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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/23/2017 4:30:09 PM
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'Liberal mosque' opens in Berlin, faces death threats from 'Islamist side'

© Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters
Men and women pray together at the new liberal Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque in Berlin, Germany, June 16, 2017.
A co-founder of the first "liberal mosque," which opened in the German capital last week, has faced intimidation, including death threats, she told RT Deutsch.

"Death threats, and other threats... are partly coming from the Islamist side," Seyran Ates said. She is one of the seven founders of the unusual prayer site, which accepts everyone except those wearing a full face veil, such as a niqab or burka.

Ates, however, who is a women's rights activist and lawyer, stated that the threats should not stop people's fight for their values.

"As a civil society, we cannot let ourselves be guided by those who threaten us and who forbid us to do something, [threatening] to otherwise take our lives. It is only when we fight together against this hatred that we can change something."

Earlier, the co-founder said that even before opening the mosque, she had already received some "very violent and obscene" threats. She even requested police protection at last week's opening.

Thousands of people have reacted to Ates' activities on Facebook, as a DW Arabic report about her gained more than a million views within just four days and received almost 16,000 comments. A large portion of the comments condemned the idea of the mosque.

"This is not the religion of our prophet," one comment under the video reads.

"Is this a mosque or a club? A woman who is showing her breasts during praying? And who is serving as an example for all liberal Muslims and [as a female] Imam? Absurd," another person said.

Muslims need a culture to speak fearlessly to each other, another founder of the mosque and Islamic scholar, Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, told RT Deutsch earlier.

He said that the founders want people of all religions to live together peacefully. Although this path is difficult, it is only a matter of time, he added. "We want our kids - both from the monotheistic religions, as well as children of atheists - to finally live in peace together...

And I believe that it is a question of time. It is not an easy path, it is something new and I believe it is a challenge for the conservatives in Germany, the so-called established umbrella organizations," Abdel-Hakim Ourghi said in an interview.

He added that Muslims need a culture in which they can peacefully talk to each other regardless of the branches of Islam they are representing.

The first mosque in Germany offering a place of worship to believers of all Muslim denominations, giving equal rights to male and female worshippers, and friendly to the LGBT community, opened on June 17 in the heart of Berlin.

Entering in niqabs and burkas, which is obligatory for women according to Muslim rules, is prohibited there.


(sott.net)



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/23/2017 5:14:25 PM

Qatar's neighbors issue steep list of demands to end crisis

JOSH LEDERMAN

FILE - In this Jan. 1, 2015, file photo, staff members of Al-Jazeera International work at the news studio in Doha, Qatar. Kuwait has given Qatar a list of demands from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations that includes shutting down Al-Jazeera and cutting diplomatic ties to Iran. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have cut ties to Qatar issued a steep list of demands Thursday to end the crisis, insisting that their Persian Gulf neighbor shutter Al-Jazeera, cut back diplomatic ties to Iran and sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a 13-point list — presented to the Qataris by Kuwait, which is helping mediate the crisis — the countries also demand an end to Turkey's military presence in Qatar. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the list in Arabic from one of the countries involved in the dispute.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain broke ties with Qatar this month over allegations the Persian Gulf country funds terrorism — an accusation that President Donald Trump has echoed. Those countries have now given Qatar 10 days to comply with all of the demands, which include paying an unspecified sum in compensation.

Qatari officials in Doha did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP. But the list included conditions that the gas-rich nation had already insisted would never be met, including shutting down Al-Jazeera. Qatar's government has said it won't negotiate until Arab nations lift their blockade. The demands were also likely to elicit Qatari objections that its neighbors are trying to dictate its sovereign affairs by imposing such far-reaching requirements.

Only a day earlier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had warned the demands must be "reasonable and actionable." The U.S. issued that litmus test amid frustration at how long it was taking Saudi Arabia and others to formalize a list of demands, complicating U.S. efforts to bring about a resolution to the worst Gulf diplomatic crisis in years.

According to the list, Qatar must refuse to naturalize citizens from the four countries and expel those currently in Qatar, in what the countries describe as an effort to keep Qatar from meddling in their internal affairs.

They are also demanding that Qatar hand over all individuals who are wanted by those four countries for terrorism; stop funding any extremist entities that are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.; and provide detailed information about opposition figures that Qatar has funded, ostensibly in Saudi Arabia and the other nations.

Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism. But the country acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to reside in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue with those groups is key to resolving global conflicts.

Qatar's neighbors have also accused it of backing al-Qaida and the Islamic State group's ideology throughout the Middle East. Those umbrella groups also appear on the list of entities whose ties with Qatar must be extinguished, along with Lebanon's Hezbollah and the al-Qaida branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.

More broadly, the list demands that Qatar align itself politically, economically and otherwise with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional club that has focused on countering the influence of Iran. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations have accused Qatar of inappropriately close ties to Iran, a Shiite-led country and Saudi Arabia's regional foe.

The Iran provisions in the document say Qatar must shut down diplomatic posts in Iran, kick out from Qatar any members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, and only conduct trade and commerce with Iran that complies with U.S. sanctions. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were eased but other sanctions remain in place.

