AZERBAIJAN: State still deprives Muslims of mosque and Baptists of pastor

Azerbaijan continues to maintain the closure of Baku’s Abu-Bekr Mosque, Forum 18 News Service has found. The closure was imposed after a 17 August bomb attack on the mosque, and a nationwide “temporary” ban – still in force – on people praying outside mosques was also imposed. The authorities have caught the alleged attackers, but “the decision not to allow the mosque to reopen offends the community,” Imam Gamet Suleymanov told Forum 18. The ordinary police, the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Security Ministry (NSM) secret police, and the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations all deny that their agency is responsible. Similarly, the authorities also refuse to release the text of the ban on praying outside mosques. Elsewhere, Baptist prisoner of conscience Hamid Shabanov remains in jail, with his latest detention period due to end on 21 October. It is unclear what the authorities plan to do, even though he is held on charges his church and family insist are fabricated. >>>>>

Public At Last Guantánamo’s SERE Standard Operating Procedures

One of the most important documents of the U.S. torture program has just become publicly available for the first time. This is the JTF GTMO “SERE” Interrogation Standard Operating Procedure, now posted on the website of the new documentary, Torturing Democracy. This document clearly specifies that the abusive interrogation techniques to be used at Guantamo [JTF GTMO] are based upon the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape [SERE] program. The document is notable for its documentation of the extent to which abuse was bureaucratically standardized for routineuse. http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m47935&hd=&size=1&l=e

Britain withdraws terror detention law after defeat

The British government on Monday withdrew a plan to extend the time suspected violent extremists can be held without charge after the House of Lords voted against it.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she would remove plans to extend the limit from 28 to 42 days from a proposed counter-terrorism bill, but could re-introduce the measure in a separate law at a later date.  >>>>>

It seems like they are stuck with only four weeks for torturing and conjuring up phony charges to continue justifying their participation in this War on Terror.

Troop pull-out leaves government on brink

The US must now be wondering whether it was all worth it. Western backing for the unpopular Somali government and US support for the Ethiopian intervention has created a groundswell of anti-West sentiment in Somalia.

The Islamist leaders they were so keen to oust are the same ones they are now engaged in negotiations with. US officials have met both Sheikh Sharif and the more hardline Sheikh Aweys in an effort to find a peace deal.

Meanwhile, in Somalia, the Islamists taking control of towns and villages across the country are considered far more extremist than Aweys. “They are real international jihadis,” said one Nairobi-based diplomat. “The Americans’ fear of al-Qaeda in Somalia is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.”  >>>>>

Islamic Congress responds to British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal’s decision on Human Rights Complaints filed against Maclean’s

According to Joseph, the Tribunal also notes in paragraphs 94 and 151 of
its ruling that the Maclean's article contributed to the hatred and contempt
of Muslims expressed by "several Internet blogs...which included calls to
exterminate European Muslims with DDT because they were multiplying like
mosquitoes, calls for an end to Muslim immigration, and calls for enough
bullets or nuclear bombs to eliminate the Muslim problem."  >>>>>

Freed Sudanese Detainee Tells of Torture at Guantanamo

At a press conference he held Thursday at the premises of the International Civil Aid Organisation in Khartoum, Mr Mustafa said that he went to Pakistan for education and trade, but he and others were arrested after the incidents of September 11 by local elements in Pakistan and were handed over to the American forces.

He said that they were then transported to Guantanamo prison where several aspects of torture had been inflicted on them, adding that no one can avoid torture unless he says that he had participated in the war against the Americans.  >>>>>

Intolerant India from Sikhophobia to Islamophobia and now Christophobia

Islamophobia and Sikhophobia are creations of state agencies unable to build a response to the fight for rights and fundamental freedoms and Christophobia has been started by fascist forces unable to tolerate equality and reduction in their ranks and is abetted by the state through silence and complicity.  >>>>>

And this is the country that Israel is conspiring with to promote their nationalist theocracies?  And if this is the case, why would Christians help either Israel or India?  Why do refer to both of them as democracies?  Why do Christians from other parts of the world not recognize that both Israel and India officially and theocratically reject the notion of Jesus–whereas ironically so, Muslims revere him and his mother, the Virgin Mary? 

Khudari deplores Israel for barring doctors from entering Gaza

GAZA, (PIC)– MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee against the siege, strongly denounced Wednesday the IOA for barring a medical delegation from the 1948 occupied lands from entering the Gaza Strip, saying that Israel wants to prevent any efforts to help the Gaza people.

