Israel said on Sunday it had cracked the first ISIS cell on its soil, made up of seven Arab citizens who would be prosecuted on charges of planning attacks in the Jewish state and communicating with the insurgent group in Syria.

The defendants, including a lawyer who was representing himself in court, denied the charges of belonging to an illegal group, aiding terrorism and contacting foreign agents, a justice ministry spokesman said after a gag order on the case was eased.

Though members of Israel’s 20 per cent Arab minority rarely turn to armed violence, many chafe at state authority and security officials worry about Islamist doctrines taking root.

Dozens of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join insurgent groups. Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency said on January 4 it had broken up a cell in the occupied West Bank linked to ISIS.

The seven Israeli Arab suspects, aged 22 to 40 and all from the northern Galilee region, were arrested in November and December and told investigators they had undergone radical Islamist studies and prepared weapons and funding for attacks, the Shin Bet said in a statement.

It said one of the defendants had tried to leave Israel in July in order to make his way to Syria but had been detained by authorities in Tel Aviv.

Source: Asianage

Isis fighters are understood to have gained up to 700 men from moderate rebel groups along the Syrian border with Lebanon, where the terrorist organisation is now poised to attack.

L’Unione Europea farà appello contro la decisione della della Corte Europea di rimuovere Hamas dalla lista nera dei gruppi terroristici. Lo rende noto questa mattina la portavoce del Consiglio Europeo, Susanne Kiefer, su Twitter.

Ministry of Defense announced, that 27 terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “ISIS” organization were killed including leaders while a den raid to fire rockets toward al-Shulaa area was stormed in Baghdad 
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The ministry said in a statement reported for “Shafaq News,” that “ the force of the military intelligence managed to kill three of the most prominent ISIS leaders in a private process in al-Shurtan area western the capital Baghdad 
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The statement said that the leaders are Abu Mohammed al-Jumaili (Shariah judge) of ISIS , Ihsan al-Bakri (military officer) and Qais al-Halbusi (administrator) of the organization 
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Another statement of the ministry said a force of the military intelligence raided a den for launching rockets toward al-Shulaa area in Baghdad city, noting that it had killed 24 terrorists and destroyed three vehicles western the capital

Source: shafaaq.com

Heavy clashes erupted between Yemen’s presidential guard and Houthi rebels around the presidential palace in the capital, Sanaa, Al Jazeera has learnt.

Gunfire was also heard across the city early on Monday as rebels closed off all the streets leading to the palace, witnesses told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Yemen, said the situation has been very tense for the past two days following the Shia group’s abduction of the president’s chief of staff.

The Houthis, who demand more rights for the country’s Zaydi Shia Muslim sect, seized Sanaa in September and advanced into central and western parts of the country where Sunni Muslims predominate.

A deal signed in September between political parties and the Houthis called for the formation of a new unity government followed by the withdrawal of Houthi fighters from the capital. The fighters have remained in place.

The Houthis, who have launched attacks on al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch, are viewed as Shia Iran’s ally in its regional struggle for influence with Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom has suspended most of its financial aid to Yemen since the Houthis arrived.

Source: Al Jazeera

In response to the reported Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Hezbollah’s former operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, the Lebanese-based terrorist group has threatened Israel with retaliation — but noted that it would be limited.

“The attack on six Hezbollah members will be answered with a painful and unexpected response, but it can be assumed that it will be controlled so as not to drag into a wide-spread war,” Hezbollah sources were quoted as saying in their affiliated Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, as cited by Yediot Aharonot.

In addition to 25-year-old Mughniyeh, the other Hezbollah terrorists killed in the strike were listed by the organization as Mohammed Issa (43) who was defined as a commander, Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi (36), Mohammed Ali Hassan Abu Al-Hassan (30), Razi Ali Dawi (27) and Ali Hassan Ibrahim (22).

An Iranian field commander, Abu Ali Tabtabai, was also reportedly also killed in the strike, which entirely destroyed one Hezbollah vehicle and damaged another, a Lebanese security source told The Daily Star.
The Hezbollah response hinting at a toned-down “controlled” attack so as to avoid war comes after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah bombastically threatened to conquer the northern Galilee region of Israel in two interviews last week.

“When the resistance (Hezbollah) leadership…asks you (fighters)…to enter into Galilee, that means the resistance must be ready to enter into Galilee and to go even beyond the Galilee,” Nasrallah said last Thursday, after last Tuesday saying “we are ready to intervene there and take over.”

Intelligence sources revealed that Mughniyeh “stood as the head of a wide and deep terrorist infrastructure backed by Iran directly and connected to Hezbollah, which had already acted against Israel in the Golan Heights.”

