The Islamic State’s execution of 13 Sunni Muslim clerics last month in Mosul was a move to silence moderate voices among Iraq’s Sunnis, and deserves greater attention, the top United Nations expert on religious freedom said.

“Here a Sunni movement is executing Sunni religious leaders. That should make us think,” said Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. “It’s important to focus more attention on these particular killings, because here we are not talking about Sunnis versus [Shiites]. This is a very clear case of atrocities committed against their own people, against religious leaders from Sunni Islam who probably have a less simplistic understanding of what Islam means.”

The Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, led prayers last Friday at Mosul’s Great Nur al-Din Mosque. One of the first clerics executed in Mosul, according to the UN, was that mosque’s imam, Muhammad al-Mansuri.

He was executed on June 12, the UN said, for failing to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, which released a 21-minute video on Saturday of Baghdadi preaching from the same minbar, or pulpit, that Mansuri once occupied.

Twelve other Sunni clerics were executed on June 14, the UN says.   »»» Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

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The Dalai Lama Sunday reiterated his plea to Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to halt violence against Muslims, in a speech to tens of thousands of devotees to mark his 79th birthday.

In front of the massive crowd in northern India, the Dalai Lama said the violence in both Buddhist-majority countries targeting religious minority Muslims was unacceptable.

“I urge the Buddhists in these countries to imagine an image of Buddha before they commit such a crime,” Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader said on the outskirts of Leh, high in the Himalayas. Buddha preaches love and compassion.”    »»» Arab News

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned as “un-Islamic and morally repugnant” violence and hostilities perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and repudiated those who encourage Americans to join that and other extremist groups.

In a statement, CAIR said: “American Muslims view the actions of ISIS as un-Islamic and morally repugnant. No religion condones the murder of civilians, the beheading of religious scholars or the desecration of houses of worship. We condemn the actions of ISIS and reject its assertion that all Muslims are required to pay allegiance to its leader.

“CAIR strongly urges American imams and other community leaders to continue to speak out against American Muslims traveling abroad to join extremist groups and sectarian militias.”   »»» CAIR.com

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Prominent Sunni Muslim scholar Yusef Al-Qaradawi said on Saturday that the declaration of an Islamic caliphate by jihadists fighting the governments in Syria and Iraq violates Shariah law. Qaradawi is a renowned expert of what is lawful and unlawful in Islam.

Last Sunday, the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group declared a caliphate in areas they control in Iraq and Syria and ordered Muslims worldwide to pledge allegiance to their leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, under the name “caliph Ibrahim.”

“We look forward to the coming, as soon as possible, of the caliphate,” Qaradawi said, of the form of pan-Muslim government last seen under the Ottoman Empire. “But the declaration issued by the Islamic State is void under Sharia and has dangerous consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria,” he added.

The influential cleric said the declaration and nomination of Baghdadi by a jihadist group “known for its atrocities and radical views” fail to meet strict conditions dictated by Sharia. The title of caliph, he said, can “only be given by the entire Muslim nation” not by a single group.

Since last Sunday, other leading Muslim figures have denounced the announcement by the Islamic State, which was previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

A caliphate is fundamentally a universal Islamic state ruled by a single leader with both political and religious authority.
Many Sunnis associate the caliphate with a golden age of Islam, but the declaration made by the Islamic State (IS) group has triggered indignation among those who see it as heresy.

Jordanian Al-Qaeda cleric Issam Barqawi, known as Abu Mohammed Al-Maqdessi, also denounced it, warning it will lead to more bloodshed.   »»» Arab News

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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamist militant group Isis, has called on Muslims to obey him, in his first video sermon.

Baghdadi has been appointed caliph by the jihadist group, which has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The video appears to have been filmed on Friday during a sermon at the al-Nouri Mosque in Mosul, northern Iraq.

It surfaced on Saturday amid reports that he had been killed or wounded in an Iraqi air raid.

It was not clear when the attack was supposed to have taken place.

In the sermon, at Mosul’s most famous landmark, Baghdadi praised the establishment of the “Islamic state”, which was declared by Isis last Sunday.

Experts say the reclusive militant leader has never appeared on video before, although there are photographs of him.

“Appointing a leader is an obligation on Muslims, and one that has been neglected for decades,” he said.

He also said that he did not seek out the position of being the caliph, or leader, calling it a “burden”.

“I am your leader, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, support me, and if you see that I am wrong, advise me,” he told worshippers.

