The Cordoba Update 7/2017

ISLAMIST-SECULAR RELATIONS

Maroc, 26.04.2017 : L’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes dans l’héritage

Les dernières interventions dans les médias de Mohamed Abdelouahab Rafiqi, plus connu sous le nom de Abou Hafs, viennent de provoquer un vif échange dans les milieux religieux et laïcs marocains. M. Rafiqi, qui a récemment ouvert le centre Al Mizane soutenu par le parti Istiqlal pour lutter contre l’extrémisme religieux, est une figure du courant salafiste marocain. Il avait fait ses classes en Arabie Saoudite et passé près de dix ans de sa vie derrière les barreaux avant de se faire gracier par le roi en 2012.

M. Rafiqi a contribué, avec une centaine d’hommes, à un livre publié début avril à l’initiative de Hakima Lebarr, sous le titre « Les hommes défendent l’égalité en héritage », appelant à un effort de réflexion (Itjihad) sur l’égalité homme-femme dans le domaine de l’héritage et plus généralement sur toutes les questions sociales et sociétales. Il a ensuite affirmé, lors d’un entretien exclusif sur la chaine publique 2M, dimanche 16 avril, que « le débat et la révision quant à l’égalité en matière d’héritage n’est plus une ligne rouge ».

Abou Hafs s’est vu très critiqué par ses anciens pairs, Mohamed Fizazi ou Hassan Kettani par exemple, grandes figures salafistes du paysage marocain, qui lui ont reproché ses prises de positions qualifiées d’insolentes, d’incrédules et de contraires aux textes claires du Coran. Mais les réactions les plus violentes se sont trouvées sur les réseaux sociaux, allant jusqu’aux menaces de mort, avec certains internautes appelant directement à son assassinat. Ces déclarations lui ont aussi coûté de se faire exclure de la Ligue des Oulémas du Maghreb.

Par ailleurs, cette proposition à une nouvelle lecture des textes religieux et à une nouvelle façon de penser à travers l’ouverture d’un débat, a aussi suscité un soutien provenant de la sphère intellectuelle et de la société civile, notamment l’alliance féministe « Printemps de la dignité », qui a annoncé par la voix de l’une de ses fondatrices, Khadija Rouggany, vouloir « capitaliser sur cette sortie » et entrer en communication avec Abou Hafs sur ce sujet.

Liens pour plus d’informations :
http://www.medias24.com/MAROC/SOCIETE/172739-Un-tabou-est-tombe
https://telquel.ma/2017/04/25/khadija-rouggany-les-regles-lheritage-inadaptables-notre-contexte
http://telquel.ma/2017/04/11/abou-hafs-et-ahmed-khamlichi-contribuent-a-un-ouvrage-defendant-legalite
http://telquel.ma/2017/04/16/ce-pense-lancien-predicateur-salafiste-abou-hafs-legalite-en-heritage
http://telquel.ma/2017/04/24/abou-hafs-exclu-rabita-oulemas-du-maghreb-arabe-ses-positions
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/431510/politique/abou-hafs-lex-salafiste-marocain-parle-de-legalite-lheritage
http://telquel.ma/2017/04/20/abou-hafs-nouveau-porteur-lislam-eclaire-cible-du-salafisme-renferme
http://www.medias24.com/MAROC/SOCIETE/172590-Abou-Hafs-Entretien-sans-langue-de-bois

TRANSITION AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION / TRANSITION ET PARTICIPATION POLITIQUE

Egypt, 04.16.2017: American Aid Worker Is Cleared of Child Abuse Charges in Egypt

After criticizing his predecessor’s human rights record, President Donald Trump on Monday, April 3, 2017, refused to publicly condemn widespread human rights abuses in Egypt during a visit from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Two weeks later, after three years in detention, the Egyptian-American aid worker Aya Hijazi was cleared of child abuse and human trafficking charges in Cairo on Sunday April 16, 2017, abruptly ending a high-profile case that had become an international symbol of Egypt’s harsh crackdown on aid groups. A courtroom in downtown Cairo erupted in cheers after the judge dropped all charges against Ms. Hijazi, her Egyptian husband and all six other defendants in what human rights groups called a weak case driven by defective evidence.