Mughniyeh “already planned, and had in his sights, additional serious and murderous attacks against Israel in the Golan Heights. Attacks including rocket fire, breaches, explosions, anti-tank missiles and the like, with the goal being to kill soldiers, to harm Israeli communities in the Golan Heights, and to kill Israeli citizens.”
The sources further assessed that Mughniyeh “is an uninhibited terrorist, who built a very serious terrorist organization with the help of Iran and Hezbollah, (his was) a terrorist organization with abilities, and he was busy planning serious attacks.”

The IDF Artillery Corps last week posted footage of an extended drill that was conducted in the Golan Heights meant to simulate combat against terrorists attacking from the northern border.

Source:  israelnationalnews

Followers of the history of Islam would be surprised at the transition from widespread Sufi Islam to widespread Salafist Islam. However, they are less surprised when they notice that the rise of religious extremism has coincided with a cognitive shift, as Sufism by nature rejects extremism.

Salafist ideology, meanwhile, often bases its religiosity on extremism.

Revolutionary ideology has been reflected in both leftist and nationalist circles during the last century. As the left and the nationalist parties failed to establish stable states in the Middle East, political Islam in the form of Salafism rose.

The tendency toward the Salafist ideology is the result of dogmatism, as well as hostility toward the other. This ideology thrives in unstable conditions and amid political and social crises.

Relations between Salafists and Sufis are hostile to a large degree, as Salafists consider Sufism to be heresy. They also consider Sufi religious practices to be polytheistic. Sufis build and visit shrines, and celebrate religious events with song and dance.

Sufism is culturally diverse, embracing cultures from India to North Africa. Sufi teachings focus on the spiritual rather than the political side of religion and tend to interpret main religious principles, such as jihad, as spiritual matters that one must tame and guide along the path of goodness.

Relations between Sufis and adherents of other non-Sunni religions and sects is largely friendly. This is especially true given the deep-rooted idea of pluralism in the eschatological salvation of Sufism, in addition to its diverse cultural nature, which makes it more open to neighboring religions and cultures.

Sufis and Shiites converge on esoteric and gnostic aspects, according to famous Iraqi scholar Kamel Mustafa Shibi in his book, “The Link Between Sufism and Shiism.”

In the context of sectarian conflict in Islamic history, no major hostility has occurred between the two sides although the Sufi majority used to adhere to Sunni doctrines.

In this context, Al-Monitor learned that a prominent cleric in Najaf, Sheikh Mohammed Sanad, called last week to reactivate ties between Shiites and Sufis in various parts of the Islamic world, in the framework of the fight against extremist Salafist ideology.

Salafists are equally hostile toward Shiites and Sufis, as they view these two denominations as heretical and not belonging to the true Islamic religion.

Saudi universities have made great efforts to publish books and articles responding to Shiism and Sufism, as they stem from the same corrupt origins, according to them. Moreover, many Sufi shrines and religious buildings have been demolished by Salafist groups in various parts of the Muslim world.

After the breakout of the Arab Spring and the rise of Salafist movements in some parts of the Muslim word, the conflict between Sufism and Salafism has intensified. In Egypt, for instance, Salafist groups have attacked many Sufi shrines between 2011 and 2012.

The Shiite minority has been also brutally attacked. After the Islamic State (IS) took control of Mosul and other parts of north and west of Iraq, the organization demolished many Sufi and Shiite religious buildings.

The shrine of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, the founder of one of the most common Sufi schools, or turuq, in the world, is in Baghdad. The imam of this mosque, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Issawi, is seen as a prominent Sunni clerics who maintains friendly relations with other religions and sects in Iraq.

Many Sufi turuq are common in Sunni communities in Iraq, though they have witnessed a great decline since the faith campaign launched by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which paved the way for attacks on the Sufi approach.

Although Salafists have great political power in the Islamic world, given the financial support they have been receiving for years from religious institutions in Saudi Arabia, Sufism is still seen as a widespread way of life in the Islamic street, from Morocco to India. This will play a great role in religious reform, which is much needed by the Islamic world to confront extremism.

A Carnegie Endowment for International Peace study of the Sufi-Salafist conflict in Egypt confirms that Sufism has sided with the liberal movement against the Muslim Brotherhood and their Salafist allies. This in turn is proof of Sufi support for democracy and political reform in Islamic countries.

The historical background and high prevalence of Sufism in the Muslim world will allow it to embark on the path of reformist religious and political projects in the Muslim world. However, it seems that many decision-makers inside and outside the Arab nation have turned a blind eye to this possibility.