Captions in the video referred to Baghdadi as “Caliph Ibrahim”, a name he has used since the group unilaterally declared him leader of an “Islamic state” last Sunday.

What is a caliphate?

An Islamic state ruled by a single political and religious leader, or Caliph (Khalifa);

Caliphs are regarded by their followers as successors to the Prophet Muhammad and the leader of all Muslims;

First caliphate came into being after Muhammad’s death in 632;

In the centuries which followed, caliphates had dominion in the Middle East and North Africa;

The last widely accepted caliphate was abolished in 1924 by Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Meanwhile, extremists led by ISIS destroyed at least a dozen shrines and places of worship in Nineveh province in northern Iraq.

Shia, Sunni and Christian targets were destroyed, with images of their demolition being shared on social media.

More than a million people have fled their homes as a result of the recent conflict, and at least 2,461 people were killed in June, the UN and Iraqi officials say.   »»» BBC News

The self-proclaimed Caliph “Ibrahim al-Badri, a run-of-the-mill Sunni Iraqi cleric, gained a degree from the University of Baghdad at a time when pedagogy there had collapsed because of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship and international sanctions. After 2003 he took the name Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and turned to a vicious and psychopathic violence involving blowing up children at ice cream shops and blowing up gerbils and garden snakes at pet shops and blowing up family weddings, then coming back and blowing up the resultant funerals. This man is one of the most infamous serial killers in modern history, with the blood of thousands on his hands, before whom [monsters like] Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy fade into insignificance.” –Juan Cole

This so-called “Caliph Ibrahim” is a heretic whose followers who have disobeyed many teachings of Allah in the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him). It is forbidden to kill innocent people, to destroy the places of worship of Muslims, Christians and Jews, and to commit acts of terror.

ISIS has on numerous occasions committed one the most serious crimes under Islamic law: hirabah (brigandage, banditry, terrorism, insurrection).

Hibarah is the action of a group or an individual by which property is seized or destroyed and people are killed or kidnapped. The Qur’an describes it as “war against God and his Messenger” and as “spreading mischief (disorder) in the land (fasad fil ard)”.

The punishment for hibarah is death.

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Myanmar police cordoned off Mandalay’s Muslim neighborhood as hundreds of Buddhists wielding knives, swords and bamboo poles roamed the city on Friday, following communal riots that killed two people earlier in the week.

Inter-religious violence has flared throughout the country over the past two years, threatening to undermine political reforms initiated by the quasi-civilian government of President Thein Sein, which took office in 2011 following 49 years of repressive military rule.

At least 240 people have been killed and more than 140,000 displaced since June 2012. Most of the victims have been members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority, estimated to be about 5 percent of the population.

Around 300 Buddhists rode motorcycles around Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay on Friday, shouting death threats.

“We’re going to kill all the Muslims,” some shouted as they rode through the streets.

Police erected barriers lined with barbed wire to block roads into a predominantly Muslim neighborhood and prevented the Buddhists on motorcycles from entering. Officers in riot gear patrolled the streets, and one spoke through a megaphone, telling people to go inside.

While police guarded the neighborhood, they did not disarm the Buddhists who had been riding around the city since midday, screaming threats and singing the national anthem. A man was seen distributing bamboo poles from a car parked near the royal palace, a popular tourist attraction in the city of about a million people.   »»» Voice of America News

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The surprise declaration of a “caliphate” by Islamic State (IS) jihadists accused of committing atrocities in Syria and Iraq has provoked an outcry of condemnation even among Islamists who dream of a state under Sharia law.

The caliphate, an Islamic system of rule, was abolished nearly 100 years ago, although many Arabs and Muslims still associate it with a golden age.

But this week’s announcement of a caliphate by the radical IS group appears to only appeal to fanatics.

“All Islamist groups want the caliphate,” said Mathieu Guidere, who teaches Islamic studies at France’s University of Toulouse.
But IS, which operates in Syria and Iraq and was formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, “is equated with terrorism and massacres; it has a bad track record,” Guidere told AFP. IS’s widely publicized brutality, including public beheadings and crucifixions, “give a very bad image of Islam… tainting the (caliphate) project, which Islamists view as an ideal.”

IS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s self-designation as “caliph” — or leader of all Muslims, and successor to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) — has shocked most Muslims, even jihadists, who have rejected the idea outright.

Al-Azhar University, a leading authority of Sunni Islam, “believes that all those who are today speaking of an Islamic state are terrorists,” its senior representative Sheikh Abbas Shuman told AFP.