In a press release received by the PIC, MP Khudari stated that the delegation is from the organization of physicians for human rights and was intending to perform surgeries and provide medical consultations for patients. >>>>>

Israel arrests 9 Palestinians in West Bank

The Israeli army raids West Bank cities and villages almost every night, chasing down Palestinians said to be wanted by the Israeli intelligence services.

But Human rights groups say the Israeli arrests were arbitrary. The Nablus-based International Solidarity Organization for Human Rights reported that 200 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank last month, including 25 youngsters and three women. >>>>>

MP backing for ‘Holocaust denier’

He has previously been convicted in Germany for breaking a law that prohibits denying or “playing down” the mass murder of the Jews under Hitler.

We don’t in this country tend to prosecute people for issues that we regard as issues of freedom of speech Chris Huhne

But some human rights campaigners have backed his case, saying that his views – however unpleasant – do not make him a criminal in the UK.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), acting for the German authorities, argues that agreements signed in 2003 between the UK and other European countries mean that Britain is duty-bound to assist the German authorities.  >>>>>

I guess free speech stops here at denying the holocaust in WWII Germany.  However, freedom of speech to lie that causes the killing of hundreds of thousands around the world is quite alright amongst democratic nations. — While I understand the point, it is not just nor logical.

We are seeing signs of the world waking up to the hypocrisy and as is mentioned in the teachings of Muslims, the Christian-Islamo alliance that will fight injustices around the world.

International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples 2008

Everyone is invited to attend the annual Sun-Rise Gathering at Alcatraz Island on Monday, October 13th, 2008 (State Holiday) on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, to commemorate 516 years (1492-2008) of Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Colonization in the Americas!

Support Indigenous Peoples’ struggles for Self-Determination, Land and Treaty Rights, Protection of Sacred Sites, Cultures and Ways of Life. Say “No” to War and Racism, “Yes” to a Culture of Peace, Human Rights, and Respect for Mother Earth! >>>>>

Canadian Government Should Not Turn Its Back on Human Rights

“Over the past few years, our Government has seriously rolled back the rights for many Canadians, as evidenced in the rise of racial profiling and Islamophobia. Our eroding human rights record is also reflected on the international stage when it comes to our Government’s willingness to uphold international human rights treaties and agreements,” said Mohamed Boudjenane, Executive Director of the Canadian Arab Federation.  >>>>>

Jewish Lobby Vetoes Candidate Over 9-11 Views

Anyone who studies this carefully documented 9-11 Timeline can see that Neocons, Zionists and Mossad played a prominent role in the false-flag attack on the World Trade Centre. The Mossad motto literally is “By way of deception, we shall wage war.” False flags are their modus operandi ever since the Levon Affair in 1954 and the 1967 attack on the USS Liberty. A Report of the German Intelligence Service (BND) says Israel’s Mossad helped the “Arab terrorists.” Germany has not disowned this report and no one has refuted it.

“These investigations disclosed in late May of 2001 that an attack was to be made against certain specified targets in the American cities of Washington and New York. But it was apparent that the Mossad was not only fully aware of these attacks well in advance but actually, though their own agents inside these Arab groups, assisted in the planning and the eventual execution of the attacks.  >>>>>

Six Years in Guantanamo

Sami al-Haj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was beaten, abused and humiliated in the name of the war on terror. He tells our correspondent about his struggle to rebuild a shattered life…

“We know you are innocent, you are here by mistake,” he says he was told in more than 200 interrogations. “All they wanted was for me to be a spy for them. They said they would give me US citizenship, that my wife and child could live in America, that they would protect me. But I said: ‘I will not do this – first of all because I’m a journalist and this is not my job and because I fear for myself and my family. In war, I can be wounded and I can die or survive. But if I work with you, al-Qa’ida will eliminate me. And if I don’t work with you, you will kill me’.”  >>>>>

Multiply Sami-Al Haj by at least tens of thousands.  These are those who suffered only because they were part of a population that Americans perceived to believe in a God, and just so happens to be in the way of a live ‘Stratego’ game — and of course, lived to tell about it.

How about those that reach over 1,000,000 worldwide who never got a chance to make a deal with the government because they were too busy catching bombs while in the middle of funeral processions or wedding festivities — or sleeping; or praying for world peace?  Probably even more sad is the mental and otherwise enslavement of the masses who think they have gotten away unscathed.

