about 12 years old carried out a suicide attack at a bus station in northeastern Nigeria, killing seven and injuring 31,witnesses said, shortly after officials revealed that Boko Haram Islamists had recaptured a strategic town in the region.
“A girl aged about 12 detonated an explosive under her clothes as she approached the station’s perimeter fence,” said Danbaba Nguru, a shopkeeper who witnessed the attack in the town of Damaturu.
The head of the local Sani Abacha hospital, doctor Gara Fika, said six bodies and 32 injured had arrived there with one person dying after being admitted.
The Damaturu bus station has been repeatedly targeted in a string of previous suicide attacks.
“I was in the station when I saw the young girl arrive,” said bus driver Musbahu Lawan. “I think she noticed the guards checking people at the gates and she decided to detonate the explosives in the middle of the crowd outside the gates”.
Nguru added: “The road leading to the gates is always full of small traders... I was lucky not to have been hit”.
No claim of responsibility for the attack has been made but Islamist group Boko Haram has frequently used young girls to carry out suicide attacks.
In February, a woman suicide bomber attacked the same bus station, leaving seven dead and 32 injured.
The deputy governor in neighbouring Borno state, Mustapha Zannah, said that he had seen a security report indicating that Boko Haram has recruited several suicide bombers to help counter a regional military operation against them.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182452/girl-suicide-bomber-kills-seven-in-nigeria
----------
Morocco to Allow Abortion in Cases of Incest, Rape and Malformation
17 May 2015
Rabat – King Mohammed VI examined proposals on abortion he asked the departments of justice and Islamic Affairs and the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH) to prepare.
The proposals showed that an “overwhelming majority” of Moroccans want to legalize abortion only in certain cases, including preserving the health of the mother, birth defects of the foetus, incest or rape. Based on these findings, King Mohammed VI gave his instructions to include the proposals in the Penal Code and submit them to the procedure of adoption.
King Mohammed VI received Friday, May 15 at the Royal Palace of Casablanca, Mustapha Ramid, Minister of Justice and Liberties, Ahmed Toufiq, Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs and Driss El Yazami, president of the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH), said a statement from the Royal Cabinet.
Full report at:
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/05/158512/morocco-to-allow-abortion-in-cases-of-incest-rape-and-malformation/
----------
Nigerian restaurant shut down for serving human flesh
17 May, 2015
A restaurant in Nigeria has reportedly been shut down by the police for cooking human flesh and serving it to customers.
Locals in the area who suspected something horrific was taking place inside the kitchen tipped off the police who subsequently raided the hotel restaurant to discover human heads that were still dripping with blood in plastic bags.
A local priest who ate at the restaurant located in the south-eastern province of Anambra was alarmed at the price of meals there, especially where the meat came from, BBC Swahili reported.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/887805/hannibals-kitchen-nigerian-restaurant-shut-down-for-serving-human-flesh/
----------
Libya bans Bangladeshi workers' entry
17 May 2015
Libya's official government has banned Bangladeshi workers from entering the country because many were trying to travel on illegally by boat to Europe, a government spokesman said on Saturday.
The North African country, gripped by violence and a breakdown of state authority four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, has turned into a major hub for human traffickers smuggling African migrants by boat to Italy.
"Bangladeshi workers will be banned from entry into Libya," said Hatem Uraibi, spokesman for Libya's internationally recognised government, which has been based in the east since losing control of the capital Tripoli last year.
"They come for work for Libyan firms but then embark on illegal migration (to Europe)," Uraibi told Reuters. "The ban is part of government efforts to fight illegal emigration."
He gave no more details on the ban which would only apply for land borders, ports and airports in eastern Libya where the internationally recognised government is in the control.
Western Libya, the main launch pad for smugglers sending boatloads of migrants towards Italian shores, is controlled by a rival government set up after an armed group seized Tripoli in August.
Full report at:
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2015/may/17/libya-bans-bangladeshi-workers-entry#sthash.AHj5Cg5F.dpuf
----------
ISIS recruits as Tunisia grapples with freedoms
17 May 2015
Tunisian militants have fought in foreign wars for decades, from Afghanistan to Somalia to Iraq. But after the 2011 revolt against President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, hundreds of hard-liners were released from prisons, strengthening militant ranks with experienced old hands.
