Home » Posts tagged 'sunni' (Page 2)

Tag Archives: sunni

On January 2nd, America’s NBC News bannered “Arab Spring Cleric Nimr al-Nimr Among 47 Executed by Saudi Arabia,” and, one-third of the way into their report, showed this tweet:

“Saudi execution of Nimr al-Nimr along w/ al Qaeda members is straight from Assad’s playbook – lumping nonviolent activists with terrorists.

— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) January 2, 2016”

Even when Sunni-Islamic extremists, the Sauds, perpetrate mass-murder, in Saudi Arabia and not only in Yemen and in Syria, the U.S. ‘news’ media find some way to smear their audience’s minds with the demon, “Bashar al-Assad,” as if Assad actually had anything to do with it, and the King of Saudi Arabia, King Salman, had nothing to do with it. Salman, who owns Saudi Arabia and everyone in it (and who even allows outright slavery there), wasn’t so much as mentioned by the NBC ‘News’ ‘reporter’ or propagandist. (Assad was mentioned in that ‘news’ report only because Assad allies with the U.S. aristocracy’s super-demon, Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia, who refuses to do the U.S. aristocracy’s bidding, such as his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, much praised by the U.S. aristocracy, had done.)

America’s main ally, and the largest customer for American-made weapons, the royal family that owns and runs Saudi Arabia, had just started out a new year of mass-executions, after their near-record year of 2015: the AP headlined only the day before, on New Year’s Day, “Saudi Beheadings Soar in 2015,” and reported that, “Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to several advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty worldwide.” (King Salman wasn’t mentioned in that one, either.)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Sunni & Shia Tensions Rise in Middle East

January 3, 2016

Sunni & Shia Tensions Rise in Middle East

Protesters stormed and ransacked Saudi Arabia’s embassy on Sunday after gathering to denounce the kingdom for executing a prominent Shia cleric. They stormed the embassy, smashed furniture, setting the embassy on fire, and threw papers from the roof. They were eventually cleared away by the police, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia announced it had executed 47 prisoners convicted of terrorism charges, including al-Qaeda detainees and Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who had rallied protests against the government. It was the execution of al-Nimr which had been expected to increase sectarian tensions across the entire region and deepen the hatred between Sunnji and Shia minority in Saudi Arabia’s not to mention with the Shia in Iran.

Indeed, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jaberi Ansari had been quoted on the state-owned English-language Press TV warning that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for its policies while a Iranian cleric, Hossein Nouri Hamedani, said this would raise significant tensions.

Protesters Set The Streets On Fire In Bahrain After Saudis Kill Top Shiite Cleric

January 2, 2016

Protesters Set The Streets On Fire In Bahrain After Saudis Kill Top Shiite Cleric

Earlier today, we documented Saudi Arabia’s largest mass execution in 25 years.

In what was billed as an effort to rid the world of 47 “terrorists”, the Saudis killed dozens of al-Qaeda affiliates and four Shiites who stood accused of shooting policemen in the anti-government protests which broke out during the Arab Spring.

Among the Shiites killed was prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The Sheikh was an outspoken supporter of the anti-government movement and his death drew sharp condemnation from Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis on Saturday.

In the wake of the execution, “scores marched through Nimr’s home district of Qatif shouting ‘down with the Al Saud’ and, in neighboring Bahrain, police fired tear gas at several dozen people who gathered to protest the news,” AP reported.

“Bahrain’s Saudi-backed Sunni authorities crushed protests led by its majority Shia shortly after they erupted on February 14, 2011, taking their cue from Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa,” al-Jazeera wrote back in February when hundreds took to the streets of Manama to commemorate the anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising. “Tensions are running high in the kingdom where a sectarian divide is deepening and there is a growing gap between the Sunni minority government and the Island’s Shia majority.”

Below, find the searing (literally) images from Bahrain where police fired tear gas at protesters to disperse the crowds.

Are the days of the Gulf monarchies numbered?

