Islam - MENA > Yemeni hopes for a breakthrough in war; Tunisia steps-back from EU migrant deal

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Yemen's Huthi rebels to visit Saudi Arabia, raising hopes

of breakthrough in conflict

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels left for Riyadh Thursday on their first publicly announced visit since a Saudi-led coalition launched hostilities in 2015, raising hopes of progress towards ending the conflict.

Issued on: 14/09/2023 - 17:14; 2 min

By: NEWS WIRES

A joint Sudanese-Yemeni military expert force, backed by Saudi Arabia, removes and deactivates thousands of landmines on January 30, 2021, which they said were planted by Huthi rebels in Yemen's northern coastal town of Midi. © AFP

An Omani plane carrying a 10-strong Huthi delegation and five officials from mediator Oman headed towards the Saudi capital for what a Huthi government official said would be a five-day visit.

The talks, announced only hours earlier, come five months after Saudi officials held discussions in Sanaa, and as a UN-brokered ceasefire largely holds despite officially lapsing last October.

"The delegation will head to Riyadh to continue consultations with the Saudi side," the Huthis' political chief, Mahdi al-Mashat, said via the rebels' Saba news agency.

"Peace was and still is our first option and everyone must work to achieve it."

Yemen was plunged into war when the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa in September 2014, prompting the Saudi-led intervention the following March.

The ensuing fighting has forced millions from their homes, causing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in a country already pummelled by decades of conflict and upheaval.

The six-month ceasefire that expired last October is still mostly observed but moves towards peace have been slow since the Saudi delegation visited Sanaa in April.

The Huthi delegation took off on the Omani plane days after Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Oman's sultan on his way back from the G20 summit in India.

'Back rooms to the living room'

"Optimism exists regarding the mediation and the Omani efforts to achieve peace in Yemen," Ali al-Qhoom, a member of the Huthis' political council, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The head of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies think tank, Majed al-Madhaji, told AFP that the Huthi visit "is like moving the relationship between the Huthis and Saudi Arabia from the back rooms to the living room".

By organising talks in Riyadh, both sides are "legitimising this relationship and giving it an additional impetus".

"On the political level, it is an advanced step to end Saudi Arabia's direct role in Yemen and for the Huthis to acknowledge its role as a mediator," in addition to being one of the parties to the conflict, he added.

Moves towards peace in Yemen were boosted when heavyweight rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran announced a surprise rapprochement in March, seven years after they broke off ties.

The Huthi demands include payment of their civil servants' salaries by the displaced Yemeni government, and the launch of new destinations from Sanaa airport, which was closed until last year when commercial flights resumed to Jordan and Egypt.

Underlining Yemen's problems, UN agencies and 91 international and Yemeni non-governmental organisations said on Thursday that 21.6 million people -- 75 percent of the population -- needed humanitarian assistance, calling for more funding.

(AFP)

Tunisia bars entry to EU delegation: Move raises questions

about controversial migration deal

Issued on: 14/09/2023 - 15:04; 

© France 24

Tunisian authorities have barred the entry of a European parliamentary delegation that were meant to conduct a fact-finding mission in Tunisia. A letter says the lawmakers would not be allowed in due to multiple reservations about the visit. The move from Tunis comes nearly two months after the EU inked an MOU with Tunisia to curb irregular migration. FRANCE 24's correspondent in Brussels Dave Keating tells us more.

This Week's Global Terrorism Stories 20-9 - Israel-2, Netherlands, Syria, Tunisia, Afghanistan

55,000 Students Miss School as Rockets Rain Down
on Southern Israel

By JNS, 25th Feb 2020

I will send down fire upon the wall of Azza, And it shall devour its fortresses; Amos 1:7 (The Israel Bible™)

A ball of fire and smoke rises above buildings during Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip after a slew of
14 rockets were launched towards southern Israel, on Feb. 24, 2020. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

At least 14 Palestinian rockets rained down on southwestern Israel on Monday, with one striking and damaging a playground in the town of Sderot and another shattering a car windshield in Nir Am.

Twelve of the rockets intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The rocket fire was a continuation of Sunday’s attacks, which saw some 30 projectiles launched at Israel. The attacks were claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Iron Dome is only activated when an incoming missile is predicted to be heading towards a populated area.

The rocket launches sent thousands of residents of Sderot, Sha’ar HaNegev and Netiv Ha’asara scrambling for bomb shelters.

