Showing posts with label constitution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label constitution. Show all posts
Sunday, December 04, 2016
Inside Story - Will Italians Vote Yes or No for Constitutional Reforms?
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
FOX NEWS: CAIRO – Egypt's new Coptic pope said Monday the constitution now being drafted will not be acceptable if it is overtly religious, a sign he would campaign with his Christian minority and secular groups against increasing Islam's role in the new charter.
In an interview aired Monday, a day after he was selected patriarch of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II said the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak last year has opened the way for a larger Coptic public role.
He said as pope, he will encourage the Christian community to participate more in political and public life, as well as elections. He charged that the country's Christian minority has been "intentionally" marginalized for years.
"After tens of years of marginalization and fake democracy, this has made some Copts isolated," he said in the interview aired on the private TV station ONTV.
"This is changing bit by bit, and it will take time. It needs encouraging, and so long as society is fair, and democracy is built fairly, you will see participation."
Tawadros said Egypt's richness lies in its cultural mix between Muslims and Christians. » | Associated Press | Monday, November 05, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
THE BLAZE: Egypt’s al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya – or Islamic Group – is warning it could use violence as a means to ensure Sharia law is adopted in the latest draft of the country’s constitution and is calling on Egyptians to wage “jihad and fight in support of Sharia.”
This call was made by Mohamed Salah, the leader of the group which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya’s spiritual leader was the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman who is imprisoned in the U.S. for his role in blowing up the World Trade Center in New York in February 1993 and for plotting to assassinate then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt Independent reports:
Salah said during a conference in the Ain Shams neighborhood that Egyptians should “support Islamic Sharia in the Egyptian constitution,” and that “Jama’a al-Islamiya* will fight for the application of God’s law, even if that requires bloodshed.”After President Mubarak was deposed last year, al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya formed the Building and Development Party (also known as the Construction and Development Party) which won 13 seats in the lower house of Parliament. Assem Abdel Meguid of that political party also had some choice words against the draft of the constitution, according to Egypt Independent: » | Sharona Schwarz | Sunday, October 14, 2012
He called on Islamist movements to organize mass demonstrations to “trap secularists inside the place where the Constituent Assembly holds its meetings, so that everyone knows that the people want an Islamist [state].”
He also demanded that President Mohamed Morsy issue a decree to “defeat the schemes of liberals to reject the law of God.”
He stressed that the referendum on the constitution in its current form is forbidden by Islam, calling on the Egyptian people to “[wage] jihad and fight in support of Sharia.”
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Instead, a drafting committee will preserve language in Tunisia’s current constitution that refers to Islam as the state’s religion and Arabic as its language, according to Said Ferjani, a member of the political bureau of Ennahda, the Islamist party that leads Tunisia’s government.
He and other Ennahda leaders framed the decision as a bid to unify the country’s disparate political factions during a delicate political transition. “There is a huge consensus within Ennahda. We have to show leadership,” Mr. Ferjani said. “We want everyone to get involved.” » | Kareem Fahim | Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, February 03, 2012
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
THE NEW AMERICAN: Now that the U.S. military, under the auspices of NATO, has “liberated” Libya, that country is on a path to become the third such nation to establish Sharia as the principal basis for all future constitutional legislation.
With the pen of power placed in their hands by the armed forces of the United States, the members of the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) has released a draft of a proposed new constitution that enumerates Islamic Sharia law as its foundation.
Sharia, which means “path” in Arabic, is the sacred law of Islam. The precepts of Sharia have two sources: the Koran and the writings of Mohammed. Sharia is the code that is responsible for the stoning of adulteresses; the caning of rape victims; and the restrictions on dress, rights of inheritance, and marital status of women.
A document released by the TNC explicitly establishes Islam as the state religion and specifies that the principal source of all laws lawfully promulgated under the proposed constitution will be the precepts of Sharia. » | Joe Wolverton II | Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK party won a third term in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
It won just under 50 per cent of the vote, and secured 326 of the 550 seats in parliament. But the AKP will not be able to make unilateral constitutional changes.
The mandate is 40 seats short of the two-thirds majority needed to re-write the constitution without the co-operation of other parties.
The AKP is also short of the 330 seats it needs to refer a constitutional reform to a public vote.
