Thursday, June 18, 2015
Iran’s Last Shah - The Fifth Estate
China Bans Muslims from Fasting during Ramadan, Say Uighur Community
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| Shops and restaurants are being ordered to stay open during daylight hours - or risk being shut down |
Muslims throughout the district – which is known to have a minority population of Uighurs – have been told not to fast during the Holy Month.
The Uighur leader, Dilxat Raxit, sees the move as China’s attempt to control their Islamic faith and warned that the restrictions would force the Uighur people to resist the rule of the Chinese government even more. » | Aftab Ali | Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Anti-Islam, Freedom of Speech Rally Planned for Tucson
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| A protester at the May 29 "Rally for Freedom of Speech" |
The event is modeled after a protest at the Phoenix Islamic Cultural Center on May 29, which purportedly was a reaction to the two men who opened fire on a Muhammed cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas, earlier this spring.
For the upcoming “Let Freedom Ring Freedom of Speech Rally,” organizer Dean Remington has invited people he calls “true Americans.” He’s calling on “patriots,” “militias,” “motorcycle clubs,” “preppers,” “sovereign citizens,” “and all who would like to voice a concern that Islam is not a religion of peace and the mosques in America are indoctrination centers for Jihad” to protest “activities that threaten America and its citizens our families and economy.” » | Miriam Wasser | Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Belfast Preacher to Face Court over Islam Slurs
A born-again Christian preacher in Belfast is to be prosecuted for describing Islam as “satanic” and “the spawn of the devil”.
Pastor James McConnell was accused of Islamophobia after he denounced the Muslim religion as a “heathen” faith in May 2014. He issued a public apology, but not before Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, came under fire for initially defending him.
Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service said on Thursday that McConnell was offered an “informed warning” that would have avoided a prosecution but he declined to accept it. » | Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent | Thursday, June 18, 2015
THE GUARDIAN: Belfast preacher who denounced Islam as evil issues apology: Pastor issues apology just hours before Northern Ireland police question him about allegations he has been inciting hatred » | Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent | Friday, June 06, 2015
Galilee Church Where Jesus 'Fed the 5000' Hit by Arson Attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has enlisted the country's domestic intelligence chief to investigate an arson attack on a revered church in the Galilee, where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with loaves and fish.
The fire, suspected to the the work of Jewish extremists, broke out at the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha, located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, late on Wednesday night. It caused extensive damage to the exterior and interior of the building, while two people were taken to hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation.
Graffiti in Hebrew declaring that “False idols will be smashed” was found scrawled in red on the walls. (+ video) » | Inna Lazareva in Tel Aviv | Thursday, June 18, 2015
Muslim Gymnast Criticised for 'Revealing' Leotard as She Wins Double-Gold
A Muslim gymnast has been criticised by religious leaders for wearing a ‘revealing’ leotard during a double-gold victory at the Southeast Asia Games.
Farah Ann Abdul Hadi, 21, represented Malaysia at the competition, where she won six medals, including two golds.
But she was rebuked by leaders and social media trolls for showing her “aurat” – an Islamic word referring to the genitalia and thighs.
Cleric Harussani Zakaria told one local paper: “Gymnastics is not for Muslim women. It is clear that exposing one's aurat and the shape of one's body is haram (forbidden in Islam).
“If Muslim women want to participate in gymnastics, they have to find outfits which cover the aurat and this, in turn, might not be suitable for the sport.” » | Radhika Sanghani | Thursday, June 18, 2015
Britain Should Treat Saudi Arabia as a Pariah State
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| Ensaf Haidar, the wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, holds a placard after her speech as a guest at the annual meeting of the German section of Amnesty International in Dresden, Germany |
It is exactly three years ago today that the pro-democracy blogger Raif Badawi was arrested and imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Earlier this month, the Saudi Supreme Court upheld the draconian sentence handed down for his 'crime' of setting up a liberal website: ten years jail and 1,000 lashes.
Meanwhile, Badawi’s lawyer and brother-in-law, Waleed Abu Al-Khair - himself a human rights activist and founder of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia - had his 15 year jail sentence confirmed in February.
This is happening in a country that successive British governments have allied with, diplomatically and militarily, despite its tyrannical nature and its sharp divergence from our stated democratic, liberal and human rights values. Our foreign policy on Saudi Arabia doesn’t match what we say we stand for.
Indeed, as well as Raif’s and Waleed’s persecution, Amnesty international has documented ten different forms of gross human rights abuse perpetrated by the regime in Riyadh.
