Muslim World – Page 68

Aid agencies slam UN Security Council over Syria

March 12, 2015 by Nasheman

More than 20 organisations say Security Council has failed to implement resolutions seeking to boost humanitarian aid.

Residents inspect damaged buildings in what activists say was a U.S. strike in Kafr Daryan, in Syria’s Idlib Province, on Sept. 23, 2014. (REUTERS/Abdalghne Karoof)

by Al Jazeera

More than 20 international aid organisations have sharply criticised the United Nations Security Council, saying it has failed to implement three resolutions passed last year seeking to boost humanitarian assistance to Syrian civilians.

The 21 aid groups say the resolutions have been “ignored or undermined by the parties to the conflict, other UN member states, and even by members of the UNSC itself”.

They said in a report released on Thursday that despite the resolutions violence in Syria has intensified, aid access has decreased and humanitarian assistance remains “chronically underfunded”.

The aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Handicap International, call on UN members to ensure the resolutions are fully implemented.

The report was released as Syria enters its fifth year since an uprising that has turned into civil war began in March 2011.

Another UN-backed report released on Wednesday said the war had plunged 80 percent of Syrian people into poverty, reduced life expectancy by 20 years and led to massive economic losses estimated at over $200bn since the conflict began in 2011.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research painted a devastating picture of the “systematic collapse and destruction” of Syria’s economic foundations in the report, saying the nation’s wealth, infrastructure, institutions and much of its workforce have been “obliterated”.

Loss of income

Almost three million Syrians lost their jobs during the conflict, which meant that more than 12 million people lost their primary source of income, it said, and unemployment surged from 14.9 percent in 2011 to 57.7 percent at the end of 2014.

“As huge swatches of the community have lost the opportunity to work and earn an income, just over 4 in 5 Syrians now live in poverty,” the report said. “As it has become a country of poor people, 30 percent of the population have descended into abject poverty where households struggle to meet the basic food needs to sustain bare life.”

The report said the four-year-old conflict coupled with the country’s economic disintegration and social fragmentation have resulted in a 15-percent drop in Syria’s population – from 20.87 million in 2010 to just 17.65 million at the end of last year.

Syria now has the second-largest refugee population in the world after the Palestinians, with 3.33 million people fleeing to other countries, it said. In addition, 1.55 million Syrians left the country to find work and a safer life elsewhere while 6.8 million fled their homes but remain in Syria, it said.

The report, supported by the UN Development Programme and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said that as Syria’s economy continues to deteriorate, total GDP loss is estimated at $119.7bn – accounting for 59 percent of the overall economic loss of $202.6bn by the end of 2014.

As violence intensified, it said, the number of deaths in the conflicts rose dramatically to 210,000. Together with the 840,000 wounded, this represented 6 percent of Syria’s population killed or injured during the conflict, it said.

“Equally horrendous is the silent disaster that has reduced life expectancy at birth from 75.9 years in 2010 to an estimated 55.7 years at the end of 2014, reducing longevity and life expectancy by 27 percent,” the report said.

It said education is also “in a state of collapse” with 50.8 percent of school-age children no longer attending school during 2014-2015 and almost half losing three years of schooling.

103 civilians killed by anti-IS coalition, including US aid worker: NGO

March 11, 2015 by Nasheman

Syrian rights NGO reports that Kayla Mueller is among the 103 civilians killed by the international coalition’s airstrikes

Syrian refugees are seen at an urban renewal area in the Suleymaniye neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey on 1 March, 2015 (AA)

by Middle East Eye

A Syrian NGO on Tuesday claimed that the US-led international coalition’s airstrikes on the Islamic State and other groups in Syria has killed 103 civilians since its campaign started in September 2014.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, or SNHR, report documented the names, photos, place and time of the deaths.

The report claimed that 11 children and 11 women, including an American national – the aid worker Kayla Jean Mueller – were killed by the airstrikes.

