Islam is the real positive change that you need to change for being a better person or a perfect human being, you can change yourself if you read QURAN, IF YOU DO THAT !! you will change this UMMAH, say I am not A Sunni or Shia, BUT I am just a MUSLIM. Be a walking QURAN among human-being AND GUIDE THEM TO THE RIGHT PATH.
Colin Kaepernick and teammate Eric Reid knelt again before the 49ers played the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
At least 15 black people have died during encounters with the police since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began protesting police violence by kneeling before NFL games, based on numbers compiled by The Guardian.
Kaepernick’s decision to sit or take a knee during the national
anthem first drew attention after his team’s Aug. 26 preseason game
against the Green Bay Packers, when he told NFL.com
that he was “not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a
country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Since then,
Kaepernick’s continued protest has drawn considerable criticism from politicians, police unions, pundits, otherprofessionalathletes and many on social media who have opposed both his message and his method of conveying it.
But the problem Kaepernick wants to highlight has continued. And on
Monday, it was back in the news again, after police in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
released multiple videos that showed the fatal shooting of Terence
Crutcher.
The videos show that 40-year-old Crutcher, like so many other black men, was unarmed with his hands in the air when
police officers shot and killed him as he returned to his car, which
had stalled in the middle of a roadway. The videos run contrary to the
department’s initial statements about the shooting, which claimed that
Crutcher had ignored officers’ warning to raise his hands.
Overall,
police have killed at least 67 people since Kaepernick’s protest began,
according to The Guardian’s database. Roughly 22 percent of the victims
have been black. Police have killed more than 780 people so far in
2016, according to The Guardian’s numbers. At least 193 of those people ―
or about 25 percent ― were black. Of the 15 black people killed since
Kaepernick’s demonstration started, at least 11 were shot, according to The Washington Post’s tracker of fatal police shootings.
The white officer who shot Crutcher, Betty Shelby, was placed on paid
administrative leave while the department investigates the
case ― another issue Kaepernick highlighted when he spoke out against
police killings. “To me, this is bigger than
football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way,”
Kaepernick said. “There are bodies in the street and people getting paid
leave and getting away with murder.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Terence Crutcher, 40, is one of at least 15 African-Americans to die
during encounters with police since Kaepernick began protesting before
NFL games in late August.
Kaepernick’s message has spread across the sports world since the start of the NFL season. Players on a number of NFL teams
― including the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Tennessee Titans ―
joined his demonstration during the first week of the NFL season.
The Denver Broncos’ Brandon Marshall, who has taken a knee during the anthem, responded to the Terence Crutcher video by saying such situations are the “exact reason we’re protesting.”
Soccer star Megan Rapinoe has also knelt during the anthem before both National Women’s Soccer League and U.S. Women’s National Team matches in recent weeks. And NBA players Nick Young and Stephen Curry have spoken out in support of Kaepernick, with Young saying that he may kneel before the anthem once his season begins next month. High school football players across the country have joined in as well.
Some of the protests have drawn the ire of police. In Miami, the
union that represents the Broward County Sheriff’s Office called on the
department to stop providing security details for Dolphins’ games after
four members of the team knelt during the anthem last week. “In certain
professions,” the head of the union said,
“an individual’s freedom of speech must take a back seat to the
organization or government entity that they choose to represent.”
The NFL Players Association, which has stood behind Kaepernick’s
right to protest, fired back at that statement Monday. “Don’t we stop
being the land of the free and the home of the brave when a citizen is
asked to take a ‘backseat’ for expressing his freedom by those sworn to
defend it?” DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA’s executive director, said in a
statement. “Players don’t stop being men and citizens just because they
are wearing a jersey.”
And while many have questioned how a black athlete could qualify as
oppressed, recent cases highlight that Kaepernick and other black
athletes are also at risk of experiencing police violence. James Blake, a retired tennis player, was misidentified as a robbery suspect and tackled by NYPD officers
in September 2015. The same year, NBA player Thabo Sefolosha’s leg was
broken in an altercation with NYPD officers; Sefolosha is currently suing the department. John Henson, a player for the Milwaukee Bucks, said employees of a high-end jewelry store locked the door and told him to leave
before police arrived. And in 2011, police in Florida told former NFL
running back Warrick Dunn they pulled him over because he “had the characteristics of people transporting drugs and guns,” he said.
Kaepernick, meanwhile, continued his protest before the 49ers game on Sunday, and picked up more support this week. On
Monday night, hours after the Tulsa Police Department made the videos
of Crutcher’s death public, three members of the Philadelphia Eagles raised their fists throughout the national anthem.
