France : Valls se dit "favorable" à une interdiction du financement étranger des mosquées

Dans un entretien accordé au journal Le Monde, le Premier ministre Manuel Valls s’est dit, vendredi, "favorable" à une interdiction du financement étranger des mosquées, souhaitant "inventer une nouvelle relation" avec l'islam de France.

Multicultural Brussels area a hotbed of Islamist extremism

Brussels' Molenbeek area, long infamous in Belgium's capital city for its crime and unemployment, has emerged once again as a European hotbed of Islamist extremism where residents say they live in fear.

Egypt’s El-Sisi extends North Sinai curfew for another 3 months

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree Saturday extending for another three months a curfew applied seven months ago in some part of restive North Sinai.

Islamic State frees around 350 Yazidi captives in Iraq's north

Islamic State freed around 350 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority, delivering them to safety in the country's Kurdish north.

Almost all those released were elderly, disabled, or unwell, and included several infants with serious illnesses, according to a Reuters reporter who saw them arrive in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk.

Blast in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula injures 11 civilians

A car bomb explosion wounded 11 civilians in northern Arish city in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday when police were evacuating the area to set off a suspicious device, a security source told Xinhua.

State Department: U.S. Condemns Religious Persecution by ISIL (Christians in Mosul must either convert, pay a tax, leave)

Jen Psaki, Department Spokesperson,Washington, DC,July 18, 2014:

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the systematic persecution of ethnic and religious minorities by the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

We are outraged by ISIL’s recent announcement that Christians in Mosul must either convert, pay a tax, leave, or face execution in the coming days. We have also seen photos of reportedly Christian houses in Mosul marked with pejorative terms for Christians, as well as reports that Shia and Shabak houses have been similarly marked. ISIL also continues to target Sunni clerics and tribal sheikhs who disagree with its dark vision for Iraq.

Underage fighters drawn into Iraq sectarian war ("Go, son, do your duty")

The video on his phone shows the boy firing a heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod through a hole in a crumbling building, his slender body shaking from the kickback.
"We were kind of nervous, not because we are cowards, because it was our first fight and we were still young," said the youth, a former teen soccer star from Baghdad.
He says he was 15 when an Iraqi Shi'ite militia first sent him to Iran for training by the Revolutionary Guards in hills outisde of Tehran in March. He spent his 16th birthday four months ago in Syria fighting on the frontline near Damascus.

British security forces will find it impossible to monitor all the estimated 500 jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq after they return home

LONDON: British security forces will find it impossible to monitor all the estimated 500 jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq after they return home, a former top intelligence official said Monday.

Richard Barrett, ex-head of counter-terrorism at the MI6 overseas security agency, told the BBC that authorities would have to try to identify the biggest threats.

Barrett said the number who had gone to Syria "could be as high as 500 by now".

Britain threatened by UK jihadist fighters in Syria "for many years to come". - An estimated 12,000 foreign fighters have gone to Syria since the war began...

The Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner has publicly declared that the UK faces repercussions from the Syria conflict and threats of Islamic extremism from within its own borders for “many years to come.”

Cressida Dick, a counterterrorism expert, said that British Muslims who had gone to Syria may commit violence upon their return.

“I'm afraid I believe that we will be living with the consequences of Syria – from a terrorist point of view, let alone the world, geopolitical consequences – for many, many, many years to come,” Dick told BBC Radio 4.

Livni praises Abbas for condemnation of kidnappings

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who for eight months led Israel’s negotiation team with the Palestinians, lauded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ condemnation Wednesday of the kidnappings of the three Israeli teens.
Abbas’ words were “important, correct, and reflect the true reality – Hamas is an extreme Islamic terrorist organization that attacks civilians and children, and does not wage a war for the Palestinian people and their national aspirations, but rather against the existence of the state of Israel. It is forbidden to give them legitimacy.”

Saudi Arabia says rejects foreign intervention in Iraq

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it rejected foreign interference in Iraq, after Islamist militants seized broad swathes of the country.

In a cabinet statement published on the official news agency SPA, Riyadh blamed the unfolding crisis on years of "sectarian and exclusionary" policies.

It also urged the "quick formation of a national consensus government." 
[timesofindia.indiatimes.com]
16/6/14
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Saudi Arabia shuts embassy in Libya amid violence

Saudi Arabia has shut its embassy in Libya and evacuated diplomats amid violence raging in the country, state media reported on Monday.
"All the diplomatic staff has left the Libyan capital aboard a private plane due to the security situation through which Libya is passing," ambassador Mohammed Mahmoud al-Ali said in a statement reported on the state news agency SPA.
Violence erupted across Libya overnight on Monday as rocket attacks targeted the Benina air base in Benghazi and private television channel Libya International, shortly after it had broadcasted a statement read out by a colonel who claimed to speak on behalf of the army.

