12-year-old from Gabon shines at Qur’an competition after converting to Islam
Imam’s praise for boy’s extraordinary dedication
Updated 12 August 2024
Arab News
RIYADH: Mahdi, a 12-year-old boy from Gabon, has made a remarkable impression at the 44th King Abdulaziz International Qur’an Competition in Makkah, competing just two years after embracing Islam, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.
Mahdi is currently the only Muslim in his family and his mentor Zakaria, an imam at a nearby mosque, told of his surprise when Mahdi first approached him, accompanied by his younger brother, to express his desire to embrace Islam.
“At first I thought he was joking,” Zakaria admitted, recalling how unexpected it was given Mahdi’s young age.
“I asked if he knew anything about Islam, and he kept insisting that he wanted to follow the religion of Allah. In my heart I said ‘This is a gift from Allah’.”
Zakaria guided Mahdi through the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, and felt profound gratitude for being part of Mahdi’s spiritual journey.
He then began teaching Mahdi the Arabic alphabet, gradually progressing to short Qur’anic surahs (chapters) until Mahdi had memorized a quarter of the Qur’an.
“I noticed how quickly he memorized and understood the Qur’an,” Zakaria said, highlighting that Mahdi was memorizing a page a day just a week after his conversion.
Alongside his Qur’anic studies, Mahdi has also memorized various Islamic texts, showcasing his aptitude for learning.
“He is truly a unique young man, unlike any I have ever seen,” Zakaria said, praising Mahdi’s extraordinary dedication.
Vietnam death toll climbs to 197 as typhoon’s aftermath brings flash floods and landslides
The death toll spiked earlier in the week as a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in northern Vietnam’s Lao Cai province
Updated 5 sec ago
AP
HANO: Nearly 200 people have died in Vietnam in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi and more than 125 are missing as flash floods and landslides take their toll, state media reported Thursday. Vietnam’s VNExpress newspaper reported that 197 people have died and 128 are still missing, while more than 800 have been injured. The death toll spiked earlier in the week as a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in northern Vietnam’s Lao Cai province Tuesday. Hundreds of rescue personnel worked tirelessly Wednesday to search for survivors, but as of Thursday morning 53 villagers remained missing, VNExpress reported, while seven more bodies were found, bringing the death toll there to 42. Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall Saturday with winds of up to 149 kph (92 mph). Despite weakening on Sunday, downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high. The heavy rains also damaged factories in export-focused northern Vietnam’s industrial hubs.
War in Gaza to top UNGA agenda as 79th session begins on Sept. 24
87 heads of state, three VPs, two crown princes, 45 heads of government, eight deputy heads of government, 45 ministers currently due to address
One of the longest speeches made during General Assembly was by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1960 who spoke for about four and a half hours
Updated 5 min 38 sec ago
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS: Every September world leaders travel to New York to address the start of the annual United Nations General Assembly session.
The six days of speeches to mark the beginning of the 79th session will start on Sept. 24. WHO SPEAKS WHEN?
When the United Nations was formed in 1945 following World War Two, there were originally 51 members. That has since grown to 193 members. Leaders of two non-member observer states — known at the UN as the Holy See and the State of Palestine — and an observer member, the European Union, can also speak.
It is tradition for Brazil to always be the first member state to speak. This is because in the early years of the world body Brazil stepped up to speak first when other countries were reluctant to do so, say UN officials.
As host to the UN headquarters in New York, the United States is the second country to address the General Assembly.
From there the list is then based on hierarchy and generally a first come, first served basis. Heads of state speak first, followed by deputy heads of state and crown princes, heads of government, ministers, and lower-ranked heads of a delegation.
This year some 87 heads of state, three vice presidents, two crown princes, 45 heads of government, eight deputy heads of government, 45 ministers, and four lower-ranked heads of a delegation are currently due to address the General Assembly.
Last year fewer than 12 percent of those to stand at the lectern were women. HOW LONG WILL THEY SPEAK?
Leaders are asked to stick to a voluntary 15-minute time limit.
