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Florida man killed after car he was working on falls on him, deputies say

A Florida man was killed over the weekend after the car he was working on fell on top of him, investigators said.

Amer Izzo Yasin, 38, was found by his roommate on Sunday afternoon outside their home in Big Pine Key, Monroe County Sheriff’s spokesman Adam Linhardt said in an email.

The roommate told deputies he had left home around 10 a.m. Sunday and returned after 5 p.m.

He found Yasin under a 2013 Hyundai Genesis that was being lifted by hydraulic jacks. Deputies said one of the jacks apparently fell, causing the car to crush Yasin.

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Linhardt said the roommate tried to pull Yasin out from under the car, then called 911.

No foul play was suspected.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Frank Miles is a reporter and editor covering geopolitics, military, crime, technology and sports for FoxNews.com. His email is Frank.Miles@foxnews.com.

Source: Fox News National

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Nebraska hires Hoiberg to succeed Miles

FILE PHOTO: Iowa State coach Hoiberg yells instructions during their come from behind win over Oklahoma during the NCAA men's Big 12 basketball tournament in Kansas City, Missouri
FILE PHOTO: Iowa State Cyclones head coach Fred Hoiberg yells instructions during the Cyclones' come from behind win over the Oklahoma Sooners in the quarter finals of the NCAA men's Big 12 basketball tournament at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, March 14, 2013. REUTERS/Dave Kaup/File Photo

March 30, 2019

Nebraska has hired former Chicago Bulls and Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg as its basketball coach, according to multiple reports Saturday.

Hoiberg, who was born in Lincoln, Neb., reportedly first was approached about the position in February, when Tim Miles was still coaching the team. The two sides have had talks about the position throughout the week.

Hoiberg, 46, is expected to be introduced at a press conference early next week.

Miles, 52, was fired Tuesday, two days after the Cornhuskers (19-17) ended their season with an 88-72 loss at TCU in the second round of the NIT. In seven seasons at the Lincoln school, Miles compiled a 116-114 record, and his Huskers only reached the NCAA Tournament in 2013-14.

Another Hoiberg-Nebraska connection is the fact that his grandfather, Jerry Bush, was Nebraska’s coach from 1954-63.

During his coaching stint at Iowa State from 2010-15, Hoiberg’s teams made four NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2014, and posted an overall 115-56 record.

He became the head coach of the Bulls on June 2, 2015, and was fired on Dec. 3, 2018. His overall record with the Bulls was 115-155 (.426), including a 5-19 (.208) start this season.

Hoiberg guided the Bulls to one postseason appearance, losing to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2017 Eastern Conference playoffs.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Slovakia set to elect anti-graft lawyer as first female president

FILE PHOTO: Slovakia's presidential candidate Zuzana Caputova speaks with journalists after a televised debate with her opponent Maros Sefcovic (not pictured) ahead of an election run-off, at TV Markiza
FILE PHOTO: Slovakia's presidential candidate Zuzana Caputova speaks with journalists after a televised debate with her opponent Maros Sefcovic (not pictured) ahead of an election run-off, at TV Markiza studio in Bratislava, Slovakia, March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa/File Photo

March 30, 2019

By Tatiana Jancarikova

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Riding a wave of public fury over corruption, liberal lawyer Zuzana Caputova looked set to win Slovakia’s presidential election on Saturday, bucking a trend that has seen populist, anti-European Union politicians make gains across the continent.

Corruption and change have been the main themes ahead of the run-off vote, which takes place a year after journalist Jan Kuciak, who investigated high-profile fraud cases, and his fiancee were murdered at their home.

Caputova, pro-European Union political novice who would become Slovakia’s first female president, won the election’s first round two weeks ago with 40.6 percent of the vote, ahead of European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on 18.7 percent.

Sefcovic, a respected diplomat who is also pro-EU, is backed by the ruling party Smer, the largest grouping in parliament and which has dominated Slovak politics since 2006.

Caputova campaigned to end what she calls the capture of the state “by people pulling strings from behind”, a message that opinion polls show resonates with younger, educated voters.

Voting stations opened at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and were due to close at 10 p.m., with results expected overnight.

“I was convinced by Caputova’s history. She knows what it is like to face injustice and she has always had the back of those who fought against the oligarchs,” said Zuzana Behrikova, voter at a polling station in Bratislava.

“I believe she will be able to resist the pressures that come with the position.”

Slovakia’s president wields little day-to-day power but appoints prime ministers and can veto appointments of senior prosecutors and judges.

Five people have been charged with the murders of Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, including businessman Marian Kocner, who was investigated by Kuciak, and who has become a symbol of perceived impunity after more than a decade of rule by Smer. Kocner denies any wrongdoing.

The killings ignited the biggest protests in Slovakia’s post-communist history.

Caputova waged a 14-year fight with a company Kocner represented that wanted to build an illegal landfill in her home town. She eventually won the case, earning her the nickname “Slovakia’s Erin Brockovich”, after the American environmentalist famously portrayed by Julia Roberts in a 2000 film.

‘WILL TO CHANGE’

“Slovakia is waking up, showing great will to change and hope linked to this and the following election,” Caputova said in the last televised debate this week, hinting at the upcoming European Parliament vote and the 2020 general election.

An opinion poll by Median agency, the only survey released between the first and the second round of voting, put support for Caputova at 60.5 percent. Sefcovic, who has campaigned on his experience and personal relationships with foreign leaders, held a 39.5 percent vote share, according to the poll.

Courting voters who backed anti-immigration candidates in the first round of the presidential election, Sefcovic has said he rejects the vision of an EU “where the distribution of migrants would be decided by someone other than Slovakia”.

The Moscow-educated politician supported the government’s opposition to mandatory migrant quotas suggested by the European Commission, where he is a vice-president.