Islamic State announced on 6 February 2015 that Mueller, an American hostage and aid worker, was killed in a Jordanian pilot’s coalition airstrike on IS in Raqqa’s eastern countryside. Mueller’s death was confirmed by US President Barack Obama four days after IS’s announcement, although the US denied their claims, blaming IS for her death.

“No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death,” Obama said in a statement on 10 February.

Mueller, 26, was captured on 4 August 2014 in the city of Aleppo, where she was en route with a Syrian friend to a bus station that would take her back across the Turkish border where she was based.

Mueller’s friend was released after a few months, but the Islamic State kept the young American aid worker prisoner. Some reports indicated that her family had received proof of life and a €5m ($6.6m) ransom demand.

Mueller’s parents received a private message from the White House, with additional information that was “authenticated” by intelligence, allowing them to confirm her killing.

Yet Carl and Marsha Mueller, speaking after the confirmation of their daughter’s death, provided no information regarding the details of her death, further fuelling speculation about the exact cause of her death.

The US has so far not admitted to killing any civilians, but has said it will probe a few specific allegations.

“Unfortunately, the coalition’s central command denies the deaths of civilians, although all the research contains testimonies, photos, videos and victims’ names,” Fadel Abdulghany, the head of SNHR said in the report.

A previous report by the network in December 2014 documented that at least 40 civilians had been killed by coalition airstrikes. Since December, at least 63 civilian deaths were documented, including three children and five women, leading to a total death toll of 103 civilians, the NGO said.

The coalition is conducting constant airstrikes on IS positions, infrastructure and projects. While coalition forces insist they are only taking aim at IS, there has been widespread concern that the strikes could be helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the London-based NGO said.

The coalition has carried out numerous airstrikes against IS in Iraq and Syria since the militant group took over most of Mosul, in northern Iraq, in June 2014.

Hamas reacts to potential Egyptian attack

March 10, 2015 by Nasheman

by Adnan Abu Amer, Al-Monitor

Hamas never imagined that it would be classified as a terrorist movement by an Arab country — a classification that has dangerous political, media and perhaps military repercussions.

However, Egypt’s Court of Urgent Matters declared Hamas a terrorist organization on Feb. 28 against the backdrop of the proven movement’s implication in armed operations that claimed the lives of Egyptian officers and soldiers in Sinai Peninsula, after its members seeped through the tunnels into Egypt.

Why is this decision dangerous? Egypt is considered the only leeway for Gaza where Hamas is in control. Egypt’s classification of Hamas as a terrorist organization implies that all efforts are being made to cut off its arms supplies and funding by all means necessary. Moreover, whoever cooperates with Hamas is considered a criminal by law, according to a statement on March 4 by Egypt’s Minister of JusticeMahfouz Saber. The law stipulates seizing Hamas properties, arresting all its affiliated members and confiscating their funds and locations.

As soon as the decision was issued, Hamas condemned it and Ismail Radwan, the former minister of awqaf and religious affairs and Hamas spokesman, told Al-Monitor, “The Egyptian decision constitutes a service handed to the Israeli occupation on a silver platter. Moreover, it has exported Egypt’s internal crises abroad. But Hamas won’t get carried away with side wars, and its weapons will remain directed against the occupation.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described on Feb. 28 the Egyptian decision as shocking and dangerous. He said that it targets the Palestinian people and their resistance and turns the tables, making the occupation a friend and the Palestinian people a foe. The decision shames Egypt and tarnishes its reputation, but it will not affect Hamas’ status.

Hamas did not only make political statements condemning Egypt’s decision, but also staged several public protests and mass marches all over the Gaza Strip after Egypt took this decision.

A high-ranking security source in Gaza told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The security apparatus in Gaza has in its possession documents condemning some officials in the Palestinian Authority [PA] who provided the Egyptian media with fabricated reports about an alleged role of Hamas in Egypt.”

However, the most important statement issued by Hamas came from its former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on March 3, when he underlined that Hamas is making calls to rectify the historical mistake in Egypt’s decision that is in direct conflict with Egyptian-Palestinian relations. Hamas is dealing patiently and wisely with the issue to right this wrong that neither suits the Arab nation nor Palestine.