Despite UK government silence, human rights campaigners have kept the Badawi case in the public eye. English PEN has been holding weekly vigils outside the Saudi Embassy in London, and the Amnesty International petition calling for his release has over 1 million signatures. People worldwide are sharing the #FreeRaif appeal on social media, calling for his immediate, unconditional release.
Badawi is one of the human rights heroes of our age. He has been awarded several prizes, including PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award, and has been nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Numerous Nobel laureates have voiced their support for Raif, as have well-known public figures such as Patti Smith, Jimmy Wales, Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky. » | Peter Tatchell | Wednesday, June 17, 2015
ENGLISH PEN: Day of action for Raif Badawi »
Think Muslim, Think Terrorist: Poll Reveals British Attitudes Toward Islam
The poll was aimed at identifying British views about Muslims and their religion. It revealed attitudes described as "extremely worrying" by Islamic Relief's UK director Jehangir Malik.
The charity asked people to name the three words they associate with the term "Muslim" and found that more think of "terror/terrorism/terrorist" (12 per cent) than "faith" (11 per cent) or "mosque" (nine per cent). Also represented were "anti-women", "extremist", "fanatic" and "intolerant", though all at levels of around four or five per cent. » | Mark Woods | Christian Today Contributing Editor | Monday, June 15, 2015
Margaret Thatcher's Personal Papers Saved for Nation after Family Donate Them to Reduce Inheritance Tax Bill
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Why Iranians Are Lapping Up Shah Memorabilia
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| The Shah in 1954, a year after the CIA-MI6 coup. |
Near the grand bazaar in Tehran, over the entrance to the complex housing the ministries of foreign affairs and information, the national museum and the Islamic era museum, is a colourful mural, dating to the time of Reza Shah, depicting symbols of Iranian nationalism including a dignified soldier, a Maxim machine-gun, and crossed Iranian flags.
The flags, sporting the distinctive horizontal bands of red, white and green, have been more recently altered than the rest. On all the flags, the white band in the centre has been painted over with a fresh coat of eggshell white. On the green band below you can see, cut off at the ankles, the paws of a lion and on the red band above you can see the rays of a rising sun.
These are remnants, spared a literal-white washing, of the Shir o Khorshid, or Lion and Sun, a coat of arms that graced the Iranian flag from the mid 19th century until the 1979 Revolution when it was replaced by a stylized version of the word Allah (“God”) written in Arabic script.
The Shir o Khorshid, a popular Iranian symbol since at least the 12th century, has since the revolution become associated with the deposed monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and his dynasty. After the revolution, the new government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini systematically eradicated it from public spaces and government buildings, replacing it with Islamic iconography. Today in Iran nostalgia for the Shah and his government, like the paws of the lion, peeks out from under a coat of white paint.
When I visited the Vakil bazaar in Shiraz or the Jomeh bazaar in Tehran, I saw mountains of Shah-related memorabilia at almost every stall. Vintage Iranian rial notes and postage stamps emblazoned with his face, brass busts of him and his infamously fabulous wife Empress Farah, coffee-table books with full-colour photos of the royal family, countless pendants, rings, and wall hangings depicting the Shir o Khorshid, some vintage and some obviously mass-produced more recently. » | Tehran Bureau correspondent | Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Saudi Arabia Executes 100th Person This Year in 'Campaign of Death' - but UK Stays Silent
Authorities in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom were accused of waging a "campaign of death" as the number killed in the first half of this year surpassed that for the whole of 2014.
Beheading is the most popular form of execution amongst Saudi Arabia's rulers, with many carried out in public.
Just over half of those executed this year have been Saudi citizens, with many of the harshest sentences handed down to drug smugglers.
Yet Britain and America have remained largely silent over human rights abuses in the oil-rich Gulf state, which is an increasingly important political and economic ally in the unstable region. » | Nick Gutteridge | Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Women Working for Qatar Airways 'Forced to Get Consent from Bosses before Getting Married'
Flight attendants for the Middle Eastern airline have allegedly been subjected to the company's strict policies making their life a living hell.
The staff claim they have faced dismissal for infractions and are bound by strict curfews, even while off duty.
The airline is said to have a policy where female cabin crew cannot be dropped off or picked up from work by men other than their brother, father or husband – which Qatar Airways insists is a "cultural norm".