Based on the Editorial of the New York Times (April 4, 2017), “American presidents must sometimes deal with unsavory foreign leaders in pursuit of America’s national interest. But that doesn’t require inviting them to the White House and lavishing them with praise and promises of unconditional support. Yet that’s what President Trump did on Monday (April 3, 2017) in not just welcoming but celebrating one of the most authoritarian leaders in the Middle East, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, a man responsible for killing hundreds of Egyptians, jailing thousands of others and, in the process, running his country and its reputation into the ground.”

According to human rights groups, more than 40,000 opposition members have been jailed in Egypt since el-Sisi came to power. A 2016 US State Department report on human rights in Egypt is rife with accounts of torture, unlawful detention, and abuses by state security forces.

Links for more information:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/16/egypt-aya-hijazi-detention-child
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/world/middleeast/aya-hijazi-egypt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-egypt-human-rights_us
https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/#wrapper

RELATIONS BETWEEN COMMUNITIES OF DIFFERENT ETHNIC, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS /
RELATIONS ENTRE COMMUNAUTÉS DE DIFFÉRENTES AFFILIATIONS ETHNIQUES, CULTURELLES ET RELIGIEUSES

Iraq, 04-12 April 2017: Political Contention Over the Future of Kurdish Independence in Kirkuk and Baghdad.

The official announcement of a referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan has led to a scuffle over the inclusion of key territories for the aspiring nation. Particularly, tensions have been seen in Kirkuk, the capital of the eponymous province in northern Iraq. Subsequent to a dispute over the Kirkuk provisional council’s decision to raise the Kurdish flag over municipal buildings, which was vehemently protested by members of the city’s Turkmen and Arab populations, the council voted in favour of holding a referendum on determining whether the province should join the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). According to regional sources, the vote on the referendum was boycotted by Turkmen and Arab members of the Kirkuk council.

KRG militias (called Peshmerga) have effectively controlled the city of Kirkuk since June 2014, when the Iraqi army withdrew when faced with an offensive by the Islamic State group on the provincial capital. Furthermore, the city is reportedly claimed by Kurdish Iraqis as “the cultural capital of a future independent Kurdish state.” Kirkuk’s Governor, Najmaldin Karim, has cited deep dissatisfaction with relations with Baghdad as a core motivation for joining the KRG. In a statement to Middle East Eye, Karim said “we have a lot of grievances with Baghdad. It’s a strong, centralised and inefficient, incompetent administration. Baghdad is very controlling, and the constitution says Iraq should be federal.” The moves towards referenda on Kurdish sovereignty, both in Kirkuk as well as in the KRG, have been met with strong opposition from some quarters in Baghdad, including from the Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi. In a weekly press conference on 12 April, al-Abadi criticised the escalation of political demands for independence, and stated that a referendum in Kirkuk will not be possible while the so-called Islamic State remains present in many areas of the province, and when numerous internally displaced Iraqis continue to seek refuge there. He furthermore urged for “collaboration and dialogue” in the dispute over Kirkuk Province. Other political figures, like Nouri al-Maliki, currently one of Iraq’s Vice-Presidents, have defined the Kirkuk region as a red-line in Kurdish secession. Local news sources reported that al-Maliki stated that the result of the referendum will only be approved if the process is held in the three Kurdish provinces of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Duhok, but excludes Kirkuk.

Iraqi Kurdish parties are apparently unanimous in their aim for a sovereign Kurdish state, and reportedly a multi-party alliance is currently in the process of fixing a date for a public referendum on independence from Iraq. According to one local commentator, the pursuit of Kurdish independence “has become an attempt to escape the thorny issues” of deep internal political disputes in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, caused by the paralysis of the Kurdish parliament since 2013 and tensions over the ongoing leadership of Regional President, Massoud Barzani. Certainly, the KRG’s independence project cannot be achieved through referendum only, and numerous contentious issues will need to be negotiated with a consenting government in Baghdad, including the designation of disputed Kurdish territories like Kirkuk, and the definition of the situation of ethnic and religious minorities.

