PI Magazine November 2016

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Issue: 103

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Malaysia consider Whose Hajj is it anyway? scrapping F1

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November 2016

Muslim Schools Tops GCSE Progress

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Two state faith schools in Blackburn topped national tables for the biggest improvement in their pupils’ performance in GCSE exams this year, with grammar schools trailing behind a string of comprehensives and faith schools, Guardian reported. d by Certifie

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Tauheedul Islam girls’ high school in Blackburn came top for all schools in England using the government’s new Progress 8 measure of attainment, published last month.

It was followed in third place by Tauheedul Islam boys’ school, a follow us on fb

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free school established by the same Blackburn-based multi-academy trust.

The girls’ school registered a Progress 8 score of 1.38 – meaning its rate of improvement was more than an entire GCSE grade better than pupils with similar backgrounds nationally.

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By Craig Murray

Former Ambassador Human Rights Activist

“I support a No-Fly Zone in Syria – A real one that applies to NATO too”

When the neo-cons in the UK parliament and the serial warmonger Hillary Clinton call for a “no-fly zone” they actually mean the opposite.

They mean that NATO should be given untrammelled access to the airspace to carry out mass bombings – but that nobody else should.

We saw it in Libya. The argument goes like this. NATO aircraft need to enforce the no-fly zone. To do this in safety, they need to attack and destroy any ground to air weapons capabilities on the ground. That does not just include surface to air missiles, both carriage mounted and hand held, but anything that can be pointed upwards and fired. They need to take out by more bombing any stores that may house such weapons.

They need to take out any radar installations, including civilian ones, that may pinpoint NATO aircraft.

They need to destroy any runways and hangars, including civilian ones.

They need to destroy by bombing all military command and control centres, including those in built up areas. They need to destroy the infrastructure on which air defence

relies, including electricity generation and water supply, including civilian assets.

I am not exaggerating. That really is the doctrine of NATO for enforcing a “no fly zone”, as previously witnessed in Iraq and Libya. It really was NATO aircraft which did to the beautiful Mediterranean town of Sirte the destruction which you see in that picture – in order to enforce a no-fly zone.

Enforcement of the no-fly zone was the only authorisation NATO had for the massive bombing campaign on Libya which enabled regime change, which enabled rival jihadist militias to take over the country. They showed their gratitude by murdering the US Ambassador.

The failure of central government led to Libya becoming the operating site from which a number now in the hundreds of thousands of boat refugees have crossed to Europe.

Now they wish to do precisely the same again.

Make no mistake. Those calling for a “No-fly zone” do indeed want to stop the bombs falling on jihadistheld areas of Aleppo. But they want

to replace this with NATO dropping a vastly greater weight of vastly more powerful weaponry on areas held by the Assad regime. They are relentless warmongering bastards, pretending to be motivated by humanitarian concern.

There are no easy answers in Syria. Without Russian and Syrian government air power, Syria might well already have fallen to disparate groups of murdering religious fanatics, who would then have redoubled their existing tendency to also kill each other. The pretence that there is any significant number of pro-western democratic rebels is ludicrous nonsense. But so equally is the pretence that the Assad regime is a decent regime. It is not and never has been. There is always this pathetic reductionism in the western media to conflict as between “good guys” and “bad guys”. They are all killing civilians. They are all bad guys.

If all bombing were to stop, the danger is that jihadists would again gain the upper hand. But in a situation where there are no good options, I think that is still better than the continued bombing of civilian areas held by jihadists.

The fact that the West has repeatedly done this massively in Mosul or Fallujah does not make it right for the Russians or Assad to do it now. The moral balance now must be for a halt to all bombing and all military air operations – including by NATO. A security council resolution could be tabled calling for the end of all military flights, by anybody, over Syrian airspace.

The UK and US would oppose that, and so would all those Tories ad Blairites pretending to advocate a nofly zone in the House of Commons.

That would show up the bastards for the evil hypocrites they are.

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Religious hate crimes up 41% after Brexit www.pi-media.co.uk

I November 2016

England and Wales saw a sharp rise in hate crimes since the United Kingdom voted in a historic referendum to leave the European Union, a report by the U.K. Home Office revealed.

Police in England and Wales recorded 62,518 hate crimes between 2015 and 2016—a 19 percent increase from the previous

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year. Of those incidents recorded, 79 percent were classified as hate crimes based on race, 12 percent on sexual orientation, 7 percent on religion, 6 percent on disability, and 1 percent were classified as transgender hate crimes.

The most alarming rise in hate crimes, however, took place in the month after voters in England,

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Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland cast their ballots in favor of Britain leaving the EU. In July, a total of 5,468 hate crimes were reported to the police—41 percent higher than July 2015. More than 200 incidents were reported on July 1 alone.

The spike in hate crimes coincided with the announcement by Amber Rudd, the Home secretary, of a government initiative urging victims to report incidents of hate crimes “so that the full scale of the challenge facing communities can be understood and tackled.” It is unclear how much of the increase is due to the heightened willingness to report hate crimes.

“We are the sum of all our parts— a proud, diverse society,” Rudd said.

“Hatred does not get a seat at the table, and we will do everything we can to stamp it out.” www.pi-media.co.uk

Muslim schools tops GCSE progress

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Continued from front page The trust now runs 18 free schools and academies across England, including three non-faith schools.

Two schools run by the Harris multi-academy trust – in Battersea and east Dulwich – also appeared in the national top 10.

Using the government’s previous measure – the proportion of pupils getting grades A* to C in five subjects including English and maths – the national pass rate for state schools in England rose by 0.4 of a percentage point to 58.7%.

The new value-added figures offered evidence for both sides in the battle over expanding selective schools. Non-selective inner London local authorities outperformed those such as Kent that have maintained grammar schools in large numbers.

However, the national figures showed that the 163 grammar schools across England had better progress scores across all attainment levels than the other 2,800 state secondaries, achieving around a third of a GCSE grade higher than pupils with the same prior results at

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other schools. Experts said that was not surprising given the control that selective schools have over their admissions.

Selective schools dominated the new Attainment 8 measure, based on grades achieved in eight subjects including English and maths.

The average Attainment 8 score per pupil increased by 1.6 percentage points to 49.8% nationally, compared with the same data in 2015. The improvement was driven by increasing numbers of pupils entered for the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) suite of subjects, which is now includes nearly 40% of all pupils.

The gender split remains wide, with girls outperforming boys in all measures at key stage four. Boys recorded a negative progress score overall while girls had a positive figure.

The national A-level results showed little change on the previous year, with a 0.1 point decline in the proportion awarded A*-A to 26.4%, and a slight improvement in the proportion achieving A*-E to 98.8%.

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Israel turns away proPalestinian British activists www.pi-media.co.uk

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More than 100 pro-Palestinian British activists have been denied entry to Israel since the beginning of this year, official data shows.

Tobias Ellwood, the British minister for the Middle East, confirmed reports by the Israeli regime that of the 129,000 British citizens traveling to the occupied Palestinian territories, at least 115 have been deported, The Independent reported.

Of that figure, 50 people have been turned away from Tel Aviv’s airport, while 65 were denied entry at the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan into occupied the West Bank.

Although no official breakdown of the reasons for the refusals has been made available, many pro-

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Palestinian activists have spoken about the ongoing discrimination.

