At least 100 people have been killed or wounded in an explosion targeting Shiite Muslims at a mosque in northern Afghanistan, according to a Taliban police official.

Dost Mohammad Obaida said the “majority of them have been killed”.

The blast occurred during the Friday prayer service at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in Kunduz province, when members of the Shiite minority typically go in large numbers for worship.

If confirmed, the death toll would be the highest in an attack by militants since US and Nato troops left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control.

Witness Ali Reza said he was praying at the time of the explosion and reported seeing many casualties.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Taliban special forces had arrived at the scene and were investigating the incident.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. No group has claimed responsibility.

The Taliban leadership has been grappling with a growing threat from the local affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan.

IS militants have ramped up attacks to target their rivals, including two deadly bombings in Kabul.

IS has also targeted Afghanistan’s religious minorities in attacks.

An Iraqi-Kurd man has been found guilty of planning a terror attack using a bomb in a remotely-controlled vehicle.

Farhad Salah, 24, was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

Jurors heard that Salah posted on social media about using a driverless car in an attack. But the jury cleared his co-defendant, Chesterfield chip shop owner Andy Star, 32, who was charged with the same offence.

This is the second time Salah and Mr Star have been tried on these charges. A jury failed to reach verdicts on either man following a trial last year.

Judge Paul Watson QC told Mr Star a decision had been made that he should not face a second retrial and a not guilty verdict was recorded in his case.

He said Mr Star could go free but was informed that he will continue to be detained on immigration matters.

The judge said Salah will be sentenced on July 24. Prosecutors told the five-week trial that Salah and Mr Star were in the early stages of testing small improvised explosive devices when they were arrested in high-profile raids on their homes in a Sheffield community centre and a Chesterfield fish and chip shop in December 2017.

But Mr Star has always insisted that gunpowder and other items found in his flat above the chip shop were all connected to his long-standing interest in fireworks. Salah was found guilty on a majority of 10 to 2 after the jury deliberated for almost three days.

When the judge recorded Star’s formal acquittal, a woman shouted “Terrorist” loudly from the jury box. Counter-terror police said Salah was not close to achieving his aim of putting a device in a vehicle but officers believe he was a “very real risk to the safety of the public in the UK”.

The raids in Sheffield and Chesterfield happened in the months following the Manchester Arena explosion, the terror attacks on Westminster and London Bridge, and at a time when there were fears that another atrocity was being planned for the Christmas period.

But police said they have never been able to identify Salah’s intended target.

Opening the case, prosecutor Anne Whyte QC told the jury: “The intention was to manufacture a device which would be placed in a vehicle but controlled remotely so that no-one had to martyr themselves in the process.”

She said that, a week before he was arrested, Salah messaged a contact on Facebook saying: “My only attempt is to find a way to carry out martyrdom operation with cars without driver, everything is perfect only the programme is left …”

The prosecutor said: “Farhad Salah had decided that improvised explosive devices could be made and used in a way here in the UK that spared his own life preferably but harmed others he considered to be infidels.”

The court heard how both defendants are Iraqi nationals.

Salah arrived at Heathrow Airport in December 2014 and applied for asylum. This application had not been determined by the time he was arrested. Mr Star was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant and later told officials he had arrived in the UK by lorry.

He was given “leave to remain” in 2010 and eventually given refugee status, with “indefinite leave to remain” in February 2016.

At the beginning of the trial, Miss Whyte told the jury that Salah was a supporter of Islamic State (IS), despite him being an Iraqi-Kurd – a nationality usually associated with the fight against the terror group.

Gunpowder, homemade fuses and explosive chemicals were found when Mr Star’s Mermaid Fish Bar, in Chesterfield, was raided by armed police and similar items were found in the Fatima Community Centre, in Sheffield, were Salah lived.

Prosecutors told the jury that the items found in the raided premises showed the pair were testing small-scale explosive devices at both locations and the primary “laboratory” was at the chip shop, but Mr Star told police and both his trials that it was just paraphernalia connected with making fireworks.

Salah, of Brunswick Road, Sheffield, showed no emotion as he was led from the dock.

