UK govt to spend $128m on security for Muslim community sites
UK govt to spend $128m on security for Muslim community sites/node/2474866/world
UK govt to spend $128m on security for Muslim community sites
Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community pray as they attend a communal Iftar, the breaking of fast dinner, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at the Baitul Futuh Mosque, south west London, on April 15, 2023. (File/AFP)
UK govt to spend $128m on security for Muslim community sites
Alarm systems, fences, CCTV cameras will be installed at schools, mosques, centers
Announcement follows surge in Islamophobic attacks across Britain
Updated 11 March 2024
Arab News
LONDON: The UK government will spend more than $128 million on protecting Islamic schools, mosques and community centers amid a rise in anti-Muslim attacks, The Independent reported on Monday.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said the money will pay for the installation of alarm systems, fences and CCTV cameras at prominent Muslim community sites across the UK.
Ministers have condemned a surge in Islamophobic attacks across the UK in the wake of the Gaza war, but officials from the ruling Conservative Party have been accused of stoking tensions with inflammatory remarks.
After the announcement of security funding for Britain’s Muslim community, Cleverly said Islamophobia “has absolutely no place in our society.”
He added: “We will not let events in the Middle East be used as an excuse to justify abuse against British Muslims.”
The funding will give “reassurance and confidence to UK Muslims at a time when it is crucially needed.”
Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said: “This funding demonstrates that this government stands firmly against hate crimes, abuse, threats or harassment against British Muslims.
“We continue to work closely with policing and community partners to ensure the safety and security of British Muslims.”
Thousands attend funeral of Afghan minister killed in Daesh attack
Minister for Refugees Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani killed on Wednesday in suicide bombing
Haqqani was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the feared Haqqani network
Updated 20 sec ago
AFP
SARANA, Afghanistan: Thousands of Afghans on Thursday attended the funeral of the refugees minister, AFP journalists saw, after he was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul the day before in an attack claimed by the Daesh group.
The Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, was killed on Wednesday afternoon in a suicide bombing at the ministry’s offices in the Afghan capital.
Thousands of men, many of them armed, gathered for Haqqani’s funeral in his home village of Sarana, in a mountainous area of Paktia province, south of Kabul.
The funeral included heavy security, with armored vehicles, snipers and personnel manning the area and the road from Kabul, which was jammed with hundreds of cars as mourners traveled from surrounding provinces.
Senior Taliban officials, including the Chief of Army Staff Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, and Maulawi Abdul Kabir, political deputy of the prime minister’s office, attended the funeral, according to an AFP team on site.
The deceased’s nephew, the powerful interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, also attended, along with foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
In a speech there, Muttaqi said the latest attacks had been planned “abroad,” denouncing, without naming them, “countries harboring” the organization.
“We call on all nations to work together to stop the common enemy, which does not recognize any kind of morality.”
Sirajuddin Haqqani (C), the Taliban interior minister, attends the funeral ceremony of Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, in Sarana of Paktia province, south of Kabul, on December 12, 2024. (AFP)
In September, the Taliban authorities said Daesh had training camps in Balochistan province of Pakistan, which also regularly faces attacks.
Haqqani, the highest ranked member of the Taliban government to be killed in an attack since their return to power, “was a big loss for us, the system and the nation,” said Paktia resident Hedayatullah, 22.
“May God protect our other leaders and keep them victorious.”
“Our leader... who had his life brutally taken away, achieved martyrdom,” said Bostan, 53, haranguing the “cowardly attack” that killed Haqqani.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan condemned the attack on Thursday, offering condolences to the victims’ families.
“There can be no place for terrorism in the quest for stability,” the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on X.
The European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation also condemned the attack, along with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran.
Haqqani — who is on US and UN sanctions lists and never appeared without an automatic weapon in his hand — was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the feared Haqqani network responsible for some of the most violent attacks during the Taliban’s two-decade insurgency.
The Daesh group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a bomber detonated an explosive vest inside the ministry, according to a statement on its Amaq news agency, as translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Taliban authorities had already blamed Daesh for the “cowardly attack” — the first targeting a minister since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban forces took over the country that year, ending their war against US-led NATO coalition forces.
However, the regional chapter of Daesh is active in Afghanistan and has regularly targeted civilians, foreigners and Taliban officials with gun and bomb attacks.
Senior Ukraine official says Kyiv not yet ready for talks with Russia
Updated 13 December 2024
Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said in an interview broadcast late on Thursday that Kyiv was not yet ready to start talks with Russia as it lacked the weapons, security guarantees and international status that it sought.
Andriy Yermak’s comments to public broadcaster Suspilne come as Zelensky publicly considers the possibility of a negotiated settlement to the war with Russia, launched by Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
“Not just yet today,” Yermak told Suspilne, when asked whether Ukraine was ready to embark on talks.
“We don’t have the weapons, we don’t have the status that we are talking about. And that means an invitation to NATO and an understanding of clear guarantees that would provide for us, so that we could be sure that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin won’t be coming back in two-three years.”