the flamboyant Saudi
Prince and entrepreneur, al-Waleed bin Talal posited that his country
must reconsider its regional commitments and devise a new strategy to
combat Iran's increasing influence in Gulf States by forging a Defense
pact with Tel Aviv to deter any possible Iranian moves in the light of
unfolding developments in the Syria and Moscow's military intervention. "The whole Middle-East dispute is
tantamount to matter of life and death for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
from my vantage point ,and I know that Iranians seek to unseat the Saudi
regime by playing the Palestinian card , hence to foil their plots
Saudi Arabia and Israel must bolster their relations and form a united
front to stymie Tehran's ambitious agenda," Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA)
quoted Prince al-Waleed as saying on Tuesday , adding, Riyadh and Tel
Aviv must achieve a modus vivendi , for Saudi policy in regard to
Arab-Israeli crisis is no longer tenable. Iran seeks to buttress its presence
in the Mediterranean by supporting Assad regime in Syria, added Prince
al-Waleed, but to the chagrin of Riyadh and its sister Gulf sheikhdoms ,
Putin's Russia has become a real co-belligerent force in Syrian
4-year-old civil war by attacking CIA-trained Islamist rebels. Here
surfaces the paramount importance of Saudi-Israeli nexus to frustrate
Russia-Iran-Hezbollah axis. " I will side with the Jewish nation
and its democratic aspirations in case of outbreak of a Palestinian
Intifada( uprising) and i shall exert all my influence to break any
ominous Arab initiatives set to condemn Tel Aviv , because I deem the
Arab-Israeli entente and future friendship necessary to impede the
Iranian dangerous encroachment," Al Qabas cited the Saudi media tycoon
as he is in a regional tour, visiting the other Gulf Arab littoral
states--Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman--to
muster support for Saudi-backed Islamist rebels in Syria.
A
bomb disposal expert dressed in his protective suit walks towards the
body of a suspected attacker outside the central police station after an
attack, in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya, September 11, 2016.
/REUTERS
A human rights body has
questioned the manner in which three women were killed at Mombasa
Central police station, in what officers say was a foiled terror attack.
Muhuri has challenged police reports that the women were suicide bombers on a mission to blow up the station. “When the story broke, the police narration of what really happened was contradictory from one source to the other," said Muslims for Human Rights chairperson Khelef Khalifa. "At the moment they (police) have refused to state facts on what really unfolded." Three terrorists killed in foiled attack at Mombasa Central police station Three more arrested after Mombasa Central police station terror attack
Two of the women were identified as Fatuma Omar and Tasnim Yakub, who
is believed to have been the leader. The third woman is yet to be
identified.
Police termed them terror suspects saying they pretended to report
phone theft but hurled a petrol bomb at the station, forcing them to
open fire in self defence.
This was said in an announcement by government spokesman Eric Kiraithe on Tuesday.
Amid growing concern about extrajudicial killings by organisations
including Human Rights Watch, Muhuri said the shootings were a
continuation of the crime.
“We hold that what police said is a total lie and we cannot let it go
unchallenged. They are cooking up stories to cover up the whole
incident,” said Khalifa.
He said the group will sue the station's OCS and officers seen in the video of the killings. Extrajudicial killings are sanctioned by top government organs - Human Rights Watch Muhuri said the "girls" - two sisters and a friend who finished form four last year - were mishandled when they went to report the crime. The lobby said a witness reported that when they got into the station, the officer on duty wanted to tear off the burqa one of them was wearing, forcing a reaction.
Khalifa said it was during the commotion that followed that the woman
stabbed the officer with a key chain, but that the policeman insisted
on "undressing" her.
He said other officers then opened fire and killed all three women,
and accused them of dousing the bodies in kerosene and setting them
ablaze to conceal the killings.
A clip seen by the Star shows one of the women with her hands in the air in surrender, and a policeman walking towards her while shooting.
“We question why even after surrendering the police continued firing at the lady," said Khalifa.
"We suspect the bodies were doused
in kerosene and set ablaze to make it seem they had bombs, because if it
is true they had a petrol bomb that they threw into the police station,
why didn't we have any injuries? And if there were, where are the
victims?"
Police are yet to show the knife and the suicide jacket they said they recovered from the body of one of the suspects.
“The word 'terrorists' invokes fear. When police want to justify any
action of extrajudicial killing they brand the victims terror suspects
because the public buys such narratives without question.” Khalifa said.
He further claimed the arrest of Haniya Saggar, who is Aboud Rogo's
widow, in connection with the attack, was part of the conspiracy theory
by police.
Police said Saggar is suspected to have financed the three women as there was proof of a transaction between her and one of them.
But Muhuri said: “It is a case of pure framing and efforts by police to build a case to cover up their action." "As a matter of fact we have established that on the
fateful day the telephone line of one of the girls had been used to send
Sh10,000 to Haniya, which she sent back because, as usual, if you get
money from someone you don't know you send it back. Those girls were not
known to her." Widow of slain cleric Aboud Rogo arrested, linked to Mombasa attack Khalifa said urgent post mortem examinations need to be carried out on the bodies, and thorough investigations done by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, with a view to punishing those culpable. Read more: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/09/20/video-cops-accused-of-killing-three-innocent-girls-at-mombasa-central_c1423846
As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree; Donald Trump's racism can easily be traced through his lineage.
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Most families of enormous wealth have a dark and sometimes scandalous, even monstrous past. Donald Trump's
clan is no exception to that rule. His grandfather was a pimp and a tax
evader, his father a racist who would in the course of his life, clash
with New York City Police as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and then as a wealthy real estate magnate, refuse to rent to people of color.
Donald Trump's legacy is anything but a rags to riches story. His dad
kicked the bucket with $250-$300 million in the bank. The man who wants
to ban all people of a particular religion
from travel, wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his was
white gold. The only thing more obnoxious than Donald Trump himself, is
his family's money grubbing, bigoted history. Trump's Grandfather: Pimp and Tax Evader
Donald Trump's grandfather, Frederick or Frederich Trump, made his
money from operating a decadent restaurant and hotel during the Gold
Rush at Klondike in the Yukon.