“The Islamic caliphate can’t be restored by force. Occupying a country and killing half of its population… this is not an Islamic state, this is terrorism,” Shuman added.

Islamist rebels in Syria, who are fighting both IS and President Bashar Assad’s regime, have branded the caliphate announcement as “null and void.”

In Iraq, the influential Association of Muslim Scholars said IS had “consulted neither residents of Iraq nor Syria.”
And Lebanon’s Jamaa Islamiyeh, which is the local branch of the widely influential Muslim Brotherhood, lashed out at the announcement and called it heresy.

The group also said IS’s acts “are a deformation of Islam, that disgusts the people of the region.”

Even more hard-line Salafist Muslims dismissed the call.   »»» Arab News

The self-proclaimed Caliph “Ibrahim al-Badri, a run-of-the-mill Sunni Iraqi cleric, gained a degree from the University of Baghdad at a time when pedagogy there had collapsed because of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship and international sanctions. After 2003 he took the name Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and turned to a vicious and psychopathic violence involving blowing up children at ice cream shops and blowing up gerbils and garden snakes at pet shops and blowing up family weddings, then coming back and blowing up the resultant funerals. This man is one of the most infamous serial killers in modern history, with the blood of thousands on his hands, before whom [monsters like] Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy fade into insignificance.” –Juan Cole

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Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has instructed Grand Mosque authorities to open the newly expanded annex buildings of the Grand Mosque for the use of worshippers during Ramadan.

A source at the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques said the king’s directive would provide extra prayer space for more than 625,000 worshippers inside the mosque and its courtyards. The royal gesture would help reduce congestion among worshippers inside and outside the mosque, he added.

The king has also ordered that pilgrims be allowed to make use of the expanded “mataf” (circumambulation area around the House of God) on the ground floor, as well as on the first floor, to accommodate 40,000 pilgrims per hour.

Nearly two million worshippers, including foreign pilgrims, attend taraweeh prayers at the mosque and a large number of them stand on roads leading to the mosque. School vacation in the Arab world has increased crowding in the holy city.

Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani, director of communications, said that more than 1,250 cameras have been set up inside and outside the mosque to monitor the movement of pilgrims and worshippers and ensure their safety. “We monitor pilgrims through 270 TV screens and if we find anything wrong, we inform field officers to take corrective action.”   »»» Arab News

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An orthodox Jewish rabbi is taking part in an Islamic fast to increase understanding between the two faiths.

Rabbi Natan Levy, 40, is taking part in Ramadan, a fast in which Muslims do not eat or drink between dawn and sunset for 30 days.

He told the Jewish News he was motivated to take part after a young Jew panicked when he saw a devout Muslim at the synagogue he attends. The incident resulted in security having to be called.

Rabbi Levy, from Edgware, north London, said he was “frustrated” at what he saw as a lack of engagement between Jews and Muslims and wanted to “create a touchstone for conversation”.

“A Muslim colleague tells me it gets easier after the second week, which feels like a really, really long time away”

The rabbi, who is one of the leaders of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, an organisation which aims to connect local communities, said he hoped his efforts would show “that we Jews and Muslims can share, and fast, and feast and talk, and stop hating each other from behind closed doors”.

“Yet I am doing this out of choice, imagine the nearly one million people in the UK who have nothing to eat except handouts from a soup kitchen or food bank?

“I am still eating on Shabbat [the Jewish day of rest from Friday night until Saturday night] so there’s a break for chicken soup.”   »»» BBC News

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Sri Lanka’s police called in a militant Buddhist monk for questioning on Wednesday after he was accused of instigating deadly anti-Muslim riots that heightened religious tensions in the ethnically divided nation.

Galagodaatte Gnanasara was summoned to the Criminal Investigations Department over a speech he made two weeks ago in the resort town of Alutgama where mobs attacked Muslim-owned shops and homes, police said.

“Other speakers who were at the same stage with the monk will also be questioned in due course,” said a statement, adding that a total of 117 people had been arrested in connection with the religious riots.

After five hours of questioning the monk was released, police said in a separate statement. They did not say whether authorities would press charges against him.

Four people were killed, 80 wounded and hundreds of shops and homes were damaged in the worst religious violence in the country in recent decades. The violence which started in Alutgama quickly spread to the adjoining beach resorts of Beruwala and Bentota.

Sri Lanka’s media as well as rights groups have accused the police of failing to take action against Buddhist mobs accused of attacking Muslims who constitute 10 per cent of the country’s 20 million population.   »»» Channel NewsAsia (Singapore)

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