The Saudis Are Stumbling – They May Take the Middle East With Them

November 17, 2015

The Saudis Are Stumbling – They May Take the Middle East With Them

America’s leading Sunni ally is proving how easily hubris, delusion, and old-fashioned ineptitude can trump even bottomless wealth

For the past eight decades Saudi Arabia has been careful.

Using its vast oil wealth, it’s quietly spread its ultra-conservative brand of Islam throughout the Muslim world, secretly undermined secular regimes in its region, and prudently kept to the shadows while others did the fighting and dying. It was Saudi money that fueled the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, underwrote Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran, and bankrolled Islamic movements and terrorist groups from the Caucasus to the Hindu Kush.

It wasn’t a modest foreign policy, but it was a discreet one.

Today that circumspect diplomacy is in ruins, and the House of Saud looks more vulnerable than it has since the country was founded in 1926. Unraveling the reasons for the current train wreck is a study in how easily hubris, delusion, and old-fashioned ineptness can trump even bottomless wealth.

Oil Slick

The kingdom’s first stumble was a strategic decision last fall to undermine competitors by scaling up its oil production and thus lowering the global price.

They figured that if the price of a barrel of oil dropped from over $100 to around $80, it would strangle competitors that relied on more expensive sources and new technologies, including the U.S. fracking industry, companies exploring the Arctic, and emergent producers like Brazil. That, in turn, would allow Riyadh to reclaim its shrinking share of the energy market. There was also the added benefit that lower oil prices would damage oil-reliant countries that the Saudis didn’t like – including Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Iran.

In one sense it worked. The American fracking industry is scaling back, the exploitation of Canada’s tar sands has slowed, and many Arctic drillers have closed up shop. And indeed, countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, and Russia have taken serious economic hits.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Is Washington Supporting Saudi Arabia’s Massacre In Yemen?

April 25, 2015

Why Is Washington Supporting Saudi Arabia’s Massacre In Yemen?

For a month now, the Saudi air force has been bombing Yemen to reverse a takeover of that nation of 25 million by Houthi rebels, and reinstall a president who fled his country and is residing in Riyadh.

The Saudis have hit airfields, armor and arms depots, and caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Nearly 1,000 dead, 3,500 wounded and tens of thousands homeless. The poorest nation in the Arab world is near collapse. Dependent upon imported food, Yemen faces malnutrition and starvation.

And the United States has been an accomplice in the Saudi bombing of Yemen.

Why? Why is Yemen’s civil war America’s war?

What did the Houthis ever do to us?

While they bear us no love, their Houthi rebellion was an uprising against a pair of autocrats who had been imposed upon them, and against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Houthis’ main enemy, AQAP, is America’s worst enemy.

Why are we then making ourselves de facto allies of al-Qaida?

For while the Saudis have been bombing the Houthis, easing the pressure on al-Qaida, AQAP effected a prison break of 270 inmates, including scores of terrorists, and seized the port of Mukalla.

The Saudis claim the Houthi rebellion is part of an Iranian Shiite scheme to overrun and dominate the Sunni Middle East.

But Pakistan is not buying it, and not sending troops. The Egyptians seem reluctant to enlist. Nor is there hard evidence Iran armed or incited the Houthis who have been fighting for years. Tehran reportedly advised the rebels not to take the city of Aden, and is calling for a ceasefire and peace talks.

Saudi propaganda portrays the Middle East as caught up in a great Muslim struggle, with a Shiite Crescent led by Iran seeking to swallow up the Sunni states.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Leave the Houthis Alone!

March 28, 2015

Leave the Houthis Alone!

Saudi Arabia‘s US-backed aggression against the sovereignty of Yemen is a textbook example of how local conflicts are internationalized – and become tripwires for regional wars and even global conflagrations.