That's a nice way of saying it.
"Trump made his first fortune operating boom-town hotels, restaurants and brothels", is more accurate, according to the CBC news report,
"Donald Trump's grandfather ran Canadian brothel during gold rush,
author says". Author Gwenda Blair simply wrote, ""The bulk of the cash
flow came from the sale of liquor and sex."
Trump's grandfather was born in Germany, to parents who were employed
by a vineyard. He moved to New York City in 1885 where he became a
barber. After six years of this, Frederick Trump moved across the United
States to Seattle, Washington, where he owned and operated what he
referred to as a "decadent restaurant" that was actually called "Poodle
Dog" in Seattle's red light district. Interestingly, the name and
concept that had already been established in San Francisco. (He named
his restaurant after a dog but would later make money selling horse
meat) Around this time Frederick Trump became a US citizen.
A Yukon Sun Newspaper writer described his business: "For single men
the Arctic has excellent accommodations as well as the best restaurant
in Bennett, but I would not advise respectable women to go there to
sleep as they are liable to hear that which would be repugnant to their
feelings – and uttered, too, by the depraved of their own sex".
Trump moved to Monte Cristo, Wash. in 1894, and then four
years later, shortly after the Klondike gold rush began, he relocated
again to Bennett, British Columbia. Here he ran the "Actic Restaurant
and Hotel". He would next build the "White Horse restaurant and Inn" in
Whitehorse, Yukon.
An article published this year by Politico,
explains that Frederick Trump sold off his investments and returned to
Germany in 1901, as he sensed the end of the gold rush and a subsequent
end to prostitution. The following year, he married his former
neighbor, Elizabeth Christ in his native German town of Kallstadt. Then
he came under heavy scrutiny by the German government,
The country had compulsory military service for men which
had to be fulfilled by the age of 35. Donald Trump's grandfather waited
until he was 35 to go back to Germany. He had already amassed great
wealth worth well more than half a million US dollars, or 80,000 marks.
While his town council was eager to keep Trump and his money, who
billed himself as a man who "avoided bars" and led "a quiet life", other
German authorities had a different plan, the Politico article
explains. In their view, Trump had relocated to Germany in order to
avoid both tax and military-service obligations.
"...the regional authorities refused to let Trump off the hook.
Unlike his grandson, who would become too big to fail in business and,
more recently, to ignore in politics, Friedrich Trump was not big enough
to get away with being a draft-dodger. He and his wife, then pregnant
with Fred, Donald’s father, would not be allowed to resume their German
citizenship and it would not be extended to their daughter; instead,
they were deported—the same fate that Donald would like to impose on
undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today."
The fact that Donald Trump has done so well in the
Republican polls is quite amazing, as the party that we think of as
conservative, would be expected to shun a man who created exploitative
beauty pageants and was born rich strictly because of the nefarious
activities of his ancestors.
Trump's Father: a Lifetime of Racist Practices
Donald Trump has often said he made his money "the old-fashioned way," and this is true, in that he prospered from racism.
A New York Times article published 01 June 1927, related
Donald Trump's father Fred Trump's role in a Ku Klux Klan brawl that
pitted 1,000 klansmen against 100 New York City Police in Queens.
Though he wasn't officially charged, Fred Trump was one of seven
klansmen arrested during the incident. It probably wasn't very shocking
at the time as America's racist practices were in full swing
generations after Abe Lincoln freed the country's African-American slaves.
In fact the mid-20's saw a peak in KKK activity. Donald Trump would
later deny his father's involvement in the KKK brawl in spite of the
fact that it happened two decades before he was born. Fred Trump's
enthusiasm for racist practices never changed until he was forced to do
so by the law.
Presidential Candidate Donald Trump joined his father's
real estate company in New York in 1971, and only two years later, the
company was served with a civil rights
lawsuit that was filed against the Trump organization because it
refused to rent to Black people. The Urban League got wind of the
racist rental policy and actually sent both Black and White people in to
apply for apartments that belonged to complexes owned by the Trumps.
What they proved, was that Black people were denied rentals across the
board, and only Whites were approved. A Village Voice article by Wayne Barrett, published in 1979, blew the lid off the Trump organization's brewing pot of racist practices.
"Three doormen were told to discourage blacks who came
seeking apartments when the manager was out, either by claiming no
vacancies or hiking up the rents. A super said he was instructed to send
black applicants to the central office but to accept white applications
on site. Another rental agent said that Fred Trump had instructed him
not to rent to blacks. Further, the agent said Trump wanted 'to decrease
the number of black tenants' already in the development 'by encouraging
them to locate housing elsewhere.'"
The article explains that Trump's reaction was to claim
that the suit was a, "nationwide drive to force owners of moderate and
luxury apartments to rent to welfare recipients."
"'We are not going to be forced by anyone to put
people...in our buildings to the detriment of tenants who have, for many
years, lived in these buildings, raised families in them, and who plan
to continue to live there. That would be reverse discrimination,' he
said. 'The government is not going to experiment with our buildings to
the detriment of ourselves and the thousands who live in them now.'"
Indeed, Trump's wild, largely uninformed and unintelligent
rants are the legacy of men who walked over the backs of other Americans
to gain and secure their wealth. This may be symbolic to the American capitalist way, but it falls short of any form of greatness or real human success. As they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
The videos seem to contradict the department’s initial explanation.
