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Mon, 08 Nov 2021
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Support of the Oppressed: The Significance of International Al-Quds Day

Al-Quds Israel Palestine police arrest child teen kid
© Mohamad Torokman / Reuters
Al-Quds is the Arabic name of Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. International Al-Quds Day is important for Palestinians and the whole world, as Jerusalem is a holy city, a city of three divine faiths.

Al-Quds International Day is held on the last Friday of Ramadan each year. It's a day when people around the world, Muslims and non-Muslims come together to demonstrate their support for the oppressed in the world, in particular, the oppressed Palestinians who have been living under Israeli occupation for over 60 years. It has been exactly 38 years since the declaration of Al-Quds International Day. This day besides symbolizing the world's support for the freedom of Palestine, it also contains important messages of Islamic unity, international solidarity, and global anti-imperialism.Imam Khomeini's role

Comment: Further reading: A New Low: Israeli Blockade of Gaza Has Resulted in 'Humanitarian Shock'


Info

Iran is no longer a theocratic juggernaut, even if Trump and friends want you to see it that way

Bahareh Hedayat

Bahareh Hedayat, women's rights activist who was imprisoned.
For nearly 40 years now, Iran has been feared and hated as a Puritanical theocracy. In America and elsewhere, the prevailing image is of an austere regime, led by fanatical mullahs who are backed by masses of the Muslim faithful ready to die to defend it.

This picture, which was always at least somewhat inaccurate, is now profoundly wrong. The results in the recent presidential election in May are another sign that Iran is actually riddled with corruption, that the governing clerical elite is continuing to lose popular support, and that a growing number of Iranians, quite possibly already a majority, are no different than people elsewhere in wanting a government that respects human rights.

Black Cat

Married teacher, 31, arrested for sexual assault of special education student

Laura Ramos
© Bridgeport Police
Laura Ramos, 31, is accused of having sex with a special education student while working at Central High School in Bridgeport, Conn.
A Connecticut high school teacher was arrested for allegedly having sex "a handful of times" with a special education student, then denying and destroying evidence of the acts.

Laura Ramos, 31, was charged Tuesday with second-degree sexual assault, according to the Connecticut Post. Police arrested Ramos, who is a wife and a mother, after she admitted to having sex with an 18-year-old student while she was teaching at Central High School in Bridgeport.

MIB

US Army veteran & defense contractor charged with espionage for giving secrets to China

China deals partnership
© Getty Images
A former US government employee with top security clearances is charged with espionage after allegedly passing on top secret documents to a Chinese agent. The suspect said he considered his contacts to be working for a Chinese research organization.

The self-employed consultant, who speaks Mandarin, made an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, according to the Associated Press. Kevin Mallory, 60, was found to be carrying $16,500 in US dollars in his carry-on luggage before being charged by federal prosecutors under the federal Espionage Act.

Mallory is alleged to have traveled to Shanghai China in April where he met with people he thought were associated with a Chinese think tank.

Handcuffs

New Yorker arrested in sting operation after attempting to join ISIS

NYPD police car
© Matt Campbell / AFP
US Prosecutors on Thursday charged Bronx resident Saddam Mohamed Raishani with attempting to provide material support to ISIS (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"As alleged, Saddam Mohamed Raishani, a Bronx man, plotted to travel to Syria to join and train with the terrorist organization ISIS. Having already helped another man make that trip to ISIS's heartland, Raishani allegedly acted on his own desire to wage violent jihad, planning to leave his family and life in New York City for the battlefields of the Middle East,"said Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim.

Raishani was arrested at JFK airport as he tried to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, via Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday.

Info

Blockade busting: Iran supplies 1,000+ tons of food to Qatar every day

Qatar food market
© Caren Firouz / Reuters
Iran is sending 1,100 tons of fruit and vegetables to Qatar on a daily basis as the country endures a blockade by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt and other countries cut diplomatic ties and transportation links with Qatar early in June.

They accuse Doha of supporting terrorism and meddling in the internal affairs of other nations in the region. Doha has dismissed the claims.

Propaganda

Poll: Half of US voters believe reporters and media owners biased against Trump

Donald Trump
© REUTERS/ Dylan Martinez
Fifty percent of likely US voters take a dim view of media reports on President Donald Trump, with blame shared by both reporters and owners of news outlets, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports on Thursday.

"Given the president's testy relationship with the media, however, it's not surprising that 76 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of voters not affiliated with either major political party believe most reporters are biased against the president, a view shared by only 24 percent of Democrats," a press release accompanying the report stated.

USA

The U.S. Economic System is a Perverted, Abusive, Neo-Feudal Abomination

Einstein quote
The banker bailouts of the 2008/09 period changed my life forever. I was working on Wall Street at the time, and the way in which the government rallied around the financial institutions that torched the world and left its victims in the dust threw my entire delusional worldview into disarray. Prior to that, I had bought into the absurd assumption that I was financially successful at a young age primarily because I was hard-working and talented. The ensuing bailouts and the government's emphasis on obsessively rescuing some of the most degenerate people in our society made me realize once and for all how completely rigged and sleazy the U.S. economy really is. As you might expect, it only got worse under Obama's oligarch-coddling policies and will surely continue to deteriorate under Trump (Goldman Sachs is not your friend).

Ever since I left my cushy financial services job to do the challenging and often draining work of chronicling our ongoing crime scene, I've spent the vast majority of my free time trying to further educate myself on exactly how this system works. What I've discovered over and over again is that it is far more abusive than even I imagined.

Red Flag

'Liberal mosque' opens in Berlin, faces death threats from 'Islamist side'

Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque in Berlin, Germany
© Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters
Men and women pray together at the new liberal Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque in Berlin, Germany, June 16, 2017.
A co-founder of the first "liberal mosque," which opened in the German capital last week, has faced intimidation, including death threats, she told RT Deutsch.

"Death threats, and other threats... are partly coming from the Islamist side," Seyran Ates said. She is one of the seven founders of the unusual prayer site, which accepts everyone except those wearing a full face veil, such as a niqab or burka.

Ates, however, who is a women's rights activist and lawyer, stated that the threats should not stop people's fight for their values.

"As a civil society, we cannot let ourselves be guided by those who threaten us and who forbid us to do something, [threatening] to otherwise take our lives. It is only when we fight together against this hatred that we can change something."

Info

FBI: Gunman didn't plan Alexandria baseball shooting, visited Sanders' Senate office

James T. Hodgkinson
© Facebook / AFP
The man who fired on GOP lawmakers at baseball practice had a list of six congressmen on him, and kept the modified rifle he used in a storage unit he often visited, the FBI said. James T. Hodgkinson also tried to meet Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).

Hodgkinson, 66, fired on House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) and other GOP lawmakers last Wednesday morning, during the final practice for the annual charity congressional baseball game. He fired 60 shots as he stalked the Alexandria, Virginia field, injuring Scalise and three others, from a modified 7.62mm caliber SKS rifle and a 9mm handgun before he was killed, likely by Capitol Police officers on Scalise's protective detail.

On Hodgkinson's body, investigators found a list containing the names of six members of Congress, Tim Slater, the special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, said at a press conference on Wednesday. There was "no context included," though, and Slater would not characterize it as a "hit list" or as individuals being targeted, nor would Slater identify the members on the list in any way.