Two friends convicted of preparing for terrorist acts in support of the so-called Islamic State after trying to reach Syria have been jailed.

Safwaan Mansur, from Birmingham, and Hanzalah Patel, from Leicester, travelled to Turkey in 2016 and 2017 after checking out an area near the Syrian border on TripAdvisor, a two-week trial was told.

Prosecutors alleged that the men had attempted to explain away their travel plans as an “innocent camping holiday”.

The men were each sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday to 14 years in prison, West Midlands Police said.

At the men’s trial, jurors heard that the pair, who spent nine days in jail in Turkey in 2017 after being arrested at an Istanbul hotel, bought camping equipment, outdoor survival clothing and airline tickets before travelling initially to Germany.

Prosecutors alleged that Mansur, 22, of Hampton Road, Aston, and Patel, also 22, of Frederick Road, Leicester, undertook a 24-hour bus journey from Istanbul to near the Syrian border during a previous visit to Turkey in 2016.

The men were arrested at Heathrow Airport in 2017 after being reported missing by family members.

Patel’s father contacted police in June that year after becoming concerned, having learned that his son had lied about leading prayers at a mosque in Germany.

During subsequent questioning by police, the men’s trial heard that Mansur said he had gone to Turkey’s Hatay province – described in court as a “transit area” for Syria – in 2016 to “have a look” like “lots of other tourists”.

Claiming items including water purifiers and solar chargers were found in the men’s luggage, Simon Davis, prosecuting, told the court: “Mr Patel, when interviewed, throughout maintained a no comment stance, as was his right.”

Jurors were told that Mansur said items in his luggage were gifts for friends at a mosque in Germany, where he intended to stop off en route to or from Turkey.

Outlining Mansur’s account, Mr Davis told the jury panel: “The people at the mosque liked outdoor pursuits like camping – that was the explanation being given.”

Lawyers acting for both defendants said the men had formed a “naive and idiotic” plan to cross into Syria, but had no intention of fighting or committing acts of terrorism.

However, jurors convicted the pair after trial, on April 1.

Following sentencing, acting head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit Chief Superintendent Shaun Edwards said: “If anyone is concerned that a friend or family member is thinking of travelling to Syria, it is very important that they tell us as soon as possible.

“Police and other agencies can offer support to help safeguard those who are vulnerable to radicalisers.

“The sooner we can intervene, the better chance we have of preventing people from becoming embroiled in the conflict and facing potential prosecution.”

This information has been obtained from the Rojava Information Centre and is a short transcript of an interview undertaken with female British ISIS recruiter, Tooba Gondal in the Ayn Issa camp. She survived 4 years within Islamic State territory.

Interviewer: We actually went there (Baghouz), what was it like?

Tooba Gondal: Getting out was like the biggest relief, it was like being trapped there was no food, it was just constant food, constant bombing, sniping and bullets, it was war. All the four years I’ve been in Syria was war. The last part there was no food. Eventually food trucks came in, there was not double but the prices… it was a dollars market. And maybe I bought 1 packet of diapers for 100 dollars. It was ridiculous.

The women and the children became the victims, we didn’t know, I didn’t know who’s on the left attacking us, who’s on the right attacking us, who are we even with, who is amongst us. It was a complete mess. And even trying to leave was almost… it was a mission, to try to find any way to escape or any reliable smugglers who could help you.

Interviewer: You didn’t leave with the buses?

Tooba Gondal: there was no buses… this time, there was no buses, it was just your own contacts… there was no buses.

Interviewer: What happened to your husband?

Tooba Gondal: He got killed.

Interviewer: Where?

Tooba Gondal: In the village of Khsam.

Interviewer: Where was he from?

Tooba Gondal: He was from Pakistan.

Interviewer: So what happened in the time you were without a husband?

Tooba Gondal: It was the most hard time I’ve ever seen, maybe in my life. In the last year and a half, it was the most difficult time, always with two small children, always having to move from one village to another, there’s no one taking care of you, no one helping you. You have to do everything by yourself.

Interviewer: Where are you from originally?

Tooba Gondal: I’m originally Pakistani, originally Muslim,  but I was born in France, but I have a permanent British residence.