In August, Israel’s public security minister Gilad Erdan called for a ban on “Boycott activists,” referring to the supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS ever since it was initiated in 2005.

The Tel Aviv regime can turn away any individual at its borders and ban them from coming back for up to 10 years. People who have been rejected would be detained until they can be returned to their country, according to The Independent.

According to Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, a human rights

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lawyer who represents those who were denied entry, the rules are sometimes applied “in a discriminatory way.”

“What we’ve seen as a pattern in cases over the past five years is that those who are of Palestinian or Arab heritage, or who are coming in to do humanitarian work particularly in the West Bank, are disproportionately targeted,” she noted.

“Typically someone who is either Jewish, does not have a history of activism, or who is not of Palestinian or Arab heritage, will have an easier time getting quickly through passport control,” the lawyer added.

The UK Foreign Office has advised travelers to the occupied lands that they may need to sign pledges not to enter the Palestinian territories upon entry to Israel.

In some cases, the Israeli border officials have asked for access to a person’s social media accounts before letting them in.

People who get a chance to enter Israel would undergo detailed questioning upon departure and have their baggage inspected. Personal items such as laptops, phones and cameras should also be handed over to officials for thorough inspection.

Christians and Muslims work together on pioneering ethical finance plans

A world leading interfaith initiative aimed at creating a practical ethical financial solution will move a step closer this month at a private round table to be held in the House of Lords.

The Church of Scotland and Islamic Finance Council UK are convening a unique gathering of faith leaders, parliamentarians, and finance practitioners to agree a shared values framework upon which a financial solution, open to all in society, will be developed.

The joint venture, the culmination of many years of dialogue, was launched earlier this year in response to the systemic failure and non-sustainability of the current financial model that has struggled

to recover from the economic, operational and reputational damage caused by the global crisis in 2008/09.

By developing a pioneering new model of interfaith engagement the initiative aims to move from dialogue to action by creating a fairer, more socially responsible financial system.

The event is the second in a series of three workshops. The first, held in Edinburgh in May 2016, reviewed the theological and philosophical underpinnings of Christianity and Islam in order to identify commonalities.

Shared values identified during the discussions included: our role as stewards on a planet with limited natural resources, tackling excess

and greed and encouraging moral responsibility.

At the House of Lords workshop, the shared values framework will be reviewed and refined before participants explore the practical obstacles to realising a vision of ethical finance today.

Leading asset managers, banks and economists will share their insights on different type of economic model where ethical finance deepens the economy, encourages inclusion and creates positive social impact.

It is expected that the shared values framework, the first of its kind globally, will be announced early next year, informing the development of a viable ethical finance business solution.

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I November 2016

Charity takes legal action against Home Office over child refugees

A prominent British refugee charity has begun legal proceedings against the Home Office over its failure to provide shelter for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe.

Lawyers for ‘Help Refugees’ slammed the failure of Home Secretary Amber Rudd to relocate kids from a refugee camp in the French city of Calais.

The legal papers state that because of this failure, children “are exposed to serious risks of abuse and exploitation.”

“We absolutely think that the camp shouldn’t be there and no human being should live in those conditions, but we need to make sure that the

French keep their word so that proper alternative accommodation is provided and that the eviction is carried out as humanely as possible,” said Josie Naughton, co-founder of Help Refugees.

Concerns are growing about the safety of several hundred unaccompanied refugee children in the French shelter in Calais ahead of its demolition, which is expected to begin next week.

Lily Caprani from UNICEF UK said, “We are urgently calling for the UK to make sure comprehensive care plans are in place so that frightened children are not scattered by the bulldozers and facing a winter

alone without a home. Unless the authorities do the right thing, it is likely many children will now go missing or attempt more dangerous crossings to reach family in the UK.” Charities warn that there has been no attempt by the French or the UK authorities to re-house the children in safe alternative accommodation.

10 British lawmakers urged Rudd to transfer some unaccompanied refugee children to the UK. “Time is running out. Unless we step into the breach it will be a disaster. We haven’t got any more time for saying it is complicated.

We need a process now. The government can’t just wait it out and hope the problem goes away,” said Labour MP Stella Creasy.

Hundreds of child refugees have disappeared since arriving in the UK, with many possibly being exploited by human traffickers in the form of sexual abuse or modern slavery, according to a recent report by The Independent.

A study conducted earlier this year by Europol, the EU’s criminal intelligence agency, found that 10,000 child refugees have gone missing across Europe since arriving in the continent.

Nazia Nasreen, 31, says her range of dolls, colorful prayer mats, Quran cards and Arabic letter blocks fill a gap in the market and also help battle extremism.

Nasreen, from Birmingham, set up Ibraheem Toy House in 2014 and sells her products all over the world.

She said: ‘A lot of times children learn the wrong things and that’s where the extremism kicks in. If the right educational toys and books are provided from a young age, we can instill the correct Islamic ethos and values in our children’.

She is in a group of leading British ‘Muslim Mumpreneurs’,

which also includes Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, who juggle bringing up children and running successful businesses in what has traditionally been a male-dominated world.

The mother-of-two now sells 200 toys, games and other children’s products and her turnover has neardoubled to £30,000 in just a year.

Popular products include dolls for £25, foam Arabic alphabet blocks for £12.99, a cardboard minaret for £22, prayer mats for £17 and Ramadan bunting for £9.

The businesswoman, whose biggest markets are Britain and America, also says the toys can

‘instill the correct Islamic ethos and values in our children’ and put them on the path the peace.

Explaining the importance of her products, Nasreen said: ‘I want children to grow up being proud of their religion and heritage and knowing the truth about Islam.

‘We teach what any other religion would how to pray, spirituality, sharing so from day one they have the core belief. Then they know who they are and no one can misguide them’.

Nasreen set up the business because she struggled to find the right toys for her own family.

Muslim woman launches Islamic toy store online

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I November 2016

UK NEWS

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UK spying agencies collected Britons’ data for 17 years: Court

UK spying agencies secretly and unlawfully collected and stored personal data of Britons for 17 years, according to a court ruling.

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ collected data on everyone’s communications between 1998 and 2015, according to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the watchdog for intelligence agencies.

The agencies tracked individual phone and web use and other

confidential information without having adequate safeguards or supervision, senior judges ruled.

They did not abide by article 8 protecting the right to privacy of the European convention of human rights (ECHR), they added.

“The BPD (bulk personal datasets) regime failed to comply with the ECHR principles, which we have above set out throughout the period prior to its avowal

in March 2015. The BCD (bulk communications data) regime failed to comply with such principles in the period prior to its avowal in November 2015, and the institution of a more adequate system of supervision as at the same date,” the ruling stated.

Spying agencies, however, will still be able to continue to do so due to small tweaks to the law that allow them to flout the ruling.

According to Privacy campaigners, the ruling was “one of the most significant indictments of the secret use of the government’s mass surveillance powers” since Edward Snowden, a former contractor of the US National Security Agency, who first released the extent of American and British surveillance of citizens in 2013.

Secret documents leaked by Snowden also revealed that the GCHQ and the NSA had monitored more than 1,000 targets in at least 60 countries between 2008 and 2011 by secretly accessing cable networks carrying the world’s phone calls and internet traffic. www.pi-media.co.uk

UK to resume militant training in Syria: Defense minister

UK Minister of Defense Michael Fallon says British special forces will soon resume training “moderate” militants in Syria to bolster the fight against the Daesh (ISIL) group.

