Jordanians divided over anti-IS coalition

Osama Al Sharif
September 15, 2014

Jordan has joined the US-led coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria despite Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour's Sept. 6 statement that the kingdom was not part of any international alliance and would not participate in strikes against the terror organization.

While officials have not confirmed that Jordan was now part of a regional coalition to fight IS, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Joudeh said during a Sept. 11 US-Arab ministerial meeting in Jeddah that the kingdom regards IS as a “direct and immediate threat to our national security.”

Ten Arab states, including Jordan, issued a joint communique at the end of the Jeddah meeting in which they said they will “do their share” to confront and ultimately destroy IS. No specific roles were outlined.

A day earlier, King Abdullah told US Secretary of State John Kerry, “Jordan supports regional and international radicalism-combating efforts in consistency with its unaltered belief in the serious and direct threat the terrorist organizations pose to the region’s and world’s security and stability.” The king was the only Arab leader to attend NATO’s summit in Wales on Sept. 5. During the summit, he also met with US President Barack Obama and presented “Jordan’s vision on regional challenges including the threat of terror.”

A US administration official told The New York Times Sept. 5 that Jordan brings special expertise to the new coalition, especially “intelligence about Sunni militants.” But Jordanian officials declined to comment on the nature of Jordan’s role in the coalition, especially on Israeli reports that the king and Kerry had discussed “the possibility of using Jordan as a base for the proposed coalition’s strikes against the Islamic State in neighboring Iraq and Syria.”

The possibility of Jordan joining a US-led coalition to fight IS has divided Jordanians, which explains the government’s hesitation to confirm that it is now a full-fledged member. The Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, issued a statement Sept. 10 criticizing Kerry’s visit to the kingdom and rejecting any role for Jordan in a Washington-led alliance to fight IS. It denounced “international pressures on the country to force it to become a party or a partner in a war that is not ours,” saying that it was “against plans for Jordanian bases to be used by soldiers who are part of an international coalition in the fight against terror.”

One former government minister, who asked not to be named, told Al-Monitor that joining the new coalition constituted a challenge for Jordan, adding, “On the one hand, the kingdom cannot afford to turn its back on its Arab and Western allies and has no option but to join in the fight against IS, and on the other it is weary of the possibility of becoming a target of Islamist extremists, especially when there are reports that thousands of Jordanian Salafist jihadists are fighting with the Islamic State.”

He added that Jordan can play an important role in supplying the coalition with valuable intelligence because of its special relations with Sunni tribes in western Iraq and southern Syria. Jordan had tipped off the United States on the whereabouts of former al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in 2006, which led to his termination.

But it is not only the Islamists who are against Jordan’s involvement in the fight against IS. On Sept. 3, 21 Lower House deputies signed a petition warning the government not to join any party against IS, adding, “Jordan has no interest in such a confrontation, especially as many in the region sympathize with IS.”

One of the signatories, parliament member Khalil Atiyeh, told Al-Monitor, “Jordan should not be fighting on behalf of others,” adding that the kingdom “is not divided like Iraq and Syria or infiltrated by terror groups … and we have an army that is capable of defending our borders.”

But there is division over this issue. Parliamentarian Jamal Al-Nimri, who supports Jordan’s involvement in a regional alliance, said IS does not pose a threat to Iraq and Syria alone, “but is a regional menace that has sympathizers in the kingdom.” He told Al-Monitor, “Unless the Islamic State is defeated in Iraq and Syria, its next target will be Jordan, and those who do not understand this fact are mistaken.”

But political commentator Fahd al-Khitan warned that unless the war on IS is accompanied by “a historic plan to solve the region’s endemic conflicts, things will only get worse.” He told Al-Monitor there are hopeful signs in Iraq for political reconciliation, but it is too early to say, and Syria has become “a fertile breeding ground for extremists.” But most of all, Khitan said, the region needs to resolve the Palestinian issue, “because one cannot contemplate a stable Middle East without lifting the injustice that has plagued the Palestinian people.”

Political analyst Orieb al-Rintawi supported Jordan’s efforts in fighting IS and extremism, but added, “The kingdom should be careful not to succumb to foreign agendas.” He told Al-Monitor that Jordan must keep in mind its long-term interests with Russia and stay in touch with Iran while maintaining its independent policy on Syria. “The new coalition should not become a pretext to bring moderate Arabs closer to Israel at the expense of others. This will only deepen the conflicts we face,” he said. Rintawi called on the government to be transparent with its citizens about its role in the new coalition.

