Gerry Baker is Editor at Large of The Wall Street Journal. His weekly column for the editorial page, “Free Expression,” appears in The Wall Street Journal each Tuesday. Mr. Baker is also host of “WSJ at Large with Gerry Baker,” a weekly news and current affairs interview show on the Fox Business Network, and the weekly WSJ Opinion podcast “Free Expression” where he speaks with some of the world’s leading writers, influencers and thinkers about a variety of subjects.
Mr. Baker previously served as Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones from 2013-2018. Prior to that, Mr. Baker was Deputy Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal from 2009-2013. He has been a journalist for more than 30 years, writing and broadcasting for some of the world’s most famous news organizations, including his tenure at The Financial Times, The Times of London, and The BBC.
He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, where he graduated in 1983 with a 1st Class Honors Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria on Monday published preliminary results of an indirect vote for a new parliament, a key step in the shift away from ousted leader Bashar al-Assad but one that has sparked concerns about inclusivity and fairness under the country’s new leaders.
Sunday’s vote saw around 6,000 members of regional electoral colleges choose candidates from pre-approved lists, part of a process to produce nearly two-thirds of the new 210-seat body. President Ahmed al-Sharaa will later select the remaining third.
In the days preceding the vote, analysts and some Syrians had voiced concerns that it was too centrally managed and that suspending elections in areas outside government control meant not all communities were being fairly represented.
In preliminary results issued on Monday, Syria’s electoral committee said that 119 lawmakers had been selected but did not include the number of votes each received. It said unsuccessful candidates had until 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) to appeal.
CONCERNS OVER REPRESENTATION, SHORT APPEALS WINDOW
Six new lawmakers are women, according to a Reuters count verified by election observers. The observers said four of those elected were from religious minorities, including a Christian, an Ismaili Muslim and two Alawites, the sect from which Assad hails.
Another six are from ethnic minorities: three Turkmen and three Kurds, one of whom is a woman, the observers said.
One of the election observers described the new parliament as overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and male. The observer also said the short appeal window severely restricted the ability to file objections and undermined the integrity of the process.
The authorities say they resorted to an indirect system rather than universal suffrage due to a lack of reliable population data following the war, which killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions.
Citing security and political reasons, authorities postponed the vote in areas outside government control, including Kurdish-held parts of Syria’s north and northeast, as well as the province of Sweida, held by the Druze minority.
Those suspensions left 21 seats empty. It remains unclear when votes could be held there.
Analysts say the 70 lawmakers appointed by Sharaa will be decisive in determining the level of diversity and inclusivity of Syria’s first post-Assad parliament.
Parliament was slightly larger under Assad, with 250 seats of which two-thirds were reserved for members of his Baath party. The last elections in July 2024 were labeled a farce by Assad’s opponents.
Female representation in parliament was also low under Assad and his father Hafez before him. Women lawmakers made up only 6% to 13% of the legislature from 1981 until Bashar al-Assad was toppled, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which collects data on national parliaments worldwide.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari and Maya Gebeily; writing by Maya Gebeily)
BEIRUT — BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese pop star turned wanted Islamic militant handed himself over to the country’s military intelligence service Saturday 12 years after going on the run, judicial and security officials said.
Fadel Shaker, had been on the run since the bloody street clashes between Sunni Muslim militants and the Lebanese army in June 2013 in the coastal city of Sidon. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020 for providing support to a “terrorist group.”
On Saturday night, a Lebanese military intelligence force reached one of the entrances of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near Sidon and took Shaker, who had been hiding inside the camp for more than 12 years, into custody, two security and two judicial officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the handover came after coordination between mediators and officials at the Lebanese Defense Ministry.
The officials said that now that Shaker is being held by Lebanese authorities, the sentences that he received while on the run will be dropped and he will be questioned in preparation to stand trial on new charges of committing crimes against the military.
Shaker had denied in the past playing any role in the clashes in Sidon and said he never advocated bloodshed.
The 2013 shootout, which pitted followers of hard-line Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir against the Lebanese army, killed at least 18 soldiers and deepened sectarian tensions in Lebanon between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
In a video uploaded to YouTube on the second day of the street fighting in Sidon, a bearded Shaker called his enemies pigs and dogs, and taunted the military, saying “we have two rotting corpses that we snatched from you yesterday” — apparently referring to two slain soldiers.
Shaker became a pop star throughout the Arab world in 2002 with a smash hit. Almost 10 years later, he fell under the influence of al-Assir and shocked fans by turning up next to the hard-line cleric at rallies and later saying that he was giving up singing to become closer to God.
In July, Shaker, along with his son Mohammed, released a new song that went viral throughout the Arab world and got over 113 million views of YouTube.
Shaker’s handover comes as the Lebanese army began the process to collect weapons from Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps that have been off-limits to Lebanese authorities.
Sidoarjo, Indonesia — Indonesian rescue workers were racing against the clock Wednesday to try to find survivors from a school collapse in the province of East Java. At least 91 students were still unaccounted for, three were confirmed dead and about 100 others injured.
The Islamic boarding school, which authorities said was undergoing an unauthorized expansion to add two new stories, collapsed during afternoon prayers on Monday, sending slabs of concrete and other heavy debris crashing onto the students below.
Most rescues typically happen within 24 hours after such a disaster, with chances of survival decreasing each day after that, and more than 300 workers continued to work desperately at the scene to try and reach people still thought to be alive and trapped below.
Rescuers search for survivors at a boarding school in Sidoarjo, in Indonesia’s East Java province, Oct. 1, 2025, two days after the multi-story school building collapsed.
Suryanto Suryanto/Anadolu/Getty
“We hope that we can complete this operation soon,” Mohammad Syafii, head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters. “We are currently racing against time because it is possible that we can still save lives of those we have detected within the golden hours.”
Of the approximately 100 injured, 26 were still hospitalized Wednesday and many were said to have suffered head injuries and broken bones, authorities said.
Syafii’s agency said at least six children were believed to be alive under the rubble, but the search was complicated, with the slabs of concrete and other parts of the building remaining unstable. Heavy equipment was available but was not being used due to concerns it could cause further collapse.
Rescuers have been running oxygen, water and food through narrow gaps in the rubble to those still trapped under the debris to keep them alive.
Search teams have also used detectors and thermal drones to detect potential survivors who could be rescued.
The structure fell on top of hundreds of people at about 2:30 p.m. local time on Monday in a prayer hall at the century-old al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, on the eastern side of Indonesia’s Java island.
The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, between ages 12 and 18. Female students were praying in another part of the building and managed to escape, survivors said.
Relatives of students look at a list of names on a board as search and rescue operations continue at a boarding school in Sidoarjo, in Indonesia’s East Java province, Oct. 1, 2025, after the multi-story school building collapsed.
Suryanto Suryanto/Anadolu/Getty
The prayer hall was two stories high but two more were being added without a permit, according to authorities. Police said the old building’s foundation was apparently unable to support two floors of concrete and collapsed during the pouring process.
Authorities initially had said only 38 people were missing but revised that upward to 91 late Tuesday after consulting attendance lists and talking with families.
“In the early stages there will inevitably be some confusion about the data,” said Suharyanto, the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, who only goes by one name as is common in Indonesia.
At Dearborn, Michigan’s first city council meeting since his clash with a local Christian minister went viral after a heated exchange over a controversial honorary street sign naming, Mayor Abdullah Hammoud declined to apologize for his saying the minister was “not welcome here” and that he would “launch a parade” when he left town.
Ted Barham, the same Christian minister, opened his remarks at Tuesday’s meeting by repeating the words that went viral at the previous one on Sept. 9.
“The mayor, in a way, cursed me, as was seen around the world. And I would like to repeat what I said that day to you, Mr. Mayor: ‘God bless you,’” Barham said.
Barham said he had no plans to file a lawsuit despite pressure from supporters.
Ted Barham, a Christian minister, speaks during the Dearborn City Council meeting Tuesday, weeks after his clash with Mayor Abdullah Hammoud drew national attention.(City of Dearborn)
“People have been saying I should do that all over the world. I have no intention of doing that,” Barham said.
Instead, he urged the council to consider his larger message: “Bless those who curse you… love your haters. And I would say that in regard to Hezbollah as well. I would [say] that in regard to Mr. Siblani and I would [say] to Israel, too. ‘Love your haters.’”
He then made a new appeal.
“Would it be possible for you, Mayor Hammoud, in front of the world and council members to join me in saying we would like to put out a Christian call to prayer and a Christian call to faith in all the countries around the world where an Islamic call to prayer goes out?”
Others took the microphone to press the council more directly.
Ted Barham, a Christian minister, makes a point while addressing the Dearborn City Council in Michigan on Tuesday.(City of Dearborn)
Anthony Deegan told the chamber, “We love you with the love of Christ. We want the blessings of God to be in your life… it’s not a matter of us versus them.” But he then asked pointedly: “Do you definitively, unequivocally, by name, denounce Hamas and Hezbollah? Or do you support them?”
Shane Rife of Garden City said he was “shocked” to learn that Hammoud had appeared at a rally where Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani praised Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “hero.”
“We have a mayor in the United States who is sharing a platform with somebody, with [a] terrorist!?” Rife asked. “Where is your allegiance? Is your allegiance to the United States or is your allegiance to Hezbollah?”
