Category Archives: Human Right

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

Kangaroo Trial: Secret Saudi Court Sentences Human Rights Activist to Prison………

    

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“The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) has received information concerning the sentencing of human rights defender Mohammed Albajady in Saudi Arabia, to four years in prison imprisonment followed by a five-year travel ban. The sentence was handed down following a secret trial in flagrant breach of fair procedures and in total disregard for his right to a fair trial. Mohammed Albajady co-founded the Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association (HSM), in October 2009. He was previously the host of a weekly on-line forum called “The citizen and his rights”. The GCHR issued an appeal on his case on 10 April 2012 (http://gc4hr.org/news/view/116). On 10 April 2012 the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh, established to try terrorism and security-related offences, reportedly held a secret session during which the four-year prison sentence was handed down. According to information received, soldiers in military uniforms and representative of the governmental National Human Rights Commission attended the trial. However, neither Mohammed Albajady‘s family nor his legal representatives were told of the court session…………”


This was a classic Saudi kangaroo court: his lawyers and his family were not aware of the court session that sentenced him. That means Mohammed al-Bejady was alone in a room facing some sycophants of the al-Saud princes calling themselves “judges”. In the secret trial, he was sentenced to two prison sentences. The first sentence is four years in a small al-Saud cell. The second sentence is five years travel ban: in effect five years in a larger al-Saud cell.
Arab regimes, especially on the Gulf, love to sentence people to travel bans (it is probably against the laws and against human rights to do so, but who cares). A reminder of the old Soviet Union. I guess our potentates on the Gulf look at it this way: four year not traveling means four years staring at the pictures and videos of the princes all over the media. Not only do they oppress and rob you, but you are forced to watch them honored for it everyday. Just adding some insult to the injury. That ought to be punishment enough.
Mr. al-Bajady will now serve nine years: a sentence passed by faceless Wahhabi Salafi judges appointed by the al-Saud princes. Many others have been sentenced the same way, some to prison, some to flogging and beheading in the Kingdom without Magic. Many thousands are in prison, many of them have yet to be charged and sentenced.
Cheers
mhg


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Human Right, Iran

Shirin Ebadi on Human Rights in Iran, Exile……..

    

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““In Iran, human rights activists are either in prison or they are incommunicado, meaning no one can talk to them and it’s basically impossible for them to have any activity. Unfortunately at the present time, a lot of people … are afraid to talk. This is why I’ve remained outside Iran, and work for Iran from where I am,” says Ebadi, who moved to London after Iran’s contested 2009 presidential elections. “If something happens in the world, it has to be told so that others will find out about it. It must be known by the world.”……………..”
Cheers
mhg


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Human Right, UAE

Shaikhs of Abu Dhabi: Revoke Citizenship of Activists, then Prison…………

    

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“Six activists were jailed after challenging the president of the UAE’s decision to revoke their citizenship for alleged terrorist links. On April 9, the authorities in Abu Dhabi arrested six human rights activists whose UAE citizenship had earlier been revoked. This had been done on the grounds that they endangered the state and had links to “suspicious regional and international organizations and figures,” some allegedly listed by the UN as suspected of financing terrorism. The six men – Sheikh Muhammad al-Sidiq, Ali al-Hussein al-Hamadi, Shaheen al-Hawsni, Hussein Munif al-Jaberi, Hassan Munif al-Jaberi, and Ibrahim al-Marzouqi – are all naturalised Emiratis. Five of them obtained UAE citizenship in the 1970s, one in the 1980s. Four of them had originally come to the country from Iran, and two from Yemen. The group had mounted a legal challenge to the decision to strip them of their citizenship………………”

It says: they obtained citizenship only in the 1970s. I know of hundreds of thousands who obtained citizenship in the 1970s through 1990s in the Gulf GCC states. Quite a few of them are annoying the hell out of people in at least one Gulf country these days. But those others are not activists, they are super reactionaries, a throwback to another century and another country. In Bahrain the potentates are still doing it, naturalizing foreign mercenaries and adding them to their growing collection of security thugs and torturers.
Cheers
mhg


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Human Right, Middle East Women, Racism, Saudi Arabia

Holy Airlift! Two Ethiopian Maids in Every Saudi Home…….

