23 Sept 2010
'Israel flotilla raid was unlawful'
UN Gaza aid probe says the raid of Israeli forces on flotilla was in violation of international law.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission has accused Israeli forces of violating international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The three UN-appointed human rights experts said in a report released on Wednesday that Israeli forces showed "incredible violence" during and after their raid on the aid flotilla that left eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American killed.
The UN probe said there was "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "wilful killing" and torture committed when its troops stormed the aid flotilla last May.
Israel's military response to the flotilla "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality" and violated international law "including international humanitarian and human rights law." The three-member panel said.
"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence."
The report is scheduled to be debated by the Human Rights Council on Monday.
The report also rejected Israel's stance that its forces acted in self-defence when they raided the flotilla, arguing that even those who did not attempt to stop Israeli soldiers from boarding the aid ships "received injuries, including fatal injuries."
"It is apparent that no effort was made to minimise injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner. The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution."
Israel's reaction
Israel rejected the report as "biased" and "one-sided."
"The report... is as biased and as one sided as the body that has produced it," the statement said.
"Israel... is of the opinion that the flotilla incident is amply and sufficiently investigated as it is. All additional dealing with this issue is superfluous and unproductive."
Israel insisted that it acted in line with international law, arguing that it had the right to retaliate against ships attempting to breach its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
However, the panel said that since Gaza was suffering from a humanitarian crisis on the day of the deadly raid, for this reason alone, Israel's blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law.
Hamas welcomed the report and told Al Jazeera that the findings show that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights.
"More should now be done, the commander who led the raid should be taken to International Criminal Court." Hamas said.
The fact-finding mission, chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had travelled to Turkey, Jordan and Britain to interview witnesses and officials for the probe.
Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal, and Shanthi Dairiam, as Malaysian human rights expert, are the other members of the panel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/2010922195831956543.html
1 Sept 2010
23 Jul 2010
7 Jun 2010
Turkish PM accuses opposition of supporting Tel Aviv
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the main opposition leader Sunday of “advocating on behalf of Tel Aviv.”
Although Erdoğan did not give any names, arguing that he did not want to “promote them,” his remarks in the northwestern province of Bursa were clearly directed at Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
“Some people speak in the name of Tel Aviv, advocate for Tel Aviv,” Erdoğan said. “They question our way of diplomacy. The way you did things put us in this dire situation. As I said earlier, we do not work as the ‘mon cher’ diplomats do.”
Erdoğan said Turkey could not step aside since it has historical ties with the region and Jerusalem is a holy city for all three of the world’s largest monotheistic religions.
Kılıçdaroğlu had said Turkey should have made more diplomatic efforts for the Gaza aid flotilla, which was the target of a deadly attack by Israeli soldiers last week.
The CHP chief had also criticized Erdoğan for making a reference to the Torah and telling the Jewish people that their religion forbids murders. “Erdoğan uses the Ten Commandments as a tool,” he said. “But the eighth commandment says, ‘Thou shall not steal,’ what about that?” asked Kılıçdaroğlu, accusing the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government of corruption.
Erdoğan was harsh in his response. “Thank God, I have read both the Torah and the Bible,” Erdoğan said Sunday. “I have read the Quran various times, he should read them. He should then talk to the people around him before making such comments.”
Support for initiative
Erdoğan met Saturday with sports figures during the fifth leg of the Dolmabahçe meetings, which are being organized to discuss the government’s democratic initiative with prominent people.
Commenting on the agenda by using a sports analogy, Erdoğan said: “It is not the time to pass the ball around in the midfield. It is time to make unerring passes, to perform a team play and, in the end, to score a goal.”
Addressing criticisms leveled against the government’s slow-moving democratic initiative, Erdoğan said: “We have to sustain it. We cannot walk ahead with the guidance of yesterday’s parameters and the burden of the past on our backs... We cannot build the future by covering or burying the issues or delaying coming to terms with them.”
Erdoğan said he had been particular irked by recent remarks on a TV channel that equated the Turkish aid flotilla with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“Replying to my quotation of the New Testament, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ [the commentator] asked, ‘What are you going to do about the killings of the PKK by the security forces?’” Erdoğan quoted the person as saying.
“What kind of reasoning is this? On the one hand we have a humanitarian aid ship cruising in international waters; on the other hand are those who are trying to violate the rights of others to live under humane terms in their own country,” the prime minister said. “How can you confuse these two?”
A lack of communication pervades all of Turkey’s problems, Erdoğan said, adding that political institutions, state institutions and especially governments have long resisted participating in efforts to establish communication and negotiate.
“Nobody has been harmed by listening, talking, carrying out discussions in a civilized manner or by constructive criticism,” he said. “Turkey has changed as we have tried to arrive at a better understanding of each other.”
Meeting with Internet media administrators at another location in Istanbul on Saturday, Erdoğan complained about user comments below news stories that he said contained such unbearable insults against his person that they could “drive one to murder.”
2 Jun 2010
A letter from an Israeli chief of general staff to a muslim boy
Dr Babaammi Mohamed/Translation: Djaber Nacer BouhedjamO! muslim boy, Palestinian or Algerian, Turkish or Egyptian, Saudian or Iranian… know that all our plans are directed to you and all our energy is focused on you. We want you illiterate and coward.. We want you hypocrite and vagabond…
We want you a feet lover till kneeling… and pens reluctant till its breaking..
We want you lazy in learning. We want you passive just watching what’s happening..
Don’t think about your happiness, nor about your country’s glory, just grow up on our way. Hold high position for our sake. Be an abject servant in our eyes, and you’ll –absolutely- gain our satisfaction.
Be –O! muslim boy- when you grow, a war against your religion and your nation. Be an enemy to your Holy Book and to your prophet. Be peace to the unchaste and the unjust. ….
O! muslim boy, we wandered your home, and we were welcomed by all. We were helped by spies. And we were gifted your country’s resources thanks to the liars and the betrays.
This golden era lasted, till we thought it will never end. From 47 to 67 and what was between them and what came after, we were heroes in your eyes, and noble people in the world’s. The laws were stepped on for us, and the international agreements were broken for our satisfaction…
We were… and we were… but, -O! muslim boy- it seems that we are losing the control, we are being defeated. We are being inside disrupted. Lebanon and Gaza –and others- gave us a tough course.
Today, this convoy come carrying those noble men. Do you think that we are silly to let them pass to their goal?
It would be the catastrophe!!
The best solution is to kill them and tell the world that they are terrorists and that we are oppressed. We have done the same with the prophets in the history. And we are sure that the negligent will trust us. Your countries are full of such.
Beware –O! muslim boy- to follow the steps of the persistent or to join the resistant… if you do so… be sure that it is your end.
An answer from the boy will be next..
An answer from the boy will be next..
