[ARABNEWS] Family negligence and a rigid approach to dealing with children were identified as part of the main cause of extremism in the Saudi society, according to resolutions adopted at first forum of this year's King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue (KACND) that concluded in Arar this week.
It was a preparatory forum for the 10th Intellectual Dialogue under the theme "extremism and its effects on national unity" held in the northern border region with the participation of about 70 scholars, preachers, intellectuals and journalists.
KACND's head attended the event, which seeks to identify the community's perception of this growing phenomenon and ways of protecting the society from its adverse impact.
According to Fahd Sultan, KACND deputy secretary, a major factor behind the rise of extremism was the way in which such provocative material was smuggled into the curriculum in the guise of guidance and suggestions. In some institutions, lack of effort to keep the youth engaged in useful channels allowed them to vent their energy in a negative way.
Another cause for the rise of extremism, he said, was misinterpretation of religious text according to the vested interest of those who had a hidden agenda. They also found a gap between the interpretation of Shariah scholars on the one hand and the aspirations of the youth on the other. Also some foreigners who were keen on undermining the country's unity found it convenient to bypass the guidelines of senior scholars for the sake of murderous Moslem advocates.
Sultan observed that King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who has a clear vision of the national goal, sought to identify these negative phenomenons and map out a strategy to protect society from its adverse impact.
The Arar event also discussed various issues related to extremism and militancy. These included reality and manifestations, the factors and causes of extremism and militancy; consequences of religious, social and national extremism as well as the surge in militancy and how to protect society from the security threat that they pose.
Referring to the recommendations of the participants, Sultan said that the most prominent manifestations of religious extremism are harsh dealing of opponents, suppression of the freedom of expression and personal conduct, negative interpretation of other points of view by these ultra conservative elements, isolating the liberal thinkers from the community and parents, and tarnishing the image of the country's scholars and rulers.
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11/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Nothing to do with some in the House of Saud funding Wahhabism over the years?
[DAWN] Pakistain will help China with its fight against turbans that Beijing says are active in its unruly far western region of Xinjiang, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... said on Saturday during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China blames the East Turkestan Islamic Movement for carrying out attacks in Xinjiang, home to the Moslem Uighur people, though many foreign experts doubt the group's existence in a cohesive group.
China, a major Pakistain ally in the region, has long urged Islamabad to weed out what it says are bully boyz from Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home to a lethal mix of bad boy groups which include the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
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11/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
For China's sake I hope it's better help than Pakistan gives the USA.
[DAWN] Major Political and religious parties have strongly condemned in strongest terms the gruesome incident in Quetta where a six years old girl belonging to Hazara community was kidnapped and later killed and dumped on a garbage heap near her house. "Oh, yasss. Tut tut."
"its most unfortunate incident and there is high responsibility on government to protect the rights of all citizens regardless of their religious and ethnic background," PPP parliamentary leader in Senate, Raza Rabbani told Dawn.com.
The girl who was from the minority Hazara ethnic group, was found dead last week in Quetta, the capital of the restive southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
Hazaras are mostly Shia Moslems and have borne the brunt of the wave of sectarian violence that has swept the province in recent years, mostly perpetrated by Sunni Moslem Death Eater groups.
Quetta city police chief Abdur Razzak Cheema had said the victim, who was the daughter of a gardener working at an army facility, had been strangled with a rope. "There were a lot of bruises on the girl's body that show that attempts were made to rape her," he added.
Speaking today, Rabbani lamented that the PML-N government's policy to counter extremism in the country has utterly failed because such incident were increasing by the day.
"She is not Hazara girl... she is daughter of Pakistain and whoever has committed this crime should be awarded exemplary punishment," MQM parliamentary leader in the upper house, Tahir Mashidi said. He feared the incident indicates that no one's daughter remained safe in Pakistain.
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11/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Educationists, professors and leading academics have flayed the Higher Education Commission's (HEC) attempts at stifling debate and discourse in the country's universities by prohibiting any activities that challenged the "ideology and principles of Pakistain, and/or perspective of the government of Pakistain".
A one-page memo ‐ issued in the wake of the controversy surrounding the presence of a stall representing Israel at a recently-held Model United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... (MUN) event at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) ‐ was not well-received in academic and educational circles, with many stakeholders criticising the edict for seeking to effectively curtail freedom of expression on campus.