Hamas has started pulling diplomatic strings from behind the scenes with influential states in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, to pressure Egypt to take back its decision. Al-Monitor had previously quoted some of Hamas’ internal sources expressing optimism about Saudi Arabia’s new role under the reign of King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, hoping for a more balanced stance on the part of the kingdom.

Hamas is making regional calls to stop the Egyptian decision, but the problem is that its main allies in the region, notably Turkey and Qatar, have a bad and tense relationship with Egypt. Therefore, Hamas is mainly hanging its hopes on Saudi Arabia, which is the most influential player in Egypt.

Egypt’s decision against Hamas coincided with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s visit to Saudi Arabia on March 1. Hamas is well aware that Egypt is careful not to anger Saudi Arabia, its main funder. Thus, Saudi Arabia has been asked to intervene to revoke Egypt’s decision.

Hamas has warned against expected repercussions on the ground with a possible military attack on the Gaza Strip, which according to an Egyptian anchorman close to the regime’s security circles could take place on April 1.

Hamas member of parliament Yahya Moussa, the chairman of the Legislative Council’s Oversight Committee, told Al-Monitor, “I rule out the possibility of a military attack waged by Egypt, despite information confirming otherwise. I personally believe that such a crazy act will not happen since the Egyptian regime can easily do without it.”

However, Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, who is currently in Egypt, said on March 1 that the Egyptian decision against Hamas is a prelude to its intention to attack Gaza.

Meanwhile, Radwan told Al-Monitor, “The Gaza Strip and Hamas will not take things lying down, although we don’t think the Egyptian army will get involved in massacres against Palestinians. Whoever is threatening Hamas should perhaps recall the bitter experience of the Israeli army in the face of [Izz ad-Din] al-Qassam Brigades.”

Hamas, despite having publicly declared the unlikelihood of an Egyptian military attack against it in Gaza, has taken precautions in case such a catastrophic scenario occurs.

Maj. Gen. Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, leader of the Palestinian security forces, said on March 5 that there has been security mobilization, while security sites stretching along the border with Egypt have been fortified so as to control the border, preventing any security incident from taking place. He also denied any direct contact with the Egyptian army during the ongoing patrols and activities on the border between the two countries.

The security measures by Hamas on the border with Egypt aim at preventing any infiltration from and into Sinai, as the movement fears to be dragged into an Egyptian internal conflict, which would have significantly negative consequences.

Wael Attiya, Egypt’s ambassador to the PA, said on March 3 that the media statements regarding the Egyptian army’s intention to target certain locations in Gaza does not express the official Egyptian stance because such plans are not on the agenda of Egypt’s political leadership.

In the past few days, Al-Monitor has learned of an internal position assessment that Hamas was circulating, but that has not been reported in the media. The assessment stated that there were several scenarios as to how Hamas would deal with a possible Egyptian attack on Gaza. Hamas could keep silent about the possible attack that would most likely be an airstrike without a ground offensive, or it could respond in a way that is in line with the magnitude and depth of the Egyptian attack. Hamas could also direct its response at Israel, so that the latter pressures Egypt to stop its attack on Gaza.

“All the previous scenarios have advantages and disadvantages, but Hamas will be careful to take the road that does not lead to a clash with the Egyptian army, as this option would be very costly,” the internal assessment stated.

Finally, Hamas knows very well that Egypt’s recent decision against it will likely kill any chance of communication between both parties and dismiss a possible Egyptian role in the Palestinian reconciliation, truce with Israel and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. This decision increases the possibility of an armed clash between al-Qassam Brigades and the Egyptian army, which is something that Hamas does not want.

Hamas is consistently practicing restraint vis-a-vis the official Egyptian enmity against it, either by toning down and controlling its reactions and steering clear of anger, or by increasing its calls with Arab states to pressure Egypt. At the same time, it is seeking to take any step that would keep the confrontation with Egypt at bay.