In the past few days, the government has intensified its security campaign against Salafist jihadists who sympathize with IS. Mousa Abdel Latt, a lawyer who defends Islamists, told Al-Monitor that at least 60 individuals with clear ties to IS have been recently arrested “as a precaution in light of regional developments.” He said they have been detained under the anti-terror law for unlawful activities on the Internet. The Salafist movement in Jordan has been divided on the issue of IS, with key figures publicly condemning its recent atrocities.

Last month, King Abdullah reassured Jordanians that extremist groups do not pose an immediate threat to Jordan’s stability and security. He emphasized that Jordan’s major challenges are economic in nature. But the possible threat of IS has overshadowed public discourse, and now that Jordan is joining a US-led coalition to fight the terror group in Iraq and Syria, that discussion is turning into a heated debate.

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/jordan-role-coalition-fight-islamic-state.html.

How a Libyan city joined the Islamic State group

November 09, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — On a chilly night, bearded militants gathered at a stage strung with colorful lights in Darna, a Mediterranean coastal city long notorious as Libya's center for jihadi radicals. With a roaring chant, they pledged their allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group.

With that meeting 10 days ago, the militants dragged Darna into becoming the first city outside of Iraq and Syria to join the "caliphate" announced by the extremist group. Already, the city has seen religious courts ordering killings in public, floggings of residents accused of violating Shariah law, as well as enforced segregation of male and female students. Opponents of the militants have gone into hiding or fled, terrorized by a string of slayings aimed at silencing them.

The takeover of the city, some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the nearest territory controlled by the Islamic State group, offers a revealing look into how the radical group is able to exploit local conditions. A new Islamic State "emir" now leads the city, identified as Mohammed Abdullah, a little-known Yemeni militant sent from Syria known by his nom de guerre Abu al-Baraa el-Azdi, according to several local activists and a former militant from Darna.

A number of leading Islamic State militants came to the city from Iraq and Syria earlier this year and over a few months united most of Darna's multiple but long-divided extremist factions behind them. They paved the way by killing any rivals, including militants, according to local activists, former city council members and a former militant interviewed by The Associated Press. They all spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their lives.

Darna could be a model for the group to try to expand elsewhere. Notably, in Lebanon, army troops recently captured a number of militants believed to be planning to seize several villages in the north and proclaim them part of the "caliphate." Around the region, a few militant groups have pledged allegiance to its leader, Iraqi militant Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But none hold cohesive territory like those in Darna do.

The vow of allegiance in Darna gives the Islamic State group a foothold in Libya, an oil-rich North African nation whose central government control has collapsed in the chaos since the 2011 ouster and death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Extremists made Darna their stronghold in the 1980s and 1990s during an insurgency against Gadhafi, the city protected by the rugged terrain of the surrounding Green Mountain range in eastern Libya. Darna was the main source of Libyan jihadis and suicide bombers for the insurgency in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion. Entire brigades of Darna natives fight in Syria's civil war.

This spring, a number of Libyan jihadis with the Islamic State group returned home to Darna. The returnees, known as the Battar Group, formed a new faction called the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam, which began rallying other local militants behind joining the Islamic State group. In September, al-Azdi arrived.

Many of Darna's militants joined, though some didn't. Part of Ansar al-Shariah, one of the country's most powerful Islamic factions, joined while another part rejected it. The main militant group that refused was the Martyrs of Abu Salem Brigade, once the strongest force in Darna. The fundamentalist group sees itself as a nationalist Libyan force and calls for a democratically formed government, albeit one that must enforce stricter Shariah law.

For the past months, it has battled the al-Battar fighters and the Shura Council. Al-Battar accused the Abu Salem militia of killing one of its top commanders in June and threatened in a statement to "fill the land with (their) graves."

Meanwhile, a militant campaign of killings in Darna targeted the liberal activists who once led sit-ins against them, as well as lawyers and judges. Militants also stormed polling stations, stopping voting in Darna during nationwide elections in March and June.

In July, a former liberal lawmaker in Darna, Farieha el-Berkawi, was gunned down in broad daylight. Her killing in particular chilled the anti-militant movement, said a close friend of el-Berkawi. "People had done their best (to force out militants) and got nothing but more bloodshed," she told the AP.

Those who stayed tried to co-exist. Some submitted letters of "repentance" to the Islamic militias, denouncing their past work in the government. Militant group Facebook pages are dotted with letters of repentance submitted by a traffic police officer, a former militiaman and a former colonel in Gadhafi's security apparatus.

