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WHO ARE EXTREMISTS?

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Islam is not an inherently violent faith, but it has been exploited by extremists who have twisted the verses to suit their political goals.

Muslims need to confront these extremist interpretations and reclaim Islam. We need our own enlightenment.

Extremism is an exploitative process; religious, not religious, political or apolitical, it will find a way to give you clarity amid complexity. The feeling is powerful and all-encompassing

What we are fighting, in Islamist extremism , is an ideology. It is an extreme doctrine. And like any extreme doctrine, it is subversive. At its furthest end it seeks to destroy nation-state to invent its own barbaric realm. And it often backs violence to achieve this aim – mostly violence against fellow Muslims – who don’t subscribe to its sick worldview. But you don’t have to support violence to subscribe to certain intolerant ideas which create a climate in which extremists can flourish. Ideas which are hostile to basic liberal values such as democracy, freedom and sexual equality. Ideas which actively promote discrimination, sectarianism and segregation. Ideas – like those of the despicable far right – which privilege one identity to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of others. And ideas also based on conspiracy: that Jews exercise malevolent power; or that Western powers, in concert with Israel, are deliberately humiliating Muslims, because they aim to destroy Islam. In this warped worldview, such conclusions are reached – that 9/11 was actually inspired by Mossad to provoke the invasion of Afghanistan; that British security services knew about 7/7, but didn’t do anything about it because they wanted to provoke an anti-Muslim backlash. And like so many ideologies that have existed before – whether fascist or communist – many people, especially young people, are being drawn to it. We need to understand why it is proving so attractive.

Allah says:

“…Whosoever kills an innocent human being, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind…” Qur’an 5:32

“Islamic terrorists!” “Muslim fundamentalists!” “Extremists!” “Radical Islamists!” These are just some labels that have been wrongly applied to Muslims and certain Muslim groups in recent years.

The media’s portrayal of Islam often misleads those whose knowledge of the religion is limited, into making negative assumptions about this very peaceful and tolerant way of life.
Is it then, any wonder that most people associate Islam with terrorism?

The problem of ignorance is highlighted by a survey which revealed that more than one in three Australians admit to knowing nothing about Islam and its followers.
“Those with the least knowledge and personal contact with Muslims were the most likely to feel threatened by Islam,” said Dr Dunn, who was commissioned by the Australia-Indonesia Institute to carry out the study.

The prevalence of media bias and ignorance regarding Islam can be countered by understanding Islam through its proper teachings. That means referring to the Qur’an (which Muslims believe to be the word of God) and the authentic sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Through the proper understanding of these teachings, one will discover Islam to be completely against any form of extremism.

How the Qur’an can be misunderstood

When reading through the Qur’an or the sayings of the Prophet (peace be upon him), one must understand the context in which the wording applies. The following verse of the Qur’an is a favourite amongst those seeking to mislead people about Islam:
“And kill them wherever you find them, and expel them from where they expelled you, as persecuting people to sway them from God’s Religion is worse than killing. But do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque, unless they fight you there. But if they do fight you, then slay them; This is the recompense of the disbelievers.” Qur’an 2:191
On occasions, this verse has been dangerously trimmed down to the following:

“And kill them wherever you find them…” Qur’an 2:191
The obvious question is, “Kill who?”. To answer this question, one should read the verses before and after verse 2:191.
“And fight in the way of Allah those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.“ Qur’an 2:190

The above verse mentions fighting as a means of self defence (i.e. with those who fight you). The verse after 2:191 is:
“But if they cease, Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.” Qur’an 2:192

These verses were revealed at a time when the Muslims had been expelled from their homes on account of their faith. They endured more than ten years of persecution and eventually had to flee to a safe land.
The above verses were referring to the Arab pagans of Mecca during the Prophet’s time, who oppressed the Muslims and planned to attack them where the Muslims sought refuge.
Hence, the above verse can only be applied in such circumstances.

This example demonstrates that verses in the Qur’an should be understood in their proper context since verses were revealed in stages in relation to particular situations, over a period of 23 years. It is also important to note that the Qur’an was revealed in Arabic. Therefore, translations into different languages may be misleading and/or inaccurate.
Permissible Warfare/Fighting

There can be no doubt that Muslims have a legitimate right to fight against aggression or when oppressed.

Islam teaches that warfare is permitted in order to preserve the wellbeing of the community or to prevent oppression from spreading – this may be in the context of defensive or offensive warfare depending on the particular situation. Islam, just like any ‘way of life’ that wants to ensure its survival, has the right to defend itself when war is declared against it. In the Qur’an (22:39) we read:

“To those against whom war is made, permission is given to fight, because they are wronged.”
However, when the enemy ceases its hostility, Muslims are commanded to cease fighting.
“And if they incline to peace, then incline to it and trust in God; surely He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” Qur’an 8:61

Abu Bakr (may God be pleased with him), Prophet Mohammad’s closest friend and first successor, spoke of the Islamic approach to war by highlighting the following.
In the battlefield, one should not:

commit treachery

mutilate the dead

deviate from the right path

kill a woman, child or aged man

harm or burn trees, especially the fruitful

slay the enemy’s flock, except for food

harm those who devote their life to worship

As we read in verse 2:190, Allah commands Muslims not to go to extremes by saying, “Do not transgress the limits.” A situation of war is no excuse to go beyond boundaries. Islam teaches the avoidance of blind retaliation.
“And let not the hatred of others make you avoid justice. Be just: that is nearer to righteousness.” Qur’an 5:8 unlike

Now therefore, kill every male among the little
ones, and kill every woman who has known man
intimately. But all the girls who have not known
man intimately, spare for yourselves. (Numbers
31:17-18)

“Do not think that I have come to send peace on
earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. I
am sent to set a man against his father, a
daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-
law against her mother-in-law” (Matthew
10:34-35)
But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign
over them, bring them here and slay them in my
presence. (Luke 19:2-27)

Terrosim in perspective

The problem with putting terrorism into perspective is that there is no agreed-upon definition of what constitutes “terrorism”. Also, terrorism takes many forms, as the following examples illustrate.