Several key individuals within the academic community have also called on the HEC chairman to withdraw the memo, which they believe to be an attempt by the commission to get universities to toe the government's line.
"Universities are supposed to be places where students learn about history, politics, sociology, and science in an open atmosphere," renowned physicist and educationist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy told Dawn.
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11/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The provincial government of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... has conveyed a confidential report to the federal government and law enforcement agencies warning of increased footprints of turban organization Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS), also known by the Arabic acronym Daish, in Pakistain.
The 'secret information report', a copy of which is available with DawnNews, is dated October 31, and states that IS has claimed to have recruited a massive 10 to 12,000 followers from the Hangu and Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... tribal areas.
"It has been reliably learnt that Daish has offered some elements of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LeJ) and Ahl-e-Sunnat Wai Jamat (ASWJ) to join hands in Pakistain. Daish has also formed a ten-member Strategic Planning Wing," the report from the Home and Tribal Affair Department of Balochistan says.
The report states that the IS plans to attack military installations and government buildings in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... in retaliation to the army-led Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... operation in North Wazoo and also plans to target members of the minority Shia community.
The Balochistan government called for heightened vigilance and security measures in the province as well as the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to prevent and pre-empt such attacks.
It has moreover called for sensitising law enforcement agencies on the issue and an increased monitoring of LeJ members.
The warning comes days after six top commanders of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), including its now defunct front man Shahidullah Shahid, have announced their allegiance to IS's caliph Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi Al Qureshi Al-Hussaini..
The Taliban front man said he, along with TTP chief for Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... Saeed Khan, TTP chief for Kurram Agency Daulat Khan, TTP's Khyber Agency chief Fateh Gul Zaman, TTP's Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. chief Mufti Hassan and TTP's Hangu chief Khalid Mansoor, have announced their allegiance to Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi.
Earlier in the week, Shahidullah Shahid was replaced by Mohammad Khurasani as the new TTP spokesperson
The Islamic State's presence has not been officially established so far.
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11/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] A Pak court on Saturday said former military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... must appear at a hearing in December over a holy man's death during a bloody mosque siege, rejecting his fears over security.
Musharraf faces a string of court cases dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, including over the death of radical holy man Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of more than 100 people killed after Pak troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad on July 10, 2007.
The mosque was the scene of a week-long military siege against murderous Moslems that unleashed a wave of Islamist attacks across Pakistain.
Musharraf's legal team has fought to avoid a court appearance over the case being pursued by Ghazi's family, citing ill health -- he has been receiving treatment for heart problems -- and security fears.
The former president narrowly escaped an apparent liquidation attempt in Islamabad in April as a roadside kaboom went off shortly before his convoy was due to pass.
"The court has rejected the exemption plea of General Pervez Musharraf in the case regarding killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and ordered him to appear on the next hearing of December 6," Abdul Haq Malik, the lawyer representing the holy man's son Haron-ur-Rashid Ghazi, told AFP.
Musharraf's lawyer said the former leader had not been satisfied with the security arrangements for the hearing, adding that the court has now ordered police to provide details for the ex-army chief's appearance in the court.
"We had requested the court to exempt General Musharraf for appearance in the court on medical grounds and security fears, because Islamabad's police have not responded to our request about security arrangements," said Musharraf's lawyer Akhtar Shah.
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11/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iraq News] The US Secretary General, the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... , said that "Every day, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... , Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... and other terrorist organizations are threatening innocent civilians in seemingly new and more gruesome ways."
"I am deeply disturbed that these dangerous groups continue recruiting members of our societies, including mostly young people," he added within hisopening remarks at Ninth Meeting of theUN Counter-Terrorism Centre Advisory Board.
"I am consistently addressing concerns about terrorism in my discussions with leaders around the world," he concluded.
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#1
Demand that the members of the UN impose a mandatory US$15-equivalent minimum wage.
[Iraq News] The Foreign Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafary, stated that Iraq does not need a ny foreign ground troops.
In a presser, Jaafary said "We assured that we did not request any foreign ground troops and the only ground troops in Iraq will be the Iraqi security forces."
Regarding the reports of making a military base in Erbil, northern Iraq, Jaafary said "Iraq is united and there is no difference between northern and southern of Iraq when such issue cannot be done without the request of the Prime Minister and the approval of the parliament."
President B.O. has authorized the deployment of an additional 1,500 American troops to Iraq in the coming months, doubling the number of Americans meant to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
The trainers and advisers are to help Iraqis and Kurds as they plan a major offensive expected next spring against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters who have poured into Iraq from Syria.
