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Business jet deliveries rise 3.8 percent in 2018: industry group

FILE PHOTO: An interior view of Bombardier's Global 7500, the first business jet to have a queen-sized bed and hot shower, is shown during a media tour in Montreal
FILE PHOTO: An interior view of Bombardier's Global 7500, the first business jet to have a queen-sized bed and hot shower, is shown during a media tour in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo

February 20, 2019

(Reuters) – Business jet deliveries worldwide rose 3.8 percent on an annual basis to 703 planes in 2018, lifted by demand from North America and the introduction of new models, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) said on Wednesday.

Forecasters and corporate plane makers expect higher business jet deliveries in 2019, fueled by the recent entry into service of new aircraft like Bombardier’s Global 7500 and U.S. rival Gulfstream’s G500.

Demand for business jets has slowly rebounded following slumping sales after the 2009 global economic crisis.

Deliveries are a closely watched metric since that is the point when customers pay the bulk of the cost of a new plane.

General aviation aircraft deliveries rose across all segments in 2018 for the first time in five years, helped by demand for new models, GAMA said.

Global airplane deliveries increased to 2,443 planes in 2018, up 4.7 percent on an annual basis, according to data from Washington-based GAMA. Rotorcraft deliveries rose 5.4 percent to 976 aircraft.

“This is the first year since 2013 that we’ve seen all segments up in deliveries,” said GAMA President and Chief Executive Pete Bunce in a statement.

The “impacts” of a 35-day, partial U.S. government shutdown that ended on Jan. 25 are “still being felt and assessed,” GAMA said. The shutdown affected the certification program for Gulfstream’s new G600 corporate plane.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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Libya conflict stirs divisions in Gulf and Europe

FILE PHOTO: A Libyan displaced woman reacts at Bader School in Tripoli
FILE PHOTO: A Libyan displaced woman, who fled her house because of the fighting between the Eastern forces commanded by Khalifa Haftar and the internationally recognised government, reacts at Bader School, which is used as a shelter, in Tripoli, Libya April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah/File Photo

April 16, 2019

By Ulf Laessing and Ahmed Elumami

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Qatar called on Tuesday for a blocking of foreign arms supplies to eastern Libyan forces commander Khalifa Haftar, whose push to seize the capital Tripoli is causing rifts around the Gulf and Europe.

Nearly two weeks into its assault, the veteran general’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) is stuck in the city’s southern outskirts battling armed groups loyal to the internationally-recognized Tripoli government.

Yet Tripoli’s roughly 2.5 million people were maintaining a semblance of normality – even as the occasional artillery boom echoed across the city.

“We are still carrying on, thank God. What else can we do?” said Mohamed Taha, 23, in a street where students still packed a nearby school. Cafes and shops also remained open and busy.

Foreign powers are worried but unable to present a united front over the latest flare-up in the cycle of anarchy and warfare that has gripped Libya since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.

The conflict has brought a growing humanitarian toll – 174 people, 756 injured and 18,250 displaced according to latest United Nations tallies – and sunk for now an international peace plan.

It threatens to disrupt oil flows, foment migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and allow jihadists to exploit the chaos.

Qatar said an existing U.N. arms embargo on Libya should be strictly enforced, to prevent Haftar, 75, from receiving arms.

The Benghazi-based Hafter enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who view him as an anchor to restore stability and combat Islamist militants. Those three nations cut ties with Qatar in 2017, accusing it of support for militants and Iran.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told Italian daily La Repubblica that a postponed U.N. peace conference should be rescheduled and Haftar’s troops forced to withdraw.

The arms embargo must be implemented “to prevent those countries that have been providing ammunitions and state-of-the-art weapons from continuing to do so,” he said.

Past U.N. reports say the UAE and Egypt have both supplied Haftar with arms and aircraft, giving him air superiority among Libya’s multiple factions. East Libyan authorities say Qatar and Turkey back rival, Islamist-leaning factions in western Libya.

FRANCE, ITALY DIVERGE OVER HAFTAR

The Gulf diplomatic divisions echo those in Europe, where former colonial ruler Italy and France have sparred over Libya.

Paris has given Haftar support in the past, viewing him as the best bet to end the chaos since a NATO-backed rebellion to end Gaddafi’s murderous four-decade rule.

Italy, with considerable oil interests in the OPEC member, supports the Tripoli government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and was furious with French reluctance to back a recent European Union resolution urging Haftar to halt his advance.

Nevertheless, Serraj has managed to keep the LNA at bay, thanks largely to armed groups who have rushed to aid them from other western Libyan factions.

Though Haftar presents himself as a champion against what he calls terrorism, opponents cast him as a would-be dictator in the mould of Gaddafi. About 70 people protested against him at the central Algiers Square in Tripoli on Tuesday.

“We are against Haftar and military rule,” said demonstrator Assam Dirbiq.

Haftar was among officers who helped Gaddafi rise to power in 1969, but fell out with him during a war with Chad in the 1980s. He was taken prisoner by the Chadians, rescued by the CIA, and lived for about 20 years in Virginia before returning in 2011 to join other rebels in the uprising against Gaddafi.

