Photos: Ghadir celebration at Ahlul Bayt Center in Hamilton, Canada

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Ahlul Bayt News Agency – On March 10, 632 CE, in the tenth year of Hijra, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) received a revelation from God, ordering him to halt the pilgrims at a pond called Khum, a place near Mecca, and to designate Imam Ali (PBUH) as his successor in guiding and ruling Muslims.

Eid al-Ghadeer is also known as Eid al-Akbar (the greatest Eid) in Islamic narrations, since Muslims believe that the mission of all the previous messengers of Allah became accomplished on this day.









Americans Protest Israeli Violations on Palestinians

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The demonstrators representing many communities, including a number of university campuses, gathered near the Israeli mission to the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday.

Waving Palestinian flags and carrying anti-Israel banners, the crowd denounced Tel Aviv’s wave of aggression across the occupied Palestinian territories and expressed support for the Palestinian resistance front.

Lina from Students for Justice in Palestine slammed the horrific nature of the recent killing by Israelis of 19-year old Palestinian Fadi Samir Mustafa Alloun in the occupied West Bank.

“His body was literally abused and kicked by illegal Israeli settlers, who laughed and shouted ” anti-Arab slogans, she said.

Earlier on October 4, Israeli police officers shot dead the Palestinian teenager near the Damascus Gate of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, claiming that he had attempted to stab an Israeli settler with a knife.

This is while a video of the moments leading to his death shows him running toward an Israeli police patrol as a group of Israeli settlers are chasing him.

Speaking to the crowd, a representative of Jews Against Israeli Apartheid also said the recent incident represented Israel’s desperation in the face of Palestinian resistance front.

Palestinian Americans and Muslims were joined by New York City residents who oppose Israel and question the US media’s official narrative about terrorism.

Referring to the increasing number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, a New Yorker said “We want to know that who the terrorists are. Just follow the body count. The body count will tell you who the terrorists are.”

Israeli forces and Palestinians have been clashing at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound for weeks now.

Israel has applied sweeping restrictions on entries into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound since August 26. The site is Islam’s third holiest after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina. It is also highly respected by Jews and Christians. 

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ISIS militants kill Afghan Muslim clergy

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Members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group have shot and killed a Muslim preacher in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar as they seek to promote their own heavily distorted and austere interpretation of religious principles in the areas under their control.

Niamatullah Noorzai, governor of the Bati Kot district, said Daesh extremists fatally shot Mawlawi Gul Agha at around 7 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Wednesday as he was en route to a seminary close to his residence in the district, located 140 kilometers (86 miles) east of the capital, Kabul.

The assassination comes as Afghan officials say Daesh terrorists are planning to launch attacks against a number of towns in Nangarhar Province.

Haji Ghalib, a governor of the Achin district in the troubled province, said on Monday that Daesh extremists are currently in a defensive mode and sporadically engage in exchanges of gunfire with Afghan security forces.

He added that Daesh militants, among them a number of foreign nationals, have fled the districts of Momand Dara and Abdul Khel to Bati Kot, Dur Baba and Nazyan districts after Afghan government troopers launched an offensive against the extremists.

“They (Daesh militants) want to carry out hit-and-run attacks in the districts they have fled to, and their aim is to shift the attention of security forces on something else. Nevertheless, we are aware and we have enough forces in all the related areas,” Ghalib pointed out.

Nangarhar has been witnessing a rise in the number of Daesh terrorists in some of its districts in recent months.

On June 16, the Afghan militant group, Taliban, warned Daesh ringleader Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi against “waging a parallel insurgency in Afghanistan.”

Taliban asked the Daesh leader to keep his men out of Afghanistan by withdrawing his support for those elements that are recruiting young militants in Taliban strongholds.

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity nearly 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

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US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks

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US counterterrorism officials have launched an inquiry to determine how the Daesh (ISIL) terror network is in possession of a large number of Toyota vehicles seen prominently in its propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The US Treasury Department is seeking information from Toyota about its pickup trucks and SUVs in the hands of ISIL terrorists.

Toyota says it does not know how the terrorist organization got hold of the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury.

The automaker said in a statement that the probe is part of a broad US effort to prevent the flow of capital and goods from international companies to Daesh in the Middle East.