Robert Fisk, from The Independent, writes: “Israel and Israel’s militia allies (on 16 September 1982) started their three-day orgy of rape, knifing and murder in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila that cost 1,800 lives. It followed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon designed to drive the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) out of the country and given the green light [by the United States] which cost the lives of 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinians, almost all of them civilians.”
According to Professor Noam Chomsky, “It’s uncontroversial that the United States is a leading terrorist state. In fact, it’s the only state that was condemned for international terrorism by the highest bodies: the International Court of Justice in 1986.”

Similarly, “The horrific massacre of 8,000 Muslims – some unarmed – at Srebrenica in 1995 never led to a stream of pieces about the violence and repressive tendencies of Christianity.” – William Dalrymple, The Independent UK.
“The carnage wrought by Western, ostensibly Christian, leaders over the last six decades – including a world war and a cold war, a Holocaust, two atomic bombs, repression of wars of independence, the fuelling of proxy wars, nuclear brinksmanship, and the support of dictators and state and non-state terrorists – makes it spurious to view Islam as a more inherently violent religion or civilisation.” – Rama Mani (Geneva Centre for Security Policy)
There are many other examples of both Jewish and Christian terrorism, however, we must never generalise and call all Christians and Jews terrorists. Similarly, we should not put all Muslims on trial but only those that committed the crime should be judged.

Islam Denounces Terrorism

The act of inciting terror in the hearts of defenceless civilians, the wholesale destruction of buildings and properties, the bombing and maiming of innocent men, women and children are all forbidden and detestable acts according to Islam and the Muslims. This is regardless of any type of terrorism, including western state-sponsored terrorism which has killed, injured and displaced infinitely more people than all other types of terrorism.

If an individual Muslim were to commit an act of terrorism, this person would be guilty of violating the laws of the very religion they claim to follow – Islam. Would it be fair to condemn all Muslims as a result, when the religion itself is against such acts? Muslims follow a religion of submission to God, peace, mercy, and forgiveness. The vast majority have nothing to do with the violent events some – notably the media – have associated with Muslims. Islam is not a religion of extremism.

“Allah does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. Allah loves those who are just.” Qur’an 60:8

WE ARE NOT EXTREMIST NOR ARE WE FANATICS

Research work
source: wikepedia

Nafysah @.knowislam.com.ng.

The rise and fall of ISIL explained

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Three years after Mosul takeover, here is a breakdown of ISIL’s path from its very beginnings to its current decline.

ISIL’s rapid expansion has irrevocably changed the political dynamics governing the region [Reuters]

Pushed out from many of its strongholds in Syria and besieged on all sides in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) is losing its territorial base in the very region that once incubated its growth. In May, the US Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that ISIL has lost 65 percent of its land in Iraq and 45 percent in Syria since 2014.

With the group’s presence in the region greatly diminished, questions arise over who will fill the vacuum left by its retreat.

ISIL’s rapid expansion has irrevocably changed the political dynamics governing the region – but in order to know how, one must first understand the conditions that contributed to the group’s rise.

Below, Al Jazeera charts ISIL’s path from its very beginnings to the slow rot of its current decline.

How did ISIL consolidate its power?

Since the 2003 US occupation of Iraq, the Middle East has undergone a roiling period of conflict, rising sectarianism and chaotic regime change. It is in the shadows of this crumbling regional landscape that ISIL first began to metastasize, nourished by the increasing frailty of Arab states in revolt or at war.

Authors, JM Berger and Jessica Stern in, ISIS: The State of Terror, and Fawaz A Gerges in, ISIS: A History, traced the group’s origins to the early-1990s, when a Jordanian man known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a street thug and former prisoner in Jordan, left for Afghanistan to fight as a mujahed against the Soviet occupation.

He arrived in the country too late. The conflict had subsided, but he later returned to Afghanistan from Jordanin 2000 to set up a training camp for fighters with tepid financial support from al-Qaeda.

There, he developed a recruitment network of fighters whose backgrounds often sketched the same lines as his own: Born into poverty, often radicalised in prison, and with low-levels of education and shallow theological knowledge of the Quran.

Zarqawi’s resources were sparse by the time he arrived in a US-occupied Iraq to form a branch of al-Qaeda. Yet mounting sectarian tensions allowed Zarqawi to gain followers and resources for his fanatical organisation.

Iraq is a first example of how Western intervention and failing state services gave way to an environment of raw, divisive resentment that benefited ideologues like Zarqawi.

After Saddam Hussein was removed from power, the US-led transitional coalition embarked on a widespread overhaul of the national government, pruning its ranks of members from Hussein’s Baath party.

The Iraqi military was also disbanded, creating “a bulge of angry, disenfranchised Sunni technocrats” among the population. In their book, Stern and Berger estimate that more than 100,000 Baathists were removed from their posts.

Some of them would be poached by Zarqawi’s organisation and would later fill the higher ranks of ISIL, proffering a wealth of military knowledge that, among some Baathists, extended as far back as the Iraq-Iran war.

As then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikipaid hollow lip service to ideas of inclusion while simultaneously employing sectarian-based policies, Zarqawi played on feelings of disaffection in the country’s Sunni communities. With his 2004 establishment of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Zarqawi had the blessing of Osama bin Laden to advance towards a total war against Shia Muslims.