Critics accused the Islamist-led government that followed Ali of allowing extremists too much freedom. Since then, a caretaker government and a coalition government elected at the end of 2014 have taken a tougher line, going to court to take back mosques, sweeping up hundreds of suspected militants, and curbing militant websites that recruit for Iraq and Syria.
Journalist Hedi Yahmed, whose book, “Beneath the Black flag: Tunisia’s Salafists,” features interviews with Tunisian militants fighting in Iraq, Somalia and Syria, said the jihadi phenomenon was driven in part by the end of 20 years of religious repression.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2015/05/17/ISIS-recruits-as-Tunisia-grapples-with-freedoms.html
----------
India
Control Hindutva Forces, Stop Ghar Wapsi Movement: Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind
17 May 2015
The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind on Saturday urged the Centre to put a leash on the Hindutva forces, and stop the ‘Ghar Wapsi’ movement and the ‘Love Jihad’ campaign against Muslims across the country.
On the concluding day of the two-day 32{+n}{+d}General Session of the organisation at the Ramlila Grounds, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind president Maulana Qari Syed Mohammad Usman Mansoorpuri said since the formation of the new government at the Centre, the two agendas – Ghar Wapsi and Love Jihad - had been going on full steam, vitiating the communal harmony in the country. People over the centuries had been forced to convert due to untouchability and victimisation of the oppressed classes, not owing to inducements, he said.
“There are several books in Persian which make it clear that the Muslim Sufis and the business classes never resorted to inducements to woo people to convert to Islam in the medieval period. Had this been the case then Muslims would not have remained a minority in this country,” he said. The Hindutva elements in the name of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ had been following a divisive agenda, ignoring appeals against it even by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.
Dwelling on the ‘Love Jihad’ campaign, he said that the communal forces had launched a massive propaganda that Muslim youths had been converting Hindu girls under this campaign. Police investigations and judicial inquiries into alleged ‘Love Jihad’ cases had proved that all such marriages were not motivated by religious conversions.
He demanded passage of an anti-communal violence law and enactment of a law on the patterns of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to provide protection to the Muslim community from communal violence.
Police investigations and judicial inquiries into alleged ‘Love Jihad’ cases have proved that all such marriages were not motivated by religious conversions
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/control-hindutva-forces-stop-ghar-wapsi-movement-jamiat/article7215525.ece
----------
SIMI suspect’s kin: ‘This is our country too, that’s why I am expecting justice’
May 17, 2015
When Allah Baksh Yadwad walked free on May 2, acquitted of all charges of being a member of the banned outfit SIMI and planning “jihad” in India, the 30-year-old stepped into a world that had completely changed during the seven years he had spent in jail.
“My batchmates, even my juniors, are big doctors now, and I am nowhere,” he told The Sunday Express.
Yadwad didn’t fit the cliched narrative of a “school dropout turned terrorist”. He was a school topper and had completed his MBBS after making it to the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Hubli on merit.
And, like many of the 17 men arrested in the 2008 “SIMI conspiracy case”, he was on the verge of a successful professional career, having made his way up from a two-room house that he shared with his parents — his father Waliullah, 57, is a railway employee — four brothers and a sister.
Full report at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/simi-suspects-kin-this-is-our-country-too-thats-why-i-am-expecting-justice/#comments
---------
This Afghan captain goes home with Indian hands
TNN | May 17, 2015
KOCHI: It is with admiration and awe that Abdul Rahim, the 30-year-old Afghani, keeps looking at his 'dual-coloured' hands. Rahim, a captain with the Afghan border police who lost both his hands while trying to defuse a land mine in Khandahar, will soon leave Amrita Hospital after a successful twin-hand transplant.
The surgery carried out over a month ago lasted 15 hours, one hour less than the first such transplant at the hospital. "His hand structure was good and the progress has been fast, driven largely by his willpower. Two bones, two arteries, five veins, five nerves and 25 tendons were joined in each hand," said Dr Subramania Iyer, head and neck surgeon who led the team of 20 surgeons and eight anaesthetics.
Rahim had defused nearly 2,000 land mines in his life. "We had defused 30 mines on the day. The 31st one burst in my hand. It was remote-controlled and the man who activated it got Rs 40 lakh for maiming me," he said.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/This-Afghan-captain-goes-home-with-Indian-hands/articleshow/47314462.cms
----------
Ishrat Jahan case: N K Amin set to be reinstated, says govt
May 17, 2015
Suspended Gujarat cadre IPS officer N K Amin, arrested in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case and recently granted bail, will be reinstated, a top official said.