Fallon made the announcement last month.

“Daesh are on the back foot. The RAF [Royal Air Force] is already playing a leading role in the air, hitting them hard in Iraq and Syria,” the top military official said.

“Now we’re stepping up our support to moderate opposition forces in Syria, through training them in the skills they need to defeat Daesh,” he added.

Under the new program, Fallon

said the Defense Ministry would send 20 more of its personnel to the Middle East “to provide vetted members of the moderate Syrian opposition with the skills they need.”

Britain’s decision came in response to a request by the US, according to The Independent. British and American military forces had carried out similar militant training programs in Jordan.

The new effort would be an extension of an expensive program by the Pentagon that was supposed to “train and equip” up to 5,000 militants every year. However, it was discontinued in November last year, after failing to attract enough

volunteers.

The $500 million program’s few trainees were no good as most of them either deserted or surrendered their arms to other terror groups.

This time, however, Fallon said “strict vetting procedures” were awaiting the trainees in order to prevent similar problems.

The UK’s Special Air Service (SAS) forces have reportedly played a role in selecting the new recruitment.

Syria has been grappling with foreign-backed militancy since 2011.

The conflict has killed more than 400,000 Syrians, according to UN Special Envoy for Syria.

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UK playing key role in US drone programme

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UK is playing a covert role in the lethal US drone program, with American military personnel helping identify targets for airstrikes from British Royal Air Force (RAF) bases, according to their job specifications.

An RAF station located near Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, has posted job advertisements looking for analysts in support of US operations in Africa, The Guardian reported.

One advert was for an “all source analyst” to “perform a variety of advanced targeting operations ... in support of employment of GPS guided weapons, weaponeering and collateral estimation, as well

UK NEWS

as utilizing the tools required for advanced targeting.”

The resume of a US military analyst, uploaded to a British recruitment site, stated that he was an MQ-9 Reaper ISR Mission Intelligence Coordinator at Molesworth.

The MQ-9, which is the American chief strike drone, is capable of firing Hellfire missiles and dropping laserguided GBU 12 Paveway II bombs.

Another role advertised by Molesworth was for “full motion video analysts” to review videos taken by drones and other surveillance aircraft to identify potential targets.

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Now, the consultancy giant Booz Allen Hamilton is looking for a “maritime multi-level targeting analyst” to work at the same base.

The candidate will provide “comprehensive assessments... of intelligence data” to “support the client targeting cycle in order to answer intelligence questions” and “recommendations for further action or collection.”

Not with standing, the UK Ministry of Defense insists the US does not operate drones from the UK. A senior MoD source dismissed the reports as a “conspiracy” theory, noting that “the reality is that there are no US Remotely Piloted Air System support facilities operating anywhere in the UK.” However, human rights groups consider the descriptions of the roles as proof of the UK’s role in the covert US drone program, saying the country could be complicit in activities that may be in breach of international law.

“Simply to say that drones are not flown from the UK is missing the point, if it is personnel on British soil that are at the top of the so-called ‘kill chain’ and British agencies who are feeding targets into those lists,” said Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney at the human rights group Reprieve.

UK military under investigation for crimes in Iraq

A number of British military forces have been accused of mistreating Iraqi detainees during the 2003 US-led invasion and the subsequent occupation of the Middle Eastern country.

The Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) has launched a probe into the ill-treatment of two Iraqi citizens at the hand of British soldiers in the southern Iraqi city of Basra 13 years ago, the Guardian reported.

Faisal al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi were detained in 2003, after two British bomb disposal experts were captured during a militant

ambush on their convoy and were shot dead later on.

The two suspects were charged with murder and war crimes in 2006, but their sentences were overturned by the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) due to lack of evidence.

Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) reported the case to IHAT, which probes cases of torture, murder and mistreatment of Iraqi people

by British forces during their 6-year deployment to the Arab country.

Although the case bears significance because it sheds more light on the UK’s role in the

destructive occupation of Iraq, it is still far from fulfilling a public demand to hold the main planners of the war accountable.

In March 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in a blatant violation of international law, over Iraq’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’; but no such weapons were ever discovered in the country.

In July, the Chilcot Inquiry, a report on Britain’s role in the war, was published, strongly criticizing the government of then-prime minister Tony Blair for its decision-making process in the run-up to the invasion.

Muslim leaders to launch anti-radicalisation scheme

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Muslim leaders are to create their own initiative aimed at steering young people away from terrorism, in competition with the Government’s controversial Prevent programme.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which represents 500 charities, schools and mosques, is behind the new anti-radicalisation scheme.

“In reflecting the wishes of a cross-section of British Muslim society, our affiliates have directed the MCB to explore a grassrootsled response to the challenge of

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terrorism. Real challenges exists, as we see with Muslim families broken up as a number of children, mothers and fathers leave to travel to Syria,” the MCB told The Guardian.

Referrals to the Home Office’s Prevent programme, which is run by police and security officials, reached 8,000 in the year to April 2016, and the creation of a scheme that is a direct challenge is likely to raise concern it could draw people away from the government initiative.

Mosques are likely to be the backbone of the new initiative, with

I November 2016

individuals also able to be referred to the programme. And panels of community leaders, former police officers, and professionals from mental health and other agencies are set to support the scheme, the Guardian said.

Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu said Prevent was a “toxic brand”, adding: “It’s not rocket science: go back to how we defeated the IRA. Just like when we were dealing with the IRA, we needed the confidence of Catholic communities.”

The MCB said: “Having Muslims pass through subjective and discriminatory counter-extremism litmus tests as a condition of engagement only re-enforces the terrorist narrative.

“The Prevent strategy exacerbates this problem and it is quite clear that it does not currently have the support of many among Muslim communities across the UK, yet the threat of terrorism is real and severe.” www.pi-media.co.uk

UK halts Palestinian aid, claims terror links The UK government has put on hold aid payments to Palestine over claims that the funds are ending up in the wrong hands.

Britain’s International Development Secretary Priti Patel brought to a halt a £25 million aid payment to the Palestinian Authority until an investigation about the distribution of the fund was completed.

“We are not stopping for the Palestinian Authority overall, just delaying it to a date when we know our money won’t be going to people who do nothing in return for it,” a source within the ministry told the paper.

The money is reportedly one-third of London’s total payments to the Palestinian Authority, which operates under President Mahmoud Abbas.

The move follows London’s freezing of government grants to the World Vision charity, after its Gaza director was accused by Israel of misusing foreign donor money.

The unsubstantiated claims came at a time when the British government itself is under fire for striking major arms deals with governments that have been blacklisted by its own Home Office over violations of human rights.

Saudi Arabia, Israel and Bahrain were some of the biggest purchasers

of British weapons mentioned on the government list.

According to The Independent, the UK has provided the Israeli regime with ammunition, drone components and targeting equipment, assisting the Tel Aviv regime in its attacks against Palestinian women and children in Gaza Strip.

The territory has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007.

The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty. www.pi-media.co.uk

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I November 2016

WORLD NEWS

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UN: Food aid for 80,000 Rohingya blocked by Myanmar In Case You Missed It

Food aid deliveries planned for more than 80,000 people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have been blocked because of a military clampdown in the area, according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

A predominantly Rohingya area in the north of the state has been closed off after attacks on police posts allegedly by Rohingya fighters over a week ago prompted a surge in government troops, WFP said in a statement.