“[We are] committed to complying fully with the laws and regulations of each country or region where we operate and require our dealers and distributors to do the same,” the statement said.

Propaganda videos released by ISIL in the past year show militants patrolling their territory in Hilux pickup trucks and convoys of Land Cruisers.

The Daily Telegraph reported in August that more than 800 Toyota Hilux pickup trucks were reported missing in Sydney, Australia, between 2014 and 2015. Terrorism officials said they believed the vehicles may have been exported to territory controlled by ISIL.

Toyota’s figures show sales of Hilux and Land Cruisers tripled in 2013 in Iraq before declining in 2014.

An Iraqi military spokesman said that middlemen from outside the country have been smuggling the trucks into Iraq.

“We are spending our time to fight those terrorists, so we cannot say we are controlling the border between Iraq and Syria,” Brigadier General Saad Maan said.

Daesh militants have also acquired a large number of US military vehicles as spoils of the US war in Iraq.

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Iran Pursuing Mina Incident via Interpol: Police Official

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Iran’s Deputy Police Chief Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni announced that the Iranian police are following up on the recent deadly crush in Mina, Saudi Arabia, through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

Iran seeks to probe into possible faults by the Saudi government in the Mina incident through Interpol and the country’s foreign ministry, General Momeni noted on Wednesday.

He made the remarks in an address to the 6th meeting of Iran’s Law Enforcement with foreign ambassadors and envoys in Tehran.

Tehran has shared its views on the deadly incident with Interpol, he added.

He further reiterated that the country’s Law Enforcement has formally voiced its preparedness to cooperate in the organization of next year’s Hajj pilgrimage, and will officially pursue the issue.

According to Iranian officials, over 4,700 pilgrims, including 465 Iranians, died in a crush on September 24 in Mina. The incident marked the worst ever Hajj disaster.

Saudi authorities have come under fire for their inability to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who converge on Mecca every year.

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10-year-old boy becomes youngest Qur’an memorizer in Bosnia

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A 10-year-old boy has become the youngest person in Bosnia-Herzegovina to memorize the holy Qur’an by heart, offering a role model for young Muslims worldwide.

Abdulrahman Tabakovic, who hails from a town just a few miles outside the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, officially became the country’s youngest Hafiz after clearing an official exam held recently by the local Islamic commission.

According to the father Hamzaliya Tabakovic, his son began reading the holy book just three years ago and as soon as he realized that the 10-year-old had a talent for memorizing the scripture, he got the child enrolled at a local Qur’an course.

“My son Abdulrahman memorized the first page of the Qur’an within just three days of the course,” the proud father said.

“It takes sacrifices to become a Hafiz. I had a hard time memorizing some parts of the Qur’an and for that I made sacrifices over some things such as spending less time with my friends,” the child said.

Tabakovic, who is still a fifth-grade elementary school student, said that he wished to pursue Islamic studies further in the future.

Hafiz is a coveted title among Muslims, which is used for someone who has completely memorized the Qur’an. The tradition of learning the Qur’an by heart dates back to the early days of Islam when it was a way of preserving the true essence and complete message of the religion and its holiest book. Even in this digital age, where storing large amounts of data on memory chips is easy, millions of Muslims around the world continue to learn the Qur’an by heart and have kept the tradition of becoming a Hafiz alive.

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Islamic banks control 16% of banking transactions in Mauritania

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Secretary General of the counseling center for Islamic banking in Mauritania Khalid Ould Ahmedou has revealed that Islamic banks in the country control 16 percent of the banking sector, despite short experience.

“Fear of usury has pushed a lot of money out of the economy cycle and banking transactions,” he said in a press statement.

Ahmedou revealed that only 10 percent of Mauritians are dealing with the banking system, saying that many Mauritanian sectors refrain from dealing with the banks for fear of getting involved in usurious operations.

The counseling center is independent body concerned with the provision of services to the banking institutions which are interested to convert to interest-free Islamic banking.

The center supervises over the transactions carried out by contracting banking institutions, and prepares periodic reports on the validity of their operations in terms of Islamic Sharia laws.

