Headline News 23/05/2020

Headlines:

• America Discusses Restarting Nuclear Tests

• Turkish Forces Establish their Leadership over Western Libya

• Rulers Forcing Muslims to Pray Eid al-Fitr at Home

Details:

America Discusses Restarting Nuclear Tests

With the emergence of China as a rising regional power on the rim of America’s Pacific Ocean defences, the United States is reversing decades of military policy to confront this emergent threat. According to the Washington Post:

The Trump administration has discussed whether to conduct the first U.S. nuclear test explosion since 1992 in a move that would have far-reaching consequences for relations with other nuclear powers and reverse a decades-long moratorium on such actions, said a senior administration official and two former officials familiar with the deliberations.

The matter came up at a meeting of senior officials representing the top national security agencies May 15, following accusations from administration officials that Russia and China are conducting low-yield nuclear tests — an assertion that has not been substantiated by publicly available evidence and that both countries have denied.

A senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive nuclear discussions, said that demonstrating to Moscow and Beijing that the United States could “rapid test” could prove useful from a negotiating standpoint as Washington seeks a trilateral deal to regulate the arsenals of the biggest nuclear powers.

If Muslim countries were actually self-governing, then their rulers would be taking advantage of America’s preoccupation with China to build a truly independent security policy that would isolate our lands from all foreign intervention. But the reality is that these rulers are agents to Western elite interests and work actively to maintain Western engagement in Muslims’ affairs, because these agent rulers see the continuation of their power over Muslims as dependent on Western support. With Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah shall soon be rid of the interference of the West and their agents in Muslims’ affairs.

Turkish Forces Establish their Leadership over Western Libya

Turkey has become a new dynamic element in Libya after a stalemate of years between Khalifa Hifter and the UN recognised government in Tripoli, neither one succeeding in overcoming the other. According to the New York Times:

A string of victories by Turkish-backed forces in western Libya this week dealt a heavy blow to the ambitions of the aspiring strongman Khalifa Hifter and signaled the arrival of Turkey as a potentially decisive force among the foreign powers battling for supremacy in the Middle East’s biggest proxy war.

Libyan fighters backed by Turkish firepower captured on Monday a major air base west of Tripoli, the capital, used drones to destroy newly arrived Russian air defense batteries, and on Thursday pressed their offensive by ousting Mr. Hifter’s forces from a key town south of Tripoli.

The triumphs marked a stunning reversal of fortunes for the United Nations-backed Tripoli government, which looked weak and badly besieged by Mr. Hifter until President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey sent troops and armed drones in January. It was Turkey’s most forceful intervention in the oil-rich North African nation since the end of the Ottoman Empire over a century ago.

“It’s Turkey’s Libya Now,” read the headline on a briefing posted by the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The conflict between local forces in Libya has in fact been a proxy war on behalf of the Western powers, with some European countries supporting Tripoli and Khalifa Hifter being actually backed by America but in all these years neither side was able to achieve a breakthrough. However, after America’s success in using Turkey to defeat the revolution in Syria, America has now moved Turkey to Libya to repeat the same task. In Syria, Turkey first established its credentials as a supporter of the revolutionaries. Then, once revolutionary groups began trusting in Turkey, they found themselves bitterly betrayed, time after time, until nothing was left for them, and the country was retaken by forces allied with Bashar al-Assad. It is the initial phase of this plan that appears to have been conducted now in Libya.

There are two important points here for Muslims to know.

Firstly, our present rulers are really all traitors to foreign powers. Secondly, these foreign powers are not strong enough to enter the battlefield against us themselves, and this is why they have resorted to using the armed forces of our own countries against us. With Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah shall soon retake control of its affairs, and command of its armed forces, and unify Muslim lands, eject the foreign imperialist disbeliever, and re-establish the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw).

Rulers Forcing Muslims to Pray Eid al-Fitr at home

In complete violation of Shar’a and genuine medical understanding, the rulers of Muslim countries are seizing upon the Coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to try to weaken Muslims’ adherence to Islam, with the full backing of the ‘government scholars’ who are always ready to manufacture decrees that support the government agenda.

According to Reuters:

Mosques will remain closed for prayers on the Eid Al-Fitr festival, Saudi and United Arab Emirates officials said on Friday, calling on the population to adhere to safety guidelines to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Eid, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, may fall on Saturday or Sunday in the Gulf region.

Saudi Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullatif al-Sheikh gave instructions not to have Eid prayers in mosques, Saudi state TV quoted him as saying.

“Muslims will hold the Eid prayer at home because of the pandemic,” the Saudi Press Agency cited Sheikh Abdul Bari al-Thubaiti, the imam, or the prayer leader, of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, as saying in the Friday sermon.

During Ramadan, prayers without worshippers were held by the imams in the two holy mosques of Mecca and Medina, in the west of the kingdom.

In the UAE, the Dubai government’s media office said on Twitter that mosques will remain closed, and listed a series of Eid customs that should not be observed, including family visits and giving gifts or money to children.

Both medically and from Shar’a it is only the travel into and out of an infected area that needs to be prevented during a pandemic, to slow down its spread. However, contact within a particular area, even if infected, continues for those who are healthy because it is essential that they sustain the social and economic life of their community. The opening of the masajid and the continuation of communal prayers, in addition to being a divine obligation, are fundamental to community cohesion and are thus even more necessary in times of crisis.