The WFP normally feeds 80,00085,000 people in the locked-down area, which borders Bangladesh, but aid deliveries have been disrupted and the military has prevented any supplies from getting through.

Rakhine state is where the

country’s Muslim Rohingya minority group has allegedly faced systematic persecution since unrest broke out in 2012.

“There is military everywhere and a curfew in place. It’s impossible to access any of the areas affected,” said Arsen Sahakyan, WFP’s partnership officer in Myanmar.

“The areas affected are also where we normally operate.”

According to state media, security forces have killed at least 30 people since the raids on the police posts. A tally of latest official figures show at least 40 people being held.

Activists say a violent crackdown has been unfolding, with troops shooting dead Muslim civilians and torching their villages. But the military

says it has been fending off violent attacks.

The government has blamed the attacks on an armed group called “Aqa Mul Mujahidin” and said hundreds of fighters are planning more attacks.

The unrest has raised fears of a repeat of the 2012 sectarian conflict that left more than 100 dead and drove thousands of Rohingya into squalid displacement camps.

About 125,000 Rohingya remain displaced and face severe restrictions on their movements, education and access to food while living in sqaulid camps.

Tensions have recently simmered between the Buddhist Rakhine community and the Muslim Rohingyas, and fears that unrest between the two groups will spread to other parts of the state have prompted the WFP to restart aid to some 6,000 displaced people whom they had stopped feeding several months ago.

Many Rakhines - who are also an impoverished community in Myanmar - resent the international aid given to the Rohingya.

The EU, in July, urged Myanmar’s government to put an end to the “brutal repression” and “systematic persecution” of Rohingyas, but their requests for unimpeded access to areas where the Rohingyas were targeted have largely been ignored.

Over 3,800 people displaced amid Mosul operation In Case You Missed It

More than 3,800 people have been displaced in areas around Mosul since a major offensive was launched last month to oust ISIL from the northern Iraqi city, according to the ministry of migration and displacement.

Some 904 people were transferred from Bashiqa and Gayara fronts to a refugee camp in the

Sheikhan district south of Mosul, the ministry said in a statement.

Qassim Atiyye, the spokesman for the ministry told Anadolu Agency that the camps for the displaced could accommodate up to 300,000.

The Iraqi army, backed by U.S.led coalition airstrikes, launched a much-anticipated operation to retake Mosul, the last ISIL stronghold in

northern Iraq.

ISIL captured Iraq’s second largest city in mid-2014 before overrunning large swathes of territory in the country’s northern and western regions.

The army and its allies have staged a gradual advance on the city, which officials in Baghdad have vowed to recapture by year’s end.

Muslims in Italy protest over freedom to worship 14

I WORLD NEWS

Several hundred Muslims staged a protest prayer outside the Colosseum in Rome last month over what they see as unfair restrictions on their freedom to practise their faith in Italy.

Organisers said they had called the demonstration following the recent closure on administrative grounds of five makeshift mosques.

Many Italian Muslims suspect local authorities are responding to a climate of mistrust caused by recent Islamist attacks in Europe by closing down the places of worship on the grounds of easily resolved problems such as the number of toilets on a particular premises.

“We feel people are pointing the

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finger at us,” said Francesco Tieri, a convert to Islam who acts as a coordinator for a number of Islamic groups.

“There is no political will to recognise that we are here and that we are a peaceful community.

“We are forced to rent places to pray -- which for us is like breathing air, if we can’t do it we die.”

According to official figures there are just over 800,000 Muslims living in Italy legally and officials estimate that a further 100,000 live in the country permanently without official papers.

That would suggest the community makes up more than 1.5

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percent of the population and that Islam is the second most followed faith in the mostly Roman Catholic country.

Muslim women attend Friday prayers near Rome’s ancient Colosseum on October 21, 2016 to protest against the closure of unofficial mosques Islam however is not recognised as an official religion, unlike Judaism or the Mormon faith, and many Muslims from north Africa and South Asia feel discriminated against on the grounds of both race and religion.

Rome is home to the biggest mosque in the Western world but proposals to construct traditionalstyle mosques elsewhere have frequently run into opposition from local councils who can withhold planning permission on any number of technical grounds ranging from the size of proposed parking facilities to the architectural harmony of a particular neighbourhood.

Right wing parties have called for a blanket ban on any mosques built with funds from donors outside of Italy.

Lawmaker Barbara Saltamartini of the anti-immigration Northern League called last month demonstration “an unacceptable provocation” which should never have been allowed to take place in Rome.

Moroccan Islamist party wins new mandate in elections The moderate Islamist Party of Justice and Development won Morocco’s national elections, despite frustration with its handling of the economy in its five years leading the government and a challenge from a party close to the royal palace.

The Interior Ministry said that the party, known as the PJD, won 125 of the 395 seats in the Chamber of Representatives. The Party of Authenticity and Modernity, founded

by an adviser to the king, won 102 seats, and several other parties shared the rest of the seats.

No party won a majority, so the PJD will likely need to create a coalition government. The party won elections in 2011 for the first time, riding a wave of Arab Spring protests demanding political reform and less centralized power within the hands of the royal palace.

Worries about youth joblessness,

high debt and Islamic extremism were on many voters’ minds. The results are being closely watched

by Morocco’s neighbours, who see it as a model of relative stability and prosperity in the region, and are important for Morocco’s allies in the West, who have investment deals with the North African nation and share intelligence in fighting the Islamic State group. www.pi-media.co.uk

Dutch targeted in appeal over Srebrenica genocide

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I November 2016

The Dutch state appealed against a court ruling which found it liable for the deaths of over 300 Bosnians during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, saying nobody could have foreseen the massacre.

“Nobody would have thought that a genocide could possibly take place in Europe in 1995,” government lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers told an appeals court in The Hague.

Relatives of the victims, who first initiated the case, are also appealing the 2014 ruling, calling for the Dutch state to be held liable for the deaths of all 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed at the UN-protected enclave in eastern Bosnia during the bloody

WORLD NEWS

1992-95 civil war.

Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims group, who lost 22 members of her extended family, said: “We have nothing against the Dutch people.”

“But we feel the soldiers and particularly the commanders had an absolute duty to protect us,” she told AFP speaking through an interpreter.

In 2014, a court in The Hague ruled the Dutch peacekeepers should not have expelled 300 Bosnian Muslims on July 30 1995 from their UN base at Potocari near Srebrenica after it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.

The Dutch state was therefore

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held liable for their deaths.

But arguing the Dutch were responsible for all the almost 8,000 deaths, the families’ lawyer Marco Gerritsen said the Dutch troops had “placed their safety above everything else.”

“They did not carry out United Nations instructions to protect citizens and fight back,” Gerritsen told the court.

“Instead they knowingly handed men and boys over to their killers,” on July 13, 1995, said another lawyer for the families, Simon van der Sluijs.

The court in The Hague said it would rule on both appeals on March 14 next year.

Events around Srebrenica have cast a long shadow in The Netherlands, forcing a cabinet resignation in 2002 ,and were seen as a major failure on the part of the United Nations.

But the Dutch state has squarely placed the blame for Europe’s worst post-World War II massacre on the shoulders of Bosnian Serb troops.