A 1996 batch IPS officer, Amin is the senior most deputy SP in Gujarat Police and was in judicial custody in Vadodara Central Jail.
The other IPS officers in service who are out on bail in the Ishrat case, Additional Director General of Police PP Pandey is now heading the Law and Order department while Superintendent of Police GL Singhal is with the Armed Units.
Additional Chief Secretary (Home) G R Aloria said, “We are going through his case papers and will revoke his suspension and reinstate him as per the rules of the police manual. He will be brought back to Gujarat Police.”
Amin was put under suspension after his arrest in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case Full report at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/ishrat-jahan-case-n-k-amin-set-to-be-reinstated-says-govt/
----------
What is it to be the only Muslim family in a colony in Bhavnagar, Gujarat?
May 17, 2015
It is 6 in the evening and a group of schoolgirls are playing a board game outside a large bungalow in a narrow lane of the Sanatorium area of Gujarat’s Bhavnagar. This is Afrin, 12, and nine-year-old Muskan’s home, and their friends Atri, Hirwa, Manaswi, Dhruva and Hasti have come over. Their brother, Mohammed Hussain, 5, and his cousin Arshad, 6, play near the girls. There’s a great deal of laughter as the girls move on to play antakshari and hopskotch.
Afrin’s is the only Muslim family in this predominantly Hindu locality. Last year, Aliasgar Zaveri, a Bohra Muslim businessman, bought a bungalow here. When Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia found out, he led a public agitation against the sale. A year on, Zaveri has sold off his house to Jain builders as he could never move in, with Hindu right-wing groups facilitating the exit.
Full report at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/what-is-it-to-be-the-only-muslim-family-in-a-colony-in-bhavnagar-gujarat/
----------
Pakistan
Imran criticises Morsi death sentence: 'Egypt should learn from Pakistan'
17 May 2015
KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has criticised an Egypt court's decision to sentence to death deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, saying it "bodes ill" for the Egyptian people and democracy in Egypt.
In a tweet posted Sunday, Khan said:
In a second tweet, Khan correlated the death sentence awarded to Morsi with the controversial execution of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979 for the murder of a political opponent.
A press release issued by the PTI quoted Khan as saying, "Pakistan had suffered tremendously as a result of the hanging of its democratic leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto by a military dictator".
"The Pakistani nation and democracy in Pakistan continue to suffer the fallout from Bhutto's hanging as the Pakistani polity stands polarised and militarised even today," the press release added.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182516/imran-criticises-morsi-death-sentence-egypt-should-learn-from-pakistan
----------
US drone attack in NWA kills six
17 May 2015
PESHAWAR: Six suspected militants were killed and two others wounded in a US drone strike in the remote Shawal Valley in the North Waziristan tribal region late Saturday afternoon, sources said.
These sources said that the drone fired two missiles into a compound in the valley close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing six militants. Most of those killed were foreigners, they added.
The number of casualties was set to rise, the sources said, wishing not to be identified.
Dattakhel and Shawal are by far the two major areas where the military is concentrating on air power to soften up the area infested by local and foreign militants, who fled Operation Zarb-i-Azb in North Waziristan.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182490/us-drone-attack-in-nwa-kills-six
----------
In world's most dangerous country for journalists, female reporters try guns for a change
17 May 2015
KARACHI: As more and more women journalists enter the field, reporting from some of the most dangerous areas of Pakistan, a small group of them were given a different sort of training on Saturday. They were taught to aim not their cameras or point their pens, rather pull triggers of machine guns and paint targets with bullets at a police training centre near Karachi.
This special training was part of the Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) organised by the Special Security Unit (SSU) of the Sindh police at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Elite Police Training Center, Razzaqabad on Saturday.
For a change, the 50 meter short firing range at the training center saw excited journalists taking turns to prove their marksmanship instead of police commandos, who stood by offering tips.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/887533/in-worlds-most-dangerous-country-for-journalists-female-reporters-try-guns-for-a-change/
---------
24 arrested in targeted operations across Karachi: Rangers
17 May 2015
KARACHI: Pakistan Rangers personnel arrested 24 suspects during targeted raids conducted in various parts of Karachi, an official press release said Sunday.
Those arrested include target killers, "sub-nationalist elements" and terrorists from banned outfits, the statement said.
