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Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti detained for questioning
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Israeli police in Jerusalem have questioned leading Muslim cleric Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, the Grand Mufti of the city – a day after violence broke out between Palestinians and Israelis outside the city’s main al-Aqsa mosque.
Israeli police say the incident started when they detained an Arab who wanted to enter the plaza around the mosque, but refused to present his identity card. This sparked violence, during which Muslim worshippers threw chairs at Jewish visitors to the holy site, according to police.
The mosque overlooks Jerusalem’s Western Wall, which Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has called ‘the rock of existence’ for the Jewish people. The Israelis and the Palestinians are locked in a dispute over territory in the city.
More about: Arrest, Clashes and riots, Jerusalem, Religion
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Yemeni anti-Qaeda cleric killed in US drone strike
Sheik Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber, a prominent cleric within his small village in Yemen, was known for preaching of the evils of the al-Qaida network, warning villagers to stay out of the group and renounce their military ideology.Unfortunately for Sheik Salem, US military drones that had been hovering in the area took a shot at two alleged Al-Qaeda fighters last August while he was meeting with them outside of the remote village of Khashamir.According to the cleric’s brother-in-law, Faysal bin Ali bin Jaber, who retold the events to the Associated Press, Salem was called out by the local Al-Qaeda members, presumably to meet with him and intimidate him into dropping his vocal opposition to the group.Sheik Salem had spoken “about how killing people and labeling people who work with the West as infidels is wrong,” said Faysal.Following Salem’s death “everyone who saw that there is no differentiating between us and Al-Qaeda are asking why don’t we just join Al-Qaeda since it makes no difference?” he added.Though the US does not report individual drone strikes in Yemen, groups including the UK’s Bureau for Investigative Journalism, the Long War Journal and the New America Foundation all attempt to track such statistics by using information from Yemeni security officials.The Associated Press for one has reported nine strikes in Yemen so far in 2013, while the Long War Journal tallied 42 strikes in 2012, up from 10 the year prior. That increase is attributed to US backing of a Yemeni campaign to thwart the Al-Qaeda network and its allies, which took root in a number of southern cities and towns. The US considers the Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen to be one of its most dangerous, linking it with a unsuccessful airliner bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.Since information regarding lethal drone operations is not disclosed, it is not entirely clear how the US military makes determinations on when to strike, and how remote pilots determine whether to launch weapons when civilians may be nearby, as was the case in the death of Sheik Salem – which also resulted in the killing of three alleged militants.According to a New York Times own analysis of drone strikes, one known pattern in similar attacks involves a drone hovering over an area for weeks before deploying weapons, presumably as military analysts attempt to confirm the identities of human targets.What puzzles even supporters of the military operations against Al-Qaeda in Yemen is why drone strikes are increasingly targeting fresh recruits, and why the US is resorting to drones at all when they could be apprehended by Yemeni security forces instead.Naji al-Zaydi, a former governor of Marib Province and opponent of Al-Qaeda who spoke with the Times in February, believes these men represent low-level targets. “Even with Al-Qaeda, there are degrees — some of these young guys getting killed have just been recruited and barely known what terrorism means,” al-Zaydi said. He also added that, in a tribal culture such as Yemen’s, both the identity and background of Al-Qaeda recruits targeted by these drone strikes are not exactly a secret.According to CIA director John Brennan, drone strikes are only used as a last resort. Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in August, he made no excuses for the deployment of drones in Yemen.”In short, targeted strikes against the most senior and most dangerous AQAP terrorists are not the problem, they are part of the solution,” said Brennan, referring to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.Last week during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on the US drone program, Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni activist and writer whose village had been struck days earlier, told that panel that drones are “harming efforts to win hearts and minds” and are now “the face of America” to many Yemenis.”What violent militants had previously failed to achieve, one drone strike achieved in an instant,” he added. … Read More
Muslim cleric refuses to attend inter-faith conference because Jews will attend
Influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi boycotted an inter-faith dialogue conference that opened in Doha on Tuesday, rejecting to sit in the meeting also attended by Jewish representatives, a local daily reported. “I decided not to participate so I wouldn’t sit at the same platform…
Connecticut ‘Monsignor Meth’ admits to drug trafficking charges
Prosecutors allege that Wallin netted over $300,000 from the sale of methamphetamine out of his Connecticut apartment, while also running an adult video and sex toy shop in North Haven – Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place – as a front to launder the money.Brian D. Wallace, a spokesman for the diocese, has stated that church officials were not aware of Wallin’s involvement with drugs at the time of his suspension, and that the former pastor may now face removal from the priesthood on orders from the Vatican.Federal agents first began to purchase meth from Wallin undercover in September 2012, and were able to obtain 23 grams from him by January 2013. Along with Wallin, six other individuals were charged in California, evidently responsible for obtaining and mailing the drugs to Connecticut.Wallin also served as a longtime personal assistant to Edward Egan, the former Cardinal of New York who became the first to retire from that position in 2009. Egan had become unpopular after allegations emerged that he was involved in concealing the names of priests accused of child molestation.The 61-year-old Wallin was identified as a former cleric in September of 2012, after a so-called ‘confidential source’ met him at a party earlier in the year.Federal agents that investigated the priest intercepted text messages sent to him by customers.Agents arrested Wallin only a few hours before he was set to leave the country – they may have become aware of his intent to take a 12-day trip to London after one such message read: “Oh no 12 days what am I going to do. No supplys lol.” … Read More
17 dead in Iraq after 4 Shiite mosques rocked by bombs
The wave of blasts erupted within an hour of each other across Baghdad, as well as in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, just as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers. In Kirkuk, a car bomb detonated near the al-Rasul al-Aadham mosque, killing three and wounding 70, a local health official told AFP. The bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a group of worshippers as they were departing from the mosque, Col. Najat Hassan said.”We were listening to the cleric’s speech when we heard a very strong explosion. Glass scattered everywhere and the roof partially collapsed,” Mohammed, a victim wounded in the Kirkuk blast, told Reuters.The wave of violence comes as Iraq prepares for its first election in three years, with voters in 12 of the country’s 18 provinces set to head to the polls on April 20. The legitimacy of the elections has been called into question, however, as widespread protests forced elections to be postponed in two provinces; AFP has reported that at least 11 candidates were killed in the violence. No one has claimed responsibility for the most recent attacks, though Sunni Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi faction have increasingly ratcheted up attacks in an attempt to spark widespread sectarian conflict a decade after the US-led invasion. Over a dozen car bombings and roadside blasts swept through Baghdad on March 19, killing at least 56 and wounding nearly 200 in Shiite districts across the capital. Friday’s bombings bring the number of those killed in violence across Iraq to at least 258 this month. … Read More
19 dead, 130 wounded in Iraq after 5 Shiite mosques rocked by bombs (PHOTOS)
The wave of blasts erupted within an hour of each other in northern and southern Baghdad, as well as in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, just as worshipers were leaving after Friday prayers.Police and health officials said that 16 people died in the Baghdad attacks.In Kirkuk, a car bomb detonated near the al-Rasul al-Aadham mosque, and killing three and wounding 70, a local health official told AFP. The bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a group of worshippers as they were departing from the mosque, Col. Najat Hassan said.”We were listening to the cleric’s speech when we heard a very strong explosion. Glass scattered everywhere and the roof partially collapsed,” Mohammed, a victim wounded in the Kirkuk blast, told Reuters.The wave of violence comes as Iraq prepares for its first election in three years, with voters in 12 of the country’s 18 provinces set to head to the polls on April 20. The legitimacy of the elections has been called into question, however, as widespread protests forced elections to be postponed in two provinces; AFP has reported that at least 11 candidates were killed in the violence. No one has claimed responsibility for the most recent attacks, though Sunni Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi faction have increasingly ratcheted up attacks in an attempt to spark widespread sectarian conflict a decade after the US-led invasion. Over a dozen car bombings and roadside blasts swept through Baghdad on March 19, killing at least 56 and wounding nearly 200 in Shiite districts across the capital. Friday’s bombings bring the number of those killed in violence across Iraq to at least 258 this month. … Read More