About 100 former Dutchbat soldiers, as they are known, have also said they may sue the government, after the defence ministry admitted they had been sent on a “mission impossible.” www.pi-media.co.uk

First sentence confirmed against Egypt’s Morsi Egypt’s top appeal court has upheld a 20-year sentence against expresident Mohammed Morsi for attacks on protesters in late 2012.

The Islamist leader is still appealing a death sentence and two other prison terms.

Cairo’s Court of Cassation rejected Morsi’s appeal last month, confirming prison terms for him and eight of his co-defendants.

The decision marks the first time a sentence against Morsi has been finalized since he was ousted by military in 2013.

The former president has

been convicted of torture, false imprisonment, and misuse of force against protesters who gathered outside the presidential palace in December 2012. However, Morsi and the other defendants were cleared of murder charges for 11 people who were killed in the clashes between his supporters and opponents.

Morsi ruled Egypt for 12 months in 2012 and 2013, before he was forcibly removed by then-military commander Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The general went on to become president in 2014 and lead a violent crackdown against Morsi’s Muslim

Brotherhood.

In a series of controversial trials, the ex-president was sentenced to death, a 40 year prison term, as well as life in prison for issues varying from plotting jailbreak to leaking military secrets to Qatar.

All of these court decisions, however, can still be appealed or overturned.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death since the army takeover. Most of them have yet to be finalized. Only one person has been hanged so far for killing an anti-Morsi protester.

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UNESCO approves resolution on Palestinians’ right to Al-Aqsa

The United Nations cultural and scientific agency has adopted a resolution reaffirming the right of the Palestinians to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

A spokesman for the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said that the agency’s executive board passed the measure by consensus.

A draft of the resolution, titled “Occupied Palestine,” had already been approved by the UNESCO commission.

Twenty-four countries voted in favour of the UNESCO resolution on October 11, twenty-six states abstained from voting, while six countries-the United States, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia - opposed the motion.

The resolution slammed the Tel Aviv regime for hampering Muslims’ freedom of worship by “escalating aggression and illegal measures” regarding the holy site, Press TV reported.

It further condemned the “continuous storming of al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif by

the Israeli right-wing extremists and uniformed forces … [and] forceful entering by so-called ‘Israeli Antiquities’ officials.”

The draft resolution prompted a furious reaction from Israel as it suspended its ties with UNESCO. Mounir Anastas, Palestine’s deputy ambassador to UNESCO, said that the motion “reminds Israel that they are the occupying power in East Jerusalem and it asks them to stop all their violations,” including archaeological excavations around religious sites.

It is the second time this year that UNESCO has approved an anti-Israeli resolution. Back in April, the organization passed a motion denouncing “Israeli aggressionsand illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to the al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Palestine became the 195th full member of UNESCO in October 2011, triggering a cut in Tel Avis’s funding to the agency.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid alNabawi in Medina. www.pi-media.co.uk

Qatar royal family consider share in Deutsche bank Qatari investors, including members of the royal family, are considering raising their stake in Deutsche Bank to 25 percent to shore up the embattled lender’s capital position, German weekly Der Spiegel reported.

Qatari ex-premier Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani and his cousin, the former emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, currently own 10 percent of the German bank’s shares, the report said.

Deutsche Bank has been in crisis mode since a US demand last month for a $14-billion fine for selling toxic

mortgage bonds sparked fears over the lender’s financial health, sending its share price plummeting to a record low.

If the Qatari group does indeed raise its stake in Deutsche to 25 percent, the investors would likely expect to have a say in management issues, Spiegel reported.

Without citing its sources, the magazine said the Qatari royals were “increasingly unhappy” with the current management under CEO John Cryan.

“If the Qataris were to raise their stake they would probably also push

for changes to the management,” it added.

The German finance ministry told Spiegel it would have no objections to a greater investment by the Qatari group.

Deutsche Bank’s woes have eased somewhat after an AFP report said the German giant was in talks to reduce the fine to a more palatable $5.4 billion, although concerns remain over the bank’s relatively weak capital foundations.

The bank has insisted it will not require a bailout. www.pi-media.co.uk

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Gujarat riots accused first to be extradited to India by UK

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The United Kingdom has extradited a wanted accused to India for the first time since the countries signed an extradition treaty in 1992, PTI reported. In August, Scotland Yard officials arrested Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who is wanted in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. Indian authorities had issued a Red Corner Notice against him.

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The extradition order against the 40-year-old accused was signed by UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd (pictured above) on September 22.

The UK High Commission issued a statement that said, “Following the Government of India’s request for extradition, Mr Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, an Indian national, was extradited on October 18 to face trial

in India.”

According to a report by Hindustan Times, Patel “consented” to the extradition, unlike others on India’s extradition list. This helped fast-track the process. His reasons for agreeing to the extradition have not been disclosed. Patel has been accused of rioting in an incident where 23 Muslims were burnt alive in Gujarat’s Ode village.

Other accused on India’s extradition and deportation list to the United Kingdom include businessman Vijay Mallya and former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi in financial cases, Ex-naval officer Ravi Shankaran in connection with the Indian Navy war room leak and gangster Tiger Hanif in the 1993 Gujarat blasts case.

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Chinese airline flies to ‘Palestinian Territories’ The Chinese airline, Hainan Airlines, which began operating in Israel half a year ago has come under scrutiny for marking Israel on its multimedia flight system as “Palestinian Territories.”

Israeli passengers aboard the TelAviv-bound plane from Beijing were shocked to discover that the word “Israel” was nowhere to be seen on the map.

The screens, which were photographed on a flight which landed in Ben Gurion Airport, display Syria, Cyprus and Lebanon but only Tel Aviv and Jerusalem appear on the map while Israel is clearly omitted.

According to the report, a passenger wrote on Facebook that he described during the flight that Israel was not featured on the in-flight navigation map and that instead, “Palestinian Territories” was listed.

“I wanted to see how the plane was progressing toward its destination and thus took a look at the in-flight navigation map. I was surprised when I saw that the plane’s destination on the screen was listed as the ‘Palestinian Territories’ and not Israel,” wrote the passenger, according to EJP. The passenger attached a photograph of the screen, which

displayed Syria, Cyprus and Lebanon but only Tel Aviv and Jerusalem without Israel’s name.

In response, Hainan Airlines said, “We thank you for contacting us and turning our attention to this regrettable technical mistake. The airline is working to fix the maps as soon as possible along with the external software supplier.

“We would like to mention that the word ‘Israel’ clearly appears on the maps in the zoomed-in view.

We will continue to promote Israel as a tourist destination in China just as we have always done with a lot of pride,” added the airline’s statement. www.pi-media.co.uk

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French high school student told his beard is ‘sign of radicalization’

A student of a French high school was threatened with expulsion after he refused to comply with the headmaster’s demand to shave his beard, which the headmaster considered a “sign of radicalization.”

“You cut it or you leave,” the headmaster reportedly told the student, as reported by newspaper Le Parisien. The head teacher also reportedly claimed that the student’s beard is an apparent “sign of radicalization.”

When the headmaster first asked the student to shave or shorten

his facial hair, the young man, 21, explained that he had been cultivating his beard for two years for religious reasons.

“The Prophet [Muhammed] was wearing one. It is something important to me,” the student, who wanted to remain unidentified out of fear of “being stigmatized even more,” told Le Parisien, recalling his conversation with the head teacher.