Like Libya, Yemen is yet another Middle Eastern country that doesn’t really exist: it is actually at least two separate countries, perhaps three – the southern provinces, which are primarily Sunni, the northern tribes, who adhere mostly to they Zaydi form of Shi’ite Islam, and the area around Sa’na, the capital, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, where all Yemen’s clashing cultural, political, and religious factions meet.

The north/south division dates back to the nineteenth century British colonization, when, in 1839, the British seized the port city of Aden and administered it as a subset of the Indian Viceroyalty. It became a major trading center after the opening of the Suez canal, and the Brits pushed outward, extending their influence throughout what had been a land perpetually divided between the Ottoman Empire and local imams, including the distinctive Zaydis in the north. In 1911, the Zaydis rose up against the British and their local collaborators, abolished the north/south division negotiated by the British Foreign Office, and established the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen under Imam Yahya. Yahya’s dream was to recreate the ancient Qasamid dynasty, founded in the seventeenth century: a “Greater Yemen” extending into what is today Saudi Arabia as well as the whole of modern Yemen.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

In Yemen, It’s The Bad Guys Vs. The Bad Guys

March 27, 2015

In Yemen, It’s The Bad Guys Vs. The Bad Guys

Saudi Arabia and Egypt stand poised to conduct a massive ground invasion of Yemen, and the western media will be full of tales about how “Operation Decisive Storm” is liberating that country from the evil Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And without a doubt, the Houthis are bad guys and so are their Iranian benefactors. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the war in Yemen is a battle of good vs. evil. The truth is that the conflict in Yemen is actually a proxy war between two sets of bad guys that both ultimately plan for Islam to take over the entire planet. On one side, the Iranians are very honest about the fact that they view us as an enemy, and they plan to impose their version of radical Shia Islam worldwide as soon as they can. On the other side, the Saudis pretend to be our friends, but they don’t hide the fact that they believe that their version of Sunni Islam will eventually rule the world. And their version of Sunni Islam includes constant beheadings, the destruction of all churches and the death penalty for anyone caught smuggling a Bible into Saudi territory. At the end of the day, there is very little difference between the Saudis and ISIS. In fact, ISIS gets a lot of funding from Saudi sources, and there is more support for ISIS on Twitter from Saudi Arabia than from anywhere else. Saudi Arabia is a horribly repressive regime where women are treated like dirt, where the secret police conduct a never ending reign of terror and where even a minor deviation from sharia law can mean the loss of a limb. But because our politicians and the mainstream media constantly tell us that they are “our friends”, we cheer them on.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Yemen Ground Invasion By Saudi, Egyptian Troops Imminent

March 26, 2015

Yemen Ground Invasion By Saudi, Egyptian Troops Imminent

As reported first thing today, while the initial phase of the military campaign against Yemen has been taking place for the past 18 hours and been exclusively one of airborne assaults by forces of the “Decisive Storm” coalition, Saudi hinted at what is coming next following reports that it had built up a massive 150,000 troop deployment on the border with Yemen.

And as expected, moments ago AP reported that Egyptian military and security officials told The Associated Press that the military intervention will go further, with a ground assault into Yemen by Egyptian, Saudi and other forces, planned once airstrikes have weakened the capabilities of the rebels.

Will this invasion mean that Yemen as we know it will no longer exist and become annexed by Saudi Arabia? According to coalition military sources, the answer is no, but that remains to be seen:

Three Egyptian military and security officials told The Associated Press that a coalition of countries led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia will conduct a ground invasion into Yemen once the airstrikes have sufficiently diminished the Houthis and Saleh’s forces. They said the assault will be by ground from Saudi Arabia and by landings on Yemen’s Red and Arabian Sea coasts.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Another Middle East War Breaks Out: US-Supported Saudi Arabia Begins Bombing Yemen, Tanks Cross Border

March 25, 2015

Another Middle East War Breaks Out: US-Supported Saudi Arabia Begins Bombing Yemen, Tanks Cross Border

UPDATE: US providing support to Saudi Arabia – US Official (so US weapons are being used on both sides)

Earlier today we reported that, on very short notice, Saudi Arabia had moved heavy military equipment including artillery to areas near its border with Yemen, “raising the risk that the Middle East’s top oil power will be drawn into the worsening Yemeni conflict.” In other words, Saudi Arabia was preparing for war.