Links for more information:
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/03/kirkuk-council-kurdistan-flag-iraq-baghdad
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kirkuk-provinicial-council-votes-hold-referendum-kurdistan-annexation
http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/12042017
http://www.iraqinews.com/baghdad-politics/pm-abadi-urges-dialogue-resolve-sovereignty-disputes
http://www.iraqinews.com/features/independence-referendum-will-include-kurdish-areas-official
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/iraq-kurdistan-independence-referendum

VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND THE WAR ON TERROR / EXTRÉMISME VIOLENT ET LA GUERRE CONTRE LA TERREUR

Egypt, 09.04.2017: Palm Sunday Bombings and Egypt’s State of Emergency

With reports of approximately 50 people dead and over 100 injured in two Palm Sunday bombings, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi emerged from a National Defense Council meeting and spoke to the nation in a televised address. Among the declarations Egypt’s Sisi announced was his intention to declare a three-month national state of emergency.

The state of emergency is delimited by Article 154 of Egypt’s 2014 Constitution, which states that the president must consult the Cabinet before issuing an official declaration, after which the decision must be submitted to Parliament. A parliamentary majority must approve the declaration. Once this period elapses, it can only be extended for an additional three months by a two-thirds majority vote. Only one month before the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, the Supreme Constitutional Court issued a ruling on June 2, 2013 that declared some of the features of the 1958 emergency law unconstitutional, a decision that took the court 20 years of deliberations after the appeal was filed in 1993. The ruling stripped the president of the ability to direct the interior minister to conduct warrantless arrests and administrative detentions, which was an infamous feature of the state of emergency under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, who kept the exceptional law in place for all of his 30 years in power. Despite this limitation, the emergency law still grants the president a number of exceptional powers, significantly the power to refer civilians to State Security Emergency Courts, which lapsed in 2012 when the state of emergency expired.

Robert Fisk wrote in the Independent, “by declaring emergency laws, the President is proving to the world that private investment in his country cannot increase. Who wants to invest in a nation whose capital is ‘invested’ by Isis?” Bahey eldin Hassan, the director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, wrote in the New York Times that “These attacks demonstrate that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s counterterrorism strategy is failing. Mr. Sisi claims that he is committed to fighting terrorism, but in reality his energy is directed toward his other enemies: secular activists, journalists, independent members of Parliament, businessmen and academics who oppose him, human rights organizations and peaceful dissident Islamist groups.”

Meanwhile, Israel has renewed travel warnings for the Sinai Peninsula in response to the Palm Sunday bombings, following a meeting of Israel’s counter terrorism committee, according to a statement published by the Arab media spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister, Ofir Gendelman.

Links for more information:
http://www.madamasr.com/en/2017/04/09/news/u/palm-sunday-bombings-live
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/isis-egypt-cairo-coptic-christians-murdered-president-al-sisi-emergency-laws
http://www.madamasr.com/en/2017/04/10/feature/politics/what-sisi-can-and-cant-do-under-a-state-of-emergency

USA & Nigeria, 11.04.2017: U.S. Plans Sale of Warplanes to Nigeria for Fighting Boko Haram

The Trump administration is poised to sell up to 12 light attack aircraft to Nigeria to support the country’s fight against the Boko Haram militant group, despite criticism from human rights organizations that the West African country has not done enough to stop the abuses and corruption that flourish in the military. The pending move is the third time in three years that the United States has moved toward selling the Super Tucano attack planes, a transaction that would require congressional approval. The Obama administration stopped one proposed sale on Jan. 17 just as it was about to be sent to Congress for approval, after a Nigerian fighter jet searching for Boko Haram members accidentally bombed a camp for displaced people, killing dozens of people and wounding more. But in a telephone conversation with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria on Feb. 15, President Trump indicated that he would take another look at the proposed sale, administration officials said. “President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram,” the White House said in a statement after the call.

American officials said the United States would continue to emphasize to the Nigerian government that human rights abuses and violations by its security forces, as well as corruption, impede efforts to defeat Boko Haram. Sarah Margon, the Washington director with Human Rights Watch, said on Tuesday that the Nigerian military has a history of attacks that inflict a heavy civilian toll and that the January bombing of the camp for displaced people “is not the sole example that we have of the air force dropping munitions on civilians.”