According to UN records, one of the longest speeches made during the opening of a General Assembly was by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1960 — he spoke for about four and a half hours. More recently, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi spoke for more than one and a half hours in 2009.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 19, 2023. (Photo courtesy: UN/File)
WHAT WILL THEY TALK ABOUT?
Each high-level gathering to mark the start of the annual General Assembly session has a theme, which leaders tend to briefly reference before moving on to talking about whatever they want.
This year’s theme is: “Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.”
Some other topics likely to be spoken about by leaders include: THE WAR IN GAZA
With the civilian death toll in Gaza ballooning to more than 41,000 people according to local health officials and the humanitarian situation deteriorating, many leaders are expected to call for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The conflict started nearly a year ago with the deadly Hamas attack on civilians in Israel on Oct. 7 — two weeks after world leaders had finished meeting at the last UN General Assembly.
After Israel began retaliating against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the General Assembly on Oct. 27 called for an immediate humanitarian truce. It then overwhelming demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in December.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has long accused the UN of being anti-Israel — and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both scheduled to address the General Assembly on Sept. 26.
A military jeep patrols the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Israel, September 11, 2024. (REUTERS)
UKRAINE
Many world leaders are likely to call for an end to Russia’s roughly two-and-a-half year war in Ukraine.
The General Assembly adopted six resolutions on the conflict in the first year — denouncing Moscow and demanding it withdraw all its troops. A resolution in October 2022 — condemning Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four regions in Ukraine — won the greatest support with 143 states voting yes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to address the General Assembly on Sept. 25.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin virtually addressed the General Assembly in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, he has not physically traveled to New York for the event since 2015. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is instead due to speak to the General Assembly on Sept. 28. CLIMATE
As the world struggles to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, leaders of smaller island nations and other states most affected by climate changes are likely to use their speeches at the General Assembly to again make impassioned pleas for action.
Residents wade through the flooded waters outside their homes following heavy rains in Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on April 17, 2024. (AFP/File)
UN SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM
Many world leaders — particularly from Africa and key powers including Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan — are likely to call for reform of the 15-member UN Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security.
It is an issue that has long been discussed by the General Assembly, but has gathered steam in recent years after Russia invaded Ukraine and then used its Security Council veto to block any action by the body. The United States has also long been criticized for shielding its ally Israel from council action.
Reform ideas include expanding the council’s membership — through adding more permanent veto powers or short-term elected members — to better reflect the world and limiting the veto, currently held by the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.
Any changes to the Security Council membership is done by amending the founding UN Charter. This needs the approval and ratification by two-thirds of the General Assembly, including the Security Council’s current five veto powers. SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE
Before the leaders begin addressing the General Assembly, a two-day Summit of the Future will be held on Sept. 22-23. UN member states are currently negotiating three documents they hope to adopt on Sept. 22 — a pact for the future, a declaration on future generations and a global digital compact.
Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “absolutely essential” to ambitiously use the summit to come up with “adequate governance for the world of today.”
He argued for reform of the 15-member UN Security Council, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and for global governance of artificial intelligence and other emerging challenges.
9/11 anniversary brings Biden, Harris and Trump together at ground zero
Image was one of putting politics aside at commemoration of hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001
Attacks altered US foreign policy, domestic security practices and the mindset of many Americans
Updated 15 min 38 sec ago
AP
NEW YORK: With presidential candidates looking on, some 9/11 victims’ relatives appealed to them Wednesday for accountability as the US marked an anniversary laced with election-season politics.
In a remarkable tableau, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stood together at ground zero just hours after Trump and Harris faced off in their first-ever debate. Trump and Biden — the successor whose inauguration Trump skipped — shook hands, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared to facilitate a handshake between Harris and Trump.
Then the campaign rivals stood only a few feet (meters) apart, Biden and Bloomberg between them, as the hourslong reading of victims’ names began. At Trump’s side was his running mate, Sen. JD Vance.
The image was one of putting politics aside at this year’s solemn commemoration of the hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. But some victims’ relatives, after reading out names, delivered political messages of their own.
“We are pleading for your help, but you ignore us,” Allison Walsh-DiMarzio said, directly challenging Trump and Harris to press Saudi Arabia about any official involvement in the attacks. Most of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, but the kingdom denies it was behind their plot.