Cutting ties to Iran would prove incredibly difficult. Qatar shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Iran which supplies the small nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup its wealth.

Not only must Qatar shut down the Doha-based satellite broadcaster, the list says, but also all of its affiliates. That presumably would mean Qatar would have to close down Al-Jazeera's English-language sister network.

Supported by Qatar's government, Al-Jazeera is one of the most widely watched Arabic channels, but it has long drawn the ire of Mideast governments for airing alternative viewpoints. The network's critics say it advances Qatar's goals by promoting Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood that pose a populist threat to rulers in other Arab countries.

The list also demands that Qatar stop funding a host of other news outlets including Arabi21 and Middle East Eye.

If Qatar agrees to comply, the list asserts that it will be audited once a month for the first year, and then once per quarter in the second year after it takes effect. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance.

___

Hussain Al-Qatari in Kuwait, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Vivian Salama in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

(Yahoo News)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/23/2017 5:34:53 PM

‘World fails miserably to stop opium threat’: RT reports from drug factory Afghanistan

Edited time: 23 Jun, 2017 11:19


© Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

Opiate production in Afghanistan has shot up since the US-led invasion in 2001, leading addiction rates there to skyrocket. Meanwhile, the UN said this week that opioids are the world’s “most harmful drug type.” RT investigated the problem in Kabul.

Though only a tiny fraction of the opiates produced in Afghanistan are used domestically, the effects are devastating the local population. An RT crew found an infamous nest of drug addicts in a dry riverbed right in the middle of the Afghan capital, Kabul,

“Every day, it is getting worse – not better. More people become addicted,” Layla Haidari, the founder of the ‘Mother’ association, which helps drug addicts, told RT, noting “I run two rehab centers – one for men, and one for women. Many of the women are mothers with children. I once treated a four-year-old addict.”

“It’s politics. The ministries, the politicians… authorities want poppy cultivation to continue,” she said.

The UN defines opiates as a “subset of opioids comprising the various products derived from the opium poppy plant, including opium, morphine, and heroin.” Afghan opioids are exported via well-oiled smuggling routes – north, to Russia and Europe; east, to Asia; and west, to the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.

According to the World Drug Report released on Thursday, in 2016, about $150 million from illicit Afghan opiate trade went into the pockets of terrorist groups operating in the country that the US and local forces have failed to clamp down on. The UNestimates that up to 85 percent of opium poppies are cultivated in Taliban-influenced territory.

The terrorists appear to care little about the negative health effects that the cultivation of poppy seeds has on the global or Afghan population. The UN estimates that around half of the Taliban’s income comes from its involvement with narcotics, and it seems that all layers of society are involved in generating that profit.

READ MORE: Taliban urge supporters to plant trees for ‘rewards in the hereafter’

“I’ve seen Afghan police generals, with my own eyes, colluding with drug smugglers in the south. It is a business of billions and billions of dollars that reaches the pockets of the Taliban and corrupt Afghan officials,” Hekmarullah Azamy, a political analyst, told RT.

In last year alone, net opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased by ten percent compared to 2015, reaching 201,000 hectares in 21 provinces. Meanwhile, the quantity of opium poppies destroyed decreased by 91 percent, UN figures say.

“Only the strengthening of the rule of law, lasting peace, and the provision of alternative sources of income can break the vicious circle of poverty, lack of security, and illicit crop cultivation,” the UN said.

Eradicating production seems an impossible task in a country where over 39 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line, and every penny counts.

“When you go there [to the countryside] in the opium season – you see schools and universities empty because people leave to go work in the opium fields and find employment,” Azamy explained to RT.

“It’s not only the Afghan government that’s failing to fight the opium and narcotics. It’s also the international community that’s failing miserably to fight opium production. Their countermeasures to fight drugs were clearly ineffective,” he added.

In 2015, an investigative team from RT Doc visited Afghanistan to record the life-destroying black-market opium industry. The team talked to police officers, drug users, and opium growers in search of a more comprehensive picture. Watch this film here.


(RT)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/23/2017 6:13:36 PM

Inexplicable Summer Solstice Rain Hits Israel in Driest Season

“As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool.” Proverbs 26:1 (The Israel Bible™)

Israelis got an unseasonable reminder of God’s ability to do the improbable when, on Wednesday, the official first day of summer, scattered rain fell from the north, down the coast, and even in the normally arid northern Negev. The unexpected wetness only lasted a few hours, disappearing before anyone could think to unpack their umbrella. Meteorologist assured everyone that the precipitation was an anomaly and that dry heat was on the ticket for the rest of the summer.

The rainy season usually begins in Israel around October and may linger until March. Jewish prayer mirrors the season in Israel and the prayers for rain begin on Shemini Atzeret, the last day of the holiday of Sukkot. Rain can be expected until April, so today’s rain was entirely unexpected, the result of a freak flow of air from Turkey causing an imbalance of temperatures over the Mediterranean.