However, it is the party's largest electoral victory since it came to power in 2002.
Many say Erdogan's support rests on his success in creating a booming economy and in ending decades of chaotic coalitions, military coups and failed international financial bailouts.
He has promised to build consensus with opposition parties to write a free civilian constitution that unites and embraces all parts of Turkish society.
Does another resounding election victory make Recep Tayyip Erdogan the most successful prime minister in the history of Turkey?
Inside Story with presenter Jane Dutton discusses with Yusuf Kanli, a columnist for the Hurriyet Daily News in Ankara; Nicole Pope, the author of Turkey Unveiled, A History of Modern Turkey in Istanbul; and Mustafa El-Labad, the director of Al Sharq Centre for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Monday, June 13, 2011
In a televised address, the king, who has faced repeated demonstrations this year but no uprising on the scale of those in Tunisia, Egypt or Syria, said that future governments would be "based on parliamentary majority and political party manifestos".
The king's move will be welcomed by his backers in the West, who have privately urged him to remain in step with public opinion and increase the pace of reform in the country. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
FAVSTOCKS: Dearborn, Michigan has become a sharia enclave much like those populating many European countries. The city of Dearborn, Michigan denied a permit yesterday for Pastor Terry Jones' planned protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday. Islamic supremacists were handed a victory for their violent intimidation and threats.
What happened to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of expression? Terry Jones is prohibited from rallying in Michigan for fear of Islamic violence. Is that how far down the sharia rabbit hole we have gone. Why is it anytime American law comes into conflict with Islamic law, it is American law that has to give way?
How dare they prohibit this march? Nazis marched in Skokie. Americans better stand up to this enforced sharia. The idea that Muslims in America would get violent because of Jones speaks volumes about Muslims in America, does it not? Why don't we don't see Muslims taking to the streets every time there is an honor killing, or church bombing, or act of jihad, jihad piracy, forced marriage, child slavery, — where are they? » | Atlas Shrugs | Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sunday, September 12, 2010
LE FIGARO: Près de 60% des électeurs turcs ont dit "oui" aujourd'hui à une révision de la Constitution qui donnera davantage de pouvoir au régime islamo-conservateur face à l'opposition laïque et à l'armée, selon les estimations publiées par les chaînes de télévision. Les estimations de la chaîne d'information en continu NTV portent sur environ 75% des bulletins dépouillés et donne un large avantage au "oui" avec 58% des suffrages, contre 42% pour le "non". La chaîne CNN-Türk donne une projection qui accorde 57% au "oui". >>> Avec Reuters | Dimanche 12 Septembre 2010
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Turkey votes 'yes' to amending military-era constitution: reports – Street clashes mar voting at polling stations in areas with large Kurdish populations, as Kurdish party urges boycott >>> Christopher Torchia, Istanbul, The Associated Press | Sunday, September 12, 2010
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Turks fear reform plan threatens secularism: Referendum on 26-point proposition promoted as stepping stone to EU membership >>> Patrick Martin | Friday, September 10, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Turkey backs constitutional reform: Turkish voters gave overwhelming backing to a package of constitutional changes that bolster the country's claims on EU membership, but heighten fears that its Islamist prime minister is accumulating unbalanced powers. >>> Justin Vela in Istanbul and Richard Spencer | Sunday, September 12, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Turkey is on the brink of approving major constitutional reforms which critics say will pave the way for the key western ally to become an Islamic state.Opinion polls suggest the reforms, proposed by the Islamic-oriented government, will win narrow approval in a referendum on Sunday.
They will alter the constitution, originally introduced after a military coup in 1980, to enshrine the elected government's control over the military and the judiciary.
They are being promoted as a key step necessary if the country is to meet the demands for more democratic rule set by the European Union as conditions for a future Turkish bid for membership. But critics who support the secular separation of Islam and the state - followed since the collapse of the Ottoman empire in the First World War - say it will be a major step towards an Islamic state.
"The honest people of this country do not allow this," the opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said at a campaign rally. "Those in favor of democracy do not allow this, but the deaf officials of the European Union say, 'What a good thing it is you're doing'."