Boko Haram declares allegiance to Islamic State

March 9, 2015 by Nasheman

Video purportedly by leader of Nigeria group posted after female Islamists suicide bombers kill at least 50 in coordinated attacks in Maiduguri

The main gate to the Monday Market, Maiduguri, where a suicide bomb attack took place on Saturday. Photograph: Tunji Omirin/AFP/Getty Images

by Daniel Boffey, The Guardian

Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, which rules a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, according to a video posted online. The pledge came in an Arabic audio message with English subtitles alleged to have come from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and posted Saturday on Twitter, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring service.

“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims … and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” said the message.

The video script identified the caliph as Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Awad al-Qurashi, who is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State and self-proclaimed caliph of the Muslim world. Baghdadi has already accepted pledges of allegiance from other jihadist groups in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north Africa.

Boko Haram has been waging a six-year military campaign to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

Earlier on Saturday, four bomb blasts killed at least 50 people in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in the worst attacks there since Boko Haram militants tried to seize the town in two major assaults earlier this year. Female suicide bombers believed to be acting for the group launched a series of attacks in markets, while another detonation was reported at a bus station.

In a fifth incident, a car bomb exploded at a military checkpoint 75km outside the city, wounding a soldier and two members of a civilian defence unit. The attacker in this incident had wanted to reach Maiduguri, a police officer at the scene said. In total, it is believed 58 people have been killed in the incidents and 143 wounded, but both figures were expected to rise.

Maiduguri was once the base of the Islamist group, which has been conducting a campaign of violence pushing for Islamic rule in Nigeria. At least 13,000 people have so far been killed in the campaign. After being pushed from the city last year, the militants retreated to the nearby Sambisa forest, from where they launched attacks on villages and towns in the region, taking over swaths of territory.

Last month experts warned Boko Haram was likely to increase its attacks on civilian targets in response to the successful campaign by government forces to retake several of the group’s former strongholds.

The first attack on Saturday occurred at the city’s Baga fish market at around 11.20am, according to Abubakar Gamandi, head of the fisherman’s union in Borno state. “A female suicide bomber exploded as soon as she stepped out of a motorised rickshaw,” said Gamandi, who was at the scene. “Eighteen people were killed.” A market trader, Idi Idrisa, said: “I saw many bodies and several badly injured”.

About an hour later a second explosion rocked the Post Office shopping area near the market, leaving many casualties. A further series of bombs then rocked what is known locally as the Monday market, the biggest in Maiduguri, killing at least 15.

A trader there told the BBC that two other female bombers seemed to have targeted the market. One had a bomb strapped to her body that detonated as she was being scanned at the entrance gate, he said. Another woman was said to have exploded a bomb she was carrying in a bag a few feet away.

A fourth bombing came shortly after 1pm at the nearby busy Borno Express bus terminal, where witnesses said about 12 people were left either dead or injured. A survivor of the first blast said it occurred when a boy aged about 16 moved into a crowd by the gates holding what looked like a remote control. Security officials were about to stop the teenager when there was a blast. The witness said he was blown over by the impact and when he came to he saw at least six bodies.

A vigilante leader in Borno, Danlami Ajaokuta, whose civilian fighters have been working with the military in the region to fight Boko Haram, said security forces had ordered the closure of all businesses in the city given the apparently coordinated nature of the bombings and the fear there could be more. The state’s justice commissioner, Kaka Shehu, confirmed the attacks but declined to discuss casualties.

Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan said the tide has “definitely turned” against militant Islamists as Nigerian troops and their regional allies recapture territory.

Boko Haram has recently launched attacks on villages in Cameroon and Niger, as Nigeria’s neighbours are forming a multinational force to confront the spreading Islamist uprising.

Chad’s President Idris Déby last week said his forces knew the whereabouts of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and warned him to surrender or face death. Shekau’s fighters are massing at a headquarters in the northeastern town of Gwoza, in apparent preparation for a showdown with multinational forces, according to witnesses who escaped the town. An intelligence officer told Associated Press that they were aware of the movement, but that the military is acting with care as many civilians are still trapped in the town and Boko Haram is laying land mines around it.

