.o0FREEDOM~PEACE~HARMONY0o.

The Danish Cartoons >> Freedom of Racism

2006-02-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

there has been an explosion of reactions in the Muslim world, both online and offline. The blogosphere has witnessed a huge number of blogs about this topic, people all over the Muslim world are boycotting Danish and Norwegian products, some countries have pulled their ambassadors, ...etc. Over this time I've mainly been watching from the sidelines, wanting to write more about it, but just not finding the time to. Most opinions I've read in the blogosphere are totally against what happened, yet some people think it's not normal and very backward to react this strongly to these caricatures, and that we should just let it go. I personally strongly disagree with these people. We've let go of a lot of things, we've tolerated a lot of disrespect and racism over the years, but when it gets to our Prophet and touches our religion, there is no way we can just let go! It is totally unacceptable!! I'm against any violent reactions or death threats, but I'm totally for peaceful protest and political or economic boycott if necessary. If the same paper published some caricatures that touched a Jewish figure, the whole world would have stood against it and pointed the anti-semitic finger at them, and ripped them apart. But the caricatures being about the prophet of Islam, no one cares, and the angry and offended muslims are made out to be backward thinking and untolerant. Well yeah, we don't tolerate anyone attacking our Prophet or religion, and you can call it whatever you want! A bit earlier, I read that the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons has apologized for offending Muslims around the world, not for publishing the cartoons, but for offending Muslims. "We apologize for the fact that the cartoons undeniably have offended many Muslims,"' Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, wrote late yesterday in a letter on the paper's Web site. He said Jyllands-Posten wasn't sorry for running the cartoons though. As for Vebjoern Selbekk, the editor of Norwegian Magazinet, the paper that republished the caricatures, he too said that he "regrets if the drawings were offensive to Muslims." Those sound like half ass apologies to me. It's like someone raping someone and then saying: "I'm not sorry for raping you, but I'm sorry it hurt!" It's more of an insult than an apology! I think they should be able to do a lot better than that!

Palestine US Exhibit Stirs Controversy

2005-04-24T16:12:00.000-06:00

Made in Palestine art exhibition stirs controversy in US... A unique art exhibition showcasing the works of 23 Palestinian artists, from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as those living in exile in countries such as Jordan, Syria and Germany, is facing uncertain times in the United States, with major museums refusing to play host. Chronicling the modern history of Palestinians since 1948, Made in Palestine had its first showing in the United States at the Station Museum in Houston, in May 2003. Currently on display in San Francisco, the opening attracted up to a thousand people. But alongside the accolades, it has also drawn the ire of some politicians. As a result, most museums are fearful that hosting an exhibit that is pro-Palestinian could cost them their funding. Once the current show draws to a close on 21 April, organisers suspect it could be curtains for the exhibition. [Source: Al Jazeera] I think it's so unfair to not even let Palestinians express themselves and show their side of the story through peaceful art exhibitions like this one. There is so much bias and ignorance that almost anything that is even slightly pro-Palestinian is automatically unaccepted and denied. I think this is where those fat rich Arab purses should come in handy, funding projects like this and helping to get the peaceful message through.

Free Tayseer

2005-02-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

As the restrictions imposed by the American war machine on the free and independent media continues, and the pressure on them intensifies, so do the massacres and human rights violations committed by the American military wherever they happen to have a foothold. This aggressive war machine continues to endeavour tirelessly to gag every free, independent and self respecting media organization in the world that tries to convey a message of truth to others without distortion or perversion. As we strongly condemn and denounce the Spanish government's yielding to American pressure and arresting Allouni and leave him to languish in jail despite his poor health, which reconsider a violation of basic human rights and the principle of free press which the West has long been paying lip service to. The Spanish government, in our view, has done itself a great disservice by giving in to the demands of the Americans. It has thus proven once again to be an obedient servant of the American imperialists. In the process, the Spanish judiciary has inflicted upon itself a great deal of damage to its credibility and honour. We therefore call upon human rights organisations and all those who concern themselves with defending the rights of journalists to bring pressure to bear on the Spanish government and through lawful means to bring about a speedy release of Mr. Allouni. We believe this matter to be of great urgency in view of what has reached us from reliable sources of the conditions surrounding Mr. Allouni's incarceration. He is being kept in a tiny cell (2.5 by 1.6 m ). He is also being subjected to near total solitary confinement and not allowed outside his cell except for two hours in the morning and two in the evening, and even this is only into a small space in which he is not allowed to see more than five inmates on the strict condition of not engaging in any form of conversation and under close guard. The temperature in the cell where he is being kept is very cold reaching below zero at times. The heating is only switched on for two hours a day which has severely aggravated the back pain Mr Allouni suffers from. He is only allowed two visitors a time which means that he is deprived of seeing his entire family together

