News and Analysis (2/3/14)

The junta signals that the prosecution of Al-Jazeera reporters is only the beginning of an assault on the foreign press …
… and a human rights attorney notes that charges against the Muslim Brothers appear to aim at the death penalty since, he says, “It is obvious since the beginning that they want to form a complete espionage case …:

… and a Muslim Brotherhood website declares that the African Union decision to exclude Egypt from its summit meeting “is a clear message from the AU, not only that it condemns the [Egyptian] coup, but also rejects all the consequent proceedings as null and void, including the sham referendum and the illegitimate constitution”:

“The incident reflects deepening splits between the two members of the Western-allied Gulf Cooperation Council in their approach to Islamists emboldened by the 2011 “Arab Spring” protests…. A source close to the Qatari foreign ministry told Reuters that Qatar could not be held responsible for the views of an individual … [saying,] “Qatar is a country that allows individuals to express themselves and will not change that’”:

Russia assures that the June 30 deadline for the destruction of Syria’s nuclear weapons will be met but disgust over the mass murder of civilians by other means by both sides continues to mount, and Zawihiri denies any connection to the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant while the U.S. denies direct negotiations with the Asad regime:

Iran is expressing both hope and fear regarding the critical importance of the negotiations scheduled to begin on Feb. 18:

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) is suing Canada’s PM after his communication’s director brushed aside their protests of his inclusion of a supporter of propagandists for “Stop the Islamization of America …, a hate-group according to the Anti Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center”in “the delegation accompanying him on his first trip to Israel” by alleging the NCCM has terrorist ties:

Insisting “that Israel and ‘the Jews’ are one and the same. This is as absurd and bigoted as claiming that a boycott of a self-defined Islamic state like Saudi Arabia, say, because of its horrific human rights record, would of necessity be Islamophobic… [O]nly Israel’s unjust order is threatened by boycotts, divestment and sanctions”:

“The assassination of Sheik Albani in Zaria, the capital of Kaduna state in a central northern region, could discourage others from speaking out against Boko Haram, whose primary recruiting pool is the millions of uneducated youths in the north of Nigeria”:

“The election campaign for Afghanistan‘s next president officially kicked off on Sunday, two months before voting opens in a contest already plagued by violence and fraud but still the country’s best hope of a somewhat stable future. If it goes smoothly the April election will produce the first ever peaceful, democratic transition of power in Afghanistan”:

“Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose Shi’ite-led government many in the Sunni minority accuse of discrimination, had held off an all-out offensive to give local tribesmen a chance to expel the militants themselves. But security officials told Reuters on Saturday that a decision had been made to enter Falluja on Sunday”:

 


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