“Zarqawi himself was deeply sectarian, but also saw that provoking Sunni-Shia confrontation would work in his favour,” said Richard Atwood, New York director of the International Crisis Group, whose work focuses on al-Qaeda and ISIL. “He instigated attacks on Shia religious symbols, provoking a sectarian civil war.”

Zarqawi played on feelings of disaffection in the Iraq’s Sunni communities [Ali Jasim/Reuters]

Al-Qaeda in Iraq merged with other groups in 2006 and adopted the name the Islamic State in Iraq while still maintaining tenuous ties to al-Qaeda leadership. According to the Wilson Center, on October 15, 2006, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over the group after Zarqawi’s death, announced the establishment of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), with Abu Omar al-Baghdadias its leader.

By 2010, divides between Sunni and Shia Muslims were extensive, but left unaddressed by an increasingly authoritarian Maliki who, at that point, had named himself his own interior and defence minister.

The state could no longer provide basic services, such as electricity; powerful Sunni tribes, once promised positions in the government in exchange for cooperating with US occupying forces, were shunted aside.

In 2011, anti-government protests erupted across the country. Security forces cracked down, and the state’s violent response stoked the furore of a wide array of emerging opposition groups.

 

As ISIL wedged itself into the deepening furrows between Sunni and Shia Muslims, the group also focused its energies on provoking discord within sects. Demonstrating a savvy for identifying long-present tensions, it infiltrated Sunni tribal communities and turned sub-tribes or generations against each other through the selective backing and funding of groups, Atwood explained.

“[ISIL’s] rise was very much rooted in deteriorating Sunni-Shia relations and Maliki’s rule. “ISIL rebuilt underground networks and sleeper cells gradually. Its ranks, including at leadership level, were also reinforced by prison breaks.”

How did ISIL gain power in Syria?

Where hopeful supporters saw potential for change during the 2011 Arab revolutions, ISIL saw a moment of violent disorder that could be leveraged for power. In late 2011, ISIL sent a trusted lieutenant, Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, to set up a cell in Syria.

He established Jabhat al-Nusra, which would gain notoriety in the civil war for its military prowess and extensive use of suicide bombers. For years, al-Nusra hid its affiliation with ISIL and al-Qaeda. They received clandestine support in exchange for sharing its logistical and financial gains with Baghdadi. A study on Jabhat al-Nusra by the Brookings Institute found out that, in 2012, the group still received 50 percent from its funding from ISIL.

In 2013, however, Baghdadi announcedISIL’s link to al-Nusra in defiance of al-Qaeda central and demanded that Joulani annex his group. Joulani refused, prompting a bloody struggle that killed thousands of fighters and demonstrated that ISIL’s ruthlessness extended even to those among its ranks.

Soon, ISIL began building its own independent cell in Syria and proved adept at infiltrating previously rebel-controlled territories.

“After its split from al-Qaeda, ISIL moved more aggressively into the east and peeled off a lot of fighters from al-Nusra. It then moved aggressively against the rebels instead of attacking the regime,” said Atwood, adding that ISIL nevertheless found staunch resistance from rebels in the northwestern region.

Meanwhile, the Assad regime’s choice to seek support from both Iran and Hezbollah only played into ISIL’s narrative of “defending Sunni interests against Shia dominion”. The Brookings study explains that, “the visible role of Iran and Hezbollah, as well as other smaller Shia militia factions in backing the Assad regime additionally framed the conflict in Syria in the kind of sectarian terms” that could be so easily exploited by ISIL.

By 2014, ISIL had taken Mosul from a defeated Iraqi army, as well as Raqqaand oil-rich Deir Az Zor in Syria.

The group used tools and bulldozers to begin systematically dismantling the Syria-Iraq border, turning its caliphate aspirations into reality.

After establishing its caliphate, how did ISIL maintain control?

After consolidating territorial gains, ISIL began setting up its bureaucratic porto-state with the help of foreign technocrats who travelled to join the group. According to a study by Carnegie Middle East Centre, by attracting foreign recruits, not just to become fighters, but also residents, ISIL would have achieved two goals; increase its population and realise its goal of establishing a lasting state.

These new arrivals would manage a range of sectors that included education, health and community policing. Their contributions helped gird the overarching message of ISIL’s propaganda: come join to be a part of the caliphate future. ISIL didn’t only call for fighters on social media, but also for doctors, engineers and regular citizens who could be swayed into believing they had a role in the group’s vision.

ISIL began setting up its bureaucratic porto-state with the help of foreign technocrats who travelled to join the group [Reuters]

The brutal violence ISIL waged on the local populations it controlled has been well-documented, as the group set about extracting profits from the resources and tax base of its “wilayat”, or provinces.

According to this study, ISIL has six major categories of income; Taxes and fees, katural resources, kidnapping, antiquities, foreign donations, looting, confiscations and fine.

In the years since 2014, Islamic State’s annual revenue has declined significantly from up to $1.9b in 2014 to a maximum of $870m in 2016.

What can we expect for the future of the region?

Today, ISIL’s territories are shrinking as its fighters face mounting pressure from a US-led coalition, as well as Syrian President Assad‘s regime backers. Many observers have sounded the coalition attack on Mosul as ISIL’s death knell. However, ISIL will always present tremendous problems for state governments – even in its retreat.

“There is a political crisis in Iraq that no one is resolving,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at Carnegie’s Middle East Center.” The real question becomes what, if anything at all, is the Iraqi government doing to produce a new political environment because that will shape how local groups respond to ISIL disappearing.”

Throughout the years, ISIL has both instrumentalised and deepened sectarian anger and distrust towards states in the region. As ISIL loses land, these sentiments will only pose more trouble for governments attempting to rule in the aftermath.