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Indian legal expert: Saudi Arabia is fully responsible for Mina crush

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A senior lawyer of the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday put the responsibility of the disastrous stampede in Mina on the Saudi Arabia government and called for filing a case against Riyadh in the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Dr. Romesh Gautam, said, “The Saudi Arabia is totally responsible for the incident in Mina. Occurrence of the incident is nothing but a total mismanagement of the Hajj ceremony by the Saudi government.”

As per the established conventions, when we visit a particular county, the host county is fully responsible for our safety there. But the Saudi government has totally failed in ensuring the safety and security of the Hajj pilgrims during the current Hajj ceremony”, he added.

Terming the Mina incident as a “pure security lapse”, Dr. Gautam said, “No doubt, the Mina incident in which a large number of people lost their lives was not an act of God. But, it was purely a security lapse and the Saudi government is fully responsible for it.”

“Saudi government should compensate the losses inflicted on the victims of the incident”, the seasoned legal expert added.

Expressing his readiness to fight on behalf of victims of the Mina incident in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the Saudi government, Dr. Gautam said, “The Saudi government should be tried in ICJ. I fully support this cause and I am ready to help the family members of the victims to get justice. Every county that has lost its nationals in the incident should go to ICJ.”

Emphasizing the need for management of the Hajj ceremony by a joint committee of the member states of the Organizations of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), he added, “Given the repeated disastrous incidents during the Hajj ceremony in the recent years, it would be better if a joint committee of the member states of the OIC mange the ceremony to avert such incidents in future.”

“India has lost a number of its nationals in the Mina incident and New Delhi also should support this idea”, Dr. Gautam added.

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Mina fact-finding body must be formed: senior Iranian cleric

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A fact-finding committee must be formed to investigate the recent deadly crush during the Hajj rituals in Mina, outside the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a senior Iranian cleric says.

Based on the remarks made by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials, a fact-finding committee must be established to look into the Mina disaster, Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Ali Qazi-Askar, the Leader’s representative for hajj and pilgrimage affairs, said on Monday.

“Saudi Arabia should engage in special cooperation in determining the main culprit of the Mina incident,” Qazi-Askar stated, adding that the guilty must be dealt with “decisively”.

The crush happened on September 24 after two large masses of pilgrims fused together. Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization puts the death toll from the crush at around 4,700 people, including 464 Iranians. Saudi Arabia, however, says some 770 people have been killed.

Iran says Saudi Arabia’s incompetence in handling the safety at the rituals caused the deadly incident.

The Iranian cleric also said two groups of people lost their lives in Mina; the first died in the early moments of the tragic event due to high temperature and the crowd’s pressure, and the second succumbed to their injuries due to untimely medical care.

Qazi-Askar further referred to Ayatollah Khamenei’s “decisive and brave” stance following the calamity, saying that the Leader’s remarks caused Saudi officials to accelerate the process of repatriating the bodies of Iranian victims.

During a speech on September 30, Ayatollah Khamenei said Saudi Arabia had not made good on its obligations regarding the Hajj disaster, emphasizing that Iran’s possible response will be “tough and harsh.”

“Should we decide to show any reaction, our reaction will be tough and harsh,” said the Leader.

The bodies of 218 Iranian victims have so far been returned to the country by two separate flights. The bodies of the remaining victims, some of whom have not been identified, are kept in a cold storage facility in Mecca, and are set to be identified later in Iran.

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Iranian Jewish urge end to destruction of mosques

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According to the Center of Supervision on Mosques Affairs, Siamak Moreh Sedgh, the Iranian Jewish MP emphasized the significance and sacredness of all kinds of holy places, saying “all divine temples are the center of God’s attention. There is no difference between a church, temple or mosque. All of them are places of worship.”

“Mosques are the best element for unity in Muslim World but have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups and are being destructed,” he added.

“I personally respect followers of all religions and wish them success. Many of holy places of Muslim, Christian and Jewish people had come under attack and this matter has provoked the anger of all believers. Unfortunately, today we are also witnessing the destruction of mosques in the Muslim World.”

MP Moreh Sedgh underscored the significance of cultural and religious heritages and said, “all of us have the responsibility to protect religious holy sites.”

The Jewish minority MP further added that while mosques are not considered as holy places for all, yet it is the duty of believers of all religions to respect Muslims values.

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