CREDIT: Tulsa Police Department
Dash
cam videos released Monday show Tulsa Police Department officers
killing an unarmed 40-year-old black man who had his hands raised.
Terence
Crutcher was shot and killed by police shortly before 8:00 pm on Friday
night. He was unarmed and apparently seeking police assistance because
his car had broken down. Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan confirmed
Monday afternoon at a press conference that Crutcher had no weapon, and
hinted that his department is treating his death like a crime.
The
videos, including three from police cars and a fourth from a
helicopter, are disturbing. None captures the entirety of the
interaction between Crutcher and Officer Betty Shelby, who shot and
killed him.
But
all of them show him with his hands raised, walking back to the side of
his car, while Shelby follows with her gun raised. Another officer
arrives, and fires his Taser at roughly the same moment that Shelby
shoots Crutcher.
The
department did not release video from Shelby’s own cruiser. A
department public information officer told ThinkProgress that none
exists, because Shelby had not turned her camera on manually and never
switched her roof lights into the mode that automatically activates the
camera.
She
was initially the only officer on the scene. Turnbough appears to have
been second to arrive. He had been out of his car for less than 30
seconds when Shelby shot Crutcher.
Jordan
called the videos “very disturbing” and “difficult to watch,” according
to local news reporters. They also appear to contradict the officers’
initial description of what happened.
TPD initially told the public that Crutcher had ignored officers when they told him to raise his hands
and reached back into his car, prompting Officer Shelby to shoot and
Officer Tyler Turnbough to fire his Taser. Shelby shot Crutcher once,
and he was pronounced dead later at a hospital.
But the videos
show Crutcher with his hands above his head, walking slowly back to the
driver’s side of his truck, when he is suddenly tased and shot. The
helicopter footage includes an officer murmuring that Crutcher “looks
like a bad dude,” while another acknowledges that Crutcher’s hands are
up but says he doesn’t seem to be complying with Shelby’s commands.
Shelby
has been with TPD since 2011. Before joining the city force, she was a
deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office from summer 2007 through
fall 2011, the local Fox affiliate reports.
Shelby is approximately 42 years old and previously served in the
Oklahoma Air National Guard for five months, excerpts from her Sheriff’s
Office personnel file provided to ThinkProgress indicate.
Over the weekend, the department showed the videos to Crutcher’s family and to local leaders, including pastor Rodney Goss.
“His hands were in the air from all views,” Goss told
the Tulsa World. He added that the videos showed Crutcher approaching
officers near his truck, which had broken down, and then returning
toward the vehicle again slowly, and being shot down.
“It
was not apparent at any angle from any point that he lunged, came
toward, aggressively attacked, or made any sudden movements that would
have been considered a threat or life-threatening toward the officer,”
Goss told the paper.
Crutcher’s
twin sister Tiffany has said she wants Shelby charged. While Chief
Jordan declined to answer specific questions about Crutcher’s killing
Monday, he indicated his department is treating his death as a crime.
“This is a criminal investigation.
If you really expect me to carry this forward the way the community is
asking and the way my oath says I will, I can’t discuss it further,”
Jordan said. Federal investigators have opened their own separate investigation into whether or not Crutcher’s civil rights were violated, the Associated Press reported Monday afternoon.
Catherine Shakdam
Director of Programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies
This post is hosted on the Huffington Post’s Contributor platform.
Contributors control their own work and post freely to our site. If you
need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
One of the five sacred
pillars of Islam, Hajj pilgrimage is required of all able Muslim – men
and women, at least once in their lifetime. Holy among the holies, Hajj
embodies the very spirit of Islam as it enables the faithful to reach
the divine through physical acts of worship.
It is God whom pilgrims are yearning for as they turn their faces
towards Mecca; it is remembrance of God’s Mercy and His Benevolence
pilgrims hope to find as they walk in the footsteps of Islam’s last
prophet.
Allah says: “The pilgrimage is (in) the well-known months, and
whoever is minded to perform the pilgrimage therein, then let there be
no lewdness nor abuse nor disputation during the pilgrimage. And
whatsoever good you do Allah knows it. So make provision for yourselves
(Hereafter); for the best provision is to ward off evil. Therefore keep
your duty unto Me, O people of understanding.” [Surah al-Baqarah: 197]
A pilgrimage of the mind and heart, as well as the body, Hajj demands
of each pilgrim utmost restraint, good moral, and piety. If Hajj is
often taxing on the body, it is spiritual elevation, and enlightenment
which in fact require together discipline and absolute devotion.
Needless to say that Hajj is not for the faint-hearted. Hajj commands
submission through perfected religion … only then, can pilgrims hope to
be reborn in Islam and washed away from their sins.
The walk of a lifetime, the communion to surpass all communions Hajj
is where, and when many will find not only Islam, but Eternity in
faithful abandonment.
The Hajj pilgrimage is a concerted effort for the pilgrim to remain
aloof from the desires of the worldly life and its material concerns.
The pilgrimage trains and conditions the character to be more
independent of material things and to find contentment in less.
Every year millions on Muslims converge towards the holy city of
Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform their pilgrimage, and complete their
faith. Every year tens of thousands have seen their pride and their body
shattered under the vengeful boot of al-Saud’s Wahhabi moral police in
the name of a faith which has claimed ownership over Islam’s inner
sanctum.
