Category Archives: Human Right

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Culture, France, Human Right, Islamophobia, Muslims, Religion, Salafi

France’s Jeannette Bougrab: Why She May be Right about Islam and Christianity and Judaism and……………

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      BFF

“La secrétaire d’Etat à la Jeunesse Jeannette Bougrab réagissait dans un entretien au journal Le Parisien aux succès électoraux des islamistes au Maroc, en Tunisie et en Egypte. Elle est elle-même d’origine algérienne, fille de harki, le nom donné aux supplétifs algériens de l’armée française pendant la guerre d’indépendance. “C’est très inquiétant”, a-t-elle déclaré. “Je ne connais pas d’islamisme modéré”. “Il n’y a pas de charia +light+. Je suis juriste et on peut faire toutes les interprétations théologiques, littérales ou fondamentales que l’on veut, mais le droit fondé sur la charia est nécessairement une restriction des libertés, notamment de la liberté de conscience“, a-t-elle ajouté………………”


She says there is no such thing as “Sharia-light”, that religious law leaves no room for freedoms. On some level she is right, of course: once you apply the religious laws, any religious laws, be they Muslim or Christian or Jewish, you are pushed to go ‘all the way’. Freedoms are inevitably restricted. Salafis and Muslim Brothers who say they will apply “limited” Shari’a are playing for time. Limited Shari’a is like limited ‘virginity’ or limited ‘death’: it doesn’t exist, doesn’t make sense (at least I don’t think so). Religion can be moderated on an individual level: you pray, you fast, you lead your life the way you want within the law. Once the state starts to apply the Shari’a, or the laws of the Old Testament, the Bible and the Talmud, then there is no moderation. This applies to Muslims and Christians and Jews. Americans, more than  all other Westerners, are still grappling with this now that Christianity has become part of Republican political platforms. Jews in Israel are trying to fend off an aggressive Jewish-Salafi onslaught on civic society.
In some places, Saudi Arabia and Iran, they are mixing up Caesar with God, usurping power, and in the Saudi case wealth, in the name of Allah. Caesar was deified after he died.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Bahrain, Human Right, Mercenaries, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Heading to the Persian Gulf: Yates & Timoney, vandenHeuvel & Cheney, Mexican Killers, Jordanian Goons……

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      BFF

“Former British police boss John Yates and US ex-cop John Timoney will oversee reforms to Bahrain’s security force after a report found it guilty of human rights abuses, the Daily Telegraph reported Friday. Bahrain’s King Hamad has asked Yates, who quit as head of Britain’s Metropolitan police force in July over a phone-hacking scandal, and Timoney, former head of Miami police, to modernise its force in order to meet international human rights standards. “Bahrain’s police have some big challenges ahead, not dissimilar to those the UK itself faced only a couple of decades ago, but I have been impressed that the King is doing the right thing by pressing on with big reforms,” Yates told the British newspaper. “This is a big challenge which I will undertake with a great reforming police officer like John Timoney,” he added. A special independent commission probing Bahrain’s March crackdown on Shiite-led democracy protests said ………”

About Bahrain: what will they do with all the humorless Jordanian interrogators and torturers the ruling al-Khalifa had imported from the sisterly king of Jordan? Will they send them back or will the Brits and Americans try to train them to better identify terrorists protesting for their rights? What about all the Pakistani mercenaries they have imported to help pillage villages, beat up people, threaten women with rape, and arrest the innocent? And all the Syrian and Iraqi Ba’athist mercenaries?

What Next for the Gulf region?


  • The Iranian mullahs could hire Katrina vandenHeuvel to help develop democratic institutions and help on women issues.

  • The Saudi princes may hire Liz Cheney to help the kingdom democratize and also to help improve the image of Islam and Muslims on her “Keep America Safe but Stupid” website.

  • The al-Nahayan potentates of Abu Dhabi, who also rule the United Arab Emirates, have decided on a different approach. They will finally take my advice and hire some veterans of the Mexican drug cartels to join their mercenary army. That army was announced last spring and is led by Blackwater bosses and composed of Colombians, Australians, white South Africans, among others.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab League, Arab Revolutions, Human Right, Syria

Arab League: 17 Top Syrians not allowed to Enjoy the Exciting Diversions of Riyadh and Had el-Homara ……….