During a conference call with news hounds, senior administration officials denied that Mr. Obama waited until after the elections to announce the deployment so as not to alarm an already skittish electorate. "It's being done now, quite frankly, because the Iraqis have demonstrated the willingness and the will to go after ISIL," Admiral Kirby told news hounds after the call, using another name for the Islamic State. Iraqi forces, he said, have "reached the point where they need additional help and guidance."
Admiral Kirby said that Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, had requested the help. "There was no political angle to the timing here," he said.
Administration officials did not express any heightened concern, at least during the conference call, about the military effort. So far it consists largely of American Arclight airstrikes on Islamic State artillery positions, vehicles and, in a few cases, small patrol boats on the Euphrates River.
White House officials said the request for $5 billion will be presented to Congress during the lame-duck session that begins next week. Officials said the decision to send additional troops was based on what they said was legal authority the president already has from Congress. But they said the president wanted a new authorization from Congress for continuing American military action in Iraq and Syria, which Mr. Obama has said will last into the presidency of his successor.
"I do think that it points to the utility in the president working with Congress to formulate and implement our counter-ISIL strategy," the official said. If Congress and the president are in agreement on a strategy against the Islamic State, the official said, "we send a more united message overseas."
Iraqi and Kurdish forces have slowly begun pushing back and retaking territory threatened or captured by the Islamic State in recent weeks, including the Rabia border crossing with Syria, the oil refinery in Baiji north of Baghdad, the northern town of Zumar, and Jurf al-Sakhar, southwest of Baghdad. But officials said the major push will require training three new Iraqi Army divisions, more than 20,000 troops, in the coming months.
Since the departure of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister, American officials have been far more vocal about blaming him for what is widely viewed as a dismal initial performance by the Iraqi military against the Islamic State. On Friday, Admiral Kirby said that the new Iraqi government under Mr. Abadi has shown a new willingness to work to engage Sunni groups, including in Anbar, and to train its soldiers to stand and fight.
"We did spend a lot of money and effort training the Iraqi Army," Admiral Kirby said. "When we left them in 2011, we left them capable." He said the Maliki government "squandered" the American military's training of Iraqi troops, but expressed optimism that things will be different now. "This is a completely different game," he said, pointing to a recent visit by Mr. Abadi to Anbar Province to engage Sunni leaders in the fight against the Islamic State.
Administration officials said they expect international allies will help in the training effort and announced a commitment Friday of 120 military personnel from Denmark to the cause.
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[ARABNEWS] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's new foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Saturday appealed for the establishment of a Paleostinian state, saying the world "cannot afford" another war in Gazoo.
"We need a Paleostinian state -- that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union," Mogherini said during a trip to Gazoo, devastated by its third conflict in six years.
She voiced hope that Gazoo would avoid another major conflict.
"It is not only the people of Gazoo that can't afford having a fourth war, all the world cannot afford this," she said.
"We cannot just sit and wait. If we sit and wait it will go on for another 40 years. We have to have action now," said Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister who recently took over from Catherine Ashton as the top EU diplomat.
Sweden last month became the first EU member in western Europe to officially recognize the state of Paleostine. Asked whether the EU might do the same, Mogherini said that such a move was "not among the competences" of the 28-nation bloc.
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I wholeheartedly agree Ms. Mogherini. That is why I am nominating Italy as the new Paleo state.
#4
"An active member of the Democrats of the Left (DS), a social democratic party containing many former Communists, she soon got noticed, and specialised in foreign affairs, working particularly on ties with the US Democrat party."
Sounds like she and Susan Rice ought to get along famously.
#1
"Washington now has 'confidence going forward that Iran doesn’t have the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon,' Pres. Barack Obama told reporters recently. But if that changes, the Air Force’s stealth bombers and drones are ready to drop giant bombs."
Interesting, but someone has to be willing to sign the order.
#3
Good weapon to use against Iran hardened nuclear facilities.
Presently, there is an active letter-writing campaign to the big turbans in Iran. Next, if they don't respond, a really aggressive Twitter campaign will be launched. After that, they will be defriended on FB.
[An Nahar] General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim stated on Saturday that freeing the kidnapped soldiers and coppers is a thorny file that needs patience and a long time to work out, assuring that he will not negotiate the kidnappers on corpses.