Due to the Sunday night attacks, the IDF on Monday morning had already ordered closures of areas and roads adjacent to the Gaza border fence, as well as Zikim Beach between Ashkelon and Gaza.

Following a directive from Israel’s Home Front Command, the school was canceled on Monday for 55,000 students in Ashkelon, Netivot, Sderot, Hof Ashkelon, Eshkol Regional Council, and Sha’ar HaNegev.

Israelis were allowed to go work as usual, provided that shelters were immediately available.

Israel responded to the attacks by launching airstrikes on PIJ sites in both the Gaza Strip and Syria, reportedly killing two members outside Damascus and another four pro-Iranian militants.

“IDF fighter jets struck terror sites belonging to the PIJ terror group south of Damascus in Syria, as well as dozens of PIJ sites throughout the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement.

According to initial reports, the IDF apparently did not target Hamas sites.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Radio Jerusalem on Monday morning that Israel might have no choice but to launch a major military operation, bigger even than 2014’s “Operation Protective Edge.”

“If Israel is in the position of entering a large-scale military operation, we will have to deal a bigger blow than ‘Cast Lead,’ ‘Pillar of Smoke’ and ‘Protective Edge,’ ” he said. “It could very well be that we may have to carry out—I don’t really want to say it, but ‘the mother of all operations.’ ”

The rocket fire comes after Israeli troops killed two Gazans on Sunday who was attempting to plant a bomb along the Israel-Gaza border. Video uploaded to social media showed IDF troops using a military bulldozer to retrieve the terrorists’ bodies, under a hail of stones from Palestinian rioters. The Israeli military argues that the bodies of terrorists can be used as bargaining chips in negotiations with Gaza terror organizations, which currently hold two Israeli civilian hostages, along with the bodies of two IDF soldiers.

“I am sick of the hypocritical left-wing criticism of the ‘inhumanity’ of using a bulldozer to bring us the body of a terrorist who tried to murder (!) Israelis,” Israeli Defense Minister Bennett wrote on Twitter.

“Hamas is holding the bodies of [fallen soldiers] Hadar Goldin and Oron [Shaul],” he said. “I back the IDF [forces] that killed the terrorists and collected the body. This is how we should and will act.”

Man goes on trial for terrorism in

Dutch tram shooting that killed 4

By Sommer Brokaw

A handout photo made available by the Utrecht Police last year shows Gokmen Tanis, whose terrorism trial is going on this week in connection to the tram shooting on March 18, 2019. File Photo courtesy of Utrecht Police/EPA-EFE

March 2 (UPI) -- A terrorism trial began Monday for a man who confessed to a shooting aboard a tram in the Netherlands last year that killed four people.

Gokmen Tanis, 38, of Turkey, faces four counts of murder with terrorist objective, along with 17 counts of making terrorist threats.

The deadly shooting occurred March 18, 2019, aboard a tram in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam. A few days later Tanis confessed to the shooting, saying he acted alone, but the defense is likely to dispute the alleged terrorist motive.

Tanis underwent a psychiatric evaluation, which concluded he had low mental capacity. The court assigned a lawyer, Andre Seebregts, after he was not present at a hearing in September and refused legal representation. Tanis was obliged to attend the trial in Utrecht, RTL Nieuws reported.

The trial will begin with victim testimony and digital reconstruction of events surrounding the shooting before the prosecution makes its sentencing request Thursday. Then, the defense team will give its response to charges.

The verdict is expected to be delivered March 20.

Tanis told authorities he committed the attack, which occurred a few days after a shooting at two New Zealand mosques killed 51 people, out of anger about violence against Muslims and Islam being mocked.

PETER HITCHENS: Today, I’m publishing the document
that could save us from war

By PETER HITCHENS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

Long ago, a wise teacher told me to remember these words: ‘Truth is the Daughter of Time, not of Authority.’ I had no idea how important they were. Now, after many years of experiencing official dishonesty, they are my motto.

One day, a lot of other people, in the media and politics, will accept that in the past few months they have failed in their duty to the truth, by staying silent or – worse – joining in a braying attempt to suppress crucial facts.

But by then it is quite possible that the peoples of the Western world will have been whipped into a warlike frenzy by false information, just as happened in the Iraq disaster 17 years ago. Because if nothing is done about the scandal I have been writing about, such an outcome is highly possible, even likely.

A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria. Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the scientific evidence.

