MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Alan Johnson, The Telegraph – “‘Our whole ambition is to die on the path to Allah… I am sure we will conquer’ said Ken Livingstone’s favourite Muslim cleric, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, as he touched down in Gaza on Wednesday for a three day solidarity visit. Before he left on Friday he told a Muslim Brotherhood rally that Israel had no right to exist. The rally was the scene of mass chanting of ‘liberate Palestine … from the sons of monkeys and pigs’.

If all that was depressingly predictable, less so, was the range of voices opposed to Qaradawi’s cult of death.

Yes, Israel, of course. After all, Qaradawi’s Jew-hatred is undiluted and canonical. Listen to him (from Fatawa on Palestine):

We believe that the battle between us and the Jews is coming … Such a battle is not driven by nationalistic causes or patriotic belonging; it is rather driven by religious incentives. This battle is not going to happen between Arabs and Zionists, or between Jews and Palestinians, or between Jews or anybody else. It is between Muslims and Jews as is clearly stated in the hadith. This battle will occur between the collective body of Muslims and the collective body of Jews i.e. all Muslims and all Jews. (p. 77)

Qaradawi does not deny the Holocaust, he celebrates it.

Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.

No camouflaging anti-Semitism as ‘anti-Zionism’ there! …

We have slept while Islamists such as Qaradawi have built a network of ideological institutions in the West, and an internet, television and publishing empire beyond the dreams of most political movements. Swathes of the liberal-Left have done more than sleep. They have acted as cheerleaders for the Islamists. When Ken Livingstone justified his public embrace of Qaradawi in 2005, he told us the cleric was ‘a progressive figure’ who was ‘moving that religion in the correct direction’.” Read more.

• Flashback: Qaradawi Defends Hitler, Calls For Nuclear Terror
• Flashback: Qaradawi Affirms Death Penalty For Anyone Who Leaves Islam
• Flashback: Qaradawi: All Muslims Must Unite Against Israel To Liberate Jerusalem
• Flashback: Qaradawi: The Land Of Israel ‘Has Never Once Been A Jewish Land’

For peaceful purposes …

Al Arabiya – “The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is staging an anti-Israel rally in Cairo to protest Israeli airstrikes in Syria and the detention of a Muslim cleric.

Chants of ‘the people want destruction of Israel’ rang out Friday inside Al-Azhar mosque, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning.

The rally is the first such protest by the Brotherhood, from which Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi hails, since it gained prominence after 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Group officials say they are protesting the Israeli detention of top Palestinian Muslim cleric in the Holy Land in a rare crackdown on a leading religious figure that drew fierce condemnation from Palestinians. The demonstrators also were denouncing Israeli airstrikes in Syria that targeted alleged shipments of advanced Iranian missiles thought to be bound for Hezbollah.” Source – Al Arabiya.

Flashback: Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Leader Calls For Jihad Against Israel To ‘Save Jerusalem’ And ‘Cleanse Palestine’ – “This would be the same ‘leader’ of Egypt’s new president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi—and the man whom some have even portrayed as the true power behind Egypt’s presidency, with Morsi acting as his puppet. According to last Thursday’s edition of Al Wafd, during his weekly sermon, ‘Muhammad Badi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, confirmed the necessity for every Muslim to strive to save al-Quds [Jerusalem] from the hands of the rapists [Israelis] and to cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the occupation, deeming this an individual duty for all Muslims.’” Read more.

Flashback: Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Holds Venomous Anti-Israel Rally, Vows to ‘One Day Kill All Jews’ – “Arab hate: A Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo’s most prominent mosque Friday turned into a venomous anti-Israel protest, with attendants vowing to ‘one day kill all Jews.’ Some 5,000 people joined the rally, called to promote the ‘battle against Jerusalem’s Judaization.’ The event coincided with the anniversary of the United Nations’ partition plan in 1947, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state… Speakers at the event delivered impassioned, hateful speeches against Israel, slamming the ‘Zionist occupiers’ and the ‘treacherous Jews.’” Read more.

