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SHAFAQNA –President Muhammadu Buhari has assured inteational and local human rights groups of “appropriate response” to a report of the judicial inquiry into the Army’s barbaric attack towards unarmed members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria last December. This was revealed on Tuesday, August 16, in a statement by a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, who shared it on his Facebook page. Read the statement below: “President Muhammadu Buhari has assured inteational and local human rights groups of appropriate response over the report of the judicial inquiry into the clashes between soldiers and members of the Shiite movement in Nigeria, led by Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. The president is st...

SHAFAQNA –President Muhammadu Buhari has assured inteational and local human rights groups of “appropriate response” to a report of the judicial inquiry into the Army’s barbaric attack towards unarmed members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria last December. This was revealed on Tuesday, August 16, in a statement by a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, who shared it on his Facebook page. Read the statement below: “President Muhammadu Buhari has assured inteational and local human rights groups of appropriate response over the report of the judicial inquiry into the clashes between soldiers and members of the Shiite movement in Nigeria, led by Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. The president is st...

SHAFAQNA –Nigerian Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), on Sunday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, if the army chief fails to voluntarily resign following the revelation that he purchased properties worth $1.5m in Dubai. Falana said in a statement that despite Buratai’s commendable feat of leading the Nigerian Army to defeat Boko Haram in the North East, the war on corruption was also a must-win for the Buhari Administration. The lawyer described as a “cock and bull story” the explanation by the Nigerian Army authorities that Buratai paid for the properties in installments through his personal savings. He regretted that the nam...

SHAFAQNA –US President Obama said Wednesday that he plaed to leave 8,400 American troops in Afghanistan until the end of his term. During a press briefing at the White House on Wednesday, Obama said that he would leave behind 8,400 American forces by the year-end, nearly 3,000 more than what he had promised last year. Currently around 9,800 US troops are in Afghanistan, reportedly training Afghan forces to battle militant groups such Daesh and the Taliban. “The security situation in Afghanistan remains precarious,” Obama said a day before heading to Poland to attend a NATO summit and meet with leaders of other nations engaged in Afghanistan. “We have to deal with the realities of the world ...

SHAFAQNA –IHRC has written to the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari to raise conces about information it has received that the Nigerian Army will be out in force at the aual Al Quds Day rally on Friday 1 July 2016. The army’s presence is of grave conce since the rally is led by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), members of whom have been repeatedly targeted by the armed forces. Over three days in December 2015 more than 1000 people were killed as well as property and religious spaces destroyed by the armed forces in Zaria. Leading members of the movement were shot and imprisoned without charge. The assault over two days in the northe Nigerian city left a trail of bloodshed and destruc...

SHAFAQNA –As usual, since the Zaria massacre, I used to send messages to our brothers and sisters, so today, I would like to use this opportunity to once again condole with all the people who have fallen victim to this barbaric crime committed by the Nigerian army, that has affected hundreds of families, and continues to do so to this day. May God accept the dead as martyrs, give them strength and perseverance, and a speedy recovery to the injured. I would also like to thank the large number of people in their millions around the world who have not only shown sympathy and kindness but also acted in numerous ways in support of our plight. I would however like to draw the attention of the mem...

SHAFAQNA –Muslims who attacked and stripped an elderly Christian woman in a southe Egyptian village will be punished, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Monday. The Muslim mob in Minya province’s Karma village had also torched and looted seven houses of Christian families during the May 20 attack, which was triggered by a rumour that the 70-year-old woman’s son was having a relationship with a Muslim woman. The elderly woman was paraded on the streets of Karma after being stripped. Sisi said such attacks divide Egyptians. “We are all one and the law must take its course,” Sisireportedlysaid. The attack which quiet rightly prompted widespread outrage is sadly symptomatic to Egypt’s descent ...

SHAFAQNA –I was motivated to write this article due to the recent statement of the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir on #Yemen in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. Al-Jubeir said that the priority of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is not to fight the Iranian-backed Houthi freedom fighters but to contain #AlQaeda and #ISIS. Al-Jubeir added: “The two organizations Al-Qaeda and Daesh are terrorist organizations. However, the Houthis are Yemenis and are our neighbors with whom one can hold talks.” In Tweets on his page on Twitter, Al-Jubeir said “whether we disagree or agree with the Houthis, they remain a part of the social fabric of Yemen”. The Saudi regime assumed this ...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA –The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) staed a protest and vigil for Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky in London, where President Muhammadu Buhari attended an anti-corruption summit. The aim of the protest is to call attention to the Zaria massacre, in which over 350 Shiite Muslims were killed by the Nigerian military, and the abuse and unlawful detention of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). The massacre, took place between December 12 and 14, 2016, by Nigerian army against hundreds of unarmed members of the Islamic Movement. President Buhari and top military leaders have not taken meaningful legal action coected to the Zaria...

SHAFAQNA –The brutal Zaria massacre by the Nigerian army that killed close to 1000 defenseless and unarmed Nigerians will go down in history as the most barbaric, inhuman and wicked mass-murder that was masterminded and executed by the highest-ranking Nigerian govement officials to serve an evil foreign imperialist agenda that has the savage Saudi regime as a front. After the Zaria massacre various events unfolded but the two important happenings that occured in the same week changed the dynamics of the brutal Zaria massacre by the Nigerian army that killed close to 1000 defenseless and unarmed Shia Muslims last December;the public confession by the Kaduna state Goveor Nasir Elrufai via his...