Source: Al Monitor

Daish (conosciuto in Occidente come ISIS) è un virgulto germogliato dagli scritti del predicatore egiziano Sayyid Qotb, uno dei massimi esponenti dei Fratelli musulmani, giustiziato nel 1966 con l’accusa di tentato golpe. Al punto che secondo eminenti analisti quasi tutti, tra le fila della Fratellanza come tra quelle di al-Qaeda (sebbene le due formazioni abbiano raggiunto un accordo solo in Siria), lo considerano modello da seguire, a partire dal leader qaedista Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Qualche settimana fa il predicatore egiziano naturalizzato qatariota Yusuf al-Qaradawi ha definito il califfo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi un ex militante della Fratellanza, rilevando che a indurlo a unirsi a Daish una volta uscito di prigione è stato il suo “temperamento dominante”. Daish e altre formazioni terroristiche, secondo al-Qaradawi, “hanno adescato i giovani di molti paesi con il pretesto del jihad in nome di Dio”.

Come esempio si può citare una registrazione audio in cui Qutb sostiene che il cammino della Fratellanza non è cosparso di rose, ma irto di spine e grondante di sangue. Un pensiero sanguinoso che si ritrova, mutatis mutandis, alla base delle strategie dei cartelli del jihad e degli slogan che hanno diffuso sui manifesti affissi a Raqqa e Mosul. Questi proclami hanno trovato terreno fertile tra sceicchi e imam, che ne hanno fatto un credo anche perché spesso parlano la stessa lingua. Secondo questo credo, non si diffonde la religione tra il popolo parlando da un pulpito, ma seguendo il cammino della battaglia. Un credo né di lotta né di governo, ma di governo attraverso il sangue.

Diversi osservatori egiziani suggeriscono addirittura che Daish, il Fronte al-Nusra, Ansar al-Sharia sono in realtà diverse etichette per una medesima entità, che fa riferimento ai Fratelli musulmani, che come loro anelavano a ripristinare il califfato. Infatti praticamente tutti i militanti di queste formazioni leggono le fatwa, i discorsi infuocati e le idee estremiste della Fratellanza.

Di contro secondo Nabil Naim, esponente di spicco dell’organizzazione del jihad islamico egiziano, “chiunque dica che non c’è differenza tra i Fratelli musulmani e Daish è ignorante”, solo che “la Fratellanza ha avuto la capacità di nascondere le proprie convinzioni”.  In realtà è quest’ultima la radice della violenza nel mondo, origine di tutti i gruppi terroristici. È stato il primo partito, spiega, a rinnegare le organizzazioni integraliste.

Sayyid Qutb inoltre sosteneva che “la gente non è musulmana come dice, ma vive nell’epoca del politeismo (in arabo era dell’ignoranza)”. Una linea simile a quella adottata dall’attuale governo egiziano, che annovera i Fratelli musulmani tra le organizzazioni terroristiche e secondo varie fonti avrebbe spinto molte figure influenti dell’islam politico (che si opponevano alla defenestrazione dell’ex presidente Mohamed Morsi) ad adottare strategie violente. Così decine di Fratelli sono partiti alla volta di Siria e Iraq, costituendo il nucleo embrionale di Daish.

Anche sheikh Rasmi Ajlan, uno degli ulama dell’università islamica egiziana al-Azhar, sostiene che la relazione tra Fratelli musulmani e Daish è nell’aspirazione alla restaurazione del califfato e nella legittimazione (talvolta istigazione) dell’uso della violenza.

Un comodo specchietto per le allodole, continua Ajlan, per fare proselitismo tra le classi meno abbienti e più sfruttate, puntando sull’idea che solo la rinascita del califfato creerebbe una forte nazione islamica in grado di contrastare le potenze mondiali. Pur di guadagnare consensi dunque diffondono una visione irreale, quando non surreale o grottesca, della realtà, che non ha nulla a che vedere con il mondo in cui si vive ora. Tutto questo anche grazie al mito dei califfi ben guidati molto radicato nell’immaginario collettivo.

Sia Daish che i Fratelli hanno abbracciato un credo da infedeli e al contempo hanno elaborato l’ideologia takfirita (secondo cui tutto ciò che si differenzia anche in misura insignificante dalla lettura ottusa dei testi sacri è infedele). Le razzie, i rapimenti, gli insulti alle donne, niente di tutto questo è prescritto da alcuna religione. È noto invece, suggerisce Ajlan, che sia Daish che la Fratellanza sono “una costruzione indotta dall’esterno per distorcere l’immagine dell’islam come religione tollerante”. Obiettivo, offrire il pretesto per l’ingerenza delle potenze mondiali.

Source: Arabpress

Three people were killed Sunday in an attack by suspected Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram in Tourou, a place in the north of Cameroon.

Around 50 children were abducted and 80 houses were burned in the attack, an army source

The army of Libya’s internationally recognised government announced on Sunday that it would cease fire, two days after an Islamist-backed militia alliance announced a truce.