Intreviewer: When did you move to Britain?

Tooba Gondal: When I was 3 or 4. I left from Britain, I spent almost all the life that I can remember in Britain, I grew up in London.

Interviewer: How old are you?

Tooba Gondal: I’m 25 now.

Interviewer: And how old were you when you left Britain?

Tooba Gondal:  21, newly 21. I’ve been here now 4 years.

Interviewer: Can you tell us about the life in the Ayn Issa camp here?

Tooba Gondal: Life here is very harsh, very difficult. I can complain almost about anything, the military here they don’t… help us with any of our issues, we have tents here that almost always the water is coming through, the leaking, the food… UNICEF are supporting us, really good things, they give us food monthly and solar chargers so that we can have light inside our tents. But other than that it’s really horrible, the toilets are absolutely disgusting, there’s one small shop. We shop through the window and every time we wait maybe 2 to 3 hours to buy something. There’s no schooling, there’s on and off medical care but also not so great, we really have to make a big thing to get any type of medicine. … They don’t help, especially with children.

Interviewer: do you know why you were brought here and not in the other two camps?

Tooba Gondal: No, I don’t know… I just know that the smuggler sold us to this, to this military here. I got captured by them from the borders. I was maybe 15 minutes close to the border of Turkey when I got brought here in the night.

Interviewer: do you know of people who made it out?

Tooba Gondal: From here back to their countries?

Interviewer: From Baghouz, Raqqa, out…

Tooba Gondal: No, all I know, almost everyone has been captured and sent to the camps. I don’t know anyone…

Interviewer: Do you have friends, acquaintances in the camp?

Tooba Gondal: yes, a few, I have some… there aren’t many British people here… there are Pakistani families that are really nice.

Interviewer: How did the smugglers bring you from Baghouz to the Turkish border?

Tooba Gondal: We were in a car, close to the border and stopped at the checkpoint, the Kurdish checkpoint. That’s when women, men with arms searched us and forced us into a car and brought us here immediately, it was very fast. We got searched maybe 2-3 times, they took our money, they took our gold, they took our watches, all electronics, we have to start life from zero.

Interviewer: How did you make it out of Baghouz?

Tooba Gondal: It was arranged through a smuggler. So I hooked up with some people, that have contacted the smuggler. and the smuggler he have contacts to arrange a car, and we move from car to car, we travel through the desert moving from car to car over five days.

Interviewer: Where were you before Baghouz?

Tooba Gondal: Moving from village to village, four to five villages, so always it was constantly moving, every two to three weeks, moving from Hajin village, going to Sousa village, constant moving, tired, bombing, war, I have an injury here, shrapnel landed between my eyebrows. It’s from military, the regime… I don’t know how you say it in English… A bullet which explodes into the air and it hit me in between my eyebrows. It still remains, they stitched over it, I don’t know if they were doctors or amateurs, I don’t know.

Now I have a big nerve problem in my head, I complained to them and I had no help, I had many symptoms like vomiting, dizziness, maybe the shrapnel is touching a nerve but I have no help. I complain but still now, being here over 2 months they didn’t have any x-rays for anything.

Interviewer: Do you feel more British, Pakistani, French, how do you feel?

Tooba Gondal: I feel British. But Britain refuses to take us in, and I’m just left with hope for any life again in any place where I can live a normal life and educate my children.

Interviewer: Why do you think Britain doesn’t want to take you back?

Tooba Gondal: I know Britain, I grew up in Britain, and I heard after they refused um…

Interviewer: Shamima Begum?

Tooba Gondal: After they refused her, I know the British public, they are scared, they don’t want to deal with us, but they must deal with us. But we can’t stay in this camp for the rest of our lives, they must deal with us. We are not a threat to their society, we just want a normal life again.

Interviewer: What do you think will happen if these people, these children stay in these camps for 5 to 10 years?

Tooba Gondal: I hope that never happens, that sounds like an absolutely terrible thing for the women and children to be trapped in such camps, no help, no facilities, um, if that’s the case then the children are already so uneducated, have already adapted to such bad manners and foul language, so they will grow up to not have any manners and to not have any education… the women will maybe lose their sanity, I think I will lose my sanity. More sicknesses, more diseases, many stories, cases of deaths, illness that already took place… if it continues like this then it’s very bad.