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“The Arab League, which voted to impose sanctions on Syria for failing to end a crackdown on protesters, has listed 17 people banned from travel to Arab states, including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Egypt’s state news agency said on Thursday. The list also included the defense and interior ministers, intelligence officials and senior military officers. The president’s brother, Maher al-Assad, who was listed, commands the Republican Guard and is Syria’s second most powerful man. An Arab League committee charged with overseeing sanctions recommended stopping flights to and from Syria…………”

So these despots and killers will not be able to travel around the region and enjoy the amenities of places like Riyadh and Fujairah and Had ElHmarah. Serves them right, but I know other despots who can enjoy the amenities of Riyadh all they want.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Corruption, Economics, Human Right, Iran, Saudi Arabia

Breathtaking Hypocrisy: the UN and Human Rights Violations, the Prince and Kardashian……….

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“Of the 47 members in the Geneva-based Council, 37 countries voted on Friday for a resolution “strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities”. Six countries abstained, while four countries- Russia, Cuba, Ecuador and China- voted against the resolution. The text called for the “main bodies” of the UN to consider a UN report, published on Monday, which found that crimes of humanity had been committed and “take appropriate action”. It also established the new post of a special human rights investigator on Syria………”

I know the Syrian regime is repressive and that its security forces have killed many of its people. It deserves a UN human rights investigator. I know that the Iranian regime is repressive although it does not kill its own people as often as Syria. In fact, the repressive Iranian regime does not kill as many Iranians as the Western powers and Israelis do when they kill scientists and blow up installations inside Iran. If these acts occurred anywhere else the same Western powers would consider these incidents terrorist acts and call the UN Security Council to do something, and it would..
I also know that other Middle East regimes, not all but most of them, daily violate human rights, be it of their own citizens or of foreign laborers. I also know that most Middle East countries, especially Arab regime, expropriate, steal, embezzle, and mismanage the public wealth of their countries. They are veritable kleptocracies.
There have been credible reports that the late Saudi crown prince, Sultan bin Abdulaziz, left a personal fortune of over US$ 250 Billion (yep, with a capital . He didn’t exactly get that wealth by starting and re-inventing Apple or Microsoft. Nor was he a Warren Buffett. Nor was he an international celebrity like Kim Kardashian or Newt Gingrich.
Syria and Iran deserve investigation by international human rights groups, preferably non-government groups, unlike the UN which is a totally government group. Then they would appoint only one or two or three HR investigators for the whole Middle East, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, UAE……… et al.
Remember: Libya under Qaddafi was admitted to the UN Hman Rights Council.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Human Right

Progress in Egypt? The Mubarak Junta Appoints an old Mubarak Prime Minister…………..

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The Egyptian people paid in blood, sweat, tears, and fortune for democracy and freedom. They are still sacrificing in Tahrir, throughout Cairo, Alexandria and other regions. Yet the tone-deaf military junta appointed by the dictator Hosni Mubarak is imposing another Mubarak relic, a former prime minister under the dictator (al-Ganzouri), as the new prime minister of the “new” Egypt. No wonder the people of Egypt are not giving up their revolution. No wonder they are willing to sacrifice more to keep their revolution from being hijacked. They know there are plans to abort it, and to maintain the old regime under military control.
The constitution proposed by the SCAF military junta is a travesty of any ‘democratic’ pretensions. It gives the military leaders overall power above all elected leaders and representatives of the people. The fact that the military junta opted for an interim prime minister from among veterans of the dictatorship is a clear signal that they, and their Arab oligarchy friends, will not peacefully yield power to the people. They are counting on dividing the country to abort the revolution and maintain the old corrupt regime under a new guise.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Media

Shaikh bin Goebbels of Bahrain Continues Fibbing on Alarabiya………….