Soon enough, joining the enslaved, will be those who cheered for the destructive shock and awe; and gave all their support for these efforts based on a false or twisted sense of patriotism and lack of true understanding how their contribution to the conspiracy for these war crimes – no matter how insignificant – will come back to haunt them by the very same people sworn to protect them from living in an unjust society.  The U.S. used its own citizens to become the pep rally for world domination…it started long ago; when we were told to believe, “we are the No. 1 Super Power in the world.”

By the time this economic ‘bailout’ fiasco is signed; only then will it barely reach the outskirts of critical mass numbers that the U.S. citizenry were used as pawns for the same kind of in-house tyranny we swore to stand up against.  What did you think those founding forefathers meant when incorporating the term “…defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”  Can we do some ‘real profiling’ to determine who our domestic enemies are?

Shahroudi: West uses human rights as a stick against Muslim states

Ayatollah Shahrudi told Nigerian Ambassador to Tehran Al Haji Abubakar Cika that Muslim countries and the Third World states should close their ranks and get united.

“The only way to get rid of colonialism and global arrogance is unity and solidarity among states and vigilance vis-a-vis the deceitful ploys of the global arrogance to dominate the oppressed nations,” Shahroudi said. >>>>>

Maybe the U.S. is using the stick as a pointer.  That stick has an opposite end that points right back to the holder, no matter how he uses his stick.  Or just maybe, the stick is used as a prop to show the world how to abuse human rights.

Sudanese plane hijacked to Libya

…The refugees resisted the government’s attempts to enter the camp, however, and “the situation escalated into confrontation and exchange of gunfire, with no indication as to who started it.” The gunfire lasted about two hours, UNAMID said…

“UNAMID strongly condemns the excessive, disproportionate use of lethal force by the [government] security forces against civilians, which violated their human rights and resulted in unacceptable casualties,” the UNAMID statement said.

Sudan must be really free; in the U.S., no one would be allowed to carry weapons of any kind into an immigration or refugee camp.  Secondly, how does UNAMID know how much force is disproportionate when the had a warrant to go into the camp for illegal weapons and drug charges?  When people are shooting at you, do you care whether it’s a 9 mm or an automatic rifle?  Didn’t think so…

Why is it that the level of restraint does not apply to unarmed Iraqi, Afghanis, Palestinians; for that matter, in the U.S., if they have a warrant, the police are bursting in with all kinds of weapons, whether you’re armed or not. 

I respect that the Sudanese forces may be in the wrong, to be determined after an objective investigation.  But the reporting of this is very one-sided in the West.  With regards to the topic of the hijacking; the spin is already on.  If a crime is committed, then justice of that jurisdiction should prevail.

Call to review women’s rights

Bahrain joined the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 2002, but submitted several reservations due to conflict with Sharia law, traditions and Islamic principles.  >>>>>

Top UN official calls for greater effort to end contemporary forms of slavery

Marking the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) chief today appealed to Member States to renew efforts to end all forms of oppression.  “While we should never forget the atrocities committed in the past, we should be equally vigilant in seeking to abolish the contemporary forms of slavery that affect millions of men, women and children around the world,” said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro >>>>>

Please clarify the term ‘world,’ as many people say there is a Western World and a Muslim World.  Many things have slipped through the cracks of understanding.  So I’d like to make sure we have an understanding that Muslims are to be included in this ‘world.’

Sailing for Gaza Freedom

LARNACA, Cyprus — Human rights activists set sail from Cyprus on Friday, August 22, to the Gaza Strip to break the months-long Israeli blockade on the 1.6 million Palestinians in the poverty-stricken strip.  “The goal of our voyage is to break the illegal siege on the people of Gaza as a step toward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” said the Free Gaza Movement in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).  >>>>>

Rights groups want corporal punishment banned in U.S. schools

Human rights groups in the United States are calling on Washington to ban corporal punishment in schools, following a new report that shows the practice is still widely prevalent across the country.   >>>>>

If teachers from other countries carry guns and use corporal punishment to discipline students, then we would toot our horns about how free we are.  Now it looks like our children ain’t so free…or is it that we were wrong about the foreigners?

Maybe this is a ploy to have people withdraw from public school so they would not be such a burden on the government-run failing and fund-misappropriating school system.  Since children can’t vote, I guess they don’t get to have a say on who whips them or not, and for what reason.