This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own, France’s and the USA, all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true. 

A few months ago I was told of an attempt by authority to suppress an important truth about an alleged atrocity in Syria.
Claims that poison gas had been used by the Syrian state at Douma in April 2018 were not, in fact, confirmed by the
scientific evidence. (This image released early on April 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets
shows a child receiving oxygen through respirators following the alleged poison gas attack)

This was deeply embarrassing to three governments – our own, France’s and the USA,
all of which had bombed Syria soon afterwards in the unchecked belief that the claims were true.
(Pictured, an RAF Tornado over Damascus during the coalition attack)

All three are members of the UN Security Council, and are supposed to uphold international law with special care. But the facts suggested they had all violated that law.

I did not much welcome the knowledge. It was frightening to possess it. I knew that if I published it, I would face trouble. But I had to.

And I duly did. I was immediately smeared on social media as a ‘war crimes denier’, an absurd accusation. I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad regime in Syria, despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years.

I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government, which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President Bashar Assad to Buckingham Palace.

The vicious slanderers who attacked me paid no attention to my rebuttals, and repeated the smears, from behind false names. Their purpose was to scare others away from the story.

I was falsely accused of being a patsy for the horrible Assad (pictured last November) regime in Syria, despite my record of hostility to the Assads going back more than 20 years. I actually have a more consistent anti-Assad record than the British Government, which in 2002 compelled the poor Queen to invite President Bashar Assad to Buckingham Palace

I suspect there have been, and will be, other consequences. I have annoyed some powerful people. But I was a minor victim of this spiteful rage. 

The brave dissenters who had protested against the hiding of the truth are very serious men, totally unpolitical scientists who simply could not abide the suppression of the evidence they had gathered and examined. They have been hosed down with slime by their former employers.

They have also been attacked by a slippery operation known as Bellingcat, which far too many journalists and politicians treat with wide-eyed indulgence, as if it was a brave independent enterprise. 

Why do they never mention that it is partly funded by the US government, through its front organisation the National Endowment for Democracy? Could it be that it would not be quite such a convincing source if it was known to be subsidised by Donald Trump? I imagine so.

The two scientists remain absolutely confident that their doubts are justified.

But their reward was to be severely, publicly attacked by their former employers, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Again, a lot of people lazily or weakly accepted this official attack on powerless individuals as true. They did not notice, or did not care, that the two men had been given no opportunity to defend themselves, that the resulting indictment was completely one-sided.

Well, it is now my privilege to publish their defence in detail.

It is on the Peter Hitchens Blog at hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/02/a-and-b-respond-to-the-opcws-attacks-on-them-the-full-rebuttal.html

I hope it will stand as a vital resource for anyone seriously interested in the truth about what I regard as the biggest scandal of its kind since the dodgy dossiers and non-existent WMD that were used to hurry us into invading Iraq.

I, and others who have read it, have found it impressive and powerful. I do not think that anyone could read it without seeing that something has gone seriously wrong. Let us hope that we have enough time, before the next war, for the truth to prevail.

We can always hope, Peter, but truth is getting more rare and more difficult to discern.

You can search this blog for 'Douma' for several stories on this subject including other journalists who agree with Peter. 

Jerusalem – Watch: 3 masked Muslim terrorists arrested by Border Police undercover forces in Silwan

BY BTNEWS · MARCH 5, 2020

BREAKING: Border Police “Mista’aravim” undercover forces arrested three masked Muslim terrorists who attempted to murder Jews by throwing rocks at security forces and civilians in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

IDF, Border Police and Civil Administration forces demolished overnight the homes of two Muslim terrorists who planted a bomb near the Jewish community of Dolev and murdered 17-year-old Rina Shnerb while she was hiking with her family in August 2019.

video 0:35

Violent riots broke out during the demolition of the terrorists’ homes in Ramallah and Bir Zeit, with Muslim terrorists throwing rocks and firebombs at forces operating in the area.

Policeman killed, several injured as militant bombers blow themselves up in front of US embassy in Tunis

6 Mar, 2020

The scene outside the US Embassy in Tunis after Friday's explosion © AFP / Fethi Belaid

One policeman died and several others were injured when two suicide bomber blew themselves up in front of the US embassy in Tunis, in the most serious attack in Tunisia in months.

Tunisian authorities said the attackers arrived at the site on a motorbike and detonated explosives. The embassy was placed on lockdown pending an investigation into the incident.

