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Dahi Khalfan, Dubai’s police chief has once again praised the Egyptian army’s crackdown on high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood figures. His latest remarks come as senior officials and even the supreme guide of the Brotherhood have been taken into custody. Khalfan taunted the Brotherhood’s supreme guide by stating on Twitter “After today, there is no more guide.” Khalfan was referring to Mohamed Badie, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On August 31, Al-Ahram reported that Badie had suffered a cardiac arrest while in prison, but that he has since recovered. State news agency MENA denied a report that Badie had died, while Brotherhood spokesmen did not respond to immediate requests about his health. Badie, whose condition is said to be stable, was among many Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested in recent crackdown.

After Morsi’s overthrow, the Emirates, in cooperation with Saudi Arabia and various other families in the Persian Gulf emerged as the primary financiers of the Egyptian army, offering the institution large sums of money in order to subdue ‘terrorists’ operating in Egypt, a term primarily used in reference to pro-Morsi supporters.

In response, Egypt’s Minister of Defence Abdel Fattah el-Sisi responded by thanking the kingdoms of Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia for their sustained support in restoring peace to Egypt. Khalfan has long deemed the Muslim Brotherhood a danger to the emirate. In an effort to counter pro-Morsi online activists, he recently devised an ‘alternative’ logo to the hand with four fingers utilized by pro-Morsi supporters decrying the ‘coup’ as illegitimate.

Syrian President Assad delivering his inaugural speech after his electoral victory.

During his inaugural speech on July 15 of 2014, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad thanked Syria’s allies for their support during the war, including Russia, Iran, China and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Syrian President Bashad al Assad also talked about Gaza, and attaked the leaders of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, he symbolically announces the demise of the Arab Spring.

Vast billboards had appeared in Gaza thanking Iran for its help in the conflict between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Israel in 2012. More recently, Iran continues its involvement in arming Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In this video, a spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades thanks Iran and Hezbollah for their support.

A self-styled leader of the ‘Mosul uprising’ in Iraq by the name of Ghanem Al-Abed baffled viewers on Qatari state television Al-Jazeera on Tuesday when he claimed that ISIS was an invention by the Syrian government, but that the Islamic State (IS) led by Al Baghdadi are revolutionaries who are part of the Iraqi uprising.

The bizarre debate was held against his opponent, Yazan Mash’aan who asked the confident leader about his plans for Iraq’s future. Al-Abed responded by unleashing a sectarian diatribe. Abed’s comments were then shrugged off by his opponent as nonsensical and deranged.

One of the Imams of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Salah al-Din ibn Ibrahim Abu Arafa criticized ISIS clerics and their motives, stating that they are seeking power instead of the establishment of an Islamic state.

He further stressed that the people of Yarmouk refugee camp, which consists primarily of Palestinians are caught between and are besieged by various factions, including ISIS.

Abou Arfa went on to call upon members of ISIS, the Islamic Front and Al Nusra to stop deceiving Muslims and to assist the people in Yarmouk camp with bread.

Arfa is a Palestinian cleric and renowned Imam of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest place in Sunni Islam. He is a known critic of ISIS.

Exclusive excerpts from the speech at the Grand Mosque in Mosul by ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ISIS emir and newly, self-appointed Caliph for all Muslims blesses mankind with his first public appearance in a video recorded at a mosque in Mosul. In his first appearance, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi enlightens misguided Muslims and informs them that he too is, in fact, imperfect.

Excerpts from his speech were translated exclusively for Monitor Mideast.

Al Baghdadi’s first lecture consists of interpretations he gave to Quranic verses, whilst some other quotes were plagiarized from the first speech held by the first Sunni Caliph, Abu Bakr.

Taken from The Telegraph:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, emerged from the shadows to lead Friday prayers at Mosul’s Great Mosque, calling on the world’s Muslims to “obey” him as the head of the caliphate declared by the Sunni jihadist group.

The notoriously secretive jihadi, who has never before been seen in public, chose the first Friday prayer service of Ramadan to make an audacious display of power in the city that Salafist Islamists have now controlled for three weeks.

Speaking from the balcony in his new incarnation as self-anointed “Caliph Ibrahim”, al-Baghdadi announced himself as “the leader who presides over you”, urging Muslims to join him and “make jihad” for the sake of Allah.

Under his direction, the Islamic world would be returned to “dignity, might, rights and leadership”, he said.

“I am the wali (leader) who presides over you, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, assist me,” he said, dressed in a black turban and robe reminiscent of the last caliphs to rule from Baghdad.

Iraqi Sunni cleric Khaled al-Mulla on Al-Mayadeen TV expressed his concern over Salafists of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, stating that they had slaughtered over 300 Sunni clerics in Iraq.

After ISIS secured a victory by moving into Mosul, Iranians prepare for a possible ISIS invasion and flirt with the prospects of deploying boots on the ground. This mini documentary was translated exclusively for Monitor Mideast.

An Iraqi writer by the name of Abu Firas was a guest at Aljazeera’s “The Opposite Direction” on June 18, 2014 where he took every chance to attack Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s Emir and prominent religious clerics Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Ibn Baz in those countries. Abu Firas returned to Iraq, where he received a hero’s welcome.

Iraq has been the subject of an invasion by insurgency groups over the past week whereby 1.700 soldiers of the Iraqi army were killed after key officers left their post. Iraq has formally pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatari as sponsors of the insurgency group ISIS.

What would you do if you were a reporter for the New York Times and you’ve just been invited to a news conference where the president of one of the Middle East’s most influential countries just told you that the United States supports terrorism in Iraq and Syria? What if that same president also told you that the United States is involved in a propaganda war (likely involving your own news publication) in supporting and legitimizing that terror in Syria and Iraq? In the case of Thomas Erdbrink, correspondent for the New York Times, those questions were fairly simple to answer. You just invent news. Watch this video to see Rouhani lash out at the United States and how a correspondent for one of the most influential news publications in the world relays his answers to the world.