“Which one of you will have the courage to be our hero? We deserve better,” Walsh-DiMarzio said. She’s a daughter of 9/11 victim Barbara P. Walsh, an administrative assistant.
Joanne Barbara was one of multiple readers who spoke out against a now-revoked plea deal that military prosecutors struck with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two fellow defendants.
“It has been 23 years, and the families deserve justice and accountability,” said the widow of Assistant Fire Chief Gerard A. Barbara.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
Biden, on his last Sept. 11 in office, and Harris paid respects Wednesday at all three 9/11 attack sites: ground zero, the Pentagon and a rural part of Pennsylvania.
The president, vice president — and, separately, Trump — laid wreaths Wednesday afternoon at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Biden and Harris spoke with victims’ relatives and visited the local fire department; Trump and Vance went to a New York City firehouse earlier in the day.
The Flight 93 memorial stands where one of the hijacked planes crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. Trump described the site as an “incredible place” in brief remarks from afar to reporters.
The attacks killed 2,977 people and left thousands of bereaved relatives and scarred survivors. The planes took down the World Trade Center’s twin towers and carved a gash in the Pentagon, the US military headquarters, where Biden and Harris laid a red, white and blue wreath Wednesday afternoon.
While many Americans may not observe 9/11 anniversaries anymore, “the men and women of the Department of Defense remember,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier in the day.
The attacks altered US foreign policy, domestic security practices and the mindset of many Americans who had not previously felt vulnerable to foreign extremists.
Effects rippled around the world. Victims came from more than 90 different countries, and the US responded to the attacks with a ” Global War on Terrorism.” US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis and thousands of American troops.
Communities around the country hold events on the anniversary, which Congress has titled both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
Thousands of Americans commemorate it with volunteer work — among them Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. He packed meals in St. Paul for people in need.
During early anniversaries at ground zero, presidents and other officeholders read poems, parts of the Declaration of Independence and other texts.
But the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum decided in 2012 to limit the ceremony to relatives reading victims’ names.
If politicians “care about what’s actually going on, great. Be here,” said Korryn Bishop, who attended Wednesday to remember her cousin John F. McDowell Jr., who worked in finance. “If they’re just here for political clout, that upsets me.”
Brandon Jones was glad politicians weren’t on the podium.
“This should be a site for coming together to find feasible solutions and peace. This should not be a place to score political points to get brownie points to round up your base,” said Jones. He’s a cousin of victim Jon Richard Grabowski, an insurance firm technology executive.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
In 2008, then-senators and presidential campaign rivals John McCain and Barack Obama jointly paid their respects at ground zero.
Eight years later, the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, abruptly left the trade center ceremony, stumbled while awaiting her motorcade and later disclosed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia. The episode stirred fresh attention to her health, which her Republican opponent — Trump, who was also at that observance — had been questioning for months.
Over the years, some victims’ relatives have used the forum to exhort leaders to prioritize national security, acknowledge the casualties of the war on terror, complain that officials are politicizing 9/11 and even criticize individual officeholders. Others bemoan Americans’ divisions or decry violence.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris gives a thumbs down during a presidential debate with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (AFP)
“It’s my prayer that this wicked act called terrorism will never occur again,” Jacob Afuakwah said Wednesday. He lost his brother, Emmanuel Akwasi Afuakwah, a restaurant worker.
But many family members stick to tributes and personal reflections. Increasingly they come from children and young adults born after the attacks killed one of their relatives.
Thirteen-year-old twins Brady and Emily Henry read names to honor their uncle, firefighter Joseph Patrick Henry.
“We promise to continue telling your stories,” Emily Henry said, “and we’ll never let anyone forget all those lost on Sept. 11.”
Malaysian police rescue 400 minors from suspected sexual abuse at charity homes
Police arrested 171 adults, including religious teachers, during coordinated raids on 20 premises across two Malaysian states
The homes were all run by GISB, which had been linked to the banned Al-Arqam religious sect, says a top police official
Updated 19 min 18 sec ago
Reuters
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities rescued more than 400 children on Wednesday suspected of being sexually abused at charity homes run by a prominent business organization with links to a banned religious sect, the top police official said.
