Archive for month: November, 2015

A car-ramming attack and a stabbing wounded five Israelis in the West Bank Sunday while the two alleged assailants were shot, Zionist authorities said.

In the first incident, a Palestinian rammed a group of Israelis with a car at a junction, wounding four of them, and was then killed by security forces, police said.

The alleged attacker was said to have driven the car into an area south of Nablus where Israelis typically gather to hitch rides. A checkpoint is located nearby and Israeli border police opened fire.

Israeli public radio described two of the wounded as in a serious condition.

Later, a Palestinian woman stabbed a security guard near a West Bank settlement and was shot, the Israeli police and army said.

The incident occurred at the entrance to the Beitar Illit settlement south of Al-Quds (Jerusalem). The fate of the woman was not immediately clear.

A wave of heroic knife, gun and car attacks have hit the Israeli occupation since the start of October

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Akbar Muhammad, International representative for the Nation of Islam (NOI), the oldest Black Nationalist organization in the US, underlined that there is a strong connection between black people and teachings of Islam, saying Islam is “buried in the DNA” of African-Americans.

“The reason that Islam is so attractive to the black people in America is because Islam is buried in their DNA,” Muhammad said in Tehran.

He said the US government is using criminal activity as a tool to entertain the blacks so that they would not be able to pursue their divine cause which is freedom from slavery.

“In my belief and beyond that I see the power of Islam in the lives of young black people in America to change them. The behavior of black people that you see in many of the films in this part of the world shows black people being involved in criminal activity, drugs, robberies and jails and this is learned behavior from those who enslaved us. And the redemptive power of Islam to turn them around and point them to God and it gives them strength to overcome what the American society has done to them. And this is what we worked for and we represent the living example of that,” he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, he touched upon the main objectives of “The Nation of Islam” movement and said, “In America we have nearly 45 million descendants of Africa who (were) brought to America in the holes of slave ships. 85 years ago a movement started in America called the Nation of Islam in 1930. The main goal of that movement was to first teach black people Islam, then try to solve some of the human rights issues in America that we suffered from. So that is what the movement is basically about.”

“Our teachers who led the organization from 1934 until 1975 always taught us that many of those who were brought in slavery, as a matter of fact most of them, because they came from West Africa, were Muslims. But Islam was taken away from them. So the connection is just that slave masters, the white Americans who enslaved our people, took Islam from us and we did not do anything about it as we grew up. They did not allow fathers to teach their children.”

Akbar Muhammad is an associate professor of history and Africana studies at Binghamton University in New York. He specializes in African history, as well as the study of Islam in Africa and the Americas. He is the co-editor of Racism, Sexism, and the World-System, along with Joan Smith, Jane Collins, and Terrence K. Hopkins. His own writings have been focused on slavery in Muslim Africa, Muslims in the United States, and integration in Nigeria through the use of education. He holds a notable role in the history of the Nation of Islam.

Muhammad is the youngest child of Elijah Muhammad and Clara Muhammad and he is also the brother of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from Edinburgh University in Scotland. He also studied the theory of Arabic and Islamic law at al-Azhar University in Cairo.

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Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said the emergence of terrorism and extremism in the Middle East and North Africa is greatly linked to the foreign interference in these regions.

In a speech during the 38th General Conference of the UNESCO on Friday, Lavrov stressed that terrorism is of Russia’s great concern as terrorists are on a blood spree against civilians and are distorting the real image of Islam.

He highlighted that all these events were the result of undermining the state institutions in a number of countries in the region due to foreign interference and irresponsible attempts to impose and implement geopolitical changes without bearing in mind the region’s traditions and historical heritage.

Lavrov warned against the migration of Christians from the region as it could threatens the balance of the religions and sects in the region.

Later on, after his meeting with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, Lavrov told reporters that Russia hopes that after repelling terrorists from the archeological sites in Syria, the UNESCO will send expert archeologists to assess the situation there, adding that the cultural and historical heritage in Aleppo, Palmyra and other areas in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq is a mutual heritage for all mankind.

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The Syrian army and armed forces on Friday continued it mission in combating terrorism establishing control over new villages, killing big numbers of terrorists and destroying their equipment  all over the country.

Homs

The Syrian Arab Army’s Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIL positions in the eastern and southeastern countryside of Homs province, a military source told SANA.

The source said that the Air Force destroyed ISIL hideouts in the town of Mahin and al-Qaryatain city 85km southeast of Homs city, killing a number of terrorists and destroying machinegun-equipped vehicles.

The Air Force also carried out sorties targeting ISIL positions in Palmyra (Tadmur) city 161km east of Homs city, killing and injuring many terrorists and destroying some of their vehicles and military equipment.

Aleppo

A military source told SANA that the Syrian Arab Army’s Air Force destroyed dens of terrorist organizations in Rasm al-Abad, al-Sheikh Ahmad, Oum Arkyilla, al-Mifelsa, Kwairis Janoubi, and the area surrounding the Air Force Academy in Aleppo countryside.

The Syrian army also regained control over the Kfar Haddad in the city of al-Hader in Aleppo southern countryside.

Hama

Army units, backed by the Syrian air force, established full control over al-Sefsafeh village in northwestern countryside of Hama province after inflicting heavy losses on the terrorists in personnel and equipment, a military source told SANA on Friday.

The army operations in the village destroyed the last hideout and gatherings for al-Nusra and the so called “Jaish al-Fateh” terrorists in addition to a number of vehicles equipped with heavy machine-guns.

Daraa

An army unit killed and injured all group members of al-Nusra terrorists at the eastern side of al-Nuaimeh centre in the eastern countryside of Daraa province.

Later on the day, an army unit targeted terrorists’ concentrations in al-Naziheen Camp in Daraa al-Balad, killing and injuring a number of terrorists and destroying their ammunition and vehicles.

Latakia

Army units seized 3 field hospitals and scores of terrorists’ redoubts including a DShK machinegun, home-made “hell canons”, 5 mortars, 20 gas cylinders prepared for bombing during combing the hills surrounding Jeb al-Zaarour and al-Fark mountain in the northern countryside of Latakia province.

Large amounts of explosives, different ammunition, Turkish and stolen medicine in addition to a quantity of Cocaine were also seized.

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