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.
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.
Following a bizarre string of events, a Saudi woman has appeared on state television telling the tale of a hostage-taking that lasted for over 25 years. A quarter-century ago, the Saudi woman, who calls herself Umm Amal was kidnapped at the age of 13. Her captor, a Pakistani laborer working in the kingdom secretly took her to Pakistan. The unidentified Pakistani man who had previously resided in the kingdom assaulted her and brought her to Karachi where he forced her to work as a maid in his house for years before she could escape.
A Saudi woman who was raped by a Pakistani man before he abducted and took her to his country 20 years ago has told Okaz/Saudi Gazette of her anguish and desire to return home. She now speaks Urdu and wears the traditional Punjabi dress, but she still retains her Saudi identity. Her abductor raped her when she was only 14, despite being almost 30 years her senior. Then he dragged her by force to the airport and off to Pakistan. She told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that her stepmother asked her to go to a grocery store in the village where she used to live with her father and siblings in the Kingdom.
The Pakistani worker with her took advantage of her and raped her. She told her stepmother, a Syrian national, but was told to keep everything under wraps. Then she asked her to leave with the Pakistani worker, adding her father would kill her if he found out. Not knowing what to do, she listened to her stepmother’s advice and took off with the Pakistani man. The man took her to Jeddah and stayed there for some time. He kept in touch with the stepmother. She told him that her parents and siblings were going crazy searching for her and they even reported her missing to police. However, some workers in the village who knew what was going on told her father the real story. Her family kept searching for her for a few days until the father, who was being stigmatized by his tribesmen, decided to give up the search.
He told them that he found his daughter and then killed her. Her abductor managed to get her a Pakistani passport and bought two tickets to Pakistan and left the Kingdom. At 14, she found herself in Malir town, east of Karachi. She said: “Everyone in that town was carrying a gun. The town was full of terrorists.” The Pakistani introduced her to his mother and relatives. She could not understand what they were saying and she kept crying all the time. A few days later, the Pakistan man told her he would marry her. He had her sign a marriage contract in front of a Pakistani official at the marriage office.
Afterward, she realized that she would not be able to return to the Kingdom. She lived with the man’s first wife and six children in the same house. At the time, he was 43. She gave birth to two daughters and a son. Her son, who is now 14, memorizes the Holy Qur’an and teaches it at the mosque nearby. She lives on the charity from the Awasser Organization, which takes care of Saudis abandoned abroad, and from her husband’s sister. When things got harder, she had to find work. She worked as a housemaid for some families but never told them about her real nationality. One day when she was in the mall she heard two young men talking in a Saudi dialect. She approached them and talked to them in the same dialect and they were surprised.
She told them her story and they promised her they would search for her family when they got back to the Kingdom. A few months later, they called her and gave her the phone number of her family. She called her father and had a difficult time convincing him she was his daughter. He reprimanded her and told her she should have told him the truth instead of running away with the Pakistani man before hanging up. When she called again, her sister picked up the phone and recognized her. She said: “When I told my sister that I wanted to return, she told me she couldn’t do anything for me. “Then she said that I should stay where I am because my return would disgrace my family.” Then, she decided to go the Saudi Consulate in Karachi and tell them her story.
The consulate contacted her father and asked him to prove the identity of his daughter and send them his ID card. He agreed on the condition that his daughter should not return to the Kingdom. She said: “My situation is getting more difficult and miserable. I can’t travel and I can’t work. “My children are suffering because of our poverty. I desperately need an ID.”
Okaz/Saudi Gazette met Falish Al-Ruhaili, Saudi Consul General in Karachi, who confirmed the woman’s case file was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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