--------------------------------------------------------------
The answer of the muslim boy to the Israeli chief of general staff
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O! You –the evil and bad people- we know you as well as we know ourselves. Our Holy book talked about you. Our beloved prophet pointed out your bad intentions. Do you remember the humiliation you received from Salahuddine?!..
We are coming –O! cowards- to free Gaza and Palestine inchallah. Wait your fate, we don’t fear death.
You tasted humiliation –from our hands- twice; the first in Lebanon and the second in Gaza, and still you’ll taste it many times. Today is the world’s role to do it for you. Turkey is the army of victory revived and a troop of a coming triumph…
I am preparing to meet you; striving in my study, observing my values and morals. I love all good people, and love to do good for all.
I am watching you, an eye here the other over there, desiring to meet you and to meet your sons and grand sons. They are frightened like a wet chicken and easy broken like a boiled eggs… with empty hearts and void minds. They have no concern and no purpose. May Allah bestow on them a wear of humiliation.
Wait us .. we are waiting!
Dad and mom, .. my teacher, seek to teach me, to educate me..teach me how to be patient and how to help people be so. Help me to strive and to control my desires. Prepare me for that day, so I ca be a good leader who can defeat the occupiers.
Don’t let me a victim of nonsense, don’t let me a target of the corruptive players and artists. Be my guard I’ll be your hope. Be my castle I’ll be your citadel.
Only at that time we can declare:
“Salahuddine is shining from amongst the woe, and “al faith” is born from the womb of the nation. At that time we can say, Allah’s promise becomes a reality: “and surely Allah will help him who helps His cause; most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty”, “and on that day the believers shall rejoice, with the help of Allah; He helps whom He pleases”
Have you understood the course you stupid Israeli?
I don’t think so, you didn’t understand the heaven message, so I think it is difficult to understand anything else.
Wait us … we are waiting.
1 Jun 2010
Turkey: Punish Israel for massacre
The Turkish prime minster says Israel must be punished for the 'massacre' it committed aboard the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla aid ships.
"The bloody massacre Israel carried out against ships carrying aid to Gaza deserves condemnation," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
The premier who was addressing lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party added that "nobody should test Turkey's patience."
The Israeli navy assaulted the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy on Monday, killing at least 20 activists, mostly Turkish nationals, and injuring 50 others, Palestinian sources reported.
The invasion took place as the convoy was still in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, 150km (90 miles) off the Gaza coast.
Denouncing the Israeli raid, the Turkish premier also urged the international community to punish the Israeli regime for the "bloody massacre."
"The insolent, irresponsible and impudent attack by Israel, which went against law and trampled human honor underfoot, must definitely be punished," he charged.
On Monday, Erdogan promised a proper response to the Israeli attacks on the international convoy.
The Freedom Flotilla was carrying hundreds of activists and journalists and thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to the impoverished people of Gaza, which is under blockade for three years.
Some 487 activists were detained and taken to the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while 48 others will be taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be deported to their home countries.
AGB/MMN
"The bloody massacre Israel carried out against ships carrying aid to Gaza deserves condemnation," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
The premier who was addressing lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party added that "nobody should test Turkey's patience."
The Israeli navy assaulted the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy on Monday, killing at least 20 activists, mostly Turkish nationals, and injuring 50 others, Palestinian sources reported.
The invasion took place as the convoy was still in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, 150km (90 miles) off the Gaza coast.
Denouncing the Israeli raid, the Turkish premier also urged the international community to punish the Israeli regime for the "bloody massacre."
"The insolent, irresponsible and impudent attack by Israel, which went against law and trampled human honor underfoot, must definitely be punished," he charged.
On Monday, Erdogan promised a proper response to the Israeli attacks on the international convoy.
The Freedom Flotilla was carrying hundreds of activists and journalists and thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to the impoverished people of Gaza, which is under blockade for three years.
Some 487 activists were detained and taken to the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while 48 others will be taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be deported to their home countries.
AGB/MMN
31 May 2010
Israeli PM backs attack on Gaza aid
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has supported the military action against the Freedom Flotilla, carrying humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.
"The prime minister reiterated his full backing for the IDF and inquired about the well being of the wounded," Netanyahu's office told AFP on Monday.
The Israeli navy killed at least 20 people aboard the ships, mostly Turkish nationals. About 50 others were also injured, according to Palestinian sources.
Netanyahu, who is currently in Canada, cancelled plans to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday in the wake of the deadly Israeli raid.
"Netanyahu decided to cut short his visit to Canada and return to Israel early," read an official statement, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting regarding the brutal assault later on Monday.
The humanitarian convoy was carrying thousands of tons of supplies and hundreds of politicians, activists and journalists.
The Flotilla was seeking to break Israel's crippling blockade of Gaza and deliver basic necessities to the impoverished Palestinians living in the coastal enclave.
"The prime minister reiterated his full backing for the IDF and inquired about the well being of the wounded," Netanyahu's office told AFP on Monday.
The Israeli navy killed at least 20 people aboard the ships, mostly Turkish nationals. About 50 others were also injured, according to Palestinian sources.
Netanyahu, who is currently in Canada, cancelled plans to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday in the wake of the deadly Israeli raid.
"Netanyahu decided to cut short his visit to Canada and return to Israel early," read an official statement, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting regarding the brutal assault later on Monday.
The humanitarian convoy was carrying thousands of tons of supplies and hundreds of politicians, activists and journalists.
The Flotilla was seeking to break Israel's crippling blockade of Gaza and deliver basic necessities to the impoverished Palestinians living in the coastal enclave.
12 May 2010
Born in Gaza
Firas Mazloom was born with two holes in his heart. His condition could have been fixed by routine surgery, but Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip has crippled the medical system there. The doctors do not have the training or the equipment to perform the necessary operation.
Firas went to Israel for a check up after he was born and was supposed to return for a follow-up. But Gaza is blocked off from the outside world and Firas never made it back to Israel for his heart operation.
His parents say their request to cross the border was turned down six times because his case was not considered an emergency.
But when their son's condition suddenly started to deteriorate and the doctors in Gaza could no longer help him, their only solution was to send him to an advanced hospital in Israel - and now it was urgent.
An Israeli doctor accepted the request and Firas' parents, Amal and Assad, started a race against time and bureaucracy to get their son out of Gaza.
Just when they finally managed to push through the red tape to get their son out of Gaza, Firas died.
The journey to Israel would have taken only an hour, but after three hours of obstacles and delays, Firas' journey never began.
Ran Yaron from Physicians for Human Rights helps Palestinian patients get access to the medical treatment they need.
He says: "Since Israel controls the only gate out for Palestinians who seek for care unavailable, it has responsibility to let them out.
"Nearly 25 per cent of the patients who apply for exit permits are denied due to rejection or to delays. I do my best to help Palestinians, not only because they are human beings ... but also as an Israeli I feel responsibility for them."