Weapons, walkie-talkies, hand grenades, laptops, and a large quantity of narcotics and locally-made liquor were recovered.
Rangers personnel conducted targeted raids in Madrassa Chowk, Labour Square, PIB Colony, Bhittaiabad, Akhtar Colony, Saddar, Safoora Chowk, Ranchore Lines, and Old Golimar.
The decision to increase the tempo and range of targeted operations across Pakistan ─ especially in Karachi ─ was reached during an apex committee meeting on Thursday, a day after a horrific attack on Karachi's Ismaili community left 45 people dead.
At the meeting, Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif vowed to continue "across the board operations" at an increased pace and hunt down terrorists who commit heinous acts.
Military spokesman Asim Bajwa announced that the meeting had assessed ongoing operations against terrorists, and touched upon directing intelligence agencies to assist in the "exploitation of existing leads" in all operations.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182518/24-arrested-in-targeted-operations-across-karachi-rangers
----------
Saudi beheads Pakistani, 84 executions in 2015
17 May 2015
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani sentenced to death for drug smuggling on Sunday, bringing to 84 the number of executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom this year, the interior ministry said.
Iftikhar Ahmed Mohammed Anayat was found guilty of attempting to traffic heroin into the kingdom in balloons concealed in his stomach, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
He was executed in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
The ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for its use of the death penalty despite criticism from human rights watchdogs.
London-based Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia among the world’s top three executioners of 2014.
On a visit to Riyadh this month, French President Francois Hollande said capital punishment “should be banned”, and his country is campaigning around the world for its abolition.
Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of Islamic sharia law.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/887860/saudi-beheads-pakistani-84-executions-in-2015/
----------
Europe
ISIS militants ‘hidden’ among Europe migrants
17 May 2015
ISIS militants are being smuggled into Europe across the Mediterranean by smugglers, a Libyan official told the BBC exclusively on Sunday.
Libyan government official Abdul Basit Haroun said that smugglers were hiding ISIS militants aboard their vessels crammed with migrants.
He claimed this information was from conversations he had with boat owners in parts of North Africa which are controlled by the militants.
He added that ISIS was allowing the smugglers to continue their operations in exchange for a 50 percent share of their revenue.
The U.N. estimates that around 60,000 migrants have already attempted to get across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe this year.
Over 1,800 people are feared to have died in the crossing in overcrowded and unsafe boats since the beginning of 2015 – a 20-fold increase over the same period in 2014, according to the British broadcaster.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/17/ISIS-smuggles-militants-into-Europe-with-migrants.html
----------
Losing their religion: the hidden crisis of faith among Britain’s young Muslims
17 May 2015
Sulaiman Vali is a softly spoken 32-year-old computer engineer. A natural introvert not drawn to controversy or given to making bold statements, he’s the kind of person who is happiest in the background. He lives alone in a modest house on a quiet street in a small town in East Northamptonshire. He doesn’t want to be any more specific than that about the location. “If someone found out where I lived,” he explains, “they could burn my house down.”
Why should such an understated figure, someone who describes himself as a “nobody”, speak as if he’s in a witness protection programme? The answer is that six years ago he decided to declare that he no longer accepted the fundamental tenets of Islam. He stopped being a believing Muslim and became instead an apostate. It sounds quaintly anachronistic, but it’s not a term to be lightly adopted.
Full report at:
http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/may/17/losing-their-religion-british-ex-muslims-non-believers-hidden-crisis-faith
----------
German spy agency told US of bin Laden's presence in Pakistan: German media
17 May 2015
BERLIN: Germany's foreign intelligence agency helped United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, where United States special forces killed the Al Qaeda leader, reported a German newspaper on Sunday.
The German spy-service BND provided a tip-off that bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, with the knowledge of Pakistani security services, according to the Bild am Sonntag report, which was published as the agency is battling heavy criticism in a spy scandal.
The information came from a BND informant within Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and confirmed CIA suspicions, said the newspaper report which cited unnamed US intelligence sources.
The American source was quoted as saying the German tip-off was of “fundamental importance” in the hunt for the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Pakistan has denied that it knew bin Laden was living within its borders or that it had advance knowledge of the 2011 US special forces operation that killed him in a walled compound in the city of Abbottabad.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182522/german-spy-agency-told-us-of-bin-ladens-presence-in-pakistan-german-media
----------
Anti-terror campaign uses Zayn Malik as poster boy to stop British girls becoming jihadi brides
17 May 2015
An anti-terror project is using boy-band heartthrob and former One Direction star Zayn Malik as a role model to stop British Muslim girls from being groomed as jihadi brides.