SHAFAQNA –Beie Sanders has backed legislation that would let Americans sue Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The bill is opposed by the Obama administration, but it isimportant to victims’ families, some of whom believe Saudi officials played some part in the attacks. The Democratic presidential candidatespoke in favour of the legislation on NBC’s “Today Show” ahead of the New York presidential primary. He said it was important to have a full understanding of the “the possible role of the Saudi govement in 9/11.” USinquiries have not reported a link between the Saudi govement or its senior officials and the attacks, but Sanders notes that some conclusions remain classified. He s...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA –Muslims are up against quite a few Republican contenders who are competing on how stringent they will be on Islamic Terrorism if elected. Not only that, they are also demanding proper management as it relates to the issue of immigration. A new survey has revealed that Muslims living in the U.S. share the same views as their non-Muslim counterparts, pertaining to the American society and where it is heading. What do Muslims, Jews, and Protestants Have in Common? TWEET THIS A survey was done on March 15 by a non-profit research group known as the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), which was founded by and comprised of physicians, business entrep...

In this Monday, May 5, 2014 file photo, women attend a demonstration in Lagos calling on the govement to rescue kidnapped school girls of a govement secondary school in Chibok. (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba, File) SHAFAQNA- Angry over lack of progress to resolve one of the highest-profile mass kidnappings in the world, Nigerians marched in their country’s major cities on Thursday to demand the safe retu of girls who were abducted by Boko Haram extremists two years ago from a school in Chibok. Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was expected in the northeaste town of Chibok for the aiversary of the kidnappings, said Yakubu Nkeki, leader of a support group of parents of the kidnapped girls. He sa...

SHAFAQNA-A former student of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky , leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, voiced conce over the health conditions of the senior cleric. Mustafa Muhammad said members of the IMN who met with Sheikh Zakzaky on Friday have described his health as grave. He said the situation of Shias in Nigeria is not good at all as the govement has adopted a confrontational approach against them. The govement has been taking measures aimed at eliminating Shia Islam in the country, he added. According toMustafa Muhammad, the govement is worried about the spread of Shia Islam in the African country. In December last year, Nigerian military forces surrounded the house of the religious leade...

SHAFAQNA-Nigerian soldiers have removed worshipers from a mosque in Katsina, northe Nigeria, in what appears to be an escalating campaign against the country’s Islamic Movement (IMN). Eyewitnesses reported that the soldiers, who were armed, first surrounded the Friday Mosque before entering the building and forcing out worshippers. IMN members deliberately stayed away from the mosque in order to avoid any confrontation. Friday’s army action against the IMN came despite calls from IHRC on Wednesday March 30 for the British Foreign and the Commonwealth Secretariat to intervene and pressure Nigeria to stop its armed forces persecuting the IMN. The calls followed reports that Nigerian soldiers w...

SHAFAQNA –After wiing the election by a landslide, President Donald J Trump has followed through with his vision to make America great again by tackling its two biggest threats: Mexicans and Muslims. His first order of business will be keeping out Mexicans by building a wall around the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall is intended to block Mexico’s crime, drugs, and rapists from entering the U.S. “It’s time they stop stealing American jobs,” said Trump. The wall is estimated to cost anywhere from ten to twenty billion dollars and will take four years of labor to complete. The exact height of the wall is yet to be determined, but Trump assures us, “It’s goa be huge.” After countless Craigslist ad...

SHAFAQNA –President Rouhani described April 1 (Iranian Islamic Republic Day) as the day of crystallization of democracy and Islamism in the country and said: “We should use all our energy to protect the Islamic Republic of Iran and make attempts for the country’s progress and development”. In this session which was held on Wednesday, presided by Dr Rouhani, he said: “Imam Khomeini (RA) were always stressing writing the constitution and the role of people’s votes in designating ‘the Islamic Republic’ and the country’s management”. He also described the Late Imam’s (RA) initiative for holding of the referendum in less than two months after the victory of the Islamic Revolution as an important...

SHAFAQNA –After Tuesday’sterrorist attacks in Belgium , it took no time for Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Donald Trump to compete over who could be tougher on Muslims. Aside from the usual rhetoric about locking down the borders and halting refugees, Mr. Cruz called for law enforcement to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods in the United States, which is similar to Mr. Trump’s earlier calls to surveil or even shut mosques. Mr. Cruz’s campaign clarified that he wants authorities to “work with Muslim communities” to identify and root out extremism, much like the community-based tactics police use to combat gangs. His camp said authorities should “partner wit...

SHAFAQNA – Sources have confirmed this March 24th, 2016 that Iran President Hassan Rouhani will visit Iraq, and perform an official to the shrines at a time when both Iran and Iraq have discuss bilateral rapprochement, and a common regional stance against terror. Iran which has had a difficult history with Baghdad back when President Saddam Hussein was in power, is now looking to Iraq as a powerful partner, and ally in the region. As for Iraq it has found in Tehran a source of political and tactical support against radicalism. At such a time when the Greater Middle East has been thrown in the middle of a furious terror storm, plagued by insecurity, and sectarian-based violence, Tehran has a...

SHAFAQNA –US President Barack Obama says Washington recognizes Iran’s “right to peaceful nuclear energy” in his Nowruz message to congratulate Iranians on the eve of the Persian calendar New Year. “We recognize Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy consistent with Iran’s nuclear obligations,” Obama said in the video message posted on Saturday, in reference to the nuclear deal between Iran and the global powers. Based on it, Iran agreed to restrict certain aspects of its nuclear energy in retu for the removal of certain economic sanctions. The US president said Iran’s commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), means Tehran wants “to assure the world that its nuclear pro...