Armed clashes erupt near Libyan parliament.

The militant group led by the retired General Khalifa Haftar made an assault on Libya's parliament on Sunday afternoon, according to his spokesman.

The gunmen wore plain clothes and fired on congress building, and later some of them dashed inside to expel the lawmakers, forcing a session to adjourn, according to one interior ministry official.

He said the Battalion 127 was in charge of guarding the parliament and fired back at the gunmen.

PM Erdoğan planning prayers with Islamic leaders in Hagia Sophia. -(according to daily Radikal)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is planning to perform prayers at Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia, along with the leaders of other Islamic countries, according to daily Radikal.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is reportedly considering organizing a special prayer in Istanbul’s most illustrious architectural setting ahead of the upcoming presidential elections next August.

Islamist rebels seize part of ancient Syrian Christian town, take nuns captive

Islamist fighters have captured the ancient quarter of Maaloula, a predominantly Christian town and UNESCO heritage site in Syria, and are holding captive several nuns and their mother superior from the St. Thecla Convent, SANA reported.
The state news agency said that attackers “committed acts of vandalism in the town's neighborhoods and around the convent, attacking locals and targeting them with sniper fire.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Monday that fighters from the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front had captured the old quarter of Maaloula after several days of fierce fighting. However, they said they could not confirm information regarding the convent.

Réunion des "Amis de la Syrie": menace voilée de recours à la force (Moscou).

Le communiqué final de la réunion de Londres des "Amis de la Syrie" est une menace mal dissimulée de retour au scénario militaire, ce qui est absolument inacceptable, a déclaré mercredi le porte-parole du ministère russe des Affaires étrangères Alexandre Loukachevitch.

"Dans le document de Londres, un changement de régime à Damas est de nouveau assigné en tant qu'objectif principal, alors que la Coalition nationale (de l'opposition, ndlr) est définie comme l'unique représentant légitime du peuple syrien. On profère la menace de mobiliser +toutes les options+ d'influence sur les transgresseurs des décisions londoniennes", rappelle le diplomate.

Les "amis de la Syrie" appellent l'Iran et les islamistes à retirer leurs combattants.

Les pays faisant partie du "groupe des amis de la Syrie" ont demandé à l'Iran et aux groupes islamistes de retirer leurs combattants du territoire syrien et d'abandonner leurs tentatives de déstabiliser la région. 

"Nous partageons la préoccupation due à la propagation de l'extrémisme et des groupes extrémistes. Nous appelons l'Iran, le Hezbollah et d'autres groupes étrangers à retirer leurs combattants et leurs forces de Syrie", lit-on dans un communiqué signé à l'issue de la rencontre du "groupe des amis de la Syrie" à Londres.  

Selon les participants de cette rencontre, la présence de ces forces "met en danger l'intégrité territoriale de la Syrie, ainsi que la sécurité régionale et internationale". 

VIDEO. L'équation égyptienne par Christian Malard - France3

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L'éventuelle dissolution des Frères musulmans et les répercussions de la crise égyptienne sur le monde, arabo-musulman ou non... En deux questions, l'analyse de Christian Malard, l'éditoraliste de politique étrangère de France3.

Σε απέλαση ιμάμηδων προχωρά η Γαλλία

Manuel Valls

ΑΓΩΝΑΣ ΕΝΑΝΤΙΑ ΣΤΟΝ «ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΟ ΤΖΙΧΑΝΤΙΣΜΟ»

Την πρόθεση της Γαλλίας να απελάσει "μέσα στις προσεχείς ημέρες" πολλούς ξένους ριζοσπάστες ιεροκήρυκες και ιμάμηδες, ανακοίνωσε ο Γάλλος υπουργός Εσωτερικών Μανουέλ Βαλς, κατά τη διάρκεια συνέντευξης Τύπου στις Βρυξέλλες.

"Πολλοί ξένοι ριζοσπάστες ιεροκήρυκες θα απελαθούν μέσα στις προσεχείς ημέρες", ανακοίνωσε ο Βαλς στη διάρκεια μιας διεθνούς διάσκεψης με θέμα τον αγώνα εναντίον των βίαιων εξτρεμισμών.