Last year, the Iraqi parliament angered Sunni politicians when it approved a law to legalise the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an anti-ISIL force composed of various militia fighters. The PMF now operates alongside the Iraqi military forces – an outrageous affront, according to Sunni Iraqis, who accuse the PMF of committing human rights atrocities against civilians.

Furthermore, foreign powers fighting ISIL have brought with them a separate set of difficulties which, in the coming years, will have an immense effect on the political futures of Iraq and Syria.

The fight against ISIL has created a splintering array of groups who hold different interests and benefit from diverse foreign backers. After ISIL, Iraq’s weakened state will be charged with the task of creating a harmonious and inclusive political future among this fragmentation, according to Sayigh.

 

In Iraq, different anti-ISIL factions and militias may view this moment as an opportunity to assert dominance and may resort to jostling with each other to grab resources or political control. Disagreements are not limited to a simple Shia-Sunni divide, but are also endemic within different militia or political groups of the same sect.

“Everyone tends to fixate on ISIL to the complete neglect of the deeper, wider crisis of the Iraqi political system,” said Sayigh. “There is much competition and refusal to cooperate among different Shia political factions and their military wings.”

Atwood, of the International Crisis Group, echoed a similar sentiment, “One of the dangers now in Mosul is that the groups fighting ISIL, some of which are backed by Iran, some by Turkey and some by the US and all of which have their own competing interests, will contest violently for turf afterwards.”

The spaghetti tangle of different alliances between invested foreign powers has only worsened the situation.

In Syria, plans to route ISIL out of Raqqa have created diplomatic trouble for the US, which is ready to throw in financial and strategic resources to support the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG): A Syrian Kurdish faction fighting ISIL.

Yet the YPG’s close links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), declared a “terrorist” group in Turkey, has angered the Turkish government which nevertheless remains the US’s NATO ally.

In Iraq, the lead-up to the Mosul attack provoked tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, as Arab Iraqis feared that Mosul would give the country’s Kurdsan opportunity to seize territory.

Competing agendas have congealed political systems into stalemates, creating an expansive crisis that could rear its head in Syria’s peace process and in Iraq’s upcoming parliamentarian elections.

Amid this disorder, the future strategy of ISIL is unclear. Having lost territory in the Middle East, could ISIL swing its attention to the West and focus its energies on carrying out attacks there?

“It looks likely that attacks on the West that are claimed and in some cases instigated or supported by ISIL will continue, notwithstanding its losses in Iraq and Syria,” said Atwood.

“That said, the ISIL brand was closely linked to its territorial expansion and self-proclaimed caliphate. With those gone, it will have to redefine success and rebrand,” he added.

Source: Al Jazeera News

Mohammed bin Salman named Saudi Arabia's crown prince

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Saudi king replaces first in line to the throne with his son, Mohammed bin Salman, the defence chief, state media says

 

Mohammed bin Salman, 31, was also named deputy prime minister [File: Hassan Ammar/AP]
Mohammed bin Salman, 31, was also named deputy prime minister [File: Hassan Ammar/AP]

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has appointed his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as heir, in a major reshuffle announced early on Wednesday.

A royal decree removed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a 57-year-old nephew of the king, as next-in-line to the throne and replaced him with Mohammed bin Salman, 31, who was previously the deputy crown prince.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the newly-announced crown prince was also named deputy prime minister and maintained his post as defence minister.

The former crown prince was also fired from his post as interior minister, the decree said.

Saudi Arabia’s Allegiance Council voted 31 to 34 in favour of the changes, according to the state-owned al-Arabiya channel.

The Saudi king called for a public pledging of allegiance to the new crown prince on Wednesday, the channel said.

Even as deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman was overseeing a vast portfolio.

He had been responsible for running Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, dictating an energy policy and heading a council tasked with overhauling the country’s economy.

Some royal observers had long suspected Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power under his father’s reign might also accelerate his ascension to the throne.

The young prince was little known to Saudis and outsiders before Salman became king in January 2015. He had previously been in charge of his father’s royal court when Salman was the crown prince.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Identifies 219 New Planet Candidates

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NASA’s Kepler space telescope team has identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and in the habitable zone of their star. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomers have identified 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and orbiting in their star’s habitable zone.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope team has released a mission catalog of planet candidates that introduces 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and orbiting in their star’s habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.

This is the most comprehensive and detailed catalog release of candidate exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, from Kepler’s first four years of data. It’s also the final catalog from the spacecraft’s view of the patch of sky in the Cygnus constellation.

With the release of this catalog, derived from data publicly available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive, there are now 4,034 planet candidates identified by Kepler. Of which, 2,335 have been verified as exoplanets. Of roughly 50 near-Earth size habitable zone candidates detected by Kepler, more than 30 have been verified.

Additionally, results using Kepler data suggest two distinct size groupings of small planets. Both results have significant implications for the search for life. The final Kepler catalog will serve as the foundation for more study to determine the prevalence and demographics of planets in the galaxy, while the discovery of the two distinct planetary populations shows that about half the planets we know of in the galaxy either have no surface, or lie beneath a deep, crushing atmosphere – an environment unlikely to host life.

The findings were presented at a news conference Monday at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

“The Kepler data set is unique, as it is the only one containing a population of these near Earth-analogs – planets with roughly the same size and orbit as Earth,” said Mario Perez, Kepler program scientist in the Astrophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Understanding their frequency in the galaxy will help inform the design of future NASA missions to directly image another Earth.”

The Kepler space telescope hunts for planets by detecting the minuscule drop in a star’s brightness that occurs when a planet crosses in front of it, called a transit.

