About Us

IMRA
IMRA
IMRA

 

Subscribe

Search


...................................................................................................................................................


Friday, September 12, 2014
Excerpts: IS militants are criminals. Australia elevates IS terror threat. Britain re air strikes in Syria September 12, 2014

Excerpts: IS militants are criminals. Australia elevates IS terror threat.
Britain re air strikes in Syria September 12, 2014

+++SOURCE:Egypt Daily News 12 Sept’14:” Al-Azhar Grand Imam: Islamic State
militants are criminals”, by: TNN Sept. 8, 2014
SUBJECT:Egypt Al Ashar Grand Imam: IS militants are criminals
FULL TEXT:Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb has described Islamic State
(formerly ISIL) militants in Iraq and Syria as criminals who are conveying
to the world their defamed version of Islam.

Al-Tayeb also accused Western governments of leniency in countering the
threat of terrorist organisations, saying that the Islamic State and similar
organisations are Western made and aimed at destroying the Arab World.

He also criticised what he described as “the U.S. reluctance in countering
IS” compared to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Among Islamic foundations, Al-Tayeb’s statement is considered the clearest
in condemning Islamic State practices so far, along with Saudi Arabia’s
Mufti, who recently dubbed the organisation as a ”strayed group”.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar is traditionally considered the highest referential of
Sunni Islam in the world.

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 13 Sept.’14:”Australia Elivates Terrorism
Threat Level”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Australia elevates IS terror threat
QUOTE:”The Australian government on Friday(12 Sept] elevated the terrorism
threat level to the second-highest warning in response to the domestic
threat posed by Islamic State movement supporters”
FULL TEXT:The Australian government on Friday[12 Sept.] elevated its
terrorism threat level to the second-highest warning in response to the
domestic threat posed by Islamic State movement supporters.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the increase from "medium" to "high" on
a four-tier scale on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence
Organization.

The domestic spy agency's Director-General David Irvine said the terrorist
threat level had been rising in Australia over the past year, particularly
in recent months, mainly due to Australians joining Islamic State to fight
in Syria and Iraq.

"I want to stress that this does not mean that a terror attack is imminent,"
Abbott told reporters. "We have no specific intelligence of particular
plots."

"What we do have is intelligence that there are people with the intent and
the capability to mount attacks."

It is the first time that the threat level has been elevated above medium
since the scale was introduced in 2003.

Abbott described the new setting as "broadly comparable" to the setting in
Britain where the terrorism threat level was raised last month to the
second-highest risk level on a five-tier scale.

He said the public would likely notice a greater police and security
presence at airports, shipping ports, military bases, government buildings
and large public events.

"Normal life in Australia can and must go on, but we need to be aware that
there are people who wish to do us harm and are preparing to do us harm,"
Abbott said.

"But we think that our security, intelligence and police organizations are
smarter than them and are one step ahead of them and can protect us," he
said.

Australia estimates at least 60 Australian citizens were fighting for the
Islamic State group and another al-Qaida offshoot Jabhat al-Nursa, also
known as the Nusra Front, in Iraq and Syria. Another 15 Australian fighters
had been killed, including two young suicide bombers.

Another 100 Australians were actively supporting extremist groups from
within Australia, recruiting fighters and grooming suicide bomber candidates
as well as providing funds and equipment, the government said.

Abbott said more than 20 Australian fighters had already returned from
Middle Eastern battlefields.

The suspected brother of a suicide bomber killed in Syria and another
alleged jihadist appeared in an Australian court on Thursday[11 Sept.]
charged with funding and recruiting for al-Qaida offshoot terrorists in the
Middle East.

The government warns that the Islamic State movement poses an unprecedented
domestic terrorism threat. Australia will introduce tough counterterrorism
laws in Parliament this month and announced 630 million Australian dollars
($590 million) in new spending on intelligence, law enforcement and border
protection agencies over the next four years to enhance security, including
a roll out of biometric screening at airports.

Some Islamic leaders argue the Australian Muslims, a 500,000 minority in a
Christian-majority population of 23 million, are being unfairly targeted.
Abbott denies this.

"Nothing that I have said today or nothing that I ever say about national
security threats has anything to do with religion," he said. "This is about
crime, potential crime and combatting crime."


+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 12 Sept.’14:”Britain will not j oin air strikes in
Syria –foreign secretary”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Britain re air strikes in Syria
QUOTE:”Britain will not join the U.S. in air strikes against IS fighters in
Syria”

BERLIN — Britain won't join the United States in air strikes against Islamic
State fighters in Syria, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Thursday [11
Sept.], without ruling out similar action in Iraq.

"Let me be clear Britain will not be taking part in any air strikes in
Syria," he said in Berlin.

"We've already had that discussion in our parliament last year and we won't
be revisiting that position."

Regarding the wider US military campaign against IS militants across the
area they have captured in Syria and Iraq, he said that "we are clear that
we will make a contribution".

He said the jihadists have "sought to create an entity that spans the Syrian
and Iraqi border, but Syria and Iraq are very different in terms of the
legal environment and in terms of the military permissiveness of the climate
in each".

"We listened very carefully last night to what the US president had to say.
We support entirely the United States' approach of developing an
international and a regional coalition in support of the Iraqi government."

Speaking at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, he also said that "we have to challenge the notion
that ISIL is somehow unstoppable," using an alternative acronym for the
group.

"We have to push them back. We have to challenge their legitimacy in the
eyes of radical Muslims and that process has begun with many Islamic
scholars speaking out against the ideology that they profess.

"And we have to challenge them militarily. And as I said earlier, we will
look very carefully at the US-led plan and we will look at how the UK can
best contribute to that plan, ruling nothing out at this stage."

Germany, which recently took the watershed decision to send arms to Iraqi
Kurds battling IS, will not take part in air strikes, Steinmeier said.

He said that "neither have we been asked to do that, nor will we do it" and
added that the move to break with a post-war policy of refusing to send
weapons into conflict zones had not been easy for the German government.

Earlier Thursday[11 Sept.], Steinmeier told the Bundestag lower house of
parliament that he had invited his counterparts from the Group of Seven
powers to discuss a political strategy against Islamic State later this
month.

The meeting "at which we will discuss this political strategy with the Arab
states" will be held the week of the UN General Assembly in New York, he
said.

Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

Search For An Article

....................................................................................................

Contact Us

POB 982 Kfar Sava
Tel 972-9-7604719
Fax 972-3-7255730
email:imra@netvision.net.il IMRA is now also on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IMRA_UPDATES

image004.jpg (8687 bytes)