Challenging a Sacred Cow

2005-02-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Excuse me while I put on my flak jacket. For many the touting of democracy as the best system of governance — indeed, the only form — has become almost a religion. Democracy, they say, means freedom, choice, justice and prosperity. It’s the cure of all ills; a political holy grail, an ideal to which we should all aspire. George Bush says the US has never been threatened by a democracy, so that’s all right then. Sounds good, doesn’t it? There is just one slight problem, though. Does a “by the people, for the people” utopia actually exist? The majority of Iraqis appear to think it might, judging from their excitement at voting for the very first time in their lives. They’ve been promised democracy and, sure enough, they were handed a piece of paper to tick and stuff into a ballot box. The truth is very different. Iraq is occupied. The occupiers have no timeline for moving out and any Iraqi government will have to defer to the US for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, residents of Sunni areas were either intimidated by insurgents not to vote or refrained from doing so due to their suspicions the exercise was little more than a sham to make the Americans look good. The litmus test will come if and when the new government asks the occupiers to leave, and refuses the idea of permanent US military bases. There is a lot more to democracy than the ballot including a free press, an independent judiciary, the sanctity of human rights and civil liberties, backed up by stable institutions. Iraq currently possesses none of these prerequisites.

Israel Plans Big Jerusalem Land Grab

2005-01-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Sharon government intends to strip thousands of West Bank Palestinians of their property in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli press quoting newly released government documents. At stake are thousands of donoms of land belonging to Palestinians who live in the West Bank and are now unable to access their land due to Israel's separation barrier. By some estimates, the total land to be expropriated could add up to half of all East Jerusalem property. And who'll be raising a finger as Israel steals these people's properties and strips them of their land in yet another abuse of their rights? Absolutely nobody! And then you hear talk of a fair peace process! How can peace ever be possible when the world is biased and supports a terrorist state like Israel in all the atrocities it commits against the Palestinian people?!

FOR AN INTERIM U.N ADMINISTRATION IN CHECHNYA

2004-09-03T16:09:00.000-06:00

Appeal to the Secretary General and to the Heads of State and of Government of the member countries of the United Nations We citizens of Chechnya, of Russia, and of the whole world address this appeal with confidence to the United Nations and to all States that hold dear the fate of human life and civilisation in this far corner of Europe, cancelled from the conscience of the West and of the free countries and consigned for the last ten years to the Russian occupying forces. The Russian State is renewing a tragedy that has dragged on for three centuries, from one occupation to the next, from one deportation to the next, from one massacre to the next. This centuries-old colonisation is a source of shame for the whole of humanity and a tragedy that unites, rather than divides, the Russian and Chechen peoples in a common fate. We Chechens, have, in the last ten years, seen our country devastated, our capital Grozny razed to the ground, our villages, fields and woods, and our people itself, become the daily target of a war that seems to have no end or epilogue other than our definitive annihilation. We have seen our sons and daughters, our fathers and mothers, our husbands and wives, our brothers and sisters, rounded up in the middle of the night, deported, imprisoned, tortured, raped, mutilated and murdered. We have seen, with great anguish, the growing risk that some of those younger and weaker than us, brought up in a world that knows nothing but war, will yield to the temptation of terrorism and entrust their hopes to a "murderous courage" that would put them on the same level as the occupiers. We have seen that our fragile institutions, consecrated by a democratic election in 1997 and recognised by the international community and by the Russian Federation itself, were first delegitimised, then replaced by a straw government, and finally swept away by a sham referendum. We Russians, know that thousands of our soldiers have been killed, their bodies returned secretly to the cemeteries in our towns and villages. We know that our soldiers are condemned to commit innumerable atrocities and crimes on the orders of cynical, mercenary autocrats and generals. We know that this war kills tens of thousands of men and women, and with them the hopes for democracy and freedom that we have been nurturing in our hearts since the end of the Cold War. We citizens of the whole world, share the sense of horror felt by many Russians and the sense of terror that haunts the Chechens in the face of the devastation of this small piece of Europe and of the world, which is still called Chechnya. We believe that what is happening in this deliberately and blamefully abandoned region increasingly resembles a full-fledged genocide. Dear Secretary General, dear Heads of State and of Government, We believe that it is intolerable that the international community should continue to ignore the daily unfolding of this terrible tragedy, and that we cannot continue to turn a blind eye and shirk our responsibilities with respect to what is happening in Chechnya. We support the plan for "conditional independence" presented by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ilyas Akhmadov, which proposes the establishment of an interim United Nations administration on the basis of the disarmament of all the Chechen forces and the withdrawal of all the Russian military and administrative personnel. At the end of this period of transition, during which the UN would be charged with administering the country and co-ordinating the re-establishment of the civil, political and material order of a country strewn with ruins and comon graves, the surviving population would be called to elect its own parliament and government. We citizens of Chechnya, of Russia, and of the whole world ask you solemnly and with confidence to take all the necessary steps to ensure that the Akhmadov plan for peace and democracy in Chechnya is first studied and then implemented. We hope that, in this framework, a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Chechnya will be appointed as soon as possible. The security of the Russian poeple and the lives of the Chechen people cannot be sacrificed to the logic of a conflict that no-one can hope any longer to win on the battlefield. It is up to the international commity and to the United Nations to enable two peoples who are both losing a shameful war to join forces in order to win an honourable peace. To sign the petition go to www.radicalparty.org

