Saudi Arabia's 'outdated' brutality 'sparked by fear of online dissent,'

Saudi Arabia's 'outdated' brutality 'sparked by fear of online dissent,'

    Monday, January 12, 2015   No comments

Saudi Arabia's "outdated" government is cracking down on online dissent because it fears its power, a Saudi activist has said in the wake of the public flogging of blogger and activist Raif Badawi.

Mr Badawi, 30, a father of three, was convicted of cybercrime and insulting Islam after co-founding the now banned website Free Saudi Liberals. He was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of one million riyals (£175,000). On Friday he received the first 50 lashes in what will be a weekly ritual for the next 20 weeks.

Turkish officials add credence to accusations that Turkey is enabling passage of foreign fighters into Syria: suspect in Paris attacks was in Turkey and crossed into Syria

Turkish officials add credence to accusations that Turkey is enabling passage of foreign fighters into Syria: suspect in Paris attacks was in Turkey and crossed into Syria

    Monday, January 12, 2015   No comments

(Reuters) - The suspected female accomplice of Islamist militants behind attacks in Paris was in Turkey five days before the killings and crossed into Syria on Jan. 8, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Monday by state-run Anatolian news agency.

French authorities launched a search for 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene after French anti-terrorist police killed her partner Amedy Coulibaly in storming a Jewish supermarket where he had taken hostages. They described her as armed and dangerous.

Anatolian, on its website, cited Cavusoglu as saying in an interview she had arrived in Istanbul from Madrid on Jan. 2. Turkey had received no request from Paris to deny her access.

From where does ISIL get its inspiration for cruel treatment of others? Look here: Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'

From where does ISIL get its inspiration for cruel treatment of others? Look here: Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'

    Saturday, January 10, 2015   No comments

From where does ISIL get its inspiration for cruel treatment of others? Look here: Saudi blogger Badawi 'flogged for Islam insult'

 A Saudi Arabian blogger has been publicly flogged after being convicted of cybercrime and insulting Islam, reports say.

Public beheading and flogging in Saudi Arabia

Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail, was flogged 50 times. The flogging will be carried out weekly, campaigners say.

Mr Badawi, the co-founder of a now banned website called the Liberal Saudi Network, was arrested in 2012.

Rights groups condemned his conviction and the US appealed for clemency.

On Thursday state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki urged the Saudi authorities to "cancel this brutal punishment" and to review his case.

In addition to his sentence, Mr Badawi was ordered to pay a fine of 1 million riyals ($266,000; £175,000).

In 2013 he was cleared of apostasy, which could have carried a death sentence.

Last year Mr Badawi's lawyer was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a range of offences in an anti-terrorism court, the Associated Press news agency reported.

'Act of cruelty'

Hezbollah chief says terrorists damage Islam more than cartoons

Hezbollah chief says terrorists damage Islam more than cartoons

    Friday, January 09, 2015   No comments

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The leader of the Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah said on Friday that Islamist terrorists had done more harm to Islam than any cartoon or book, a reference to the attack by suspected Islamist militants on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said what he called "takfiri terrorist groups" had insulted Islam more than "even those who have attacked the messenger of God through books depicting the Prophet or making films depicting the Prophet or drawing cartoons of the Prophet."

Swedish rallies in support of Muslims draw thousands after mosques attacks

Swedish rallies in support of Muslims draw thousands after mosques attacks

    Thursday, January 08, 2015   No comments

Thousands of people have rallied across Sweden expressing solidarity and support for Muslims after three attacks on mosques in just one week, which left five people injured. The participants had the slogan “Do not touch my mosque.”

Gunmen attack on French magazine, Charlie Hebdo

Gunmen attack on French magazine, Charlie Hebdo

    Wednesday, January 07, 2015   No comments

Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.

Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.

A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.

President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity".

ISIL fighters take aim at the Kingdom that produced them--killing and wounding three Saudi security agents along the Iraqi-Saudi border

ISIL fighters take aim at the Kingdom that produced them--killing and wounding three Saudi security agents along the Iraqi-Saudi border

    Monday, January 05, 2015   No comments

A suicide bomber killed two Saudi guards Monday on the border with Iraq, where ISIS terrorists have seized a swathe of territory, the interior ministry said, and AFP reports.

The blast in the Arar region was followed by a firefight between the border patrol and the assailants, one of whom was shot dead, a ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.