After a year-long investigation, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) ruled that Qatar breached discrimination conventions by having rules that allow it to sack pregnant cabin crew. » | Jake Burman | Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Grexit Beckons: Greece On Brink of Euro Exit as It Faces Economic Meltdown
Greece is on the brink of economic meltdown after Germany appeared poised to push the country out of the eurozone.
With the embattled country set to default on a €1.5billion (£1.1billion) debt repayment, senior German politicians warned that “enough is enough”.
London’s FTSE 100 slipped 1.1 per cent to a three-month low on Monday as investors reacted to Greece’s failure to reach a deal with its creditors.
Global oil prices also fell after negotiations collapsed after just 45 minutes on Sunday, amid fears that Greece is now heading towards financial catastrophe.
As the crisis intensified, it emerged that George Osborne, the Chancellor, will later this week chair an emergency meeting as ministers seek to protect Britain’s economy from a potential Greek exit from the single currency - dubbed a Grexit.
Officials want to ensure that the Government has “contingency plans” in place to ensure that UK businesses are not damaged by a Greek withdrawal. » | Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor | Tuesday, June 16, 2015
THE TELEGRAPH: Enough is enough, Greece must leave the euro: The Greek debt crisis is now five years old, and still there is no workable settlement in sight. One apparent denouement follows another, lending Europe a sense of permanent crisis and conflict, not so dissimilar to an outright war, at least in terms of the entrenched positions adopted and the vitriol of the language. » | Telegraph View | Tuesday, June 16, 2015
DIE WELT: Merkel will "alles tun", um Griechenland zu halten » | Mittwoch, 17. Juni 2015
Blogger Pamela Geller On 1010 WINS: I Will Not Let Violent Threats Silence Me
Geller upped her security after an ISIS sympathizer tweeted out her Upper East Side address Friday, days after it was revealed that she was the supposed target of a beheading in a foiled terror plot in Boston.
“I’m a free person and I’m fighting for freedom,” Geller told 1010 WINS Tuesday. “The last thing I’m going to do is go into hiding.”
The Twitter account that published her address has been suspended.
Despite the recent threats, Geller said she will not be stopped from speaking out or organizing future events. (+ audio) » | Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Britain Must Ban Sharia "Kangaroo Courts", Say Activists
They called for the government to stick to pre-election promises to hold an inquiry into sharia courts which first appeared in Britain in the mid-1980s.
"Over the years, we have witnessed with increasing alarm the influence of 'Sharia courts' over the lives of citizens of Muslim heritage," nearly 200 women's rights and secular campaigners said in a statement.
"Though the 'Sharia courts' have been touted as people's right to religion, they are in fact, effective tools of the far-right Islamist movement whose main aim is to restrict and deny rights, particularly those of women and children." » | Emma Batha | Reuters | Monday, June 15, 2015
Franklin Graham Says Sharia Law Should Be Banned in All Free Countries
After reading an article published by the BBC about life under radical Islam, Graham said his stand against the Sharia law became clearer than ever, and he shared his thoughts about it on his Facebook page.
"Some Western governments are actually considering allowing Sharia law in certain Muslim communities in their countries — can you believe it? ISIS is imposing Sharia law on hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians who want to be free. Women are oppressed, Christians and minorities are persecuted and murdered, homosexuals are tortured and killed," he lamented. » | Czarina Ong | Saturday, June 13, 2015
Moroccan Gay Men to Be Tried for Violating 'Public Modesty' over Photo
Two Moroccan gay men are set to go on trial for violating “public modesty” after holding each other for a photo at a historic site in Rabat, and could go to jail for up to three years.
Mohsine, a 25-year-old from Marrakesh, in the west of the country, and Lahcen, 38, from Rabat, were touring and taking pictures near Hassan tower, the capital’s famous minaret, earlier in June when they were arrested by the police for supposedly standing too close to each other, activists said. It is not clear if the men were in a relationship.
The pair are expected to appear in the court on Tuesday and if convicted, could face up to three years in jail under the country’s anti-gay laws. According to article 489 of Morocco’s penal code, homosexuality is punishable by six months to three years imprisonment.
The news of their arrest was initially announced by the state-run Al Aoula television channel which revealed their identities and photos in public in an attempt to shame them in the eyes of the country’s conservative society.
Activists condemned the move as reckless as it sparked demonstrations in front of their families’ houses. Aswat Collective, a prominent LGBT group in Morocco, told The Guardian that demonstrators shouted homophobic slurs without any intervention by watching police. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Monday, June 15, 2015
TELQUEL: Edito – Vivre et laisser vivre » | vendredi 12 juin 2015
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