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Tunisia launches probe into existence of so-called ‘Mahdi Organization’ that allegedly claimed responsibility for Nice attack
30 Oct 2020 14:38
The mother of Brahim Aouissaoui, who is suspected of carrying out Thursday's attack in Nice, France, in Thina,
a suburb of Sfax, Tunisia, October 30, 2020. © REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
Tunisia is investigating the existence of the ‘Mahdi Organization’, after a group by that name reportedly took credit for the attack in Nice, France. The suspect is from Tunisia but his family insists he is not an extremist.
The counter-terrorism division of Tunisia’s public prosecutor’s office has ordered a probe into whether the alleged terrorist cell, “Al Mahdi in southern Tunisia,” is real, and if so whether it played any role in Thursday’s attack in Nice.
The Tunisian press agency TAP said that the investigation was prompted by a social media post in which an individual who claimed to be part of the group took responsibility for the knife rampage that killed three people.
The suspect in the incident is a Tunisian migrant who recently arrived in France from Italy. The 21-year-old, identified as Brahim Aouissaoui, was shot and seriously wounded by police after allegedly carrying out the attack at the city’s Notre Dame church. Police claim that they found several blades, two phones and a copy of the Koran at the crime scene.
The French government has described the attack as an act of Islamic terrorism.
His family in Tunisia, however, insists that Aouissaoui showed no signs of extremism. In an interview with Reuters, his sister said that he had come to the church on Thursday morning soon after arriving in Nice and was planning on sleeping nearby. In a video call with his family, Aouissaoui reportedly said that he planned to sleep in a building opposite the church.
Sound to me like an attack, targeted from Tunisia.
The entire family is now under investigation, and their phones have been confiscated by Tunisian security officials, Aouissaoui said.
On Friday, French police detained a 47-year-old man who was reportedly in contact with the suspect a day before the attack.
The French government has vowed to crack down on Islamic extremism and has said the country should brace for further attacks on its soil.
As I wrote some years ago, this will get much worse before it gets better, if it gets better.
Italian minister dismisses accusations of allowing Nice church attacker to enter Europe
30 Oct 2020 16:42
Migrants stand on a dock as they disembark a boat on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, Italy, July 24, 2020.
© Reuters / Mauro Buccarello
The Italian interior minister on Friday strongly opposed suggestions that the government in Rome should be blamed for allowing a Tunisian migrant accused of killing three people in a Nice church to enter neighboring France.
Brahim Aouissaoui, the suspect in Thursday’s attack in Nice, reached the Italian island of Lampedusa in September and spent two weeks on a quarantine boat. He was later transferred to Bari, on the mainland, and, in early October, was ordered to leave Italy within seven days.
After the Nice attack, Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italian right-wing opposition Lega Nord party and former interior minister, said the government was failing to prevent people arriving from Africa. He lashed out at current Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, claiming she bore responsibility for the killings in the French city, and demanding her resignation.
Responding to the critique, Lamorgese said Aouissaoui had not been flagged as a potential threat by the Tunisian authorities or the Italian intelligence service prior to the attack. “This is an attack on Europe. We have no responsibility in this,” she added.
The minister said a security decree introduced by Salvini, when he was in her place, had made it harder for the government to deal with migrants. Immigration centers were closed down, and 20,000 people had to leave them overnight, she noted.
Italy’s official data states that more than 27,000 migrants have reached the country by sea so far this year, and 11,195 have come from Tunisia, making it the largest single national group in the statistics.
Lamorgese visited Tunisia in August in a bid to limit the flow of migrants, but then admitted it was difficult, as the African country is facing a major economic crisis, since further complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Angry mob in Bangladesh beats & BURNS man who
'accidentally stepped on Koran'
30 Oct 2020 09:43
A man was lynched by an angry mob in northern Bangladesh after he was accused of blasphemy while visiting a local mosque. The victim was taken into custody, but the crowd dragged him outside, beating him up and setting aflame.
The horrifying incident unfolded at the town of Burimari in the northern Lalmonirhat district late on Thursday.
A local man, identified as a 50-year-old Shahidunnabi Jewel, along with his friend, decided to visit the Burimari mosque to offer a prayer. Jewel is said to have been suffering from an unspecified mental condition.