If Mecca still echoes of Abraham, if the Kaaba still remembers of the
touch of God’s prophet, its skies remain blotted by the arrogance of a
house which thought itself worthier of that which God’s elected to His
Guardianship.
As it glimmers of a thousand golden lights, its floor paved with
marbles and precious stones, Mecca has died a million deaths - its holy
landscape redacted, and the faithful prevented from expressing their
devotion in the manner which best fits their heart. It is violence today
which most of all has tainted Hajj and turned Islam’s most sacred
ritual into an exercise of submission to the dogmatism of Wahhabism.
Muslims of all school of thoughts and walks of life have raised their
voice in resistance – keen to break fear so that Islam could be
reclaimed for those who seek God, and not flitting glory.
“I have ben spat on, beaten and punched while performing Hajj. I was
called an apostate and an infidel when I turned my face towards the
Prophet Muhammad’s last resting place and called for his intercession. I
was slapped in Medina as I read my book of duas [religious
supplications] in al-Baqee cemetery where Islam’s saints are buried. My
real crime? Doing Hajj while Shia” said Hassan al-Wazir, a pilgrim from
Yemen in her testimony to the Baqee Organization.
Hanan Abbas, a British pilgrim recalled how her elderly mother was
thrown to the ground by a Muttawa (Wahhabi religious police) when she
shed tears at al-Baqee cemetery over the martyrdom of Fatema bint
Muhammad, the daughter of the Prophet. “My mum was first told to move
away … when she pleaded with police to be allowed to pay her respect to
the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad she was pushed violently to the
ground. They took her book of supplication and cursed her. As my brother
intervened he was hit with a baton in the stomach … I was in shock! My
mother spent the rest of her Hajj in tears. I have never been angrier in
my life. Hajj is supposed to be a time of reflection and peace. We saw
the face of hatred and bigotry.
Under the care of the Saudi regime the Hajj pilgrimage has been
turned into a painful and humiliating experience. For millions of
non-Wahhabis, every step taken has become an act of resistance against
the intolerance of blind extremism.
“Long ago Muslims faced the wrath of Mecca’s idolatrous elite … today
we face the poison of another. We have tasted humiliation and
oppression for we have refused to abandon our beliefs and buckle down
before the House of Saud. For millions like me performing the Hajj is an
act of religious resistance against tyranny. We shall continue to bear
our sorrow and call on our Lord to revenge our cries. Islam is for all
believers, without judgement, without bias, without prejudices … Islam
is not about dogma and vengeance. What a tragedy to see our Scriptures
misinterpreted by an ignorant crowd,” noted Sheikh al-Hashemi, a scholar
from Yemen.
A sign of the time, and in negation of Islam calls for tolerance, the
Saudi regime has called since 2015 for pilgrims to be profiled
according to their school of thoughts. Pakistani officials confirmed
in 2015 that: “Saudi Arabia will not entertain any Hajj application
from aspirants that fail to specify whether the applicant is a Shia or a
Sunni.”
It is violence and the fear of violent repression which more than
anything else now rhymes with Hajj. Only this September the Saudi
authorities arrested Iraqi Shia scholar “Sheikh Taha” in Mina, sentencing him to 3-month incarceration and 300 flagellations for an unknown reason.
Of all the many and grave transgressions Saudi Arabia committed
against pilgrims one particularly troubling incident has stood out. Just
as millions of pilgrims flocked to the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia
senior cleric called for a grand religious cleanse against all those they view as apostates: all non-Wahhabis.
Of course the label non-Wahhabis extend to pretty much every faith, including Islam
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/57e0398be4b053b1ccf2a2e8
The bee species Anthophora pueblo excavate
their nests in hard sandstone, such as here in Utah's San Rafael Swell.
(Michael Orr/Utah State University)
A newly discovered species of bee does things the
hard way, gnawing its nests out of solid rock even when softer dirt is
available.
This hard work appears to pay off, however, by
providing the bees greater protection from the vagaries of life in the
desert Southwest. The species, dubbed Anthophora pueblo, has been
found in Utah, in southwest Colorado and in Death Valley in California,
where it pocks vertical sandstone rock faces with tiny holes. Though
the bees seem to be solitary nesters, they build these rocky alcoves
next to one another, like insect apartment-dwellers.
"The bee is very unusual," study researcher Michael
Orr, a doctoral student in biology at Utah State University, told Live
Science. [See Images of the Sandstone Bee Nests]
Hidden discovery
The first hint of Anthophora peublo's
existence dates back to the early 1980s, when entomologist Frank Parker —
an author on the current study and the former head of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Bee Lab in Utah — discovered bees nesting in
holes dug into sandstone in Utah's San Rafael Desert. Parker chipped out
a couple of blocks of sandstone and reared the bees until they emerged
from the rock; the nests and bee specimens then sat in a museum
collection, unstudied.
Flash forward to the present day, when Orr began doing fieldwork studying other members of the Anthophora
genus. He'd seen bees using the sandstone nests, and when Parker told
him about the original discoveries in the 1980s, he knew he had to
investigate more fully.
He did some detective work to rediscover Parker's
original field sites, where the gap is still visible from the chunk of
rock he chiseled out 36 years ago, Orr said. Something else remains the
same, too.