Last year, the Nigerian military carried out massacres in two villages in the Marte area of northeastern Nigeria, according to numerous witnesses. They said soldiers arrived looking for suspected Boko Haram fighters and when villagers said none existed, they gunned down more than 100 unarmed men.

Links for more information:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/world/africa/us-warplanes-nigeria-boko-haram
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/world/africa/nigerian-jet-mistakenly-bombs-refugee-camp
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/africa/nigeria-civilian-massacre

Iraq, 09.04.17: The New Arab Exclusive on Iraq since 2003 – Deaths, Displaced, Poverty and Unemployment.

The New Arab (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed in Arabic), a London-based media outlet founded in 2014, has obtained previously-unpublished figures on the exorbitant human and economic cost of conflict in Iraq since the United States-led invasion and occupation of the country in 2003, in the context of the ‘War on Terror.’ These figures have been described as “non-final but roughly accurate by sources in Iraqi government departments, including the Interior Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Justice Ministry and the Security and Defence Committee in parliament.” In the past decade, the Iraqi government has consistently refused to publish official figures on the victims of the violent conflict in the country and it has also occluded results from recent United Nations-sponsored “surveys of education, healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture,” leading to speculation that the central government fears the potential backlash in response to such figures.

According to the New Arab’s findings, up to 430,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and early 2017. Around 620,000 people were injured in the same period, and a third of these – over 200,000 people – received “life-changing injuries.” The highest number of fatalities was recorded in 2006, when 59,000 people were killed in terror and militia attacks. By December 2016, up to 58,000 Iraqis remained missing and 271,000 were detained; including some 187,000 who have yet to be referred to Iraqi courts. Approximately 3.4 million Iraqi citizens have sought refuge outside the country and are dispersed across 64 countries, and 4.1 million people have been internally displaced by conflict. Furthermore, as many as 5.6 million Iraqis aged up to 17 years are recorded as orphaned and up to 2 million Iraqi women aged between 14 and 52 have been widowed – this last figure indicating discrepancies in the official figures on deaths since 2003.

In addition to the immediate human cost of the conflict in Iraq, political violence has also had consequences on the nation’s potential for positive development in a number of areas. According to the same data retrieved by the New Arab, up to 6 million Iraqis are illiterate today and national rates of unemployment remain high, at an average of 31%. Furthermore, an estimated 9% of Iraqi children below the age of 15 are currently in the work force – i.e. not in education. Up to 35% of Iraqi citizens live below the poverty line, meaning that they live on less than $5 per day. 6% of Iraqis are also addicted to narcotic substances. However, healthcare in Iraq has become “a thing of the past,” according to the report. There is currently only one hospital bed per 1,000 Iraqis in the country and some “40 diseases and epidemics have spread across the country, including cholera, polio and hepatitis.” Cancers and congenital diseases have also seen a marked increase since 2003.

According to sources in the Iraqi government, 13,328 factories have been shut down since the US-led occupation 14 years ago. Iraq currently relies on imports for food, building materials, and other necessities. It is also suffering from a national housing crisis, with as many as 2.6 million new housing units needed to address this deficit. Moreover, 9,000 schools out of a total of 14,658 are partially or totally damaged; this leaves a deficit of approximately 11,000 schools to meet the needs of school-age children in the country. However, national debt has reached $124 billion and is currently “held by 29 different nations, the IMF, and six Western oil companies,” leading to the important question of how the Iraqi government will practically seek to address the mountainous social and economic problems it is currently facing.

Another significant factor that the New Arab report notes is the proliferation of a ‘war economy’ in Iraq, with some 126 local and foreign security companies, and an estimated 73 different armed militias with a total of 117,000 fighters, operating in the country. While media reports have increasingly hailed the end of the fight against the so-called Islamic State, which is currently under siege in Mosul by a large coalition of local, national and international forces, the figures reported in this article demonstrate the size and scope of the problems that are still looming on the Iraqi horizon.

Links for more information:
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2017/4/9/fourteen-years-after-us-led-occupation-iraq-a-dead-cancer-patient

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The views and perspectives contained in the Weekly Update are from individual contributors and external sources, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or position of the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva. The links are neither intended as an endorsement of particular publications nor the only source for the updates, but to connect to information in the public domain, for those interested in background or further details.