The project comes following the disappearance of three British schoolgirls who crossed the border from Turkey to join Islamic State in Syria in February.
The scheme is the brainchild of former Apprentice star Nurun Ahmed.
The 36-year-old, who runs three businesses, told The Sun on Sunday: "The radicals who groom teenage girls tell them groups like IS are their only hope for a future.
"We need girls to know this is not true and that there is hope for them in this country.
"We will give them examples of people they can relate to, like Zayn Malik from One Direction, to help them understand that they have opportunities."
Full report at:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/zayn-malik-anti-terror-jihadi-brides-5711274
----------
Charlie Hebdo to Fire Moroccan Journalist Zineb El Rhazoui
17 May 2015
Rabat – Zineb El Rhazoui, Moroccan-French columnist for the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, has been warned she may be laid off for “serious misconduct”, according to le Monde.
El Rhazoui, who has worked for Charlie Hebdo since 2011, was told by the magazine to immediately leave her post ahead of a meeting where her potential dismissal will be discussed.
Speaking to French daily le Monde, El Rhazoui said she was “shocked and appalled that a management that has received so much support since the attacks in January can show such little support to one of its own employees, and who, just like everyone else on the team, lives under threat.”
El Rhazoui told the French newspaper that the magazine’s decision was likely a “punitive measure” for being among the 11 Charlie Hebdo staff members who last month called for all employees to become equal shareholders in the magazine.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/05/158537/charlie-hebdo-to-fire-moroccan-journalist-zineb-el-rhazoui/
---------
North America
Morsi verdict alarms US, experts see 'war' on Brotherhood
17 May 2015
Cairo (AFP) - The United States voiced alarm Sunday at death sentences handed to Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi and dozens of others, a verdict experts called a declaration of "total war" on his Muslim Brotherhood.
Morsi was among more than 100 defendants ordered by an Egyptian court on Saturday to face the death penalty for their role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.
He ruled for only a year before mass protests spurred then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to overthrow him in July 2013.
Sisi won a presidential election in May 2014 backed by Egyptians tired of political turmoil in the world's most populous Arab nation following the 2011 revolt against longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Washington expressed concern over Saturday's verdict.
"We have consistently spoken out against the practice of mass trials and sentences, which are conducted in a manner that is inconsistent with Egypt's international obligations and the rule of law," a State Department official said.
Full report at:
http://news.yahoo.com/us-deeply-concerned-morsi-death-sentence-egypt-061857471.html
----------
Top Isis fundraiser killed in rare US raid in Syria: White House
17 May 2015
The United States upped the ante in its war on the Isis in Syria, killing a dozen militants and a major fundraiser Saturday in a rare ground operation by special forces, the White House said.
US commandos have entered Syria before, including last year on a failed bid to rescue Western hostages, but this week's operation appeared to mark a departure in missions targeting the militants.
The decision to send commandos to strike the inner circle of the Isis group was an unexpected move by the Americans, who have so far fought the extremists almost entirely from the air.
The raid is the first publicly confirmed American ground operation targeting jihadists in Syria.
On orders from President Barack Obama, elite troops from the US Army's Delta special operations forces based in Iraq sought to capture the Isis militant Abu Sayyaf, who oversaw oil smuggling for the jihadists.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/world/article/top-isis-fundraiser-killed-in-rare-us-raid-in-syria#sthash.vOVJ26SA.dpuf
----------
Hezbollah invites journalists on mock patrol on Syrian front: NYT
17 May 2015
Hezbollah fighters invited journalists on a tour of Syria’s mountains region of Qalamoun to wittiness a mock patrol last Friday, the New York Times reported.
The presentation, which was briefed by a Hezbollah field commander at the unmarked boarder, was held on a flat terrain, a territory that was seized by the Lebanese Shiite group in recent days from insurgents in Syria.