But Israel's main concern is security. Colonal Moshe Levi, the Gaza Strip coordinator of the Israeli army, says: "Four out of five requests we received every day, we approved. This is 80 per cent from the requirements from the Palestinian side we approve.
"Our challenge is how to create a balance between the security needs and between the civilian needs. This is the main issue, this is the main challenge of Israeli policy here."
One year later, the pain caused by the death of their first child has subsided because Amal is due to give birth again. She is expecting another boy - they will call him Firas.
Hope has been restored for this young family in the besieged Gaza Strip, but the political situation remains unchanged.
There are still more than 1,000 patients in Gaza who are desperately waiting for the bureaucracy to allow them adequate health care.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2010/05/2010566436254229.html
4 May 2010
3 May 2010
Christians targeted in Mosul blasts
A shopkeeper has been killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, as two bombs went off near buses carrying Christian students.
More than 100 people, including students and other civilians, were injured in the blasts on Sunday morning.
Abdul-Rahim al-Shammari, the head of the provincial council's security committee, said a roadside bomb exploded first, followed by a car bomb moments later.
The buses were transporting university students from the mainly Christian town of Hamdaniya, 40km east of Mosul.
"All of them were Christian students. They go in buses like that to Mosul's university after the troubled times when Christians were targeted in the past," Nissan Karoumi, the mayor of Hamdaniya, said.
Dr Muhsin Shamzi, who works at a hospital in Irbil, said at least 17 critically injured patients were taken to the hospital.
Protection urged
About 750,000 of Iraq's 30 million population are Christians.
The US-based National Council of Churches last week sent a letter to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, calling on her to urge Iraqi officials to do more to protect Iraq's Christian community.
The organisation said they were particularly worried now as Iraq struggles to seat a
government after the March 7 parliamentary elections.
"Our concern is now particularly acute because it is possible that tensions will increase as various political forces continue to vie for power following the recent elections,'' the letter said.
"We fear that a growing climate of mistrust and animosity will further threaten the fragile Christian community."
In November, the US-based Human Rights Watch warned that minorities including Christians were the collateral victims of a conflict between Arabs and Kurds over control of disputed oil-rich provinces in northern Iraq.
While sectarian violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq since its peak between 2005 and 2007, attacks remain common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul.
30 Apr 2010
French anti-burqa law won't offenders
April 30, 2010 - 11:24PM
AFP
France will jail and impose huge fines on anyone who forces a Muslim woman to wear a full-face veil, according to a leaked version of a proposed law revealed on Friday.
While women will face only a 150 euro ($A214) penalty if they choose to don a burqa or a niqab, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to slap one-year prison terms and 15,000 euro ($A21,410) fines on those who make others wear them.
"No one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text of a new law that is to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by the pro-government newspaper Le Figaro.
The law will create a new offence of "incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender", the paper said, and this offence will incur a 15,000 euro fine and a year in prison.
Legislators decided to impose a much smaller fine on women caught wearing the veil in public "because these women are often victims", one of the authors of the law told Le Figaro.
Women caught wearing the full veil can choose to attend a "citizenship course" instead of paying the fine, the paper said.
Sarkozy decided this month to opt for a total ban on the full-face veil, despite warnings from the State Council, France's top administrative body, that the law could be struck down as unconstitutional.
The president has declared the burqa and the niqab - veils worn by Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf - unwelcome in France, calling them an affront to French values that denigrate women.
There has been a fierce debate in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority of between five and six million people, with supporters of a ban arguing that veils are a sign of creeping fundamentalism that must not be allowed to take hold.
But opponents accuse Sarkozy of pandering to the far right with such moves and note figures showing only 1900 women wear the full veil in France.
Belgium on Thursday became Europe's first country to vote for a ban, sparking dismay among Muslims and warnings of a dangerous precedent.
© 2010 AFP
AFP
France will jail and impose huge fines on anyone who forces a Muslim woman to wear a full-face veil, according to a leaked version of a proposed law revealed on Friday.
While women will face only a 150 euro ($A214) penalty if they choose to don a burqa or a niqab, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to slap one-year prison terms and 15,000 euro ($A21,410) fines on those who make others wear them.
"No one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text of a new law that is to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by the pro-government newspaper Le Figaro.
The law will create a new offence of "incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender", the paper said, and this offence will incur a 15,000 euro fine and a year in prison.
Legislators decided to impose a much smaller fine on women caught wearing the veil in public "because these women are often victims", one of the authors of the law told Le Figaro.
Women caught wearing the full veil can choose to attend a "citizenship course" instead of paying the fine, the paper said.
Sarkozy decided this month to opt for a total ban on the full-face veil, despite warnings from the State Council, France's top administrative body, that the law could be struck down as unconstitutional.
The president has declared the burqa and the niqab - veils worn by Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf - unwelcome in France, calling them an affront to French values that denigrate women.
There has been a fierce debate in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority of between five and six million people, with supporters of a ban arguing that veils are a sign of creeping fundamentalism that must not be allowed to take hold.
But opponents accuse Sarkozy of pandering to the far right with such moves and note figures showing only 1900 women wear the full veil in France.
Belgium on Thursday became Europe's first country to vote for a ban, sparking dismay among Muslims and warnings of a dangerous precedent.
© 2010 AFP
22 Apr 2010
Belgium to vote on face veil ban
Belgian lawmakers are set to vote on a proposed ban on wearing face-covering veils in public, a day after neighbouring France proposed enacting similar legislation.
The scheduled vote on Thursday in Brussels comes after the federal parliament's home affairs committee voted unanimously on March 31 to endorse a nationwide ban on clothing that does not allow the wearer to be fully identified.
The ban would include the full-face niqab and the burqa, a shapeless full-body cloak that covers the face with a fabric grille.
Those who ignore the ban could face a fine of up to $34 and/or a jail sentence of up to seven days.
Belgium's governing parties and opposition both appear to agree on the ban, and the full house is expected to easily endorse the draft law.
If enacted, the bill would make Belgium the first European country to ban the garments.
'Respect the law'
Xavier Baselen, a member of Belgium's Reformist Movement party, which drafted the law, said the ban is needed for reasons of public order.
"It's true that when you live in a country you have to accept the laws of that country," he told Al Jazeera.
"In Belgium we decided [that] to be visible in the street is [a] real important law at a public order point of view.
"So people who come to live here have to respect the law the way we have to respect the law in other countries."
But Salma, a 22-year-old in Belgium, told Al Jazeera that she fears being targeted for wearing the niqab and is often harassed on the streets for it. However, she said she will not remove it.
"If you forbid the niqab, you deprive that person of their right of expressing themselves," she said.
"I will continue to wear my niqab. I will remove it if a representative of the law will ask me to identify myself, but will put it back on straight away."
French proposal
The move is to come a day after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, announced moves to enact a full ban on the face-covering veil in public as well.
Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the veil "hurts the dignity of women and is not acceptable in French society", Luc Chatel, a French government spokesman, said.