He also added that the head teacher’s “threats put pressure” on him and he “ended up” writing a letter to inform him that he was leaving

the school. According to Le Parisien, the student has not attended school since October 13.

“He [the headmaster] gave me a few days for reflection to see if I change my mind and shave [the beard]… but I will not!” the student told Le Parisien. The student, who is a son of an atheist and a nonpracticing Muslim.

“I am not the only one with a beard, both among students and teachers,” he said. In the meantime, the young man received support from his classmates. “It looks like it was the parents who complained to the headmaster. Everything is mixed up!” one girl told Le Parisien.

The incident took place in the Parisian northern suburb of SeineSaint-Denis, where some of the terrorists, who were involved in the Paris attacks in November 2015, were living.

The issue of openly demonstrating religious signs becomes increasingly touchy in secular France as it also becomes more politicized. In 2004, France imposed a ban on students displaying any religious signs in school, including wearing veils by Muslim women and girls. However, beards were not mentioned in that legislation.

Christian party wants to ban calls to prayer in Dutch Mosques Christian party SGP wants to ban mosques in the Netherlands from making their daily calls to prayer with the words “Allahu Akbar”, party leader Kees van der Staaij said to broadcaster NOS. “We’re not in the Middle East here. We don’t have to find it normal that at so many times, with that volume, ‘Allah is great’ blares through the street”, the SGP leader

said. “We have recently seen more and more irritation arise about these prayer calls.”

According to him, this measure would need no constitutional changes – the number of prayer calls can be limited through the public demonstrations law.

According to Van der Staaij, Muslims in the Netherlands have more freedom than in many Muslim

states. “We do not have to let our freedoms talk.”

Asked about the SGP’s plan, Minister Ronald Plasterk of Home Affairs pointed out that the same rules that apply for mosques’ calls to prayer also apply to church bell.

The right to call to prayer is part of the Constitution, in Article 6 on the freedom of religion. www.pi-media.co.uk

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OIC lists Gulen network as ‘terror group’

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In Case You Missed It

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) listed a group linked to Turkey’s July 15 coup attempt as a terrorist organisation, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed.

“We thank the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation over showing solidarity by understanding our sensitivities and declaring the Gulen group as a terror group,” Cavusoglu posted on his Twitter account and described the OIC move as a “milestone”.

The OIC’s Parliamentary Union, meeting in the Uzbekistan capital Tashkent, denounced all forms of terrorism in a joint declaration.

The body issued a declaration following the meeting expressing its solidarity with Turkey in fighting terror.

Foreign ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states designated the Gulen group a terrorist group and stressed their support for the Turkish government’s recent moves against the network.

Founded in 1969, the OIC, with a current membership of 57 states, is the second-largest intergovernmental organisation after the UN and describes itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world”.

Turkey has been a member since 1969.

Led by Fetullah Gulen, the Gulen group is accused of organising the defeated coup as well as a longrunning campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Turkey has repeatedly asked the US to extradite Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.

Source: Middle East Monitor

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Finland schools offer Islamic studies for Muslim children Finnish pupils in elementary education have started their school year of 2016 with a new national curriculum.

In Finland, every school is obliged to offer subject education in Islam for Muslim children, when at least three students would select it instead of the majority Evangelic Lutheran religious education or alternatively Ethics.

Whereas until now the contents of teaching and learning for minority religion subjects (i.e. not Evangelic Lutheran) such as Islam, Mormonism, etc. were determined in a separate document, the curriculum

for Islam has been revised so that it is now for the first time included in the new national curriculum.

The change means that Islam as a school subject is now treated with the same degree of attention as all the other subjects are.

As for each religious subject the curriculum is categorized into three different content areas; “Relationship to one’s own religion”, “Religious diversity in the world” and lastly “Good life principles”, the contents of Islam are hence comparable also with other religious subjects such as Catholicism and Judaism, ensuring equal literacy in their respective

religions for students of these subjects.

The new curriculum aims at empowering the pupils of today to be able to deal with issues concerning the Finnish society in the early 21st century.

The content areas outlined for the subject of Islam throughout the class levels 1-9 include for example reflections on religion as part of one’s cultural identity, the historical influence of Islam in the European culture, political Islam, inter-religious dialogue and religion in media and popular culture. www.pi-media.co.uk

FC Barcelona to play in Doha in December 20I

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Qatar Airways has announced plans for FC Barcelona to play Al-Ahli Saudi FC in a friendly match in Doha in December.

The teams, both sponsored by Qatar Airways, will play in Thani Bin Jassim Stadium on Tuesday, December 13, the airline said in a statement.

Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar

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Al Baker said: “We are proud to bring together two champions of football to play in Doha, to showcase not only their athletic excellence but also Doha’s extraordinary sports infrastructure.

“Qatar Airways recognises the unifying power of sport, bringing people from around the world together in common purpose.

Through our continued sponsorship of FC Barcelona and Al-Ahli Saudi FC we are proud to be a part of their great success stories.”

The airline’s relationship with FC Barcelona began in 2013, and since then its has doubled the frequency of flights to Barcelona and Madrid, he added.

This year, Al-Ahli won the Saudi Professional League - the first time in 32 years. The club won the Saudi Super Cup and the King Cup, and came runner-up in the Crown Prince Cup. Meanwhile, FC Barcelona won their 23rd La Liga title this year, the Copa del Rey and they are the reigning champions of the Fifa Club World Cup. In October 2014, Qatar Airways announced a sponsorship agreement for three seasons with Al-Ahli. Earlier this year, Qatar Airways extended its FC Barcelona sponsorship for another season, with the deal running until July 2017.

Malaysia consider scrapping Formula One motor race

Malaysia is considering halting the annual Formula One Grand Prix race after its contract ends in 2018 due to declining ticket sales and TV viewership.

In a series of posts on his official Twitter account, the sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the costs of holding the race were too high, while the returns were limited.

“When we first hosted the F1 it was a big deal. First in Asia outside Japan. Now so many venues. No first mover advantage. Not a novelty.”

“F1 ticket sales declining, TV viewership down. Foreign visitors down b/c (because) can choose Singapore, China, Middle East.

Returns are not as big,” he said.

State oil and gas firm Petronas are the title sponsors for the F1 race in Kuala Lumpur. The company has been hit hard in recent times by the tumble in oil prices.

The chief executive of the Sepang International Circuit (SIP), where the races are held, said ticket sales for the race had dropped since 2014 and initial reports showed this year’s TV viewership in Malaysia were the lowest in history.

Razlan Razali told state news agency Bernama that although the venue had a ‘watertight agreement’ with license holders until 2018, a “temporary withdrawal from F1 could be beneficial for the country to take a break.”

The Malaysian Grand Prix was last held September, when Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo claimed his maiden win of the season.

The event was marred by controversy after nine Australians were arrested at the circuit for stripping down to swim wear printed with the Malaysian flag, angering locals who called the act a sign of disrespect

India beat Iran to win kabaddi world cup 2016 www.pi-media.co.uk

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I November 2016

Indian kabaddi team made the country proud as it lifted the World Championship title for the third successive time. In a highlyfancied summit clash against spirited and tough team from Iran, India came from behind to score a comprehensive 38-29 win in Ahmedabad.