Tareq Hawwas, International Union of Muslim Scholars, Lebanon TV 4/18/2013: “The Jews are among the true enemies of the Islamic nation. Their enmity began with the beginning of the call to Islam. It is well established among Islamic scholars that the Prophet Muhammad died as the result of eating poisoned meat, given to him by that Jewish woman in Khaybar… Thus, the scholars consider the Prophet Muhammad to be a martyr because he died from the poison given to him by the Jews… The Jews are the enemies of this nation, and they spare non effort in preventing this nation from gaining power… anybody who knows what the Jews are like knows that this type of conduct is not out of character. First of all, they are among the people most rejecting of Allah… they are the slayers of prophets… they are cowards… the most miserly of all peoples… think nothing of violating treaties… have never respected, for a single day, any international agreement or treaty that they signed.. If only Hitler had finished them off, thus relieving humanity of them…” Listen to the insanity here.

Be forewarned, Assad. Any “game-changing weapons” used against Israel by Hezbollah will not only invoke a punishing response against Lebanon, but against Damascus as well …

By AP and Times of Israel – “BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday that Syria will supply his Lebanese militia with ‘game-changing weapons,’ describing the move as Syria’s response to airstrikes earlier in the week.

Nasrallah spoke less than a week after unnamed Israeli officials said Israeli aircraft twice struck shipments of advanced weapons in Syria believed to be bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel did not officially confirm responsibility for the early Friday and Sunday strikes around Damascus.

‘Syria’s response to Israel’s air strikes is to tell Israel that if your goal was to prevent boosting the resistance’s capabilities then take note … [Syria] will give the resistance arms,’ Nasrallah said, according to a translation posted on the website of the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper.

‘And it will provide the resistance with sophisticated weapons that the resistance has never obtained before,’ he said during the televised address.

Israeli officials said the Lebanese militia has tens of thousands of rockets, but that most of them are unguided. Israeli officials said the shipments targeted twice last week included precision-guided Fateh-110 missiles.

Syria has been the main conduit for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah.

Nasrallah also said Syria had opened up the Golan Heights for ‘resistance groups’ to fight against Israel.

‘Whoever wanted a war on Syria, the response was to open the Golan front for any popular resistance groups,’ he said.

He added that Hezbollah would aid any group attacking Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan.” Read more.

Assad: Syria Will ‘Give Hizbullah Everything’ – “Syria will ‘give Hizbullah everything’ in recognition of its support and will follow the terrorist group’s model of ‘resistance’ against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying. His comments, published by Al-Akhbar, reportedly came during meetings with Lebanese visitors in Damascus and appeared intended to refute any suggestion that Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to the Shiite group Hizbullah in Lebanon… ‘We have decided to give them everything,’ the newspaper quoted him as saying, without elaborating.” Read more.

Flashback: Hezbollah On Jerusalem: We Can Kill ‘Tens Of Thousands’ Of Israelis And Turn The Lives Of Millions Into Hell – “Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, says that [Hezbollah] can turn lives of millions of Zionists into real hell. Commemorating the International al-Quds [Jerusalem] day, Hezbollah held a ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburb … stressing that the resistance would defend the country against any Israeli attack, and would not wait for any permission to do so. His eminence noted that the price of this attack would be very expensive to the extent that ‘we can talk about tens of thousands of killed.’” Read more.

But, surely, they’re still “reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population” right? …

By Mona Mahmood and Ian Black, The Guardian – “Syria’s main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that if negotiations went ahead between the Syrian government and the opposition – as the US and Russia proposed on Tuesday – ‘then hopefully [arming the Syrian rebels] would not be necessary’.

The agreement between Washington and Moscow creates a problem for the UK and France, which have proposed lifting or amending the EU arms embargo on Syria to help anti-Assad forces. The Foreign Office welcomed the agreement as a ‘potential step forward’but insisted: ‘Assad and his close associates have lost all legitimacy. They have no place in the future of Syria.’ Opposition leaders were sceptical about prospects for talks if Assad remained in power.

Illustrating their plight, FSA commanders say that entire units have gone over to al-Nusra while others have lost a quarter or more of their strength to them recently.