With opposition silenced, militant factions first came together on Oct. 5 and decided to pledge allegiance to al-Baghdadi and form the Islamic State group's "Barqa province," using a traditional name for eastern Libya. After the gathering, more than 60 pickup trucks filled with fighters cruised through the city in a victory parade.

Last week, a second gathering in front of a Darna social club saw a larger array of factions make a more formal pledge of allegiance. Al-Azdi attended the event, according to the former militant. The militant himself did not attend but several of his close relatives who belong to Ansar al-Shariah did.

Now, government buildings in Darna are "Islamic State" offices, according to the activists. Cars carrying the logo of the "Islamic police" roam the city. Women increasingly wear ultraconservative face veils. Masked men have flogged young men caught drinking alcohol, a former city council member told the AP.

Militants have ordered that male and female students must be segregated at school, and history and geography were removed from the curriculum, according to two activists in the city. New "Islamic police" flyers order clothing stores to cover their mannequins and not display "scandalous women's clothes that cause sedition."

Opposition to the militants, already scattered, is under threat. During the extremists' first meeting, a colleague recounted how Osama al-Mansouri, a lecturer at Darna's Fine Arts college, stood up and asked the bearded men: "What do you want? What are you after?"

Two days later, gunmen shot al-Mansouri dead in his car.

Spain's PM calls for dialogue with Catalan leaders

November 08, 2014

MADRID (AP) — Spain's prime minister on Saturday called on Catalan leaders to return to dialogue, a day before the region was due to hold an informal independence poll.

Mariano Rajoy said he expects "sanity" to return to northeastern Catalonia after the unofficial vote Sunday that is supposed to measure public support for secession from Spain. The consultation has been ruled unconstitutional by Spain's judiciary.

Rajoy called on Catalonia's leaders to begin talks "within the legal framework of the constitution." The prime minister said that because of its illegal status, the poll would be "neither a referendum nor a consultation nor anything of the sort, and it won't have any effect at all."

Meanwhile, an organization called Libres e Iguales (Free and Equal) that opposes the poll held protests in 55 Spanish cities, as well as in Paris, Brussels and Luxembourg, according to Popular Party lawmaker Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo.

The group includes politicians, aristocrat Carlos Falco, and intellectuals such as author Mario Vargas Llosa — who holds dual Peruvian and Spanish citizenship. Several hundred people in Madrid listened to Vargas Llosa and others, who said they do not lend "any legitimacy to attempts to break up our country."

Vargas Llosa, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2010, also described the poll as disrespectful of "the rule of law or the true will of the people." A protest in the Catalan city of Girona proceeded peacefully, Alvarez de Toledo said. However, one in Barcelona saw minor scuffles between pro- and anti-consultation supporters that the police broke up without making arrests.

Catalonia, with some 7.5 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, is one of Spain's wealthiest regions. A long-rumbling Catalan secessionist sentiment peaked during Spain's economic downturn and amid dissatisfaction at the country's refusal to allow the region greater autonomy and fiscal powers.

The Catalan initiative is Europe's latest secession attempt following Scotland's independence poll in September that resulted in a "No" vote.

Catalan leaders weigh up independence poll results

November 10, 2014

MADRID (AP) — The Catalonia region's president was riding a wave of enthusiasm among independence seekers Monday, a day after a non-binding vote on secession from Spain showed strong though not overwhelming support for breaking away.

Artur Mas received an ovation from jubilant government workers as he returned to his party headquarters to analyze the results of the unofficial referendum. "Catalonia wants to decide its own future," regional government spokesman Francesc Homs said.

Unhappy at Spain's refusal to give the wealthy region more autonomy and fiscal powers, Catalan politicians have been pushing for a referendum for months. Catalonia's secessionist moves follow Scotland's recent independence vote that resulted in a No vote and kept it part of Britain.

Regional authorities said 2.3 million Catalans had voted, with 80 percent opting to break away. While no official turnout figures were given, it appeared that Sunday's turnout was much lower than in recent elections.

Elsewhere, there was skepticism over the vote. "It is totally undemocratic," church cleaner Carmen Santos said in Madrid. "They haven't asked all Spaniards." Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had described the vote as "neither a referendum nor a consultation," because it has no legal weight.

Mas opted for an unofficial consultation after parliament, where Rajoy's Popular Party has a majority, rejected his call for a referendum and Spain's judiciary concurred. Speaking in London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said "we want Spain to stay united, to stay together."

Cameron said that referendums "should be done through the proper constitutional and legal frameworks." British and Scottish authorities agreed beforehand on the framework and rules for Scotland's September independence referendum, and both sides agreed to respect the result.