 

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“Saudi Arabia plans to import 45,000 Ethiopian nationals into the kingdom every month in order to meet its requirement for domestic workers. Maids from the African nation have been in high demand since the Gulf’s most populous nation placed a ban on recruiting workers from the Philippines and Indonesia after those countries imposed stricter employment conditions, the Saudi Gazette reported. Noor Adeen Masfa, Vice Consul for Economic Affairs in Jeddah, said his department had met with committees from the Ethiopian Ministry of Labour in a bid to facilitate the transfer of Ethiopian workers to the kingdom. However, the lack of sufficient flights between Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Saudi hubs has caused delays………..”

This after the Indonesians refused to export their women without adequate pay and better treatment. Indonesian women were the favorite in the kingdom, but some of them have been executed by beheading and there are reportedly some 21 of them waiting on death row in the kingdom. The Philippines also have put some conditions and limits on the abuse of their female citizens. Now it is the turn of Ethiopia. Forty five thousand per month. At this rate they’d need flights straight out of Addis Ababa dedicated for this type of ‘trade’. It would be quite an airlift, a ‘holy airlift’, no doubt general-ed by prince Khaled Bin Sultan, the defeated ‘hero’ of the  Huthi War.
They’d eventually have enough to provide every house with an Ethiopian housemaid. I suspect this must be part of their new Five-Year Plan: to have two foreign housemaids in every home.
I just hope they’ll allow these people to practice their religion freely (openly or secretly). This is, after all the domain of King Abdullah whom Western PR firms advised to sponsor a “dialog of faiths”. A dialog of faiths in Spain, France, Britain, Germany, Luxembourg, the USA, etc, etc, etc. Anywhere but not in Riyadh or Taif or any other place in Saudi Arabia, where there are no churches or synagogues or temples, where private group worship at homes is seriously frowned upon. ‘Seriously’ means public flogging, maybe some prison, then deportation. At least they don’t get beheaded, unlike sorcerers and witches and magicians. In the absolute Wahhabi Kingdom without Magic.
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Human Right, Racism, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Hateful Scientific Grand Mufti and Salafis Call for Destruction of All Gulf Churches……….

 

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“The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region,” following Kuwait’s moves to ban their construction. Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, stressed that since the tiny Gulf state was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, it was necessary to destroy all of the churches in the country, Arabic media have reported. Saudi Arabia’s top cleric made the comment in view of an age-old rule that only Islam can be practiced in the region. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom. He is also the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas……….”

At least their hateful muftis do ‘scientific research’, but perhaps not the kind that deals with quantum physics or astronomy. These gentlemen deal in more useful types of research. Now the Grand Mufti (I can’t help it: this “Grand” always remind me of a piano, something His Muftiness hates) is close to the royal family. His Muftiness is appointed by the king and he issues fatwas that support the al-Saud policies at home and in the rest of the world.
About
this call for tearing down the churches: again this does not fit well with the narrative of the offshore “dialog of faiths” that the Saudis publicize in the West. Not when they and their Salafi agents around the Gulf are calling for such intolerance even as they invite millions of non-Muslims to come toil for them, to come and “defend” them. Then people like Geert Wilders, Pam Geller, Liz Cheney, and others will say: aha, we were right!

FYI

for my new readers only: His Muftiness Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al Shaikh is a relative of that other Shaikh Al Al Al Shaikh who heads the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). They are both relative of that other Shaikh Al AL Al Shaikh who used to be the Saudi Minister of Justice, among others. All these Al Al Shaiks are descendants of Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab of Nejd, after who the Wahhabi sect is named. They have been close allies of the al-Saud clan, sometimes more than just allies if you get my drift. Mr. Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab should not be confused with the late great Egyptian musician and singer Mohammed Abdelwahhab, who was no Salafi, not even a Wahhbai, was not a “bin” but an Egyptian-style bon vivant.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arabian Peninsula, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

Arabian Peninsula: in a Remote Gulag in the Desert………

 