Images taken at the scene show a street littered with fragments as well as vehicles and a road barrier charred by the blast.

The embassy confirmed there was an explosion near the compound and advised people to avoid the area, but wouldn’t immediately offer any details.

"Emergency personnel are responding to an explosion that occurred near the US Embassy in Tunis. Please avoid the area and monitor local media for updates," it said in a statement.

While there was no immediate confirmation that the bombing was terrorism-related, Tunisia has seen a spike in terrorist incidents in recent years.

In June 2019 two suicide bombers targeted officers of the law in two parts of Tunis, killing one person and injuring nine others. The terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dozens killed as Afghan ceremony attacked while peace council chairman delivered speech

© Credit: Tolo News

At least 27 people were killed and 29 wounded in an attack at a ceremony in the Afghan capital Kabul. The High Peace Council Chairman, Mohammad Karim Khalili, was forced to flee as the incident erupted while he made a speech.

Tensions have risen in the country in recent weeks, as Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of the Unity Government, has challenged the results of the September 2019 presidential election which elected the incumbent Ashraf Ghani. Abdullah also declared victory. His spokesman said that Abdullah was present at Friday’s ceremony, but escaped unharmed.

Eyewitness footage from the scene shows former Vice President Khalili interrupted during a commemoration ceremony for the killing of Abdul Ali Mazani, a leader of the predominantly Shia Hazara ethnic group in 1995.

"The attack started with a boom, apparently a rocket landed in the area, Abdullah and some other politicians ... escaped the attack unhurt," eyewitness Fraidoon Kwazoon said.

Meanwhile, Afghan President President Ashraf Ghani called it a “a crime against humanity and against the national unity of Afghanistan.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the assault yet. The Taliban recently resumed attacks against government forces despite signing a peace agreement with the US, but the group has denied involvement in the incident.

An update says that 32 people were killed and an ISIS affiliate has taken responsibility.

Italian Prosecutors Can't Imprison 5 ISIS-Linked Terrorist Suspects

It should have been obvious to European governments that bringing in millions of Muslim refugees would require a change in some laws. It was to me and, I'm sure, to many of you. And yet, 2.5 years after the influx began, most European countries still don't have laws capable of dealing with the situation, and most aren't even contemplating changing their laws.

This is just absurd! They should have known, and certainly now know, that there are many Muslim migrants who are terrorists, jihadists, criminals, child rapists and rapists in general. Not the majority, of course, but certainly a significant contingent. Yet governments think they can carry-on with laws that protect human rights as though these people didn't exist.

Human rights are there to protect people. But when they protect criminals and terrorists enabling them to cause more damage to society, then they have completely failed in their purpose. Protection of society, and especially women and children has to come before the rights of a criminal, terrorist, or rapist. 

The embracing of Islam means there can never again be a society so free as to be totally concerned with individual rights. Corporate rights to safety and security must prevail.

FILE PHOTO © Alessandro Garofalo / Reuters

Italian prosecutors in the city of Turin have failed to jail five suspected members of an ISIS-linked cell, “ready to commit a terrorist attack” on Italian soil, citing a law that grants them the right to appeal a custody warrant.

The efforts to capture the suspected jihadists have been dragging on for at least six months, Italian news agency ANSA reports. In May, Turin public prosecutor Andrea Padalino asked the court to arrest the suspects and further place them into custody, but his petition was rejected by a preliminary investigative judge. Padalino then successfully appealed the decision to the upper court, which in its ruling on November 10 greenlighted the move.

However, the prosecutor’s quest is far over, as he will now have to wait if the suspects, three of whom are under house arrest for drug offenses and two are free, decide to contest the ruling.

By law, the defendants have 10 days to file an appeal with the Supreme Court, which can potentially further prolong the probe if it accepts the motion. In case of an appeal, it is not the essence of the allegations that will be reviewed, but the legality of the order itself, according to ANSA.

All the suspects came to Italy from Tunisia in 2014 and were granted residence permits after duping the authorities into believing that they had enrolled into a university and passed some exams. Upon securing their stay, the men then moved to the city of Pisa, where they engaged in an illicit drug trade.

The court of appeals said it took into account that at least one of the suspects was found to be “ready to commit a terrorist action on Italian territory,” while all of them “expressed adherence to the ideology of extremist and violent jihad,” Corriere Della Sera reported. The men reportedly kept in touch with other extremists on social media, hailed slain jihadist fighters as martyrs and provided “legal and economic assistance” to the arrested militants and sought to facilitate the travel of aspiring jihadists to war zones.