Pastor Jeff Davis of Dearborn Evangelical Covenant Church also voiced support for Barham, stressing his long service in the city.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud listens during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where he declined to apologize for remarks that drew national scrutiny.(City of Dearborn)
Nagi Almudhegi, a Yemeni-American engineer and candidate for mayor, also weighed in during an interview with Fox News Digital.
“The United States of America is built on the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. These two principles are sacrosanct,” Almudhegi said. “If I were in Mayor Abdullah Hamoud’s spot at that time, I would have not said anything. The gentleman has a right, as an American citizen, to speak his mind. And he did it in a respectful, calm way. The mayor should have afforded him that opportunity instead of launching into that tirade.”
He warned that Hammoud’s “not welcome here” remark risked fueling a false impression that Christians are not accepted in Dearborn.
“People would get the impression, or it would feed into the paranoia that is very, very wrong, that Dearborn is a racist place, or there’s no place for Christians. And that is what I’m 100% against,” Almudhegi said.
Almudhegi had previously released an official statement condemning Hammoud’s remarks as “uncalled for, classless, unprofessional and just plain wrong,” and voiced support for Barham.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud speaks during a City Council meeting in Dearborn, Mich., on Sept. 9.(City of Dearborn)
When Hammoud spoke later in the evening at the meeting, he did not answer the many calls for an apology or the demand for a specific denunciation. Instead, he said, Dearborn “represents the best of America” where “people of all backgrounds, of all faiths, and of all beliefs can live peacefully and respectfully as neighbors.”
“For decades, people have been intent on dividing and disparaging our city,” Hammoud said. “Dearborn has never fallen for these divisive attempts. Back then and still now, Dearborn residents from every corner of this city have come together to shun hatred and to root it out of the place that we’re all proud to call home.”
The controversy continues to loom over Dearborn’s November mayoral election, where Hammoud faces Almudhegi.
With only two names on the ballot, the clash over religious freedom and free speech sparked by Barham’s remarks and the mayor’s response may become the defining issue for voters.
Hammoud’s office did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.
PHILADELPHIA — Archeologists studying ancient civilizations in northern Iraq during the 1930s also befriended the nearby Yazidi community, documenting their daily lives in photographs that were rediscovered after the Islamic State militant group devastated the tiny religious minority.
The black-and-white images ended up scattered among the 2,000 or so photographs from the excavation kept at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which led the ambitious dig.
One photo — a Yazidi shrine — caught the eye of Penn doctoral student Marc Marin Webb in 2022, nearly a decade after it was destroyed by IS extremists plundering the region. Webb and others began scouring museum files and gathered almost 300 photos to create a visual archive of the Yazidi people, one of Iraq’s oldest religious minorities.
The systematic attacks, which the United Nations called a genocide, killed thousands of Yazidis and sent thousands more into exile or sexual slavery. It also destroyed much of their built heritage and cultural history, and the small community has since become splintered around the world.
Ansam Basher, now a teacher in England, was overwhelmed with emotion when she saw the photos, particularly a batch from her grandparents’ wedding day in the early 1930s.
“No one would imagine that a person my age would lose their history because of the ISIS attack,” said the 43-year-old, using an acronym for the extremist group. Basher’s grandfather lived with her family while she was growing up in Bashiqa, a town outside Mosul. The city fell to IS in 2014.
“My albums, my childhood photos, all videos, my two brothers’ wedding videos (and) photos, disappeared. And now to see that my grandfather and great-grandfather’s photo all of a sudden just come to life again, this is something I’m really happy about,” she said. “Everybody is.”
The archive documents Yazidi people, places and traditions that IS sought to erase. Marin Webb is working with Nathaniel Brunt, a Toronto documentarian, to share it with the community, both through exhibits in the region and in digital form with the Yazidi diaspora.
“When they came to Sinjar, they went around and destroyed all the religious and heritage sites, so these photographs in themselves present a very strong resistance against that act of destruction,” said Brunt, a postdoctoral student at the University of Victoria Libraries. The city of Sinjar is the ancestral homeland of the Yazidis near the Syrian border.
The first exhibits took place in the region in April, when Yazidis gather to celebrate the New Year. Some were held outdoors in the very areas the photos documented nearly a century earlier.
“(It) was perceived as a beautiful way to bring memory back, a memory that was directly threatened through the ethnic cleansing campaign,” Marin Webb said.
Basher’s brother was visiting their hometown from Germany when he saw the exhibit and recognized his grandparents. That helped the researchers fill in some blanks.
The wedding photos show an elaborately dressed bride as she stands anxiously in the doorway of her home, proceeds with her dowry to her husband’s village, and finally enters his family home as a crowd looks on.
“I see my sister in black and white,” said Basher, noting the similar green eyes and skin tone her sister shares with their grandmother, Naama Sulayman.
Her grandfather, Bashir Sadiq Rashid al-Rashidani, came from a prominent family and often hosted the Penn archaeology crews at his cafe. He and his brother, like other local men, also worked on the excavations, prompting him to invite the westerners to his wedding. They in turn took the photos and even lent the couple a car for the occasion, the family said.
Some of the photos were taken by Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, the Penn Museum archaeologist who led excavations at two ancient Mesopotamian sites in the area, Tepe Gawra and Tell Billa.
“My grandfather used to talk a lot about that time,” said Basher, who uses a different spelling of the family surname than other relatives.
Her father, Mohsin Bashir Sadiq, 77, a retired teacher now living in Cologne, Germany, believes the wedding was the first time anyone in the town used a car, which he described as a 1927 model. It can be seen at the back of the wedding procession.
Basher has shared the photos on social media to educate people about her homeland.
“The idea or the picture they have in their mind about Iraq is so different from the reality, ” she said. “We’ve been suffering a lot, but we still have some history.”
Other photos in the collection show people at home, at work, at religious gatherings.
To Marin Webb, an architect from Barcelona, they show the Yazidis as they lived, instead of equating them with the violence they later endured. Locals who saw the exhibit told him it “shows the world that we’re also people.”
An isolated minority, the Yazidis have been persecuted for centuries. Many Muslim sects consider them infidels; many Iraqis falsely see them as worshippers of Satan. They speak Kurdish and their traditions are amalgamated, borrowing from Christianity, Islam and the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism.
Basher is grateful the photos remained safe — if largely out of sight — at the museum all this time. Alessandro Pezzati, the museum’s senior archivist, was one of several people who helped Marin Webb comb through the files to identify them.
“A lot of these collections are sleeping until they get woken up by people like him,” Pezzati said.
The awful murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has stimulated interest in the nature and extent of political violence in the United States. We do not yet know the identity and motive of the killer; but there is at least a substantial likelihood the motive was political in nature. My Cato Institute colleague Alex Nowrasteh has a great overview of the available data on political violence since 1975. He finds that the overall incidence of such violence is much lower than many assume. The 9/11 attacks dominate the stats, accounting for 83% of total deaths. Setting that aside, right-wing violence is significantly more prevalent than the left-wing variety.
It should, perhaps, go without saying. But I condemn the murder of Charlie Kirk without reservation. It is utterly indefensible, and I hope the killer is caught and severely punished. I was no fan of Kirk and his ideology. His organization, TPUSA, even once put me on its “Professor Watchlist” (they apparently removed me from the list a few months later, without explanation). But no one should be attacked or killed for their political beliefs. The murder is all the more tragic in light of the fact that Kirk left behind a wife and two small children. They did nothing to deserve this.
Now for Alex’s summary of the data on violence:
A total of 3,599 people have been murdered in politically motivated terrorist attacks in the United States from January 1, 1975, through September 10, 2025. Murders committed in terrorist attacks account for about 0.35 percent of all murders since 1975. Only 81 happened since 2020, accounting for 0.07 percent of all murders during that time, or 7 out of 10,000. Terrorism is the broadest reasonable definition of a politically motivated murder because it is the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a nonstate actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through coercion, fear, or intimidation….
Eighty-three percent of those murdered since 1975 were committed by the 9/11 terrorists…. The Oklahoma City Bombing accounts for about another 5 percent. Those murdered since 2020 account for just 2 percent. Terrorists inspired by Islamist ideology are responsible for 87 of those murdered in attacks on US soil since 1975…. Right-wingers are the second most common motivating ideology, accounting for 391 murders and 11 percent of the total. The definition here of right-wing terrorists includes those motivated by white supremacy, anti-abortion beliefs, involuntary celibacy (incels), and other right-wing ideologies.
Left-wing terrorists murdered 65 people, or about 2 percent of the total. Left-wing terrorists include those motivated by black nationalism, anti-police sentiment, communism, socialism, animal rights, environmentalism, anti-white ideologies, and other left-wing ideologies. Those murders that are politically motivated by unknown or other ideologies are a vanishingly small percentage, which is unsurprising because terrorists typically want attention for their causes.
“Right” and “left” are somewhat arbitrary and incoherent categories. Thus, people can argue about some of Alex’s coding choices here. For example, I am not sure black nationalists really qualify as “left” and incels as “right.” Nonetheless, the coding here mostly tracks the way these terms are generally used in current US political discourse. Thus, Alex is right to conclude that right-wing violence is more prevalent than the left-wing kind, even though one can quarrel with the classification of a few specific perpetrators at the margin.
