Latest news with #SunniIslam
Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Gunmen storm Iran courthouse, killing 6
ZAHEDAN, Iran: This image grab from a handout video shows clashes in front of a judiciary building in Zahedan, the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. – AFP TEHRAN: Gunmen stormed a courthouse in southeastern Iran on Saturday, killing at least six people, including three law enforcement personnel, the judiciary said. At least 22 people were also wounded, most of them civilians, said provincial chief justice Ali Movahedi-Rad, cited by the judiciary's Mizan Online news outlet. Mizan reported that the number of dead from the 'terrorist attack' in the city of Zahedan had risen to six, revising an earlier toll of five. The three attackers had been wearing explosive vests and had tried to enter the building disguised as visitors, Movahedi-Rad said. All three 'have been killed according to the announcement of the Quds Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC), he added. The dead included three law enforcement members who were protecting the courthouse. Alireza Daliri, deputy police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, said the assailants threw a grenade into the building. Iranian media said the attack was claimed by Jaish al-Adl, a Baloch jihadist group based in Pakistan but active in Iran whose name is Arabic for 'Army of Justice'. Located about 1,200 kilometers southeast of the capital Tehran, restive Sistan-Baluchistan province shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. This province hosts a significant population from the Baloch ethnic minority, which practices Sunni Islam in Shiite-majority Iran. The area has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers. In one of the deadliest attacks in the province, 10 police officers were killed in October. - AFP
Watani
29-06-2025
- Health
- Watani
Cooperation Protocol on mental health between Coptic Church and Youth Ministry
The Coptic Orthodox Synod's Committee for Mental Health and Addiction Control, has recently signed a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The protocol aims to provide youth with training and awareness programmes in psychological development and life skills, with an eye on the national vision to build balanced and cohesive youth awareness. The protocol was signed during the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Youth's Life Management Office permanent headquarters at the Youth Innovation and Learning Centre in Gezira, Cairo. Present at the signing ceremony was Ashraf Sobhi, Minister of Youth and Sports, and from the Church side, Fr Moussa Fathy, Secretary of the Synodal Committee for Mental Health and Addiction Control. During the event, the Ministry of Youth and Sports signed similar protocols of cooperation with al-Azhar's world centre on electronic fatwas—al-Azhar is the world's top most authority on Sunni Islam; and other State-owned educational institutes. According to the Minister of Youth and Sports, the Life Management Skills Office aligns with the State's vision of building people from within. 'We focus on developing skills such as positive thinking, effective communication, leadership, and time management, in addition to promoting mental health, all of which are essential elements for building a conscientious and qualified generation for the future,' Dr Sobhy said. He explained that partnerships with religious and educational facilities serve as a key purpose in shaping youth awareness and equipping them with the skills necessary for their professional and personal lives. Watani International 29 June 2025 Comments comments Tags: Basma NasserCoptic Church and Youth Ministry mental health
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zia Yusuf didn't leave Reform because he was a victim of racism
Zia Yusuf was billed by some as one of the rising stars of British politics – so his abrupt resignation as chairman of Reform UK has created quite a splash. Wading in with his typical opportunistic identitarianism, former leader of the SNP, Humza Yousaf, said on X that Yusuf's departure from Reform should serve as an example to all 'people of colour' – that the 'hard-right' would never accept them, even if they make sizeable financial donations. He added that it was no surprise that the insurgent challenger party of the Right eventually dispensed with their 'brown, son-of-an-immigrant, Muslim' party chairman. While there have been reports of Yusuf being sidelined within Reform for some time, the straw that broke the camel's back appears to be a disagreement between him and the party's newest MP, Sarah Pochin. In PMQs, the recently elected MP for Runcorn and Helsby asked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer whether he would entertain the possibility of introducing restrictions on the wearing of the burqa in the UK. Yusuf seemingly took issue with this by publicly rebuking Pochin on X. He said it was 'dumb' to argue for measures which were not official Reform policy. The writing was on the wall for Yusuf after the spat with Pochin. She is Reform's first female MP, and insulting her in public over a question in the Commons about banning the burqa – being a Muslim man – was political self-destruction and contradicted his own emphasis on 'professionalising' the party. The question itself was an entirely reasonable one. Morocco – a predominantly Muslim country where Sunni Islam is the state religion – banned the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of the burqa back in 2017. This was on the grounds of security considerations and part of a broader approach to combat Salafist influences in the North African country. If Yusuf was disappointed that certain procedures should have been followed by Pochin, this should have been discussed in private and he should have raised the importance of party discipline and order as chairman. This would have been responsible and professional chairmanship. While there is no doubt that Yusuf suffered a great amount of racist and anti-Muslim abuse from what the Reform leader Nigel Farage has labelled 'alt-right' trolls, a more plausible explanation for Yusuf's resignation is that he found the transition from business to politics difficult – and understandably so. In the world of business, he is unquestionably successful: he co-founded a luxury concierge company which was later sold to Capital One in a £233 million deal. But chairing a fledgling political party requires a greater degree of patience – especially when it comes to instilling organisational discipline and order as part of a broader professionalisation strategy. Whether it was restlessness, disillusionment, or clashing with other personalities, Yusuf the businessman had clearly grown frustrated in his political role. And nobody can blame him for that. While the likes of Humza Yousaf would love nothing more than to portray Zia Yusuf as a non-white Muslim victim of ethno-nationalist persecution, the reality is far more complicated. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
