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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
One killed, three injured in clashes in eastern Daraa
2023-06-28
[NPASYRIA] n Tuesday, one person was killed and three others were maimed in festivities in a town in eastern Daraa, southern Syria.

Local sources told North Press that a patrol belonging to the Syrian government’s Eighth Brigade clashed with an gang on the road between the town of al-Sahwah and the village of Jabib in eastern Daraa.

They added that the festivities resulted in the killing of Suhail Ali al-Jihaim and the injury of Faisal al-Rabidan, Muhammad al-Jihaim, and a young man whose name could not be identified by the correspondent.

The sources stated that the maimed were transported to the Busra al-Sham National Hospital, adding that their condition was described as moderate.

All four are from the city of Shahba in Suwayda Governorate, southern Syria, according to the sources.
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Sunken village rises from the deep: Roman settlement flooded to create reservoir is visible in its entirety after drought caused water levels to drop in Spain
2022-09-02

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Roman settlement that was flooded to create a reservoir is now visible in its entirety after a prolonged drought caused water levels to drop in Spain.

The archaeological remains of the entire Roman camp, known as Aquis Querquennis, were revealed after water levels plunged at the As Conchas Reservoir in Galicia, northwest Spain.

Spain has been suffering the worst drought in decades following a summer of heatwaves that have seen rivers and reservoirs plunge to dangerously low levels.

The Roman settlement in northern Spain, believed to be built in 75AD by the Romans before being abandoned in around 120AD, was flooded to form the As Conchas Reservoir in 1948 and has since been largely submerged by the water.

Only parts of the site are usually visible throughout the year, but this month, after weeks of record-breaking temperatures, the Roman camp has been revealed in its entirety.
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Arabia
Former Mecca Grand Mosque’s Imam: Clerics can make mistakes like politicians
2020-02-13
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi cleric Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, former Imam of the Mecca Grand Mosque, said that a cleric can make mistakes just as politician could, when asked about changing or retracting fatwas (edicts), the latest changes and reforms in Saudi Arabia and the beliefs of some of its clerics.
Pope Francis: "You're telling me?"
“A cleric can make a mistake just like a politician could. He can be convinced of something and advocates for it, and after a while he can retract it because his convictions have changed,” al-Kalbani said on Sunday in an interview on Saudi channel Rotana.

“A cleric who finds the (Islamic) Sharia-based evidence which convinces him of an idea, is not at fault,” al-Kalbani added, who was once a part of the Sahwa movement.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced three years ago during a panel discussion held in the first annual Future Investment Conference in October 2017, that the Kingdom will witness many changes and reforms.

He vowed to lead the Kingdom to return to moderate Islam and to reject the “destructive ideas” which infiltrated Saudi Arabia when the Sahwa (Awakening) movement gained momentum in 1979 coinciding with the Iranian revolution.

WOMEN RIGHTS
Some of the major social changes seen in Saudi Arabia include the lifting of the ban on women being allowed to drive, no longer needing permission of their male guardians to travel and encouraging them to enter the work force.

Al-Kalbani, however, said: “A woman can go out to work making sure to preserve her dignity, but she is not fit for every job.”

He also refused allowing girls and boys to attend the same schools, saying: “Don’t put fuel next to the fire.”

His comments, specifically about refusing to apologize for old fatwas regarding women’s issues, received some backlash, as Saudi women took to social media to express their anger.

A Twitter user named Jawharah replied to a clip of his interview on the social media platform saying: “They wasted our lives with their cursed fatwas and our time are still wasted because of them..”

Another user with the handle @00freee00 replied: “You were part of Sahwa which was a main cause of our suffering.. We will not forgive you until judgement day.. If you had any decency you would compensate the women who you were the cause of their suffering..”