Associated Press correspondent Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

2 million Catalans vote in mock independence poll

November 10, 2014

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — About 1.6 million people in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia voted Sunday in favor of breaking away from the country and carving out a new Mediterranean nation in a mock independence poll, but more Catalans stayed away either because of the poll's questionable legality or their opposition to secession.

Results released early Monday with 88 percent of votes counted showed that over two million people voted and 1.6 million favored forming a new nation that would be separated from the European Union and forced to reapply for membership. But 5.4 million were eligible to vote, meaning many did not bother to participate amid worries about the vote's lack of legal guarantees and its nonbinding status.

Catalan lawmakers opted for the watered-down poll after plans to hold an official referendum on independence were suspended by Spain's Constitutional Court amid the central government's challenge that the referendum was unconstitutional. The court then suspended the mock vote on the same grounds Tuesday.

The regional government defied the suspension, manning polling stations with 40,000 volunteers. "Despite the enormous impediments, we have been able to get out the ballot boxes and vote," Catalan president Artur Mas said after depositing his ballot at a school in Barcelona.

Polls in recent years say the majority of Catalonia's 7.5 million inhabitants want an official vote on independence, while around half support cutting centuries-old ties with Spain. Sunday's mock vote was the latest massive pro-independence demonstration in the wealthy region fiercely proud of its own traditions and language. It came two months after the Scots voted to remain in the United Kingdom.

Mas has said the vote was only symbolic. It likely will lead to regional elections that would stand in for a referendum on independence, unless the Spanish government relents. "We ask the world to help us convince the Spanish institutions that Catalonia deserves to vote a referendum to decide its future," Mas said.

There was a festive atmosphere as hundreds lined up in front of another school in Barcelona under overcast skies, with some wearing pro-independence regalia. "I voted for independence because I've always felt very Catalan," said Nuria Silvestre, a 44-year-old teacher. "Maybe I wasn't so radical before, but the fact that they are prohibiting (the vote) from Madrid has made me."

Spanish state prosecutors said they were continuing an investigation to determine if by holding the informal vote the Catalan government had broken the law. Justice Minister Rafael Catala called the vote "an act of propaganda organized by pro-independence forces and lacking any democratic validity."

The region's secessionist camp has grown during Spain's economic downturn, with the Spanish government's repeated denials to grant Catalonia control over its financial future.

Catalans speak out ahead of independence poll

07 November 2014 Friday

Although Madrid has denounced Sunday’s planned Catalan independence vote as “illegal,” residents of Spain’s wealthy northeastern region – both Catalans and newcomers alike – are speaking out on their country’s future.

Many Catalans are hopeful of creating Europe’s newest state despite determined opposition from the central Spanish government, according to Cevdet Oz, a 32-year old chef from Turkey who now lives in Barcelona.

When the Catalan parliament approved a Scottish-style independence vote on Sept. 19, the Spanish government appealed to the country’s Constitutional Court.

Earlier this week the court agreed to hear Madrid’s objections to a now-symbolic Catalan vote planned for Nov. 9. Nationalist leaders in the region have vowed to continue with the poll, despite the legal setback.

With their own language and culture, Catalonia – as an official ‘autonomous community’ – already has limited self-rule within Spain. It controls its own education and healthcare systems, as well as having its own police force.

Separatist leaders still enjoy the support of a large section of the Catalan electorate which has been campaigning for full independence on the streets for months.

Earlier in September hundreds of thousands of Catalans came together in two main streets in Barcelona, forming a human ‘V’ [for ‘votar’] and calling for the right to stage a referendum.

Economics are fuelling a lot of this nationalist sentiment claims Oz, who has been living in Barcelona for the last five years: “Most of them believe the central government in Madrid taxes Catalonia more than rest of the country.”

Catalans believe that they work more than rest of the Spain and pay more tax than other regions, according to Oz.

“If you notice, Catalans have a donkey symbol on the back of their cars which means they are the hard-workers of Spain,” he says.

Around 7.5 million of Spain’s 47-million strong population live in Catalonia and they account for 20 percent of the output from Europe’s fifth largest-economy.

As the region is an important base for Spanish tax revenues, losing Catalonia would signal the start of another economic struggle for Madrid – already reeling from the effects of the global financial crisis.

Oz believes that independence would affect immigrants in the country like himself although he is not clear exactly how.

“I haven’t heard if they have any policy on immigrants who live in Catalonia,” he says.