The commander told the New York Times that Hezbollah fighters had broken up 40 fighting groups, three “operations rooms” and took over 300 square kilometers of territory that insurgents used as a base to lob shells into Lebanese villages and build car bombs for attacks in Beirut.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/print/2015/05/17/Hezbollah-invites-journalists-on-mock-patrol-on-Syrian-front.html
----------
Obama recalls 1991 action against Saddam to assure GCC states of help during crisis
17 May 2015
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Saturday that if member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council faced an external threat, the United States would deal with it the same way it dealt with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iraq.
In an interview to Al-Arabiya television, President Obama said that even if the United States and five other world powers concluded a nuclear deal with Iran there would still be concerns about “some of those activities by not only Iran and the Quds Force and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, but also proxies like Hezbollah.”
On Thursday, Mr Obama hosted a mini-Arab summit at Camp David where the United States agreed to defend its GCC allies with military power if they faced a foreign threat. The two sides also agreed to create a joint missile defence and an early warning system.
Asked to define the military support he would provide to GCC states if they faced aggression, Mr Obama said: “We’ve seen in the past what happened in Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded.”
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182447/obama-recalls-1991-action-against-saddam-to-assure-gcc-states-of-help-during-crisis
----------
Rabbi handed six years for secretly filming women
17 May 2015
WASHINGTON: A Washington rabbi who admitted to setting up cameras to spy on women as they prepared for Jewish ritual baths was sentenced Friday to more than six years in prison, the Justice Department said.
Bernard “Barry” Freundel, 63, was sentenced on 52 counts of voyeurism after pleading guilty in February to videotaping the women from 2009 to 2014.
Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Alprin sentenced Freundel to 45 days in prison for each of his 52 victims. The full sentence is six and a half years, the Justice Department said.
Alprin said the rabbi’s actions were “a classic abuse of power and violation of trust.”
Freundel was immediately taken into custody, and started serving his sentence Friday.
Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier said she hopes the sentence will help victims move on, calling Freundel a “predator.”
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/world/news/747816
--------
Mideast
Pope calls Palestinian leader Abbas "angel of peace"
17 May 2015
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday, calling him “an angel of peace”, days after the Vatican said it was preparing to sign its first accord with Palestine to the anger of Israel.
Abbas met the pontiff for about 20 minutes at a private audience, which came a day before the head of the Roman Catholic Church was due to canonise two Palestinian nuns, who will become the first Palestinian Arabs to gain sainthood.
The Vatican said in a statement the pope and Abbas discussed the peace process with Israel and that “the hope was expressed that direct negotiations between the parties be resumed in order to find a just and lasting solution to the conflict”.
“To this end the wish was reiterated that, with the support of the international community, Israelis and Palestinians may take with determination courageous decisions to promote peace,” it said.
The two men also touched on other conflicts in the Middle East and the need to combat “terrorism”, it added. They exchanged gifts with the pope giving Abbas a medal with a figure of the angel of peace “which destroys the evil spirit of war”.
---------
Iran will protect "oppressed" people in the region: Khamenei
17 May 2015
DUBAI: Iran will help oppressed people in the region as much as it can, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on Saturday, ratcheting up his rhetoric against regional rival Saudi Arabia.
“Yemen, Bahrain and Palestine are oppressed, and we protect oppressed people as much as we can,” state news agency IRNA quoted Khamenei as saying in an address to Iranian leaders and diplomats from the Islamic world.
His comments are likely to be taken by Gulf Arab leaders, who on Thursday met with US President Barack Obama to address security issues, as evidence that Iran is trying to aggressively expand its influence in the region.
An increasingly tense standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia has added a sectarian dimension to regional conflicts, particularly in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states is carrying out air strikes against Houthi rebels allied to Iran.
The standoff has also raised concerns for shipping in the Gulf, a major oil transport route. In the past month, Iranian forces have twice tried to seize commercial ships to settle legal disputes.
“Security in the Persian Gulf is in the interests of everyone... If it is insecure, it will be insecure for all,” Khamanei said according to IRNA.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1182342/iran-will-protect-oppressed-people-in-the-region-khamenei
----------
Israel commemorates Jerusalem 'reunification'
17 May 2015
Israel marked the 48th anniversary of the "reunification" of Jerusalem on May 17 with thousands expected to join a controversial march through the city's Arab eastern sector which it captured in the Six-Day War.
Known as Jerusalem Day, the anniversary marks Israel's seizure and later annexation of the territory, which includes the walled Old City, in a move never recognised by the international community.
The day is marked by a series of state ceremonies and an annual march through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City to the Western Wall, the holiest site at which Jews can pray, which is predominantly attended by nationalist hardliners.