Interviewer: Just to clarify, you have British residency?

Tooba Gondal: Yes, I have a permanent British residency.

Interviewer: And a French passport?

Tooba Gondal: Yes.

Interviewer: And a Pakistani passport?

Tooba Gondal: No.

Interviewer: So you just have a French passport?

Tooba Gondal: Yes. I have it with me till now, they didn’t find it, the military here didn’t find it, and I had it sewn in my diapers, through my children’s diapers. I still have it with me after all this war that I’ve seen and that’s the only thing I have left.

Interviewer: Just to play devil’s advocate, you say you just want to go back into a normal life…

Tooba Gondal: If I did not harm to anyone, if I committed no harm in Syria for 4 years, what kind of threat can I be to Britain?

]]> 8400 https://www.faith-matters.org/briton-like-something-out-of-mad-max-in-battle-against-is-court-told/ Tue, 02 Apr 2019 13:58:19 +0000 https://www.faith-matters.org/?p=8378

A British man accused of helping fuel the violence in Syria by joining Kurdish militants fighting Islamic State boasted his life was like something out of Mad Max in one of a series of dairy entries, a court has heard.

Aidan James, 28, from Formby, Merseyside, had no previous military knowledge when he allegedly set out to join the bloody war in 2017 on behalf of the Kurdish people.

James is on trial for engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts and for undergoing terrorist training for his involvement with groups associated with the Marxist political organisation, the PKK.

The PKK, or or the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, has been banned in the UK since 2001 for its advocating of Kurdish self-rule through both political and armed struggle.

James is accused of receiving training from the PKK, including weapons, before going on to fight with a series of Kurdish YPG units, or People’s Protection Units, in Syria.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said: “Mr James is not charged with any offence that his purpose was simply to go to fight Isis, rather the charges are levelled against him because his intention was to lend support to advance a political or ideological cause.”

James prepared himself to join their cause in an “amateurish way” and underwent weapons training in Iraq for a month, the Old Bailey was told.

From there, he went to the Syrian border with Iraq for another month of training, jurors heard.

James had been monitored by police via the anti-terror Prevent programme after broadcasting his intentions on Facebook and had even been arrested on April 28 2017.

He had been bailed until the next month but the bail was cancelled and no further action was taken against him.

On the day his passport was returned, he wrote in his journal that he was still planning to travel to Syria or Iraq “to fight this most important of battles against the sick ideology of Daesh”.

James prepared for his trip by undergoing initial training in north Wales and by acquiring rudimentary combat equipment including body armour.

He later began planning his journey, arriving in Makhmour, Iraq, between the end of August and October 1 2017.

In a series of journal entries he described his training and a series of raids against Isis strongholds.

In one he mourned the death of a fellow soldier, writing: “Great guy.

RIP friend we will continue to fight.”

“Raids went good. After the raids we sat and drank shots of red bull and discussed politics,” another entry read.

In another he describes sitting on the roof of a humvee “with a 50 calibre machine gun, like something out of Mad Max”.

But he also expressed his discontent with the mindset of his commanders, complaining they were trying to brainwash him.

He wrote: “There’s a lot of f***ed up things here. Ideology comes before all else – it’s just basically a f****** brainwash factory.

“I’m here to help people. Not to get brainwashed and change my beliefs.”

Mr Heywood said: “He had picked his cause and it was the cause of just one of the many groups of people that inhabit that part of the world and would like it to be their own, the Kurdish people.

“The prosecution case against him is that he went as an individual to Syria to fight with guns and explosives.”

Mr Heywood added: “For these purposes, the law says that what he wanted to do was terrorism, even if his eventual fighting was against other terrorists.”

James denies engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts and two charges of attending a place used for terrorist training.

A Somali man has been found guilty of having a stash of Islamic State propaganda.

Police seized two laptops, a mobile phone and a USB memory stick after searching the home of Abdirahman Mohamed in Middlesex in July 2017.