Police arrested 171 adults, including ‘ustazs’ or Islamic religious teachers, during coordinated raids on 20 premises across two Malaysian states, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said.
Those rescued included 201 boys and 201 girls, aged between one and 17, after reports were filed this month that alleged neglect, abuse, sexual harassment and molestation, Razarudin told a press conference. He did not say who wrote the reports.
The homes were all run by Global Ikhwan Services and Business (GISB), Razarudin said.
In a statement late Wednesday, GISB denied the sexual abuse allegations and said it did not manage the charity homes. “It is not in our policy to plan and carry out actions that are against Islamic and national laws,” the company said, adding that it would file a police report and demand an investigation.
GISB, involved in businesses ranging from supermarkets to laundromats, operates in many countries, according to its website.
Razarudin said preliminary police investigations had found that the rescued minors were children of Malaysian GISB employees, who were sent to the homes shortly after they were born, before being subjected to multiple forms of abuse.
The victims were allegedly sexually abused by adult guardians and later taught to do the same to other children at the homes, he said.
GISB has been linked to the now-defunct Malaysia-based Al-Arqam religious sect, which was banned by the government in 1994. GISB has acknowledged the link but now describes itself as an Islamic conglomerate based on Muslim practices.
The firm previously made headlines for establishing the controversial Obedient Wives’ Club, a group that had called on women to submit to their husbands “like prostitutes.”
The children will be sent for health screening and documentation, Razarudin said, adding that the case was being investigated under laws covering sexual offenses against children and human trafficking.
“The children and religious sentiments were also used to gain public sympathy and raise funds for the organization,” he said. “What we have seen is the indoctrination of children using religious tools in a harmful way.”
Australia moves to strip medals from Afghanistan war commanders
Updated 26 min 16 sec ago
AFP
SYDNEY: Australia on Thursday moved to strip medals from Afghanistan war commanders whose units were involved in alleged war crimes and “unlawful conduct.”
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the decision — related to specific unit commanders who were in charge between 2005 and 2016 — was needed to “address the wrongs of the past.”
Fewer than ten commanders will be stripped of their awards, but their names will not be released for privacy reasons.
An official inquiry into the 11-year period examined the alleged unlawful killing of 39 civilians and prisoners in Afghanistan by Australia’s elite special forces.
Its findings in 2020 revealed a “sub-culture of elitism and deviation from acceptable standards,” Marles said, which “warranted the most serious, considered and thorough response.”
Almost all the report’s 143 recommendations have been adopted — including a medal review, a compensation scheme and culture reform.
The inquiry also suggested 19 individuals be referred to Australian Federal Police, but this process has been slow.
Police have so far only pressed charges against a former SAS soldier — whose case remains before the courts.
Ex-SAS corporal Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith notably lost a defamation case last year over allegations he had murdered four Afghan prisoners.
But he has not faced criminal charges and is not identified in the government’s report over any wrongdoing.
Despite being decorated for his service in Afghanistan, Roberts-Smith is not understood to be affected by the latest decision to strip unit commanders of their honors.
Marles said the commanders involved in Thursday’s decision may not have been aware of the war crimes their units allegedly carried out, but there was an expectation for them to know what was happening.
He vowed to continue reforming the defense force culture and police have not pressed charges.
“Australia is a country which holds itself accountable,” Marles said.
The governor-general of Australia — the king’s representative in the Commonwealth — will determine how and when the medals are handed back.
Greg Melick, president of the Returned and Services League of Australia veteran support group, said no medals should be taken away from recipients until all investigations and potential trials have been completed.
Melick said the incident had caused “significant strain” to veterans’ mental health — even those not involved in alleged incidents.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, more than 26,000 Australian uniformed personnel were sent to Afghanistan to fight alongside US and allied forces against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups.
Australian combat troops officially left the country in late 2013, but since then a series of often-brutal accounts have emerged about the conduct of elite special forces units.