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“At a small oasis far out in the desert, Abdulkarim al Khadr, a dismissed Professor of Theology, elucidates texts for his student Yusuf. He speaks the clear and ornate high Arabic of Islamic scholarship and cites the Koran and Sayings of Mohammed. The Prophet himself said that the struggle against vice in one’s own country is of greater merit than fighting against the unbelievers abroad. He says that it is the royal family that constantly speaks of bloody Jihad in order to discredit the justified demands for reform within the kingdom. The dissident and chairman of the unauthorized “Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association” demands reforms, yet he does not mean an opening of Saudi society. The uncompromising Islamist wants a transformation of the political system. He says that it is the royal family that constantly speaks of bloody Jihad in order to discredit the justified demands for reform within the kingdom. The dissident and chairman of the unauthorized “Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association” demands reforms, yet he does not mean an opening of Saudi society. The uncompromising Islamist wants a transformation of the political system. Most theologians in Saudi Arabia keep far removed from politics and follow the royal family like lambs, he says mockingly. They soil the memory of the most respected Companions of the Prophet by demanding blind obedience to the ruler, while at the same time ignoring the lack of rights for all citizens. He does not wish to talk of regime change, and even less so of terrorism. He thereby remains a troublesome adversary for the government. There are currently more than 5000 political prisoners from the Qassim Province alone. Most of them were jailed without due trial, claims the dismissed professor and he energetically rejects the assertion that these are Al-Qaida terrorists. His 17-year-old son has been sitting for two years in prison in order to silence Abdulkarim al Khadr. He nonetheless refuses to keep silent. His Internet site is regularly blocked and then quickly reopened under a new name..………”
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, GCC, Human Right, Middle East Women, Polygamy, Salafi, Slavery

Tunisian Islamists, Gulf Islamists: Welcome to their Concubines?…………

 

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A Tunisian Islamist party has called for a new law allowing polygamy and/or allowing the system of concubines, just like the old days. Islam allows up to four wives, (although there is a condition of equal treatment). Islam also allowed men to have intercourse with their female slaves in addition to their wives (no, the reverse was not allowed).
The leader of the Infitah (Openness, Open-minded) Party has asked for a law allowing a man to enjoy his concubines as well as his wife. He did stipulate that only a man who has one wife can be allowed to own concubines. Tunisia’s previous secular regime had banned polygamy since the days of first president Habib Bourguiba at independence from France.
I also recall that Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of Libya’s National Transitory Council (NTC), said a few months ago, as soon as they controlled Tripoli, that they will cancel a Qaddafi law that restricted polygamy and required permission of the first wife. The good news for Tunisians, for most of them, is that other political parties are rejecting these demands.
Look for Salafi and other Islamist and tribal types from North Africa to the Gulf to start demanding a return of concubines. A certain segment of the population on the Gulf loves polygamy, and they have been pushing incentives to encourage men to take more wives. And not just the Salafis. For the potentates, polygamy is considered de rigueur; almost as de rigueur as the jet black dyed goatee beard. I firmly believe that nobody can become king of Saudi Arabia without having a jet black dyed goatee and at least two wives, preferably more. If they had a constitution, insistence on a goatee would be the first article if that constitution. Insistence on polygamy would be the second article of the constitution.

(No, there will be no concubines, at least not yet. Even the Salafis are too worried to actually demand it, no matter how much they would love to).
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Human Right, Iran

A Massacre of Journalists in Iran, Ayatollah and King at the Watergate……….

 

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“The 39-year-old, the deputy head of Iran’s Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), was taken seriously ill in 2010 after being kept in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison for a month. Since her arrest, she has developed an undiagnosed epilepsy-like disease which causes her to lose control over her muscles temporarily during the day. In September 2011, she was sentenced to 11 years after being convicted on three charges: acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime…………. On Sunday, another human rights activist and lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani, was sentenced to 18 years after being found guilty of anti-government propaganda. Among many of Soltani’s charges is “endangering national security” by accepting a German human rights prize. Kaleme also reported that Iranian journalist Nazanin Khosravani who has been sentenced to 6 six years went to Evin prison on Monday to endure her jail term. According to the opposition website, the Green Voice of Freedom, Khosravani has worked with banned pro-reform newspapers such as Bahar, Norooz, Dorane Emrouz, Kargozaran and Sarmayeh. Another Iranian journalist, Ali Mousavi Khalkhali, was picked up by security officials on Friday, his cousin has confirmed to BBC Persian. He is reported to have been arrested on charges related to propaganda against the regime. …………”