Given the outsize weight of the 9/11 attacks in the data, partisans will be tempted to categorize radical Islamists with their political opponents. Thus, left-wingers might argue that Islamists are on the right, due to their extreme social conservatism (they hate LGBT people, want women to be subordinated to men, and so on). On the other hand, one could also argue that they are actually left-wing, due to their hatred of Israel and opposition to American influence in the world. These latter attitudes are more prevalent on the far left, though there are elements of them on the nationalist/MAGA right, as well. In my view, al Qaeda and its ilk don’t really fit on the US right-left political spectrum, and thus Alex is right to group radical Islamists in a separate category from either.
Regardless of the source, it is reassuring that political violence is relatively rare. The average American is vastly more likely to die in a car accident than be a victim of politically motivated murder. And, as Alex notes, such attacks account for only a tiny percentage of all murders. Prominent political figures are probably more at risk. Nonetheless, the overall level of danger is low, even for most of them.
For understandable reasons, Alex’s data does not include death threats, which are surely far more common than actual murders or attempts. While the vast majority of such threats aren’t acted on, they still cause pain and fear to those they target. I have reason to know, having gotten several myself, over the years, including one that turned out to be from “mail bomber” Cesar Sayoc. Better-known activists and political commentators likely get a lot more than I do. The increasing prevalence of social media and other forms of electronic communication have, I suspect, made such threats more common.
I am not aware of any good data on the relative prevalence of death threats by ideology (as opposed to actual attacks). But I suspect that right-wing ones are more common here, as well.
One person’s experience isn’t necessarily indicative. But over twenty years of libertarian commentary on law and public policy issues, I have said many things that annoy people on both right and left. With one arguable exception (a Russian nationalist angered by my condemnations of Vladimir Putin’s regime), every single one of the threats I have gotten was from right-wingers, mostly related to the issue of immigration. By contrast, I have never gotten threats for things like criticizing affirmative action, condemning socialism, opposing “defunding the police,” or attacking student loan forgiveness. Some of these have generated other types of online nastiness. But never any threats of violence.
As already noted, more systematic data is needed here. Perhaps my experience will turn out to be atypical.
I don’t see any ready solution to the problem of politically motivated death threats. Given how easy they are to make, it is probably unrealistic to expect the authorities to track down more than a small fraction of them. Social media firms may be doing a better job of combating them then a few years ago. But that, too, is difficult. All I can say is that we should condemn them, and avoid being intimidated by them.
As for actual political violence, it is good that it remains relatively rare. But we should be wary of the danger that it might become worse.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — It was in Cedar Rapids, surrounded by cornfields, where Iowa artist Grant Wood painted “American Gothic,” the iconic 1930 portrayal of a stern-looking woman and a man with a pitchfork in front of a white frame house.
The city presents many different images today, after more than a century of international migration and faith-based resettlement efforts.
Hundreds of refugee families were resettled by The Catherine McAuley Center, founded by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy, until the nationwide halt ordered by the Trump administration this spring. At a recent class offered by the center, a Guatemalan woman and her son, along with five men from China, Benin, Togo, Sudan and Congo, sang the U.S. national anthem and rehearsed questions for the citizenship test.
“It is a matter of meshing or integrating — how do we get around in the community? How do we find our friends? How do we find bridges across cultural divides?” said Anne Dugger, the center’s director.
As Americans struggle to redefine who belongs in the social fabric, these are snapshots of heartland immigrants and their faith communities.
Bob Kazimour goes to Mass at St. Wenceslaus, where he remembers as a child the liturgy was in Latin and the homily in Czech. It’s the language of generations of his ancestors who left what was then Bohemia in Central Europe to work in Cedar Rapids’ meatpacking plants, forming the area’s first large immigrant group in the mid to late 1800s.
Kazimour can still sing a few Czech carols — and there’s a Czech choir, a Czech school and a goulash festival to commemorate.
He and other parishioners whose great-great-grandparents went to St. Wenceslaus aren’t certain new generations will keep up Czech customs. But the Catholic parish is growing again after merging with Immaculate Conception, a downtown church with a booming Latin American congregation.
“In Cedar Rapids, unlike the coasts with lots of problems, we’re Iowa nice. We get along pretty darn well,” Kazimour said.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Lebanese Muslims came to the Midwest, often starting as itinerant merchants before establishing grocery stores. In a few decades, Cedar Rapids had dozens of these businesses — and a mosque.
Within ten months after Mohamed Mahmoud came to the United States from Sudan in 2022, he opened a halal grocery store in a strip mall a few minutes drive from the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, where he prays on Fridays.
“Religion is a part of life wherever you go. If you don’t find a mosque, it’s something missing,” he said in-between serving sweets at a counter with Muslim holiday decorations and American flags. “Cedar Rapids is the best option for me to live the rest of my life.”
A few blocks from Mahmoud’s shop, the St. Jude Catholic Church’s Sweet Corn Festival was in full swing. And among the many volunteers sporting 50-year-anniversary festival T-shirts were members of the growing African congregation, mostly from Togo and Congo.
While frying funnel cakes and Snickers bars, Bienvenue D’Almeida described a journey shared by many of St. Jude’s parishioners. Wanting better educational opportunities for their children, they applied for and won the so-called green card lottery, a program for countries with low rates of emigration to the United States.
At St. Jude, the migrants found aid on arrival, and soon built French-speaking ministries, from family groups to choir to monthly French Mass.
“You feel safe, and because of that, you’ve that sense of belonging,” said Roger Atchou, a father of two from Togo and festival volunteer.
“For us, St. Jude represents the United States — it’s open to everyone,” said parish council member Martin Mutombo, a Congolese volunteering with his wife, Clarisse, and five children.
“We feel very comfortable” in this adopted homeland, Clarisse Mutombo said. Nevertheless, they’re painfully aware that others in the congregation are having a harder time, including a father detained for overstaying a visa.
Another African refugee congregation gathers in the historic St. Paul’s United Methodist Church for Sunday afternoon services in Kirundi, one of Burundi’s languages.
“When I work here for God at St. Paul’s, I have a peace. I find myself home,” said the Rev. Daniel Niyonzima, through his son’s translation.
The pastor and his wife, from Burundi, arrived nearly 20 years ago after more than a decade in refugee camps in Tanzania, and were hosted by the Methodist congregation. Now they’re U.S. citizens — and grandparents.
Across the hall from the sanctuary, English classes and driver’s ed are hosted by a nonprofit started by a church member, Mugisha Gloire, a Congolese refugee who came as a child to Iowa. He remembers how warmly he was welcomed by a local volunteer who took him to swimming lessons and baseball games.
“Cedar Rapids has a long way to go to welcome everyone, but there are also some very great people,” Gloire said.
A few blocks west of St. Paul’s is Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where five children were baptized recently at the Spanish-language Mass that’s been held regularly for more than a dozen years.
Holding her newly christened 4-month-old nephew Gael, Gabriela Plasencia, originally from the Mexican state of Jalisco, said receiving the sacraments in Spanish allows them to “live them differently, understand more deeply.”
Being able to worship in their native language is a special blessing as the immigration crackdown casts a pall, some parishioners said. Many know people in the country illegally who have left voluntarily, and others who were arrested and deported. Everyone feels affected, said Gabriela’s father, David Plasencia.
“Inside here, we feel pretty peaceful, but the moment we go out into the streets, we all feel that anxiety,” he said.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reviewing federal security grants for Muslim groups with “alleged terrorist ties” after a new report linked past funding to “extremist” organizations.
According to a DHS document obtained by Fox News Digital, 49 projects “with alleged affiliations to terrorist activities” have already been canceled, a move the department estimates will save $8 million.
The review primarily targets funding distributed through FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which provides aid to churches, mosques, synagogues, and other faith-based institutions facing threats of hate-driven violence.
The probe follows a report by the Middle East Forum, a pro-Israel conservative think tank, which claimed that more than $25 million in DHS and FEMA grants went to “terror-linked groups” between 2013 and 2023.
The Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, is reviewing federal security grants for Muslim groups with “alleged terrorist ties” after a new report linked past funding to “extremist” organizations.(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images )
A DHS official said the department is conducting its own independent review of funding but added, “We take the results of the MEF report very seriously and are thankful for the work of conservative watchdog groups.”
The report flagged a $100,000 grant in 2019 to the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia, which Customs and Border Protection once described as a “mosque operating as a front for Hamas operatives in the U.S.,” according to records obtained by the Investigative Project through the Freedom of Information Act.
In response to the MEF’s findings, DHS is reviewing all current and future contracts to ensure funds are not awarded to such organizations. Officials said the department is also examining ways to recover unspent funds.
Funding for fiscal year 2024 has already been allocated. That includes $94 million for 500 Jewish organizations and another $110 million shared among 600 Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish institutions.
The report flagged a $100,000 grant in 2019 to the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia.(REUTERS/Amr Alfiky)
For fiscal year 2025, DHS said applicants will face tougher requirements to ensure a “robust” vetting process.
“We don’t want to be empowering groups that could be causing a threat to our community here in the United States,” a DHS official said.