Since the election of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), and its charismatic prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country has moved closer to its muslim neighbours, including Iran, and away from a staunchly secular outlook that has played a major role in maintaining the country's position as a member of NATO and a key western ally in the muslim [sic] world. >>> Justin Vela in Istanbul | Thursday, September 09, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Conservative MPs might rebel against “profoundly anti-democratic” moves to keep the new coalition in power by increasing the threshold for a vote of no confidence.
Under the terms of a deal struck between the two parties, ministers plan to introduce a law that would require the votes of 55 per cent of the Commons – 358 MPs – before the Government could be thrown out.
David Cameron said this was to ensure that the coalition survived the five-year fixed term over which he intends to govern.
However, MPs of all parties are concerned that the move amounts to a radical change in the constitution, which was not put to the electorate at the general election. Labour MPs will vote against the move and may be joined by several Conservative backbenchers, who are lobbying for the measure to be dropped.
At present, a simple majority of MPs can vote down a government. >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Turkey is preparing to hold a referendum next month on key constitutional changes that will grant its Islamist prime minister unrivalled power in a country traditionally dominated by the military.
Parliament finished a debate Thursday on the constitutional package, which marks the culmination of a seven year drive by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. the prime minister, to make the democratically elected government Turkey's most powerful institution.
Mr Erdogan used his AK Party's majority to pass a set of 27 amendments over the opposition of the country's minority parties. Antagonism between the factions escalated during the debate and three politicians, including the Trade Minister and a Kurdish leader, suffered facial injuries in attacks.
President Abdullah Gul is expected to trigger the referendum within two weeks.
Analysts said that the era of untrammelled military power and extensive interference in the political system by the judiciary would be consigned to the past by the vote. >>> Damien McElroy in Istanbul | Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
MAIL ONLINE – BLOG: Now that President Obama has done enough back-room deals to get the Democrats' health care legislation through the House of Representatives, he can resume making plans for a visit to his childhood home, Indonesia. The trip was on for this week, but the White House cancelled it so Obama could stay in Washington to push through the Bill.
Once he lands at Jakarta, capital of the world's largest Muslim state, he probably won't make the same mistake he made a few years ago in Kenya, when he let himself be photographed wearing a turban. Still, he may find it hard to resist the urge to go native.
One of the reasons a lot of Americans find Obama oddly foreign is that he had an oddly foreign childhood: his formative years were spent in Indonesia. His half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born there. The rest of Obama's childhood was spent in Honolulu, a Pacific Ocean capital soaked in East Asian culture.
What's this got to do with Britain, or indeed with Europe? Plenty. Obama is the first US president who was raised without cultural or emotional or intellectual ties to either Britain or Europe. The British and the Europeans have been so enchanted with 'America's first black president' that they haven't been able to see what he really is: America's first Third World president.
If you doubt it, remember the kick in the teeth he gave Britain over the Falklands just a few weeks ago. Obama had his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, fly to Buenos Aires to give American support to President Kirchner's call for international negotiations over the Falklands. Amazing. What was more amazing is that all we've heard out of Number 10 and the Foreign Office since then is that it doesn't mean anything.
Oh, yes it does, and Washington insiders know it does.
I've just been in touch with Dr James Lucier, a former US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Staff Director, about all this. He tells me: 'Culturally, Obama detests Great Britain. He sent the bust of Churchill back without a fig leaf of an excuse. He insulted the Queen and the Prime Minister, giving them ridiculous gifts.' At one point, 'he refused to meet the prime minister.'
Here is what is happening, though the British Government seems oblivious of it. The Obama administration is ready to dump the Old World in pursuit of the One World.
Britain is being dumped. The special relationship, whatever is left of it, is over. Britain losing control of the Falklands to Argentina would just be collateral damage.
But France is being dumped, too. Obama's ostentatious refusal to have dinner with President Sarkozy during his visit to France last year was no accident. Rather than meet the French president, Obama went off to a restaurant with his wife Michelle.
Germany is being dumped. Obama has been little more than dismissive of Chancellor Merkel. Russia in turn will be waved aside.
Most spectacularly of all, the European Union has now been comprehensively dumped. The American president has refused to attend what is supposed to be a US-EU Madrid summit in May.