Nigeria’s presidential and parliamentary elections have now been postponed by six week to 28 March to give troops time to push back the militants. Shekau has vowed to disrupt the vote and widespread unrest, especially near polling stations, could prove disastrous. Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict are living in Maiduguri, swelling the city’s population to well over two million.

Republican senators to Iran: Nuclear deal may be revoked after Obama

March 9, 2015 by Nasheman

The letter is the latest in a series of attempts by Congress Republicans to shut down a nuclear deal between the two countries in which Obama has advocated against additional sanctions on Iran, while US Republican and Israeli lawmakers say the proposed deal allows for too much nuclear power for the Islamic Republic. (AFP/File)

by JPost

A group of Republican senators has written a letter to the Iranian leadership warning that any nuclear deal Tehran signs with the current US administration will not necessarily be honored after President Barack Obama leaves office.

The letter, first reported by Bloomberg on Sunday, was initiated by Senator Tom Cotton and signed by 47 Republicans, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell and Orin Hatch.

The letter is the latest effort by Congress to gain some control over an emerging deal with Iran, which some senators see as allowing the Islamic Republic to retain too much of its nuclear infrastructure, a view that was expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech to Congress last week.

“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the letter states.

The senators point out to the Iranian leadership that any international treaty not approved by Congress “is a mere executive agreement.”

While President Obama is limited to two terms in office and will leave the White House in January 2017, “most of us will remain in office well beyond then – perhaps decades,” the senators state.

“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei, The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement any time,” they add.

Syria tells West: Accept that Assad is here to stay

March 7, 2015 by Nasheman

Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja’afari, speaks during a press conference during the Syrian peace talks in Montreux, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2014. (AP)

by Al Arabiya

Syria’s envoy to the United Nations said on Friday it is time for the United States and other Western powers to accept that President Bashar al-Assad is here to stay, and to abandon what he suggested was a failed strategy of trying to split the Middle East into sectarian enclaves.

Speaking on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Syrian war, Assad’s long-serving U.N. ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said his president was ready to work with the United States and others to combat terrorism in the Middle East.

“We don’t want any vacuum in the country that would create chaos such as happened in Libya and Iraq and … Afghanistan,” he said. “President Assad can deliver because he is a strong president. He rules over a strong institution, which is the Syrian army. He has resisted pressure for four years.”

“He is the man who can deliver any solution,” he added.

Britain and France have rejected calls to restore ties with the Assad government. U.S. officials say there is no shift in their policy regarding Assad, even as their focus is fighting Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which is also an enemy of Damascus.

“We have been open for cooperation (with the U.S.),” Ja’afari said. “They don’t want it.”

Some European Union countries that withdrew their ambassadors from Syria are saying privately it is time for more communication with Damascus, diplomats said in February.

Diplomats say the calls have come from or would be supported by countries including Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Spain, as well as the Czech Republic, which did not withdraw its ambassador. Norway and Switzerland, which are outside the EU, are also supportive.

Such countries say that the threat from Islamic State has made Assad the lesser of two evils, seeing a need to re-engage with Damascus as a potential ally against the extremists, according to the diplomats.

U.S. officials at the United Nations did not have an immediate comment on Ja’afari’s latest statements.

They noted recent comments to the Security Council by Washington’s U.N. ambassador Samantha Power rejecting the argument that countries should partner with Damascus to more effectively fight extremists.

The United States and other Western powers have condemned Assad for widespread human rights violations since the uprising against his government began in 2011.

But Ja’afari insisted that keeping Assad, who was re-elected last year in a poll his foes regard as illegitimate, was the only path to peace and unity.

“Not a Syrian conflict”

Ja’afari said that “many European delegations” had visited Damascus to ask for strengthened anti-terrorism cooperation, without specifying which countries.

“We are telling everyone … if you want this cooperation to be fruitful you need to get back to Syria, to reopen your embassies.”

Indicating that Damascus wants Assad restored to international political legitimacy in exchange for security cooperation, Ja’afari said that “the benefit of such cooperation should be mutual … not only unilateral.”