The court argued that the evidence pointed to the fact that the Tunisians were not merely indoctrinated, but actually members of a terrorist cell, some members of which went to Syria and were killed there.

The investigation into the group was launched after Italian military police examined the Facebook page of one of the suspects in a series of drug-dealing episodes. The police then found out that the man was in steady contact with ISIS militants and even promised some of his friends to follow in the footsteps of his killed ISIS friends by mounting a suicide bomb attack in Italy. The man was later arrested in Tuscany, La Stampa reported.

With the investigation being stuck in red tape since then, two of the initial suspects managed to sneak out to Syria and are believed to have been killed there. Another one is said to have been expelled from Italy in 2016.

Danish Woman Deported to Tunisia for Refusing to Remove Niqab at Belgian Airport

This is a shocking story. Shocking in that it is a completely

uncharacteristically sensible decision by an EU country.

Whoa! Who saw that coming?

A Danish Muslim woman has been deported to Tunisia for refusing to remove her religious veil while going through security at Brussels Airport, Belgium’s State Secretary for Asylum and Migration has said.

The woman landed at Brussels Zaventem Airport on Wednesday on a flight from Tunis, Tunisia.   

In a post on Facebook, immigration minister Theo Francken said that the woman had refused to show her face in Tunis and again refused to do so in Belgium.

“After she refused to make her face visible in Tunis, she refused to do so in Zaventem. Our border police then refused her access to the Schengen area. Without identity checks, no access to our territory,” he said.

The woman was deported to Tunisia on Friday.

Belgium banned the full face veil in 2011. Women wearing the veils can face fines and up to seven days in jail for repeat offences.

The law was challenged at the the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2013, but in July of this year, the court upheld the ban, ruling that it doesn’t violate European human rights law.  

Francken is a member of Belgium's largest party, the New Flemish Alliance, a conservative party which campaigns for the peaceful secession of Flanders from Belgium.

The immigration minister made headlines in November last year when he refused to furnish a visa for a family of refugees from Syria after a court ruling which granted them a humanitarian visa.

The European Court of Justice upheld Francken’s decision in March.

Berlin Attack: Police Wanted Suspect Deported for Prior Terrorist Activity

Asked why the suspect wasn't arrested or deported months ago,

a government official said, “ask Berlin.”

By Doug G. Ware and Andrew V. Pestano

An undated handout by German Federal Criminal Police Office shows photographs of Berlin terror suspect Anis Amri, who's the lead suspect in the investigation into the attack at a holiday market on Monday that killed 12. Photo by Federal Criminal Police Office/EPA/Handout

BERLIN, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The man wanted by police as the lead suspect in the Berlin holiday market attack is an African migrant who was ordered months ago to be kicked out of the country for unrelated suspicion of terrorism, a German government official revealed Wednesday.

It's not a holiday market, UPI, it's a Christmas market. How pathetic that you can't even call it what it is. Grow up, for God's sake!

Investigators on Wednesday said they are looking for a Tunisian national by the name of Anis Amri, who police believe was inside a hijacked Polish delivery truck when it crashed into the holiday market in the Breitscheidplatz district of Berlin on Monday. The act killed 12 people and wounded dozens more.

The suspect fled the scene immediately after the crash and hasn't been seen since. Police, who are treating the crash as an act of terrorism, are offering a $105,000 reward for Amri's capture. He should be considered armed and dangerous, they warned.

"If you see the person being sought, notify the police," officials said. "Do not put yourself in danger, because the person could be violent and armed."

According to authorities, Amri, 24, was the subject of a previous terror investigation by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office earlier this year -- and that officials knew he was a terror threat, but failed to detain him.

Federal and local German officials, in fact, shared information regarding Amri just last month -- but could not remove him from the country because he didn't have a passport, and the North African nation initially refused to claim him as a citizen.

"The man could not be deported because he had no valid identification papers," German interior official Ralf Jäger said at a news conference Wednesday, noting that the government asked for those documents in August but didn't receive them until Wednesday, two days after the attack.

When asked why Amri was not detained or removed from the country, an interior spokesperson told The Independent, "I don't know, ask Berlin."

The earlier terror investigation involving Amri was closed in September after officials concluded that they didn't have enough evidence to charge him with anything.