Officers found electronic copies of the IS magazine as well as other documents including “safety and security guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen”, the court heard.

Following an Old Bailey trial, the unemployed 42-year-old was found guilty of eight charges of possessing a document or record for terrorist purposes and cleared of one count of disseminating a terrorist publication.

Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst had said: “It is not the Crown’s case that the defendant personally engaged in, or was about to engage in, violence to kill or maim people in a political, ideological or religious cause.

“Rather the Crown say he knowingly possessed a number of documents that the Crown say are the kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Mr Brocklehurst told the jury that Mohamed, of Shadwell Drive, Northolt, London, had a series of articles named “just terror tactics”.

These focused on vehicle attacks, knife attacks and hostage taking, and talked about causing “as much carnage and terror as possible” and leaving behind a “trail of carnage”.

Mr Brocklehurst said: “The contents of the magazines in particular provide worrying articles with useful tips and guidance on how those who are maybe contemplating carrying out a terrorist attack could achieve their aim.”

The jury was told Mohamed would exchange messages with people while visiting chat rooms under the name Concerned Muslim.

Mr Brocklehurst said Mohamed gave no comment when interviewed by police but provided a prepared written statement which said: “I am a Somali Muslim, my community had been affected by terrorism.

“The document was to help me understand the issues involved and for my own general interest and for me to form a view on what is happening.”

Mohamed was given continued bail until his sentencing on April 18.

An Islamic State fighter detained in Syria urged Italy on Saturday to let him come home to start a new life, saying he had abandoned the self-styled jihadist “caliphate” after growing disillusioned with its rulers.

Mounsef al-Mkhayar, a 22-year-old of Moroccan descent who grew up in Italy, spoke to Reuters in his first interview since surrendering to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) two months ago.

He has been in prison since emerging from Baghouz, a tiny village in eastern Syria where the SDF is poised to wipe out the last vestige of Islamic State rule – which once spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.

Mkhayar gave an account of growing chaos among jihadists on the brink of defeat, and of disputes in the ranks as top commanders fled Syria.

But he said Islamic State was also planning for the next phase, smuggling out hundreds of men to set up sleeper cells across Iraq and eastern Syria: “They said ‘We must get revenge.'”

Mkhayar is one of thousands from all over the world who were drawn to the promise of an ultra-radical Sunni Islamist utopia overriding national borders. Kurdish security officials identified him as Italian, and he said he holds Italian citizenship.

“I wish to return to Italy to my family and friends … for them to accept and help me to live a new life,” said Mkhayar, who walks on crutches after shelling injured his leg. “I just want to get out of this movie, I’m tired.”

FROM MILAN TO MAYADIN

Mkhayar was sentenced to eight years in jail by a Milan court in 2017 for spreading Islamic State propaganda and trying to recruit Italians to its cause, according to Italian media. As a result, he is likely to have to serve this sentence if he does return to Italy.

Reuters interviewed him at a security office in northern Syria in the presence of an SDF official.

As it nears victory, the SDF has struggled with the dilemma of holding fighters who travelled from abroad to join Islamic State along with women and children.

Before the final assault on Baghouz, the Kurdish-led SDF said it had around 800 foreign militants in jails and 2,000 of their wives and children in camps. Since then, the numbers have ballooned.

The SDF wants them sent back where they came from. But foreign governments generally do not want to receive citizens who may be hard to prosecute, and who pledged allegiance to a caliphate that left behind of a trail of butchery.

Once an atheist with an affinity for rap music and a dream of moving to America, Mkhayar joined Islamic State at 18.

He said he had spent most of his life in Milan with an aunt he calls his mother, before being placed in a home for troubled youths overseen by an Italian priest. He spent a month in prison on drugs charges.

Then he began immersing himself in Islamic State videos on YouTube and speaking to recruiters on Facebook. It took him only a month to decide to move to Syria with a friend four years ago.

His friend was later killed on the battlefield. After military and religious training, Mkhayar fought on various fronts. As Islamic State lost its Syrian headquarters at Raqqa, he left for Mayadin on the Euphrates river in Syria, then moved further east across the desert, towards the Iraqi border.