The U.N. migration agency said on Tuesday that 6,900 migrants were still trapped in government detention centers in Tripoli despite efforts to move some to safer places.

The migrants, mainly from Africa and Syria, have been apprehended arriving through the Sahara with the intention of crossing the Mediterranean to Italy and elsewhere.

Some in one detention center close to clashes have refused relocation, saying they want permanent solutions to their plight, International Organization for Migration spokesman Joel Millman said in Geneva on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Valentina Za in Milian, Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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U.S. senator seeks to shoot down Trump bid to ease small arms exports

New Jersey Senator Menendez speaks during a debate with Hugin in Newark
FILE PHOTO: New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, the Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey, speaks during a debate with Bob Hugin, the Republican candidate, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., October 24, 2018. Julio Cortez/Pool via Reuters

February 26, 2019

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior U.S. senator said on Tuesday he sought to block President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul weapons export policy, setting the stage for a potential standoff over the administration’s effort to make it easier for gun makers to sell small arms to foreign buyers.

Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would refuse to consent to the Trump administration’s plan to transfer the export of small arms, including assault-style and sniper rifles and ammunition, to the Department of Commerce from the Department of State at least until he obtained more information about the plan.

Firearms “are easily modified, diverted, and proliferated, and are the primary means of injury, death, and destruction in civil and military conflicts throughout the world. As such, they should be subject to more, not less, rigorous export controls and oversight,” Menendez wrote in a letter sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday and released on Tuesday.

The administration notified Congress of the policy shift last month, part of a broad overhaul of export policy announced last year. The move would generate business for gun makers such as American Outdoor Brands and Sturm Ruger & Company.

There is a long-standing precedent in which a handful of lawmakers, including the ranking member of the minority party on the foreign relations committee, can object to and “hold” such a policy shift – or a weapons export deal.

In the past, administrations have respected such objections. But since they are not legally required to do so, it was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration would respond to Menendez’s concerns and delay its plans or go ahead now that a 30-day review period is over.

A State Department spokesman said the department was examining the letter and had no further comment.

Trump sees the U.S. weapons industry as an important source of U.S. jobs. Backers of the policy shift say foreign customers will merely obtain small arms from other countries if they are unable to make purchases from U.S. manufacturers.

The relaxing of rules could increase foreign gun sales by as much as 20 percent, the National Sports Shooting Foundation has estimated. As well as the industry’s big players, the change could also help small gunsmiths and specialists who are currently required to pay an annual federal fee to export a relatively minor amounts of products.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: OANN

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AOC: Outrage Over Republicans Against Anti-Hate Resolution?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., questioned why there is no outrage over the 23 Republicans who voted against a House resolution condemning bigotry.

Her comments came in a Thursday night tweet.

She wrote:

"Where's the outrage over the 23 GOP members who voted NO on a resolution condemning bigotry today? Oh, there's none? Did they get called out, raked over, ambushed in halls and relentlessly asked why not? No? Okay. Got it."

The House resolution came after comments from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. in which she suggested politicians who back Israel have an allegiance to a foreign county, The Hill noted.

The resolution "encourages all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry . . ."

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., fired back at Ocasio-Cortez's tweet.

Cheney tweeted:

"Here's the outrage: your party put a sham resolution on the floor designed to protect the anti-Semitic hate and bigotry of @IlhanMN."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Mother pleads guilty in teen’s murder, dismemberment

A woman has pleaded guilty in the 2016 rape, murder and dismemberment of her 14-year-old daughter.

Former adoptions supervisor Sara Packer appeared in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom Friday afternoon and pleaded guilty to first degree murder and 18 other charges in exchange for a life sentence.

Packer admitted in court last week that she plotted to murder her adoptive daughter, Grace Packer, saying she hated the teenager and "wanted her to go away."

Sara Packer's boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and related offenses and was sentenced to death.

Packer says she helped Sullivan tie Grace up and watched as he raped and strangled her. The couple stored Grace's body in cat litter for several months before dismembering it and dumping it in a wooded area.

Source: Fox News National

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NHL selects William Hill as an official sports betting partner

NHL: Vegas Golden Knights at Colorado Avalanche
Mar 27, 2019; Denver, CO, USA; Vegas Golden Knights center Paul Stastny (26) controls the puck ahead of Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) in the third period at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

March 28, 2019

By Hilary Russ

(Reuters) – The National Hockey League said on Thursday that the U.S. division of UK bookmaker William Hill Plc will become an official sports betting partner of the NHL.

The league will get marketing revenue from the sports book, which can use NHL brands in advertising. Terms of the multiyear deal were not disclosed.

Such commercial deals between sports leagues and bookmakers have been coming quickly since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May to allow states to legalize, regulate and tax sports wagering.

Eight states now offer legal sports betting, including Nevada, which was never subject to the prior federal ban and has sanctioned sports wagering for years.

William Hill already has partnership deals with two NHL teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and New Jersey Devils.

