The Middle East has a serious problem, and it isn’t the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Though one wouldn’t know it by the skewed focus of international media and diplomatic attention, the crisis of the Islamic State dwarfs even the most serious bouts of Israeli-Arab violence.
Over the past several months, the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS), a Sunni Muslim group rejected by Al Qaeda as being too extreme, has not only managed to gain control over much of Iraq and Syria, but has fulfilled the long-held dream of many Sunnis by establishing a "caliphate" that demands the allegiance of all faithful Muslims.
But the Islamic State’s notorious leader, Abu Baker Al-Baghdadi, is not content with the territory he already rules. Al-Baghdadi is thinking big, and has vowed to forcibly spread Islam to the four corners of the world. Iraq was only the first target among many, and the swift defeat of the US-trained and equipped Iraqi military provided the Islamists a major morale boost.
And while Alhassan and others remain optimistic that Iraq still has a fighting chance, the Islamic State is already moving on to new targets in its assaults on Jordanian border towns. The goal is clear: topple Jordan’s monarch and annex the territory of the Hashemite Kingdom in a march that inevitably leads to Israel.
Jordan’s well-trained military and substantial regional and international backing should be too much for the Islamic State to overcome. The real threat is the Islamic State gaining supporters within Jordan. “Mass demonstrations in support of the Islamic State have already taken place in the Jordanian city of Maan,” notes Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Islam at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.
Kedar stresses that many Palestinian and Syrian refugees residing in the Kingdom are angry over the way Jordanian authorities handle their miserable living conditions, "forcing thousands to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, which they view as a solution to their problems."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been monitoring the developments closely, vowed to help Jordan in curbing the rising threat. "Israel realizes that one day we may all wake up to find the Islamic State on our borders," says Kedar. "The real danger is that Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and even inside Israel proper may support the Islamic State, shattering Israel's security."
According to the pundit, it might be in Israel’s interests to tackle this threat militarily before it has a chance to gain a foothold West of the Jordan River. While such a decision hasn’t been taken yet, rumors are that Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the US have established an operations center in Amman with the aim of developing plans to defeat the Islamic State.
The Islamic State has asserted that its present focus is dealing with apostate Muslim countries, but there is no doubt the jihadist horde is inching ever closer to the Jewish state.
The Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, known for its kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls, has deepened its connection to the Middle East terror army ISIS by forming an information and materiel-support alliance, according to sources.
A Nigeria staff member for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a non-profit foundation promoting democratic institutions, says leaders Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS and Abubakar Shakau of Boko Haram “have been sharing military strategy and other information back and forth.”
Kristina Baum says the alliance will empower Boko Haram.
“Boko Haram is hopeful that this will give them more financial support,” she said. “Before, Boko Haram has been getting their money from kidnapping, ransom and extortion from local governments.”
Maha Hamdan, an analyst for Consultancy Africa Intelligence and IntelligenceCommunity.com, confirms the link-up, calling it a dangerous development.
She believes the weakness of the Nigerian army in its war against Boko Haram is “one of the major reasons for the rise of the Boko Haram and ISIS alliance.”
“We are standing at the precipice of the birth of a new radical Islam,” she said.
Police backed up by armoured cars arrested at least 15 people of people in 12 separate pre-dawn operations in NSW, plus three more in Brisbane.
The combined effort amounted to the largest anti-terrorism operation in Australian history — and senior officers revealed the attack by a suspected terrorist cell was imminent.
It is believed police intercepted a phone call outlining a plan to kidnap a random member of the public and murder them by beheading, while filming the act to post on social media.
It is also understood the group had planned to target a tourist, possibly in Martin Place in the CBD.
Azari, dressed in a navy hooded jacket and black pants, made a brief appearance in the dock of Central Local Court today.
Extra sheriffs surrounded the dock as he was brought up before Magistrate John Bailey.
His lawyer Steve Boland told the court no application would be made for bail, and asked that his client be taken back down to the cells.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said the group intended to target random members of the public on Sydney streets.
“The intent was to commit serious violence on a member of the public on the streets,” he said.