China Tightens Grip on Iraq's Energy Future with Massive Basra Megaproject
China's Geo-Jade Petroleum has signed a swathe of major contracts that give Beijing control over Iraq's first fully integrated energy project. This comprises a development project to increase production at the Tuba oil field from 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 100,000 bpd, constructing a 200,000-bpd high-specification refinery, and building a 620,000 tonnes annual capacity petrochemical plant, according to Iraq's Oil Ministry. It also includes the construction of a 520,000-tonne annual capacity fertilizer plant, developing a 650-megawatt thermal power plant, and building a 400-megawatt solar power station. All this will be done in the heart of Iraq's oil and gas industry, centred in the southern province of Basra that is also home to its key port and export hub of the same name. These projects combined will boost Beijing's already enormous influence over the country's oil and gas sectors, and related infrastructure developments at a time when the U.S. and its allies believed that they were starting to progress in their attempts to reassert their own influence across the oil and gas steady drift of Iraq towards China and away from the West began as the U.S. overstayed its welcome following its toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and it gained momentum after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdraw the country from the 'nuclear deal' with Iran in 2018. China moved to position itself to occupy the vacuum that would be left in Iran and Iraq, which together remain the biggest oil and gas prize in the entire region, in addition to being at the heart of the Shia Crescent of Power that rivals the influence of Sunni Islam across the region and beyond. Iraq officially holds a very conservatively-estimated 145 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves (nearly 18% of the Middle East's total, and the fifth biggest on the planet), according to the Energy Information Administration. Unofficially, it is extremely likely that it holds much more oil than this. In October 2010, Iraq's Oil Ministry increased its own official figure for the country's proven reserves but at the same time stated that Iraq's undiscovered resources amounted to around 215 billion barrels. Given this backdrop, China's efforts following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal were rewarded with the 'Iran-China 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement', as first revealed anywhere in the world in my 3 September 2019 article on the subject and analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. In Iraq's case, Beijing concluded the foundation stone 'Oil for Reconstruction and Investment' agreement signed in September 2019, which allowed Chinese firms to invest in infrastructure projects in Iraq in exchange for oil. This later broadened and deepened in the equally all-encompassing 'Iraq-China Framework Agreement' of 2021. In both cases, the deals included extremely generous terms for Chinese firms that undertook exploration and development projects in both countries, with a key basic point on each being that China would get be allowed first refusal on most of the oil, gas, and petrochemicals projects that came up in Iran and Iraq for the duration of the respective relationship deals. There were multiple other benefits for Beijing too, one of which was that although the deals were often 25-years in duration they were structured so that they would not officially start until two years after the signing date, so allowing whichever Chinese firm was involved more time to recoup more profits on average per year and less upfront investment. Additionally, the per barrel payments to China were the higher of either the mean average of the 18-month spot price for crude oil produced or the past six months' mean average price, tilting the remuneration firmly in Beijing's favour. The deals' terms also included at least a 10% discount to China on the value of the oil it recovered – although in several cases with extra bonuses applied this totalled 30%. The latter was the same discount to the lowest mean one-year average market price at the key gas pricing hubs for the gas that Chinese firms captured as well. No details have yet been released on the compensation being awarded for the Integrated Energy Project. That said, securing oil and gas flows is only one positive aspect for China of building out its presence across Iraq. Oil and gas development contracts carry with them the legal right to fully secure the development sites through whatever means the developer firms think necessary, including stationing unlimited numbers of security personnel in and around the immediate sites. One notable early example of the leveraging of oil and gas agreements with Iraq by China was a pledge from Beijing for nearly IQD1 trillion (US$700 million at the time) of rail, road and ship transportation infrastructure projects in the city of Al-Zubair in the southern Iraq oil hub of Basra that has since seen a flurry of Chinese developments, including the upcoming work that forms Geo-Jade Petroleum's Integrated Energy Project. Another deal was for Chinese companies to build a civilian airport to replace the military base in the capital of the southern oil rich Dhi Qar governorate, with this region containing two of Iraq's potentially biggest oil fields – Gharraf and Nassiriya. This airport project will include the construction of multiple cargo buildings and roads linking the airport to the city's town centre and separately to other key oil areas in southern Iraq, including Basra. In the later discussions involved in the 2021 'Iraq-China Framework Agreement', it