“WE’RE GETTING OUT”

Amid a string of military defeats in eastern Syria, Islamic State leaders were in disarray, killing off rival clerics and commanders known as emirs, Mkhayar said.

He said he had tried to quit the fighting but had been imprisoned, and then dispatched back to the frontlines as attacks intensified.

He wound up in Baghouz, where he said the jihadists were split between wanting to give up or fight to the death.

Mkhayar said his wife, a Syrian Kurdish woman from Kobani whom he had married three years ago, helped convince him to leave.

“‘That’s it,’ we said, ‘we’re getting out.’ I saw my little daughter turning weak. I was scared my children would die.”

Mkhayar said he could not sleep thinking about his wife and two daughters in a camp for displaced people in another part of northeast Syria. His wife is due to give birth in a month.

He said he still believed in the idea of a caliphate for Muslims, but accused Islamic State rulers of governing their land like “a mafia”, seeking only to make money and violating their own rules with impunity.

Commanders had stolen money and fled to Turkey, Iraq or Western Europe while ordering people to stay and defend Islam, he said.

“This is my belief and I won’t change it, but here in Islamic State, in reality this doesn’t exist … There is no justice,” he said.

“Honestly, I came here too fast … When I arrived, I found another story.”

A teenage student with an interest in Islamic State (IS) has been found guilty of plotting a terror attack.

Haider Ahmed, 19, was convicted at Kingston Crown Court of preparing to undertake an attack, Thames Valley Police said.

He was aged 16 and 17 and living with his parents at the family home in Redhill, Surrey, at the time.

Police said he was found guilty on Friday after a jury heard how he had acquired a hunting knife which he planned to use for terrorist purposes.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: “Haider Ahmed is a dangerous young man who was radicalised online and as a result supported the warped ideology of Daesh.

“It was clear he intended to harm innocent members of the pubic, and I am grateful to officers and police staff who have ensured he was unable to carry out such an attack.”

Police said Ahmed will be sentenced on April 15.

Imdadul Karim, 24, of Streatham, south London, was found not guilty of one count of arranging funds or property for the purposes of terrorism

On the 6^th of December 2018, Channel 4 broadcast an interview with Adel al-Hassani, who used to be a commander with Yemeni forces that fought against Al-Qaeda and who fell foul, allegedly of UAE forces. His story and his alleged torture is highlighted in the Channel 4 documentary by Jonathan Rugman.

The documentary highlights alleged human rights abuses that are significant and which seem to point to sustained levels of torture. Indeed Al-Hassani suggests systemic torture was used against dissidents.

The Channel 4 documentary is important since it highlights a window on a war that is as dirty as is it is confusing. No party in this war comes out clean and what is clear is that many sides and interested parties are involved in a propaganda campaign that is deeply problematic. Yemen has become a battleground for a series of dirty tricks. The real impact and the victims are the poor and marginalized communities who pick up the pieces of this horrendous conflict inflicted on the Yemen population.

Which brings us to the following point. Adel al-Hassani, is described in the Channel 4 investigation as someone who fought al-Qaeda. No-one can doubt this or verify this apart from what is listed in the Channel 4 documentary. We simply want to highlight the fact that in the documentary, al-Hassani sings a Nasheed that has been repeatedly sung by Islamists as a rallying tune in their struggle against what they perceive against injustice. This is not to suggest that al-Hassani is an Islamist, though the song has been used by others as a rallying call for Islamists. It has therefore been used by others as a rallying call for an armed violent response.

The lyrics of the song can be translated into the following:

غرباء و لغير الله لا نحني الجباه
Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa
[We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah

غرباء و ارتضيناها شعارا في الحياة
Ghurabaa’ war tadhainaa haa shi’aaran lil hayaa
[We are] strangers and we have chosen this to be the motto of life

إن تسأل عنا فإنا لا نبالي بالطغاة
Inta sal ‘anna fa inna laa nubaali bit-tughaat
If you ask about us, then we do not care about the tyrants

نحن جند الله دوما دربنا درب الاباة
Nahnu jundullaahi dawman darbunaa darbul-ubaa
We are forever the soldiers of Allah, our path is the path of the resistant

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers! Strangers! Strangers!