"One of the greatest moments for me of this project
was going back and revisiting that site from almost 40 years ago, and
just walking up and the bees are still there," Orr said. "They're still
using this same spot."
Orr and his colleagues discovered the sandstone-dwelling bees at seven sites total, the researchers reported on Sept. 12 in the journal Current Biology.
They're mostly found in natural rock formations, but some nest in
ancient Pueblo dwellings made by human hands — lending them their
species name.
The bees, which are covered in the familiar
black-and-yellow stripes, nest in sandstone at all but two sites, Orr
said, where they burrow into silt. At these silt sites, the sandstone is
about 2.5 times harder than the sandstones that the bees burrow into.
"They prefer it up until it's at a certain hardness threshold and then it doesn't make sense for them anymore," he said.
Costs of excavating
There's a cost to burrowing in stone. Older female
bees commonly show wear and tear on their mandibles, Orr and his
colleagues reported, and it takes more energy and time to dig through
sandstone than dirt. However, there's evidence that building nests to
last confers benefits to the bees' offspring, which may reuse their
parents' tunnels. The bees are also able to hole up in their dwellings
and delay emergence for up to four years when times are lean and not
many desert flowers are blooming; sandstone probably protects the bees
from erosion or flash floods better than dirt during these long
quiescent periods, the researchers wrote.
While long-lasting nests used through multiple
generations can attract parasites, the sandstone also seems to stymy
freeloaders, the researchers found. In the sandstone blocks found in
1980, the nesting sites had been colonized by parasitic beetles called Tricrania stansburii. The larva of these beetles hitch rides on bees back to the bee nests.
However, only six out of 69 larvae had successfully emerged from their
nesting cells, Orr said. The rest died, unable to get out of the tough
stone. The hardness of the rock seems to help keep the parasite
population in check. [The 10 Most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites]
The sandstone should also deter microbial parasites.
"Sandstone has relatively little organic matter in it naturally because
of the way it's formed, and because of that most of the microbes that
are using it are making their own food through things like
photosynthesis," which requires sunlight, he said. "Anything making its
own food through photosynthesis will be much less likely to invade a
bee's nest and eat the bee's food."
The bee nests also provide a sort of secondary
shelter for insects and arachnids that can't chew through rock on their
own, Orr said. At least 20 species use the burrows, about half of which
are parasites. Other "renters" of the rock apartments include spiders,
other bee species and wasps, he said.
In the future, Orr hopes to track the bees as they
come and go to find out if they're entirely solitary or if they
cooperate to share nests. He's also working to get the local Native
American community involved in the study and to draw more non-scientists
into noticing these odd bees.
"I'm hoping to build kind of this sort of citizen
science network where people can report these nest sites to me," he
said. Acting on tips and doing his own explorations, he's found more
than 50 new nesting sites since the paper was submitted to the journal,
he said. Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All
rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.
Former
Nigerian first lady Patience Jonathan is claiming ownership of bank
accounts allegedly worth $31.5 million (KSh3.2 billion) that have been
frozen in a corruption investigation, prompting anti-corruption groups
to demand her prosecution.
The wife of former President Goodluck
Jonathan filed suit asking the Federal High Court in Lagos to unfreeze
five U.S. dollar accounts at Nigeria’s Skye Bank. They were frozen by
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in July.
Separately,
her lawyer sent a letter to the commission saying $15 million (KSh1.5
billion) of the money was a government payment for medical bills she
incurred in London in 2013.
Nigerians
have taken to social media to deride that claim, asking if she planned
to heal the entire world or was buying eternal life. But some accused
the anti-graft commission of subjecting her and others to “trial by
media.”
The commission has detained hundreds of people in a
yearlong investigation of tens of billions of dollars missing from the
state treasury that has not produced any successful prosecutions.
The
commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the
lawsuit and letter, which were dated last week and obtained by The
Associated Press.
President Goodluck Jonathan left office in May 2015 after being voted out.
Nigeria’s
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, a civil society
group, demanded that the attorney general immediately undertake criminal
proceedings against the former first lady.
Nigerian
media quoted unidentified anti-corruption commission officers as saying
all but one of the frozen accounts were set up in the names of domestic
workers, though the former first lady was the sole signatory.
A
former senior presidential aide, a lawyer and a bank official are among
people named in the corruption case that alleges graft and money
laundering.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
French politician Rachida Dati was minister of justice under Nicolas Sarkozy
A French politician
has hit back after it was suggested her daughter was "less French" than
other children because she had named her after her mother.
Rachida Dati reacted angrily after journalist Eric Zemmour criticised her choice of name for seven-year-old daughter Zohra.
He said it was unpatriotic because it did not come from an official list of French Christian names.
Ms Dati, a former justice minister, said the comments were "pathological".
Zemmour
appeared on French television channel LCI on Monday, demanding the
return of a law restricting the names children are given.