was decided that the airport could be expanded later to be a dual-use civilian and military airport. The military component would be usable by China without first having to consult with whatever Iraqi government was in power at the time, as also analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. In the same synergistic mould, it should be remembered that China is also still working on the 300-000 bpd Al-Faw refinery, close to Faw Port's main export terminal in Basra. According to the Iraq Ministry of Planning, the China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company (CPPEC)-led project will act as a storage hub and supply conduit for 3.0-3.5 million barrels of crude oil that will then either go for export out of Basra Port or will be transported to the Al-Faw refinery and through pipelines to other refineries and power plants in central and northern Iraq. It will also act as a logistical command centre for all of China's extensive oil and gas projects in Iraq and for the build-out of multiple non-oil projects connected to the 'Iraq-China Framework Agreement'. Although not all the Chinese companies involved in the direct and indirect work connected to the Al-Faw refinery have been reported by the General Company for Ports in Iraq, a source close to Iraq's Oil Ministry exclusively told that PowerChina and Norinco International are still the guiding forces behind the development. This makes sense, as these two firms signed the original contract in January 2018 to build the refinery at Al-Faw, which together with its 300,000-bpd capacity would also have a petrochemical plant attached to the development. It also perfectly aligns with Beijing's broad modus operandi in its expansion strategy across the Middle East to combine commercial ventures with a military presence, as alongside its petroleum and mineral resources exploration and development activities, Norinco is one of China's foremost defence contractors. One of Norinco's key oil subsidiaries is Zhenhua Oil, which was the company that on 2 January 2021 made a multi-billion-dollar deal with Iraq's Federal Government in Baghdad to prepay for four million barrels every month for five years to be delivered to China by Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO). As also analysed in depth in my latest book on the new global oil market order, it was exactly the same strategy to take over Iraq's oil industry in the south as Russia had successfully used to take over the industry in the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan in 2017. By Simon Watkins for More Top Reads From this article on
News18
23-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Three Years After Father's Beheading, Udaipur Tailor Kanhaiya Lal's Son Seeks To Serve Nation
Last Updated: For three years, he stayed barefoot as a mark of protest. Now, Kanhaiya Lal's son says he won't hesitate to wear Army boots for India Nearly three years have passed since Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor from Udaipur's Bhoot Mahal area, was attacked, dragged out of his shop, and brutally beheaded by Muhammad Riyaz Attari and Ghaus Muhammad for expressing support for the controversial remarks made by now-suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma. The entire act was caught on a mobile camera and shared on the internet by the attackers, and was treated as a case of terrorism. A day ahead of Kanhaiya Lal's third death anniversary, a movie on the attack that shook the nation and influenced the Rajasthan Assembly election is set to be released in theatres. While Yash, Kanhaiya Lal's son, is hopeful that the film will refresh public memory about the tailor's murder, the recent Operation Sindoor seems to have given him something that had been missing from his life ever since 28 June 2022 — purpose. Yash found common ground between his personal tragedy and the recent Indo-Pakistan conflict. The NIA probe into the case revealed a Pakistan angle. Muhammad Riyaz Attari and Ghaus Muhammad — both accused — belonged to the Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam and were members of Dawat-e-Islami, a Barelvi organisation based in Karachi, Pakistan, led by Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadri. Ghaus Muhammad had attended religious sessions organised by Dawat-e-Islami in Karachi in 2014, the NIA probe found. So when the recent conflict began, Yash envisioned a dream — to fight the same Pakistan. 'I understand the pain the families of those 26 who lost their lives in Pahalgam are going through because I, too, have been through a similar phase. That is why I feel India should impart compulsory military training, like Israel, keeping many in reserve. If the recent situation had escalated further, more boots on the ground would have been required. If given a chance, I would be happy to enroll in the armed forces in whatever capacity they deem fit," Yash told News18 with a straight face and eyes sparkling. Yash, as well as his brother Tarun, are government employees with the Rajasthan government. The movie Gyanvapi Files: A Tailor's Murder Story is slated for release on 27 June this year across 4,500 screens globally, including in the UK, the US, and Dubai, according to Amit Jani, the film's producer. 'What happened in Udaipur is nothing new—Pakistan always does this. They (Pakistan) sent a message that they will kill us in Pahalgam, Lal Chowk, Baramulla, Pulwama, and even Udaipur. They will kill us where we think we are the safest. This is the aim of Pakistan and Islamic terror. When Kanhaiya Lal's murder happened, I said back then, 'It's not the murder of a tailor but a trailer of murders.' This movie aims to expose that," Jani told News18. While Jani hopes the film may help raise public awareness and potentially fast-track justice, Yash sounds disheartened by the glacial pace of India's criminal justice system. 'Every time I meet a politician or speak to the media, I request them to help expedite the case. It is still in the sessions court. It's been three years. My depositions aren't even over yet. I only wonder how long we will have to wait for justice," Yash said. As Yash walked out, he moved barefoot. Since his father's horrific murder, he has vowed not to wear shoes until justice is served. But for the pride of serving his nation, Yash says he may reconsider his vow—if asked to, he would be willing to don army boots.