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“If you have no shame, then do (and say) whatever you wish….” A good Arab saying

The divisive sectarian approach of Saudi semi-official Alarabiya network is breath-taking, especially on its Arabic website. It never misses a chance to highlight Shi’a-Sunni differences and divisions and to stoke their sectarian fires, especially in the Gulf region. Here it is writing about Bahrain, in the language of the official media of that country:

“Shaikh Fawaz Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, Chief of the Information (Propaganda) Authority of Bahrain, asserted that none of the opposition were ever prevented from appearing on the Bahrain television. He revealed that more than 300 Shi’a personality from among the opposition and government employees and civil society activists were invited but they all declined, either by refusing directly or pretending to be sick…….. About why the Bahrain government did not present any evidence of Iranian involvement in the Bahrain ‘events’ he said that has to do with future security reasons. He added that there is much evidence of Iranian involvement………….”

I am thinking of changing the middle name of the ruling family from Bin Technocrat al-Khalifa to Bin Goebbels al-Khalifa.

Cheers
mhg


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Human Right, Iran, Muslims, Religion, Theocracy

Human Rights and Education: Iran and her Baha’is……….

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““People apply for university and their applications are turned down, even though they have strong results from secondary school,” said Elise Auerbach, Iran specialist for Amnesty International USA. “They can’t get credentials, so they’re barred from pursuing all sorts of professions. They can’t be doctors, lawyers, university professors or scientists.” In response, Baha’is have improvised a decentralized, semi-underground college known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). Since 1987, BIHE has run classes in the living rooms and kitchens of Baha’i homes, on the sweat of volunteer Baha’i professors, many of whom lost their jobs in Iranian universities over their religious beliefs……….. According to David Hoffman, founder of a campaign to support Iran’s Baha’is in their quest for higher education, the college has produced about 2,000 graduates, one-in-ten of whom have gone on to postgraduate study abroad at one of 60 universities outside Iran recognizing BIHE coursework………… In May, more than 30 Baha’i homes across Iran were raided as part of a crackdown on BIHE. The institution was subsequently declared illegal, according to human rights groups, and seven professors and administrators were last month sentenced to four and five years each, for being involved in an illegal group intending to commit crimes against national security…………..”

Bahai’s are the most officially discriminated against religious minority in Iran. Christians and Jews predate Islam and they are recognized as such. Zoroastrianism is the original religion of ancient Persia and it also predates Islam and Christianity and is recognized as such. Zoroastrianism is sort of like the “Red Indians” of Middle East religions, mostly displaced by Islam and Christianity. Bahai’s seem to receive most of the ‘religious’ wrath of the regime because they were Muslims until the new faith was create in the 19th century. The mullahs consider them apostates, and Muslim clergy, be they Shi’a or Sunni or Salafi or Tea Party, hate apostates. Come to think of it, all clergy from all faiths dislike apostates, or at least frown upon them.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Corruption, GCC, Human Right, Torture

Bahrain Sports: Mixing Soccer, Football, and Torture…………..

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“A few days ago, ESPN looked at calls for political change in Bahrain through the lens of sport, and it’s not a pretty picture (I’ve embedded the video below). The story of Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, former stars of Bahrain’s national football team now living in exile, reminded me of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where athletes lived in constant fear of Saddam and his sons. Iraq, like Bahrain, has a Shiite majority. And, like Bahrain, Saddam’s Iraq was ruled by a Sunni leader who blithely ignored the wishes of the majority of his population. Such situations corrupt everything. In Iraq, national players were tortured and jailed for poor performances. Many promising Shiite players never got a chance at the national team because of their fate. Now, in a smaller way, Bahrain is emulating Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, brothers and national-team stars, are now living in the shadows, kicked off the national team and humiliated. After being arrested and, according to them, beaten in a Bahraini government detention center, they were also fired from the professional clubs. Why? They joined a democracy protest last February. Like most Bahrainis, they are Shiites, and were angry at the monarchy. Alaa is probably the country’s greatest-ever player, with 21 goals for his country. Of his detention, he told ESPN: “We were living in a nightmare of fear and horror.“………”

No comment this time, but I reserve the right for a rain check. Meanwhile, here is the ESPN video link.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Human Right, Middle East

Egypt Going Back to the Future: New and Old Middle East…….