Related:
Adel al-Kalbani: 2010-08-13 Saudi king limits clerics allowed to issue fatwas
Adel al-Kalbani: 2010-07-02 Fatwa fight rages between Saudi clerics
Related:
Mohammed bin Salman: 2020-01-27 The FBI reportedly stopped a Saudi plot to kidnap a YouTuber on US soil after he criticized Mohammed bin Salman for Jamal Khashoggi's killing
Mohammed bin Salman: 2020-01-24 This must never happen again, says Saudi cleric as Muslim group tours Auschwitz
Mohammed bin Salman: 2020-01-16 S. Arabia appoints princess as Unesco representative
Related:
Sahwa: 2019-08-07 From Canada with hate: Terror sympathizer Tariq Abdelhaleem
Sahwa: 2019-04-04 Fifth Corps Attacks Assad Intelligence in Daraa
Sahwa: 2018-07-26 Safar al-Hawali: The Sahwa Phoenix
Link


Terror Networks
From Canada with hate: Terror sympathizer Tariq Abdelhaleem
2019-08-07
[ARABNEWS] It may seem strange that a prominent Sunni Salafi jihadist and preacher of hate has lived unmolested in the West since the 1980s. Yet Dr. Tariq Abdelhaleem probably sees nothing odd at all about promoting Islamic radicalism while enjoying the hospitality of Canada.

He is an unabashed proponent of the ideas of two major Salafi revivalists of the last century: Syed Abul ’Ala Maududi, the Pak author and activist, and Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian theorist of violent jihad.

Abdelhaleem’s regressive views on women offer a window into his mind. "The secular West has dangerously affected our society and Islamic concepts through its cultural legacy, despite the widespread veiling of Arab women," he has said. "To see the deep impact of Western culture on Arab societies, it is enough to look at the phenomena of unveiling and debauchery."
Related:
Tariq Abdelhaleem: 2010-01-30 I didn't issue fatwa, says father of Toronto plotter
Tariq Abdelhaleem: 2005-07-27 CSIS sez imam was lying
Related:
Sayyid Qutb: 2018-07-19 Experts reflect after testifying at US Congress hearing on Muslim Brotherhood
Sayyid Qutb: 2017-11-04 Has ‘Sahwa’ ended in Saudi Arabia?
Sayyid Qutb: 2017-02-21 Saudi deputy minister of Islamic affairs: Political Islam caused much bloodshed
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Fifth Corps Attacks Assad Intelligence in Daraa
2019-04-04
[SYRIANOBSERVER] Members of Russia’s Fifth Corps have attacked regime checkpoints and accused those in charge of them of treating local residents badly and imposing unfair tolls writes Human Voice.

On Saturday, members of Russia’s Fifth Corps attacked a State Security military checkpoint in the town of Sur, in the Lajat region of the eastern Daraa countryside.

According to a source quoted by the Aleppo Today channel, Corps members, under the command of Ahmed al-Awda, beat and rebuked State Security checkpoint members including the officer in charge.

The source said that the attack occurred in front of a Russian military police patrol, saying that the patrol sided with the Fifth Corps and beat the checkpoint members and also reprimanded their officer.

The source added that the reason for the attack was the continuing violations by Iran-backed regime checkpoints and militias against civilians and their poor treatment of those passing through and imposing tolls on them.

A few days ago, members of the Fifth Corps attacked checkpoints of the Air Force Intelligence and 15th Division in the towns of al-Sahwa and al-Msafira in the eastern Daraa countryside, beating fighters and the officer in charge while directly threatening the officer Abou Rawad, and giving him a deadline to remove the checkpoints from the area due to the continuous violations of these checkpoints against residents, according to the Fifth Corps members.

The Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence center in the southern Daraa province has been targeted amid an ongoing revolutionary mobilization against the Syrian regime in the province.

The Horan Free League quoted "local sources" as saying that unknown figures attacked for the third time in a week the Air Force Intelligence station in the city of Dael in the central Daraa province.

The sources said that the festivities, with light weapons, lasted for half an hour without any information about casualties on either side.

In the city of al-Hirak in the Daraa countryside, unknown figures on Thursday set fire to an image of Bashir al-Assad, 12 hours after it was placed at the city’s station, and then its remains were removed during the day.

A Syrian regime agent known as Eyad Nimr had put the image up on Wednesday afternoon near the station in response to another image of Assad being burnt at the city entrance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has recorded a new liquidation amid the escalating security breakdown in the province, with unknown button men assassinating on Mar. 22, 2019, with machine guns a former rebel group fighter from the town of Tel Shihab in the Daraa countryside, who had recently joined the Fourth Division after agreeing to a reconciliation settlement with the regime forces, who took control of the area.