This is the eighth release of the Kepler candidate catalog, gathered by reprocessing the entire set of data from Kepler’s observations during the first four years of its primary mission. This data will enable scientists to determine what planetary populations – from rocky bodies the size of Earth, to gas giants the size of Jupiter – make up the galaxy’s planetary demographics.

To ensure a lot of planets weren’t missed, the team introduced their own simulated planet transit signals into the data set and determined how many were correctly identified as planets. Then, they added data that appear to come from a planet, but were actually false signals, and checked how often the analysis mistook these for planet candidates. This work told them which types of planets were overcounted and which were undercounted by the Kepler team’s data processing methods.

“This carefully-measured catalog is the foundation for directly answering one of astronomy’s most compelling questions – how many planets like our Earth are in the galaxy?” said Susan Thompson, Kepler research scientist for the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and lead author of the catalog study.

One research group took advantage of the Kepler data to make precise measurements of thousands of planets, revealing two distinct groups of small planets. The team found a clean division in the sizes of rocky, Earth-size planets and gaseous planets smaller than Neptune. Few planets were found between those groupings.

Using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the group measured the sizes of 1,300 stars in the Kepler field of view to determine the radii of 2,000 Kepler planets with exquisite precision.

“We like to think of this study as classifying planets in the same way that biologists identify new species of animals,” said Benjamin Fulton, doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, and lead author of the second study. “Finding two distinct groups of exoplanets is like discovering mammals and lizards make up distinct branches of a family tree.”

It seems that nature commonly makes rocky planets up to about 75 percent bigger than Earth. For reasons scientists don’t yet understand, about half of those planets take on a small amount of hydrogen and helium that dramatically swells their size, allowing them to “jump the gap” and join the population closer to Neptune’s size.

The Kepler spacecraft continues to make observations in new patches of sky in its extended mission, searching for planets and studying a variety of interesting astronomical objects, from distant star clusters to objects such as the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven Earth-size planets, closer to home.

Ames manages the Kepler missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

 

 

Figure 1

Kepler measures the brightness of stars. The data will look like an EKG showing the heart beat. Whenever a planet passes in front of its parent star as viewed from the spacecraft, a tiny pulse or beat is produced. From the repeated beats we can detect and verify the existence of Earth-size planets and learn about the orbit and size of the planet.
Credits: NASA Ames and Dana Berry

Figure 2

Studying the Stars with Kepler
Kepler was the first NASA mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets, using the transit method, a photometric technique that measures the minuscule dimming of starlight as a planet passes in front of its host star. For the first four years of its primary mission, the space telescope observed a set starfield located in the constellation Cygnus (left). New results released from Kepler data today have implications for understanding the frequency of different types of planets in our galaxy and the way planets are formed. Since 2014 the Kepler telescope has been taking data on its extended second mission, observing fields on the plane of the ecliptic of our galaxy (right).
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel
Studying the Stars with Kepler

Figure 3

Exoplanet Missions
This is an illustration of the different elements in NASA’s exoplanet program, including ground-based observatories, like the W. M. Keck Observatory, and space-based observatories, like Hubble, Spitzer, Kepler, TESS, James Webb Space Telescope, WFIRST and future missions.
Credits: NASA

Figure 4

New Kepler Planet Candidates
There are 4,034 planet candidates now known with the release of the eighth Kepler planet candidate catalog. Of these, 2,335 have been confirmed as planets. The blue dots show planet candidates from previous catalogs, while the yellow dots show new candidates from the eighth catalog. New planet candidates continue to be found at all periods and sizes due to continued improvement in detection techniques. Notably, 10 of these new candidates are near-Earth-size and at long orbital periods, where they have a chance of being rocky with liquid water on their surface.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel
New Kepler Planet Candidates

Figure 5

Discerning the Planet Candidates
In the final full survey of Kepler’s primary mission data, the entire data set was reprocessed using the mission’s most discerning analytical methods – a fully automated process represented here by the blue triangle. More than 4,000 planet candidates, including around 50 approximately the size of Earth and orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars, were identified in the data from observations of 200,000 stars. To be sure a lot of planets weren’t missed, the team introduced their own simulated planet transit signals into the data set and determined how many were correctly identified as planets. Then they added data that appear to come from a planet, but were really false signals, and checked how often the analysis mistook these for planet candidates. This process makes the eighth Kepler planet candidate catalog the best characterized set of high-confidence potential planets.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel

Figure 6

Kepler Habitable Zone Planets
Highlighted are new planet candidates from the eighth Kepler planet candidate catalog that are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in the stars’ habitable zone – the range of distances from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The dark green area represents an optimistic estimate for the habitable zone, while the brighter green area represents a more conservative estimate for the habitable zone. The candidates are plotted as a function of their stars’ surface temperature on the vertical axis and by the amount of energy the planet candidate receives from its host star on the horizontal axis. Brighter yellow circles show new planet candidates in the eighth catalog, while pale yellow circles show planet candidates from previous catalogs. Blue circles represent candidates that have been confirmed as planets due to follow-up observations. The sizes of the colored disks indicate the sizes of these exoplanets relative to one another and to the image of Earth, Venus and Mars, placed on this diagram for reference. Note that the new candidates tend to be around stars more similar to the sun – around 5,800 Kelvin – representing progress in finding planets that are similar to the Earth in size and temperature that orbit sun-like stars.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel
Kepler Habitable Zone Planets

Figure 7

Studying Long Period Planets
NASA’s Kepler mission is unique in its ability to detect small planets orbiting relatively far from their stars, with relatively long orbital periods of more than 100 days. Kepler’s data will now allow researchers to study the planet populations making up this group (indicated by the green oval) which may include Earth-size planets located in the habitable zone around stars like our sun.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel

Figure 8

Small Planets are Common
This histogram shows the size distribution of planets discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission before the sizes were later refined with the help of the W. M. Keck Observatory. Smaller planets up to four times the size of Earth are more common than larger planets. The small planets originally appeared to span a range of sizes, but more precise size measurements from Keck revealed a scarcity of planets that are about 1.75 times the size of Earth.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/CalTech/University of Hawaii/B.J. Fulton

Figure 9

Small Planets Come in Two Sizes
Researchers using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory and NASA’s Kepler mission have discovered a gap in the distribution of planet sizes, indicating that most planets discovered by Kepler so far fall into two distinct size classes: the rocky Earth-size and super-Earth-size (similar to Kepler-452b), and the mini-Neptune-size (similar to Kepler-22b). This histogram shows the number of planets per 100 stars as a function of planet size relative to Earth.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/CalTech/University of Hawaii/B.J. Fulton
Small Planets Come in Two Sizes

Figure 10

New Branch in the Exoplanet Family Tree
This sketch illustrates a family tree of exoplanets. Planets are born out of swirling disks of gas and dust called protoplanetary disks. The disks give rise to giant planets like Jupiter as well as smaller planets mostly between the size of Earth and Neptune. Researchers using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory and NASA’s Kepler mission discovered that these smaller planets can be cleanly divided into two size groups: the rocky Earth-like planets and super-Earths, and the gaseous mini-Neptunes.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/JPL-Caltech/Tim Pyle
New Branch in Exoplanet Family Tree

Figure 11

Assembly Line of Planets
This diagram illustrates how planets are assembled and sorted into two distinct size classes. First, the rocky cores of planets are formed from smaller pieces. Then, the gravity of the planets attracts hydrogen and helium gas. Finally, the planets are “baked” by the starlight and lose some gas. At a certain mass threshold, planets retain the gas and become gaseous mini-Neptunes; below this threshold, the planets lose all their gas, becoming rocky super-Earths.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt
Assembly Line of Planets

Figure 12

Exoplanet Populations
The population of exoplanets detected by the Kepler mission (yellow dots) compared to those detected by other surveys using various methods: radial velocity (light blue dots), transit (pink dots), imaging (green dots), microlensing (dark blue dots), and pulsar timing (red dots). For reference, the horizontal lines mark the sizes of Jupiter, Neptune and Earth, all of which are displayed on the right side of the diagram. The colored ovals denote different types of planets: hot Jupiters (pink), cold gas giants (purple), ocean worlds and ice giants (blue), rocky planets (yellow), and lava worlds (green). The shaded gray triangle at the lower right marks the exoplanet frontier that will be explored by future exoplanet surveys. Kepler has discovered a remarkable quantity of exoplanets and significantly advanced the edge of the frontier.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Natalie Batalha/Wendy Stenzel

IS THE BIBLE COMPLETE?

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By Funsho Animashaun @knowislam.com.ng

 

Assalam alaekum everyone,

 

A few years ago while I was still a christian, I had the premonition that the Bible is the word of God which has not been tampered with because some verses instructed men not to add or remove from the contents of the christian scripture which we all know as the Bible. I studied the Bible with my parish members and sometimes go on Bible quiz competitions which I mostly won.

The Bible says:

Revelation 22:18 – For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

Revelation 22:19 – And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.

Matthew 24:24 – For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

2 Timothy 3:16 – All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Matthew 5:18 – For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Deuteronomy 4:2 – Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:32 – What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

Proverbs 30:5-6

Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

 

Going through these verses of the Bible, I believe every Christian would quite be defensive to say that it is not possible to remove or add to the Bible lest the wrath of God depends on such person.

Hmnn..dear Ummah, can any Christian out there beat his chest and say the Bibles we have today are actually what had been the Bible throughout the ages and since the creation of the manuscripts? Wallahi, not even the Pope can take up this challenge!!!

See Also: https://knowislam.com.ng/miracles-and-signs-of-muhammad-pbuh/

I saw some comparative debates on YouTube where Christian apologists try to defend the variants we have between the Catholic, Anglican and Protestant Bibles. They tend to defend the apocrypha. Funny enough, the matter is now even beyond the apocrypha!

By the way, have we ever asked any Christian what Apocrypha means?

This article is not about to question if the Bible is actually the word of God… This article dwells entirely to show that the Bible we have today is actually incomplete with some books either lost, missing, removed or perhaps fabricated.

Different religious groups include different books in their Biblical canons, in varying orders, and sometimes divide or combine books. Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to the 81 books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canon.

The truth now is that even the different canons we find now don’t actually still have the complete books of the Bible.

Please watch:

 

I hope my Christian brothers would be open-minded to go through every detail of that video as it exposes a whole lot of conspiracies going on over centuries in canonizing the scriptures.

Do we even know that the first edition of King James Version (KJV) of the Bible had more books than the 66 it contains now?

Who removed these books? On whose authority were these books removed from the previous canons? Which authority is guarded with the role of removing, adding and interpolating the so called books containing the words of God.

What is the faith of billions of Christians who have planted their faith in believing hook,line and sinker all these conspiracies that has been hidden from them? Would they also have their share in the wrath God promised to such perpetrators?

See Also: https://knowislam.com.ng/crucifixion-or-crucifiction/

Let me end here with this short video which summarizes all my points

 

Nigerian Officials Commence Distribution of Saudi Arabia Dates in IDP Camps

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Nigerian Officials Commenced Distribution of Dates Donated by Saudi Arabia After Investigation

 

Earlier last week, the social media space went agog with 200 Tonnes dates donated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Nigerians especially the ones in IDP camps in Borno and other places, which were being commercialized by the officials and found in Nigerian Markets.