The Middle East Forum’s report also highlighted specific cases of funding that it claims went to groups with extremist ties. It said $10.3 million had gone to the Islamic Circle of North America, which the forum alleges is tied to the South Asian Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami.
The report further cited $250,000 awarded to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which DHS has accused of having “Hamas ties.” Another $750,000, according to the report, went to mosques in Michigan and Texas that DHS described as “outposts for Iran’s revolutionary brand of Shi’a Islamism,” including the Islamic Center of America and the Islamic House of Wisdom near Detroit, as well as the Islamic Ahlul Bayt Association in Austin.
Nearly $100 million in FEMA security funding went to 500 synagogues this year amid an increase in anti-Semitic attacks. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
“While our civil rights organization has no active federal grants that the Department could eliminate or cut, and while the government cannot ban American organizations from receiving federal grants based on their religious affiliation or their criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” a CAIR spokesperson said, “it’s important to note that Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is embarrassing President Trump by making decisions based on the ravings of the Middle East Forum, an Israel First hate website.”
FEMA has previously worked with CAIR, holding seminars to encourage participation in the NSGP program.
But last week, CAIR urged organizations to withdraw from applying for DHS and FEMA grants — including the NSGP — unless DHS drops two new vetting rules. Those provisions require recipients to cooperate with immigration officials and prohibit them from running programs tied to diversity, equity, inclusion, or aid to undocumented immigrants, as well as from engaging in certain “discriminatory prohibited boycotts.”
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Drumming, dancing, and bright lights. Pakistan’s centuries-old tradition of honoring Sufi saints comes alive during annual festivals known as Urs.
In the eastern city of Lahore, as many as one million people pour into a shrine complex that is the final resting place of Hazrat Ali Hajveri, known as Data Ganj Bakhsh or simply Data Sahib, for a three-day celebration of his life.
Processions arrive in Lahore from across Pakistan, with devotees reciting Quranic verses and offering ceremonial cloths at Ali Hajveri’s grave. Some perform a dhamaal — a ritual dance accompanied by drumming. They spin around until they enter a trance-like state.
Devotees pass walk through gate at a checkpoint as they arrive to attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees pass walk through gate at a checkpoint as they arrive to attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees look at a performer balancing clay pot with an iron structure on his head as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees look at a performer balancing clay pot with an iron structure on his head as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A spiritual path devotee locally called ‘Malang’ ties ‘Ghungroo’, a set of small metallic bells strung together, on his feet for performing a devotional dance called ‘Dhamaal’ during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A spiritual path devotee locally called ‘Malang’ ties ‘Ghungroo’, a set of small metallic bells strung together, on his feet for performing a devotional dance called ‘Dhamaal’ during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Youngsters with others look to a spiritual path devotee locally called ‘Malang’ performing a devotional dance called ‘Dhamaal’ during the celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Youngsters with others look to a spiritual path devotee locally called ‘Malang’ performing a devotional dance called ‘Dhamaal’ during the celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Ali Hajveri, a mystic and scholar, was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan, in 990. He traveled through Iran, Iraq, and Syria to meet the leading Sufi masters of his era and stayed in Lahore until he died in 1077. He is the city’s patron saint. The shrine, Data Darbar, is already a landmark and one of the busiest Sufi pilgrimage sites in South Asia. But it transforms into a hub of faith, fraternity, and culture during Urs. A langar, or community kitchen, dishes out free meals around the clock to worshippers. Devotional singing, or qawwali, adds to the festive feel.
Devotees arrive with ceremonial cloth locally called ‘chaddar’ painted with ‘Quranic recitations’ which they place over the saint’s grave during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees arrive with ceremonial cloth locally called ‘chaddar’ painted with ‘Quranic recitations’ which they place over the saint’s grave during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees carry a big turban and bundle of garland as they arrive to attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees carry a big turban and bundle of garland as they arrive to attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees lay garland and ceremonial cloth locally called ‘chaddar’ on the shrine of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees lay garland and ceremonial cloth locally called ‘chaddar’ on the shrine of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
“We have been coming here since my childhood, almost 40 years,” said Hussain Jilani, 57. “We feel spiritually fulfilled whenever we come. Data Sahib is a source of blessings. Whatever task we have gets resolved with his grace.” Saleem Tayyab, 63, is also a regular. “Our pockets have never been empty, and our hearts never without peace,” he said. “Whoever comes here takes blessings with him.”
Volunteers pack food for devotees attending celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Volunteers pack food for devotees attending celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees jostle to get free food as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees jostle to get free food as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees jostle to get free sweets as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees jostle to get free sweets as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees drink milk at a stall as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees drink milk at a stall as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees touch the shrine’s lattice as an act of faithfulness during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees touch the shrine’s lattice as an act of faithfulness during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A group of singers perform ‘Qawwali’, a form of Sufi devotional music, during the celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A group of singers perform ‘Qawwali’, a form of Sufi devotional music, during the celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees light clay-lamp during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees light clay-lamp during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees eat food during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees eat food during celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees offer evening prayers at a mosque in the shrine of saint Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees offer evening prayers at a mosque in the shrine of saint Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh as they attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Devotees attend celebrations of the three-day annual festival or ‘Urs’ of mystic and scholar Hazrat Ali Hajveri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh at his shrine, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Makkah, Saudi Arabia, June 26, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– The General Authority for the Care of the Two Holy Mosques, represented by the King Abdulaziz Complex for the Holy Kaaba Kiswa, presided over the occasion of the replacing of the Kiswa on the first day of the month of Muharram (Hijri). This took place within an integrated operational system that reflects the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s willingness and dedication to serving the Two Holy Mosques-continuing a legacy of over 100 years of care in producing the Kiswa for the Ancient House.
The occasion was conducted with meticulous organisation. As the previous Kiswa was carefully prepared for removal, the new Kiswa was raised and securely fastened to all sides of the Kaaba. Additionally, the door curtain embroidered with golden embellishments, lantern-shaped pieces, the belt, and samadiyah pieces were affixed-a scene embodying high craftsmanship and precision.
The King Abdulaziz Complex for the Holy Kaaba Kiswa is the sole specialist entity responsible for the production of the Kiswa. The production stages are carried out within the complex through a precise production process that begins with the purification of water designated for dyeing, followed by automated weaving, printing, embroidery, and assembly. It concludes with quality assurance measures undertaken by 154 skilled Saudi specialists and technicians.
During the production of the Kiswa-which weighs up to 1,415 kilograms-high-quality raw materials are utilised, including 825 kilograms of black-dyed natural silk and 410 kilograms of cotton. The Kiswa is embroidered with 120 kilograms of gold thread and 60 kilograms of silver thread. Additionally, it features 54 gold-coated pieces, comprising the belt, Quranic verses, the door curtain, lantern-shaped pieces, and embellishments surrounding the Mizab and corners.
The Kiswa is adorned with 68 Quranic verses from 11 surahs, while the door curtain contains 763 words from the Quran. It is secured using 100 precisely positioned ropes, evenly distributed across all four sides of the Noble Kaaba.
The Kiswa stands over 14 metres tall and is made up of five main parts-four of which cover each side of the Kaaba, while the fifth forms the door curtain, embroidered with Quranic verses in gold and silver threads, crafted using precise techniques and profound expertise.
The occasion of replacing the Kiswa represents a continuation of the legacy established by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since the time of its founder, King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud-may Allah have mercy upon him. It reaffirms the continuation of this blessed legacy under the direct care of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and his Deputy, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz-may Allah preserve them both. This initiative aligns with the national vision that emphasises excellence in the services provided to the visitors of the Sacred House of Allah.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A banned Kurdish militant group on Friday claimed responsibility for an attack on the headquarters of a key defense company in Ankara that killed at least five people.
A statement from the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, said Wednesday’s attack on the premises of the aerospace and defense company TUSAS was carried out by two members of its so-called “Immortal Battalion” in response to Turkish “massacres” and other actions in Kurdish regions.
A man and a woman stormed TUSAS’ premises on the outskirts of Ankara, setting off explosives and opening fire. Four TUSAS employees were killed there. The assailants arrived on the scene in a taxi that they had commandeered by killing its driver. More than 20 people were injured in the attack.
The woman assailant took her own life by detonating an explosive device after being injured in an exchange of fire at the entrance of the complex, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. The male attacker hurled hand grenades at approaching security forces, then also detonated himself in the restroom of a nearby building “realizing there was no way out,” the minister said.
Turkey blamed the attack on the PKK and immediately launched a series of aerial strikes on locations and facilities suspected to be used by the militant group in northern Iraq or by its affiliates in northern Syria.
The attack on TUSAS came at a time of growing signs of a possible new attempt at dialogue to end the more than four-decade-old conflict between the PKK and Turkey’s military.
Earlier this week, the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party that’s allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility that Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s imprisoned leader, could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization.
Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul, said in a message conveyed by his nephew on Thursday that he was ready to work for peace.
The PKK’s military wing, the People’s Defense Center, said, however, that the attack was not related to the latest “political agenda,” insisting it was planned long before.
It said TUSAS was chosen as a target because weapons produced there “killed thousands of civilians, including children and women, in Kurdistan.”
TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its defense systems have been credited as key to Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.