Link


Arabia
Safar al-Hawali: The Sahwa Phoenix
2018-07-26
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Phoenix is a mythical bird that rises from its ashes and starts taking humans hostage. Recently, a huge new book, which is about 3,000 pages long, has been issued and it is attributed to Safar al-Hawali, the Saudi Sahwa figure and Sururist student of the Moslem Brüderbund’s Muhammad Qutb. Hawali has staged a comeback from a debilitating disease with this terrorist book or so it is said that he wrote it.

It is not easy to get rid of an ideology that has managed to control people’s hearts and minds for decades, included a religious authority and which societies and individuals were raised on its rhetoric.

The discourse of Islamist groups has shown great adroitness in navigating through contradictions without being questioned by their followers who remain servile and obedient without thinking. The battle against such ideological speeches is multi-dimensional, of which the most important aspects are building the most successful models, developing the best visions and planning the best projects in addition to a strict confrontation.
Link


Arabia
Riyadh detains Islamic scholar as crackdown on dissent intensifies
2018-07-13
[PRESSTV] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
has taken into custody a prominent Moslem scholar as part of an ongoing campaign to silence dissidents in the kingdom.

Human rights campaigners and online activists said on Thursday that Sheikh Safar al-Hawali were tossed into the calaboose, without providing further details.

Hawali is a leading figure in Saudi Arabia's Sahwa (Awakening) movement, which opposes the presence of US troops in the Arabian Peninsula.

In the 1990s, Hawali was tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
for opposing the Saudi ties with US troops leading a military operation in Kuwait. In 1993, he was banned from public speaking and dismissed from his academic posts on suspicion of attempting to incite civil disobedience. In 1994, the Islamic scholar was once again placed in durance vile
You have the right to remain silent...
, but was soon released.

Last month, Saudi authorities detained a number of prominent women’s rights advocates, just days before lifting the decades-long ban on women's driving.

Link


Arabia
Saudi cleric al-Ghamdi: Abaya is not mandatory as per Islam’s teachings
2018-03-29
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, former head of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Mecca, said that the statement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince of Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
as of 2016....

regarding the "abaya" not being obligatory (all black cloak or dress), is consistent with the teachings of Islam.

He pointed out that the black color is not the only one permitted by Islamic law, but it happened due to the exploitation of certain fatwas by "Al Sahwa" group, and the promotion of the concept of the head cover and black color, as the main dress code (hijab) for Saudi women.

Al-Ghamdi said in an interview with Al Arabiya: "The cloak is meant for maintaining a modest look and it does not have to be black. If a woman wears clothes that serve the same purpose for her to be able to perform her duties whether to work or study, that’s fine.

He added: "There is nothing wrong with the dress she wears, if it is not a black cloak, these attires may be different, yet do the necessary covering, without the need for any other dress on top.

Not based on the teachings of Islam
He explained that the color of the abaya and its design is not based on the teachings of Islam, but the main purpose is decency and concealment, "nothing is wrong with the color of the garment or its type."

He also noted that the black abaya dates back to the end of the Ottoman era, but in some hadiths and narrations it was mentioned that "the wives of the Prophet used to wear colors such as pale yellow and rose."

In other stories, he said: "There were some exaggerations obliging women to wear black, they refer to what Umm Salamah said that the women of Ansar appeared like "crows" when the verses referring to women attire were revealed, so they took on the color black as per their interpretation of the women’s reaction back then, but there is nothing that states women are obliged to do so. Other narratives show that the prophet’s wives wore colored clothes."

Al Sahwa group enforced it
In our present day, Al Sahwa group endorsed this understanding which has become part of people’s thoughts and their subconscious that it must be worn by women, and that the cloak should cover the head, be black and loose.

However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
the interpretation of the verse, " O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring over themselves [part] of their outer garments," mean that women need to wear something that is not revealing whether it is abaya or any other piece of clothing without a specific distinction," he clarified.
Link


Iraq
Baghdad Bomb & Bullet Bulletin:
2018-03-03

Civilian killed, two others wounded in western Baghdad bomb blast

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A civilian was killed, while two others were wounded in a bomb blast in west of Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying on Friday.

“A bomb went off in the morning near a market in al-Zidan region in Abu Ghraib district,” the source told Alghad Press website.

“The blast left one civilian killed and two others wounded,” he said. “Security troops cordoned off the explosion scene, while ambulances transferred the wounded to hospital and the victim to forensic medicine department.”

