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German rail operator halts trains as storm hits west

German train company Deutsche Bahn is halting long-distance and some regional train traffic in the west of the country because of a storm.

The company said Sunday it's stopping trains at stations in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia because several lines have been blocked by trees falling on tracks.

Germany's meteorological agency DWD has issued a storm warning until late Sunday for large parts of the western and central Germany, with gusts of up to 120 kph (75 mph) expected.

A large cargo crane was blown over in Duisburg, partially landing in the Rhine river.

German news agency dpa reported that zoos in Dortmund, Wuppertal and Hamm were also shut as a precaution because of the storm.

Source: Fox News World

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German: Police raids against suspected far-right extremists

Police have raided more than 30 premises linked to suspected far-right extremists in Berlin and three other eastern German states.

German news agency dpa reported that the raids early Wednesday were mainly centered on Brandenburg state and the region around Cottbus, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the capital.

According to Brandenburg police, the investigation focuses on about 20 people with ties to Germany's hooligan, martial arts and right-wing extremist scene.

Cottbus has a comparatively large neo-Nazi scene affiliated to the city's main football team, Energie Cottbus.

The raids come a day after authorities in Austria searched dozens of homes in several states, seizing weapons and large amounts of banned propaganda material.

There were no immediate reports of arrests in either set of raids.

Source: Fox News World

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Slain Missouri Ku Klux Klan leader’s wife admits killing him

The wife of a Missouri Ku Klux Klan leader has admitted to fatally shooting her husband.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Malissa Ancona pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse in the 2017 death of Frank Ancona Jr. She was sentenced to life in prison under a plea deal. Frank Ancona identified himself as an imperial wizard of the KKK.

Malissa Ancona initially reported her husband missing. She later claimed her son, Paul Jinkerson Jr., shot him while he was sleeping and after he had asked for a divorce. He faces the same charges as his mom.

But she said Friday that he had no role in the shooting. She said did help clean up the crime scene in a rural area of southeast Missouri and helped dump the body.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

Source: Fox News National

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Top 25 roundup: No. 20 Virginia Tech tops No. 3 Duke

NCAA Basketball: Duke at Virginia Tech
Feb 26, 2019; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward R.J. Barrett (5) shoots against Virginia Tech Hokies guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker (4) and forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. (24) in the second half at Cassell Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Michael Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports

February 27, 2019

Ty Outlaw made a late 3-pointer to break a tie as No. 20 Virginia Tech upset No. 3 Duke 77-72 on Tuesday night in Blacksburg, Va.

Kerry Blackshear Jr. scored 23 points, Ahmed Hill posted 17 points and Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 13 points for Virginia Tech (22-6, 11-5 Atlantic Coast Conference). The Hokies won for the fourth time in five games.

Duke (24-4, 12-3) played its second full game without freshman Zion Williamson, who sustained a knee sprain in the opening minute of a home loss to North Carolina on Feb. 20. The Blue Devils didn’t have enough answers the way they did Saturday night in a victory at Syracuse, and they into slipped into third place in the ACC.

RJ Barrett scored 21 points, Cam Reddish added 17 points, and Marques Bolden had 14 points for the Blue Devils, who lost at Blacksburg for the third year in a row.

No. 4 Kentucky 70, Arkansas 66

Tyler Herro scored a season-best 29 points on 9-of-10 shooting to help the Wildcats rally for a victory over the Razorbacks at Lexington, Ky.

Keldon Johnson added 13 points for Kentucky (24-4, 13-2 Southeastern Conference), who won their fourth straight game and 14th in their past 15. Nick Richards collected 15 rebounds as the Wildcats recovered from a 15-point, second-half deficit.

Isaiah Joe scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half for Arkansas (14-14, 5-10), which dropped its sixth straight game. Desi Sills tallied 15 points, and Daniel Gafford added 14 points and eight rebounds. The Razorbacks have lost seven straight games to the Wildcats.

No. 5 North Carolina 93, Syracuse 85

Coby White scored a season-high 34 points, and the Tar Heels used a huge edge in free throws to defeat the Orange in Chapel Hill, N.C.

North Carolina (23-5, 13-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) has won four games in a row and moved a half-game ahead of Virginia for the top spot in the ACC, aided by Duke’s loss earlier in the night at Virginia Tech.

Cameron Johnson posted 16 points for the Tar Heels, who were 34-for-37 on free throws. Tyus Battle scored 29 points, Elijah Hughes poured in 15 points, Frank Howard had 11 points and Oshae Brissett added 10 points for Syracuse (18-10, 9-6). The Orange hit 13 of 23 from the line.

No. 13 LSU 66, Texas A&M 55

Naz Reid, bouncing back from his worst offensive output of the season, scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lift the Tigers past the Aggies in Baton Rouge, La.