“We won’t be letting that happen … We will not be tolerating misbehaviour on our streets.”
Mr Scipione said this morning’s operation involved more than 500 police officers and would be ongoing.
We’ve seen this before. There’s a master race; now there’s a master faith. And that allows you to do anything to anyone, but first of all to your own people and then to everyone else… The goal is we establish a new Islamist dominion, first in the Middle East and in their warped thinking, throughout the world. They all agree on that. They are not limited in their scope to a territory. They’re not limited to borders.
While Obama went through the motions in commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 and has displayed moral confusion, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke eloquently with moral clarity about what is at stake for the civilized world:
I believe that the battle against these groups is indivisible and it’s important not to let any of these groups succeed anywhere because if they gain ground somewhere, they gain ground everywhere. And their setbacks are also felt everywhere. If they gain ground, if they were to succeed, they would return humanity to a primitive early medievalism … where women are treated as chattel, as property and gays are stoned and minorities persecuted if they’re left alive at all.
Prime Minister Netanyahu knows firsthand that a true leader cannot make excuses for jihadists who fancy themselves as custodians of the “master faith” of Islam, nor negotiate with them. It does not make any difference how they label themselves. They are all branches of “the same poisonous tree,” as the prime minister put it. “These groups have absolutely no moral or other impediment to their mad desires. Once they have massive power, they will unleash all their violence, all their ideological zeal, all their hatred, with weapons of mass death,” he added.
With moral clarity, he understands the jihadist ideology of Islam supremacism that we are up against and what is at stake if we do not defeat it.
Some 22 million people were displaced by natural disasters in 2013 - three times more than from conflicts and wars. Asia became the displacement ‘hotspot’, accounting for over 80 percent of those affected.
Currently, twice as many people are displaced than there were in the 1970s, researchers stated.
The main cause behind the surge in numbers is the rapid urbanization, with the growth and concentration of urban populations, especially in “vulnerable countries.”
“This increasing trend will continue as more and more people live and work in hazard-prone areas. <…> More people today are exposed and vulnerable,” Jan Egeland said.
What’s more, this kind of displacement is “expected to be aggravated in the future by the impacts of climate change,” Egeland added.
The report emphasizes the fact that the disasters can happen in any area in the world. However, the worst-affected for several years running has been Asia, with a staggering 19 million – around 87 per cent of the total figure - forced to flee their homes.
Most Americans are unaware that under the "Refugee Resettlement Program," wholeMuslim communities from hostile nations are imported into the United States, circumventing whatever immigration laws that are still intact.
This is made even more dangerous by who the organization determines are refugees and who aren't. It's the UN, driven largely by the world's largest international body, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC is a modern day caliphate made up of 56 countries and the Palestinian terrorists.
For years, a handful of my colleagues and I have warned of the reckless immigration polices here in America and in the West — refusing immigration status to persecuted religious minorities under Islam (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, etc.), while allowing whole Muslim communities from jihad nations to immigrate.I have documented this dangerous practice and warned of the eventual consequence of importing jihad. We have seen its deleterious consequences with many members of the Somali community.
With millions of Christians expelled, ethnically cleansed or worse from the Middle East you might think these were the refugees the US would welcome to our shores. You'd be wrong.
What are the numbers of Muslims coming into the US from jihad nations under the Obama administration? And why aren't the victims being given the opportunity to escape the vicious and bloody jihad by Islamic supremacists?
Obama's immigration rules given favor Muslims over Christians.
"U.N. to dump flood of Muslim refugees on U.S.," By Leo Hohmann, WND, September 15, 2014
The United Nations, working with the U.S. State Department, has already shipped approximately 115,000 Iraqis to American cities since Sept. 11. Another 100,000 Somalis have been resettled in the United States since that country devolved into civil war in 1993. The Somali refugees have been described as 99.9 percent Muslim by Somali-American leaders. The Iraqi refugees have also been majority Muslim and, while the exact percentages are more difficult to track, the Iraqis coming to the States have been estimated at 62 percent Muslim.
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