Shortly thereafter, but before Yemen’s president bravely fled the country over fears of the Houthi rebel advance, Yemen’s foreign minister called for Arab military intervention against advancing Shiite rebels.

As we explicitly warned, “the conflict risked spiraling into a proxy war with Shi’ite Iran backing the Houthis, whose leaders adhere Shi’ite Islam, and Saudi Arabia and the other regional Sunni Muslim monarchies backing Hadi.”

Moments ago all these warnings were borne out when Al-Arabiya reported that the latest middle-east war is now official after Saudi Arabia and Arab Gulf States had launched a bombing campaign against Yemen.

More details:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

ISIS Burn Iraqi Oil Fields To Hold Off Iraqi Offensive

March 6, 2015

ISIS Burn Iraqi Oil Fields To Hold Off Iraqi Offensive

Thick black smoke billowing from oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit is obstructing Shi’ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers attempts to drive ISIS from the Sunni Muslim city after militants set them on fire. Reuters reports a witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil field to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters. As we noted previously, the battle for Tikrit is key as it will determine whether and how fast the Iraqi forces can advance further north and attempt to win back Mosul, the biggest city under Islamic State rule.

IraqiOilFields

As Reuters reports,

Islamic State militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit to obstruct an assault by Shi’ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers trying to drive them from the Sunni Muslim city and surrounding towns, a witness said.

The witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil field to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters.

The offensive is the biggest Iraqi forces have yet mounted against IS, which has declared an Islamic caliphate on captured territory in Iraq and Syria and spread fear across the region by slaughtering Arab and Western hostages and killing or kidnapping members of religious minorities like Yazidis and Christians.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How ISIS Pays Its Fighters——From Gulf State Bankrollers

February 27, 2015

How ISIS Pays Its Fighters——From Gulf State Bankrollers

Islamic State is still receiving significant financial support from Arab sympathisers outside Iraq and Syria, enabling it to expand its war effort, says a senior Kurdish official.

The US has being trying to stop such private donors in the Gulf oil states sending to Islamic State (Isis) funds that help pay the salaries of fighters who may number well over 100,000.

Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish President, Massoud Barzani, told The Independent on Sunday: “There is sympathy for Da’esh [the Arabic acronym for IS, also known as Isis] in many Arab countries and this has translated into money – and that is a disaster.” He pointed out that until recently financial aid was being given more or less openly by Gulf states to the opposition in Syria – but by now most of these rebel groups have been absorbed into IS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate, so it is they “who now have the money and the weapons”.

Mr Hussein would not identify the states from which the funding for IS comes today, but implied that they were the same Gulf oil states that financed Sunni Arab rebels in Iraq and Syria in the past.

Dr Mahmoud Othman, a veteran member of the Iraqi Kurdish leadership who recently retired from the Iraqi parliament, said there was a misunderstanding as to why Gulf countries paid off IS. It is not only that donors are supporters of IS, but that the movement “gets money from the Arab countries because they are afraid of it”, he says. “Gulf countries give money to Da’esh so that it promises not to carry out operations on their territory.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Yemeni Houthi fighters fire on protesters after clashes kill 26

February 14, 2015

Yemeni Houthi fighters fire on protesters after clashes kill 26

(Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in several cities on Saturday against the rule of the Shi’ite Muslim Houthi movement whose gunmen fired on protesters in the central town of Ibb and wounded four, medics said.

It was the second day of nationwide demonstrations against the Iranian-backed Houthis in less then a week after its dissolution of parliament this month unraveled security and sent Western and Arab embassies packing.