On Friday, an Iraqi security official said Turkish warplanes intensified their airstrikes on sites belonging to the PKK and other loyal forces in northern Iraq’s Sinjar district. The intensive bombing targeted tunnels, headquarters and military points of the PKK and the Sinjar Protection Units inside the Sinjar Mountain area.
A local official and a security official said the bombings killed five Yazidis. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The Turkish defense ministry said 34 alleged PKK targets including caves, shelters, depots and other facilities were hit in an aerial operation overnight. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said drones operated by the national intelligence agency have struck 120 suspected sites since Wednesday’s attack.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Thursday that the Turkish warplanes and drones struck bakeries, a power station, oil facilities and local police checkpoints. At least 12 civilians were killed and 25 others were wounded.
The People’s Defense Center statement claimed there were no casualties among PKK fighters in the airstrikes.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of journalists on his return from a trip to Russia late Thursday that the two TUSAS assailants had infiltrated from Syria, but did not provide details.
Addressing a defense industry fair in Istanbul on Friday, he said Turkey was determined to stamp out the militant group.
“Although our pain is great because of our martyrs, our determination to fight against the scoundrels is much greater,” Erdogan said. “We will continue to crush those who think they can make us step back with such treachery.”
On Friday, Turkish police detained 176 suspected PKK members in operations across Turkey, the Interior Ministry said.
Police also detained a man who hurled rocks at the entrance of the headquarters of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, DEM, Anadolu reported. DEM party spokeswoman Aysegul Dogan said on the media platform X that the entrance door and windows were broken in the attack.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
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Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey struck suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day on Thursday following an attack on the premises of a key defense company that killed at least five people, the state-run news agency reported.
The National Intelligence Organization targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party — the PKK — or by Syrian Kurdish militia that are affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported. The targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday’s strikes.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s air force carried out airstrikes against similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq, hours after government officials blamed the deadly attack at the headquarters of the aerospace and defense company TUSAS, on the PKK.
Defense Minister Yasar Guler said Thursday that 47 alleged PKK targets were destroyed in Wednesday’s airstrikes — 29 in Iraq and 18 in Syria.
“Our noble nation should rest assured that we will continue with increasing determination our struggle to eliminate the evil forces that threaten the security and peace of our country and people until the last terrorist disappears from this geography,” Guler said.
The assailants — a man and a woman — arrived at the TUSAS premises on the outskirts of Ankara in a taxi they commandeered after killing its driver, reports said. Armed with assault rifles, they set off explosives and opened fire, killing four people at TUSAS, including a security guard and a mechanical engineer.
Security teams were dispatched as soon as the attack started at around 3:30 pm, the interior minister said. The two assailants were also killed and more than 20 people were injured in the attack.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya named the assailants as Mine Sevjin Alcicek and Ali Orek and identified them as PKK members.
There was no immediate statement from the PKK on the attack or the Turkish airstrikes.
In Syria, the main U.S.-backed force said Turkish strikes in the north of the country killed 12 civilians and wounded 25.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Turkish warplanes and drones struck bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and local police checkpoints.
Amir Samu, an administrator at the al Swediya oil refinery in Derik, northern Syria, said overnight strikes at the facility resulted in the deaths of seven workers and guards.
“They were all poor workers working in the refinery to make a living. It is a civil institution, not military or anything like that,” he said.
Samu stated that al Swediya was the only refinery “feeding” the area. “The damage will have effects on diesel, petrol and gas,” he said.
TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its defense systems have been credited as key to Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants.
The attack occurred a day after the leader of Turkey’s far-right nationalist party that’s allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the possibility that the PKK’s imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization.
Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured in 1999, is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul.
In a related development, his nephew Omer Ocalan announced on the social platform X that on Wednesday family members were allowed to visit him for the first time since March 2020.
Omer Ocalan, a lawmaker from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, also conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, saying he was being kept in isolation and offering to work to end the conflict “if the conditions are right.”
“I have the theoretical and practical power to (transform) this process from one grounded in conflict and violence to one that is grounded on law and politics,” Omer Ocalan quoted his uncle as saying.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
On Thursday, large crowds gathered in the courtyard of a mosque in Ankara to take part in the funeral prayers for three of the victims, including Zahide Guclu — an engineer who was part of a TUSAS helicopter project. She was killed by the assailants after she had gone to the entrance of the complex to collect flowers sent by her husband.
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Associated Press reporters Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Hogir Abdo in Derik, Syria contributed.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated Sunday as the eighth president of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, completing his journey from an ex-general accused of rights abuses during the dark days of Indonesia’s military dictatorship to the presidential palace.
The former defense minister, who turned 73 on Thursday, was cheered through the streets by thousands of waving supporters after taking his oath on the Quran in front of lawmakers and foreign dignitaries. Banners and billboards filled the streets of the capital, Jakarta, where tens of thousands gathered for festivities.
Wearing a blue Betawi traditional cloth and a dark baseball cap, Subianto stood up in the sunroof of a white van and waved, occasionally shaking people’s hands, as his motorcade struggled to pass through the thousands of supporters calling his name and chanting “Good luck Prabowo-Gibran,” filling the road leading from the parliament building to the presidential palace.
“I see a firm and patriotic figure in him,” said Atalaric Eka Prayoga, 25. “That’s a figure we need to lead Indonesia.”
Another resident, Silky Putri, said he hopes Subianto “can build Indonesia to be more advanced and improve the current gloomy economic situation.”
Subianto was a longtime rival of the immensely popular President Joko Widodo, who ran against him for the presidency twice and refused to accept his defeat on both occasions, in 2014 and 2019.
But Widodo appointed Subianto as defense chief after his reelection, paving the way for an alliance despite their rival political parties. During the campaign, Subianto ran as the popular outgoing president’s heir, vowing to continue signature policies like the construction of a multibillion-dollar new capital city and limits on exporting raw materials intended to boost domestic industry.
Subianto was sworn in with his new vice president, 37-year-old Surakarta ex-Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka. He chose Raka, who is Widodo’s son, as his running mate, with Widodo favoring Subianto over the candidate of his own former party. The former rivals became tacit allies, even though Indonesian presidents don’t typically endorse candidates.
But how he’ll govern the biggest economy in Southeast Asia — where nearly 90% of Indonesia’s 282 million people are Muslims — remains uncertain after a campaign in which he made few concrete promises besides continuity with the popular former president.
After decades of dictatorship under President Suharto, Indonesia was convulsed by political, ethnic and religious unrest in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, it has consolidated its democratic transition as the world’s third-largest democracy, and is home to a rapidly expanding middle class.
Subianto, who comes from one of the country’s wealthiest families, is a sharp contrast to Widodo, the first Indonesian president to emerge from outside the political and military elite.
Subianto was a special forces commander until he was expelled by the army in 1998 over accusations that he played a role in the kidnappings and torture of activists and other abuses. He never faced trial and went into self-imposed exile in Jordan in 1998, although several of his underlings were tried and convicted.
Jordanian King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein was expected to attend Sunday’s ceremony, but canceled at the last minute because of escalating Middle East tensions, instead deciding to send Foreign Affairs Minister Nancy Namrouqa as his special envoy. Subianto and Abdullah met in person in June for talks in Amman on humanitarian assistance to people affected by the war in Gaza.
Subianto, who has never held elective office, will lead a massive, diverse archipelago nation whose economy has boomed amid strong global demand for its natural resources. But he’ll have to contend with global economic distress and regional tensions in Asia, where territorial conflicts and the U.S.-China rivalry loom large.
Leaders and senior officials from more than 30 countries flew in to attend the ceremony, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and leaders of Southeast Asia countries. U.S. President Joe Biden sent Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Adm. Samuel Paparo, the U.S. commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, was also among the American delegation.
Analysts and the media consider Subianto a leader with greater international awareness than Widodo. He’s already held dozens of meetings with scores of foreign officials, said Adhi Priamarizki, a fellow researcher at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
He said that defense development was at the top of his list of priorities. Subianto has advocated an expansion of the military through the purchases of submarines, frigates and fighter jets and wants to initiate more defense cooperation with various countries, Priamarizki said.
The election outcome capped a long comeback for Subianto, who was banned for years from traveling to the United States and Australia.
He has vowed to continue Widodo’s modernization efforts, which have boosted Indonesia’s economic growth by building infrastructure and leveraging the country’s abundant resources. A signature policy required nickel, a major Indonesian export and a key component of electric car batteries, to be processed in local factories rather than exported raw.
He has also promised to push through Widodo’s most ambitious and controversial project: the construction of a new capital on Borneo, about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) away from congested Jakarta.
A rousing speaker, Subianto railed against widespread corruption in his inauguration speech, saying many people are unbale to get jobs, children are malnourished and their schools are not well maintained.
“Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line, too many of our children go to school without breakfast and do not have clothes for school,” Subianto said.
Before February’s presidential election, he also promised to provide free school lunches and milk to 83 million students at more than 400,000 schools across the country. It’s projected to cost 71 trillion rupiah ($4.5 billion) in its first year and aims to reduce malnutrition and stunted growth among children.
“We must dare to see all of this and we must dare to solve all of these problems,” Subianto said Sunday.
He also pledged to continue a non-aligned foreign policy and to be a good neighbor.