In perhaps the most exciting match of the tournament, the Indians overturned a first-half deficit with a superb second-half show. The hosts were trailing 13-18 in the first half and the second half saw fortunes change massively as Ajay Thakur proved to be India’s best raider. They not just doubled the points within ten

minutes of the second half but also managed to deflate the Iranian spirit with successful raids and impressive tackles.

India have thus won all the three Kabaddi World Cups held so far.

They have beaten Iran in the finals of all the three editions.

Kenya were named the emerging team of the tournament as they won a lot of hearts and almost made it to the semi finals. Jang Kun Lee who had a superb tournament was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Cup. The best referee of the tournament award was given to SMA Mannan from Bangladesh.

The tournament consisted pf 12 countries – India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Kenya, Iran, England, USA, Thailand, Bangladesh and Argentina.

Data shows lack of racial and gender diversity in sports media

New research from the BCOMS (Black Collective of MediaSports) sports media diversity group has highlighted the lack of ethnic minorities and women amongst British journalists reporting on big sporting tournaments.

The headline findings include the startling revelation that of 51 UK newspaper reporters at Euro 2016 this summer only one female journalist was working at the tournament.

The figures were revealed at the D-word2 conference in London last month, which took place as part of the Football People weeks. The data covers media representation at four of the biggest global sports events over the summer of 2016 – the Wimbledon Tennis championships, Euro 2016 in France, the Olympic and Paralympic games in Brazil.

The research looked at 456 roles

and found that there were only 12 female newspaper reporters out of a total of 143 across all four events (a total of 8.4%), there were just eight black journalists who were not former athletes across the 456 roles and there were only six ethnic minority women (1.3%). In TV and radio only 19 out of 113 commentators were women.

The conference was attended by 200 delegates at BT Sport studios in Stratford and heard senior decision makers in UK sports media – including Simon Green, Head of BT Sport, Philip Bernie, BBC Head of TV Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, Sports Editor of The Times, Andy Cairns, Sky Sports News Executive Editor and Stephen Lyle, Channel 4 Commissioning Editor pledge to do more to increase diversity within the industry Broadcasters Hugh Woozencroft,

Jessica Creighton, Benny Bonsu and Jeanette Kwakye chaired the conference discussions which will be used by BCOMS to produce a guide on how to address the lack of diversity in the industry.

Leon Mann, BCOMS Founder and broadcaster, said: “The #DWord2 was a success. To see so many delegates come together – including many of the most powerful decision makers in the business – to discuss, debate and come up with solutions to address a lack of diversity in the sports media is another significant step forward in this area.

“The focus now is on the industry taking on board many of the excellent ideas generated by the conference to help change a worrying situation where we have a sports media that is totally unrepresentative of modern society in the UK.”

Whose Hajj is it anyway?

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By Islamic Human Rights Commission-UK The Ummah’s Hajj The pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca) is obligatory for all Muslims who can make the journey. The physical act of going to Makkah to be in the company of Muslims from all over the world, of all backgrounds, worshipping the same God, based on the same message of the Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and following the same guidance in the same holy book makes Hajj a unique feature of Islam. Historians and scholars have noted how “[I]slamic cultural unity and solidarity, a tangible sense of being an umma, were very largely created by the hajj.”

The unity created amongst such a pluralistic body is something to be celebrated and protected. After all, Allah says in the Quran “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.” Unity is thus a key value within Islam.

Unfortunately, under Saudi supervision, this unity has not been preserved, nor has the management of Hajj been anywhere near adequate.

‘Saudi’ Hajj It is worth remembering that Makkah was not always part of the entity known as Saudi Arabia. Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, invaded Hejaz in 1924, which was then ruled by Hashemite King Hussain bin Ali, himself the second Sheriff of the city during the short period of the Kingdom of the Hejaz (1915 – 1926) having taken over at the collapse of the Ottoman administration. Having taken control of the land, Saudi Arabia was then established in 1932. As King Hussain fell out of favour with the British because he was unwilling to accept the Anglo-French mandate within the region, the British came to accept and support Ibn Saud with his followers.

This typifies the ‘divide and rule’ approach of the colonial powers of

the time and provides an important context for how the formation of the state of Saudi Arabia is rooted in conquest, personal ambition, and wider geo-political interests. Of course, in and of itself the “nationStates framework… is designed to make permanent the division of the Ummah, whereas the objective of Hajj is to unite the Muslims”.

In a post-colonial world, then, where the primary form of political, social and economic organisation is the nation state, the importance of transcending borders to ensure collective Muslim ownership of Hajj, a common religious institution, must be stressed.

Along with the circumstances in which Saudi Arabia was born, the nature of this monarchy demonstrates that it is hardly suited to serve the international Muslim community as protector of the Holy Cities. Prior to Saudi control, “the interpretation of Islam held by the ruler of Makkah… did not generally affect pilgrims.”

In contrast, under Saudi rule, Wahhabism is the official doctrine of the regime and its approach has been imposed on pilgrims. Initially, resistance to Wahhabi policies was witnessed to the point where Ibn Saud had to actually persuade pilgrims to perform the first Hajj under his rule.

Cultural practices that existed for centuries have stopped altogether under Saudi rule. For example, the Egyptians had traditionally sent a ‘mahmal’ to Makkah. This was a ceremonial centrepiece festively carried on a camel through the streets of Cairo before being taken to Makkah. It was accompanied by a brass band.

However, British officials had requested in the 1920s that the Egyptian government not send this because of Wahhabi opposition to such practices. Ultimately, there was a physical clash between Egyptians carrying the ‘mahmal’ and Saudis and after 1926 the tradition of carrying the ‘mahmal’ to Makkah ended.

Tombs and houses of those revered by Muslims of all sects have been destroyed because the practice of visiting such places is deemed idolatrous according to state sanctioned Wahhabism. Most Muslims will be aware that the house of the Prophet’s first wife, Khadijah, has been turned into public toilets.

In 1998, the grave of the Prophet’s mother, Amina bint Wahb, was bulldozed and gasoline was poured on it.

Over 98% of Saudi Arabia’s historical and religious sites have been destroyed since 1985 according to the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.

These sites need to be preserved in order to understand our shared Islamic history.

The divisive nature of Saudi authority was recently demonstrated when the Saudi regime’s most senior cleric said that Iranians are not Muslims.

This aggressive, confrontational style towards anyone who openly opposed Saudi Arabia’s policies is not new and is not something that has been directed at Shias only.

Prominent Sunni scholar Abdul Majid Daryabadi wrote in his ‘Safare-Hijaz’, published in 1929, of the way in which Saudi soldiers would be violent towards any pilgrims who visited cemeteries and shrines. In relation to those visiting the Prophet’s grave, “They push the pilgrims and sometimes they flog them with their willow and club.”

Daryabadi wrote a letter to Ibn Saud in which he argued “that every Muslim has equal rights to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina” and “in the interests of unity, even the persuasions considered wayward or false should be granted space in which to engage in their rituals.”

Saudi Mismanagement Last year saw two tragedies unfold in Makkah. Firstly, a crane collapsed leaving more than 100 dead and over 200 injured.

Some have suggested that Saudi

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authorities were negligent for having a series of cranes overlooking the Grand Mosque in the first place.

The second incident was the horrific human crush at Mina. A count done by Associated Press, using official and state news reports from 36 countries which had pilgrims in Makkah at the time, found that more than 2,400 people died. However, Saudi authorities still claim that the official death toll is 769.