Chatel said the bill banning the veil from all public spaces would be presented to ministers in May.
"We're legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and a rejection of our values," he said.
Criticism and praise
The French proposal has attracted both fierce criticism and praise in the home of the largest Muslim community in the 27-member European Union.
Almost 10 per cent of France's 62 million population is Muslim.
Many feminists from France's poor, multi-ethnic suburbs have spoken out in support of a ban, saying it could help young women who did not want to wear the veil but were forced to do so by their partners or families.
Others, however, see the ban as part of a rising hostility against Islam and its symbols, and argue that many Muslim women actually want to cover up.
The debate has spread as far as Afghanistan, where some women's rights activists expressed outrage at the French proposal, saying they disliked the burqa but women should be free to wear whatever they wanted.
The vast majority of Muslim women, in France and elsewhere, do not wear a full veil, but the niqab, as it is known, which covers the face apart from the eyes, is widely worn on the Arabian peninsular and in the Gulf states.
The burqa is worn in some areas of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
12 Apr 2010
Islam through a Christian women
http://www.veecos.net/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3006:islam-through-a-christian-women&catid=20:intellect-articles&Itemid=18
It was a long duration that I spent trying to introduce Islam to a non-muslim. I found it an opportunity to do something for this person, for my beloved teacher, for my nation and above all in the sake of my Merciful God. I tried my best to be clear and useful in giving information and in answering the questions I received, because I feared to be the cause that someone hates Islam.
The beginning was in October 2008, when a Romanian girl wanted a chat on skype. As I do with everybody I accepted the invitation and tried to know what she wants. As I set as a problematic for my on-going research that the majority of skype users prefer to talk to the opposite sex (I am still investigating this hypothesis).
We started the chat about general and variant topics, I tried to find a point where I can talk about religious matters as I noticed later that she is an orthodoxy. I liked to talk about this topic also because I wanted to know about others beliefs.
The chat went on for nearly 17 months with an average of 2 hours per day. It was a clear and a direct discussion, expressing our different points of view. But unfortunately after this long period I couldn’t move further to my Goal. The girl was firmly attached to her religion, because she doesn’t believe in Islam as she call it “an established religion not a true one”. Although I can say that she learnt some issues about Islam.
The questions rose after analyzing this experience were; what was wrong in my introduction about Islam, is it my lack of communication? Or the strong belief of the other part was the cause? Or may be there is something external that interrupted receiving the message?
The Lack of communication:
Yes maybe is the cause. The girl one day was angry, because she interpreted the link I sent her as forcing her to revert to Islam. Later she set some issues that seems to her that are against women, like: polygamy, the witness of women, the marriage of the prophet PBUH with Aisha and Zayneb... etc. I quoted what some muslim scholars said concerning these issues, but later I received her E-mail saying that my answers made things worse then before. Is it because I didn’t know how to quote?
The belief of the girl:
The girl as I mentioned before is an orthodoxy. The word orthodox literary means: (of, pertaining to, or conforming to the approved form of any doctrine, philosophy, ideology, etc)(1) , so it suggests that this girl considers that she is on the right path, so she is not ready to listen to what other religions says. I set a hypothesis that the orthodoxy are the most people who are not easy to revert to Islam. I collected the list of new muslim converts I found that among the 56 person 7 are orthodox(2) .
The external causes:
Once I asked this girl about her opinion about Islam, she sent to me a link and said: “Here is a link, what our orthodoxy teach about Islam. You can read it, because I believe the same, what our Holy Church teaches us”(3) . I analyzed the article she sent and understood according what she reacted in the discussion we had. The article gives false information about Islam, for example: “The religion of Islam is predominantly a distortion of the Old Testament Mosaic religion and the (Pharisaic) Talmudic religion, to which was also added a dose of the pre-Islamic Arabian pagan customs, and a light sprinkling of heretical teachings about Christ”(4). So according to this, Islam distorted both Judaism and Christianity and is a continuity of Paganism. This may raise hatefulness and Islam phobia. The article and the teaching of the church could convince its adherents by touching and twisting the true bases of Islam, such as the spread of Islam, the revelation and the life of the prophet PBUH. I would mention only one quotation to see how intelligent was the church to make people away from believing anything about this religion. It is said that: “Mohammed's lineage, and that of many inhabitants of Arabia, was from Abraham's maid Hagar; she bore Ishmael, of whom the Angel prophesied in Gen. 16:12 that he will be a "wild man, his hand will be against every man and every man's hand will be against him".
It is true that I might be incapable in introducing Islam as it should be, because of bad transmitting of the message and because of the church teachings, but also the bad situation of muslims in the world (weakness, uncivilized, ..etc) helped in conception of the bad image.
(1)- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/orthodox
(2)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Islam
(3)- An e-mail received in april 8th 2010.
(4)- http://www.trueorthodoxy.org/non_christian_islam.shtml
23 Mar 2010
Obama (or Netanyahu) as modern Moses!
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/03/22/obama-or-netanyahu-modern-moses
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has delivered another "The US and I personally are in love with Israel" speech to America's pro-Israeli lobby - with a twist.
Her three-part speech at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) on Monday underlined Washington's unshaken strategic and moral commitment to Israel "for ever" and, in the second part, threatened Iran with tougher sanctions and warned it will never allow it to develop nuclear weapons.
In the third, and much awaited part, of the speech, Clinton delineated a hardcore realist approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the context of US security in the Middle East that envisions a freeze on settlement paving the way for direct talks that culminate in two states.
Like Moses, Obama - an unflinching supporter of Israel who has its interest and security at heart - will take it and the region to the promised land.
[Supporters of John McCain, the Republican candidate in the 2008 US presidential election, also depicted Obama, albeit sarcastically, as the "One" - that is, Moses - during the campaign.]
If you doubt it, Clinton said, look at what we've done yesterday, meaning the healthcare bill.
Realists vs neoconservatives
Two decades and seven transitional agreements since the peace process started, the US and Israel can't seem to agree between themselves, let alone with the Palestinians, on the necessary condition to resolve the Palestinian question.
US realists including the Obama administration (and the Israeli Labor Party) believe that a two-state solution is good for Israel as a "democratic Jewish state". Clinton made it as clear in her speech to Aipac today.
Otherwise, continued Jewish settlement will exacerbate Israel's security and lead to apartheid state, to quote Israel Defence Minister and Labor leader Ehud Barak.
Likewise, a Palestinian state is consistent with US national security as it would help boost the "moderate" anti Iranian, anti-Islamic fundamentalist movements, Clinton pleaded with her audience.
Escalation in Palestine would endanger US lives in Middle East war zones, according to General David Petreaus, the head of US Central Command.
On the other hand, US nneoconservatives, like the previous Bush administration and by extension the Israeli Likud party, reckon that US support for the "Jewish state" - a strategic ally and "moral soulmate" - must be unconditional.