Reid had only one point in LSU’s 82-80 overtime victory over No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, but he got started early Tuesday by scoring eight of LSU’s first 14 points and accounting for 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half. Ja’vonte Smart added 17 points for the Tigers (23-5, 13-2 SEC).

LSU played suffocating defense, holding Texas A&M (12-16, 5-10) to eight points in the first 10:25 of the game. The Aggies finished 19 of 60 from the floor (31.7 percent) and 4 of 22 (18.2 percent) from long range.

Indiana 75, No. 19 Wisconsin 73 (2 OTs)

Romeo Langford’s last-second layup gave the Hoosiers a double-overtime victory over the Badgers in Bloomington, Ind., as Indiana snapped a five-game losing streak.

Langford scored 13 of his team-high 22 points in the overtime periods to seal the deal for the Hoosiers (14-14, 5-12 Big Ten). Wisconsin (19-9, 11-6) missed six three throws in the second overtime.

Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ led all scorers with 23 points and collected 11 rebounds. Khalil Iverson scored 15 and D’Mitrik Trice added 12 for the Badgers, who saw their two-game winning streak end.

No. 21 Buffalo 77, Akron 64

Nick Perkins scored 25 points, and the Bulls extended their winning streak to six games by grinding out a win over the visiting Zips. Buffalo (25-3, 13-2 Mid-American Conference) has won 25 straight at home.

CJ Massinburg collected 23 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for Buffalo while Jayvon Graves added 14 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks.

Akron (15-13, 7-8) was led by Tyler Cheese, who had 20 points, five rebounds and six assists.

Ohio State 90, No. 22 Iowa 70

Freshman Justin Ahrens, making just his second start, more than tripled his career high with 29 points to lead the Buckeyes to an upset of the Hawkeyes in Columbus, Ohio.

Ahrens’ previous high was nine points vs. Maryland. Kaleb Wesson added 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Buckeyes (18-10, 8-9 Big Ten).

Joe Wieskamp had 17 points to lead Iowa (21-7, 10-7). Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery and his son, guard Connor McCaffery, received second-half technical fouls, and multiple media outlets reported that Fran McCaffery cursed out a referee after the game.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Iran arrests militants linked to attack on Revolutionary Guards

Members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, gather around the coffins of their fellow guards, who were killed by a suicide car bomb, during the funerals in Isfahan
Members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, gather around the coffins of their fellow guards, who were killed by a suicide car bomb, during the funerals in Isfahan, Iran February 16, 2019. Morteza Salehi/Tasnim News Agency/via REUTERS

February 18, 2019

DUBAI (Reuters) – Revolutionary Guards have broken up a group of militants in southeast Iran who were linked to a suicide bombing that killed 27 guards near the border with Pakistan last week, the Corps said on Monday.

“Last night, a terrorist cell was identified and destroyed in an operation,” the Corps said in a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Three militants were arrested and explosive material was seized from houses in the cities of Saravan and Khash, it said.

“They were linked to the suicide bombing attack last week. The Corps will continue its efforts to take revenge over the deadly terrorist attack,” it said.

The Sunni group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic minority Baluchis, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Shi’ite Muslim Iran says militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan and have repeatedly called on the neighboring country to crack down on them.

Iranian authorities also accuse regional rival Sunni Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of financially supporting militant Sunni groups that attack Iranian forces. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE deny backing such militants.

Iran summoned the Pakistani ambassador to protest the attack.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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Trump calls for OPEC to boost oil production, says price too high

FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is seen outside their headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is seen outside their headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

March 28, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boost oil production to lower the price of the commodity.

“Very important that OPEC increase the flow of Oil. World Markets are fragile, price of Oil getting too high. Thank you!” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Immediately following Trump’s tweet, U.S. crude oil futures fell by more than $1 to $58.33 a barrel and Brent futures were down by more than $1 to a session low of $66.76 per barrel.

Crude oil prices have risen this year amid supply cuts by OPEC as well as U.S. sanctions on OPEC member countries Venezuela and Iran. The drop in production has led to a tightening of oil inventories.

But analysts have warned oil prices would be higher by now if not for a spreading economic slowdown expected to soon start hitting fuel consumption.

(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: OANN

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Tate galleries won't accept donations from Sackler family

Britain's Tate group of galleries won't accept future donations from the charitable arm of a family embroiled in the U.S. opioid crisis.

The Tate says the Sackler family has given generously in the past but under "the present circumstances we do not think it right to seek or accept further donations."

Members of the Sackler family own Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Purdue has been criticized for downplaying the addictiveness of OxyContin, but the company says its products were approved by regulators and prescribed by doctors.

The statement marks the second time this week that a British museum has shunned money from the Sackler Trust. The National Portrait Gallery and the trust issued a statement Tuesday saying a 1 million-pound ($1.3 million) donation wouldn't proceed.

Source: Fox News World

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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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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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