Full report at:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/israel-commemorates-jerusalem-reunification-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=82538&NewsCatID=352
----------
Hadi urges implementation of U.N. resolution
17 May 2015
Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi urged Sunday the U.N. Security Council to work on the implementation of resolution 2216 on Yemen.
Resolution 2216 was passed in April under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter and imposes sanctions against the leader of the Houthi movement along with Yemen's former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. It was unanimously adopted by the session, with Russia being the only member abstaining, without using its veto.
Hadi, who was speaking during the opening session of the three-day Yemeni dialogue conference, also said that the Riyadh-based meeting would be the basis for any dialogue or negotiations.
Full report at:
----------
UN envoy urges extension of Yemen humanitarian truce
17 May 2015
A UN envoy called for an extension of a humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen due to expire on May 17 as the Huthi Shiite rebels boycotted political talks in Riyadh.
The appeal followed clashes on the ground between rebels and pro-government forces that killed dozens across south Yemen on May 16 despite the truce, which has largely held.
"I call on all parties to renew their commitment to this truce for five more days at least," UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed said in the Saudi capital.
"This humanitarian truce should turn into a permanent ceasefire," the Mauritanian diplomat added.
Full report at:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/un-envoy-urges-extension-of-yemen-humanitarian-truce-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=82533&NewsCatID=352
----------
Southeast Asia
Because Of Greed, Malaysian Would Rather Watch Rohingya Die, Perlis Mufti Says
17 May 2015
Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin accused Malaysia’s Muslims today of putting their greed and avarice over their duty to help their Rohingya brothers in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the seas of Southeast Asia.
He said Malaysia had already failed the Rohingya once by remaining silent over their state-sanctioned persecution by Buddhist “terrorists” in Myanmar, and is now repeating its failure by standing by silently to watch them suffer and die.
“When European countries that are not even Muslims try to save refugees in their waters, we who overdo it with a ‘salawat perdana’ (mass prayer) that cost hundred of thousands, are willing to watch people die out at sea because we fear our prosperity being shared by others,” he said, in what appears to be a dig at a large-scale Islamic prayer and concert held at Dataran Merdeka last New Year’s Eve.
“Then we say ‘we Muslims are the best’?!... It is feared this loss of humanity will draw the wrath of God in the seas and on the land. We seek Allah’s protection for all the rakyat who are innocent,” he said.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/because-of-greed-malaysian-muslims-would-rather-watch-rohingya-die-perlis-m#sthash.gg17PmpM.dpuf
----------
Organizers Cancel Malang LGBT Event Over Threats
17 May 2015
Malang, East Java. An event planned to commemorate anti-homophobia day in Malang, East Java, was canceled after the organizers claimed to have received threats.
The event, themed “Celebrate Our Gender,” was initially scheduled for Sunday in conjunction with International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, or Idahot.
Niken, one of the organizers of the event, said that she and a colleague started to receive threatening phone calls and text messages on Friday from people claiming to represent universities and several religious organizations in the city.
“Some people called and texted us to ask if we were going to gather people and invite the LGBT community,” Niken told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday. “Some questioned our permit while others opposed the celebration outright.”
One caller threatened to “forcefully dissolve” the event should organizers press forward with the celebration.
Full report at:
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/organizers-cancel-malang-lgbt-event-threats/
----------
Lawmaker Urges TNI to ‘Rethink’ TNI Virginity Tests
17 May 2015
Jakarta. A lawmaker from the House of Representatives’ Commission I, which oversees defense, intelligence and security affairs, has urged the Indonesian military to rethink its invasive virginity tests for female recruits.
Tubagus Hasanuddin, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said on Sunday there was no connection between virginity and morals.
“If a non-virgin is robbed of her right to join the military, we need to rethink it,” he said, adding he did not condone premarital sex.
Tubagus, a former high-ranked military official, said by law there were eight criteria that recruits had to meet to be accepted into the Indonesian Armed Forces, or TNI, but being a virgin was not one of them.
The so-called two-finger test, which the TNI requires female recruits to take to gauge their morality, has sparked international condemnation, but has been defended by top military brass.
Full report at:
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/lawmaker-urges-tni-rethink-tni-virginity-tests/
----------
9:48 AM
Moderate Islamist here
0 comments:
Post a Comment