What we have shaping up, but what the British Government doesn't yet grasp, is that Obama has a conscious policy of down-grading America's relationship with, first, Britain and then with the rest of Europe.
He believes that the US -- yes, his own country -- and Britain, and the leading European countries, too, for that matter, are imperial powers who ruthlessly exploited the Third World for their own profit.
And Obama is America's first Third World president. Read on and comment >>> Mary Ellen Synon | Monday, March 22, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: In a sign of political battles to come, 14 US states filed lawsuits on Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of health care reform just moments after President Barack Obama signed it into law.
Other states are expected to join the fight against the far-reaching reforms which could place huge burdens on state budgets. Many are also considering legislation to block a provision which requires most people to buy insurance or pay a fine.
"This lawsuit should put the federal government on notice that Florida will not permit the constitutional rights of our citizens and the sovereignty of our state to be ignored or disregarded," said Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Mr McCollum, a Republican who is running for state governor in the upcoming election, said the federal government had no right to impose a "tax on living" by forcing people to buy insurance.
The historic $940-billion overhaul will extend coverage to some 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured, ensuring 95 per cent of US citizens under age 65 will have health insurance.
The lawsuit filed in a Florida federal court calls the reform bill an "unprecedented encroachment" on state sovereignty by requiring states to spend billions on expanding health care coverage to the poor. >>> | Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, October 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Bosnia is heading for a new civil war as a constitutional crisis threatens to cause the collapse of the political system, the country's leaders have warned.
The concerns have been triggered by Bosnian Serb leaders who have stepped up their demands for independence with a warning the country is no longer "sustainable".
The growing ethnic divisions have raised fears of a return to the fighting which claimed the lives of up to 110,000 people between 1992 and 1995.
Senior European and US officials have called an emergency meeting in Sarajevo on Tuesday to meet the country's leaders to find a solution.
The crisis centres on attempts to overhaul the constitution which was imposed on the country in 1995 in the wake of the war.
Since then Bosnia has been made up of two semi-independent entities – the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
The two are linked with weak central institutions whose functioning is often obstructed by ethnic rivalries. >>> Bruno Waterfield | Monday, October 19, 2009
Saturday, April 04, 2009
TIMESONLINE: In male-dominated Afghanistan, women are treated like chattel. What's changed since the Taleban?
Let's take a walk,” I suggested to Aziza. Kabul was in full bloom. The sun's rays had burnt the barren earth, but didn't reach us in the basement apartment in a grey, dilapidated neighbourhood in the outskirts of the city. My back was aching after weeks hunched on the floor listening to women talk of life behind four walls.
“A walk?” She looked at me in bewilderment. “A walk to where?”
“Just around here,” I tried.
Impossible. A walk without a purpose was a forbidden walk. She would just never get permission. The only reasons to leave the house were to run important errands or visit relatives.
Aziza belonged to a well-off and relatively liberal family. Yet the male head of the family would decide her whereabouts as he did with all the female members of his family.
Years have passed since our talk. Western politicians focus on improving conditions for women and children - and the conservative Afghan culture keeps hitting back. Schools are built to educate girls - and then torched to the ground. Aid programmes aimed at helping women are set up - and Afghan female activists are murdered and silenced. A constitution that proclaims equal rights for men and women is approved - and is then broken daily by the judgments of local shuras and jirgas, traditional assemblies of elders. >>> Åsne Seierstad | Saturday, April 4, 2009
Monday, December 03, 2007
BBC: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has narrowly lost a referendum on controversial constitutional changes.
Voters rejected the raft of reforms by a margin of 51% to 49%, the chief of the National Electoral Council said.
Mr Chavez described the defeat as a "photo finish", and urged followers not to turn it into a point of conflict.
Correspondents say the opposition could barely hide their delight and that the victory will put a brake on Mr Chavez's self-styled "Socialist revolution".
Celebrations by the opposition began almost immediately in the capital, Caracas, with activists cheering, beeping car horns and waving flags.
"Venezuela won today, democracy won today, and I am sure that this victory for the Venezuelan people will have a very important impact in the rest of Latin America," Leopoldo Lopez, opposition mayor of Caracas' Chaqua municipality, told the BBC. Chavez defeated over reform vote >>>
Mark Alexander
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