 

After the situation, the Nigerian Government set up an investigation crew to demystify the corrupt act, in a swift reaction to this, the officials have started sharing the remaining dates to few IDPs and uploaded the process on social media platforms.

 

The pictures were reported to be taken in Kano, Nigeria.

 

Also, the Nigerian Government has duly apologized to the authorities of Saudi Arabia over the ugly incident and vowed to bring the culprits to book.

 

#DabinoGate.

 

Lawal Arishekola
For; www.knowislam.com.ng

Education : On The CRK Removal Controversy By Prince Tony Ogbetere

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The Nigerian government revised the 9- Year Basic Education Curriculum in 2012 in line with global best practices as in Kenya -7 subject, Tanzania- 8 subject, United States of America -6 subject, Malaysia and Indonesia -9 subject offerings.

 

The curriculum revision process involved identification and grouping of related disciplines such as Christian Religious Studies/ Islamic Studies, Social Studies, Civic Education, and Security Education to create a new composite or cluster of Revised BEC subject called Religion and National Values. Key concepts in the former curricula now form integrating threads for organizing the contents of the new subject into a coherent whole.

The Revised BEC comprises ten (10) subjects namely: 1. English Studies, 2. Mathematics, 3. Basic Science and Technology, 4. Religion and National Values, 5. Cultural and Creative Arts 6. Business Studies

7. Nigerian Languages, 8. Pre-vocational Studies, 9. French, 10. Arabic. As pointed out above, these revisions were made in 2012 when Goodluck Jonathan was the president of Nigeria. It is therefore very surprising that some men of God who are drawn to sensationalism are accusing the Buhari government of being the architects of this revision and accusing same of planning to Islamize Nigeria. How can you accuse a man who became president in 2015 of being responsible for what was designed and implemented in 2012? If only this category of ”men of God” can just stay out of politics and face their calling as preachers, much of the tension that they create with their utterances will be avoided. But even if they must speak, it behooves on them to do their research well before making utterances.

Curiously no single Imam cried out when the federal government headed by a supposed Christian did this review. Neither did CAN or any pastor for that matter say anything about it. All of a sudden three years later everyone seems to have woken up from their slumber. This is really very pathetic. From the foregoing, it looks like these men of God seem to believe that it is what students learn at school that predominantly makes them good Christians or not but I beg to differ. The school syllabus for Religious studies only contains bible stories or historical events in the bible. The subject only made us to cram and recite the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the golden rule. The real Christians principles that we hold dear today were taught in church and in our homes. The school can never be a substitute to the church and the family. So instead of prying into politics and school curricular these men of God should focus attention on using the church and the family unit as the bedrock of building up children because when it is all said and done, a child is a combination of the training he gets both at school and at home. We cannot control what happens at school but we can control what happens in church and at home. The earlier we start doing more of the training at home and in church the better. Those who want to argue can argue. I don talk my own. Let us stop making the church a part of our victim mentality. Nobody can Islamize Nigeria.

The opinions contained in this article are solely those of the author and not of knowislam.com.ng 

Australia halts Syria air strikes after Russia warning

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Australia’s military said it was temporarily halting air missions over Syria, following the shooting down of a Syrian jet by US forces.

The decision came amid increasing tension between the US and Russia, which warned it would track coalition aircraft in Syria as potential “targets” and halted a military hotline with Washington over the incident.

“As a precautionary measure, Australian Defence Force (ADF) strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased,” Australia’s Department of Defence said in a statement.

“ADF operations in Iraq will continue as part of the coalition.”

Russia made clear it was changing its military posture in response to the US downing of a Syrian military jet on Sunday, which, according to Damascus, is the first such incident since the start of the conflict in 2011.

READ MORE: Syria’s displaced – ‘This Ramadan is full of grief’

“ADF personnel are closely monitoring the air situation in Syria and a decision on the resumption of ADF air operations in Syria will be made in due course,” Australia’s Department of Defence said.

Meanwhile, the US has moved quickly to contain an escalation of the situation, with a top general saying the country would work to relaunch a “deconfliction” hotline established in 2015.

Russia said Washington had failed to use the line – a vital incident-prevention tool – before targeting the plane near Raqqa.

Australia is part of the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Iraq. In late 2015, it extended air operations into Syria on US’ request.

It has six fighter jets based in the United Arab Emirates that strike targets in Syria and Iraq.

In September, Australia said it would widen the scope of targets in the air war against ISIL by allowing its pilots to strike support and logistics resources in Iraq and Syria.

Australia has conducted one of the highest number of airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, according to Airwars, a Britain-based non-profit research group monitoring airstrikes.

source : Al jazeera

UK van terror attack : Man charged with 'terrorism' over van attack on Muslims

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UK police say suspect, 47, is being ‘held for terrorism offences’ after attack targeting Muslim worshipers in London.

 

A man prays in front of tributes left near the Finsbury Park area where a van was driven at Muslims [Marko Djurica/Reuters]

A 47-year-old man has been charged with “terrorism offences” following an attack with a van on Muslims in north London, UK police have said.

The driver slammed the vehicle into worshippers shortly after midnight on Monday as they left late-night prayers at the Muslim Welfare House and the nearby Finsbury Park Mosque, one of the biggest in Britain.

A man, who had earlier suffered a heart attack, died at the scene on Seven Sisters Road, but it was not immediately clear if he was killed by the attacker’s actions. Eight people were taken to hospital.

The Metropolitan police said the driver was initially arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, but he was later charged with the “commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder”.