It's up to Israel alone to define the outcome of any negotiations with the Palestinians according to its security imperatives.
Israel's approach to Palestine, they argue, must be seen in the context of the US war on terror and against violent extremists in the region from Hamas in Gaza to the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Two decades of more-of-the-same
For two decades, progress and regress in the peace process was measured by balancing out the two approaches. When the gap is substantial as it has been over the last year, paralysis or a fallout can be expected.
In 1991, the Bush administration refused to back down, and its confrontation with Israel - over the same settlement issue - paved the way for convening the Madrid International peace conference.
The urgency is far higher today. Unlike Bush Sr, who presided over a US victorious in the Cold War and the war against Iraq, President Obama presides over major foreign-policy crises as he tries to finish a war in Iraq and escalate another in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Moreover, the deterioration in the occupied territories is creating a credibility problem for the Obama administration as it tries to rally Arab support against Tehran and radical fundamentalist groups.
However, as long as Likud and Labor are governing together and in coalition with the two most radical Israeli parties, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, US pressure will fail to lead to concrete concessions.
As in 1992, US will save face only when a new less extremist Israeli government comes into being. But would that resolve the Palestinian questions?
Palestine, nuance or nuisance
Meanwhile, the Palestinian and Arab leaderships are watching Hillary Clinton from the sidelines, hoping that the US present the Netanyahu government with ultimatum will be disappointed.
But even if the Obama administration forces the Israeli government to accept its approach, the result could hardly meet the minimum requirement of the Palestinians.
A Palestinian state as a compromise between the US and Israel, might enjoy the trappings of sovereignty, but in reality it would be no more than a Bantustan.
Palestinian leaders who still need Israeli passes to move around and out of occupied Palestine, already welcome foreign dignitaries in front of a guard of honour as they did when they welcomed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend.
However, as Clinton warned, the Israeli civilian and military occupation will soon reach the point of no return, rendering separation into two sovereign and viable states impossible.
In fact, the borders problem will soon be insolvable without major ethnic cleansing - which means war - or apartheid, leading to de facto one-state solution.
The disagreement goes on ...
Ultimately it was in the latter part of her speech that Clinton revealed the administration's three-part explanation why Israel must accept a Palestinians state.
Israel faces three main challenges - demography, technology and ideology - that work against its security and against the security of the US.
Although she promised that the US will augment its military and diplomatic support for Israel, she arged that rockets from Gaza and Lebanon have no military solutions.
Furthermore, Palestinian population growth, coupled with expanding Israeli settlements, renders separation (as we said above) impossible.
Likewise, Israel's policies in Palestine is feeding Middle Eastern and other "extremists" with much ammunition, that a peaceful solution will deny them.
Needless to say, the Netanyahu government and the US neocons have answered to all of the three challenges: a bilateral commitment to combat terrorism and extremism, not give in or reward the extremists.
As Netanyahu will tell you, Islamist extremists don't need reasons for actions. They are terrorists because they are. Or, in his words, the reason for religious extremism and terrorism is the terrorists and the fundamentalists.
Obama can play Moses all he wants, but Netanyahu seeks King David persona!
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has delivered another "The US and I personally are in love with Israel" speech to America's pro-Israeli lobby - with a twist.
Her three-part speech at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) on Monday underlined Washington's unshaken strategic and moral commitment to Israel "for ever" and, in the second part, threatened Iran with tougher sanctions and warned it will never allow it to develop nuclear weapons.
In the third, and much awaited part, of the speech, Clinton delineated a hardcore realist approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the context of US security in the Middle East that envisions a freeze on settlement paving the way for direct talks that culminate in two states.
Like Moses, Obama - an unflinching supporter of Israel who has its interest and security at heart - will take it and the region to the promised land.
[Supporters of John McCain, the Republican candidate in the 2008 US presidential election, also depicted Obama, albeit sarcastically, as the "One" - that is, Moses - during the campaign.]
If you doubt it, Clinton said, look at what we've done yesterday, meaning the healthcare bill.
Realists vs neoconservatives
Two decades and seven transitional agreements since the peace process started, the US and Israel can't seem to agree between themselves, let alone with the Palestinians, on the necessary condition to resolve the Palestinian question.
US realists including the Obama administration (and the Israeli Labor Party) believe that a two-state solution is good for Israel as a "democratic Jewish state". Clinton made it as clear in her speech to Aipac today.
Otherwise, continued Jewish settlement will exacerbate Israel's security and lead to apartheid state, to quote Israel Defence Minister and Labor leader Ehud Barak.
Likewise, a Palestinian state is consistent with US national security as it would help boost the "moderate" anti Iranian, anti-Islamic fundamentalist movements, Clinton pleaded with her audience.
Escalation in Palestine would endanger US lives in Middle East war zones, according to General David Petreaus, the head of US Central Command.
On the other hand, US nneoconservatives, like the previous Bush administration and by extension the Israeli Likud party, reckon that US support for the "Jewish state" - a strategic ally and "moral soulmate" - must be unconditional.
It's up to Israel alone to define the outcome of any negotiations with the Palestinians according to its security imperatives.
Israel's approach to Palestine, they argue, must be seen in the context of the US war on terror and against violent extremists in the region from Hamas in Gaza to the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Two decades of more-of-the-same
For two decades, progress and regress in the peace process was measured by balancing out the two approaches. When the gap is substantial as it has been over the last year, paralysis or a fallout can be expected.
In 1991, the Bush administration refused to back down, and its confrontation with Israel - over the same settlement issue - paved the way for convening the Madrid International peace conference.
The urgency is far higher today. Unlike Bush Sr, who presided over a US victorious in the Cold War and the war against Iraq, President Obama presides over major foreign-policy crises as he tries to finish a war in Iraq and escalate another in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Moreover, the deterioration in the occupied territories is creating a credibility problem for the Obama administration as it tries to rally Arab support against Tehran and radical fundamentalist groups.
However, as long as Likud and Labor are governing together and in coalition with the two most radical Israeli parties, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, US pressure will fail to lead to concrete concessions.
As in 1992, US will save face only when a new less extremist Israeli government comes into being. But would that resolve the Palestinian questions?
Palestine, nuance or nuisance
Meanwhile, the Palestinian and Arab leaderships are watching Hillary Clinton from the sidelines, hoping that the US present the Netanyahu government with ultimatum will be disappointed.
But even if the Obama administration forces the Israeli government to accept its approach, the result could hardly meet the minimum requirement of the Palestinians.
A Palestinian state as a compromise between the US and Israel, might enjoy the trappings of sovereignty, but in reality it would be no more than a Bantustan.
Palestinian leaders who still need Israeli passes to move around and out of occupied Palestine, already welcome foreign dignitaries in front of a guard of honour as they did when they welcomed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend.
However, as Clinton warned, the Israeli civilian and military occupation will soon reach the point of no return, rendering separation into two sovereign and viable states impossible.