The law was abolished in 1993, 200 years after it was brought in by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Five countries which regulate baby names
Image copyrightPAIceland: Parents can choose from an
approved list of 1,853 female and 1,712 male names, with those who want
to venture outside the norm facing a special committee which will
approve the choice should it meet certain criteria - including not
embarrassing the child in question Portugal: Those looking for inspiration can turn to an 80-page list which includes some 2,600 banned names, according to the Portuguese-American Journal Saudi Arabia: The kingdom banned 50 names in 2015, including Alice, Elaine and Lauren - all considered too Western by authorities. New Zealand:
The task of approving baby names falls to the Department of Internal
Affairs, which releases a list of its top "most rejected" each year -
with 2015's winner being "Messiah" Malaysia: As
well as banning parents from calling babies names like Hitler, the
National Registration Department has prohibited naming children after
animals, insects, fruit, vegetables or colours since 2006
Zemmour
- who also told the channel he felt National Front leader Marine Le Pen
was not far enough to the right - said non-Christian names like Zohra,
and that of football legend Zinedine Zidane, made their bearers "less
French" than himself.
He also admitted to confronting Ms Dati, who is of North African origin, over her choice of name to her face.
"She called her daughter Zohra," he said. "I find it outrageous and I told her."
He added: "I consider that by giving Muslim first names, you are refusing to accept the history of France."
Ms
Dati, who was justice minister under ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, was
raised in a Muslim household but was partially educated at a private
Catholic convent school. She has spoken previously of how she considers
herself first a "daughter of France".
"Do you find it scandalous to give your mother's name to your children?" she asked, in a vigorous defence of her choice of name.
"I loved my mother. I have a little girl, and I called her after my mother. Like millions of French people do every day."
هاجم الكاتب الفرنسي إيريك زمور مواطنيه الذين يحملون أسماء غير مسيحية وغير فرنسية، وهو ما قوبل باستهجان البعض الذي اعتبر أنه ينم عن "عنصريته".
وقال زمور في تصريحات إعلامية الثلاثاء الماضي إن كل
الفرنسيين (من أصول أجنبية) الذين يحملون أسماء غير موجودة في التقويم
المسيحي هم أقل فرنسية من الذين يحملون أسماء موجودة في ذلك التقويم.
وضرب مثالا على ذلك عندما ذكر اللاعب الفرنسي الشهير زين الدين زيدان (من أصل جزائري) والوزيرة الفرنسية من أصول مغربية رشيدة داتي التي اختارت اسم "زهرة" لابنتها.
وفي هذا الإطار، قال زمور إن كل من يعطي اسم غير مسيحي لابنه هو بشكل من الأشكال "ينفصل عن فرنسا".
وفي ردها على تصريحات الكاتب المعروف، تساءلت داتي أمس
الأربعاء عن المشكلة في تسمية ابنتها على اسم أمها التي تعشقها كما يفعل
ملايين الفرنسيين، وفق تعبيرها.
وقالت "إذا كان زمور ينزعج من هذا الأمر، فهذا يعني أنه يعاني من حالة مرضية وأنصحه بأن يعالج نفسه".
بدوره قال الأمين العام للحزب الاشتراكي كريستوف كمباديليس إن كل ما يسعى إليه زمور في كل ظهور إعلامي أن يربط يبن المسلمين والإرهاب وهو أمر غير مقبول ولن نسمح به.
أما عضو المجلس البلدي بمدينة غوسافيل الفرنسية بدر ساسي فقال
للأناضول إن المشكلة ليس في ما يقوله زمور لأنه معروف بعنصريته، ولكن
المشكلة في عدد من وسائل الإعلام التي تمرر أناسا رأس مالهم الوحيد هو العنصرية وتصنع منهم نجوما وشخصيات عامة، وفق تعبيره.
وحذر ساسي من أن فتح المنصات الإعلامية لمثل هؤلاء"ليس خطرا على المسلمين فحسب، بل على فرنسا والمجتمع برمته".
In this photo taken Sunday Aug. 28, 2016 a girl displaced by Islamist Extremists carries empty... Read more
MAIDUGURI,
Nigeria (AP) — Excited but fearful, refugees from Boko Haram piled into
yellow school buses with their bundles of belongings, returning after
two years to homes that have been torched, wells destroyed, livestock
looted and fields that still may not be safe from the Islamic
insurgents.
On Monday, the largest group yet of such refugees, nearly 2,000, was
transported to villages and the town of Konduga. Though they are just 35
kilometers (22 miles) from Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria's biggest city,
they are also on the fringes of the Sambisa Forest where the Islamic
extremists still have strongholds.
How this group of returnees survives, and whether the military can
protect them, could influence other refugees whom the government is keen
to resettle. Maiduguri alone is home to about 1 million of the 2.6
million people forced from their homes in Nigeria and neighboring
countries during Boko Haram's seven-year uprising that has killed some
20,000.
Despite the threat from insurgents, "food is the most important
issue," said one returnee, Baari Mustapha. "If not, there will be
serious hunger and starvation."
Food is already a critical issue. Children are dying of starvation in
refugee camps like Dalori, where many of the returnees had been living
in tattered tents and makeshift huts of straw on the outskirts of
Maiduguri.
Dalori residents were among hundreds who protested last week,
accusing officials of stealing their food donations. Nigeria's
government is investigating the charges.
The refugees say the camps are miserable, and they hope life will be better back home.
"Life has not been easy in the camp," said Bintu Ganaye, a
32-year-old mother surrounded by her five children, ages 3 to 13. "Our
major fear is that we don't know what the future holds out for us as we
return empty-handed."
Almost all the returnees are children, women and old men. Most women
have no idea of the fate of husbands and sons, who may have been killed
by Boko Haram or kidnapped to be turned into fighters.