Officials said Amri arrived in Germany in July 2015 and lived in multiple locations around the country for 17 months. He was refused asylum from the German government in June because he was facing deportation on suspicion of "preparing a serious act of violent subversion." He was, however, granted "toleration" status to remain in Germany legally.

Does that make any sense to anyone other than German immigration?

Amri became the primary suspect in Monday's attack after investigators said a wallet was found in the cab of the stolen truck that contained his identification. Allgemeine Zeitung reported the identification document found was from an asylum office announcing a stay of deportation for a man identified as Anis A., born in Tataouine, Tunisia, in 1992.

People lay flowers and light candles near the scene of Monday's attack in Breitscheidplatz Square

in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday. Investigators said they are looking for a 24-year-old Tunisian man as the primary suspect in the case. Photo by Britta Pedersen/European Pressphoto Agency

Officials, though, did not clarify why it took two days to zero in on Amri if his identification was found in the stolen truck. Another man, a 23-year-old Pakistani migrant, was initially arrested while leaving the scene but released later after police decided he wasn't their suspect.

An investigator told Die Welt the perpetrator stabbed the truck's rightful driver during the hijacking, officials believe possibly because the 37-year-old Polish citizen made a last-second effort to steer the vehicle away from people at the market. The driver was also reportedly shot.

Investigators said Amri has a criminal record and first emigrated from Tunisia in 2011, and spent three years in Italy. He is believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State, but likely not a true member. Amri, though, may have had contact with an Islamic State recruiter in Germany in recent months.

The terror group took credit for the attack on Tuesday, but authorities are at least somewhat skeptical of the claim -- due to similar statements by the group in previous attacks that police believe it had no real involvement with.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed concern that the perpetrator of the crash may be a migrant seeking political asylum in Germany -- one of nearly a million she let into the country last year.

Europe has been rattled for more than a year by the migrant crisis, which has seen millions of refugees risk their lives to flee violence and war in their home countries in the Middle East -- notably Syria and Yemen, where civil wars are being fought.

In addition to legitimate refugees seeking safety, however, the crisis has been aggravated by scheming militants posing as migrants who intend to use the newly-opened borders to advance their jihadist causes.

Germans must learn to live with it!

Amri's failed deportation and migrant status are sure to punctuate critics' claims that Merkel's humanitarian efforts, while respectable, have largely served to make Germans less safe.

"She is certainly not the only one to blame. But many people in the country project their anger, their fear, on Angela Merkel, on her personally," German commentator Nikolaus Blome said. "So it will become her toughest test. And the end is wide open."

"We cannot allow ourselves to be unsettled by this," Merkel said recently. "We must simply know that this exists, and learn to live with it."

Well, thanks a lot, Angela! I'm sure Germans will learn to embrace the invasion.

Nice Murderer was Sex-Crazed Mad Man Radicalized Just Weeks Ago

Violent, obsessed with sex, dated 73-yo man:

Phone records, witnesses expose Nice attacker

This image shows a reproduction of the residence permit of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the man who rammed his truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice on July 14. © French Police / AFP

The latest findings suggest that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the driver of the truck that killed at least 84 people in Nice last week, was an unlikely jihadist, who ate pork, and reveled in alcohol, drugs, and sexual relations with both women and men.

“This terrorist can be described as sexually obsessed as follows from testimonies of his several [sexual] partners, male and female,” a source close to the investigation told Le Parisien newspaper.

The names of several of Bouhlel’s conquests, both male and female, were found on his mobile phone. Most of these people were interviewed, with the most surprising on the list being a 73-year-old man, who appears to have been Bouhlel’s lover for some time.

Citing its own sources, BFM TV reported that police also discovered a variety of photographs of Bouhlel’s partners on his phone, again of both sexes, and of different levels of nudity. His web-search history was of a corresponding nature, containing sites with either sexual or violent content.

Violent and abusive
"[Bouhlel] visited sites exposing propaganda scenes of violence," the source claims.

Analysis of both Bouhlel’s cell-phone and computer revealed he especially frequented websites exposing beheadings and other types of executions.

The attacker had a history of violence and abuse himself. His wife and the mother of their three children, Hajer Khalfallah, recently left him, and was extensively questioned on the cause of the separation by investigators.

“She had suffered repeated beatings from her husband, physical abuse and harassment. The divorce was pending. He also hit the mother of my client, his mother-in-law. Complaints had been filed on the matter,” the woman’s lawyer told Le Parisien.