In fact, the borders problem will soon be insolvable without major ethnic cleansing - which means war - or apartheid, leading to de facto one-state solution.
The disagreement goes on ...
Ultimately it was in the latter part of her speech that Clinton revealed the administration's three-part explanation why Israel must accept a Palestinians state.
Israel faces three main challenges - demography, technology and ideology - that work against its security and against the security of the US.
Although she promised that the US will augment its military and diplomatic support for Israel, she arged that rockets from Gaza and Lebanon have no military solutions.
Furthermore, Palestinian population growth, coupled with expanding Israeli settlements, renders separation (as we said above) impossible.
Likewise, Israel's policies in Palestine is feeding Middle Eastern and other "extremists" with much ammunition, that a peaceful solution will deny them.
Needless to say, the Netanyahu government and the US neocons have answered to all of the three challenges: a bilateral commitment to combat terrorism and extremism, not give in or reward the extremists.
As Netanyahu will tell you, Islamist extremists don't need reasons for actions. They are terrorists because they are. Or, in his words, the reason for religious extremism and terrorism is the terrorists and the fundamentalists.
Obama can play Moses all he wants, but Netanyahu seeks King David persona!
17 Mar 2010
Violence flares in East Jerusalem
Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police in two areas of occupied East Jerusalem after Palestinian groups called for a "day of rage" over the reopening of a synagogue in the Old City.
Palestinians threw stones at Israeli police who responded with stun grenades in the Shuafat and Essawiyya neighbourhoods early on Tuesday.
At least 90 people were wounded in the clashes, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, with around 15 people seriously hurt by rubber-coated steel bullets, teargas inhalation and at the hands of Israeli police.
Israel security forces said about eight police officers were lightly injured in clashes that ended with up to 60 arrests.
About 3,000 police officers had been deployed in East Jerusalem and nearby villages after Hamas and other Palestinian groups called for action in response to the reopening of the Hurva synagogue.
The Hurva, considered by some people to to be one of Judaism's most sacred sites, reopened for the first time in 62 years on Monday in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.
The walled Old City is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which makes the reopening of the synagogue controversial.
'Extremely tense'
Moreover, al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site, and the Hurva are about just 700 metres apart.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Essawiyya, said Palestinian protesters hurled stones at the Israeli border guards, who responded using stun grenades.
Earlier, Adnan al-Husseini, the governor of East Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera from al-Aqsa mosque that only a few people had been able to attend prayers because of restrictions placed on movement by Israeli authorities.
"Also, many police are at the entrance of the Old City and the mosque and on the streets of the Old City. So movement is very difficult and very tense.
"People are trying to come to the mosque, the shops, their houses. And unfortunately the Israeli police are stopping them."
Israeli officials have limited access to al-Aqsa since Friday for security reasons.
Palestinian men under the age of 50 have not been allowed to enter the mosque.
Micky Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesperson, told Al Jazeera: "Throughout the morning we have been dealing with local disturbances. A group of 50 to 60 Palestinians who are causing riots.
"The rest of Jerusalem itself is absolutely quiet. The Temple Mount is closed to visitors and tourists.
"Our units are responding to small incidents in and around East Jerusalem."
Hamas warning
The previous day, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' political chief who is exiled in Syria, strongly condemned the ceremony.
He urged Palestinians in Jerusalem to "take serious measures to protect al-Aqsa mosque from destruction and Judaisation".
Meshaal also said that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should "launch a campaign to protect Jerusalem and Islamic and Christian holy sites there".
An Israeli government decision to include two West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan has already angered Palestinians and raised tensions in recent weeks.
The announcement last week of Israeli plans for new settler homes near East Jerusalem has further contributed to the unrest.
The US state department announced on Tuesday that George Mitchell, the US envoy to the region, who had been due to visit Israel, would not now do so before a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet in Moscow on Thursday.
Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said that Israel must prove it is committed to the peace process with actions.
But she brushed aside suggestions that US relations with Israel are in crisis over the settlement announcement, made in the middle of a visit by Joe Biden, the US vice-president.
"We have an absolute commitment to Israel's security. We have a close, unshakable bond between the United States and Israel," she said.
Clinton also said she remained confident Mitchell would return soon and begin shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Message from Abbas
Meanwhile, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, left for Moscow on Tuesday to present the Quartet - which includes the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - with Palestinian conditions for starting peace negotiations with Israel.
Al Jazeera has gained exclusive access to the content of letters that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, despatched with Erekat, in which he accuses Israel of exploiting Palestinian and Arab goodwill.
Abbas says Israel's stepped-up settlement activity, especially in East Jerusalem, threatens to "permanently derail peace talks".
In the letter, he also calls on the Quartet to take "effective" steps against Israel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/03/201031642239450987.html
16 Mar 2010
A call for a general demonstration today..
As Isreal opened the synagogue in Jerusalem, which is consider against the freedom of worship, and which contradictes what the Isreali Prime Minister said yesterday: "We permit believers of other faiths to conserve their places of worship. We proudly protect our heritage, while at the same time allowing others freedom of religion," he said.
Synagogue opens in Jerusalem
The Hurva synagogue was reopened officially on Monday after five years of reconstruction [AFP]
Israel has stepped up security in occupied Jerusalem amid the reopening of what many Jews consider as one of the most important places of worship.
The rebuilt Hurva synagogue opened its doors in Jerusalem's Old City for the first time in more than 60 years on Monday.
The synagogue, first built in 1694, was first destroyed in 1721 and then demolished during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The walled Old City is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which makes the reopening of the synagogue controversial.
Al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site, and the Hurva are about just 700 metres apart.
The ceremony was attended by Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli parliament speaker, ministers and the country's chief rabbis.
In a video message to the ceremony, where Israeli politicians and chief rabbis were in attendance, Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, said the Hurva brought a message of coexistence.
"We permit believers of other faiths to conserve their places of worship. We proudly protect our heritage, while at the same time allowing others freedom of religion," he said.
Palestinian condemnation
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, denounced the synagogue's opening.
IN DEPTH
Jerusalem's religious heart
"We warn against this action by the Zionist enemy to rebuild and dedicate the Hurva synagogue. It signifies the destruction of al-Aqsa mosque and the building of the temple," he said from the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The al-Aqsa site is revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), comprising al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
In a statement, issued at a meeting of leaders of Palestinian groups, Meshaal called the ceremony "a falsification of history and Jerusalem's religious and historic monuments".
"Israel is playing with fire and touching off the first spark to make the region explode," he said.
Earlier, Hatem Abdel Qader, the official in charge of Jerusalem affairs for Fatah, the party led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said: "This is no mere synagogue.
"This synagogue will be a prelude to violence and religious fanaticism and extremism, and this is not limited to Jewish extremists but includes members of the Israeli government."
'Tense situation'
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from the Hurva inauguration ceremony, said thousands of police and border guards were deployed across the Old City.
"Certainly the situation is tense here," she said.