Activists said they were enraged by the death on Saturday of Saleh al-Bashiri, who they say was detained by gunmen as they broke up an anti-Houthi protest in Sanaa two weeks ago and was released to a hospital with signs of torture on his body on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.

Yemen’s upheaval has drawn international concern as it shares a long border with top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia, and the country is also fighting one of the most formidable branches of al Qaeda with the help of U.S. drone strikes.

Heavy clashes between Houthi fighters and Sunni Muslim tribesmen fighting alongside Al Qaeda militants in the southern mountainous province of al-Bayda on Saturday killed 16 Houthi rebels along with 10 Sunni tribesmen and militants, security officials and tribal sources told Reuters.

The state faces collapse in impoverished, strife-torn Yemen two weeks after the Houthis took formal control of the country and continued an armed push southward.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

#BahrainSchism: Anti-government protests break out after arrest of Shia opposition leader — RT News

December 30, 2014

#BahrainSchism: Anti-government protests break out after arrest of Shia opposition leader — RT News.

Protests in Bahrain against the detention of the head of the banned Shia movement, Al-Wefaq, on Sunday, have been marked by clashes with security forces. Sheikh Ali Salman boycotted parliamentary elections, influenced by the ruling Sunni royal family.

Opposition groups protested Monday against the arrest of cleric Salman, 49, who remains in custody for further questioning, AFP reported. They were supported by dozens of Shia clerics, who gathered in Imam al-Sadeq mosque in Al-Guful village near Manama, saying that the arrest was a “huge insult to all the people.”

“The Bahraini Authority is moving backward to a police state instead of taking steps toward a political solution and an end to the serious human rights violations against citizens,” opposition groups led by Al-Wefaq said in a statement.

On Sunday morning, as the banned Shia opposition party announced the arrest of its leader, clashes broke out between the security forces and hundreds of Al-Wefaq supporters. People gathered in villages near the capital city of Manama.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Bahrain arrests main Shia opposition leader — RT News

December 28, 2014

Bahrain arrests main Shia opposition leader — RT News.

Bahrain’s main opposition group says its leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been arrested after hours of interrogation.

The Bahraini Interior Ministry said in a statement issued earlier that Salman was questioned about “violating certain aspects of the law,” but did not go into any further details.

The Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society said on Sunday that its leader was arrested after 10 hours of questioning by criminal police.

Salman was re-elected on Friday as leader of the Shia opposition group.

His lawyer, Abdullah al-Shamlan, said that Salman had been accused of “inciting hatred against the regime and for calling for its overthrow by force.”

Al-Wefaq said that the detention of its leader is “a dangerous adventure that will complicate the political situation in Bahrain.”

The majority of Bahrain’s population are Shias, but the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is ruled by a Sunni minority.

In July, a Manama court suspended al-Wefaq’s activities so that it could correct its legal status, and later banned all of its activities in October. In November, the opposition movement said it was boycotting parliamentary elections.

Five explosions rock Yemeni capital – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

December 23, 2014

Five explosions rock Yemeni capital – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

Five bombs have exploded in Sanaa’s old quarter, where many supporters of the Shia Muslim Houthi group live, killing at least one person and wounding another, according to a Yemeni security official.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks, but the Houthis have been fighting the Sunni Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) group and allied tribesmen since its fighters captured Sanaa in September and forced the resignation of the government.

Witnesses said the blasts occurred early in the morning at a time when only a few people were on the streets.

One of the bombs exploded when a member of the Houthi armed group tried to dismantle it, residents said.

Several houses and some cars were damaged by the explosions.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tag Archives: sunni

Content

Post categories

Economic Links

Energy/Resource Links

Environmental Links

Geopolitical Links

Liberty Links

News Links

Other Links

Survival Skills

Post Archives by Category

Mr Hussein would not identify the states from which the funding for IS comes today, but implied that they were the same Gulf oil states that financed Sunni Arab rebels in Iraq and Syria in the past.

Post navigation

Latest Posts