News and Analysis 3/13/23

Iran’s “Judiciary Chief … said that those involved in the crime would face the charge of ‘corruption on earth,’” which carries the death penalty” …

• 100 Arrested in Connection With Iran School Girl Poisonings. What We Know So Far (Time)

… while among “82,656 prisoners and those facing charges” pardoned for Ramadan, are over 22,000 arrested during the recent demonstrations:

• Iran Says 22,000 Arrested in Protests Pardoned by Top Leader (abc News)

MbS’s Ramadan gift: bans of donations to mosques, after-sunset meals or children praying in mosques, extended prayers, and broadcast of prayers:

• Explained: Why Saudi Arabia’s new rules for Ramadan have angered Muslims? What are the restrictions? (Hindustan Times)

Massacres continue because they are part and parcel of the Zionist enterprise:

• Israeli Occupation Forces Kill Three Young Palestinian Men near Nablus (Palestine Chronicle)
• Palestinians in Nablus Hold Strike over Israeli Forces’ Killings (New Arab)
• Israeli Protesters Chanted for Huwara. Why Not for Nablus? (972 Magazine)
• 3D Analysis Shows How Israeli Troops Fired into Group of Civilians (Washington Post)
• Israeli Settler Attacks in the West Bank: Pogroms Are the Foundation of the Zionist State (New Arab)

What drives the reformist zeal of [MbS and MbZ] is not change because it is the right thing to do … [but] the survival of their autocratic regimes”:

• Debates About Islamic Reform Loom Larger as Ramadan Approaches (Middle East Soccer)

“Straight from the Israeli playbook, India is brutalising Kashmiris, demolishing homes it claims have been built illegally on ‘state land’”:

• In Kashmir, Indian Bulldozers Are Now Carrying Out Settler-Colonial Policy (Middle East Eye)

“In most Western countries, the size of standard prison cells ranges between six and 12 sqm, while in Israel, it is less than 3 sqm”:

• How Israel’s Supreme Court Enables Torture of Palestinian Prisoners (Middle East Eye)

Saudi normalization of “relations with Israel … is now possibly off the menu”:

• With Saudi-Iran Diplomacy, Is China Pushing the US Aside in the Middle East? (The Hill)

“Executed … by the Franco regime in 1936, Infante is remembered as a martyr for the Andalusian nation and … his sympathies towards Islam are well established”:

• Was Blas Infante, the Father of Andalusian Nationalism, a Crypto Muslim? (Middle East Eye)

With the new President and VP both being Muslims comes a call for Christians as Chief of Staff Secretary to the Government of the Federation:

• Muslim-Muslim ticket: Appoint Christians as SGF, CoS, Group Tells Tinubu (Nigerian Tribune)

ImadadDean