‘Fighters feel proud to join al-Nusra because that means power and influence,’ said Abu Ahmed, a former teacher from Deir Hafer who now commands an FSA brigade in the countryside near Aleppo. ‘Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition or fighters and they leave their target only after liberating it,’ he added. “They compete to carry out martyrdom [suicide] operations.’

Abu Ahmed and others say the FSA has lost fighters to al-Nusra in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and Deir al-Zor and the Damascus region. Ala’a al-Basha, commander of the Sayyida Aisha brigade, warned the FSA chief of staff, General Salim Idriss, about the issue last month.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Nowhere In Rebel-Controlled Syria Is There A Secular Fighting Force To Speak Of’ – ” In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce. Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” Read more.

The Guardian – “Co-ordinated attacks by Islamic extremists armed with heavy machine guns have killed at least 42 people in north-east Nigeria, according to authorities, the latest in a string of increasingly bloody incidents threatening peace in Africa‘s most populous nation.

Multiple locations were struck in Bama in Nigeria’s Borno state, where shootings and bombings have been rife since an insurgency began there in 2010.

Fighters raided a federal prison during the assault, killing 14 guards and freeing 105 inmates, officials said.

Details of the attack remain unclear, although military spokesman Lt Col Sagir Musa said about 200 fighters in buses and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns attacked the barracks of the 202 Battalion of Nigeria’s army. Musa said 10 insurgents and two soldiers died in the attack.

‘They came in army uniform pretending to be soldiers but [we] were able to detect them,’ he said.

The attackers also razed a police station, a police barracks, magistrate’s court and local government offices, the spokesman said.

At least 22 police officers, three children and a woman were killed in those attacks, said Bama police commander Sagir Abubakar. He said officers killed three insurgents during the fighting.

Calls rang unanswered or would not connect on Tuesday night to those living in Bama, a town 40 miles (65km) south-east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. In attacks in the region by Islamic extremists, phone towers have been bombed and burned to the ground, making communication even more difficult for security officials and civilians as well. At least 17 people died in an attack in Bama in late April.

Much of the violence has been blamed on the extremist network known as Boko Haram, which translates as ‘western education is sacrilege’ in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north. The group has said it wants its imprisoned members freed and Nigeria to adopt strict sharia law across the multi-ethnic nation of more than 160 million people.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: ‘Proud Soldiers of Allah’ Vows to Take Down Government and Destroy Christianity, ‘We Will Devour You … Our Joy Is To Die In Jihad’ – “Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has threatened to bring down the Federal Government led by President Goodluck Jonathan within three months. Purported leader of the sect said this in his second video posted on the Internet yesterday. The 14 minutes, two seconds video of Abubakar Shekau seen on YouTube was in response to Jonathan’s comments while in South Korea, about two weeks ago, that the Boko Haram phenomenon would be under control by the middle of this year.” Read more.

The Jerusalem Post – “Three explosions were heard in western Tehran on Tuesday, in an area where Iran carries out missile research and storage, according to a Tweet by a BBC Persian journalist.

It was not immediately clear if there were injuries or damage in the incident.

In January, both Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency denied reports that a blast had hit the Fordow underground uranium enrichment center near Qom.

A mysterious and massive explosion rocked a military arms depot near Tehran in November 2011, killing 17 Revolutionary Guards Corps officers and wounding 17 others.

Iranian officials said the blast was caused by an accident as soldiers moved munitions at the base in Bidganeh, near Shahriar, 45 km. west of the Iranian capital. The base is also believed to be the storage center for some of Iran’s most-advanced long-range ballistic missiles, such as the Shahab 3.

Israel and the United States have been accused over the years of working to sabotage the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

In October 2010, a similar blast took place at a Revolutionary Guards munitions store in Khoramabad, in western Iran, killing and wounding several servicemen.

Tuesday’s report of explosions came days after Israel allegedly carried out two air strikes in Syria over the weekend, targeting Iranian-supplied Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles destined for Hezbollah.” Source – The Jerusalem Post.