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“A 24-year-old man died tonight at Qasr El-Eini hospital in Cairo after suffering a severe drop in blood pressure and heart failure after allegedly being tortured by prison officials. Essam Ali Atta Ali was serving a two-year prison sentence in the maximum security ward at Tora Prison after being prosecuted in a military court on 25 February in relation to the illegal occupation of an apartment. According to the victim’s cellmates, prison officials sought to punish Ali after catching him smuggling a mobile SIM card into the ward. Prison officers reportedly pushed hoses into Ali’s mouth and anus, causing severe bleeding. Ali’s brother told media that he saw his brother’s corpse at the hospital and it exhibited signs of serious injuries. According to several media reports, an officer from Tora Prison left Ali at the hospital as he lay in a critical condition. Attending physicians immediately noticed liquid secretions emanating from Ali’s mouth and suspected foul play. In the late hours of Thursday, MD Aida Seif El-Dawla of El-Nadeem Centre for the rehabilitation of victims of torture, broke the news of Ali’s death to the public through Facebook and Twitter. She called on activist lawyers to support a traumatised family in their quest for answers. Ali’s mother told media that her son was a victim of police brutality and that she will not rest until his killers are brought to justice………”

Is Egypt going back to the future?
The military trials for civilians, arrest of bloggers, and torture continue, proving that the new Egypt is not much different from the rest. The SCAF junta is writing its own constitution for the country. It looks like Egypt is back into the camp of Arab moderates of the New Middle East again. Trials of civilians in military courts, arbitrary arrests and torture are nothing new in our region: both moderate and radical regimes have used them extensively. From Tehran to Riyadh to Manama and Cairo and Damascus, and a few other places. They all imprison and torture and execute and exile. The only difference is that some are called republics and others are called monarchies; some are allied to the West others are hostile to the West.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Human Right, Iran, Lebanon, NATO, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

The West and the Syrian Taliban: Advise from a Saudi Prince of Thieves?…………

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“This summer a senior Saudi official told John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, that from the outset of the upheaval in Syria, the king has believed that regime change would be highly beneficial to Saudi interests: “The king knows that other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself, nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria.” This is today’s “great game” – losing Syria. And this is how it is played: set up a hurried transitional council as sole representative of the Syrian people, irrespective of whether it has any real legs inside Syria; feed in armed insurgents from neighbouring states; impose sanctions that will hurt the middle classes; mount a media campaign to denigrate any Syrian efforts at reform; try to instigate divisions within the army and the elite; and ultimately President Assad will fall – so its initiators insist……….. The radical armed elements being used in Syria as auxiliaries to depose Assad run counter to the prospect of any outcome emerging within the western paradigm. These groups may well have a bloody and very undemocratic agenda of their own………The origins of the “lose Assad” operation preceded the Arab awakening: they reach back to Israel’s failure in its 2006 war to seriously damage Hezbollah, and the post-conflict US assessment that it was Syria that represented Hezbollah’s achilles heel – as the vulnerable conduit linking Hezbollah to Iran. US officials speculated as to what might be done to block this vital corridor, but it was Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia………….”

Bandar Bin Sultan, Saudi Prince of thieves, is advising the West on how to topple the Ba’athist dictatorship in Damascus and almost certainly install a worse regime of Salafis and other fundamentalists. That may be fine with the al-Saud rulers in Riyadh: the Salafis are their fifth columnists, bought and paid for, from the Persian-American Gulf states to Egypt and North Africa. The West will almost certainly miss the Assad dictatorship, once the Islamists rule in Damascus. Imagine the Taliban wedged between Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel. It is especially the latter border that should give the West second thoughts.
(I trust there is no need for my regular readers to have me repeat the well-known story that BAE Systems had given bribes commissions of about GBP1 billion (US$ 2 billion) to Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan for his role in a huge British-Saudi arms deal. Tony (Yo) Blair killed the British Serious Frauds Office (SFO) investigation of it because it threatened a new British deal to sell weapons systems and pay the princes yet more bribes commissions. That came to be known as the al-Yamama scandal, and it set Tony Blair on his path to multimillion contracts with Arab and other oil potentates after he left office).

Cheers
mhg


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