The NHL in November announced a sports wagering partnership with FanDuel Group, a unit of Paddy Power Betfair Plc, coming on the heels of an agreement with MGM Resorts International.

“We continue to work directly with stakeholders to cultivate relationships across the sports betting landscape,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “Partnering with William Hill US, a leader in both the sports book and mobile betting marketplace, provides a tremendous opportunity to further fan engagement.”

(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: OANN

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Dozens rescued after being trapped on Lake Erie ice floe

Authorities say nearly four dozen fishermen trapped on an ice floe in Lake Erie have been rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and local emergency personnel in northern Ohio.

The Coast Guard and Ottawa County Sheriff's Office began receiving reports around 8:30 a.m. Saturday that a large number of people had become stuck on an ice floe that had broken off from the main ice pack connected to Catawba (kuh-TAWB'-uh) Island.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Brian McCrum says the Coast Guard launched helicopters out of Detroit, and local rescue personnel sent airboats to retrieve the stranded fishermen. McCrum says 46 people were rescued, including two fishermen who were hoisted by helicopter and received medical assessments.

About 100 people made it back to shore on their own.

Source: Fox News National

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Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
FILE PHOTO: Golf – Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – April 14, 2019 – Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 26, 2019

Tiger Woods is sending a message that he thinks he still has enough left, emotionally and physically, to win three more major championships to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 titles.

Speaking to GolfTV in his first sit-down interview since the Masters, Woods said he has taken some time off since his victory at Augusta National, which still doesn’t feel real.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe,” Woods said. “I was texting one of my good friends last night … that I couldn’t believe that I won the tournament. That it really hasn’t sunk in. I haven’t started doing anything. I’ve just been laying there. And every now and again, I’ll look over there on the couch and there’s the jacket.”

That’s the fifth green jacket for the 43-year-old Woods, who hadn’t won a major tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open. Along the way, four back surgeries, a divorce and other personal issues derailed him.

He said he has been spending time with his children – daughter Sam, 11, and son Charlie, 10 – who weren’t born when their father was the most dominant golfer on the planet.

“They never knew golf to be a good thing in my life and only the only thing they remember is that it brought this incredible amount of pain to their dad and they don’t want to ever want to see their dad in pain,” Woods said. “And so to now have them see this side of it, the side that I’ve experienced for so many years of my life, but I had a battle to get back to this point, it feels good.”

He said he hopes – maybe expects — they’ll see this side again.

And no one will take Woods for granted at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, N.Y., which starts May 16.

Woods said he’ll be ready for a course he already conquered once in a major: the 2002 U.S. Open.

“I’m doing all the visual stuff, but I haven’t put in the physical work yet. But it’s probably coming this weekend,” he said.

Before Woods encountered health and personal problems, it was expected that topping Nicklaus’ major mark was “when” and not “if.” Then the certainty went away, but Woods thought he still had a chance.

“I always thought it was possible, if I had everything go my way. It took him an entire career to get to 18, so now that I’ve had another extension to my career – one that I didn’t think I had a couple of years ago – if I do things correctly and everything falls my way, yeah, it’s a possibility. I’m never going to say it’s not.

“Now I just need to have a lot of things go my way, and who’s to say that it will or will not happen? That’s what the future holds, I don’t know. The only thing I can promise you is this: that I will be prepared.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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An official Sri Lankan police Twitter account was deleted after it misidentified an American human rights activist as a suspect in the country’s Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, police posted the names and photos of six people that they said were at-large suspects in the bombings that killed more than 250 people.

However, one of the names on the list was Muslim U.S. activist Amara Majeed, who quickly tweeted that she had been falsely identified.

“I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS terrorists that committed the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. What a thing to wake up to!” she wrote.

SRI LANKA AUTHORITIES SAY EASTER ATTACK LEADER KILLED IN ONE OF NINE HOTEL BOMBINGS

She wrote in a follow-up tweet that the claim was “obviously completely false” and asked social media users to “please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks.”

“And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community,” she continued.

Later, she wrote an update saying police apologized for wrongly mistaking her as a suspect.

Police said in a statement: “However, although one of the released images was identified as one Abdul Cader Fathima Khadhiya in the information provided by the CID, the CID has now informed that a) the individual whose image was labeled as Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya is not in fact Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya b) the individual pictured is not wanted for questioning c) Abdul Cader Fathima is the correct name of the suspect wanted by the CID.”

On Friday, the account, @SriLankaPolice2 was deleted with no explanation. Police did not release more information regarding the mistake.

Majeed, who founded “The Hijab Project” when she was 16 years old, told the Baltimore Sun that it was hurtful to be linked to the attacks.

“Sri Lanka is my motherland,” the Brown University student said. “It’s very painful to be associated with [the bombings].”

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Mohamed Zahran, the suspected leader of the attacks which targeted six hotels and churches, killed himself in a suicide bombing at the Shangri-La hotel. Police also said they had arrested the second-in-command of the group, called National Towheed Jamaat. Catholic churches in Sri Lanka canceled all Sunday Masses until further notice over concerns that they remain a top target of Islamic State-linked extremists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Source: InfoWars

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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