As many looked to the heavens, their faces strangely damp, they were reminded that Judaism is, at its essence, an agricultural religion closely tied to nature and the seasons. Though rain is normally a sign of blessing, in the Bible, summer rain is viewed as a negative phenomenon, unexpected and out of place, as noted in Proverbs.

As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool. Proverbs 26:1

Jews ceased praying for rain two months ago when Passover began. Just as seasonal rain is necessary to bring forth the blessed bounty of the land, rain out of season can be a curse, rotting the sheaves of wheat as they dry in the fields.

According to Jewish scholars, it was precisely in this month when, in his farewell speech, the Prophet Samuel called out to God, angry that the Jews had asked for a king.

Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto Hashem, that He may send thunder and rain; and ye shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of Hashem, in asking you a king.’ I Samuel 12:

From this we learn that rain out season can be a tool for divine retribution and used to harm Israel.

Rabbi Yitzchak Batzri cited the Mishna (oral law), which states that rain after the month of Sivan (last month) is a bad omen. Nonetheless, the rabbi noted that this opinion is not universal, and in the current situation in which Israel is suffering a multi-year drought, rain, even when it falls out of season, can be seen as an exceptional sign of grace.


Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/90074/inexplicable-summer-solstice-rain-hits-israel-driest-season/#fPp68D3ClsfqqdO5.99


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/23/2017 11:54:34 PM



Mosul’s 800-year-old Great Mosque of al-Nuri destroyed as Iraqi troops close in on ISIS


MOSUL, Iraq — A loud explosion echoed in the Old City of Mosul in northern Iraq on Thursday night. Iraqi troops trying to retake the city from Islamic State forces were closing on the Great Mosque of al-Nuri and suddenly they saw thick smoke rising from where the mosque stood.

ISIS said the mosque was hit by a U.S.-led coalition airstrike. The U.S. has denied the claim and so have Iraqi forces.

Hussein, an Iraqi federal police officer who was near the old city the night the mosque exploded, told Yahoo News, “I only saw white smoke. It was about 25 minutes of smoke in the air. [ISIS fighters] were running away, they had black on.“


A frame of video shows the al-Nuri mosque site. (Photo: Amaq News Agency via Reuters TV)

The offensive to recapture Mosul began last October. Iraqi forces took eastern Mosul in the first 100 days and started a new push for western Mosul in February.

Western Mosul proved to be more challenging. The streets are narrow and hundreds of thousands of civilians were left inside. Urban fighting intensified and ISIS snipers slipped in and out of neighborhoods targeting Iraqi forces.

But the al-Nuri mosque, with its leaning minaret, still stood high over the city, as it has since its creation in the 12th century. It was named after a Turkish sultan, Nur ad-Din, who opposed Crusaders from the west and united Muslim dissidents under his rule. The mosque has great cultural and symbolic importance to the Iraqi people as a monument to Islamic history.

In 2014, as ISIS rose to power, its reclusive leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made a video on the steps of the grand mosque to announce the founding of its modern caliphate, or Islamic government.







The alleged first public appearance of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the reclusive leader of ISIS, held at al-Nuri mosque in Mosul, Iraq, July 5, 2014, in a still image taken from video. (Photo: via Reuters TV)



Nearly three years later, the great mosque has fallen and been reduced to rubble. In the days after it was destroyed, Iraqi federal police said they saw some ISIS fighters run, including two who were shot dead. But others stayed, seeking to keep control of the central part of Mosul’s Old City.

Nearly three years later, the great mosque has fallen and been reduced to rubble. In the days after it was destroyed, Iraqi federal police said they saw some ISIS fighters run, including two who were shot dead. But others stayed, seeking to keep control of the central part of Mosul’s Old City.

Sgt. Hussein said he believed ISIS was trying to keep the mosque from falling into Iraqi army control for intelligence reasons. “It was the main office for ISIS,” he said. “They didn’t want the Iraqi military to take it.”

Other soldiers along the frontline believe that the mosque may have been booby-trapped and would have been dangerous for Iraqi troops to enter.

Iraqi forces and ISIS fighters are continually exchanging sniper and mortar fire over the rooftops in a shrinking zone of ISIS control.



Views of the Mosul, Iraq, skyline before and after the minaret of the al-Nuri mosque was destroyed by ISIS forces, June 22, 2017. (Photo: Mohamed El-Shaded/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the Iraqi snipers at the frontline, Sgt. Muqtaba Ibrahim, told Yahoo News, “We’re inside the city, and it’s difficult for snipers to see the enemy. If it was a desert, it would be easy for me. But the enemy moves from place to place, never staying in one position.”

Iraqi federal police are concentrating their efforts in the south side of old city. But more than 100,000 civilians are still left inside, according to the United Nations. Field hospitals on the outskirts of Mosul have had dozens of wounded and sick pass through, suffering from dehydration, malnutrition and bullet and shrapnel wounds.

And as Iraqi forces get closer to defeating ISIS in Mosul, they face the knowledge that they have lost a cultural treasure that had stood as a symbol of their faith for more than 800 years.

_____

Ash Gallagher is a journalist covering the Mideast for Yahoo News.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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