A radical Islamist preacher alleged over the weekend that the assassination of Tory MP David Amess on Friday may have been due to his pro-Israel stance. 

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"The rumors are that he [Amess] was pro-Israel," Anjem Choudary told the Mail on Sunday from his home in East London. "Many people believe that [Israel] is a terrorist state, and who would possibly be a friend of Israel after you see the carnage that they carried out against Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to do with the appropriation of properties?" he said.  Amess was a member of the pro-Israel group "Conservatives Friends of Israel" and expressed strong support of the Jewish state during his long term in Parliament, dating back to 1983. 

Choudary further stated that while "no one in their right and rational mind would support such a state," it nevertheless "does not give anyone the justification to kill."

The 54-year-old cleric is the former leader of the proscribed group Islam4UK. He also served two years in prison, between 2016 and 2018, for inviting support for the Islamic State. He was originally given a five-and-a-half-year sentence but was released early. He lived under license restriction until July this year but is free to preach again. 

Nevertheless, security forces have said that if Choudary continued to preach extremism in Britain, he could be put under house arrest and tried again on terrorism and hate law charges.

His comments drew criticism from British officials and intellectuals alike. 

"Not only is it outrageous and repugnant, but the whole motive of the attack is a matter for the police – not Mr. Choudary," British Professor Anthony Glees, an expert on extremism, said. "'Like all brainwashed radicalizers, Choudary will do everything he can to carry on making his poisonous comments. This is an attempt to radicalize others."

A 25-year-old British man – reportedly called Ali Harbi Ali – has been arrested in connection with the attack on Amess. Police have called his alleged action terrorism and have said that there were indications that his actions drew "potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Muslim cleric sparks outrage for suggesting MP was killed for being 'pro-Israel' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Pressures from global warming could intensify political tensions, unrest and conflict, fuel violent extremism and break down government security systems, the experts said in a report by the Center of Climate and Security, a nonpartisan policy institute.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

War-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East were cited as most at risk, but industrialized regions are vulnerable, it said.

"Even at scenarios of low warming, each region of the world will face severe risks to national and global security in the next three decades," the report said.

"Higher levels of warming will pose catastrophic, and likely irreversible, global security risks over the course of the 21st century."

Concerns over the impact of climate change have led to calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow the pace of global warming amid instances of climate-related extreme weather such as wildfires and floods.

A United Nations report last year warned of dire consequences as well.

The research released on Monday warned of displaced populations driven from their homes by rising heat, drought and dwindling water and food supplies.

Disease would spread, and border security and infrastructure would break down as resources grow more scarce, fueling extremism, crime and human trafficking, it said.

"We're really looking at a bleak future if we see more and more countries become fragile," said Rod Schoonover, a former intelligence analyst and co-author of the report, who spoke at a briefing about the report.

Panel members included former US government security officials and climate security experts.

The experts assessed threats under two scenarios – if the planet warmed by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius or by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius – by the end of the century.

The UN has warned that if emissions are not drastically lowered, the average global temperature will increase by 4 degrees Celsius by then.

A global pact to fight climate change was agreed upon in Paris in 2015 that aimed to keep the earth's temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has initiated efforts to pull the United States out of the Paris pact.

"I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but this is bad stuff," said retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, a former US Army chief of staff, who spoke at the briefing but was not directly involved in the report.

"My question is, 'Is the US going to lead or are we going to stand around and watch?'" he said. "We need someone to step up and say 'I'll do it. Send me.'"

The post Climate change could pose 'catastrophic' security threat, experts warn appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Voters in Saxony, a region of around 4.1 million people bordering Poland and the Czech Republic, and neighboring Brandenburg, which has 2.5 million inhabitants and surrounds Berlin, are electing new state legislatures.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The formerly communist east has become a stronghold for the six-year-old Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is hoping for a possible first-place finish in at least one state. Saxony has been governed since German reunification in 1990 by Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and Brandenburg by the center-left Social Democrats, its junior partners in the national government.