He blasted U.S. President Barack Obama’s strategy of training and arming what he described as “so-called moderate” rebels, saying it had only served to deliver weapons into the hands of Islamic State.

The training of rebels has proven difficult. The Hazzm movement was once central to a covert CIA operation to arm Syrian rebels, but the group’s collapse last week underlined the failure of efforts to unify Arab and Western support for mainstream insurgents.

“This is not a Syrian conflict,” Ja’afari said.

“It is an international terror war waged against the Syrian government and the Syrian people,” he added, referring to the tens of thousands of foreign fighters who have joined Islamic State and other jihadist group in the country.

[With Reuters]

Lebanon's Al-Akhbar shuts down English site

March 7, 2015 by Nasheman

Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin speaks during a meeting at the Press Federation in Beirut, Tuesday, May 13, 2014. (The Daily Star/Mohammad A Zakir)

by The Daily Star

Beirut: The English-language website of one of Lebanon’s most outspoken newspapers abruptly ended operations Friday, after a three-and-a-half-year stint, while plans to launch an English print edition were also put in the shredder.

Employees at Al-Akhbar English told The Daily Star that members of the newspaper’s management made the unexpected announcement Friday afternoon.

“We had two options: Either to go forward with a larger and much more expensive [print project], or to shut down,” Amer Mohsen, a senior member of Al-Akhbar’s editorial staff, told The Daily Star.

“And since the first option to publish the full-fledged paper was not possible, we decided to go the other way,” he said.

“Many factors,” including a lack of funds, led to closure of the website and the canceling of a paper launch, Mohsen added.

The closure comes days after three members of the staff were let go in unprecedented layoffs for the English site.

Al-Akhbar English, which was launched as an online-only platform in August 2011, had recently began preparing to transition into a full-fledged print newspaper under a new name, The Beirut Bulletin.

Originally, the management intended to continue running the news site until the launch of the paper, which was scheduled for summer.

But the site, which featured a blend of translations from the Arabic newspaper and original English content, was abruptly canceled when management realized plans for The Beirut Bulletin could no longer move forward.

'YouKnow' app: Palestine's voice of the voiceless

March 6, 2015 by Nasheman

A new app advocates for Palestine’s need for progressive access-to-information legislation.

‘The government needs to know how the people feel. They need to know what concerns them, what angers them’ [Getty]

by Creede Newton, Al Jazeera

Ramallah: An online platform that aims to open up access to information for citizens and increase accountability for politicians, was launched in the occupied West Bank on March 1.

The YouKnow Initiative is designed to bring activists, journalists, bloggers and citizens together with decision-makers, including the Palestinian Authority (PA), healthcare providers, telecommunications, and businesses.

The platform “resembles Facebook, Twitter; any number of social media sites,” said Saed Karzoun, the founder of YouKnow. Once they register, Palestinians “can post anything they want, without limits”, Karzoun told Al Jazeera. Currently, the application is available only via web browsers, but Karzoun hopes to build a smartphone application in the future.

Complaints, documented through videos and photos, about unpaved roads or unfinished infrastructure, for example, can be posted along with 300 characters of text. The user selects the official to whom the report will be sent from a list of officials and ministries. It then becomes available for all users to read.

After the complaint is posted, a “change” button allows for the official to respond. They can show that the issue has been addressed, or explain that it’s not within their domain.

“We hope to address people’s anger and frustration against decision-makers,” Karzoun explained. “The more information [officials] provide, the more understanding there will be between Palestinians and their leaders.”

Currently, there is no legislation guaranteeing freedom of access to information for Palestinians. The issue, however, has been hotly debated for years.

In 2005, a freedom of information bill was introduced for the first time, but since the suspension of the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2007, and due to Israel’s systematic targeting and detention of elected representatives as well as the internal Palestinian split, the motion has made no headway.

In December 2012, a committee of four legal experts, established by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), revised and amended the 2005 draft law on the right to access information.

A public campaign was also organised to bring together civil society activists, parliamentarians, access-to-information experts, journalists and Palestinian government officials to improve the draft law and advocate for its approval.

