Headlines:
- Hillary Clinton to run for US President
- Sisi looks to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood
- Yarmouk Falls to ISIS
- Islam continues to grow and spread
Hillary Clinton to run for US President
Hillary Clinton made her presidential candidacy official on Sunday 5, something that was well expected. She launched her campaign website on Sunday, telling Americans she wanted to be their “champion.” Despite being a household democratic name, with her husband Bill Clinton a former US president, she was beaten to the democratic nomination by none other than Barak Hussain Obama. But the prospects of the Democrats returning to office look rather bleak. When Obama ends his term in November 2016, he will in all likelihood be one of the most unpopular presidents. For many in America he has overseen the weakening of the US position globally and presided over one of the most lopsided economies in US history with a mere 10% of the population owns 74% of the nation’s wealth. Abroad the US failed to solve none of its foreign policy adventures, today Iraq is marred in civil war, Afghanistan has a leader with power only up to his front room. In South Sudan, where the US orchestrated its separation, election and government the country continues sot be ravaged by civil war and both Russia and China are reversing US prowess in their regions. Therefore whoever is US president in January 2017 will face unprecedented challenges.
Sisi looks to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood
An Egyptian court confirmed the death sentence on Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 13 others for planning attacks against the state. Hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in a crackdown on the Brotherhood following the removal of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. The sentences are the final phase in the trial which saw Muslim Brotherhood leaders charged with encouraging members of the group to confront the state and spread chaos following the dispersal of protests in 2013. They were handed down following advice from Egypt’s grand mufti.
Whilst Sisi took power in July 2013, overthrowing the elected Muslim Brotherhood (MB) government, much of the military government’s attention was focused on destroying what remained of the MB. Throughout 2014 thousands of people were detained in prison, indeed, the revolutionary youth attend their court hearings in wheelchairs and today no one can even reach Tahrir Square. If one says something that upsets the state, he or she is arrested by the police with a ready-made list of accusations that subject one to prosecution, putting one before a court without even hearing one’s statement. Such people are put in front of a judge who issues a ruling for imprisonment before defence lawyers get a chance to speak. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has worked to consolidate his rule with full blessing from the US.
Yarmouk Falls to ISIS
The Yarmouk camp was overrun by ISIS on 9 April. A district of the city of Damascus, located 5 miles from the center of Damascus. Bashar al-Assad’s regime spent nearly two years massacring Palestinians in Yarmouk camp, after regime bombardments destroyed nearly 70% of the camp. When thousands were arrested and tortured to death, and after civilians were forced to resort to scavenging through trash and weeds to ward off starvation, the world looked the other way. The al-Assad regime used a starve-and-surrender siege strategy in order to quell the uprising when the rebels were launching attacks on Damascus, the capital of the country. But al-Assad’s siege of civilians helped ISIS in Yarmouk because — after two and a half years of starvation and bombardment — the local battalions in the camp were too weak to push ISIS out. But residents of Yarmouk were surprised to see a raid of hundreds of ISIS fighters from south Damascus successfully enter their area. When al-Hajar al-Aswad and Yalda were controlled by the Free Syrian Army, there were many attempts to break the siege on the camp with similar raids. Each one was a disaster; Assad’s forces have the area tightly monitored and controlled and this is why is extremely unlikely the ISIS could have happened unless Assad wanted it to.
Islam continues to grow and spread
The prestigious Washington based think tank the Pew Research Centre published its report on global demographic projections from 2020-2050. It research found that by 2050, the number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world. Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the US and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population. In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population. India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia. In the US, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the US than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion. Despite the global propaganda against Islam those who embrace Islam is growing and the existing Muslim population also continues to grow. There is also a very unique trend taking place amongst the Ummah. Islam came to the indigenous Arabs in the Hijaz, but today the non-Arabs make up the bulk of the Ummah, in fact the Arabs are a minority within Islam. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population of 204 million, it was the tradesmen form the Hijaz who brought Islam to this land. India and Pakistan both have a Muslim population of around 177 million each – the people of Iraq who embraced Islam took Islam to Hind. Bangladesh has a Muslim population of 148 million and also witnessed Iraqi tradesmen bring Islam to them. Today South and South-East Asia constitute over 60% of the Ummah, whilst the Middle East comprises under 20%. The uniqueness of Islam is the fact that people of all backgrounds embraced it and current and projected population trends show this.