“We will stand against all colonialism and we will defend the interests of oppressed people worldwide,” Subianto said.
Subianto had at least seven interactions with U.S. officials, the most among foreign officials he had met in the post-election period, and six with Chinese officials, Priamarizki said.
“It can be read as an initial signal that Prabowo intends to adopt a more balanced approach towards the two countries,” he said.
Subianto’s “good neighbor foreign policy” also signals his intention to establish stronger ties with Southeast Asian countries.
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Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko contributed to this report.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has emerged as a twofold concern for the United States as it nears the end of the presidential campaign.
Prosecutors allege Tehran tried to hack figures associated with the election, stealing information from former President Donald Trump’s campaign. And U.S. officials have accused it of plotting to kill Trump and other ex-officials.
For Iran, assassination plots and hacking aren’t new strategies.
Iran saw the value and the danger of hacking in the early 2000s, when the Stuxnet virus, believed to have been deployed by Israel and the U.S., tried to damage Iran’s nuclear program. Since then, hackers attributed to state-linked operations have targeted the Trump campaign, Iranian expatriates and government officials at home.
Its history of assassinations goes back further. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran killed or abducted perceived enemies living abroad.
A look at Iran’s history of targeting opponents:
For many, Iran’s behavior can be traced to the emergence of the Stuxnet computer virus. Released in the 2000s, Stuxnet wormed its way into control units for uranium-enriching centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, causing them to speed up, ultimately destroying themselves.
Iranian scientists initially believed mechanical errors caused the damage. Ultimately though, Iran removed the affected equipment and sought its own way of striking enemies online.
“Iran had an excellent teacher in the emerging art of cyberwarfare,” wryly noted a 2020 report from the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia.
That was acknowledged by the National Security Agency in a document leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2015 to The Intercept, which examined a cyberattack that destroyed hard drives at Saudi Arabia’s state oil company. Iran has been suspected of carrying out that attack, called Shamoon, in 2012 and again in 2017.
“Iran, having been a victim of a similar cyberattack against its own oil industry in April 2012, has demonstrated a clear ability to learn from the capabilities and actions of others,” the document said.
There also were domestic considerations. In 2009, the disputed reelection of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked the Green Movement protests. Twitter, one source of news from the demonstrations, found its website defaced by the self-described “Iranian Cyber Army.” There’s been suspicion that the Revolutionary Guard, a major power base within Iran’s theocracy, oversaw the “Cyber Army” and other hackers.
Iranian hacking attacks, given their low cost and high reward, likely will continue as Iran faces a tense international environment surrounding Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels and the prospect of Trump becoming president again.
The growth of 3G and 4G mobile internet services in Iran also made it easier for the public — and potential hackers — to access the internet. Iran has over 50 major universities with computer science or information technology programs. At least three of Iran’s top schools are thought to be affiliated with Iran’s Defense Ministry and the Guard, providing potential hackers for security forces.
Iranian hacking attempts on U.S. targets have included banks and even a small dam near New York City — attacks American prosecutors linked to the Guard.
While Russia is seen as the biggest foreign threat to U.S. elections, officials have been concerned about Iran. Its hacking attempts in the presidential campaign have relied on phishing — sending many misleading emails in hopes that some recipients will inadvertently provide access to sensitive information.
Amin Sabeti, a digital security expert who focuses on Iran, said the tactic works.
“It’s scalable, it’s cheap and you don’t need a skill set because you just put, I don’t know, five crazy people who are hard line in an office in Tehran, then send tens of thousands of emails. If they get 10 of them, it’s enough,” he said.
For Iran, hacks targeting the U.S. offer the prospect of causing chaos, undermining Trump’s campaign and obtaining secret information.
“I’ve lost count of how many attempts have been made on my emails and social media since it’s been going on for over a decade,” said Holly Dagres, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who once had her email briefly hacked by Iran. “The Iranians aren’t targeting me because I have useful information swimming in my inbox or direct messages. Rather, they hope to use my name and think tank affiliation to target others and eventually make it up the chain to high-ranking U.S. government officials who would have useful information and intelligence related to Iran.”
Iran has vowed to exact revenge against Trump and others in his former administration over the 2020 drone strike that killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
In July, authorities said they learned of an Iranian threat against Trump and boosted security. Iran has not been linked to the assassination attempts against Trump in Florida and Pennsylvania. A Pakistani man who spent time in Iran was recently charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly plotting to carry out assassinations in the U.S., including potentially of Trump.
Officials take Iran’s threat seriously given its history of targeting adversaries.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, its leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini signaled how Iran would target perceived enemies by saying, “Islam grew with blood.”
“The great prophet of Islam, he had the Quran in one hand, and a sword in the other hand — a sword to suppress traitors,” Khomeini said.
Even before creating a network of allied militias in the Mideast, Iran is suspected of targeting opponents abroad, beginning with members of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s former government. The attention shifted to perceived opponents of the theocracy, both in the country with the mass executions of 1988 and abroad.
Outside of Iran, the so-called “chain murders” targeted activists, journalists and other critics. One prominent incident linked to Iran was a shooting at a restaurant in Germany that killed three Iranian-Kurdish figures and a translator. In 1997, a German court implicated Iran’s top leaders in the shooting, sparking most European Union nations to withdraw their ambassadors.
Iran’s targeted killings slowed after that, but didn’t stop. U.S. prosecutors link Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to a 2011 plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Meanwhile, a suspected Israeli campaign of assassinations targeted scientists in Iran’s nuclear program.
In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal that saw it greatly reduce its enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Two years later, Trump was elected pledging to unilaterally withdraw America from the accord. As businesses backed away from Iran, Tehran renewed a campaign of targeting opponents abroad, but this time capturing them and bringing them to Iran for trial.
Belgium arrested an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, in 2018 and ultimately convicted him of masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group. Iran also increasingly has turned to criminal gangs for some attempts, such as what U.S. prosecutors have described as plots to kill or kidnap opposition activist Masih Alinejad.
Among those targeted after Soleimani’s death was former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton. The U.S. has offered a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the capture or conviction of a Revolutionary Guard member it said arranged to kill Bolton for $300,000.
An FBI agent quoted Guard Gen. Esmail Ghaani as saying in 2022 in a court filing, “Wherever is necessary we take revenge against Americans by the help of people on their side and within their own homes without our presence.”
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish authorities accused Iran on Tuesday of being responsible for thousands of text messages sent to people in Sweden calling for revenge over the burnings of Islam’s holy book in 2023. Iran denied the accusation.
According to officials in Stockholm, the cyberattack was carried out by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which hacked an SMS service and sent “some 15,000 text messages in Swedish” over the string of public burnings of the Quran that took place over several months in Sweden during the summer of 2023.
Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said a preliminary investigation by Sweden’s SAPO domestic security agency showed “it was the Iranian state via the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, that carried out a data breach at a Swedish company that runs a major SMS service.”
The Swedish company was not named.
The Iranian Embassy in Sweden in a statement rejected the accusation as “baseless” and said it was intended to “poison” relations between Tehran and Stockholm, the official IRNA news agency reported. The embassy expects the Swedish government to prevent the spread of such statements, the report said.
In August 2023, Swedish media reported that a large number of people in Sweden had received text messages in Swedish calling for revenge against people who were burning the Quran, Ljungqvist said, adding that the sender of the messages was “a group calling itself the Anzu team.”
Swedish broadcaster SVT published a photo of a text message, saying that “those who desecrated the Quran must have their work covered in ashes” and calling Swedes “demons.”
The protests were held under the freedom of speech act, which is protected under the Swedish constitution. The rallies were approved by police. However, the incidents left Sweden torn between its commitment to free speech and its respect for religious minorities.
The clash of fundamental principles had complicated Sweden’s desire to join NATO, an expansion that gained urgency after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine but needed the approval of all alliance members.
Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had temporarily blocked Sweden’s accession, citing reasons including anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm but Sweden finally became a NATO member in March.
At the time, the Swedish government said it “strongly rejects the Islamophobic act committed by individuals in Sweden,” adding that the desecrations did not reflect the country’s stand.
In July last year, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement saying that “the insult to the Holy Quran in Sweden is a bitter, conspiratorial, dangerous event” and that the desecrations have “created feelings of hatred and enmity” in Muslim nations toward the people burning the Quran and their governments.
In a separate statement, SAPO’s operational manager Fredrik Hallström said Tuesday that the intent of the text messages was to “paint the image of Sweden as an Islamophobic country and create division in society.”
He accused “foreign powers” of seeking to “exploit vulnerabilities” and said they were “now acting more and more aggressively, and this is a development that is likely to escalate.” He did not name any specific country.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, told Swedish news agency TT “that a state actor, in this case Iran, according to (SAPO’s) assessment is behind an action that aims to destabilize Sweden or increase polarization in our country is of course very serious.”
There is no law in Sweden specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or other religious texts. Like many Western countries, Sweden doesn’t have any blasphemy laws.
“Since the actors are acting for a foreign power, in this case Iran, we make the assessment that the conditions for prosecution abroad or extradition to Sweden are lacking for the persons suspected of being behind the breach,“ Ljungqvist said.