In comments this week alongside German opposition leader Friedrich Merz, Zelensky said Ukraine wanted an end to the war and efforts were needed to make his country stronger and oblige the Kremlin to work toward peace.
In recent public pronouncements, the president has also said talks could take place with Russia still holding on to territory it has seized in the invasion.
But Ukraine, he said, needed an invitation issued to the entire country to join NATO, though the Alliance’s status would apply to the territory controlled by Kyiv authorities and real security guarantees had to be put in place.
While in Paris last week, Zelensky met US President-elect Donald Trump, who has said, without giving details, that he wants the war to end quickly.
Russia has long rejected any notion of Ukraine becoming a NATO member, with Putin saying Kyiv had to accept the Kremlin’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions it only partly controls.
US announces new $500m military aid package for Ukraine
Updated 13 December 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday announced a new $500 million package of military aid for Ukraine, as Washington races to bolster Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“The United States is providing another significant package of urgently needed weapons and equipment to our Ukrainian partners as they defend against Russia’s ongoing attacks,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, with the aid to be drawn from US military stockpiles.
Trump’s November election victory has cast doubt on the future of American aid for Ukraine, providing a limited window for billions of dollars in already authorized assistance to be disbursed before he is sworn in next month.
The Republican has said his incoming administration will “probably” reduce aid to Ukraine, which Washington has been steadfastly backing since its invasion by Russia nearly three years ago.
The package announced Thursday includes ammunition for precision HIMARS rocket launchers, artillery ammunition, drones, armored vehicles, and equipment to protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks, along with other equipment, the statement said.
It follows a $988 million security assistance package and a separate $725 million package, both announced earlier this month.
The outgoing US administration is working to get as much aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump — who has repeatedly criticized US assistance for Kyiv and claimed he could secure a ceasefire within hours — takes over.
As President Joe Biden has “made clear, we’re going to continue to provide additional packages right up to the end of this administration,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier Thursday.
Trump’s comments have triggered fears in Kyiv and Europe about the future of US aid, and Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russian attacks in the absence of further American support.
The United States has spearheaded the push for international support for Ukraine, quickly forging a coalition to back Kyiv after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022 and coordinating aid from dozens of countries.
Ukraine’s international supporters have since then provided tens of billions of dollars in weapons, ammunition, training and other security aid that has been key to helping Kyiv resist Russian forces.
White House releases strategy to counter anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate
Updated 13 December 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Thursday released a long-awaited strategy for countering anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate, up sharply since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, calling for urgent, continued work to reduce discrimination and bias.
The 64-page document comes weeks before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, who imposed a travel ban on people from some majority Muslim countries during his first term that Biden rescinded on his first day in office.
It mirrors a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism released by the White House in September 2023, and comes more than a year after death of six-year-old boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian-American.
In a foreword to the strategy, Biden called the attacks on the Chicago boy and his mother “heinous acts” and noted a spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes, discrimination and bullying that he called wrong and unacceptable.
“Muslims and Arabs deserve to live with dignity and enjoy every right to the fullest extent along with all of their fellow Americans,” Biden wrote. “Policies that result in discrimination against entire communities are wrong and fail to keep us safe.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called the strategy “too little, too late” and faulted the White House for not ending a federal watchlist and “no-fly” list that includes many Arab and Muslim Americans.
The Trump transition team had no immediate comment on the strategy or whether it would support it.
Trump, who won support from some Muslim voters angry about Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, has said he will ban entry to the US of anyone who questions Israel’s right to exist and revoke visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.”
Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups surged on some US campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, with human rights advocates warning of rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.
Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer
Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel
Updated 13 December 2024
AP
NEW YORK: The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was never a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said Thursday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York in an interview Thursday that investigators have uncovered evidence that Luigi Mangione had prior knowledge UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in New York City.
Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when he was detained by police in Pennsylvania.
“We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest health care organization in America. So that’s possibly why he targeted that that company,” said Kenny.
Mangione remains jailed without bail in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested Monday after being spotted at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. His lawyer there said he hasn’t seen any evidence yet linking him to the crime.
Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Police say the shooter waited outside the hotel, where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, early on the morning of Dec. 4. He approached Thompson from behind and shot him before fleeing on a bicycle through Central Park, then heading to a bus depot.
Mangione is fighting attempts to extradite him back to New York so that he can face a murder charge in Thompson’s killing. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 30.
The 26-year-old, who police say was found with a ” ghost gun ” matching shell casings found at the site of the shooting, is charged in Pennsylvania with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, said his client is not guilty.
Mangione is an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family. On Wednesday, police said investigators are looking into an accident that injured Mangione’s back and sent him to an emergency room in July 2023. They’re also looking at his writings about the injury and his criticism of corporate America and the US health care system.
Kenny said in the NBC interview that Mangione’s family reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November.