Bouhlel’s sister and father, who both live in Tunisia, claimed he was sick and had psychological problems which led to a nervous breakdown in 2004.

“He’d get angry and shout and break everything around him. He was violent and very ill. We took him to the doctor and he was put on drugs,” his father Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel told the press, displaying medical papers from 2004 that pointed to his son’s disturbed mental state.

The man was apparently prescribed drugs to keep his violent fits of rage in check.

His neighbors spoke of Bouhlel as of an insignificant man with criminal inclinations, mostly spending his time bodybuilding, drinking alcohol and dating.

One neighbor recalled the moment that he heard Bouhlel warning someone, “one day, you'll hear about me,” not long before the tragedy in Nice. 


Prone to alcohol and non-religious

According to his father, after moving to France, Bouhlel had “no connection with religion. He did not fast or keep Ramadan. He drank. He even took drugs.”

Citing witness accounts, BFM TV claims the 31 year old enjoyed alcohol and drank a lot, even during Ramadan, the main Islamic religious holiday, ate pork and spent more time in a gym than in a mosque.

Bouhlel’s web-search records did show quite a few requests for gyms and salsa classes, and his selfies suggest he was in a good physical shape.

Despite Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) claiming that Bouhlel had been one of its soldiers, investigators are finding it increasingly difficult to match facts about the man’s personal life to his alleged connection with radical Islam.


Recent radicalization

According to one of his relatives, BFM TV reported, Bouhlel’s speech had changed not more than two weeks prior to the attack. He then had stopped drinking and let his beard grow.

Authorities are convinced Bouhlel was radicalized, but also say it probably happened rather recently. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Sunday said the attack was of an “Islamist nature,” claiming that “we know now that the killer was radicalized very quickly.” So far the investigation into the case has been moving steadily, with over 200 experts working just on identifying the individuals in Bouhlel’s phone book.

A case can be made that all radicalized Muslims are insane, if not before, then certainly after. 

“I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…impossible…for any human being to read the biography of Mohammed and believe in it, and then emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.” - Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan

But is it more than just insanity? Bouhlel's drinking, drugs, and violence, plus his frequenting web sites with beheadings, etc., all point to classic demonization. Demonic possession can occur in a progressive manner, or it can happen very suddenly. In Bouhlel's case, I suspect both happened - a slow build-up of minor demons, then a major evil spirit invading a couple weeks ago with radicalization. That's my theory, anyway.

Arab Spring Turns into Spring Cleaning in Tunisia

Secular government closes some mosques and cleanses others

Tunisians arrive at Carthage's El-Abidine mosque, on the outskirts
of the capital Tunis, to attend the Eid al-Fitr prayer

Gulf News
By Carlotta Gall, New York Times News Service

Tunis: Among a flurry of security measures the Tunisian government began after a gunman massacred 38 tourists last month in Sousse was a crackdown on dozens of mosques, creating concerns that the secular government may be falling back towards the authoritarian ways of the former dictatorship.

In the middle of Ramadan early this month, the government closed 80 mosques and barred two preachers. But neither the men nor most of the mosques had any known connection with Seifeddine Rezgui, the gunman who carried out the June 26 massacre, officials acknowledged.

It was another sign that the divisions between secularists and Islamists that threatened to tear the country apart in the years after the 2011 Arab Spring uprising are still playing out.

In a recent interview with the daily newspaper La Presse, Habib Al Sid, who heads a government led by the secularist party Nida Tunis, described the battle to control Tunisia’s 5,000 mosques as a “long-term fight”.

“We change a radical imam from a mosque and the next day he is replaced with another extremist,” he said. “But we will not give in.”

Notably, the main Islamic political party, Al Nahda, which holds a token Cabinet post in the coalition government, has supported the government’s stance against terrorism and even its regulation of mosques. Its leaders have condemned the terrorist attacks and told followers that supporting the government, and the country, is more important right now than party support.

“We are all in agreement that no one is allowed to preach violence,” said Ziyad Ladhari, 39, the Al Nahda Cabinet member and the minister for vocational training and employment. The closed mosques are ones that were built without permits in a somewhat “anarchical way”, he added. “No one is closing regular mosques.”