لا نبالي بالقيود بل سنمضي للخلود
Lan nubaali bil quyuud, bal sanamdhii lil khulood
We never care about the chains, rather we’ll continue forever

فلنجاهد و نناضل و نقاتل من جديد
Fal nujaahid wa nunaadhil wa nuqaatil min jadeed
So let us make Jihad, and battle, and fight from the start

غرباء هكذا الاحرار في دنيا العبيد
Ghurabaa’ hakazhal ahraaru fii dunya-al ‘abeed
Ghurabaa’ this is how they are free in the enslaved world

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers… Strangers… Strangers…

كم تذاكرنا زمانا يوم كنا سعداء
Kam tazhaakkarnaa zamaanan yawma kunna su’adaa`
How many times have we remembered a time when we were happy

بكتاب الله نتلوه صباحا و مساء
Bi kitaabillaahi natloohu sabaahan wa masaa`
with the book of Allah, reciting it in the morning and the evening

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers… Strangers… Strangers…

غرباء و لغير الله لا نحني الجباه
Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa
[We are] stranger and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah

غرباء و ارتضيناها شعارا للحياة
Ghurabaa’ war tadhainaa haa shi’aaran lil hayaa
Ghurabaa’ – we have chosen this to be the motto of life

In the Channel 4 documentary, the narrator states the following when Al-Hassani sings the Nasheed.

“We don’t care about tyrants, we only bend our foreheads to God.”

This is only part of the Nasheed and its context, and whilst Channel 4 were right in highlighting the human rights abuses that have so dogged the people of Yemen and which have also led them to pay such a high price, we believe that a better description of the Nasheed and its context could have been provided. Indeed, Channel 4 can simply make an addition on its web-site providing some context to the Nasheed in question, otherwise it can throw up a range of questions when shown in its current format. That song can therefore provide a dual meaning to various individuals watching the same film.

This contextualization is important since if we are to understand the nature of what is taking place in the Middle East, we need to understand the complexities and nuances. In this case, we sympathise with the case of Al-Hassani and his displacement from Yemen. We also are deeply aggrieved at the heavy price that the Yemeni population has paid through significant human rights abuses. They have suffered catastrophically because of proxy wars in the region. This is not acceptable, nor can it be excused.

We hope that this request is something that Channel 4 may consider, given that it takes pride in its journalistic reporting.

A Belgian judge has ordered the government to repatriate six children of Islamic State (IS) militants and their mothers who have been detained in a camp in Kurdish-controlled Syria, the national news agency Belga said on Wednesday.

Tatiana Wielandt, 26, and Bouchra Abouallal, 25, both Belgian citizens, and their children have been held in the Al-Hol camp in since the defeat of IS in nearly all territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.

Belga quoted the court ruling as ordering the Brussels government to take all necessary and possible measures to ensure the six children and their mothers can return to Belgium.

It must do so within 40 days after being notified of the decision or pay a daily penalty of 5,000 euros for each child, up to a maximum 1 million euros, newspaper De Tijd said. The Belgian government can appeal the ruling.

No comment was available from the court on Wednesday due to a public holiday. A lawyer for the two women was not immediately available for comment.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry said it would “analyse the situation together” with the justice and interior ministries.

Hundreds of European citizens, many of them babies, are being kept by U.S.-backed Kurdish militias in three camps since IS was ousted last year from almost all the large swathes of territory it seized in 2014-15, according to Kurdish sources.

European nations have been reluctant to take them back, regarding children of jihadists both as victims and threats – difficult to reintegrate into schools and homes.

European diplomats say they cannot act in a region where Kurdish control is not internationally recognised. Moreover, there is little popular sympathy for militants’ families after a spate of deadly IS attacks across western Europe.

The Kurd say it is not their job to prosecute or hold them indefinitely, leaving the women and children in legal limbo.

However, mounting concern over the apparent abandonment of hundreds of children with a claim to EU citizenship – most of them under six – is pushing governments to quietly explore how to tackle the complexities of bringing them back.