“Propaganda against the regime“: Iran and most of her neighbors have this one thing in common. What they all don’t want is politics, for how can there be politics without some “propaganda” against the regime?  And how can the regime, including Ali Khamenei, know they are screwing up the country without people telling it so?
Ayatollah Khamenei ought to take a sabbatical, come and spend a year or two in the United States, see how Obama gets pummeled by all the “propaganda” ads and statements against him in this election year. May he can study the “Citizens United” case and all the super PACs.
Oh, he should bring the Saudi king along; they can share an apartment at The Watergate. They can talk with Santorum and Gingrich about politics (forget Romney; he’s not interesting enough). They won’t even have to address AIPAC, not yet .

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Corruption, GCC, Human Right, Saudi Arabia

A Bahrain Think Tank and the Joys of Tribal Wahhabi Liberalism…………

    

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“Manama: Countries keen on boosting cultural and intellectual relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries should appreciate that they are dealing with a new elite of thinkers, the head of Bahrain’s main think- tank has said. “They have received their education in the world’s outstanding universities and have become remarkable contributors in strategic studies and international studies,” Dr Mohammad Abdul Gaffar, head of the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International and Energy Studies and Special Adviser to King Hamad Eisa Al Khalifa, said. “This new elite of intellectuals from the GCC states are different from the previous generation at the cultural and educational levels Britain dealt with during the early stages of the formation of modern Gulf states…………..”

Oh, yes: a special adviser to King Hamad al-Khalifa, the acting Saudi governor of Bahrain. I suspect
 that by “new elite of thinkers” he means the Wahhabi tribal faux-liberals who are filling Gulf media and academic institutions with writings and opinions of glorification of the Saudi princes and their sidekicks in Bahrain and around the region.
By
 “new elite of intellectuals” he is probably also referring to the fundamentalist tribal alliances that dominate whatever passes for politics on the Gulf these days. The only real politics in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are done in prison and in exile. The only true politics in Bahrain are done at the people’s protests and barricades and in prison and in exile (with armed regime thugs and imported mercenaries playing the incumbents). As for the Wahhabi “so-called” intellectuals, in some places they correctly call them tribal and sectarian sycophants.
Cheers
mhg


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Human Right, Iran

O Canada: Canucks and Disgruntled Natives, Iranian Diplomacy and NGOs, Eh?………

   

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“WINNIPEG — Former Roseau River chief Terry Nelson is asking Iran for help with the governance issues on his and other First Nations. A referendum on how Roseau River chooses its leaders was postponed Thursday. Aboriginal Affairs said it needed more time to work with the community, which has been plagued by issues at the ballot box. When the news came down Thursday, Nelson decided to lead a caravan of cars to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa in about two weeks. He plans to thank Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his condemnation of Canada’s treatment of aboriginal people, and ask him for help in bringing attention to the issue of missing and murdered women. “I am not going to spend my time trying to get the immigrant governments to hear our plight, it is time to ask other nations to investigate and support us directly,” he wrote. “Ottawa police and RCMP………”……..” Toronto Sun


“TEHRAN, Feb. 22 (MNA) – Former Roseau River chief Terry Nelson plans to ask Iran for help with the governance issues on his and other First Nations, Toronto Sun reported on February 18. According to the report, Nelson had decided to lead a caravan of cars to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa in about two weeks and plans to thank Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his condemnation of Canada’s treatment of aboriginal people.. ……” Mehr News

I don’t think Canadians, even the natives, cotton up to a cleric presiding over them. No Wilayat el-Faqih for the Canucks, not even the original natives, eh? I liked the part about the Canadian government being an “immigrant government”: you’d think Harper is some kind of Hindu or Muslim.
Now the Saudi princes will start worrying about the Roseau River and other First Nations going Shi’a. After The Comoros and Egypt and Morocco, the Wahhabi potentates are now in a state of panic. Imagine, what next? Could Barack Obama himself convert from a secret Wahhabi to an open over Shi’ite Shi’a? Could Prince Bandar (he of the al-Yamama and BAE Systems and SFO and Tony Blair $2 billion bribery case) be heading to Karbala and Najaf instead to the funny tribal wastelands of Iraq and Syria?)

On a serious note: the white man’s crimes against native populations continue in Canada, eh?
Cheers
mhg


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