The Borno state government some months ago tried to force refugees to
return home, only to meet resistance from people who said it wasn't
safe. Smaller groups have voluntarily returned.
On Monday, the refugees waited hours in sweltering heat for the
arrival of Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima, who assured them that food
rations would be shipped to them, along with seeds to cultivate a total
of 50 hectares (124 acres) of land cleared for them.
The villagers said they believe they still could be attacked by Boko
Haram on their traditional farming lands, which are located away from
their villages.
Hundreds of thousands of peasant farmers have been driven from their lands by Boko Haram.
Konduga town was attacked many times in the past because it serves as
a final defense for Maiduguri, the birthplace of the extremist group
and headquarters of the military campaign to curb its insurgency.
Even in Dalori camp, the refugees were not safe. In January, Boko
Haram sent gunmen and suicide bombers who firebombed huts there and
killed at least 86 people, including children.
There has been no major attack on Maiduguri or Konduga in the months
since the military and forces from neighboring countries announced they
had forced the militants out of most areas except the extreme northern
areas around the Lake Chad Basin, where Nigeria's borders meet Cameroon,
Chad and Niger, and the Sambisa Forest to the west of Konduga.
Kenya’s role in Africa should not be underestimated, since
one party State Kenya has remained a force to be reckoned with in
Africa. Moi through his well-articulated leadership had many enemies as
well as friends in same measure. Moi was pro West and had support from
United States for standing with the West in era of cold war. It was
during Moi era that Nairobi mooted the birth of democratic Somalia and
Southern Sudan. In recent years, Kenya has grown more popular outside
the East Africa States. Kenya’s popularity has come with equal benefits
through the leadership of Kenyatta. Somali’s UN backed government
operated from Nairobi before eventually moving to Mogadishu. Kenya
babied Somalia from the word go and it remains committed to see a
peaceful neighbor for many years to come.
It is against this backdrop that I argue Kenyatta government can moot
recognition of self-declared Somali-land. Kenyatta has a respected
voice in African Union as well as the entire world. Somali-land, against
all odds, declared its independence in 1991 after the fall of Said
Barre. This self-determined breakaway State is not imposed by any major
power or global elites, it merely followed through the status it had on
June 26, 1960, after receiving independence from British colonial rule.
It should be understood that Somaliland was recognized by the United
Nations, United States and 35 other countries as an independent State
until it voluntarily joined former UN Trust territory of Somalia on July
1, 1960. Somaliland is a unique self-created democracy that has held
general elections, where the losers have accepted defeat and instead of
fighting have formed a strong nation that has a strong stand against
radicalization. It is time for the world to invest in this nation.
Kenya, in the efforts of bringing sanity in East Africa deployed
troops in Somalia through a swift operation code named Linda nchi
(Protect the Nation) that saw the capture of Kismayu in a well thought
and uniquely planned war that saw Kenya make mark militarily for the
first time in the history of the world. Kenya through African Union
should push the agenda of self-rule in Somaliland. Kenya has nothing to
lose in this pursuit because at the moment Kenya spends millions of
dollars in war that continues to radicalize Kenyan youth. UN backed
Somalia government has a long way to go but the best available solution
now is supporting any breakaway region that guarantees transparency,
democracy and rule of law.
Kenya can carefully work through a strategy of withdrawing troops
from Somalia and deploy a residual force to train Somali-land troops,
Kenya will have achieved what no African nation has achieved. Kenya
besides being the first African nation to have a forward base in a
foreign land will also advance its economic interest in establishing new
markets for Kenyan products as well as export Kenyans workers with
diverse skills and human resource. It should be understood Kenya helped
Namibia gain its footing in 80’s, the same can be said of Mozambique,
Liberia and war stricken Yugoslavia.
Somali-land
desire to live as an independent State was as a result of failed
clannism politics that seems to tear Somalia apart. It is important to
note that many countries have emerged from failed federation like the
grand Federation of Somalia formed by Italian and British protectorate.
Other countries that have formed breakaway countries that were later
recognized are the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Gambia, East
Timor and Eritrea.
Kenya’s voice in Africa is critical and its leadership is equally
undeniably top notch. It should be known that everything Kenya nurtures
through the ages has turned out to be great. Let Kenya deploy its
military force for training purposes in Somaliland, while there, Kenyan
navy can continue to open maritime commerce while flying Kenyan flag
high and in a peaceful way. While in Somaliland, KDF can continue to
protect Kenya homeland by destroying and disrupting terrorist activities
directed towards Kenya from foreign lands. Like any other great
nations, Kenya can have foreign based troops that can answer the call
moment’s notice when it is most needed.
Read more: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ureport/story/2000215536/kenya-is-key-to-somali-land-recognition
Richard Miriti
Kenya’s role in Africa should not be underestimated, since
one party State Kenya has remained a force to be reckoned with in
Africa. Moi through his well-articulated leadership had many enemies as
well as friends in same measure. Moi was pro West and had support from
United States for standing with the West in era of cold war. It was
during Moi era that Nairobi mooted the birth of democratic Somalia and
Southern Sudan. In recent years, Kenya has grown more popular outside
the East Africa States. Kenya’s popularity has come with equal benefits
through the leadership of Kenyatta. Somali’s UN backed government
operated from Nairobi before eventually moving to Mogadishu. Kenya
babied Somalia from the word go and it remains committed to see a
peaceful neighbor for many years to come.