But other officials say some regular mosques have been closed, and deep ideological differences exist among the main parties over how to combat extremism. The secularists leading the government, many of whom have connections to the old dictatorship, lean towards tight control of mosques and preachers. The government has replaced many Al Nahda appointees in the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Those in the mainstream Tunisian religious community warn that government controls enforced by the police send religious followers underground and stifle efforts by moderates to counter the ideology of religious extremists.

Religion was strictly controlled under the dictatorship of Zain Al Abidine Bin Ali. Thousands of Islamists were imprisoned, and the outward display of religion, such as head scarves and beards, was banned in government offices, under a policy of forced secularisation.

Zain Al Abidine Bin Ali, former dictator of Tunisia

Al Nahda members, and some independent scholars, say the repression actually encouraged extremism, and that removing mainstream Islamists and reducing opportunities for religious education left a void the extremists were able to fill. Thousands who fled the repression under Bin Ali in 1991 ended up in Afghanistan and were recruited by extremist groups.

Another wave fled to Libya when the government outlawed the ultraconservative Islamic movement Ansar Al Sharia in 2013, said Habib Al Louze, a former Al Nahda legislator who runs a religious organisation, the Preaching and Reform Association. “It is very well known now that a lot went to Libya,” he said. “Thousands escaped.”

In Libya, Tunisians can find work but many have joined extremist groups, compounding the security problem at home. The men behind the country’s two recent attacks on foreign tourists received weapons training in Libya, the government has said.

In the freewheeling period after Bin Ali’s overthrow in 2011, communities forced out many of the clerics who were seen as loyal to him. But there was a shortage of imams, and Salafist clergymen, some of whom were extremists and even Al Qaida loyalists, joined the rush to take over mosques.

Amor Mighri, a quiet-spoken imam and former political prisoner, led the monitoring commission for the Religious Affairs Ministry and began a campaign to weed out the extremists. He toured the country, listening to complaints from the public, interviewing imams and evaluating their sermons.

During a visit to the holy city Kairouan in summer 2013, he noted the implicit militant references in a sermon by Saif Al Din Rais, a young and charismatic spokesman of Ansar Al Sharia who drew a large crowd of youthful followers to a neighbourhood mosque. Mighri said he invited the professed imam to his office and discovered that he had not even completed high school.

“His qualifications were weak,” Mighri said, adding that the spokesman was a hardliner who demanded that all Muslims fight all non-believers. “He only knows the Quran for the things that go with his vision. He is very selective.”

Many of the Salafists were aggressive and resisted efforts by the authorities to remove them. Some of them were armed. The ministry could not reason with them and had to ask the police to intervene, Mighri said. Relations between Al Nahda and the police were tense at the time and cooperation was poor, but the Ansar Al Sharia spokesman was eventually arrested amid some violence in March 2014.

Under the next government, cooperation with the police improved, and by the end of 2014 the government had removed all those considered extremists, Mighri said.

Shaikh Taieb, 73, imam of the Great Mosque of Oqba Ibn Nafa in Kairouan, Tunisia’s most venerated place of worship, said Ansar Al Sharia had come close to occupying the central mosque in 2013. The Salafists, in the meantime, took over three mosques in the city, and the police managed to push them out only six months ago.

“Over the past year, the state backed the mosques and things got relatively better,” Taieb said. “If we are in this situation, it is because the state is still not strong.”

But the problem of the radicalisation of young Tunisians remains.

“There are no extremists who are imams,” Mighri said, but it does not mean the country had eliminated the extremist mentality. He and others in the ministry are worried that the government is addressing the threat improperly.

The newly appointed minister for religious affairs, Othman Battikh, is an old-school cleric who served as chief mufti under the dictatorship. He has disbanded Mighri’s monitoring commission, replaced several senior Al Nahda appointees to the ministry, and handed the oversight of mosques largely to the police.

“There is a decrease in extremist discourse,” he said in an interview. “The preachers realised the need to back down.”

But ministry workers have strong objections to his methods.

“We appreciate the police and the important role they play in fighting terrorism, but we want them to stay out of religious affairs,” Abdul Salem Atwi, secretary-general of the Union of Preachers, said during a recent protest outside the ministry. “If you bring back the interior ministry, it is the police that will evaluate the sermons.”

Mighri warned that the ministry must tackle extremism with vigorous debate and not just with the police.

“The current dialogue is very general, it does not go deep enough,” he said. “You have to use solid debate, deep dialogue, in mosques, on the radio, everywhere, so we use our solid arguments so that people can hear and people can be convinced. The minister is not using strong arguments.”