Ljungqvist, who is with the Sweden’s top prosecution authority, said that although the preliminary investigation has been closed, it “does not mean that the suspected hackers have been completely written off” and that the probe could be reopened.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest Muslim American voter mobilization groups, marking a significant boost to her campaign since many Muslim and Arab American organizations have opted to support third-party candidates or not endorse.
Emgage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, endorsed Harris’ presidential campaign on Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to The Associated Press that the group “recognizes the responsibility to defeat” Donald Trump in November.
The group, based in Washington, D.C., operates in eight states, with a significant presence in the key battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The organization will now focus its ongoing voter-outreach efforts on supporting Harris, in addition to down-ballot candidates.
“This endorsement is not agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather, an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box,” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, in a statement. “While we do not agree with all of Harris’ policies, particularly on the war on Gaza, we are approaching this election with both pragmatism and conviction.”
The endorsement follows months of tension between Arab American and Muslim groups and Democratic leaders over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Many of these groups, including leaders of the “Uncommitted” movement focused on protesting the war, have chosen not to endorse any candidate in the presidential race.
The conflict in the Middle East has escalated since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed approximately 1,200 people. Israel’s offensive in response has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In an interview ahead of Emgage Action’s formal announcement, Alzayat described the decision to back Harris as “excruciatingly difficult,” noting months of internal discussions and extensive meetings and outreach with Harris’ policy team and campaign.
Ultimately, the group found alignment with many of Harris’ domestic policies and is “hopeful” about her approach to the Middle East conflict if elected, Alzayat said.
“We owe it to our community, despite this pain, despite the emotions, that we are one organization that is looking at things in a sober, clear-eyed manner and just giving our voting guidance,” Alzayat said.
In Wednesday’s statement, Emgage Action endorsed Harris to prevent “a return to Islamophobic and other harmful policies under a Trump administration.”
Many in the Muslim community cite Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban,” which is how many Trump opponents refer to his ban on immigrants from several majority-Muslim countries, as a key reason for opposing his return to the White House.
Trump’s campaign dismissed the significance of the endorsement.
What to know about the 2024 Election
“Once again, national organizations’ endorsements aren’t matching up to what the people suffering from four years of Kamala Harris believe,” Victoria LaCivita, Trump’s communications director for Michigan, said Wednesday. She added that Trump had won the endorsement of Democrat Amer Ghalib, the Muslim mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan.
“Voters across the country know that President Trump is the right candidate for ALL Americans, and he will ensure peace and safety in our country and around the world,” LaCivita said.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager, noted in a statement that the endorsement comes “at a time when there is great pain and loss in the Muslim and Arab American communities.”
Harris will continue working “to bring the war in Gaza to an end such that Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, security, and self-determination,” she said.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Swedish authorities accused Iran on Tuesday of being responsible for thousands of text messages that were sent to people in the Scandinavian country calling for revenge over the burnings of Islam’s holy book in 2023.
Officials in Stockholm claimed that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard carried out “a data breach” and managed to send “some 15,000 text messages in Swedish” over the string of public burnings of the Quran.
Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said that a preliminary investigation, carried out by Sweden’s SAPO domestic security agency, showed that “it was the Iranian state via the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, that carried out a data breach at a Swedish company that runs a major SMS service.”
The Swedish company was not named. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities on the accusations from Sweden.
In August 2023, Swedish media reported that a large number of people in Sweden had received text messages in Swedish calling for revenge against people who were burning the Quran, Ljungqvist said, adding that the sender of the messages was “a group calling itself the Anzu team.”
Swedish broadcaster SVT published a photo of a text message, saying that “those who desecrated the Quran must have their work covered in ashes” and calling Swedes “demons.”
The protests were held under the freedom of speech act, which is protected under the Swedish constitution. The rallies were approved by police. However, the incidents left Sweden torn between its commitment to free speech and its respect for religious minorities.
The clash of fundamental principles had complicated Sweden’s desire to join NATO, an expansion that gained urgency after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine but needed the approval of all alliance members.
Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had temporarily blocked Sweden’s accession, citing reasons including anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm but Sweden finally became a NATO member in March.
At the time, the Swedish government said it “strongly rejects the Islamophobic act committed by individuals in Sweden,” adding that the desecrations did not reflect the country’s stand.
In July last year, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement saying that “the insult to the Holy Quran in Sweden is a bitter, conspiratorial, dangerous event” and that the desecrations have “created feelings of hatred and enmity” in Muslim nations toward the people burning the Quran and their governments.
In a separate statement, SAPO’s operational manager Fredrik Hallström said Tuesday the text messages ‘ intent was to also “paint the image of Sweden as an Islamophobic country and create division in society.”
He accused “foreign powers” of seeking to “exploit vulnerabilities” and said they were “now acting more and more aggressively, and this is a development that is likely to escalate.” He did not name any specific country.
Meanwhile, Sweden’ justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, told Swedish news agency TT “that a state actor, in this case Iran, according to (SAPO’s) assessment is behind an action that aims to destabilize Sweden or increase polarization in our country is of course very serious.”
There is no law in Sweden specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or other religious texts. Like many Western countries, Sweden doesn’t have any blasphemy laws.
“Since the actors are acting for a foreign power, in this case Iran, we make the assessment that the conditions for prosecution abroad or extradition to Sweden are lacking for the persons suspected of being behind the breach, “Ljungqvist said.
Ljungqvist who is with the Sweden’s top prosecution authority said although the preliminary investigation has been closed, it “does not mean that the suspected hackers have been completely written off” and that the probe could be reopened.
IT is the first far-right party to win German state elections since the Nazis – and the success of Alternative for Germany is down to younger supporters.
Paramedic Severin Kohler says that it is now trendy among Generation Z TikTokers to back the organisation known as AfD, which is led in the state of Thuringia by a man who has been labelled a “fascist”.
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AfD fans Severin Kohler and Carolin LichtenheldCredit: Paul Edwards
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AfD MP Torben Braga — who, curiously for a German anti-immigration party, was born in Brazil and is of Brazilian and Welsh ancestryCredit: Paul Edwards
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Professor Reinhard Schramm, who lost 20 close family to the Nazi extermination camps, has had death threats and bullets sent to him in the postCredit: Paul Edwards
Severin, 28, a leader of the party’s youth wing Junge Alternative, told me: “It’s a matter of a rebellion against their parents. Being from the right is punk now.”
Almost 40 per cent of 18 to 24-year-old voters backed the AfD in Thuringia, central Germany, last week. In neighbouring Saxony, 31 per cent did the same.
Yet the local branches of the party in the two states have been classified as “right-wing extremist” by the nation’s domestic intelligence agency.
On the Instagram page of Carolin Lichtenheld, who leads Thuringia’s Junge Alternative, the 21-year-old trainee pharmacist is shown brndishing a megaphone at a rally, with the caption: “Ready to fight for the preservation of our homeland and for our future. We are the youth who are ready to resist a woke society.”
The image is hashtagged with the word “reconquista” — a reference to the recapture by Christian kings of Spain and Portugal from the Muslim Moors.
Felix Steiner, from German far-right monitoring group Mobile Consulting, agrees that young voters are attracted to the AfD.
The activist told The Sun: “Almost no other party is so active on social media platforms, especially TikTok. The message is, ‘Young people, come to us. We are the next movement’.”
Youth campaigner Severin wears a T-shirt bearing the name Bjorn Hocke — the AfD’s leader in Thuringia who has twice been convicted this year of using Nazi slogans.
Former history teacher Hocke harnessed the power of TikTok to target the youth vote during the election.
Incredible story of Nazi hunter and holocaust refugee
In one post he leads a cavalcade of motorcyclists riding models made by Simson — a brand associated with national pride by the far right — in the old Communist East Germany.
Yet critics say that behind Hocke’s glossy social media campaigning is a man who is a political “danger”.
In 2019 a court in Thuringia ruled it was not libellous to call Hocke a “fascist” as the opinion had a “verifiable, factual basis”.
Thin-lipped and greying, Hocke once described Berlin’sHolocaust Memorial as a “monument of shame” and demanded a “180-degree turn” in Germany’s culture of remembrance.
The father-of-four once spoke of the Germans “longing for a historical figure” who would “heal the wounds of the people”.
Ulrike Grosse-Rothig, leader of Thuringia’s left-wing Die Linke party, told The Sun: “Hocke is a die-hard fascist. He’s a danger for German society, its voters and to democracy.”
Former AfD Thuringia MP Oskar Helmerich has called Hocke “a dangerous man”.
Little wonder Thuringia’s small Jewish community has been fearful.
Professor Reinhard Schramm, who lost 20 close family to the Nazi extermination camps, has had death threats and bullets sent to him in the post from unknown sources.
Speaking at a synagogue in Thuringia’s largest city Erfurt, the 80-year-old Holocaust survivor told me: “The Jewish community is insecure and some are afraid. They are quite allergically against the AfD. This is not a normal party.”
Of Hocke’s demand for a “180- degree turn” in Germany’s culture of remembrance, the grandfather-of-three says: “So does this mean that I am not supposed to speak about my grandmother who was gassed to death in a German gas chamber?”
‘Some are afraid’
Severin insists the AfD is “against political violence”, adding: “We don’t have anything in common with people sending bullets to synagogues.”
The AfD won Thuringia — a largely rural state in central Germany — with just under 33 per cent of the vote.