The campaign titled “Information is Power” advocated for Palestine’s need for progressive access-to-information legislation.

The result, according to analysts, has been a much-improved draft law and a decision by then-Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to ensure that the law is scheduled in the 2014 legislative calendar of the Palestinian government.

The amended draft law has been given positive assessment by independent international organisations like article 19 which pointed out that the draft law “contains many positive features such as; all public and private bodies receiving state funding or performing public work are obliged to provide information and setting up [an] information commissioner that will monitor the implementation of the law and examines complaints against denials of requests of information”.

In February 2014, the then new prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, showed support for the access-to-information initiative by publishing the draft, as amended by MADA, on his official website.

“We support the freedom of access to information,” Nida Younis, head of the Ministry of Information’s public relations told Al Jazeera. Younis added that “the draft law is currently awaiting approval”.

Younis also said the ministry supports YouKnow, and looks forward to collaborating with Karzoun. In Younis’ view, the platform will allow for all Palestinians to “have their say”, and pave the way for increased accountability.

“High-ranking personnel will no longer be able to say, ‘I didn’t know about this problem, I didn’t hear about it,'” she said.

A few months ago, Karzoun was informed by government officials that the same 2012 draft law on access to information was being considered, but it soon died out. “This is the problem, they (officials) begin discussing something, and then they stop.”

“The government needs to know how the people feel. They need to know what concerns them, what angers them. Hopefully it will motivate the government to introduce the law,” Karzoun concluded.

ISIL fighters bulldoze ancient Assyrian palace in Iraq

March 6, 2015 by Nasheman

Reported demolition at Nimrud comes less than a week after video was released showing destruction at Mosul museum.

Winged-bull statues were placed at the gates of Assyrian palaces as protective spirits [Getty Images]

by Jane Arraf, Al Jazeera

Baghdad: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters have used a bulldozer to start destroying a 3,000-year-old Assyrian city near Mosul in Iraq, archaeologists and other sources have told Al Jazeera.

The demolition at Nimrud on Thursday comes less than a week after video was released showing ISIL fighters destroying ancient artefacts in a Mosul museum.

“They came at midday with a bulldozer and started destroying the palace,” said an Iraqi official in touch with antiquities staff in Mosul.

She said the winged-bull statues known as lamassu at the gates of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II had been smashed. It was not clear what else had been destroyed on the site, about 20km southeast of Mosul.

In last week’s ISIL video , fighters were shown using power drills and sledgehammers to try to destroy similar statues at the ancient site of Nineveh, within Mosul.

The mutli-tonne figures were placed at the palaces’ gates as protective spirits.

One source told Al Jazeera the fighters warned Mosul residents last week that they would move on to Nimrud next. Hatra, a World Heritage Site, is also believed to be in danger.

Since 2002, the World Monuments Fund has listed Nimrud as one of the world’s most endangered sites. The intricate stone reliefs, exposed to the elements, have been decaying. Without security around the site, it has been exposed to looters.

The palace belonged to King Ashurnasirpal II, who ruled a powerful empire that included Iraq, the Levant, lower Egypt and parts of Turkey and the Levant. The palace was built with precious wood, marble and other materials brought from the furthest reaches of his kingdom.

Nimrud, known as biblical Calah, is believed to have first been settled 7,000 years ago. At its height, up to 60,000 people lived in the walled city, which contained lush gardens and sprawling parks.

Mostly excavated by the British, with the finds taken to the British Museum, the most spectacular discovery was an Iraqi one.

In the late 1980s Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Mahmood discovered a royal tomb containing one of the biggest finds of the last century – hundreds of pieces of golden jewelry and other objects belonging to an Assyrian queen.

Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Thursday condemned the destruction at Nimrud, stating that ISIL “continues to defy the will of world”.

