Two Palestinian Authority officials recently asserted that Islamic law forbids Jews from praying at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, both adding that the wall was an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
“Allah decreed that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islamic and belongs to Muslims alone,” Tayseer Al-Tamimi, former Chief Justice of PA Religious Court said last month, according to a translation newly provided by watchdog NGO Palestinian Media Watch.
“It is part of the religious belief of a billion and a half Muslims, and the Jews have no right to it… or the right to pray in any part of it. The Al-Aqsa Mosque includes all its courtyards… and specifically, its western wall,” al Tamimi said
Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash also stated last month that non-Muslims should be barred from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which, according to him, includes the Western Wall.
“The Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain, by divine decree, a Muslim mosque, will not be shared with anyone, will not be forfeited, and no one besides Muslims will pray in it,” he said.
A resurgence of interest in prayer on the Temple Mount has provoked outrage among Palestinians and others in the Muslim world, who accuse Israel of attempting to “Judaize” the site, which Palestinians claim for their future state.Crimea wasn't the only territory Russia claimed as its own this month.
Just three days before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his plan to annex Ukraine's peninsula, a U.N. commission gave him sovereignty over the Sea of Okhotsk, located off Russia's southeastern coast near Japan. Those waters, it was decided, are part of Russia's continental shelf.
Russia's Environment Minister Sergey Donskoy called the 20,000 square miles of once-international waters a "real Ali Baba's cave" because of its natural-resource reserves. "It took Russia many years to achieve this success," he said, logic that rings true for the acquisition of Crimea.
Five countries stretch into the region called the Arctic: Russia, Canada, and the United States, by way of Alaska; and Norway and Denmark, through Greenland. No country has yet laid full claim to the entire region, which includes the North Pole and is home to 15 percent of the world's oil, a third of its undiscovered natural gas, and, depending on your age, Santa Claus. But several nations have tried to extend their sovereignty there, which requires proving that their continental shelves extend more than 230 miles into the Arctic Ocean. (For a visual of who currently owns what, check outthis map from The New York Times.)
The Arctic is not a lawless free-for-all, however. The five nations, along with Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, are members of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum created in 1996 to facilitate cooperation among Arctic states, as well as communities indigenous to the area. The council is far from a military or economic alliance. Focused on subjects like environmental protection, pollution, trade routes, and fisheries, the groupprides itself on keeping political and military issues out of the discussion.
Egypt’s Defense Minister Gen. Abdul-Fattah El-Sisi, 59, announced Wednesday, March 26, that he had resigned from the army after 45 years in order to run for president. No date has been set for the election, but it is expected to take place no later than July. His popularity as a strong leader in a country that craves stability above all after three years of turmoil is such that he can count on winning.
Maj. Gen. Tawfik Abdel-Samei, head of the Egyptian army’s central command, was chosen to head the force. He and El-Sisi handpicked 10,000 of the most able commando fighters from the various army units and consolidated them through intense courses into a special airborne force. Equipped with air transport and helicopters, it is capable of flying to the ends of the country in a crisis, along with tanks, self-propelled artillery and counter-terror measures.
This force will be available for the new president to pursue his war on the Muslim Brotherhood after unseating its rule last summer.
In the meantime, Egypt’s courts are running Brotherhood leaders including the deposed president Mohamed Morsi and thousands of activists at a rapid pace through short trials and passing out death sentences for hundreds of defendants.
Shortly before his announcement, El-Sisi had Chief of Staff Sedki Sobhi promoted to the rank of colonel general, naming him the next defense minister.
In his address to the nation, the presidential contender promised he would work to free Egypt from the threat of terrorists.
In his address to the nation, the presidential contender promised he would work to free Egypt from the threat of terrorists.
The announcement of his candidacy for president two days before US President Barack Obama arrives in Riyadh for talks with Saudi leaders is no coincidence. Since El-Sisi eliminated Muslim Brotherhood rule, a chill has overlaid Washington’s relations with Cairo. The Egyptian strongman was making sure that the US president understood that he was there to stay.
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