When asked if a rejection like in Scotland might occur in Catalonia, Oz says: “They might reject it because more people than just those who are campaigning for independence are at home and silent.”

A Catalan police officer, who did not give his name, told Anadolu Agency that: “Catalonia should be independent.”

“It is not only money, it is a feeling,” he says.

Unlike Oz, the officer thinks that – as opposed to Scotland – most people would vote ‘yes’ in a referendum.

“I don’t mind staying in the EU or not after independence. We are strong, we can handle any situation,” he says.

The desire for greater autonomy is also present in another region of the Spanish state: the Basque Country in the north. A four-decade armed campaign for Basque independence cost more than 800 lives.

When asked about the Basque question, the policeman says: “We will do this first and then Basques will do it second maybe. But they are not as willing as we are here."

“‘Yes’ votes here are maybe 75 percent but in the Basque country maybe fifty-fifty.”

Cesar Patino, 38, is a street artist from Bolivia and has been living in Barcelona since 2001. Patino believes Catalans should have the right to vote on independence.

“Apart from what they decide, they just want to vote. That’s the most important thing,” he says.

“This is the feeling of around 300 years. That feeling you cannot change.

“They think they are different and they are,” he says.

As an immigrant, Patino has many questions about independence: “People talk about independence but they are not very clear. Actually I don’t have a preference as to whether it will be better or not. They don’t explain it very well.”

Luis Angel, 65, is from Aragon, another autonomous community in northeastern Spain. Angel says that although many Catalans want to be independent, Spanish politicians will not allow them to have a referendum.

One independence campaigner, Eduard Zanuy, 51, says: “First of all we are a different nation with a culture, language and history of centuries."

“Now it is not possible combine with Spain or stay within Spain. I think independence is the only way out to maintain our culture, institutions and language.”

Although Nov. 9 may see a symbolic ‘yes’ vote, it seems that legal roadblocks will only stall talk of Catalan independence and ensure that the issue remains on the front burner.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/147910/catalans-speak-out-ahead-of-independence-poll.

Japanese Muslims meet at Tokyo Mosque built by Turkey

03 November 2014 Monday

Tokyo Camii, or the Tokyo Mosque, is a curious sight, both stunning and subtle. Despite the grand Turkish design, the mosque hides between apartment blocks in the quiet residential neighborhood of Yoyogi Uehara.

Samee Siddiqui from Al Jazeera reported the rich Muslim culture in Japan in recent post. According to the report, construction of the current incarnation of the mosque was completed in 2000, but the mosque has a much longer history. It was in the 1930s when Japan first saw a significant resident Muslim population and the first mosques were established. The Nagoya Mosque was built in 1931 and the Kobe Mosque in 1935 by Indian-Muslim migrants.

Tatar Muslim migrants escaping the Russian revolution made up the largest ethnic group in Japan by the 1930s and established the original Tokyo Mosque in 1938.

While the Tokyo Camii does not have the same support and contacts with Japanese government and large conglomerates in contemporary times, the mosque was rebuilt using funds from the Turkish government and is both a religious venue and an ethno-cultural space hosting wedding ceremonies, fashion shows, plays, exhibitions and conferences.

The Yuai International School in the Mosque is currently offering Saturday classes ranging from Islamic studies and Arabic, to karate and calligraphy.

The school is run by the Islamic Center of Japan (ICJ), a post-WWII Muslim institution established in 1966.

In the absence of official statistics on Muslims in Japan, demographic estimates range from between 70,000 to 120,000 Muslim residents with about 10 percent of that number being Japanese, in a country with an overall population of more than 127 million, according to the report.

Some researchers have highlighted negative stereotypes of Islam that Muslims have been confronted with in Japan since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Despite the Tokyo Metropolitan Police being absolved of any wrongdoing by the Tokyo District Court in January, the UN Human Rights Committee has expressed concerns in a recent report about the systematic surveillance of Muslims and mosques in Japan.

While Islam may not have the same footprint in Japan as other religions such as Buddhism and Christianity, knowledge of it and the Prophet Muhammad here can be traced back to the 8th century.

Serious and sustained engagement with the Muslim world began for Japan as a part of its global outreach in the early Meiji period (1868-1890), with trade and information gathering missions sailing towards the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East.

Verifiable accounts of Muslims entering Japan can be placed in the same period with records of Indian merchants and Malay-Indian sailors working in ports in the Japanese cities of Yokohama and Kobe.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/147644/japanese-muslims-meet-at-tokyo-mosque-built-by-turkey.