“At this stage in the investigation, it is believed that the suspect acted alone but we are, of course, investigating all the circumstances leading up to the attack,” the force said in a statement.

Ramadan.

‘Kill many Muslims’

The use of a vehicle to mow down pedestrians drew parallels with a deadly attack on London Bridge earlier this month.

In that incident, three men drove a van into pedestrians before embarking on a stabbing spree, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

In March, London was hit with another ISIL-claimed car and knife attack, that one near the British Parliament in Westminster.

This time the attacker deliberately targeted Muslims, police said.

“More victims of a vehicle that leaves the road aimed as a weapon to kill and maim. But this time, the driver didn’t get away, he didn’t get shot, nor did he have any apparent intent to kill himself,” Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Finsbury Park, said.

The driver was grabbed at the scene by some of the Muslim worshippers and pinned down until police arrived, while others did what they could to help the wounded.

After being seized, the suspect said he had wanted to kill “many Muslim people,” one witness told journalists.

“Over the past weeks and months, Muslims have endured many incidents of Islamophobia and this is the most violent manifestation to date,” said Harun Khan, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella body.

Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of the Finsbury Park Mosque, described the attack as “cowardly”.

“Our community is in shock,” he said, urging people attending prayers to remain vigilant.

May, second right, visited the Finsbury Park Mosque on Monday [Stefan Rousseau/Reuters]

‘Not an isolated incident’

UK Prime Minister Theresa Maycondemned Monday’s attack as “sickening”, saying Britain’s determination to fight “terrorism, extremism and hatred … must be the same, whoever is responsible”.

“This was an attack on Muslims near their place of worship,” said May who later visited the mosque.

Human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar said it was “about time” that authorities called such attacks against Muslims “acts of terrorism”.

“For so many years, there have been coordinated attacks against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians all across the West that were never called ‘acts of terrorism’. So finally, for the first time ever, I’ve seen this double standard been lifted,” he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

“It’s important to keep in mind that what we saw in London at the Finsbury Park Mosque is not an isolated incident,” he added.

 

In the days after the London Bridge attack, authorities reported a 40-percent increase in racist incidents in the capital and a five-fold increase in anti-Muslim incidents across Britain.

This month alone, a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf told police in Lancashire her car was struck by a bag of vomit. Worshippers at the Omar Faruque mosque in Cambridge found strips of ham attached to their vehicles. Several Muslim families have reported receiving letters warning, “You are no longer welcome in this country.” Scores say they have been spat on.

In the United States, two men were killed last month after intervening when a male white supremacist began shouting anti-Muslim abuse at teenagers on a train in Portland, Oregon.

According to the American-Islamic Relations Council, there has been a 57 percent rise in what it calls “anti-Muslim bias incidents” since 2015.

“It’s about high time that these acts of terrorism are called ‘terrorism’, and not only called ‘terrorism’ when Muslims are the perpetrators,” Iftikhar said.

“The majority of the population [in the West] doesn’t want to see criminal acts of mass murder committed by people who look like them to be labeled ‘acts of terrorism’ – they are very quick to label ‘acts of terrorism’ against people who are olive-skinned, with ethnic-sounding names,” he added.

“This is something that Muslim public intellectuals, thought leaders, activists and religious scholars have been talking about since the 9/11 [attacks in New York].

“The term ‘terrorism’, sadly, in our western sociopolitical zeitgeist has been coopted to only apply when brown Muslim men commit acts of mass murder, and not when right-wing, white supremacists terrorists do the same.”

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

 

NASA's Kepler finds 10 more Earth-like planets

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Space telescope finds 10 new planets outside our solar system that could potentially have liquid water and support life 

An artist rendering shows some of the 219 new planet candidates, 10 of which are in the habitable zone of their star (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

FAST FACTS

NASA telescope finds 10 planets that could support life

The new discoveries were orbiting their suns at a distance similar to Earth’s orbit around the sun

That means surface temperatures could support liquid water and, hypothetically, life

NASA has announced the discovery of 10 rocky, Earth-sized planets in our Milky Way Galaxy that could potentially have liquid water and support life.

The US space agency released on Monday a survey of 219 potential exoplanets – planets outside of our solar system – that had been detected by its Kepler space telescope between its launch in 2009 through its first four years in space.

Ten of the new discoveries were orbiting their suns at a distance similar to Earth’s orbit around the sun, the so-called habitable zone – meaning surface temperatures could support liquid water and, hypothetically, life.

That does not mean the planets have life, but some of the most basic requirements that life needs are there.

“Are we alone? Maybe Kepler today has told us indirectly, although we need confirmation, that we are probably not alone,” Kepler scientist Mario Perez said in a news conference.

NASA: Saturn’s moon could sustain life

Outside scientists agreed that this is a boost in the hope for life elsewhere.

“It implies that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars are not rare,” Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who was not part of the work, told the Associated Press news agency in an email.

‘Ecstatic’

NASA said this was the eighth release of the survey and the most comprehensive and detailed so far. It includes 4,034 planet candidates identified by Kepler. Of those, 2,335 have been confirmed to be exoplanets.

Kepler is the first space telescope capable of finding Earth-sized planets in or near the habitable zone.

Before its launch, astronomers had hoped that the frequency of Earth-like planets would be about one percent of the stars.

The talk among scientists at a Kepler conference in California this weekend is that it is closer to 60 percent, Alan Boss, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution, said.

Kepler is not the only way astronomers have found exoplanets and even potentially habitable ones. Between Kepler and other methods, scientists have now confirmed more than 3,600 exoplanets and found about 62 potentially habitable planets .

“This number could have been very, very small,” said Caltech astronomer Courtney Dressing. “I, for one, am ecstatic.”

Source: News agencies

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