Both are expected to lose ground, while the opposition Greens, which have traditionally struggled in the east, but have surged in national polls over recent months, are also looking to improve their score significantly.

That could be awkward for the national government's future. The Social Democrats, mired in a long-running national poll slump, are currently in a long-drawn-out process of choosing new leadership.

A very weak performance Sunday and in a third eastern state election, Thuringia, on Oct. 27, could strengthen the hand of members who want to walk out of the fractious national coalition.

More immediately, forming new state governments in Saxony and Brandenburg could be tricky, since mainstream parties have vowed not to form coalitions with AfD. Polls put the party's support in Saxony at more than double its 9.7% score in 2014, and its support in Brandenburg well above the 12.2% that it won then.

"AfD must not be given responsibility for this state," Saxony's center-right governor, Michael Kretschmer, told ZDF television on Friday.

"This is a party that is sliding further and further into right-wing extremism."

Saxony is currently governed by a coalition of Merkel's CDU and the Social Democrats. In Brandenburg, the Social Democrats lead a coalition with the Left Party, which is further to their Left.

Polls suggest that both coalitions will lose their majority, forcing them to bring in a third partner such as the Greens or consider alternatives such as a minority government, which is a rarity in Germany.

Saxony has long been a hotbed of far-right groups. It is not only a stronghold of AfD but also the state where the anti-migration group PEGIDA – Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West – rose to prominence with weekly protests in Dresden that brought tens of thousands of supporters into the streets at the height of the 2015 migration crisis.

Following the killing of a German man by a Syrian asylum-seeker a year ago, the Saxon city of Chemnitz saw days of anti-foreigner riots by thousands of neo-Nazis and members of AfD.

AfD has tapped into disillusionment, particularly in rural areas, among people who feel left behind after nearly three decades of German unity. Promises of equal living standards did not always become reality, salaries in the east still lag behind those in the west and many young people have left to seek opportunities elsewhere.

In both states voting Sunday, the party has put up posters urging voters to "complete" the 1989 rebellion against communist rule and proclaiming that "the east is rising up."

The post Germany's far Right eyes big gains as 2 states hold elections appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father Mohamed Hashim, who were seen in a video circulating on social media calling for all-out war against nonbelievers, were among 15 killed in a fierce gun battle with the military on the east coast on Friday, four police sources said.

Niyaz Sharif, the brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the wave of Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 350 people in churches and hotels across the island nation, told Reuters the video showed Zahran's two brothers and father.

Three of the people killed in Friday's gun battle were the same people who were seen in the undated video on social media, in which they discus martyrdom and urge their followers to kill all nonbelievers, police sources said.

Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the attacks on Easter Sunday, with nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed across the island to carry out searches and hunt down members of two local Islamist groups believed to have carried out the attack.

Authorities have detained more than 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt since the April 21 bombings.

In the video, Rilwan Hashim is seen calling for all out "jihad," or holy war, while children cry in the background.

"We will destroy these nonbelievers to protect this land and therefore we need to do jihad," Rilwan says in the video, sitting beside his brother and father.

"We need to teach a proper lesson for these nonbelievers who have been destroying Muslims."

Authorities suspect there may be more suicide bombers on the loose. Defense authorities have so far focused their investigations on international links to two domestic groups they believe carried out the attacks, the National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings, and on Sunday the group said three of its members clashed with Sri Lankan police for several hours in Friday's gun battle on the east coast before detonating their explosive vests, the militant group's news agency Amaq said.

The group said 17 policemen were killed or injured in the attack, but the Sri Lankan military has denied this. A police source told Reuters two policemen were slightly injured in the battle.

Police have said six children were among the other 12 people who died in the gun battle, but have not released further details.

The post Father, 2 brothers of Sri Lanka suicide bombings mastermind killed in gun battle appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.