Saudi anti ISIS coalition is a work of fiction

Saudi anti ISIS coalition is a work of fiction

    Wednesday, December 16, 2015   No comments

 ISR comment:

Since Wikileaks released damaging diplomatic cables showing Saudi Arabia's two faced-diplomacy (a public good cop persona and a private bad cop persona calling for the West to attack its neighbors and overthrew the governments it does not like), the rulers of the kingdom have been acting erratically and dangerously. Most recently, and without actually consulting with its "allies", the kingdom announced that it is forming an "Islamic military coalition to fight terrorism". The next day, some of the 34 countries the Saudi rulers have listed as part of this bizarre coalition denied knowing anything about it. Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Tunisia all expressed surprise that they were named in this coalition. Most countries expressed willingness to participate in any efforts to combat terrorism but denied agreeing to a "military" coalition. it is likely that by the end of the moth, this coalition will evaporate, leaving Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies alone, once again.

This bizarre behavior by a young prince with a huge arsenal of weapons that he is treating like toys is endangering the region and destabilizing the world. Ibn Salman thinks that all other countries are like his: Ruled by one man. He is ignorant to the fact that other countries actually have governing institutions and procedure that must be followed before entering into a coalition, especially a military one.
 
Saudi Arabia is now feeling the pressure to reform its religious institutions and fight genocidal ideology. This announcement is meant to relieve that pressure. The Saudi rulers want to appear tough on ISIL. They are not. Every Saudi intervention thus far benefited ISIL and al-Qaeda. They bombed Yemen, only to hand over the southern cities in that country to ISIL and al-Qaeda. This is purely propaganda.

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Article:

In a move that seems to have taken everyone by surprise, the young Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the king, announced this morning at a brief press conference – itself an unusual event – the formation of an Islamic military alliance to fight terrorism. In reply to a question, he said that the new alliance was directed not only against Islamic State but also against any other terrorist organisation.

Why are other Muslim countries like, Indonesia and Algeria, not in the Saudi-led Sunni coalition against terror?

Why are other Muslim countries like, Indonesia and Algeria, not in the Saudi-led Sunni coalition against terror?

    Wednesday, December 16, 2015   No comments

Saudi Arabia officially beheads more people than any other country in the world

The Saudis love coalitions. The Sunni monarchy had the Americans, the British, the French and sundry other oil importers on their side to drive Saddam’s legions out of Kuwait in 1991. Earlier this year, the Saudi military – for which read the youngest defence minister in the world and the ambitious Deputy Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Salman al-Saud – struck at the Kingdom’s Shia Houthi enemies in Yemen in yet another coalition. This included not only Saudi fighter-bombers but jets from Qatar, the Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan.
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In all seriousness, he announced that the battle of this latest “coalition” – which includes countries as mythical as “Palestine”, as corrupt as Afghanistan and as powerless as Lebanon, with bankrupt Chad and the Islamic Republic of the Comoros thrown in for good measure – would require “a very strong effort to fight”. Few spotted, however, the curious absence from the 34-strong “coalition” of Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population. 

This is very strange, since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 mostly foreign civilians, brought al-Qaeda into Indonesia’s own “war against terror”. Surely Indonesia, with a Sunni population of more than 200 million, would have an interest in joining their fellow Sunni Muslims in this unprecedented “coalition”? Or could it be that with more than 30 Indonesian maids on Saudi Arabia’s death row after grotesquely unfair trials, the country wants an end to this injustice before committing its army to the Kingdom?

Russia: person who shot the Russian pilot of Su-24 warplane was Turkish, son of former mayor, not Syrian rebel

Russia: person who shot the Russian pilot of Su-24 warplane was Turkish, son of former mayor, not Syrian rebel

    Monday, December 14, 2015   No comments

Speaking about the death of one of the two pilots flying the Russian Su-24 warplane that got downed by Turkish fighter jets on Nov. 24, Karlov claimed the person who shot the Russian pilot after he ejected himself from the plane and was trying to make a safe landing with a parachute was a Turkish citizen named Alparslan Çelik.

“It is Alparslan Çelik who shot at our pilot. He went before the cameras and was making a statement, and then he showed a part of the parachute. He spoke Turkish easily,” claimed Karlov, adding that Çelik’s father was a former mayor.

The most prominent Muslim elected official in America sees a ‘message of hope’ in Trump’s ‘weakness’

The most prominent Muslim elected official in America sees a ‘message of hope’ in Trump’s ‘weakness’

    Sunday, December 13, 2015   No comments

Keith Ellison, the most prominent Muslim elected official in America, was having a pretty good day.

Never mind that the Republican front-runner in the presidential contest — Donald Trump — had proposed to temporarily bar all people of the congressman’s faith from entering the United States, roughly a quarter of the world’s population. Never mind that his House colleague — Indiana Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, the only other Muslim in Congress — received another death threat. And never mind that a Republican colleague — Iowa Rep. Steve King — was, at that very moment, questioning his patriotism in the press, saying the Detroit-born progressive Democrat has not sufficiently denounced Sharia law. Ellison had greeted King with a smile several times that day, even shaking his hand.
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But the congressman’s routine belied the chaos engulfing Muslims around the country. Following the California shooting by a couple who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, anti-Muslim violence appears

72 percent of total Twitter content removal requests were made by Turkey

72 percent of total Twitter content removal requests were made by Turkey

    Friday, December 11, 2015   No comments

Turkey makes by far the highest number of official requests for Twitter to censor tweets. In the first half of 2015, 72 percent of total Twitter content removal requests were made by Turkey, far higher than second-placed Russia, which accounted for 7 percent of removal requests.

Access in Turkey to social media sites, including Twitter and YouTube, has been temporarily blocked by court orders on a number of occasions over allegely illegal content.

Donald Trump's Muslim ban plan plunges Republican party into chaos ... American Muslims react

Donald Trump's Muslim ban plan plunges Republican party into chaos ... American Muslims react

    Wednesday, December 09, 2015   No comments

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was disowned by his own party’s top leadership on Tuesday and faced calls to drop his White House bid as the world reacted with outrage to his plan for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

The billionaire frontrunner’s plan tipped the Republican presidential race into chaos, with party leaders from the chairman of the Republican National Committee to former US vice-president Dick Cheney condemning the idea as “un-American”.
Donald Trump will not be barred from Britain despite Muslims outburst
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Trump toured the US television studios in unrepentant form, unmoved by the gale of criticism that followed his speech aboard an aircraft carrier on Monday evening. Speaking aboard the USS Yorktown, he acknowledged that his proposal was “probably not politically correct”, before whipping up a cheering crowd and adding: “But. I. Don’t. Care.”

London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, says allies should join Assad and Russia against Isis

London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, says allies should join Assad and Russia against Isis

    Monday, December 07, 2015   No comments

London’s mayor says doubts about there being 70,000 ‘moderate’ fighters means allies cannot be picky if they want to defeat jihadis

Britain and its allies should accept that Bashar al-Assad’s forces are best placed to lead a ground assault against Islamic State in Syria because David Cameron’s claims about 70,000 moderate opposition forces are “exaggerated,” Boris Johnson has said.

On Wednesday MPs will vote on whether to extend the UK’s air campaign against Isis to Syria. Here are the issues that should inform their decision
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In remarks that may be seized on by Labour opponents of the airstrikes in Syria, Johnson says that “Assad and his army” may be the allies’ best chance of removing Isis because the 70,000 figure includes groups that are ideologically little different from al-Qaida.