"Serious negotiations are about to begin with a list of three choices that have been set by al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... in preparation for the swap," said Ibrahim in an interview to the al-Akhbar daily.
He stressed that he made it clear to the kidnapper that he will not negotiate on corpses and that the servicemen need to be freed alive.
Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... groups have been holding several troops and coppers hostage since August 2, when they overran the northeastern border town of Arsal and engaged in bloody festivities with the army.
During last week's meeting of the crisis cell aimed at tackling this file, the government decided that "the kidnappers set three choices, not conditions, to release the soldiers. We took the decision and sent it back to them through the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... i mediator. We are still waiting for the answer," said Ibrahim.
Al-Nusra Front said that the three-month hostage crisis would end if 10 inmates held at Lebanese prisons would be freed for each hostage or seven Lebanese inmates and 30 female prisoners held in Syria would be released for each kidnapped soldier and policeman or if five Lebanese and 50 women inmates would be freed.
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"Indeed, ISIS supporters on social media say that religious figures in Mosul and Iraq’s Nineveh province have decreed that the jihadist group will start using an ancient Islamic currency.
That currency is called the dinar and it once strictly consisted of gold and silver coins. Today, a variety of countries in the Muslim world use modern currencies that bear the same name, but the money is created from different materials. The ISIS dinar will allegedly revert back to the original gold and silver model."
#3
Yes and the pictures of ISIS crazies will adorn the currency, Syrian ISIS crazies, British ISIS crazies, German ISIS crazies to the US ISIS crazies and so on.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has just a 26 percent approval rating among individuals currently serving within the national security community, according to findings from a new survey commissioned by Defense One. The findings come as scrutiny on the Obama administration's handling of the war in Iraq and Syria grows. At the same time, a variety of media reports hint that President Barack Obama, himself trailing in the polls after a poor showing for the Democrats in Tuesday's election, is considering a shake-up of his national security staff. That could include Hagel.
The "Defense One National Security Survey" released Friday found few individuals inside the national security government think highly of the Obama administration's national security strategy. The survey found that only 4 percent of respondents "strongly agree" and 16 percent "agree" that the White House has "a clear national security strategy." Conversely, 73 percent of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement.
The survey also found that 50 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed the U.S. relies too heavily on its military to achieve its foreign policy goals, but 77 percent of respondents think the world is "more dangerous" than it was in 2008, when Obama was elected. But as the chief of the massive Defense Department, it is Hagel's poor showing among many of his own employees that is most striking. Hagel has a 35 percent disapproval rating among the respondents, most of which are federal workers and troops who serve under his leadership. Perhaps more concerning for a Defense Secretary grappling with myriad world crises but whose public profile has been limited, 39 percent of those respondents said they had "no opinion" of whether Hagel was doing a good job or not.
Hagel has never enjoyed high favorability ratings. In April, Hagel had an approval rating of only 36 percent, versus a 45 percent disapproval rating according to a poll conducted by Defense News. That poll showed that Hagel received higher marks from Democrats – about 82 percent – but among Republicans, his disapproval rating was 62 percent. The military gave Hagel a 44 percent approval rating, while 36 percent said they disapprove, according to that poll. Pentagon civilians were more split at 38 percent.
Under fire for a poor or incomplete war strategy, Obama may be thinking about making some changes. As recently as Friday, influential Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote that as Obama considers his options, Hagel could find himself out of a job before the end of Obama's second term. Ignatius hinted that Michele Flournoy, once the Pentagon's top policy chief and now a perennial short-lister for the secretary's job, could replace Hagel.
The survey by Government Business Council and Defense One, divisions of Government Executive Media Group, received responses from 427 individuals currently serving within the national security community, including 77 percent Defense Department civilians and 7 percent uniformed military personnel. Sixteen percent reported themselves as "non-DoD civilian." The survey has a margin of error of 4.74 percent.
Flournoy attended Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles, California, and has a bachelor of arts degree in social studies from Harvard University. She received an M.Litt. in international relations in 1983 from Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar at Balliol College. ... From 1989 until 1993 she was at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Research Fellow in its International Security Program.
[without even a PhD]
#2
Flournoy was brought into the Puzzle Palace along with a couple of the administration's other "quiet political reliables" as "policy people", but primarily to put a leash on the place.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Wazoo
Pervez 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
I wholeheartedly agree Ms. Mogherini. That is why I am nominating Italy as the new Paleo state. 