Must double food aid to Darfur

2004-08-02T15:37:00.000-06:00

Thousands of Sudanese villagers who have fled militia attacks will die if the world does not double the amount of food sent to the region, the head of aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières warned today. The UN security council has given Sudan a 30-day deadline for disarming the Arab Janjaweed militias largely blamed for the crisis, but Rowan Gillies, the international president of MSF, said refugees were so weakened by hunger that epidemics could sweep through their camps if food aid was not sent immediately. "There is a massive lack of response to what has happened, and in the end, for the people on the ground, what that means is a lack of food," he told Reuters. According to US estimates, 50,000 people could have died of hunger and disease in Darfur. Mr Gillies said that toll could be only the start of a humanitarian catastrophe. "The risk of epidemics over the next six months is very, very high," he added. The UN and international aid organisations have accused the pro-government Janjaweed militias of waging a brutal campaign to drive black Sudanese people from Darfur. An estimated 30,000 people have been killed in the 17-month conflict. One million people have been forced to flee their homes, and an estimated 2.2 million people are in urgent need of food, medicine and other basics. Outrage from Western governments and suggestions that Europe and the US could deploy troops have put pressure on Sudan's government, but it says it cannot meet the UN deadline to disarm the militias.

GET OUT OF IRAQ NOW !

2004-07-20T12:17:00.000-06:00

Sooner or later, the United States must admit that it has made a terrible mistake in Iraq, and it must move quickly to undo it. That means the United States must yield not only command of the occupation force, but participation in it. The United States must renounce any claim to power or even influence over Iraq, including Iraqi oil. The United States must accept the humiliation that would surely accompany its being replaced in Iraq by the very nations it denigrated in the build-up to the war. " "With the United States thus removed from the Iraqi crucible, those who have rallied to oppose the great Satan will loose their raison d'etre, and the Iraqi people themselves can take responsibility for rebuilding their wrecked nation." "All of this might seem terribly unlikely today, but something like it is inevitable. The only question is whether it happens over the short term, as the result of responsible decision-making by politicians in Washington, or over the long term, as the result of a bloody and unending horror.

The Apartheid Wall is illegal!

2004-07-11T05:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) at the Hague published its Advisory Opinion on Israel's West Bank Wall. The court ruled in favor of the Palestinians, condemning those parts of the barrier that effectively annex Palestinian land, and calling for its dismantling in the Occupied Territories. The opinion also found that Israel was obligated to return confiscated land or make reparations for any destruction or damage to homes, businesses and farms caused by the barrier's construction. The ruling was the second against the barrier in the past two weeks. Israel's high court ruled June 30 that a section of the barrier under construction must be rerouted to avoid infringing on the lives of 35,000 Palestinians. Of course Israel is refusing this ruling and saying that it's non-binding and that they don't have to comply with it even though it indicates that Israel is in violation of international law and of international legitimacy. Israel is claiming that the wall was built to bring them security and that since the barrier was built less and less attacks were happening against their people. But wait, shouldn't a wall built for Israel's security actually have been built between Israeli and Palestinian land, not between Palestinians and their fields, schools, jobs, medical service, and family members?! There is talk that sanctions could be seeked against Israel to force it to comply with this ruling. But obviously, the US would veto that without thinking. Anyway, even though this ruling won't really mean that the wall will be brought down, it still is an important step for the Palestinians. It will help put pressure on the people who defened Israel no matter what it does and it will give Palestinians more international support, something they really need. It also comes an important expression of solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are suffering the effects of the illegal barrier, and with the thousands of Palestinians and Israelis who have been peacefully protesting against it over the past months.

Operation Give For IRAQ

2004-07-11T05:06:00.001-06:00

Operation Give coordinates the collection and distribution of toys and other items for Iraqi children. After years of tyranny and war, the children of Iraq have almost nothing and are very grateful. With each toy you give to a needy child, you put a smile on their face and hope in their heart... Operation Give offers Four Ways to Give, so you can find the way to give that works for you. You can send your own package. You can get inexpensive toys through Operation give website. You can buy items from Internet retailers and designate Operation Give as the recipient to forward them to Iraq. You can donate money for Operation Give to buy and ship toys for Iraqi children. Because Operation Give is 100% volunteer driven, your entire donation goes to the kids. Right where it should be.

Photo of the year

2004-07-10T16:21:00.000-06:00

World Press Photo of the year 2003 by French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju of the Associated Press shows a detained Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old-son at a regroupment center for POW's near Najaf, Iraq. Picture was taken on 31 March, 2003. Jean-Marc Bouju/Associated Press REUTERS/Jean-Marc Bouju

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2004-07-08T15:40:00.000-06:00

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