Two people killed, four others wounded in bomb blasts in Baghdad

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Six people were killed and injured in two bomb blasts in Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying on Thursday.

“A bomb went off near stores in al-Maalef district, southwest of Baghdad, leaving a civilian killed and four others wounded,” the source told Baghdad Today website.

Moreover, the source added that “a bomb placed under a vehicle of a former official of the Sahwa (Awakening) movement exploded, causing his immediate death.”
Link


Iraq
Baghdad Bomb & Bullet Bulletin: 4 good guys shot down, 2 unknowns knifed, 3 kaboomed
2018-02-28

Four Sunni fighters killed, injured in Baghdad shooting

Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Four Sunni fighters were killed and injured Tuesday after unknown gunmen opened fire at them in northern Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.

Speaking to Baghdad Today news website, the source said, “Four fighters of the Sunni Sahwa (awakening) movement were in a car when unidentified gunmen opened fire at them before fleeing the scene.”

“One Sahwa fighter was killed and three others were seriously injured in the shooting,” the source added.

Meanwhile, another security source noted that two people were found dead earlier in the day in southern Baghdad.

“The two are believed to be stabbed to death,” according to the source.

Sahwa fighters have been opposing the violence approach adopted by Islamic State militants in Iraq. to in Iraq’s vast western province of Anbar.

Three people wounded in bomb blast, south of Baghdad

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Three people were wounded in a bomb explosion in south of Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying on Tuesday.

“A bomb placed on the side of the road in Arab Jabour region in al-Doura, south of Baghdad, exploded in the evening, leaving three people wounded,” the source told Baghdad Today.

“Security troops arrived at the accident spot, while ambulances transferred the wounded to hospital for treatment,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
Link


Arabia
Yemeni snipers kill four Saudi soldiers in retaliatory attacks
2018-02-11
[PRESSTV] Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have rubbed out four Saudi troopers in the kingdom’s southwestern border regions of Asir and Jizan, in retaliation for the Riyadh regime’s military campaign against the crisis-hit country.

A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni forces shot and killed three soldiers at Sahwa military base of Asir on Saturday afternoon.

Yemeni forces and their allies also targeted another Saudi trooper in al-Khobe district of Jizan, located 966 kilometers south of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Separately, Yemeni army soldiers and Popular Committees fighters killed six Saudi-backed holy warriors loyal to Yemen's former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in the al-Matun district of Yemen’s northern province of al-Jawf.

Elsewhere in the Nihm district of the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada, Yemeni army soldiers and their allies launched an attack against Saudi mercenaries, leaving scores of them dead or injured. Two vehicles belonging to the Saudi-sponsored forces were destroyed as well.

Link


Arabia
Invention of the term ‘preacher’ in Muslim societies
2018-02-10
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Islam did not forbid slavery. According to Islamic law, a Moslem can own slaves, buy them and sell them as he wishes. Despite this fact, Moslem societies have stopped practicing slavery and the slave market has been banned for a long time.

This is natural and logical progress, as human beings naturally respond to social and cultural development. Other nations and peoples have similarly given up many old practices because many of them are no longer in keeping with the times.

One of the most important evidence is that Moslem societies stopped Sharia punishments such as hand cutting or stoning, as well as criminalizing the narrow understanding of jihad because it contradicts humanitarian principles.

What about "religious institutions", which continue to actively propagate in other countries? Is propagation suitable abroad in today’s age, which requires non-interference in the affairs of other countries?

Stereotypical image
Does this activity fit the stereotypical image of Islam, which unfortunately has been tarnished and associated with terrorism, especially as aspersions have been cast against the funding of seminaries, which are believed to be promoting terrorism.

We may all recall here the ’preachers’ who incited the youth to join ISIS or those who flaunted their sins, their crimes and the killing of innocent people in Syria. Despite the proliferation of "preachers" around us, our societies did not know the concept of a "preacher" before the rise of the Sahwa movement as the title was coined for political purposes, particularly to promote divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
ness and intolerance.

"Moslem" society does not need anyone to remind it about Islam. A few days ago, I witnessed a charity advertisement encouraging people to donate money to convert non-Moslems in China. Despite our "very, very, very" small size compared to China, which is a great nation, we seek to change the faith of its people, as if it is our legitimate responsibility to undertake this religious duties on behalf of Moslems in China.

We might end up inviting the wrath of the Chinese dragon.
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