It’s the latest European convulsion of the far right which has seen rampaging thugs attempt to torch migrant hotels in Britain and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally topping parliamentary elections in France.
In Germany — as elsewhere — the touchstone issue has been immigration.
Days before the Thuringia vote, a Syrian asylum seeker went on a knife rampage, killing three in the west German city of Solingen.
It emerged that the man — linked to Islamic State — had previously had his claim for asylum turned down but he had not been deported because the authorities could not find him.
Germany’s lame duck premier Olaf Scholz promised to speed up deportations and other mainstream parties followed suit with tough talk on immigration, including the conservative Christian Democratic Union.
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Andreas Buhl, a Thuringian MP for Merkel’s CDU, concedes that the former Chancellor’s open border policy was wrongCredit: Paul Edwards
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A CDU poster calling to stop illegal migrationCredit: Paul Edwards
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An anti-multicultural bannerCredit: Paul Edwards
Yesterday, it was reported that Germany’s interior minister Nancy Faeser has told the EU that controls will be brought in on all the country’s land borders, to deal with the “continuing burden” of migration and “Islamist terrorism”.
Britain, where populists Reform won four million votes at the General Election, will be watching whether moves towards the AfD’s turf will win back voters.
As well as a hardline stance on immigration, the AfD is also against what it says are over-zealous green policies, and it wants to halt weapons supplies to Ukraine.
At the Thuringian parliament in Erfurt, I met key Hocke lieutenant Torben Braga — who, curiously for a German anti-immigration party, was born in Brazil and is of Brazilian and Welsh ancestry.
The 33-year-old Thuringia MP says: “Bjorn Hocke doesn’t have a single fascist vein in his body.”
‘Political firewall’
Of his boss’s infamous “shame” reference to the Berlin Holocaust memorial, Braga says he meant it was “a shameful part of our history”.
Braga believes the security services are monitoring him and suggests “provocateurs” from those agencies were behind the “two or three cases” of people doing the Hitler salute at a recent rally in Erfurt.
Picturesque Erfurt is, at first glance, perhaps an unlikely setting for a far-right upsurge. Half-timbered town houses crowd flower-bedecked medieval squares where tourists enjoy beers on its many restaurant terraces.
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A far-right mob gather at a demonstration in Solingen last monthCredit: EPA
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Far-right AfD supporters wave German flags, including one adorned with an Iron CrossCredit: Getty
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The AfD party’s slick TikTok videosCredit: tiktok/@afd
This summer the England squad had their Euro 2024 training base a short drive away and Three Lions star Jude Bellingham was spotted having coffee in the city of 215,000.
Yet Thuringia has seen too much history in the 20th century.
After the Americans liberated Thuringia, it fell under Soviet control.
From 1949 to 1990 it was part of the Communist state of East Germany.
Post-German reunification, Thuringia and other eastern states struggled economically, with many youngsters heading to western Germany.
Immigration became a key political battleground after conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders to a million refugees in 2015 and 2016.
Last year around 334,000 people claimed asylum in Germany — more than France and Spain combined. In the UK the figure was just under 85,000 people.
The AfD — formed in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party — has seen its fortunes rise as it hammered home its anti-immigration stance.
No other party is so active on social media platforms, especially TikTok.The AfD post pictures of demonstrations. The message is: ‘Young people come to us. We are the next movement’
It called for a ban on burqas, minarets, and call to prayer using the slogan, “Islam is not a part of Germany” in 2016.
In Thuringia, Hocke led a radical AfD faction called The Wing, deemed beyond the pale even by many in his own party.
Andreas Buhl, a Thuringian MP for Merkel’s CDU, concedes that the former Chancellor’s open border policy was wrong.
He told me: “In hindsight, it should have been clearer that you can also push people back at the border who have already entered another European country.”
He pledged, as other mainstream parties have, not to work with the AfD, creating a political firewall likely to block it from taking power.
It raises the spectre that those who voted for it may come to believe that democracy is failing them.
But anti-far-right activist Felix Steiner says only around half of AfD supporters are wedded to their hardline doctrines, with the rest supporting them as a protest vote.
He added: “The AfD result could be halved if voters were satisfied with other parties’ policies.”
The fight for the political soul of Germany’s Generation Z goes on.
It’s a battle of ideas that may be won or lost on the feeds of TikTok and Instagram.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Pope Francis arrived in Indonesia on Tuesday at the start of the longest trip of his pontificate, hoping to encourage its Catholic community and celebrate the tradition of interfaith harmony in a country with the world’s largest Muslim population.
After an overnight flight from Rome, Francis was wheeled off the plane in his wheelchair and onto the tarmac for a welcoming ceremony under Jakarta’s perennial hazy, humid and polluted skies.
Two children wearing traditional clothes handed him a bouquet of vegetables, fruits, spices and flowers.
Francis planned to rest for the remainder of the day, given the rigors of an 11-day voyage zigzagging across time zones that will also take him to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. However, the Vatican said the 87-year-old pope met with a group of refugees, migrants and sick people at the Vatican residence in Jakarta.
Outside the residence, he was greeted by well-wishers eager to catch sight of the first pope to visit since St. John Paul II in 1989.
“When I saw him in the car I was so touched, goosebumps,” said Fanfan, a 49-year-old housewife from West Jakarta who uses only one name. “I hope he will hopefully appear in front of me to wave his hand again.”
Francis’ first full day of activities begins Wednesday with visits to the country’s political leaders and meetings with Indonesian clergy who are helping to fuel the growth of the Catholic Church in Asia.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo welcomed the pope, saying in a broadcast statement that “Indonesia and the Vatican have the same commitment to fostering peace and brotherhood, as well as ensuring the welfare of humanity.”
The highlight of Francis’ first stop will be his participation Thursday in an interfaith meeting in Jakarta’s iconic Istiqlal mosque with representatives of the six religions that are officially recognized in Indonesia: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Catholicism and Protestantism.
The mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, sits across a piazza from the capital’s main Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of Assumption, and the two are so close to each another that the Muslim call to prayer can be heard during Mass.
Their proximity is not coincidental, but strongly willed as a symbol of religious freedom and tolerance that is enshrined in Indonesia’s Constitution. The buildings are also linked by an underground “Tunnel of Friendship” which Francis will visit with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, before they sign a joint declaration.
While Francis will want to highlight Indonesia’s tradition of religious tolerance, the country’s image as a moderate Muslim nation has been undermined by flare-ups of intolerance. In 2021, a militant Islamic couple blew themselves up outside a packed Catholic cathedral on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island during a Palm Sunday Mass, injuring at least 20 people.
“We have no problem with the visit. He’s a guest and we will welcome him,” said Eldy, a 64-year-old retired government worker who uses one name and was out walking during a car-free day in Jakarta on Sunday. “He wants to visit our Istiqlal mosque, he can do it.”
Even though Catholics make up only 3% of Indonesia’s population, the sheer number of Indonesians — 275 million — makes the archipelago home to the third-largest Christian community in Asia, after the Philippines and China.
As a result, thousands are expected to throng to Francis’ events this week, which include a Mass on Thursday afternoon at Jakarta’s main stadium expected to draw some 60,000 people. City authorities have urged residents to work from home that day given roadblocks and crowds.
“It is a joy for our country, especially for us Catholics,” said Elisabeth Damanik, a 50-year-old housewife outside a packed Mass on Sunday at Our Lady of the Assumption. “Hopefully the pope’s visit can build religious tolerance in our beloved country of Indonesia.”
Care for the environment, conflict resolution and ethically minded economic development are the major themes for the trip, and Francis may touch on them during his main speech to Indonesian authorities on Wednesday.
Francis has made caring for the environment a hallmark of his pontificate and has often used his foreign visits to press his agenda on the need to care for God’s creation, prevent exploitation of its natural resources and protect poor people who are bearing the brunt of climate extremes and pollution.
In Jakarta, he will find a metropolis of 11.3 million people choking under gray clouds of air pollution caused by coal-fired power plants, vehicle exhaust, trash burning and factories. Jakarta’s air pollution regularly registers eight to nine times above World Health Organization limits.
“Indonesia has the worst air pollution in Southeast Asia,” said Piotr Jakubowski, an air pollution expert and co-founder of Indonesian air quality monitoring company Nafas. “The visit of the pope is great because it provides a sounding board … from another, very well-respected world leader.”
Residents, too, hope Francis will speak out about the issue.
“The pollution in Jakarta is at an alarming level. That’s why the presence of the pope can provide a benefit with the discussion of environmental issues,” said government worker Erik Sebastian Naibaho, 26.
Francis is the third pope to visit Indonesia after Pope Paul VI in 1970 and St. John Paul II in 1989. Their attention underscores Indonesia’s importance to the Vatican both in terms of Christian-Muslim dialogue and Catholic vocations, since it is home to the world’s largest seminary and produces hundreds of priests and nuns a year.
“Indonesia is trying to grow in the faith,” said Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, the archbishop of Jakarta whom Francis made a cardinal in 2019.
At a briefing last week, he said Francis wanted to express his appreciation for Indonesia’s interfaith tradition “and encourage this kind of brotherhood to continue to be maintained and developed.”
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Helena Alves contributed from Jakarta.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