To this day, Saudi officials have not released any details about an investigation into the cause of the tragedy. In fact, Saudi Arabia’s most senior cleric deflected all responsibility away from Saudi authorities when he told the crown prince that Saudi leaders had carried out their duties fully.

It would be one thing if the mismanagement and negligence on the part of Saudi authorities seen last year was an isolated incident.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In 1990, a crush in a tunnel in Mina killed 1,426 pilgrims. In 1994, 270 pilgrims were killed during the stoning ritual. In 1998, more than 100 people were killed in another crush at Mina. Further crushes occurred in 2001 and 2004.

In addition, over 400 died in 1987 when Saudi security forces attacked pilgrims in Makkah, mainly from Iran, who were protesting peacefully against the USA and Israel.

Sadly, history keeps repeating itself as the Saudi regime continues, without serious reproach from a united Ummah or the international community more broadly, to mismanage Hajj and neglect its responsibility as the self-appointed custodian of the two Holy Mosques.

In the past, the management of Hajj both politically and economically was less centralised. For example, under the Ottoman caliphate, Ottoman rulers cooperated with ‘sherifs’ in Hijaz, who held power locally. In addition, ‘kadis’ of Makkah and Medina were appointed, along with an administrator for Jeddah and other lesser officials.

Power was therefore spread across various bases. Economically, a large part of funds sent to Hijaz

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for the facilitation of Hajj came from religious foundations, ‘waqfs’.

Each province, including those with autonomous status, within the Ottoman empire maintained waqfs.

For example, in 1830, Algiers had 1,748 properties set up as ‘wafq alharamayn’, providing revenue for the two Holy Mosques. Between 1880 and 1924 Egypt provided an average annual amount of 53,350 Egyptian pounds.

Thus, there have been ways of managing Hajj, politically and economically that have been more pluralistic in nature than the way Hajj is currently administered.

Recommendations This historical precedent should encourage Muslims to think of more collective ways to manage Hajj.

Clearly, “reform requires that leaders and citizens of the largest Islamic societies devise new methods of power sharing – both globally and locally – to accommodate the rival claims of states, interest groups, [etc]…”

To this end the Islamic Human Rights Commission’s primary recommendation is that governments across Muslim countries unite to establish a framework whereby Muslim countries can each participate collectively in Hajj management. Utilising the Islamic concept of ‘waqf’, each country should be considered a trustee in relation to the administration of Hajj, owing a legal duty to administer the Hajj for the benefit of all pilgrims.

In addition, the Islamic Human Rights Commission recommends that an international investigation is conducted by a committee comprising representatives across Islamic countries and technical experts, identifying the causes of the crush in Mina in 2015 specifically, as well as identifying structural reasons for repeated crushes historically during Hajj.

IHRC repeats its call for a technical commission to be convened to bring expertise in the field of large events management, in particular but not solely from Turkey, Iran and Iraq where events larger than the annual

Hajj are regularly held without major incident.

Conclusion The reluctance on the part of Muslims to speak openly about Saudi Arabia is testament to the way in which the Saudi regime uses its power to control the narrative. For example, following the 2015 Mina crush, the Pakistani government told the country’s media not to criticise the Saudi government.

Pakistan is of course a large recipient of aid from Saudi Arabia.

Turkey’s President Erdogan also defended Saudi authorities after the Mina crush.

This came at a time of deepening political relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, including a decision to establish a ‘strategic cooperation council’ between the two countries, focusing on military, economic and investment ties.

On the other hand, officials from the governments of Indonesia and Bangladesh did openly criticise Saudi authorities for the way they handled the aftermath of the crush.

Nigeria and Iran also called for an international investigation into the crush. The irony is that Saudi Arabia then accuses those who advocate an international response or some form of shared responsibility across Muslim countries for Hajj of politicising the pilgrimage.

The desire to have a safe and inclusive Hajj is not part of a political agenda but an attempt to realise the divine messages within the Quran.

Allah says “We have rendered the shrine (the Ka’aba) a focal point for the people, and a safe sanctuary.”

Clearly then, the Ka’aba is “for the people”, the Muslim community as a whole. It is not owned by the Saudi government or any government but is administered on behalf of and in service to Muslims world-wide. It is meant to be a “safe sanctuary” but events such as the 2015 Mina crush show that under Saudi supervision, it has been anything other than that.

It is time that Muslims around the world unite to make Makkah, and this most holy of religious events, Hajj, a “safe sanctuary” for all pilgrims.

The article has been written by Islamic Human Right Commission and views expressed in it do not necessarily reflect the views of PI editorial board.

The Islamic Caliphate in a Historical Context

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Part 8

The apostasy wars approximately lasted 11 years and Abu Bakr along with a number of companions led the assault on multiple fronts in order to subdue the rebellion that had swept the Arabian Peninsula.

The Battle of Yamamah is one of the decisive battles that turned the tide for the Muslims in their attempt to restore law and order across Arabia. Ikrimah Ibn Abi Jahl was commanded to spearhead the assault on the forces of the selfdeclared false prophet Musaylamah

by Khalid Ibn Walid. The initial strategy employed at Yamamah was aimed at tying down Musylamah so that Khalid Ibn Walid and his battalion were freed up to mop up any resistance faced in north central Arabia.

Ikrimah failed to follow the strategy laid down by Abu Bakr which allowed Musaylamah to take full advantage and this culminated in the defeat of the former on the battlefield. Abu Bakr was dismayed at the fact that certain victory had turned into an eventual defeat and hence Ikrimah was transferred to Yemen to assist Hudayfah and Khalid was asked to engage with Musaylamah for the very first time. Shurahbil had already been

engaged in the fight to subdue Musaylamah but he and his forces also suffered defeat due to a bout of indecisiveness and poor decision making on the battlefield.

Successive defeats for the Muslims led to many claiming that Musaylamah was invincible and that no army worth its salt could defeat him.

Musalaymah was eventually defeated by Khalid Ibn Walid only after 13,000 troops had besieged the heavily fortified city of Yamamah which had been impregnable up to this point. The sheer might and number of troops commanded

by Khalid proved too much and Musaylamah fought to the death resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. The army of Khalid Ibn Walid only defeated Musaylamah through sheer determination and a high level of discipline being employed by the troops on the frontline.

The Battle of Yamamah was a pivotal moment in bringing to an end 11 years of strife and rebellion.

However, 300 companions who had memorised the Qur’an had been martyred in battle which presented a major risk in respect of the preservation of the Qur’an going

forward. Abu Bakr was motivated to put in motion a series of measures aimed at collecting and preserving the Qur’an leading to the culmination of a written text to ensure the holy scripture would not be lost forever. It is only due to the intervention of Umar Ibn al Khattab that the Qur’an was collated into one book with the aim of preserving it for the immediate and future generations to come.

The apostasy wars led to the defeat of the rebels at the hands of the Muslims and only after 11 long years control was eventually re-established across the region.

However, the decision to declare war upon the apostates has received mixed reviews amongst scholars and historians. Muslim scholars have argued that Abu Bakr did not declare war on politically motivated grounds but due to the rejection of some of the fundamental tenets of Islam by the respective Arabian tribes and leaders. Many historians have opposed this view and make the case that the decision made by Abu Bakr to go to war against the apostates was linked to a political desire to extend control over the Arabian tribes.

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