Sefcovic, who joined the Communist Party in what was then Czechoslovakia just months before communism collapsed in November 1989, has stressed his Christian beliefs in the campaign. He called Caputova’s support for abortion rights and LGBT rights “ultra-liberal”.

“I chose Sefcovic because of his opposition to gay marriage and adoption,” said voter Juraj, 57, in Bratislava. “Family is the future of the nation. I don’t want gay people to be allowed to adopt children.”

(Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Frances Kerry and Catherine Evans)

Source: OANN

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Louisville downs Oregon State, earns date with UConn

NCAA Womens Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Albany Regional-Oregon State vs Louisville
Mar 29, 2019; Albany, NY, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Bionca Dunham (33) drives to the basket as Oregon State Beavers guard Madison Washington (3) defends during the first half in the semifinals of the Albany regional in the women's 2019 NCAA Tournament at the Times Union Center. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

March 30, 2019

Top-seeded Louisville choked off fourth-seeded Oregon State on Friday night with defense, easing to a 61-44 win in an NCAA Women’s Tournament regional semifinal in Albany, N.Y.

The Cardinals (32-3), who will meet second-seeded Connecticut on Sunday for a ticket to the Final Four on April 5 in Tampa, were led by Sam Fuehring’s 17 points and nine rebounds. Asia Durr also scored 17 points despite making only 5 of 12 shots, and she contributed eight boards and four assists.

But the big story was what Louisville did when the Beavers (26-8) had the ball. The Cardinals limited Oregon State to 17-of-56 shooting (30.4 percent) from the field and allowed only two 3-pointers on 22 attempts. That more than canceled out a 41-33 Beavers advantage in rebounding.

Mikayla Pivec scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Beavers, but the rest of her teammates combined to make only 11 of 42 field-goal attempts.

The Albany Region final will be a rematch of a Jan. 31 contest in Louisville, where the Cardinals subdued the Huskies 78-69 to snap a 17-game losing streak against them that dated back to their first meeting in 1993.

Louisville wasted little time putting its stamp on this one. Durr scored six points in a 13-4 run over the game’s first 4:02, a sequence that ended with a 3-pointer and a layup from Fuehring. The Cardinals settled for a 21-15 lead after 10 minutes.

Louisville’s defense ruled the next two quarters, limiting Oregon State to a combined 13 points in that span. The Beavers endured droughts of 2:59 in the second quarter and 4:30 to start the third quarter, keeping them from taking advantage of Louisville’s inability to add to the lead.

Eventually, the Cardinals found the range again, opening up a 44-28 advantage after three periods by rattling off eight straight points in a 1:37 span late in the period. Durr contributed consecutive jumpers, while Bionca Dunham and Dana Evans each added transition layups.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Cop, teacher, others accused of trying to lure teens for sex

A New Jersey police officer and a New York City high school teacher are among 16 men who allegedly tried to set up sexual encounters with people they thought were teenage boys and girls.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir announced the arrests Wednesday. They were made as part of "Operation Home Alone," a multiagency undercover sting that targeted people who allegedly used social media in an attempt to lure children.

Gurbir said most of the defendants were arrested when they arrived at a residence in Bergen County, where they expected to find the victim home alone. The arrests were made from April 11-15.

The defendants face various charges including luring and attempted sexual assault.

Source: Fox News National

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More than 50 dead in South Africa after heavy rains

People move their belongings from damaged houses after heavy rains caused flooding in Marianhill
People move their belongings from damaged houses after heavy rains caused flooding in Marianhill, South Africa, April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

April 24, 2019

By Rogan Ward

DURBAN (Reuters) – Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings along South Africa’s eastern coast, where more than 50 people were killed when heavy rain caused flooding and mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday.

Hundreds have been displaced, mainly in the port city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people in Eastern Cape province, state broadcaster SABC said on Wednesday.

Victor da Silva, a resident in the coastal town of Amanzimtoti, said his family managed to evacuate before the floods destroyed their home and cars.

“On Monday, the water was just crazy. And yesterday morning I got here, everything was fine, my garage was still here, the other part of the house was still here, and it just couldn’t stop raining,” Da Silva said. “And then an hour and half later, everything poof (vanished) because the rain just hasn’t stopped.

Johan Fourie told eNCA television that he escaped his home in Amanzimtoti just before part of it collapsed.

“I nearly lost my life, and my neighbor, I believe, is in hospital,” Fourie said.

The region had been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not foresee the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.

“As a result, there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people,” Mabaso said. Some people were swept away by the water, he said.

Multiple dwellings collapsed in the mudslides, said Robert McKenzie, a KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman.

South African Weather Service forecaster Edward Engelbrecht said the heavy rainfall occurs “from time to time, especially during this time of the year.”

He said the rain should start to clear by Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal and is scheduled to go to the Eastern Cape in the next few days.

“This is partly what climate change is about, that it just hits when we least expect it,” he said, adding that funds would be provided by the government to assist those hit by the floods.

Last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds.

(Additional reporting by Tanisha Heiberg and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg; editing by James Macharia, Larry King)

Source: OANN

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New dam collapse in Brazil; no casualties reported

Brazil has suffered another mining dam collapse, though this time there are no reports of dead or missing.

The Rondonia state environment secretary says the dam in Oriente Novo gave way after a waterspout damaged its structure on Friday.

Authorities say there's no risk of contamination from the water, sand and clay that spilled from the dam owned by the Metalmig company.

A dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed on Jan. 25, killing at least 217 people and leaving 84 missing in Minas Gerais state. Vale said last week that auditors have determined that another dam in that state could collapse at any time and people in three cities practiced evacuation drills on Wednesday.

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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