"We are about 350 metres from al-Haram al-Sharif, one of Islam's holiest sites, and the towering presence of the Hurva synagogue has been called a provocation by Palestinian leaders and religious figures."
An Israeli government decision to include two West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan has already angered Palestinians and raised tensions in recent weeks.
The announcement last week of Israeli plans for new settler homes near East Jerusalem has also contributed to the unrest.
Against this backdrop of tensions, Israeli soldiers injured 10 Palestinians on Monday in clashes with dozens of students hurling stones at a West Bank checkpoint, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
"We have received six people, two of them wounded by live bullets, one in the stomach and the other in the neck," Mohammed Eida, the director of Ramallah area hospitals, told the AFP news agency.
Rocks thrown
The Palestinians had marched to the checkpoint from the nearby Birzeit University. Several of them threw rocks at the soldiers.
An Israeli military spokesperson said security forces responded by using riot-dispersal means and that there was no live fire.
Citing security concerns, Israel imposed a temporary closure of the West Bank on Friday.
Palestinians who do not carry Jerusalem residency have been banned from crossing into the city from the West Bank until Tuesday.
Men under the age of 50 have also been denied entry to al-Aqsa in the Old City since Friday.
14 Mar 2010
Israel extends West Bank closure
Israel has extended a lockdown on the occupied West Bank and restricted access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem as tensions continue over its plans to build new homes for Jewish settlers in mainly Arab east Jerusalem.
The lockdown, which was due to end on Saturday night, was extended until Tuesday at midnight, because of a continued risk of attacks, an army spokesman said.
The military said people needing to pass for humanitarian reasons, medical workers and patients, religious workers teachers and other professionals would be permitted to cross subject to Israeli authorisation.
Israeli police also said access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem would be restricted to men under 50 on Sunday because of fears of violence.
Muslim women will not be affected, although "visitors from other religions will be barred from entering", Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said.
Police reinforcements deployed around east Jerusalem amid the tensions in the city will remain in place, he said.
'Adding to tension'
Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said that while Israel was characterising the closures as "standard procedure", the timing itself was "irregular".
"It's an irregular move - over a time that's not a Jewish holiday. We haven't seen that happen here for several years ... [and] that has not been met silently by Palestinians, who are not happy about these continued restrictions on their freedom of movement," she said.
"One of the reasons perhaps why these closures are continuing, especially in the Old City, is that over the next three days a series of events and commemorations are taking place by the Jewish community to celebrate the opening of the Hurva synagogue."
The Hurva synagogue, which was destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and rebuilt after Israel seized control of the site when it expanded its borders in 1967, will be officially re-opened on Monday.
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, said the extension of the closure will only add to the frustration there and lead to more clashes.
"This closure brings the tension to the surface. There are more soldiers so there is more friction," she said.
West Bank clash
On Saturday Israeli troops clashed in the West Bank with Palestinian women and youths protesting against the settlement plans.
Two Israelis were slightly injured on Saturday night when a petrol bomb was hurled at cars on a highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, police said.
Restrictions have been enforced since March 5 when police battled Muslim protesters at the mosque after weekly prayers.
Clashes erupted last week after Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, announced plans to include two sites in the West Bank on a list of Israeli heritage sites.
An announcement from the interior ministry that plans to build 1,600 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem had been approved also contributed to the tensions.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem after the 1967 war with the Arabs and built settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
10 Mar 2010
US family seeks Israeli damages
The family of a US student activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza has launched a case against the Israeli government. Rachel Corrie, whose family is seeking $324,000 in damages from the defence ministry, was one of several foreign activists killed in confrontations with Israel in occupied territory in the past decade. She was nonviolently protesting against Palestinian home demolitions when the army bulldozer crushed her to death. The proceedings on Wednesday in the Haifa district court in northern Israel, are likely to stoke controversy over Israel's treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters. The Israeli army says Corrie, 23, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was fatally hit by a concrete slab on March 16, 2003, as a bulldozer cleared a hideout for Palestinian fighters in the Gaza area. The Israeli government failed to conduct a thorough investigation into Corrie's killing and her family, advised by the US state department, then filed a private lawsuit five years ago. Corrie's family, citing witness accounts, has charged the Israeli driver must have spotted her before moving the blade in her direction.
But Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich, an Israeli army spokeswoman, told the Reuters news agency in an interview that "the crew inside the bulldozer did not see her nor hear her". She said tear gas and stun grenades had been fired to warn protesters to flee. Cindy Corrie, the victim's mother, said in a statement: "As we approach the seven-year anniversary of Rachel's killing, my family and I are still searching for justice." Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Haifa, said: "In a very interesting twist, just a few days ago, the state of Israel filed a motion that was accepted by the court, which means that they have 30 days after the end of this two-week period to submit witness testimonies and affadavits. "Its a very unusual motion to have been granted. It means that the plaintiffs will be giving their testimonies without knowing what Israel has up its sleeves. "The family lawyer said this is just a way to delay the whole procedure." Israelis have shown little sympathy for Corrie, whose death occurred at the height of a Palestinian uprising in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank in which thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis were killed. The case is expected to fuel anger in a nation facing accusations by a UN report that its army and Palestinian fighters committed war crimes during the 2008-9 Israel-Gaza conflict. | ||||
8 Mar 2010
Wilders shows film in UK parliament
Anti-fascist demonstrators have scuffled with police in London after Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician, screened a film denouncing Islam and the Quran to Britain's House of Lords.
Wilders, riding an electoral wave in the Netherlands based on his anti-immigration populism, screened the film to about 60 people, including six members of the UK's upper house.
The MP's film, Fitna, released in 2008, urged Muslims to tear out "hate-filled" passages from the Quran and juxtaposes images of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US with quotations from the text.
The Dutch politician was invited to show his film in the UK by Lord Pearson, a member of the country's upper house who belongs to Britain's UK Independence Party.
At a news conference after the screening, Wilders described Islam as a "totalitarian ideology" and made derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad.
He said he had hopes of becoming prime minister after the June 9 election, although Dutch political analysts say it is unlikely he could garner a majority coalition if his party emerged the largest.
If elected, Wilders said he would close all Islamic schools, ban construction of new mosques, and expel Dutch Muslim criminals if they held dual citizenship.
'Racist tripe'
The visit, and the controversy surrounding it, added to Wilders' visibility as he heads into a national election campaign with his popularity soaring and polls predicting that his Freedom Party (PPV) could become the largest in the next Dutch parliament.
Wilders' party scored a stunning success in local elections this week, winning one city outright and coming second in another.
However, the relatively new PPV lacks a national organisation and declined to field candidates in nearly 400 other town hall elections.
Outside the parliament on Friday, dozens of protesters jeered and chanted: "Fascist thugs off our streets!"
The protest, by Unite Against Fascism, was countered by a rival demonstration further down the River Thames of more than 100 people from the English Defence League, a self-described "counter-jihad" movement with links to Britain's far-right.