Egypt closes 27,000 places of worship

March 5, 2015 by Nasheman

People perform Friday prayers led by Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi at Al Azhar Mosque in the old part of Cairo, Nov. 16, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

by Rami Galal, Al-Monitor

An Egyptian administrative court on Feb. 18 upheld the Ministry of Religious Endowments’ decision issued in September 2013 to close down neighborhood places of worship of less than 80 square meters (861 square feet), a move intended to protect young people from the militancy and extremism that can prevail in such places, which lack the legal standing to hold Friday prayers.

This move sets a precedent that raises many questions about the fate of mosques in many Egyptian villages, the grounds of which are usually less than 80 square meters. In reply, opponents of the decision such as the Salafist Nour Party claimed that closing down places of worship without providing a larger alternative serves to further bolster extremist ideology, considering that the larger existing mosques cannot accommodate Friday worshippers who line surrounding streets to pray. On the opposite end of the spectrum, supporters of the decision such as intellectuals and scholars say that those mosques are time bombs that threaten national security, as they fall outside the purview of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and are used to spread subversive ideologies.

At the same time, the ministry has awarded 400 preaching permits to Salafist leaders without requiring oration tests, despite the ministry’s previous and constant accusations that they spread extremism.

Ahmed Karimeh, a professor of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, told Al-Monitor that legal teachings and conventions specify that Friday, Eid and main prayers must be conducted in a mosque, and not in a neighborhood place of worship. The five daily prayers can be held at these informal sites, but not the special celebration prayers. In that sense, the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments upheld a recognized religious law.

Karimeh explained that closing those neighborhood places of worship, located in apartment buildings, commercial buildings or factories, would help mitigate the influence of extremist religious orators such as those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist groups or Shiites, who use those places of worship to take advantage of religious gatherings. As such, the Ministry of Religious Endowments’ decision, while late, was the correct one.

But Karimeh warned that the move would be to no avail if the ministry allowed people without credentials to take to pulpits. Initially, in August 2013, the ministry allowed only Al-Azhar imams access to pulpits, a decision later reversed in February when, for political considerations, the ministry allowed Salafists to preach, a disastrous decision that turned mosques into time bombs under the control of violent, Salafist-born militant factions, according to Karimeh. Allowing Salafists to preach for political considerations as an Islamic alternative to face the Islamic State ideology, at a time when hundreds of Al-Azhar scholars applied for but were denied preaching permits, runs contrary to the ministry’s repeated statements that it would bar non-Al-Azhar imams from taking the pulpit.

Karimeh criticized the ministry’s examination policy and said that it solely tested the applicant’s memorization of the Quran, without evaluating his general culture. He added that closing down neighborhood places of worship would not be enough to confront extremism. Toward that end, attention must be paid to the preachers, who should be properly schooled and financially compensated, so as to allow them to better educate themselves, instead of having to work as taxi drivers or vegetable vendors to provide for their families.

Karimeh also denied claims that some villages lacked proper mosques. It should be noted that neighborhood places of worship and mosques with surface areas of less than 80 square meters numbered 27,000 in all of Egypt’s provinces and villages.

Before the Ministry of Religious Endowments made its decision, the Egyptian Dar al-Fatwa issued a September 2013 edict, endorsed by a majority of religious scholars, barring the multiplicity of mosques in villages and cities, unless when absolutely necessary, as a plethora of places of worship only serve to divide believers. It explained that group worship was required for all scripted prayers, as those were celebrated for the love of God, but Friday prayers were inherently different, in that they are a form of offering to God.

An estimated 400 permits were issued to Salafists, who pledged not to use Friday prayers for political purposes. A follow-up committee was formed by the ministry in February to oversee new imams during Friday prayers, cancel their permits and initiate legal proceedings against them if they failed to abide by their agreement with the ministry, as well as permanently bar them from taking the pulpit of any mosque in the country.

The Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments previously adopted numerous measures to combat extremism and control religious rhetoric, and continuously affirmed that imams not affiliated with Al-Azhar would never be allowed to preach, going as far as to close down 27,000 neighborhood places of worship. The sudden shift in position by the ministry was followed by it issuing preaching permits to 400 Salafist leadership figures that it considered extremist, a clear reflection of the state of confusion that prevails in Egypt today.