The two somehow got into a dispute with other worshippers and claimed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen terrorists were hiding inside the mosque, local media reported.
“One of the men went inside the mosque … searching the bookshelf at the prayer hall claiming that firearms were hidden behind Koran and Hadith books,” a local council member, Zubed Ali, told the Dhaka Tribune. “At one point, five or six worshippers, who were outside the mosque, entered and dragged the man to the stairs outside before starting to beat him. The other man was waiting outside the hall.”
Some media reports suggest Jewel accidentally stepped on the Koran during the search, when he was trying to reach the upper shelves of the bookcase, which sparked the worshippers’ outrage. The duo were taken into custody by the authorities shortly after the altercation and held at a local council building.
As the news of the incident spread, however, a large mob of almost a thousand people gathered outside the building. They eventually broke in and snatched one of the men.
The victim was brutally beaten in the street and set ablaze. Extremely graphic footage circulating online shows Jewel's burning body and the mob cheering in the background. The angry worshippers also torched a motorbike used by the deceased, the available imagery suggests.
The lynching devolved into rioting. The mob vandalized a local National Bank office and torched the council building, local media reported. Following the incident, additional police and even anti-terrorism Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) forces were deployed into the area to quell the unrest.
The authorities are currently trying to identify the people involved in the lynching and are preparing multiple criminal cases for murder, arson and attacks on the police.
Blasphemy is considered to be an extremely serious offence by many Muslims. In Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country, allegations of blasphemy have repeatedly led to lynching and widespread rioting. Last October, for instance, a series of Facebook messages that allegedly defamed the Prophet Mohammed sparked violent mass protests across the country that left at least four people dead and dozens injured.
Islamic insanity requires a very small match to cause it to explode into sheer madness. Or, was it deliberately set-off by mosque caretakers to hide possible terrorists? There is no easier way to get rid of someone who is a danger to you than to accuse them of blasphemy in Islam.
Burimari, BNG
Teenager who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ during knife attack on police ‘infidels’
shot dead in central Russia
30 Oct 2020 10:48
By Jonny Tickle
© Sputnik / Ministry of internal Affairs of Russia for the Republic of Tatarstan
A 16-year-old Russian man was shot dead early on Friday morning in the Republic of Tatarstan, after he’d thrown Molotov cocktails and attacked a law enforcement officer with a knife. Police are treating it as an act of terrorism.
According to reports, not long after midnight, a local police officer noticed that the Kukmor district police station in Tatarstan was on fire. While extinguishing the blaze, another Molotov cocktail came over the station’s fence. The officer, along with a colleague, then chased the culprit as he attempted to flee. After the officers caught up with him, the 16-year-old pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the policemen multiple times. In response, and after some warning shots, his colleague shot the man dead.
The attack left one of the policemen hospitalized, though his injuries are said not to be life-threatening.
Although not stated officially by law enforcement agencies, multiple Russian media outlets are reporting, citing unnamed sources, that the teenager had shouted, “God save me, you’re all infidels, Allahu Akbar!” Baza, an anonymous but influential Russian Telegram channel, has named the culprit as 16-year-old Vitaly Antipov.
Located 700km east of Moscow, Tatarstan is home to one of Russia’s most important Muslim communities, with more Muslims than Orthodox Christians. The country’s best-known mosque, the Kul Sharif Mosque, is located in the regional capital, Kazan. Speaking to Russian news agency Interfax, the local spiritual administration noted that the deceased had not been attending mosques in the Kukmor district.
Kul Sharif Mosque, Kazan
Terrorist attack reportedly thwarted in Moscow region as FSB arrests suspect & seizes ISIS flag (3rd story on link).
According to another Telegram channel, Mash, Antipov had recently created social media pages under a new name: ‘Abdurakhman.’
In response to the attack, well-known far-right Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky told radio station ‘Ekho Moskvy’ that the authorities should check all religious educational institutions for the presence of extremist literature in connection with the attack.
“Everything is beautiful – education and school, but there is a little bit of poison: anti-Russian and anti-Orthodox sentiments,” Zhirinovsky said. “And then we get extremists, fanatics, and radicals.”
Islam is against Terrorism Terrorists are not following Islam. Allah says in Quran whoever kills a soul unless it is as though he has killed all mankind. Muslims Are Not Terrorists and whoever saves one life it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.
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