Police wrestled with anti-fascist protesters trying to block a street in front of the parliament building, piling many of them into a double decker bus.
Jack Kavanagh from Ireland was one of the people pulled out of the crowd.
Kavanagh, 21, said he was trying to block the pro-Wilders crowd from approaching parliament.
He expressed scorn for Wilders, calling his movie "racist tripe".
Travel ban
Britain's interior ministry originally barred Wilders' entry into the country in February 2009 as a potential threat to public security.
Defying the ban, Wilders flew into London's Heathrow airport, only to be turned back, prompting a minor spat between Britain and the Netherlands.
He later successfully challenged the ban in a British court and visited the country in October last year.
Wilders has denounced the Quran as an "evil book" and a fascist work that should be outlawed, just as Hitler's manifesto Mein Kampf cannot be sold in the Netherlands.
He has urged the halting of immigration from Muslim countries, and says Muslims already living in the Netherlands must accept its law, its culture and its way of life - or they should leave.
Police protection
Wilders' language against Islam has brought charges against him in the Netherlands for "hate speech," a little-enforced crime, subject to a maximum one-year jail sentence and fine.
 |
| Wilders says his remarks are protected by freedom of speech [AFP] |
He appealed to have the case dismissed, saying his remarks were not against Muslims but rather against Islam, and were protected by freedom of speech.
Last month, the court ruled against the objection, but is yet to set a trial date.
Wilders has been under permanent police protection since his life was threatened in 2004 by a Muslim radical.
He describes himself as a libertarian and rejects comparisons with right-wing European politicians such as the late Jorg Haider in Austria and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France.
Wilders began his political career as a speech writer, town councilman and member of parliament for the centrist pro-business Liberal Party, but left in 2004 over its readiness to accept Turkey into the European Union.
His new party won nine seats in the 150-member Dutch parliament in 2006, and polls predict he may more than triple that number in the June election.
7 Mar 2010
Thousands march in Jerusalem rally
The largest Israeli police contingent ever watched over the demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah [AFP]
At least 3,000 protesters, including Israelis and Palestinians, have rallied in an Arab quarter of east Jerusalem to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes there in favor of Jewish settlers.
The protesters waved red flags bearing the inscription "Shalom," or peace in Hebrew, during the demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah on Saturday.
They chanted slogans such as "No to ethnic cleansing," and "Sheikh Jarrah residents don't lose hope, we are blocking the road to settlement."
A large Israeli police contingent watched over the demonstration, the largest of its kind for several decades against Jewish settlements in Jerusalem.
Police had intended to ban the gathering, but it was finally approved by the supreme court on an appeal launched by the far-left movement.
Old City evictions
The demonstration came amid tensions in the Old City after days of clashes between Israeli riot police and Palestinian protesters in and around the Al-Aqsa mosque and several Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem.
Several Palestinian families of Sheikh Jarrah have been expelled in recent months in favour of Israeli settlers on the grounds their houses belonged to Jews before the creation of Israel in 1948.
The evictions led to demonstrations that were put down by the police who arrested Israeli peace activists and pro-Palestinian foreigners.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and built new quarters to house more than 200,000 Israelis.
The annexation has never been recognised by the international community. Palestinians denounce settlements in east Jerusalem, which they want to make the capital of their future state.
In early February, the daily Haaretz revealed Israeli authorities had given the green light to a project to build 600 homes in an area set aside for settlement in the eastern sector.
5 Mar 2010
Muslim women who refused to take 'naked' full-body scan are barred from Manchester to Pakistan flight
Two Muslim women have become the first passengers to refuse to subject themselves to controversial 'naked' full body airport scans, it emerged today.
The pair - who security officials insist were selected at random - opted to miss their flight to Pakistan and forfeit tickets worth £400 each rather than be screened.
One of the women refused to go through the full-body scanner at Manchester Airport on religious grounds.
The women were travelling together to Islamabad when they were selected to pass through the controversial security screen after checking-in at Terminal Two at the airport.
Naked scan: A Manchester Airport employee tests the scanner, with suspicious substances in his pockets that show up as a dark colour identified in the red squares
Both told airport staff they were not willing to be scanned. They were warned they would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if they refused.
The pair decided they would rather forfeit their £400 tickets and left the airport with their luggage.
The £80,000 scanners were introduced at Heathrow and Manchester airports on February 5.
The X-ray machines allow security staff to see a 'naked' image of passengers to show up hidden weapons and explosives, but it has attracted criticism for also showing clear outlines of passengers' genitals.
Manchester Airport confirmed the passengers had refused to be scanned but said it had received no complaint from the women.
The women were travelling together to Islamabad in Pakistan when they were selected to pass through the controversial security screen
However, civil liberties campaigners say the incident could form the basis of a legal test case to challenge the use of the Rapiscan device in airports.
Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the organisation would represent the women if they wished to challenge the decision in court.
He said: 'People shouldn't have to sacrifice their health, their faith, their dignity, or their privacy in order to fly.
'People with health and religious concerns shouldn't be forced to go through these scanners if they have good reason not to. Foolishly, the government has ignored both issues and ignored privacy concerns to boot - they are in the wrong on this.'
Security: The passenger is asked to stand in front of the machine, which produces a virtual 'naked' image that shows if they are carrying explosives or any other suspicious items
There is one Rapiscan scanner in use in a trial at Manchester Airport's terminal two, which has seen 15,000 people pass through it.
A further two devices - one each for terminals one and three - have been delivered and are set to be operational within the next month.
The scanners have been criticised by the human rights group Liberty and the government's own Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Only selected passengers are scanned. Security staff say they are chosen at random and not according to race, religion or ethnicity.
Councillor Afzal Khan, who was Manchester's first Asian lord mayor, said the vast majority of Muslims believed that any privacy concerns should be outweighed by ensuring they are safe when flying.
He said: 'Hundreds of Muslim passengers have gone through without a problem. While I appreciate people's concerns for privacy, these steps are necessary for our safety and security.'
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: 'Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal Two refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.
'In accordance with the government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly.
'Body scanning is a big change for customers and we are aware that privacy concerns are on our customers's minds, which is why we have put strict procedures in place to reassure them that their privacy will be protected.'
Last month, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis stressed that an interim code of practice on the use of body scanners stipulated that passengers would not be selected 'on the basis of personal characteristics'.
Two weeks ago, a week after the scanners were introduced at Manchester and Heathrow airports, Islamic scholars in the U.S. said Muslim travellers should not pass through the scanners because they violate religious rules on nudity.
The Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, warning Muslims not to go through the scanners.
‘It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,’ read the order.
‘Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.'
In the U.S., there are now 40 scanners in 19 airports and could be as many as 450 by the end of the year.
The powerful council of ten scholars that issued the fatwa is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1255104/Muslim-women-barred-flight-refusing-naked-body-scan.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0hKV4BSzt
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